25 September 2006
18 September 2006
to torture or not to torture?
Arms and Influence: Don't stay up waiting for a small number of Congressional Republicans to save the American republic. Their opposition matters, particularly in an election year. However, what would matter a lot more is a broader, organized coalition against immoral, unconstitutional, and ineffective policies. Too bad the press is more interested in continuing their public adulation for McCain, instead of asking how effective his occasional "maverick" stances really are.
17 September 2006
iraq redux
"U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials say Bush political appointees and hard-liners on Capitol Hill have tried recently to portray Iran's nuclear program as more advanced than it is and to exaggerate Tehran's role in Hezbollah's attack on Israel in mid-July," they write.. "President Bush, who addresses the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, has said he prefers diplomacy to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, but he hasn't ruled out using military force. Several former U.S. defense officials who maintain close ties to the Pentagon say they've been told that plans for airstrikes - if Bush deems them necessary - are being updated." [False Reports on Iran a Replay of Run-Up to Iraq War?]
13 September 2006
Congratulations to Adrian Fenty!
12 September 2006
USMC Col. Pete Devlin
"We haven't been defeated militarily but we have been defeated politically -- and that's where wars are won and lost." - in his most recent assessment of Anbar province.
Anbar is a key province; it encompasses Ramadi and Fallujah, which with Baghdad pose the greatest challenge U.S. forces have faced in Iraq. It accounts for 30 percent of Iraq's land mass, encompassing the vast area from the capital to the borders of Syria and Jordan, including much of the area that has come to be known as the Sunni Triangle. The insurgency arguably began there with fighting in Fallujah not long after U.S. troops arrived in April 2003, and fighting has since continued. Thirty-three U.S. military personnel died there in August -- 17 from the Marines, 13 from the Army and three from the Navy. A second general who has read the report warned that he thought it was accurate as far as it went, but agreed with the defense official that Devlin's "dismal" view may not have much applicability elsewhere in Iraq. The problems facing Anbar are peculiar to that region, he and others argued. But an Army officer in Iraq familiar with the report said he considers it accurate. "It is best characterized as 'realistic,' " he said. "From what I understand, it is very candid, very unvarnished," said retired Marine Col. G. I. Wilson. "It says the emperor has no clothes."
08 September 2006
Iraq: not a quagmire
BAGHDAD, Sept. 7 -- Baghdad's morgue almost tripled its count for violent deaths in Iraq's capital during August from 550 to 1,536, authorities said Thursday, appearing to erase most of what U.S. generals and Iraqi leaders had touted as evidence of progress in a major security operation to restore order in the capital.
ha... how... unscary
pentagon lawyers vs The White House
WASHINGTON - The Defense Department's top uniformed lawyers took issue Thursday with a key part of a White House plan to prosecute terrorism detainees, telling Congress that limiting the suspects' access to evidence could violate treaty obligations. Their testimony to a House of Representatives committee marked the latest time that military lawyers have publicly challenged Bush administration proposals to keep some evidence - such as classified information - from accused terrorists. In the past, some military officials have expressed concerns that if the U.S. adopts such standards, captured American troops might be treated the same way. [more]
07 September 2006
today's wrap up...
Chicago Sun-Times
By Annie Sweeney
September 7, 2006
The West Loop will be the scene of an evacuation drill today, forcing the closure of several streets and the rerouting of CTA bus lines, officials said.
Baltimore Sun
By Ted Shelsby and Justin Fenton
Originally published September 7, 2006
Avian flu has been detected in mallard ducks on a farm on the Eastern Shore, though officials caution that the low-pathogenic strain poses no risk to humans and is not the type that has been blamed for more than 140 deaths around the world.
Disaster News
By Heather Moyer
September 7, 2006
Officials are now estimating that more than 150 structures were damaged by flooding in Rockford, Illinois, Monday afternoon.
Guardian
James Sturcke and agencies
Thursday September 7, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
The terror suspect accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks also planned to crash hijacked airliners into Heathrow airport, according to documents released by the US government.
Wired
By Vince Beiser
Sep, 07, 2006
A half-mile below the surface of the New Mexico desert, the federal government is interring thousands of tons of monstrously dangerous leftovers from its nuclear weapons program --plutonium-infested clothing, tools and chemical sludge that will remain potentially lethal for thousands of years to come.
FCW
By Wade-Hahn Chan
Published on Sept. 6, 2006
Comptroller General David Walker announced today three new Government Accountability Office reports detailing the problems surrounding the response to Hurricane Katrina.
Govexec
By Jonathan Marino, jmarino@govexec.com
September 6, 2006
The Government Accountability Office on Wednesday released reports that reviewed emergency response planning and staffing at the Homeland Security Department and called for improvements in both area
Reuters
By Michelle Nichols
Wed Sep 6, 2006
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New Yorkers are growing complacent about safety and evacuation planning and training is the key to the city combating another September 11-style attack or natural disaster, experts said on Wednesday.
USA Today
By Mimi Hall and Anne Rochell Konigsmark, USA TODAY
September 6, 2006
WASHINGTON — The U.S. isn't prepared to handle disasters and lacks an effective way to track $88 billion doled out to help rebuild the Gulf Coast after last year's killer hurricanes, according to government reports released Wednesday.
Govexec
By Chris Strohm, CongressDaily
September 6, 2006
Facing the five-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and mindful of the looming elections, House and Senate Republicans plan to tackle a myriad of homeland security issues this month, including debate on a major maritime security bill, public hearings with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, authorizing the president's domestic wiretapping program and possibly pushing through more border security legislation.
CBS Evening News
Sept. 6, 2006
If we have learned anything in the last five years, it is this: one man's symbol of prosperity could be another man's target. And in Chicago, the heartland's largest city, there are plenty of targets.
Reuters
Wed Sep 6, 2006
By Donna Smith
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. congressional leaders are giving up on broad immigration legislation that would legalize millions of illegal immigrants and will concentrate instead on border security before the elections, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said on Wednesday.
WTOP
September 7, 2006
WASHINGTON - A police standoff with a man and a woman in a stolen Honda shut down the Capital Beltway for more than an hour during the height of morning drive Thursday.
Guardian
Ewen MacAskill, Diplomatic editor
Thursday September 7, 2006
The annual Transatlantic Trends survey, conducted in the US and 12 European countries, records that concern among Americans has risen from 72% last year to 79% this year, and among Europeans from 58% to 66%. The biggest jump in concern about Islamist fundamentalism is in the UK, up 22 points.
Editor and Publisher
By E&P Staff
Published: September 07, 2006
NEW YORK Just bubbling up from the blogs into the mainstream press -- a New York Times article appears on Wednesday -- is debate over the "The Path to 9/11," the TV movie to be aired on ABC this coming Sept. 10 and 11. Liberals have charged that it reportedly pins most of the blame for the 9/11 terrorist attacks on President Clinton, often citing conservative bloggers or talk show hosts who made this very point after attending screenings.
Nasdaq.com
By Rob Wells, Of Dow Jones Newswires
September 6, 2006
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- As the IRS prepared to use private debt collectors for the first time, three leading Senate Democrats on Wednesday urged the agency to halt the project.
Whitehouse.gov
The East Room
September 6, 2006
All Headline News
By Nidhi Sharma - All Headline News Staff Writer
September 7, 2006 6:08 a.m. EST
Washington DC (AHN) - On Wednesday, President George W. Bush finally admitted that the CIA runs secret prisons overseas. He also acknowledged that tough interrogation forced terrorist leaders to reveal plots to attack the United States and its allies.
NBC4
September 7, 2006
LONDON -- Prime Minister Tony Blair was locked in a fight Wednesday to keep control over when he leaves office, with 15 Labour lawmakers demanding he step down. They included eight junior members who resigned to protest his refusal to do so.
NBC4
September 6, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats pushed for a vote Wednesday calling for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to be fired, but Republicans moved to head them off.
USA Today
September 6, 2006
CHICAGO (AP) — Former Gov. George Ryan, who was acclaimed by capital punishment foes for suspending executions in Illinois and emptying out death row, was sentenced Wednesday to 6 1/2 years behind bars in the corruption scandal that ruined his political career.
UN Observer
Christopher Bollyn, American Free Press
September 6, 2006
The "undercover tactical unit" involved in the assault and TASERing of a 9/11 investigative journalist at his Chicago-area home was most likely an operation ordered by the Department of Homeland Security, according to a former high-ranking police official.
Since the bizarre and brutal attack against me by three heavily-armed agents at my family home in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, a number of people have commented on the seemingly odd use of an "undercover tactical unit" to respond to a non-emergency 911 call.
05 September 2006
New State Department Releases on the "Future of Iraq" Project
available online at GWU's National Security Archive and... more from PR Watch:
"Newly-available documents detailing the early work of the "Future of Iraq Project," the U.S. State Department's massive planning effort for post-regime change Iraq, have been posted online by the National Security Archive, a non-profit research institute. The new documents "provide a behind-the-scenes look at the formation of 17 working groups consisting of 'free' Iraqis and experts, 14 of which met throughout 2002 and early 2003 to plan for a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq," according to the National Security Archive. "The first planning meeting with Iraqis took place at the Middle East Institute in Washington D.C. from April 9-10, 2002." In other Iraq news, Mother Jones magazine has launched "Lie by Lie," a timeline seeking to answer the question, "What did our leaders know and when did they know it?" The online reference currently covers from August 1990 to March 2003."
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