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June 24

ON EVE OF IRAQ "RECONCILIATION" SPEECH, US DELIBERATELY PROVOKES INSURGENCY ESCALATION



Well here's yet more evidence that a real brain trust (smirk) is in charge of Iraq. The day before before Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki planned to present a national reconciliation plan designed to end sectarian fighting and ward off a Sunni insurgency, the US military intentionally provoked Sunnis by storming the house of a top Sunni religious leader and arresting him at gun point. Their excuse? The same one they plan to use now for every stupid action: We were acting on "good information" obtained from the bombed out house where Al Zarqawi supposedly died.



Reuters reports: "The arrest of Sheikh Jamal Abdel Karim al-Dabaan sparked outrage among Iraq's Sunnis. The Iraqi Islamic Party, whose leader is one of the country's vice-presidents, condemned it and many government officials in predominantly Sunni Salahaddin province suspended work in protest, the deputy governor said. The U.S. military said it had been acting on intelligence gathered following the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, in a U.S. air strike on June 7."



So now, instead of a reconciliation speech, we have house-to-house fighting raging in Baghdad, as insurgents attempt to mount an assault on the Green Zone. (See the Main Page Story) .



There are only two explanations for this truly idiotic move:



1. The top military brass in charge of Iraq are incompetent morons. Quite plausible.



2. The Bush administration WANTS the war to escalate. Equally plausible. Why? In their warped little psychopathic pea-brains, Cheney, Rummy, et al. think that an all-out bloodbath in Baghdad will somehow justify their continuing to "stay the course."

NO WEAPONS, NO EXPLOSIVES, NO REAL PLAN, NO TIES TO AL QAEDA ... BUT BE VERRRRRRY AFRAID!!



Just when Bush & Co. needed evidence that they were fightin' terr'r real good, they announce the "dramatic capture" of a "terrorist cell" in Florida (what a coincidence - home of helpful brother Jeb). At a press conference, the Bush DOJ gushed breathlesslessly that the group was planning to wage wholesale war on the US and blow up the Sears Tower!! But not to worry, folks, we got 'em! You can sleep easy tonight!

But the actual threat was, on a scale of 1 to 10, about a 1.5.



Knight-Ridder News reports: "Even as Justice Department officials trumpeted the arrests of seven Florida men accused of planning to wage a "full ground war against the United States," they acknowledged the group did not have the means to carry out the plan.

"We're as puzzled as everyone else," said Howard Simon, the director of the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. "There's no weapons, no explosives, but this major announcement."

"The seven men are charged with conspiring to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and FBI buildings in five cities. Prosecutors said they swore allegiance to al-Qaeda after meeting with a confidential government informant who was posing as a representative of the terrorist group. But after sweeps of various locations in Miami, government agents found no explosives or weapons. Investigators also did not document any direct links to al-Qaeda." ( MORE)

In fact, the only "tie" to Al Qaeda - pretext enough for the media to work it into headlines - is the second hand hearsay of an FBI informant. And we all know what a great rep they have. In fact, running simultaneously to the “terrorist cell” story is this one (from the Arizona Republic): “An FBI agent in one of the bureau's most celebrated corruption stings was tossed from the case after federal prosecutors learned that the agent and other investigators failed to disclose misconduct by informers, including the sexual abuse of an unconscious prostitute in a Las Vegas hotel. In official reports, FBI agents failed to disclose criminal acts and the destruction of evidence by informers, then withheld that information from federal prosecutors for more than a year, according to a military court document obtained by The Arizona Republic.” MORE



FAILURE TO TAKE CARE OF URBAN POOR COULD BECOME WORLD'S DOWNFALL



AFP reports: " A huge chunk of urban growth around the world will be concentrated in slums that will become a magnet for terrorists and crime, the UN World Urban Forum was warned as it closed.

"If left unchecked, slums will become "centres of deprivation and instability," Inga Bjork-Klevby, assistant UN secretary general, told one meeting on the future of cities at the forum.

"The State of the World Cities report presented at the conference said that 38 percent of urban growth will be in slums, and that by 2020 six of 10 people in the world will live in cities.

"Clive Harridge, president of Britain's Town and Planning Institute, warned that leaving slums to fester will increase security threats and that urban terrorism "is having an increasing impact on cities, and all projections suggest urban political violence will continue to escalate."

So of course, Bush is right in there escalating the process by continually cutting back federal spending on cities - including anti-terrorism funds. MORE



FIRST CONSEQUENCES OF VA DATA THEFT SHOW

Instar reports: “The Navy says a civilian Web site exposed personal data of 28,000 sailors and their family members. Officials have launched a criminal investigation. A Navy spokesman says the site included names, Social Security numbers and birth dates. He says the information was in five documents that have now been removed. The Navy didn’t say on which site the information was posted, but it was in the form of spread sheets.

““The Chief of Naval Personnel was notified June 22 that an open Web site contained five spreadsheet files with personal information including the name, birth date and social security number on several Navy members and dependents,” the Navy said in a news release issued Friday.

“The official says there's no sign so far that the information was used illegally. “

HUH??? Isn’t just being in POSSESSION of this information illegal, much less posting it on a website? MORE



BOTTOM LINE: CURRENT MINIMUM WAGE IS NOT A LIVING WAGE

In a benign society, the minimum wage should be the minimum wage that could be defined as a living wage – i.e., sufficient money to live on and have your barest needs like a place to live and enough to eat met. Although what constitutes a “living wage” varies from place to place, the AVERAGE for the US according to many studies is about $8.75 per hour. Everyone in their right mind and/or not living in a cave and eating grubs knows that $5.15 an hour (the present minimum wage) is NOT a living wage. After taxes that’s about $180.00 a week. In the “good ole days,” the rule of thumb was that your monthly rent should equal one week’s pay. Aside from the above-mentioned cave, is there any place in the US one could rent for $180.00 a month? Even at the living wage of $8.75 (about $310.00 a week after taxes) it only puts you into the “eligible roommate” category.

And yet a high number of clowns in Congress (who are sucking up far more than they are worth each year from taxpayers – including those making minimum wage) think that raising the minimum wage even a buck or two is just unacceptable. Why? Because it might upset employers who are now used to paying sweat shop rates to third world workers! That’s right, folks, the “good life” in the US is now only open to a select few. The rest of the population just exists, like so many drone ants, to prop up the bloated lifestyles of the privileged 20% or so. Guess who these fat old over-entitled bastards in Congress are hurting most? Young people just entering the labor force, a high percentage of whom are working their asses off at service sector jobs for minimum wage just to pay for a dumpy apartment shared by three or four roomies. MORE

June 23

CUT AND RUN? YOU BET!!!!



Hey, even a broken clock is right twice a day! And so it is with the Bushie warmongers who are trying to shame those who believe the US should pull out of Iraq with the buzz phrase: "Cut and run." Those who want our embattled troops to withdraw just wanna "cut and run!" the Bushies harp (over and over and over). Well, they are right! That is exactly what we "bleedin' heart liberals" want to do. And in the strictest, most accurate historic sense of the term.

Readers in India were apparently fascinated by the term having heard it repeated on US news until it was driving them crazy! So the Hindu news service researched the phrase origin and here is what they found:

"The expression comes from the world of sailing. In the old days, when a ship that was at anchor came under attack, what the sailors did in order to make a quick getaway was to cut the rope to which the anchor was tied. Instead of going through the lengthy process of raising the anchor and then setting sail, they merely "cut" the rope and allowed the ship to "run" before the wind. The crew lost the anchor by doing this, but this gave them a chance to escape."

In other words, if an isolated ship under attack by a fleet of pirates does NOT cut and run, it will just float there like a sitting duck and get blown to bits or scuttled, serving no one any good purpose. Just like what Bush is forcing the US to do in Iraq.

OBSCENELY TWISTED PRIORITIES:

BUSH 2007 BUDGET SAYS IT ALL - READ IT AND WEEP



The Bush Budget for 2007, just formally announced, says it all about this twisted, sick administration. It is all about funding death and destruction in foreign countries that don't want us there while slashing aid to the most vulnerable Americans back home, to the environment, and to programs that could eventually benefit all of us (alternative energy, improved health insurance access, etc.). Bush wants to eliminate a whopping 141 programs.



Sadly, this budget also says it all about US priorities - a list of priorities where war and weaponry and corporate interests trump compassion, nuturing, and everyday citizens every time.



So here are the "highlights":



Total Dept. of Defense Budget (figure from just-approved defense bill): $517.0 BILLION

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: $50 Billion

Weapons systems: $84 Billion



Now compare these bloated figures to the funding for programs that directly benefit US citizens:

Total VA Budget: $35.7 billion - ie., Bush allots $15 billion less for all living veterans of every war since WWII than he does for the current war that is generating new VA cases by the thousands.



Total EPA: $7.3.0 Billion

Total Educational: $74.0 billion

Dept of Homeland Security: $30.8 Billion The Washington Post tried to spin Bush's priorities, claiming it "emphasizes spending on the country's fight against terrorism. Yet how can $30.8 billion, compared to $50 billion in prosecuting two failed wars 6,000 miles away, be called emphasizing the country's fight against terrorism." Certainly not terrorism threats on US soil!!

Dept. of energy: $23.6 billion



For the first time evern, The DOD budget rivals the Social Security budget: Total SS outlay for old-age, survivors and disability benefits $581.0 billion



Meanwhile, as the DOD budget becomes grotesquely distended - like the huge gobbling fat guy in Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life" ( if you recall, said fat guy finally exploded) - programs that are the antithesis of war - compassionate aid for society's most vulnerable - are being slashed:



The biggest targets for Bush cuts are Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Environmental protection: I.e, the elderly, the disabled, the poor, and children, and the environment we all live in. For example, Bush wants to slash $36 Billion from Medicare - but NOT from the prescription benefit scheme, which benefits mostly pharmaceutical corporations. Meanwhile, the EPA's budget, at a time when there has never been a greater need for increased funding (global warming, anyone?) has slide from an already pathetic $8.37 billion in 2004 to $7.3 billion this year.



Also being cut is Amtrak - the nation's biggest mass transit system. Amtrak reduces the greenhouse gases considerably by keeping tens of thousands of cars off the road each and every day. And funding to alternative energy is pathetic - in the millions - it doesn't even get up to the billion-dollar mark. Basically, there is NOTHING in the budget earmarked for cleaning up the nation's air, water, and soil, reducing greenhouse emissions, expanding public transportation, or developing alternative energy to a viable extent.



Meanwhile, big winners (besides everything to do with bombing and killing) is the nuke industry, defense contractors, and the pharmaceutical industry.



Figures from Office of Management and Budget website, Washington Post, MediaCorp



BUSH ADMINISTRATION SPYING ON MILLIONS OF PRIVATE CITIZEN FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS



Reuters: "An industry cooperative at the center of a new storm surrounding a secret Bush administration program tracking financial records said it got significant assurances before giving information to the United States.

"The [CIA] and Treasury Department received databases from Swift, which handles international bank fund transfers, to examine millions of records....In a statement, the Brussels-based, industry-owned cooperative said it narrowed the scope of a subpoena to reduce the volume of records it provided. Swift routes $6 trillion daily among 7,800 banks, brokerages, stock exchanges and other institutions around the world...Its records include highly sensitive financial information potentially open to abuse if they fell into the wrong hands."

There are two things highly disturbing about this, besides the obvious gross abuse of US citizen privacy:

1. With the rate of identity theft being what it is - aided and abetted, I might add by the US government (the recent theft of VA records was the biggest potential identity theft case in history) - the potential for horrific abuse in many directions is obvious. First, what's to keep this same info from falling into the hands of the wrong people as it is shuffled about from Swift to the CIA to the Treasury Dept? I can also see another, even more troubling scenario as the Dept. of Homeland Security arrests and indefinitely detains some poor slob whose suspicious transactions were perpetrated by someone who stole HIS identity!

2. A credible rumor from people in positions to know proposes that some of the NSA communications trawling was being used by corporate intriguers in the government to net useful financial info - ie, a sophisticated form of NSA "inside trading." Now with this new revelation, this rumor gains even more credibility. Just think of all the useful inside info the unscrupulous could obtain....and, let's face it, the Bush government is stuffed with unscrupulous corporate wheeler dealers who are most certainly not above stealing and exploiting private info. MORE

TODAY'S “UNCORRECTED FALSEHOODS”:

Bush, Media Hyping "Rift" in Democratic Party over Iraq



Here's the two-part propaganda message we keep hearing, over and over:



1.The GOP is "stronger" because it is so seamlessly united on every issue

2. The Democrats are "weakl" because they have frequent within-party disagreements.



And, with the debate over Iraq, this two-scoop load of horse poop has been dumped liberally across the mainstream media.



First of all, the GOP is neither seamlessly united nor strong.



It simply maintains a mob mentality, in which no one dares express an alternative opinion when it comes to an actual vote on anything because they are too cowed. If anyone falls out of step, they are subject to harassment and intimidation. In fact, the GOP maintains a strong-arm organization euphemistically entitled the "Club for Growth" (talk about false advertising! It should actually be called the "Gang for Non-Growth"). The Club's biggest purpose is to harass dissenting Republicans. So what we have here is not a "strong" and "united" party. We have a pack of very weak people who have been intimidated into "going along with the program" no matter what. Sorta like lemmings charging together over the cliff in a nicely coordinated, "seamlessly united" group.



2. The Democrats' real strength lies in its ability to accommodate dissent within its own ranks - It takes more strength and mutual respect to agree to disagree (as anyone in family counseling!!). It is what DEMOCRACY is all about. There can be no growth without a synthesis of new perspectives. And you cannot have new perspectives without disagreement. Healthy debate is ESSENTIAL to the well being of any marriage, family, community, or country. And yet the Bushies and the media have continually tried to convince America that dissent and healthy debate are "bad" and "weak." Ben Franklin, Tom Paine and the rest of the boys are probably turning over in their graves.



Just as the GOP's "seamless unity" and inflexibility that got us into the horrific mess we are in both at home and abroad, it is the Democrats' ability to accommodate new perspectives and alternative plans of action that couldl get us out.



Finally, here is a news story that seems to "get it" – that dissent and debate in the Democratic Party are in fact NOT bad.

DEPT. OF JUSTICE PROVIDES PROOF THAT BUSH EXPLOITED TERROR ALERTS IN 2004 FOR POLITICAL GAIN



In the 10 months before the 2004 election - a period during which terrorist threats globally were lower by far than they are today as anti-US rage escalates - there was a "terror alert" issues every few months. Usually just when Bush had started to drop in the polls and Kerry had begun to make progress. Then, after election day 2004, suddenly and mysteriously, these terror alerts all but dried up and have stayed that way. But now, the DOJ is issuing a laundry list of scary things and people they have thwarted since 2001, including threats active in 2005. And yet, strangely, nary a comparable alert did we hear once election day 2004 had passed. Not even when the terrorist group in Florida were (according to the DOJ) building up to a big attack.

Even though most of the politically savvy could connect the dots and see that the terror alerts of 2004 were - 100% of the time - timed to aid the Bush campaign, we lacked definitive proof. Now we have it!



But in case you're missing the "good ole days" of terrorist alerts, not to worry, you can bet that we will get a whole new round of them starting in the near future as election day 2006 nears.

June 22

BUSH SULKS AND FUMES AT EUROPEANS, THEN CLAIMS "BIG SUCCESS" ON NUKE ISSUE



As one would expect from any sane people, Europeans are against nuclear proliferation and will stand firm against Iran and No. Korea IF they try to make and deploy nukes. But to hear the White House and media reports, this position is a big triumph for Bush - it somehow translates into "European support for Bush's positions."



But anyone present at the press conferences in Europe would have gotten a very different picture. The LA Times reports: "President Bush responded angrily Wednesday to differences with Europe over the war in Iraq and the U.S. treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, but won renewed expressions of unity from the European Union on nuclear nonproliferation.

"European leaders reaffirmed the need to halt Iran's uranium enrichment program and to contain North Korea's arms program." [Even the LA Times is exaggerating Europe's position - just yesterday, the EU foreign policy chief was on the phone to Tehran, trying to work out a deal in which Iran would only have to suspend its uranium enrichment program during talks, not end it. In any case, the EU most certainly does NOT support military solutions to the problem in the foreseeable future].

"With public opinion surveys showing a growing animosity in Europe toward the United States amid fears that its anti-terrorism policies and the Iraq war are endangering global stability, Bush lashed out during a news conference, raising his voice and several times using the words "absurd" and "absurdity" to describe such criticism." MORE



BUSH REPEATEDLY REFUSED NORTH KOREA'S OFFER OF PEACEFUL NEGOTIATIONS

Bush is obviously trying hard to generate the appearance that there are "dire threats to US security" that he can then appear to "conquer." North Korea is one of his favorite "dire threats", largely because it isn't a true and imminent threat and because its leader can be so easily baited by Bush's provocations. The Guardian reports: "It is hardly a serious provocation to the US: a failing state shows a theoretical capability to reach Alaska on a lucky day, and could, perhaps, put a nuclear payload on the missile.

"In the face of overwhelming US nuclear retaliatory might, actually to undertake such a venture would be writing the ticket for self-annihilation. Let's put this in the wider context of US-North Korean relations:

" At the beginning of June, the US turned down an invitation issued from North Korea for its chief negotiator, Christopher Hill, to visit Pyongyang. (This was a repeat of an invitation issued last October.) In making the new offer, Pyongyang said, "We have already made it clear many times that if the US is not hostile to us, trust between our country and the US is built and we no longer feel threatened, there will no longer be a need for even a single nuclear weapon."

"Just words? But that's diplomacy: Iran's President Ahmadinejad is being castigated for saying that he is not willing to "abandon his nuclear programme"." MORE

BUSH CELEBRATES US BETRAYAL OF HUNGARIAN FREEDOM FIGHTERS



It figures that Bush would actually CELEBRATE the 1956 Hungarian revolt! I had a friend from Hungary in high school whose parents were refugees from the failed revolt. They told me how the US had promised to come in with back up if the Hungarian people would revolt against the communists. This fact has been largely downplayed or expunged from “sanitized” versions of the event. But ask older Hungarians and they will tell you. The US military even dropped fliers into the countryside reassuring the people that the US would help them if they fought the communists – a promise that in fact fulfilled the Truman Doctrine. Trusting the US, thousands of courageous Hungarians did revolt - and were slaughtered or had to flee the country by the tens of thousands. Many members of my friend's family were killed or thrown in prison. The promised US aid never came. It was not until 1991 that the communist regime ended in Hungary. Eisenhower reportedly decided not to send troops in because the revolt broke out two weeks before the 1956 presidential election. Bad timing for the GOP, so the hell with a few hundred thousand Hungarians.

http://www.towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/45/62/



A very similar thing happened under George H. Bush, who promised Iraqis on the Kuwait-Iraq border that if they would fight Saddam, the US would aid them. Then Bush halted the US troops just short of the Iraq border. Many Gulf veterans recall how traumatizing it was to have to look across the border at Saddam's troops slaughtering Iraqis - unable to do anything to stop it. Bush had, in essence, used the Iraqis on the border as pawns, throw-aways whose only purpose was to slow the advance of Saddam down. He never intended to give them back up.



Now Bush II is doing the same thing in Iraq - as an ABC report (see below) reveals, Bush promised Iraqis freedom and security, then as soon as the US got what it wanted - Saddam ousted and control of the oil fields - he left devastated Iraqi communities to their fates - a living hell.



So what is the "tone poem" here (as Tony Snow put it in a pitiful effort to romanticize Bush's attempt at a dramatic PR moment)? A poem of exploitation, broken promises, manipulation, lying, and killing? MORE

IRAQI CIVILIANS CAUGHT IN NIGHTMARISH NO MAN'S LAND BETWEEN INSURGENTS AND OCCUPIERS



The rightwinger's pathetic chant that the US isn't going to "Cut and run" from Iraq because to do so would endanger the Iraqi people is not only a hollow piece of spin, it is a downright, murderous lie. By staying in Iraq as occupiers, the US is subjecting everyday Iraqi people to a nightmarish life of a people under constant seige. ABC News reveals the existence of two Iraqs - the Iraq the Bush propaganda machine (and all its mouthpieces in Congress) present, and the REAL Iraq.

ABC reports: " The six-page message, obtained by ABC News and whose authenticity has been confirmed by the State Department, is in stark contrast to the rosy image of Iraq frequently depicted by American and Iraqi government officials.

"Personal safety depends on good relations with the 'neighborhood' governments, who barricade streets and ward off outsiders," the cable says. It adds: "The central government, our staff says, is not relevant; even local mukhtars [authorities] have been displaced or coopted by militias. People no longer trust most neighbors."

"The memo compiles a string of vignettes from the lives of Iraqis who work in the U.S. Embassy. It describes the extra precautions these workers take to avoid being discovered as employees of the American government — something that would mean certain persecution at the hands of some groups..... In one example outlined in the cable, an embassy worker had to flee the country after her family members were threatened." MORE

In short, the best thing the US could do for the Iraqi people is CUT AND RUN.

HALLIBURTON USES SLAVE LABOR, ENGAGES IN HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN IRAQ



Just this week, Republicans in Congress voted to protect Halliburton from any consequences of its illegal and immoral activities in Iraq (scroll down to earlier story from June 21). Now, within days of this despicable vote, it emerges in Congressional hearings that Halliburton is using slave labor - a staggering 35,000 poor workers imported with promises of good jobs who, upon arriving in Iraq, had their passports confiscated by the company and were trapped into menial jobs with no hope of escape.



The Chicago Tribune reports: "Unbeknownst to many Americans, there are an estimated 35,000 foreign workers, most from impoverished corners of South Asia or the Asian Pacific, working on U.S. bases for more than 200 subcontractors hired by Halliburton-subsidiary KBR. The Houston company is carrying out an unprecedented, multibillion-dollar privatization of military-support operations in Iraq, largely through subcontractors based in the Mideast....



"John Miller, head of the State Department's office charged with combating human trafficking, testified that seizing passports is a standard tool for traffickers, though he cautioned that not everyone who takes passports is trafficking.



"Getting contractors on U.S. military bases in Iraq to return the passports they seized from thousands of foreign workers imported to do menial labor in the war zone was "kind of like pulling teeth," even though the seizures violated U.S. laws against human trafficking, a senior contracting officer told Congress Wednesday.

"Air Force Col. Robert Boyles, who helped implement military reforms aimed at eliminating trafficking of Asian laborers onto American bases in Iraq, also testified that contractors had seized passports as a standard practice. He suggested they complied with military orders to return travel documents to the workers only because their business was threatened." MORE



Kudos and hugs to Cam Simpson for covering this story and to the editors of the Chicago Tribune for actually running it! However, you will notice how ridiculously the headline downplays the story, considering the content.



ISRAELI ARMS DEALERS, MERCENARIES "INVADE" NORTHERN IRAQ



Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports: ".Israeli police have launched an investigation into alleged illegal Israeli military aid to the Kurds in northern Iraq, Yediot Ahronot daily reported Thursday. leading Israeli companies have sold electronic fences, communications equipment, guard dogs, watchtowers, motorcycles and tractors to Kurds for hundreds of millions of dollars in the last two years without approval from the defence ministry. Veterans of elite units in the Israeli army have also set up a counter-terrorism training camp at a secret location in a desert area. In addition, an airport was built by Israelis in the northern Kurdish city of Arbil."

Just what Iraq DIDN’T need - having one of its warring factions heavily armed and trained CIA style. MORE



JUNE 21 SUSPICIOUS DETAILS EMERGE ON THE DEATHS OF TWO US SOLDIERS: WAS THE PENTAGON INVOLVED?

Here's a theory circulating among some soldiers that I have to report because I feel it has some credibility. Basically, it has been suggested that there was no kidnapping/torture of US soldiers - that the thing was staged by the Pentagon to try to foment enough outrage in the US public to pump up support for the war. Here the basic theory diverges into two alternative theories:

1. The soldiers were told they were going on vacation - they called their families and then were whisked out of Iraq to points unknown, where they will go into something akin to a "witness protection program." The bodies found were those of killed Iraqis, and intentionally mutilated to a point where recognition is impossible. Meanwhile, the autopsies are being conducted by Pentagon people who will of course claim that the bodies are those of the soldiers and that they were horribly tortured. The families should demand an independent DNA test - and should not accept tissue samples provided by the Pentagon second hand (the Pentagon would have had tissue samples on hand from the live soldiers for just such an eventuality).



2. The soldiers were set up - they were told they were going on vacation, then sent off through an area known to be totally dangerous, without support. They were, quite predictably, killed in an ambush. The bodies were then recovered and hidden by the CIA/Pentagon, who provided mutilated and unidentifiable bodies for “discovery” (hopefully they were not so barbaric as to actually do this to the soldiers). The families should demand independent autopsies and a complete independent investigation of the incident.



Here are the things that bother knowledgeable soldiers:



1. The men were traveling in a lone vehicle without support beyond the safety of a fortified Army camp.

2. The vacation story mystifies everyone.

3. There has been no video released of the men by their captors - which is the standard modus operandi of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

4. Also, the initial claims of responsibility for the attack came not from Al Qaeda in Iraq, but from an umbrella insurgent group called the Mujahadeen Shura Council. MORE

Alas, you can put nothing – and I mean NOTHING – past this administration, especially as its standard ploys are now failing to work (the “kill the bogeyman Zarqawi tactic, etc.).



PROPAGANDA IN ACTION!!

STATE DEPT, DEFENSE DEPT, ET AL. ALTER INFO ON NO. KOREAN MISSILE RANGE

What a hoot! On June 19 and June 20, I and, I must assume, many other bloggers had pointed out that the range of the North Korean TD-2 missile was, at 6,000 kilometers – as in 3,750 miles – did not have a range sufficient to hit the mainland US (except perhaps Alaska) as claimed by the White House and media. I even linked to a Defense Dept. site and Global Security.org which had the mileage figures. Well, wouldn’t ya know, now history is being hastily rewritten to up the mileage to figures to match the bogus reports! Global Security updated its TD-2 missile info page on June 17, and also updated another page on June 20, which adds a paragraph at the end claiming the missile can go 12,000 km. But in their haste, the info doesn’t match. While the June 20 update says 12,000 km, the June 17 update has an inserted clause that ups the distance to 15,000 km, and also ups the range of the weight carrying capability:

“ It was initially estimated to have a range of 4,000 km, but is currently estimated to have a range of up to 15,000 km. The throw weight is variously estimated as between a few hundred kilograms to 1,000 kg, depending on the range.” So ya see, if Bush needs it to go 15,000 km and carry a thousand kilograms, then by Gosh, the folks at the Defense Dept. and Global Security will make sure it reads that way!! So the original maximum distance figure for the TD-2 (at least up until a week or so ago!) was 4,000 km. This was scaled up earlier in June to 6,000 km (the idea being no doubt that the public wouldn’t convert kilometers to miles and thus think it was sufficient to hit the US contiguous states mainland, which is just over 5,000 km from Seoul). Now they claim it’s actually 12,000 km – or 15,000, depending on who hastily wrote the update – which converts to over 6,000 miles and thus nicely covers Bush claims of “imminent peril to the US!!!!” Compare the June 20 update (altered figure of 12,000 is in last paragraph), to the June 17 update that claims 15,000 km (first paragraph). Also here’s the updated Defense Dept. page: A line has been inserted since yesterday morning (although I could find no update note on the page – guess it was screened) a little more than halfway down the page that reads: “North Korea is believed to be developing the missile for a range of up to 10,000 kilometers, which would put the continental United States within striking distance.” You will notice that this sentence doesn’t even make sense when you read the previous sentence: “The communist regime, which is boycotting nuclear disarmament talks, could be preparing to fire a 35-meter (116-foot) Taepodong-2 in the range of 3,500 to 6,000 kilometers (2,200 to 3,750 miles), Japanese officials said.”

Read ‘em fast – They may change again by tomorrow!!

This is the same stuff they did with the WMD claims and supporting “documents,” which contained facts and figures that also tended to “mysteriously morph” overnight !

Ah, so here's the plan...

BUSH'S SEEKS TO RECLAIM SAGGING APPROVAL BY APPEARING TO SHOOT DOWN MISSILE

THAT "THREATENS" US



Yeah, this could work for ya, Dubya. All you have to do is convince the public that 1. No. Korea is planning to aim a missile at us (Easy! Just call up the guys at NBC, FOX, et al and tell them they are). 2. That the missile, which has a range of about 3,750 miles max actually has a range of over 6,000 miles (Just change all the info in the Defense and State Dept. documents) 3. That the US actually has anti-missile capabilities that COULD shoot down said No. Korean missile (pretend and hope no one asks too many questions), and 4. That our anti-ballistic missiles actually achieved the goal (just call up the guys at NBC, FOX, et al and tell em you succeeded, whether you came with 100 miles or not! Of course, you just have to hope that those 10,000 amateur astronomers who track events like this don’t blow the whistle on you!). MORE