AWOL

Whoopsie. Whaddya know? Some of those "destroyed" records have turned up.

Some of President Bush's missing Air National Guard records during the Vietnam War years, previously said to be destroyed, turned up on Friday but offered no new evidence to dispel charges by Democrats that he was absent without leave.

...The Pentagon, which had announced two weeks ago that the payroll records had been accidentally destroyed, blamed a clerical error for previous failure to find them.

...The documents released on Friday by the Pentagon included two faded computerized payroll sheets showing Bush was not paid during the latter part of 1972 and offer no evidence to place Bush in Alabama during the latter part of 1972.

..."Bush's military records seem to show up as randomly as he did for duty," said DNC spokesman Jano Cabrera.

CNN article

Worthless Commission report omissions

It is highly curious that the report mentions nothing regarding the "intentionally blocked translations by certain Middle Eastern Translators, who also breached FBI security, as confirmed by the Senate Judiciary"; nothing regarding "adamant resistance to investigations of certain terrorist and criminal activities; refusing to transfer them to counterterrorism from existing counterintelligence investigations, solely based on the vague notion of protecting certain foreign relations"; nothing regarding "continued efforts to cover up certain highly specific information received prior to September 11, even now, years after 9/11"; and nothing regarding "knowingly allowing certain individuals, directly or indirectly related to terrorist activities, to leave the United States months after 9/11, without any interrogation, and per the State Department's request."

This puzzles me, having firsthand knowledge of ongoing intelligence received and processed by the FBI since 1997, which contained specific information implicating certain high level government and elected officials in criminal activities directly and indirectly related to terrorist money laundering, narcotics, and illegal arms sales. It is highly curious that the report omitted all this information, knowing that others in the Congress have been briefed on these issues and have been given the names of targets involved, special agents, translators, field offices, and files. I am highly puzzled and curious.

Sibel Edmonds article

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Shielding Halliburton

The Bush administration is withholding information from U.N.-sanctioned auditors examining more than $1 billion in contracts awarded to Halliburton Co. and other companies in Iraq without competitive bidding...

Jean-Pierre Halbwachs, the U.N. representative to the International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB), said that the United States has repeatedly rebuffed his requests since March to turn over internal audits, including one that covered three contracts valued at $1.4 billion that were awarded to Halliburton, a Texas-based oil services firm. It has also failed to produced a list of other companies that have obtained contracts without having to compete.

The Security Council established the IAMB, which includes representatives from the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, in May 2003 to ensure that Iraq's oil revenue would be managed responsibly during the U.S. occupation. The council extended its mandate in July so it could continue to monitor the use of Iraq's oil revenue after the United States transferred political authority to the Iraqis in June.

The dispute comes as the board released an initial audit by the accounting firm KPMG on Thursday that sharply criticized the U.S.-led coalition's management of billions of dollars in Iraqi oil revenue. The audit also raised concerns about lax financial controls in some Iraqi ministries, citing poor bookkeeping and duplicate payments of salaries to government employees.

The Pentagon did not specifically answer questions about withholding information to auditors, but released a statement saying the Coalition Provisional Authority worked hard to manage Iraq's oil resources.

WaPo article

Do not question the great and powerful Oz.

Cheney to IAMB: Go fuck yourself.

Abu Ghraib "Whitewash"

Happily, major U.S. papers, which typically support the government agenda, are not covering for this ridiculous b.s.

Washington Post

The senators who rejected this whitewash were correct: It is implausible and unacceptable. If the reputation and integrity of the Army are to be restored, some other authority will need to do better.

...To the credit of Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.), the Senate Armed Services Committee quickly assembled for a hearing on the Army report, despite the not-so-subtle timing of its release, and some Republican as well as Democratic senators rightly voiced incredulity at the Army's findings. They pointed out that, while identifying no "systemic failures" in the military, the inspector general's team chose not to investigate such episodes as the hiding of "ghost detainees" from the Red Cross -- a Geneva Convention violation that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has publicly stated was authorized by him. Nor did the investigation explore the handling of Red Cross reports by the staff of the Iraq commander in chief, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez -- which, rather than acting to stop abuses, reportedly tried to restrict further Red Cross access. In fact, no one above the rank of brigade commander was considered culpable, the inspector general candidly told the senators. "We think it ended there," said Lt. Gen. Paul T. Mikolashek.

Really?

More...

New York Times

We've always been skeptical that the Defense Department can investigate itself credibly, and now it's obvious that it plans to stick to the "few bad apples" excuse. The only way to learn why innocent Iraqis were tortured by American soldiers is a formal Congressional inquiry, with subpoena power.

...The authors of this 300-page whitewash say they found no "systemic" problem - even though there were 94 documented cases of prisoner abuse, including some 40 deaths, 20 of them homicides; even though only four prisons of the 16 they visited had copies of the Geneva Conventions; even though Abu Ghraib was a cesspool with one shower for every 50 inmates; even though the military police were improperly involved in interrogations; even though young people plucked from civilian life were sent to guard prisoners - 50,000 of them in all - with no training.

Never mind any of that.

More...

America's family values in action

Some 145,000 poor children were dropped from a U.S. federal-state health insurance plan in the second half of 2003, with more than half the cuts made by Texas, a health-care research foundation said on Friday.

"The drop in (the) State Children's Health Insurance Program is a major setback when millions of uninsured children are eligible but not yet enrolled," said Diane Rowland, executive director of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

Net enrollment in the program, which mainly benefits working families, fell last year for the first time since it was launched in 1998, the Washington, D.C.-based Kaiser Commission said in a report.

In many cases, states made the cuts because a weak economy left them with huge budget deficits.

Reuters article

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Don't go there

If you get an email that directs you to a website with pictures of Osama bin Laden after he hung himself, resist the temptation. Trojan horse virus awaits.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Let's think about this for a second

The United States pledged 50,000 tons of food aid on Friday for North Korea this year, weeks after the two countries appeared to make some progress toward resolving a two-year-old nuclear weapons standoff.

Reuters article

However, we have spent a half century trying to starve Cuba, which has no nuclear program, and is no threat to us in any way, except in ideology perhaps.

The United States, which is traditionally one of the top food donors to the impoverished, Communist nation, says its aid is independent of its negotiations to persuade Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear programs.

Oh, well, sure. Purely coincidental. The timing just makes it look as though there's a connection. But there is none.

If I were not a complete dimwit, I might think that the best way to assure negotiating power with the U.S. would be to acquire nuclear weapons.

North Korea dismissed as "nothing but a sham offer" on Saturday U.S. proposals that the communist state follow the example of Libya and scrap its nuclear weapons in exchange for aid and diplomatic recognition.

The United States laid out a plan for North Korea last month that would give the impoverished communist state multilateral energy aid after the North first commits to dismantle all of its nuclear programs and begins a verifiable disarmament process.

American officials have also urged North Korea to emulate Libya and trade away its nuclear arms and other dangerous weapons for better ties with the West. Tripoli moved quickly from declaring its intent to scrap banned weapons in December to the lifting of U.S. sanctions to full diplomatic ties in June.

But North Korea said that without immediate rewards for freezing its nuclear activities, "the landmark proposal made by the United States is little worthy to be considered any longer."

Reuters article

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Today's kidnapping

Gunmen kidnapped Raad Adnan, the director-general of the al-Mansour Contracting Co., shortly before 10 a.m. on al-Rubaie Street in the Zeiouna district of Baghdad, Col. Adnan Abdul Rahman said.

The company is run by the Ministry of Housing and Construction.

CNN article

Maybe I should have said "this morning's kidnapping".

From truck drivers to diplomats

Mohamed Mamdouh Qutb, an Egyptian diplomat is the latest prize in the Iraq kidnapping schemes. He was captured yesterday. Supposedly, diplomats are well protected (unlike truck drivers, which I can't understand, considering the situation).

Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi visited Cairo last week and asked Egypt to help convince Arab and Muslim countries to deploy troops in Iraq and help protect the UN mission in the country.

..."The group said the abduction was in response to comments by Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif that Cairo was ready to offer its security experience to the interim Iraqi government," the Arabic television said.

But shortly after the kidnap announcement, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit made it clear that his country was absolutely not considering sending troops to Iraq .

Turks.US article

Allawi is warning Egypt not to negotiate with terrorists, as the coalition of the willing dwindles.

"The only way to deal with terrorists is to bring them to justice and to close ranks and we hope that Egypt and the Egyptian government would act accordingly," Allawi told a news conference in the Syrian capital.

Reuters article

There's justice in the barrel of a loaded gun. -- Jon Bon Jovi and Iyad Allawi

Darfur

The next steps have been taken - Congress unanimously passed a resolution officially declaring the Arab slaughter of African Sudanese genocide. The victims claim that the Sudanese government has been supporting the Janjaweed murderers. The British are talking about the possibility of sending in troops. And the Sudanese government is warning that they will not take kindly to foreign troops.

A new saddle

Retired Michigan teacher Jim Rice, 75, has spent the past six weeks crafting a saddle for President Bush.

The result is worth about $3,500.

Michigan Congressman Nick Smith will present the saddle to the President later this year.

...Rice says he and a fellow leather worker, Danielle Cole, will have put between 80 to 90 hours of work into the project.

Too bad I understand Bubbleboy doesn't ride horses. In fact, there aren't any on "the ranch" (or Casa Fabricata as Maru has called it).

The Crawford ranch, which Bush bought in 1999, is in what is now farm rather than ranching country, and horses are seldom seen. Putin expressed a desire several weeks ago to ride a horse, but Bush said Tuesday there are none at the ranch.

Marine Corps News article

See what happens when you try to make people think you're something you're not? You make them waste hours of their lives.

Maybe he can just display it. Or put it in the memorobilia room with Saddam's gun.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.


graphic from Maru

Saddam update

Saddam's lawyers are trying to get France to put the squeeze on the U.S. to permit them access to their client. WTF? He still hasn't got the right to meet with his lawyers. The New Iraq® democracy works about like the old one.

Get your Saddam capture commemorative coin. They're limited. Bronze, Silver or Gold. Saddam on the front, Buttplug on the back.




Or, a United States Victory Commemorative.



How about a video game? You can download a free trial version.