Spying for Israel

Gettin' bigger, folks.

The name of "one of the [State] department's rising stars" has reportedly turned up in an indictment in the AIPAC case, as "the first higher-ranking government official to be caught up in the criminal inquiry."

  Source: Cursor

D'oh!

The indictment does not accuse USGO-2 of any wrongdoing, nor does it indicate whether he might have been authorized to talk with the lobbyist. Mr. Satterfield is not believed to be the subject of a continuing investigation. He is the first higher-ranking government official to be caught up in the criminal inquiry.

Mr. Satterfield's role in the inquiry has been known within a small circle at the State Department. Before he was sent to Baghdad, officials at the State Department asked the Justice Department whether the investigation posed any impediment to his assignment in Iraq, someone who has been officially briefed said. Officials at the State Department were advised that he could take the job.

[...]

Current and former colleagues praised Mr. Satterfield as a seasoned and careful diplomat. "I've known David Satterfield for 20 years, and he is thoroughly professional, and takes his responsibilities very seriously," said Dennis Ross, the former chief Middle East negotiator for the United States and a longtime State Department official. "He has always acted solely in American interests." Martin Indyk, Mr. Satterfield's former boss in the Clinton administration, both at the National Security Council at the White House and at the State Department, said the idea that Mr. Satterfield leaked classified information is "absurd."

  NY Times article

In which case, he might be the perfect scapegoat.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005; Posted: 2:41 p.m. EDT (18:41 GMT)

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN) -- Two former employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and a Pentagon analyst pleaded not guilty in federal court Tuesday on charges of unauthorized communication of national defense information and conspiracy involving such information.

The former AIPAC officials, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, and Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin entered their pleas before U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis in Alexandria, Virginia.

Rosen, Weissman and Franklin will remain free until trial on personal recognizance bonds of $100,000 each. As part of the arrangement they also are required to surrender travel documents and they cannot leave the Washington metropolitan area without permission from the court. Rosen and Weissman were fired by AIPAC in April.

  CNN article

For doing nothing wrong.

A criminal complaint returned this month alleged Franklin, who once worked on the Iran desk at the Pentagon, disclosed classified information to officials from AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobbying group. Court documents also alleged Franklin conspired to communicate classified information to the representative of a foreign government, whom sources have identified as Israel.

But wait! There's more.

Why AIPAC Indictment Is Bad News for Rove

Remember the disinformation peddled by NBC news -- the story that Iran has supplied the Iraq insurgents with sophisticated new bombs? I registered my skepticism yesterday. That skepticism has been authoritatively confirmed by Juan Cole in his latest column.

Do you notice how there are 250,000 tons of missing munitions in Iraq, such that it is not necessary for the Baath military intelligence to import very many from elsewhere?

Damn straight. I should have made that point myself.

Jerome a Paris on Daily Kos has a fine run-down on the administration's attempts to foment a new war with Iran.

So far, we're missing one key element: The personal touch. The right-wing propaganda machine has yet to direct a great deal of personal invective toward the Iranian president -- the (ulp!) elected president -- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Conservatives love to demonize. When the Murdochian hordes tell us the Ahmadinejad eats babies, when the tabloids "reveal" that he wears a dress, then you'll know that war is nigh.

  Joseph Cannon post: Iran, Ledeen, Rove, AIPAC, and more

Karl Rove's only full-time foreign-policy advisor is Michael Ledeen, a rabid anti-Arab, pro-Israel activist. The FBI is investigating Ledeen for procuring forged documents (shown here) on nonexistent WMD, which George Bush used to justify his war on Iraq. When Joseph Wilson exposed the farce, Rove helped "out" Wilson's CIA wife. Did Ledeen procure the documents for Rove, and how might he have done that? The story includes multinational stool pigeon Rocco Martino, Italian spy Francesco Pazienza, wanted CIA spy Robert Seldon Lady, and Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin, who's under charges of giving US secrets to Israel.

  Bellaciao article

Here it is:

KARL ROVE, MICHAEL LEDEEN SPIES PROCURED FORGED NIGER DOCUMENTS

I'm almost sorry I'll be gone by the time this can of worms spills all over the White House.

Or maybe that's why Georgie is on his vacation. Gettin' a little hot in the White House kitchen.

Seen at WTF

Visit Maru

More revealing documents released

From the National Security Archive at George Washington University:

State Department experts warned CENTCOM
before Iraq war about lack of plans for
post-war Iraq security

Planning for post-Saddam regime change began
as early as October 2001

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 163

Posted - August 17, 2005

Go have a look.

The declassified records relate mainly to the so-called "Future of Iraq Project," an effort, initially run by the State Department then by the Pentagon, to plan for the transition to a new regime after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. They provide detail on each of the working groups and give the starting date for planning as October 2001.

Awfully close to September 11.

Too bad Paraguay doesn't have Free Speech Zones

A few dozen protesters waited for Rumsfeld across the street from the shrine that honors historic figures in Paraguay's military. Standing behind a row of police in riot gear, the protesters chanted "Murderer! Murderer!" and shouted expletives as a military band welcomed Rumsfeld by playing the Star Spangled Banner.

  WaPo article

The Fiend spreads hope and democracy in Latin America

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld continued his brief swing through Latin America, meeting with Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo and the country's new defense minister on Thursday. “Concerned about increasing involvement of Cuba and Venezuela in the region, the United States wants to ensure that Cuban President Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez do not steer other Latin American countries away from democracy,” reports Liz Sidoti for AP. After meetings with top officials in Paraguay, unnamed U.S. defense officials said the country's leaders are very alert to the problems Cuba and Venezuela can cause. But Paraguay’s defense minister assured reporters that Paraguay’s relations with Cuba and Venezuela would not change, noting that Cuban doctors treat the rural poor in Paraguay and that 700 Paraguayans are studying medicine in Cuba for free.

  VIO Venezeula News Roundup August 18

Ooops.

El pueblo unido
Jamás será divido

I think Latin America is going to have to be "taught a lesson."

And we're just the guys to do it.

On the road to Armageddon

Likudnik Israel is Bush’s last remaining ally, or egger-on, in his war against "Islamic terrorism." Israel, which is loaded with nuclear weapons and is not a signatory to the nuclear pacts, is the accuser against Iran, asserting that Iran’s nuclear energy program is just a veil behind which to produce weapons. Israel’s Likud Party fears that Iranian weapons would be a check to its plans to complete the dispossession of the Palestinians and further expand Israel’s borders.

Iran has signed the nonproliferation pact and is willing for the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor the nuclear energy program.

Bush, however, dismisses all facts and assurances and is willing to attack Iran based on nothing but Israel’s paranoia.

Bush can ignore the American public, because the Democrats, like the Tory Party in the UK, have completely collapsed as an opposition party. The Republican Party is now increasingly referred to as the Republikud Party.

That's from Sir Ronald Reagan's Ass't Secretary of the Treasury.

Plus this:

[D]o you realize the danger of having a president so disconnected from reality that he plots to attack Iran—a country three times the size of Iraq—when he lacks sufficient forces to occupy Baghdad and to protect the road from Baghdad to the airport?

Despite all the high profile "sweeps" of US forces through insurgent strongholds, US commanders report a doubling of insurgent attacks.

The Bush administration is insane. If the American people do not decapitate it by demanding Bush’s impeachment, the Bush administration will bring about Armageddon. This may please some Christian evangelicals conned by Rapture predictions, but World War III will please no one else.

American taxpayers helping to shoot down planes in Latin America

President Bush on Wednesday authorized the United States to continue helping Colombian authorities ground or even shoot down planes suspected of carrying illegal drugs.

  Detroit Free Press article

"Suspected", mind you. And have we forgotten that a bunch of innocent (well, innocent of drug charges) American missionaries were killed in this very same "suspected" manner?

The program resumed over Colombia in August 2003 under stricter procedures: Suspicious flights first must be ordered to land and warning shots fired before it can be shot down. Also, no plane can be shot down by the air force without a direct order from the commander of the Colombian Air Force.

Well, I feel much better about it now.

WIIIAI comments:

This is just a little reminder that Americans have been sent by our government to help kill people, without trial, for something that is not a capital crime in our country.

[...]

It would also have been nice if the AP had mentioned how many planes have been shot down under this program; I know dozens have been in Peru but I’ve never seem a number for Colombia.

[...]

Bush claimed the Colombians are working to “minimize the loss of innocent life,” although evidently not by refraining from shooting at airplanes. Best way to minimize loss of life, innocent or otherwise: stop with the shooting.

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

Well, hallelujah!

The Indiana Court of Appeals today upheld the rights of parents to expose their children to Wicca, a contemporary pagan religion.

In its unanimous ruling, the court declared that a Marion County judge was out of bounds in approving a divorce decree that also directed the parents to shelter their 10 year old son from non mainstream religious beliefs and rituals.

  IndyStar article

Just in case you didn't know, the story ends with this note:

Wiccan beliefs center around the balance of nature and a reverence for the earth. They do not worship Satan.

And I'm guessing that there are plenty of Indiana readers who didn't know.

I wonder how their religious beliefs came to be part of a divorce case, since the story says they were both Wiccans.

Russia and China get together for military exercises

Russia and China on Thursday launched joint military exercises involving air, sea and land forces that they say aren't aimed at any third country, instead symbolizing the two nations' warming ties since the end of the Cold War.

[...]

Analysts say Russia and China are unlikely to team up against a common foe in any real conflict despite their shared concern over US dominance in world affairs. Instead, experts say the maneuvers are more of a sales pitch to the Chinese of Russian-made arms -- including the country's long-range strategic bombers, which can carry nuclear weapons.

  Rediff article

You think???

The US Defense Department said in a report in July that China's military was increasingly seeking modernisation and could become a threat to American and other forces in the Asia-Pacific region as it looked to spread its influence.

[...]

The United States said it has been advised of the exercises by both governments but isn't sending any observers.

[...]

Analysts have noted the involvement of Russia's Tu-95 strategic bombers and Tu-22M long-range bombers in the exercises -- warplanes that can carry conventional or nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and are not usually part of peacekeeping operations.

Nevertheless, they have named these exercises "Peace Mission 2005".

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

Bombs explode all across Bangladesh

About 350 minor bombs exploded across Bangladesh on Wednesday, killing two people and wounding more than 100 others.

Officials said the explosions took place simultaneously in 50 cities and towns across the country, including the capital Dhaka.

[...]

"It's an organized attack," said Home Minister Lutfozzaman Babor, adding that 58 of the country's 64 districts were affected.

  Aljazeera International article

With a tight grasp on the obvious.

Bangladesh is the world's third largest Muslim-majority nation with a population of 140 million.

The country has been hit by several, often deadly, blasts targeting opposition rallies and religious shrines.

On Saturday, a series of bombs exploded near a Muslim shrine in eastern Bangladesh, killing one person and wounding 50 others.

In May last year, three people were killed and 50 others wounded when a grenade explosion hit a Muslim shrine in the north-eastern town of Sylhet.

I'm sorry. That's not particulary enlightening, is it? I can't keep up with everything. Much of anything, really.

Here's a little more info from the BBC:

Bangladesh has long become used to occasional explosions and killings but the latest attacks look increasingly like a concerted campaign of violence.

In leaflets left at some of the bomb sites a group called Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh admitted responsibility.

The militant organisation said its aim was to establish an Islamic state.

More than 90% of Bangladeshis are Muslims but their laws are mostly secular.

Jamatul Mujahideen also wants to get Britain and the United States out of Iraq.

Great way to accomplish that - blow up some more people in Bangladesh. Hell, it's not even news in the U.S.

Jagrata Muslim Jenata Bangladesh became notorious for a reign of fear in the remote town of Bagmara.

They held public executions of their opponents and suspended the corpses by their feet from trees.

Until now analysts have said they were not motivated by ideology but by local power struggles among criminals.

You know, I think I liked the world a lot better when I didn't know so much about it.

In the past few years, cinemas, shrines and even the British High Commissioner have been targeted but there have been few arrests.

Making any investigation more difficult is a continuing acrimony between the opposition and the alliance government.

The main opposition party, the Awami League has claimed the government itself is behind some of the attacks, which the league says are intended to wipe out leading opposition figures.

The party points a finger at elements within Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikka Jote, the two Islamic parties that are junior partners in the ruling coalition.

The government has strenuously denied the allegations and insists Bangladesh does not have a problem with Islamic militants.

No problem at all.

Almost makes Americans seem civilized.

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

Peas, Pods

Now I see why Buttie likes Vlad so much. He really did see into his non-soul - and related. Have a look for yourself.

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

Vigil in support of Cindy Sheehan

Columbia, Missouri.

Small, but present.


Complete with warmongers. They've gotten organized now that the anti-war crowd is growing.

Aside from the inane "Remember 9/11", the second girl's sign reads, "50,000 terrorists dead or captured. We are winning!"

Alas, some people just don't get it. Perhaps they never will.

Thanks to Marlon and Kelley for organizing the vigil, and to Marlon for reciting Gil Scott-Heron's "Work for Peace"...

The Military and the Monetary.
Get together whenever they think its necessary,
they've turned our brothers and sisters into mercenaries,
they are turning the planet into a cemetery.

From the talented TJ at POAC
who could use some help getting to Crawford

AP photos from other vigils: Honolulu, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Portland, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Omaha, Jackson (MS)