Leon Russell
Stranger in a Strange Land

Robert Novak should be sitting in a prison cell.

WASHINGTON: The newspaper columnist Robert Novak testified Monday that two high officials in the Bush administration told him the identity of a CIA agent whose unmasking touched off a scandal, but that Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., did not.

Novak recalled in Federal District Court how Richard Armitage, then a deputy secretary of state, and Karl Rove, the White House political adviser, told him the identity of the covert agent, Valerie Wilson. But, Novak said, “I got no help or no confirmation from Mr. Libby on that issue.”

Nor was Armitage helpful early on, Novak said, recalling how Armitage refused his requests for an interview again and again. “He just didn’t want to see me,” Novak said.

But finally Armitage relented, confirming the agent’s identity in a one-on- one interview on July 8, 2003, Novak said. A day later, Novak said, Rove provided additional confirmation.

Novak’s appearance at Libby’s criminal trial was at once dramatic and anticlimactic, since the roles of Armitage and Rove have been known for many months. But the columnist provided insights into how news is gathered in Washington.

Libby is charged with perjury and obstruction of justice. Prosecutors maintain he tried to thwart an investigation into who leaked the name of Wilson, whose husband, the former diplomat Joseph Wilson 4th, had traveled to Africa to investigate rumors that Iraq had tried to obtain uranium from Niger.

Some critics of the Bush administration have asserted that Valerie Wilson was unmasked in retaliation against her husband, who wrote an Op-Ed article for The New York Times on July 6, 2003, that cast doubt on the uranium rumors and the administration’s rationale for going to war against Iraq.

Novak’s column of July 14, 2003, first revealed to the public that Wilson was “an agency operative” specializing in weapons of mass destruction.

Read more at the International Herald Tribune

“Why are they sending us ground pounding?” asked Spc. Kevin Gibson, 26, of Shiloh, Ohio, as he slumped on a dusty couch in an abandoned office after a day of futile searches.

My heart goes out to our troops. How frustrating this whole situation must be for them.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Soldiers spearheading the increase in U.S. forces in Baghdad are papering car windows and storefronts with purple stickers listing telephone numbers and an e-mail address where Iraqis can send intelligence tips to help stop the violence.

But if a recent sweep in search of car bomb makers is an indication, they have a long way to go to improve intelligence.

Soldiers from the Army’s 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment converged this week on a religiously mixed north Baghdad neighborhood of auto parts stores and “chop shops” that Iraqi commanders believed was used to rig deadly car bombs.

Moving door to door, Iraqi and U.S. soldiers smashed padlocks with sledge hammers, clipped through wire gates and rifled through hundreds of buildings as Iraqi mechanics, their hands slick with grease and motor oil, peered from nearby shops.

Instead of discovering a network of clandestine car bomb factories, the soldiers instead found only a few Kalashnikov rifles, eight grenades and some wire.

“We’re told this new surge is going to be more intelligence-based instead of just hitting random sites,” said Staff Sgt. Jamie Slagle, 31, of Morrisville, Mo., as he flipped through a stack of unused stickers. “But that’s what seems to me to still be going on.”

U.S. officials have urged Iraqis to be patient and have cautioned that the new security operation could take months to show results. That’s a hard message to swallow for Iraqis who have endured years of violence - including a triple car-bombing Monday that killed at least 71 people in the heart of the capital.

Read more at Chron.com

I ask myself everyday…..how does this guy sleep at night?

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration plans to cut funding for veterans‘ health care two years from now - even as badly wounded troops returning from Iraq could overwhelm the system.

Bush is using the cuts, critics say, to help fulfill his pledge to balance the budget by 2012.

After an increase sought for next year, the Bush budget would turn current trends on their head. Even though the cost of providing medical care to veterans has been growing rapidly - by more than 10 percent in many years - White House budget documents assume consecutive cutbacks in 2009 and 2010 and a freeze thereafter.

The proposed cuts are unrealistic in light of recent VA budget trends - its medical care budget has risen every year for two decades and 83 percent in the six years since Bush took office - sowing suspicion that the White House is simply making them up to make its long-term deficit figures look better.

“Either the administration is willingly proposing massive cuts in VA health care,” said Rep. Chet Edwards (news, bio, voting record) of Texas, chairman of the panel overseeing the VA’s budget. “Or its promise of a balanced budget by 2012 is based on completely unrealistic assumptions.”

Edwards said that a more realistic estimate of veterans costs is $16 billion higher than the Bush estimate for 2012.

In fact, even the White House doesn’t seem serious about the numbers. It says the long-term budget numbers don’t represent actual administration policies. Similar cuts assumed in earlier budgets have been reversed.

Read more at Yahoo News

Bozo the Clown could run a government better than these idiots. The waste and incompetence is overwhelming in this administration. Not to mention dangerous.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI had more than 300 weapons and laptops lost or stolen in just under four years, and some of the computers contained sensitive or classified information, the U.S. Justice Department inspector general said on Monday in a highly critical report.

Fewer had gone missing than before a 2002 report in which Inspector General Glenn Fine’s office reported 354 FBI weapons and 317 laptops lost or stolen over the previous 28 months, but he said the bureau had done too little to address the problem.

“Our review determined that the FBI has made some progress in improving its controls over weapons and laptops,” Fine said. “However, significant deficiencies remain, particularly with regard to the FBI’s response to lost or stolen laptops that may contain sensitive information.”

It was impossible for the FBI to determine the extent of the damage the losses might have had on its operations or national security, the report said.

The 160 missing weapons and 160 laptops disappeared during the 44 months that ended on September 30, 2005. At least 10 laptops contained sensitive or classified information, including one with personal identifying information on FBI personnel.

The FBI could not determine whether an additional 50 missing laptops contained sensitive or classified information. Seven of those were assigned to the counter-intelligence or counter-terrorism divisions, which handle sensitive national security information.

The FBI also submitted late and inaccurate reports to the Department of Justice about missing weapons and laptops, the report said.

Read more at Reuters

Probably protesters who are sick of our bases and what they bring. How to make friends and influence people….build over 700 military bases around the world.

TOKYO (AP) - A small explosion occurred outside a U.S. Army base south of Tokyo late Monday, police and military officials said. A Japanese news report said police suspected an attempted attack on the base.

The Army was investigating the blast, said an official at Camp Zama who spoke on condition of anonymity, adding that there were no reports of injuries or damage.

“A small explosion was heard in the vicinity of the base,” said Maj. David Smith, a Pentagon spokesman. “It did not occur on the base.”

Kyodo News agency reported that police had found a “launch pad” near the base and suspected an attempted guerrilla attack. The Army could not immediately confirm what had caused the explosion.

A Kanagawa Prefecture police official who only gave his name as Okamura said Zama residents reported hearing the explosion around 11 p.m. and police were investigating.

In 2002, two blasts were heard outside Camp Zama, and Japanese police found a metal projectile and a crude mortar made from a metal pipe nearby. Investigators blamed radical guerrillas for the explosions, which caused no injuries.

Leftist extremists in Japan have used projectile launchers against targets related to the U.S. military or on sites connected to the royal family. The attacks are usually more symbolic than dangerous, and injuries or significant damage are rare.

More at the Guardian

Of course, their main concern is who gets what time slot for best exposure. And when it’s all over….. a non-binding resolution means nothing to Bush. The surge is HAPPENING as they debate. Why not debate cutting funding for the war? How about let’s hear that debate.

Three days of intense debate over the Iraq war begins in the House today, with Democrats planning to propose a narrowly worded rebuke of President Bush’s troop buildup and Republicans girding for broad defections on their side.

Both parties will jockey for prime time before the C-SPAN cameras, with leaders claiming the best time slots and rank-and-file members trying to make the most of the five minutes each will be allotted. If all 435 House members use their five minutes, debate will last 36 hours. It is likely to begin by late morning and run until midnight tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday. A vote is expected Friday.

After watching their counterparts in the Senate stall and sputter last week, unable to agree on ground rules for a debate on Iraq, House leaders are forging ahead, determined to send a statement to the White House to condemn a troop buildup.

Democrats will file a nonbinding resolution against the Bush plan while Republicans will try to broaden the dispute and seed doubt in the Democratic approach. Although Senate Republicans were able to block debate on a resolution condemning Bush’s war policies last week, it will be much easier for Democrats in the House to bring a measure to the floor.

Read more at the Washington Post

A second Navy carrier group is steaming toward the Persian Gulf, and NEWSWEEK has learned that a third carrier will likely follow. Iran shot off a few missiles in those same tense waters last week, in a highly publicized test. With Americans and Iranians jousting on the chaotic battleground of Iraq, the chances of a small incident’s spiraling into a crisis are higher than they’ve been in years.
Someone sneezes and we’re at war…….

The Iranians have reason to feel paranoid. In recent weeks senior American officers have condemned Tehran for providing training and deadly explosives to insurgents. In a predawn raid on Dec. 21, U.S. troops barged into the compound of the most powerful political party in the country, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, and grabbed two men they claimed were officers in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Three weeks later U.S. troops stormed an Iranian diplomatic office in Irbil, arresting five more Iranians. The Americans have hinted that as part of an escalating tit-for-tat, Iranians may have had a hand in a spectacular raid in Karbala on Jan. 20, in which four American soldiers were kidnapped and later found shot, execution style, in the head. U.S. forces promised to defend themselves.

Some view the spiraling attacks as a strand in a worrisome pattern. At least one former White House official contends that some Bush advisers secretly want an excuse to attack Iran. “They intend to be as provocative as possible and make the Iranians do something [America] would be forced to retaliate for,” says Hillary Mann, the administration’s former National Security Council director for Iran and Persian Gulf Affairs. U.S. officials insist they have no intention of provoking or otherwise starting a war with Iran, and they were also quick to deny any link to Sharafi’s kidnapping. But the fact remains that the longstanding war of words between Washington and Tehran is edging toward something more dangerous. A second Navy carrier group is steaming toward the Persian Gulf, and NEWSWEEK has learned that a third carrier will likely follow. Iran shot off a few missiles in those same tense waters last week, in a highly publicized test. With Americans and Iranians jousting on the chaotic battleground of Iraq, the chances of a small incident’s spiraling into a crisis are higher than they’ve been in years.

Full article at Newsweek

Good for them! They took their (undeserved) hits, and they stood their ground. I think it’s high-time we turn the tables and boycott Bush and all of his enablers back down deep into the recesses of complete insignificance.

5 Grammys mark Dixie Chicks’ comeback

LOS ANGELES - The Dixie Chicks completed a defiant comeback on Sunday night, capturing five Grammy awards after being shunned by the country music establishment over the group’s anti-Bush comments leading up to the Iraq invasion.

The Texas trio won all the biggest categories, including record and song of the year for the no-regrets anthem “Not Ready to Make Nice.” They also won best country album, which was especially ironic considering they don’t consider themselves country artists anymore.
[...]

The Dixie Chicks won all five awards they were nominated for, sweet vindication after the superstars’ lives were threatened and sales plummeted when Maines criticized President Bush on the eve of the Iraq war in 2003. Almost overnight, one of the most successful groups of any genre was boycotted by Nashville and disappeared from country radio.
[...]

The standing ovations the Chicks received Sunday illustrated how much the political climate has changed regarding the Iraq war, and even Bush.

“That’s interesting,” Maines crowed from the podium after the country award was handed out earlier in the night. “Well, to quote the great ‘Simpsons’ - ‘Heh-Heh.’

“Just kidding,” added Maines. “A lot of people just turned their TVs off right now. I’m very sorry for that.”

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