(Graphic by Tengrain. Thanks to Blue Gal for spreading the word again this year.)

Last year, in “8-6-01: A Date That Should Live in Infamy,” I opened by writing:

While the Bush administration rattles sabers once again and insists on more unchecked surveillance power and fewer civil rights for Americans, and Democrats seem set to capitulate for no good reason, it’s worth taking stock of the Bush administration’s actual record on terrorism.

Boy, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose and all that. But let’s look at what we knew and some new developments.
(more…)

Waiting for the IAEA report……..

David Miliband, Foreign Secretary, and Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State, have stepped up warnings to Iran to come clean about its nuclear programmes soon or face new sanctions.

Ahead of the release of a report expected to show that Iran is continuing to deny United Nations experts access to records of its nuclear activity, the two ministers said Tehran must comply with international demands to halt work that could produce atomic weapons fuel.

Ms Rice said such findings would be devastating for Iran’s claim to be fully and transparently cooperating with the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“One of the strongest parts of our policy has been to require Iran to be fully transparent with the IAEA, which should have the right to the full array of inspections in Iran,” she said at a news conference on Thursday with Mr Miliband after a visit to the headquarters of Internet giant Google.

More at the Telegraph

Warned him? Or what? They’ll put him in Gitmo? Yah, don’t talk to them, because as you can clearly see, OUR foreign policy is working so wonderfully……we don’t need to talk to anybody we don’t like. And when we do talk, it’s in a threatening, bully manner. Get with the program Jimmah!! Seven more months of this shit.

From USA Today:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday the Bush administration explicitly warned former President Jimmy Carter against meeting with members of Hamas, the Palestinian faction that controls the Gaza Strip and which is regarded by the U.S. as a terror group.
Rice, attending a regional meeting on Iraq’s security and future, contradicted Carter’s assertions that he never got a clear signal from the State Department. Rice told reporters that the U.S. thought the visit could confuse the message that the U.S. will not deal with Hamas.

“I just don’t want there to be any confusion,” Rice said. “The United States is not going to deal with Hamas and we had certainly told President Carter that we did not think meeting with Hamas was going to help” further a political settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

Carter said top Hamas leaders told him during seven hours of talks in Damascus over the weekend that they are willing to live next to Israel, but a top Hamas official said the group would never outright recognize the Jewish state.

Separately Tuesday, a Hamas official said the militant group has softened its demands for a cease-fire with Israel.

BRILLIANT! Not to mention her trip was a total failure.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Sunday called Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al Sadr a coward who’s hiding in Iran and praised Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki for his recent offensive against Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia in the southern port city of Basra.

The March 25 government offensive sparked an uprising by Sadr’s militia, and on Saturday, one day before Rice arrived in Baghdad on an unannounced visit, Sadr threatened an all-out war against the Iraqi government.

The Sadrists have angrily accused Maliki’s U.S.-backed government of trying to undercut their movement prior to provincial elections in October, when they will likely win many of the Shiite southern provinces from their Shiite rivals in Maliki’s government. If Sadr’s militia, conservatively estimated at some 60,000 men, were to rise up, it could mean the end of the drop in violence in Iraq and an inter’sectarian war that could make it more difficult for the U.S. to withdraw any further troops from Iraq.

Thousands of government soldiers already have deserted in Basra and in Baghdad’s Sadr City, refusing to fight the Shiite militia. Some deserted because of threats to their families, others from a moral objection by the mostly Shiite Iraqi security forces to fight their Shiite brothers.

More at McClatchy

KUWAIT CITY (AP) Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says it is unrealistic to expect a “blinding flash” of Arab support for Israel in Mideast peace process.

She’s a frickin genius, isn’t she?

Interesting Condoleezza Rice quotes from her visit with the Russian government. Way out of character for her. I mean, she doesn’t want that stuff HERE!

So what Putin is basically stating here is that Iran is “innocent until proven guilty“. What a novel idea! Imagine how many lives would have been saved if our own elected officials practiced this philosophy.

Rice Says Iran ‘Lying’ About Nukes

SHANNON, Ireland (AP) – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday accused Iran of “lying” about the aim of its nuclear program, saying there’s no doubt Tehran wants the capability to produce nuclear weapons and has deceived the U.N.’s atomic watchdog about its intentions.

“There is an Iranian history of obfuscation and, indeed, lying to the IAEA,” she said, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“There is a history of Iran not answering important questions about what is going on and there is Iran pursuing nuclear technologies that can lead to nuclear weapons-grade material,” Rice told reporters aboard her plane as she headed to Moscow.
[...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week there is no proof Tehran is trying to build the bomb. Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates are scheduled to see him in Moscow on Friday.

Matthew Lee, Associated Press

Source: AP

Why didn’t anyone think of this 4 years ago? Oh that’s right…..this administration has no thinkers. And when they do think, they can’t recall what they thought anyway. Too little too late baby. How many Iraqis are dead because of Blackwater? Oh and b the way, did NO ONE in Congress, prior to this incident, think there should be a little oversight? Oh that’s right, that’s why they’re under the umbrella of the state department….so there would be no oversight.

The State Department, seeking to retain its relationship with Blackwater USA while trying to bring the company’s armed guards under tighter control, said Friday that it would now send its own personnel as monitors on all Blackwater security convoys in and around Baghdad.

The department will also install video cameras in Blackwater armored vehicles to produce a record of all operations that could be used in investigations of the use of force by private security contractors. The State Department will also save recordings of all radio transmissions between Blackwater convoys and military and civilian agencies supervising them in Iraq.

In outlining the measures announced Friday, a State Department spokesman said they had been approved by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice based on the initial recommendations of Patrick F. Kennedy, the department’s director of management policy. Mr. Kennedy is the leader of a team Ms. Rice appointed to look at the way Blackwater and other private security contractors operate in Iraq.

More at the NY Times

What a shock! Someone in this administration hindering a congressional investigation? Say it ain’t so…….. And what has become of the previous cases of administration hindering investigations. Oh that’s right……NOTHING!!

Days after Waxman announced they’d be investigating the Blackwater incident, Condi made several calls to Blackwater and wrote a letter telling them they cannot provide any information to the committee without written approval from the state department.

An ongoing battle between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a House committee investigating Iraqi government corruption and the activities of the Blackwater security firm erupted into another skirmish yesterday as Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) accused Rice of interfering with the committee’s work and preventing administration and Blackwater officials from providing pertinent information.

In the latest of a series of exchanges, Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wrote Rice to urge that she “reconsider the unusual positions you are taking.” Congress has a “constitutional prerogative” to look into the issues, he wrote, and she is “wrong to interfere with the Committee’s inquiry.”

More at the Washington Post

By MATTHEW LEE
The Associated Press

My God! Condoleezza is actually doing something. Get it on tape. Get it on tape.

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday she had ordered a “full and complete review” of security practices for U.S. diplomats following a deadly weekend incident in Iraq involving private guards protecting a U.S. embassy convoy in Baghdad.

Rice said she had directed the State Department to examine “how we are providing security to our diplomats.”

Speaking at a joint news conference with visiting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner at the State Department, Rice said that details of the review and what it will entail would be provided later by her spokesman, Sean McCormack.

The announcement came as the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad announced a limited resumption in diplomatic convoys outside the heavily fortified Green Zone after a two-day suspension. They had been halted following Sunday’s incident in which guards protecting such a convoy, employed by the private firm Blackwater USA, opened fire in response to an alleged attack.

At least 11 people, including Iraqi civilians, were killed in the firefight. Iraqi officials have called the incident “criminal” and initially called for Blackwater to be expelled from the country.

“We take very seriously what happened,” Rice said, noting she had called Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Monday to express regret.

read more HERE