saul wolfowitz's road to damascus. the blind leading the blind

VOTE
* "After hours of closed-door meetings, members of the United Iraqi Alliance agreed to hold a secret ballot to choose between Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Ahmad Chalabi, most likely on Friday" chalabi is one helluva playa. any comment judy? http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=3&u=/ap/20050217/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

WAR
* "Indeed, one "senior State Department official" told the New York Times: "Even though there's no evidence to link [the assassination] to Syria, Syria has, by negligence or design, allowed Lebanon to become destabilized.""... of course, there's plenty of evidence to link [the war] to america, america has, by negligence or design, allowed iraq to become destabilized.
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=4857

* btw - there were stories of a strike in iran which disappeared onite... the official story is that a plane accidentally dropped an engine or some such. i dunno whats going on there... update: apparently it was "was the result of "geophysical exploration"" http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/02/16/iran.blast/

* ive mentioned previously that not only are iran and syria and ven and cuba et al targets, but also that canda and france and the internets are targets - people are getting nervous about canada disappearing. say goodbye to draftdodgers, pot, gay marriage and a workable health system. and of course, speaking french. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1108336208455&call_pageid=970599119419

* "A letter by the head of MI6 allegedly seeking to "sex up" a dossier on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction should be released under the Freedom Of Information Act, the former head of the MoD intelligence branch said last night."
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=611494

* Negroponte parently has been a 'consumer of intelligence' - how many times have i heard that already? i hope he has gastro. will he get a 98-0 vote in the senate? he seems to have the resume for it

* who the hell is gonna get Negroponte's old job? (btw - who has his UN job? didnt that guy retire as well?)

* "One reasonable defensive measure, for both Syria and Hezbollah, will be to delegitimize the Lebanese opposition by depicting it as cozying up to the Americans. If Syria and Hezbollah succeed at diverting the debate in Lebanon to issues of loyalty to the U.S. or the "homeland" Washington's step could end up taking things in the opposite direction it intended." http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/540722.html

* "Director Robert Mueller expressed worry that a sleeper operative in the U.S. may have been in place for years, awaiting orders for an attack." this nonsense is hysterical. except that... ya know. it isnt funny. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050217/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/terror_threat

MEDIA
* apparently ted hitler is a blogcabin repug...

* rathergate is still ongoing - itd be lovely to see that one in the courts... when will cbs do that niger piece? what happens if all krove's prior work gets disclosed somehow - we'll have to number them - krovegate 1, krovegate 2, krovegate 3, krovegate n...

* was notgannon blackmailed? blackmailing?

* heres an interesting interview with davidkay 20 mins - he is kinda concerned about the iran thing - http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200502/r40928_104037.ram

* juliusblog notes that ari1 left the ship just as talon was being established. the departure of ari1 has always had me wondering... and ari2 is such a pale imitator. ari1's work was pure art. http://juliusblog.blogspot.com/2005_02_01_juliusblog_archive.html#110815570088193039