Who does Condoleezza scare?

WAR STUFF
* "Dear Mr. President:
We write because of troubling revelations in the Sunday London Times apparently confirming that the United States and Great Britain had secretly agreed to attack Iraq in the summer of 2002, well before the invasion and before you even sought Congressional authority to engage in military action...
Love,
John Conyers" LINK
heres the latest memo LINK

* "When things go (relatively) peaceful in Iraq, we are told it's because we're winning. When the violence swells, we're told it's because we're winning, and those terrorists don't like that. Thus, in the paradoxical logic the adminsitration has used, whether one civilian died or one thousand perish, it is because we're doing such a damn good job over there." LINK


* "The attack brought the number killed to more than 100 since most of the nation's Cabinet was announced Thursday, ending three months of bitter stalemate but also heralding an increase in insurgent violence. At least nine American soldiers were among those killed since Thursday." LINK
i love the smell of freedom in the morning.

* "In another incident Sunday, a suicide bomber survived an attack on a U.S. military base in Baghdad, and U.S. officials said it appeared from the man's initial interrogation that his family was kidnapped in order to force him to commit the attack." LINK
read that again.

* theres more math wrt sgrena here - theres also a partial discussion there about the differences between the original descriptions of the event by americans, and the current american version - which is interesting for a different set of reasons.

* "Sources inside the Italian intelligence services explain that they recieved with "shock" the revelations about satellite images of the incident that are allegedly in the possesion of the Pentagon that were reported on CBS. "If these reports were true, it means that evidence fundmental to the investigation was denied to the joint commision by the Pentagon."" LINK

* beeb: "So an Arabic newspaper report that also came out on Saddam Hussein's birthday may not have been as fanciful as it seemed.
It said that on a recent visit to Baghdad, Mr Rumsfeld secretly met Saddam Hussein, and offered him a deal: his life would be spared and he could go into exile, if he made a broadcast calling for a halt to the insurgency.
Saddam Hussein's reported response: absolute rejection and a demand for an immediate American withdrawal and war reparations.
I haven't seen the report denied, though doubtless it has been. But given the situation, it would have been a logical offer to make. Stranger things have happened." LINK

* "Through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the ACLU and the New York Civil Liberties Union have sought the release of photographs and videotapes, in addition to documents, that would shed light on the systemic abuse of detainees held by the United States overseas. The Defense Department has refused to turn over photographic evidence, stating that to do so would violate the government's obligations under the Geneva Conventions." LINK

* " The so-called global war on terrorism does not exist, a high-ranking army officer has declared in a speech that challenges the conventional political wisdom." LINK

* "The repeated insistence of the Prime Minister, the Attorney General and, indeed, the whole Cabinet, that the invasion of Iraq was compatible with international law seems simply to have been a pose to try to fool people who genuinely wanted the invasion to be legal - but were too stupid to see for themselves that it wasn't." LINK

* remember when destroying fallujah was gonna win the war?

* " The U.S. military plans to allow regional combatant commanders to request the president for approval to carry out preemptive nuclear strikes against possible attacks on the United States or its allies with weapons of mass destruction, according to a draft new nuclear operations paper... Citing North Korea, Iran and some other countries as threats, the report set out contingencies for which U.S. nuclear strikes must be prepared " LINK

* "Who does Condoleezza scare? Not Putin. Not Sharon. Not Musharraf. Not Mubarak. Not Koizumi. Not Kim Jong-il. Not Castro. Not Chavez. Not Kofi Annan.
What then is the good of her? On her watch, Putin has muscled into the Middle East, Chalabi has made a comeback in Iraq, Mugabe has "won" an election, the Saudis have jibbed on the oil price, world depression has neared. Chavez has defied her. Italy, the Netherlands and Poland have left, or are leaving Iraq." LINK

* "Pro-Israel activists in Washington are privately worrying that the shakeup at Aipac, as well as Bolton's troubles, will make it even harder for Jerusalem to convince the White House that quick action must be taken against Iran.
"Bolton has always been tough on Iran, so when you look at the rejection of Bolton you're looking at what will be interpreted as the rejection of a philosophy in general," said Thomas Neumann, executive director of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, a hawkish Washington-based think tank and advocacy group. "What we need today on Iran is someone like Bolton, who will show the world that we're tough."" LINK