MORE ON GEORGE TENET'S BOOK & 60 MINUTES

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.http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2739654n (WATCH IT)

Tenet opens with a scene that was to turn out prescient. As he entered the West Wing at 7:30 a.m. on Sept. 12, 2001, he writes, he encountered Richard Perle, chairman of the president’s Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee.

“Iraq has to pay a price for what happened yesterday. They bear responsibility,” Tenet quotes Perle as saying.

As Tenet tells it, the CIA spent great amounts of energy and time trying — futilely, as it would turn out — to rein in the determination of Vice President Dick Cheney, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and others to use the Sept. 11 attacks to justify removing Saddam from power, which they had failed to do during the Persian Gulf War of 1991.

As early as Bush’s first meeting at Camp David with his top advisers on the weekend after the attacks, Wolfowitz “was fixated on the question of including Saddam in any U.S. responses,” Tenet writes.

Thereafter, the National Security Council staff held regular meetings on Iraq in which discussion proceeded on the assumption that Saddam would be ousted. The confidence in that outcome was so high that sometimes, debate centered on details like whose portrait would be put on the country’s new currency, Tenet says.

“I didn’t pay enough attention to the gathering storm,” Tenet writes, blaming himself for not having done enough to stem the tide of sentiment to take out Saddam whatever the justification.
Bush is depicted as having been steamrollered by more ideological members of his administration. At one NSC meeting, Bush’s questions and body language led Tenet to conclude that “the President seemed less inclined to go war than many of his senior aides!”

Tenet reserves his harshest words for Cheney, who comes across as Machiavellian, ideological and surrounded by a coterie of overly self-confident advisers. But Tenet offers unflattering assessments of numerous other top Bush aides, as well.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, is painted as insecure and almost naive in some sections. At times, she strikes Tenet as incompetent; at others, she appears duplicitous. Overall, she is depicted as never being quite up to the task. Rice’s deputy at the time, Stephen Hadley, is portrayed as a mirror of his boss, but with an extra gloss of arrogance.

Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy, comes in for a scorching review. To Tenet, no one else in the administration was so captive to the core beliefs of Wolfowitz and other neoconservative thinkers as Feith, to such an extent that he refused to brook any alternative interpretation of events.

And in characterizations certain to rankle some quarters of the administration, particularly the Defense Department, Tenet casts former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s rival, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, as sharing Tenet’s principled doubts about the strategy for war.

SAUDI KING DECLINES TO RECEIVE IRAQI LEADER

By Robin Wright Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 29, 2007; Page A19

In a serious rebuff to U.S. diplomacy, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has refused to receive Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on the eve of a critical regional summit on the future of the war-ravaged country, Iraqi and other Arab officials said yesterday.

BUT..........Iran to attend key Iraq meeting

April 29, 2007

Iran will attend a conference of key powers including the United States this week that will focus on stabilising Iraq, a meeting Baghdad said might be a turning point for regional cooperation in easing the violence.

Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said there's a "high possibility" arch foes Tehran and Washington will hold bilateral talks at the May 3-4 conference in Egypt, although not necessarily at the ministerial level.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who will attend the conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, said she will not rule out the possibility of meeting directly with Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Iran-to-attend-key-Iraq-meeting/2007/04/29/1177787971184.html

A Failure in Generalship

(excerpt is last section of his full article and the photo is courtesy of Raising Kaine) http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2007/05/2635198

"Yingling's comments are especially striking because his unit's performance in securing the northwestern Iraqi city of Tal Afar was cited by President Bush in a March 2006 speech and provided the model for the new security plan under way in Baghdad. He also holds a high profile for a lieutenant colonel, having attended the Army's elite School for Advanced Military Studies.The most insightful examination of failed generalship comes from J.F.C. Fuller's "Generalship: Its Diseases and Their Cure." Fuller was a British major general who saw action in the first attempts at armored warfare in World War I. He found three common characteristics in great generals — courage, creative intelligence and physical fitness." LOLITA C. BALDOR, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Generals We Need: Lt. Col. Paul Yingling

The need for intelligent, creative and courageous general officers is self-evident. An understanding of the larger aspects of war is essential to great generalship. However, a survey of Army three- and four-star generals shows that only 25 percent hold advanced degrees from civilian institutions in the social sciences or humanities. Counterinsurgency theory holds that proficiency in foreign languages is essential to success, yet only one in four of the Army's senior generals speaks another language. While the physical courage of America's generals is not in doubt, there is less certainty regarding their moral courage. In almost surreal language, professional military men blame their recent lack of candor on the intimidating management style of their civilian masters. Now that the public is immediately concerned with the crisis in Iraq, some of our generals are finding their voices. They may have waited too long.

Neither the executive branch nor the services themselves are likely to remedy the shortcomings in America's general officer corps. Indeed, the tendency of the executive branch to seek out mild-mannered team players to serve as senior generals is part of the problem. The services themselves are equally to blame. The system that produces our generals does little to reward creativity and moral courage. Officers rise to flag rank by following remarkably similar career patterns. Senior generals, both active and retired, are the most important figures in determining an officer's potential for flag rank. The views of subordinates and peers play no role in an officer's advancement; to move up he must only please his superiors. In a system in which senior officers select for promotion those like themselves, there are powerful incentives for conformity. It is unreasonable to expect that an officer who spends 25 years conforming to institutional expectations will emerge as an innovator in his late forties.

If America desires creative intelligence and moral courage in its general officer corps, it must create a system that rewards these qualities....

Iraq is America's Valmy. America's generals have been checked by a form of war that they did not prepare for and do not understand. They spent the years following the 1991 Gulf War mastering a system of war without thinking deeply about the ever changing nature of war. They marched into Iraq having assumed without much reflection that the wars of the future would look much like the wars of the past. Those few who saw clearly our vulnerability to insurgent tactics said and did little to prepare for these dangers. As at Valmy, this one debacle, however humiliating, will not in itself signal national disaster. The hour is late, but not too late to prepare for the challenges of the Long War. We still have time to select as our generals those who possess the intelligence to visualize future conflicts and the moral courage to advise civilian policymakers on the preparations needed for our security. The power and the responsibility to identify such generals lie with the U.S. Congress. If Congress does not act, our Jena awaits us.

Ex-C.I.A. Chief, in Book, Assails Cheney on Iraq

.....Mr. Tenet largely endorses the view of administration critics that Mr. Cheney and a handful of Pentagon officials, including Paul D. Wolfowitz and Douglas J. Feith, were focused on Iraq as a threat in late 2001 and 2002 even as Mr. Tenet and the C.I.A. concentrated mostly on Al Qaeda.

Mr. Tenet describes helping to kill a planned speech by Mr. Cheney on the eve of the invasion because its claims of links between Al Qaeda and Iraq went “way beyond what the intelligence shows.”

“Mr. President, we cannot support the speech and it should not be given,” Mr. Tenet wrote that he told Mr. Bush. Mr. Cheney never delivered the remarks.

Mr. Tenet hints at some score-settling in the book. He describes in particular the extraordinary tension between him and Condoleezza Rice, then national security adviser, and her deputy, Stephen J. Hadley, in internal debate over how the president came to say erroneously in his 2003 State of the Union address that Iraq was seeking uranium in Africa.

He describes an episode in 2003, shortly after he issued a statement taking partial responsibility for that error. He said he was invited over for a Sunday afternoon, back-patio lemonade by Colin L. Powell, then secretary of state. Mr. Powell described what Mr. Tenet called “a lively debate” on Air Force One a few days before about whether the White House should continue to support Mr. Tenet as C.I.A. director.

“In the end, the president said yes, and said so publicly,” Mr. Tenet wrote. “But Colin let me know that other officials, particularly the vice president, had quite another view.”

He writes that the controversy over who was to blame for the State of the Union error was the beginning of the end of his tenure. After the finger-pointing between the White House and the C.I.A., he wrote, “My relationship with the administration was forever changed.”

COVER-UP OF TILLMAN AND LYNCH INCIDENTS AT HIGHEST LEVELS

Ranger Alleges Cover-Up in Tillman Death
Tillman Family, Lynch Address House Panel
By SCOTT LINDLAW and ERICA WERNER
AP
WASHINGTON (April 24) - An Army Ranger who was with Pat Tillman when he died by friendly fire said Tuesday he was told by a higher-up to conceal that information from Tillman's family. "I was ordered not to tell them," U.S. Army Specialist Bryan O'Neal told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

He said he was given the order by then-Lt. Col. Jeff Bailey, the battalion commander who oversaw Tillman's platoon. Pat Tillman's brother Kevin was in a convoy behind his brother when the incident happened, but didn't see it. O'Neal said Bailey told him specifically not to tell Kevin Tillman that the death was friendly fire rather than heroic engagement with the enemy. "He basically just said, 'Do not let Kevin know, he's probably in a bad place knowing that his brother's dead,'" O'Neal said. He added that Bailey made clear he would "get in trouble" if he told. Kevin Tillman was not in the hearing room when O'Neal spoke.

In earlier testimony, Kevin Tillman accused the military of "intentional falsehoods" and "deliberate and careful misrepresentations" in portraying Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan as the result of heroic engagement with the enemy instead of friendly fire.

There was additional testimony from Jessica Lynch, then an Army private, who was badly injured when her convoy was ambushed in Iraq. She was subsequently rescued by American troops from an Iraqi hospital but the tale of her ambush was changed into a story of heroism on her part. Still hampered by her injuries, Lynch walked slowly to the witness table and took a seat alongside Tillman's family members. "The bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes and they don't need to be told elaborate tales," Lynch said.

54.433 CASUALTIES AND BLOGGER CHALLENGES "HOPELESSLY MISBEGOTTEN POLITICAL" STRATEGY

Home
US Iraq casualties rise to 54,433
Media
By Michael Munk
US military occupation forces in Iraq suffered at least 169 combat casulties in the week ending April 24, as total casualties reached at least 54,433.

Empire Notes concludes his weekly blog commentary today:

even if it (The United States) had the best intentions in the world, there is almost certainly nothing that it can do about that fragmentation now. Instead, it should limit itself to learning one of the key lessons from Vietnam: if your enterprise is hopelessly misbegotten politically, it cannot be saved by technical fixes.

The New Crusade: America's War on Terrorism: Mahajan's newest book

Rahul Mahajan is a student at the University of Texas, Austin

Lee Iaccoca Has Had Enough

Had Enough?

Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."

Where Have All the Leaders Gone?: order it

http://www.bordersstores.com/features/feature.jsp?file=wherehavealltheleadersgone: read it

CHANGE IN LEADERSHIP

....President Bush has warmed to strategies and ideas he once rejected to turn around the violence and chaos in Iraq - such as sending thousands more troops to the country in an effort to calm Baghdad. His new crop of Iraq leaders bypasses ideologues and loyalists in favor of professionals with previous experience in Iraq and war zones.

"None of them are particularly ideological or were associated with the original public push for the war," said Kurt Campbell, chief executive officer of the nonpartisan, centrist Center for a New American Security. The new leaders "are probably quietly appalled that we find ourselves in the situation that we do in Iraq," Campbell said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17351284/ Olbermann: Condi's inaccurate historical comparison (SEE IT)

Baghdad Burning reports that: 'The World Health Organisation reported on Tuesday that Iraq’s hospitals are so dysfunctional that “70 percent of all critically injured patients with violence-related wounds die in emergency and intensive care units due to a shortage of competent staff and a lack of drugs and equipment”.'

ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS LOOTED THE US AND IRAQ TREASURIES: ETHICAL MALFEASANCE

When Bremer Ruled Baghdad

When President Bush announced "Mission Accomplished," and the end of the war in May 2003, he also said we would help the citizens of Iraq rebuild their country. "Now that the dictator's gone," he stated, "we and our coalition partners are helping Iraqis to lay the foundations of a free economy."

....Bremer granted himself the authority to run the government ministries, appoint Iraqi officials and award contracts for reconstruction. Next he fired 500,000 Iraqis, most of them soldiers, but pink slips also went out to many doctors, nurses, teachers and other public employees as well.

For the most part, the CPA financed its activities with billions of dollars that belonged to the Iraqis. On May 22, 2003, a UN Security Council passed a resolution that directed the proceeds from Iraqi oil to be placed in a Development Fund for Iraq, and the CPA was granted authority to control the fund and decide which profiteers would get contracts. During the year that Bremer controlled the purse strings, the Iraqi Development Fund received $20.2 billion, including $8.1 billion from the UN's oil-for-food program, $10.8 billion from Iraqi oil, and the rest from repatriated funds, vested assets and donations.

The CPA accounting system was cash and carry and a steady stream of cash was flown into Bagdad from the US. Inspector General, Stuart Bowen later said that he knew of one $2 billion flight. A report released by the House Government Reform Committee in February 2007, shows that in the 13 months that Bremer ruled, from May 2003 to June 2004, the Federal Reserve Bank in New York shipped nearly $12 billion in a cash to Iraq. One can only imagine the Bank service charges associated with these shipments because to accomplish this feat, according to the Democratic chairman of the Reform Committee, Henry Waxman, the cash weighed 363 tons and the Bank had to count and pack 281 million individual bills, including more than 107 million $100 bills, and then load them onto wooden pallets to be shipped to Bagdad on C-130 cargo planes.

....In June 2004, the Government Accounting Office estimated that more than $1 billion in had been wasted due to illegal overcharges by contractors since the war began. A later audit by the Iraqi government found that as much as $1.27 billion was lost to accounting irregularities between June 2004 and February 2005.

....Not surprisingly, Cheney's Halliburton remained the top profiteer under Bremer's rule. A July 23, 2004, audit conducted by Bowen, showed the company had received 60% of all contracts paid for with Iraq money, including 5 no-bid contracts worth $222 million, $325 million, $180 million, and the last 2 together totaled $194 million for the last two. In comparison, the audit showed that the CPA awarded only 2% of the reconstruction contracts to Iraqi companies. In one example of blatant fraud, an audit found that Halliburton was charging for more than 41,000 meals a day for soldiers when only about 14,000 were served.

....Senator Robert Byrd said he was outraged over the inability to monitor CPA spending. "There is no reason why any arm of the executive branch charged with making such significant spending decisions," he said, "should not be working directly with Congress." "Former Bush Administration officials," he warned fellow Senators, "are even setting up consulting firms to act as middlemen for contractors hoping to take part in the bonanza." "Are we turning the U.S. Treasury into a grab bag for favorite campaign contributors to be financed at taxpayer expense?" he asked.

The answer was yes, and what a grab bag it was. Media reports revealed that Bush's ex-campaign manager and Feith's former law partner had set up consulting firms to profit off the war by lining up contracts for clients through their partners in crime within the CPA. Other reports revealed that contracts worth $407 were awarded to a firm called Nour that was formed less than 2 months after the war began. The names linked to the profits from Nour, among many others, included former Secretary of Defense, William Cohen, Ahmad Chalabi via a $2 million kickback, his nephew Salam Chalabi as the attorney handling the deal, and the money trail even led to the First Brothers, Marvin and Jeb Bush. But come to find out, Doug Feith the ringleader on the ground in Washington, had awarded a batch of no-bid contracts to a favored company the month before the war began for the purpose of controlling the media in post-war Iraq.

The favored companies enjoyed a fraud-free-all. For instance, Halliburton said it had lost over $60 million worth of government property including trucks, office furniture and computers. Inspector Bowen reported that 6,975 items valued at $61.1 million were lost, and in June 2005, the Defense Contract Audit Agency reported that the Halliburton had overcharged or presented questionable bills for close to $1.5 billion.
In the end, Bowen's audit concluded that "the CPA's internal controls for approximately $8.8 billion in DFI funds disbursed to Iraqi ministries through the national budget process failed to provide sufficient accountability for the use of those funds."

As of February 2007, according to Bowen, audits of the CPA have resulted in 300 criminal and civil investigations, 5 arrests and convictions, and another 23 cases are currently under prosecution at the DOJ, and he is working on 76 on-going investigations. One of the convictions involved Robert Stein, a former CPA comptroller and funding officer, who recently pleaded guilty to 5 felony counts including conspiracy, money laundering, and bribery in stealing more than $2 million of reconstruction funds and taking more than $1 million in kickbacks to rig the bids on contracts that exceeded $8 million.

....The whistleblower case against Custer Battle went to trial and a jury found that Custer had committed 37 acts of fraud and filed $3 million in false claims, and rendered a verdict with a $10 million penalty. However, the verdict was overturned by Republican appointed US District Court Judge TS Ellis III, who ruled that the CPA was not a US entity and therefore the false claims act does not apply to it. In the ruling, the judge said Custer's accusers "failed to prove that the U.S. government was ever defrauded. Any fraud that occurred was perpetrated instead against the Coalition Provisional Authority, formed to run Iraq until a government was established."

Legal experts say this ruling is great news for the CPA and contractors because from now on anyone charged with any act of fraud related to the Iraqi money doled out by the CPA in Bagdad will use it in attempt to avoid civil or criminal prosecution.
Evelyn Pringle can be reached at: evelyn-pringle@sbcglobal.net

BILL MOYERS SLAMS MEDIA'S PRE-WAR COVERAGE

Next week, PBS welcomes the triumphant return of "Bill Moyers Journal" with a 90-minute documentary "Buying the War," a sharp indictment of the media's coverage of the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq. Bill Moyers returns to PBS Wednesday night with a smackdown of the media performance leading to the Iraq war

Greg Mitchell at E&P got his hands on an advance copy, and rates the program highly:
"While much of the evidence of the media's role as cheerleaders for the war presented here is not new, it is skillfully assembled, with many fresh quotes from interviews (with the likes of Tim Russert and Walter Pincus) along with numerous embarrassing examples of past statements by journalists and pundits that proved grossly misleading or wrong. Several prominent media figures, prodded by Moyers, admit the media failed miserably, though few take personal responsibility."

Mitchell also lists some statistics Moyers cites in the show:
Number of William Safire op-eds "fanning the sparks of war" in the year before the invasion: 27
Number of front-page Washington Post stories during the same period that made the Administration's case for war: 140
Number of the 414 Iraq stories broadcast on CBS, NBC, and ABC in the six months prior to the war traced back solely to a White House source: Nearly all of them

ANOTHER NOT SO HUMOROUS SIDE OF JOHN MCCAIN?

In response to an audience question about military action against Iran, the Arizona senator briefly sang the chorus of the surf-rocker classic "Barbara Ann."

"That old, eh, that old Beach Boys song, Bomb Iran," he said in jest Wednesday, chuckling with the crowd. Then, he softly sang to the melody: "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, anyway, ah ..." The audience responded with more laughter.

His quip was prompted by a man in the audience who asked: "How many times do we have to prove that these people are blowing up people now, nevermind if they get a nuclear weapon, when do we send 'em an airmail message to Tehran?"

My thoughts: Sounds like PTSD to me. Dissociating likely, decompensating from the pressures of his Iraq stance and endorsement of Bush policies.

UPDATED IRAQ MAP (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE) and UPDATED BAGHDAD MAP

2 MILLION INTERNALLY DISPLACED IRAQIS: STATEMENT OF REPRESENTATIVE OF SECRETARY GENERAL OF UN

(There are) almost 2 million internally displaced Iraqis, of whom over 700,000 have been displaced in the past 14 months. Reports indicate that internal displacement is continuing and, unless peace and stability are restored soon, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) will likely increase.

People are leaving their homes because of the violence in Iraq and while many have sought safety in neighboring countries – as is their right under international law many are unwilling or unable to leave their country. Although systematic data are lacking, it is likely that those who are internally displaced are even more vulnerable than refugees: IDPs are closer to the conflict which led to their displacement and the provision of humanitarian assistance inside Iraq is extremely difficult.

BOMBS KILL 178 IN BAGHDAD TODAY

Iraqi men evacuate a burned body from the site of a car bomb explosion at Baghdad's al-Sadriyah neighborhood.

NEWEST STATISTIC: OVER 190 KILLED

BAGHDAD (AP) - April 18, 2007 - Four large bombs exploded in mostly Shiite areas of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 178 people and wounding scores - the deadliest day in the city since the start of the U.S.-Iraqi campaign to pacify the capital two months ago.

WAS JUST A "SCHOOL OF TERROR", BUT NOW A "UNIVERSITY"

Qaeda Group Says Iraq A “University of Terror” Developing its own Quds-1 Rocket?

THE POLITICAL BATTLE IN IRAQ:

The stakes are immense. The political battle is about control. Each Shiite party wants power in Baghdad, the so-called mid-Euphrates provinces, Najaf and Karbala, which are home to Shiite Islam's holiest sites, and the southern province Basra with its vital oil resources and maritime facilities.

"The only thing that [the parties] agree on is remaining in power and confronting one another. There is a negative meeting point, and that's not enough to build a government," says Mr. Dawod.
More than two years since their ascent to the helm for the first time in Iraq's modern history, Shiites have proven that the UIA is little more than a pragmatic marriage of convenience. So far, they have failed to transcend differences and reach out to the country's other communities, mainly the embattled Sunni Arabs.

"There is a great failure by the government," says Dawod. "And unfortunately, because of the situation in Iraq now, this failure does not lead to an alternative government coming to power but more chaos."

But Faleh Jabar, another Iraq expert, says he believes Maliki, who is under tremendous pressure from Washington to deliver on a number of benchmarks that are primarily aimed at promoting reconciliation and resuscitating the economy, may survive the withdrawal of the Sadrists. They held six cabinet posts: health, transport, agriculture, tourism, civil society, and provincial affairs.

"It's possible if the Kurds and [SCIRI] go on supporting him," says Mr. Jabar, director of the Beirut-based Iraqi Institute for Strategic Studies. "And if the Sunnis feel that Maliki is dealing with security in a fair-handed manner."

Jabar explains that more Sunnis could gravitate toward Maliki if they genuinely feel that he is targeting militias implicated in sectarian killing, namely Sadr's Mahdi Army.

By Sam Dagher, Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

BREAKING THE HEARTS AND INSULTING THE MIND OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE:

http://empirenotes.org/abuhanifa.html

Issam Rashid, chief of security for the mosque, told us the story. At 3:30 am on Sunday morning, 100 American troops raided the mosque, looking for weapons and resistance fighters. They started the raid the way they virtually always do -- by smashing in the gates with tanks and then driving Hummers in. The Hummers ran over and destroyed some of the stored relief goods (the bulk of the goods had already been sent to Fallujah -- over 200 tons -- but the amount remaining was considerable). More was destroyed as soldiers ripped apart sacks looking for rifles. Rashid estimated maybe three tons of supplies were destroyed. We saw for ourselves some of the remains, sacks of beans ripped apart and strewn around.

The mosque was full of people, including 90 down from Kirkuk with the Red Crescent, arranging for further aid to Fallujah. They were all pushed down on the floor, with guns put to the backs of their heads. Another person associated with the mosque, Mr. Alber, who speaks very good English, told us that he repeatedly said, "Please, don't break down doors. Please, don't break windows. We can help you. We can have custodians unlock the doors." (Alber, by the way, was imprisoned by Saddam for running a bakery. As he said, "Under the embargo, you could eat flour, you could eat sugar, you could eat eggs, all separately. But mix them together and bake them and you were harming the economy by raising the price of sugar and you could get 15 years in prison.)

The Americans refused to listen to Alber's pleas. We went all around the mosque and the adjacent madrassah, the Imam Aadham Islamic College. We saw dozens of doors broken down, windows broken, ceilings ripped apart, and bullet holes in walls and ceilings. The way the soldiers searched for illicit arms in the ceiling was first to spray the ceiling with gunfire, then break out a panel and go up and search.

They even went and rifled through students' exam papers. A feeble old man with a limp who is a "guard" at the mosque (actually a poor man with a large family who is given housing by the imam of the mosque) was hit in the head with a rifle butt and then kicked when he was down -- all because he was a little slow in answering the door. He says he never carries a weapon -- the whole mosque has only three Kalashnikovs, for security, kept in the imam's room (the soldiers confiscated their ammunition in the raid). And, of course, they entered the mosque with their boots on.

The American commanders will say this was a necessary precaution to make sure no military goods got into Fallujah and that this was legal under the laws of war. But the Abu Hanifa mosque was not involved in any illicit activities – nothing was found. The soldiers didn't bother to ask. They didn't go to the Imam and see if they could search to mosque. And, after a year of being stationed in Aadhamiyah, they didn't know the people well enough to know there would be nothing -- even though they were told repeatedly that the resistance in that area never fired from near the mosque because they were afraid of drawing return fire that would hit the mosque.

You can guess how many hearts and minds were won by this little operation -- the third time that the mosque has been raided since the war.

Abu Hanifa mosque has a tower that is being reconstructed. It was destroyed by the American attack during the war and is only now being finished, one year later. Rashid told me why. He said, "After the war, the Americans came and offered money to rebuild the tower. We told them no. We will rebuild the tower with our own money. We will take no money from you. You can't just destroy things and then win our goodwill by paying us off. This is not a game."

Administration Loosens Iraq Refugee Requirements

The Bush Administration is sending to Congress draft special immigrant visa (SIV) legislation, Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky announced today in Geneva at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' international conference on Iraqi refugees and internally displaced persons.

She is pictured here at the announcement with Ellen Sauerbrey

US announces USD 18 million, Iraq USD 25 million GENEVA, April 17 (KUNA) -- US Under-Secretary of State Paaula Dobriansky announced today that her government expects in 2007 to provide USD 100 million in humanitarian assistance for Iraqis, both inside and outside Iraq.

She added, in a news conference today, that the US will also contribute USD 18 million to the United Nations High Commissioner (UNHCR) emergency appeal for Iraqi displacement.

Dobriansky added that the US might be able to take this year for resettlement some 25,000 Iraqi asylum seeker. The US official in charge of Democracy and Global affairs said that the US is taking into consideration the plight of 40,000 third-country refugees still living in Iraq among them 15,000 Palestinians. Dobriansky said it is the responsibility of the Iraqi government and UNHCR to protect those refugees.

NOTE: For a number of years the refugee program for Iraqis citizens has severely limited approval to immigrate to the United States. Since April 2003 only 690 Iraqis have been admitted, and have been under close scrutiny by State Department officials. They have had to be interviewed outside the US Embassy and military officers have often been required to provide extensive documentation in their behalf. As the Congress has come under Democratic supervision there has been an effort to open up refugee doors to the US. See:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041607J.shtml

CAN WE EVER BELIEVE WHAT THEY SAY?

New email reveal holes in Attorney General's story...

A recently released email from the Justice Department appears to conflict with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' assertion that he was uninvolved in the firing of 8 US attorneys last December, reports ABC News...

Also, in a closed door meeting with congressional investigators over the weekend, Sampson told senators that President George Bush went to Gonzales in October to notify him of complaints regarding fired New Mexico attorney David Iglesias, according to the Associated Press.

....RAW STORY reported yesterday on an Albuquerque Journal article that alleged that Iglesias was fired after Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) complained to Bush.

"During a phone call with reporters on Monday, [New York Senator Chuck] Schumer said Sampson's statement contradicts what Gonzales has said previously about the firings," continued the AP.

PERSIAN ROOTS IN IRAQ

NAJAF, IRAQ — Persian script laces and flows across the walls of Najaf's seminaries.

Shiite Muslim religious scholars in the ancient city's turquoise-tiled edifices bury their noses in Koranic texts illustrated with Persian calligraphy, in scenes that evoke Mesopotamia's rich history. For centuries, Najaf has been a key shrine city and center of worship for much of Iraq's people. But for centuries, Iraq's Ottoman and Arab rulers rarely considered Najaf part of their own history. It was always considered a troublesome outpost of the enemy: Iran.

They were right, for the most part. Historically and culturally, Najaf has long been under Persia's sway. But so has much of Iraq. The reading of the Koran in this country differs from the rest of the Muslim world: The rhythm and cadence of Sunnis are unique to Iraq and the Shiites' are unique to Iran. Persian dishes such as fesenjan, a pomegranate stew, are a standard part of Mesopotamian fare. Even this nation's capital carries a Persian name, Baghdad.

The sectarian nature of the war between Shiite and Sunni Arabs in Iraq reflects a centuries-old battle between Persia and the Arab world. It is a point often misunderstood by U.S. policymakers and ground commanders, who perceive the reemergence of Persian influence among Iraq's newly powerful Shiite Muslim majority as proof of meddling by the regime in Tehran.

Rising Persian influence is a sign of Iraq's ascendance, not Iran's. "Iraq has been part of the Persian sphere of influence for more than 400 years," said Karar Dastour, an Iraqi Shiite intellectual who lives in southern Tehran and travels to Iraq. "But governments have always tried to crush anything that had the scent of Shiism or Iran. They were never accepted."

Violent Sunni Arab rejection of Iraq's Persian roots plays out daily on the streets of the capital. In February, three bombs went off in the Shorja market in central Baghdad, killing more than 70 people. It was the fifth time the place, whose name means "salty well" in Persian, was struck in less than a year. Shiite Muslims were the intended targets, but so too was a landmark established long ago by Iranian merchants. When saboteurs blew up the Golden Mosque in Samarra last year, an attack widely viewed as the accelerant of the current civil war, they destroyed the handiwork of Iranian artisans.

In their Internet postings, Sunni Arab insurgents, many of them officers during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, describe their attacks on Shiites as settling accounts with "Safavids," a reference to the 16th century dynasty that embraced Shiite Islam as the official religion of Persia. Shiite Safavids and Sunni Ottomans fought for decades in a conflict that infused sectarianism into what had been a centuries-old ethnic and political conflict between Arabs and Persians."

There has always been conflict between the Arabs and Iranians, and they always tried to involve Iraq," Sheik Humam Hamoodi, an Iraqi Shiite politician and cleric who lived in Tehran during Saddam Hussein's rule, said in an interview last year. "Both have wanted to use Iraq as the trench for their battles."

Ignoring the protests of many Shiites, the British forces who forged modern-day Iraq after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire placed a Sunni Arab tribal leader at the country's helm. They dismissed the quarrelsome Shiite clerics as Iranian-backed interlopers in their plans to create an Iraq dominated by Sunni Arabs.

GAYS GETTING TARGETED BY IRAQ REGIME

Government Denies Gays Are Targets of Killings

NEO-CON-VERSION

YouTube capture Analysis by Andrew Sullivan

"The BBC's interviewers are not as deferent as some in America. Paxman is among the most aggressive.

What staggers me about this clip is Bolton's point-blank view that the US had no responsibility to impose order after the invasion, and no responsibility for security within the country. Bolton actually says that the only error Bush really made was not giving the Iraqis "a copy of the Federalist papers and saying, 'Good luck.'" Yes, he says he's exaggerating for effect, but he is conveying the gist of the policy.

The casual recklessness and arrogance of these people never cease to amaze. The world is theirs' to play with -- and the victims of a vortex of predictable and predicted violence are just left to help themselves."

PLEASE, PLEASE, JUST MOVE THE BODIES

Every aspect of life in Iraq is steadily worsening a report by the International Committee (ICRC) of the Red Cross has said today. The situation is affecting, directly or indirectly, all Iraqis, whose protection must be a priority, the report suggests, and highlights that dead bodies are often left lying in the streets. The conflict is inflicting immense suffering on the whole population with a simple trip to the market becoming a matter of life and death.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today Programme this morning, Canon Andrew White, who is based in Baghdad, confirmed the situation. "What you see on your television screens is just a small percentage of the horror of what is going on," he said. The report seeks to draw attention to what life in Iraq is like, four years after Saddam Hussein was toppled. The bombings and abductions in Iraq happen with such deadly frequency these days they hardly make the headlines.

Recently Red Cross workers asked Iraqi women about their lives and what might be done to help them. The answer was a shock, according to Pierre Kraehenbuehl, ICRC director of operations.

What they would really like is help to "collect the bodies that line the streets in front of our homes every morning and that we find nobody dares to touch or remove," one woman said.She added the women found it "simply unbearable" to confront their children with them morning after morning as they tried to take them to school.

The Red Cross says every aspect of life in Iraq is getting worse. Access to basics like water and electricity are increasingly difficult - so much so that many Iraqis have given up hoping for big improvements and focus on small ones like clearing the bodies from the streets.

The famously neutral International Red Cross will not blame anyone in particular for what it calls the current disastrous security situation. But it does say that everyone with political and military influence in Iraq must do more to protect civilians. The report makes it clear is that nobody, not the Iraqi government nor the coalition forces, has done enough so far.

TURKEY WANTS TO LAUNCH INCURSIONS INTO IRAQ

By ROBERT Y. PELTON

If its Spring, it must be time for the Turkish military to begin their annual attacks on Kurdish rebels. In the past the fighting was portrayed as a recognized U.S. ally putting down a communist inspired rebel group. The problem is that the former Cold War battle has been reframed into an ethnic fight for freedom with the defacto establishment of Kurdistan in Iraq.

The head of the Turkish military, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, announced large scale offensives in the southeast Kurdish area of Turkey.

Their primary focus has been the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK but it has been an ongoing battle to prevent Kurds from establishing their own autonomy in the historic Kurdish areas in both Turkey, Syria and Iran The thirty year war against the Marxist PKK has left 37,000 people dead since 1984.

SUICIDE BOMBER HITS IRAQI PARLIAMENT & HISTORIC BRIDGE IN TWIN ATTACKS

Bomb Rocks Iraqi Parliament, Killing Eight
Another Attack Fells Historic Bridge in Baghdad
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA AP

BAGHDAD (April 12) - A suspected suicide bomber blew himself up Thursday in the Iraqi parliament's cafeteria in a stunning assault in the heart of the heavily fortified, U.S.-protected Green Zone, killing at least eight people, a military spokesman said, and wounding dozens of others.

The blast in the parliament building came hours after a suicide truck bomb exploded on a major bridge in Baghdad , collapsing the steel structure and sending cars tumbling into the Tigris River, police and witnesses said. At least 10 people were killed.

The parliament bomber struck the cafeteria while several lawmakers were eating lunch, officials said. State television reported as many as 30 wounded. After the blast, security guards sealed the building and no one, including lawmakers, was allowed to enter or leave. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said no Americans were hurt in the blast. The bombing came amid the two-month-old security crackdown in Baghdad, which has sought to restore stability in the capital so that the government of Iraq can take key political steps by June 30 or face a withdrawal of American support.

FOR LATEST DETAILS:

http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/2340/Rumors_on_Green_Zone_and_Bridge_Bombings

PENTAGON TO EXTEND TOURS OF DUTY IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

April 10, 2007 — ABC News has learned the Pentagon is considering extending the tours of duty for every active duty soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Forget small extensions and trickles of national guard troops. Under the proposal, deployments for active duty soldiers would be extended from the current 12 months to 15 months. Senior Defense Department officials say the idea has already been presented to Defense Secretary Gates. A decision is expected as early as this week.

"These soldiers have paid the price for this policy for 4 years, now they are being given an additional burden to bear and it will be a cause of concern for the soldiers and even more so for the families," says retired general William Nash.

The stress on the Army has been compounded by the surge of additional forces the president announced in January, a surge Iraq commander David Petreaus wants to extend. Senior officials tell ABC News there is now consensus at the Pentagon and the White House that Petreaus is right, the surge needs to be extended — until at least the end of the year.

Defense officials say extending the surge is simply impossible to do without either extending the tours of those troops already there, or dramatically cutting the time soldiers spend back at home.

MOQTADA SADR THREATENS TO SACK REPRESENTATIVES IN PARLIAMENT

By Nidhal al-Laithi, Azzaman, April 7, 2007

Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose militias are fighting U.S. and Iraqi troops in southern Iraq, is reported to have dismissed his group’s representatives in the parliament. The group has 35 members in parliament, about one third of the ruling Shiite coalition. The dismissal, if confirmed, will be a blow to the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Maliki’s government is already under immense pressure. Other smaller blocs in parliament are trying to work a new coalition with the explicit aim of toppling Maliki. If Sadr withdraws his support, Maliki’s government will be in a precarious situation politically.

The move by Sadr came following the joint attack by U.S. and Iraqi troops on one of his major strongholds in the southern city of Diwaniya. (fighting in Diwaniya) It is not clear why the U.S. started its move against Sadr and his powerful Mahdi Army in the city of Diwaniya, 180 kilometers south of Baghdad.

Iraqi watchers say the city is a major base of Sadr and that many of his commanders had taken it as a refuge to avoid direct contact with U.S. troops striving to appease Baghdad streets. But Sadr’s influence is still felt on the streets of Baghdad particularly in the townships of Shuala and Sadr City where nearly three million of Baghdad’s 6 million people live.

Even in Diwaniya, members of Mahdi Army have reportedly opted not to fight the Americans as they did in their two major previous uprisings one in Baghdad and the other in the holy city of Najaf. Many of Sadr’s armed men are said to have quietly left the city even before the start of the operation.

Sadr’s group is a major rival to the Badr forces, the militia group run by the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq or SCIRI. SCIRI is currently an ally of U.S. troops and Maliki’s government. Sadr aides say the attack on their bastion in Diwaniya was aimed to curtail their influence and presence in southern Iraq.

SHIAS DEMONSTRATE AGAINST US OCCUPATION

Hundreds of thousands march in Iraq to demand end of U.S. occupation Global Research

BBC: Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shias have demonstrated in the holy city of Najaf, calling for US-led troops to leave Iraq. The protesters were responding to an appeal by cleric Moqtada Sadr, who branded US forces "your arch enemy" in a statement.

The demonstration marks four years since US troops entered Baghdad and ended the rule of Saddam Hussein.

Baghdad has been placed under curfew for the duration of the anniversary. A 24-hour ban on movement by all vehicles, for fear of car bomb attacks, began in the city at 0500 (0100 GMT) on Monday, where four years ago a giant statue of Saddam Hussein was torn down, symbolising the fall of his regime.

The protest in Najaf, 160km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, broke up after about three hours. The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says there were no reports of violence as protesters waved flags, sang and chanted slogans calling for an end to the occupation.

There was no sign of Moqtada Sadr, who has not been seen in public since US and Iraqi army forces began a new security drive in and around Baghdad nearly eight weeks ago. The US believes he is in Iran. Our correspondent says the Americans regard the cleric and his militia, the Mehdi Army, as the biggest danger to Iraq today.

The militia is said to be heavily involved in the sectarian violence of the past year, although it was reported to have stood down in response to the security "surge", which involves an extra 30,000 US troops.

The US military praised the peaceful nature of the protest. Spokesman Col Steven Boylan said: "This is the right to assemble, the right to free speech - they didn't have that under the former regime."

In a statement issued on Sunday, the cleric asked Iraqis not to "walk alongside the occupiers, because they are your arch enemy" and to turn all their efforts on US forces. But he warned followers against violence, urging the Mehdi Army and Iraqi security forces "to be to be patient and to unite your efforts against the enemy and not against the sons of Iraq".

THE POPE, AT LEAST, SPEAKS OUT ON EASTER

How many wounds, how much suffering there is in the world,” the pontiff told tens of thousands of pilgrims, tourists and Romans gathered Sunday at St. Peter’s Square where he had just finished celebrating mass.

Benedict, delivering his traditional “Urbi et Orbi” Easter address from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, lamented how politics and religion are exploited to add to already abundant natural disasters afflicting mankind.

“Natural calamities and human tragedies that cause innumerable victims and enormous material destruction are not lacking.” the Pope said. “(But) I am thinking of ... terrorism and kidnapping of people, of the thousand faces of violence which some people attempt to justify in the name of religion, of contempt for life, of the violation of human rights and the exploitation of persons.”

“Afghanistan is marked by growing unrest and instability,” Benedict said. “In the Middle East, besides some signs of hope in the dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, unfortunately, nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees.”

He also had harsh words about the “underestimated humanitarian situation” in Darfur as well as other African places of suffering. These included violence and looting in Congo, fighting in Somalia, and the “grievous crisis” in Zimbabwe marked by crackdowns on dissidents, a disastrous economy and corruption.Benedict said political “paralysis” threatened Lebanon’s future.

“Suffering, evil, injustice, death, especially when it strikes the innocent such as children who are victims of war and terrorism, of sickness and hunger, does not all of this put our faith to the test?”

BUT THEN AGAIN

John McCain Visits Disneyland and Indiana courtesy of Dependable Renegade

ITS SO FUNNY ITS NOT FUNNY ANYMORE

Mike Lukovich's cartoon is a sad reminder of what we are dealing with in Iraq. As Newsweek writer, Michael Hirsch, put it succinctly: President Bush's Administration's handling of this war has become all about politics, not about policy. Lives are now cheap and, of course, plentiful.

Folks on the fuming right will go to great lengths to discredit a reporter who challenges the administration when it reports false progress in Iraq, as just happened in their caricature of Michael Ware as having disrupted John McCain and Lindsay Graham's news conference in Baghdad.

Fortunately there is video available to set the record straight, but even with the video the pundits continue to bash Mr. Ware unjustly. Watch the conference: rawstory.com/news/2007/CNN_reporter_slams_Drudges_charge_that_0402.html

Saudi Arabia tries to "buy" Kirkuk from Kurds & Russian Source Reports US Ready to Hit Iran

Saudi Arabia offers Kurds two billion dollars to give up Kirkuk as Capital
dpa German Press AgencyPublished: Tuesday April 3, 2007

Baghdad- A

Shiite newspaper published in Baghdad reported Tuesday that Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani had turned down a2-billion-dollar offer from the Saudis in return for giving updemands to have oil-rich Kirkuk as the capital of Kurdistan.

Al-Bianh al-Jadidah newspaper said that the Saudi offer was made to Barzani and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Borham Saleh when theyvisited Saudi Arabia last month.

The Saudis asked for a 10-year freeze on the Kurdish demand to incorporate Kirkuk in the north of Iraq into Kurdistan.The newspaper said that an Iraqi government source, who did notwant to be named, said both Barzani and Saleh had declined to give into Saudi pressure to give up the "Kurds' historical rights to thecity.

'US ready to strike Iran on Good Friday'
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF AND AP
The United States will be ready to launch a missile attack on Iran's nuclear facilities as soon as early this month, perhaps "from 4 a.m. until 4 p.m. on April 6," according to reports in the Russian media on Saturday.

According to Russian intelligence sources, the reports said, the US has devised a plan to attack several targets in Iran, and an assault could be carried out by launching missiles from fighter jets and warships stationed in the Persian Gulf.

McCain's Trail

Raed http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2007/04/dear-john.html in the Middle writes John McCain:

"I read about your latest trip to Baghdad in Articles like McCain, in Baghdad, says city is safer than before, McCain lauds security during Baghdad visit, and McCain Sees Improvement in Iraq.

It doesn't look like good security to me when one shop-owner in Shorja said there had been a heavy security presence with many U.S. soldiers on the ground and U.S. helicopters overhead.."

THE STORY GOES THAT THERE WERE THREE BLACK HAWK HELICOPTERS, TWO APACHES AND 100 SOLDIERS WALKING WITH HIM..... "The delegation arrived at the market, which is called Shorja, on Sunday with more than 100 soldiers in armored Humvees - the equivalent of an entire company - and attack helicopters circled overhead, said a senior American military official in Baghdad. The soldiers redirected traffic from the area and restricted access to the Americans, said witnesses, and sharpshooters were posted on the roofs. The congressmen wore bulletproof vests throughout their hourlong visit. “They paralyzed the market when they came,” Faiyad said during an interview in his shop on Monday. “This was only for the media.” He added, “This will not change anything.”

Truck Bomb Kills 13 in Northern Iraq
Attacks Comes in Wake of Visit by McCain
By YAHYA BARZANJI
AP
KIRKUK, Iraq (April 2) - A suicide truck bomber targeted a police station in the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk on Monday, killing at least 13 people and wounding dozens, including many children from a nearby school, police said. Video by an Associated Press cameraman at the scene showed at least four wounded U.S. soldiers and one badly damaged American Humvee.....

From the Blog: McCain's Confidence (CLICK TO WATCH WOLF BLITZER INTERVIEW OF McCAIN & WADE)

DOWD DISAGREES WITH DECIDER

In a wide-ranging interview here, Mr. Dowd called for a withdrawal from Iraq and expressed his disappointment in Mr. Bush’s leadership.

He criticized the president as failing to call the nation to a shared sense of sacrifice at a time of war, failing to reach across the political divide to build consensus and ignoring the will of the people on Iraq. He said he believed the president had not moved aggressively enough to hold anyone accountable for the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and that Mr. Bush still approached governing with a “my way or the highway” mentality reinforced by a shrinking circle of trusted aides.

“I really like him, which is probably why I’m so disappointed in things,” he said. He added, “I think he’s become more, in my view, secluded and bubbled in.”

In speaking out, Mr. Dowd became the first member of Mr. Bush’s inner circle to break so publicly with him.

He said his decision to step forward had not come easily. But, he said, his disappointment in Mr. Bush’s presidency is so great that he feels a sense of duty to go public given his role in helping Mr. Bush gain and keep power.