Category: Geopolitics

James Wolcott notices (Second Verse, Same as the First) that the Syrian-sponsored, Lebanon-based, Israel-hating Party of God terrorist group is being groomed for supervillain status in the next big middle east blockbuster coming soon to an election season near you. B said we should have a party of God in this country. We do, I…

I did not like fascists when I fought them as a diplomat for 23 years and I don’t like them now in my own country. From Ambassador Wilson, in an excellent interview posted on ye olde DailyKos.

The Bush Administration today announced its new policy: to wipe tsunami from the face of the earth. “We will find the tsunami where they live,” said one extremely senior administration official, speaking from an undisclosed vacation hideaway. “And we will smoke them out.”

Interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas says the Palestinean’s armed uprising has been a mistake and that Palistineans should pursue independence by peaceful means. This is, I’d say, big news.

…and the front page headline sez: “Rush to Fill Void Left by Arafat.” And I’m sorry, but I just don’t think he’s up to the job. I just don’t.

Then again, if Bush had been president, Osama would still be at large.

AFP The White House insisted there were ‘ties’ that linked the former regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to the Al-Qaeda terror network. DKo: Even if there weren’t any actual Al-Qaeda-ties, there were certainly Al-Qaeda-ties-related-program-activities. And actual Al-Qaeda ties could have been deployed within 45 minutes.

Found this on the redoubtable Buzzflash. Considering the source, Arnaud de Borchgrave of the Washington Times, it’s a remarkably cogent summary of the situation. Also a little off-message, especially the bullet point that “the war on terror” is a political fiction – “a misnomer tantamount to rhetorical disinformation.” Bleepin’ A, Arnie!

Hey, but at least he was “our” terrorist, kinda. He seems to have played every side of the street, according to a dossier rounded up by Ken Layne. The rundown on Allawi makes Chalabi sound relatively straightforward. I suppose in the interests of stability, if not democracy, a CIA-installed strongman ruling Iraq does make some…

I heard from Harry Shearer’s Le Show that the U.K. is about to rotate a third of its troops out of Iraq (mostly Basra, I imagine) in a “routine” changing of the guard, and that the 60 civil engineers from New Zealand are leaving soon as well. Shearer also mentioned that the Col. Tim Collins,…

The Thorn Papers

They blew it with the mobile phone monitoring of Osama, they outed Plame, and now they’ve burned a turned al Qaeda mole (double agent) for short-term political damage control: Read between the lines, and CNN is suggesting that the outing of Khan has led to greater caution in al-Qaeda and similar groups about using electronic…

This op-ed chart from the NY Times compares how the money spent getting Saddam out of power could have been put to other uses in the war on people who hate our freedom. When someone asks you if it was worth it getting Saddam out, ask them “compared to what?”

Al-Qaida detainee recants claims, The New York Times 7/31/04 A senior leader of al-Qaida was the main source for intelligence…that Iraq had provided training in chemical and biological weapons to members of the organization…. Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a member of Osama bin Laden’s inner circle, recanted the claims sometime last year, …. about links between…

Boing Boing: Evidence for Hersh’s claims of child sexual abuse at Abu Ghraib? This story just gets more and more nauseating. What the fuck were these people thinking?

This morning I heard a report on TV – Fox I think, but it could have been CNN, about the mounting death toll in Iraq. The hawk guest quickly noted that Saddam killed an estimated 35 people per day from the time he took control of Iraq. 35 per day! That’s a staggering number. And…

Hooray!! Iraq is now a free, sovereign nation! Let me repeat that because it just sounds so sweet… Iraq is free!!! What a blessed day! I woke to the news yesterday morning and ran out into the street, heart and bathrobe aflutter, waiting for the throngs to join me in spontaneous celebration… Hmm. Well, it…

Is Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page the first mainstream pundit to affix -gate to the word Iraq (No contest: Iraq-gate trumps Monica-gate)?

In the face of George Bush’s “non-denial denials” (Woodward and Bernstein’s Watergate term) regarding torture, the British have so far bettered us in calling things by their right names. Bush sidesteps questions over prisoners’ torture, The Financial Times, 6/11/04 (article) …when asked whether he had authorised the use of aggressive interrogation techniques to fight the…