Reports that Blackwater would be bodyguarding the FBI agents in Iraq are false. The agents will be protected Diplomatic Security Service.
Category: Iraq
Military Investigation Says Blackwater at Fault.
No big surprise there. Even considering the dubious nature of mercenaries, Blackwater is clearly the worst of an already dubious brotherhood.
Good Policy, Good Politics, But the Dem Leadership Has No Balls
Adding a surtax for the war is more than good policy, it’s our patriotic duty, and the fact that Steny Hoyer is doing his best to kill it (and Pelosi doesn’t get it either) is depressing.
This is Where Our Sabre Rattling With Regard to Iran Leads Us
Iran’s parliament votes to label CIA, U.S. Army ‘terrorist’ groups.
Considering the fact that the US Senate has done the same with units of the Iranian military, this is unsurprising.
Of course, this means that Iran does not feel bound by the requirements of POW status, and they could set up their own little Gitmo for our troops, which is, of course, the implicit threat here.
The worst kept secret in the Middle East is that US special forces, and possibly CIA operatives are operating in Iran, and by our actions, we have given the Iranians license to abuse them.
The Fred Thompson Clown Show Continues
His campaign has more turnover than the DC Madame’s phone list, his fund raising is anemic, and now he’s saying that Saddam Hussein “clearly had had WMD”.
This guy is supposed to be the savior of the Republican party?
Huckabee Calls Out Bush, AND Compared Him To Musharraf
Following his second place finish in the Iowa Republican Party extortion straw poll, Mike Huckabee is the top of the second tier Republican Presidential Candidates, and unlike Ron Paul, is considered a serious candidate by Republican power brokers and rank and file. The fact that he is now calling out Bush on his execution of the Total War Against Terror* is significant.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee leveled some of the harshest criticisms of the Bush administration’s foreign policy yet from the GOP presidential field, saying it has mismanaged relations with Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Laying out his foreign policy platform in Washington on Friday, Huckabee restated his support for continuing the war in Iraq. But the bulk of his speech was devoted to the United States’ and Bush’s shortcomings.
Huckabee said the U.S. is ignoring options besides armed conflict with Iran, has trusted the Saudis too much and has allowed Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to go back on his commitment to allow American forces to root out terrorism within his borders.
“Just like Musharraf, since 9/11, the Bush administration has played both ends and the middle, assuring the American people that it’s doing everything it can to protect them, while tiptoeing around our supposed ally,” Huckabee said. “It’s been afraid of upsetting the apple cart, even though the cart contains poisoned apples destined for export to the United States.”
If his statements get any serious air time, it should boost both his name recognition and his poll numbers.
Bush is profoundly unpopular even with Republicans, and in the context of a multi candidate primary could very well give him a leg up.
Additionally, it’s tough to find anyone, except for the “very serious people” at places like the council for foreign relations, who does not realize that the source of 911 in particular, and terrorism in general is Saudi money and Saudi policies.
It should be interesting to see how this shapes up in the next few weeks.
*Check out the initials.
Sy Hersh Details Bush/Cheney’s Plans for Attack on Iraq
It appears that the Bush administration is changing their justification for an attack on Iran. No one is believing their nuclear weapons claims (gee, I wonder why?), so now they are claiming that Iran is actively arming and supporting unsavory and violent elements in Iraq (like the Malaki government, I guess).
The explosively formed projectile claims are bogus. The IRA was making these in Irish basements 30 years ago, and they have found workshops where they are being made.
Explosives are from the unsecured ammunition dumps in Iraq.
And then, there is the issue that any US attack will secure the position of the Iranian government for the next 20 years, as Saddam’s attack did 25 years ago.
I don’t see Congress doing anything to stop him, and absent that, the only possibility of stopping this is a mutiny of the general officer corps, which is potentially far worse than an attack on Iran.
As I have stated before, I believe that the US intends to use nuclear weapons in this attack, and the long term consequences of this are catastrophic (the short term consequences are $200/bbl oil).
Chemical-weapons hysteria causes cholera
Chemical-weapons hysteria causes cholera. It appears that the US authorities about Chlorine truck attacks that water is not being properly chlorinated, and cholera is spreading.
State Department Obstructs Congressional Investigation
The State Department has instructed Blackwater not to cooperate with congressional investigators.
Absent a claim (which would be bogus) of executive privilege, this is a felony.
The State Department official, Kiazan Moneypenny, wrote Blackwater VP Fred Roitz to “advise” him of Blackwater’s obligations under the terms of State’s contract. Among them: “all documents and records (including photographs) generated during the performance of work under this contract shall be for the sole use of and become the exclusive property of the U.S. government.” These obligations, according to the contract, exist in perpetuity — not just until the contract expires. As a result, Moneypenny told Roitz to make “no disclosure of documents or information generated under [the contract] unless such disclosure has been authorized in writing by the Contract Officer.”
Miss Moneypenny (gotta love that name) mentions that she has communicated this previously.
Sounds like the notoriously closed-mouthed mercenaries are too talkative for the State Department.
I’m Sorry Senator Edwards, but You are Wrong!
In the debate last night, Edwards said the following about troops in Iraq:
I cannot make that commitment. But I — well, I can tell you what i would do as president. When I’m sworn into office, come January of 2009, if there are, in fact, as General Petraeus suggests, 100,000 American troops on the ground in Iraq, I will immediately draw down 40,000 to 50,000 troops; and over the course of the next several months, continue to bring our combat out of Iraq until all of our combat are, in fact, out of Iraq.
I think the problem is — and it’s what you just heard discussed — is we will maintain an embassy in Baghdad. That embassy has to be protected. We will probably have humanitarian workers in Iraq. Those humanitarian workers have to be protected.
I think somewhere in the neighborhood of a brigade of troops will be necessary to accomplish that, 3,500 to 5,000 troops.
I like John Edwards, but he is wrong.
We do not need the forced labor built monstrosity of an diplomatic compound that we currently have in Iraq. It’s not an embassy, it’s an imperial outpost.
It can be moved to a more secure location, and it should be, and if there is none, then it should be closed, like the US Embassy in Somalia.
The Senate’s Sense About Iran
It got approved with 76-22-2, with John McCain and (once again) Barack Obama not voting, but it was modified significantly.
Original Language:
“It is the sense of the Senate . . . (3) that it should be the policy of the United States to combat, contain, and roll back the violent activities and destabilizing influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its foreign facilitators such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and its indigenous Iraqi proxies; [and] (4) to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military instruments, in support of the policy described in paragraph (3) with respect to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies” (my emphases).
According to Andrew Kent (linked above), this was dropped, though I am not clear if the bolded sections, which are in the original, or the whole paragraphs were dropped.
As it stands, it calls the Iranians bad people, though it does call the Republican Guard a terrorist organization.
Iraq Government Finally Gets to Work on Something Useful
They are drafting a law regulating mercenaries military contractors.
It’s a problem, it is viewed as a problem by all ethnic groups, it appears to be moving toward a resolution, and it’s not a sell out to US oil companies.
The Press in Canuckistan Gets It
It’s a clickable image, and the article is a good read.
Republican Whines About Moveon Ad, But Can’t Name Last Soldier to Die in Her District
His name was Private Jeremy S. Bohannon. Hat tip to Oliver Willis on the Catch.
Truth be told, I did not know his name either, but I’m not being sanctimonious about screeching about Moveon.org. Let’s get the troops home.
We Now Know Karl Rove’s New Client
It’s Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, who yesterday said that, Civil war has been averted in Iraq and Iranian intervention there has ceased to exist.
Ari Fleischer would be proud of him.
Blackwater Caught on Video Making
Well, it looks like the Iraqi government has a tape of Blackwater opening fire on civilians unprovoked.
US Once Again Pisses off Kurds
The Kurds are as close as we come to having an ally in the region, and we seem to be determined to piss them off.
We just arrested an Iranian from a trade delegation.
But the Kurdistan Regional Government in a statement called the arrest “illegitimate,” said the man was a member of a trade delegation that had been invited to Sulaimaniyah by the local government and demanded that he be released.
This sort of stuff keeps going on. There is no learning curve.
Blackwater Broke a Guy Out of Prison?
Well, it turns out that theIraqi government has had repeated problems with Blackwater’s actions, with a number of incidents, including breaking Iraqi Electricity Minister Ahyam al Samarrai out of a Green Zone jail in December. Samarrai had been awaiting sentencing on charges that he had embezzled $2.5 billion that was intended to rebuild Iraq’s decrepit electricity grid.
This is getting out of hand.
Why Do Bill Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz, et al. Hate Israel?
No surprise there. I’ve always said that some of Israel’s biggest fans are more dangerous to it than its worst enemies.
No Blackwater, No Ground Movement In Iraq.
The State Department has suspended all ground travel in Iraq, because the Iraqi government has shut down Blackwater’s mercenary operations.
Yep, the surge is making the place safer.