Bush's Shrinking Safety Zone

[tw]

From USA Today of 9 Mar 2006:

Madrid train bombings probe finds no al-Qaeda link
A two-year probe into the Madrid train bombings concludes the Islamic terrorists who carried out the blasts were homegrown radicals acting on their own rather than at the behest of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, two senior intelligence officials said.

Spain still remains home to a web of radical Algerian, Moroccan and Syrian groups bent on carrying out attacks — and aiding the insurgency against U.S. troops in Iraq — a Spanish intelligence chief and a Western official intimately involved in counterterrorism measures in Spain told The Associated Press.

The intelligence chief said there were no phone calls between the Madrid bombers and al-Qaeda and no money transfers. The Western official said the plotters had links to other Islamic radicals in Western Europe, but the plan was hatched and organized in Spain. "This was not an al-Qaeda operation," he said. "It was homegrown."

What was the bombing of London? Homegrown. What were attacks in Indonesia? Homegrown. Or more accurately, inspired by a George Jr crusade called "War to create Terror".

How can this be? George Jr told us these are all Al Qaeda. The president would not lie. Clearly this Spanish investigator must read too much propaganda from tw.

Welcome to a lawn of dandelions - a concept called Muslim Brotherhood. What George Jr calls a cohesive, nefarious, and ever scheming Al Qaeda. Lurking in every shadow to kill us all.

Or maybe it’s really called "War to Create Terror". Funny how every orange alert arrived just in time to avert a George Jr drop in the polls.

Welcome to a concept better known as Muslim Brotherhood – and not to be confused with an Egyptian political party of same name.

[tw]

Another example of what happens when hype and fear are promoted excessively. Just another reason why we are suppose to gain experience and therefore intelligence by learning from history. From ABC News of 11 Mar 2006:

DOJ Faults FBI for Fingerprinting Error
"Among other things, the examiners applied circular reasoning, allowing details visible in Mayfield's known prints to suggest features in the murky or ambiguous details … that were not really there," the report by the department's internal watchdog said.

Mayfield is a lawyer in Oregon who was accused of handling explosives in Madrid. He was locked up without judicial review or even lawyer representation for two weeks due to more hype and fear - the Patriot Act. They even confiscated his child's Spanish homework as communicatons with Madrid conspirators. It took weeks just to get someone to translate that Spanish homework - to learn what these messages really said. No, this is not a 21st Century Keystone Cops story. They were that incompentant and that hyped on some mythical Al Qaeda fears. Fears made worse when no evidence of Al Qaeda could be found.

Somehow George Jr knows Al Qaeda is lurking everywhere. Thererfore we even 'Pearl Harbor' some one only because they might be a threat. Meanwhile all those missile attacks on Al Jazzera offices in so many countries - those too were only accidents?

70% of America really should admit to being fools for letting a mental midget hype so much hype and fear - the "War to create Terror" - the Mission Accomplished war - an axis of evil - and a George Jr who does not even read his PDBs yet somehow knows that levees would not be breached. How does a politician so corrupt and with such low intelligence promote so much fear and hate? Another lesson taught in history. He was called Adolph Hitler. Hilter also promoted these emotions. Hitler also had his Rush Limbaughs to hype those fears.

Meanwhile an Oregon man sits for weeks in jail while denied his constitutional rights. This is acceptable? Do we say, "Don't worry. Be happy."? Or do we go after the extremists among us who so hate America as to encourage that hype and fear - even promote a myth called Al Qaeda.

Remember more lessons of history. Extremists are often so dumb that one could not even give himself a hot foot on an airliner. Hype from extremist rhetoric would even pervert a simple and well understood task called fingerprinting.

[tw]

I was shocked when so many here advocated the destruction of world stability - pre-emption. These testosterone thinkers maintained we must attack them before they attack us. Well thank you for undermining everything America stood for in 50 years. It was a well proven concept called containment. Its principles included a Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty that George Jr wants to gut. The Economist magazine is blunt about this in a 9 Mar 2006 issued entitled Dr Strangedeal:

Congress should veto George Bush's nuclear agreement with India

Now that George Jr has declared "Pearl Harbor" diplomacy is good, countries that don't build nuclear weapons and other WMDs would be wrong. This is necessary when pre-emption is the new world order.

Worse, George Jr has decided to reward nations for not entering into a Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. India can remain out of that treaty - can market nuclear bomb technology throughout the world - and receive nuclear technology from America. That guts the entire non-proliferation treaty. Only a mental midget would have negotiated that deal. Why stop. He did as even the foreign ministre of Norway predicted - he even killed the Oslo Accords.

Turkey now needs nuclear weapons - obviously. First, George Jr will reward nations for building nuclear weapons. Second, George Jr's "Pearl Harbor" diplomacy - also called preemption - means other nations must build bombs. Turkey must defend itself. This is what the neo-cons and their pre-emption have created. The IAEA is very concerned of Turkey's new and necessary political needs. Turkey needs the bomb because Project for a New American Century has promoted pre-emption and has promoted a mental midget president who even undermines the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

George Jr started his first threats of war on Iran. Did you think I made this stuff up so long ago when I predicted the United States was preparing for an Iran attack? Katrina may have saved the world by showing other mental midgets - George Jr supporter - how dumb this president really is -that lying is what George Jr does.

George Jr is that dangerous, that fringe religous neo-con, and that stupid as to even reward India for going nuclear. Turkey has no choice but to go nuclear. Only a mental midget could deny it.

Front cover of The Economist 9 Mar 2006:

[richlevy]

From here.

March 11 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush, seeking to reassure Americans about conditions in Iraq, said U.S. troops are focusing new attention on thwarting insurgents' use of car and roadside bombs.
``We are constantly adjusting our tactics on the ground to achieve a victory,'' Bush said after getting a White House briefing on roadside bombs from retired General Montgomery Meigs and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. ``We face an enemy that will use explosive devices in order to shake our will, in order to foment violence in Iraq, in order to try to convince the American people that we can't win in Iraq. That is what they are trying to do.''

I think this means that all of the vehicle and body armor was finally delivered and installed 2 years after it was requested.

[tw]

Homeland security is not found in jackboot security forces patrolling ports and airports. Security starts with in our allies. America once had tremendous security because 70% of the world had positive views on America. The mental midget quickly drove American security down to 15%. Now that anti-American attitude is hardening. These examples from movies in countries that were some of America's closest friends - Egypt and Turkey - demonstrate how dangerous this world is becoming for an Americans.

From the Washington Post of 20 Mar 2006:

In Egyptian Movies, Curses! We're the Heavies
When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited this city last month, Egyptians had an unusual choice: watch her on TV as she expounded on issues of war and peace in the Middle East, or go to a neighborhood movie theater and see her portrayed by a look-alike actress belly-dancing and placed in "adult" situations.

The film in question is "The Night Baghdad Fell," which depicts Egyptian obsessions with war, sex and the United States. Wildly anti-American, it has done a brisk business for two months, a long screen life for Egyptian-made films. In "Night," Egyptians fret about an American invasion of Egypt and the potential destruction of their capital. Americans are bullies, rapists and mindless killers.

By the way, "The Night Baghdad Fell" is a comedy.

The film is only the latest bit of Egyptian pop culture to display deep unease about Americans. Beginning two years ago, Yanks emerged as bad guys on Cairo stages....

Egyptians are not the only ones depicting villainous Americans on screen. "Valley of the Wolves: Iraq" debuted in Turkey ...

He insists he is not reflexively anti-American. His next project, he says, is a movie both about the horrors of Iraq but also the good some American doctors did recently in separating conjoined Egyptian twins. "I want to investigate how a country can do so much good and bad at the same time," he says.

[tw]

Today we have another example of a complacent and irresponsible George Jr administration who demand loyalty at the expense of America. Testimony from the Moussaoui trial only confirms what has been posted in the Cellar so many times since 11 September:

Superior Says He Didn't See Agent's Report on Moussaoui
... Harry Samit, who was working in Minneapolis [FBI], had filed a long report asking for a complete investigation of Mr. Moussaoui, whom he described as a radical Islamic fundamentalist who hated the United States and was learning to fly jetliners.

Mr. Samit, ... testified, albeit reluctantly, that he had told investigators after the attacks that he believed that his superiors at the bureau in Washington were guilty of "criminal negligence" and had ignored his increasingly dire requests to obtain a search warrant in order to protect their careers.

He said that they had taken a gamble that Mr. Moussaoui was not going to have any valuable information and that they had lost a wager that proved to be a national tragedy.

Why would they gamble? Look at what the George Jr administration did to this nation's #1 anti-terrorist investigator John O'Neill. They drove him from the Bureau because a George Jr administration insisted terrorism was not a threat. Even worse is *how* they drove John O'Neill from government service. And that experience did not promote incompetence - ignore threats of terror - in all government agencies? Of course it did. Then more examples.

We have what Condoleezza Rice, et al did and proclaimed (from Against all Enemies):

Rice decided that the position of National Coordinator for Counterterrorism would also be downgraded. No longer would the coordinator be a member of the Principles Committee. No longer would the CSG [Counterterrorism Security Group] report to Principles, but instead to a committee of Deputy Secretaries. No longer would the National Coordinator be supported by two NSC Senior Directors ... Rice told me that the Principles Committee, which had been the first venue for terrorism policy discussions ... would not address the issue until it had been "framed" by the Deputies. ... it meant months of delay. The initial Deputies meeting to review terrorism policy could not be scheduled in February ... in March .... Finally in April ... The first meeting ... did not go well. ...

"Well I just don't understand why we are beginning by talking about this one man bin Laden," Wolfovitz responded.

"We are talking about a network of terrorist organizations called al Qaeda, ... and we are talking about that network because it and it alone poses and immediate and serious threat to the United States."

"Well, there are others that do as well, at least as much. Iraqi terrorism for example, " Wolfovitz replied.

" I am unaware of any Iraqi-sponsored terrorism directed at the United States, since 1993, and I think FBI and CIA concur in that judgment, right, John?" I pointed at CIA Deputy Director John McLaughlin, who was obviously not eager to get into the middle of a debate between the White House and Pentagon but nonetheless replied, "Yes that is right Dick. We have no evidence of any active Iraqi terrorist threat against the US."

Finally Wolfovitz turned to me. "You give bin Laden too much credit. He could not do all these things like the 1993 attack on New York, not without a state sponsor. Just because the FBI and CIA have failed to find the linkages does not mean they don't exist." I could hardly believe it but Wolfovitz was actually spouting the totally discredited Laurie Mylroie theory that had been ... found to be totally untrue.

It is a well proven concept. 85% of all problems are directly traceable to top management. In this case, made worse because top management have a polticial agenda rather than a basic concept of science and reality. The George Jr administration let it be known in uncertain terms what was THEIR reality as exampled by science perversion by lawyers for the greater glory of a political party. You can damn well be sure that FBI administrators in Washington were told what did and did not constitute a threat. They had the famous example of what was happening to John O'Neill to remind them.

Administration with a dictatorship mentality - as also demonstrated here by Urbane Guerilla - stifled at least three and maybe four separate FBI investigations that could have uncovered 11 Sept before it started. And so again we have examples of decisions based in politics - and the thousand of Americans who died because of mental midgetry. No, this is not about levees that would not be breached - another example of mental midgretry. This is about why this nation's #1 anti-terrorism investigator even died in the WTC South Tower. He knew an attack was coming and had just taken the job of security chief - after having been forced out of government by the George Jr admininstration.

Those whose politics and religion replace logical thought somehow know better. Unfortunately good Americans are simply fodder for fringe politics - which is why so many died on 11 Sept - why so many die in Iraq - why it is so danagerous for Americans throughout the world - why even our closest allies (Dubai and Canadians) can no longer be trusted - why global warming somehow does not exist - why corporations (airlines, GM, big steel) are now given $billions with no strings attached to protect their bad management.

Remember what that FBI agent said under oath:

... he believed that his superiors at the bureau in Washington were guilty of "criminal negligence" and had ignored his increasingly dire requests to obtain a search warrant in order to protect their careers.

Not only do we have his testimony. We also have other examples and the reason why the George Jr administration is so hates America - for the greater glory of their political agenda. The George Jr administration made it quite clear that terrorism was not a threat - facts be damned. They would destroy careers, if necessary, (ie John O’Neill) to demand such loyalty. This agents testimony only again demonstrates why 11 September was avoidable by people driven by logic rather than by those driven by a political agenda such as "Project for a New American Century".

[tw]

From CBSMarketWatch.com on 23 Mar 2006:

U.S. pension guaranty chief resigns
The chief of the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. announced his resignation Thursday, as efforts continue in Congress to shore up the financially troubled government agency. ...

Belt's departure comes at a critical time for the agency, which is facing a massive financial shortfall thanks to bankrupt airlines and other companies shifting their pension liabilities to the government.

The PBGC reported a $22.8 billion deficit for 2005. Congress is working on legislation to shore up the agency's funds. The agency is funded through insurance premiums it collects from employers in return for the pension protection.

Who in his right mind would want the job? This is the S&L Crisis all over again. Massive government welfare to companies who for a decade and longer used Pension Funds to make their profits look high or to claim profits that really did not exist. This shortfall does not yet include GM's possible pension fund defaults. GM owes $billions to the pension fund because they intentionally (and legally) shorted that fund in the 1990s to make profits look higher. And guess who pays. You and your children.

Ahh, but Cheney told us that "Reagan proved deficiets don't matter". So screw you - is a part he forgot to mention.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Massive government welfare to companies who for a decade and longer used Pension Funds to make their profits look high or to claim profits that really did not exist.

This was billed as a program to be a safety net for the helpless workers that would be devastated by their employer going belly up.
You don't suppose the misconduct of major corporations was foreseen, or possibly prompted, by this legislation, do you?

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

This was billed as a program to be a safety net for the helpless workers that would be devastated by their employer going belly up.
You don't suppose the misconduct of major corporations was foreseen, or possibly prompted, by this legislation, do you?

Prompted more by the lack of any reasonable accounting standards. You think the S&L crisis would have given the government a heads up on watching the back door.

What's annoying is that with the new bankruptcy laws, the average citizen is held more accountable than the large corporations..

[tw]

The United States only has two viable options for Iraq. One is a massive troop deployment to end the problems now - 500,000 men. If those who support this president really had balls, then they would demand same. But they instead love 'status quo' as if god will correct all. A second alternative is - and some very interesting plans have been proposed to accomplish this - is to phase out American troops now. Done so with a gauntlet thrown down to Iraqi troops and elected government leaders. They must stop pretending and get real. Iraqis know how to pretend for your benefit. They need not risk life because Americans will do al the work; pay all the bills. Only when Iraqis are told that they will be fully incharge within one year will Iraqis suddenly get serious.

A 'window of oppurtunity' for the second option is closing quickly. Once lies are eliminated from the same liars who claim Global Warming does not exist, then most all Iraqis long said that life in Iraq was worse then under Saddam and they expected life to get better. An Iraqi Parliament meets only for 1/2 hour (becasue of American orders) to swear in and then disbans - does nothing. Iraqis are now saying in greater numbers that they don't expect life to get better anytime in the near future - up to a decade. Most Iraqis say life today is even worse than last year.

Iraq is becoming a junk yard ripe for Civil War. Oppurtunity to leave something good is closing quickly because a US president does not provide the troops with what they need - especially truth and elimination of torture. Today's news only indicates how quickly that oppurtunity is closing - how close Iraq may change from underground Civil War to overt Civil War.

From the Washington Post of 27 March 2006:

Iraqi Leaders Denounce Raid on Sadr Loyalists
During a visit to the site Monday, bullet holes were visible on the inner and outer walls of the Moustafa Mosque and its floor was stained with blood. On the floor of one room was a small crater, which witnesses said was made by a sound grenade. ...

The U.S. military denied that any mosque was "entered or damaged" in the attack and said U.S. Special Forces were present "in an advisory capacity only." ...

Does the expression (from previous big dic mentalities) "we had to burn the village to save it" sound familiar? Wake up folks. Eliminate administration lies. All that remains are an overt Civil War heard breathing loudly in the dark.

The statement said ... no Iraqi or U.S. soldiers were killed during the raid, but that one Iraqi soldier was wounded in the arm. Three wounded Iraqi insurgents received medical treatment on the scene, the statement said.

So how do they explain this?

The network aired footage throughout the night of bloody bodies lying on a concrete floor and men wrapping the corpses in blankets by the light of glow sticks and carrying them away.

Maliki [Iraq's transportation minister] blamed the incident on U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who has accused the Mahdi Army of carrying out a slew of recent killings in the wake of the bombing last month of a revered Shiite mosque in Samarra, north of Baghdad.

Yes even top Iraqi government people - American surogates - criticize Americans for this on Iraqi national TV. Do you understand how anti-American the entire country is becoming - why there are so many *Al Qaeda* (quoting another George Jr lie) supporters?

Those so enhanced by 'big dic' military solutions will never appreciate Vietnam Deja Vue. They will insist all those deaths did not happen - were staged. Or that they were clearly Al Qaeda. It is called denial of how things fail quickly - or why those with 'big dic' politics are THE most dangerous Americans to Americans.

TV carries those dead people pictures all night long as if the WTC had just collapsed in Baghdad. Do American still kiss the Rush Limbaugh ass - or do they appreciate how badly Iraq has long been falling apart? This is where an expression "never trust anyone over 30" came from - when the nation's number one liar back then was the US president.

George Jr administration says it was not a mosque - IOW George Jr lies again as even ABC News is showing us at this minute. Does not matter. It is a mosque now. Americans supervised the death of Iraqis in that mosque. Those are the facts on the street and broadcast by all electronic media - which is why Americans have little time to decide one or two solutions: 1) Give the Generals the troops they have always said they needed - up to 500,000. Or 2) announce the withdrawl that is complete in one year - so that Iraqi will either build a country or plan for an otherwise, evitable Civil War.

Those who refuse either plan are fools; are in denial. There is no other viable solution for Iraq other than a total American defeat only after uselessly bleeding American soldiers for ten years in country. Then leaving Iraq a sworn enemy of the US. The consequences of not doing one of those two options is that bad - AND inspires terrorists throughout the world to attack Americans.

Elsewhere in Iraq, army and medical officials in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, said 30 headless bodies were discovered at 6:30 p.m. in a deserted brush area in Tarfiya, a village outside Baqubah, 35 miles from the capital.

Isolated example because the actual number of Iraqi dead due to an underground Civil War is estimated to be in the hundreds daily - rarely reported. This does not include hundreds of kidnapping weekly that never get reported. Under Saddam, it was safer? Eliminate Rush Limbaugh propaganda, and the answer has long been an obvious *NO*.

In an unrelated case also in Diyala province, ... a security officer had been arrested about three days earlier and charged with heading a criminal gang whose members dressed as security officers to kidnap and kill people.

Well he was was a police major and that his brother is the chief of police in Diyala province. But then America has long known that those recruited to defend Iraq include large numbers insurgents. Death squads are trained by Americans. We have so little grasp of 'who is who' that America even trains insurgents.

We then lie and blame it all on the mythical Al Qaeda. No wonder these same anti-Americans also deny global warming. We only have two options in Iraq. Instead the mental midget president claims things are getting better. Vietnam Deja Vue - or outright scumbag liars. Same thing.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

IOW -- and so many words! -- dear old tw doesn't want us to do anything ever that might win us the war. What a pusbrain.

Communism: the chronic infection. Red is the color of inflammation, and as a communist, tw is carefully anti-American.

Note too his erratic grammar in a foreign phrase -- something he almost never gets right.

[tw]

From CBS News of 29 Mar 2006:

Arlen Specter Fed Up With White House
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter on Tuesday said the White House has "pretty much abandoned" the "preposterous argument" that the National Security Agency's warrantless-surveillance program was authorized by Congress when it passed the authorization for the use of military force in the war on terrorism. ...

"I am familiar with the program," Hatch said, "and I have to say that I agree with (the) proposition that the Congress cannot take away the president's authority under Article Two of the Constitution."

"You have been briefed," Specter said to Hatch. "You say you believe it is constitutional ... but you are not a judge."

"That's true," Hatch answered. "And I may very well be wrong."

Article Two - the justification by George Jr that he can wiretap without judicial oversight:

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principle Officer in each of the Executive Departments upon any subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices ...

Damn Commie! How dare you cite the US Constitution when "libertarians" like UG want the government to take ever more control out of the hands of the US people, and allow our highest elected officials to engage in war profiteering by lining their pockets with ill-gotten Halliburten profits?

Jeez, only a fellow traveler would have us beleive that someone should rein in the power grabbing schemes of the current executive branch of our government!

PS I am in a very bad mood today, and if UG makes just one more of his hysterical war mongering posts or accusations, he's toast, courtesy of yours truely.

[WabUfvot5]

Mari, you're looking rather red. Is that a fever or do I note THE CHRONIC SCOURGE OF COMMUNISM AND CAREFULLY ANTI-AMERICAN SYMPTOMS OF THAT AFFLICTION?

Nah, it just bird flu.