The Waning Influence of Neo-Conservative Strategists
http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=26081
U.S. ELECTION:
Some Cuban-Americans Shift to Kerry
Peter Costantini
MIAMI, Oct 30 (IPS) - At the amphitheatre in Bayfront Park on Miami's waterfront, against a background of pleasure boats and freighters on Biscayne Bay, knots of people began drifting in before 3 pm Friday for Senator John Kerry's campaign appearance that evening.
Most were local supporters for the presidential candidate and activists in the state of Florida's Democratic Party, who came to volunteer for the grunt work that would make the rally happen.
The payoff would be a ringside view of the hoopla of a historic presidential race that will end in Tuesday's vote, a chance to hear Kerry, along with his opening acts musician Bruce Springsteen and actress Bette Midler, up close and personal.
"The Waning Influence of Neo-Conservative Strategists"
Drafted by Erich Marquardt on November 1, 2004
http://www.pinr.com
Brought to power through the inauguration of the Bush administration, a group of individuals who pursued neo-conservative ideology managed to institute their policy directives during the window of opportunity created after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. The central goal of this neo-conservative faction was, and remains, to sustain the U.S. as the unchallenged superpower in the world, capable of launching military strikes against any states or groups that threaten this status.
http://www.cato.org/dailys/10-31-04.html
More Security, But Are We Safer?
by Charles V. Peña, October 31, 2004
Charles V. Peña is director of defense policy studies at the Cato Institute.
More than three years after 9/11, America is certainly a country with more physical security to defend against terrorism. For example, airline passengers are subject to greater inspection, including a requirement to remove their coats and routinely take off their shoes and belts to pass through security. In Washington, DC, the Capitol Hill area is now ringed by checkpoints and barricades and many streets are closed. And there is no street parking around the World Bank and International Monetary Fund buildings. New York's police presence - including officers armed with fully automatic weapons - is much more visible. These and other security measures at least give the public the sense that they are better protected against a terrorist attack, but are we actually safer now than we were before 9/11?
The answer is not clear or easily discernible. -snip-
If we want to be safer, then we need to address the reasons why people choose to become terrorists and want to kill innocent Americans. This requires understanding that the growing tide of anti-American Muslim hatred - which is the basis for the radical Islamists to draw Muslims to their ranks - is fueled more by what we do, i.e., U.S. policies, than who we are. In other words - as the 9/11 Commission concluded and numerous polls conducted throughout the Islamic world show - they do not hate us for our freedoms, way of life, culture, accomplishments, or values.
Yet we still refuse to understand that point, much less to reevaluate our policy. Such refusal results from not wanting to be accused of blaming America for 9/11. That is understandable and certainly nothing justifies those terrorist attacks. But with more than one billion Muslims in the world, we cannot continue to ignore addressing the underlying reasons why so many of them have a growing hatred of the United States.
According to Shibley Telhami, a member of President Bush's advisory group on public diplomacy, our so-called hearts and minds campaign to dissuade Muslims from becoming terrorists is "worse than failing. Failing means you tried and didn't get better. But at this point, three years after September 11, you can say there wasn't even much of an attempt, and today Arab and Muslim attitudes toward the U.S. and the degree of distrust of the U.S. are far worse than they were three years ago." If that's the case, we may be killing terrorists abroad and Americans may be better protected at home but we are actually less safe.
http://www.ConsortiumNews.com/2004/103104.html
Bush the 'Infallible'
George W. Bush's chief political appeal to his followers may be paradoxically the same characteristic that many critics despise: his sense that he is above the rules that apply to other people ñ or other countries. His supporters, still traumatized by the Sept. 11 attacks, seem to want a president who doesnít care what anybody else thinks. October 31, 2004 -snip-
This sort of feckless behavior might be disqualifying for other politicians ? look, for example, at the damage done to John Kerry over questions raised about the extent of his heroism in Vietnam combat. But Bush’s followers don’t think it’s fair to point out any disparity between Bush’s shirking of his National Guard duty in the 1970s and his shipping off today’s National Guardsmen to extended tours in the Iraq War.
An ordinary politician might have to explain why he had “inadequate time” for his duties when that excuse doesn’t cut it for today’s Guardsmen.
Steve sent this:
The "October surprise" release of the new Bin Laden tape didn't cause enough fear, so maybe an unannounced pretend attack will help... Read it all and judge for yourself.
This article is urgent reading, with many official links for documentation.
http://legitgov.org/essay_kane_fema_terror_drill_102904.html
http://www.dailyreviewonline.com/Stories/0,1413,88~10973~2504312,00.html
Pentagon gets funds for special ops
Daily Review Sun, 31 Oct 2004 7:04 AM PST
WASHINGTON -- Moving into an area of clandestine activity that traditionally has been the domain of the CIA, the Pentagon has secured new authority that allows U.S. special operations forces to dole out millions of dollars in cash, equipment and weapons to international warlords and foreign fighters.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6370144/site/newsweek/
Missing Explosives: Did the Military Ignore Warnings?
Newsweek Sat, 30 Oct 2004 9:11 PM PDT
Nov. 8 issue - New evidence shows that American military forces in Iraq were slow to respond to suspected looting of Saddam-era ammunition dumps.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/110104F.shtml
Reporter Saw Insurgents Loot Qaqaa Arms Depot
By Katrin Bennhold, The International Herald Tribune
Saturday 30 October 2004
Paris - A French journalist who visited the Qaqaa munitions depot south of Baghdad in November last year said she witnessed Islamic insurgents looting vast supplies of explosives more than six months after the demise of Saddam Hussein's regime.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/041108/usnews/8weapons.htm?track=rss
In Iraq, weapons, weapons everywhere--and free for the taking
US News & World Report Sat, 30 Oct 2004 3:08 PM PDT
I t came out of nowhere to dominate the final week of the presidential campaign.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/110104V.shtml
Colin Powell Believes U.S. is Losing Iraq war
Salon.com, Sunday 31 October 2004
Secretary of State Colin Powell has privately confided to friends in recent weeks that the Iraqi insurgents are winning the war, according to Newsweek. The insurgents have succeeded in infiltrating Iraqi forces "from top to bottom," a senior Iraqi official tells Newsweek in tomorrow’s issue of the magazine, "from decision making to the lower levels."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/103104B.shtml
A Matter of Survival
By George Sprague
Concord Monitor | Letter Thursday 28 October 2004
When I was home in New Hampshire on leave last month, a lot of people approached me to tell what a good job we're doing here in Iraq.
I appreciate the support, but I don't need the media or those people to tell me what I see every day. We are not getting the job done.
People ask me, "How's it going over there?" Cities have been overrun and are in a state of lawlessness. My job brings me into the streets. I see these things as they happen. They aren't just headlines for me. All we are doing here is treading water, and at this rate we can't keep afloat much longer. I'm just a simple man, but I can see that everything this administration has done with Iraq has been dead wrong.
A repeat.
http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=9477&fcategory_desc=Under
Independent Media TV
The 9/11 Secret in the CIA's Back Pocket
By: Robert Scheer, Los Angeles Times, October 19, 2004
------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is shocking: The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the election, and this one names names. Although the report by the inspector general's office of the CIA was completed in June, it has not been made available to the congressional intelligence committees that mandated the study almost two years ago.
"It is infuriating that a report which shows that high-level people were not doing their jobs in a satisfactory manner before 9/11 is being suppressed," an intelligence official who has read the report told me, adding that "the report is potentially very embarrassing for the administration, because it makes it look like they weren't interested in terrorism before 9/11, or in holding people in the government responsible afterward."
When I asked about the report, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, said she and committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) sent a letter 14 days ago asking for it to be delivered. "We believe that the CIA has been told not to distribute the report," she said. "We are very concerned."
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/10061307.htm?1c
CIA leak case raises fears that information could stop flowing
As a judge tries to find out who released agent Valerie Plame's name, two journalists have been cited for contempt and sentenced to jail time.
By Chris Mondics, Inquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Judith Miller doesn't see herself as journalism's Joan of Arc - far from it.
But if her 18-month jail sentence for refusing to divulge confidential sources is upheld by a federal appeals court, that is what she could become.
Miller is an investigative reporter for the New York Times who was leaked the identity of a CIA operative whose husband had been scathingly critical of President Bush's case for going to war.
Miller never published an article, although others did, suggesting that the White House had leaked the information as an act of retribution. Her name came up after the Justice Department appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the potentially illegal leak. The prosecutor demanded that Miller and a Time magazine reporter testify before a grand jury, and when they refused, the judge in the case sentenced them both to a year and a half in the slammer.
'I don't want to go to jail'
Why isn't Novak in jail (?), that is what I want to know.
http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/politics/vote_10reasons.cfm
Top 10 Reasons For Working Families To Vote Nov. 2nd.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1101/p11s02-woiq.html
Demoted Iraqi judge fears for his country's future
By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
BAGHDAD ? Keeping a watchful eye on the powers that be in the new Iraq is dangerous work. So the young Iraqi judge knew his days as chief investigator for Iraq's Central Criminal Court were probably numbered.
But when the dismissal phone call came to Judge Zuhair al-Maliky two weeks ago - as he sat in his office in fortified chambers under the Baghdad clock tower that once housed a vast museum devoted to the life of Saddam Hussein - he was nonetheless surprised.
Since the end of the Hussein government and his appointment to the position of chief investigator, Judge Maliky has pursued top politicians and security ministries for everything from fraud to illegal detentions.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6370525/site/newsweek/site/newsweek/
Hell to Pay
Whoever wins, the road ahead in Iraq is rough. Both Bush and Kerry have plans that depend on newly trained Iraqis. But insurgents are killing recruits, and infiltrating the forces. A report from the front
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/iraq_reconstruction_dc
Report Cites Fraud, Abuse Cases in Iraq Rebuilding
By Sue Pleming
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. investigators this year opened more than 100 cases involving alleged abuse of some of the billions of dollars in U.S. and Iraqi funds to rebuild Iraq, an auditors' report said on Monday.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=655&e=3&u=/oneworld/4536970611099311618
Global Warming Has Arrived: Arctic Study
Jim Lobe, OneWorld US
WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov 1 (OneWorld) ñ With only eight weeks left before the elves finish their work and Santa Claus mounts his sleigh, an eight-nation study on global warming co-sponsored by the United States has concluded that the North Pole is melting beneath St. Nick.
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/041031185608.0x1rnsqo.html
Fragile Arctic region endangered by greenhouse gases: report
WASHINGTON (AFP) Oct 31, 2004
Greenhouse gases have contributed to a gradual warming of the ecologically-fragile Arctic region, causing massive climate changes, including melting glaciers and sea ice, according to a soon-to-be-released environmental study.
The New York Times reported Saturday that the study, to be released November 9, is the first thorough assessment of the causes and consequences of global warming in the region.
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/041030222741.1hztzh
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=5&u=/ap/iraq_assassination
Gunmen Kill Deputy Governor of Baghdad
Mon Nov 1, 2:21 AM ET
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen killed the deputy governor of Baghdad on his way to work Monday, Iraqi officials said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&ncid=749&e=1&u=/nm/20041101/bs_nm/markets_oil_dc
Oil Extends Rebound Ahead of Election
LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices extended a bounce from three-week lows on Monday, climbing back above $52 for U.S. crude amid jitters over tight global winter fuel stocks and this week's U.S. presidential election.
Hmmm! Double Hmmm!
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041031201740.ziq2a9i9.html
Deputy chief of Russia's strategic air force killed: report
MOSCOW (AFP) Oct 31, 2004
The deputy commander of Russia's strategic long-range air force was killed Sunday in the western Smolensk region, the Interfax news agency reported quoting police sources.
Unknown assailants opened fire on General Konstantin Dementyev's car, killing both Dementyev and his driver on the spot, the sources said, adding that the second passenger was rushed to a Smolensk hospital.
No official comment was immediately available.
posted by lawnorder at 5:53 PM
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