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Indiana and Iraq: Half A World Apart, But So Much Alike

You might recall that back in April 2007, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) told reporters "that Shorja — where a suicide bomber killed 88 people in January — is now 'like a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime.'" The Daily Show is reporting from Iraq this week. See what our soldiers think of that comparison.

John McCain vs. Jon Stewart

The Military Draft Returning?

"The Selective Service System is planning a test of the military draft machinery, which hasn't been run since 1998. A spokesman denied that the agency is gearing up for an actual draft."

Gates Didn't Spend Christmas With The Troops

"It is a tradition for the Secretary (of Defense) to serve the troops turkey at Thanksgiving and visit the front lines at Christmas."

"Gates sat down with a half-dozen soldiers as a photo-op, rushing back to Washington to leave them alone with their glum Christmas away from their loved ones."

To "Civil War" Or Not To "Civil War"

Monday morning (11/27/06) I was floored when tuning in to watch my dependable Today Show friends (Matt, Meredith, Al and Ann) and Matt Lauer annouces that NBC will now call the Iraq War a "civil war." Maybe they wanted to be the first of the MSM ("Main Stream Media") to do it. Beat the competition, so to speak. Other MSM news organizations are not jumping on the band wagon just yet.

Interestingly, Harvard University's Monica Duffy Toft, associate professor of Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, pointed out four months ago that Iraq had already met the "six criteria for considering a conflict a civil war." Oh, and by the way, it met the criteria in June 2004!

Detainees Sue Defense Secretary Rumsfeld for Torture

"A week after President Bush announced that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld would resign, lawyers asked a German prosecutor to investigate Mr. Rumsfeld and other American officials for suspected war crimes stemming from the treatment of prisoners in military jails in Iraq and Cuba. The lawsuit filed in Karlsruhe on Tuesday cites 11 other current and former American officials, including Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, who it says helped formulate legal reasoning legitimizing the use of torture. The suit, filed by civil-rights legal groups on behalf of 12 detainees — 11 Iraqis and a Saudi — asserts that they were subjected to beatings, sleep deprivation, withholding of food and sexual humiliation."

Rumsfeld Resigns

President Bush was expected to announce Rumsfeld's departure and the replacement at an afternoon news conference. Rumsfeld has offered to resign at least twice in the last 6 years, but Bush had rejected it.

North Korea tests first Nuclear Weapon

The New York Times reports on 10/8/06: "North Korea said Sunday night that it had set off its first nuclear test, becoming the eighth country in history, and arguably the most unstable and most dangerous, to proclaim that it has joined the club of nuclear weapons states."

This development was inevitable with the U.S. policy of threats and years of economic isolation of the North. Totalitarian states' natural paranoia makes then dig in deeper and look for an equalizer against their enemies. That equalizer against military threats is nuclear weapons. The Bush administration never had enough intelligence to take out the country's nuclear facilities so it should have worked harder with direct diplomatic relations instead of third parties. It is those with whom we disagree the most that we should engage in dialogue in this more dangerous world.

Congress sets aside $20 Million for Victory Party

The Associated Press reports on 10/4/06: "The military's top generals have warned Iraq is on the cusp of a civil war and that U.S. troops must remain in large numbers until at least next spring. But if the winds suddenly blow a different direction, Congress is ready to celebrate with a $20 million victory party. Lawmakers included language in this year's defense spending bill, approved last week, allowing them to spend the money. The funds for "commemoration of success" in Iraq and Afghanistan were originally tucked into last year's defense measure, but went unspent amid an uptick in violence in both countries that forced the Pentagon to extend tours of duty for thousands of troops. Republicans have yet to claim responsibility for the provision."

"If the Bush administration is planning victory celebrations, Americans deserve to know what their plan is to get us to a victory in Iraq," said Rebecca Kirszner, spokeswoman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev."

"The Pentagon could spend up to $20 million of its $532 billion budget in 2007 for the commemoration, minus any private contributions it might receive for such an event."

"Some 140,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq...About 20,000 more are in Afghanistan."

"Proclaiming victory in the Iraq war has already proven to be tricky business. President Bush was slammed by critics for delivering his 'Mission Accomplished' speech in May 2003 aboard an aircraft carrier."

"Vice President Dick Cheney also was ridiculed for suggesting last year that the insurgency was in its 'final throes.'"

Kissinger Advises White House on Iraq

CNN reports that famed Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, "(during a "60 Minutes" interview to air Sunday, 10/1/06) said (Henry) Kissinger, who served in the Nixon and Ford administrations, has been telling Bush and Cheney that "in Iraq, he declared very simply, 'Victory is the only meaningful exit strategy."'

It's surreal that war criminal Kissinger would be consulted. But then it also helps explain the insanity of their "strategy." Recall the Benjamin Franklin quote: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

Humvee Armor Used To Protect Soldiers Causes Deadly Rollovers

"'If there were two or three of these kinds of accidents (in the United States) on the same kind of vehicle because of a rollover, they would recall them all,' said Debbie Newhouse of Glendale, Ariz., whose 21-year-old son, Nicholas Eugene Wilson, was killed in a rollover accident...'What the hell is the Army doing? What are they putting our kids into?'"

The Dayton Daily News reports on 6/11/06 that its "analysis of the Army's ground accident database, which includes records through November 2005, found that 60 of the 85 soldiers who died in Humvee accidents in Iraq — or 70 percent — were killed when the vehicle rolled. Of the 337 injuries, 149 occurred in rollovers."

"The Daily News examination found that serious accidents involving the heavily armored M1114 Humvee — the workhorse of the Humvee fleet in Iraq — have increased steadily as the war has progressed, and accidents in the M1114 were much more likely to be rollovers than those in other Humvee models. Of the 38 soldiers who died in accidents involving the M1114 worldwide since the beginning of the Iraq war, 34 were killed in rollovers. Of the 64 soldiers killed in other types of Humvees during that period, 36 died in rollover accidents. The Army makes up about 75 percent of the military personnel in Iraq. Similar data from the other service branches were not available. The total number of rollover accidents involving armored Humvees is likely much higher."

"The Army Combat Readiness Center in Alabama, which provided the Daily News with the accident database, confirmed many of the newspaper's statistical findings."

"Speed, road conditions, tire damage and sudden evasive actions are the routine causes," the documents say. "Several accidents have also occurred when the vehicle weight has collapsed the roadside, and the vehicle landed in water."

"A June 2006 fact sheet from the Army outlines a number of safety programs initiated by the service, including "a gunner's restraint system, an improved seat restraint belt, single movement combat locks, internal vehicle communications and a fire suppression system for the crew and cargo compartments."

Humvees weren't designed for battle

"Originally designed to ferry troops and equipment, the first High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles, or Humvees, were delivered to the Army in 1985. They replaced the Jeep, some types of pickup trucks and other utility vehicles. The Humvee was built with an extra wide wheel base — nearly six feet, or about a third wider than a Jeep Cherokee — that made it better able to carry heavy loads but also more difficult to maneuver on the narrow, primitive roads it would encounter later in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. 'This was not designed to be a combat vehicle,' said Gary Caille, program manager for a Georgia Tech Research Institute project studying ways to create new military vehicles. 'It was designed to carry people as a utility vehicle and not necessarily be in a battle situation.'"

"Eight years after the first Humvees were delivered, the deaths of 18 Army Rangers in a peacekeeping mission in Somalia, the subject of the movie Black Hawk Down, prompted a drive to armor the Humvee in order to better protect it in combat." Read the complete article here.

U.S. Supreme Court Declares Illegal
The War Crimes Trials Of Terror Suspects Before Military Commisions

On June 29, 2006, in a complete rejection of President Bush's authority to try suspected terrorists under unfair (now judged illegal) rules, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan v. Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary Of Defense, ruled "that the military commission convened to try Hamdan [admitted al Qaeda member] lacks power to proceed because its structure and procedures violate both the UCMJ [Uniform Code of Military Justice] and the Geneva Conventions." Read the whole decision here.

Mexico Deals A Blow To Iran, 3-1, in World Cup
Will Iran Now Give Up Its Nuclear Program?

Mexico did on Sunday (6/11) what the U.S. can't seem to do, no matter how hard it tries: humble Iran. We can look at it this way: Mexico, no nukes, wins; Iran, with nukes, loses. Let's follow the rest of World Cup and keep track of the "Nukes vs. No Nukes" tally. Of the 32 national teams in the World Cup tournament these countries are either "declared nuclear states" or "nuclear capable": U.S.A., U.K., and France (declared); Italy, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and potentially Saudi Arabia (undeclared).

In April 2006, Senator John McCain (Republican - AZ) introduced this publicity stunt Senate resolution that "calls on FIFA (the international soccer federation) to block Iran’s participation in sanctioned matches until its government rescinds its position disavowing the Holocaust, repudiates its calls for the eradication of Israel, ends its support for terrorism, and ceases its pursuit of nuclear weapons." To punish athletes for their goverments's disagreements with eachother is always silly.

So with all this U.S. talk about the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and keeping Iran out of the exclusive nuclear club, doesn't this Los Angeles TImes story seem ironic?

Unstable Soldiers are Forced To Fight

The Hartford Courant (Connecticut) reports: "Mentally Unfit, Forced To Fight," in this incredible series of investigative articles. Incredible, but not surprising.

"Despite a congressional order that the military assess the mental health of all deploying troops, fewer than 1 in 300 service members see a mental health professional before shipping out. Once at war, some unstable troops are kept on the front lines while on potent antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs, with little or no counseling or medical monitoring. And some troops who developed post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq are being sent back to the war zone, increasing the risk to their mental health."

"These practices, which have received little public scrutiny and in some cases violate the military's own policies, have helped to fuel an increase in the suicide rate among troops serving in Iraq, which reached an all-time high in 2005 when 22 soldiers killed themselves - accounting for nearly one in five of all Army non-combat deaths."

"The Courant's investigation found that at least 11 service members who committed suicide in Iraq in 2004 and 2005 were kept on duty despite exhibiting signs of significant psychological distress. In at least seven of the cases, superiors were aware of the problems, military investigative records and interviews with families indicate."

Other articles in the series include: "Potent Mixture: Zoloft & A Rifle," and "Amid Patriotism, Anger And Questions."

"Why the National Guard?" is What We're All Asking

This Washinton Post editorial, on 5/17/06, gets to the root of the President's true motivations: "Having strained the Guard to the breaking point, President Bush now sends it on a political mission."

The editorial continues: "...Bush's misuse of the National Guard seems to have no bounds. Over the past several years he has stretched the force to the limit with repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, a policy that has imposed severe hardship on Guard families across the country and reduced the availability and readiness of units to handle disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. The returning forces are often stripped of equipment; more than 64,000 vehicles and other pieces of equipment were left behind in Iraq. Though the Guard has supplied a third or more of the manpower in Iraq, and no end to the war on terrorism is in sight, the administration proposed this year that its numbers be permanently reduced -- a loopy idea that all 50 state governors opposed." More...

50% Of Americans Believe Iraq Had WMDs When The U.S. Invaded

"Despite being widely reported in the media that the U.S. and other countries have not found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, surprisingly; more U.S. adults (50%) think that Iraq had such weapons when the U.S. invaded Iraq. This is an increase from 36 percent in February 2005."

Other lovely findings:

"Sixty-four percent say it is true that Saddam Hussein had strong links to Al Qaeda."

"Seventy-two percent believe that the Iraqis are better off now than they were under Saddam Hussein."

"Just over half (55%) think history will give the U.S. credit for bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq."

Marine Corporal Says Song About Killing Iraqi Family Is A Joke

This video shows Cpl. Joshua Belile performing his song "Hadji Girl." The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says that "a 'Hajji' is a person who has made the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, but the term has often been used as a pejorative by U.S. troops in Iraq." The Marines in the audience seem to think it's hilarious.

3rd Anniversary of 'Mission Accomplished' Speech

CNN released a public opinion poll on May 1, 2006 that "found that only 9 percent thought the U.S. mission in Iraq had been accomplished, while another 40 percent believed it would be complete someday. Another 44 percent said the United States would never accomplish its goals in Iraq..."

"Bush's May 1, 2003, victory speech aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln was a carefully managed piece of political theater, from his flight suit-clad arrival aboard an S-3 Viking antisubmarine jet to the 'Mission Accomplished' banner that hung from the carrier's bridge."

"'My fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed, and now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country,' Bush said."

"Bush had argued the invasion was necessary because Iraq had been concealing chemical and biological weapons, long-range missiles and a nuclear weapons program from U.N. inspectors and could have provided those weapons to terrorists."

"'The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We have removed an ally of al Qaeda and cut off a source of terrorist funding,' Bush said. 'And this much is certain: No terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because the regime is no more.'"

"U.S. inspectors later concluded that Iraq had dismantled its weapons programs while under U.N. sanctions that followed the 1991 Persian Gulf War..."

"Five months after his speech, with U.S. casualties in Iraq growing and the insurgency against American forces building strength, Bush said the 'Mission Accomplished' sign had been put up by the ship's crew -- but the White House later conceded that it produced and paid for the banner as part of the president's visit."

"When Bush delivered the speech aboard the Lincoln, 139 U.S. troops had been killed in Iraq. On its third anniversary, the U.S. death toll is nearly 2,400."

Four Generals Call for Rumsfeld to Go

Retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste told CNN on 4/12/06 that the United States needs "a fresh start" at the Pentagon.

"Batiste led the 1st Infantry Division in northern Iraq in 2004-2005 and also was a senior adviser to former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, one of the chief architects of the U.S.-led invasion."

"'When decisions are made without taking into account sound military recommendations, sound military decision-making, sound planning, then we're bound to make mistakes."

"'When we violate the principles of war with mass and unity of command and unity of effort, we do that at our own peril.'"

"'You know, it speaks volumes that guys like me are speaking out from retirement about the leadership climate in the Department of Defense,' Batiste said." CNN.com reports.

"Batiste's comments resonate especially within the Army: It is widely known there that he was offered a promotion to three-star rank to return to Iraq and be the No. 2 U.S. military officer there but he declined because he no longer wished to serve under Rumsfeld," The Washington Post reported on 4/13/06.

The Washington Post continues: "'We won't get fooled again,'" retired Marine Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, who held the key post of director of operations on the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2000 to 2002, wrote in an essay in Time magazine this week. Listing a series of mistakes such as 'McNamara-like micromanagement,' a reference to the Vietnam War-era secretary of defense, Newbold called for 'replacing Rumsfeld and many others unwilling to fundamentally change their approach.'" Please read this great essay: "Why Iraq Was a Mistake," by Newbold.

"Last month, another top officer who served in Iraq, retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times in which he called Rumsfeld 'incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically.' Eaton, who oversaw the training of Iraqi army troops in 2003-2004, said that 'Mr. Rumsfeld must step down.'"

"Also, retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, a longtime critic of Rumsfeld and the administration's handling of the Iraq war," said: 'The problem is that we've wasted three years' in Iraq. Zinni was the chief of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees Iraq and the rest of the Middle East, in the late 1990s. He added that he "absolutely" thinks Rumsfeld should resign.

Army Alarmed by Young Officers Leaving at High Rate

"Young Army officers, including growing numbers of captains who leave as soon as their initial commitment is fulfilled, are bailing out of active-duty service at rates that have alarmed senior officers. Last year, more than a third of the West Point class of 2000 left active duty at the earliest possible moment, after completing their five-year obligation. It was the second year in a row of worsening retention numbers, apparently marking the end of a burst of patriotic fervor during which junior officers chose continued military service at unusually high rates. Mirroring the problem among West Pointers, graduates of reserve officer training programs at universities are also increasingly leaving the service at the end of the four-year stint in uniform that follows their commissioning."

Walter Reed Hospital: Hurt and Hope

This major Washington Post article describes with sensitivity how the "suffering of Iraq casualties takes toll on hospital staff," at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in D.C. as well as the nobility of the wounded.

US Army to Pay Halliburton $253 Million of Disputed Charges

The U.S. Army will reimburse Kellogg Brown & Root, a Halliburton subsidiary, for all, except $10 million, of the disputed costs on a no-bid contract to deliver fuel and repair oil equipment in Iraq, even though the Pentagon Defense Contract Audit Agency had identified about $263 million in charges "as potentially excessive or unjustified," The New York Times reported on 2/27/06.

"The contract has been the subject of intense scrutiny after disclosures in 2003 that it had been awarded without competitive bidding. That produced criticism from Congressional Democrats and others that the company had benefited from its connection with Dick Cheney, who was Halliburton's chief executive before becoming vice president. Later that year auditors began focusing on the fuel deliveries under the contract, finding that the fuel transportation costs that the company was charging the Army were in some cases nearly triple what others were charging to do the same job."

"...the Army is withholding payment on just 3.8 percent of the charges questioned by the Pentagon audit agency, which is far below the rate at which the agency's recommendation is usually followed or sustained by the military — the so-called 'sustention rate.'"

"In 2003, the agency's figures show, the military withheld an average of 66.4 percent of what the auditors had recommended, while in 2004 the figure was 75.2 percent and in 2005 it was 56.4 percent."

$900 million(!) in U.S. taxpayer money going to this contract

"In answer to written questions, a spokesman for the Defense Contract Audit Agency, Lt. Col. Brian Maka, said the settlement of the disputed charges was based on 'broader business case considerations' beyond just Pentagon audits. But when asked whether the Army's decision reflected on the quality of the audits, Colonel Maka said only that the agency 'has no indication of problems with the audit process,' and he referred questions on the settlement itself to the Army. A former senior Defense Department manager knowledgeable about the audits and the related contracting issues said, 'That's as close as D.C.A.A. can get to saying, 'We're not happy with it either.'"

The Army says that $2.41 billion no-bid contract to deliver fuel and repair oil equipment, called Restore Iraqi Oil, or RIO, "will be paid with about $900 million of American taxpayer money and $1.5 billion of Iraqi oil proceeds and money seized from Saddam Hussein's government."

CIA counter-terrorism chief fired for opposing torture

Robert Grenier, head of the CIA counter-terrorism center, "was fired last week because he opposed detaining Al-Qaeda suspects in secret prisons abroad, sending them to other countries for interrogation and using forms of torture such as 'water boarding,'" the Sunday Times of London reported on 2/12/06. Grenier was on the job for only one year.

We're "at war", you know. "Yer either wit'us er against'us."

The Times continues: "One intelligence official said he was 'not quite as aggressive as he might have been' in pursuing Al-Qaeda leaders and networks."

"Vincent Cannistraro, a former head of counter-terrorism at the agency, said: 'It is not that Grenier wasn’t aggressive enough, it is that he wasn’t ‘with the programme’. He expressed misgivings about the secret prisons in Europe and the rendition of terrorists.' Grenier also opposed 'excessive' interrogation, such as strapping suspects to boards and dunking them in water, according to Cannistraro."

"Porter Goss, who was appointed head of the CIA in August 2004 with a mission to 'clean house', has been angered by a series of leaks from CIA insiders, including revelations about 'black sites' in Europe where top Al-Qaeda detainees were said to have been held."

"Goss is believed to have blamed Grenier for allowing leaks to occur on his watch. Since the appointment of Goss, the CIA has lost almost all its high-level directors amid considerable turmoil. A.B. Krongard, a former executive director of the CIA who resigned shortly after Goss’s arrival, said the leaks were unlikely to stop soon, despite proposals to subject officers to more lie detector tests.

Iraq's Oil Exports Hit Lowest Level Since War Started

Didn't former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz say the Iraqis would be able to fund the rebuilding of their country? Almost three years later this is where they really are. The New York Times posted a Reuters news service story that "Iraq's oil exports hit their lowest level since the war, according to figures released on Monday [1/2/05], heightening a sense of crisis as fuel supplies grow scarce and political leaders struggle to form a government. Iraq exported 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil in December, a senior [oil] official said -- less than any month since exports resumed in mid-2003 after the U.S. invasion..."

Iraq's oil minister resigns in protest

The article continues: "Sabotage is damaging plants and blocking investment, keeping exports at a fraction of targets officials say should be met if Iraq's vast reserves are to provide its people with the prosperity that might draw the sting of civil conflict. The oil official was speaking after Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum announced his resignation in opposition to fuel price rises imposed last month as part of an aid deal with the International Monetary Fund that demands big cuts in subsidies. The price rises have been unpopular among Iraqis, already struggling with poor basic public services and appalling violence on their streets."

"December's 1.1 million bpd was down from 1.2 million the previous month, said Shamkhi Faraj, Director General of Economics and Oil Marketing, who oversees Iraq's oil exports." Under Saddam, Iraq exported 1.8-2.5 million bpd.

"Since the U.S.-led invasion, production has been hampered by guerrilla attacks on pipelines and refineries. The government closed the country's main refinery in the northern city of Baiji last month following sabotage of a pipeline and threats of attacks against truck drivers. That triggered a rush to petrol pumps as people feared they would be left without fuel." Happy New Year!

Untrue Bin Laden Satellite Phone Story

When you can't find any real examples to make your point then repeat a false one. The Washington Post, on 12/23/05, reported that "The allegation that news organizations leaked information about Osama bin Laden's satellite phone, thus shutting down a valuable source of intelligence that might have prevented the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, has long been a prime case study cited by government officials seeking to impose greater restrictions on the news media." President Bush on Monday (12/19/05) twice "cited it as a dangerous example of the news media 'revealing sources, methods and what we use the information for.'"

"Upon closer examination, the story turned out to be wrong. Bin Laden's use of a satellite phone had already been widely reported by August 1998, and he stopped using it within days of a cruise missile attack [on August 20, 1998] on his training camps in Afghanistan. Yet in recent years, advocates of new laws that would restrict the ability of the news media to report on intelligence matters have repeatedly cited the case..."

"In July, Rep, Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), chairman of the House intelligence committee, gave a speech titled 'Secrets and Leaks: the Costs and Consequences for National Security...'"

"'Were it not for a leak, there is a chance we could have brought Osama bin Laden to justice by now and have a better understanding of the al Qaeda operation,' said Hoekstra, who is considering legislation to make it easier to prosecute leakers."

"...James B. Bruce, vice chairman of the CIA's Foreign Denial and Deception Committee, and a leading advocate of enacting very tough laws on leaks. In 2002, Bruce was quoted as saying that 'we've got to do whatever it takes -- if it takes sending SWAT teams into journalists' homes -- to stop these leaks.'

"'Important intelligence collection capabilities against Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda were lost in the several year period leading to 9/11,' Bruce told the American Bar Association on Nov. 22, 2002, saying the bin Laden case was 'just the tip of the iceberg' of how disclosures hurt the campaign against terrorism. He did not cite other examples."

"Former deputy defense secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz mentioned bin Laden's phone in September 2002, saying it was an example of how 'our intelligence sources and methods have also been devaluated by a pattern of leaks from the executive and legislative branches of government and through a number of well-known espionage cases.'"

"Thomas S. Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, said the bin Laden case shows that the news media may play less of a role in intelligence failures than is often assumed. 'Cruise missiles concentrate the mind a lot more than news clips do,' he said. 'It is the underlying reality, not the leaks, that does most of the damage.'"

Bush Lets NSA Spy on Callers Without Warrants

This should come under the heading of "I told you so." The New York Times, on 12/16/05, dropped the bomb in a three thousand-word article that "President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials."

Unconstitutional

Many in Congress are now saying that the president has commited a crime by approving these wiretaps. "Aside from the Congressional leaders, only a small group of people, including several cabinet members and officials at the N.S.A., the C.I.A. and the Justice Department, know of the program. Some officials familiar with it say they consider warrantless eavesdropping inside the United States to be unlawful and possibly unconstitutional, amounting to an improper search," the Times reports.

The Times continues, "Several senior government officials say that when the special operation began, there were few controls on it and little formal oversight outside the N.S.A. The agency can choose its eavesdropping targets and does not have to seek approval from Justice Department or other Bush administration officials. Some agency officials wanted nothing to do with the program, apparently fearful of participating in an illegal operation, a former senior Bush administration official said. Before the 2004 election, the official said, some N.S.A. personnel worried that the program might come under scrutiny by Congressional or criminal investigators if Senator John Kerry, the Democratic nominee, was elected president."

This has been going on since October 2001

Due partly to White House concerns, the Times waited a year to publish this story. What would have happened if they had run it before the 2004 presidential election? Does it bother anyone other than me that the Deputy Director of National Intelligence and the NSA boss who is in charge of spying on Americans within the U.S. is an active-duty Air Force general (he's been promoted in rank since the bio)?

Defense Hawk Murtha: "IT IS TIME TO BRING THEM HOME"

Congressman John P. Murtha (D-Pennsylvania), a hawk on defense matters who voted for the Iraq war made a moving speech on Thursday, November 17.

No bleeding-heart Liberal

Murtha's background and credentials bring considerable punch to this shot across the bow of the administration's rhethoric which tries to paint the Democrats with a wide brush as unpatriotic (if not treasonous) if they advocate a withdrawal from Iraq. He is the ranking Democrat on the House Appropiations Subcommittee on Defense and its former chairman. He represents conservative western Pennsylvania. He had a 37-year career in the Marine Corps (active duty and reserve). He left college to serve in the Korean War and volunteered for the Vietnam War, receiving the Bronze Star with Combat "V", two Purple Hearts and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.

Our volunteer army is bearing the brunt of this war-of-choice

Murtha's eloquent and moving statement echoes what many thoughtful people predicted before the war. He states: "Our military is suffering. The future of our country is at risk. We can not continue on the present course. It is evident that continued military action in Iraq is not in the best interest of the United States of America, the Iraqi people or the Persian Gulf Region."

He adds: "I have been visiting our wounded troops at Bethesda and Walter Reed hospitals almost every week since the beginning of the War. And what demoralizes them is going to war with not enough troops and equipment to make the transition to peace; the devastation caused by IEDs; being deployed to Iraq when their homes have been ravaged by hurricanes; being on their second or third deployment and leaving their families behind without a network of support."  

Murtha continues: "The burden of this war has not been shared equally; the military and their families are shouldering this burden."

The cost can be measured in human terms: "Deaths and injuries are growing, with over 2,079 confirmed American deaths. Over 15,500 have been seriously injured and it is estimated that over 50,000 will suffer from battle fatigue. There have been reports of at least 30,000 Iraqi civilian deaths."

Two and a half years after Bush declared victory

Murtha refers to the latest quarterly report from the Department of Defense: "Oil production and energy production are below pre-war levels. Our reconstruction efforts have been crippled by the security situation. Only $9 billion of the $18 billion appropriated for reconstruction has been spent. Unemployment remains at about 60 percent. Clean water is scarce. Only $500 million of the $2.2 billion appropriated for water projects has been spent. And most importantly, insurgent incidents have increased from about 150 per week to over 700 in the last year.  Instead of attacks going down over time and with the addition of more troops, attacks have grown dramatically. Since the revelations at Abu Ghraib, American casualties have doubled. An annual State Department report in 2004 indicated a sharp increase in global terrorism."

He speaks for many of us who feel we are as patriotic as anyone who supports the war, but believe that the lead up to the war and the conduct of the war so far actually betrays the ideals and principles on which our nation was founded and for what our soldiers swore an oath to protect and defend.

C-SPAN has video (look for the link under "Recent Programs") and here's the transcript from the New York Times of Murtha's speech.

More on this later.