Put the Crazies Back in the Box
Weekly Quote: "There are several of us trying to put the crazies back in the box." ~ resigned CENTCOM commander Fallon, on explainingwhy an attack on Iran "will not happen on my watch."
WEEKLY READS
THIS WEEK'S SPOTLIGHT:
Top Army General Protests Possible Iran War
[Editors note: this spotlight does not mean to portray Fallon as a hero... a great deal is unknown. If Fallon has resigned because of differences over Iraq or Iran war philosophy, as expected, we believe that it is in the best interest of his nation to openly discuss this.]
1. The Man Between War and Peace
Thomas P.M. Barnett, Esquire, March 11th, 2008 .
Army General David Petraeus, commanding America's forces in Iraq, may say, "You cannot win in Iraq solely in Iraq," but Fox Fallon is Petraeus's boss, and he is the commander of United States Central Command, and Fallon doesn't extend Petraeus's logic to mean war against Iran. So while Admiral Fallon's boss, President George W. Bush, regularly trash-talks his way to World War III and his administration casually casts Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as this century's Hitler (a crown it has awarded once before, to deadly effect), it's left to Fallon--and apparently Fallon alone--to argue that, as he told Al Jazeera last fall: "This constant drumbeat of conflict . . . is not helpful and not useful. I expect that there will be no war, and that is what we ought to be working for. We ought to try to do our utmost to create different conditions."
2. Admiral Fallon: A Resignation In Protest
Jon Stolz, Huffington Post, March 11th, 2008.
Let's call a spade a spade here. Admiral Fallon has not so quietly had severe disagreements with the White House on our Iraq policy, how it impacts the region and global war on terror, for which he is largely responsible, and warning against war with Iran. Sure, he'll try to put a good face on it, as a loyal Admiral, and the Pentagon will insist that he was stepping aside to help the team. But that's not the case. The fact of the matter is that the war in Iraq has taken precedence over the war on terror, and the administration has put General Petraeus out there to make the case for our military policy, not his boss, Admiral Fallon. Who can forget the video of Petraeus saying he didn't know if the war in Iraq made America more or less safe? It was the one moment that crystallized the fact that Petraeus' responsibility began and ended at Iraq's borders. Yet, he was put out there as the face of our military policy -- a job which should have been Fallon's. The only reason -- ONLY reason -- that Fallon wasn't put out there was because he didn't believe Iraq was making America safer, and knew that Iraq was a drain on the war in Afghanistan. He wasn't going to put his neck out there and repeatedly shill for the administration. At the same time, like many brass, he was going to give his best shot, behind the scenes, to change the policy.
(see also: Fallon Fails in Mission to "Put the Crazies Back in the Box")
Business Wishes For Last Bush Year
3. Top 10 Rules the SBA Doesn't Like
Cindy Skrzycki, Washington Post, March 11th, 2008.
Clarifying what "oil" is, updating mine standards for handling explosives, allowing more recycling of electroplating sludge. While these topics aren't exactly grist for David Letterman, you will find them in a "Top 10" list -- the rule changes U.S. small-business owners most want during the Bush administration's last year in office.
The Lost Fortunes
4. Billions over Baghdad
Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, Vanity Fair.
After the creation of the Development Fund for Iraq (D.F.I.) - a kind of holding pit of money to be spent for "purposes benefitting the people of Iraq" - the U.N. turned over control of Iraq's oil billions to the United States. A Washington, D.C., lawyer for whistle-blowers who have worked for American contractors in Iraq, says simply that during that first year under the C.P.A. (Coalition Provisional Authority) the country was turned into "a free-fraud zone." ...Over the next year, a compliant Congress gave $1.6 billion to Bremer to administer the C.P.A. This was over and above the $12 billion in cash that the C.P.A. had been given to disburse from Iraqi oil revenues and unfrozen Iraqi funds. Few in Congress actually had any idea about the true nature of the C.P.A. as an institution. Lawmakers had never discussed the establishment of the C.P.A., much less authorized it -- odd, given that the agency would be receiving taxpayer dollars. ..."Fraud" was simply another word for "business as usual." Of 8,206 "guards" drawing paychecks courtesy of the C.P.A., only 602 warm bodies could in fact be found; the other 7,604 were ghost employees. Halliburton, the government contractor once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, charged the C.P.A. for 42,000 daily meals for soldiers while in fact serving only 14,000 of them...The C.P.A. awarded Custer and Battles one of its first nobid contracts. The company faced immediate obstacles: Custer and Battles didn't have any money, they didn't have a viable business, and they didn't have any employees. Bremer's C.P.A. had overlooked these shortcomings and forked over $2 million anyway, in cash...That first $2 million cash infusion was followed shortly by a second. Over the next year Custer Battles would secure more than $100 million in Iraq contracts. As for how much auditing NorthStar really did in Iraq, the missing billions provide the best answer. The company did have personnel in Baghdad, though how many, and for how long, and for what purpose, is not known -- another point Howell declines to discuss. Under the terms of C.P.A. Regulation money coming into Iraq was supposed to be tracked by an "independent certified public accounting firm." Howell was not a certified public accountant, nor were any of the people who worked for him. And rather than reissue the contract to a certified public accountant, someone in the government contract office simply eliminated the requirement, thereby making Howell eligible for the work.
No Ethics, No Union
5. At EPA, Unions Break From Management
Christopher Lee, Washington Post, March 11th, 2008.
Unions at the Environmental Protection Agency have pulled out of a long-standing partnership with management, saying Administrator Stephen L. Johnson has failed to deal in good faith on issues such as scientific integrity and job evaluations. The agency's scientific integrity principles, jointly developed by unions and managers during the Clinton administration, call for employees to ensure that their scientific work is of the highest integrity, and to represent it fairly, acknowledge the intellectual contributions of others and avoid financial conflicts. "It's gotten worse than ever in terms of the agency just doing unilateral decision-making," Hirzy said. "We're tired of it."
Dems Press On Against FISA Bill
6. House Democrats unveil new surveillance bill
Deirdre Walsh, CNNPolitics.com, March 11th, 2008.
House Democratic leaders unveiled legislation Tuesday to update the nation's wiretapping program, rejecting a Senate-passed version of the bill that would give telecommunications companies legal immunity for agreeing to participate in the program after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Instead, top Democrats -- including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, House Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes and Judiciary Chairman John Conyers -- proposed that lawsuits against the phone companies could move forward through U.S. district courts. Under the proposed legislation, the companies would be able to argue their cases in court and present classified evidence to a judge during a closed proceeding without the presence of the plaintiffs. "We are not going to cave in to a retroactive immunity situation," Conyers said. He argued that "there's no law school example in our memory that gives retroactive immunity for something you don't know what you are giving it for. It just doesn't work in the real world, or on the Hill either."
Ignored Subpoena Has Consequences
7. House Panel Sues to Force Bush Aides to Table
William Branigin, Washington Post, March 11th, 2008.
The panel filed the federal court suit against Joshua B. Bolten, White House chief of staff since April 2006, and Harriet E. Miers, a close associate of Bush's from Texas who resigned as White House counsel in January 2007 after a little more than two years on the job. The committee's action marked the first time in U.S. history that either chamber of Congress has sued the Executive Branch to enforce a subpoena. The lawsuit charges that Bolten and Miers, who were cited by the House for contempt of Congress last month, defied committee subpoenas by refusing to testify or provide documents demanded by the panel. The House passed the contempt citation by a vote of 223 to 32 after most Republicans boycotted the proceeding.
Gov't Contractor Povides Poison Dirty Water
8. KBR Faulted on Water Provided to Soldiers
Dana Hedgpeth, Washington Post, March 11th, 2008.
U.S. soldiers at a military base in Iraq were provided with treated but untested wastewater for nearly two years by KBR, the giant government contractor, and may have suffered health problems as a result, according to a report released yesterday by the Pentagon's inspector general. The inspector general said that from March 2004 to February 2006, KBR inappropriately distributed chlorinated wastewater to 5,000 U.S. troops at Camp Q-West, located at the Qayyarah West airfield about 180 miles north of Baghdad. The wastewater had been processed by a reverse-osmosis purification system and treated with chlorine before being distributed to showers and latrines on the base.
World
9. The forgotten conflict is not in the past: Darfur's return to hell
Steve Bloomfield and Katherine Butler, The Independent, March 12th, 2008.
Internal reports by humanitarian agencies operating in the region, and seen by The Independent, reveal that the active Sudanese government-backed military phase of the conflict, thought to have ended early in 2005, has resumed, with horrifying consequences. "The tactics are exactly the same as those the government pursued right at the start of this conflict: aerial bombings, followed by sending in the militias to loot, kill and rape," said one source in Sudan. "It is as ruthless as in 2003." What is now left is a vivid illustration of the scorched-earth policy being waged by Khartoum in its zeal to clear the area of rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement. Such attacks characterised the early years of the genocide but they have been rare since 2005. Their return marks a bloody new phase in the conflict. Khartoum denies targeting civilians but thousands have fled. The almost total destruction of villages makes it impossible for refugees to return, and international aid workers have been banned from the area.
10. Crisis Over Colombian Raid Ends in Handshakes
Aaron Glants, OneWorld US, March 4th, 2008.
The leaders of four Latin American nations embroiled in a diplomatic crisis over a Colombian military raid in Ecuador ended the dispute on Friday with handshakes and warm embraces at a summit meeting that had earlier been marked by insults and accusations of treachery. "With the commitment of never attacking a brother country again and by asking forgiveness, we can consider this very serious incident resolved," said President Rafael Correa of Ecuador, after shaking hands with Colombia's president, Alvaro Uribe.
spying
11. NSA's Domestic Spying Grows as Agency Sweeps Up Data
Siobhan Gorman, The Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2008
Five years ago, Congress killed an experimental Pentagon antiterrorism program meant to vacuum up electronic data about people in the U.S. to search for suspicious patterns. Opponents called it too broad an intrusion on Americans' privacy, even after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But the data-sifting effort didn't disappear. The National Security Agency, once confined to foreign surveillance, has been building essentially the same system.
TAKE ACTION
Attend one of several great events for the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War
Funeral March to the Federal Building -- SEE YOU SATURDAY!
Email UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon now calling on him to go to Burma.
Sign the petition against telecom immunity and watch the video.
Contact your Representative to demand that they do not vote for any FISA bill that includes immunity for telecom companies. (We haven't yet even been told what they have done)
This collection of excerpts and links to important current articles is provided as an educational service of Michigan Peaceworks. Thank you to the new Weekly Reads' coordinator, Diana Pesserl. Peruse this summary, read the articles that interest you, and forward the list to friends.
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