cynics4peace's Xanga

Monday, December 13, 2004

Mon, 13 Dec 2004 18:47:07 GMT

A FINE REPUBLICAN TRADITION
"US President George W. Bush's administration has listened in on phone calls between Mohamed ElBaradei and Iranian diplomats, seeking ammunition to oust ElBaradei as head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency, The Washington Post said Sunday."
US spying on head of UN atomic agency, seeking to oust him
Spacedaily|12.12.04

YET ANOTHER FINE REPUBLICAN TRADITION
"Russia reserves the right to carry out preventative strikes with conventional weaponry on terror bases anywhere they are found in the world, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov was quoted as saying Friday."
Russia could hit terror bases anywhere in the world: Ivanov
Spacewar|12.10.04

NOT THAT IT'LL DO ANY GOOD
"A senior CIA operative who handled sensitive informants in Iraq asserts that CIA managers asked him to falsify his reporting on weapons of mass destruction and retaliated against him after he refused. The operative, who remains under cover, asserts in a lawsuit made public yesterday that a co-worker warned him in 2001 "that CIA management planned to 'get him' for his role in reporting intelligence contrary to official CIA dogma."
Officer alleges CIA retaliation
WP|12.09.04

A copy of the complaint filed in DC court on 12.06, courtesy FAS

Monday, December 06, 2004

Mon, 06 Dec 2004 12:37:14 GMT

IT'S HARD TO FIND GOOD HELP THESE DAYS
"Visiting Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf agreed with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) here on Monday that the war on terror had made the world less safeand was not addressing the underlying causes of conflict."
Musharraf agrees war on terror makes world less safe
Xinhuanet|12.06.04

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Wed, 01 Dec 2004 19:22:00 GMT

NOT DEAD YET
"A "friend of the court" brief filed by several library, journalist,
and public interest organizations proposes a new middle ground for
achieving resolution of the continuing dispute over access to
records of Vice President Cheney's secret Energy Task Force."
NSA joins library and public interest groups supporting public access to special interests participating in Cheney's energy task force
NSA|11.30.04

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Thu, 18 Nov 2004 14:13:28 GMT

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE
"The enemy will be able to effectively defeat (the marines') ability to accomplish its primary objectives of developing an effective Iraqi security force and setting the conditions for successful Iraqi elections."
US forces still shelling Fallujah amid warning Iraq insurgency will grow
menafn.com|11.18.04

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Tue, 09 Nov 2004 00:55:34 GMT

BAD ALL OVER
"Americans tend to use words like 'freedom' and 'democracy' in a purely talismanic manner, without attaching any actual meaning to them -- only thus could the coups in Guatemala in 1954 or in Haiti in 2004 be hailed as advances for democracy. But the current White House takes this attitude to an unprecedented extreme. Time and again, the Bush administration has shown that it is willing to hold elections in Afghanistan or Iraq, but only when it can control the outcome beyond the shadow of a doubt. There is no reason to believe that the January elections in Iraq will be any different."
Bush's definition of democracy
Worldpress.org|10.07.04

THIS WILL HELP
Tehran tells Afghans to go home
BBC|11.08.04

Thursday, October 28, 2004

Thu, 28 Oct 2004 15:14:08 GMT

THE TWO AMERICAS
"Orthodox Jews make up less than 10 percent of the American Jewish population, so even though they will probably vote overwhelmingly for President Bush, he will still overwhelmingly lose the Jewish vote as a whole. But beyond Nov. 2, the Orthodox migration into the Republican Party is part of a larger transformation: Religion is eclipsing ethnicity as a force in American politics. To be an Irish Catholic or a German Lutheran used to have real political meaning. Today those patchwork divisions, which stretch back more than a century, are fading. Increasingly, America, or at least white America, has just two political cultures: religious and secular. And next week Jews -- who have held out longer than their Christian brethren -- will finally choose sides."
The end of the Jewish vote
WP|10.27.04

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Tue, 26 Oct 2004 15:50:31 GMT

DEEP IN THE BOWELS OF THE STATE DEPT
"Why were Iraqi elections delayed? Why was Jay Garner fired? Why are our troops still there? Investigative reporter Palast uncovers new documents that answer these questions and more about the Bush administration’s grand designs on Iraq. Like everything else issued during this administration, the plan to overhaul the Iraqi economy has corporate lobbyist fingerprints all over it."
Adventure Capitalism: the hidden plan to carve up Iraq
Greg Palast|10.26.04

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Wed, 20 Oct 2004 18:48:55 GMT

OCTOBER SURPRISE ANYONE?
Army Lt. Gen. David Barno, commander of the 18,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, said a dedicated team of military and intelligence officials remain on the hunt around the clock for bin Laden, his followers and leaders of the deposed Taliban.

But he backed off comments he made in January that the terrorist leader will be found by the end of the year, a statement that ignited a firestorm of rumors that the United States or Pakistan was closing in on the Saudi fugitive
US General won't make predictions about Bin Laden
Boston Globe|10.20.04

Monday, October 18, 2004

Mon, 18 Oct 2004 16:57:55 GMT

SPEECHLESS
Three Medford, Ore., schoolteachers were thrown out of a Bush rally, even though they had valid tickets, because they wore t-shirts that said, "Protect Our Civil Liberties." BC04 officials said the teachers were ejected because their shirts were "obscene."
Courtesy TomPaine.com|10.18.04

Friday, October 15, 2004

Fri, 15 Oct 2004 13:54:12 GMT

IT LOOKS DIFFERENT ON THE GROUND
"The war against poverty is threatened by friendly fire. A swarm of media-savvy Western activists has descended upon aid agencies, staging protests to block projects that allegedly exploit the developing world. The protests serve professional agitators by keeping their pet causes in the headlines. But they do not always serve the millions of people who live without clean water or electricity."
NGO's: Fighting poverty, hurting the poor
Foreign Policy|October 2004