The Talk Show American

THE TALK SHOW AMERICAN: 11/27/2005 - 12/04/2005

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Here�s what two Marines say

As opposition to the war mounts at home, Marines in Iraq say you�re not hearing how they�ve made a difference

What the soldiers say>

BROOK PARK, Ohio � Cpl. Stan Mayer has seen the worst of war. In the leaves of his photo album, there are casual memorials to the cost of the Iraq conflict � candid portraits of friends who never came home and graphic pictures of how insurgent bombs have shredded steel and bone.

Yet the Iraq of Mayer�s memory is not solely a place of death and loss. It is also a place of hope. It is the hope of the town of Hit, which he saw transform from an insurgent stronghold to a place where kids played on Marine trucks. It is the hope of villagers who whispered where roadside bombs were hidden. But most of all, it is the hope he saw in a young Iraqi girl who loved pens and Oreo cookies.

Like many soldiers and marines returning from Iraq, Mayer looks at the bleak portrayal of the war at home with perplexity, if not annoyance. It is a perception gap that has put the military and media at odds, as troops complain that the media care only about death tolls, while the media counter that their job is to look at the broader picture, not through the soda straw of troops� individual experiences.

�We know we made a positive difference,� says Cpl. Jeff Schuller of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, who spent all but one week of his eight-month tour with Mayer. �I can�t say at what level, but I know that where we were, we made it better than it was when we got there.�

�What the national news media try to do is figure out: What�s the overall verdict?� says Brig. Gen. Volney Warner, deputy commandant of the Army Command and General Staff College. �Soldiers don�t do overall verdicts.�

Yet soldiers clearly feel that important elements are being left out of the media�s overall verdict.

They remember one Iraqi man who could not hide his joy at the marvel of an electric razor. And at the end of the 3/25�s tour, a member of the Iraqi Army said: �Marines are not friends; Marines are brothers,� says Lt. Richard Malmstrom, the battalion�s chaplain.

�It comes down to the familiar debate about whether reporters are ignoring the good news,� says Peter Hart, an analyst at Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, a usually left-leaning media watchdog in New York.

In Hit, where Marines stayed in force to keep the peace, the progress was obvious, say members of the 3/25. The residents started burning trash and fixing roads � a sign that the city was returning to a sense of normalcy. Several times, �people came up to us (and said): �There�s a bomb on the side of the road. Don�t go there,� � says Pfc. Andrew Howland.

Al-Jazeera Airs Tape of Attack on Troops

Al-Jazeera broadcast an insurgent videotape Saturday showing a huge explosion targeting a U.S. foot patrol near Fallujah. However, the tape did not directly link the explosion to Thursday's attacks that killed 10 Marines there.

The Al-Jazeera announcer noted the Marine deaths as the tape aired.

The video from the Islamic Army of Iraq showed ground troops walking down a street on both sides of a Humvee when a huge fireball engulfed the scene, sending terrified Iraqi bystanders scrambling for their lives.

U.S. Army report warns against exit timetable

A U.S. Army study warns against announcing a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

The study warns that such an announcement would bolster the Sunni insurgency and increase the prospect of civil war in Iraq. The report by the Army War College � which stressed that the document did not necessarily represent the views of the military or Defense Department � also dismissed hopes that Iraq would soon be ready to assume major security responsibilities.

"From the moment a timetable is announced, all Iraqis working with the U.S.-led coalition will calculate that U.S. protection is a declining asset, and they correspondingly will have to make a decision about how to safeguard themselves and their property," the report said. "Some may choose to establish links to the insurgents, while others may seek the protection of a militia."
On Wednesday, President George Bush outlined what he termed a U.S. strategy for victory in Iraq. Bush dismissed calls to announce a timetable and pledged that the United States would not surrender Iraq to Al Qaida.

"Setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would send the signal to our enemies that if they wait long enough, America will cut and run and abandon its friends," Bush said. "And setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would vindicate the terrorist tactics of beheadings and suicide bombings and mass murder, and invite new attacks on America."

Czech Official Stands By Atta Intel Report

The former chief of the Czech Republic intelligence service last week said that he stands by reports that 9/11 attack leader Mohammad Atta met in Prague with Iraqi intelligence official Ahmad Ani, working undercover as a consul at the Iraqi embassy in Prague.
Jiri Ruzek, the former head of the BIS counterintelligence service, told reporters in Prague that the information gathered in October 2001 is accurate, despite claims to the contrary.

"The person who differentiated Asian and Arab faces very well came to the conclusion that it could have been that person [Atta]," Ruzek said.

The information came from BIS surveillance of the Iraqi embassy where officials were suspected of planning an attack on the Radio Free Europe building in Prague's Wenceslas Square.

As part of the surveillance, the BIS recruited an informant from within the embassy. On April 9, 2001, the agent witnessed Ani getting in a car with an unknown Arab, Ruzek said.

The Iraqi embassy source saw Atta�s photo five months after the September 11 attacks and recognized him as the man who met Ani in Prague in April.

Ruzek did not respond directly to how reliable the informant was. �I can say that we had an indication that this could have been the case. This hypothesis is still open. It has neither been confirmed nor refuted," said Ruzek.

Ruzek said the facts about Ani�s activities in Prague would be found in Iraqi intelligence documents.

After news of the meeting was leaked, press reports sought to cast doubt on the reliability of the Iraqi information who they described as an untrustworthy drunk, an assertion Ruzek said was false.

He said the FBI gauged the reliability of the information as 70 percent. Ani denied meeting Atta after he was arrested in 2003 in Baghdad.

Lawmakers: Same-sex 'marriage' not a civil right

Commission makes conclusion after exhaustive 16-month study

A New Hampshire legislative commission released a report yesterday finding same-sex "marriage" is not a civil rights issue.

Glen Lavy, who provided expert testimony for the commission, said the panel got to the heart of the issue.

"By focusing on the long-standing legal aspects of marriage, rather than the divisive political aspects of marriage, the commission's report reaffirmed that the real reason for marriage is for the protection of children," said Lavy, senior vice president of the Alliance Defense Fund's Marriage Litigation Center.

The commission concluded marriage "across essentially all societies and history has been defined as the union of a man and a woman."

The report said "marriage models both natural human sexuality and reproduction that commits to the health, safety, and welfare of both the individual and the community."

The commission collected a broad range of opinions over a period of 16 months.

Lavy testified Aug. 29 at a public hearing in Nashua, N.H., and through written testimony submitted to the commission in September.

The panel acknowledged in the report that race is immutable and innate, unlike sexual "orientation," which may not be immutable or innate.

The panel pointed out that racial equality was made a civil right through the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution but same-sex "marriage" has never been a fundamental constitutional right.

The commission's report can be read here, and Lavy's testimony is summarized on page 45 of the executive summary [pdf file].

Judge OKs bag searches on NYC subway

A federal judge ruled on Friday that police had a constitutional right to randomly search passengers' bags on the New York City subway to deter terrorist attacks.

U.S. District Judge Richard Berman ruled the searches were an effective and appropriate means to fight terrorism, and constituted only a "minimal intrusion" of privacy.

"The risk to public safety of a terrorist bombing of New York City's subway system is substantial and real," Berman wrote in his opinion.

"The need for implementing counter-terrorism measures is indisputable, pressing, ongoing and evolving."

Random bag searches began on July 22 after a second set of bomb attacks on London's transit system.

In a statement, Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised the ruling, calling bag searches a "reasonable precaution" that police would continue to take.

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), which had sued to stop the searches, plans to appeal, Executive Director Donna Lieberman said in a statement. She said the "unprecedented" bag search program violated a basic freedom.

The NYCLU had sued the city and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly in early August, calling the policy of searching thousands of passengers a day without any suspicion of wrongdoing unconstitutional.

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits searches without probable cause. ( J.R. notes: The fourth amendment prohibits UNREASONABLE searches and seizures folks, here, the Main Stream News Media tries to trick you with generic wording)
Police had argued random searches were a crucial deterrent to a possible attack.

The frequency of searches increased in October after Bloomberg said the FBI alerted him to a specific threat to the subway system. Searches were later reduced after the federal warning passed without incident.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch Turns Tables on Media

The American media is up in arms over reports that the Pentagon hired a public relations firm to write positive news stories about the Iraq war and get them printed in the Iraqi press.

But Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, spokesman for U.S. forces in Baghdad, isn't letting journalists get away with their phony display of outrage.

After the New York Times front-paged the "fake news" story Thursday under the headline: "U.S. Is Said to Pay to Plant Articles in Iraq Papers," Gen. Lynch defended the practice.

"We don't lie. We don't need to lie," he told reporters in Baghdad. "We do empower our operational commanders with the ability to inform the Iraqi public, but everything we do is based on fact, not based on fiction."

Sounds to us like Gen. Lynch was taking a none too subtle jab at the mainstream media's penchant for reporting - not just planted stories - but its own faked news reports.
Perhaps the next time he's questioned about "planting" stories, he'll get even more specific, by reminding the military's accusers of their own sorry history.

Beginning with:

� The New York Times - and the false reports the Old Gray Lady printed about PFC Jessica Lynch - courtesy of Jayson Blair.

� The Washington Post - which won a Pulitzer Prize for its series on Little Jimmy, the 8-year-old heroin addict - which the paper had to give back once star Post reporter Janet Cooke admitted she'd faked the whole story.

� CBS - Perhaps at the next press briefing, Gen. Lynch could inquire as to whether the Tiffany network has yet discovered just who it was who forged President Bush's National Guard records - before Dan Rather committed professional suicide by putting them in the air.
� NBC - Gen. Lynch might offer the Peacock network a hearty round of congratualtions for their relatively good conduct over the last decade. It's been more than 10 years since NBC aired video of an exploding GM truck gas tank - which was faked by their reporters.

In fact, the list of fake news stories reported by the mainstream press is so long it would make even Baghdad Bob blush.

It's good to know that some in the military - like Gen. Lynch - aren't about to let the press' hypocrisy go unnoted.

Poll: Confidence in Terror War Jumps

President Bush's campaign to rebut claims by Democrats that the U.S. is losing the war on terror has already begun to pay big dividends - according to a new Rasmussen survey released Friday.

Confidence that the U.S. will ultimately prevail has jumped dramatically, up 9 points in the last six weeks, reports Rasmussen.

Just 39 percent of Americans believed the U.S. was winning in a survey taken in mid-October - with 34 percent believing that the terrorists were winning.

But in a survey completed on Dec. 1, 48 percent were confident of a U.S. victory - and only 28 percent said the terrorists were likely to win.

Predictably, Republicans were most optimistic, with 74 percent saying they expect the terrorists to be defeated - up ten percent from a month ago. Only 28 percent of Democrats now predict victory for the U.S.

Even with the dramatic jump in support, the improved numbers may be understated - since Rasmussen surveyed "adults" as opposed to "registered" or "likely" voters, who tend to trend more conservative in most polls.

New "Web Radio" Retrieves Webcasts, Podcasts Without a Personal Computer



PenguinRadio, Inc and Solutions Radio of Delft, Netherlands have released the U.S. version of the �Web Radio�, a standalone Internet radio that streams webcasts and podcasts without the need for a personal computer.
"This is not Internet radio for geeks. This is Internet Radio for geek's moms and dads" said Andrew Leyden, CEO and founder of PenguinRadio. "This device is part of a growing trend of freeing Internet content from the shackles of the computer.

The Solutions Web Radio was designed in the Netherlands for computer-shy church-goers who wanted to listen to daily sermons, but were unable to navigate the complexity of a personal computer and streaming media.

There are currently nearly 15,000 Web Radio devices operating throughout Europe. Users plug in their device to their home network, office LAN, or regular telephone line and connect to the PenguinRadio central database of radio stations and podcasts from PodcastDirectory.com.

The radio automatically connects to the Internet and commences streaming media from broadcasters and podcasters around the world. Within seconds, the device coupled with PenguinRadio's database of stations can be operating.

"There are over 250 million radios in the U.S. homes and one day every radio will work this way" Leyden said. "Internet radio devices will be as common as FM in a few short years, and there will be a large market for radios of all styles and price ranges.

Lyeden also said, "We felt one of the first markets that needed to be reached was not 'first adapters' but 'first time users' and have come out with a simple and practical device that fits their unique needs. This device is as plug and play as we could make it and built in a non-complicated and non-threatening design. We plan to introduce legions of new listeners to podcasts and Internet radio."

More information on the Solutions Radio can be found at PenguinRadio's website.

- Portions from a PenguinRadio Press Release

President Bush is Winning World War IV

There is no doubt President Bush is now a captive of the press, which loudly proclaims he "is on the ropes."

Katrina was supposedly mishandled; his choice of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court failed to win support; his Social Security plan for personal accounts has been shelved; a senior staffer has been indicted for perjury; even his liberal plan for Medicare drug benefits is ridiculed.

His personal popularity is quite low, at least according to the polls. And perhaps most important, our soldiers continue dying in Iraq. But except for the latter, these ranklings are petty partisan attacks traditional for second-term administrations.

But the important aspect of these attacks is that, in coordination with left-wing Democrats, including former President Clinton, the media have created a maniacal Bush-bashing aimed at having America lose the war, and with it our traditional ability to guide the world toward a better future.

Fortunately, history isn't written by typically impatient, unwise and biased journalists. If history is a guide, their opinions are nearly perfect contrary indicators of eventual reality.

The reality is that America - and specifically President Bush - is winning one of the great contests of all time, World War IV, the fight by the civilized secular world against Muslim extremism, the last repository of fascism.

History continues to prove contemporary journalism always wrong. It rated Harry S. Truman as a boorish Missourian living in the shadow of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who won World War II. Truman, hopelessly unpopular when he left office, has since been re-evaluated by history into the upper tier of presidents, having stopped the communists in Korea, and created NATO and the Marshall Plan that saved Europe.

Ronald Reagan was another whipping boy of the press, caricatured as an actor of no substance who slept at Cabinet meetings. He even left office under the cloud of Iran-Contra.

The historical reality? Reagan spread the word of democratic capitalism and the free market, today the golden standard for nation behavior, throughout the globe. And, of course, he won the Cold War, actually Word War III. Today, Reagan already resides alongside Truman in the pantheon of the greats and near-greats of the American presidency.

So much for the intellectual wrongheadedness of contemporary journalism, which is once again active in American culture.

Now consider President George W. Bush and his place in history. If journalists get their way, he would scrape bottom. Though it is still early, there are reasonable signs Mr. Bush may someday join Truman and Reagan in the hierarchy of greatness.

But how and why, you might ask? Aren't American boys dying daily in Iraq, with no exit strategy in sight? Isn't Iraq a quagmire rivaling Vietnam as journalists insist?

Hardly.

World War IV is the final worldwide conflict that must be resolved in the West's favor, with America - unfortunately - forced to carry the major burden while Europe sleeps.

Yes, there are more than 2,000 casualties, and even one is too much. But this war is being fought no less vigorously than any of the three previous worldwide conflicts. To his enemies' dismay, Mr. Bush is winning World War IV, the fight against Muslim fascist extremism and its vicious terrorism.

The full conflict is only four years old, yet we are making progress more quickly than in anti-communist fight that lasted 50 years.

Let us look at the actual record, and not at the journalistic distortions.

(1) Since September 11, 2001, there has not been a single case of terrorism in the United States.

(2) Mr. Bush's conquest of the Taliban fascists was applauded universally, and Afghanistan has the beginnings of a Muslim democracy, something no one has been able to accomplish in history. A great victory in World War IV.

(3) Mr. Bush's invasion of Iraq has eliminated Saddam Hussein, whose continued presence in Iraq would have made impossible the Middle East's progress toward freedom. The insurgency is at its height, but a guerrilla war without a competing idea and majority public support (most Iraqis support the government) will fail. The desperate insurgents now kill 20 innocent Iraqis for every American. The majority Kurds and Shi'ites, once pushed beyond their amazing patience, will end this insurgency, bloodlessly or otherwise.

(4) Fear of American power has frightened Moammar Gadhafi of Libya, who has surrendered his weapons of mass destruction to the U.S. and has vowed to discontinue any terrorist activities. This is a Bush victory in an important World War IV battle.

(5) The increasing U.S. prestige and power in the Middle East has forced Syria out of Lebanon after Syria was implicated in the assassination of a Lebanese hero. This is solid evidence democracy is developing roots in Lebanon, a small but important Middle Eastern nation, and that the ability of terrorists to intimidate others is waning rapidly. Another victory for Mr. Bush in World War IV.

(6) The desperation of the terrorists was demonstrated by their recent bombing of a Muslim wedding party in Amman, Jordan, where some 60 people were killed. Having difficulty terrorizing Americans, they have killed these innocent Muslims in Jordan, turning that nation against - not America - but al-Qaida. Another significant victory for Mr. Bush in World War IV.

(7) As American power and pressure expands in the Middle East, Egypt has begun loosening its grip on its own people. Multiparty parliamentary elections are being held. This momentum will eventually grasp all Middle East nations. Another victory for Mr. Bush in World War IV.

(8) Muslim terrorism in Muslim nations, from Algeria to Saudi Arabia, is shifting public opinion in favor of America. Still another Bush victory.

(9) The international community is seeking sanctions against both the shaky Assad rule in Syria and the internally unpopular theocratic rulers in Iran. If America, with word and action, continues pressing both renegade nations, as it successfully did the Soviet Union a generation ago, victory in World War IV will be complete as the two terrorist nations collapse from within.

Muslim fascism's only hope is that the media and the once-patriotic Democratic Party's anti-American branch keep blocking the president's valiant fight for worldwide freedom.

No Major al-Qaida Ability Seen in U.S.

U.S. counterterrorism agencies have not detected a significant al-Qaida operational capability in the United States since the 2003 arrest of a truck driver who was in the early stages of plotting to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge.

Nevertheless, al-Qaida's capabilities aren't clear and the group remains dangerous, the new deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Kevin Brock, said in an Associated Press interview.

The uncertainty reflects the tension facing national security officials even though the country has gone four years without a domestic attack from al-Qaida.

Brock was the FBI's special agent in charge of the Cincinnati office that investigated Iyman Faris, now serving a 20-year prison sentence for aiding and abetting terrorism and conspiracy. Faris, a Pakistani who became a U.S. citizen in 1999, was exploring whether he could ruin the Brooklyn Bridge by cutting the suspension cables.

Brock said the case demonstrated al-Qaida's weakened state following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Faris didn't strike Brock as someone who could carry out a sophisticated plot though he was ordered by a top al-Qaida leader now in custody, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, to handle complicated operations.

Top al-Qaida officer reportedly killed

Group's operational leader Rabia killed by missile in Pakistan, officials say

The operational commander of al-Qaida, possibly the No. 3 official in the terrorist organization, was killed early Thursday by a CIA missile attack on a safehouse in Pakistan, officials have told NBC News.

Pakistani sources said that Hamza Rabia was one of five men killed at a safehouse located in the village of Asorai, in western Pakistan, near the town of Mirali.

Among those killed in the attack were two Pakistanis and three Arabs, said the Pakistani sources, who asked to remain anonymous. The attacks were carried out between 1:45 a.m. and 2 a.m. local time on Thursday.

Local residents said that the men were killed by an unknown number of missiles fired by an unmanned Predator aircraft. The witnesses said that missile remnants bearing U.S. markings remain in the area. They also said they had heard six explosions, but it is uncertain how many of these were the result of missile attacks and how many may have been the result of the missiles detonating explosives inside the safehouse.

Officially, neither the U.S. government nor the Pakistani government would confirm a successful attack. U.S. officials confirm a missile attack took place, but would not confirm that Rabia was killed. A high-ranking Pakistani official confirmed that Hamza Rabia had been killed in a Predator attack.

Friday, December 02, 2005

Sen. Joe Lieberman: Saddam Had WMD Programs

Following up on his Wall Street Journal article Tuesday defending the Iraq war, Sen. Joseph Lieberman is reminding Bush administration critics that it's wrong to claim that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. attacked in 2003.

"The so-called Duelfer Report, which a lot of people read to say there were no weapons of mass destruction - concluded that Saddam continued to have very low level of chemical and biological programs," Lieberman told ABC Radio host Sean Hannity on Wednesday.

"[Saddam] was trying to break out of the U.N. sanctions by going back into rapid redevelopment of chemical and biological and probably nuclear [weapons]," Lieberman said, calling the Iraqi dictator "a ticking time bomb."

"I have no regrets" that the U.S. toppled Saddam, the former vice presidential candidate explained. "I think we can finish are job there, and as part of it - really transform the Arab-Islamic world."

Lieberman said that his fellow Democrats haven't taken kindly to his decision to buck his party on Iraq.
"There's been some grumbling," he told Hannity. "In Connecticut there's a 'Dump Joe' web site that has cropped up."

But Lieberman added, "I've been here long enough where, at this stage in my career, I'm going to do what I think is right."

GOP Governors Show Support for Bush, Iraq War

Heading into a tough election year, Republican governors attending their annual meeting voiced strong support Thursday for President Bush's stand on the Iraq war and played down his lapsed popularity.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, who recently returned from a trip to the Middle East, said the U.S. will be victorious in Iraq and criticized Democrats who have called for the president to set a date to withdraw. He was among a group of Republican governors who spoke out in support of the mission in Iraq.

U.S. troops "are birthing democracy in a very important part of the world," Perdue said. "I've never known us to run any war by a calendar. You don't run a war over partisan politics."

Democrats are trying to gain ground in Congress and statehouses across the country by turning the president's troubles into a liability for GOP candidates.

215,000 New U.S. Jobs Added in November

America's payrolls snapped out of a two-month hurricane-induced funk in November and grew by 215,000, the most since July. The unemployment rate held steady at 5 percent.

The fresh snapshot of the jobs situation by the Labor Department on Friday suggested that employers were feeling much better about hiring now that energy prices have retreated from record highs and the energy supply and transportation disruptions from the trio of Gulf Coast hurricanes are easing.

The pickup in employment in November came after two dreary months where hiring turned lethargic because of the devastating storms.

In October, payrolls grew by just 44,000, even less than the government first reported a month ago. But September's showing - a month that bore the brunt of Katrina, the most costly natural disaster in U.S. history - showed that jobs actually grew by 17,000, according to revised figures released Friday. That's an improvement from the loss of 8,000 jobs previously reported.

In November, employment gains were broad based. Construction, retail, leisure and hospitality, education and health services, financial activities and even manufacturing all posted job gains.

The growth in payrolls in November was slightly stronger than economists were expecting. Before the release of the report, they were forecasting a gain of around 210,000 jobs. They also predicted the unemployment rate would stay at 5 percent.

"The job market has clearly recovered from the setbacks and dislocations caused by the series of hurricanes," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group. He was confident that the momentum on job growth would be maintained in the coming months.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and his colleagues, at their Nov. 1 meeting, maintained that the hurricanes would only have a temporary depressing effect on employment and production. Friday's report - along with other recent economic news - has buttressed that notion.

MoveOn.org May Not Support Sen. Lieberman

Sen. Joe Lieberman stands virtually alone among Democrats after expressing his staunch support for the Bush administration�s handling of the war in Iraq.

An official with the liberal activist group MoveOn.org said the group might go so far as to back a Democratic challenger to Lieberman in next year�s Senate race, according to the Hartford Courant.

On Tuesday Lieberman published an editorial in the Wall Street Journal � reported by NewsMax � saying that his recent trip to Iraq convinced him further that the U.S. should not abandon "27 million Iraqis to 10,000 terrorists.�

Lieberman was one of five Senate Democrats to oppose a Democratic-backed plan to require the president to set timetables for American troop withdrawals.

That has drawn some sharp criticism from the left. Tom Matzzie, Washington director of MoveOn.org, said: "The war on Iraq has all the characteristics of Joe-momentum,� recalling a slogan Lieberman used during the 2004 presidential campaign.

"Just like he didn�t realize his presidential ambitions were in trouble, he doesn�t understand the war in Iraq isn�t going anywhere.�

Dems Back Saddam Hussein in New Poll

Democrats have given Saddam Hussein a shocking vote of confidence in the latest Fox News Opinion Dynamics survey, with a solid plurality saying the world would be better off if the Butcher of Baghdad was still in power.

Forty-one percent of Democrats gave Saddam a thumbs up, while just 34 percent said Iraq is better served with the murderous dictator gone, reports the New York Post.

In stark contrast, 78 percent of Republicans said toppling the mass-murdering leader left everyone better off. Just 10 percent said they wished Saddam still ruled Iraq.

On the question of whether President Bush lied to the American people about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, 72 percent of Democrats say he did.

Seventy-nine percent of Republicans disagreed, however -- saying that Bush gave the American people the best intelligence he had at the time.

Poll:Bush's Approval Rating Rises

A new Fox News poll shows President Bush�s job approval numbers on the rebound.

Bush�s approval rating jumped six points over last month�s result to 42 percent among Americans surveyed. His disapproval numbers still outpace that figure, however, with 48 percent dissatisfied with his job performance, primarily centered on the war in Iraq.

Roughly equal numbers of Americans surveyed think the president either shared the best information available regarding pre-Iraq war intelligence or that he intentionally misled the country on that intelligence.

Democrats are trying to pound away at this apparent uneasiness with attacks on the president�s credibility coming from the usual suspects, such as Senators Ted Kennedy, John Kerry and Joe Biden, as well as Reps. Nancy Pelosi and, surprisingly, Rep. John Murtha.

Opinion Dynamics Corporation conducted the national telephone poll of 900 registered voters for FOX News on November 29-30.

GOP students confront Ward Churchill



Prof asked to circle names of 9-11 victims who deserved to die

Protesters confronted controversial professor Ward Churchill at the University of Colorado yesterday, asking him to circle the names of 9-11 victims who deserved to die on a 12-foot banner memorializing them.

Churchill has said that not all of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were innocent, so the protesters, organized by the school's College Republicans club, decided to challenge him to identify who those people were.

The professor first attracted national attention for his essay characterizing Sept. 11 victims as "little Eichmanns," for explaining that al-Qaida had a legitimate beef with the U.S. and for questions raised about his own background and resume.

Churchill later clarified his "little Eichmanns" comment, saying he applied it "only to those described as 'technicians.' Thus, it was obviously not directed to the children, janitors, food service workers, firemen and random passers-by killed in the 9-11 attack."

According to College Republicans Chairman Ian VanBuskirk, about 25 protesters gathered outside a classroom where Churchill was teaching.

Noting that Churchill's "little Eichmanns" explanation did not include an exception for cops or employees of financial firms working in the Twin Towers, VanBuskirk wanted Churchill "to tell us if it was the policemen or the financiers" who deserved to die.

VanBuskirk told WND an Indian guest speaker first came out to confront the protesters, saying they were trying to inhibit his First Amendment right to speak in the classroom.

"We weren't there to say they can't say whatever they want to say," VanBuskirk said. "We were there to have Churchill qualify his statements about 9-11."

The protest organizer said Churchill then came out into the hallway to get the guest speaker and that he "took a swipe at" a video camera that was recording the event.

"I then asked him if the policemen deserved to die, and he became so flustered he just quickly walked away down to his office kind of bodyguarded by his students."

Suicide Bombings in Iraq Decline

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Suicide bombings fell in November to their lowest level in seven months, the American military said Thursday, citing the success of U.S.-Iraqi military operations against insurgent and foreign fighter sanctuaries near the Syrian border.

Nevertheless, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a coalition operations officer, warned that al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, will likely step up attacks in the next two weeks to try to disrupt parliamentary elections Dec. 15.

Lynch told reporters that suicide bombings declined to 23 in November as U.S. and Iraqi forces were overrunning insurgent strongholds in the Euphrates River valley west of the capital.

"In the month of November: only 23 suicide attacks � the lowest we've seen in the last seven months, the direct result of the effectiveness of our operations," Lynch said.

Car bombings � parked along streets and highways and detonated remotely � have declined from 130 in February to 68 in November, Lynch said.

US executions milestone spurs fresh debate

Double murderer Kenneth Lee Boyd became the 1,000th prisoner executed in the United States since the reinstatement of capital punishment when he was put to death by lethal injection on Friday.

The execution drew global attention because of its symbolism since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to be brought back in 1976 after a nine-year unofficial moratorium.

It helped spur renewed debate over U.S. capital punishment, and came on a day that executions in Singapore and Saudi Arabia also sparked international concerns.

"God bless everybody in here," Boyd said in his last words to witnesses from the death chamber at Central Prison in North Carolina's state capital, Raleigh.

Boyd, who was 57, was a Vietnam War veteran with a history of alcohol abuse. He was executed for killing his wife and father-in-law in 1988, in front of two of his children.

"This 1,000th execution is a milestone, a milestone we should all be ashamed of," his lawyer Thomas Maher said.

With polls showing that a declining majority of the American public backs the death penalty, the White House reiterated U.S. President George W. Bush's support.

"The president strongly supports the death penalty because he believes ultimately it helps save innocent lives," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.

Bush is a former governor of Texas, which has accounted for 355 of the 1,000 executions -- more than three times as many as any other state.

Boyd was wheeled into the death chamber, strapped to a gurney and injected with a fatal mix of three drugs.

He seemed "sort of resigned," said witness Elyse Ashburn.

Iran buys Russian surface to air missiles

Iran has signed a deal to buy Russian tactical surface-to-air missile systems, a Russian newspaper reported on Friday.

Iran is to buy 29 TOR-M1 systems, designed to bring down aircraft and guided missiles at low altitudes, said the Vedomosti daily, citing Russian defense sources close the deal.

The deal is the biggest sale of Russian defense hardware to Iran for about 5 years, the newspaper said. It did not say how much the order was worth.

Defense industry officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Tehran is under intense international pressure after failing to convince the United States and others its nuclear scientists are working on fuel for power stations rather than bombs.

Russia is helping Iran build a nuclear power station at Bushehr.

Pilot Reports 'Missile' Fired at Jetliner Near LAX

FBI agents and Homeland Security officials spent the weekend investigating the report of a possible missile fired at an American Airlines plane taking off from Los Angeles International Airport.

Sources tell ABC News the pilot of American Airlines Flight 621, en route to Chicago, radioed air traffic controllers after takeoff from LAX. He told them a missile had been fired at the aircraft and missed.

The plane was over water when the pilot said he saw a smoke trail pass by the cockpit.

FBI agents believe it was a flare or a bottle rocket, but say they may never know if that's what it actually was.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Pace Responds to Critics of Iraq Strategy

Wouldn't the United States be better off if it simply left the terrorists alone and brought its troops home from Iraq? Wouldn't that stop the violence there? Don't we need more troops to do the job there? And why is just one Iraqi battalion capable of independent operations?

Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, responded today to these and other questions he often gets about operations in Iraq during a session at the National Defense University at Fort McNair here.

To those who question if the American people would be safer if the nation withdrew its forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, Pace conceded, "That would be nice if it would work."

"But that's not the world we live in," he quickly added, noting that the United States was "leaving them alone" when terrorists struck on Sept. 11, 2001.

"That was the day we realized in the United States that we were at war," the chairman said. "Our enemies had declared war on us years before, but the attacks in New York, in the skies over Pennsylvania and here in Washington, D.C., brought home very clearly to us that we were at war."

Pace also refuted claims of those who believe the threat will go away if the United States stopped fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and stopped chasing down terrorists.

"I say, you need to get out and read what our enemies have said," he said. Before World War II, Adolf Hitler clearly outlined his intentions in his book, "Mein Kampf," Pace told the group. "He said in writing exactly what his plan was, and we collectively ignored that, to our great detriment."

Similarly, terrorists today have publicly stated their goals, both on film and the Internet, he said.

"(There's) no equivocation on their part," the chairman said. "They're not saying, 'If you stay home, we will not come after you.' They are saying their goal is to rid the Middle East of all foreigners, then to overthrow all governments that are not friendly to them, which means every single one of those governments."

But terrorists have made it clear that they don't intend to stop there, Pace continued. Their ultimate goal is to bring the whole globe under their domination within the next 100 years, he said.

Pace told the group - military, civilian and foreign military leaders being groomed for top positions in the future - that they and others within their ranks are helping stop terrorists from realizing their goal.

"(You) and all those others in uniform, and not in uniform, serving this country and all of our friends and neighbors around the world are the ones who are going to make a difference," he said. "And that's why it's important for us to realize that there is no option other than victory."

But to achieve that victory, Pace said, he's often asked if the United States has enough troops in Iraq.

"The answer is, we need more Iraqi troops," Pace said, putting added emphasis on the word "Iraqi." "And we are working on that."

Pace cited solid progress in developing Iraq's security forces, which numbered zero in May 2003, 100,000 in June 2004 and more than 200,000 today - a number he said is steadily growing toward 300,000.

But this progress can't be measured only by numbers, he said. It's also based on quality, and developing quality forces takes time.

"You all know as well as I do that it takes time to train an individual soldier, an individual policeman," the chairman said. "It takes time for small units to get cohesion. It takes time for larger units to develop the kinds of leadership they need and the kind of sustainment they need."

There's still a lot of work to do, but the 34 coalition countries in Iraq should take great pride in the progress Iraqis have already made, he said. "And yes, we do need to help them grow so that they can take over more and more of the responsibilities so that as they are ready to, we can hand them over and come home to our collective countries."

But why, Pace said many have asked him, is just one Iraqi battalion deemed capable of operating independently?

The truth is, in the interest of defining how to measure the Iraqi forces' progress, U.S. planners have done themselves a disservice, he said.

Even many of the most highly trained and capable U.S. military units aren't totally independent, a measuring stick being used to gauge the Iraqis' performance, he said. A top-drawer Marine unit still needs the Navy or Air Force to get to the war zone, Air Force air support once there and for long-term operations, Army logistics support, Pace said.

So for Iraqi battalions to require some outside support doesn't mean they're not capable, the general explained. A better measure is how many are controlling their own areas of operation - something a division headquarters, four brigade headquarters and more than 30 battalions are already doing. "That, to me, is a real measure of progress," Pace said.

In closing today, Pace acknowledged that the war on terror will be long and demand vigilance. "But failure is not an option," he told the group. "There is no way that we can lose if we maintain our patience and our will, our resolve."

MEDIA BIAS COSTS SOLDIERS' LIVES


By Toby Westerman

Individuals and groups are actively working to have the U.S. lose in Iraq, while others would see an American defeat as helpful to their political interests or careers, according to retired U.S. combat pilot and former Air Force aide to U.S. president Bill Clinton,Lt. Colonel Robert "Buzz" Patterson, during an exclusive interview with International News Analysis Today.com

The lives of American soldiers are placed in greater peril, and the war in Iraq is prolonged unnecessarily, due to the distorted media reporting and partisan attacks by certain U.S. politicians, stated Patterson, author of Dereliction of Duty (2003) and Reckless Disregard (2004).

INA Today asked if the press is aiding the terrorism.

"Absolutely," Patterson responded.

Tying slanted media reporting to domestic politics, Patterson stated that, "Consciously or not, influential segments of the mainstream media advance the agenda that anything that besmirches the Bush administration is good, and if it comes at the expense of the war in Iraq - that's fine."

"The troops see that, they see that very clearly," Patterson observed.

Recently returned from visiting U.S. armed forces in Iraq, Patterson expressed to INA Today his concern about the media and political manipulation of the Iraq war. While troop morale remains high, U.S. military personnel are, nevertheless, dismayed at the image the established media convey to the American public regarding their efforts in Iraq.

Some troops believe that distorted media reporting is a greater threat to their personal safety than direct enemy attack, because the message the media give to the public encourages terror gangs to redouble their efforts, Patterson told INA Today.

Patterson noted that the troops are disturbed that positive developments, including the passage of an democratic Iraqi constitution - the first such event in that nation's 5,000 year history -- receive little attention, and are never permitted to disturb an otherwise dismal image painted by the established media journalists.

Al Qaeda carefully watches and reacts to U.S. public opinion, and considers media image an extremely important aspect of their military effort, Patterson told INA Today.

The use and manipulation of the established U.S. media has been a major tool of guerrilla efforts directed against America since the Vietnam war. Successful manipulation of the media is an essential part of any "peoples war," and there are reports that Vietnamese military and governmental authorities have passed along their experience in media-driven guerrilla warfare to Islamic terror groups.

Video Reports From The Field In Iraq

Get your "boots on the ground" and go on patrol with the brave men and women of the US Military and learn of all the good and positive things that are going on in Iraq from the people who are "doing the job".

Thanks to KCEN TV channel 6 in central Texas, americans can see and hear their heroes in action. It certainly beats what the main stream news media is feeding us.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEOS ! (Requires Windows Media Player)

Traitors in the Media

By Cliff Kincaid

Congressman John Murtha, the veteran who turned against the Iraq War, has become a household name. But odds are you haven't heard of Thomas L. Bock. He's a veteran who is critical of media coverage of the war. He says controversial things like "Today's media-hungry war-protest movement is an anti-freedom movement."

Actually, Bock is more than a veteran; he's National Commander of the American Legion, the largest veterans organization. Bock is also a Blue Star dad. His son, Adam, is an Army CH-47 helicopter pilot currently serving in Iraq.

In an editorial appearing in the December issue of the American Legion magazine, Bock writes that "The call to prematurely withdraw U.S. troops from the war on terrorism will quite likely�as public opposition to the Vietnam War showed us�have the unintended consequence of prolonging the fight. Ho Chi Minh described the antiwar movement in the 1960s as a second front in his march to relieve South Vietnam of its freedoms."

Last summer, Bock noted, the Legion adopted Resolution 169, urging veterans to speak out for freedom and "counter a movement that discredits those now serving in harm's way."

A strong voice against the Murtha position comes from Col. Brett Wyrick, a surgeon deployed in Iraq. He says, "I wish there was not a war, and I wish our young people did not have to fight and die. But I cannot wish away evil men like bin Laden and al-Zarqawi�The last thing we need here in Iraq is an exit strategy or some damn time table for withdrawal. Thank God there was no timetable for withdrawal after the Battle of the Bulge or Iwo Jima. Thank God there was no exit strategy at Valley Forge. Freedom is not easy, and it comes with a terrible price."

Our media enjoy that freedom. They use it to run phony Koran-in-the-toilet stories that kill people and make it harder for our troops to win.

My visit to a local gun show found one booth full of photos from Iraq that were described as being censored by the U.S. news media. They show American soldiers assisting the Iraqi people, especially children. You can view them at the site of KCEN-TV of central Texas. The sponsor of the booth said he had five members of his family in the Armed Forces, including two sons in Iraq. The sign over the photos said, "The traitors in the media and Congress want to repeat Vietnam. Don't allow it."

Judging by the number of people viewing the exhibit, there is public interest in what the media are not telling us.

Another message posted on the exhibit said, "The media want Hillary elected. They want you to think the war is bad so you will turn against President Bush."
I purchased a bumper sticker at the booth. It said, "Freedom of the press does not mean the right to lie."

Perhaps the public can help stop the lies.

NOAA: NUMEROUS HURRICANES NOT RELATED TO 'GLOBAL WARMING'

The nation is now wrapping up the 11th year of a new era of heightened Atlantic hurricane activity. This era has been unfolding in the Atlantic since 1995, and is expected to continue for the next decade or perhaps longer. NOAA attributes this increased activity to natural occurring cycles in tropical climate patterns near the equator. These cycles, called �the tropical multi-decadal signal,� typically last several decades (20 to 30 years or even longer). As a result, the North Atlantic experiences alternating decades long (20 to 30 year periods or even longer) of above normal or below normal hurricane seasons. NOAA research shows that the tropical multi-decadal signal is causing the increased Atlantic hurricane activity since 1995, and is not related to greenhouse warming.

The tropical multi-decadal signal presents itself in weather events around the world, including Atlantic hurricane variability. The tropical climate patterns producing the increased activity since 1995 are similar to those during the previous active hurricane era of the late 1920s to the late 1960s (1926-1970). These patterns are opposite to the below-normal hurricane era which ran from 1970 to 1994.

Since 1995, the tropical multi-decadal signal has produced lower wind shear (changing winds with height) and warmer waters across the tropical Atlantic, along with conducive winds coming off the west coast of Africa. This key combination of conditions produces active hurricane seasons.

Alito's 1985 Memo Reignites Document Fight

A 1985 memo in which Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito suggested that the Justice Department try to chip away at abortion rights has reignited a battle over what documents should be available to senators as they evaluate judicial candidates. "This information reinforces the need for the Senate to obtain all relevant information about this nominee, including his other solicitor general memos and his work in the Office of Legal Counsel," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who has been fighting with the White House for greater access to nominees' documents for years.

Republicans argue that Democrats are just looking for a way to block President Bush's conservative nominees from being approved by the GOP- controlled Senate.

The questions "disturbingly seem to be suggesting that some Democrats are ready to implement a strategy ... that they would obstruct the Roberts nomination and later nominations by claiming that they didn't have sufficient access to documents," White House spokesman Steve Schmidt said.

The administration refused to permit the release of similar documents during Chief Justice John Roberts' confirmation, and Schmidt said, "The rest of Alito's internal solicitor general's documents are still privileged and will not be released."

The abortion memo, written while Alito was working for the solicitor general's office, was released Wednesday by the National Archives.

In the May 30, 1985, memo, Alito recommended the Justice Department weigh in on state-level cases seeking abortion restrictions instead of attacking the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion ruling. This approach was "free of the disadvantages that would accompany a major effort to overturn Roe. When the court hands down its decision and Roe is not overruled, the decision will not be portrayed as a stinging rebuke," he wrote.

"No one seriously believes that the court is about to overrule Roe v. Wade," Alito wrote. Referring to a high court decision to review two abortion-related cases, he asked, "What can be made of this opportunity to advance the goals of bringing about the eventual overruling ... and in the meantime, of mitigating its effects?"

At the Justice Department, Assistant Attorney General Rachel Brand said, "Nothing in that memo indicates how he'd rule as a judge on abortion cases."

AP defends pix of 'lonely' Cindy book-signing

The Associated Press is defending itself from allegations by Cindy Sheehan that it misrepresented the anti-war activist's book-signing by showing a virtually empty tent.

As WorldNetDaily reported, Sheehan's Thanksgiving weekend protest near President Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch featured a book-signing that turned out to be a barren affair.

Photographs published by wire services including the Associated Press and Reuters depicted a lonely "Peace Mom" in a virtually empty tent awaiting those seeking her autograph on her new book, "Not One More Mother's Child."

According to Editor & Publisher, Sheehan issued a statement Tuesday accusing "right-wing" sites of "spreading a false story that nobody bought my book at Camp Casey on Saturday. That is not true, I sold all 100 copies and got writer's cramp signing them. Photos were taken of me before the people got in line to have me sign the book. We made $2,000 for the peace house."

Michael Moore denies owning Halliburton!

But author who made charge answers tax returns don't lie

In a nationally televised speech, filmmaker Michael Moore told a college audience he absolutely does not own any Halliburton stock � or any other stock for that matter � a charge leveled at him by author Peter Schweizer in the best-seller book "Do As I Say (Not As I Do)."

There's just one problem with that denial, says Schweizer. He's got the tax returns of Moore's non-profit foundation to prove it � a non-profit foundation for which there are only two officers, Moore and his wife.

Moore's loophole may be that the stock is actually owned by his non-profit foundation � not him personally. However, Moore signed the return personally and controls the activity of the corporation.

Pentagon Accused of Planting Stories

The U.S. military offered a mixed message Wednesday about whether it embraced one of its own programs that reportedly paid a consulting firm and Iraqi newspapers to plant favorable stories about the war and the rebuilding effort.

Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a military spokesman in Iraq, said the program is "an important part of countering misinformation in the news by insurgents." A spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, however, called a report detailing the program troubling if true and said he was looking into the matter.

"This is a military program initiated with the Multi-National Force to help get factual information about ongoing operations into Iraqi news," Johnson said in an e-mail. "I want to emphasize that all information used for marketing these stories is completely factual."

Details about the program were first reported by the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday.

Defense Department officials did not deny the story's allegations, and Rumsfeld spokesman Bryan Whitman said he was looking into the program.

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Bush: No War is Won on a Timetable

President Bush confronted doubts about his war policy Wednesday, asserting more Iraqi security forces are taking the lead in battle but saying it's still uncertain when U.S. forces can be withdrawn.

"No war has ever been won on a timetable," according to a new White House strategy document.

Facing criticism and impatience about the conflict, Bush went on the offensive with the release of a 35-page plan titled "Our National Strategy for Victory in Iraq."

The plan says increasing numbers of Iraqi troops have been equipped and trained, a democratic government is being forged, Iraq's economy is being rebuilt and U.S. military and civilian presence will change as conditions improve.

"We expect, but cannot guarantee that our force posture will change over the next year, as the political process advances and Iraqi security forces grow and gain experience," the report said. "While our military presence may become less visible, it will remain lethal and decisive, able to confront the enemy wherever it may organize."

National Strategy for Victory in Iraq

Economy Grows at Robust Pace Despite Storms

The economy grew at a lively 4.3 percent pace in the third quarter, the best showing in more than a year. The performance offered fresh testimony that the country's overall economic health managed to improve despite the destructive force of Gulf Coast hurricanes.

The new snapshot of economic activity, released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday, showed the growth at an even faster pace than the 3.8 percent annual rate first reported for the July-to-September quarter a month ago.

The upgraded performance reflects more brisk spending by consumers and businesses as well as more robust investment on residential projects than initial estimates revealed.

"In anybody's book this is an outstanding performance for the economy," said Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics.

The third-quarter's showing marked a sizable pickup from the 3.3 percent increase in gross domestic product registered in the second quarter of this year.

GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced within the United States and is the best barometer of the nation's economic standing.

The 4.3 percent growth rate matched the performance posted in the first quarter of 2004. The last time economic activity was higher was in the third quarter of 2003, when the GDP soared at a blistering 7.2 percent pace.

The upwardly revised reading for GDP in the third quarter also exceeded the expectations of business analysts. Before the report was released, they were forecasting the economy to clock in at a 4 percent pace.

Consumers and businesses did their part to keep the economy rolling - even as they coped with elevated energy prices during the third quarter.

The lifeblood of the economy, consumer spending, grew at a sprightly 4.2 percent pace in the third quarter, stronger than the 3.9 percent growth rate previously estimated. The new figure marked the fastest pace in consumer spending since the final quarter of 2004.

Businesses boosted spending on equipment and software at a 10.8 percent annual rate in the third quarter. That was better than the 8.9 percent growth rate first estimated for the period and close to the 10.9 percent growth rate seen in the second quarter.

Investment in housing construction and other residential projects grew at a brisk 8.4 percent pace in the third quarter. That was up considerably from the 4.8 percent growth rate initially estimated but was down from the 10.8 percent pace registered in the second quarter.

An inflation gauge tied to the GDP report showed prices rising at a 3.6 percent rate in the third quarter, slightly less than initially estimated for the period.

When food and energy prices are excluded, "core" inflation_ which the Federal Reserve watches closely - actually moderated. Core inflation rose at a rate of 1.2 percent in the third quarter, a tad less than first estimated and down from a 1.7 percent pace in the second quarter.

Dems Ignore Troop Morale Poll

Democratic Senators who say they support the troops continue to undermine their mission with harsh attacks on the Iraq war - even after a poll released over the weekend showed that more than two-thirds of Americans believe they're hurting troop morale.

"What's happening [in Iraq] is not working; it's a disaster," Sen. Barbara Boxer complained Tuesday - oblivious to the damage her comments would do. "Right now, there's an endless war," she declared.

Reacting to President Bush's Iraq war speech Wednesday morning, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid griped that all he heard was the "recycled [and] tired rhetoric of �stay the course.�

"Simply staying the course is no longer an option, we must change the course. We can do better," Reid groused.

Hours earlier, Sen. Hillary Clinton complained that she was tricked into voting to authorize the Iraq war when the White House gave her "false" intelligence on Saddam's weapons of mass destruction.
"Based on the information that we have today, Congress never would have been asked to give the President authority to use force against Iraq," she chided.

The anti-war showboating by top Democrats continues despite the findings of an RT Strategies poll released over the weekend, which showed that 70 percent of Americans believe that Iraq war criticism by Democratic Senators is hurting troop morale.

A full 44 percent said the Senatorial complainers had hurt the troops "a lot."

Even self-identified Democrats agreed that their Senators were damaging the war effort, with 55 percent saying their criticism hurts the troops - and just 21 percent saying it helps.

Iraqi Documents Showed WMD

What happened to the internal Iraqi government documents that top U.S. weapons inspector David Kay said had convinced him that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction?

In January 2004, Kay told Congress that the U.S. was "almost all wrong" in believing that Saddam had WMDs.

But six months earlier in July 2003, Kay said he was sure Iraq had the banned weapons - based on millions of pages of internal government documents recovered from Saddam's regime.

"I've already seen enough to convince me," Kay told then-NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw. "You cannot believe how many cases we have of documents and equipment that are stored in private residences," he added.

Kay explained: "We're finding progress reports. They also got financial rewards from Saddam Hussein by breakthroughs, indicating breakthroughs. They actually took - went to Saddam and said 'We have made this progress.' There are records, there are audiotapes of those interviews which give us that."

More than two years later, the documents that convinced Mr. Kay that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction remain a closely guarded secret, with a team of 200 Pentagon analysts reportedly still sifting through their contents.

But thanks to the Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes, we know a little bit about what persuaded Kay that Saddam's banned weapons were a slam dunk.

As Hayes reported two weeks ago, some of the titles on the Iraqi documents were quite explicit:

Correspondence between various Iraq organizations giving instructions to hide chemicals and equipment
� Chemical Agent Purchase Orders (Dec. 2001)

� Cleaning chemical suits and how to hide chemicals

� Chemical Gear for Fedayeen Saddam

� Denial and Deception of WMD and Killing of POWs

� Ricin research and improvement � Memo from the [Iraqi Intelligence Service] to Hide Information from a U.N. Inspection team (1997)

Of course, the Iraqi documents never led Kay's search team to the actual banned weapons themselves.

But the fact that the documents exist means that only two explanations are possible.

1] Saddam Hussein was able to spirit his WMD stockpiles out of Iraq in the nearly year-long run-up to the war. Or . . .

2] Saddam had his government forge, literally, millions of pages of documents falsely indicating that he not only had WMDs, but had made extensive plans to hide them.

Only one of the above options makes any sense at all.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Al-Qaida video shows attack preparations

'Martyrdom seekers' glorified in hotel suicide bombings

Videotape footage posted on the Internet purportedly by the terrorist group al-Qaida in Iraq glorifies three suicide bombers involved in the Oct. 24 attack at two Baghdad hotels and provides a behind-the-scenes look at preparations.

The bombing itself, which killed 17 Iraqis and wounded nine, is shown in the footage posted Saturday, titled "Badr Raid," after a famous victory by Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

Excerpts of the video, along with translations into English, are provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute's MEMRI TV.

A religious song is heard in the background as images of the "martyrs" appear on the screen, overlaid on pictures of the Palestine and Sheraton hotels, gathering places for foreign contractors and journalists.

Then the hand of a "military commander" is seen pointing on a screen in which a surveillance video is playing. The commander is heard giving instructions to the "martyrdom seekers," who are identified by a nom de guerre:


"This is the gas station where brothers Abu Juheiman and Abu Dahham should stop. They should stop by the gas station in order to avoid attracting attention. Brother Abu Naim should move forward with the Hyundai car. He should keep moving forward. ... He should take the right lane towards Firdaus Square. He should keep in the right lane, in order to have a good angle. He keeps moving ... good."
The video shows Abu Naim walking toward a Honda van he drove in the attack and Abu Dahham driving a cement-mixer truck.

The commander says:


"Here you can see the Ishtar Sheraton Hotel, which will be targeted by our brother Abu Dahham, with the cement-mixer, loaded with the larger amount of explosives. It will turn left, and, Allah willing, when he enters this way, his distance from the target will not exceed 20 meters. I pray to Allah for our success."
Later, Abu Dahham is shown on camera, saying:


"I proclaim that the Armies Of Truth have arrived, and they are wreaking havoc upon the apostates and Americans. To my family I say � rejoice. By Allah, I have never been as happy as I a today. Blessed be He who, in this blessed month... Blessed be He who gave me this operation on this blessed month. I pray to Allah that I can recommend you on Judgment Day. Blessings upon Allah, Lord of the world."
In the final scene, a subtitle in Arabic says "the holy warriors are watching the execution of the raid."

Voices are heard shouting "Allah u-Akbar," or "Allah is Greatest," as a massive cloud of smoke rises on a television screen.

U.S. Defends Decision Not to Join Kyoto

The United States defended its decision not to sign the Kyoto Protocol on Monday, saying during the opening of a global summit on climate change that it is doing more than most countries to protect the earth's atmosphere.

The 10-day U.N. Climate Control Conference is considered the most important gathering on global warming since Kyoto, bringing together thousands of experts from 180 nations to brainstorm on ways to slow the alarming effects of greenhouses gases.

Leading environmental groups spent the first hours of the conference blasting Washington for not signing the landmark 1997 agreement that sets targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions around the world.

Dr. Harlan L. Watson, senior climate negotiator for the State Department, said that while President Bush declined to join the treaty, he takes global warming seriously and noted that U.S. greenhouse gas emissions had actually gone down by eight-tenths of a percent under Bush.

"With regard to what the United States is doing on climate change, the actions we have taken are next to none in the world," Watson told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the conference.

Watson said the United States spends more than $5 billion a year on efforts to slow the deterioration of the earth's atmosphere by supporting climate change research and technology, and that Bush had committed to cutting greenhouses gases some 18 percent by 2012.

Al-Zarqawi's Family Disowns Him ... Again

More than 370 members of the clan of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi joined his family Tuesday in publishing a full-page letter in Jordanian newspapers disowning him.

The letter was the family's second attempt in 20 days to convince Jordanians that it has renounced all ties to the militant who has claimed responsibility for the Nov. 9 attacks on Amman hotels in which three suicide bombers killed 60 people and wounded hundreds of others.

Al-Zarqawi, whose real name is Ahmad Fadheel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, uses a name derived from the Jordanian city of Zarqa, where he was born, about 17 miles northeast of Amman.

"We, the sons of the Bani Hassan tribe in all its branches in the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan, support and express solidarity with our cousins, the al-Khalayleh clan, and their decision to sever relations with the terrorist Ahmad Fadheel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, who calls himself Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," said the letter published in four leading newspapers.

"We condemn all terrorist actions carried out or claimed by this individual - actions which are alien to members of this tribe," continued the letter, which bore the stamps and signatures of more than 370 clan members.

Referring to the family of King Abdullah II, the letter added: "We reiterate our support for the Hashemite Crown which, God willing, will always be protected, and we uphold the pledge of our ancestors to be a sword in the hands of the noble Hashemite dynasty."

In a similar letter on Nov. 20, almost 60 members of al-Zarqawi's extended family disowned him and pledged fidelity to the crown.

A Jordanian court condemned him to death in absentia for planning the attack that led to the 2002 murder of U.S. aid worker Laurence Foley.

Time Reporter's Testimony Could Help Rove

First, it was the Washington Post's Bob Woodward dropping a bombshell in the CIA leak case that could help Vice President Dick Cheney's indicted former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's defense.

Now, insiders say White House senior official Karl Rove's lawyer thinks testimony from Time reporter Viveca Novak could take the heat off his client.

Libby's lawyers were elated by Woodward's testimony, calling it "a bombshell" and insisting that it cut the ground from under Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's case that Libby was the first official known to have talked about Plame and her CIA status with a reporter.

The defense attorneys say they plan to rely on testimony from Woodward and other reporters to show that the former Cheney aide is not guilty of lying, providing misleading statements and obstructing justice in the course of the investigation, a person familiar with their legal strategy told the Post.

It is now thought that Novak can play a similar role in the case of Karl Rove.
Reporter Novak - no relation to syndicated columnist Bob Novak, who first "outed� Valerie Plame in a June 2003 column - is due to testify in the CIA leak probe. She will allegedly testify about her conversations with Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, which he reported to Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald, rousing the prosecutor's interest.

Sources have told the Washington Post that Novak's role could be the key to helping Rove avoid an indictment in the case.

One source, however, told the Post that it was Luskin's conversations with Novak, which he reported to Fitzgerald that helped persuade the prosecutor not to indict Rove in late October, when he brought perjury and obstruction-of-justice charges against Libby.

"This is what caused [Fitzgerald] to hold off on charging" Rove, the source told the Post.

Lieberman: We Must Stay in Iraq

Fresh from his fourth trip to Iraq in the past 17 months, Sen. Joe Lieberman insists the U.S. must stay in the embattled nation and not abandon "27 million Iraqis to 10,000 terrorists."

"The Iraqi people are in reach of a watershed transformation from the primitive, killing tyranny of Saddam to modern, self-governing, self-securing nationhood � unless the great American military that has given them and us this unexpected opportunity is prematurely withdrawn," the Connecticut Democrat writes in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal.

Pointing to economic and political progress he witnessed while in Iraq, Lieberman said:

"People are working their way toward a functioning society and economy in the midst of a very brutal, inhumane, sustained terrorist war against the civilian population and the Iraqi and American military there to protect it.

"It is a war between 27 million and 10,000; 27 million Iraqis who want to live lives of freedom, opportunity and prosperity and roughly 10,000 terrorists who are either Saddam revanchists, Iraqi Islamic extremists or al-Qaida foreign fighters who know their wretched causes will be set back if Iraq becomes free and modern ...

We are fighting on the side of the 27 million because the outcome of this war is critically important to the security and freedom of America. If the terrorists win, they will be emboldened to strike us directly again and to further undermine the growing stability and progress in the Middle East."

Lieberman is encouraged by the numbers of Iraqis who have gone to the polls despite the threat of violence, by Sunni participation in the electoral process and by the thriving independent media in Iraq.

"None of these remarkable changes would have happened without the coalition forces led by the U.S.," Lieberman writes.

"And, I am convinced, almost all of the progress in Iraq and throughout the Middle East will be lost if those forces are withdrawn faster than the Iraqi military is capable of securing the country.

"I am disappointed by Democrats who are more focused on how President Bush took America into the war in Iraq almost three years ago, and by Republicans who are more worried about whether the war will bring them down in next November's elections, than they are concerned about how we continue the progress in Iraq in the months and years ahead.

"What a colossal mistake it would be for America's bipartisan political leadership to choose this moment in history to lose its will and, in the famous phrase, to seize defeat from the jaws of the coming victory."

U.S. Must Stay in Iraq

Despite calls for the U.S. to set a timetable for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, a hasty American retreat would be "disastrous,� according to a cover story article in the respected British publication The Economist.

While conceding that the insurgency in Iraq is as strong as ever, and conditions for many Iraqis remain woeful, The Economist maintains that this "does not justify a precipitate withdrawal.�

In its lead editorial, headlined "Why America must stay,� the Economist lays out the reasons:


Iraq is not Vietnam. Most Iraqis share America�s aims, and the Sunnis, who boycotted the first general election in January, are now taking part in peaceful politics.

President Bush�s efforts to spread democracy in the region are starting to bear fruit.

The Arab world may be turning against extremist elements in the insurgency � the jihadists led by al-Qaida�s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) has argued that American troops are now a barrier to further progress, and a withdrawal would deprive Zarqawi of the one thing that unites the Sunnis and jihadists.
"This has seductive logic, but flies in the face of the evidence,� The Economist states. "Most of the insurgents� victims are Iraqis, not American soldiers. There are still too few American troops, not too many. And the Iraqi forces that America is training are not yet ready to stand on their own feet.�


A fixed timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops would embolden the insurgents.


By leaving Iraq, the U.S. would not buy peace. Zarqawi and his fellow fanatics have vowed to attack America around the globe.

An American "retreat� would grant militant Islam an enormous victory, and Arabs who want to modernize their region would conclude that they cannot count on the U.S. to stand by its friends.


"The cost to America of staying in Iraq may be high, but the cost of retreat would be higher,� The Economist concludes.

Monday, November 28, 2005

Pulling US troops would lead to 'disaster' -- Kissinger

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger warned that a hasty pullout of American troops from Iraq would lead to political and military "disaster", and called on the US administration to stay the course there.

"I think to look at withdrawal from Iraq ... could lead to disaster," said Kissinger, who served as the top US diplomat in the administrations of presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

"We have to keep in mind what our objective should be, and if we leave Iraq under conditions at the end of which there will be a radical government in Baghdad, or part of the country becomes a haven for terrorism, it will have turned into a disaster that will affect the whole world," Kissinger said in an interview with CNN television.

He added that the global nature of terrorism makes it particularly difficult to chart a US exit strategy from Iraq.

"The terrorism is not confined to Iraq. It has gone from Bali in Indonesia to central Europe across many countries -- Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, Spain, in some respects India," the former diplomat said.

Kissinger told CNN that it is important to frame the discussion in broader terms.

"We should ask ourselves very thoughtfully what the political situation will be that will allow us to withdraw troops, and not simply put it in terms of the training of Iraqi troops," he said.

Congressmen injured when vehicle flips in Iraq

A military vehicle carrying three congressmen overturned on the way to the Baghdad airport, injuring two of them, the U.S. Embassy said Sunday.

Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., was airlifted to a military hospital in Germany for an MRI on his neck, and Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., was sent to a Baghdad hospital for evaluation, said Rep. Jim Marshall, D-Ga., who was also in the vehicle but was not hurt.

Calls to Skelton and Murphy on Sunday were not immediately returned, but Marshall's spokesman Doug Moore said both suffered minor injuries.

The politicians were riding in a convoy that was driving in the middle of the road, a common practice used by the military in Iraq to deter oncoming motorists. Shortly after dark, an oncoming tanker truck refused to yield, the embassy said in a statement.

"Then all of a sudden brakes get slammed on. Then we hit something and go off the side of the road and tip over," Marshall told The Macon (Ga.) Telegraph by phone from Baghdad.

Marshall said that as the vehicle toppled over, he held onto Skelton, who has limited use of his arms due to childhood polio. The embassy said the driver's quick reaction "probably averted disaster."

The delegation had traveled to Afghanistan for Thanksgiving with the troops and then on to Baghdad to meet with troops there.

Cindy book-signing a very 'lonely affair'




Photos by Associated Press, Reuters show 'Peace Mom' Sheehan waiting for buyers

While book-signings for political figures like Bill and Hillary Clinton, Ann Coulter or Sean Hannity often feature long lines and people waiting for hours, the scene at Cindy Sheehan's book-signing yesterday near President Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch was a much more lonely affair.

Photographs published by wire services including the Associated Press and Reuters depict a lonely "Peace Mom" in a virtually empty tent awaiting those seeking her autograph on her new book, "Not One More Mother's Child."

The Washington Post reported the scene this way: "Sheehan found herself addressing a crowd of only about 100 on Saturday afternoon. The large tent where supporters had erected a stage hung with the banner 'Speak Truth to Power' was only partially full. Earlier, Sheehan signed copies of her new book for an even smaller crowd."

"What if Cindy had a book signing and no one came?" asks one poster in an online messageboard. "Well we know what happened. No one cares about her but the press. Cindy is finished."

"Frankly I'm amazed the DNC/AP allowed these photos to see the light of day," writes another. "Usually their photogs do their (unlevel) best to angle their cameras and crop their pictures to make Mother Sheehan always appear to be at the center of a worshipful swarm. I'm afraid someone is going to be in hot water for letting us glimpse the truth."

CNN fires operator over Cheney's giant 'X'?


Internet reports say network claimed mark over face was 'free speech'

Reports circulating Internet blogs claim CNN has fired a telephone operator working for the network who allegedly defended a mysterious, giant "X" appearing over Vice President Dick Cheney's face as "free speech."

"We did it just to make a point. Tell them to stop lying, Bush and Cheney," the CNN operator said to Preska Thomas, co-founder of the marketing firm Team Hollywood. "Bring our soldiers home."

"Was it not freedom of speech? Yes or no?" the CNN operator explained. "If you don't like it, don't watch. ... Tell your president to stop lying."


Thomas recorded the phone conversation, and provided a copy to Bill Quick of the Daily Pundit blog, who writes in an entry dated Nov. 23, "I just got off the phone with Laurie Goldberg, senior vice president for public relations with CNN. Her statement confirms the authenticity of the tape recording and reveals the actions CNN took after learning of the incident:

A Turner switchboard operator was fired today after we were alerted to a conversation the operator had with a caller in which the operator lost his temper and expressed his personal views � behavior that was totally inappropriate. His comments did not reflect the views of CNN. We are reaching out to the caller and expressing our deep regret to her and apologizing that she did not get the courtesy entitled to her.


In a broadcast last Tuesday, CNN insisted the mysterious "X" that flashed over the face of Cheney during a televised speech the day before was created by a technical malfunction � a "computer bug" � and not a human operator.


Audio of the call is available here

Press Heralds Iyad Allawi's Claims

The global media is finally taking the pronouncements of former Iraq Prime Minister Iyad Allawi seriously - at least as long as his comments seem to undermine the war on terror.

The Iraqi police "are doing the same as (in) Saddam Hussein's time and worse," complained Allawi, referring to the brutality of the old regime in an interview with the London Observer. "These are the precise reasons why we fought Saddam Hussein and now we are seeing the same things."

Within hours Allawi's comments had been picked up by hundreds of newspapers around the world.

In June 2004, however, when Allawi linked the Iraq war to the 9/11 attacks in a U.S. television interview, he was ignored by the rest of the media.

"We know that [the Iraq war] is an extension to what has happened in New York," he told NBC's Tom Brokaw. "And the war [has] been taken out to Iraq by the same terrorists."

The press was equally silent six months earlier, when Allawi told the London Daily Telegraph that a newly uncovered document from the old intelligence service showed: "Not only did Saddam have contacts with al-Qaeda, he had contact with those responsible for the September 11 attacks."

President Should Broadcast Iraq Updates

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Sunday suggested that President Bush use an FDR-style presentation to update people on progress in the war in Iraq.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., recalled that during World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt often went on the radio in "fireside chats" to explain to the nation in detail the conduct of the war in Europe and Asia.

"I think it would be to Bush's advantage," said Warner, who served in the Navy during the war.

"It would bring him closer to the people, dispel some of this concern that understandably our people have, about the loss of life and limb, the enormous cost of this war to the American public," he said.

In an appearance Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Warner reiterated his opposition to a timetable for troop withdrawal. He sharply disagreed with Delaware Sen. Joe Biden's assertion that the military cannot maintain its baseline troop levels past next year, citing assurances from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace.

Warner responded that Pace told him on Saturday that the military will maintain force levels in part by retraining certain segments of the Army and the Guard to perform basic fighting against the insurgents.

"Artillerymen can become infantrymen, artillerymen can become policemen," he said.

139 Police Deaths, 16,000 Wounded or Injured In 2004

by Jim Kouri, CPP

The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that 139 police officers died in the line of duty -- 57 feloniously killed, 82 in accidents while working -- and over 16,000 cops were wounded or injured in 2004. The National Association of Chiefs of Police monitors police line-of-duty deaths and injuries yearly and the organization is deeply concerned with the latest figures.

The FBI's data reveals that 57 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line
of duty last year. The FBI�s Uniform Crime Report Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, 2004, showed that these officers lost their lives in 50 separate incidents in 22 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Data from two, five, and ten years ago showed that the 57 officers murdered in the line of duty in 2004 were 5 more than the 52 officers feloniously killed in 2003, 6 more than the 51 officers murdered in 2000, but 17 fewer than the 74 officers slain in 1995. Nearly 10,500 local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies submitted data regarding their officers who were killed or assaulted in 2004 to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.

A composite picture of the victim officers feloniously killed in 2004 showed that the average age was 39 and the average length of service in law enforcement was 12 years. Fifty-four of the victim officers were male. Forty-six officers were white, 10 were black, and 1 was Asian/Pacific Islander.

Of the 57 officers feloniously slain last year, 17 were killed in arrest situations. Twelve officers were slain in ambush situations, 10 officers while investigating disturbance calls, 6 while investigating suspicious persons or circumstances, 6 during traffic stops or pursuits, 3 while involved in resolving hostage situations or other high-risk tactical situations, 2 officers were slain while handling mentally deranged individuals, and 1 while handling a prisoner.

Offenders used firearms to kill 54 of the 57 victim officers. Of these 54 officers, 36 were slain with handguns, 13 with rifles, and 5 were killed with shotguns. Two officers were killed when they were intentionally hit by vehicles. One officer was killed by an individual with a knife.

In the South, the Nation�s most populous region, 27 officers were murdered in the line of duty, more than in any other region. Ten officers were slain in the Midwest, 9 in the West, and 8 in the Northeast. Three officers were slain in the U.S. Territories.

The data that law enforcement agencies provided the FBI�s UCR Program showed that 58 alleged assailants were identified in connection with the 50 separate incidents that claimed the lives of the 57 law enforcement officers. All but one of the incidents in which law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in 2004 were cleared by arrest or exceptional means such being killed.

Eighty-two law enforcement officers were killed in accidents while performing their duties in 2004. Over half of the officers killed in accidents, 48, died as a result of automobile wrecks. Ten officers died of injuries sustained in motorcycle mishaps, and 10 were killed in traffic-related incidents, e.g., struck by vehicles while directing traffic, assisting motorists, or stopping traffic at roadblocks.

Four officers were mistakenly shot, 3 died in aircraft accidents, 3 drowned, 1 officer fell to his death, and 3 were killed in other situations.

The nation�s law enforcement agencies reported that 59,373 officers were assaulted during the performance of their duties, and 16,563 of those officers suffered injuries as a result of these attacks. Personal weapons (hands, fists, feet, etc.) were used in 80.1 percent of the attacks. Firearms were used in 3.6 percent, knives or cutting instruments in 1.9 percent. Other dangerous weapons were used in 14.5 percent of the attacks on officers.

(The National Association of Chiefs of Police sponsors the American Police Hall of Fame Police Memorial. To visit it online go to www.aphf.org)