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By Craig Timberg and Daniel Halperin
$10.98
By Jeff Sharlet
$17.13
$17
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Composite: acc-tv.com/50states.com
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Juneau is hardly the top American target for terrorists, so what’s Blackwater doing in Alaska’s capital? Author Stuart Archer Cohen has spotted uniformed guards from the private security contractor, and he has some clues as to why they’re there.
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U.S. Navy / Petty Officer 3rd Class Josue L. Escobosa
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The Defense Business Board, an official oversight body appointed by the secretary of defense, has warned the president-elect that the Pentagon’s bloated budget ($512 billion this year, not including war costs) is “not sustainable.” An unprecedented spending spree since 9/11 has run head-on into a financial meltdown, and Barack Obama is now stuck in the middle.
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By William Pfaff — Less apparent to most people than the economic crisis, but just as real, are the signs of an impending crash of an American military system in which, since the end of the Cold War, Pentagon dysfunction has metastasized so uncontrollably as to scandalize the men who have overseen it.
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Antônio Milena / ABr
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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert isn’t exactly popular these days. Forced to resign in disgrace, it may have been with the weight of politics leaving his shoulders that he let loose during an interview with an Israeli newspaper. Among other revelations, Olmert said his country was stuck in a 1948 mind-set and must now give up virtually all contested territory—including Jerusalem and the West Bank.
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Northrop Grumman
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Unnecessary and extraordinarily expensive, the once-green-lit controversial KC-X midair refueling tanker program has stalled, according to the Pentagon. Any movement on the $40 billion contract to purchase new Air Force tankers will have to wait for the next U.S. administration, a clear sign that military-industrial complex spending is an institutional, rather than administrative, problem.
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joezuikerforcongress.com
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Pork, as in earmarks, not as in pig, is again in vogue this political season only a year after a 2007 congressional promise to curb what some call wasteful spending in politicians’ home districts. At the top of the earmarking ladder is the defense authorization bill (read military-industrial complex), which saw a 29 percent increase in district spending since 2007.
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Thanks to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the privatization of the military and the surge in defense spending since 9/11, individual Pentagon auditors now have to keep track of more than three times as much money as they did 10 years ago. Because of limited resources, the Defense Department inspector general revealed in a recent report, about half of the military’s $316 billion weapons budget went under the radar last year.
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Robert Scheer discusses his new book, “The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America,” with USC’s chair of history on the “Politics of Culture” radio show.
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blog.ecr.co.za
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Sen. John Kerry (remember him?) has penned an Op-Ed for The Washington Post, taking issue with President Bush’s—and by extension, John McCain’s—argument that engaging in talks with Iran would constitute a dangerous gesture of “appeasement.” The No. 1 reason Kerry thinks the GOP leaders’ stance is wrong? Well, “In short, not talking to Iran has failed. Miserably.” Above, Iranian President Ahmadinejad.
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Is some of what we now consider common knowledge about the run-up to the Iraq war wrong—for example, that we were deceived about the U.S.‘s reasons for invading Iraq? Former Pentagon official Douglas Feith, who has been harshly criticized for his involvement in that process, thinks so—and he has a new book to make his point. Here he faces Jon Stewart and his “Daily Show” audience to talk about it all.
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The U.S. military carried out an overnight airstrike in Somalia, targeting the country’s primary al-Qaida cell—and by Thursday morning the man considered the group’s leader, Aden Hashi Ayro, was confirmed dead, along with 10 others.
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AP photo / Carol Phelps
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By Robert Scheer — A trillion dollars here, a trillion dollars there, and soon you’re talking real money. But when it comes to reporting on what the Bush war legacy has cost American taxpayers, the media have been shockingly indifferent to the highest run-up in military spending since World War II.
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By Marie Cocco — The overdose of Reagan nostalgia to which we’ve been subjected during the Republican presidential primaries is as understandable as it is misplaced.
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It’s unfortunately not unusual anymore to hear about the politicization of American legal and intelligence institutions under the Bush administration, but, even so, this report by The Nation’s Ross Tuttle about how the trials of six key prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have allegedly been rigged from the get-go is disturbing. Updated
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The Washington Post has obtained a number of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s “snowflakes,” curt memos fired off at a rate of up to 60 a day. The documents offer rare, unpolished insight into one of the principal architects of the Iraq war, who “argued that Muslims avoid ‘physical labor’ and wrote of the need to ‘keep elevating the threat,’ ‘link Iraq to Iran’ and develop ‘bumper sticker statements’ to rally public support for an increasingly unpopular war.”
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AP photo / Junji Kurokawa
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By Robert Scheer — Not to stoke any of the inane conspiracy theories running wild on the Internet, but if Osama bin Laden wasn’t on the payroll of Lockheed-Martin or some other large defense contractor, he deserves to have been. What a boondoggle 9/11 has been for the merchants of war, who this week announced yet another quarter of whopping profits made possible by George Bush’s pretending to fight terrorism by throwing money at outdated Cold War-style weapons systems.
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On Friday night, not long after Russian President Vladimir Putin invoked the historical specter of the Cuban missile crisis in reference to President Bush’s planned missile shield in Europe, the U.S. successfully carried out another missile defense test off the coast of Kauai.
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AP photo / Ron Edmonds
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By Robert Scheer — Hey, a billion here, a billion there, who’s counting? Not the State Department, which admitted this week that it can’t say “specifically what it received” for the $1.2 billion it paid DynCorp, ostensibly to train the Iraqi police—other than that somebody got an Olympic-size swimming pool out of the deal.
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AP photo / Nabil al-Jurani
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The British government is planning to downsize its military presence in Iraq this May by 800 to leave a total of 7,000 troops, a move Defense Secretary John Reid insists is not meant to signal a “handover of responsibility” to Iraqi forces, according to the BBC. Updated
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AP photo / Charlie Niebergall
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By Robert Scheer — It’s not just Bushie loyalists and Republicans who are gunning for more money to be poured (out of taxpayers’ pockets) into the Iraq war chest. Take Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), who is aiming to double Bush’s proposed $12 billion in funding for the rapid production of mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles—a proposition which, Scheer argues, is about much more than the security of U.S. troops.
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AP photo / LM Otero
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Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Philip Coyle knows a thing or two about the “staggering” amounts of money the U.S. funnels into the military-industrial complex, and why it is so difficult to stanch the profiteering.
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Add another $50 billion to the tab the Bush administration is looking to run up in military costs for the ‘08 fiscal year, bringing the potential total to around $200 billion if this latest request goes through.
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By Chris Hedges — In his book “Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia,” John Gray warns that as the era of liberal intervention in international affairs wanes, it is being replaced with “primitive versions of religion” that will be used to fuel apocalyptic violence.
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iraqfact.com
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By Robert Scheer — The latest Blackwater USA scandal, in which privately contracted American security troops gunned down innocent bystanders in Baghdad, might cause the Iraqi government to finally give firms like Blackwater their marching orders—if only it could command the power to order these mercenary operations out of the country.
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AP Photo / Charles Dharapak
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Aaron Glantz —
The sorry state of care of American veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan is not accidental. It’s on purpose. Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Bush administration has fought every effort to improve care for wounded and disabled veterans.
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tinker-af.org
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This is the kind of human error story that makes a strong case for worldwide nuclear disarmament: Armytimes.com reported Wednesday that five nuclear warheads were mistakenly carried on a B-52 bomber from North Dakota to Louisiana on Aug. 30—which means they were effectively missing for more than three hours.
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AP Photo/Steve Helber
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By Robert Scheer — What in the world was Sen. Hillary Clinton thinking when she attacked Sen. Barack Obama for ruling out the use of nuclear weapons in going after Osama bin Laden? And why aren’t her supporters more concerned about yet another egregious example of Clinton’s consistent backing for the mindless militarism that is dragging this nation to ruin?
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The Army is punishing seven officers for mishandling the Pat Tillman case, according to ABC News. The harshest punishment reportedly is being meted out to Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger, who allegedly deceived investigators about when he knew the facts about Tillman’s death.
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Thanks in part to executives’ decision to unload the trouble-prone offshoot KBR in April, multinational corporation (and Dick Cheney’s former employer) Halliburton more than doubled its profits during the three-month period ending June 30, according to the BBC.
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AP Photo / Hans Punz
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Relations between the U.S. and Russia may be strained by the Bush administration’s planned implementation of an anti-missile shield in Eastern Europe. Russian President Vladimir Putin had strong words for the U.S. Tuesday as Kremlin officials proudly unveiled new missiles—a month before Putin and President Bush will meet in Kennebunkport, Maine.
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inhs.info
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ITT, the premier night vision equipment supplier to the U.S. military, will pay $100 million in fines for violating the Arms Exports Control Act by sending sensitive information to China, Singapore and Britain without permission. The U.S. attorney in charge of the case said American soldiers were the “principal victims of ITT’s crimes.”
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news.bbc.co.uk
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Spy satellites provide much of the intelligence community’s raw data, whether snapshots of Iran’s nuclear facilities or al-Qaida training camps. David Kaplan has the story on how the National Reconnaissance Office, the $7.5-billion-a-year agency that builds and operates the satellites, has had to contend with potentially massive fraud among its many contractors.
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According to internal audit documents obtained by The Washington Post, the Defense Department wasted millions of dollars by farming out contracting to the Interior Department in an effort to “expedite” the process. Through the program, Interior routinely awarded overpriced and under-monitored no-bid contracts in exchange for a fee from the Pentagon.
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The Pentagon has asked the White House for an additional $99.7 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for a total increase of $50 billion over last year’s record spending. According to the Congressional Research Service, military spending on Iraq, Afghanistan and other operations has exceeded $500 billion so far.
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pageoneq.com
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The Pentagon is expected to recommend expanding both the military and its presence in Iraq as part of its “double down” strategy. Another element of the plan, to be presented to President Bush on Wednesday, is likely to include a direct confrontation with Moqtada al-Sadr and his militia.
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Robert Gates has been confirmed by the Senate with enormous support. While much has been made of Gates’ “fresh perspective” on the war, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) pointed out that it is the president who structures policy. And this president is notorious for selectively listening to advice.
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wcsh6.com
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When asked during his confirmation hearing today whether the United States was winning the war in Iraq, Robert Gates said simply, “No, sir.” The nominee for defense secretary, who later went on to soften his position, is expected to receive a speedy confirmation.
Update: The Senate Armed Services Committee has voted unanimously to recommend approval of Gates’ confirmation.
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DoD / R.D. Ward
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Another confidential memo has landed in the hands of The New York Times, this one written by Don Rumsfeld himself. The disgraced former defense secretary suggested major changes in Iraq strategy, including the possibility of troop withdrawals: “In my view it is time for a major adjustment.” Bush apparently agreed, firing Rumsfeld just two days later.
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At a Democratic Senate forum Monday, several former U.S. generals and colonels called the secretary of defense incompetent and negligent in his prosecution of the Iraq war. Above, Gen. John Batiste, a “lifelong Republican” who retired from the service “on principle,” accuses Rumsfeld of lying to the American people in order to bolster support for the war.
(Let the Swift-Boating begin!)
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Crooks and Liars
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Keith Olbermann delivered a masterful retort on Wednesday to Donald Rumsfeld’s recent diatribe on fascism. With a commentary as apt as it was eloquent, Olbermann excoriated the defense secretary’s very patriotism: “In what country was Mr. Rumsfeld raised? As a child, of whose heroism did he read? On what side of the battle for freedom did he dream one day to fight? With what country has he confused? the United States of America?” (Video & Transcript)
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Peter Scheer
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Donald Rumsfeld paid a visit to a missile defense interceptor site on Sunday, and managed limited praise for the failure-ridden program. The Bush administration, which deployed the system before testing was complete, has plans for expansion with a new base in Europe.
Posted on Aug 29, 2006
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From GOP.com
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RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman has released a video titled “From NDR to Ned Lamont: The Democratic Party’s Transformation From Strength to Weakness.” Its message is obvious. Its logic is ludicrous—i.e. that only blind adherence to Bush’s failed policies will make America safe. (More after the jump….)
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The secretary of state said that Pyongyang’s launch of a long-range ballistic missile “would be a very serious matter and indeed a provocative act.”
More info on North Korea’s preparations for a launch—which could buoy Bush’s campaign for a Star Wars missile defense shield.
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A former Dept. of Defense staffer says that the U.S., in building megabases in Iraq, has all but given up on policing the country, and will send its troops out only to quell large riots. “The overarching U.S. strategy is to avoid the kind of big eruptions that get media attention.”
Posted on May 26, 2006
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The former “straight-shooter” (who has recently reversed his stances on several issues) is nevertheless steadfast on his support of the Iraq war, despite being “a bit resentful” of the Secretary of Defense “for the way the war has been poorly handled.” (via Huff Po)
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The presidential spokesman won’t say at what point the president learned of a Pentagon report which concluded that Iraqi weapons trailers discovered after the invasion were not—as Bush later claimed—WMD factories.
No wonder McClellan won’t answer. This could amount to proof positive that Bush outright lied about WMD.
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The two government teams used fake documents to bring the radioactive materials through northern and southern borders.
And Bush & Co. are still pushing for a missile defense shield.
Posted on Mar 28, 2006
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The Washington Post pulls back the curtain on the firm responsible for producing pro-U.S. propaganda in Iraq. (Hint: they call propaganda “influence.”)
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From aoqz76.dsl.pipex.com
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The House just voted down an amendment that would have provided $1.25 billion for port inspections and disaster preparedness. Meanwhile, as Think Progress points out, the Bush budget contains an increase of $1.7 billion for a Star Wars-esque missile defense program—which doesn’t even work.
May the Force be with us.
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Real American Boy: How Our Byzantine Immigration System and Failed Economy May Have Made a Terrorist
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