MSNBC - Rumsfeld under fire over Iraq

MSNBC - Rumsfeld under fire over Iraq: "Rumsfeld under fire over Iraq
McCain says he has �no confidence�; Schwarzkopf expresses anger | NBC, MSNBC and news services

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has come under attack from Republican Sen. John McCain and retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf over his handling of the Iraq war.

In separate interviews, McCain, of Arizona, said he had “no confidence” in Rumsfeld, citing his handling of the war in Iraq and the failure of the Pentagon to send more troops, while Schwarzkopf, the allied commander in the first Gulf War, said Rumsfeld seemed to be passing the buck when quizzed last week about the armor supply for troops on the ground.

Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World

Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World: "Dec. 12, 2004 3:24 | Updated Dec. 12, 2004 16:06
Feith to 'Post': US action against Iran can't be ruled out
By CAROLINE GLICK"

The US hopes that Iran will follow Libya's lead in abandoning its nuclear program, but nobody should rule out the possibility of military action against Teheran's nuclear sites if it does not, US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview.
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But strikingly, whereas British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw last month ruled out any possibility of military action against Iranian nuclear sites should the diplomatic path lead to failure, Feith said that "I don't think that anybody should be ruling in or ruling out anything while we are conducting diplomacy." ...
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As a principal architect of the US war on terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan, Feith is one of the most controversial members of the Bush administration. Disliked in liberal circles in the US and internationally, Feith, a staunch supporter of Israel, began his government career in 1981 as an assistant to Soviet expert Richard Pipes at the US National Security Council in the Reagan administration. In that position, as he does today for the Middle East, Feith advocated the advancement of the cause of democracy and human rights in the former Soviet bloc as a means of bringing about the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. ...

Laurie Mylroie: necon crackpot: bolstered the argument that led us into a costly war in Iraq and swayed key opinion-makers

"Armchair Provocateur" by Peter Bergen: "December 2003 | Laurie Mylroie: The Neocons' favorite conspiracy theorist.
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... What, then, gave neoconservatives like Wolfowitz and Perle such abiding faith in their own positions?

Historians will be debating that question for years, but an important part of the reason has to do with someone you may well have never heard of: Laurie Mylroie. Mylroie has an impressive array of credentials that certify her as an expert on the Middle East, national security, and, above all, Iraq. She has held faculty positions at Harvard and the U.S. Naval War College and worked at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, as well as serving as an advisor on Iraq to the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign. During the 1980s, Mylroie was an apologist for Saddam's regime, but reversed her position upon his invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and, with the zeal of the academic spurned, became rabidly anti-Saddam. In the run up to the first Gulf War, Mylroie with New York Times reporter Judith Miller wrote Saddam Hussein and the Crisis in the Gulf, a well-reviewed bestseller translated into more than a dozen languages.
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None of which was out of the ordinary, except for this: Mylroie became enamored of her theory that Saddam was the mastermind of a vast anti-U.S. terrorist conspiracy in the face of virtually all evidence and expert opinion to the contrary. In what amounts to the discovery of a unified field theory of terrorism, Mylroie believes that Saddam was not only behind the '93 Trade Center attack, but also every anti-American terrorist incident of the past decade, from the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania to the leveling of the federal building in Oklahoma City to September 11 itself. She is, in short, a crackpot, ...
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Unfortunately, Mylroie's researches have proven to be more than merely academic, as her theories have bolstered the argument that led us into a costly war in Iraq and swayed key opinion-makers in the Bush administration, who then managed to persuade seven out of 10 Americans that the Iraqi dictator had a role in the attacks on Washington and New York. So, her specious theories of Iraq's involvement in anti-American terrorism have now become part of the American zeitgeist. Meanwhile, in a recent, telling quote to Newsweek, Mylroie observed: "I take satisfaction that we went to war with Iraq and got rid of Saddam Hussein. The rest is details." Now she tells us.

Herald Sun: Fear US losing its grip [07dec04]

Herald Sun: Fear US losing its grip [07dec04]: "Phillip Coorey | New York | 07dec04

REPUBLICAN Senator John McCain has criticised the Pentagon for failing to stabilise Iraq, and has refused to endorse the reappointment of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Insurgents killed 17 civilians and three Iraqi security officers yesterday, taking the death toll from insurgent attacks to nearly 80 in three days.

As concern mounts in the US and elsewhere that Iraq is too volatile to hold elections on January 30, Senator McCain said last week's decision to increase troop numbers by 12,000 was not enough. "

Neocons join the lynch mob for ‘arrogant’ Rumsfeld

Times Online - Sunday TimesNovember 28, 2004 | Neocons join the lynch mob for ‘arrogant’ Rumsfeld | Sarah Baxter, New York

THE American defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, should be sacked, according to a growing chorus of conservative commentators who want him replaced by a figure with wider appeal.
In a seemingly innocuous Thanksgiving message to readers last week, William Kristol, the neoconservative editor of The Weekly Standard magazine, slipped in a surprise demand for Rumsfeld’s dismissal.
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Unlike Powell, Rumsfeld lacks an obvious replacement. Robert Novak, the right-wing pundit, believes Paul Wolfowitz, the neoconservative deputy defence secretary, is a “good possibility” who has been subjected to a “healthy dose of reality” about the limits of American power.

Key Neocon: would dress an enduring dictatorship with democratic robes: peace must not come at the price of liberty

[Dressing the issue ... this from one who advocated abandonning the peace process 10 years ago, and overthrowing the leadership in Iraq ... the "road to Jerusalem runs through Baghdad"!. ed]
Meyrav Wurmser on Palestinian Elections on National Review Online: "November 22, 2004, 8:27 a.m. | How Not to Promote Democracy | Palestinian elections shouldn't come before a free society has been built. | By Meyrav Wurmser

... On the surface, elections appear to be a step that will further Palestinian democracy and President Bush's vision of a free and democratic Palestinian society. In reality, however, the election, scheduled for January 9, 2005, would be part of the smoke and mirrors that is Palestinian politics. It would merely dress an enduring dictatorship with democratic robes.
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... Even if relatively orderly elections occurred in 60 days, they would not be free and democratic. Abu Mazen, who recently announced his candidacy, is trying to make sure that no one of any real influence will compete against him. Not wishing to look undemocratic, he might find — as Arafat did in the elections of 1996 — a single, unknown, and unpopular candidate to "oppose" him.
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The Bush administration, which remains committed to a vision of a free and democratic Middle East, must be certain not to legitimize oppression by endorsing Palestinian elections now. In the process of building a free and democratic society, elections are the last — not the first — step. Elections should come after limits on governmental institutions are in place and the basic freedoms of individuals have been guaranteed. Western recognition of this masquerade of freedom would only serve to strengthen the undemocratic nature of Palestinian society.

Even if elections will renew hopes for an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, peace must not come at the price of liberty. Only a free Palestinian society can confront Arafat's legacy of terror, chaos, corruption, and poverty.

— Meyrav Wurmser is the director of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Hudson Institute.

Powell 'pushed out' by Bush for seeking to rein in Israel

Telegraph | News | Powell 'pushed out' by Bush for seeking to rein in Israel: "By Charles Laurence in New York and Philip Sherwell | (Filed: 21/11/2004)

Colin Powell, the outgoing US secretary of state, was given his marching orders after telling President George W Bush that he wanted greater power to confront Israel over the stalled Middle East peace process.
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"Powell thought he could use the credit he had banked as the president's 'good cop' in foreign policy to rein in Ariel Sharon [Israel's prime minister] and get the peace process going. He was wrong."
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Vice-president Dick Cheney and his fellow hardliner, John Bolton, an under-secretary of state to Mr Powell, are both understood to have lobbied Mr Bush to replace him.

The Peter Principle and the Neocon Coup

The Peter Principle and the Neocon Coup: "November 16, 2004 | Robert Scheer: The bloodletting has begun.

I'm not referring to the latest attempt to reconquer Iraq, but rather the wholesale political revenge campaign being waged by the hard-liners in the Bush administration against anybody and everybody inside the government who challenged the way the second Persian Gulf war in a decade was marketed and run.

Out: Secretary of State Colin Powell, whose political epitaph should now read, "You break it, you own it" for his prescient but unwanted warning to the president on the danger of imperial overreach in Iraq.

Meanwhile, incompetence begat by ideological blindness has been rewarded. The neoconservatives who created the ongoing Iraq mess have more than survived the failure of their impossibly rosy scenarios for a peaceful and democratic Iraq under U.S. rule. In fact, despite calls for their resignations ... the neocon gang is thriving.
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As of today, the neocons on Zinni's list of losers — Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz; the vice president's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby; National Security Council staffer Elliott Abrams; Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld — are all still employed even as Bush's new director of central intelligence, Porter J. Goss, is eviscerating the CIA's leadership.
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All of the nation's traditional intelligence centers were bypassed by a rogue operation based in Feith's Office of Special Plans. Feith was given broad access to raw intelligence streams — the better to cherry-pick factoids and fabrications that found their way into even the president's crucial prewar State of the Union address.

Now, by successfully discarding those who won't buy into the administration's ideological fantasies of remaking the world in our image, the neoconservatives have consolidated control of the United States' vast military power. ...

The Power of One: . Bush is centralizing power in the White House in ways not seen since Richard Nixon

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: The Power of One: "By DAVID GERGEN | Published: November 19, 2004

Give the man his due: George W. Bush is emerging as one of the boldest, most audacious presidents in modern history.

Whether he is also wise is a question that will preoccupy us for another four years, but the reshuffling of his team in recent days makes clear that he intends to stretch the powers of his office to their limits. Woodrow Wilson once wrote that "the president is at liberty, both in law and conscience, to be as big a man as he can.'' President Bush comes Texas-sized.

By sending members of his White House staff to run three of the most important departments in the government - with perhaps more such appointments in the offing - Mr. Bush is centralizing power in the White House in ways not seen since Richard Nixon. Nixon had his troika of Bob Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and Henry Kissinger to run the government. Mr. Bush seems destined to run the government with his own troika: Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and Condoleezza Rice.
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... Mr. Bush is the first conservative whose policies would gradually unwind major commitments like Social Security and progressive taxes. ... The president apparently intends no less than to overhaul government, achieve long-term Republican hegemony over American politics and ensure long-term American hegemony over the world.
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The fact that Mr. Bush is acting within his rights does not mean, however, that he is also right. Critics mostly worry that the reshuffling of the national security team signals an even harder, more militaristic line toward the world. That is probably true, but one cannot discount noises from within that the president wants to turn more toward diplomacy. ...

The more immediate danger is that Mr. Bush and his troika are falling into a trap facing other re-elected presidents: hubris. ...

In Mr. Bush's case, his administration has already shown ominous signs of "group-think'' in its handling of Iraq and the nation's finances. By closing down dissent and centralizing power in a few hands, he is acting as if he truly believes that he and his team have a perfect track record, that they know best, and that they don't need any infusion of new heavyweights. He has every right to take this course, but as he knows from his Bible, pride goeth before. ...

Reign of King George II, flattery is mandatory, dissent is forbidden, and erring without admitting error is the best way to get ahead

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: A Plague of Toadies: "By MAUREEN DOWD | Published: November 18, 2004
...
In ancient Greece, the prince of Tyre tires of all the yes men around him. He chooses to trust the one courtier who intrepidly tells him: "They do abuse the king that flatter him. ... Whereas reproof, obedient and in order, fits kings, as they are men, for they may err.''

Not flatter the king? Listen to dissenting viewpoints? Rulers who admit they've erred?

It's all so B.C. (Before Cheney).

Now, in the 21st-century reign of King George II, flattery is mandatory, dissent is forbidden, and erring without admitting error is the best way to get ahead. President Bush is purging the naysayers who tried to temper crusted-nut-bar Dick Cheney and the neocon crazies on Iraq.

First, faith trumped facts. Now, loyalty trumps competence. ... And Colin Powell, who caved and made the bogus U.N. case for war. Then, when he wanted to stay a bit longer to explore Mideast opportunities arising from Arafat's death, he got shoved out by a president irked by the diplomat's ambivalence and popularity.
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In 2002, Cheney & Co. set up their own C.I.A. in the Pentagon to bypass the C.I.A. and conjure up evidence on Iraqi W.M.D. Now Mr. Cheney has sent his lackey, Porter Goss, who helped him try to suffocate the 9/11 commission, to bully the C.I.A. into falling into line.

In an ominous echo of the old loyalty oaths, Mr. Goss has warned employees at the agency that their job is to "support the administration and its policies in our work.'' ....

New C.I.A. Chief Tells Workers to Back Administration Policies: getting an unvarnished picture of our intelligence situation ?

The New York Times > Washington > New C.I.A. Chief Tells Workers to Back Administration Policies: "By DOUGLAS JEHL | Published: November 17, 2004

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 - Porter J. Goss, the new intelligence chief, has told Central Intelligence Agency employees that their job is to "support the administration and its policies in our work,'' a copy of an internal memorandum shows.

"As agency employees we do not identify with, support or champion opposition to the administration or its policies," Mr. Goss said in the memorandum, which was circulated late on Monday. He said in the document that he was seeking "to clarify beyond doubt the rules of the road."

While his words could be construed as urging analysts to conform with administration policies, Mr. Goss also wrote, "We provide the intelligence as we see it - and let the facts alone speak to the policymaker.''
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"It's just very hard to divine what's going on over there,'' said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, who said he and other members of the Senate intelligence committee would be seeking answers at closed sessions this week. "But on issue after issue, there's a real question about whether the country and the Congress are going to get an unvarnished picture of our intelligence situation at a critical time.''

GOP Pushes Rule Change to Protect DeLay's Post [... 4 ethics violations are not enough. ed.]

GOP Pushes Rule Change to Protect DeLay's Post (washingtonpost.com): "By Charles Babington Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, November 17, 2004; Page A01

House Republicans proposed changing their rules last night to allow members indicted by state grand juries to remain in a leadership post, a move that would benefit Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) in case he is charged by a Texas grand jury that has indicted three of his political associates, according to GOP leaders. "
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The GOP rule drew little notice until this fall, when DeLay's associates were indicted and Republican lawmakers began to worry that their majority leader might be forced to step aside if the grand jury targeted him next. Democrats and watchdog groups blasted the Republicans' proposal last night.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said last night: "If they make this rules change, Republicans will confirm yet again that they simply do not care if their leaders are ethical. If Republicans believe that an indicted member should be allowed to hold a top leadership position in the House of Representatives, their arrogance is astonishing."
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The House ethics committee on Oct. 6 admonished DeLay for asking federal aviation officials to track an airplane involved in the highly contentious 2003 redistricting battle, and for conduct that suggested political donations might influence legislative action. The ethics panel deferred action on a complaint related to TRMPAC, noting that the grand jury has not finished its work.

US accused of 'torture flights': details bolster claims by the former British ambassador of interrogation by torture

: "November 14, 2004 | US accused of �torture flights� | Stephen Grey

AN executive jet is being used by the American intelligence agencies to fly terrorist suspects to countries that routinely use torture in their prisons.

The movements of the Gulfstream 5 leased by agents from the United States defence department and the CIA are detailed in confidential logs obtained by The Sunday Times which cover more than 300 flights.

Countries with poor human rights records to which the Americans have delivered prisoners include Egypt, Syria and Uzbekistan, according to the files. The logs have prompted allegations from critics that the agency is using such regimes to carry out �torture by proxy� � a charge denied by the American government.
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Analysis of the plane’s flight plans, covering more than two years, shows that it always departs from Washington DC. It has flown to 49 destinations outside America, including the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba and other US military bases, as well as Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Morocco, Afghanistan, Libya and Uzbekistan.

Witnesses have claimed that the suspects are frequently bound, gagged and sedated before being put on board the planes, which do not have special facilities for prisoners but are kitted out with tables for meetings and screens for presentations and in-flight films.
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Its prisoner transfer missions were first reported in May by the Swedish television programme Cold Facts. It described how American agents had arrived in Stockholm in the Gulfstream in December 2001 to take two suspected terrorists from Sweden to Egypt.

At the time of what was presented as an “extradition” to Egypt, Swedish ministers made no public mention of American involvement in the detention of Ahmed Agiza, 42, and Muhammed Zery, 35, who was later cleared.

Witnesses described seeing the prisoners handed to US agents whose faces were masked by hoods. The clothes of the handcuffed prisoners were cut off and they were dressed in nappies covered by orange overalls before being forcibly given sedatives by suppository.

The Gulfstream flew them to Egypt, where both prisoners claimed they were beaten and tortured with electric shocks to their genitals. Despite liberal Swedish laws on freedom of information, diplomatic telegrams on the case released to the media were edited to conceal the complaints of torture.
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The details bolster claims by Craig Murray, the former British ambassador, that America has sent terrorist suspects from Afghanistan to Uzbekistan to be interrogated by torture.

In a memo, whose disclosure last month contributed to Murray’s removal, he told Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, that the CIA station chief in Tashkent had “readily acknowledged torture was deployed in obtaining intelligence”.

White House Orders CIA to Fire Those Who Where Disloyal to Bush

White House Orders CIA to Fire Those Who Where Disloyal to Bush - Independent Media TV: "November 14, 2004 | By: Knut Royce | Newsday

WASHINGTON -- The White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President George W. Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to knowledgeable sources.

'The agency is being purged on instructions from the White House,' said a former senior CIA official who maintains close ties to both the agency and to the White House. 'Goss was given instructions ... to get rid of those soft leakers and liberal Democrats. The CIA is looked on by the White House as a hotbed of liberals and people who have been obstructing the president's agenda.'

One of the first casualties appears to be Stephen R. Kappes, deputy director of clandestine services, the CIA's most powerful division. The Washington Post reported yesterday that Kappes had tendered his resignation after a confrontation with Goss' chief of staff, Patrick Murray, but at the behest of the White House had agreed to delay his decision till tomorrow. "

U.S. Military Probes Shooting of Iraqi in Falluja: "possible law of war violations" by U.S. Marines

Excite News: "U.S. Military Probes Shooting of Iraqi in Falluja | Nov 15, 9:07 PM (ET)

A video grab by television pool shot by U.S. Network NBC shows a U.S. Marine pointing his assault...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military has begun an investigation into possible war crimes after a television pool report by NBC showed a Marine shooting dead a wounded and unarmed Iraqi in a Falluja mosque, officials said on Monday.

The Iraqi was one of five wounded left in the mosque after Marines fought their way in on Friday and Saturday. The U.S. military has accused insurgents in Iraq of using mosques to launch attacks against American forces.
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Maj. Douglas Powell, a Marine Corps spokesman at the Pentagon, said the investigation, being conducted by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, focused on "possible law of war violations" by U.S. Marines.
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A Marine can be heard saying on the pool footage provided to Reuters Television: "He's f***ing faking he's dead. He faking he's f***ing dead."

"The Marine then raises his rifle and fires into the man's head. The pictures are too graphic for us to broadcast," Sites said.

Sites said the shot prisoner "did not appear to be armed or threatening in any way."

Bush Chooses Rice (foreign policy hard-liner) to Replace Powell: Stephen Hadley to replace Rice

Yahoo! News - Bush Chooses Rice to Replace Powell: "Bush Chooses Rice to Replace Powell | 27 minutes ago White House - AP | By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) has selected Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), his national security adviser and trusted confidant, to replace Colin Powell (news - web sites) as secretary of state, officials said Monday, in a major shakeup of the president's national security team. Three other Cabinet secretaries also resigned.

Powell, a retired four-star general who often clashed on Iraq (news - web sites) and other foreign policy issues with more hawkish members of Bush's administration, said he was returning to private life once his successor was in place.

The Cabinet exodus promised a starkly different look to Bush's second-term team. Rice is considered more of a foreign policy hard-liner than the moderate Powell.
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Stephen Hadley, now the deputy national security adviser, is expected to replace Rice at the White House, the official said.

Deputy Chief Resigns From CIA

washingtonpost.com: Deputy Chief Resigns From CIA: "Agency Is Said to Be in Turmoil Under New Director Goss | By Dana Priest and Walter Pincus | Washington Post Staff Writers |
Saturday, November 13, 2004; Page A01

The deputy director of the CIA resigned yesterday after a series of confrontations over the past week between senior operations officials and CIA Director Porter J. Goss's new chief of staff that have left the agency in turmoil, according to several current and former CIA officials.

John E. McLaughlin, a 32-year CIA veteran who was acting director for two months this summer until Goss took over, resigned after warning Goss that his top aide, former Capitol Hill staff member Patrick Murray, was treating senior officials disrespectfully and risked widespread resignations, the officials said. ...

It is far, far worse!-- Palestinians living on either side will be cut off, 30km trek for [Ethnic cleansing by overcrowding and inexorable pressure?]

CounterPunch: America's Best Political Newsletter: "June 14, 2004
Walls and Checkpoints | The Nightmare Comes True | By URI AVNERY

I thought it was terrible. I was wrong. It is far, far worse!--These words sum up my feelings at that moment.
I was standing on a hill overlooking the infamous Kalandia checkpoint.

Below me was a narrow road, packed with Palestinians in the blazing sun, 30 degrees centigrade in the shade (but there was no shade) trudging towards the checkpoint. Very soon this road will be transformed. It will be widened to three lanes and be reserved for Israelis: on both sides of it, 8-meter high walls will spring up. It will allow the settlers of the Jordan valley to reach Tel-Aviv in about an hour. The Palestinians living on either side will be cut off from each other.

This is a small part of the new reality that is rapidly being created on the West Bank and that is changing the country we knew and loved beyond recognition.
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Since successive Israeli governments have prevented the Palestinians in East Jerusalem from building new homes, the severe overcrowding has forced a mass exodus to a-Ram, which has grown into a town of 60 thousand inhabitants. Most of them are officially still Jerusalem residents, carrying the blue identity cards of inhabitants of Israel. This allows them to come to Jerusalem, a drive of 10 minutes, work there, tend to their businesses, go to the hospitals and the universities there.

This is about to stop. ...
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The sole exit from this walled-in area will be a narrow bridge connecting it with the adjacent area to its east, consisting of several Palestinian villages, which will be surrounded by another barrier. This enclave will have a narrow exit to the Ramallah enclave. Through this it will be possible for a person from a-Ram to reach Ramallah, God willing, by a roundabout route of some 30 kilometers, instead of the ten minutes or so it took before the occupation. ...

Top Lawyers Call Legal OK for Torture 'Preposterous': "Lawyers who are employed by the US government have a responsibility to uphold .. US laws"

t r u t h o u t - Top Lawyers Call Legal OK for Torture 'Preposterous': "Dismay at Attempt to Find Legal Justification for Torture | By Edward Alden | Financial Times | Thursday 10 June 2004

Harold Hongju Koh, dean of Yale University's law school and a former US assistant secretary of state, went to Geneva in 2000 to present the first US report on its compliance with the UN 1994 Convention against Torture. He says he told the global gathering the US was 'unalterably committed to a world without torture.'

This week's revelations that Bush administration lawyers had sought to find legal justifications for torturing terrorist detainees have left him dumbfounded.

'They are blatantly wrong,' he says. 'It's just erroneous legal analysis. The notion that the president has the constitutional power to permit torture is like saying he has the constitutional power to commit genocide.'
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"There are serious ethical shortcomings here," he says. "Lawyers who are employed by the US government have a responsibility to uphold and enforce the laws of the United States," which include domestic and international legal prohibitions on torture. "To make an argument that the president's wartime powers give him the right to avoid these statutes is preposterous."

Sanchez, top U.S. commander in Iraq ordered prisoners hidden from Red Cross: "contrary to Army doctrine, and in violation of international law."

USNews.com: How the military treated some inmates at Abu Ghraib like "ghosts" (6/21/04): "6/21/04 Hiding a bad guy named triple X | By Edward T. Pound

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, issued a classified order last November directing military guards to hide a prisoner, later dubbed 'Triple X' by soldiers, from Red Cross inspectors and keep his name off official rosters. The disclosure, by military sources, is the first indication that Sanchez was directly involved in efforts to hide prisoners from the Red Cross, a practice that was sharply criticized by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba in a report describing abuses of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

Taguba blamed the 800th Military Police Brigade, which guarded the prison, for allowing "other government agencies"--a euphemism that includes the CIA--to hide "ghost" detainees at Abu Ghraib. The practice, he wrote, "was deceptive, contrary to Army doctrine, and in violation of international law." Taguba's report did not cite the November 18 directive issued by Sanchez to hide Triple X, identified as a high-ranking terrorist. It is not known if Taguba saw the directive. He declined to comment. The Army said it could not discuss a classified order. ...

The newly disclosed details about Pentagon contracts with Halliburton raise questions about assertions by VP Cheney

The New York Times > Washington > Procurement: White House Officials and Cheney Aide Approved Halliburton Contract in Iraq, Pentagon Says: "By ERIK ECKHOLM | Published: June 14, 2004

In the fall of 2002, in the preparations for possible war with Iraq, the Pentagon sought and received the assent of senior Bush administration officials, including the vice president's chief of staff, before hiring the Halliburton Company to develop secret plans for restoring Iraq's oil facilities, Pentagon officials have told Congressional investigators.

The newly disclosed details about Pentagon contracting do not suggest improper political pressures to direct business to Halliburton, the Houston-based company that Vice President Dick Cheney once led.

But they raise questions about assertions by Mr. Cheney and other administration officials that he knew nothing in advance of the Halliburton contracts and that the decisions were made by career procurement specialists, without involvement by senior political appointees....

Bush takes a tongue-lashing from the Pope ... [in the absece of] respect for basic human rights, "neither war nor terrorism will ever be overcome"

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Bush takes a tongue-lashing from the Pope over Iraq: "John Hooper in Rome and John Aglionby in Singapore | Saturday June 5, 2004 |The Guardian

The Pope yesterday subjected George Bush to a very public, relentlessly critical assessment of the US administration's performance in Iraq, attacking 'deplorable' abuses of prisoners and calling for an international solution to the country's crisis.

During the president's visit to the Vatican, which the administration had hoped would help him win Catholic votes in November's presidential election, the Pope warned Mr Bush he would never succeed in the war on terrorism if he failed to ensure respect for basic human rights.

And he urged him to involve the United Nations in an oper ation for the swift return of sovereignty to Iraq.

In a clear reference to the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib jail, the pontiff said: "In the past few weeks _ deplorable events have come to light which have troubled the civic and religious conscience of all and made more difficult a serene and resolute commitment to shared human values.

"In the absence of such a commitment, neither war nor terrorism will ever be overcome." ...

Second top official to quit CIA

BBC NEWS | Americas | Second top official to quit CIA: " Friday, 4 June, 2004, 14:07 GMT 15:07 UK

A second top CIA official is to retire from his post, less than a day after the surprise resignation of the agency's director George Tenet.

James Pavitt, deputy director for operations, is said to have made the decision some weeks ago. [Pavitt has been in charge of the CIA's spies for the past five years]

The departures come as the agency is braced for reports expected to criticise its conduct in the run-up to the 9/11 attacks and the war in Iraq.

The CIA says Mr Pavitt's decision was unconnected with Mr Tenet's departure.
But analysts say the move will mean more upheaval at a critical time for the agency. "

The CIA's Tenet resigns: "Was he pushed? to make him a scapegoat for failures in Iraq and elsewhere ...

Economist.com | The CIA�s Tenet resigns: "Was he pushed? | Jun 4th 2004 | From The Economist Global Agenda

George Tenet has resigned as head of the Central Intelligence Agency, citing personal reasons. But speculation is rife that the Bush administration wants to make him a scapegoat for failures in Iraq and elsewhere. Whether he jumped or was pushed, Mr Tenet will not take all the blame with him

... Mr Bush’s sorrow came under immediate suspicion. America's intelligence services, of which Mr Tenet is the most prominent member, have overseen enormous intelligence failures, most famously the lack of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq and the failure to “connect the dots” of the September 11th plot. Many have called for his resignation in the past three years.

So why did he oblige now? The political calendar is sure to be central to speculation on the subject. The presidential elections are just five months away, and continuing violence in Iraq is making Mr Bush’s signature foreign-policy achievement look to more and more voters like a big mistake. Yet there has not been a high-profile resignation yet, fuelling criticism of pigheadedness in the administration. After the Abu Ghraib prison-abuse scandal there were calls for the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary. But for Mr Bush to sack Mr Rumsfeld would be highly embarrassing, as the defence chief is closely associated with the president and his administration’s style. ...
...
Recently, the Senate delivered yet another blow to the CIA, a 400-page report on the WMD intelligence before the Iraq war, which showers plenty of criticism on the agency. Some suggest that the report was the last straw for Mr Tenet. Or perhaps he really was shoved out by a calculating administration for one of the reasons above. ...

Bush May Hire Lawyer in Probe Over CIA Leak

Excite - News: "Bush May Hire Lawyer in Probe Over CIA Leak | Jun 2, 8:10 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush has sought a lawyer to represent him in the criminal probe into who was responsible for a leak that was seen as retaliation against a critic of the Iraq war, the White House said on Wednesday.

'The president has had discussions with an outside attorney, and in the event that he needs advice he would retain him,' said White House spokesman Allen Abney, naming the lawyer as Jim Sharp."