Steve Gilliard, 1964-2007

It is with tremendous sadness that we must convey the news that Steve Gilliard, editor and publisher of The News Blog, passed away June 2, 2007. He was 42.

To those who have come to trust The News Blog and its insightful, brash and unapologetic editorial tone, we have Steve to thank from the bottom of our hearts. Steve helped lead many discussions that mattered to all of us, and he tackled subjects and interest categories where others feared to tread.

Please keep Steve's friends and family in your thoughts and prayers.

Steve meant so much to us.

We will miss him terribly.

Turks mass for Kurd attack

Turkey's military massed more troops and tanks on the border with Iraq Thursday as the country's military chief said he was ready to stage a cross-border offensive to fight Kurds.

His latest remarks appeared to put Erdogan's government under pressure to ask for approval from parliament to send soldiers into Iraq to fight separatist Kurdish guerrillas.

The United States opposes any unilateral Turkish military action, fearing it could destabilize northern Iraq - the most stable part of the war-torn country.

Past cross-border operations have yielded mixed results, with many guerrillas sheltering in hide-outs and emerging to fight again once the bulk of Turkish units withdrew from Iraq. A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the military could set up a buffer zone in northern Iraq to block Kurdish rebels from entering Turkey.

Labels: Iraq, Kurds, Turkey

Labels: afghanistan, Iraq

Early departures clip Bush security team

WASHINGTON - Top members of President Bush's national security team are leaving in one of the earliest waves of departures from a second-term administration — nearly two years before Bush's term ends.

As rancor in the nation rises over handling of the war in Iraq, at least 20 senior aides have either retired or resigned from important posts at the White House, Pentagon and State Department in the past six months.

Some have left for lucrative positions in the private sector. Some have gone to academic or charitable institutions. The latest was Deputy National Security Adviser J.D. Crouch, who spoke favorably of Bush's policies as he announced he was leaving last week.

Turnover is normal as an administration nears its end, but "this is a high number," said Paul Light, a professor of public service at New York University and an expert on government.

"You would expect to see vacancies arise as things wind down, but it's about six months early for this kind of a mass exodus," he said.

One reason may be that Vice President Dick Cheney will not run to succeed Bush in 2008, setting the stage for wholesale changes at all levels of government no matter who wins the election. Also, several of the departures were not voluntary.

Then just this month, Randall Tobias, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development who held a rank equivalent to deputy secretary of state, resigned after being linked to a Washington call girl scandal.

Some officials, however, speaking only privately, say some people may be leaving to avoid being associated with the increasingly unpopular Iraq conflict.

Labels: Bush, Iraq

Labels: Contractors, Iraq, Withdrawal

Labels: Cheney, Iraq

Really not much to say about this. Except of course that is the stupidest idea yet. See previous comment about incoherence. A wall, good lord. Whats next?

Labels: Iraq, Wall

Wolfowitz girlfriend planned the Iraqi government
by leevank

Tue Apr 17, 2007 at 08:05:02 PM PDT

As if the tangled web of Paul Wolfowitz and his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, weren't already sordid enough, now comes word that while he was Deputy Secretary of Defense, the Pentagon ordered Science Applications International Corp., a Pentagon contractor, to enter into a subcontract with Ms. Riza under which she spent approximately a month in the spring of 2003 "studying ways to form a government in Iraq."

Here's the way Reuters describes the arrangement:

leevank's diary :: ::
SAIC said Riza's subcontract lasted from April 25 to May 31, 2003. She was paid expenses but no salary during her trip to Iraq, at her request, according to the contractor. [NOTE: The article doesn't make it clear whether she was paid a salary for the portion of time under the contract in which she wasn't actually in Iraq, but was presumably drafting whatever report she prepared -- if she actually prepared one.]

Melissa Koskovich, a spokeswoman for SAIC, said the contractor "had no role in the selection of the personnel who comprised the Iraq Governance Group under this contract."

Defense sources said the Pentagon was reviewing the matter.

I'd be fascinated to know who, other than Ms. Riza, constituted the "Iraq Governance Group," and what work product Ms. Riza actually delivered. It's not enough that Wolfowitz had a major role in leading this country into an unnecessary war that I think may well turn out to be the most serious foreign policy blunder in this country's history. No, he couldn't leave bad enough alone, but had to get his girlfriend a job planning the most screwed-up occupation and transfer to a new government in perhaps the entire history of military occupations.

I've got a suggestion for Mr. Wolfowitz: After you get fired by the World Bank, why don't you and your honey move to Baghdad and form your little love nest somewhere outside the Green Zone, where you can have lots of togetherness while living in the middle of the great success that you've created? Maybe the Iraqis will be so impressed by this great love affair between a Jewish man and an Arab Muslim woman that they'll realize the foolishness of their silly sectarian quarrels, and Iraq will become the shining beacon of tolerance and democracy that you told us it would be. Of course, things might not turn out that way, but since you're willing to take big risks with other people's lives, I'm sure you won't hesitate to take some risks with your own.

Labels: Iraq, wingnuttery, wolfowitz

BAGHDAD (AP) A raging, daylong battle erupted in central Baghdad on Tuesday and four Iraqi soldiers were killed, 16 U.S. soldiers were wounded and a U.S. helicopter was hit by ground fire at the close of the second month of the massive security crackdown on the capital.

...

The resumption of violence was in stunning contrast to Monday, when a 24-hour driving ban left the capital eerily quiet on the fourth anniversary of its capture by American forces. But just hours after the ban was lifted before dawn Tuesday, artillery fire echoed across the city. By day's end, at least 52 people were killed or found dead nationwide in strife confined mainly to Sunni enclaves.

...

In Muqdadiyah, most of the victims of the woman suicide bomber had taken police exams just days earlier and were assembled to learn the results

more here

Tens of thousands of followers of young Shiite nationalist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr rallied in the Shiite holy city of Najaf south of Baghdad on Monday, protesting the continued presence of US troops in Iraq. They burned US flags and held up posters saying, "America will fall, will fall." Chillingly, some of the demonstrators appeared to be soldiers in the Iraqi army. -- Christian Science Monitor

The U.S. military announced the weekend deaths of 10 American soldiers, including six killed on Sunday.

-- AP Story here

Must read

Robert Fisk: Divide and rule - America's plan for Baghdad Revealed: a new counter-insurgency strategy to carve up the city into sealed areas. The tactic failed in Vietnam. So what chance does it have in Iraq?

Labels: Iraq

Labels: Iraq, Vietnam, wingnuttery

Labels: 2008 race, Iraq, mccain

Labels: Iraq

We can only hope it's a cold war. Seymour Hersh lays it out.

Think Iraq, only imagine the religious, tribal and sectarian carnage expanded
throughout the Middle East. Got that picture? Welcome to Mr. Bush's long-term
plan for the Middle East, pitting Sunnis and Shia in the hopes of allying the
former with Israel to contain the latter.

Today on CNN, Seymour Hersh talked about Iran and his new piece just out on
the realities we're currently facing. He talked about a plan wherein Mr. Bush
will decide to strike Iran and get the job done in what is called a "24
hour package." The strike would be decided, launched and completed within
24 hours. They're cocked and loaded and ready to pull the trigger. Shhhh.
Don't tell Congress. As Hersh also said, "I've been writing the same
story for a year. ..." That's true, but this latest story from Hersh
and The New Yorker has a whole different expanse and complexity to
it.

After the revolution of 1979 brought a religious government to power, the
United States broke with Iran and cultivated closer relations with the leaders
of Sunni Arab states such as Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. That calculation
became more complex after the September 11th attacks, especially with regard
to the Saudis. Al Qaeda is Sunni, and many of its operatives came from extremist
religious circles inside Saudi Arabia. Before the invasion of Iraq, in 2003,
Administration officials, influenced by neoconservative ideologues, assumed
that a Shiite government there could provide a pro-American balance to Sunni
extremists, since Iraq’s Shiite majority had been oppressed under Saddam
Hussein. They ignored warnings from the intelligence community about the ties
between Iraqi Shiite leaders and Iran, where some had lived in exile for years.
Now, to the distress of the White House, Iran has forged a close relationship
with the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

The new American policy, in its broad outlines, has been discussed publicly.
In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January, Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice said that there is “a new strategic alignment
in the Middle East,” separating “reformers” and “extremists”;
she pointed to the Sunni states as centers of moderation, and said that Iran,
Syria, and Hezbollah were “on the other side of that divide.”
(Syria’s Sunni majority is dominated by the Alawi sect.) Iran and Syria,
she said, “have made their choice and their choice is to destabilize.”

The Redirection, by Seymour Hersh

Throughout his piece, which is a must read, Mr. Hersh neglects one important Iraqi actor, which Mash talked about yesterday: al-Hakim. Interesting that this central figure goes silent here. Hersh is no dummy so it's got to be by design rather than omission. I guess "stay tuned" is about all we can take
from it for now.

Now, about our friends the Saudis.

The key players behind the redirection are Vice-President Dick Cheney, the
deputy national-security adviser Elliott Abrams, the departing Ambassador
to Iraq (and nominee for United Nations Ambassador), Zalmay Khalilzad, and
Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi national-security adviser. While Rice
has been deeply involved in shaping the public policy, former and current
officials said that the clandestine side has been guided by Cheney. (Cheney’s
office and the White House declined to comment for this story; the Pentagon
did not respond to specific queries but said, “The United States is
not planning to go to war with Iran.”)

The policy shift has brought Saudi Arabia and Israel into a new strategic
embrace, largely because both countries see Iran as an existential threat.
They have been involved in direct talks, and the Saudis, who believe that
greater stability in Israel and Palestine will give Iran less leverage in
the region, have become more involved in Arab-Israeli negotiations.

The new strategy “is a major shift in American policy—it’s
a sea change,” a U.S. government consultant with close ties to Israel
said. The Sunni states “were petrified of a Shiite resurgence, and there
was growing resentment with our gambling on the moderate Shiites in Iraq,”
he said. “We cannot reverse the Shiite gain in Iraq, but we can contain
it.”

(snip)

Martin Indyk, a senior State Department official in the Clinton Administration
who also served as Ambassador to Israel, said that “the Middle East
is heading into a serious Sunni-Shiite Cold War.” Indyk, who is the
director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution,
added that, in his opinion, it was not clear whether the White House was fully
aware of the strategic implications of its new policy. “The White House
is not just doubling the bet in Iraq,” he said. “It’s doubling
the bet across the region. This could get very complicated. Everything is
upside down.”

The issues swirling around Lebanon are what I've been hinting about recently,
especially on radio, because there has been a "fitna" or civil war
brewing since Olmert screwed up his over the top bombing of Lebanon, and did
it so poorly that it not only emboldened Hezbollah, but left the entire region
believing that Israel has a baffoon at the top. Olmert proved that not only
was he incapable of understand military issues, but he didn't have the spine
to back down once his blunder was exposed. This has left Lebanon vulnerable
to all sorts of realities. More from Hersh:

In an interview in Beirut, a senior official in the Siniora government acknowledged that there were Sunni jihadists operating inside Lebanon. “We have a liberal attitude that allows Al Qaeda types to have a presence here,” he said. He related this to concerns that Iran or Syria might decide to turn Lebanon into a “theatre of conflict.”

(skip forward)

Nasrallah accused the Bush Administration of working with Israel to deliberately
instigate fitna, an Arabic word that is used to mean “insurrection and
fragmentation within Islam.” “In my opinion, there is a huge campaign
through the media throughout the world to put each side up against the other,”
he said. “I believe that all this is being run by American and Israeli
intelligence.” (He did not provide any specific evidence for this.)
He said that the U.S. war in Iraq had increased sectarian tensions, but argued
that Hezbollah had tried to prevent them from spreading into Lebanon. (Sunni-Shiite
confrontations increased, along with violence, in the weeks after we talked.)

Americans need to read up. This is getting very confusing for your average citizen, even for those who follow these things. The players are planning on the run to solidify turf, coupling with anything but the usual suspects, as they play with regional dynamite. It's one thing to want to move players around when enjoying a game of Risk, ala Dick Cheney. It's quite another to do it by throwing Israel and the Saudis together while Iraq is on boil.

So here is where we stand today. Iraq is in play, with the Saudis freaked out
about ethnic cleansing and a Shia crescent, while the U.S. ratchets up tensions
with Iran, who is linked in a swath of power from Iran to Lebanon, with Israel
getting more nervous by the day and the Saudis offering up all the cash they've
got to make certain that the Shia power is balanced with Sunni force, actually
dipping their diplomatic toes into a relationship with Israel, all the while
the United States agitates the situation, even though our influence in the region
has plummeted, giving the Shia and the Iranians a leg up. Got that? ...and that's
only the short version.

Now, getting out of Iraq won't begin to solve the challenges Mr. Bush and Dick
Cheney have put into motion. The Sunni-Shiite cold war is on, but it's doubtful
that any of these players will blink.

- posted by Taylor Marsh

Labels: Hersh, Iraq, Shia, sunni

Lyrebird: "For Our Soldiers"

An Iraqi army soldier stands guard at a vehicle checkpoint at the entrance to Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City, Iraq, Sunday, March 4, 2007. Hundreds of U.S. soldiers entered the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City on Sunday in the first major push into the area since an American-led security sweep began last month around Baghdad. (AP Photo/Adil al-Khazali)


What's bigger than a breadbox, or smaller than a breadbox, and better than a whole heap of magnetic yellow ribbons?

Thanks to Lyrebird for reminding us what we can do to help our young men and women serving overseas - as well as at home - THANKS LYREBIRD!


To let Steve know that attempted culinarily-mediated distance healing is not the only way I'm keeping him in mind, I pushed a little bit further through my inertia about taking actions to support the people in harm's way in Bush and Cheney's war, starting off with the American ones. Thought I'd compare notes with readers here to see what other good avenues you've found.

Here I'm concentrating the Americans... Although this does not always (perhaps not even often?) reach the Iraqis directly, it does seem to me that pushback from soldiers and high-ranking military officials has been one of the few cords slowing the headlong progress of the Iraq-war machine, as ironic as that may be.

AnySoldier.com maintains a database of soldiers who are willing to receive and distribute mail to others around them who aren't receiving much of it. (Post-anthrax scares, the military discontinued direct anonymous delivery of letters and care packages.)

If you do want to gather up some snacks (seems like bars and SlimJims are popular), they include very detailed instructions on how to prepare items to ship, including this small reminder of what conditions must be like:

Do NOT, for any reason, or in ANY amount, include food items in a care package with ANY hygiene items or chemicals of any type. If you want to send a care package, make it only food items or only non-food items. You would not believe how even factory sealed cookies taste when they have lived together in the same package with bath soap for a month in 120 degree heat... We get requests all the time that folks NOT send soaps, bug repellent, dryer sheets, air fresheners, detergents, deodarants, (getting the idea?) in the same box as food items. Trust me, a good smelling arm pit is a nice thing, but a cookie that tastes like one will not improve a Soldier's morale...

Receiving soldiers indicate what items would be most appreciated in their unit, and you can search around for people coming from your state, people who are stationed in other countries than Iraq, you name it.

AnySoldier is just one of several services have sprung up to try and reach troops who don't have a big stream of family or community support; Operation Gratitude is another, but if I've understood correctly, none of their packages or letters will go out until July 4th or so. TreatsforTroops works year-round from what I can tell.

Some soldiers put in requests for little bean-bag animals to give to kids. Sure, the best present of all would be to get our troops out of there, begin reparations, reclaim foreign-policy sanity... but I still care for our kids that are over there. We all get more than one kind of thing done every day, pretty much. Except when healing up is the one thing...

Keep at it, Steve, and may those doctors give you the best they've got!

This week I've sent two letters. What have you found? What about supporting troops that are coming home and making the transition back to life Stateside?

- posted by Lyrebird

UPDATE: We heard from Carolyn of Operation Gratitude - here's her clarification on this post:

Hi Steve and Jen,
Thank you for mentioning and linking Operation Gratitude on your blog-I am very appreciative.

I did want to clarify our shipping schedule, as there appears to be a misunderstanding. We assemble and ship packages during two major campaigns each year: Our Patriotic Drive kicks off during the Memorial Weekend (May 26-27) and continues through early July; our Holiday Drive starts during the Veteran's Weekend in early November and continues through mid-January. We sent almost 58,000 packages (each addressed to a different individual service member) during our recent Holiday Drive, and expect to send at least 60,000 packages during our upcoming Patriotic Drive and another 60,000 during our Holiday Drive 2007. While we concentrate our assembling during those periods, we always keep a store of packages ready to ship at any time--if we receive requests from units or troops in between the Drives, we are delighted to send at that time.

Thank you again for your support and interest. If you have any questions about our program, I will be happy to answer them.

Fondly,
Carolyn Blashek
www.operationgratitude.com

Labels: Iraq, Marines, US Army

FDL's Pachacutec: "Levin and his Pale Posse"

Party at Levin's? Why weren't we invited?

Thanks to Pachacutec of Firedoglake for this timely commentary on the Levin-Biden Escalation Plan - THANKS PACH!

The Biden-Levin Plan to Escalate the War
by Matt Stoller, Wed Feb 28, 2007 at 07:08:50 AM EST

McJoan points us to this discouraging piece of news.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, and Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, may offer their plan -- in the form of a nonbinding resolution -- as an amendment to the Surface Transportation and Rail Security Act, S 184. It is unclear how they will be able to overcome the main hurdle -- the need for 60 votes to cut off debate in the 100-member Senate -- that has blocked a final vote on other Iraq-related legislation.

Real antiwar Democrats, like Ted Kennedy and Russ Feingold, people who are working to end the war, are damaged by this type of irresponsible behavior. It's very clear that the Carl Levin's and Joe Biden's of the world don't get it. Any power they delegate to Bush will be used badly. If they don't use their power to restrict Bush's mandate, they are failing the public and enabling the escalation of the war.
The video snippet is Levin being frustrated that the military doesn't have a plan to go into Syria. Levin's office is Phone (202) 224-6221. If you have some time and are from Michigan, can you ask him why he doesn't support the Murtha plan to fully equip the troops before deploying them?

Biden, of course, is a racist who thinks Delaware’s history as a slave state somehow makes him more viable and credible as a presidential candidate, so clearly, his hair plugs have been wound too tight for a looooong time.

Levin is another matter. He hasn’t always been this obviously stupid, but now he’s really making the mistake of his career, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a bunch of people in Detroit are getting ready to point this out to him.

I’d like to see a bunch of African American women who run bake sales at the churches gather with a bunch of white Michigan peace activists at Levin’s local office to tell him, in unison, to STFU and get our kids home, fast. Local coordination across racial lines among progressives is a lot more possible, generally speaking, than any such coordination on a national level.

Levin needs to get a fucking clue, and fast. The longer we wait to get out, the more likely we are to have to fight our way out under heavy losses.

- posted by Pachacutec of Firedoglake

Labels: Biden, Iraq, Levin