Whistleblowers Say State Farm Cheated Katrina Victims

State Farm Insurance supervisors systematically demanded that Hurricane Katrina damage reports be buried - or replaced or changed - so that the company would not have to pay policyholders' claims in Mississippi, according to State Farm insiders.

Link Here

GI Special 4H26: "I Just Feel Like I Was Shafted" - August 26, 2006

Thomas F. Barton

Bottom Feeding Scum Suckers On Army Evaluation Board Deny Disabled Iraq Vet Money To Live On.[Here it is again. Same old story. Used up, thrown away, and the politicians couldn’t care less. To repeat for the 3,459th time, there is no enemy in Iraq. Iraqis and U.S. troops have a common enemy. That common enemy owns and operates the Imperial government in Washington DC for their own profit. That common enemy started this war of conquest on a platform of lies, because they couldn’t tell the truth: this war was about making money for them, and nothing else. Payback is overdue. T]

continua / continued

Ray McGovern | Just When You Thought You'd Seen Everything: Hoekstra's Hoax

CNN
"We do know that there have been shipments...into Iraq, for instance, of aluminum tubes that really are only suited...for nuclear weapons programs."

Ray McGovern writes: "I was suffering a bit from outrage fatigue yesterday but was shaken out of it as soon as I downloaded an unusually slick paper, 'Recognizing Iran as a Strategic Threat: An Intelligence Challenge for the United States,' released this week by House intelligence committee chair, Pete Hoekstra."

Link Here

The hypocracy is beyond all bounds, Illegal WMDs used by America and Israel in their illegal wars on Lebanon and Iraq

Illegal Weapons used by Israel against Lebanon

**
Americas White Phosphorus used in Falluhah










***

Bush's Disdainful Presidency

George W. Bush's crude behavior as President, including insults about people's personal looks, is usually dismissed by the U.S. news media as simply his "inner frat boy" coming out. But a U.S. News report that Bush intentionally farts while greeting new White House staffers suggests that Bush enjoys exerting his power over subordinates in ways reminiscent of how ancient royalty treated lowly subjects. August 26, 2006

Link Here

Aero's Cloaks and Daggers

In a mystery reaching from the countryside of North Carolina to dank prisons on the other side of the world, anti-torture activists are investigating a charter airline company, Aero Contractors, over suspicions that it's flying CIA prisoners from the "war on terror" to countries that practice torture. August 26, 2006

Link Here

Bill Simpich | Wiretapping in America: The Moment of Decision Is Near

Bill Simpich writes: "Two district court rulings in the last month focus on whether the National Security Agency will be free to eavesdrop on Americans as a matter of domestic policy ... The odds are good that both of these cases will be heard by the United States Supreme Court before George Bush completes his term of office, if they are not mooted by the passage of the National Security Surveillance Act this autumn ... The outcome of these NSA cases and this autumn's Congressional vote will affect the entire future of this country."

Link Here

Israel asks Muslim states to send troops

By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer
51 minutes ago

JERUSALEM - The Israeli government said Saturday it is asking friendly Muslim countries to contribute troops to the U.N. force that is to help police the cease-fire in southern Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah.

The U.N. wants Muslim troops included to lend credibility in the region to what so far is a mostly European force, and the predominantly Islamic nations of Indonesia, Bangladesh and Malaysia have offered to participate.

But none of those recognize Israel, which says it would be reluctant to share intelligence with a force that included Muslim nations it doesn't have relations with. While Israel does not have any veto, its opposition to a country could influence which troops are included.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Israel had spoken to the governments of several Muslim nations with which it has diplomatic relations, but primarily to Turkey. Turkey, which would be acceptable to all parties, has not decided whether to join the mission.

"If Turkey decides to send a contingent, we would welcome that," Regev said.

He did not specify the other nations contacted by Israel, but Jordan and Egypt are among the Muslim countries that Israel has relations with.

The difficulties facing the nascent force were already apparent, with a top Hezbollah official saying in a defiant interview published Saturday that the Shiite Muslim guerrilla group would keep its weapons despite international pressure to disarm.

Sheik Naim Kassem, the group's deputy leader, also told the Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar that Hezbollah's "resistance" to Israel would continue. "Justifications for ending it do not exist," he said.

Kassem's remarks underscored the fragility of the U.N.-brokered cease-fire.

The deployment of the U.N. force along Lebanon's border with Israel is stipulated by the cease-fire deal that ended a month of Israel-Hezbollah fighting on Aug. 14.

The international force is to reinforce the Lebanese army, which is moving 15,000 soldiers of its own into the south. The troops are Lebanon's first assertion of central authority in the south in decades. >>>cont

Link Here

LIFE GOES ON FOR THE INNOCENT POPULATION OF LEBANON

WAR IS AN ABOMINATION ON THE INNOCENT, THE SO CALLED COLLATORAL DAMAGE OF THESE PERVEYERS OF WAR CRIMES

Even the cemetries weren't safe from destruction of Israel and Americas WMDs

A view of a cemetery that was damaged during the recent conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hizbollah in the village of Ghandouriyeh, southern Lebanon, August 26, 2006. The words on the gate are a verse from the Koran. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra (LEBANON)

Palestinian supporters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), raise a portrait of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah

Palestinian supporters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), raise a portrait of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and wave the Lebanese flag, during a demonstration marking what they called Hezbollah's victory in the fighting against Israel, in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2006. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

WAR CRIMINAL

AP - Sat Aug 26, 11:05 AM ET
An elderly Lebanese man sits next to a portrait of U.S. President George W. Bush covered with small placards reading: 'War criminal; Sole of the resistance; Summit of crime and terrorism,' in the southern village of Khiam, Lebanon, Saturday Aug. 26, 2006. Israel won't lift its sea and air blockade of Lebanon unless Lebanese and international forces deploy at all border crossings, including those on the Lebanese-Syrian frontier, to enforce an arms embargo on Hezbollah guerrillas, an Israeli official said Saturday. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Henry Mouaikel, using a personal video camera records the destroyed Volkswagen automobile in the Aita-Al-Fourkhar village of the Bekaa Valley

AP - Sat Aug 26, 12:50 PM ET
Henry Mouaikel, using a personal video camera records the destroyed Volkswagen automobile in the Aita-Al-Fourkhar village of the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, near the Syrian border with Lebanon Saturday, Aug. 26, 2006, where his cousin Michele Samaan, 15, died in an Israeli missile strike on Tuesday, July 18, one week into the Israeli offensive against Hezbollah. Samaan's father and brother were injured in the missile strike.The road which passes though the village was a major smuggling route from Syria to Lebanon.The Lebanese army has puts soldier along the route and said they have reduced the smuggling by 90%. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

Lebanese and Jordan communist association volunteers clear rubble and debris of the 34-day long Hezbollah-Israel war

Lebanese PM says army can patrol border

Lebanese and Jordan communist association volunteers clear rubble and debris of the 34-day long Hezbollah-Israel war on a road in downtown Srifa, south Lebanon, Saturday Aug. 26, 2006. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

UN vehicles and troops wait for clearance from the Israeli

Lebanese PM says army can patrol border

AP - Sat Aug 26, 3:35 PM ET
UN vehicles and troops wait for clearance from the Israeli army to escort a Lebanese national across the border into Israel near the border village of Metulla Saturday Aug. 26, 2006. Relatives of former members of the South Lebanon Army, an Israeli-allied militia, have been crossing in recent days into Israel, seeking refuge from possible revenge attacks by Hezbollah in the wake of the latest fighting. Around 2,500 Lebanese members of the militia and dependants that fled to Israel in 2000, when the Israeli army pulled out of south Lebanon after an 18-year occupation are reported to have remained in Israel and become naturalized citizens. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Opening ceremony of a heavy water plant in Arak, 320 kms south of Tehran.

Iran opens nuclear facility saying no threat to Israel

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad(C) walks during the opening ceremony of a heavy water plant in Arak, 320 kms south of Tehran. Ahmadinejad insisted that Iran is no threat to Israel as he inaugurated a heavy water production plant just five days before a UN Security Council deadline to suspend sensitive nuclear fuel cycle work.(AFP/Atta Kenare)

Lieberman To Consider Iraq Pullout Plan...

Associated Press Susan Haigh August 26, 2006 at 10:15 AM
READ MORE: Iraq

Sen. Joe Lieberman, the three-term Democrat whose independent campaign for re-election is being seen as a referendum on theIraq war, said Friday he would consider taking a look at a fellow lawmaker's proposal for a timeline for troop withdrawals.

The proposal was floated by Republican Rep. Chris Shays, another Connecticut politician facing a tough re-election battle with an anti-war candidate. Shays has long been a supporter of the war and previously opposed withdrawal timetables.

READ WHOLE STORY

Govt confirms Hicks won't face death penalty

I wouldn't hold my breath, with anything these puppet leaders of Bush and his goons have to say, this man has not even had a charge laid against him in the 4 1/2 years of captivity. If this man was guilty of anything these criminals in Power should have laid those crimes out. Georgies friking DEMOCRACY IN ACTION.

Posted: 19:28 AEST

The Australian Government says Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks will not face the death penalty under changes to the US military commission system.

[FULL STORY

Fatah agrees to national unity government with Hamas

Leaders of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement endorsed a national unity government with the rival Hamas group to end feuding they say Israel has exploited to stall on Middle East peace pledges.

Veteran Fatah leader Nabil Shaath said at the end of three days of talks in Amman that the 17-member Central Committee, the governing body of the long dominant movement, now sought a national unity government with the Islamist group which defeated Fatah in January elections.

"Palestinian blood is sacred and we will not allow any infighting and have agreed to work towards a national unity government," Mr Shaath told reporters.

"A national unity government will strengthen our hands to face the Israeli occupation," he added.

Mr Abbas and Hamas agreed last week to restart negotiations on a unity government in the hope of easing a Western aid embargo imposed to pressure the militant group to recognise Israel and renounce violence.

Palestinians fear that if discussions between Hamas and Fatah failed, there is a danger of a return to a violent power struggle that followed the elections.

Other Palestinian leaders said the Israeli failure to achieve a military victory in Lebanon by eliminating Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas had given impetus to renewed efforts to unify ranks against a common enemy - Israel.

Leaders of Fatah said they did not intend to put any conditions for joining a coalition government with Hamas but insisted there had to be a pragmatic approach towards resuming peace talks with Israel.

Fatah leaders also said they agreed to speed preparations for a long delayed party congress last held almost two decades ago.

The old generation of leaders will be challenged from a reform-minded young guard demanding a role in the decision making process.

- Reuters

VIDEO: Interview with 9/11 Air Traffic Controller for Flight 175

David EdwardsPublished: Friday August 25, 2006

Dave Bottiglia is the air traffic controller who was responsible for tracking Flight 175, the second plane to hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Bottiglia remembers his experience in this ABC interview promoting the documentary Flight 175: As The World Watched which is scheduled to air on TLC on August 30.

ABC's Rob Simmelkjaer asked Bottiglia if the workers in the controller tower "realized" that the plane would be hitting the second tower of the WTC when it began losing altitude rapidly.
"We really didn't realize it was going for the other tower," said Bottiglia. "We just knew that he was heading towards Manhattan."

"We feared that he was gonna put it on the ground somewhere," Bottiglia continued.

Link Here

EPA scientist says agency hid dangers at ground zero from first responders, others

Brian BeutlerPublished: Friday August 25, 2006

A scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency has written a letter to Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and other members of the New York congressional delegation blasting the EPA for hiding dangerous toxins from Ground Zero workers in the aftermath of 9/11, RAW STORY has learned.

The letter, written by Dr. Cate Jenkins and obtained by RAW STORY, claims that EPA-funded research on the toxicity of breathable alkaline dust at the site “falsified pH results” to make the substance appear benign, when it was, in reality, corrosive enough to cause first responders and other workers in lower Manhattan to later lose pulmonary functions and, in some cases, to die.
Jenkins writes:

"These falsifications directly contributed not only to emergency personnel and citizens not taking adequate precautions to prevent exposures, but also prevented the subsequent correct diagnosis of the causative agents responsible for the pulmonary symptoms. Thus, appropriate treatment was prevented or misdirected, and loss of life and permanent disability undoubtedly resulted."

Jenkins has loudly criticized the office in the past for—among other malfeasances—improperly handling evidence that the World Trade Center disaster site was a major health hazard.

The letter, as acquired by RAW STORY, follows:

VIDEO: Military to review Tillman, Army deaths

RAW STORYPublished: Friday August 25, 2006

BBC News describes as a "public relations disaster" a newly announced investigation by the US military into the deaths of Army soldiers, including that of Cpl. Pat Tillman, in video obtained by RAW STORY.

BBC Washington correspondent James Westhead, in referring to Tillman's case, describes "evidence of a whitewash and a cover-up."

"This is very damaging for the Army," Westhead reports. "[It's] trying to appear as transparent as possible."

Link Here

63% Of Israelis Want Olmert To Resign Over Lebanon Conflict...

Reuters August 25, 2006 at 06:01 PM
READ MORE: Israel, Lebanon

Sixty-three percent of Israelis want Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign in a sharp public rebuke over his handling of the war in Lebanon against Hezbollah, a newspaper poll showed on Friday.

Many Israelis view a U.N.-brokered cease-fire backed by Olmert as a failure for Israel because Hezbollah's leadership was left standing and the two Israeli soldiers, whose capture by Hezbollah on July 12 sparked the war, were still in captivity.

READ WHOLE STORY

Kremlin rising while White House falls into financial and political abyss.

Aug. 23, 2006 -- WMR reporting today from Helsinki, Finland.

In another sign that the United States is rapidly drifting into "Third World" status as a major world debtor nation, Russia has announced that it has paid off its $31.1 billion debt to foreign countries incurred during Soviet times. Russia paid off its debt largely as a result of the increase in the price of oil -- a major Russian export. Not only has the ruble been made fully convertible but Russia is now attracting major investments and its bond rating has improved.

Russia's economic turnaround has also increased its clout at the expense of Bush's neo-con strategists. Russia has forgiven about two thirds of Syria's $13 billion debt and has initiated port development schemes in the ports of Tartus and Latakia, old Soviet naval bases. Russia's strong financial and military support for Syria checked neo-con plans to militarily attack Syria.

The paying off of Russia's debt to Germany, Britain, the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland, Denmark, Portugal, France and other Paris Club creditor nations has also increased Moscow's financial and political clout in Europe at the expense of Washington's. Russia is to offer Eurobonds to commercial creditors in lieu of payment in U.S. dollars. Moscow's central bank reserves, estimated at $277 billion, are the world's third largest, ranked after those of Japan and China. On the other hand, the two Asian economic giants are America's two largest creditor nations.

Russia's economic clean bill of health would not have been possible had not President Vladimir Putin not declared war on Russia's criminal oligarch's, many of whom have fled to Israel and who reside in that country with guarantees from extradition back to Russia to stand trial. However, in 2005 Russia did jail for nine years Yukos oil oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky -- a dual Russian-Israeli citizen. Not surprisingly, George W. Bush, acting on behalf of Israeli criminal interests and neo-con advisers, led largely by Bush's favorite author, Israeli former Soviet "refusenik" Natan Sharansky, demanded that Putin free Khodorkosvky. Putin ignored Bush's plea.

Russia can now afford to thumb its nose at Bush and his neo-con cabal. From Iran to Syria, Lebanon to Palestine, and Venezuela to Central Asia, Russia is flexing its political and economic muscles and the neo-cons are finding their moves checked at every turn by a Russian government that long ago declared war on the neo-cons and their Russian criminal facilitators.

Kremlin rising while White House falls into financial and political abyss.

WayneMadsenReport

World Business Briefing Europe: Russia: I.M.F. Sees Economic Health

By SABRINA TAVERNISE (NYT)
Published: October 12, 2001

The International Monetary Fund gave Russia a clean bill of health and said the economic changes under President Vladimir V. Putin have led to remarkable growth. Russia, which no longer needs financial assistance from the I.M.F., said it would let the fund monitor the country's economic progress. On an official visit in Moscow, the I.M.F.'s managing director, Horst Köhler, also urged the Russian government to fix its poorly functioning banking system. Sabrina Tavernise (NYT)

Link Here

Our image abroad: "The Lying States of America -- its more B.S. from the good ole LSA."

Aug. 24, 2006 -- WMR reporting from Europe today.

Our image abroad: "The Lying States of America -- its more B.S. from the good ole LSA."

Forget all the talk about how people abroad may not like the Bush administration but still respect the American people. It's just not true. And because of a few well publicized sports doping cases involving American athletes and a belief that George W. Bush is not the only person in the U.S. government who has a problem with telling the truth, the USA is now considered to be the LSA -- the Lying States of America.

Two American track and field runners -- Justin Gatlin and Marion Jones -- have been caught in doping tests after denying they had used performance-enhancing drugs. Ditto for Tour de France winner Floyd Landis, whose denials about doping are not supported by test results. These cases point to a widespread belief by Europeans and others that America is now a place where people will do anything to win -- whether in global politics or sports. And if lying is necessary, Americans are perfectly willing to do that also.

This all suggests that years and years of work of American diplomats, military men and women, Peace Corps volunteers, and citizen ambassadors in trying to present a favorable view of the United States to the peoples of other countries is now down the drain -- thanks to the neocon-adopted Machiavellian tenet that the "ends justify the means."

But its not only the Bush administration and U.S. sports figures who remind people abroad that the United States is a nation of liars and half truth tellers. They only have to compare the propaganda emanating from CNN and compare it to their own news sources to realize that American lying and prevarication are now institutionalized in so-called news broadcasts. Middle East and other global coverage on CNN International is dominated by Christiane Amanpour, whose husband is Jamie Rubin, a "neocon-lite" political ort from the Clinton administration.

Considering CNN's political agenda, there is little wonder that the network's recent report on former New York Stock Exchange head Dick Grasso was favorable -- and that the description of New York Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer, who took on Grasso's obscene financial compensation package, was far less so. As a footnote, CNN mentioned that Grasso was close to Madeleine Albright -- but forgot to mention that she was Rubin's boss at the UN and State Department.

And CNN also shows that it is perfectly willing to do the lying on behalf of American client states. CNN International is advertising a segment called "Inside Africa." Its sponsor is the government of Uganda -- a dictatorship supported by U.S. military and economic aid money.

The Bush administration is now requiring biometric chips in U.S. passports. Perhaps it would have been a better idea to require a special passport page showing the results of Americans' polygraph tests.

Now comes word from U.S. News and World Report that President Bush enjoys telling fart jokes and regales new White House assistants with his anal outbursts. Not news to Europeans -- they already know that Bush is full of hot air and methane.
Bush, who lies about war and matters of state, takes credit for a rectal outburst to the amusement of his sycophantic aides.

WayneMadsenReport

Neocon-influenced satellite news media silent on Israeli President's rape allegations.

Aug. 25, 2006 -- Neocon-influenced satellite news media silent on Israeli President's rape allegations. When it comes to coverage of the Middle East, global satellite news networks -- from a European vantage point -- remain silent on any uncomfortable news from Israel. Israeli police have twice questioned President Moshe Katsav over charges that he raped a former employee. Two female members of the Knesset, both from the governing Kadima-Labor coalition, have called for Katsav to resign. European and Israeli papers are covering the unfolding scandal but CNN and the BBC remain silent on the subject.

Katsav's alleged female victim, referred to as "A" by police, said the President engaged in improper "sexual contact" with her while she worked at the Beit Hansassi presidential residence. Two other female employees at Beit Hanassi have also come forward to complain about improper sexual behavior towards them by the President. Although Katsav is claiming that A is blackmailing him, the scandal has expanded to charges that Katsav issued presidential pardons in return for bribes. On Sunday, Israeli Attorney General Haim Ramon resigned after the Israeli Attorney General indicted him for sexually harassing a female employee in his office. Again, the global satellite news media remained silent on the subject.
Israeli President Moshe Katsav (l.), under police investigation for raping a female staffer, and George W. Bush (r.), enmeshed in scandals arising from marital difficulties, an affair with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and the adolescent passing of gas while meeting new male White House staffers.

WayneMadsenReport


Katsav says is being publicly lynched over allegations of rape
By Roni Singer-Heruti and Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondents

President Moshe Katsav said in a radio interview on Saturday that he was being publicly lynched after he has been accused of sexually harassing a former employee.

The president said he was innocent of all the accusations brought against him and he was being publicly lynched before the investigation and trial are over.

Police Chief Moshe Karadi and Attorney General Menahem Mazuz are set to meet over the case early next weeek. >>>cont

Link Here

Neocon-influenced satellite news media silent on Israeli President's rape allegations.

Aug. 25, 2006 -- Neocon-influenced satellite news media silent on Israeli President's rape allegations. When it comes to coverage of the Middle East, global satellite news networks -- from a European vantage point -- remain silent on any uncomfortable news from Israel. Israeli police have twice questioned President Moshe Katsav over charges that he raped a former employee. Two female members of the Knesset, both from the governing Kadima-Labor coalition, have called for Katsav to resign. European and Israeli papers are covering the unfolding scandal but CNN and the BBC remain silent on the subject.

Katsav's alleged female victim, referred to as "A" by police, said the President engaged in improper "sexual contact" with her while she worked at the Beit Hansassi presidential residence. Two other female employees at Beit Hanassi have also come forward to complain about improper sexual behavior towards them by the President. Although Katsav is claiming that A is blackmailing him, the scandal has expanded to charges that Katsav issued presidential pardons in return for bribes. On Sunday, Israeli Attorney General Haim Ramon resigned after the Israeli Attorney General indicted him for sexually harassing a female employee in his office. Again, the global satellite news media remained silent on the subject.
Israeli President Moshe Katsav (l.), under police investigation for raping a female staffer, and George W. Bush (r.), enmeshed in scandals arising from marital difficulties, an affair with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and the adolescent passing of gas while meeting new male White House staffers.

WayneMadsenReport


Katsav says is being publicly lynched over allegations of rape
By Roni Singer-Heruti and Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondents

President Moshe Katsav said in a radio interview on Saturday that he was being publicly lynched after he has been accused of sexually harassing a former employee.

The president said he was innocent of all the accusations brought against him and he was being publicly lynched before the investigation and trial are over.

Police Chief Moshe Karadi and Attorney General Menahem Mazuz are set to meet over the case early next weeek. >>>cont

Link Here

Chris Floyd | Judicial Cover for Crony Contractors

By Chris Floyd
t r u t h o u t Report

Friday 25 August 2006

They say that America's increasingly right-wing courts are bent on halting the forward march of civil rights, but that's a typical liberal canard. Why, just last week, a federal judge - appointed by Ronald Reagan, no less - issued a bold ruling that offers shield and succor to a small, despised minority on the fringes of American society.

War profiteers.

In a little-noticed decision unsealed on August 18, US District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III overturned a $10 million fraud verdict against Custer Battles LLC, one of the many crony conquistadors who gorged on the vast porkfest known as "Iraqi reconstruction" during the high and palmy days of the Coalition Provisional Authority. Ellis's judgment effectively provides blanket immunity for the many politically-wired gorgers who made off with almost $9 billion in "unaccounted-for" taxpayer money during the CPA's misrule of Iraq from April 2003 to June 2004 - one of the greatest heists in world history.

Why will the mammoth fraudsters go free? Because of the iron illogic behind the decision. Although the CPA was created, funded, staffed and directly controlled by the US government, Ellis declared it was not, in fact, an entity of the US government. Therefore, Custer Battles - and by extension any other accused grafter from the CPA's golden age - cannot be sued under the federal False Claims Act for defrauding the US government. For even if massive fraud was committed - and Ellis, who also presided over Custer Battles's jury trial in May, clearly indicated that it was - the "victim" no longer exists: the CPA has dissolved into air, into thin air, like the "baseless fabric" of Prospero's vision in The Tempest. So, case dismissed - and the blood money stays safely in corporate coffers.

Ellis wove his ruling from another baseless fabric: UN Security Council Resolution 1483. The May 2003 resolution was the world body's desperate attempt to put some sort of ex post facto quasi-legal face on the Bush-Blair coalition's unprovoked act of aggression in Iraq. But in the end it was just another sham. The CPA remained an all-American show, run by George W. Bush's personally appointed satrap, Jerry Bremer, who wielded autocratic sway over the conquered land. The Authority's power and money - including Iraq's oil profits - were solely in the hands of the White House and Pentagon. But although the reality of Washington's "command and control" of the CPA was undeniable, Judge Ellis obviously followed the credo laid down by the high Bush official who told Ron Suskind in 2004: "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality." They certainly do.

As the New York Times notes, the Custer Battles case was meant to be the first of many Iraqi fraud trials based on the False Claims Act, a law allowing allows "whistleblowers" in companies defrauding the government to take their firms to court and share a percentage of the award with the feds. Now these upcoming cases - including a second trial against Custer Battles - are almost certainly dead in the water. The courageous efforts of insiders who lost their jobs - and in some cases risked their lives - to uncover the truth about the Bush gang's epic plundering in Iraq will all be for naught.

That's quite a legacy for a small company few have ever heard of. After all, next to prize war-porkers like Halliburton, Bechtel and General Dynamics, Custer Battles is just a tiny sausage sizzling in the huge vat of government grease. But the firm's case is a paradigm of the entire misbegotten enterprise in Iraq: raw greed masquerading as a noble cause in a deliberately concocted atmosphere of lawlessness, violence, subterfuge - and the convenient unaccountability fomented by the bloody chaos of war.

Custer Battles is not, as you might think, named for that earlier undermanned, overconfident, foolishly conceived military incursion which ended in disaster - the one at Little Big Horn. Instead, the ill-omened appellation comes from the company's founders: ex-Army Ranger and Special Operations vet Scott Custer and his partner, fellow Ranger Mike Battles, who also brought his experience as a clandestine CIA officer, FOX News commentator and failed Republican Congressional candidate to the mix.

The pair set up shop a few months after 9/11 to cash in on the burgeoning market in fear and war, operating under the admirably frank company motto: "Transforming risk into opportunity." But it was all nickel-and-dime stuff at first, until Bush tore open the mother lode of military largess with the invasion of Iraq. Suddenly, Mike and Scott's shoestring operation found itself with a $16 million contract to take charge of security for the strategically vital Baghdad airport. This was followed by $24.4 million to help distribute Iraq's new American-made currency, along with sundry other hired-gun work - such as housing military dogs and low-wage Filipino workers brought in to serve Iraq's new masters.

How did this happen? As with so much else in Bush's Babylonian conquest, the company's metamorphosis from shoestring to Gucci boot is shrouded in murk. According to a gushing 2004 profile in the Wall Street Journal, it was all down to "street smarts," luck and pluck. We're told that ex-CIA man Battles arrived in Baghdad in May 2003 "armed with little more than moxie," $450 in borrowed cash (the company was broke), and a vague notion of scoring some deals. Three weeks later, unnamed Bush officials handed him a duffel bag stuffed with $2 million in cash - a friendly "loan" to get the ball rolling - and put the airport into the hands of the destitute, unknown, inexperienced company. A fairy-tale ending, one might say.

By the summer of 2004, the company, now worth an estimated $100 million, was in high cotton. Custer was working the crony ropes: "Al Kampanen, the White House rep at the Pentagon, who works directly for Rumsfeld," was inviting him to drop by and talk about expanding the company's work into Liberia and Afghanistan, according to company emails unearthed during the fraud probe and reported by Wayne Madsen. "Doug Combs, now acting Under Secretary of the Navy, also called to see if he could 'help us grow' outside of Iraq," enthused Custer. Meanwhile, Battles was busy trying to complete the book he'd been touting on the company web site: Blood in the Streets: Seizing Opportunity in Crises. Life was sweet.

Then the Pentagon was forced to suspend Custer Battles from further contracts and launch an investigation after several former company executives - including ex-FBI man Robert Isakson - filed a "whistleblower" lawsuit against the firm, citing what the Pentagon admitted was "adequate evidence of ... fraud, antitrust violations, embezzlement, theft, forgery, bribery, false statements" and other offenses, as the Los Angeles Times reported.

The lawsuit accused Custer Battles of setting up off-shore front companies and sham sub-contractors to inflate billings in its lucrative "cost-plus" contracts, where the government covers all expenses and guarantees a set profit; the alleged rake-off was estimated in the tens of millions. Isakson said that when he had objected to these and other irregularities, two unnamed "top company officials" burst into his office with machine guns, held him and his 14-year-old son at gunpoint for hours, then stripped Isakson of his ID, money and gun and told them find their own way out of Iraq, the LAT reported. Father and son eventually made their way through the hellhole of Fallujah to safety in Jordan.

Isakson lived to tell the tale - and file the suit - but all to no avail, thanks to Judge Ellis. The only surprising thing about this sweet deal for unabashed war profiteers with a direct line to the White House is that the trial was actually allowed to run its course before the foreordained conclusion. Then again, there was no real need for the administration to sweat it - Ellis is a decidedly safe pair of hands for Bush's dictatorship of the executive.

In a ruling issued just days before the Custer Battles kibosh, Ellis dug up a long-abandoned World War I-era law to give Bush carte blanche to prosecute journalists for publishing leaks of classified information. (No "Pentagon Papers" emerging from the Iraq War, then.) In May, he threw out a civil suit against the CIA filed by Khalid al-Masri, a German citizen who had been seized in Macedonia for "driving while Arab," renditioned to Afghanistan, tortured for months, then dumped on a dirt road in Albania and, like Isakson, told to find his own way home. Ellis agreed with administration lawyers that such a trial would "endanger national security" - establishing a convenient "state-secrets" precedent for quashing any further attempts to rectify the depredations of Bush's Terror War.

The worthy judge, a respected scion of the Establishment - Navy man, community pillar, degreed by Princeton, Harvard and Oxford - is just one of Bush's willing enablers among the great and good, offering a patina of legitimacy to a range of practices that are criminal in nature, immoral in essence and a permanent stain on the national honor. The Custer Battles case he has just killed might be a grubby little affair - but it holds a mirror up to the much larger, deeper corruption that stands behind it.
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Chris Floyd is an American journalist. His work has appeared in print and online in venues all over the world, including the Nation, CounterPunch, Columbia Journalism Review, the Christian Science Monitor, Il Manifesto, the Moscow Times and many others. He is the author of Empire Burlesque: High Crimes and Low Comedy in the Bush Imperium, and is co-founder and editor of the "Empire Burlesque" political blog. He can be reached at cfloyd72@gmail.com.

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FOCUS | War Profiteer Blackwater Faces Wrongful Death Trial

In a major blow to one of the most infamous war profiteers operating in Iraq, Afghanistan and New Orleans, a federal appeals court has ruled that a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the mercenary firm Blackwater USA can proceed in North Carolina's state courts. The suit was brought by the families of the four Blackwater contractors ambushed and killed in Falluja, Iraq on March 31, 2004. Blackwater had tried to have the same case dismissed or moved to federal court.

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"Folks, We Are Being Set Up Again!"

FOOL ME ONCE SHAME ON YOU, FOOL ME TWICE SHAME ON ME

Iran's Nuclear "Threat"

By JUAN COLE

We are beset by instant experts on contemporary Iran, like the medievalist Bernard Lewis, who wrongly predicted that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would attack Israel on August 22, based on Lewis's weird interpretation of his alleged millenarian beliefs.

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Bush and Saddam Should Both Stand Trial, Says Nuremberg Prosecutor

By Aaron Glantz,

A chief prosecutor of Nazi war crimes at Nuremberg has said George W. Bush should be tried for war crimes along with Saddam Hussein. Benjamin Ferenccz, who secured convictions for 22 Nazi officers for their work in orchestrating the death squads that killed more than 1 million people, told OneWorld both Bush and Saddam should be tried for starting "aggressive" wars--Saddam for his 1990 attack on Kuwait and Bush for his 2003 invasion of Iraq.

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Bush and Saddam Should Both Stand Trial, Says Nuremberg Prosecutor
Aaron Glantz, OneWorld US

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 25 (OneWorld) - A chief prosecutor of Nazi war crimes at Nuremberg has said George W. Bush should be tried for war crimes along with Saddam Hussein. Benjamin Ferenccz, who secured convictions for 22 Nazi officers for their work in orchestrating the death squads that killed more than 1 million people, told OneWorld both Bush and Saddam should be tried for starting "aggressive" wars--Saddam for his 1990 attack on Kuwait and Bush for his 2003 invasion of Iraq.

"Nuremberg declared that aggressive war is the supreme international crime," the 87-year-old Ferenccz told OneWorld from his home in New York. He said the United Nations charter, which was written after the carnage of World War II, contains a provision that no nation can use armed force without the permission of the UN Security Council.

Ferenccz said that after Nuremberg the international community realized that every war results in violations by both sides, meaning the primary objective should be preventing any war from occurring in the first place.

He said the atrocities of the Iraq war--from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the massacre of dozens of civilians by U.S. forces in Haditha to the high number of civilian casualties caused by insurgent car bombs--were highly predictable at the start of the war.

"Every war will lead to attacks on civilians," he said. "Crimes against humanity, destruction beyond the needs of military necessity, rape of civilians, plunder--that always happens in wartime. So my answer personally, after working for 60 years on this problem and who hates to see all these young people get killed no matter what their nationality, is that you've got to stop using warfare as a means of settling your disputes."

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Iraqi government working with Sadr

UPI

The Iraqi government will continue to work with Muqtada Sadr, the main force behind one of Iraq's largest Shiite militias, a top Iraqi official said Friday. "We have to distinguish between the political line and the militia line," said Iraqi Deputy President Adil Abd al-Mahdi. "We ... are working a lot (with Sadr), and he is supporting the government. He has ministers in the government. And we are trying to distinguish between undisciplined groups from the disciplined ones. The government of (Prime Minister) Maliki is working very well on that issue." Mahdi made his remarks Friday at the Pentagon, where he met with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld...

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Those opposed to nuclear annihilation are appeasers and guilty of "handwringing"

Glenn Greenwald

I read numerous pro-Bush blogs on a daily basis, including many war mongerers who routinely imply that we ought to be eradicating large numbers of Middle Eastern civilians as the solution to all of our woes, so it takes a lot in the extremism department to really surprise me. But this column from Walter Williams -- highly recommended today by National Review's Mark Levin -- did so with plenty of room to spare. Williams points out that we could easily "annihilate" Iran or Syria with nuclear weapons launched from submarines. He then claims that the Great Generation of World War II would have done so already, but laments the tragic fact that we are deterred from doing this by what he calls the "handwringing about the innocent lives lost, so-called collateral damage"

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Silence breeds impunity - investigations are needed

Jeff Handmaker, Electronic Lebanon

First there were allegations of illegal tactics. Now it is the illegal use of certain weapons. Such allegations are hardly new. Israel has for years been accused of both in its systematic dispossession, oppression and killing of Palestinians. However, the continued silence on the part of the international community has sent a dangerous message to Israel that it need not feel restrained in either the methods or weapons it uses in its military operations, and so it has set the bar of violence ever higher. Following repeated allegations of Israel's disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force, reprisals and collective punishment against civilians in Lebanon and Gaza, all of which are grave violations of international law, one could only have expected outrage from the international community...

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Saviour of Iraq's antiquities flees to Syria

Michael Howard, The Guardian

Iraq's most prominent archaeologist has resigned and fled the country, saying the dire security situation, an acute shortage of funds, and the interference of supporters of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had made his position intolerable. Donny George, who was president of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, achieved international recognition for his efforts to track down and recover the priceless antiquities looted from Iraq's National Museum in the mayhem that followed the fall of Baghdad in 2003 (...) The culture ministry could not be reached for comment yesterday but a senior Sadrist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Dr George had served throughout the former regime and "had done nothing to stop Saddam carving his name into the walls of every brick" during the reconstruction of the ancient palace at Babylon...

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Karl Rove's Blood Libel

Chris Floyd

From CNN/AP: Rove Blasts Warrantless Wiretapping Decision. TOLEDO, Ohio -- Presidential adviser Karl Rove criticized a federal judge's order for an immediate end to the government's warrantless surveillance program, saying Wednesday such a program might have prevented the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Rove said the government should be free to listen if al Qaeda is calling someone within the U.S. "Imagine if we could have done that before 9/11. It might have been a different outcome," he said. It's time to be done with the dangerous fiction that this kind of thing is just "hardball politics" – or indeed, politics of any kind, as the term is normally understood in a democracy. What Rove is giving voice to here is nothing less than the new blood libel of our age: that those who oppose the Bush Administration's unconstitutional actions are opening the door to a new 9/11. The implication is clear: anyone who speaks up for the Constitution is working for the death of innocent Americans. They are, by definition, traitors. Thus they deserve what traitors get: death...

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Virginia Refuses To Shut Down HOV Lanes For Bush's Motorcade...

Washington Post Michael D. Shear August 25, 2006 at 06:01 PM
READ MORE: George W. Bush

Wouldn't it be nice to have the highway all to yourself? All alone during rush hour, whizzing down Interstate 395 with not a single car or bus to get in your way? Alas, even the leader of the free world doesn't get that kind of treatment.

Not that he didn't ask.

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Bush “Putting Aside The Troubles Of The World” For Another
Vacation...

President Bush returned to his parents' century-old oceanfront retreat here Thursday for the first time in his second term, putting aside the troubles of the world to some extent for a brief spell of fishing and family.

After a morning flight on Air Force One, Bush wasted little time getting started with his four-day weekend, heading out with his father, George H.W. Bush, and daughter Jenna for a fishing trip aboard Fidelity III, the former president's boat. No word on whether either angler-in-chief caught anything.

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Palestinian Boy Band Hits It Big With Pro-Hezbollah Song...

Click Here To Listen ...

Associated Press Sarah El Deeb August 25, 2006 at 02:07 PM
READ MORE: 2006

They were struggling in a boy band, working the West Bank wedding circuit and dreaming of stardom.Now the five singers who make up the Northern Band have come a little closer to their goal, with help from an unwitting ally -- Hezbollah guerrilla chief Hassan Nasrallah.

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VIDEO: Fox News Host: Women "Are Happier If The Husband Is The Main Bread Winner"...

The words from a Republican wanker, of course if you where married to that creature you would be running to the divorce courts.

Think Progress August 25, 2006 at 04:07 PM
READ MORE: Fox News

Forbes recently published an article by Executive Editor Michael Noer that stated men shouldn't marry women with careers because such women "are more likely to get divorced, more likely to cheat, less likely to have children, and, if they do have kids, they are more likely to be unhappy about it."

Today on Fox News, host Michael Jerrick brought up the story, but instead of criticizing Noer, blamed women. Jerrick stated that the problem "starts with women" and men just "want to keep you happy." When co-host Juliet Huddy called Jerrick's statements "ridiculous," he replied, "Oh, she's mad."

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Schwarzenegger Settles Lawsuit With TV Host Who Accused Him Of Fondling Her...

Los Angeles Times Robert Salladay August 25, 2006 at 04:07 PM
READ MORE: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has settled a lawsuit in London brought by a former British TV host who accused the governor of fondling her and later said the governor's aides had smeared her reputation, attorneys for both sides said today.

Anna Richardson, a former late-night personality, sued Schwarzenegger and two of his top aides in London's High Court in May 2004. She accused them of falsely saying she had forced herself on Schwarzenegger and said the accusation was intended to protect his "ruthless political ambition" during the 2003 recall election.

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Remember, folks, Rummy and the rest only look incompetent if you judge their actions against their stated goals. If you consider their actions in the light of their actual goals, they’re right on track.

Comment by TripMaster Monkey

Think Progress August 25, 2006 at 04:34 PM
READ MORE: Iraq

Today on MSNBC, retired General John Batiste -- former commander of the First Infantry division in Iraq -- said that it was "outrageous" Rumsfeld was still in charge of the Pentagon.

Batiste added, "He served up our great military a huge bowl of chicken feces, and ever since then, our military and our country have been trying to turn this bowl into chicken salad."

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The Colbert Report Dominating The Web...

Eat The Press August 25, 2006 at 10:02 PM
READ MORE: Stephen Colbert

The people behind "The Colbert Report" may be the smartest minds in televison: While everyone else frets about YouTube, web TV, and platform integration Stephen Colbert & Co are already galvanizing the online to action and integrating fan content into the show, to hilarious effect. It is, in a word, freaking brilliant.

Never mind citizen journalism, thanks to last night's episode "The Colbert Report" has become the first program to feature fan content -- and open the floodgates to more. Last week, Colbert did a hilarious rendition of a Jedi knight, whipping a lightsaber around in front of a greenscreen (see it here). Last night, Colbert announced the "Stephen Colbert Greenscreen Challenge" where members of the Colbert Nation (a website as well as a movement) were invited to try their hand at filling in the rest.

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Dems Threaten “No Confidence” Vote On Rumsfeld...

Wall Street Journal August 25, 2006 at 10:18 PM
READ MORE: George W. Bush, Saddam Hussein, Iraq

Campaign strategists seek intraparty consensus by focusing on accountability rather than Iraq troop withdrawals. A "no-confidence" vote in Pentagon chief, which Democratic lawmakers might offer on defense spending legislation, could embarrass Bush while appealing to Republicans who defend ousting Saddam but criticize war's execution.

One House Republican predicts leaders would heed White House urgings to block a vote. But a Republican consultant says some incumbents may embrace idea for distance from war setbacks.
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Lieberman: “I’m A Non-Combatant…I Am Not Going To Be Involved In Other Campaigns”…

New Haven Independent Melinda Tuhus August 25, 2006 at 07:36 PM

Declaring himself a "non-combatant," U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, in remarks at a New Haven press event Friday, raised anew the question of whether his "independent" candidacy will help Republicans hold onto three Congressional seats in Connecticut -- and control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Lieberman -- who after losing an Aug. 8 Democratic primary to Ned Lamont has launched a third-party bid to hold onto his seat in the Nov. 7 general election -- was asked whether he still endorses Diane Farrell, Joe Courtney and Chris Murphy, three Democrats looking to unseat endangered Republican incumbents Chris Shays, Rob Simmons and Nancy Johnson.

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Labour MPs Defect Party Because of Leader's Support For Bush...

The Times Of London David Banks August 25, 2006 at 08:32 PM
READ MORE: George W. Bush, Lebanon

Almost 40 Labour Party members in the constituency of Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, have defected to the Liberal Democrats because she "sided with George Bush" over the Middle East crisis.

The 37 defectors, made up of party members, ex-councillors and a ward chairman, are the highest-profile losses suffered by the party since the beginning of the Lebanon war.

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McCain Backtracks On Iraq War Criticism

Associated Press Jennifer Talhelm August 25, 2006 at 09:19 PM
READ MORE: George W. Bush, Iraq, 2008

Republican Sen. John McCain said Friday he supports the U.S. mission in Iraq days after faulting the Bush administration for misleading Americans into believing it would be "some kind of day at the beach."

The potential 2008 presidential candidate and staunch war supporter issued a statement explaining his position after his headline-grabbing comments criticizing the Bush administration.

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Chavez Calls Chinese Oil Deal “Great Wall” Against US…

The Guardian Jonathan Watts August 25, 2006 at 09:19 PM

China and Venezuela, two of the biggest nations on Washington's worry list, drew closer together yesterday with the signing of trade agreements that the Venezuelan president called a "Great Wall" against American hegemonism.

A million-barrel a day oil deal and a promise by China to back Venezuela's bid to join the United Nations security council were the main fruits of a week of meetings in Beijing, ending with talks between Hugo Chávez and the Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, yesterday.

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US Army reviewing combat deaths

The US Army is to conduct a review of several hundred deaths of its soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The move comes in response to complaints from families of those who died that they have not always been given accurate information.

In one high-profile case, the family of former American football star Pat Tillman were told he had been killed by enemy fire in Afghanistan.

Corp Tillman died in friendly fire but the truth took five weeks to emerge.

The review will compare initial reports of casualties since 2001 with the results of follow-up investigations to check for discrepancies.

A spokesman for the US Army, Brig General Anthony Cucolo, described the review as rigorous and routine.

Around 2,000 US Army soldiers, not including marines, have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

'Positive move'

Corp Tillman's mother, Mary Tillman, called the review a positive move but said the army must follow up and deliver any new information to surviving family members.

"People will be able to come to terms with the truth but if you were lied to once, then you're always going to be distrustful," she told The Associated Press said in a telephone interview.

A spokesman for the US Marine Corps, Lt Col Scott Fazekas, said he was not aware of any similar review by the marines.

The review has been quietly under way for more than two months, but the directive has not yet been sent to units in the field, the Associated Press reported.

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New Orleans Resident: “At This Point We're Just Looking For Basic Services”...

Associated Press Michelle Roberts August 25, 2006 at 10:00 PM
READ MORE: Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane

First came the floodwaters, then the paperwork. Billions of promised federal dollars to fix New Orleans' crumbling infrastructure have gone largely untapped a year after Hurricane Katrina. City officials complain that a snarl of red tape, restrictions and unexpectedly high costs have kept hundreds of public buildings in disrepair, streets pocked with potholes and most parks too dirty for children to play.

"It's an incredible bureaucracy. It's unbelievable," Mayor Ray Nagin said in an interview with The Associated Press this week.

READ WHOLE STORY Newt Gingrich: "It Was Katrina That Broke The Sense That The Republicans Could Govern Well''...

Hurricane Katrina's flood waters have long since receded. The human toll and political wreckage wrought by the killer storm continue to haunt George W. Bush almost a year later.

As the president and still-reeling Gulf Coast residents prepared to mark Katrina's anniversary, political experts say that dismay over Bush's response to the disaster continues to undermine public confidence in his managerial abilities.

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Bush To Iraq Widow: “No Point” In Discussing “Pros And Cons Of The War”...

TPM Cafe Greg Sargent August 25, 2006 at 02:06 PM
READ MORE: George W. Bush, Iraq

I just got off the phone with Hildi Halley, a woman from Maine whose husband is a fallen soldier. Yesterday President Bush met with her privately, and news of their meeting was reported in a local Maine paper, the Kennebec Journal, which said simply that Halley objected to Bush's policies and that she said Bush responded that there was no point them having a "philosophical discussion about the pros and cons of the war."

But Halley has just told me that she went much farther in her criticism of Bush, telling him directly that he was "responsible" for the deaths of American soldiers and that as a "Christian man," he should recognize that he's "made a mistake" and that it was his "responsibility to end this." She recounted to me that she told Bush: "As President, you're here to serve the people. And the people are not being served with this war...I was very direct."

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US News Writer: Bush Likes To “Gas” A New Aide And “See What The Kid's Face Looks Like”...

Boston Herald August 25, 2006 at 12:53 PM
READ MORE: Iraq, George W. Bush

Maybe if Iraq were going better, I'd chalk this up to some cowboy thing."Blazing Saddles Does D.C."As it is, I worry that the supposed leader of the free world is trapped in the body of a 7-year-old and hiding a Whoopie Cushion under his bed.

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