Your Friday News Dump™

After over six years of imprisonment by the United States in the Gitmo Gulag, and sixteen months of a hunger strike and force-feeding, al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj is a free man.

Six years of his life, gone. And no charges were ever filed.

The case of Hajj, 39, had been taken up by journalism advocacy organizations as well as his news channel, which is owned by the government of Qatar, a key war-on-terror ally of the United States.

Also released were Amir Yacoub al Amir, 37, and Walid Ali, 33, according to a release from the London based human rights law firm Reprieve, which filed suit on behalf of Hajj and Yacoub.

Yacoub, the release said, was imprisoned for over six years, after he was taken into custody in Pakistan in March 2002. According to Pentagon records, he celebrates his 38th birthday next week.

Pentagon panels had branded Hajj an "enemy combatant,'' disputing his claim that he had simply been a working journalist in a war zone. He had worked for al Jazeera as a cameraman.

Hajj's civil liberties lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, declared the development "a wonderful moment for Sami's wife and son.'' But, he said, "the U.S. military has a lot of explaining to do as to why an innocent journalist was held so long.''

A year ago, a Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon said in a statement to McClatchy newspapers that Hajj "has declined to answer any questions about his alleged role in supporting terror networks'' despite "a significant amount of evidence, both unclassified and classified, which supports continued detention of Sami al Hajj by U.S. forces.''

Hajj was one of three detainees repatriated to Sudan as well. Speaking from his hospital bed in Khartoum, Sudan, he praised Allah for his freedom. "Thank God ... for being free again. Our eyes have the right to shed tears after we have spent all those years in prison. ... But our joy is not going to be complete until our brothers in Guantanamo Bay are freed. The situation is very bad and getting worse day after day," he said of conditions in Guantanamo. He claimed guards prevent Muslims from practicing their religion and reading the Quran. "Some of our brothers live without clothing," he said.

What, pray tell, have we become? I hang my head in shame. The behavior of our so-called leaders over the last seven-plus years makes me hang my head in shame. These behaviors are, to be perfectly blunt, a textbook example of un-American.

The video below is from al Jazeera via YouTube. It is not easy to watch.

And you thought no one resigned this week!

The New York Times reported today that Ann Barrett, the State Department official in charge of passport services has tendered her resignation. The announcement comes two weeks after the flap that ensued over snooping into the files of presidential candidates and other prominent Americans came to light. On Monday morning, she will be replaced by Lawrence Baer, a senior management official. She will remain at State, but will be transfered to the consular affairs bureau.

Mukasey won't enforce Contempt Citations

Here is your Friday News Dump™. And boy howdy, is it the sort of thing a failed administration would really try to release after the east coast network news broadcasts.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Michael Mukasey on Friday rejected referring the House's contempt citations against two of President Bush's top aides to a federal grand jury. Mukasey says they committed no crime.

Mukasey said White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former presidential counsel Harriet Miers were right in refusing to provide Congress White House documents or testify about the firings of federal prosecutors.

"The department will not bring the congressional contempt citations before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute Mr. Bolten or Ms. Miers," Mukasey wrote House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The House voted two weeks ago to cite Bolten and Mukasey for contempt of Congress and seek a grand jury investigation. Most Republicans boycotted the vote.

Speaker Pelosi requested a grand jury investigation yesterday (Thursday) and gave Mukasey a week to reply. He wasted no time in responding, because he only had one crack at the news dump. Had he responded on Thursday of next week, it would have been THE STORY all day Friday and going into the weekend.

Pelosi is pissed, and apparently prepared to make good on her threat to file a federal civil suit if the attorney general dug in his heels and refused to act as the attorney the people of this country instead of the president.

Mukasey, taking a very Nixonian position, has maintained that Miers and Bolton were right to refuse to appear because Bush told them not to. And acting on the orders of the president means they committed no crime. Like I said - Nixonian, like when he said to David Frost "[W]hen the president does it that means that it is not illegal."

Folks, this is exactly why we need to ITMFA right now. Because if aWol is not impeached, he can pardon the whole lot of them, putting them out of reach of a future Justice Department. But a president under impeachment can't pardon a thanksgiving turkey.

UPDATE I - PALE RIDER

Say we're sitting here a year from now--and Attorney General John Edwards has just refused to investigate whether some Presidential aides to President Obama have to appear before Congress because some Republican Congressman thinks they might have something to say about why all of the deleted E-Mails suddenly appeared after a few very talented people were able to retrieve them from some tape backups that were found under Bradley Schlozman's cookie cabinet in his old office. How shrill do you think these hypocritical bastards are going to be? And how loud are we going to be laughing at them for being so shrill?

Friday Night Round-Up

Let's take care of the important stuff first...My most sincere and heartfelt thanks to Pale Rider for standing in for me while I was occupied in the corporeal realm. Let's encourage him to grace us with his withering takedowns of the likes of Derbyshire and Hanson and other assorted assholes, fucktards and morons. He has a gift, and I so enjoy pulling that bow!

Now...for that news roundup...

The Army is having problems and not just with recruiting and retention. Desertions are up 80% since 2003, when the biggest deserter of them all decided that it was God talking to him and not cocaine-induced dementia that made him hear those voices that told him invading Iraq was a stellar notion. Desertion rates are at their highest level since 1980.

Marine Lt. Colonel Jeffrey Chessani today became the highest ranking officer to face a combat-related court martial in over 30 years. He is charged with Violation of a Lawful Order and Deriliction of Duty, accused of mishandling the fallout from the 19 November 2005 massacre of civilians in Haditha. It was decided that Chessani should face trial after a hearing officer was scathing in his condemnation of the officer for failing to immediately go to the scene and initiate an investigation.

Two-plus years after Hurricane Katrina crystallized the Bush kleptocracy, Mississippi (Governor: Haley Barbour, former RNC head) is in violation of federal guidelines that state half of all federal aid for storm recovery be distributed to low income residents. Instead of the mandated half, poor residents have received only about 10% of the aid disbursed to date and affluent residents ahve received the other 90%. Mississippi - again, governed by Haley Barbour - is the only state that the feds waived the rules for.

The Senate Republicans succeeded in temporarily cutting off funding for the Iraq misadventure. The House last week approved $50 billion in war funding, but attached a timeline for withdrawal. The Senate failed to pass the legislation. Pelosi says they will not consider another funding package this year. John Aravosis at AMERICAblog summed it up best:

So in a nutshell, the Democrats were ready to give George Bush $50 billion for Iraq today and the Republicans killed it because they don't want to provide any oversight whatsoever. The Republicans think the war in Iraq is going great, and to prove it they just took $50 billion away from our troops.

The Republicans own this war. Remember that in one year when we're still in Iraq, we still haven't won, and the Republicans are still telling us that we need yet another six months to finally show progress.

But apparently the faithless, feckless fools of the GOP don't just hate our military - they hate our farmers too! They killed the farm bill today.

We always suspected, and now we know: It was indeed official policy for the U.S. military to keep Red Cross monitors from Guantanamo detainees.

And the Inspector General for State? Yeah, it turns out that his brother is on the Blackwater Board of Directors. Blackwater is under contract to the State Department to provide security for diplomats in that country, and murdered 17 civilians in a bloody, murderous rampage on September 16 in Nissour Square in Baghdad.

Now THIS is what I call a "News Dump"

Blackwater USA has even more trouble heading down the pike toward them. While the Iraqis are on their case because they fired indiscriminately into a crowd of Iraqis and left 20 dead.

Back home, federal prosecutors are investigating the company for illegally smuggling weapons into Iraq. Weapons that might have been sold on the black market and ended up in the possession of at least one group that the United States designates as a terrorist organization.

The U.S. Attorney in Raleigh, NC is investigating the allegations, with the help of the Pentagon and auditors from the State Department, and they have determined that there is enough evidence to move forward.

The official that spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity could not say whether indictments would be forthcoming, how many Blackwater employees might be involved, or whether the company itself might be implicated.

The allegations of malfeasance come at a time when the no-bid contracts the company has secured since 2003 invasion of Iraq are being scrutinized.

Neither George Holding, the US attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, nor the spokesperson for Blackwater returned calls to the AP on Friday, and officials from both State and the Pentagon declined comment.

Due to the sensitivity of the matter, officials with knowledge of the case would only confirm that the investigation is currently active but in an initial phase.

The investigation is fueled by the willingness of two Blackwater mercenaries to cooperate with federal investigators after pleading guilty in early 2007 to possession of stolen firearms that had been shipped via interstate or international commerce to cooperate with federal investigators. They agreed to testify in further proceedings as a part of their plea agreements.

According to officials in Washington, the investigation grew from internal Pentagon and State Department inquiries into U.S. weapons that had gone missing in Iraq.

It gained steam after Turkish authorities protested to the U.S. in July that they had seized American arms from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, rebels.

The Turks provided serial numbers of the weapons to U.S. investigators, said a Turkish official.

The Pentagon said in late July it was looking into the Turkish complaints and a U.S. official said FBI agents had traveled to Turkey in recent months to look into cases of missing U.S. weapons in Iraq.

Investigators are determining whether the alleged Blackwater weapons match those taken from the PKK.

It was not clear if Blackwater employees suspected of selling to the black market knew the weapons they allegedly sold to middlemen might wind up with the PKK. If they did, possible charges against them could be more serious than theft or illegal weapons sales, officials said.

Who could have imagined that hiring a mercenary outfit might blow up in their faces? People who have a profit motive for sustained conflict would never think about arming enemies or insurgents. They would never put corporate profit over the good of the nation. Yes, indeed. Who could have possibly imagined...

Bartlett Bails on Bush

White House Counselor Dan Bartlett has announced his resignation, ostensibly to spend more time in the act of hands-on parenting of his three sons, all under age four.

WASHINGTON - Dan Bartlett, one of President Bush's most trusted advisers and his longest-serving aide, said Friday he is resigning to begin a career outside of government.

The move was announced on Bartlett's 36th birthday. He has been with Bush for nearly 14 years, from Bush's first campaign as governor of Texas, through two races for the White House and more than six years of a presidency marked by costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and an ongoing battle against terrorism.

Perhaps there is something to the child-rearing argument, or perhaps there is a quid pro quo at work – Rove gives up Griffin, and Bush gives up Bartlett? Stranger things happen in Washington every day before breakfast.

And speaking of before breakfast – what is up with the timing of this announcement? What is coming later in the day that they want to slide by under the shadow cast by the exit of Bush’s longest-serving confidant?

A bit of free advice for Fredo – avoid small watercraft today.

An *Outing* at the Pentagon

It isn’t often that my husband finishes whatever he is reading and casts a smug look my way and says something like “Gates is steppin’ all over his dick on this one.” And launches into what passes for a tirade in the most reflective, responsible person on the entire face of the earth. (This is the guy you want in a missile silo, okay? I mean, if they are going to be out there, this is the guy you trust with that duty. When he rants, people listen.)

Call him the anti aWol.

He gets no jollies from the misfortune of others, as a general rule. But he really loathes George Bush, as only a veteran can. While aWol was AWOL, he was holding a draft card and dreading trips to the mailbox. While aWol was drunk in a gutter, he was an enlisted Airman with a heavy-duty AFSC. While aWol was running his first oil company into the ground, he was bootstrapping an engineering degree. While aWol was cutting a swath of fecklessness across Texas, he was restoring the integrity of the officer corps and rebuilding a military decimated by lies and politics during the Vietnam era. While aWol was stumbling through life, he was stitching back together the tattered remnants of the Honor Code. (I also have a brother who fits that description, except for the draft-card bit. When I say I see things differently, that view isn’t from the belfry.)

I listened when he pointed out days ago that there was an extension coming, and that Gates was going to get caught with his pants down on this matter. When aWol threatened that tours might have to be extended if the funding battle drags on, he looked at me and said “Gates just got fucked. Extensions are already a done deal. Watch this unfold. Gates may be losing his touch. But look for him to try to frame Inman anyway.” When the insider Contra-gate jokes come out, he's overdosing on Schadenfreude...

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates complained bitterly today that "some very thoughtless person" at the Pentagon leaked word about duty extensions for Army units in Iraq and Afghanistan. Gates said that the leak robbed the Army "the opportunity to notify unit commanders who could then talk to their troops 48 hours before we made a public announcement."

We all know that they would have liked to keep that ace in the hole for the funding battle, but it didn’t work out that way.

So plan B…Take advantage of the Friday News Dump, like they did last week with the redeployment of the Guardsmen. But that didn’t work out so swell, either. The push-back is well underway, it would seem.

If I were a betting woman, I would put my money on that leak coming from a low-level Captain at the Pentagon who has done a tour. Or a civilian with some skin in the game.

Here is the deal – most of the people at the Pentagon are non-partisan professionals. They are just people, doing their jobs and collecting their pay. Lots of folks who do 20 or more rotate through the Pentagon, and there are tons of civilians who work there. Most of the people who work there are civilians, in fact. So stop being afeared of the Pentagon. It isn’t some magical, mystical, evil place. It’s a big building with an interesting geometric shape, and it happens to be the headquarters for the nation’s defense services. It has an aura that isn’t really deserved. And it smells funny - or at least it did when I was a kid.

For every “famous” person who has an office in the Pentagon, there are, at minimum, a couple of thousand who are actually making things work and who never hold a presser. Those folks are going to be there after this criminal crew is banished to the cruel, fickle hands of history. They see the devastation this petulant, brain-damaged president and his craven, capitulating minions, have wrought, and they are quietly pushing back against the tide of mendacity.

And you know what? Evil doesn’t win when good people do something.

So step up. Take stock of your abilities, and then do something.

Lot's of contact information, readily available on your left.

UPDATE: If it turns out that it was Senior Brass who leaked, I will owe Larry Johnson a beer. The email exchange has been archived for future examination by relevant congressional committees.

BREAKING: GONZALEZ APPROVED FIRINGS

WASHINGTON Mar 23, 2007 (AP)— Attorney General Alberto Gonzales approved plans to fire several U.S. attorneys in a November meeting, according to documents released Friday that contradict earlier claims that he was not closely involved in the dismissals.

This is in sharp contrast to what has been maintained by the administration all along, that Gonzalez was not involved in the decision.

Not involved…But on November 27, there was an hour-long meeting, Gonzalez and Sampson were both present, and the Attorney General signed off on it.

Gonzalez is gone by noon Monday. Rove and Meiers have to testify. Under oath. Snow resigns.

Boy they held a lot of bad news for the dump today, didn’t they?

SWARM THIS STORY! DON'T LET THE BASTARDS GET AWAY WITH THIS!!!

A Pentagon investigation will recommend nine officers, including up to four generals, be held accountable for missteps in the aftermath of the friendly fire death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman, AP reports citing senior defense officials.

How forthright of them. Actually, craven and cynical are probably better adjectives than forthright…

Can you stand it? The Pentagon held this information until after the vote on funding the wars. They held it until the newscasts were over in the eastern and central time zones, so over half of the country would miss it, and by Monday it will be old news?

It is time for the Armed Services Committees to rein in the Pentagon. They need to have a policy for releasing news like everyone else, and they need to adhere to it.

If this is not the very definition of a bad news dump, then I don’t know what is. This was cynically timed to be "old news" by Monday when they think most people will learn about it.

I am not standing by for it. Every blog in America should be swarming on this.

Make this story viral by midnight, people…