Russian Jets Pound Targets in Georgia

Crossposted from our new home blog,They gave us a republic...

The violence in the region is escalating...

Russian jets have carried out strikes on military targets in the central Georgian town of Gori, close to the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Most of the targets seem to have been military bases, but Georgian officials said a number of civilians had been killed in residential buildings.

Russia said it had "liberated" the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali.

Earlier, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said his country was seeking "to force the Georgian side to peace".

The comments came after Russian commanders announced they were sending more troops into South Ossetia to support peacekeeping operations.

The Russian defence ministry confirmed two of its jets had been shot down over Georgia, although it did not say where.

In a live televised address, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said he would ask parliament to approve the introduction of martial law.

After days of exchanging heavy fire with the Russian-backed separatists, Georgian forces launched a surprise attack on Thursday night to regain control of the region, which has had de facto independence since a war in 1992.

Georgian troops in the city of Gori (NY Times)

A small contingent of US troops is in Georgia, and since Russian forces are attacking Georgian military installations, it is not known if they are in imminent danger:

About 130 U.S. military and civilian personnel are currently located in Georgia, where they are training Georgian troops for deployment to Iraq as part of the multinational force there. U.S. military officials in Baghdad said they had gotten no official word about statements from Tblisi that half of Georgia's 2,000-troop contingent was being called home.

It isn't something that is front and center in the reporting, since attacks on civilians are the real story here. But when you start to think about why the sides are fighting, it really does come down to energy revenues:

The BBC's Richard Galpin in Gori heard loud explosions and saw large plumes of smoke rising into the sky; soldiers and civilians were seen running through the streets.

One missile hit a military base, from which most of the soldiers appeared to have managed to escape beforehand, he says.

The Georgian military said residential buildings had also been struck, leaving a number of civilians dead. Our correspondent says injured civilians were being pulled from the buildings, which were on fire.

The Georgian foreign ministry said the Black Sea port of Poti, which is the site of a major oil shipment facility, had also been "devastated" by a Russian aerial bombardment.

Georgian troops riding to the front (NY Times)

The US and the United Nations seem ineffectual, unable to get past the Russian veto on the Security Council:

International Red Cross (ICRC) spokeswoman Anna Nelson said the ICRC had received reports that hospitals in the city were "overflowing" with casualties.

The BBC's James Rodgers in Moscow says diplomatic initiatives to end the fighting have so far proved fruitless.

On Friday evening, the UN Security Council failed to agree on the wording of a statement calling for a ceasefire.

Russia holds a permanent place on the Council, and has the power of veto over any official statements that it regards as unfair or inaccurate.

Permanent members Britain, the US and France, are pinpointing what they say is Russia's aggression as the key factor in the slide towards war, while Moscow insists Georgia is to blame.

In other developments:

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Russia to pull its troops out of Georgia and respect its territorial integrity
Georgia's president said his country was withdrawing its contingent of 2,000 troops from Iraq to help deal with the crisis
The European security organisation, the OSCE, warned that the fighting in South Ossetia could escalate into a full-scale war
The US and the EU were reported to be sending a joint delegation to the region to seek a ceasefire and Nato said it was seriously concerned.

She needs to go to Moscow and/or the region immediately. Not some envoy, not some flunky--she's the expert on Russia, and her area of expertise has so far proven to be an area of foreign policy in which she's about as effective as everywhere else she tries her hand--and that's not very damned much.

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The Nightowl Newswrap

Crossposted from our new home blog,
They gave us a republic...

Yeah, don't be scamming on Medicare: For people with osteoporosis, a painful bone disease, a simple medical device can help. Doctors use it to inject bone filler and repair tiny fractures. The procedure, called kyphoplasty, can be done in about an hour without putting the patient to sleep. But Kyphon, the company that made the device, stood to make a lot more money if patients were admitted to the hospital for expensive overnight stays...As an outpatient procedure, Medicare would pay about $1,000 for kyphoplasty. But as an inpatient procedure, Medicare paid up to $10,000 -- your tax dollars.

But will they disarm? Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered most of his militiamen to disarm but said Friday he will maintain elite fighting units to resist the Americans if a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops is not established. Also Friday, Iraqi police say at least 16 people have been killed and 20 wounded when a car bomb struck a market in the northern city of Tal Afar. A senior police official in the nearby city of Mosul says the car was parked when it exploded by the market, crowded with shoppers. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information. The bombing is the latest in a series of deadly attacks by suspected insurgents seeking to chip away at recent security gains. Al-Sadr's statement - read to worshippers during Friday prayers in Baghdad's former militia stronghold of Sadr City - is in line with details revealed earlier this week and appears to be an extension of plans he announced in June aimed at asserting more control over the militia.

It used to be called "shy" before it was called "stalking" but oh well: A microbiologist claims she was stalked for decades by Bruce Ivins, the suspect in the deadly anthrax mailings of 2001 who, according to court documents, was obsessed with the sorority she joined in college. Nancy L. Haigwood and her former husband, Carl J. Scandella, also think Ivins may have wanted to get close to her when he moved in down the street from the couple in the suburbs of Washington in the early 1980s. Ivins, an Army scientist, committed suicide last week as federal authorities prepared to charge him with killing five people by sending anthrax spores in the mail. The letters were dropped in a mailbox near a Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority office in Princeton, New Jersey, and prosecutors have suggested Ivins chose that location because of its proximity to the office. Well, case closed!

Did they figure out if he actually wrote the plays, though? The theater where "The Merchant of Venice" and "Romeo and Juliet" likely debuted and where William Shakespeare himself may have trodden the boards has likely been discovered in east London, archaeologists at the Museum of London said. The possible foundations of what is known as simply, The Theatre, were unearthed by builders excavating the site - a vacant garage - for another structure. Museum archaeologists were called to the location to make sure nothing was destroyed, and had a eureka moment. "We were there, scratching our heads, looking into the trenches, thinking, 'this could be it,"' Jo Lyon, a senior museum archaeologist, said Wednesday. "So we did some more research, and then we found the angled walls. And we all went, 'Oh my gosh, this should be it.' " Other theaters of similar vintage also have angled walls, so the discovery was significant. Archaeologists also had known for a long time there was a high probability for The Theatre to be on this particular site. But there are no maps that show its location, no images to show what it might have looked like, and only a vague description of it. "It's in the right place, it's at the right angle to be a polygonal shape," Lyon said. "It's a pretty high possibility."

This probably bodes ill for republicans this fall For the first time since 1966, an incumbent congressman in Tennessee has lost a primary. Freshman republican Representative David Davis lost to the mayor of a small city in the heavily republican TN 01. Challenger Phil Roe defeated the one-term congressman by linking him to big oil. In the final days of the campaign, Roe took to the airwaves with a commercial that accused Davis of selling out to Big Oil by taking money from oil industry PACs and backing legislation favored by oil companies that would allow expanded off-shore drilling. Lets make sure we are clear on this – Tennessee republicans turned out an incumbent with oil ties while the republican minority is engaged in a hyperbolic circle jerk in a closed chamber, insisting on an emergency session to do the bidding of Big Oil. During the final weeks of the campaign, gas prices in the TN 01 hit a record high of $3.94.

Speaking of that hyperbolic circle jerk on the part of the republican minority John Boehner managed to rip himself away from the golf course to return to the floor of the closed House chamber late this morning. He spent Monday through Thursday blustering that the Congress needed to be called back for a special session to do the bidding of Exxon-Mobile…from the golf course. At least one of his tee-times was for a republican fundraiser.

Cheney will address the party faithful on the first night of the republican nominating convention. There is no love lost between Cheney and McCain - in fact, the two men can't stand one another, and association with either of the executives is toxic, so they are both speaking the first night, before McSame even arrives.

As with most addictions, there is a smoking gene Most people react to tobacco (or opiates, or alcohol) in an adverse manner the first time they experience it, but a few people feel waves of pleasure and even euphoria. The people in that group have a genetic predisposition and addiction can happen with the very first cigarette.

Nuptuals by the numbers All over Asia couples were married on 08/08/08 in hasty, individual ceremonies and mass weddings. In Chinese the word for "eight" sounds like the word for "prosperity," and in any language the number has a pleasing symmetry: two circles interlocked like a pair of wedding rings. It also looks like an infinity symbol turned upright, suggesting that the marriage will last forever.

The first gold medal of the Beijing games has been earned by Katrina Emmons of the Czech republic in the 10 meter air rifle competition. She shot a perfect 400 in qualifying and set an Olympic record in the event with 503.5 points. Lioubov Galkina of Russia won the silver. Snjezana Pejcic of Croatia took the bronze.


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Russia "declares war" on Georgia

Crossposted from our new home blog,They gave us a republic...

Russian Jets Attack Georgia. 'They Have Declared War On Us,' Georgian Official Says

WASHINGTON, August 8 -

Russian jets bombed the Vaziani military airbase outside the Georgian capital Tbilisi on Friday, a senior Georgian security official told Reuters. "No one was wounded but some buildings have been destroyed," said Kakha Lamaia. The airbase is some 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Tbilisi. "They have declared war against us," said Lamaia.

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Russian Troops Are On the March

Crossposted from our new home blog,They gave us a republic...
UPDATE I / WS

Screenshots from video, courtesy of the BBC:

These would appear to be Russia's main battle tanks, the T-90s:



Russian self-propelled artillery guns (the 2s3 152mm?):



Russian troops in BMP armored personnel carriers:




The Associated Press is reporting that:

Russian television says Russian troops are moving into South Ossetia.

And the region is in turmoil.

Russian authorities said several of its peacekeepers died in a Georgian attack in South Ossetia, which borders Russia and has strong ties to its vast northern neighbor, and they vowed not to leave Russian citizens in the territory unprotected.



"The Georgian leadership has launched a dirty adventure," a statement from Russia's Defense Ministry said on Friday. "We will not leave our peacekeepers and Russian citizens unprotected."

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Georgia started the fighting and warned that Russia would respond to their actions.

"Heavy weapons and artillery have been sent there, and tanks have been added. Deaths and injuries have been reported, including among Russian peacekeepers," Putin said in comments carried Friday by Russia's Interfax news agency.

"It's all very sad and alarming. And, of course, there will be a response."

Earlier Friday, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said in a televised statement that Russian aircraft bombed several Georgian villages and other civilian facilities.

We will watch what happens through the day and the weekend--this could end up being the biggest story of the month, Olympics notwithstanding.


Americans shouldn't worry--Secretary of State Rice was just there last month and straightened everything out:

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has arrived in Georgia amid an escalating row between Russia, Georgia and the United States.

Russia accused Georgia of bringing the South Caucasus to the brink of armed conflict - comments which both Ms Rice and Nato condemned as "unhelpful".

See? She said it was "unhelpful." And that took care of the problem.

On August 2nd, Secretary Rice appeared at the Aspen Music Festival. I'm glad she has had the opportunity to take time out of her busy schedule and attend to important things.

Here's yesterday's full mention of the issue in South Ossetia from the US State Department during its daily press briefing:

QUESTION: Gonzo, do you have anything about Ossetia?

MR. [Gonzalo R.] GALLEGOS: South Ossetia?

QUESTION: Yes.

MR. GALLEGOS: I think so.

QUESTION: President Saakashvili -- you know, there were some victims, some fighting last night. And President Saakashvili said that the – he’s – he called several world leaders asking them for their help in maintaining peace. I wanted to know if he called Secretary Rice.

MR. GALLEGOS: Well, we’re – I don’t believe – I don’t have any further information. I don’t have it that he spoke to Secretary Rice. But we’re in close contact with senior Russian and Georgian officials. We’re urging Moscow to press South Ossetia’s de facto leaders to stop firing. We’re urging Tbilisi to maintain restraint. We’re very concerned about the situation. We call for an immediate end to the violence and for direct talks between the parties.

QUESTION: Do you think the South Ossetian people started the fighting, or who do you think is responsible?

MR. GALLEGOS: We think it’s important that both sides stop firing, that they sit down and they discuss this in a peaceful manner.

As you can see, "Gonzo" is on top of it. Your State Department at work, as fighting breaks out in a region where the warning signs were fairly evident earlier this year.

Russian military heavy equipment rolling into the region:

Update/Noon Central/BG

This situation is developing fast and the United States is in danger of getting sucked into it. Over at the most excellent and essential Newshoggers, I learned that the Georgians are recalling all forces in their control, including the combat brigade that is currently serving in Iraq as part of the Coalition forces.

They are asking for rapid response assistance and could ask the U.S. to airlift the brigade back to Georgia in USAF C-17s through the Tallil Airbase. That would put the U.S. on a hostile footing with yet another oil-producing nation - and this one has military prowess and battle-hardened troops, that make up a force that hasn't been decimated in the desert.

The Duck of Minerva has more.

Priorities:

The BBC, Fox News, and CBS news - three screenshots:







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The Nightowl Newswrap

Um...they do take pride in being ignorant The republicans in their current incarnation are the "Know Nothing's" of the 21st century. For four days the McCain campaign and the howler monkeys that desperately back his feeble run for the oval have been gleefully - and ignorantly - mocking Obama's suggestion that we all check our tire pressure to save a bit of energy. Even though the Energy department, auto manufacturers, NASCAR and all sorts of other experts on such matters point out that Obama's suggestion is spot on. "They're lying about what my energy plan is," said Obama. "They're making fun of a step that every expert says would reduce our oil consumption by 3 to 4 percent. It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant." Way to grasp the obvious there, Barack.


The dumbassery of David Brooks is rivaled only by his banality Someone tell that mo-ron that watching the national polls is a mugs game, since the popular vote doesn't determine the presidency. If you look at the state polls, you will find your landslide. Dumbass.


Memo to Faux Noise...there is no KFC in Fallujah. Wonder if Doocy will retract his assertion?


First he calls her a c*nt, then tries to turn her out topless at a biker rally? Yesterday in a campaign stop at the Sturgis biker rally, McCain offered up Cindy for the Miss Buffalo Chip contest. Something tells me neither of them are quite sure what that particular event entails...Click the link. Josh has all the details. Personally, she's a bit high maintenance for a wet t-shirt contest. Bedhead Barbie is more the catfight kind.

Stealing someone's identity gets more brazen every year: The Department of Justice announced Tuesday that it had charged 11 people in connection with the hacking of nine major U.S. retailers and the theft and sale of more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers. It is believed to be the largest hacking and identity theft case ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice. The charges include conspiracy, computer intrusion, fraud and identity theft. Three of the defendants are U.S. citizens, while the others are from places such as Estonia, Ukraine, Belarus and China. "So far as we know, this is the single largest and most complex identity theft case ever charged in this country," said Attorney General Michael Mukasey. "It highlights the efforts of the Justice Department to fight this pernicious crime and shows that, with the cooperation of our law enforcement partners around the world, we can identify, charge and apprehend even the most sophisticated international computer hackers."

Another Sunni leader killed along with two US troops: A roadside bomb killed two U.S. soldiers in a predominantly Shiite area in Baghdad on Monday, the first deadly attack against American troops in the capital in nearly a month, and gunmen killed one of the senior leaders of a U.S.-allied Sunni group fighting militants south of the capital. The U.S. military said another American soldier was wounded when the blast struck a U.S. patrol at about 9:30 a.m. in eastern Baghdad. The area was the site of fierce clashes and frequent roadside bombings blamed on Shiite militiamen before a cease-fire by anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The soldiers were the first to be killed in Baghdad since July 8, when a roadside bomb killed Spc. William McMillan III, a 22-year-old Army medic from Lexington, Ky., and wounded five other soldiers in the western neighborhood of Amariyah, a Sunni area. As of Monday, Aug. 4, 2008, at least 4,131 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Tragedy on K2: Limping through ice on frostbitten feet, the last survivor of the mountaineering disaster that killed 11 climbers on K2 reached base camp Tuesday as cloud and snow prevented a helicopter rescue. "Now I really realize that everyone here has died," said Marco Confortola, who was stranded on the world's second highest peak after an ice fall nearly four days ago. "I am happy to be alive," the Italian climber told the Everest-K2-CNR, an Italy-based high-altitude scientific research group, during a phone call from base camp. K2, which straddles Pakistan and China in the Karakoram range, is regarded by mountaineers as far more challenging than Mount Everest, the world's highest peak. K2's knife-edged ridges and icy slopes are steeper and prone to both avalanches and sudden and severe storms.

Iraq asks for doctors to return: The Health Ministry has appealed to Iraqi physicians who fled the country due to violence to return to their jobs because security has improved, an official said Sunday. Dr. Essam Namiq, a deputy minister of health, said more than 165 Iraqi doctors have responded and resumed their work over the past 20 days, and he expected more than 90 percent to return this year. The violence of the past five years, much of which targeted professionals, "had forced the majority of the Iraqi doctors to abandon their hospitals and clinics" Namiq told a press conference in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone.

Yes, but could they close the gulf long enough to cause a major world oil shock? Pentagon said Tuesday that any move by Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz would be "self-defeating" because its weak economy is so heavily dependent on oil revenues. "Shutting down the Strait, closing down the Persian Gulf, would be sort of a self-defeating exercise," said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary. "That doesn't say anything about whether we tolerate such a thing to happen." Morrell's comments came in response to a warning by the new head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that Iran could easily close the Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world's oil passes. General Mohammad Ali Jafari announced Monday that Iran has successfully tested an anti-ship missile with a range of 300 kilometers (180 miles.) "And given the equipment our armed forces have, an indefinite blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would be very easy," Jafari said on state television.

Russians warned on South Ossetia: Washington Tuesday urged Moscow to avoid provocation in Georgia's separatist region of South Ossetia, after a diplomat said Russia was prepared to defend its citizens living there in case of conflict. "We don't believe that now is the time for any parties to be acting in a provocative way," said US State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos. "We believe that the violence should stop and all parties should begin a discussion so that they can move forward towards settling the situation," he added. Gallegos' statement followed a comment by Moscow's negotiator on South Ossetia, ambassador-at-large Yury Popov, that Russia would intervene in the separatist region if its citizens were in danger. "If events develop in the worst possible way, with the use of force, Russia will not be able to stand by seeing as Russian citizens live in South Ossetia," Popov was quoted as saying by Russia's Interfax news agency. South Ossetia has evacuated hundreds of women and children to Russia over the past few days after six people were killed on Friday by sniper and mortar fire from Georgian positions, the rebel province's government said. Georgia has denied readying for war and said there is no major evacuation. One reason for hope--Secretary Rice appears to not be part of these negotiations, at least, so far...

Is the era of the big commute over? It sure seems like it should be: The "end of the exurbs" trend narrative story has hit the Washington Post front page, with a very good article by Eric ("War on Drivers") Weiss. As we well know, families just aren't moving out to the fringe of the metropolitan area for cheap housing yet grueling commutes; "the days of building giant houses on former soybean fields on the outer fringes of metropolitan areas are over." Weiss not only identifies the trend but delves into the causes, and gets them right: Since the end of World War II, government policy has funded and encouraged the suburban lifestyle, subsidizing highways while starving mass transit... Federal spending is about 4 to 1 in favor of highways over transit. Today, more than 99 percent of the trips taken by U.S. residents are in cars or some other non-transit vehicle, largely as a result of decades of such unbalanced spending. I would never have guessed the number to be as high as 99 percent--that's an outrage.

Finally, from the just plain shut the fuck up and quit being a hypocrite files: John McCain on the recently recessed Congress: Earlier in the day, McCain told a biker rally, “Tell em’ to come back and get to work. When I’m president of the United States, I’m not going to let them go on vacation.” This strikes me as amusing for two reasons: the hypocrisy and the misplaced priorities. On the latter point, McCain hasn’t been “willing” to leave the campaign trail for anything, but all of a sudden, he’s ready to head back to his day job to tackle a coastal drilling bill that wouldn’t do any good anyway. Brad Johnson noted a handful of the bills McCain could have come back to the Hill to vote on, but decided he couldn’t be bothered.

– 4/26/07: Iraq War funding (passed 51-46)
– 6/7/07: Immigration reform (filibustered 34-61)
– 6/11/07: Condemning Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (filibustered 53-38)
– 7/26/07: Homeland Security (passed 85-8)
– 8/3/07: Wiretapping (FISA) authorization (passed 60-28)
– 9/27/07: Children’s health insurance (passed 69-30; vetoed)
– 2/6/08: Stimulus package with support for renewable energy (filibustered by one vote)
– 4/23/08: Fair Pay Act (filibustered 56-42)
– 5/22/08: The 21st-Century GI Bill (passed 75-22)
– 6/6/08: Global warming legislation (filibustered 48-36)

McCain wouldn’t leave the campaign trail for any of these votes, but he is willing to head back for a pointless debate on a pointless drilling initiative. It helps highlight just how serious McCain is about governing — or in this case, not. As always, Steve Benen chronicles the follies.

The Nightowl Newswrap

The Postville, Iowa raid was a story we covered when it happened--but did you know that, caught in all of this, were a handful of kids who were barely teenagers? When federal immigration agents raided the kosher meatpacking plant here in May and rounded up 389 illegal immigrants, they found more than 20 under-age workers, some as young as 13. Now those young immigrants have begun to tell investigators about their jobs. Some said they worked shifts of 12 hours or more, wielding razor-edged knives and saws to slice freshly killed beef. Some worked through the night, sometimes six nights a week. One, a Guatemalan named Elmer L. who said he was 16 when he started working on the plant’s killing floors, said he worked 17-hour shifts, six days a week. In an affidavit, he said he was constantly tired and did not have time to do anything but work and sleep. “I was very sad,” he said, “and I felt like I was a slave.” At first, labor officials said the raid had disrupted federal and state investigations already under way at Agriprocessors Inc., the nation’s largest kosher plant. The raid has drawn criticism for what some see as harsh tactics against the immigrants, with little action taken against their employers. But in the aftermath of the arrests, labor investigators have reaped a bounty of new evidence from the testimony of illegal immigrants, teenagers and adults, who were caught in the raid. In formal declarations, immigrants have described pervasive labor violations at the plant, testimony that could result in criminal charges for Agriprocessors executives, labor law experts said. My question is--how the fuck is Agriprocessors still in fucking business?

Two dead in church shooting: A man entered the West Knoxville 9Tennessee] church and opened fire with a shotgun. Police said one person was killed and eight others wounded. A hospital spokeswoman says five of the wounded are in critical condition. Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen identified the man killed as 60-year-old Greg McKendry, an usher and longtime church member. A city official says another member of the congregation died later from injuries. The shooting occurred at approximately 10:15 a.m., while children were putting on the musical. There were about 200 people in the church at the time.

Fire near Yosemite begins to claim homes: A growing wildfire has forced the evacuations of 170 homes near the main entrance road to Yosemite National Park and is threatening more, fire officials said. The blaze grew from about 1,000 acres to around 16,000 acres between Saturday morning and evening, said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. About 900 firefighters are battling the blaze that is burning on both sides of a steep, rugged canyon along the Merced River. "The erratic behavior is because there is so much fuel out there to burn," Berlant said. Fire crews on Saturday were being flown into the hard-to-reach area. Crews had to hike several hours to get to the fire because smoke prohibited aircraft from flying in the area. The fire also forced officials to cut the power grid to Yosemite National Park, and it had not been restored on Saturday evening.

More on the bombings in India: Authorities scoured a western Indian city Sunday for those responsible for a series of bomb explosions that killed at least 45 people, rounding up 30 people as a little-known group claimed responsibility for the attack. State government spokesman Jaynarayan Vyas also said that 161 people had been wounded when at least 16 bombs went off Saturday evening in several crowded neighborhoods of Ahmadabad - a historic city that in 2002 was the scene of some of the worst rioting between India's Hindu majority and its Muslim minority. The attack came a day after seven smaller blasts killed two people in the southern technology hub of Bangalore. Another unexploded bomb was found and defused early Sunday, the city's police commissioner, O.P. Mathur, said. He said police had detained 30 people in their investigation. Cities around the country were put on alert and security was stepped up at markets, hospitals, airports and train stations.

You hate when this happens--and when it does, it destroys the myth that the US is actually practicing consistent Counterinsurgency (COIN) doctrine in Iraq. Whether it's airstrikes or shooting up cars full of people, we are not winning any hearts and minds because our troops are stuck in a no-win situation: The U.S. military said Sunday that the three people killed last month after U.S. soldiers shot at their car in one of the most secured areas of Iraq were civilians, not criminals as the military initially reported. The correction came more than a month after a bank manager at a branch inside the airport, Hafeth Aboud Mahdi, and two female bank employees were shot at by U.S. soldiers as they sped to work on a road within the secured airport compound. The road is used only by people with high-level security clearance badges. The car veered off the road, hit a concrete blast wall and burst into flames. The original statement said that Mahdi and the two women were "criminals" and that an American convoy on the side of the secured road came under small-arms fire from the vehicle. Soldiers said they shot back. A weapon was found in the debris and two U.S. military vehicles were struck by bullets from the attack, the statement on June 25 said. "When we are attacked, we will defend ourselves and will use deadly force if necessary," Maj. Joey Sullinger, a spokesman for 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, said in a statement at the time. "Such attacks endanger not only U.S. soldiers but also innocent civilians, including women and children, traveling the roadways of Baghdad."

They plan to hold an Olympics, but too bad half the atheletes will have to barf up a lung in order to compete: The haze that stubbornly cloaks China's capital in the run-up to the Summer Olympics looks worse than it really is, two senior officials asserted Saturday. The officials referred to the gray haze over the city as "fog" and "dust" but refrained from calling it air pollution. A daily air pollution index in China's capital has actually gotten worse in the week since city officials ordered more than one million cars off the streets and staggered office hours as part of an unprecedented anti-pollution campaign to clear the air for the Aug. 8-24 Olympics. For the three most recent of the past seven days, Beijing has tallied air pollution levels above 100 on an index, meaning air quality is "unhealthy" for children or senior citizens. Du Shaozhong, deputy director of the city's Environmental Protection Bureau, said at a news conference that observers should not rely on the visual appearance of the sky, or make judgments from photographs, in assessing whether Beijing is making headway in fighting air pollution. "You should not rely on photos," Du said, chastising the British Broadcasting Corp., for publishing photos on its Web site showing dismal haze in Beijing this month. What bullshit--next they'll blame American running dog gangsters for the pollution.

Of course we could have killed bin Laden--we tried to kill him, but there was no existential threat to do so in the 1990s. No one disputes that. In his seventh of month of U.S. captivity, Osama bin Laden's driver told a pair of FBI agents that it was America's fault that the al Qaida leader was alive. The message was, ''You had these opportunities, America. You didn't do anything,'' FBI agent George Crouch Jr. testified Friday at Salim Hamdan's war crimes trial. The United States could have killed bin Laden in Khartoum, Sudan, before he moved to Afghanistan in 1996, Hamdan told his interrogators. They could have killed him after al Qaida's 1998 twin bombings at the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Or after the October 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole, at the port of Aden in Yemen, which left 17 U.S. sailors dead. Instead, ''Bin Laden was emboldened.'' So he struck with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, leaving nearly 3,000 dead. Crouch was paraphrasing a portion of a nearly two-week interrogation he conducted here at the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, in June 2002, around the time that an Arabic-speaking FBI agent, Ali Soufan, arranged Hamdan's first call home. The only problem is, the realization that al Qaeda was responsible for the USS Cole bombing came after Bush took office. Clinton bombed the camps, Clinton chased bin Laden out of Sudan, Bush played golf. Sounds like Hamdan is channeling Sean Hannity...

The Washington Post details our "oil shock:" Early this month, Valero Energy in Texas got the unwelcome news that Mexico would be cutting supplies to one of the company's Gulf Coast refineries by up to 15 percent. Mexico's state-owned oil enterprise is one of Valero's main sources of crude, but oil output from Mexican fields, including the giant Cantarell field, is drying up. Mexican sales of crude oil to the United States have plunged to their lowest level in more than a dozen years. The same week, India's Tata Motors announced it was expanding its plans to begin producing a new $2,500 "people's car" called the Nano in the fall. The company hopes that by making automobiles affordable for people in India and elsewhere, it could eventually sell 1 million of them a year. Although neither development made headlines, together they were emblematic of the larger forces of supply and demand that have sent world oil prices bursting through one record level after another. And while the cost of crude has surged before, this oil shock is different. There is little prospect that drivers will ever again see gas prices retreat to the levels they enjoyed for much of the last generation. Unlike the two short, sharp oil jolts of the 1970s, the latest run-up has been accelerating over several years as ample supplies of crude oil have proven elusive and the thirst for petroleum products has grown. The average price of a barrel of oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries doubled from 2001 to 2005, doubled again by March this year and jumped as much as 40 percent more after that. Largely though, I think this is driven by unregulated speculation, greed on the part of oil companies, and an agreement between the Bush Administration and the Saudis to inject billions into the Saudi Royal Family coffers before he leaves office to help them stave off internal dissent. But I'm an idiot--what do I know?

If the University of Maryland calls on you, help them out, wingnuts: A University of Maryland center has received federal funding to study homegrown terrorist groups. Researchers at the center will also study the effectiveness of counter-terror strategies and efforts to build community resilience to attacks. University officials say the three-year-old National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism will receive nearly $12 million over the next three years from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The center, also known as START, also is developing what it says will be the world's largest and most comprehensive database of terror incidents. START hopes to have the database, covering all incidents since 1970, complete by the end of the year. About 50 social scientists will be involved in the research effort based at the center on the university's College Park campus.

The bombings in Turkey were designed to maximize casualties--what a tragedy: Two bombs exploded minutes apart in a packed Istanbul square Sunday night, killing 16 and injuring more than 150 in the deadliest attack against civilians in Turkey in almost five years. The city's governor called it a "terror attack" but officials did not blame any specific group and no one immediately claimed responsibility. CNN-Turk television, citing security sources, said police suspect Kurdish rebels may be behind it because intelligence reports had suggested the rebels were planning a bombing campaign in Turkish cities. "There is no doubt that this is a terror attack," Gov. Muammer Guler told reporters. The first bomb went off in the residential neighborhood of Gungoren in a busy square closed to traffic where people congregate at night, witnesses said. A number of people had rushed over to see what happened and help the victims when a second, more powerful blast hit close by about 10 minutes after the first. Many of the casualties were from the second explosion, witnesses said.

What a fucking disgrace--we have two wars going on, we have problems all over Africa, the Middle East, and now South Asia, we have bombings in India and Turkey, we have Russia sending its military out on show-of-force displays, and our Secretary of State is in Fiji??? US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined her counterparts from Pacific island nations here Saturday to press Fiji's coup leaders to revive plans for elections next year. It was the first visit to Samoa by a US secretary of state in two decades. Brigadier-General Ratu Epeli Nailatikau, Fiji's interim foreign minister, attended the talks hosted by Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegao, who is also foreign minister, a US official said. Earlier this month Fiji's interim Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama reneged on a promise to hold elections by March 2009, saying the timetable was no longer achievable because of the need for electoral reforms. Bainimarama led a military coup in December 2006 which overthrew the elected government, accusing it of corruption and racism against the Indian minority, and has been under pressure to return the country to democracy. Rice arrived here from Auckland accompanied by New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters, to attend the meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), which includes New Zealand, Australia, and 14 island states, including Fiji. No word on whether the shoe shopping was good or bad.

Here's a great contrast for what your average wingnut is out there doing--Prince William is in the Caribbean, helping to chase down and arrest drug runners while they bray about surrender monkeys and how great John McCain is. How disgraceful is it that the future king of England is doing more to protect America--albeit, on the deck of a ship chasing down people who wouldn't do what they're doing if we would get our fucking act together in this country--than any of these keyboard rangers will ever do in their useless lifetimes?

Russia Tests Military Capabilities in the Arctic

We like to keep tabs on what the Russian military does--almost as much as we like squirrels and punk rock. This falls into two categories--harmless posturing or signs that Russia is trying to reassert itself militarily.

Russia's navy conducted test flights near the North Pole on Thursday, boosting its military presence in an area believed to contain vast quantities of oil and natural gas.

Cpl. Vladimir Serga, a naval spokesman, said that Il-38 anti-submarine bombers and Tu-142 long-range strategic bombers of the Northern Fleet took part in the exercise, in which the planes' crews tested radio and weapons systems management equipment.

Serga described the exercise as successful.

The flights come two days after a Russian missile cruiser began patrols in the Arctic.

Russia's military glory days are probably behind it--but what is true is that the aging, irrelevant military of ANY country is probably a dangerous thing. Not enough attention is being paid by what is really the intent or goal of Russian military posturing. Widespread conflict? Highly unlikely. Limited displays of power that intimidate smaller trading partners? More likely. Overall, I would say that the goal is to strike a stronger bargaining position when it comes to negotiating trade deals and energy deals. Russia has to back up any and all threats to its economy--which is roughly the same size as that of France and hovers around 2.7 trillion in GDP--with the threat of limited force. Russia is dwarfed by the combined economies of Europe and has to assert itself any way that it can. In many ways, all it can do is behave like a slightly dangerous version of a mob hit man who still has the ability to take a few people out. No one really thinks he will, but no one wants to find out whether he is crazy enough to try it.

The Bush Administration, of course, remains disengaged and distracted.

--WS

The Nightowl Newswrap

Another memo drips out...The Justice Department in 2002 told the CIA that its interrogators would be safe from prosecution for violations of anti-torture laws if they believed "in good faith" that harsh techniques used to break prisoners' will would not cause "prolonged mental harm." That heavily censored memo, released Thursday, approved the CIA's harsh interrogation techniques method by method, but warned that if the circumstances changed, interrogators could be running afoul of anti-torture laws. The Aug. 1, 2002, legal opinion signed by then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee was issued the same day he wrote a memo for then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales defining torture as only those "extreme acts" that cause pain similar in intensity to that caused by death or organ failure. The Bybee legal opinion defining torture was withdrawn more than two years later. Justice spokesman Peter Carr said the conclusions of the opinion approving specific interrogation methods are still in force.

Probably not the smartest thing to do, but oh well: Ailing Fidel Castro said Wednesday that Cuba's president was right to adopt a "dignified silence" over a Moscow newspaper report that Russia may send nuclear bombers to the island, and said Cuba doesn't owe any explanation to Washington about the story. In a brief, cryptic essay posted on a government Web site Wednesday night, the 81-year-old former president neither confirmed nor denied the Monday report in Izvestia newspaper. Moscow is angry about U.S. plans for missile-defense sites in eastern Europe and Izvestia cited a "highly placed" military aviation source as saying, "While they are deploying the anti-missile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic, our long-range strategic aircraft already will be landing in Cuba." Izvestia said this apparently refers to long-range nuclear-capable bombers. Izvestia points out that there would have to be a political decision on landing bombers in Cuba, and quoted the unnamed source as saying there have been such discussions.

Design flaw makes MRAPs vulnerable to tipping over: The towering trucks that give U.S. troops the best protection against roadside bombs and enemy bullets also make them vulnerable to routine hazards like sharp turns, rutted roads and rickety bridges. Five deaths caused by rollovers and dozens of other accidents in Iraq and Afghanistan have led U.S. military leaders to warn troops to be smart behind the wheel, according to military documents obtained by The Associated Press and accident reports released under the Freedom of Information Act. The message is especially relevant in Afghanistan, where a resurgent Taliban has boosted demand for these steel cocoons, known as MRAPs. Due to the country's mountainous terrain and unpaved roads, officials will send nearly 800 more RG-31s, the smallest of several different MRAPs the military now uses. Yet even at a comparatively nimble nine tons, the RG-31 is not immune from tipping. On June 29, three Green Berets drowned when theirs rolled into a canal in southern Afghanistan. The accident is under investigation. The MRAPs - the military's acronym for "mine-resistant, ambush-protected" - get high marks from commanders for protecting U.S. personnel from enemy attack. Close to 7,000 of the vehicles are already in use in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Pentagon will buy at least that many more. And despite their bulk, the MRAPs have power steering, air brakes and quick acceleration. These features can lull drivers into thinking they're just handling a bigger version of the smaller and more agile Humvee. The article goes on to talk about soft shoulders on the side of the road--deadly for large vehicles.

Of course there is manipulation of oil prices and oil supply--any idiot can tell you that: Facing congressional criticism that speculators are driving up oil prices, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Thursday announced that it has charged the Dutch company Optiver Holding BV and its American subsidiary with manipulating the trading of contracts for future delivery of oil and gasoline. In e-mails and phone conversations released by CFTC, Optiver's heads of U.S. and global trading talk about how they are able to "bully the market" and use similar references like "whack" or "push" or "move" the futures market. "Today's action lets the marketplace know that the (CFTC's) Division of Enforcement has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to gamesmanship," Stephen Obie, the agency's new acting head of enforcement, said at a news conference announcing the market manipulation charges. Obie said the agency did not know how much Optiver's actions had caused the price of oil to rise. In a preliminary report issued earlier this week, a Bush administration inter-agency task force led by the CFTC said it believes that supply and demand fundamentals remain the best explanation for soaring prices.

D'oh! Soon after Osama bin Laden's driver got here in 2002, he told interrogators the identity of the al Qaeda chief's most senior bodyguard — then a fellow prison camp detainee. But, inexplicably, the U.S. let the bodyguard go. This startling information was revealed in the fourth day of the war crimes trial of Salim Hamdan, 37, facing conspiracy and material support for terror charges as an alleged member of bin Laden's inner circle. Michael St. Ours, an agent with the Naval Criminal Intelligence Service, NCIS, provided the first tidbit. He testified for the prosecution that his job as a prison camps interrogator in May 2002 was to find and focus on the bodyguards among the detainees. And Hamdan helped identify 30 of them — 10 percent of the roughly 300 detainees then held here. They had just been transferred to Camp Delta from the crude compound called Camp X-Ray, and U.S. intelligence was still trying to unmask them. Chief among them was Casablanca-born Abdallah Tabarak, then 47, described by St. Ours as ''a hard individual,'' and, thanks to Hamdan, ``the head bodyguard of all the bodyguards.'' That's what we've come to know and love--incompetence, torture and stupidity were all these people brought to the table, and the really dangerous terrorists are still running around free as a bird.

What is it with the sense of entitlement with these privileged fucking brats? Andrew Giuliani, son of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, has sued Duke University, saying the school breached a $200,000 contract with him by kicking him off the golf team. Giuliani, a rising senior at Duke, filed suit in federal court in Greensboro. Duke University officials said in a statement that they would "vigorously defend this lawsuit." "Duke's coaches and student athletes are held to the highest standards, which include a strong commitment to fairness for all participants in our sports programs," Michael J. Schoenfeld, Duke's vice president for public affairs and government relations, said in a statement. The complaint, drawn up by Robert Ekstrand, a lawyer representing some of the members of the 2006 Duke lacrosse team, outlines strife between Giuliani and O.D. Vincent, the head golf coach. Vincent came on board after the spring 2007 death of Rod Myers, the coach who recruited Giuliani in high school. In another era, Andrew Guiliani and his daddy would have been laughed out of court. In this era, Republicans decry trial lawyers and then whine, bitch, plead and moan--and hire the best trial lawyer they can find--when something as fucking trivial as being kicked off of the golf team happens to shatter their world. Put Andrew in a uniform and send his pink little pampered ass to Iraq for fifteen months and see how much whining he gets away with.

Yay! We've been fucked over by the Republicans again! Yay! House Republicans on Thursday scuttled a bill that Democrats hoped would help lower gasoline prices by forcing the Energy Department to release 70 million barrels of oil - about a three-day supply - from the national stockpile. Democrats promised that the action would have produced immediate relief at the pump, as was the case with similar releases in 1991, 2000 and 2005. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve now holds about 700 million barrels. Despite winning a clear 268-157 majority, the measure still lost. Democratic leaders had brought the proposal up for debate under rules requiring a two-thirds vote to pass. But passing the bill by just a majority would have meant allowing Republicans to force a vote on new offshore drilling leases. "They're hiding from a vote," said GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio. "They're scared to death to allow us to ... force their members to vote on drilling." Democrats said the release from the oil reserve could provide relief at the pump within two weeks, though they would not say how much it would help $4-per-gallon gas. Earlier releases, such as a 34 million barrel drawdown in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War, caused prices to fall. This was piss-poor management by the House leadership, so, in all fairness, it wasn't just the Republicans that fucked us over. They did do something remarkably stupid in an election year by killing a piece of legislation that might have brought gas prices down. But I'm sorry, Nancy--next year, you and Steny have to go. And Harry Reid goes with you.

Ford reports a staggering loss: Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it lost $8.67 billion in the second quarter largely because of a reduction in the value of assets. The company also announced that it will bring six European small car models to North America by the end of 2012 as it deals with a market shift from trucks to cars brought on by high gasoline prices. The company also will retool two more North American truck and sport utility vehicle plants to build small, fuel-efficient vehicles. The second-quarter loss was $3.88 per share, compared with net profit of $750 million, or 31 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago. The loss includes $8.03 billion worth of write-offs because of a decline in value of North American assets and Ford Motor Credit Co.'s lease portfolio. Even excluding those special items, Ford lost 62 cents per share, worse than Wall Street expected. Twelve analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial, on average, expected a 27 cent loss per share.

Who will report the news? Regional and national newspaper publishers, already staggering with a drop in ad revenue more severe than the industry has seen since the Great Depression, say the second half of 2008 may be even worse. Three publishers - McClatchy Co., Lee Enterprises Inc. and E.W. Scripps Co. - reported Thursday that their profits had fallen by nearly half in the second quarter compared to last year. They joined industry heavyweights New York Times Co. and Gannet Co., which reported earnings Wednesday and last week, in saying double-digit drops in ad revenue were most to blame for plunging profits, though rising costs played a role too. All five publishers said ad revenue fell fastest in June, and most said July is looking as bad or worse. "It really shows we haven't yet reached a bottom for revenue declines," said Mike Simonton, a media analyst with Fitch Ratings.

One of our fave bloggers is Burban Mom--and she's got a great tip that you should hear: It's been over a year now that I've been gracing my table with soft, cotton, love-squares and I'll never go back to paper again. This is one of my earlier changes, and since its implementation, our little family has avoided using over 2,000 paper napkins. My favorite Christmas gift last year came from my 2-year-old niece, Libby, who took a set of nearly-new napkins from Goodwill and used fabric paints to add her handprints to them. They are absolutely adorable and we use them every single night. Switching from paper to cloth is not a difficult change to make and I'm surprised more people don't do it. It's cheap and classy, how often does that happen?!? Let's face it: cloth napkins aren't just for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. They are for everyday, every meal. For us, it was the thin flannel blankets we chopped up into squares. Grandma (who goes by the kid-friendly name Aunie) sewed the edges down to keep them from fraying. They have lasted over five years, and they are the perfect soft napkin/face wipe/emergency towel/bottle nappy that gets used, washed, and reused on a daily basis.

The Nightowl Newswrap

Say 'hi' to your friends from UBS bank when you leave, okay?Under fire for calling the United States a nation of "whiners" about the economy, former Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas Friday night resigned as co-chairman of John McCain's presidential campaign. "It is clear to me that Democrats want to attack me rather than debate Senator McCain on important economic issues facing the country," Gramm said in a statement released Friday evening. "That kind of distraction hurts not only Senator McCain's ability to present concrete programs to deal with the country's problems, it hurts the country. To end this distraction and get on with the real debate, I hereby step down as co-chair of the McCain campaign and join the growing number of rank-and-file McCain supporters." Gramm's brief return to the spotlight reminds us of when he ran for President--and set a new standard for sucking wind and failing in public.

Mark Krikorian at the Corner wrote today:As I write this, I'm looking down on a Falun Gong parade below my office window down the middle of K Street in Washington, and it's going on and on and on. It's got to be two miles long. Look, I hate the ChiComs as much as the next guy, but who gave these people a permit to close half of one of the city's main east-west arteries? Go march on the Mall, for heaven's sake — it's just a media photo-op anyway. Way to go, asshole--you just mocked and denigrated an oppressed movement in China that has come here for asylum so that they can practice what they believe in a free country. "These people" have suffered imprisonment, torture and execution--probably no great shakes to someone who supports the Bush Administration, of course. Thanks for pissing all over them--thanks for reminding everyone that Conservatives are whiny-assed titty babies who sit in buildings and denigrate people who get off their asses and do something about being free.

Does this mean anything? Or is it another sign things are slipping away?Pakistan's Taliban militants threatened to attack the government of the insurgency-racked North West Frontier Province unless it resigns from office, a move that threw the country into a new security crisis. Baitullah Mehsud, the warlord who leads the growing Taliban movement in Pakistan, Thursday gave the administration of the North West Frontier Province five days to cease sporadic military operations against Taliban groups and demonstrate its "sincerity" in peace negotiations. "We will attack the provincial government and the ANP leaders after five days if they do not quit (office)," said Maulvi Omar, spokesman for Mehsud, a warlord based in the tribal area of Waziristan. "The provincial government is playing games with us. It is not sincere in the talks." Mehsud, whom the Pakistan government has linked to al Qaida, recently described suicide attackers as "our atom bombs," raising the possibility of targeted killings of provincial political leaders. Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has accused Mehsud of organizing the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Business bankruptcies soar--so much for the ownership society: Driven by a sour economy and skittish consumers, U.S. business bankruptcies saw their sharpest quarterly rise in two years, jumping 17 percent in the second quarter of 2008, according to an analysis by McClatchy. Commercial filings for the first half of 2008 are up 45 percent from last year, as the national climate for commerce continues to deteriorate amid rising energy and food costs, mounting job losses, tighter credit and a reticence among consumers to part with discretionary income. From April through June, 15,471 U.S. businesses called it quits, according to data from Automated Access to Court Electronic Records, an Oklahoma City bankruptcy management and data company. States that saw the biggest increase in filings were Delaware, Montana, Oregon, Maryland and Connecticut, suggesting that the economic gloom is spreading beyond large population centers.


Want to spend time where Herbert Hoover spent time? Perhaps if your name is Bush, you might: To capture the essence of Rapidan Camp, the summer home of President Herbert Hoover in what is now Virginia's Shenandoah National Park, stand on the back deck of his cabin and just listen. Hear the breezes rustle through the thick forest, the gentle sounds of mountain streams. Hoover and his wife chose the site, at the confluence of the Mill Prong and Laurel Prong, partly because it afforded excellent trout fishing, which the president loved, but also because of its ambiance. As Lou Henry Hoover wrote to a friend in January 1929, shortly before becoming first lady: "My husband's idea was to have a camp down on one of the tree-covered flats beside a stream or at the junction between two streams. He likes to be near enough to hear the water murmuring." Almost 80 years later, a visitor to Rapidan Camp can do just that. You don't have to be grappling with the onerous demands of the Depression to appreciate the camp's soothing qualities. And you gain a greater appreciation of the man who created his own Shangri-La in the middle of what was then primitive mountain land.

An oldie but a goodie from last month on Rocket Propelled Grenades found in Iraq: The Bush administration has long sought to create the impression that Iran has been playing a major military role in Iraq by supplying arms to Shiite militias, including the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's powerful Mahdi army. But to date, U.S. military officials have offered scant or even dubious evidence of Iranian military involvement in Iraq -- and Petraeus' allegation about the RPGs is a clear-cut case of unsubstantiated charges. Last October, and again in late December, Petraeus stated emphatically there was "absolutely no question" that Iran provided RPG-29s, a sophisticated anti-tank weapon, to Iraqi Shiite militiamen. He even called the RPG-29 an Iranian "signature weapon." What Petraeus failed to mention, however, is that RPG-29s are manufactured by Russia, not Iran, and those that have shown up in Iraq apparently came from Syria. The Syrian government bought large numbers of RPG-29s from Russia in 1999 and 2000, many of which ended up being used by Hezbollah in the war against Israel in 2006, according to Israeli and Lebanese media reports. Even some U.S. military officials were quoted in the media in May 2006 as saying that they believed RPG-29s had been smuggled into Iraq from Syria. Moreover, as Air Force Col. Scott Maw of the Multi-National Force Iraq (MNF-I) Strategic Communications Office told me in a telephone interview last week, "very few" RPG-29s have actually been found in Iraq. An examination of U.S. military press releases on weapons caches found in Shiite areas reveals no mention of RPG-29s. Additionally, the U.S. military has never displayed a captured one to reporters. In a highly publicized February 2007 slide show, U.S. military briefers did include a picture of what was identified as a round to be fired by an Iranian-made RPG-7AT-1 launcher, a less advanced weapon than the RPG-29, although it did not depict the launcher itself. But the U.S. military has found no evidence of an Iranian pipeline of RPG-7s to Iraqi Shiite militants, either. In more than two dozen MNF-I news releases on Iraqi Shiite weapons since early 2007, more than 200 RPGs are listed. Not a single one was identified as Iranian-made. That was not because of a lack of effort by the U.S. military, however, to determine whether captured weapons were of Iranian origin. Lt. Col. Steve Stover, the spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division, which is deployed in and around Baghdad, confirmed that explosives experts examine the findings at each cache site to determine the origin of the weapons. "Normally we say whether they are Iranian-manufactured or not," Stover said in a telephone interview.

Another thing you won't hear the truth about--Fallujah is heating up: Once a sign of victory and a model for other provinces to follow, it appears that trouble may be brewing again in Anbar. Security has collapsed again in Fallujah, despite United States military claims. Local militias supported by US forces claim to have "cleansed" the city, 70 kilometers to the west of Baghdad, of all insurgency. But the sudden resignation of the city's chief of police, Colonel Fayssal al-Zoba'i, has appeared as one recent sign of growing unrest. Authorities may have controlled the media better than the violence. "Assassinations never stopped in Fallujah, but the media seem unwilling to cover the actual situation here," a human-rights activist in Fallujah, speaking on terms of anonymity given the tense situation, told Inter Press Service (IPS). "The two bomb blasts that killed six policemen earlier this month and another two that killed three on the weekend seem to have terminated the silence." While many in the US have claimed that the successes in Anbar were due in part to the Awakening groups there, many of the local population are also blaming these same groups for the current violence.

The kind of an economy where it's easy to lose everything: Eileen Selkis had some money left over from selling her house in Connecticut, and she knew she couldn't afford to lose any of it. She says her broker at Wachovia Securities pointed out that she could get a good return – better than the money market account it was in – by moving it to something called auction-rate securities. The higher interest rate was appealing, but Selkis wanted to make sure she'd be able to access her money easily. "They're as good as liquid cash," she recalls her broker telling her, in late 2006. "You can get to your principal any time; you just need to let me know about seven days ahead." That was before the market for those securities began to dry up in February, another result of the tumultuous state of the financial services industry. That means that many investors can't sell their holdings and get their money out of those securities, and they allege that brokers understated the risks of such investments.

Take them out or leave them in? There is not enough evidence to justify the routine removal of the ovaries during hysterectomy - a common practice that may convey as many risks as benefits for premenopausal women, a new analysis suggests. About half of the 600,000 hysterectomies performed in the U.S. each year include surgical removal of the ovaries along with the uterus. The most common reason cited for ovary removal is to prevent ovarian cancer. But there is growing evidence that ovary removal may be associated with an increased risk for heart disease and stroke, and other age-related diseases, such as osteoporosis and even dementia. The ovaries continue to produce hormones even after menopause that may be protective against such diseases, says ob-gyn Leonardo J. Orozco, MD, of the Women's Hospital, San Jose, Costa Rica. In their newly published analysis, Orozco and colleagues were unable to find any high-quality controlled trials that examined the risks and benefits of routine ovary removal during hysterectomy in women with a low risk for ovarian cancer.

As this story keeps bubbling to the surface, remember: the IG for the entire Pentagon is a part-time employee: Inferior electrical work by private contractors on U.S. military bases in Iraq is more widespread than the Pentagon has acknowledged, according to a published report. A Senate panel investigating the electrocutions of Americans on bases in Iraq was told last week by former KBR Inc. electricians that the contractor used employees with little electrical expertise to supervise subcontractors in Iraq and hired foreigners who couldn't speak English. The Pentagon has said 13 Americans have been electrocuted in Iraq since September 2003. It has ordered Houston-based KBR to inspect all the facilities it maintains in Iraq for electrical hazards. The New York Times reported on its Web site Thursday night that many more people have been injured, some seriously, by shocks, according to internal Army documents. A log compiled this year at one building complex in Baghdad disclosed that soldiers complained of receiving electrical shocks in their living quarters almost daily, the paper reported. "We consider this to be a very serious issue," Chris Isleib, a Pentagon spokesman, said Thursday in an e-mail message to the Times, though he declined to address the Army documents' findings.

It's called the "dog and pony show" and it's a pain in the ass: When it comes to hosting congressional delegations, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad likes to think of itself as the eHarmony of Iraq -- lawmakers outline what they're looking for, and officials try to set up the perfect date. Choices include visits with home-state troops, bull sessions with Iraqi parliamentarians, tours of urban markets or military training facilities, and briefings from senior U.S. and Iraqi officials. A trip to the shrinking front lines -- Mosul is the summer's preferred destination -- can still be arranged for what the embassy calls "tip-of-the-spear groupies." It is not known what itinerary Sen. Barack Obama has requested for his impending trip to Iraq, which will be his second. But if the visits of hundreds of other members of Congress over the past five years are any measure, nothing the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee will see is likely to change his mind about the war. Most seem to return even more convinced of the views they held before they left. Remember--this was an "impending" trip, meaning, Obama was going to go there "at some point." McCain sort of let the cat out of the bag by saying "this weekend." Personally, I think Obama needs to go and then see the presentation for himself.

The Nightowl Newswrap

Hysterics? Violation of posse comitatus? Or just plain politics as usual? As Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Wednesday signed a new law that will put in place tougher penalties for selling guns to minors, he also announced he's got a new idea to help combat the violence that Chicago is experiencing: he's talking to the Illinois State Police and the National Guard to see if they could help.

Even the Feds need some help keeping track of the Little Sisters of the Poor: Maryland State Police officers conducted surveillance on local peace activists and groups opposed to the death penalty, including some in Takoma Park, for more than a year during the administration of former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), documents released this morning show. The 46 pages released to the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland through a lawsuit seeking public information on the activities of the State Police Homeland Security and Intelligence Division reveal undercover agents monitored private organizing meetings, public forums and rallies outside the State House in Annapolis. The agents used aliases to attend these events and to join listservs, logging information about protest activities into a database, the records show. Reports of the surveillance were shared with numerous federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, including the National Security Agency and the Anne Arundel County Police Department. The logs did not contain reports of illegal activity. The records show that undercover agents collectively spent 288 hours on surveillance activities over 14 months from March 2005 to May 2006. The groups monitored include the Coalition to End the Death Penalty, which has many members from Takoma Park, and the Baltimore Pledge of Resistance, a peace group that has been vocal in opposing the Iraq war.

Trials can start next week: The first war crimes trial at Guantanamo Bay can begin Monday, a federal judge has ruled, saying civilian courts should let the military process play out as Congress intended. U.S. District Judge James Robertson on Thursday rejected an effort by Osama bin Laden's former driver, Salim Hamdan, to postpone his trial. Hamdan argued he would suffer irreparable harm if his was tried before he could challenge the legality of the process. Robertson's ruling is a victory for the Bush administration, which plans to use the military commission process to prosecute alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others charged in the 2001 attacks.

Hope you don't have the munchies when you're in Rome: Cappuccino by the Trevi Fountain? Gelato on the Spanish Steps? Such small delights have run afoul of the guardians of Rome. City Hall has banned snacking near its famous monuments in the historical center. Violators face an $80 fine. Officials say they want to preserve artistic treasures and decorum in a city that has millions of visitors every year. The ordinance also bans the homeless from making makeshift beds and takes to task people who loiter in central areas at night, who, "often drunk, not only leave all manner of litter on public grounds and in the fountains, but also disturb the peace."


Hear, hear: Just as John F. Kennedy set his sights on the moon, Al Gore is challenging the nation to produce every kilowatt of electricity through wind, sun and other Earth-friendly energy sources within 10 years, an audacious goal he hopes the next president will embrace. The Nobel Prize-winning former vice president said fellow Democrat Barack Obama and Republican rival John McCain are "way ahead" of most politicians in the fight against global climate change. Rising fuel costs, climate change and the national security threats posed by U.S. dependence on foreign oil are conspiring to create "a new political environment" that Gore said will sustain bold and expensive steps to wean the nation off fossil fuels.

Tell me again why the US Department of Homeland Security is worried about Europe--don't they have enough to screw up in our country? European terrorists are trying to enter the United States with European Union passports, and there is no guarantee officials will catch them every time, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday. Chertoff's comments on Capitol Hill comes as the country is entering a potentially vulnerable period with the presidential nominating conventions coming up next month; the presidential election in November; and the transition to a new administration in January - all of which may be attractive targets for terrorists. In his last scheduled appearance before the House Homeland Security Committee, Chertoff said that the more time and space al Qaeda and its allies have to recruit, train, experiment and plan, the more problems the U.S. and Europe will face down the road. "The terrorists are deliberately focusing on people who have legitimate Western European passports, who don't appear to have records as terrorists," Chertoff told lawmakers. "I have a good degree of confidence we can catch people coming in. But I have to tell you ... there's no guarantee. And they are working very hard to slip by us." They could paint themselves orange, self-identify themselves as terrorists, and the morons who Chertoff has put in place would still insist on doing evil, crazy shit like this to people who travel.

We've been to Texas--there's a hell of a lot of wind there: Texas officials gave preliminary approval Thursday to the nation's largest wind-power project, a plan to build billions of dollars worth of new transmission lines to bring wind energy from gusty West Texas to urban areas. Texas is already the national leader in wind power, and supporters say Thursday's move by the Public Utility Commission will make the Lone Star State a leader in moving energy to the urban areas that consume it. "We will add more wind than the 14 states following Texas combined," said PUC Commissioner Paul Hudson. "I think that's a very extraordinary achievement. Some think we haven't gone far enough, some think we've pushed too far."

THIS is significant--UBS is Phil Gramm's baby, and UBS needs to be barred from doing business in this country: An official of the Swiss bank UBS announced that it was halting its offshore banking services for US citizens after it came under scathing criticism for facilitating massive tax evasion. The official, Mark Branson, UBS' chief financial officer of global wealth management, also said the bank is cooperating with the US government to identify US clients who might have committed tax fraud. Branson told the Senate Permanent Subcommittee of Investigation that the bank "genuinely regrets" failures in complying with US regulations and will stop offering offshore banking to Americans. "We have decided to exit entirely the business in question," Branson told the panel of senators. "That means UBS will no longer provide offshore banking and securities services to US residents through its bank branches. Such services will only be provided to residents of this country through companies licensed in the United States," he said. In addition, he added, "we are working with the US government to identify the names of US clients who may have engaged in tax fraud." What does that mean? It means a whole hell of a lot of rich Republicans are either going to plea bargain, flee the country, or spend time in prison, and let's all pray for this. Pray harder! You're not into it!

I can't stop saying "Dogmosh" over and over and over again:
The U.S. Attorney's office says a Jordanian national who received more than 38,000 fake Viagra pills from Egypt, sold some and stored the rest in Glen Burnie has been sentenced. A federal judge in Baltimore sentenced 27-year-old Iyad Dogmosh to four years in prison on Thursday. He was charged with trafficking more than $400,000 of the fake medication. Dogmosh pleaded guilty in August to selling about 2,000 counterfeit Viagra pills.

Intel Dump's Phillip Carter is on leave: Last week I began working for the Obama campaign as its national veterans director. Although I have been open on this blog about my support for Obama, my new job requires me to recuse myself from blogging for the duration of the campaign. Intel Dump will continue to reside here at washingtonpost.com, with one or more guest-bloggers filling my shoes for the next four months.

Curacao slaves: Each Cuban worker got two pairs of overalls, a set of sturdy boots, a helmet and food commensurate with how hard he worked. Their labor fixing up American cruise ships at a Curacao dry dock was valued at $6.90 an hour. But the 108 Cuban shipyard hands who worked double shifts in a joint venture between the Cuban government and the Curacao Dry Dock Company did not get to spend their wages. Their earnings were applied to the Cuban government's debt with the company, court records show. Documents reviewed Wednesday by The Miami Herald in an ongoing 2006 lawsuit filed in Miami by the workers offer a rare glimpse at employment terms normally kept secret between the Cuban government and the firms with which it does business. The documents appear to offer proof that the government's joint ventures abroad sometimes involve unpaid labor. Instead of a salary, the men got money for food and 400 Cuban pesos a month -- about $18 at the current exchange rate.

We're worrying about it, too: Underneath the booming Russian economy, fueled by large supplies of oil and natural gas, inflation is slamming many ordinary Russians. While the strengthening ruble has helped — it's gained some 9 percent against the dollar since last July — inflation shows no sign of slowing. Inflation last year in Russia was 11.9 percent, according to state statistics. In the United States, where inflation concerns are rampant, that figure was just under 3 percent in 2007. "The impact is serious, it's one of the most difficult problems we have," said Tatiana Stanovaya, the head analyst at the Center for Political Technologies, a Moscow research center. "If the prices continue rising, the ruling power risks losing the confidence of a very large part of the population."

The Nightowl Newswrap

More of this, please: Congress has rejected President Bush's veto of a bill protecting doctors from Medicare rate cut. Bush vetoed the bill earlier Tuesday. He says he supports rescinding the pay cut but objects to financing the plan largely by reducing spending on private health plans serving the elderly and disabled. First the House voted to override the veto, 383-41. Later, the Senate voted 70-26 to override.

Not even Ron Paul voted "nay!" The House of Representatives voted Tuesday to punish Myanmar's brutal ruling regime "where it hurts - in the wallet," by freezing assets of political and military leaders there and banning the importation of rubies from that country into the U.S. The unanimous vote sent the bill back to the Senate, which voted last year to also bar timber from Myanmar, also known as Burma. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman said the legislation would put financial pressure on a corrupt regime that failed to adequately help its citizens recover from a cyclone and famously put down democracy demonstrations by Buddhist monks last year. "The legislation before the House today hits the regime where it hurts - in the wallet," Berman, a Democrat, told the House. "By blocking the import of Burmese gems into the United States and expanding financial sanctions, the legislation will take hundreds of millions of dollars out of the pockets of the regime each year."

Exactly what we don't need, redux: Russia announced Monday that it is sending warships to patrol Arctic waters for the first time since the breakup of the Soviet Union - the latest move to increase the country's global military presence. Patrols by the Northern Fleet's Severomorsk submarine destroyer and Marshal Ustinov missile cruiser will begin Thursday, Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said. Russia began sending aircraft carriers to the Mediterranean Sea in December and resumed long-range bomber patrols in August. "We have been talking for a long time about widening our activity in the Arctic," Dygalo said. "There is nothing aggressive in it - it is in the interests of security." Former President Vladimir Putin expanded Russian military patrols and Dmitry Medvedev, who succeeded Putin in May, appears to be maintaining that course. Moscow-based military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said security was not Russia's primary motivation in sending the Navy ships to the Arctic. "This is flag-waving and that's basically it," Felgenhauer said. "Sending a couple of patrol boats to the Arctic won't change anything."

Another person that the Bush Administration can't find and bring to justice: A message purported to be from the fugitive deputy of executed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has called on insurgents to make a final push against US forces. The message attributed to Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri urged Iraqi fighters to "make this year... decisive for victory". The message also called on US President George W Bush to "come clean about the scale of US losses". Ibrahim is the most senior member of Saddam Hussein's regime still at large. The message, aired by Dubai-based satellite broadcaster Al-Arabiya and reported by the AFP news agency, urged Iraqi insurgents to "strike the enemy everywhere". Not that it would matter if they caught him. Remember how catching Saddam would end the war? Remember how killing Zarqawi would end the war?

Fighting between the PKK and the Turks: Two Turkish soldiers and three Kurdish rebels have died in clashes in south-eastern Turkey, near the border with Iraq, security officials say. The fighting took place on Sunday during an operation against the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Sirnak province, the Turkish officials said. Turkey has launched repeated air and land attacks in the region, targeting PKK rebels based in northern Iraq. The PKK has been fighting for Kurdish self-rule since 1984. A PKK spokeswoman, Sozdar Avesta, has demanded a ceasefire in the Mount Ararat area, further north, where the PKK is holding three German tourists hostage. She said "the PKK is ready to release the three German tourists on condition that Turkey halts its military attacks in the area where they were captured". They were snatched last Wednesday. The hostages were being held in protest at German pressure on PKK supporters in Germany, she said, adding: "We urge the German government to undertake a new policy towards the Kurds".

Is GM going to collapse altogether? General Motors Corp. said Tuesday it will lay off salaried workers, cut truck production, suspend its dividend and borrow $2 billion to $3 billion to weather a severe downturn in the U.S. market. GM said the moves will raise $15 billion to help cover losses and turn around its North American operations, including $10 billion from internal cost-cutting and $5 billion from selling some assets and borrowing against others. “In short, our plan is not a plan to survive. It is a plan to win,” GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner said in a broadcast to employees.

Why the economy is going to be a bigger issue by Election Day: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Tuesday the fragile economy is facing "numerous difficulties" despite the Fed's aggressive interest rate reductions and other fortifying steps. At the same time, Bernanke, testifying before the Senate Banking Committee, sounded another warning that rising prices for energy and food are elevating inflation risks. This problem looms even as officials try to cope with persistent strains in financial markets, rising joblessness and housing problems. The situation, he said, poses "significant challenges" for Fed policymakers as they try to chart the best course for keeping the economy growing, while making sure inflation doesn't dangerously flare up. All the economy's problems, including slumping home values, which threaten to make people feel less wealthy and less inclined to spend in the months ahead, represent "significant downside risks" to economic growth. Over the rest of this year, the economy will grow "appreciably below its trend rate" mostly because of continued weakness in housing markets, high energy prices and tight credit conditions.

Shades of the Great Depression and It's a Wonderful Life: Police were called Tuesday to tame an angry crowd of IndyMac Bank customers trying to pull money from their accounts on Day 2 of a federal bank takeover. At least three police squad cars showed up as tension mounted outside a branch in suburban Encino. Customers were warned against becoming unruly but no arrests were reported. "I've already lost three nights of sleep and three days of eating, now I'm done," customer Joan Rubin said as she sat in a beach chair on the sidewalk, waiting for her turn to empty her account. "It's a very sad day in America," she said. Rubin, 52, said she was drawn to IndyMac Bank about 18 months ago by high, well-advertised interest rates and friendly service close to home. Federal regulators seized IndyMac on Friday. It was reopened Monday under the control of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Deposits to $100,000 are fully insured by the FDIC.

Manson follower to stay in prison: The state Board of Parole Hearings on Tuesday denied compassionate release for convicted killer and Charles Manson follower Susan Atkins, who is dying of brain cancer. After listening to 90 minutes of testimony on Tuesday from people who both supported and opposed Atkins release, then came back quickly with a denial. Eighteen of the 23 people who spoke at the board's hearing room near the Capitol in Sacramento implored the panel to allow Atkins, who has brain cancer and has been told she has six months to live, to go home to die. "Susan has served a life sentence," said Virginia Seals, Atkins' sister-in-law. "This is about her death." Similar comments came from other family members and friends, who were each given five minutes to speak to the panel. But others, including relatives of victims she killed in the 1960s, insisted that Atkins should serve out her life prison sentence. "You'll hear various perspectives today, but you'll hear nothing from the nine people in their graves who died horrendous deaths at the hands of Susan Atkins," said Anthony Di Maria, nephew of slaying victim Jay Sebring.