The LA Times summarizes the case made by journalist Ron Suskind that the Bush administration orchestrated the forging of a document by Iraqi defector and former intelligence chief Tahir Jalil Habbush. Habbush was allegedly paid $5 million and settled in Jordan because of his cooperation. The document, which alleged that 9/11 hijacker Muhammad Atta received […]
Abdul-Ahad: Baghdad is "Calmer" Because they Made it into Prison Cells
The Guardian’s Ghaith Abdul-Ahad went back to Baghdad to see the effects of last year’s troop escalation (“surge”). He argues that the US military’s blast walls and forcible division of the city into isolated micro-neighborhoods are the cause of the reduction in deaths, not extra troops. The Real News provides a transcript.
Bush Suppressed Evidence Iraq Had no WMD
For critics of Ron Suskind’s revelations that Bush and Cheney suppressed evidence that Iraq had no WMD, check out the below: Tyler Drumheller from a 2006 “60 Minutes” interview. Or how about the column of Imad Khadduri, an actual, living breathing Iraqi nuclear scientist, who before the war condemned Bush administration charges on WMD as […]
John H. Brown on Bushian Propaganda
John H. Brown, who resigned in protest from the State Department in March of 2003, on the difference between public diplomacy and propaganda with regard to the Iraq War:
Swat Violence termed ‘Near Civil War’; Obama Slammed in Pakistan
The Pakistani Army, in fierce fighting with tribal forces organized by the Tehrik-i Taliban, claims to have killed some 90 of the enemy in the past week, as the Swat Valley was engulfed in something close to a civil war. Meanwhile, the Tehrik-i Taliban seems to be behind the burning of girls’ schools in Swat. […]
Bush Pressured FBI to Blame al-Qaeda for Anthrax; McCain fingered Iraq on Letterman; Can’t we Change the Name of Washington National Airport?
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned with regard to the attempt to implicate Iraq in the anthrax scare in fall of 2001 is the reason Iraq was hard to rule out as a source. It was that it clearly originated in labs in Ames, Iowa. The Reagan administration had permitted the provision to Iraq of […]
2 US Soldiers Killed; Parliament Tries Again
The Iraqi parliament will make another attempt on Tuesday to pass a provincial elections law that resolves controversies over how to treat troubled Kirkuk Province. AFP summarizes political violence in Iraq on Monday, which included the killing of 2 US GIs, strikes at Iraqi security forces on Palestine Street in Baghdad and an attempt on […]
Breakthrough on Solar Energy Storage
MIT has made a breakthrough in energy storage, one of the main obstacles to effective use of solar energy: “Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera’s lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun’s energy to be used to split water into hydrogen […]
Hersh: Cheney Office Considered Manufacturing Provocation to Start War with Iran
Think Progress has an exclusive report on New Yorker journalist Seymour Hersh’s discovery that Cheney’s office considered, then rejected, getting up a provocation against Iran as a pretext for going to war. The discussion in Cheney’s office was provoked by the Iranian speedboat incident in January, 2008, in which the Bush administration alleged that five […]