CHENEY – The New Dr. Death, Wants To Strike Iran

Cheney urging strikes on Iran

By Warren P. Strobel, John Walcott and Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON – President Bush charged Thursday that Iran continues to arm and train insurgents who are killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and he threatened action if that continues.

At a news conference Thursday, Bush said Iran had been warned of unspecified consequences if it continued its alleged support for anti-American forces in Iraq. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker had conveyed the warning in meetings with his Iranian counterpart in Baghdad, the president said.

Bush wasn’t specific, and a State Department official refused to elaborate on the warning.

Behind the scenes, however, the president’s top aides have been engaged in an intensive internal debate over how to respond to Iran’s support for Shiite Muslim groups in Iraq and its nuclear program. Vice President Dick Cheney several weeks ago proposed launching airstrikes at suspected training camps in Iraq run by the Quds force, a special unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to two U.S. officials who are involved in Iran policy.

Cheney, who’s long been skeptical of diplomacy with Iran, argued for military action if hard new evidence emerges of Iran’s complicity in supporting anti-American forces in Iraq; for example, catching a truckload of fighters or weapons crossing into Iraq from Iran, one official said.

The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk publicly about internal government deliberations.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice opposes this idea, the officials said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has stated publicly that “we think we can handle this inside the borders of Iraq.”

Lea Anne McBride, a Cheney spokeswoman, said only that “the vice president is right where the president is” on Iran policy.

Bush left no doubt at his news conference that he intended to get tough with Iran.

“My message to the Iranian people is, you can do better than this current government,” he said. “You don’t have to be isolated. You don’t have to be in a position where you can’t realize your full economic potential.”

The Bush administration has launched what appears to be a coordinated campaign to pin more of Iraq’s security troubles on Iran. Until now, some hawks within the administration – including Cheney – are said to have favored military strikes to stop Iran from furthering its suspected ambitions for nuclear weapons.

Patrick Clawson, an Iran specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said a strike on the Quds camps in Iran could make the nuclear diplomacy more difficult.

Before launching such a strike, “We better be prepared to go public with very detailed and very convincing intelligence,” Clawson said.

What the hell is this guy thinking? Expanding his war to Iran is a solution to his sinking ship? Mayday, Mayday! We must do something to stop this insanity. Lieberman, Tancredo and Darth Cheney are trying to assure a lifetime of war – no winners! Is this the ploy the Bush A-bomb-a-nation will perpetrate to declare the ‘state of emergency’ required to insure calling off elections? Can you spell ‘civil war’ in America between the ‘lemmings’ and the enlightened? We cannot allow any more world atrocities committed in the name of America! We either evacuate or fight. Pick your poison. I personally don’t want to abandon this great experiment to the awful corruption we have been prisoner to for the last eight years. I prefer to stay and fight. Is anyone with me? We are not subjects to a despotic dictator, we are Americans. We are supposed to have a voice, which means we a have a responsible for protecting our freedom!

Happy Afghans – Happy Taliban – Buying Power

Another record poppy crop in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (AP) — Afghanistan will produce another record poppy harvest this year that cements its status as the world’s near-sole supplier of the heroin source, yet a furious debate over how to reverse the trend is stalling proposals to cut the crop, U.S. officials say. As President Bush prepares for weekend talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, divisions within the U.S. administration and among NATO allies have delayed release of a $475 million counternarcotics program for Afghanistan, where intelligence officials see growing links between drugs and the Taliban, the officials said.

… counterdrug proposals by some U.S. officials have met fierce resistance, including boosting the amount of forcible poppy field destruction in provinces that grow the most, officials said. The approach also would link millions of dollars in development aid to benchmarks on eradication; arrests and prosecutions of narcotraders, corrupt officials; and on alternative crop production.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>

“Afghanistan is providing close to 95 percent of the world’s heroin,” the State Department’s top counternarcotics official, Tom Schweich, said at a recent conference. “That makes it almost a sole-source supplier” and presents a situation “unique in world history.”   (entire article)

So, here we go again. Just like Viet Nam (remember that one?) the CIA was an accomplice with the drug cartel of SE Asia. What makes this any different?   We talk big, but the bottom line is, to make the local war lords happy we must allow their economy to flourish. They let us destroy a field here and there to show the media, but the big money always wins. They must also line the pockets of the Narcotics Police – it’s economics after all!

Bush, Still The Most Dangerous Friend A Country Can Have

Pakistan hits out at U.S. terrorism stance
By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent: Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Pakistan hit back on Sunday at U.S. critics of its fight against terrorism, insisting its army was best suited to hunt for Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda militants Washington believes enjoy safe haven in Pakistani tribal areas near Afghanistan.

Appearing on CNN’s “Late Edition,” an angry Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri criticized talk of U.S. forces attacking al Qaeda on Pakistani territory, warning that any incursion would alienate opinion in the predominantly Muslim U.S. ally against terrorism.

<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>

“What I don’t like is the tone that I am now hearing and that I am now reading in the American media,” said Kasuri.

<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>

Kasuri told CNN talk of an al Qaeda “safe haven” in their country angered the Pakistanis, who have had 700 soldiers killed fighting militants in tribal areas.

“What we need is actionable intelligence” to tackle al Qaeda, he said, and reiterated his government’s view that talk of U.S. strikes inside Pakistan was “irresponsible.”

<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, a staunch critic of Bush’s war in Iraq, said: “I don’t think we should take anything off the table.” Wherever we find these evil people, we should go get them,” the Nevada Democrat told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Kasuri said U.S. raids into Pakistan would be a mistake. “When you talk of going after targets, you will lose the battle for hearts and minds,” he said. “The Pakistan Army can do the job much better,” he said.

<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>

Bush administration officials stress that they support Musharraf, who is struggling with a violent campaign by Islamic militants and a political crisis following Pakistan’s Supreme Court reinstatement of the chief justice after Musharraf sought to remove him.

This is a dangerous development for Musharraf. The Bush administration cannot shake off the bungling of it’s angry promise to “bring Osama and AlQaeda to justice” for the events of September 11, 2001. Bush claimed over and over that “we will hunt them down wherever they are”. Now, Bush is forced to consider dumping his ‘good buddy’ to the radical opposition and try to play catch up with his promises to America.

Bush got this country sidetracked, took his eye off the original ball to invade Iraq by weaving a web of deception and bungled the whole thing. Bush has covered lies with more lies and protected his deceptions with ‘executive privilege’. Bush has wiggled his ‘executive orders’ into a mesh of Constitution busting edicts. The fabric of America is in the hands of both houses of Congress.

Bush’s mantra that AlQaeda will follow us home is the most ignorant assertion anyone could make! American troops are ‘over there’ getting wasted while they could be here protecting their homes and families. Why would AlQaeda choose to attack America when we are LEAST vulnerable with our troops HERE? Logic would show that we are MOST vulnerable NOW when our protectors are deployed in a quagmire far, far away.
Is this country really buying this backwards logic?
Are all the ‘thinkers’ in this country becoming ‘ex-pats’ or buried into prescription ‘feel-good’ drugs? Those of us, who cannot afford the cost of escape, must deal with the situation at hand. Impeach, Indict or Censure – I don’t care, just do something!

 

American Taxpayers Rent Pakistan’s Army

US renting Pak army for $ 100 million a month 14 Jul 2007, 0340 hrs IST,CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA,TNN WASHINGTON: The United States is paying around $ 100 million a month for the deployment of 80,000 Pakistani troops on its border with Afghanistan ostensibly for the war on terrorism, a key US official revealed on Thursday. The money is meant to be “reimbursements” to Pakistan “for stationing troops and moving them around, and gasoline, and bullets, and training and other costs that they incur as part of the war on terror,” US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, told a Congressional panel. “That’s a lot of money,” Boucher admitted before the panel about what amounts to a $ 1.2 billion per year reimbursement. “I don’t know if it comes to the whole amount of their expenses, but we support their expenses, yes.”

When do American Taxpayers get a voice in the spending of the Billion$ on hiring mercenaries and armies in other countries?

How many Billion$ would it cost to provide decent health care for our own country? If there is a trade off here, I don’t see it. If and when THEY sneak over to the US to attack, our piss poor health care will finish us off without THEM lifting a finger. Why should THEY even bother attacking US when the US Administration has done their job for them?

By the time Bush gets through emaciating our military and screwing our veterans, we will HAVE to import our soldiers from private contractors and other countries. King George’s Armageddon Envy is very tiresome, when do WE get a voice? After all WE are paying the bills!

 

Bush’s Private Armies Will Carry On After We Leave …

Private contractors outnumber U.S. troops in Iraq

New U.S. data show how heavily the Bush administration has relied on corporations to carry out the occupation of the war-torn nation.

By T. Christian Miller, Times Staff Writer   July 4, 2007

 

The number of U.S.-paid private contractors in Iraq now exceeds that of American combat troops, newly released figures show, raising fresh questions about the privatization of the war effort and the government’s capacity to carry out military and rebuilding campaigns.

More than 180,000 civilians — including Americans, foreigners and Iraqis — are working in Iraq under U.S. contracts, according to State and Defense department figures obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Including the recent troop buildup, 160,000 soldiers and a few thousand civilian government employees are stationed in Iraq.

The total number of private contractors, far higher than previously reported, shows how heavily the Bush administration has relied on corporations to carry out the occupation of Iraq — a mission criticized as being undermanned.

 

“These numbers are big,” said Peter Singer, a Brookings Institution scholar who has written on military contracting. “They illustrate better than anything that we went in without enough troops. This is not the coalition of the willing. It’s the coalition of the billing.”

 

The numbers include at least 21,000 Americans, 43,000 foreign contractors and about 118,000 Iraqis — all employed in Iraq by U.S. tax dollars, according to the most recent government data.

 

The array of private workers promises to be a factor in debates on a range of policy issues, including the privatization of military jobs and the number of Iraqi refugees allowed to resettle in the U.S.

But there are also signs that even those mounting numbers may not capture the full picture. Private security contractors, who are hired to protect government officials and buildings, were not fully counted in the survey, according to industry and government officials.

Continuing uncertainty over the numbers of armed contractors drew special criticism from military experts.

Again, I emphasize, Bush’s private armies will carry on this terrible war,   at inflated cost in dollars and lives,  long after he leaves office in disgrace.   You know in advance that  Bush will be well compensated for his roll in securing OIL contracts for his buddies.    Unless of course our Congress does it’s job and takes immediate steps to untie the noose we have put around the world’s throat.     What a July 4^th gift it would be to recover the US Constitution from the trash bin!

Bush Administration Last Days – Are We Scared Yet?

Bush administration wants us to be scared of:

• AlQaeda,
• Other un-named terrorists,
• Gays,
• anyone who is not a radical Christian, anyone who is not with his agenda,

• Inclusive health care
• People who think

This administration wants his population to be white or act white, buy in to the Armageddon concept to justify:

• atrocities against other cultures (anything outside of his world is PAGAN)
• completely destroy other civilizations (because they are PAGAN)

• grab oil resources wherever we can (so his greasy buddies can profit)
• allow genocide to grow exponentially long enough so that if we DO step up to responsibility thousands or millions have already died,

End Time Christian’s wars against PAGANS are equal to Islam’s war against INFIDELS. Euphemisms abound to cloak atrocities against other populations to justify world domination. The Political Islamists have used terror against innocent Americans, OK, so have Political Christians:

• 1. First of all crimes against Americans are results of economic suppression and interference in local politics with extortion and bribery.
  2. American businesses use underhanded tactics to secure advantageous pricing and cheap labor from disadvantaged and desperate.
  3. Americans or their Proxy Mercenary Armies have injured, threatened or killed opposition to their agendas throughout history – don’t get me started on the American Indians.

Pagan can be defined broadly:

Wikipedia – the faith traditions outside the Abrahamic monotheistic group of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This includes the Dharmic religions (such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism), Native American religions and mythologies and Shinto as well as non-Abrahamic ethnic religions in general. More narrow definitions will not include any of the world religions and restrict the term to local or rural currents not organized as civil religions.

Both “Pagan” and “heathen” have historically been used as a pejorative by adherents of monotheistic religions (such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam) to indicate a disbeliever in their religion.

Religious Extremism: Answers.com, Wikipedia, BBS News

Wikpedia – Dominionist , Islam

Answers – Dominionism, Islam

Religious Tolerance – Dominionism, Islam

Disbelievers – United States Government – Islam – Christianity

 

 

Bush’s conversations with GOD have allowed Counterfeit Religion to be used as an excuse to conquer for OIL!

 

 

Musharraf Or The Alternative – We Should Care

Sunday, June 17, 2007 posted by Munaeem, in Pakistan

 

Pakistan : Shameful Behavior of the Opposition

 

It pained and embarrassed me when I saw our opposition leaders flocking around US emissaries visiting Islamabad. The purpose of their meeting is to solicit US help to topple Musharraf.

I feel that Americans are interfering in our internal affairs, and we should discourage them. Pervez Musharraf sheds uniform or not its our internal problem. Americans should not bother about it. The so called democratic leaders have proved to be corrupt and inefficient. The nation gave them chance twice to rule the country, but they failed.

 

Sunday, June 17, 2007

 

Myth of Press freedom in Pakistan

President Musharraf accuses that print and electronic media are projecting a negative image of Pakistan.

He says that media is not reporting the achievements of his country.

There is not doubt he have gave freedom to electronic media and press. However , it is wrong to coerce press to report untrue picture of the situation.

Unfortunately, the country is passing through a very difficult time and media should not be expected to paint a rosy picture of the things.

The general should search his soul and correct his wrongdoings and take actions against his corrupt colleagues who are looting the country.

US brings MORE corruption wherever it goes. Our corruption is bigger than your corruption because WE have ‘multi-national’ corporations on our side. They have DEEP pockets. They tell us what to do and we listen, or we would not be in office. The result is … Pakistan unrest in the middle of a growing firestorm in the middle east. Unhappiness in Pakistan could be very important if it gets out of hand. Are we making it worse or better, what do you think? We are trying to bully Pakistan and India away from their critical IPI Pipeline because it goes to Iran. Then we dabble in their politics, too. If Lieberman gets his way, King George will bomb Iran just before he leaves office and dump the whole mess onto the next administration. Then what happens to Pakistan and India and those unfortunate locals? This administration considers collateral damage a pity, but necessary in view of larger goals. Goals dictated by their supporting corporations and war profiteers.

Co$tly War Outsourcing – Bush & His Private Armie$

Iraq Contractors Face Growing Parallel War

As Security Work Increases, So Do Casualties

By Steve Fainaru  Washington Post Foreign Service  Saturday, June 16, 2007; Page A01

BAGHDAD — Private security companies, funded by billions of dollars in U.S. military and State Department contracts, are fighting insurgents on a widening scale in Iraq, enduring daily attacks, returning fire and taking hundreds of casualties that have been underreported and sometimes concealed, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials and company representatives.

While the military has built up troops in an ongoing campaign to secure Baghdad, the security companies, out of public view, have been engaged in a parallel surge, boosting manpower, adding expensive armor and stepping up evasive action as attacks increase, the officials and company representatives said. One in seven supply convoys protected by private forces has come under attack this year, according to previously unreleased statistics; one security company reported nearly 300 “hostile actions” in the first four months.

The majority of the more than 100 security companies operate outside of Iraqi law, in part because of bureaucratic delays and corruption in the Iraqi government licensing process, according to U.S. officials. Blackwater USA, a prominent North Carolina firm that protects U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, and several other companies have not applied, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. Blackwater said that it obtained a one-year license in 2005 but that shifting Iraqi government policy has impeded its attempts to renew.

The military plans to outsource at least $1.5 billion in security operations this year, including the three largest security contracts in Iraq: a “theaterwide” contract to protect U.S. bases that is worth up to $480 million, according to Scott; a contract for up to $475 million to provide intelligence for the Army and personal security for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; and a contract for up to $450 million to protect reconstruction convoys. The Army has also tested a plan to use private security on military convoys for the first time, a shift that would significantly increase the presence of armed contractors on Iraq’s dangerous roads.

The U.S. military has never released complete statistics on contractor casualties or the number of attacks on privately guarded convoys. The military deleted casualty figures from reports issued by the Reconstruction Logistics Directorate of the Corps of Engineers, according to Victoria Wayne, who served as deputy director for logistics until 2006 and spent 2 1/2 years in Iraq.

Wayne described security contractors as “the unsung heroes of the war.” She said she believed the military wanted to hide information showing that private guards were fighting and dying in large numbers because it would be perceived as bad news.

American taxpayers are SO generous!   How many armies do we REALLY have?  Why do we pay SO much more for these private armies and keep running out of money for our real American soldiers?  The ONLY consolation is that these private armies don’t qualify for ‘Purple Hearts’.

The Real Co$t Of The Last $even+ Year$

Wall Street, Iraq and the Declining Dollar

In February of this year, Rep. Henry Waxman’s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform revealed fresh details of how the Coalition Provisional Authority dumped $12 billion in cash–in $100 bills–into Iraq in 2004. Multiple flights of huge C-130 transport planes were required to deliver 363 tons of greenbacks–a modest portion of the $510 billion we have spent so far in Iraq and Afghanistan. By certain measures, this may not be America’s most expensive war. But the worst economic effects are yet to come.

No matter how the Iraq War ends, it is clear that the United States is incapable of militarily securing territory against the wishes of a hostile population. And the Iraq War is at the heart of two alarming trends that are likely to have a negative impact on America’s position in the world: The demand for oil is rising while the supply is declining, and the demand for the US dollar is declining while the supply of dollars is rising.

Somebody in this administration is convinced that Americans don’t need their own Tax Dollars.  Certainly, the corporations profiting from war contracts are grateful that the American Taxpayer is SO generous.  Certain ‘Select’ Iraqis are grateful that the US has contributed SO much to their pet causes, even those that purchase arms to be used against us.   With our uncontrollable habit of BUYING our friends (and enemies),  our future has been spent … what should we do about this?

We bicker about the cost of ‘broken soldiers’ who we are paying to go ‘over there’ and get killed or broken.  We are SO generous.

US Picks Unscrupulous Buddies – Hypocracy Again

Allies Cited for Human Trafficking

State Dept. Adds Arab Nations to List of Worst Offenders

By Nora Boustany

Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, June 13, 2007; Page A14

The State Department yesterday added seven countries, including four Arab allies, to its list of worst offenders in failing to suppress human trafficking and forced labor, which it called “a modern day form of slavery.”

The 236-page annual survey, now in its seventh year, added Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar to its blacklist of worst offenders, along with Algeria, Equatorial Guinea and Malaysia. Countries on the list are subject to sanctions until major reforms are introduced.

The list already included Burma, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Uzbekistan and Venezuela. Laos, Belize and Zimbabwe were dropped from the list this year.

The world’s two most populous countries, China and India, were kept on an intermediate watch list, meaning their approach to trafficking is deemed deficient but not enough to face immediate U.S. sanctions.

Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), who sponsored the law that requires the report, contended that this year’s survey was too soft on China and India. In his view, they should have been placed on the list of worst offenders.

Ths USA spouts grand “Moral Values” to everyone on the planet. The flip side is that the USA lies through it’s teeth! The USA still has a foreign policy of “DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO, AND I WON’T LOOK IF YOU BREAK THE RULES …”

Human trafficking undermines any pretension that a country is democratic, Lagon said. “If people are treated as if they are subhuman and can be enslaved, the government is not fully living up to its democratic principles,” he said.

Disappointed? Always!

They say we are a Christian Nation … Think Again!