Duel in the Sun: America's Iraqi Clients Play the Al Qaeda Card on Syria

WRITTEN BY CHRIS FLOYD

MONDAY, 31 AUGUST 2009 14:34

The American client government in Iraq has embarked on a remarkable campaign of diplomatic hostilities with its neighbor, Syria, accusing Damascus of, among other things, the modern-day blood libel that immediate consigns a nation to diplomatic hell, and makes it a target for what George W. Bush used to call "the path of action": supporting al Qaeda. As Jason Ditz reports, America's Baghdad satrapy has been broadcasting confessions "obtained" (via "strenuous" but no doubt justified and right-minded interrogation) from captives blamed for the recent bombing attacks that have shaken the PR image of a calmer, surge-soothed Iraq. The bombings also pointed up the vast failures of the client regime to provide security or bring together the warring factions inside the country. These goals are of course impossible for a regime installed and maintained in power by foreign invasion; even so, they represent the Green Zoners' sole claim to "legitimacy." Thus any threat to the PR image undermines the regime's hopes to survive the partial reduction of American occupation forces (erroneously termed a "withdrawal" in the obfuscating argot of imperial message management). And so the client state led by sectarian extremist Nouri al-Maliki has turned to the time-honored tactic used by governments since time immemorial to divert attention from its own manifest failures: blaming foreign devils. Naturally, the Maliki regime cannot blame its foreign masters in Washington for unleashing, arming, abetting and exacerbating the murderous chaos in the conquered land. Nor can they blame their long-time mentors and supporters in Iran. So that leaves Syria. With the televised confessions, the Maliki regime has moved swiftly from blaming Baathist diehards who have been hiding amongst the multitude of Iraqi refugees to accusing the Damascus regime of openly directing the attackers -- and now, in the latest show-trial spectacle, of supporting al-Qaeda training camps on Syrian soil. This is heavy stuff indeed. For as we all know, the presence of al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan was the sole, purported reason for the American invasion in 2001; and preventing the re-establishment of such camps is still one of the primary excuses for continuing the slaughter there. The presence (or threat) of al-Qaeda camps is also proffered as justification for extending the Terror War into Pakistan and Somalia. What's more, the continual -- and blatantly false -- trumpeting of a "connection" between al Qaeda and Iraq was, in the end, the principal reason why the Iraq invasion garnered so much initial public support; the act of unprovoked aggression was seen as "payback for 9/11," as so many U.S. soldiers put it in those heady early days. The "al Qaeda" card trumps everything else. It justifies any action: invasion, torture, drone attack, rendition, death squads, covert ops, war profiteering, draconian power -- "the dark side, if you will," as one great American statesman put it. By openly accusing the Syrian government of sponsoring al Qaeda and directing terrorist attacks inside Iraq, the Maliki regime is laying the groundwork for any action their Washington masters might want to take against Damascus at any time. The regime is also giving one more reason to delay and dilute the American drawdown (which is also a cherished goal of the American militarists): are you going to pull out troops from Iraq when al Qaeda is getting state protection on Iraq's borders and launching terrorist attacks? Iraq's extraordinary accusations against Syria -- which have already led to a mutual withdrawal of ambassadors -- have thus far garnered little attention amongst the scribes who attend upon the imperial court. And who knows? At a nod from Caesar, the Iraqis might kiss and make up with Damascus tomorrow, if that is deemed more suitable for the immediate needs of imperial policy. But one should always remember that Syria has long been -- and still remains -- a prime target of that faction of American militarists known loosely as neo-cons. Indeed, at one point, it was a toss-up as to which "recalcitrant tribe" of Arabs they wanted the American war machine to hit first: Iraq or Syria? As I noted way back in caveman times -- April 2003, to be exact -- the neo-cons had been putting Syria in the crosshairs for years: A few months before PNAC's prophetic 2000 report [which longed for "a new Pearl Harbor" to "catalyze" the American people into supporting a vast and profitable militarist agenda], an allied group with an overlapping membership published a similar document outlining steps to be taken against Syria: first "tightening the screws" with denunciations and economic sanctions, then escalating to military action, as Jim Lobe of Inter-Press Agency reports. The architects of this document included Elliot Abrams, the convicted perjurer now running Bush's Middle East policy; Douglas Feith, one of Shifty's top aides; Paula Dobriansky, undersecretary to Colin Powell, and influential Pentagon advisors such as David Wurmser, Michael Leeden and everyone's sweetheart, Richard "Influence-Peddler" Perle. The report sprang largely from the loins of the United States Committee for a Free Lebanon, a curious grouping of right-wing American Christians, right-wing American Jews, and a sprinkling of Lebanese exiles. They object -- rightly -- to the fact that Syria has maintained "long-term access to major military bases" in Lebanon, using this minatory presence to exercise undue sway over Lebanon's political and economic life. Of course, some cynics would say this situation is remarkably akin to Israel's own 18-year occupation of, er, Lebanon, or the United States' decades-long -- and still-continuing -- military presence in Japan, Korea, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Panama, etc. But you know what cynics are like. The USCFL also provides highly insightful and very nearly literate analyses of vital regional issues, such as its seminal paper, "Even Arabs Don't Like Arabs." But the mindset of the group -- whose members now stalk the corridors of power in Imperial Washington -- is perhaps best displayed in its thoughtful 2001 treatise, "A Petition Demanding War Against Governments That Sponsor Terrorism" (Except, of course, for governments who enforce their will by the ever-present threat and use of violence -- i.e. terrorism -- but are run by nice white men educated at Yale and Oxford.) Here, the proto-Bushist group demands that six "rogue nations" -- Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya and Sudan -- "turn over their governments to the United States" on pain of massive military response. The United States will then "occupy these territories until proper governments" -- ones that allow "long-term access" to major military bases, no doubt -- "can be established." And just how massive should that threatened U.S. military response be? The USCFL is, as always, admirably -- and brutally -- forthright: "America must set a clear example-identical to that of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If you tread on me, I will wipe you off the face of the earth." In the end, of course, Iraq represented too glittering a prize for all the various militarist factions to pass up on the first course. But you must never underestimate the appetite -- and persistence -- of our militarists. The latest accusations of the Iraqi client regime will be used to stoke the never-ending fires of militarist warmongering; they won't rest until every knee bows to their god of American Dominance.

The Expiring Economy

Paul Craig Roberts
Infowars
August 8, 2009

Tent cities springing up all over America are filling with the homeless unemployed from the worst economy since the 1930s. While Americans live in tents, the Obama government has embarked on a $1 billion crash program to build a mega-embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, to rival the one the Bush government built in Baghdad, Iraq.

	A homeless tent city in Reno, Navada, 2009.

Hard times have now afflicted Americans for so long that even the extension of unemployment benefits from 6 months to 18 months for 24 high unemployment states, and to 46 – 72 weeks in other states, is beginning to run out. By Christmas 1.5 million Americans will have exhausted unemployment benefits while unemployment rolls continue to rise.

Amidst this worsening economic crisis, the House of Representatives just passed a $636 billion “defense” bill.

Who is the United States defending against? Americans have no enemies except those that the US government goes out of its way to create by bombing and invading countries that comprise no threat whatsoever to the US and by encircling others—Russia for example—with threatening military bases.

America’s wars are contrived affairs to serve the money laundering machine: from the taxpayers and money borrowed from foreign creditors to the armaments industry to the political contributions that ensure $636 billion “defense” bills.

President George W. Bush gave us wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that are entirely based on lies and misrepresentations. But Obama has done Bush one better. Obama has started a war in Pakistan with no explanation whatsoever.

If the armaments industry and the neoconservative brownshirts have their way, the US will also be at war with Iran, Russia, Sudan and North Korea.

Meanwhile, America continues to be overrun, as it has been for decades, not by armed foreign enemies but by illegal immigrants across America’s porous and undefended borders.

It is more proof of the Orwellian time in which we live that $636 billion appropriated for wars of aggression is called a “defense bill.”

Who is going to pay for all of this? When foreign countries have spent their trade surpluses and have no more dollars to recycle into the purchase of Treasury bonds, when US banks have used up their“bailout” money by purchasing Treasury bonds, and when the Federal Reserve cannot print any more money to keep the government going without pushing up inflation and interest rates, the taxpayer will be all that is left. Already Obama’s two top economic advisors, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and director of the National Economic Council Larry Summers, are floating the prospect of a middle class tax increase. Will Obama be maneuvered away from his promise just as Bush Sr. was?

Will Americans see the disconnect between their interests and the interests of “their” government? In the small town of Vassalboro, Maine, a few topless waitress jobs in a coffee house drew 150 applicants.Women in this small town are so desperate for jobs that they are reduced to undressing for their neighbors’ amusement.

Meanwhile, the Obama government is going to straighten out Afghanistan and Pakistan and build marble palaces to awe the locals half way around the world.

The US government keeps hyping “recovery” the way Bush hyped “terrorist threat” and“weapons of mass destruction.” The recovery is no more real than the threats. Indeed, it is possible that the economic collapse has hardly begun. Let’s look at what might await us here at home while the US government pursues hegemony abroad.

The real estate crisis is not over. More home foreclosures await as unemployment rises and unemployment benefits are exhausted. The commercial real estate crisis is yet to hit. More bailouts are coming, and they will have to be financed by more debt or money creation. If there are not sufficient purchasers for the Treasury bonds, the Federal Reserve will have to purchase them by creating checking accounts for the Treasury, that is, by debt monetization or the printing of money.

More debt and money creation will put more pressure on the US dollar’s exchange value. At some point import prices, which include offshored goods and services of US corporations, will rise, adding to the inflation fueled by domestic money creation. The Federal Reserve will be unable to hold down interest rates by buying bonds.

No part of US economic policy addresses the systemic crisis in American incomes. For most Americans real income ceased to grow some years ago. Americans have substituted second jobs and debt accumulation for the missing growth in real wages. With most households maxed out on debt and jobs disappearing, these substitutes for real income growth no longer exist.

The Bush-Obama economic policy actually worsens the systemic crisis that the US dollar faces as reserve currency. The fact that there might be no alternative to the dollar as reserve currency does not guarantee that the dollar will continue in this role. Countries might find it less risky to settle trade transactions in their own currencies.

How does an economy based heavily on consumer spending recover when so many high-value-added jobs, and the GDP and payroll tax revenues associated with them, have been moved offshore and when consumers have no more assets to leverage in order to increase their spending?

How does the US pay for its imports if the dollar is no longer used as reserve currency?

These are the unanswered questions.

Secret Bush-Clinton-Federal Reserve Pakistani Accounts Revealed

Tom Heneghan
May 11, 2009

UNITED STATES of America  -  It can now be reported that the recent resignation of former New York Federal Reserve Bank of New York Chairman, Stephen Frieidman, signals an expanding investigation of New York Attorny General Andrew Cuomo, who is not only focused on the massive New York state financial derivative Ponzi Scheme, but is now centered on money laundry, and possible funding of alleged terrorists in Pakistan.

Note: Cuomo was recently in a state of shock when he looked at new evidence linking Citibank, J. P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and AIG, to not only a terrorist money laundry in Pakistan, but to evidence tying all of these aforementioned brokerage firms and the Federal Reserve itself to PRE 9/11 knowledge, which allowed them to profit with put options and short positions placed before 9/11. 

This allowed these criminal brokerage firms to benefit from the death of near 3,000 in New York City.

Reference: Friedman, who still sits on the Board of Goldman Sachs, has been recently cooperating with the New York Attorney General, but as you will find out in the rest of this briefing, Friedman has been playing both sides against the middle and is now involved in espionage double-cross.

Sources close to Defense Intelligence and the National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as European INTERPOL, have actually fingered Friedman as the bagman for the Bush-Clinton Crime Family Syndicate involving illegal wire transfers of TRILLIONS of dollars of STOLEN U.S. Treasury funds that were laundred through Goldman Sachs brokerage firm in New York City, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Israel Discount Bank and the Federal Reserve itself to the Israeli Bank Leumi in Tel Aviv onto secret U.S. national security accounts in Pakistan.
Note: Assisting Friedman in looting the U.S. Treasury (the back end of the toxic derivatives) is a Pakistani national who is a joint U.S.-Pakistan CIA Intelligence officer with the initials " K.H. "

KH, who was presumed dead by many in the intelligence community, including Stephen Friedman, is now cooperating with European INTERPOL.

Note: Early Saturday morning on May 9, 2009, foreign born alleged President Barack Obama ordered a missile attack near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, which was was an alleged attack against so-called Al Qaeda terrorists.

We can now report that it was daddy Bush and his little bitch, Bill Clinton, that ordered Obama to launch the attack given reports that the whistleblower KH was in the vicinity.

Clearly, folks, this was not an attack on terrorists but an assassination attempt on KH that failed.

KH has fingered Stephen Friedman, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, along with former President George Herbert Walker Bush, former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in setting up these secret CIA proprietary accounts in Pakistan tied to none other than the late alleged 9/11 terrorist aka patsy CIA employee Tim Osman aka Osama bin Laden.

Note: Bin Laden, who died of kidney failure in December of 2001 and was a cosignator on these accounts, is claimed to still be alive based on the U.S. media’s big lie that he is still wandering the hills of Afghanistan.

Believe this, folks, he is dead as a door nail!

Should bin Laden’s death be reported, the IRS would have immediate access to these secret accounts that now have rotating access codes aka electronic serial combinations based on biblical chapters and verses.

The Pakistan money laundry has been a piggy bank for the Bush-Clinton Crime Family Syndicate since the 9/11 attack on America.

These accounts have now been frozen by the World Court and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) given the cooperation of the now whistleblower KH in handing over the account numbers and access codes aka the biblical chapters and verses that have now prevented daddy Bush, Bill and Hillary Clinton, along with former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan from getting into these accounts.

Reference: It has been reported that the Pakistani government refused Barbara Bush, wife of former President George Herbert Walker Bush, and Andrea Mitchell, wife of former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, and Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former President and daddy Bush’s little bitch, Bill Clinton, entry into Pakistan.

Reference: It was Chelsea Clinton that used funds from a Goldman Sachs hedge fund to arrange the BRIBING of New York Governor David Paterson in order to keep Caroline Kennedy from being appointed the next New York Democratic U.S. Senator.

It is clear now that former Federal Reserve Bank of New York Chairman, Stephen Friedman, is caught in a double cross.

Friedman had been cooperating with the New York state investigation while at the same time keeping secret the existence of these secret Bush-Clinton Crime Family Syndicate’s accounts in Pakistan, which now not only have a possibly link to the Bernard Madoff Ponzi Scheme but to the funding of alleged worldwide Al Qaeda terrorists as well as the 9/11 attack itself.

He clearly thought that KH had died - well he is clearly alive and kicking, folks.

P.S. At this hour the Obama Administration is ignoring a French Intelligence warning of a possible FALSE FLAG terrorist attack that would be staged in New York City around the Broad Street area aka the location of the Goldman Sachs brokerage firm.

We can now divulge that there are tape recorded conversations involving current White House Chief of Staff and former head of the North American Israeli Mossad, Rahm Emanuel, and current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, concerning the existence of certain files, documents and computer downloads currently held at Goldman Sachs that involve former Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Chairman Stephen Friedman, the Bernard Madoff Ponzi Scheme and the secret money laundry from the U.S. to Israeli to Pakistan.

French Intelligence sources have, once again, identified certain alleged Al Qaeda types that are linked to the noted 9/11 Israeli Mossad’s Urban Moving Systems espionage group, that is still operating in New Jersey, and have been recently photographed outside the New York financial district.

P.P.S. At this hour there is NO Justice Department as the Obama Administration continues to allow Bush Clinton Crime Family Syndicate rule over the United States.

The bought and paid for U.S. Congress, along with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), continue to run rampant in attempts to attack the American People.

For example, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, who has lunch on occasion with former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, still has a terrorist watch list that includes enemies of Karl Rove aka former Democratic Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.

Napolitano and Chertoff have also put together a list called the "Domestic Extremist Lexicon", which classifies individuals as terrorists if they do not agree with corporate, fascist media versions of events.

Not to be left out, radical feminista and tribalist Congresswoman Linda Sanchez (D-CA), is sponsoring legislation (H.R. 1966), which would allow the government to censor the internet if it was determined that internet bloggers brought "emotional distress" to alleged individuals that were being criticized.

Ms. Sanchez is also working on legislation, which would allow the 2nd Amendment rights of the American People to be infringed on should a DHS oversight panel decide that an individual American citizen might be a terrorist and therefore be unable to buy a firearm.

Clearly, according to Ms. Sanchez, if you are critical of Ms. Sanchez you are therefore a "terrorist".

Ms. Sanchez, who favors the illegal invasion of the United States by illegal aliens from Mexico is the REAL terrorist and a THREAT to our U.S. Constitution.

Call the DHS and tell them you have identified a terrorist in our Congress:

     Operator Number: 202-282-8000

     Comment Line: 202-282-8495 

Final note: I want to make it clear to all of our loyal readers that the Bush-Clinton-Federal Reserve Crime Syndicate is desperate.

We, the American People, have uncovered the truth about their TREASONOUS activities.  So, their next step aka the Swine Flu will be to attack us.

Daddy Bush and his little bitch, Bill Clinton, are sociopaths. They are loosing their money and their power and the U.S. Military has told foreign born alleged President Obama that they will not tolerate him enabling any more of this TREASON.

Again, folks, prepare for revolutionary mode.  The best defense is a great offense.

We will do whatever is necessary to save our U.S. Constitution, our beloved Republic, our freedoms and our American way of life and remove these TRAITORS from American soil.

…

We announce to the criminal government and its criminal corporate media enablers:  YOU ARE TOO CORRUPT TO CONTINUE!

We, the American People, who are well armed, will be victorious!

* * *  REMEMBER  * * *

The orders of the day for ALL patriots as we continue to identify the enemies of the American Republic and the American Revolution in the 21st Century and eradicate them:

Oath Keepers: Orders We Will NOT Obey
http://oath-keepers.blogspot.com/2009/03/oath-keepers-declaration-of-orders-we.html

When it comes to the enemies of the American Republic and the American Revolution in the 21st century, we dedicate ourselves to the 2nd American Revolution and making these enemies a memory.

We must remove them from American soil, and DO IT NOW!

Overlord at Yorktown remains relentless and victorious.

At this hour, we live free or die as Lafayette remains at Brandywine and Albert Gore Jr. remains the year 2000 duly eletected, non-inaugurated,  REAL natural born  President of the United States.

Did Bush Sr. Kill Kennedy and Frame Nixon?

Review of Russ Baker's new book by David Swanson

Global Research, December 26, 2008

afterdowningstreet.org Russ Baker's new book presents an account of the U.S. government that is both remarkably new and extensively documented. According to this account, George H. W. Bush, the father of the current president, devoted his career to secret intelligence work with the CIA many years before he became the CIA director, and the network of spies and petroleum plutocrats he began working with early on has played a powerful but hidden role in determining the direction of the U.S. government up to the current day. New research and newly highlighted information assembled by Baker presents at least the strong possibility that Bush was involved in assassinating President Kennedy, and that Bush was involved in staging the Watergate break-in (and the break-in at Dan Ellsberg's psychiatrist's) with the purpose of having these break-ins exposed and the blame placed on President Nixon. In this account, those in on the get-Nixon plot included John Dean and Bob Woodward. While this retelling of history would make a certain Robert Redford movie look really, really silly, it would -- on the other hand -- make Woodward's performance during Watergate fit more coherently with everything he's known to have done before and since. It would also give new meaning to Dean's recent book title "Conservatives Without a Conscience." I would love to see either of these men's response to Baker's book. Many readers of this review may now be rushing off to declare Baker either profoundly insane or (probably in fewer cases) indisputably correct in his views regarding the removal of Kennedy and Nixon from the White House, but I would strongly urge reading the book before doing so. It's called "Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It In The White House, And What Their Influence Means for America." (read the rest of the article)

Atrocity Unlimited: US Seeks to Turn Somalia into Global Free-Fire Zone

December 11. 2008

Not content with destroying the only vestige of stability that Somalia had known for almost two decades by arming, backing and participating in a brutal "regime change" invasion by Ethiopia, the Bush Administration now wants to turn the ravaged land into an international "free fire zone," a giant Fallujah where any powerful nation on earth can launch armed incursions on Somali soil, wreaking the usual "collateral damage" in the search for pirates -- or for those arbitrarily designated as pirates.

The Bush Regime is drafting a UN Security Council resolution that will give "the international community" carte blanche to "hunt down" alleged pirates on land in Somalia,the Guardian reports:

A draft resolution that would permit states fighting piracy to "take all necessary measures ashore in Somalia, including in its airspace" has been circulated to members of the UN Security Council. Prior consent for raids would be required from Somalia's weak and fractured government...

As we noted here recently, the "Somali government" is a rapidly collapsing coalition of CIA-paid warlords and Ethiopian collaborators which "controls" only a few city blocks of territory in the entire country. It is unfathomable that this near-fictitious entity would or could oppose a "request" by a world power to send armed forces into Somalia in a noble quest to clamp down on pirates. And what happens when these invading forces inevitably clash with the various other armed groups now waging a multi-sided, hydra-headed war in the country? Why, the invaders will have to take stern "force protection" measures, of course.

The story goes on to note that the locations of the "pirate lairs are well-known":

Along Somalia's north-eastern coast, villages and towns such as Eyl, Haradheere and Hobyo provide sanctuary and logistical support for pirate gangs holding at least 14 ships.

And it is certainly not surprising that the Western backers of the Somali "government" know just where the pirates are: they provided mighty assistance in their rise, as we noted here a few weeks ago:

For one thing, [the Times] notes something that is almost never mentioned in any story about Somalia, neither in the very rare stories about the conflict itself or the rather more numerous stories about piracy and its effects on commercial shipping (an issue far more important that the lives of 10,000 innocent human beings, of course): the fact that the main backers and bankrollers of the pirate gangs "are linked to the Western-backed government."

The conservative UK paper then goes on to give an accurate account of how these pirate-backing factions came to power -- facts that are almost universally ignored by the "liberal" American media . (Not to mention the "progressive blogosphere;" indeed, you can actually find more references to the Somalia war in the corporate press than among our internet "dissidents.") :

Years of violence, neglect and misguided policies have left Somalia one of the most dangerous countries and a breeding ground for the pirates attacking one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.

Today the northeast area of the country, including Puntland, has been carved up by warlords who finance themselves by drug and gun running. This is also the heartland of the pirates, whose main backers are linked to the Western-backed government. Radical Islamists control much of the south, including the key port of Kismayo and the porous border area with Kenya, a staunch Western ally.

This has realised a Western nightmare, which was supposed to have been destroyed by Ethiopia’s American-backed invasion of Somalia two years ago in support of a puppet government created by the international community. That alliance spanned the spectrum from extreme radicals to moderate, devout Muslims. The latter were in charge.

Everyone – except Pentagon planners, it seems – knew that Somalia had never proved fertile territory for Saudi-style radical Islam. However, indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas by Ethiopia, Somalia’s historic enemy, with huge casualties, put an end to that. The Islamists were driven out, the moderates went into exile and the hardliners took control of the south with a popular powerbase beyond their wildest dreams.

A puppet government, installed by foreign invasion, riddled with crime and corruption, alienating and radicalizing the population: here we see the quintessential template of the "War on Terror," replicated faithfully in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia -- and soon, perhaps, in Pakistan.

And now the Bush Regime -- going out in a Götterdämmerung of blood and fury aimed at the world (and at the American people) -- wants to intensify the chaos in Somalia, laying it bare to more invasions, "precision strikes," death squad operations, renditions and other atrocities, this time coming from not just from Washington and its Terror War proxies but from all directions. This is the answer of the American militarist state to any problem, such as piracy or terrorism: the blunderbuss assault of massive military force by land, sea and air; vast destruction, social collapse -- and immeasurable, unbounded human suffering.

This is the reality of much-praised "continuity" in "national security affairs" that Barack Obama's appointments have promised. This is what will be "continued."

Teams from Obama and Bush Regimes Will Run Joint Terrorism Drill in January

WASHINGTON — What would happen if terrorists attacked the United States at the start of Barack Obama's presidency?

The Bush administration doesn't want to wait to find out. It's planning to test the incoming government's readiness next month in a series of tabletop exercises involving top Bush and Obama officials.

OBAMA TEAM: Obama's completed Cabinet a diverse mix

EMPLOYMENT: 330,000 applicants vie for administration jobs

Concerned about the first handoff of presidential power since Sept. 11, 2001, the White House also is preparing briefing books and office manuals designed to bring the incoming Obama administration up to speed in a hurry.

"This is the first wartime transition in 40 years, and it's probably the first transition in a couple of centuries in which our homeland itself has been under threat," says White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten, who's supervising the effort. The goal is to "make sure that those who are coming in are as well prepared as they can be to deal with an actual threat here in this country."

(read full article)

US Plans to Sign Nuclear Pact With UAE

Friday 12 December 2008

by: Jay Solomon, The Wall Street Journal

The Bush administration plans to sign a nuclear cooperation agreement with the United Arab Emirates in the coming weeks. (Photo: www.edf.fr)

Proposed cooperation with Middle Eastern nation would face hurdles in Congress on proliferation fears.

Washington - The Bush administration plans to sign its first nuclear-cooperation agreement with a Middle Eastern nation within the next few weeks, according to a senior U.S. official, raising concerns among congressional critics who say the deal could fuel nuclear proliferation in the region.

The proposed deal with the United Arab Emirates has attracted attention because the U.A.E.'s largest trading partner is Iran. The U.A.E. has served in the past as a transshipment point for technology with military applications headed to Iran.

The move could place President-elect Barack Obama in a political tight spot with a Middle East ally by forcing him to decide whether to push Congress to ratify the agreement. He hasn't taken an official position on the deal. An Obama spokesman declined to comment. The Bush administration has championed the nuclear agreement with the U.A.E. as a model for promoting peaceful nuclear energy while guarding against weapons proliferation.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, ranking Republican in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced legislation this week that would set conditions before Congress could approve the agreement. It would require that the next president certify the U.A.E. has taken extensive measures to cut off the flow of financing and sensitive technologies into Iran.

The U.A.E. says its nuclear-power program will have extensive safeguards to protect against nuclear materials being diverted. It has pledged to purchase nuclear fuel for its reactors from outside suppliers, rather than developing its own fuel. It says it would store nuclear waste externally. Also, it has agreed to allow monitoring and snap inspections by the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency.

In recent months, the U.A.E. signed agreements with two American engineering companies - Thorium Power Ltd. of Virginia and CH2M Hill of Colorado - to oversee the development of its nuclear-power program. The U.A.E. has also hired a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, William Travers, to help run the U.A.E.'s nuclear regulatory body.

"This is a real counterexample to what Iran is doing," said the senior U.S. official Thursday. "We're seeking commitments from nations within the Middle East that they're going to rely on the markets for nuclear fuel."

The Bush administration also is working on nuclear-cooperation agreements with the governments of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Bahrain. The pacts require Washington to share nuclear fuels, technologies and know-how on the condition that the countries commit to abiding by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and IAEA safeguards.

The U.A.E. sits on some of the world's largest energy reserves, but its leaders say the country's natural-gas resources are inadequate to match rising demand. "We have determined that nuclear energy is an option the U.A.E. cannot afford to ignore," said Hamad Ali Al Ka'abi, the head of the U.A.E.'s nuclear program, in an interview earlier this year.

The Bush administration initially hoped to sign the nuclear accord with the U.A.E. last month, when Abu Dhabi's crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, met President George W. Bush at Camp David, according to people familiar with the visit.

U.A.E. officials decided to delay the official signing over uncertainties about Mr. Obama's position and possible negative reaction from Congress, according to these officials. In 2006, the U.A.E.'s state-owned DP World had to scrap a plan to purchase the U.S. port holdings of Britain's P&O because of opposition in Congress.

The nuclear trafficking network run by Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan used Dubai in the U.A.E. as one of its major bases, according to investigations of the Khan network. U.S. officials, however, say the U.A.E. has taken major steps to better manage its export controls and guard against money laundering.

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Margaret Coker in Abu Dhabi contributed to this article.

Turley: 'Strange alliance' between Bush and alleged 9/11 mastermind

David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Tuesday December 9, 2008

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, often described as the mastermind of 9/11, and four other prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay told a military judge on Monday that they wish to plead guilty to all charges. 

Law professor Jonathan Turley sees this confession as a "strange alliance" between Mohammed and George W. Bush, where both men get what they want -- martyrdom in Mohammed's case and vindication in Bush's -- and President-elect Barack Obama is stuck in the middle with a dilemma on his hands.

Mohammed and the other accused terrorists first announced their plan to confess on November 4, which -- as MSNBC's Rachel Maddow pointed out in introducing Turley -- was "the day America elected a president who is expected to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and is expected to close the military tribunal system."

"Could it be that they want to beat the clock?" Maddow asked. "They want to make sure they are convicted, and probably executed, under Bush's tribunal system because that feels more like martyrdom to them than risking going into an actual non-kangaroo court trial in a real legal system?"

"What Khalid Sheikh Mohammed just did is to hand George Bush a considerable victory," Turley replied. "We were very close in his case to addressing the fact that he was tortured and ... that his case was put in the spotlight on the gross unfairness of the Bush tribunal system. And he essentially took all that off the table and saved the Bush administration the need to answer to those charges."

"So the result is rather strange for a mastermind," Turley continued. "He's probably a certifiable moron, because what he's doing is he's shifting this over to the death penalty question. He's not likely to be executed under George Bush. The person that most supports what he did is likely George Bush and you have the strange alliance between Sheikh Mohammed and George W. Bush and Barack Obama is the guy in the middle."

Turley believes that Mohammed's guilty plea will be accepted but that because death penalty hearings take time, "it's unlikely that he would be sentenced -- and certainly very unlikely to be executed -- before there is a President Obama in the White House. 

"But then [Obama's] going to have a dilemma," Turley explained, "because at that point he would have to execute someone under the Bush tribunal system. The alternative, if [Mohammed] isn't sentenced at that point -- and the one that I think President Obama should do -- would be to force him into the federal court, have him reindicted ... and have him sentenced under a real court and a real judge."

Turley concluded, however, that ultimately Mohammed will probably get the death penalty he's seeking, because "it's likely that if he wants to be a martyr, he's going to find a lot of people who want to help him along."


This video is from MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, broadcast Dec. 8, 2008.




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