The BRAD BLOG

Robert Parry Explains Why The Old 'We Need To Stay In Iraq' Ploy Is Bogus

By Winter Patriot on 8/19/2005 11:40pm PT

It's always an extreme pleasure --- and a severe challenge --- to post an item based on a column by Robert Parry. His excellent piece of August 17, 2005, is called Iraq & the Logic of Withdrawal. It's compelling reading, and it should be mandatory for all who say "we have to stay in Iraq until the Iraqis can provide their own security".

Washington's conventional wisdom on the Iraq War is roughly divided into two camps: those who still think George W. Bush's invasion was a good idea and want to �stay the course� � and those who opposed Bush on going to war but now say �we must get it right.�

I am not in either camp, as regular readers of this space probably know. And I've been saying at every opportunity. So it's good to see that a very wise observer agrees with me. His take on the issue is a bit different than mine, but we reach the same conclusions. I find that comforting. It's like a math problem --- when you've solved it, you go back and check your work by doing the same problem in a different way. If you get the same answer the second time, you can be fairly sure that your answer is correct.

Both sides � representing nearly the entire political spectrum in Washington � rule out a prompt U.S. military withdrawal because that supposedly would turn Iraq into a �failed state� and a �breeding ground for Islamic terrorism.� Therefore, the thinking goes, U.S. troops must remain while Iraq builds a democracy that can stop the extremists.

But there is a case to be made for U.S. withdrawal as the best option for both resolving the conflict and neutralizing the foreign Islamic extremists in Iraq. A corollary of this thinking holds that the continued U.S. military presence does more harm than good.

More harm than good to Iraq? Or to the USA? I would say "both!"

The logic of withdrawal goes like this:

First, a distinction must be made between the Sunni-led insurgency, which is fighting out of a sense of Iraqi nationalism and to protect the Sunni minority's interests in Iraq, and the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist network of Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It is engaged in a jihad to drive Americans and other Westerners out of the Middle East.

While the interests of the Sunni-led insurgency and the Zarqawi-led terrorists may overlap under the present circumstances, that is primarily because an American force of 138,000 troops remains inside Iraq.

And the rest of the column goes like this.

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Comcast Customer Service! Better Than Ever!

By Winter Patriot on 8/19/2005 11:03pm PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Speaking of Comcast...

LaChania Govan said she got bounced around by her cable company when she called to complain. She made dozens of calls and was even transferred to a person who spoke Spanish, a language she doesn't understand.

But when she got her August bill from Comcast she had no trouble understanding she'd made somebody mad. It was addressed to "Bitch Dog."

AP has more on that, and someone by the name of "Jeffery Scrotum Bag Barnes"...

(Hat tip to BRAD BLOG Emailer GGilpatrick)

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Report: AOL Blocking Emails From USCountVotes

Is The Pro-Democracy Movement Under Attack From AOL?

By Winter Patriot on 8/19/2005 5:43pm PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Hot on the heels of a recent item about Comcast [and other ISPs] blocking email containing the address of Cindy Sheehan's website, I have received a report from US Count Votes saying that that they are no longer able to reach AOL customers via email.

UPDATE: Since this item has been posted I have received more specific information. The email that is being blocked comes from the Announcements List at US Count Votes, a.k.a. election@uscountvotes.org. According to our source,

AOL blocked it once and an AOL customer got it unblocked but then it was blocked again very shortly and has stayed blocked.

AOL technical support could easily look at any email from our announcements list to see that it is a legitimate list that tells how to unsubscribe from it at the bottom of every email from our list, so there is no excuse for blocking it, even once.

If this report is true, then it should not be too hard to fix. I can think of a few useful things you might consider doing.

Fast Symptomatic Relief:
If you are an AOL subscriber, you want to set up an additional email account. Hotmail and gmail come to mind; both are free and both allow you to access your account easily from any browser. No doubt there are other options, perhaps better options. If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment for us below. Once you have your account set up, you can visit US Count Votes and ask to have your new address added to their mailing list.

Treating The Cause Rather Than The Symptoms:
Then there's the tried and tested method: Make Some Noise. We've already seen the sort of impact 6 or 7 people can make. If you are an AOL user, and if you are on the US Count Votes mailing list, and if you haven't heard from US Count Votes in a while, then AOL definitely needs to hear from you. As always, please remember to be polite; nobody wants to help an abusive caller. But please also be firm and persistent: we all know that the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

I regret that I haven't more time to spend investigating this issue. Please use the comments thread below to post any relevant information you happen to have. I will update this post with AOL contact info as soon as I can find some. It you have such info and wish to share it, please do so via the comments, or send me e-mail here: wp112263 at hotmail dot com.

Ah, the old 6-or-7 routine! Thanks to you, the blogosphere is working ... for all of us.

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RIGHT-WING PANDERER OF THE MOMENT

HEART SURGEON RENOUNCES SCIENCE FOR VOTES

BACKS 'INTELLIGENT DESIGN' IN CLASSROOMS

By Jaime on 8/19/2005 4:29pm PT

Guest blogged by jaime

Cat Killer. Flip-Flopper. Transparent panderer.
And now... convenient Creationist

Congratulations, Senator Frist...You're an A-1 jack-ass!

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Camp Casey Begins Move, Protestors Vow to Continue

Prayer vigil scheduled for this afteroon

By David Edwards on 8/19/2005 12:34pm PT

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Brad is on the way to Camp Casey in Crawford to amplify the voices of the anti-war movement and provide us with extended daily broadcasts of The BRAD SHOW. We need your donations to make this mission successful so, please, take a moment and donate what you can.

In the meantime, there is more news coming out of Crawford than we can keep up with. Cindy has had to return to California to tend to her mother who had a stroke. The protestors have vowed to increase their numbers and continue calling for President Bush to answer Cindy's questions.

Protestors marched to the Bush ~~1600 acre palatial estate~~ ranch to deliver letters to the First Lady. Emily Sharpe of Crawford Update reports...

This afternoon, over 100 of us marched three miles from Camp Casey to the gate of President Bush's ranch in 90 degree heat, all to deliver hundreds of letters written by women to Laura Bush. Our marching group ranged from infants to octogenarians, and was led by some really gutsy moms.

...
As we walked along singing "This Land is Our Land" and "God Bless America," we couldn't fathom that we were about to do what no one had done before: march up the entrance of the President's ranch, special delivery in hand, without shots being fired. But we definitely did not expect what was there waiting for us... emerging from behind the beefy Secret Service agents was a Bush staffer ready to personally accept our letters to the First Lady!

(Be sure to click the following link to view all of the Camp Casey updates!)

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NY Times Tells The Truth! --- Three Times In Three Days!!

And The Readers Are Loving It!

All On The Editorial Page, Of Course --- But We'll Take It Anyway

By Winter Patriot on 8/19/2005 12:15pm PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Regular readers of this space will recall that The BRAD BLOG is not a big fan of way the New York Times "covers" the news. But regular readers also know that we do our best to be fair, and to give credit where it's due. Therefore it behooves me to point out three excellent columns in recent editions of the NYT, and to report that two of them are at the top of the NYT's list of "most e-mailed stories".

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BOB KOEHLER: 'Hiding from Cindy'

Columnist Asks: 'Will you look her in the eye?'

Good question, Bob!

By Winter Patriot on 8/19/2005 8:43am PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Sometimes this job is too easy. What to read? What to post? Some of these questions answer themselves. For instance, if it's Friday morning, then it must be time to visit Common Wonders and have a look at Bob Koehler's newest column. It starts this way:

My guess is that the Army's new $350 million recruitment-ad blitz targeting parents will not feature any footage of Cindy Sheehan camped in a ditch five miles outside of Crawford, Texas, waiting patiently for the vacationing president to talk to her.

Nor, I suspect, will �Arlington West,� the makeshift cemetery containing more than 1,800 crosses spread out along the road to the Bush ranch, be part of the slick, insidious hype the Leo Burnett agency is hoping will soften the fearful grip American parents have on their teenagers these days, only one in four of whom wants his or her kid to enlist.

Slick and insidious is right, Bob. Slick like oil on the water. And "insidious" is a perfect word to describe the practice of spending $350 million of our money to lure our kids into a raging man-made disaster. Well, maybe there are some other words. And maybe it's not even our money. It's our kids' money, or our grandkids. Some day the bill for all this insanity is going to come due. And even if the current crop of White House madmen are not around to pay it, somebody is going to have to pay. Guess who? Who always pays? But I digress.

The entire column is worth a read --- as always --- one passage is worthy of particular attention. Koehler quotes the famous line, "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori", as many writers have done in the past. Refreshingly, rather than assuming that all readers know what it means and where it comes from, he provides not only a translation but also a context.

In one commercial, for instance, a boy clinches a conversation with his skeptical mom about enlisting so he can have a way to pay for college by saying, �And besides, it's time for me to be a man.�

What brilliant (and shameless) manipulation of human psychology � as though the Army's raison d'etre is the personal growth of young people. Yes, boys have to grow into men, and rites of passage are crucial for this, but the admen and the Army are hawking a cynical lie. Almost 90 years ago, poet Wilfred Owen, who died in World War I, captured the essence of that lie in his extraordinary poem �Dulce et Decorum Est.� (The last line, translated from the Latin, means, �It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country.�)

�If you could hear,� Owen writes, describing the death of a fellow soldier in a gas attack, �at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, �
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.�

Thanks again to Bob Koehler, whose care-packages of truth and sanity are always welcome after another week of craziness and vicious lies. Here's the permanent link to this week's column: Hiding from Cindy: The world is watching, George � will you look her in the eye?.

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Atta's Big Gamble. Plus: Jack Abramoff's Link To A Mysterious Saudi --- And Perhaps To Al Qaeda

The Mysteries of 9/11 Run Deep

By Joseph Cannon on 8/19/2005 8:04am PT

Guest blogged by Joseph Cannon

You have probably never heard of Makram Chams. It's time you met him.

Actually, you can't physically meet him --- he disappeared on September 11, 2001. I bring him to your attention for two reasons:

1. He knew, and apparently aided, Mohammed Atta and the other 9/11 terrorists.

2. He owned a casino ship in Florida.

Yes, a casino ship --- just like the SunCruz ships owned by Jack Abramoff, the recently-indicted Republican money-man and wheeler-dealer. According to Associated Press, the terrorists took a mysterious trip on a SunCruz ship on September 5, 2001. And that trip is of great interest for three reasons:

1. SunCruz ships were under investigation for involvement in money laundering and other unsavory activities.

2. Al Qaeda operatives made a number of mysterious casino jaunts in that era; few believe that they were hard-core gamblers.

3. Al Qaeda was funded by drug money. Drug money must needs be laundered. Casinos have been known to be used for that purpose. Casino ships are unregulated.

Perhaps we should tentatively add a fourth reason for concern: Intelligence agents who had identified Atta in the United States and who knew of his ties to Osama Bin Laden were told to steer clear of him. They literally covered up his picture on their charts of Al Qaeda agents. (See my latest piece on Able Danger.)

So with that background in mind, let's learn more about the mysterious Makram Chams (whose first name is sometimes transliterated as Meekram).

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Identification of Atta was Squelched by SOCOM Lawyers

Behind-The-Scenes Story of 9/11 Hijacker Continues To Seep Out

And The 'Rolling Cannonfire Revue' Continues...

By Joseph Cannon on 8/18/2005 11:21pm PT

Guest blogged by Joseph Cannon

I just received a note from someone with special understanding of the Able Danger sitch. (Suddenly, everyone on the net has only one or two degrees of separation from Tony Shaffer.) The correspondent asked not to be quoted or identified, so I'll speak only in very general terms.

Basically, you'll receive much the same info if you go to Intel Dump, which relays a message from Shaffer himself.

The bottom line: The identification of Atta was squelched by SOCOM lawyers. As Shaffer tells it:

First - yes - The lawyers involved in this (and similar projects) did interpret the 9-11 terrorists as "US persons" - so while you can second guess them all you want - but that was their "legal" call as wrong as it was and is. Unfortunately, the chain of command at SOCOM went along with them (and this, I expect, will be a topic that will become more clear in the near future).

And lawyers of the era also felt that any intelligence officer viewing open internet information for the purpose of intelligence collection automatically required that any "open source" information obtained be treated as if it was "intelligence information"...does this sound like idiocy to you? It did to me - and we fought it - and I was in meetings at the OSD level, with OSD lawyers, that debated this - and I even briefed the DCI George Tenet on this issue relating to an internet project.

And yes, Virginia - we tried to tell the lawyers that since the data identified Atta and the others as linked to Al Qaeda, we should be able to collect on them based on SecState Albright's declaration of Al Qaeda as transnational terrorist threat to the US...well the lawyers did not agree...go figure...so we could not collect on them - and for political reasons - could not pass them to the FBI...I know because I brokered three meetings between the FBI and SOCOM to allow SOCOM to pass the information to the FBI. And, sadly, SOCOM cancelled them every time...

Do I buy this? Well...

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Photo Slideshow of Vigils to Support Cindy Sheehan

By David Edwards on 8/18/2005 6:58pm PT

Guest blogged by David Edwards

On Wednesday night, supporters gathered in 50 states at over 1600 vigils. Moveon.org says this was the largest event that they've ever helped to organize.

A photo slide show has been created with some of the best vigil photos from across the nation.

Read comments from people who attended the vigils.

"Our candlelight vigil at Camp Casey was beautiful. There were hundreds of people here and we are hearing that hundreds of people were involved in vigils around the country. We at Camp Casey are so amazed and gratified that there were almost 1700 vigils around the country.�

-Cindy Sheehan, Crawford, Texas

MoveOn has also created an interactive national map of all the vigils.

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Who Is Pulling The Strings At Camp Casey? (UPDATED)

Is Cindy Sheehan A Puppet Of The Radical Left?

Scott Galindez Has Been Watching

By Winter Patriot on 8/18/2005 5:57pm PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Who are you gonna believe? A reporter who has been reporting from the scene --- live on the ground at Camp Casey --- or a bunch of talking heads who haven't been anywhere near any of it? A short new column by Scott Galindez, published on the truthout.org website today, puts the question in a good clear perspective --- in fact it's so short, and so good, that it's probably worth quoting in its entirety.

As I flip my television from network to network, they sound like a broken record when they talk about Cindy Sheehan. They all seem to claim that she is a puppet of the left, the anti-war movement etc...

I am in Crawford and am spending a lot of time near Cindy. I promise you that Cindy is not the puppet in Crawford, but the puppet master. There is a media team working on her scheduling, but they are not telling her what to say.

The allegations that the left is exploiting Cindy couldn't be further from the truth. I see millions of people following Cindy, not the other way around. I got an e-mail from Cindy that she was going to go to Crawford, not from MoveOn.

The real question here is who is behind these allegations? Who are the real puppets here?

The corporate media are the ones reporting the same false claims, so it appears to me that they are the ones being controlled. Who is the puppet master? Is it Karl Rove? The RNC?

It's obvious that the media are speaking from the same script because while they accuse the left of exploiting Cindy, they present no evidence to back up their claims.

I have been at the Peace House during her breaks; she is not being ushered off to be coached, she is resting when away from the camp. She does meet with the family members and vets to discuss the message of Camp Casey, but that is how you build community and Camp Casey is a community.

I have not seen any professional handlers in Crawford. I have seen some excellent organizers putting together events after Cindy, the vets and other military families set the agenda.

So NBC, FOX, CBS, etc... Who is writing your script? Who is pulling your strings?

I don't expect the mainstream news anchors to answer Scott's questions anytime soon ... at least not in so many words. But if you watch them closely you can see that they do answer these questions --- very clearly, every day!

UPDATE: Cindy Sheehan has received some bad news today. As reported by Scott Galindez,

We have just learned that Cindy's mom has had a stroke. Cindy will be leaving the camp to be at her mother's side. Camp Casey will continue on until Cindy's return.

Now we see who pulls Cindy Sheehan's strings! It's her mother.

Best wishes to Cindy Sheehan, and her mother, and their family, and their many friends and supporters.

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DENNIS LOO: No Paper Trail Left Behind: The Theft of the 2004 Presidential Election

How Did We Fall Through The Looking-Glass?

By Winter Patriot on 8/18/2005 5:15pm PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Recently, in a few different contexts, people have mentioned a new study by Dr. Dennis Loo which proves once again that the 2004 Presidential election was stolen. BRAD BLOG reader and frequent commentor, VDRES, pointed out an article about it here, in fact. So you may have read it already. But I suspect you probably haven't. And that's too bad, because you should.

The introduction reads as if it were intended for The Whispering Campaign:

In order to believe that George Bush won the November 2, 2004 presidential election, you must also believe all of the following extremely improbable or outright impossible things.

1) A big turnout and a highly energized and motivated electorate favored the GOP instead of the Democrats for the first time in history.

2) Even though first-time voters, lapsed voters (those who didn�t vote in 2000), and undecideds went for John Kerry by big margins, and Bush lost people who voted for him in the cliffhanger 2000 election, Bush still received a 3.5 million vote surplus nationally.

3) The fact that Bush far exceeded the 85% of registered Florida Republicans� votes that he got in 2000, receiving in 2004 more than 100% of the registered Republican votes in 47 out of 67 Florida counties, 200% of registered Republicans in 15 counties, and over 300% of registered Republicans in 4 counties, merely shows Floridians� enthusiasm for Bush. He managed to do this despite the fact that his share of the crossover votes by registered Democrats in Florida did not increase over 2000 and he lost ground among registered Independents, dropping 15 points.

4) Florida�s reporting of more presidential votes (7.59 million) than actual number of people who voted (7.35 million), a surplus of 237,522 votes, does not indicate fraud.

5) The fact that Bush got more votes than registered voters, and the fact that by stark contrast participation rates in many Democratic strongholds in Ohio and Florida fell to as low as 8%, do not indicate a rigged election.

6) Bush won re-election despite approval ratings below 50% - the first time in history this has happened. Truman has been cited as having also done this, but Truman�s polling numbers were trailing so much behind his challenger, Thomas Dewey, pollsters stopped surveying two months before the 1948 elections, thus missing the late surge of support for Truman. Unlike Truman, Bush�s support was clearly eroding on the eve of the election.

7) Harris' last-minute polling indicating a Kerry victory was wrong (even though Harris was exactly on the mark in their 2000 election final poll).

8) The �challenger rule� - an incumbent�s final results won�t be better than his final polling - was wrong.

9) On election day the early-day voters picked up by early exit polls (showing Kerry with a wide lead) were heavily Democratic instead of the traditional pattern of early voters being mainly Republican.

10) The fact that Bush �won� Ohio by 51-48%, but this was not matched by the court-supervised hand count of the 147,400 absentee and provisional ballots in which Kerry received 54.46% of the vote doesn�t cast any suspicion upon the official tally.

The list goes on...

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Phony 'Voting Rights' Group Exposed by Mainstream Media

ACVR, traitors to American democracy, have cover blown by newly published articles

By David Edwards on 8/18/2005 3:15pm PT

Guest blogged by David Edwards

As our readers know, The BRAD BLOG has been a leading source for investigations and reports into the nefarious (and possibly illegal) actions of high-level GOP Operatives that have established a tax-exempt, 503(c)(3) organization called the American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR). The group, since its creation, has released false and misleading information intended to advance GOP plans to disenfranchise millions of voters via legislation calling for national voter registration databases and a demand for photo IDs at the polls.

Increasingly, the mainstream corporate media and independent media sources have caught on to the "dirty tricks" being used by these GOP operatives though the cynically named ACVR.

We were pleased to see a recent article, penned by Dimitri Vassilaros, in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review titled: 'Study' is political fraud. Vassilaros writes:

The supposedly nonpartisan American Center for Voting Rights --- which purports to expose voter fraud --- is a fraud.

The organization's 368-page study "Vote Fraud, Intimidation & Suppression in the 2004 Presidential Election," which was released last week, indicated that Democrats were the instigators in every case from Alabama to Wisconsin --- except two.

It also said that the two complaints regarding Republicans had no merit.

The "findings" about Democrat wrongdoing are not surprising considering that the three public faces of the nonpartisan group are very partisan Republican operatives --- including one who claims to be a sounding board for senior White House adviser Karl Rove.

Not surprisingly, Vassilaros discovers that the Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania has values similar to the organizers of ACVR...

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Article Categories: Election Irregularities, Pennsylvania, ACVR

Video of the Moment...

Barbie reports from anti-war vigil: 'Bring Ken Home!'

By David Edwards on 8/18/2005 12:40pm PT

Guest blogged by David Edwards

A reader of The BRAD BLOG submitted this video from one of Wednesday night's solidarity vigils in support of Cindy Sheehan and the anti-war movement.

The original posting can be found at Randi Rhodes forum.

Watch the video (Windows Media format).

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Nafeez Ahmed: Whitewashing the Protection of Terrorists on US Soil

A RAW STORY Exclusive

9/11 Was A Protection Racket ... in More Ways Than One!

By Winter Patriot on 8/18/2005 12:12pm PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Exactly one year before 9/11, a highly classified US Army intelligence unit known as "Able Danger" had already pinpointed four of the 9/11 hijackers. Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Khalid Almidhar, and Nawaf Alhamzi were identified as members of a "Brooklyn" al-Qaeda cell on a detailed chart that included visa photographs. The Army unit was established by the Special Operations Command in 1999 by Gen. Hugh Shelton, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The startling revelations first surfaced in late June, from Congressman. Curt Weldon (R-PA), Vice-Chairman of the House Homeland Security and Armed Services Committees, citing at least three active military and intelligence officials. The story eventually made the New York Times headlines, thrice, the latest report on Tuesday quoting Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, who was a liaison with the Able Danger unit at the Defense Intelligence Agency. Lt. Col. Shaffer gave on the record confirmation of the details revealed by Rep. Weldon, but further stated that Able Danger had scheduled three meetings in the summer of 2000 with the FBI's Washington field office to share the findings and recommend to "take out that cell."

But that didn't happen, did it? They never did "take out that cell". Why not?

Read Nafeez Ahmed's Whitewashing the Protection of Terrorists on US Soil, online now, courtesy of our friends at The RAW STORY.

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