Posts Made By: Rod Kaufman

As articulated today by Rumsfeld and to be echoed by Bush on Wednesday, we have the following account of Iraqi miltary might:
1. The road to Baghdad Airport is secured by Iraqi forces. CBS news reports tonight, "It's simply not true". While there are a few Iraqi checkpoints, the road is clearly overseen and guarded by US forces.
2. Hifa Street, known as a shooting gallery, is now peaceful, under control of Iraqi forces. CBS REPORTS THE INSURGENTS CUT A DEAL WITH IRAQI POLICE TO USE THE STREET AS A COMMAND POST FOR FUTURE ATTACKS IN EXCHANGE FOR CEASEFIRE.
3. 95 Iraqi battlions are up and online. The truth: only one is considered to be capable of operating without US support.
Rumsfeld said he doesn't know anything about Shiite death sqauds and suggested they were a pre-election hoax. The LA Times had a feature article on them today.
More later...

The CNN website is posting comments from republican chair of the committee looking at the state of preparedness of the US in preventing another 9-11 type of event.
It's darn critical...
Both the president and congress are faulted in not doing enough to prevent future acts of terrorism especially in the area of nuclear attacks. I recall John Kerry making the very same point during the election campaign and, if I recall correctly, he also authored a book on a strategy for containment of black market nukes.
It's not as if the Bush administration doesn't agree, some of you may recall Dick Cheney's comment in the past that "it's not a matter of if we are going to be hit but when." That's basically what another committee member has now said but with the added conclusions of the committee that not enough is being done to prevent it.
The committee is also reportedly critical of our foreign relations in the world and how it bears on the probablity of future terrorist attacks on the US.
No surprises in any of this as far as I am concerned and it's on Bush's watch...

In a lecture presented at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm on Wednesday, British playwright Harold Pinter said Bush and Blair should be arraigned before the International Criminal Court.
"The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law."
"We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, inumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation and death to the Iraqi people and call it bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East."
"The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless..."
It would not suprise me if this guy showed up at Sadamm's trial as a witness for the defense...

In today's (12-11) front page headline story of the LA Times, the French intelligence services "repeatedly warned in secret communications" that there was no evidence to support the allegation that Iraq tried to buy nuclear weapons material in Africa and did so more than one year before Bush made the claim in his 2003 State of the Union speech.
Like the Germans who had warned about the false claims of Iraqi biological weapons, the French were "flabbergasted" when Bush made the claim. The French warned bluntly before Bush made his allegations known that the claim was "bull----"! The French further stated it was "totally crazy". The French intelligence services made their views known after extensive "on the ground" verfications that no such nuclear uranium links were viable.
Bush needs to be held accountable for this....

Bush made the statement in his last speech on Iraq that the war is pivotal in stopping the spread of terrorism "from Spain through Indonesia". This appears to be the Bush perception of the domino theory, ie if Iraq falls to terrorists then the rest will fall as well.
In response, Murtha stated all of the intelligence he has seen indicates 93% of the insurgents are Iraqis while the remaining 7% are foreign fighters.
Basically, the war is an Iraqi war against an occupation force.
Murtha also claims, as do various think tanks, that terrorism represents an ideology, and not a force such as an army that one can combat on military grounds.
Today, Bush has reportedly accepted responsibility for the decision to go to war with some measure of acknowledgement of the failures of the intelligence behind it.
But his belief in the domino theory is alive and well. It was wrong in southeast asia and it's wrong today...

Jim,
As usual, you provide baseless scenarios while ignoring the facts.
Let's again review what TALON has been used for:
1. Monitoring the frequency of the use of the internet by antiwar protest groups. That certainly doesn't fall into any of the Babcock babble.
2. TALON concluded there was "not a significant connection" between the incidents of increased communications between the groups using the internet.
3. TALON monitors peace demonstrations but a pentagon spokesman states: "the information must be related to missions relating to the protection of pentagon installations, interests and personnel." The latter is the stated intent of the use of the information gathered by TALON.
4. The pentagon hasn't explained how monitoring the frequency of the use of the internet by antiwar groups, of which it has not found a "significant connection", can provide "non-validated threat information and security anomalies indicative of possible terrorist pre-attack activity". The pentagon can't provide such a link and neither, of course, can Jim Babcock...

I have to admit the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the anocrym "TALON" was a new weapons system. Not exactly...
During the Vietnam war, the American people and eventually congress took the government to task for monitoring(spying) on peace groups, civil rights groups and the like. You would think we would have learned our lesson.
Fast forward to today and we now have TALON which stands for "threat and local observation notice." NBC has reported the US military may be collecting information on Americans who oppose the war in Iraq and may be monitoring peace demonstrations. One TALON report states, "We have noticed increased communication between protest groups using the internet."
As a hypothetical example, let us say one of our moderators, Tom Rod, served his country honorably in Vietnam. Based upon his experiences there and upon more recent events, he opposes the war in Iraq and feels justified in calling Donald Rumsfeld criminally negligent in his duties relating to the war. Tom then makes his views known on an internet website. It's quite possible he may be monitored "for suspicious activity" for making such comments.
Don't think it's possible? Think again, we've got TALON...

Bush defended his decision to employ wire taps without obtaining a court order and attacked the New York Times by claiming their disclosure of his activity is illegal and jeopardizes the national security of the United States!
Bush has really gone off the deep end with this one.
What a load of babble!

Murtha's right about the presence of so many US troops fanning the insurgency and becomming targets for it. US military commanders, although they don't agree with Murth'as pullout stance, have stated the same and the Bush crew is only slowly awakening to that reality. I like Biden's plan to place NATO troops at the borders versus the entire responsibility to be placed upon the US military.
Two things can affect the above situation within the next six months: 1. Whether or not a secular or non secular leader emerges in Iraq. If it's a religious Shiite leader, we will probably face a Iranian style theocratic government which would be a disaster waiting to happen. 2. The Iraqi constitution HAS to be amended. It was written before the Sunnis entered the political process and leaves so many gaps that the piece of paper is now worth more trouble that its worth.
Both Biden and republican Lindsay Graham think we should know within six months as to where Iraq is headed with respect to our continued presence and the possibility of civil war between the Sunnis and the Shiites...

John Dean KNOWS a thing or two about impeaching presidents. He was counsel to Richard Nixon and warned him at the time about "the growing cancer on the presidency."
Interviewed on KNX news radio this morning, Dean stated Bush has confessed to an impeachable offense in acknowledging his wiretaping activities. Dean stated the only difference between article 2 in the Nixon impeachment proceedings and what Bush is doing is the fact that a republican dominated congress is in power and is running interference for the president. Dean also states this may change in the next elections and if the democrats prevail, it will be very rough going for Bush...