Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Joni book

I noted a new biography of Joni Mitchell last week that the Canadian press was writing about.  The Christian Science Monitor notes:

The woman who defined "singer/songwriter" and routinely revealed her most intimate longings, passions, and failures in her stunningly original songs, has always been reluctant to reveal Joan Anderson, the troubled, lonely recluse behind the artist Joni Mitchell. Canadian writer Katherine Monk's new bio, Joni: The Creative Odyssey of Joni Mitchell, lifts the veil on her fellow countrywoman. Her account of Mitchell's dramatic rise to fame and countless love affairs, which inspired her songs, makes for a riveting read.

And Chris Lackner (PN News) writes:
Joni. That one word conjures images of a flower child, folksinger and icon — an artist so familiar to us, she almost feels like family.

But a new biography shows that the Canadian musical treasure has long been misunderstood. Maybe it’s time to meet the real Joni Mitchell.

In Joni: The Creative Odyssey of Joni Mitchell, Postmedia journalist Katherine Monk literally rewrites the book on a musical legend.

The biography explores the creative and intellectual drives behind Mitchell — outlining the thinkers and philosophies that shaped her life and informed her music. It also casts aside misconceptions about the artist.

For starters, Mitchell was never locked into her folk persona. It was largely crafted by David Crosby, who urged her to ditch the mascara, fake eyelashes and designer purse for a natural look.

“She’s not the hippie goddess that anyone might take her for,” Monk says. “She’s considered this winsome, bittersweet blond with this flawless soprano … (when) her true voice is that of an alto. She’s hugely fashion-conscious … she’s always been dressed to the nines and likes designer labels and likes fine stuff. She can swear like a trucker and she loves to dance. She loves to have a party and she loves to have a good time, and her music lends you to believe that she’s sort of this martyr for mope … Joni Mitchell is very complicated. She’s not soft; I’d say she’s a hard person.”


It really sounds like an interesting book.  I looked at a bookstore today for it but they didn't have it.  I should probably get a Kindle or some device.  That would certainly be easier with all the time we spend on the road.

But I do love a book -- physical book.  I love holding it, flipping through pages.  I like breaking the binding.  We had to do that in school.  First day.  Did anyone else?  That was pretty much from 5th grade through senior year.  We'd have to go through the book pressing pages flat with our hands.  This was supposed to prolong the life of a book -- I have no idea if it did -- and keep it from falling apart.

I still do that with my own books.

And there's something so satisfying about finishing a book and closing it.  Knowing you've read the whole thing.

And something so great about being able to carry it anywhere. I like to read in the tub.  Do they make a waterproof Kindle?  Or will I end up like Loretta Haggerty's son on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman?  (The TV or radio feel in the tub while he was bathing.)

I don't know.  But I do want to find this book.  In hardcover format.

Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Tuesday, October 16, 2012.  Chaos and violence continue, three Nouri had arrested have their names cleared, the governor of the central bank is replaced, England gives up their Basra consulate, the attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi continues to garner interest, name the idiot writer  who tries to find the 'bright' side of the assault on the US Consulate by chirping, "But no one died in their sleep," and more.
 
Let's start with cholera. Al Mada reports that UNICEF declared that the cholera problems will not go away in Iraq while the poor sanitation continues.  The World Health Organization explains, "Cholera is an acute intestinal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae.  It has a short incubation period, from less than one day to five days, and produces an enterotoxin that causes a copious, painless, watery diarrhoea that can quickly lead to severe dehydration and death if treatment is not promptly given.  Vomiting also occurs in most patients."  Al Mada explains that the Ministry of Health is implementing a plan which includes visiting schools to provide information to students (who would then speak with their families).  That is a nice start but it really looks like the Ministry of Health is actually letting UNICEF do the work and letting UNICEF foot the bill.  The article notes that UNCIF is sending water kits and water purification tablets and water (2 million liters per day) into effected areas in Iraq.  AFP notes that there have been 4 deaths and 272 confirmed cases including thirty-one that are children.
 
 
Violence was widespread across Iraq yesterday.  Iraq Body Count counts 17 dead from Monday's violence.  17 dead would normally be reason for headlines.  They also count 88 dead from violence so far this month.  All Iraq News reports 2 Amiriyah bombings left five people injured and 2 Latifiyah bombings have left three people injured.  Alsumaria notes the Amiriyah area has been blocked off by security and that the number injured has risen to six.  Alsumaria adds 2 police officers were shot dead (guns with silencers)  in Baghdad during a football game, a Baghdad bombing injured one police officer, 4 corpses (shot dead) were discovered in a car in the Sulaymaniyah village of Gafran and there were 28 arrests throughout Iraq.
 
In other news, Sam Dagher and Ali A. Nabhan (Wall Street Journal) report that Abdul-Baset Turki ("head of the Supreme Audit Board") has been named interim central bank governor.  They quote Kurdish MP Mahmoud Othman declaring, "This is another sign that things are not going in the right direction and that politics is affecting everything."   Why?  Because the position wasn't empty this morning.  Hadeel Al Sayegh (The National) reports Parliament held a vote and decided to replace Sinan al-Shabibi.  Nouri's spokesperson Ali al-Moussawi is quoted stating, "The parliament today made a unanimous decision to vote for Abdelbasset, who is already handling many financial governmental decisions including the country's fiscal budget.  Subsequently, a decision was made to remove powers from Mr Al Shabibi as central bank governor."  Ammar Karim (AFP) reports al-Shabibi is now in Europe (he was in Japan when the arrest warrant was noted -- in Japan at a conference) and that Parliament's integrity commission is stating it's "not about money, but about procedures that led to the weakening of the dinar against the dollar." Sam Dagher and Ali A. Nabhan (Wall Street Journal) state, "The Iraqi dinar, which currently trades at around 1,200 to the dollar, fell as low as 1,280 earlier this year amid allegations that neighboring Iran and Syria, both subject to international sanctions that restrict their access to hard currency, were using local fronts to participate in the Iraqi central bank's auctions."
 
 
 
 
This morning,  All Iraq News noted that Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc was accusing Nouri of targeting the Centeral Bank due to the independence of the institution.  Hadeel Al Sayegh (The National) reports other voices have joined that chorus:
 
 
Iyad Allawi, the leader of the opposition Iraqiya bloc, said the independence of the bank, which was necessary to maintain the exchange rate and prevent inflation, was threatened by the move against Mr Al Shabibi.
Magda Al Tamimi, a member of the parliamentary finance committee, agreed.
"The decision to issue a warrant for arrest against Sinan Al Shabibi and a number of officials at the central bank, was planned and ordered from some political forces," said Ms Al Tamimi.
"It is a political decision and not professional. Although we recognise the existence of some corruption cases in the bank, we are not happy and have reservations about this method, because of its impact on Iraq's reputation and the national economy."
 
 
Aseel Kami (Reuters) adds, "Since an inconclusive 2010 election, opponents of Maliki, a Shi'ite, have accused him of failing to fulfil power-sharing agreements in Iraq's delicate sectarian and ethnic balance among Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish political blocs. He accuses them of blocking his attempts to make the government work. Some lawmakers said the central bank should stay independent despite the dismissal."  in 2011, Nouri publicly tried to take over the Central Bank and to take over the electoral commission which brings us to other news of the day,   Al Rafidayn notes that Faraj al-Haidari, Karim al-Tamimi and Osama al-Ani have been cleared of charges by an appeals court.   Faraj al-Haidari was president of the Electoral Commission.  al-Tamimi and al-Ani served on it.  From the April 16, 2012 snapshot:

Yesterday Farah al-Haidari and Karim al-Tamimi were released from jail as was expected -- AFP reported Friday that they would "be jailed until Sunday, a fellow commission member told AFP."  As noted in Friday's snapshot, last Tuesday the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy Martin Kobler was praising the Independent High Electoral Commission to the United Nations Security Council and discussing how important it was to the upcoming provincial elections next year and then the parliamentary elections scheduled for the year after. So news that Nouri's had two members of that commission arrested on Thursday, as reported in real time by Raheem Salman (ioL news), was startling and alarming. Karim al-Tamimi serves on the commission while Faraj al-Haidari is the head of the commission. 
How outrageous were the arrests?  Saturday, Al Mada reported that Moqtada al-Sadr declared that the arrests were indications that Nouri al-Maliki might be attempting to delay the elections or call them off all together. He makes it clear that the the arrest needs to be based on eveidence and not on some whim of Nouri's and that it shouldn't be done because Nouri desires to "postpone or call of the election."   Xinhua reported, "The government in Iraq's northern semi-autonomous Kurdistan region said Saturday that it has called on the central government in Baghdad to release the electoral commission's head and another member arrested on corruption charges." The Oman Tribune notes that the KRG issued the following statement on Friday: "The decision of the authorities in Baghdad to issue a detention order against Faraj Al Haidari and Karim Al Tamimi amounts to a gross violation and dangerous infringement of the political process. Such a decision is targeting the independence of the electoral commission ... We call (on the authorities) to reconsider the detention order immediately and refrain from persisting in insulting the democratic operation."  As Mohamad Ali Harissi (AFP) observed, "Key political factions accused the premier of moving towards a dictatorship with the arrest of Iraq's electoral commission chief, a charge the prime minister denied on Saturday."  W.G. Dunlop (AFP) quoted Iraqiya MP Haidar al-Mullah stating, "When the head of the independent electoral commission is being targeted, it means it is a message from the one who is targeting him that he is above the law and above the political process. The one who is standing behind this is the head of the State of Law coalition (Maliki), because he wants to send a message that either the elections should be fraudulent, or he will use the authorities to get revenge on the commission. This arrest is an indication that the judiciary has become an obedient tool in the hands of Mr Nuri al-Maliki."
Al Rafidayn explained Nouri al-Maliki released a statement Saturday decrying those who doubted the arrests were sound.


Again, their names have been cleared by an appeals court. 

 
Staying with the political, Wael Grace (Al Mada) reports the other political blocs are accusing Nouri's State of Law of preventing progress on proposed legislation due to a walk out State of Law staged.  Iraqiya says State of Law's goal Monday was to disable the Parliament with their walk out.


From yesterday's snapshot:


Today Al Mada reports Yassin Majeed, an MP with Nouri's State of Law, is declaring that KRG President Massoud Barzani is a threat to Iraq. Majeed held a press conference outside Parliament to denounce Barzani. Alsumaria notes that among Barzani's supposed outrageous offenses is objecting to the infrastructure bill and objecting to the recent weapons shopping spree Nouri's been on ($1 billion dollar deal with the Czech Republic, $4.2 billion dollar deal with Russia). All Iraq News notes that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani issued a statement noting that, at a time when they are trying to resolve the current political crisis, the remarks are not helpful.

Wael Grace (Al Mada) reports today that State of Law is rushing to walk away from Majeed's remarks after Talabani and Iraqiya both called out the "reckless" remarks yesterday.  Alsumaria reports Iraqiya stated there was no way to justify the remarks and called on everyone to condemn the remarks and this method to destroy a foundation of unity.  In addition, All Iraq News notes the Kurdistan Alliance announced yesterday that there is no political difference between Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani and that the Allliance's statement was in response to the verbal attack on Barzani from Majeed.  Hussein Ali Dawed (Al-Montior) notes Talabani statined "he considered these statements a 'call to war'."  State of Law has never walked away from their constant smack talk before.  The difference here appears to have been a united push back from the blocs at the same time that Nouri wanted it to appear he was trying to reach an understanding with everyone and be a national leader.  Majeed's remarks were in keeping with State of Law's trash talk in the past.  A month ago -- or maybe a month from now -- they wouldn't have raised an eyebrow and are part of State of Law's never-ending attacks on other politicians.
 
 
In a move that's surprising some, England's closing a consulate.  BBC News reports that the UK government has announced they will be closing the Basra consulate but somehow maintaining an 'office' in Basra -- one without "permanent staffing."  Kitabat reports that British companies and citizens doing business in Basra are objecting to the decision and stating that China and Korean businesses will not benefit at Great Britain's loss.  The Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East, Alistair Burt, addressed the UK government's decision noting:
 
Iraq is a huge country and what we're doing by making these changes is to make sure we can cover all parts of it even more effectively than we've done up to now.
We can make sure we're covering Basra by deploying more people in Baghdad.... It's not a zero sum game. Many British companies have told us that they would rather we had a presence in Baghdad and that we beef that up. So we're doing that as well as increasing our support for Erbil. Businesses value our influence  in Baghdad, they know key decisions are made there more than in Basra and being able to cover both more effectively we will actually be doing better for British companies, better for Britain and helping the long term development of Iraq all at the same time.
What's very important is that we maintain an influence and work with the people who are on the ground. It used to take 48 hours to get from Baghdad to Basra because we had to fly people through a different route in order to keep them safe.  Now you can do it in an hour.  And you can stay there and people will be safe.  Our team in Baghdad will do the job in Basra that needs to be done.  It's a very important area for us with the oil fields, with the potential for infrastructure development.  We're already doing well with contracts there.
It is right that we look at the resources we've got and we're able to deploy them effectively.  If we weren't able to change resources we wouldn't be able to respond to the differing needs and demands. What we will see is British companies and our own diplomats continuing to build the relationships they need.
 
 
Speaking to the BBC, Burt went on to defend what's being called "fly-in, fly-out diplomacy."  The Argus notes that the decision "was condemned by former Foreign Office minister David Mellor as 'short-sighted' and 'deeply damaging' to British interests."
 
Basra was always a problem for the UK.  From the November 22, 2006 snapshot:
 
In England, This Is London reports: "Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett this afternoon surprised MPs by signalling the countdown to a withdrawal from Iraq. She told the Commons that Basra, where the bulk of the UK's 7,200 personnel are stationed, could be handed over from British military control to Iraqi forces as early as next spring."  Basra has been a violent area for British soldiers (and for Iraqis).  Earlier this month, on England's Rememberance Sunday, four British troops were killed while on a boat patrol in Basra and three more were wounded.  The four killed included Sharron Elliott who was "the second British female servicewoman to die in action."  The other three were Jason Hylton, Ben Nowak, and Lee Hopkins.  Mortar attacks have been common in Basra and, in August, a British soldier died as a result of wounds received from mortar rounds.  In October, a British soldier died in Basra from road traffic.  The end of October was also when the British consulate in Basra was evacuated after it was decided it was no longer safe after two months of mortar attacks.  (In August, British troops 'evacuated' from their base in Amara due to repeated mortar attacks.)
 
This followed British troops fleeing their nearby base in Maysan earlier that year.  From the August 24, 2006 snapshot:
 
Meanwhile British troops of the Soldiers of the Queen's Royal Hussars are . . . on the move.  Ross Colvin (Reuters) reports a lot of talk about how they're 'stripped-down' and mobile (in Landrovers) but the reality is that they're also homeless -- they've "abandoned their base in Iraq's southern Maysan province on Thursday".  Though the base was under "nightly attack" and though it has, indeed, been abandoned, British flack Charlie Burbridge disagrees that "the British had been forced out of Amara". 
 
From the August 25, 2006 snapshot, the day after the British military fled their base:
 
 
In other violence, despite the British military flacks that were so eagerly allowed to spin in this morning's New York Times, Haidar Hani (AP) reports: "Looters ravaged a former British base Friday . . . taking everything from doors and window frames to corrugated roofing and metal pipes".  As Ross Colvin (Reuters) reported yesterday, the base, which had come under nightly, heavy attacks, was abandoned. The AP story today notes: "Iraqi authories had complained that the British withdrawal had caught them by surprise" and allows flack Charlie Burbridge to holler Not-true-we-gave-them-24-hours-notice!  Well, Charlie, on a rental, you usually have to give a minimum of 30 days notice.  But it is good to know that as they packed up everything they could carry, someone did think to make a quick call saying, "Hey, we're about to split.  If there's anything you want, better grab it quick, dude!"
 
 
Basra and the southern region in general were never easy locales for the United Kingdom.
 
Consulates were already being analyzed for costs due to the global recession (some estimates say the UK will save 6 million pounds by closing the Basra consulate).  No doubt the September 11, 2012 attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya also factored in and added safety issues to the cost issues as various countries rethink the nature of their presence on foreign soil.  Days after the Libya attack (14 days, September 25th), rockets were fired on the US Consulate in Basra.
 
 
Chaning topics, if press stupidity and press whoring were executable crimes, there'd be a lot more people on death row today and two who would be facing the needle/gas chamber/electric chair?  The editorial board of the Los Angeles Times and  The Atlantic's Garance Franke-Ruta.  Franke-Ruta is disgusting.  She brings up the father of the late US Ambassador Chris Stevens saying that his son's death shouldn't be made "into a campaign issue" but slides past because she wants to do just that.  Grasp that.
 
Let's also grasp what we're talking about.  From last week's US House Oversight Committee hearing.
 
Committee Chair Darrell Issa:  On September 11, 2012, four brave Americans serving their country were murdered by terrorists in Benghazi, Libya.  Tyrone Woods spent two decades as a Navy Seal serving multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Since 2010, he protected the American diplomatic personnel.  Tyrone leaves behind a widow and three children.   Glen Doherty, also a former Seal and an experienced paramedic, had served his country in both Iraq and Afghanistan.  His family and colleagues grieve today for his death.  Sean Smith, a communications specialist, joined the State Dept after six years in the United States Air Force.  Sean leaves behind a widow and two young children.  Ambassador Chris Stevens, a man I had known personally during his tours, US Ambassador to Libya, ventured into a volatile and dangerous situation as Libyans revolted against the long time Gaddafi regime.  He did so because he believed the people of Libya wanted and deserved the same things we have: freedom from tyranny. 
 
 
Realize please that you come off like a stuck up bitch every time you say "an attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others."  What is that?  "And the rest here on Gilligan's Island"?  You can't list three more names?  They aren't important to you?  They're just props?  That's what it sounds like.  If you gave a damn about four Americans and were writing because you gave a damn, you'd list their names. 
 
If you want to honor the dead, you don't do it by rendering them nameless.  And you don't write sentences like this, "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday said the first line-of-duty death of a U.S. ambassador since the Carter Administration was on her."  It's the bad writer who's turning it into Chris Stevens and Three Backup Singers.  We'll deal with Hillary in a bit.
 
Let's deal with the father's feelings first: Important in the private world.  Note that we're not even mentioning the man's name.  But here's reality, 4 Americans died -- and, everybody get it through your damn heads, it wasn't just Chris Stevens.  You've got four families.  I believe the mother of Sean Stevens wants answers -- wasn't that what she told Anderson Cooper on 360 last week?  But even if all four were calling for a press black out, too damn bad.
 
This was not a suicide.  This is four Americans killed in an attack in a foreign country, killed because they were Americans.  Your child and your memories of them are for your private consumption, fine.  But a terrorist attack isn't Little Susie or Little Johnny pissed themselves at school and let's not embarrass them by telling the whole world.  This was a terrorist attack and that made it an international concern and a public event.
 
Unlike me, GF-R can't find a clue so she pretends like the father's making a request that would or could be honored.  But she then dismisses the request.  That's pretty craven.  Some might argue that what she's about to share is politicizing the deaths --  GF-R says tilting her head and biting her cringing lips, but -- "But this isn't how you put out a self-serving account."
 
How stupid is this woman? 
 
If you want to put out a self-serving account, how do you do it?  You do an on-background briefing.  Then it's never traced back to you.  And that's what she's praising.  A State Dept "on-background briefing" from last week.  Again, how stupid is this woman?
 
In a democracy, government is supposed to take place in the open.  We don't rush to embrace one or several officials who won't even go on the record.
 
It only gets worse as she tries to make it better.  This woman earned a college degree?  Seriously?  The same woman who wants to argue, "But no one died in their sleep."  That's her spin?  That's her 'up' in the equation?  What a moron.
 
And what an offensive column.  "But no one died in their sleep."  Well, Garance, as far as we know, no one died in their sleep in the Twin Towers, at the Pentagon or in the planes on September 11, 2001 either.  That didn't make that attack any less tragic.  What a moron.
 
"While Republicans continue to charge administration cover-up and denial, the State Department's moves have repeatedly undermined both charges," the idiot writes.  Did she attend the hearing?  Of course not.  If she had actual facts, she'd never be able to do that 'creative writing' that's become her hallmark.  I was at the hearing.  (Community coverage includes: "Iraq snapshot," "Iraq snapshot,"  "Iraq snapshot," "2 disgrace in the Committee hearing," "The White House's Jimmy Carter moment" and "What we learned at today's hearing.")  I also know what was said on the Sunday chat & chews.  The Republican members of the House Oversight Committee praised the State Dept and Hillary by name.  (The only exception being US House Rep Jason Chaffetz.)  Darrell Issa, the Committee Chair, started the hearing by thanking Hillary and the State Dept for what they were doing and for the information they were providing.  So exactly what Republicans in Congress is the idiot GF-R referring to?  Oh, that's right, the ones talking in her head. 
 
And after Hillary's media appearances late yesterday, did the Republican Congress members pile on?  Not according to Hillary Is 44 which notes: 
 
Consider Senator Lindsay Graham. Early yesterday Graham sent Obama a letter asking Obama whether he knew of the previous attacks on the Benghazi compound and if so what Obama did about it?
Years ago Representative Lindsay Graham was an impeachment manager against Bill Clinton. Did now Senator Graham attack Hillary Clinton and demand her immediate resignation? No. Senator Graham's response to the Lima statement by Hillary remained focused on Barack Obama:
"Her remarks drew a quick response from three Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee, including ranking member John McCain.
Clinton's statement of responsibility was "a laudable gesture, especially when the White House is trying to avoid any responsibility whatsoever," the Arizona senator said in a joint broadside with Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire. However, they added, "The security of Americans serving our nation everywhere in the world is ultimately the job of the commander-in-chief. The buck stops there."
Senator Graham and Hillary Clinton know where the buck stops: [. . .]
 
Competing with The Atlantic for the dunce cap is the Los Angeles Times which may win as a result of bad editorials like the one today containing this:
 
The Sept. 11 attack on the consulate in Benghazi, in which U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed, was a tragedy. Was it also preventable? At a congressional hearing last week, Eric Nordstrom, the State Department's former regional security officer in Libya, criticized his superiors for ignoring his concerns about the growing risk of armed militias and extremist groups in Benghazi. But he also acknowledged that posting a few more Americans at the site would not have been sufficient to repel the onslaught by heavily armed extremists.
 
No, the editorial board wasn't at the hearing.  No, Eric Nordstrom did NOT say "that posting a few more Americans at the site would not have been sufficient to repel the onslaught by heavily armed extremists."  He didn't say it, he didn't acknowledge it.  He allowed that it might not have made a difference.  That's not the same thing.  Nor was he the only security witness at the hearing.  There was also Lt Col Andrew Wood.
 
US House Rep Dennis Ross:  Now, Lt Col Wood, I understand that you were the senior officer of the SST team.  Is that correct?
 
Lt Col Andrew Wood: That's correct, sir.
 
 
US House Rep Dennis Ross:  And do you have any reason to believe that if you had to go up your chain of command at AFRICOM for a request from the State Dept that they extend the tour of duty of an SST, that your chain of command would not grant that?
 
Lt Col Andrew Wood: Absolutely Gen [Carter F.] Ham was fully supportive of extending the SST as long as they felt they needed them.
 
US House Rep Dennis Ross:  So the resources were available for the SST?
 
Lt Col Andrew Wood:  Absolutely.
 
US House Rep Dennis Ross:  And had they been there, they would have made a difference, would they not?
 
Lt Col Andrew Wood: They made a difference every day they were there, when I was there, sir.  They were a deterrent effect.
 
So you had one security witness stating it might not have made a difference and another stating it would have made a difference, no maybes about it.  The editorial board is less than honest -- not since a sex scandal in a hotel -- well a nudity scandal, the prostitute had left -- back before Barack was in the White House has the Los Angeles Times editorial board been such a joke.  And, let's repeat, four people died.  Say their names, write their names.  Do not pretend you're 'honoring' the four when you reduce them to 'Chris Stevens and three people I don't care enough to even try to name.'  The four names are Glen Doherty, Chris Stevens, Sean Smith and Tyrone Woods.  If that's too many names for your meager minds to hold, then you don't need to be writing about the Benghazi attack to begin with.
 
Now let's deal with Hillary.  Here for a transcript of her interview with Elise Labot of CNN (here for video of it).  Hillary gave a series of interviews late yesterday where she stated she took accountability.  Language warning, Larry Johnson (No Quarter) does not feel she takes responsibility and his thoughts include, "What she is doing now with respect to Libya and covering [for] Obama is politics of the most disgusting.  She insists that she takes responsibility, but, rather than resign for her failure to protect the Consulate and the Ambassador, she only says it was the fault of the intelligence community."  As we noted earlier, others see it differently.
 
 
No one plays word games better than lawyers and Hillary has a law degree and was a practicing attorney for many years.  In other words, let's go to the State Dept press briefing today:
 
MS. NULAND: All right, everybody. Happy Tuesday. The Secretary is just finishing her program in Latin America and will be returning later this afternoon. I have – or later this evening – I have nothing for you at the top.
 
 
QUESTION: Can I ask you about the series of interviews she gave on this trip? We didn't have one, so we didn't get a chance to ask her directly. But she said she took responsibility related to the Benghazi attack. I just wanted to be clear on what she's taking responsibility for.
 
MS. NULAND: Well, if you have a chance to get up on our website, you will see transcripts of five TV interviews that the Secretary gave yesterday, as she always does when she's traveling and she has TV crews with her or TV correspondents with her. I think she was extremely clear what she's taking responsibility for. She is the head of this Department. She takes responsibility for this Department fully. She's never made any secret of that. That's been her position all the way through this.
 
QUESTION: What is she taking responsibility for, though? She just said, "I take responsibility," full stop.
 
MS. NULAND: Brad, you can go back and reread that interview. The question was clear.
 
QUESTION: I have reread it.
 
MS. NULAND: The answer was clear. I'm not going to try to improve on it here.
 
QUESTION: Why won't you?
 
MS. NULAND: Because she was –
 
QUESTION: She doesn't finish the thought.
 
MS. NULAND: She was extremely clear what she takes responsibility for, which is the operation of this Department, all of the men and women here, and certainly she is personally, as she has said again and again and again since September 11th, committed to getting to the bottom of who did this and learning the lessons that we need to learn from it.
 
QUESTION: So you said she takes responsibility for the operation of this Department and the people who work here. So she wouldn't be taking responsibility for things like intelligence assessments, per se, because that is something that might not be done by this building; is that correct?
 
MS. NULAND: Brad, I am not going to stand here and parse the Secretary's words. She was very clear in her interviews.
 
QUESTION: Well, if she was so clear, why can't you answer a question like that?
 
MS. NULAND: I want you to go back and read the interviews.
 
QUESTION: I have read all of them.
 
MS. NULAND: Yeah. I think she was very clear.
 
 
What did Hillary take accountability for?  What she appears to have taken accountability for is her department.  I think, I could be wrong and often am, Larry Johnson is responding to the press summaries and interpretations as opposed to Hillary's words.
 
On September 12th, as revealed in last week's hearing, the State Dept was briefing Congress that the attack was a terrorist attack (Patrick Kennedy specifically was doing that).  I believe, and I could be wrong, that Hillary is stating, "I am responsible for my department."  As in, "I am responsible for my department and other Secretaries are responsible for their departments and the President is ultimately responsible for all."  As explained in last week's hearing, the attack was monitored live and footage exists of the attack -- a little over 50 minutes of footage.  The FBI has told Congress they are not holding onto the footage or preventing anyone from seeing it.  But an unidentified element of the Executive Branch is keeping it off limits to the public and to Congress.  It appears to me -- and I could be wrong and often am -- that Hillary was taking accountability for what she was responsible for and indicating that she couldn't take responsibility for things others were responsible for.
 
If I was responsible for the State Dept, I would be very glad to know that we were telling Congress the truth from the start and that, even in our overseas interviews such as William J. Bruns' interview to Al Jazeera last month, we did not blame the attack on a YouTube video or a protest over a YouTube video.
 
 
 
 
afp 
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Monday, October 15, 2012

Her name was Charlotte

Today, there was a story about one of my all time favorite books on Morning Edition.

The book was published 60 years ago.  EB White's the writer.

Have you figured it out yet?

This is from the segment on Morning Edition today:
MONTAGNE: To many readers, Charlotte's death at the end of the book is heartbreaking, but perhaps no one was more heartbroken than the author himself.

 SIMS: When E.B. White was doing the narration, he, of course, as anyone does when doing an audio book, had to do several takes for various things, just to get it right. But every time he broke down when he got to Charlotte's death. And he would do it and it would mess up and they would say, OK, let's take a break and start over. And he did that again until - he took 17 takes to get through Charlotte's death without his voice cracking or beginning to cry.

 WHITE: The fairgrounds were soon deserted. The sheds and buildings were empty and forlorn. The infield was littered with bottles and trash. Nobody of the hundreds of people that had visited the fair knew that a gray spider had played the most important part of all. No one was with her when she died.



Charlotte of Charlotte's Web.


There is at least one movie of the book.  I can't see it.  I don't want anything to ever spoil the book for me.  I still have it on my bookcase.  I re-read it every few years.

It's such a tight and concise story.

I've read it so many times, I can quote whole sections.

I love it when the pig Wilbur asks, "Why did you do all this for me? I don't deserve it.  I've never done anything for you."  And Charlotte replies, "You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing."  Just typing that right now makes me want to cry.

And how can you not cry at the end when Charlotte dies?

That's probably my favorite passage in the whole book:

 Wilbur never forgot Charlotte. Although he loved her children and grandchildren dearly, none of the new spiders ever quite took her place in his heart.  She was in a class by herself.  It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.  Charlotte was both.


Molly Driscoll (Christian Science Monitor) notes,  "The novel, which first appeared in 1962 illustrated by Garth Williams, tells the story of a pig named Wilbur living on a farm, his youthful owner, Fern, and his friend Charlotte the spider, who comes up with an innovative way to save Wilbur from becoming a meal. The book won a Newbery Honor and, with White’s other children’s novel “Stuart Little,” won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal."


Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Monday, October 15, 2012. Chaos and violence continue, Nouri's State of Law threatens to dissolve Parliament, still no amnesty law, the war caused birth defects in Iraqi children get some media attention, Barack continues to try to distract from what happened in Benghazi and the cover up that followed, and more.
 
 
The Last Ride of the James-Younger Gang & Jesse James & the Northfield Raid 1876 comes out later this month. The author is Sean McLachlan, most famous for A Fine Likeness, who was an archaeologist before he became a full time author. He is currently in Baghdad and, at his blog (Civil War Horror), he posts a photo and notes, "Above is a photo of yours truly with a fellow writer -- the Sumerian scribe DuDu, who we know from an inscription on the back of his statue lived in Lagish around 2400 BC. I'd be willing to live with the name Dudu in exchange for my work to still be read four thousand years after my death." He's in Iraq to write a piece on the country for the travel outlet Gadling.
 
Lagash. Enyclopedia Britannica explains, was "one of the most important capital cities in ancient Sumer, located midway between the Tirgris and Euphrates rivers in southeastern Iraq. [. . .] Lagash was endowed with many temples, including the Eninnu, 'House of the Fifty,' a seat of the high god Enil. Architecturally the most remarkable structure was a weir and regulator, once doubtless possessing sluice gates, which conserved the area's water supply in reservoirs." The University of Chicago has a slide show of Lagash here. The Louvre houses a statue of Lagash's Prince Gudea. The statue is thought to date back to 2120 BC. Another statue of Gudea can be found at the Detroit Institute of Arts and this one is thought to date back to 2141-2122 BC. It is near this area that the first recorded war was fought -- Sumer's war with Elam (modern day Iran) back in 2700 BC (the war would have been fought in what is now Basra). In antiquities news, Al-Shorfa notes that yesterday Iraq and Italy "signed a memorandum of cooperation" regarding the restoration of archaeological sites in Iraq.
 
 
If another part of Iraq, Falluja, was excavated centuries from now, what would they find? Most likely evidence of massive birth defects as a result of the Iraq War. Falluja was twice assaulted in 2004. First, briefly in April and then a much more prologned assault immediately after the US presidential election in November. It was duing the second assault that Dexter Filkins, then a New York Times 'reporter,' wrote his rah-rah bit of nonsense. We called it out when the paper ran it on the front page November 21, 2004. But a lot of people like their war porn. Which is why 'reporter' Dexter won a little award for that piece. Someone reading it today, after the admission by the US military that white phosphorus was used in that attack on Falluja, would probably first notice how Dexy missed that. But even back then there was something fishy about a report about actions on November 15th that carried a dateline of November 18th and ran November 21st. Apparently, the military that vetted 'embed' Dexy's copy wasn't too concerned about print deadlines.
 
 
Reporter Dahr Jamail reported on Iraq during the same period Dexy churned out press releases for the military. In his book Beyond The Green Zone: Dispataches From An Unembedded Journalist In Occupied Iraq, Dahr explores what happened during the second assault on Falluja:
 
 
The humanitarian disaster in Fallujah worsened as the U.S. military continued to refuse entry to the Iraqi Red Crescent (IRC) convoys of relief supplies. I was told at the Red Crescent headquarters in Baghdad that they had appealed to the UN to intervene, but once again the UN proved its impotence in all matters. While there, I also heard that Iraqi Army members, under U.S. control, engaged in the supervised looting of Fallujah General Hospital during the first week of the siege.
Inside Fallujah, the U.S. military allowed some bodies to be buried by residents, but others were being eaten by dogs and cats in the streets, as reported both by refugees coming out of the city and residents still trapped there. The military claimed that there was no need for the IRC to deliver aid to people inside Fallujah, since there were no more civilians inside the city. (Later, officials acknowledged that thirty thousand to fifty thousand residents had remained in the city.)
 
 
While speaking to survivors of the assault, Dar encountered Abu Sabah who told him, "They used these weird bombs that first put up smoke in a cloud and then small pieces fell from the air with long tails of smoke behind them. These exploded on the ground with large fires that burned for half an hour. They used these near the train tracks. When anyone touched those fires, their body burned for hours."
 
 
 
 
Some artillery guns fired white phosphorous rounds that create a screen of fire that cannot be extinguished with water. Insurgents reported being attacked with a substance that melted their skin, a reaction consistent with white phosphorous burns.
Kamal Hadeethi, a physician at a regional hospital, said, "The corpses of the mujaheddin which we received were burned, and some corpses were melted."
 
 
Dexy couldn't report any of that truth. And when even the US military stopped denying the truth, it was left to Scott Shane (in November 2005, a year later) to mop up after Dexy with "Defense of Phosphorus Use Turns Into Damage Control" (Shane was speaking of the US government's damage control but so intwined are the Times and the US government that it also spoke to the paper's previous 'reporting'):
 
 
After the Italian documentary was broadcast, the American ambassadors to Italy, Ronald P. Spogli, and to Britain, Robert H. Tuttle, echoed the stock defense, denying that white phosphorus munitions had been used against enemy fighters, let alone civilians. At home, on the public radio program "Democracy Now," Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, an American military spokesman, said, "I know of no cases where people were deliberately targeted by the use of white phosphorus."
But those statements were incorrect. Firsthand accounts by American officers in two military journals note that white phosphorus munitions had been aimed directly at insurgents in Falluja to flush them out. War critics and journalists soon discovered those articles.
In the face of such evidence, the Bush administration made an embarrassing public reversal last week. Pentagon spokesmen admitted that white phosphorus had been used directly against Iraqi insurgents. "It's perfectly legitimate to use this stuff against enemy combatants," Colonel Venable said Friday.
While he said he could not rule out that white phosphorus hit some civilians, "U.S. and coalition forces took extraordinary measures to prevent civilian casualties in Falluja."
 
 
 
And now a new study by the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology is getting attention from the press. The study is entitled "Metal Contamination and the Epidemic of Congenital Birth Defects in Iraqi Cities." Early on, the study's authors point out, "It is old knowledge that exposure to chemicals can harm human reproduction. Ancient Romans were aware that lead (Pb) poisoning can cause miscarriage and infertility (Gilfillan 1965; Retief and Cilliers 2006). Today it is well established that human pregnancy and fetal development are susceptible to parents' environmental exposure to chemical, biological and physical agents (Mattison 2010)." The war -- specifically the weapons -- contaminated Iraq and led to a skyrocketing in the number of birth defects. Press TV explains:


Between 2007 and 2010 in F[a]llujah, over half of all the surveyed babies were born with birth defects. Before the US-led invasion of Iraq, the figure was one in 10.
In Basrah's Maternity Hospital, over 20 babies out of 1000 were born with defects in 2003, which makes the figure 17 times higher than it was in the previous decade.

Al Arabiya adds that samples demonstrate residents of Falluja are exposed to extremely high levels of mercury, lead and other "poisonous metals." And when those are in the eco-system, exposure becomes highly common. RT offers, "According to the WHO, a pregnant woman can be exposed to lead or mercury through the air, water and soil. The woman can then pass the exposure to her unborn child through her bones, and high levels of toxins can damage kidneys and brains, and cause blindness, seizures, muteness, lack of coordination and even death." Sarah Morrison (Independent of London) notes:
 



The report's authors link the rising number of babies born with birth defects in the two cities to increased exposure to metals released by bombs and bullets used over the past two decades. Scientists who studied hair samples of the population in Fallujah found that levels of lead were five times higher in the hair of children with birth defects than in other children; mercury levels were six times higher. Children with defects in Basra had three times more lead in their teeth than children living in non-impacted areas. Dr Savabieasfahani said that for the first time, there is a "footprint of metal in the population" and that there is "compelling evidence linking the staggering increases in Iraqi birth defects to neuro-toxic metal contamination following the repeated bombardments of Iraqi cities". She called the "epidemic" a "public health crisis". "In utero exposure to pollutants can drastically change the outcome of an otherwise normal pregnancy. The metal levels we see in the Fallujah children with birth defects clearly indicates that metals were involved in manifestation of birth defects in these children," she said. "The massive and repeated bombardment of these cities is clearly implicated here. I have no knowledge of any alternative source of metal contamination in these areas." She added that the data was likely to be an "underestimate", as many parents who give birth to children with defects hide them from public view.
Professor Alastair Hay, a professor of environmental toxicology at Leeds University, said the figures presented in the study were "absolutely extraordinary". He added: "People here would be worried if there was a five or 10 per cent increase [in birth defects]. If there's a fivefold increase in Fallujah, no one could possibly ignore that; it's crying out for an explanation as to what's the cause. A rapid increase in exposure to lead and mercury seems reasonable if lots of ammunition is going off. I would have also thought a major factor would be the extreme stress people are under in that period; we know this can cause major physiological changes."
 
This tracks with the findings from earlier studies -- such as the 2010 one. Last spring, Karlos Zurutuza (IPS) reported that in January alone, Falluja saw 672 children born with birth defects. Gene Clancy (Workers World) observed a year ago that "Fallujah sees at least 11 times as many major defects in newborns as world averages, research shows." At the start of this year, Dahr Jamail reported for Al Jazeera, "Most of these babies in Fallujah die within 20 to 30 minutes after being born, but not all." Chris Floyd (Empire Burlesque) observes today, "The destruction of Fallujah was like a black hole, where all the evil of the war was sucked in and concentrated with unbreakable force."
 
 
The study finds that, of central nervous system defects, the most common since the start of the Iraq War has been anencephaly. The Center for Disease Control explains, "Anencephaly is a serious birth defect in which a baby is born without parts of the brain and skull. It is a type of neural tube defect (NTD). These are birth defects that happen during the first month of pregnancy, usually before a woman knows she is pregnant. As the neural tube forms and closes, it helps form the baby's brain and skull (upper part of the neural tube), spinal cord, and back bones (lower part of the neural tube). Anencephaly happens if the upper part of the neural tube does not close all the way. This often results in a baby being born without the front part of the brain (forebrain) and the thinking and coordinating part of the brain (cerebrum). The remaining parts of the brain are often not covered by bone or skin. Unfortunately, almost all babies born with anencephaly will die shortly after birth." It is also known as an ONTD -- Open Neural Tube defect. St. Jude's Medical Center provides this means of reference, "Anencephaly and spina bifida are the most common types of ONTD, while encephalocele (in which there is a protrusion of the brain or its covering through the skull) is much rarer. Anencephaly occurs when the neural tube failes to close at the base of the skull, while spina bifida occurs when the neural tube fails to close somewhere along the spine."
 
 
 
Moving over to today's continued violence. Wang Yuanyuan (Xinhua) reports an al-Riyadh car bombing injured five people and 2 car bombings and one roadside bombing in Kirkuk have left 1 person dead and eighteen injured. Alsumaria is calling the Kirkuk car bombings an attempted assassination attemp on the life of police Colonel Mekdad al-Mohammed. All Iraq News notes an Albuaath armed attack left three Iraqi soldiers injured, and a Tuz Khurmatu armed attack left 2 police officers dead, and a Tarmiyah home bombing left three members of a police officer's family injured. AFP reports a Tuz Khurmatu car bombing has left nine people injured, a Samarra home invasion killed 2 Sahwas who were brothers and the two men's father and an attack on a Baghdad checkpoint has left three Iraqi troops injured. On Sahwa, Alsumaria reports another died from a Kirkuk sticky bombing. All Iraq News notes that one Ministry of Justice employee was shot dead in Baghdad. Alsumaria notes the government employee shot dead and also notes 1 attorney was shot dead on Palestine Street in Baghdad, and 1 Ministry of Defense intelligence officer was shot dead in Baghdad. If that seems like a lot of violence it is. And it puts to rest a ridiculous claim that last week's violence was down due to Nouri's latest series of never-ending mass arrests.
 
 
Violence continued over the weekend and included a high profile assassination attempt. Saturday, Alsumaria reported that Iraqiya MP Ahmed al-Alwani was the target of assassination attempt that left him unharmed but injured two members of his security detail. It was a bombing between Baghdad and Falluja. Petra refers to him as "an outspoken critic of the government of Prime Minister Noui Maliki."
 
 
Iraqiya, led by Ayad Allawi, came in first in the March 2010 Parliamentary elections. Nouri got a second term as prime minister despite his State of Law coming in second due to the fact that the White House backed him and then the White House apparently lied to the political blocs getting them to sign a contract, the Erbil Agreement, that they said they would back but the White House quickly forgot about the contract after Nouri used it to get a second term as prime minister but refused to honor the promises made to the political blocs in the contract.
The failure to implement the Erbil Agreement has been publicly called out by Iraqiya, Moqtada al-Sadr and the Kurdish bloc since the summer of 2011.

 
Saturday, Ayad al-Tamimi (Al Mada) reported that, for the tenth time, the Parliament failed to pass the amnesty bill today. Iraqiya accuses State of Law of behind the scene proceedings that helped torpedo the bill. An MP with Iraqiya told All Iraq News that the roots of the failure to pass the amnesty bill can be found in the continuing political crisis in Iraq. The outlet notes that the version of the bill proposed today would have included granting amnesty to Awakenings and various former milita groups who had joined the political process.

 
The amnesty law could do many things. One thing it could do was end the need for the Justice and Accountability Commission and it's hard to believe that isn't part of the reason that State of Law continues to try to torpedo it. Another thing it would do, and numerous MPs have pointed this out, is calm the situation in Iraq -- for families whose loved ones have disappeared into the Iraqi justice labyrinth and for those who are imprisoned. It could also lead to some death row prisoners being taken off death row. Many Sunnis believe the huge number of executions taking place in Iraq are Nouri's efforts to kill as many Sunnis as possible before an amnesty law passes.

 
So far this year, Iraq is known to have executed 119 people. It has ignored calls from the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and others to impose a moratorium on the death penalty. Despite the fact that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani insists he is against the death penalty and regularly basks in applause for that stance, he has not blocked one execution. (His 'opposition' is refusing to sign the death warrants, leaving it for a vice president to sign it. As president, he could object to any or all executions and stop them immediately. He refuses to use that power.)

 
 
These executions are beginning to cause more problems for Iraq. Kitabat reports that Alegeria has summed the Iraqi ambassador to express their alarm that an Alegerian, Abdullah Ahmad Belhadi, has been executed and Saudi Arabia is objecting to plans to execute their citizens -- though Faleh al-Fayad, Iraqi national security adviser, declares the Saudi executions will go forward..

 
The amnesty bill wasn't the only thing the Parliament didn't pass today. Alsumaria notes the infrastructure bill did not become law and that the Kurdistan Alliance is stating that they need to know what projects they are voting for. State of Law MP Hadi al-Yasiri tells All Iraq News that if the infrastructure law is blocked, they will take retaliation. What does he mean? Al Mada explains it: State of Law is threatening it will dissolve the Parliament if the infrastructure law is not passed as is. Iraqiya MP Haidar al-Mullah explains that State of law wants billions authorized for Nouri to spend but will not detail on what and that their fears and concerns are brushed aside. He offers that the bill is intended to allow State of Law to remain in power -- while pretending to be about infrastructure -- when they've had six years to address the situation but haven't and that the bill, as written, is ripe for theft and corruption.
 
 
Today Al Mada reports Yassin Majeed, an MP with Nouri's State of Law, is declaring that KRG President Massoud Barzani is a threat to Iraq. Majeed held a press conference outside Parliament to denounce Barzani. Alsumaria notes that among Barzani's supposed outrageous offenses is objecting to the infrastructure bill and objecting to the recent weapons shopping spree Nouri's been on ($1 billion dollar deal with the Czech Republic, $4.2 billion dollar deal with Russia). All Iraq News notes that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani issued a statement noting that, at a time when they are trying to resolve the current political crisis, the remarks are not helpful.
 
Nouri's shopping spree took him out of Iraq last week. Tuesday, he signed a deal in Moscow where Iraq would pay Russia $4.2 billion dollars for various weapons. Thursday found Nouri in Prague signing a weapons deal worth $1 billion. Today, Def Pro News adds, "Defence ministers also discussed possible delivery of new small arms from the Ceska Zbrojovka Uhersky Brod to Iraq and Czech offer to modernise T-72 tanks of Iraqi Armed Forces. " The Khaleej Times editorial board argues, "Political pundits either see this move as flexing of muscles or a cautiously calculated move by Baghdad to realign itself with Moscow as the war hysteria looms large over Syria. However, the deal indeed is a clear sign that Iraq is prepared to look beyond Washington for weapons." Former CIA analyst and visiting Georgetown University professor Paul R. Pillar offers:

 
We can draw several implications from this news. One is that it fills in further the picture of what legacy was left in Iraq by the US war that ousted Saddam. The regime that emerged from the rubble is not only increasingly authoritarian and narrowly sectarian and not only chummy with Iran; it also is becoming a client of Moscow. A trifecta of failure.
A second lesson concerns the notion that committing military support to a new regime in the making is essential for having a good relationship with it and to be considered a friend rather than an adversary once such a regime comes to power. This idea is being heard increasingly as an argument for doing more to assist rebels in Syria.
We need to get in on the ground floor with the new bunch and accept risks and commit major resources, it is said, in order to be held in favor by whatever regime emerges fromthatrubble. But the United States got in on the ground floor more than once in Iraq — with the Baathists in 1958 and with the successors to Saddam after he was overthrown. In the latter case it did so with the expenditure of enormous resources. And look how much friendship and influence it bought.
Finally, the fact that Iraq's latest turn is reminiscent of what happened in the late 1950s suggests that the arrow of time in the Middle East does not point as much in one direction as many like to think it does. The progression of events there, even with pushes or leadership by the United States, does not necessarily run in the direction of more political freedom, more free enterprise, or whatever.
 
 
Friday, Aswat al-Iraq reported that Iraqiya MP Itab al-Douri was calling for Nouri to appear before Parliament to clarify a few questions and that she also declared "the contracted weapons should be of the best and modern arms to enable Iraq facing the internal and external challenges, as well as repelling any foreign aggression."
 
 
Moving over to England, the Ministry of Defence created the Iraq Historic Allegations Team some time ago. November 1, 2010, the MoD was proclaiming, "The Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT), which will investigate allegations of abuse of Iraqi citizens by British Service personnel, has now started work, Minister for the Armed Forces Nick Harvey announced today. The team is led by a retired senior civilian policeman and consists of military and ex-civilian police detectives." Harvey was quoted then stating, "These allegations [of abuse] are as yet unproven, but their existence is corrosive to both the morale and reputation of our armed forces." The MoD had no proud proclamations last week as the Iraq Historic Allegations Team has its most high profile media moment so far. Thursday, Ian Cobain (Guardian) reported MoD was reeling from charges that IHAT was conduction "a whitewash" and Louise Thomas had stepped down from the team: "Thomas, 45, a former Wren who also served as a police officer for five years, told the Guardian she had seen around 1,600 videos of interrogation sessions, a number of which showed prisoners being abused, humiliated and threatened. They suggested that some of the detainees were being subject to extreme sleep deprivation and beaten between interrogation sessions." The Telegraph of London notes the videos in question "were recorded at an interrogation centre in Basra operated by the Joint Forward Interrogation Team (JFIT), in the South-East of Iraq, between March 2003 and December 2008. In November 2010 JFIT was described in the high court by lawyers for the prisoners as 'Britain's Abu Ghraib'." Ian Cobain reports also that despite the MoD declaring in November 2011 that the Royal Military Police would be removed from the committee, Thomas explains they have remained with the investigation. This despite the fact that "[m]embers of the same unit had been involved in the detention of prisoners during the six-year occupation."
 
 
 
Today in the United States the White House is pounding chests. Why? To cover their weakness and the truth. Last Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee held a hearing into the September 11, 2012 attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi. (Community coverage includes "Iraq snapshot," "Iraq snapshot," "Iraq snapshot," Ava's "2 disgrace in the Committee hearing," Wally's "The White House's Jimmy Carter moment" and Kat's "What we learned at today's hearing.") The media did a very poor job of covering the hearing, as Ava and I noted Sunday, choosing to either ignore it or cover trivia as opposed to the actual news emerging from the hearing. Before the bad coverage began, the White House had been worried that the various deceptions might be made public (and the American public might start asking why someone in the government -- not the FBI -- has video of the attack and will not release it to Congress) and so they staged a press conference in Libya -- that provided nothing -- to distract the media. (Again, the lazy media was already distracted.) During the Benghazi attack, as Ava and I pointed out, not only were four Americans working on diplomacy killed, but the CIA was also under attack. If you paid attention in the hearing -- especially to objections about classified material and about a photographic map of the area the State Dept was using as a visual -- you grasped that the CIA was present during the attacks. It appears the CIA was blindsided by the attack. The lie that the intelligence community got it wrong is a lie. CIA agents under attack do not make a point to mistake attackers with modern weapons for protesters.
 
 
Former CIA Larry Johnson (No Quarter) has been on the story from the beginning and he also makes clear that the claim that the intelligence community got it wrong is a falsehood. He also takes on another piece of distraction the administration (and some of their puppets in Congress and the media) have taken to repeating. Excerpt:
 
 
As the attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi unfolded, the intelligence community did not start trumpeting that this was inspired by an anti-Muslim video. Having worked "breaking news crises" like this as both an analyst at CIA and as a Counter Terrorism official at State, the so-called "intel" community is really not consulted or at the forefront of the information flow. That is handled, instead, through action officers and watch centers. In this case, for example, once the attack started on the Benghazi Consulate, someone at that site literally got on the phone and alerted the Bureau of Diplomatic Security's Command Post back in DC that an incident was underway. The DS Command Center in turn alerted the State Department OPs Center.
This led to a NOIWON alert. NOIWON is an acronym for the National Operational Intelligence Watch Officer's Network. The "news" of the attack on the consulate was immediately shared via a secure telephone conference call with reps from the White House Situation Room, the Pentagon, the CIA, the FBI, DIA, NSA and NCTC. Within an hour of the NOIWON alert, the intel bureaucracy was alerted and preparing briefs for principals.
I know for a fact that the briefs prepared that night, as the attack unfolded, for senior US military commanders, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff, specifically identified the group believed to be responsible for the attack and identified prior intelligence pointing to planning by that group. None of those briefs claimed or insisted that this attack was the result of "spontaneous mob violence" in response to some stupid movie. The decision to seize on the riot in Cairo as a pretext to explain the attack in Benghazi was a political decision by the White House. It was not a consequence of "intelligence analysis."
In fact, when an event like Benghazi is unfolding, the intel community rarely would take a definitive position. It would identify a variety of possible causes or perpetrators. What is stunning about the briefings presented on 9-11 and 9-12 to senior U.S. military officials is that there was a high degree of confidence that the attack in Benghazi was carried out by a group with ties to Al Qaeda.
WHAT ABOUT THE BUDGET CUTS?
That's irrelevant to putting appropriate, requested security assets in place on the ground. A cut in State's budget does not mean that high threat posts are forced to go without adequate security. The audacity and shamelessness of Obama and his team appears to know no boundary. They try to pin their failure to respond to specific security requests from the Diplomatic Security officers on the ground in Libya by a reduction in State Department's "security" budget. What the average American does not know is that most of those cuts will fall on programs like the Anti-Terrorism Assistance Training Program. As the former Deputy in charge of the policy of that program I can assure you that it can be cut without jeopardizing US security. That program has nothing to do directly with protecting the Ambassador.
 
 
 
To distract from the unraveling lies, the White House leaks details of a planned strike team to the Associated Press. A few things on that -- none of which is a slap at the AP which needs to report anything the government's providing. First, notice that the desire to protect Barack the person outweighs national security yet again. As it did before, the White House is leaking details they shouldn't be in order to try to make Barack look better. They may in fact be jeopardizing any retaliation mission US forces might be planning. It's strange that alleged leaking gets Bradley Manning locked away without trial for over 500-plus days but White House leakers of classified information to the press never seem to be arrested. Second, Barack may be able to pull this lie off, to trick the American people through the election. But the truth will come out and if he thinks he's had to struggle for support this year, imagine how much worse it'll be -- from Congress and the public -- when we all grasp that the YouTube video was a lie the White House told the American people, that it was a lie and the White House knew it before they ever repeated it, that it was a lie crafted to benefit the Obama re-election campaign, that Barack went to Las Vegas for a fundraiser instead of addressing a terrorist attack?
 
 
 
 
 
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