- Janet of Peace Gone Wild has drawn my attention to the recent protests in Tacoma, Washington. Portland Indymedia has ongoing coverage and here are links to two videos showing the riot squad treatment the protesters have received from the police there: here and here. Flashbacks of Kent State. You won't see that on CNN.
- Think it's a coincidence that the Pentagon released a transcript of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed supposedly confessing to over two dozen terrorist attacks at a military tribunal hearing (hearing transcript, pdf file) in the midst of the Alberto Gonzales meltdown? Think again. (Ironically, I'm watching the movie Midnight Express again as I write this. Torture: it's not just for Turkish prisons anymore.)
- The Democrats (and many Republicans) actually did something useful in congress on Wednesday:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Brushing aside a veto threat, the House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to overturn a 2001 order by President George W. Bush that lets former presidents keep their papers secret indefinitely.
The measure, which drew bipartisan support and passed by a veto-busting 333-93 margin, was among White House-opposed bills the House passed that would widen access to government information and protect government whistleblowers.
The presidential papers bill nullifies a November 2001 order, criticized by historians, in which Bush allowed the White House or a former president to block release of a former president's papers and put the onus on researchers to show a "specific need" for many types of records.
Among beneficiaries of the Bush order was Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, a former vice president and president.
What's daddy Bush hiding?
- It looks like the Bush administration is going to get its wish for tougher sanctions on Iran.
The modest package of new measures agreed to by the ambassadors of the six countries includes an embargo on Iranian arms exports and an asset freeze on more individuals and companies associated with Tehran's nuclear and missile programs, council diplomats said.
The new resolution would also call on all U.N. member states to exercise "vigilance and restraint" on arms imports and on the entry or transit through their territory of Iranians subject to the asset freeze, a council diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the text has not been circulated.
It would also call on governments to make no new commitments "of grants, financial assistance, or concesssional loans to the government of Iran," the diplomat said.
The United States and the Europeans would certainly favor tougher sanctions, but knew they had to settle for less to ensure that Russia and China, which have close commercial ties with Iran, will not use their veto power to block a resolution.
- On the same day that delusional Joe Lieberman said, "What's happening in Iraq today does not look like failure to me", comes the news that attacks in Iraq have hit an all-time high. How does Joe sleep at nite? Quite well, apparently.
- Interested in the power of the Israel lobby in the United States? Read this piece in The American Conservative, Bloggers vs. the Lobby and stop being afraid to talk about it. Related: Holy Warriors Set Sights on Iran.
- Why didn't the US give Israel's government up to the minute drafts on the UN resolution to end the Lebanon war last year? A story in Ha'aretz reports:
The U.S. government failed to give Israel all the drafts of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 ending last summer's Lebanon war in real time, so Israel had to obtain some of the documents from other sources, Israeli government sources said.
The sources, however, said senior government officials ultimately did get all the drafts in time, and there were no delays or information gaps that impeded decision-making during the war.
According to some sources, Israel obtained the drafts not supplied by the Americans from intelligence sources.
This is the most troubling part:
In particular, the second-to-last draft, which Prime Minister Ehud Olmert received on the morning of August 11, seemed to him much less favorable than the version on which he and Washington had agreed the previous night.
He later said this draft convinced him to launch a major ground operation during the war's final days in an effort to influence the Security Council. During these three days of fighting, 33 soldiers were killed.
So, Olmert didn't like what he saw coming and decided to up the military might? And to what end? More deaths. I'm sure the families of the dead will be comforted to know that they were used as political pawns.
- Horrid:
U.S. allies in Africa may have engaged in secret prisoner renditions
NAIROBI, Kenya - A network of U.S. allies in East Africa secretly have transferred to prisons in Somalia and Ethiopia at least 80 people who were captured in Kenya while fleeing the recent war in Somalia, according to human rights advocates here.
Kenyan authorities made the arrests as part of a U.S.-backed, four-nation military campaign in December and January against Somalia's Islamist militias, which Bush administration officials have linked to al-Qaida.
At least 150 prisoners, who included men and women of 17 nationalities and children as young as 7 months, were held in Kenya for several weeks before most of them were transferred covertly to Somalia and Ethiopia, where they're being held incommunicado, the groups charge.
The transfers, which authorities reportedly carried out in the middle of the night and made public only after a recent court order in Kenya, violated international law, according to the rights groups. They charge that the program is being driven by the United States, which has built a close relationship with Kenya and Ethiopia in the war on terrorism.
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