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Massive Oil Plunder in Iraq by Shiite Militias

Debka reports today on the Massive Oil Plunder by Iraqi Shiite Militias Evolves as Major Menace to US troops.

Both the new Prime Minister and 1500 US troops out of Kuwait are heading to Basra today to address the large-scale plunder of the oil resources in Iraq.

And who's doing the plundering...why Shiite Militias.

Most Shiite soldiers depend in large part on the illegal trading in oil for their pay and supply-chain requirements. They spend more time on stealing their country's oil and trading it with Al Qaeda, Baathist insurgents and Sunni rebels than they do fighting the same groups. (And why not? One makes you money. One kills your customers).

20 - 30% of Iraq's entire oil output is being siphoned off by these militias. (Maybe that's why we're still paying for rebuilding of Iraq as opposed to their oil revenues paying for it as Wolfowitz promised.) And...

Despite strenuous measures to put a stop to it, the scale of the brigandage has increased; the Shiite militias have developed a network for the organized disposal of stolen crude from all of Iraq’s oil fields.

As a result –

1. Shiite militiamen spend more time and energy on their nefarious oil trafficking than on fighting.

2. Their links with the smugglers’ rings run two ways. To corner the market, the Shiite militias have agreed to act as the main channel for smuggled arms to reach Sunni and Baathist insurgents and al Qaeda’s contingents in Iraq. The more weapons they carry to these end-users, the more “hot” oil the smugglers are willing to push across the borders. 

This two-way traffic of oil and weapons between Alqaeda/Sunni and Batthist rebels and Shiite Militias would become the most dangerous threat to our troops for the next 6 months.

Whereas our president's only skill is dividing our country on every issue possible, he and his cronies in the DOD are doing a fine job of uniting Iraq in making money and preparing to kill our troops. Nice job, prez.

Stay tuned for more good news from Iraq.

Europe Still Respects Privacy

European Court Bars Passing Passenger Data to US.

PARIS, May 30 — The European Union's highest court ruled today that an agreement providing for the transfer of extensive personal data on air passengers to the authorities in the United States was illegal.

At least Europe still respects the right of the individual to a modicum of privacy. Ironic, ain't it? Our Constitution was created in large part in response to European nations encorachment on individual rights and privacy. And here they are being the ones to remind us now of those constitutional promises....

This Promise from Bush Might Be One He Honors

Yesterday Bush promised the graduates of West Point that it would be their generation that wins the war on terror. That implies we face a generation of war, compliments of Messrs. Bush/Cheney/Wolfowitz, etal.  It's interesting to note that while the former Soviet Union had nukes, had as its primary intent in life our destruction as a country and economic philosophy, indicated its intent to implement its intent anyway and anywhere it could...that we never moved from a Cold War to a Hot War.

P. Bush however, feels that Damascus and Tehran represent a more imminent threat than the former Soviet Union ever did and he's anxious to take the battle to them. Interesting. They neither have the weapons nor the delivery system to bring them to our shores...And while the former Soviet Union did we never attacked them. And maybe that's the whole point. Bush attacks Iraq and Afghanistan because he can. And he picks off the weak one at a time so the herd is reduced...

Iran, in his view, is a straggler. They're Persian, you know, not Arabic. No one in the Arab world really  likes them. They're, the Arab leaders, willing to sacrifice their red-headed step-child if it means the big bad wolf leaves them alone.

Sadly, it won't. It will just make it easier for P. Bush and his cohorts to decide that their country really really needs democracy now. And P Bush, etal, will find a reason to bring it to them...when it suits their schedule.

Congrats, grads of West Point. With or without your permission, with no prior discussion, P. Bush has just declared war on the weakest of countries in the Middle East, he did it without a congressional resolution, and he did it in the text of the commencement speech he gave at your behalf. 

He's your Commander-in-Chief; He's the decider.  He can do anything he wants.

Fascism: The Charge is Reaching the Mainstream Media

2 Main stream media columnists have begun to speak the words: fascism, totalitarianism. And they're speaking them in reference to the ongoing and very obvious plans of the Bush Administration for our country now and long-term.

* Chicago Tribune, Steve Chapman, A Nation of Suspects in a Land of the Free. (registration req'd)

The Bush administration has managed to cross George Orwell with Sting. Every step you take, every move you make, Big Brother will be watching you.

No one is exempt from the National Security Agency's program to amass a record of every phone call ever made, with the help of major telecommunications providers. As one insider told USA Today, "It's the largest database ever assembled in the world."

And have no doubt: You're in it.

President Bush insisted, "We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans." In fact, that's exactly what his administration is doing--24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is no longer possible (unless you're a customer of Qwest, which has refused to cooperate) to make a telephone call without the government knowing about it and keeping a record of it. We are all suspects now.

* NY Times, Bob Herbert, America The Fearful, (registration req'd)

In the dark days of the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt counseled Americans to avoid fear. George W. Bush is his polar opposite. The public's fear is this president's most potent political asset. Perhaps his only asset.

Mr. Bush wants ordinary Americans to remain in a perpetual state of fear — so terrified, in fact, that they will not object to the steady erosion of their rights and liberties, and will not notice the many ways in which their fear is being manipulated to feed an unconscionable expansion of presidential power.

It's about time. Now maybe CNN and MSNBC can stop feeding us stories about that preacher in Utah and start fulfilling their role as the 4th estate  in our form of government and earn their protections under the constitution.

Thank you Mr. Chapman and Mr. Herbert.

9/11 Documentary

I was going to post on the release of the UN report stating the obvious that this administration condones torture here in the US and around the world...but I came across something much more disturbing.

Loose Change 2nd Edition: 9/11 documentary.

Too much detail, too much information to dispute it: Our country's been hijacked.

Tip to RepublicaUpdate.

Other links:

911proof

911 blogger

Physics 911

Exodus: Iraq-Style

Bob Marley sang about Exodus, leaving Babylon, going to their father land. 

HIs lyrics about jah People leaving Babylon and the description of Babylon in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah as ruler of "all the kingdoms of the world...live on many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come...." are a bit chilling when you consider the impact of our rule in Iraq seems only to expanded the uncontrolled violence there.

Middle class citizens in Iraq appear to be fleeing according to this article in the NY Times:

In the latest indication of the crushing hardships weighing on the lives of Iraqis, increasing portions of the middle class seem to be doing everything they can to leave the country. In the last 10 months, the state has issued new passports to 1.85 million Iraqis, 7 percent of the population and a quarter of the country's estimated middle class.

The school system offers another clue: Since 2004, the Ministry of Education has issued 39,554 letters permitting parents to take their children's academic records abroad. The number of such letters issued in 2005 was double that in 2004, according to the director of the ministry's examination department. Iraqi officials and international organizations put the number of Iraqis in Jordan at close to a million. Syrian cities also have growing Iraqi populations....

Gangs of Shiites in Baghdad pulled Sunni Arabs out of houses and mosques and killed them in a spree that prompted retaliatory attacks and displaced 14,500 families in three months, according to the Ministry for Migration.

312 trash collectors have been killed in the past 6 months in Baghdad. That's 50 a month. Trash collectors...! 50 trash collectors a month have been killed in Baghdad. How does that constitute a democracy. There is no democracy if you can't even take the trash out.

Have you noticed the lack of news on TV about Iraq?  I guess the producers are honoring the pact to report only good news. At this point, the good news here is that a middle-class remains in Iraq. The bad news...not for much longer.

Gen. Hayden: I'm Independent of the Pentagon

Gen. Michael Hayden announced today in his Senate confirmation hearings that after spending his entire career in the military, after leading the most-secretive branch of military intelligence...(at least that we know of ) he's now independent of Pentagon influence.  He announced that while wearing his military uniform, the uniform from the same branch of the military he's worn for the past, ahem, 36 years.

Uh, ok. After the laugh track subsides....that's like a life-long meth-addict announcing they're clean, no longer need it, want it or think about it. Every bit of his self-esteem from professional accomplishments is tied to the Pentagon. 36 years of catering to that institution. 36 yers of supporting it, bending to it, and now leading it...And now...now he's independent of it?

And when exactly did he discover his new freedom...what? about the time he was nominated to lead the civilian agency?

What a coincidence. No wonder he's gone so far. He's a master of timing.

And naturally our brave congressional leaders lap it up like puppies at dinner.

Corporate Contractors the Big Winner in Bush's Immigration Plan

Coming as no surprise is today's announcement that large military contractors will receive billions to create a fence of some sort along the border with Mexico.

These are the same contractors using the same technologies that have worked so well in Iraq and Afghanistan...where tens of thousands of armed terrorists have been able to gather in Iraq since our conquest there and where Taliban forces are increasing in strength in Afghanistan since we arrived.

Some behavior patterns do repeat...as long as we sit silent.

Qwest says "no" to Bush and the NSA

Qwest's Refusal of NSA Query is Explained. Story in NY Times. 

WASHINGTON, May 12 — The telecommunications company Qwest turned down requests by the National Security Agency for private telephone records because it concluded that doing so would violate federal privacy laws, a lawyer for the telephone company's former chief executive said today.

In a statement released this morning, the lawyer said that the former chief executive, Joseph N. Nacchio, made the decision after asking whether "a warrant or other legal process had been secured in support of that request."

Mr. Nacchio learned that no warrant had been granted and that there was a "disinclination on the part of the authorities to use any legal process," said the lawyer, Herbert J. Stern. As a result, the statement said, Mr. Nacchio concluded that "the requests violated the privacy requirements of the Telecommunications Act." 

Weird. I never thought I'd say I love Qwest. But now I do. Well, maybe not love. But I definitely respect how they showed there's still a corporation with backbone and integrity. Qwest was the only telecom provider asked to provide their customer calling records to the NSA, voluntarily, who also refused that request on the grounds of it being illegal without a warrant.

One Republican senator from Michigan claimed the disclosure in USA Today that all American's calls are being listed is a threat to our national security....(Huh. Since when, Adolf? )

And it's interesting to note that Qwest also is not part of the group, aka cabal, of telecom monpolist-wannabees like ATT, Verizon, Bell South, MCI who want to create a tiered-service plan for internet access. That issue goes under the name of net neutrality and the Republican-controlled House just said no to an amendment that would have mandated a neutral net, a level playing field for all users of the internet, consumer or business.

NSA: We're LISTING your calls...not listening to them

USA Today just reported that the NSA, the one headed by CIA Designate - Director Gen. Micheal Hayden, has massive database of Americans' phone calls and has:

been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans.

But it's ok.  . Bush announced just a few minutes ago 1) It's within the law the government. Collecting calling records of tens of millions of Americans is within the law. 2) Big Brother The government isn't mining or trolling through the personal lives of innocent Americans...Our efforts are focused on Al Qaeda and their known associates. Link to NY Times story Bush says spying is not widespread.

Ok. So that means if you're not trolling through the phone records of innocent Americans...and you're focused on Al Gaeda and their known associates..but you are collecting the calling records of tens of millions of Americans..then there are tens of millions of Americans  who are known associates of Al Qaeda.

That mindset is scary. Bubbleboy has become paranoid-boy. And his henchman, General Hayden, is the one executing this plan. 

Previously, Bush had defended the plan saying it was focused also on calls outside the US.

"In other words," Bush explained, "one end of the communication must be outside the United States." As a result, domestic call records — those of calls that originate and terminate within U.S. borders — were believed to be private.

Sources, however, say that is not the case.

Obviously. The behavior pattern here is like that with the war in Iraq. Tell the public a lie. Then tell them another lie to cover up the first lie. Add a 3rd one that's bigger than the first two. On and on. Until no one can get back to the first lie. And the public loses interest and the lives of their family members serving there for ...some purpose.

And now he's hoping he can do the same with our 4th Amendment. He'll so distort the conversation about what he's doing and why we'll even forget there was time when we didn't allow warrantless searches on Americans' calling records.

You know where there's this much smoke there's a roaring blaze.  At the very least, felonies on a grand scale are being committed by this warrantless search of Americans' privacy. But scarier than that is the logic that says tens of millions of Americans may be  known associates of Al Qaeda. And what that might justify in the minds of such a national leader can only be guessed at right now. I'm sure we'll all find out as his rating drop.

It's interesting to note that the 3 companies ( ATT, Verizon and Bell South) named for willingly participating in this conspiracy to commit a felony are the same ones asking Congress to pass a tiered-service plan for internet access and traffic. Maybe it's their reward? A little bit of revenue to stifle the free-flow of information and expand the Bush Administration's ability to listen in on Al Qaeda and their known associates, the tens of millions of Americans they know about now anyway.

It's interesting to note that the Justice Department has closed their investigation into the conduct of their own attorneys who approved the warrantless searches by the NSA. It seems the investigators weren't given appropriate security clearances. Sounds like they're circling the wagons. - Blog-friendly link to NY Times article: With Access Denied, Justice Department Drops Spying Program.  I wonder if that means they'll stop investigating the reporters who covered the story...? Bet it won't.