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Lugar: "More time" plea "insufficient" from Petraeus/Crocker

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:49:29 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Petraeus/Crocker must describe success and strategy to it in Iraq

Clip Source: tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com

Lugar offered a sweeping analysis of the situation in Iraq and concluded that today's hearing was actually much different than the one held last September:

At that time, the President was appealing to Congress to allow the surge to continue to create breathing space for a political accommodation. Today the questions are whether and how improvements in security can be converted into political gains that can stabilize Iraq despite the impending drawdown of U.S. troops. Simply appealing for more time to make progress is insufficient. The debate over how much progress we have made and whether we can make more is less illuminating than determining whether the Administration has a definable political strategy that recognizes the time limitations we face and seeks a realistic outcome designed to protect American vital interests.

the administration clearly has no "definable political strategy."

"how the United States can define success and then achieve our vital objectives in Iraq."

Tags: iraq, foreign policy, news, politics, war

UN Israel/Palestine expert stands by Nazi comparison

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:44:02 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "want to shake American public from its torpor"

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

The next UN investigator into Israeli conduct in the occupied territories has stood by comments comparing Israeli actions in Gaza to those of the Nazis.

Speaking to the BBC, Professor Richard Falk said he believed that up to now Israel had been successful in avoiding the criticism that it was due.

drew the comparison

because of what he described as the massive Israeli punishment directed at the entire population of Gaza

he had wanted to shake the American public from its torpor.

“If this kind of situation had existed for instance in the manner in which China was dealing with Tibet or the Sudanese government was dealing with Darfur, I think there would be no reluctance to make that comparison,” he said.

That reluctance was, he argued, based on the particular historical sensitivity of the Jewish people, and Israel’s ability to avoid having their policies held up to international law and morality

Tags: israel, news, politics

CIA sent 14 to Jordan for torture

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:21:06 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Human Rights Watch report

Clip Source: rawstory.com

The CIA secretly transported at least 14 war on terror detainees to Jordan between 2001 and 2004, making it the top "rendition" destination at that time, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.

The prisoners were interrogated and tortured by Jordan's General Intelligence Department

GID officials who met with Human Rights Watch in Amman in 2007 denied receiving CIA prisoners and denied using torture. The group said the denials were unconvincing "given the weight of credible evidence showing otherwise."

The report is "based largely on firsthand information from Jordanian former prisoners who were detained with the non-Jordanian terrorism suspects," it said.

"We've documented more than a dozen cases in which prisoners were sent to Jordan for torture," said Joanne Mariner, terrorism and counterterrorism director at Human Rights Watch.

"They threatened me with electricity, with snakes and dogs .... [They said] we'll make you see death .... They threatened to rape me," the note said.

Tags: news, human rights, war, torture, politics

McCain's fistfights and cussouts

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:18:06 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Is this who we want representing America to the world? Or answering the phone at 3 AM?

Clip Source: rawstory.com

In 2006, the Arizona Republican congressional delegation had a strategy meeting. McCain repeatedly addressed two new members, congressmen Trent Franks and Rick Renzi, as 'boy.' Finally, Renzi, a former college linebacker, rose from his chair and said to McCain, "You call me that one more time and I'll kick your old ass." McCain lunged at Renzi, punches were thrown, and the two had to be physically separated

an anecdote from a 1992 campaign stop

McCain's wife Cindy teased him abou this thinning hair at which point he lashed out, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt."

highly abnormal if it weren't for McCain's history of similarly explosive behavior

McCain once "scuffled" with the Senate's then oldest member, Strom Thurmond

"I'm calling you a f------ jerk!" he once retorted to Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley.

"shut up"

"shit head"

"Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly?" he asked. "Because Janet Reno is her father."

the campaign has seen fit to decry Schecter's reporting

Tags: mccain, politics, news

McCain whiffs on Shi'ites & Sunnis yet again!

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:06:48 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "and repeated the false claim that Muqtada al-Sadr declared the ceasefire in Basra last week."
Would your average armchair news-watcher make that mistake? Again and again?
This is important, friends, not as a put-down of McCain, but as an essential part of the evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of candidates for the most powerful elected office on earth. Does he have it together on the basics of foreign policy?

Clip Source: rawstory.com

John McCain isn't quite sure of himself on Iraq.

Last month, the Arizona senator got a whisper in his ear from Sen. Joe Lieberman, after he said that Iran was providing aid to Al Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni group. Iran, however, is actually a Shiite nation. On Fox News Sunday, McCain also got wrong the details of an Iraqi ceasefire.

At today's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, McCain seems to have gotten it wrong again, when interviewing Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus.

MCCAIN: "There are numerous threats to security in Iraq and the future of Iraq. Do you still view al-Qaeda in Iraq as a major threat?"

PETRAEUS: "It is a major threat. Though it is certainly as not as major a threat as it was say, 15 months ago."

MCCAIN: "Certainly not an obscure sect of the Shias overall?

PETRAEUS: "No, sir."

MCCAIN: "Or Sunnis or anybody else then?

During an appearance on Fox News Sunday Apr. 6, McCain repeated the false claim that Muqtada al-Sadr declared the ceasefire in Basra last week

Tags: mccain, shiites, sunnis, iraq, politics

Bush's Place in History: Last

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:53:03 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: a poll of historians (98% say "failure")

Clip Source: www.truthdig.com

George W. Bush has said that history will determine the greatness of his presidency. According to an informal poll by George Mason University’s History News Network, 98 percent of historians polled rated Bush’s presidency a failure. Sixty-one percent ranked him last among presidents, while only 4 percent placed him among the top two-thirds.

Tags: bush, politics