THIS FAR AND NO FURTHER
A Timeline of Events Surrounding the Radical Right's Attempt to Subvert American Democracy
Written and Compiled by Black Max
June 2004, Week One
Page Two
Tenet resigns as CIA director
- June 3: Bush accepts the resignation of CIA Director George Tenet. Tenet tells the press that he is stepping down for "personal reasons," and will leave the CIA in July. Many believe Tenet, a holdover from the Clinton administration, is being held up as a "fall guy" over the failure of the administration and US intelligence to prevent the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent severity of problems in postwar Iraq. "They want to use him as a scapegoat for everything that's gone wrong," says one congressional aide. "But I don't think that's going to work. While the CIA obviously fell down in major ways, everyone knows by now that the Pentagon has been at the heart of this whole mess." 27-year CIA veteran Ray McGovern calls Tenet a "sacrificial lamb," and predicts there will be other forced resignations and firings. McGovern calls Tenet a "tragic figure" because he went so far outside the bounds of professionalism to support the Bush drive towards war with Iraq: "For example, the estimate that was prepared in September and October of 2002, which was used to persuade our Congress that Saddam Hussein was about to rain mushroom clouds upon us. That was George Tenet actually corrupting the Intelligence process to the policy that had already been decided. The decision for war antedated that estimate by six or seven months at least. And so we had the bizarre experience of a decision for war before there was any intelligence estimate, and the intelligence estimate sort of playing catch-up ball so that the Congress, that needed to approve this war, would be deceived. He played that game, and he defended it, and if you look at what that estimate said, it was wrong on virtually every count. It's amazing that he hung around as long as he did. ...Tenet was playing a double game. He was trying to be all things to all people. Which is what a congressional staffer needs to do, and that is his sole professional background. ...You don't tell the president what he wants to know. You tell him the truth. And that seems to have been avoided here in Washington these days."
- Retired admiral and former CIA director Stansfield Turner says he believes Tenet was "pushed out and made a scapegoat. ...I don't think he [Tenet] would have pulled the plug on President Bush in an election cycle without having been told to do that." Democratic senator Charles Schumer calls Tenet "an honorable and decent man who has served his country well in difficult times, and no one should make him a fall guy for anything." Presidential candidate John Kerry uses the resignation to call for a Director of National Intelligence. A Capital Hill aide says, "By leaving now, Tenet will be depriving them [Republicans who have called for his resignation] of a highly visible target. I'm sure people at the CIA appreciate that, because they don't like being in the middle of a highly-charged political debate." For now his successor will be John McLaughlin, the current deputy director of the CIA and a career intelligence officer who is generally well respected in Congress, though it is likely that Republican representative Porter Goss, a former CIA official with close ties to the Bush administration, will eventually be named to head the agency.
- Tenet broached the subject of his retirement days before, telling Bush that his doctor was advising him to leave (Tenet went through one heart attack before, in his days as an NSC staffer during the Clinton administration. Bush is against Tenet or anyone else leaving during an election cycle, but Tenet is firm. His health is in jeopardy, and he is the target of both Laurence Silberman's Senate Intelligence Committee investigation and the 9/11 Commission's investigation. It is time to go. Bush has little choice. When Tenet gives his resignation speech at the Langley headquarters, he tells his listeners that he is leaving to spend more time with his family.
- Eleven days later, the 9/11 commission recommends that Bush create a new Director of National Intelligence position.
- Before the White House moves to select Porter Goss as Tenet's replacement, chief of staff Andrew Card asks the outspoken Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage if he would consider the position. Armitage emphatically says no. Part of the reason for his refusal is his knowledge that, in the White House, if you disagree with senior officials, you get labeled as "not a team player," with severe ramifications for your career and credibility. Armitage's boss, Colin Powell, is already struggling with the label, and the shutout from decision-making processes that follow. Powell meets once a week with Bush for 20 minutes, and, Armitage knows, after each meeting, someone like Rice or Cheney will tell Bush, "He's not on the team." The Bush White House already sees everyone at State as "appeasers." Armitage has already groused to Powell that "Their idea of diplomacy is to say, 'Look, f*cker, you do what we want.'" While the Bush officials are reluctantly accepting that at least some semblance of diplomacy is needed to deal with, for example, North Korea and Iran, Armitage knows that he will not be the CIA director the Bush team wants. (Washington Post, Democracy Now, Antiwar.com, Bob Woodward)
- June 3: National Security Director Condoleezza Rice vows to investigate allegations that Ahmad Chalabi told Iran the United States had broken the code it used for secret communications. US officials say the revelation destroyed an important source of intelligence. In a closed-door damage assessment on Capitol Hill, NSA officials say the disclosure cut off a significant stream of information about Iran at a time when the United States is worried about the country's nuclear ambitions, its support for terrorist groups and its efforts to exert greater influence over Iraq. "It's a very important ability, to be able to intercept their communications," says Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein, who attended two briefings on the matter. "A very valuable tool the United States had was taken away." Chalabi has denied leaking intelligence to Iran, and is demanding an investigation into who leaked the news of the investigation about him to the press. The Bush administration says it is investigating the connections between Chalabi and Iran. One neoconservative administration official says he believes Chalabi was "set up" by Iran to destroy his credibility and his usefulness to the US. (Washington Post)
- June 3: High-ranking officials at the Pentagon are being subjected to polygraph tests to learn who may have leaked classified information to Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi. Chalabi's recent disclosure to Iranian officials that the US had broken secret codes from Iran rocked the intelligence world and angered the Iranian government. Chalabi insists that he told the Iranians nothing and is demanding an investigation by the US Justice Department. Former Defense Policy Board member Richard Perle says that it is unlikely Chalabi made such a disclosure, and says it is more likely that Iranian intelligence is trying to frame Chalabi. (New York Times, CBS)
- June 3: Witnesses in the Valerie Plame Wilson outing case tell the grand jury that President Bush knew about, but did nothing to prevent, Plame's name being leaked to a journalist. As a result of the testimony, Bush has contacted Washington lawyer Jim Sharp for advice. "It speaks for itself that the president initially claimed he wanted to get to the bottom of this, but now he's suddenly retained a lawyer," says Jano Cabrera, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. "Bush shouldn't drag the country through grand juries and legal maneuvering. President Bush should come forward with what he knows and come clean with the American people." Former ambassador Joseph Wilson, Plame's husband, believes that the leak came from either Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove or the vice president's chief of staff Lewis Libby. Another possibility is that two lower-level officials in Cheney's office -- John Hannah or David Wurmser -- leaked Plame's identity at the behest of higher-ups "to keep their fingerprints off the crime," Wilson speculates. Sources within the investigation say evidence points to Rove approving release of the leak. They add that their investigation suggests the President knew about Rove's actions but took no action to stop release of Plame's name. (Capitol Hill Blue)
- June 3: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is sharply restricting senators' access to documents in their investigation of Boeing's $23 billion deal with the Air Force for airborne refueling tankers. Senators, led by Republican John McCain, have been demanding that the Air Force hand over internal e-mails and other communications on negotiations with Boeing and efforts to slide the deal through Congress. Critics contend that the deal was laden with conflicts of interest and that the planes may not be needed. In a letter to Senator John Warner, the GOP chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Rumsfeld says Warner's committee would get only a sharply limited release of internal Air Force e-mails and documents. McCain says Rumsfeld's response would "eviscerate the responsibility of Congress to provide oversight in such matters. ...There is not one single element in that letter which is acceptable to me." Rumsfeld's letter was written on May 26, but just released today at the request of Knight-Ridder newspapers. Rumsfeld's letter says that the requested information "reflect[s] sensitive internal deliberations within the Department and the Executive Branch and, accordingly, they would neither be released nor made available for review." The Boeing deal is on hold while the investigation continues. (Knight-Ridder)
- June 3: The choice of Iyad Allawi as Iraq's new prime minister follows an intensive public relations campaign waged not in Baghdad, but in Washington. Allawi's supporters have spent over $340,000 since last year in promoting Allawi, a member of the exile group Iraqi National Accord and a former CIA asset, as prime minister. Almost all the money comes from a single rich Iraqi expatriate, Mashal Nawab, a former Iraqi doctor whose family has extensive oil interests. It was coordinated by a former US ambassador to Qatar, Patrick Theros, who in turn hired the law firm of Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds and the New York public relations firm of Brown Lloyd James. Lobbying records show that the law firm engaged in a flurry of contacts on Allawi's behalf beginning in late October. Most were aimed at setting up meetings with influential members of Congress and their staffs, administration officials, think tanks and journalists. The contacts included the offices of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist along with Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; House Speaker Dennis Hastert, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and Henry Hyde, chairman of the House International Affairs Committee. All are Republicans. Other calls went to officials at the National Security Council, Vice President Cheney's office, the Defense Department, the CIA and three influential conservative think tanks: the American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation and Brookings Institution. (USA Today)
- June 3: Spain absolutely refuses to send troops back to Iraq, says prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. The statement comes after a meeting between Zapatero and Britain's Tony Blair. (UPI/Big News Network)
- June 3: CIA veteran Ray McGovern says that he fears the Bush administration, working through the Justice Department, will resort to illegal methods to ensure that Bush wins the next election: "I say all this because I am more frightened now than at any time over the last three and a half years, that this administration will resort to extra-legal methods to do something to ensure that there are four more years for George Bush. And Ashcroft's statement last week, gratuitous statement, uncoordinated with the department of, CIA, with the Department of Homeland Security, his warning that there is bound to be a terrorist strike before the US elections. That can be viewed and this can be reasonably viewed as the opening salvo in the justification for doing, taking measures to ensure that whatever happens in November comes out so that four more years can be devoted to maybe changing that war crimes act or protecting at least these vulnerable people for four more years." (Democracy Now)
- June 3: Senator Trent Lott, whose racist rhetoric forced him to resign as Senate majority leader in 2003, defends the use of torture and abusive tactics against Iraqi prisoners in an interview with a Jackson, Mississippi TV station news team. On the subject of prisoners being attacked and intimidated with dogs, Lott says, "Hey, nothing wrong with holding a dog up there, unless the dog ate him, scared him with a dog." Responding to a question about an Iraqi prisoner being beaten to death, Lott dismisses it: "This is not Sunday school; this is interrogation, this is rough stuff," he says. Some of the prisoners "should not have been prisoners in the first place, probably should have been killed," he adds. (Washington Post)
- June 3: Two religious organizations have objected to the Bush administration's call for 1600 "friendly congregations" among Pennsylvania churches where Bush supporters might gather on a regular basis and engage in re-election activities. The Bush campaign's e-mail searching for such churches also asks that a volunteer coordinator be named in each one to facilitate information dispersal. The two organizations, the Interfaith Alliance and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, both oppose the efforts. Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United, calls it an effort to build "a church-based political machine" and said it could endanger the congregations' tax-exempt status, because IRS rules forbid churches from endorsing candidates or engaging in partisan campaigns. (Washington Post)
- June 3: In an amazing (apparent) lapse of memory, Bush pretends to barely recall Ahmad Chalabi during a press conference. "My meetings with him were very brief," Bush tells a questioner. "I mean, I think I met with him at the State of the Union and just kind of working through the rope line, and he might have come with a group of leaders. But I haven't had any extensive conversations with him." Among a raft of numerous documented contacts between Chalabi and Bush, Chalabi sat in a prime position, directly behind Mrs. Bush, during the 2004 State of the Union address. This link displays over a dozen photos of Chalabi with Bush and other senior White House officials, including Chalabi sitting within a foot of Laura Bush during the address. (White House/Buzzflash)
"I'm also not very analytical. You know I don't spend a lot of time thinking about myself, about why I do things." -- George W. Bush, June 4, 2003
- June 4: The US-run CPA confirms that four civilian contractors from DynCorp took part in the May 20 raid on Ahmad Chalabi's home and offices. Officials of Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress said that Americans in civilian clothes, holding rifles and wearing body armor, directed the Iraqi police on what rooms to go into and what items to take. The CPA and the Pentagon have previously denied that any civilian personnel took part in the raids. ( Washington Post)
- June 4: Adnan Pachachi, who had been widely believed to have been chosen to become Iraq's new president, claims he was forced to turn down the job because of a "shabby conspiracy" led by the Pentagon's disgraced ex-favourite Ahmad Chalabi. Pachachi, an 81-year-old former diplomat, says that Chalabi had sought to wreck his candidacy at the last minute out of "jealousy and personal pique." Pachachi said the UN's special envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, offered him the job as president last weekend. This followed weeks of "extensive consultations" with "thousands of Iraqis." "He called me up and said: 'We have decided'," says Pachachi. "Mr. Brahimi told me I had more support than anybody to be president. He said I was by far the most qualified person." However, Brahimi's decision prompted a furious revolt among members of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, which Pachachi says was instigated by Chalabi and the Kurds. They decided to back the council's then president, Sheikh Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar, for the job and leak the story that Pachachi was an American stooge. "The whole thing was really a shabby conspiracy," Pachachi says. "I'm very sorry that Sheikh Ghazi involved himself. The glittering prize within his reach was too much for him to resist in the end. He should have said: 'Look, I'm not interested. Support Pachachi.'" Pachachi saysd he decided to turn down the job on Monday after Arab TV networks unfairly portrayed him as Washington's preferred candidate, a decision that cleared the way for Sheikh Ghazi. Brahimi announced Sheikh Ghazi's victory only hours before the interim government was sworn in. Pachachi says, "Chalabi was gloating and so happy that his candidate won. He has behaved in such a way that he has lost credibility and friends." Pachachi also claims that the US had in fact secretly wanted Sheikh Ghazi to get the job. "There is a great deal of disinformation that I was the preferred candidate of the US. Nothing could be further from the truth. ...We have two totally different backgrounds. Sheikh Ghazi is an intelligent, clever and charming man who has spent his working life as an engineer in Saudi Arabia. I have 50 years of experience in international affairs. Anybody who compares the two of us is strange and outlandish." He concedes that Iraq's main Shi'a groups, including the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, also opposed his candidacy, mainly because he is Sunni, but also because he is against the idea of Iraq turning into a "religious state" when a new elected government has to ratify a constitution later next year. "Chalabi and some others were against me because I represent a liberal secular democratic outlook, and an Arab nationalist outlook in a way," he says. "It was anathema for them." Pachachi says he will no longer be involved in Iraqi politics. (Guardian)
- June 4: The CIA's deputy director for operations, James Pavitt, announces his retirement less than a day after CIA director George Tenet announces his resignation. The CIA says the two departures are unconnected. The CIA is preparing for the release of reports expected to be highly critical of its methods and results surrounding both the 9/11 attacks and the war on Iraq. Pavitt's identity had been kept from the public until his testimony before the 9/11 commission, where he said that the failures that occurred before the attacks were due to inadequate resources, not a lack of caring. (BBC)
- June 4: Bush pays a highly touted visit to Pope John Paul II in Vatican City. While the American media paints a cheery picture of the president visiting a welcoming Pope and awarding him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the story is different than what Americans are being given. The streets in Italy swarm with angry protesters, with heavily armed security forces tear-gassing the crowds. And behind closed doors, Bush receives what is characterized as a tongue-lashing by the pontiff, who is strongly opposed to the war in Iraq. The visit is part of Bush's brief trip to Europe to honor US war dead during World War II, and by visiting the Pope, to shore up Bush's flagging support among American Catholic voters. (CBS, Memphis Flyer)
- June 4: Italy's largest electric company cuts the power to two left-wing radio stations during Bush's visit to Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. The outage -- described as "strange maintenance work" by Enel, Italy's 60 percent state-owned utility -- forces Radio Citta Aperta and Radio Onda Rossa off the air as they are preparing to broadcast extensive coverage of street protests against the president's visit. "The stations lost electricity for four hours, all the morning, during several 'actions' of the civil disobedience movement," says Francesco Diasio, managing director of Amisnet, a community radio agency supporting several Italian radio stations. Amisnet worked with the two stations, in conjunction with several other radio networks in Italy, to broadcast up-to-the-minute reports on the Rome protests. Italian Green Party MP Paolo Cento has promised a parliamentary inquiry into the outage. "It is something outrageous because while [Italy's] communication law recognizes the important role of local broadcasting, this role is taken away in a special day with great need of information and communication," says Cynthia D'Ulizia, director of Radio Citta Aperta. Alessadro Marenga, a music program director working the midnight shift at Radio Cittą Aperta, says that these types of outages are rare. "When outages do happen, a representative from the company comes by our offices to give advance warning," Marenga says. Enel gives the station no advanced warning this time. Represenatives at Radio Cittą Aperta try throughout the morning to contact Enel to ask for repairs, but their calls don't go through. Throngs of protesters take to the streets of Rome to demonstrate against the US and Italian governments' support of the war in Iraq; the largest crowd marched from the Piazza della Repubblica to Piazza Venezia, according to wire reports. The protest drew 250,000 people, organizers say. Police put the crowd at around 25,000. (MediaChannel)
- June 4: The United States is working to soften harsh criticism of US troops in Iraq in a UN human rights report to be released this week. The report was originally scheduled to be released four days ago but it was held up after the US asked for more time to contribute their side of the story. The report accuses US forces of committing "systematic gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law" in Iraq. (Democracy Now)
- June 4: Presidential candidate John Kerry calls the extension of thousands of soldiers' tours of duty in Iraq a "backdoor draft" and promises that, if elected, he will replace troops in Iraq who have already served their time with 40,000 new volunteers. In addition, fully half of the nation's 350,000 National Guardsmen are either serving in Iraq or are on alert and ready to go. "We have gone from being a strategic reserve force to being an operational force," says Guard spokesman Reginald Saville. (MSNBC)
- June 4: Part of the Bush campaign's attack strategy against John Kerry is to paint him as a rich man out of touch with mainstream America -- interesting in light of Bush's own existence as the son of a billionaire whose family is probably the most politically powerful in America. "Most Americans can't afford yachts, private planes, thousand dollar haircuts or homes in Nantucket," says Republican National Committee spokesman Jim Dyke during the campaign's announcement of a new video game on the RNC Web site. The game is called Kerryopoly -- similar to Monopoly, but the properties belong to the Kerry family. Columnist Terry Neal observes, "It's a curious line of attack. The logic of Dyke's statement would seem to suggest that most Americans can afford mansions on hundreds of acres in Texas and are fortunate enough to receive retirement or severance packages worth tens of millions of dollars, as Vice President Cheney and some members of the Bush cabinet did when they left private industry to join the government. So why is a free enterprise, capitalistic, big business-dominated party that often accuses Democrats of dividing people on class busting a guy's chops for having a lot of dough?" According to Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt, " We are speaking to the inherent contradiction in the life story of John Kerry. He is someone who purports to campaign as a man of the people, but who resides in a whole series of wealthy million dollar chateaus and mansions. It's just one more contradiction and example of him being out of the mainstream with America." Holt says that Democrats like Kerry are hypocrites who live lavish lifestyles while playing class warfare to win votes, a tactic that Republicans, according to Holt, do not practice. "John Kerry is dividing Americans on class and income," he says. "Republicans don't do that. Republicans, for example, fight for tax relief that is fair for everyone. [Kerry]supports repealing tax cuts for people who make over $200,000."
- Kerry campaign spokesman David Wade responds: "Boneheaded attacks from this bunch are as insulting as they are ironic. It's downright hypocritical coming from the campaign of a president whose connections got him into a 'Champagne Unit' of the National Guard during Vietnam and whose path was paved with privilege from Andover to Arbusto oil to the Texas Rangers. ...This guy who was born on third base and thought he hit a triple is going to engage in a sad game of class warfare? ...I don't think a lot of Americans remember Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy because of where they came from, they remember them for what they did to make America stronger. Good luck finding Americans who think that way about George Bush." The Web game "Kerryopoly" is the latest in several games appearing on the RNC Web site attacking Kerry; their most popular so far is called "Kerry vs. Kerry," which focuses on Kerry's purported flip-flops on various issues. RNC spokeswoman Christine Iverson says that "Kerryopoly" should not be construed as the GOP's own attempts at class warfare. The DNC responds: "Yesterday the Republican National Committee, chaired by Ed Gillespie (whose lobbying firm collected at least $27 million from corporate clients like Enron in the two years before he became RNC chair), unveiled a new internet game poking fun at the personal finances of John Kerry. It is unclear whether the campaign of George Walker Bush (son of U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush and grandson of Connecticut Senator Prescott Sheldon Bush) and Dick Cheney (worth between $24 million - $107 million; former Chairman and CEO of Halliburton who received a $20 million retirement package to run for vice president) has endorsed this line of attack. Bush (a CT-born Yankee who summered in Kennebunkport, Maine, and attended the Kinkaid school in Houston before moving to Phillips Academy in Andover, MA, where he became head cheerleader and earned the nickname the Lip from his chums for his rapier wit), was unavailable for comment." Pollster Andrew Kohut explains the rationale behind the attacks: "What the Republican party and their strategist are trying to do is say, 'he may be a Democrat, but he's a limousine liberal and he doesn't get it.' It's not an unreasonable position for them to take from a tactical standpoint." And DNC spokesman Jano Cabrera says, "John Kerry has never suggested anything other than the fact that he comes from a privileged background. But he's also made it clear that that puts a certain responsibility on his shoulders. John Kerry had this background when he went to Vietnam and made the decision to run for public office. Most importantly, despite John Kerry's background, he has been focused on the needs of others." (Washington Post)
- June 5: A German documentary aired on ZDF Television includes information confirming that a year before the 9/11 attacks, US and Taliban officials met secretly in Frankfurt to discuss terms for the Afghans to hand over Osama bin Laden to US authorities, a claim long denied by Bush administration officials. No agreement was reached. ZDF television quotes Kabir Mohabbat, an Afghan-American businessman, as saying he tried to broker a deal between the Americans and the Islamic Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, who were sheltering bin Laden. Mohabbat quotes Taliban foreign minister Mullah Wakil Ahmed Mutawakil as saying: "You can have him whenever the Americans are ready. Name us a country and we will extradite him." A German member of the European Parliament, Elmar Brok, confirms that he had helped Mohabbat in 1999 to establish initial contact with the Americans. "I was told [by Mohabbat] that the Taliban had certain ideas about handing over bin Laden, not to the United States but to a third country or to the Court of Justice in The Hague," Brok says. "The message was: 'There is willingness to talk about handing over bin Laden', and the aim of the Taliban was clearly to win the recognition of the American government and the lifting of the boycott," he says, referring to the international isolation of the Taliban. Brok says he was not in a position to judge how credible the offer was but he passed it to the US ambassador to Germany, John Kornblum. Mohabbat was then summoned to Washington to be interviewed by US officials. This led in turn to the German meeting, which took place between Taliban ministers and US officials in a Frankfurt hotel in November 2000. A number of offers from the Afghans were put forward, but none were accepted, and though there was talk of resuming the negotiations, no more talks were held until five days after the attacks. Those talks were held in the Pakistani city of Quetta, with the Americans demanding the handover of bin Laden within 24 hours and the Taliban refusing. Brok says he had not personally taken part in either of the reported meetings between the Taliban and the United States but believes there had been a "political decision" not to pursue negotiations after the one in Frankfurt. "I have to say that I consider this offer [on bin Laden's handover] very much more seriously with hindsight than I did at the time," Brok says. (Reuters/ABC)
- June 5: Florida's 67 elections supervisors will meet to discuss the illegal purging of almost 48,000 voters from Florida's electoral rolls. Democratic senator Bill Nelson says he will file a lawsuit on behalf of CNN, who is suing to obtain the names on the purge roll. Four years ago, tens of thousands of voters, mostly black Democrats, were improperly purged from the voting rolls and denied their right to vote, mostly because they were improperly identified as felons who had not applied for restoration. Florida was decided by the official count of 537 votes in favor of Bush, who was named president because he "won" Florida. Many elections supervisors are asking that the purged names be restored to the rolls for the 2004 elections. Ion Sancho, Leon County supervisor of elections, says he plans to ask his colleagues to take no action on any names until each elections office independently verifies the record of every person on it. "To place the burden on the citizen to prove that they are not guilty runs counter to the American system of justice," he says. (www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/8844161.htm)
- June 5: Vice President Dick Cheney was recently interviewed by federal prosecutors who asked whether he knew of anyone at the White House who had improperly disclosed the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson, according to a New York Times report. "Cheney was also asked about conversations with senior aides, including his chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, according to people officially informed about the case," the Times says. "In addition, those people said, Mr. Cheney was asked whether he knew of any concerted effort by White House aides to name the officer. It was not clear how Mr. Cheney responded to the prosecutors' questions." The interview of the vice president was part of a grand jury investigation into whether anyone at the White House violated a federal law that makes it a crime to divulge the name of an undercover officer intentionally. "It is not clear when or where Mr. Cheney was interviewed," the Times continued, "but he was not questioned under oath and he has not been asked to appear before the grand jury, people officially informed about the case said. His willingness to answer questions was voluntary and apparently followed Mr. Bush's repeated instructions to aides to cooperate with the investigation." Bush has acknowledged that he had met with a Washington criminal lawyer, Jim Sharp, about the possibility that prosecutors might want to interview him about the case. (CBS, New York Times/Independent Media)
Ronald Reagan dies
- June 5: Former president Ronald Reagan dies of complications from Alzheimer's disease, at the age of 93. "He leaves behind a nation he restored and a world he helped save," says President Bush. "During the years of President Reagan, America laid to rest an era of division and self-doubt, and, because of his leadership, the world laid to rest an era of fear and tyranny." Former president Bill Clinton says, "Hillary and I will always remember President Ronald Reagan for the way he personified the indomitable optimism of the American people, and for keeping America at the forefront of the fight for freedom for people everywhere." Slate's Michael Kinsley notes that Reagan, now considered the godfather of modern Republicanism, presided over the biggest expansion of the federal government in history, failed to protest Iraq's use of chemical weapons against Iran, and ran up the biggest federal deficits in history.
- After paying his respects to Reagan's "dignity and candor" in his farewell letter to America, Truthout's William Rivers Pitt notes, "Reagan was able...to sell to the American people a flood of poisonous policies. He made Americans feel good about acting against their own best interests. He sold the American people a lemon, and they drive it to this day as if it was a Cadillac. It isn't the lies that kill us, but the myths, and Ronald Reagan was the greatest myth-maker we are ever likely to see. Mainstream media journalism today is a shameful joke because of Reagan's deregulation policies. Once upon a time, the Fairness Doctrine ensured that the information we receive -- information vital to the ability of the people to govern in the manner intended -- came from a wide variety of sources and perspectives. Reagan's policies annihilated the Fairness Doctrine, opening the door for a few mega-corporations to gather journalism unto themselves. Today, Reagan's old bosses at General Electric own three of the most-watched news channels. This company profits from every war we fight, but somehow is trusted to tell the truths of war. Thus, the myths are sold to us.
- "...Ronald Reagan believed in small government, despite the fact that he grew government massively during his time. Social programs which protected the weakest of our citizens were gutted by Reagan's policies, delivering millions into despair. Reagan was able to do this by caricaturing the 'welfare queen,' who punched out babies by the barnload, who drove the flashy car bought with your tax dollars, who refused to work because she didn't have to. This was a vicious, racist lie, one result of which was the decimation of a generation by crack cocaine. The urban poor were left to rot because Ronald Reagan believed in 'self-sufficiency.' Because Ronald Reagan could not be bothered to fund research into 'gay cancer,' the AIDS virus was allowed to carve out a comfortable home in America. The aftershocks from this callous disregard for people whose homosexuality was deemed evil by religious conservatives cannot be overstated. Beyond the graves of those who died from a disease which was allowed to burn unchecked, there are generations of Americans today living with the subconscious idea that sex equals death.
- "The veneer of honor and respect painted across the legacy of Ronald Reagan is itself a myth of biblical proportions. The coverage proffered today of the Reagan legacy seldom mentions impropriety until the Iran/Contra scandal appears on the administration timeline. This sin of omission is vast. By the end of his term in office, some 138 Reagan administration officials had been convicted, indicted or investigated for misconduct and/or criminal activities.
- "...Ronald Reagan actively supported the regimes of the worst people ever to walk the earth. Names like Marcos, Duarte, Rios Mont and Duvalier reek of blood and corruption, yet were embraced by the Reagan administration with passionate intensity. The ground of many nations is salted with the bones of those murdered by brutal rulers who called Reagan a friend. Who can forget his support of those in South Africa who believed apartheid was the proper way to run a civilized society? One dictator in particular looms large across our landscape. Saddam Hussein was a creation of Ronald Reagan. The Reagan administration supported the Hussein regime despite his incredible record of atrocity. The Reagan administration gave Hussein intelligence information which helped the Iraqi military use their chemical weapons on the battlefield against Iran to great effect. The deadly bacterial agents sent to Iraq during the Reagan administration are a laundry list of horrors.
- "...Another name on Ronald Reagan's roll call is that of Osama bin Laden. The Reagan administration believed it a bully idea to organize an army of Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union. Bin Laden became the spiritual leader of this action. Throughout the entirety of Reagan's term, bin Laden and his people were armed, funded and trained by the United States. Reagan helped teach Osama bin Laden the lesson he lives by today, that it is possible to bring a superpower to its knees. Bin Laden believes this because he has done it once before, thanks to the dedicated help of Ronald Reagan. ...In the final analysis, however, the legacy of Ronald Reagan -- whether he had an active hand in its formulation, or was merely along for the ride -- is beyond dispute. His famous question, 'Are you better off now than you were four years ago?' is easy to answer. We are not better off than we were four years ago, or eight years ago, or twelve, or twenty. We are a badly damaged state, ruled today by a man who subsists off Reagan's most corrosive final gift to us all: It is the image that matters, and be damned to the truth." Reagan's wife Nancy Reagan has used her husband's illness to call for an increase in research on stem cells, which may lead to a possible treatment and even a cure for Alzheimer's and other diseases. (CNN, Slate, Truthout)
- June 6: An Iraqi judge orders the arrest of an American aide to Ahmad Chalabi. Francis Brooke, Chalabi's aide, tried to stop the recent police raids on Chalabi's home and office; Brooke is being charged with obstructing justice. "He stopped the raid by telling the police they didn't have the legal power to do it because he was an American and they were Iraqis," says Judge Zuhair Al-Maliky, of the central criminal court in Baghdad. As a result, the raid didn't go as planned. The warrant is for interfering with the work of the Iraqi police in their legitimate business. Brooke is believed to be in Washington, DC. Brooke, an evangelical Christian, has worked with Chalabi since 1990, first as a consultant paid by the CIA and most recently as a consultant for BKSH and Associates, a company run by Charlie Black, a Republican Party veteran. Reports from Iran suggest that Brooke acted as an intermediary between Washington and tehran, passing letters between the two governments, which do not have bilateral relations. Brooke has boasted of engineering the war on Iraq by providing America the evidence it was seeking on weapons of mass destruction. "I'm a smart man," he told the New Yorker magazine last week. "I saw what they wanted, and I adapted my strategy." (Daily Telegraph)
- June 6: After failing to outlaw what they call "shadowy third-party groups," some Republicans have decided to form their own 527 groups, so named for the tax code section that governs these organizations. Others, however, have decided to continue raising money for more traditional Republican groups. Democratic 527s such as MoveOn.org have worried GOP strategists with their effective track record of raising money for Democrats, traditionally an area of campaigning dominated by Republicans. One 527, the Leadership Forum, is accelerating its fundraising drives even in the face of some GOP opposition. "We're definitely playing catch-up," says former congressman Bill Paxon, the chairman of the organization. (Los Angeles Times/People for Change [truncated article]
- June 6: After a firestorm of criticism over statements from its executives supporting George W. Bush's campaign, Diebold Inc, the maker of electronic voting machines used across the country, has officially stopped its executives from making donations to political campaigns or participating in campaigns. Walden O'Dell, Diebold's chairman and chief executive officer, was criticized in August 2003 for having a $1,000-a-plate Republican fund-raiser at his suburban Columbus home. In a letter inviting people to attend, O'Dell said he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." (San Francisco Chronicle)
- June 6: Journalist Greg Palast publishes a blistering review of the Reagan presidency where he writes bluntly, "Ronald Reagan was a conman. Reagan was a coward. Reagan was a killer." Palast reflects on Reagan's 1987 lockdown on medicines for Nicaragua while thousands in that country died of tuberculosis and other treatable diseases. He writes, "And when Hezbollah terrorists struck and murdered hundreds of American marines in their sleep in Lebanon, the TV warrior ran away like a whipped dog...then turned around and invaded Grenada. That little Club Med war was a murderous PR stunt so Ronnie could hold parades for gunning down Cubans building an airport." He recalls the Reagans accepting the millions of dollars in "gifts" from corporate cronies that "used to be called bribery."
- Palast continues, "The New York Times today, in its canned obit, wrote that Reagan projected, 'faith in small town America' and 'old-time values.' 'Values' my *ss. It was union busting and a declaration of war on the poor and anyone who couldn't buy designer dresses. It was the New Meanness, bringing starvation back to America so that every millionaire could get another million. 'Small town' values? From the movie star of the Pacific Palisades, the Malibu mogul? I want to throw up. And all the while, in the White House basement, as his brain boiled away, his last conscious act was to condone a coup d'etat against our elected Congress. Reagan's Defense Secretary Casper the Ghost Weinberger with the crazed Colonel, Ollie North, plotted to give guns to the Monster of the Mideast, Ayatolla Khomeini. Reagan's boys called Jimmy Carter a weanie and a wuss although Carter wouldn't give an inch to the Ayatolla. Reagan, with that film-fantasy tough-guy con in front of cameras, went begging like a coward cockroach to Khomeini pleading on bended knee for the release of our hostages. Ollie North flew into Iran with a birthday cake for the maniac mullah -- no kidding -- in the shape of a key. The key to Ronnie's heart. Then the Reagan roaches mixed their cowardice with crime: taking cash from the hostage-takers to buy guns for the 'contras' -- the drug-runners of Nicaragua posing as freedom fighters. I remember as a student in Berkeley the words screeching out of the bullhorn, 'The Governor of the State of California, Ronald Reagan, hereby orders this demonstration to disperse'...and then came the teargas and the truncheons. And all the while, that fang-hiding grin from the Gipper. In Chaguitillo, [Nicaragua] all night long, the farmers stayed awake to guard their kids from attack from Reagan's Contra terrorists. The farmers weren't even Sandinistas, those 'Commies' that our cracked-brained President told us were 'only a 48-hour drive from Texas.' What the hell would they want with Texas, anyway? Nevertheless, the farmers, and their families, were Ronnie's targets. ...Killer, coward, conman. Ronald Reagan, good-bye and good riddance." While even many of Reagan's detractors are outraged at Palast's vituperative obituary, the facts themselves are indisputable. (Greg Palast)
- June 7: Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser writes an article asking George W. Bush to stay out of Australian politics, specifically criticizing him for verbally attacking the Australian opposition leader Mark Latham last week. Latham and conservative prime minister John Howard have long been sparring over Australia's commitment to assisting the US in Iraq. Fraser writes, "It is worth noting that the relationship between Australia and the US is a long-standing one between countries -- it is much more important than the relationship between the present governments of Australia and of the US. Every US president except the present one worked with the international community, with the United Nations and the Security Council, and built broad-based coalitions. ...The ultimate objective of international co-operation led by the US is to achieve a law-based world. The Democratic presidential candidate, Senator John Kerry, has made it plain that if he wins the election in November, he will revert to that traditional approach -- an approach that has served the US and the international community well for more than 50 years. President Bush Jr. is the odd man out. It is he who has rejected traditional diplomacy and established a degree of unilateralism that has weakened America's capacity to achieve its objectives around the world. However desirable Saddam Hussein's overthrow might have been, the war in Iraq was not principally for that purpose, it was to find non-existent weapons of mass destruction. To this point, instead of advancing the cause of liberty, that war has strengthened the terrorist threat and greatly increased the numbers killed. There is still a large grey area between the authority of the new Iraq government and the American military stationed in Iraq. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has tried to say that the new government will be truly sovereign, but the US has made it plain that American troops will control their own destinies. How sovereign can a government be if there is a large occupying army within its borders? Even today, if President Bush were prepared to hand the entire political operation to the UN and the Security Council, the chances of some good emerging from his ill-fated unilateralism would be greatly strengthened. ...But whatever happens over the next six months, President Bush will not find his cause advanced by intervening in Australian politics and by supporting one side or the other. What he has done is an abuse of power." (The Age)
- June 7: A WISH-TV investigation into Indiana's recent problems with electronic balloting reveals the possibility of systematic and far-reaching vote tampering far beyond anything admitted by either the Bush administration or by the voting machine manufacturers. Republican state representative Kathy Richardson has overseen the purchase of $2 million worth of voting machines from MicroVote, after receiving campaign donations from MicroVote's president, James Ries. When Ries was recently asked if citizens could know for sure if their votes counted, he replied, "It's one of those areas of a leap of faith. You really do have to have a faith in your local jurisdiction, that they are conducting equitable elections in the best faith of the voters. The security for the voter, once again, is the acceptance of good judgment by a local board. Quite frankly, it's very difficult to convince somebody how do I know my vote counted.... There is no way to link that individual ballot back to that individual voter." Other problems in Indiana center around machines manufactured by ES&S, which has supplied machines for Marion County, the county with the largest voting population in Indiana. Recently, ES&S project manager Wendy Orange resigned her position after being asked to cover up a software problem, and informed Marion County Clerk Doris Anne Sadler. Although ES&S insists there are no problems with its software, it admits that its latest software, Version 7.4.5, does not meet the 2002 federal standards, though it "has been tested by an independent testing authority" and meets now-antiquated 1990 voting standards. An investigation by the revealed ES&S had a secret agreement to kick back a percentage of its profits to the Florida Association of Counties, and that the lobbyist representing both ES&S and the Florida Association of Counties was Sandra Mortham, a former Florida secretary of state and former running mate of Governor Jeb Bush. (Intervention Magazine)
- June 7: Liberal journalist Eric Jaffa reveals that the Bush administration has fraudulently "cooked" the figures showing how many Americans are working, how many are unemployed, and so forth, to falsely assert that many more Americans are working than actually are, and to bolster their claims of a recovering economy. Jaffa says that a fair indicator of jobs in the US would be to count how many workers pay FICA taxes. But the Labor Department, under Elaine Chao, uses a different measurement. Instead, it sends out surveys to a sample of businesses asking them if they increased or decreased the number of jobs. Some businesses do not respond because they have closed their doors, and new businesses sometimes don't get surveyed because the Labor Department does not yet have their addresses. But the Labor Department compiles employment figures from these sampled surveys, using something they call the "Current Employment Statistics Net Birth/Death Model." The results are derived using statistically suspect methodologies, and cannot be replicated by other statisticians. "It's a principle of science of that one's results should be replicable by other scientists," Jaffa reminds us. Neither will the Labor Department release the raw data these numbers are derived from. "The lack of transparency gives us no reason to believe the numbers," Jaffa writes. He provides a long and rather complex analysis of the methods and figures that are publicly available, and concludes that the Labor Department's statistical model is one that creates artificially "rosy" job predictions by massaging the data. "When many businesses are failing it assumes that they remain in business and increase or decrease jobs at the average rate of those firms which are successful at remaining in business," Jaffa concludes. "It is designed to show things better than they are.... [T]hese employment numbers are manipulated and can't be trusted." (MoveLeft)
- June 7: The New Yorker prints an extensive commentary on a new organization of Democrats within Baghdad's CPA, nicknamed "Donkeys in the Desert." They comprise maybe two dozen officials, mostly military, with "satellite" organizations in Ramadi, Baqubah, and other areas. They were formed mostly as a counterpoint to the relentlessly Republican staffing of the CPA, many of whom are former Bush campaign workers with little expertise in administering foreign countries or knowledge of the Middle East. One Donkey reports chafing at a colleague's remark, "I'm not here for the Iraqis, I'm here for George W. Bush." Founder Karl Weston, a State Department official, notes, "A lot of Republicans walk around talking Republican stuff. We call them Palace Pachyderms." In late April, they sent a letter to presidential candidate John Kerry, appealing to the candidate as both an ex-soldier and a peace seeker. It read, in part, "Put bluntly: we believe you need to get over here, suck in some sand and sweat a bit in the desert heat while talking to, among others, US soldiers, Iraqi technocrats, Coalition officials, private sector reconstruction contractors, and tribal leaders. Perhaps only then will you begin to get a real sense of the real Iraq, for Iraq cannot be understood from the halls of Washington or via briefing papers alone. ...As our next Commander-in-Chief, the sooner you get over here, the better." Kerry has not yet responded to the invitation. "There's a misperception that if you're in the military you're going to vote Republican," Weston says. "But in the Army there are a lot of RINOs: Republicans in Name Only. I think there's frustration from a lot of reservists, whose terms of service keep being extended." One reservist, Specialist Kevin Fisher, a New Yorker stationed in Baqubah with the 415th Civil Affairs Battalion, e-mailed last week to express his frustration with, among other things, the adoption of the term AIF, for Anti-Iraqi Forces: "Kind of a funny term in my opinion since I would guess that they are increasingly made up of Iraqis who have grown tired of the Americans being in their country." It is from the ranks of these reservists that the Donkeys hope to recruit many new members. Political leanings within the Donkeys range from "very left" to ex-RINO, but a hasty retreat from Iraq does not fall within the group's agenda. "I think we're pretty happy that Kerry has at least demonstrated that it is a complicated situation in Iraq, and not just a case of 'Get out tomorrow,'" Weston says. (New Yorker)
