False Pretenses

January 2008
False Pretenses

Following 9/11, President Bush and seven top officials of his administration waged a carefully orchestrated campaign of misinformation about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

President George W. Bush and seven of his administration's top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made at least 935 false statements in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Nearly five years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an exhaustive examination of the record shows that the statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.

Key False Statements

January 2008
Key False Statements

On September 8, 2002, Bush administration officials hit the national
airwaves to advance the argument that Iraq had acquired aluminum tubes designed
to enrich uranium. In an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, for example, Vice
President Dick Cheney flatly stated that Saddam Hussein "now is trying through
his illicit procurement network to acquire the equipment he needs to be able to
enrich uranium."

Condoleezza Rice, who was then Bush's national security adviser, followed
Cheney that night on CNN's Late Edition. In answer to a question from Wolf
Blitzer on how close Saddam Hussein's government was to developing a nuclear
capability, Rice said: "We do know that he is actively pursuing a nuclear
weapon. We do know there have been shipments going into . . . Iraq, for
instance, of aluminum tubes that really are only suited to—high-quality
aluminum tools that only really suited for nuclear weapons programs, centrifuge
programs."

In Private, Bernanke Says First Six Months Of This Year Will Be "Bad"

January 22, 2008
In Private, Bernanke Says First Six Months Of This Year Will Be "Bad"

We're told by those who've heard him that he says the first six months of this year will be "bad," an adjective that some interpret this as signaling there is better than a 50-50 chance for a recession. Even worse, the former Princeton prof believes the ensuing recovery will be "weak" because of persistent problems in the housing market that will result in subdued consumer spending. We checked in with his office, which says it doesn't comment on what the boss says in private. But it's certainly not comforting news considering that his recent public testimony was a bummer, like when he told Congress last week, "Recently, incoming information has suggested that the baseline outlook for real activity in 2008 has worsened and that the downside risks to growth have become more pronounced ... in particular, a number of factors, including continuing increases in energy prices, lower equity prices, and softening home values, seem likely to weigh on consumer spending as we move into 2008."

If Everyone's Finger-Pointing, Who's to Blame?

January 22, 2008
If Everyone's Finger-Pointing, Who's to Blame?

A wave of lawsuits is beginning to wash over the troubled mortgage market and the rest of the financial world. Homeowners are suing mortgage lenders. Mortgage lenders are suing Wall Street banks. Wall Street banks are suing loan specialists. And investors are suing everyone.

Two questions lie at the heart of many of the cases. The first is whether lenders and investment banks alerted borrowers and investors to the risks posed by subprime loans or securities backed by them. The second is how much they were legally obliged to disclose. "Those are the two issues that are frequently raised," said Jayant W. Tambe, a partner at the law firm Jones Day.

As defaults and foreclosures rise, the various players in the housing market are all pointing fingers at each other. State prosecutors like Andrew M. Cuomo, the attorney general of New York, are investigating whether investment banks that packaged mortgages into securities disclosed the risks to investors and credit ratings agencies. Investment banks, in turn, are accusing lenders and mortgage brokers of shoddy business practices.

"What strikes me here is that this a tainted system from A to Z," said Tamar Frankel, a law professor at Boston University. "Everybody blames everybody else. If you look at what is being said, there isn't one who doesn't blame another and there is half-truth in everything."

Economic Good Times Were Mostly a Mirage

January 23, 2008
Economic Good Times Were Mostly a Mirage

The great moderation now seems to have depended — in part — on a huge speculative bubble, first in stocks and then real estate, that hid the economy's rough edges. Everyone from first-time home buyers to Wall Street chief executives made bets they did not fully understand, and then spent money as if those bets couldn't go bad. For the past 16 years, American consumers have increased their overall spending every single quarter, which is almost twice as long as any previous streak.

Now, some worry, comes the payback. Martin Feldstein, the éminence grise of Republican economists, says he is concerned that the economy "could slip into a recession and that the recession could be a long, deep, severe one." In Monday's Democratic presidential debate, Barack Obama made the same argument: "We could be sliding into an extraordinary recession," he said.

US rejects Japan request over fuel use in 'war on terror'

January 20, 2008
US rejects Japan request over fuel use in 'war on terror'

TOKYO (AFP) - The United States has rejected a request by Japan that it verify Tokyo's contribution to the US-led "war on terror" in Afghanistan is not used for military operations in Iraq, a report said Sunday.

They also argued that it was impossible to strictly match the amount of fuel provided with the amount consumed for certain purposes as the vessels' fuel tanks were never empty, Kyodo reported.

The US even warned that it would have to consider not accepting the fuel if Japan did not give up on the provisions.

The naval mission was suspended in November after Japan's opposition won the upper house of parliament and vowed that the officially pacifist nation should not take part in "American wars".

CIA Official May Have Destroyed Tapes

January 22, 2008
CIA Official May Have Destroyed Tapes

Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) -- A CIA official may have acted on his own in ordering the destruction of videotapes of harsh interrogations of two al-Qaeda operatives, contrary to directions that the tapes be preserved, a Republican lawmaker said.

The House Intelligence Committee has evidence that Jose Rodriguez, the former head of the CIA's clandestine service, didn't seek authority to order the tapes' destruction in 2005, Michigan Representative Pete Hoekstra, the panel's top Republican, told reporters today in Washington.

New Generation of Homeless Vets Emerges

January 20, 2008
New Generation of Homeless Vets Emerges

But it is happening to a new generation. As the war in Afghanistan plods on in its seventh year, and the war in Iraq in its fifth, a new cadre of homeless veterans is taking shape.

The 1,500 are a small, young segment of an estimated 336,000 veterans in the United States who were homeless at some point in 2006, the most recent year for which statistics are available, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

Still, advocates for homeless veterans use words like "surge" and "onslaught" and even "tsunami" to describe what could happen in the coming years, as both wars continue and thousands of veterans struggle with post-traumatic stress.

FBI Coverup: government officials stealing nuclear secrets

January 22, 2008
FBI Coverup: government officials stealing nuclear secrets

She says the FBI was investigating a Turkish and Israeli-run network that paid high-ranking American officials to steal nuclear weapons secrets. These were then sold on the international black market to countries such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

One of the documents relating to the case was marked 203A-WF-210023. Last week, however, the FBI responded to a freedom of information request for a file of exactly the same number by claiming that it did not exist. But The Sunday Times has obtained a document signed by an FBI official showing the existence of the file.

White House Study Found 473 Days of E-Mail Gone

January 18, 2008
White House Study Found 473 Days of E-Mail Gone

The White House possesses no archived e-mail messages for many of its component offices, including the Executive Office of the President and the Office of the Vice President, for hundreds of days between 2003 and 2005, according to the summary of an internal White House study that was disclosed yesterday by a congressional Democrat.

The 2005 study -- whose credibility the White House attacked this week -- identified 473 separate days in which no electronic messages were stored for one or more White House offices, said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.).

The United States is now on sale at discount prices

January 20, 2008
The United States is now on sale at discount prices

Last May, a Saudi Arabian conglomerate bought a Massachusetts plastics maker. In November, a French company established a new factory in Adrian, Mich., adding 189 automotive jobs to an area accustomed to layoffs. In December, a British company bought a New Jersey maker of cough syrup.

For much of the world, the United States is now on sale at discount prices. With credit tight, unemployment growing and worries mounting about a potential recession, American business and government leaders are courting foreign money to keep the economy growing. Foreign investors are buying aggressively, taking advantage of American duress and a weak dollar to snap up what many see as bargains, while making inroads to the world's largest market.

Bernanke presses the panic button

January 22, 2008
Bernanke presses the panic button

Given the clear connection between Tuesday's rate cut and global market turmoil, it is hard to avoid at least one conclusion. Bernanke has proven, once and for all, that juicing the stock market is now considered Job No. 1 for the Federal Reserve Bank. The material effects of rate cuts do not show up in economic growth statistics for months or even years after their enactment. By making an emergency "inter-meeting" cut a mere eight days before its regularly scheduled meeting,
Bernanke is conducting economic policy in order to appease market psychology. The fragile psyches of Wall Street traders who played such a pivotal role in creating this mess by romping through the derivatives wonderland, are now in control of government strategy.

How bad can it get? Economist Nouriel Roubini, who has been preaching doom for years, declares that the oncoming "recession will be ugly, deep and severe, much more severe than the mild 8-month recessions in 1990-91 and 2001." Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, observes that the housing bust "is creating the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression and might well lead to the most serious recession since World War II."

Bush's Yearly Approval Average Fourth Worst Since 1945

January 18, 2008
Bush's Yearly Approval Average Fourth Worst Since 1945

PRINCETON,NJ -- For his seventh full year in office, beginning Jan. 20, 2007, and ending Jan.
19, 2008, George W. Bush averaged a 33.3% job approval rating. That is down from a 37.3% average for his sixth year in office, and is the lowest of his presidency. It is also one of the lowest
for a president since Gallup regularly began tracking presidential job approval in 1945.

After receiving very strong approval ratings for his first two years in office, fueled by strong public support following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bush's approval ratings have shown consistent decline. His yearly approval average has now fallen in each of the last five years of his presidency, and has dropped a total of 38 points from where it was during his second year in office.

Opium fields spread across Iraq

January 17, 2008
Opium fields spread across Iraq

The cultivation of opium poppies whose product is turned into heroin is spreading rapidly across Iraq as farmers find they can no longer make a living through growing traditional crops.

Afghan with experience in planting poppies have been helping farmers switch to producing opium in fertile parts of Diyala province, once famous for its oranges and pomegranates, north- east of Baghdad.

At a heavily guarded farm near the town of Buhriz, south of the provincial capital Baquba, poppies are grown between the orange trees in order to hide them, according to a local source.

GOP funk slows turnout, money

January 16, 2008
GOP funk slows turnout, money

Republicans are facing a threat that spells serious trouble for GOP candidates from the top of the ticket down to the most obscure races. The problem is the funk of the foot soldiers.

So far, the story of the 2008 campaign on the Republican side is what's not happening.

Ambitious Republican politicians at the state and local levels are not deciding that this is the year to make a bid for higher office.

Republican contributors are not opening their wallets and writing campaign checks.
Most striking of all, Republican voters are not heading to the polls to vote in the GOP primaries in anything like participation rates of early years.

Army Chief May Shorten Tours In Iraq, Afghanistan by Summer

January 17, 2008
Army Chief May Shorten Tours In Iraq, Afghanistan by Summer

Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army's chief of staff, said yesterday he hopes to shorten the 15-month tours in Iraq and Afghanistan this summer. The move would end a policy, required by the buildup of nearly 30,000 U.S. troops in Iraq last year, that has placed significant stress on soldiers and their families.

Casey suggested that the withdrawal from Iraq of five U.S. Army combat brigades by July could allow soldiers once again to deploy for 12 months and then spend a year at home, although he cautioned that a decision will depend on conditions in Iraq.

Ft. Carson sent ailing GIs to meet deployment goals

January 17, 2008
Ft. Carson sent ailing GIs to meet deployment goals

COLORADO SPRINGS — Fort Carson sent soldiers who were not medically fit to war zones last month to meet "deployable strength" goals, according to e-mails obtained by The Denver Post.

One e-mail, written Jan. 3 by the surgeon for Fort Carson's 3rd Brigade Combat Team, says: "We have been having issues reaching deployable strength, and thus have been taking along some borderline soldiers who we would otherwise have left behind for continued treatment."

Bush Ignores Record Debt: Pushes $150 Billion Package

January 19, 2008
Bush Ignores Record Debt: Pushes $150 Billion Package

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Saturday "the kind of spending projects that would have little immediate impact on our economy" should not be part of any stimulus package, setting the stage for a possible clash with Democrats.

Bush and the Democratic-controlled Congress are emphasizing their desire to work together as they rush negotiations on a short-term measure to prevent the economy from falling into recession. But while there is broad agreement that one-time tax rebates for consumers will be part of the package, there are different priorities at work for the rest of the measure.

UK Army chiefs Slam Gates and US Military

January 17, 2008
UK Army chiefs Slam Gates and US Military

British commanders were outraged after the US defence secretary criticised other Nato troops for their role in the bloody conflict in Afghanistan.

Robert Gates said the 30,000 US troops in Afghanistan were "doing a terrific job" in confronting the Taliban insurgency.

He added, however: "I think our allies over there, this is not something they have any experience with."

Mr Gates's comments caused an international outcry following months of simmering tensions between the U.S. and its allies over strategy in Afghanistan.

Senior British officers in Afghanistan said he should "wind his neck in".

US Court: Guantanamo detainees 'have no right to sue Pentagon

January 12, 2008
US Court: Guantanamo detainees 'have no right to sue Pentagon

A US appeals court ruled that four former Guantanamo prisoners, all British citizens, had no right to sue top Pentagon officials for torture and violations of their religious rights.

The decision by a three-judge panel to dismiss the lawsuit was issued on the sixth anniversary of the arrival of the first detainees at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Worldwide Protest to Close Guantanamo Prison Cam

January 16, 2008
Worldwide Protest to Close Guantanamo Prison Camp

Dressed like Guantanamo prisoners and covered with hoods, the demonstrators demanded that the prison camp, that was established six years ago and symbolizes the US use of torture, be closed once and for all, says a Granma report.

In Spain, protestors delivered a statement in which 170 parliament members urged the closing of the prison. In the United States, demonstrators from different cities converged on Washington to make themselves heard.

WH Admits It Destoyed Ema

January 16, 2008
WH Admits It Destoyed Email

Yesterday's midnight filing by the White House in CREW v. Executive Office of the President, a lawsuit challenging the failure of the White House to preserve and restore millions of missing emails, raises some very troubling questions that the White House clearly does not want to answer.

The White House has now admitted that it does not have an effective system for storing and preserving emails. This is no mere technicality; it is this failure that led to the likely destruction of over 10 million email. What the White House has not explained is why it abandoned the electronic record-keeping system used by the prior administration -- a system that properly preserved White House email -- but did not replace it with another effective and appropriate system.

Canada Adds U.S. to List Of Nations That Tortur

January 19, 2008
Canada Adds U.S. to List Of Nations That Tortur

In Canada, the United States has joined a notorious group of countries -- Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Afghanistan and China, among others -- as a place where foreigners risk torture and abuse, according to a training manual for Canadian diplomats that was accidentally given this week to Amnesty International lawyers.

The manual is intended to create "greater awareness among consular officials to the possibility of Canadians detained abroad being tortured." Part of the workshop is devoted to teaching diplomats how to identify people who have been tortured. It features a section on "U.S. interrogation techniques," including forced nudity, hooding and isolation.

Gates: NATO not up to the job

January 16, 2008
Gates: NATO not up to the job

WASHINGTON -- In an unusual public criticism, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he believes NATO forces currently deployed in southern Afghanistan do not know how to combat a guerrilla insurgency, a deficiency that could be contributing to the rising violence in the fight against the Taliban.

"I'm worried we're deploying [military advisors] that are not properly trained and I'm worried we have some military forces that don't know how to do counterinsurgency operations," Gates said in an interview.

Iraq Defense Minister: Need for U.S. Help in Iraq Until 2018

January 15, 2008
Iraq Defense Minister: Need for U.S. Help in Iraq Until 2018

FORT MONROE, Va. — The Iraqi defense minister said Monday that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq's borders from external threat until at least 2018.

Those comments from the minister, Abdul Qadir, were among the most specific public projections of a timeline for the American commitment in Iraq by officials in either Washington or Baghdad. And they suggested a longer commitment than either government had previously indicated.

Poll: economy tops war in election

January 15, 2008
Poll: economy tops war in election

Washington; and battle creek, mich. - Within the space of a few weeks, economic worries have displaced the Iraq war as the top political issue in the United States, upending the carefully laid plans of presidential candidates and causing Congress and the White House to consider emergency measures intended to prevent – or moderate – a looming recession.

In one sense the rise of pocketbook issues reflects a glimmer of good news. Reduced violence in Baghdad has made Iraq seem a less pressing concern to many US voters.

ER Wait Times Getting Longer

January 15, 2008
ER Wait Times Getting Longer

TUESDAY, Jan. 15 (HealthDay News) -- The last thing you want to hear in the emergency room when you've got crushing chest pain or can't breathe is that you have to wait before you can get treatment.

Unfortunately, in too many instances, that's exactly what's happening. In fact, new research found that waiting times in emergency rooms have increased by 36 percent for all patients, to an average of 30 minutes per patient. And the sickest sometimes have to wait the longest: As many as one-quarter of all heart attack patients had to wait 50 minutes or longer before seeing a doctor.

Wholesale inflation hike largest in 26 years

January 15, 2008
Wholesale inflation hike largest in 26 years

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Wholesale inflation shot up in 2007 by the largest amount in 26 years even though falling gasoline costs allowed price pressures to moderate in December.

The Labor Department reported that wholesale inflation was up 6.3 percent for all of 2007, reflecting a huge increase for the year in various types of energy costs ranging from gasoline to home heating oil.

Greenspan sees US in or near recession

January 15, 2008
Greenspan sees US in or near recession

NEW YORK: The US economy is probably in a recession or about to slide into it, former US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

The odds are "not overwhelming but they are marginally in that direction" Greenspan was quoted as saying in the interview, published on Tuesday. "The symptoms are clearly there. Recessions don't happen smoothly.