The Upcoming Resolution for War on Iran

Reading through the Kyl-Lieberman amendment (hat tip Laura Rozen), you’d think that the Ryan-Crocker dog and pony show was designed to justify war on Iran. And you might be right. The amendment cites four Petraeus statements about Iranian influence in Iraq and four Crocker statements. And intersperses those with cherry-picked citations to create the illusion that Iran is the only outside force causing trouble in Iran. For example, when they cite Ahmadinejad talking about the vacuum US failure will leave in Iraq…

"The political power of the occupiers is collapsing rapidly," MrAhmadinejad said at a press conference in Tehran. "Soon, we will see ahuge power vacuum in the region. Of course, we are prepared to fill thegap,

They neglect to mention that Ahmadinejad nods to Saudi Arabia and Iraq in his statement…

… with the help of neighbours and regional friends like SaudiArabia, and with the help of the Iraqi nation."

(A detail that even Fox managed to include.) And when they cite from the NIE’s list of neighboring countries likely to make trouble in Iraq…

Dick Kicked Over Condi’s Soapbox

Via TP, Howie Kurtz reveals that the networks don’t want Condi anymore.

The secretary of state has always been considered a prize catch for the Sunday talk shows. But when the White House offered Condoleezza Rice for appearances eight days ago, after a week focused on Iraq, two programs took the unusual step of turning her down.

Executivesat CBS and NBC say Rice no longer seems to be a key player on the warand that her cautious style makes her a frustrating guest.

"Iexpected we’d just get a repetition of the administration’s talkingpoints, which had already been well circulated," says Bob Schieffer,host of CBS’s "Face the Nation," who questioned two senators instead."We’d had a whole week of that with General Petraeus and President Bush. I thought it was more important to get a sense of where the Senate Republicans were."

Tim Russert, moderator of "Meet the Press," who also hosted two senators, declined to comment on why he turned down Rice.

Given the irrational economy of the Sunday shows, I don’t necessarily think this is a good thing. Given Scott Pelley’s grilling of Ahmedinejad the other day, it’s clear that CBS ("Complicit Behavior in Sadism"?) still welcomes the White House’s talking points. So losing Condi Read more

NSA Takes Over Internet Security from DHS

That’s not exactly what this article says–but it’s close. The NSA–our nation’s most effective spy agency–is going to adopt major new duties in policing our public internets.

In a major shift, the National Security Agency is drawing up plans fora new domestic assignment: helping protect government and privatecommunications networks from cyberattacks and infiltration byterrorists and hackers, according to current and former intelligenceofficials.

[snip]

The plan calls for the NSA to work with the Department of HomelandSecurity and other federal agencies to monitor such networks to preventunauthorized intrusion, according to those with knowledge of what isknown internally as the "Cyber Initiative." [my emphasis]

Note the sources and level of classification and the implications of this move.

Details of the project arehighly classified.

[snip]

Current and former intelligence officials, including several NSAveterans, warned that the agency’s venture into domestic computer andcommunications networks — even if limited to protecting them — couldraise new privacy concerns.

[snip]

"If you’re going to do cybersecurity, you have to spy on Americans tosecure Americans," said a former government official familiar with NSAoperations. "It would be a very major step."

[snip]

A former senior NSA official said the difference between monitoringnetworks in order to defend them and monitoring them to collectintelligence is very small.

The former officials spoke on condition of anonymity to protect relationships with intelligence agencies. [my emphasis]

I’m guessing George Bush is going to be at least as pissed about this story getting out as he was pissed about the hospital confrontation story getting out. They’re planning to spy on Americans, this is a big new deal, and they’re not actually telling us about it.

And Now the Saudis

Argentine meltdown, here we come. The Saudis are showing signs of disinterest in going down the economic tubes with their friend George.

Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates in lockstep with the USFederal Reserve for the first time, signalling that the oil-rich Gulfkingdom is preparing to break the dollar currency peg in a move thatrisks setting off a stampede out of the dollar across the Middle East.

"This is a very dangerous situation for the dollar," said Hans Redeker, currency chief at BNP Paribas.

"SaudiArabia has $800bn (£400bn) in their future generation fund, and theentire region has $3,500bn under management. They face an inflationarythreat and do not want to import an interest rate policy set for therecessionary conditions in the United States," he said.

TheSaudi central bank said today that it would take "appropriate measures"to halt huge capital inflows into the country, but analysts say thispolicy is unsustainable and will inevitably lead to the collapse of thedollar peg.

As a close ally of the US, Riyadh has so far tried to stick to the peg, but the link is now destabilising its own economy. [my emphasis]

As Susie points out, one of the goals of the Iraq invasion was to punish Iraq for pegging Read more

$1.40

Atrios points out that the Euro has just pushed past $1.40.

140

Let’s see. In the last two days, the Fed has cut interest rates by half a point, making what is probably a futile attempt to staunch the subprime crisis. And yesterday, Henry Paulson asked Congress to raise the debt limit before we once again hit our debt limit on October 1–which will make the fifth time Bush has had to ask his creditors to increase his credit card balance.

Is anyone surprised the dollar is at record lows? Good thing my brother-in-law’s wife is having a baby in South Carolina, which means the Irish in-laws will visit the states more frequently. Because Europe is going to be much too expensive for people from banana republics like the Bush-era USA.

Update: Oh jeebus. As Lurcher points out, the Canadian dollar is hovering around parity with the US dollar.

The 1% Leadership Solution

scout prime catches Michael Chertoff looking like the self-important incompetent he is. She finds that:

  • Michael Chertoff has a blog. Yes, that’s right folks. And his blog is called How to Kill a City. No wait. I’m sorry. It’s called Leadership Journal.
  • Faced with yet another intractable crisis, the Bush Administration is doing what it always does. Name a Czar!!

Not to worry. There has never been a problem that could not be solved by flinging a good ‘ol Czar or 2 at it…

We have a moral obligation to help the people of Iraq, especially thoseindividuals assisting coalition forces and putting their own lives atrisk. But we also have a responsibility to prevent terrorists frominfiltrating our borders. Our new Iraqi Refugee Czars will make sure wemeet both of these objectives, and that our re-settlement process movesforward swiftly and with our highest priority. We welcome your commentsand appreciate your time. (scout prime’s emphasis)

  • Chertoff is celebrating the success of the US in resettling 940 Iraqis, which works out to be just a teeny fraction of one percent of the 1.8 million Iraqis who are now refugees.

The Bush Administration folks. Where we can look back with longing on the days of a Gentleman’s C.

It’s All Zapruder’s Fault

Jay Rosen posts and comments on a letter from an anonymous member of the WH press corps. Said anonymous journalist tells you everything you need to know about the WH press corps: It’s all Zapruder‘s fault. Zapruder, of course, was the guy–the only guy–who filmed all of Kennedy’s assassination. And apparently, the press corps has to subject itself to continual abuse from the Administration because once upon a time, some average citizen (and not the press corps) got the scoop on the biggest story of the year.

What we are responsible for is making sure that, if he collapses, or isshot at, we are in a position to get that information to ourviewers/listeners/readers.

Now to be fair to this anonymous reporter, he seems to recognize how godawful the coverage of the White House is, on account not just of the masochism it requires from reporters, but also because editors seem to think they had better get a return on the full-time assassin-watcher they’re paying, so they let press corps reporters cover events that reporters on other beats ought to cover.

But the notion that the White House press corps can’t simply blow off the latest in White House propaganda because Bush might Read more

More Inauspiciousness: Your Rent-a-Sheikh Gets Killed

As many of you have pointed out, the guy I called Bush’s Rent-a-Thuggish-Sheikh last week died in a bomb blast today.

The leader of local Sunni tribes in Iraqwho have joined American and Iraqi forces in fighting extremist Sunnimilitants was killed by a bomb today, Iraqi police officials said,potentially undermining what has become a new thrust of United Statespolicy in the country.

[snip]

It could be a significant setback for American efforts to work more closely with local tribes against Al Qaeda.Recently the council had begun to reach out to other tribes to bringthem into closer cooperation with the American and Iraqi government,and had met recently with southern Shia leaders.Authorities imposed astate of emergency in Anbar Province following his assassination,police officials said. At least one other person escorting him was alsokilled in the explosion.

So Bush’s big debut for Magical September just got further clouded. First the oil compromise collapses on the eve of his presentation. And now the guy Bush was parading around last week as the symbol of great promise in Anbar just got blown to bits. But don’t worry. I’m sure Bush won’t … um … dwell on these depressing details.

Mark Lynch has more on the meaning of Risha’s death, including the speculation that Risha was not killed by Al Qaeda.

Oil Oops

It is probably inauspicious for Bush that on the eve of his debut in the Magical September extravaganza, the elusive Iraqi oil compromise is falling apart.

A carefully constructed compromise on a draft law governing Iraq’srich oil fields, agreed to in February after months of arduous talksamong Iraqi political groups, appears to have collapsed. The apparentbreakdown comes just as Congress and the White House are struggling tofind evidence that there is progress toward reconciliation and afunctioning government here.

There appears to be two causes for the collapse. First, Bush’s Sunni allies out in Anbar (and elsewhere) would rather embarrass Maliki than solidify a deal that will give them a share of the oil revenues.

But the prime minister’s office believes there is a simpler reason theSunnis abandoned or at least held off on the deal: signing it wouldhave given Mr. Maliki a political success that they did not want him tohave. “I think there is a political reason behind that delay in ordernot to see the Iraqi government achieve the real agreement,” said Sadiqal-Rikabi, a political adviser to Mr. Maliki. Mr. Rikabi was atWednesday’s meeting.

At least that’s what Maliki would like you to think–blame the Sunnis.

And then, of course, there are the independent Read more

Jim Webb Channels emptywheel

You think the former Secretary of the Navy keeps close ties with Navy officers? Or is Jim Webb calling on Carl Levin to ask Admiral Fallon to testify to the Armed Service Committee because he, like me, thinks Fallon will have a different perspective to offer?

WEBB: [T]here’s something of a kabuki going on right now.You know, the Petraeus report was brought in. On the one hand they’recalling it independent; on the other, General Petraeus and AmbassadorCrocker, from my understanding, gave a one-hour exclusive interview toFox News after their first day of testimony. […]

So it was a very narrow and focused two days of hearings…weneed to hear from people like Admiral Fallon and others to get a senseof how the region is in play. …  He was, by many accounts, questioning keeping these troop levels this high. […]

So I’m going to be recommending to Senator Levin that we get Admiral Fallon in and get his views on the region.

Just remember to ask Admiral Fallon if winning the Iraq War but ruining our military will make us safer, Senator Webb. I have a feeling that Fallon, unlike Petraeus, will have a pretty definite answer.