[ Civilian and military intelligence officials report that “most of the prisoners held in the special cellblock that became the setting for the worst abuses at Abu Ghraib apparently were not linked to the insurgency.” –BL ] May 27, 2004 | New York Times by DOUGLAS JEHL and ERIC SCHMITT WASHINGTON, May 26 — The questioning of hundreds of Iraqi prisoners last fall in the newly established interrogation center at Abu Ghraib prison yielded very little valuable intelligence, according to civilian and military officials.
Daily Archives: May 27, 2004
10 posts
[ Environmental author Bill McKibben argues that global population may peak within a generation: We’ve increased the population fourfold in that 150 years; the amount of food we grow has gone up faster still; the size of our economy has quite simply exploded. But now — now may be the special time. So special that in the Western world we might each of us consider, among many other things, having only one child — that is, reproducing at a rate as low as that at which human beings have ever voluntarily reproduced. Is this really necessary? Are we finally running […]
[ Is the Justice Department’s “extraordinary public announcement” of possibly impending terror attacks an attempt to create more fear in order to sway voters toward Bush? From the article: Although the U.S. intelligence community says it has been concerned for some time about the potential implications for the United States of the Madrid bombings, some U.S. counterterrorism officials told Newsweek they were aware of no sudden surge in ?chatter??intercepts of terrorists communications?or other indicators of a possible imminent attack…. Notably, the Department of Homeland Security did not participate in today’s announcement… After all, polls show that in voters’ minds Bush […]
Iran: Fifty years later August 18, 2003 by George Will Tehran, Iran, Aug. 19 — Iranians loyal to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, including Tehran civilians, soldiers and rural tribesmen, swept Premier Mohammed Mossadegh out of power today in a revolution and apparently had seized at least temporary control of the country. —New York Times, Aug. 20, 1953 WASHINGTON — This anniversary reminds us that America is not new to the business of regime change. Fifty years ago U.S. and British intelligence services — the principal U.S. operative was Kermit Roosevelt, Teddy’s grandson — had a remarkably easy time overthrowing Iran’s […]
U.S. military arrests war’s ‘bargaining chips’ May 25, 2004 | Newsday by MOHAMAD BAZZI BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. troops wanted Jeanan Moayad’s father. When they couldn’t find him, they took her husband in his place. Dhafir Ibrahim has been in U.S. custody for nearly four months. Moayad insists that he is being held as a bargaining chip, and military officials have told her that he will be released when her father surrenders. Her father is a scientist and former Baath party member who fled to Jordan soon after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. “My husband is a hostage,” said […]
26 May 2004 | The Independent by Kim Sengupta The US and British occupation of Iraq has accelerated recruitment to the ranks of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network and made the world a less safe place, according to a leading London-based think-tank. The assessment, by the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), states that the occupation has become “a potent global recruitment pretext” for al-Qa’ida, which now has more than 18,000 militants ready to strike Western targets. It claims that although half of al-Qa’ida’s 30 senior leaders and up to 2,000 rank-and-file members have been killed or captured, a rump […]
[ From the piece: One of the New York Times‘ star reporters, Judith Miller, is known to have relied heavily on Mr Chalabi for stories about Iraq’s purported weapons of mass destruction, although she was not named in today’s piece. –BL ]May 26, 2004 | The Guardian by Claire Cozens The New York Times today issued an extraordinary mea culpa over its coverage of Iraq, admitting it had been misled about the presence of weapons of mass destruction by sources including the controversial Iraqi leader Ahmad Chalabi. In a note to readers published today under the headline ‘The Times and Iraq’, […]
May 25th, 2004 | Village Voice by James Ridgeway Details of a Florida drug case may well shed light on the claims of an FBI translator who says the agency covered up evidence warning of the 9-11 attack. Sibel Edmonds, the translator, said in an interview Monday with the Voice that the Florida case illustrates the issues and evidence she has been trying to make public for two years. Edmonds claimed to have translated testimony in criminal and counter-intelligence cases involving different FBI field offices, going back into the late 1990s. Much of this involved tracking money, she said. Among […]
20 May 2004 | Deseret Morning News by Joe Bauman and Lee Davidson New projects planned for the Nevada Test Site are raising concern that nuclear bomb testing may resume there. Local and national military watchdogs say all indications are that President Bush, if re-elected, would begin testing some types of nuclear weapons before the end of the decade at the NTS, located about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas and upwind of Utah.
May 25, 2004 | Cape Cod Times by Sean Gonsalves Amount you owe for the war in Iraq: $4,000. Make check payable to Uncle Sam’s Iraq Quagmire Fund. If you dispute any portion of this bill call 1-800-IMPEACH-THIS.