October 2007 archive

Greetings, literature-loving Dharmenians!  Last week we let ourselves be absorbed into the beautiful incomprehensibility of Job, and nearly every commenter had a different take on that crotchety Old Testament god.  This week we’ll zip ahead thousands of years to a writer who’s still churning out novels today – how’s that for a flash forward?

Here’s a situation to consider: it’s the middle of the night in an abandoned temple in the middle of metropolitan Japan, and Colonel Sanders (yes, that Colonel Sanders) is telling you that the fate of the world relies on your flipping over a rock.  There’s nothing underneath the rock, and nothing seems to happen when you move it, but the man from the chicken bucket seems awfully insistent.  What do you do?

Welcome to the wonderful, weird, and occasionally horrifying world of Japan’s most (internationally) popular novelist.

I don’t have much today… just some sign posts.

Remember, don’t rec the pony party. it’s just for chit chat…

Oh for crap’s sakes. I assume since it’s a day old, most everyone has seen this article in the New Yorker by Seymour Hersh but I’m just seeing it today.

Note: All emphasis below mine. All curse words (mine also) removed before publishing

It begins:

In a series of public statements in recent months, President Bush and members of his Administration have redefined the war in Iraq, to an increasing degree, as a strategic battle between the United States and Iran. “Shia extremists, backed by Iran, are training Iraqis to carry out attacks on our forces and the Iraqi people,” Bush told the national convention of the American Legion in August. “The attacks on our bases and our troops by Iranian-supplied munitions have increased. . . . The Iranian regime must halt these actions. And, until it does, I will take actions necessary to protect our troops.” He then concluded, to applause, “I have authorized our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran’s murderous activities.”

I am too discouraged for words.

This is an OPEN THREAD. Here are four stories in the news at 4 o’clock to get you started. Whoever pats scoripions with the hand of compassion gets stung.

1. According to The Guardian, 1,000 British troops will be redeployed home by Christmas. In his visit to Baghdad today, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced Britain will redeploy 1,000 of its remaining troops from Iraq. “The prime minister brushed off concerns the security situation would deteriorate, predicting that Iraqi forces could take control of Basra province within the next two months. ¶ Mr Brown said the UK force in Basra would be cut from 5,500 to 4,500, meaning 1,000 troops were likely to be ‘home by Christmas’. ¶ However, the departure of 500 of these forces had already been announced last month.” The Telegraph, of course, reports on the Tories’ anger over Basra pullout announcement. “The Prime Minister was attacked by former Prime Minister Sir John Major for failing to make his announcement on troop withdrawals to the House of Commons. He was also accused of playing a ‘shameful’ political game after he sprung a surprise visit to Iraq timed to coincide with the Conservative party conference. Sir John questioned the timing of the announcement and the number of troops it appeared to concern.” He said: “I’ve no conceivable idea why 1,000, rather than the 2,000 that was briefed, or any other number. I’m not sure what the mission of the remaining troops may be, but in particular I’m not sure what will happen between now and Christmas that will justify the thousand coming home.” The Independent has more on Brown’s ‘Home by Christmas’ pledge. “He said that this would involve the present British force of 5,500 being cut to 4,500 – freeing up the troops for other duties.” I’m guessing those ‘other duties’ involve redeployment to Afghanistan.

2. The Guardian reports that scientists with Conservation International fear the Amazon jungle could be lost in 40 years time, because of threat from development and new transportation routes. “The Amazonian wilderness is at risk of unprecedented damage from an ambitious plan to improve transport, communications and power generation in the region… ¶ Development plans have been drawn up to boost trade links between 10 economic hubs on the continent, but threaten to bring ‘a perfect storm of environmental destruction’ to the world’s oldest rainforest, according to a report from Conservation International. ¶ Projects to upgrade road and river transport, combined with work to create dams and lay down extensive power and communications cabling, will open up previously inaccessible parts of the rainforest, raising the risk of widespread deforestation that could see the loss of the entire Amazon jungle within 40 years, the environmental group said.”

3. Science Daily reports Arctic sea ice extent may have fallen by 50 percent since 1950s. “Arctic sea ice during the 2007 melt season plummeted to the lowest levels since satellite measurements began in 1979, according to researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder’s National Snow and Ice Data Center. ¶ The average sea ice extent for the month of September was 1.65 million square miles (4.28 million square kilometers), the lowest September on record, shattering the previous record for the month by 23 percent, which was set in 2005. At the end of the melt season, September 2007 sea ice was 39 percent below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000. ¶ If ship and aircraft records from before the satellite era are taken into account, sea ice may have fallen by as much as 50 percent from the 1950s. The September rate of sea ice decline since 1979 is now more than 10 percent per decade, said the CU-Boulder research team.” While BBC News reports “the giant Ayles Ice Island drifting off Canada’s northern shores has broken in two – far earlier than expected.” The New York Times adds this summer’s Arctic melt unnerves the experts. “The Arctic ice cap shrank so much this summer that waves briefly lapped along two long-imagined Arctic shipping routes, the Northwest Passage over Canada and the Northern Sea Route over Russia… ¶ Now the six-month dark season has returned to the North Pole. In the deepening chill, new ice is already spreading over vast stretches of the Arctic Ocean. Astonished by the summer’s changes, scientists are studying the forces that exposed one million square miles of open water — six Californias — beyond the average since satellites started measurements in 1979… ¶ The pace of change has far exceeded what had been estimated by almost all the simulations used to envision how the Arctic will respond to rising concentrations of greenhouse gases linked to global warming. But that disconnect can cut two ways. Are the models overly conservative? Or are they missing natural influences that can cause wide swings in ice and temperature, thereby dwarfing the slow background warming?”

4. Today, an explosion of Blackwater related news was triggered by a House Oversight Committee memorandum (pdf) that I wrote about in ‘BOOM! Waxman Fires a Shot Across Blackwater’s Bow!‘ And, as I’ve been compiling today’s Four at Four, Blackwater’s CEO, Erik Prince, was testifying under oath before the committee. I will bring summaries of his testimony tomorrow. In the meantime, I have tried to pick through the more interesting pre-hearing coverage by the traditional media. Most of which, is on the Oversight Committee’s memorandum.

   • The Los Angeles Times gives an overview of the memorandum in ‘Inquiry details Blackwater firings‘. “Blackwater USA, the private security contractor under scrutiny for its role in a deadly Baghdad shootout in September, has sacked 122 of its armed guards in Iraq since it started protecting U.S. diplomats there nearly three years ago… ¶ The firings, most frequently for weapons-related incidents, amount to more than one-seventh of Blackwater’s current workforce in Iraq. None of the people fired has been subject to any legal proceedings or other sanction, the investigation found… ¶ Of the 122 firings, 28 were for weapons-related incidents, including two for improperly shooting at Iraqis and one for threatening Iraqis with a firearm. Another 25 people were discharged for drug and alcohol violations and 16 for ‘inappropriate/lewd conduct.’ Ten others were dismissed for aggressive and violent behavior.” The article concluded with this nugget — “Prince’s brother-in-law is Richard DeVos Jr., former chief executive of the direct sales group Amway. A former Republican gubernatorial candidate in Michigan, DeVos has donated more than $160,000 to the Republican National Committee and Republican congressional committees. ¶ Amway attracted attention in 1993 when it paid former President George H.W. Bush $100,000 for an address to the company’s distributors. At the time, the speaking fee was one of the largest ever paid to a former government official.” Amway! As if there was any doubt these guys were bad news.

   • McClatchy Newspapers weighs in the memorandum with ‘State Department and Blackwater cooperated to neutralize killings. “State Department officials worked closely with the private security contractor Blackwater USA to play down incidents in which company operatives killed innocent Iraqis, according to Blackwater and State Department documents obtained by a congressional committee… ¶ The disclosures appear to contradict past claims by State Department officials that they aggressively investigated wrongdoing by Blackwater. The company has received $835 million in contracts to guard U.S. civilians in Iraq.” The article makes note of criminal investigation launched by the FBI at the request of the State Department.

   • Jurist Legal News gives the scoop, FBI investigating Blackwater role in Iraqi civilian shootings. “The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said Monday that it would send a team of investigators to Iraq to study the circumstances surrounding a September shooting incident involving employees of the privately contracted security firm Blackwater USA that left 11 Iraqi civilians dead. According to the FBI, the US State Department has asked it to determine whether criminal charges should be pursued against the guards involved in the September 16 shooting.” It is doubtful that even if the Bush administration’s FBI finds there was criminal wrongdoing, that charges will climb the ladder up to the corporate top of Blackwater.

   • The New York Times split up coverage of the memorandum with at least four stories.

     1. An overview is given in ‘Report says firm sought to cover up Iraq Shootings‘. The article concluded with the news of “the Senate on Monday gave final approval, 92 to 3, to a defense policy bill that included the establishment of an independent commission to investigate private contractors operating in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill, which must be reconciled with a House version, faces a veto threat because it includes an expansion of federal hate-crimes laws.”

     2. In ‘Report Describes Drunken Contractor’s Killing of Iraqi Bodyguard‘, the focus is on the December 2006 murder of Raheem Khalif, a bodyguard for Iraq’s Vice President Adil Abdul Mahdi. “A Blackwater USA employee under investigation in the killing last December of an Iraqi bodyguard in an off-duty confrontation was so drunk after fleeing the shooting that another group of guards took away the loaded pistol he was fumbling with… ¶ Within 36 hours, the report said, Blackwater fired the man for possessing a firearm while drunk and arranged with the State Department to fly him back to the United States, angering Iraqi officials who said the Christmas Eve shooting was murder.” The article then goes on to explain how the memorandum details how the State Department and Blackwater colluded to cover-up the crime. “Blackwater eventually paid the family $15,000, according to the report, after an embassy diplomatic security official complained that the ‘crazy sums’ proposed by the ambassador could encourage Iraqis to try to ‘get killed by our guys to financially guarantee their family’s future.’ ¶ The report did not identify the acting ambassador, but a State Department spokesman, Karl Duckworth, said it was Margaret Scobey.” According to the State Department’s website, Margaret Scobey is now Ambassador to Syria.

     3. ‘Report Depicts Recklessness at Blackwater‘ notes that “the report, based largely on internal Blackwater e-mail messages and State Department documents, depicts the security contractor as being staffed with reckless, shoot-first guards who were not always sober and did not always stop to see who or what was hit by their bullets.” It also calls to attention that “contrary to the terms of its contract, Blackwater sometimes engaged in offensive operations with the American military, instead of confining itself to its protective mission”. An important tangent to note that Waxman’s committee still has uncovered the missing White House/RNC emails.

     4. Finally, Mike Nizza’s blog column, The Lede, focuses on “a few interesting excerpts from the document, including a State Department debate on how much a wrongfully killed Iraqi ought to be worth, what taxpayers are charged for a Blackwater security guard’s working day, the reasons why more than 70 of those expensive contractors have been fired, and a jaw-dropping tale of vehicular recklessness.”

   • CNN reports that Blackwater contractor wrote government report on Blackwater’s Nisoor Square massacre. “The State Department’s initial report of last month’s incident in which Blackwater guards were accused of killing Iraqi civilians was written by a Blackwater contractor working in the embassy security detail, according to government and industry sources. A source involved in diplomatic security at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said a Blackwater contractor, Darren Hanner, drafted the two-page ‘spot report’ on the letterhead of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security for the embassy’s Tactical Operations Center.” Hanner is set to leave Iraq this week. “The man who approved the report was Ricardo Colon, whom the embassy source identified as the embassy’s deputy regional security officer… A Ricardo Colon Cifredo works for the State Department in Iraq.” Iraqi reports contradict Blackwater’s report.

   • Salon looks at the Bush administration’s ties to Blackwater. The article details the money and political connections between Blackwater and the Christian right and the Bush administration. I’ll just post a few interesting facts that are new to me.

     • Blackwater CEO’s mother, Elsa, “currently runs the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation, where, according to IRS filings, her son Erik is a vice-president. The foundation has given lavishly to some of the marquee names of the Christian right. Between July 2003 and July 2006, the foundation gave at least $670,000 to the FRC and $531,000 to Focus on the Family.”

     • “Erik Prince himself is no slouch when it comes to giving to Republicans and cultivating relationships with important conservatives. He and his first and second wives have donated roughly $300,000 to Republican candidates and political action committees. Through his Freiheit Foundation, he also gave $500,000 to Prison Fellowship Ministries, run by former Nixon official Charles Colson, in 2000. In the same year, he contributed $30,000 to the American Entreprise Institute, a conservative think tank. During college, he interned in George H.W. Bush’s White House, and he also interned for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.).”

     • “Blackwater’s benefits from government largesse haven’t ended at Iraq. The company was recently one of five awarded a Department of Defense counter-narcoterrorism contract that could reportedly be worth as much as $15 billion.”

     • “Joseph Schmitz, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel: In 2002, President Bush nominated Schmitz to oversee and police the Pentagon’s military contracts as the Defense Department’s Inspector General… Schmitz resigned in 2005 under mounting pressure from both Democratic and Republican senators, who accused him of interfering with criminal investigations into inappropriately awarded contracts, turning a blind eye to conflicts of interest and other failures of oversight.”

     Think of those as appetizers. For the meat and potatoes, you will need to go read the article.

   • Writing for Salon, P.W. Singer, author and Brookings Institution security analyst, gives an excellent overview of Blackwater and other mercenary firms in ‘The dark truth about Blackwater’. Singer predicts:

     Prince will take his shots, and State officials will point to new investigations they are now launching to try to mollify congressional anger. But regardless of whether the Blackwater contractors were justified in the shooting, whether there was proper jurisdiction to ensure accountability, or even whether using firms like Blackwater saves money (the data shows it does not), there is an underlying problem that everyone is ignoring.

     Our dependency on military contractors shows all the signs of the last downward spirals of an addiction. If we judge by what has happened in Iraq, when it comes to counterinsurgency and the use of private military contractors, the U.S. has locked its national security into a vicious cycle. It can’t win with them, but can’t go to war without them.

     Singer then explains:

     The private military industry was an answer to these political problems that had not existed in the past. It offered the potential backstop of additional forces, but with no one having to lose any political capital. Plus, the generals could avoid the career risk of asking for more troops.

     That is, there was no outcry whenever contractors were called up and deployed, or even killed…

     Hence, while private losses were just the “cost of doing business” for a firm in Iraq, they actually had an undisguised advantage to policymakers. The public usually didn’t even hear about contractor losses, and when they did, they had far less blowback on our government. For all the discussion of contractors as a “private market solution,” the true costs that they hope to save are almost always political in nature.”

     The article is over 7,300 words, but well worth your time to read. Singer also reminds the reader of a his 2004 piece for Salon, ‘Warriors for hire in Iraq‘.

   • CNN reports that an Iraqi official is saying Blackwater was also involved in second shooting September 16. The official said “that a second group of Blackwater contractors on their way to assist the first group later engaged in an hour-long standoff with Iraqi police. The first, widely publicized shooting occurred at Nisoor Square in Baghdad… The second shooting occurred minutes later about 550 yards (500 meters) from Nisoor Square”. This partially confirms what the Washington Post reported from the ‘first blush’ report produced by the U.S. embassy in Baghdad that the U.S. Army interceded on Blackwater’s behalf. “‘The U.S. Army QRF’ — quick-reaction force — ‘arrived on scene at 12:39 hours and mediated the situation,’ the report said. ‘They escorted TST 22 out of the area and successfully back to the [Green Zone] without further incident.'” TST is a Blackwater ‘tactical support team’.

   • Finally, The Washington Post neocon editorial board weighs in with a rather weak-kneed editorial, ‘Blackwater Waves‘ seemingly claiming that investigating Blackwater is simply partisan. But, the editorial grudgingly admits: “Already, though, it seems clear that Blackwater’s critics are right in one important respect: There are inadequate controls over security firms, especially those working for the State Department… Congress and the Bush administration should ensure that those who kill innocent Iraqis or engage in other criminal excesses can be held legally accountable. Moreover, U.S. diplomats and military commanders should exercise more control over the guards who work for them, with the aim of preventing them from needlessly alienating Iraqis. ¶ At the same time it is foolish to propose the elimination of private security firms in Iraq and Afghanistan, at least in the short term… More than 130,000 contractors serve the U.S. mission in Iraq, including some 30,000 security guards, and without them it would be impossible for U.S. forces to function.” What the warmongers at the Post call foolish, I call prudent — get rid of the mercenaries, force the occupation to end.

One more story about the 50th anniversary of Sputnik below the fold…

Samson was going all out, catching a stride that almost felt like floating. Though he was more known for his cutting skills, and bravery among bulls, he was showing me in a pinch he could also be a race horse. But even with his gallant effort, he was still a good five lengths back from the steed carrying my rose.

Down we galloped into valley, playing lover’s games as rode down tree-lined country lanes. She would look back, her long black hair flowing like pozos lit by an angel’s halo from the large Mexican harvest moon. We raced towards the music that was waffing over the next ridge.

Samson did his best to catch her filly, since he felt the same about that horse as I did it’s rider, but it was all for not. You can never truly ever catch a rancher’s daughter from the El Bajio.