This is an OPEN THREAD. Here are four stories in the news at 4 o’clock to get you started. A path and a gateway have no meaning, once the objective is in sight.

1. The Washington Post reports of an emboldened Taliban is carrying out more attacks with greater reach. Some of the Taliban’s attacks have been in the provinces ringing Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital and the headquarters of international troops. The U.S. and Afghan officials disagree with assessments that these attacks indicate a Taliban major military resurgence. “The Afghanistan NGO Safety Office, a project funded by the European Commission…, found “a significant monthly escalation in conflict” in the first half of the year. Attacks by armed opposition groups increased from 139 in January to 405 in July” and “every month there’s a 20 to 25 percent increase in offensive activity”. Attacks in June and July were more than 80 percent higher than the same period last year. “U.S. Army Gen. Dan K. McNeill, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, said much of the activity attributed to the Taliban and other militant groups probably was not part of the anti-government insurgency, but more likely was related to criminal activity, narcotics trafficking and tribal disputes. And in some cases, he said, levels of conflict are up because more NATO, U.S. and Afghan forces are pushing into areas of the country where they had never operated. There are an estimated 50,000 international troops here, about half of them American. ‘Logic tells you the number of incidents you report are going to be increased,’ he said.” McNeill also acknowledged difficulty with fighting and holding ground. “We’re not all the force we should be, both in size and capability,” he said. Who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?

2. In the column, Betrayal by Blackwater, for GulfNews, Mayada Al Askari writes, “So who does Blackwater USA do business with? The US State Department, with contracts reaching $715 million in Iraq. ¶ Can Condoleezza Rice be wanting a private army for her State Department now? Well, as almost everyone has a mini militia in Iraq today, staying in vogue is very tempting. ¶ US troops in Iraq make anywhere between $28,000-$40,000 annually, while Blackwater USA boys make the sum monthly, tax exempted.” Askari goes on to ask what laws actually do apply to Blackwater (none) and then recounts George W. Bush being asked about it in 2006:

   President George W. Bush spoke at the South Asian Studies Organisation on April 10, 2006 marking the third anniversary of Iraqi freedom. On that memorable day, one student asked Bush: “The Uniform Code of Military Justice does not apply to Private Military Contractors in Iraq, I asked your Secretary of Defence Mr Rumsfeld what law governs their actions?”

   To which Bush replies, half jokingly,: “I’m gonna ask him… help”.

   The student laughs with everyone else and goes on with her question: “I was hoping for a more specific answer here, Mr Rumsfeld said Iraq had its own domestic laws which he assumed applied to these PMCs, however, Iraq is clearly unable to enforce its laws, much less over our PMCs, I would surmise to you that in this case privatisation is not a solution. How do you propose to bring PMCs under a system of law?”

   Bush smiles and says: “I was not kidding [needless to say the house went down with laughter] I’m a gonna pick up the phone – I am not dodging the question, it’s very convenient, but I will really call him and ask.”

   This is one example of how the Blackwater shootout is being written about in the Mid-East press. (The White House transcript of Bush’s remarks is available.) Maybe someone in the D.C. press corp should ask Bush the same question again?

   Spiegel gives a rundown of how the shootout unfolded in ‘Blackwater’s Hail of Gunfire‘ and how other security contractors go about their jobs in Baghdad.

   Big vehicles, loud sirens, visible weapons, helicopters — Blackwater favors anything that can be used to keep potential enemies at bay. The aggressive attitude of the firm’s security details has earned its employees the nickname “testosterone monsters.” Employees from other security contractors are often happy to get past a Blackwater-run convoy in one piece.

   Some other firms — mostly British and Canadian — prefer to take a lower profile approach on the streets of Baghdad. Although they also drive armor-plated cars, their vehicles are much more inconspicuous than Blackwater’s SUVs. Most are BMW or Mercedes models from the 1980s which have been stripped of conspicuous accessories and which are deliberately left unwashed so as to blend in better on the streets of Baghdad. The drivers wear checkered short-sleeve shirts over their bulletproof vests so as to look like average Iraqi men. Some even go as far as dyeing their blond hair black and wearing dark contact lenses to look more like the locals… However, that doesn’t mean they are guaranteed safe passage around the city.

   The AP reports that this ‘Cowboy’ aggression works for Blackwater. “Not one diplomat has died while being guarded by employees of the politically connected company based in the swamplands of northeastern North Carolina. Experts say that success — combined with the murky legal world in which Blackwater operates and its strong ties to Republicans — has allowed the company to operate with impunity… ¶ Blackwater’s ties to the GOP run deep. Company founder and former Navy Seal Erik Prince has given more than $200,000 to Republican causes, a pattern of donation followed by other top Blackwater executives. The company’s vice chairman is Cofer Black, a former CIA counterterrorism official who is serving as a senior adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. ¶ Members of Blackwater’s legal team have included former Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr and current White House Counsel Fred Fielding.”

   The AP story notes that Rep. David Price (D-NC) has urged Congress “to regulate the private security industry and increase congressional oversight” for years. Maybe after the massacre, some of the Democrats in Congress may have finally taken notice. The Hill reports Sen. Obama presses Bush on Blackwater. “Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has proposed clarifying that private contractors accused of misconduct can be tried under U.S. law and urging the Pentagon to pursue such civilian prosecution. Following a Sept. 16 shooting that infuriated the Iraqi government and got the contracting firm Blackwater USA briefly barred from the country, Senate aides are working on adding parts of Obama’s plan to the defense authorization bill… Obama told Bush he was ‘disturbed’ by the Blackwater episode, which ‘raises larger questions about the role of private security contractors.'” The Los Angeles Times reports that back in Baghdad, a new Iraqi law would end U.S. firms’ legal immunity. “A draft law that would strip local and foreign security companies of their immunity from prosecution in Iraq has been submitted to a state committee for legal vetting after a deadly shooting involving the firm that protects the U.S. Embassy and its staff, an Iraqi official said today… If approved by the State Shura Council, which vets the legal language of draft bills, the measure would still require the approval of the Cabinet and parliament to become law.” If Iraq’s softening stance on the eviction of Blackwater is any indication, then it may be a long, long time before the new bill becomes law in Iraq and even then, who will enforce it?

3. The Denver Post brings news of a new study showing farm runoff causes hideously deformed frogs published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Biologists have known for several years that trematode [a type of flatworm] parasites can infect young frogs and cause severe deformities, but no one had figured out just why parasite levels have been on the rise.” University of Colorado “biologist Pieter Johnson and his colleagues discovered that nutrient pollution – agricultural runoff rich in nitrogen and phosphorous – can trigger a biological chain reaction in lakes and ponds, starting with algae and ending up with frogs that cannot hop.” Reuters also reports on the study. “We continue to see malformed amphibians all over the place and yet very little is being done to address those questions or even understand them,” Johnson said. “You can get five or six extra limbs. You can get no hind limbs. You can get all kinds of really bizarre, sick and twisted stuff,” he said.

4. BBC News reports Germany is set to build a maglev railway. “The Bavarian state government said it had signed an agreement with rail operator Deutsche Bahn and industrial consortium Transrapid that includes the developers of the train – Siemens and ThyssenKrupp.” The new line will run from Munich city centre to its airport. The project, which had funding problems before the annoucement, is estimated to cost €1.85 billion ($2.6 bn) to build. According to the AP, the German federal government will pay for half the cost, providing some €925 million ($1.3 billion). Bavarian Governor Edmund Stoiber said the maglev train would be “a beacon for high technology ‘made in Germany.'” Currently the only running maglev train service is in Shanghai, China. Spiegel reports Germany developed the Transrapid monorail ‘magnetic levitation’ train decades ago but couldn’t decide whether to use it. “The deal was announced on Tuesday by the Bavarian government and is a parting gift from Bavarian premier Edmund Stoiber, who is retiring on October 9. Scheduled for completion by 2014, the Transrapid will cut the journey time for the 40-kilometer route from the airport to the Bavarian capital to around 10 minutes from the current 40 minutes. ¶ German engineers have been refining the technology since they first developed it in the 1960s. The train is propelled at high speeds by a frictionless electromagnetic system. It was developed by Transrapid International, a joint venture between Siemens AG and ThyssenKrup.”

There’s one more story below the fold…

This is an OPEN THREAD. Here are four stories in the news at 4 o’clock to get you started.

1. According to the Washington Post, the U.S. military’s Asymmetric Warfare Group in Iraq has a classified program to lure ‘insurgents’ with ‘bait’. “A Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents by scattering pieces of “bait,” such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then killing Iraqis who pick up the items, according to military court documents. ¶ The classified program was described in investigative documents related to recently filed murder charges against three snipers who are accused of planting evidence on Iraqis they killed.”

   Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said such a baiting program should be examined “quite meticulously” because it raises troubling possibilities, such as what happens when civilians pick up the items. “In a country that is awash in armaments and magazines and implements of war, if every time somebody picked up something that was potentially useful as a weapon, you might as well ask every Iraqi to walk around with a target on his back,” Fidell said.

   It is unknown how many people have been killed by the baiting tactic.

2. The New York Times reports post-9/11 cases fuel criticism of Michael Mukasey as the Attorney General nominee. “Critics say a 1984 material witness law was abused by the Justice Department, and by Judge Mukasey and his judicial colleagues, to hold terrorist suspects indefinitely after Sept. 11 without having to accuse them of a crime and afford them the rights of a criminal defendant. ¶ The roundup of men like [Osama] Awadallah under the material witness law in September and October 2001 was an early effort by the Bush administration to rewrite or reinterpret laws on the detention, interrogation and surveillance of people suspected of terrorist ties after the Sept. 11 attacks — a campaign that is now the subject of furious debate between the White House and the Democratic leaders of Congress. ¶ Critics say the material witness cases before Judge Mukasey after Sept. 11 offer insight into his performance and temperament at a time of duress. The cases came before him at a time when New York was still in turmoil, with the courthouse in Lower Manhattan, only blocks from the rubble of the World Trade Center, partly shut down and operating under extraordinarily tight security… Prominent defense lawyers and legal scholars have said that Judge Mukasey and other federal judges were too quick to accept the administration’s reasoning after Sept. 11 that young Arab men should be held as ‘material witnesses’ in terrorism investigations. It was a ruse, the lawyers say, for the government to detain them, often for months at a time, without any need to cite evidence of possible wrongdoing… ¶ The Justice Department’s widespread use of the 1984 federal material-witness law to detain dozens of young Arab men after the Sept. 11 attacks has been widely criticized by legal scholars as an abuse of the law, which was intended to prevent witnesses in criminal cases from fleeing before they could testify.” Mukasey is no friend to civil liberties. No wonder he is a good friend of Giuliani and Bush’s nominee.

3. Iraq has backed down from its initial demand that Blackwater USA leave Iraq. Reuters reports, Iraq says no Blackwater move until after inquiry. “Iraq said on Monday no action would be taken against U.S. private security firm Blackwater over a shooting in which 11 people were killed until after a joint investigation with U.S. officials. ¶ Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had vowed to freeze the work of Blackwater, which guards the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, and prosecute its staff over the shooting eight days ago which he called a crime. But Iraq has since appeared to soften its stand.” The U.S. and Iraq are conducting a joint-investigation into the shootings. Plus the U.S. “embassy is conducting a separate inquiry into the circumstances of the shooting”. Iraq’s own investigation concluded Blackwater was unprovoked. According to Reuters, Iraq is saying now that a Blackwater departure from Iraq would leave a “security vacuum“. The AP reports that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki kept a “polite distance… and avoided discussion” of the shooting. Blackwater is employed by the U.S. State Department to protect embassy workers and diplomats.

   In other Blackwater news from the weekend, The News & Observer reported that the U.S. government is investigating Blackwater for illegal weapons shipments to Iraq. “The U.S. government is investigating whether private military contractor Blackwater USA… has been shipping unlicensed automatic weapons and military goods to Iraq. ¶ Two former Blackwater employees have pleaded guilty in Greenville to weapons charges and are cooperating with federal officials investigating Blackwater… ¶ The investigation into Blackwater’s weapons is noteworthy because Congress and the Iraqi government have criticized the company and accused it of acting with impunity. One of its contractors, for example, shot and killed an Iraqi vice president’s security guard on Christmas Eve in Baghdad. Blackwater sent the man back to the United States and fired him. He has not been charged in the U.S. or Iraq. ¶ Two sources familiar with the investigation said that prosecutors are looking at whether Blackwater lacked permits for dozens of automatic weapons used at its training grounds in Moyock. The investigation is also looking into whether Blackwater was shipping weapons, night-vision scopes, armor, gun kits and other military goods to Iraq without the required permits.” While yesterday, Reuters reported that Blackwater denies making illegal weapons exports to Iraq. “‘Allegations that Blackwater was in any way associated or complicit in unlawful arms activities are baseless. The company has no knowledge of any employee improperly exporting weapons,’ the company said in a statement… ¶ Two former Blackwater employees had pleaded guilty in Greenville, North Carolina, to weapons charges and were cooperating with the federal investigation. ¶ Court records showed Kenneth Wayne Cashwell and William Ellsworth Grumiaux pleaded guilty earlier in the year to possessing, receiving and concealing between May 2003 and August 2005 stolen firearms that had been ‘shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce.'”

4. The Washington Post details how a nuclear-armed bomber was accidentally allowed to fly over U.S. airspace in they article, ‘Missteps in the Bunker‘ by Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus. Details point to “security failures at multiple levels in North Dakota and Louisiana”… A simple error in a missile storage room led to missteps at every turn, as ground crews failed to notice the warheads, and as security teams and flight crew members failed to provide adequate oversight and check the cargo thoroughly. An elaborate nuclear safeguard system, nurtured during the Cold War and infused with rigorous accounting and command procedures, was utterly debased, the investigation’s early results show. ¶ The incident came on the heels of multiple warnings — some of which went to the highest levels of the Bush administration, including the National Security Council — of security problems at Air Force installations where nuclear weapons are kept. The risks are not that warheads might be accidentally detonated, but that sloppy procedures could leave room for theft or damage to a warhead, disseminating its toxic nuclear materials.

One more story below the fold…

This is an OPEN THREAD. Here are four stories in the news at 4 o’clock to get you started. Also, there will be no Four at Four tomorrow or Sunday as I will be without Internet access. So make this essay count!

1. Sabrina Tavernise and James Glanz of The New York Times reports that the Iraq has concluded the Blackwater shooting was unprovoked.

   In the Interior Ministry’s version of that day, the events began unfolding when a bomb exploded shortly before noon near the unfinished Rahman Mosque, about a mile north of Nisour Square. Embassy officials have said the convoy was responding to the bomb, but it is still unclear whether it was carrying officials away from the bomb scene, driving toward it to pick someone up or simply providing support.

   Whatever their mission, and whoever was inside, the convoy of at least four sport utility vehicles steered onto the square just after noon and took positions that blocked the flow of midday traffic in three directions. But one family’s car, approaching from the south along Yarmouk Street, apparently did not stop quickly enough, and the Blackwater guards opened fire, killing the man who was driving, the ministry account says.

   “The woman next to the driver had a baby in her arms,” said an official who shared the report, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to share it. “She started to scream. They shot her,” the official said, adding that the guards then fired what appeared to be grenades or pump guns into the car as it continued to move. The car caught fire. “The car kept rolling, so they burned it,” the official said.

   The account said that the guards entered the square shooting, although Ali Khalaf, a traffic policeman who watched events from a flimsy white traffic booth on the edge of the square and spoke in an interview on Thursday, said a guard got out of the sport utility vehicle and fired.

   Mr. Khalaf, who has also been interviewed by American investigators, spoke standing near his traffic booth on Thursday afternoon. He said that he had tried to reach the woman in the seconds after the man she was riding with was shot. But a Blackwater guard killed the woman before he could reach her, Mr. Khalaf said.

   I think there can be no question now that the Bush administration values Blackwater USA more than their puppet regime in Baghdad. Reuters reports that Blackwater is back again ‘guarding’ US State Department convoys. “Blackwater guards were back on the streets of Baghdad on Friday after the U.S. embassy eased a three-day ban on road travel by U.S. officials outside the capital’s heavily fortified Green Zone… ¶ U.S. embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said the decision to allow “mission essential” trips, some guarded by Blackwater, was taken after consultation with Iraqi authorities. ‘There isn’t a lot of movement in general … But it is likely Blackwater will support some of them,’ she said.” The article also states that “Iraq wants to tighten control over security contractors” and is reviewing the status of all private security contractors. Additionally, the Iraqi Ministry of Interior has drafted a new law, which they expect parliament to pass soon, that “gives the ministry powers to prosecute the companies and to refuse or revoke contracts.”

   Blackwater USA has left a trail of death behind it in Iraq. Ned Parker and Raheem Salman of the Los Angeles Times report that Blackwater is under scrutiny in Iraq. For example, seven months ago a sniper fatally “shot three security guards outside his office at the government-run Iraqi Media Network… ¶ An internal investigation by [the] department found that Blackwater USA was responsible. But seven months after the Feb. 7 shootings no one has been charged… ¶ A U.S. diplomat confirmed that Blackwater guards carried out the shooting, but said he did not know the results of the State Department security office’s inquiry.” The lawless exploits of Blackwater USA and other mercentaries under the employ of the U.S. State Department are undermining U.S. troop safety and the Bush administration’s supposed goal of an Iraqi democracy.

   Blackwater has long operated off the U.S. military’s radar, answering instead to the embassy’s security staff. Military officials express resentment at what they view as renegade behavior by private security contractors, including running Iraqis off the road, throwing water bottles and a quick trigger finger. “We pay for their indiscretions every day,” one U.S. officer said on condition of anonymity…

   The embassy’s security staff will participate with Iraqis in a review of the incident. Although it is standard procedure for the security staff to investigate such cases, a U.S. diplomat suggested that the staff’s close relationship with Blackwater gave the appearance of a conflict of interest.

   “We are at cross purposes, saying, ‘We want to rebuild your country.’ On the other hand, you have this thing going on,” the diplomat said. “At some point you ask, ‘Why am I here?’ For every step forward, there is two steps back.”

   Robert Baer of Time magazine calls the Bush administration’s bluff in ‘Why Blackwater — and More — Should Leave Iraq‘. “Kicking Blackwater out of Iraq, as Prime Minister Maliki suggested, buys the Administration nothing… ¶ What the Administration should do is rescind Coalition Provisional Authority Order 17, the decree that puts foreign security contractors beyond the reach of Iraqi law. This would effectively close down private security companies. There is no reason the State Department cannot provide its own security, State security officers are under diplomatic immunity. If there’s a questionable shooting, the Iraqi government at least will have the satisfaction of declaring the shooter persona non grata under the Vienna Convention. ¶ With violence down, and the surge apparently having an effect, now is the time to make a gesture to Iraqis. We can show we are serious about returning their sovereignty to them by pulling out private security contractors, even if it means using U.S. troops to fill the void.”

2. The front page story for The Independent today is ‘Making a killing: how private armies became a $120bn global industry‘ where reporters Daniel Howden and Lenord Doyle examine “the burgeoning world of private military companies, arguably the fastest-growing industry in the global economy”. Mercenaries, er private security contractors, have “operations in at least 50 countries” and “the single largest spur to this boom is the conflict in Iraq.”

   Now the mercenary trade comes with its own business jargon. Guns for hire come under the umbrella term of privatised military firms, with their own acronym PMFs. The industry itself has done everything it can to shed the “mercenary” tag and most companies avoid the term “military” in preference for “security”. “The term mercenary is not accurate,” says [Bob Ayers, a security expert with Chatham House in London], who argues that military personnel in defensive roles should be distinguished from soldiers of fortune.

   There is nothing new about soldiers for hire, the private companies simply represent the trade in a new form. “Organised as business entities and structured along corporate lines, they mark the corporate evolution of the mercenary trade,” according to Mr Singer, who was among the first to plot the worldwide explosion in the use of private military firms.

   In many ways it mirrors broader trends in the world economy as countries switch from manufacturing to services and outsource functions once thought to be the preserve of the state. Iraq has become a testing ground for this burgeoning industry, creating staggering financial opportunities and equally immense ethical dilemmas.

   None of the estimated 48,000 private military operatives in Iraq has been convicted of a crime and no one knows how many Iraqis have been killed by private military forces, because the US does not keep records.

   Of course mercenary firms like Blackwater aren’t the only ones “making a killing” in Baghdad. The New York Times reports the Pentagon is reviewing $6 billion in contracts. “Military officials said Thursday that contracts worth $6 billion to provide essential supplies to American troops in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan — including food, water and shelter — were under review by criminal investigators, double the amount the Pentagon had previously disclosed. ¶ In addition, $88 billion in contracts and programs, including those for body armor for American soldiers and matériel for Iraqi and Afghan security forces, are being audited for financial irregularities, the officials said.” And, if the private contractors we’re raking it in, any real estate tycoon in Baghdad is finding a buyer’s market. The Washington Post reports that fear is driving Baghdad’s housing bust and Iraqi families are under threat and desperate to flee, willing to sell their homes at any price. “With hundreds of thousands of Baghdad residents having fled their homes for the relative safety of segregated neighborhoods or foreign countries, a clandestine system of buying and selling property off the books has supplanted more traditional real estate practices. If families being pushed out are lucky, they are able to sell their homes for some small price… Wait too long, and their houses might be seized at gunpoint. ¶ Real estate agent Mahir al-Sultani said business has all but dried up — ironic, he admits, considering how many people are moving in and out. Without exception, half a dozen real estate agents said that houses are still being bought and sold, but that licensed agents have been largely cut out of the equation.” The irony is deafening.

3. Americans used to never fight their wars with mercenaries. In fact, we won our independence fighting against them. During the American Revolutionary War, the colonists fought against approximately 30,000 Hessian mercenaries that were conscripted to the British. This weekend, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns brings a new film about another war from America’s past, the Second World War to our televisions this Sunday. Peter Ames Carlin of The Oregonian writes of the documentary, “So what makes Ken Burns’ seven-part documentary, “The War,” so powerful — devastatingly so, at times — is its unblinking intimacy. Faced with the task of describing America’s role in the largest of all global conflicts, Burns sticks almost entirely with the firsthand experiences of soldiers and civilians. None becomes a major figure in the war (although a few go on to post-war notoriety). They’re foot soldiers, fighter pilots, navy gunners and the like. But, and this is the real point of the movie, this is precisely what makes their stories so vitally important: For all its enormity in the scope of history, the American effort in World War II was fought, and ultimately won, by the nation’s ordinary people.” I’ve not seen the film yet, but from Carlin’s review it doesn’t seem like the documentary is another ‘see-how-great-war-is’ film.

   But “The War” also takes care to acknowledge some of the less heroic complexities that went along with the war. Allied bombing raids over Hamburg killed as many German civilians in one week as during all of the Nazi bombing raids on England. And while it’s hard to find any sympathy for a country that had turned as psychotic as Nazi-led Germany, the pictures of shattered homes and dead or devastated children still singe the eyes.

   The American homefront wasn’t always a bastion of truth and beauty, either. For all that the nation was repulsed by Nazi talk of an Aryan master race, American society was still defined by its racist distortions. African American munitions workers who settled in Mobile were greeted with resentment bordering on all-out hatred. Some induction offices refused to allow African Americans to serve. The government eventually created race-specific divisions, including one for Japanese Americans who joined up from the internment camps their families had been sentenced to for the duration.

   Such are the soul-killing verities of institutionalized aggression.

   The struggles of ordinary Americans dealing with the horrors of war. Something, I believe we no longer know how to face anymore in America. I’ll be watching.

4. And now for something completely different: two rail stories. First from London, England, The Independent reports Eurostar puts Brussels within the ‘two-hour club’ after record rail journey. “Railway historians will have to rewrite the record books after a train from Brussels to St Pancras International achieved the fastest rail journey ever between a European capital and London yesterday, knocking more than 30 minutes off the previous timing. ¶ The 20-coach train – the first from Brussels to run on the full stretch of new £5.3bn high-speed line through Kent and east London – covered the 232 miles between the two cities in just 1 hour, 43 minutes, 53 seconds. When the new line opens to the public in November, a trip from London to the Belgian capital will take 1 hour, 51 minutes – faster than to Manchester and a similar travelling time to Nottingham, which is 100 miles closer.” Great news for Europeans. When will Americans get a clue? Now for the second story: Come to Seattle, ride the SLUT! The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that the South Lake Union Trolley’s unfortunate acronym seems here to stay. “Officially, it’s now the South Lake Union Streetcar. But the trolley name already has caught on, and in the old Cascade neighborhood in South Lake Union, they’re waiting for the SLUT… ¶ Seattle transportation spokesman Gregg Hirakawa and Vulcan spokeswoman Kym Allen say the name ‘streetcar’ wasn’t selected to avoid the provocative acronym. Trolley seemed vintage, whereas streetcar sounded more modern, Hirakawa said. ¶ And the streetcars — the first of which will be unveiled Tuesday — had the support of 45 businesses that agreed to tax themselves to cover about half the cost, he said.” Congratulations to Seattleites in getting another streetcar line built!

One more story is below the fold…

This is an OPEN THREAD. Here are four stories in the news at 4 o’clock to get you started. He who speaks the truth better have one foot in the stirrup.

1. You want to know how special Blackwater is to the Bush administration? Then read ‘Where Military Rules Don’t Apply‘ by Steve Fainaru of the Washington Post:

   Blackwater USA, the private security company involved in a Baghdad shootout last weekend, operated under State Department authority that exempted the company from U.S. military regulations governing other security firms, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials and industry representatives.

   In recent months, the State Department’s oversight of Blackwater became a central issue as Iraqi authorities repeatedly clashed with the company over its aggressive street tactics. Many U.S. and Iraqi officials and industry representatives said they came to see Blackwater as untouchable, protected by State Department officials who defended the company at every turn. Blackwater employees protect the U.S. ambassador and other diplomats in Iraq.

   Blackwater “has a client who will support them no matter what they do,” said H.C. Lawrence Smith, deputy director of the Private Security Company Association of Iraq, an advocacy organization in Baghdad that is funded by security firms, including Blackwater.

   The State Department allowed Blackwater’s heavily armed teams to operate without an Interior Ministry license, even after the requirement became standard language in Defense Department security contracts. The company was not subject to the military’s restrictions on the use of offensive weapons, its procedures for reporting shooting incidents or a central tracking system that allows commanders to monitor the movements of security companies on the battlefield.

   “The Iraqis despised them, because they were untouchable,” said Matthew Degn, who recently returned from Baghdad after serving as senior American adviser to the Interior Ministry. “They were above the law.” Degn said Blackwater’s armed Little Bird helicopters often buzzed the Interior Ministry’s roof, “almost like they were saying, ‘Look, we can fly anywhere we want.’ “

   Please take the time to read this whole piece. There is a lot of information contained in it, including:

   • “We will not allow Iraqis to be killed in cold blood… There is a sense of tension and anger among all Iraqis, including the government, over this crime.” — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

   • “They are part of the reason for all the hatred that is directed at Americans, because people don’t know them as Blackwater, they know them only as Americans… They are planting hatred, because of these irresponsible acts.” — an Iraqi Interior Ministry official BEFORE the shootout.

   • Coalition Provisional Authority administrator Paul Bremer issued the ‘above the law order’ on June 27, 2004, the day before he left Iraq.

   • Blackwater’s tactics are “obviously condoned by State and it’s what State expects”. — Jack Holly, a retired Marine colonel who oversees several private security firms as director of logistics for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

   • “Blackwater has no respect for the Iraqi people… They consider Iraqis like animals, although actually I think they may have more respect for animals. We have seen what they do in the streets. When they’re not shooting, they’re throwing water bottles at people and calling them names. If you are terrifying a child or an elderly woman, or you are killing an innocent civilian who is riding in his car, isn’t that terrorism?” — Iraqi Interior Ministry official.

2. In other Blackwater massacre news — Ned Parker of the Los Angeles Times reports Maliki insists U.S. find new guard firm. “‘This crime has inflamed contempt, hatred and anger both from the government and the Iraqi public,’ Maliki said. ‘Hence, it is important that this company’s activities be frozen and the American Embassy invest in the services of another one.’ ¶ Maliki reiterated that a preliminary investigation by the Iraqi government found that a Blackwater security detail had fired without provocation Sunday at a traffic circle in Baghdad’s Mansour district. As of Wednesday, 11 Iraqi citizens had died as a result of the shooting, Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf said.” The Washington Post confirms that Maliki is calling the Blackwater massacre a crime. According to the House Oversight Committee’s website, Chairman Henry Waxman has “invited” Erik Prince, Blackwater USA Chairman to testify before the committee on October 2, 2007. While Reuters reports that the U.S. says Blackwater still under contract in Iraq. “Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said the personnel involved in the incident would not leave Iraq before the investigation yielded results. ‘(Blackwater) are still here and still under contract from the State Department,’ she said. ‘Since they support chief personnel movement and we are not moving, there is no activity from Blackwater at the moment’ ¶ Nantongo said the joint Iraqi-U.S. commission would consist of eight members on each side. The U.S. mission’s charge d’affairs would head the U.S. side whilst Iraq’s defense minister would head the Iraqi side.” Oh, and adding to Secretary Condoleezza Rice’s apology on Blackwater’s behalf, BBC News reports that George W. Bush saddened by Baghdad shootout. “Obviously to the extent innocent life was lost, I’m saddened. Our objective is to protect innocent life… I want to find out the facts about exactly what took place there,” he said. AFP reports more of Bush’s remarks, “The folks like Blackwater who provide security for the State Department are under rules of engagement. In other words, they have certain rules. And this commission will determine whether or not they violated those rules.” (The White House has Bush’s press conference transcript available. On a semi-related note, Bush thinks the MoveOn Petraeus ad was “disgusting”.)

3. Reuters reports that oil hits high over $82. “Oil hit a fresh record for the seventh session in a row on Thursday as companies shut Gulf of Mexico production on forecasts a tropical depression blowing through the region would become a storm. ¶ U.S. crude gained 11 cents to $82.04 a barrel at 1649 GMT after hitting an all-time high of $82.55 earlier.” While The New York Times reports the Euro has reached an all-time high against dollar. “The world dumped the dollar today, pushing it to an all-time low of $1.40 against the euro and to parity with the Canadian dollar for the first time in three decades as currency traders around the world digested the full implications of the Federal Reserve’s new course for interest rates.” And The Telegraph reports that Saudi Arabia might end its dollar peg. “Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve for the first time, signalling that the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is preparing to break the dollar currency peg in a move that risks setting off a stampede out of the dollar across the Middle East… ¶ The Saudi central bank said today that it would take “appropriate measures” to halt huge capital inflows into the country, but analysts say this policy is unsustainable and will inevitably lead to the collapse of the dollar 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.” And, if Americans weren’t already screwed — the world is as well. The Independent reports that it is ‘Too late to avoid global warming‘ and AFP adds climate change is worse than feared.

4. Finally, for all you Al Gore fans, the Sydney Morning Herald reports that Gore is said It’s all up to you on Kyoto. “The former US vice-president Al Gore says a change of policy by Australia to support the Kyoto Protocol would be the final nail in the coffin of the Bush Administration’s opposition to the climate change treaty. ¶ Addressing a $1000-a-head business lunch at Darling Harbour, Mr Gore used one of his favourite lines – describing Australia and the US as ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ environmental outlaws – as he launched a passionate attack on the climate policies of John Howard and George Bush. He called on Australia to change course, saying if it did, ‘it would be impossible for the United States to withstand the pressure‘ to join the rest of the world in ratifying Kyoto. ¶ Mr Gore made his highly charged remarks, given the lead-up to the federal election, after reporters were asked to leave the room where the luncheon was being held… ¶ In the closed section of the lunch, Mr Gore partially endorsed remarks by the former head of the US Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, that the Iraq war was about oil. ¶ Mr Hawke asked Mr Gore about Dr Greenspan’s remarks, which caused political ructions in the US and forced a partial retraction by the former bank chief. ‘Was oil a big part of? Of course,’ Mr Gore said, but there were other reasons, including Saddam Hussein’s past as ‘a brutal dictator’.””

One more story below the fold…

This is an OPEN THREAD. Here are four stories in the news at 4 o’clock to get you started. My apologies in advance, but today’s Four at Four news is all related to Iraq.

1. The fallout from the Bush administration using private contractors for security for U.S. officials in Iraq continues and with Rice’s apology yesterday on the behalf of Blackwater and the company’s own defiant non-apology, it is clear that the Bush administration will not abandon its Praetorian Guard anytime soon.

   The Guardian reports that now the U.S. has restricted diplomat travel in Iraq. “The US has suspended all land travel by its diplomats and other civilian officials outside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone due to an “increased threat” in the aftermath of the alleged killing of civilians by the American embassy’s security provider, Blackwater. ¶ The move came as the Iraqi government appeared to back down from its initial statements after Sunday’s shootout that it would order Blackwater’s 1,000 personnel to leave the country. ¶ ‘We are not intending to stop them and revoke their licence indefinitely, but we do need them to respect the law and the regulation here in Iraq,’ a government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh” said. The article reports that 20 Iraqis were killed in the Blackwater shootout, eleven more than originally reported.

   AFP also is reporting that the Iraqi government is apparently backing down from kicking out Blackwater from Iraq even though Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki wants them to be replaced. ‘For their own interests, the Americans should hire a new company to protect their people so they can move freely… This is a big crime and the seventh such crime committed by this company and which has been registered by the interior ministry,’ Maliki said.” However the article quotes Dabbagh: “We understand that this company is giving security to embassy staff so we don’t want to revoke their licence permanently.”

   It seems obvious that pressure is being applied to the Iraqi government and not Blackwater USA, which leaves Time magazine to run a headline for a story featuring quotes from Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice asking can the U.S. live without Blackwater? “When asked if the State Department should reconsider its reliance on such companies to secure U.S. personnel, Rice said not yet. ‘It’s very early to try to do that kind of analysis, I think.’ In the meantime, the State Department has just announced the formation of a new, joint U.S.-Iraqi commission that will handle details of the Blackwater episode, an apparent attempt to defuse the growing controversy.”

2. The Los Angeles Times also reports that normally misdeeds by private security contractors are covered-up. “Several U.S. diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity said in interviews that past private security misdeeds had been swept under the rug. ¶ ‘It’s one of the big holes we’ve had in our policy: the lack of control, the lack of supervision over the security force,’ a U.S. diplomat told The Times on condition of anonymity because of the topic’s sensitivity. ‘No one took on the responsibility of policing these units, neither the military or the Regional Security Office [the embassy’s security department]… So many people, not just the Blackwater people, are there in Baghdad unsupervised with basically diplomatic immunity,’ he said.” And, it is not just Iraqis who are the target of Blackwater, the company has also shot at other private security firms. “‘They are untouchable. They’ve shot up other private security contractors, Iraqi military, police and civilians,’ said one security contractor, who declined to give his name because of the sensitivity of the issue.”

3. McClatchy Newspapers has a story about two survivors of the Blackwater USA shootout that happened at a busy Baghdad traffic roundabout on Sunday.

   Hassan Jaber Salma, 50, a lawyer who suffered eight gunshot wounds in the incident, said he and other motorists were attempting to clear a path for the convoy when the Blackwater guards suddenly strafed the line of traffic with gunfire.

   Sami Hawas Karim, 42, a taxi driver who was shot in the hip and side, said he, too, had stopped for the convoy when he saw the guards suddenly open fire on a car bearing a man, a woman and a small child. The guards then opened fire on maintenance workers in the square, the car in front of him, the car behind him and a minibus full of girls.

   When he felt the pain of his two wounds, he opened the door of his car and fell to the ground; his 13-year-old son in the car with him wasn’t harmed. “I thought about my family and my five kids,” he said. “I remembered my two brothers who were killed, and I said to myself, ‘I’m going to be the third.'”

   …Neither of the two survivors interviewed at Baghdad’s Yarmouk Hospital said he’d heard explosions or gunfire before the Blackwater guards opened fire on cars that had stopped to allow a four-vehicle convoy to pass.

   Salma said that as the Blackwater guards opened fire, he turned his car into oncoming traffic in an effort to escape, only to have Iraqi soldiers nearby also begin firing on him, apparently fearing that he was a suicide bomber. Ducking his head to avoid bullets that slammed into the driver’s seat and dashboard, he lost control of the car and slammed into a truck carrying cooking gas canisters, breaking three ribs.

   “I swear they were not attacked by anything,” said Salma, his torso wrapped in a heavy plaster cast and his breathing labored from gunshot wounds in the chest, stomach and back. His wife sobbed next to him.

   Both Karim and Salma said a helicopter was on the scene. Salma said it also fired into the line of cars, contradicting Blackwater’s statement that its helicopter didn’t open fire.

   CNN has more from the two men in “Wounded Iraqis: ‘No one did anything’ to provoke Blackwater“. “‘So we turned back, and as we turned back they opened fire at all cars from behind,’ Salman said. ‘All my injuries, the bullets are in my back… Within two minutes the security force arrived in planes — part of the security company Blackwater. They started firing randomly at all citizens.'”

4. Lastly, BBC News is reporting that the Pope ‘refused to meet with Rice’. “Pope Benedict XVI refused a recent request by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to discuss the Middle East and Iraq, Vatican sources say. ¶ The Pope refused a request for an audience during the August holidays. Senior Vatican sources told the BBC the Pope does not normally receive politicians on his annual holiday at the Castelgandolfo residence near Rome. But one leading Italian newspaper said it was an evident snub by the Vatican towards the Bush administration.” The story gives two reasons for the Pope’s refusal. “It was Ms Rice who just before the outbreak of the Iraq war in March 2003 made it clear to a special papal envoy sent from Rome, Cardinal Pio Laghi, that the Bush administration was not interested in the views of the late Pope on the immorality of launching its planned military offensive.” The second reason is the Vactican says Iraqi Christians are not protected under the Iraqi’s new constitution.

So is there any news outside of Iraq today?

This is an OPEN THREAD. Here are four stories in the news at 4 o’clock to get you started. A handful of bees is worth more than a sackful of flies.

1. The Bush administration is racing to protect their secretive Praetorian Guard, The Guardian reports that Rice has apologized for the Blackwater USA shootings. “The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, apologised to the Iraqi government yesterday in an attempt to prevent the expulsion of all employees of the security firm Blackwater USA. ¶ Ms Rice called the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, to apologise for the shooting. They agreed to run a ‘fair and transparent investigation’, according to a statement from Mr Maliki’s office. ¶ It added: ‘She has expressed her personal apologies and the apologies of the government of the United States. She confirmed that the United Sates will take immediate actions to prevent such actions from happening again.’ ¶ The apology offers a face-saving exercise for both the Iraqi and the US governments. The US would find it temporarily awkward if Blackwater was expelled. At the same time, it does not want to be seen to be undermining the decisions of the Iraqi government, which the Bush administration repeatedly insists is autonomous.” Meanwhile, there is more fallout from the Blackwater USA shooting spree. The New York Times reports that Iraq will review all security contractors in their country. “The Iraqi government said today that it would review the status of all foreign and local security companies working in Iraq after a shooting that left eight Iraqis dead.”

2. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), has released their third annual report on the most corrupt members of Congress. Twenty-two members of Congress made the group’s list with a special “dishonorable mention” going to Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) and Sen. David Vitter (R-LA). According to CREW, “this encyclopedic report on corruption in the 110th Congress documents the egregious, unethical and possibly illegal activities of the most tainted members of Congress. CREW has compiled the members’ transgressions and analyzed them in light of federal laws and congressional rules.” The four senators on this year’s list are: Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-NM), Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK). The 18 representatives on this year’s list are: Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-CA), Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA), Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-LA), Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Rep. Gary G. Miller (R-CA), Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV), Rep. Timothy F. Murphy (R-PA), Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA), Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM), Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ), Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY), Rep. David Scott (D-GA), Rep. Don Young (R-AK), Rep. Jerry Weller (R-IL), and Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R-NM). Summaries for each member of Congress listed in the report can be found at beyonddelay.org.

3. According to The Independent, the World’s first major wave farm is set to get the green light off the coast of Cornwall in Southwest England. “Wave Hub, a £28m project off the Cornish coast, is expected to be in place and producing renewable energy by 2009… ¶ Generators attached to Wave Hub’s infrastructure… will produce enough electricity for 7,500 homes, directly saving 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions over 25 years… ¶ Wave Hub could create 1,800 jobs and contribute £560m to the British economy over 25 years”. The Guardian lists the benefits and drawbacks of wave power.

4. News of a strange, noxious meteorite in Peru is being reported by The Guardian. “A meteorite has struck a remote part of Peru and carved a large crater that is emitting noxious odours and making villagers ill, according to local press reports. ¶ A fireball streaked across the Andean sky late on Saturday night and crashed into a field near Carancas, a sparsely populated highland wilderness near Lake Titicaca on the border with Bolivia, witnesses said. ¶ The orange streak and loud bang were initially thought to be a plane crashing. When farmers went to investigate, however, they found a crater at least 10m wide and 5m deep, but no sign of wreckage.”

One more story below the fold…

This is an OPEN THREAD. Here are four stories in the news at 4 o’clock to get you started. Every vibration awakens all others of a particular pitch.

1. The Washington Post reports on a shootout in Baghdad. “A U.S. State Department motorcade came under attack in Baghdad on Sunday, prompting security contractors guarding the convoy to open fire in the streets. At least nine civilians were killed, according to Iraqi officials. ¶ The shootout occurred in the downtown neighborhood of Mansour at midday after an explosion detonated near the convoy, police said. In response, the security contractors ‘escalated the force to defend themselves,’ a U.S. Embassy official in Baghdad said. ¶ Iraqi officials alleged that the response by the security company, which was not named, involved excessive force and killed innocent civilians. The Iraqi government will investigate the incident and ‘probably will withdraw the authority for this security company in Baghdad,’ said Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, an Interior Ministry spokesman.”

   “The security company contractors opened fire randomly on the civilians,” he said. “We consider this act a crime.”

   BBC News puts a name on the private security company: Blackwater USA. “Iraq has cancelled the licence of the private security firm, Blackwater USA, after it was involved in a gunfight in which at least eight civilians died.

   The Iraqi interior ministry said the contractor, based in North Carolina, was now banned from operating in Iraq. ¶ The Blackwater workers, who were contracted by the US state department, apparently opened fire after coming under attack in Baghdad on Sunday… ¶ The interior ministry’s director of operations, Maj Gen Abdul Karim Khalaf, said authorities would prosecute any foreign contractors found to have used excessive force. TPM Muckracker speculates if Blackwater USA will actually leave Iraq? “However, it’s unclear how the Interior Ministry would expel Blackwater. Unlike other private U.S. security firms in Iraq, as of May, Blackwater hadn’t registered with the Iraqi government to operate in Iraq. The Coalition Provisional Authority — the now-defunct occupational government — issued a decree in 2004 (pdf) immunizing security contractors from Iraqi prosecution and placing their operations under the jurisdiction of U.S. authorities.”

2. The New York Times reports on George W. Bush’s nomination of Michael Mukasey to be the next Attorney General. “‘Judge Mukasey is clear-eyed about the threat our nation faces,’ Mr. Bush said in the Rose Garden of the White House, with Mr. Mukasey by his side. He called the retired judge ‘a sound manager and a strong leader.'” Hopefully Mukasey recognizes both foreign and domestic threats to the United States, but I doubt it.

   From January 2, 1998 — “The Mayor, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term, took a 59-word oath administered by his longtime friend U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey, who presided over the bomb conspiracy trial of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and nine others convicted in the case. Giuliani’s wife, Donna Hanover, and their two children, Andrew and Carolyn, stood at his side.” — BBC News.

   Earlier the Washington Posts noted that Mukasey is conncted to Giuliani’s presidential campaign. “Both Mukasey and his son, Marc, are connected with Rudolph W. Giuliani’s presidential campaign, as members of the Republican candidate’s justice advisory committee”, but the paper expunged reference of it in this morning’s rewrite. However, ABC News confirms this and adds “The two are longtime friends and Mukasey’s son Marc works at Bracewell & Giuliani.” Why any Democrat would let anyone connected to a Republican’s presidential campaign anywhere near to the Justice “Election Fraud” Department is beyond me? But, according to the NY Times, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said “Judge Mukasey seems to be the kind of nominee who would put rule of law first and show independence from the White House, our most important criteria… He’s a lot better than some of the other names mentioned and he has the potential to become a consensus nominee.” The White House strategy has always been to offer horrible candidates first, so the second choice always seems better. After six plus years of this game, you’d think the Democrats would have finally gotten a clue by now. The day Mukasey gets confirmed, I’m thinking about calling the 2008 presidential election for Giuliani.

3. The Star Tribune reports the mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota is ’embarrassed’ by bridge impasse. “Headed to a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting this weekend to talk about the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak said he found himself filled with dread and embarrassment. ¶ ‘I’m going to have to walk in there and tell them that our state is doing nothing’ on bridge repair, he said. ‘Other states are taking this seriously, but our state, where people died, is doing nothing.'” “So why couldn’t Pawlenty and DFL^† leaders make it happen? Taxes, as has so often been the case, proved a major stumbling block. Even though [Republican Governor Tim] Pawlenty said he would consider a nickel-a-gallon increase, he wanted an offsetting cut in income taxes. That would have provided money for roads and bridges, but would have reduced funds for health care and schools — unacceptable to DFLers.” Oh, Grover “drown it in the bathtub” Norquist is involved too. † DFL or Democratic-Farmer-Labor is the name of Minnesota’s Democratic Party. (Hat tip to count.)

4. Lastly, The Guardian reports that the British government has been told that investment in cycling could save Britain more than £520 million. “Encouraging more cyclists on to Britain’s roads could save the taxpayer more than £520m and fight climate change, according to a government-backed cycling group. ¶ Cycling England says a 20% increase in bicycle journeys would lower healthcare costs and reduce congestion. It adds that by making a £70m annual investment in cycling initiatives the government could cut up to 54m car journeys a year by 2012 and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 35,000 tonnes. ¶ The report says that an adult who swaps a car for a bicycle on a return journey of 2.5 miles – the average cycle trip – will generate annual savings of £137.28 through reduced congestion. A regular cyclist saves the NHS £28.30 a year.”

So, what else is happening?

This is an OPEN THREAD, but it also features four stories in the news at 4 o’clock.

1. BBC News reports on the deadly plane crash in Thailand. “At least 87 people have died after a budget airliner crashed after landing in heavy rain at the Thai holiday resort of Phuket, officials say. ¶ The aircraft slipped off the runway and exploded into flames. It was carrying 123 passengers – most of them foreigners – and seven crew. About 40 people escaped the burning wreckage and were taken to hospital. ¶ Flight OG 269, operated by airline One-Two-Go, had flown to Phuket from the Thai capital, Bangkok. Officials say at least 87 people were confirmed dead after the plane skidded off the runway in strong winds and driving rain on Sunday.”.

2. According to The Telegraph, Osama bin Laden has been sidelined as al-Qaeda threat revives. “Osama bin Laden’s deputy has seized control of al-Qaeda and rebuilt the terror network into an organisation capable of launching complex terror attacks in Britain and America. ¶ Intelligence officials [claim] that bin Laden has not chaired a meeting of al-Qaeda’s ruling shura, or council, in more than two years. ¶ Instead, Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s nominal number two, is credited with rebuilding the terror network since the Afghan war in 2001. ¶ Intelligence sources in Washington have revealed that Western spy chiefs were recently forced to revise dramatically their view that al-Qaeda was so depleted that it was little more than a cheerleader for extremists. ¶ Instead, British and American intelligence agencies believe that a network of terrorist cells, funded, controlled and supported by al-Qaeda’s central command, based in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan, is in place again. ¶ Al-Zawahiri’s task has been made easier because not a single prominent al-Qaeda leader has been captured since March 2006, nearly 18 months ago.” The Los Angles Times explains that al Qaeda is expanding by ‘co-opting’ new affiliate. “Secure in its haven in northwestern Pakistan, a resurgent Al Qaeda is trying to expand its network, in some cases by executing corporate-style takeovers of regional Islamic extremist groups, according to U.S. intelligence officials and counter-terrorism experts. ¶ Though not always successful, these moves indicate a shift in strategy by the terrorist network as it seeks to broaden its reach and renew its ability to strike Western targets, including the United States, officials and experts say.”I guess all those ‘important’ al-Qaeda number threes that the Bush administration trots out every few months are sort of like Star Trek’s red shirt guys.

3. The New York Times reports that the state of New York has subpoenaed five energy companies that plan on building new coal-burning power plants. “Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York has opened an investigation of five large energy companies, questioning whether their plans to build coal-fired power plants pose undisclosed financial risks that their investors should know about… ¶ In letters accompanying the subpoenas, the attorney general’s office asked whether investors received adequate information about the potential financial liabilities of carbon dioxide emissions that exacerbate climate change. ¶ ‘Any one of the several new or likely regulatory initiatives for CO2 emissions from power plants — including state carbon controls, E.P.A.’s regulations under the Clean Air Act, or the enactment of federal global warming legislation — would add a significant cost to carbon-intensive coal generation,’ the letters said. ¶ They added, ‘Selective disclosure of favorable information or omission of unfavorable information concerning climate change is misleading.‘ ¶ Mr. Cuomo’s move represents a new tactic in an expanding campaign against some of the more than 100 coal-fired power plants currently under consideration.”

4. While not really news, I found this piece of travel writing by Ellen Knickmeyer of the Washington Post quite evocative. So for your Sunday afternoon reading enjoyment, here is the opening excerpt from ‘Whiling Away the Night In the Salon of the Sahara‘.

   As darkness settled over Marrakech’s Djemma el-Fna Square and the crowds flowed in to pass the evening, a stylish young Moroccan couple in one corner of the plaza crouched by a necromancer, urgently whispering their troubles into his ear.

   Their counselor, a maker of magic charms, listened attentively, pen ready to jot down the right incantation on one of the scraps of paper lying at his feet on the gray stone of the plaza.

   In another corner, a Tuareg tribesman from the Sahara of southern Morocco was having a bad sales night. On a sheet before him lay withered ostrich legs, chunks of petrified wood from the rippling grasslands that once covered the Sahara, and numerous balms, potions, powders and scents. For now, no one was buying.

   From a plastic bin at the Tuareg’s feet, dried chameleons used in magic and folk medicine — their eyes bulging and their tongues extruding — glared sullenly at passersby. Under his blue turban, so did the Tuareg.

   Open fires roasting mutton for sale sent orange flames and towers of greasy smoke over Djemma el-Fna, adding to the medieval air of the ancient square, which is bounded by mosques dating to the 10th century…

So, what else is happening?

This is an OPEN THREAD, but it also features four stories in the news at 4 o’clock. A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.

1. BBC News reports that the rush on Northern Rock continues in Britain. “The rush of customers taking money out of Northern Rock has continued for a second day, amid concerns over its emergency Bank of England loan… The bank is not short of assets, but they are tied up in loans to home owners. Because of the global credit crunch Northern Rock has found it difficult to borrow the cash to run its day-to-day operations. Northern Rock’s business and capital base themselves have been judged to be sound by the Financial Services Authority… Unlike most banks, which get their money from customers making deposits into savings accounts, Northern Rock is built around its mortgage business.” The Telegraph adds police were used to disperse Northern Rock queues. “Long lines formed at 72 branches across the country even before counters opened this morning. ¶ Police were called to deal with ‘boisterous customers’ after a Glasgow City Centre branch closed at midday… In Sheffield city centre, an officer asked more than one hundred savers to leave the Pinstone Street branch after their details were taken by Northern Rock staff. The majority of people queuing were middle aged or retired.”

2. The Los Angeles Times reports on a win-win day for Mexico’s congress where they passed tax measures sought by President Felipe Calderon’s conservative party and electoral reforms wanted by the leftist opposition. “Mexico’s legislature approved major overhauls of the nation’s tax and election laws Friday, untangling a months-long stalemate that had threatened to make the country ungovernable in the wake of last year’s bitterly contested presidential election. ¶ Longtime rivals crafted the compromise in weeks of highly sensitive talks that gave President Felipe Calderon’s conservative National Action Party, or PAN, the tax reform it had sought for more than a decade. The leftist Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, which accuses Calderon’s party of stealing the 2006 presidential election, gained tough new limits on negative campaign advertising and a purge of top election officials… ¶ Calderon was willing to compromise with PRD leaders even as they attacked him in public as an ‘illegitimate’ leader. At the same time, PRD moderates gradually and quietly distanced themselves from defeated presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who proclaimed himself Mexico’s ‘legitimate’ president after last year’s vote.”

3. News from The Guardian that 1,300 years of global diplomacy has ended for China’s giant pandas. “The world’s cuddliest diplomats are out of a job. China will no longer give giant pandas to foreign countries as a way of improving international relations, the domestic media has reported. Ending an ancient tradition, wildlife officials said the endangered animals would only be lent for breeding and biological research. ¶ But questions are likely to be raised about the financial motives behind a decision that looks likely to boost the lucrative business of renting out the animals to zoos for as much as $1m (£490,000) a year.”

4. Finally, this rather bleak story from Damien Cave at The New York Times — “Curfew Over, a Baghdad Book Mart Tries to Turn the Page“.

   Mukdad Ismail rearranged his books, … turned and faced the street. “Books, books: five books for 1,000 dinars, one for 250,” he shouted, his voice thick as a tenor’s, from his years of studying acting. “Come on, come on, those who are hungry for literature!”

   Exactly 15 men looked on.

   Here on Mutanabi Street, the capital’s 1,000-year-old intellectual core, they had come to celebrate and witness the first Friday in more than a year in the city without a curfew from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. It was a moment of potential revival…

   And on Friday, few Iraqis seemed confident enough to test their newfound freedom. Just before noon, only a few cars could be seen on streets downtown that are typically dense with traffic. At a market named Haraj (the word means “noisy”) the only sounds of commerce came from a half-empty cafe with a growling generator. At one point someone left a small shopping bag behind, and customers panicked, fearing it might contain a bomb.

   Fear kept most of the booksellers from appearing at Mutanabi. Though complaints about the curfew had been common for months, Mr. Ismail was joined on the sidewalk by only two or three other vendors, clustered near ornate Ottoman-era buildings charred black by the March 5 bombing. To the booksellers’ left, two Iraqi soldiers strolled by a scrawny gray cat and shops imprisoned by metal grates…

   “Today,” he said, “I am a king.” Then he smiled broadly and chuckled at the mostly empty street.

   Only a few books had been sold by the time the men began to pack up for home in the early afternoon. Customers acknowledged that the market had a long way to go before matching the hustle and bustle of the old days.

   The whole story is worth reading (it’s short). Rather a bleak reboot for books again in Iraq.

One more story below the fold…

A donkey trapped in a well – it’s a metaphor for something…

This is an OPEN THREAD, but it also features four stories in the news at 4 o’clock. It’s like trying to dunk a donut by grasping it by the ears.

1. The headline of the The Independent today reads: FATAL ATTRACTION — “Last week: George Bush flew into Iraq to meet Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, leader of Anbar province. This week: General David Petraeus told the US Congress how Anbar was a model for Iraq. Yesterday: Abu Risha was assassinated by bombers in Anbar.” From the story, “Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha and two of his bodyguards were killed either by a roadside bomb or by explosives placed in his car by a guard, near to his home in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, the Iraqi province held up by the American political and military leadership as a model for the rest of Iraq. ¶ His killing is a serious blow to… Bush and the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, who have both portrayed the US success in Anbar, once the heart of the Sunni rebellion against US forces, as a sign that victory was attainable across Iraq.” The Washington Post gives news of the Abu Risha assassination equal billing to Bush’s televised speech. According to the Post, “Bush, during a visit to Anbar last week, met with Abu Risha and said the province suggested ‘what the future of Iraq can look like.’ Abu Risha was regarded by Americans as a rare leader willing to stand defiantly alongside U.S. forces, while able to both cajole and intimidate his fellow Sunnis into agreement.” The headline for The New York Times? Bush Says Success Allows Gradual Troop Cuts. The NYT places their story about the assassination beneath Bush’s propaganda speech, which according to the Times “Iraqi and American officials were caught off guard by the assassination, which came just hours before Mr. Bush addressed the American people about his plans for Iraq… In his speech, Mr. Bush acknowledged the killing.” The front pages of the three newspapers are shown below the fold.

2. The International Herald Tribune reports that cracks now appear in allied coalition in Afghanistan. “The coalition established to stabilize Afghanistan after the ouster of the Taliban by U.S. forces in 2001 is weakening as countries fighting in the volatile south criticize the lack of military support from other NATO allies, defense officials said Thursday. ¶ Britain, Canada and the Netherlands face crucial decisions on whether to renew their commitments in the increasingly violent region where the Dutch contingent now commands alliance forces fighting a growing resurgence by Taliban and Al Qaeda forces. ¶ The intensifying debate in Europe comes as disarray in Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party following the resignation of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is likely to interrupt and perhaps end the Japanese naval force’s six-year participation in Afghanistan.” Plus DW-World is reporting that EU’s Afghan training mission hampered by fresh troubles and “Brigadier General Friedrich Eichele is returning to Germany just months after he was appointed to head the EU training mission in Afghanistan.”

3. According to BBC News, the US chief scientist has told the BBC that climate change is now a fact. “Professor John Marburger, who advises President Bush, said it was more than 90% certain that greenhouse gas emissions from mankind are to blame. The Earth may become ‘unliveable’ without cuts in CO2 output, he said, but he labelled targets for curbing temperature rise as ‘arbitrary’… ¶ There may still be some members of the White House team who are not completely convinced about climate change…” He’s told the BBC, but will he tell Bush? More importantly will Cheney let him and will Bush even care? While the Bush administration is slowly waking from its global warming denial, Spiegel Online investigates what will become of Tuvalu’s climate refugees? “International legal experts are discovering climate change law, and the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu is a case in point: The Polynesian archipelago is doomed to disappear beneath the ocean. Now lawyers are asking what sort of rights citizens have when their homeland no longer exists… ¶ Environmentalists have long worried about the fate of this tiny Pacific state. Now, however, international legal experts have also taken up the topic of its imminent demise. A nation’s ‘territorial integrity’ is one of the paramount legal principles. It’s unprecedented, however, for a country to completely lose its territory without the use of military force… ¶ Since it joined the United Nations in 2000, the island nation has managed to place its concerns high on the organization’s agenda. Its efforts seem to have borne fruit: Tuvalu is now regarded as a prime example of just how much damage climate change can do to a country.”

4. News from the Los Angeles Times today that after a long delay, Japan launches their lunar orbiter. “Taking advantage of a lull in rainy weather, the Kaguya orbiter lifted off from Tanegashima island in southern Japan, propelled by a domestically built H-2A solid-fuel rocket. Its 21-day trip to the moon begins a yearlong mission that Japan’s civilian space agency, known as JAXA, is promoting as the most significant lunar expedition since America’s Apollo program of the 1960s and early ’70s.” The Guardian reports that “the successful launch of the 55bn yen Kaguya was greeted with relief among space officials. The agency was forced to cancel the planned launch of another lunar probe in 2004 after repeated mechanical and financial setbacks.” America should have never abandoned the Moon in the first place.

A little more below the fold…

This is an open thread, but it also features four stories in the news at 4 o’clock. It’s like trying to dunk a donut by grasping it by the ears.

1. The Independent is reporting that General David Petraeus has presidential ambitions. “Sabah Khadim, then a senior adviser at Iraq’s Interior Ministry, says General Petraeus discussed with him his ambition when the general was head of training and recruitment of the Iraqi army in 2004-05. ‘I asked him if he was planning to run in 2008 and he said, ‘No, that would be too soon’,’ Mr Khadim… said… ¶ Petraeus went to Iraq during the invasion of 2003 as commander of the 101st Airborne Division and had not previously seen combat.” His “critics hold him at least partly responsible for three debacles” —

   Although Mosul remained quiet for some months after, the US suffered one of its worse setbacks of the war in November 2004 when insurgents captured most of the city. The 7,000 police recruited by General Petraeus either changed sides or went home. Thirty police stations were captured, 11,000 assault rifles were lost and $41m (£20m) worth of military equipment disappeared. Iraqi army units abandoned their bases.

   The general’s next job was to oversee the training of a new Iraqi army. As head of the Multinational Security Transition Command, General Petraeus claimed that his efforts were proving successful. In an article in the Washington Post in September 2004, he wrote: “Training is on track and increasing in capacity. Infrastructure is being repaired. Command and control structures and institutions are being re-established.” This optimism turned out be misleading; three years later the Iraqi army is notoriously ineffective and corrupt.

   General Petraeus was in charge of the Security Transition Command at the time that the Iraqi procurement budget of $1.2bn was stolen. “It is possibly one of the largest thefts in history,” Iraq’s Finance Minister, Ali Allawi, said. “Huge amounts of money disappeared. In return we got nothing but scraps of metal.”

   Khadim doubts the “surge” is successful. “Commenting on the US military alliance with the Sunni tribes in Anbar province, he said: ‘They will take your money, but when the money runs out they will change sides again.'”

2. More news from Iraq from The New York Times reporting that the compromise on the Oil Law in Iraq seems to be collapsing. I know, try not to be too shocked. “A carefully constructed compromise on a draft law governing Iraq’s rich oil fields, agreed to in February after months of arduous talks among Iraqi political groups, appears to have collapsed… ¶ Contributing to the dispute is the decision by the Kurds to begin signing contracts with international oil companies before the federal law is passed. The most recent instance, announced last week on a Kurdish government Web site, was an oil exploration contract with the Hunt Oil Company of Dallas… ¶ Some members of one of the main Sunni parties, Tawafiq, which insists on federal control of contracts and exclusive state ownership of the fields, bolted when it became convinced that the Kurds had no intention of following those guidelines. ¶ But the prime minister’s office believes there is a simpler reason the Sunnis abandoned or at least held off on the deal: signing it would have given Mr. Maliki a political success that they did not want him to have.”

3. The Financial Times has more on the Strategic Survey 2007 put out by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. FT reports the US sufffers a decline in prestige. “The report says the US failure in Iraq had meant the Bush administration suffered from a much-reduced ability to hold sway in both domestic and international affairs.”

   But a more fundamental loss of clout occurred at a strategic level. “It was evident that exercise of military power – in which, on paper, America dominated the world – had not secured its goal,” the survey says. The failings in Iraq created a sense around the world of American power “diminished and demystified”, with adversaries believing they will prevail if they manage to draw the US into a prolonged engagement.

   Washington’s ability to act as an honest broker in the world had declined; and Iraq had meant the US had failed to pay as much attention as it should have to other parts of the world.

   America’s standing in the world has gotten so bad under Bush, that simply having a new president will not make things magically better. “The report concludes that the ‘the restoration of American strategic authority seemed bound to take much longer than the mere installation of a new president’.” “Installation” as opposed to election — a very telling choice of words.

4. Lastly, some potentially good news on addressing global warming. According to The New York Times, a U.S. court ruled States can set their own measures to cut greenhouse gases emitted by automobiles and light trucks. “Ruling in a lawsuit against Vermont’s standards on those heat-trapping gases, the judge, William K. Sessions III, rejected a variety of challenges from auto manufacturers, including their contention that the states were usurping federal authority.” The ruling “explicitly endorses the idea” that States have the right to set their own regulations on the greenhouse gases. The judge wrote such regulations do not hurt the economy or undermine safety. “The judge also rejected a claim that Vermont’s standards would intrude into the sphere of foreign policy, which is the unique province of the federal government.” Vermont and other states rules on emissions hinge on California being granted a waiver from the Bush administrations’ Environmental Protection Agency. Am EPA decision is promised by the end of the year.

One more story below the fold…