Tag: 4@4

1. The Associated Press is reporting news of another devastating suicide bombing — Car bomb in Iraq kills at least 32, wounds 43. The last big attack that I mentioned in 4@4 came about three weeks ago where 25 people were killed by a bomb at police station in Diyala. Today’s attack — “a car bomb ripped through a crowded commercial district — came in Dujail, a mainly Shiite town north a Baghdad. The target of the attack was another police station, but instead the bomb “badly damaged a nearby medical clinic”. According to the Iraqi police, “concrete barriers largely protected the police station”.

   Earlier Friday, a suicide bomber blew himself up in front of a Shiite mosque farther north in Sinjar as worshippers left prayers at midday, killing two civilians and wounding 15, police chief Col. Awad Kahlil said.

   So much of what happens in Iraq is not reported by the Western media because the country is not safe. Bush’s “surge” is permanent until, at least, he leaves office in 2009. The Iraqis know that America is paying off most of the country’s militia groups to keep them quiet. And yesterday, even Gen. David Petraeus said he would not use the word victory to ever describe Iraq.

   The “surge” was to keep the situation in Iraq from blowing up while Bush was in office and to distract Americans from the ongoing occupation so to help select the next Republican for the White House… and it is working.

2. The NY Times reports Democrats reluctantly embrace offshore drilling. Despite decades of opposition to new offshore drilling, ‘a core principle of Congressional Democrats”, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading the Democrats to moderate their opposition on drilling.

   Under a measure being assembled for a vote in the House next week, oil rigs could go up 50 miles from the shores of states that welcome drilling and 100 miles off any section of the United States coast – a stark reversal on an issue that has been a Democratic environmental touchstone since the 1980s.

   However, this “reversal” is not good enough for Republicans and their friends in the oil industry. The Democrats’ legislation does not “go far enough to satisfy them” and, according to them, “a decision not to share any new oil royalties with the states eliminates a prime incentive for states to say yes to drilling.”

   In a tactical move, Pelosi is attempting to out fox the foxes. What really is at stake is ban on offshore drilling that will expire in three weeks. With $4 a gallon gasoline and Republicans hell bent on drilling makes renewing the ban an impossibility this year.

   So rather than see the moratorium expire and open the way to drilling as close as three miles from the coast, they said they were pushing any drilling at least 50 miles offshore, requiring states to agree to it and tying the whole package to a series of clean energy initiatives that have so far languished in Congress.

   “The reality,” Ms. Pelosi told reporters Thursday, is “if we don’t have something in the bill, it’s drilling three miles offshore.”

   Please read Meteor Blades’ essay explaining the stakes in more detail.

Four at Four continues with weak retail sales, the climate threat posed by nitrogen, and a bonus story about illegal logging in Mexico threatening Monarch butterflies.

1. So much for John McCain’s Strategy for Victory in Iraq.

   In an interview with BBC News, Gen. David Petraeus said there will be No victory in Iraq, at least in his view. Responding to a question from the BBC interviewer, Petraeus, said “that he will never declare victory there.”

   Interviewer: Do you think you’ll ever use the word victory about Iraq?

   Petraeus: I don’t know if I will. I think that all of us at different times have recognized need for real restraint in our assessments, in our pronouncements, if you will, and we have tried to be very brutally honest and forthright in what we have provided to Congress, to the press, to ourselves… In fact, we said that you have to be first with truth…

   Does anyone want to tell McCain? (I’m not going to touch upon the blatant distortions Petraeus has made about the situation in Iraq, but AntiWar News does so briefly: Iraq War Will Never End in Victory.)

   According to The Guardian, Petraeus warns of long struggle ahead for US in Iraq. “Petraeus adopted a cautious tone in his interview with BBC’s Newsnight, saying he did not know that he would ever use the word ‘victory’.”

   “This is not the sort of struggle where you take a hill, plant the flag and go home to a victory parade,” he said. “It’s not war with a simple slogan.”

   Yeah… I know. For the McCain campaign touting the “surge”, I remind them of this McClatchy Newspaper story from Tuesday, Experts: Bush’s Iraq withdrawal small because gains are, too. Bush will leave office with the “surge” fully still in place. Not until February 2009, one month later, does the U.S. begin the troop withdraw.

Four at Four continues with no bid oil contracts in Iraq, Pakistan’s reaction to U.S. military action within their country’s borders, and how Obama’s fighting back against McCain and the Republicans.

“We can’t kill our way to victory.”

1. The Washington Post reports the Top U.S. military officer calls for better strategy in Afghanistan. Adm. Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before the House Armed Services Committee this morning. “I am not convinced that we’re winning it in Afghanistan,” he said, but added “I’m convinced we can.”

   Mullen described an intensifying insurgency and advocated a “comprehensive” strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. More U.S. troops are needed in border region according to Mullen. “Frankly, we are running out of time,” he said.

   “No amount of troops in no amount of time can ever achieve all the objectives we seek,” he said, adding later: “We can’t kill our way to victory.“

   Mullen believes the Afghanistan’s problems lie across the border in Pakistan. “Until we work more closely with the Pakistani government to eliminate the safe havens from which they operate, they enemy will only keep coming,” he said.

   Of course, Mullen didn’t mention that the Republicans did not mention Afghanistan once at McCain’s RNC.

2. The Guardian reports General Ray Odierno to take US command in Iraq.

   General Ray Odierno, the former second-in-command of US troops in Iraq, is to return to Baghdad next week to take over from General David Petraeus as the top general.

   Odierno, who will be promoted to four-star general, was a relative latecomer to the hearts and minds counterinsurgency techniques of Petraeus.

   During his first stint in Iraq, when he commanded the 4th Infantry Division in 2003, Odierno was responsible for an area north of Baghdad known as the Sunni triangle, which included Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s home town.

   Few US military commanders or soldiers have much good to say about Odierno’s aggressive tactics. His division’s mistreatment of Iraqis and the heavy use of artillery appalled others within the country’s armed forces.

   Army reporters and commanders said Odierno’s unit – a heavy armoured division, despite its name – used an iron-fist strategy that may have appeared to pacify the area in the short term, but alienated large parts of the population. Some argue that the behaviour of the 4th Infantry Division helped create the insurgency.

   Here’s what George W. Bush said about Odierno in March: “I appreciate the fact that you really snatched defeat out of the jaws of those who are trying to defeat us in Iraq.” This general doesn’t seem to be right man for the job if we want, um, “victory”.

Four at Four continues with a intelligence forecast of America’s growing impotence, the presidential candidate’s unreadiness to deal with the deficit, the Democrat’s plan for Big Auto corporate welfare, and a bonus coverage about the Large Hadron Collider, which went live today.

1. Get used to this face, America.

   ABC News reports McCain campaign crowds grow exponentially. Before John McCain announced that Sarah Palin would be his running mate, a typical McCain campaign event “averaged only about 1,000 people. Now 5,000 has been the low end of turnout in the last few days, and the biggest event last weekend drew about 11,000.” The Palin factor has been an incredible boost to McCain’s presidential chances. “Isn’t this the most marvelous running mate in the history of the nation?” McCain asked last Friday.

   Palin is a “a huge hit” within the Republican party. At events, she is overshadowing McCain both in cheers and in campaign signs. By choosing her, McCain has pivoted the presidential campaign into a contest of celebrity and Palin’s popularity is rocketing upwards.

   Reuters reports Poll shows big shift to McCain among white women. “The Washington Post/ABC News poll found that much of McCain’s surge in the polls since the Republican National Convention is attributable to the shift in support among white women.” The shift is attributed to Palin and her performance at the RNC.

   The NY Times notes Palin is still at McCain’s side and appearing before enthusiastic crowds.

   McCain’s crowds have mushroomed from hundreds to happily bellowing thousands. And judging from the women who turned up wearing “I (heart) Sarah” stickers in Lebanon this morning, it is safe to say they have not turned out to get a look at the 72-year-old veteran Washington senator who tops the ticket.

   A pair of matching signs at the rally… said it all: “America Respects John McCain” and “America Loves Sarah Palin.”

   For what it’s worth in their op-ed, Dick Morris and Eileen McGann write, Momentum’s in McCain’s favor. “The turning point was the designation of Palin and the personal attacks on her. By stirring up a storm, Democrats assured that Palin would speak to 37 million Americans – just a million fewer than watched Obama’s acceptance speech.”

   Once upon a time, the presidential race was about issues. But in 2008, it’s the stupids’ economy.

Four at Four continues with Obama’s campaign fund raising problems, Bush’s shell game in Iraq and Afghanistan, and some hope for salmon off Oregon’s coast.

1. The Guardian reports Oil prices rise on fears over production cuts. “There are some voices in OPEC, the 13-strong cartel of producers that controls 40% of the world’s crude, calling for production cuts to protect the price.”

   Iran’s oil minister, Gholam Hossein Nozari, said there was too much crude in the market.

   “We believe the market is oversupplied,” he told journalists today…

   Nozari has stated that he believes $100 a barrel should serve as a floor for the price of oil.

   The AFP reported earlier that OPEC likely to decrease oil output.

   OPEC ministers headed for Vienna on Monday to wrestle with the issue of falling oil prices, with analysts expecting them to agree to trim output to help keep crude above 100 dollars a barrel.

   The question facing the oil producer group, which is to hold a policy meeting Tuesday, is when, not if, to cut its oil production target as crude prices slide in the face of weakening global economic growth, analysts say.

   Most observers expect the 13-nation cartel to agree to reduce its output informally before waiting until later, possibly at a scheduled gathering in December, to alter its official output target.

   The informal cut will be achieved by members, mainly powerhouse Saudi Arabia, agreeing to cut their excess production above their OPEC quota, which would remove oil from the market but not amount to a formal change in policy.

   So America’s Saudi “allies” will cut their production to keep the price of crude $100 a barrel. Mission Accomplished.

Four at Four continues with a lawsuit to preserve Fourth Branch’s official papers, Bush administration maneuvering on civilian nuclear cooperation with Russia and the debate within the Pentagon for going on the offensive cyberspace warfare.

1. Can they still call it a “surge”, if it has become permanent?

   The Pentagon is recommending keeping U.S. troops levels in Iraq steady until, at least, February 2009. The NY Times reports on a Plan that would shift U.S. forces from Iraq to Afghanistan. The Pentagon has made a confidential (no irony there) recommendation to Bush to move a modest number of troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. Under the plan, the U.S. would reduce the occupying force in Iraq by one brigade from 15 to 14. “All told, the number of American forces in Iraq, currently about 146,000, would drop by nearly 8,000 by March.”

   American commanders in Afghanistan have made repeated requests for three more brigades, saying the reinforcements are “necessary to carry out the mission there and to combat a resurgent Taliban.” The Pentagon plan would deploy an Army Brigade and a Marine batallion to Afghanistan, adding nearly 4,500 soldiers early next year.

   According to the LA Times, “Army Gen. David H. Petraeus has recommended that… Bush postpone sharp troop cuts in Iraq until next year, delaying a large-scale shift of combat forces to Afghanistan and reflecting concerns that widespread violence could return to Iraq.”

   Petraeus’ recommendation conflicts with his previous “statements before Congress in May, when he predicted an autumn troop reduction, even if a small one.” Overall, the “current level of about 140,000 troops would remain in Iraq through the end of Bush’s presidency in January”.

Four at Four continues with an update from Afghanistan and Pakistan, the 6.1 percent unemployment rate, and a woolly mammoth invasion.

1. Iraq reports 7 killed by U.S. friendly fire, according to the LA Times. “A U.S. military boat patrolling the Tigris River in the dark drew fire Wednesday from Iraqi security forces who mistook it for the enemy, sparking a deadly gun battle that killed seven Iraqis and prompted local anger over American use of firepower against friendly forces.”

   According to the Iraqis, “the U.S. was moving boat without its lights on, raising suspicions among Iraqis at a fixed checkpoint on a bridge spanning the river.” The area has had recent suicide bombings and other attacks by the insurgency.

   The resulting battle left dead three Iraqi soldiers, two police officers, and “two paramilitary fighters known as Sons of Iraq and allied with U.S. and Iraqi forces”.

   The deadline for a military update on the occupation of Iraq is days away, but for This round, the Pentagon may keep Gen. David Petraeus offstage, reports the CS Monitor. “Members of Congress have requested that Petraeus make another appearance on Capitol Hill… The Defense Department has refused that request, ostensibly because of scheduling issues. But as the Pentagon struggles to muster more troops for Afghanistan, officials worry that the general’s testimony on Iraq will upstage other needs.”

   “Petraeus is expected to be cautious on troop drawdown, not wanting to lose a hard-won security despite pressure from some colleagues to free up forces for Afghanistan.”

   The Iraqis want U.S. troops to leave Iraq as well. Meanwhile, McClatchy Newspapers report Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s growing defiance of U.S. worries allies and critics. His insistence on “a firm date for U.S. withdrawal” is rankling some Bush administration officials.

2. In other news of the Empire, Ecuador is giving the U.S. air base the boot, reports the Washington Post. Despite $71 million in upgrades to Manta’s airport and about $6.5 million the U.S. “injects each year into the local economy”, Ecuador wants the U.S. out of their country. So next year, 450 contractors and U.S. Air Force personnel will be leaving the base.

   The WaPo story is complete with the requisite scary picture of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez together with Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa and verbiage on how this base is “one of the most important foreign outposts” of the failed “War on Drugs”.

   “The U.S. stopped being the benchmark of what is good for Latin America,” said Gustavo Larrea, Ecuador’s security minister. “Because Latin America did everything that the U.S. asked it to do and wasn’t able to get out of poverty, the North American myth lost political weight.”

   This is a ‘bad day for America’ the story implies. All across Latin America, goverments are rejecting U.S. money. How dare these countries champion their own sovereignty and denounce American “imperialism”, the WaPo story implies.

   “This is a problem for us of sovereignty,” Larrea said. “It’s as if we had a base in New York. This would be incomprehensible for North Americans.”

   Indeed.

Four at Four continues with an update on the situation in Pakistan and an investigation into oil price manipulation.

1. Disunity amongst the Republicans! The Boston Globe reports Ron Paul and thousands hold counter rally.

   “It’s amazing because, believe it or not, I still think of myself as a country doctor who has gone to Congress, and I’m a quiet congressman from Texas,” Paul said. “But in the past 18 months, it was discovered that the ideas of liberty and the revolution were alive and well and we’re celebrating it here tonight.”

   When he criticized US fiscal policy – the federal monetary system, heavy government borrowing, and deficit spending – the crowd erupted in loud chants of “End the Fed!” the Federal Reserve System that expands the supply of money.

   Paul criticized the Patriot Act and the extension of government power, and tore into President Bush’s foreign policy and the principle of “preventive war – actually starting wars.” He drew cheers when he declared, “We do not need a national ID card,” and condemned the war on drugs as “a total failure.”

   10,000 tickets were sold to event at the Target Center in Minneapolis. The LA Times reports “As many as 12,000 disillusioned Republicans and independents… converged… for a boisterous push-back against the Republican establishment.”

2. Meanwhile, the disunited Democrats and independents have helped Obama’s support climb to 50%, according to The Guardian. “Barack Obama has reached the 50% mark in polling of US voting intentions, giving him a clear lead in the race for the presidency. A well-received acceptance speech at the Democratic convention in Denver last week, coupled with the fallout from John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as running mate, helped Obama gain five percentage points in yesterday’s Gallup tracking poll.”

   And ABC News reports Joe Biden Rips the Bush administration. “Looking to the future but with one eye on the past, Biden also promised that an Obama-Biden government would go through Bush administration data with ‘a fine-toothed comb’ and pursue criminal charges if necessary.” It’s the “if necessary” part that worries me…

Four at Four continues with the near disaster in New Orleans and Thai web censorship for sites “disturbing social order”.

1. It seems Hurricane Gustav has spared its worst from New Orleans, The Times-Picayune reports that evacuees are being told that Re-entry will be Wenesday at the earliest. “Public officials across the New Orleans area cautioned evacuees to stay put because the region is not yet ready to begin accepting people. Power remains out across wide swaths, and storm debris still clutters local roadways.”

   The NY Times reports that New Orleans exhales after being spared a direct hit. “The levees in New Orleans were tested by a heavy storm surge but held, even though the repair and reconstruction work from Hurricane Katrina, is far from finished.” For hours, storm water lapped over the weak floodwall on the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, but the Ninth Ward neighborhood only had “ankle-to-knee-deep water on the streets it was protecting”.

   McClatchy Newspapers add that Gustav spared Gulf oil rigs, so crude prices likely to drop. Evidence suggests that the category 2 hurricane spared the region’s oil rigs. “Gustav forced the shut down of 1.3 million barrels per day of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. That complete shutdown amounted to a full quarter of U.S. oil production and about 15 percent of natural gas production nationwide.”

   However, the NY Times notes there are more potential hurricanes coming. Behind Gustav: Hanna, Ike, and Josephine.

2. McClatchy Newspapers report the Absence of Bush and Cheney cheers Republican delegates. Although the Republicans didn’t want to talk about their absence on record, “yet inside and outside the convention hall, they mostly agreed that Bush is a political problem for… McCain, and that it was better that TV screens Monday evening didn’t feature delegates cheering him on.”

   “The only bit of good news at all brought by Gustav is that it caused the cancellation of both Bush and Cheney speeches. Every Republican was rather dreading these speeches to begin with.”

   Meanwhile The Guardian and other news agencies confirm that Sarah Palin was member of party calling for Alaskan secession from the United States. “Palin was a member of the Alaskan Independence party (AIP) before becoming an elected Republican official, and recorded a video message for the AIP convention this year. The party’s chief goal is securing Alaska a vote on seceding from the US, a goal that AIP leaders believe the state was denied before it became part of the US almost 50 years ago.”

Four at Four continues with a truce between Obama and Murdoch’s Fox News and Alberto Gonzales escaping criminal charges for improper handling of classified material.

1. The NY Times reports that the Storm strikes land west of New Orleans. “Hurricane Gustav made landfall along the Louisiana coast late Monday morning, and with the center of the storm striking 70 miles southwest of New Orleans, officials were optimistic that the city would be spared destruction on the scale of Hurricane Katrina three years ago.”

   Gustav has been downgraded from a category 3 to category 2, “because its winds had slowed to 110 miles an hour from 115 m.p.h., according to the National Weather Service. Officials at the Army Corps of Engineers said that New Orleans’ levee system was being severely tested, but they did not think that the hurricane would cause water to flow over its walls.”

   There is Six inches of flooding reported in the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans according to The Times-Picayune.

   As much as six inches of flooding has been reported in the Upper 9th Ward from water splashing over the western side of the Industrial Canal floodwall, said Jerry Sneed, New Orleans director of homeland security and emergency preparedness.

   Army Corps of Engineers officials said the spillage does not pose a major threat.

   Water is overtopping for several hundred yards on the Upper Ninth Ward side of the Industrial Canal on both sides of the Claiborne Avenue bridge…

   “We’re confident in the stability of that wall,” which was fortified after Hurricane Katrina, said Karen Durham-Aguilera, director of Task Force Hope for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Officials are out in force at the scene. The overflow areas appear to be greatest on the river side of Claiborne.

Four at Four continues with the U.S. hand over to the Iraqis in Anbar, U.S. lagging in the world bicycle boom, pollution from Asia impact on the U.S., and the melting of Greenland’s icesheet.

1. The Times-Picayune reports Gustav forecast still aimed at central Louisiana coast. “This morning’s first National Hurricane Center forecast still has Tropical Storm Gustav arriving at the Louisiana coast just south of Morgan City and Houma at 1 a.m. Tuesday as a major Category 3 hurricane with top winds of 115 mph.”

   As noted in yesterday’s Four at Four, the LA Times reports the Storm could postpone Republican convention. “Party officials are discussing the possibility of postponing convention proceedings if the threat to New Orleans and other Gulf Coast areas grows. If there is serious damage in the Gulf Coast, images of Republicans partying in Minneapolis-St. Paul could be an embarrassing reminder of the Bush administration’s delayed response to Hurricane Katrina three years ago… A damaging hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico also could highlight the risk of offshore drilling in the area at a time when McCain is championing the practice.”

   And just as a reminder about Republicans, here’s a story from the AP from May: Alaska will sue over polar bear listing, Palin says. “[Palin] and other Alaska elected officials fear a listing will cripple oil and gas development in prime polar bear habitat off the state’s northern and northwestern coasts… Climate models that predict continued loss of sea ice, the main habitat of polar bears, during summers are unreliable, Palin said.” Palin will be the excuse John McCain needs to flip-flop his support to be pro-drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Four at Four continues with walruses and the shrinking Arctic sea ice, long overdue “dirty war” justice in Argentina, and the lost ‘cities’ of the Amazon.

1. Reuters reports Gustav threatens Jamaica. “Jamaicans deserted the streets and government offices closed as a strengthening Tropical Storm Gustav took aim at the island on Thursday on a path toward the Gulf of Mexico oil fields as a powerful hurricane…
   Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal put New Orleans residents on alert for possible evacuations from Friday, the third anniversary of Katrina’s strike.”

   According to The Times-Picayune, New Orleans isn’t ready yet for another hurricane. The Area’s flood shield still has danger zones.

   If Gustav heads into southeast Louisiana, scientists and engineers agree that large swaths of the region could be at great risk of flooding from even a moderate storm surge, especially neighborhoods near the Industrial Canal and on the West Bank of Jefferson Parish…

   Almost $13 billion in work remains to be done before the region is protected from a 100-year storm — about the size of Hurricane Rita — and that means much of the hurricane protection system remains at risk…

   The system’s Achilles heel remains the Industrial Canal area, where $695 million worth of structures are planned… But that work, still being designed, won’t start to provide any storm surge protection until this time next year.

   Three years to make a positive difference, but the Bush administration comes up empty handed. Now if Gustav makes landfall as a hurricane, people likely will be killed by a storm in New Orleans… again.

   Meanwhile, the Republicans are wondering if they should push back their convention one week so John McCain can accept his party’s nomination on September 11th. According to Fox Noise, Gustav threatens RNC plans. “Mindful of the pitfalls of hosting cocktail parties while Gulf Coast residents are being evacuated, John McCain’s campaign suggested Thursday that Republicans could postpone their upcoming national convention in St. Paul if Tropical Storm Gustav makes landfall over the weekend.”

   Which Bush administration failure does McCain wish to associate with? 9/11 or Katrina? My guess is 9/11, but then who can say? The Republicans chose to celebrate the nation’s crumbling infrastructure by holding their fête in the Twin Cities.

Four at Four continues the U.S. defeat in Afghanistan, Putin feeding Georgia conspiracy theories, and investigations, er a whole lot of nothing, from Congress.