Gareth Porter: None of the official line on bin Laden is true

gareth porter has one of the more credible reputations in investigative journalism and in this truthout exclusive, blows the lid off the inflated and conflated mythology being dispensed as fact...

A few days after US Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden in a raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a "senior intelligence official" briefing reporters on the materials seized from bin Laden's compound said the materials revealed that bin Laden had, "continued to direct even tactical details of the group's management." Bin Laden was, "not just a strategic thinker for the group," said the official. "He was active in operational planning and in driving tactical decisions." The official called the bin Laden compound, "an active command and control center."

The senior intelligence official triumphantly called the discovery of bin Laden's hideout, "the greatest intelligence success perhaps of a generation," and administration officials could not resist leaking to reporters that a key element in that success was that the CIA interrogators had gotten the name of bin Laden's trusted courier from al-Qaeda detainees at Guantanamo. CIA Director Leon Panetta was quite willing to leave the implication that some of the information had been obtained from detainees by "enhanced interrogation techniques."

Such was the official line at the time. But none of it was true. It is now clear that CIA officials were blatantly misrepresenting both bin Laden's role in al-Qaeda when he was killed and how the agency came to focus on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

In fact, during his six years in Abbottabad, bin Laden was not the functioning head of al-Qaeda at all, but an isolated figurehead who had become irrelevant to the actual operations of the organization. The real story, told here for the first time, is that bin Laden was in the compound in Abbottabad because he had been forced into exile by the al-Qaeda leadership.

i am not going to immediately claim that everything porter reports in this story is true - after all, how could i? - but i will go so far as to say that it's completely plausible... and, if it is true, what a glimpse it provides behind the smoke and mirrors of our government and its campaign of endless war...

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Woo-hoo...! Gotta love them drones...!

glenn takes on the spin-fortified crap that passes for news on npr (yes, virginia, npr is a government spin-machine right along with all the rest of 'em) and also paints a picture of how military-spawned drone technology is rapidly coming to a neighborhood near you...

NPR’s domestic drone commercial

[...]

Even leaving aside the issue of weaponization (police officials now openly talk about equipping drones with “nonlethal weapons such as Tasers or a bean-bag gun”), the use of drones for domestic surveillance raises all sorts of extremely serious privacy concerns and other issues of potential abuse. Their ability to hover in the air undetected for long periods of time along with their comparatively cheap cost enables a type of broad, sustained societal surveillance that is now impractical, while equipping them with infra-red or heat-seeking detectors and high-powered cameras can provide extremely invasive imagery. The holes eaten into the Fourth Amendment’s search and seizure protections by the Drug War and the War on Terror means there are few Constitutional limits on how this technology can be used, and there are no real statutory or regulatory restrictions limiting their use. In sum, the potential for abuse is vast, the escalation in surveillance they ensure is substantial, and the effect they have on the culture of personal privacy — having the state employ hovering, high-tech, stealth video cameras that invade homes and other private spaces — is simply creepy.

But listeners of NPR would know about virtually none of that. On its All Things Considered program yesterday, NPR broadcast a five-minute report (audio below) from Brian Naylor that purported to be a news story on the domestic use of drones but was, in fact, much more akin to a commercial for the drone industry.

speaking of commercials, glenn also offers this air force recruiting advert...



chilling, isn't it...?

going back to the subject of npr, i've long since accepted the fact that npr has been consciously and carefully shaped into just another government propaganda outlet... i still listen to it when i'm out and about in my truck because, despite its serious shortcomings, it's preferable to the rest of the mindless stuff that comes over the radio... but i've been known to scream at the top of my lungs while driving down the interstate while listening to the garbage that they're passing off as news... thank god for the internet...

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John Boehner asks for responses to a survey that's already filled out

i'm on the newsmax email list... i find it interesting to see what conservative wingnuts are up to... this morning, i received this...

Dear Fellow Conservative,

The latest unemployment figures are out – and while any job creation is welcome news, too many Americans are still looking for work.

It’s been more than two-and-a-half years since President Obama forced his massive “stimulus” into law with a promise that it would keep unemployment below eight percent. Sadly, that promise remains unfulfilled.

To bring about true economic recovery, I need your help to build support for common-sense solutions to help create jobs. Here’s what you can do today:

>> Take my survey on jobs and the economy. Which part of the GOP’s Plan for America’s Job Creators do you most want enacted today? Should President Obama reverse his decision to delay the Keystone Pipeline project and sacrifice more than 20,000 American jobs? These are just a few of the questions I have for you.

>> Make an immediate contribution of $25, $50, $100 or more to assist me in the fight to help create new jobs by preventing tax hikes, eliminating excessive government red tape, tapping into America’s vast energy resources, repealing ObamaCare, and more.

Your participation in this important survey – and your immediate contribution of $25, $50, $100, $250 or more – is critical to my efforts to advance the GOP’s jobs agenda of lower taxes, less spending and greater freedom in Democrat-controlled Washington.

Thank you in advance for your support. Together, we can help small businesses create jobs and restore the American dream for future generations.

Sincerely,

John Boehner
Speaker

P.S. I can’t overstate how important it is that I have your input. Please fill out my survey on jobs and the economy and follow-up with an immediate online contribution of $25, $50, $100, $250 or more to help me continue to lead the fight to cut government spending and remove barriers to private-sector job creation in America. Thanks again!

Paid for by TFP-FOJB Committee, a joint fundraising committee authorized by and composed of Friends of John Boehner and The Freedom Project. 320 First Street SE, Washington, DC 20003

i thought, what the heck, let's see what the survey is all about... maybe i'd even respond... here's what opened up when i clicked the link... (since i had to reduce it to fit the blog format, for easier reading, you can click here for a larger version...)



now, i don't know about you, but i have serious doubts about the professionalism of any survey that comes already filled in... not only that, but virtually all choices for all questions with the exception of the last four offer no option but to regurgitate republican talking points... i know democrats are no saints in the spin, slant and bullshit department and i'm sure if i went looking, i could find similar examples for them but, really folks, the "team boehner" survey isn't a survey... at best it's a pep rally and at worst it's an outright insult to anyone with two brain cells to rub together...

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

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An email from a friend on Occupy Wall Street

this was waiting for me in my inbox this morning...

Interesting - 23 days straight of growing protests outside Wall Street of people with placards and organized marches that is spreading to other points in the country. All saying it's time for financial reform and to bring to justice the banking and wall street people that have not been convicted of the financial collapse of the country. Have you seen much in the papers on it or on the TV?! I haven't. It was a piece on CBS Sunday Morning.

i have repeatedly suggested that his attachment to traditional news media doesn't serve him well in the "keeping informed" department... he thinks he's in touch with what's going on but he's not, and what he IS in touch with is so loaded with corporate, propagandist spin, it's sometimes almost impossible to hold a discussion with him...

tom tomorrow on the same subject (courtesy of daily kos)...


(click on image for larger version)

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This is what happens these days when you attempt to present "un-spun" news

Al Jazeera’s Cairo office burned down by pro-Mubarak ‘thugs’

Al Jazeera's office in Cairo was stormed by a "gang of thugs" and set on fire along with all the equipment inside it, the Arab news network said Friday.

"It appears to be the latest attempt by the Egyptian regime or its supporters to hinder Al Jazeera's coverage of events in the country," the news network said in a statement.

"In the last week its bureau was forcibly closed, all its journalists had press credentials revoked, and nine journalists were detained at various stages. Al Jazeera has also faced unprecedented levels of interference in its broadcast signal as well as persistent and repeated attempts to bring down its websites."

"We are grateful for the support we have received from across the world for our coverage in Egypt and can assure everyone that we will continue our work undeterred," the statement added.

Al Jazeera also said its website "has been under relentless attack since the onset of the uprisings in Egypt." A banner advertisment on the news network's Arabic-language website was hacked Friday and replaced with a slogan reading, "Together for the collapse of Egypt." The banner linked to a page critical of the network.

you can go to this link to register your desire to see al jazeera offered on u.s. cable and satellite tv services...

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Democrats becoming Republicans? Republicans becoming Democrats? I'm so confoozed...!

the nyt...

Coalition for Obama Split by Drift to G.O.P., Poll Finds

Critical parts of the coalition that delivered President Obama to the White House in 2008 and gave Democrats control of Congress in 2006 are switching their allegiance to the Republicans in the final phase of the midterm Congressional elections, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Republicans have wiped out the advantage held by Democrats in recent election cycles among women, Roman Catholics, less affluent Americans and independents. All of those groups broke for Mr. Obama in 2008 and for Congressional Democrats when they grabbed both chambers from the Republicans four years ago, according to exit polls.

reuters...

Tea Party-backed Republicans spur party switches

For lifelong Republican Joe Errigo, deciding to cross party lines and support a liberal Democrat for New York governor wasn't nearly as difficult as one might expect.

Republican candidate Carl Paladino -- backed by the conservative Tea Party movement -- raised such political hackles he spawned a "Republicans for Cuomo" movement supporting Democrat Andrew Cuomo.

Similar groups can be found in heated races elsewhere nationwide, often those featuring Tea Party-endorsed candidates, attacked by Democrats and some moderate Republicans as extreme.

[...]

In Delaware, where Christine O'Donnell has Tea Party support, Republicans backing Democrat Chris Coons include a former state judge and former U.S. Congressman. A "Republicans for Coons" Facebook site reads: "Because we just can't support Christine O'Donnell."

In Arizona, "Republicans for Giffords" are backing Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords over conservative Iraq War veteran Jesse Kelly.

In Nevada, incumbent Democrat Sen. Harry Reid, who faces Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle, counts among his Republican supporters an array of influential gaming and casino executives.

isn't it great reading the news in the morning so we can find out what's REALLY going on...?

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More things that make me crazy - perversions of journalism

a keith olbermann special comment... worth watching not so much for his take on the shirley sherrod debacle tempest-in-a-teapot farce non-news news but because of his insight on how we're all being conned by our so-called "news" media...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

ordinarily i choose not to post on the manufactured distractions that pass for news in my country, but what this sad episode points out to me above all else is the vapidity, deceit and manipulation that passes for news in the united states... given all the incredibly, desperately important issues that we should be tackling in our national dialogue, it appalls me beyond words that the past four days has seen our media almost wholly devoted to a fabricated smear deliberately calculated to stoke the never-far-from-the-surface racism that, sadly, still underlies the american state of mind...

once again, glenn greenwald has the definitive view...

Democratic strategist Chris Lehane ... : "Politics in D.C. have become Seinfeldesque. Fights about nothing."

If you read and write about politics full-time and are thus forced to subject yourself to the political media -- as I am -- what's most striking aren't the outrages and corruptions, but the overwhelming, suffocating, numbing stream of stupidity and triviality that floods the brain. One has to battle the temptation to just turn away and ignore it all. Every day, day after day, is consumed by some totally irrelevant though distracting melodrama: what Sarah Palin wrote on her Facebook page, some "outrageous" snippet of a comment made by John Boehner or Harry Reid, some "crazy," attention-attracting statement from some fringe idiot-figure or TV blowhard that is exploited for superficial partisan gain or distraction value (hey, look over there: I think Michelle Bachmann just said something outrageous!!!!).

there's so much that needs our undivided attention and when i see all of our collective energy being squandered on such idiocy, it makes me C.R.A.Z.Y...!

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With so many intelligent opinions available, why does the NYT offer space to an official, paid, Israel apologist?

what the hell do you expect to hear about the attack on the gaza peace flotilla from the israeli ambassador to the united states...? hmmmmm...? and why does this guy deserve space that could otherwise be taken up by someone who could provide an intelligent, contextual perspective on the situation...? why does the nyt seem to feel the need to provide an outlet for someone who is paid to dispense a carefully spun defense of the country he serves as an ambassador...?

the headline on the op-ed and the credentials of the author tell you all you need to know about the content of the piece... no need to read further...

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
An Assault, Cloaked in Peace
By MICHAEL B. OREN
Published: June 2, 2010

[...]

Michael B. Oren is Israel’s ambassador to the United States.

in a day and age where literally everything is spun and propagandized to the hilt, we desperately need dispassionate, rational, contextualized discourse but apparently we're not going to get it any time soon...

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A closer look at the "most influential" journalist writing about Israel

in these days of smoke and mirrors, things are rarely what they seem...

Jeffrey Mark Goldberg (born September 1965) is an American-Israeli journalist. He is an author and a staff writer for The Atlantic, having previously worked for The New Yorker. Goldberg writes principally on foreign affairs, with a focus on the Middle East and Africa. Michael Massing called Goldberg "the most influential journalist/blogger on matters related to Israel". [Michael Massing is a contributing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review.]

[...]

He left college to move to Israel, where he served in the Israeli Defense Forces as a prison guard during the First Intifada.

[...]

Goldberg's book, Prisoners: A Muslim and a Jew Across the Middle East Divide (New York: Knopf, 2006), describes his experiences in Israel working at the Ketziot military prison camp as well as his dialogue with Rafiq, a prisoner whom Goldberg would later befriend in Washington, DC

so, let's take a bit of a closer look at "the most influential journalist/blogger on matters related to israel"...



just one of the people shamelessly put forward as "objective" sources to twist public opinion in the united states to the ends of those whose interests are solely and absolutely to have things go their way...

(thanks to juan cole...)

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In the Bush administration, what are ya gonna do when somebody tells the truth...? Swiftboat 'em, of course...!

from tpmtv's veracifier...

Scott McClellan's surprisingly critical memoir of his time as White House Press Secretary put the White House in full-on damage control mode. McClellan's book may have been off-message, but the White House and its surrogates were conspicuously "on" in their response.

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Ignoring Scott McClellan

the biggest non-news news story of the week - a spineless spin-meister comes clean, dumping out insights and perspectives the rest of the world had figured out several YEARS ago... he was a weenie then and he's a weenie now... if there's anybody that needs to come clean, it's our traditional news media who sucked up mcclellan's bullshit like it was a 7-11 icee and now are oh-so-dumbfounded that he's ratting out his former boss...

bite me, scotty...

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The LA Times op-ed page takes a turn at Obama-bashing

honest to pete, is there a person with a pulse anywhere who can't see through the blatant efforts by our media elites to destroy barack obama...?

Michelle Obama is fair game

By Jonah Goldberg

Candidates who send their wives out on the campaign trail shouldn't lash out when their spouses face criticism.

Obama's delusional foreign policy

By Raoul Lowery Contreras

President Bush was right to call it appeasement.

i gave the la times a little bit more credit than this... however, i don't know why in hell i would do that since they regularly give jonah goldberg an outlet for his world-class asshole views...

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A two-week media appearance schedule for an Iraq war pimp

Brig. Gen. (Ret.)
David L. Grange

this schedule of appearances for one retired general pimping for the bush administration and the iraq war covers a period of a little more than two weeks, from march 12-26, 2003...

from media matters database via empty wheel...


(click on image for larger version)

it's a tough job spreading lies but i guess somebody's got to do it...

he currently works for the chicago tribune's robert mccormick foundation in chicago... here's his bio... see if you can spot the jaw-dropping irony in the first sentence...

Brig. Gen. (Ret.) David L. Grange is a regular commentator on CNN during the current war.

During his 30 years of military service, Grange commanded at all ranks up through Major General. He operated in Ranger, Special Forces, Aviation, Delta Force, and Infantry units throughout the world to include the DMZ of Korea, SE Asia, SW Asia, Germany, former Warsaw Pact countries, Grenada, the Middle East, Central and South America, Africa, Russia, and the Balkans.

Grange attended Army Infantry, Special Forces, Ranger, HALO, Scuba, Air Assault, and Aviation training; the U.S. Marine Corps Command and General Staff College; the British S.A.S. Course, the Delta Course; the National War College, and earned his master's degree in public service at Western Kentucky University.

While serving in the Pentagon, Grange served as the Deputy Director and Director of Army Current Operations, Readiness and Mobilization; and was responsible for coordinating military support within the United States in response to natural disasters and for domestic preparedness against acts of terrorism.

Prior to retirement, Grange commanded the First Infantry Division, "The Big Red One," in Germany, TF Eagle in Bosnia, and U.S. troops in Macedonia and Kosovo.

the "CURRENT WAR"... ya gotta love it...

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Pimping war, torture and political ideology for prestige and personal profit

i find it positively fascinating how, little by little, things that have been apparent to anyone with two brain cells to rub together, are now being confirmed as fact...

In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism over Guantánamo Bay. The detention center had just been branded “the gulag of our times” by Amnesty International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations human rights experts and calls were mounting for its closure.

The administration’s communications experts responded swiftly. Early one Friday morning, they put a group of retired military officers on one of the jets normally used by Vice President Dick Cheney and flew them to Cuba for a carefully orchestrated tour of Guantánamo.

To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as “military analysts” whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world.

Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.

The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.

Those business relationships are hardly ever disclosed to the viewers, and sometimes not even to the networks themselves. But collectively, the men on the plane and several dozen other military analysts represent more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants. The companies include defense heavyweights, but also scores of smaller companies, all part of a vast assemblage of contractors scrambling for hundreds of billions in military business generated by the administration’s war on terror. It is a furious competition, one in which inside information and easy access to senior officials are highly prized.

spin... lies... manipulation... bribery... corruption... propaganda... < yawn > what else is new...?

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Early Sunday a.m. WTF: HRC handing out "I'm not bitter" stickers and Iraqi boys dream of being U.S. soldiers???

for some reason, since i've arrived here in kabul, i've been getting up extra early, usually around 5:45... partly it's because the muezzin chanting prayers from the local mosque wakes me up at 4:35 a.m. and, after snoozing for another hour, i'm wide awake, but also i like to get on the 'puter and catch up on the day's goings-on on the other side of the world before i go to work...

i don't necessarily equate "catching up" with "getting pissed off," but that's been my experience this morning... after watching cnn eviscerate the small-minded and semi-hysterical attack on obama by hillary and mccain and obama's response (see previous post), reading ap's spin-enshrouded crap just grinds my ass...

A political tempest over Barack Obama's comments about bitter voters in small towns has given rival Hillary Rodham Clinton a new opening to court working class Democrats 10 days before Pennsylvanians hold a primary that she must win to keep her presidential campaign alive.

Obama tried to quell the furor Saturday, explaining his remarks while also conceding he had chosen his words poorly.

"If I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that," Obama said in an interview with the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal.

But the Clinton campaign fueled the controversy in every place and every way it could, hoping charges that Obama is elitist and arrogant will resonate with the swing voters the candidates are vying for not only in Pennsylvania, but in upcoming primaries in Indiana and North Carolina as well.

Political insiders differed on whether Obama's comments, which came to light Friday, would become a full-blown political disaster that could prompt party leaders to try to steer the nomination to Clinton even though Obama has more pledged delegates. Clinton supporters were eagerly hoping so.

They handed out "I'm not bitter" stickers in North Carolina, and held a conference call of Pennsylvania mayors to denounce the Illinois senator. In Indiana, Clinton did the work herself, telling plant workers in Indianapolis that Obama's comments were "elitist and out of touch."

god-rotten-dammit... obama doesn't have ANYTHING to apologize for... "bitter" is an entirely accurate description... i don't live in pa. but i'm bitter... i'm bitter about a lot of things, not the least of which is that my government has totally abdicated its sworn obligation to defend and uphold the united states constitution... i'm bitter that my those running my country are enriching themselves and their cronies at my expense and at the expense of billions of poor saps like me around the world who are having their money, their livelihoods, and often their lives taken from them by brute force... tell me those aren't things to be bitter about...

then, to make it worse, i read the headline of this wsj opinion piece...

Let's 'Surge' Some More

followed by this jaw-dropping piece of journalistic shit...

I may well have spent more time embedded with combat units in Iraq than any other journalist alive. I have seen this war – and our part in it – at its brutal worst. And I say the transformation over the last 14 months is little short of miraculous.

The change goes far beyond the statistical decline in casualties or incidents of violence. A young Iraqi translator, wounded in battle and fearing death, asked an American commander to bury his heart in America. Iraqi special forces units took to the streets to track down terrorists who killed American soldiers. The U.S. military is the most respected institution in Iraq, and many Iraqi boys dream of becoming American soldiers. Yes, young Iraqi boys know about "GoArmy.com."

first of all, being the reporter who has been embedded with u.s. combat units in iraq the longest is absolutely NOT a claim to credibility... it is, rather, a claim to being the journalist who has been exposed to the side of the story that his handlers have decreed he should see for the longest... if there had been even the slightest mention of time spent in iraq as a NON-EMBEDDED journalist, i might be tempted to back off a little...

secondly, iraqi boys, like boys everywhere, are fascinated by action heroes... the guns, the equipment, the humvees, the swagger, the raw demonstration of power - all of that captures boys' attention like nothing else can... but seeing that and transforming it into a solid demonstration that u.s. soldiers are "winning hearts and minds" is nothing more than journalistic obscenity... (take a moment to re-visit two of my previous posts, "Just another day in Iraq," and "Scenes from an Iraki childhood," and then talk to me about "hearts and minds...") and if all that isn't obscene enough, check this next part out...

As the outrages of Abu Ghraib faded in memory – and paled in comparison to al Qaeda's brutalities – and our soldiers under the Petraeus strategy got off their big bases and out of their tanks and deeper into the neighborhoods, American values began to win the war.

Iraqis came to respect American soldiers as warriors who would protect them from terror gangs. But Iraqis also discovered that these great warriors are even happier helping rebuild a clinic, school or a neighborhood. They learned that the American soldier is not only the most dangerous enemy in the world, but one of the best friends a neighborhood can have.

the outrages of abu ghraib "FADING" in memory and "PALING" in comparison to al qaeda brutalities...? is yon saying that we should be happy that "OUR OUTRAGES" aren't as bad as "THEIR OUTRAGES"...? even worse, he conveniently and totally ignores all the recent revelations that those abu ghraib "outrages" are linked directly to the orders given by the president of the united states and his criminal accomplices... reading yon's unadulterated crap, I'M OUTRAGED...

finally, if i ever again see u.s. soldiers called "warriors," i will have to puke... my country is not sparta... we don't nurture a "warrior" caste... we don't breed people to wage endless war... we don't live to honor those who fight and kill... and, moreover, i don't want to live in or be a citizen of a country that does those things...

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"Western-looking" Al Qaeda operatives sneaking into the U.S.? Keeping them fear ovens stoked...

lemme tell ya, reading "news" like this feels just a little bit different when i'm sitting here less than a few hundred miles from the afghan-pakistani border... different HOW, you may ask...? funnier... sadder... more pathetic...

Al Qaeda is training fighters that "look western" and could easily cross U.S. borders without attracting attention, CIA Director Michael Hayden said on Sunday.

The militant Islamist group has turned Pakistan's remote tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan into a safe haven, and is using it to plot further attacks against the United States, Hayden said.

"They are bringing operatives into that region for training -- operatives that wouldn't attract your attention if they were going through the customs line at Dulles (airport outside Washington) with you when you were coming back from overseas," Hayden said during an interview on NBC's television show Meet the Press.

"(They) look western (and) would be able to come into this country without attracting the kinds of attention that others might," Hayden said, without offering further details.

i'm working with a number of afghans on the project i'm consulting for... some of them dress western style and some don't... some come in one way one day and another way the next... if dressing, looking and acting like westerners is the goal, hey, that ain't hard to do, and i doubt very seriously if it suddenly occurred to al qaeda that, "OMG, maybe if we try to look more western, we could pass more easily"...

< D'OH >

you're an idiot, hayden, and the media who print this drivel are just as bad for sucking it up...

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A Dana Perino clone on Iraq - down is up, black is white, bad is good, failure is success, war is peace

in a perverse sort of way, you gotta admire the chutzpah of the bush administration... they can take the stinkiest shit imaginable and convince you you're smelling roses... they're also good at making you think that, if the source is supposedly a credible one that operates at arm's length from the white house, it must be believable... but since we now know that a pentagon press secretary is really only a dana perino/tony fratto clone, that sweet smell of roses is almost impossible to detect...

The Pentagon on Wednesday said an eruption of violence in southern Iraq, where US-backed government forces were battling Shiite militias, was a "by-product of the success of the surge."

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said it showed that the Iraqi government and security forces were now confident enough to take the initiative against Shiite extremists in the southern port of Basra.

"Citizens down there have been living in a city of chaos and corruption for some time and they and the prime minister clearly have had enough of it," he said at a Pentagon press conference.

At least 20 people were reported to have been killed in two days of fighting in Basra and another 20 in clashes in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, a bastion of Shiite militias that follow radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

< sniffs the air, gags, retches, reaches for handkerchief to cover nostrils >

now, after that brief interlude, let's rejoin reality, shall we...?

following on to brother tim's post from yesterday, from the ap...

Shiite militiamen are everywhere. Police and Iraqi army checkpoints are nowhere in sight. U.S. soldiers are keeping their distance.

Sadr City — the Baghdad nerve center for the powerful Mahdi Army — is suddenly back on edge as the militia leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, and Iraq's government lock in a dangerous confrontation over clout and control among the nation's majority Shiites.

The epicenter of the showdown has been the southern oil hub of Basra, where clashes have claimed dozens of lives this week and al-Sadr's forces face a Friday deadline to surrender.

But a more finely tuned measure of the tensions may be found among the one- and two-story homes and shabby storefronts of Sadr City. As the crisis deepened, The Associated Press toured Sadr City on Wednesday to observe its rapid swing from relative quiet to a return of the Mahdi Army swagger before the U.S. military troop buildup in Baghdad last year.

Sadr City — named after Muqtada al-Sadr's father, who was assassinated in 1999 — is seen as critical to the overall stability and security of the capital.

A resurgence of Mahdi Army attacks and opposition could roll back the gains that have allowed Baghdad residents to take cautious steps toward normal life and offered Washington hope of accelerating troop withdrawals.

and if the above doesn't do it for ya, try this from gareth porter...

The escalation of fighting between Mahdi Army militiamen and their Shiite rivals, which could mark the end of Moqtada al-Sadr's self-imposed ceasefire, also exposes Gen. David Petraeus's strategy for controlling Sadr's forces as a failure.

Petraeus reacted immediately to Sunday's rocket attacks on the Green Zone by blaming them on Iran. He told the BBC the rockets were "Iranian provided, Iranian-made rockets", and that they were launched by groups that were funded and trained by the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Petraeus said this was "in complete violation of promises made by President [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad and other most senior Iranian leaders to their Iraqi counterparts".

Petraeus statement was clearly intended to divert attention from a development that threatens one of the two main pillars of the administration's claim of progress in Iraq -- the willingness of Sadr to restrain the Mahdi Army, even in the face of systematic raids on its leadership by the U.S. military and its Iraqi allies.

The rocket attacks appear to have been one of several actions by the Mahdi Army to warn the United States and the Iraqi government to halt their systematic raids aimed at driving the Sadrists out of key Shiite centres in the south. They were followed almost immediately by Mahdi Army clashes with rival Shiite militiamen in Basra, Sadr City and Kut and a call for a nationwide general strike to demand the release of Sadrist detainees.

once again, we are forced to attempt to make sense out of conflicting interpretations... however, unlike a similar conflict of interpretation i noted in an earlier post about afghanistan, in this situation, we know there's a liar and we know who it is...

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"A mishap last year in which a B-52 bomber unknowingly carried six nuclear warheads across the country"

can you BELIEVE the crap we're expected to swallow...?

Air Force's nuclear focus has dimmed, studies find

The U.S. military has lost focus on its nuclear-weapons mission and has suffered a sharp decline in nuclear expertise, factors that may have contributed to a mishap last year in which a B-52 bomber unknowingly carried six nuclear warheads across the country, according to two new independent reviews.

mishap...?

lost focus...?

unknowingly...?

nuclear warheads...?

across the country...?

and we're supposed to sit here, read the story on the "official" report, solemnly nod, cluck our tongues, and mutter under our breath, "well, shit happens...?"

are they FUCKING KIDDING ME...??

do they think we're COMPLETE IDIOTS...??

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The amazing, disappearing presidential candidate, circa 1992, an excerpt from the movie Spin [UPDATE: Rap video from disappearing Mike Gravel]

from brasscheck tv...

US elections are rigged long before the voting results are falsified.

The news media helps the process along by making (or trying to make) legitimate candidates disappear.

In the 2008 campaign for president, the candidate the news media is trying to trivialize and marginalize Ron Paul. [profmarcus: also Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel, both of whom are also being subjected to outright ridicule]

In 1992, the "disappeared" candidate was Democrat Larry Agran.

The good news is that the Internet has made this kind of chicanery, much more difficult.

here's "spin" from which the above excerpt was taken...

Artist Brian Springer spent a year scouring the airwaves with a satellite dish grabbing back channel news feeds not intended for public consumption. The result of his research is SPIN, one of the most insightful films ever made about the mechanics of how television is used as a tool of social control to distort and limit the American public's perception of reality.

Take the time to watch it from beginning to end and you'll never look at TV reporting the same again.

[UPDATE]

mike gravel is a perfect example of what's being talked about above... if not for alternative news sources like raw story and youtube, we would never even know about this...

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The Spin is Dead, Long Live the Spin

And so finally, the Prince of Spin Tony Bliar.. I'm sorry.. Blair, departed Number 10 after his Rada-esque tears and quivering lips at both Party Conference and PM Question Time, allowing a no frills, no-nonsense, 'no spin' Chancellor to bring in a new era of conviction politics...and if you believe that, then you deserve what you get - and that is spin,spin,spin,lies, deceit,spin,spin,spin...

Gordon Brown was embroiled in another row about "spin" last night after telling MPs he may pull all of Britain's troops out of Iraq before he calls an election.

The Prime Minister said he was planning to reduce the total number of troops from 5,500 to 2,500 by next spring and held out the possibility of a total pull-out of British troops by the end of 2008. That would enable him to fight the next general election – now expected to be held in 2009 – with no troops in Iraq, neutralising the damage done to the Government by Tony Blair's decision to go to war.

He said the decision about more troop withdrawals would be taken in spring next year as Britain switched to an "over-watch" role with Iraqi forces, and it would depend on the advice of the military chiefs. But his claims were greeted with scepticism.

Mr Brown was accused of cynical media manipulation last week when he used a trip to Basra during the Conservative Party conference to imply that 1,000 British troops would be brought home by Christmas after the transfer of more tasks to Iraqi forces. It later emerged that the total included the withdrawal of 500 troops which had been previously announced.

This is a tiny HINT of what is to come. Already he threatened to call an early general election for this autumn, then seemed to change his mind at the last minute following a surprising post-Conference surge in the polls for Cameron's Tories. He will not have the quivering lips and solemn teary-eyed gazes of his thespian predecessor, but he will deceive and manipulate by different means, precisely because he appears to be lacking in histrionics. Those who are hoping for better from Brown - you have been warned!

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