| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"maff" |
| Date: |
07 Mar 2007 02:21:04 AM |
| Object: |
OT: Libby lied, troops died |
Libby lied, troops died
Sidney Blumenthal
March 6, 2007 10:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sidney_blumenthal/2007/03/scooter_libby=
_1.html
The conviction of I Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President *****
Cheney's former chief of staff, on criminal charges of obstruction of
justice and perjury brings only a partial conclusion to the sordid
political tragedy that is the Bush presidency. Yet the judgment on
this matter goes to the heart of the administration. The means and the
ends of Bush's White House have received a verdict from the bar of
justice.
Foreign policy was and is the principal way of consolidating unchecked
executive power. In the run-up to the Iraq war, professional
standards, even within the military and intelligence agencies, were
subordinated to political goals. Only information that fit the
preconceived case was permitted. Those who advanced facts or raised
skeptical questions about sketchy information were seen as deliberate
enemies causing damage from within. From the beginning, the White
House indulged in unrestrained attacks on such professionals.
Revealing the facts, especially about the politically-driven method of
skewing policy, was treated as a crime against the state.
A Barack-star no more
Ian Williams
March 6, 2007 9:05 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ian_williams/2007/03/obama_in_knots.html
Last week Barack Obama performed an inadvertent public service by
taking two of my favorite hobbyhorses for a ride round the electoral
ring. One was the corrupting power of money in presidential primaries,
and the second was demonstrating that the Israel lobby was every bit
as powerful as it has traditionally claimed on its website, even as it
denounces anyone else who says so.
Hitherto Barack Obama has been a superficially attractive Presidential
candidate, compared with the rest of the pack. The inane accusation
that he was educated in a Wahabi madrasa led to a reflexive sympathy,
as did his unequivocal opposition to the war in Iraq.
Reading from a different script
Simon Tisdall
March 6, 2007 4:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simon_tisdall/2007/03/reports_suggestin=
g_iran_has_so.html
Reports suggesting Iran has sought Saudi help in mediating its nuclear
and other disputes with the Bush administration are wide of the mark.
When the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, travelled to Riyadh
at the weekend, he had a wholly different object in view: wrecking the
ostensibly anti-Iranian coalition of "moderate" Arab states plus
Israel, painstakingly assembled by the Americans in recent months.
The summit with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah marked Iran's most
successful effort yet to break out of its made-in-Washington
diplomatic straitjacket. As if to calm fears of a growing, region-wide
Sunni-Shia divide, the two leaders made an ostentatious show of amity,
holding hands and posing for cameras.
Sunnis will not be persuaded that Iran is their real enemy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2028058,00.html
Washington's attempt to pave the way for another invasion by fomenting
anti-Shia sectarianism in the Middle East will fail
Azzam Tamimi
Wednesday March 7, 2007
The Guardian
Despite the horrific failure of its adventures in Afghanistan, Iraq
and Lebanon, the US is now said to be preparing to attack Iran.
Meanwhile, all disputes in the Middle East have suddenly turned into
sectarian conflicts and Iran is portrayed as the main culprit. Nothing
now seems comprehensible to the western media and political
establishments unless seen through the prism of Iranian ambitions in
Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and even more distant conflicts
such as Somalia and Darfur. Opponents of Iran and of whomever Iran is
thought to support in the region no longer want us to see US
interventions as the main issue - let alone the primary cause of the
mayhem enveloping the entire Middle East.
The point of no return
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2028059,00.html
Of course we must make plans for climate change, but the sense of
resignation is troubling
Bibi van der Zee
Wednesday March 7, 2007
The Guardian
A mild morning, as almost all these winter mornings have been. A
wonderful burst of canary yellow crocuses are in bloom outside. The
icecaps are on the radio again - not doing too well, dripping away.
"UK plans to cut CO2 doomed to fail," reads the Guardian's front page.
What, I wonder, is the back-up plan? Just in case, you know, we don't
all switch to low-energy lightbulbs in time.
To the phone. The Cabinet Office, who are in charge of Civil
Contingencies, direct me firmly to Defra: "All I can say is that Defra
is the contact for that, Defra are in the lead in terms of developing
policy related to climate change." Me: "But shouldn't the Civil
Contingency department be involved, too?" They send me a polite email
suggesting that the UK Resilience website - the government's
information service for emergency planners - might be useful.
There's no cynicism about our new science course
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2027935,00.html
Past teaching has failed to show pupils how we know what we know. Now
things are changing, say Jonathan Osborne and Robin Millar
Wednesday March 7, 2007
The Guardian
Your article on the new GCSE science course, 21st Century Science,
misrepresents the research evidence (New science GCSEs foster cynicism
among pupils, says study, March 1). Nowhere does the word "cynicism"
appear in any of the evaluation reports. It would be much more
accurate to say that the course aims to encourage students to look
more critically at some of the claims made about the applications of
science. It does this by educating them about science and its
practices as well as its content.
Lies about crimes
http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,,2027931,00.html
Leader
Wednesday March 7, 2007
The Guardian
Even most Americans probably gave up trying to follow the threads of
the trial of I Lewis "Scooter" Libby long ago. So it is asking a lot
to expect non-Americans to grasp the full significance of the former
White House official's conviction on four counts of perjury and
obstruction of justice yesterday. After all, the leak to the press of
the name of a CIA agent who played a cameo role in the Iraqi weapons
of mass destruction debacle in 2002 was itself a recondite enough
affair. The role of Mr Libby, the vice-president's chief of staff, in
efforts to frustrate a special prosecutor appointed to investigate the
leak made an already complex story more labyrinthine still. The
investigation was then diverted for many months into an introspective
media debate about whether journalists should be required to testify
about their conversations with Mr Libby. The eventual trial may have
fascinated the Washington Beltway crowd, to whom Mr Libby, the former
CIA analyst Valerie Plame, and her husband Ambassador Joseph Wilson
are seasoned and familiar figures. But why should outsiders have to
take it seriously too?
No expense spared
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2027968,00.html
Ten page boys, two continents, several castles ... you could hardly
describe Liz Hurley's (still ongoing) wedding to Arun Nayar as a quiet
affair. But that's par for the course when it comes to modern
celebrity nuptials. Zoe Williams mourns the day when stars truly got
married in style
Wednesday March 7, 2007
The Guardian
Liz Hurley and Arun Nayar might think that they are immune from open
mockery and derision, on account of Nayar being Indian and their
wedding partly occurring in India. After all, weddings are very big in
India, the festivities often last a week, and it is not unusual to
have celebrations that span the continents etc etc.
Liz and Arun do not, however, get away with their five-day
Gloucestershire/India, multi-party, multi-castle extravaganza by
filing their wedding under "different country, different rules". They
are essentially just doing Modern Celebrity Wedding with an Indian
twist. You want to get married, right? Hmm, so many decisions ... How
to arrive at church? A regular car, festooned with happy garlands? Sod
that, let's have 17 horses, all different colours. Like in The Wizard
of Oz ... Ooh, how much would it cost to have an actual wizard? =A363m,
you say ... Is that more or less than getting Robbie Williams to
arrive in a helicopter? Or Elton John, as actually happened in
Hurley's case. And did Hurley have a page boy at her blessing at
Sudeley castle last Saturday? No, she had 10, witnesses report. And
five bridesmaids too.
My life in every town
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2027975,00.html
What does it really mean to be English? To find out, philosopher
Julian Baggini decided to spend six months in what the researchers
said was the most English town in the country. His destination?
Rotherham ...
Wednesday March 7, 2007
The Guardian
Few impressions are as vivid as those of arriving in a strange place
for the first time. People travel all over the world searching for
such experiences of the world made new. But, absurdly, none of my own
arrivals in foreign lands unsettled me as much as when I stepped off
the bus and first set foot in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.
I was here to find somewhere to live for six months, as part of my
attempt to understand the English mind: what we believe, what we want
and what we value. What I wanted was not the blurred-out average, but
somewhere that contained all types of the English. I approached the
devisers of the Acorn demographic profiles, which divide households
into such categories as struggling families, affluent greys and
settled suburbia. Their statistical analysis revealed that the English
postcode area with the most representative spread of household types
turned out to be S66, on the outskirts of Rotherham.
The mother of all battles
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2027979,00.html
In the US, a group of mothers - Moms Rising - has appeared almost
overnight. What do they want? And can they get it? Viv Groskop reports
on a quiet revolution
Wednesday March 7, 2007
The Guardian
All across America, beyond the cities and into the suburbs, a quiet
revolution has been gathering pace. Its supporters host consciousness-
raising parties, plan subversive bake sales, refuse to remove their
campaign T-shirts and have been firing off thousands of angry emails
to their senators. Dubbed "mom power", the movement is huge and
growing. In fact, it's become so influential that the nation's
presidential candidates are keen to get in on the act.
Senior White House aide found guilty of perjury
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2028180,00.html
Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Wednesday March 7, 2007
The Guardian
George Bush suffered a fresh setback yesterday when a top White House
aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was found guilty of perjury in relation
to events leading up to the invasion of Iraq.
Mr Bush, whose polling rates are already the worst of his six years in
office as a result of Iraq, watched the verdict on television in the
Oval office. A White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said the
president "respected the jury's verdict" and that he was "saddened for
Scooter Libby and his family".
Ahmadinejad challenged for control of Iran's economy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2027929,00.html
=B7 Rafsanjani says his rival has failed to enact reforms
=B7 Row erupts after supreme leader shores up president
Robert Tait in Tehran
Wednesday March 7, 2007
The Guardian
The bitter rivalry between Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and
the country's leading elder statesman has erupted into a public
struggle for control over economic policy.
Hashemi Rafsanjani, the president's most influential opponent, set the
scene for a power struggle by telling Iranian journalists that Mr
Ahmadinejad's "trial period is over". He said he would use his
position as head of the expediency council, a state body empowered to
set the Islamic regime's long-term goals, to reshape the government's
economic policies.
Clinton eyes new target with 'women for Hillary' campaign
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections08/story/0,,2027944,00.html
=B7 Female leaders lined up to counter Obama threat
=B7 Up to 60% of voters in primaries will be women
Ed Pilkington in New York
Wednesday March 7, 2007
The Guardian
Fresh from her efforts to secure the black vote at Sunday's civil
rights commemoration in Selma, Alabama, Hillary Clinton turns today to
the other voting block which she hopes to win over in her bid for the
2008 presidency: women.
At the annual luncheon of the progressive-leaning group of prominent
women, Emily's List, Mrs Clinton will announce a push to enlist a
network of what she will call "women leaders" into her campaign. The
network, "Women for Hillary" will be the latest element within her
internet-savvy campaigning which combines "Hillcasts" with daily
emails and web interaction with her supporters. A new website targeted
at younger women will be launched next week.
Russian generals put old foe back into their sights
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2027963,00.html
Luke Harding in Moscow
Wednesday March 7, 2007
The Guardian
Russia is to replace its military doctrine with a more hawkish version
that boldly identifies Nato and the west as its greatest danger.
In a statement posted on its website, Russia's powerful security
council said it no longer considered global terrorism as its biggest
danger. Instead, Russia was developing a new national security
strategy which reflected changing "geo-political" realities, and the
fact that rival military alliances were becoming "stronger" -
"especially Nato".
Big blasts or tiny tugs: how to stop an asteroid catastrophe
http://www.guardian.co.uk/space/article/0,,2028153,00.html
Collision with Earth is seen as inevitable, but scientists are meeting
to find solution
Alok Jha, science correspondent
Wednesday March 7, 2007
The Guardian
A huge asteroid hurtles in from outer space to devastate the Earth, an
unstoppable force of nature from which there is no escape. Just such a
catastrophe is thought to have killed off the dinosaurs, and,
according to most experts, it is only a matter of time before a
similar fate befalls the human race.
But perhaps not all hope is lost. Hundreds of scientists, from nuclear
weapons engineers to planetary experts, are gathering in Washington
this week to try to develop a master plan to protect the Earth from
such an asteroid.
US pair fall ill in Moscow from thallium poisoning
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2027953,00.html
=B7 Deadly metal was blamed at first in Litvinenko case
=B7 Mother and daughter are originally from Russia
Luke Harding in Moscow
Wednesday March 7, 2007
The Guardian
An American woman and her daughter, both of whom fell ill mysteriously
during a trip to Russia last month, had been poisoned with thallium,
hospital officials revealed yesterday.
The deadly metal is the same substance originally blamed for the
poisoning in London of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko.
Marina Kovalenskaya, 48, and her daughter Yana, 25, flew to Moscow
last month from their home in Los Angeles for a family wedding. They
fell ill in the early hours of February 24.
Ghana celebrates 50 years
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2027920,00.html
Chris McGreal, Africa correspondent
Wednesday March 7, 2007
The Guardian
Ghana yesterday marked 50 years as the first sub-Saharan country to
win independence with energetic celebrations tempered by reflections
on the failure of many parts of Africa to live up to the promise of
decolonisation.
President John Kufuor lit the independence flame in Accra, the capital
of what had been the Gold Coast under British rule, replicating the
ceremony led by Ghana's first leader, Kwame Nkrumah, half a century
earlier.
African leaders, including South Africa's Thabo Mbeki and Robert
Mugabe of Zimbabwe, joined the celebrations along with celebrities
such as Pele. Britain sent the Duke of Kent.
Dem bones
Simon Underdown
March 7, 2007 8:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simon_underdown/2007/03/a_bone_to_pick.=
html
One of the saddest but often untold stories of the 18th and 19th
centuries was the huge loss of human life, and diversity, as European
empire builders spread "civilization". Tragically, this "civilization"
took the form of enforced western modes of behaviour and all too often
the extermination of populations that were considered troublesome or
occupied regions rich in valuable natural resources. Within a
relatively short space of time whole ways of life were wiped out:
millennia of rich human diversity were gone forever.
Most of the indigenous populations that suffered had traditions of
oral history and as they died so to did their histories. Pockets of
indigenous people remain but the process of "Mac-Disneyfication"
continues unabated. What we are left with, however, are the skeletal
remains of indigenous groups that were collected during the same
period, albeit in ways abhorrent to modern standards, now residing in
museums.
Pregnancy rise in Israel after war in Lebanon an 'affirmation of
life'
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2334907.ece
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Published: 07 March 2007
Israeli medics are reporting a baby boom in the aftermath of the five-
week Lebanon war which ended last August.
The number of women in their fifth, sixth and seventh month of
pregnancy is up by 35 per cent on the previous year, according to
health maintenance organisation statistics cited by Channel Ten TV.
Unforgiven: Dixie Chicks snubbed in Nashville awards
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2334901.ece
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Published: 07 March 2007
Less than a month after they swept the Grammys, the Texan trio the
Dixie Chicks were shut out of Nashville's country music awards
yesterday - a sign that the traditional country establishment is no
closer to forgiving the group for its public criticism of President
George Bush, or to playing its songs again on the radio.
The Chicks did not pick up a single Country Music Award nomination for
their best-selling album Taking The Long Way, which has enjoyed a
renewed sales boost since winning all five Grammys for which it was
nominated. Although the Chicks scooped up 10 country music awards in
their first flush of success in the late 1990s and early 2000s, they
have not received the slightest acknowledgement since 2003.
The golden couple targeted by White House machine
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2334911.ece
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
Published: 07 March 2007
The way Joe Wilson tells it, the first time he met the woman who would
become his third wife the world went into slow motion. He smiled at
Valerie Plame at a reception at the Washington home of the Turkish
ambassador. "Suddenly I saw nobody else in a throng that must have
numbered 200 people," he later recalled.
Yet if their first meeting was the stuff of fairy tales the past four
years have been anything but. The couple have found themselves at the
centre of a bitter controversy linked directly to the American and
British governments' use and manipulation of faulty intelligence to
make the case for war against Iraq.
How Blair has stood by Niger claim
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2334912.ece
By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor
Published: 07 March 2007
The now notorious Niger claim first surfaced in Britain, where the
Blair government circulated the September 2002 dossier warning of the
threat from Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.
The fallout from the flawed intelligence has claimed a slew of victims
in Washington, including the scalp of the Central Intelligence Agency
chief George Tenet.
Liar in the White house: Cheney aide found guilty in CIA leak case
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2334910.ece
Saga of Washington's discredited WMD claims leads to the conviction
for perjury of ***** Cheney's key aide
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
Published: 07 March 2007
In a massive new blow to the credibility of the White House, Vice-
President ***** Cheney's former chief of staff Lewis Libby has been
convicted of obstruction of justice, perjury and lying to the FBI,
during the investigation into the leaking of the identity of a CIA
agent.
After a seven-week trial, the jury found Libby guilty yesterday on
four of the five counts against him. Ever calm in court, Libby merely
blinked as the verdict was read out. Defence lawyers immediately said
they would seek a fresh trial, and if that failed, lodge an appeal. In
theory Libby faces up to 25 years in jail, though federal sentencing
guidelines mean he is likely to receive a far shorter term.
Silenced: The nationalist war on Turkey's intellectuals
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2334920.ece
Free-thinkers are under siege from a campaign of intimidation by the
far right which has created a climate of repression and self-
censorship. Elizabeth Davies reports from Istanbul
Published: 07 March 2007
Perihan Magden is not, by her own admission, "a bodyguard kind of
woman". Energetic and feisty, with a mass of tousled hair falling in
her face and a decrepit, fading rucksack slung carelessly over one
shoulder, she doesn't look like someone who would need - or want -
protecting. A best-selling novelist and celebrated commentator, hailed
by the Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk as "one of the most
inventive and outspoken writers of our time", Magden regularly shuns
the spotlight in favour of a quieter life at home in Istanbul with her
teenage daughter. She rarely gives interviews and, she says, has no
desire to see her face on the evening news or "spread across the
papers".
It is hardly a high-profile, celebrity lifestyle. Yet last month,
despite all her efforts to stay out of the public eye, Magden was
considered to be sufficiently at risk to be given a 24-hour security
detail. For 10 days after the murder of the prominent Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink, her every move was watched by a government
bodyguard. In an indication of the gravity of the threat, at least a
dozen others needed similar protection. All of them, from novelists to
researchers to newspaper editors, had at some point voiced their
criticism of the Turkish state - and now all were paying the price.
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