Save one - CIA warned Bush of no WMD in Iraq: retired official

From the Dawa Party, excellent relations with Tehran...

Cole

Maliki the Shiite Candidate

Breaking news: CNN is reporting that United Iraqi Alliance has informally decided to replace Ibrahim Jaafari with MP Jawad al-Maliki of the Islamic Dawa Party as its candidate for prime minister. The formal decision will be made on Saturday.

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Here are some documents from the Open Source Center of the USG on al-Maliki, beginning in 2002. Note that in 2004 he was a major spokesman for Islamic law being implemented in Iraq and expressed reservations about the Interim Constitution on those grounds. Likewise, he is obviously fairly anti-Israeli, wondering if Israeli troops were operating in Iraq disguised as US soldiers, and worried that Israelis might be able to own property in Iraq....

 

So much for the Omnipotent Israel Lobby. Either they're not all powerful or they're all powerfully stupid.

Better get that Basra to Haifa oil pipeline built PDQ

No wonder he pared his duties. Bush better pardon soon. The Bulldog's about to take another bite.

Jason Leopold | Grand Jury Hears Evidence Against Rove


The grand jury session yesterday in federal court in Washington, DC, sources close to the case said, was the first time this year that Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald told the jurors that he would soon present them with a list of criminal charges he intends to file against Karl Rove in hopes of having the grand jury return a multi-count indictment. In an interview with Jason Leopold on Wednesday, Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, confirmed that Rove remains a "subject" of Fitzgerald's two-year-old probe. 

One of the more trenchant Rumsfeld critics turns out not to be a milatary officer at all, but if anyone is in a inside position to know, it is Anthony Cordesman of the Censter for Strategic and International Studies.  He's a lot of Pentagon contract $$ on the line here!  But he's honest, that's why he get them. 

The United States in Iraq: A Litany of Errors

Anthony Cordesman, who holds the Burke Chair in Strategy, writes in a new analysis that the United States "must both admit its mistakes and learn from them to win in Iraq and successfully engage in the 'long war.'" READ MORE | BURKE CHAIR IN STRATEGY

It seemed like this glorious spring day would never come. Today did however. Today always does! My subscription to The New Republic on-line has finally lapsed.

No more Marty Peretz. No more Israel Lobby propaganda schmear and fear. No more Weakly Standard Weak I'll let Matt Yglesias tell me what's happenin at The New Likud Republic.

 I discovered my joy trying to post the following to Lawrence Kaplan's "in-beded" reportage from Al-Anbar province Why the US needs to Stay in Iraq, which Matt reviewed a few months ago. 

Let's have a brief glance at some soldiers killed recently in "al-Anbar province": April 17, Department of Defense (DoD) announced the death of a Marine who "died April 14 from a non-hostile motor vehicle accident in al-Anbar province, Iraq." April 16, Centcom announced: "Camp Fallujah, Iraq - A Marine … died due to enemy action while operating in al-Anbar province April 15." April 16, Camp Fallujah, Iraq - Multinational Forces (MNF) Iraq announced: "Three Marines … died due to enemy action while operating in al-Anbar province April 15." April 15, Camp Fallujah, Iraq - MNF Iraq announced: "Two Marines died and 22 were wounded due to enemy action while operating in al-Anbar province April 13. … Ten wounded Marines … were evacuated to a medical facility at Camp Fallujah." April 15, DoD announced: "Four Marines died April 15 when their HMMWV struck an improvised explosive device during combat operations in al-Anbar province, Iraq." April 11, DoD announced: "Lance Cpl. Juana Navarro-Arellano, 24 … died April 8 from wounds received while supporting combat operations in al-Anbar province, Iraq." April 10, Camp Fallujah, Iraq - Centcom announced: "A soldier … died from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in al-Anbar province April 8." April 10, Camp Fallujah, Iraq - Centcom announced: "Two soldiers … died due to enemy action while operating in al-Anbar province April 9." April 8, Camp Fallujah, Iraq - MNF Iraq announced: "A Marine … died from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in al-Anbar province April 7." The War on Truth in Iraq

Lawrence Kaplan - Lobby Corporal in the War on Truth, Marty Peretz, Master and Commander = RIP

TE Lawrence put it well 86 years ago

"The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honor. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiqués are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows. … We are today not far from a disaster." - T.E. Lawrence (a.k.a. Lawrence of Arabia)

Out of Iraq 2006

Had John Kerry done this in 2004 he'd be President today. Better late than never!  If Democrats have any hope of real gains in 2006, they must nationalize the Election. They must put George W. Bush on the ballot in every race for the Senat and the House. They must show courage, and they must do it now.

One general after another demanding Rumsfeld's resignation. More citizens every day joining in support of our May 15 deadline for Iraqi leaders to stop their squabbling and form a government.

In these and many other ways, because of citizens like you, the wheel is slowly, but surely, turning on the question of Iraq. Over the next ten days, we're going to give it another huge push. But, before I tell you more, please take a moment right now to sign in support of the Kerry Iraq plan:

Sign our Out of Iraq in 2006 petition now.

It's time for Iraq's leaders to seize the opportunity for democracy in Iraq that our troops are sacrificing every day to create. If Iraq's leaders can't move past their infighting and endless delays to form a new government by May 15, we should immediately withdraw all of our troops. If they meet the May 15 deadline, we'll bring America's combat troops home by the end of the year and put the future of democracy in Iraq where it belongs -- in the hands of the Iraqi people.

The clarity and precision of our plan stand in sharp contrast to the aimless approach of the architects of this war -- Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. All across America, people are strongly dissenting from the Bush administration's "stay for as long as it takes" policy -- and, just as important, standing up to the administration's attempts to vilify and question the patriotism of those who dare to speak out.

Decades ago I stood up to the Nixon administration and spoke out for a change of course in Vietnam. Four days from now, I will be delivering a speech at Boston's Faneuil Hall on the critically important topic of war and dissent. It's time to remind America that, when a stubborn president has America headed profoundly in the wrong direction, only citizen action can change our country's course.

The fight is just beginning. I recognize the importance of the United States Senate as an institution that can help change America's course. And I know that we can't force George W. Bush to confront reality in Iraq until we force the Senate to do the same.

Sign our Out of Iraq in 2006 petition now.

I will be acting in the Senate to bring change beginning when the current congressional recess ends on Monday. And I will be needing your help to move the Senate to action.

Working together, we can make the next 10 days an important turning point on Iraq -- and we can build momentum as our May 15 deadline approaches. You can help right now in three important ways. First, sign the Out of Iraq in 2006 petition. Second, forward this email to as many people as possible. And third, pay special attention to your email over the next 10 days.

Events could move quickly -- and you may need to act in a matter of hours.

Sincerely,

John Kerry

P.S. Some of America's most respected retired generals have called on Donald Rumsfeld to resign. We've long ago demanded the Secretary of Defense's resignation. Clearly, if President Bush acted with the decisiveness this moment demands, America could have a new Secretary of Defense in place by our May 15 deadline. And that would add much-needed impetus to the drive to successfully end America's military engagement in Iraq.

There are dimensions of the Greatest Strategic Disaster in US History beyond the Persian Gulf now emerging and assuredly many, many more to come as the Bloody Bungle in Babylon "rolls" on.

 From today's WaPo

Talk Belies China's Trade Reality

Washington lacks legal and economic power to force Beijing to balance trade relationship.

–Paul Blustein

Iraq: The Coming Disaster

Immanuel Wallerstein

 NEW HAVEN -- George W. Bush is a geopolitical incompetent. He has allowed a clique of hawks to induce him to take a position on invading Iraq from which he cannot extract himself, one which will have nothing but negative consequences for the United States--and the rest of the world. He will find himself badly hurt politically, perhaps fatally. And he will rapidly diminish the already declining power of the United States in the world.

The Eagle Has Crash Landed

Pax Americana is over. Challenges from Vietnam and the Balkans to the Middle East and September 11 have revealed the limits of American supremacy. Will the United States learn to fade quietly, or will U.S. conservatives resist and thereby transform a gradual decline into a rapid and dangerous fall?

By Immanuel Wallerstein

Salon.com is running articles by Juan Cole and Michele Goldberg on Mearsheimer/Walt's The Israel Lobby.

The Cole article here.

Goldberg here.

Cole's extended remarks from Informed Comment here.

A congressman told me not so long ago, "Juan, I'm glad you're speaking out on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, because we can't." He meant by "we" the US Congress. What has happened to Mearsheimer and Walt is illustrative of what he meant by "can't." Mearsheimer admits that the two of them will never now be considered for a government position (e.g. National Security Council).

I am glad as well. Damn glad