Iran, Venezuela offer aid to U.S. rivals - Americas - MSNBC.com

Iran, Venezuela offer aid to U.S. rivals - Americas - MSNBC.com

Leaders pledge billions in foreign investments to counter U.S. ‘imperialism’

The Associated Press
Updated: 11:59 p.m. ET Jan 13, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — fiery anti-American leaders whose moves to extend their influence have alarmed Washington — said Saturday they would help finance investment projects in other countries seeking to thwart U.S. domination.

The two countries had previously revealed plans for a joint $2 billion fund to finance investments in Venezuela and Iran, but the leaders said Saturday the money would also be used for projects in friendly countries throughout the developing world.

“It will permit us to underpin investments ... above all in those countries whose governments are making efforts to liberate themselves from the (U.S.) imperialist yoke,” Chavez said.

“This fund, my brother,” the Venezuelan president said, referring affectionately to Ahmadinejad, “will become a mechanism for liberation.”

“Death to U.S. imperialism!” Chavez said.

Planning to cut oil production
Ahmadinejad, who is starting a tour of left-leaning countries in the region, called it a “very important” decision that would help promote “joint cooperation in third countries,” especially in Latin America and Africa.

Iran and Venezuela are members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and Chavez said Saturday that they had agreed to back a further oil production cut in the cartel to stem a recent fall in crude prices.

“We know today there is too much crude in the market,” Chavez said. “We have agreed to join our forces within OPEC ... to support a production cut and save the price of oil.”

OPEC reduced output by 1.2 million barrels a day in November, then announced an additional cut of 500,000 barrels a day, due to begin on Feb. 1. Dow Jones Newswires reported Friday that OPEC is discussing holding an emergency meeting later this month to reduce output by another 500,000 barrels a day. Venezuela and Iran have been leading price hawks within OPEC.

Ahmadinejad’s visit Saturday — his second to Venezuela in less than four months — comes as he seeks to break international isolation over his country’s nuclear program and possibly line up new allies in Latin America. He is also expected to visit Nicaragua and Ecuador, which both recently elected leftist governments.

Allies growing closer
Chavez and Ahmadinejad have been increasingly united by their deep-seated antagonism toward the Bush administration. Chavez has become a leading defender of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, accusing the Washington of using the issue as a pretext to attack Tehran.

Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, has called Chavez “the champion of the struggle against imperialism.”

U.S. officials have accused Chavez — a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro — of authoritarian tendencies, and National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said recently in an annual review of global threats that Venezuela’s democracy was at risk.

The U.S. also believes Iran is seeking to use its nuclear program to develop an atomic bomb. Tehran says its program is peaceful and geared toward the production of energy.

The increasingly close relationship between Chavez and Ahmadinejad has alarmed some Chavez critics, who accuse him of pursuing an alliance that does not serve Venezuela’s interests and jeopardizes its ties with the United States, the country’s top oil buyer. Venezuela is among the top five suppliers of crude to the U.S. market.

Chavez vows to end term limits
In a speech earlier Saturday, Chavez called for the U.S. government to accept “the new realities of Latin America,” as he brushed aside restrictions that limit presidents to two consecutive terms. He vowed to stay in office beyond 2013, when his term expires, saying he would revise the constitution to get rid of presidential term limits.

But Chavez also said in his state of the nation address to government officials and legislators that he had personally expressed hope to a high-ranking U.S. official for better relations between their two countries.

Chavez said he spoke with Thomas Shannon, head of the U.S. State Department’s Western Hemisphere affairs bureau, on the sidelines of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s inauguration earlier this week.

“We shook hands and I told him: ’I hope that everything improves,”’ Chavez said. “I’m not anyone’s enemy.”

Venezuela nationalizing industries
Chavez prompted a crash in Venezuelan share prices this past week when he announced he would seek special powers from the legislature to push through “revolutionary” reforms, including a string of nationalizations and unspecified changes to business laws and the commerce code.

He also announced plans for the state to take control of the country’s largest telecommunications company, its electricity and natural gas sectors and four heavy crude upgrading projects now controlled by some of the world’s top oil companies.

He said Saturday, however, that private companies would be allowed to own minority stakes in the lucrative Orinoco River basin oil projects.

The government has already taken majority ownership of all other oil-producing operations in the country through joint ventures controlled by the state oil company. Most companies have shown a willingness to continue investing despite the tightening terms, which have also included tax and royalty increases.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16616372/

Russian Admiral Says U.S. Navy Prepares Missile Strike on Iran

mosnews

U.S. Navy nuclear submarines maintaining vigil off the coast of Iran indicate that the Pentagon’s military plans include not only control over navigation in the Persian Gulf but also strikes against Iranian targets, a former commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Eduard Baltin has told the Interfax news agency.

“The presence of U.S. nuclear submarines in the Persian Gulf region means that the Pentagon has not abandoned plans for surprise strikes against nuclear targets in Iran. With this aim a group of multi-purpose submarines ready to accomplish the task is located in the area,” Admiral Baltin said.

He made the comments after reports that a U.S. submarine collided with a Japanese tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.

“American patience is not unlimited,” he said. “The submarine commanders go up to the periscope depth and forget about navigation rules and safety measures,” the admiral said.

Currently there is a group of up to four submarines in the Persian Gulf area, he said. So far they only control navigation in the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, and in the Arabian Sea, he said. They might receive different orders in future: to block off the Gulf of Oman, that is the Iranian coast, and, if need be, launch missile strikes against
ground targets in Iran, he said.

U.S. says to "go after" Iran, Syria networks in Iraq

U.S. says to "go after" Iran, Syria networks in Iraq

Mon Jan 15, 2007 7:40 AM ET

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United States plans to "go after" what it said were networks of Iranian and Syrian agents in Iraq, U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said on Monday.

"We're going after their networks in Iraq," he told a news conference, as he laid out the new U.S. and Iraqi strategy to end sectarian violence at what Khalilzad called a "defining moment" for Iraq.

U.S. forces are holding five Iranians following a raid on an Iranian government office in Arbil last week -- the second such operation in recent weeks.

Presidential Candidate Fears "Gulf Of Tonkin" To Provoke Iran War

prisonplanet

Republican Congressman and 2008 Presidential candidate Ron Paul fears a staged Gulf of Tonkin style incident may be used to provoke air strikes on Iran as numerous factors collide to heighten expectations that America may soon be embroiled in its third war in six years.

Writing in his syndicated weekly column, the representative of Texas' 14th district warns of "a contrived Gulf of Tonkin-type incident (that) may occur to gain popular support for an attack on Iran."

The August 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, where US warships were apparently attacked by North Vietnamese PT Boats, was cited by President Johnson as a legitimate provocation mandating U.S. escalation in Vietnam, yet Tonkin was a staged charade that never took place. Declassified LBJ presidential tapes discuss how to spin the non-event to escalate it as justification for air strikes and the NSA faked intelligence data to make it appear as if two US ships had been lost.

Should a staged provocation take place in an attempt to justify striking Iran it would not be the first time the current administration has considered such a ploy.

In February 2006, documents were leaked of a conversation between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush in which different scenarios to try to provoke Saddam into making a rod for his own back were discussed. One included painting a U.S. spy plane in UN colors and flying it low over Iraq in the hope it would be shot down and the incident exploited as a means of enlisting international support for the 2003 invasion.

Paul, who on Friday announced his intention to run for President in 2008, has resolved to introduce legislation in the coming weeks to head off the drift towards war, encouraging a commitment to policies of dialogue as outlined by the Iraq Study Group.

Commentators largely agree that the furore surrounding President Bush's speech in which he ordered the deployment of a further 20,000 troops to Iraq is a manufactured distraction to divert attention away from alarming developments that grease the skids for an inevitable conflict with Iran.



The New York Times and other establishment mouthpieces are busy regurgitating White House propaganda that Iran is supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents that are killing U.S. troops. As columnist Larry Chin elaborates, "The Bush administration buildup towards Iran is strikingly similar to Hitler’s campaign against Poland, and the Third Reich’s eventual 1939 blitzkrieg. Hitler’s final act was to manufacture a "deliberate and cold-blooded provocation", to be blamed on the Poles, which would bring down the vengeance of German armed forces. He accomplished this by putting drugged prisoners from a nearby concentration camp into Polish uniforms and shooting them near a radio station inside the German border. The "Polish attack on the Gleiwitz transmitter" marked the official start of World War Two."

"In Hitler’s words, "I shall give the propagandist cause for starting the war. Never mind if it is implausible or not."

In reality, the source of the IED technology being utilized by the insurgents goes back to the British security services, from whom it was acquired by the IRA and then sold around the world in the early nineties. Claims that Iran is helping Shia insurgents to make the devices is outright propaganda.

However, the only remaining justification that Neo-Cons cling to in an attempt to sell another conflict to a war-weary American public is the falsehood that American troops are being killed on the battlefield by insurgents with the direct assistance of Iran. This is the only rationale a majority of Americans will accept as grounds for war, overriding spurious warnings about weapons of mass destruction, a yarn they have seen spun once before.

As Chris Floyd points out, "Make no mistake: this is the marker that has now been put down; this is the card that's been laid on the table. The Bush Administration has openly accused Iran of killing American soldiers in Iraq. Again, this is a charge far more resonant, far more effective as a pretext for war than anything offered during the successful stampede to invade Iraq. Even a president as weakened and isolated as Bush is at the moment would be able to get support for an attack on a state that was "killing our soldiers in the field."

It is also now confirmed that the raid on the Iranian liaison office in Iraq, after which five Iranians were arrested and detained, was directly authorized by the White House in an attempt to provoke an Iranian response.

Whether Iran takes the bait or not, American aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines are multiplying in the Persian Gulf and Bush recently appointed Adm. William Fallon, a Navy veteran, to oversee the ground war in Iraq, a contradiction many fear betrays preparation for an air strike on Iran's uranium enrichment facilities which could take place as soon as next month.

Whether the White House or the feverish Israelis will even feel the need to factor in a Gulf of Tonkin event remains to be seen, as the war drums beat ever louder and the next escalation of what the Neo-Cons call "World War Four" awaits final execution.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Hanging of Saddam's aides filmed

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Hanging of Saddam's aides filmed

Iraqi government officials have shown journalists video of the hanging of two of Saddam Hussein's aides, during which one of the men was decapitated.
The film shows Barzan Ibrahim - Saddam Hussein's half-brother - and Awad Hamed al-Bandar hanged side-by-side.

Barzan, former intelligence chief, and al-Bandar, former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, were convicted over the killing of 148 Shias in 1982.

The government said Barzan's beheading was accidental.

The BBC's Andrew North in Baghdad says the video first shows both men being prepared for execution standing next to each other.

They were both dressed in orange boiler suits.


JUDICIAL HANGING
Execution intended to break the neck, not strangle
'Long drop' method developed in late 19th Century
Length of rope calculated using prisoner's weight
Drop is usually 4ft-10ft (1.3m-3m)
Too long a drop leads to decapitation


Executioners in balaclavas placed hoods round both men's heads, then the noose.

A short while later the footage, which is silent, shows both men fall.

Almost immediately the rope that was round Barzan's neck flicks upwards, the body dropping below.

The cameraman then shows the pit below and a headless body, bloodied at the neck and what officials say was Barzan's head still covered by a hood.

Bandar's body was still hanging above, said one official who was present at the execution.

Our correspondent says officials say they are not planning to release the footage publicly.

Both men's bodies are reported to have been flown to Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit, 180 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, for burial.

Mixed reaction

Witnesses said Barzan and Bandar were shaking with fear as they approached the gallows.

One of those present, public prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi, told the BBC that when the trap door opened, he could only see Barzan's rope dangling.





"I thought the convict Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti had escaped the noose. I shouted that he's escaped the noose, go down and look for him. I went down a few steps ahead of the others to see: I found out that his head had separated from his body."
The hangings took place at 0300 (0000 GMT), apparently in the same building in north Baghdad where Saddam Hussein was put to death on 30 December.

The manner of the former Iraqi leader's execution drew international criticism after unofficial mobile phone footage showing him being taunted and insulted in his final moments was released.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said there were no such scenes at the hanging of his aides.

The BBC's world affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge says reaction in Baghdad to Barzan and Bandar's executions has been mixed.

He says residents of Baghdad's largest Shia district, Sadr City, have celebrated the latest hangings, especially Barzan's.

But other Baghdad residents have said the executions have nothing to do with the problems Iraqis face every day, our correspondent adds.

In the Shia holy city of Najaf, residents beat drums and marched in the streets at news of the executions, AFP news agency reported.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6263787.stm

Published: 2007/01/15 15:40:53 GMT

WP: Pentagon probed citizens' finances - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com

WP: Pentagon probed citizens' finances - washingtonpost.com/MSNBC.com

Using ‘noncompulsory’ authority, military seeks records for investigations

By Karen DeYoung
The Washington Post
Updated: 12:51 p.m. ET Jan 14, 2007

WASHINGTON - The Defense Department has used a long-standing authority to acquire the personal financial records of American citizens in military-related criminal and other investigations as part of an expansion of the Pentagon's gathering of counterterrorism intelligence at home, officials said yesterday.

"There are certainly types of information and transactions that are valuable to the department when conducting counterintelligence and counterespionage investigations," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

Whitman emphasized that although the FBI can compel banks, credit card companies and other private institutions to produce such records by issuing a National Security Letter, the military is authorized only to request that the institutions turn them over.

The CIA has long had similar "noncompulsory" authority, although intelligence officials said that such requests are rare and tend to relate to espionage investigations of the CIA's own officials. The authority was used during the investigation of Aldrich Ames, the CIA operations officer who was convicted in 1994 of spying for the Russians.

More than 500 requests since 9/11
The military's expanded use of the records authority was first reported yesterday on the Web site of the New York Times, which said that military officials had made more than 500 such requests since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Quoting unnamed military intelligence officials, the Times said that the actual number of letters was probably well into the thousands, because a single investigation often resulted in requests to multiple institutions.

By law, the FBI is charged with conducting investigations of U.S. citizens and with counterterrorism activities in this country.

Domestic intelligence-gathering by the CIA and the military is sharply restricted. In the military's case, such activities have generally involved investigations of direct threats to military installations and personnel in the United States, as well as inquiries into possible criminal activities by uniformed or civilian Defense Department employees.

Under then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the Pentagon expanded its collection of intelligence within the borders of the United States -- a development that stirred concern among members of Congress and prompted stern criticism and lawsuits from civil liberties advocates.

Agency's work largely classified
These efforts are overseen by the Pentagon's Counterintelligence Field Activity agency, or CIFA, which was established in September 2002 by then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz.

CIFA is charged with coordinating policy and overseeing the domestic counterintelligence activities of Pentagon agencies and the armed forces. The agency's size and budget are classified, but congressional sources have said that the agency spent more than $1 billion through October. One counterintelligence official recently estimated that CIFA has 400 full-time employees and 800 to 900 contractors working for it.

In written responses to questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing last month, Rumsfeld's replacement, Robert M. Gates, pledged to look "in greater detail" at CIFA's activities.

Database under scrutiny
The agency was criticized in December 2005 after it was revealed that a database managed by CIFA, called TALON, contained unverified, raw threat information about people who were peacefully protesting the Iraq war at defense facilities, including recruiting offices. In August, CIFA Director David A. Burtt II and his top deputy, Joseph Hefferon, resigned in the wake of a scandal involving CIFA contracts that went to MZM Inc., a company run by Mitchell J. Wade. Wade pleaded guilty last February to conspiring to bribe then-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif).

In his confirmation responses, Gates said that an internal Pentagon review of the program "found procedural weaknesses" and that "steps are underway to correct these deficiencies."

Whitman, in a discussion of the financial-records requests, said that only four U.S. military entities are authorized to ask for them -- the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Center, the Criminal Investigation Service of the Army and of the Navy, and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.

All of these entities are overseen by CIFA.

Source: Contractor's income probed
Whitman declined to discuss individual cases in which the authority had been used, although one U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue said it was utilized in an investigation of a contractor working at the Guantanamo Bay naval facility who appeared to have unexplained income.


In comments attributed to unnamed military intelligence officials, the Times said that the financial records of Capt. James Yee -- a Muslim chaplain at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who was charged with aiding prisoners there -- had also been obtained. Espionage charges against Yee were eventually dropped by the government.

The CIA declined yesterday to comment on its use of the financial-records authority. An intelligence official said that the CIA usually asks the FBI to obtain financial records involving U.S. citizens in terrorism investigations because the bureau has the authority to compel cooperation. "There have been a handful of instances, in very rare circumstances over the years, that the CIA has used" its authority to request such records on its own, the official said.

Staff writers Walter Pincus and Ann Scott Tyson contributed to this report.

© 2007 The Washington Post Company
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16616833/

Bush vows to 60 Minutes that 'no matter what Congress wants' surge is on

RAW STORY

In an interview set to air on this Sunday's 60 Minutes, President George W. Bush vows to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq "no matter what" the Democratic-controlled Congress tries to do.

"Do you believe as Commander in Chief you have the authority to put the troops in there no matter what the Congress wants to do," 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley asks Bush in the short clip uploaded to the CBS News web site Friday night.

"I think I've got, in this situation, I do, yeah," Bush said.

"Now I fully understand they will," Bush continued, "they could try to stop me from doing it, but, uh, I've made my decision and we're going forward."

In an address to the nation on Wednesday, Bush announced his new plan which calls for an increase in US troops to end ongoing violence in the country, which many believe is either at or approaching "civil war," with Iraqi civilian deaths tripling at the end of 2006, according to one report.

The plan, nicknamed "surge" by the administration but referred to as an "escalation" by most Democrats has drawn fire from both parties, and Congressional members have threatened to cut funding – though not for the troops that are already there.

"Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat who oversees military funding, said he will propose tying congressional approval of war funds to shutting the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba," the Associated Press reports. "Other conditions he said he is considering include not extending troop deployments and giving soldiers and Marines more time to train between deployments."

National driver’s license protested - U.S. Security - MSNBC.com

National driver’s license protested - U.S. Security - MSNBC.com

Officials: ‘Flat out impossible’ to comply with Real ID Act’s 2008 deadline
The Associated Press
Updated: 7:59 p.m. ET Jan 12, 2006
An anti-terrorism law creating a national standard for all driver’s licenses by 2008 isn’t upsetting just civil libertarians and immigration rights activists.

State motor vehicle officials nationwide who will have to carry out the Real ID Act say its authors grossly underestimated its logistical, technological and financial demands.

In a comprehensive survey obtained by The Associated Press and in follow-up interviews, officials cast doubt on the states’ ability to comply with the law on time and fretted that it will be a budget buster.

“It is just flat out impossible and unrealistic to meet the prescriptive provisions of this law by 2008,” Betty Serian, a deputy secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, said in an interview.

Nebraska’s motor vehicles director, responding to the survey by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, said that to comply with Real ID her state “may have to consider extreme measures and possibly a complete reorganization.”

‘A nightmare for all states’
And a new record-sharing provision of Real ID was described by an Illinois official as “a nightmare for all states.”


“Can we go home now??” the official wrote.

States use a hodgepodge of systems and standards in granting driver’s licenses and identification cards. In some places, a high school yearbook may be enough to prove identity.

A major goal of Real ID — which was motivated by the Sept. 11 attacks, whose perpetrators had legitimate driver’s licenses — is to unify the disparate licensing rules and make it harder to fraudulently obtain a card.

The law also demands that states link their record-keeping systems to national databases so duplicate applications can be detected, illegal immigrants caught and driving histories shared.

State licenses that fail to meet Real ID’s standards will not be able to be used to board an airplane or enter a federal building.

The law, which was attached to a funding measure for the Iraq war last May, has been criticized by civil libertarians who contend it will create a de facto national ID card and new centralized databases, inhibiting privacy.

State organizations such as the National Governors Association have blasted the law as well. Many states will have to amend laws in order to comply.

Spokesman: Law will not be pushed back
Jeff Lungren, a spokesman for Real ID’s principal backer, House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said there is no chance states might win a delay of the 2008 deadline.

“We gave three years for this process,” he said. “Every day that we continue to have security loopholes, we’re at greater risk.”

The August survey by the motor vehicle administrators’ group, which has not been made public, asked licensing officials nationwide for detailed reports on what it will take to meet Real ID’s demands.

It was not meant to produce an overall estimate of the cost of complying with Real ID. But detailed estimates produced by a few states indicate the price will blow past a February 2005 analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, which estimated Congress would need to spend $100 million reimbursing states.

Pennsylvania alone estimated a hit of up to $85 million. Washington state projected at least $46 million annually in the first several years.

Separately, a December report to Virginia’s governor pegged the potential price tag for that state as high as $169 million, with $63 million annually in successive years. Of the initial cost, $33 million would be just to redesign computing systems.

It remains unclear how much funding will come from the federal government and how much the states will shoulder by raising fees on driver’s licenses.

“If you begin to look at the full ramifications of this, we are talking about billions and billions of dollars. Congress simply passed an unfunded mandate,” said Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty project at the American Civil Liberties Union. “Every motorist in America is going to pay the price of this, of the Congress’ failure to do a serious exploration of the cost, the complexity, of the difficulty.”


Existing licenses may still be acceptable
The survey respondents and officials interviewed by the AP noted that many concerns might be resolved as the Department of Homeland Security clarifies its expectations for the law — such as whether existing licenses can be grandfathered in — before it takes effect May 11, 2008.

As of now, however, it appears little has changed since the survey described a multitude of hurdles.

Some examples:

- The law demands that states mine multiple databases to check the accuracy of documents submitted by license applicants. Several states questioned how that will work, especially with confirming birth certificates. Iowa said it didn’t think the states would be able to make the required vital-records upgrades within three years.
Some states’ ancient computing systems will have to be overhauled in order to link to other networks. Minnesota runs a 1980s-era mainframe system; Rhode Island says its “circa 1979” COBOL-based network will require a $20 million upgrade.
- Many states don’t make drivers prove they are legally in the country, but the law will now demand such documentation. It also calls for states to run license applications through a federal database known as SAVE that was launched by a 1986 law aimed at preventing illegal immigrants from receiving federal benefits. One problem, though, is that the “SAVE database is notoriously unreliable ... months behind,” said South Carolina’s response to the survey.
- After drivers submit documents to prove their identities, states will have to retain paper copies of those documents for at least seven years or digital images for 10 years. Some states fretted about the storage costs; others worried about how to capture images of all those files. Alabama’s survey response called the project “massive,” saying that while the state had the proper equipment at six licensing centers, “we do not have the resources to equip all of our 79 offices.” Added Massachusetts: “This equipment is very expensive!”
- Real ID requires that a license show someone’s principal residence. But state officials object that a mailing address makes more sense for many people — for “snowbirds” who spend time in two states, for example or for public officials who want to protect their privacy. “What should the procedure be for a person who lives in a RV?” asks South Dakota’s report.
- The law calls for a person’s “full legal name,” no nickname or abbreviations, on licenses. Cards have to be redesigned and databases must be reprogrammed to make room for extremely long names, likely up to 125 characters. That’s not an easy process. By itself it accounts for $4 million of North Dakota’s $5.9 million estimated impact.
Motor-vehicle employees will be subject to background checks, but several officials said it was unclear what would disqualify someone from being able to process licenses. Maryland’s response said waiting for security clearances “could cause staffing shortage.”
- Real ID demands that all driver’s licenses or ID cards have pictures that can be read by facial-recognition technology. That would end many states’ practice of letting people with certain religious beliefs request not to have a picture. Tennessee, meanwhile, allows anyone older than 60 to get a “valid without photo” license.

“If you take any one of these things individually, you see a significant problem,” Steinhardt said. “There are literally hundreds of these problems embedded in Real ID, and the statute doesn’t give you a way out. It’s black and white. No exceptions, no reality check.

“In many respects it’s a statute that ignores reality.”

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10826523/

Keeping all eyes focused on Iraq while Bush and Israel plot attack on Iran

online journal

Even a cursory review of Bush’s speech shows that the president is less concerned with "security" in Baghdad than he is with plans to attack Iran. Paul Craig Roberts was correct in his article Wednesday when he questioned whether all the hoopla over a surge was just "an orchestrated distraction" to draw attention away from the real war plan. ("Distracting Congress from the Real War Plan")

Apparently, it is.

As Roberts noted, "The US Congress and the media are focused on President Bush’s proposal for an increase of 20,000 US troops in Iraq, while Israel and its American neoconservative allies prepare an assault on Iran."

Roberts’ analysis is further supported by yesterday’s news that American troops stormed the "Iranian consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil and arrested 5 employees." (Reuters)

Iran had set up the embassy at the request of the Kurdish governor-general who was not informed of US intentions to raid the facility and kidnap its employees. The American soldiers confiscated computers and documents just five hours after Bush had threatened Iran in his address to the nation.

Clearly, Bush is looking for a way to provoke a military confrontation with Iran. Now he has five Iranian hostages at his disposal to help him achieve that goal.

Will the mullahs overreact or will they show restraint and try to prevent a larger conflict?

Bush’s hostility towards Iran was evident in comments he made in Wednesday night’s speech:

"Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity and stabilizing the region in the face of extremist challenges. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq."

"Seek and destroy"? Is that the plan?

A region-wide conflagration with results as uncertain as they are in Iraq?

So far, there’s no solid evidence that Iran is "providing material support for attacks on American troops." All the same, the administration has consistently used "material support" as the basis for preemptive war. In fact, the so-called Bush Doctrine is predicated on the assumption that the US is free to attack whomever it chooses if it perceives a threat to its national security. The normal rules of self-defense or "imminent danger" no longer apply.

Bush knows that if Iran were seriously involved in arming the Iraqi resistance, we’d be seeing the Russian-made, armor-piercing rocket launchers that were used so effectively by Hezbollah during their 34 day war with Israel. That hasn’t been the case. Iran is undoubtedly active in Iraq, but in ways that are much subtler than Bush claims. In fact, Bush’s great ally, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, who runs the feared Badr Brigade out of the Iraqi Interior Ministry, has strong ties to Iran (having lived there for 20 years.) He is probably using the US military to remove his enemies (the Sunni-backed resistance and al Sadr’s Mehdi Army) before he turns his attention to his US benefactors.

Iran clearly has interests in Iraq, but it is the Bush administration’s reckless war that has assured that Iran will be the "default" superpower in the entire region. Bush has shattered the fragile balance of power between Sunnis and Shiites while eliminating Iran’s main adversaries in Afghanistan (Sunni-Taliban) and Iraq (Saddam-Ba’athist Party). Bush now seems to think that the only way he can challenge Tehran’s ascendancy is by launching a Lebanon-type assault on military and civilian infrastructure in Iran.

If Iran is set back 20 years, Bush assumes, then our trusted-friend Israel will be the prevailing power in the Middle East. That, of course, was the plan from the get-go.

To that end, Bush averred: "We’re taking steps to bolster the security of Iraq and protect American interests in the Middle East. I recently ordered the deployment of an additional carrier strike group to the region. We will expand intelligence sharing and deploy Patriot Air Defense Systems to reassure our friends and allies . . . And we will work with others to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating the region."

All the pieces are being put in place for a much larger and more destructive conflict.

It’s an ambitious plan, but it has no chance of succeeding. The United States is hopelessly bogged down in Iraq and its actions in Somalia, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine have only ensured that the US's days in the Middle East are quickly drawing to a close.

As for Iraq, Bush’s speech provided few details of how the miniscule and incremental increase in troop-strength (only 17,000 to Baghdad over a four-month period) was expected to quell the raging violence that has gripped the capital since the last major operation in August. Operation "Forward Together" turned out to be a complete disaster, precipitating a sharp boost in attacks on US troops as well as an increase in sectarian violence.

Bush has enlisted some support for his "escalation" plan by committing to the "clear-hold-build" strategy promoted by the Council on Foreign Relations. The CFR has been pushing their "model for counterinsurgency" for three years, but have been largely ignored by the Bush administration.

Despite Bush’s feeble defense of the policy, he has no intention of putting it into practice. He is merely pacifying other members of the political establishment who are demanding that their voices be heard.

The reality of the present strategy is manifest in military operations currently underway in Baghdad. These operations are being conducted in a way that is reminiscent of Rumsfeld’s activities in Falluja two years ago. The attacks on alleged "insurgent strongholds" on Haifa Street, (which is just a few hundred yards from the Green Zone) show that the military has returned to the policy of using overwhelming force to subdue the resistance. In this case, the US pounded the area with helicopter gun-ships and F-16s, while ground troops went rampaging door to door. The civilian casualties in these scattershot operations invariably skyrocket and further alienate the local population. In one day alone, US forces killed an estimated 50 Iraqis in the predominantly Sunni "residential" area.

Another catastrophic "hearts and minds" operation.

Sunni leaders are now accusing the US military of carrying out ethnic cleansing operations at the request of the Shiite militias.

Is that the plan, purging Baghdad of the Sunnis?

It appears so.

Certainly, the lynching of Saddam was intended to send a message to the Ba’athist-led resistance that there would be no more efforts at negotiations or compromise. The US is now pursuing Cheney’s "80-20" plan -- a strategy to throw their support behind the Shiites while eradicating the Sunnis (20 percent of the population).

Bush hinted at this new approach in his speech when he said, "Our efforts to secure Baghdad failed for two principle reasons: There were not enough Iraqi and American troops to secure the neighborhoods that have been cleared of terrorists and insurgents AND THERE WERE TOO MANY RESTRICTIONS ON THE TROOPS WE DID HAVE."

"Too many restrictions"? (The respected British medical journal Lancet reported 650,000 casualties in the conflict so far with over 2 million Iraqi refugees. Is that "Too many restrictions"? )

Bush’s comments suggest that the "gloves are coming off" and we can expect a return to the scorched earth policy that was so savagely applied in Falluja and other parts of the Sunni Triangle.

Bush also intimated that he would strike out at other "armed militias" in Iraq; an indication that US forces are planning an offensive against Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army. The Shiite cleric, al Sadr, is despised by the Washington Warlords and is described by the Pentagon as "the biggest threat to Iraq’s security." Even so, al-Sadr has operatives placed strategically throughout the al-Maliki government (and within the Green Zone) and attacking him now would only make the occupation more perilous. In fact, an attack on the Mehdi Army could create a situation where Shiite militias cut off vital supply lines from the south making occupation virtually untenable.

Bush has decided to abandon all sense of caution and blunder ahead taking on all adversaries without concern for the consequences. It is a prescription for disaster.

Bush’s "Victory Strategy": more force, but no political solution

Bush's speech invoked none of the flashy slogans that he typically uses and which normally appear in headlines the next day. Nor did he make any attempt to elicit support for his planned "escalation" of troops. That idea has already been thoroughly rejected by the Iraq Study Group, the Congress, and the American people. Instead, he reiterated the same worn bromides (of "ideological" warfare, 9-11, and terrorism) that have long since lost their power to move public opinion.

The Bush administration has run out of gas. They have no plan for "pacification," security, reconstruction, or regional stability. Their "one-size-fits-all" solution requires ever-increasing levels of violence for an intractable Iraqi Resistance and which is now fated to spread mayhem throughout the entire Middle East.

Carl von Clausewitz said, "War is not a mere act of policy, but a true political instrument, a continuation of political activity by other means."

Bush and his fellow-neocons are incapable of thinking politically, so America’s decline in Iraq is likely to be precipitous. The crackdown in Baghdad and the anticipated bombing of Iran will have no significant affect on the war’s outcome. America has lost its ability to influence events positively or to arbitrarily assert its will. We’re now facing "death by a thousand cuts" and the steady erosion of US power.

Brute force alone will not produce a political solution in Iraq. Those who think it will are bound to fail.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Rice denies US 'escalating Iraq'

BBC NEWS Rice denies US 'escalating Iraq'

Ms Rice insists the US must stand firm over Iraqi security
Rice on Iraq
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has denied that the US intends to escalate the war in Iraq by confronting Iranian groups operating there.
Ms Rice backed a pledge by President Bush to run search and destroy missions against groups suspected of building bombs for use within Iraq.

"That's not an escalation, that's good policy," Ms Rice told the BBC.

Ms Rice spoke ahead of a visit to the Middle East, a visit that will focus on Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

The week-long tour will take in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, as well as Israel and the Palestinian territories.

'Not escalation'

Speaking before leaving the US, Ms Rice insisted that the United States was not going to let either Iran or Syria continue activities that endangered US soldiers in Iraq.


"I don't think there is a government in the world that would sit by and let the Iranians in particular run networks inside Iraq that are building explosive devices of a very high quality that are being used to kill their soldiers.
"That's not an escalation, that's just good policy."

Earlier this week the US raided the Iranian consulate in Irbil, northern Iraq, detaining five people.

Both President George W Bush and Ms Rice have said this week that they intend to step up measures against those threatening to destabilise Iraq.

The president announced 21,500 extra troops for Iraq in an effort to dampen violence across the country, especially in the capital, Baghdad.

Last year an influential report led by former Secretary of State James Baker urged the Bush administration to begin negotiations with Iran and Syria in a bid to find a solution in Iraq.

Reasonable voices

As well as Iraq, Ms Rice will also discuss the Israel-Palestinian conflict during her stay in the Middle East.


I think anything that is an American plan is bound to fail
Condoleezza Rice
US Secretary of State

However, she admitted she was not travelling to the region with a plan to end the conflict.

"I think anything that is an American plan is bound to fail," she said.

"The United States is not going to succeed in this alone. This has to have an Arab voice - Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia.

"It certainly has to have the voice of the reasonable factions among the Palestinians, like Abu Mazen [Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas]. And it has to have an Israeli voice."



Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6258027.stm

Published: 2007/01/13 01:45:13 GMT

Scientists prepare to move Doomsday Clock forward | Top News | Reuters.com

Scientists prepare to move Doomsday Clock forward - Reuters.com

Fri Jan 12, 2007 3:22 PM ET



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The keepers of the "Doomsday Clock" plan to move its hands forward next Wednesday to reflect what they call worsening nuclear and climate threats to the world.

The symbolic clock, maintained by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, currently is set at seven minutes to midnight, with midnight marking global catastrophe.

The group did not say in which direction the hands would move. But in a news release previewing an event next Wednesday, they said the change was based on "worsening nuclear, climate threats" to the world.

"The major new step reflects growing concerns about a 'Second Nuclear Age' marked by grave threats, including: nuclear ambitions in Iran and North Korea, unsecured nuclear materials in Russia and elsewhere, the continuing 'launch-ready' status of 2,000 of the 25,000 nuclear weapons held by the U.S. and Russia, escalating terrorism, and new pressure from climate change for expanded civilian nuclear power that could increase proliferation risks," the release reads.

The clock was last pushed forward by two minutes to seven minutes to midnight in 2002 amid concerns about the proliferation of nuclear, biological and other weapons and the threat of terrorism.

When it was created by the magazine's staff in 1947, it was initially set at seven minutes to midnight and has moved 17 times since then.

It was as close as two minutes to midnight in 1953 following U.S. and Soviet hydrogen bomb tests, and as far away as 17 minutes to midnight in 1991 after the superpowers reached agreement on a nuclear arms reductions.

U.S. denies military plans against Iran, Syria | Top News | Reuters.com

U.S. denies military plans against Iran, Syria - Reuters.com

Fri Jan 12, 2007 3:43 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States denied on Friday it was preparing for military action against Iran and Syria, after President George W. Bush issued a stern warning to them, raising concerns of a spillover from the Iraq war.

Bush, in his speech on Wednesday unveiling his revised Iraq strategy, accused Tehran and Damascus of allowing use of their territory for launching attacks inside Iraq, and vowed "we will interrupt the flow of support."

U.S. lawmakers voiced concern on Thursday the Iraq war could spread to neighboring Iran and Syria if U.S. troops were to chase militants across the border. But U.S. officials insisted the plan was to disrupt supply lines from inside Iraq.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said he wanted to knock down an "urban legend" that Bush was "trying to prepare the way for war with either country and that there were war preparations under way."

"There are not," he told reporters. "What the president was talking about is defending American forces within Iraq."

"There's lots of war gaming," he added. "This notion that somehow the president was announcing as a precursor to planned military action, a planned war against Iran, that's just not the case."

Snow reiterated that Washington was focusing on diplomatic means against Iran over its nuclear program. Western powers say Tehran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran says it wants nuclear technology for civilian power generation.

The United States has repeatedly accused Shi'ite Iran of meddling in Iraq, where the long-oppressed Shi'ite majority is now in power and sectarian violence is raging. Tehran denies U.S. charges that it supplies Shi'ite militias with weapons.

Bush also said he had ordered an additional aircraft carrier strike group to the region and would deploy Patriot missile defense systems to "reassure our friends and allies" -- steps widely seen as a warning to Iran and Syria.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden bluntly told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday he did not think Bush had the authority to launch attacks against militant networks in Iran and Syria.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | US blacklists Iranian state bank

BBC NEWS | Middle East | US blacklists Iranian state bank

The United States has blacklisted one of Iran's largest banks, accusing it of a key role in financing the development of weapons of mass destruction.
A US treasury official said state-owned Bank Sepah was the "financial lynchpin" in Iran's missile procurement network.

The move freezes its assets in the US and bars any US companies or citizens from doing business with the bank.

The US says Iran is working to acquire nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.

"Bank Sepah is the financial lynchpin of Iran's missile procurement network and has actively assisted Iran's pursuit of missiles capable of carrying weapons of mass destruction," Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey said.

He said the bank had facilitated Iran's international purchases of material for its missile programme.

Bank Sepah, he said, had been the conduit for a deal with Komid, a North Korean organisation which the US says gave missile technology to Iran.

The blacklisting extends to Bank Sepah's UK-based subsidiary, Bank Sepah International Plc.

In December, the United Nations Security Council unanimously voted to impose sanctions against Iran over its failure to halt uranium enrichment.

The sanctions ban the supply of nuclear-related technology and materials and impose an asset freeze on key individuals and companies.



Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6246665.stm

Published: 2007/01/09 21:59:18 GMT

BBC NEWS | Europe | Rocket hits US embassy in Athens

BBC NEWS Europe Rocket hits US embassy in Athens

Attackers have fired a rocket at the US embassy compound in the centre of the Greek capital, Athens.
The rocket, fired from street level into the front of the embassy, caused minor damage to the building but no-one was injured.

The US envoy condemned the "very serious attack", as fire engines and police cordoned off the area.

Greece's Public Order Minister Vyron Polydoras said it was "very likely" a domestic group was behind the attack.

He said police were investigating claims that a left-wing radical group, Revolutionary Struggle, was responsible.

'Windows shattered'

The blast was reported in the early morning at the embassy, which is on one of the main boulevards in Athens.

Police said a rocket was fired at the US eagle emblem at the front of the building.

"A self-propelled explosive was fired at 0558 (0358 GMT) from the surrounding area, causing minor damage to the front windows and the roof," a statement from the Greek public order ministry said.

The rocket landed in a toilet on the third floor of the building, which also houses Ambassador Charles Ries's office.

"I am treating this as a very serious attack," Mr Ries said. "The embassy was attacked in a senseless act of violence."

Mr Ries said the reliability of any claims of responsibility would have to be assessed.

Television pictures showed a mass of emergency vehicles and stationary traffic outside the embassy as the area was sealed off.

Left-wing groups

The US embassy is one of the most fortified and tightly guarded buildings in the region and is frequently the target of protests in a country brimming with potent anti-Americanism, says the BBC's Malcolm Brabant in Athens.

In February 1996, it suffered minor damage when unknown attackers - thought to be leftist radicals - fired a rocket at it.

In the past, the far-left November 17 group - now disbanded and whose leaders were jailed in 2003 - attacked Greek, US and other foreign targets, killing more than 20 people.

Revolutionary Struggle - a group which emerged after November 17 disintegrated - is regarded by security experts as Greece's most active terrorist group, our correspondent says.

It has broadly the same left-wing, anarchic anti-capitalist agenda as November 17 and vigorously opposes America's intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the economic and social policies of the current conservative Greek government.

It has carried out a number of bombings and attacks in recent years.


Story from BBC NEWS:
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Blast at U.S. embassy in Greece called ‘terrorism’

AP

The U.S. Embassy in Athens came under fire early Friday from a rocket that exploded inside the modern glass-front building but caused no casualties in an attack police suspect was the work of Greek leftists.

Narrowly missing the embassy emblem, the anti-tank shell pierced the building near the front entrance shortly before 6 a.m., damaging a bathroom on the third room, which houses the ambassador’s office, and shattering windows in nearby buildings.

“We’re treating it as a very serious attack,” U.S. Ambassador Charles Ries said.

Greece’s Public Order Minister said police were examining the authenticity of anonymous phone calls to a private security company claiming responsibility on behalf of Revolutionary Struggle, a militant left-wing group.

“It is very likely that this is the work of a domestic group,” Minister Vyron Polydoras said. “We believe this effort to revive terrorism is deplorable and will not succeed.”

Revolutionary Struggle claimed responsibility for a May 2006 bomb attack on Culture Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis, in which nobody was injured.

U.S.-owned banks and companies have often been targeted in small bomb attacks by groups in Greece. But Friday’s incident was the most serious since the 2002 break-up of the far-left November 17 group, which was blamed for several attacks against foreign diplomats and military personnel, including the assassination of a CIA station chief in Athens.

Polydoras said Greece “strongly condemns” the attack.

“We believe it is a symbolic act,” he said. “It is an attempt to disrupt our country’s international relations.”

Police cordoned off streets around the heavily guarded building after the explosion, stopping traffic in much of central Athens for more than three hours. Emergency services scrambled to the embassy building, which is a frequent destination for protest groups.

Investigators were examining what they believed was the device used to fire the rocket shell from a construction site near the embassy.

“This is an act of terrorism,” Police Chief Asimakis Golfis said. “There was a shell that exploded in the toilets of the building … It was fired from street level.”

Ambassador Ries said the building was not occupied at the time and the damage was minimal. The embassy is now a crime scene and will remain closed until further notice, he said.

“There can be no justification for such a senseless act of violence,” said Ries, who added that there had been no warning.

Authorities were searching nearby apartment buildings and a nearby hospital for evidence.

Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis visited the embassy after the blast.

“I came here to express the solidarity of the Greek people following this deplorable action,” she said.

“Such actions in the past have had a very heavy cost for the country. … The Greek government is determined to undertake every effort to not allow such phenomena to be repeated in the future.”

Giorgos Yiannoulis runs a kiosk near the embassy. “I heard a loud bang; I didn’t realize what was going on,” he said.

It was the most serious attack on the mission since 1996, when November 17 carried out a rocket attack against the embassy that caused minor damage and no injuries.

Polydoras said police would set up a special task force, headed by a former counterterrorism chief who eradicated the November 17 group in 2002. The group was blamed for killing 23 people — including U.S., British and Turkish officials — and dozens of bomb attacks.

Several obscure militant groups have appeared since the November 17 members were arrested. Radical groups Revolutionary Struggle and Popular Revolutionary Action have been blamed for the bombings of three government ministries in 2005.

In 2003, a special court gave multiple life sentences to November 17’s leader, chief assassin and three other members. Lesser sentences were given to 10 others.

Iranians captured inside Iraq

Bush strategy aims at insurgent support

By Robin Wright and Nancy Trejos
The Washington Post

ARTICLE


U.S. troops launched two raids on Iranian targets in Iraq yesterday, following through on President Bush's vow to confront and break up Tehran's networks inside Iraq. Five Iranians were detained, and vast amounts of documents and computer data were confiscated, according to U.S., Iraqi and Iranian officials.

The two raids are part of a new U.S. intelligence and military operation launched last month against Iran, U.S. officials said. The United States is trying to identify and detain top officials of the Revolutionary Guards' al-Quds Brigade operating in Iraq. The al-Quds Brigade is active in arming, training and funding militant movements, such as Lebanon's Hezbollah, throughout the Middle East.

"Throughout Iraq, operations are currently ongoing against individuals suspected of being closely tied to activities targeting Iraqi and Coalition forces," the headquarters of the U.S.-led Multinational Force said yesterday.

While the public focus is on Iraq, the administration is now devoting as much time on plans to contain Iran as on a strategy to end Iraq's violence, U.S. officials said.

Last month, U.S. forces nabbed two senior Iranians - Brig. Gen. Mohsen Chirazi and Col. Abu Amad Davari - in the first round of raids. Chirazi is the No. 3 in the al-Quds Brigade and the highest-ranking Iranian ever held by the United States.

Both of yesterday's raids were in Irbil, a northern Kurdish city. One was carried out at 3 a.m. on the Iranian Liaison Office, which is used by Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a local headquarters, U.S. officials said. Kurdish officials said U.S. troops landed by helicopters. Then they disarmed the security guards, broke through the gate, entered the building and detained six men, Iranian officials told the Iranian News Agency. One was later released.

The other raid was at the Irbil airport, where U.S. forces tried to detain people until local Kurdish troops intervened - and almost ended up in a confrontation with U.S. troops, said Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

"A massacre was avoided at the last minute," he said. A U.S. official confirmed that the incident nearly resulted in U.S. and Kurdish allies firing at one another.

The Irbil raid reflects one of the genuinely new additions to the U.S. strategy in Iraq. Bush said Wednesday that the United States will now "seek out and destroy the networks" arming and training U.S. enemies. He also announced that he is ordering another aircraft carrier and supporting ships to the Persian Gulf bordering Iran, in a show of naval force.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace charged yesterday that Iran was "complicit" in providing weapons designed to kill American troops. "We will do all we need to do to defend our troops in Iraq by going after the entire network, regardless of where those people come from," he said at a press conference with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Rice outlined a carrot-and-stick strategy, offering to meet with her Iranian counterpart "anytime, anywhere" to discuss "every facet" of U.S.-Iran relations - with the condition that Tehran suspend its program for enriching uranium, which can be used for nuclear weapons as well as energy. Until that time, she said, the United States will "use all our power to limit and counter the activities of Iranian agents who are attacking our people and innocent civilians in Iraq."

Rice effectively dismissed a key recommendation of the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan panel that last month called for the administration to launch a dialogue with both Iran and Syria to help stabilize Iraq. She told reporters that Tehran and Damascus should not "be paid" to end their "destabilizing behavior," and that such a move would both demoralize friends and embolden enemies across the Middle East.

But the new U.S. policy to confront Iranians in Iraq has already sparked divisions within the administration. The Pentagon wanted to hold the two top al-Quds officials for questioning, but the State Department backed an Iraqi request to deport them. They were sent home in a week.

The Kurdish government had approved the Iranian Liaison Office,which provided consular services, and which Iran wants to upgrade to a formal consulate, the Iraqi foreign minister said. U.S. forces did not consult in advance with the Iraqi government, which is now trying to establish procedures and agreements for future operations, he said. "This is a very, very dangerous thing," he said.

Iran's foreign ministry summoned Iraqi and Swiss diplomats to protest and demand an explanation, according to Iran's mission to the United Nations. Switzerland represents U.S. interests in Iran. Tehran claims the five men detained are all diplomats, which both Iraq's foreign minister and U.S. officials deny

FBI Hosting Hollywood Writers, Encouraging Counter-Terrorism Propaganda Films

FBI seminar hosts H'wood scribes

hollywood reporter

FBI memo to Hollywood: If it's not too much trouble, could you please portray our counterterrorism efforts with a bit more realism?

Hoping for an answer in the affirmative, the FBI hosted its first workshop for screenwriters Wednesday at the Federal Building in Westwood.

"FBI -- Crime Essential for Writers" played well with the standing-room-only audience of executives and writers from several major and minor studios. Enthusiastic attendees had more questions than time allowed answers for, and few if any left the four-hour event early.

The FBI, more so than even the Department of Homeland Security, is the primary agency designated to investigate terrorism in the U.S., and the terrorist threat it is most focused on comes from radical Islam, FBI special agent Greg Wing said.

With that in mind, Wing, along with an undercover agent who asked that his identity not be revealed, presented a whirlwind history of Islam, beginning with Sunni-Shiite hostilities in 682 AD.

The major terrorist group aligned with Sunni Muslims is al-Qaida, while Hezbollah, "the best terrorist organization there is," are Shiite Muslims, the undercover agent said.

He showed flags and logos of terrorist groups and explained that the colors of turbans worn by terrorism suspects could have significance. He also showed photos and video of al-Qaida training camps and torture rooms and pictures of unfortunate Americans who had been captives there. He showed photos of the suicide bombers who killed 17 U.S. sailors aboard the USS Cole in 2000 and pictures of the house where they built their bombs.

The undercover agent played phone messages from passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which went down in a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11, 2001, and inspired the film "United 93." He also played audio from the cockpit of American Airlines Flight 11, the airplane Mohamed Atta flew into the World Trade Center that day.

"Amazing," attendee Dave DiGilio said after the event.

DiGilio wrote the film "Eight Below" and created the upcoming ABC series "Traveler," about a couple of graduate students who might have been framed for a terrorist attack. He said his show portrays both "the good and the bad" about the FBI.

"Seeing the extent of the organization, and the passion and intellect of the agents, was impressive," he said after the event. "They're very creative. It's not the way they're usually portrayed."

Quite the point, which is why FBI public affairs specialist Betsy Glick helped create the workshop. She said that last year the FBI helped lend authenticity to 649 projects, usually films, TV shows and books.

Michael Kortan, section chief for the office of public affairs, gave attendees a brief lesson in the history of the FBI in film and TV, beginning with the 1935 James Cagney movie " 'G' Men," which he said was one of the first gangster movies to tell a story from the FBI's perspective.

Shortly thereafter, J. Edgar Hoover conceived of something he called "The Dillinger Rule" -- the FBI had great stories to tell, so Hollywood ought to tell them, and make sure that the FBI were the good guys. And he wanted to know about anything FBI-related that Hollywood had in the works.

The 1965 Disney film "That Darn Cat!" really had Hoover on edge, Kortan said, because he feared that a film about an allergic agent assigned to follow around a cat would make the FBI look a tad silly, a reputation the bureau didn't need during the tumultuous 1960s.

Too often, Kortan said, the FBI is seen on film, unrealistically, as heavy-handed, bumbling and antagonistic toward other law-enforcement agencies. Of course, Hollywood isn't always unfriendly to the bureau.

Witness "The Silence of the Lambs," for example. The 1991 film earned Jodie Foster the best actress Oscar for her portrayal of FBI agent Clarice Starling, and Kortan credited the movie for some of the FBI's success in recruiting women.

"This is half the reason people get in writing -- to live vicariously and absorb the details," said attendee Luke McMullen, who wrote an episode of "Alias" and is developing a project called "Samurai Girl."

FBI agents also showed off a map of the 779 real investigations of potential terrorist activity ongoing in Los Angeles and photos of a list of possible targets that included Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the Hollywood sign and Disneyland. They also showed photos of some of the equipment the FBI will have on hand as they stake out the 64th annual Golden Globe Awards on Monday.

Hollywood has been considered a potential target of Islamic terrorists since shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, when the FBI warned that a major film studio might be next.

Special agent George Steuer recalled Wednesday how FBI agents met with studio heads back then to tell them, "Hey, you're in this fight on terrorism."

He said the threat emanated from telephone and e-mail intercepts between suspected terrorists. Although the FBI sifts through about 300 terrorism leads a day, the one against film studios was initially deemed credible after some corroboration and background checks. Details, though, remain classified.

"Eventually we vetted it and decided that there were no links here, just overseas chatter," he said.

Nevertheless, the studios were encouraged then to beef up their security measures. Some, including Disney and Warner Bros., quickly hired FBI agents on their security staffs.

Steuer, who has been helping Hollywood with FBI requests for five years, said he was in Baghdad in 2005, witnessing the locals buying and selling pirated copies of "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" the day it was released theatrically, making the point that the FBI is uniquely aware of Hollywood's influence even in a war zone.

Speaking after the symposium, the undercover FBI agent whose identity is protected said he purposely avoids Hollywood's treatment of modern terrorism, staying away from such movies as "World Trade Center" and "United 93" as well as TV programs like "The Path to 9/11."

"Movies don't come close," he said. "We lived a very traumatic event. It's never far from my heart."

His primary message to screenwriters? "Keep the FBI out of politics," he said. "Don't tag me Republican or Democrat. Don't suggest the FBI was better or worse under this president or that one. What we care about is protecting American lives."

Bill O'Reilly Gets Crazy

O'Reilly uses textbook prapaganda techniques. Sunsara Taylor has alot of guts to get on his show, and tell the truth.

Somalia terror 'funded in Britain'

Guardian UK

The Foreign Office is investigating reports of British casualties in US air strikes on al Qaida suspects in Somalia.

The attacks came amid claims that support for the Islamic militant movement had come from the UK.

Meanwhile, the United Nations' new secretary general Ban Ki-moon voiced fears on Wednesday that the air strikes could increase hostilities and harm civilians.

Following days of fierce fighting in the African country, the United States launched a series of air strikes against Islamic extremists it suspects of having links to al Qaida.

Ethiopia's prime minister has said that many international terrorists had been killed, injured or captured in the fighting - including Britons.

"Notwithstanding the motives for this reported military action," Ban's spokeswoman Michele Montas said, "the secretary general is concerned about the new dimension this kind of action could introduce to the conflict and the possible escalation of hostilities that may result."

Somalia's deputy prime minister has claimed that much of the funding for the Islamist militants was coming from Britain and that some of their fighters were British and American passport holders.

There was also condemnation from British-based Islamic groups of the US intervention in the conflict.

Ethiopian forces invaded Somalia, a largely Muslim country, last month to prevent an Islamic movement from ousting the weak, internationally recognised government from its lone stronghold in the west of the country.

Leaders of the Islamic movement have vowed to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war in Somalia, and al Qaida chief Osama bin Laden's deputy has called on militants to carry out suicide attacks on the Ethiopian troops. There were reports at the weekend that British passport holders were involved in the fighting, which has claimed scores of lives.

Gates calls for buildup in troops

boston globe

Asks Bush for 92,000 more by 2012



WASHINGTON -- Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates said yesterday that he wants President Bush to increase overall US ground forces by nearly 100,000 over the next five years, the largest military build up since the end of the Cold War.


At a White House press conference, Gates laid out a broad blueprint for a larger Army and Marine Corps to bolster an American force the Pentagon says is stretched thin by repeated deployments to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the wider war against Islamic extremists.

"I am recommending to [the president] a total increase in the two services of 92,000 soldiers and Marines over the next five years -- 65,000 soldiers and 27,000 Marines," Gates said, with Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, beside him.

But the expansion will not be cheap, quick, or easy. Recruiting, training, and equipping new soldiers and Marines will cost tens of billions of dollars, and it will take years before they will have an effect on current military operations, senior Pentagon officials said yesterday.

And perhaps the biggest challenge will be finding enough volunteers.

To meet its current recruiting goals, the Army has relaxed some standards, accepting more recruits who don't have a high school diploma or general equivalency degree, and allowing older men and women to join. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has also substantially increased enlistment bonuses and launched a multi million-dollar advertising campaign to draw more young people to the recruitment office.

"I think it will be a hell of a challenge" to find 92,000 recruits, said Alan Gropman , a retired Air Force colonel who teaches at the National Defense University in Washington. "That's a very large number. It will be impossible if you don't raise pay and other benefits. But if we are going to stay in Iraq and Afghanistan, then we are going to need a bigger Army."

Gates said yesterday that the expansion plan will begin with permanently adding 30,000 soldiers to the active-duty Army, currently numbering about 480,000, and adding 5,000 Marines, which currently number about 175,000.

"Then we propose to build up from that base in annual increments of 7,000 troops a year for the Army and 5,000 for the Marine Corps until the Marine Corps reaches a level of 202,000, and the Army would be at 547,000," Gates said.

Officials said Bush is on board with the proposal, which is expected to draw widespread support in Congress. Both Democrats and Republicans have tried to persuade the White House for years that the military needs to grow.

The plan was seen yesterday as a repudiation of the vision of former secretary of defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, who for years resisted calls by members of both parties and the advice of retired generals to expand the military to handle missions in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as anti terrorism operations around the world.

"I just wish it would have been done a lot sooner," said Representative Jo Ann Davis , a Virginia Republican and ranking member of the House Armed Service Committee's military readiness panel. " I believe that we're asking our military to do much more now than we've ever asked of them. And for that reason, I think that growing the force is very necessary."

The plan was also well received among the troops at Fort Benning, Ga., where Bush spoke after the White House meeting yesterday. Soldiers applauded when the president told them he believes "it's important to increase the end strength of the United States Army so it can remain engaged."

A senior military official who briefed reporters at the Pentagon yesterday said the expanded force probably wouldn't be ready for overseas missions until at least early 2009. He said that more ground forces would "set us up for the long fight" in Iraq and elsewhere.

While the expansion will take time, Gates said, "it is important that our men and women in uniform know that additional manpower and resources are on the way."

The Army currently recruits an average of 80,000 new soldiers every year to maintain its troop levels, and military officials were confident they could meet higher recruiting goals.

The Army estimates that it spends about $1.2 billion to train and equip 10,000 soldiers. Expanding the Army and Marine Corps will also require more recruiters, who have struggled recently to attract enlistees.

Even Gates, who left his presidency of Texas A&M University to take the helm of the Pentagon last month, told senators that the prospect of serving repeated tours in Iraq had turned off many of the quality high school and college students the Pentagon wants.

Donald Vandergriff , a retired Army major and Georgetown University professor, said yesterday that any expansion must feature a clarion call from the commander in chief urging young people to serve -- a tough sell when polls show popular support for both the Iraq war and Bush are low.

"He has never asked the public to sacrifice and serve in the military," Vandergriff said.

Vandergriff, who specializes in military personnel and manpower issues, also questioned whether the military would sacrifice quality for quantity when filling the ranks of a larger ground force.

"I am really concerned that we have this PowerPoint mentality that numbers equals success," Vandergriff said. Even if the Army and Marine Corps can meet the new goal, he added, soldiers "have to be competent."

Still, one Pentagon adviser who asked not to be named said the country has to make the plan work. "The more you learn about the current [military] readiness the more your stomach turns," the adviser said.

For now, the Pentagon will have to rely on more frequent deployments of current troops and its new authority to order part-time National Guard soldiers to active duty more often.

"The faster they can get these new units in place the better they will be," the Pentagon adviser said. "Constant deployments have brought the Army to near collapse."