In this issue:

State Department Official Admits Iraq Backfire

Biden Calls for UN High Commissioner in Iraq

Bush Nixes Chalabi, Says U.S. News

Biden: Cheney and Powell Deadlocked on Iraq

New Study Links Childhood TV Watching to ADHD

Cheney: 'Wrong Where It Matters'

John Dean on the Coverup of Cheney's Ill-Health

Bush's Poll Numbers Plummet

Senator Byrd Calls for 'Exit Door' from Iraq

From Volume 3, Issue Number 15 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Apr. 13, 2004

United States News Digest

State Department Official Admits Iraq Backfire

The State Department's counterterrorism coordinator, J. Cofer Black, admitted in testimony to the House International Relations Committee on April 2, that the Iraq war has made the world terrorism threat far worse.

Black testified, first, that Iraq, under U.S. occupation, has become a "training ground" for jihadis and would-be terrorists from various other countries, who slip across the border into Iraq and fight with the various resistance forces. Second, he acknowledged that the effect of the United States' invasion of Iraq has been to make the so-called al-Qaeda terror strategy spread to many Islamist groups around the world, whose objectives previously were "local." They "have been caught by bin Laden's vision," Black said, "and poisoned by it. They will now look at the U.S., Israel, and the Saudis as targets."

Biden Calls for UN High Commissioner in Iraq

Senator Joseph Biden (D-Del), writing in an op-ed in the Washington Post April 4, warned that the U.S. occupation in Iraq is increasingly isolated, and attempting to convert the occupation into some kind of rule from the U.S. embassy, as of July 1, would make things even worse. Biden called for the White House to: 1) call a conference with European allies; 2) seek a new UN resolution, one which creates a UN High Commissioner for Iraq to be in charge of the "transition," elections, etc. Biden accepts a strong U.S. troop presence in Iraq for some time, however.

Bush Nixes Chalabi, Says U.S. News

In its April 12 edition, U.S. News & World Report in its "Whispers" column writes: "President Bush, we hear, has come down against letting Ahmed Chalabi get the Prime Minister's slot in postwar Iraq. Insiders say Bush is siding with the CIA and State, which don't think Chalabi has much support inside Iraq. It's a blow to the Pentagon and the Veep's office, which believe in the westernized Iraqi who gets credit for talking the White House into war."

Biden: Cheney and Powell Deadlocked on Iraq

The leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind) and ranking Democrat Joseph Biden (Del), appeared together on PBS-TV's "News Hour with Jim Lehrer" April 5, to discuss Iraq. Biden issued a warning to the public that the Senate and House of Representatives are cut off from President Bush, they are cut off from National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice, and the United States has no plan for what it is doing in Iraq, nor what it is going to do after the June 30 "political deadline." That, explained Biden, is why it is not even clear if the U.S. is trying to get a new UN resolution to strengthen the transition. For his part, Lugar said that he hasn't asked for a meeting with Bush, because he is aware that there is "indecision" in policy circles.

Biden pinpointed Vice President Dick Cheney's role. He said that the security situation in Iraq is likely to get worse, and that "we're not leveling with the American people here.... Here we are in April, and they still haven't resolved the dispute in the Administration between the State Department and the Vice President's office, or whoever else...." Biden added that there is no "coalition" when it comes to security: It's the U.S. with a few Brits, Spaniards, and Poles. Yet, the President refused to meet him, and referred him to Condi Rice, who told Biden, "thank you" for your note; we'll get back to you.

A spokesman for Lugar's Committee told EIR on April 5 that Lugar had called for hearings on the Iraq transition plan, but no date is set yet.

New Study Links Childhood TV Watching to ADHD

Today over 5 American million boys are on Ritalin (and, although fewer, millions of American girls), having been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The pharmaceutical industry has made billions of dollars from sales of Ritalin, which is the leading drug prescribed to treat ADHD. Now, a study by Dr. Dimitris A. Christakis suggests that one way to prevent ADHD is to turn off the TV, and especially to prevent children between the ages of 1 and 3 from being exposed to television.

An editorial in the April issue of Pediatrics comments on the Christakis study: "Although little research has targetted specifically the developmental trajectory of the brain's attention systems, ... [i.e., the] neurotransmitters in prefrontal and subcortical areas, there is every reason to believe that their gradual maturation implies a degree of malleability to environmental influences." The editorial asks the question, to what degree might "stimulus-seeking and addictive behaviors as well as inattention disorders, be 'set' by childhood experiences, such as exposure to arousing types of electronic media [e.g., television and video games]?" Pediatrics notes that the American Academy of Sciences recommends no "screen time" for children under 2 years old, and no more than 1 to 2 hours for older children. A recent study showed that 26% of American 2-year-olds have television sets in their bedrooms.

Cheney: 'Wrong Where It Matters'

Noting that in many countries, officials who make colossal blunders resign or get fired, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen observes, in the April 6 Post that, "from the President on down, no one in this Administration ever admits a mistake or concedes having been wrong.

"Dick Cheney, whose slogan should be 'Wrong Where It Matters' [a play on a Bush campaign slogan], nonetheless takes to the stump to lambaste John Kerry. After all, the Vice President is the very man who warned us, assured us, promised us that we must go to war with Iraq because, among other things, that nation had an ongoing nuclear weapons program. None has yet been found—and no apology from Cheney has yet been issued. He was mistaken or dishonest. We await his choice."

John Dean on the Coverup of Cheney's Ill-Health

Discussing John Dean's new book, Worse Than Watergate, on WAMU's April 6 "Diane Rehm Show," the former Counsel to President Richard Nixon described Vice President Dick Cheney's attempt to hide his heart problems as an example of the "mendacity" and "deception" which is the settled policy of the present Administration.

Dean said it started during the 2000 election race, when the Republicans refused to honor their pledge to release information on the state of Cheney's bad heart. Even after Cheney suffered another heart attack on Nov. 22, 2000, Dean said, there was no real information forthcoming. The New York Times medical editor repeatedly asked for data on Cheney's condition that could be independently evaluated, and was turned down.

Dean said that Cheney's 1988 quadruple bypass operation would typically be coming to the end of its stable efficacy soon—and the public is provided with no real information.

Bush's Poll Numbers Plummet

A Pew Research Center poll released April 5 said Bush's job-approval rating on Iraq had slumped to a low of 40%, down from 59% in January. The poll said 44% of Americans wanted U.S. troops withdrawn from Iraq. In an interview with National Public Radio, Andrew Kohut of Pew said that Bush's job-approval ratings are lower than those of any incumbent President seeking re-election in memory.

Senator Byrd Calls for 'Exit Door' from Iraq

In a speech on the Senate floor April 7, titled, "A Call for an Exit Door from Iraq," Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WVa) derided President Bush's "stubborn refusal to admit mistakes," evoking memories of Vietnam. Byrd recited the famous poem of Alfred Lord Tennyson, "The Charge of the Light Brigade," in a passionate appeal to the Administration for "a roadmap out of Iraq."

"As I watch events unfold in Iraq," said Byrd, who led the opposition to the Iraq war in October 2002, "I cannot help but be reminded of another battle, at another place, and another time, that hurtled more than 600 soldiers into the maws of death.... The occasion was the Battle of Balaclava on Oct. 25, 1864, during the Crimean War, a battle that was immortalized by Alfred Lord Tennyson in his poem, 'The Charge of the Light Brigade.'

" 'Forward, the Light Brigade!

Was there a man dismay'd?

Not tho' the soldier knew

Someone had blunder'd:

Theirs not to make reply.

Theirs not to reason why,

Theirs but to do and die:

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.'

"Tennyson got it right—someone had blundered," said Byrd. "It is time we faced up to the fact that this President and his Administration blundered as well, when they took the nation into war with Iraq without compelling reason, without broad international or even regional support, and without a plan for dealing with the enormous postwar security and reconstruction challenges posed by Iraq....

"Surely I am not the only one who hears echoes of Vietnam in this development," the Senator said. "I was here in this chamber when word went out in those days to send more: 'send more men—we'll be out by Christmas.' Surely, the Administration recognizes that increasing the U.S. troop presence in Iraq will only suck us deeper, and deeper, and deeper, into the maelstrom, into the quicksand, of violence, that has become the hallmark of that unfortunate, miserable country....

"The harsh reality is this: One year after the fall of Baghdad, the United States should not be casting about for a formula, to bring additional U.S. troops, to Iraq. We should instead, be working toward an exit strategy...."

Byrd's speech is the best that any elected official in Washington offered this past week, but as this week's "Need To Know" notes, only Lyndon LaRouche clearly said, it is time for the U.S. to leave Iraq—now.

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