United States News Digest
Ex-Centcom Chief Zinni Blasts Iraq War 'Dilettantes'
General Anthony C. Zinni denounced the incompetence and failure of the neo-con operations in pre- and post-invasion Iraq, in a Dec. 23 interview with the Washington Post's Thomas Ricks, which held little back.
On the current state of affairs in Iraq, Zinni said, "I believe the only way it will work now is for the Iraqis themselves to somehow take charge and turn things around. Our policy, strategy, tactics, etc., are still screwed up." Zinni said that he had prepared a plan in 1999, following the 1998 bombing raids on Iraq under his direction, on how to occupy Iraq, if need be. Called "Desert Crossing," the document called for a nationwide civilian occupation authority, with offices in each of Iraq's 18 provinces. That plan contrasts sharply, he noted, with the reality of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) today.
He said: "In my time at Centcom, I watched the intelligence, and nevernot oncedid it say, 'He has WMD.' " Although he retired, Zinni remained current on the intelligence through his consulting with the CIA and the military. "I did consulting work for the agency, right up to the beginning of the war. I never saw anything. I'd say to analysts, 'Where's the threat?' " Their response, he recalls, was, "silence."
On Powell, Zinni says, "he's trying to be a good soldier, and I respect him for that." But on the neo-cons: "The more I saw, the more I thought that this was the product of the neo-cons who didn't understand the region and were going to create havoc there. These were dilettantes from Washington think tanks who never had an idea that worked on the ground."
He compared the Iraq war to Vietnam: "It feels the same. I hear the same thingsabout [Administration charges about] not telling the good news, about cooking up a rationale for getting into the war.... I think the American people were conned into this. The Gulf of Tonkin and the case for WMD and terrorism is synonymous in my mind."
"Somehow, the neo-cons captured the President, they captured the Vice President," Zinni said, adding: "What I don't understand is that the bill of goods the neo-cons sold him has been proven false, yet heads haven't rolled. Where is the accountability? I think some fairly senior people at the Pentagon ought to go." Who? "That's up to the president."
Zinni adds that he has heard no negative response from "the uniformed guys" for his outspoken criticism.
Wal-Mart: 'The Road to Serfdom Runs Through Bentonville'
As part of a year-end survey of their "The Years Ahead" feature, the Dec. 28 New York Times ran a piece entitled "Questioning the Age of Wal-Mart." It says that 2003 was the year that the "Wal-Martization of the economy" became an issue, noting the many lawsuits and the Federal investigation into the use of illegal contract labor. Citing the views of unnamed critics of Wal-Mart, the article states: "Friedrich von Hayek, they suggest, needs to be updated, and today his 'road to serfdom' runs through Bentonville, Ark., Wal-Mart's home town."
A Chicago Sun-Times column by William O'Rourke, calls Wal-Mart "the Grinch who stole Christmas," for its taking money out of consumers' pockets by driving small businesses out of existence, and by setting the prevailing wage as low as it can go.
Conyers Demands Ashcroft Recusal in Texas Redistricting
Columnist Robert Novak reported on Dec. 28, that Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich) has asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to recuse himself in the Texas redistricting case. In a letter sent on Dec. 23, Conyers demanded as well that other Bush-appointed officials also withdraw from the case, and stated that refusal to do so "has placed both the reputation of the Justice Department and the Voting Rights Act in jeopardy."
Novak complains that Conyers' accusation "is based on Democratic claims that the Republican-drafted Texas redistricting packs minorities into as few Congressional districts as possible. It follows continuing Democratic complaints of racism behind the 2000 Florida vote controversy."
Toledo Blade Opens New Bloody Ground on Vietnam Atrocities
The New York Times reported on Dec. 28 on the Toledo Blade expose series that has run from October through December, on "Tiger Force"a 101st Airborne elite unit that swept through Vietnam's Central Highlands for seven months in 1967, assigned to implement the "free-fire-zone" policy, forcing villagers into strategic hamlets, and destroying villages and villagers who refused.
Such stories are not new, but several of the sources for this story have only recently stepped forward. They report on blowing up families in underground bunkers, shooting villagers at work in their rice fields, torture, ears removed as souvenirs, gold teeth removed from victims, and more. One of the sources for the Blade series told the Times: "The story that I'm not sure is getting out, is that while they're saying this was a ruthless band ravaging the countryside, we were under orders to do it." Another said: "I'm talking about the guys with the eagles [full colonels]. It was always about the body count. They were saying, 'You guys have the green light to do what's right.' "
The Army says there are no plans to reopen the cases.
Rehnquist Slams Ashcroft Blacklisting of Judges
Chief Justice William Rehnquist criticized Congress in unusually harsh terms for requiring Federal prosecutors to report to the U.S. Attorney General, the names of judges who give out sentences lower than Congressionally mandated guidelines; the Attorney General is then to make a report to Congress on the offending judges.
In his annual year-end report, Rehnquist said that the so-called Feeney Amendment "could appear to be an unwarranted and ill-considered effort to intimidate individual judges in the performance of their judicial duties." The Chief Justice stated that, "it seems the traditional interchange between the Congress and the judiciary broke down, when Congress enacted what is known as the PROTECT Act, making some rather dramatic changes to laws governing the Federal sentencing process." Rehnquist pointed out that it "was enacted without any consideration of the views of the judiciary."
Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass) called Rehnquist's criticism "extraordinary," and said that he agrees that the Feeney Amendment is undermining the independence of judges by creating "blacklists based on the sentencing practices of individual judges."
Kennedy and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt) have introduced legislation to repeal the Feeney Amendment.
New Panel Appointed for Military Commissions
A number of appointments were made, on Dec. 30, in the name of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, which indicate that the Bush Administration has been forced to make significant concessions regarding the use of military tribunals ("commissions") to try suspected terrorists.
The Pentagon announced the appointment of retired Army Maj. Gen. John Altenburg as "appointing authority," replacing Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, to oversee the military commissions and trials. Altenburg was the Assistant Judge Advocate General for the U.S. Army, and is highly respected in military/legal circles, and is on the record opposing the "Bush Doctrine" of preemptive war. Also appointed were four members, all civilians, of a Military Commission Review Panel to hear appeals. The panel cannot reverse a "not guilty" finding, but can reverse a "guilty" verdict. There was no provision for appealing a verdict in the original Military Order issued by President Bush in November 2001, except for an "appeal" directly to the Secretary of Defense, or to the President. The creation of a review panel, and now, the appointment of civilians to it, was a response to widespread criticisms of the original plan, according to a Dec. 30 DOD background briefing. The review panel so far includes former Attorney General Griffin Bell from the Carter Administration, former Republican Transportation Secretary William Coleman (reported to be very close to Colin Powell), and two state court judges.
There are still major civil rights concerns, including significant restrictions on defense lawyers.
Detroit 'Terror' Convictions May Be Thrown Out
Chaos continues in the Justice Department's prosecution of what it called an al-Qaeda terrorist "sleeper cell" in Detroit, with the judge now considering throwing out the convictions in the case, and starting over.
This is the case in which Attorney General John Ashcroft was rebuked by the judge for violating the court's gag rule, by making prohibited public statements.
At issue now are two significant pieces of evidence withheld by prosecutors: (1) a December 2001 letter from a drug dealer, who said that the government's chief witness had told him "how he lied to the FBI, how he fooled the Secret Service agent on the case"; and (2) an FBI interview with a former roommate of two of the defendants, who said they never talked about religion, were lazy, and often drank and smokedbehavior not in keeping with the prosecutions' description of the defendants as devout Muslims.
Defense lawyers had said all along that the government's case was based on fear, not facts; and now are asking if there is not still more evidence that the government has withheld.
'Muslim Spy' Cases at Guantanamo Were Hyped
As of Dec. 21, the U.S. Air Force has now dropped the most serious charges against a Syrian-born Arabic translator, Ahmad al-Halabi, relating to his service at the Guantanamo prison camp. The dropped charges include "aiding the enemy," which carried the death penalty. Halabi's lawyer said that, with the dropping of those charges, "the gut of the case was gone." He is still charged with some lesser espionage counts, mishandling classified information, and lying on a credit application.
In September, a series of arrests of Arabs and Muslims working at the Guantanamo detention center triggered a wave of hysteria, targetting Syria and Islamic training programs for Muslim chaplains, and, more generally, spreading suspicion of all Muslims serving in the U.S. military.
Now, the cases against those arrested are falling apart. In the case of Muslim chaplain James Yee, espionage charges were recently dropped, and instead Yee is now being charged with mishandling classified information, and adultery (a chargeable offense under military law).
Halabi's lawyer said that in both the Yee and Halabi cases, they had documents with them that were not stamped with a security classification, but which were considered classified by investigating officers. After Halabi's arrest, "They went literally berserk with the classification stamp," the lawyer said. "They classified anything and everything" that Halabi had. One document, stamped "SECRET NOFORN," meaning it is so secret that it cannot be shown to any foreigners, was a photograph of Halabi's fiancee, who lives in Syria.
PFIAB: White House Ignored Warnings on Niger Yellowcake Fraud
According to a leak in the Washington Post of Dec. 24, the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), headed by former National Security Advisor Gen. Brent Scowcroft, has concluded that the White House included the Niger yellowcake claim in the State of the Union address, because it was desperate to have something showing that Saddam Hussein was attempting to get uranium for nuclear weapons. A source said that the White House was so anxious "to grab onto something affirmative" supporting the nuclear claim, that it disregarded warnings from the CIA and the intelligence community. Thus, the source said, the White House must share blame with the CIA.
Last May, President Bush asked PFIAB to look into the Niger episode, to determine how the claim came to be included in his speech. The report is not publicly available.
|