United States News Digest
Top Air Force Legal Officer Targetted by Pentagon
The U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General, Maj-Gen. Thomas Fiscus, has stepped down from his post, asking to be temporarily relieved from duty, as a result of an investigation of an improper sexual relationship with a female subordinate; the investigation was reportedly triggered by an anonymous phone call.
Two aspects of the case are notable.
First, the Oct. 4 issue of Air Force Times reports that Fiscus was opposing a proposal to have the Air Force's civilian lawyers (i.e., the General Counsel's office) control the uniformed lawyers in the JAG corps. Fiscus and other uniformed officers were resisting this, on grounds that this would end decades of tradition and subject the uniformed lawyers to top-down directives from Pentagon civilians, presumably coming from Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's office and his General Counsel.
Second, the Washington Post noted Sept. 30 that Fiscus and other Air Force lawyers have been among the most vocal in opposing the Administration's detainee policies, i.e., the rejection of the Geneva Convention and approving the use of torture. A lawyer who handles military cases, David Sheldon, is quoted as saying that "The timing of it is certainly suspect," because of Fiscus's office's opposing Rumsfeld and the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) on detainee issues. Sheldon confirmed his suspicions to EIR, saying that there are a lot of sore feelings between the uniformed lawyers and OSD over the policy toward detainees, in which the uniformed lawyers' voices were not heeded.
Another source familiar with the matter confirmed that Fiscus had personally been very involved in opposing the detainee policies being developed by the OSD last year, and said that there is ample reason for Rumsfeld to want to retaliate against him.
Congress Set To Come Back for Lame-Duck Session
On Sept. 29, the House and Senate passed a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government open until Nov. 20, leaving the yet-to-be-passed spending bills until a lame-duck session schedule to begin Nov. 15. Of the 13 annual spending bills, only the defense bill has been signed into law, although the GOP leadership hopes to pass five more by the end of next week. This year, the Republicans couldn't even agree among themselves on a budget resolution, which provides the framework for crafting the appropriations bills, and so, none was ever passed.
Representative David Obey, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, took note of the situation during debate on the CR. He noted that the funding in the House-passed bills for programs such as health care, veterans' health, law enforcement, and transportation "have been so stingy," that Senate Republicans didn't even want to take them up," and so, the Republican leadership is ducking those tough issues until after the election. He called the CR a "monument to institutional failure" and to "ideological zealotry." "This Congress is failing to meet even the most basic and minimal expectations that the country has for it by way of doing our routine business," he added.
Iraq War Costs Now Up To $100 Billion
According to figures made available by the Pentagon, military operations in Iraq cost $86.1 billion between January of 2003 and June of 2004, or an average of $4.4 billion per month. The average is actually up slightly from late last year, when it was hovering around $4 billion. If the $4.4 billion average holds for July, August, and September, the war is now very close to costing $100 billion, and that excludes reconstruction, military operations outside of the region, and the costs of repair and replacement of equipment of units that have redeployed to their home bases. The war in Afghanistan adds another $745 million per month.
Part of Patriot Act Ruled Unconstitutional
U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero, of the Southern District of New York, ruled on Sept. 28 that the part of the Patriot Act that allows FBI agents to use so-called "national security letters" to obtain records from Internet service providers without judicial review or public view, is unconstitutional. Marrero wrote that the provision allowing such letters "effectively bars or substantially deters any judicial challenge," and violates free-speech rights. Using the letters, the FBI can prohibit companies from revealing that the demands were ever made. Marrero wrote that "democracy abhors undue secrecy," and ruled that "an unlimited government warrant to conceal ... has no place in our open society." He warned that the protective shield of secrecy "may serve not as much to secure a safe country, as simply to save face."
Marrero ordered the government to stop using the letters but stayed his order for 90 days to allow time for an appeal. Attorney General John Ashcroft told reporters on Sept. 29 that "it is almost a certainty that" the ruling "would be appealed." He added that "we believe the [Patriot] act to be completely consistent with the United States Constitution."
Iraq Insurgency Wider, Deeper Than Bush Will Admit
There have been more than 2,300 attacks by insurgents against civilian and military targets in Iraq during the past 30 days, according to a study by a private security company, which has access to military records, the New York Times reported Sept. 29. This shows the resistance to be much more widespread than what is described by Iraqi officials such as Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who said that 14-15 of Iraq's 18 provinces "are completely safe." In fact, the attacks range over every major population center outside the Kurdish north.
Of course, the number of attacks have dropped in some areas such as Fallujah, which is controlled by insurgents, and which is a "no go" zone for U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces.
The Los Angeles Times reported Sept. 28 that top U.S. military leaders in Iraq dispute the claims made by Allawi and some Bush Administration officials, that foreign fighters are streaming into Iraq to fight Americans; these U.S. military officers say the insurgency is largely home-grown. "They say these guys are flowing across [the border] and fomenting all this violence. We don't think so," said a senior U.S. military official in Baghdad. "What's the main threat? It's internal."
U.S. military officials say that the insurgency is composed of a core of Saddam loyalists, bolstered by an expanding number of ordinary Iraqis who have become disillusioned with the U.S. failure to deliver basic services, jobs, and reconstruction projects.
"People try to turn this into the Mujahadin, jihad war. It's not that," said one U.S. intelligence official. "How many foreign fighters have been captured and processed? Very few."
Wall Street Journal Tells Goss To Purge CIA
Congratulating Porter Goss on his Senate confirmation as the new Director of Central Intelligence, the Sept. 29 Wall Street Journal calls on him to defeat the "insurgency" taking place "inside Langley against the Bush Administration."
Attacking leaks that "make the ... Bush Administration look bad," such as that of the January 2003 National Intelligence Estimate warning of an insurgency in Iraqand purported "insubordination," the Journal complains that CIA officials are "engaging in a policy debate." "Given the timing of the latest leaks so close to an election, they are now clearly trying to defeat President Bush and elect John Kerry," the lead editorial worries.
The Journal instructs Goss that "his task" is to tell these officialsat senior rungs of the agencywho want Bush defeated, to "shut up"a blatant confirmation of Lyndon LaRouche's and EIR's warning of why Cheney-protector Goss was put in to head the CIA.
Goss Could Become NID Without Confirmation
A provision in the intelligence reorganization bill filed by House Republicans Sept. 22, would allow Porter Goss to become the first National Intelligence Directorif such a position is createdwithout having to undergo a Senate hearing or a vote confirming him. The bill allows the President to make an "initial appointment" of the NID, stating: "The individual serving as the director of central intelligence on the date immediately preceding the date of the enactment of this act may, at the discretion of the president, become the national intelligence director." The Senate bill does not contain such a provision.
The House bill also adds new police-state powers, beyond what the 9/11 Commission recommended, including some provisions that were in the draft of the "Patriot II" bill leaked last year. According to the Los Angeles Times Sept. 25, "ebullient Republicans" are boasting it would be hard for Democrats to oppose anything supposedly aimed at preventing future terrorist attacks. The bill is being criticized by House Democrats and some Republicans, such as Rep. Ray LaHood of Illinois, who said, "What will end up happening is, we'll pass something in the House that will be totally different than the Senate, then have the huge train wreck that we always have trying to reconcile the two."
Demand Probe of Army Re-Enlistment Tactics Demanded
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo) is demanding an investigation of the Army's coercive re-enlistment tactics, in which soldiers are threatened with tours of duty in Iraq, if they refuse to re-enlist. DeGette, in a letter sent Sept. 27 to House Armed Services Committee chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif), requested that the panel investigate whether the "White House or civilian Pentagon officials are pressuring the military to use coercive tactics to get soldiers to re-enlist, in order to maintain the force levels necessary to fight the war in Iraq and war on terror."
In a press release, DeGette insisted, "If this is the case, it is completely unacceptable. It is an insult to America's veterans and must be investigated and, if found true, it must be stopped immediately."
"The political decisions made by this White House and civilians at the Pentagon," she added, "are damaging the capabilities of our military."
DeGette cited reports by the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post, that Fort Carson-stationed veterans of the Iraq war nearing the end of their eight-year enlistments are threatened with a second tour in Iraq if they do not re-enlist.
Many No-Shows Among Ready Reservists
Fewer than two-thirds of former soldiers who are being reactivated as the Individual Ready Reserves, for duty in Iraq, are showing up. The U.S. Army, in response, is threatening some with desertion charges. Only 1,038 of the 1,662 ready reservists ordered to report to Fort Jackson, S.C. by Sept. 22 had done so, the Army said. Most of those who failed to reportabout 500 of 624 soldiersare requesting exemptions on health or personal grounds.
Dowd: Bush Has His Own Puppet
Now George Bush "has his own puppet to play with," Ayad Allawi"someone to echo his every word and mimic his every action," wrote columnist Maureen Dowd in the Sept. 26 New York Times, in an op-ed titled, "Dance of the Marionettes." Dowd skewered the Bush-Cheney crowd for having the gall to assert that Allawi is an objective analyst of the state of conditions in Iraq, "since he has as much riding on putting the chaos in a sunny light as they do." Just as Bush became the "host body" for the utopians' schemes of invading Iraq, launching preemptive war, etc., Dowd says, Bush has turned Allawi into a "host body for the Panglossian palaver that he believes will get him reelected." But things are going so badly in Iraq, she adds, that the utopians have had to scale back their "grand visions" for Iraq's future, seen in Donald Rumsfeld's Sept. 24 remarks that the country doesn't have to be "peaceful and perfect," in order for U.S. troops presence to be reduced.
|