“One should lie big and stick to it. Keep up the lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous”

According to The Center for Public Integrity, a non-partisan non-profit dedicated to original, responsible investigative journalism. President Bush and seven top officials of his administration made  935 false statements in the two years following September 11, 2001.

See Report 

 

‘Lie big’ quote courtesy of  Reichmeister Joseph Goebbels

Cheney tries to abolish Information Security Oversight Office

 A 34 year government veteran learned the hard way, the perils of questioning Vice President Dick Cheney. The veteran National Archives official challenged claims by the Office of Vice President  to be exempt from federal rules governing classified information. His efforts touched off a firestorm-and a counter-strike by Cheney’s chief of staff, David Addington, (see New Yorker article “The hidden Power”) who claimed that the OVP were not really subject to oversight and subsequently tried to abolish the institution.

See article

3 Guantanamo prisoners released to UK

 Three British residents (not nationals) held by the US at Guantanamo Bay have been released after more than four-and-a-half years; they arrived back in the UK on Wednesday.

Jamil el-Banna, Omar Deghayes and Abdenour Samuer are on board a chartered aircraft along with a doctor and Metropolitan Police officers.

The men’s lawyers said their clients had all agreed to “voluntary security arrangements” upon their return home.

See article

Detained on arrival by UK authorities.

Health insurer tied bonuses to dropping sick policyholders

 One of California’s largest health insurers set goals and paid bonuses based in part on how many individual policyholders could be dropped to save money on upcoming procedures and care.  Woodland Hills-based Health Net Inc. avoided paying $35.5 million in medical expenses by rescinding about 1,600 policies between 2000 and 2006. During that period, it paid its senior analyst in charge of cancellations more than $20,000 in bonuses based in part on her meeting or exceeding annual targets for revoking policies.

See full article. 

See also same charge against Blue Shield:

                             

All Iraqi policewomen are told to surrender their weapons

                                                                                                                                                  The Iraqi government has ordered all policewomen to hand in their guns for redistribution to men or face having their pay withheld, thwarting a U.S. initiative to bring women into the nation’s police force.

The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, issued the order late last month, according to ministry documents, U.S. officials and several of the women. It affects all officers who have earned the title “policewoman” by graduating from the police academy. It does not apply to men in the same type of jobs.

Critics say the move is the latest sign of the religious and cultural conservatism that has taken hold in Iraq since Saddam Hussein’s ouster ushered in a government dominated by Shiite Muslims. Now, that tendency is hampering efforts to bring stability to Iraq by driving women from the force, said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. David Phillips, who has led the effort to recruit female officers.
Without policewomen, Phillips said, there will be no officers to give pat-down searches to female suspects, even though women have joined the ranks of suicide bombers in Iraq. Last week, a female bomber killed at least 16 people north of Baghdad, at least the fifth such attack in Iraq this year.

Policewomen say the decree also will leave them unable to protect themselves at work or off duty. Scores of police employees, both officers and administrative workers, have been killed by insurgents. Men and women have traditionally been allowed to carry their Glock pistols with them after hours for security.

Attempts to get a ministry official to explain the weapons order were unsuccessful. The official spokesman did not respond to telephone messages. The wording of the order also suggests that weapons are needed to outfit new male recruits. Phillips said that was not the case.

Despite the ministry order, the women said they would not hand in their weapons. If their pay is withheld at the end of the month, they plan to stage a protest.
They added that they were counting on U.S. authorities to back them up and force the ministry to back off. Phillips, though, said U.S. officials have limited options.

Read Article. 

US botches Mideast Peace Resolution as Israelis cite that UN is “not the proper venue” to deal with the issue

 

In a move that was a fitting finale to the underwhelming Annapolis summit, the US withdrew a resolution merely endorsing Israeli and Palestinian leaders commitment to try to reach a Mideast peace settlement.  

One can’t help wondering what the Israeli administration might think the UN is a proper venue for.

Expect violence to escalate momentarily.  Back home, the Israelis are widely dismissing Annapolis as ‘the delusional summit’ and the hard line Palestinians who are actually in charge of Gaza weren’t even invited.

Article link discontinued

Iraq – What’s the sticker? And why the $ is slumping

 The Total Economic Costs of the War Beyond the Federal Budget  

A Report by the Joint Economic Committee Majority Staff – November 2007 

 To date, the Bush Administration has requested a total of $804 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined.The total direct cost of the war in Iraq for 2002 to 2008 is $607 Billion, that’s 607 * 1000 * a million dollars which is over ten times higher than the original estimate. To a family of four that is in excess of $7,700 per household.By 2013, depending on drawdown rate, that number will have risen to between 1.3 and 1.7 Trillion dollars. The US does not have that money and so interest on borrowing  on the international market brings the cost to $1.9-2.4 trillion (2 million million dollars).

That is on average $24,700 for every US household. I.e your taxes go towards it or it is borrowed on your behalf.

Read the full report here.

Spooks refuse to toe Cheney’s line on Iran

WASHINGTON – The US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran has been held up for more than a year in an effort to force the intelligence community to remove dissenting judgments on the Iranian nuclear program. The aim is to make the document more supportive of Vice President Dick Cheney’s militarily aggressive policy toward Iran, according to accounts provided by participants in the NIE process to two former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers.But this pressure on intelligence analysts, obviously instigated by Cheney himself, has not produced a draft estimate without those dissenting views, these sources say. The White House has now apparently decided to release the “unsatisfactory” draft NIE, but without making its key findings public. Read full article.