Boston Globe
August 31, 2006
By George Soros

The failure of Israel to subdue Hezbollah demonstrates the many weaknesses of the war-on-terror concept. One of those weaknesses is that even if the targets are terrorists, the victims are often innocent civilians, and their suffering reinforces the terrorist cause.

In response to Hezbollah's attacks, Israel was justified in attacking Hezbollah to protect itself against the threat of missiles on its border. However, Israel should have taken greater care to minimize collateral damage. The civilian casualties and material damage inflicted on Lebanon inflamed Muslims and world opinion against Israel and converted Hezbollah ...   more »

• An author writing about or commenting on university rules on faculty speech or student speech should particularize. Quote the regulations accurately; provide any necessary context; enunciate any legitimate questions about principles of freedom of speech or freedom of assembly meticulously.
• Inflammatory references to “thought police” are generally intellectually dishonest. Few of the commentators who fling around this catchphrase are actually familiar with the writing of Eric Arthur Blair.
• Universities exist to influence thought. Influencing thought – teaching, learning -- is their reason for being.
• Having or developing some sensitivity to the power of language is part of cultural literacy. Dismissing ...   more »

On May 18, 2001, the White House issued an Executive Order:

“Sec. 3.  Interagency Task Force.  There is established an interagency task force (Task Force) to monitor and assist the agencies in their efforts to expedite their review of permits or similar actions, as necessary, to accelerate the completion of energy-related projects, increase energy production and conservation, and improve transmission of energy.  The Task Force also shall monitor and assist agencies in setting up appropriate mechanisms to coordinate Federal, State, tribal, and local permitting in geographic areas where increased permitting activity is expected.  The Task Force shall be composed of representatives ...   more »

This short article ran in my local community paper, the then-existent Prince George’s Journal, in 2004 and was picked up in a note in the Houston Chronicle by columnist Rick Casey. Another indicator of the partiality of the corporate news media, and that’s why I am re-posting it. Also, it shows the willingness of this White House to tolerate separate foreign deal-making by insiders and First Family relatives.

A related question raised by the item below: has a separate foreign policy been similarly connived at? More later.

O, THE DIFFERENCE A VOWEL MAKES

            ...   more »

I. The first several paragraphs of this lengthy disquisition, providing some etymology and colonial American background on high crimes and misdemeanors, argue that the Founders left the phrase grave but broad intentionally. The phrase was intended to be a real check on the powers of the Executive, without being so elastic as to give Congress a parliamentary ability to remove a president at any time for narrow political motives. This general characterization is valid as far as it goes.

Note, however, that this article, written with William J. Clinton in mind, emphasizes offenses besides treason or bribery, since the ...   more »

Why is everyone so sure Katherine Harris will win?

The GOP senatorial primary in Florida takes place on September 5, 2006. Main candidate Katherine Harris faces retired Admiral LeRoy Collins, developer Peter Monroe, and Orlando lawyer Will McBride.

Many people are asking why Harris is still in the race. A related question might be why Peter Monroe is in it. Thus far, Monroe seems to be cloning Bush at fundraisers and channeling White House foreign policy. According to his website, he recently excoriated Hugo Chavez at an invitation only gathering in Miami. ...   more »

This post is from mydd, in case anyone out there honestly believes that Sen. George Allen (R-Virginia) did not use a racial epithet against a young U.S. citizen whose family is from India.

Plenty of offensive language in this series of entries, all around.

Further depressing reminders come from MoveOn.org. One is that Allen used to have a noose hanging from a tree in his law office, according to a New Republic article.  

Another is that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was the next major GOP figure to stand up with Allen in his recent ...   more »

Here, young readers, are the first few grafs of a Washington Post article that ran on December 2, 2003. Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont was making rapid headway toward the Democratic presidential nomination:

“Howard Dean likes to travel fast and light. When the former Vermont governor and Democratic presidential candidate swept through this state one day recently, dashing to campaign stops covering nearly 200 miles in a few hours, only one senior aide was with him, a 39-year-old Vermonter named Kate O'Connor.

By her estimate, O'Connor has seen or talked to Dean almost every day since she came ...   more »

CNN.com reports that a federal court has ruled the NSA wiretapping and surveillance unconstitutional.

In no uncertain terms, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, in Michigan, struck down the covert wiretapping, saying it “"violates the separation of powers doctrine, the Administrative Procedures Act, the First and Fourth amendments to the United States Constitution, the FISA and Title III."

Good news, and a good start.

Virtually no commentator or administration apologist has pointed out that the White House line that it is tapping only “foreign” calls is misleading.

Every personal computer in America receives ...   more »

Former ambassador Craig Murray was the United Kingdom ambassador to Uzbekistan until he was removed in 2004 after having criticized Uzbekistan for human rights abuses including torture. His article on the airlines terror plot in Britain, posted August 14, is authoritative and raises serious questions.

Continued from the previous blog: Murray goes on,

“What is more, many of those arrested had been under surveillance for over a year - like thousands of other British Muslims. And not just Muslims. Like me. Nothing from that surveillance had indicated the need for early arrests.

Then an interrogation in Pakistan...   more »

Former ambassador Craig Murray was the United Kingdom ambassador to Uzbekistan until he was removed in 2004 after having criticized Uzbekistan for human rights abuses including torture. His article on the airlines terror plot in Britain, posted August 14, is authoritative and raises serious questions.

I am posting it in full, divided over two blogs. The title is “The UK Terror plot: what's really going on?”

Murray begins:

“I have been reading very carefully through all the Sunday newspapers to try and analyse the truth from all the scores of pages claiming to detail the so-called ...   more »

A useful reminder of the contamination of public agencies by corporate funded rightwing think tanks, a good Al Kamen article today follows up on this reader question:

“Please explain to your readers how a government official who is paid by hard-earned taxpayer dollars is allowed to moonlight as a Republican mouthpiece on television.”

The Republican official in question is Karen M. Czarnecki, a senior advisor to Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao. Along with serving in government, Czarnecki also makes frequent media appearances on PBS’ To the Contrary, as her web site mentions, and (not referred to on the ...   more »

Lieberman and the White House are stumbling, bigtime, in their eagerness to overreach. One result: looking at the double game Lieberman is playing has brought this writer for one to take a closer look at election year 2000.

Remember Lieberman’s last senatorial opponent, before Ned Lamont?

 – His sole opponent for the United States Senate in the 2000 election was Philip A. Giordano, now serving the early years of a 37-year prison term. No need to belabor Giordano’s personal and political history, well covered in 2002 in this excellent article from the Hartford Courant.

Briefly, however: Giordano ...   more »

The big story in researching the possibility of internal betrayals in 9/11 is not just the carnage of that day alone, not just the mindset of people who could bring themselves to facilitate it, but the uses to which 9/11 has been put.

These include the invasion of the Middle East and a practically wholesale assault on the middle class at home.

It is the behavior of the Bush administration after 9/11, busily exploiting it while obstructing any genuine investigation into it, that raises the worst possible suggestions about their motivation and actions.

Foolish "no-planers" miss the point. Could that ...   more »

The illegal and unconstitutional invasion of other countries, a war of aggression, is international war crime, and the Iraq war is a foreign policy of war crime. It’s that simple.

That’s not some bagatelle.

That Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), with all his resources and with what seemed to be a solid political position and a safe seat, could go along with the White House in policy reminiscent of the late Soviet Union’s invasion of Hungary is not some difference of nuance, of shades of opinion, some trifle at the margins of policy to be swept under the rug. ...   more »

Sen. Joe Lieberman conceded the Democratic primary to Ned Lamont, but calls it a win for "polarization" and says he's going ahead to run as an independent.

Lamont has had the lead every moment from the earliest returns. With 97.99% of returns in, he's still 10K votes ahead.

News for Cynthia McKinney is bad.

Local television stations in the DC area tonight are focusing mainly on crime and car wrecks.

The official Connecticut web site crashes every minute. An alternate site showing early returns has Lamont leading Lieberman, a good sign this early.

All the networks ran Lieberman's accusation that the Lamont campaign and/or Lamont supporters crashed the Lieberman web site.

Ethics taught in Journalism 101 would demand that they give the clarification equal prominence, tomorrow. But recalling at the strange career of the nonexistent "Dean scream," . . .

The very first precincts have reported in Windham County, Connecticut, and the earliest news is good for Ned Lamont.

Might be a good indicator. The very earliest returns are generally efficient fast-reporting precincts, not crowded inner city precincts where results are more chaotic.

If even quiet areas are going for Lamont, it wd be odd to have the more diverse spots going for Lieberman . . .

These very earliest returns are conversely poor for Cynthia McKinney.

This just in, forwarded from   http://space4peace.blogspot.com/2006/08/us-israel-selecting-targets-for-cruise.html   "Sunday, August 06, 2006
U.S. & ISRAEL SELECTING TARGETS FOR CRUISE MISSILE FIRST-STRIKE ATTACK   Multiple military sources have told the Global Network that Pentagon personnel responsible for selecting targets for cruise missile first strike attacks have been sent to Israel. This indicates that U.S. and Israeli military strategists are now likely meeting to plan a joint attack on Syria and/or Iran. The Persian Gulf war and the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq both began with cruise missile attacks by the U.S. from Naval ships. U.S. military satellites were used to guide the ...   more »

I was alerted on this by Brad Friedman, of BradBlog, who passed it along earlier: Congressman Bob Ney (R-Ohio), in the midst of an extensive ongoing corruption probe, is dropping out of his race. 

Remember when Darrell Issa, tears in his eyes, stepped aside from the California Senate "race" in favor of Arnold Schwarzenegger? This one is not that overt, yet. But predictably, corporate media outlets are spinning this, not as another sign of GOP entanglement in some of the biggest scandals in a hundred years, but as a possibility that Republicans can now keep Ney's seat in Ohio. BTW, ...   more »

Passing this information along for anyone who might be interested:

On Native Soil: The Documentary of the 9/11 Commission Report will be shown on Court TV Monday, August 21, 2006, at 9:00 p.m. ET.

A trailer for the film is accessible here, including interviews with aviation security experts Steve Elson and Bogdan Dzakovic.

This message is passed along from Brian F. Sullivan, FAA Special Agent (Retired) New England Region. Sullivan has consistently and repeatedly warned of security problems in the aviation sector, also points out that the administration on numerous occasions has used the ...   more »

AlGhamdi

• Ahmad Salih Said al-Kurshi al-Ghamdi. UAL flight 175. Saudi. Arrived in U.S. May 2, 2001, at Dulles. DOB July 2, 1979. lived NJ, FL.
• Hamza Salih Ahmad al-Hamid al-Ghamdi. UAL flight 175. Saudi. Arrived in U.S.May 28, 2001, in Miami. DOB November 18, 1980. lived FL.
• Said Abdalah Ali Sulayman al-Ghamdi. UAL flight 93. Saudi. Arrived in U.S. June 27, 2001, in Orlando. DOB November 21, 1979. lived FL.

 AlShehri

• Walid Muhammad Abdallah al-Shehri. AA flight 11. Saudi. Arrived in U.S.April 23, 2001, in Orlando. DOB ...   more »

The gutsy Senate investigation into offshore tax havens has produced explosive material. Too bad there wasn’t more of an impact in the big media outlets. On August 1, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released its 370-page report with an equally thick stack of primary documents, in conjunction with a five-hour hearing and often dramatic testimony recorded by four or five television cameras. CNN chose that day to spend its air time on Fidel’s “ceding power,” running repetitive footage of sweaty Miamians honking their automobile horns and saying deleterious things about Castro.

Wonder which network offshores its assets in the Caymans....   more »

Senator Joe Lieberman is not the only Democrat who needed, and got, a good primary opponent this year. In Maryland, the 4^th congressional district needed and gets an excellent and capable candidate in Donna Edwards.

Ms. Edwards spoke yesterday evening at a neighborhood gathering in suburban Cheverly, Maryland. A parent and an attorney with a career in public interest organizations, she spoke well, firmly and courteously clarifying her differences with the incumbent on the biggest issues:

• The Iraq war. Incumbent Albert Wynn voted for the vague and indefinite war resolution. Along with human losses ...   more »