Month: February 2005

A U.S. policy of preemption and a push for new nuclear weapon designs could be a recipe for disaster that makes proliferation more likely, not less.

No More Nuclear Hypocrisy: Defending the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty

While the alarm is repeatedly sounded about Iran and North Korea, few news outlets told us when the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency denounced the nuclear powers’ hypocrisy as a major force for proliferation of nuclear weapons in more and more countries.

Flirting With Armageddon: Welcome to a New Arms Race

A new nuclear arms race is gripping the world. Many experts believe the likelihood of such an attack is greater now than it was during the Cold War. North Korea has already claimed it has nuclear weapons, Iran could be on the brink of building them. Both nations could trigger arms races among their neighbours. The international system set up to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons has sprung a series of leaks. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned of a ‘cascade’ of states going nuclear.

Sibel Edmonds, the heroic FBI contract translator – turned – whistle blower, despite the Department of Justice dropping their attempted application of the “state secrets privilege” to silence her last week, is now up against the same tactic with a different name.

According to John Files at the New York Times:

“The government has told a federal appeals court that a suit by an F.B.I. translator who was fired after accusing the bureau of ineptitude should not be allowed to proceed because it would cause ‘significant damage to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.’

Lawyers for the government said in a brief filed with the court on Thursday that the suit could not continue without disclosing privileged and classified information.”

This apparently means, “If we let her tell you what she knows, we might be in trouble.”
Sibel Edmonds’ Website
My interview of her (mp3)

From Ann Coulter’s latest:

Press passes can’t be that hard to come by if the White House allows that old Arab Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president.

Via James Wolcott.

Today on the Weekend Interview Show (4-6pm Eastern Time), I’ll be talking with civil rights attorney and author Elaine Cassel about the case of Lynn Stewart. The lawyer for the bomber of the World Trade Center in 1993, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, Stewart was convicted on February 10th of “providing material support” to terrorism.

In the second hour, I’ll have war correspondent, author and columnist Eric Margolis from the Toronto Sun on to talk about Middle East Policy.

Update: Show’s over. Archives here

For the past couple of years, we have repeatedly heard spokesmen from the National Guard and the reserve aver that they were continuing to meet their basic recruitment goals within a few percentage points. It never ceased to amaze me that there were so many who would sign up even as the debacle in Iraq went from bad to worse and record numbers of guardsmen and reservists were being called up for long deployments in combat zones overseas.

Well, maybe those assurances were not quite as optimistic as they had sounded. According to US Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC), who has just returned from a visit to Iraq:

Increasing bonuses and benefits will attract recruits, he said, noting there has been a 75 percent drop in the number of active duty personnel who subsequently go into the National Guard and reserves.

Naturally though, he does note that he still doesn’t think there will be a draft and apparently believes that the Administration will be able to contiually pull live rabbits out of a empty magician’s hat.

How sincere is Walid Jumblatt’s much–hyped conversion to the Bush Doctrine? Well, according to a FrontPageMag article just two months back, Jumblatt told a Saudi daily:

We are all happy when U.S. soldiers are killed [in Iraq] week in and week out. The killing of U.S. soldiers in Iraq is legitimate and obligatory.

Is it conceivable that these days, old Walid is just using a credulous media to manipulate America into doing his dirty work? That he doesn’t mind the prospect of more U.S. soldiers dying – this time in Syria – so that he can spew his syphilitic garbage in an independent Lebanon?

Nah. Can’t be. All is well, warbots. Reality is whatever you need it to be.