Bush 'kept Blair in the dark over Iraq'

An explosive new book claims that Tony Blair pleaded in vain with George Bush to share vital combat intelligence about the Iraq war.

The author, Watergate journalist Bob Woodward, paints a devastating portrait of Bush as an incompetent pawn of his chief advisers and the Pentagon's war planners.

He says that, with Bush locked in a desperate battle to win re-election in 2004, they were more interested in hiding the truth about the failures to thwart the September 11 attacks and find weapons of mass destruction than running a competent military operation.

The book, State Of Denial, which is released tomorrow, reveals that the Prime Minister repeatedly complained to Bush after discovering Britain was being denied access to key information on the grounds that it was a 'foreign' nation.

The attempt to bluff the Prime Minister involved a highly class-ified database called the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNET) which the Pentagon used to store and communicate years of potentially embarrassing intelligence, as well as technical information about combat operations in Iraq.

Woodward says that top Pentagon officials took the decision to deny Britain access to it, apparently with the backing of America's Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and then National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

"The classified information had a caveat - NOFORN - meaning no foreigners were allowed access, a restriction that included even the British troops fighting alongside Americans in Iraq,' Woodward adds.

In July 2004, Bush assured Blair he had signed a directive saying the NOFORN rule would no longer apply to the British on military operations.

But the book says the Pentagon ignored it, hatching a scheme to hoax the British into believing they were being kept fully informed.
This is London

This can't all be true, I mean, even I am starting to get suspicious. I may just have to stop reading, because I don't think it can all be true. How big a fool are those people in congress, how could they preside over this degree of failure. It's unnerving to think that half the stuff that's coming out is true, how could it all be true.

I know I have been saying much of the same stuff for years now, but I'm a no nothing nobody, with a keyboard. They have subpoena power........

Basra governor says Iraq police tried to kill him

BASRA, Iraq, Sept 30 (Reuters) - The governor of Iraq's second city of Basra accused police officers of trying to kill him on Saturday after he survived an ambush on his motorcade in which three bodyguards were wounded.

"Gunmen in police uniform and others in civilian clothes tried to assassinate me. I know who they are and am going to go after them legally," Mohammed al-Waeli told reporters after the attack.

"They are a group of officers in the Major Crimes Department."

Security has deteriorated in Basra over the past year as rival factions from Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim majority tussle for a share of control over its vast oil resources.

Waeli, who is from the small but influential Fadhila party, fell out openly with the police chief in May, prompting Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to impose a state of emergency.
Reuters

Powell Tried to Warn Bush on Iraq, Book Says

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 — Colin L. Powell, in his last face-to-face meeting with President Bush before stepping down as secretary of state in January 2005, tried to impress upon him one last time the dangers he saw the United States facing in Iraq, according to a new Powell biography.

The insurgency was growing and the country was spiraling into sectarian bloodshed, Mr. Powell warned. Elections in Iraq would not solve the problems, and the president’s ability to act decisively was being crippled by divisions within his own administration, according to the account in “Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell” (Knopf, 2006) by Karen DeYoung, an associate editor at The Washington Post. Mr. Bush appeared disengaged, the book says, and brushed off Mr. Powell’s complaints about dysfunction in his government.

The book is among the latest accounts of the divisions in the administration as it hurtled toward war and stumbled through its aftermath. The Powell biography provides further detail on his early misgivings about the war and the size of the force assembled to fight it, doubts that have been reported in several other books, including those by Ms. DeYoung’s colleague at The Post, Bob Woodward.

Despite his doubts, however, Mr. Powell never threatened to resign or go public with his complaints, according to these accounts, because such acts would betray the ethic of the loyal soldier he felt he was.

A 7,600-word excerpt from the Powell biography appears in Sunday’s Washington Post Magazine. The book’s publication date is Oct. 10.

Mr. Powell, who gave Ms. DeYoung several interviews for her book and encouraged others to cooperate, said in a telephone interview on Saturday that he had not read the book or the excerpts. He did not take issue with portions read to him, except to question the context of one anecdote involving an exchange with Vice President Dick Cheney.

“The real issue right now is not the various books that are out but how things are going in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Mr. Powell said. He would not share his views on the current state of affairs there, however.

A White House spokesman said officials there had not read the book and would not comment.

Since leaving office last year, Mr. Powell has kept his views to himself, with a few notable exceptions. He was openly critical of the administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina last year and weighed in vigorously in the debate over treatment of detainees in the war on terror.

He has quietly cooperated with Ms. DeYoung, Mr. Woodward and other authors, while keeping his counsel in public on Iraq, the broader war on terrorism and the diplomatic struggles of his successor at the State Department, Condoleezza Rice. He does not want to undermine the president, but he also wants to make sure that his point of view is accurately reflected in histories, associates said.

“It’s a matter of behaving with dignity when you’re out of office,” said Richard L. Armitage, Mr. Powell’s former deputy and his closest confidant. “You don’t want to be seen as criticizing those who took your place. On differences of principle, like the Geneva Conventions, he will speak out. On differences of approach, he probably will not.”

In answer to those who ask why he has not been more outspoken, Mr. Powell generally replies, “There’s a war on.”

The common thread of many of the recent accounts is of warnings ignored about flaws in the prewar intelligence, in the war-fighting doctrine and in plans for occupying the shattered country. Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, dismissed some of these accounts as the grumblings of people on the losing side of internal arguments.

The Powell biography fleshes out a tale already widely known in Washington of infighting among Mr. Powell, Mr. Cheney and Donald H. Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense. Mr. Powell, who served as secretary of state through Mr. Bush’s first term, came out on the losing end of the majority of their arguments.

The book provides an inside account of the preparation for Mr. Powell’s pivotal presentation before the United Nations six weeks before the start of the Iraq war in March 2003. Mr. Powell told Ms. DeYoung that he spent much of the five days he had to prepare for the presentation “trimming the garbage” that Mr. Cheney’s staff had provided by way of evidence of Iraq’s weapons programs and ties to Al Qaeda.

Mr. Powell later conceded that the United Nations speech was full of falsehoods and distorted intelligence and was a “blot” on his record.

Running throughout this book and other recent accounts are the defeats and humiliations Mr. Powell suffered in service to Mr. Bush. Though Mr. Powell remained an admired figure in America, it was not enough to protect him against attacks.

“There are people who would like to take me down,” he is quoted as saying while motioning toward the White House during his last year in office. “It’s been the case since I was appointed. By take down, I mean, ‘keep him in his place.’ ”
NYT

Is there anyone left who has ever worked with Bush, outside the Republican congressional leadership, who has had a different opinion of him and his administration. Well them and voters.

The headline tells the story

House Leadership Rips Foley on E-Mails...

What a headline from Drudge...looks like there're on the run to me.

Internet gambling ban added to U.S. port security bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congress was pushing on Friday to finish legislation that would boost security at U.S. ports, but at the last minute lawmakers added provisions to prohibit Internet gambling.

Rushing to finish their work by the weekend to go home and campaign for elections in which control of Congress is at stake, lawmakers were linking up unrelated measures in an effort to get them approved.

The House passed an Internet gambling ban earlier this summer, but the bill had difficulty moving in the Senate. However it was a priority of Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, and attaching it to the popular port security bill appeared aimed at insuring its passage.

Votes were expected by midnight Friday in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Port security advanced as an issue in Congress this year after an outcry over the Bush administration's decision to allow an Arab company, Dubai Ports World, to buy major U.S. port assets.

House and Senate negotiators agreed late on Thursday on the outlines of the port security legislation. It would authorize $3.4 billion over five years for actions such as installing radiation detectors at the largest U.S. ports.

There were attempts on Friday to add other unrelated amendments, but apart from the Internet gambling provisions, the others were rejected, a top House leadership aide said.

Those rejected included an attempt to shield telephone companies from liability for privacy violations if they supply the U.S. government with access to customer records. This idea came from Alaskan Sen. Ted Stevens, Republican sources said.

"Our bill is slimming down and I'm very pleased with the port security portions," said Rep. Dan Lungren, a California Republican and one of the key negotiators on the legislation.

Another proposed add-on that was rejected would have tightened security at courthouses and stiffened penalties for attacks on judges.

Language that would have added billions more for rail and mass transit security had been stripped out of the port security bill earlier, lawmakers and their aides said. So was language to lift a cap on federal airport security screeners.

The heart of the port security bill deals with cargo container security. Only a fraction of the millions of containers that enter U.S. ports each year are inspected. That has prompted warnings that sea cargo remains a serious security risk, five years after the September 11 attacks.

The issue languished in Congress until earlier this year when lawmakers said they had security concerns Dubai Ports World's acquisitions at six major U.S. ports. To quell the uproar, the company said it would sell the port assets.

The ports bill requires the government to finish installing radiation-screening equipment at 22 major U.S. ports, which handle 98 percent of all containers, by the end of 2007.

It also sets up a pilot program at three foreign ports to test the feasibility of scanning cargo headed for the United States while it is still overseas.

But another bill that was inspired by the Dubai furor -- proposed tightening of the rules governing approval of foreign takeovers -- has stalled in Congress. The two chambers passed competing versions and have not reached a compromise.
MyWay

You see where republican priorities are, Vices, oh those terrible vices. Who do you think they are trying to appease with that last minute addition.

The Green Zone Plot and the Baghdad Curfew

"Baghdad goes under curfew after a multiple suicide attack plot directed against the Green Zone was uncovered

As the news of a weekend long curfew in Baghdad was announced, Omar from Iraq the Model reported that there are "fierce clashes" in the north and eastern sections of the city. The fighting occurred after “the home of a senior lawmaker from a 'large political bloc' was raided by a joint Iraqi-American force. The identity of the lawmaker was kept secret 'due to the sensitivity of the case.'""
The Fourth Rail

That's a nice one. But don't you find it just a little to hard to believe that this guy was so close to the MP, and not acting with the MP. If true, those Iraqi MP need to rethink their security arrangements.

CEASEFIRE AND MORAL IMPERATIVE

"In light of the fact that it appears we have yet another attempt at the creation of a peaceful solution to the situation of the Kurdish people under Turkish occupation, through KKK's ceasefire (due to go into effect 1 October), there were two articles of interest on the Kurdish Globe this week.

In the first, we read that US intentions toward the Kurdish people are moving in rhythm of the same song and dance that we all know so well. The "bad" Kurds remain "bad" Kurds, and the US has no interest in making a place at the table for those issues that "bad" Kurds face daily. Those issues include the recent increase in repression, especially as outlined in the new anti-terror law, the removal of America's allies, the Pashas, from the control of civil government, or an end to the Ankara regime's policy of equality through forced assimilation. Let's make it absolutely clear that this severe repression has been, and continues to be, actively assisted by the policies of the US government."
Rasti

Lets hope not, lets hope that instead of repeating history which is replete with errors that "we". all of us, can learn from our past failures and move into a brighter future.

Affairs in The Green Zone...

"I was inspired to write about the following subject by a post on Spouse Buzz. Its a very interesting subject. Somehow taboo, yet extremely important. Affairs in the War Zone. The post on Spouse Buzz, talks about a woman whose husband was deployed and when he came back, he found a wife thats pregnant (not by him) and his bank accounts cleaned out. What a shame...A man risking his life by serving his country, leaving behind a wife who he trusted and loved, to come back and find out that she has not only cheated on him, but taken his his life savings. Wow, must be painful, very painful..."
NIW

How timely a story. But not new to me. it's old news to me.

But just goes to show you what happens when you put such corrupt people in charge. you get corruption.

Baghdad under curfew.

"The situation in Baghdad calmed down soon after we made the previous post.
Saturday has been so quiet so far, never a single explosion happened as far as I know and there was hardly any sound of gunfire in or around our district in Baghdad.

What can be noticed about this particular curfew is that it's being strictly enforced by Iraqi and US forces in Baghdad.
During most previous days of curfew, vehicles and pedestrians were occasionally seen on the streets but this is not the case today. At least that's what I heard from people who tried to move around for shopping or other business. All, whether driving or on foot, were ordered to go home."
ITM

Turning up a cold one:)

"You wouldn’t believe what happened to me last night….

I went to a bar and had a beer and today, I’m blogging from my own laptop! Why would this be?

No I’m not at home yet but that date isn’t too far off. I’m on R&R for the next couple of days! 3 beer limit per night, there’s a nice pool here, Chili’s and a lot of military people wearing civilian clothes acting like they didn’t just come from a war zone. Actually I think this place would be a better stopping off point then Kuwait. Get us used to civilian life a bit (I’m not going to have a problem except for missing the sawing log sounds of my roommates)."
Doc in the Box

"It's more sad than anything else"

""It's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction."

Representative Mark Foley, on Bill Clinton, 1998"
CounterColumn

I knew it would not be to long before someone brought up Clinton.
At least through this we see how sincere they were back then. Righteous indignation!

And I have to ask, just how many boys do you think this guy has had access to in the time between now and then. How many young boys might have felt that their whole future was on the line if they refused his advances, or said anything to anyone.

Battle in Tikrit

"Islammemo reported that a fierce battle is going on right now between the Iraqi resistance and the US occupation forces around the US CIA headquarter.

The battle preceded by the fall of mortar shells and Katyusha rockets at the headquarters, and Iraqi resistance are trying to storm the building."
Baghdad Dweller

Saddamania

"BC-

The ‘red-headed’ Michael E. O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution has once again trumped up the ideational of ‘Voluntary’ Ethnic Relocation in Iraq, and has drawn associated-comparison parallel lines by the means of unassociated-comparatively, top to bottom demographic examples that are far from the reality of our country – why not if Mr. O'Hanlon himself is sitting just as far!"
Baghdad Connect

Stories From a Man Named Osama… - 09.30.2006

"[Editor’s note: I’ve been chatting with a young guy named Osama who lives in Adhamiya, and I’m working on convincing him to write regular entries about his life in Baghdad, and perhaps someday to do video like some of our other folks there. This is first entry, of what I hope will be many more.]
It’s my first time writing here, I know I’m writing my own diaries, but I have this feeling that it should be made as a movie!

I don’t know really where should I start, I told brian before about many things that happened to me and my family and I don’t know if he wrote that.

This summer we were supposed to go all of us to Lebanon, but because of the war there we were separated for like a month, me and my brother stayed in Syria and then the rest joined us there too because of the war. Anyway, I went there to Lebanon after the war, I liked it so much, I didn’t care about the destruction about the few numbers of people there, because whatever and however the situation is there, it’s better than Iraq! "
Alive in Baghdad

Another cookie cutter story. I swear I think they just carbon copy them and fill in the blanks for the name.

The Supremacists: The Tyranny Of Judges And How To Stop It (Hardcover)

Great book. This is the only book that correctly identifies judicial supremacy as the core of the problem with the courts, and gives practical suggestions on what to do about it. For example, we don't need a constitutional amendment to stop same-sex marriage, because Congress can just withdraw court jurisdiction to DOMA (Defense Of Marriage Act). This book clearly proves that the courts do not need to be making law in the way that they do. It all started in the Warren Court about 50 years, and the bad, activist, anti-democratic decisions have been the result of erroneous thinking about the constitutional role of the courts.
Amazon

Before you start telling me I'm off my meds, these are the Christians that threaten to spoil our country. Give these people what they want, and you'll have to give the Muslim parents their sharia law too. Either that or we let these people burn the heretics on a cross. But those will be your only options.

A New Addition to the 1016th Family

"On September 4, 2006, SGT Joseph Evans watched as his first child, Kendall Laura Evans, received her first bath. SGT Evans is part of the 1016th QM Co. Interim Transition Team in Iraq.

It started out as an ordinary day for SGT Evans, as he trained Iraqi soldiers at An Numaniyah Training Base. When he returned to his barracks, he received a Red Cross message that his wife had given birth to their daughter. He jumped on his computer immediately so he could see his family. A webcam was set up for SGT Evans at the hospital, and although he missed Kendall’s birth, he was overjoyed to see his daughter and wife, and to know they were healthy and well."
1016th

Just how dumb are AP journalists?

"Pretty damn dumb, it seems.

NEW YORK -- Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi photographer who helped the Associated Press win a Pulitzer Prize last year, is now in his sixth month in a U.S. Army prison in Iraq. He doesn't understand why he's there, and neither do his AP colleagues.

Well, I dunnooooooooooo. But I would guess it just miiiiiiiiiight have something to do with getting caught hanging out and shooting the breeze with a local Al Qaeda branch manager."
CounterColumn

Curfew in Baghdad Until Sunday

"The Iraqi government declared a curfew in Baghdad Friday affecting both vehicles and pedestrians. The curfew is to run until Sunday morning. The last time the government imposed such a curfew was during the violence that followed the bombing of the Askari shrine in Samarra last February.

Omar reports clashes through the night in several areas of Baghdad...

...UPDATE: The Iraqi governmental Al-Iraqiya channel is strangely off the air. It's almost 10 a.m. in Baghdad now."
Healing Iraq

Something's up. Get ready for bad news, these sort of things are never good.

Hundreds of young galaxies found in early universe

Astronomers analyzing two of the deepest views of the cosmos made with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered a gold mine of galaxies, more than 500 that existed less than a billion years after the Big Bang. These galaxies thrived when the cosmos was less than 7 percent of its present age of 13.7 billion years. This sample represents the most comprehensive compilation of galaxies in the early universe, researchers said.

The discovery is scientifically invaluable for understanding the origin of galaxies, considering that just a decade ago early galaxy formation was largely uncharted territory. Astronomers had not seen even one galaxy that existed when the universe was a billion years old, so finding 500 in a Hubble survey is a significant leap forward for cosmologists.

The galaxies unveiled by Hubble are smaller than today's giant galaxies and very bluish in color, indicating they are ablaze with star birth. The images appear red because of the galaxies' tremendous distance from Earth. The blue light from their young stars took nearly 13 billion years to arrive at Earth. During the journey, the blue light was shifted to red light due to the expansion of space.

"Finding so many of these dwarf galaxies, but so few bright ones, is evidence for galaxies building up from small pieces -- merging together as predicted by the hierarchical theory of galaxy formation," said astronomer Rychard Bouwens of the University of California, Santa Cruz, who led the Hubble study.

Bouwens and his team spied these galaxies in an analysis of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), completed in 2004, and the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS), made in 2003. The results were presented on August 17 at the 2006 General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union, and will be published in the November 20 issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

The findings also show that these dwarf galaxies were producing stars at a furious rate, about ten times faster than is happening now in nearby galaxies. Astronomers have long debated whether the hottest stars in early star-forming galaxies, such as those in this study, may have provided enough radiation to reheat the cold hydrogen gas that existed between galaxies in the early universe. The gas had been cooling since the Big Bang.

"Seeing all of these starburst galaxies provides evidence that there were enough galaxies 1 billion years after the Big Bang to finish reheating the universe," explained team member Garth Illingworth of the University of California, Santa Cruz. "It highlights a period of fundamental change in the universe, and we are seeing the galaxy population that brought about that change."

In terms of human lifetimes, cosmic events happen very slowly. The evolution of galaxies and stars, for example, occurs over billions of years. Astronomers, therefore, rarely witness dramatic, relatively brief transitions that changed the universe. One such event was the universe's "reheating." The reheating, driven by the galaxies' ultraviolet starlight, transformed the gas between galaxies from a cold, dark hydrogen soup to a hot, transparent plasma over only a few hundred million years. With Hubble's help, astronomers are now beginning to see the kinds of galaxies that brought about the reheating.

Just a few years ago, astronomers did not have the technology to hunt for faraway galaxies in large numbers. The installation of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope in 2002 allowed astronomers to probe some of the deepest recesses of our universe. Astronomers used the ACS to observe distant galaxies in the HUDF and GOODS surveys.

Another major step in the exploration of the universe's earliest years will occur if Hubble undergoes its next upgrade with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 3 (WFC3). The WFC3's infrared sensitivity will allow it to detect galaxies that are so far away their starlight has been stretched to infrared wavelengths by the expanding universe.

The galaxies uncovered so far promise that many more galaxies at even greater distances are awaiting discovery by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scheduled to launch in 2013. "With JWST, we will probe the dawn of galaxy formation to see the imprint of the first objects to form in the universe," Illingworth said.

The members of the science team are Rychard Bouwens and Garth Illingworth (University of California, Santa Cruz), John Blakeslee (Washington State University), and Marijn Franx (Leiden University).

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. The Institute is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., Washington.
Spaceflight Now

Oh great, there they go again talking about evolution of the universe, we all know it was created in 7 day, what's wrong with these people. How do they expect to get the funding for future Hubble repairs if they do not find what "we're" already know to be the truth, sans that new telescope. I mean it's just going to find more evidence that we already know we don't want to hear, or have included in those pesky text books.

Woodward: Card Wanted to Fire Rumsfeld

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former White House chief of staff Andrew Card twice sought to persuade President Bush to fire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the second time with the support of first lady Laura Bush, Bob Woodward writes in a new book on the Bush administration's Iraq war policy.

Card on Friday did not dispute that he had talked about a Rumsfeld resignation with the president but said it was his job to discuss a wide range of possible replacements, including his own. He denied talking to Mrs. Bush about the subject.

The Washington Post assistant managing editor's third book on the Bush administration, "State of Denial," comes out next week. Some details have already appeared, however, including on the newspaper's Web site.

White House spokesman Tony Snow shrugged off the book as "cotton candy. It kind of melts on contact."

"We've read this book before. This tends to repeat what we've seen in a number of other books that have been out this year where people are ventilating old disputes over troop levels," Snow said Friday.

Woodward writes that Card sought and failed in November 2004, right after Bush won a second term, and again a year later, to persuade the president to fire Rumsfeld.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Card rejected any suggestion that he led a campaign to dump Rumsfeld but said he did discuss with the president Rumsfeld's role in Bush's second term.

After re-election, he and the president "talked about every Cabinet post and senior White House position," Card said.

He said he kept a notebook listing all top jobs and possible replacements. "It's the chief of staff's job to give the lay of the land, have the president consider a lot of different options," Card said.

As to whether the first lady had any particular views about Rumsfeld, "Mrs. Bush and I never discussed it," Card said.

As for the war, Woodward writes that White House and Pentagon officials voiced concern about the conduct of the fighting in reports and internal memos and that a secret intelligence report circulated last May predicted violence would continue for the rest of 2006 and increase in 2007. At the same time, Bush, Rumsfeld and other senior officials insisted publicly the situation was going well, Woodward writes, according to the Post.

Snow insisted that the president "was not, in fact, painting a rose-colored picture. He has been saying that it's a tough war, it's a long war, it's a war that's going to outlive his presidency."

The White House spokesman did confirm one detail in Woodward's forthcoming book - that Henry Kissinger has been advising Bush about Iraq.

"The president has a lot of people in, and he listens to them. And Dr. Kissinger was one of them," Snow said. He said Bush listens to Kissinger's advice even when the two men disagree.

In an interview scheduled to air Sunday night on CBS-TV's "60 Minutes," Woodward says Kissinger, who served in the Nixon and Ford administrations, has been telling Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney that in Iraq, "victory is the only meaningful exit strategy."

As for accounts in the book of administration infighting, Snow said, "Quite often in a book like this you're going to see people who are on the losing side of arguments be especially outspoken about their opinions that nobody listened to."

"As a matter of fact, the average Washington memoir ought to be subtitled 'If only they listened to me,'" said the White House spokesman.
MyWay

Well there went the Laura image. Now we know.

CHINA TESTS FUSION REACTOR

Chinese scientists say they have completed the first test of an experimental thermonuclear fusion reactor, which replicates the way the sun produces energy.

State news agency Xinhua reported the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) fusion device successfully passed an initial test at the Institute of Plasma Physics in Hefei, capital city of China's eastern Anhui Province.

Thermonuclear fusion seeks to generate power by joining nuclei of atoms together, releasing energy that can be tapped without producing greenhouse gases but creating a small amount of nuclear waste.

Chinese scientists say the device is the first of its kind in the world, and that the reactor could produce an endless supply of cheap and clean energy, according to Xinhua.

The report did not specify whether the test had succeeded in producing more energy than it consumed — the main obstacle to making fusion commercially viable.

China's economic boom has prompted a scramble for more energy resources - the nation is the world's number two oil consumer.

The leader of the fusion experiment said there was at least a decade of work remaining on the project.

"In recent days, the electric current we got from plasma surpassed twenty 200 kilo-Ampere. And it lasted for over three seconds. We don't care what exactly the data is.

“What we care about is that we can prove that we can get plasma from EAST. And we will now begin the following research which will last for 10 to 20 years," said Wan Yuanxi.

Other governments are also pursuing fusion research, which scientists say could potentially produce almost unlimited clean energy from readily available resources such as seawater.

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) under the direction of a seven-nation consortium in Cadarache, southern France, is due to be completed in 2015.

The 500 megawatt experimental reactor will seek to turn seawater into fuel using fusion technology.
SBS

This just screams, "Take your oil and shove it".

I hope the Chinese succeed in developing this American technology, I know that in this country, and under the current administration it's never going to happen. Maybe we will be able to license the technology back from China once it works.

Friday Finish

"Today's been both interesting and productive. When I opened my email this morning I found an inquiry from the cartoonist Gary Trudeau's Doonesbury website. On or about October 8th they plan on launching something called "The Sandbox". Here's the description given to me by their representative:"
Fire and Ice

Foley Resigns From Congress Over E-Mails

WASHINGTON (AP) - Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., abruptly resigned from Congress on Friday in the wake of questions about e-mails he wrote a former teenage male page.

"I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent," he said in a statement issued by his office.

His departure sent Republicans scrambling for a replacement candidate less than six weeks before midterm elections in which Democrats are making a strong bid to gain control of the House.

Foley's two-sentence statement gave no reason for Foley's decision to abandon a flourishing career in Congress. But several officials said the resignation had been prompted by the e-mails, and he took his action as fresh details emerged about electronic messages he had sent.

Foley, 52, had been a shoo-in for a new term until the e-mail correspondence surfaced in recent days.

His resignation further complicates the political landscape for Republicans, who are fighting to retain control of Congress. Democrats need to win a net of 15 Republican seats to regain the power they lost in 1994.

Florida Republicans planned to meet as soon as Monday to name a replacement in Foley's district, which President Bush won with 55 percent in 2004 and is now in play for November. Though Florida ballots have already been printed with Foley's name and cannot be changed, any votes for Foley will count toward the party's choice.

Campaign aides had previously acknowledged that the Republican congressman e-mailed the former Capitol page five times, but had said there was nothing inappropriate about the exchange. The page was 16 at the time of the e-mail correspondence.

The page worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., who said Friday that when he learned of the e-mail exchanges 10 to 11 months ago, he called the teen's parents. Alexander told the Ruston Daily Leader, "We also notified the House leadership that there might be a potential problem," a reference to the House's Republican leaders.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Friday he had asked the chairman of the House's page board, Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., to investigate the page system. "We want to make sure that all our pages are safe and the page system is safe," Hastert said.

He said Foley submitted the letter of resignation to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and submitted a copy to him. A House clerk read Foley's resignation on the House floor.

"He's done the right thing," Hastert said. Asked if the chain of events was disturbing, he said, "None of us are very happy about it."

ABC News reported Friday that Foley also engaged in a series of sexually explicit instant messages with current and former teenage male pages. In one message, ABC said, Foley wrote to one page: "Do I make you a little horny?"

In another message, Foley wrote, "You in your boxers, too? ... Well, strip down and get naked."

Foley, as chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, had introduced legislation in July to protect children from exploitation by adults over the Internet. He also sponsored other legislation designed to protect minors from abuse and neglect.

"We track library books better than we do sexual predators," Foley has said.

Foley was a member of the Republican leadership, serving as a deputy whip. He also was a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Foley, who represents an area around Palm Beach County, e-mailed the page in August 2005. Foley asked him how he was doing after Hurricane Katrina and what he wanted for his birthday. The congressman also asked the boy to send a photo of himself, according to excerpts of the e-mails that were originally released by ABC News.

Foley's aides initially blamed Democratic rival Tim Mahoney and Democrats with attempting to smear the congressman before the election.

The e-mails were posted Friday on Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's Web site after ABC News reported their existence. The group asked the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to investigate the exchange Foley had with the boy.

Naomi Seligman, a spokewoman for CREW, said the group also sent a letter to the FBI after the group received the e-mails. CREW did not post their copies of the e-mail until ABC News reported them, instead waiting for the investigation.

"The House of Representatives has an obligation to protect the teenagers who come to Congress to learn about the legislative process," the group wrote, adding that the committee, "must investigate any allegation that a page has been subjected to sexual advances by members of the House."

In 2003, Foley faced questions about his sexual orientation as he prepared to run for Sen. Bob Graham's seat. At a news conference in May of that year, he said he would not comment on rumors he was gay. He later decided not to seek the Senate seat to care for his parents.

According to the CREW posting, the boy e-mailed a colleague in Alexander's office about Foley's e-mails, saying, "This freaked me out." On the request for a photo, the boy repeated the word "sick" 13 times.

He said Foley asked for his e-mail when the boy gave him a thank you card. The boy also said Foley wrote that he e-mailed another page.

"he's such a nice guy," Foley wrote about the other boy. "acts much older than his age...and hes in really great shape...i am just finished riding my bike on a 25 mile journey now heading to the gym...whats school like for you this year?"

In other e-mails, Foley wrote, "I am back in Florida now...its nice here...been raining today...it sounds like you will have some fun over the next few weeks...how old are you now?" and "how are you weathering the hurricane...are you safe...send me an email pic of you as well."

What the boy wrote to Foley, who is single, wasn't available. The e-mails were sent from Foley's personal account, which Foley spokesman Jason Kello says he uses to communicate with many people, including the governor.

Efforts to reach the boy were unsuccessful, but he told the St. Petersburg Times last November, "I thought it was very inappropriate. After the one about the picture, I decided to stop e-mailing him back." The Times didn't publish the comments until Friday.

Alexander said the boy notified a staffer in his office about the e-mails. The congressman said he learned of it from a reporter 10 or 11 months ago and promptly called the boy's parents.

"My concern then was the young man's interests and the parents' interests," Alexander said Friday. "We weren't trying to protect anybody except the parents. ... They told me they were comfortable with it and didn't want to pursue anything, didn't want to talk about it anymore."

Florida Republican Party lawyers were reviewing the process to pick a replacement. Party Chairwoman Carole Jean Jordan said she hopes a replacement will be chosen by Monday. Among the possibilities was state Rep. Joe Negron, who was a candidate for attorney general before dropping out of the race to avoid a primary with former Rep. Bill McCollum.

"It would be very time sensitive so the nominee would have the opportunity to get around the district and campaign in a very short amount of time," Jordan said.

David Johnson, a former state Republican chairman who worked as a strategist for Foley, said it will be difficult for the party's pick to win with Foley's name on the ballot.

Mahoney, a Republican who became a Democrat last year, is chairman and chief operating officer of a $1 billion-a-year financial services company. In his House bid, he has focused on Washington corruption and oversized deficits.

In a statement, Mahoney said, "The challenges facing congressman Foley make this is a difficult time for the people of the 16th district. The families of all of those involved are in our thoughts and prayers."

In 1983, the House censured two lawmakers - Daniel Crane of Illinois and Gerry Studds of Massachusetts - for having improper relationships with pages.

The page program is for high school students who study at a congressional school while also carrying out tasks for lawmakers.
MyWay

OMG this story just gets worse and worse. The Republican leadership knew all about this, and did nothing potentially putting other children at risk.

The only reason we are hearing about this now is because ABC went public, imagine that, while the House leadership sat on this story weary of what it might do for the elections. They sat on a case of child endangerment. They should have started and investigation, they should have thrown the pervert out of their caucus, they should have had him up on charges.

If you can imagine, if instead of Foley, a white guy, this case would revolved around some 20 year old black guy, they would be throwing the book at him, he'd be in jail so fast his ass would spin. But no, a white Republican congressman, and they cover it up for as long as the can.

I think the House leadership should be brought up on charges for endangering the safety of the pages under their care.

Exclusive: The Sexually Explicit Internet Messages That Led to Fla. Rep. Foley's Resignation

Florida Rep. Mark Foley's resignation came just hours after ABC News questioned the congressman about a series of sexually explicit instant messages involving congressional pages, high school students who are under 18 years of age.

In Congress, Rep. Foley (R-FL) was part of the Republican leadership and the chairman of the House caucus on missing and exploited children.

He crusaded for tough laws against those who used the Internet for sexual exploitation of children.

They're sick people; they need mental health counseling," Foley said.

But, according to several former congressional pages, the congressman used the Internet to engage in sexually explicit exchanges.

They say he used the screen name Maf54 on these messages provided to ABC News.

Maf54: You in your boxers, too?
Teen: Nope, just got home. I had a college interview that went late.
Maf54: Well, strip down and get relaxed.

Another message:

Maf54: What ya wearing?
Teen: tshirt and shorts
Maf54: Love to slip them off of you.

And this one:

Maf54: Do I make you a little horny?
Teen: A little.
Maf54: Cool.

The language gets much more graphic, too graphic to be broadcast, and at one point the congressman appears to be describing Internet sex.

Federal authorities say such messages could result in Foley's prosecution, under some of the same laws he helped to enact.

"Adds up to soliciting underage children for sex," said Brad Garrett, a former FBI agent and now an ABC News consultant. "And what it amounts to is serious both state and federal violations that could potentially get you a number of years."

Foley's resignation letter was submitted late this afternoon, and he left Capitol Hill without speaking to reporters.

In a statement, he said he was "deeply sorry" and apologized for letting down his family and the people of Florida.

But he made no mention of the Internet messages or the pages.

One former page tells ABC News that his class was warned about Foley by people involved in the program.

Other pages told ABC News they were hesitant to report Foley because of his power in Congress.

This all came to a head in the last 24 hours. Yesterday, we asked the congressman about some much tamer e-mails from one page, and he said he was just being overly friendly. After we posted that story online, we began to hear from a number of other pages who sent these much more explicit, instant messages. When the congressman realized we had them, he resigned.

Click here to read an exclusive 2003 Internet exchange between Congressman Foley and a former congressional page, according to the young man. Warning: sexually explicit language, reader discretion advised.

Click here to read more Internet exchanges between Foley and former congressional

ABC

OK here's all the good stuff.


Picture from Drudge

Anbar Tribes vs. al-Qaeda

"Five al-Qaeda, including three Yemenis, are captured by a tribal force in Ramadi

Less than two weeks after 25 of the 31 predominately Sunni tribes in Anbar Province pledged to fight al-Qaeda and support the Shiite led government of Prime Minister Maliki, the tribes have taken a shot against al-Qaeda fighters. Reuters reports five al-Qaeda were captured in the city of Ramadi, “including three foreign fighters from Yemen.”"
The Fourth Rail

I wonder if this has anything to do with the troubles in Baghdad?

Fierce clashes in Baghdad; government imposes curfew.

"About an hour ago local TV stations reported that the office of PM Maliki announced that a total curfew will be imposed in Baghdad from now until Sunday morning.

The curfew apparently came in response to an acute deterioration in the capital that was noticed from the early hours of Friday morning especially in districts in the east and north east of Baghdad.

During the day several gun battles took place in several districts of Baghdad and sporadic explosions and gunfire can be heard until this moment.

I've heard from friends I talked to over the phone that unknown armed men have taken to the streets in more than a few districts on both sides of the Tigris river.

Whether the armed men belong to Sunni insurgent groups or Shia militias could not be confirmed. In fact it's quiet possible that it could be both.

Earlier on Friday, al-Sharqiya and al-Hurra TV networks reported that the home of a senior lawmaker from a "large political bloc" was raided by a joint Iraqi-American force. The identity of the lawmaker was kept secret "due to the sensitivity of the case" the report said.
The news also indicated the politician was arrested after a bomb factory and at least one VBIED were discovered during the raid. So some people are speculating that the current escalation is a reaction to the arrest."
ITM

Only in Iraq.

Foley Resigns From Congress Over E-Mails

Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., resigned from Congress on Friday, effective immediately, in the wake of questions about e-mails he wrote a former teenage male page.

"I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent," he said in a statement issued by his office.

The two-sentence statement did not refer to the e-mails and gave no reason for Foley's abrupt decision to abandon a flourishing career in Congress.

Foley, 52, had been a shoo-in for a new term until the e-mail correspondence surfaced in recent days.

His resignation comes less than six weeks before the elections and further complicates the political landscape for Republicans, who are fighting to retain control of Congress. Democrats need to win a net of 15 Republican seats to regain the power they lost in 1994.

Florida Republicans planned to meet as soon as Monday to name a replacement in Foley's district, which President Bush won with 55 percent in 2004 and is now in play for November.

Campaign aides had previously acknowledged that the Republican congressman e-mailed the former Capitol page five times, but had said there was nothing inappropriate about the exchange. The page was 16 at the time of the e-mail correspondence.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert said he had asked the chairman of the House's page board, Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., to investigate the page system. "We want to make sure that all our pages are safe and the page system is safe," Hastert said.

He said Foley submitted the letter of resignation to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and submitted a copy to him. A House clerk read Foley's resignation on the House floor.

"He's done the right thing," Hastert said. Asked if the chain of events was disturbing, he said, "None of us are very happy about it."

Foley, who represents an area around Palm Beach County, e-mailed the page in August 2005. The page had worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., and Foley asked him how he was doing after Hurricane Katrina and what he wanted for his birthday. The congressman also asked the boy to send a photo of himself, according to excerpts of the e-mails that were originally released by ABC News.

Foley's aides initially blamed Democratic rival Tim Mahoney and Democrats with attempting to smear the congressman before the election.

The e-mails were posted Friday on Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's Web site after ABC News reported their existence. The group asked the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to investigate the exchange Foley had with the boy, who served as a page for Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La.

"The House of Representatives has an obligation to protect the teenagers who come to Congress to learn about the legislative process," the group wrote, adding that the committee, "must investigate any allegation that a page has been subjected to sexual advances by members of the House."

In 2003, Foley faced questions about his sexual orientation as he prepared to run for Sen. Bob Graham's seat. At a news conference in May of that year, he said he would not comment on rumors he was gay. He later decided not to seek the Senate seat to care for his parents.

According to the CREW posting, the boy e-mailed a colleague in Alexander's office about Foley's e-mails, saying, "This freaked me out." On the request for a photo, the boy repeated the word "sick" 13 times.

He said Foley asked for his e-mail when the boy gave him a thank you card. The boy also said Foley wrote that he e-mailed another page.

"he's such a nice guy," Foley wrote about the other boy. "acts much older than his age...and hes in really great shape...i am just finished riding my bike on a 25 mile journey now heading to the gym...whats school like for you this year?"

In other e-mails, Foley wrote, "I am back in Florida now...its nice here...been raining today...it sounds like you will have some fun over the next few weeks...how old are you now?" and "how are you weathering the hurricane...are you safe...send me an email pic of you as well."

What the boy wrote to Foley, who is single, wasn't available. The e-mails were sent from Foley's personal account, which Foley spokesman Jason Kello says he uses to communicate with many people, including Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Efforts to reach the boy were unsuccessful, but he told the St. Petersburg Times last November, "I thought it was very inappropriate. After the one about the picture, I decided to stop e-mailing him back." The Times didn't publish the comments until Friday.

Foley was a member of the Republican leadership, serving as a deputy whip. He also was a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus.

Florida Republican Party Chairwoman Carole Jean Jordan said executives from each of the counties in Foley's district will meet to choose a replacement on the ballot. Among the possibilities was state Rep. Joe Negron, who was a candidate for attorney general before dropping out of the race to avoid a primary with former Rep. Bill McCollum.

"It would be very time sensitive so the nominee would have the opportunity to get around the district and campaign in a very short amount of time," Jordan said.

On Foley, Jordan said, "Congressman Foley served as my congressman. He's given a great deal of time and effort and extreme good hard work to the state of Florida. I just so appreciate all the things he's done over the years."

The campaign for Mahoney, who trails Foley in the polls, said it didn't release the e-mails and wouldn't make them part of the campaign. In a statement released by Mahoney spokesman Jessica Santillo, the campaign referred to the boy as an "alleged victim."

"The seriousness of these allegations goes far beyond the tit for tat of a political campaign," Santillo said. "This is a matter for the appropriate authorities to investigate. I believe Mr. Foley deserves the benefit of the doubt until these allegations are proven true or false."

Kello disputed the claim that the e-mails weren't distributed by the Mahoney campaign.

"They've been shopping this around to reporters for weeks now. They want a headline and that's it. It's a political smear campaign of the worst kind," Kello said.

In 1983, the House censured two lawmakers _ Daniel Crane of Illinois and Gerry Studds of Massachusetts _ for having improper relationships with pages.

The page program is for high school students who study at a congressional school while also carrying out tasks for lawmakers.
The Norman Transcript

All of the stories I find on the internet have basically the same story, but just now on TV they had very different e-mails with explicitly sexual content, like "do I make you horny", and talk about organs and I think blowjobs. But I can not find any of that yet on the net. I guess we will have to wait till later when all the e-mails and text messaging are released...

And this guy was supposed to be protecting children, but like most republicans, it's all talk and spin, while they fuck you. And in this case, he literally wanted to fuck the kid.

Love Note or Not?

Republican Congressman Mark Foley (pictured) may or may not have a crush on a 16-year old former congressional page. ABC News has obtained a string of emails in which Foley asks the former summer staffer what he wants for his birthday, what he likes to do, and requesting a picture.

Foley's office insists there was no ill intent and that the photo request (sent from Foley's personal email, no less) was meant to jog Foley's memory before writing a recommendation. ABC News reports:

Foley's office says it is their policy to keep pictures of former interns and anyone who may ask for a recommendation on file so they can remember them.

The page, however, didn't work in Foley's office, which insists this is just an ugly smear campaign.

Sure, it could be a smear campaign, but seems a bit queer to us. Though Foley may want to put this young boy thing behind him, his Democratic challenger is pushing for a probe. A deep, deep probe.
Queerty

Lawmakers blast U.S. contractor's Iraq jobs

WASHINGTON -- The contractor that botched construction of a $75 million police academy in Baghdad so badly that human waste dripped from the ceilings has produced shoddy work on 13 out of 14 projects reviewed by federal auditors, the top official monitoring Iraq's reconstruction told Congress on Thursday.

In a House hearing on what has gone wrong with reconstruction contracts in Iraq, Parsons Corp. quickly became the focus, taking bipartisan heat for its record of falling short on crucial projects. The Pasadena, Calif., company was supposed to build facilities at the heart of the $21 billion U.S.-led reconstruction program, including fire stations, border forts and health-care centers. But inspectors have found a litany of flaws in the company's work.

WASHINGTON -- The contractor that botched construction of a $75 million police academy in Baghdad so badly that human waste dripped from the ceilings has produced shoddy work on 13 out of 14 projects reviewed by federal auditors, the top official monitoring Iraq's reconstruction told Congress on Thursday.

In a House hearing on what has gone wrong with reconstruction contracts in Iraq, Parsons Corp. quickly became the focus, taking bipartisan heat for its record of falling short on crucial projects. The Pasadena, Calif., company was supposed to build facilities at the heart of the $21 billion U.S.-led reconstruction program, including fire stations, border forts and health-care centers. But inspectors have found a litany of flaws in the company's work.
Chicago Tribune

I wonder if anyone has looked into Iraqi reconstruction monies being launderd through Iraq and into the GOP's reelection coffers?

Southern Baptists still back Bush, Iraq war

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The head of public policy for the Southern Baptist Convention said an overwhelming majority of Baptists still support President Bush and his handling of the Iraq war.

In an interview with The Associated Press yesterday, Richard Land said the war hasn't significantly eroded the president's support.

Land noted that exit polls show about 84 percent of Southern Baptists voted for Bush in 2004. But recent polls show Republicans losing ground with moderate evangelicals.

Land said -- quote -- "I'm not ready to throw in the towel on Iraq yet."

Land is the president of the Washington, D-C-based Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the convention's public policy arm.

The Nashville-based S-B-C is the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. with over 16 million members.
Mercury News

People worship, on display now at a poll booth near you.

U.S. commander says insurgency in western province of Iraq unlikely to be defeated until U.S. forces leave

WASHINGTON The insurgency in Iraq's volatile western Anbar province can be beaten but probably not until after U.S. troops leave the country, the commander of forces in the provincial capital said Friday.

"An insurgency is a very difficult thing to defeat in a finite period of time. It takes a lot of persistence — perseverance is the actual term that we like to use," Army Col. Sean B. MacFarland, commander of 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, said in a video-teleconference with reporters at the Defense Department.

"Who knows how long this is going to actually last?" he added. "But if we get the level of violence down to a point where the Iraqi security forces are more than capable of dealing with it, the insurgency's days will eventually come to an end. And they will come to an end at the hands of the Iraqis, who, by definition, will always be perceived as more legitimate than an external force like our own."

He did not say the insurgency could be defeated only if U.S. forces left, but he indicated that his brigade's mission is to reduce violence until Iraqi security forces can take over — not to outright defeat the insurgency.

MacFarland's brigade is fighting in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, where the insurgency has become so entrenched and feared by residents that the city has no Iraqi mayor. Recently, however, the tide has begun to turn against al-Qaida in Iraq, which has become the dominant anti-government force, the colonel said.

"It's a situation that's beginning to spiral in our favor," he said.

MacFarland painted a largely upbeat picture of the battle for Ramadi. He said attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces have dropped from about 20 per day to about 15 per day, and the attacks have become less effective.

Also, recruiting for the Iraqi security forces has "soared 10-fold," local Sunni tribal leaders have begun cooperating more against the insurgents, and the U.S.-equipped Iraqi police are becoming more effective, he said.

On Monday the Pentagon announced that MacFarland's brigade has been ordered to remain in Anbar for 46 days beyond its previously scheduled departure in mid-January. That means the nearly 4,000 soldiers there will exceed the 12-month tour of duty that the Army has said should be the maximum for all units in Iraq.

MacFarland described his soldiers as disappointed but greeting the news "with a collective shrug."

He would not discuss casualty trends in his brigade, saying that would assist the insurgents by telling them how effective they have been. This month alone, the Pentagon has announced five soldiers from MacFarland's brigade killed in action in Ramadi, of which four were killed by roadside bombs; the other was killed by small arms fire.
IHT

Abramoff had more White House ties

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff had hundreds more contacts with top White House officials than those Bush administration officials had previously acknowledged, according to a congressional report to be released on Friday.

The report by the House Government Reform Committee, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, said the panel found about 485 contacts between Abramoff and his associations and the White House, including 10 with Karl Rove, who is President George W. Bush's top political adviser.

The committee based its findings on 14,000 pages of e-mails and billing records spanning three years ending in 2003, the committee report said.

The White House challenged the credibility of the report, saying it was based on material originally generated by Abramoff. Abramoff and associates have pleaded guilty to conspiracy, fraud and related crimes in an influence-peddling scandal that reached into the U.S. Congress.

"The billing records that are the basis for this report are widely regarded as fraudulent in how they misrepresent Abramoff's activities and level of access. There is no reason why they should suddenly be viewed as credible," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

The committee findings, first reported by ABC TV, found "circumstantial" evidence that Abramoff got at least some of what he wanted for his lobbying clients.

SOME SUCCESSES

He failed to get many of the appointments he sought, but he did get appropriations of more than $16 million for a native American Indian jail and $3 million for school construction, and a favorable ruling on at least one Indian casino project, the report noted.

Committee Chairman Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican, said in a statement prepared for release on Friday: "It was our job to examine whether and to what extent Jack Abramoff's extravagant claims of influence actually reached their intended targets in the executive branch, and what that might mean about the adequacy of current ethics and lobby disclosure laws."

Abramoff and his lobbying team had offered dinners, drinks and concert tickets to White House officials. It was not clear whether they violated lobbying laws or a ban on gifts.

According to the billing records and e-mails, Abramoff and his team had 485 lobbying contacts with White House officials between January 2001 and March 2004 -- 345 described as meetings or other in-person interactions, 71 described as phone conversations, and 69 e-mail exchanges.

The report found that more than half of the in-person contacts involved meals or drinks with White House officials.

One e-mail discusses how often Rove visited a downtown Washington restaurant then owned by Abramoff. "I am not kidding. Karl loves the restaurant (he's been there a lot) and we could do the back room," it said.

The report also quotes Abramoff about using Ralph Reed, former leader of the conservative Christian Coalition, to lobby Rove. Reed's recent bid to become lieutenant governor of Georgia failed, in part because of his Abramoff ties.

Abramoff and his team claimed to have lobbied the White House Office of Political Affairs in 17 instances, the report says.

In six of these instances, the documents describe a direct contact with Ken Mehlman, now chairman of the Republican Party. At the time of the contacts, he was director of the office.
MyWay

Amazing how these people which call themselves religious, can lie with such a straight face and in such a consistent manner. And the best part is how the mighty religious masses just go along with the lies after lie without raising so much as an eyebrow.

But I know, we'll cover it all up by bringing up Clinton a few times.

Book Says Bush Ignored Urgent Warning on Iraq

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 — The White House ignored an urgent warning in September 2003 from a top Iraq adviser who said that thousands of additional American troops were desperately needed to quell the insurgency there, according to a new book by Bob Woodward, the Washington Post reporter and author. The book describes a White House riven by dysfunction and division over the war.

The warning is described in “State of Denial,” scheduled for publication on Monday by Simon & Schuster. The book says President Bush’s top advisers were often at odds among themselves, and sometimes were barely on speaking terms, but shared a tendency to dismiss as too pessimistic assessments from American commanders and others about the situation in Iraq.

As late as November 2003, Mr. Bush is quoted as saying of the situation in Iraq: “I don’t want anyone in the cabinet to say it is an insurgency. I don’t think we are there yet.”

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld is described as disengaged from the nuts-and-bolts of occupying and reconstructing Iraq — a task that was initially supposed to be under the direction of the Pentagon — and so hostile toward Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, that President Bush had to tell him to return her phone calls. The American commander for the Middle East, Gen. John P. Abizaid, is reported to have told visitors to his headquarters in Qatar in the fall of 2005 that “Rumsfeld doesn’t have any credibility anymore” to make a public case for the American strategy for victory in Iraq.

The book, bought by a reporter for The New York Times at retail price in advance of its official release, is the third that Mr. Woodward has written chronicling the inner debates in the White House after the Sept. 11 attacks, the invasion of Afghanistan, and the subsequent decision to invade Iraq. Like Mr. Woodward’s previous works, the book includes lengthy verbatim quotations from conversations and describes what senior officials are thinking at various times, without identifying the sources for the information.

Mr. Woodward writes that his book is based on “interviews with President Bush’s national security team, their deputies, and other senior and key players in the administration responsible for the military, the diplomacy, and the intelligence on Iraq.” Some of those interviewed, including Mr. Rumsfeld, are identified by name, but neither Mr. Bush nor Vice President Dick Cheney agreed to be interviewed, the book says.

Robert D. Blackwill, then the top Iraq adviser on the National Security Council, is said to have issued his warning about the need for more troops in a lengthy memorandum sent to Ms. Rice. The book says Mr. Blackwill’s memorandum concluded that more ground troops, perhaps as many as 40,000, were desperately needed.

It says that Mr. Blackwill and L. Paul Bremer III, then the top American official in Iraq, later briefed Ms. Rice and Stephen J. Hadley, her deputy, about the pressing need for more troops during a secure teleconference from Iraq. It says the White House did nothing in response.

The book describes a deep fissure between Colin L. Powell, Mr. Bush’s first secretary of state, and Mr. Rumsfeld: When Mr. Powell was eased out after the 2004 elections, he told Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff, that “if I go, Don should go,” referring to Mr. Rumsfeld.

Mr. Card then made a concerted effort to oust Mr. Rumsfeld at the end of 2005, according to the book, but was overruled by President Bush, who feared that it would disrupt the coming Iraqi elections and operations at the Pentagon.

Vice President Cheney is described as a man so determined to find proof that his claim about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was accurate that, in the summer of 2003, his aides were calling the chief weapons inspector, David Kay, with specific satellite coordinates as the sites of possible caches. None resulted in any finds.

Two members of Mr. Bush’s inner circle, Mr. Powell and the director of central intelligence, George J. Tenet, are described as ambivalent about the decision to invade Iraq. When Mr. Powell assented, reluctantly, in January 2003, Mr. Bush told him in an Oval Office meeting that it was “time to put your war uniform on,” a reference to his many years in the Army.

Mr. Tenet, the man who once told Mr. Bush that it was a “slam-dunk” that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq, apparently did not share his qualms about invading Iraq directly with Mr. Bush, according to Mr. Woodward’s account.

Mr. Woodward’s first two books about the Bush administration, “Bush at War” and “Plan of Attack,” portrayed a president firmly in command and a loyal, well-run team responding to a surprise attack and the retaliation that followed. As its title indicates, “State of Denial” follows a very different storyline, of an administration that seemed to have only a foggy notion that early military success in Iraq had given way to resentment of the occupiers.

The 537-page book describes tensions among senior officials from the very beginning of the administration. Mr. Woodward writes that in the weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Tenet believed that Mr. Rumsfeld was impeding the effort to develop a coherent strategy to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. Mr. Rumsfeld questioned the electronic signals from terrorism suspects that the National Security Agency had been intercepting, wondering whether they might be part of an elaborate deception plan by Al Qaeda.

On July 10, 2001, the book says, Mr. Tenet and his counterterrorism chief, J. Cofer Black, met with Ms. Rice at the White House to impress upon her the seriousness of the intelligence the agency was collecting about an impending attack. But both men came away from the meeting feeling that Ms. Rice had not taken the warnings seriously.

In the weeks before the Iraq war began, President Bush’s parents did not share his confidence that the invasion of Iraq was the right step, the book recounts. Mr. Woodward writes about a private exchange in January 2003 between Mr. Bush’s mother, Barbara Bush, the former first lady, and David L. Boren, a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a Bush family friend.

The book says Mrs. Bush asked Mr. Boren whether it was right to be worried about a possible invasion of Iraq, and then to have confided that the president’s father, former President George H. W. Bush, “is certainly worried and is losing sleep over it; he’s up at night worried.”

The book describes an exchange in early 2003 between Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, the retired officer Mr. Bush appointed to administer postwar Iraq, and President Bush and others in the White House situation room. It describes senior war planners as having been thoroughly uninterested in the details of the postwar mission.

After General Garner finished his PowerPoint presentation — which included his plan to use up to 300,000 troops of the Iraqi Army to help secure postwar Iraq, the book says — there were no questions from anyone in the situation room, and the president gave him a rousing sendoff.

But it was General Garner who was soon removed, in favor of Mr. Bremer, whose actions in dismantling the Iraqi army and removing Baathists from office were eventually disparaged within the government.

The book suggests that senior intelligence officials were caught off guard in the opening days of the war when Iraqi civilian fighters engaged in suicide attacks against armored American forces, the first hint of the deadly insurgent attacks to come.

In a meeting with Mr. Tenet of the Central Intelligence Agency, several Pentagon officials talked about the attacks, the book says. It says that Mr. Tenet acknowledged that he did not know what to make of them.

Mr. Rumsfeld reached into political matters at the periphery of his responsibilities, according to the book. At one point, Mr. Bush traveled to Ohio, where the Abrams battle tank was manufactured. Mr. Rumsfeld phoned Mr. Card to complain that Mr. Bush should not have made the visit because Mr. Rumsfeld thought the heavy tank was incompatible with his vision of a light and fast military of the future. Mr. Woodward wrote that Mr. Card believed that Mr. Rumsfeld was “out of control.”

The fruitless search for unconventional weapons caused tension between Vice President Cheney’s office, the C.I.A. and officials in Iraq. Mr. Woodward wrote that Mr. Kay, the chief weapons inspector in Iraq, e-mailed top C.I.A. officials directly in the summer of 2003 with his most important early findings.

At one point, when Mr. Kay warned that it was possible the Iraqis might have had the capability to make such weapons but did not actually produce them, waiting instead until they were needed, the book says he was told by John McLaughlin, the C.I.A.’s deputy director: “Don’t tell anyone this. This could be upsetting. Be very careful. We can’t let this out until we’re sure.”

Mr. Cheney was involved in the details of the hunt for illicit weapons, the book says. One night, Mr. Woodward wrote, Mr. Kay was awakened at 3 a.m. by an aide who told him Mr. Cheney’s office was on the phone. It says Mr. Kay was told that Mr. Cheney wanted to make sure he had read a highly classified communications intercept picked up from Syria indicating a possible location for chemical weapons.

Mr. Woodward and a colleague, Carl Bernstein, led The Post’s reporting during Watergate, and Mr. Woodward has since written a string of best sellers about Washington. More recently, the identity of Mr. Woodward’s Watergate source known as Deep Throat was disclosed as having been W. Mark Felt, a senior F.B.I. official.

In late 2005, Mr. Woodward was subpoenaed by the special prosecutor in the C.I.A. leak case. He also apologized to The Post’s executive editor for concealing for more than two years that he had been drawn into the scandal.
NYT

Well I guess you'd have to live under a rock not to know this already, but I guess the majority of republicans do actually live under rocks.

Sen. Clinton: 'Incalculable Damage Done to Our Country'

(CNSNews.com) - The upcoming mid-term election is important because the U.S. is "in a deep hole, and Republicans don't want to quit digging," Sen. Hillary Clinton told a gathering of Democratic women in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

"I am just totally focused on this November's election, and I hope you are, too," the junior senator from New York told the Democratic National Committee Women's Leadership Forum. "I am fixated on taking back the House and the Senate" because "everything we care about is at stake."

"The damage that has already been done to our country in the last six years is incalculable," she said.

"It's going to take an enormous amount of effort to begin to repair and restore American values and to reinstate the kind of shared commitment to common values and common ground that we desperately need," Clinton added. See Video

"If we take back one, hopefully both houses of Congress, we will be in a position to prevent the Republicans and the administration from furthering their agenda," the senator noted.

"Everything that we care about is at stake," she said. "On any issue you can mention" -from energy independence to global climate change and the cost of health care - "we won't deal with it if we don't have Democrats in charge."

"On every issue, there are big differences" between Democrats and Republicans, "but the biggest difference is the disregard for our constitutional democracy, the disdain for checks and balances, the denial of accountability that marks this president and vice president," Clinton said, "and that's really our entire system being put at risk."

"Maybe we can dig ourselves out of the hole on fiscal responsibility, energy and health care before it's too late, but we cannot afford to have our Constitution shredded and our country's commitment to freedom basically thrown out after centuries of setting the standard by which others are judged," she noted.

"There are a lot of people, not just Democrats, who know we have to change direction in our country," the senator added. "I have so many Republicans coming to my events" who "say things like 'I didn't sign up for all this,' and the 'this' would be a long list depending upon their particular concerns.

"They're coming, because frankly, they're patriots, and they don't want this administration to continue leading us down into a blind hole like they are, undermining our future, failing to invest to make us safer and stronger and richer and smarter, more competitive, fairer for the future," Clinton said.

Also stressing the importance of the Nov. 7 election was Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, who told the audience that the current political contest is "about change" and promised that his party will "take back the House and pick up seats in every single state."

Dean asserted that the main issue of the election will be national security, and he said the Bush administration's record in this area makes him look forward to Nov. 7.

"Here's their record," he said. "Five years after Osama bin Laden murdered 3,000 people, he's still on the loose in northwest Pakistan plotting to kill our people.

"Five years after George Bush identified Iran as part of the Axis of Evil, they are about to get nuclear weapons," Dean said. "Five years after George W. Bush identified North Korea as part of the Axis of Evil, they not only continue to have nuclear weapons, they are getting more nuclear weapons.

"Explain to me how this president has made America safer," he added. "You can't trust the Republicans to defend America, not because they don't want to, but because they don't know how." See Video

However, Clinton noted that Democrats face a tremendous obstacle in regaining power: the GOP, which is "outspending us four, five, six and seven to one."

The Republican National Committee "is pouring tens of millions of dollars into these races, and we're not matching it," she said. "We're making investments and doing ground and other efforts that are very beneficial, but the RNC has about $60 or $70 million waiting to drop on our candidates.

"So we can just yell at our TV sets, which we all do. We can email and call and vent to our friends, which we all do. We can show up at events like this, which you all do. But we really have to turn it on the last 40 days or so," Clinton said, adding that she did her part by donating $1 million to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee a week ago.

"Let's not lose this because in the last week or two, our candidates get swamped by negative ads they can't respond to," she said. "After all, it's only our country and our future that's at stake, but with your help, I think we're going to get it done."

However, Danny Diaz, a spokesman for the RNC, responded that Democrats' eagerness to blame the Bush administration for mistakes in the war on terror serves to distract voters from examining their own lack of success in fighting terrorists.

"Hillary Clinton reminds voters that while Democrats were in charge, they consistently misunderstood the threat America faced and repeatedly missed opportunities to bring the terrorists to justice," Diaz told Cybercast News Service.

Regarding the upcoming election, Diaz added that "electing liberals like New York's junior senator will mean tax increases across the income scale and less tools to fight and win the war on terror."
CNSNews

War's Deadly Aftermath

"MAJD ES-SLIM, Southern Lebanon — Ali Herz didn’t think he had anything to worry about when he went to check on his neighbor’s house in the southern town of Majd es-Slim. After all, the cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel was two days old and it seemed to be holding.

But as he pushed open the heavy black iron gate to enter the garden that morning, something happened. A sharp explosion threw him backward as shrapnel peppered his legs, face and chest. Conscious but in pain, he started to cry out for help to anyone in the area. "
Back to Iraq

Planning October Shipment

"The next shipment to the hospital will be in early/mid October and preparations are well under way. The hospital has said how the budgeted funds should be spent, funds are in place at LIFE, and a preliminary heads-up has gone to the helpers at Mosul Airport. Now I begin to watch and worry and nag and make sure the plan happens as best I can.

It continues to be easier to send and make sure they get there than to find people willing to pitch in and help expand the project. The shipments are getting there almost like clockwork. My efforts to attract support from others (individuals, NGO's, anybody who will listen) continue to be far less successful. It's hugely frustrating and could break a persons will to be totally ignored or politely told "no" or passed off to someone who doesn't care time after time after time."
Mosul Chemotherapy Project

What a shame that such a worthwhile project should get so little attention.

HVT #8 - Al-Qaeda Shura Leader of Mosul Captured in Mosul

"Iraqi forces capture Ali Mahmoud Yahya, Emir of the Mujahideen Shura in Mosul

Iraqi and Coalition forces continue to rack up senior al-Qaeda in Iraq and insurgent leaders. The Kuwaiti News Agency reports “Ali Mahmoud Yahya, [also known as] Abu Huthaifa and works as an Amir of a Shura Council for Mujahideen in Mosul,” has been captured. Also captured was his assistant, "Mohammad Mahmoud... code-named Abu Abdulrahman". Four other terrorists were capture and a weapons cache was discovered in subsequent operations. "
The Fourth Rail

In The Mind of a Soldier

"When I returned home from my first deployment I faced a slew of questions from seemingly everyone I came in contact with. Everyone wanted to know if it was hot, sandy, did I kill anyone, did anyone in my unit die or get hurt, am I okay, do I have bad dreams at night, is my hair falling out because I was around too much depleted uranium? The question that struck me as the most odd was “Was it scary?” Several people asked me if it was scary or if I was ever scared during my time in the sandbox. I had never thought of life in Iraq as scary so the question made me pause for a minute before I answered: “Uh…nope.” "
T.F. Boggs

SLEEPWALKING THROUGH HISTORY...

"SLEEPWALKING THROUGH HISTORY....According to the New York Times, Bob Woodward's sources in his latest book, State of Denial, are now telling him that the Bush administration was not quite the well-oiled machine that he reported earlier:

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld is described as disengaged from the nuts-and-bolts of occupying and reconstructing Iraq — a task that was initially supposed to be under the direction of the Pentagon — and so hostile toward Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, that President Bush had to tell him to return her phone calls. The American commander for the Middle East, Gen. John P. Abizaid, is reported to have told visitors to his headquarters in Qatar in the fall of 2005 that “Rumsfeld doesn’t have any credibility anymore” to make a public case for the American strategy for victory in Iraq.

Political Animal

VOTING FOR TORTURE....A reader emails about Sherrod Brown's and Ted Strickland's votes in favor of the detainee/torture bill:

My wife and I have been lifelong Democrats and have contributed and worked on national and Ohio campaigns for the Democratic Party since 1988. This year we were actually looking forward to winning Ohio for the Democratic Party.

Political Animal

"detainee bill currently wending its way through Congress:

The compromise legislation, which is racing toward the White House, authorizes the president to seize American citizens as enemy combatants, even if they have never left the United States....It also allows him to seize anybody who has "purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States." This grants the president enormous power over citizens and legal residents. They can be designated as enemy combatants if they have contributed money to a Middle Eastern charity, and they can be held indefinitely in a military prison.

Political Animal

Snippets of My Mind

"As its Ramadan and HUBBY is still back in the States, I find myself living the life of a bat...I stay awake until the early hours of the day and sleep during the whole day...Until ofcourse it becomes that exciting time of breaking my fast...which basically doesnt really serve the purpose of Ramadan of actually suffering... I can account for the different reasons why Im actually staying up late...One, I dont want to miss the dawn prayers...Two, I stay up reading the Quran...Three, Jet lag, theres like 8 hours difference..."
NIW

What Moktada Knows!

"Maybe you thought you knew why the U.S. invaded Iraq. Maybe you thought it had something to do with Saddam Hussein, or the goal of spreading democratic values in the Middle East, or that maybe the point was Iraq's oil, or that the invasion at least reflected a policy that served some political or economic end. Silly you! We finally know exactly why the U.S. is in Iraq, and it all has to do with the Twelfth Imam.

Sez who? Sez the irrepressible Moktada Al-Sadr, the Shiite "cleric" who divides his time between vicious murder by night, and unintentional standup comedy by day. Last Friday, Al-Sadr delivered a sermon [Arabic link] in Kufa in which he revealed the truth (as he grasps it) about the U.S. invasion. According to him, the Pentagon has "a complete and hefty file" on the Twelfth Imam (lacking only a picture!), is anticipating his return to Iraq, and has amassed a force in the country so as to meet him with military might!"
IraqiPundit

Well now we know.

"I have fallen into a routine during my brief stay here. I find it impossible to catch up on the months of sleep deprivation I have experienced over the past year. Others are able to sleep for hours even days it seems.

Instead, I stay up all night as has been my routine the past few months. I watch DVDs on my laptop or edit my music library on windows media player. I also grab music and video clips from others with my thumb drive."
Chapter: War

Evidence of Iran involvement in creating chaos in Iraq

"After a fierce battle in “Khan Bani Sa’ad” Diyala governorate north of Baghdad with “Mahdi Army”, Iraqi resistance succeeded to capture one of the “Mahdi Aramy”.

They found a complete modern communications system manufacturing in the Ministry of Defense of Iran believed to be used as a direct contact with the Iranians."

Baghdad Dweller

Democracy vs. Engagement

"In the aftermath of 9/11, democracy became a catch-word that was repeatedly enunciated by various American officials and commentators, from the President down, and brandished as some kind of magic weapon that can help make the differenced in the Global War on Terror. In the process though, Democracy was reduced to a single aspect of it, namely elections that, more often than not, produced undesirable results by empowering inherently non-democratic actors thus complicating the Administration’s push for greater political openness and reforms in the region.

This much has already been established, and criticizing the Bush Administration on these points is understandable, legitimate and necessary, especially considering the fact that we have still two more years to go in which much can still transpire, both positive, if new more nuanced approaches are adopted, or negative, if current tactics continue to be deployed unrevised."
Amarji

You Can't Make This Stuff Up!!!

"That is our motto here in Numaniyah and not just the 1016th team, but for all the Coalition forces here. Why you ask? Well there a lot of reasons. But the biggest is just because of the cultural differences between us.

I will give you an example. Back home men greet each other with hand shakes or maybe if you are close you will get a half handshake, half hug. Here the men shake hands first then kiss each other on the cheek. Depending on how close you are will determine how many kisses you get on each cheek. For instance, if you barley know someone you will get a handshake and maybe a kiss on the cheek. If you have known them for a little while you will get one kiss on the left cheek. If you have known them for a long time and are close you will get two kisses on the left cheek. Then let the kissing games begin. I have seen an Iraqi get two kisses on each cheek before. But that is pretty rare. The Americans here are uncomfortable with it, but as time goes by, you will see more and more of us doing it. Oh and yes, I have had my fare share of man kisses (That s what we call it). Here it is something to be proud of. If an American can get a kiss in front of other Iraqis, it is an honor. And for an American to get one in front of other Americans, it is huge. It shows respect and friendship with each other. At first I was skittish, but I have grown to appreciate it and respect it."
1016th

Cleric Said to Lose Reins Over Part of Iraqi Militia

BAGHDAD, Sept. 27 — The radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr has lost control of portions of his Mahdi Army militia that are splintering off into freelance death squads and criminal gangs, a senior coalition intelligence official said Wednesday.

The question of how tightly Mr. Sadr holds the militia, one of the largest armed groups in Iraq, is of critical importance to American and Iraqi officials. Seeking to ease the sectarian violence raging across the country, they have pressed him to join the political process and curb his fighters, who see themselves as defenders of Shiism — and often as agents of vengeance against Sunnis.

But as Mr. Sadr has taken a more active role in the government, as many as a third of his militiamen have grown frustrated with the constraints of compromise and have broken off, often selling their services to the highest bidders, said the official, who spoke to reporters in Baghdad on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak publicly on intelligence issues.

“When Sadr says you can’t do this, for whatever political reason, that’s when they start to go rogue,” the official said. “Frankly, at that point, they start to become very open to alternative sources of sponsorship.” The official said that opened the door to control by Iran.

Mr. Sadr’s militia — dominated by impoverished Shiites who are loosely organized into groups that resemble neighborhood protection forces — has always operated in a grass-roots style but generally tended to heed his commands. It answered his call to battle American forces in two uprisings in 2004, and stopped fighting when he ordered it. But as the violence in Iraq has spread, evidence of freelancing Shiites has accumulated.

After the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra in February, bands of militants dressed in black, the favorite color of Sadr loyalists, drove into neighborhoods, kidnapping and killing Sunnis. Mr. Sadr, who was abroad at the time, returned home and gave a rare public speech calling on his followers to stop, even proposing joint prayer sessions with Sunni clerics. Still, the rampage continued.

In Basra, a province in southeastern Iraq, Mr. Sadr has less direct control over militiamen, and they have tended to operate to suit their own agenda. Local leaders there have said that he has disciplined some members and fired others, but with little overall effect. He has run through four different leaders in Basra, according to the intelligence official, and has even had to shut offices temporarily, when local leaders ignored him and acted on their own.

Mr. Sadr is still immensely powerful, with as many as 7,000 militiamen in Baghdad, the official said. And the cleric has turned that firepower into political might. His candidate list won about 30 seats in Parliament this year, one of the largest shares. The participation was a central goal for American officials, who tried for months to persuade him to stop fighting and enter politics.

Still, six major leaders here no longer answer to Mr. Sadr’s organization, according to the intelligence official. Most describe themselves as Mahdi Army members, the official said, and even get money from Mr. Sadr’s organization, but “are effectively beyond his control.” Some of those who moved away from Mr. Sadr saw him as too accommodating to the United States. Others saw him as too bound by politics, particularly as killings of Shiite civilians in mixed neighborhoods began to soar.

“They’re not content to sit there and just defend their family on the street corner,” the official said. “They want to go out and take on what they view as Al Qaeda or Baathists or both in aggressive measure.”

One example is Abu Dera, a fighter in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in the capital who used to be loyal to Mr. Sadr. Residents said that as he began to gain a reputation for killing Sunni figures, Mr. Sadr told him to stop. But he ignored the order, and now he is referred to as the “Shiite Zarqawi,” after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist leader who exhorted Sunnis to kill Shiites.

“He started against the Americans, but he moved on to killing Sunnis,” said Sattar Awad, a 29-year-old resident of the district. “People here look at him as a brave man.”

American forces are hunting for Mr. Dera, the intelligence officer said, but he has eluded capture.

Although the splintering has solved some problems for the American military, it has raised new ones. “In some ways it makes it easier for me because I now have digestible doses I can deal with,” said a senior American military official at a briefing on Wednesday, also in Baghdad. “At the same time it creates problems because they are harder to find when they are splintered.”

The splintering has changed the tone of the American military’s interaction with the Mahdi Army in Sadr City. In past years, American forays into the area would often draw a storm of grenade attacks. But recent American moves into the area have been carried out relatively peacefully: Mr. Sadr has not ordered attacks because the men being sought were freelancers like Abu Dera, the intelligence officer said.

The fighters’ defections have raised the troubling prospect of more avenues of influence for Iran, the senior intelligence official said. The official cited shipments of weapons with labels that trace back to Iranian weapons manufacturers as evidence that Iran was actively aiding groups in Iraq. And that assistance has not just been limited to Mahdi Army offshoots. “They’re not sure who will come out on top, so they fund everybody,” the official said of Iran.

Even Mr. Sadr, who fashions himself as the quintessential Iraqi nationalist, has reached out to Iran’s government, making a very public trip to Iran for talks early this year. He is also trying to reassert control over his power base at home, and to expand his influence, the intelligence official said. “What Sadr is looking for is discipline,” the official said.

He said Mr. Sadr had begun to increase his exposure in the northern city of Kirkuk and in Diyala Province, both mixed-population areas north of Baghdad where sectarian disputes have been on the rise. There, he is trying to appeal by casting himself as a defender of Shiites against Kurdish and Sunni Arab factions.
NYT