WILLIAM BOWLES’ INI NEWSLETTER

We invariably have to be pursuaded to ‘support’ our government’s actions through the only outlet we have, one that exists in the ‘Looking-glass’ world of the media itself, whereby ‘opinion polls’ of various sorts, are used to reinforce an interpretation of the world that has already been created by the ‘news’ in the first place.
But it’s not only ‘opinion’ polls, it’s the very nature of ‘news’ coverage itself. The way it works is so obvious it verges on the ludicrous, yet it works as the reams of analysis of state/corporate news coverage reveals.

SENTATE SUPPORTS IRAQ WITHDRAWAL DATE
UN CALLS ON IRAN TO RELEASE BRITISH SAILORS
INCOME INEQUALITY GROWS

NYT: D. Kyle Sampson told a Senate panel Thursday c that Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales was involved in discussions about firing United States attorney

CNN: The U.S. Senate passed a war spending bill that would require U.S. combat troops to leave Iraq by the end of March 2008, ignoring a veto threat from President Bush.

BUSH DERIDES DEMS—AGAIN AND AGAIN

CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS ANALYSIS:

Three months into the President Bush’s Iraq escalation strategy, the American people have continued to lose “faith in [his] conduct of the war.” Just last week, the House passed legislation calling for a major withdrawal of troops, and the Senate passed similar legislation today. But Bush continues his defiant support of the escalation plan, ignoring the calls for change from both the American and international communities. In a speech on the Iraq war yesterday, Bush extolled his own policies. “American forces are now deployed 24 hours in these neighborhoods, and guess what’s happening. The Iraqi people are beginning to gain confidence,” he said. But a BBC/ABC News poll this month revealed that only 18 percent of Iraqis have confidence in the U.S.-led coalition troops and almost 90 percent “say they live in fear that the violence ravaging their country will strike themselves and the people with whom they live.” On the domestic front, support for the escalation has dropped to new lows. A new Gallup poll shows that only 29 percent of Americans believe the escalation is working. “In addition, fully 80 percent of Americans ‘endorse a requirement that U.S. troops meet strict readiness criteria before being deployed to Iraq,’ while 60 percent ‘favor a timetable for withdrawing all U.S. troops from’ Iraq by fall 2008.’”

MARK FIORE”S ANIMATED COMMENT ON “THE DECIDER”

RET GENERAL WES CLARK: POLICY HURTS ISRAEL

I believe it shows that the Bush Administration’s current policy with Iran is not working. For the sake of stability in the Middle East, it’s time for direct diplomacy with Iran — now more than ever.

Today, we’re launching our third video blog for StopIranWar.com. I’m joined by Iraq war veteran Jon Soltz of VoteVets.org and Clark Community blogger Reg to discuss how President Bush’s get tough policy with Iran is undermining the security of our most reliable ally in the region, Israel.

http://www.stopiranwar.com/?page_id=16

RET: GENERAL BARRY MCCAFFREY VISITS IRAQ AND REPORTS

Iraq is ripped by a low grade civil war which has worsened to catastrophic levels with as many as 3000 citizens murdered per month. The population is in despair. Life in many of the urban areas is now desperate. A handful of foreign fighters (500+) — and a couple of thousand Al Qaeda operatives incite open factional struggle through suicide bombings which target Shia holy places and innocent civilians. Thousands of attacks target US Military Forces (2900 IED’s) a month—primarily stand off attacks with IED’s, rockets, mortars, snipers, and mines from both Shia (EFP attacks are a primary casualty producer) —and Sunni (85% of all attacks—80% of US deaths—16% of Iraqi population.)

Three million Iraqis are internally displaced or have fled the country to Syria and Jordan. The technical and educated elites are going into self-imposed exile—a huge brain drain that imperils the ability to govern. The Maliki government has little credibility among the Shia populations from which it emerged. It is despised by the Sunni as a Persian surrogate. It is believed untrustworthy and incompetent by the Kurds. There is no function of government that operates effectively across the nation— not health care, not justice, not education, not transportation, not labor and commerce, not electricity, not oil production.

There is no province in the country in which the government has dominance. The government cannot spend its own money effectively. ($7.1 billion sits in New York banks.) No Iraqi government official, coalition soldier, diplomat, reporter, foreign NGO, nor contractor can walk the streets of Baghdad, nor Mosul, nor Kirkuk, nor Basra, nor Tikrit, nor Najaf, nor Ramadi—without heavily armed protection. The police force is feared as a Shia militia in uniform which is responsible for thousands of extra-judicial killings. There is no effective nation-wide court system. There are in general almost no acceptable Iraqi penal institutions. The population is terrorized by rampant criminal gangs involved in kidnapping, extortion, robbery, rape, massive stealing of public property —such as electrical lines, oil production material, government transportation, etc. (Saddam released 80,000 criminal prisoners.)

THE CAR BOMB NO ONE CAN STOP

BBC: The UN Security Council agrees a statement voicing “grave concern” at Iran’s capture of 15 British sailors.

THE LATEST NEWS ON IRAN STANDOFF

UNWISE BRINKSMANSHIP OVER IRAN
Former US Intelligence Professionals Are Alarmed

CONDI IN THE MIDDLE EAST

From Tomdispatch today, Tony Karon’s “Condi’s Free Ride, The Fantasy of American Diplomacy in the Middle East”

NYT: INCOME GAP IN US WIDENS

UNEARNED WEALTH WOES

Charles Koch built the largest private corporation in the world, and then wrote a book about it. His publicist mailed it to me this week. It’s a great read. It just so happens that at the same moment I was reading about how Koch and J. Howard Marshall banded together to take control of Great Northern Oil Company, a newsflash appeared in my in-box announcing that Marshall’s widow is now known to have died of a drug overdose. The book in my lap contained the story of how J. Howard Marshall’s great fortune was created in life. The PDA in my hand told the story of how that great fortune destroyed a life. Then I realized something: Anna-Nicolle Smith died of a sudden and massive injection of unearned wealth.

THE NEW TB THREAT—SERIOUS!

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A new deadly form of tuberculosis spreading through South Africa has now been found in rich nations in Europe as well as Canada and the United States, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

Africa’s large population [of people living with HIV/AIDS] is at special risk from the particularly virulent strain, known as XDR-TB (extremely drug resistant), which had been documented in 35 countries worldwide, 16 of them this year alone.

“This is an the most urgent thing I have seen in my 15 years of working on tuberculosis,” Mario Raviglione, director of the STOP TB program at the World Health
Organization. He introduced WHO’s TB report, which coincides with the 125thanniversary of the discovery of the microbe that causes TB.

“If it keeps spreading, as it has in South Africa, then we are really in trouble, Raviglione said.