Iraq War 'Will Cost Each US Family $3,415'

From the Guardian/UK:

The United States has spent more than $126bn on the war in Iraq, which will ultimately cost every American family an estimated $3,415, according to a new report by two thinktanks.

The report, published yesterday by the leftwing Institute for Policy Studies and Foreign Policy in Focus also counts the human costs.

As of June 16, before yesterday's nationwide attacks, up to 11,317 Iraqi civilians and 6,370 Iraqi soldiers or insurgents had been killed, according to the report, which is titled Paying the Price: The Mounting Costs of the Iraq War.

More

Bush Gets a Cold Irish Welcome

Three cheers for the Irish who said no to Bush.

Smiling and waving, George Bush glided down the steps of Air Force One at Shannon airport last night, seemingly unfazed by his tag as the most unwelcome American ever to set foot on Irish soil.

Noam Chomsky on Classified Documents / Accountability

Noam Chomsky's June 25 blog post:

The scheduled release of declassified documents in the official State Department history is 30 years. In practice it is a bit longer, about 35 years or so usually.

Of course, not everything is declassified. Sometimes it turns out on independent investigation by serious historians that the record has been seriously falsified by omission. Occasionally there are administrations that have such extraordinary hatred of democracy that they simply destroy crucial records rather than allow the feared and despised public to know what their government is doing, even decades later.


Keep reading

'Fahrenheit 9/11' ban?

It looks as though Republicans will stop at nothing to keep the American public from seeing, or even hearing about, Michael Moore's new film, "Fahrenheit 9/11".

A Republican-allied 527 soft-money group is preparing to file a complaint against Moore’s film with the FEC for violating campaign-finance law.

In a draft advisory opinion placed on the FEC’s agenda for today’s meeting, the agency’s general counsel states that political documentary filmmakers may not air television or radio ads referring to federal candidates within 30 days of a primary election or 60 days of a general election.

Certain Republicans are trying to construe Moore's film as nothing more than a "two-hour political advertisement" - the umbrella epithet-of-choice is "electioneering communications" - which they would like to see constrained by campaign-finance legislation.

In related news, the Carlyle Group is slated to purchase the Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corporation for $2 billion.

Loews is the third largest movie theater chain in the global motion picture exhibition industry, with over 200 theaters and 2,200 screens worldwide. The assets being acquired include Loews' operations in the U.S., Grupo Cinemex, and its 50% interests in Megabox Cineplex of Korea and Yelmo Cineplex of Spain.

Among the right-wing luminaries associated with this investing firm is Bush senior's Secretary of State, James A. Baker III. Baker also served as Reagan's Chief-of-Staff from 1981 to 1985 and was Undersecretary of Commerce in the Ford administration.

An Indispensible Piece of History

Iraq, 1917

By Robert Fisk

Thursday 17 June 2004 "The Independent" -- They came as liberators but were met by fierce resistance outside Baghdad. Humiliating treatment of prisoners and heavy-handed action in Najaf and Fallujah further alienated the local population. A planned handover of power proved unworkable. Britain's 1917 occupation of Iraq holds uncanny parallels with today - and if we want to know what will happen there next, we need only turn to our history books...

More

Revolving Lies

"As I.F. Stone used to say, "All governments lie," so that's no shockeroo. What's peculiar is the reaction in the media."

Read the rest of this piece by Molly Ivins

'Fahrenheit 9/11' Sets Single Day Sales Record in NYC; Film Opens in 868 Theaters Nationwide Friday

US Experts say Global Warming Faster Than Thought

More Important News from the U.S. Supreme Court

"A bitterly divided Supreme Court ruled yesterday that only juries, not judges, may increase criminal sentences beyond the maximums suggested by statutory guidelines, a decision that throws into doubt sentencing procedures used by nine states and possibly the federal government."

Continue at washingtonpost.com: Jury Role In Raising Sentences Affirmed

High Court Backs Vice President (Washington Post)

washingtonpost.com

"The Supreme Court ordered a federal appeals court yesterday to give Vice President Cheney another chance to shield the internal workings of the 2001 energy policy task force he headed, all but ensuring that none of its alleged contacts with industry lobbyists will be aired before the November elections."

Keep a close eye on 911-Commission

Judging by recent chatter from the 911 commission, it looks like they are close to a final report. After the hours upon hours of testimony its panelists absorbed, the commission has amassed a wealth of information, some helpful, some incriminating, some appalling, from 'witnesses' who were by turns accusatory, apologetic, defensive, or remarkably forthright. But what will come of all this information remains to be seen. Some points, however, can probably be guessed at with some degree of accuracy.

As I see it, the commission has two possible interpretations it can put on the often damning revelations it has been privy to: it can either chalk them up to failures - meaning mistakes, blunders, problems with communication, too much red-tape, etc. - or to willful obstruction and perhaps criminal negligence leading to the attacks of September 11. If the commission takes the first angle, then we are all in trouble, as its 'recommendations' are likely to point to a total consolidation of intelligence-gathering organs; this to avoid any more breakdowns in communication, of course. But it is also perfectly possible, even likely, that the September 11 attacks didn't happen because of some strategic or administrative blunder, or a lack of capacity to anticipate or even imagine such attacks; or to carry out the day to day work of analyzing intelligence. September 11 could have been the result of actions willfully taken or willfully not taken by the present Bush administration. In this case, the findings of the commission would, one hopes, place blame where it is due, for the benefit of the aggrieved families and the American public at large, in whose name these investigations have been conducted. Findings with this slant could well (and rightly) point to needed structural changes in the intelligence-gathering community but the focus would be on those in the Administration whose task it was to protect the American people and who were derelict in their duties to the point of criminal culpability.

Report: U.S. Immunity in Iraq to Extend Past Handover

UN measure on U.S. soldiers' immunity withdrawn


After failing to get support for a UN resolution granting its soldiers immunity from war crimes indictments in the International Criminal Court, the U.S. has gone ahead anyway, granting its troops immunity vis a vis the soon-to-be-'sovereign' Iraqi Government. In light of the explosive prison abuse scandal, this development should appall anyone concerned with human rights and even the most basic standards of conduct and accountability.

The immunity, granted to "all foreign personnel in the ....Coalition Provisional Authority" is an extension of a preexisting edict known as 'Order 17'. It will ensure that American and 'coalition' personnel are free from prosecution in Iraqi courts for possible crimes committed during the occupation. Since this extension will carry well beyond the so-called handover of sovereignty on June 30, it will mean that a supposedly sovereign Iraqi government will have no jurisdiction whatsoever over the roughly 130,000 foreign troops operating within the country.

The lesson is clear: U.S. troops answer to no one but the Bush administration. And the Bush administration, as we have seen, answers to no one at all.