They Don't Just Disappear

Let's hope this is just the first of many stories about the tortured innocents released far too late from Gitmo.

After Mr. Iqbal was picked up in Jakarta and interrogated for two days, American officials generally concluded that he was a braggart, a “wannabe,” and should be released, one of the senior American officials in Jakarta said. “He was a talker,” the senior American official said. “He wanted to believe he was more important than he was.”

There was no evidence that he had ever met Osama bin Laden, or had been to Afghanistan, the two senior American officials said. But in the atmosphere of fear and confusion in the months after Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Iqbal was secretly moved to Egypt for further interrogation, said one of the senior American officials.

SNIP

In Lahore, Mr. Iqbal wants to return to teaching the Koran. “It’s easy for the United States to say no charges were found,” he said. “But who is responsible for the seven years of my life?”

Read the whole thing.

There's more: "They Don't Just Disappear" >>

The Geographically Challenged John McCain: That's A Broad Definition Of A Border, Iraq And Pakistan

Asked by Diane Sawyer whether the "the situation in Afghanistan in precarious and urgent," McCain responded: "I think it's serious. . . . It's a serious situation, but there's a lot of things we need to do. We have a lot of work to do and I'm afraid it's a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq/Pakistan border."

He's also having a hard time remembering that Czechoslovakia is a long-defunct country. Here's the piece from The Huffington Post.

What's all this about how somebody can actually get too old to be president? -- MJ

There's more: "The Geographically Challenged John McCain: That's A Broad Definition Of A Border, Iraq And Pakistan" >>

At the End of the Day

Childhood's End Arthur C. Clarke, author of over a hundred books, including 2001: A Space Odyssey has died. He was 90 years old. He and the good Dr. Asimov were my constant companions growing up, occupying a special revered spot as far as I was concerned, because they were both working scientists and wrote textbooks, too. Clarke is credited with coming up with the concept of communications satellites - in fact, geosynchronous orbits are commonly called "Clarke's Orbits" after him.

The Dalai Llama is threatening to step down as the head of Tibet's government-in-exile if violence between Chinese soldiers and Tibetan independence protesters does not abate. Speaking at the site of the exile government in Dharamsala, India, he said: "I say to China and the Tibetans – don't commit violence. Whether we like it or not, we have to live together side by side," adding that "if things become out of control then my only option is to completely resign".

Reconciliation talks in Baghdad got underway, but without the main Sunni bloc who are boycotting the meeting, claiming that "Maliki is stonewalling them by failing to meet demands that include the release of security detainees not charged with specific crimes, disbanding Shiite militias and wider inclusion in decision-making on security issues."

A power-sharing deal in Kenya Kenyan lawmakers on Tuesday unanimously approved a power-sharing deal intended to salvaging a country once seen as one of the most stable and prosperous in Africa, but which disintegrated into ethnic bloodletting when both President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga claimed victory in the countries presidential election, and brought a bloody end to decades of peaceful coexistence between disparate ethnic groups in Kenya. Now they face the challenges of healing the nation and rebuilding a tattered economy that was once one of the most promising in Africa.

The oldest, thickest and most resilient ice around the North Pole is melting This was confirmed Tuesday by data collected from NASA satellites. "Thickness is an indicator of long-term health of sea ice, and that's not looking good at the moment," Walt Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center told reporters in a phone interview.

Pakistan's new parliament was seated on Monday The opposition parliament has vowed to restore the judiciary which has been decimated by Musharraf. An inevitable clash between Musharraf and the new parliament is brewing, and some parliamentarians are openly disdainful of the president. "Musharraf has to go. He has no future in this country, at least," said Khawaja Muhammad Asif, a newly elected legislator. "Maybe he has a future in the U.S."

Paterson preempts the press hounds Tuesday was David Paterson's first full day on the job as governor of New York, and he called a press conference and dropped a bombshell or three. He admitted openly and freely that he and his wife had both engaged in extramarital affairs, but had worked through their marital problems and had been faithful in recent years. One of the women he admitted to having had a relationship with is a state employee and a member of the staff that Paterson "inherited" from the disgraced Spitzer. Which probably prompted the preemptive confession session.

Well knock me over with a feather, the M$M might actually do some follow up! The New York Times is giving a few column inches in tomorrow mornings paper to McCain's foreign policy fuckups in Jordan earlier today, where he repeatedly asserted a connection between (Shi'ite) Iran and (Sunni) al Qaeda. Karen Finney, a spokeswoman for the DNC issued a statement in which McCain's obvious incompetence in foreign policy was underscored and his ties to this failed war and this failed president were reinforced. “After eight years of the Bush administration’s incompetence in Iraq, McCain’s comments don’t give the American people a reason to believe that he can be trusted to offer a clear way forward. Not only is Senator McCain wrong on Iraq once again, but he showed he either doesn’t understand the challenges facing Iraq and the region or is willing to ignore the facts on the ground.”

What creeps me out most about Cheney isn't just that he lies so easily, it's that he believes himself. Talking to soldiers at a sprawling base north of Balad he reasserted the fictitious connection between Iraq and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. "This long-term struggle became urgent on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. That day we clearly saw that dangers can gather far from our own shores and find us right there at home," he told the soldiers. "So the United States made a decision: to hunt down the evil of terrorism and kill it where it grows, to hold the supporters of terror to account and to confront regimes that harbor terrorists and threaten the peace," Cheney said. "Understanding all the dangers of this new era, we have no intention of abandoning our friends or allowing this country of 170,000 square miles to become a staging area for further attacks against Americans."

No Regrets If you had any doubts that Bush is a sociopath with no conscience, he still glibly insists that invading Iraq five years ago was worth what it has cost in lives, treasure and stature.

I think this family would probably disagree with the president and his romantic notions of war.

Hat tip to skippy for the photo.

There's more: "At the End of the Day" >>

37 39 killed in massive suicide attack in Pakistan

At least 37 people, mostly supporters of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistani Peoples Party, were killed Saturday when an explosives-laden car was driven into the midst of a rally and detonated on the last day of campaigning before Monday's scheduled elections.

The attack took place in Parachinar, in the volatile North-West Frontier where Islamic fundamentalist militants have gained strength in recent months.

[Keep reading]

The elections scheduled for Monday will take place under a cloud of suspicion after Human Rights Watch released an audiotape last week that they claim catches the countries Attorney General reassuring an unknown party on the other end of the line that massive vote rigging would assure that the elections went Musharraf's way. Ms. Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who assumed leadership of her party after she was slain condemned the attack "with all the spirit of democracy...We still ask people to stay calm because this is again their way of making us lose track and give up the path of democracy," he said. He also promised massive street protest if they suspect the elections are tampered with.

In a televised speech on Saturday, President Musharraf said Pakistan would have a "stable, democratically elected government" which would be used to "ensure a successful fight against terrorism and extremism", and he cautioned against protests if the election process is perceived as less than fair.

While Musharraf is not standing for election Monday - the upcoming vote is for the Parliament, he was 'reelected' to a third term in October - a parliament packed with hostile political opponents could spell trouble for the president and his authority.

Musharraf resigned from the Army last fall after the countries supreme court validated his election. The election Monday is seen as a signal moment in Pakistan's transition from military to civilian rule.

There's more: "37 39 killed in massive suicide attack in Pakistan" >>

Pakistan goes to the polls on Monday - but is the fix already in?

On Friday Human Rights Watch released a recording that it maintains is of Pakistan's Attorney General, acknowledging that the nations parliamentary elections scheduled for Monday will be "massively rigged."

Human Rights Watch said the recording was made by a journalist during a telephone interview with Attorney General Malik Qayyum. The AG interrupted the interview with the journalist to take a second call, but failed to disconnect the first, thus allowing his end of the second conversation to be overheard and recorded.

The AG interrupted the interview with the journalist to take a second call, but failed to disconnect the first, thus allowing his end of the second conversation to be overheard and recorded.

Human Rights Watch said a journalist made the recording during a telephone interview with Attorney General Malik Qayyum when Qayyum took a second call without disconnecting the first, allowing his end of the second conversation to be overheard and recorded.

The recording was released a day after Pakistani president Pervez Musharref warned the opposition that they must accept the outcome of Monday's elections, and not take to the streets in protest. (Where, pray tell, has this man been???)

"Let there be no doubt that anyone will be allowed to resort to lawlessness in the garb of allegations about rigging in the elections," Musharraf was quoted as telling a seminar of government officials in Islamabad by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan. "Let this serve as a warning to all those who think they can disturb the peace of the country. They will not be allowed. Do not test the resolve of the government."

"No agitation, anarchy or chaos can be acceptable," he said. "I assure you that the elections will be fair, free, and transparent and peaceful."

Fears of vote-rigging have been fed by polls that show the Pakistani Peoples Party and other opposition parties on the verge of capturing enough seats to toss Musharraf out on his (now un-uniformed) ass for abrogating the nations constitution last year so he could consolidate his power.

Musharraf's standing, and that of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, also has been hurt by skyrocketing prices, shortages of electricity, gas and wheat, a failure to contain the Islamic insurgency based in the tribal area bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan's support for the Bush administration's fight against al Qaida.

"There have been numerous allegations of irregularities, including arrests and harassment of opposition candidates and party members. There are also allegations that state resources, administration, and state machinery are being used to the advantage of candidates backed by President Pervez Musharraf," Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

Human Rights Watch said it had tried repeatedly to contact Qayyum, a staunch supporter of Musharraf, but had been unable to reach him.

On Thursday Asif Ali Zadari, the widower of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, held a final rally of members of her Pakistani Peoples Party in the same park where his wife gave her first political address three decades ago.

Security was high and reflected an upsurge in suicide attacks that have included attacks on opposition rallies and gatherings. Police sharpshooters took up positions on rooftops and scanned the crowds while commandos dressed in black from head to toe stood among the security personnel who ringed the stage.

In a sign of the times, the stage was set back from the barricades that kept the crowd a safe distance from the stage, and Ms. Bhutto's husband spoke from behind a podium of bulletproof glass and steel.

Without naming Musharraf, Mr. Zardari said that it was time to change the system. "Benazir was a martyr. She believed in you, in the brothers and sisters, and I also believe in you," he proclaimed.

And that's all well and good - so long as the elections are fair.

There's more: "Pakistan goes to the polls on Monday - but is the fix already in?" >>

A Day in the Life of Pakistan

A suicide bomber killed at least 25 27 people, including two police officers and several children; and injured dozens in Charsadda, Pakistan in the turbulent North West Frontier province, an area where Islamist extremists have been battling government forces for control. It was the latest act in a wave of rampant violence that has steadily worsened since Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on December 27.

The bomber struck at a rally organized by the secular Awami National Party, which opposes Islamist parties for support among the local ethnic Pashtun population. Abdul Waheed, a 22 year old who survived the attack but was seriously burned, said the bomber blew himself up as a member of the party was leading a recitation of verses from the Quran. ''I only heard the blast and cries and then something hit me and I fell down,'' Waheed told The Associated Press from his hospital bed in Peshawar.

All of Pakistan has been a powderkeg since the assassination of Ms. Bhutto, and nowhere have tensions been higher than in the lawless North West Frontier Province, in the border region with Afghanistan where the remnants of Al Qaeda are thought to ave sought and found safe haven after they were allowed to slip away at Tora Bora. Islamic militants in the region have been somewhat successful in battling government forces and challenging government control.

Because of the worsening violence, parliamentary candidates standing in the February 18 elections have shunned large outdoor rallies, opting to campaign in smaller, more intimate settings held inside the walled compounds of party stalwarts. The television footage of the aftereffects of the blast, the bloodstained clothing, overturned chairs, and the scenes of general chaos that littered the grand meeting hall of a party members sprawling private home drove home the point that even these tightly controlled settings are susceptible to attack by determined terrorists.

In spite of the overt danger, 100,000 members of Ms. Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party defiantly gathered in a sports stadium in Thatta as the party resumed its campaigning following the end of the traditional 40 day mourning period following her death. Her widow, Asif Ali Zardari, vowed in an emotional speech to carry forth his murdered wife's mission, and he beseeched the assembled masses to ''give me strength so that we can serve the country.''

''I have the responsibility to save Pakistan,'' Zardari said. ''This is our country and we have to save it.''

A 24 year old laborer who attended the rally said that the reputation of Mr. Zardari was not very good, but that devotion to Benazir compelled many to to attend the rally. ''We will avenge the blood of Benazir. We don't have bombs. We are not terrorists, but we have political power and we will capitalize on this political power to avenge the death of Benazir,'' said another supporter, Haji Jaffar, 75, a retired teacher. The martyring of Ms. Bhutto has strengthened the resolve of her supporters and shored up the strength of her party.

Elsewhere in Pakistan, approximately 1,500 lawyers attempted Saturday to march to the barricaded home of the Chief Justice of the countries Supreme Court, who was suspended from his position last March by Pervez Mushareff last November in an attempt to control the judiciary which opposed his authoritarian rule. As the lawyers attempted to cross the barbed-wire barricade, hundreds of riot police unleashed tear gas and water cannons, topped off with a baton charge. Although there were no reports of serious injury, several lawyers were roughed up. Earlier Saturday, the countries Bar Council announced that the lawyers nationwide will boycott the courts through election day in an attempt to restore the suspended judges.

There's more: "A Day in the Life of Pakistan" >>

Insurgencies are becoming entrenched along Afghan-Pakistan border

Radical Islamic fundamentalist militants are bolstering their numbers and expanding their scope of influence in the forbidding terrain of the lawless tribal areas that flank the border on both sides.

From here, they traffic in disarray, violence and chaos over a vast area of both countries. This is the area that the remnants of al Qaeda fled to when they were allowed to escape at Tora Bora. Here they have found fertile soil and they have set about the business of regrouping, recruiting and resurging. The violence and bloodshed are spreading from the border areas to the Pakistani heartland and threatens to destabilize the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan - governments which have allied themselves with the United States and the western allies in those volatile countries.

From McClatchy:

In Afghanistan, U.S. and NATO forces are facing "a classic growing insurgency," Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday.

But the U.S. military, stretched thin by the war in Iraq, is hard-pressed to send more than the 3,200 additional Marines the Bush administration is dispatching to Afghanistan. The growing insurgency there is fueling rifts within the NATO alliance as Germany and other nations refuse to allow their troops to participate in offensive operations in Afghanistan. The Afghan army is making progress but still cannot operate independently.

"Make no mistake, NATO is not winning in Afghanistan," warned an Atlantic Council of the United States report last week. The report was directed by retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, the former top NATO commander. "What is happening in Afghanistan and beyond its borders can have even greater strategic long-term consequences than the struggle in Iraq." (emphasis added)

[Keep Reading]

The Pakistani army is ill-suited to confront a home-grown insurgency in the tribal areas - it is geared toward fighting a conventional land-war against India. To date the Pakistanis have avoided the George Bush modus operandi of "when the only tool you have is a hammer..." and avoided sending forces to battle the insurgency (using them to chase down al Qaeda has been volatile enough). The military leaders are reluctant to turn their guns on the insurgents because they fear that heavy casualties would prompt schisms within the military along ethnic and sectarian lines and that would destroy the Pakistani armed forces.

All the U.S. and the NATO allies can do is train a few Pakistani troops because U.S. military action would spark outrage among the populace, already on the verge of boiling over with anti-U.S. and anti-government fueled outrage.

But it gets better - the threat of terrorists trained and indoctrinated in the tribal areas directed at Afghan, Pakistani and even western targets is greater than it has ever been.

"The Taliban in Afghanistan now control more of the country than at any time since 2001, and their confederates in the tribal areas of Pakistan are expanding their operations almost day by day. While our attention has been diverted by Iraq, we've overlooked a potentially far more serious threat to the security of all Americans," Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., told McClatchy.

There's no hard evidence of direct collusion between the Afghan Taliban and a new Pakistani Taliban alliance, both of which are made up mostly of Pashtun tribesmen, who dominate the region of soaring mountains and rugged deserts that span the frontier. Indeed, the Afghan Taliban deny links with the Pakistani insurgents.

But the ties among the Pashtuns are personal, historic, ethnic and ideological, and experts worry that the region faces a growing jihadi movement that's aided by al Qaida with Arab and Central Asian fighters, coordination, money and motivation.

"You see some indication that there is a blurring of the lines and some associations that are not helpful," said a senior U.S. defense official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Husain Haqqani, a political scientist and former aide to the late Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said that the group "have become a seamless whole." The common thread that unites them all is that the groups calling themselves "Taliban" on either side of the border are descended from the Mujahadeen, the Islamic guerrillas that fought the Soviets in Afghanistan from 1979-89. Back then, they were the standard-bearers for the west and they battled the Soviets with arms that were supplied by the United States, Saudi Arabia and Britain and flowed through Pakistan.

One point enjoys widespread support: The Bush administration bears much of the blame for the current FUBAR security situation in the least stable nuclear nation on earth.

First, in Bush's idiotic invasion of Iraq, Afghanistan was left to twist in the wind after the focus changed and left that poor, beleaguered nation unsecured after the 2001 invasion. Then the Bush administration turned the screws on Pervez Musharraf to send troops into the tribal areas to hunt down al Qaeda operatives who had escaped there from Tora Bora. The presence of these troops outraged the tribes, and cemented opposition with heavy-handed tactics and high civilian casualties. While this was going on, little heed was paid to the Taliban, and their support among a pissed-off populace took root. Growth in support exploded after Musharraf ordered a strike against The Red Mosque last summer. That raid killed scores of people.

The Taliban Movement of Pakistan, which was only established in December of 2007, has already extended it's reach into all seven tribal agencies, as well as the North West Frontier Province.

Taliban-sponsored violence has shaken the provincial capital Peshawar to it's very foundation. It has killed hundreds of security forces personnel. Ammunition deliveries have been hijacked, major thoroughfares have been seized, and for the first time ever, a major city has been cut off from the rest of the country by militants.

Across the border in Afghanistan, the Taliban has expanded the territory under their control and now moves around freely in spite of heavy combat losses last year with NATO troops. "The number of districts in which the Taliban operate exploded last year," said John McCreary, a former senior intelligence analyst with the Joint Chiefs of Staff who's now with the private contractor dNovus RDI. "This is the first year they have managed to sustain over 100 attacks per month for the whole year since they started to climb back. One hundred attacks per month used to be surge figure. Now it's the new norm."

There's more: "Insurgencies are becoming entrenched along Afghan-Pakistan border" >>

At the end of the day

AP: "Candidates Scramble to Reach Voters"

Sign of the times -- "Bush’s abuse of signing statements has been a constitutional mess for several years now — with more than 151 signing statements challenging 1149 provisions of laws, Bush is without rival in American history — but this week, matters grew particularly ugly." Seems Bush intends to ignore certain portions of a defense authorization bill. Meaning he's above the law. More at The Carpetbagger Report.

U.S. attorney scandal -- The Wisconsin Senate voted unanimously to reimburse Georgia Thompson $228,793 for her wrongful prosecution by one of the DOJ's loyal Bushies. "And remember that efforts by Congress to investigate the Justice Department's handling of the case -- in addition to other possible cases of selective prosecution -- have been firmly rebuffed (with the exception of the disclosure of one telling email)." From Paul Kiel.

Get the Swoop -- Economy is on the front-burner at the WH: "President Bush intervened forcibly to convince an initially reluctant Federal Reserve to reduce interest rates.... On foreign affairs: "One senior official commented privately to us about Secretary of State Rice: 'She is there but not there.'" Concerns over Pakistan and Afghanistan "are now concentrated.... ...Admiral Fallon has just returned from a visit to Pakistan where he held discussions with the new Army Chief of Staff General Ashfaq Kayani." Special ops to deploy to Pakistan "under nominal Pakistani command. US officials have noted... Musharraf’s position continues to weaken. They are unimpressed by any of the civilian alternatives and would be content to accept a new military leader." Swoop

Digby discussed the Reagan myth and it's the same ol' conservative story -- "They get into office, cut taxes on the rich and steal taxpayer money for their [wealthy] contributors."

Oil bonanza -- Mobil-Exxon "beat its own record for the highest profit ever recorded by a U.S. company, with net income rising 3 percent to $40.6 billion last year.... ...Exxon has benefited from a near-doubling of oil prices, from a low of around $50 a barrel in early 2007 to almost $100 by the end of the year - the single biggest jump in oil prices in any one year." Via TP: "Climate Progress notes that the other Big Five oil giants — BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Shell — have seen similar trends."

Merrill Lynch in a pinch -- MA Sec of State William Galvin "filed a civil fraud complaint against Merrill a day after the firm took the unusual step of agreeing to reimburse Springfield for losses on the investments.... ...An official in Mr. Galvin’s office said the Springfield case was part of a larger investigation into Merrill’s sales of similar investments to other Massachusetts towns and cities." NYT

Playing favorites -- BTD at TalkLeft: "...blogs should not be about favorite candidates. It should try to persuade and/or pressure Dems, candidates and officeholders, on the issues that matter to them. In 2007, I was very critical of the blogs' performance on withdrawal from Iraq. Why? Because it was candidate centric, not issue centric.... ...There is nothing more important that we can do, as citizens, activists or bloggers than fight to pressure DEMOCRATS to do the right thing on OUR issues.... ...It's more important BY FAR than 'fighting' for your favorite pol because your favorite pol will ALWAYS, I mean ALWAYS, disappoint you."

Those killed in the dual suicide bomb attacks in separate Baghdad markets rises to "as many as 100 people." McClatchy Newspapers questioned, "Were Baghdad bombers willing suicides or victims?"

U.S. troop cuts in Iraq may be put on hold according to Gen. Petraeus. Senior Pentagon officials countered by saying "that President Bush [should] also consider the stress on U.S. ground forces and other global military risks when determining future troop levels." Chairman of the JCoS, Adm. Michael Mullen: "I find all the talk about a freeze or a pause [in troop cuts] in Iraq so interesting." More remarks at WaPo.

[That's all...no more after the jump.]

There's more: "At the end of the day" >>

At the end of the day

Bush's 2008 SOTU -- Full text and his last! Woo hoo! The number of specific words referenced: 23 for "terror", "terrorist", or "terrorists", 11 for "al Qaida", 2 for "Taliban", 16 for "tax", "taxes", or "taxpayers", 9 for "economy" or "economics", and 6 for the "surge". Peruse a series of fact checks on Bush's final SOTU at TP.

FISA Showdown -- In case you missed it, check Pale Rider and Glenn Greenwald and "What's Next" from Paul Kiel. Statement from Hillary at FDL. Previous remarks from John Edwards.

Oh, you liberal! -- Demonstrating how Repubs and our SCLM have denigrated a great political word that makes me proud, the Reuters headline sums it up: "McCain, Romney lob 'liberal' smear in Florida push." Funny thing... what insult sticks to McCain is nonsensical. He's got a secret plan to get OBL? Oh?

More on the Mitt vs. McCain cage match on the eve of the Florida primary.

On the road to the WH, it's all about the delegates: "The possibility of a long-term slog is real for Democrats, given that Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama appear evenly matched... It is less certain on the Republican side, pending the outcome of the party’s primary [in Florida] on Tuesday."

Torture -- TPM headline: "Negroponte Confirms U.S. Use of Waterboarding."

Intelligence failure -- Via Laura Rozen, Milt Bearden of the Washington Independent wrote: "American intelligence has a serious problem. But it is not that the former head of the Central Intelligence Agency’s clandestine services, Jose Rodriquez, allegedly destroyed, in 2005, the videotapes of the enhanced interrogations of terrorist detainees. No, the real problem is that institutional oversight of the intelligence community has failed. It is dysfunctional, perhaps irreparably so. There is no adult supervision of American intelligence or how the White House chooses to use it. " Read the whole thing.

Fix the Bankruptcy Bill! -- Emptywheel reported "good news" that senators plan to fix the "bad bill." But the "bad news is that we're not going to do anything about it until 2009."

Death In Iraq -- Five U.S. soldiers killed in Mosul when a military convoy was "hit by a roadside bomb.... ...It was a particularly bloody day for the U.S. military in a city that has become a gathering point for the Sunni insurgency, and where Iraq's prime minister vowed to have the 'final' battle with the group al-Qaeda in Iraq." Troop deaths for January -- 36 -- up from December's 23 killed.

Pakistani Taliban -- They have "extended their reach across all seven of Pakistan's frontier tribal regions and have infiltrated Peshawar, the provincial capital, heightening U.S. concerns that an insurrection may be broadening in the nuclear-armed nation." Uh oh. McClatchy

Help Blue Girl get a new computer -- Please. And thank you!

[That's all...no more after the jump.]

There's more: "At the end of the day" >>

At the end of the day

John Edwards campaigned in Dublin, GA. "Georgia Senate minority leader Robert Brown of Macon introduced Edwards at the farmer's market where an estimated crowd of at least 400 had gathered... 'Senator Edwards is the best candidate. He can win in November,' Brown said before rally. 'He's also very much in tune with what's going in in places like rural Georgia.'"

Also in GA, Obama visited a church in Macon where he spoke about his faith: "Poverty has no place in a world of plenty, and hate has no place in a world of believers."

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) plans to endorse Obama on Monday, according to the NYT. Steve Benen added more insights.

FISA tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. -- In an interview with McClatchy's Matt Stearn, "Clinton said she would break from the campaign trail to return to Washington Monday" in planning "to vote to block a bill to extend the expansion of electronic eavesdropping powers because it provides immunity for phone companies..." Per a FDL update, Obama will be there, too. Yee haw!

Mitt's up! -- Romney rose in FL polls via Chris Bowers: "Zogby now shows a 30%-30% tie, while yesterday McCain lead 31%-28%. Insider Advantage shows Romney ahead 26%-24%, whereas yesterday it was a 23% to 23% tie. Rasmussen shows Romney extending his lead to 33%--27%, whereas three days earlier Romney only led 27%-23%. In fact, the last four polls conducting Florida tracking show the state moving from McCain 25.5%--23.5% Romney, to Romney 29.3%--27.8% McCain." Looks like a Repub slugfest to the finish.

McCain's running mate -- Lemme imitate SNL's church lady: "Could it be... Condi?" Thus sayeth the Prince of Darkness, "...talk to ordinary people about [Condi] and they say, boy, that's terrific. The politicians don’t like it.” Video at TP.

Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday questioned Huckabee about evidence of Saddam's WMDs. The Huckster replied, "I don’t have any evidence.... ...My point was that, no, we didn’t find them. Did they get into Syria? Did they get into some remote area of Jordan? Did they go some other place? We don’t know. They may not have existed. But simply saying — we didn’t find them so therefore they didn’t exist — is a bit of an overreach." Shorter Huckster: "Eeeb, eeeb, eeeb, eeeb!"

Krugman series, Part I: "Why has the Bush economy been so lousy?" See also bmaz's recent post, "Our Collapsing Economy - How We Got Here."

U.S. military death toll reached 3,934. "The AP count is three higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EST."

Iraqi troops arrived in Mosul, "site of recent deadly insurgent attacks, in an effort to suppress militant groups." Iraq's Defense Ministry spokesman Askari said, "They are Iraqi army forces and include troops, mechanized troops and air force. The plan will be similar to the ones implemented in Baghdad and Diyala [province]." LATimes

So now Bush shifts the military's focus to Afghanistan and Pakistan. " 'The sense I get is that at least in military terms they are getting a response from Washington which they weren't getting all along,' said Schaffer, a career foreign service officer who was deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia in the administration of former President Bush."

"The Week Ahead" at SCOTUSblog -- "No oral arguments are scheduled and no non-capital orders are expected to be issued from the Court this week." Reply briefs due Friday by 2 p.m. on Dada v. Mukasey.

On personal note -- It's fundraising time and for a good cause. Blue Girl needs a computer. So if you can throw some bucks her way -- the goal is $750 -- she can get back online sooner than later. Purdy please?

[That's all...no more after the jump.]

There's more: "At the end of the day" >>

At the end of the day

Obama wins SC primary in a landslide -- CNN: Obama 55%, Clinton 27%, Edwards 18%. Gender and age breakouts at the link.

Congratulations were personally extended to Obama from Hillary and Bill Clinton.

Edwards on campaigning spouses -- "I believe that spouses have the right to speak their minds. In his case, [Bill] happens to be an ex-president. But my wife Elizabeth speaks her mind. And I think they're entitled to do that. It's a democracy. That's the way it works. People can agree or disagree with what they say, but they're not required to go home and sit around and be quiet. That's just the way I view it." The Trail

Track Democratic delegates by candidate here.

Gadfly calls attention to an argument that "the current Bush-Cheney regime has been a co-presidency." Thus, "respected historian Wills argues against a Clinton co-presidency. A definite liberal, Wills isn’t arguing against Hillary Clinton’s policies, just the co-presidency idea. Given the fact that Democratic big brass such as Sen. Ted Kennedy are trying at this very moment to get Bill to pipe down, with limited results, it’s a legitimate concern." Personally, I would be worried if Bill Clinton were batshit crazy like Dick Cheney. And American voters will have the last word.

Dick Sargent wrote about an NBC interview with Obama in which Barack "denied he'd personally accused the Clintons of racism." Obama reiterated, "I don't view [the Clintons] as having gone after me on the basis of race." Yesterday, Steve Hildebrand, a senior adviser for Obama, said, "[The Clintons] look at everything through racial lines, gender lines, geographic lines... ...They are playing the same old-style games." Crikey.

Rudy has a new secret weapon -- Bwahahahahahaha!

Meow! Pffft! Pffft! -- "Sen. John McCain of Arizona accused former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney of having once supported a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, sparking an angry demand for an apology from Romney, who called the statement dishonest.' " And it got uglier. Campaigning in Florida, McCain: "If we surrender and wave a white flag, like Senator Clinton wants to do, and withdraw, as Governor Romney wanted to do, then there will be chaos, genocide, and the cost of American blood and treasure would be dramatically higher." Mitt shot back attacking "McCain's economic policy experience" and released an ad on Friday that "uses clips of political pundits on network news shows to argue that the Republican Party's distrust of McCain runs long and deep." Other video samples of McCain vs. Romney ads posted yesterday.

If you're into placing a bet on Election 2008, take heed via Kevin Drum.

Doubts still linger over Florida's voting machines. If it's as bad as the Diebold touch screens in Georgia... Uh oh. And in Ohio, "The ACLU of Ohio has sued the Secretary of State and Cuyahoga County to block the switch to a new voting system in time for the March 4 presidential primary."

For a real Democrat from Orlando, FL -- Alan Grayson! Alan Grayson! Alan Grayson! Additional commentary and an incredible CBS video on whistle-blower Grayson's fight against war-profiteering at Down With Tyranny!

Krugman posted distribution tables from the economic stimulus program of "who gets what from tax plans." He also noted, "it’s only thanks to the Democrats that people likely to spend their rebate are getting anything at all.... this plan will produce some stimulus, while the Bush plan would have done virtually nothing." Data source: Tax Policy Center

Reaching for his FISA-colored crayon -- President Bush threatened to veto “a 30-day extension of an expiring eavesdropping law and instead wants an expanded version to be passed by Friday.” In response, Harry Reid (D-CA) said: "There will be no terrorism intelligence collection gap... But if there is any problem, the blame will clearly and unequivocally fall where it belongs: on President Bush and his allies in Congress." The WH gave the House Intel Committee "access to necessary documents on Thursday – eight months after they were requested," according to chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX). Shorter version: SSDD at the Bush regime.

Pakistan says no -- "Mr. Musharraf rebuffed proposals to expand any American combat presence in Pakistan, either through unilateral covert C.I.A. missions or by joint operations with Pakistani security forces." Furthermore, Musharraf expressed "that any unilateral action by the United States would be regarded as an invasion." Sunday NYT

[That's all...no more after the jump.]

There's more: "At the end of the day" >>

At the end of the day

All three Democratic presidential candidates -- Hillary, Edwards, and Obama -- support the death penalty "...as have virtually all leading Democrats running for office in the past 20 years.... Why so much longstanding support for capital punishment? It is the easiest way to combat the quadrennial charge that Democrats are 'soft on crime.' "

The NYT editorial board endorsed Hillary as their Democratic "primary choice." Is this a good thing when the Times publishes loony columnists Bill Kristol, David Brooks, and MoDo? They also endorsed McCain as their Repub "primary choice." Well, at least the NYT has Paul Krugman on board. Still...

Michigan and Florida delegates -- When the DNC objected to states moving their primary dates up, they decided to strip the states of their delegates. Edwards and Obama removed their names from the ballot in Michigan but Hillary and Kucinich did not. "Today, Hillary announced that she will demand the DNC seat Michigan's and Florida's delegates. Delegates that only she - in violation of DNC rules - competed for." Yellow Dog provided details. Via Deb-TUD, Josh Marshall had something to say about it, too.

Yesterday, Joe Conason indicated he's gotten some heat for not bashing Hillary enough. His response: "There's no taking sides" and concluded, "I perceive strengths and weaknesses in both of the leading Democrats. They're politicians and human beings, not angels or devils. I can certainly imagine voting for either of them in the general election." His favorite pick for president didn't run. Hmmm, I would guess that's Al Gore!

Mitt and McCain vie for who's the biggest tax cut whore of all! But, wait a minute... Rudy wants the coveted title.

FactCheck.org identified Repub falsehoods in last night's GOP debate in Boca Raton, FL. Mitt "misrepresented" Hillary's health care plan, plus note the Huckster's "FairTax fairy tale," "Giuliani's fables," and "McCain's tax evasion." Some are old lies, and some are new. Unsurprising, isn't it?

Atrios pointed out the Draft Bloomberg effort has recorded "a whopping 3136 signatures." At the time of this posting, the amount has catapulted to 3,375! Wheee-oooo. Are you feeling the "Mikementum"? His favorable rating is "Teh Suck".

The latest Florida poll, a national Gallup primary poll, and Mark Blumenthal discussed variations in SC polling.

Cernig at Newshogger posted an in-depth discourse on a "nuke policy blog tank." An excellent synopsis and worth the time to click the link (h/t to blogging goddess, Avedon).

Toe-tappin' Larry Craig sex sting -- "No one on the tight-lipped Senate committee will say how far along any investigation is or whether they expect it to yield any findings." CREW hasn't heard anything. Craig's lawyer remains silent. Is anything being investigated? "No one with the committee has asked to speak with anyone connected with Craig's arrest or asked for more information about it, said Patrick Hogan, a spokesman for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport." McClatchy

Tortured silence -- Today during a press conference, AG Mike Mukasey wouldn't say if waterboarding is torture. "In a letter to Mr. Mukasey this week, all 10 Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee pressed him again for an answer to the question of whether waterboarding is torture and suggested it would be a focus of an oversight hearing next week at which the attorney general is scheduled to testify." Tomorrow's NYT

Bloody Iraq -- Today Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, said "that Iraqi reinforcements have begun moving toward the northern city of Mosul for a 'decisive' battle with the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda." Also in Mosul, "A provincial police chief was killed by a suicide bomber" on Thursday. "Duraid Kashmoula, the governor of Nineveh province, said the number of people killed in Wednesday's attack had increased from 15 to 38.... The revised death toll made Wednesday's bombing the deadliest in Iraq since mid-December. Kashmoula said 134 people had been wounded."

Pakistan -- SecDef Gates said the U.S. will send "troops to conduct joint combat operations with Pakistan's military against al-Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan's tribal areas."

Check out Corpus Juris' funny video post below. Hilarious! Our hyperbolic media stars... erupt!

[That's all...no more after the jump.]

There's more: "At the end of the day" >>

At the end of the day

Today is the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Looking to 2008 and beyond, "The presidential election is about more than the candidates...Who do you want to make the next Supreme Court appointment?" More from Bluegal at C&L.

Lobbyists on board -- Obama's national co-chair Jim Hodges "is registered to lobby for Hillenbrand Partners, a Chicago-based company that does business with the Federal Home Loan Bank in Atlanta." Others at AP. However, no one rivals super lobby magnet, K Street McCain.

FISA and telecom immunity -- Hillary and Obama have "pledged to support a Dodd-led filibuster." Will they? Repubs think they can "bully and scare the Democrats into passing a law that has everything" Bush wants. Who's the ringleader? Sen. Kitt Bond (R-MO), "vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is at the center." Calling for help, Jane Hamsher asked John Edwards to take the lead.

James Wolcott wrote about the economic meltdown and the "festive run-up to Armageddon" via Kunstler. Wolcott concluded, "Who can we thank in Washington for the mess we're in?" Many. But don't forget Dickhead.

The probe into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys deepened via "a sprawling inquiry launched by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).... Investigators from these offices have been questioning whether senior officials lied to Congress, violated the criminal provisions in the Hatch Act, tampered with witnesses preparing to testify to Congress, obstructed justice, took improper political considerations into account during the hiring and firing of U.S. attorneys and created widespread problems in the department’s Civil Rights Division, according to several people familiar with the investigation." (h/t Laura Rozen)

Probation officers recommended that Brent Wilkes get 60 years in prison for his part in the Duke Cunningham bribery scandal. Crime doesn't pay unless your name is Bush or Cheney.

Padilla got 17-year sentence that "[marked] a major setback in a terrorism prosecution for the Justice Department." Judge Marcia G. Cooke "criticized the government's treatment of Padilla during the time it held him without charges" and cited "'harsh' conditions that Padilla suffered for 3 1/2 years after he was arrested in 2002."

Letter to President Pervez Musharraf from 100 retired senior officers of the Pakistan Ex-Servicemen's Society -- Resign! McClatchy

Arab Jabour, Iraq -- The "first fatality inflicted by a roadside bomb on an MRAP, the new Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected armored vehicle.... ...more than 1,500 [MRAPs] in Iraq now, and the military plans to purchase more than 15,000 of them at a cost of $22.4 billion." NYT

Center for Public Integrity launched a website and a searchable database of 385,000 words on prewar Iraq misinformation hyped by Bush and top officials -- Cheney, Rice, Fleischer, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Powell, and McClellan.

CNN headline -- "Black women voters face tough choices." It's Obama vs. Hillary. Ahem! Don't policies matter? (h/t Kieran)

[That's all...no more after the jump.]

There's more: "At the end of the day" >>

Can’t you just smell Musharraf canceling Pakistani elections?

The arrest of people allegedly set to attack Shi’ites and a teen apparently being framed for allegedly taking part in Benazir Bhutto’s assassination seem almost choreographed to give President Pervez Musharraf excuses to further delay, if not cancel, Pakistani parliamentary elections.

Question: How big a price tag is Inter Services Intelligence charging him?

There's more: "Can’t you just smell Musharraf canceling Pakistani elections?" >>

Pakistani police officer: “Mystery crowd” stopped Bhutto motorcade

McClatchy, extending its usual fine job in U.S. reporting to international coverage, has a boatload of new information related to Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.

Some snips and pieces:

A police officer, Ishtiaq Hussain Shah of the Rawalpindi police, who witnessed the assassination said that a mysterious crowd stopped Bhutto'’ car that day, moving her to emerge through the sunroof. …

Bhutto, apparently thinking she was greeting her supporters, emerged through the sunroof of the bulletproof car to wave. …

It was Shah’s job to clear the way for the motorcade. But 10 feet from where he was standing, a man in the crowd wearing a jacket and sunglasses raised his arm and shot at the former prime minister. …

Who organized the crowd is only one of the mysteries two weeks after the assassination. …

The second report emerged in the Pakistani media, with detailed information about the pistol and bomb. It rejects the government's conclusion that Bhutto died when the force of the suicide blast threw her head against the sunroof lever of her car. Such an impact couldn't have fractured her skull, it said. The government refused to confirm the report's authenticity, but a security official verified it to McClatchy.

Really, though, go read the whole thing.

There's more: "Pakistani police officer: “Mystery crowd” stopped Bhutto motorcade" >>

Cover-up in Bhutto assassination

U.S. intelligence claim the suicide bomber in the Benazir Bhutto assassination was there to take out the gunman who actually killed her.:

According to a former high ranking US intelligence official, who wishes to remain anonymous due to the delicate nature of the information, the US intelligence community understands the gunman to have been killed in the blast following Mrs. Bhutto’s assassination.

“He was killed, probably not knowing that the suicide bomber was there,” said this source. “We don’t know for sure if the two men arrived together. We do know that the assassin died in the explosion, and was probably meant to.”

Several other US intelligence officials concur that the bomber was likely "inserted" to “clean up” evidence of the shooting, including eliminating the gunman.

Well, this just adds to the idea that this was in some way a governmental job.

Several questions:

1. Will Scotland Yard’s assist on the assassination investigation come to the same conclusion as an on-the-record finding? If not, how much obstruction will either Musharraf, or somebody in Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, throw up?

Answer? Plenty:

“The investigation will be opaque and less effective than what happened in Lebanon,” said Larry Johnson, former CIA officer and Deputy Director for Transportation Security, Antiterrorism Assistance Training, and Special Operations for the office of Counterterrorism in the US State Department.

Others interviewed for this article share Johnson’s skepticism and believe that the Bush administration will likely look the other way should any connection between Musharraf and the assassination be discovered, because, they say, at this point, the US has “no workable solution” and cannot discontinue support for Musharraf, given the options.

“We are being held hostage to Musharraf’s whim,” said one former intelligence official.

And, don’t you think Musharraf knows what Johnson said?

2. Who is behind the hit? Musharraf directly? Musharraf indirectly? Musharraf not having any advance knowledge? Will an anonymous U.S. intelligence source leak any preliminary ideas, at the least, on that?

(That's all for now, folks.)

There's more: "Cover-up in Bhutto assassination" >>

Bhutto reportedly had info about Pakistani ISI election sabotage

And now, Musharraf is practicing other “sabotage”

Assassinated Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto reportedly had information Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence agency was working to rig the Jan. 8 parliamentary election. And, not trusting BushCo, she was going to present this information to Sen. Arlen Spector and Rep. Patrick Kennedy.

The fraud reportedly was to include fake ballots, and U.S. aid money was being funneled to finance the effort.

I don’t doubt something like this, to be honest. Nor do I doubt President Pervez Musharraf knew ISI was up to something. Exactly what he knew, I don’t know.

Now, the assassination itself. My guess is ISI was behind it. The gunman, as I’ve noted before, is not al-Qaeda/Islamist style. At the same time, the way he was able to penetrate so closely to Bhutto suggests someone who had been spying out the campaign, possibly even someone with at least a tenuous “in.” I doubt Musharraf was involved. He probably figured a mix of ballot-stuffing, martial law and post-election browbeating was enough; in short, I don’t think even he would be that stupid. If nothing else, if Bhutto got to be trouble, he could have revived the old corruption charges against her or invented new ones.

Now, that said, how high in ISI might the assassination plot have gone? Given that a brigadier general is reportedly behind the election fraud, I’d say someone about the same rank would have headed operational planning. Higher ranks may have heard something, but only on a “plausible deniability” basis.

At the same time, could Bhutto have done more to protect herself? She talked to U.S. officials about hiring private U.S. or British bodyguards; the U.S. suggested she look at private Pakistani companies with international reputations who already do things like provide embassy service.

This is a toughie. I can understand the U.S. position that even private U.S. guards would have looked like too much direct involvement by the U.S. On the other hand, if ISI did penetrate the security she had when she was killed, they might have penetrated a private Pakistani company, no matter how sterling its reputation.

But, in either case, she never did beef up her security. Perhaps she had a stereotypical Muslim fatalism expressed in one of two classic words: “kismet” or “inshallah.”

Meanwhile, Musharraf has announced he will suspend the election; a “date certain” has not been announced, and may or may not be on Jan. 2.

There's more: "Bhutto reportedly had info about Pakistani ISI election sabotage" >>

In the latest ‘shock me’ news from Pakistan

First, it’s alleged that Rawalpindi’s police chief, and not Benazir Bhutto’s husband, blocked an autopsy into the exact cause of her death. And, in the totally unsurprising, President Pervez Musharraf sounds like he’s going to (indefinitely?) delay the Jan. 8 parliamentary election.

So, will Bush/Condi Rice actually do something beyond hand-wringing, like cut aid to Pakistan, or something even more serious, like a mild, but visible, set of limited sanctions against the country, and encouraging Musharraf to resign?

This is doubly true now that Britain’s Channel 4 has aired video footage clearly showing Bhutto being shot before the explosion. Gun-wieldng hitman are definitely not the mark of al-Qaeda; I would guess the same to be true of Islamist groups inside Pakistan.

That, the blocked autopsy, (her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, has said the family was against exhumation because it did not trust the government) and the refusal to use international help to investigate, all point to some degree of Pakistani government connection, if not outright collaboration. Simple hand-wringing just won’t cut it.

Meanwhile, political opponents inside Pakistan, and not just Nawaz Sharif, are calling for Musharraf to step down and be replaced by a national unity government. In U.S. politics, its interesting that this was the position adopted by Bill Richardson, then some other “second-tier” Democratic presidential candidates; however, none of the Democratic “big three,” nor any Republicans, have taken up that position.

From where I stand, the tepid response of the Democratic “big three” is yet another reason to question just how much newness they bring to foreign policy, and another reason to not vote for them.

There's more: "In the latest ‘shock me’ news from Pakistan" >>

Nepotism among Bhutto assassination fallout

Benazir Bhutto’s 19-year-old son, Bilawal, reportedly will be named the new head of the Pakistan People's Party. Uhh, in a democracy, you’d actually have a caucus of party leaders or something, even in an emergency like this, and you certainly wouldn’t give the reins to a 19-year-old kid.

That’s even worse than Rajiv Ghandi being named his mom’s successor as head of the Congress Party in India.

There's more: "Nepotism among Bhutto assassination fallout" >>

Bush Once Again Refuses To Allow Crisis To Interrupt Vacation

If anything has been predictable in the administration of George W. Bush, it's that Bush loves his European-style month-long vacations.

And when he's vacationing in Crawford, Bush doesn't like to be interrupted, come hell or high water.

And while, around the globe, politicians are scrambling to cope with the world's latest crisis, the stunning assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Bush has once again shown that his leisure time comes first, before any other priority.

It's not the first time that Bush has relaxed in Crawford while a major crisis was unfolding.

Who can forget how a vacationing Bush casually strummed a guitar in 2005 as Hurricane Katrina unleashed its fury in the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States? Who can forget how Bush ignored officials' warnings about how Katrina could breach levees and put lives at risk?

It wasn't the first time that a vacationing Bush has ignored urgent warnings. After all, in the midst of his 5-week vacation immediately preceding the 9/11 attacks, Bush ignored a Presidential Daily Briefing, hand-delivered to him by CIA officials, who flew from Washington to Crawford in August 2001.

The Aug. 6, 2001 PDB, as we now all know, was titled, "Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S." Bush took no action (and indeed, went fishing later that day).

In the turmoil of the past seven years of Bush's presidency, few things in this world have been predictable. However, one thing that has remained predictable like clockwork is that, when crisis strikes, Bush will put his vacation plans ahead of the interests of the nation, and the world.

On Wednesday, Bush arrived in Crawford for the 69th time of his presidency. In all, Bush has spent an incredible 418 days of his presidency in Crawford. In fact, at the current rate, Bush looks to easily beat Ronald Reagan's record as the president who took the most vacation time while in office.
By Marc McDonald of the progressive blog, BeggarsCanBeChoosers.com

There's more: "Bush Once Again Refuses To Allow Crisis To Interrupt Vacation" >>