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U.S. shows weapons it says tie Iran to Iraq - International Herald Tribune

The extraordinary presentation of evidence is bound to generate skepticism among those suspicious that the Bush administration is trying to find a scapegoat for its problems in Iraq and — some observers believe — looking for an excuse to attack Iran.

Blowup? America's Hidden War With Iran - Newsweek: World News - MSNBC.com

At least one former White House official contends that some Bush advisers secretly want an excuse to attack Iran. "They intend to be as provocative as possible and make the Iranians do something [America] would be forced to retaliate for," says Hillary Mann, the administration's former National Security Council director for Iran and Persian Gulf Affairs.

Top General Backs Away From Iran Claim, Chairman Of Joint Chiefs Says No Indication That Iranian Government Arming Iraq Militants - CBS News

That does not translate that the Iranian government per se, for sure, is directly involved in doing this, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. What it does say is that things made in Iran are being used in Iraq to kill coalition soldiers.

The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Dems attack Bremer for doling cash in Iraq

Waxman wanted to know how the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) could have shipped $12 billion in cash from the Federal Reserve in New York to Baghdad and handed it over to Iraqi ministries with only the sketchiest accounting controls. The cash, all 363 tons of it, was shrink-wrapped into $400,000 bricks and carried on C-130 cargo planes.

U.S. wastes billions in Iraq

A top Pentagon auditor told a congressional panel Thursday that $10 billion in contracts for Iraq reconstruction and troop support were excessive or undocumented...Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the committee, said further audits could find more questionable spending. "There's $300 billion still to audit. The total amount of waste, fraud and abuse could be astronomical," Waxman said.

Iran denies arms sent to militias - baltimoresun.com

So while they presented a circumstantial case, I would put to you that it was a very strong circumstantial case, said Sean McCormack, State Department spokesman.

Daily Herald | North Korea deal

One provision that conservatives find particularly troubling could allow North Korea to be removed from a list of terror-sponsoring states. One of Bush's deputy national security advisers, Elliott Abrams, raised alarms about that section in a series of e-mails.

Andrew Cockburn: In Iraq, Anyone Can Make a Bomb

Far from a sophisticated assembly operation that might require state supervision, all that is required is one of those disks, some high-powered explosive (which is easy to procure in Iraq) and a container, such as a piece of pipe. I asked a Pentagon analyst specializing in such devices how much each one would cost to make. Twenty bucks, he answered after a brief calculation. Thirty at most.

Kevin Zeese: A Congressional Kabuki Show

What this means is we pass the non-binding resolution, yet Congress is not truly exercising its authority to end this war. The only way Congress can do that is by cutting off funds, said Rep. Kucinich (D-OH) who is running for president as an anti-war candidate. "Once the president gets the supplemental he'll have enough money to continue the war to the very end of his term--and enough money to attack Iran." The Republicans were stuck in a box when the Democrats refused to allow any amendments to House Concurrent Resolution 63. They were mocked by Dana Milbank of the Washington Post for the inconsistency of their arguments, on the one hand they pointed out that the Resolution being debated was non-binding and therefore a meaningless gesture that would not stop the war. On the other hand they argued that the Resolution would be catastrophic, it would undermine the morale of the troops and result in U.S. enemies seeing that the U.S. is divided.

M. Parenti - Mystery: How Wealth Creates Poverty in the World

There is a "mystery" we must explain: How is it that as corporate investments and foreign aid and international loans to poor countries have increased dramatically throughout the world over the last half century, so has poverty? The number of people living in poverty is growing at a faster rate than the world's population. What do we make of this?

Insurgents — They Buy American

According to the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, about 14,000 of the weapons bought (with your tax dollars!) for distribution to Iraqi security forces got, um, misplaced somewhere between getting to Iraq and being transferred to the Iraqi army and police. Instead, analysts say, many of those weapons ended up in the hands of You Know Who. And that's not even counting the weapons that do get delivered to the Iraqi forces but are "lost," and then reappear shortly thereafter in black market weapons bazaars, where they can be bought by the bad guys and used against our troops. Is Bush aware that an agency of the U.S. government is providing weapons to the Iraqi insurgents?

Money for Nothing: Iraq War Funding, 2004 to 2007

If the supplemental war funding bill is passed, Congress will have approved $44.6 billion for Procurement this year alone-nearly as much as the $47.3 billion approved by Congress for the past three years combined.

Pressing Allies, President Warns of Afghan Battle - New York Times

The remarks, to the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research organization here, amounted to an unusually high-profile acknowledgment from Mr. Bush of the precarious state of the effort to stabilize Afghanistan, a country the administration long held up as a foreign policy success story. The speech renewed criticism from Democrats that had the United States not been tied down in Iraq, the situation in Afghanistan would not have turned dire. At the same time, some Republican lawmakers said Mr. Bush's new strategy would not do enough to tamp down the Afghan drug trade. Outside experts criticized the president for painting too rosy a picture.

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Newsnight | Zambia loses 'vulture fund' case

Michael Sheehan - who uses a domain called Goldfinger and who was "doorstepped" on Tuesday's Newsnight with Greg Palast had hoped to claim $42 million plus $13 million interest for the firm Donegal International. Justice Smith struck out some of the payments as penal but has ordered Zambia to pay around $20 million.

Democracy Now! | "Vulture Fund" Company Seeks $40 Million Payment from Zambia on $4 Million Debt

"Vulture fund" companies buy up the debt of poor countries at cheap prices, and then demand payments much higher than the original amount of the debt, often taking poor countries to court when they cannot afford to repay. Investigative journalist Greg Palast reports on one company trying to collect $40 million from the government of Zambia after buying its debt for $4 million.

Vulture fund - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A vulture fund is a financial organization that specializes in buying securities in distressed environments, such as high-yield bonds in or near default, or equities that are in or near bankruptcy.

ZoomInfo Web Summary: Paul Singer

Paul Singer is General Partner at Elliot Associates, L.P. (EALP), a New York hedge fund. EALP and its off-shore sister fund, Elliot International Limited (EIL), has one of the most stable and consistent long-term perfomrance records of any hedge fund group in the world. Mr. Singer practiced corporate and securities law in New York before forming EALP in 1977. He is a graduate of the University of Rochester and Harvard Law School. Mr. Singer is a Trustee of the Manhattan Institute and a Director of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.

Lobbying Spending Database: Debt Advisory International Summary, 2005

Debt Advisory International does not include its subsidiaries' expenses in its self-filed report, so all expenditures are summed for Total Lobbying Expenditures

Attention for serious ideas - Commentary - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

Mr. Obama called prime minister John Howard's bluff, pointing out that Australia has deployed 1,400 troops to Iraq compared to almost 140,000 who are there from the U.S. and gave the PM a challenge: If he's ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq. I would suggest he call up another 20,000 Australians and send them up to Iraq.

Pantagraph.com | News | War resolution divides Illinois congressional delegation

U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, a Republican from Urbana, says he will join a handful of Republican congressmen who oppose the deployment. "This derives from his own observation of the president's execution of this war," Johnson spokesman Phil Bloomer said. "They want out (of Iraq) sooner rather than later; he does not want to have to be talking about this in two years."

The Santa Barbara Independent :: online onlys :: UCSB Students Protest War, Block Highway 217

(T)he class walkout—which some students disobeyed, even if they purported to support the protest—paled in comparison to the literal walk down the principal highway leading into campus, which stopped traffic.

Murtha charts plan to require troop cuts / House critic wants conditions on how Bush prosecutes war

One of the most powerful congressional critics of the Iraq war spelled out in detail how House Democrats plan to force President Bush to reduce the U.S. military commitment in Iraq in the months ahead after today's vote opposing Bush's plan to send more combat troops into the war.

Iran Revolutionary Guards: Unit engraved emblem on U.S. ship - Haaretz - Israel News

Nur Ali Shushkari, the head of the Revolutionary Guards ground forces, told Iranian pro-government news agencies that the symbol was etched onto the ship by the crew of a submarine that had managed to reach the U.S. vessel without detection by radar.

Krugman Warns About Hyping Iran Threat -- That His Own Paper Pushed

Now, let's do an O. J. Simpson: if you were determined to start a war with Iran, how would you do it? First, you'd set up a special intelligence unit to cook up rationales for war. A good model would be the Pentagon's now-infamous Office of Special Plans, led by Abram Shulsky, that helped sell the Iraq war with false claims about links to Al Qaeda. Sure enough, last year Donald Rumsfeld set up a new "Iranian directorate" inside the Pentagon's policy shop....

YOUR NIGHTLY VIDEO: President Rush Limbaugh and Veep Ann Coulter? This Must Be The New Fox Comedy Show

As you may have heard, Fox News is launching its answer to Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" this Sunday. It's called "The 1/2 Hour News Hour."

Dana Milbank - A Man of Many Beliefs Gives a News Conference With Few Answers - washingtonpost.com

Bush has always supported a faith-based initiative, but his recitation of beliefs in the East Room yesterday -- he listed no fewer than 18 principles he holds to be true -- sounded less like a question-and-answer session than a reading of the Nicene Creed. The only thing the president did not believe in was answering the questions he was asked.