Bush Takes up Sword Dancing

While we pay, they play...

Bush- US Should Have Bombed Auschwitz

Please let this madness end.

President Bush had tears in his eyes during an hour-long tour of Israel's Holocaust memorial Friday and told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the U.S. should have bombed Auschwitz to halt the killing, the memorial's chairman said.

Bush emerged from a tour of the Yad Vashem memorial calling it a "sobering reminder" that evil must be resisted, and praising victims for not losing their faith.

Wearing a yarmulke, Bush placed a red-white-and-blue wreath on a stone slab that covers ashes of Holocaust victims taken from six extermination camps. He also lit a torch memorializing the victims.

Bush was visibly moved as he toured the site, said Yad Vashem's chairman, Avner Shalev.

"Twice, I saw tears well up in his eyes," Shalev said.

At one point, Bush viewed aerial photos of the Auschwitz camp taken during the war by U.S. forces and called Rice over to discuss why the American government had decided against bombing the site, Shalev said.

Court Dismisses Legal Challenge Against Musharraf

Wow- what a surprise!

Musharraf Plays Bush for a Fool

Following up on my last post, I thought the following analysis was very good in relation to what is happening in Pakistan now.

Musharraf Plays Bush for a Fool

by Prof. Marjorie Cohn

Pakistan 's President General Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency on November 3rd after the Pakistani Supreme Court indicated it would overturn the results of an illegitimate election that would have extended Musharraf's term as president. Musharraf quickly fired the Supreme Court justices who planned to rule against him. And his declaration of emergency attacked the entire population of Pakistan by suspending fundamental constitutional rights to life and liberty, freedom of speech, assembly and association, and equal protection of the law.

As a result of Musharraf's action, Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry is being held under house arrest, and over 2500 lawyers in different parts of Pakistan have been detained. The detainees include the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association and officials of the Democratic Lawyers Association of Pakistan. The government also ordered that journalists who brought "ridicule or disrepute" to Musharraf could face three years in prison.

The real motivation for Musharraf's declared emergency is not to defend the country against "Islamic extremists," as he claims, but to maintain Musharraf in power. He acted to prevent public protests that lawyers and political parties were organizing. And his scheme is working. Musharraf's new brand-new, hand-picked Supreme Court ruled on Monday that Musharraf can remain in power for five more years.

Meanwhile, the Bush Administration is scurrying around in damage control mode. Musharraf's actions would be very embarrassing for Bush -- if Bush were the type of guy to get embarrassed. After all, Bush has been claiming for the past several years that he wants to spread democracy throughout the Islamic world. Somehow, Musharraf's declared state of emergency, followed by mass arrests of his political opponents, doesn't seem very democratic.

Bush dispatched Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte to Pakistan to talk sense to Musharraf. Negroponte urged Musharraf to end the state of emergency. But Bush's man didn't complain about Musharraf shutting down the Supreme Court and replacing it with his loyalists. Negroponte also failed to tell Musharraf to release the judges and lawyers from prison. So much for democracy and an independent judiciary.

The recipient of nearly $11 billion of U.S. aid since 9/11, Musharraf will cover for his benefactor Bush to keep him from losing face in light of the Pakistani strongman's blatant and tyrannical power grab. Musharraf has agreed that parliamentary elections scheduled for January will proceed and that he will take off his military uniform after the sham elections are held. Of course, Musharraf's jailed political opponents will likely find it difficult to campaign effectively for seats in parliament while incarcerated under a state of martial law.

American citizens whose tax dollars are being used to prop up this ruthless and corrupt regime should demand an accounting of how their money is being spent.

Bush claims that Musharraf is an indispensable ally in his "war against terror," and that money sent to Pakistan supports that goal. It appears from my vantage point, though, that Musharraf is playing Bush for a fool. Musharraf tells Bush he will help destroy the Taliban. However, Pakistani Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy wrote in the November 18 Los Angeles Times that some people in Pakistan believe Musharraf is "secretly supporting the Taliban as a means for countering Indian influence." Moreover, if Musharraf wants to regain and maintain support of the Pakistani people, he will continue to support the Taliban. Hoodbhoy also wrote, "Most Pakistanis see the [Taliban] as America 's enemy, not their own. The Taliban is perceived as the only group standing up against the unwelcome American presence in the region." According to Hoodbhoy, "For more than 25 years, the army has nurtured Islamist radicals as proxy warriors for covert operations on Pakistan 's borders in Kashmir and Afghanistan ."

Hoodbhoy's remarks are corroborated by Adrien Levy, co-author of "Deception: Pakistan , the United States and the Global Nuclear Weapons Conspiracy." Levy told Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!, "The [Musharraf] agenda is to destabilize Afghanistan , to create a government there which is favorable to Islamabad . These are goals which are actually contrary to the goals - very largely contrary to the goals of the West. Yet," Levy, said, "this slowly moving car crash of the U.S. pumping billions of untraceable cash into the Pakistan military has continued since 2001 and we're left with the position where Pakistan is devoid of democracy, democracy is weakened and feeble, and we have just increased instability, quite honestly."

If Congress stands by and does nothing to cut off the funds to Musharraf while he maintains martial law in Pakistan , it will confirm our worst fears that Democrats and Republicans alike are making a sham of our democracy.

Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and the President of the National Lawyers Guild. She is the author of Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law. Her columns are archived at www.marjoriecohn.com.

Bush More Emphatic In Backing Musharraf

Is it any wonder that no one in the world outside of a few Republicans here in the U.S. believe anything that this man says anymore? Bush had this to say about his dictator buddy in Pakistan:

President Bush yesterday offered his strongest support of embattled Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, saying the general "hasn't crossed the line" and "truly is somebody who believes in democracy."

Bush spoke nearly three weeks after Musharraf declared emergency rule, sacked members of the Supreme Court and began a roundup of journalists, lawyers and human rights activists. Musharraf's government yesterday released about 3,000 political prisoners, although 2,000 remain in custody, according to the Interior Ministry.

Let's see- Musharraf sacked the Supreme Court, rounded up journalists, lawyers and human rights activists. Declared emergency rule martial law. Hmmm...sounds like Bush democracy to me! WooHooo!

Oh, and Musharraf is going to shed his military uniform. The change of clothes makes a good leader everytime!

Bush Repeats Third World War Warning

This madness can't end soon enough...

German TV interview:
US president repeats “Third World War” warning
by Ulrich Rippert

Shortly before the arrival on Saturday of German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the president’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, George W. Bush declared, “We definitely need Germany’s help on issues like Iran.”

He thus made it clear that the visit of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) chancellor, which came immediately after the Washington talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, should be seen in direct connection with US threats of war against Iran.

In an interview with the German news channel n-tv, Bush reaffirmed that Iran must put an immediate halt to its uranium enrichment program and repeated his warning of a Third World War. “You know,” he said, “if you want to have a Third World War, you need only drop a nuclear bomb on Israel.” He added that this was “neither a prediction nor a wish.”

Prior to her departure from Berlin, the German chancellor said she would deliver “a clear message” in Texas. She would make “every effort to convince the American president of the need for a diplomatic solution to the nuclear dispute with Iran.” The Financial Times Germany quoted Merkel saying that a military strike “simply cannot be allowed to take place.”

These words were addressed less to Washington than to the German population. The chancellor’s advisers had already stressed to Merkel the need to maintain a certain outward distance from the American president and not make too obvious an adaptation during her visit to the Bush ranch. Her trip should be perceived “as a counterweight” to the visit of Sarkozy, who had just completed “an emotionally-charged ‘reconciliation and hug’ tour through the US capital,” wrote Spiegel Online.

Should she act otherwise, Merkel could expect an adverse reaction from the German public. Her predecessor as chancellor, Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Gerhard Schröder, had assured his re-election in 2002 with rhetoric directed against the Bush administration and the Iraq war, against a background of strong anti-war sentiment among the German people.

But the real attitude of the head of the German government was made clear in her support for tougher sanctions against Teheran. Commenting to the Berliner Zeitung, Merkel said she was banking on “the determination of the international community, including Russia and China.” She added, “If the current talks are not successful, then Germany will also be willing to implement further, tougher sanctions.”

In her remarks to the newspaper, Merkel once again sought to portray sanctions as instruments of a negotiated solution. But this is pure eyewash.

In the Berlin chancellery, everyone is well aware that the strengthening of economic and political pressure against the Iranian government is part of an escalation strategy for a military attack against Iran that has been set in motion by the most aggressive sections of the US administration. Five years ago this was precisely the strategy advanced against Iraq.

In fact, the die in the chancellery had been cast long before. The Berlin government would like to avoid a further military escalation in the Middle East and fears an uncontrollable conflagration with unforeseeable consequences. But if the American war preparations against Tehran are put into effect, the chancellor and her Social Democratic foreign minister will line up with Washington. This is the real message Merkel took to Crawford.

Behind the warm images of friendly hugs and congenial walks in the woods by Merkel and Bush lies the complicity of imperialist regimes on the eve of a new military adventure which will have devastating consequences.

There are several reasons for the shift in foreign policy in Paris and Berlin. It is not predominantly a result of a change of government in both countries. Rather, the Iraq war and the military and economic disaster it has produced have permanently changed relations between the major powers.

For months, Berlin government circles have been discussing how best, in the words of former foreign minister and Green Party leader Joschka Fischer, to respond “to the self-imposed decline of the United States.” Bush’s repeated declaration, “We need the Germans,” was registered with satisfaction in Berlin. The German government is once again ambitiously seeking to increase its sphere of influence as a world power and believes that, at least at this stage, it is preferable to pursue its own imperialist interests as a junior partner of Washington.

The chancellor’s own position with regard to relations with Washington is in line with her past policy. She uncritically endorsed Bush’s war policy from the very outset.

Like many leading figures in Eastern European politics, Merkel was politicized during the collapse of the Stalinist regime. Her anti-communism and her enthusiasm for capitalism are closely linked to a fascination with the unrestrained enrichment of the corporate elite that has taken place in the United States, as well as its claim to global political supremacy.

By giving support to Bush, the German as well as the French governments are complicit in the preparation of a wider war in the Middle East, which, given the growing tensions with Russia and China, will have far graver consequences than the Iraq war and could easily escalate into a global confrontation. In this context, Bush’s warnings of a Third World War must be taken very seriously.

The friendly hugs and mutual praise between Bush and Merkel should not be mistaken for a resolution of growing transatlantic tensions. The United States on its side had been closely observing the growing aggressiveness of German foreign policy.

According to the latest edition of the monthly Iran Report, published by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, fierce confrontations have taken place between government representatives from the United States, France and Germany over their respective economic activities in Iran.

According to the report, German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier (SPD) accused the American government of being hypocritical. He charged the US government with imposing sanctions to curb the expansion of the German economy in its major market of Iran while facilitating the operations of American firms through front companies operating from Dubai.

Under the headline “Germany No Longer Iran’s Leading Trading Partner,” the report declares that “after nearly three decades” the German economy will have to cede to China its role as leading trade partner with Iran.

Working people must be on guard and draw their own conclusions. Support for Washington’s war policy means a return to imperialist politics in its most aggressive and brutal form.

This trend is not limited just to German foreign policy. In the past, “stability” in terms of foreign and domestic policy was closely bound up with so-called “social partnership” and the maintenance of a degree of social harmony in Germany and other European countries. A return to imperialist militarism means a new stage in the assault on social and democratic rights.

Bhutto- Musharraf Must Go!

In the latest news from Pakistan, it appears that opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has called for Gen. Musharraf to step down. She also ruled out a power sharing agreement with him in the future. The AP reports

Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Tuesday called on President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to resign and ruled out serving under him in a future government after she was placed under house arrest for the second time in five days.

With the political turmoil deepening, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte was headed to Pakistan and expected to reiterate Washington's calls for Musharraf to lift the state of emergency.

Musharraf's critics and chief international backers, including the United States, have said the restrictions imposed by the military leader — such as on independent media and rallies — would make it hard to hold a fair vote in upcoming parliamentary elections.

Bhutto was trapped in a padlocked house surrounded by thousands of riot police, trucks, tractors loaded with sand, and a row of metal barricades topped with barbed wire. She said it was now likely her Pakistan People's Party would boycott the January elections and ruled out serving another term as prime minister under Musharraf.

"I simply won't be able to believe anything he said to me," she told reporters by telephone from the house in Lahore where she was held to prevent her leading a protest procession.

Pakistan definitely deserves a close watch as this situation could have many unintended consequences. The US has propped up an unpopular government with Musharraf for many years and the people of Pakistan are not exactly falling over themselves to see him stay in power. The Law of Unintended Consequences could be rearing its ugly head...

Bhutto Supporters Take to the Streets

The situation in Pakistan is ever evolving and becomes larger by the day. According to MSNBC, backers of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and police clashed outside of Parliament. They report:

Police swung batons and fired tear gas at supporters of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto near Pakistan's Parliament on Wednesday, deepening a political crisis triggered by the imposition of military rule.

Earlier, Bhutto called on supporters to defy a ban on protesting the emergency declaration “at all costs,” even as the government threatened to crush her demonstrations.

Outside the parliament building, Associated Press reporters saw hundreds of protesters pushing metal barricades into ranks of riot police blocking their path. Police beat several activists who broke through, and dragged at least three away from the scene.

Just what the outcome of this will be remains a mystery. Will the U.S. and other Western powers continue to back dictator President Musharraf or will they embrace a change of course in Pakistan. With all the constant talk of spreading 'liberty' and 'democracy' (whatever the hell that really means), it would seem to be a no-brainer.

Isreal to Attack Hizballah?

This doesn't sound good.

The Crisis in Pakistan

The first large scale demonstrations since the declaration of emergency rule in Pakistan by Musharraf broke out on Monday when thousands of lawyers took to the streets across Pakistan. Police used both tear gas and batons to break up the demonstrations.

The Washington Post reports:

The largest rally took place in the eastern city of Lahore, where lawyers and police battled each other at the city's High Court complex. Several lawyers were injured, and hundreds were arrested before the protesters were dispersed.

Lawyers vowed to continue their protests in the coming days.

"We are determined that until there is freedom for the judges and the overturn of emergency rule, this will war will continue," said Anwar Shaheen, a lawyer in Lahore. "They can't quiet us."

Skirmishes also took place in the western city of Peshawar and the southern city of Karachi. In Islamabad, hundreds of lawyers shouting "Go Musharraf, go!" and "Musharraf is a dog!" protested at the districts courts, but were blocked from taking their procession to the streets.

"He has held the whole nation of 160 million people hostage, just with the backing of the gun and the Western powers," said one protesting lawyer, M.S. Moghul.

This situation has the potential not only to grow inside of Pakistan itself, but perhaps even spread to other countries in the region. Over at TPM Cafe, Steve Clemons has a great article about this in which he states:

"The fact is that governance in a region that is ambivalent about America, Europe and the West in general is becoming more complicated everywhere in the Middle East and South Asia. And it is America's failure in Iraq, its unwillingness to deliver on Palestine, and its bellicosity and hubris that are motivating the Muslim street against those perceived to be aligned with American interests."

This is an issue that we all need to keep an eye on. It will be interesting in the next few days to see if the U.S. will acknowledge the desires of the Pakistani people (i.e. democracy) or throw their weight behind Musharraf.

Here's a clip regarding the situation there.

Countdown to Iraq- or is it Iran?

Listening to the news this morning, one thing became crystal clear. The calls for action in regards to Iran are growing more with each passing day. The media, who were all dead wrong about Iraq, seems to have no collective memory of the mistakes that were made before that disaster and are ready for the next adventure.

I had planned to write extensively about this but instead would like to share this movie with you which shows the many deceptions and outright falsehoods in the buildup to the war in Iraq. We must be careful not to repeat the same mistakes again.