Not a terrorist, he just plays one on teevee: LATimes
In March, he was declared captured. In May, he was declared killed, and his purported corpse was displayed on state-run TV. But on Wednesday, Abu Omar Baghdadi, the supposed leader of an Al Qaeda-affiliated group in Iraq, was declared nonexistent by U.S. military officials, who said he was a fictional character created to give an Iraqi face to a foreign-run terrorist organization.
An Iraqi actor has been used to read statements attributed to Baghdadi, who since October has been identified as the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq group, said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner.
Bergner said the new information came from a man captured July 4, described as the highest-ranking Iraqi within the Islamic State of Iraq…
…There was no way to confirm the military’s claim, which comes at a time of heightened pressure on the White House to justify keeping U.S. troops in Iraq. Critics of the Bush administration say the president has been trying to do so by linking Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist network to the conflict in Iraq, even though the organization had no substantial presence here until after the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003.
“The same people that attacked us on September the 11th is the crowd that is now bombing people” in Iraq, Bush said Tuesday.
ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) – Turkey’s army heavily shelled Kurdish rebel targets just inside the border of northern Iraq on Wednesday, Kurdish officials said on Thursday.
Iraq’s government condemned the latest shelling of its semi-autonomous Kurdistan region and urged Turkey to hold talks to resolve Ankara’s concerns about rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who are based in the border area.[.]
LONDON (Reuters) – An analysis of thousands of skulls shows modern humans originated from a single point in Africa and finally lays to rest the idea of multiple origins, British scientists said on Wednesday.
Most researchers agree that mankind spread out of Africa starting about 50,000 years ago, quickly establishing Stone Age cultures throughout Europe, Asia and Australia.
But a minority have argued, using skull data, that divergent populations evolved independently in different areas.
The genetic evidence has always strongly supported the single origin theory, and now results from a study of more than 6,000 skulls held around the world in academic collections supports this case.[.]
jim miklaszewski [nbc pentagon correspondent] appears to have misplaced his ethics…assuming he ever had any:
This spring, NBC chief Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski took $30,000 from the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce to address its Business EXPO 2007. During his talk, Miklaszewski attacked a prominent presidential candidate.
As Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz pointed out in 2002, professional journalists accepting fees for speaking engagements is widely frowned upon by the media and a* “number of news organizations including, ABC and NBC, [have] banned the practice.”
Just last year, Media Matters for America noted the apparent conflict of interest and violation of NBC’s ban on paid speaking gigs when Chris Matthews received “tens of thousands of dollars in exchange for delivering speeches to corporate interest groups.” Controversy surrounding Matthews’ speaking fees prompted then MSNBC president Rick Kaplan to clarify that NBC policy prohibited anchors from personally accepting speaking fees and anyone who did so *”would risk being fired.”
[…]
Put simply, an NBC correspondent took $30,000 from the business lobby to give a speech — then, during the speech, he attacked a candidate whose policies the lobby opposes. This is deeply unethical, to say the least.
[…]
…As a respected and influential journalist, Miklaszewski has a reputation to uphold as a serious and objective source of information on air and off. Calling a presidential candidate a “loser” over a haircut would be absurd enough. Doing so after taking $30,000 from special interests opposed to that candidate is scandalous.
For a journalist to make such comments is irresponsible — to be paid to make them is inexcusable.
The chancellor, Alistair Darling, today became the most senior member of the cabinet to admit he had smoked cannabis “occasionally in my youth”.
The shock admission, from the minister best known as a “safe pair of hands”, came after the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, revealed that she had dabbled with the drug during her university days.
[…]
The Treasury confirmed that Mr Darling and the chief secretary to the Treasury, Andy Burnham, had both tried the drug.
“The chief secretary said he had tried it one or two times at university but never since,” a spokesman said.
To the astonishment of colleagues, the transport secretary, Ruth Kelly, a devout Catholic, also admitted today that she had smoked the drug as an undergraduate.
The work and pensions secretary, John Hutton, announced that he was another former cannabis user, while the communities secretary, Hazel Blears, and the housing minister, Yvette Cooper, have both previously admitted to smoking dope in their youth.
Asked this morning by GMTV whether she had tried cannabis, Mrs Smith said: “I have. I did when I was at university. I think it was wrong that I smoked it when I did. I have not done for 25 years.”
The Home Office ministers Tony McNulty and Vernon Coaker later admitted that they too had smoked marijuana as students.
What’s the world coming to; the entire UK government filled with pot heads…
considered to be the most important discovery of viking treasure in 150 yrs, the cache contained medieval objects from as far away as afghanistan, russia, scandinavia, and continental europe, dating back to the early 10th century.
“The alleged means by which defendants chose to rebut Mr. Wilson’s comments and attack his credibility may have been highly unsavory, ” Bates wrote. “But there can be no serious dispute that the act of rebutting public criticism, such as that levied by Mr. Wilson against the Bush administration’s handling of prewar foreign intelligence, by speaking with members of the press is within the scope of defendants’ duties as high-level Executive Branch officials.”
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates – activist judge?
Here we have him on record stating that treasonous behavior, such as revealing the identity of a covert agent during wartime is within the scope of duties for the Bush-cronies!!
bush appointee to the district court, 2001, and also appointed to the FISA court in 2006. a real team player when it’s crunch time, pulled cheney’s oil stained ass out of the energy policy lawsuit…brought, btw, by the GAO
…D.C. District Court Judge Bates dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Comptroller of General of the United States brought in furtherance of an investigation by the Government Accounting Office (GAO), which Judge Bates referred to as “an agent of the legislative branch.” The suit sought “to require the Vice President to produce information relating to the President’s decision-making on national energy policy.” Bates dismissed the suit because “the Comptroller General has suffered no personal injury as a private citizen, and any institutional injury exists only in his capacity as an agent of Congress — an entity that itself has issued no subpoena.“
The decision is puzzling given that, according to Bates, “[u]nder statute, the Comptroller General is granted broad authority to carry out investigations and evaluations for the benefit of Congress,” and is specifically authorized under the same statute “to enforce these investigatory powers by bringing a civil action … to require ‘the head of [an] agency to produce a record.” Bates claims, however, that the court does not need to reach the issue of GAO’s powers, since the Comptroller has suffered no injury.
The decision stands in stark contrast to statements made by Bates during his tenure as Deputy Independent Counsel during the Whitewater investigation from 1995 to 1997. He declared that the special prosecutors intended merely to “diligently and properly follow relevant leads in an attempt to discover the truth.”
The nation’s wildfire preparedness was raised to its highest level Thursday as dozens of new fires started in the bone-dry West, including a rapidly growing blaze on the grounds of the Idaho National Laboratory.
The West had been at level four for only a few weeks when officials decided to raise it to level five, effective Thursday.
“It’s driven by a couple of things: The number of large fires we have, and also the fires are occurring in several states and in several geographic areas,” said Randy Eardley, a spokesman for the National Interagency Fire Center. “The resources we have are being stretched thin.” – linkage
Not a terrorist, he just plays one on teevee: LATimes
My head hurts.
Turkish shelling of N.Iraq
They are off to a new front.
Skulls confirm we’re all out of Africa
jim miklaszewski [nbc pentagon correspondent] appears to have misplaced his ethics…assuming he ever had any:
well, if chris matthews can do it….the “risk of being fired” is obviously pretty minimal…and it pays pretty well.
lTMF’sA
Darling, Smith and Kelly all admit smoking cannabis
What’s the world coming to; the entire UK government filled with pot heads…
clik image for article: the telegraph uk
considered to be the most important discovery of viking treasure in 150 yrs, the cache contained medieval objects from as far away as afghanistan, russia, scandinavia, and continental europe, dating back to the early 10th century.
lTMF’sA
Valerie Plame’s case was dismissed
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates – activist judge?
Here we have him on record stating that treasonous behavior, such as revealing the identity of a covert agent during wartime is within the scope of duties for the Bush-cronies!!
IOKIYAR.
It’s well established that Treason is well within the scope of their duties as loyal members of the Party.
kinda likes the bushies….and why not:
bush appointee to the district court, 2001, and also appointed to the FISA court in 2006. a real team player when it’s crunch time, pulled cheney’s oil stained ass out of the energy policy lawsuit…brought, btw, by the GAO
“it’s a small world….but l wouldn’t want to paint it“
stephen wright
lTMF’sA
He can not say the same thing of Valerie Plame.
We’re still on fire here in the West