11/17 - Richard A. Clarke
- Weakened Update. The Senate voted 79-19 on November 15 in favor of S.A. 2518, an amendment that would require the president to submit unclassified reports on U.S. military operations in Iraq every three months. Such reports would include the status of efforts to train Iraqi security forces and the number of battalions of Iraqi forces that can operate independently in counterinsurgency operations. The amendment also stated the Senate's belief that "calendar year 2006 should be a period of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty, with Iraqi security forces taking the lead for the security of a free and sovereign Iraq, thereby creating the conditions for the phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq."
In passing this amendment, the Senate voted 50-48 to reject a similar Democratic proposal that also would have required the president to submit a "campaign plan with estimated dates for the phased redeployment of the United States Armed Forces from Iraq."
The status of Iraq military training has become an important barometer of U.S. success in Iraq, especially since Bush has said several times that U.S. troop withdrawals would occur only once Iraqi forces were prepared to defend themselves.
- Get Rich or Try Lying. The Washington Post reported on November 16 that a White House document showed that executives from big oil companies met with aides from Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 as the task force was developing a national energy plan issued in May 2001 (on-line here). Some criticized the secret manner in which the task force did its work, accusing the task force of giving energy industry executives and lobbyists improper influence over energy policies and legislation, and some advocacy and environmental groups brought a lawsuit to get information about the task force's meetings.
Three oil executives reportedly denied participating in these meetings at a November 9 Senate hearing about their companies' profits and about high gas prices; two others said that they did not know. Oil executives were not required to take an oath before speaking at the hearing; statements from the hearing are on-line here.
- Cheney Speech. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have defended their administration's handling of pre-war intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and attacked Democratic critics in recent speeches (Bush's November 11 speech is on-line here and Cheney's November 16 speech is on-line here).
"While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began," Bush said. "Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war. These critics are fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments related to Iraq's weapons programs."
Bush was referring to the Senate Intelligence Committee, which released a report on July 7, 2004 in which it concluded that most of the major judgments in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate about Iraq – especially the judgment that Iraq "is reconstituting its nuclear program," "has chemical and biological weapons," and was actively developing biological weapons – were overstated or not supported by the underlying intelligence. The Senate Intelligence Committee also concluded that the intelligence community "suffered from a collective presumption that Iraq had an active and growing weapons of mass destruction program" and that this presumption was so strong "that formalized [intelligence community] mechanisms established to challenge assumptions and group think were not utilized."
As Bush cited, the committee reported that it "did not find any evidence that intelligence analysts changed their judgments [about Iraq] as a result of political pressure, altered or produced intelligence products to conform with Administration policy, or that anyone even attempted to coerce, influence or pressure analysts to do so. When asked whether analysts were pressured in any way to alter their assessments or make their judgments conform with Administration policies on Iraq's WMD programs, not a single analyst answered 'yes.'" See pages 272-85 of the report, which is available on-line here.
- Reference to Mohammed Atta. The existence of some link between Iraq and al-Qaeda rests in part on an allegation that Mohammed Atta, one of the planners of and pilots in the 9/11 attacks, met with an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague on April 9, 2001. Vice President Dick Cheney did say on December 9, 2001 (on-line here) that a Czech report that Atta had had that meeting in Prague had been "pretty well confirmed." "Now, what the purpose of that was, what transpired between them, we simply don't know at this point. But that's clearly an avenue that we want to pursue," Cheney said before going on to talk about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
The 9/11 Commission found no evidence to support that allegation, noting in its report that Atta was seen in Virginia on April 4, that his cell phone was used numerous times within Florida on April 6, 9, 10, and 11, and that he was seen in Florida on April 11. "The available evidence does not support the original Czech report of an Atta-Ani meeting."
11/16 - John Hodgman
- Reference to Senate Vote. The Senate voted 79-19 on November 15 in favor of S.A. 2518, an amendment that would require the president to submit unclassified reports on U.S. military operations in Iraq every three months. Such reports would include the status of efforts to train Iraqi security forces and the number of battalions of Iraqi forces that can operate independently in counterinsurgency operations. The Senate voted 50-48 against a similar amendment that also would have required the president to submit a "campaign plan with estimated dates for the phased redeployment of the United States Armed Forces from Iraq." President George W. Bush said of the Senate vote that his administration was "more than willing" to report on progress in Iraq (transcript on-line here).
The status of Iraq military training has become an important barometer of U.S. success in Iraq, especially since Bush has said several times that U.S. troop withdrawals would occur only once Iraqi forces were prepared to defend themselves.
Bush said in an October 1, 2005 radio address (on-line here), that the Iraqi security forces had at that time "more than 100 battalions operating throughout the country, and our commanders report that the Iraqi forces are serving with increasing effectiveness."
However, some said this was inconsistent with a statement by General George Casey in a September 29 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that the number of battalions classified as trained at a level one rating had gone from three to one. Casey said during a September 30 press briefing (on-line here) that unit readiness fluctuates naturally, that the level one standard is "very, very high" and that "[w]e set that standard knowing full well that it was going to be a long time before all Iraqi units got in that category. And so the fact that there's only one or three units, that is not necessarily important to me right now. Next year at this time, I'll be much more concerned about it. Right now I'm not."
Casey said that the more relevant measurement was the number of battalions trained at level two. "[W]hile these numbers are classified, the numbers of units in level two have doubled since May. So that's where we should be focusing our attention at this point," he said.
- Moments of Zen. President George W. Bush left on a weeklong trip to Asia on November 14; he will visit Japan, South Korea, China and Mongolia. A transcript of his November 16 speech about freedom is on-line here. National Security advisor Stephen Hadley discussed the trip in a November 10 press briefing on-line here.
- Indecision 2008. Gallup polls taken in August 2005 found that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Senator John McCain and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were the most popular choices among Republicans for their 2008 nominee, and that Senator Hillary Clinton was the clear favorite among Democrats for their 2008 nominee, with 2004 candidates Sen. John Kerry and former Sen. John Edwards following.
11/15 - Rosario Dawson
- Crossing Jordan. Terrorist attacks resulted in 57 deaths at three hotels in Amman, Jordan on November 9; Sajida Mubarak al-Rishawi, who reportedly confessed to participating in the attacks, reportedly had walked into one of the hotels with a belt of explosives but failed to detonate because she had left a component behind.
- Why are They Now? Ahmed Chalabi, who has been accused of giving bad information about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capabilities to the United States before the war, met with several Bush administration officials during a November visit. Chalabi is part of the current transitional Iraqi government as a deputy prime minister of the Iraqi cabinet approved by the transitional legislature in April.
When asked on November 9 about the apparent irony of Chalabi's visit, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that Chalabi was "one of a number of elected leaders who have visited Washington in recent months, and we believe it's very important to work closely with the Iraqi government and their leaders to advance democracy, build prosperity, and improve security for the Iraqi people" (transcript on-line here). Also, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley downplayed on November 10 (transcript on-line here) the pre-war role played by Chalabi's organization, the Iraqi National Congress, saying that "intelligence that came from the INC had a minimal impact on any judgments of the intelligence community in preparing the intelligence that went forward to the President and to others."
Chalabi, a Shiite Muslim, lived much of his life outside Iraq. Educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a mathematician, he lived in Iraq but then fled in 1958, around the time that the ruling Hashemite family was overthrown and King Faysal II killed but about a decade before the Ba'ath Party of which Saddam Hussein was a member took power in another coup. Chalabi went to Jordan, where he founded a bank, but left in 1989 amidst charges of embezzlement. Chalabi was convicted in absentia but claimed that Jordan had been pressured by Iraq into harassing him.
Iraqi groups opposing Saddam Hussein's rule met after the Gulf War and formed the Iraqi National Congress, a group that appeared to pose a viable alternative. Chalabi was selected to run the INC. In the mid-1990s, the INC recruited an army but achieved little success. The INC then received millions of dollars from the United States under the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, which made regime change in Iraq the policy of the United States and provided funding to opposition groups.
After Saddam Hussein was removed from power, the United States appeared to give much support to Chalabi as a possible leader. Chalabi and about 700 fighters from the Iraqi National Congress were airlifted by the United States from northern Iraq shortly after the beginning of combat operations, and Chalabi was the head of finance of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council that controlled Iraq after Hussein's fall and before the return of sovereignty in June 2004.
However, questions began arising about Chalabi and his loyalties in early 2004, especially as U.S. weapons inspectors failed to find the weapons of mass destruction that so many had believed would be found. Chalabi was then accused of providing information to Iran and of giving false information to the United States government as well as to reporters. In May, Iraqi police raided the INC compound, raising more questions about Chalabi.
In June 2004, President George W. Bush tried to distance himself from Chalabi. "My meetings with him were very brief. I mean, I think I met with him at the State of the Union and just kind of working through the tope line, and he might have come with a group of leaders. But I haven't had any extensive conversations with him," Bush said on June 1 (transcript on-line here).
- Back in Black. California voters rejected eight ballot measures on November 8, including four pushed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger which would have increased the time teachers have to work before they get tenure (Proposition #74), prohibited political contributions by public-employee unions without individual employees' prior consent (Prohibition #75), limited state spending (Proposition #76), and removed direct redistricting powers from legislators (Proposition #77).
High-school senior Michael Sessions, 18, won the campaign for mayor of Hillsdale, Michigan on November 8, beating incumbent mayor Doug Ingles by two votes according to official election results, though Ingles reportedly could seek a recount. Sessions reportedly plans to complete his high-school studies and to attend Hillsdale College next year while fulfilling his mayoral duties. Hillsdale is located in south central Michigan near Indiana and Ohio and is on-line here.
11/14 - Martha Stewart
- The Amazing Rice. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Iraq on November 11 during a trip to the Middle East and Asia; it was her third visit to Iraq and her second during her tenure as Secretary of State. Some remarks from this visit are on-line here. Iraq recently voted to approve the constitution for a permanent government, and is scheduled to hold elections on December 15 to elect the permanent government, with that government taking control by December 31.
- War Story 2. President George W. Bush defended his administration's handling of pre-war intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in a November 11 speech (transcript on-line here). "While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began," Bush said. "Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war. These critics are fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments related to Iraq's weapons programs."
Bush was referring to the Senate Intelligence Committee, which released a report on July 7, 2004 in which it concluded that most of the major judgments in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate about Iraq – especially the judgment that Iraq "is reconstituting its nuclear program," "has chemical and biological weapons," and was actively developing biological weapons – were overstated or not supported by the underlying intelligence. The Senate Intelligence Committee also concluded that the intelligence community "suffered from a collective presumption that Iraq had an active and growing weapons of mass destruction program" and that this presumption was so strong "that formalized [intelligence community] mechanisms established to challenge assumptions and group think were not utilized."
As Bush cited, the committee reported that it "did not find any evidence that intelligence analysts changed their judgments [about Iraq] as a result of political pressure, altered or produced intelligence products to conform with Administration policy, or that anyone even attempted to coerce, influence or pressure analysts to do so. When asked whether analysts were pressured in any way to alter their assessments or make their judgments conform with Administration policies on Iraq's WMD programs, not a single analyst answered 'yes.'" See pages 272-85 of the report, which is available on-line here.
The Senate Intelligence Committee had agreed in February 2004 to review additional issues such as whether U.S. government officials' prewar statements about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were justified, but did not address them in its July 2004 report. The Senate held a closed session on November 1 to discuss the status of this additional review. Following the closed session, senators agreed to have a bipartisan group evaluate the status of the review and report back by November 14.
Republicans and Democrats clashed after the closed session regarding who had delayed the progress of the report thus far. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kansas), Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a November 1 statement (on-line here) that some work had been finished long ago, that Democrats had "obstructed" his presentation of this work in a May 17, 2005 meeting, and that Republicans had informed Democratic staff on October 31 that they wanted to conclude the work. Senator Nelson Rockefeller (D-West Virginia), ranking Democratic members of the intelligence committee, said in a November 1 statement (on-line here) that Democrats' questioning of the White House's actions had been "thwarted" and said in a November 2 statement (on-line here) that Roberts' recollection of the May 17 meeting was incorrect. "The important fact that should be known is that no committee member has seen one page of a draft report related to the Phase II investigation into prewar intelligence," Rockefeller said.
- Martha Stewart. Martha Stewart severed a five-month prison sentence ending in March 2005 after being convicted on March 5, 2004 of four felonies relating to her selling stock of ImClone Systems Incorporated using insider information. She was not convicted of insider trading but of charges related to her alleged cover-up, specifically: (1) conspiring to obstruct justice, make false statements and commit perjury, (2) making false statements to federal agents on February 4, 2002, (3) making false statements to federal agents on April 10, 2002, and (4) obstructing justice.
11/10 - Chris Elliott
- Presidential Medals of Freedom. Citations for the Presidential Medals of Freedom given on November 9 are on-line here.
- That's Oil Folks. Five top oil executives spoke about their companies' profits and high gas prices at a November 9 Senate hearing; they were not required to take an oath before speaking. Statements from the hearing are on-line here.
U.S. retail gasoline prices (info on-line here) have increased dramatically in recent years, with retail gasoline prices increasing from about $1.00 a gallon in January 2002 to $2.20 in April 2005. Prices jumped to $3.04 per gallon as of early September 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast states and the oil refineries there; such prices were highs even when inflation is taken into account; gasoline in the 1970s cost around $3 per gallon when adjusted. Prices then declined to $2.34 per gallon by early November.
Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras also testified in the November 9 hearing (release on-line here), saying that the FTC was monitoring gas prices and that hurricane damage to Gulf Coast oil infrastructure may effect prices for months. She said that federal legislation preventing "price gouging" could be difficult to enforce and "would unnecessarily hurt consumers," and that use of current antitrust laws would be better.
- This Week in God. Gulf-based TV network MBC recently aired an Arabic version of The Simpsons, using popular Arabic actors for the voices. An article is on-line here.
Anne Rice has information about her new book Christ the Lord on-line here.
Many cities in France experienced civil unrest since October 27, when two youths, Zyed Benna and Bouna Traore, reportedly died in an electrical accident while trying to avoid questioning by police regarding a possible break-in at a construction site. There reportedly were incidents in more than 200 towns and around 400 arrests on November 6, the 11th day of the unrest, and the first death resulting from the unrest occurred on November 7, when a French man died from injuries he had sustained days earlier.
The United Methodist Church's highest court defrocked a lesbian minister in Philadelphia on October 31, 2005. Rev. Irene Stroud, who told her congregation in 2003 of her relationship with another woman, was convicted in December 2004 of ministers for "practices declared by the United Methodist Church to be incompatible with Christian teaching;" the conviction was overturned on appeal but then re-instated with the October 31 decision.
