Documents reveal how defence intelligence staff fought against Labour government using Iraq dossier to make a case for war Newly released documents reveal the full extent to which defence intelligence experts fought – with limited success – to prevent the Labour government exaggerating the September 2002 dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. The disclosure follows the revelation last week that a senior defence intelligence officer told the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq conflict that, contrary to the evidence of former government communications chief Alastair Campbell, the dossier was intended to make a case for war and intelligence had been exaggerated to make this case. The new documents support these claims and longstanding allegations that the dossier was hardened up against the wishes of the intelligence community. The disclosure consists of more than 150 pages of communications from the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) during the process of drafting the dossier. In addition, the Cabinet Office, which produced the dossier, has disclosed a further batch of documents from the DIS and others offering comments during the final stages of drafting. The documents include an email from John Williams, the Foreign Office press secretary at the time, describing a revised draft dossier as persuasive and convincing but suggesting that it should “carry the argument” more vigorously. The papers also reveal an ongoing battle over Iraq’s supposed nuclear programme, with analysts’ doubts and qualifications ignored during the drafting process. In one draft, an analyst added the qualification “probably” to a claim that the programme, on which there was little intelligence, was based on gas centrifuge uranium enrichment. But that qualification was not used in the published dossier. Early drafts of the dossier did not include any estimated timescale for Iraq’s development of a nuclear weapon if it obtained fissile material from abroad. Experts thought this scenario “unlikely” – an assessment that was not included in the published dossier. But the documents show that the DIS was asked to produce such an estimate at a Cabinet Office meeting attended by government communications officials. At first, the DIS produced an estimate of “at least two years”. In an email apparently responding to Cabinet Office dissatisfaction with that timescale, a DIS expert wrote: “We refuse to budge on timelines – two years min….” The documents show that the Cabinet Office continued to question this timescale. Subsequent redrafts reduced it, first to “within two years” and then “one to two years”. The final figure was closer to a claim President George Bush made in a speech to the UN that Iraq could obtain a nuclear weapon “within a year”. The Guardian disclosed last year that this change was made after pressure from Campbell to bring the dossier into line with claims made by the Bush administration. The documents show that claims that Iraq had used the biological agent aflatoxin in 1991 were removed from the dossier because of concerns that they might be used by sufferers of “Gulf war syndrome” to explain their illnesses. One document, which has been heavily redacted, refers to a statement in a draft dossier that “in 1991 Iraq used the biological warfare agent aflatoxin against the Shia population of Karbala”. The DIS analyst wrote: “The information is of great interest but we feel that you should be aware that many of the symptoms of aflatoxin poisoning in animals are similar to those claimed by some Gulf war veterans.” The DIS later clarified its concerns: “The purpose of us writing to the Cabinet Office regarding inclusion of aflatoxin in the dossier is simply to alert them to the possibility that if this information is in the public domain it could be used by Gulf war veterans to explain the illnesses that they are claiming. If Iraq [redacted] aflatoxin [redacted] that our troops were in theatre it is possible that they could well have been exposed.” The redacted sections appear to relate to the possibility that Iraq used aflatoxin during the Gulf war, thereby exposing British troops to its effects. Brian Jones, a former DIS manager who told the 2003 Hutton inquiry of concerns among his colleagues that the dossier had been “over-egged”, told the Guardian: “The documents clearly refute the defence devised in what appears to have been a conspiracy between the Cabinet Office and senior DIS managers: to suggest that most DIS analysts were happy with the dossier and that only myself and one other analyst thought there was a problem. Comparison of the issues raised by a number of analysts over several weeks shows that a large number of them had not been resolved and were allowed to go into the published document. I do hope this is a matter that the Chilcot inquiry will consider.” Iraq war inquiry Iraq Alastair Campbell Chris Ames guardian.co.uk
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• Roadside bomb explodes near vehicles in Peshawar • One passerby dies but US consulate staff escape unharmed • Pakistan Taliban claims responsibility for the attack A roadside bomb exploded near a pair of US consulate vehicles carrying Americans in Peshawar, north-west Pakistan, on Friday, killing a Pakistani passerby and wounding several people including some of the passengers, officials said. The Pakistan Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack. In the wake of the 2 May US raid that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden elsewhere in Pakistan’s north-west, militant groups such as the Pakistani Taliban have vowed revenge attacks including those targeting Americans in Pakistan. A US embassy spokesman, Alberto Rodriguez, said some of the Americans in the vehicle were only slightly wounded, and that only one of the vehicles was damaged during the attack. No high-ranking US official was in the vehicles, which were making routine trips to and from the consulate. Footage from the scene showed that the car apparently hit was a large, SUV. It appeared to have veered into a pole and the bonnet was damaged. Senior police official Shafi Ullah said the vehicle was bulletproof. Nearby buildings also were damaged during the blast. The US consulate in Peshawar is widely believed to be a front for CIA operations, and its employees have been targeted in the past. In August 2008, Lynne Tracy, then the top US diplomat at the consulate, survived a gun attack on her armoured vehicle. Peshawar lies just outside Pakistan’s tribal regions, where al-Qaida and the Taliban have long had hideouts. The city itself has witnessed numerous suicide and other bombings in recent years, including many that have killed security forces and ordinary civilians. The Bin Laden raid in Abbottabad has badly soured Pakistan-US relations. Pakistan is angry it was not warned in advance that the navy Seals would storm the compound, and insists it had no idea that Bin Laden was hiding there. US officials have visited Pakistan in recent days to try to patch up differences. Pakistan Taliban Osama bin Laden United States US foreign policy guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Couric’s Review of CBS Years Finds New Way to Embarrass Palin, Lets Fox and Plame Rage
May 19, 2011 No Comment
Ending her final night as anchor of the CBS Evening News with a “five years in five minutes” video retrospective, Katie Couric went out in sync with how she conducted herself since 2006 – challenging and discrediting conservatives while providing a platform to liberals to disparage conservatives.
Continue reading …Newt Gingrich’s continually changing positions on the Ryan budget, Medicare and the individual mandate for health insurance manages to break Stephen Colbert’s robot, the Pandertron 8000 after Stephen has a bit of trouble reconciling them himself.
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Woman claims she was paid to make up story about injecting her eight-year-old daughter with Botox The Sun has denied claims that it knowingly published a false story about a woman who claimed she injected her eight-year-old daughter with Botox. In a sworn declaration to a California court, Sheena Upton said the tabloid newspaper gave her $200 to pose as “Kerry Campbell” – a mother who injected her daughter Britney with Botox for beauty pageants , TMZ.com reports. The part-time beautician from San Francisco said she then appeared on US TV shows Good Morning America and Inside Edition for an additional fee. Appearing as Campbell, Upton told viewers that she gave her daughter Botox and waxed her bikini line so she would become famous as a teenager. Her deposition came after her daughter was taken into care earlier this week by US child protection officials. “The truth is that I have never given my daughter Botox, nor allowed her to get any type of waxing, nor is she a beauty pageant contestant,” she wrote. Upton said her daughter was examined by a doctor at UCLA who confirmed that the girl had never been injected. The Sun denied it in any way provoked Upton into making up the story, adding that it only ran the article after the reporter who wrote the story watched Upton give Britney what appeared to be Botox injections. “The Sun strongly denies any suggestion it solicited or knowingly published a false story regarding Kerry Campbell and her daughter. The article was published in good faith, in common with a large number of other news organisations around the world, after being received in full from a reputable UK news agency,” the paper said in a statement. The paper added that it was considering legal action against Upton. The Sun Newspapers & magazines News International United States National newspapers Newspapers David Batty guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Only five Democratic state senators had a chance to vote on Wisconsin’s voter ID bill before Republican Sen. Michael Ellis gaveled it through Thursday. The bill, which passed on a 19-5 vote , would require that voters present a photo ID before voting. Opponents of the bill say it infringes on the rights on minorities who are less likely to have a photo ID. “There is some racism in this bill,” Democratic state Sen. Spencer Coggs reportedly said . h/t: The Maddow Blog
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Risk of geological disaster, state cabinet admits, as project is linked to soil erosion, quakes, drought and social upheaval The Three Gorges dam, the flagship of China’s massive hydroengineering ambitions, faces “urgent problems”, the government has warned. In a statement approved by prime minister Wen Jiabao, the state council said the dam had pressing geological, human and ecological problems. The report also acknowledged for the first time the negative impact the dam has had on downstream river transport and water supplies. Since the start of construction in 1992 about 16m tonnes of concrete have been poured into the giant barrier across the Yangtze river, creating a reservoir that stretches almost the length of Britain and drives 26 giant turbines. The world’s biggest hydropower plant boasts a total generating capacity of 18,200MW and the ability to help tame the floods that threaten the Yangtze delta each summer. But it has proved expensive and controversial due to the rehousing of 1.4 million people and the flooding of more than 1,000 towns and villages. Pollution, silt and landslides have plagued the reservoir area. Given the 254bn yuan (£24bn) cost and political prestige at stake, the government focused for many years on the dam’s achievements and attempted to stifle domestic criticism of the project. But its public analysis has become increasingly sober. A statement on the government’s website read: “At the same time that the Three Gorges project provides huge comprehensive benefits, urgent problems must be resolved regarding the smooth relocation of residents, ecological protection and geological disaster prevention.” There were few specifics but China’s cabinet, the state council, admitted several problems had not been foreseen. “Problems emerged at various stages of project planning and construction but could not be solved immediately, and some arose because of increased demands brought on by economic and social development,” the statement said. Since the 1.5 mile barrier was completed in 2006 the reservoir has been plagued by algae and pollution that would previously have been flushed away. The weight of the extra water has also been blamed for tremors, landslides and erosion of slopes. To ease these threats the government said last year many more people may have to be relocated. This week it promised to establish disaster warning systems, reinforce riverbanks, boost funding for environmental protection and improve benefits for the displaced. This is not the first warning. Four years ago the state media quoted government experts who said: “There are many new and old hidden ecological and environmental dangers concerning the Three Gorges dam. If preventive measures are not taken the project could lead to a catastrophe.” Last year, site engineers recommended an additional movement of hundreds of thousands of nearby residents and more investment in restoring the ecosystem. The government has already raised its budget for water treatment plants but opponents of the dam say this is not enough. “The government built a dam but destroyed a river,” said Dai Qing, a longtime critic of the project. “No matter how much effort the government makes to ease the risks, it is infinitesimal. The state council is spending more money on the project rather than investigating fully. I cannot see a real willingness to solve the problem.” The timing of the statement – as the government prepares to flesh out the details of its latest five-year plan – has prompted speculation of a possible push back against hydropower interests. Peter Bosshard of International Rivers said: “While powerful factions within the government are pushing for the rapid expansion of hydropower projects, others are warning of the social and environmental cost of large dams and the geological risks of building such projects in seismically active regions. “By highlighting the unresolved problems of the Three Gorges dam now, Premier Wen Jiabao, who has stopped destructive projects in the past, may be sending a shot across the bow of a zealous hydropower lobby which would be only too happy to forget about the lessons of the past.” The frank assessment of the challenges posed and benefits offered by the dam came amid growing concerns about a drought on the middle stretches of the Yangtze. This has left 1,392 reservoirs in Hubei with only “dead water” and has affected the drinking supplies of more than 300,000 people. Chinese media reported this month that the Yangtze water levels near Wuhan hit their lowest point since the dam went into operation in 2003. Long stretches have apparently been closed to water traffic after hundreds of boats ran aground in the shallows. There have been claims that the Three Gorges plant has exacerbated the problem by holding back water for electricity generation, but operators claim they have alleviated the problem by releasing 400m cubic metres of water from the reservoir. As a result the levels have fallen below 156 metres – the amount needed for optimum power generation. China Wave, tidal and hydropower Energy Renewable energy Jonathan Watts guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …There’s a lot of dirt in Mitch Daniels’ closet, something Charles Krauthammer glides over when he tries to sell conservatives on Daniels by claiming that his record is totally awesome even if he’s dull as dirt. Ross Douthat describes his bald head, but Mitch has some other real problems. Sam Stein: A race to pre-define the prospective presidential candidacy of Republican Mitch Daniels took off in haste on Thursday, as Democrats heaped praise on the Indiana governor for his implementation of the president’s health care law. It’s low-hanging fruit, as far as political attacks go. The Affordable Care Act is toxic among Republican voters — something that those attacking Daniels are implicitly acknowledging. While the Indiana governor has called for ObamaCare’s repeal, his acceptance of the ACA money does set him apart from some of his GOP colleagues. It also underscores that extent to which Daniel is vulnerable on the health care front. Like nearly every other candidate in the GOP field, his record contains several potential points of friction among conservative voters. The most obvious one would be his previous support for the notion that the government could mandate individuals to purchase insurance. Below, for instance, is an October 23, 2003, South Bend Tribune article about Daniels on the gubernatorial campaign trail. The candidate said he favors a universal health care system that would move away from employee-based health policies and make it mandatory for all Americans to have health insurance. Daniels envisioned one scenario in which residents could certify their coverage when paying income taxes and receive a tax exemption that would cover the cost. “We really have to have universal coverage,” Daniels said. Culled from a lengthy search of the governor’s various statements on health care policy, that article was the one prominent instance in which Daniels appeared to endorse the type of mandate that Republicans now claim is unconstitutional. Supporting universal health care should be considered a good thing, except if you’re a Republican. When Gingrich attacked Ryan’s Medicare plan it actually was the politically right thing to do, but conservatives have a purity test and Ryan is their new golden boy, so Newt got slapped down and outside of the odious Dick Morris, most conservatives think he’s done as a candidate. Mitch Daniels was also tied to the hip of George Bush’s Iraq war as director of the OMB and and tried to discredit Lawrence Lindsey. In any event, most estimates put forward by White House officials in 2002 and 2003 were relatively low compared with the nation’s gross domestic product, the size of the federal budget or the cost of past wars. White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey was the exception to the rule, offering an “upper bound” estimate of $100 billion to $200 billion in a September 2002 interview with The Wall Street Journal. That figure raised eyebrows at the time, although Lindsey argued the cost was small, adding, “The successful prosecution of the war would be good for the economy.” U.S. direct spending on the war in Iraq already has surpassed the upper bound of Lindsey’s upper bound, and most economists attribute billions more in indirect costs to the war effort. Even if the U.S. exits Iraq within another three years, total direct and indirect costs to U.S. taxpayers will likely by more than $400 billion, and one estimate puts the total economic impact at up to $2 trillion. Back in 2002, the White House was quick to distance itself from Lindsey’s view. Mitch Daniels, director of the White House budget office, quickly called the estimate “very, very high.” Lindsey himself was dismissed in a shake-up of the White House economic team later that year, and in January 2003 , Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the budget office had come up with “a number that’s something under $50 billion.” He and other officials expressed optimism that Iraq itself would help shoulder the cost once the world market was reopened to its rich supply of oil. The costs are still mounting today because of Iraq and Daniels not only has a health-care problem, he has a George Bush problem. Good luck with that. And about his Healthy Indiana Program: The problem: It didn’t really work. The benefits provided under the Healthy Indiana Plan were particularly skimpy and the costs were more expensive than expected. “Enrollment was always much smaller” than the plan’s supporters had expected, said Edwin Park, vice president for health policy at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. “150,000 was the estimate, enrollment was a third of that.”
Continue reading …Matthews Bashes Gingrich Citing Wrong Marx Brother: ‘Who You Gonna Believe – Me or Your Own Eyes?’
May 19, 2011 No Comment
During his umpteenth day in a row bashing Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, MSNBC's Chris Matthews began a lengthy segment Thursday by referencing the famous Marx Brother line “Who you gonna believe – me or your own eyes?” Problem is the high and mighty “Hardball” host, despite playing a clip from “Duck Soup” clearly identifying the distinctive voice and accent of the speaker, gave credit to the wrong brother (video follows with transcript and commentary): (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MARGARET DUMONT: Your Excellency, here’s your water. What in the world’s the matter? Your Excellency. I thought you left. CHICO MARX: On no, I no leave. MARGARET DUMONT: But I saw you with my own eyes. CHICO MARX: Well, who you gonna believe – me or your own eyes? (END VIDEO CLIP) CHRIS MATTHEWS: “Who you gonna believe – me or your own eyes?” The great Groucho Marx line. Welcome back. That famous Marx Brothers scene encapsulates the situation Newt Gingrich finds himself in right now. He’s on the record on “Meet the Press” criticizing the Republican plan on Medicare, but he says his own words are not to be believed even if they turn up in Democratic ads. For those unfamiliar with the film, during the scene in question, Chico and Harpo were both dressed up like Groucho trying to steal war plans out of Margaret Dumont's safe. Moments later, Groucho and Harpo engaged in the famous mirror scene duplicated by Lucille Ball and Harpo on “I Love Lucy.” Anyone familiar with the film, and the Marx Brothers themselves, knows that was Chico in Dumont's bedroom saying that line because Groucho was locked in the bathroom: Everyone but the holier than thou Matthews, that is, who after getting this wrong moments later had the gall to bash Sarah Palin's intellect. Having shown a video clip of the former Alaska governor speaking to Fox News's Sean Hannity Wednesday, Matthews raved: MATTHEWS: This is so pathetic watching her on television. It’s so pathetic that Roger Ailes has put her on television, sitting up in some box, some loony bin up in Alaska, sitting there answering these questions she doesn’t know anything about. Did you hear what she just said, John? She said he should continue to attack the Republican plan. What’s she up to here? Is she just not thinking or capable of thinking? What is going on here? Before you accuse someone of being pathetic to watch on television, maybe you should make sure you know who's speaking in the video clip setting up your entire ten-minute segment – unless of course you're not thinking or capable of thinking. Glass houses, Mr. Elite Media Member.
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Rob Summers was told he would never walk again after he was hit by a speeding car but was determined to prove doctors wrong Baseball champion Rob Summers was hit by a speeding car in Portland, Oregon, three years ago, which smashed into his legs and left him with appalling injuries. He was told he would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair at best. But the 25-year-old is now making history – as the first person paralysed from the chest down to stand and take a step unaided. The small and shaky movements that Summers has achieved spell real hope for all those who have suffered a spinal cord injury, and possibly even for those paralysed by other causes such as stroke. When he was in hospital, doctors told Summers he would never walk again, he said. “They said that I had no hope and to just give up. My comment was you don’t know me very well. I’m going to fight until I get well again.” To stand again and take steps, he said, “felt incredible. It was amazing. It made me optimistic and hopeful again for the future. I’m excited at being a part of this.” Summers’ legs are able to move because of electrical stimulation from a device implanted in his lower spine. Two hard years of training, suspended over a treadmill with physiotherapists manipulating his legs to stand and walk have helped build up the spinal cord neural network which processes signals to and from his legs. The real discovery has been that it is not the brain that is in charge of movement, but the legs and the spinal cord. His achievement is the culmination of many years of hard work and intense scientific endeavour funded by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, set up to try to find a way to restore movement to the former Superman star Christopher Reeve – who was paralysed in 1995 as the result of a riding accident – and others like him. Summers, a college baseball player for Oregon state who had helped his team win the college world series just six weeks before the hit and run driver wrecked his life, was exceptionally fit when he was injured. Although unable to move any part of his legs or feet, he has some residual feeling. This may mean that the astonishing progress made in his case may not be replicable in everybody. But there is now more than hope. “This is a breakthrough. It opens up a huge opportunity to improve the daily functioning of these individuals … but we have a long road ahead,” said Professor Susan Harkema from the Kentucky spinal cord research centre at the University of Louisville, one of two leading neurologists involved in Summers’ treatment. Harkema describes the impulse from the brain to start walking as “facilitatory”. What really starts the walking process, she says, is probably the shifting of weight to one foot. “The brain is not controlling movement to the extent we thought it was. If you think about walking, it sets up the nervous system to expect information related to walking,” she said. That sensory information comes from the legs. This has been known and accepted in animals for some time, she added, but it was thought it might not be so in humans because of the highly developed brain. “The spinal cord is smart,” said Harkema’s chief collaborator, neurologist Professor V Reggie Edgerton from the David Geffen school of medicine at UCLA. “The neural networks in the lumbosacral spinal cord are capable of initiating full-weight bearing and relatively coordinated stepping without any input from the brain. This is possible, in part, due to information that is sent back from the legs directly to the spinal cord.” The details of the neurologists’ work with Summers are published in the Lancet medical journal . The results need to be replicated in other patients and the neurologists also hope to work with paralysed patients with other kinds of injury. But, said Susan Howley, executive vice president for research at the Reeve Foundation, it demonstrates proof of concept. “It’s an exciting development. Where it leads from here is fundamentally a matter of time and money,” she said. Other neuroscientists applauded the work in a commentary in the Lancet. Dr Grégoire Courtine and Dr Rubia van den Brand from Zurich University and Dr Pavel Musienko from St Petersburg wrote that they expected “this novel phenomenon of electrically enabled motor control” would inspire new thinking. They added: “We are entering a new era when the time has come for spinal-cord injured people to move.” Meanwhile, Summers hopes to run and play baseball again one day. It has been, he acknowledged, “one great emotional rollercoaster with highs and lows. There were points of anger and frustration, but I would refocus on my goals.” His family, he said, had been incredibly supportive. He hopes now to make a movie. “My goal is that through making a movie of my life story, I will help the millions of people around the world, paralysed and in wheelchairs, who have lost hope, and show them there is a brighter future ahead.” United States Health Disability Medical research Sarah Boseley guardian.co.uk
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