A lot to catch up on

Althought the U.S. doesn't pay much attention anymore to the abuses in Iraq, and despite the fact they never paid even lip service to the problems in Afghani prisons, the U.S. media covered the initial firestorm of this story, saying Jack Idema had no connections with either the U.S. or Afghani Governments when he was torturing, arresting and imprisoning Afghani and Islamic 'terrorists.' This seems now that it's not the case. After Idema revealed in court that he had correspondence with the Pentagon and that he'd handed off a detainee to Bagram airbase, the U.S. confirmed it.

Also, Idema said he was welcomed to Afghanistan by the Chief of Police in Kabul, a claim that no one has overtly denied. But, one of the defendants is being charged with illegally entering the country. How could that be if they were welcomed by the Police Chief and a presidential candidate ... on VIDEO!

The trial seems to be a comedy of corruption, rife with faulty translations, biased judges (and translators) and a fixed outcome. The U.S. probably has something to do with this guy, whether big or small, but like the lowly Army personnel that are being charged with mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib, the superior officers and departments are separating themselves from all responsibility.

In domestic news, Tom DeLay has violated ethics rules by purposefully redistricting the state of Texas to benefit Republicans politically. Members that are voting to halt to investigation are on his payroll. Tuesday, the ethics committee placed the ethics complaint against Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) on the Committee's agenda, thereby stopping the clock that would have required an investigation into the DeLay complaint to be initiated automatically on September 20, 2004. Here is the response to that by the Congressional Ethics Coalition and here are other DeLay ethics violations.

Many people would also be interested to know that the White House is debating military action against Iran for their pursuit to create a nuclear arsenal. I am one of many who believed that Iran posed a far greater threat to the U.S. two years ago and they should have been the focus of strident measures all along, not excluding military repercussions. However there is now no possibility of us having a chance in a 'real' war against a 'real' enemy because we've stretched our military embarassingly thin.


Bush rejects bleak Iraq intelligence assessment that states Iraq's future is bleak and may border on civil war (not to mention Iran).

Iraq is making broad economic and political progress, the Bush administration insisted on Thursday, responding to a leaked intelligence report setting out a bleak assessment of Iraq's prospects up to the end of next year. An official told the Financial Times it was also critical of the administration's failure to anticipate the insurgency and widespread looting that followed the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime.

The White House responded by saying that progress was being made on all fronts of the president's five-point plan for Iraq's economic and political reconstruction, and that elections would go ahead as scheduled in January 2005. President George W. Bush had been clear to the American people that challenges lay ahead, a senior official said.

In local (NJ) civil liberties news... A woman wearing a T-shirt with the words "President Bush You Killed My Son" and a picture of a soldier killed in Iraq was detained Thursday after she interrupted a campaign speech by First lady Laura Bush.As shouts of "Four More Years" subsided, Niederer, standing in the middle of a crowd of some 700, continued to shout about the killing of her son. Secret Service and local police escorted her out of the event, handcuffed her and placed her in the back of a police van.

In gooder news, according to a Harris Interactive/WSJ poll, Kerry has a one point edge over George Bush.