CIA Official Says Cheney Probably Behind Forged 9/11-Iraq Letter

And why exactly are there still only two or three renegade House Democrats calling for his impeachment?
We're talking about forging a document in order to start a war, in which thousands of American lives and thousands more Iraqi lives have been lost, as well as those of our allies.
Even if the proof isn't conclusive, isn't it compelling enough to investigate? Especially when it's only one in a list of other things that already have been proven (see post below.)

Contractors Wanted: Who Can Keep their Mouths Shut, Are Open to Travel, No Accounting Skills Needed

from today's Senate Democracy Policy Committee forum on Iraq, chaired by Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota

BARRY HALLEY, FMR. WORLDWIDE NETWORK SERVICES AND CAPE ENVIRONMENTAL EMPLOYEE: It was clear to me that once you knew the right people in Iraq, projects could be created with little emphasis on contract performance.

One example: I knew of a road project that CAPE had been awarded for $7 million. No roads were built or modified. The contracting process that existed at the time was flawed from the beginning, when the RFP was submitted, to the performance of contract oversight.

When I was working at CAPE, I also became aware, even though CAPE was being paid by the U.S. government to provide housing and food for its employees, CAPE employees were signing in and eating at a KBR facility.

This meant that CAPE was being paid by the government to feed its employees, but the employees were eating for free at KBR. KBR was billing the government for three meals a day that it served to the CAPE employees. The government was paying for twice the amount of meals provided.

When I brought up the double-billing to management at CAPE, the employee laughed at my concerns and told me he hoped this would not be noticed.

My numerous complaints to CAPE management about the operations in Iraq finally came to a head in August 2004. As I tried to leave my room on a Friday night, I encountered an armed guard outside my door, who told me to remain in my room.

I woke up on a Saturday morning and saw... armed security personnel standing in my room, pointing their weapons at me.

I was held until Monday morning, given a letter from the construction manager at CAPE ordering me to return to the U.S. immediately. I was attacked and beaten. A good friend of mine rescued me with his armed security guards.

While I was planning my return to the United States, I received death threats, picture of my family -- I received a picture of my family, which I took to be a threat against my family.

Since my return to the United States, I've suffered serious medical problems as a result of the beating. And my medicals have not been paid by the insurance company.

There are very tight connections between many people in Iraq, as it was my experience that the contractors protect each other in Iraq.

The lack of oversight that allowed waste and fraud to run rampant in Iraq -- and it's true that Iraq is referred to as the Wild West, and that's for good reason. Anything seems to go in Iraq, and most are powerless to prevent it.

"Shh!"

... says the VA head of mental health, Ira Katz, in an e-mail, and then goes on to mention the 1,000 suicide attempts per month among veterans under VA care, and asks what he should do about it before someone else finds out... like, for instance, Senator Patty Murray, member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

What else do Halliburton and Saudi Arabia have in common?

Justice for rape victims, apparently. In fact, Saudi Arabia is arguably more advanced here, in that they actually tried and sentenced the perpetrators.

ABC story on KBR/Halliburton's cover-up of the gang rape of a female employee in Iraq.

And since rescuing her -- from KBR, who had locked her in a room with no food or water! -- at the request of her congressman, the State Dept. hasn't done a hell of a lot, either, nor has Justice. Maybe they will now that it's on the news.

I knew our friend Scott McClellan was pissed...

... when he was asked to step down, as everyone knew, because of the Plame incident, but didn't think he'd speak out so soon...
Remember when he was on the Daily Show (ah yes, remember the Daily Show ;) and basically said he didn't know what the **** his considerably-closer-to-retirement boss was talking about when he gave Scott a parting line about how, one day, they'd sit on a porch somewhere as old men together and laugh about these crazy times.
Yeah, he's pissed, and if he was truly as ignorant as he claims, then well he should be.

And who else is doing a heckuva job?

No, I'm not going to trash FEMA again until their (earnest, at least) new leadership under David Paulison proves or disproves itself in response to the California wildfires.

This year's award has got to go to First Kuwaiti, for turning the (grandiose and ill-conceived, to begin with) U.S. embassy in Iraq into arguably the most disastrous construction project in the Mesopotamian region since the Tower of Babel. And yet we just awarded them another three contracts.

Related: Filipino "contractors" in Iraq: OK, this is bad...

What does a U.S. security contractor have to do to get kicked out of Iraq?

Apparently engaging in manslaughter (at the least) and conspiring to cover it up isn't quite enough to put you on the bench for more than two months.

The information that the Blackwater employee who was involved in the Christmas party "incident" was back to work in February for a DOD contractor in Kuwait, after being quietly flown home by Blackwater, in complicity with the State Department, was tactfully not submitted to the House oversight committee in time for last week's hearing, although the meager payoff to the victim's family was disclosed. And he's since been sighted back in the Green Zone in Iraq.

And apparently the Army didn't know any more than DOD did, according to Chairman Waxman's letter:

The report also stated that in April 2007, the U.S. Army tried to call Mr. Moonen, a veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division, back to active duty, but cancelled the request upon learning that he was already overseas.

But I'm sure that even if these facts were mentioned, Ranking Member Davis and Reps. Mica and Westmoreland would still spend most of their questioning minutes complaining about what a tragic waste of time the hearing was and how the good folks at Blackwater and the State Department are just trying to do their jobs and don't deserve all this pointless harassment from those meanies on the other side of the aisle.

Filipino "contractors" in Iraq: OK, this is bad...

... so maybe I owe at least one German high school student a teary apology, after hearing about what is essentially hijacked slave labor being used to build the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, being effectively (up until this point) swept under the rug by the State Department's I.G.

And hearing about people dying from formaldehyde exposure in FEMA trailers doesn't boost my patriotism very much.

Not sure what else to say, except, once again, dammit, I voted for Gore (and Kerry.) I know we're not perfect (ahem, what country is?) but who knew how fast we could fall in 6 1/2 years?

Pat Tillman Update

It may be worse than we even thought.

Gonzo Testimony

Three questions on the TSP memo and Gonzales' blatantly false statements at yesterday's hearing:

1. What were you thinking, Al?
2. Did you really think Chuck Schumer wasn't going to follow up on those documents?
3. Who's pulling the strings here, and what are they smoking? (OK, four questions ;)
   

The Fourth Branch of Government...

... is the vice president's office?
Dick Cheney seems to think so.

The Continuing Shame of Abu Ghraib...

... the sad story of the rise and fall of General Antonio Taguba, by Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker.

Read this and weep.