MISCHIEF MAKING?

Who cut the 'net? A storm, a quake, a sub? Al Bawaba reports:

Internet connectivity still remains slow in several Middle East countries due to the cable damage near Egypt, Iran and Dubai. An improvement is not expected soon as operators claim there are many complexities involved in fixing the problem. In addition, all voice calls, corporate data and video traffic were also affected.

The first two cables, off Alexandria in Egypt, were cut on January 23. ...

A total of five cables being operated by two submarine cable operators have been damaged with a fault in each. These are SeaMeWe-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4) near Penang, Malaysia, the FLAG Europe-Asia near Alexandria, FLAG near the Dubai coast, FALCON near Bandar Abbas in Iran and SeaMeWe-4, also near Alexandria.

Something interesting is about to happen in the Middle East.

PAUL TIBBETS, 92

He piloted a B-29 Superfortress named the Enola Gay on Aug. 6, 1945, and forever changed the world. Ghastly infamy.

As The New York Times obit notes:

“I was anxious to do it,” he told an interviewer for a documentary, “The Men Who Brought the Dawn,” marking the 50th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. “I wanted to do everything that I could to subdue Japan. I wanted to kill the bastards. That was the attitude of the United States in those years.”

Thirty years after helping incinerate more than 60,000 people -- most of them civilians -- Tibbets flew a B-29 and simulated the Hiroshima bombing at an air show in Texas.

The point goes to Lone Star DC, who sums it up best: [He] gets what he gave. As do we all.

U.S. IN IRAQ UNTIL 2009

At least until that summer, according to The New York Times. The paper of record reports:

The classified plan, which represents the coordinated strategy of the top American commander and the American ambassador, calls for restoring security in local areas, including Baghdad, by the summer of 2008. “Sustainable security” is to be established on a nationwide basis by the summer of 2009, according to American officials familiar with the document.

The detailed document, known as the Joint Campaign Plan, is an elaboration of the new strategy President Bush signaled in January when he decided to send five additional American combat brigades and other units to Iraq. That signaled a shift from the previous strategy, which emphasized transferring to Iraqis the responsibility for safeguarding their security.

Expect a "formal briefing" for lawmakers this week, followed by a fan being hit.

RECOMMENDED READING

Out this week and worth your eye time -- the National Intelligence Estimate titled "The Terrorist Threat to the Homeland" (it's a .pdf file). We're putting it in the CHATTER Public File.

Intriguing: The report's claim of danger from "non-Muslim terrorist groups ... and even small numbers of alienated people" who could "find and connect with one another, justify and intensify their anger, and mobilize resources to attack -- all without requiring a centralized terrorist organization, training camp, or leader."

"Single-issue groups" will "probably" launch attacks in the next three years, according to the report. This sounds less like terror talk, more like fear of a revolution.

LIFE AFTER ABU GHRAIB

Lynndie England -- remember her? -- is out of prison, after serving half of a three-year term for her part in the Abu Ghraib scandal.

What's she doing now? The Associated Press reports:

England, 24, contributed her knowledge of computers, electronics and graphics for the Keysey, W. Va., Strawberry Festival, which helped her land an unpaid position on the town's recreation board, said Roy Hardy, the England family’s attorney.

"When (council members) saw how hard she worked for the festival, they didn’t hesitate to put her on the board," said Hardy, who is also a board member. "If it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t have been able to pull off (the Strawberry Festival). She was an absolute asset."

From ass to asset. That's saying something.

REMEMBERING THE FORGOTTEN WAR

Fifty-seven years since Korea. Chosun has rarely seen photos of the Korean War, the series of battles forgotten by most people in the United States.

Our father was 20 when his stint in that war began. We think of him when we read about the current war, and the young adults baptized by that blood.

RUMSFELD THE ABUSER

Seymour Hersh strikes again. His latest report in the New Yorker is a deep story about retired Army Major General Antonio M. Taguba.

Taguba, as you may remember, led the Army's first investigation into the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. His interview with Hersh gives the clearest picture yet of the Pentagon under Don Rumsfeld's watch. It is ugly.

Hersh recounts Rumsfeld's 2004 testimony before Congress:

Rumsfeld, in his appearances before the Senate and the House Armed Services Committees on May 7th, claimed to have had no idea of the extensive abuse. “It breaks our hearts that in fact someone didn’t say, ‘Wait, look, this is terrible. We need to do something,’ ” Rumsfeld told the congressmen. “I wish we had known more, sooner, and been able to tell you more sooner, but we didn’t.” ...

Taguba, watching the hearings, was appalled. He believed that Rumsfeld’s testimony was simply not true. “The photographs were available to him—if he wanted to see them,” Taguba said. Rumsfeld’s lack of knowledge was hard to credit. Taguba later wondered if perhaps Cambone had the photographs and kept them from Rumsfeld because he was reluctant to give his notoriously difficult boss bad news. But Taguba also recalled thinking, “Rumsfeld is very perceptive and has a mind like a steel trap. There’s no way he’s suffering from C.R.S.—Can’t Remember Shit. He’s trying to acquit himself, and a lot of people are lying to protect themselves.” It distressed Taguba that Rumsfeld was accompanied in his Senate and House appearances by senior military officers who concurred with his denials.

“The whole idea that Rumsfeld projects—‘We’re here to protect the nation from terrorism’—is an oxymoron,” Taguba said. “He and his aides have abused their offices and have no idea of the values and high standards that are expected of them. And they’ve dragged a lot of officers with them.”

Taguba also says this:

"I know that my peers in the Army will be mad at me for speaking out, but the fact is that we violated the laws of land warfare in Abu Ghraib. We violated the tenets of the Geneva Convention. We violated our own principles and we violated the core of our military values."

STUDY: FOX LAGS IN WAR COVERAGE

The Project for Excellence in Journalism has studied the amount of time mainstream media outlets spend on coverage of the war in Iraq. Fox News is the outlier, spending about half as much time on the war as MSNBC.

The Associated Press reports:

The difference was more stark during daytime news hours than in prime-time opinion shows. The Iraq war occupied 20 percent of CNN's daytime news hole and 18 percent of MSNBC's. On Fox, the war was talked about only 6 percent of the time. ...

There are no similar differences in priorities among the broadcast evening-news programs, where Iraq was the top story between January and the end of March. NBC's Nightly News spent 269 minutes on Iraq, ABC had 251 and CBS 238, according to news consultant Andrew Tyndall.

Another story that has reflected poorly on the Bush administration, the controversy over U.S. attorney firings, also received more attention on MSNBC (8 percent of the newshole) and CNN (4 percent) than on Fox (2 percent), the Project for Excellence in Journalism found.

What's it mean? The cardboard cutouts masquerading as liberal pundits will say it shows Fox News is biased. Their shallow conservative counterparts will claim it's another example of liberal media bias, aimed at hurting President Bush.

The study proves one thing: Fox has a remarkably different news agenda than any of its mainstream media competitors. Whether this is good or bad for civilization as we know it is up for debate. Your turn to decide reality.

MILITARY: AMPUTEES WELCOME

The Associated Press reports:

In an about-face by the Pentagon, the military is putting many more amputees back on active duty — even back into combat, in some cases.

Sgt. Tawan Williamson, a 30-year-old Chicago native who is missing his left leg below the knee and three toes on the other foot, acknowledged that some will be skeptical of a maimed soldier back in uniform.

"But I let my job show for itself," he said. "At this point, I'm done proving. I just get out there and do it."

Previously, a soldier who lost a limb almost automatically received a quick discharge, a disability check and an appointment with the Veterans Administration.

In all, about 600 Army members have lost a limb in Iraq or Afghanistan. About five percent -- 31 men and women -- have gone back to active duty, at their request.

MEMORIAL DAY 2007

Thinking about Memorial Day brought the thirst for history, and to slake it we re-read "In Flanders Fields," the 1915 poem by John McCrae. He wrote it after the funeral of a former student, killed in a shell burst near Ypres, Belgium, the place some Canadians still call the "wipers."

The middle four lines are elegant bluntness:

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

From there in World War I we segued to this site and its display of color photos from the war -- including this one of Mata Hari, the infamous siren. Real name: Greta Zelle. The Dutch woman was executed by the French in 1917 for being a spy. Turns out she's got a little of that Susanna Hoffs thing going on.

EMERSON DELIVERS IRAQ WARNING

Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, the congresswoman from Missouri's 8th District, helped deliver what's being called a "blunt warning" to President Bush on his Iraq policy.

The New York Times reports that the meeting, held in the private residence of the White House, was unvarnished and included a dire prediction for Bush: If things don't improve in Iraq by this fall, more Republicans will wash their hands of the president.

According to the Times:

Representative Charles W. Dent of Pennsylvania, a co-chairman of the Tuesday Group, an alliance of about 30 moderate Republican lawmakers, helped arrange the meeting ...

Lawmakers said Mr. Bush made no commitments, but seemed grateful for their support and said a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq could cause the sort of chaos that occurred in Southeast Asia after Americans left Vietnam ...

The delegation included Representatives Mark Kirk of Illinois, another leader of the moderate coalition; Jim Gerlach of Pennsylvania; James T. Walsh of New York; and Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri. Mr. Kirk, Mr. Walsh and Ms. Emerson declined to discuss the meeting.

Emerson's southern Missouri colleague, Rep. Roy Blunt, did not attend the meeting. No surprise there.

100-KNOT SUB ON THE WAY

This one's for Smitty. Military.com reports:

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Office (DARPA) has initiated an underwater express program to "demonstrate stable and controllable high‑speed underwater transport through supercavitation. The intent is to determine the feasibility for supercavitation technology to enable a new class of high‑speed underwater craft for future littoral missions that could involve the transport of high‑value cargo and/or small units of personnel. The program will investigate and resolve critical technological issues associated with the physics of supercavitation and will culminate in a credible demonstration a significant scale to prove that a supercavitating underwater craft is controllable at speeds up to 100 knots."

Such a 100-knot (115 miles-per-hour) undersea craft would be more than twice as the world's fastest submarine, the Soviet-built Project 661 (NATO code-name Papa). That submarine, completed in 1969, was armed with ten Amethyst anti-ship missiles (NATO designation SS-N-7) plus torpedoes. Twin reactors and twin shafts drove the Papa at 44.7 knots on trials--the fastest ever traveled by a manned underwater vehicle. She subsequently went slightly faster in service. ...

The current DARPA underwater express program is based on the concept of supercavitation. This involves surrounding an object with a bubble of gas that allows it to travel at high speed by reducing contact with the surrounding water and hence reducing drag. The Soviet-developed VA-111 Shkvall (squall) torpedo is the best known use of this technology; that rocket-propelled torpedo has an underwater speed of about 200 knots.

In the United States the primary DARPA contracts for the "100-knot submarine" have been awarded to General Dynamics/Electric Boat, Northrop Grumman, New Systems Tech, and the University of Pennsylvania 's Applied Physics Laboratory.

Yeah, but it still won't have those cool front windows like the Seaview.

FALSE HEROISM AT THE PENTAGON

"Courageous and humble, a loving husband and son, a devoted brother and a fierce defender of liberty: Pat Tillman will always be remembered and honored in our country." -- President Bush, Fall 2004

Now that we know the truth about Pat Tillman's death, the words are especially hollow, almost cruel. His death wasn't heroic; his last words were his name -- I'm Pat Tillman! -- delivered in a scream in hopes that his fellow Rangers would stop shooting at him. Instead they shot him three times in the head, from a distance no longer than a football field, and then the Army lied hard to keep the truth from the public.

The early lies said Tillman and his patrol killed nine enemy soldiers, and Tillman was airlifted out and lived for 12 hours before succumbing to his wounds. It took more than a month for the Army to finally acknowledge the fact that Tillman died in a hail of friendly fire.

(For the full background, this ESPN report from 2006 is hard to top.)

His Silver Star still stands, though reading the citation makes the lies even worse:

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, 9 July 1918 (amended by act of 25 July 1963), has awarded the SILVER STAR to
CORPORAL PATRICK D. TILLMAN
UNITED STATES ARMY
for gallantry in action on 22 April 2004 against an armed enemy while serving as a Rifle Team Leader in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Corporal Tillman put himself in the line of devastating enemy fire as he maneuvered his Fire Team to a covered position from which they could effectively employ their weapons on known enemy positions. While mortally wounded, his audacious leadership and courageous example under fire inspired his men to fight with great risk to their own personal safety, resulting in the enemy's withdrawal and his platoon's safe passage from the ambush kill zone. Corporal Tillman's personal courage, tactical expertise, and professional competence directly contributed to this platoon's overall success and survival. Through his distinctive accomplishments, Corporal Tillman reflected great credit upon himself, the 75th Ranger Regiment, and the United States Army.

Audacious, indeed.

DISAPPEARING DREAMS OF YESTERDAY

Too young for the grinder of Vietnam, but not too young to self-deceive, we once believed war was not inevitable -- believed, in fact, that we might live out our remaining days and never again know of soil soaked with the lifeblood of young American warriors.

Too young, too naive, too willing to believe in inherent goodness and the notion that everything will be all right, we be-bopped through life's dance, stupid and gullible. Now we seriously wonder if bodies must be drafted into armed service to feed the machinery of war.

Seymour Hersh, the journalist, has a new story in The New Yorker. It tells of a struggle between U.S. politicians and generals over the issue of Iran, and a distressing shift in how we're dealing with that nation. A shift in strategy is now afoot, Hersh alleges:

The “redirection,” as some inside the White House have called the new strategy, has brought the United States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

The lonely bell that Kris Kristofferson wrote about now echoes through the canyon.

EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066

Sixty-five years ago Monday, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. It led to the incarceration of more than 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry. Most were citizens or legal residents of the United States. Half of the imprisoned were children.

Roosevelt ordered:

Whereas the successful prosecution of the war requires every possible protection against espionage and against sabotage to national-defense material, national-defense premises, and national-defense utilities as defined in Section 4, Act of April 20, 1918, 40 Stat. 533, as amended by the Act of November 30, 1940, 54 Stat. 1220, and the Act of August 21, 1941, 55 Stat. 655 (U.S.C., Title 50, Sec. 104);

Now, therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of War, and the Military Commanders whom he may from time to time designate, whenever he or any designated Commander deems such action necessary or desirable, to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military Commander may impose in his discretion. The Secretary of War is hereby authorized to provide for residents of any such area who are excluded therefrom, such transportation, food, shelter, and other accommodations as may be necessary, in the judgment of the Secretary of War or the said Military Commander, and until other arrangements are made, to accomplish the purpose of this order. The designation of military areas in any region or locality shall supersede designations of prohibited and restricted areas by the Attorney General under the Proclamations of December 7 and 8, 1941, and shall supersede the responsibility and authority of the Attorney General under the said Proclamations in respect of such prohibited and restricted areas.

I hereby further authorize and direct the Secretary of War and the said Military Commanders to take such other steps as he or the appropriate Military Commander may deem advisable to enforce compliance with the restrictions applicable to each Military area hereinabove authorized to be designated, including the use of Federal troops and other Federal Agencies, with authority to accept assistance of state and local agencies.

I hereby further authorize and direct all Executive Departments, independent establishments and other Federal Agencies, to assist the Secretary of War or the said Military Commanders in carrying out this Executive Order, including the furnishing of medical aid, hospitalization, food, clothing, transportation, use of land, shelter, and other supplies, equipment, utilities, facilities, and services.

This order shall not be construed as modifying or limiting in any way the authority heretofore granted under Executive Order No. 8972, dated December 12, 1941, nor shall it be construed as limiting or modifying the duty and responsibility of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with respect to the investigation of alleged acts of sabotage or the duty and responsibility of the Attorney General and the Department of Justice under the Proclamations of December 7 and 8, 1941, prescribing regulations for the conduct and control of alien enemies, except as such duty and responsibility is superseded by the designation of military areas hereunder.

FDR, perhaps the greatest president in American history, is also one of the worst because of what he did to his fellow Americans. History calls them "internment camps." We prefer Roosevelt's own description of the 10 facilities: concentration camps.

THEY'RE BACK

Al Qaeda is back in business, according to intelligence and counterterrorism officials in the U.S. Leaders of the organization are "operating from Pakistan" and "have re-established significant control over their once battered worldwide terror network."

Who's running Al Qaeda? According to the New York Times:

American officials said there was mounting evidence that Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, had been steadily building an operations hub in the mountainous Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan. Until recently, the Bush administration had described Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri as detached from their followers and cut off from operational control of Al Qaeda.

American analysts said recent intelligence showed that the compounds functioned under a loose command structure and were operated by groups of Arab, Pakistani and Afghan militants allied with Al Qaeda. They receive guidance from their commanders and Mr. Zawahri, the analysts said. Mr. bin Laden, who has long played less of an operational role, appears to have little direct involvement.

You can't keep bad men down. Especially when you expend more energy and effort looking in Iraq for something else.

THE REAL ABE QUOTE

Rep. Don Young, a Republican congressman from Alaska, evoked Abraham Lincoln to justify the arrest, exile or hanging of elected officials who oppose President Bush's call for a troop escalation in Iraq:

"Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged."

The Lincoln quote wasn't from Lincoln. Young's mouthpiece said "so sorry" on Friday but added that the congressman still agrees with the sentiment.

A real Lincoln quote about presidents waging war without congressional oversight comes from 1846. Lincoln was in Congress, arguing against President James Polk's war with Mexico:

"The provision of the Constitution giving the war-making power to Congress, was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons: Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This, our Convention understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions; and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us."

Lincoln: Freed the slaves, kept the Union together, predicted the future.

THE PHOTO HEARD 'ROUND THE WORLD

Thirty-nine years ago Thursday, Eddie Adams took this picture for The Associated Press.

The cutline was simple: General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon. Its impact was profound.

IRAQ 'SURGE' MUCH BIGGER THAN EXPECTED

A surge of 21,000 troops in Iraq? Double that number. According to CNN:

A report from the Congressional Budget Office says President Bush's plan for a troop increase in Iraq could cost up to $27 billion for a 12-month deployment.

The plan could mean sending thousands of support troops in addition to the 20,000-plus combat troops the Defense Department has set for deployment.

Maybe as many as 25,000 support troops, in country and in harm's way. And here we thought that Halliburton was providing support to justify its fat government checks.

ARMY ASKS DEAD SOLDIERS TO RE-UP

About 275 dead or wounded officers received letters from the Army, asking them if they'd kindly return to active duty. On Friday, Army brass offered an apology. CNN reports:

The letters were sent a few days after Christmas to more than 5,100 Army officers who had recently left the service. Included were letters to about 75 officers killed in action and about 200 wounded in action.

"Army personnel officials are contacting those officers' families now to personally apologize for erroneously sending the letters," the Army said in a brief news release issued Friday night.

The Army did not say how or when the mistake was discovered. It said the database normally used for such correspondence with former officers had been "thoroughly reviewed" to remove the names of wounded or dead soldiers.

The Army "regrets any confusion."