US Will Appoint Afghan 'Prime Minister' to Bypass Hamid Karzai

White House plans new executive role to challenge corrupt government in Kabul

by Julian Borger in Brussels and Ewen MacAskill in Washington

The US and its European allies are ­preparing to plant a high-profile figure in the heart of the Kabul government in a direct challenge to the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, the Guardian has learned.

The creation of a new chief executive or prime ministerial role is aimed at bypassing Karzai. In a further dilution of his power, it is proposed that money be diverted from the Kabul government to the provinces. Many US and European officials have become disillusioned with the extent of the corruption and incompetence in the Karzai government, but most now believe there are no credible alternatives, and predict the Afghan president will win re-election in August.

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Remember all that talk by our Prime Minister Harper about how democracy was being restored in Ahghanistan.? Remember how Karzai attended Bush's "State of the Union Address"? Karzai sat with Laura Bush forchrissakes. Remember how Karzai addressed a joint session of Congress and virtually campaigned for Bush's re-election.? Remember all those purple fingers? And all the schools and water filtration plants the West was supposedly building? Remember how women were being emancipated in Afghanistan.? Remember how NATO's mission in Afghanistan was crucial to Canada's security.?

Fergeddaboutit. All that was simply bullshit. Karzai never had any popular support. He was a former CIA retainee ferchrissakes. Needed a brigade of Blackwater mercenaries to just keep him alive in Kabul. So remember readers: when Harper or Bush/Obama tell you anything about Afghanistan, they are lying. Peacenik says bring the troops home now.

Why It's Cutting

03.15.09 -- 11:02PM By Josh Marshall

Like you, I've been watching this AIG bonus story unfold over the weekend. And though I did not see it at first, I think it may prove to be a turning point, both for AIG and the government.

I don't believe the bonuses themselves are the heart of the matter, nor the fact that they're going to the very executives who caused AIG's implosion or even the galling reality that, since all money is fungible, they're being paid with taxpayer dollars. What's really driving this forward -- and what makes it such a dangerous moment for the White House -- is the jarring image of the administration's impotence.

Secretary Geithner found out about the bonuses. He told AIG CEO Edward Liddy it wouldn't fly. And Liddy, in a curiously imperial letter, tells Geithner that much as he is pained by the situation -- to blow it out his ass. Which he apparently proceeded to do.

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So A.I.G. is legally obligated to pay billions in bonuses to the nitwits who bankrupted the company, the country and the world. And the politicians nod. Can't change a contract. What about GM's contracts with the autoworkers? What about GM's legally contracted pension obligations? The politicians didn't have any problem insisting that those legally obligated payments be abrogated. Peacenik wonders when the revolution will begin. How much are the people expected to take? A.I.G. obviously thinks there is no limit.

AT&T Thanks the Blue Dog Democrats With a Lavish Party

by Glenn Greenwald

Last night in Denver, at the Mile High Station -- next to Invesco Stadium, where Barack Obama will address a crowd of 30,000 people on Thursday night -- AT&T threw a lavish, private party for Blue Dog House Democrats, virtually all of whom blindly support whatever legislation the telecom industry demands and who also, specifically, led the way this July in immunizing AT&T and other telecoms from the consequences for their illegal participation in the Bush administration's warrantless spying program. Matt Stoller has one of the listings for the party here.

Armed with full-scale Convention press credentials issued by the DNC, I went -- along with Firedoglake's Jane Hamsher, John Amato, Stoller and others -- in order to cover the event, interview the attendees, and videotape the festivities. There was a wall of private security deployed around the building, and after asking where the press entrance was, we were told by the security officials, after they consulted with event organizers, that the press was barred from the event, and that only those with invitations could enter -- notwithstanding the fact that what was taking place in side was a meeting between one of the nation's largest corporations and the numerous members of the most influential elected faction in Congress. As a result, we stood in front of the entrance and began videotaping and trying to interview the parade of Blue Dog Representatives, AT&T executives, assorted lobbyists and delegates who pulled up in rented limousines, chauffeured cars, and SUVs in order to find out who was attending and why AT&T would be throwing such a lavish party for the Blue Dog members of Congress.

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Peacenik hates feeling disgusted, outraged and demoralized early in the morning, but this article by Glenn Greenwald certainly did some trauma to Peacenik's psyche. Peacenik knew all this anyways, but sometimes getting his face rubbed in it is a good reminder of just how corrupt the political process is. Peacenik needs a beer, and it's only 8:45 am.

Ex-officials: Bush admin. ignored Iraq corruption

Ex-State employees allege Bush Admininstration ignored corruption at senior levels in Iraq

ANNE FLAHERTY
AP News

May 12, 2008 20:04 EST

The Bush administration repeatedly ignored corruption at the highest levels within the Iraqi government and kept secret potentially embarrassing information so as not to undermine its relationship with Baghdad, according to two former State Department employees.

Arthur Brennan, who briefly served in Baghdad as head of the department's Office of Accountability and Transparency last year, and James Mattil, who worked as the chief of staff, told Senate Democrats on Monday that their office was understaffed and its warnings and recommendations ignored.

Brennan also alleges the State Department prevented a congressional aide visiting Baghdad from talking with staffers by insisting they were too busy. In reality, Brennan said, office members were watching movies at the embassy and on their computers. The staffers' workload had been cut dramatically because of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's "evisceration" of Iraq's top anti-corruption office, he said.

Full Article...

DANIEL ELLSBERG: Covering Up the Coverage - The American Media's Complicit Failure to Investigate and Report on the Sibel Edmonds Case

punditman presents...

In an Exclusive BRAD BLOG Op-Ed, the Legendary 'Pentagon Papers' Whistleblower Calls on the Media to Perform Their First Amendment Obligations, on Congressional Leaders to Perform Their Oversight Duty, and for Insider Sources to Come Forward to the American Public...

-- Guest BRAD BLOG Op-Ed by Daniel Ellsberg

For the second time in two weeks, the entire U.S. press has let itself be scooped by Rupert Murdoch's London Sunday Times on a dynamite story of criminal activities by corrupt U.S. officials promoting nuclear proliferation. But there is a worse journalistic sin than being scooped, and that is participating in a cover-up of information that demands urgent attention from the public, the U.S. Congress and the courts.

For the last two weeks --- one could say, for years --- the major American media have been guilty of ignoring entirely the allegations of the courageous and highly credible source Sibel Edmonds, quoted in the London Times on January 6, 2008 in a front-page story that was front-page news in much of the rest of the world but was not reported in a single American newspaper or network. It is up to readers to demand that this culpable silent treatment end.

Just as important, there must be pressure by the public on Congressional committee chairpersons, in particular Representative Henry Waxman and Senator Patrick Leahy. Both have been sitting for years on classified, sworn testimony by Edmonds --- as she revealed in the Times' new story on Sunday --- along with documentation, in their possession, confirming parts of her account. Pressure must be brought for them to hold public hearings to investigate her accusations of widespread criminal activities, over several administrations, that endanger national security. They should call for open testimony under oath by Edmonds --- as she has urged for five years --- and by other FBI officials she has named to them, as cited anonymously in the first Times' story.

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punditman says: Once again, the US press ignores the (thus far) story of the year.