Democracy for New Mexico

Top Retired Officers from Iraq War Courageously Speak Truth About Rumsfeld

I think every concerned citizen needs to become informed on what just took place in Washington. I watched most of yesterday's hearing by the Democratic Policy Committee on the Iraq occupation. It featured absolutely riveting and alarming testimony on Rumsfeld's grievous errors and deadly mistakes by three high-ranking military officers with recent on-the-ground experience in Iraq -- U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Batiste (right), U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton and U.S. Marine Corps Col. Thomas Hammes, all recently retired. Their statements about what can only be called dereliction of duty and profound arrogance and stupidity on the part of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld must be heard and read to be believed.

Remember, too, that official congressional hearings with straight-talking realists like these officers have never been called or allowed by the Republican leadership. Instead, Dems have been forced to hold more informal hearings on their own, with only Democrats participating in most cases. I guess the Repubs aren't interested in hearing the truth. It would interfere with their election season spin. Meanwhile, more unecessary, tragic death and destruction occurs daily, with nothing but "resolve" coming from the Bush administration -- resolve, apparently, to ignore any and all informed advice or criticism.

AlterNet has complete transcripts of the opening statements by all three high ranking officers, as well as a video clip of part of Gen. Batiste's testimony. There's much more in the question and answer segments, and you can see the entire hearing, convened by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), on CSPAN's website.

A few quotes:

"Secretary Rumsfeld's dismal strategic decisions resulted in the unnecessary deaths of American servicemen and women, our allies, and the good people of Iraq. He was responsible for America and her allies going to war with the wrong plan and a strategy that did not address the realities of fighting an insurgency. He violated fundamental principles of war, dismissed deliberate military planning, ignored the hard work to build the peace after the fall of Saddam Hussein, set the conditions for Abu Ghraib and other atrocities that further ignited the insurgency, disbanded Iraqi security force institutions when we needed them most, constrained our commanders with an overly restrictive de-Ba'athification policy, and failed to seriously resource the training and equipping of the Iraqi security forces as our main effort." -- Maj. General Batiste (Ret.)

"The President charged Secretary Rumsfeld to prosecute this war, a man who has proven himself incompetent strategically, operationally, and tactically. Mr. Rumsfeld came into his position with an extraordinary arrogance, and an agenda -- to turn the military into a lighter, more lethal armed force. In fact, Rumsfeld's vision is a force designed to meet a Warsaw Pact type force more effectively.

We are not fighting the Warsaw Pact. We are fighting an insurgency, a distributed low-tech, high-concept war that demands greater numbers of ground forces, not fewer. Mr. Rumsfeld won't acknowledge this fact and has failed to adapt to the current situation. He has tried and continues to fight this war on the cheap." -- Maj. General Eaton (Ret.)

"The critical issue is leadership. All of the suggestions I have made will not be carried out unless the leadership believes it needs to be done. Given the fact that the Secretary of Defense has not acknowledged the numerous, serious mistakes made to date, I do not believe it is possible for him to provide the leadership necessary to succeed in Iraq. It is time for him to provide the nation the last in a long series of services, and step down." -- Colonel Hammes (Ret.)

Rove Coming to ABQ for Heather Wilson?

The local scuttlebutt is that Karl (Bush's Brain) Rove will be stumping in Albuquerque for Republican incumbent Rep. Heather Wilson's campaign (NM-01). He's rumored to be visiting Wilson's campaign headquarters for a fundraiser and more sometime during the morning of this coming Saturday. Does this mean the Repubs are scared to death that Democratic challenger Patricia Madrid will win this congressional race? Damn right it does.

All poll results released to date have shown what amounts to a dead heat between the candidates, and it can't help that practically every day's news cycle means more bad news for Bush and his rubber stamps like Heather. A fake Republican "compromise" on torture. A powerful condemnation of Bush's Iraq War and its detrimental affects on terror by the national intelligence estimate prepared by our 16 top intelligence agencies. Yesterday's blunt and incredibly negative assessments of Rumsfeld's management of the Iraq occupation by just-retired field generals who served there.

Heather Wilson stands behind The Decider

Almost daily stories like these are destroying whatever was left of the credibility of Bush and his supporters in terms of being "strong on national defense." The truly misbegotten nature of this administration and its congressional apologists and protectors is becoming more clearly documented and delineated with each revelation of the facts.

As for Wilson's repetitive claim that she's "independent" of Bush, another visit from Karl Rove -- the sleazy operative who plots every move Bush and the right-wing Republicans make -- pretty much puts the lie to that assertion. It's apparent that the Bush machine is monitoring and manipulating Wilson's campaign just as it manipulates the actions of all of the Bush clones like her in the halls of Congress.

The Bush Republican Party operates from the top down. Orders come from on high -- from Rove's operation in the White House. Candidates and elected officials listen, or else. And the orders are almost always to hit back at facts with slimy accusations and personal insults, even if they're lies and distortions. The dishonest and deviously immoral mind of Rove is being put to full use in Wilson's corner. What does that tell you about the ethics of Wilson herself?

I'll keep you posted when I learn more about Rove's visit. If you hear anything out there, let me know and maybe we can get some people out there to "welcome" him. Wilson's campaign office is located at 6001 San Mateo NE, Suite B (near Osuna) in Albuquerque.

PS: Check out local blog NewMexicoFBIHOP for a rundown on some of the dirty campaign tactics Rove is known for. Positively filth street.

Can You Give A Day For Election Integrity (and Get Paid for It)?

From Vote Trust USA:

Urgent Action Alert!
The primary season that ended in Hawaii on Saturday has been plagued with ballot programming errors, machines that failed to boot up, vote totals that didn’t make sense, and frustrated voters and candidates in states across the country. But in the weeks leading up to the general election, citizens in every state are coming together to take back our democracy and ensure that every eligible voter can cast a ballot that counts on November 7. Now's your chance to join them by signing up to be a Pollworker for Democracy.

Click here to find out more about the Pollworkers for Democracy Campaign.

HAs a Pollworker, you can witness first hand and work to prevent problems like these -- which occurred in primary elections this year -- and report them when they can't be prevented.

Diebold machines, notorious for their security flaws, were routinely sent home with pollworkers for "sleepovers" days before the election. Across the country, from Kern County CA to Monroe County MD poll openings were delayed and voters turned away for hours, until missing equipment was finally delivered ... in one case by helicopter! From Coast to Coast, problems were reported with every brand of voting system, as machines froze up, lost votes and registered votes incorrectly.

VoteTrustUSA and our partner organizations have created the "Pollworkers for Democracy" project -- a nonpartisan effort to get concerned citizens directly involved in supporting our elections -- in order to support our democracy. We'll provide you with information and resources to supplement your pollworker training -- and also a system to report and track any problems on election day.

In states across the country, almost every county is still in urgent need of pollworkers for the November 7th general election. By signing up as a pollworker, you can support our democratic system ... and get paid at the same time!

Click here to find out more about the Pollworkers for Democracy Campaign.

The average age of pollworkers in the United States is 72. There are many long-time pollworkers in every county waiting for the opportunity to pass on their wisdom and experience to the next generation of citizen pollworkers. As our voting systems become more complicated and less transparent, it behooves us as citizens to step in and help our democracy work.

Please share this information with your friends, neighbors and relatives!! Thank you for working with VoteTrust USA to defend our democracy.

Joan Krawitz, Executive Director
VoteTrustUSA.com

P.S. VoteTrustUSA and the Pollworkers for Democracy campaign depend on you! Even if you can't work the polls, I hope you'll consider making a donation to support this critical project. Please click here to donate now.

Pollworkers for Democracy is a non-partisan election integrity campaign of VoteTrustUSA, Mainstreet Moms, and Working Assets.

Call While It Counts: Tell Congress Not to Rubberstamp Bush Abuses

From the ACLU:
This is a make or break week for civil liberties. With mid-term elections looming, some leaders in Congress who appeared poised to stand up to the Bush Administration's abuse of power have made "compromises" that sell out fundamental civil liberties to political expediency. As a result, there are votes due this week on un-American legislation to expand the government's power to spy on innocent citizens and to strip the most basic due process protections from U.S. detainees.

There are two things you can do right now to make the voice of liberty and reason heard in Congress this week:

1. Call your Senators and representatives

2. Ask five friends to call as well

The proposals being voted on this week by your Members of Congress are truly frightening. If Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has his way, we could see a nightmare "Big Brother" bill that combines a rubber stamp for warrantless domestic spying on phone calls and emails with new torture and detention tactics that would gut the Geneva Conventions by diluting the War Crimes Act, taking away checks on the president's power and staining our nation's legacy as the standard bearer for the protection of human rights.

Phone calls from constituents make an impact because Members of Congress know that when one of their constituents takes the time to pick up the phone and call, they mean business. Thousands and thousands of liberty-loving people across America are calling Congress today—because they know the stakes couldn't be higher.

Please take action today. And then use our special Doonesbury eCard and ask five friends to take action.

To read more about these bills, go here.

Public Invited to Speech by Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff in ABQ

From the Kirtland Partnership Committee:
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest ranking military officer in the United States, Marine four-star General Peter Pace, is coming to Albuquerque to speak on "America's Armed Forces" at a luncheon. The luncheon will be at the Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town (formerly Sheraton Old Town) on Wednesday, October 4, 2006 at 11:30 AM. The invitation is to "the citizens of Albuquerque."

Cost is $23.00 total per person. Payment can be made by credit card, by calling 241-4810, or check can be mailed to Kirtland Partnership Committee, KPC, 320 Gold SW, Suite 300, Albuquerque NM 87102. The $23.00 per person payment covers the exact cost of the lunch; this is not a for-profit event. Questions? Call the Kirtland Partnership Committee, KPC, 241-4810 or 241-4812.

Intelligence Assessment Conclusions: Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

I can't tell you how strongly I agree with a suggestion by Glenn Greenwald in his recent post about the incredibly damning conclusions of the classified April National Intelligence Estimate, recently reported on by the New York Times, Washington Post and L.A. Times:

This report alone ought to dictate the outcome of the election: If I were shaping the Democrats' election strategy, I would create a television commercial where someone reads the following four paragraphs -- from a new report in the NYT today [Sunday] -- and then I would air it over and over and over every single day as much as possible until November 7:

A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document.

The intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled “Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,’’ it asserts that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized and spread across the globe.

The report “says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse,” said one American intelligence official.

Remarkably, but certainly not surprisingly, Bush and his bunch are putting the word out that they "disagree" with the findings of the National Intelligence Estimate. Yes, Bush and his reality avoidance team are claiming that their spin machine is more accurate than the combined fact finding and analysis skills of our top 16 intelligence outfits. As they've done many times in the past, Bush and his cohorts are denying reality and refuting facts that don't quite fit their predetermined frames and -- most of all -- their political strategies.

With Republicans again attempting to convince us that we must vote for them, regardless of other considerations, because only they can protect us from terrorism, this intelligence assessment is a severely embarassing development. Its conclusions fly in the face of repeated pronouncements by Bush and his cronies that Iraq is helping us "win" the war on terrorism. On the contrary -- the neocons' Iraq invasion and occupation has made the situation much worse, worldwide.

If the Dems don't take advantage of the intelligence community's revelation of the truth about Bush's war and the neocon strategy, I don't know what else can be done to help them bring the facts to the American people before November. The assessment powerfully refutes the very basis for Bush's presidency, as well as the campaign talking points being used by Republican candidates all over the nation. Clearly, Bush and the Republicans are now running purely on distortions. They aren't "making us safer," they're increasing the dangers we face now and for years to come.

If Dems can't point that out forcefully and repeatedly, I really will have little hope left for them as any kind of genuine or competitive opposition party. And I'm afraid they will lose, once again, in November.

What do you think?

One-Sided Sandia/UNM Symposium Focuses on Future of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex and New Nuclear Bomb Designs

Concerned about the so-called future of nuclear weapons production in New Mexico? Here's info on a symposium that appears to be paid for in large part by Lockheed-Martin, which would benefit greatly from the resumption of weapons production in our state. Concerned citizens are encouraged to attend:

From the UNM OPST:
The University of New Mexico's Office for Policy, Security and Technology presents a symposium, "The Reliable Replacement Warhead Program and the Future of the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex," on Friday, Sept. 29, from 1:30 to 4 PM in the UNM Student Union Building Santa Ana rooms A and B. OPST is a joint venture of UNM and Sandia National Laboratories. The program will be preceded by a Women in International Security informational meeting from 12:15-1:15 PM and followed by a reception for speakers and participants.

The symposium features speakers from the National Nuclear Security Administration and Sandia National Laboratories. Confirmed speakers include Susan Stoner, science advisor, defense programs, National Nuclear Security Administration; Bruce C. Walker, director, NM Weapon Systems Engineering Center, Sandia National Laboratories; Linda J. Branstetter, Advanced Concepts Group, Sandia; Celeste Drewien, System Studies Department, Sandia; and Elizabeth A. Stanley, assistant professor, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Department of Government, Georgetown University.

Andrew L. Ross, director of the Office for Policy, Security, and Technology and UNM political science professor, said he is "delighted to have had the opportunity to work with WIIS and Sandia to develop the program." He is "looking forward to a serious examination of the requirements and plans for the Reliable Replacement Warhead Program and a broad-ranging discussion of its potential implications."

This event is free and open to the public. For additional information, contact Andrew L. Ross, Director, OPST at 505-277-7391 or aross@unm.edu.
***************
According to an Action Alert from the Los Alamos Study Group:

Those of you familiar with our situation in New Mexico know that UNM is very closely associated with the New Mexico’s two nuclear weapons laboratories and with the military and its contractors. In a 2001 ranking of universities’ military contracts by former Study Group associate Darwin BondGraham, UNM ranked #15 nationally in absolute value of its military contracts. 

For example, UNM has a $50 million grant from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), the agency sponsoring the proposed 0.6 kiloton Divine Strake explosion meant to help perfect (or far more likely, to demonstrate) a low-yield nuclear earth-penetrating weapon. The head of DTRA at the time of the grant (and of the conception of Divine Strake), was Steve Younger, former head of weapons design at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and now manager of the Nevada Test Site (NTS) for the Northrup-Grumman led consortium running NTS. I am sure it is no accident that Dr. Younger was able to remember New Mexico and Senator Domenici when he made that huge DTRA grant. (A Sandian and former Reagan Administration official, , now runs DTRA). 

This ranking of #15 in military funding, high though it is, does not capture the full scope of UNM’s institutional obeisance to the nuclear-military complex or its role in training new workers for the labs and weapons plants. I want to go into the context of this panel just a little to illustrate how this is apparently working in this case. 

OPST was created by former SNL senior vice president and weapons manager Roger Hagengruber, who started up OPST in 2003, bringing with him a 5-year grant from SNL to UNM of $250,000 per year to establish OPST. The current director, Andrew Ross, took over for Hagengruber in 2005. 

Besides SNL and OPST, the other panel co-sponsor is WIIS, headquartered at Georgetown University. The funders WIIS mentions are here; its executive board is here. 

He who pays the piper calls the tune. In this case Lockheed appears to be paying, and there is nobody on the panel without direct ties to SNL or the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) which funds most of SNL. The one person on the panel who does not work directly for the NNSA or a nuclear lab is Elizabeth Stanley, a member of SNL’s National Security Advisory Board.  Let us hope she is enough of a nuclear abolitionist to balance the four others. 

OPST does many things, including sponsoring a recent CIA speaker on the anniversary of 9/11/01 and sponsoring curriculum development, including a grant for "The Human Settlement of Space: Practical and Political Pitfalls and Possibilities," to Mohamed S. El-Genk, whose main interest is space nuclear power systems. There is nothing to suggest that entire ambit of OPST’s activities falls anywhere but inside the narrative of national security state, or what might be expected in a sort of “Lockheed-Martin University,” if we had one. Perhaps in a way we do. 

The warhead program in question. The RRW is a huge program that aims to remake the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal with new untested warheads, at a cost that would certainly exceed $100 billion dollars between now and 2030 (a date NNSA is using as a milestone these days). 

The RRW program, in addition to making thousands of new warheads, is conceived as enabling the creation of a new “responsive infrastructure” of nuclear factories and labs, the mere existence of which is supposed to help “deter” America’s enemies, “dissuade” America’s competitors, yadayada. The pivotal and rate-determining step in this plan is the manufacture of plutonium warhead cores (“pits”) at LANL, which, contrary to statements you may have read, has not yet begun. (Practice manufacturing has begun, but no pits for the stockpile yet.)

I didn’t use the word “genocide” in the title of this action alert lightly. There is no use of nuclear weapons that would not involve mass destruction of human beings and the will to do so. It would not be an unfortunate “accident.” The terror of this in the heart of the enemy puts the “terr” in nuclear deterrence, as former Sandia President Paul Robinson used to say. Nobel Laureates and Manhattan Project veterans Enrico Fermi and Isidor Rabi said it somewhat differently in 1949 in their addendum to a report on the question of whether to develop a hydrogen bomb:

It is clear that the use of such a weapon cannot be justified on any ethical ground which gives a human being a certain individuality and dignity even if he happens to be a resident of an enemy country…It is necessarily an evil thing considered in any light.

This quote and much more useful material can be found in the essay on the cover of the Call for Nuclear Disarmament brochure (pdf). 

This Made My Day

Today something historic happened in the Hart Senate Office Building, By Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK Cofounder

Standing in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building today [Friday] at noon, I was overcome by a feeling of awe and joy. About 20 of us had managed to carry out a complex, beautiful action-bringing our message of peace to our Senate—in almost flawless fashion. For about 30 minutes, we liberated the HART Building in a display of non-violent direct action at its finest ...

First, on each of five floors, women perfectly aligned themselves by the elevator balconies. At the designated moment, they took off their jackets. Each had on a pink tunic with one letter. When they draped the tunics over the railing, from the top floor down, it spelled NO WAR. To our amazement, no police rushed over immediately to grab their signs and threaten to arrest them, as has happened on many other occasions in the same building. This time, the women stood there boldly, flashing peace signs and gently swaying.

A few minutes later, another group of women unfurled one of the signature "pink slips" we make for people we'd like to fire. This one was a gorgeous 40-foot banner in the shape of a woman's slip, with HUGE lettering saying VOTE PEACE, FIRE BUSH. Made of hot pink fabric surrounded with frilly white lace, it hung majestically from the 5th floor down to the 3rd floor. As soon as the women successfully unfurled it and tied it securely on top and bottom, two other banners appeared. The one below said Give Peace a Vote. The one next to it called for Peace on Earth.

Looking up at this amazing vision of serenity and peaceful energy warming the cold halls of Congress, those of us in the lobby started singing. First softly, very softly, then louder and bolder. The people above us holding the banners starting joining in and suddenly the joyful sounds of peace echoed throughout the building. WAR IS OVER, IF YOU WANT IT; WAR IS OVER, IF YOU WANT IT. John Lennon would have been proud. So would Yoko Ono. Over and over and over again, we kept singing. I started to cry-it was so overwhelming, so powerful. The Senators' aides started streaming out of their offices to see what was happening, many of them smiling, waving and flashing peace signs. It felt like a dream. Was this really happening in the heart of the Hart Building???

We had called the news media beforehand, telling them to come see a beautiful visual but not giving away the precise plans. CNN, FOX and several photographers showed up. Who knows what, if anything, they'll use. We've become so accustomed to the mainstream media ignoring us. But it would be a lovely sight, and sound, for the American people to behold. There is something very visceral about the message that war is over, if you want it. It makes you feel such a sense of responsibility, a sense of power, a sense of possibility. And of course, that's what the American people need to start feeling-that if enough of us want to, we can stop this war and the future ones that are looming ahead.

One reason we felt so empowered was that, for a change, the police were respecting our right to protest. This is the way it should be in a democracy. We've become so accustomed to having our rights violated that it seemed strange—almost surreal—to maintain our ground for enough time to have our message heard.

When the police did start giving people warnings that they would be arrested, we stopped. Elated, we descended to the lobby, hugging and kissing and grinning ear to ear. We formed a circle, held hands and sang some more. And when the police told us not to press our luck, we broke up and spread around the lobby hugging everyone in sight—the cameramen, the reporters, the senators' aides, even the plainclothes cops. We knew enough not to try to hug an armed officer, but we thanked them profusely.

We later heard from Jesse and Leslie, who had been on the 7th floor displaying the N in NO WAR, that the policeman on their floor had been very patient with them. When they thanked him, he replied somberly, "No need to thank me. My son died in Iraq." Jesse, taken aback, gave his condolences and started to weep. The pain of the war became all too real. So, too, did the need to stop it.

Today something historic happened in the Hart Senate Office Building. For a brief moment, the cold atrium of a government body—a body that ushered us into a disastrous war and is refusing to get us out of it—was peacefully liberated by the people. Now let's liberate the rest of the nation ....

CodePINK photo of the event (click on image for larger version). More at the CodePINK website. To join the Albuquerque chapter of CodePINK, visit their website.

Sunday Bird Blogging: Rocky Mountain High

Yes, it's true. We took Bosco the peach-faced lovebird and Sunny the sun conure with us on our vacation last week up to central Colorado. They both have a small backpack carrying case (above) for traveling, and we also carted along a larger abode for each  of them for hanging out at our cabin. During one of our trips into Salida, we stopped for pizza with them and enjoyed it outside at a picnic table as a rainbow provided a perfect backdrop for the end of a perfect day.

Both birds visibly enjoyed traveling. Besides keeping their curious eagle eyes (so to speak) on the passing scene whenever we took rides in the car, both Sunny (above) and Bosco (below) loved to be out in the mountains, beside streams or in the aspen groves, grooving. So did we. (Click on photos for larger versions.)

Colorado Pics of the Day: Mountain Lakes

Third installment of photos from last week's trip to Central Colorado. Today we've got three different lakes at elevations of about 8500-9000 feet. Beautiful, but chilly! (Click on photos for larger versions.)