JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) said Friday he was no longer bound by a pledge he gave President Bush (news - web sites) not to harm Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (news - web sites). "I said in our first meeting about three years ago that I accepted his request not to harm Arafat physically," Sharon told Israel's Channel 2. "But I am released from this commitment. I release myself from this commitment regarding Arafat."

The Bush administration's plans for a new caretaker government in Iraq would place severe limits on its sovereignty, including only partial command over its armed forces and no authority to enact new laws, administration officials said Thursday.

These restrictions to the plan negotiated with Lakhdar Brahimi, the special United Nations envoy, were presented in detail for the first time by top administration officials at Congressional hearings this week, culminating in long and intense questioning on Thursday at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's hearing on the goal of returning Iraq to self-rule on June 30.

Define sovereignty, please?

I forget which Iraqi blogger said that the upcoming transfer would be smoke and mirrors, that the real government would be the 3000-person U.S. Embassy. Not even too much of those, it would seem.

Silicio, a cargo worker who often loaded coffins on military planes bound for the United States, shot the photo in early April, as twin uprisings in Iraq led to a spike in American war dead. She snapped a digital photograph of an aircraft packed with caskets and told her best friend that her photograph of coffins of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq would allow parents of the dead to see that "their children weren't thrown around like a piece of cargo."

Ironically (or not), she was fired for doing what the Pentagon had already done:

The week before Kuwait cargo worker Tami Silicio lost her job for releasing a photograph of soldiers' coffins, the Air Force made its own release of several hundred photographs of flag-draped coffins to the operator of an Internet site [The Memory Hole].

Russ Kick, who runs The Memory Hole website, obtained the official photos through the Freedom of Information Act. Then he did what people with websites do: he posted them on his website. (Shocked yet?) Now the Pentagon is pissed, and has initiated an information clamp-down.

Frankly, I regard the official photos much more suitable for anti-war rallies than hers. Hers show people, sweating in cramped conditions, doing their damnedest to show respect for the dead. The Pentagon's are cold and sterile. There are some pics of very big planes (like, who cares about the planes?), but the worst are those chilling rows of flag-covered boxes.

Maybe Maytag can defend its case against Silicio about "breaking the rules" — despite the fact that Maytag's employer, the Pentagon, had already made those rules effectively null and void — but they'd be smarter to re-hire her. If not, the Pentagon obviously needs a new photographer. She's available.

The Bush administration has funded the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with supplemental appropriations that are not included in its budget requests. Congress has passed two of those measures, totaling more than $160 billion, since the March 2003 invasion.

"They haven't asked for one single penny for next year for Afghanistan and Iraq. Give me a break," Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware said on NBC's "Today" show.

"Why aren't they asking for it? They don't know? We already know it's going to cost at least a minimum of $60 billion to keep the troops there," said Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Biden said that cost does not include any reconstruction funds.

Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska told NBC that the administration needs to "be honest with the Congress, be honest with the American people."

"Every ground squirrel in this country knows that it's going to be $50 billion to $75 billion in additional money required to sustain us in Iraq for this year," said Hagel, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which also held hearings on Iraq.

Democrats really need to pound on this. Decent sound bites and one-liners, of course, are important. Always talk about "the official deficit versus the real one after we add in all the of the administration's off-budget shell-gaming." Use well-known examples: "The administration is turning the Treasury Department into a public sector Enron, just before the collapse." A possible line for Kerry: "When I look at the administration's budget, I know where those people from Arthur Anderson went."

And for God's sake, stop enabling it!

But anyway, what struck me was the contradiction between Perle's insistence that the US should have handed power over to Iraqis months ago, and his simultaneous opposition to free and fair elections. The only conclusion I can draw is that he wants power handed to Chalabi, who would then be a kind of dictator and would not go to the polls any time soon.
[...]

Anyway, Perle was just a one-note Johnny, with his whole message being "We must give away Iraq to Ahmad Chalabi yesterday! That will solve all the problems."

If the Bush administration listens to Perle and puts Chalabi in as a soft dictator, it will be the final nail in the coffin of the Iraq enterprise. The whole thing is already going very badly wrong. Chalabi will play iceberg to the Iraq/Bush Titanic.

Cole lists Chalabi's "accomplishments," which consist mainly of embezzlement, mismanagement, muscling out competitors, and bold-faced lying. (No wonder the Bushies like this guy!) But that revived an old question.

Assume for the moment, Perle et al. get their way and Chalabli is installed as Iraq's "president." Chalabi was convicted in Jordan of embezzlement and escaped in the trunk of a car (else, he'd be in jail and not peddling his wares in Baghdad). Wouldn't it be a crimp in diplomatic relations if you couldn't visit a neighboring country without being arrested as a fugitive from justice?

No, I'm not that naïve. But occasionally I like to fantasize about something called "the rule of law."

The military already has identified unmet funding needs, including initiatives aimed at providing equipment and weapons for troops in Iraq. The Army has publicly identified nearly $6 billion in funding requests that did not make Bush's $402 billion defense budget for 2005, including $132 million for bolt-on vehicle armor; $879 million for combat helmets, silk-weight underwear, boots and other clothing; $21.5 million for M249 squad automatic weapons; and $27 million for ammunition magazines, night sights and ammo packs. Also unfunded: $956 million for repairing desert-damaged equipment and $102 million to replace equipment lost in combat.

The Marine Corps' unfunded budget requests include $40 million for body armor, lightweight helmets and other equipment for "Marines engaged in the global war on terrorism," Marine Corps documents state. The Marines are also seeking 1,800 squad automatic weapons and 5,400 M4 carbine rifles.

What are people supposed to do when they're fired on, George? Throw rocks? Every time I hear Bush praise the troops or allege that others are not supporting them — knowing what he's done to them over and over again — I go ballistic. Now this: deliberately submitting a budget that does not include money for basic equipment.

Why would the "war president" do such a thing? According to Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), "the president is playing political games by postponing further funding requests until after the election, to try to avoid reopening debate on the war's cost and future." In other words, it's another shell game. Pun intended.

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- A group that opposes gay marriage has enlisted the help of a state legislator in a long-shot attempt to remove the four justices of the state's high court who ruled that banning gay marriage is unconstitutional.

Democratic state Rep. Emile J. Goguen told The Boston Globe that he planned to file legislation to oust the justices on Tuesday, even though he is the measure's only sponsor.

He sees the bill as a way to pressure members of the Supreme Judicial Court to reconsider their 4-3 decision.

Goguen, who voted against a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage but allow civil unions, said he agreed to sponsor the measure after he was approached by members of the Article 8 Alliance, a group that opposes same-sex marriage.

Before anyone leaps up to point it out, Democrats can be bigots, too. But I knew that.

"In my heart, I don’t believe George Bush is anti-gay whatsoever," [Ariana's ex, Michael Huffington] said.

BERLIN: Afghanistan will still need the presence of foreign soldiers for another 10 years, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said in an interview with a German news magazine to appear on Monday.

Asked how long the international community would go on having to deploy troops in Afghanistan, Karzai said:” About 10 years, I think.”

“That’s the time we will need to have a completely operational army and police force,” he told Der Spiegel. Setting up an independent and professional administration would taker longer, he said adding “probably about 20 years.”

Ten years? I thought everything was going so well.

Good luck, Hamid. Remember, you're dealing with the crew that "forgot" to fund aid to Afghanistan about ten months after the Taliban were evicted from Kabul. An embarrassed Congress (no small feat, that) restored the money.

Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has warned neighbouring Kuwait to end the U.S. military presence at bases within the emirate.

The warning leaves little to the imagination. I have no idea whether is a bluff, rhetoric, or something else.

According to the CIA Worldfact Book, in mid 2003 there were approximately 2.2 million Kuwaitis, of whom, about 1.3 million were non-nationals. About 70% of Kuwaitis are Sunni, and 30% Shia. How much of each group are of which faction, the CIA does not say.

There are also, last I remember, about 30,000 American troops in Kuwait. I don't really have an opinion about this. Just a worry.

[a] U.S. helicopter hit a mosque with three missiles in the besieged city of Fallujah on Wednesday, killing about 40 people, witnesses said.

Dear US administration,
Welcome to the next level. Please don't act surprised and what sort of timing is that it: planning to go on a huge attack on the west of Iraq and provoking a group you know very well (I pray to god you knew) that they are trouble makers.

Zeyad

Of course, Sadr has set up offices in almost every city, town, and village in the south. And I have mentioned earlier that they had assumed full control over my small village where I work in the Basrah governorate weeks ago, terrorizing IP officers, civil servants, and doctors but nobody was listening. I don't think I will be heading back there any soon now. What surprises me is the almost professional coordination of the uprisings in all of these areas. I'm assuming, of course, that the money and equipment supplied by our dear Mullahs in Iran is being put to use good enough, not to mention the hundreds of Pasderan and Iranian intelligence officers.. sorry I mean Iranian Shia pilgrims that have been pouring into Iraq for months now.

Zeyad is wrong on one small point. Some people were paying attention. Unfortunately, not enough of them hold office.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Supporters of maverick Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr controlled government, religious and security buildings in the holy city of Najaf early Tuesday evening, according to a coalition source in southern Iraq.

The source said al-Sadr's followers controlled the governor's office, police stations and the Imam Ali mosque, one of Shia Muslim's holiest shrines.

Iraqi police were negotiating to regain their stations, the source said.

The source also said al-Sadr was busing followers into Najaf from Sadr City in Baghdad and that many members of his outlawed militia, Mehdi's Army, were from surrounding provinces.

Business people are closing their shops and either leaving the city or hoarding their wares in their homes, the source said.

Late Tuesday, U.S. Marines moved into Fallujah from several directions, coming under heavy fire from insurgents.

The move comes the day after U.S. Marines sealed off Fallujah in response to the killing and mutilation of four American civilian security contractors last week.

Zeyad of Healing Iraq is certainly anti-Saddam and generally pro-American. He admired Bush for flying into Baghdad last Thanksgiving. (I did not.) A few days ago, I read this:

A coup d'etat is taking place in Iraq a[t] the moment. Al-Shu'la, Al-Hurria, Thawra (Sadr city), and Kadhimiya (all Shi'ite neighbourhoods in Baghdad) have been declared liberated from occupation. Looting has already started at some places downtown, a friend of mine just returned from Sadun street and he says Al-Mahdi militiamen are breaking stores and clinics open and also at Tahrir square just across the river from the Green Zone. News from other cities in the south indicate that Sadr followers (tens of thousands of them) have taken over IP stations and governorate buildings in Kufa, Nassiriya, Ammara, Kut, and Basrah. Al-Jazeera says that policemen in these cities have sided with the Shia insurgents, which doesn't come as a surprise to me since a large portion of the police forces in these areas were recruited from Shi'ite militias and we have talked about that ages ago. And it looks like this move has been planned a long time ago.

Though Zeyad apologized for his "depressing note" after things calmed down, his description looks, in retrospect, like a precursor.

Eighteen soldiers and more than 100 Iraqis have been killed in the past few days. If we're now moving into full-scale urban combat, those numbers are going to climb fast. (Nice plan, Don.)

My fear is this: Bush is so bent on reelection, he'd pimp his grandmother. More to the point, despite all the noise about more troops and failure being "unthinkable," if his numbers continue to drop, I wouldn't put it past him to declare victory some time after July 1 and just bring 'em home. Think of the wonderful victory parade in New York's Canyon of Heroes!

The Iraqis, of course, would be left with something not even as clean as civil war: a war of all against all.

Not to worry, Bush will find a way to blame it on someone else. And the Sullivans of the world will find a way to believe him.

[t]he March rise in payrolls reflected the resolution of a labor dispute at grocery stores in southern California that had idled 72,000 workers. The department said the return of those workers helped fuel a 47,000 increase in retail employment last month, but it did not quantify the impact.

Economists had said the return of those workers would boost payrolls, but that the impact was hard to gauge because it was unclear how many temporary replacement workers were being let go.

Count on the Bushies to declare victory. Count also on a downward revision next month.

The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks said on Thursday that it was pressing the White House to explain why the Bush administration had blocked thousands of pages of classified foreign policy and counterterrorism documents from former President Bill Clinton's White House files from being turned over to the panel's investigators.

The White House confirmed on Thursday that it had withheld a variety of classified documents from Mr. Clinton's files that had been gathered by the National Archives over the last two years in response to requests from the commission, which is investigating intelligence and law enforcement failures before the attacks.

Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said some Clinton administration documents had been withheld because they were "duplicative or unrelated," while others were withheld because they were "highly sensitive" and the information in them could be relayed to the commission in other ways. "We are providing the commission with access to all the information they need to do their job," Mr. McClellan said.

The commission and the White House were reacting to public complaints from former aides to Mr. Clinton, who said they had been surprised to learn in recent months that three-quarters of the nearly 11,000 pages of files the former president was ready to offer the commission had been withheld by the Bush administration. The former aides said the files contained highly classified documents about the Clinton administration's efforts against Al Qaeda.

Surprised? As in shocked, shocked? Since January 21st, 2001, the Bush Administration has been selectively releasing Clinton Administration documents — namely, anything they think puts their predecessors in a bad light. Richard Clarke got a dose of the same treatment last week: one memo out of dozens — hundreds — Clarke wrote.

Declassify it all or shuddup. Sensitive areas, such as agents' names (unless, perhaps, their names happen to be Plame?) can be redacted with a black magic marker. The procedure is such a no-brainer that competent document handlers can do it in their sleep.

This is beyond transparent. It's insulting.