AFGHANISTAN -- IRAQI OFFICIAL SAYS AL QAEDA IN IRAQ HEADING TO AFGHANISTAN: Yesterday, Iraq's ambassador to the United States said that "al-Qaida's foreign fighters who have for years bedeviled Iraq are increasingly
going to Afghanistan to fight instead." Citing the success of the so-called "Anbar Awakening," ambassador Samir Sumaida'ie said "we have heard reports recently that many of the foreign fighters that were in Iraq have left, either back to their homeland or going to fight in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is now seeming to be
more suitable for al-Qaida fighters." Meanwhile, the New York Times
reports today that "the Bush administration plans to shift nearly $230 million in aid to Pakistan from counterterrorism programs to upgrading that country's aging F-16 attack planes, which Pakistan prizes more for their contribution to its military rivalry with India than for fighting insurgents along its Afghan border." Some members of Congress have indicated they will try to block the move, arguing that "F-16s
do not help the counterterrorism campaign and defy the administration's urgings that Pakistan increase pressure on fighters of Al Qaeda and the Taliban in its tribal areas."
MILITARY -- ANTI-GAY ACTIVIST CRITICIZED BY BOTH PARTIES AT DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL HEARING: A "crusader against gays in the military
torpedoed her own ship" yesterday, during the first congressional hearings on the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in 15 years. The House Armed Services Committee invited four veterans and
right-wing activist Elaine Donnelly of the Center of American Readiness, a group devoted to opposing gays in the military, to testify. In what the Washington Post's Dana Milbank called "an extraordinary exhibition of rage," Donnelly -- who apparently never served in the military herself -- attacked the "San Francisco left" and
issued dire warnings of "exotic forms of sexual expression," giving as evidence a claim that "a group of black lesbians" assaulted another soldier in 1974. Other witnesses were stunned: retired Navy Capt.
Joan Darrah, a lesbian, "rolled her eyes in disbelief" and retired Marine Staff Sgt.
Eric Alva, a gay man who was wounded in Iraq, "ooked as if he would explode." Members of both parties on the panel seemed united against Donnelly. Rep. Vic Snyder (D-AR) called Donnelly’s statements "just bonkers" and "dumb," while Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) told Donnelly, "You're saying [a lesbian] has no right to serve her country because she happens to have a different sexual orientation than you."
ETHICS -- DAVIS: PRESSURE TO RUSH HICKS' TRIAL CAME DAY AFTER AUSTRALIAN AMBASSADOR MEEETING: In March 2007, Australian native David Hicks, who was a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, became
the first person to be sentenced by a military commission convened under the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Last February, Col. Morris Davis, the lead prosecutor in Hicks' trial, told the Australian that the Pentagon "
leaned on" him to rush Hicks' trial, even though at the time he "had no regulations for trial by military commissions." In an
interview with WAMU's Diane Rehm on Tuesday, Morris added details of how "political influence" was involved in Hicks' trial. On January 9, 2007, Davis says the Defense Department's General Counsel, William Haynes, called him up "the day after there was
a meeting with the Australian ambassador" and asked, "how quickly can you charge David Hicks?" Bush administration political appointees appear to have meddled in Hicks' case in order to help their key conservative ally, Australian Prime Minister John Howard. In early 2007, Howard was facing a serious electoral
challenge from Labor leader Kevin Rudd, who eventually went on to
defeat him. Hicks' incarceration at Guantanamo Bay was
a contentious issue in Australian politics at the time. In February 2007, Vice President Dick Cheney visited Howard in Australia, where
the PM lobbied for the trial to "be brought on as soon as humanly possible and with no further delay." A month later, Hicks was
sentenced and released back to Australia with
critics airing suspicions that Cheney had interceded.
America's Cyborg Warriors- by Tom Burghardt - 2008-07-23 
Mukasey to Congress: Defy the Rule of Law- by Stephen Lendman - 2008-07-23 
Obama: The real power behind the throne-to-be- by Eric Walberg - 2008-07-23 
Is Africa a Cold War Battleground?- by Sam Akaki - 2008-07-23
How Wall Street Wrecked Your Retirement
McCain Doesn't Need a Fact-Checker; the Media Edit His Mistakes for Him
Batman's Take on 9/11 Era Politics? Drop the Fearmongering
Three States Accused of Illegally Purging Voter Lists 
Fox News On-Air Racism Challenged by Huge Petition Drive and Hot Rapper Nas
Bush Seeks $12 Billion to Waste on Obsolete Missile Defense
As President Bush said in his April 29, 2008 press conference, opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would likely mean lower gas prices, as our Energy Department estimates it would yield one million barrels of oil a day. 
Bush greatly misstates the Energy Department&339;s conclusion. The AP reported in 2004: "Opening an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil development would only slightly reduce Americas dependence on imports and would lower oil prices by less than 50 cents a barrel, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the Energy Department... if Congress gave the go-ahead to pump oil from Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the crude could begin flowing by 2013 and reach a peak of 876,000 barrels a day by 2025. But even at peak production ... the United States would still have to import two-thirds of its oil..." 