From The Oh, by the way...Department

Pay No Attention To These News Stories, Cousins! They Are Not Important! The CIA Lied To The President! Nothing Else Matters Today!

Pentagon Say Bush Records of Service Were Destroyed

By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
Published: July 9, 2004

HOUSTON, July 8 - Military records that could help establish President Bush's whereabouts during his disputed service in the Texas Air National Guard more than 30 years ago have been inadvertently destroyed, according to the Pentagon.

It said the payroll records of "numerous service members," including former First Lt. Bush, had been ruined in 1996 and 1997 by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service during a project to salvage deteriorating microfilm. No back-up paper copies could be found, it added in notices dated June 25. LINK

The CIA Did It!

Coalition records its 1,000th death in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A U.S. soldier has died of wounds he suffered in fighting in Baghdad late Thursday, a U.S. military spokesman said.

The death brings coalition deaths -- both hostile and non-hostile -- since the start of the war to 1,000. U.S. military deaths now total 880, with 657 of them by hostile fire.

The soldier's name was withheld pending notification of next of kin, AP reported. LINK

There Is NO SUCH THING As The Office Of Special Plans!

NBC News Poll
July 8, 2004

Question: "If he were ever called upon to be president, who do you think would do a better job of running the country, Dick Cheney or John Edwards?"

Results: Cheney 38% Edwards 45% Equal 2% Neither/Unsure 15% LINK

Repeat After Me, Cousins: CIA Bad! Bush Good!

Defectors' Reports on Iraq Arms Were Embellished, Exile Asserts
By JIM DWYER

Shortly after President Bush declared war on terrorism in the fall of 2001, the Iraqi National Congress, the exile group led by Ahmad Chalabi, sent out a simple, urgent message to its network of intelligence agents: find evidence of outlawed weapons that would make Saddam Hussein a prime target for the United States.

Inevitably, that request reached Muhammad al-Zubaidi, himself an Iraqi exile who had been working to undermine Mr. Hussein for 24 years from posts in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and northern Iraq. Under the playful name of Al Deeb - Arabic for The Wolf - Mr. Zubaidi, now 52, served as a field leader for about 75 to 100 people who collected information on the machinations of Iraq's police state.
(snip)

Despite this, Mr. Kay said that during the hunt for weapons last year, a number of the defectors admitted they were lying after being put through a polygraph test. "Some of them claimed to have been coached by the I.N.C., and some of them claimed to have been coached on how to pass polygraphs," Mr. Kay said.

Mr. Zubaidi said, "I don't want to criticize U.S. agencies, but it's strange that the U.S. with all its powerful agencies, the C.I.A., could not manage to know the truth from the lies in these people." LINK

CIA GUILTY! BUSH INNOCENT!
AP: Iraq insurgency larger than thought

BAGHDAD (AP) — Contrary to U.S. government claims, the insurgency in Iraq is led by well-armed Sunnis angry about losing power, not foreign fighters, and is far larger than previously thought, American military officials say.

The officials told The Associated Press the guerrillas can call on loyalists to boost their forces to as high as 20,000 and have enough popular support among nationalist Iraqis angered by the presence of U.S. troops that they cannot be militarily defeated.

That number is far larger than the 5,000 guerrillas previously thought to be at the insurgency's core. And some insurgents are highly specialized — one Baghdad cell, for instance, has two leaders, one assassin, and two groups of bomb-makers. LINK

It's The CIA's Fault!

U.S. Cuts Number of Delegates to World AIDS Meeting (Cut to 1/4th)

The U.S. government will send only one-quarter as many people to the huge international AIDS conference starting Sunday in Bangkok as it sent to the last one in Barcelona.

--snip--

Dozens of scientific presentations were withdrawn, about 50 will be published only as summaries and not presented publicly, and dozens of meetings -- many designed to train Third World AIDS researchers and foster international collaboration -- were canceled.

The move, which officials say is to save money, is interpreted by many AIDS experts as payback for the heckling of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson at the last AIDS conference and further evidence of a "go-it-alone" attitude in the administration's global AIDS program. LINK

The CIA Lied To You, Cousins! Nothing Else Is Important Today!

Why Rising Interest Rates Will Hammer Housing
by Blanche Evans

Every eighth of a point rise in interest rates impacts buyers' open-to-buy by adding as much as $25 or more per month to the monthly payment, depending on loan type. Consumer debt has reached 110 percent of disposable personal incomes. Despite a pace of three million new jobs created by year's end, unemployment figures are flat at 5.6 percent, if down from last year's peak of 6.3 percent. But, that figure is still 1. 6 million less than the number of jobs lost since 2001. Further, many new jobs don't pay what previous jobs did,, according to the Economic Policy Institute. And, a 2.2 percent gain in earnings this year holds little comfort to those paying 35 percent more for a gallon of gas, or double the price for a carton of milk, and eight percent more for housing nationally. LINK

The CIA is Evil, Cousins!Nothing Else Matters Today! Repeat after me: Nothing Else Matters!

PAKISTAN FOR BUSH.
July Surprise?

by John B. Judis, Spencer Ackerman & Massoud Ansari

Late last month, President Bush lost his greatest advantage in his bid for reelection. A poll conducted by ABC News and The Washington Post discovered that challenger John Kerry was running even with the president on the critical question of whom voters trust to handle the war on terrorism. Largely as a result of the deteriorating occupation of Iraq, Bush lost what was, in April, a seemingly prohibitive 21-point advantage on his signature issue. But, even as the president's poll numbers were sliding, his administration was implementing a plan to insure the public's confidence in his hunt for Al Qaeda.

This spring, the administration significantly increased its pressure on Pakistan to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, his deputy, Ayman Al Zawahiri, or the Taliban's Mullah Mohammed Omar, all of whom are believed to be hiding in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan.

--snip--

This public pressure would be appropriate, even laudable, had it not been accompanied by an unseemly private insistence that the Pakistanis deliver these high-value targets (HVTs) before Americans go to the polls in November.. LINK


Exterior. Winter morning. Montag trudges across an open field, his hands inside his pockets for warmth.