Month: August 2008

Afghanistan

by digby

This isn’t good:

American intelligence agencies have concluded that members of Pakistan’s powerful spy service helped plan the deadly July 7 bombing of India’s embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to United States government officials.

The conclusion was based on intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried out the attack, the officials said, providing the clearest evidence to date that Pakistani intelligence officers are actively undermining American efforts to combat militants in the region.

The American officials also said there was new information showing that members of the Pakistani intelligence service were increasingly providing militants with details about the American campaign against them, in some cases allowing militants to avoid American missile strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Concerns about the role played by Pakistani intelligence not only has strained relations between the United States and Pakistan, a longtime ally, but also has fanned tensions between Pakistan and its archrival, India. Within days of the bombings, Indian officials accused the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, of helping to orchestrate the attack in Kabul, which killed 54, including an Indian defense attaché.

This week, Pakistani troops clashed with Indian forces in the contested region of Kashmir, threatening to fray an uneasy cease-fire that has held since November 2003.

The New York Times reported this week that a top Central Intelligence Agency official traveled to Pakistan this month to confront senior Pakistani officials with information about support provided by members of the ISI to militant groups. It had not been known that American intelligence agencies concluded that elements of Pakistani intelligence provided direct support for the attack in Kabul.

I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach whenever I think about Afghanistan these days and it’s not just because it’s a useful political theme that could get out of hand. It already seems to be getting out of hand and “more troops” isn’t going to solve the problem. I’m not sure if anything will. Our little sojourn into Iraq has cost an awful lot of time and there have never been any easy answers. not to mention that the history of Afghanistan is littered with Western power failures.

This is going to be a mess…

.

Mystery Solved?

by digby

Apparent suicide in anthrax case
Bruce E. Ivins, a scientist who helped the FBI investigate the 2001 mail attacks, was about to face charges.

August 1, 2008

A top government scientist who helped the FBI analyze samples from the 2001 anthrax attacks has died in Maryland from an apparent suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him for the attacks, the Los Angeles Times has learned.

Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who for the last 18 years worked at the government’s elite biodefense research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Md., had been informed of his impending prosecution, said people familiar with Ivins, his suspicious death and the FBI investigation.

[…]

Ivins, employed as a civilian at Ft. Detrick, earlier had attracted the attention of Army officials because of anthrax contaminations that Ivins failed to report for five months. In sworn oral and written statements to an Army investigator, Ivins said that he had erred by keeping the episodes secret — from December 2001 to late April 2002. He said he had swabbed and bleached more than 20 areas that he suspected were contaminated by a sloppy lab technician.

“In retrospect, although my concern for biosafety was honest and my desire to refrain from crying ‘Wolf!’ . . . was sincere, I should have notified my supervisor ahead of time of my worries about a possible breach in biocontainment,” Ivins told the Army. “I thought that quietly and diligently cleaning the dirty desk area would both eliminate any possible [anthrax] contamination as well as prevent unintended anxiety at the institute.”

The Army chose not to discipline Ivins regarding his failure to report the contamination. Officials said that penalizing Ivins might discourage other employees from voluntarily reporting accidental spills of “hot” agents.

But Ivins’ recollections should have raised serious questions about his veracity and his intentions, according to some of those familiar with the investigation. For instance, although Ivins said that he swabbed areas near and within his personal office, and bleached surfaces to kill any spores, and that some of the swabs tested positive, he was vague about what should have been an essential next step:

Reswabbing to check whether any spores remained.

“I honestly do not recall if follow-up swabs were taken of the area,” Ivins said. “I may have done so, but I do not now remember reswabbing.”

“That’s bull—-,” said one former senior USAMRIID official. “If there’s contamination, you always reswab. And you would remember doing it.”

The former official told The Times that Ivins might have hedged regarding reswabbing out of fear that investigators would find more of the spores inside or near his office.

[…]

The eldest of his two brothers, Thomas Ivins, said he was not surprised by the events that have unfolded.

“He buckled under the pressure from the federal government,” Thomas Ivins said, adding that FBI agents came to Ohio last year to question him about his brother.

“I was questioned by the feds, and I sung like a canary” about Bruce Ivins’ personality and tendencies, Thomas Ivins said.

“He had in his mind that he was omnipotent.”

Ivins’ widow declined to be interviewed when reached Thursday at her home in Frederick. The couple raised twins, now 24.

The family’s home is 198 miles — about a 3 1/2 -hour drive — from a mailbox in Princeton, N.J., where anthrax spores were found by investigators.

All of the recovered anthrax letters were postmarked in that vicinity.

The man was mentally ill, at least recently. He’d just been hospitalized for depression. But the story is maddeningly short on any details about possible motivation, making you wonder if it’s another poor schnook who’s been hounded by the government into an early grave or if he knew he was about to get caught and decided to take matters into his own hands.

The words of the brother are especially intriguing, but we have no way of knowing what they meant. The anthrax scare was one of the most bizarre episodes of the immediate 9/11 environment and seemed to have political intent, being sent exclusively to Democrats and members of the media. If this was the guy, hopefully we will hear the whole story.

The FBI went way wrong with Stephen Hatfill and the government just had to pay out nearly six million dollars in damages to compensate him for it. If this guy was in their sites for years and they failed to see it, we should know the reason why. It occurs to me that the FBI seems to have a blind spot when it comes to these domestic terrorism cases. They botched the Olympic bombing too and originally accused the wrong man. They did it again with this anthrax case. Why is that?

.

Village Meritocracy

by digby

At least he didn’t get any kind of affirmative action. That would be unfair:

The late Tim Russert’s son will take up a family tradition for NBC News, helping to cover the Democratic and Republican conventions.

Luke Russert’s assignment as a convention correspondent focusing on “youth issues” is his first for NBC, the network said Thursday.

Russert, 22, a recent Boston College graduate, has been on the radio since 2006 as co-host with pundit James Carville of “60/20 Sports” on XM Satellite Radio.

“Never before in an election cycle has so much attention turned to the youth vote, and Luke will bring a unique perspective to covering it,” NBC News President Steve Capus said in a statement.

Russert told MSNBC.com that he realizes some might say it was only his name that got him the job. But he’s ready for the challenge and plans to work hard, he said.

“I’m not trying to be my father. He’s irreplaceable. I’m simply trying to do something that I think there’s a real niche for, that there’s a calling for, that has to do with youth, not just in the election but in politics from now on,” Russert said.

In a statement, he said he was “humbled and grateful” for the opportunity.

Obama Clark

by digby

I was disheartened when the village succeeded in chasing Wes Clark out of the campaign. He’s a good guy who brings a necessary combination of military credibility and progressive values into the political arena at a time when we have a chance to change the prevailing paradigm of conservative dominance in foreign policy.

Obama’s going to need people like Clark close by to help him manage the military, which is going to be hostile to his leadership. The Man Called Petraeus is gearing up for his run in 2012 and they already injected themselves into the campaign by sandbagging Obama with that visit to the wounded troops flap. It’s not going to be easy.

I support this effort to put Clark on the ticket. I realize that it’s a long shot, but considering what dday is writing about below with respect to Afghanistan (which has me very worried) I would very much like to see Clark back on the inside. Afghanistan is a NATO mission and he knows NATO backwards and forwards. Maybe showing that he has a grassroots constituency is one way to do it.

Stoller puts it this way:

Clark has a 34 year service record, has won a war, commanded troops all over the world, and nearly died of his injuries in Vietnam. He has run for President and been a surrogate for hundreds of Democrats all over the country, including Ned Lamont. He was against the war in Iraq, and knows the military bureaucracy inside and out. This is someone who would make an insanely good Vice President, and someone who has deep connections to the newly formed progressive communities that emerged from 2002-2006

And I think this is compelling as well, from the highly respected Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight:

A month ago, picking Wesley Clark would have seemed like a fairly safe choice — someone who allows you to check the “foreign policy” and “liked by Clinton supporters” boxes. It might have seemed, in other words, like a pander.

But because of the Face the Nation dust-up, all of the sudden it would send a very different message. It would say: we’re going to stand our ground, we’re not going to be so worried about being politically correct, and we’re taking it right to you. Isn’t that a fairly optimal message for Obama to send out given the present narrative?

I think now would be the perfect moment to reject the faux-outrage culture of the Village and pick somebody who isn’t afraid to call McCain out on foreign policy and military affairs. Steve Schmidt will send everyone in DC a case of smelling salts and a personal fainting couch, but unless Obama figures out a way to signal that he’s getting off the hissy fit express, this campaign is going to be torturous. And we know one thing: capitulating to it doesn’t work. They just up the ante.

If you would like to add your voice to this initiative, you can do so here.

Update: The AP covers the initiative:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ret. Gen. Wesley Clark is getting an online push for presidential running mate.

A new Web site, http://www.obamaclark.com, offers readers a chance to sign a petition supporting Clark’s placement on the ticket with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Clark, a Vietnam veteran and former supreme commander of NATO under President Clinton, had been serving as a national security surrogate for Obama until he belittled McCain’s qualifications to be president during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” last month.

McCain, a former Navy fighter pilot, was shot down over Hanoi and held prisoner during the Vietnam War.

“I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president,” Clark said.

Matt Stoller, a political consultant and blogger who created the pro-Clark Web site, said the flap over Clark’s comments “was just a bunch of insiders getting mad.” The Web site argues that Clark can complement Obama with his executive experience, a military background and understanding of foreign policy. Clark endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton during the Democratic primaries, but voiced support for Obama once he secured the nomination.