The Voice of the White House

Washington , D.C. , May 15, 2008 : “The only thing spectacular now is the spectacular stupidity being exhibited by a White House enraged and frightened that the Republicans will be utterly crushed in November. This is evident in their lashing out at Obama, accusing him of encouraging terrorism which is, of course, sheer nonsense. It is the vicious and brutal Bush administration that has harassed Muslims wherever and whenever they find them, to torture them and in the end, wipe out whole neighborhoods in Iraq , including women and children. These deliberate acts, coupled with the rank favoritism and reeking corruption (which is not to believe in its magnitude) we see hints of on a daily basis, have made enemies that this country does not need. Long after the Bush people have fled the jurisdiction or hanged themselves in the front hall closet with a jump rope, the rage that the vicious Bush has fathered;, deliberately, will certainly haunt the rest of us for years to come. It is very funny to watch McCain doing his Bush imitation and then watch the far more intelligent and civilized Obama slice and dice them in public. I predict that if Obama becomes the Democrat candidate and gets into a debate with McCain, the latter will blow what little cool he still has as Alzheimer’s devours him and start shouting at Obama or, even better, to rush at him and try to punch him out. Given his increasing mental disorientation, McCain would probably forget half the way to the podium what he was doing and just stand there and wet himself.”

The Question of Food: We Have It and They Don’t

Kissinger’s 1974 plan for food control genocide

March 18, 2008

by Joseph Brewda

Executive Intelligence Review

On December 10, 1974 , the U.S. National Security Council under Henry Kissinger completed a classified 200-page study, “National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests.” The study falsely claimed that population growth in the so-called Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs) was a grave threat to U.S. national security. Adopted as official policy in November 1975 by President Gerald Ford, NSSM 200 outlined a covert plan to reduce population growth in those countries through birth control, and also, implicitly, war and famine. Brent Scowcroft, who had by then replaced Kissinger as national security adviser (the same post Scowcroft was to hold in the Bush administration), was put in charge of implementing the plan. CIA Director George Bush was ordered to assist Scowcroft, as were the secretaries of state, treasury, defense, and agriculture.

The bogus arguments that Kissinger advanced were not original. One of his major sources was the Royal Commission on Population, which King George VI had created in 1944 “to consider what measures should be taken in the national interest to influence the future trend of population.” The commission found that Britain was gravely threatened by population growth in its colonies, since “a populous country has decided advantages over a sparsely-populated one for industrial production.” The combined effects of increasing population and industrialization in its colonies, it warned, “might be decisive in its effects on the prestige and influence of the West,” especially effecting “military strength and security.”

NSSM 200 similarly concluded that the United States was threatened by population growth in the former colonial sector. It paid special attention to 13 “key countries” in which the United States had a “special political and strategic interest”: India , Bangladesh , Pakistan , Indonesia , Thailand , the Philippines , Turkey , Nigeria , Egypt , Ethiopia , Mexico , Brazil , and Colombia . It claimed that population growth in those states was especially worrisome, since it would quickly increase their relative political, economic, and military strength.

For example, Nigeria: “Already the most populous country on the continent, with an estimated 55 million people in 1970, Nigeria’s population by the end of this century is projected to number 135 million. This suggests a growing political and strategic role for Nigeria , at least in Africa .” Or Brazil : “ Brazil clearly dominated the continent demographically.” The study warned of a “growing power status for Brazil in Latin America and on the world scene over the next 25 years.”

Food as a weapon

There were several measures that Kissinger advocated to deal with this alleged threat, most prominently, birth control and related population-reduction programs. He also warned that “population growth rates are likely to increase appreciably before they begin to decline,” even if such measures were adopted.

A second measure was curtailing food supplies to targeted states, in part to force compliance with birth control policies: “There is also some established precedent for taking account of family planning performance in appraisal of assistance requirements by AID (U.S. Agency for International Development) and consultative groups. Since population growth is a major determinant of increases in food demand, allocation of scarce PL 480 resources should take account of what steps a country is taking in population control as well as food production. In these sensitive relations, however, it is important in style as well as substance to avoid the appearance of coercion.”

“Mandatory programs may be needed and we should be considering these possibilities now,” the document continued, adding, “Would food be considered an instrument of national power? ... Is the U.S. prepared to accept food rationing to help people who can’t/won’t control their population growth?”

Kissinger also predicted a return of famines that could make exclusive reliance on birth control programs unnecessary. “Rapid population growth and lagging food production in developing countries, together with the sharp deterioration in the global food situation in 1972 and 1973, have raised serious concerns about the ability of the world to feed itself adequately over the next quarter of a century and beyond,” he reported.

The cause of that coming food deficit was not natural, however, but was a result of western financial policy: “Capital investments for irrigation and infrastructure and the organization requirements for continuous improvements in agricultural yields may be beyond the financial and administrative capacity of many LDCs. For some of the areas under heaviest population pressure, there is little or no prospect for foreign exchange earnings to cover constantly increasingly imports of food.”

“It is questionable,” Kissinger gloated, “whether aid donor countries will be prepared to provide the sort of massive food aid called for by the import projections on a long-term continuing basis.” Consequently, “large-scale famine of a kind not experienced for several decades — a kind the world thought had been permanently banished,” was foreseeable — famine, which has indeed come to pass.

Food Riots are Coming to the U.S.

May 8, 2008

by Binoy Kampmark

Counterpunch

"I don’t want to alarm anybody, but maybe it’s time for Americans to start stockpiling food.  No this is not a drill."

--Brett Arends

There is a time for food, and a time for ethical appraisals.  This was the case even before Bertolt Brecht gave life to that expression in Die Driegroschen Oper.  The time for a reasoned, coherent understanding for the growing food crisis is not just overdue, but seemingly past.  Robert Zoellick of the World Bank, an organization often dedicated to flouting, rather than achieving its claimed goal of poverty reduction, stated the problem in Davos in January this year.  ‘Hunger and malnutrition are the forgotten Millennium Development Goal.’

Global food prices have gone through the roof, terrifying the 3 billion or so people who live off less than $2 a day.   This should terrify everybody else.  In November, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization reported that food prices had suffered a 18 percent inflation in China , 13 percent in Indonesia and Pakistan , and 10 percent or more in Latin America , Russia and India .   The devil in the detail is even more distressing: a doubling in the price of wheat, a twenty percent increase in the price of rice, an increase by half in maize prices.

Finger pointing is not always instructive.   In this case, it may be.  The US and various European countries are moving food crops into the bio-fuel business, itself an environmentally unsound business.  This, in addition to encouraging developing countries to not merely ‘liberalize’ their agricultural sectors, but specialize in exporting specific cash crops (cotton, cocoa), has done wonders to precipitate the shortages.  Consumption in developing economies, added to the vicissitudes of climate change, water availability, and rising fertilizer costs, are others.

Political stability is being undermined.  Food shortages are proving endemic.  Food riots are becoming common.  Riots have been sparked in Cameroon , Egypt , Burkina Faso , Uzbekistan and Yemen .  There have been riots over spiraling grain prices in Mauritania and Senegal . In Mexico City , mass protests were sparked by a price hike in tortillas.  In Haiti , biscuits are being made from a mud compound.  The Somali capital Mogadishu bore witness to the deaths of five people.

Governments, indifferent and incautious to the demands of a hungry public, have already fallen victim to the food crisis.  Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis was dismissed by a senate vote in Haiti after skirmishes between UN forces and protesters.  The UN commander Major General Carlos Alberto Dos Santos Cruz urged calm amidst the carnage. ‘It is important for the people to have a peaceful life in Haiti ,’ he claimed in April 2008.   The message then: be peaceful on an empty stomach.

The Bush administration, so often in arrears on the relief front, has earmarked some 770 million dollars or so in funds dealing with the problem.  There is one glaring hitch: the money would only start flowing in 2009.  ‘There is definitely a lag time when it comes to assistance,’ states the senior manager of the Foreign Aid Reform Project at the Brookings Institute, Noam Unger.

More troubling is the critique offered of the crisis by officials within the administration.   US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, at the Peace Corps conference held at the end of April, targeted various culprits.   The audience barely stirred at some of the explanations: distribution, oil prices, and the ‘alternate fuels effort’.  They duly woke up when Rice moved on to targeting the export strategies of various countries – India and China foremost amongst them.  ‘We obviously have to look at places where production seems to be declining and declining to the point that people are actually putting export caps on the amount of food.’

The problem, for Rice, is rising food consumption.   Improved diets within China and India are bothering free market fundamentalists who insist that export caps stifle trade.  According to this rationale, Indians are far better off buying the rice from the global market than eating their own in times of crisis.   How silly of them to ensure a domestic supply first before shipping off the rest for the global market.  Rice is crying foul at such protectionist deviancy, will ‘have a look at it’ and take the matter to the World Trade Organization.

Members of the American public are not so sure.  A narrative of catastrophe is gradually building – stockpile or perish.  The Wall Street Journal (April 25) was one of the first to issue the clarion call: ‘Start Hoarding Food Americans!’ The paper had various suggestions.  Stock up on some products – dried pasta, rice, cereals, canned products.  Buy them all in bulk to save.  Sit the children down give them a good talking to – no, not about the birds and the bees, but about ‘how our generation and the two behind it, screwed their world into a death spiral through greed and predatory capitalism.’

Solutions suggested by such economists as Jeffrey Sachs, somewhat patchy yet desperately needed, are forthcoming: allow easier access for sub-Saharan African farmers to fertilizers; reduce the amount of crops going into bio-fuel development; shore-up climate change policies.

Sachs, in his work Common Wealth, also advocates the abolition of states in the face of a crowded planet.  But it was state regimes besotted by neoliberal economics that brought us here.  They can take us back and remedy the damage. Abolishing them would simply absolve their regimes.

In the meantime, the US and some countries in the West may have to brace themselves for a starving army guided by the morality of the stomach.  The food riots are coming.

Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, University of Cambridge .  He can be reached at: bkampmark@gmail.com

Comment: In a recent New York Times article, various groups in India were annoyed that the U.S. is not shipping them food. India has too many people and not enough food for them. With shortages in wheat, rice and corn growing world-wide, the U.S. is not selling its food abroad. There is more than enough to feed the American population and exports will rapidly diminish. In short, we have the food and others have the oil. Americans can walk or ride bicycles and the others can starve. Life is pitiless after all, Jesus has been dead for two thousand years and God isn’t listening.  The Indians quoted suggested;, very strongly, that Americans should eat less so that Indians could eat more! Wonderful idea! Why? They can kill and eat their  sacred cows or they can take a leaf from the sociological habits of Africa and practice cannibalism. There is the story about the leading African politician who passed his brother in the woods behind his house. Darwin was right! BH

SECRECY NEWS

from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy

Volume 2008, Issue No. 45

May 12, 2008

WHITE HOUSE ISSUES POLICY ON "CONTROLLED UNCLASSIFIED INFO"

The White House last week issued a long-awaited policy on "controlled unclassified information" (CUI) to provide a uniform government-wide system for safeguarding unclassified information that is deemed sensitive.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/bush/cui.html

The CUI framework is supposed to replace the numerous individual agency control markings -- "sensitive but unclassified," "for official use only," and over a hundred other designations -- and thereby to overcome barriers to information sharing within the government.

But the new policy will do nothing to restore public access to government records that have been improperly withheld.

Development of the CUI policy began with a December 16, 2005 memo from the President directing agencies to "standardize procedures for sensitive but unclassified information." Despite the passage of two and a half years, however, little progress has been made in defining the terms of the new policy.

It establishes a single CUI framework, with three graduated levels of sensitivity and security. But the definition of what information may qualify as CUI, which includes anything that "under law or policy" requires protection from unauthorized disclosure, is vague and expansive.

To put it another way, the CUI policy does not exclude anything that is currently controlled as Sensitive But Unclassified.

This is a disappointment in light of previous suggestions that wholesale disclosures of currently controlled unclassified information might ensue.

"The great majority of the information which is now controlled can be put in a simple unclassified, uncontrolled category, it seems to me," said Amb. Thomas McNamara, program manage of the ODNI Information Sharing Environment, in 2006 testimony before Congress (Secrecy News, 01/16/08 ).

But under the new Bush policy, "the great majority of the information" that Amb. McNamara said should be uncontrolled will remain controlled and unavailable to the public.

The CUI policy properly notes that the new policy does not modify the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act process: "CUI markings may inform but do not control the decision of whether to disclose or release the information to the public, such as in response to a request made pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act."

But despite the passage of years since the policy was proposed, many of the hard decisions involved have been deferred to the implementation phase.

Which, if any, of the more than 100 existing control categories will be canceled, rather than absorbed into the new CUI category? The new policy does not say. At what point, if any, does the CUI designation  expire? There's no way to tell. What enforcement mechanisms are established to ensure compliance with the new policy? To be determined.

SSCI CALLS FOR INTEL CONTRACTOR ACCOUNTABILITY

New limitations and reporting requirements should be imposed on intelligence contractors, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said in its new report on the 2009 intelligence authorization act.

"Several provisions of the bill are aimed at reducing the overall use of contractors by the Intelligence Community. The Committee believes these provisions are necessary for financial and accountability  purposes," the report said.

One provision, advanced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein with Sen. Feingold, "requires a one-time report to the congressional intelligence committees by the DNI describing the activities within the Intelligence

Community that the DNI believes should only be conducted by governmental employees but that are being conducted by one or more contractors [and] an estimate of the number of contractors performing each such activity."

Another provision, also moved by Sen. Feinstein and other Democratic members, would "prohibit the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from permitting a contractor or subcontractor of the CIA to carry out an interrogation of an individual and to require that all interrogations be carried out by employees."

Similar requirements were also adopted by the House Intelligence Committee last week.

The May 8 Senate report on the 2009 Intelligence Authorization Act, which includes many other significant intelligence policy provisions, is available here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2008_rpt/srpt110-333.html

WANTED: OSC ANIMAL POX REPORT

In January 2008, the ODNI Open Source Center (OSC) published a report on "Recent Worldwide Research on Animal Pox Viruses" principally authored by Dr. Alfred D. Steinberg of the MITRE Corporation.

Secrecy News has been trying unsuccessfully to obtain a releasable copy of the document. A request to ODNI was forwarded to the Central Intelligence Agency, which manages the Open Source Center , months ago.  CIA did not reply to the request. The MITRE Corporation has also been unresponsive, except for a courteous note from the author.

Readers who have ready access to the OSC report on animal pox viruses are invited to forward the unclassified document to me directly.  Confidentiality -- or, alternatively, an effusive public expression of gratitude -- is promised, as you prefer.

Copies of other OSC publications would also be welcome.

CONGRESS'S CONTEMPT POWER, AND MORE FROM CRS

Noteworthy new reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made publicly accessible online include the following.

"Defense: FY2009 Authorization and Appropriations," May 5, 2008 :

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL34473.pdf

"Second FY2008 Supplemental Appropriations for Military Operations, International Affairs, and Other Purposes," updated May 8, 2008 :

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL34451.pdf

"Director of National Intelligence Statutory Authorities: Status and Proposals," updated April 17, 2008 :

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/intel/RL34231.pdf

"Congress's Contempt Power: Law, History, Practice, and Procedure," updated April 15, 2008 :

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL34097.pdf

"Navy LPD-17 Amphibious Ship Procurement: Background, Issues, and Options for Congress," May 6, 2008 :

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/RL34476.pdf

"U.S.-French Commercial Ties," updated April 7, 2008 :

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL32459.pdf

"Strategic Airlift Modernization: Analysis of C-5 Modernization and C-17 Acquisition Issues," updated April 15, 2008 :

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/RL34264.pdf

SECRET LAW HEARING FOLLOW-UP

A recent Senate hearing on the subject of "secret law" drew an appreciative review today from syndicated columnist and first amendment champion Nat Hentoff.

"So important was an April 30 hearing before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution that it should have been on front pages around the country," he wrote.

"Titled 'Secret Law and the Threat to Democratic and Accountable Government' and chaired by Sen. Russ Feingold, Wisconsin Democrat. It focused on an issue ignored by the presidential contenders that has deeply weakened our rule of law." (Secrecy News, April 30).

See "Let the Sunshine In" by Nat Hentoff, via The Washington Times, May 12:

http://washingtontimes.com/article/20080512/EDITORIAL07/211525697/1013/EDITORIAL

"It's a given in our democracy that laws should be a matter of public record," wrote Senator Feingold in a Los Angeles Times opinion piece. "But the law in this country includes not just statutes and regulations, which the public can readily access. It also includes binding legal interpretations made by courts and the executive branch. These interpretations are increasingly being withheld from the public and Congress."

See "Government in Secret," by Sen. Russ Feingold, May 8:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-feingold8-2008may08,0,7384959.story

The McCain Corner: Blessed Prozac Moments

Deafening Silence on McCain, Hagee and Parsley

May 9, 2008

by Sam Sedaei

The Huffington Post

After the mainstream media’s weeks of obsession with Rev. Wright, some of which continued even after Senator Obama denounced him in no unequivocal terms, many bloggers and activists seem to have succeeded in getting the media to again do what it is supposed to do: cover the issues that matter most to people.

If we were to judge the media based on an idealistic set of standards, we’re likely to conclude that the Rev. Wright story maybe should never have gotten as much attention as it did because what one’s pastor says is neither representative of one’s beliefs nor grounds for one to leave a church community he’s been a member of. Based on that standard, the media certainly failed miserably.

But the media has also failed based on its own standards. If news programs and Blitzers of the American media find it relevant to obsess about some of the past comments of a presidential candidate’s former pastor, should they not apply that standard to all the candidates?

There has been little talk in the mainstream media about Rev. Hagee’s remarks that New Orleans got what it deserved through Hurricane Katrina because of gays or “its level of sins” in general. John McCain actively sought the endorsement of Rev. Hagee.

But Brave New Films has now made available the video of Pastor Rod Parsley, another pastor admired by John McCain whose firebrand and incendiary comments insult Islam. One may wonder what makes John McCain’s association with Rev. Parsley, and calling him, among other things, one of the “truly great leaders in America ,” “moral compass” and “spiritual guide” relevant. Pastor Parsley has called Islam “an anti-Christ religion that intends, through violence, to conquer the world,” declared that “America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion [Islam] destroyed” and expressed the view that “I believe our nation can’t truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historic conflict with Islam.”

In light of these incendiary and extreme comments, it is both incredible and tragic to see the media apply such a double standard to the controversial comments of two different pastors. The media is not in the position to decide insults against what group of people is justified and against what group of people controversial and bombastic.

One may be inclined to say that Rev. Wright’s comments offended more people because he criticized Israel which may be likely to offend many Jews. First of all, criticizing Israel has nothing to do with ones’ opinion of the Jews, despite what those who want to suppress conversation about Israel say. Israel is a democratic state and can be a legitimate subject of criticism for its policies like the United States or any other state. Secondly, when it comes to insulting a minority group, the number of people in that group should not be the sole factor in deciding how much to cover a story that insults that minority group.

But a more important fact to keep in mind is that as Haveford College Professor Harvey Glickman demonstrated in a presentation last year, there are now more Muslims in America than there are Jews. So what message is the media sending to these Muslims when we tell them that if Israel is criticized, the media will go nuts, but if Islam is insulted - even in much more derogatory and bigoted terms - the Muslims have to take it and the media’s deafening silence on the insults. This is the kind of behavior that leads to the alienation of the biggest non-Christian minority group in the United States , damages our image in Muslim countries and plays into the anti-Semitic canards that Jews control the Western media.

News corporations may have a preference among religions, but that preference is not going unnoticed by millions in this country. The bloggers have to do what they can to force the media to cover the outrageous comments of Rev. Parsley, because when it comes to controversial pastors, they should not be only democrats’ liability in this election.

Senior McCain adviser helped arrange Rev. Moon ‘coronation’

May 9, 2008

by Nick Juliano

Raw Story

A bizarre Capitol Hill ceremony a few years ago in which the eccentric conservative publisher the Rev. Sun Myung Moon declared himself the Second Coming was organized with help from a senior adviser to John McCain's presidential campaign.

Charlie Black, a Washington lobbyist and McCain confidant, lent his name to the coronation ceremony and invited a few friends, according to newly disclosed e-mails.

"What is clear from this email is that top Mccain advisor Charlie Black is admitting that he helped plan, and would have attended, an event where a convicted tax fraud would have been crowned King Of America and declared himself the Messiah--all on U.S. Government federal property (on March 23, 2004)," writes author Cliff Schecter, who published the e-mails on his blog Friday.

In the e-mails, which were also obtained by RAW STORY, Black said he became involved because of his relationships with executives at the Washington Times, the conservative, Moon-owned newspaper, and its charitable foundation.

"I think the dinner committee list included a number of us 'secular' conservatives," Black writes in one e-mail to author John Gorenfeld, who has explored Moon's influence in Washington in his book Bad Moon Rising.

Black said he did not know Moon personally and was unable to attend the coronation ceremony, which Gorenfeld details here. (The full e-mails are reprinted below.)

During the ceremony, Moon declared, "I am God's ambassador, sent to Earth with his full authority," according to a contemporaneous account in the New York Times.

Black's relationship with the event seems relatively tangential, but this campaign season has shown that tangential relationships can cause headaches for candidates. Moon is among the most controversial figures on the right, although he gets relatively little notice in the mainstream press.

Schecter, who recently published a book critical of the GOP nominee, The Real McCain, outlines some of Moon's most outrageous views: that he is the second coming of Jesus, that crosses and crucifixes undermine God's message and that Jesus failed in his mission.

"One wonders," Schecter muses, "what many in the media would do if Reverend Jeremiah Wright called Jesus a "failure," proclaimed he (Wright) was the "Messiah" called in by God to clean up Jesus' mess and staged mock funerals for Christian crosses."

Moon's Unification church is considered a cult by many observers. Considering himself to be the Messiah, Moon claims to have communicated with the dead, including Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, who he claims to have "reformed" from beyond the grave. The church has been accused of money laundering, and Moon has used it to spread anti-Semitic and anti-gay teachings.

Black has been a longtime player in Republican politics. His ties with the Bush family go back to 1972, when he and Karl Rove were jockeying for control of the College Republicans in a campaign so dirty that George H.W. Bush, then head of the Republican National Committee, had to step in and sort matters out. Black then worked for Ronald Reagan's and George H.W. Bush's presidential campaigns from 1976 to 1992. He served as an adviser to George W. Bush's campaigns in 2000 and 2004 and is often quoted in news stories as an unofficial White House spokesman.

Until March of this year, Black served as the chairman of the lobbying firm BKSH & Associates. The firm has represented AT&T as it dealt with the fallout of its involvement in President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program and coached Blackwater CEO Eric Prince before congressional testimony regarding security contractors killing innocent Iraqis. It previously worked with Iraqi exile Ahmed Chalabi, who was a key source of faulty intelligence leading up to the Iraq war.

Black's e-mails are reprinted below:

On Apr 28, 2004 , at 10:34 AM , CHARLIE BLACK wrote:

John,

I lent my name and sent invitations to a few friends. Unfortunately, I had a conflict and couldn't go to the event.

Charlie

From: John Gorenfeld < john@xxxxxxxxx.net >

To:"CHARLIE BLACK"< CHARLIE_BLACK@xxx.xx.com >


cc:
Subject: Re: Moon event at Dirksen Senate Office Building, 3/23

05/06/2004 09:31 PM

Dear Mr. Black,

Thanks for your reply.

It's kind of an amazing event, with Moon being coronated as the king and declaring himself the Messiah at a federal building. Can you tell me how you got involved with inviting people? Is this an annual event, or just a one-time thing?

sincerely,

John

On May 7, 2004 , at 11:16 AM , CHARLIE BLACK wrote:

I don't know if it is annual, but they have done similar events. I don't know Reverend Moon, but work with the management of the Washington Times and their foundation occasionally on conservative causes. I think the dinner committee list included a number of us "secular" conservatives.

Charlie Black

BKSH & Associates

(202) xxx-xxxx

The Forgotten Dead

May 16, 2008

by Brian Harring

May 16, 2008 Soldier Sgt. John K. Daggett, 21, of Phoenix , Ariz. , died May 15 in Halifax , Canada , of wounds suffered May 1 in Baghdad , Iraq , when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his vehicle.

May 14, 2008 Soldier Sgt. Victor M. Cota, 33, of Tucson , Ariz. , died May 14 in Baghdad , Iraq , of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device in Kadamiyah , Iraq , May 13.

May 12, 2008 Soldier Cpl. Jessica A. Ellis, 24, of Bend , Ore. , died May 11 in Baghdad , Iraq , of wounds suffered when her vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.  Soldier Pvt. Matthew W. Brown, 20, of Zelienople , Pa. , died May 11 in Asadabad , Afghanistan , from injuries suffered in a non-combat related incident. Soldier Spc. Joseph A. Ford, 23, of Knox , Ind. , died May 10 in Al Asad, Iraq , of injuries suffered in a vehicle accident.

May 11, 2008 Soldier Pfc. Ara T. Deysie, 18, of Parker, Ariz. , died May 9 in Paktia Province , Afghanistan , of wounds suffered when his unit came under rocket-propelled grenade fire.

May 10, 2008 Soldier Spc. Mary J. Jaenichen, 20, of Temecula , Calif. , died May 9 in Iskandariyah , Iraq , of a non-combat related injury. Soldier Sgt. Isaac Palomarez, 26, of Loveland , Colo. , died May 9 in Kapisa Province , Afghanistan , of wounds suffered when his patrol encountered an improvised explosive device and came under small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire.

May 9, 2008 Soldier Pfc. Aaron J. Ward, 19, of San Jacinto , Calif. , died May 6 in Al Anbar, Iraq , of wounds suffered when his unit came under small arms fire while conducting cordon and search operations. Soldier Spc. Alex D. Gonzalez, 21, of Mission , Texas , died May 6 in Mosul , Iraq , of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered small arms fire and a rocket-propelled grenade attack.

May 8, 2008 Two soldiers died May 7 in the Sabari District, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when their vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device: Spc. Jeremy R. Gullett, 22, of Greenup, Ky., who was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky. Staff Sgt. Kevin C. Roberts, 25, of Farmington, N. M., who was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.  Four Marines died May 2 in Al Anbar province, Iraq , supporting combat operations: Lance Cpl. Casey L. Casanova, 22, of McComb , Miss. Cpl. Miguel A. Guzman, 21, of Norwalk , Calif. Lance Cpl. James F. Kimple, 21, of Carroll , Ohio Sgt. Glen E. Martinez, 31, of Boulder , Colo.

May 5, 2008 Soldier Pvt. Corey L. Hicks, 22, of Glendale , Ariz. , died May 2 in Baghdad , Iraq , of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.

May 4, 2008 Soldier Spc. Jeffrey F. Nichols, 21, of Granite Shoals, Texas , died May 1 in Baghdad from wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.

May 3, 2008  Soldier Sgt. 1st Class Lawrence D. Ezell, 30, of Portland, Texas, died April 30 in Baghdad of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit during combat operations. Soldier Sgt. Jerry L. DeLoach, 45, of Jackson , Ga. , died July 7, 2007 , at Fort Knox , Ky. He had been medically evacuated from theater, and died of a non-combat related injury.  Soldier Staff Sgt. Chad A. Caldwell , 24, of Spokane , Wash. , died April 30 in Mosul , Iraq , of injuries sustained while conducting dismounted combat operations.

May 2, 2008   Two soldiers April 30 in Baghdad , Iraq , from wounds suffered when their vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device: Cpt. Andrew. R. Pearson, 32, of Billings , Mont. Spc. Ronald J. Tucker, 21, of Fountain, Colo.

May 1, 2008    Soldier Staff Sgt. Bryan E. Bolander, 26, of Bakersfield , Calif. , died April 29 in Baghdad from wounds suffered when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device.  Marine Sgt. Merlin German, 22 of Manhattan , N.Y. , died April 11 at Brooke Army Medical Center , San Antonio , Texas , from wounds he suffered while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq , on Feb. 22, 2005 . He was medically retired Sept. 28, 2007 , as a result of his injuries. Soldier Staff Sgt. Clay A. Craig, 22, of Mesquite , Texas , died April 29 in Baghdad , Iraq , from wounds suffered when he received small arms fire during combat operations.

April 30, 2008   Three soldiers died April 28 in Baghdad , Iraq , of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their forward operating base with indirect fire: Pfc. Adam L. Marion, 26, of Mount Airy , N.C. Sgt. Marcus C. Mathes, 26, of Zephyrhills , Fla.    Sgt. Mark A. Stone, 22, of Buchanan Dam, Texas . Soldier Pfc. William T. Dix, 32, of Culver City , Calif. , died April 27 at Camp Buehring , Kuwait , of injuries suffered in a non-combat related incident.  Soldier Sgt. 1st Class David L. McDowell, 30, of Ramona , Calif. , died April 29 in Bastion , Afghanistan , of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked using small arms fire.  Airman Senior Airman Jonathan A. V. Yelner, 24, of Lafayette , Calif. , died April 29 near Bagram , Afghanistan , of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.

More deep concern by the DoD for their dead

A grieving family in New Jersey transferred the ashes of their dead military son to a larger urn and discovered a heat-seared Maryland dog license. Are they burying their lost son or someone's dog?

War dead cremated at facility for pets

May 10, 2008

AFP

WASHINGTON : US Defence Secretary Robert Gates ordered a review of the handling of the remains of US war dead and apologised after learning that some were cremated in a commercial facility that also cremates pets, the Pentagon said.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said there was no evidence that any US servicemember was cremated in an incinerator used for pets.

But Gates believed that the use of a commercial facility that cremated both humans and pets, albeit in separate incinerators, was “insensitive and entirely inappropriate for the dignified treatment of our fallen,” Morrell said. “The families of the fallen have the secretary’s deepest apology,” he added.

An unidentified army officer complained earlier Friday after visiting the military’s mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to pay respects to a comrade who had been killed in combat, officials said. He discovered that the soldier was to be cremated at a facility off the base that had a sign outside saying it was a pet crematorium, they said.

The officer sent out an email with photographs of the facility that prompted Gates’ action, a senior army officer said.

The facility, owned by the Torbit’s Funeral Home Crematory, had been contracted by the air force to cremate remains of soldiers brought back from Iraq and Afghanistan through Dover , officials said. Morrell said the cremations were performed at a separate site that had two incinerators for human remains and one for pet remains.

“We have absolutely no evidence whatsoever at this point that any human remains were at all ever mistreated, were ever not cremated where they were supposed to be cremated,” Morrell said. “That said, the secretary believes that it is inappropriate, to cremate our fallen, our heroes in a facility that also cremates pets,” he said.

The air force halted the use of the crematorium and directed that only facilities co-located with funeral homes be used in the future, and that there be a military presence at the facilities, Morrell said. Gates also ordered David Chu, undersecretary of defence for personnel, to conduct a review of the handling and cremation of remains of US military personnel

Soldiers, Pets Cremated At Same Facility

May 11, 2008

AP

WASHINGTON (AP) ― The Pentagon is recommending changes in the handling of troops' remains, after it was revealed that a crematorium contracted by the military handles both human and animal cremations.

A military official said there have been no instances or charges that human and pet remains were mixed. But officials are now recommending that troops' remains be incinerated only at facilities that are dedicated entirely to humans, in order to avoid any appearance of a problem. Or, officials said, families can opt to have a relative's remains sent to a local funeral home for cremation, which would be paid for by the military.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates believed the earlier situation was "insensitive and entirely inappropriate for the dignified treatment of our fallen," said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell.

"Our heroes deserve to be better treated than that," Morrell said, adding that a sign at one of the crematoriums noted that it also does pet cremations. He said Gates offered an apology to military families for the insensitivity.

Morrell said there is "absolutely no evidence whatsoever at this point that any human remains were at all ever mistreated, or ever not cremated where they were supposed to be cremated. That said, the secretary believes that is it inappropriate, even if permissible under the rules and regulations, to cremate our fallen, our heroes, in a facility that also cremates pets."

The Dover Air Force Base Port Mortuary, where all troops' remains arrive from the battlefield, does not have its own crematorium, so it contracts with two funeral homes for the cremations: Torbert Funeral Chapel and Pippens Funeral Home.

Pippens' crematorium is located at the funeral home and is used only for human remains, while Torbert's has incinerators for both human and animal remains.

While most facilities don't advertise the fact that they handle both human and animal remains, there is a sign near the Torbert crematory advertising the "Friends Forever Pet Cremation Service."

Officials said there are three incinerators at the Torbert facility, and two are used for humans, while one is used for pets. The human and pet facilities are separated by about 20 feet.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, Air Force staff director, told Pentagon reporters that it is not uncommon for crematoriums to provide both services.

Klotz said the issue came to light Friday when an officer who works in the Pentagon went to Dover to pay respects to a fallen comrade who was being cremated. The soldier noticed the pet cremations sign, and was concerned about the fact that the facility handled both human and animal remains.

The officer alerted senior officials at the Pentagon, who notified Capitol Hill and quickly pulled together the policy changes. Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, sent a letter to Gates calling the report "very disturbing."

Bill Torbert, president of Torbert Funeral Chapel, said a representative from Dover Air Force Base visited a crematory run by his company earlier this week, but was satisfied there was nothing amiss.

Torbert said the human and pet crematories are in adjoining buildings on the same property but have separate entrances. A sign advertising pet cremation services is in front of the Friends Forever office, but there are no signs on the building housing the human crematory facilities, which Torbert said are not used for cremation of pets.

"We do a lot of work with the military," he said. "We service them very well."

Gates has directed David Chu, the undersecretary of defense for personnel, to conduct a review of Defense Department policies and practices governing the cremation and handling of remains of service members.

To date, Dover 's port mortuary has processed 4,608 remains, but the Pentagon was not immediately able to say how many of those were cremations, and how many were handled by either Pippens or Torbert rather than service members' hometown facilities. Lt. Chris Sukach, spokeswoman for the Dover base, had no immediate comment and referred questions to Pentagon officials.

Klotz said the military has used the two Delaware facilities since about 2001, and neither one, on its own, can meet the Pentagon's needs in the time required. He said he plans to go to Dover on Saturday to speak with officials about the matter.

Comment: Here is a charming story that somehow never got into the American media. I wonder why not? Like the photos of convicted  bribe merchant, Jack Ambraoff taken with Bush at the White House that suddenly disappeared prior to publication, this true and nasty story just vanished into the swamp of mendacity. BH

The Timmerman Corner

New York City , May 12, 2008 .”For over two thousand years, the Jewish community has had to deal with an internal faction that has caused it to be outlawed, expelled and killed.

For reasons not fully understood, probably genetic, this apparently self-generating faction has caused total havoc and disruption for the Jewish community and is still working away at what might well be another holocaust.

I speak of that segment of our community that, unlike the great mass of the world’s Jewish population, is blatantly manipulative, disruptive, manipulative, grasping for political power and whose overall behavior in the world community creates only apprehension, anger and eventual bloody reprisal from the community in which they live.

In America today, the so-called ‘Reformed Jews” are Americans first and Jewish second but the minority Jewish community is Jewish first and nothing second. These creatures are not loyal to this country but to Israel . They steal American military and commercial secrets and gleefully pass them to Israel , a state which is an historical farce.

The current state of Israel is occupied by Ashkenazi Jews, none of whom are Semitic and all of whom originated in the steppes of Russia as Turkish nomadic tribes. They are not Jews by heritage but by forced conversion and it is in their ranks that we find the bulk of the problems of the world Jewish community.

The Ashkenazi were engaged in constant warfare with their neighbors, brutal and  murderous in their behavior, treacherous to their allies and generally can be classified as genuinely evil people.

Eventually, they moved from the shores of the Caspian Sea and settled in Russia . Eventually, the Russians got tired of their constant manipulations, schemings and economic havoc and forced them into the Grand Duchy of Poland where they filled the capital, Warsaw , with millions of chronic troublemakers. The ones who stayed behind, got involved with usury, political manipulation, murders and revolts (almost all of the top Bolsheviks were Ashkenzsi Jews as was Trotsky and Lenin) Stalin, a Georgian, hated them and just before he died in 1953, was planning a forced exodus of all Jews to the wilds of Siberia.

The Second World War originated in the banking offices of London , not in Berlin . Hitler set up an economic barter system that would have broken the grasp of London ’s international bankers on the money system. Since Hitler detested Jews and did his best to root them out of Germany ’s banking and professional systems, the London Jews, and later their clansmen in America , started a holy war against Germany that resulted in the absolute horrors of the Second World War.

The State of Israel was stolen by force, treachery and murder, by a mob of vicious, Polish Jews. It was stolen from the Arabs who had more racial rights to it that ever did the Polish Zionists. This group of absolutely evil people has proceeded to thoroughly disrupt the Middle East and because many of them have risen to high positions in American political and economic circles, continue their eternal plottings and divisive manipulations.

They forced a war onto the stupid and pliant Bush solely to benefit Israeli security and not American interests and they have been whispering into the Presidential ear about attacking Iran , who is their most dangerous enemy. Although the American press does not report any of this, a great deal of it is in the public domain and be assured, the Reformed Jewish community in America is thoroughly alarmed and even frightened by it.

That the American public will eventually rebel against these creatures  is certain and what is also certain, the alien element of the Jewish community will flee en masse to the protection of an Israel who will never allow any of its citizens, spies or assassins to be extradited for punishment for their many high crimes and misdemeanors.

We are afraid but we cannot ever dare to express our fears lest the Zionists turn their people in the media against us. Mark me, these creatures are vicious, murderous, manipulative, greedy, thoroughly criminal in their corporative lootings and think nothing of savaging those members of the Jewish community who dare to accuse them of their failings, traitorous actions, thefts and murderous political manipulations.

We who consider ourselves Americans first and Jews second have to make our position very clear. We want nothing to do with these sociological misfits and we must unify in purpose and make our distinctions very, very clear. If we do not, there is the very present danger that an energized American public will go after all of us, the guilty and the innocent, the traitorous and the loyal.”

Joel Timmerman

The Rabbi Joel Timmerman may be reached a: The Holocaust Survivors Association, 350 5^th Ave. , New York , NY   10018

Letters to the Editor

Exposure of a CIA-controlled website:

From: brian harring (brianharring@yahoo.com)

Sent: Mon 5/12/08 11:05 AM

To:  tbrnews@hotmail.com

Walter:

In poking around, looking for CIA and DoD fronts on the Internet, I came across this information which your readers might like to see. Both the CIA and the DoD have dozens of "blog" sites that they use for disruptive disinformation. Do you want more of this? Why not list these sites? All in all, they are simplistic and very badly done, typical of the incompetent, and grossly overpaid, government hacks doing them. Note the vanishing of the Lincoln Group. In answer to your last question, yes, they do think their sites and emails are all protected. This is the Great Fool theory. What man thinks is safe, man can expose.

Brian

Domain Name: WHATDOESITMEAN.COM

Registrar: REGISTER.COM, INC.

Server: whois.register.com

Referral URL: [link to www.register.com]

Name Server: NS.SERVINT.COM

Name Server: NS2.SERVINT.COM

Status: ok

Updated Date: 13-Nov-2007

Creation Date: 12-Nov-2003

Expiration Date: 12-Nov-2009

Current Registrar: REGISTER.COM, INC.

IP Address: 207.58.165.85 (ARIN & RIPE IP search)

IP Location: US (UNITED STATES)- VIRGINIA - MCLEAN

Record Type: Domain Name

Server Type: Indeterminate

Lock Status: ok

DMOZ: no listings

Y! Directory: see listings

Web Site Title: WhatDoesItMean.Com

Secure: No

E-commerce: No

Traffic Ranking: 4

Data as of: 27-Jul-2005

[link to www.networksolutions.com]

[link to www.internic.net]

Comment: The CIA headquarters is located in Langley, VA, but, among many other known offices, there is a CIA office in the nearby suburb of McLean, Virginia., as well as Tyson’s Corners and now Charlottesville, VA.

Kiss American Security Goodbye

15 Numbers That Add Up to an Age of Insecurity

May 15, 2008

by Tom Engelhardt

Once upon a time, I studied the Chinese martial art of Tai Chi -- until, that is, I realized I would never locate my "chi." At that point, I threw in the towel and took up Western exercise. Still, the principle behind Tai Chi stayed with me -- that you could multiply the force of an act by giving way before the force of others; that a smaller person could use the strength of a bigger one against him.

Now, jump to September 11, 2001 and its aftermath -- and you know the Tai Chi version of history from there. Think of it as a grim cosmic joke -- that the 9/11 attacks, as apocalyptic as they looked, were anything but. The true disasters followed and the wounds were largely self-inflicted, as the most militarily powerful nation on the planet used its own force to disable itself.

Before that fateful day, the Bush administration had considered terrorism, Osama bin Laden, and al-Qaeda subjects for suckers and wusses. What they were intent on was pouring money into developing an elaborate boondoggle of a missile defense system against future nuclear attacks by rogue states. Those Cold War high frontiersmen (and women) couldn't get enough of the idea of missiling up. That, after all, was where the money and the fun seemed to be. Nuclear was where the big boys -- the nation states -- played. "Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S. …," the CIA told the President that August. Yawn.

After 9/11, of course, George W. Bush and his top advisors almost instantly launched their crusade against Islam and then their various wars, all under the rubric of the Global War on Terror. (As Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld pungently put the matter that September, "We have a choice -- either to change the way we live, which is unacceptable, or to change the way that they live; and we chose the latter.") By then, they were already heading out to "drain the swamp" of evil doers, 60 countries worth of them, if necessary. Meanwhile, they moved quickly to fight the last battle at home, the one just over, by squandering vast sums on an American Maginot Line of security. The porous new Department of Homeland Security, the NSA, the FBI, and other acronymic agencies were to lock down, surveil, and listen in on America . All this to prevent "the next 9/11."

In the process, they would treat bin Laden's scattered al-Qaeda network as if it were the Nazi or Soviet war machine (even comically dubbing his followers "Islamofascists"). In the blinking of an eye, and in the rubble of two enormous buildings in downtown Manhattan , bin Laden and his cronies had morphed from nobodies into supermen, a veritable Legion of Doom. (There was a curious parallel to this transformation in World War II. Before Pearl Harbor , American experts had considered the Japanese -- as historian John Dower so vividly documented in his book War Without Mercy -- bucktoothed, near-sighted military incompetents whose war planes were barely capable of flight. On December 8, 1941 , they suddenly became a race of invincible supermen without, in the American imagination, ever passing through a human incarnation.)

When, in October 2001, Congress passed the Patriot Act, and an Office of Homeland Security (which, in 2002, became a "department") was established, it was welcome to the era of homeland insecurity. From then on, every major building, landmark, amusement park, petting zoo, flea market, popcorn stand, and toll booth anywhere in the country would be touted as a potential target for terrorists and in need of protection. Every police department from Arkansas to Ohio would be in desperate need of anti-terror funding. And why not, when the terrorists loomed so monstrously large, were so apocalyptically capable, and wanted so very badly to destroy our way of life? No wonder that, in the 2006 National Asset Database, compiled by the Department of Homeland Security, the state of Indiana, "with 8,591 potential terrorist targets, had 50 percent more listed sites than New York (5,687) and more than twice as many as California (3,212), ranking the state the most target-rich place in the nation."

In the administration's imagination (and the American one), they were now capable of anything. From their camps in the backlands of Afghanistan (or was it the suburbs of Hamburg?), as well as in the murky global underworld of the arms black market, al-Qaeda's minions were toiling feverishly to lay their hands on the most fiendish of plagues and pestilences -- smallpox, botulism, anthrax, you name it. They were preparing to fill suitcases with nuclear weapons for deposit in downtown Manhattan . They were gathering nuclear refuse for dirty bombs. Nothing was too mad or destructive for them. Every faint but strange odor -- the sweet smell of maple syrup floating across a city -- was a potential bio-attack. And everywhere, even in rural areas, politicians were strapping on their armor and preparing to run imminent-danger, anti-terror campaigns, while urging their constituents to run for cover. Meanwhile, that former Sodom of the New World , New York City , had somehow been transformed into an I-heart-NY T-shirt-and-cap combo.

So, thank you, Osama bin Laden for expediting the Department of Homeland Security, glutting an already bloated Pentagon with even more money, ensuring that all those "expeditionary forces" would sally forth to cause havoc and not find victory in two hopeless wars, enabling the establishment of a vast offshore prison network (and the torture techniques to go with it), and creating a whole new global "security" industry to "thwart terrorists" that was, by 2006, generating $60 billion a year in business and whose domestic wing was devoted to locking down America.

When the history of this era is finally written, based on the Tai Chi Principle, Osama bin Laden and his scattering of followers may be credited for goading the fundamentalist leaders of the United States into using the power in their grasp so -- not to put a fine point on it -- stupidly and profligately as to send the planet's "sole superpower" into decline. Above all, bin Laden and his crew of fanatics will have ensured one thing: that the real security problems of our age were ignored in Washington until far too late in favor of mad dreams and dark phantoms. In this lies a bleak but epic tale of folly worthy of a great American novelist (wherever she is).

In the meantime, consider the following little list -- 15 numbers that offer an indication of just what the

Tai Chi Principle meant in action these last years; just where American energies did and did not flow; and, in the end, just how much less safe we are now than we were in January 2001, when George W. Bush entered the Oval Office:

536,000,000,000: the number of dollars the Pentagon is requesting for the 2009 military budget. This represents an increase of almost 70% over the Pentagon's 2001 budget of $316 billion -- and that's without factoring in "supplementary" requests to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan , as well as the President's Global War on Terror. Add in those soaring sums and military spending has more than doubled in the Bush era. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, since 2001, funding for "defense and related programs... has jumped at an annual average rate of 8%... -- four times faster than the average rate of growth for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid (2%), and 27 times faster than the average rate for growth for domestic discretionary programs (0.3%)."

1,390,000: the number of subprime foreclosures over the next two years, as estimated by Credit Suisse analysts. They also predict that, by the end of 2012, 12.7% of all residential borrowers may be out of their homes as part of a housing crisis that caught the Bush administration totally off-guard.

1,000,000: the number of "missions" or "sorties" the U.S. Air Force proudly claims to have flown in the Global War on Terror since 9/11, more than one-third of them (about 353,000) in what it still likes to call Operation Iraqi Freedom. This is a good measure of where American energies (and oil purchases) have gone these last years.

509,000: the number of names found in 2007 on a "terrorist watch list" compiled by the FBI. No longer, in George Bush's America , is a 10 Most Wanted list adequate. According to ABC News, " U.S. lawmakers and their spouses have been detained because their names were on the watch list" and Saddam Hussein was on the list even when in U.S. custody. By February 2008, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, the names on the same FBI list had ballooned to 900,000.

300,000 : the number of American troops who now suffer from major depression or post-traumatic stress, according to a recent RAND study. This represents almost one out of every five soldiers who served in Iraq or Afghanistan . Even more -- approximately 320,000 -- "report possible brain injuries from explosions or other head wounds." This, RAND reports, represents a barely dealt with "major health crisis." The depression and PTSD alone will, the study reported, "cost the nation as much as $6.2 billion in the two years following deployment."

51,000: the number of post-surge Iraqi prisoners held in American and Iraqi jails at the end of 2007. In that country, the U.S. now runs "perhaps the world's largest extrajudicial internment camp," Camp Bucca , whose holding capacity is, even now, being expanded from 20,000 to 30,000 prisoners. Then there's Camp Cropper , with at least 4,000 prisoners, including "hundreds of juveniles." Many of these prisoners were simply swept up in surge raids and have been held without charges or access to lawyers or courts ever since. Add in prisoners (in unknown numbers) in our sizeable network of prisons in Afghanistan, at Guantanamo, and in our various offshore and borrowed prisons; add in, as well, the widespread mistreatment of prisoners at American hands; and you have the machinery for the manufacture of vast numbers of angry potential enemies, some undoubtedly willing to commit almost any act of revenge. Though there is no way to tabulate the numbers, hundreds of thousands of prisoners have certainly cycled through the Bush administration's various prisons in these last seven years, many emerging embittered. (And don't forget their embittered families.) Think of all this as an enormous dystopian experiment in "social networking," the Facebook from Hell without the Internet.

5,700: the number of trailers in New Orleans -- issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as temporary housing after Hurricane Katrina -- still occupied by people who lost their homes in the storm almost three years ago. Such trailers have also been found to contain toxic levels of formaldehyde fumes. Katrina ("Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job") was but one of many security disasters for the Bush administration.

658: the number of suicide bombings worldwide last year, including 542 in Afghanistan and Iraq , "more than double the number in any of the past 25 years." Of all the suicide bombings in the past quarter century, more than 86% have occurred since 2001, according to U.S. government experts. At least one of those bombers -- who died in a recent coordinated wave of suicide bombings in the Iraqi city of Mosul -- was a Kuwaiti, Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi, who had spent years locked up in Guantanamo .

511: the number of applicants convicted of felony crimes, including burglary, grand larceny, and aggravated assault, who were accepted into the U.S. Army in 2007, more than double the 249 accepted in 2006. According to the New York Times, between 2006 and 2007, those enrolled with convictions for wrongful possession of drugs (not including marijuana) almost doubled, for burglaries almost tripled, for grand larceny/larceny more than doubled, for robbery more than tripled, for aggravated assault went up by 30%, and for "terroristic threats including bomb threats" doubled (from one to two). Feel more secure yet?

126: the number of dollars it took to buy a barrel of crude oil on the international market this week. Meanwhile, the average price of a gallon of regular gas at the pump in the U.S. hit $3.72, while the price of gas jumped almost 20 cents in Michigan in a week, 36 cents in Utah in a month, and busted the $4 ceiling in Westchester, New York, a rise of 65 cents in the last year. Just after the 9/11 attacks, a barrel of crude oil was still in the $20 range; at the time of the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, it was at about $30. In other words, since 9/11, a barrel of crude has risen more than $100 without the Bush administration taking any serious steps to promote energy conservation, cut down on the U.S. oil "addiction," or develop alternative energy strategies (beyond a dubious program to produce more ethanol).

82: the percentage of Americans who think "things in this country… have gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track," according to the most recent Washington Post-ABC News poll. This is the gloomiest Americans have been about the "direction" of the country in the last 15 years of such polling.

40: the percentage loss ("on a trade-weighted basis") in the value of the dollar since 2001. The dollar's share of total world foreign exchange reserves has also dropped from 73% to 64% in that same period. According to the Center for American Progress, "By early May 2008, a dollar bought 42.9% fewer euros, 35.7% fewer Canadian dollars, 37.7% fewer British pounds, and 17.3% fewer Japanese yen than in March 2001."

37: the number of countries that have experienced food protests or riots in recent months due to soaring food prices, a global crisis of insecurity that caught the Bush administration completely unprepared. In the last year, the price of wheat has risen by 130%, of rice by 74%, of soya by 87%, and of corn by 31%.

0: the number of terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda or similar groups inside the United States since September 11, 2001 .

So consider "the homeland" secure. Mission accomplished.

And if you doubt that, here's one last figure, representative of the ultimate insecurity that, by conscious omission as well as commission, the Bush administration has left a harried future to deal with: That number is 387: Scientists at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii just released new information on carbon dioxide -- the major greenhouse gas -- in the atmosphere, and it's at a record high of 387 parts per million, "up almost 40% since the industrial revolution and the highest for at least the last 650,000 years." Its rate of increase is on the rise as well. Behind all these figures lurks a potential world of insecurity with which this country has not yet come to grips.

Tom Engelhardt, who runs the Nation Institute's Tomdispatch.com, is the co-founder of the American Empire Project. His book, The End of Victory Culture ( University of Massachusetts Press ), has been updated in a newly issued edition that deals with victory culture's crash-and-burn sequel in Iraq .