Detainees Still Guilty After Proven Innocent

Our nation has gone from endorsing the "innocent until proven guilty" motto to a more authoritarian "We'll imprison whoever the f*ck we want," especially so under the Bush Administration. If the Bushies don't give a rat's ass about the rule of law for their own crimes, why should it apply to the innocent that they just happen to not like (or those that they like to keep around as convenient boogeymen). Of course, they have a bullshit argument for keeping those proven innocent in jail.

From RawStory:

Some detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba will likely never be released because of the danger they pose, and those tried and acquitted will still be subject to continued detention as enemy combatants, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.

Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, made the remarks as Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni, awaited a verdict in the first war crimes trial to be held under a special regime created for "war on terror" suspects.

Morrell said Hamdan, a former driver of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, could appeal the verdict in US courts.

"But in the near term, at least, we would consider him an enemy combatant and still a danger and would likely still be detained for some period of time thereafter," he said.

Morrell said there were plans for at least 20 more such trials at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba but he said a significant portion of the detainees being held there would neither be tried nor released.

Ah, how comforting does that make you feel? Basically the Pentagon (vis a vis the Bush Administration) is trying to set the precedent that they can detain anyone for whatever reason and not try them, shattering the laws our framers wrote for the Constitution. The only danger here is the fact that with the government we have now, Americans can kiss their liberties and rights goodbye.

Army Wants To Clean Up Contracting, White House Tells Them Not To

With the army facing ridiculous contracting budgets, higher-ups in the force decided that something had to be done to stop the financial bleeding of the military branch. Coming up with ideas to stop the no-bid contracts, fraud, waste and organizational structure that has been depriving the troops sounds like a plan. Though when it comes to waste, the White House is the expert on making sure it doesn't stop, so they forced the Army to not do anything.

From The Huffington Post:

The Office of Management and Budget, President Bush's administrative arm, has shot down a service plan to add five active-duty generals who would oversee purchasing and monitor contractor performance.

The boost in brass was a key recommendation from a blue-ribbon panel that last fall criticized the Army for contracting failures that undermined the war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan, wasted U.S. tax dollars, and sparked dozens of procurement fraud investigations.

As the Army's contracting budget ballooned _ from $46 billion in 2002 to $112 billion in 2007 _ it had too few experienced people negotiating and buying equipment and supplies, according to the panel. Worse still, there wasn't a single Army general in a job with contracting responsibilities. That meant the profession had little clout at a critical time.

An approximate 200% increase in costs over five years is astronomical and the army is right to do something about it. Unfortunately the OMB rejected their proposal without even giving a reason. Perhaps they might find something not quite legit? Uncovering no-bid contracts and what prompted them maybe? Though honestly at this point they might as well let it be unearthed, because no one is courageous enough to prosecute anyone in the Administration for all the high crimes we know about already. Everybody knows Congress has given up their duty and right to be a co-equal branch, so why not just let it all hang out.

BBC Helps Uncover Billions In Iraq War Profiteering

It is common knowledge to those trying to follow the details surrounding the Iraq war that profiteering has been going on since the moment we crossed the border from Kuwait into Iraq in 2003. Millions, then billions of dollars disappeared from U.S. taxpayer funds meant for the war and seemingly vanished into thin air. That air though isn't thin, it is choked up with the foul stench of greed, callousness and blood money. Thanks to George Bush's Administration, it all came to fruition.

From The BBC:

For the first time, the extent to which some private contractors have profited from the conflict and rebuilding has been researched by the BBC's Panorama using US and Iraqi government sources.

A US gagging order is preventing discussion of the allegations.

The order applies to 70 court cases against some of the top US companies.

While George Bush remains in the White House, it is unlikely the gagging orders will be lifted.

To date, no major US contractor faces trial for fraud or mismanagement in Iraq.

Not a single thing has been done, save for Democratic pleas for accountability and expressed outrage at hearings led by the intrepid Henry Waxman. However, since George Bush stonewalls accountability, justice and the Democratic attempts to find the truth about the missing $23 billion (or more). The BBC however found a little chunk of it:

The search for the missing billions also led the programme to a house in Acton in West London where Hazem Shalaan lived until he was appointed to the new Iraqi government as minister of defence in 2004.

He and his associates siphoned an estimated $1.2 billion out of the ministry.

They bought old military equipment from Poland but claimed for top class weapons.

Meanwhile they diverted money into their own accounts.

How much longer must we suffer these atrocities? Oh yeah, I remember now. It can't come soon enough.

Pentagon Tells Interrogators To Shred Evidence

While President Bush and his minions have constantly told us that the United States does not torture, many of us know better. The international community certainly knows better. The Bush Administration should know better, but chooses to torture those they capture anyway. Now we have news that the Pentagon told its interrogators to destroy evidence of what exactly they did with their prisoners.

From The Huffington Post:

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The Pentagon urged interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to destroy handwritten notes in case they were called to testify about potentially harsh treatment of detainees, a military defense lawyer said Sunday.

The lawyer for Toronto-born Omar Khadr, Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, said the instructions were included in an operations manual shown to him by prosecutors and suggest the U.S. deliberately thwarted evidence that could help terror suspects defend themselves at trial.

Kuebler said the apparent destruction of evidence prevents him from challenging the reliability of any alleged confessions. He said he will use the document to seek a dismissal of charges against Khadr.

Now I am all for prosecuting those that do harm against our soldiers and our country, but torturing them or those that are alleged to have done harm is highly unnecessary. It has already been proven over and over again that it doesn't work. Not only is it ineffective, but the practice goes against human decency and was outlawed by the Geneva Conventions (something Bush has no regard for). If there was evidence covered up, it shows that the Pentagon is fully aware of their actions and the consequences if definitive proof surfaced about their policy on torture.

Indicted Saudi Crook Given $80 Mil Contract By Pentagon

Since George Bush doesn't care about the rule of law when it comes to his actions as President, why would it matter for anyone else? For Saudi financier and indicted crook Gaith Pharaon, it helps to have friends at high places in the Bush Administration. Gaith was implicated in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International collapse and is wanted by the Department of Justice. They never got him because he fled the country but apparently for Bush, he can still help himself to our taxpayer dollars to the tune of $80,000,000.

From Newshoggers:

The Bush administration looks out for it's friends even when they support the terrorists. (Hat Tip to John Cole)

Indicted Saudi Gets $80 Million US Contract

The US military has awarded an $80 million contract to a prominent Saudi financier who has been indicted by the US Justice Department. The contract to supply jet fuel to American bases in Afghanistan was awarded to the Attock Refinery Ltd, a Pakistani-based refinery owned by Gaith Pharaon. Pharaon is wanted in connection with his alleged role at the failed Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), and the CenTrust savings and loan scandal, which cost US tax payers $1.7 billion.

The Saudi businessman was also named in a 2002 French parliamentary report as having links to informal money transfer networks called hawala, known to be used by traders and terrorists, including Al Qaeda.

Interestingly, Pharaon was also an investor in President George W. Bush's first business venture, Arbusto Energy.

See, a little help from way back in George's Texas days goes a long way! Who cares if he helps funnel money to Al Qaeda or caused the U.S. economy to blow $1.7 billion in the BCCI scandal? As long as you are one of Bush's friends, nothing else matters.

Dana Perino Caught Lying About Pentagon's Fifth Column

I may only be in my twenties, but out of all the White House Press Secretaries I've seen, Dana Perino is one of the worst. It has to be hard for her to continually spew the Bush Administration's garbage day in, day out. Unfortunately for her, if you tell enough lies, the dam holding back the truth will eventually spring a leak. One leak that Eric Brewer of RawStory found concerns the Pentagon's once-secret program to spread their propaganda about the war throughout the media.

From RawStory:

I had repeated my question as she walked away from the podium, "Did the White House know about the program?" And on her way out of the room, Perino answered, "I just said: no."

(I just rechecked my own tape recording of the briefing, and that is what she said. I apologize profusely for leaving this crucial detail out of my earlier article.)

Of course, in her earlier answer, she really hadn't just said no—she'd said only, "I didn't know." But her denial of White House knowledge during that parting shot is very interesting, for reasons that Greenwald points out in the same post I linked to above: Glenn publishes emails from Pentagon officials dealing with the military analyst program that refer to weekly meetings with "karl," to having the analysts briefed by Bush's National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, and even to getting the analysts "in with potus" himself (that's POTUS, or the President of the United States). As Glenn sums up, rather understatedly I believe:

So in the process of discussing how to keep "their" TV military analysts "on message" regarding claims about the Iraq war, they talked about efforts to have both Stephen Hadley and Bush himself speak with the analysts -- proposals that had been discussed with "karl" (which, clearly, in this case, means Rove). That means Perino's denial was false and that the White House had at least some knowledge of and involvement in this propaganda program.

Uh oh. Dana has denied something that is clearly true. And it's looking more and more as if the legal opinion that she expressed about the Pentagon's propaganda program, "I don't think that that should be against the law," is just whistling in the dark.

Uh oh is right. This is another incident in the history of the Bush Administration where the law was willfully broken. Sometimes they get caught, sometimes not. The terrible thing is that none of them are in jail for it, where they belong.

Pentagon Propaganda Machine Caught In The Act

Most of what the Pentagon says to the press is propaganda, but sometimes its hard to tell when they are just trying to be boastful or purposefully deceitful. The Pentagon Propaganda story has been deliberatively hidden by the traditional media and for good reason (because they played along and are culpable for bowing down for the Pentagon). Now via a special document dump, there is at least one email proving that something fishy is going on.

From ThinkProgress:

In a Feb. 16, 2006 email exchange, Pentagon media staffers discussed coordinating with the Heritage Foundation to identify someone to speak about detainee treatment at Gitmo. An anonymous employee suggested retired Army Sergeant Major Steve Short because “he seems to be on message and very articulate.”

Pentagon public affairs official Allison Barber responded by warning that the DoD could not officially “endorse” one particular speaker over another. “Important to remember that heritage can invite anyone to present and that we don’t really have an opinion on anyone,” Barber wrote.

The anonymous author then suggested he or she might lie and pretend not to have ever heard of Short:

Just two weeks after this email exchange — on March 1, 2006 — Short was invited by Heritage to participate on a panel entitled “GITMO: What You Read Vs. What You See.” And he was indeed “on message.”

Surely that is just a coincidence. Short wouldn't deliberatively lie to his faithful choir at the Heritage Foundation, would he? And there is no way that the press would follow their lead like a little puppy does its new friend that pours food into the kibble tray, right?

Sigh.

Baghdad Dreamin'

Apparently all the fowl have been killed in Iraq, because no can count their chickens before they hatch. The latest ridiculous story out of the war-torn country tells of a massive upscale development in the Green Zone . The multi-billion dollar plan is like a mirage in the desert sand. Hotels, shopping and condos are a part of a complex that the Pentagon and others see as the future of Iraq.

From the AP:

BAGHDAD (AP) — Forget the rocket attacks, concrete blast walls and lack of a sewer system. Now try to imagine luxury hotels, a shopping center and even condos in the heart of Baghdad.

That's all part of a five-year development "dream list" — or what some dub an improbable fantasy — to transform the U.S.-protected Green Zone from a walled fortress into a centerpiece for Baghdad's future.

But the $5 billion plan has the backing of the Pentagon and apparently the interest of some deep pockets in the world of international hotels and development, the lead military liaison for the project told The Associated Press.

For Washington, the driving motivation is to create a "zone of influence" around the new $700 million U.S. Embassy to serve as a kind of high-end buffer for the compound, whose total price tag will reach about $1 billion after all the workers and offices are relocated over the next year.

So billions in investment so that our ridiculously oversized embassy has friendly neighbors? Do people in the Pentagon really believe this will work? Before you can build anything you need services (sewer, water, power, etc) that do not exist because the area is in complete chaos. This is wild fantasy of a few rich people that clearly are not rooted in reality. If they want to know what that is, all they need to do is look at what is going on there today.

Reliable Sources Covers The Pentagon Propaganda Story....Sort Of

To be fair to Howard Kurtz, he did discuss the military's propaganda effort story on Reliable Sources this week. Unfortunately though we have one former military official turned TV analyst and an ex-Pentagon spokesman. Perhaps Kurtz should have given equal time to.....gee I don't know, maybe an unbiased opinion for this segment?

NY Times Uncovers Massive Propaganda Effort By The Pentagon

Why am I not surprised?

Blackwater Saga Will Continue: Pentagon Looks The Other Way For Mercenary Group

For reasons beyond the realm of common sense, the Pentagon has decided to renew the contract for Blackwater to maintain their operations (and cash flow) in Iraq. Despite numerous abuses and allegations, this private contractor mercenary group will continue to leech off of American taxpayers and take jobs that should be reserved for our soldiers. Instead, some Blackwater agents use their 'contractor' status to override our own military forces in humiliating fashion, though still not as bad as how they try to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis. All in all, this is just a bad deal.

From The Huffington Post:

Blackwater provides security for diplomats in Baghdad, where the sprawling U.S. Embassy is headquartered. Its private guards act as bodyguards and armed drivers, escorting government officials when they go outside the fortified Green Zone.

Iraqis were outraged over a Sept. 16 shooting in which 17 Iraq civilians were killed in a Baghdad square. Blackwater said its guards were protecting diplomats under attack before they opened fire, but Iraqi investigators concluded the shooting was unprovoked.

An FBI probe began in November. Prosecutors want to know whether Blackwater contractors used excessive force or violated any laws.

The State Department's top security officer, Greg Starr, told reporters Friday that because the FBI is still investigating the shootings, there is no justification now to pull the contract when it comes due in May.

Blackwater has a five-year deal to provide personal protection for diplomats, and its contract is reauthorized each year. The decision announced Friday extends Blackwater's deal for the third year.

Here's an idea, why not pull these operations in-house. Why do we need to pay private companies to protect diplomats? If we as a nation are held accountable in the court of world opinion, then we should be fully responsible for protecting people who are on diplomatic missions in the hell that is Iraq. I know this wouldn't make some people who are close to the Pentagon (like Erik Prince) as wealthy as he is today, but too f**king bad, our military should not be about enriching a few war profiteers.

KBR: Being Patriotic From The Cayman Islands

The Bush Administration loves to tell us they support the troops, but of course their actions speak much differently. Instead of funding the troops and keeping them well supplied, an increasing effort is made to give more contracts to private companies like Blackwater, Halliburton and its offshoot, KBR. Kellogg, Brown and Root provides a lot of logistical support for the occupation of Iraq. George Bush and his control over the Pentagon has made us dependent on them, but do they reciprocate his warm feelings back to the American public?

Well no, of course not:

CAYMAN ISLANDS - Kellogg Brown & Root, the nation's top Iraq war contractor and until last year a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp., has avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in this tropical tax haven.

More than 21,000 people working for KBR in Iraq - including about 10,500 Americans - are listed as employees of two companies that exist in a computer file on the fourth floor of a building on a palm-studded boulevard here in the Caribbean. Neither company has an office or phone number in the Cayman Islands.

The Defense Department has known since at least 2004 that KBR was avoiding taxes by declaring its American workers as employees of Cayman Islands shell companies, and officials said the move allowed KBR to perform the work more cheaply, saving Defense dollars.

The DoD simplifies the cheaper cost far too much. As the Boston Globe points out, the government (meaning all of us) loses money overall when they skip town and base their company out of the Caribbean. It isn't about saving money and cutting costs, its about corporate greed. These companies don't care about patriotism, the only flag they salute are the ones made out of cold, hard cash. You know, the military worked just fine before KBR and the rest of them ever existed, and it will again once we clean up our act.

Supporting The Troops? Military Disallows You From Telling Them

Ah, the holiday season, full of good cheer and...oh wait, nevermind, this is America circa 2007. People are going beserk shopping for things that they don't need and to give gifts to their loved ones that can send the message that you are valued in what you receive from the mall. Another sad reality is that we are in our fifth holiday season while our troops are away in Iraq...or in a military hospital trying to recover from their injuries.

Since the U.S. government is not adequately funding the VA, vets are not getting decent care or good benefits. Many are simply wallowing away somewhere in Walter Reed Medical Center or in a hospice in Germany, Kuwait or in Baghdad. Well, at least Americans are still sending hundreds of thousands of pieces of mail to wish the troops well, showing that the people really do care about our boys (and girls) that are far away from home serving their country George Bush.

Oh, oops, my bad, wrong again. The popular idea of sending mail to "Any Wounded Soldier" has been banned by the military and even the USO. The threat of a security breach is what they are claiming here, because there isn't enough manpower to go through all of the envelopes. Now I will accept that there are a few crazies out there who would put powder in envelope or would write things like "baby killer" in their message. However, if we would staff a department in the Pentagon to take care of the problem, or at least get many messages through, it would be a lot better than simply throwing out the mail or returning it to sender.

Our troops deserve better than that. Can't we slim Halliburton's no-bid contract just a smidge for our wounded soldiers?

Winning Hearts And Minds With Live Bait

When we went into Iraq the neo-cons told us that we would be greeted as liberators with flowers thrown at our feet. Instead we found I.E.D.s hidden in anything from cars to carcasses. Well now that we are four and a half years into this disastrous mess, it seems the Army has come up with its own improvised devices.

From The Washington Post:

A Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents by scattering pieces of "bait," such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then killing Iraqis who pick up the items, according to military court documents.

The classified program was described in investigative documents related to recently filed murder charges against three snipers who are accused of planting evidence on Iraqis they killed.

"Baiting is putting an object out there that we know they will use, with the intention of destroying the enemy," Capt. Matthew P. Didier, the leader of an elite sniper scout platoon attached to the 1st Battalion of the 501st Infantry Regiment, said in a sworn statement. "Basically, we would put an item out there and watch it. If someone found the item, picked it up and attempted to leave with the item, we would engage the individual as I saw this as a sign they would use the item against U.S. Forces."

So basically, if an old man or young child picks up the bait, they could be shot on sight. Just imagine being an innocent Iraqi civilian and seeing something in the road that could be made to kill your friends or family in a market weeks or months from now. You want these awful things off the street and might even be inclined to turn it into the authorities. Instead, as you are walking away with the part in hand, a crack sounds out in the distance and before you even connect what the noise is, your body is lying in the ground, killed by an unseen enemy that was trying to prevent the same event that you were as well.

This tactic has already killed an unknown number of civilians. This is one way we are supposedly helping to stem violence in the streets of Baghdad. Winning hearts and minds, one dead heart and mind at a time.

Not In New York, Not Anywhere

The practice of recruiting kids from our high schools is a shameful one. We as a country have allowed this to go on for far too long. Having a table at "career day" is one thing, having uninhibited access to classrooms is another. IT professionals, activists, lawyers, doctors and a myriad of trades do not even come close to having the face time with students that the military does. Thankfully someone with some authority in the city sees this and wants to do something about it.

From The New York Times:

Military recruiters are frequently given free reign in New York City public schools and allowed into classes in violation of the school system’s regulations, according to a report released yesterday by the Manhattan borough president and the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The report, based on surveys of nearly 1,000 students at 45 high schools citywide last spring, said the city’s Department of Education exercised almost no oversight over how much access recruiters had to students at high schools.

“There were recruiters who were in the classroom not to talk to students about reading, writing and arithmetic, but to talk to them about how to get a one-way ticket to Iraq and all the benefits you will accrue by that process,” Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, said at a news conference. “This is something that must be stopped. It’s outrageous, and it gives recruiters a captive audience.”

Of course the Bushie interviewed for this article claimed ignorance, but that isn't too surprising. The report she claims she'll review shows that these recruiters disproportionately go into schools with large percentages of minorities and students from low-income families. We all know they do this, the report just confirms it. The question is....what do we do about it?

Perhaps schools could start by getting representatives from trades other than "killing people in Iraq" would be a good start. There is more to life than dying in Iraq.

Flying Nukes: Accidental Or A Show Of Force

The media treated the story of the accidental transfer of nuclear warheads as an unfortunate mishap that thankfully did not translate into a global catastrophe. Of course I am glad that the plane did not crash or a cruise missile was inadvertently launched, obliterating anything in between Minot, ND and Barksdale AFB in Louisiana. Yet, this explanation of events felt weird to me, and it did so to Larry Johnson, who is far more qualified than me to talk about these things.

From TPM Cafe:

Why the hubbub over a B-52 taking off from a B-52 base in Minot, North Dakota and subsequently landing at a B-52 base in Barksdale, Louisiana? That’s like getting excited if you see a postal worker in uniform walking out of a post office. And how does someone watching a B-52 land identify the cruise missiles as nukes? It just does not make sense.

So I called a old friend and retired B-52 pilot and asked him. What he told me offers one compelling case of circumstantial evidence. My buddy, let’s call him Jack D. Ripper, reminded me that the only times you put weapons on a plane is when they are on alert or if you are tasked to move the weapons to a specific site.

Then he told me something I had not heard before.

Barksdale Air Force Base is being used as a jumping off point for Middle East operations. Gee, why would we want cruise missile nukes at Barksdale Air Force Base. Can’t imagine we would need to use them in Iraq. Why would we want to preposition nuclear weapons at a base conducting Middle East operations?

His final point was to observe that someone on the inside obviously leaked the info that the planes were carrying nukes. A B-52 landing at Barksdale is a non-event. A B-52 landing with nukes. That is something else.

Hmmm. Are we trying to threaten someone with those WMDs?

Certain Plumbers You Just Have To Avoid

It is always best to get two or three estimates before getting something fixed when it comes to your home or office. It is just common sense. Of course as Voltaire said "Common sense isn't so common." So when the Pentagon wanted to buy a couple of washers, you would think they might want to get the price....but they didn't. Take a look at how expensive these little babies were.

From The Guardian:

Plumbers are notorious for excessive bills. But none has come even remotely close to matching an extravagant claim by a South Carolina firm: almost $1m (£500,000) for two metal washers worth 19c each.

Charlene Corley, 47, co-owner of the plumbing and electrical firm C&D Distributors, who supplied parts to the military, is awaiting sentence after pleading guilty yesterday to defrauding the Pentagon. She faces 20 years in jail.

The most expensive washers in history were part of $20.5m the company stole from the Pentagon over the last 10 years. The company shipped plumbing and electrical parts to US bases round the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

Where did the $999,999 go you ask? Charlene Corey bought cars, houses and a few other knick-knacks for around the house. She defrauded the government...but the government let her do it. They are complicit in this, or at least extremely negligent. Perhaps the accountant in the Pentagon could have looked at the bill and realized you can buy washers for less than the price of a phone call at a pay phone.

Ah the words of Voltaire, so true.

U.K. Follows Pentagon's Censorship Of Soldiers

What Does The President Know About The Pat Tillman Cover Up?

The lack of compassion George Bush has for Americans in general is truly pathetic. What is worse is that he seems to care less about the troops, and more about hiding the secrets of the military. The Pat Tillman cover up is almost as tragic as the death itself. The Pentagon has disgraced itself through and through, yet the President won't do a thing. All we can expect is hollow rhetoric.

From The White House itself:

Q Thank you, Mr. President. You speak often about taking care of the troops and honoring their sacrifice. But the family of Corporal Pat Tillman believes there was a cover up regarding his death, and some say perhaps he was even murdered, instead of just friendly fire. At a hearing last week on Capitol Hill your former Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, other officials used some version of "I don't recall" 82 times. When it was his term to step up, Pat Tillman gave up a lucrative NFL career, served his country and paid the ultimate sacrifice. Now you have a chance to pledge to the family that your government, your administration will finally get to the bottom of it. Can you make that pledge to the family today, that you'll finally, after seven investigations, find out what really happened?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, I can understand why Pat Tillman's family, you know, has got significant emotions, because a man they loved and respected was killed while he was serving his country. I always admired the fact that a person who was relatively comfortable in life would be willing to take off one uniform and put on another to defend America. And the best way to honor that commitment of his is to find out the truth. And I'm confident the Defense Department wants to find out the truth, too, and we'll lay it out for the Tillman family to know.

Q But, Mr. President, there have been seven investigations and the Pentagon has not gotten to the bottom of it. Can you also tell us when you, personally, found out that it was not enemy fire, that it was friendly fire?

THE PRESIDENT: I can't give you the precise moment. But obviously the minute I heard that the facts that people believed were true were not true, that I expect there to be a full investigation and get to the bottom of it.

He expects to be liked by the nation, and that ain't gonna happen any sooner than when hell freezes over. So there is no reason for any of us to expect a full and complete investigation. The lack of sympathy and forthright for the Tillman family is sickening. The fact that the entire Bush Administration is in on it is downright nauseous.

Where's The Weaponry

Playing "Where's Waldo" was always fun for me as a kid in magazines and puzzles, but finding missing weapons is no laughing matter. That is especially important because there are nearly 200,000 missing sidearms and automatic rifles that we gave to the Iraqis. Accountability has been lacking in the Bush Administration from day one, now there is another deadly example of how the Pentagon has mishandled this war.

From The Washington Post:

The author of the report from the Government Accountability Office says U.S. military officials do not know what happened to 30 percent of the weapons the United States distributed to Iraqi forces from 2004 through early this year as part of an effort to train and equip the troops. The highest previous estimate of unaccounted-for weapons was 14,000, in a report issued last year by the inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

The United States has spent $19.2 billion trying to develop Iraqi security forces since 2003, the GAO said, including at least $2.8 billion to buy and deliver equipment. But the GAO said weapons distribution was haphazard and rushed and failed to follow established procedures, particularly from 2004 to 2005, when security training was led by Gen. David H. Petraeus, who now commands all U.S. forces in Iraq.

The Pentagon did not dispute the GAO findings, saying it has launched its own investigation and indicating it is working to improve tracking. Although controls have been tightened since 2005, the inability of the United States to track weapons with tools such as serial numbers makes it nearly impossible for the U.S. military to know whether it is battling an enemy equipped by American taxpayers.

The chance that our own weaponry is killing our own men and women is becoming more and more likely. It is a sad reality that we have no control in this civil war. The only thing we have power over is the choice to stay in the many lines of fire, killing dozens of our troops every month. We have made so many mistakes in Iraq and despite the Pentagon claiming that they will "investigate," the problems will continue as long as we are there.

Again, Mr. President, members of Congress, get us out of this terrible war now.