The Best Of BushOut

Top ten posts since I started this blog in 2003:

1. How Bush's friends manipulated Global Oil Prices in the lead-up to the 2006 mid-term elections.

The real question is not why they manipulate oil prices for political profit, but how do they do it...

2. Killing Arabs: Bush, Camus and the Politics Of The Absurd:

Camus’ writing is marked by an intellectual rigor that shines like a bright light through all his work. By contrast, Bush cannot even be bothered to analyze complex issues in anything more than a superficial way...

3. Bush Cites Fadhils For Proof Of "Success" In Iraq:

When the President of the United States of America is reduced to quoting propaganda nonsense fabricated by his own neocon supporters, that's pathetic. When he does so specifically in order to justify failed policies which continue to see dozens, if not hundreds, dead every day in Iraq, that's worse than tragic. It's criminal...

4. Iraq The Model: The Full Story

The NYT article only skimmed the surface of my allegations against the Fadhil brothers, gently suggesting they might be working with the CIA but quickly concluding that they probably are not. So here is the full story, from my point of view, for anyone who is interested...

More on Jim Hake here. More on the Fadhil brothers here. One day I might get around to pulling all this shit together.

5. Warmongers Jerk Off To Chrenkoff

If normal companies are using buzz and direct-advertising techniques, there's no reason to think that the most powerful military complex on the planet hasn't caught on...

More on Chrenkoff here.

6. Bush Versus Confucius

Others are clear and bright,
But I alone am dim and weak.
Others are sharp and clever,
But I alone am dull and stupid.

7. Too Incredible To Be True: The Khaled El-Masri Story

Regular readers might remember that it was not so long ago that this humble blog was - quite incredibly - rated the #2 resource on the Web for a Google search on his name...

More on Khaled El-Masri here. Original Bush Out blog post here. Latest Wikipedia info here.

8. A hit from the Executive Office Of The President Of The United States:

The hit came from Washington, D.C., on April 16th at 11:46:42 pm. It was a Google blog search (blogsearch.google.com) for the words "George Tenet" and it led to this post...

9. My very first blog post, from way back in Feb, 2003:

Who are we? Where are we going? What kind of world do we want to create? ...

The industralised behommeth [sic] of 21st Century "Civilisation" races at full steam towards a destination most thinking people no longer wish to attain... Who built this cursed machine? Who controls it? Should we be trying to stop it, destroy it or re-direct it? Or should we just be jumping off?!?

After centuries of disenfranchisement, subjugation and de-humanisation, the Internet promises to re-empower the individual and unite ordinary people around the globe. Personal web sites like Blogger give us a medium to make our voices heard like never before. This Blog is my voice on the Internet.

10. My second blog post, just two months into the war:

We are now witnessing the collapse of the myriad Bush administration myths about why the USA had to invade Iraq... So now it it time to ask: WHY DID THEY DO IT?

The answer, obvious enough once the other myths are exploded, is OIL.

So, what now? Iraq is perhaps the only nation on earth capable of seriously challenging Saudi Arabia as the World #1 oil exporter. The Americans will clearly want to maintain control of this oil for the next hundred years (or at least until it is all gone). The obvious fix would be to "sell" all the Iraqi's oil to the USA at very attractive prices. In return, the USA will give the Iraqis ... what? Hmmn... How about ongoing military and administrative support? Well, that won't be necessary once the Iraqis regain control of their country and set up a stable, model democracy, right?

Hands up anyone who thinks the instability in Iraq will be resolved anytime soon.

And a follow up more than four years later:

If the truth was obvious to me, a relatively uninformed middle-aged nobody, way back then, why couldn't the whole world see it? Why couldn't our politicians admit it? Why was the media silent? Why has it taken us four long years of lies, and over half a million deaths, to reach this point of public outrage? How on earth did Bush, Blair and Howard manage to get re-elected?

The disturbing answers to these questions tell us much about who we are, what we have become, and where we are going.

I have now spent over four years blogging nearly every day against Bush, Howard, Blair and their Big Money backers. It has been a process of learning and self-realisation as much as a politically-oriented campaign for truth and accountability.

The knowledge I have accumulated has been quite shocking, in many respects, and almost always depressing. Much that was dismissed, just a short time ago, as wild Conspiracy Theory, is now accepted as common knowledge. I have learned a good deal about of politics, business, and Western society, but I have learned far, far more about human nature.

See also this 9-11 timeline.

Where's Omar Fadhil Now?

Still picking up cheques from Rupert Murdoch, still writing opinion pieces for the WSJ, but now under the name Omar Fadhil Al-Nidawi.

Omar is still following the money, obviously, as a mouthpiece for the US military-industrial complex. Calling for more missiles, a bigger airport, more spending. You know the game. And if you don't, this clip from Motley Fool should help:

The Obama administration has proposed, and Congress is currently reviewing, a possible $7.8 billion sale of Patriot PAC-3 missiles to Turkey. Congressmen who've been stymied in their efforts to funnel government funds to Lockheed for its F-22 fighter jet (killed for good last week in the Senate), and to Raytheon for its subcontracting role in the Kinetic Interceptor (also now DOA), get a second bite at the funding apple. Both Lockheed and Raytheon were named as contractors to build the Patriot batteries, if the sale gets approved.

And that's just the start. In other Mideast news, The Wall Street Journal ran an editorial by Iraqi commentator and political analyst Omar Fadhil Al-Nidawi last week, calling on Congress to provide Iraq with a robust air defense system. Headlining Mr. Al-Nidawi's wish list: F-16 fighter jets from Lockheed, and -- you guessed it -- Patriots from Raytheon.

(BTW: His WSJ co-author Austin Bay is a (former?) US Army Colonel who served in Iraq and wrote a book called "The Other Side Of Brightness". Irony much?)

Omar also wrote an Op-Ed for Rupert's The Australian back in June, titled Iraq Was A Just War. No trace of irony here either:

Corruption is a serious problem, but worse than corruption itself is if there is a lack of checks and balances that can stop it. In Iraq this used to happen all the time, but now a wind of change is blowing...

In fact, Omar Fadhil is now a summer associate at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. They are connected to the National Review and The Weekly Standard, and they publish a number of blogs including "Faster Please" by Michael Ledeen, "Iraq Status Report" and a blog called "The Long War Journal". There's that old neocon money trail.

Omar Fadhil is also now a graduate student of international affairs at Columbia University in New York City. He has 300 friends on Facebook, including media "guru" Jeff Jarvis, the mysterious Kerry Dupont (who offered all that cash to the boys in Baghdad), and Arthur "Good News" Chrenkoff.

Here's Omar's pic:



Here's brother Mohammed Fadhil:



And here's their old mate Arthur Chrenkoff:



Interesting that brother Ali is either not on Facebook, or totally estranged from the clan.

Also interesting to follow Kerry Dupont's links. You remember Kerry, a plain old mother of two from Maine who offered the Fadhil brothers $300,000, promised to get them help from the Department of Defense, and met George W. Bush with them and Paul Wolfowitz in the Oval Office. Here's a Facebook pic of Kerry:



Who is friends will Kelly Dupont:



Who is friends with Edward Dupont:



He looks pretty hard-core, doesn't he? There are a few Washington DC "friends" in the Dupont portfolio too. Wonder where Spirit Of America was getting all that money? There's another trail to follow...

Now I am just wondering if these crazy Dupont kids are not somehow related to these guys:

The Dupont Group is a Concord, New Hampshire-based business consulting firm focused on government affairs and public relations. The firm specializes in advocacy and communications associated with complicated public policy issues and regulated industries. The firm's services include lobbying and government affairs representation with an emphasis on New Hampshire state government, including the Legislature, executive branch as well as regulatory agencies. In addition, The Dupont Group's public relations division, White Birch Communications Group provides clients with a full array of corporate communications services ranging from integrated news media programs to corporate identification programs.

The head of the Dupont Group is a guy called Edward Dupont, a former Senator and founder of Strafford Fuels, Inc. But the pic doesn't look like the same guy:



Still, there could be a family resemblance. What do you think? Kerry Dupont comes from Maine, which is not too far from New Hampshire, where the Dupont Group is based.

PS: For anyone who doesn't know who Omar Fadhil is, this old blog post explains.

Lunatics Running The Asylum: Top Bush Officials Work The Wingnut Blogs

I guess that if it makes sense that Tony Snow is sending personal memos to Tim Blair, and George W. Bush is quoting the Fadhil brothers for proof of success in Iraq, then sure, why wouldn't the wingnut Power Line blog be getting emails from Philip Zelikow?

Zelikow is trying to finger Tenet for torturing suspects and not giving his 911 Commission evidence. Like that would have changed everything. Ri-i-ight...?

Let's not talk about that other stuff... (see below).

War Profiteers

UPDATE: Well, whaddaya know? Within 48 hours, Omar post some more drivel. Are these guys reading my blog?

Is it time to declare IRAQ THE MODEL dead yet? No new posts from my old friends since December 5th, and only a smattering of posts since Omar declared he was in New York studying international affairs at Columbia University (I kid you not) way back on September 5th, 2007. Brother Ali is also going to college at Sony Brooks in Long Island.

I assume that's the end of their gig as "Baghdad Editors" at the notorious Pyjamas Media, where no new Fadhil bylines are to be found. Of course, you can still find plenty of rabidly delusional rightwing crap, like Michael Ledeen slamming Gandhi and his entire family as disgusting anti-Semites, or some rather bizarre coverage of the Sibel Edmonds story:

And the State Department hates Israel with a passion, so why are they cooperating with Israeli spies?

It's hard to believe that people are dying because of such blatant idiocy. These imbeciles remain dangerous as long as anyone keeps taking them seriously.

PS: It's quite possible that I blew Omar's cover with this post on September 3rd.

UPDATE: This link has some interesting info too:

At first glance, Omar might not appear to have the background or the personal history that would vault him to international attention as one of the strongest Iraqi proponents of liberal democracy and the American invasion and a pioneer of the nascent Iraqi blogosphere.He was born in 1980 into a Sunni family in Baghdad, the youngest in a family of three boys and one girl. His mother, Rasmia, taught elementary school to third and fourth graders in Baghdad, while his father, Fadhil, spent decades years in Saddam’s army before retiring in 1990 as a high-ranking general.

Omar and his siblings grew up in an upper-middle class Baghdad suburb as a privileged part of the ruling elite. In the afternoons, after homework was finished, he and his friends would gather to play soccer in the streets or at school. When Baghdad baked in the summer heat, his father would drive the family to a social club to swim, an activity that Omar hated as much as his brothers loved. In Iraq, to succeed meant becoming, in order of prestige, a doctor, dentist or engineer. His older brother Ali and older sister Rasha* (name changed to protect her identity) became doctors, while Omar followed the footsteps of his brother Mohammed into dentistry. He liked the ratio of work to play that the career offered, and couldn’t imagine ten years of training required to become a doctor. Eight years for dentistry was more than enough.

In spite of his family’s relatively privileged position, Saddam’s rule of fear shaped Omar’s political views from a young age. His father, Fadhil, had a military career as a commander in Iraq’s air defense system where he continued to steadily work his way up the chain of command. A professional soldier, he abhorred having to defer to incompetent and inexperience military officers appointed by Saddam’s family. The situation came to a head in 1990 when he directly opposed a decision made by a non academic officer. Luckily, his only punishment was early retirement, a gift from military friends that allowed him to escape the hanging that awaited had the disagreement escalated up to Saddam. It was a lesson about freedom of expression that Omar never forgot.

Fear of the regime remained constant as he grew older...

Omar’s on-the-ground reporting quickly earned him the attention of the international media. Reporters from USA Today read the brothers’ blog and interviewed them in Baghdad. Editors from the WSJ, New York Daily News, and the Philadelphia Enquirer contacted them to write OpEds, and the BBC was soon regularly calling Omar for information whenever something happened in Iraq. He also became the de factor Baghdad correspondent for Pajamas Media.

In addition, Iraq The Model (ITM) began providing its own content, offering some of the most comprehensive coverage of the second parliamentary Iraqi elections in 2005. At its peak, it was receiving tens of thousands of hits per day. The blog was a demanding mistress however, and ITM’s allure soon made his under-funded dentistry practice seem insignificant by comparison. The blog’s pull proved too strong and eventually, as Omar puts it, “I lost the dentist within me.”. With ITM he had found his medium and his mission. “Gradually you get the feeling that what you are doing is worthwhile, you are providing information that people appreciate. You tend to feel committed to doing this mission.” says Omar...

Almost five years have passed the US invasion, and Omar and I now sit talking over a beer at a bar on the Upper West Side near Columbia University. He came to the United States in August of this year to study international security policy at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. He plans to return to Iraq and run for public office in the 2013 parliamentary elections. In addition to handling a crushing academic workload, he continues to contribute periodically to ITM.

The writer of that piece, Aaron Ernst, seems to have established a bit of an anti-Hillary policial rapport with Omar, if these Google responses are to be believed:

I can't see more than that, because clicking the links just gives you a "Deleted Account" message.

One Bright, Shining Lie

This one is for the long-time readers, the handful of BushOut aficionados who might just appreciate exactly how and why the US media surge surrounding the Petraeus report leads directly to classic ITM drivel like this:

...try to picture the scene; dozens of passenger SUV's (GMC trucks mostly) and buses parking in he middle of nowhere in a zone that was until recently the heart of al-Qaeda's Islamic state! Obviously the drivers and families feel safe enough that they know they won't be robbed and slaughtered by cold-blooded terrorists. Even more interesting, this parking and resting zone was not designated nor protected by the Iraqi or American forces but simply an arrangement the drivers managed on their own perhaps with cooperation from the local tribes.

I still laugh every time I think of this incredible change and I honestly wouldn't have believed it if the story teller wasn't my father.

Ah, yes! The classic elements of a great ITM story: a narrator passing on word of mouth from another likeable character. By pure chance, it just happens to tie in nicely with the latest neocon talking points. All the good news from Iraq your stomach can hold down!

And get this for a bonus: remember all that talk about 4.5 million Iraqi refugees? Well, turns out it was just the holiday season!

...a good percentage of Iraqis who flooded Syria in the beginning of the summer season were just trying to escape the summer heat and enjoy a simple vacation, like my family did.

Now we just sit back and wait for Bush to quote Omar Fadhil in one of his speeches, or the WSJ to run this as an Op-Ed...

Actually, it kinda bothers me that they don't even try a little bit harder. You know, this same tired trick has been played over and over again at ITM. But the punters keep hanging on, so... whatcha gonna do, eh?

Rake in the money, boys. You will be burning in Hell for a long time.

CODA: I know there are a lot of Ali Fadhils in Iraq, but I can't help wondering if a 2-year Fulbright scholarship in the USA (as contracted by the Department of State) might not have bought silence from one of them?

Fadhil, who is finishing a master's degree in journalism at New York University this fall, said he understood his friend's dilemma. Fadhil's father is a Sunni Muslim, his mother, a Shiite. His family still lives in Baghdad, and Fadhil, a married father of two, felt compelled to return to Iraq.

This summer, Fadhil is filming an HBO documentary about Baghdad's Yarmouk Hospital and another for ESPN about corruption in government-sponsored sports. His wife and children have been granted asylum in the United States, but Fadhil plans to return to Baghdad this winter.

Hmmn.

Is George W. Bush Reading "Bush Out"!!!?

Wow.

Today this humble little blog got a hit from someone within the eop.gov domain. That's the Executive Office Of The President Of The United States.

Yeah, that's right.

The hit came from Washington, D.C., on April 16th at 11:46:42 pm. It was a Google blog search (blogsearch.google.com) for the words "George Tenet" and it led to this post, in which I had basically just cut and pasted some amazing news from E&P about the former CIA Director's upcoming book.

What does this mean? It means that someone in the White House wants to know what bloggers are saying about George Tenet's new book, presumably because the press will (as usual) be catching up with bloggers' questions in another day or two... or five.

So is George W. Bush actually reading my blog, or is this just his inside team leaping into Damage Control Mode as the Tenet book goes public? Is Bush finally trying to escape the information cocoon into which Darth Cheney and his own lack of intellectual curiosity have locked him? Having recently cited the Fadhil brothers' charlatan "Iraq The Model" blog for evidence of his Iraq surge success, is Bush suddenly taking an interest in REAL blogs?

Stay tuned.... These are interesting times indeed!

Oh, and for the record, since the White House is worried about it, I might as well add my 2 cents on George Tenet's book... I think Tenet was never happy about being the fall guy for that whole WMD thing. Did he really say Saddam's WMDs were a "Slam Dunk" or not, that seems to be the central question. Now that the thrill of his Medal Of Honour has worn off, and as he watches this administration sink into the mud of oblivion, I think Tenet is out to salvage some shred of personal respectability.

(hat-tip and a free Bush Out T-shirt to loyal reader RC)

UPDATE: Tenet's book "At the Center of the Storm" is due out April 30th. He has already begun taping a segment for 60 Minutes, which will screen the day before. But it seems the only gossip currently circulating is what's found in this Al Kamen WaPo article.

Bush Cites Fadhils For Proof Of "Success" In Iraq!

[see below for updates]

When the President of the United States of America is reduced to quoting propaganda nonsense fabricated by his own neocon supporters, that's pathetic.

When he does so specifically in order to justify failed policies which continue to see dozens, if not hundreds, dead every day in Iraq, that's worse than tragic. It's criminal.

Here's what President Bush just said today:

The missions I described are only the opening salvos in what is going to be a sustained effort. Yet, the Iraqi people are beginning to say -- see positive changes. I want to share with you how two Iraqi bloggers -- they have bloggers in Baghdad, just like we've got here -- (laughter) -- "Displaced families are returning home, marketplaces are seeing more activity, stores that were long shuttered are now reopening. We feel safer about moving in the city now. Our people want to see this effort succeed. We hope the governments in Baghdad and America do not lose their resolve."

That's a direct quote from the Fadhil brothers' Wall Street Journal piece I just linked to five minutes ago. Bush is really scraping the bottom of the propaganda barrel here, folks.

Where do I start? Let's hope Bush's remarks shine some long-overdue light on the neocons' favourite fantasists.

For anyone not familiar with the story, which is a long-running saga on this blog, Omar and Mohammed Fadhil run a blog called Iraq The Model (ITM). They have a brother named Ali Fadhil who angrily departed the blog under very odd circumstances just before the 2004 US election, when Omar and Mohammed went to Washington to meet with Bush and Wolfowitz in the Oval Office. The White House meeting was organized by a bogus US "charity" called Spirit of America (SoA), whose CEO Jim Hake was also present.

Ali Fadhil alleged that the SoA staff were using the Fadhil brothers for propaganda purposes. He said that SoA CEO Jim Hake and his former "Director of Logistics and Procurement" Kerry Dupont were "stealing donors money" and lying to both Iraqis and Americans. He said Dupont offered the brothers $300,000 "that we could use to do what we want".

Mohammed seemed to recall her saying tht it was Kerry's personal money while I recall her saying it wasn't.

As I have said previously:

Three hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money to be throwing around, folks. And let's remember, this was happening while Paul Bremer was (supposedly) running Iraq and US$800 million was disappearing! Add two and two together and you would have to think that the money Dupont was offering came from those same taxpayer-funded coffers. But how the hell did Kerry Dupont get authorised to hand it out? Prior to her (extensive) involvement with Iraq The Model, Dupont was (as far as I can tell) just a plain old mother of two from Topsham, Maine. What happened on the way to Baghdad, Kerry?

When Ali complained to Jim Hake about Dupont's behaviour, Hake dumped him from the trip to the USA. Afterwards he promised Ali "any position I wanted and any salary I would find suitable". Instead of taking the offer, Ali went public with a barrage of blog posts exposing SoA projects where he claimed money had gone missing and SoA's claimed goals had proved illusory. Then suddenly - after discussions with his two brothers - Ali deleted his blog posts, aplogized for causing any trouble, and refused to discuss his allegations any further.

Ali maintained a blog of his own for a while, but the URL later pointed to a porn site and now suggests that Ali may be living in "freedom" in Germany. His brothers quickly removed Ali's blog link from their Iraq The Model site and no longer even mention his name.

That's just the start of it! When you look at the people who were behind setting up Iraq The Model and Spirit of America, a whole new ball game opens up.

Spirit of America was originally set up and supported by Cyber Century Forum (CCF), a group dedicated to spreading US influence worldwide, with a particular emphasis on covert cyber-intelligence measures. Cyber Century Forum’s three ageing members are old guard warhorses from the Cold War days. And they used oil company finances to set up Spirit Of America:

Cyber Century Forum's tax return for 2003 shows that it holds $109,440 in corporate stocks from Schlumberger Ltd, "the leading oilfield services technology company supplying technology, project management and information solutions to the oil and gas industries". It also holds a further US$9,292 in stocks from Transocean Sedco Forex, the world's largest offshore drilling company. Now isn't that a big surprise? "Freedom and Democracy for Iraq", sponsored by the US oil and gas industry.

There is even more if you want to keep digging. For example, two of the three members of Cyber Century Forum are also members of a top-level think-tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which is also dedidicated to spreading US influence.

And Spirit of America is a client of Direct Impact, a "grassroots marketing" organisation, whose marketing involves creating a "Buzz" by getting seemingly ordinary people (or better yet, influential people) to promote a product by word-of-mouth. Online promoters include people like Jeff Jarvis, who also helped set up Iraq The Model.

And Jim Hake went on to set up a media company called SignalOne media with people like Ahmad al-Rikaby (from Baghdad's own Radio Dijla and formerly U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe) and former US Ambassador and Kissinger speech-writer Mark Palmer (a member of the Committee for Present Danger).

I am not suggesting that Bush is familiar with this whole ITM/SoA story, but the fact that he is reduced to quoting such blatant propagandists just goes to show how desperate he now is.

For more information, use the search box in the top left of this blog, or check out feedback from other (genuine) Iraqi bloggers like Iraqi Konfused Kid. Any comments are welcome.

UPDATE: Jeebus! I posted this at TPM Cafe ten minutes ago and I am already getting hits from the US military's Directorate of Automation Services! Let's hope I make it home tonight!

UPDATE 2: Reuters picks up the story and the SMH runs with it. Well done! Even better, the article suggests that Reuters staff have questioned the Bush White House about their source:

In a speech, Bush did not identify them, but the White House said he was referring to an opinion article published March 5 in the Wall Street Journal by the two bloggers, Omar and Mohammed Fadhil.

UPDATE 3: RawStory is also on the case:

During his speech, Bush also quoted from an editorial written by bloggers from Iraq the Model published in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago to argue that his "surge" or escalation plan has already been successful.

UPDATE 4: JuliaAnn at Kos has picked up the story, but the "kids" in the comments are running all over the place with it (points for enthusiasm). Someone has the good sense to link to this post but it's obvious others have not followed the links. FYI, Kos folks: the Texas-based blog registration address for ITM has previously been explained as a result of US-based bloggers like Jarvis and the decidedly dodgy Tom Villars very thoughtfully "helping" to get the blog started.

And meanwhile there seems to have been a "surge" in propaganda from the Fadhils. An editorial in Investors Business Daily cited their upbeat blog on March 14th. A week later, Omar Fadhil was spreading even more "good news" for the Christian views section of World Magazine:

Is the change in U.S. military strategy evident on the streets of Baghdad?

Fadhil said: "Absolutely! A lot more troops, Iraqi and American, are available and visible in Baghdad than there were a couple months ago—checkpoints are more abundant and security measures are far stricter than before. And yes, civilian activity is much better now than before...

Notice how the Fadhils never even mention these media scoops (I'm thinking WSJ more than IBD or WM) on their blog. As I write, they have not even bothered to post a story mentioning that Bush is quoting them. You'd think that might be a memorable thing for a couple of humble Iraqi dentists, wouldn't you?

But without focussing too narrowly on these bogus bloggers, the real issue here is surely the very sad fact that George W. Bush, the President of the United States of America, is living in a dreamy cocoon of fictional fantasy. Where does he get his information? Who fed him the quotes from the Fadhil brothers (please tell me he is not a regular reader at ITM!)? Does he really believe this crap, or is he just bullshitting for all he is worth?

UPDATE 5: The New York Times has this rather thin story. Associated Press's story is also laced with scepticism but assumes readers are a few years behind the times:

Blogs are Web sites that tend to be narrow in focus and directed at a niche audience. Most operate without editors and give instant reaction to the news. Their freewheeling, open nature makes them popular but also ripe for unverified statements.

Greg Mitchell does a better job, quoting White House spokeswoman Dana Perino defending Bush's decision to quote bloggers:

"I think that maybe somebody found it compelling, the President wanted to include it in his speech..."

Oh my God, he does read ITM, doesn't he?! Or maybe just the WSJ (not much better)? I guess if you are desperate to believe your own "surge to victory" fantasy, where else are you going to go?

Meanwhile, Jillian at Kos reminds us that paid blogging propaganda is most certainly a happening thing, citing this Austin Statesman story:

These days, even the U.S. State Department is blogging.

[Karen] Hughes' video blogs are one way the State Department seeks to improve America's image overseas. It's an acknowledgement that while terrorism materializes in violent attacks, it's rooted in anti-American ideas and perceptions. The department is trying to challenge those ideas before they take root.

It's why Hughes, the State Department's undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, hired a half-dozen Arabic speakers to surf international blogs and post messages that counter "propaganda and rumors with facts," she said.

When I suggest that people get paid to post comments, I am called a Conspiracy Theorist. When Karen Hughes admits it, she's a genius.

What's really tragic is that these fools in the White House today think they can win a war with nothing but pure spin. They got hit by bloggers early on, so they have come back with blogs of their own. But it was never the blogs that were the real problem: it was the inconvenient FACTS the bloggers were highlighting.

UPDATE 6: Mo Fadhil has updated ITM with a predictable post aimed more at dismissing his critics than celebrating his propaganda victory:

I've seen some of them publish stories full of lies and accusations they can't support and I think it's pathetic to throw the "you're a sold-out propaganda" accusation at people just because they don't share the same point of view. This only reflects their lack of knowledge and the bankruptcy of ideas they suffer.

We speak the language of facts, supported by images and statistics and more important, we live here while they don't.

Facts, Mo? The fact is that you routinely ignore inconvenient facts (like another hundred plus dead in Baghdad today, where you are supposedly having beers and a BBQ) and relentlessly push a line of propaganda which has been consistently in tune with the US neocons since you first chose the name "Iraq The Model". The fact is that you have never bothered to answer or explain Ali's allegations, or your shady relationship with Spirit of America and other US financial backers. The fact is that your opinions are totally out of touch with the vast majority of Iraqis, your fans are in the redneck States and Tel Aviv, and (more importantly) the US military action which your charlatan blog advocates has already killed over 600,000 of your countrymen and continues to reap more innocent victims every day.

UPDATE 7: This is turning into quite a trip down memory lane. There was a big, bitching, blogger-bashing brouhaha back in January 2005 when Martini Republic and Sarah Boxer at the NYT first picked up on my ITM criticisms and Juan Cole backed her up. Jeff Jarvis called Cole pond scum and screamed that my reckless allegations had foolishly endangered the Fadhil brothers' lives (as if a White House visit was not guaranteed to place a target on your back in Baghdad). Even the BBC weighed in (ever so gently, of course).

Now we have Zionist blogs like KesherTalk wading back into the fray, and media whores like Michelle Malkin pulling up the rear. My concern is that this might all come to be seen as another unsightly dustup between rival bloggers (last time the allegations against the Fadhils were being countered with claimes that Riverbend was a fake).

The most important issue here is not whether ITM is a CIA blog, or a money-making scam, or a desperate trick to earn the Fadhils a couple of US Green Cards. It's not whether SoA is a clever bit of US PsyOps, or a neocon money-laundering operations. It is the fact that this foolish nonsense is all Bush has got left in his propaganda armoury. The man is a fool, a fake and a shameless stooge. Impeach now!!!.

UPDATE 8: Glenn Reynolds jumps on the bandwagon:

Is there any enemy of America that the left won't side with? Or any friend that the left won't oppose? No.

But the wingnut response seems pretty muted so far. Meanwhile, Ryeland at Kos has compiled the DC's efforts into a single decent post which begins to open the doors on Spirit of America's involvement (let's see what you Kos Kids can do with that, eh?). And for a bit of light relief, Attaturk has provided this video. To quote one dental patient:

It's your professionalism that I respect!

Wo ist der weisse Engel? Hey, did somebody just mention the Nazis?

UPDATE 9: Whoo hoo! Gandhi gets linked at the world best blog site: Antiwar.com! And that, ladies and gentlemen, should be enough to push my hits on this blog over the magic 100,000 mark! I'd like to thank the Academy, my family, and of course the brothers Fadhil...! Oooh, this is just embarrassing now, isn't it George?

Let me express a little hope and a prayer here. I am an ordinary, working class Aussie father of three who has simply become so outraged by the Bush administration and my own government's War Crime participation in the invasion of Iraq that I have been compulsively blogging against these bastards for about four years. I know poor little Dubya is facing a whole host of big, nasty problems right now, from his failed war in Iraq to his failed manipulation of the justice system in the USA, but I dare hope - and pray - that this little story might just be the straw that breaks the big, fat, oil-guzzling camel's back.

Seriously, what could be more emblematic of Bush's pathetic situation today than the fact that he is reduced - nay, he chooses it because he is so out of touch! - to quoting these charlatan bloggers for proof of his desperate last "surge" policy's success?

I have been derided by wingnuts as a misguided idealist. I do not deny that I dare to dream. But it is really Bush and his supporters who are the the wilfully ignorant idealists: their fantasy vision of Iraq, an ideal that will never, ever be realised, has already cost over 650,000 lives. How many more must die before the people of the USA bring this sad horror to an end?

Impeach. Now!

Please.

UPDATE 10: Amazing coincidences are a regular thing in BushWorld. One day the President is quoting your words, the next day US troops are raiding your home. A pretty transparent effort to establish some credibility, IMHO:

At the end we stood to take some pictures together.

These are bloggers dude, cover your face if you don't want to be seen nude on the internet tomorrow! One soldier said to his colleague as I snapped this photo, and we all chuckled.

And I know what you're thinking; Mohammed and I do not appear in this one.

Oh yeah, that's right. The Fadhil's cannot possibly appear in photos. It's far too dangerous! Even though everything in Baghdad is just fine these days. And even though they previously had their photos in USA Today and other major publications.


The photo above was taken from their now-defunct political party website (still publicly available here). Yeah, they started their own political party, the grandly named Iraqi Pro-democracy Party, for the 2005 elections. Donations poured in from eager wingnuts. Surprise! Political party disappeared without trace. But hey! Don't let the fact that they got less than zero percent of the vote stop you from thinking that these guys represent the true hopes and dreams of intelligent Iraqis who yearn for Freedom (TM). M'kay?

Meanwhile, somebody at the Boston Herald needs a good kick in the pants:

The brothers, who met Bush in the Oval Office in 2004, are widely respected on the Internet and have become regulars on sites such as www.pajamasmedia.com, www.instapundit.com and www.memeorandum.com, with their reports on how Iraqis are experiencing life in Baghdad.

What's that all about? I thought the Boston Herald used to be a decent paper.

You know, I used to think the ITM blog was a CIA operation, but that's obviously not the case. If an operation ever became this compromised, the CIA would have had the good sense to shut it down long ago.

UPDATE 11: Ryeland at Kos helps explains the timely US raid on the Fadhil's house with a link to this story:

US forces are conducting realistic mock raids of Iraqi businesses in order to "hide in plain sight," i.e. to gain access to the businesses on the US payroll in order to take stock of the progress, without revealing that the business is working with the Americans.

I am still not even totally convinced the Fadhil brothers are even living in Baghdad. There are large US military bases in Germany, an Iraqi named Omar Fadhil on German radio, and Ali - whose latest blog is in German - has previously done interviews with German media. It would be easy enough to get photos and news stories from soldiers and other contacts in Iraq and then compile them in Berlin. But that's not really the point, is it? Whether it's a Baghdad-based PsyOps or not, it is clearly a farce.

And what all this reveals, as my good friend Winter Patriot says, is that THERE'S NOTHING LEFT BUT SPIN.

UPDATE 12: Omar Fadhil is now officially Pajamas Media's "Baghdad Editor". The results are totally predictable: even more of the same. Should we judge a man by the company he keeps?

I hope that by the time you read this, the cruise missiles have already impacted; the stealth bombers have taken out radar and missiles sites; the land and sea blockade is in place … nothing moving in or out of an Iranian port and any road traffic that doesn’t risk death from above. I hope, by the time you read this, the destruction of Iran’s military infrastructure is underway.

Because we are magnanimous, and more importantly are concerned about the long-term price of oil, operations to reduce Iran’s oil production facilities can await a later phase. It’s not clear to me what the holdup has been.

How long before Bush starts quoting bloggers from Tehran?

WSJ's New Writers: The Fadhil Bros

Why didn't somebody tell me about this earlier? What do I pay you guys for?

A few weeks ago, the Fadhil brothers (still excluding Ali the traitor, who has escaped to Germany) had an article published in the WSJ Opinion Journal. Not surprisingly, it was their usual topic about how well everything is going in Baghdad these days.

The Wall Street Journal, which previously touted Arthur "Good News" Chrenkoff's malarky, is a highly respected financial news publication owned by Dow Jones & Company, Inc. You would think that their readership might be a little disturbed at being repeatedly misinformed about the situation in Iraq, but apparently the loss in credibility is worthwhile to ... somebody.

Guess that explains those hits I was getting in the days after the story was published. Also worth noting that the Allawi takeover scenario, which the Fadhil neocon shrills were touting at the time, is now looking highly unlikely.

Operation Iraqi Liberation = O.I.L.

Greg Palast says the war has gone exctly to plan:

[T]he Bush Administration said the war had nothing to do with Iraq's oil. Indeed, in 2002, the State Department stated, and its official newsletter, the Washington Post, repeated, that State's Iraq study group, "does not have oil on its list of issues."

But now, we've learned that, despite protestations to the contrary, Condoleezza Rice held a secret meeting with the former Secretary-General of OPEC, Fadhil Chalabi, an Iraqi, and offered Chalabi the job of Oil Minister for Iraq. (It is well established that the President of the United States may appoint the cabinet ministers of another nation if that appointment is confirmed by the 101st Airborne.)

In all the chest-beating about how the war did badly, no one seems to remember how the war did very, very well -- for Big Oil.

The war has kept Iraq's oil production to 2.1 million barrels a day from pre-war, pre-embargo production of over 4 million barrels. In the oil game, that's a lot to lose. In fact, the loss of Iraq's 2 million barrels a day is equal to the entire planet's reserve production capacity.

In other words, the war has caused a hell of a supply squeeze -- and Big Oil just loves it. Oil today is $57 a barrel versus the $18 a barrel price under Bill "Love-Not-War" Clinton.

Since the launch of Operation Iraqi Liberation, Halliburton stock has tripled to $64 a share -- not, as some believe, because of those Iraq reconstruction contracts -- peanuts for Halliburton. Cheney's former company's main business is "oil services." And, as one oilman complained to me, Cheney's former company has captured a big hunk of the rise in oil prices by jacking up the charges for Halliburton drilling and piping equipment.

But before we shed tears for Big Oil's having to hand Halliburton its slice, let me note that the value of the reserves of the five biggest oil companies more than doubled during the war to $2.36 trillion.

And that was the plan: putting a new floor under the price of oil. I've have that in writing. In 2005, after a two-year battle with the State and Defense Departments, they released to my team at BBC Newsnight the "Options for a Sustainable Iraqi Oil Industry." Now, you might think our government shouldn't be writing a plan for another nation's oil. Well, our government didn't write it, despite the State Department seal on the cover. In fact, we discovered that the 323-page plan was drafted in Houston by oil industry executives and consultants.

The suspicion is that Bush went to war to get Iraq's oil. That's not true. The document, and secret recordings of those in on the scheme, made it clear that the Administration wanted to make certain America did not get the oil. In other words, keep the lid on Iraq's oil production -- and thereby keep the price of oil high.

The 'Surge' In Propaganda

An astonishing piece of nonsense from Robert Kagan in the Washington Post today:

Some observers are reporting the shift. Iraqi bloggers Mohammed and Omar Fadhil, widely respected for their straight talk, say that "early signs are encouraging." The first impact of the "surge," they write, was psychological. Both friends and foes in Iraq had been convinced, in no small part by the American media, that the United States was preparing to pull out. When the opposite occurred, this alone shifted the dynamic.

As the Fadhils report, "Commanders and lieutenants of various militant groups abandoned their positions in Baghdad and in some cases fled the country." The most prominent leader to go into hiding has been Moqtada al-Sadr. His Mahdi Army has been instructed to avoid clashes with American and Iraqi forces, even as coalition forces begin to establish themselves in the once off-limits Sadr City.

Before the arrival of Gen. David Petraeus, the Army's leading counterinsurgency strategist, U.S. forces tended to raid insurgent and terrorist strongholds and then pull back and hand over the areas to Iraqi forces, who failed to hold them. The Fadhils report, "One difference between this and earlier -- failed -- attempts to secure Baghdad is the willingness of the Iraqi and U.S. governments to commit enough resources for enough time to make it work."

That's right, folks. Bush's "surge" is working because two bloggers in Iraq, Omar and Mohammed Fadhil, say it is!

Thanks to Winter Patriot for the heads up on this one. You can read his post here, including backlinks to old Bushout posts on these charlatan Iraqi bloggers. There is also more on Kagan's nonsense from Matt Yglesias, Glenn Greenwald and Eric Martin.

I have posted a letter to Salon and alerted several top bloggers to this story, which is long overdue for some close scrutiny.

I recommend you take a good look at the Iraqi bloggers whose opinions Kagan is quoting.

"Good news from Iraq" stories by these same bloggers - the Fadhil brothers, from the aptly named "Iraq The Model" blog - were previously recommended to US reporters by none other than Paul Wolfowitz way back in 2004. In fact, two of the Fadhil brothers even went to the White House to meet with Bush and Wolfowitz in October that year. The third brother, Ali Fadhil, stayed in Iraq, angrily proclaiming that he and his brothers were being used by certain people for propaganda purposes. He quit the blog, making accustions against the staff of a US "charity" named Spirit Of America (SoA). He said he and his brothers were offered $300,000 "that we could use to do what we want". When he raised the issue with the CEO of SoA (Jim Hake, who also attended the White House meeting), he was offered "any position I wanted and any salary I would find suitable". All this at a time when Bremer's CPA was "losing" millions of dolalrs in cash every week.

It seems likely that the SoA charity (now rebranded a "civilian troop-support group") is either a PR front for the neocons or an opportunistic cash-grabbing scam. Supporters include former US Ambassador Mark Palmer, once a speech-writer for Henry Kissinger and now member of the Committee on the Present Danger and Vice Chairman of Freedom House and the Council for a Community of Democracies. Last reports were that Palmer was working with Hake on a new media company, SignalOne, with a focus on Middle East youth.

The neocon edifice is built on a fragile foundation of nonsense like this: one swift kick and the whole thing will crumble.

As regular readers know, I have been closely watching the Fadhil brothers and Jim Hake for a long time. And in return, it seems, a few people have been watching me. More crazy conspiracy shit here.

Another odd thing is how the boys at Iraq The Model never even mention it when their blog is quoted in esteemed journals like WaPo. One would think they'd be crowing as loud as they can. Why the silence?

Who's Watching Gandhi?

We live in interesting times. Lately I have been getting a lot more hits on my stories about Jim Hake and his bogus US "charity", Spirit of America (SoA website here).

I have also had some emails about a group called Performance Systems International, who regularly ping this and other blogs. The IP Address they use is 199.29.132.#, which belongs to the Kaman Corporation.

And guess who serves, or has served, on the board of the Kaman Corporation? Caryle Group chairman Frank Charles Carlucci III. Frikkin' hell!

The latest hits have prompted me to go back and take another look at my SoA posts. For example, this:

The main problem is, SoA has not even tried to address Ali's most serious allegations, which involve the strange behaviour of SoA CEO Jim Hake and his former "Director of Logistics and Procurement" Kerry Dupont. As Ali said,

"I'm not diappointed with SoA because I think they were stealing donors money... I'm disappointed because they lied to us, both Iraqis and Americans."

Ali details some of Dupont's "strange behaviour" ...

she told us that if Jim did not approve the budget they she has 300 000 $ that we could use to do what we want...

Mohammed seemed to recall her saying tht it was Kerry's personal money while I recall her saying it wasn't.

Three hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money to be throwing around, folks. And let's remember, this was happening while Paul Bremer was (supposedly) running Iraq and US$800 million was disappearing! Add two and two together and you would have to think that the money Dupont was offering came from those same taxpayer-funded coffers. But how the hell did Kerry Dupont get authorised to hand it out? Prior to her (extensive) involvement with Iraq The Model, Dupont was (as far as I can tell) just a plain old mother of two from Topsham, Maine. What happened on the way to Baghdad, Kerry?

Ali also indicates that Dupont behaved in this "strange" way on many other occasions. In particular, he says she warned the Fadhil brothers to stay away from US contractors in Iraq because they had links to the US military and were therefore dangerous:

"If they don't leave you, let me know and I'll contact the DoD and they will kick them away"!

Excuse me?

Given what we now know about how the US government was throwing cash around in Baghdad, and US PsyOps including fake newspaper stories, Dupont's behaviour is even more intriguing.

When Ali complained to Jim Hake about Dupont's behaviour, Hake said the news was "very, very disturbing." And yet instead of sacking Dupont and thanking Ali for his help, Hake dumped Ali from the trip (Ali says he decided not to go but it seems the decision was extremely mutual). So Kerry Dupont was right there with Jim Hake and Ali's two brothers, Omar and Mohammed Fadhil, when they met with George W. Bush and Paul Wolfowitz in the White House in October, 2004.

It gets wierder. After the trip, Hake kept contacting Ali, offering him "any position I wanted and any salary I would find suitable". Any salary, Jim? Again, where would Hake get unlimited funds like that? SoA was in damage control, but what did Ali know that was worth so much to Jim Hake?

Here's my conclusion:

Jim Hake set up Spirit of America as an opportunistic scam to grab all the cash and political opportunities he could get from Bush's mad Iraq free-for-all. The big meeting with Bush was set up through a network of friends leading to arch-neocon Paul Wolfowitz (a man who frequently directed reporters to the Fadhil's Iraq The Model blog, by the way). When Ali started asking difficult questions, Hake dumped him from the trip. Afterwards, when he found that he couldn't buy Ali off, he sacked Kerry Dupont.

In retrospect, maybe that conclusion was even less of a Conspiracy Theory than it sounded.

Ali Fadhil's old blog site (which at one stage was full of porn) is now German-based and has only one small entry, dated 16 Jan 2007, titled "I'am Free!" and a number of links to German online clothing retailers. There are only three comments, two of which are porn links. Should we assume he has escaped to Germany? How does that tie in with my old allegations that Omar Fadhil might actually be a German radio personality? Interestingly, I am also getting hits on "Jim Hake" from Kabel Deutschland Breitband Service GmbH (88.134.226.#), which sounds like a German ISP.

SoA's web pages seem pretty inactive. But according to a month-old Wall Street Journal story, Hake's SoA "charity" is now a "civilian troop-support group":

Since arriving in Iraq last year, Maj. West had worked with Spirit of America (SoA), the civilian troop-support group founded by Jim Hake. In early December, SoA's project director, Michele Redmond, asked Maj. West if there was any out-of-the-ordinary project they could help him with. And Maj. West said, Why yes, there is. He described to them the basic concept for a mobile, handheld fingerprinting device which Iraqi soldiers would use to assemble an insurgent database. Mr. Hake said his organization would contribute $30,000 to build a prototype and get it to Khalidiya. In New York, Goldman Sachs contributed $14,000 to the project.

Hake's SignalOne Media web page is down, and there's no more stories on it via Google, so I guess that little venture didn't last too long.

Meanwhile, Ali's brothers at Iraq The Model continue doing their bit to champion the latest US propaganda efforts:

It’s still not decided who is going to be the leader in the new bloc, and none of the leading figures involved has talked about this yet. However I suspect that this position will be filled by Allawi who, although his group has only 25 out of the 69 seats, was the one who came up with the idea in the first place, and his charisma, history in leadership and his nonsectarian attitude qualify him over the others.

That's Iyad Allawi, former CIA asset and #1 pick for US puppet in Baghdad, a man who tried to destabilize Hussein by planting bombs that killed innocent Iraqi civilians, a man who personally shot six Iraqi prisoners dead as an example to police recruits, a man whose Iraqi National Accord party was roundly rejected by the Iraqi people during the January 2005 Iraqi election. That's the man who the Fadhil brothers and the desperate Bush administration now sees as the logical puppet to replace al-Maliki.

Finally, for anyone who has followed this whole story since back in the day, some sad news: the inspirational Elendil has had to take an extended break from blogging. This shit takes it's toll, folks.

Illogical, Incoherent Nonsense

Just look at the transcript of Bush's speech today. What a load of incoherent nonsense! Look at this, for example. He's talking about James Baker's recent comments on changing course in Iraq:

Somebody [who??] said he said, "Well, you know, cut-and-run isn't working." [He never said that.] That's not our policy.

Our policy is to help this country succeed, because I understand the stakes [as often happens with George, the two parts of this sentence have no logical connection]. And I'm going to repeat them one more time. As a matter of fact, I'm going to spend a lot of time repeating the stakes ["repeating the stakes"???] about what life is like ["the stakes about what life is like"??] in the Middle East.

(yadda, yadda) ...

And my vow to the American people is [wait for it...] I understand the stakes [that's not a "vow"], and I understand what it would mean for us to leave before the job is done [neither is that].

Or what about this:

And the stakes are high when it comes to making sure the young democracy of Lebanon is able to fend off the extremists and radicals that want to crater that democracy.

How do you "crater" a Democracy? He can't have meant "create", because it makes no sense either.

Or what about this:

It's important for the president to say to the American people: Diplomacy was what is our first choice.

Was what is? Is or was? Hello-o-o!?

It is very important for us to solve these problems diplomatically. And I thank the leaders of -- listen, when I call them on the phone, we're strategizing.

"Strategizing"? That's not a real word! Neither is "dialoguing", which he uses later.

Then there's this:

"That is the best strategy to solve the problem. I mean, I – you – one has a stronger hand when there’s more people playing your same cards."

He's talking about co-ordinated UN sanctions against North Korea. Or trying to. What he is trying to say is that the USA will have a stronger hand in negotiations if it has the support of other countries. But his card-playing metaphor is totally ridiculous. It's nonsensical!

And here's what he says about the poor bastards dying every day in Iraq:

I am, you know, amazed that this is a society which so wants to be free that they’re willing to — you know, that there’s a level of violence that they tolerate.

Is he talking about the insurgents who give their lives to liberate Iraq from US occupation? I don't think so. Maybe he's talking about the Fadhil brothers.

Then Bush says:

You know, nobody's accused me of having a real sophisticated vocabulary; I understand that.

It's not about being "sophisticated", George. It's about being logical and coherent. It's about earning and deserving the respect of not just your own public in the USA, but the world at large. It's about having real values, not just hollow phrases, and being able to articulate them in an inspiring way. It's about leadership.

Say It, Damn You: I Believe In Fairies!

The Fadhil brothers at IRAQ THE MODEL continue to act as loyal stooges for their neocon masters in Washington.

Today Mohammed looks at what he calls American mistakes in Iraq. It all sounds strangely familiar:

Perhaps America's biggest mistake was the hesitation in keeping up the strategy of preemptive war.

Yes, America used that strategy in Iraq but failed to go on, and instead of chasing terrorists, America stopped at Iraq and sat waiting for terrorists to come in.

Michael Ledeen could not have said it better! Mohammed also defends the decision to use minimal US troops, arguing that additional US troops would only have made things worse:

If we look back at the record of the war since April 2003 we'll see that adding more troops on the ground resulted only in making the enemy call for more reinforcements and the war kept getting more violent.

In fact, says Mo, there are already more US troops than needed. And anyway, Mo says, these guys have "no meaningful objective" but "to protect the political structure of post-Saddam Iraq". What about protection of civilians? Irrelevant.

In fact, Mo says it is "unfair" to expect the USA's huge military machine to fight a guerrilla war against nasty little insurgents (who BTW "depend on foreign support for money, training, technology and in some cases men"). The US military machine would be better employed doing what it does best: pre-emptive invasions!

Here's the logic, such as it is, according to Mo:

We all saw how Saddam's regime collapsed in two weeks and we learned then how fragile and weak that regime and similar regimes are. And we discovered how ridiculous and futile the rage and warnings of the "Arab and Muslim street" were.

The same thing can happen to Syria or Iran; there's every reason to believe that regimes and armies will fall apart and surrender in the same manner that we saw in Iraq, and few will volunteer to stop Asad or Ahmedinejad from falling.

When this happens it will recharge the war on terror with great momentum and then Syria and Iran will no longer serve as training camps and recreation resorts for terrorists. The entire region from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean will be a dangerous place for terrorists just like Iraq and Afghanistan are and terrorists will have to keep running and hiding and will not be capable of launching organized campaigns from secure bases.

By expanding the war on terror to engulf these major terror hideouts, the huge military force will once again resume playing its logical role as a hunter not as a target trying to defend itself against incoming enemies.

Like what happened with OIF, the price of the operation itself would be much lower than the price of waiting and when the troops finish their primary objectives the peoples of the liberated countries and the troops will have the advantage over the remaining terrorists who will have their finance and support network disrupted.

So there you have it. More wars to be fought, more people to be "liberated", so the "terrorists" can stay on the run just like they are today in Iraq and Afghanistan. Got it?

If you ever wonder how anyone in the USA can still support Bush, let the Fadhil brothers be the key to your enlightenment. Just look at where their target audience lives, and remember we are one month out from US mid-term elections:


PS: For newcomers, some background on the Fadhil brother's bizarre blog here.

I wonder if Judith Miller's Iraqi-wearing-a-baseball-cap informant was one of the Fadhil brothers? Remember how they won some "Spirit Of America" baseball caps after raising thousands of dollars from their gullible readers? I always wondered if they had the guts to wear them around Baghdad (they are still not dead, so I guess not).

What the hell happened to Ali Fadhil's old blog??! (WARNING: ADULT CONTENT)

Nuts

Paul Wolfowitz used to get his "good news from Iraq" from the Fadhil brothers.

Now we find out that Rummy gets his Hitler quotes from Charles Krauthammer.

With people like Bush and Downer quoting wingnut xenophobia about "Islamofascists", the inmates are not just in control of the asylum any more - they are running our countries.

Neo-con Blog Watch

Looking back, I think I was wrong to suggest that "Iraq The Model" was a CIA front. But I was certainly right about one thing:

The "Iraq The Model" blog exists not for the sake of its authors or their fellow Iraqis, but for the sake of its many pro-war US visitors.

At the time, I didn't really understand the complex web of competing entities that exist within the halls of power in the USA. The CIA is just one of these, and they are not the sort of people to set up a miserable little PR blog like ITM.

For example, Cheney and Rumsfeld have a long history of battling the CIA. Within the CIA itself, there is an on-going civil war of sorts. The White House is basically in thrall to the neo-cons, who have their own widespread agenda. Then there's the State Department and a whole host of other groups, each pushing their own power trolley down the aisles of the superpower supermarket. And battles between these groups are waged on multiple fronts, with each new crisis eliciting new positions from each group. Only long-time, seasoned insiders have any real idea of what is really going on.

Over time, however, it has become clear that the Fadhil brothers have remained true to the vision of one group in particular, and that is the neo-cons. Remember, Paul Wolfowitz frequently used to cite ITM as an inspirational "good news" Website, and that was way back in 2003.

So it comes as no surprise that Ali Fadhil is again blogging at Free Iraqi as follows:

As horrible as it may seem I do wish the war between Israel and Hezbollah goes on and on, that it spreads to involve Iran and Syria. I feel terrible for the losses among the innocents, Lebanese and Israeli, but I think that this is the only way for them, and us to finally have some peace.

He wrote that back on July 18th. Prescient, hunh? And this bit could come straight out of Michael Ledeen's mouth:

Call me what you want but I say let it rage and rage until it burns all dictators and terrorists in the region. Just like I wished for war in my country I wish it for the Lebanese, Syrians and Iranians. God be with them and get the good souls out of it safe. This war is just another battle in the war on terror and we won't see peace in Iraq, we won't see democracy anywhere in the ME until this war is fought the right way, with full determination. With each battle fought it'll get easier and easier to win this war even if each battle looked like it's very hard to win on its own.

I hope I live long enough to discover the truth about the Fadhil brothers and their US supporters. The truth will out, as they say.

US PsyOps? Or Greedy, Immoral Opportunists?

You really have to wonder if there is even one single item of radical US right-wing policy which the Fadhil boys at IRAQ THE MODEL do not support:

The hesitation of the international community can be so dangerous and the intentions of the axis of terror are so clear. That's why firm and resolute measures have to be undertaken against Syria and Iran who are directly responsible for the mess in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine.

Even More Shit Hits the Fan in the Middle East

Time to turn to more informed sources than yours truly for enlightenment.

Here's Juan Cole:

One thing is clear. This crisis will not leave the fabric of Lebanese politics untouched, and the danger of an unraveling is acute. And, it is clear that the withdrawal of Syria from Lebanon has given an opening to Israeli hawks to invade Lebanese territory again. It will not be good for Israelis if Lebanon collapses into a failed state again.

Rejectionists on both sides are to blame. The Oslo Peace Process could have forestalled all this violence, as Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin understood. But on the Israeli side, the then Likud Party of Bibi Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert derailed it. On the Palestinian side, Hamas rejected it. Had there been a peace process, prisoners would have been released in return for a cessation of hostilities, and there would have been no motivation to capture Israeli soldiers.

The lesson is that if you refuse to negotiate a peace, then you are likely to have to go on fighting a war.

Here's Robert Fisk:

It's about Syria. That was the frightening message delivered by Damascus yesterday when it allowed its Hizbollah allies to cross the UN Blue Line in southern Lebanon, kill three Israeli soldiers, capture two others and demand the release of Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails.

Within hours, a country that had begun to believe in peace - without a single Syrian soldier left on its soil - found itself once more at war.

Israel held the powerless Lebanese government responsible - as if the sectarian and divided cabinet in Beirut can control Hizbollah. That is Syria's message. Fouad Siniora, Lebanon's affable Prime Minister, may have thought he was running the country but it is President Bashar Assad in Damascus who can still bring life or death to a land that lost 150,000 lives in 15 years of civil conflict.

And there is one certain bet that Syria will rely on; that despite all Israel's threats of inflicting "pain" on Lebanon, this war will run out of control until - as has so often happened in the past - Israel itself calls for a ceasefire and releases prisoners. Then the international big-hitters will arrive and make their way to the real Lebanese capital - Damascus, not Beirut - and appeal for help.

Today's SMH Editorial:

EVERY army understands the perils of fighting on two fronts. Yet that is what Israel is facing as it threatens to bomb Lebanon "back 20 years" while at the same time pushing into the Gaza Strip... The kidnappings are deplorable, but Israel's overwhelming military response is no solution. History has taught this lesson in these very theatres of conflict over and over again... Only two years ago, Israel's former prime minister, Ariel Sharon - a military strongman who led countless campaigns against Palestinian militants before pulling out of Gaza - swapped hundreds of prisoners for a kidnapped Israeli businessman. Ultimately, human life is more important than bellowed slogans of no compromise. The only way out of this bloody cul de sac is for one, or both sides, to back down.

Paul Richter of the LA Times says Bush cannot keep doing nothing as a matter of policy:

THE Bush Administration, having overlooked warnings to pay closer attention to worsening security in the Middle East, is suddenly confronting a frightening eruption in fighting that threatens not only to swamp Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts but to inflame the entire region.

The Administration has stood on the sidelines as Israel battled Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, sticking to its policy of watching from a distance. But with the eruption of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that strategy no longer appears possible for the White House - if it ever was.

The emergency comes as the Administration finds itself overstretched on every diplomatic front, including Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

Robin Wright at WaPo quotes (heavily) Bush officials and analysts blaming Iran and Syria, but points out that options for the USA are limited:

"They have sanctioned themselves out of leverage on Iran," Malley said. "They have cornered themselves out of a lack of influence on any of the parties that are driving this -- Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria and Iran. Counseling restraint or condemning actions is pretty meager when you think of the influence the United States should be wielding."

Jim Lobe says the attacks present Bush with a stark choice: either start embracing genuine diplomacy (not the cowboy version) or "maintain its strong backing for military action by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert."

As hinted by the difference between the statements by Rice and the White House, the choice may provoke a major fight within the administration, particularly between State Department officials, who have long argued in favor of a more active and evenhanded U.S. role, particularly in trying to revive an Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and Elliot Abrams, Bush's senior Mideast adviser on the National Security Council staff, who, according to Chris Toensing, director of the Middle East Research and Information Project, "has been inclined to give Israel fairly free rein."

Until now, Rice has generally deferred to Abrams on Israel-Palestinian issues, but, with the conflict threatening "to become a regional conflagration, the administration may be forced to consider a different approach," he said.

Oh, and let's not forget that wingnut bloggers and neo=cons have been holding up Lebanon's "Cedar revolution" as a model of ME success for some time now. Here's ITM's distinctly un-Arab-like view on the latest violence:

I don't know for sure what made Hizbollah do what they did this morning but I can make some guesses starting from the fact that Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hizbollah collectively form one big axis of evil in the Middle East with connected interests and shared goals so the abduction of the two Israeli soldiers looks like an act planned to serve the interests of the members of the axis without the least regard to the harm it can bring upon Lebanon...

BLAH BLAH BLAH ... putting the international community, America and Israel in a position where they have to fight (militarily or politically) on more than one front... BLAH BLAH BLAH ....

From an Iraqi perspective I believe that a powerful strike to Hizbollah will be in Iraq's national interest... They want a war and I think they're going to get one.

Omar and Mohammed Fadhil, the only two pro-US, pro-Israeli Arabs left in the Middle East. I guess you gotta follow the money and play to your audience, right boys?

WSJ Plagiarizes ITM: Nobody Blinks

Is it a sign of the times that the Wall Street Journal plagiarizes an Iraqi blog (or at least, republishes plagiarized material) and nobody even cares?

There is barely a sprinkle of interest on the Democratic Underground post. Think Progress also has a post (though you would hardly know what it's about from reading the inane, off-topic comments section).

Most interesting, however, is that three days after the plagiarized WSJ blog entry was published, not even the Fadhil brothers at ITM have anything to say on the matter. Even their regular commenters just noted the story and moved on. Wierd.

Sure, there are lots of more other important issues out there right now. So maybe this is another example of "outrage fatigue"?

I guess everybody is happy to just let SOC-SMG, the company which performed the plagiarism, do its own internal investigation... right???