http://www.snopes.com/rumors/flights.asp

BTW, the person who authorized the Saudi’s flights (after airspace was opened to all normal air traffic)? Richard Clarke.

Just about every goddamn thing the Bush administration has done is based on Mostly Not True, and look where it got them.

President George W. Bush wants to push it through by the end of next month so he can declare a victory and claim his 2003 invasion has been vindicated.

But by perpetuating the US presence in Iraq, the long-term settlement would undercut pledges by the Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama, to withdraw US troops if he is elected president in November.

The timing of the agreement would also boost the Republican candidate, John McCain, who has claimed the US is on the verge of victory in Iraq a victory that he says Senator Obama would throw away by a withdrawal.

If that goes through, and soldiers and contractors get immunity, it will be OK because there will be immunity. Right? Well… The solution is apparently to outsource the oversight, too. Original article: http://www.truthout.org/article/dod-contracts-out-contractor-oversight by Maya Schenwar.

The Department of Defense (DOD) now employs contractors to keep contractors in check in Iraq, under a new framework for war industry management solidified last month.

…

According to the GAO, “The panel also found that while there are numerous statutory and regulatory provisions that apply to federal employees to protect against personal conflicts of interest, most do not apply to contractor personnel.”

In the absence of those provisions, Serco’s contract does impose one unique regulatory mechanism: In addition to overseeing other contractors’ duties, the company is responsible for some of the oversight of itself. The contract states that, prior to its assessment by the governmental Award Fee Evaluation Board, “the contractor shall submit a self-assessment,” which “should contain any information that may be reasonably expected to assist the AFEB in evaluating the Contractors [sic] performance.”

Even if the Gaith Pharaon’s contract was taken away, it would probably be only a few short steps to another contractor to sub-contract the deal.

Privatize everything! Contract out the whole thing! Why not just let the corporations themselves invade countries and be honest about it? Maybe I’m too cynical. Perhaps watching the movie “War, Incorporated” will improve my outlook.

It’s basically the platform John “Hundred Years War” McCain is running on.

WASHINGTON, Jun 6 (IPS) – Pentagon officials firmly opposed a proposal by Vice President Dick Cheney last summer for airstrikes against Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) bases by insisting that the administration would have to make clear decisions about how far the United States would go in escalating the conflict with Iran, according to a former George W. Bush administration official.

J. Scott Carpenter, who was then deputy assistant secretary of state in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, recalled in an interview that senior Defence Department (DoD) officials and the Joint Chiefs used the escalation issue as the main argument against the Cheney proposal.

On the other hand, if the Justice Department wants to move past indictment to an actual trial…they might me able to find him a little easier if he’s on the payroll. But…then again…

http://www.dfl.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7BBB64F6EA-94CE-43DA-93B9-B26FF9EFFE0B%7D

“Some wealthy oil sheik bought New Jersey last week, and you suckers ain’t gettin’ nothin’.” — Frank Zappa

Again, apologies to all the other inbred hicks out there.

By Patrick Cockburn
Thursday, 5 June 2008
A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November.

The terms of the impending deal, details of which have been leaked to The Independent, are likely to have an explosive political effect in Iraq. Iraqi officials fear that the accord, under which US troops would occupy permanent bases, conduct military operations, arrest Iraqis and enjoy immunity from Iraqi law, will destabilise Iraq’s position in the Middle East and lay the basis for unending conflict in their country. “

U.S. plan threatens Canadian command
Proposal would see American general taking Canada’s place in NATO’s regional rotation in 2010
PAUL KORING
From Thursday’s Globe and Mail
June 5, 2008 at 4:56 AM EDT

WASHINGTON — Canada may lose its next and perhaps last chance to command NATO forces battling the Taliban in southern Afghanistan under a new plan that will insert an American general into the rotation, according to defence officials in Ottawa and Washington.