The Progress Report OCTOBER 28, 2004

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Thu, 28 Oct 2004 09:04:09 -0700

Progress Report: All The President's Excuses

" American Progress Action Fund "

<progress

 

 

The Progress Report

 

by Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin

 

 

OCTOBER 28, 2004

TERRORISM 'Defeating the Jihadists: A Blueprint for Action'

IRAQ All The President's Excuses

UNDER THE RADAR Go Beyond The Headlines

 

 

TERRORISM

'Defeating the Jihadists: A Blueprint for Action'

 

Hot off the presses this week: a new report published by The Century

Foundation that provides a detailed examination of the international

jihadist network of terrorism. That network of radical Islamic

terrorist groups has " conducted twice as many attacks in the three

years since September 2001 as it did in the three years prior to that

date. " " Defeating the Jihadists: A Blueprint for Action, " the result

of a task force chaired by Richard Clarke, provides an assessment of

the success and failures of the current strategy along with an action

plan for the future. The book is available online at

www.centuryfoundation.org.

 

A PLAN OF ACTION: All is not lost. The Century Foundation report has

positive recommendations for a specific strategy to win the battle

against the jihadists. These include: Invest in education and

development in Islamic nations; reinvigorate efforts to combat

terrorist financing; strengthen oversight of nuclear terrorism

prevention efforts, accelerate security investments for ports, trains

and chemical plants; and defuse sources of Islamic hatred for the

United States.

 

SIN OF COMMISSION: " Defeating the Jihadists " finds that the Iraq war

has been " counter productive " to the war on terrorism. " As a sin of

commission, " the report states, " the Iraq war alienated crucial allies

in the battle against jihadists, made friendly Muslims into skeptics,

made skeptics into radicals and created a sanctuary for itinerant

jihadist insurgents. " The International Institute for Strategic

Studies in London found " the occupation of Iraq has helped al Qaeda

recruit more members. " Diverting money and attention into Iraq allowed

al Qaeda to reconstitute, and today " the group has 18,000 potential

operatives and is present in more than 60 countries. "

 

SIN OF OMISSION: The report also finds that, as a sin of omission,

" the Iraq war diverted massive and much-needed resources from the

fight against jihadists. " The report found, for example, that the war

in Iraq gave Iran and Syria the " breathing room " they desperately

needed to avoid an international response to their own terrorist

activities. Similarly, the International Institute for Strategic

Studies found " the threat of nuclear proliferation by North Korea and

Iran has increased over the past year and will probably get worse

because of continued US difficulties in Iraq. "

 

IRAQ

Breaking All the Sprouls

 

The White House has been unable to explain how 380 tons of powerful

explosives disappeared under its watch in Iraq, and has instead tried

to deflect blame with a series of excuses. None of them hold up. Read

this new document from American Progress for the full story.

 

EXCUSE #1 – THEY WERE GONE WHEN WE GOT THERE: Administration spokesman

Dan Senor said on CNN that " there's a very high probability that those

weapons weren't even there before the war. " All the evidence, however,

suggests the opposite. In an Oct. 25 AP story, a Pentagon official

said, " US-led coalition troops had searched Al Qaqaa in the immediate

aftermath of the March 2003 invasion and confirmed that the

explosives, which had been under IAEA seal since 1991, were intact. "

According to Today's New York Times, after U.S. troops came through,

Iraqis on the scene in Al Qaqaa " described an orgy of theft " as the

sensitive military site was picked clean by looters. Iraq's top

science official, Mohammed al-Sharaa, confirmed these reports, saying,

" It is impossible that these materials could have been taken from this

site before the regime's fall. The officials that were inside this

facility (Al Qaqaa) beforehand confirm that not even a shred of paper

left it before the fall. "

 

EXCUSE #2 – WE DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT IT: One White House strategy has been

to simply plead ignorance. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said,

" We were informed on October 15th. Condi Rice was informed days after

that. This is all in the last, what, 10 days now. " What they're not

talking about: The New York Times reported that Iraqi officials say

they warned Paul Bremer, the American head of the occupation

authority, that Al Qaqaa had probably been looted in May 2004, six

months ago.

 

EXCUSE #3 – WE'VE SECURED LOTS OF OTHER MUNITIONS: White House Press

Secretary Scott McClellan tried to minimize the importance of the 380

tons of explosives that went missing, saying, " 400,000 tons of

munitions have been seized or destroyed by coalition forces. " But

McClellan is comparing apples to oranges. The 400,000 tons the White

House cites refers to munitions – including guns and ammunition. Pound

for pound, the 380 tons of explosives are much, much more powerful.

For example, " the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over

Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 used less than a pound of the same type

of material. " By that math, the size of the explosives cache looted

would be enough to bring down 760,000 planes.

 

EXCUSE #4 – THE NBC STORY: The Bush campaign spun an NBC News story in

an attempt to bolster its excuse, charging, " NBC Nightly News later

reported that on April 10, 2003, one day after Iraq was liberated, US

troops entered Al Qaqaa and did not find the explosives. " NBC News,

however, resisted that characterization. What the network actually

said: " Military officials tell NBC News that on April 10, 2003, when

the Second Brigade of the 101st Airborne entered the Al Qaqaa weapons

facility, south of Baghdad, that those troops were actually on their

way to Baghdad, that they were not actively involved in the search for

any weapons, including the high explosives, HMX and RDX...And because

the Al Qaqaa facility is so huge, it's not clear that those troops

from the 101st were actually anywhere near the bunkers that reportedly

contained the HMX and RDX. "

 

REALITY – ADMINISTRATION WAS WARNED: In a blistering op-ed in the

Boston Globe, former Ambassador Peter Galbraith describes the

widespread looting of sensitive materials in Iraq as a " preventable

disaster. " Iraq's sensitive material was stored in only a few known

locations, all of which were closely monitored by the international

community. U.S. troops, however, were not given any relevant

intelligence about these sites from the White House and there was

never a plan in place to secure them after the invasion. According to

Lt. Col. Fred Wellman, spokesman for one of the first units to reach

Al Qaqaa, " orders were not given from higher to search or to secure

the facility or to search for [explosives]. " Iraqi witnesses to

looting at Al Qaqaa also say Al Qaqaa " employees asked the Americans

to protect the site but were told this was not the soldiers'

responsibility. "

 

 

Under the Radar

 

MEDIA – RIGHT-WING ECHO CHAMBER 101: Even since the story broke three

days ago that the administration failed to secure 380 tons of powerful

explosives in Iraq, President Bush and his surrogates have been unable

to stem the political damage. Enter the right-wing spin machine. This

morning, the headline on the Drudge Report blares in 36-point font:

Russia tied to Iraq's missing arms; Pentagon: Weaponry relocated

before war. Drudge links to a story in the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's

Washington Times written by Bill Gertz. In that story, Gertz reports

John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international

technology, " believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi

intelligence, 'almost certainly' removed the high-explosive material

that went missing. " On Fox and Friends this morning Fox News jumped

all over the Russian rumors. Drudge, Gertz and Fox wildly distort the

story – but unless you read the Financial Times, you might not realize

it. Drudge's headline notwithstanding, " the Pentagon distanced itself

from [shaw's] remarks. " Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita – who has

enthusiastically embraced any theory that would exculpate the

administration – when asked about Shaw's comments said, " I am unaware

of any particular information on that point. " Drudge and Gertz fail to

mention that Shaw " has not provided evidence for his claims. " Russia,

through its U.S. embassy, " rejected the claims as 'nonsense', saying

there were no Russian military in the country at the time. "

 

IRAQ – RAMADI SLIPPING: The New York Times reports the provincial

Iraqi capital of Ramadi, a city " which is larger and strategically

more important than its sister city of Falluja, " is in danger of

falling into insurgent hands. " While Ramadi is not exactly a 'no go'

zone for the marines, like the insurgent stronghold of

Falluja…officers say it is fast slipping in that direction. In the

last six weeks, guerrillas have stepped up the pace of assassinations

of Iraqis working with the Americans, and marine officials say they

suspect Iraqi security officers have been helping insurgents to attack

their troops. Reconstruction efforts have ground to a halt because no

local contractors are willing to work. " The disintegration of

authority in the region " puts in jeopardy both the Bush

administration's plan to stage nationwide elections by Jan. 31 and any

sense of legitimacy such elections might have. It also complicates the

American military's plans to invade Falluja, because of the close

coordination between insurgents in the two cities. "

 

VOTING – ABSENT ABSENTEES IN FLORIDA: Election officials in Florida

are wondering how many of " a batch of 58,000 absentee ballots " in

Broward County have been " lost. " County voters requested the ballots

more than two weeks ago, but hundreds have reported not receiving

them. In recent days, the complaints have overwhelmed the phone

system. The county has responded by blaming the US Postal Service.

" That is something beyond our control, " said Deputy Supervisor of

Elections Gisela Salas. " We really have no idea what's going on. "

 

VOTING – JUDGE HALTS CHALLENGES IN OHIO: A federal judge in Ohio

" temporarily stopped hearings Wednesday on Republican challenges of

thousands of voter registrations, ruling in favor of Democrats who

alleged that the challenges were an attempt to keep legitimate votes

from being counted. " The Republicans had challenged as many as 35,000

registrations in the crucial swing state, because " mail came back

undelivered. " Meanwhile, late on Wednesday, Ohio Secretary of State

Ken Blackwell issued a directive that, " for the first time, will allow

political parties to apportion partisan challengers by precinct

instead of polling site. " The directive will allow partisan operatives

to overload challengers in competitive precincts. In Ohio, the

Republican Party has registered 3,600 challengers, while the

Democratic Party has registered 2,000.

 

MEDIA – U.S. GETS LOW MARKS FOR FREEDOM: Reporters Without Borders, a

group that evaluates freedom of the press throughout the world, ranked

the United States " 22nd alongside Belgium and behind countries

including Bosnia, France and Trinidad and Tobago on a media freedom

index released this week. " The report cited " violations of source

confidentiality, persistent problems in granting press visas and the

arrest of several journalists during anti-Bush demonstrations. " Iraq

ranked 148th and was described by the group as " the most deadly place

on Earth for journalists in recent years. "

 

WAL-MART – COMPANY OPPOSES HEALTH INSURANCE FOR WORKERS: Vice

President Cheney's favorite company, Wal-Mart, is pulling out all the

stops to block Proposition 72 on the California ballot, " a measure

that will require employers to provide basic health insurance to

workers. " Besides spending $500,000 to aid opponents of the measure,

AP reports that Wal-Mart is breaking a tradition of trying to stay out

of politics by spending more than $2.4 million on California races

this fall – " well beyond any previous sum the company has spent here

in one year. " Wal-Mart's big funding to block Proposition 72 came just

one day after TV ads cited a study from a University of California

research group estimating " California taxpayers spend $32 million a

year providing health care to Wal-Mart workers. "