AfterDowningStreet.org

A Film By Sari Gelzer
http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm
Dahr Jamail shares the stories of Iraqi civilians he interviewed while spending 8 months in occupied-Iraq as an independent journalist.

By Ellen Knickmeyer and Jonathan Finer
The Washington Post
Anti-US sentiment is motivator for many.
Baghdad - More than two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Sunni Arabs belatedly joined in force to build a new Iraq, walking to polls by the hundreds of thousands Thursday for national elections that drew a robust turnout from across the country's sectarian and ethnic divides.

Posted on TPM Cafe
By Larry Johnson
The revelation that the National Security Agency was allowed to conduct non-FISA intercepts of American citizens should bring last summer's hearing on John Bolton's nomination to the United Nations back into focus. As Legal times noted in September of this year, "During the confirmation hearings of John Bolton as the U.S. representative to the United Nations, it came to light that the NSA had freely revealed intercepted conversations of U.S. citizens to Bolton while he served at the State Department. . . . More generally, Newsweek reports that from January 2004 to May 2005, the NSA supplied intercepts and names of 10,000 U.S. citizens to policy-makers at many departments, other U.S. intelligence services, and law enforcement agencies."

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2778
Throughout the Iraq War, the mainstream media have shown little interest in documenting or quantifying the suffering of Iraqis. But a recent comment by George W. Bush provoked an unexpected round of discussion of the topic.

By Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey
"Americans and Iraqis continue to die while House Republicans play political games," said Rep. Woolsey.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma) led 17 Members of Congress in protesting today's Republican measure, H.Res.612, because it calls for a continued, open-ended presence of American troops in Iraq. "I congratulate the Iraqis for their successful election, but we must have an open debate on Iraq on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, said Woolsey. "Americans and Iraqis continue to die while House Republicans play political games."

By David Sirota
Yesterday, I wrote a long piece about how there is not one shred of actual hard data to sustain the assumption being peddled in Washington that pro-exit-strategy Democrats will be punished for their positions by voters. I also made the point that not being pro-exit-strategy is a recipe for disaster. Now today, we get a pristine example of exactly what I am talking about, from the local paper in a congressional district that is considered one of the Democrats' top potential pickups in 2006. This story shows exactly how the Republicans are capitalizing not on Democrats who are concrete in their support of an exit strategy, but how the GOP is feasting on Democrats who try to have it both ways and split the difference, as the "strategists" in Washington are prescribing. Just read the article's subheading - sadly, it says it all.

Iraq's current political process will not solve the crisis. Only a US and British pullout and a UN sponsored poll can do that
Harith al-Dari, The Guardian
Iraq has a long history of civilisation that has contributed both knowledge and wisdom to humanity. For many centuries, Islam also immunised Iraq against religious or sectarian strife and protected its population from the oppression that peoples of the ancient world had been subjected to. Generation after generation of Iraqis succeeded in maintaining peaceful coexistence among their diverse sects and races, despite the hardships and challenges they faced. It is by virtue of this cohesion that Iraq managed to rise up again and put its house in order in the wake of every calamity.

By the American Progress Action Fund
The Bush administration is trying to jam through a permanent extension of the PATRIOT Act before Congress adjourns for the year. But Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) has assembled a bipartisan coalition advocating a more deliberative approach -- a temporary, three month extension until the Senate can resolve remaining concerns that certain provisions give "government too much power to investigate its citizens." An effort by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) to block a permanent extension of the act this year appears to have enough votes to be successful. But it does it matter? The New York Times reported that in 2002, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to eavesdrop on Americans and others in the United States in ways that "go far beyond the expanded counterterrorism powers granted by Congress under the USA Patriot Act." The program has revived a domestic spying operation at the NSA not seen since the 1960s when the agency routinely eavesdropped "on Vietnam War protesters and civil rights activists."

Rumor has it Congressman Dennis Kucinich will introduce this resolution:
Expressing the sense of Congress that the new permanent Council of Representatives of Iraq should debate and vote on whether or not the continued U.S. military presence in Iraq is desired by the Government of Iraq.

BY: EVAN AUGUSTINE PETERSON, III
In Washington politics, things are seldom what they appear to be -
especially when devious Machiavellians are running the White House.
And we often end up getting a fairy-tale version of reality because

Worth reading:
http://www.gnn.tv/articles/1936/Flashback_Crude_Vision

With ongoing controversy surrounding the conduct of the war in Iraq and the treatment of terror suspects in the wider "War on Terror", Newsnight staged a special programme entitled: "Allies on Trial".

W.House takes issue with Novak on CIA leak claim
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House took issue on Thursday with a claim by syndicated columnist Robert Novak that President George W. Bush knows who the source is who leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

From Gold Star Families for Peace
Just a reminder that every friday Los Angeles area Gold Star Familes for Peace along with Military Familes Speak Out, Orange County, Code Pink and the Camp Casey Peace movement are setting up a Camp Casey outside of Cal Sen Diane Feinsteins office.We are now in the 3rd week of our encampment. We will be there from 3pm to 6 pm waiting for her to answer the questions posed to her in September by Cindy Sheehan. For What Noble cause are our kids dying ? How many more lives are she willing to sacrifice for this Noble cause? And, what is she doing to bring an end to the US occupation of Iraq? Until she answers these questions we will be there.

Bush claims that Iraqis are leading “better lives,” but...
Iraq slides deeper into disaster
By Elizabeth Schulte, http://www.socialistworker.org
THE BUSH administration is pulling out all the stops to show the U.S. public that progress is being made in Iraq. So it’s time for another election “milestone” on Iraq’s supposed “road to democracy.”

Impeachment is in the news! The Washington Post's Dan Froomkin reports on the latest impeachment poll here.
And the Hotline reports on comments by John Kerry:

By David Sirota, http://www.workingforchange.com/blog/
Throughout the political coverage and chatter about Iraq, it seems there is a virulent assumption that has jumped from theory into fact, without even a shred of factual support. I'm not talking about there only being a small amount of proof - I'm talking about an assumption that is being made by "experts," "operatives" and the media analysts with literally absolutely no evidence at all. It is so egregious that to call it an assumption is to be dishonest - what it is is a lie.

London, December 10th.
The Military Families Campaigns section was one of 4 sections to the
International Peace Conference. Traprock will post audio and photos
from each section. Andrew Murray introduced Andrew Burgin of Military

By Carol D. Leonnig, Washington Post Staff Writer
Syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak, who has repeatedly declined to discuss his role in disclosing the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, said in a speech this week that he is certain President Bush knows who his mystery administration source is.

By Rep. John Murtha
America wants and deserves real answers on Iraq: What is the clear definition of success? Is there a plan? How much longer and how many more lives? In short, what is the end game?