Patriot Act Empowers Ministry of Homeland Security Gestapo

PATRIOT ACT: THE UNIFORMED DIVISION, UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE.

(a) In General- Chapter 203 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after section 3056 the following:

`Sec. 3056A. Powers, authorities, and duties of United States Secret Service Uniformed Division

`(a) There is hereby created and established a permanent police force, to be known as the `United States Secret Service Uniformed Division'. Subject to the supervision of the Secretary of Homeland Security, the United States Secret Service Uniformed Division shall perform such duties as the Director, United States Secret Service, may prescribe in connection with the protection of the following:

`(1) The White House in the District of Columbia.

`(2) Any building in which Presidential offices are located.

`(3) The Treasury Building and grounds.

`(4) The President, the Vice President (or other officer next in the order of succession to the Office of President), the President-elect, the Vice President-elect, and their immediate families.

`(5) Foreign diplomatic missions located in the metropolitan area of the District of Columbia.

`(6) The temporary official residence of the Vice President and grounds in the District of Columbia.

`(7) Foreign diplomatic missions located in metropolitan areas (other than the District of Columbia) in the United States where there are located twenty or more such missions headed by full-time officers, except that such protection shall be provided only--

`(A) on the basis of extraordinary protective need;

`(B) upon request of an affected metropolitan area; and

`(C) when the extraordinary protective need arises at or in association with a visit to--

`(i) a permanent mission to, or an observer mission invited to participate in the work of, an international organization of which the United States is a member; or

`(ii) an international organization of which the United States is a member;

except that such protection may also be provided for motorcades and at other places associated with any such visit and may be extended at places of temporary domicile in connection with any such visit.

`(8) Foreign consular and diplomatic missions located in such areas in the United States, its territories and possessions, as the President, on a case-by-case basis, may direct.

`(9) Visits of foreign government officials to metropolitan areas (other than the District of Columbia) where there are located twenty or more consular or diplomatic missions staffed by accredited personnel, including protection for motorcades and at other places associated with such visits when such officials are in the United States to conduct official business with the United States Government.

`(10) Former Presidents and their spouses, as provided in section 3056(a)(3) of title 18.

`(11) An event designated under section 3056(e) of title 18 as a special event of national significance.

`(12) Major Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates and, within 120 days of the general Presidential election, the spouses of such candidates, as provided in section 3056(a)(7) of title 18.

`(13) Visiting heads of foreign states or foreign governments.

`(b)(1) Under the direction of the Director of the Secret Service, members of the United States Secret Service Uniformed Division are authorized to--

`(A) carry firearms;

`(B) MAKE ARRESTS WITHOUT WARRANT FOR ANY OFFENSE against the United States committed in their presence, or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony; and

`(C) perform such other functions and duties as are authorized by law.

`(2) Members of the United States Secret Service Uniformed Division shall possess privileges and powers similar to those of the members of the Metropolitan Police of the District of Columbia.

`(c) Members of the United States Secret Service Uniformed Division shall be furnished with uniforms and other necessary equipment.

`(d) In carrying out the functions pursuant to paragraphs (7) and (9) of subsection (a), the Secretary of Homeland Security may utilize, with their consent, on a reimbursable basis, the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of State and local governments, and is authorized to reimburse such State and local governments for the utilization of such services, personnel, equipment, and facilities. The Secretary of Homeland Security may carry out the functions pursuant to paragraphs (7) and (9) of subsection (a) by contract. The authority of this subsection may be transferred by the President to the Secretary of State. In carrying out any duty under paragraphs (7) and (9) of subsection (a), the Secretary of State is authorized to utilize any authority available to the Secretary under title II of the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956.'.

(b) Amendment to Table of Sections- The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 203 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 3056 the following new item:

3056A. POWERS, AUTHORITIES, AND DUTIES OF UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE UNIFORMED DIVISION. [ ]

More on the United States Secret Service Uniformed Division - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8tdlc

FPF / Related:

"PEOPLE DO NOT FORGET. They do not forget the death of their fellows, they do not forget torture and mutilation, they do not forget injustice, they do not forget oppression, they do not forget the terrorism of mighty powers. They not only don't forget: they also strike back." - 2005 Nobel Literature Prize winner Harold Pinter - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/9cyeq

* The Nuremberg principles: "Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/byurp

* 'The war in Iraq is illegal' - BBC: video & text-interview of the United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v

* Reference guide to the Geneva Conventions - Url.: http://www.genevaconventions.org

* The leaked 'Downing Street Memos' expose the criminal lies by war criminals like Bush, Blair, Berlusconi (It.) Balkenende (NL) - their collaborating media and other malignant ilk - Url.:  http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/

* The infamous US 'Lie Factory' -  Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8ncal

* Who's financing? - The 'Federal Reserve' and it's usurers is the absolute biggest crime against all humanity ever. - Url.: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm

* Help all the troops - of whatever nationality - to come back from abroad! - AND WITH ALL THEIR WEAPONS, WHICH WE WERE FORCED TO PAY FOR BY TAXES - [http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm ] - We need them badly at home in many countries to fight with us against our so called 'governments' and their malignant managers - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.:  http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html

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http://forpressfound.blogspot.com/
Editor: Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/amn3q
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl

-0-



        

Jack Abramoff, “Super Zionist”

by Kurt Nimmo

Friday January 06th 2006 - As usual, the corporate media is ignoring the larger picture, this time in regard to the criminal Jack Abramoff. Sure, Abramoff is a political sleazoid who “defrauded his Indian tribal clients of millions of dollars and used improper influence on members of Congress,” as the Washington Post explains. “Tribes represented by the lobbyist contributed millions of dollars in casino income to congressional campaigns,” including the Bush administration and the poster child of the Republican party, Tom DeLay, aka The Hammer.

But, as the blogger Juan Cole, professor of History at the University of Michigan, tells it Abramoff represents something far more sinister and threatening: he is a “super-Zionist,” according to Mike Issikoff of Newsweek, and not only did he spread his illicitly gained money around the halls of Washington, but the illegally occupied territories of the West Bank as well.

“Abramoff’s dense network of illicit finances and phony charities might end some political careers in the United States,” writes Cole. “But the investigation into his activities by the FBI also shed light on the ways in which rightwing American Jews have often been involved in funding what are essentially terrorist activities by armed land thieves in Palestinian territory….

Indeed, it was this terror funding of Israeli far right militiamen that tripped Abramoff up, since the FBI discovered that he had misled Indian tribes into giving money to the Jabotinskyites, and then began wondering if he had defrauded the tribes in other ways.” In other words, as Cole points out, the “Super Zionist” Abramoff scammed a long ago “dispossessed indigenous people” to fund the current dispossession of another people.

In fact, Abramoff’s sleaziness is so brazen and off the charts as to be quite remarkable. As Issikoff reported last May, Abramoff funneled $140,000 from a charity to benefit inner-city youths to rabid Zionist Israeli settlers in the West Bank colonial outpost of Beitar Illit. “Among the expenditures,” Issikoff notes, “purchases of camouflage suits, sniper scopes, night-vision binoculars, a thermal imager and other material described in foundation records as ’security’ equipment,” but as we know (consistently underplayed by the Zionist-friendly corporate media) this sort of equipment is used by the rabid land-grabbing settlers to attack and often kill Palestinians, including Palestinian children.

In other words, Jack Abramoff—if the FBI allegations are correct—is guilty of facilitating mass murder of Palestinian Arabs, not surprising since that’s what “super Zionists” do and have done for more than sixty years.

Abramoff spokesman Andrew Blum told Issikoff that his boss “is an especially strong supporter of Israel and has tried to find ways to help Israelis and others to be less susceptible to terrorist attacks.”

Of course, “terrorist attacks” is code for the Palestinians defending themselves (and retaliating) against the encroachment and violence of Jack’s sociopathic friends who invade and shoot up Arab villages with Uzis (often courtesy of the Israel Defense or rather Occupation Forces) and “shoot solar panels on roofs of buildings, torch automobiles, shatter windowpanes and windshields, destroy crops, uproot trees, abuse merchants and owners of stalls in the market,” and other various forms of terrorist activity (see B’Tselem for more disgusting details).

It should be no secret to those who pay attention that extremely (and fanatically) strong supporters of Israel control the foreign policy of the United States government. Unfortunately, a whole lot of Americans don’t pay attention. It takes an Israeli commentator to point out the unvarnished truth: the Straussian neocons, Akiva Eldar wrote in Haaretz, “are walking a fine line between their loyalty to American governments and Israeli interests.” Uri Avnery, Israeli peace activist, believes there is little difference between the neocons and the Jabotinsky Zionists in Israel.

“I have absolutely no proof that the Bushies got their ideas from [Ariel Sharon]. But the style is the same,” writes Avnery. Of course, all of this is about as obvious as the nose on your face, regardless of the herculean efforts of the corporate media to obfuscate the truth.

Jack Abramoff, “super Zionist,” is emblematic of the indisputable fact that Jabontinsky Likudites have subverted our government, although the corporate media would have you believe all of this is simply a garden variety corruption scandal. Moreover, it should come as no surprise that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is able to steal American secrets and fork them over to Israel and this act of treason is essentially little more than a blip in the corporate media news cycle. As Juan Cole notes elsewhere, AIPAC has a virtual stranglehold over the government in the United States:

All this can happen because there is a vacuum in U.S. political discourse. A handful of special interests in the United States virtually dictate congressional policy on some issues. With regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and a few allies have succeeded in imposing complete censorship on both houses of Congress.

No senator or representative dares make a speech on the floor of his or her institution critical of Israeli policy, even though the Israeli government often violates international law and UN Security Council resolutions (it would violate more such resolutions, except that the resolutions never got passed because only one NSC member, the U.S., routinely vetoes them on behalf of Tel Aviv.)

As the Labor Party in Israel has been eclipsed by the Likud coalition, which includes many proto-fascist groups, this subservience has yoked Washington to foreign politicians who privately favor ethnic cleansing and/or aggressive warfare for the purpose of annexing the territory of neighbors.

In essence, the “proto-fascist groups” in Israel and burrowed deeply inside the Bush administration are in the process of subverting the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, as the NSA “scandal” regarding massive snooping of Americans indicates.

Unfortunately, most Americans are blissfully unaware of the true nature of these crimes, as they are unaware of the obvious fact the “war” in Iraq was waged in the name of Israel, a small outlaw nation where people who think and act like Jack Abramoff are the rule and not the exception.

[andend] - Story Url.: http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=181

Related - UN report denounces Israel's Nazi-like treatment of Palestinians - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/9a7n2

'False flag' - Amman Hotel Bombings: Israelis Evacuated Before Attack - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/e2w8r

In the US Kerry called the by Israel illegally build 'Wall' - a: ''barrier to peace." [ http://tinyurl.com/2ytsj ]

The NEW paper says building it is ''a legitimate right of self-defense" and ''not a matter" to be taken up by the International Court of Justice, which has criticized the move. [ http://tinyurl.com/ywtzv ]

Kurt Nimmo - Iran attack by Israel - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/dpy66

Axis of Logic - License to kill - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/a9sre

US 'Death Squad Protection Act' Url.: http://tinyurl.com/6xdfw 

Secret Task Force 121 - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/6pzpo

Mossad runs The Netherlands Schiphol Airport? - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/42ct3 

Dutch war criminals in Court hearing: http://tinyurl.com/662pp (picture too)

Schiphol/Israel: http://tinyurl.com/yurk6

Expatica - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/6qyju

ANP/Dutch multinationals: http://tinyurl.com/2gy2t

Military Intelligence - Special Operations: Url: http://tinyurl.com/5pe6g 

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
Feed: http://tinyurl.com/avyvl
Editor: Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/66dmo
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FPF@Chello.nl

* Help all the troops - of whatever nationality - to come back from abroad! We need them badly at home in many countries - AND WITH ALL THEIR WEAPONS, WHICH WE PAID FOR BY TAXES - to fight with us against our so called 'governments' and their malignant managers - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html
-0-

Pilot Speicher propaganda and WMD plants + RAW story

If one checks the links here below - one from a year before the Iraq war - from April 4th 2002 - before reading the RAW item, much seems to fit.

The links also proof that everybody who wanted to, really did know about the coming illegal war with Iraq.

Concerns the article below: ''Secretive Military Unit Sought to Solve Political WMD Concerns Prior to Iraq Invasion, intelligence sources say'' by Larisa Alexandrovna

L.S.!

For your information about Speicher - from April 4th 2002 - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/ase5a

CIA and DoD Attempted To Plant WMDs in Iraq — and Failed - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cdy54

US teams will provide "evidence", to 'proof' Iraq war was necessary. Thursday - 20 Mar 2003 - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/aoaov

Best regards,

Henk R.


P.S. Did you get an independent - non-american - server for your sites?

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
http://forpressfound.blogspot.com/
Editor: Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/amn3q
The Netherlands
fpf@chello.nl

************************************************************************************************

Ilene PRoctor

INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC RELATIONS

Press Contact: Ilene Proctor or Angus Hsu

E-mail: proctor@artnet.net

Secretive Military Unit Sought to Solve Political WMD Concerns Prior to Iraq Invasion, intelligence sources say

Larisa Alexandrovna

New allegations indicate that American civilian military leadership may have used an off-book quasi-military team to address political issues, placing those concerns above securing peace in the region, RAW STORY has learned.

Three U.S. intelligence sources and a source close to the United Nations Security Council say that the Pentagon civilian leadership under the guidance of Stephen Cambone, appointed to lead Defense Department intelligence in March 2003, dispatched a series of “off book” missions out of the ultra-secretive Office of Special Plans (OSP). The team was tasked to secure the following in order of priority: fallen Navy pilot Scott Speicher, WMD and Saddam Hussein.

While it is known that an authorized special operations unit was dispatched before the invasion of Iraq with similar objectives, sources say another team also operated on the ground in Iraq, primarily from the summer until the fall of 2003. This team appears to have been composed of 4-5 men.

The Fallen Navy Pilot

Lieutenant Commander Michael “Scott” Speicher was shot down over Iraq in 1991 during the first day of Operation Desert Storm. He was classified as Killed in Action (KIA) within a few months thereafter.

Sources say that in order to convince the administration to invade Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi, the discredited leader of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) and poster boy for neoconservative hawks, claimed that Speicher was alive and being held as a prisoner of war.

Chalabi -- considered by many to be a con-man and dilettante with a long history of scheming and dealings -- spun yarn after yarn about Iraqi WMD programs to hawks within the administration unable to find credible evidence of WMD from their own intelligence community in order to support a pre-emptive war.

Known abroad for counterfeiting and bank fraud, Chalabi was convicted in 1992 by a Jordanian court and sentenced to twenty-two years of hard labor. The longtime Iraqi exile had his home and offices raided by US forces in May 2004 after allegations that he was passing classified US documents along to Iranian intelligence. He has since been appointed to head the oil ministry, despite being unable to win a single seat in Iraq’s December election.

Sources from the US and foreign intelligence communities found Chalabi’s claims of WMD false, but administration hawks pushed for invasion using him as one of the primary sources. The New York Times’ Judith Miller also relied heavily on Chalabi for single-source information about a fictional Iraqi WMD program.

Sources say that along with promises of Speicher and WMD, Chalabi also promised to deliver Iraqi tribal chieftains to support coalition forces on the ground. So called “swoop” teams of special ops forces deployed in the region prior to the invasion were assured that support on the ground from tribal leaders would be ready upon the arrival of US and British forces. But like the claims of WMD, no such support materialized.

Task Force 20 and other units

The primary operational team responsible for the early activity on the ground in Iraq was Task Force 20, which was comprised of CIA, FBI, Green Berets, Delta Force operators, and commandos from the Navy's Special Warfare Development Group. Task Force 20 consisted of roughly a 40-man assault team and a private aviation unit provided by Special Operations Command. Sources believe this was the team tasked with the three objectives of securing the fallen pilot, the weapons, and the dictator.

Other groups operating at this same time included the 75th Exploitation Task Force, a unit of roughly 900 specialists, made up of smaller tactical teams, who followed on the heels of TF20. Judith Miller was embedded with one of the units of the 75th.

Sources say the Office of Special Plans deployed several extra-legal and unapproved task force missions prior to and after combat operations began. Under the supervision of Doug Feith, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, the OSP ran largely unsupervised and operated in secrecy. According to those familiar with the plans, the off-book missions were approved by Feith -- himself currently under investigation by the FBI for allegations of passing US secrets to Israel and Iran -- Cambone and then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.

But the lines between what were considered sanctioned forces and those considered almost as rogue units began to blur shortly after the invasion. Whether this was done deliberately to misrepresent official military, CIA, and other operations missions in the region, or whether this confusion stems from a lack of coordination remains unknown.

It is also difficult to establish whether or not TF20’s various sub-teams were used by civilian leadership to achieve other goals, not known to the primary unit.

What is, however, apparent is that the Office of Special Plans’ teams were deployed in obscurity and on occasion even bumped into sanctioned special ops teams, creating a sense of unease among the various forces on the ground.

Sources raised most concern about an alleged off-book 4-5 man team which operated in the summer through the fall of 2003. What this team was doing and under whose authority it operated is unclear.

Yet at least one source close to the UN Security Council tells RAW STORY that the smaller team was acting on behalf of Office of Special Plans and Defense Department leadership, specifically under the guidance of Feith and in tandem with Cambone.

Though most sources pointed to TF20 as the most likely to have spawned the clandestine force, one intelligence source disagreed. The source noted that by mid-2003 TF20 had been to nearly all of the major Iraqi installations without finding any evidence of WMD.

One intelligence source says the Office of Special Plans’ off-book team was using Speicher and WMD as a pretext for whatever their real objective may have been.

Secret team looked to ‘solve’ WMD problem?

This smaller unnamed team was tasked with interviewing former Iraqi intelligence officers in hopes of securing help with a “political WMD” problem, a source close to the UN Security Council says.

During the summer of 2003 through the fall of 2003, the team, whose members who were not named by sources, is said to have interviewed many Iraqi intelligence and former intelligence officers. The UN source says that the political problem discussed had more to do with solving the lack of WMD than anything else.

“They come in the summer of 2003, bringing in Iraqis, interviewing them,” the UN source said. “Then they start talking about WMD and they say to [these Iraqi intelligence officers] that ‘Our President is in trouble. He went to war saying there are WMD and there are no WMD. What can we do? Can you help us?’”

The source said intelligence officers understood quickly what they were being asked to do and that the assumption was they were being asked to provide WMD in order for coalition forces to find them.

“But the guys were thinking this is absurd because anything put down would not pass the smell test and could be shown to be not of Iraqi origin and not using Iraqi methodology,” the source added.

Former and current US intelligence officers explain that such forensics is essential and would have in fact proved if a weapons stash found was using Iraqi methodology.

“A good example of how forensics is used can be found in the recent development around enriched uranium isotopes found on centrifuges in Iran,” one said. “Iran claimed to have purchased the centrifuges from Pakistan, but certain people pushing for war with Iraq were claiming that this was evidence of Iraqis reconstituting their nuclear weapons program. The forensics showed that the Iranians were telling the truth and that they in fact had purchased the items from Pakistan, a US ally.”

[andend]

FPF-fwd. - Related:

* "Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful." - Henry Kissinger speaking at Evian, France, May 21, 1992 Bilderburgers meeting. Unbeknownst to Kissinger, his speech was taped by a Swiss delegate to the meeting.

* And global warcriminal Henry Kissinger and his ilk succeeded, but nobody apart from 'them' was 'grateful'. On the contrary: own US troops - even with tanks - appeared in the streets of Los Angeles: against anti-war protesters! - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7qh65

* 'American Military Personnel - Know Why You're Being Sacrificed' - by Robert L. Johnson: "When I joined the United States Marines in September of 1973, I swore an oath..." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/75pl3

* 'The war in Iraq is illegal' - BBC: video & text-interview of the United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v

* "People do not forget. They do not forget the death of their fellows, they do not forget torture and mutilation, they do not forget injustice, they do not forget oppression, they do not forget the terrorism of mighty powers. They not only don't forget: they also strike back." - 2005 Nobel Literature Prize winner Harold Pinter - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/9cyeq

* Reference guide to the Geneva Conventions - Url.: http://www.genevaconventions.org

* Al Qaeda – The Database - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cqx69

* The 9/11 WTC drama was PNAC terror - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/9np7d - It was an inside job - Google - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7tj9d

* 'Anti-Semitism' - The Provocative Accusation - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8z6gd

* Who's financing? - The 'Federal Reserve' and it's usurers is the absolute biggest crime against all humanity ever. - Url.: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm

* The infamous US 'Lie Factory' -  Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8ncal

* Help all the troops - of whatever nationality - to come back from abroad! - AND WITH ALL THEIR WEAPONS, WHICH WE WERE FORCED TO PAY FOR BY TAXES - [http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm ] - We need them badly at home in many countries to fight with us against our so called 'governments' and their malignant managers - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html

-0-

US Joint Chiefs of Staff 'know militarily they can't win in Iraq

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to Rep. John Murtha - who has spent 37 honorable years as a Marine - said when Pace called him to discuss the war: "Peter Pace told me this last night: They know militarily they can't win this." - Rep. John Murtha says the military is blaming him for a recruitment slump instead of recognizing mistakes that have led to an enlistment shortage.

FPF: THE STORY IS BY AP, AN OFFICIAL US/PNAC PROPAGANDA SEWER - SO YOU HAVE TO WATCH OUT:

Murtha Says He's not to Blame

Associated Press | January 06, 2006 - WASHINGTON - Rep. John Murtha says the military is blaming him for a recruitment slump instead of recognizing mistakes that have led to an enlistment shortage.

"They're trying to direct attention away from their problems," said Murtha, D-Pa., a decorated Marine Corps veteran who has become a leading voice in Congress advocating an early withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a news conference Thursday that Murtha's remarks about Iraq are damaging to troop morale and to the Army's efforts to bring up recruitment numbers.

Pace, the nation's top general, was asked specifically about an ABC News interview this week in which Murtha, 73, said if he were eligible to join the military today he would not join, nor would he expect others to join.

"That's damaging to recruiting," Pace said. "It's damaging to morale of the troops who are deployed, and it's damaging to the morale of their families who believe in what they are doing to serve this country."

Military officers usually are reluctant to get drawn into political debates, but Pace said Murtha's remarks about recruiting are relevant to his responsibilities as Joint Chiefs chairman.

Pace praised the congressman's record but criticized his remarks.

"When a respected leader like Mr. Murtha, who has spent 37 extremely honorable years as a Marine, ... has served the country extremely well in the Congress of the United States - when a respected individual like that says what he said, and 18- and 19-year-olds look to their leadership to determine how they are expected to act, they can get the wrong message," Pace said.

In a statement released Thursday, Murtha said: "The military had no problem recruiting directly after 9/11 because everyone understood that we had been attacked. But now the military's ability to attract recruits is being hampered by the prospect of prolonged, extended and repeated deployments, inadequate equipment, shortened home stays, the lack of any connection between Iraq and the brutal attacks of 9/11, and - most importantly - the administration's constantly changing, undefined, open-ended military mission in Iraq."

LATER THURSDAY, MURTHA SAID HE'S SPOKEN WITH MILITARY LEADERS AND "THEY'RE FRUSTRATED BY THEIR MISSION."

Speaking before a town hall meeting on Iraq in Arlington, Va., hosted by Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., Murtha said Pace called him to discuss the war.

"Peter Pace told me this last night: They know militarily they can't win this," Murtha said.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and others at the Pentagon, including Pace, have said repeatedly that victory in Iraq will not be achieved by U.S. forces defeating the insurgency militarily but rather by U.S. forces providing the Iraqis the military, political and economic wherewithal to overcome the insurgency.

During the Pentagon news conference Thursday, Pace also predicted that the Saddam Hussein loyalists and other Iraqis who comprise the great bulk of the insurgency will increasingly give up, now that Iraq has approved its own constitution and held elections.

Pace said he believes the violence, which flared anew Thursday on one of the bloodiest days in Iraq in months, will abate as more Iraqis become convinced that the December elections will produce a representative government that will improve their lives.

"As they see their own government providing a way ahead that all of their citizens can understand as progress for their country, ... those who are fighting against the government right now who are Iraqis will more and more lay down their arms and decide to become part of the future of Iraq and not the past," Pace said.

[andend] - Story Military.com - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8w9b7

All Military Headlines - today - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/9pnvb

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
http://forpressfound.blogspot.com/
Editor: Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/amn3q
The Netherlands
fpf@chello.nl

* "Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful." - Henry Kissinger speaking at Evian, France, May 21, 1992 Bilderburgers meeting. Unbeknownst to Kissinger, his speech was taped by a Swiss delegate to the meeting.

* And global warcriminal Henry Kissinger and his ilk succeeded, but nobody apart from 'them' was 'grateful'. On the contrary: own US troops - even with tanks - appeared in the streets of Los Angeles: against anti-war protesters! - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7qh65

* 'American Military Personnel - Know Why You're Being Sacrificed' - by Robert L. Johnson: "When I joined the United States Marines in September of 1973, I swore an oath..." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/75pl3

* 'The war in Iraq is illegal' - BBC: video & text-interview of the United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v

* "People do not forget. They do not forget the death of their fellows, they do not forget torture and mutilation, they do not forget injustice, they do not forget oppression, they do not forget the terrorism of mighty powers. They not only don't forget: they also strike back." - 2005 Nobel Literature Prize winner Harold Pinter - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/9cyeq

* Reference guide to the Geneva Conventions - Url.: http://www.genevaconventions.org

* Al Qaeda – The Database - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cqx69

* The 9/11 WTC drama was PNAC terror - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/9np7d - It was an inside job - Google - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7tj9d

* 'Anti-Semitism' - The Provocative Accusation - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8z6gd

* Who's financing? - The 'Federal Reserve' and it's usurers is the absolute biggest crime against all humanity ever. - Url.: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm

* The infamous US 'Lie Factory' -  Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8ncal

* Help all the troops - of whatever nationality - to come back from abroad! - AND WITH ALL THEIR WEAPONS, WHICH WE WERE FORCED TO PAY FOR BY TAXES - [http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm ] - We need them badly at home in many countries to fight with us against our so called 'governments' and their malignant managers - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

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