Update: Hersh discusses his findings in detail in this NPR radio interview.

Seymour Hersh on CNN’s Late Edition, June 29:

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Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership. The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program.

Full article at The New Yorker…

SENATOR JOHN McCain (R-AZ) may describe himself as a “realistic idealist,” but this formulation does little to paper over the very real schism among Republicans (and conservatives in general) about the future direction of U.S. foreign policy. McCain has assembled a diverse group of advisors for his campaign, but should he win the presidency this fall, he will have to choose between two markedly different approaches to guiding America in the world.

In the aftermath of the Bush administration, particularly the impact of the war in Iraq, conservative politicians and policy intellectuals are again debating the nature of the global order, the purpose and use of American power, and what, if anything, is required to legitimize the exercise of that power, particularly military force. What is striking is the extent to which the divide between the two broad groupings in the McCain campaign (the pragmatists or realists on one hand and the idealists or neoconservatives on the other) resembles the divisions that had emerged in the closing days of the George H. W. Bush administration—and the continuing relevance of two documents, one produced by then–Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney’s Pentagon, the other developed by the James Baker/Lawrence Eagleburger State Department.

Full article here…

Feds’ Real ID is an invitation to even more identity theft

This month Arizona joined 13 other states that have passed laws prohibiting state compliance with the 2005 federal Real ID law. Little news was reported when Gov. Janet Napolitano signed it into law. If the federal law is enforced – which is not a certainty given the rebellion of a respectable number of states – it is said the consequences could be real for the residents of Arizona and the other 13 states.

The Real ID law requires states to adopt new procedures by 2010 for making driver’s licenses more secure. Opponents say the new licenses will become de facto national identity cards. They will contain unique identifier numbers which may be used in place of the Social Security number, a number that has been thoroughly debauched.

The cost of implementing the requirements of Real ID are about $3.9 billion nationwide. The federal government will provide some of the funds necessary but not nearly all. So it will be yet another federal burden on the states.

The effect of not complying is that Arizonans will not be able to use their driver’s license to board commercial aircraft or enter a federal building unless they have other acceptable identification, like a passport. The federal government is using the threat of terrorism as an excuse for implementing far more onerous identification requirements than we might otherwise tolerate. Its enforcing agency of choice is the Department of Homeland Security.

The Real ID card will start out innocuously enough with only a low power radio transponder chip in it. Federal officials hasten to assure us the card could be read only within about 20 feet. That would be a circle roughly 40 feet across. That is enough space for someone to lose himself in a crowd, activate your chip, and steal the information on the card. It will not be powerful enough to track by satellite. Not now. But technology is always making the impossible possible.

More…

Thursday evening, Senator Reid officially delayed a final vote on the FISA Amendments Act until July 8. That gave us just twelve days — now, eleven — to change the political calculus and avoid a Congressional seal of approval on illegal wiretapping.

With the clock counting down, here are three tactics that could help change the game:

1. July Fourth Activism

It’s especially ironic that Congress has picked Independence Day Recess to mark its decision to shred the Constitution. A Fourth Of July Parade could be an excellent leverage point to pressure politicians to stand tall for civil liberties.

Peterr at Firedoglake has suggestions:

Chris Dodd and Russ Feingold succeeded in giving us a gift: no FISA votes in the Senate until July 8th — after the Fourth of July recess. That means that when all the Senators go home for the holidays, to ride in those parades, you have a chance to be seen and heard. Not by the intern who downloads and counts the emails, not by the staffer who answers the phones and logs the calls, but by the Honorable Senator.

In person, face to face.

In public, where they can’t turn away.

In front of the cameras, everywhere they look.

…If you have a place reserved for a float in your town’s parade, maybe you need an idea for your decorations. If you have a place reserved for your lawn chair or the curb, maybe you need an idea for the sign you’ll hold up when the Senator or Representative comes by.

“Hey Senator, can I have some immunity, too? — Vote NO on FISA!”

“I like the WHOLE Bill of Rights — Vote NO on FISA!”

Watch Deeplinks and Firedoglake for more on this soon.

2. The Bingaman Amendment

If Congress is determined to grant the telcos immunity — something we’re fighting against tooth and nail — then it ought to at least know what behavior it’s protecting. That’s where Senator Bingaman’s amendment comes in.

This amendment, which should garner support from moderate and conservative Democrats and even some fair-minded Republicans, would give Congress the opportunity to reconsider telco immunity before it goes into effect, after Congress has received the Inspectors General report on the president’s surveillance program. EFF calls on every Senator that cares about civil liberties and the rule of law to support the Bingaman amendment if the amendment to strip immunity fails.

3. Barack Obama

Last month, the potential nomination of Barack Obama and John McCain as their parties’ Presidential candidates seemed an excellent development for this fight; both of them opposed the President’s warrantless wiretapping program at the time, and both of them rode this reputation for defying so-called conventional wisdom to the nomination.

Now that they’ve secured their nominations, their tunes have changed. When Senator McCain reversed his position earlier this month, we (and others) hoped Senator Obama would take leadership.

Our hopes were disappointed. Obama reneged on his previous commitment to filibuster, saying “the issue of the phone companies per se is not one that overrides the security interests of the American people.” Now, Obama is being attacked from the right for being a flip-flopper, and from the left for sacrificing civil liberties to political expediency.

Obama supporters have not given up hope of changing his mind. They intend to use the reprieve to pressure their candidate to stand tall. Activists have created a “Please Vote Against FISA” group on Obama’s social-networking website. Mike Stark, one of the groups founders, wrote “We’ve got a little over 1 week to change his mind - the vote on FISA will happen July 8th. But we can’t wait until that day; our goal is to see the Senator (and next President!) come out in opposition a few days earlier so that he can drag the rest of the Senate behind him.” If you’re an Obama supporter, consider joining the group and making your voice heard.

Related Issues: NSA Spying

S.2433, the Global Poverty Act, is the type of legislation that “We can, and must, make … a priority,” said Obama, a co-sponsor.

Cliff Kincaid at Accuracy in Media writes that while the Global Poverty Act sounds nice, the adoption could “result in the imposition of a global tax on the United States” and would make levels “of U.S. foreign aid spending subservient to the dictates of the United Nations.”

Phyllis Schlafly, shrill as ever, nevertheless hits some very valid points:

Why are Republicans in Congress trying to help Barack Obama?

Republicans allowed a bill that carries his name, among nine others, to pass the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by voice vote last week — without any hearings. That means there was no roll-call vote so no member can be held accountable. The same bill passed the House by voice vote last year… The bill’s other co-sponsors include Sens. Joseph Biden, D-Del., Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., Chris Dodd, D-Conn., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Russ Feingold, D-Wis., Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., Charles Hagel, R-Neb., and Robert Mendez, D-N.J.

The scariest phrase in the bill is “Millennium Development Goal.” That refers to the declaration adopted by the United Nations Millennium Assembly and Summit in 2000 (blessed by President Bill Clinton) which called for the “eradication of poverty” by “redistribution (of) wealth and land,” cancellation of “the debts of developing countries,” and “a fair distribution of the earth’s resources”

Read her comments in full…

Why are Republicans so eager to jump on “secret Muslim” rumors and similar ephemera — and give Obama (and his Democrat and Republican co-conspirators) a free pass on this kind of genuinely scary legislation?

When the Republicans choose their candidate on September 4th, there is a very real chance that they could throw the election into an unexpected chaos as they pull a genuine September Surprise.

John McCain won’t be the nominee. Ok, let me say that again. McCain will not be the Republican candidate in November

Here’s how it could happen:

At some point in mid August, John McCain will announce that he has decided that he can not accept his party’s nomination for president. The reason will be health-related, and that may turn out to be the truth. Anyone who’s seen him on stage these days knows he looks like he’s about to keel over.

But excuses or facts hardly matters. He won’t be accepting his party’s nomination.

The reasons are simple. He can’t win. Now that Obama is the presumptive Democratic nominee — the polls all show that McCain’s pro-war stance and Bush endorsement make him a lost cause in November. That combined with soft stand on litmus test conservative issues make him an unpopular candidate among the base…

More…

The Worst Episode of Hyperinflation in History: Just fifteen years ago

Between October 1, 1993 and January 24, 1995 prices in Yugoslavia increased by 5 quadrillion percent. That’s a 5 with 15 zeroes after it.

Under Tito, Yugoslavia ran a budget deficit that was financed by printing money. This led to a rate of inflation of 15 to 25 percent per year. After Tito, the Communist Party pursued progressively more irrational economic policies. These policies and the breakup of Yugoslavia (Yugoslavia now consists of only Serbia and Montenegro) led to heavier reliance upon printing or otherwise creating money to finance the operation of the government and the socialist economy. This created the hyperinflation.

By the early 1990s the government used up all of its own hard currency reserves and proceded to loot the hard currency savings of private citizens. It did this by imposing more and more difficult restrictions on private citizens’ access to their hard currency savings in government banks.

Continue reading…

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki suggested that US forces might be asked to leave if the two countries cannot agree on the new status of forces agreement, McClatchy reported Friday

“I think it’s too early really to judge this agreement that it is dead or there is no way out,” he said after attending a U.N. Security Council meeting on Iraq.

The U.N. mandate for a US presence in Iraq expires at the end of the year, McClatchy reported.

Full story here…