the Shackle Report

— The weeks reading, straight off the razor wire:

Regarding the reconstruction of Afghanistan, which has apparently hit a snag or two…

At the outset, USAID and its primary contractor, New Jersey-based Louis Berger Group Inc., failed to provide adequate oversight, documents state. Federal audits show that USAID officials in Kabul were unable to “identify the location of many Kabul-directed projects in the field.”

— one school turned out to be outside Topeka, Kansas, where students are taught that men evolving from monkeys is just a theory — the USAID endeavour being the first case in point.

“That we got [the buildings] done this quickly with this little amount of aggravation, I think this should be saluted,” said Larry Walker, a Berger vice president. “We’re very proud of our program. We expect quality problems, we expect delays.”

— indeed, we especially pride ourselves in the high quality of our problems.

Moseley also cited “extraordinary costs,” such as. . .

. . . an eight-classroom school that cost $426,000.

— Oh, no biggie. That’s roughly the street value of a few ounces of heroin. They can make that back in two weeks in NYC.

Shelter For Life, a Wisconsin-based relief organization, is building 52 schools and clinics. Last spring, in the southern province of Kandahar, the organization had nearly completed a schoolhouse when an Afghan military commander took a liking to it and transformed it into a stable for his horses.

— Go Seabiscuit!

Billingsley, whose office in a bullet-pocked Kabul neighborhood is guarded by men with Kalashnikov rifles, noted other cultural absurdities. The USAID plan calls for schools that meet standards under the Americans With Disabilities Act. That means including extra-wide doors and wheelchair ramps, even in remote areas.

— And, Dude, like, how are the horses going to get in and out if we don’t make the doors extra-wide?

This from the Nov. 14 NY Times about the Middle Eastern Secret Police, the mukhabarat. Seems they’re an obstacle to the spread of democracy:

The secret police chiefs live above the law. The last head of the Jordanian mukhabarat routinely overruled the smoking ban on Royal Jordanian Airways, lighting up as he pleased. No one dared challenge him.

— what about elevators?

The State Department’s annual human rights report, unusually critical of a staunch ally, particularly one that offers widespread cooperation on terrorism issues, said the lack of accountability within the mukhabarat and the police resulted “in a climate of impunity” and underscored “significant restrictions on freedom of speech, press, assembly and association.” It said the agents “sometimes abuse detainees physically and verbally” and “allegedly also use torture.”

— they what!? Where’s McCain?!

Getting a senior mukhabarat officer to speak to a journalist is extremely rare. The Jordanian mukhabarat made the head of its domestic affairs branch available for this article on condition that he not be identified, but what he said offered meager insight into the agency’s inner workings:
“There is no freedom like that in Jordan,” he said with enthusiasm in Arabic. “You are a free man in a free country.”

— whattaya mean “meager”? Whattaya mean, at all? Who’s “you”? Where am I?

Jordan has never been a police state on the gory scale of neighbors like Iraq, and it is not surprising to find Jordanians who feel they can speak openly about political issues. But for most Jordanians, the mukhabarat remains a source of fear. Some Jordanians avoid uttering the word, whispering “the friends” instead.

— “Now, see. ‘the friends’. Soon it will be ‘friends with privilages’. Baby steps, folks…democracy takes time…” says Pres. Bush

But he [senior mukhabarat officer] notes that there are far worse places in the region than Jordan. “It’s not that we are better than the countries around us,” he said. “We are just less bad.”

— which kind of “bad” do you mean, like, “good” bad or…

“If you have stability, but life is desperate, what does that bring you?” he [a Jordanian citizen]said. “We Arabs, all of us, we are marrying, drinking, laughing, making love…”

— Sounds kinda nice. Does Jordanian Air fly outta New York? I promise I won’t say anything to that dude smoking…

And on the Iraqi quagmire, from the Nov. 16th LA Times

Senate Overwhelmingly Backs Resolution to Ease Out of Iraq

— Oh, is this Iraq? I’m sorry. Were you in the middle of something? I’ll find my own way out…call me on my cell…

and on the recent revelation that Iraqis are now torturing other Iraqis (Shiites on Sunnis and vice versa), much like the good ol’ days…

“OK, there were signs of torture,” Jabr said. “And for that we will punish those responsible. But there were no killings and no beheadings, as some have said.”

— torture without beheadings and killings? Like, I thought you guys were good.

Medical treatment was ordered for the inmates after the discovery. Next, they were transferred to the U.S.-run prison complex at Abu Ghraib to have more room and better food and care.

— everybody say “cheese”.

on the lighter side…

A Hesitant Puerto Rico Tries Commuting by Train
Saturday, November 19, 2005 NY Times

— the Atlantic Ocean proved a formidable obstacle to getting to their jobs in the US.

And from the NY Times about how the Iraq war is apparently destroying the multicultural element of Iraqi society:

Two and a half years after the American invasion, deep divides that have long split Iraqi society have violently burst into full view. As the hatred between Sunni Arabs and Shiites hardens and the relentless toll of bombings and assassinations grows, families are leaving their mixed towns and cities for safer areas where they will not automatically be targets. In doing so, they are creating increasingly polarized enclaves and redrawing the sectarian map of Iraq, especially in Baghdad and the belt of cities around it.

— My god, what will this do to the bussing?

Last week, Abu Noor applied for a job in the new Iraqi Army. It is the way he can legally take revenge, he said. [for the murder of his family]

— It’s not just a job.

Mr. Fadhel, the Shiite businessman from Samarra, now lives not far from Abu Noor. When asked if he would return to his old home, he told an Iraqi fable. In it, a father leaves his son to care for a dancing snake that gives golden coins. The greedy son tries to kill the snake to take all its gold, but is fatally bitten, but not before he cuts off the snake’s tail. The father returns and finds his dead son and the wounded snake. He tries to make amends in vain. The snake replies that the man will never forget his son and it will never forget its tail. ” ‘We can never be friends again,’ ” Mr. Fadhel said.

— It is exactly that kind of fable that’s going to make democratization difficult, mister. Let me tell you about George Washington and this cherry tree…

and on“Curveball”, one major source the Bush Administration used to justify war over Hussein’s WMDs:

Five senior officials from Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, said in interviews with The Times that they warned U.S. intelligence authorities that the source, an Iraqi defector code-named Curveball, never claimed to produce germ weapons and never saw anyone else do so.

— what’s in a name?

Curveball’s motive, CIA officials said, was not to start a war. He simply was seeking a German visa.

— Oh, boy. Did I do that? My bad…Anywho, about that visa…?

The base cryptonym “ball” was used to signify weapons, two former U.S. intelligence officials said. An earlier informant in Germany, for example, was called Matchball.

— The CIA is still looking for ex-agents “Dodgeball,” “Whiffleball” and the notorious Chinese double agent known only as “Ping-Pong”…

A congressional staffer on intelligence said she realized the case was weak when she saw [Colin]Powell display CIA drawings of trucks but not photos. “A drawing isn’t evidence,” she said. “It’s hearsay.”

— “I’ve seen these drawings, the staffer added. I saw a fetus. My boss saw his mom’s blackberry cobbler. Teddy Kennedy saw a giant rabbit named ‘Harvey.’”

Days later, the CIA and DIA rushed to publish a White Paper declaring the trucks part of Hussein’s biological warfare program. The report dismissed Iraq’s explanation that the equipment generated hydrogen as a “cover story.” A day later, Bush told a Polish TV reporter: “We found the weapons of mass destruction.”

— Excellent. So we crushed the fledgling Iraqi alternative energy program. They were ready to launch a new hydrogen powered car by 2006…