] "The agency is being purged on instructions from the
] White House," said a former senior CIA official who
] maintains close ties to both the agency and to the White
] House. "Goss was given instructions ... to get rid of
] those soft leakers and liberal Democrats. The CIA is
] looked on by the White House as a hotbed of liberals and
] people who have been obstructing the president's agenda."

A "No Dissent" sign has clearly been hung in the Langley lobby.

Is the problem obstruction of the president's agent, or failure to construct evidence to support the president's agenda? That seems to be a point which is unclear. If I've been following the "CIA revolt" story accurately, it appears the reason for the dissent is that the CIA was not listened to, and then told to do what amounts to lying. In short, being used as a political tool and not an intelligence asset, or both in a way that trampled on the institution's sense of honor.

Several Ex-CIA agents have come out and accused the Bush administration of outright character assignation via leaks to the press. Things seemed to heat up after Plame and Armstrong, and then public statements from decorated agents like Larry Johnson.. All previous to the current 'shakup'. There is more going on here then visible on the surface or in the press, and its clearly been going on for awhile. It probably started minutes after the first plane struck the north tower and was firmly in motion before the second strike. All public perceptions likely managed. Spook stuff. Hollywood guarantees that any view of the situation is polluted with bullshit perceptions of how stuff works over there... But that's fine, I bet everyone wishes their office politics were so romanticized.

Ahem... To fully break from any seriousness and insure that I am full of shit, let me give you my best guess: There are only four people who know what is actually going on, and if you were to so much as look any of them in the eye, they would have to kill you using some type of mysterious red, blue or green poison gas. This one reaches to the highest levels of The Conspiracy. Put away your Illuminate card deck, you can't handle the truth!

Holon.. I just got a text message on my shoe phone, I'll have to finish this post later.

CIA plans to purge its agency

] ICANN has initiated arbitration [PDF] (before the ICC's
] International Court of Arbitration) against VeriSign
] under the .net Registry Agreement, seeking declaratory
] judgments that many things VeriSign has done or attempted
] to do over the years (Sitefinder, ConsoliDate, IDN, WLS,
] and stemming the abusive actions of shell registrars when
] they destructively query the registry for secondary
] market purposes) violate that agreement.

Public Trust vs. Business, the battle continues for the seminal tlds .com and .net.

ICANN, VeriSign, and the Swamp

Heres a bunch of fun reading if you have a lot of free time! US Military field manuals. They recently published this one:

] FMI 3-07.22. Counterinsurgency Operations 1 October 2004
] (3 MB PDF file)

This book covers new tactics being employed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Other interesting books include:

] # FM 24-18. Tactical Single-Channel Radio Communications
] Techniques. 30 September 1987.
] # FM 24-33. Communications Techniques: Electronic
] Counter-Countermeasures. 17 July 1990.
] # (C)FM 32-20 Electronic Warfare (EW) (U)
] # (C)FM 32-30 Electronic Warfare, Tactics of Defense
] # FM 33-1 Psychological Operations August 1979
] # FM 34-1, Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Operations
] 27 September 1994. [superseded by FM 2-0]

Army Intelligence and Security Doctrine

] Despite his popularity, Powell will be remembered for
] presenting flawed evidence about Iraq's weapons of mass
] destruction to the United Nations when he made the case
] for war on behalf of Bush.

...as he did so with Tenet sitting behind him, who is also no longer part of this governments leadership either.

I guess in the end, the secret service are not the only ones who will take a bullet, real or otherwise, for the president. Powell and his legacy are riddled with holes at this point, and its unclear how many of them were ones he leapt for versus hit him directly.

Rice may be his replacement.

] Powell is the highest-level official to quit since Bush
] won re-election, and one of four cabinet members whose
] resignations were announced on Monday. The others were
] Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Education Secretary Rod
] Paige and Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman.

... and that's not all. Major shakeup. This isn't last term's administration.

Powell Resigns!!

In the sense of making it more prevalent, our primary goal is to normalize Adeptship. Would you like to help?

Interesting..

Welcome to the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn

Via Drudge Report. An impressive collection of battle shots.

Btw, does anyone know any details about the visual head gear the troops are wearing these days?

Raw Video Captures of The Battle of Fallujah

The Washington Post has a website which lists each and every casualty in Iraq, in order, with their photos, personal info, etc.

Its not quite as enduring as names engraved in a granite wall, but they will get that as well at some point. If all goes well, in two places. One here and one in Iraq. If all goes really well, the one in Iraq will be celebrated more.

washingtonpost.com: Faces of the Fallen

The Marines know they are being hunted. Boxed from the east and the west in a treacherous kill zone by an enemy they can feel -- but can't see. Their superior firepower is checked by the insurgent's knowledge of the city -- their cunning in using blind alleyways and the crooks and crannies of buildings to pick off the Marines.

Kevin Sites checks in from the front lines of the Battle of Fallujah. You can almost smell the gunpowder, as you sit safely behind your monitor.

Semper fidelis!

Kevin Sites Blog: Fallujah Street by Street

A quick, entertaining piece. What M.C. Escher would do with flash.

The Zoom Quilt: A collaborative art project

"Okay," said Jackie.

"Yep," said Rattle, "this is just what you think it is. A children's book about catching your parents smoking weed. Praise Jah!"

It's Just a Plant, a children's book