The ports controversy could cause similar problems for Neil Mallon Bush, the president’s most troublesome brother, who has become a familiar face in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Neil Bush seems to be in constant pursuit of investors and government contracts in the Emirates, and is treated there with a respect and deference that have always eluded him in his own country.

For reasons that must be painfully obvious, UAE royals have been quite eager to engage the former Silverado Savings and Loan director ever since his eldest brother entered the Oval Office.

“Invisible Neil” as he’s called, has a long and tangled tale of twisted financial doings. However he’s less the “troublesome” rogue black sheep and more the family fixer, methinks.

Via The Blue Room, who has more.

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Philippines President Gloria Arroyo invoked emergency rule yesterday after security forces said they had foiled a coup attempt.

If the coup attempt was unsuccessful, why is there a need to declare an emergency after it was over? Either this is a pretext for increased repression or, more likely, major factions of the Army are not loyal and future attempts are coming.

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Thu. Feb. 23, Things are not good in Baghdad.

We woke up this morning to news that men wearing Iraqi security uniforms walked in and detonated explosives, damaging the mosque almost beyond repair. It’s heart-breaking and terrifying. There has been gunfire all over Baghdad since morning. We heard about problems in areas like Baladiyat where there was some rioting and vandalism, etc. and several mosques in Baghdad were attacked. I think what has everyone most disturbed is the fact that the reaction was so swift, like it was just waiting to happen.

All morning we’ve been hearing/watching both Shia and Sunni religious figures speak out against the explosions and emphasise that this is what is wanted by the enemies of Iraq- this is what they would like to achieve- divide and conquer. Extreme Shia are blaming extreme Sunnis and Iraq seems to be falling apart at the seams under foreign occupiers and local fanatics.

People are scared and watchful. We can only pray.

This is from Riverbend blog, written by a young woman in Baghdad. Her identity is not known, and her eloquence is obvious. This post is unsettling for a number of reasons. First, for the obvious descent into the Abyss that Iraq is staring at, and second, because this is one of her only posts where she wasn’t at least guardedly optimistic.

How would you feel if you lived in Baghdad and everything that was normal and reassuring in your life was vanishing? And none of it had to happen, nor would it have happened had not the neocons made shit up so they could invade a country that had not attacked the US. While members of both political parties either supported the invasion or did nothing to stop it, I might add.

See you March 18. Bring the troops home now! Then let’s indict Bush and most of Congress for war crimes.

P.S. DJ Mitchell, a friend who has lived in Sri Lanka on and off for several years volunteering with an organization working to end the civil war there, knows about such violence. It happens in Sri Lanka a lot.

Last year when a major governmental official was assassinated in his own house, I asked “Who might have done it?” He said, given the chaos and multiplicity of players, that it could be anyone from any faction. I would say that applies to Iraq now. Trying to determine who blew up the mosque is probably impossible at this time. Anyone could have done it.

Jeanne at Body & Soul has a long post about the bombing, most definitely worth reading.

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Former American president Bill Clinton told 600 of New Zealand’s top business people their greatest worry in the world was global warming.

The Bush Adminstration, in an apparently related move, hinted darkly that global warming scientists were willing dupes of the “Axis of Evil” and thus are “terrorists looking to destroy our economy.”

And you aren’t sure if I’m kidding, are you?

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You do a great job. One minor point: S.F. may be confusing about its street #s but all over New England the problem is roads that change names with little or nothing by the way of signs. For example, in Bloomfield CT at the key intersection Bloomfield Ave. becomes Tunxis Ave.; Mountain Ave. becomes Park Ave. If you look hard, you might find a street sign.

One major point: there’s a real question, I fear, if a successful democracy can exist in a country that has no history of free speech, women’s rights, etc., and where unemployment among young uneducated males is high. And this seems particularly true in the Muslim world. The British Empire has often been criticized but in many countries when the British left, they left a stable democracy behind because they had time it introduce it. India is probably the best example. The story of how this country became an independent democracy is really an extraordinary one that probably never could be repeated. Of course, corruption in Congress is not new to the 21st century - it has come and gone.

Your thought that it’s time for another liberal resurgence is encouraging and fascinating. One really wonders what the hell is going on in Bush’s mind, most of the time - if anything.

Thanks, Dad!

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Will Transnational water companies swallow El Salvador’s water supply?

The office of SETA, El Salvador’s water workers union, sits like a mouse at the elephant’s feet. The union’s plain, two room office sits next door to the huge, block-long two story building which is the headquarters for El Salvador’s national water company, ANDA (National Water and Sewage Administration). Inside the SETA office, union reps equipped with an old computer and chairs with broken rollers are bracing for a fight against government attempts to privatize their industry. Representatives for SETA say losing the fight could mean the “extinction” of their union and limits on Salvadoran’s access to clean water.

The battle for clean, public, low-priced water is worldwide. This is just one more example. Multinational water companies working together with the World Bank often force water privatization as terms for their onerous loans. It’s the people, especially poor people who then suffer. Water quality worsens as prices soar, often making it impossible for them to afford water. Capitalism steals one of their most precious resources from them.

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Blogger bares Rumsfeld’s post 9/11 orders

Hours after a commercial plane struck the Pentagon on September 11 2001 the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was issuing rapid orders to his aides to look for evidence of Iraqi involvement, according to notes taken by one of them.

“Hard to get good case. Need to move swiftly,” the notes say. “Near term target needs - go massive - sweep it all up, things related and not.”

The handwritten notes, with some parts blanked out, were declassified this month in response to a request by a law student and blogger, Thad Anderson, under the US Freedom of Information Act. Anderson has posted them on his blog at outragedmoderates.org.

Note that Rumsfeld clearly wanted to use 9/11 and the death of Americans as a cover to invade Iraq. Not withstanding that Saddam and al Qaeda were clearly enemies, something Rumsfeld had to know.

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