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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lurqer who wrote (24728)	8/8/2003 4:07:15 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

5 Foes of Bush Form PAC in Bid to Defeat Him By MICHAEL JANOFSKY The New York Times August 8, 2003 nytimes.com WASHINGTON — The leaders of five groups with strong ties to Democratic causes announced today that to help offset Republican advantages in organizing and fund-raising, they were joining to form a political action committee aimed at defeating President Bush next year. The leaders said the new committee, America Coming Together, would concentrate on 17 battleground states and emphasize voter education and registration. They also said they had received initial contributions totaling nearly $22 million of the $75 million they expect to have raised by November of next year. Mr. Bush's re-election campaign, which began raising money less than three months ago, has already taken in $34.2 million and expects to reach $170 million. "This is a real demonstration of the coming together of many people in this country who are upset about the extremism of the Republican Party," said one of the committee's founders, Ellen Malcolm, president of the women's fund-raising group Emily's List. The other founders are Steve Rosenthal, president of the labor-backed Partnership for America's Families, who will be the committee's chief executive; Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union; Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club; and Cecile Richards and Gina Glantz of America Votes, a new coalition of groups that support Democratic policies. The committee is the latest organizing effort among groups that are not affiliated with any of the nine Democrats running to challenge President Bush but that share a belief that they have no time to spare in the drive to defeat him. Earlier this week, the political director of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., Karen Ackerman, said the labor federation's own nationwide program of education and registration would be its "earliest and biggest" mobilization aimed at driving an administration out of power. Mr. Stern called the current election cycle "an extraordinarily unique moment in history," in which many people feel that "everything they have worked for all their lives is at stake." Political experts say the feelings of Mr. Bush's opponents are so strong that the early organizing efforts against him appear to be the most fervent in decades. "I've never seen anything this early or this intense," said David Loebsack, a professor of political science at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. The committee founders said they intended to create grass-roots organizations in states they view as crucial to the election, including Michigan and Pennsylvania, which Al Gore won in 2000, and Ohio and Florida, won by Mr. Bush. Mr. Rosenthal, former political director of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., said specific goals would be developed for each state, like increasing the share of the African-American vote in Ohio by two percentage points over the 9 percent share in 2000. The philanthropist George Soros, who has donated $8 million to the new committee, said in a statement that he had been prompted to act by his belief that Mr. Bush was leading the country in a "false and dangerous" direction.

To: lurqer who wrote (24728)	8/8/2003 4:48:48 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

The Iran/Contra contingent of the NeoCONS are at it again...It seems like the President has no control over them as they work to sabotage U.S. negotiations with Iran. Arms dealer in talks with US officials about Iran By Knut Royce and Timothy Phelps in Washington August 9, 2003 smh.com.au Pentagon hard-liners pressing for change of government in Iran have held secret, unauthorised meetings in Paris with an arms dealer who was a main figure in the Iran-Contra scandal. Administration officials said at least two Pentagon officials working for the Undersecretary of Defence for Policy, Douglas Feith, have held "several" meetings with Manucher Ghorbanifar, the Iranian middleman in United States arms-for-hostage shipments to Iran in the mid-1980s. The officials who disclosed the secret meetings said the talks with Mr Ghorbanifar were not authorised by the White House and appeared to be aimed at undercutting sensitive negotiations with Iran's Government. A senior Administration official said the US Government had learned about the unauthorised talks by accident. The senior official and another Administration source said the ultimate objective of Mr Feith and a group of neo-conservative civilians inside the Pentagon is change of government in Iran. The immediate objective appeared to be to "antagonise Iran so that they get frustrated and then by their reactions harden US policy against them". The official confirmed that the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, complained directly to the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, several days ago about Mr Feith conducting missions that went against US policy. A spokesman for Mr Feith's Near East, South Asia and Special Plans office, which sources said played a key role in contacts with Mr Ghorbanifar contacts, ignored an emailed inquiry about the talks. The senior Administration official identified two of the defence officials who met Mr Ghorbanifar as Harold Rhode, Mr Feith's top Middle East specialist, and Larry Franklin, a Defence Intelligence Agency analyst on loan to the undersecretary's office. Mr Rhode recently acted as a liaison between Mr Feith's office, which drafted much of the Administration's post-Iraq planning, and Ahmed Chalabi, a former Iraqi exilegroomed for leadership by the Pentagon. Mr Rhode is a protege of Michael Ledeen, who was a National Security Council consultant in the mid 1980s when he introduced Mr Ghorbanifar to Oliver North, a NSC aide, and others in the opening stages of the Iran-Contra affair. It is understood Mr Ledeen reopened the Ghorbanifar channel with Mr Feith's staff. Mr Ledeen, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who backs change of government in Iran, would neither confirm nor deny that he arranged meetings with Mr Ghorbanifar. "I'm not going to comment on any private meetings with any private people," he said. "It's nobody's business." Mr Ghorbanifar, who is said to live in Paris, was a link man to Tehran in the Iran-Contra scandal, in which Reagan administration officials diverted cash from secret sales of arms to Iran to bankroll Nicaraguan guerillas at a time when such aid was forbidden by Congress. The senior Administration official said he was puzzled by the resurfacing of Mr Ghorbanifar after so many years. "It would be amazing if anybody in government hadn't learnt the lessons of last time around," he said.