Air Travel Database

As early as next month, the government could order airlines and airline ticket bookers to hand over all their passenger records.

The Washington Post says the government is moving ahead with plans for background checks, despite a lack of cooperation from airlines.

The computerized system would assign all travelers a number and a color code that ranks their potential threat. A separate program would speed business travelers and other frequent fliers through security lines if they volunteer personal information.

Critics say the system of background checks will create two classes of airline passengers. People who aren’t U.S. citizens could face additional questioning.

Coincidentally, donors to Bush’s reelection fund will be rated “Green-A-1”. Reading this blog just got you a Code Yellow. mjh

Study Published by Army Criticizes War on Terror’s Scope By Thomas E. Ricks, Washington Post Staff Writer

A scathing new report published by the Army War College broadly criticizes the Bush administration’s handling of the war on terrorism, accusing it of taking a detour into an ”unnecessary” war in Iraq and pursuing an ”unrealistic” quest against terrorism that may lead to U.S. wars with states that pose no serious threat.

The report, by Jeffrey Record, a visiting professor at the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, warns that as a result of those mistakes, the Army is “near the breaking point.”

It recommends, among other things, scaling back the scope of the “global war on terrorism” and instead focusing on the narrower threat posed by the al Qaeda terrorist network.

“[T]he global war on terrorism as currently defined and waged is dangerously indiscriminate and ambitious, and accordingly . . . its parameters should be readjusted,” Record writes. Currently, he adds, the anti-terrorism campaign “is strategically unfocused, promises more than it can deliver, and threatens to dissipate U.S. military resources in an endless and hopeless search for absolute security.”

Record, a veteran defense specialist and author of six books on military strategy and related issues, was an aide to then-Sen. Sam Nunn when the Georgia Democrat was chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

In discussing his political background, Record also noted that in 1999 while on the staff of the Air War College, he published work critical of the Clinton administration. …

But retired Army Col. Douglas C. Lovelace Jr., director of the Strategic Studies Institute, whose Web site carries Record’s 56-page monograph, hardly distanced himself from it. “I think that the substance that Jeff brings out in the article really, really needs to be considered,” he said.

Publication of the essay was approved by the Army War College’s commandant, Maj. Gen. David H. Huntoon Jr., Lovelace said. He said he and Huntoon expected the study to be controversial, but added, “He considers it to be under the umbrella of academic freedom.”

Larry DiRita, the top Pentagon spokesman, said he had not read the Record study. He added: “If the conclusion is that we need to be scaling back in the global war on terrorism, it’s not likely to be on my reading list anytime soon.”

The Pentagon spokesman mimics his boss by saying he’s not interested in anyone who disagrees with the ‘one true view.’ mjh

[I]t is unusual to have such views published by the War College, the Army’s premier academic institution.

In addition, the essay goes further than many critics in examining the Bush administration’s handling of the war on terrorism.

Record’s core criticism is that the administration is biting off more than it can chew.

He also scoffs at the administration’s policy, laid out by Bush in a November speech, of seeking to transform and democratize the Middle East.

United Press International: Analysis: Bush still trusts his Teflon By Martin Sieff, UPI Senior News Analyst

[O]pinion polls continue to indicate a strikingly divided American body politic, with Democrats and liberals ferociously opposed to the president but Republicans and conservatives remaining extremely happy with his performance.

Therefore, while situations like the O’Neill interview, the continuing Plame probe and the Army War College report are certainly embarrassments for the president they remain fleeting ones. Bush continues to out-Teflon Ronald Reagan.

But it may not last forever. …

The president’s Teflon is still looking good. But it is a long way to November. And political Teflon has been known to peel.

Bush Plans $1.5 Billion Drive for Promotion of Marriage By ROBERT PEAR and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK, NYTimes

Administration officials say they are planning an extensive election-year initiative to promote marriage, especially among low-income couples, and they are weighing whether President Bush should promote the plan next week in his State of the Union address.

For months, administration officials have worked with conservative groups on the proposal, which would provide at least $1.5 billion for training to help couples develop interpersonal skills that sustain “healthy marriages.” …

Without waiting for Congress to act, the administration has retained consultants to help state and local government agencies, community organizations and religious groups develop marriage-promotion programs.

I thought conservatives thought government had no business promoting social policies. I thought conservatives believe the government should stay out of people’s lives as much as possible. Somehow, conservatives will find another $1.5billion which will end up in the pockets of church groups. How conservative is this? mjh

Keeping Detentions Secret (NYTimes Editorial)

The Supreme Court made it easier this week for the government to drape a cloak of secrecy over the imprisonment of people accused of crimes when it rejected an appeal seeking the identity of hundreds of men rounded up after the Sept. 11 attacks. The freedom of all Americans is diminished. …

The Supreme Court’s decision not to hear this appeal comes as the Bush administration is increasingly asserting the right to conduct law enforcement in secret. …

”Those who would give up essential freedoms for security, deserve neither freedom nor security.” — Ben Franklin

TheStar.com – O’Neill backtracks on Bush broadside TIM HARPER

The book [The Price of Loyalty, by Ron Suskind] is replete with stories of a president who appeared zoned out at meetings and said he operated on ”instinct” and ”gut,” not briefing books.

In the book, O’Neill laments the fact that as a 65-year-old man he had to be given a nickname, a Bush habit.

The president immediately began calling him “Pablo.” Later he started calling his treasury secretary “Big O.”

He said Bush called Secretary of State Colin Powell “Balloonfoot.” …

[I]n an interview to be published in Rolling Stone magazine, Dean — without specifically mentioning the war in Iraq — said Bush had some type of obsessive need to please his father, who allowed Saddam to remain in power after the 1991 Gulf war and lost his bid for re-election.

“This president is not interested in being a good president,” the former Vermont governor said. “He’s interested in some complicated psychological situation that he has with his father.

“He is obsessed with being re-elected, and his obsession with re-election is hurting the country.”

In the 60 Minutes interview, O’Neill said Bush’s habit of giving nicknames was indicative of his bully-nature, while most suggest it’s because he’s not too bright; both are probably true.

Note that Suskind wrote for the Wall Street Journal, which is for conservatives what they think the New York Times is for liberals. Now the WSJ is trying to discredit Suskind as a “well-known Bush antagonist.” mjh

Kennedy: Bush Broke Faith with Americans on Iraq By Vicki Allen, Reuters

[Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts] said the administration ”has broken faith with the American people, aided and abetted by a congressional majority willing to pursue ideology at any price, even the price of distorting the truth.”

He also said the Iraq war has made the effort to stop terrorism more difficult. ”We knocked al Qaeda down in the war in Afghanistan, but we let it regroup by going to war in Iraq,” he said of Osama bin Laden’s network, blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. …

“War in Iraq was a war of choice, not a war of necessity. It was a product they were methodically rolling out,” he said.

Kennedy branded the administration as “breathtakingly arrogant,” convinced “they know what is in America’s interest, but they refuse to debate it honestly.”