U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone is expected to rule Tuesday on the request for a mistrial in the trial of Luis Posada Carriles, an 83-year-old native of Cuba who was a CIA operative from 1964 until 1976.
The Justice Department is trying very hard to convict him allegations that he lied while seeking U.S. citizenship during immigration hearings in El Paso, making false statements about how he sneaked into the U.S. in March 2005, and failed to confess to a series of 1997 bombings in Cuba that would have precluded his receiving citizenship, based on a New York Times interview that he later recanted. The DoJ actually believes what the NYT publishes?
Officially he is charged with perjury, obstruction and immigration fraud charges.
The government of Cuba regards him as its greatest enemy, and Venezuela also wants to execute him, but a U.S. immigration judge has previously ruled he can't be sent to either country for fear he would be tortured and killed.
His defense attorneys have taken issue with the testimony of Lt. Col. Roberto Hernandez Caballero, who testified at the trial about the 1997 bombings of hotels in Havana and the Cuban beach resort of Varadero for jurors last week. So now we're giving credence to the testimony of an intelligence agent of a country that wants the defendant killed. Brilliant.
Hernandez Caballero has testified twice before in separate U.S. court proceedings, including a federal hijacking case in Tampa, Florida. He said then that he was a member of the Cuba's Interior ministry and counter-intelligence agency. During Posada's trial, however, Hernandez Caballero said only that he was an investigator.
The Cuban counter-intelligence agency has been known to fabricate evidence against American Cubans opposed to the communist regime. They've been known to fabricate evidence whenever and however El Jefe wanted it fabricated.
Some American Cubans have been assassinated by them as well. In this case they provided some 6,000 pages of information that could be used by the prosecution.
Posada's defense team says it found out late about Hernandez Caballero's real job description because prosecutors delayed providing the transcript of his testimony in the Florida case. This is a pattern for US prosecutors. Same nonsense in the Alaska Stephens case. It's time for some federal attorneys to be disbarred.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Reardon called the request for a mistrial "an extraordinary and ridiculous motion."
The defense motion also referred to two previously classified FBI reports it says prosecutors also were slow to turn over that they assert exonerate their client from accusations of wrongdoing. The second report warned that Posada could be the target of an assassination attempt by the Cuban government.
Posada was shot in the face by would-be assassins in Guatemala in 1990.
Posada is a survivor of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, and later served as head of intelligence for Venezuela's government. A Venezuelan military court dismissed charges against him when he was tried by a later government, but he escaped from prison and fled Venezuela before a civilian court could convict him as an enemy of the new regime.
He was arrested in Panama in 2000 in a plot to kill Castro during a summit there. He was pardoned in 2004 before turning up in the U.S.
Posada has been living in Miami since his 2007 release from an immigration detention center in El Paso, and has been a target of the American left for many years.
#1
Posada qualifies as a Hague Convention Refugee. Cuba's perverse justice system qualifies them as a persecutor of any returnee who allegedly acted against the regime. Fraudulent Misrepresentation on an application can be justified, if done to prevent persecution. In fact, all illegals omitted to swear the statutory declaration needed for entry. Let this go, Libs.
More intelligent children are more likely to grow up to engage in binge drinking (consuming five or more units of alcohol in one sitting) and getting drunk. Mankind must have an optimal intelligence level and needs to kill off excess brain cells in over-intelligent individuals. Or maybe smarter people have more money for booze. Or religion promotes temperence and also preferentially attracts the less intelligent. Pour me another tequila for breakfast, please.
#1
This would more accurately be titled "Intelligent Brits Get Drunk More". How much of this is due to a culture that promotes drinking until nearly comatose does not seem to have been questioned. It would be interesting to see a similar study done in the U.S., to see if the results are different.
#3
In addition, Australia must be the land of geniuses. We have the worst drinking culture here. People think it's just great to go out and get sh*tfaced week after week. Men pride themselves on beating their tolerance levels down so they can drink 5 bottles of wine, still look sober then go out to a cocktail bar and drink more.
Our former Prime Minister (a rhodes scholar) was also a raging alcoholic who once held the Guinness World Record for skolling a Yard Glass of beer in the quickest time.
#4
If intelligent people get really, really $hit face falling down or crawling drunk I guess they must become geniuses--if they don't die from alcohol poisoning or from running their car into somebody or something.
#7
Its simple. If you are smart enough, you realize just how screwed up things are. Then culture takes over. Smart Brits get hopeless, so they get drunk. Americans believe we can fix anything so we get to working on fixing it. Ozzies believe in the end it hopeless but that they can fix anything, so they get drunk THEN they get busy.
Scots need no excuse, they get angry and drunk no matter. Kiwis have no need to get drunk, they just look out the window and think "lookit all the sheep".
Drink makes you more intelligent (even when you sober up, as a little bit of beery genius sticks).
How many of us have solved ALL the worlds problems when drunk? All of us, it's just that we naively thought we'd remember them in the morning when were super-intelligent (drunk as a skunk).
It could be the reason that Arab countries are such poor innovators?
#13
Hey BigJiim Hows that new job. I've been looking to see a post from you off and on. North Dakota can you believe they have an unemployment rate of around three percent. I guess that's where the intelligent people are. I hear qualified welders are in big demand. I know of a pipe fitter that has a take home of $1500.00 dollars a week. His wife is a nurse also. Can you imagine the taxes.
I should have that problem.
On Friday, February 11, Lara Logan was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a 60 MINUTES story when she and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration. In a mob of about 200, she was separated from her crew, surrounded, and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers.
She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently in the hospital recovering. What I wouldn't give to know if they were some of Mubarak's thugs or not. This is a preview of the Muslim Brotherhood's Egypt. Never would have happened while Mubarak was in control. This is bad. It's pretty clear that ordinary law and order doesn't work today in Egypt.
Oxymoronically speaking, would their inpenetrable team be secured from among local guns for hire?
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
02/15/2011 19:03 Comments ||
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#2
One of the things Mubarak did while he was clinging to power was release alot of violent criminals from jail. He was hoping the middle class would demand a return to "law and order."
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/15/2011 19:17 Comments ||
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#3
I like Laura Logan, her reporting from the front lines in Afghanistan was gritty to say the least. I hope she has a speedy recovery.
#5
Stupid MSM execs. Hope she sues the hell out of CBS. Reporter after reporter, male and female, has been beaten by that mob. And then they send in an attractive female into the middle of 200 fanatics.
Stupidity.
Posted by: Flarong Scourge of the Geats3943 ||
02/15/2011 22:11 Comments ||
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#6
Sexually assaulted...does that mean groped or something more invasive? Hopefully the former. Anyway, my wife was grabbed by an Egyptian youth (probably a wealthy kid since it happened at a pricey venue). I guess he thought an infidel woman can be assaulted without consquences, but when I found out and sought him out, the head slap he received he probably hasn't forgotten. Of course his adult entourage said "he's a good boy and wouldn't do such a thing".
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
02/15/2011 22:22 Comments ||
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#7
Im almost certain her contract by CBS is fairly airtight against her suing. Wouldn't she have already signed something that releases CBS from liability for death, accident or dismemberment? Being a reporter is as dangerous as being a soldier, and I know soldiers sign things and take out life insurance policies. Things happen. Can't blame CBS legally, but ethically you can, it was reckless to have her in that situation.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
02/15/2011 22:24 Comments ||
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#8
Jack, unfortunately from what I've read other places it looks like it was more than just a grope.
I hope she recovers quickly. I have no use for the Legacy Media but she did not deserve this.
#9
Jack, if it had been "just" a grope, they wouldn't have bothered to mention it.
I know what I would do if I were president of CBS in some alternate universe. With hundreds of witnesses and enough baksheesh, it shouldn't be too hard to identify at least some of the perps. With the help of some local desperadoes, possibly Bedouins, the said perps would then be found face down in the Nile with their genitals sewn into their mouths. It is important to speak to people in a language they understand.
#10
The latest report I saw has her recovering in an American hospital. That sounds like considerably more than a misplaced grope, especially since it took twenty soldiers to extract her from the situation.
There have been reports indicating considerable lawlessness from the early days of the protests. Armed neighborhood watch groups blocking off their streets does not sound like things were peaceful and rosy beyond the media cameras... and the fact that there were few women seen at the protests after the first few days was a strong indicator as well.
[Ennahar] Algiers- Corroborating sources of Ennahar reported that Tunisian nationals would have entered on Algeria waving Algerian flags and asking permission to stay until the situation calms down in their country.
According to the bordering center in the east of the country, 10,000 Tunisians would have entered in Algeria during the period of the fall of Ben Ali's regime.
The bordering Centre Um Tboul alone has recorded the entry of 6,000 Tunisian nationals following the events of the revolution of jasmine. About 600 Tunisian nationals came every day to do shopping; others come to refuel or to visit relatives.
The movement of people between Algeria and Tunisia has been reversed, so before we recorded a lot of Algerians visiting Tunisia, today it's more Tunisians who come to Algeria in number given the situation in their country after the events that led to the downfall of the regime of Ben Ali. Whole Tunisian families came to Algeria in recent days, waving Algerian flags to express the fraternal links that bind the two peoples.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/15/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ennahar] The government has decided to cancel the interest on loans for young people wishing to establish small and medium enterprises (SMEs), through mechanisms for the support of youth employment. Banks will have to finance a hundred thousand records per year.
The government also decided to lower the rate of personal involvement for young people wishing to start small businesses, as part of mechanisms to support the employment of young people or those of ANSEJ and ANGEM programs at 1% instead of 5% previously. The treasury will pay the interest rate of 1% and this, in order to encourage investment and strengthen the national economy.
Statutory instruments to these new measures will be ready in the coming days.
A presentation on the new measures will be presented to the government council by the Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security. These measures tend to improve the modes of public support for youth involved in micro-credit.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/15/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
There may be something to this idea. So many of our own students have foolishly accumulated student loan debt they can never pay nor discharge and are caught in limbo where continuing to be a student and continuing to borrow is the most 'practical' path.
The interest collected on a loan must match the rate of inflation for the loan to not lose value. But this is a government program so who cares right, other than it is business which would go to real banks. Where does the government get its capital for such loans, who approves those loans on what basis - are these SMEs green enough, connected enough, community organizing enough - and so what if they never repay the loan.
This is 5 minutes, imagine those who are out to game such a system. Millions laundered out the government coffers and no trace.
College is expensive, and really not for everyone especially right out of High School. Colleges could cut their expenses by cutting their bloated administration and quit fielding high profile semi-pro sport teams.
[The Nation (Nairobi)] An opposition party called on Cameroon's longtime leader Paul Biya yesterday not to run for another term in the presidential elections scheduled for October.
After 29 years as president, Biya "should leave political life and enjoy a peaceful retirement," the opposition African Movement for New Independence and Democracy (MANIDEM) said in a statement.
Cameroon's 78-year-old president, who celebrated his birthday Sunday, has not yet said whether he will run again.
In power since 1982, Biya benefited from a 2008 amendment to the constitution scrapping term limits.
Protests against the measure sparked riots that killed 40 people according to official estimates and 139 according to NGOs.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... Cameroon lost some 2.8 billion euros ($3.75 billion) in state revenue between 1998 and 2004 through corruption, according to an official report seen by AFP.
Illegal forestry in particular was responsible for losses averaging some 152 million euros a year, the National Anti-Corruption Commission report said, quoting an investigation by environmental groups including Greenpeace and Forest Monitor.
Cameroon is perceived as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/15/2011 00:00 ||
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U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone is expected to rule Tuesday on the request for a mistrial in the trial of Luis Posada Carriles, an 83-year-old native of Cuba who was a CIA operative from 1964 until 1976.
The Justice Department is trying very hard to convict him allegations that he lied while seeking U.S. citizenship during immigration hearings in El Paso, making false statements about how he sneaked into the U.S. in March 2005, and failed to confess to a series of 1997 bombings in Cuba that would have precluded his receiving citizenship, based on a New York Times interview that he later recanted.
Officially he is charged with perjury, obstruction and immigration fraud charges.
The government of Cuba regards him as its greatest enemy, and Venezuela also wants to execute him, but a U.S. immigration judge has previously ruled he can't be sent to either country for fear he would be tortured and killed.
His defense attorneys have taken issue with the testimony of Lt. Col. Roberto Hernandez Caballero, who testified at the trial about the 1997 bombings of hotels in Havana and the Cuban beach resort of Varadero for jurors last week.
Hernandez Caballero has testified twice before in separate U.S. court proceedings, including a federal hijacking case in Tampa, Florida. He said then that he was a member of the Cuba's Interior ministry and counter-intelligence agency. During Posada's trial, however, Hernandez Caballero said only that he was an investigator.
The Cuban counter-intelligence agency has been known to fabricate evidence against American Cubans opposed to the communist regime. Some American Cubans have been assassinated by them as well. In this case they provided some 6,000 pages of information that could be used by the prosecution.
Posada's defense team says it found out late about Hernandez Caballero's real job description because prosecutors delayed providing the transcript of his testimony in the Florida case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Reardon called the request for a mistrial "an extraordinary and ridiculous motion."
The defense motion also referred to two previously classified FBI reports it says prosecutors also were slow to turn over that they assert exonerate their client from accusations of wrongdoing.
The second report warned that Posada could be the target of an assassination attempt by the Cuban government.
Posada was shot in the face by would-be assassins in Guatemala in 1990.
Posada is a survivor of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, and later served as head of intelligence for Venezuela's government. A Venezuelan military court dismissed charges against him when he was tried by a later government, but he escaped from prison and fled Venezuela before a civilian court could convict him as an enemy of the new regime.
He was arrested in Panama in 2000 in a plot to kill Castro during a summit there. He was pardoned in 2004 before turning up in the U.S.
Posada has been living in Miami since his 2007 release from an immigration detention center in El Paso, and has been a target of the American left for many years.
In February 2003, the government of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez implemented price controls on more than half of the goods comprising the basic basket and, in parallel, it introduced foreign exchange controls in order to curb capital flight and ensure the stability of Venezuelan bolivar.
However, The infamous However... the results were not as expected. Inflation has increased by 405 percent in the last 12 quarters, thus undermining the purchasing power of wages. At the same time, the Venezuelan bolivar has been hit by a severe devaluation. In fact, the price of the US dollar in the official market has increased by 168 percent from VEB 1.6 to VEB 4.30.
Price controls have discouraged domestic production as occurred in the past under presidents Jaime Lusinchi and Rafael Caldera. Supply plummeted and the government has been forced to allow substantial upward price adjustments in essential goods in order to avoid shortages of goods.
Analysts have said that domestic production has dropped due to declining investments in a context marked by expropriations. Further, tax policies, which are the real cause behind inflation, boosted demand but in a disorderly way, after pumping petrodollars into the economy.
Regarding the foreign exchange market, the government kept the US dollar exchange rate unchanged for five years, which resulted in an overvalued bolivar due to high inflation. Consequently, imported products are cheaper than those produced domestically.
Imports climbed from 14 percent of GDP in 2003 to 21 percent in the last four years, according to a report prepared by Barclays Capital.
Since imports have increased to unsustainable levels and the unofficial exchange market has introduced imbalances, the government has been forced to devalue the bolivar.
The government is faced with a bleak outlook in the rest of the year as a result of such imbalances.
Inflation or shortage
The latest devaluation boosted the exchange rate for imports of basic items, whose prices are regulated by price controls, from VEB 2.60 to VEB 4.30 per US dollar. However, The infamous However... the Executive Office has not allowed companies to adjust costs.
Economist Orlando Ochoa said that "it is the same dilemma faced by former President Jaime Lusinchi. The government must allow prices increases or there will be a shortage of products, which is the worst-case scenario."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/15/2011 00:00 ||
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[El Universal] Venezuela's His Excellency President-for-Life, Caudillo of the Bolivarians Hugo Chavez rejected comments by dissenters who have compared his government to the "dictatorship" of Egyptian geriatric President Hosni Mubarak, who last Friday stepped down and turned over the government to the Army after a strong popular rebellion.
"I laugh when some 'clever' analysts from the Venezuelan opposition compare my government with that of ex president Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. They are crazy! You see? They are wrong. They are foolish!" Chavez said during his weekly radio and television show "Hello, President!", AFP reported.
"(In Egypt) there was a real dictatorship, and more than half of the population is living in poverty, in extreme poverty, that is the fundamental cause," Chavez said.
Critics have accused the Venezuelan president of promoting a "Communist dictatorship" and seeking to "perpetuate in power." In Venezuela's next presidential election, to be held in 2012, Hugo Chavez will seek a third six-year term in office.
Chavez dismissed the role played by social networks in Hosni Mubarak's overthrow.
"Some of them (Chavez's critics) want to call it the Twitter revolution. No! If there are no real conditions, no revolution can be planned via mobile phone or Twitter. There must be adequate conditions. Revolutions are born by an accumulation of conditions," the Venezuelan president said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/15/2011 00:00 ||
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Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio led a field of potential Republican Senate candidates in Arizona with 21 percent in a poll of likely GOP primary voters last week.
Rep. Jeff Flake, who announced his candidacy for the seat of retiring Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) on Monday, finished second with 16.8 percent in the Summit Consulting Group survey. Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth took third, with 16.6 percent. He was unsuccessful in his primary challenge to Sen. John McCain last year. He's accomplished more than Obean. Maybe he could run in 2012.
#1
Arpaio has indulged serious law-breaking. Ergo: his law-and-order claims are unflushed sewage. Arizonans have shelled out millions to subsidize this self-promoter's ego trip. My version of Public Safety doesn't include brutality and intimidation, and abuse
#2
If he announced for senator, two things would immediately happen. The first is that the race would be over, as he is by far the most popular politician in AZ. The second is that Holder would assemble a grand jury composed entirely of former ACORN managers, and indict him for every crime that has taken place since Judas Iscariot.
While the left hates Sarah Palin, they are terrified to incontinence of Joe Arpaio. They would do anything, illegal or legal, to stop him.
#3
he would be an ineffectual Senator. He should stay where he is. Ebbaising - you realize Arizonans, by and large, reject your thinking?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/15/2011 18:50 Comments ||
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#4
Arpaio has indulged serious law-breaking.
What defines serious? And name one POL that hasn't. One. It will take you longer than you think to grab a name out of a hat, and even then, they've broken some law, and just not been caught.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
02/15/2011 18:51 Comments ||
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#5
Ebbaising, give us some examples. You make some pretty serious charges but you make no attempt to back them up with actual facts. Maybe you'd be more comfortable at Daily Kos.
#6
Indeed, the gentlemanly way of the tottling outlaw who bids morn like the cartoon fox he is, with bear friend in escort. Mr. Sheriff Joe Apraio, EW esquire quite disagrees with your approach being barbaric, cowboy, and I must dare, aggressive beyond quick bantor and finger locks. What say you Sir!
You haven't backed up your statement. Bearing false witness and all that against Sheriff Joe, you just broke one of the Ten Commandments. And in my holy law book, you now qualify as a rotten scoundrel bag.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
02/15/2011 22:10 Comments ||
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#1
HAWAII is very close to several projected EASTPAC EARTH IMPACT POINTS for COMET APOPHIS in 2036, so Honolulu better get on the ball.
And NOT counting US-VS-CHINA-VS-NUCLEAR-RADICAL ISLAM struggle for influence + control of ASIA-PACIFIC, NOR OTHER, MOSTLY RUSSIA-DISCOVERED SPACE ROCKS.
Lest we fergit,2011-2020/2025 > future OWG-NWO > US-SPECIFIC POWER, INFLUENCE + GLOBAL DOMINANCE will likely face A NUMBER OF EXTENSIVE,
"DECISIVE" OR "EXISTENTIAL", CHALLENGES TO ITS GEOPOL AUTHORITY = RIGHT-TO-LEAD + VERY EXISTENCE THIS DECADE = TIME PERIOD.
The USA is not absolutely immune or invincible, + despite its successes can still de facto MILITARILY + GEOPOL LOSE THE GWOT AGZ RISING NUCLEAR RADICAL ISLAMISM.
Lawmakers from both parties stress they want to avoid a rerun of the stalemate that led to a shutdown in late 1995 and early 1996. But the rhetoric on spending has escalated, and Democratic and GOP officials are already prepping for the blame game.
Positions have hardened after a revolt last week by House conservatives, who forced GOP leaders to nearly double their proposed spending cuts for 2011.
If the cuts pass the House, Senate Democrats say they are dead on arrival in the upper chamber. Does this mean the IRS will be shut down, too?
#9
D *** NG IT, MORIARITY, THIS IS AMERIKA, THE OWG MIGHTY USSA = OWG WEAK USRoA, NOT AMERICA - THE FED + GLOBAL POLITBURO CAN'T BE SHUTDOWN BECAUSE OUR DEBT-TO-GDP RATIO OF INSOLVENCY ISN'T OVER 200% LIKE JAPAN'S!
Iraq bought 200,000 tonnes of US wheat at between $477 to $478.50 a tonne c&f in its wheat purchase on Monday, European traders said on Tuesday. Iraq's state grain board said on Monday it had purchased a total 350,000 tonnes of wheat from the US and Australia in its latest tender which closed on February 12 but declined to give prices.
Traders said the US wheat purchase with c&f per tonne comprised 100,000 tonnes at $477, 50,000 tonnes at $478 and 50,000 tonnes at $478.50. Traders said the Australian purchase with c&f per tonne comprised 100,000 tonnes at $472 and 50,000 tonnes at $480. The grain board said the purchase was needed for state ration requirements between March and May. OK, with unemployment through the roof over there, can't they find enough Mexicans to grow them some wheat?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
His Excellency President-for-Life, Caudillo of the Bolivarians Hugo Chavez
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio led a field of potential Republican Senate candidates in Arizona with 21 percent in a poll of likely GOP primary voters last week.
Lawmakers from both parties stress they want to avoid a rerun of the stalemate that led to a shutdown in late 1995 and early 1996. But the rhetoric on spending has escalated, and Democratic and GOP officials are already prepping for the blame game.
