Open Thread …
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May 11, 2005
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RED ALERT – RED ALERT – RED ALERT
Ridge reveals clashes on alerts
The Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says.
Ridge, who resigned Feb. 1, said Tuesday that he often disagreed with administration officials who wanted to elevate the threat level to orange, or “high” risk of terrorist attack, but was overruled.
in resp. to other threads:
It isn’t a war; it was crippling of economy and infrastructure, invasion, now occupation.
The ‘bad guys’ are some part of the Iraqi population, or all of them, depending on pov. (“insurgents” or invasion). Certainly, there are collaborators on the gravy train, or just hoping to catch it, hunkered down in the Green Zone, where the puppet Gvmt. meets. And many Iraqis would do anything for security. The Mukhabarat is paid for by the CIA , don’t reckon they will help.
Infrastructure destroyed, 70% (?) unemployed, and the US having to maintain the food part of the oil-for-food deal, otherwise many would starve, and who knows what starving people will do…Reconstruction is a scam. That the US public (or Congress) could accept that the US would destroy much of Iraq and then reconstruct it tells it all. Although I am sure many had a vision of a spanking new State, MacDo and fat dopey clients on every corner of Baghdad, tall sparkling building with guards.
Ironically, the US was in some ways – comparing today to the past but leaving the future aside – better off with Saddam. Saddam kept the place in order and was willing to deal, do business, even business not very ‘fair’ to him. However, long term plans have always included the take over of Iraq as a weak and oil-rich ME country. Papa Bush hesitated, Billy C. managed to put it off (while bombing mercilessly pretty much in secret) – the task fell to Georgie Boy.
It reminds me more of Palestine than Viet Nam, perhaps just because it is the contemporary example….But as Pat said, the US controls the ground it sits on, not more, and the Green Zone is minuscule. Israel is in a better position.
The Iraqis will never give up. One might invoke their determination, etc., but more importantly, there is nothing tangible or interesting for them to give up to. What is the US enforcing, proposing, trying to set up? Where are the US initiatives or compromises that might lead to some workable, viable arrrangment for an occupied country? What is the US trying to do? They ignore civil society, crack down on farmers and close down factories and clinics – without even taking their own interests properly into account. For the moment; from a rational pov.
Until recently I thought the US would stay in Iraq forever. I’m now beginning to change my mind.. there are other strategies and actions available.
Posted by: Blackie | May 11 2005 16:54 utc | 2
another rough week for justice
Haiti’s Supreme Court has overturned the convictions of dozens of military leaders found guilty in 2000 of murder and torture
King of Jordan to pardon Chalabi over $300m bank fraud
Posted by: b real | May 11 2005 17:48 utc | 3
Apocalypse Soon by Robert McNamara
The whole situation seems so bizarre as to be beyond belief. On any given day, as we go about our business, the president is prepared to make a decision within 20 minutes that could launch one of the most devastating weapons in the world. To declare war requires an act of congress, but to launch a nuclear holocaust requires 20 minutes’ deliberation by the president and his advisors. But that is what we have lived with for 40 years. With very few changes, this system remains largely intact, including the “football,” the president’s constant companion.
…last summer, at a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry said, “I have never been more fearful of a nuclear detonation than now.… There is a greater than 50 percent probability of a nuclear strike on U.S. targets within a decade.”
Posted by: beq | May 11 2005 18:36 utc | 4
State supported or sponsered terror?
Cuba ‘plane bomber’ was CIA agent
Declassified US government documents show that a man suspected of involvement in the bombing of a Cuban passenger plane worked for the CIA.
Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban-born Venezuelan and anti-Castro dissident, was an agent and informer.
The papers also reveal that an FBI informer “all but admitted” that Mr Posada was one of those behind the 1976 bombing that killed 73 people.
Mr Posada, who denies any involvement, is said to be seeking asylum in the US.
His lawyer says his client, thought to be in hiding in the Miami area, deserves US protection because of his long years of service to the country.
…
The documents, released by George Washington University’s National Security Archive, show that Mr Posada, now in his 70s, was on the CIA payroll from the 1960s until mid-1976.
One FBI report quoted a confidential source as saying that Mr Posada was one of several people who met at least twice at a hotel in Caracas, allegedly to discuss bombing a Cubana airlines plane.
The report recommended that no action be taken on the information, as it would compromise its source.
Mr Posada was arrested in Venezuela after the bombing, but was not convicted before he escaped from prison.
The US documents show that he later went to central America, where he joined the covert US operation, led by Lt Col Oliver North, to rearm the anti-communist Contra guerrillas.
…
Has anyone heard of DeAnander recently? He seems to have gone missing. Has he said anything about his absence?
Posted by: teuton | May 11 2005 18:58 utc | 6
Juicy …
Link
Corroborated allegations that Mr. Bolton’s first wife, Christina Bolton, was forced to engage in group sex have not been refuted by the State Department despite inquires posed by Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt concerning the allegations. Mr. Flynt has obtained information from numerous sources that Mr. Bolton participated in paid visits to Plato’s Retreat, the popular swingers club that operated in New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
“The first Mrs. Bolton’s conduct raises the presumption that she fled out of fear for her safety or, at a minimum, it demonstrates that Mr. Bolton’s established inability to communicate or work respectfully with others extended to his intimate family relations,” said Mr. Flynt. “The court records alone provide sufficient basis for further investigation of nominee Bolton by the Senate.” These court records are enclosed here as an attachment. Mr. Flynt continued, “The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations must be free of any potential source of disrepute or blackmail.”
another temporary victory for the terrorists
cheney wins energy task force case
and last week the dc district court of appeals rejected sibel edmonds appeal, saying they really don’t want to open that can of worms
Posted by: b real | May 11 2005 19:38 utc | 9
it seems like our jérôme – work often takes deanander elsewhere – i hope it is only that reason
Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 11 2005 19:42 utc | 10
“TRAINING”
Growing pains strain Iraq’s fledgling army
By Michael Martinez Tribune correspondent
Link
On the firing range, Staff Sgt. Timothy Tutini bellows at the Iraqi soldiers who can’t shoot straight. Even a platoon leader misses the human silhouette target entirely, despite firing several shots from an assault rifle from only about 25 yards away. In all, four of these 10 Iraqi enlistees fail to qualify in marksmanship from a prone position.
“Holding them to the same standard of the U.S. Army is not feasible,” said Tutini, 34, of Hinesville, Ga., who is a liaison from the Army’s 7th Cavalry’s 3rd Squadron to the Iraqi unit.
The new Iraqi soldiers, who receive two weeks of basic training (the U.S. Army’s lasts four times as long), are still adapting to the routine of wearing body armor and helmets, Iraqi officers concede. Security lapses occur when soldiers use their cell phones to announce a home leave schedule to relatives (insurgents can intercept the calls) or fail to conceal detailed terrain models used to orchestrate raids on insurgents.
One community leader in Baghdad, Ziad Tariq al-Azawi, 44, declared the Iraqi Army not ready for autonomy. “No, it’s still under the standard performance of a professional army,” said al-Azawi, chairman of a district council. “There are no qualified officers: A lot of them just got their positions, and they’re not from any military academies.”
re:Juicy
So, is that what the mustache is all about? Fond memories left over from the swinging ’70s group sex scene?
Of course, you can only blackmail someone if they are ashamed of what they did. And since Bolton is apparently proud of being a raging asshole (at least most of his defenders say that a raging asshole is just what we need at the UN!), an unhappy ex-wife just underscores his admirable qualities.
Posted by: Super Ju | May 11 2005 20:41 utc | 12
I’m joining the search party for DeAnander. Although I’m a lurker, not a commenter, his absence forces me out of the shadows for a moment.
Posted by: Mercuria | May 11 2005 20:44 utc | 13
re DeAnander
um .. her not his, she not he .. (check her web site linked with every post).
Posted by: DM | May 11 2005 21:41 utc | 14
dm
no really deanander is actually slothrop in a very very complicated vaudeville routine of which i am part when i am not thrown against the wall as the young buster keaton was
Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 11 2005 21:48 utc | 15
With reference to Comrade DeA:
I understand that the good comrade is studying the springtime display of flora somewhere in NE Siberia.
The area is beautiful this time of year.
Posted by: L.. Beria | May 11 2005 21:58 utc | 16
GM downgrade, LTCM redux? – an introduction to high finance from yours truly.
Posted by: Jérôme | May 11 2005 22:06 utc | 17
this rpt on today’s freespeech radio news:
Local residents in the Annapura region of Nepal are identifying pilots of military helicopters attacking villages in the area as “American.” Officially, the US government is only giving “non lethal military training” in Nepal. Earlier this week a representative from the US State
Department visited the country and met with the King. Secretary Christina Rocca, ignoring all reports of the suspension of democracy, arrests of human rights activists, and harsh tactics used by the Nepalese Security Forces, spoke of Nepal’s “mutual interest” with the United States. She then pledged help with what she termed the country’s “Maoist problem.”
Posted by: b real | May 11 2005 22:21 utc | 18
Your Blog Will Be Investigated Soon Does your blog discuss the President of the United States? Then you may be under the jurisdiction of the Federal Election Commission.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 11 2005 22:43 utc | 19
Good piece Jerome. I read it all and it gave me a headache.
Why don’t you give up finance, become a philosopher, and explain to us about this logica equina.
I’d never stay up worrying about
LTCM’s Second Coming. But this logica equina has got me on edge–sorta like cloning.
Posted by: FlashHarry | May 11 2005 23:04 utc | 20
flashharry
yr a farmer boy – you know you just have to ride your logica equina hard & just hope y get to the finishing line
just feed em right
that’s just the counsel of a citadin
Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 11 2005 23:13 utc | 21
I figured DeAnander just started to eat on lunchbreaks instead of writing all the time. Might be a wise move even, at least for a while.
But maybe it is the black choppers. Who wrote that part some months ago about “not worrying until barflies start getting taken away”?
Posted by: A swedish kind of death | May 12 2005 0:14 utc | 22
Don’t let the paranoia get the better of you swedish. ALWAYS REMEMBER not to let the manufacured fear factor work. It is pure bullshit.
Posted by: rapt | May 12 2005 0:38 utc | 23
Hedge funds explained:
“The hedge fund is like the egg that’s on the brake pedal of a car,” he said.
“If the Fed has to step on the pedal to brake the car, and if they have to squash the egg, that’s too bad.”
Posted by: biklett | May 12 2005 0:46 utc | 24
rapt,
thought I put a smiley of some kind at then end, but apparently forgot. 🙂
I think it is much more likely DeA is off doing something productive then the black chopper scenario.
Posted by: A swedish kind of death | May 12 2005 1:20 utc | 25
hey! moon of alabama comes in at the number two position when you search google for logica equina. drinks all around…
Posted by: b real | May 12 2005 1:50 utc | 26
DeA- on vacation perhaps…she said something awhile back about getting airplane ticket…
Posted by: jj | May 12 2005 1:59 utc | 27
U.S. Agriculture Department paid journalist for favorable stories
Posted by: Nugget | May 12 2005 3:05 utc | 28
So here are these highly paid hedge fund wizards, betting that GMs $300B in debt, resting on a company that has not made a smart decision in 20 years with a market cap of 10th that, are being undervalued. I’d be willing to bet that not a single one of these funds did a comparitive analysis with Toyota or tried to research the fundamentals of the business – what they actually make. Even if you considered GM to be the unprofitable appendage of GMAC, you’d still have to worry about the results of a GM collapse. My superficial observation of these folks is that they talk only to each other within a bubble that values finance over all other indicators.
Posted by: citizen k | May 12 2005 3:19 utc | 29
@be real:
There were only 1100 references.
Everyone needs to use the majic words.
Posted by: Groucho | May 12 2005 3:32 utc | 30
US colonel fined for Iraq abuse
The commander of a US intelligence brigade has been reprimanded and fined for authorising the use of dogs in interrogating prisoners at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison.
Army officials on Wednesday said that no decision, however, has yet been made whether to relieve Colonel Thomas Pappas of command of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade despite the verdict….
Posted by: Nugget | May 12 2005 3:53 utc | 31
Air Force Academy watch:
Air Force Chaplain Tells of Academy Proselytizing
A chaplain at the Air Force Academy has described a “systemic and pervasive” problem of religious proselytizing at the academy and says a religious tolerance program she helped create to deal with the problem was watered down after it was shown to officers, including the major general who is the Air Force’s chief chaplain.
The academy chaplain, Capt. MeLinda Morton, 48, spoke publicly for the first time as an Air Force task force arrived at the academy in Colorado Springs on Tuesday to investigate accusations that officers, staff members and senior cadets inappropriately used their positions to push their evangelical Christian beliefs on Air Force cadets.
The academy began developing the tolerance program, called Respecting the Spiritual Values of all People, or R.S.V.P., in response to a survey it took last year. The survey found that more than half of the cadets said they had heard derogatory religious comments or jokes at the academy.
For more than a year, the Air Force has been struggling to respond to accusations from some alumni, staff members and cadets that evangelical Christians in leadership positions at the academy were creating a discriminatory climate.
…
Critics including Captain Morton attribute the problem in part to the academy’s location in Colorado Springs, headquarters to dozens of the largest evangelical ministries and churches. They say there is significant crossover between the leadership of the academy and those organizations and churches in or near Colorado Springs, including Focus on the Family, the Navigators and the Officers’ Christian Fellowship.
A report sent to the Air Force in late April by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, an advocacy group based in Washington, said that academy officers and staff members opened mandatory events at the academy with prayer, sent e-mail academy-wide with religious taglines, and published advertisements in the academy newspaper asking cadets to contact them to “discuss Jesus.” The report is based on interviews with current and former academy staff and faculty members and cadets.
Fliers advertising a showing of the movie “The Passion of the Christ” were placed at every seat in the dining hall, with the tagline, “This is an officially sponsored USAFA event,” according to the report.
Last summer, a team from the Yale Divinity School was invited to spend a week at the academy’s basic training program assessing the chaplains’ pastoral care. It found what it called in a report “challenges to pluralism.”
Captain Morton said, “People at the academy were making cadets feel an obligation that they are serving the will of God if they are engaging in evangelical activities, and telling them that this is harmonious and co-extensive with military service.”
OK: My personal motto from the emperor Augustus: festina lente. Or, “Make haste, slowly.” As Octavian took the shredded remains of the Republic and molded them into his empire, he concentrated the true power of every office in himself alone. He had to work quickly to establish his permanent control. Yet had to pace himself perfectly so the Senate and the people of Rome would not be shaken or disturbed and have him end up like Caesar! Of course, back then the Diebold voting stylus used in the Senate was a great help!
Posted by: Diogenes | May 12 2005 11:53 utc | 33
One of These Days by Wm. Rivers Pitt
What we in the alternate media need to do, and what you media activists need to do, is advocate hard in your own communities for the providing of computers and internet access to poor and rural communities. In other words, we need to wire up the people who need this information, who get lied to by their televisions every day, who send their sons and daughters off to die so Halliburton and Exxon can line their pockets. I know this stuff, you know it, but too many others don’t even have access to it. That has to change.
My other solution isn’t really workable in the real world. During a book tour I did a couple of years ago, I went to a whole bunch of red states: Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Orange County California (yes, that counts as a red state), North Carolina and the recently blueified New Hampshire. I would talk like this about the TV news media, and then I would ask the people in the crowd if any of them owned guns. These were red states, so a fair number of hands went up. Good, I said. Excellent. Go home and shoot your television. They laughed, but I was totally serious.
I have this dream. In my dream, I turn on my TV and CNN is on. Some talking head is there to do the top of the hour report. In my dream, the talking head says, “Today in Iraq, the 26,000 liters of anthrax, the 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, the 500 tons which is one million pounds of sarin, mustard and VX gas, the 30,000 munitions to deliver these agents, the mobile biological weapons labs, the uranium from Niger and the robust nuclear weapons program that George W. Bush told us about in his January 2003 State of the Union address were, once again, not found anywhere. Now here’s Flappy with the weather.”
Posted by: beq | May 12 2005 13:41 utc | 35
The commander of a US intelligence brigade has been reprimanded and fined for authorising the use of dogs in interrogating prisoners at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison.
Another bad apple. I half expected they would just reprimand the dogs.
Posted by: lonesomeG | May 12 2005 14:41 utc | 37
why punish one criminal when their admnistration is rotten with criminals & their armed forces no different from the invading german armies in the east – no different at all & you can e sure that the americans have their own version of the ‘commissar order’
Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 12 2005 14:51 utc | 38
Juicy II…
Link.
Up on the dais, several men seated behind Hager nodded solemnly in agreement. But out in the audience, Linda Carruth Davis–co-author with Hager of Stress and the Woman’s Body, and, more saliently, his former wife of thirty-two years–was enraged. “It was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard,” she recalled months later, through clenched teeth.
According to Davis, Hager’s public moralizing on sexual matters clashed with his deplorable treatment of her during their marriage. Davis alleges that between 1995 and their divorce in 2002, Hager repeatedly sodomized her without her consent.
Posted by: beq | May 12 2005 18:34 utc | 40
read the two texts of the prosecutor jackson at nuremberg kindly linked by b on another thread
Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 12 2005 18:54 utc | 42
whoops,
that was response to beqs link, but then again…
Posted by: anna missed | May 12 2005 18:58 utc | 44
the german armies of a national socialist germany attacked countries illegally as the us has done consistently
the wars in vietnam, grenada, panama, & in iraq are & remain illegal
the occupation of iraq is illegal
the u s has conspired in dictatorships where they were direct sponsors & sometimes participants in crimes against humanity. this is the case clearly in indonesia, in greece & in chile. the us military appareil has conspired illegally with a whole series of latin american countries to commit acts of agression & crimes against humanity. that is the case in el salvador, in colombia, in honduras, in bolivia
the united states established a programme where there was specific support & training given to illegal combatants & the state security appareil at the old school of the americas. this school was established with the intent to destabilise countries & to use criminal methods against local populations
the united states has conspired to support & offer aid & participate directly on the african continent where it has also committed crimes against humanity. in fact, it conspired to do so
the united states has conspired & committed acts against international law in its method to destabilise & control the italian govt in 1948 to the direct interference in the constitutional coup of 1975 in australia. it has conspired illegally & consistently in the affiars of other countries which have sometimes led to crimes against humanity. it has been directly involved in those crimes
its interference in the affairs of nearly all of the countries of eastern europe, the balkans & the baltic are clear beyond words
it goes on & on
so are there differences. i don’t see them. force has been used in exactly the same way as the nazis used it. they respect neither treaties or limits.
the einsatzgruppen & the police battallions were established to carry out killing actions – specifically against population in much the same way that special forces have been used to do the very same things over the last fifty years.
the einsatzgruppen while distinct form the germany army in fact operated in concert with them. historical evidence especially in the last 15 years leaves no doubt about that. it was the einsatzgruppen who in concert with fascist elements in the local populations of poland, of the ukraine, of lithuania, of estonia,of latvia, of belorussia in the mass murder of jews, gypsies, communist & nationalist elements
the american prehistory is in the honduras passes through indonesia phillipines then vietnam greece chile nicaragua el salvador where there were systematic assasinations. vietnam, indonesia & latin america alone number 5,000,000 people & that is a conservative estimate. these crimes were instigated at the behest & propulsion of american administrations
moreover, they have consistantly, deliberately & illegally conspired to to deny people, populations & countries of their democratic rights
are they the same – well yes – i don’t see any fundamental difference at all except the germans have always cried that they did not know when they all knew in one one way or another. the difference in america is that at least half their population glorifies & exalts themselves in their ignorance
france, britain, belgium, spain & portugl have their own accounts to be settled in bloody affairs – but relatively they are innocents before the brutality of american power
& yes the only analogy which is appropriate is that of nazi germany
Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 12 2005 19:55 utc | 45
Pakistan, who two months ago secured a US offer supplying F16 planes now announces a joint venture with China to develop a new fighter aircraft intended as a replacement for the ageing French and Chinese aircraft used by Pakistan’s Air Force.
God Bless Technology Transfer!
Posted by: Friendly Fire | May 12 2005 20:52 utc | 46
This will be an interesting hearing Galloway accepts Washington call
British MP George Galloway says he is ready to face down US senators who claim he received oil rights from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
Mr Galloway denies claims by a Senate committee that he and a former French minister were allowed to sell Iraqi oil to reward their support for the regime.
The committee said it would be “pleased” for Mr Galloway to appear at a hearing in Washington on 17 May.
The MP accepted, declaring he would take “them on in their own lions’ den”.
He told the BBC: “I’ll be Daniel and I’ll be triumphant”.
b, if there was any real shit on Galloway, Blair would have made sure there was a substantive leak pre-election.
Will be interesting to say the least. I expect Galloway will be declared and illegal combatant and shipped off to Camp Delta.
Posted by: Friendly Fire | May 12 2005 21:06 utc | 48
Amy Goodman: This is the cover of the magazine, the “Salvadorization of Iraq.”
Seymour Hersh: Right, and as you mentioned in your talk last night, with one of the American commanders who was involving and supporting and aiding the El Salvadorian hunter-killer teams back two decades ago, in charge, being the adviser to this group – this is a group that, in The New York Times story, committed significant violations of the Geneva Convention, and it’s almost being praised by it. There isn’t a sense in the article – there is not any sense of the big picture, that these are violations of the Geneva Convention, that this is exactly – this is the former Mukhabarat, the former secret police of Saddam. These are the people that we went to war against, and we’re now writing articles in favor of them. The New York Times reporter was embedded with them. Although, I must say to his credit, that is acknowledged in the story, it’s explained, but it doesn’t really explain what that means, the context. And, you know, I can say because I have a lot of respect for The New York Times, I don’t know what the guys on the top – I mean, I know when I worked there, if I wrote a magazine piece, the senior editors read it, discussed it, gave me notes. It’s not just done in the magazine. The guys that run the newspaper read it. What were they thinking of?
Amy Goodman: And what about this issue of the Salvadorization, the idea that John Negroponte has been the US Ambassador – of course, he’s head of National Intelligence now – formerly in the early ’80s, Ambassador to Honduras, the staging ground for the Contra War? Do you see a connection between the people that are being brought in now who worked Salvador, two decades ago working with paramilitaries?
Seymour Hersh: I don’t want to beat my breast, but I think I used the notion that it’s an El Salvadorian war in an article in The New Yorker about six months ago, saying it’s gone El Salvador. And Negroponte is a true believer. He really supports this administration and Bush. He’s totally on the team. Somebody said to me when he was named head of the overall intelligence apparatus by Bush, you know, we all joked that everybody who goes to the White House has to drink the Kool-Aid in order to get there. In other words, you only want to hear from people who believe what you’re – there’s no opposition, no dissent allowed. I mean, there’s just no dissent allowed inside. Any dissent is not just honest dissent, it’s being a traitor. And somebody said to me, well, he’s going to mix the Kool-Aid. That’s his job now as head of intelligence. He’s very nice, a very pleasant man, he’s very articulate. And I think what he has done in terms of setting up a covert, off-the-books apparatus and a hunter-killer team, that’s what we have now. We’re taking down – the idea is, I think it’s ungodly in a way, really, what he has done. The idea is right now in Iraq, the goal they have now is they want to go into the various major cities in the Sunni heartland, the four provinces of Iraq that are considered to be pro-Saddam or pro-Ba’athist, and which what 40% of the population reside, around Baghdad. The idea is to go to major cities. They did Fallujah, they’re doing Ramadi right now, take it down, make the people of the Sunni heartland more afraid of the American/Iraqi Mukhabarat than they are of the resistance. That’s the idea. And Abizaid, so I have been told, has made it clear that he thinks he can, within a year, he can take down four or five of the major strongholds. And I think the plan is to go from Ramadi to another major city of 300,000 or 400,000 and begin the same kind of operation. No more embedded journalists, only on a rare occasion. We’re not there like we were in Fallujah. We don’t really know what’s going on in Ramadi. It seems like it’s holy hell there, but we don’t know. And I think that’s the game plan. It’s sort of a desperate game plan. It’s not going to work, obviously. Occupiers, terror and these techniques don’t work. You know, the Israelis, you could argue, did well –
common dreams
Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 12 2005 21:29 utc | 49
WASHINGTON (Reuters) –The U.S. Army will allow recruits to sign up for just 15 months of active-duty service, rather than the typical four-year enlistment, as it struggles to lure new soldiers amid the Iraq war, a general said on Thursday.
Posted by: Nugget | May 12 2005 22:17 utc | 50
In Pictures Iraqi Market bomb blast.
Anyone get the Tet Offensive feeling?
Posted by: Friendly Fire | May 12 2005 22:31 utc | 51
Rgiap: There are certainly parallels but your statement makes it clear that you have no idea what you are talking about.
Posted by: citizen k | May 12 2005 22:34 utc | 52
abc NEWS: We aren’t interested in covering the Iraq war because Americans don’t want to see that kind of stuff
WASHINGTON, May 12
NEWS SUMMARY
Brides gotta run, planes gotta stray, and cable news networks gotta find a way to fill a lot of programming hours as cheaply as possible. (CNBC gets to talk about the booming April retail sales numbers, and the NRA’s television network will replay the Secretary of State on Larry King over and over.)
We say with all the genuine apolitical and non-partisan human concern that we can muster that the death and carnage in Iraq is truly staggering.
And/but we are sort of resigned to the Notion that it simply isn’t going to break through to American news organizations, or, for the most part, Americans….
Posted by: Nugget | May 12 2005 23:01 utc | 54
rememberinggiap
I may have to agree with citizen k here. As you know, it was accepted as a fundamental principle at Nuremburg that any action committed by US or British forces was, by definition, not a war crime. Evidence of parallel actions was accepted by all sides as evidence that no war crime had been committed.
So you see, your parallel is absurd, by Nuremburg logic.
Posted by: citizen | May 12 2005 23:04 utc | 55
RGiap: You write france, britain, belgium, spain & portugl have their own accounts to be settled in bloody affairs – but relatively they are innocents before the brutality of american power, but you are being very unfair. Although the US has much greater world reach and killing power, even post-WWII the European powers have applied themselves to atrocity in efforts to make up for their weakness with sheer vileness, and they should not be slighted in this way. As a French resident, you need to be more respectful of the French contribution to the Rwanda genocides, not to mention the mission civilatrice’s delightful operations in Polynesia. How soon we forget, but Bokassa, the clown of Chirac should be remembered with pride. The Belgians, with a great history in Congo that they often fail to sufficiently brag of, continued did a charming job with Mr. Mobutu -showing that pluck and sheer greed can make up for lack of size. My dear RGiap, please remember who inspired General Giap to take up arms in the first place. Who trained and equipped Mr. Amin’s Army? Who close their eyes to Sbrenica. We won’t mention pre-1945, since that would make the competition seem laughable.
As an American, I blush at the admiration you bestow on our efforts, but over the last 100 years, our nation is not really worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as the EU nations when it comes to mass murder and atrocity. Thanks so much, but false modesty can be overdone. Relative innocents indeed.
Posted by: citizen k | May 12 2005 23:29 utc | 56
My apologies, I thought “Giscard” and wrote “Chirac”. Of course it was the lamented Giscard d’Estaing who was the comrade and confidante of Emperor Bokassa and found his uranium, diamonds, and hunting expeditions so alluring.
Posted by: citizen k | May 12 2005 23:39 utc | 57
citizen
yes, it is like that forum, nuremberg was a kind of rupture, a break in history – where man for one moment – could reflect on the carnage that he had created – that he had created in the german image but that had obvious resonances for any empire whether falling or rising
they had this moment to reflect into the pool of their horror – to step back from what we had become – a species capable of mechanically reproducing death & placing that death within an economic & social framework
but perhaps even then – it was not serious – though i would like to believe in lincolns better angels of nature & think that jackson actually meant what he sd – but it was clear for the reasons of anti communism hysteria – there was never a real confrontation with nazism at a profound level – especially say of the professions other than a few show trials – in any case by 1952 there were not many men still in prisons for their crimes against humanity & indeed many had become important men wearing another coat
it is like they used this point not for reflection on horror – but for reestablishing & developing a means of reproducing horror. & yes i think the horror the day to day horror that america produces – whether it is i love lucy or abu ghraib – have made my days more impoverished. they have turned the wonder of living into pornography
there have been american voices of amazing vision whether dos passos, dreiser, faulkner – there have been people like james baldwin & the beloved fred hampton who have understood america & not coincidentally because they listened to their history – they were not blind to it – they listened to the real history of america & that history is a bloody one whatever way you look at it
the current nazi administration with fuhrers cheney & bush, & all the little reichmarshalls negroponte bolton & so on are a deeep perversion of the spirit of americ yet at the same time a continuation of its history. there was a moment – when nixon resigned – perhaps before when he bayed publically on television calling for the bombing of hanoi haiphong – when we saw the full face of dementai in the same way we had seen documentary newsreel of hitler & goebells searching for total war
when this disgraced subspecies scampered from the whitehous one would have thought the real criminals of american would have been interested in a face that does not so so cravenly represent their desires & pulsions. yet we have that pulsion with a face & it is dick cheney & reichsmarshall rumsfield. they are this administrations keitels, its jodls & certainly its albert speers
they are in essence what state power was in nazi germany – a criminal clique. & criminal clique is as correct an appellation as any for this administration
but perhaps citizen k is correct they aare more like the puppets – obscene forms of humanity spilling blood & money like ky, or suharto, or bokassa, or papa doc, or the viscious videla, or pinochet, or marcos, or the greeks colonels or d’aubisson
when i see cheney i see the face of his brother in arms, noriega
Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 12 2005 23:49 utc | 58
citizen k
i will return the favour – i don’t think you know what you are talking about – bokassa & mobutu were clients & agent primarily of the american empire & the europeans acted as marx would have sd in their role of comprador
i’m afraid citizen k – the mere acceleration of massacres operated or under instruction of your white house relly does leave us in the shade – we are mere dilettantes in the world of terror & i imagine it is not so surprising you have had the school of americas, georgetown university & of course the university of chicago
Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 13 2005 0:45 utc | 59
RGiap: So when our friend Giscard sent the French army in to put the Emperor Bokassa on the throne, it was reluctantly, and only due to compulsion from the Americans? How sad. I suppose the French involvement in the Rwandan genocide was also merely on behest of the White House? The Rwandans don’t see it that way, but we all know how emotional those natives can get.
Lack of Marxian analysis, I suppose.
President Kagame told the BBC that the French trained the militia to kill, knowing they intended to kill.
The BBC’s Mark Doyle says that France was the closest ally of the Hutu regime in 1994. It is well known that French military advisers worked with the Hutu government army right up to the beginning of the genocide.
France denies involvement in the mass killings.
Of course, France was just a pawn in the hands of Bill Clinton. No hegemony, no blame.
Posted by: citizen k | May 13 2005 1:08 utc | 60
And my dear Giap, perhaps you have not read the work of General Aussaresses, but it might tell you something about the school of the americas.
One of the reasons it is good to travel and communicate internationally is that sometimes one begins to believe that the American people are uniquely self-serving and ignorant of their history.
Posted by: citizen k | May 13 2005 1:13 utc | 61
Abu Graib and I Love Lucy? Careful, RGiap. Don’t give these guys anymore ideas than they already have. Three of those re-runs and I’d be telling them anything they wanted to hear.
I yield to you and C-K when it comes to knowledge of just about any kind. However, no tribe has ever had a monopoly on Hearts of Darkness. French, US, German, Russian, British, lesser versions (in relative terms), etc., these hearts have always shown up whenever and wherever the opportunity arose; opposing them is kind of like playing whack-a-mole. Debating who is or was worse than whom is ultimately a pointless exercise since the difference often amounts to only temptations, resources and means. In other words, a handful of murders is worse than millions in scale but not in kind. Seems to me that both of you oppose the oppression of the weak by the powerful – whoever they are and whenever it happens – so that you are really on the same side. The US is the biggest and most obvious bully on the planet today, but there are damn few nations with clean hands – including France.
Posted by: lonesomeG | May 13 2005 1:54 utc | 65
Apologies, Col Kurtz. Saw your link after I hit post.
Posted by: lonesomeG | May 13 2005 1:55 utc | 66
Through Kurtz’s teeth, white skull in elephant grass, the imperial fiction sings. Sunday wrinkles downriver from the Heart of Darkness. The heart of darkness is not Africa.
The heart of darkness is the core of fire in the white center of the holocaust. The heart of darkness is the rubber claw selecting a scalpel in antiseptic light, the hills of children’s shoes outside the chimneys, the tinkling nickel instruments on the white altar…
–Derek Walcott, from The Fortunate Traveler
Posted by: slothrop | May 13 2005 2:39 utc | 67
Many people here have an agenda, and bend or twist “history” to suit that agenda.
I fully expect to read here one day that Reagan’s invasion of Granada was the equivalent to Staligrad.
Hope I don’t, but I probably wiil.
And it would be nice if people who know better would stop this silliness.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 13 2005 2:40 utc | 68
Lonesome: Sometimes, splashing here in the sewer, it gets annoying to have one of our colleagues downstream complain that we smell bad.
For some reason this is particularly irritating for me coming from Europeans, who have profited vastly from looting the world but seem to think that their standard of living has nothing to do with the squalor in Cairo or Lagos. Or who complain about the excesses of Zionism as if the Jews arrived in Palestine from some unknown continent, acting purely on an instinctual tendency towards colonialism.
In RGiap’s defense, the Torture faction at the US state department has managed to reproduce the Nazi “night and fog” orders pretty well, considering it’s pretty sure they had to make them up on their own. However, a little torture, some free fire zones, and bombardment of civilians is really not prize winning material in the last hundred years. And here is RGiap, who claims to remember General Giap, complaining about the School of the Americas, in blissful ignorance of how French officers came to Fort Benning to teach their valuable Algerian torture experiences at the start of our Vietnam war.
Posted by: citizen k | May 13 2005 2:51 utc | 70
The Reality Gap
The idea that the U.S. military cannot be defeated is disconnected from reality.
….When a country adopts a wildly adventurist military policy, as we have done since the Cold War ended, it gets beaten. The U.S. military will eventually get beaten, too. If, as seems more and more likely, we expand the war in Iraq by attacking Iran, our Rocroi may be found somewhere between the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers.
Posted by: Nugget | May 13 2005 3:06 utc | 72
Well, FlashHarry, unfortunately that’s what happens when you drag people over from the dailyshill, I mean, dailykos…more and more posts to skip over…
Posted by: jj | May 13 2005 4:35 utc | 73
Thank you very much for your comment, lonesomeG. The use of nationalism as a defense for an inhumane agenda (“It’s all right, so-and-so did worse!”) is every bit as logically fallacious as the American Republicans blaming the Clinton administration for the collapsed economy and security lapses (if they were, in fact, lapses. Even if the neocons were caught as flat-footed by the events of 9/11 as everyone else was, it didn’t keep them from cashing in on it). Since self-righteousness and obscurity seem to be de rigueur in these discourses, I will remain true to the precedent by reiterating Ivan Karamazov. I don’t care who did worse than whom, if your utopian “solutions” and agendae require being manured by the the suffering of a single innocent life in order to come to fruition or be maintained, you are in the wrong.
Supporters of Christianity will always argue that the Inquisition was incidental to their movement; Capitalists will always argue that the exploitation and impoverishment of an entire class is a regrettable, although tangential aside to their actions and beliefs; Nationalists will always argue that their enemies “had it coming” for one reason or another…
Enough with the fucking diversions and excuses. Your sacred cows are hurting people. I don’t care if another group has done worse, your cherished way of life is not worth the cost if it brings and perpetuates the suffering of innocent lives.
Posted by: Monolycus | May 13 2005 4:39 utc | 74
Nice quote Slothrop. On a less elevated plane
People are evil.
“Not evil” Fermin objected. “Moronic, which isn’t quite the same thing. Evil presuposes a moral decision, intention, and some forethought. A moron or a lout, however, doesn’t stop to think or reason, He acts on instinct, like a stable animal, convinced that he is doing good, that he’s always right, and sanctimoniously proud to go around fucking up, if you’ll excuse my French, anyone he perceives to be different from himself, be it because of skin color, creed, language, nationality, or, as in the case of Don Frederico, his lesure habits. What the world needs is more thoroughly evil people and fewer borderline pigheads.” – Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
Posted by: citizen k | May 13 2005 5:51 utc | 75
… and so, to make a reputation, the young male would challenge an older male publicly …
Posted by: jonku | May 13 2005 6:09 utc | 76
Karpinski: General Geoffrey Miller behind Iraq abuse
The former commander of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has blamed a ranking officer for prisoner abuses.
Colonel Janis Karpinski said General Geoffrey Miller introduced the use of human pyramids and dog leashes in the abuse of detainees and said in an interview on Thursday that abuse may still be continuing there….
Posted by: Nugget | May 13 2005 6:48 utc | 77
Air Force Academy Watch:
further up in this thread I posted Air Force Chaplain Tells of Academy Proselytizing.
The Air Force has now taken quick action:
Air Force Removes Chaplain From Post
An Air Force chaplain who complained that evangelical Christians were trying to “subvert the system” by winning converts among cadets at the Air Force Academy was removed from administrative duties last week, just as the Pentagon began an in-depth study of alleged religious intolerance among cadets and commanders at the school.
“They fired me,” said Capt. MeLinda Morton, a Lutheran minister who was removed as executive officer of the chaplain unit on May 4. “They said I should be angry about these outside groups who reported on the strident evangelicalism at the academy. The problem is, I agreed with those reports.”
At the risk of preaching to the choir or repeating
the obvious this
article from ATOL may be of interest. In particular,
Yet, what this army of anti-Iran pundits consistently overlook is the lesson from the Iraq fiasco, that is, the world’s unwillingness to fall in the trap of disinformation causing war via UN actions serving as a legitimating precursor to war. After all, the role of the UN is pacific settlement of disputes, not as a negative surrogate of closet unilateralism or, worse, pre-emptive warfare, right?
…The slight chance of successful UN action against Iran has, in turn, fueled alternative options by Israel and the US, chiefly the military option, which is where the sensationalist US media can be found working overtime to produce the necessary requirement of a public blessing for the next military gambit of the Western superpower, without presenting the slightest clue that any lesson has been learnt from the Iraq blunder.
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | May 13 2005 9:08 utc | 79
Interessting tidbit, brings up the question who is the real puppetmaster? Looks like a replay of 9/11.
Officials Weighed Shooting at Errant Plane
One senior Bush administration counterterrorism official said it was “a real finger-biting period because they came very close to ordering a shot against a general aircraft.”
…
President Bush biking at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Beltsville, Md., was unaware of the midday scare as it was occurring. His security detail knew of the raised threat level but did not tell him.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said that a review of how the situation was handled was being conducted. But he said Bush was not upset that he was not filled in.
Isn’t the shooting down of a plane a decision the President is supposed to be involved in?
Posted by: Fran | May 13 2005 9:20 utc | 80
“Not evil” Fermin objected. “Moronic, which isn’t quite the same thing.
I always believed this. Until March 20, 2003.
Posted by: DM | May 13 2005 9:21 utc | 81
I was watching C-Span this morning and there was this wonderful gala for Tom DeLay to celebrate his purity and innocence as a politician. I waxed poetic and thus wrote:
All the king’s Bushit
And all his rich friends
Can’t get De-Lay
Out of trouble…
Again!
Posted by: Diogenes | May 13 2005 11:50 utc | 82
The Biggest Story of Our Lives by Jim Lampley
People who have lived in the sports world as I have, bettors in particular, have a feel for what I am about to say about this: these people are extremely scientific in their assessments. These people understand which information to trust and which indicators to consult in determining where to place a dividing line to influence bets, and they are not in the business of being completely wrong. Oddsmakers consulted exit polling and knew what it meant and acknowledged in their oddsmaking at that moment that John Kerry was winning the election.
And he most certainly was, at least if the votes had been fairly and legally counted. What happened instead was the biggest crime in the history of the nation, and the collective media silence which has followed is the greatest fourth-estate failure ever on our soil.
Posted by: beq | May 13 2005 12:27 utc | 83
more
Citizens in the Rain -By Robert C. Koehler
“When the autopsy of our democracy is performed, it is my belief that media silence will be given as the primary cause of death.”
Posted by: beq | May 13 2005 12:46 utc | 84
So by the scheme Bageant refers to in your second link, increased energy efficiency would foretell the end of the world. Hum.
FOOTNOTE *The Olduvai theory postulates that electricity is the essence of Industrial Civilization. World energy production per capita increased strongly from 1945 to its all-time peak in 1979. Then from 1979 to 1999 – for the first time in history – it decreased from 1979-1999 at a rate of 0.33 % a year (called the Olduvai ‘slope’). Next from 2000 to 2011, according to the Olduvai schema, world energy production per capita will decrease by about 0.70 %/year (the Olduvai ‘slide’).
Energy production seems as stupid a measure of progress as GDP.
And since when was 1930 the start of Industrial Civilisation? These guys have been drinking too much bourbon on the roof.
The new pope wants to start the beatification procedures for JPII right away. The usual 5 year waiting period for the procedures to begin will not be followed. This would be the first step to sanctify him. It usually takes decates for the beatification process to begin. But it seems they already have testimonies about miracle healings attributed to JPII.
Papst Johannes Paul II. soll bald selig gesprochen werden
Posted by: Fran | May 13 2005 13:56 utc | 88
@ Colman: oh dear, at least you got a cure for a hangover… [kidding]
I enjoy his take on our society as I live in the same state (geographically speaking).
Posted by: beq | May 13 2005 14:07 utc | 89
Witchhunt? A comment from the Guardian:
No need for balance – The media and political elite now regards George Galloway as beyond the pale. So the normal rules of the game don’t apply
In all other essentials, the allegations made by the Senate committee are the same as those originally outlined in the Telegraph articles that resulted in Galloway being awarded £150,000 in libel damages and £1.2m in costs, though an appeal against the high court ruling in his favour is still outstanding.
During the case Galloway successfully rebutted every point in the Telegraph story that led its journalists to conclude that he had profited from Saddam’s government. So it’s hardly any wonder that Galloway has found himself repeating his former denials.
…
Galloway has achieved the dubious honour of being the media’s new leftwing whipping boy, following in a line that includes Arthur Scargill, Tony Benn and Ken Livingstone. Like them, he has dared to confront not only the old establishment but also its Labour alternative (or, in his eyes, the new establishment), having been expelled from the party on the basis of what might be charitably described as rather dubious reasoning.
…
Posted by: Fran | May 13 2005 14:28 utc | 90
There is an important diary at dKos, concerning all of us.
July: WTO to make most vitamins, herbs illegal! HELP!
CODEX ALIMENTARIUS is a very complex set of regulations to be enforced by the WTO (World Trade Organization). These regulations will nearly eliminate all access to food supplements; most nutrients will be banned and the few permitted, all in small dosages, will be synthetic. Herbs will also become extremely limited.
If I understand this new law correctly, even buying calcium or magnesium would be illegal without a without a doctor’s prescribtion.
Posted by: Fran | May 13 2005 14:58 utc | 91
As we listen to all the hype over Iran’s nuclear threat, we need to keep in mind the real threat from Iran.
The Iranians are about to commit an “offense” far greater than Saddam Hussein’s conversion to the euro of Iraq’s oil exports in the fall of 2000. Numerous articles have revealed Pentagon planning for operations against Iran as early as 2005. While the publicly stated reasons will be over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, there are unspoken macroeconomic drivers explaining the Real Reasons regarding the 2nd stage of petrodollar warfare – Iran’s upcoming euro-based oil Bourse.
In 2005-2006, The Tehran government has a developed a plan to begin competing with New York’s NYMEX and London’s IPE with respect to international oil trades – using a euro-denominated international oil-trading mechanism. This means that without some form of US intervention, the euro is going to establish a firm foothold in the international oil trade. Given U.S. debt levels and the stated neoconservative project for U.S. global domination, Tehran’s objective constitutes an obvious encroachment on U.S. dollar supremacy in the international oil market.
Clark also says that “The invasion of Iraq may well be remembered as the first oil currency war.” If global hegemony is what you want, you need control over both the oil and the world’s reserve currency.
BTW, this also puts new light on the EU effort to diffuse the Iranian issue with diplomacy; the EU favors this idea.
Posted by: lonesomeG | May 13 2005 15:18 utc | 92
Oil
Italian troops were sent to Iraq to secure oil deals worth 300 billion dollars, and not just for post-war humanitarian purposes, an Italian television report by RAI claimed on Friday.
The 20-minute report, broadcast by RAI News 24, the all-news channel of the Italian state-owned network, is based on interviews and official government documents.
In it, the Silvio Berlusconi administration is accused of picking the Nasiriyah area to safeguard a 1997 deal signed by Italy’s largest energy producer, ENI, and former dictator Saddam Hussein.
A government report compiled months before the war broke out recommends that Italy, in case of conflict, should secure the region of Nasiriyah and the nearby area of Halfaya, south of Baghdad, so as to secure “a deal worth 300 billion dollars”.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | May 13 2005 15:41 utc | 93
Further reflections on RGiap’s linkage of Abu Grhaib and I Love Lucy last night. At the time, it struck a chord and forced a sad smile of recognition, but I didn’t know why. Finally, it occurred to me: The US is the undisputed leader in the production of two things: deadly weapons and infantile entertainment. Further, the former often play featured roles in the latter and our masses scarf it up eagerly. Evidence of cultural rot or coincidence? And George W. Bush is the perfect human symbol to sit on top of it all, a Yale/Harvard vacuity who play acts the Tough Guy to his adoring fans. Animal house frat boy with nuclear weapons. How much more infantile and deadly can you get?
Still, when it comes to substance, he and his administration remind me of one of those little animals on nature shows that puffs itself up to make potential adversaries – and, in this case, supporters – think it is more formidable than it really is. Sooner or later, though, you gotta exhale. We’ll see if there is any center left to hold then.
Posted by: lonesomeG | May 13 2005 16:00 utc | 94
Two great/frightening mp3 tapings of a marketing call:
1
1
by Eugene Mirman
Selling phone service through hate speech.
Actually, Bageant is already wrong. The blackouts won’t be permanent and universal. (They will be, depending on your point of view, either permanent and widespread or just universal but not necessarily permanent.) The minute people started to construct electricity generators which were based on genuinely renewable sources—wind or hydroelectric—they tossed a monkey wrench into the scenario.
What is more likely is that when the blackouts come, as they will, areas which depend on non-renewable sources will go down permanently. (Including, sadly, my home state of Illinois.) Areas which are connected by land to areas with renewable energy will be attacked by their neighbors, who will realize what’s going on and try to get in. After the dust settles, civilization will be somewhat precarious for a while, as parts are scavenged to maintain the local power grid. After a while, either things will pick up again, spreading from the renewable centers outward, or else things will collapse completely. It depends on what decisions are made at the time of the crisis more than anything else.
As for science saving us: it could happen, but don’t hold your breath. At this point, even if it does happen, there will still be problems. Consider, for example, what will happen if, tomorrow, someone discovers an energy-generating technology which will solve the problems (or at least extend the life of civilization for a few centuries). Until the oil is used up, western countries will not change over to the new stuff, because that would require a capital layout to convert the generation mechanisms and on paper—the only consideration that matters these days—it always makes sense to put off an inevitable capital outlay. Only brand-new generators would be built with the new technology, and not all of them would use it because financiers would rather pay for proven (if dirty) technology. It’s like cars—even if, tomorrow, a completely energy-efficient, renewable, genuinely eco-friendly car were developed (we already have one; it’s called a “bicycle”) it would make very little difference for about a decade, because it would take that long for an appreciable segment of the car-driving population to buy them. Existence ≠ usage.
In general, though, I don’t think Bageant’s grim vision of the future sounds right. There’s enough infrastructure in place in some areas that could be converted to survival without energy that a complete collapse sounds unlikely. Except in the U.S., where a combination of self-interest and lack of preparation will combine to smash anyone who tries. Remember that Bageant’s writing is colored by his outlook.
Posted by: Blind Misery | May 13 2005 17:21 utc | 97
I assume by western countries you mean the US: I rather expect that the EU will be only slightly late, as usual. The US will be fucked, but that’s because ye keep electing oil men.
Americans seek bodily salvation through Jesus diet
“We’re making them accountable. Many people will not eat the right kinds of food unless they’re held accountable and before they put something in their mouths ask: ‘Would Jesus eat this?'”
Posted by: b real | May 13 2005 18:32 utc | 99