And now, our destiny is military control of space.

There was once a treaty that limited the research, development, testing and deployment of such offensive space systems. It was called the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty with Russia. Once in office, George W. Bush withdrew the U.S. from the treaty and moved forward with expanded research and development on offensive space weapons.
The 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq was largely coordinated from space….[T}he Pentagon maintains that the U.S. must “deny” other nations the use of space in order to maintain “full spectrum dominance.”
In order to sell this space warfare program to the American people, the Pentagon has labeled it “missile defense.” But in reality the program is all about offensive engagement and was first spelled out in the 1997 Space Command plan, Vision for 2020, that called for U.S. “control and domination” of space.
The Pentagon and its aerospace corporation allies understand that they cannot come to the American people and ask for hundreds of billions of dollars for offensive weapons in space. Thus the claim of “missile defense.”
—
For the last several years the Space Command, headquartered in Colorado Springs, held a computer simulation space war game set in the year 2017. The game pitted the “Blues” (U.S.) against the “Reds” (China). In the war game the U.S. launched a preemptive first strike attack against China using the military space plane (called Global Strike). Armed with a half-ton of precision-guided munitions the space plane would fly down from orbit and strike anywhere in the world in 45 minutes.
—
Gen. Lance Lord, head of the Air Force Space Command, recently told Congress, “Space superiority is not our birthright, but it is our destiny.” The idea that the U.S. is destined to rule the Earth and space militarily needs to be debated by the citizens of our nation. Not only is this a provocative notion, it is also one that will lead to a massive waste of our hard-earned tax dollars and create a dangerous new arms race. Do we really want war in the heavens?

Actually, I doubt US war planners envision war will be waged in the heavens so much as by them from the heavens. Someone in an earlier post mentioned that BushCo acts as though it has a secret weapon that they believe will eventually enable their plans for global hegemony to succeed. Is this it?

Posted by: lonesomeG | Jun 3 2005 17:55 utc | 3

Thanks, lonesomeG. The puppy project made my day!

Posted by: beq | Jun 3 2005 19:34 utc | 5

none of this is that secret. there’s a document on a US military website that has a cover page illustrating a beam weapon striking what looks like Baghdad. I read it a while back.

Posted by: gmac | Jun 3 2005 21:55 utc | 7

Fafblog

Q: Help! I’m being tortured to death in an American military prison! What should I do?
A: First of all, you should get your facts straight. You’re not being tortured to death in an American military prison; you’re being interrogated to death in an American detainment facility. America does not tolerate torture.
Q: Is there any sort of legal representative or due process I could get before being beaten to death?
A: No. Lawyers, open legal procedures, and basic civil liberties are all tools the enemy can use to escape justice – the justice of being beaten to death in a prison camp.
Q: It’s just that my name is Musab Mohammed Khan, the pastry chef, and I believe you have me confused with Musab Muhammed Khan, the al Qaeda associate also known as “The Fist of Jihad.”
A: First, there are many terrorist pastry chefs, just as there are many terrorist pastries. Second, competent intelligence and accurate prison records are both tools the enemy can use to escape justice.
Q: I seem to be losing all feeling in my lower body. Is there a doctor in the gulag?
A: Please: we find the term “gulag” absurd and offensive. A “gulag” is Russian. You are not being interrogated to death by Russians. You are being interrogated to death by the greatest country in the world.
Q: Is there a more accurate term you’d pre- aaaa! AAAAAAAA!
…

There is more …

Posted by: b | Jun 3 2005 22:06 utc | 9

Monolycus – you’re prob thinking of this moment in rumsfeld history:

“And then there was the Office of Strategic Influence. You may recall that. And ‘oh my goodness gracious isn’t that terrible, Henny Penny the sky is going to fall.’ I went down that next day and said fine, if you want to savage this thing fine I’ll give you the corpse. There’s the name. You can have the name, but I’m gonna keep doing every single thing that needs to be done and I have.”

Posted by: b real | Jun 3 2005 23:00 utc | 11

us space command’s vision for 2020 pdf [1,006k]

As stewards for military space, we must be prepared to exploit the advantages of the space medium.
…
U.S. Space Command — dominating the space dimension of military operations to protect U.S. interests and investment. Integrating Space Forces into warfighting capabilities across the full spectrum of conflict.

strategic master plan ty04 and beyond, air force space command pdf [508k]

…we can and must do more to fully exploit space, to not only maintain our current military advantage, but also to enable the Chief’s vision of achieving “asymmetric advantage through a capabilities-based air and space force.” This Strategic Master Plan outlines our plan to achieve this advantage.

Posted by: b real | Jun 3 2005 23:15 utc | 13

How bad is our recruiting and retention problem? Now the Army can’t even get rid of the soldiers it doesn’t want.

Now comes a new Army directive that attempts to alleviate the personnel crunch by retaining soldiers who are earmarked for early discharge during their first term of enlistment because of alcohol or drug abuse, unsatisfactory performance, or being overweight, among other reasons. By retaining these soldiers, the Army lowers the quality of its force and places a heavy burden on commanders who have to take the poor performers into harm’s way. This is a quick fix that may create more problems than it solves.

Posted by: lonesomeG | Jun 4 2005 0:46 utc | 15

It has been one thousand three hundred fifty-two days since George W. Bush promised to find Osama bin Laden, “dead or alive.” So where is he?

Where’s Wally?

Posted by: DM | Jun 4 2005 4:27 utc | 17

@DM
I just Googled “Kerry”, “Bush” and “impeachment” and did not come up with many stories to augment the one you linked. Looks like Nader has been pounding that drum, though.
As much as I would like to think that this corruption (and general sociopathy) can be halted procedurally, I would hasten to remind that, as of this writing, the GOP decisively controls both House and Senate (and, de facto, the Supreme Court, as well). Even if enough Republicans were inclined to break rank and back this one up, I hasten to remind the gentle reader of Cheney’s famous habit of making career- and, in the case of Senator Wellstone, life- ending threats.
Much as I would love to see the “party of personal responsibility” (sic) take some personal responsibility for their actions, impeachment proceedings against Bush the Younger, even with open-and-shut evidence of high crimes (easy to find), stand as much chance of coming to fruition as I have of being bitten by a leprechaun.

Posted by: Monolycus | Jun 4 2005 7:22 utc | 19

Rumsfeld: China’s Military Buildup a Threat – sure, just check these numbers and compare the size of the land, the number of people etc.

Posted by: b | Jun 4 2005 8:34 utc | 21

Guardian Comment: A study in emasculation – In the US media, a mission to explain has been replaced by a mission to avoid

What is so worrying about the Newsweek story was the cowed reaction of the press. In some cases they scrambled to pay obeisance to the White House’s tough line, quite forgetting that the kerfuffle distracted from the worsening situation in Iraq in which scores of lives are lost every day. Marty Peretz, the owner of the New Republic, took space in his own publication to attack the Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff, who by the way was once the hero of conservatives for his hounding of Bill Clinton.
‘The Newsweek delinquency,” he wrote, “broaches still another lesson that journalists will have to face, however reluctantly: that confidential sources – especially ‘reliable’ confidential sources, which may mean eager sources who are too willing to tell because they have their own personal agendas to serve – can be untrustworthy. The Newsweek scandal deserves to exacerbate the debate in the general culture about the legitimacy of anonymous sources that is now burgeoning in American journalism.”
This is one of the most knuckleheaded utterances ever made by a proprietor of current affairs magazine. It is plain that, despite all his wealth and shrewdness, Peretz does not possess an elementary understanding of the sacred duty of the press, which, however dishonoured and ignored, is to watch government and make it answerable when the processes of democracy are corrupted by politics and the self-interest of politicians.

Posted by: b | Jun 4 2005 8:57 utc | 23

No nation threatens China? Then what’s up between
the Dragon and the Chrysthanthemum?

…if you want to understand the antagonism between Beijing and Tokyo, you have to start in Washington and, in particular, Washington state. In mid-April of this year, the Japanese government agreed to let the U.S. Army’s 1st Corps transfer from Fort Lewis, Wash., to Camp Zama near Yokohama.
U.S. troops in Japan are hardly something new. Some 50,000 of them are spread among 73 bases on the main islands and Okinawa, and the Japanese shell out $2.6 billion yearly to keep them there. But American troops in Japan, according to the U.S.-Japan security treaty, are supposed to maintain “peace and security in the Far East.” Period. However, 1st Corps’ responsibility extends beyond the Pacific Basin to include the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, through which passes the bulk of the oil that supplies China’s roaring economy.
Besides the recent decision to redeploy 1st Corps, the United States is busily building up Guam as a “power projection hub,” with, in the words of Pacific Commander Admiral William Fargo, “geo-strategic importance.” The United States is also trying to shift Guam-based bombers to Yokota airbase near Tokyo. Christopher Hughes of Warwick University, an expert on the region, told the British Guardian, “The ramifications of this would be that Japan would essentially serve as a frontline U.S. command post for the Asia-Pacific and beyond.”
And that “frontline” is heating up considerably. Earlier this year, CIA Director Porter Goss and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress that China constitutes a “military threat” to the United States. The testimony appears to signal a decision by the Bush administration to institute a policy of “encircling” China with bases and U.S. alliances. The most obvious moves in this direction are the recent ones involving beefing up personnel and bases in Asia. But the United States has also tightened its control of Gulf oil through its occupation of Iraq and is extending its influence into central Asia, a growing source for China’s energy needs.
The Chinese are acutely sensitive to issues concerning their borders, and Taiwan in particular, but what has really put them on edge is a recent statement by the right-wing mayor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, that the “U.S., Russia, and Japan” should work together to strangle China’s oil supplies. “It would keep China in check greatly,” he said, “since China has no resources.”

There’s more that indicates a change, pushed for by the US, in Japan’s future policy in Asia.

Japan has the fifth largest navy in the world, the 15th largest air force, and a military budget close to $40 billion. The government recently elevated its Defense Agency to a full ministry.
Japan also signed onto the American Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) system and will spend $10 billion deploying it over the next decade. While the United States and Japan claim that the ABM is aimed at North Korea, the Chinese view it as a threat to their small strategic nuclear force.
The United States is pressuring Japan to dump Article 9 of its “peace constitution,” which renounces war as a “sovereign right of the nation” and “force as a means of settling international disputes.” It also bars Japanese troops from any “combat zones.” When the Koizumi government sent 500 troops to Iraq, it circumvented the ban by simply declaring Iraq a “non-combat zone.”
—
Last year, then Secretary of State Colin Powell bluntly told the Financial Times that “If Japan is going to play a full role on the world stage and become a full, active member of the Security Council, Article 9 of the Japanese constitution will have to be reexamined.

After citing several “aggressive” moves by the Japanese recently, the article asks:

So what’s going on here?
…it appears that at least a section of Japan’s political classes has decided the best way to confront the growing power and influence of China is to sign on to U.S. designs for the region.

Cheney, McCain and some neocons have openly advocated that Japan acquire nuclear weapons as a deterrent to China, and some in Japan support the move although official govt. policy still opposes it. So much for non-proliferation.
Rumsfeld is lying again. China is threatened by another nation and both he and China know it.

Posted by: lonesomeG | Jun 4 2005 15:53 utc | 25

The sound of things to come.

Posted by: biklett | Jun 4 2005 16:50 utc | 27

b, thought this would fit better here than on the original thread.
I googled shipping beer and found out it is basically illegal in this land of the free. Then I went to my favorite brewery and they told me the same thing. Even they, the producers aren’t allowed to ship beer anywhere. In fact they have to sell everything through a distributor. And get this, the beer that I buy from them at their brewery they have to keep track of and sell and re-buy from their distributor at the end of each month. Don’t we just love the FREE market.
So anyway, my thought of a material demonstration of my appreciation for your hosting MoA is verboten and for the time being you will just have to do with my written appreciation. So be it.
Besides, do you really think that anything produced on this side of the Atlantic could rival the crafts that have been practiced for centuries where you reside?
Cheers.
r’giap & slothrop,
I appreciated your crimson humor so much I went out this morning and bought my first book on Marx & Trotsky. Used of course. I have already progressed to the point where I want to do as little as possible to support the greedy capitalist elites.

Posted by: Juannie | Jun 4 2005 17:40 utc | 29

Read this: It’s Cockburn’s latest diary and it details the machinations that went on at a school in Alexandria , Egypt prior to the arrival of First Lady Bush.
The school’s entire administration were sent home along with all pupils and replaced by ring-ins from outside. Why? Well to quote the article
“It seems that the appearance of the school’s original administrators and students would not have been appreciated by the US First Lady, as she would have seen poor faces obviously suffering malnutrition. Thus, Egyptian officials wanted her to see, instead, an administrators and children who looked better to prove that they have benefited from the traces of the generous US aid aimed at developing schools and the education system.”
Apparently there was a deal of concern about what would happen if good old Laura discovered the ruse. It really doesn’t appear to be that much of a problem as it would have confirmed her entourage’s world view of ‘these people’ as untermensch, that can and will sell out their own people for a couple of bucks. I don’t think that anyone on Laura’s team is going to strain their brain to the point where they make the stretch and realise that “Maybe these people have a reason for hating us and if the lid ever blows off the pressure cooker that is Egypt it wouldn’t be wise to be seen chewing pork rinds mid east of say Akron.”
If Newsweek were to be silly enough to cover that story do you think we’d be finally rid of them and their homogenisation of all the world’s affairs into black and white issues?
It would be nice but lets face it nothing happened when the story about Jessica Lynch was finally shown to be smoke and mirrors or the NFL player killed in Afghanistan or anything that rouses potatos from their couch.
Drip, drip, drip, Tick, tick, tick…….CANDYMAN!!

Posted by: Debs is dead | Jun 4 2005 22:44 utc | 31

If I’m following that chap’s convuluted thinking he is saying that the dollar will no longer be floated, that is won’t be worth exactly the same inside the US as outside the US. This is not uncommon the most blatant recent examples before the fall of the soviet bloc were the eastern european countries whose official value was worth vastly more than the unofficial one. So that various machinations such as import protection and rationing were used to ensure that altho the rouble bought quite a bit of stuff officially people coudn’t come into Russia trade a whole lot of dollars for roubles at the unofficial exchange rate and then use the official value purchasing power to make a killing.
Pre WTO many western countries including the one where I am currently living had similar dual tier currencies. We never used to be able to take our own currency overseas money changing was only undertaken with the permission of the central bank. It’s messy incredibly complex and often corrupt and yet it does allow ordinary Joe Citizens with a bit of nous to stay ahead of the game. As a young bloke my first trips overseas were always funded by complex bartering ie find something that is relatively cheap at home take it overseas, sell it buy something that is expensive unobtainable wherever you are going next, buy that and repeat the process. A lot of hassle really but a good way to meet interesting people when travelling.
I don’t understand how a dual model could be sustained with the US dollar though because apart from the loss of freedom that this structure entails, it is always predicated on the notion that there is negligible currency outside the domestic economy.
I think there may still be more US dollars in Russia than the US so that the only way it could work would be the other way around. The purchasing power of the dollar in the ‘official’ economy would be less than in the unofficial one. I dunno how you police or protect that.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Jun 5 2005 4:48 utc | 33

This was a voting/polling(?) weekend in Switzerland and the outcome starts to show:

estimated support for joining the EU Schengen and Dublin accords at around 53 per cent.
It said trends showed around 59 per cent of the electorate had backed the gay-partnership proposal.
Turnout was above average, at around 58 per cent.

Here some Info
I am glad about the Gay partnership proposal being accepted. It is a beginning.

If the proposal to register same-sex partnerships is approved, gay couples would receive the same legal rights as married couples in the areas of pensions, inheritance and taxes. But same-sex couples would not be allowed to adopt children or have access to fertility treatment.

The Schengen thing I still don’t know what to think about. Despite it making some sense, I feel uncomfortable about this treaty.

Joining the Schengen area would mean Switzerland agreeing to abandon systematic identity checks on its borders. In return the country would gain access to a Europe-wide electronic database on wanted and missing persons, illegal immigrants and property.
By signing up to the Dublin accord, the Swiss would be party to an agreement allowing member countries to turn away asylum seekers who had already filed a request in another signatory country.
Both accords – part of a second series of bilateral treaties with the EU – were approved by the Swiss government and parliament last year.

Posted by: Fran | Jun 5 2005 13:22 utc | 35

A sa summary from a Newsweek’s leaving Baghdad reporter (and ex-war supporter). He is stupid or totally uniformed to believe in “Good Intentions” and how does he arrive at 18% unemployment in Iraq? Anyhow here is a quote: Good Intentions Gone Bad

The four-square-mile Green Zone, the one place in Baghdad where foreigners are reasonably safe, could be a showcase of American values and abilities. Instead the American enclave is a trash-strewn wasteland of Mad Max-style fortifications. The traffic lights don’t work because no one has bothered to fix them. The garbage rarely gets collected. Some of the worst ambassadors in U.S. history are the GIs at the Green Zone’s checkpoints. They’ve repeatedly punched Iraqi ministers, accidentally shot at visiting dignitaries and behave (even on good days) with all the courtesy of nightclub bouncers—to Americans and Iraqis alike.
..
The question isn’t “When will America pull out?”; it’s “How bad a mess can we afford to leave behind?” All I can say is this: last one out, please turn on the lights.

Posted by: b | Jun 5 2005 22:12 utc | 37

Reality? Satire? Wait, can I have a few more seconds?

Beginning June 21, the Orlando airport will let travelers pay $80 a year for a card that guarantees an exclusive security line and the promise of no random secondary pat-down. To get this new “Clear” card, travelers would have to be vetted by the Department of Homeland Security and submit to fingerprint and iris scans.
Since the federal government began letting select frequent fliers with new high-tech passes speed through airport security checkpoints, one of the biggest complaints has been that the year-old program is too limited to be of much use.
Now, a privately run version coming online in Florida could spur efforts to broaden the program – and boost media entrepreneur Steven Brill’s vision of installing such a system across the nation at airports and other security-sensitive locations.
[…]
The company behind Clear is Verified Identity Pass Inc., which Brill founded in 2003 in hopes of creating a nationwide, voluntary system that would give pre-screened people a dedicated fast lane for entering secure areas – not only at airports but also office buildings, power plants and stadiums.
Brill, the founder of Court TV and American Lawyer magazine, argues that while more rigorous security checks are needed in post-Sept. 11 America, it doesn’t make sense for everyone to have to go through them.

“Security is for Little People”
still not really back, folks… good to know the ol’ watering hole is still here and lively, though.

Posted by: DeAnander | Jun 5 2005 23:03 utc | 39

Well…that’s it for our elections. There was a brief hope last time around that if we just voted absentee, they would be counted. Unfortunately, they’re counted by Optical Scan Machines, & the results of recent tests by Bev Harris’ team of security experts, shows these machines to be trivially riggable. (In fact, one of the means discussed in this article – swapping memory cards – was what Bu$hCo used in Volusia in ’00 that took 16k votes from Gore, triggering the Bu$hcousin strategically placed on Fox News to announce that Gore had not won Fla…and the Debacle Commenced.) Link

Posted by: jj | Jun 6 2005 0:44 utc | 41

A Must See Photograph by Russian photographer Oleg Kulik.
I call it the Future of the Citizen in the world that US & Euro. financial elites & their political figleafs are striving to create. link
I’d vote for this on the Whiskey Bar masthead, if any changes are made.

Posted by: jj | Jun 6 2005 2:13 utc | 43

Iraqi unions make some good news

Q: What were the problems that the union had to overcome?
A: Workers haven’t received what they should. The occupying forces issued Order #30 setting wages for workers in the public sector. According to this order, the salary of a worker would be 69,000 Iraqi dinars a month, the equivalent of about $35. That salary was extremely low, while inflation and the cost of living are very high.
Iraqi oil reserves are the second largest in world. We asked ourselves, in a situation like that, how can it be that the workers in our industry would be getting a monthly salary of $35? We found that the American administration wasn’t willing to cooperate with us about the scale, so we decided to go on strike on the 13th of August. After a short strike, we managed to get the minimum salary up to 150,000 Iraqi dinars, or about $100. This for us is the beginning of the struggle to improve the income of the oil workers. We were also able to get the American company KBR to withdraw its personnel from our installations completely.

Hat tip to ASZ for pointing this out. Porquois pas? pulled together articles and quotes from Iraqi union leaders. Encouraging to see the world spirit working in unions somewhere.

Posted by: citizen | Jun 6 2005 16:40 utc | 45

A new White House memo excludes CIA director Porter Goss from National Security Council meetings
“Sidelining the CIA”
No really, WTF?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 6 2005 18:35 utc | 47

Mullah Omar’s look-alike leads a miserable life
A look-alike of Taliban leader Mullah Omar is leading a miserable life in his native Kandahar due to constant fear of being caught or harassed, reports Pakistani newspaper The News yesterday.
Syed Gul Agha, who belongs to Kandahar’s Dhand district, has demanded action against two men who took his pictures in Kandahar around two years ago and later publicized them as true photographs of Mullah Omar.
He alleged that Khalid Ahmad and Naqibullah photographed him by saying that they wanted to keep his pictures as momentoes.
In an interview with the Pajhwok Afghan News Service, Agha claimed Khalid Ahmad got asylum in the US by handing the mock pictures of Mullah Omar to the American authorities.
He said Naqibullah was son-in-law of Mullah Shahzada, who was arrested by the US military sometimes back and freed recently after keeping him in custody for 26 months in Bagram and Guantanamo Bay.

Posted by: b real | Jun 7 2005 3:52 utc | 49