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June 24, 2005
Open Thread 05-61
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Ecuador Refuses to Sign Immunity Pact for U.S. Forces
Ecuador will not sign an agreement with the United States granting U.S. military personnel special immunity from the International Criminal Court, even if refusing to do so means aid cuts from Washington, the foreign minister said Thursday.
Looking back from Gitmo and Abu Ghraibm, it is obvious why the US was pressuring every other nation on Earth for the special ummunity. Hats off to the Ecuadoreans for their moral courage.
I had no ideal that U.S. protocol was to brow beat governments into signing immunity pacs from the International Criminal Court. How fucking arrogant, but it doesn’t surprize me.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 24 2005 6:31 utc | 1
As at late 2003 …
The Bush administration campaign to gain broad-ranging exemptions from the jurisdiction of the ICC recently resulted in its withdrawal of military assistance to some 35 nations that are States Parties to the court and have refused signature of a U.S. immunity deal. Of the 90 ICC States Parties, over 20 have signed these agreements, a number of which have received waivers to continue the flow of U.S. military aid. Bush administration spokespersons have announced that over 50 nations have signed such immunity pacts. The majority of countries to have signed US bilateral agreements are small nations or fragile democracies and weak economies …
Not quite up to date, however, further information on the U.S. bilateral immunity agreements (Article 98 agreements), including detailed information about countries to have been approached and those to have signed the agreement, can be found online at Coalition for the ICC
Posted by: Outraged | Jun 24 2005 6:58 utc | 2
Bombshell from Italy!!!!
The Milan District attorney has just called for the ARREST
of 13 CIA Agents involved in kidnapping the alleged
terrorist Abu Omar from Milan, transporting him to
the American air base at Aviano (near Udine) and
then “rendering” him to Egypt for interrogation (and
torture). The link is
this Corriere della Sera story
which is in Italian. I will immediately translate it
and post it here.
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Jun 24 2005 7:11 utc | 3
@HKOL
which is in Italian. I will immediately translate itand post it here.
Smarty-pants. How many languages do you speak?
Posted by: DM | Jun 24 2005 7:14 utc | 5
Milan — Milan police are searching for 13 CIA agents accused of kidnapping. According to the indictment
they organized and executed the kidnapping of Imam Abu Omar
(real name: NasrOsama Mustafa Hassan), kidnapped in Milan on Feb 17 2003 and tranferred via air to Egypt where he was brutally tortured. The CIA station chief for Milan is among the agents named in the arrest warrants. In 2003
he was an accredited as a diplomat (“United States Consul in Italy”) and was suddenly replaced a few months ago. Among the commando squad of American secret agents, who as of yesterday morning are formally on the wanted list, are three women: “Cynthia” and a hispanic-american friend made up a “relay team”, while by car “Monica” kept watch of the access roads.The strategy The leadership of the CIA have publically claimed, in public hearings after September 11, to have carried out over 70 “extraordinary renditions” — “special deliveries” of suspects in international terrorism captured overseas by American 007’s and secretly transferred to their homelands – but they have always denied complicity in the violence inflicted on these special categories of detainees. However the most important organizations for human rights accuse the Bush administration of having thereby legitimized a system of “rent a torturer”, contracted out to allied Arab states like Egypt in order to avoid getting dirty hands. Now, for the first time, the Milan
magistrates write that they have documentary proof that this strategy of illegal arrests was also applied in Italy. It was done so by the 13 agents whose cover names, cell-phone numbers, photos, passports, credit cards and the U.S. home addresses as declared to the Milan hotels where they stayed (divided into groups)
during the week of the kidnapping have all been uncovered by the police (DIGOS)The CIA Hotels The kidnapping of the Milan Imam was an expensive affair: the CIA agents paid more than 120,000 euro just for
lodging in the most luxurious hotels in Milan,
as is documented by the investigation. All were
5 star hotels like the Hilton, Sheraton, Gallia,
and Principe di Savoia. On February 19, while the torture of Abu Omar was beginning in the Egypt prison camp, the leaders of the American
commando unit got together in the Westin Europa Hotel in Venice to evaluate the mission and celebrate the successful “rendition” from Milan to Egypt. Before disappearing from Italy, two couples of CIA agents from the group, allowed themselves a vacation in romantic hotels in Valmalenco and the Gulf of Poets.
TO BE CONTINUED
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Jun 24 2005 7:50 utc | 7
The Error
A strange gaffe betrayed the CIA: the American agents used Italian cell phones for communication even on the day and the very minutes of the kidnapping. The DIGOS police officers, the same who had been investigating Abu Omar since 2002 per international terrorism, were thus able to isolate a total of 17 cell phones, all of which had been active in via Guerzoni between 12.28 and 12.33 on the day of the kidnapping.
Abu Omar was kidnapped in via Guerzoni that day while he
was walking from his home to the nearby mosque in viale Jenner. There was an eye-witness to the kidnapping: an Egyptian woman saw two fake Italian policemen stop Abu Omar who “called for help in Arabic” while he was being
forcibly “loaded into a white van without rear windows”.
The investigation revealed that immediately after the kidnapping, the cell phone of the presumed chief of the
operation made a call to an unlisted number of the U.S. consulate in Milan and the personal cell phone of “Bob”,
that is of the CIA station chief. A second group of American agents then took care of driving the hostage to the U.S. Airbase at Aviano in a van with two escort cars rented in Milan, as proved an analysis of the “radiobase cells” (the antennas of Telecom and Wind [two Italian
cell phone firms]) that were activated along the way by 9 cell phones. The DIGOS [police] have also found the 3 electronic passcards used by the three vehicles to pay the toll-road fees. They entered at Milano-Cormano
and exited at 4:00pm at the Portogruaro toll booth.From Aviano to Cairo
At 4:13pm and 4:32pm the cell phone of the commando team leader called the unlisted number of a Colonel at the U.S. airbase in Aviano. According to the indictment, these calls served
to signal the team’s arrival and to avoid Italian military control points. At 6:20 pm a CIA front plane (a Learjet with military identification number “Spar 92”
which means “unidentifiable person on board”) took off from Aviano for Ramstein, the U.S. base in Germany which also hosts the European headquarters of the CIA. From
there, at 8:31 pm, a second executive jet (code number N85VM) left for Cairo> The is a Gulfstream which is registered to the Boston Red Sox, whose owner, however
confirmed to the Chicago Tribune that he had actually rented in to the CIA. As 0:30 AM the CIA team leader called an unlisted number in Virginia, the state in which CIA headquarters is located. Mission accomplished. Already the next morning, 18 February 2003, Abu Omar was
locked up in the Egyptian prison Al Tora, where the interrogations and torture began. The Milan district attorney’s office made two requests for official information on the fate of the imam, but Egypt never responded.The Mysteries
All the cell phones used by the kidnappers are outside
the law, since they are registered under false names, or
to non-existent companies, or even to an innocent citizen of Milan or an unwitting Rumanian stonemason. However, the CIA agents had to show their American passports (with their photos) to register 23 times in hotels and to make 4 autorentals. There the police could confiscate the photocopies of their documents, which turn out to be authentic, although probably made out to cover names.
What is surely authentic is the identity of “Bob” who was known to the police as the CIA station chief. Judge Chiara Nobili ordered the arrest of only those agents for whom the evidence of guilt is considered to be “serious”.
However, the investigation conducted by Assistant District Attorneys Armanda Spataro and Ferdinando Enrico Pomarici is much wider in scope, and involves at least six agents who took part in the preparatory “casing” of the site, observing the imam until 10 February. But many questions remain open without answer: Is it possible that the CIA carried out a kidnapping without advising the government of its Italian ally? And who were the two
“fake policemen” who, “speaking in Italian”, stopped Abu Omar.
That’s all, (for now), folks
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Jun 24 2005 8:40 utc | 8
I’m always reminded that to be against Hitler and wish for his defeat at Stalingrad did NOT mean an endorsement on the monster Stalin and its ghastly regime, but a reflection that, at that point in time and space, Hitler had to be defeated, period.
I despise Bin Laden and his ilk, and frankly I have mostly contempt for religious fanatics of all kinds and medieval nostalgists.
So yes, the Al Qaeda types are a threat, but the Bush-controlled US is as much a threat today as, say, the USSR was in the 80s, and it must be stopped.
At a certain point, we will have to discuss what such a proposition actually means and entails.
Posted by: Anonymous | Jun 24 2005 9:02 utc | 10
@ Colman
In response to your 3:11 post, I’m not at all surprised
that the kidnapping happened, but I am surprised that the
Italian magistrates have apparently decided to do something about it. I approve on the merits of the case, but
suspect that there may very well be a bit of vendetta
going on here for the way the Americans handled
the Sgrena-Calipari case a few months ago.
By the way, apologies if the translation is too clumsy, too space
consuming or too much a “local” matter. In the latter vein,
I would really like to hear from Dan of Steele
to know what the buzz is around Aviano right now.
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Jun 24 2005 9:06 utc | 12
Actually, my reply above was to Uncle $cam, not your post.
As for the Italians having a vendetta: good for them.
@Hannah – thank you very much
There was one case in Germany that seems to have been covered up. I’ll snoop around for it.
I posted some links on the German el-Masri case on the wrong thread – the Link
Posted by: Fran | Jun 24 2005 12:42 utc | 15
Still in the last throes: 5 female Marines killed in Iraq car bombing
Worst single-day toll for women servicing in military in Iraq
…
BAGHDAD, Iraq – A suicide car bomber slammed into a 7-ton U.S. military vehicle in Fallujah on Friday, and military sources told NBC News that five female Marines were killed and 10 others wounded.
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A review of casualty records indicates the attack is the single deadliest toll for female servicemembers in Iraq. Since the war started, 46 female soldiers have died in attacks or in accidents while in Iraq.
The vehicle, which had a total of 19 people on board, was ferrying members of a U.S. military civil affairs team headed to perform checkpoint searches of female Iraqi civilians, the officials said.
Posted by: Fran | Jun 24 2005 13:16 utc | 17
(for anyone who noticed and cared, please excuse my bad temper the other day…some days are particularly enraging .. my plan to drop everything and move to a desert island didn’t work out)
Thanks Hannah for the translation.
The link give a very detailed account of the case of Maher Arar, with interesting references and discussion. It is in French.
Link
time-line and highlights in English:
CBC
Posted by: Noisette | Jun 24 2005 14:07 utc | 18
Islam website releases CCTV footage of attack inside US base.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jun 24 2005 14:14 utc | 19
Somebody with some insight can maybe speculate on this? (naw! somebody left the door open)
“This is a critical moment in Iraq,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on Friday in announcing the speech. “This is a real time of testing.”
McClellan said the speech would be delivered at 8 p.m., and that the White House has asked U.S. television networks to air the address live.
Bush is expected to use the prime time speech to outline his strategy in Iraq amid increasing public doubts about the war.
McClellan said Bush will be “very specific about the way forward in Iraq.”
McClellan said Americans have been “seeing disturbing images” of bloodshed in Iraq, but that the president was “confident that the American people understand the importance of succeeding in Iraq.”
Posted by: DM | Jun 24 2005 15:43 utc | 21
US acknowledges torture at Guantanamo; in Iraq, Afghanistan – UN
06.24.2005, 11:37 AM
GENEVA (AFX) – Washington has, for the first time, acknowledged to the United Nations that prisoners have been tortured at US detention centres in Guantanamo Bay, as well as Afghanistan and Iraq, a UN source said.
The acknowledgement was made in a report submitted to the UN Committee against Torture, said a member of the ten-person panel, speaking on on condition of anonymity.
‘They are no longer trying to duck this and have respected their obligation to inform the UN,’ the Committee member said.
Posted by: Outraged | Jun 24 2005 15:47 utc | 22
Seriously, Iraq needs to be a craptacular lesson if Viet Nam wasn’t enough. Dig deeper and faster, guys.
Posted by: Lupin | Jun 24 2005 15:57 utc | 23
I’m still boggled: The Supreme Court decided yesterday that if some random main chancer proposes to a city that it could pay more taxes to the city by bulldozing your house or business or church and replacing it with theirs – then the law of the land is that you must give your property to the government at whatever price it calls fair.
If you thought capitalism was fucking up social reproduction before, watch where this goes. What you are seeing here is a beautiful opportunity for political organizing – and no one here seems interested…
Steve Soto has an excellent roundup on the issue. Seriously, this is .
Posted by: citizen | Jun 24 2005 16:51 utc | 24
Sorry, the link to Steve Soto’s site and thread is nearly invisible above.
Posted by: citizen | Jun 24 2005 17:02 utc | 26
There are six plaintiffs who have already been disciplined by this case who are just dying for some national political exposure, for some way, any way to fight back.
Ask yourself, what would an actual progressive party do with a case this simple?
How about?
A. Announce a historic redefinition of common sense in American politics.
B. Attack the robber barons and their allies:
- city governments ashamed of their citizens
- colleges and universities that choose power over democracy (Conn. College, not innocent)
- fake liberals who will sell out for the extra dollar to their cousins.
C. Make damn sure those houses did not get bulldozed – get those pictures plastered into peoples minds “This house could be yours” – let the media scandal give us a fine opportunity to show people how to tear down Demoplican alliances and build some people power.
If those houses are saved, that will show people what democracy actually means. Not procedures. Not doing what the voting machines, or justice machines, or executive machines tell you to – it means running your own country when the leaders forget who they serve.
Save the New London 6 today. Save yourself tomorrow.
Posted by: citizen | Jun 24 2005 17:31 utc | 27
The wierd thing about the Supreme Court decision is that it comes from the lefter side of that court. The side to the right was against this. I haven´t understood the argument of the majority.
A recent case from my home in Hamburg Germany. The local Airbus factory did need to prolong their runway to able to produce the A 380 freighter version. The alternative was sole production in Toulouse in France. There were some homeowners who didn´t want to sell (for VERY good prices).
The argument was the same as in the US case, though not tax money but about 2000 workplaces and arguably the longterm future of Hamburgs Airbus production with some 30,000 workplaces were in question. Should the state be able to get the houses and to turn the land over to Airbus?
This case was much stronger than the one in the US, but it is quite difficult to decide. With jobless rates aabove 10% it might look different than with some 3%. When is this for the public good?
Eventually this was solved through bribes and by showing the homeowners that there was an alternative.
But the judical question is still undecided.
The end of the decision written by Stevens closes on these lines:
This Court’s authority, however, extends only to determining whether the City’s proposed condemnations are for a “public use” within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. Because over a century of our case law interpreting that provision dictates an affirmative answer to that question, we may not grant petitioners the relief they seek.
Which is to say, sure “public use” sounds like it means that the property must be actually employed publically, but it really means that as long as legislature declares something “publically useful” (e.g. mere possibility of future revenues) then relief can only be sought by going to the legislature .
This is the sort of logic that leads to revolutions.
Analects Book 13
The Master said, ‘Yu, how boorish you are. Where a gentleman is ignorant, one would not expect him to offer any opinion. When names are not correct, what is siad will not sound reasonable; when what is said does not sound reasonable, affairs will not culminate in success; when affairs do not culminate in success, rites and music will not flourish; when rites and music do not flourish, punishments will not fit the crimes; when punishments do not fit the crimes, the common people will not know where to put hand and foot. Thus when the gentlemen names something, the name is sure to be usable in speech, and when he says something this is sure to be practicable. The thing about the gentleman is that he is anything but casual where speech is concerned.
The liberal SC justices have been very casual with the language. “Use”…
Posted by: citizen | Jun 24 2005 19:44 utc | 30
An example of a name:
Name: Mild, non-injurious physical contact
Source: Decision Memorandum from Defense Department General Counsel William Haynes II to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, for commander, U.S. Southern Command, Dec. 2, 2002
Description: Physical contact can result in mild injuries such as cuts, bruises, and abrasions. In some cases, it can also result in broken or dislocated limbs.
Yep, non-injurious contact resulting, on occasion, in broken limbs…
Posted by: citizen | Jun 24 2005 20:14 utc | 31
There goes the argument that One Must Vote for Presidential Candidate of Robber Baron Jr. Party to protect the Supreme Court. This is the xDems. Dredd-Scott – in that it could rank as one of the worst decisions ever made, with Major Reprecussions for Presidential politics. For the first time when the Fascist Party says – See, Robber Baron Jr. Party has no respect for your property rights – they’re correct.
If you’re middle class & own beachfront property, you’re not sleeping very well. Will small Mass. fishing communities struggling financially, start courting the rich – yes, we’ll happily throw out families who’ve settled here for generations, if not centuries, so you can take over.
We’ve talked a lot about xAm. becoming a neo-feudal Plutocracy – this is the defining decision for the Plutocracy end of it – Unless, the property bubble crashes quickly.
Understanding that in small towns all over the country developers have wayyy too much power anyway, it’s impossible to an upside, while the downside possibilities loom endlessly.
And Calif. has it’s own special situation, since it’s governed by darling Milton Friedman’s Law that states that residential property shall be re-assessed only at sale & not if inherited by a blood relative. So, you have people paying property taxes on $25k living next to others paying on $700k-$1.2M. In this time of higher gasoline prices, vultures – aka developers – could start poring over clusters of under-assessed properties to take over to build apartment buildings…Good…Combat Sprawl…reduce pollution…increase taxes…
Posted by: jj | Jun 24 2005 20:31 utc | 32
Will this also change the way we relate to local governments, which were the last refuge of any kind of representation? While we want them to demand more of our money back from the feds that are throwing it all away on the Rich, the War Dept. & the Predatory Oligarchs, doesn’t this tell them instead that they should become predators just like the National Elites? Now they have another stick – either those of you, who are having everything stolen from you already, must vote to increase your taxes even more, or we’ll just steal more of your property. You do want the homeless shelter funded don’t you – bringing the class war home to your very block.
Posted by: jj | Jun 24 2005 20:42 utc | 33
Citizen
This crap comes from this side of the pond.
Go here LINK
The Human Rights Act, based on the European convention.
Look closely. Article 13 is not there (effective remedy).
Result? Iraqis under British occupation have NO HUMAN RIGHTS.
This is key to Blair’s end of the game.
Posted by: John | Jun 24 2005 21:37 utc | 34
Forgive me if I am repeating what you already know. But I find this incredible.
This is Michael Smith of the Sunday Times. The man who leaked the DSM.
“The second batch of leaks arrived in the middle of this year’s British general election, by which time I was writing for a different newspaper, the Sunday Times. These documents, which came from a different source, related to a crucial meeting of Blair’s war Cabinet on July 23, 2002. The timing of the leak was significant, with Blair clearly in electoral difficulties because of an unpopular war.
I did not then regard the now-infamous memo — the one that includes the minutes of the July 23 meeting — as the most important. My main article focused on the separate briefing paper for those taking part, prepared beforehand by Cabinet Office experts.”
So that was Rupert’s game. He sat on the bombshell for at least two weeks, while at the same time running a limited hangout involving “experts”.
If this had come out straight away Blair’s majority would have melted away as the war dominated the whole campaign.
I would say Mr Smith is “disassembling”
Posted by: John | Jun 24 2005 21:56 utc | 35
Just a random story I came across — on the thread of corporadoes, property rights, etc.
Remember the Exxon Valdez?
it’s been a while. most of us remember the basic facts — the judgment against Exxon, the cleanup effort, some discussion about double-hulled tankers, etc.
I for one didn’t know that for almost 15 years Exxon has managed to keep the case in the courts and has avoided paying the reparations specified in the judgment — or that
While awaiting a final judicial decision, Exxon has earned enough in interest alone to pay the initial five billion award.
“Each year Exxon delays payment of its obligation,” the National Association of Attorneys General wrote in a 1999 letter to Exxon CEO Lee Raymond, “it earns an estimated $400 million from the difference between the statutory interest rate on judgments of 6 percent and the company’s internal rate of return of about 14 percent.”
in other words, the longer Exxon can stall, the less punitive the damage award becomes. and they have deep pockets, good lawyers, boughten “scientists”-for-hire. it’s a classic picture of how, if you’re rich enough and big enough, you can face a negative court decision and still not pay a penny.
meanwhile a prosperous maritime community has been destroyed, family fortunes lost, and the marine life of the region (despite Exxon’s sunny assurances) has not recovered. farmed fish from distant locations has displaced the native catch from the Sound — long-haul produce whose transport to markets in the US burns lots more of what Exxon sells: oil.
there should be a corporate death penalty.
They sure didn’t waste any time
With Thursday’s Supreme Court decision, Freeport officials instructed attorneys to begin preparing legal documents to seize three pieces of waterfront property along the Old Brazos River from two seafood companies for construction of an $8 million private boat marina.
Economist Calls Housing Boom ‘Biggest Bubble in History’
Let’s see. New bankruptcy laws close the door on bankruptcy. Housing prices inflated and low interest rates encourage people to max out the inflated equity. Bubble bursts and people are trapped in homes worth far less than they owe and cannot sell. Minimum payments driven upwards while wages continue to decline. Banks move in, foreclose, and grab up what is left of private property in the US.
Any questions?
Posted by: Uncle 4cam | Jun 25 2005 4:12 utc | 38
EU votes to continue ban on GM crops – Britain warns ministers of threat of trade war with US
The UK failed to persuade the rest of Europe to give in to American pressure and lift the ban on genetically modified crops and food yesterday.
Britain’s Elliott Morley warned fellow environment ministers in Brussels that they were going against scientific advice and faced the threat of a trade war with the United States over the issue if the ban remained in place, but ministers voted overwhelmingly to continue with it.
Interessting that it is the UK who was caving in to the US pressure. Especially after some studies done in the UK that showed GM might create cancer?/or health problems in mice. I think it was published in the Independent. Well, it shows despite the no, the EU is still able to show some spine.
Posted by: Fran | Jun 25 2005 4:49 utc | 39
A socialist did win the election in Teheran. Now that is a good reason to bomb that country.
Mr. Ahmadinejad’s populist economic policies, his calls for raising wages and lowering prices and his general promise to wipe out systemic corruption seemed to strike a chord in the poorer provinces to the south of Tehran, where he ran strongly. Mr. Rafsanjani, a wealthy merchant and a long-time power broker, came to represent a status quo that voters seemed to reject.
Guardian:
The US is a theocracy suffering from galloping spiritual inflation
One miracle too many
The open religiosity of US society has always been a shock for European visitors, but it feels as if the rhetoric is intensifying monthly in a sort of galloping spiritual inflation. Last week an 11-year-old boy from Utah disappeared during a scout camp. After four days in the wilderness, the child was found, thirsty but perky. It’s true that even British phone-ins in these circumstances would have freely invoked a “miracle”, but the public comments of the boy’s relatives and family friends resembled scenes from Iran of the ayatollahs unexpectedly dubbed into American.
Fran, that’s great news. I’m putting together some more info. for everyone on CODEX that I’ll post this weekend. We are so totally F’ed – I just found out that CAFTA, which just passed out of Committee, makes adherence to CODEX mandatory. So, for xxxAmericans – whose goddamn country is this anyway, obviously not Americans – Rome & the WTO becomes irrelevant as far as I can tell. Our vitamins, supplements & the entire system for maintaining our health is about to be disappeared…
Bets on how many people know this??? The language fails when describing the Pirates Power Plays. I cannot believe how the blogosphere just could care less – of course, when you’re funded by one of the world’s premier Pirates, you’ve got a problem…but not all of them are, just a few of the big names…
Posted by: jj | Jun 25 2005 7:53 utc | 42
Well, how about some evidence that this site is being monitored by the “Cheney Administration”
Pure speculation, but have we all been suckered by Cheney?
I understand Dick Cheney may run for president in 2008. And I note that Billmon has taken to openly and regularly refering to the current “Cheney Administration” in DC. I further note that Cheney was possibly THE driving force behind PNAC.
Not bad for a man with such medical problems – how many heart attacks? Or have we all been suckered into discounting his staying power?
A sixteen year presidency to realise PNAC?
Posted by: John | June 22, 2005 03:21 PM | #
(WB Rotten Boroughs)
Followed by
Vice President Dick Cheney was taken to the cardiac unit of the Vail Valley Medical Center Friday. Contrary to Associated Press reports that he went to see orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Steadman, at the Steadman Hawkins clinic for a knee injury, Vice President Cheney passed through the Steadman Hawkins clinic and the Colorado Mountain Medical Center to get to the cardiac unit to see Dr. Jack Eck and his team. The Vice President checked into the hospital under the name of Dr. Hoffman.
Posted June 24, 2005 10:06 PM
(Huffington Post)
Posted by: John | Jun 25 2005 12:54 utc | 43
A very good Jim Puplava piece on inflation THE CORE RATE
Read at least the ten points at the end of the piece – sad to agree on his prediction.
@b Very interesting article (and web site).
What is your take on the Gold Standard, and has anyone factored in the likely implementation of some sort of (electronic or credit card style) barter system kicking in if the dollar tanks?
Posted by: DM | Jun 25 2005 13:51 utc | 45
@DM – we will not see the old Gold Standard again, but maybe something like the money growth rate fixed to gold value owned. Jim Sinclair has such ideas
In hyperinflationary scenarious people always go back to barter. For that being an electronic system one would need a trusted authority to run that system. It will be difficult to find one in such a scenario.
Iran’s Ahmadinejad urges reconciliation after polls
TEHRAN (Reuters) – President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday urged Iranians to put aside their differences after winning a divisive presidential run-off which split the country broadly along class lines.
“Today is a day when we have to forget all our rivalries and turn them into friendships,” Ahmadinejad said in comments broadcast on state radio, his first since being declared winner of Friday’s election.
“We are one nation and one big family. We should help each other to make a great society,” he added.
US: Iran poll verdict is out of step
The US, which called the Iranian presidential election “flawed from the inception”, has described the result as being “out of step” with a trend toward freedom and liberty in its region.
“The election of a hardliner Mahmood Ahmadinejad as the new Iranian president is out of step with the rest of the region and the currents of freedom and liberty that have been so apparent in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon,” State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore said on Saturday.
“These elections were flawed from their inception by the decision of an unelected few to deny the applications of over a thousand candidates, including all 93 women,” she said.
“We will judge the regime by its actions. In light of the way these elections were conducted, however, we remain sceptical of the Iranian regime’s intentions.”
In psychology the State Department comment would be called ‘projection’. Well, it will be seen who is more out of step.
Posted by: Fran | Jun 25 2005 14:29 utc | 47
Should have quoted the following in my comment above:
US officials, including President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, have repeatedly heaped scorn on Iran’s presidential poll in recent days.
“Power is in the hands of an unelected few who have retained power through an electoral process that ignores the basic requirements of democracy,” Bush had said in a statement last week.
Posted by: Fran | Jun 25 2005 14:36 utc | 48
I wonder why this is? (/sarcasm)
U.S. Lags in Internet Innovation
Due to lack of support by the Bush administration, the U.S. is no longer the leader in internet development, according to a report in today’s
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 25 2005 15:26 utc | 49
referred to before, but worth repeating – thom hartmann on the “rights” of corporations –
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/05/01/int05004.html
Posted by: mistah charley | Jun 25 2005 18:57 utc | 50