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July 12, 2005
Non-Plame Thread
Comments
I’ll buy a drink for anyone who can cite an example of a major news organization, in reporting of the ten year anniversary, that the killers of Srebrenica were Christian.
Posted by: biklett | Jul 12 2005 6:42 utc | 1
Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the allies
The terrorists […] believe that the world’s democracies are weak, and that by killing innocent civilians they can break our will. They’re mistaken. America will not retreat in the face of terrorists and murderers.
GW Bush – 2005-07-11
US military personnel based in the UK have been banned by commanders from travelling to London in the wake of Thursday’s bomb attacks
[Staff Sgt Jeff Hamm] said the US sympathised with Londoners, but added: “While it’s important for some to carry on business as usual, the interests in keeping the air force out of harm’s way until we have a bit more knowledge about what has happened is greater than the need to send them back into the city.”
Posted by: Driftwood | Jul 12 2005 7:09 utc | 2
@biklett
Heard it on NPR. I think this link contains the proper audio recording (but haven’t listened through it to confirm that it is what I heard).
Single malt sounds good – don’t mind if I do.
Posted by: citizen | Jul 12 2005 7:44 utc | 3
Air Force Academy Watch
Evangelicals Are a Growing Force in the Military Chaplain Corps
hundreds of Air Force chaplains stood and sang, many with palms upturned, in a service with a distinctively evangelical tone.
It was the opening ceremony of a four-day Spiritual Fitness Conference at a Hilton hotel here last month organized and paid for by the Air Force for many of its United States-based chaplains and their families, at a cost of $300,000. The chaplains, who pledge when they enter the military to minister to everyone, Methodist, Mormon or Muslim, attended workshops on “The Purpose Driven Life,” the best seller by the megachurch pastor Rick Warren, and on how to improve their worship services. In the hotel hallways, vendors from Focus on the Family and other evangelical organizations promoted materials for the chaplains to use in their work.
The event was just one indication of the extent to which evangelical Christians have become a growing force in the Air Force chaplain corps, a trend documented by military records and interviews with more than two dozen chaplains and other military officials.
…
Rice, in Southeast Asia, Draws Fire for Plan to Avoid Forum
BAN BANG SAK, Thailand, July 11 – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice traveled here on Monday to visit a village ravaged by the tsunami nearly seven months ago, saying she wanted to show that the United States “cares about Southeast Asia.”
But she flew as well into a storm of criticism of her decision not to attend the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations convention late this month. If, as seems likely, her decision stands, she will be the first secretary of state in more than 20 years not to attend, and some of the region’s leaders are upset by her choice to skip the meeting and send Robert B. Zoellick, the deputy secretary of state.
…
At a news conference in Phuket with the Thai foreign minister on Monday morning, she defended her decision, saying: “I am very sorry not to be going to the Asean summit this year. We have other vital travel in roughly the same time period.”
Ms. Rice plans to visit Africa in the week before the Asean meeting but is tentatively scheduled to return a day or two before Mr. Zoellick is set to leave for the meeting, though an aide said the plans remain fluid.
So Rice needs to be Washington at the end of the month so urgently, that she doesn´t mind screwing relations with Asia. Why? What is planed for that time?
Driftwood –
My take on that is that Americans in England are afraid of the reaction of the Londoners, not the terrorists.
Posted by: correlator | Jul 12 2005 8:51 utc | 6
I’m generalising wildly here, and none of this should be taken to apply to specific people, but my take on it is that, as a rule, America has, and have never had, any fucking clue about how to respond to terrorism. They are perfect targets for terrorism. Outside of war, they scare easily as a nation. They act scared when they should shut-up and get on with it. Dismal Science said here recently that he(?) was scared shitless of getting back on a train, on a bus. He did it anyway. That’s bravery: being scared and doing what you have to anyway. Recommending that US troops stay on their bases? Craven surrender to terrorism. From the same fuckwits who complained that the new Spanish government carried out their election promises and withdrew from Iraq.
It comes down to the world-view I guess. Europeans – and pretty much everyone else – more or less expect things to get blown up occasionally. They expect shit to happen, and when it does, they’re shocked at the instance, not at the fact of it happening. America seems to expect that the world will be a happy place where invaders are met with rose petals and no-one will ever die, except maybe some troops – always heroic – and some irrelevant yellow or brown skinned people. It’s constantly surprised when the world doesn’t work that way.
Correlator:
My take on that is that Americans in England are afraid of the reaction of the Londoners, not the terrorists.
You could well be correct. I hadn’t thought of it from that angle.
Posted by: Driftwood | Jul 12 2005 10:19 utc | 8
What, afraid that some old granny on a bus is going to beat them with a handbag? That some Londoners might use harsh language at them?
The primary mission of the U.S. military is force protection. And that makes them useless for anything but wasting money.
Can RGiap or some other habitué better informed than I
explain the mechanics of the split between the Republic of Somaliland with capital at Hargeisa, and Somalia with capital at Mogadishu? I have theories but few facts to back them up.
I note that
Viktor Bout headquarters in Sharjah, UAE to Hargeisa by Tepavia-trans airline, a Moldovan air-taxi line,
FLIGHT Express Sprl, with headquarters in KINSHASA Republique Democratique du Congo, another interesting coincidence.
For the sane readers of this site, I beg indulgence for my well-advanced case of paranoia and inability to resist the temptation to jump to conclusions.
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Jul 12 2005 10:58 utc | 11
Tensions are running pretty high at the moment. Photos of US servicemen in a bar-room brawl are easy to imagine and would be difficult to explain.
Posted by: Jassalasca Jape | Jul 12 2005 11:01 utc | 12
Hannah,
I’m new to MoA so I’m not sure what discussion there has been about the interesting world of dodgy airlines but it has been well documented by the Yorkshire Ranter and others.
Posted by: Driftwood | Jul 12 2005 11:38 utc | 13
Colman,
Don’t underestimate British grannies:
Check this and this.
Posted by: Driftwood | Jul 12 2005 11:47 utc | 14
@ Driftwood
Yes, you’re right, Alex does an excellent job.
The Chichakli web site http://www.chichakli.com
is a sort of reply, and very interesting in my view.
The flights to Hargeisa are something I’d like to know more about. If the airline is using the Antonov’s pictured
on-line the planes don’t seem suitable for arms trafficking. Taxi service from Sharjah to Hargeisa is,
I suppose, possible, but seems strange.
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Jul 12 2005 11:47 utc | 15
Hannah,
Thanks for the Chichakli link. I’ll check it out tomorrow. It’s Bedtime for Bonzo here.
Posted by: Driftwood | Jul 12 2005 11:49 utc | 16
Makes me think of the much forgotten Battle of Brisbane…
Still, I think that would be an over-reaction. It is playing to stereotype, but I don’t think that the majority of the British would lose their composure so easily. It’s much easier to think that the military are ‘playing it safe’ and hence, just being chicken shit.
Posted by: OzBoy | Jul 12 2005 13:29 utc | 17
It seems that Noel Neff, an editor from Weekly Reader, got picked up Saturday for attempting to solicit a child for sex. Tough break.
He did however do a nice job cheerleading
at the GOP Convention last summer. Family values and all.
Posted by: mojo | Jul 12 2005 14:59 utc | 19
Good God. Brisbane was the same shithole in 1942 as it is now.
Posted by: DM | Jul 12 2005 15:53 utc | 20
@citizen,
Sorry, but the NPR report, like all the others, does not contain the word christian. My point of course is that everyone except muslim people are identified by their country or region.
Posted by: biklett | Jul 12 2005 16:09 utc | 21
Not to change the subject, but I’ve been pondering something the last couple of days RE: the Plame/Rove situation.
IMHO, I think it’s naive to think that even if Rove gets canned he won’t still control things from behind the scenes. Perhaps he’ll lose his big office, etc. but it’s not like he won’t still be in control/pulling the strings.
Not that I wouldn’t like to see him go, mind you. I’d like to see them all frog-marched out of the White House. But I just don’t think getting rid of Rove “publicly” will make that much of a difference. But it’s very possible that I’m not looking at this in the right light.
One positive result of this that I can foresee is that the public will at least be educated as to the scandal itself, but looking at the last four years, I’m still not convinced they would care.
Call me cynical.
Posted by: chaelman | Jul 12 2005 16:30 utc | 22
crap – I just realized I placed this on the “non-plame” thread.
My apologies.
Posted by: chaelman | Jul 12 2005 16:30 utc | 23
on srebrenica, znet had a scathing edward herman paper up last week, from a forthcoming book on the “massacre”, The Politics of the Srebrenica Massacre
Posted by: b real | Jul 12 2005 16:31 utc | 24
Colman –
Actually, yes. It wouldn’t be pretty, PR wise.
Posted by: correlator | Jul 12 2005 16:40 utc | 25
The idea that the London bombs were the work of British Right Wing extremists is beginning to surface…see for ex. Xymphora who quotes Madsen:
Link
I’m not familiar enough with London, but so far the victims I have seen described (in my local papers) have all been foreignors – no stalwart British Grannies amongst them – look at the spots – quartiers....not that I mean to make much of this .. just something that occurred to me…
The interpretation that the “terror exercises” by a private company on the day dealing with, amongst others, the Tube, echo the 9/11 scenario, was ridiculous from the start. (See Xymphora again for debunking.) Interesting though that people make that analogy – it shows they hunt for parallels in these very different kinds of attacks, and are not happy with the official mouthings. Meanwhile everyone has forgotten about the Istanbul bombs and all the po-licemen involved in Madrid.
If ‘terrorism’ (genuine or synthetic) is used by the Powers-that-be to induce fear, whip up hate, and make people bow down before strong leaders who will protect them, ‘terrorists’ will immediately dive into the vaccum, taking on their role, hoping for visibility, even fame and some power, or just an early martyr’s death.
The US reaction to 9/11 has practically turned ‘terrorist’ into a semi-respectable profession!
That all started long ago with Binny as the Poster Boy Terrorist all over the US tee-vee. During the 90’s.
Posted by: Noisette | Jul 12 2005 17:05 utc | 26
Huh? Noisette, I haven’t seen pictures, but neither Philip Stuart Russell, 28, of Kennington, south London, and Jamie Gordon, 30 sound anything other than white English.
Explosive used in bombs ‘was of military origin’
The bombs used in Thursday’s terrorist attacks were of “military origin” , according to a senior French policeman sent to London to help in what has become the biggest criminal investigation in British history.
Christophe Chaboud, head of the French Anti-Terrorism Co-ordination Unit, told Le Monde newspaper that the explosives used in the bombings were of ” military origin”, which he described as “very worrying”. ” We’re more used to cells making home-made explosives with chemicals,” he said. “How did they get them? Either by trafficking, for example, in the Balkans, or they had someone on the inside who enabled them to get out of the military establishment.”
He added that the victims’ wounds suggested that the explosives, which were ” not heavy but powerful”, had been placed on the ground, perhaps underneath seats.
Posted by: b real | Jul 12 2005 17:44 utc | 28
B, you’re dead bang on about the Air Force, and Air Force Academy especially, Christian fundamentalism. Of course … they fly high!
Wouldn’t catch them deep penetration with some Navy Seals in AF93.
Google “AF 2025” and you’ll start to decipher the megaterror links.
Posted by: tante aime | Jul 12 2005 17:46 utc | 29
Coleman, correlator,
The recommendation has been rescinded now, of course, but this graph on the reaction of a British firm is consistent both with PR worries and worries over targeted attacks:
US troops were prevented from attending London celebrations to mark the end of the second world war on Sunday. Cindy Dorfner, tech sergeant at RAF Mildenhall, said two coach trips from her base at the weekend had been cancelled at the request of the coach operators.
The fog of GWOT.
Posted by: Jassalasca Jape | Jul 12 2005 19:20 utc | 30
Noisette: Photos. In any case, if someone wants to be discriminating in their killing, bombing public transport is not the way to go about it. One reasoned view is that the bombers’ main target was actually not people, but infrastructure. That would point back to someone who has a political objective that would be forwarded by making the British public more war-weary than they are already. The “mainstream” IRA have customarily issued warnings before their bombings, and I believe that a cease-fire has been holding for eight years now…
It’s not relevant to the question of who actually did this, but immediately after the attacks, a former chief constable offered up his opinion that this was a homegrown attack. His statement came so early that it could only have been raw speculation, but it would be to the government’s advantage if it were so. If the public were to conclude that the attacks were a result of Britain’s “firm support” for US policy in Iraq, then it would be a short step to political accountability.
Posted by: Jassalasca Jape | Jul 12 2005 19:57 utc | 31
meanwhile, while everyone watches the Plame/Rove birdie, total deregulation of the US power grid is contemplated: the repeal of PUHCA. “One of the strangest things about the PUHCA repeal story is how completely it has been blacked out of the mainstream media. Until recently, the only stories to be found on the issue were in the business press.” well doh. if customers knew what this portended they would be writing and calling their congresscritters.
Molly Ivins puts it bluntly:
In the 1920s, three huge companies owned half of the nation’s power plants and built them into speculative power-holding companies that used the reliable money from utilities for flights of fancy in the stock market.
When you are paying your electric bill to ExxonMobil, Halliburton or some Chinese firm, you will see why this is a monumentally bad idea. (Speaking of the veep’s former home company, according to HalliburtonWatch.org, the company is employing its workers in Iraq through its subsidiary in the Cayman Islands. This means Halliburton won’t have to pay unemployment benefits for the workers when they return home.)
BushCo has to be one of the most appalling mobs of cold-blooded vandals and wreckers in industrialised history. we ought to have a word, as concise as “Luddite”, to describe the kind of sabotage they are doing in the service of their revanchist nostalgia. maybe we should call ’em Hardingites.
well, if they were looking for a way to enforce demand reduction while preaching “laissez faire” and lining the pockets of their friends and relatives, this is the winning strategy. more Enrons ahead. more rate hikes, more deferred maintenance, more real and orchestrated blackouts. reduced consumption and record profits! welcome to Third World America. we are all Argentinians now 🙂
Posted by: DeAnander | Jul 13 2005 0:12 utc | 32
we ought to have a word, as concise as “Luddite”
How bout “capitalist”?
Posted by: slothrop | Jul 13 2005 0:21 utc | 33
I’m watching NewsHour and Jim “no moaners here” Lehrer is interviewing a retiring Gen. Myers about Iraq. Waiting for torture question…waiting…waiting…
Posted by: slothrop | Jul 13 2005 0:24 utc | 34
…and ol Gen. Myers won’t just come out & say what must be on his mind: “when are you people gonna get it through your fucking heads you can’t trust civilian leadership of the military?”
Posted by: slothrop | Jul 13 2005 0:33 utc | 35
Glad you posted that DeA. This has got to go down in flames. But, sadly this can’t be laid at Bu$hCo’s feet. As the truthout art. you linked states:
Those who follow corporate conspiracies might note that billionaire Warren Buffet, who has made PUHCA repeal a personal priority and thrown millions into lobbying efforts, owns a 20 percent share of the Washington Post and sits on the company’s board.
hence:
A trillion dollars worth of utility assets are about to be deregulated and no one knows about it. Hargis said that she and other lobbyists at Public Citizen have talked at length with the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post about doing a story, but nothing has yet appeared. The Washington Post held on to Hargis’s Op Ed piece for ten days and then rejected it, “after it was too late to have an impact,” she said.
Buffet is a bigtime xDem. This is bi-partisan Pirate Policy, clearly illustrating why we need a political class that represents us to keep the their Limitless Greed in check. And a media more like the one that Clinton de-regulated even further to help expose this.
So…imagine this scenario they’re setting up – Soros said in art. I linked from Sun. Observer that there will be a trade war w/China in 6-9 mos. if they don’t revalue their currency. Meanwhile, virtually all of our manufacturing has been shipped over there – along w/R&D – and they’ve been given the green light to buy up our utilities…
Guess we need to post everywhere & call everyone.
Posted by: jj | Jul 13 2005 0:40 utc | 36
I just had the most chilling dream. I often fall asleep reading, bad habit I know. Anyway, I was reading Evgenia Ginzburg’s, INTO THE WHIRLWIND, for my mod lit class on Gulags and Stalinist culture, which could explain much. However, I fell asleep and was jolted awake by hearing the KENNEDY SPACE CENTER Transmissions to fighter jets saying that the Discovery was sabotaged by a terrorist attack. It was freaky and felt real as dreams sometimes do. I woke up to jump on the internet, having no idea that tomorrow was a launch date. It’s still creeping me out. I know, I know, they make meds for this kinda thing…
oh well… Bartender!? I’ll have a double on the rocks!
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 13 2005 4:07 utc | 37
REALLY! VWHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG W/THESE PEOPLE!
Iran could be behind Israel bomb blast: Rumsfeld
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 13 2005 4:39 utc | 38
the question is wtf is wrong w/ us? why do we let them get away w/ this shit? barkeep! still got any ayahuasca back there?
Posted by: b real | Jul 13 2005 4:51 utc | 39
Uncle $cam thanks for the great news. If it’s featured prominently in NYC/Wash press tomorrow It’ll hook up another engine to the Impeachment Express. Do you have the correction for the link you mis-posted the other night on them trying to bury LBJ archives?
Posted by: jj | Jul 13 2005 5:38 utc | 40
@jj
I reposted (the LBJ link) in the same thread, but here I’ll save you the trouble. Also see this little ditty:
Fortunes made on bombing
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 13 2005 6:01 utc | 41
Colman:
The second of the Hell’s Grannies pix was borked. It should have pointed here.
Hannah:
I gave the Chichakli site a good read and now I’m just confused but that’s nothing out of the ordinary.
OzBoy:
I wasn’t familiar with that story – thanks. I do know about the murders that tend to happen in Darwin and Townsville when the USN pulls in for shore leave – and the shooting of endangered animals when the US Army takes part in joint exercises in the bush.
Posted by: Driftwood | Jul 13 2005 6:31 utc | 42
Reprimand of Guantanamo Chief Urged, Nixed
Military investigators wanted the former prison commander at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, reprimanded over the treatment of one terror suspect, but a top general rejected their call, according to a congressional aide.
…
Investigators determined that interrogators violated the Geneva Conventions and Army regulations three times. It was unclear from the aide’s description what those instances were.
They also recommended that Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller be reprimanded for failing to oversee the interrogation of a high-value detainee, which was found to have been abusive, the aide said.
But Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, commander of U.S. Southern Command, instead referred the matter to the Army’s inspector general, said the aide. Craddock concluded that Miller did not violate any U.S. laws or policies, according to the aide.
The military investigation was conducted by Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt and Army Brig. Gen. John T. Furlow after the FBI agents’ reports of abuse at Guantanamo surfaced last year.
…
According to the congressional aide and another U.S. official, the report found:
_Female interrogators inappropriately touched detainees, including rubbing perfume on one and massaging another’s back. Investigators documented that a woman in one case smeared what she described as menstrual blood — it was fake — on a prisoner, but they recommended no further action on the allegation because it happened some time ago.
_Interrogators threatened one high-value prisoner by saying they would go after his family. This was in violation of U.S. military law, the investigation found.
_Military interrogators impersonated FBI and State Department agents. This practice was stopped after the FBI complained.
_Interrogators improperly used duct tape on a detainee. An FBI agent said a prisoner was bound on the head with duct tape, his mouth covered, because he was chanting verses from the Quran.
_Interrogators used cold, heat, loud music and sleep deprivation on prisoners to break their will to resist interrogation. These techniques were approved at certain times at Guantanamo.
_Chaining a detainee to the floor in a fetal position was not authorized; however, the investigation could not confirm an FBI agent’s allegation that detainees were left in this position for long periods.
Thanks Uncle.
Turns out Rumbo’s who bombed who game is one that many can play, so we have Iran News Agency – Israel Behind London, Iraq Bombs
Posted by: jj | Jul 13 2005 6:53 utc | 44
@ Driftwood
Confusion is possibly part of the intent of the site, but at least there is now an official “on-line defense” as well as an “internet prosecution”. I think it was Alabama who vigorously objected to “guilt by association”,
and Chichakli’s links to the Bout enterprises
need not be criminal in nature. I would certainly like to know more background information, and hope that Chichakli makes good on his promise of further documentation.
Meanwhile, ATOL offers an interesting critique of the
failure of Bush’s policies in Central Asia.
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Jul 13 2005 7:18 utc | 45
Bolton Watch:
WaPO: Bolton May Accept Recess Appointment
an administration source who is close to Bolton said that Bolton is prepared to accept a recess appointment next month unless the administration and Senate Democrats can resolve differences that have held up the confirmation for four months.
“He’ll take the recess” appointment, said the administration source, who is familiar with Bolton’s thinking. “The president has made his selection, and the president is asking the Senate to confirm the selection, and if the Senate refuses to do that, then most assuredly [Bush] will make a recess appointment.”
wonder if that has anything to do w/bolton stovepiping cheney disinfo@nigerwmd=wilsonxfitzgerald.friggincom
Posted by: annie | Jul 13 2005 7:43 utc | 47
We Americans seem to be in the process of becoming wildly overhoused. Since 1970 the size of the average home has increased 55 percent (to 2,330 square feet), while the size of the average family has decreased 13 percent. Especially among the upper crust, homes have more space and fewer people. We now have rooms specialized by appliances (home computers, entertainment systems and exercise equipment) and — who knows? — may soon reserve them for pets. The long-term consequences of this housing extravaganza are unclear, but they may include the overuse of energy and, ironically, a drain on homeowners’ wealth.
By and large, the new American home is a residential SUV. It’s big, gadget-loaded and slightly gaudy. In 2001 about one in eight homes exceeded 3,500 square feet, which was more than triple the average new home in 1950 (983 square feet)
…
Another cause of this relentless upsizing is that the government unwisely promotes it. In 2005, about 80 percent of the estimated $200 billion of federal housing subsidies consists of tax breaks (mainly deductions for mortgage interest payments and preferential treatment for profits on home sales), reports an Urban Institute study. These tax breaks go heavily to upscale Americans, who are thereby encouraged to buy bigger homes. Federal housing benefits average $8,268 for those with incomes between $200,000 and $500,000, estimates the study; by contrast, they’re only $365 for those with incomes of $40,000 to $50,000. It’s nutty for government to subsidize bigger homes for the well-to-do.
…
With hindsight, some homeowners may regret sinking so much money into ever-grander houses. One possible problem is future operating costs. Homes exceeding 3,500 square feet use about 40 percent more energy than those between 2,000 and 2,500 square feet, says the Energy Information Administration. Suppose electricity or natural gas prices rise because (for example) new power plants or terminals for liquefied natural gas aren’t approved.
A harder question is whether bigger homes might lose value. Say what? Gosh, we’re in the midst of the greatest real estate boom in U.S. history. Since 2000 home values have risen 55 percent, to nearly $18 trillion, says the Federal Reserve. Americans have borrowed and spent lavishly against rising housing prices.
…
The latest evidence that cheap credit and speculation have artificially inflated home prices comes from a study by the investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston. It finds that home buying is increasingly driven by purchases of investment properties and vacation homes. In 2004 these buyers accounted for 14.5 percent of all home sales, up from an average of 7.5 percent from 1998 to 2002. Cheap credit also abounds. In 2004 almost a fifth of all new mortgages were interest-only loans (requiring no principal repayments in early years), the study finds. Speculative booms usually end when some speculators cash in or when credit tightens.
…
A very good article in WaPo about the US-China conflict about energy.
Big Shift in China’s Oil Policy
With Iraq Deal Dissolved by War, Beijing Looks Elsewhere
Until recently, China’s view of the global energy map focused narrowly on the Middle East, which holds roughly two-thirds of the world’s oil. Special attention was directed toward one well-supplied country: Iraq.
Through cultivation of Saddam Hussein’s government, China sought to develop some of Iraq’s more promising reserves. Beijing advocated lifting the United Nations sanctions that prevented investment in Iraq’s oil patch and limited sales of its production.
China’s thirst for petroleum is increasing, prompting the nation to make deals such as Cnooc Ltd.’s proposed purchase of Unocal Corp. Above, traffic clogs a major thoroughfare in Beijing.
China’s thirst for petroleum is increasing, prompting the nation to make deals such as Cnooc Ltd.’s proposed purchase of Unocal Corp.
Then the United States went to war in Iraq in 2003, wiping out China’s stakes. The war and its aftermath have reshaped China’s basic conception of the geopolitics of oil and added urgency to its mission to lessen dependence on Middle East supplies. It has reinforced China’s fears that it is locked in a zero-sum contest for energy with the world’s lone superpower, prompting Beijing to intensify its search for new sources, international relations and energy experts say.
…
“Iraq changed the government’s thinking,” said Pan Rui, an international relations expert at Fudan University in Shanghai. “The Middle East is China’s largest source of oil. America is now pursuing a grand strategy, the pursuit of American hegemony in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is the number one oil producer, and Iraq is number two [in terms of reserves]. Now, the United States has direct influence in both countries.”
…
Many energy experts say owning oil fields provides no real energy security. It does not cushion against a rising cost of energy because no one country is large enough to determine the market price. Neither does it ensure access, because getting oil where it is needed depends largely upon shipping lanes policed by the U.S. Navy.
“There’s an illusion that ownership ensures either volume or price,” said William H. Overholt, director of the Rand Center for Asia-Pacific Policy in Santa Monica, Calif. “Oil is an internationally traded commodity. The key is having secure lines of supply from the Middle East.”
…
The Iraq war substantially intensified the foreign push. Most immediately, it destroyed China’s hopes of developing large assets in Iraq. China had been waiting for the end of sanctions to begin work on the Al-Ahdab field in central Iraq, under a $1.3 billion contract signed in 1997 by its largest state-owned firm, China National Petroleum Corp. The field’s production potential has been estimated at 90,000 barrels a day. China was also pursuing rights to a far bigger prize — the Halfayah field, which could produce 300,000 barrels a day. Together, those two fields might have delivered quantities equivalent to 13 percent of China’s current domestic production.
But the larger impact of the war was on China’s understanding of the rules of the global energy game.
“The turning point in China’s energy strategy was the Iraq war,” said Tong Lixia, an energy expert at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, which is affiliated with China’s Commerce Ministry. “After 2003, both the companies and the government realized China could not rely on one or two oil production areas. It’s too risky.”
…
With so much competition for assets, China has pursued deals with international pariah states that are off-limits to Western oil companies because of sanctions, security concerns or the threat of bad publicity. China National Petroleum is the largest shareholder in a consortium running much of the oil patch in Sudan, a country accused by the United States of genocide in its western region of Darfur. Last year, China signed a $70 billion oil and gas purchase agreement with Iran, undercutting efforts by the United States and Europe to isolate Teheran and force it to give up plans for nuclear weapons. If Cnooc acquires Unocal, it would have gas fields and a pipeline in Burma, whose operation by the U.S. company has been criticized by human-rights groups.
“No matter if it’s rogue’s oil or a friend’s oil, we don’t care,” said an energy adviser to the central government who spoke on the condition he not be identified, citing the threat of government disciplinary action. “Human rights? We don’t care. We care about oil. Whether Iran would have nuclear weapons or not is not our business. America cares, but Iran is not our neighbor. Anyone who helps China with energy is a friend.”
The last quote sounds like Cheney is the source.
Torture professor Yoo comes up with this great tool:
Another tool would have our intelligence agencies create a false terrorist organization. It could have its own websites, recruitment centers, training camps and fundraising operations. It could launch fake terrorist operations and claim credit for real terrorist strikes, helping to sow confusion within Al Qaeda’s ranks, causing operatives to doubt others’ identities and to question the validity of communications.
Did he loose that specific memo or is he preparing the public for some coming scandal?
Maybe worth a thread b
How the Pentagon targets teens
By Nick Turse
It’s been a tough year for the US military. But you wouldn’t know it from the Internet, now increasingly packed with slick, non-military looking websites of every sort that are lying in wait for curious teens (or their exasperated parents) who might be surfing by. On the ground, the military may be bogged down in a seemingly interminable mission that was supposedly “accomplished” back on May 1, 2003, but on the Internet it’s still a be-all-that-you-can-be world of advanced career choices, peaceful pursuits and risk-free excitement.
While there has been a wave of news reports recently on the Pentagon’s problems putting together an all-volunteer military, or even a functioning officer corps, from an increasingly reluctant public, military officials are ahead of the media in one regard. They know where the future troops they need are. Hint: they’re not reading newspapers or watching the nightly prime-time news, they are surfing the Web, looking for entertainment, information, fun and perhaps even a future.
In addition to raising the maximum enlistment age, no longer dismissing new recruits out of hand for “drug abuse, alcohol, poor fitness and pregnancy”, allowing those with criminal records in, and employing such measures as hefty US$20,000 sign-up bonuses (with talk of proposed future bonuses of up to $40,000, along with $50,000 worth of “mortgage assistance”) to coerce the cash-strapped to enlist in the all-volunteer military, one of the military’s favorite methods of bolstering the rolls is targeting the young – specifically teens – to fill the ranks.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jul 13 2005 20:22 utc | 53
Move along now, nothing to see here:
Charles Clarke today denied that any of the four suspects in the terrorist bomb attacks on London last week had been previously arrested.
The four suspected bombers, all Britons from West Yorkshire, were described as “cleanskins” who were unknown to the police or security services, but Nicolas Sarkozy, the French interior minister, today claimed Mr Clarke had told him this was not the case.
He told reporters after a EU interior ministers meeting on counterterrorism that some of the team had been subject to “partial arrest” in spring 2004 but released in the hope of catching a wider network.
Article continues
The home secretary denied the allegation. “It is completely and utterly untrue. I am absolutely staggered he should make this assertion,” Mr Clarke told Sky News.
“I have not even talked to Mr Sarkozy about this … I don’t understand where he could have got this from.”
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jul 13 2005 20:28 utc | 54
“cleanskins”?
Yes, of course, the replicants in Blade Runner were called “skin jobs” by the police lieutenant.
Now we must be suspected also if we have never been arrested. And if it turns out we are one of those nasty “cleanskins”, then we may need to be tagged thusly, perhaps held and tortured, and if it turns out we are innocent even so but nevertheless upset about the experience, then presumably made “no longer a problem”. For we are not good citizens of the country. No, we are cleanskins.
Anyone else have their flesh crawling at the murder in this word?
Posted by: citizen | Jul 13 2005 21:01 utc | 55
And no I am not attacking the police for having their own internal vocabulary. I am noting that the aristocrat-owned press is painting targets on all of us who do not own our own papers.
Well, I have a name for them. They are the undead, the unclean, the vampires. They look like a free press, but there is no soul there. And they live off a daily diet of blood.
“cleanskins”
Fuck them and their houses for publishing the vile term.
Posted by: citizen | Jul 13 2005 21:10 utc | 56
Citizen, Daz does make my whites a blue white!
Amazing.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jul 13 2005 21:12 utc | 57
@Cloned Poster
I picked up the BBC version
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4680155.stm
Row over French bomb arrest claim
Mr Clarke has vehemently denied the claims
Home Secretary Charles Clarke has denied some of the London bomb suspects were arrested last year.
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said the UK delegation made the claim at an EU terrorism meeting.
Mr Clarke said the comments were “completely and utterly untrue”, and said there had been no conversation on the issue.
Officials are adamant the men were not arrested and then released in order to break a wider network.
Mr Sarkozy said: “It seems that part of this team had been subject to partial arrest.”
This sounds terribly familiar. Catching a larger network. WTC ’93?
The French leaked the connection between British security and the bombers???
And France has just closed its borders to schengen.
THIS IS VERY INTERESTING
Posted by: John | Jul 13 2005 23:53 utc | 58
The Home Secretary last year was David Blunkett. Blunkett lost a lot of support when he bad-mouthed his colleagues. He was caught “fixing” something for a pal and had to resign. He was allowed to stay on in his luxurious accomodation. He was paid 18000 pounds for loss of position. He is now back in the Cabinet.
Clarke might well have been bad-mouthing Blunkett, and fucked up
Posted by: John | Jul 13 2005 23:59 utc | 59
Report cites ‘degrading’ Guantanamo treatment
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Guantanamo Bay interrogators degraded and abused a key prisoner but did not torture him when they told him he was gay, forced him to dance with another man and made him wear a bra and perform dog tricks, military investigators said on Wednesday.
U.S. interrogators also told him he was a homosexual, forced him to dance with a male interrogator, told him his mother and sister were whores, forced him to wear a leash and perform dog tricks, menaced him with a dog and regularly subjected him to interrogations up to 20 hours a day for about two months, the report said.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall Schmidt, who headed the probe into FBI accounts of abuse of Guantanamo prisoners by Defense Department personnel, concluded that the man was subjected to “abusive and degrading treatment” due to “the cumulative effect of creative, persistent and lengthy interrogations.” The techniques used were authorized by the Pentagon, he said.
“As the bottom line, though, we found no torture. Detention and interrogation operations were safe, secure and humane,” Schmidt said.
Army Gen. Bantz Craddock, head of Southern Command, rejected the recommendation by Schmidt and fellow investigator Army Brig. Gen. John Furlow that Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, jail commander at the time, be admonished for failing to monitor and limit that prisoner’s interrogation.
Craddock said the interrogation “did not result in any violation of a U.S. law or policy,” and thus “there’s nothing for which to hold him accountable,”
Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, himself abused by the North Vietnamese as a Vietnam War POW, noted, “Humane treatment might be in the eye of the beholder.” McCain said, “I hold no brief for the prisoners. I do hold a brief for the reputation of the United States of America as to adhering to certain standards of treatment of people no matter how evil or terrible they might be.”
Posted by: Outraged | Jul 14 2005 0:05 utc | 60
Fox News are beneath contempt – The Guardian
This utterly misrepresents the BBC’s reporting of Iraq, where we have always sought to portray the whole picture of events in that country. The second exception is principally Fox News in the United States. A contributor to Fox said after the London bombings that “the BBC almost operates as a foreign registered agent of Hezbollah and some of the other jihadist groups”. On the Fox website today there is an opinion piece, “How Jane Fonda and the BBC put you in danger”. I am writing this in a building which was bombed by Irish terrorists. My colleagues and I are living in a city recovering from the wounds inflicted last week. If I may leave our customary impartiality aside for a moment, the comments made on Fox News are beneath contempt.
Posted by: DM | Jul 14 2005 2:04 utc | 61
Oil Wars: The Balkans
a case study for the report: The Corporate Consensus
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 14 2005 4:28 utc | 62