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October 14, 2005
Non-Plame Open Thread
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I have to confess I never read Harold Pinter or saw one of his plays.
What did I miss?
“ridiculous stunt” – indeed:
Prosecutor Subpoenas Phone Data of DeLay
A state prosecutor subpoenaed the phone records of Representative Tom DeLay and his daughter on Thursday as part of an investigation that has already produced two conspiracy indictments against Mr. DeLay.
The subpoenas, issued by the district attorney in Travis County, Tex., which includes Austin, the state capital, sought records for Mr. DeLay’s home telephone number and for his campaign office, as well as for two phone numbers used by his daughter, a key political aide. The subpoenas sought information on long-distance calls made from or charged to the numbers.
…
“This is a baseless investigation that is over three years old, and only now Ronnie Earle is issuing subpoenas?” said Kevin Madden, a spokesman in Washington for Mr. DeLay. “It’s a ridiculous stunt to try and cover up the fact that Ronnie Earle’s partisan investigation has turned into an embarrassment for him.”
On a non-Plame topic, I would like to mention that this past Friday, in Boston, Noam Chomsky was honored for 40 years of activism. (Actually, he pointed out, it has been 42 years since he started speaking out against the war in Vietnam.) In standard Chomsky tradition, this “honoring” of him actually entailed his doing a benefit for Boston UJP and AFSC.
To focus on what is important beyond Plame, I thought I might outline what he said, from the notes I took that I can still decipher. For anyone who has heard him in the past year it was a fairly standard speech.
His basic thesis is that there are four items of paramount importance to the potential continuance of the human species:
1) The threat of Nuclear War and annihilation.
2) The Environmental crisis we are poised upon.
3) The fact that the global superpower (guess who?) is doing everything in its power to accelerate 1 & 2.
4) The immobilizing but surmountable “Democratic Deficit”; which needs to be overcome to protect us from 1,2 & 3.
Concentrating on the first item, Chomsky asked “Shall we put an end to the Human Race, or shall we renounce war?” He related the several year old discovery from recently declassified documents that, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, we were less than five minutes away from nuclear war, and which was only averted because a Soviet general did not follow protocol and launch their missiles despite the alarm they were recieving. He characterized the more complex computerized nuclear alert systems in place nowadays as more prone to inevitable computer error, and far more dangerous. He mentioned the assessment of the Union of Concerned Scientists that puts the possibility of Nuclear War at 50% in the coming decade. He buttressed this assertion with quotes from two flaming radicals: Robert MacNamara, “Apocalypse Soon”; and Sam Nunn, “Armagedon of our Making.” He mentioned that all predictions were that Chimpy’s little adventure in Hajiland (my words) would only increase these dangers, but that the ruling elite does not really care about this when there is money to be made. He discussed America’s defiance of the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty, particularly articles 4 & 6, and Kissinger’s selling the Shah of Iran nuclear energy capabilities in the first place.
He discussed America’s history with the Kyoto treaty, pointing out that the majority of Americans favor its enactment. He remarked that additionallly, a majority of those who voted for Bush, mistakenly believed that he was in favor of it.
This lead to the theme of a “Democratic Deficit”, namely, at the risk of gross oversimplification, that the will of the public is ignored by both major political parties, a theme that he has long developed, from his books “Manufacturing Consent” on media filters of news coverage, and “Necessary Illusions” on thought control in a Democratic society, among others.
He stated that both parties are far to the right of the electorate; disagreeing principally on social hot button issues which are calculated to deflect attention from the more pressing issues which he had outlined earlier, as well as others such as healthcare for all. He delved into the inefficiency of our healthcare system, its inflated expenditures, and dismal outcames. He quoted from polling done by the U. of Maryland indicating that 2/3 of Americans would like to see the tax cuts, which the NYTimes referred to as “sacrosanct”, reversed.
He closed by reminiscing about the early days of his speaking against the war in Vietnam, when four people would show up to hear him: The organizer, the minister of the church where he was speaking, a drunk off the street trying to keep warm, and someone who had heard that refreshments were to be served afterward. In four mere years crowds of 3-5,000 were gathering to hear him and Howard Zinn speak at the Boston Commons. So he asked everyone to maintain a hopeful attitude, noting that this is a far more civilized world than forty years ago, when Kennedy was able to march into Vietnam without a peep–this time we mobilized 10M before the war even started, a global first. He ended by remarking that there is nothing more powerful than an informed and active citizenry, and nothing that our leaders fear more.
So many targets:
Bush Cited 2 Allies Over Arms, Book Says
Two months before the invasion of Iraq, President Bush told Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he “wanted to go beyond Iraq” in dealing with the spread of illicit weapons and mentioned Saudi Arabia and Pakistan on a list of countries posing particular problems, according to notes taken by one of Mr. Blair’s advisers cited in a new book.
Mr. Bush’s comment, in a private telephone conversation on Jan. 30, 2003, could be significant because it appeared to add Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to a list that previously had included public mentions only of Iraq, Iran and North Korea, which the president had called an “axis of evil.”
The comment is reported in an American edition of “Lawless World,” by Philippe Sands, a professor at University College, London, and a practicing lawyer. An earlier edition of the book, published in Britain in February, included details from other prewar British government documents, but it did not include the detail from the Jan. 30 conversation. The British government has not questioned the authenticity of the documents described in the book.
The contents of a Jan. 30 document describing the conversation between Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair have been reviewed by The New York Times. It shows that the notes were taken by Matthew Rycroft, then the private secretary to Mr. Blair, and addressed to Simon McDonald, then the principal private secretary to the foreign secretary, Jack Straw. The contents show that the document was marked secret and personal and said it “must only be shown to those with a real need to know.”
Also from the above article
The document is revealing in other ways not described in the book. It records a conversation between the leaders a day before they met in Washington, and shows that they discussed whether to seek a second United Nations resolution imposing an ultimatum on Iraq before beginning any military action.
Mr. Bush was reported to have agreed with Mr. Blair that “it made sense to try for a second resolution, which he would love to have.” But Mr. Bush was also said to be “worried about Saddam playing tricks” and the possibility that Hans Blix, the top United Nations weapons inspector, would report “that Saddam was beginning to cooperate.”
“His biggest concern was looking weak,” the British document says, describing Mr. Bush. It says that the two leaders had agreed that United Nations inspectors in Iraq should be given “weeks not months,” to complete their work. The United States and Britain led the invasion of Iraq that began seven weeks later.
Pakistan! That’s back in the good ole days when they were really thinking big. Today it just looks like they were off their Lithium.
This is funny –
Snow Urges Consumerism on China Trip
Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, touring this village in the Sichuan province to promote “financial modernization,” urged China on Thursday to take lessons from the United States on how to spend more, borrow more and save less.
Mr. Snow argued that China’s consumers and entrepreneurs are badly in need of financial sophistication offered by American banks and investment banks.
As he wandered through a thriving farmers’ market and a traditional rural credit cooperative, Mr. Snow said that with better credit, Chinese families would be able to spend more money, buy more goods and perhaps reduce China’s huge trade surplus with the United States.
“Good credit facilitation and consumer finance is going to help consumers buy more things,” Mr. Snow said.
“We see consumerism and consumer credit as going directly to the thing we have most on our minds – the global imbalances.”
It has been an awkward lecture at times, given that China’s economy is still growing at a blistering pace of 9 percent, is a huge magnet for foreign investors and is one of the United States’ biggest creditors.
China’s savings rate is nearly 50 percent, one of the highest rates in the world. The savings rate in the United States, by contrast, has sunk to less than zero in recent months and is one of the lowest rates in the world.
Snow is useless and can not do a fart without White House direction. And now he goes to tell China to replay the US bubble economy. How can anyone think this will be received as serious advise?
El-Leithi recounted to Al-Ahram Weekly in detail the methods by which he was tortured at Guantanamo, where he was held without charge; he attributes his current paralysis to the rough manner in which he was treated.
…
During the interrogations, El-Leithi said, “different shades of bright light were pointed at me as I was asked questions, and if I tried to close my eyes, I was beaten. They asked me the same questions over and over: who I was; details about my relatives; why I was in Afghanistan; and what my opinion was regarding US policy in Afghanistan.”
During one of these sessions, El-Leithi said interrogators stomped on his back, dropped him on the floor and repeatedly forced his neck forward, which resulted in two broken vertebrae and his confinement to a wheel chair. He said he was then denied the necessary treatment and operation that would have saved him from permanent paralysis.
And even more to read:
Olberman’s list of fake terror alerts and Nitpicker and Cole on a fake Al Queda letter.
Fisk in and on Iraq and
Lassiter also in Iraq: Civil War – no less. Some 5 million Sunnis will have to flee or die. What happens when the Saudis step in and Iran?
@ b. although i am not fluent in pinter i recall, back when i was a student in theatre, pinter was associated w/being at the forefront of theatre of the absurd along w/albee and beckett. he helped pave the way for future playwrites, sam shepard, mamet and rabes(who i am familiar with) he’s credited along with others of that era w/changing theatre the way abstract artists changed painting.
Posted by: annie | Oct 14 2005 14:31 utc | 11
2 views of bird flu
Capitol Hill bird flu briefing
“This is a nation-busting event!” warned Tara O’Toole, CEO of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Center for Biosecurity. Speculating that 40 million Americans could die — that’s about one in eight — she warned: “We must act now.”
“We and the entire world remain unprepared for what could arguably be the most horrific disaster in modern history,” inveighed Gregory A. Poland of the Mayo Clinic and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Somebody in the audience sneezed, and Poland added: “The clock is ticking. We’ve been warned.”
On Americans and Bird Flu
How long did it take you to get over SARS? Oh, you didn’t get SARS? Exactly. You won’t get bird flu, either; neither will anyone you know. In fact, of the nearly 300 million people crammed into these 50 States, only a very, very, very small number will become infected, if any at all….
No piece of mainstream journalism has flatly said bird flu is a third world problem, but it’s there if you read between the lines. From an Associated Press report on Monday, dateline Bangkok: “Leading a multinational team of medical experts to mobilize Southeast Asian nations against bird flu, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said … the likelihood of a flu pandemic in the future is ‘very high.’ Leavitt, accompanied by the director of the World Health Organization and other top professionals, is visiting Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam to seek their collaboration in preparing for the anticipated public health emergency. In the past 2 ½ years, the H5N1 strain of bird flu has swept through poultry populations in Southeast Asia, infecting humans and killing at least 65 people.”
Posted by: mistah charley | Oct 14 2005 17:33 utc | 12
A Flu Hope, Or Horror? – The Washington Post
Here from neocon dervish, Charles Krauthammer, is a sample of the American fear “industry”. Having said that, the danger is very real and the chances that we will be looking at a barely recognizable world (those of us still here to look) in a couple of years are very great. The question is whether we are going to become hysterical about it. To quote a British sergeant at the Somme who encouraged the tommies to charge the German trenches saying, “Come on you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?”.
Posted by: David Seaton | Oct 14 2005 18:06 utc | 13
Bankruptcy filers rush to beat deadline
Consumers across the country are racing to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy before Monday, when a law that places new restrictions on bankruptcy filings takes effect.
A record 102,863 Americans filed for personal bankruptcy last week, vs. an average of 30,000 filings a week during the past four years, according to Lundquist Consulting, which tracks bankruptcy statistics. This week is on track for another record, with an estimated 100,000 filings during the first three days, Lundquist reported.
Through Saturday, more than 1.4 million Americans had filed for personal bankruptcy in 2005, up 19.4% from the same period in 2004, Lundquist reported.
JUSTIFICATION OF ILLEGAL ACTION OR UNETHICAL INACTION:
Kant vs. Hobbes ?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 14 2005 19:58 utc | 15
Bird flu:
Nature today has an interesting piece on this today.
Tamiflu is currently effective against H5N1 in humans, but research published online by Nature suggests that this situation may change1. Analysis of H5N1 virus from a Vietnamese patient treated with Tamiflu found some viruses that were partially resistant to the drug. The patient recovered after a higher dose was given, and that partial resistance has emerged is not a surprise. But the work suggests that resistance may become a real problem that we need to consider more carefully.
Here’s a link to a very long, but fascinating article of life in Iraq by Patrick Cockburn in The Independent. It’s got a strong on-the-ground component with a wider background. It might make good educational reading for someone curious about just how things are messed up.
Posted by: Rowan | Oct 14 2005 23:40 utc | 17
I don’t know….
Does the chicken scare have anything to do with the fact that Tamiflu is a product developed by Donald Rumsfelds old Co. Gieald Sciences and is now produced
Posted by: pb | Oct 15 2005 4:55 utc | 18
Or could have been created as a Weapon of Mass Distraction or possibly thoughts of Martial Law:
Bush’s summer reading list
Posted by: pb | Oct 15 2005 5:10 utc | 20
The search for an “ideological grand bargain.” And no, he’s not joking.
From Noam Scheiber’s “The Case for National Greatness Liberalism” in the current issue of TNR (www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20051024&s=trb102405):
[…]
The same ideological “sorting-out” process that has made it more urgent for Democrats to appeal to the center has simultaneously made it harder for them to do so–because it has made their liberal base larger, more vocal, and more powerful than ever before. Galston and Kamarck argue that “[t]he Democratic Party must be able to articulate a coherent foreign policy that is based on a belief in America’s role in the world.” Then, somewhat amazingly, they conclude, “While this will cause internal conflict in the Democratic coalition, it will not be any more severe than the fight Bill Clinton sparked when he confronted his coalition with proposals for reforming welfare.” In fact, according to their own analysis, it should cause much greater internal conflict, since there are more liberals around to oppose this policy and fewer conservatives around to support it. While liberal opposition perversely made Bill Clinton a more credible general election candidate in 1992, greater internal conflict could prevent a Clintonesque candidate–or, say, a Clinton–from winning the Democratic nomination in 2008.
So what’s a moderate of the Galston-Kamarck mold to do? Rather than pick a fight with liberals, today the only viable option may be compromise. Not the weak-kneed, difference-splitting that liberals are always deriding. But the kind of ideological grand bargain that lets each faction win outright on certain issues of importance. Moderates must insist, à la Galston and Kamarck, that Democrats won’t win back the White House unless they convince voters to trust them on national security, which means making the war on terrorism not just the party’s top priority but its central preoccupation in 2008. We’re not just talking about calling for a larger military, but something dramatic to signify the shift–like a plan to strike an Iranian or North Korean nuclear facility if need be. Moderates must also maintain that Democrats can’t afford to lose ground among swing voters by taking hard-line positions on abortion and gay marriage, though the basic right to an abortion and civil rights for homosexuals should remain central Democratic positions. In return, moderates would endorse an ambitious domestic policy agenda, the centerpiece of which would be universal health insurance but which would also include revisiting nafta and intense opposition to K Street-sponsored legislation like tort and bankruptcy reform.
This approach has several advantages beyond its usefulness as a framework for internal compromise. First, it offers thematic coherence. A Democratic presidential nominee could argue that he or she believes in a strong, competent government doing big things abroad (i.e., defeating Islamofascism and other existential threats) and big things at home (i.e., providing working people with economic security in an age of volatility). You can imagine it all fitting together nicely under a catchphrase like “national greatness liberalism.” Second, the one demographic group that will be sympathetic to nearly every element of this agenda is working-class whites, voters the Democrats have been hemorrhaging since the Clinton administration. Finally, this strategy has been successfully executed before. Clinton’s 1992 campaign, though it didn’t take place against a backdrop of heightened national security concerns, mixed moderate cultural politics with doses of economic populism.
[…]
Posted by: Pat | Oct 15 2005 6:29 utc | 21
@Pat – TNR is always trying to tell the Dems they have to become Repubs to win elections. I wonder how Rove finances them.
Oh – the war on Syria has now officially started – with some denials, but those are to be expected:
G.I.’s and Syrians in Tense Clashes on Iraqi Border
But other officials, who say they got their information in the field or by talking to Special Operations commanders, say that as American efforts to cut off the flow of fighters have intensified, the operations have spilled over the border – sometimes by accident, sometimes by design.
Some current and former officials add that the United States military is considering plans to conduct special operations inside Syria, using small covert teams for cross-border intelligence gathering.
…
Some other current and former officials suggest that there already have been initial intelligence gathering operations by small clandestine Special Operations units inside Syria. Several senior administration officials said such special operations had not yet been conducted, although they did not dispute the notion that they were under consideration.
John Robb has an OpEd on Open Source warfare and Iraq in the NYT:
The Open-Source War
What’s left? It’s possible, as Microsoft has found, that there is no good monopolistic solution to a mature open-source effort. In that case, the United States might be better off adopting I.B.M.’s embrace of open source. This solution would require renouncing the state’s monopoly on violence by using Shiite and Kurdish militias as a counterinsurgency. This is similar to the strategy used to halt the insurgencies in El Salvador in the 1980’s and Colombia in the 1990’s. In those cases, these militias used local knowledge, unconstrained tactics and high levels of motivation to defeat insurgents (this is in contrast to the ineffectiveness of Iraq’s paycheck military). This option will probably work in Iraq too.
In fact, it appears the American military is embracing it. In recent campaigns in Sunni areas, hastily uniformed peshmerga and Badr militia supplemented American troops; and in Basra, Shiite militias are the de facto military power.
If an open-source counterinsurgency is the only strategic option left, it is a depressing one. The militias will probably create a situation of controlled chaos that will allow the administration to claim victory and exit the country. They will, however, exact a horrible toll on Iraq and may persist for decades. This is a far cry from spreading democracy in the Middle East. Advocates of refashioning the American military for top-down nation-building, the current flavor of the month, should recognize it as a fatal test of the concept.
A small but
hopeful sign that the rank and file of the U.S. military has not bought in to the Bush-Neocon PNAC (Project for a New American Counterterrorism).
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Oct 15 2005 10:51 utc | 25
Environmental Crisis R US … enough said.
http://www.frontlinethoughts.com/printarticle.asp?id=mwo101405
Plenty of food for thought there, as the
Dems get ready to roll out Clinton 2008.
Who else has to be gunned down at some
WA DC stop light to clear Hillary’s way?
Inflation, crude oil and RefCo, yet the
US markets are heading back up? Capiche??
Google “trading within a range” and then
“time to shear the sheep” ala Mike Meyers.
HAGW!
Posted by: lash marks | Oct 15 2005 18:25 utc | 26
TNR has always peddled war–in a sane world, “democratic hawk” should be an oxyoron. Sadly, that is why they backed Gore in 2000.
“Open-source counterinsurgency”? God, Robb is becoming worse than Friedman in packaging tired old concepts in shiny packages. Plus it would be news to Gates and Ballmer that they accept the primacy of Open-source. Windows and Office still qualify as defacto monopolies by economic standards, and still bring home monopolistic amounts of bacon.
Rice Fails to Persuade Russia to Support U.N. Action on Iran
Russia’s leaders told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday that they did not support sending the issue of Iran’s nuclear program to the United Nations Security Council, and they reaffirmed their view that Iran had the legal right to enrich uranium.
The statements, by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and others, were a sharp setback for Ms. Rice’s efforts to reach a consensus on Iran’s nuclear program. The Iranians “have this right” to enrich uranium under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Mr. Lavrov said at joint news conference with Ms. Rice, who flew here on short notice for consultations on Iran and other issues.
Ms. Rice spent two hours with Mr. Lavrov and another hour with President Vladimir V. Putin on Saturday morning but failed to budge them from their view, which is at odds with Washington’s position.
Still, Ms. Rice, speaking to reporters later, made it clear that the United States and its European allies would still refer Iran to the Security Council, for admonishment or sanctions, if it did not shut down its nuclear fuel reprocessing program. But with Russia opposed, the prospects in the Council look bleak, as Russia holds a veto.
“We do not agree that this matter should be sent to the Security Council,” said Sergei Kislyak, the deputy foreign minister.
Iran says it needs to process nuclear fuel for civilian nuclear-power stations.
It was the year John Lennon was murdered, Mount St. Helens erupted and the U.S. Olympic hockey team pulled off the Miracle on Ice by beating the Soviet Union and going on to win the gold.
Not since 1980 has inflation risen so quickly in one month.
Posted by: annie | Oct 15 2005 21:25 utc | 29
Casualties of the Bush Administration
We should remember that there have been some Americans with a conscience who have stood up to the criminals in office and have paid a price for it.
Posted by: dan of steele | Oct 15 2005 23:04 utc | 30
For Bernhard, in view of our previous mini-argument on complicity of Wilson. Remember b, I was ready to retract my contention that both Plame and her husband are willing participants in the scam – but I am no longer. Citizen Spook has proven to be a brilliant expert on the law as it applies to this set of cases before us. Here is a piece of his regarding the ‘certainty’ that that famous couple is in it up their eyeballs. Believe it or not b; I am still angry that you would publically denigrate my suggestion online – with nothing more to back you than your own certitude. And perhaps a bit of arrogance?
http://citizenspook.blogspot.com/2005/08/treasongate-in-cahoots-how-white-house.html
Posted by: rapt | Oct 16 2005 1:00 utc | 31
Put on your fidora tin-foil, but I can’t help but wonder if this , wasn’t a trial run for this . E§pecially, w/the F!tz-bâng coming.
Does our government respect human life the way it claims to do?
Hardly. And being a soldier is no deterrent.
Ignore for a moment the lies surrounding 9-11, TWA 800, the USS Iowa, and the Gulf of Tonkin, and step back into horrid history with me.
PUBLIC LAW 95-79 [P.L. 95-79]
TITLE 50, CHAPTER 32, SECTION 1520
“CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WARFARE PROGRAM”
“The use of human subjects will be allowed for the testing of chemical and biological agents by the U.S. Department of Defense, accounting to Congressional committees with respect to the experiments and studies.”
“The Secretary of Defense [may] conduct tests and experiments involving the use of chemical and biological [warfare] agents on civilian populations [within the United States].”
-SOURCE-
Public Law 95-79, Title VIII, Sec. 808, July 30, 1977, 91 Stat. 334. In U.S. Statutes-at-Large, Vol. 91, page 334, you will find Public Law 95-79. Public Law 97-375, title II, Sec. 203(a)(1), Dec. 21, 1982, 96 Stat. 1882. In U.S. Statutes-at-Large, Vol. 96, page 1882, you will find Public Law 97-375.
A SHORT HISTORY OF US GOVERNMENT RESPECT FOR HUMAN LIFE
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 16 2005 3:09 utc | 32
Put on your fidora tin-foil, but I can’t help but wonder if this , wasn’t a trial run for this . E§pecially, w/the F!tz-bâng coming.
Does our government respect human life the way it claims to do?
Hardly. And being a soldier is no deterrent.
Ignore for a moment the lies surrounding 9-11, TWA 800, the USS Iowa, and the Gulf of Tonkin, and step back into horrid history with me.
PUBLIC LAW 95-79 [P.L. 95-79]
TITLE 50, CHAPTER 32, SECTION 1520
“CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WARFARE PROGRAM”
“The use of human subjects will be allowed for the testing of chemical and biological agents by the U.S. Department of Defense, accounting to Congressional committees with respect to the experiments and studies.”
“The Secretary of Defense [may] conduct tests and experiments involving the use of chemical and biological [warfare] agents on civilian populations [within the United States].”
-SOURCE-
Public Law 95-79, Title VIII, Sec. 808, July 30, 1977, 91 Stat. 334. In U.S. Statutes-at-Large, Vol. 91, page 334, you will find Public Law 95-79. Public Law 97-375, title II, Sec. 203(a)(1), Dec. 21, 1982, 96 Stat. 1882. In U.S. Statutes-at-Large, Vol. 96, page 1882, you will find Public Law 97-375.
A SHORT HISTORY OF US GOVERNMENT RESPECT FOR HUMAN LIFE
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 16 2005 3:20 utc | 33
Heheheheh conspiracy wanted? Forget these lame flights of fancy by wannabe spooks and check out this story in the Independent.
Can we all remember a week ago when Bliar was assisting the cause against Iran by saying that stout squaddies were being made into meat puzzles by sophisticated Iranian weaponry.
Iranian? Hush my mouth those bombs came from the British security services. The only time they have been used before was when bumbling, chinless Johnny Brit tried to sting the IRA and got conned into supplying bombs that were used against themselves.
To wit:
“”The thinking of the security forces was that if they were intimate with the technology, then they could develop counter-measures, thereby staying one step ahead of the IRA,” a senior source close to the inquiry explained. “It may seem absurd that the security services were supplying technology to the IRA, but the strategy was sound”.
This in a nutshell is why I have problems with these labyrinthan conspiracy theories. When we consider any state’s security services we are talking about people who in the words of an old Seychelloise I used to know “Couldn’t run a brothel on a troopship”.
And yes I include Mossad in that estimation as well. They may have been onto it once but a mob of them got tossed in the chokey in NZ last year trying to get kiwi passports. The whole show was one long comedy of errors.
As someone who may have crossed swords with the NZ security services as child after attempting to get a biography of Lenin from the local Soviet Embassy I can assure that the NZ mob (SIS) are not razor sharp themselves. Mossad was caught by their mistakes not because the Kiwi security services knew their asshole from a hole in the ground.
But digression again. The Independent story shows us exactly how desperate the coagulation of the unwitting has become to distract the sheeple from the business at hand.
“Britain claims that the bomb-making expertise now being used in southern Iraq was passed on by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard through Hizbollah, the revolutionary Islamist group it sponsors in Lebanon.
But a former agent who infiltrated the IRA told The Independent on Sunday that the technology reached the Middle East through the IRA’s co-operation with Palestinian groups. In turn, some of these groups used to be sponsored by Saddam Hussein and his Baath party.”
Of course we shouldn’t become complacent or take anything for granted but I’ve got a feeling that once the true incompetence of these neo-cons and main chancers becomes known they will be laughed outta town.
In fact I would hazard that this is the dark secret they are so lamely trying to protect.
The sheeple have been gulled by a crew that couldn’t run a piss up at a pub.
The real question is will that truth be so unpalatable to said sheeple that they won’t accept it?
That unfortunately is one of the prime determinants of whether its possible to stop at least some of the slaughter.
I believe that if we really want to stop the killing as soon as possible then the attitude I’ve expressed here won’t be the way to do it.
BUT we do have to make sure that the sheeple eventually realise the shallowness of the deception otherwise it will happen too soon again.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Oct 16 2005 11:05 utc | 35
This is so corrupt, it is nearly unbelievable:
How a Lobbyist Stacked the Deck
Lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his team were beginning to panic.
An anti-gambling bill had cleared the Senate and appeared on its way to passage by an overwhelming margin in the House of Representatives. If that happened, Abramoff’s client, a company that wanted to sell state lottery tickets online, would be out of business.
But on July 17, 2000, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act went down to defeat, to the astonishment of supporters who included many anti-gambling groups and Christian conservatives.
…
Abramoff quietly arranged for eLottery to pay conservative, anti-gambling activists to help in the firm’s $2 million pro-gambling campaign, including Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, and the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition. Both kept in close contact with Abramoff about the arrangement, e-mails show. Abramoff also turned to prominent anti-tax conservative Grover Norquist, arranging to route some of eLottery’s money for Reed through Norquist’s group, Americans for Tax Reform.
At one point, eLottery’s backers even circulated a forged letter of support from Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R).
…
DeLay, an outspoken opponent of gambling, was an instrument, witting or unwitting, in eLottery’s campaign, documents and interviews show. Along with Rudy, he was a guest on a golfing trip to Scotland. As majority whip, he cast a rare vote against his party on the Internet gambling bill and for the rest of the year helped keep the measure off the floor. He told leadership colleagues that another vote could cost Republican seats in the hard-fought 2000 elections.
…
In May, eLottery hired Abramoff’s firm, Preston Gates & Ellis LLP, for $100,000 a month, according to lobbying reports. In the following months, Abramoff directed the company to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to various organizations, faxes, e-mails and court records show. The groups included Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform; Sheldon’s Traditional Values Coalition; companies affiliated with Reed; and a Seattle Orthodox Jewish foundation, Toward Tradition.
…
To reach the House conservatives, Abramoff turned to Sheldon, leader of the Orange County, Calif. – based Traditional Values Coalition, a politically potent group that publicly opposed gambling and said it represented 43,000 churches. Abramoff had teamed up with Sheldon before on issues affecting his clients. Because of their previous success, Abramoff called Sheldon “Lucky Louie,” former associates said.
…
Abramoff asked eLottery to write a check in June 2000 to Sheldon’s Traditional Values Coalition (TVC). He also routed eLottery money to a Reed company, using two intermediaries, which had the effect of obscuring the source.
The eLottery money went first to Norquist’s foundation, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), and then through a second group in Virginia Beach called the Faith and Family Alliance, before it reached Reed’s company, Century Strategies. Norquist’s group retained a share of the money as it passed through.
“I have 3 checks from elot: (1) 2 checks for $80K payable to ATR and (2) 1 check to TVC for $25K,” Abramoff’s assistant Susan Ralston e-mailed him on June 22, 2000. “Let me know exactly what to do next. Send to Grover? Send to Rev. Lou?”
Minutes later Abramoff responded, saying that the check for Sheldon’s group should be sent directly to Sheldon, but that the checks for Norquist required special instructions: “Call Grover, tell him I am in Michigan and that I have two checks for him totaling 160 and need a check back for Faith and Family for $150K.”
…
Sheldon said in an interview this week that he recalled little about his efforts against the bill in 2000. He said he did not remember receiving a $25,000 check from eLottery, but added that it is possible that his organization did receive it. He said he remembered some money coming in to pay for fliers he had printed and mailed to congressional districts to persuade members to oppose the bill.
“I wasn’t aware the money was coming from them [eLottery],” Sheldon said. “I don’t think I ever saw the check. It came in, and we paid the bill for some of the printing.”
Sheldon also said he had no idea that Abramoff was lobbying against the bill or that he was working for eLottery.
“This is all tied to Jack?” Sheldon said. “I’m shocked out of my socks.”
…
But Sheldon’s campaign in conservative districts had the desired chilling effect on GOP leaders. That became clear on Oct. 24, when House Republicans met to discuss their year-end strategy.
What happened at the meeting was relayed to Abramoff by a former associate, David H. Safavian, who was then a lobbyist for a coalition of online gambling companies and who this month was indicted for allegedly lying to federal investigators in the Abramoff probe.
DeLay, Safavian wrote in an e-mail, “spoke up and noted that the bill could cost as many as four House seats. At that point, there was silence. Not even Rep. Dick Armey (R-Texas) — our previous opponent — said a word.”
When Congress prepared to adjourn in 2000 without revisiting the gambling bill, Safavian was ecstatic. He sent his clients an e-mail, which was posted on the Web site of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association.
“Relax a bit,” Safavian wrote. “Policy beat politics once again. (Maybe the American system isn’t really that bad.) The good guys won.”
b
& as they say, my friend, just a drop in the ocean – or in our case tears
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 16 2005 14:42 utc | 38
Bomb Attack Kills Four at Mall in Iran
Two bombs planted inside trash bins exploded Saturday at a shopping mall near the Iraqi border that was previously targeted by extremists. Four people were killed and more than 100 wounded, Iranian state television reported.
…
Iranian security officials blamed those attacks — the deadliest in the nation in more than a decade — on Iranian Arab extremists with ties to foreign governments, including British intelligence.
In recent weeks, Iran repeatedly has accused Britain of provoking unrest in Khuzestan province, which is located next to the region in Iraq where 8,500 British soldiers are based as part of the U.S.-led military occupation.
The explosions followed recent bitter exchanges between Iran and Britain. While Iran has accused Britain of provoking unrest in the province, Britain has accused Iran of giving Iraqi insurgents explosives technology to attack British soldiers.
The brits are playing with fire here.
Chris Allbritton in Iraq says it would be better if the Iraqi “constitution” would be voted down.
I do think that defeating the constitution might be best in the long run. It will embolden the Sunnis and give them a political win, motivating them to further involve themselves in the political process. This will force the Shi’ites and Kurds to deal with real elected representatives instead of appointed ones. Will this spell and end to violence? Of course not, but anything that allows the Sunnis to claim victory instead of forcing them to eat political table scraps is a big step in ending the Sunni-led insurgency.
But with Condi Rice allready proclaiming “victory” and the U.S. military deeply involved in the voting process that will not happen.
Condi has another thought:
The fact of the matter is that when we were attacked on September 11, we had a choice to make. We could decide that the proximate cause was al Qaeda and the people who flew those planes into buildings and, therefore, we would go after al Qaeda…or we could take a bolder approach.
Bolder approach: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabi, Pakistan, 100,000 dead people, billions of dollars burned away and Bin Laden laughing.
“The fact of the matter is” is another code phrase, like “that is absurd”. It is used to flag the imminent arrival of a “big lie”, concocted to cover up an even bigger crime. Bells should go off whenever you hear “the fact of the matter is…”.
Posted by: PeeDee | Oct 16 2005 20:19 utc | 42
Dozens of locals, all planning to vote against the draft constitution, had been turned away from the single polling station in town. Lying 40 miles north of Baghdad and just south of Samarra, Ishaki is in the middle of Iraq’s Sunni central region, Saddam Hussein’s old heartland.
According to election officials here, all those rejected were registered at another polling station 3 miles away — the only place they would be allowed to vote under the referendum’s stringent rules. But a driving ban inside all urban areas, designed to stop suicide bomb attacks, meant these Sunnis, entering the democratic process for the first time, had effectively been disenfranchised.
Posted by: annie | Oct 16 2005 20:24 utc | 43
Jerome has a good piece up at DKos – You thought I was a pessimist? Not until you read this!
A bit sensational, but a possibility.
Did you ever hear of H.Y.B.R.I.S.?
U.S. Offers Details of Plan for Open Markets in China
The Bush administration is expected to present China’s political leaders on Sunday with a sweeping plan to overhaul China’s financial markets and open the country to foreign banks, investment firms and insurance companies.
Administration officials say the plan is part of an effort to put the yuan into a broader debate over China’s lopsided reliance on exports as the main source of economic growth.
The plan, to be discussed in two days of talks here and in Beijing, calls for China to speed up the privatization of state-owned companies, including banks; to develop a Chicago-style futures market for currency trading; to establish an independent credit-rating agency; and to crack down on bailouts for banks left holding bad loans.
“What we tried to do is take a quantum leap in sophistication and scope,” said Timothy D. Adams, undersecretary for international affairs at the Treasury Department. “It gives you a picture of the truly complex nature of what we are trying to do.”
Though many of the ideas are familiar, and often supported by Chinese leaders in principle, the list reflects an increased effort to lecture China about internal financial issues.
That could backfire. Chinese leaders invariably bristle at pressure from American officials, and they could view the new American “priorities” as an unwelcome intrusion.
They could view that as intrusion? He folks there are over a billion Han, there are 300 million US nationals. “Intrusion”?
Even without opposition from vested interests, many Chinese leaders are likely to fret over giving more freedom to foreign financial institutions to enter Chinese markets.
Under current laws, foreign investors are usually prohibited from owning more than 25 percent of a commercial bank, and no single foreign investor can own more than 20 percent.
According to a document that Treasury officials plan to circulate among Chinese leaders, the Bush administration would remove the limits on foreign ownership as well as a host of other restricitons.
Foreign financial institutions that want to buy Chinese securities would be freed from having to have at least $10 billion in assets and to have been in business at least five years.
Foreign-affiliated banks, brokerage firms and insurers would be freed from restrictions on setting up multiple branches at one time.
NOTE: the piece is talking about CHINA. “The Bush administration would remove the limits on foreign ownership in CHINA? Since when is the Bush administration ruling in China????
the peasants in china will realize what a remarkable opportunity it is having the bush administration council their leaders on matters of finance and commerce.
Posted by: annie | Oct 17 2005 2:10 utc | 46
Hurry! get in on the ground floor of this new market nitch…
The doomsday shower can sanitize 800 people an hour
With fears of a biochemical attack on the rise, many biotechnology firms have waded into the uncertain science of prevention and detection of biological and chemical agents. But a Maryland manufacturer has discovered a less-crowded market in homeland security: decontamination.
Call today about market shares ! Stocks sure to go up soon! Have that dream home you always wanted!
TVI Corporation, Decontamination, Decon, Hazmat, and Tactical Shelters
Before Cheneyco is though, you’ll be glad you did!
Another PSA from your Uncle.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 17 2005 3:32 utc | 48
U.S.: 70 Insurgents Killed in Airstrikes
U.S. helicopters and warplanes bombed two villages near the restive city of Ramadi, killing around 70 militants, the military said Monday. Officials said all the dead were insurgents, though witnesses said at least 39 were civilians.
…
On Sunday, a group of around two dozen Iraqis gathered around the wreckage of the U.S. vehicle and were hit by the airstrikes by U.S. warplanes, both the military and witnesses said.
The military said in a statement that the crowd was setting another roadside bomb in the location of the blast when F-15 warplanes hit them with a precision-guided bomb, killing around 20 people, described by the statement as “terrorists.”
But several witnesses and one local leader said the people were civilians who had gathered to gawk at or take pieces of the wreckage, as often occurs after an American vehicle is hit.
A tribal leader, Chiad Saad, said the airstrike hit the crowd, killing 25 people civilians. Several witnesses corroborated his version, though they refused to give their names out of fear for their safety.
The other deaths occurred in the village of Al-Bu Faraj. The military said a group of gunmen opened fire on a Cobra attack helicopter that had spotted their position. The Cobra returned fire, killing around 10. The remaining gunmen ran into a nearby house, where they were seen unloading weapons. An F/A-18 warplane struck the building with a bomb, killing 40 insurgents, the military said.
Witnesses said at least 14 of the dead were civilians. First, one man was wounded in an airstrike, and when he was brought into a nearby building, warplanes struck the building, said the witnesses, refusing to give their names for concern about their safety.
I guess they had voted NO.
Are British troops at breaking point in Iraq?
Fears that British forces in Iraq are reaching “breaking point” grew last night as the first hard evidence of a crisis in morale began to emerge…
Posted by: Outraged | Oct 18 2005 11:07 utc | 50
so where was that thread on what the next terror alert is to be.
HAS THIS BEEN RESOLVED YET??
Posted by: eftsoons | Oct 18 2005 17:27 utc | 51
Wanderin thru the NYT vainly searching for mea culpaturned up this tale of
“Military gambling is a big business. About $2 billion flows through military-owned slot machines at officers’ clubs, activities centers and bowling alleys on overseas bases each year. Most flows back out as jackpots, but 6 percent remains with the house, about the same ratio as in Las Vegas.
Each year, the armed forces take in more than $120 million from on-base slot machines and $7 million from Army bingo games at home. These funds help pay for recreational programs for the troops.”
I’m not much of a wowser but there’s something about gambling that really gets my goat. I suspect it’s that when people gambled on horses or even numbers it was a complicated ritual that employed lots of interesting people.
I don’t know the figures but the problem Gambling Foundation down here reckon that the majority of gambling is now done with slot machines ahead of horse and dog racing, raffles, lotteries and sports betting. The bulk of casino takings are from the pokie machines. (all are legal here since the gutless leaders think its a painless way to raise revenue).
Comparing having a quinella on the 5th race at the track with slot machines is pretty much trying to say that pot is the same as crystal meth. When betting on a horse or even buying a lotto ticket generally you have to interact with others. This not only slows the gambler down it also means that he/she has a bit of a reality check each time they have a punt. Slot and net gambling is onanism as the gambler is totally self absorbed right through the experience.
Anyway as little time as I may have for people choosing to make their living by shooting at other people, the idea of US bases in Iraq running to the rhythym of the clatter, bells, flashing lights and misery of slot machines must appall any reasonable person.
Forget about the troops for a minute, what chance does that civilian have of not getting shot when shooting ragheads seems a welcome relief from the stress of always being up against it financially.
Gambling is also a team wrecker. It can really subvert the natural dynamic of a group as the gamblers become desperate and switch from borrowing from their buddies to stealing from them.
Still it does reveal the absolute contempt the defence administration holds the oft praised but badly paid ‘boys and girls’ in.
Be good to hear Abrahamoff convincing his tamed holy rollers that letting the troops access a little recreation by poverty should be supported out of patriotism rather than the usual cheque.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Oct 20 2005 1:15 utc | 53