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April 12, 2006
OT 06-32
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Lacking Biolabs, Trailers Carried Case for War
On May 29, 2003, 50 days after the fall of Baghdad, President Bush proclaimed a fresh victory for his administration in Iraq: Two small trailers captured by U.S. and Kurdish troops had turned out to be long-sought mobile “biological laboratories.” He declared, “We have found the weapons of mass destruction.”
The claim, repeated by top administration officials for months afterward, was hailed at the time as a vindication of the decision to go to war. But even as Bush spoke, U.S. intelligence officials possessed powerful evidence that it was not true.
A secret fact-finding mission to Iraq — not made public until now — had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. Leaders of the Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous findings to Washington in a field report on May 27, 2003, two days before the president’s statement.
…
more mutiney
from b’s link
who were dispatched to Baghdad by the Defense Intelligence Agency for an analysis of the trailers.
the DIA is the same agency whose name was blocked out in the ‘ Archives OK’d Removing Records’ jj just linked to. no wonder they want records hidden if this is the kind of crap they’re up to.
Posted by: annie | Apr 12 2006 8:26 utc | 2
Native Americans Want ‘Bunker Buster’ Test Stopped
The test has been named ”Divine Strake,” adding to the outrage felt by many Native Americans, who say the test site sits on sacred land.
”It’s a mystery why they call it ‘divine’,” said Carrie Dann, a grandmother and executive director of the Western Shoshone Defense Project. ”Isn’t ‘divine’ used for your deity, God, your sacredness? Why don’t they call it ‘Hell Strake?”’
”When you are working testing weaponry of destruction of life, you should not associate it with ‘divine’,” Dann added. ”We want this insanity to stop. No more bombs and no more testing.”
Posted by: annie | Apr 12 2006 8:41 utc | 3
The question Annie raises with reference to the Shoshones is well taken. On the other hand, there is a tradition for using godnames for weapons — Atlas, Nike, Titan…
More salient though is the name of the first nuclear “device” ever. On July 16, 1945, in the early morning hour, TRINITY was torched and the countdown to our end as dominant species on this planet was begun.
Why “Trinity”? Don’t know, I guess maybe because they only had enough shit to make three bombs at the time.
The other two were “Little Boy”, set off on my birthday over Hiroshima and “Fat Man”, set off over Nagasaki three days later.
Whatever you do, please try to remeber this:
All the bombs are in the hands of terrorists
Jeeze, I forgot to mention the arcane in “Divine Strake”.
I assume most, like me, read it as, or thought it was supposed to be “Divine strike” — but no, “Strake” has a meaning, which in this context is chilling.
A “strake” is a line of planks on a boat which goes from stem to stern. The implication I understand is that the name means “we will, like the Wrath of God Almighty, go from stem to stern to wipe out Iran’s (udgodly) nuclear capability”
There’s been some talk that some military is worried even working against these plans.
However remember that the USAF is by far the highest infiltrated US armed force by born-again elements who see Armeggedon as “no problem” as Jesus will come make it all good again.
Excuse whiles I go puke again…
BarfHead
Posted by: BarfHead | Apr 12 2006 16:25 utc | 6
a worthy read on von rumsfeld’s “mendacity, duplicity, smirking chatter and deadly ideological blindness”
chris floyd: The Slander That Launched Don Rumsfeld’s Career
In 1963, John F. Kennedy nominated Paul H. Nitze as Secretary of the Navy. This was actually a demotion for Nitze, who, as Carroll notes, had been at the very heart of American power for almost 20 years by then. He was in fact one of the godfathers of the Cold War, a Wall Street blue-blood turned high-level bureaucrat who served several presidents but was always driven by the same vision: projecting American dominance to the four corners of the earth, using an ever-expanding nuclear arsenal as the tip of the spear.
…
Nitze was the author of NSC-68, the document that more than any other engineered the militarization of American society and constituted the re-founding of the country as a “National Security State,” controlled by the military-industrial complex and driven by a nightmare vision of exaggerated threats, craven fear, secrecy and deception, bellicosity and brinkmanship. This vision has waxed and waned in intensity at various times over the years, but it has never been displaced as the central dynamic of American power. The demonic, all-powerful enemy has now morphed from the Soviet Union to Islamic extremism, but the paranoid rhetoric and “Pentagon uber alles” philosophy of the Cold War has been seamlessly transferred whole cloth to the supposedly transformed “post-9/11 age.”
And in the Bush administration, this nightmare Nitzean philosophy has reached its apotheosis in the war-making, liberty-gutting dictatorship of the Commander-in-Chief that George W. Bush proclaims more openly every day. Thus Nitze is one of the Founding Fathers of the new Bushist State, and Rumsfeld is one of his most dutiful sons.
All the more ironic then, that Rumsfeld began his career with a vicious smear of Nitze during his confirmation hearings for the Navy nomination.
Posted by: b real | Apr 12 2006 18:17 utc | 8
It was necesary to frighten Americans and lie to them to get them on board for the Iraq invasion. They would never have accepted the real reasons, which were, in no particular order:
control – and I do mean control – not extraction on the part of the US right now – of energy stocks
– support and help for Israel, the US toehold in the ME, linked to the above geo-economic aim
– the desire of the PTB in the US (and elsewhere) to earn billions of dollars through war, recontruction, control of illicit trade (drugs amongst others) as well as cornering certain export markets, e.g. wheat (Howard can cry his eyes out, too bad, they tried hard.)
– the aim of certain leaders in the US to rally the public to their side by being extravagant and pro-active – such as being a War President rather than some dope who tries to manage the budget, health insurance, gun control. etc.
– the need to keep being top of the heap, and thus attack rather than compromise, to stop other countries from re-arming or becoming more bellicose on their own – and thus gaining power – keeping them under the umbrella of the US – by showing military might and determination. This applies in various ways to Saudi Arabia, Japan, Germany, for example.
So far, it has been a success. Bush supporters and most elected Democrats understand all this perfectly, either confusedly (The US is the mightiest and best county in da world! Death to the rag heads who have been illegitimately favored by nature).. or specifically in terms of their own status, power, and bank accounts.
—-
Look at the numbers, a huge % of Americans say that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake and that now the US should withdraw (sorry no links to hand but everyone will know this) and at the same time some staggering majority says that Iran should be invaded / bombed. The people who exhibit these attitudes understand the stakes very well. Iraq was a failure, move on, do better, the US must keep its hegemony, and that can only be guaranteed by more war-mongering, and more successful attacks. Basically, that means pulling out the stops.
Everone knows by now that you cannot defeat ‘insurgents’ in towns, or strange desert coutryside, the rebels have the advantage and low tech means (“immoral” actions such as suicide bombing) that will see to it that the occupier cannot win. (Shades of Vietnam.)
Something more, better, more apocalyptic, showing guts and determination, will, supremacy, is needed.
—
So who is fighting here, nation states or corporations that want to cash in? The answer is: both, together, is variously shaped alliances, and that is why things are so difficult to understand. The US would surely prefer an Islamic dictatoship in Iran over any kind of democratic arrangement. That is what they have right now, they will see to it that that state of affairs endures. Once things have stabilised, the proper Mafia arrangement made, the power realtions made crystal clear, they can discuss Iran recognising Israel.
Posted by: Noisette | Apr 12 2006 20:22 utc | 9
Just read it Pee Dee.
Absolutely correct.
As John Mitchell said, watch what we do, not what we say.
Posted by: Groucho | Apr 13 2006 0:47 utc | 11
This has risen to the top of my must read websites. Crimes & Corruptions of the New World Order News . The format is abysmal – at least on a Mac – but so many must read articles. Today exc. one by Loyola Philosophy Prof. on Rise of Fascism in America – scroll down. He starts w/something I’ve long advocated – anti-trust laws are essential for a democracy. Does anyone know anything about this site?
Posted by: jj | Apr 13 2006 1:58 utc | 12
It’s all clear as mud now:
Transparent
Kibble in the bowl, Tukachevsky.
Yum! Yum!
Posted by: Groucho | Apr 13 2006 2:02 utc | 13
@Groucho
Speaking of mud…
Clarity
I think what you’ll find,
I think what you’ll find is,
Whatever it is we do substantively,
There will be near-perfect clarity
As to what it is.
And it will be known,
And it will be known to the Congress,
And it will be known to you,
Probably before we decide it,
But it will be known.
Secretary Of Defense, D.H. Rumsfeld
—Feb. 28, 2003, Department of Defense briefing*
Tukhachevsky ? No no, more like Dimitrov…
….Embryo American fascism is trying to direct the disillusionment and discontent of these masses into reactionary fascist channels. It is a peculiarity of the development of American fascism that at the present stage it comes forward principally in the guise of an opposition to fascism, which it accuses of being an “un-American” trend imported from abroad. In contradistinction to German fascism, which acts under anti-constitutional slogans, American fascism tries to portray itself as the custodian of the Constitution and “American democracy.”
w/a nod and tip o dee hat to Noisette
*Does the above redrum poem send chills up or down anyones else’s spine?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 13 2006 7:25 utc | 14
Nice Rolling Stone portrait of Abramoff: Meet Mr. Republican: Jack Abramoff
En route to his day of reckoning, Abramoff really did travel each and every right-wing highway, from Jo-burg in the old days to the Bush White House. But he’s being sentenced for only the last few miles of that trip. It’s almost an insult to a criminal of Abramoff’s caliber that the charge he’ll go to jail for is a low-rent wire-fraud scheme committed in a pickpocket capital like Miami Beach. In that one, Jack and his cronies claimed to have $23 million in assets when he didn’t have a dime, and he persuaded financial backers to purchase a $147.5 million cruise-ship casino empire. A nice score for a Gotti child, maybe, but a bit gauche for the wizard of the Republican fast lane.
Gramsci is Dead[?]
Roger Farr reviews Gramsci is Dead: Anarchist Currents in the Newest Social Movements by Richard J.F. Day
In Gramsci is Dead: Anarchist Currents in the Newest Social Movements, Richard Day reassesses from an anarchist perspective the “logic of hegemony” that unites classical Marxism and liberalism, and declares that this logic has been “exhausted” by recent social movements. To support his argument that certain strains of contemporary struggle have broken with this logic in favour of “direct affinity” and “structural renewal”, terms he recovers from Landauer and Kropotkin, Day examines several examples of autonomous organizing and offers new readings, informed by post-structuralism and autonomist theory, of classical anarchism. Achieving an admirable balance between the demands of high-theory and the need to make his argument comprehensible, Day makes an important contribution to social theory in general, and to “post-anarchist” theory in particular. While this book is certain to be controversial among activists (the critique of “the politics of demand and recognition”), academics (the truncated argument and polemical tone) and anarchists of every stripe (the authority granted to Marxist theory at the expense of the diverse, contemporary anarchist movement), in short, Day’s entire audience, it should nevertheless be read by anyone who is serious about creating radical, anti-authoritarian alternatives to the market and the state….
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 13 2006 17:25 utc | 18
secret police, military bases closures, anti war demonstrators, defense contractors, domestic spying,what does newsweek have to say??
Is Pentagon Creating a Secret Police Force?
“Intelligence experts warn that a proposal to merge two Pentagon intelligence units could create an ominous new agency. “
w/clips
An informal panel of senior Pentagon officials has been holding a series of unannounced private meetings during the past several weeks about how to proceed with a possible merger between the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), a post-9/11 Pentagon creation that has been accused of domestic spying, and the Defense Security Service (DSS), a well-established older agency responsible for inspecting the security arrangements of defense contractors.
CIFA, a mysterious and secretive unit created in 2002 and charged with making Defense counterintelligence efforts more effective, became the subject of two public controversies.
The merger was initially suggested by a government commission set up to recommend military base closures last year.
documents surfaced indicating that CIFA (whose mission, according to its own officials, is supposed to be limited to analysis of counterintelligence data produced by other agencies) was discovered to have put together a database that included reports on anti-administration demonstrators, including peace activists protesting alleged “war profiteering.”
According to one knowledgeable official, who asked for anonymity because of the extreme sensitivity of the subject, since its creation CIFA has on at least a handful of occasions requested access to the secret files stored in the mine without adequate explanation. As a result, the source said, DSS rejected the requests. A merger between CIFA and DSS would weaken those internal controls, the source said.
Another controversy over CIFA took hold during the corruption scandal surrounding former San Diego congressman Randall (Duke) Cunningham, who before he resigned in disgrace earlier this year, had been a member of both the House Intelligence Committee and the Armed Services Committee. Federal prosecutors alleged Cunningham used his congressional influence to direct CIFA to grant defense contracts to a company called MZM.
Bill Arkin, who first brought allegations about CIFA’s domestic spying to light, says that in its efforts to trying eliminate waste and better coordinate intelligence activities, “we are creating an American military secret police that is clearly acquiring way too much information and way too much power.”
“The Defense Security Service takes the release of personnel files and the information contained therein very seriously … For the purposes of disclosure and disclosure accounting, the Department of Defense is considered a single agency. Notwithstanding, disclosures of DSS records within DOD are only authorized when a justifiable official need for the information exists. These same safeguards would apply in the event of a merger with CIFA.”
Posted by: annie | Apr 13 2006 17:40 utc | 19
Some anti-semitic creed …
Palestinians living under the Israeli occupation are imprisoned in a thicket of physical, corporeal barriers of all types and sizes (checkpoints, roadblocks, blockades, fences, walls, steel gates, roads prohibited to traffic, dirt embankments, concrete cubes) and by a frequently updated assortment of bans and limitations. There are permanent bans, to which various periodic bans are supplemented, such as the aforementioned ban on travel to Anabta. Even without recurrent nighttime raids by the army to arrest wanted men, even without the shelling that fails to stop the firing of Qassam rockets, life is completely disrupted.
[…]
The Israeli uber-wardens seem to have special fondness for meddling in Palestinian family life, and not only when one of the spouses is an Israeli citizen. Their agents in the Civil Administration prevented, for instance, entry into the West Bank (not Israel) to the Turkish wife of a Palestinian resident; to an individual whose relative died (“because the relative was not a first-degree relative”); to a woman whose father-in-law died (a relation that is not considered first-degree); to a father whose son had taken ill (with the excuse that other family members had entered the West Bank on tourist visas, and, according to records, had not left the West Bank when their visas expired).
[…]
Planners of the separation fence have shown not only a weakness for the available lands of the Palestinians, but also a weakness for separating families. If the fence route now being proposed is approved, approximately 570,000 dunams (140,000 acres) of Palestinian land (approximately 10 percent of the area of the West Bank) are expected to be wedged between the separation fence and the Green Line. In other words, they would be essentially annexed to Israel.
[…]
They continue to invent prohibitions because there is no one raising a voice against it. And they are responsible for not only seriously disrupting the lives of Palestinians, but also implanting the jailor mentality in thousands of Israeli young people, soldiers, clerks and policemen – an intoxicating mentality of those who treat those weaker than they with impunity.
News of other looming disasters…swing by Wayne Madsen..It’s not clear if he’s mouthing off or if something’s in the works, coup-wise. W/talk of land-invasion of Iran it wouldn’t suprise me if there was.
Equally disastrous, after the rich & corps. have bankrupted the nation & need to have their tax rates on everything ratched way up to pay off the deficits caused by their greed, xDems. found some jerk w/cred from standing up to Nixon, to be stalking horse for most dangerous regressive tax policy imaginable. Mike Gravel -Alaska – will be first xDem. to file papers to run in ’08. Is he running on anything useful like the rich paying off the deficits, or bringing the factories home now? No, of course not. He advocates further war on the rest of us. Eliminate All Corp. taxes & the IRS – implement radical right wacko flat tax – 23% national sales tax. Wayne has rundown & drudge link.
Posted by: jj | Apr 13 2006 19:04 utc | 21
OK. It’s a long week-end. If by any chance it’s a rainy long week-end in your part of the world, or you are otherwise in the lucky position of having nothing to do and all day to do it in, here is a little diversion.
First, learn about bittorrent. Then find yourself a free copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Ah well, even if you have never before been particularly interested in flying, it’s always good to broaden your horizons by at least attempting something a little different.
Once you have Flight Simulator (FS) up and running (make sure you have a good monitor and sound system) – you are ready for basic training in a Cesna.
Now, based on my Flight Simulator experience (over a number of years), you actually might not be a skiiled Cesna pilot by Tuesday, but at least you can get a taste of what it is all about.
After some experience in the Cesna, the more adventurous individual might want to try out a commercial jet. You don’t even have to take off or land, but you can switch your Cesna mid-flight for a Boeing.
A couple of training exercises. While flying at 500 mph, see if you can find a specific airport. Score 10 points OUT OF 10 if you can even crash the Boeing within 5 miles of the runway on your first attempt.
Once you get a feel for this game, read this article.
Hani Hanjour: “His English was horrible, and his mechanical skills were even worse. It was like he had hardly even ever driven a car. I’m still to this day amazed that he could have flown into the Pentagon. He could not fly at all.”
Posted by: DM | Apr 14 2006 0:04 utc | 23
Interesting energy game: Resolving a Supply Dispute, Armenia to Buy Russian Gas
In a settlement of the latest natural gas dispute in the former Soviet Union, Armenia will receive natural gas supplies from Russia at prices well below European averages until 2009. In exchange, it will surrender a small but crucial section of gas pipeline to Russia.
…
Gazprom in turn will buy a 24-mile section of pipe connecting Armenia to Iran, which other than Russia is the only plausible source of energy supplies in the region. Also under the deal Gazprom, through a joint venture, was granted a concession to build a larger second pipeline along this route.
…
The pipeline route from Iran through Armenia that Gazprom now controls with its 24-mile section has been discussed by energy analysts as a possible export corridor for Iranian gas to Europe.
That probably solves one question for some Germans. War on Iran or a warm apartment?
jsut checking out the site meter, pg 4 has an interesting entry
Posted by: annie | Apr 14 2006 18:07 utc | 25
are they going to show up at my door and haul me away?
Posted by: annie | Apr 14 2006 18:09 utc | 26
How do you check out the site meter?
scroll down to the bottom of this screen, mouse over the lower left corner and open the site meter link in a new tab/window. the menu there links to “who’s on?”
also, some browsers will let you block the site meter icon which may provide some anonymity
Posted by: b real | Apr 14 2006 18:36 utc | 28
Thanks, annie. I’ll check that tonight. I’m off to work, but just wanted to file wkend request for the Barkeep. It’s easter wkend. Could we have an easter/spring solstice/renewal thread? (I just found some interesting stuff I’d like to share.) I think we need it!
Posted by: jj | Apr 14 2006 18:46 utc | 30
Stolen military data for sale in Afghanistan
this story is more flushed than the one that came out yesterday
Some of the data would be valuable to the enemy, including:
Names and personal information for dozens of DOD interrogators;
Documents on an “interrogation support cell” and interrogation methods;
IDs and photos of U.S. troops.
With information like this, “You could cripple our U.S. intelligence collection capability in Afghanistan,” says Francona.
Among the photos of Americans are pictures of individuals who appear to have been tortured and killed, most too graphic to show. NBC News does not know who caused their injuries. The Pentagon would not comment on the photos.
Posted by: annie | Apr 14 2006 20:14 utc | 32
Annie, b real; Thanks for pointing out the site meter map. I’ve often wondered what sort of geographical spread was represented on Moon; and whether I should use an onion router.
Posted by: PeeDee | Apr 14 2006 21:46 utc | 34
@annie
Siberia could be me, depending upon how the connection gets routed. It’s also equally likely that I am showing up as coming from Japan. I didn’t see any listing for South Korea servers on the meter when I peeked, so I’m not sure how I am showing up. I’m also checking the site from several different locations here (home, work, internet cafés, und so weiter), so I might be registering as coming from anywhere and everywhere. Except Raytheon. I’m pretty sure that’s not me.
Posted by: Monolycus | Apr 15 2006 3:09 utc | 35
@Monolycus:
I doubt they’re using router IPs; they’re using destinations. (Otherwise everything would show up as being near the physical location of the server!) So unless you’re either behind an NAT device in another country, or else using some sort of obfuscation system, you should show up fairly near your “real” location. More likely you had dropped off the end of the listing by the time you got to the listing, or else you’re coming up as “unknown country”, which is not shown on the map.
Posted by: The Truth Gets Vicious When You Corner It | Apr 15 2006 3:32 utc | 36
@Vicious Truth
I was curious, so I just played with it. If I pull the site up using AOL, it shows me coming from an undisclosed US location. If I pull the site up using a local browser, it shows me coming from East Asia (in this case, a city about three hours from where I am at). I also can’t get the maps to load for some reason.
These are the times I wish I knew more about technical issues than I do.
Posted by: Monolycus | Apr 15 2006 3:41 utc | 37
monolycus, i assumed you were in japan. also the color of the dots indivates the amount of users, and there were 19 in the siberian location, maybe it is some routing local. my son wants the compputer, i’m off.
Posted by: annie | Apr 15 2006 3:49 utc | 38
You need Macromedia for the maps.
The world map for (say) the last 100 visitors kinda tells the story. Nobody from the ME or Africa is interested in any of the ramblings here. Just Usuk, Oceania, Eastasia, a couple from S America, and some lucky bastard in the Carribean.
Posted by: DM | Apr 15 2006 3:51 utc | 39
@Monolycus:
It depends on what kind of connection you have. (To avoid charges of jargon, explanations of abbreviations are provided below using brackets.)
If you’re on dialup, then you will show up as coming from wherever your ISP [Internet Service Provider — the people on the other end when your computer dials up the modem] is located. (In effect, your computer doesn’t have an IP connection of it’s own, but is piggybacking off of the ISP using a system called PPP.) [Point-to-Point Protocol — you can think of it as bridging two locations directly.] So yes, AOL will show up differently.
If you are on DSL, then the same thing happens, because DSL is implemented using PPPoE (Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet — primarily used because it allows the phone company to control you more easily). I’m on DSL, myself, and I seem to be showing up as coming from the nearby large city where the ISP almost certainly has its center.
But if you have a cable modem, or anything more expensive/exotic like a T1 line, you may actually show up as coming from where you actually are located.
One of the things which IPv6 was designed to do was to eliminate the need for all these masked locations. They aren’t there to protect your privacy, they’re there because it’s more difficult for the ISPs to give you a real IP address. Unfortunately, a friend of mine who works for a big computer company doing networking stuff (among other things) says that IPv6 has been overengineered thanks to corporate demands that it be not just a protocol but also a dessert topping and floor wax, so it may not work like it was supposed to, assuming it can ever be started up in the first place.
Posted by: The Truth Gets Vicious When You Corner It | Apr 15 2006 4:11 utc | 40
@annie
Nope. South Korea here. Or the Republic of Korea. Or the Fourth Dynasty Joseon Hermit Kingdom. Or whatever the hell they call this place now.
@DM
I actually have Macromedia Flash, but I should probably update it. Thanks for the tip!
@Vicious Truth
As I said, I am checking from a number of locations and I believe each one has a different access method (cable and DSL primarily). Thanks for the techie-talk; I actually had no idea how any of this stuff works.
Still… doesn’t get us any closer to figuring out who the visitor from Raytheon. Probably just a tourist here checking out the gift shop. If it had been anything nefarious, I assume they would have masked their tracks.
Posted by: Monolycus | Apr 15 2006 4:31 utc | 41
Nobody from the ME or Africa is interested in any of the ramblings here.
As of now there are:
1 United States Gig Harbor, Washington
2 Korea, Republic of Seoul, Seoul-t’ukpyolsi
3 Iran, Islamic Republic of Irancheh, Chahar Mahall va Bakhtiari
4 United States Los Angeles, California
5 Germany Bramfeld, Hamburg
6 Philippines Quezon City
7 Canada Calgary, Alberta
8 United States Reston, Virginia
9 New Zealand
lots of other countries and from the ME also:
59 United Arab Emirates Dubai, Dubayy
Nothing from Africa, South America or the Poles.
@b
Ah, good. I’m glad to know that at least someone from Iran doesn’t get all their American perspectives from the MSM.
Do you have any compiled stats that may be of interest? If so, I’m sure most here would like an occasional update, particularly with the geographic spread (and maybe also the ‘Raytheon’ visitors – although I’m sure there are 10’s of thousands of Raytheon employees and that this doesn’t really tell us anything. For ‘amusment’ only I guess)
Posted by: DM | Apr 15 2006 7:48 utc | 43