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May 1, 2006
OT 06-38
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One of my first posts here at MoA was Tin Foil Hat Required about some folks running a private prison and other businesses in Kabul.
There is some news: Karzai’s Holiday Pardons Set an American Free
President Hamid Karzai granted an early release to Edward Caraballo, 44, an independent filmmaker from the Bronx, and to all other prisoners with less than a year to serve. Mr. Caraballo had served 21 months of a two-year sentence. The pardons were in honor of two national holidays, the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday and Afghanistan’s defeat of Communism.
Mr. Caraballo was convicted in 2004 along with two other Americans, Jonathan K. Idema, known as Jack, and Brent Bennett, former members of the United States military. All three were arrested at a house in Kabul where Afghan security forces said they found Afghan detainees and signs of interrogations. Mr. Idema and Mr. Bennett, who are serving longer sentences of five and three years, respectively, remain jailed.
Moussaoui Sentencing Jury Is Told Not to Do Its Own Research
Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 1 2006 8:15 utc | 2
Emery describes his arrest as ‘the greatest battle of my illustrious career’ and compares himself to Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. Becoming a martyr – preferably a living one – for the legalisation movement is the quickest way to achieve his goal of seeing marijuana legalised. ‘The war on marijuana is the most important issue of our time. I want to see drug-peace in my lifetime.’
A statement like the one above contained in a newspaper article on Canadian Marc Emery following his arrest by US DEA for selling millions of pot seeds fairly takes m’breath away.
It would be of no concern were that view a reflection of one egocentric whose personal obsession with one arcane detail of Western Culture was an uncommon and ugly example of messianic self obsession within a culture that generally adopted a much more global attitude towards the problems humankind faces as the population of humanity expands far beyond the ability of the planet to sustain the current number of humans in the manner to which they aspire.
Unfortunately this fellow’s obsession with a facet of the over-developed world’s self-indulgence is pretty much a mirror of the attitudes displayed by many who fight to reduce oppression within their over-developed society.
A large section of of the populace in over-developed societies are content to abrogate social responsibility, and content to allow faceless, and mostly nameless members of the tiny population of humanity contained within humanity’s power structure to make all their decisions for them.
Today May 1 2006 is an apt time to consider these issues.
For many of us mayday is the day where we celebrate the beautiful and wondrous species that is humanity while we look towards finding ways that all people can enjoy the best of what our species does, thereby alleviating the suffering of those people who get to cop the worst of humanity’s excess.
Yep it is bad that people have had the choice of what they ingest into their own bodies removed from them. However because there is an element of freedom to choose whether one becomes oppressed by the anti drug establishment it is pretty far down the list of ‘important issues’.
I raise this, in this context, because time and time again through the discussions on the ‘best way forward’ between self proclaimed humanists we see other minor issues raised as the ‘most important issue of our time’.
I have been doing a great deal of thinking about this very subject; that forceful resistance to oppression is mostly confined to immediate inconveniences where we have a personal stake in seeing the oppression alleviated.
Meanwhile the actions which inflict the greatest amount of suffering on humanity are resisted with a ‘tokenism’ that certainly helps those of us resisting feel a little less implicated in the outrage, but does sweet fuck all to change anything.
Yes, we can look at USuk activities in the Middle East and say that is the area where the most people in the world are currently being the most oppressed, i.e. raped slaughtered and burgled, but we really can’t even call that “the most important issue of our time”. And no I’m not doing a George Clooney here and pointing to Darfur.
The reason is simple. The number of populations and peoples around the world who are currently being fucked over as a result of the ‘might is right’ colonialism by stealth, designed to create a monocultural empire, is far larger and more diverse than any of us can possibly imagine.
A quick example. If you asked most members of the global resistance about East Timor they would probably consider that to be a ‘win’, a positive outcome in a world of death and loss.
In fact it is anything but that. The people of east Timor are starving. Just last week in Dili 400 former members of the East Timorese Armed Forces rioted chiefly because these guys (many of whom were former members of Fretilin, the Timorese Independence fighters) had been dismissed for complaining about working conditions. The BBC article I have pointed at blames ‘favouritism’ as the cause of the problem but the cause is much deeper and far more fundamental.
Back in 1970 when Portugal ostensibly still controlled East Timor the Australians and the Indonesians sat down and brokered a deal whereby Indonesia would invade and colonise East Timor and Australia would support the action, simply and effectively, by not opposing it.
In return for it’s silence, Australia would grab 60% of the huge offshore oil field which lies in the Timor Gap midway between Timor and Australia. Indonesia coming off a base of 0% was happy to settle for 40%. Oh and of course now it was the Timorese who got 0%.
Well the expulsion of Indonesia from Timor occurred far more quickly than the Australians could keep up with so they sent their armed forces into Timor after the Indonesian expulsion claiming to be going to ‘protect the people’, but in reality to protect “their investment”.
Once the Indonesians were driven out, Australia flatly refused to resile from the 60-40 split. They could afford this as they already had sufficient ‘holes in the ground’ to be able to wait for Timor Gap revenue.
It may additionally help to consider that while the fighting in Timor was largely done by indigenous Timorese led by Xanana Gusmao, the international representation of the independence movement was lead by Jose Ramos Horta and the political leadership of Fretilin came from Gusmao’s second in command Francisco Guterres. Both of these chaps are Timorese born, although they come from former Portuguese colonialist families.
It wouldn’t surprise to discover that Horta who successfully organised financing for the resistance, which toward the end came chiefly from Portuguese and other European oil interests, had not objected to a continuation of the 60% 40% split. After all the Europeans were coming off the same low base in 1999 (0%), that the Indonesians had been in 1970. The change of administration in the US in 2000 probably also meant that pressure was placed upon Australia to offer up the tab for the US protection racket.
Indonesia had been going to pay this to the US through through gun-running until Clinton (admittedly in a vain attempt to polish up his extremely tarnished halo) withdrew support for Indonesia in ’99.
One thing is for sure, John Howard made the dispute between Timor and Australia a sort of siege a la Israel v Hamas in Palestine . The result is few if any countries are coming through with the foreign aid they had promised Timor in 2002.
Incredible pressure is being placed on the Timorese to permit this blatant theft of their resource returns. Hence no money to pay wages to the bureaucracy or military. “C’mon Timor say uncle”.
Timor is an area where personal circumstance allowed a little more insight into reality than otherwise would have been the case. Another situation where I am free to say much less because the story is that of a member of my whanau rather than my own is that of the recent release of a group hostages from Iraq.
Manipulations by a budding Murdoch style media empire resulted in a family member being harassed in Dubai, and Jordan and here at home, by the Mounties of all people. . .
Well actually it was the Canadian security services who had jurisdiction in none of the countries. Most people are under the impression that the Canadian government like the German government is opposed to the illegal invasion of Iraq.
The actions of the security services of both countries belie that supposition.
In fact the inaction of my own government to the aggressive actions of the Canadians leads me to the conclusion that they also behave contrary to the will of their people on the Iraq invasion, slaughter and burglary.
So the most powerful organs of the governments of ‘over-developed nations’ still support colonial enterprises whether or not their voters desire it. It is this activity by the governing institutions of over-developed nations, that requires the often clandestine restrictions on people’s freedoms throughout the developed world.
We have no idea of all the instances of injustice and oppression that are occurring around the world as a result of the extortion of economically poor but resource rich nations.
If we are concerned about the tiresome and trifling restrictions on personal freedom within our over-developed society, things like the restriction on ingesting the intoxicant of choice, the tapping of telephone calls between citizens, or the inability to openly demonstrate one’s feelings about one’s rulers, in front of one’s rulers, then the best way to rid ourselves of these intrusions is to attack the base neccessity of those restrictions, and that is the continuing colonisation of the majority by the minority in places like Iraq, Iran, Darfur, Timor and Venezuala.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 1 2006 8:30 utc | 3
ahhhh, I was curious as to what the FBI wanted with the Jack Anderson’s papers after hearing Amy Goodman Interviewing the director of the journalism program at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs last week, along with Jack Anderson’s son whose family has refused to turn over and thereby retains the boxes in question. The answer of which I find very plausable:
Poppa Doc Busch
April 29, 2006 — FBI agents lied about what they wanted from Jack Anderson’s papers. The FBI agents who, in December, approached Olivia Anderson, the widow of deceased investigative reporter Jack Anderson and more recently, in March, author and researcher Mark Feldstein, who is writing a book about Jack Anderson, were interested in far more than the names of sources in the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) espionage case. That explanation by the FBI did not hold any water since Jack Anderson had not been active in pursuing that particular story — he had suffered from Parkinson’s Disease since 1986. According to individuals close to the FBI fishing expedition, the actual documents the FBI wanted to seize were files Anderson collected in the 1960s that linked George H. W. Bush’s activities in Texas in 1963 to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22 of that year. Bush was a friend of George DeMohrenschildt, Lee Harvey Oswald’s Belarusian-born contact officer. DeMohrenschildt befriended Oswald and arranged for him to settle in Dallas after leaving the Soviet Union. DeMohrenshildt “committed suicide” shortly before he was due to testify before the 1978 House Assassinations Committee. The elder Bush’s name, address, and phone number in Midland, Texas was found in DeMohrenshildt’s address book under the heading “Poppy.”
Anderson’s papers contain information on George H. W. Bush’s role in Dallas in November 1963. Dubya ordered papers seized and withheld as “classified” U.S. government documents. It is clear that the man standing in front of the Texas School Book Depository and his son have much to be worried about.
In addition, the FBI wanted to remove from future public circulation Anderson documents that point to George H. W. Bush conspiring with the government of the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran to keep U.S. hostages imprisoned in Iran until after the 1980 presidential election and avoid an “October Surprise” for Carter. The agreement between the Iranians and Bush (who was working with William Casey) sank the chances for Jimmy Carter’s re-election and George H. W. Bush’s entry into the White House as Vice President. The hostages were released at the very time Ronald Reagan took the oath of office in 1981. That operation would lay the ground for future Bush-Tehran collusion in the Iran-Contra scandal. Another set of files involve the links between the Bush family and that of Ronald Reagan’s would-be assassin John W. Hinckley. Had Hinckley succeeded in killing Reagan, the Bush political agenda would have commenced in earnest in 1981 rather than 1989.
The Bush family has been known to use retired FBI agents as their political heavies and clean up men in the past — most notably to erase the Bush links to Dallas. George W. Bush’s departing Press Secretary Scott McClellan has a close relative who continued to muddy the waters about the JFK assassination. McClellan’s father, Barr McClellan, wrote a book claiming it was Lyndon Johnson, not George H. W. Bush, who conspired to kill the president.
You really should take a gander over there to view poppies pic in Dallas.
As Michael Hasty wrote,
“…Nor, finally, is it in any way a “theory” that the one, single name that can be directly linked to the Third Reich, the US military industrial complex, Skull and Bones, Eastern Establishment good ol’ boys, the Illuminati, Big Texas Oil, the Bay of Pigs, the Miami Cubans, the Mafia, the FBI, the JFK assassination, the New World Order, Watergate, the Republican National Committee, Eastern European fascists, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the United Nations, CIA headquarters, the October Surprise, the Iran/Contra scandal, Inslaw, the Christic Institute, Manuel Noriega, drug-running “freedom fighters” and death squads, Iraqgate, Saddam Hussein, weapons of mass destruction, the blood of innocents, the savings and loan crash, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, the “Octopus,” the “Enterprise,” the Afghan mujaheddin, the War on Drugs, Mena (Arkansas), Whitewater, Sun Myung Moon, the Carlyle Group, Osama bin Laden and the Saudi royal family, David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, and the presidency and vice-presidency of the United States, is: George Herbert Walker Bush.”
“Theory?” To the contrary.
I believed it then it still resonates today.
Not to even mention Porter (kennedy assasination) Goss.
.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 1 2006 9:16 utc | 4
Iran ‘attacks Iraq Kurdish area’
Iraq has accused Iranian forces of entering Iraqi territory and shelling Kurdish rebel positions in the north.
Iranian troops bombed border areas near the town of Hajj Umran before crossing into Iraq, the defence ministry in Baghdad said on Sunday.
It said the Iranians targeted the PKK, a Kurdish group that has waged a 15-year insurgency against Turkey.
The PKK is believed to have links with anti-Iranian Kurdish fighters. There are no details on casualties.
There will be more of this – think Gulf of Tonkin
How the bullshit works:
“Flight 93” the movie, why?
But maybe the “why” can be answered in part by “who” made Flight 93. It arrived packaged and promoted by Universal Studios, which is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns NBC, which is all owned by General Electric, media giant and major weapons contractor. What’s more according to la.indymedia.org, General Electric donated $1.1 million to GW Bush for his 2000 election “run.” MSNBC is an NBC joint venture with MS or Microsoft that kicked in $2.4 million to get GW Bush elected. Now, where do you think the movie’s point of view is coming from?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 1 2006 19:05 utc | 6
I think this is significant:
Angry cadets riot following drug search
West Point – Cadets angry over a drug search rioted for more than an hour last week, throwing fireworks and garbage from their barracks in an uproar one officer described as “shameful.”
“Hundreds of cadets were hollering obscenities out of their windows and some were throwing objects,” in what the unidentified officer termed a riot in an incident summary obtained by the Times Herald-Record.
…
Lt. Col. Kent P. Cassella, a West Point spokesman, confirmed the events but downplayed their significance. He said no one was injured and nothing was damaged during the disturbance on April 19. He said no one was disciplined as a result of the incident.
…
Around 6 a.m., cadets awoke to a fire drill in the barracks complex. They left the barracks, as ordered.
Then, while cadets were still outside, teams of drug-sniffing canine units entered the dormitories. The academy’s 4,000 students waited while military and local police combed through their rooms.
…
“About 2,000 cadets were involved and witness to this travesty,” it read. Officers on duty “could not believe what they were witnessing!”
Two issues:
1. That this happens at all.
2. That there are no consequences, i.e. cadets are not fired.
Bolivia Military Told to Occupy Gas Fields
“The time has come, the awaited day, a historic day in which Bolivia retakes absolute control of our natural resources,” Morales said in a speech from the San Alberto petroleum field in southern Bolivia to decree what he called a nationalization of the natural gas industry.
A longtime Defense Department consultant who has taught strategy at three of the military’s top war colleges, Gardiner had participated throughout the 1990s in a series of war games that simulated attacks on Iraq. He was familiar with Iraq’s military and was therefore surprised to hear officials, such as the Army Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, the deputy director of operations of Central Command’s headquarters in Qatar, tell the press of ongoing operations to eliminate “terrorist death squads.” The allegation struck Gardiner as odd. Matter-of-fact and precise in their speech, military officers would not typically refer to irregulars as “death squads.” More important, as far as Gardiner knew, in 2003, when the invasion began, Iraq had no “terrorist death squads.”
Gardiner believes that this formulation, which first entered the official vernacular a week after the invasion began, was a skillful execution of a classic propaganda technique known as the “excluded middle.” The excluded middle is premised on the idea that people, provided with incomplete but suggestive information, will draw false assumptions — in this case that Saddam Hussein had ties to terrorism and therefore to Al Qaeda (a connection that administration officials actively pushed during the run-up to the war).
Recommended!
Re-meme-ber back in the late eighties the whole video game controversy? Remember pac man?
Of course video games didn’t affect us [our] kids. I mean, if Pac Man affected our parents as kids they all would have been running around in dark rooms, listening to repetitive electronic music and munching magic pills …right?
Glad that never happened, er…uh…
Speaking of pacman, raedy to eat some dots kids?
MSNBC: Valerie Plame worked on Iran: Cover blown when she was outed! MSNBC Confirms Plame Was Working On Iran When She Was Outed
C&L has the video!
Did Plame out WH plans for finding WMD in Iraq?
My moment of zen…
Plame Network Stopped Bush From ‘Salting’ Iraq With WMDs
No! (snark)
Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 2 2006 2:30 utc | 10
A Riot @West Point? I’m speechless…Don’t think it’s ever happened. Wonder what the hell is going on & why it wasn’t front page @ that well-known rag down the Hudson.
#####
Grok what Paul Craig Roberts has written in his weekly piece – essentially his follow up to BGlobe art. yesterday on 750 laws Bu$hCo has broken, refused to implement etc.:
Bush has declared himself to be the sole judge of the limits of his powers–a claim that violates Bush’s oath of office to uphold the US Constitution. Bush has set aside the Bill of Rights by detaining people indefinitely without charges, by kidnapping and torturing people, and by spying on Americans without warrants. These are actions that are illegal under law as well as unconstitutional. All of these violations of law and the Constitution are serious impeachable offenses.
Yet, Congress is supine as the Bush regime exercises dictatorial powers. The exercise of these dictatorial powers by the executive is a far greater danger to American liberty than are Muslim terrorists.
Bush’s apologists claim that only terrorists have anything to fear. However, unaccountable executive power is inconsistent with free societies. America is no exception. Unless Bush is impeached and turned over to the war crimes court in the Hague, Americans will never reclaim their liberties from an executive branch that has established itself as the sole judge of the limits of its powers.Watching the Constitution Fade Away
The Former Asst. Ed. of farrr right-wing WSJ ed. page calling for trying xUS Pres. @the Hague. I was in a fury after the 2000 Coup d’etat, but I could never have imagined it would be this dangerous.
Posted by: jj | May 2 2006 3:11 utc | 11
good news: Turkey won’t allow US to use its bases
Turkey does not intend to allow the United States to launch an attack against Iran from the Inchirlik military base, Turkish news agencies reported Sunday.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told the Dubai-based al-Bayan that he doubted the US would ultimately choose to take military action, as “Iran has its own strategic advantages.”
Gul said that facilitating an attack against a neighboring country was “not an option,” despite the US offer to build Turkey a nuclear reactor as a counterbalance to Iran’s expanding nuclear facilities.
…
Turkey’s refusal to comply with the US request was another indication of the growing tension between the two nations, which, according to Gul, have not “seen a single day of positive stability since the Islamic party was elected to power [in 2002].”
Interesting Monbiot piece: Tough on crime, to hell with the causes of crime if they make money
It is about studies that prove how malenorishment (i.e. junkfood) increases the crime rate. Anybody tough on crime should thereby fight for less junk food advertisment.
Protest in S.Korea This was harsh, anyone know whats going on in S.Korea?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 2 2006 9:43 utc | 14
Riverben: American Hostages…
It was around 9 pm on the 11th of April when we finally saw the footage of Saddam’s statue being pulled down by American troops- the American flag plastered on his face. We watched, stunned, as Baghdad was looted and burned by hordes of men, being watched and saluted by American soldiers in tanks. Looking back at it now, it is properly ironic that our first glimpses of the ‘fall of Baghdad’ and the occupation of Iraq came to us via Iran- through that Iranian channel.
We immediately began hearing about the Iranian revolutionary guard, and how they had formed a militia of Iraqis who had defected to Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. We heard how they were already inside of the country and were helping to loot and burn everything from governmental facilities to museums. The Hakims and Badr made their debut, followed by several other clerics with their personal guard and militias, all seeping in from Iran.
Today they rule the country. Over the duration of three years, and through the use of vicious militias, assassinations and abductions, they’ve managed to install themselves firmly in the Green Zone. We constantly hear our new puppets rant and rave against Syria, against Saudi Arabia, against Turkey, even against the country they have to thank for their rise to power- America… But no one dares to talk about the role Iran is planning in the country.
…
A few days ago, we were watching one of several ceremonies they held after naming the new prime minister. Talbani stood in front of various politicians in a large room in the Green Zone and said, rather brazenly, that Iraq would not stand any ‘tadakhul’ or meddling by neighboring countries because Iraq was a ‘sovereign country free of foreign influence’. The cousin almost fainted from laughter and E. was wiping his eyes and gasping for air… as Talbani pompously made his statement- all big belly and grins- smiling back at him was a group of American army commanders or generals and to his left was Khalilzad, patting him fondly on the arm and gazing at him like a father looking at his first-born!
…
The big question is- what will the US do about Iran? There are the hints of the possibility of bombings, etc. While I hate the Iranian government, the people don’t deserve the chaos and damage of air strikes and war. I don’t really worry about that though, because if you live in Iraq- you know America’s hands are tied. Just as soon as Washington makes a move against Tehran, American troops inside Iraq will come under attack. It’s that simple- Washington has big guns and planes… But Iran has 150,000 American hostages.
from b’s mind games link above
The Defense Department’s Information Operations Task Force, created shortly after September 11, was to focus on “developing, coordinating, deconflicting, and monitoring the delivery of timely, relevant, and effective messages to targeted international audiences.”
The Office of Global Communications, under Tucker Eskew, a deputy assistant to the president and a longtime Republican communications consultant, touted a similar mission. A government organizational chart, dated July 2003, places this office at the nexus of the government’s strategic communications apparatus. But Daniel Kuehl, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who directs the Information Strategies Concentration Program at the National Defense University, believes the global communications office never lived up to its mandate.
Nor, perhaps, did it ever intend to. “In my opinion, the global issue wasn’t the reason why they were created,” he told me. “They clearly had a completely domestic focus. They were part of the effort to re-elect the president . . . . I’m going to be real pejorative here: Their goal was psychological operations on the American voting public. That was part of the political arm doing that.” He added, “You’ll notice that not long after the election, the Office of Global Communications no longer existed.” (Technically, it still exists, though it has been without a director for more than a year. No new content has been posted on its Web site, once updated regularly, since March 2005.)
Posted by: b real | May 2 2006 16:08 utc | 17
Iraq, Afghanistan on ‘failed states’ index
Despite large-scale U.S. support, Iraq and Afghanistan rank among the world’s 10 most vulnerable states, according to a private survey being released Tuesday.
I wonder when we’ll make that list…
Posted by: beq | May 2 2006 18:02 utc | 18
Some takes (and discussion) on the partitioning of Iraq. An intrepretation of the Biden plan as a repackaging of the same old neo-con plan of ethnic federalism.
Posted by: anna missed | May 2 2006 18:38 utc | 19
beq- Comments On Noam Chomsky’s New Bokk – Failed States
Having laid out his premises, Chomsky believes the US today exhibits the very features we cite as characteristics of “failed states” – a term we use for nations seen as potential threats to our security which may require our intervention against in self-defense. But the very notion of what a failed state may be is imprecise at best, he states. It may be their inability to protect their citizens from violence or destruction. It may also be they believe they’re beyond the reach of international law and thus free to act as aggressors. Even democracies aren’t immune to this problem because they may suffer from a “democratic deficit” that makes their system unable to function properly enough.
Chomsky goes much further saying if we evaluate our own state policies honestly and accurately “we should have little difficulty in finding the characteristics of ‘failed states’ right at home.”
Posted by: b real | May 2 2006 18:54 utc | 20
@ b real – From my link:
Each country was given a score based on data from numerous available sources. A “failing state” was described as one in which the government does not have effective control of its territory, is not perceived as legitimate by a significant portion of its population, does not provide domestic security or basic public services to its citizens and lacks a monopoly on the use of force.
Check.
Check.
Check.
Check.
and, oh well.
Posted by: beq | May 2 2006 19:04 utc | 21
(almost) failed state execution
Ohio man tells executioners “It’s not working”
A double murderer was put to death in Ohio on Tuesday but not until after one of his veins had collapsed, causing the condemned man to sit up and tell his executioners, “It’s not working,” officials said.
…
Spokeswoman Andrea Dean said the execution was delayed about 90 minutes because technicians had trouble initially finding a site in Clark’s arm for the intravenous line carrying the chemicals.
Then shortly after the poisons were supposed to have been pumping into his body, she said, he sat up saying, “It’s not working. It’s not working.”
Officials determined that a vein had collapsed. Curtains were closed to block witnesses’ view until technicians found a vein in his other arm. They were then parted to reveal him dying, witnesses said.
Posted by: b real | May 2 2006 19:09 utc | 22
Top CIA Official Under Investigation
A stunning investigation of bribery and corruption in Congress has spread to the CIA, ABC News has learned.
The CIA inspector general has opened an investigation into the spy agency’s executive director, Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, and his connections to two defense contractors accused of bribing a member of Congress and Pentagon officials.
Porter JFK Assassination Goss’s buddy.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 2 2006 20:20 utc | 23
IRT Riverbend’s post on Iranian militias taking over Iraq, I wonder if the US was really bamboozled by the Iranians. What kind of a game is this? Are the neocons really that stupid or are the Iranians really that smart?
I don’t believe in the hostage scenario, the US military has frightening and awesome firepower as well as air superiority in Iraq and the rest of the world for that matter. One Spectre gunship can do a lot of damage and there are quite a few already deployed along with many other instruments of killing.
It might get interesting for a few people should those militias attack US positions but I doubt the US would high tail it out. I just don’t see any kind of retreat no matter what. It will be bankers and other elites foreclosing on us that will force the withdrawal from Iraq should that ever happen and not a bunch of guys with rifles and RPGs.
Posted by: dan of steele | May 2 2006 21:39 utc | 24
Typepad, the service provider of this and some million other blogs says:
Since approximately 4:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time, Six Apart has been the victim of a sophisticated distributed denial of service attack. This has affected all of Six Apart’s sites, causing intermittent and limited availability for TypePad, LiveJournal, TypeKey, sixapart.com, movabletype.org and movabletype.com. Our network operations staff is working around the clock with our Internet access providers to resolve the issue. We appreciate your patience and support, and will provide updates as we have them.
Just so you known…
That’s helpful, b-, but after just reading Wayne Madsen, I don’t know if that’s more or less reassuring:
Ed. note: Yesterday, WMR was warned by a reliable European source that there was unusual access activity detected regarding our web site. Fifteen minutes later, our server, which also supports other web sites, temporarily went down. But we have the identity of the source of the unusual access activity: the US Army’s 5th Signal Command in Mannheim, Germany. Two component activities of the 5th Signal Command — the 2nd and 7th Signal Brigades — appear to be involved in information warfare operations and influence operations. Note to 5th Signal Command operators: by hacking into U.S. computers protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, you are in potential violation of Federal law (the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Section 1030, US Code, Fraud and related activity in connection with computers). If your Commanding Officer, Brig. Gen. Dennis Via, authorizes such illegal hacking, he is in violation of the law and it is your duty, pursuant to Army and DoD regulations, not to obey such illegal orders and report them to the Army Inspector General — 1-(800) 752-9747, 1-(703) 601-1060 or DSN: 329-1060.
Planning to take us all out, if they pull another 911/invade Iran etc? Or just unrelated screwups…Your post did use the term “sophisticated denial of service…” …
Posted by: jj | May 3 2006 6:13 utc | 27
Thanks, Bernhard. I was starting to suspect I might have been banned. It’s probably not healthy that I prefer malicious impersonal attacks.
Posted by: Monolycus | May 3 2006 6:14 utc | 28
Probably, one of the best overviews on US policy in Iraq – Iran – and the middle east in general – I’ve read yet. Jonathan Cutler.
Posted by: anna missed | May 3 2006 6:58 utc | 29
A good overview of the recent War on Iran history by Tariq Ali in The Guardian: This high-octane rocket-rattling against Tehran is unlikely to succeed
b,
It is interesting, if one is to assume that the neo-con Iraqi policy (from the Cutler perspective) as outlined by David Wormser, was predicated upon the CHANCE that a Shiite Iraq would pose a threat to the mullas in Iran — and having failed in that attempt (the Sadr wild card again) — what we now see is a preemtive re-Baathification, to hold the Iranian influence in check. Which all dovetails so conviently into the sudden outrage over Irans nuclear ambitions.
Posted by: anna missed | May 3 2006 8:07 utc | 31
@anna missed –
Thanks for the Cutler link – an eyeopener for understanding U.S. Middle East politics.
I agree with his conclusion:
The Left would do well to remember that there are at least two imperialist camps in Washington — one Right Arabist and one Right Zionist. Both are “sensible,” within the framework of imperialist statecraft. Neither deserves our embrace. Will Sistani — like the Shah before him — collaborate with Israel and police US interests in the Middle East? Or will the Baathists and Saudis patrol the region for the US? These are urgent questions for US imperialism. Not so for the anti-imperialist Left. Our demand is simple: Bring the troops home. Now.
@jj and others…
Planning to take us all out, if they pull another 911/invade Iran etc?
I not only think it, but know it in my bones…
That’s why a while ago, I had eluded to the idea of having a underground railroad type system in place so as to mirror the moon and other places like it so we can stay in contact when the rapturous strake falls.
I fully expect that at any given time, any day now, I will go to logon to the online refuges I’m drawn to and they will be MIA on direction of the war department; never to be seen again. Then (with whispered apologies to the Clash)
the clampdown will have begun in ernest.
When they kick out your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun…
~The Clash, The Guns Of Brixton
Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 3 2006 9:16 utc | 33
@Unca
Since the provisions of the USAPATRIOT Act (article 215) mandate that those who are detained or investigated may not communicate that fact to anyone, I am not waiting for people to go MIA before I scratch my head a little. If people begin posting erratically, I taqke it as a bad sign (which is why Billmon’s prolonged absenses followed by a manic level of output cause me some concern).
Let me go on record as saying that if I ever post anything that that mentions “that thing I was worried about”, then you will know what has happened.
Posted by: Monolycus | May 3 2006 9:35 utc | 34
Germany turns East:
Germany, Russia redraw Europe’s frontiers
Before the Tomsk summit, some had questioned whether Germany’s opening to Russia was a transitory phenomenon of the previous Social Democratic government or whether its successor would pick up the initiative and deepened and broaden the relationship. The meeting cleared up any doubts on that score and thus marks a turning point in Russian-German relations.
Merkel had at times vaguely hinted at her desire to maintain a degree of distance from Moscow. Indeed, Washington constantly urged her to do so. That was more or less the leitmotif of her visit to Washington in January. The Tomsk summit showed, nonetheless, that she intended to be guided by Germany’s core interests while continuing with Schroeder’s Russia policy. This would no doubt annoy Washington and those European capitals seeking a “tougher”, confrontational course vis-a-vis Moscow.
Thank you, Bernhard (#26). As I sat in front of my computer last night it occurred to me that I might have to buy a boat since I had suddenly acquired an anchor.
I never got a chance to buy annie and fauxreal a round at the “Packing” thread.
Posted by: beq | May 3 2006 12:19 utc | 36
WILLIAM ODOM has an interesting analysis on US options in Iraq.
Posted by: Groucho | May 3 2006 13:59 utc | 38
thanks for in info b. i had the same thoughts yesterday as uncle and monolycus. i know we have briefly discussed this before, but if the site is down how would we even post
“that thing I was worried about”
sometimes i wonder if you have everyone’s email address, but if mail is down it would make no difference. after the fall i will make a tee shirt w/’moon search’ scrawled w/marker on the back, and when you see me in a crowd, just approach me ;(
Posted by: annie | May 3 2006 14:42 utc | 40
All the warmongers in Washington, including Hitchens, if he falls into that camp, should get this through their heads. Americans are not fighting any more wars in the Middle East against toothless third rate powers. So sit down and shut up.
wow, if anyone got bored and didn’t make it to the end of cole’s post, go back.
One, two, three, four. We don’t want your stinking war
Posted by: annie | May 3 2006 16:20 utc | 42
b,
The thing I found most fascinating in the Cutler piece is that he is implying that it was David Wormser who was the primary architect of Bushes Iraq policy, and that the (sea) change in strategic “thinking” away from the usual realist type imperialism, to the neo-con Wilsonian type imperialism — explains a lot of what has happened. If the administration knew (and I think they did) that the case against Saddam was weak (WMD & AQ linkage) from the beginning, it makes sense, from their perspective, to have in place a neo-liberal mission that would be palitable enough (PR) to prolong the occupation indefinitly, or at least long enough to secure the desired (imperial) objective. An objective that has been proven unattainable by the standard realist type thinking a-la Poppa Bush, which failed in delivering these objectives. The change over to neo-liberal strategic thinking offered the possibility of a long range policy that could always be defended in good guy “bringing democracy” terms. Not to mention that such a strategy would have a strong appeal to the messianic chimp in the drivers seat. The weak link in such a plan is that the success of the plan would inadvertanatly bring the Shiites into power in Iraq while also strengthening pan Shiite power regionally — which seems so obvious — you would think it would have givin them pause. The fact that Wormser had this crazy notion that the rise of Shiite power in Iraqi would somehow discredit and eventually lead to an internal revolution against the mullas in Iran — is just fucking amazing — that they would predicste the whole ball of wax on such culturally clueless wishful thinking. But, this does seem to be the case, as the facts on the ground (in Iraq) now would indicate(in the rebaathification reversal). The outrage expressed by the realists (from both parties) would also confirm this, in that the brunt of their criticism is aimed at the so called “incompetence” of achieving the strategic (imperial) goals, and made all the more hysterical by the prospects of not only failing at strategic advancement — but of actually having the reverse effect of strengthening Iran, and thereby China and Russia. So much for the notion of “democratization” being used as the tool imperialism, or even capitalism, perhaps.
Posted by: anna missed | May 3 2006 17:45 utc | 43
@anna – I will have post up on that piece though not today.
A few points:
– Wurmser did write that book, but I am not sure he is the “thinker”. Leeden might have been the one forming the idea.
– If the administration knew (and I think they did) that the case against Saddam was weak (WMD & AQ linkage) from the beginning,
In fact they did know for sure that Saddam had none.
– as of Iran: The neocon plan does require an attack on Iran to bring it into the “peripheral” with Israel against Arabs, i.e. Saudi Arabia. The Saudi’s have understood the issue and are turning to China too.
On Iran
There is a high level German parliamentary delegation in Iran right now. It includes Mr. Polenz who is in a role a bit comparable to Lugar in the Senat, i.e. foreign policy heavyweigh and Merkel’s pal.
Irna has some reports.
Yesterday SPIEGEL and others in Germany reported that the Iranians offered Polenz/Germany an inbetween role for negotiations with the US. No english written outlet reported this.
Merkel is now in the US and is said to try to “calm” Bush on Iran – i.e. no sanctions.
Looks like she has seen the light on that one. Hey, Germany makes good business with Iran, why screw that up now? The middle to left is against any action on Iran anyhow. Now I bet she did get many phonecalls from highlevel businesspeople who told her to stop or at least not take part in this shit.
On the other side, the right hometown paper here is lying every day in every possible detail on Iran. Don´t worry, they will get some phonecalls too.
UNCLE $CAM*****
David Sirota, one of the few democrats left affiliated w/the JackAss Party, just released a book, “Hostile Takeover”, detailing the Takeover of the Govt. – both parties, by the Pirates. He’s speaking tonight in yr. neck of the woods – in Missoula, 7-9. Any chance you can attend, talk to him & do a thread?
(Hopefully, this will get grassroots attention refocused from merely reviling Bu$hCo. As basically conservative as Josh Marshall is, he’s been featuring the book this week on his site. Isn’t Will Marshall DLC heavyweight related to him?)
Posted by: jj | May 3 2006 18:59 utc | 46
Norway shifting/being shifted away from the US. Others will follow. It will take a decade, but the Europe US split is getting very real.
as if the dems and Louisiana didn’t already have enough problems, along comes a guy who could have made Randy Cunningham look like a rank amateur. $400,000 in bribes to Rep. William Jefferson
If only his last name were Clinton there would be much happiness in Red land tonight.
Posted by: dan of steele | May 3 2006 20:08 utc | 48
here is proof that some americans speak more than one language AND are not completely drunk on the Koolaid.
Posted by: dan of steele | May 3 2006 20:12 utc | 49
asia times is running a (sort of) review of gabriel kolko’s new book, which is interesting, but i picked up on this bit particularly
In a grossly oversimplified form, one of Kolko’s major themes is this (I apologize in advance because there is much more to the book):
Since World War II the United States has been increasingly willing to use its military might to impose its will on the world. But it is not sure exactly what its will is, and it has never evolved a workable doctrine that specifies its global role and how and when force should be used to achieve its ends. The result is haphazard foreign-policy decisions and ill-conceived military adventures embarked on without an understanding of local conditions and in utter disregard of possible consequences. Besides, Kolko argues, military means seldom if ever achieve the desired political ends. Still, the US goes in, with massive firepower, its smart bombs thinking overtime and its superweapons primed, only to find more often than not that its awesome arsenal is utterly unsuited for the job at hand. Thus it gets sucked in to prolonged, escalating conflicts such as Vietnam and Iraq, and its original intentions are forgotten as it fights on simply to avoid defeat and humiliation – in other words, to protect its credibility as a superpower.
and then perusing through a paper on lessons learned in PSYOP activities in both afghanistan & iraq and the authors point out one problem that makes it difficult to run effective PSYOP missions is not having solid messages to convey:
The question of whether Washington, DC, can generate national themes and help theater and tactical PSYOP stay on message with appropriate political content and product reviews is no small matter. It simply may not be possible to achieve. Many long-time Washington observers insist there is really no such thing as policy and that national leadership in a democracy is always in a reactive mode, managing public affairs responses to emerging events but incapable of producing longer-term vision for strategic communications. A senior administration official in another setting recently confessed that this is essentially the view of the current White House office of strategic communications. Even if this is true at the national level, it might still be possible to pursue a communications strategy at the theater level. However, there is evidence to indicate it is a problem at that level as well. As one PSYOP source working in the Coalition Provisional Authority headquarters in Baghdad remarked, “The strategic communications office is focused only a week out because that is where ‘the front office’ wants them focused.”
Those concerned with public diplomacy and PSYOP often lament the lack of an organized, longer-term information strategy, but the reactive approach that relies essentially on public affairs alone is not indefensible. One might argue that if the battle over immediate public interpretation of events is lost, longer-range strategic communications are ultimately worthless. Another view would be that truth will out over the long term and that there is no point in trying to guide or shape it; or that foreign perceptions of U.S. policy and actions are ultimately a function of the policy and actions rather than efforts to dress them up to be more appealing. It is not the purpose of this research to argue this issue. Rather, the point being made here is that if national-level authorities do not deem it necessary, possible, or worthwhile to provide strategic direction for an information campaign, then the United States will not have a robust public diplomacy effort or effect. By extension, there is far less reason to build an expensive theater PSYOP capability to reach broad audiences in support of public diplomacy. In short, and contrary to the opinion of many in PSYOP as well as the recommendations in some other reports on PSYOP reform, this report emphasizes that PSYOP cannot compensate for an admittedly weak U.S. public diplomacy effort by absorbing more of that mission; it simply is not competitive in that arena, and the politics of strategic communications in the United States will not permit it in any case.
— Review of Psychological Operations Lessons Learned from Recent Operational Experience, National Defense University Press, September 2005
well, there is a policy – it has to do w/ wealth generation for a narrow group of interests – but you’ll never be able to sell that to the everyone else. the objective of propaganda is to obscure that fact, not try to sell it.
Posted by: b real | May 3 2006 22:15 utc | 50
Iraqis begin duty with refusal
The graduation of nearly 1,000 new Iraqi army soldiers in restive Anbar province took a disorderly turn Sunday when dozens of the men declared that they would refuse to serve outside their home areas, according to U.S. and Iraqi military authorities.
The protest was triggered by an announcement that the new soldiers, all residents of Anbar province — widely considered the heartland of Iraq’s Sunni Arab insurgent movement — would be required to serve outside their home towns and outside the province as well.
The clip showed what appeared to be dozens of angry, shouting troops ripping off their uniforms and throwing them in the air or on the ground. Others shook their fists in the direction of the camera, as Iraqi officers, waving their arms, attempted to stop the tumult. In the background, most soldiers simply milled around, looking confused about what was taking place.
U.S. military authorities, who issued a statement on Sunday night that made no mention of the incident, gave a more subdued account of what happened.
“We had volunteered to serve our cities and communities, particularly our families in Ramadi and Fallujah, who have been mistreated by the present soldiers of the Iraqi army, who come in large part from Shiite areas,” said one of the recruits, Ahmad Mahmoud Azzawi. “If they disperse us to Shiite and Kurdish areas, we will not go. Frankly, we would much rather go back to our land, to plant and reap our produce, than to serve others.”
Mohammad Abdulla Alawin, a recruit from Ramadi, said he wouldn’t serve anywhere else. Sectarian violence was one of his biggest worries, he declared. “We are afraid of the Shiite death squads which are found inside the Iraqi army, and who might kill us if we serve outside our province,” he said.
i read about this on one of the iraqi blogs yesterday, reported all the recruits rioted
Posted by: annie | May 3 2006 22:49 utc | 51
Caught Randi Rhoades show today, Thom hartman was filling in for Randi as she was out sick. Thom talked about his up and coming appearence on the Discovery Channel, May 11th at 9pm Lamar Waldron and Air America’s Thom Hartmann discuss their recently released book entitled:
Ultimate Sacrifice: John and Robert Kennedy, the Plan for a Coup in Cuba, and the Murder of JFK
Nonetheless, this was not on my radar was anyone else aware of it?
Interesting isn’t it, as Thom talked today he said what we are seeing are the very same tactics today as America saw immediately following the JFK Assassination with regards to classifiying documents clamp down on many groups, massive surveillance etc…
He mentioned many of the same players then are in power now. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Senator Arlen Specter, Porter Goss….many many others.
@jj, due to prior obligations I will not be attending David Sirota’s gig tonight, however, my girlfriend and many other friends are going so I will hear all about it and pass it on.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 3 2006 23:24 utc | 52
uncle- it’s been out for a bit. haven’t read it, but there’s been a lot of criticism of their claim to have solved the mystery & pin it on the mafia. here’s a couple examples, the first, shallow history vs deep politics, by carolyn baker, and an interesting comment here by someone who thinks the book is part of cia conspiracy.
Posted by: b real | May 4 2006 2:45 utc | 53
@ B Real:
The dead keep their secrets well.
And everyone involved is dead by now.
Posted by: Carlos Marcello | May 4 2006 3:03 utc | 54
They may be “dead now”, but Tony Roselli was only killed After he started talking about being On the Grassy Knoll where he fired The Gun That Day.
Onward…
If someone came up w/a system that resolved our little oil problem, would they be hailed as a Super-Hero??? Depends on who is giving out the awards…Tin Foil…It’s the New Black!
Geeks/Engineers…what do you think of the system??
Posted by: jj | May 4 2006 7:09 utc | 55
uncle, i followed some of the links from your post the other day,(it was yours?) to the jfk site and first read about the cuba invasion for the first time, although there was always that castro/assassination, mafia connection there, there was never a coherent tie in. bobby’s focus, was shutting down the mafia also, plus marilyn, i wonder if she knew too much.
Posted by: annie | May 4 2006 7:47 utc | 56
“Do we have the political will, do we have the military power, will we spend the resources required to achieve our aims [in Iraq]?”(PDF) writes retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey in a memo addressed to the heads of the social science department at West Point summarizing his findings after a week-long fact-finding trip in Iraq. It will take ten years and billions of dollars, but the McCaffrey Memo (PDF) claims that to leave Iraq prematurely would risk “a ten year disaster of foreign policy in the vital Gulf Oil Region.” Fred Kaplan thinks the costs are too high
We’ll be paying for the errors of THIS FUCK UP for the next fifty years, and probably longer if we don’t collapse as a nation/state first. From the billions already lost GRRRR; What the fuck does he think we’re 3+ years into? The tab on this entire nightmare is currently running around 300 billion dollars, with a whopping 570 billion to be lost by 2010 and what appears to be a complete clusterfuck in Iraq, but the biggest foreign policy disaster in American history. Civil war in Iraq is inevitable, and you better believe that the truly dangerous factions of radical Islam will inevitably strike much harder at US troops than anything we’ve seen thus far. We’re never coming out completely, what with the obscene US embassy.
The depleted uranium munitions we’ve been using willl come back to haunt us in both our own troops and the Iraquis who have to live with this crap in their air and water. The US is going to paying for this in more ways than just big buckets of hot cash.
Bush family ‘janitor’ back to mop up W’s mess
This is how fucked we are “When James Baker last month became co-chairman of a congressional task force known as the Iraq Study Group,the news was buried beneath an avalanche of headlines about the invasion’s third anniversary and the deepening troubles of the Administration. But slowly Washington is waking up to just how significant the re-emergence of this 75-year-old statesman may be.
…Well-placed sources told The Times that Mr Bush had lately been consulting his father more often. This has coincided with a return to a multilateral approach to foreign policy. Mr Baker was Secretary of State at the time of the Gulf War, when he argued forcefully that it would be “ridiculous from a practical standpoint” for US troops to march on to Baghdad and oust Saddam Hussein.
Such a course would “play into the hands of the mullahs of Iran” and lead to civil war, the loss of international support for the US and the fragmentation of Iraq, he said. He has told friends that he now feels vindicated.”
This is beyond sick…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 4 2006 10:58 utc | 57
Bush ‘janitor’ back to mop up
THE Bush family’s faithful fixer James Baker.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 4 2006 11:22 utc | 58
More Context on HookerGate
Rollins estimates the number of indictments…..
GOP strategist Ed Rollins on the Charlie Rose show yesterday:
ED ROLLINS. . . If this House scandal is as big as I think it is from talking to people that are around it — of course it started with Cunningham and it`s moving beyond that.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Duke Cunningham.
ED ROLLINS: Duke Cunningham, a congressman from San Diego who took bribes. There was a real little cabal on the Defense Appropriations Committee in which a couple of people who basically made an awful lot of money off of defense contractors and basically rewarded a bunch of members, Republicans
Torrent anyone?
Charlie Rose – 2006.05.02 – J.J Abrams, Various Journalists (TVRip.SoS)
Info Hash: 3a53b51f87b95d438afac77899e92e088af9b52e
Description:
(approx 34mins)
Guest Host GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC News
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL, Publisher & Editor, The Nation
JONATHAN ALTER, Newsweek
ED ROLLINS, Republican Strategist
ADAM NAGOURNEY, The New York Times
(aprrox 20 minutes)
J.J. ABRAMS, Director, “Mission Impossible III”;
Creator, “Lost” / “Alias”
==
runtime = 54mins
xvid.544×416.553kbps.mp3.85.vbr
Federal funding for CPB/PBS is going to be cut significantly over the next two years, so if you watch any of these programs, please support your local PBS Station by making a contribution or by purchasing their DVDs. To help speed up future releases, please try to seed this torrent as much as possible. Thanks.
==
Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 4 2006 12:16 utc | 59
Homeland Security Will Embed Reporters
Reporters will be embedded with the government during natural disasters, according to a plan outlined by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff at the Radio-Television News Directors Association convention in Las Vegas.
Chertoff said that it is not a battleground so “we’re not going to be censoring information.” But he also said that he doesn’t want “interference with our physical operations,” according to RTNDA.
The administration came in for some heavy criticism from the media during its handling, or arguably mishandling, of the Katrina Hurricane crisis. Often, reporters seemed to know more about what was happening on the ground than the administration did, which led to some high-profile frustration from the journalists, most notably CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
Posted by: b real | May 4 2006 14:30 utc | 60
Can someone explain to me what this religious reasons are worth? One penny? Two?
I am generally opposed on principal to the death penalty. It is my only liberal position. My reasons are religious.
Nevertheless, in this case I would have voted for the death penalty.
How Kent State Could Happen Again
It was 36 years ago today that Miller, Allison Krause, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder, were massacred by Army National Guardsmen at a Vietnam war protest on the Kent State campus. It was a watershed event that touched off a nationwide student strike that forced hundreds of colleges and universities to close and signaled the zenith of American opposition to that war.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 4 2006 15:20 utc | 62
Tin soldiers and Nixon comin’,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drummin’,
Four dead in O-hi-o.
~ Ohio, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 4 2006 15:23 utc | 63
Salon has an excerpt chapter of Eric Boehlert’s new book “Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush.”
It’s unlikely viewers expected “an argument” that night in the East Room. But what about simply asking pointed questions and firmly requesting a direct response? On March 6, even that was beyond the media’s grasp. The entire press conference performance was a farce — the staging, the seating, the questions, the order, and the answers. Nothing about it was real or truly informative. It was, nonetheless, unintentionally revealing. Not revealing about the war, Bush’s rationale, or about the bloody, sustained conflict that was about to be unleashed inside Iraq. Reporters helped shed virtually no light on those key issues. Instead, the calculated kabuki press conference, stage-managed by the White House employing the nation’s most elite reporters as high-profile extras, did reveal what viewers needed to know about the mind-set of the MSM on the eve of war.
…
Recommended.
Can’t Make This Shit Up…at least not in the Worst Nightmares R Us Admin:
Telecoms’ Secret Plan to Wire Yellowstone Park
Industry Invited to Illegal Closed-Door Meeting to Divide Up Park
WASHINGTON – May 3 – Yellowstone National Park will soon be blanketed with coverage from cell phone towers, wireless internet service, and two-way radio, as well as television and AM/FM radio signals under a plan being written behind closed doors by the telecommunications industry and park officials, according to agency records released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
The March 31, 2005 meeting had representatives from Sprint, Verizon, Qwest, Western Wireless (now Alltel) and other companies conferring with Yellowstone park officials and concessionaires. The purpose of the meeting was to develop a “Wireless Telecommunications Plan” for the park. link
Posted by: jj | May 4 2006 19:23 utc | 65
aisde from lol and bursting into song i have been working on some activism that i mentioned here a couple times.
soooo… i wrote my first diary @ kos.
i would be honored if you guys checked it out. after writing it i did have a friend ‘polish’ it for me so i cannot take all the credit. but it is mine. i do feel this is critical legislation, the word needs to get out, i urge all americans to call their representatives in congress and encourage them to endorse.
please!!!
Posted by: annie | May 5 2006 3:41 utc | 66
@jj
Whew, you had me worried. When I saw “Divide Up Park”, I thought they were giving away the land. But as it is they’re just being given a lot of money to put in wireless communications, so that a bunch of dunderheaded tourists can yack on their cell phones as they drive around the park instead of walking. Well, that’s a load off my mind.
It says a lot about this administration by the fact that it’s actually a relief that this is just a corrupt no-bid deal and not a giveaway of a national park.
Posted by: The Truth Gets Vicious When You Corner It | May 5 2006 4:00 utc | 67
It could be worse.
It could be the first full implementation of the fully privatised model of wireless coverage. To then be steamrolled out, cookie-cutter fashion, o’er the land.
Posted by: Malooga | May 5 2006 4:58 utc | 68
@annie:
Congrats on your diary. But be careful. Posting is habit forming. Watch out that you don’t get diary-a 🙂
P.S. Sorry for the late night juvenalia.
Posted by: Malooga | May 5 2006 5:01 utc | 69