CITIZENS 1, CORPORATIONS 0

In Northern California’s Humboldt County, voters decided by a 55-45 margin that corporations do not have the same rights — based on the supposed “personhood” of the combines — as citizens when it comes to participating in local political campaigns.
Until Tuesday in Humboldt County, corporations were able to claim citizenship rights, as they do elsewhere in the United States. In the context of electoral politics, corporations that were not headquartered in the county took advantage of the same rules that allowed individuals who are not residents to make campaign contributions in order to influence local campaigns.
But, with the passage of Measure T, an initiative referendum that was placed on the ballot by Humboldt County residents, voters have signaled that they want out-of-town corporations barred from meddling in local elections.

Posted by: annie | Jun 10 2006 8:41 utc | 4

What Holbrooke argued was this: President Bush has already expressly acknowledged — even affirmed — that Iraq will be a problem he will hand off to his successor. Holbrooke then very carefully, and ominously, took us through the richochet-like sequence of consequences: the successor inherits Iraq and is bedeviled by it starting in 2009; Iraq becomes not a but the issue during the successor’s reelection campaign in 2012; Iraq skews domestic and foreign policy during the successor’s lame-duck term; Iraq continues to entrap the candidates running for President in 2016.
Holbrooke intoned all of this as if he were reciting a dirge. Ominous is far too light of a word, and if he was only pessimistic he might as well have been dancing. Holbrooke seemed haunted and depressed by the darkness of a vision, and unquestionably convinced of the central premise of his vision — that Iraq is “worse than Vietnam.”

Iraq: Worse than Vietnam?

Posted by: b | Jun 10 2006 12:52 utc | 6

Favorite news photo of yesterday was a reporter
trying to interview Zarq’s brother, holding his
hand over his heart in the touching Arab symbol of brotherhood, trying to dig dirt on his death.
Not coincidentally, the CIA in-country report
recommends that, “Upon meeting an Arab national,
avoid staring directly in their eyes, shake their
hand firmly, then place your hand over your heart and smile slightly.”
http://www.laist.com/archives/redneck.jpg
As a sign of his human dignity, Zarq’s brother
shook the hand of the infidel crusader gabber,
then shook his head and walked in a diverging
direction, like those two Challenger boosters.
Two roads diverged in a woods….
“Hamas — the anti-Israel militant group that holds political power in the Palestinian territories — said it was responsible for the rocket attacks in retaliation for the Likud — the anti-Palestine militant group that holds political power in the Israeli territories — gunboat attack on innocent beach-goers.”
Yeah, like you’ll ever read that in the US rags.
Clue for gabbers: don’t hold your hand over your
heart! It’s a gross insult to Arabs! You are the enemy of the Muslim followers!
Wear a big Star of David on your flak jacket as
a sign of your true allegiance, then spit on the ground, and call Arab nationals “cockroaches”,
or “sarsoora,” if you want to speak their lingo,
just the way Ariel Sharon used to do before G-d
sealed his lips forever.
Make sure to block their path with your military
bodyguards, demand their identity papers, detain
them for at least an hour in the broiling sun
while you hover in your Toyota Landcruiser’s AC,
then dismiss them without an interview, spitting
on the ground, yelling after them, “sarsoora”!
In their own country….
Above all, don’t offer them money for their time.
?What the hell do they need money for, in Hell?
Instead, give your cash to your NYC stockbroker.
He’ll know what to do with it, and won’t waste
your time with his hand over his heart, neither.

Posted by: paris hohoentep | Jun 10 2006 14:03 utc | 8

Thanks to A. for
recomending Ghosh’s book on Egypt.

Posted by: citizen k | Jun 10 2006 15:29 utc | 10

Funerals for Gaza beach victims

There were emotional scenes as the bodies of a husband, wife, four daughters and a son were carried to the cemetery in the town of Beit Lahiya.
Hamas said it fired rockets at Israel for the first time since its truce 16 months ago, in response to the deaths.
Thousands gathered for the funeral at the central mosque in Beit Lahiya, with many praying on the road outside because of the crowds.
At the cemetery, seven-year-old Huda Ghalia, the last surviving family member, asked for forgiveness as she bent down to kiss her father’s face
Hamas government spokesman Ghazi Hamad told the BBC that Friday’s deaths had changed what he called “the rules of the game”, and that suicide attacks could resume.
a spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam brigade, said next time the rockets would be longer range and hit deeper inside Israel.

Posted by: annie | Jun 10 2006 16:29 utc | 12

Oh but they have apolgized and the State department has even noted it. I’m sure the people in Beit Lahiya were thrilled to hear it.
/S

Posted by: Amurra | Jun 10 2006 17:09 utc | 14

@Citizen K
Good observations. This article, which I linked to a few days ago, indicates that the US is being outflanked in the current version of the game:

In recent months, however, this strategy of global energy dominance, a strategic US priority, has shown signs of producing just the opposite: a kind of ‘coalition of the unwilling,’ states who increasingly see no other prospect, despite traditional animosities, but to cooperate to oppose what they see as a US push to control it all, their energy future security.
Some in Washington are beginning to realize they might have been too clever by about half, as is evident in recent public statements to both China and Russia, two nations whose cooperation in some form is essential to the success of the global US energy project.

As an aside, much was made of the deliberate, public insults Bush gave to President Hu of China during his visit, but it was little noted that Hu gave Bush something, too.

At the very least China’s President Hu displayed a sense of humor in presenting a book, of all things, to George W. Bush on his recent visit to the United States. And the choice of Sun-Tzu’s fifth century B.C. classic, “The Art of War” was tantalizing.

The joke, no doubt, went over Bush’s head.

Posted by: lonesomeG | Jun 10 2006 17:24 utc | 16

Three Guantánamo Detainees Die in Suicides, Army Says
Last time I saw a number 87 were on hunger strike. Imagine four years of nightmare for nothing.

Posted by: b | Jun 10 2006 19:08 utc | 18

Man with autism charged after taping at crash scene
Umberger told Joseph Grabko it is illegal to record someone without asking their permission
Oh? Since WHEN? Last I heard, taping anyone and everyone became mandatory for the “War on Terruh!”
I guess the brits are right, Mericans do not know how to comprehend irony.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 10 2006 20:03 utc | 20

b, georgia10 has also done a post about the guantanamo suicides from which i am borrowing. she included a suicide letter written by/dictated to an interpreter by Jumah Al Dossari, a Bahraini national who has attempted suicide a dozen times:

In fact, I don’t know where to begin… or how to begin… Josh, Khaled the interpreter… I feel very sorry for forcing you to see…It might be the first time in your life… to see a human being who suffered too much… dying in front of your eyes…I know it is an awful and horrible scene, but…I really feel sorry for you. There was no other alternative to make our voice heard by the world from the depths of the detention centers except this way in order for the world to re-examine its standing and for the fair people of America to look again at the situation and try to have a moment of truth with themselves… why was no conclusion reached with regard to the detainees in Guantanamo, Cuba until now?
Till when this tragedy will continue? When will it end after all these years, and when will the detainees go back to their homelands, families, wives and children? When will this tragedy cease to continue… till when? The detainees are suffering from the bitterness of despair, the detention humiliation and the vanquish of slavery and suppression… […]
When you remember me in my last gasps of life before dying, while my soul is leaving my body to rise to its creator, remember that the world let us and let our case down… Remember that our governments let us down… Remember the unreasonable delay of the courts in looking into our case and to side with the victims of injustice… Remember that if there were people who are actually fair and who defend justice and defend the victims of injustice and if there are judges who are fair, I wouldn’t have been wrapped in death shrouds now and my family -my father, my mother, my brothers and sisters, and my little daughter – would not have to lose their son… forever… but what else can I do?

Whether this man is guilty or innocent, it amazes me that he can still address the “fair people of America”. What a disgrace. Unforgivable.

Posted by: conchita | Jun 10 2006 21:06 utc | 22

Although I have posted about Graeber before here on moon, this is indeed, a bang-up update and compilation from mefi. I am absolutely gaga with excitement and will prolly spent the next few days reading this stuff. Execellent comp here do read.
Also see:
Anthropology speaks out
and
Anthropology at War: World Wars, Cold War & War on Terrorism, Research and Publications Page

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 11 2006 1:45 utc | 24

excuse me if this has already been covered, my mind is maginalized at the moment.
after reading b’s Ramadi is getting Falujah’d post 13 it occurred to me big Z’s demise may not have been exclusively timed merely for the msm exposure of haditha. instead of openface maybe a sandwiched Z between 2 massacres. the rather large scale assault @ ramadi happening now from LA Times
Ramadi

Frightened by warnings of an imminent offensive by the U.S. troops massed around the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, residents are pouring out of that tense city to escape what they describe as a mounting humanitarian crisis.
U.S. and Iraqi forces had cordoned off the city Saturday and were asking civilians to evacuate, residents and Iraqi officials said. Airstrikes on several residential areas picked up, and troops took to the streets with loudspeakers to warn civilians of a fierce impending attack, Ramadi police Capt. Tahseen Aldulaimi said. U.S. military officials refused to confirm or deny reports that a Ramadi offensive was under way.
The image pieced together from interviews with tribal sheiks and fleeing families is one of a desperate population of 400,000 people trapped in the crossfire between anti-American insurgents and U.S. forces. Food and medical supplies are running low, prices for gas have soared because of shortages, and municipal services have ground to a stop.
Thousands of families remain trapped in the city, those who have fled say. Many can’t afford to leave, or they lack transportation, and other families decided to wait for their children to finish final examinations at school before escaping.
“The situation is catastrophic. No services, no electricity, no water,” said Sheik Fassal Guood, the former governor of Ramadi. “People in Ramadi are caught between two plagues: the vicious, armed insurgents and the American and Iraqi troops.”
Residents have been particularly unnerved by the recent arrival of 1,500 U.S. troops sent to reinforce the perimeter of the city. Street battles between troops and insurgents have been raging for months, but the troops’ deployment left residents bracing for a mass offensive to take the town back from insurgents.
“It is becoming hell up there,” said Mohammed Fahdawi, a 42-year-old contractor who packed up his four children and fled to Baghdad two weeks ago. “It is unbelievable: The Americans seem to have brought all of their troops to Ramadi.”

Posted by: annie | Jun 11 2006 3:20 utc | 26

we know no shame.

Posted by: conchita | Jun 11 2006 3:31 utc | 28

a moment of silence and prayer for the souls of ramadi.
shame, shame my heart cries out.
A Vision
This Iraq will reach the ends of the graveyard.
It will bury its sons in open country
generation after generation,
and it will forgive its despot . . . .
It will not be the Iraq that once held the name.
And the larks will not sing.
So walk — if you wish — a long time.
And call — if you wish —
on all the world’s angels
and all its demons.
Call on the bulls of Assyria .
Call on a westward phoenix . . . .
Call them
and through the haze of phantoms
watch for miracles to emerge
from clouds of incense.
Saadi Youssef
praying for a miracle

Posted by: annie | Jun 11 2006 3:54 utc | 30

Dexter Filkins from Iraq: At Site of Attack on Zarqawi, All That’s Left Are Questions

Along with the scraps, it was mostly questions that remained.
Chief among them was how Mr. Zarqawi, the terrorist leader killed Wednesday in the airstrike, could have survived for even a few minutes after the attack, as American officers say he did, when everything else around him was obliterated. Concrete blocks, walls, a fence, tin cans, palm trees, a washing machine: everything at the Hibhib scene was shredded or blown to pieces.
It seemed puzzling, too, given the destruction and the condition of the other bodies, how Mr. Zarqawi’s head and upper body — shown on televisions across the world — could have remained largely intact.
…
At a briefing in Baghdad on Saturday, the American command’s chief spokesman, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, reversed an earlier announcement he had made and confirmed that one of the dead was a small girl, age 5 or 6.
The general said three of the victims were men, including Mr. Zarqawi, and two were women. The general said he had no information to confirm or deny Iraqi news reports that had suggested that one of the women was Mr. Zarqawi’s wife, and the girl his child.
Hints of their presence, or perhaps of the presence of former tenants, were also scattered through the ruins: a rose-patterned dress, a pair of women’s underwear, a leopard-print night gown, a child’s shoe.
At the first briefing on the strike on Thursday, General Caldwell said that there were seven victims, five men and two women, but he changed that to say that there were only six dead, among them three women, and he denied news reports that a child had been killed.
Other changes in the American command’s account of the bombing have included the initial assertion that Mr. Zarqawi was killed outright by the bombs. On Friday, General Caldwell said that the terrorist leader had lived long enough to be put on a stretcher, and had died shortly afterward of his wounds.
General Caldwell said the changing details were a result of the confusion typical in the immediate aftermath of military operations. “There is no intention on anybody’s behalf to engage in deception, manipulation or evasion,” he said.

yeah, sure.

Posted by: b | Jun 11 2006 5:56 utc | 32

U.S. Seeking New Strategy for Buttressing Iraq’s Government

Mr. Bush on Friday made clear that the American commitment to the country will be long-term. Officials say the administration has begun to look at the costs of maintaining a force of roughly 50,000 troops there for years to come, roughly the size of the American presence maintained in the Philippines and Korea for decades after those conflicts.

Posted by: b | Jun 11 2006 6:20 utc | 34

NYT editorial on the catho-fashistic government of Poland: Poland’s Bigoted Government

Some formerly Communist countries that eagerly joined the European Union are balking at the social policies that come with democracy. They are led by the union’s largest new member, Poland, which is now run by a right-wing nationalist government that seems intent on violating the rights of minority groups, beginning with an attack on gays.
The government is led by the conservative Law and Justice Party, founded by the identical twin brothers who now run Poland: Lech Kaczynski, the country’s president, and his brother Jaroslaw, who leads the party. Law and Justice got its parliamentary majority by aligning itself with two dangerous fringe parties: Self-Defense, a peasant party whose leader openly admires the dictator of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko; and the League of Polish Families, an ultra-right-wing Catholic party.
…
The problems go well beyond homophobia. The preferred broadcasting outlet of Poland’s government is Radio Maryja, a Catholic radio station with millions of listeners that is openly nationalist, anti-Semitic and anti-foreigner. It has resisted admonishments from Pope Benedict to stop talking about politics. Radio Maryja’s support was crucial in Lech Kaczynski’s presidential campaign and Jaroslaw Kaczynski is a frequent guest on the radio station.
In late May, Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, was punched in the chest and sprayed with what appeared to be pepper spray by a young man shouting “Poland for the Poles.” President Kaczynski personally apologized to Rabbi Schudrich and condemned anti-Semitism. But the rest of the government’s actions give an official wink to bigotry.

Posted by: b | Jun 11 2006 6:35 utc | 36

Here’s a sad tale of how matching specific data against more generalist data often based on widely held misconceptions and downright subjective prejudices, can destroy a life. Yet when that happens society at large will just write it off as some sort of inter-personal collateral damage.
Although this process is known in many parts of the world as ‘racial profiling’ and a person’s race or culture is often a major pre determinant in causing the increased scrutiny that precipitates injustice, really its not about race anymore than it is about any sort of ‘difference’.
NZers first heard about this matter on Saturday morning 10th of June 2006. They awoke to this story in their morning paper:
Pilot with 9/11 links found in NZ

EXCLUSIVE – A Saudi Arabian linked to one of the September 11 hijackers spent four months in New Zealand before being expelled as a national security risk.
The United States-qualified pilot, Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali, was admitted to New Zealand in February on a student visa, saying his dream was to become a commercial airline pilot and that he needed an English language qualification to assist.
Today the Weekend Herald reveals that on May 29 police and immigration officials raided Ali’s Palmerston North home and deported him.
The 28-year-old had recently moved there from Auckland, partly to fly at the Manawatu Aero Club.
A Government statement to be released this morning will confirm that Ali was deported because he “posed a threat to national security”.
The Government claimed last night that Ali had lived and trained in Phoenix, Arizona, with fellow Saudi Hani Hanjour in the months before Hanjour is believed to have piloted American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon building.
It is only the second time that section 72 of the Immigration Act has been used to deport someone. Its use requires the consent of the Governor-General, and there is no right of appeal.
Police seized Ali’s flight logbook from the aero club, where he had flown several times in Cessna aircraft accompanied by instructors. He was sent back to Saudi Arabia under escort.
Immigration Minister David Cunliffe said last night Ali was considered a threat to national security because of his direct association with those responsible for the 2001 terrorist attacks, the nature of his activities in the US before then and the nature of his activities in New Zealand.
The Weekend Herald has learned he spent most of his time in Auckland attending an English language course but shifted to Palmerston North early last month, planning to enrol in another English course and increase his flying hours.
The case raises questions about New Zealand’s security intelligence and border control mechanisms.
Mr Cunliffe said Ali’s true identity became apparent only after he arrived in New Zealand – “he used a variation of his name in applying for entry”.
But the Weekend Herald has been told the only variation on his passport was the use of the initial A for Abdullah, and that was corrected in a note inside the passport.
The minister referred the Weekend Herald to excerpts from the US Government’s 9-11 Commission Report on the attacks regarding “Rayed Abdullah”.
The report says Abdullah lived and trained in Phoenix with Hani Hanjour, the Saudi Arabian believed to have piloted Flight 77 into the Pentagon. Abdullah was a leader at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Phoenix where, the FBI says, he “reportedly gave extremist speeches at the mosque”.
A website sourced to the 9-11 report says Abdullah attended the same Phoenix flight school as Hanjour and the pair used a flight simulator together on June 23, 2001.
A 2004 report in the Arizona Daily Star names him as Rayed Mohammed Abdullah. But the Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali who wandered into the Manawatu Aero Club in March gave no suggestion of fundamentalism.
The short, clean-cut Muslim told the club’s chief flying officer, Captain Ravindra Singh, he had obtained his private pilot’s license in the US and spent several years there before returning to Saudi Arabia to work in his father’s textile business.
He wanted to pass the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam so he could return home to train for his commercial pilot’s license.
He wore a baseball cap, smart shirts and baggy trousers and favoured burgers over halal food.
Captain Singh, a former Indian Air Force officer trained in intelligence, says Ali had a Yemeni passport and he was naturally suspicious at first.
“At the time of September 11 he would have been in the US. I asked him some very direct questions about his US flying experience and found he was quite intelligent and a moderate person. He was not at all fundamentalist – he was against those people.”
He and other instructors accompanied Ali on several flights in a Cessna 152 aircraft.
“I found his standard to be very good,” Captain Singh said.
“He wanted to fly in Saudi Arabia or the [Arab] Emirates and was doing instrument training in the US before September 11 but said that since then everyone had treated him suspiciously. I’m 99 per cent sure he was genuine.”
Ali told Captain Singh he was born and raised in Saudi Arabia but traveled on a Yemeni passport because his father was from Yemen and Saudi Arabia had refused to give him citizenship.
When he returned to Palmerston North, he told Captain Singh he had missed an application deadline and been unable to sit the IELTS exam in Auckland.
He planned to re-enrol in Palmerston North, where it was cheaper to fly than in Auckland.
Mr Cunliffe said he could not comment on what happened after Ali returned to Saudi Arabia.
Nor could he comment on what specific information the Government had on him or where it came from. “We’re satisfied he is the right man.”
The other time section 72 was used was for the 1991 deportation of Soviet spy Anvar Kadyrov.Additional reporting: Mike Houlahan

There were a few indications in the article which tend to make this story a difficult swallow.
He is a Yemeni not a Saudi which although admittedly is a similar situation to “elusive bogeyman” OBL, there are several million Yemenis who moved to Saudi to get away from the shit raining down on them as the cold war was quietly made hot in their country for most of the second half of the 20th century).
According to the US govt 9-11 Commission report he also had the ill-luck, which is probably all that it was, to have gone to the same flight school in Phoenix at the same time as Hani Hanjour, the Saudi Arabian believed to have piloted Flight 77 into the Pentagon and the pair used a flight simulator together on June 23, 2001.
There is also some stuff about him being a leader at the local Islamic Centre in Phoenix and making radical speeches. Named as Rayed Abdullah our bloke is first referred to on page 520 of the commission’s report and it seems likely he was the initial point of interest for FBI agent Ken Williams “Phoenix memo”, whose lack of response from higher levels of US law enforcement bureaucracy has been the ‘smoking gun’ of the ‘BushCo did it’ solutions to the US government’s bad karma being wreaked upon a somewhat easier, less culpable target, its citizens.
It seems Rayed Abdullah went to high school with Hani Hanjour and so Hanjour’s selection of a flight school may well have been the result of Abdullah’s suggestion, since he had found a good school, at which Middle Eastern people could learn to fly but if guilt by association is all it takes you to get caged or fried, then the few degrees of separation between all people in this planet would enable a major population cull.
Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali had the US govt crawling over him like flies on dogshit in the post 9/11 US environment. Every move he had made, along with every associate he had interacted with were subject to intense scrutiny. We also know that the ‘letter of the law’ or ‘constitutional safeguards’ were paid scant regard in the immediate post 9-11 climate, literally thousands of Mid East ethnics were ’rounded up’ and subjected to a wide variety of ‘interrogation techniques’.
Despite that Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali was never charged with any offence. I think that probably tells us a couple of things. That Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali co-operated to the best of his ability and that there was no likelihood that he had been involved in any ‘extremist’ groups much less any extremist acts. It has been clear that even those ‘small fry who turned’ and gave every assistance to the US authorities still ended up in Gitmo or even worse, were subjected to rendition.
Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali’s subsequent actions tend to support the proposition that here is a man with ‘the flying bug’, bitten so bad that even when it is against his best interests to pursue a career in aviation, he perseveres.
Obviously even though the news of Abdullah’s deportation is released on a weekend morning, ‘the pundits never sleep’. One of whom is university scholar and teacher Paul G. Buchanan,( I guess in some academic regimes he might be called a professor, a title normally reserved for large department heads in NZ), who often has a bit to say about the security side of political affairs. I’m unsure of his pedigree other than he works at Auckland University, speaks with a North American accent and although he can be outspoken on particularly stupid western stratagems, he generally toes the western line on major conflicts. In my day at Auckland University we would have hounded him on the grounds of being a possible US intelligence asset (or “CIA agent” as every proponent of US Empire was called) but that would be racial/cultural profiling.
Anyway Buchanan wrote this article published NZ Herald on Sunday 11th June 2006:
Arrest raises serious questions about safety from terrorists
I shan’t reproduce it all here but by all means click through. Buchanan argues that if the NZ government’s line on this is correct, that is Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali wasn’t detected by authorities on arrival because of a mis-spelling of his name there is “summat wrong down mill”.. Even worse he began training as a pilot in Auckland and later rural regional centre Palmerston North, without setting off any alarm bells.
NZ is the country which when the French Intelligence Service plotted to commit a terrorist act within it, although the bomb did indeed explode, the civilian police had little difficulty rounding up the perps, who had the whole secret identity cover story and anti-interrogation little boys games training; and that was back in the 80’s. In fact they uncovered the plot so fast that the French had to go cap in hand to the Australian govt where the murderers had fled, prior to their return to france), to ensure that the terrorists were freed before the paperwork for their extradition caught up.
This success at catching foreign criminals is a function of the size and closeness of the community, certainly not anything about the national or individual characteristics since the population’s culture and ethnicity is a pretty standard copy of the template used in most ‘new world’ societies. Even a couple of years ago Israeli security and terror agency Mossad tried to pull a scam in NZ to get NZ passports and they got caught in the middle of that act of terrorism.
Yet this bloke is allowed to keep up his pilot training for several months? It is worth noting that in the first NZ Herald article, the commodore of the Manawatu aero club Captain Ravindra Singh talks about the interactions he had with Abdullah Ali. He wanted to re-assure himself as best he could, the bloke wasn’t a plane hi-jacking terrorist. It would be very surprising if he hadn’t contacted security or law enforcement officials. Incidentally for those who aren’t proficient in asian cultures and ethnicity, Commodore Singh who appears to be about as typical a middle class kiwi as they come, has Indian ancestry, in India the name Singh indicates that the family religion is likely to be Sikh.
So immediately something doesn’t ring true about the official Abdullah Ali story, not least of all his means of deportation. Without going too much into NZ’s constitutional arrangement, the head of state is not an elected position. The Governor General; notionally the Brit Queen’s representative in NZ is appointed by the elected legislature for a term of four years, and before everyone freaks out at the notion of an un elected Prez, it is important to note that a GG can only serve a max of two terms, most of the gig is ceremonial, and that when the head of state does actually do something ‘executive’ by constitutional convention he/she can only do it on the recommendation of the elected govt.
The Whitlam dismissal in Oz shows that this arrangement is far from perfect and while most NZers would prefer a change, finding a model to change to that didn’t get suborned or subverted by career politicians is proving difficult.
Traditionally the gig doesn’t go to a politician. Usually a respected judicial academic or a senior but reputedly compassionate god botherer like a anglican or presbyterian or methodist bishop. Currently the Governor General is former chief justice of the high court Dame Silvia Cartwright.
Abdullah was deported by executive order issued by the Head of State, Governor General Dame Silvia Cartwright. Not only is this an extremely rare occurence, the deportation is immediate with no right of appeal. As the article indicates there has only been one other occasion, ever when this power was used. That was a few years ago during a particularly paranoid administration’s reign; it was used for the 1991 deportation of alleged Soviet spy Anvar Kadyrov, and not living in NZ at that time it is difficult to know what that was about.
Many kiwis were unhappy with news of the Abdullah deportation because it indicates either the immigration mob were asleep at the switch, or this bloke is no danger to anyone.
Sunday 11th June NZ Herald had another article which reveals a more likely but more inauspicious scenario:
Deported pilot made no secret of his identity

The Yemeni man deported from New Zealand presented a passport with his complete name when entering the country – fully identifying himself to immigration officials.
The Herald on Sunday yesterday viewed a copy of the passport made out to Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali. It identifies his occupation as a “decorator” and date of birth as 24 September 1977, in Mecca.
It shows Mr Ali – deported to Saudi Arabia on May 30 for links with a September 11 hijacker – made no secret of his identity when presenting himself to immigration officials.
Last night, Immigration Minister David Cunliffe defended the decision to deport Mr Ali but refused to supply more information. He had cited Mr Ali’s connections with those involved in the September 11 attacks, and his actions in the United States and in New Zealand. . . . “

It’s better not overload Bernard’s generosity by pasting up the whole story, so click through and you’ll see the story about his ‘undetected’ arrival and stay may be more devious than the govt claims:

The Herald on Sunday understands that shortly after Mr Ali entered the country, New Zealand intelligence officials began watching him. The level of manpower used was large and the surveillance went on for two months.
The Herald on Sunday understands New Zealand intelligence operatives were joined by their United States counterparts. It is believed a decision was made to allow Mr Ali to stay here for months – apparently prompted by United States intelligence desires to monitor and follow the 29-year-old.
The paper has been told that his presence became too much for New Zealand officials. His connection to a 9/11 hijacker and the time he was spending at the controls of a plane were behind the decision to deport Mr Ali, possibly against US wishes. . . .”

The NZ govt has suffered a number of setbacks and criticism for other attempts to rid NZ of alleged terrorists; the most prominent being the failed attempts to deport Algerian former politician and current refugee Ahmed Zaoui
AFAIK Ahmed Zaoui was set up by French and Belgian Intelligence chiefly because he had been elected to parliament in Algeria, elected to a govt diametrically un opposed to continuing French interference in Algeria, a former French colony.
The so called evidence on Zaoui was third hand rumor and innuendo seemingly supplied by “interrogation subjects” who may well have been tortured. As soon as a few lawyers got involved the railroading of Ahmed Zaoui was forced to a halt. After months of harassing and politicking by types such as this writer, Ahmed was released from solitary. Then he successfully appealed his deportation order, so following more harassing and politicking he was let out of custody on license, to an order of catholic brothers, where he has remained while the next few steps of getting his family to NZ are resolved.
A major embarrassment for the government because the ‘assholes’ thought the govt. were being too soft while the ‘humanists’ thought the govt. was far too tough. Meanwhile the govt was seen to be failing in it’s role of being seen to be a staunch partner in the War on Terra. As we now know, before the dust in Manhattan had settled many nations were lining up to use the attack on the WTC as an excuse to get international bodies to assist in the oppression of their colonised peoples.
In fact the govt was largely powerless, whilst all it’s Zaoui decisions were tested and found wanting by the NZ judiciary.
So when the ordure reached the ventilator with Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali, the NZ government, eager to prevent another humiliating climbdown, this time from being caught between the rock of US demands and the hard place of public of NZ’s cynicism about the war on terra, went straight to the Governor General and somehow, probably on the strength of the 9-11 Inquiry report, persuaded Dame Sylvia to immediately deport the luckless wannabe pilot.
It doesn’t take a sherlock holmes to work out how the shit got stirred up in the first place.
When the US approached the NZ with the request that Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali be allowed in to attend pilot school while being watched, the govt would have called in senior bureaucrats from the areas where Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali would impact and have gotten the bureaucrats ‘up to speed’, that way reports and stories of an ay-rab terrorist learning to fly didn’t become ‘unmanageable’. Some of those bureaucrats would have been from the Civil Aviation Authority (C.A.A.) which is the agency that issues pilot’s licenses, supervises flight schools and regulates the aviation industry.
In the last couple of weeks the CAA has been in more shit than a Mangere duck, chiefly because it has been an enthusiastic advocate of ‘industry self regulation’ AKA “let the poachers poach”. That is aviation companies are responsible for safety and when there is an incident where rules (well laws actually) haven’t been adhered to the company is ‘encouraged’ to change it’s behaviour.
Of course the inevitable happened, an owner operator aviation company which the CAA had ignored many complaints about crashed and 8 people died. The CAA meandered and waffled on about everyone moving together in step to an agreed outcome,blah blah blah. This provoked the already pissed off coroner who was investigating the deaths into even more outrage.
That weeping sore along with couple of other incidents in which the CEO of the CAA was seen to regard public safety as being just one of many factors, perhaps interesting but certainly not as important as selling airline tickets, which had to be taken into consideration when regulating aviation, forced the NZ government which perceived electoral advantage in staying a million miles away from planes crashing and people dying, into publicly ‘carpeting’ the bosses of this statutory authority.
Media and political pressure helped ensure that it was a rather torrid meeting, from which a number of heads may eventually be found to have rolled.
So the CAA bureaucrats will be taking no prisoners in their efforts to fight back. Scapegoats will be in season, and at this stage it is difficult to tell whether the decision to deport Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali was a pre-emptive one on the part of the govt to stop the CAA leading a counter attack by creating another Ahmed Zaoui moment or whether word of this alleged terrorist’s presence in NZ had already been leaked.
Whichever way it was, it basically means that on a personal level some chap is being fucked over simply because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and fitted a rather cliched profile.
Yeah I know what’s new about that? Nothing really, especially in comparison to the horror being visited upon the people of Ramadi, yet it is by allowing these small almost intimate acts of injustice and oppression to be committed that we embolden the asshole mainchancers of this world.
Finding justice for Abdullah Ali is going to be difficult.
Once someone has been deported, getting them re-admitted is a gargantuan task compared to preventing a deportation from happening. Yet to let this injustice continue will supply even more fuel to the fire of mutual hatred between the West and Islamic people.

Posted by: Anonymous | Jun 11 2006 9:12 utc | 38

Daniel Ellsberg, who reveiled the Pentagon Papers, calls for more: Iraq’s Pentagon Papers

Today, there must be, at the very least, hundreds of civilian and military officials in the Pentagon, CIA, State Department, National Security Agency and White House who have in their safes and computers comparable documentation of intense internal debates — so far carefully concealed from Congress and the public — about prospective or actual war crimes, reckless policies and domestic crimes: the Pentagon Papers of Iraq, Iran or the ongoing war on U.S. liberties. Some of those officials, I hope, will choose to accept the personal risks of revealing the truth — earlier than I did — before more lives are lost or a new war is launched.
Haditha holds a mirror up not just to American troops in the field, but to our whole society. Not just to the liars in government but to those who believe them too easily. And to all of us in the public, in the administration, in Congress and the media who dissent so far ineffectively or who stand by as murder is being done and do nothing to stop it or expose it.

Posted by: b | Jun 11 2006 10:01 utc | 40

Of course while getting concerned about one fellow human’s treatment by the spin-off from the empire juggernaut, much worse is happening elsewhere and not just Ramadi.
Three humans succeeded in killing themselves at Guantanamo Bay last night, which should be the cause of grief, yet in the irony and inversion of values that war can incite, their deaths may well be regarded as a triumph. The victory of the individual over the faceless, unfeeling empire.
That this could be regarded as a victory, is certainly a concern of the US military establishment here:

The suicides of three detainees at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, amount to acts of war, the US military says.
The camp commander said the two Saudis and a Yemeni were “committed” and had killed themselves in “an act of asymmetric warfare waged against us”.

How in hell’s name could the suicide of 3 men be regarded by anyone much less the willing agents of that empire, as a victory over empire? The reason is as mundane as it is banal.
The US military hierachy, as obsessed with appearances as any bourgois housefrau had decided that any deaths at Guantanamo Bay may be perceived by the media as a reflection of the inhumane and brutal conditions these men who have been imprisoned without trial for many years, have had to endure. One of the most inhumane and crushingly brutal facts of life about Guantanamo Bay was that no one was allowed to die there, no matter how sick they were.
Of course no miracle cures were handed out but if anyone was terminally ill they were quickly moved away from surroundings which however brutal, at least they were familiar with, and away fom fellow inmates who had endured the privations with them.
Up until last night not one of the more than 2000 inmates who had been through Guantanamo Bay, men who had been captured while wounded on the battlefield, tortured by their initial captors, then rendered to torture specialist all over the world, only to be shunted off to Guantanamo Bay to be tortured abused, ridiculed and humiliated had been allowed the release that they felt only death could bring.
Last night in the worst possible way three humans found release and through that victory.
What does that tell us about their captors?
—
[lifted to a own thread – please comment there.
b.]

Posted by: Anonymous | Jun 11 2006 11:13 utc | 42

Rear Adm Harris said he did not believe the men had killed themselves out of despair.
“They are smart. They are creative, they are committed,” he said.
“They have no regard for life, either ours or their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.”
It’s all coming togeather now. When Bush talks about suiciders, he’s including those who suicide without explosives as well. So if we kill the terrorists we win and if they kill themselves they win.
That’s quite an asymmertry.

Posted by: YY | Jun 11 2006 14:01 utc | 44

And so the commandant of the highest security prison camp in the world, in a special twighlight zone, not subject to national laws yet self-exempted from international treaties, run with nearly no oversigh by the military of the single super power, claims to have been victimized when unarmed prisoners under his authority kill themselves. This psychotic resentment and angry self-pity is so characteristic of the nazis as to make it impossible to mistake what is going on.

Posted by: citizen k | Jun 11 2006 14:51 utc | 46

i apologize if this has already been posted. dhar jamail and jeff pfleuger examine Is the US Corporate Media Complicit in War Crimes? a look at the five most commonly deployed crisis management propaganda tactics which the state and the traditional media have used to distort coverage of what happens in iraq. highly recommended.

Posted by: conchita | Jun 11 2006 16:07 utc | 48

conchita – link doesn’t work
citizen k – it is a film by the british filmmaker famous in the sixties for the film of n atomic war that was commissioned by bbc but censored for thirty years
‘punishment park’ is a faux documentary in nixonian times – where dissidents are held in camps where they must run for three days – if they survive – they are pardoned if not – they die – (they all die)
based if i remember clearly on the mclaren act(?) – tho whatever it was – the patriot act would put it in the ombre
watkins demonised in britain has spent the rest of his life in sweden working on a never ending film/s
tho he did do a very long docudrama here on the commune a number of years ago which has it influence felt in phillip garrells latest film

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jun 11 2006 17:43 utc | 50

rowan
yes

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jun 11 2006 18:51 utc | 52

thanks, b. been busy this afternoon and just checked back. i do recommend reading the entire article – good summary of the disinformation campaign over the last few years.

Posted by: conchita | Jun 11 2006 21:16 utc | 54

@Rgiap, citizen k, et al
Somewhat reminiscent of what I imagine punishment park is about –without seeing it–
Was over at a friends house a few weekends ago. Some of my more intellegent friends love b-films (which is a genre in an of itself); we watched the bad acting (somewhat intended) B-film Hostel .
However, we had a disscussion afterwards where one of our friends refused to believe that such real life incident’s occur i.e., snuff films, rape torture etc.. for the rich and powerful and In particular, torture for pay.
I would like to be so naive as to believe these type of atrocious events do not happen, that humanity is not capable of such nightmarish things however, I think we all know they do. And I Imagine the most wealthy and elite partake in such insanity. Further, this type of mantality seems to have taken over our governments. What say thee?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 11 2006 21:17 utc | 56

i think peter watkins has an allergy to editors
what he is attempting to do which other filmmakers do not – is to touch he truth of our breath in a historical perspective
if he is still living -i wonder what he thinks of the unimaginable & sordid stories of the empire
as diogenes points out on another thread – there is no bottom to their morality, it would seem there is no bottom at all
i just had the misfortune to watch that tim russert fellow on cable here – assuredly it will be the last time – he had on some general who must have been hitting up on crank in their toilets – so far away was he from any real perspective of what this world is
then you had our epoch’s rajaneesh – mr markos – he of the eyes that gives me the willies a bit, a fellow byron york with the worst haircut i’ve ever seen outside joseph goebells bouffant, a couple of other commentators who crawled over the corpulent cadaver we shall call tim russert
i don’t know if it’s just me but all these talking heads almost without exception are ugly as sin && even when they are mildly good looking it is counterbalanced by their constan hysteria & yes -t they all have those eyes of markos moulitsas
b’s suggestiion for the commander of gitmo is a good one – but then i imagine the commander is not really a warrior but a wanderer of windowxpt & excel, graphs & guns

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jun 11 2006 23:23 utc | 58

That whole suicider prisoner spin is im my opinion beyond the spinning power of goebbels
The technology has advanced a lot in the last 70 years.

Posted by: citizen k | Jun 11 2006 23:59 utc | 60

It’s 23:44 here, the full moon is up, shrouded in mist, and the local Army base is still pounding away with artillery, practicing for deployment.
Whump, whump, whump, rattling the china. That’s
the sound of Freedom and Democracy in America,
and tomorrow is another tax day for Uncle Sam.
What they’re not telling you is, the Republican
Congress just voided President Bush’s promise of reconstruction aid to Iraq and Afghanistan, and
yet the CONUS military bases are laying off all non-essential staff and cutting back on purchases and family benefits until the next budget round in October. Where did all that aid money and Iraq war money go to then, all those $100B’s that had been carefully programmed out? HAL-KBR, whose stock is losing air fast, through insider trading no doubt, another case of Enron in the making.
Katrina? Congress appropriated $68B on top of the $38B already wasted there. For $68B, I gotta tell ya, as a trades carpenter, you can build 2,320 highrise towers, more than the state of Louisiana has in total. But 95% of our taxes goes to government administrative expenses, and of the measly 5% that goes out to bid, the civil contractors are taking 75% in labor and profits, leaving just a dribble on the ground, like the dribbles from the faucets left open along the Arizona border, by the millions of indigents fleeing their homelands to the south, where the US DoD/DHS is engaged in “drug security” sweeps to clear out whole villages, claim land titles, and turn over indigent homelands to multinational agribusiness to grow your surfeit of bananas.
Have a nice day!
Whump, whump, whump.
That’s the sound of Freedom!

Posted by: 23 skidoo | Jun 12 2006 6:53 utc | 62

Former Diplomat Missing From Boat
Anyone smell <*)))>< ? Being that Philip Merrill was the Center for Security Policy: Adviser
U.S. Export-Import Bank: President, and
Capital Gazette Communications: Chairman And the kicker?
Merrlll was a member of the Aspen Institute,
Remember Scooter Libby’s letter to Judy Miller, cryptically referring to “Aspen roots?”
Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning,” Mr. Libby wrote. “They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work—and life.”
Interestingly, Judith Miller, the former NY Times reporter implicated in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame, is another emeritus member of ASG. I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby, indicted in October 2005 on a total of five counts of obstruction of justice, making false statements and perjury, wrote a cryptic letter to the jail-bound Miller that seemed both to reference Miller’s association with the Aspen Group and to attempt to silence her before she testified before the grand jury:
“Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them.”
Several prominent current and former Bush Administration figures are emeritus members of ASG, including Condoleeza Rice, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Armitage. It’s an odd turn of phrase, one that seems to insinuate that to give evidence against Libby might implicate some of these other “aspens.”
Maybe no connection at all, but interesting.
Reminds me a bit of the Murdock (?) and Colby(?) boat “mishaps”.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 12 2006 8:35 utc | 64

Imad Khadduri’s Free Iraq blog has a non-Pentagon approved version of the operation resulting in the recent Zarqawi killing. Scroll down to the June 9 entry.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Jun 12 2006 13:24 utc | 66

The militarycorruption.com site has some interesting
allegations regarding the Hayden confirmation hearings.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Jun 12 2006 15:42 utc | 68

slothrop, for you – front-paged diary on dkos yearlykos’ failure to address labor and social change.

Posted by: conchita | Jun 12 2006 16:30 utc | 70

hkol, agreed on the annals of terrorism link. you might want to take a look at goldy g’s link to marc bloch to take it a step further to predation. it is a long and tangled read but well worth it. i am certain there is a place in there for r’giap’s murdoch as well.

Posted by: conchita | Jun 12 2006 17:48 utc | 72

Stephan Roach: Denial

Ferguson offered four hypotheses as to why the first globalization [1880-1914] met its demise: The failure of central banking; financial crises due to defective market structures; populist backlashes against globalization; and geopolitical crises. He leaves you with the uncomfortable feeling that he fears a similar outcome this time around. In his view, central banks are fighting the old war (i.e., inflation) and are in danger of being blindsided by a new war. He fears the current protectionist backlash against globalization — not just Washington-led China bashing but also a gathering sense of European nationalism — is strikingly reminiscent of that earlier period. And the Middle East is his prime candidate for a destabilizing geopolitical crisis. He had little to say on the financial risk issue, but he raised his eyebrows a bit when presented with arguments that the advent of derivatives makes the world a safer place by diffusing the distribution of risks. He asked if any of us had heard of an incident not all that long ago (1998) involving Long-Term Capital Management.

Posted by: b | Jun 12 2006 19:19 utc | 74

Any last minute advice for tomorrow’s Virginia democratic primary? My choices are:
Harris Miller – long-time D party operative, knows Virginia politics and local issues and people; rich technology lobbyist; wants to set specific timetable for withdrawal from Iraq; invest in new education and training for the future (not sure what he specifically means by that, but it sounds good); supports woman’s right to choose; opposes the state and federal efforts to ban gay marriage; overall seems smart, articulate, “good on the issues”. Opposed by the national democratic party apparatus and even some state and local D’s, who instead favor:
Jim Webb: Lifetime republican; former Reagan Administration political appointee (Sec. of the Navy); marine – decorated veteran of Viet Nam; opposes Bush’s Iraq policy and wants to bring the troops home; seems to generally oppose the Bush policies heavily weighted toward the rich at the expense of everyone else – though I’m a little fuzzy on his view of the Bush tax cuts and which ones he would work to overturn (if any); made a lot of paternalistic, macho statements about women in the past but now claims he is pro-choice, pro-gay rights, etc.; supported by national Dems and some state and local Dems because he is considered “electable” and considered capable of beating George Allen based on his military experience and Republican street cred.
The dilemma: I detest Senator Allen and would love to see him get the boot in November. Webb and Miller both seem like they might be good on issues I care about. Both a little fuzzy on fiscal responsibility and how to address the national fiscal crisis looming on the horizon. And neither have addressed the question of Bush’s blatant law-breaking, undermining the Constitution, and what they would do about it.
I like Webb’s strident opposition to the Iraq war, but unclear where he is on preemptive war generally or Iran, specifically. A vote for him might signal my intense dismay and frustration with Bush’s war policy. Miller seems ok on the war and foriegn policy issues but I wonder, since he is a life-long party man, if he is the type who would turn into the typical spineliness Democrat who refuses to take a stand when push comes to shove, e.g., the next war resolution, or whatever.
I wonder why Webb didn’t just jump in the Republican race and challenge Allen in a primary if he is so disenchanted? Is he just an opportunist who thought running as a Democrat might be easier than challenging Allen in a Republican primary? And the fact that Shumer, Reid, and the national Dem party is backing Webb makes me want to vote against him just to stick it to them for being such spineless opportunists.
To compound my confusion, I read on some liberal blogs that the “netroots” are supporting Webb…and in general I think of myself as part of the “silent netroots majority”.
Any insights appreciated – the polls open at 6am EST tomorrow.

Posted by: maxcrat | Jun 13 2006 1:17 utc | 76

@Max,
I’m voting Webb. I’d love to see Webb clean Allen’s clock in a head-on-head fight. You can’t imagine how good that would make me feel.
If it doesn’t work, maybe the other one can win. Don’t remember the other one’s name.

Posted by: George Foreman | Jun 13 2006 1:57 utc | 78