all the presidents prior to bush used signing statements…something like a little over 500 for ALL the previous presidents combined. bush has issued signing statements that make him above 1000 different laws.
he has so degraded any idea of democracy…and congress continues to allow this, it seems.

Posted by: Anonymous | Jan 9 2007 7:17 utc | 4

Isn’t there a legal distinction between not enforcing a given law (in an executive capacity) and actually breaking that law?

Posted by: Copeland | Jan 9 2007 7:36 utc | 6

also just thought i’d mention that tomorrow would be a good day to call and email our representatives to remind them to deny the $100b in funding and to bring the troops home. reid joined with pelosi and obama tonight. i have lost most of my confidence in the dems that they will stand up to the wh, but maybe they will surprise us and show some real spine? maybe the pressure will make a real difference this time.

Posted by: conchita | Jan 9 2007 7:44 utc | 8

@Conchita, at the very least they should say – You want $xB? Go raise it by taxing the Corps & the rich, who basically pay virtually no taxes any more. Corp. rate has fallen from ~40% of tax revenues, to <7%. Enough of the middle class subsidizing corp. profits & paying interest on bonds. Why is no one mentioning this? Both parties/elites are colluding in destroying any capacity of the Govt. to do absolutely anything.

Posted by: jj | Jan 9 2007 8:21 utc | 10

@Copeland (post 3): “…the House leadership should consider revoking the force authorization for Iraq and invoking the War Powers Act.”
From Meet the Press Transcript of January 7, 2006:
SEN. BIDEN: No. But there’s not much I can do about it. Not much anybody can do about it. He’s commander in chief. If he surges another 20, 30, or whatever number he’s going to, into Baghdad, it’ll be a tragic mistake, in my view, but, as a practical matter, there’s no way to say, “Mr. President, stop.”
Joe Biden is a liar. Congress could stop this Iraq war in quick order. In short, the Democrats do not want to stop the fiasco for fear of being held responsible for loosing the Iraq War. U.S. soldiers and countless Iraqis continue dying for pure political posturing. Shame on American politicians and the U.S. media for not holding our elected leaders to the truth.

Posted by: Rick | Jan 9 2007 9:53 utc | 12

Cannonfire: Plame games

The CIA has shot down Valerie Plame Wilson’s book. The Agency won’t let her publish the widely-known fact that she worked for the Agency. I would suggest a “President’s Analyst” approach: Just before that late-’60s satire was released, the studio got cold feet regarding all the film’s references to the FBI and the CIA. That’s why fake acronyms were hastily dubbed in.
Can the ambassador’s wife get in trouble if she says she worked for the CYA?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 9 2007 11:19 utc | 14

WTF??? anybody else heard this???
October Surprise, IRAN/ contra Ledeen?
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, is dead. ???!!!
(His previous post two days before is titled “The Time May Have Come,” and begins “There is no escape from the war Iran is waging against us, the war that started in 1979 and is intensifying with every passing hour.”)
elsewhere:Geopolitical Diary: A Leadership Change In Tehran?
January 05, 2007 00 30 GMT

Rumors are circulating that Iran’s 67-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is entering the final stage in his fight against cancer. Though there is an incentive among Western intelligence agencies and Iranian opposition groups to promulgate these rumors — to give the impression that all is not well in the Islamic Republic — there appears to be some truth to the reports. Sources inside Hezbollah indicate that the Supreme Leader’s death is not imminent, but there is a real possibility that he could become incapacitated within the year. The online political blog Pajamas Media reported Thursday that the Supreme Leader has already died, though the reliability of this information remains uncertain at the time of this writing.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 9 2007 13:07 utc | 16

Outsourcing American Foreign Policy: the ultimate rip-off
Interesting post on a blog called “Whirled View” that looks more deeply into BearingPoint and the privatization of foreign policy, a topic that we discussed here recently.
~Snip

Not only has BearingPoint profited mightily from huge USAID projects, it turns out that it wrote the specifications for USAID’s contract for the original Iraq economic project. In contrast, the other nine contractors who also bid on the proposal had only a single week to read the specifications written by BearingPoint and submit their final bids. In essence, this turned the entire competitive bidding process into a sham.
Results? BearingPoint hardly received so much as a slap on the wrist. Instead, it was rewarded with that first nearly 80 million dollar contract and then, within less than two years, was allowed to “compete” for – no surprises here – and won an even larger contract for a follow-up project. This, despite the irregularities that surrounded the first contract and not to mention the fact that the USAID Inspector General’s office found the company out of compliance in its administration of a grant for similar work in Afghanistan.

~Snip

It is undisputed that government short term contracts for commercial tasks and certain nongovernmental functions are beneficial. For example, no one expects the government to get into the paper towel/toilet paper manufacturing business. But selling out the policy-and-programs store to a private profit making enterprise is something else again. As Dexter pointed out in responding to Kessler’s article, the “normal functions of responsible government agencies [are] not technical or advisory services that can be ‘privatized’ without compromising the integrity and accountability” of government itself.

h/t Juan Cole.

Posted by: Bea | Jan 9 2007 15:28 utc | 18

The Pentagon prepares for global, urban class warfare. Tomdispatch reports.

American Terminators vs. Drug-Dealing Serial-Killer Guerillas
As both the high-tech programs and the proliferating training facilities suggest, the Pentagon views the foreign slum city of tomorrow as a dystopian nightmare and the bloody battlespace to be feared and controlled in the coming decades. Beyond this, the Pentagon exhibits a palpable fear of urban disorder of any sort. In response, it is creating its own Hollywood-style solutions to its Hollywood-esque Escape From New York-meets-Bladerunner-meets-Zulu-meets-Robocop vision of the Third World city to come.
The Army’s recently revised “Urban Operations” manual offers an even more extensive list of “persistent and evolving urban threats,” including regional conventional military forces, paramilitary forces, guerrillas, and insurgents as well as terrorists, criminal groups, and angry crowds. In fact, even the threat of computer “hackers” are mentioned.

Baghdad wargaming:

This past fall, the Pentagon’s U.S. Joint Forces Command engaged in a $25 million, 35-day, computer-based simulation exercise involving more than 1,400 soldiers, marines, airmen, and sailors. A year in the making, “Urban Resolve 2015” had one simple goal — to test concepts for future “combat in cities” — and, not surprisingly, it was set in Baghdad 2015.

The Pentagon continues to seek technological solutions to replace live soldiers, so DARPA can continue to siphon funds liberally for fantasies of highly uncertain feasibility. In future scenarios the military will release a plague of electronic spy-locusts and slitherers on the hostile city, defined as ” nothing more than a collection of ‘urban clutter [that] affords considerable concealment for the actors that we must capture.’ ”

As tiny flying UAVs blanket an impoverished neighborhood, a squad of special-ops Spidermen and Geko warriors will crawl and slither up apartment-building walls, while teams of robots are simultaneously hopping through first floor windows, and Terminator-Human teams are kicking down front doors to capture an enemy drug kingpin. Nearby “angry crowds” of politically-minded youth will be engaged by heavily-armed tele-operated SWORDS Talon robots, while a few up-armored cyborg troops, at a safe distance, fire their loitering smart grenades at a gathering crowd of armed slum-dwellers who believe themselves well hidden and protected in nearby alleyways.

However doubtful the actual scenarios, the targets and planning speak to the direction in which power intends to exert dominance and anticipates resistance. And fear by haves of the have-nots keeps a deep trough filled with an uninterrupted supply of $ for an ever-increasing gaggle of military corporate contractors.

Posted by: small coke | Jan 9 2007 16:18 utc | 20

good interview w/ reporter salim lone on tuesday’s democracynow. no transcript up yet.
U.S. Launches Targeted Assassination Air Strikes in Somalia, Many Reported Killed

Posted by: b real | Jan 9 2007 17:48 utc | 22

upps – so what NSA infested operating system dows your machine use?
For Windows Vista Security, Microsoft Called in Pros

When Microsoft introduces its long-awaited Windows Vista operating system this month, it will have an unlikely partner to thank for making its flagship product safe and secure for millions of computer users across the world: the National Security Agency.
For the first time, the giant software maker is acknowledging the help of the secretive agency, better known for eavesdropping on foreign officials and, more recently, U.S. citizens as part of the Bush administration’s effort to combat terrorism. The agency said it has helped in the development of the security of Microsoft’s new operating system — the brains of a computer — to protect it from worms, Trojan horses and other insidious computer attackers.
“Our intention is to help everyone with security,” Tony W. Sager, the NSA’s chief of vulnerability analysis and operations group, said yesterday.
…
The Redmond, Wash., software maker declined to be specific about the contributions the NSA made to secure the Windows operating system.
…
Microsoft said this is not the first time it has sought help from the NSA. For about four years, Microsoft has tapped the spy agency for security expertise in reviewing its operating systems, including the Windows XP consumer version and the Windows Server 2003 for corporate customers.

So how many NSA backdoors do XP, W2003S and Vista have?

Posted by: b | Jan 9 2007 19:05 utc | 24

hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!! Oh, wait, more than half of the murikin people will believe this shit…
American Passports Found on Bodies of Al Qaeda Fighters in Somalia
I think I’m going to be sick…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 9 2007 19:16 utc | 26

for those not clear on the scope and history of congressional oversight on u.s. military activity, susang lists the following on the front page of dkos:

December 1970. P.L. 91-652 — Supplemental Foreign Assistance Law. The Church-Cooper amendment prohibited the use of any funds for the introduction of U.S. troops to Cambodia or provide military advisors to Cambodian forces.
December 1974. P.L. 93-559 — Foreign Assistance Act of 1974. The Congress established a personnel ceiling of 4000 Americans in Vietnam within six months of enactment and 3000 Americans within one year.
June 1983. P.L. 98-43 — The Lebanon Emergency Assistance Act of 1983. The Congress required the president to return to seek statutory authorization if he sought to expand the size of the U.S. contingent of the Multinational Force in Lebanon.
June 1984. P.L. 98-525 — The Defense Authorization Act. The Congress capped the end strength level of United States forces assigned to permanent duty in European NATO countries at 324,400.
November 1993. P.L. 103-139. The Congress limited the use of funding in Somalia for operations of U.S. military personnel only until March 31, 1994, permitting expenditure of funds for the mission thereafter only if the president sought and Congress provided specific authorization.

it feels like we are warming up to a moment where congress will act again.

Posted by: conchita | Jan 9 2007 20:33 utc | 28

in addition to reserves, the horn of africa points right at india & china, who recently agreed to form a joint venture company for acquisition of hydrocarbon assets in Africa and Latin America. also, we know that china has been busy in africa thru a mixture of soft loans and aid to poor impoverished countries has given China an edge over Western rivals in the race for some of Africa’s energy assets, but China has yet to move some of its equity oil back home. not enough time right now to explore more on this angle, but it may lead to something. china was also exploring for oil in kenya near the somalia border.

Posted by: b real | Jan 9 2007 20:36 utc | 30

Senator Kennedy today:

“Today, therefore, I am introducing legislation to reclaim the rightful role of Congress and the people’s right to a full voice in the President’s plan to send more troops to Iraq. Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts will introduce similar legislation in the House of Representatives. Our bill will say that no additional troops can be sent and no additional dollars can be spent on such an escalation, unless and until Congress approves the President’s plan.
“Our proposal is a straightforward exercise of the power granted to Congress by Article I, section 8 of the Constitution. There can be no doubt that the Constitution gives Congress the authority to decide whether to fund military action. And Congress can demand a justification from the President for such action before it appropriates the funds to carry it out.
This bill will give all Americans – from Maine to Florida to California to Alaska and Hawaii – an opportunity to hold the President accountable for his actions. The President’s speech must be the beginning – not the end – of a new national discussion of our policy in Iraq. Congress must have a genuine debate over the wisdom of the President’s plan. Let us hear the arguments for it and against it. Then let us vote on it in the light of day. Let the American people hear – yes or no – where their elected representatives stand on one of the greatest challenges of our time.
Until now, a rubber stamp Republican Congress has refused to hold the White House accountable on Iraq. But the November election has dramatically changed all that.

Finally.

Posted by: Bea | Jan 9 2007 21:18 utc | 32

@ b #24
the NSA backdoor was first discovered when Microsoft released SP5 for NT. someone screwed up and didn’t strip symbols. if there is not something better in 2000, XP, and Vista, we are surely not getting our money’s worth from the 30 billion or so we spend on the spooks each year.

Posted by: dan of steele | Jan 9 2007 22:03 utc | 34

Sorry, that’s for Bea #32.

Posted by: PeeDee | Jan 9 2007 22:27 utc | 36

For the Somalia watchers, some history from the article UNITED STATES PSYOP
IN SOMALIA ca. 1992, from psywarrior.com. A review of strategies and pictures of the leaflets dropped by US, Italy and Germany.
From the text, about the second leaflet dropped in December 1992:
“the first word is the most noticeable error. It was supposed to read ‘aduunka’ or ‘world’ in the phrase ‘world forces.’ The word appears as ‘adoonka,’ which means slave.”
Unintentional irony?
Slave forces are here to assist in the relief effort …
“The official translation of the text is, “The forces of the world (United Nations) are here to assist in the international relief effort for the Somali people. We are prepared to use force to protect the relief operation and our soldiers. We will not allow interference with food distribution or with our activities. We are here to help you.””

Posted by: jonku | Jan 9 2007 23:29 utc | 38

breal
thanx for the stuff visasvis somalia, creepy kaibil etc.

Posted by: slothrop | Jan 10 2007 4:04 utc | 40

As always, Paul Craig Roberts is essential reading. He doesn’t mention that Iran told Iranian militias not to attack xUS troops. Now that NeoNuts pushing for attack on Iran, how long before they order them to cease co-operating & attack?
Here are 2 more recent art. of his from the site that publishes him first:
Bush’s War Heating Up—Attack on Iran Imminent
…
If truth be known, there is nothing to stop the Israeli/neoconservative cabal from widening the war in the Middle East.
As I previously reported, the neoconservatives believe that the use of nuclear weapons against Iran would force Muslims to realize that they have no recourse but to submit to the Israeli/US will. The use of nuclear weapons is being rationalized as necessary to destroy Iran’s underground facilities, but the real purpose is to terrorize Islam and to bring it to heel.
Until the US finds the courage to acquire a Middle East policy of its own, Americans will continue to reap the evil sowed by the Israel Lobby.
And, this w/exc. 2nd part –Distracting Congress from the Real War Plan
(I don’t see his argument for inc. troops being a distraction. I think he’s shipping them off to try & weaken militias before assault on Iran.)

Posted by: jj | Jan 10 2007 5:09 utc | 42

Review of “Safe for Democracy” by John Prados

John Prados’ Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA (2006) concerns just what the title implies: the covert actions of the CIA against various governments and the effect of those actions on the United States’ support for democracy.
The focus of Prados’ book is to analyze the Executive branch management of the CIA’s covert action program from the Truman administration through the Clinton administration. But it’s not just for political scientists or management-theory fans. There are plenty of stories with intrigue and drama, clandestine rendezvous and exotic plots, hidden training camps and high-risk night flights, to keep pretty much anyone interested in the subject turning the pages.
But Prados rightly refrains from pretending that the management of the covert action enterprise can be separated from the quality of the output. And he raises some very serious questions about just what benefit we can say that the US has received from the output of the CIA’s covert operations.
One of the strongest impressions his narrative left on me was the extent to which Ronald Reagan’s Central American policies, along with the intertwined Iran-Contra business, look like a template for the Cheney-Bush foreign policy generally.

h/t to latin america news review for that one
and, even though he’s now six feet under, the u.s. is still controlling him
Dead men don’t talk

…it now appears a big part of why Saddam was rushed to the gallows was so that the U.S. and its puppets would be free to write history as they please with the person at the center of it all no longer there to contradict them.
This was made clear in today’s New York Times front page article about the trial of Saddam Hussein which is apparently continuing even after he has been executed. How interesting that they would execute him just before the key part of one of his trials was to begin and brand new evidence, alledgedly voice recordings of Hussein himself, were to be made public.
…
So lets be very clear what exactly is going on here. Yes Hussein went through one complete trial where he was found guilty of having about 150 people killed. Certainly no small crime and certainly one worthy of punishment. But that crime won’t do for the history books. How can they justify invading a country, killing thousands and starting a civil war simply to overthrow some-one guilty of having 150 people killed? After all Augusto Pinochet had three thousand people killed and he walked out of British custody scott free.
No, a conviction for killing 150 won’t suffice. They must show that he murdered tens of thousands or better yet hundreds of thousands, preferable using those infamous weapons of mass destruction. Hence the continuation of this trial without its main defendant.
…
Note that “the most astonishing day of testimony since Mr. Hussein and his associates went on trial” was saved for after Hussein was executed. Maybe they couldn’t risk Hussein being there to call his own witnesses, to cast doubts upon the prosecutors evidence, and to point out inconsistencies in their version of events. They simply couldn’t have Hussein calling into question their “astonishing” evidence. And dead men don’t call anything into question.

here’s one more contextual article on somalia from earlier last year
US covert operations underway in Somalia; resource conflict escalates over Horn of Africa

Somalia is of geostrategic interest to the Bush administration, and the focus of operations and policy since 2001. This focus is a continuation of long-term policies of both the Clinton administration and the George H.W. Bush administrations. Somalia’s resources have been eyed by Western powers since the days of the British Empire.
…
The US, and US-affiliated oil interests, must, at the very least, find ways to head off the aggressive oil and gas-related operations on the part of China and its oil companies throughout the Horn of Africa region, Kenya, and Ethiopia, and West Africa.
The intense uproar over genocide in Darfur, and shrill calls for military intervention, masks intense geostrategic resource conflict being waged between competing superpowers.

Posted by: b real | Jan 10 2007 5:26 utc | 44

It took another decade and 50,000 American lives to concede what McNaughton (who, soon after that meeting, died in an airplane crash) had realized just one year into the fighting. In the quite likely, lamentable event that Bush’s surge doesn’t work, let’s hope that today’s leaders accept the reality more quickly. Fred Kaplan in Slate
This is my problem: taking Kaplan at his word, he wants the “surge” to succeed. In other words, he wants the insurgency to fail. But why? Why should he want the insurgency to fail? What’s wrong with the insurgency? It’s a war of liberation–liberation from an imperial invader. Does Kaplan like imperial invaders? This act of theirs, is this his idea of the right thing to do? And when he laments–that’s his word, “lamentable,” not mine–does he rend his garments and wail? Does he grieve? Does he feel the abyssal bitterness, so lethal to the spirit, that anyone would feel at the loss of something they hold dear?
Is he ironizing? I don’t think so. Is he being sloppy? Again, I don’t think so. I think he really means it. And so I wish he’d just answer this question: why, Fred Kaplan, do you want the surge to succeed and the insurgency to fail? What’s so dangerous to you about an insurgency? In a small, far-away country, moreover, that cannot, will not, has not, and does not touch you in any way? I mean, have you ever been there? Do you speak and write Arabic? Because if you don’t, then you are massively and irremediably ignorant about the people in that part of the world, and you’re just trifling with human lives. And so your discourse, even when mindlessly frivolous, is lethally toxic. Because you like the “surge,” Fred Kaplan, and, in the dear old terms of a bygone day, you might fairly be described as an “imperialist pig”.

Posted by: alabama | Jan 10 2007 6:26 utc | 46

More great news! Sebastian Junger has a article in the new Vanity Fair….Is Nigeria the Next Iraq?….Nigeria is our 4th or 5th(Output depending on several factors,mostly terrorism)supply of oil.Somalia is now in play,might as well add some more fronts.

Posted by: R.L. | Jan 10 2007 8:55 utc | 48

Like “Wag the Dog?”

Posted by: tescht | Jan 10 2007 9:59 utc | 50

The timing of the Ethiopian attack in Somalia might have been influenced in the matter of what day and week it would be executed, but in the large scale of things I see it as starting this summer.
I then wrote this piece over at Eurotrib.
Short summary: the islamic courts managed to get so big that other warlords joined them rather then fighting. Basically same story as in Afghanistan in the 90ies. This meant that the sides Ethiopia backed was loosing and the side Eritrea (and many moslem states) supported was winning. Perhaps more importantly it also meant that Somalia was on the road to getting unified again. Sure, it would be a sharia-law, despotic unification, but that would probably in many quarters of Somalia be seen as a move in the right direction after a long civil war. The real conflict would probably have started if and when the islamic courts tried to reunite Puntland and Somaliland, both practically self-ruling parts of Somalia.
For Ethiopia it meant getting an adversary in the South. So this summer Ethiopia started to move regular troops into Somalia and preparing a big attack.
For the outside world this fits neatly into the west vs muslem story, and that (and US involvement) is why it is still in the headlines. Otherwise it would just be an african war. But please note the lack of commercials before the introduction of the product, this to me points toward it being first and foremost a regional conflict pressed into the dominating story.
If I am right about the biggest threath to Ethiopia being a united Somalia they will probably withdraw the army pretty soon after which civil war will rage on. If the transitional government manages to get control it probably will include troops from Puntland (the president transitional government of the Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed is from this region and was the one declaring Puntland autonomous in the first place (1998)). If so I bet Somaliland will get some more support from Ethiopia to ensure that a unified Somlia does not come into being any time soon.
A few months from now I expect Somalia to be as war-torn as ever and out of the news.

Posted by: a swedish kind of death | Jan 10 2007 12:22 utc | 52

Since this is an open thread I will skip to another subject.
This list of grand-father clauses in immigration might be useful. Got any hungarian, bulgarian, german, italian, romanian, slovakian, polish grand-parents? Or maybe you are one of those who can “really behave as Greeks”? Well, then you might be eligible for an EU passport!
(Sorry beq, the scandinavian countries except Finland appears not to have any…)

Posted by: a swedish kind of death | Jan 10 2007 13:12 utc | 54

More evidence the US/IS/EU instigation of war with Iran continues apace. From the Financial Times…

Western Europe and the US are seeking to ratchet up pressure on Iran over its controversial nuclear programme in the wake of a United Nations Security Council resolution last month that declared almost all of Tehran’s nuclear activities illegal.
Some European Union diplomats have indicated a growing readiness to impose additional bilateral sanctions on Iran above and beyond those mandated by the UN – a course of action long championed by the US.

I would hope this would be posturing rather than fact, but when the talk starts of bans of “dual use” materials, it has the smell of deja vu.

Posted by: ww | Jan 10 2007 13:42 utc | 56

askod, i believe your analysis is ignoring the bigger picture
the transcript from amy goodman’s interview yesterday w/ salim lone is now available

…the US, using the issue of terror as the goal to defeat terror, wants to place in Somalia — and it is succeeding so far — a client regime, which will go along with what it wishes to do, as happened in Iraq. You know, there’s a strategic region, and they want a client regime in there.
…
This is destabilizing the region, and it seems that the US ultimately does not care about destabilizing even its allies, as has happened in the Middle East. It is relentless in its drive to obtain hegemony. The world, as I said, would be very happy to help the United States take on terror, but this is the wrong way to go about it.
I mean, General Abizaid was in Ethiopia a few weeks ago. We all knew this meant that this was not going to be merely an Ethiopian invasion. We knew this meant there’d be very close US support. I am sorry that the American press has, on the whole, been ignoring very credible reports of US troops near the Somalia border in Kenya, training in Kenya for these exercises. This is known to us in Kenya. These troops are there. But the US media, at least most of the ones that I monitor, has refused to take on those reports or to investigate those reports.
…
Somalia sits at the tip of what is called the Horn of Africa. This is one of the most strategic regions in the world, after the Middle East, because through the Red Sea, you have daily, you know, scores of oil tankers and warships passing back and forth, because of the wars in the Middle East. It also is newly oil-rich. There are extensive reports, terrible reports, that Somalia now also has oil, just like most other countries in the region have.
The US has a huge military base in Djibouti, which is neighboring Somalia. And, in fact, so important is Africa to the US now, especially this region of Africa, which also contains, by the way, Sudan — you know, there was a big long civil war, brutal civil war, in southern Sudan. There’s another brutal civil war in Darfur in Sudan. Ethiopia itself is a dictatorship. It lost the election last year, but by true force continued to assume power, Meles Zenawi, with the help of the US. The US has very close ties; it’s training the military in Ethiopia. So the US in now going to have a new army command, like CENTCOM, for Africa. There’s never been a US command specifically for Africa, but there’s going to be one now, and it is going to be in the Horn of Africa.
This is a very turbulent region. And the best way to look at this region is to imagine for a second that this very narrow Red Sea doesn’t exist, and then you see that Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, all these countries are just a few miles from Saudi Arabia and Yemen and Iraq. And so, this region is very much a part of the Middle East, has centuries of trade, and also with India and the countries over there. It’s a crossroads. And the US wants to make sure it dominates it fully, and it wanted a client regime in Somalia. And that’s what it has managed to do, although I’m sure it’s going to be temporary. There is going to be a lot of fighting against this regime.

tangentially,
Resource Wars

It should be pointed out that when we speak of wars in the last third of the twentieth century we are talking about civil wars. Between 1965 and 1999 if we look at those wars in which more than a thousand people were killed a year, there were seventy-three civil wars, almost all driven by greed to control resources—oil, diamonds, copper, cacao, coca, and even bananas. Collier and Anke Hoeffler find countries with one or two primary export resources have more than a one-in-five chance of civil war in any given year.4 In countries with no such dominant products there is a one in a hundred chance. In these civil wars more than 90 percent of casualties are civilians. At the start of the twentieth century war casualties were 90 percent soldiers. Such “traditional” wars are rare today. Resource wars with their devastating impacts on civilians have become the norm.

Posted by: b real | Jan 10 2007 15:51 utc | 58

Regarding b real, post 19,
I’m confused with the sarcasm. Isn’t that exactly what these “elites” desire? Of course, the neocon crowd would probably wish calling the U.S./Israel side of this so called “War On Terror” the “Judeo-Christians” to be slightly more inclusive. Looking now at what is happening in Somalia, it seems this War On Terror is all some type of bizzaro medieval world crusade.

Posted by: Rick | Jan 10 2007 15:59 utc | 60

I don’t remember mashing (southern U.S. term) the Post button twice…?

Posted by: Rick | Jan 10 2007 16:03 utc | 62

Clarifying post 59/60
Sarcasm aside, Strategic/Resource is reality as b real has pointed out in excellent posts.

Posted by: Rick | Jan 10 2007 16:31 utc | 64

thanks dan of steele, rick, slothrop, etc
just trying to connect dots
today’s democracynow has a very illuminating interview w/ the attorney for a “terrorist” who was convicted using much of the same entrapment tactics that r.t. naylor documents in his book which i keep talking about. i’ll try to write more on how these scandalous abuses of justice fit into the ‘war on terror’ at a later time, but the transcript is up for this particular example, and it is worth recognizing

The story is a fairly simple one, and, unfortunately, it’s a story that has been replicated across the country. We have a paid police confidential informant who was put into the mosque. It was his job. He was to go to the mosque, one on Staten Island, one in Bay Ridge, and on his way to the mosque, he stopped in a bookstore that was next to the mosque, which is where Matin, which is what he’s known by, worked for his uncle, in a bookstore called Islamic Books and Tapes. And he started befriending Matin. He was twice his age.
…
[he] says, “I’m an Islamic scholar. I’m twice your age. Let me teach you about what the duty of somebody who’s really an Islamic person is.” And he begins to befriend him. And as the war in Iraq starts to ramp up, and as the pictures of Abu Ghraib come out, this guy starts to twist this young man. He’s now just 22 years old. He’s been in the US since 1999, and he convinces him that it is the duty of somebody who is a true believer to engage in violent jihad — that is, to cause great economic harm to the United States. And he twists him and convinces him that it’s his duty to do this.
…
At some point, he starts taping him. But totally after he has twisted his mind and convinced him that it is his duty as a true believer to carry out some kind of violent jihad. So the plot to blow up the 34th Street subway station develops as a result of the confidential informant, who has been in the community and at the mosque for about two-and-a-half years, doing nothing except reporting on what people say, reporting on what sermons are being delivered at the mosque, and basically coming up with nothing, until he develop this young man as somebody who’s willing to engage in violent conduct.
The plot then, as it’s recorded over the — by an electronic device, is such that the confidential informant is the one who’s supposed to supply the explosives. The confidential informant is the one who supplies the backpacks that the explosives are supposed to be kept into. And at the last minute, the young man says, “Wait a minute. I don’t really want to do this. I don’t want anybody to get killed. I don’t want to be the one that’s involved in placing a bomb any place. I think I better check with my mother before I go any further with this plot.”
Five days later, he’s arrested. And something that began with the New York City Police Department putting a confidential informant into the community and putting him directly at the mosque turns out to be a federal prosecution. And they took it federal, because they could get a much longer sentence. So now, this young man becomes the symbol of terrorism in the United States. In essence, what we have is the New York City Police Department creating a crime so they can solve the crime and claim a victory in the war on terror.

Posted by: b real | Jan 10 2007 17:29 utc | 66

A point I did overlook in the recent US bombing of “terrorists” by Special Operations AC-130 in Somalia is the commander who is responsible for this.
It is evangelical General Boykin who leads the Special Operations against Al-Qaeda and he is the one who was in Somalia before, wounded through Black Hawk Down, and “saw” that the Muslim god is an “idol”, while his god is “real”.
But now it looks like SecDef Gates will get him fired – at least that is what Newsweek reports

word around the Pentagon was that Gates would ask Boykin to go, this official said. Consultants who work with the intelligence and Special Operations community said it was all but certain that Boykin was following Cambone out the door. “If you’re getting rid of Cambone, you almost certainly have to get rid of Boykin,” says Philip Giraldi, a former CIA counterterrorism official who stays in touch with the community. “They’re hand in glove. Gates feels it all went out of control, that they’re doing too many things in too many places.”

Posted by: b | Jan 10 2007 17:59 utc | 68

one small bit of hopeful news. bill richardson has managed to get commitments on a ceasefire in darfur:

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson today announced that he has secured a commitment from Sudanese President Omer Hassan Al Bashir to agree to a 60-day cessation of hostilities in the Darfur region to allow for a new political process under the Darfur Peace Agreement and the auspices of the African Union and the United Nations. Governor Richardson also spoke this week with rebel leaders who said they would agree to a cease-fire. If all parties follow through with the cease-fire, the A.U. and the U.N. will convene a Peace Summit on March 15 under the framework of the peace agreement.
Governor Richardson also secured the following commitments from President Al Bashir:
· Agreed not to have the National military aircraft painted in white markings normally reserved for international organizations.
· Agreed that government forces would attempt to improve security conditions in all areas of Darfur with special emphasis on El Geneina, and would provide protection to food and other humanitarian convoys.
· Agreed to expedite procedures for entry visas for all humanitarian aid workers as well as goods. He also agreed to terminate the requirement of exit visas for humanitarian aid workers.
· Agreed to allow and facilitate travel by journalists from all over the world to Darfur.
· Governor Richardson and President Al Bashir reiterated that gender-based violence and such crimes must be condemned and prosecuted regardless of which party or organization was responsible. President Bashir said he would welcome a significant contribution of female members to the AU/UN hybrid operations. In addition the Justice Minister offered analyze and extend existing efforts to support Sudanese women against all gender-based violence.

link for more info and a joint press statement that looks like it was issued by both sides in sudan.

Posted by: conchita | Jan 10 2007 18:11 utc | 70

@ Hamburger, re: life on minimum wage
Yup, wage slaves, caught in a downward spiral. At the community college where I teach, there are students who are trying to work full time, raise kids (often as single parents) and go to school (supposedly to break out of the spiral). Some of them register for classes so that they can get financial aid, use the aid money to pay their bills so they aren’t evicted, can’t buy books, flunk their classes, and then owe the money back. They have no health insurance, so if they get sick, they go to the emergency room. Their old cars break down frequently, and the public transportation is patchy. Is it any wonder that many of them get addicted to crystal meth or sign up for the military?

Posted by: catlady | Jan 10 2007 19:28 utc | 72

Hamburger,
as sad as the story you link to is, it is really not that unusual nor should you feel anger or rage. The young man is working and is taking care of his parents, that is a good thing. His father has had some bad luck and rather than try to pawn the responsibility off on some one else, his mother and he are taking care of it.
I will grant you that he may have made a poor choice with the car but then he is still young and maybe he thought he could have something nice after working 3, 4, or more years. dunno, young men and cars….not always rational.
my own youth was not much different from the young man in the story. I could have just as easily ended up like him had I made a few different choices. poverty sucks and it can be difficult to break free, the hardest part is knowing how to do it because you don’t have the skills and the knowledge needed to make good decisions.
our little group in Hamburg is hardly representative of anybody when you think about it. on a whim we all flew to a foreign land to meet total strangers, we are past the point of eating frozen chimichangas and considering that a “good” meal.
I have met people in my travels who make one euro per day and are very happy with that because they know others who don’t even have that. happiness is relative I suppose.
we grew up in a golden age, we expected to improve our lot and most did. the pendulum has swung back the other way and expectations have diminished. all things considered life in the USA is still pretty good. could it be better? hell yeah! It could be as good as it is in Germany or Sweden if we would pull our collective heads out of our collective asses. why we can’t or won’t is the part I can’t figure out.
I watched part of a movie on ARD tonight that had a great soundtrack. one of the songs was from Buffalo Springfield and reminds me that the more things change, the more they stay the same. the lyrics still ring true, 40 years later.

Posted by: dan of steele | Jan 10 2007 21:28 utc | 74

didn’t catch this on sunday, but wonder how it’ll play into the ‘war on terror’ storyline. where will they pop up? or have they already? yemen is the proper location for escaped “terrorists” who prefer to attack large sea-going vessels.
USS Cole plotter escapes prison

Interpol has issued “an urgent global security alert” after 23 “dangerous individuals” — including a man identified as the mastermind of the attack on the USS Cole in 2000 — escaped from a Yemeni prison.
The international crime-fighting organization said Sunday at least 13 of the 23 who escaped Friday were “convicted al Qaeda terrorists, some of whom were involved in attacks on U.S. and French ships in 2000 and 2002.”
…
“They escaped via a 140-meter (150-yard) -long tunnel “dug by the prisoners and co-conspirators outside,” Interpol said.
“Their escape cannot be considered an internal problem for Yemen alone.”

not that bushco actually need a false flag to do whatever they want against popular – popular hell. majority world opinion.

Posted by: b real | Jan 11 2007 4:49 utc | 76

Hamburger,
Things like WalMart (corporate fascism) ruins small towns. Just another example of money and greed working with the town/county political leaders. It is very sad where I live – what was Mayberry ten years ago is now HOA developments or trailers.
Someone months ago some good soul posted this link on MOA. Made me cry.
Our Town

Posted by: Rick | Jan 11 2007 6:33 utc | 78

When Negroponte was recently shifted to the no.2 position in the State Department, I suggested that Rice may be on her way out.
In his wapo ed R.Novak is saying as much: The Mess at State

Republicans in Congress who do not want to be quoted tell me that the State Department under Condoleezza Rice is a mess. This comes at a time when the U.S. global position is precarious. While attention is focused on Iraq, American diplomacy is being tested worldwide — in Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Korea and Sudan. The judgment by thoughtful Republicans is that Rice has failed to manage that endeavor.
…
Negroponte, named national intelligence director despite his lack of intelligence experience, was implored by fellow Foreign Service officers to bring order out of chaos.

Posted by: b | Jan 11 2007 9:20 utc | 80

No al-Qaida members killed in U.S. airstrike in Somalia
More Death/Destruction by U.S. for what?
Like “Wag the Dog?” Posted by: tescht #50
Actually that was one of the first thoughts that came to my mind.

Posted by: Rick | Jan 11 2007 14:29 utc | 82

Didn’t I read yesterday that it was Gen.-my-god’s-greater-than-yours-Boykin who ordered the strike (can’t find any reference right now and have little confidence in my memory) and today the CNNI crawl says 2nd strike cancelled.

Posted by: Hamburger | Jan 11 2007 14:44 utc | 84

@Hamburger #84
Yes, I recall that, but I also read yesterday somewhere that Boykin is now out. Can’t recall now where… not sure if it has any relevance. I think the Somalia attacks must be far bigger than Boykin, if indeed the US is after strategic resources/positioning there. But who knows… time will tell.

Posted by: Bea | Jan 11 2007 15:30 utc | 86

Thanks for that b!
Somalia air strike failed to kill al-Qaida targets, says US

The US air strike on Somalia failed to kill any of the three top al-Qaida members accused of terror attacks in east Africa.
A senior US official said today that Sunday night’s attack had killed between eight and 10 “al-Qaida affiliates” near the southern tip of Somalia.
…
But he refused name those who had been killed, or to confirm how they were identified, leaving it unclear how the US could be sure the victims were linked to terrorist activities.

In that other war, a dead Vietnamese was a Viet Cong. Now the dead are affiliates.

The Pentagon denies claims that there are American troops on the ground.

I’m reassured.
UK tries to identify British fighters injured in Somalia

… Tony Blair voiced support for the US action yesterday, telling the House of Commons: “We should be there standing up and supporting those who are combating that terrorism and giving people the chance to live in better circumstances.”

Love that non-inclusive we.

Posted by: Hamburger | Jan 11 2007 18:18 utc | 88

b real,
good links and I do not disagree much with them. The US has supplied Ethiopia with weapons and training, much to the chagrin of Eritrea. Both countries were in the moral-support part of the coalition of the willing but Ethiopia looks to have drawn the winning ticket of US military support. However, I see primarily Ethiopian motives in attacking Somalia.
Or rather I fail to really see any US ones, except getting back at some from the Al-Qaida of the 90’ies that bombed US embassies (which I think is what these US attacks are about). Sure there is resources, but it is not like there is really any competing interests at the ground. The horn consists of Somalia which even if UIC had succeded would still be split in 3 parts (Somlialand and Puntland supported by Ethiopia and UIC controlled territory supported by Eritrea and various muslem states), Djibouti which as the Goodman intervue mentions has a huge US base (and I think they still have a huge french one) and Eritrea and Ethiopia which both would sell out a lot to get/keep US support. The leaderships in these two countries are cliques of former guerillas for whom military power is basically what matters.
But then again the neo-cons are not all that reality-based.

Posted by: a swedish kind of death | Jan 11 2007 18:58 utc | 90

hah! sorry for the freudian slip above – obviously i was talking about the central african republic

Posted by: b real | Jan 11 2007 20:04 utc | 92

Damn…
RAW Essence
Robert Anton Wilson has died.
Robert Anton Wilson Defies Medical Experts and leaves his body @4:50 AM
on binary date 01/11.
All Hail Eris!
On behalf of his children and those who cared for him, deepest love and
gratitude for the tremendous support and lovingness bestowed upon us.
(that’s it from Bob’s bedside at his fnord by the sea)
RAW Memorial February 07
date to be announced

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 11 2007 20:40 utc | 94

ron paul runs for president

Posted by: annie | Jan 12 2007 2:36 utc | 96

a few more dots on CAR – the central african republic. (these are just dots that i have come across & do not represent all possible dots. probably like most of us here, i have little knowledge of this nation, but what i’ve found seems interesting enough to post in relation to the item i pointed out in #91)
most people might only recognize the name as the small, landlocked nation in central africa where the u.s. & canada dropped off haitian president aristide after his kidnapping/coup in 2004
the previous year, there was a coup in CAR, a military coup too in that there was no resistance, led by a former armed forces chief of staff, françois bozizé. after at least one earlier attempt, bozizé was able to build up a strong enough rebel force while based in neighboring chad to sucessfully overthrow then-president ange-félix patassé on march 15, 2003, in large part by preventing the president’s return to the country after being away business. at that time, most of the worlds’ eyes were focused on iraqis, imperialists, bullshit artists, & protestors.
bozizé immediately listed his priorities, to the delight of the west, no doubt

Rebel leader Francois Bozize – whose forces seized power on Saturday in the Central African Republic – has declared himself head of state, suspended the constitution and announced plans for a National Transitional Council to run the country.
…
He said his administration’s priorities would be to pursue talks with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on a “post-conflict” accord, restructure and reunify the national army and the administration; seize illegal weapons; reform financial services; intensify the campaign against HIV/AIDS; and prepare free and fair elections.

he also took up the office the defense minister at the same time. bozizé won the next free and fair election in 2005 to legitimize his presidency, his term lasting until 2010 (barring any constitutional amendments, mind you).
i really don’t know a whole lot about CAR. it was a french colony for a long time, who still keeps a hand in things, evidently. i also see that, since liberation in 1960, the nation has a history of being labeled unstable, particularly in the northern half, which is where the “rebels” are concentrated. apparently, that’s not all that is concentrated there. according to this profile from the indian embassy

The Central African Republic is a country rich in some key raw materials like diamonds, uranium, etc. It also has great potential for agriculture and timber-related industries. Its main items of export are timber, diamonds, cotton, coffee, etc. There are prospects of oil in the north of the country. A Canadian company has recently discovered gold near Bambaui, east of Bangui.

and one of its neighbors – the congo – is, of course, one of the jackpots, as far as raw materials goes. (and southern sudan isn’t supposed to be too bad itself, from what i read.) but anyway, over the last year there has been a humanitarian crisis in the nothern region of CAR, as villagers are displaced by violence & massacres, some perpertated by armed rebels & bandits, and, as i pointed out in the earlier comment – by the army itself. as that bbc article stated, in case you didn’t catch it

Aid agencies estimate that more than 7,000 refugees have crossed the border into Chad in the past few weeks.
A BBC reporter who visited the area says refugees claim government troops are systematically killing men and boys they suspect of backing rebel groups.
…
About 50,000 more refugees are thought to be hiding in the forest after being forced to flee their villages.
The BBC’s Stephanie Hancock has been to the village of Bedakusan, in the border region of Chad, and says that for the last month the usually sleepy village has been home to more than 2,500 refugees fleeing the unrest.
The refugees were exhausted, many had walked for days through the bush to reach safety, our correspondent says.
They claim government troops are travelling from village to village in the north of CAR, entering villages and simply opening fire on anyone who is male.
They say that age is no barrier – many refugees told our correspondent they saw boys of just two or three years old shot dead.
Correspondents say international aid agencies have known for some time that a new human tragedy is unfolding in the north of the CAR.
But while the agencies can just about function in regions such as Darfur and eastern Congo, the level of insecurity in the northern CAR is so bad they cannot operate there at all, correspondents say.
Mr Bozize has blamed rebels opposed to his administration and bandits for the killings, but correspondents say the refugees are adamant that the culprits are government troops, decked out in their distinctive green berets.
Mr Bozize seized power three years ago, and since he stood successfully in a presidential election last year, a rebel movement has emerged in the north.

now that was nearly 10 months ago. i have no idea when the u.s. started training the CAR military, though if one takes into consideration the way the u.s.-trained/equipped militaries handled counterinsurgency across central & south america, i think you’ll agree that it’s not a stretch to call for further investigation on the matter. and one can also keep in mind the number of military-backed coups in latin america that had u.s. support in some manner, as the yanques pragmatically (& viciously) sought stability in those regions.
maybe the sitch in the north is becoming more stable, i haven’t read enough to know. what i do know, is that when i read in that SFRC, which comes across — in part at least — like a public relations assessment

It would be a major setback if the United States were to be implicated in support of operations shoring up the repressive regime, regardless of the stated intent of such training.

we should assume the worst.

Posted by: b real | Jan 12 2007 6:09 utc | 98

Greek police said a shell was fired from street level through the front of the building and landed in a toilet.
“This is an act of terrorism. We don’t know where from,” Attica Police Chief Asimakis Golfis told the Associated Press.
“Just a college prank,” said Rush Limbaugh.

Posted by: biklett | Jan 12 2007 7:00 utc | 100