Any Barflies Ever think you’d read Paul Craig Roberts quoting Noam Chomsky?? (The list of bloggers who thought they were self-proclaimed “lefties” who were too terrified to read him is loong…) Failed States: The US and Israel
Hard to disagree w/his last paragraph:
What the US and Israel are attempting to do is to turn the entire Muslim Middle East into failed states, that is, into puppet regimes. By extending their hegemony in the Middle East, the US and Israel hope to prolong their own failed existence.
{How different is this than a Vampire who drains the blood of living beings to prolong their existence?}

Posted by: jj | Feb 5 2007 10:40 utc | 4

Attacking Iran would be disaster, report says

The report by 15 organisations – backed by Britain’s former ambassador to Iran – comes as the US appears to be upping the ante in an increasingly hostile war of words with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president.
The previous foreign secretary, Jack Straw, has said that military action against Iran would be “inconceivable”. Margaret Beckett, his successor, has also insisted that no one is planning action against Tehran.
Today’s report, entitled “Time to Talk: The Case for Diplomatic Solutions on Iran”, comes from the Foreign Policy Centre, backed by trade unions, Muslim and Christian groups and Oxfam.
It says that the UK could prove the vital catalyst between the EU and US on reopening talks with Iran.
Launching the document, Sir Richard Dalton, the British ambassador to Iran until last year, said that a pre-emptive strike on Iran would be “a disaster for Iran, the region and quite possibly the world”.

Posted by: b | Feb 5 2007 11:48 utc | 6

Yet another dumpster dive, at the dkos…
What is it like to be a Bush ?
good read…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 5 2007 12:45 utc | 8

Attacking Iran would be disaster, report says
Right. But a disaster for whom, why and how?
Attacking Iraq was considered disastrous as well; attacking Afgh was considered vain, perilous or useless; both went forward without a hitch. Only the break up of Yugoslavia was a success, of a kind, possibly because it is so small and was, is, heavily policed / funded by Europe, as it is so close by, a careful watch is needed. Haiti, Somalia, Congo…the Philippines, all these are forgotten.
A disaster for those bombed; a disaster for the soldiers fighting; a disaster for ordinary people on the ground; all that goes without saying.
Creating failed states is kinda fashionable – anything goes and thus gangsters may win. Not today, where control of territory and resources requires stability for the alarmingly complex organization and structure required to suck resources away. The days where the darkies grew and picked coffee and the Brits could make money out of that by handing out snuff and some medical services and policing with rifles, coupled with the authority and prestige of the local Commissioner in his mansion, with his wife holding prayer meets with free cookies and veggies for the dancing poor are long gone…
Still it is interesting to see the Brits at least nominally digging their heels in.

Posted by: Noirette | Feb 5 2007 16:13 utc | 10

That VDARE piece by Paul Roberts is a pivotal statement.
Pivotal as in, once you see things that way, once you accept and admit that Israel and America are simply foisting their own state failures upon the nation states of the Middle East, you have stepped out of the mirror and into the real world.
The mirror is nationalism, exceptionalism, patriotism, Zionism, and whatever other ism lets you go kill people in order to avoid negotiating your “way of life.”
The reality is that humankind is killing hundreds of species, and its own species, in such a wholesale manner that keeping track of the dead is almost more than man’s celebrated mental capacity to keep up with. And yet, all over the world, we will kill whatever we have to kill in order to keep at it. That’s us.
That’s us. I’d like to think that America, the best fed group of mammals on the planet, could take the lead in extricating we humans from this rut. But America seems to be the group most interested in getting out of this hole by digging faster.
If little green men landed in the National Mall tomorrow in sparkling ships that circumvent light speed, and if they spoke of advanced civilizations waltzing across ten thousand galaxies as casually as we cross the street, we would immediately begin planning how to take it away from them, and not share it with the Russians and the Chinese and the damned Irish.
We’re stuck, as a species. We need people to pivot. We need lots of people to throw this shit up in the air, and say “what’s the other way, cuz this one isn’t working.’

Posted by: Antifa | Feb 5 2007 16:30 utc | 12

Here is a note of gratitude from a region that is finally breaking free:
From Latin America With Love: Thank You, America, for Ignoring Us!

Enough! No more PR safety-valves for global exploitation by predatory capitalists and their supporting governments. Doesn’t it make sense that Latin Americans are ecstatic as America, under Bush, pays full attention to the mess it has created in the Middle East ignoring its Latin protégé? Can we, at least this once, let people in other parts of the world determine what’s good for them… instead of homicidally intruding in their affairs?
It would be most difficult to refute that… “Bliss is being ignored – by the United States!”

Posted by: Bea | Feb 5 2007 18:26 utc | 14

#12,
[The mirror is nationalism, exceptionalism, patriotism, Zionism, and whatever other ism lets you go kill people in order to avoid negotiating your “way of life.”]
And the ironic thing is that we’re killing them by foisting the structure of our own failure our exceptionalism, our nationalism,etc on them, to do it. And then blame them for failing to embrace it.

Posted by: anna missed | Feb 5 2007 19:02 utc | 16

Read this and weep:
Cheney’s Own Investment Funds Manager Issues a Scathing Attack on US Energy Policy
~Snip

There is also a political and economic cost to our oil dependency, Grantham notes. Yet America could have eliminated its oil dependency on the Middle East years ago with just a “reasonable set of increased efficiencies.” All it would take is 10% fewer vehicles, each driving 10% fewer miles and getting 50% more miles per gallon. Under that “sensible but still only moderately aggressive policy,” he writes, “not one single barrel would have been needed from the Middle East.” Not one.
I repeat: This is not some rainbow coalition. This is not even Al Gore. Grantham is the chairman of Boston-based fund management company Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo. He is British-born but has lived here since the early 1960s.

Posted by: Bea | Feb 5 2007 19:20 utc | 18

43-minute docu on Africa: US Oil’s New Target

America has set its sights on Africa, which, according to a White House national energy policy document, is predicted to be – together with Latin America – “one of the fastest growing sources of oil and gas” for the future American market. But in the global hunt for oil, America has to compete with an increasingly successful and aggressive major competitor – China

China’s oil safari

China has a straightforward strategy for diminishing its dependence on Middle East oil: buy from Africa. This year Angola has replaced the world’s largest oil producer, Saudi Arabia, as China’s main oil supplier.
A mere eight years after its first foray into Africa’s oilfields, an investment in Sudan after then US President Bill Clinton imposed economic sanctions on the country in 1997, China is now importing 30 % of its oil from Africa, compared with 47 % from the Middle East.
…
China has adopted an aid-for-oil strategy that has resulted in increasing flows of oil from African countries in return for China building lavish infrastructure projects such as hospitals, railways and sports stadiums and cutting trade and debt-forgiveness deals. Not only does that gain Beijing natural resources. It also wins the Chinese new friends — and their votes it needs in international forums like the United Nations and World Trade Organization as it takes an ever larger role on the world stage.
China’s involvement in Africa’s oil, as well as the more recent presence of Malaysia’s and India’s state oil companies, not only adds a new dimension to China’s long-standing political influence on the continent. It is also disrupting the long dominance of Western oil companies such as ExxonMobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell and Total.
Three state Chinese oil companies now have interests in nearly 20 African countries, from Libya in the north, to Nigeria in the west, Angola in the south and Ethiopia in the east. They are China National Petroleum, which is the parent of New York-listed PetroChina; China National Petrochemical (Sinopec), whose listed arm is China Petroleum & Chemical; and China National Offshore Oil Co., a.k.a. CNOOC.

Posted by: b real | Feb 5 2007 20:01 utc | 20

it looks like the israelis might release marwan bhargouti because they want a stronger fatah – or they are seeking a holy bloodbath of the palestinian people
Or maybe they realize that they have just about unleashed total anarchy and they are saying “oopsie.” Maybe they got around to reading Virginia Tilley:

But what are you going to do, Israel, if five million Palestinians are finally living leaderless under your sovereignty? What will you do, when they lose their capacity to negotiate with you? Have you thought that, within the territory you control, they are as many as you? And that now you are destroying their unified voice? Have you thought about what will happen to you if they truly lose that voice?….
But if you actually reap the chaos you are crafting for the Palestinians, you will find that no one else is responsible for these five million civilians except you.
So what will you do, Israel, with five million people living under your rule, when you can no longer pretend to the world that you intend to negotiate with them? What will you do with people you detest, and who finally utterly detest you, when visions of coexistence have finally failed? You will be the only sovereign power over them. You will be able neither to digest them nor to vomit them out. And they will stare at you.
And we will stare at you, too.
Because there will be no one left to blame, and no one to take care of them, except you.

Posted by: Bea | Feb 6 2007 3:18 utc | 22

According to Democrat Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), as reported by Newsweek, Bush sees himself as the new Harry Truman.

[Bush] compared his situation to the crisis Harry Truman faced in the early days of the cold war. Then, as now, Bush said, the United States confronted a dangerous ideological foe. Truman had answered with the Truman Doctrine, a vow to protect free peoples wherever they were threatened with communist domination. Truman’s policies had been unpopular in their time, but “history showed he was right,” said Bush, according to Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate.

A moment’s reflection on the implications of this sentiment, if accurate, should scare the hell out of everyone.
Maybe you need to think about it.

Posted by: Monolycus | Feb 6 2007 4:02 utc | 24

New Fort Detrick BioDefense Laboratory May Reflect a Bush Germ War Effort

The latest development, according to the Associated Press, is that the U.S. Army is replacing its Military Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., “with a new laboratory that would be a component of a biodefense campus operated by several agencies.” The Army told AP the laboratory is intended to continue research that is only meant for defense against biological threats.
But University of Illinois international law professor Francis Boyle charged the Fort Detrick work will include “acquiring, growing, modifying, storing, packaging and dispersing classical, emerging and genetically engineered pathogens.” Those activities, as well as planned study of the properties of pathogens when weaponized, “are unmistakable hallmarks of an offensive weapons program.”

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 6 2007 11:11 utc | 26

That’s why we have elections.
In 2008, we can finish putting together the governing team that will end the war. [Gee isn’t that what Hilliary just said in ger DNC speech]
Had we not made huge gains in 2006, we’d be a lot further away from making that happen in 2008.
by kos on Mon Feb 05, 2007 at 04:46:15 PM PST
[ Parent ]

Funny… how he forgets to mention that the Dems in the same position as the GOP were unable to block rightwing SCJs being seated, or Abu Gonzales, Bankruptcy Bill….etc etc etc… so basically Kos has been lying the past four years…
Jesus fucking Christ…
There is something very disturbing about kos putting out this message. I get an odd “America: love it or leave it” message with this “we’d be a lot worse off if we didn’t make as many gains as we had” bullshit argument. Pacifying the masses. “We’re doing the best we can.” “Hey, things could be worse. What if we hadn’t “won?” I mean, he’s really grasping here, chumming pure bullshit to a school of hungry denial-fish.
The alternative is too painful for them to contemplate: That they’ve been sold down the river by these corporate congressional hacks.
And of course the ever-present: “Just wait. Wait until 2008.” In 2004, it was “just wait until 2006.” In 2003, it was “just wait until 2004.” They’ll be waiting ’til the cows come home…
One would think there would be defections from the site. I mean, how long can people swallow this propaganda pill that the Dems are anything but turncoats? It’s baffling to me why these hangers-on continue to engage in this massive shitstorm of denial and betrayal by their “own party.”
geez…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 6 2007 13:20 utc | 28

for the geekazoids among us, with love.
Web 2.0

Posted by: fauxreal | Feb 6 2007 15:47 utc | 30

a classic from a USAWC research paper on the new combatant cmd in africa

Along with failed and impoverished states, Africa is also a continent which has vast spaces, many of which are extremely harsh and desolate. These failed states and ungoverned areas present breeding grounds for criminals and terrorist alike.

as everyone knows, extremely harsh & desolate environments make idea breeding grounds

Posted by: b real | Feb 6 2007 16:11 utc | 32

following the notion of only reading the last paragraph in MSM stories to get to the crux of issue, in today’s AP wire on the AFRICOM announcement

Officials say that Africa also is strategically more important because of increased efforts by China to involve itself and gain influence on the continent.

Posted by: b real | Feb 6 2007 16:22 utc | 34

uncle #27. the comment section of that article is rather amazing. i recommend

Posted by: annie | Feb 6 2007 18:42 utc | 36

aljazeera international committed to the facts that the iranian diplomat was kidnapped by iraqui forces under direct u s orders
also of note is the cached destruction of al aqsa mosque under yet another guise
the provocations against the arab & persian people are daily

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 6 2007 19:53 utc | 38

Digby had a great post on Cheney’s creation/expansion of the Vice Presidency as a Fourth Estate. The comments are pretty informative too.
I’d not really thought before about the opportunity that office gives to wily operators by virtue of its role as President of the Senate as well as VP of the Executive Branch. Worth reading, if only to round out what you know about the idea of a Unitary Executive. Cheney may go down in history as the guy who made the VP job the most powerful in the land.

Posted by: citizen | Feb 6 2007 22:45 utc | 40

@Uncle+annie – more follow up on the mindcontrol crazies at Defense Tech:
200 Years of “Mind Control”
Inside the Mind Control Conspiracy
Inside the Mind Control Conspiracy, Part II

Posted by: b | Feb 6 2007 23:09 utc | 42

r’giap – He should first share a ward with Arial Sharon and afterwards pickle both their brains and put’em together in a jar labeled “POISON”.

Posted by: beq | Feb 7 2007 0:01 utc | 44

some more on AFRICOM
first, some moron — excuse me, rear adm. — in a stars & stripes article by charlie coon

STUTTGART, Germany — The U.S. military’s approach toward African nations has been touted as proactive: “Helping people to help themselves” is one of its mantras.
U.S. and African troops train together, medics treat sick people and engineers dig wells for fresh water. But while trying to win friends and influence people, the threat of terrorism also is being targeted by the military and its latest endeavor, the establishment of an African Command.
“The groups we are most worried about … are the ones who have the ability to influence nations, plural,” said Rear Adm. Richard K. Gallagher, director of the U.S. European Command’s Plans and Operations Center.
“Groups,” he said, “that threaten us, and not just the United States, but the European continent, the African continent and elsewhere.”
Groups like the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or GSPC, Gallagher said, has sworn allegiance to al-Qaida and wishes to create an Islamist state in Algeria and across northern Africa, much like the Islamic caliphate of centuries past.
…
The groups might be small for now, Gallagher said, but can be deadly.
“These are not local groups that are unhappy with the local situation in a particular country,” Gallagher said. “When I’m talking about transnational characters, these are groups that freely flow their people across the spectrum.”
…
Factors that make Africa ripe for terrorist activity, Gallagher said, include huge, ungoverned spaces where people can roam freely, and large numbers of restless young people who are vulnerable to anti-Western propaganda.
The fight against terrorist organizations will be a long one, Gallagher said. The military, he said, is trying to make African nations more able to crack down on transnational extremists.
“It’s to enable local governments to deny that ability,” he said, “and to decrease the environment that allows them to do their business and to do their evil deeds.”

not so, according to charles cobb jr, the senior correspondant for allafrica.com, who does not like the idea of the new combatant command

…the question is whether this development will be a good thing for the continent.
I think not.
First, without significant and protective checks and balances, excessive “security” tends to erode, if not crush, civil liberties, and those governments on the continent that already show little inclination to support democratic freedoms will almost certainly use “security” as an excuse to clamp down on things they don’t like. This is already happening in the US, where despite checks and balances there is a steady erosion of constitutional rights in the name of “homeland security”.
A second and related point is that no other command will be as politically defined. None of the five other military commands will require as much, or as direct, intervention in the political affairs of their region. We already see this in Somalia, where US strategic concerns trump local needs. US money helped prop up the warlords, enabling them to continue the chaos that keeps that tragic nation trapped in failure as a state, even though the transitional government the warlords are part of was trying to install itself in Mogadishu. The US needed the warlords to help fight Islamic “terrorists”. Never mind that those warlord militias were terrorising Somalis.
A few years ago, this was played out in a different way in the effort to crush Algeria’s Islamist rebel organisation, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat. A chase across the Sahara in 2004 involving US, Algerian, Malian and Chadian soldiers resulted in a huge swathe of the Sahara-Sahel today being described as an anti- terror front aimed at al-Qaeda. In the future, Africom would be involved in such an operation. The problem is that the Salafist Group has little to do with al-Qaeda and a great deal to do with trying to topple the Algerian regime in order to set up an Islamist state — a local matter from my viewpoint, although I personally would not like to see the Algerian government toppled, nor am I in favour of religious states. Still, you cannot say that if a state is Islamist, it is by definition, “terrorist”. And US soldiers certainly don’t belong on the ground in local conflicts.
After years of reporting, the cynic in me concludes that there is no more dangerous combination than foreign-backed military power and foreign alignment with the political goals of local regimes. You can always count on the worst oppression rising to the surface as the norm in the name of security and stability.
And that leads to the final reason for looking with suspicion at Africom. Ultimately, it simply does not seem to serve genuine US interests in Africa: fostering economic growth, fighting chronic disease, conveying the idea that military muscle and the willingness to use it ruthlessly is not a path to stability.
All these will surely be reduced to rhetoric about what needs to be done after Africa is “secure”.

the military views africa thru impaired GWOT goggles, seeing problems everywhere. are we to understand that “huge, ungoverned spaces where people can roam freely” is a really bad thing? sounds like freedom, to me, but obviously these military types are hammers looking for nails.
as cobb writes,

The establishment of “Africom,” as the Pentagon and state department are already calling it, is being driven by two main strategic concerns: first, the growing demand for African oil and gas (Africa is expected to be supplying 25% of US hydrocarbon imports by 2015) and the vulnerability of those supplies, concentrated as they are in some of Africa’s most unstable states; and second, the perceived danger of Islamic radicals.

it is entirely a matter of perception. that us army war college paper i linked to above, making the argument for AFRICOM back in 2005 march, provides concrete evidence to their warped vision & comprehension of africa. in the paper, the framing of terrorist activity thoughout africa is accepted unquestioningly as a truth so overwhelming that not even a single attempt to provide an example of a terrorist activity is required to make its case for the “perceived us national interests” which, incredibly, fails to acknowledge the continent’s vast resources, esp oil.
refering to the 2002 national security strategy (nss), the author writes,

The NSS focuses on the global war on terrorism and recognizes that terrorist cells are located thoughout the world and that the U.S. must locate those cells in order to destroy them. “Thousand of trained terrorists remain at large with cells in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and across Asia. Our priority will be first to disrupt and destroy terrorist organizations of global reach and attack their leadership; command, control, and communications; material support; and finances.” The seams that have been created in Africa between the three Combatant Commands make a coordinated effort against terrorist cells more difficult. The seeds of terrorism must be recognized. Washington must wage a war of ideas with those who support terrorists and their causes in the unstable areas of Africa. America must support moderate governments, especially in the Muslim regions of Africa, so that they can educate their populations before terrorist elements gain a foothold with their youth.” [emphasis mine]

how exactly does that address “the seeds of terrorism?” just take, for instance, washington’s support for the warlords in somalia who terrorized the population. along w/ cobb above, i see plenty of “seeds of terrorism” germinating from military doctrine like this. their perceptions appear to be formed entirely around self-justifying validations for the use of force & domination. i sense they picture a variation of the arcade game whack-a-mole in their washed brains. making up for their lack of brain cells by projecting vast numbers of terrorist cells across the planet. someone please take their tokens away & stop funding this madness.
on this talk of “seams”

These seams potentially have been and will continue to be used by terrorists, rogue states, and other criminal elements to avoid detection from the United States efforts to track and apprehend them. [emphasis mine]

how ’bout that wording, eh?

[Africa] is a complex continent defined by increasing resources, new lines of communication between itself and the rest of the world, and an expanding economic codependence, yet Africa also has an evolving terror infrastructure, is a provider of instability into Europe by way of refugees, human trafficking, and smuggling, and Africa has a continental AIDS epidemic that is both catastrophic, expanding, and invisible at the same time.
…
What Africa lacks today is a continental wide stabilizing mechanism.
…
National economic instability, throughout the majority of countries in Africa, provides the breeding ground for political, military, and religious instability which ultimately has provided the welcome mat to terrorist. [sic]

actually, it sounds like they’ve already inviting themselves

Posted by: b real | Feb 7 2007 6:05 utc | 46

In case there’s anyone around here who is interested in the elite war on America – unlike billmon who grew fat on it – it’s finally time for them to say Screw America, Who needs it ‘cuz we sure as hell don’t: Cisco shifts top brass from Silicon Valley to India
SAN JOSE, Calif. — For the better part of a decade, India has been the outsourcing destination-of-choice for American IT companies looking to reduce costs without sacrificing quality.
While that trend appears to be holding steady, India could soon become home to a bevy of top level executives from the choicest global technology giants. And ushering in this era is Wim Elfrink, the chief globalization officer at Cisco Systems Inc., who along with a seven member team has shifted base from Silicon Valley to Bangalore, India.
…
“From Cisco’s point of view, this deal makes absolute sense — it gets them access to lot of very bright talent at low prices,” Wadwha said. “It’s all good for Cisco, but it’s also good for India because it brings to the country a lot of new jobs and high technology.
If it’s not good for Americans, fuck ’em…Meanwhile they’re told to “get an education so they can compete”.

Posted by: jj | Feb 7 2007 8:07 utc | 48

Attack on DNS root servers
From another board I visit, it was mentioned that, “Today’s operation against the root DNS systems may have been more reconnaissance than attack.” I’ve thought along these lines as well, especially re: a strategic, false flag takedown of the Internet mainly to blame “the terrorists” for economic collapse, and to wipe away evidence of past crimes. Don’t ask me how “the terrorists” would manage to destroy redundant backup and data systems… But “the terrorists” are a crafty lot. Like Satan, et. al. * sigh *
The way to think about it is: What would kill the most birds with the fewest stones? That’s why I thought “the terrorists” will finally focus on the undefended infrastructures that make the Internet possible:
1) End the criticism of the regime.
2) Cut off people like us from real information.
3) Cut off people like us from communicating with each other.
4) People, rendered helpless, jobless, Walmartless, etc, would beg for the government to save them.
5) Anyone who dares speak out against the government would probably be killed by a mob of troglodytes.
6) Oh yeah, the theft of trillions of dollars? What are these trillions of dollars you speak of, Senator? Who? Where?
LOOK OUT! THE TERRORISTS ARE COMING BACK TO FINISH US OFF!!!!
That’s one possible scenario, anyway.
I don’t think that it’s possible to know which trick is going to be pulled with any precision. But they’re going to have to try to fit ten pounds of shit into a five pound bag, and soon. I feel certain something major is in the works. The question is how to blame “the terrorists” for the crash without the thing leading to nuclear war. I’m guessing that this Brzezinsk thing is like saying, “Don’t do it ‘that’ way. Go back to the drawing board. We don’t want it to play out like ‘that.’” Iraq is clearly out of control. Add Iran to the mix? I don’t see how they maintain any level of control (militarily, politically, economically, take your pick) with an order of magnitude increase in the chaos on the ground. I think this crossed Brzezinski’s mind, and the minds of his handlers.
via AP / Wired:

Hackers briefly overwhelmed at least three of the 13 computers that help manage global computer traffic Tuesday in one of the most significant attacks against the Internet since 2002.

Lest ye forget…
US plans to ‘fight the net’ revealed

A newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into the US military’s plans for “information operations” – from psychological operations, to attacks on hostile computer networks.
Bloggers beware.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 7 2007 13:19 utc | 50

wallerstein: The World Social Forum: From Defense to Offense

The World Social Forum (WSF) met in Nairobi, Kenya from January 20-25. The organization, founded as a sort of anti-Davos, has matured and evolved more than even its participants realize. From the beginning, the WSF has been a meeting of a wide range of organizations and movements from around the world who defined themselves as opposed to neo-liberal globalization and imperialism in all its forms. Its slogan has been “another world is possible” and its structure has been that of an open space without officers, spokespeople, or resolutions. The WSF has been against neo-liberal globalization and the term alterglobalists has been coined to define the stance of its proponents – another kind of global structure.
…
…the WSF is presenting a real alternative, and gradually creating a web of networks whose political clout will emerge in the next five to ten years. Participants at the WSF have debated for a long time whether it should continue to be an open forum or should engage in structured, planned political action. Quietly, almost surreptitiously, it became clear at Nairobi that the issue was moot. The participants would do both – leave the WSF as an open space that was inclusive of all those who wanted to transform the existing world-system and, at the same time, permit and encourage those who wanted to organize specific political actions to do so, and to organize to do so at WSF meetings.
The key idea is the creation of networks, which the WSF is singularly equipped to construct at a global level. There is now an effective network of feminists. For the first time, at Nairobi, there was instituted a network of labor struggles (defining the concept of “worker” quite broadly). There is now an ongoing network of activist intellectuals. The network of rural/peasant movements has been reinforced. There is a budding network of those defending alternative sexualities (which permitted Kenyan gay and lesbian movements to affirm a public presence that had been difficult before). There is an anti-war network (immediately concerned with Iraq and the Middle East in general). And there are functional networks on specific arenas of struggle – water rights, the struggle against HIV/AIDS, human rights.

Posted by: b real | Feb 7 2007 15:41 utc | 52

Laura’s war and piece…Duke Cunningham, Wilkes, K. “Dusty” Foggo CIA contracts and the Cunningham investigation.
And speaking of contracts… be sure to not miss this one over at the slowly disintegrating dkos…
363 tons of cash

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 7 2007 16:17 utc | 54

Libby Testimony Ties Bush, Cheney to Leak Plot
youtube: Bush can’t figure out who leaked the CIA agent’s identity

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 7 2007 19:13 utc | 56

sorry annie, all
The Criminalization of US Foreign Policy: From the Truman Doctrine to the Neo-Conservatives

Posted by: b real | Feb 7 2007 19:30 utc | 58

Uncle, if you haven’t been banned from that site, why don’t you post a response explaining how far right it is. That it is not & never has been a “leftist” anything. That kos doesn’t pay the bills, Geo. Soros has historically. Exc. article about him in New Statesman. Explain that it’s his function to fund things that CIA used to fund, w/express purpose of co-opting grass roots so no leadership develops than challenges, much less threatens Pirates Power. Yesterday, I was thinking how kos should be called Mr. AstroTurf – then to read this from you today.
It’s so dangerous when right-wingers like this call themselves Leftists, as it leaves even centerists called dangerous radicals, not to mention moderate leftists. But then as someone less deluded than these pathetic clowns recently wrote, after the empire falls, it will be to Chomsky that everyone will turn to to explain it.

Posted by: jj | Feb 7 2007 23:59 utc | 60

Bankrolling Civil Wars is getting expensive…
You meant to say lucrative?

Posted by: b | Feb 8 2007 0:34 utc | 62

b-, that too 🙂 Expensive to me, lucrative to them…
Speaking of Mr. Astroturf, in light of those poor clowns claiming they are lefties, consider serious conservative Paul Craig Roberts nominees for Nobel Peace Prize. Not one person he nominates who wouldn’t scare the hell out of The Lost Souls of Kosdom. A Prize for the Truth
Not surprisingly, Asia Times has to be elevated from the impt. reading to essential reading list these days…too much to link…Marc Parent has entry indicating that Israeli yearning to go after Hezzy again – prob. to co-ordinate w/Nutjobs’ “word fail me utterly” against Iran…Anyone else think that yesterday’s so-called web-attack is dry run for them taking out net when they nuke Iran??? christ, I very rarely have a drink, and even I’m wondering where the nearest liquor store it…
Speaking of Asia Times, would an econ. literate barfly translate this from their Feb. 2 art. on China changing mgmt. of its cash reserves, please? Implications? And if Europe is dependent on Russia for their oil, won’t that preclude them from supporting this madness in actuality rather than in their blather for the masses – she asks hopefully?
China has begun taking specific steps to diversify its US$1 trillion worth of foreign exchange reserves. It plans a 1.5 trillion yuan bond issue to raise funds to buy out US$200 billion of its reserves, much of which will then be invested overseas. All of this entails a shake-up in the foreign reserve management regime

Posted by: jj | Feb 8 2007 0:51 utc | 64

US Army clears itself of abuse in Gitmo An Army officer who investigated possible abuse at Guantanamo Bay after some guards purportedly bragged about beating detainees found no evidence they mistreated the prisoners — although he did not interview any of the alleged victims.
—
So, they investigate one rumor of alleged abuse, interview only those who might have committed or enabled the abuse, and in finding nothing, clear the entire Gitmo operation of abuse?
Or is it just a badly worded headline?
I’m sorry officer, but after an independent review conducted by myself, it was found that I was not speeding.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 8 2007 2:17 utc | 66

Thankfully we still have Pravda to put things into perspective when xUS press fails as usual:
In yet another shocking prelude towards becoming a Total Police State, Russian Intelligence Analysts are reporting today that the American War Leaders have issued orders to the United States Military Northern Command authorizing the jailing, and military tribunals, for any American citizen critical of the ‘war effort’.
Russian Legal Analysts familiar with American Law state in these reports that the significance of these actions being taking against American citizens by the US War Leaders shows the ‘complete ascendancy’ to ‘total power’ of the American President, and who now is free to rule his Nation by decree free from interference by either the US Congress, or the American people themselves.
Russian Intelligence Analysts in these reports to President Putin have asked, “If President Bush feels that he is not constrained by either the elected representatives of the American people, or the American people themselves, we must then consider that he, and his Administration, have become powers unto themselves and that the United States should therefore be considered a dictatorship, not a democracy.”link
Has anyone ever heard of that first one?

Posted by: jj | Feb 8 2007 7:28 utc | 68

what’s goin’ on

Posted by: annie | Feb 8 2007 10:25 utc | 70

@Help Hamburger, re:#47:

Well, you’re in trouble, that’s all. (Not that you need me to tell you that.) Technically, it should be possible to fix the problem while booted from the install CD, by using the option to run Terminal and issuing the right commands. (You would need to move into the folder you made, and then use “mv” to move “System”, “Library”, “Users”, and “Volumes” back out to the root level of the disk, then run “Repair Permissions”, which is inside Disk Utility.) In actual fact, unless you know a lot about Unix, that isn’t likely to work for you. You see, you’ve moved some, but not all, of the directory structure around, and probably broken some dependencies. All the hidden Unix-y stuff that the Finder doesn’t show is still there, the stuff with names like “/bin” and “/usr”, but all the stuff that runs the GUI and allows you to boot is no longer where it should be.

The “easy option”, which is still hard, is to get an external drive of some kind — Firewire or USB — plug it in, install the OS on it, then set the startup disk to it. (You will need at least 2GB of space on the external drive, I think, and you’ll want to do a custom install with pretty much everything turned off — all you want is the Finder.) Boot up, back up your stuff, erase the disk, and reinstall. (Alternatively, you could do a fresh install without erasing, and then just manually delete the old stuff.)

If you don’t have an external drive, then you can go to the Apple Store and ask at the help desk, they can help you. In the U.S., they might do it for free, depending on circumstances, and whether you get a nice rep. According to r’giap, the European ones aren’t so nice.

And a tip: when you get the thing working again, make a new account which doesn’t have administrative access, and use that for day-to-day stuff. Not only will it prevent you from doing this again, it will also make the machine much more secure. Right now, there are no active Mac viruses. Someday there may be. If you don’t run as administrator, you’re that much safer than otherwise. It will still let you copy things around inside your user folder, and if you need to run an installer it’ll ask for the admin password, but it will protect the system directories.

Posted by: The Truth Gets Vicious When You Corner It | Feb 8 2007 11:09 utc | 72

Israeli “Invasion” in the FIR of Athens

According to exclusive information of “Diplomatia”, shock, awe, and panic grieped the Headquarters of the Greek Air Force yesterday, February 5, 2007, when radars detected a large formation of military aircraft flying inside the FIR of Athens, heading from Israel to Carpathos (a greek island, south west of Rhodes, cm).
Immediately two pairs of F-16s of the Greek Air Force scrambled from Crete to identify the invaders.
They were a formation of military aircraft of Israel consisting of 7 Boeing 703 (refurbished Boeing 707) tankers, 1 Golfstream electronic warfare aircraft, and 25 F-15 Strike Eagle and F-16 fighters, flying at altitudes of 22-44,000 feet.
The Israeli formation turned and departed towards Israel 12 miles southeast of Carpathos, after having flown for 20 minutes inside the FIR of Athens.

Looks like the Israeli are training a bit for a “long reach” attack …

Posted by: b | Feb 8 2007 13:26 utc | 74

Interesting piece in the Asia Times about how the Bush Administration totally misplayed the Shiite card — good historical perspective:
Shiite Power a Law Unto Itself

Posted by: Bea | Feb 8 2007 14:33 utc | 76

somalinet news is reporting essentially the same story
Somalia: The story of US captives in Somalia gains weight

The report of the seizure over 11 American soldiers by the ousted Islamist movement in southern Somalia is getting momentum on Arab media.
The Yemeni Nedaa newspaper reports that US diplomats are negotiating with top Islamist leader Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed over the release of American captives in return of bringing Islamist leaders back to the political arena.
Reports say American hostages were 15 soldiers who were seized after they landed on the ground around Raskamboni near the Kenyan border where the US warplanes were air bombing.
They involved in clashes with the Islamists on the ground where four US marines were wounded and others were captured, as sources report.
The paper quoted Sheik Ahmed saying that his trip to Yemen came after agreement with US government over efforts to release the US marines that are in the hands of Islamist hardliners at large in southern tip of Somalia.
…
Sources close to the Islamists in Somalia say that Islamist groups based in unmentioned Arab countries are mediating between Washington, which misses 11 personells in Somalia, and the Islamists.

google’s translation tool here for the al-nedaa link in #77

Posted by: b real | Feb 8 2007 16:11 utc | 78

“dhobley”
wikipedia article on The Battle of Ras Kamboni only covers up to jan 17

Posted by: b real | Feb 8 2007 16:39 utc | 80

john foster bellamy: The Ecology of Destruction
cool penguin photos (and a couple of pumped-up sea lions)
nice tune from colin & malka’s latest project

Posted by: b real | Feb 8 2007 20:09 utc | 82

have just been watching cspan on the ‘internets’ with waxman’s hearing on contractors – blackwater et al – you could not find a more sanctimonious, cruel & venal mob. their arrogance before the hearing is almost unwatchable & their helpful assistants from the republicans is a sight to behold – i am also surprised in large part by the emasculated questions of the democrats
it is a cruel circus where only the poor pay

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 9 2007 0:06 utc | 84

one of the more interesting questions was asked of the goo from blackwater whether they have or are in the process of leasing helicopters for large scale evacuations – the fool sd he couln’t reply because either it was classified or it was client attorney relationship
jurisprudence on junk

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 9 2007 1:22 utc | 86

b real thanks for the Bellamy article! excellent summary of the physical contradictions of capitalism.

Posted by: DeAnander | Feb 9 2007 1:59 utc | 88

good post over at oil wars from tuesday

Playing it S.A.F.E.

The other day I did a post on the illuminating Senate testimony of Robert Hormats. As he mentioned in that testimony he is a member of the Energy Leadership Council of Securing America’s Energy Future (S.A.F.E.) which is a rather interesting group.
Just as Mr. Hormats alluded to in his testimony this group sees energy security (and by that they mean access to needed oil supplies) as a very important foreign policy and military matter. In fact, it bares noting that 8 out of their 16 directors come straight out of the Pentagon. That surely is no coincidence.
Their web-site contains a wealth of information regarding the world oil industry and world oil consumption in addition to studies on how the oil markets work.

one of the studies is that oil shockwave crisis simulation that was mentioned in the vanity fair article on the nigeria delta that b linked to this week.
one paper that the blog highlights, Oil Dependence: A Threat to U.S.Economic & National Security [89KB pdf], actually states the following:

Military Cost and Risk
The need to secure global oil supplies requires substantial defense expenditures and involves risks to American forces – none of which are factored into the market price of a barrel of oil.
– CENTCOM troops ensure “unfettered access” to oil supplies in the Middle East.
– SOUTHCOM troops defend Colombia’s Cano Limon pipeline.
– EUCOM soldiers are training locals to guard the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and working to curb corruption and improve the security of facilities in West Africa.
– PACOM ships and planes patrol tanker routes in the Indian Ocean, the South China Sea, and the Western Pacific.

well, they can add AFRICOM to that list now, and you can bet your sweet bippy that securing/protecting oil ventures will be a central role there.
on wednesday, Center for International Policy announced the release of a new paper on u.s. oil interests in nigeria, Convergent Interests: U.S. Energy Security and the ‘Securing’ of Nigerian Democracy [0.97MB pdf]

In its anxious search for energy security, the United States has embarked on a risky strategy to arm and train the militaries of oil-producing West Africa, all as part of an expansion of the Global War on Terror. Over the past 15 years, amidst a deepening crisis in the Middle East and tightening petroleum markets, the U.S. has quietly institutionalized a West African-based oil supply strategy, closely focused on an “Oil Triangle,” centered around the Gulf of Guinea. Nigeria, which currently provides 10-12 percent of U.S. oil imports, serves as the cornerstone of this strategy even though, since the end of 2005, the on- and offshore oilfields of the Niger Delta — the major source of the country’s oil and gas — have essentially become ungovernable.
In a new International Policy Report published by the Center for International Policy in Washington, D.C., three University of California experts report on the motives, actions and potential consequences of this strategy, and argue that militarization policies are not only short-sighted but also deeply flawed.

have only skimmed through the 24-page rpt, but it looks to be most informative & relevant to this week’s announcement of the latest combatant cmd.

— American military interest in the Gulf of Guinea has been stoked by the energetic activities of an oil lobbyist whose connections include a Jerusalem-based think tank, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and neoconservative institutes and consultants (pp. 10-13).
— Pentagon analysts and generals claim that vast “uncontrolled spaces” in Saharan and Sahelian Africa are rife with terrorists seeking to damage the United States, even though the evidence for such claims is woefully thin. Nevertheless, a $500 million “Trans-Sahara Counter Terrorism Initiative” (TSCTI), which will tie African militaries to American policies, is in the works (pp. 16-20).
— Militarization will exacerbate an already tense situation in Nigeria, having nothing to do with terrorism, which has the potential to destabilize the rest of the region. Only a concerted effort to support Nigeria’s democratic forces and its legislature’s oversight of the country’s presidency can ensure American and Nigerian security interests and quell wholesale theft of oil revenues as well as the insurgencies, criminality and social banditry now rampant in the Delta (p. 20).

and i haven’t been following all the controversy, but it sounds like wole soyinka’s been speaking both truth to power & pointing out blatant voting machine fraud for the past several weeks back in nigeria. would love to read a synopsis of the events/exchanges if anyone comes across one.

Posted by: b real | Feb 9 2007 5:31 utc | 90

Yippeee – Time to plunder Gaza & West Bank…
The new Palestinian unity government creates a real problem for Israel. It will be headed by a senior Hamas figure, Ismail Haniyeh. Moreover, it will not recognize Israel and does not pretend to meet the Quartet’s conditions, as one Hamas leader said.
Yet the same time, it is not a Hamas government, and Hamas will not have a majority in the cabinet. The finance minister-designate, Salem Fayad, is the White House’s darling. The foreign minister-designate, academic Ziad Abu Amar, has lectured at many American universities and does not have extremist positions on Israel. And the interior minister, who commands the security forces, will be an independent rather than a Hamas member, though he will be appointed on Hamas’ recommendation.
Under these circumstances, Israel and the U.S. will have trouble demanding that the international economic boycott of the Palestinian government remain in place. A real problem for Israel

Posted by: jj | Feb 9 2007 8:11 utc | 92

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