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April 13, 2007
OT 07-29
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Paul Krugman: For God’s Sake
The infiltration of the federal government by large numbers of people seeking to impose a religious agenda — which is very different from simply being people of faith — is one of the most important stories of the last six years. It’s also a story that tends to go underreported, perhaps because journalists are afraid of sounding like conspiracy theorists.
But this conspiracy is no theory. The official platform of the Texas Republican Party pledges to “dispel the myth of the separation of church and state.” And the Texas Republicans now running the country are doing their best to fulfill that pledge.
…
The Bush administration’s implosion clearly represents a setback for the Christian right’s strategy of infiltration. But it would be wildly premature to declare the danger over. This is a movement that has shown great resilience over the years. It will surely find new champions.
Next week Rudy Giuliani will be speaking at Regent’s Executive Leadership Series.
Wolfowitz went out to fight corruption at the World Bank.
Bank insiders confirmed reports from the bank’s staff association that Wolfowitz directed personnel officials to give Shaha Riza, his longtime companion, an automatic “outstanding” rating and the highest possible pay raises during an indefinite posting at the State Department, as well as a promotion upon her return to the bank.
…
Until yesterday, Wolfowitz and his aides had insisted that “all arrangements concerning Shaha Riza were made at the direction of the bank’s board of directors.” Bank sources said, however, that neither the board nor the ethics committee was aware of the terms of the final agreement.
Well Shaha is definitely not darning Paul’s socks
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Apr 13 2007 8:38 utc | 3
Crazy?! ‘I am plotting a new Russian revolution’
The Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky has told the Guardian he is plotting the violent overthrow of President Putin from his base in Britain after forging close contacts with members of Russia’s ruling elite.
In comments which appear calculated to enrage the Kremlin, and which will further inflame relations between London and Moscow, the multimillionaire claimed he was already bankrolling people close to the president who are conspiring to mount a palace coup.
“We need to use force to change this regime,” he said. “It isn’t possible to change this regime through democratic means. There can be no change without force, pressure.” Asked if he was effectively fomenting a revolution, he said: “You are absolutely correct.”
So should Berezovsky be expecting air strikes against his residence in the UK now? I mean, that’s how the U.S. would take care of something like this.
Glenn Greenwald on the terrible luck the bushadmin has in locating important documents.
The “malcompetence” never ends, in fact, it has gone on so much, and for so long, that one thing rolls over the other and the other and…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 13 2007 11:34 utc | 6
Now, I’ve learned from a highly reliable source that a conservative thinktank was recently asked to carry out analytical modeling for a potential conflict in Iran, focusing on the likely economic impact of war. The thinktank evaluated a series of likely scenarios, including a blockage by Iran of the Straits of Hormuz—through which moves about 16 million barrels of oil per day, about 20 percent of world production—for a period of six months or more in the event of a high-level conflict. An underlying assumption employed by thinktank analysts was of sustained U.S. aerial bombardment of Iran for 6 weeks, with periodic follow up thereafter.
The thinktank concluded that within two weeks of the conflict’s start, the international market price of oil would soar to about $120 per barrel.
on the mafia chieftan boris berezovsky – there is no better book than that by the murdered journalist of fortune magazine – ‘godfather of the kremlin’
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Apr 13 2007 13:51 utc | 8
Nice rant by Lee Iacocca:
Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the course.”
Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I’ll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!
You might think I’m getting senile, that I’ve gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don’t need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we’re fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That’s not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I’ve had enough. How about you?
I’ll go a step further. You can’t call yourself a patriot if you’re not outraged. This is a fight I’m ready and willing to have.
…
in the land of opportunity…
the peacock rpt: Private Contractors to Bid on ‘Hero Remains’ Transport Project
The Pentagon is poised to outsource the air-transport of U.S. soldiers killed in combat, and is meeting with vendors April 24 to discuss potential contracting opportunities, according to U.S. Transportation Command procurement documents that The Peacock Report has located. The first contract for this “hero remains” delivery service is for an initial performance period of Aug.-Sept. 2007 — with optional contracts projected to extend into the year 2010.
Posted by: b real | Apr 13 2007 18:28 utc | 10
gregory wilpert over @ venezuelanalysis has a long analysis of the attempted chavez coup five years ago, including what is known & what questions still remain wrt u.s. involvement.
The 47-Hour Coup That Changed Everything
Posted by: b real | Apr 13 2007 18:56 utc | 11
OT — telephone voice stress monitors —
A while back I overheard a Californian customer service rep (phone person) explain that when she spoke on the phone with people asking for a loan, seh watched a voice stress monitor that was like a lie detector.
For yes and no questions, it indicated whether they were telling the truth or not.
Just thought that since we all get a lot of calls with surveys, offers and so on; at least I do because there is no “do-not-call” list so I can opt out of them; what if those calls are going to be stress-monitored?
Coupled with voice recognition and a good dictionary, this could get quite interesting if you are going to think like the guy who thinks he is Napoleon in the Pink Panther movies.
As once said, “I don’t trust anyone except you and me, and I’m not so sure about you.”
Also, that mediated communications (i.e. talking via phone, letters, email, asking someone to pass on a message) are always vulnerable to a third party — whether that can be saved, cross-referenced, what they decide to do with the information is another story.
As part of my newly minted optimism, perhaps this power shall only be used for good.
Posted by: jonku | Apr 13 2007 20:56 utc | 12
Berezovsky is full of hot air and impotent frustration. Relying on fingers in pies and interminable phone calls.
——-
This article, by Manuel Valenzuela –The Great American Catalyzing Event – posted on Information Clearing House, April 2007, is wordy, as is his habit, a bit confused, still worth a read, or a skim…it is tentatively about 9/11:
link
Posted by: Noirette | Apr 13 2007 21:18 utc | 13
in yet another amazing development…
I was looking around in my email files for that high school senior photo of Jesus that father guido sent me to cheer me up after Bush took office again and realized I had an email from Karl! he probably forgot that I was on a blind cc and I got the email by mistake. I’m sooooo glad I didn’t delete it!!
anyway, I’m forwarding it to you all-
>yes, I got Gannon the job because he’s the tops!
>no, I didn’t know that we couldn’t fire Fitgeraldo when he’s investigating the Cheney’s office…what is >this, communist China? We don’t have freedom of association? Is there any other way we can stump his investigation?
>>what do you mean, email trail?
>>Where does Rush get his oxycontin?
>>ROTFLMAO! When HAS he been sober?!?!?! (jk) Did you see the way he “read” that book upside >>down?
>>>who cares what they think. As long as they vote like we tell them to, sure, tell them god told us to lie >>>about…everything. fucking idiots.
>stop, stop! that would be great…the dog ate my email! oh Dick, you are something else. No, I’ll just say I >”accidentally” deleted them. law smaw. what is this, communist China? I don’t need no stinkin’ laws.
>yeah, what you said, go fuck yourself, too! ttfn trigger dick. smooches- your turdblossom.
Posted by: fauxreal | Apr 13 2007 22:19 utc | 14
Two questions for the panel of experts here.
Is this a joke? (from a Google news link).
Scientists Extract Proteins Tyrannosaurus
.. and, why are fossils rock-coloured?
Posted by: DM | Apr 13 2007 22:42 utc | 15
Robert Fisk: Fear and loathing on an American campus
I have a desire to take Norm, Chuck and Al and bang their bloody heads together
Published: 14 April 2007
On the night of 11 September 2001, Al Dershowitz of Harvard law school exploded in anger. Robert Fisk, he roared over Irish radio, was a dangerous man. I was “pro-terrorist”. I was “anti-American” and that, Dershowitz announced to the people of County Mayo, “is the same as anti-Semitic”.
Of course I had dared to ask the “Why” question; Why had 19 Arabs flown aircraft into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania? Take any crime on the streets of London and the first thing Scotland Yard does is look for a motive. But when we had international crimes against humanity on the scale of New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, the first thing we were not allowed to do was look for a motive. How very odd. The 19 murderers came from a place called the Middle East. Was there a problem out there?
But Al would have none of this. And I got the message. To ask the “Why” question made me a Nazi. Which is why I subsequently received a flood of mail, much of it from Denver – what has Denver got against me? – telling me that my mother was Adolf Eichmann’s daughter. Thanks, Al. I’m sure you didn’t dream of the hate mail your silly diatribe will inspire. I guess Irish radio host Eamon Dunphy did. He pulled the plug on Al.
I’m recalling all this nonsense because Al has been back at work attacking his old nemesis, Norm Finkelstein, who has just applied for tenure at DePaul University in the US where he is an assistant professor of politics. Norm’s department has supported him but Al has bombarded faculty members with a blistering attack on Norm and all his works.
So let me just explain what these works are. Finkelstein, who is Jewish and the son of Holocaust survivors, has published a number of works highly critical of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian West Bank and the use Israeli supporters make of the Holocaust of six million Jews to suppress criticism of Israel’s policies. He has accused Dershowitz of plagiarising portions of his 2003 book The Case for Israel. Finkelstein’s book, The Holocaust Industry, earned Dershowitz’s continued fury.
Now, I’ve known Norm for years and he is a tough, no-holds-barred polemicist, angry against all the traditional supporters of Israel, especially those who turn a blind eye to torture. Personally, I find Norm’s arguments sometimes a little overwrought. In radio discussions, his voice will take on a slightly whingeing tone that must infuriate his antagonists.
But Al is clearly trying to destroy Norm’s career, adding that the “dossier” he sent to DePaul academics – we remember that word “dossier” rather too well in Britain and, I should add, Al has absolutely no connection to DePaul University – contains details of “Norman Finkelstein’s … outright lies, misquotations and distortion”.
It will be a disgrace, says Al, for DePaul to give tenure to Norm. “His scholarship is no more than ad hominem attacks on his ideological enemies.” As if this is not enough, Al – who is also Jewish – takes a crack at philosopher and linguistic academic Noam Chomsky who has supported Norm and whom Al refers to as “the high priest of the radical anti-Israeli left”.
Enough, I hear readers shout. I agree. But Norm’s politics department give him top marks for scholarship and says he “offers a detailed argument that suggests that Dershowitz plagiarised or inappropriately appropriated large sections of others work in The Case for Israel”. Norm has a “substantial and serious record of scholarly production and achievement” and has lectured at the University of Chicago, Harvard, Georgetown and Northwestern Universities.
So far so good. But now up pops “Chuck” Suchar, the dean of DePaul’s College of Liberal (sic) Arts and Sciences, with an extraordinary recommendation that Norm should not be granted tenure. While acknowledging that “he is a skilled teacher” with “consistently high course evaluations,” Chuck has decided “that a considerable amount of [his work] is inconsistent with DePaul’s Vincentian values, most particularly our institutional commitment to respect the dignity of the individual and to respect the rights of others to hold an express different intellectual positions”. Norm’s books, according to Chuck, “border on character assassination and … embody a strategy clearly aimed at destroying the reputation of many who oppose his views”.
Now I have to say that scholars who read this column will be interested to know of Chuck’s own work. I gather it has absolutely nothing to do with the Middle East, though I’m sure his study of Gentrification and Urban Change: Research in Urban Society (1992) had American readers queuing round the block of their major bookstores in search of first editions. All I do ask is how a college dean could involve himself in the same kind of ad hominem attacks against one of his own colleagues that he has accused that same colleague of being guilty of.
I loved too, that bit about “Vincentian values”. That really does warrant a chortle or two. St Vincent de Paul – the real de Paul who lived from 1581 to 1660, not the de Paul of Chuck’s soft imagination – was a no nonsense theologian who was captured by Muslim Turkish pirates and taken to Tunis as a slave. Here, however, he argued his religious values so well that he converted his owner to Christianity and earned his freedom. His charitable organisations – he also created a home for foundlings in Paris – became a legend which Chuck Suchar simply dishonours.
All over the United States, however, Norm’s academic chums have been condemning Suchar’s tomfoolery; even in Beirut, where Norm has lectured, academics of the American University have insisted that he be granted tenure in his department, Arabs supporting a Jewish professor and son of Holocaust survivors.
Of course, I grant that all this is a little heavy for the real world and I do have a secret desire to take Norm, Chuck and Al and bang their bloody heads together. But what is happening at DePaul University is a very serious matter in the anodyne, frightened academic world that now exists in the US. Norm’s moment of truth comes up in May. As they say watch this space
Posted by: DM | Apr 13 2007 23:24 utc | 16
Kyle Sampson Lied To Congress….I Suppose That is Illegal, Don’t You?
WASHINGTON, April 13 — A Justice Department e-mail released on Friday shows that the former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales proposed replacement candidates for seven United States attorneys nearly a year before those prosecutors were fired, in contrast to testimony last month in which the aide said that no successors were considered before the firings.
Repercussions???? Contempt of Congress? Lying under oath?, Nothing…
I guess, perjury only applies to us simple folk. From what I understand he was suppose to be back to talk to some staffers of the committee, and I think it was today.
That was until these emails were released, and he canceled his appearance.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 14 2007 1:09 utc | 17
@DM #15:
Fossils are rock-colored because they are rocks. Over time (a lot of time) the cells that make up the organism in question are slowly filled with mineral-bearing water. Eventually the material that makes up the cell membranes and other components is dissolved. The protein is sometimes left behind because it’s tougher than the other cell components and is now encased in some kind of mineral.
So, in short, a fossil is a ‘bust’ of it’s former self.
Posted by: Dr. Wellington Yueh | Apr 14 2007 1:23 utc | 18
re: my #17
Let us have a look at the law on lying to Congress, 18 U.S.C. 1001 shall we? It talks about anyone who “falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact.” Note the word “trick.”
If you are asked one question (did you have this in mind before 12/7) and you answer another question (did you have this in mind on 12/7) in order to trick Congress, you are guilty of violating section 1001.
The U.S. Attorney Manual states, “A statement is false for purposes of this statute even if it is a technically true statement, but it is knowingly put to a false use.” In one case cited there, the court found that answering a question about the nature of a fee with a truthful answer about what the records show about that fee could still be a violation of 1001 if the answer was intended to avoid the real question.
I love section 1001. It sent away Scooter Libby and Martha Stewart. It would have taken away Caspar Weinberger if he had not been pardoned by Bush I.
And so it goes…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 14 2007 1:47 utc | 20
The protein is sometimes left behind
Thank you. I thought that I was being facetious re the colo(u)r, but I had no idea that protein is left behind. I obviously have no idea what protein really is.
Posted by: DM | Apr 14 2007 3:16 utc | 22
Recommended weekend reading. Why don’t we get articles like this in the Sunday newspaper?
BUSH: PLANETARY PIRATE
by Paul Levy
hostis humani generic
It is like Bush is on a weekend bender that has lasted over six years, and the world is his crime scene.
It is important for us to realize that Bush and Cheney are only the front-men for the organized crime syndicate of pirates which they serve and represent.
Posted by: DM | Apr 14 2007 3:59 utc | 23
Somalian PM Hopes to Tempt Oil Majors Back with Oil Law
Somalian Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi hopes big oil companies will return to the country and said parliament is set to vote on a petroleum law to encourage this by providing a legal framework.
Gedi told Dow Jones Newswires last week: “The parliament will approve the law within two months.”
Large oil companies were awarded acreage before the country’s government collapsed in 1991 but have yet to return owing to years of political instability and violence.
…
Asked whether contract holders had expressed any interest in returning, the prime minister said: “We have the information that they are interested,” but declined to give any names.
Posted by: b real | Apr 14 2007 4:53 utc | 24
Saw that “Shocked & Awed” thread & felt this huge rush – like is anyone but me shocked & awed by what the Elites have done to America & the World – how dare they appropriate those words.
then I stop by here & someone has Nailed It. The World is Bush’s Crime Scene.
Posted by: jj | Apr 14 2007 6:31 utc | 25
Finally some sane people – a LAT OpEd: Darfur needs peace, not peacekeepersBy Robert Ménard and Stephen Smith, ROBERT MéNARD is secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders, an organization that defends press freedoms. STEPHEN SMITH writes on African affairs from Paris.
DO YOU THINK the United States was wrong to invade Iraq even if it did so with the intention of bringing freedom to the victims of Saddam Hussein? Do you believe that long-standing conflicts in faraway countries cannot be solved with military solutions that fail to address the underlying causes of the crisis?
If so, how can you imagine that deploying thousands, or more likely tens of thousands, of foreign soldiers in Darfur, a Sudanese province bigger than Iraq, is all it would take to stop the massacre there? When we went to Darfur in March, we were as desperate as anybody about the killings — and we still are. But what we learned in Sudan makes us wary of do-gooders in body armor — and of the double-think of balkanized minds branding as disaster in Iraq what they recommend for Darfur’s salvation.
…
Yet, Manichaeism prevails in the West, where the cause is assumed to be simple: An Islamist Arab regime has decided to exterminate Darfur’s black population and is carrying out genocide with the help of the Riders of the Apocalypse, the infamous janjaweed militia. There is hardly any mention in the U.S. or European media of how humanitarian aid organizations — and Darfur’s civilians — are also fleeing from atrocities committed by rebels in Darfur opposed to Khartoum.
For example, in Gereida, in South Darfur, more than 100,000 displaced people have been cut off from humanitarian aid since mid-December after a rebel attack on relief groups that still dare not return.
The simplistic narrative may make for a readable plot line to explain a confusing African country, but unfortunately most Americans are not informed that there are up to 15 rebel factions fighting the government — and increasingly, each other.
…
Let’s face facts: Going to war against the Sudanese would not save lives, it would cost lives.
…
If indeed the regime in Khartoum is engaging in genocide, then there can be no compromising with it — and regime change must be the order of the day. But myriad independent investigations indicate that about 40,000 Darfurians were killed from March 2003 to December 2004 in atrocious circumstances, and 90,000 more people died of hunger or disease, the indirect victims of the civil war. Since then, the violence has been abating. The United Nations put the number of victims of attacks last year at about 1,300. The African Union mission in the Sudan, which has deployed 7,000 peacekeepers in Darfur, estimates a monthly average of 200 dead during the last six months. These figures are uncertain because there are often no witnesses to tragic events. But they tend to support a toll of 200,000 dead from all causes since the start of the fighting in February 2003 — the figure used by the media in most parts of the world, rather than the 450,000 dead often cited by groups urging action to save Darfur.
Don’t get us wrong: We also believe that Darfur needs our help. But our support should be realistic and honest — and not, in the end, helpless posturing.
Recommended in full – and to be dumped into the comments of the notorious daily “safe darfur” diaries who scream genocide in darfur but are silent on what happens in Iraq.
Embattled Osprey to Be Deployed to Iraq
WASHINGTON — Ten new V-22 Osprey will be in Iraq for combat by September, the Marine Corps said Friday.
Built by Boeing Co. and Bell, a unit of Textron Inc., the planes’ deployment marks a significant reversal for an aircraft program that was nearly scrapped after two deadly test crashes and a history of mechanical failures.
-snip-
“The V-22 will be able to fly above the threat,” said Lt. Gen. Castellaw, deputy commandant for Marine Aviation. “It’s harder to shoot a rabbit that’s running than one that is sitting still. We’re talking about the ability to climb altitude outside of the heart of the threat over there.”
Yeah, right, sure … would seem a somewhat desperate reach for a workable alternative to the demonstrably increasing vulnerabilty of utility and gunship helos to the ‘insurgents’, given IEDs & EFPs …
Posted by: Outraged | Apr 14 2007 14:50 utc | 28
Nice to see you, Outraged.
that ww2 post is “interesting” to say the least.
the west didn’t win anything? LOL. the U.S. experienced unprecedented economic expansion b/c European industries had been bombed to nothing in many places….
whenever I read anyone who starts out with how FDR created a “welfare-stateism” and “quasi-socialism” I tend to put them in the same basket with the John Birchers. FDR allowing Pearl Harbor is a right-wing talking point…who knows if it’s true…but the premise from which the guy begins immediately makes anything he says suspect.
Hitler spoke about undoing The Treaty of Versailles, not just for Lebensraum –but for revenge for the German defeat in WW1. I have been looking for an online citation to Hitler’s claim to also undo
the initial propaganda that gave the Nazis such a following was “restoring Germany’s place” as a leader– and propagandist Goering joined Hitler after he spoke against the French and destroying the Treaty of Versailles with the tip of a bayonet…now, if that isn’t about attacking France… anyway, it is BULLSHIT to claim that Hitler was only against Stalin…it sounds, in fact, like post-Hitler fascist bullshit.
no doubt the war reparations were overly severe — but Germany was in a mess not only because of communist agitation, but also because the Prussian aristrocracy opposed democracy and detested the emerging middle class that came from germany’s (belated) industrial revolution… it is ridiculous to put Hitler’s goals as a mere opposition to Stalin. The Weimar govt. let the currency fall to make reparations cheaper, which had a huge impact on German stability — which had NOTHING to do with the communists… the communists were, in fact, a reaction to the aristocracy… which came first, communists or the aristocrats who treated others like chattel?
This author’s attempt to link neo-cons to liberals/democrats is the latest bit of propaganda by the far right who is unwilling to admit its own expanionist acts — Teddy Roosevelt, not FDR — was the one who invaded the Phillipines. The CIA ultra rightwing were the ones who overthrew democratically elected leaders across the world — claiming they were fighting “communism,” BULLSHIT. They were fighting to make sure Pepsi and United Fruit could profit from and exploit countries under military dictatorships the U.S. supported.
bullshit, bullshit bullshit. this republican from New Mexico speaks bullshit and I am SICK of the right wing’s refusal to take responsibility for their own atrocities.
Posted by: fauxreal | Apr 14 2007 16:26 utc | 30
John Robbs take on the surge
JOURNAL: The Negative Proof for the Surge
The ongoing US counter-insurgency effort in Baghdad, and Iraq in general, is (no surprise) operating without any meaningful milestones for success. As a result, it can go on indefinitely (since an “success” is always around the corner). However, it’s possible to view this week’s combination of attacks — one on Iraqi legislators in the Green Zone and the destruction of the Sarafiya bridge — as significant enough to provide a negative proof of the efficacy of the new US counter-insurgency efforts in Iraq. NOTE: A negative proof, or impossibility proof, is a way to show that a complex problem cannot be solved and that efforts to claim otherwise are false and misleading. Here’s why:
* The US is unable to clear and hold territory. Even the most secure areas are vulnerable to insurgent attacks.
* Systems that underly normal societal function, even those under heavy guard/control, can and will be disrupted well into the future — which will prevent any meaningful recovery.
* Any and all political solutions, even if they do occur, will not have any resonance since the participants lack any meaningful legitimacy. The participants cannot survive even within the US security bubble.
p.s. good to see you again outraged!
Posted by: anna missed | Apr 14 2007 16:55 utc | 32
“bullshit, bullshit bullshit. this republican from New Mexico speaks bullshit and I am SICK of the right wing’s refusal to take responsibility for their own atrocities.”
Simply and aptly put, fauxreal.
Thanks.
Posted by: pb | Apr 14 2007 17:42 utc | 34
informative article on the western destabilization efforts in zimbabwe, from gregory elich
The Battle over Zimbabwe’s Future
Amid heightened tension, an all pervading crisis is afflicting Zimbabwe. The economy is close to collapse, the standard of living has plummeted, and the political scene is marred by recent violence. To hear Western leaders tell it, it is Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe who has brought this state of affairs upon his nation through economic mismanagement and repression, and what would have been an otherwise prosperous country is instead on the edge of ruin. The U.S. and Great Britain trade barbs with Zimbabwe, and relations are perhaps at their lowest point, with pressure mounting in the U.S. and Great Britain for harsher measures.
There are many in the West who have joined the chorus denouncing the Mugabe government and call for its replacement with a “democratic government.” The hostile reaction against Zimbabwe is not surprising when one considers that the flood of news reports is notable for its uniformity and lack of context. A single message is repeated in the media. The ruling party, the Zimbabwean African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), rules through undemocratic means, we are told, while the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) enjoys wide support and is kept from power through repression. Western leaders seek only to promote democracy and prosperity in the region. This is the popular image in the Western press, and few question its veracity. How information is formulated, including what does not get reported, demonstrates some of the ways perception is managed and support for policy objectives is generated.
Posted by: b real | Apr 14 2007 17:56 utc | 35
welcome back our outraged
paranthetically wandering the web in relation to the firing of that fuckwit imus – the level of hatred spoken against black people is incredible to me – whether it is in the media or in their ‘forums’ – firstly it is filtered through a reaction against hip hop then it is used against reverends sharpton & jackson & then there are very implactive attacks on the black community
it seems from here – which has enormous problems itself with racism – that it is as american as apple pie
even the language – i just heard buchanan (possibly msnbc) demanding to know whether jackson & sharpton wanted to “hang imus from a tree” – can there be no sense of the destruction of generation after generation of black communities, especially their men
it seems to me whatever dubois wrote, whatever robeson sang, whatever huey p newton wrote about the enslavement & oppression has only changed in a quantitative sense
can there be no consciousness for american of all the imagery & the reality of katrina – that became a question of race & class
they do not even disguise their racism – whether it is a david gregory or aan anderson cooper – they may think otherwise but what i read & see is a deep contempt for african americans
& all these commentators invite africanamericans to attack their own communities
never a question about power, or about capital or even about history – like all the big questions the elites want it extinguished or forgotten forever
what it reveals about the public discourse in the united states is that it is elementally sordid
& even on a comic level – when you have a republican hoodlum tom delay offering moral lessons & wanting to lead a crusade -wanting to go further in their ‘culture wars’ – well even from this troubled france – you just want to vomit until there is nothing left
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Apr 14 2007 18:58 utc | 36
b
i thought there were some very serious questions about ménard & the political connections od his group
i say this knowing of their consistent attacks on cuba but i thought there was a substantial article somewhere questioning their real imperatives
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Apr 14 2007 19:05 utc | 37
@fauxreal – 30 – the initial propaganda that gave the Nazis such a following was “restoring Germany’s place” as a leader– and propagandist Goering joined Hitler after he spoke against the French and destroying the Treaty of Versailles with the tip of a bayonet…now, if that isn’t about attacking France… anyway, it is BULLSHIT to claim that Hitler was only against Stalin…it sounds, in fact, like post-Hitler fascist bullshit.
no doubt the war reparations were overly severe — but Germany was in a mess not only because of communist agitation, but also because the Prussian aristrocracy opposed democracy and detested the emerging middle class that came from germany’s (belated) industrial revolution…
I agree with you on that writer but the Prussian aristrocracy had much less to say during Weimar and much less influence in bringing Hitler to the top than the heavy industry, banking and media owners: Thyssen, Krupp, Schacht, Hugenberg (add Ford, GM and Bush ancestors on the US side.) These capitalists (billionars in today’s standard) payed his campaigns and they pressed the German President (formal powers) to make Hitler chancellor (real powers) with all their might even though Hitler barely had some 33% of the popular vote in the (last) election three month earlier.
Also the suffering from the 1923 economic breakdown was much bigger for the people than many today can imagine. When Germany could no longer pay the outrages reparations demanded after WWI (Iraq-Kuwait reperations are a repeat of that) France invaded and annectated the industrial heard of Germany (the Ruhr area.) Prolonged strikes followed. With those and the loss of the revenue from the Ruhr the state started printing lots of money to fullfill formal obligations (social security, medicare) and by printing more, evaporated the value of money.
I have next to me some money bills from that time. The 50 million Reichsmark note I have here was changed into a 1 billion Reichsmark note by printing “one billion” across it. It was too expensive to print a new “one billion” so the old 50 million note was simply “recycled.”
Imagine you had a few ten-thousands in the bank in 1920 – you probably thought it was enough to survive until your death – at least that would pay for food. Then suddenly, with just 3 or 4 years hyperinflation, the ten-thousands you have in the bank account are worth less than ten sheets of toilet paper – literaly. (According to my grandfather’s business books there was a time where a roll of toilet paper was worth more than a million …)
People went to work in the morning sure to make some 10 yuks per hour. On the way to work they passed a shop where the price of an egg was 5 yuks. After work on the way home they found out that the price of an egg had increased a bit within the last twelve hours to some 25 or even 50 yuks.
People owning hens and producing eggs (steel, cars, ect) didn’t had much problems with that scheme. Others went to bed hungry …
hahaha…They don’t want security. They want control. The internet is still widely uncontrollable. And that’s the way it should be.
Researchers explore scrapping Internet
Although it has already taken nearly four decades to get this far in building the Internet, some university researchers with the federal government’s blessing want to scrap all that and start over.The idea may seem unthinkable, even absurd, but many believe a “clean slate” approach is the only way to truly address security…
but many believe a “clean slate” approach is the only way to truly address security…
lets see…. MS, RIAA, MPAA, AT&T, Verizon, DIA, DOJ… who else thinks this is the way to go?
How about this, we delete and re-install the government, and this time we read the instructions the Founders gave us.
In other news, Sen. Ted Stevens proposed a new bill today asking Congress for funds to put a Christian Cross on the Moon. /snark.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 14 2007 19:36 utc | 40
I don’t get all this pissing and moaning over right wing, bad rug, white honky imus loosing his job. After all, it wasn’t the nanny state that came in and arrested him for a hate crime. No, it was their beloved marketplace justice that dumped him when the sponsors demanded him gone. Which only goes to show they can’t swallow their own prescription of bullshit. And now they cry-baby about the injustice of it all. Although I am somewhat surprised they didn’t turn on him, like the british sailors, when he kept on apologizing and pleading for forgiveness.
Posted by: anna missed | Apr 14 2007 19:43 utc | 41
at fauxreal #30
Now, don’t hold back! Tell us how you really feel! *laughing*
Posted by: Edify me | Apr 14 2007 19:43 utc | 42
@r’giap – 37 – yes, the guy is very suspicious
Still I thing the argumentation of Dafur is mostly correct. Africa does not need western “intervention.” Neither Ménard’s nor anyone elses.
@pb – 38 – sorry – that guy is stupid in my view.
My reduced take:
“The US people will never confess that Iraq is a mess because they voted for war on Iraq and it became a mess.”
“The US people will become revolutionaries because they voted for the economic policy that happens on them and it became a mess.”
Oh – ahem – ahhh – yes maybe, you know, that could be, we just don’t know but now it happens to THEM ….
Is Monolycos still here somewhere?
I’d like to know how the SoKo press and public reacts to this: Letter reveals U.S. intent at No Gun Ri
Six years after declaring the U.S. killing of Korean War refugees at No Gun Ri was “not deliberate,” the Army has acknowledged it found but did not divulge that a high-level document said the U.S. military had a policy of shooting approaching civilians in South Korea.
…
The document, a letter from the U.S. ambassador in South Korea to the State Department in Washington, is dated the day in 1950 when U.S. troops began the No Gun Ri shootings, in which survivors say hundreds, mostly women and children, were killed.
…
“If refugees do appear from north of US lines they will receive warning shots, and if they then persist in advancing they will be shot,” the ambassador told Rusk, cautioning that these shootings might cause “repercussions in the United States.” Deliberately attacking noncombatants is a war crime.
Told of the Pentagon’s rationale for excluding the Muccio letter from its investigative report, No Gun Ri expert Yi Mahn-yol, retired head of Seoul’s National Institute of Korean History, suggested the letter was suppressed because it was “disadvantageous” to the Pentagon’s case.
o my, a tale of terrorist intrigue in hamburg:
The imams naturally responded to the alienation and anger that prompted these men to find a spiritual home. A disproportionate number of new mosques in immigrant communities had been financed by Saudi Arabia and staffed by Wahhabi fundamentalists, many of whom were preaching the glories of jihad. Spurred by the rhetoric and by the legend of the victory against the Soviets, young men made the decision, usually in small groups, to go to Afghanistan.
Such was the case of four young men in Hamburg.
The most prosperous city in Germany, with more millionaires per capita than any other metropolitan area in Europe, Hamburg was, in 1999, a bourgeois, libertarian stronghold. The city liked to think of itself as more British than German-aloof but polite, patrician but multicultural. It had become a popular destination for foreign students and political refugees, with about 200,000 Muslims among them. Mohammed Atta arrived in the fall of 1992 and enrolled as a graduate student of urban planning at the Technical University of HamburgHarburg. Foreign students in Germany could stay as long as they wanted, paid no tuition, and could travel anywhere in the European Union.
The scars of history were easy to detect, not only in the reconstructed portion of the Old City, but also in the laws of the country and the character of the German people. The new Germany had carefully enshrined tolerance in its constitution, including the most openhanded political asylum policy in the world. Acknowledged terrorist groups were allowed to operate legally, raising money and recruitsbut only if they were foreign terrorists, not domestic. It was not even against the law to plan a terrorist operation so long as the attack took place outside the country. Naturally, many extremists took advantage of this safe harbor.
In addition to the constitutional barriers that stood in the way of investigating the radical groups, there were internal cautions as well. The country had suffered in the past from xenophobia, racism, and an excess of police power; any action that summoned up such ghosts was taboo. The federal police preferred to concentrate their efforts on native right-wing elements, paying little attention to the foreign groups. Germany feared itself, not others. The unspoken compact that [306] the Germans made with the radical foreign elements inside their country was that if Germans themselves were not attacked, they would be left alone. In recoiling from its own extremist past, Germany inadvertently became the host of a new totalitarian movement.
The radical Islamists had little in common with the Nazi enterprise. Although they would often be accused of being a fascistic cult, the resentment that burned inside the al-Quds mosque, where Atta and his friends gathered, had not been honed into a keen political agenda. But like the Nazis, who were born in the shame of defeat, the radical Islamists shared a fanatical determination to get on top of history after being underfoot for so many generations.
Although Atta had only vaguely socialist ideas of government, he and his circle filled up the disavowed political space that the Nazis left behind. One of Atta’s friends, Munir al-Motassadeq, referred to Hitler as “a good man.” Atta himself often said that the Jews controlled the media, banks, newspapers, and politics from their world headquarters in New York City; moreover, he was convinced that the Jews had planned the wars in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Chechnya as a way of holding back Islam. He believed that Monica Lewinsky was a Jewish agent sent to undermine Clinton, who had become too sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. Lawrence Wright, Looming Tower
like I said, not a great book. but, hey, had to pass on this ditty about hamburg.
Posted by: slothrop | Apr 14 2007 20:58 utc | 46
#40
LOfL: yes yes: delete and reinstall
i was talking to a friend today about internet being the ancestral collective unconscious turning into the most up to date collective conscious
let them try to secure it… like the green zone…
long life to the internet!
Posted by: rudolf | Apr 15 2007 1:58 utc | 47
@Fauxreal #30
Selective blinkers and slanted revisionism with an agenda. More muddying of the waters …
Posted by: Outraged | Apr 15 2007 2:21 utc | 48
Um, I’m referring to the self-proclaimed ‘historian’, the author. 🙂
Posted by: Outraged | Apr 15 2007 2:22 utc | 49
Nice to see you back Outraged.
Thought you had bought the canal in Venice, 3 or more years ago.
Take Care.
Posted by: Flash | Apr 15 2007 4:43 utc | 51
@b (#45)
Is Monolycos still here somewhere?
Only just… and I wasn’t for a little bit there. My hard drive decided to die, and I have had to rebuild the silly thing with a new one. I’ve just now gotten myself back to limping, and I still need to install a boatload of drivers before I’m back in the air completely, so I am busy playing catch-up now with news and views.
In the old days, I could at least check my email and some news sites at one of the numerous PC bongs (internet cafes), however, it turns out that the ROK is not much different than the US when it comes to puritanical hysteria and political distraction. Two weeks ago, access to most foreign sites (including AOL) was blocked from the bongs because somebody had allegedly posted “foreign porn” on Naver and Daum as something of a prank. A genuine irony here is that I restrained myself from teasing John Francis Lee about the fact that he disappeared a week after a similar initiative was made in Thailand.
I’d like to know how the SoKo press and public reacts to this: Letter reveals U.S. intent at No Gun Ri
The SoKo press seems to be pulling the famous, western “but.. but… Clinton…!” defense here. The only stories I can find on the domestic wires here that are even peripherally related deal with how much worse the North Koreans and Russians were during the same period. There’s still no great love for the contemporary US military presence here amongst the populace, but as far as the events during the 1950’s are concerned, both the official and unoffical positions are that they were the lesser evil by far.
In this case, you will be better off scouring non-Hangukin sources (as Outraged did in #50, above). Yahoo has some information as well. Perception management, however, has kept the number of protests down… and I have personally seen none. I’ve also been a little distracted trying to get my computer spaceworthy again, so I’ll take a look around and report back if I hear anything.
Posted by: Monolycus | Apr 15 2007 4:44 utc | 52
@sloth – 46 – don’t know where you digged that tale up, but it is factual wrong in about a dozen points – not worth anybodies time.
NYT on Darfur – Militia Talks Could Reshape Darfur Conflict
Like Sudan’s army, Chad’s military is stretched thin by its efforts to fight several rebel groups based in Sudan that are trying to overthrow President Idriss Déby of Chad. Arming local militias is seen as an expedient way of dealing with border security problems, but the experiences of Darfur and the civil war in southern Sudan have shown that once militias are unleashed, they are nearly impossible to control, experts say.
Beyond that, Chad, like Sudan, has now rejected a United Nations peacekeeping force on its soil, saying it will accept only police officers, not troops.
In Darfur, the loyalty and obedience of janjaweed militias are highly suspect. Mr. Rahman and his fellow fighters said that many Arabs felt betrayed by the government and would not stand down even if Khartoum ordered them to do so.
Avoiding all-out war by negotiating a new political settlement has been the main diplomatic objective over the past few months. John Holmes, the United Nations under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, who just completed a tour of the Darfur region, said that one of the most important messages he plans to bring to the Security Council is the complexity of the conflict here.
“It is not simply Arab versus African, nomad versus farmer,” Mr. Holmes said. “It is a political problem, and it needs a political solution.”
i digged that tale up from wright’s bestselling looming tower book.
the book’s not that great, but is not not worth nobodies time.
Posted by: slothrop | Apr 15 2007 15:16 utc | 55
Ok, if it’s “not not worth nobodies time” then the nots cancel yielding “worth nobodies time” which is what B said.
Posted by: ran | Apr 15 2007 16:04 utc | 56
hey, that’s why i said “nobodies.” I win.
in any case, there’s no question the security threat of islamism in europe requires an unpleasant, illiberal solution: surveillance, deportation, ghettoization.
Posted by: slothrop | Apr 15 2007 16:45 utc | 57
from b’s #54 NYT article
Here in eastern Chad, where the intertribal violence gripping Darfur has spilled over, Arab tribes have found themselves victims of non-Arab militias armed by Chad’s government, according to tribal leaders.
…
In all, 140,000 Chadians have been displaced in interethnic fighting in the past year, the vast majority from Dadjo and other non-Arab tribes. Mr. Samani said 10 villages of Arab families have been displaced in the latest fighting, fleeing toward Darfur against the advance of Dadjo militias.
Mr. Brahim said that he surrendered his position of sultan to his son under pressure from the Chadian government because he opposed the government policy of arming Dadjo militias to fight Arab militias from Sudan and Chad. Senior Western diplomats confirmed that this arming was taking place.
Like Sudan’s army, Chad’s military is stretched thin by its efforts to fight several rebel groups based in Sudan that are trying to overthrow President Idriss Déby of Chad. Arming local militias is seen as an expedient way of dealing with border security problems, but the experiences of Darfur and the civil war in southern Sudan have shown that once militias are unleashed, they are nearly impossible to control, experts say.
in my piece on africom, toward the end i quote a passage from Report to Members of the Committee on Foreign Relations that at first i believed to be refering to the central african republic, b/c of the SOFA and article 98 reference, but am now fairly certain that it is in fact talking about chad
One Central African country in particular illustrates the need for State Department perspective and guidance to temper Defense Department enthusiasm. The country is unstable, desperately poor, and run by a repressive government that is being challenged by a persistent armed resistance. Desperate for a military strong enough to protect it from the rebels, the government has signed an Article 98 agreement, exempting U.S. military personnel from International Criminal Court procedures and thus enabling it to receive military assistance. It has also signed a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States. With extensive “under-governed spaces” as potential terrorist havens and bordering countries with equally uncertain futures, the country was termed “a model country for security assistance” by the regional combatant command. Civilian embassy officials, however, are demonstrably less keen. They question the rate at which military programs are rapidly escalating and the sizable and still growing presence of U.S. military personnel in-country. A U.S.-labeled backpack, observed on a government soldier undergoing U.S. training, underscored for SFRC staff the potential complications of a too-close association with the country’s military. 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.
isn’t that nice? the govt is extremely repressive & unpopular to the point that the peoples of the country have resorted to armed opposition, so what does the u.s. do? support democratic governance? hell no. they cover their asses so they can’t be dragged to the ICC, then work on controlling the country militarily.
continuing from the NYT article
Beyond that, Chad, like Sudan, has now rejected a United Nations peacekeeping force on its soil, saying it will accept only police officers, not troops.
see this black agenda rpt article, i linked to in the last open thread.
“We were disappointed by the Chadian government’s recent indications of concern over the military component of the proposed mission, and specifically, the deployment of an advanced mission,” said Swann, the State Department’s man on Afica. “We are continuing to engage President [Idriss] Derby to convince him to accept a military force as part of this package.”
In other words, the U.S. demands that Chad relinquish what is left of its national sovereignty to accept de-facto U.S. military rule under the guise of a United Nations mission. Cleverly, with full understanding that neither the UN nor the European Union can field a significant force in Africa without the logistical resources of the U.S. Africa Command, the Americans volunteer the “heavy equipment” that they have for years refused to provide to African Union peacekeepers in Darfur.
in that last open thread i also linked to a u.s. govt memorandum from this february where bush waived any prohibition on military assistance to chad.
as the BAR article points out,
By creating the circumstances for chaos on Chad’s eastern border with Darfur, the U.S. seeks to declare an international crisis that will enable it to intervene directly in Sudanese and Chadian territory under the guise of a transnational “humanitarian” mission.
The U.S. creates chaos in order to pose as “liberator” and savior. In the process, it creates “failed states” in order to ease restrictions on its own field of operations.
Posted by: b real | Apr 15 2007 17:14 utc | 59
IOZ breaks it down old school re this filthy smash and grab in Iraq and the goons who make it all possible.
Posted by: ran | Apr 15 2007 17:42 utc | 60
b real, i cannot thank you enough for all your postings on africa. i used to think it was just too much for me to comprehend the complexities.. i guess i felt like the constant awareness of the turmoil in the ME was as much as i could handle, especially in terms of trying to describe what was going on. i remember talking to askod when i was in germany in january..it wasn’t so long ago it was, not removed from my radar but on the back burner for sure.
i realize now it is remiss to not see the integral way this ‘gwot’ is enclosing entire regions and how connected these projects are in terms of the aspirations and dependencies the spoils feed the projects.
anyway, thank you for the constant postings. chad… last week there was another site you linked to , written by a woman i believe, i can’t find it and was looking for it because of the clarity of the description. as i was searching i ended up rereading so many of your posts.
just thought i would let you know. so often i don’t comment i just wanted you to know how valuable to me all these africa links are.
Posted by: annie | Apr 16 2007 1:03 utc | 61
Lest ye forget…
White House proposes retroactive war crimes protection Moves to shield policy makers
Also see, War Crimes Act of 1996
Military Commissions Act of 2006
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 16 2007 6:06 utc | 62
thanks annie. i’m learning as i go along, trying to connect dots & such. hopefully this type of work can help make a difference in people’s lives. knowledge is power, as the saying goes.
a friend from uganda told me tonite that there is a u.s. airbase secreted in national park land in the northern part of that nation that’s way bigger than entebbe intl. it’s not new, was also built by the israelis, now ran by the u.s. nobody knows about it though. supposedly it’s an active hub for much of the military activity in the ME.
Posted by: b real | Apr 16 2007 6:12 utc | 63
Gonzales in deep shit: Ex-Justice Official’s Statements Contradict Gonzales on Firings
The former Justice Department official who carried out the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year told Congress that several of the prosecutors had no performance problems and that a memo on the firings was distributed at a Nov. 27 meeting attended by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, a Democratic senator said yesterday.
The statements to House and Senate investigators by Michael A. Battle, former director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, represent another potential challenge to the credibility of Gonzales, who has said that he never saw any documents about the firings and that he had “lost confidence” in the prosecutors because of performance problems.
If this report is right, Saudi King Abdullah just again gave a kick right into Cheney’s back-end:
Report: New Darfur Agreement Signed
Sudan has signed a joint agreement with the United Nations and the African Union that defines their respective roles in Darfur, the official Saudi news agency reported on Sunday.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir phoned Saudi King Abdullah and told him the Sudanese government had signed the agreement, the SPA news agency reported.
It quoted the king as saying the agreement “will support Sudan’s unity, security, stability and peace.” No additional details were provided.
…
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, in Sudan as part of an international push to increase pressure on the government over Darfur, avoided commenting on the report of an agreement.
Wack the mole in Iraq – current molehole Baquba:
Attacks Surge as Iraq Militants Overshadow City
They maneuver in squads, like the American infantrymen they try to kill. One squad fires furiously so another can attack from a better position. They operate in bad weather, knowing American helicopters and surveillance drones are grounded. Some carry G.P.S. receivers so mortar teams can calculate the coordinates of American armored vehicles. They kidnap and massacre police officers.
…
U.S. Bolstering Force in Deadly Diyala
As a sign of the province’s strategic importance, almost a full brigade of between 2,000 and 3,000 additional soldiers is on the way to Diyala to interdict the volatile terrain between Baghdad and Baqubah, soldiers said.
But the more important political stuff is this: Sadr Aides Say 6 Allies In Cabinet Will Resign
In a move that could further weaken Iraq’s fledgling government, six cabinet members loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will quit their jobs Monday at his behest, officials close to Sadr said Sunday night.
…
Sadr asked the ministers to resign in protest of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s unwillingness to back a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, said Abdul Razaq al-Nadawi, a Sadr spokesman, and Abdul Mahdi al-Mutairy, a Sadr political adviser. Bahaa al-Aaraji, a Shiite lawmaker in the 30-seat legislative bloc loyal to Sadr, said Sadrists also were fed up with sectarian squabbling and would ask Maliki to appoint “independent technocrats” to the posts.
…
Gen. Sheehan, who declined to become “war czar” in a quite devastating WaPo OpEd:
Why I Declined To Serve
The day-to-day work of the White House implementation manager overseeing Iraq and Afghanistan would require a great deal of emotional and intellectual energy resolving critical resource issues in a bureaucracy that, to date, has not functioned well. Activities such as the current surge operations should fit into an overall strategic framework. There has to be linkage between short-term operations and strategic objectives that represent long-term U.S. and regional interests, such as assured access to energy resources and support for stable, Western-oriented countries. These interests will require a serious dialogue and partnership with countries that live in an increasingly dangerous neighborhood. We cannot “shorthand” this issue with concepts such as the “democratization of the region” or the constant refrain by a small but powerful group that we are going to “win,” even as “victory” is not defined or is frequently redefined.
It would have been a great honor to serve this nation again. But after thoughtful discussions with people both in and outside of this administration, I concluded that the current Washington decision-making process lacks a linkage to a broader view of the region and how the parts fit together strategically. We got it right during the early days of Afghanistan — and then lost focus. We have never gotten it right in Iraq. For these reasons, I asked not to be considered for this important White House position. These huge shortcomings are not going to be resolved by the assignment of an additional individual to the White House staff. They need to be addressed before an implementation manager is brought on board.
Robert Novak of plame fame is again tickling AIPAC and the neocons – quite interesting:
Olive Branch From Hamas
No fringe character, this was Naser al-Shaer: education minister and deputy prime minister in the new coalition government. Shaer signaled that the regime recognizes Israel’s right to exist and forgoes violence — conditions essential for talks about a viable Palestinian state adjoining Israel — even if Hamas does not. “We hope that it is going to be a matter of time,” Shaer told me. “But there is a big chance now.”
When I returned to Washington last week, I sought the reaction of Bush administration officials (who refuse to have any contact with Hamas). I asked to talk to Elliott Abrams, the deputy national security adviser who is most influential in policy on Israel. Abrams was once a fellow Cold Warrior and friend whom I have defended, but an aide let me know on Thursday that Abrams would not talk to me about Hamas. A senior State Department official also showed no interest in what Shaer said.
…
U.S. government officials and contract workers in the Israeli-occupied territories must leave when someone from Hamas enters a room. Because the State Department lists Hamas as a terrorist organization, Americans not employed by the government fear that contacting a Hamas member of the Palestinian government would violate the USA Patriot Act.
…
Just before my trip ended, the Palestinian Authority put me in touch with Shaer. On Aug. 19, when he was deputy prime minister in the all-Hamas regime, Shaer was seized in an Israeli raid of his Ramallah home and held for a month without charges or evidence.
…
While avoiding Israel-bashing, Shaer conjectured: “I don’t think the Israeli government wants a two-state solution. Without pressure from the president of the United States, nothing is going to happen.” That sounded like a plea for help from George W. Bush. But will he hear it if Elliott Abrams does not listen?
Want to visit me?
1. go to http://www.google.com
2. click on “maps”
3. click on “get directions”
4. type “New York” in the first box (the “from” box)
5. type “Hamburg” in the second box (the “to” box)
6. click on “get directions”
Before following the given directions check your ability to do step #23.
Let me know when to pick you up … I’ll have a towel for you …
from b’s 67 link…
“Activities such as the current surge operations should fit into an overall strategic framework. There has to be linkage between short-term operations and strategic objectives that represent long-term U.S. and regional interests, such as assured access to energy resources”
in other words, he doesn’t see how the resistance is going to stop as long as getting control of their oil remains our primary strategic objective.
shocking!
b, does #70 mean you’ve moved? hmm, now who do we know in nyc?
Posted by: annie | Apr 16 2007 15:23 utc | 71
Somalia: War crimes and the war on terror
Commentary by Abdurrahman Warsameh (16/04/07) for ISN Security Watch
The deputy prime minister of Somalia’s transitional government, Hussein Mohamed Farah Aideed, has accused Ethiopian troops of committing “genocide” against the Somali people in the capital, Mogadishu, taking already high tensions to a new level.
Such an accusation coming from a high-ranking Somali official, such as Aideed – the son of another, late and powerful politician – goes beyond the typical opposition propaganda and could create pressure for a formal international investigation into the recent death and destruction in Mogadishu.
…
Aideed is a member of the dominant Hawiye clan, which inhabits southern Somalia, and has vowed to fight attempts by the transitional government and Ethiopian troops to secure control of the country. The government accuses the clan of harboring Islamists, who earlier last year had taken control of much of the country before being pushed back by Somali forces with the support of Ethiopian troops. The clan denies it is working with the Islamists. The Hawiye elders accuse the government forces of being exclusively from the president’s clan, the Darood, and are trying to disarm them.
Earlier on, Aideed was one of the staunchest supporters of Ethiopian involvement in Somalia and even called for the unification of the two countries when Ethiopian troops first arrived in Mogadishu last December. But now he is accusing Ethiopian troops of “war crimes” and calling on them to leave.
“Ethiopian troops must leave Somali territory to let the Somalis decide their own fate,” Aideed said in a brief interview broadcast on Eritrean state-run EriTV on 8 April.
this is an interesting development, as aideed’s story is complex. he’s the son of mohamed farah aideed, the main villian in the black hawk down script, and also a u.s. citizen, ex-marine, etc…
from a 2005 article, Son of Aideed
Hussein prefers to focus on the present. As Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior for the crisis-addled interim government, he sees himself as a peacemaker between the interim president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, and the Mogadishu warlords that make up his own Cabinet.
Much of the dispute focuses on Yusuf’s decision to temporarily base the new government outside of Mogadishu, which he says is not safe. His Cabinet members are threatening war. Hussein says he’s not backing either faction and is working toward a peaceful resolution, but insiders say he’s putting his bets and his militia muscle behind the president.
Some also question how much Hussein really matters in the equation. Because of his American background he faces criticism and challenges within his own clan. He says he responds by explaining the concept of American values to fellow Somalis.
“My values in some ways are U.S. values,” he says. “A nation of immigrants in less than 200 years becomes better than Europe, better than China, better than Russia, better than Africa, better than any country. A nation who allowed people who have been abused in different countries to come together and form in Philadelphia a constitution and making the machine to survive and become a superpower.”
This fickle but enduring connection to the U.S. has some wondering whether Hussein Farah Aideed will be the man in the new government that could at the very least create a second chance, backdoor channel for future American influence in Somalia.
reportedly, the 1000+ dead civilians in the recent fighting in mogadishu are all hawiye clan, which is why the cries of genocide have merit. the coverage as i’ve been following it in the media shows deliberate shelling of these neighborhoods, instigated by both ethiopian forces & interim govt troops. remarks from yusuf warning the neighborhood residents that if they don’t leave, they will be killed are not ambiguous rhetoric. the case for war crimes should be very compelling should the international community decide to follow through on their investigations.
meanwhile, there’s noise being thrown out by those responsible (aka ethiopia & the u.s.) to diffuse tension & build doubt.
get a load of this pile of racist bullshit from the ethiopian press
For reaction, VOA English to Africa Service reporter Joe De Capua spoke with George Washington University professor, David Shinn, who’s a former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia, about the allegations.
“I think that in this part of the world war tends to be particularly brutal. And I think it’s going to be extremely difficult to prove that there were war crimes taking place as such. I think this tends to be more the way things are done. And when you get into the whole issue of even defining what a war crime is and trying to put that together with documenting the evidence it just seems to me to be a little bit of an exercise in futility,” he says.
unfortunately, many people still convince themselves that this is true.
Posted by: b real | Apr 16 2007 15:31 utc | 72
two more on somalia
Ich Bin Ein Hawiye (I am a Hawiye Citizen)
No person of sound mind will dare to predict or prescribe a solution for the Somali crisis. This much is clear however. The solution to the Somali crisis will not be more war, more hatred or more vengeance. Nor will it about a strong man massacring his way to a Machiavellian peace based on fear and intimidation and corrupted “reconciliation conferences”. The African soil is littered with the carnage caused by strong men whose main weapon was the creation of inter-tribal death squads and hatred in search of personal power and personal glory.
The solution to the crisis will not cost money. Indeed money poured from foreign sources will only fuel the crisis as combatants engage in deadly maneuvers to guarantee their share on the basis of established reality on the ground. The $100 million dollars generously set aside by the US government will essentially pay for the Ethiopian subcontract on the local version of the war on terror. It will lead to more Somalis dying not less. It will also lead directly to the strengthening of remnants of Alqaida elements that will then have monopoly on the moral high ground of defending women and children from the massacre of the crusaders, infidels and their running dog apostates. Tell me if such a language will not appeal to you if you have just witnessed the murder of your family and the killer is holding a gun to your head. Is it not rational to ask why it is necessary to repeat the policy that lead to the mess in Iraq and Afghanistan in Somalia again. Do we not learn from history?
The solution to the Somali crisis will not require anything other than a genuine work of Somalis to broker an end to the cycle of genocide between the two Somali tribes of Darood and Hawiye. Like it was the case between the French and Germans in the European wars of the past, there will be no peace in Somalia until there is peace and reconciliation between the Darood and the Hawiye.
It is clear in my mind that such reconciliation is unlikely to take off without disengaging the forces in the battle field, without preventing Abdillahi Yusuf from massacring his way to power by devilishly nurturing hatred between the Hawiye and the Darood. It seems to me that removing Yusuf and his tribal militia from the city of death is the first step towards genuine reconciliation. Only free men who are not under the barrel of a gun can engage in genuine reconciliation.
Ethiopian troops rebuff withdrawing from the areas they seized in Mogadishu
Mogadishu 16, April.07 ( Sh.M.Network) The results of the meetings between the elders of Mogadishu’s major Hawiye clan and the Ethiopian soldiers seem to be failing as Ethiopians rebuffed to withdraw from the areas they seized during the four day gun battle in the capital late last month.
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“The Ethiopians rejected to implement the resolutions made in our recent meetings with them. In order to let the people who fled the neighborhood to return to their homes peacefully, the Ethiopians were supposed to desert the areas they captured, but they turned down. We do not know what will happen next,” he said.
The Ethiopian troops are currently based in Mogadishu’s biggest football stadium, the international airport and former government buildings in Wardhigley. They have also taken control of the main road in Hamar Bille leading to the presidential compound.
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The clan leaders issued a statement in early April that Ethiopian troops should abandon all areas they occupied during the fight. Now that the decisions were declined, many suspect if this would spark fresh violence in the world’s most dangerous city.
Posted by: b real | Apr 16 2007 16:01 utc | 73
an exercise in futility
that part of the world.. so far away….. different tribes w/weird names, who can tell them apart??… all killing eachother… everyone is starving… primitive….brutal…so confusing….don’t even bother… an exercise in futility…..
b real, for some people i don’t even think it is a matter of people convincing themselves, they just don’t dig deep enough. say if you get your news from some favorite ‘liberal’ politician like feingold?
how does a person like him come to these conclusions? do you think he is corrupt or just woefully misinformed? when he says he meets w/Zenawi who informs him Ethiopia did not have the capacity for nation-building and would withdraw from Somalia within weeks. who is it that formulates these policies to back the ethiopian government to support some unpopular war lord to overthrow and islamic court? is it a neocon plan that has just invaded every facet of the government and people like feingold can’t see thru this at all?? or is he just anti war as far as iraq is concerned and his support and the supprot of the ‘left’ is more a matter of showing we are ‘strong on terror’. this whole mindframe of creating an image of a web of AQ..
“we have experience working with complex and ethnic- or tribal-based political systems around the world “
bla bla. where is our history of successs??
“Without this work, no peacekeeping force will be capable of bringing about stability in Somalia, and no government will be capable of cobbling together a political coalition with the legitimacy to lead the country forward.”
who says? we say NO ONE will be capable of ‘helping’ but us??? what i can’t quite figured out is how any population at all still exists on that continent? one would think that they would have wiped themselves out centuries before the white man showed up to help contain them.
the main villian in the black hawk down
ok, i will have to go rent this movie. usually i totally avoid bloody war movies but perhaps this is essential ‘framing’. any warnings?
Posted by: annie | Apr 16 2007 16:23 utc | 74
annie- i haven’t seen the movie & was refering to the way the story is told – that the military was trying to apprehend the warlord aideed when all hell broke loose. the movie probably wouldn’t help understand the sitch at all.
Throughout the film no Somali character is shown in a positive light. Only two are differentiated from the mass. One is Osman Atto, a Somali businessman, and Aideed’s financier, whose sole function in the film, is to sit glowering over a glass of tea in an atmospherically lit room.
The other is an unnamed gunman played by a large black man in a black bandanna. Who this character is remains obscure. If he was meant to be Aideed, a short, middle aged man, grey haired and balding, it was a poor representation. No such person features in Bowden’s book. He is Scott’s own invention and he has created a character that has little to do with Mogadishu. It is the stereotype of a violent black gang leader, who could have been slotted into an equally stereotyped vision of an inner city anywhere in the world.
Black Hawk Down: naked propaganda masquerading as entertainment
re feingold, i haven’t had time to follow the elections in nigeria over the w/e, but i did see a quote last week from the good senator where he warned that nigeria wasn’t ready for elections (despite the u.s. sinking $15 million into the elections) & that if the outcome weren’t to “our” liking (meaning that they fail to capitulate to what gen sheehan brazenly states in the op-ed b linked to in #67 above, — “assured access to energy resources and support for stable, Western-oriented countries”) then the u.s. just may have to stop funding & equiping it. i was almost expecting to read of another military coup in that country today.
Posted by: b real | Apr 16 2007 17:11 utc | 76
also heard from a reliable source (relative of doctor involved) that shortly after the black hawk down ordeal, while the media & public were voicing outrage about dead whitefellas being dragged in the streets (but not the shelling of thousands of african muslims), the u.s. was secretly transporting wounded somalians to atlanta for medical attention.
Posted by: b real | Apr 16 2007 17:20 utc | 77
thanks for the BHD link, jeez, i really need to catch up to speed. the more i know the more i don’t, it’s a never ending cycle.
Posted by: annie | Apr 16 2007 17:47 utc | 78
b real, Echoing annie @61.
I have been ignorant beyond hope about Africa, and thought there was no way to catch up, sift through sources until I began to sense what was real, so that I might begin to read the occasional reports of the region and make some sense of it.
A couple years ago, when a few scattered reports emerged of Mugabe arresting South African “mercenaries” on the way to Central African Republic, I tried digging. It become clear that the situation was depraved and complex, and that most of the essential information was missing. That was all I could understand.
Your contributions here shine a light beyond the faint rumors and hand-picked stories that pass for Africa coverage on the northwest side of the Atlantic.
Thank you for all your information and guidance.
Posted by: small coke | Apr 16 2007 18:26 utc | 79
wondering how much this connects w/ #59 above
from the blog african news analysis
Gunmen Kill Another African Union Officer in Darfur
April 15, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Gunmen killed an officer in the African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, making April the deadliest month so far for African troops trying to bring stability to western Sudan, an AU spokesman said on Sunday.
Noureddine Mezni said the unidentified gunmen shot the major and seized his vehicle on Saturday night near the back entrance of the AU compound in El-Fasher, capital of north Darfur.
“He was the seventh soldier we lost in April. This is a real tragedy for us,” said Mezni.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte had visited the AU compound earlier on Saturday as part of a visit to Sudan aimed at persuading Khartoum to permit the deployment of U.N. troops in Darfur to help AU forces.
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Saturday’s attack was the third on AU troops in April, reinforcing fears violence could undermine the world’s biggest humanitarian effort as the stalemate over a U.N. deployment drags on.
Mezni said the assault made April the deadliest month for AU forces since they were deployed in Darfur in 2004.Unidentified gunmen attacked an African Union peacekeeper patrol in the Darfur region of western Sudan on April 10, killing one and injuring two.
Five African Union peacekeepers were also killed earlier in the month near Sudan’s border with Chad after they also came under attack by gunmen, part of a lethal combination of militias, bandits and feuding tribes thriving on Darfur’s chaos.
the story came out right before sudan announced agreement on new u.n. operations
the blog editor added his own thoughts
Editor’s Note: I’m beginning to wonder if the guilty parties of the murders in the El-Fasher area aren’t picking off the AU soldiers to try and increase pressure to get UN soldiers in the area, who will undoubtedly be pressed to focus on the “janjaweed.” After all, if the AU is percieved to be unable to protect their own, it follows they are unable to protect the population and the world is being mobilized through the media campaigns to demand action in Darfur. A well-equipped and robustly mandated U.N. force could reduce the Khartoum Government’s grip on the area, benefiting the Darfurian rebel groups. President Bashir knows this and this is, in part, why he continues to resist U.N. force deployment.
do the dots connect?
Posted by: b real | Apr 16 2007 19:19 utc | 80
that quote from the former u.s. ambassador to ethiopia was pure spin to dissuade investigations. for a spokesperson for the all-mighty-makes-right united states of america to remark “in this part of the world war tends to be particularly brutal” and that something vague resembling what may somewhere else be defined as war crimes “tends to be more the way things are done” is beyond sick, imo. i immediately conjured up in my memory that scene from peter davis’ hearts & minds where gen westmoreland proudly philosophizes that orientals don’t place the same value on life that westerners do. what a load of crap.
the main reason the spokesperson tells the propaganda outlet VOA that a war crimes investigation in mogadishu would be “an exercise in futility” is b/c the west does not place the same value on other peoples lives. they do not want the word to get out how deeply they are involved in this. and they do not want to jeopardize yet another attempt to place a loyal regime in somalia.
Posted by: b real | Apr 16 2007 19:35 utc | 81
Live feed of Va. Tech shootings
This is awful. This is totally senseless. It leaves me horrified and speechless.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 16 2007 20:30 utc | 82
For people concerned w/Seriously
Terrifying Threats – like not having food or oxygen, we get this. (Recall Einstein said we’d perish in 4 yrs. w/out bees.)
Some evidence suggests that cell phones may be causing collapse of bee hives. (I think it’s at least more than this. I saw a post on another blog in which someone said that his hives collapsed after his neighbor sprayed Roundup. This suggests that it’s the Genetic Mutilation of plants to make them produce Roundup that’s also a culprit.)
Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?
I don’t know how many Americans are aware of this, but cell phone industry is very worried about health affects. So worried in fact, that they wrote into the Telecomm bill that health effects Could Not Be Taken into Account when siting the towers. And they’re shutting down research like crazy. Guess that’s the lesson the Predators took from tobacco suits. F**k ’em – we just won’t bother doing the research. What planet do these savages live on anyway???
Posted by: jj | Apr 17 2007 2:27 utc | 83
AUSTRALIA must ensure that any troop pullout from Iraq maintained the prestige of the US as a world power, Israel’s prime minister said today.
Posted by: Anonymous | Apr 17 2007 3:10 utc | 84
long report from the nairobi-based the nation provides more details on the renditions that took place out of kenya earlier this year
Country Faces International Outcry Over Mass Transfer of ‘Terrorists’ to Ethiopia
the passengers in on january 27th flight sound like a rough bunch of hooligans.
That those passengers were deemed extremely dangerous was obvious from the fact that with them in the plane were 15 security personnel with express instructions to ensure that they were transported to Mogadishu, Somalia, overnight and handed over to the authorities there.
Notable among the passengers was a lady named Halima Badrudine Hussein, later identified by human rights activists as a Comoran citizen, who was accompanied by her three children Luqmaan (15), Asma (13) and Sumaiya (4).
Halima’s crime was that she happened to be the wife of one Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a man wanted by US authorities in connection with the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, as well as the 2002 Paradise Hotel attack in Kikambala. He is still believed to be “at large”.
Not far from Halima and her family was seated a Swedish citizen named Osman Ahmed Yassin, who had earlier been detained at the Garissa and Karen police stations, and who was now being sent to Somalia together with his wife Sofia and two children, son Mohammed (three years old) and daughter Fatma, a toddler aged only 7 months.
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Among the women was one Kamiliya Mohammad Al Kindi, who had been arrested in Malindi on January 10, together with two Omani nationals and their Kenyan business associate named Millie Muthoni Gakuo.
Only the day before, a declaration signed by Minister of State responsible for Immigration, Mr Gideon Konchellah, had authorised her immediate deportation to Somalia, which it wrongly stated was her country of origin. In that declaration, a copy of which the Sunday Nation has been able to obtain, Kamiliya was actually described as a man, a mistake repeated on the manifest of flight AXK 527 that was now about to take off.
Days earlier, efforts had been made to deport her to Tanzania, which was given on her passport as her place of birth. The Tanzanian immigration authorities at Namanga had however noted that she was a citizen of the United Arab Emirates and had a passport from that country. They had therefore adamantly declined to allow her deportation to Tanzania.
Ms Kamiliya had been arrested together with her boss, a member of the royal family in the Sultanate of Oman named Ahmad Musallam Al-Ma’ashani, and Hassan Salim Kashub, a policeman from Oman attached to Interpol in that country, who was serving as his bodyguard. The arrest of the two men had soon come to the notice of the Honorary Consulate of the Sultanate of Oman in Nairobi.
The Consulate, in a protest letter to the Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs dated January 22, pointed out that the Omani businessman was actually a relative of the Omani Minister of State, Sheikh Salim Al Maashani, while Mr Kashub was a senior police officer of the Royal Oman Police. Kenya quietly put the two on a flight back home.
others ran into some western hooligans after being transported to addis ababa
The siblings – brother Salim Juma Hamis Mohammed and sister Mariam – are small-time traders at Gikomba market, where they deal in second-hand shoes. According to them, they were brought up in Nyang’ori in Nyanza, and their brother attended primary school in Kisumu up to class 4 before moving to Tudor primary school in Mombasa, where he completed his primary education.
Abdulmalik had in recent times been working as a religious teacher at the Msaji Madrassa in Majengo, Mombasa, said Muhuri officials.
In Addis Ababa, the authorities detained them in two major facilities where four British nationals released later reported they were subjected to torture. One of them also talked about threats during interrogations in Nairobi by FBI operatives, which sometimes bordered on blasphemy. He told human rights activists that Meshal had been thoroughly traumatised by the interrogations:
“I was in that police station (Kileleshwa) and the Egyptian American was brought in by the FBI. He told me that they had taken him to the top floor of a hotel. They had said to him, ‘You know Allah is up there. We are the FBI and we’re on the same level’ they said to him, ‘You are going to start getting tortured from tomorrow if you don’t start coughing up information.”‘
relatedly,
sf chronicle:
Reports of torture in Ethiopia are widespread: Bush says prime minister is committed to human rights
First, the police threw Tesfaye into a dark cell. Then, each day for 17 days, it was the same routine: Electric shocks on his legs and back, followed by beatings with rubber truncheons. Four or five officers would then surround and kick him. At last, a large bottle of water would be tied around his testicles. He’d pass out.
Tesfaye’s crime? Maybe it’s that he refused to join the ruling party of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. He was accused of organizing street protests in late 2005. Police suspect he’s a member of a rebel group called the Oromo Liberation Front. Tesfaye doesn’t know for sure because no court ever charged him with a crime.
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Accounts like this are common in today’s Ethiopia. Interviews with dozens of people across the country, coupled with testimony given to diplomats and human rights groups, paint a picture of a nation that jails its citizens without reason or trial, and tortures many of them — despite government claims to the contrary.
Such cases are especially troubling because the U.S. government, a key Ethiopian ally, has acknowledged interrogating terrorism suspects in Ethiopian prisons, where some detainees were sent after being arrested in connection with Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia in December.
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The Bush administration maintains that Meles’ government, a leading partner in its war on terror in East Africa, is committed to democratic and human rights reform. The government was severely criticized for a 2005 crackdown that saw tens of thousands of opposition members jailed and nearly 200 people killed following elections in which the opposition made major gains.
People across Ethiopia recounted stories of a government backsliding on human rights issues. They told of confinement for days in tiny, dark cells with their hands bound 24 hours a day; electric shocks; beatings with rubber clubs; police who held guns to prisoners’ heads; mutilation or pain inflicted on the genitals.
meles, you’re doing a heckuva job. right george? nothing like a dictator who knows how to stabilize a large, populous nation in a geo-strategic region, eh? you want human rights? talk to the military…
We ought to care about Africa because we’re a good country [darnit],” retired Air Force General Charles F. “Chuck” Wald said in the report. As deputy commander of the United States European Command, he was also responsible for U.S. forces in Africa. (Supervision of American forces in that continent was recently moved from EUCOM into a new “AFRICOM” command.) “We have a humanitarian character; it’s one of our great strengths, and we shouldn’t deny it. Some may be tempted to avert their eyes, but I would hope we instead see the very real human suffering taking place there. We should be moved by it, challenged by it. Even in the context of security discussions, I think these reasons matter, because part of our security depends on remaining true to our values.
“We import more oil from Africa than the Middle East-probably a shock to a lot of people-and that share will grow… we’ll be drawn into the politics of Africa, to a much greater extent.”
Climate Change Poses Serious Threat to U.S. National Security: New Report Released Today from Blue-Ribbon Panel of Senior Admirals & Generals
“Some may be tempted to avert their eyes…” stop it, chuck, you’re making me cry over here
Posted by: b real | Apr 17 2007 4:47 utc | 85
b @70 –
not sure what to make of this, i’ve been pondering it since someone brought it to my attention this morning. as i am a new yorker, i couldn’t help but wonder if you were telling me to go jump in a lake, a very big one. then i wondered if perhaps you meant to post it in on the terrorism thread as a tie in of sorts with the muslim women’s swimming issue. but in the end i think perhaps it is meant as a joke and i will tell you thank you for the invitation, but these days i do my swimming at the neighborhood recreation center (very nice new pool for $75/year). so not even for a repeat of your oh so delicious chicken fricasee would i brave the waters of the atlantic. silly folks over there at google, eh?
Posted by: conchita | Apr 17 2007 5:16 utc | 86