“Rat kings are cryptozoological phenomena said to arise when a number of rats become intertwined at their tails, which become stuck together with blood, dirt, and excrement. The animals consequently grow together while joined at the tails, which are often broken. The phenomenon is particularly associated with Germany, where the majority of instances have been reported.” wikipedia
tho the michael dibden description is more fullsome & more useful to an analysis of us power

Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 27 2007 13:13 utc | 3

US forces rescue 41 Iraqis from AQ in Iraq, says US general.
No word on how many Iraqi kittens our boys saved from Iraqi trees or how many old Iraqi women they helped cross the street.

Posted by: ran | May 27 2007 14:48 utc | 5

6 Navy Commanders Sacked in 6 Weeks

Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 27 2007 19:35 utc | 7

From MSNBC…
Gut Check America: Share your stories
See the picture. The spirit. Stand and be counted, it says.
link

Posted by: Noirette | May 27 2007 20:41 utc | 9

pincus writes an article on AFRICOM limited to content taken entirely from the CRS report. even the nicole lee quote is taken from a footnoted link in the report. what a crock! that’s all there is to journalism for wapo?
bet some readers may find it interesting that nigeria, a key focus of military action for the new combatant command, recently surpassed saudi arabia for oil imports to the united states, or that the reason that gas prices at the pump have been so high for the past week or so is b/c of the unrest in the niger delta that took several oil production facilities offline.
certainly of interest to the public, isn’t it? instead, wapo regurgitates a document crafted to influence members of congress in their understanding of what issues they may be hearing about. talk about some lazy reporting!

Posted by: b real | May 28 2007 7:16 utc | 11

Just watching CNN International –
It says about Chavez/Venezuela:
– The last opposition TV network was shut down
– There is hardly democracy because the parliament is on his side, most state governors are from his party and the supreme court sided with him too
– “Free markets” are endangered because he nationalized the oil industry and electricty distribution
No mention of election results, legal precedence, license expiration, poverty …

Posted by: b | May 28 2007 18:27 utc | 13

in news from uganda
Man Held for Insulting President

A man suspected to have insulted President Yoweri Museveni during a talkshow on NBS radio in Jinja has been arrested. Richard Ssenyonga alias Madiru was on May 21 picked by the Criminal Investigations Department boss Willy Panuha from the Bus Park in Jinja where he works.
Eastern Region Police Commander Christopher Kubai told journalists on Tuesday Mr Ssenyonga admitted having called the radio but said he was disconnected before he could convey his message to the President.
Mr Kubai said Mr Ssenyonga attempted to abuse the President when he said “Where is that man Museveni? He is the one I want to talk to…” when his call was cut off.
Mr Kubai said immediately the talkshow hosts realised Mr Ssenyonga’s intention to embarrass the President, they cut him off and alerted police who started hunting him.
…
In what went down as the first negative attack on the President since he started appearing on the radio, several callers referred to him as a liar for failure to fulfill his promises to the people of Busoga.
Among the unfulfilled promises were the reconstruction of Jinja Central Market which was twice gutted by fire in 2002 and 2003 and the renovation of the Kyabazinga’s palace. Others questioned the success of the President’s Bonna Bagaggawale (Prosperity for All) programme saying it was not practical.
Mr Kubai said they were still hunting three other people who made rude comments on air about the President. He said another caller, who attacked Mr Museveni alleging that the President intended to grab Mabira Forest for his family using Mehta Group, is still at large.

from a recent press rountable where u.s. deputy asst sec of state for african affairs james swan fielded questions from ugandan reporters

Q: As a follow-up on what he asked about. You have been in the U.S. for all your life, but you have studied the politics in Africa, the politics about Uganda. If you look specifically at our democracy, starting from independence – of course the country was a bit messed up and then with due credit, Museveni came and turned it around for some years but we now see a lot of negative publicity out there. And we all know that President Museveni who is now in power has seen off – is it now four presidents in the U.S.? Three I think. It started with Bush Sr., now there is going to be Bush Jr. Reagan, it started with Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton – two terms, then now Bush Jr. two terms. Four presidents. And I mean, there is all this concept of think globally but act locally. I mean, how do you rate our democracy if you compare it with yours? What grade do we really have to go with? Are you comfortable that this is happening in a country that you really fund a lot?
MR. SWAN: How we compare Ugandan democracy to American democracy? I think we see that in our own democracy that there is a constant need for improvement and progress and there are a host of areas in which we see a need for continued efforts to perfect them. And this is a comment that is repeatedly made by our Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, that we need to get away from the idea that somehow democracy is an end point in itself. It requires constant nurturing and care and improvement. I think at whatever stage we are in the democratic process, we need to continue trying to improve it and make it stronger. I think this is essentially the lesson that we have taken from our own history. I think it is a lesson that can usefully be applied elsewhere, that what is important is to continue working in terms of trying to improve the institutions and the functioning of those institutions within the context that exists.
Q: But with what has happened, what is now beginning to unfold in Uganda, do you think there is a problem with overstaying in power?
MR. SWAN: I think that this is as issue that Ugandans are going to have to determine based on their own political system, based on their elections, based on their Constitution as to what constitutes overstaying in power. We had a situation in the United States in the 1930s where the president remained for four terms. Subsequently, there was a decision by the people through a constitutional amendment to prevent that from happening again. But, ultimately, in a democratic system, it is the population that is going to have to make the determination on what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in terms of political action or action by any leader of the country.
PAO ALYSON GRUNDER: I think that since all the media houses have had a chance to ask a couple of questions, and it is getting late…

just as long as they don’t say anything that might embarras the dictator, right?

Posted by: b real | May 28 2007 20:23 utc | 15

Don’t Cry for Venezuela’s RCTV
Monday, May 28, 2007 Print format
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By: Charlie Hardy – NarcoSphere
As I write this, I am looking at a Venezuelan newspaper, El Diario, from February 10, 1992. The editorial that would have occupied half of page 2 is missing. Page 4 is completely blank. The contents were censored by the government of the then president Carlos Andres Perez.
The newspaper is just one of many horrible memories of the pre-Hugo Chavez days in Venezuela’s “exceptional” democracy.
U.S. newspapers seem to overlook what Venezuela used to be like as they today discuss the actions of the current government. I have lived in Venezuela for most of the past 22 years and have never experienced such freedom as that which the Venezuelan population enjoys today under Hugo Chavez. That would include freedom of information. Never, in the past 22 years, has the mass media experienced the freedom it has had during the presidency of Chavez. One can freely buy anti-Chavez newspapers on streets and the airwaves and television channels are amply filled with anti-Chavez commentators.
However, today, May 27, the Venezuelan government will not renew the license of RCTV, a television station that has been on the air for over 50 years. The owner, Marciel Granier, has been running around the world crying because he is about to loose his license. Even the millionaires in the U.S. Senate feel he should get to keep the license. Interestingly, Granier was president of the censored El Diario in 1992. He didn’t complain then. I bought his newspaper. He got his money.
What the news reports in the U.S. don’t tell us, and what the U.S. Senate doesn’t seem to understand, is that hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans will be celebrating tonight at midnight because RCTV’s license will have expired. They’ve been meeting on city squares and corners throughout Venezuela discussing who owns the air and what kind of programming they would like on their television sets. They are asking whether it is truly fair that if you are a millionaire, you can buy the air space of the people for the next 20 years. Independent producers will now have a chance to get their programs shown, without having to obtain the approval of Granier who has been something of a media dictator in Venezuela.
Granier is no saint and his channel hasn’t been an example of the heavenly kingdom on earth either. RCTV was taken off the air five times by Venezuelan administrations before Chavez ever entered the presidential palace. In 1981, for example, it was taken off the air for 24 hours because of airing pornographic scenes.
In 2002, RCTV actively encouraged Venezuelans to march toward the presidential palace in order to participate in a coup that was taking place to overthrow the democratically elected president. Marciel Granier gave clear instructions to the managing producer of Venezuela’s most watched news program on the day of the coup that he should not give any information about President Chavez. Actions like this would not be tolerated by the FCC in the U.S.
However, when Chavez returned to power a few days later, no reprisals were taken against the channel.
No, May 27 is not a sad day for freedom of expression in Venezuela, so don’t weep for Mr. Granier when RCTV’s license is not renewed. He can still broadcast through cable or satellite and he can still sell his programming to other stations. Instead, rejoice with all the independent producers and thousands of Venezuelan who will have access to the space one wealthy man controlled for years. May 28 will be a day of celebration in Venezuela. It should be a day for celebrating freedom throughout the world.
(You can now order the book, Cowboy in Caracas, A North American’s Memoir of Venezuela’s Democratic Revolution, at bookstores, online, or directly from Curbstone Press.)

Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 28 2007 21:18 utc | 17

Iraqi Refugees Turn to the Sex Trade in Syria

Many of these women and girls, including some barely in their teens, are recent refugees. Some are tricked or forced into prostitution, but most say they have no other means of supporting their families. As a group they represent one of the most visible symptoms of an Iraqi refugee crisis that has exploded in Syria in recent months.
According to the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, about 1.2 million Iraqi refugees now live in Syria; the Syrian government puts the figure even higher.
…
“So many of the Iraqi women arriving now are living on their own with their children because the men in their families were killed or kidnapped,” said Sister Marie-Claude Naddaf, a Syrian nun at the Good Shepherd convent in Damascus, which helps Iraqi refugees.
She said the convent had surveyed Iraqi refugees living in Masaken Barzeh, on the outskirts of Damascus, and found 119 female-headed households in one small neighborhood. Some of the women, seeking work outside the home for the first time and living in a country with high unemployment, find that their only marketable asset is their bodies.
“I met three sisters-in-law recently who were living together and all prostituting themselves,” Sister Marie-Claude said. “They would go out on alternate nights — each woman took her turn — and then divide the money to feed all the children.”
…
Inexpensive Iraqi prostitutes have helped to make Syria a popular destination for sex tourists from wealthier countries in the Middle East. In the club’s parking lot, nearly half of the cars had Saudi license plates.
From Damascus it is only about six hours by car, passing through Jordan, to the Saudi border. Syria, where it is relatively easy to buy alcohol and dance with women, is popular as a low-cost weekend destination for groups of Saudi men.

Posted by: b | May 29 2007 4:38 utc | 19

Cindy Sheehan saying Good Bye:

I am deemed a radical because I believe that partisan politics should be left to the wayside when hundreds of thousands of people are dying for a war based on lies that is supported by Democrats and Republican alike. It amazes me that people who are sharp on the issues and can zero in like a laser beam on lies, misrepresentations, and political expediency when it comes to one party refuse to recognize it in their own party. Blind party loyalty is dangerous whatever side it occurs on. People of the world look on us Americans as jokes because we allow our political leaders so much murderous latitude and if we don’t find alternatives to this corrupt “two” party system our Representative Republic will die and be replaced with what we are rapidly descending into with nary a check or balance: a fascist corporate wasteland. I am demonized because I don’t see party affiliation or nationality when I look at a person, I see that person’s heart. If someone looks, dresses, acts, talks and votes like a Republican, then why do they deserve support just because he/she calls him/herself a Democrat?

Posted by: b | May 29 2007 9:59 utc | 21

@Alamet -22
May 24 – A parole program helped Ali al-Shammari

>Whatever the reason, it is clear there is now substantial friction between Dr. Shammari and the Sadr bloc. Mahdi al-Mutairi, head of the political bureau of Sadr’s office, said in a telephone interview Thursday, “The performance of Ali al-Shammari as a minister was bad.”
“There are many problems between us and him,” Mutairi said. “He didn’t carry out his role as he was supposed to.”
Hours after landing in New York last week on a flight from the Middle East, Dr. Shammari spoke briefly with a reporter in the lobby of a Times Square hotel where he was staying with two American officials.

So the basic issue is correct, but I doubt that Shamari has that much internal knowledge and I certainly doubt the last paragraph.

Posted by: b | May 29 2007 17:00 utc | 23

globe and mail: Horror stories of torture hound Ethiopia as it proclaims commitment to reform

NEKEMTE, ETHIOPIA — During the six months that 25-year-old Aman was detained in an Addis Ababa prison, he alleges, police kicked and punched him and kept him for weeks on end in a tiny cell with his hands bound as if always in prayer.
Then there was the day that Aman, a second-year law student at the time, went before a judge and found himself correcting her on the Ethiopian criminal code. She had granted prosecutors’ request to detain him for three weeks of investigation, a week longer than the law allows.
“I could not have words to express the situation, it is so difficult,” said Aman, who was never charged with a crime and eventually released.
“They appoint judges who have no legal knowledge of law, who learn about the law for six months and sit at the court.”
This is the state of affairs 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, despite government claims to the contrary, jails its citizens without reason or trial, tortures many of them and habitually violates its own laws. The government was also severely criticized for a 2005 crackdown in which tens of thousands of opposition members were jailed and nearly 200 people killed after elections in which the opposition made major gains.
But many Western governments that do business with Ethiopia, including Canada and the United States, maintain that Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s government is committed to democratic and human-rights reforms. The United States has even worked with Ethiopia’s jailers; the Bush administration recently acknowledged that CIA and FBI officials interrogated suspected terrorists there who had fled the fighting in Somalia.

stability, man. stability.

Posted by: b real | May 30 2007 2:24 utc | 25

footage refered to in #26 here
you know these folks are getting desperate when they resort to using subliminal suggestions of assassinations in the media to try & destroy chavez

Posted by: b real | May 30 2007 3:17 utc | 27

Advisers Fault Harsh Methods in Interrogation

A. B. Krongard, who was the executive director of the C.I.A., the No. 3 post at the agency, from 2001 to 2004, agreed with that assessment but acknowledged that the agency had to create an interrogation program from scratch in 2002.
He said officers quickly consulted counterparts in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel and other countries to compile a “catalog” of techniques said to be effective against Arab and Muslim prisoners. They added other methods drawn from those that American troops were trained to withstand in case of capture.
Mr. Krongard even recalls receiving a proposal for help with questioning Qaeda suspects from an American dentist who said he “could create pain no human being could withstand.”

Posted by: b | May 30 2007 7:20 utc | 29

the hill: Washington lobbyists develop strategy for Nigerian politicians

…
“Clearly, there were challenges to the election in Nigeria. But for the first time in 40 years, there was a successful transition from civilian to civilian government,” the vice president for government affairs and communications at Goodworks International, Austin Cooper, said. “We hope the international community will unite behind the new administration.”
Goodworks was Obasanjo’s main U.S. lobbying group during the last year. The firm has taken in $500,000 since April 2006 from the government of Nigeria, according to the most recent records filed with the Justice Department.
…

also see
Crude Oil and Total Petroleum Imports Top 15 Countries

Posted by: b real | May 30 2007 14:47 utc | 31

While we are on the subject of harsh methods, let’s replay what happened in Ramallah yesterday:
An Assassination in Ramallah – First-hand report from Sam Bahour

An hour and a half into our meeting in the conference room, the window of which overlooks the main Ramallah thoroughfare, we heard car tires screech and a loud bang. My knee-jerk comment was that a car accident had happened. One of my colleagues bent back to take a look and before he could speak rapid machine gun fire and loud explosions erupted. The gunfire was literally below our window. We all immediately took to the floor and crawled to a safe hallway in the middle of the office. A peek out to the street and it was confirmed, as it has been so many times prior, the Israeli military had entered the middle of town again.
A few more peeks and the picture became clearer. An undercover Israeli military hit team entered under the cover of an armored jeep, camouflaged to look like a Palestinian delivery truck, with Palestinian license plates and the whole works. A few meters away was a blue civilian mid-sized car with more undercover hit men; this group also had a masked man with them, most likely a Palestinian collaborator who was used to identify the hit team’s target. This assumed collaborator could have also been an Israeli fake to make Palestinian onlookers feel like they are being betrayed more so than they really are — we will never know. A few minutes later and an Israeli armored jeep showed up clearly exposing the unraveling events below. Then a Palestinian mini-van taxi with more Israeli plainclothes military personnel appeared, now wearing only baseball caps that identified them as “POLICE.”

Protest from Human Rights Organization Al-Haq

At approximately 17:00 an Israeli force of about 20 soldiers, including under cover agents disguised as civilians, got out of a truck and a car on the Main Street of Ramallah and killed 22 year-old Omar Mohammed Abd al-Halim. The victim was standing outside Nazareth restaurant with another man. As a member of a Palestinian security force he was carrying a walkie-talkie and a firearm when the Israeli military forces appeared. The soldiers made no attempt to arrest Omar Mohammed Abd al-Halim. As he attempted to escape on foot he was shot in the neck by a uniformed soldier, and fell to the ground. An undercover soldier in civilian clothes then shot approximately six bullets into his body, finally kicking him to make sure that he was dead. A number of civilian bystanders were forced into Nazareth restaurant by the Israeli soldiers. In the meantime Palestinians had gathered and began to throw stones. The Israeli forces, reinforced by approximately ten military jeeps, responded with gunfire, lasting for approximately half an hour, during which eight civilians were injured.
Two ambulances of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society attempted to reach the area to provide medical assistance to the injured, but were ordered at gunpoint to stop by the Israeli forces. When the ambulances tried to proceed the Israeli soldiers opened fire and one of the ambulances was hit in the tyres. Consequently it was immobilised and could not reach the injured.

Please read both reports in their entirety for a full appreciation of what type of hell this is.
God, how is it possible that this can just go on and on and ON?

Posted by: Bea | May 30 2007 15:07 utc | 33

fpif: The New Pacific Wall

Some 230 miles north of Perth, at Geraldton on Australia’s west coast, the Bush administration is building a base. When completed, it will control two geostationary satellites that feed intelligence to U.S. military forces in Asia and the Middle East.
Most Americans know nothing about Geraldton, just as they know nothing about other Australian sites such as the U.S. submarine communications base at North Cape or the U.S. missile-tracking center at Pine Gap. But there is growing concern Down Under that Prime Minster John Howard’s conservative government is weaving a network of alliances and U.S. bases that may one day put Australians in harm’s way. According to Australian Defense Force Academy Visiting Fellow Philip Dorling, once the Geraldton base is up and running, it will be almost impossible for Australia to be fully neutral or stand back from any war in which the United States was involved.
Indeed, that may already be the case.

Posted by: b real | May 30 2007 19:04 utc | 35

b & b real
wherever there has been imperial ass – australia has climbed into it – galipoli crete singappore phillipines khe sahn vietnam & now in irak & has suffered in these slaughterhouses & as servile & willling valets

Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 30 2007 20:43 utc | 37

*** Yo Engineers *** Is this Significant, or as much garbage as ethanol for its own reasons. Who could afford to drive, or is that the purpose? And if it’s so ubiquitous, why would it be so expensive??
Breakthrough on-demand hydrogen fuel generator may make hydrogen cars safe and practical
The Arizona-based company Ecotality has announced plans to produce a device that generates hydrogen on demand for vehicle fuel cells, thus eliminating the many problems associated with hydrogen production and transport and bringing hydrogen cars closer to the realm of the practical.
The Hydratus, developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, generates hydrogen from magnesium and water in a chemical reaction that takes place at temperatures between 400 and 600 degrees Celsius. The byproducts of the reaction are water and powdered magnesium oxide.
Ecotality CEO Jonathan Read says that the magnesium oxide powder is 99.8 percent recyclable. According to Read, the used powder could be converted back into magnesium pellets to be used in another Hydratus. He envisions filling stations where consumers will easily pump out used magnesium oxide and pump in new magnesium and water in about three to five minutes. The magnesium oxide, he says, could be recycled on-site at the filling stations.
The big advantage of a hydrogen-on-demand system like the Hydratus is that hydrogen is very expensive to produce, compress, transport and store safely. The Hydratus eliminates the need for all these intermediate steps. According to Ecotality, another key advantage of the Hydratus is its primary fuel source.
“Magnesium is the fourth most common mineral in the world and could be extracted from the sea. It’s common and available in almost all countries. The magnesium, once it’s put into the system, is a contained system. So there is no need to continue mining,” Read said.
Stressing magnesium’s advantages over petroleum, Ecotality refers to the metal as “safe, non-toxic, nonexplosive and geopolitically neutral.”
“Magnesium oxide systems are certainly viable, but zinc oxide offers an even safer and more economical way to power vehicles via electricity,” said Mike Adams, technology innovator and founder of EcoLEDs.com, a manufacturer of eco-friendly LED lighting products. “Zinc is a more common mineral in the Earth’s crust than magnesium and can be charged, used and recharged in a closed system just like magnesium. Both technologies offer significant advantages over combustion engines.”
Ecotality plans to unveil a prototype Hydratus by the end of the year. A hydrogen-powered bus equipped with such a device would be able to run about 155 miles on one tank of fuel, which would cost approximately $17.50 per gallon. Such a bus would cost about $500,000, in contrast to $300,000 for a bus with a conventional petroleum combustion engine.

Posted by: jj | May 31 2007 7:42 utc | 39