Prime Minister Tony Blair has made a surprise visit to the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Mr Blair is due to have talks with President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.
He flew into Baghdad’s Green Zone hours after it came under rocket attack – though officials said there was no indication the PM was the target.
It is Mr Blair’s seventh visit to Iraq and is expected to be his last before he steps down from office next month.
‘Usual business’

Of the rocket attack, Mr Blair’s spokesman said: “We are not pretending this isn’t an occurrence that happens on a fairly regular basis.
“We have no information to suggest anything other than the usual business.”

Just goes to show the farce of the Iraq adventure. China, Russia and the EU (to a lesser extent) must delight in seeing the USA bleed itself dry in Iraq.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | May 19 2007 9:27 utc | 4

John Bolton and the leftist extremist BBC-Interviwer Jon Humphreys:
When Humphrey talks silly stuff about Iraq not beeing a safer place today, Bolton outpaces him with his sophisticated rhetorical skills. What a diplomat!
Radio Interview

Posted by: snutrat | May 19 2007 11:10 utc | 6

Captain America Rules!
I really dug the Captain as a kid collecting comics, to bad it was all propaganda;I really wanted to believe.
Oh, and dig that David Holmes back-up track to this, DH does some impressive minimalist freestyle jazz trip hop worthy of movie soundtracks.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 19 2007 16:39 utc | 8

venerable $U,
Thanks for the link to Joe’s epistle on Leary et. al.
I first encountered Tim at a Libertarian convention in the mid 70’s when I started listening to his talk with the mind set of “why have they invited this drug soaked idiot to a cerebral occasion such as this”. By the end of his talk I gleaned that he was far more credibly cerebral than anyone I had ever met. After digesting his writings I attended a workshop of his in early 80’s in northern CA. The personal contact reinforced and extended my opinion of this so called drug soaked hippy.
I haven’t read the link to the Joe it’s entirety yet but will. It’s too delicious not to. Again thanks for the heads up.

Posted by: Juannie | May 19 2007 19:06 utc | 10

What is this, recruitment or a round up???
Iraq’s interior ministry calls on former staff to return to service

The Iraqi interior ministry will call on all staff from security agencies during the time of the former regime to appear at the ministry’s institutions and police stations, “otherwise they will be dealt with in accordance with the terrorism law,” an official source said.
“The decision to bring back the old security staff includes those who worked in intelligence, public security and special services, except those who have reached the age of retirement,” Maj. General Abdul-Kareem Khalaf, the interior ministry’s national command center chief, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
…
The interior ministry official affirmed that those “who fail to report to the security organizations in the country, during the mentioned period of time, will be considered involved in acts of hostility against the Iraqi people.”
…

Posted by: Alamet | May 19 2007 22:30 utc | 12

All spectrum incompetence …

The secret Iraq documents my 8-year-old found
With a couple of keystrokes, you too can read the hidden history of the Coalition Provisional Authority, America’s late, unlamented occupation government in Iraq.
Editor’s note: The document discussed in this story can be viewed here, both with and without its hidden text.
By Pete Moore (Salon)

Posted by: Outraged | May 19 2007 23:48 utc | 14

Nigeria: Stop Treating Niger-Delta People Like Animals, 4 American Hostages Tell FG

ELEVEN days in a hideaway in the creek where they are being watched over by armed militants, the four American oil workers who were kidnapped by Niger-Delta Freedom Fighters (Egbema One) say they, totally, understand now, the reason why militants in the Niger-Delta are up in arms against the government, declaring emphatically that that there is no human being with blood flowing in his veins that will not be provoked to carry arms if he is treated like an animal, the way Niger-Deltans are being treated.
The hostages: Mike Roussel (anchor operator), Chris Gay (anchor operator), Larry Plake (anchor operator) and Kevin Faller (barge foreman), all workers of Global Industries, a Lagos-based oil servicing company to the Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) spoke to the Saturday Vanguard exclusively in the base camp of the militants, Thursday evening.
…
Unanimously, they called on the Federal Government to speed up and meet the demands of the militants, which is basically an agreement to the effect that the government and oil companies operating in their areas would provide the natives with basic amenities like road, potable water, electricity and other things to facilitate their release by the freedom fighters.
They were all in good health when this reporter met with them but each one of them wants to go home and re-unite with their families as soon as possible. They also confirmed that the militants were taking care of them under the circumstances
From their mien, the hostages were also confident of the fact that the militants do not mean any harm to them as individuals and that, they were mere tools in the multifaceted and volatile struggle by an underprivileged and subjugated people for recognition and attention by their government.
Chris Gay told Saturday Vanguard: “Their struggle is a genuine struggle for the emancipation of their people. They told us and I have seen it that the reason why they kidnapped us is to draw the attention of the government and the oil companies to their suffering. They want job for the natives; they want government to help them out. Generally, they want development, which is why we are being held”.
On his part, Mike Roussel asserted that “the people are starving; they want schools for their children. That is the most important to them. They want jobs also, they don’t have money. Just look at the water they bath with and drink, which tells you right away that something has to be done.
“I want the Nigerian government to bring us out of here to enable me go home to my family as soon as possible. The government should come in here and try to help these people out and their children. Everybody needs education because without education, you have nothing and here, they don’t have schools”, he said.
Kevin Faller, who quivered, as he spoke said he had learnt many lessons from his stay so far in the creek. In his words: “Yes, I have learnt many things, the nature of how these people are being treated, how they have to live and you see, everyone is a human being and not an animal and these people deserve the good things of life like others too. There is no way they would not be provoked to carry arms and do what they are doing when they are not provided with basic amenities.
“They are very poor and from what I can see, there are no schools, hospitals, no roads and if something happens, it will take a long time to get to the hospital and maybe, the person being rushed to the hospital will die before they get there. It hurts to see human beings live the way these people are living in the Niger-Delta, no one deserves to live like this”, he added.
To the fourth hostage, Larry Plake, “our eyes have been opened to a lot of things we didn’t know about the sufferings of the Niger-Deltans. The militants have showed us a lot of things that we did not know before of their position. Things like how they live, how they are treated and all that, it is not right, I must say.
“They have nothing. And what they have at all is from their own land. Have you not seen their houses, they bring down trees to make their ramshackle buildings, they bath and drink from the same water they pollute. The food they eat here, we cannot eat it.
“I want the government to understand the plight of these people first. Let the eyes of the leaders of Nigeria be opened on the real problems of the Niger-Delta people. It is only when their eyes are really opened that they can tackle it. A human being does not have to live the way these people are living in the creek. They should have schools, hospitals, houses to live, not these ramshackle huts they live in, not things they have to build like what we have seen. There should be electricity and spring water. In fact, so many things are missing here”, he asserted.

Nigeria: Shell Resumes 170,000bpd Production in Niger Delta

Royal Dutch Shell yesterday resumed operations in the Niger Delta to restore 170,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil production after a protest at its major pipeline hub.
According to Shell’s spokesman, the company has regained access to its Ogoni site, after the six-day protest in the Ogoni area of the Niger Delta, which had raised the tally of oil supply cut by violence to about 900,000 bpd, or one third of total capacity in the country. Nigeria is the world’s eighth largest exporter. The crisis in the Niger Delta had led to world oil price increase.
The Dutch oil giant had halted oil production in the Ogoni area 14 years ago as a result of popular protests, which were a precursor to today’s violent insurgency in the Niger Delta.
… Villagers from K-Dere community had staged a protest to demand a stake in the oil flowing through their land, but vacated the site on Wednesday after their elders promised to settle the issue in talks with Shell over the next few days.
Meanwhile, US major Chevron also disclosed yesterday that only about 7,000 bpd of its Escravos oil production was still closed after a community invasion at its Abiteye facility on May 7, causing a disruption on its 70,000 bpd production prior to its original estimate of 42,000 bpd.
According to a report, rebels fighting for local control over oil wealth have stepped up attacks to press their demands, but the line between militancy and crime are blurred and frequent kidnappings are mostly motivated by money.
Twelve foreigners are still being held hostage there after a Belarussian woman working as an industry contractor, who was abducted on May 5 in Port Harcourt was released on Wednesday night.

as the first article i linked to supports, the kidnappings are not “mostly motivated by money.” they draw attention to the desperate plight of the residents being shit on by big oil & the nigerian federal govt.
meanwhile, not any surprise, now that a few weeks have passed since the election farce in nigeria & outsiders can move on
Nigeria: US: Nigeria Still Strategic Partner, Despite Election Flaws

The United States of America (USA) views Nigeria as a very important and strategic partner and would continue to work with her in spite of the fact that the recent elections in the country fell short of expectations.
The US government’s position was made known yesterday by the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, at a press briefing on the forthcoming Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) taking place in Ghana this month.
“All of you have read the statement of the US government. We were very disappointed at the results of the election and how those elections were carried out. They were a disappointment not only to us, but I think it was an opportunity lost for Nigeria. That said, Nigeria being what Nigeria is remains a very important strategic country to the US and we will continue to have bilateral relations with the Nigerian government.”
…
AGOA which was signed into law by the US government in 2000 encourages African countries to open their economies as well as build free markets. Thomas-Greenfield disclosed that AGOA had made tremendous progress within the period, saying that about 47 per cent of US imports in 2006 were from Nigeria. The import was mainly made up of crude oil totaling a sum of $25.8 billion for last year.

— — —
Chavez demands Pope apologize for Indian comments

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez demanded Pope Benedict apologize to Indians in Latin America for saying this month in Brazil that the Roman Catholic Church purified them.
Chavez, who regularly clashes with the Catholic Church in Venezuela but had not directly criticized the Pope before, accused the Pontiff on Friday of ignoring the “holocaust” that followed Christopher Columbus’s 1492 landing in the Americas.
“With all due respect your Holiness, apologize because there was a real genocide here and, if we were to deny it, we would be denying our very selves,” Chavez said at an event on freedom of expression.
In a speech to Latin American and Caribbean bishops at the end of a visit to Venezuela’s neighbor Brazil, the Pope said the Church had not imposed itself on the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Indian leaders in the region were outraged by the comments.

Posted by: b real | May 20 2007 0:48 utc | 16

r’giap –
oilwars blog, which i’ve linked to now & then, generally has good coverage of venezuela & has been on top of the rctv issue for years.
from last sunday, a good illustration of why rctv had to go
If you watch just one video of Marcel Granier….

In most parts of the world the private media is owned by a handful of very rich individuals who then have the privilege of deciding what everyone else gets to read and watch on Television. Venezuela is no exception to this. For example, the Venezuelan media magnate Gustavo Cisneros is a multi-billionaire who is one of the wealthiest people in the world.
Another Venezuelan media magnate is Marcel Granier who is the owner of the soon to be defunct RCTV. It is more than a little ironic that he is only gaining international notoriety just as he is about to become a good deal less relevant inside Venezuela.
…
In this 15 minute video Marcel Granier speaks before a small group of handpicked journalists to give his accounting of recent Venezuelan history. The video then contrasts this with what actually happened. The video is also very interesting because is gives good footage of some very key events. I highly recommend that everyone watch it in full
[As the video is in Spanish I will give some explanations and commentary at key points referenced by the time on the video]

today’s entry, however, expresses disappointment (overreacts?) w/ the replacement
Chavez gives Venezuelans no reason to celebrate

However, as has been discussed before, even if RCTV sails off into the sunset there is the very real issue of what is to replace it – another private station? Another government controlled station? Or finally a station that allows the airwaves to be used in a truly democratic fashion?
Apparently the discussion has already been had, or perhaps better said, the decision has already been made by Chavez, and unfortunately it is not one that favors freedom of expression and a deepening of the country’s democracy. Rather than a truly independent station that increases the pluralism of ideas on the public domain Venezuela will have one more government controlled television station – gee just what it needed?!?!
The new station, called TEVES, just had its president handpicked by Chavez. In announcing his decision Chavez, with lots of probably unintended irony, said “Let there always be more diversity”. Yeah sure, as if having one person controlling a television network, be that one person Marcel Granier or Hugo Chavez, allows for diversity.
I suppose Venezuelans can take some consolation from the fact that they will no longer have RCTV working to promote violence and overthrow the government. That is, after all, no small thing. Yet the predominant sentiment will probably be sadness that rather than getting a network that will allow Venezuelans, in all their diversity, to be heard they will get one more network run by the rich or powerful.

Posted by: b real | May 20 2007 1:24 utc | 18

reuters: US navy to fight crime, terror along African coast

DAKAR, May 19 (Reuters) – The United States is boosting its naval presence along the lawless West African coast to combat terrorism, illegal migration and drug trafficking and to secure U.S. oil interests, senior naval and coastguard officials said.
Amid concerns that weak government controls in some West African states has made the region fertile for drug cartels, people smugglers and Islamist groups, the U.S. navy command in Europe has focused its activities southward.
“The clear majority of shipping coming into the United States is coming off the coast of West Africa into the Gulf of Mexico,” Vice-Admiral John Stufflebeem, commander of the U.S. Sixth Fleet based in the Mediterranean, said on Saturday.
“So we are interested in this (region) from a security perspective from our own homeland, and … in commerce and quite frankly, oil is one part of it,” he told Reuters.
The Gulf of Guinea, which includes oil producers like Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria, is central to U.S. efforts to reduce dependency on Middle Eastern exports.
It currently supplies around 15 percent of U.S. oil consumption, and that is forecast to rise to 25 percent by 2015, although resource-hungry China is also looking to corner oil supply from the region, notably in Angola.
…
In a joint naval and coastguard initiative, the two vice-admirals were touring six West African countries — Mauritania, Senegal, Benin, Togo, Sao Tome and Gabon — to build maritime cooperation ahead of the year-long trial deployment of a U.S. navy vessel to the region in October.
The amphibious ship, capable of carrying training teams and smaller boats, will act as a mobile base along the coast, in a test of a global naval project dubbed Global Fleet Station to expand the U.S. maritime presence for a reasonably low cost.
The commanders were also encouraging local governments to adopt an electronic tagging system for ships, known as Automatic Identification Systems (AIS), as a cheap means of tracking shipping in their waters aimed at tackling smuggling and piracy.
“When we talk to major corporations like oil companies or insurance companies …, there is a growing concern about the safety and security of their enterprises,” Stufflebeem said, singling out Nigeria, the world’s third worst nation for piracy.
…
Stufflebeem said the AIS initiative should be complimented with a network of radar stations, such as the $18 million site being built by the U.S. government for Sao Tome.

controlling communication/shipping lines to control oil traffic
and
as in the days of gunboat diplomacy, u.s. businessmen feel more comfortable having the navy in the area
the increased naval presence is not something they’re just now boosting, as documented in my africom report

Posted by: b real | May 20 2007 1:48 utc | 20

Just discovered Michael Franti and the Spearhead today. Dude doesn’t get alot of commercial radio play for some reason.
Lyric to Light up ya Lighter:

Fire, fire, fire, light up ya lighter, fire fire fire
Armageddon is a deadly day, Armageddon is a deadly way
They commin for you everyday, While Senators on holiday
The Army recruiters in the parking lot, Hustling kids there jugglin pot
Listen young man, Listen to my plan , Gonna make you money, gonna make you a man
Bom Bom
Here’s what you get, An M-16 and a Kevlar vest
You might come home with one less leg, But this thing will surely keep a bullet out of your chest
So Come on Come on, Sign up, Come on
This one’s nothing like Vietnam
Except for the bullets, Except for the bombs,
Except for the youth that’s gone
Chorus
So we keep it on, til ya coming home, Higher and Higher
Fire, fire, fire, light up ya lighter, fire fire fire, so we keep it on
Til ya commin home, higher and higher
Fire, fire, fire, light up ya lighter, fire fire fire
Tell me President tell if you will,
How many people does a smart bomb kill
How many of em do you think we got,
The General says we never miss a shot
And we never ever ever keep a body count,
we killin so efficiently we can’t keep count
In the Afghan hills the rebels still fightin,
Opium fields keep providin
The best heroin that money can buy
and nobody knows where Osama bin hidin
The press conferences keep on lyin like we don’t know
Some say engine engine number nine,
Machine guns on a New York transit line
The war for oil is a war for the beast,
the war on terror is a war on peace
Tellin you they’re gonna protect you,
Tellin you that they support the troops
Don’t let them fool you with their milk and honey,
No they only want your money
One step forward and two steps back,
Why do veterans get no respect
PTSD and a broken back,
Take a look at where your moneys gone seen
Take a look at what they spend it on
No excuses, No illusions
Light up ya lighter

Posted by: ran | May 20 2007 6:32 utc | 22

US surge is failing, says UK’s Iraq envoy

The “troop surge” by American soldiers in Iraq is not working, one of Britain’s senior military officials in Baghdad has said.
In a pessimistic assessment of the strategy designed to pull Iraq back from all-out civil war, Alastair Campbell, the outgoing defence attaché at the British Embassy in Baghdad, claimed that extra US forces were not achieving the desired drop in violence.
…
In unusually candid comments, Mr Campbell also disclosed that American commanders had decided that the criteria for the “success” of the troop surge would be nothing more than a reduction in violence to the level prior to last year’s al-Qaeda bombing of the al-Askari Mosque in Samarra, which destroyed its golden dome.
…
While the United States military has made little secret of its view that the bloodshed in Iraq can now only be contained, rather than stamped out altogether, the suggestion that 800 murders a month in the country would be a measure of success is an indication of how far the coalition has been forced to reign in its expectations.

Posted by: b | May 20 2007 12:23 utc | 24

Fragging or suicide?
Korean officer in Iraq found shot dead.
Report says he was “an officer of the medical administrative affairs team,” so I suppose this could involve illicit drug dispension as a third possibility.

Posted by: Alamet | May 20 2007 15:54 utc | 26

b real,
Thanks so much for your inputs.

Posted by: jony_b_cool | May 20 2007 20:11 utc | 28

the insinuation here is that the americans sought “cultural destruction” in order to divide & rule.
the truth, based on books like fiasco and emerald city, is the entire “liberation” was managed incompetently.
How about seaking cultural destruction by sending seamingly incompetent managers?
Now that “truth” may not be fitting for you …

Posted by: b | May 20 2007 20:38 utc | 30

How about seaking cultural destruction by sending seamingly incompetent managers?
those responsible for the mayhem and destruction would have to care for this to be valid. I really don’t think they give a rat’s ass about anything other than quarterly profits and bottom line.
all that artsy cultural crap is for weak kneed lefties, real men kick ass.

Posted by: dan of steele | May 20 2007 20:56 utc | 32

h/t to latin america news review for these two links
Chavez government to finance Glover film

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuela’s Congress says it has approved financing for two films by actor Danny Glover, a close supporter of President Hugo Chavez.
The lawmaking body, which is closely allied with Chavez, said in a statement on its Web site Thursday that it approved $20 million for two Glover productions.
They include “The General in His Labyrinth,” which deals with the life of South American liberator Simon Bolivar. It is based on a novel by Colombian Nobel Prize-winning writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez and will be directed by Venezuela-born director Alberto Arvelo.
The other is “Toussaint,” which the statement said Glover plans to direct documenting the life of Haitian revolution leader Toussaint Louverture.

and, something for slothrop 😉
The Empire is Failing – A Good Thing for America and the World: An Interview with Terry Paupp

Terry Paupp is the author of Exodus from Empire: The Fall of America’s Empire and the Rise of the Global Community. The book examines the downfall of the American Empire, its impact on the world community and what world order will take its place. …
zeese: Your book faces up to a key question that is rarely discussed in the U.S. media — American Empire. I expect many in the media and the public do not think of the U.S. as an empire. Please explain why you call the U.S. an empire?
paupp: You are quite correct in noting that the U.S. media fails to even acknowledge that Americans live in an empire. I call the U.S. an empire because it is clear to any serious student of history that it became one in the aftermath of World War II when England surrendered its colonies and accepted the protection of the U.S. nuclear umbrella from the beginnings of the Cold War.
The entire period of the late 1940s through the early 1960s was an age of de-colonization from the empires of Britain, France, and Germany. Yet, during this period the Cold War provided the context for the U.S. to embark upon neo-colonialism and neo-imperialism in order to protect the so-called “Free World.” The reality is that the Free World is not really “free” in terms of civil liberties and human rights. It is free to open access by U.S.-based corporations and multinational/transnational business interests.
To assist in this structuring of the world economy in line with the American Establishment, the IMF, World Bank, and WTO have been established to govern the world economy and as many countries as possible within its orbit. To that end, both Wall Street and the U.S. Treasury Department — as the centers of U.S. finance and capital — give the rest of the world within its “sphere of influence” their marching orders. We see this as Third World nations have structural adjustment programs shoved down their throats by the IMF. These structural adjustment programs, SAPs, that are imposed by the IMF function so as to order the governments who are the recipients of these loans to break up labor unions, suspend wage structures that benefit workers, and condone the rape of the environment.
All of this is undertaken by the U.S. Global Empire in the furtherance of its corporate allies and in its strategic search for obtaining natural resources — such as oil, tungsten, ore — to shore up its domination of the planet. In fact, the Pentagon has said as much in its planning documents since 2001 when it writes of “full spectrum dominance.” What is that? It is the control of not only land, air, and sea by the American Empire, but outer space as well.
…
KZ: And, from the perspective of the world, isn’t the American empire a good thing? Don’t we bring stability and democracy to the world? Wouldn’t the world be a more violent place without us? Wouldn’t there be more poverty, disease and income disparity?
TP: From the perspective of the rest of the world, the American Empire is not a good thing; it is a curse. It deserves resistance, opposition, and overthrow. Why? Because it is a thing — a creation divorced from law and the moral codes of the teachings of all of the world’s great religious traditions.

Posted by: b real | May 21 2007 3:49 utc | 34

was out gallivanting in the “missouri rhineland” on a beautiful spring afternoon today & wound up at a winery in dutzow, the oldest german settlement in the state, listening to, of all things, a brazilian samba band. nice scenic, rolling countryside. plenty of wine flowing. good friends. happy people all around. unique german architecture, etc… but what really sticks w/ me tonite, hours later, was a small dog accompanying some visitor. incredibly, the dog’s visage was the spitting image of bismarck. no idea what it means, but i am haunted, as if i witnessed something out of a lovecraft tale.

Posted by: b real | May 21 2007 4:36 utc | 36

McClatchy: Efforts to stop `voter fraud’ may have curbed legitimate voting

During four years as a Justice Department civil rights lawyer, Hans von Spakovsky went so far in a crusade against voter fraud as to warn of its dangers under a pseudonym in a law journal article.
…
“Mr. von Spakovsky was central to the administration’s pursuit of strategies that had the effect of suppressing the minority vote,” charged Joseph Rich, a former Justice Department voting rights chief who worked under him.
He and other former career department lawyers say that von Spakovsky steered the agency toward voting rights policies not seen before, pushing to curb minor instances of election fraud by imposing sweeping restrictions that would make it harder, not easier, for Democratic-leaning poor and minority voters to cast ballots.

Posted by: b | May 21 2007 6:14 utc | 38

Thank-you anna missed @#39 I said much the same here. However clumsily…

When one can create stability* through ‘structural chaos’, then everything that results from the bifurcation of the game, fortune or, more importantly, in this case, ‘misfortune’ of events, then every event episode becomes a magical a gift to the ptb; by waving the wand of prop-agenda and turning liabilities into assets. By tweaking the data to enhance and frame the story and magnifying data sets to your advantage, aka managing reality through media.
I have seen this done methodically and scientifically (read: clinically) over and over in circumstances such as this, where and if, one has an overview (the back story) e.g., of the whole of the stories details, then and only then can you see the glitch in the meta-narrative of the continuum.
In other words, the power of prop-agenda becomes the art of putting the story you want to be revealed under the microscope and then only using this compartmentalized data to be the thesis of that story. Where the actual reality of the events is a picked observation. One that obfuscates and overshadows other parts of the data. It is quite deliberate and effective.
cont..

*In my best Rodney Dangerfield voice*, I get no respect I tell ya…lol

Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 21 2007 8:18 utc | 40

Right, it’s Just incompetence.
Then there’s this. No, it’s not out of R’Giap’s personal journal, but might as well be.
Anyone remember “Dr. Laura”, far right-winger who built a $100+k Million dollar empire, advising women to stay @home & raise their kids right…preaching church going, ethics, blahbittyblah…Recall her…
do you also recall that her son enlisted right out of high school & how proud she was? Well, the Army has just shut down his website for being so Repulsive…oops, showing the real family values of the Imperial Military.
  Deryk Schlessinger’s Web site indicated the 21-year-old soldier is stationed in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where, the site’s author writes, “godless crazy people like me,” have become “a generation of apathetic killers.”
The soldier son of talk radio relationship counselor Laura Schlessinger is under investigation for a graphic personal Web page that one Army official has called “repulsive.”
    The MySpace page, publicly available until Friday when it disappeared from the Internet, included cartoon depictions of rape, murder, torture and child molestation; photographs of soldiers with guns in their mouths; a photograph of a bound and blindfolded detainee captioned “My Sweet Little Habib”; accounts of illicit drug use; and a blog entry headlined by a series of obscenities and racial epithets.
she said, “We raised our son to be a warrior.” Dr. Laura’s Son Becomes Apathetic Killer
Gotta Love it…

Posted by: jj | May 21 2007 9:20 utc | 42

The Nuremberg Defence is now “I didn’t know what I was doing.”
Let’s assume competence, in which case in Iraq: the puppet(s) would be in charge; the bases built; the corporate sponsors would have their booty and Iran would still be in the cross hairs…
Less death & destruction perhaps, but Chimpoleon still walks and quacks

Posted by: jcairo | May 21 2007 10:08 utc | 44

The looting of Baghdad was allowed to take place — this implies a strategy to the complicity, or they would have taken the necessary steps to prevent it (like the oil ministry).
the reason for the chaos was low troop levels and poor planning. i just think it’s interesting that fisk of all people condemns the occupation for these reasons, with the odd conspiracy of nefarious intent among “imperialists” never rising above the status of hopeful insinuation.

Posted by: slothrop | May 21 2007 15:08 utc | 46

Actually, it was an evil decision. They use incompetence as a defense, here and everywhere else that government is supposed to be competent, instead of despised
They are competent at tasks assigned, and will be rewarded soon, each unto his position.
Simply and obviously, they don’t act in good faith, except to the money talkers, the financiers.

Posted by: plushtown | May 21 2007 16:42 utc | 48

provide proof of this from any ofthe scads of leftish books written about the war.
reading a. cockburn’s book on rumsfeld doesn’t supoort your view yet.

Posted by: slothrop | May 21 2007 18:20 utc | 50

perhaps not in the literature, just in history and world news.

Posted by: plushtown | May 21 2007 18:33 utc | 52

pr watch: U.S. Think Tank Calls for More Troops, More Propaganda

Source: The Hill, May 18, 2007
“A new security study released by the Third Way, a Democratic-leaning think tank,” and authored by two former Clinton administration officials, discusses how to rebuild U.S. credibility overseas. “American voters yearn for an alternative to the Bush administration’s aggressive foreign policy stance,” say the Brookings Institution’s William Galston and Harvard’s Elaine Kamarck, “but neither Democrats nor Republicans are articulating a different path.” Their study calls for “a robust military response to the terrorist threat,” along with “a massive public relations effort akin to the Cold War propaganda machine.” Militarily, the study suggests 100,000 more ground troops and “reinvigorated intelligence services.” It also calls for “a massive increase to the $140 million the United States spends annually on public diplomacy,” and “re-creating the United States Information Agency, which was folded into the State Department during the Clinton administration.”

Posted by: b real | May 21 2007 18:50 utc | 54

This will have massive consequences: Kuwait drops peg in body blow to Gulf currency union

Kuwait unshackled its dinar from the tumbling U.S. dollar on Sunday and switched the exchange rate mechanism to a basket of currencies, throwing plans for currency union with other Gulf Arab oil producers into disarray.
Kuwait’s central bank, which battled speculators for weeks to defend the peg, said the dollar’s slide against other currencies had forced it to break ranks with fellow Gulf states to contain inflation from the rising cost of some imports.
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Oman and Bahrain, the two smallest Gulf economies, and Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy, said they planned to stand by their pegs. There was no comment from the central bank of the United Arab Emirates, whose currency is likely to take centre stage on Monday as prospects for a single currency evaporate.
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“The massive decline in the dollar’s exchange rate against main currencies … has contributed to the increase in local inflation rates and this step is part of the central bank’s efforts to curb inflationary pressure,” Sheikh Salem Abdul-Aziz al-Sabah said in a statement carried by state news agency KUNA

Note: There were attempts in the Gulf to move to a “single currency”. But that would have been pegged to the Dollar and thereby be just pure U.S. currency printed on a different sort of paper.
For Kuwait to move away from that is a big issue. If their currency is pegged to a “basket” the automatically will have to buy bonds issued in the currencies that are part of that basket.
The basket now consists of Euros, Pounds, Swiss Franken and U.S. Dollars instead of only Dollars. Billions of Kuwaiti oil money will now be invested in in those currencies instead of just in U.S. Dollars.
That will accelerate the Dollar to fall and will increase infaltion in the U.S.
The other Gulf countries, notably Saudi Arabi with a lot of investable money will follow that move.
A while ago I suspected a move on oil prices by the Arab Gulf nations to punish the U.S. With oil at $70/barrel they may go for a monetary punishment instead.

Posted by: b | May 21 2007 19:30 utc | 56

and, speaking of propaganda, this AFP wire article is full of it
Somali president warns of terrorist threat
grabs your attention, eh?

The Somali president has warned that “terrorists” were threatening his shattered country’s security and slammed international donors for failing to help as promised, in an interview with Agence France-Presse.
An Ethiopian-backed government offensive in Mogadishu last month ended weeks of clashes with Islamist-led insurgents that killed hundreds of civilians and forced tens of thousands to flee, but sporadic attacks are again on the increase.

the president and his unpopular imposed govt, the TFG, are the real terrorists, if, by terrorism, we mean violence used against civilians to force political objectives. but you won’t find that out in this AFP article, which may as well have been crafted in a thinktank somewhere in addis ababa, nairobi, or djibouti.
the “offensive” was not “ethiopian-backed” nor were they clashes. as my coverage has clearly shown over the past months, this was an aggressive invasion by u.s.-backed ethiopian forces to restore the warlords that had terrorized the citizens of somalia over the years up to the rise of the islamic courts union, which (temporarily) drove the warlords and their faux-government out of power. while there were indeed “clashes” between the ethiopian/TFG forces and militias loyal to the ICU, egregious war crimes were committed by the ethiopian forces as they deliberately shelled entire neighborhoods in mogadishu, indiscriminately & w/ complete disregard for human lives.
souding suspiciously similiar to the talking points being circulated out the ethiopian govt’s propaganda offices, the AFP article states that “hundreds of civilians” were killed when even the UN has declared that more than 1500 were killed in the latest multi-day fighting. before that, there were other battles in which more civilians were killed. and it is unknown how many civilians were killed in the initial invasion at the end of last year.
the AFP article also states that these battles “forced tens of thousands to flee” while it is generally accepted that up to 1/3rd of the population of mogadishu — between 350,000 to half-a-million people — fled the city to avoid the atrocities being committed by the ethiopians & the TFG. now, if that is not clearly terrorism, tell me what is.

“My government was battling terrorists who lost their strongholds militarily in Mogadishu, but they are still at large by hiding in the towns and villages,” Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed said late on Sunday at his official residence, Villa Somalia, which has been a target of mortar attacks.
“We don’t believe the threats of terrorists are over as some of them are abroad still planning to create havoc again,” he said.

again, the TFG is largely unpopular, as even pointed out by the italian deputy foreign minister, who recently visited and stated that “I believe the transitional government can not perform its duties due to lack of local support.”
as for villa somalia, the presidential palace of which AFP tells it readers “has been a target of mortar attacks,” it served as a base for ethiopian forces and uganda’s peacekeeping troops — occupying armies, let us not forget — from which much of the indiscriminate shelling of civilian neighborhoods was launched, which is why it was a target of the resistance. but, i suppose, that is not something that readers need to know.

Four Ugandan peacekeepers from an African Union force were killed in a bomb attack on their convoy last week, and the prime minister and mayor of Mogadishu both escaped unharmed from roadside bomb attacks in recent days.
Yusuf, who was elected president in 2004, also launched a scathing attack on international donors for failing to provide more help.

the deaths of the ugandan forces is being spun heavily, as i have already pointed out. the new u.s. envoy to somalia wasted no time to shout fire (AQ) in a loaded press conference. yet, the ugandan govt has publicly announced that AQ had nothing to do w/ the attacks. they are not willing to use their dead to further such propaganda.
nest, while it may be possible to state that yusuf was “elected president in 2004,” it’s pure misinformation to present that stmt as it appears in the article. he was appointed & elected to head the TFG by his fellow warlords (and foreign agents), but it is deliberately misleading to imply that he was elected as president of somalia by the citizens of somalia. on this point alone, the article could be qualified as propaganda, imo.
that yusuf, in AFP’s words, “launched a scathing attack on international donors” is not surprising, given his history as a hated warlord & his role in the war crimes committed in somalia this year.

“The outside world promised a reconstruction plan with a full package to develop the lives of Somalis in war-torn Somalia but efforts of the international community are confined to meagre humanitarian work,” he said.
“The United States is appreciating our struggle against terrorism but did not give any tangible assistance to reconstruct a devastated nation. Even the United Nations has yet to take drastic action to assist to rebuild Somalia,” he added.
“I don’t know what is true and what is false when it concerns the international community. I don’t appreciate hypocrisy.”
For their part, international aid groups say they are struggling to deliver vital food and supplies to the tens of thousands displaced by recent fighting in Mogadishu because of continued insecurity.

so now yusuf is attacking his ‘friends’ who helped attempt to restore him to power for misleading him. meanwhile, humanitarian groups & NGO’s are complaining b/c of the obstacles that the TFG is throwing up to prevent the delivery of aid to what one UN official, holmes, called the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world right now. the TFG has been accused of stealing supplies, confiscating food, etc.
and yusuf whines to the AFP that he doesn’t “appreciate” hypocrisy.
well, i’m sure he appreciates the public relations boost he gets from drivel like this piece from AFP. still won’t help strengthen the TFG’s precarious hold on mogadishu, though, or build up any real legitimacy for them.

Posted by: b real | May 21 2007 19:46 utc | 58

sloth
the analytic infantilism – is all yours. a book by robert fisk do not an argument make. you have made manifold erroneus elaborations on the ‘absence of empire’ – combined with an extremely crude economism that would give a heart attack to those american founders of a critique of capital – baran & sweezy (whom you would be well advised to give another gander when yr not attacking us empiricists)
as i’ve sd – your argument in relation to iraq & indeed to the middle east – exhibit an awesome absence of detail & often of precision. i know you are capable of that – so its absence in this regard is telling.
& in regard to research – you seem to be very anglocentric because there are a whole swathe of books & articles available in french, italian & german – giving details to the immoral & illegal imperial occupation – that is iraq — that books like fiasco, blackwater, cobra ll or even fisk only begin to understand. sometimes what those books don’t say tell us more than we want to know. a tension tuned & turning
& tonight in the occupied territories & in lebanon it is very tense indeed

Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 21 2007 20:43 utc | 60

ugh. trade deficit, i meant to say.

Posted by: slothrop | May 21 2007 21:04 utc | 62

regarding the godterm “empire,” chomsky is an unhelpful reproducer. i haven’t heard or read everything, who could, but he doesn’t provide an account of global capitalism that would help to understand empire as a kind of post-national class formation, which exists as i’ver taken pains to do here.
in any event, why is it just me upon whgom the burden falls to try and explain this? there are dozens of leftist authors–economists, sociologists, philosophers–who routinely disabuse the moribund view of america as titular “empire.” “empire,” sure, but with massive qualifications.
and no breal, i don’t think i make a strawman becauswe i constantly try to dissect the complexity of “empire.” whatever strawman made of the term is done by rgiap and others here.
.

Posted by: slothrop | May 21 2007 21:26 utc | 64

& there seems to be much boo hooing over govt of veneuzala cancelling the licence of opposition t v station
omitting the fact that it played a central & motivating role in the coup against chavez. that media has clearly revealed their connection with the miami oligarchy & their deeply antidemocratic platform – but these particular details missing from anu coverage – in fact no commentary on the coup

Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 22 2007 0:20 utc | 66

One more neologism down the tubes. Does this mean its going to be a “short” war? But, short wars got no reason to live.

Posted by: anna missed | May 22 2007 9:08 utc | 68

Uncle, #21, that’s the ONLY story we should be talking about. All he has to do is slip Blackwater a couple of bucks to pull a stunt – hell, Erik would prob. be only too happy to throw it in as the whipped cream & cherry on the top of the sundae the govt. fed them in Iraq – paying them ~$950/day/mercenary, while Blackwater paid wages of ~$250-300/day for said mercenary.
Do you know if kos is featuring the story?
Congress should hold up all funding for WH in the budget until he throws that directive in the garbage – or withhold funding for Operation Wreck Iraq.
Beyond Blackwater, it sounds like planning for the collapse of our currency they’ve purposely destroyed.

Posted by: jj | May 22 2007 9:51 utc | 70

Uncle, pls. do. I hrd. recent interview w/Jeremy Scahill. He said since he’s been on bk. tour, Blackwater employees & x-emp. have been coming up to him telling him that it’s far worse than he knows. He didn’t elaborate.

Posted by: jj | May 22 2007 13:11 utc | 72

interesting rhetorical device from the u.s. missionary…oops, i mean ambassador to nigeria, john campbell that i noticed in an quick mention in an article posted today by a nigerian paper

The United States (U.S.) Ambassador, John Campbell has said that Nigerian journalists contribute directly to American perception and understanding of Nigeria and Africa. He spoke yesterday at a Roundtable Discussion on Press Freedom in Nigeria put together by the American Embassy in Nigeria. “I have said many times that Nigerians and Americans are fellow pilgrims on the road to democracy and the rule of law,” Campbell said.

aside from the amazing grasp of the obvious that father campbell displayed as he enlightened his audience of journalists of the ramifications of their line of work, i found the “pilgrims” line interesting.
turns out he does regularly use the metaphor.

My choice of subject this morning is not entirely unrelated to the fact that elections in 2007 will be a milestone in this country’s journey toward democracy. We are fellow pilgrims on that road, and so Nigeria might find of interest our own experience in working through how elections can become the genuine voice of the people.
…
The achievement of free and fair elections involving all citizens has been for us a struggle that lasted almost two centuries, and still we are striving to get things right. America stands by Nigerians, our fellow pilgrims on the road to democracy and the rule of law, to help where we can as you work through the registration and election process, but always, only at your invitation.
— “217 Years since the First American Election and the Work for Universal Suffrage Continues”, August 8, 2006

What I like to say is that Nigeria and America are fellow pilgrims on the road to democracy conducted by the rule of law. It’s a pilgrimage. Democracy is an ideal; it is something you are always striving for, it is a journey. It is not something that you achieve, and then you don’t have to worry about it again. It is something that you always have to work on.
…
What we want to do is to celebrate the progress that Nigeria is making; to assist Nigeria in that pilgrimage, where Nigeria asks for assistance. But also, to learn from the Nigerian experience, where Nigerians are addressing issues which we also have to address.
…
I wouldn’t presume to give advice to Nigeria. Nigeria is as I said before a fellow pilgrim on the road to democracy. Nigeria moves on that road in a way that reflects Nigeria’s own history and experience. My own personal view is that when we are talking about the journey towards democracy, the rule of law is an essential component. And with the rule of law comes transparency.
— “Rule of Law Is Crucial To Survival of Democracy in Nigeria”, 17 – 03 – 2007

exactly why the good reverend campbell insists that nigerians should identify themselves as pilgrims in their own lands is never made clear. but i’d bet most of ’em can figure it out.

Posted by: b real | May 22 2007 15:06 utc | 74

Here’s a world disaster map out of Budapest, shows which volcanoes are currently active, recent earthquakes, etc. Place cursor over symbol, get English info. Oh, think the Blackwater stuff really interesting, especially for what will happen when “plausible deniability” (last 2 words in Esquire article) is less important.

Posted by: plushtown | May 22 2007 16:06 utc | 76

let’s hope that it does stay in the ground. everyone’s much better off in the long run. same issue that native americans are dealing w/ in the western half of the u.s.
— — —
f. william engdahl: China and USA in New Cold War over Africa’s Oil Riches: Darfur? It’s the Oil, Stupid…

To paraphrase the famous quip during the 1992 US Presidential debates, when an unknown William Jefferson Clinton told then-President George Herbert Walker Bush, “It’s the economy, stupid,” the present concern of the current Washington Administration over Darfur in southern Sudan is not, if we were to look closely, genuine concern over genocide against the peoples in that poorest of poor part of a forsaken section of Africa.
No. “It’s the oil, stupid.”
Hereby hangs a tale of cynical dimension appropriate to a Washington Administration that has shown no regard for its own genocide in Iraq, when its control over major oil reserves is involved. What’s at stake in the battle for Darfur? Control over oil, lots and lots of oil.
The case of Darfur, a forbidding piece of sun-parched real estate in the southern part of Sudan, illustrates the new Cold War over oil, where the dramatic rise in China’s oil demand to fuel its booming growth has led Beijing to embark on an aggressive policy of—ironically– dollar diplomacy. With its more than $1.3 trillion in mainly US dollar reserves at the Peoples’ National Bank of China, Beijing is engaging in active petroleum geopolitics. Africa is a major focus, and in Africa, the central region between Sudan and Chad is priority. This is defining a major new front in what, since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, is a new Cold War between Washington and Beijing over control of major oil sources. So far Beijing has played its cards a bit more cleverly than Washington. Darfur is a major battleground in this high-stakes contest for oil control.

and i was never able to find a transcript of gaddafi’s recent appearance at oxford union, where he brought up the same issue and which was rebroadcast by the bbc this past sunday. unable to find video of that, either. only a bbc news clip on it.

Posted by: b real | May 22 2007 18:14 utc | 78

Heads up kids, don’t forget Goodling testimony tomorrow May 23rd.
10:15 CSPAN3. Be there.
TPM quote:
“Monica Goodling is devoutly religious, which is to say she cannot tell right from wrong.”
As someone said, Monica has every incentive to own up to as much as she possibly can, however, we know she wont.
Anyone that thinks Goodling’s testimony is going to be a “bombshell” is suffering from that Republican trait known as delusionism. She is a true believer that subscribes to the extremeist fundamentalist tenet that a lie that serves a greater good is not a lie. That greater good is a theocratic society with a strong male leader at the helm of the ship of state. Too many people have been saying during the course of on going investigations “just wait till ______________(fill in the blank) testifies then the whole house of cards will come tumbling down.” It hasn’t happened and from past experience is not likely to happen in the future. Goodling and her masters know that even if she lies or her testimony is less than forthcoming the Democrats lack the courage to inflict any punishment despite their grant of immunity. The Republicans on the Committee will rally to her and the Administrations defense. This will play well in a corrupted and compromised media. The Democrats are out maneuvered at every step and lack the righteous indignation this Administration has engendered in the public at large.
And ask yourself how that is, how are they ‘out maneuvered at every step’?, I strongly suspect it is due to the wiretaps and other surveillance.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 22 2007 19:02 utc | 80

Oil eh?
Biden calls for military force in Darfur
‘I think it’s time to put force on the table and use it’ – Sen. Biden

Posted by: Rick | May 22 2007 19:53 utc | 82

interview: Chomsky on India-Pakistan Relations

Noam Chomsky is a noted linguist, author, and foreign policy expert. On April 26, Michael Shank interviewed him about relations between India and Pakistan. This is the second part of a two-part interview. The first part, on the Iraq War, the World Bank, and debt, can be found here.

Posted by: b real | May 22 2007 22:46 utc | 84

As Comrades Search, Fatal Bomb Wreaks Havoc

After about 15 minutes, they came across a one-story stone house with a wide grass lawn, a cattle pen and five young men whom the Iraqi soldiers had lined up against a wall. Their names were checked against a list of insurgents wanted for questioning in relation to the May 12 attack.
None of their names appeared, but Captain Abercrombie ordered them arrested anyway, in light of the bomb attack that morning.
“I’m detaining them all,” he said. “For proximity.”

Posted by: b | May 23 2007 4:42 utc | 86