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July 6, 2007
Open Thread
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Israellycool is a blog with really strong “cool” opinions that deserve comments. Because they have open comments. The SS would be proud of this discourse.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jul 6 2007 21:06 utc | 2
Remember the outrage when the Taliban blew up those Buddhas? Seems like they had some unlikely forerunners.
Posted by: Dick Durata | Jul 6 2007 21:28 utc | 4
Hello to everybody from Hong Kong, where we have another hot day, and life goes on much as ever …. shopping being the main weekend activity, and few take an interest in international politics, Iraq, and the like. Concerns about the environment and climate are beginning to worry the middle class, but the local government has yet to really understand why it matters.
At the US National Day reception this week, with stringent security, everybody listened politely to the Consul General, Cunningham, quoting the well-known passage about “We know these truths to be self-evident….”, after one of his staff members gave a piercing rendition of the national anthem, ending, if I remember correctly, in “the home of the brave and the land of the free”. Whatever people were thinking about all this hypocrisy, nobody said anything to challenge it.
Posted by: Marianne | Jul 7 2007 1:20 utc | 5
The U.S. command in Baghdad this week ballyhooed the killing of a key al Qaeda leader but later admitted that the military had declared him dead a year ago.
A military spokesman acknowledged the mistake after it was called to his attention by The Examiner. He said public affairs officers will be more careful in announcing significant kills.
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Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner began his Monday news conference with a list of top insurgents either killed or captured in recent operations. He said they had been eliminated “in the past few weeks” and were “recent results.”
“In the north, Iraqi army and coalition forces continue successful operations in Mosul,” he told reporters. “Kamal Jalil Uthman, also known as Said Hamza, was the al Qaeda in Iraq military emir of Mosul. He planned, coordinated and facilitated suicide bombings, and he facilitated the movement of more than a hundred foreign fighters through safe houses in the area.” All told, Bergner devoted 68 words to Uthman’s demise.
Uthman was indeed a big kill, and the military featured his death last year in a report titled “Tearing Down al Qaeda.”
mcclatchy: Report: Scores still jailed in secret after fleeing Somali war
NAIROBI, Kenya — At least 76 people who were captured while fleeing the war in Somalia in January are still being held in Ethiopia under a program of secret prisoner renditions backed by the United States, Kenya and Somalia, human rights activists said Friday.
The Muslim Human Rights Forum, a Kenyan advocacy group, said that the prisoners — including 17 Kenyan citizens and 20 Ethiopians — were being held incommunicado and in violation of international prisoner conventions, and may be at risk of torture.
Most of the Ethiopians in custody are members of the minority Ogadeni and Oromo ethnic groups, which are waging separatist campaigns against Ethiopia. International human-rights monitors have warned that Ethiopian security forces routinely abuse members of those groups, and the U.S. State Department has accused Ethiopia of torturing prisoners.
The Muslim group’s report, titled “Horn of Terror,” provides the fullest accounting so far of the fates of 152 people from 21 countries who were arrested in a shadowy anti-terrorism operation run by U.S. allies in the Horn of Africa that activists think had the backing of American officials.
“activists think…” eh? activists like “One Western diplomat in Nairobi, who agreed to speak to AP only if not quoted to avoid angering U.S. officials, said he sees the United States as playing a guiding role in the operation.”
unable to find a copy of the MUHURI rpt online yet. their website has been disabled.
Africa needs less, not more, World Bank intervention
“Robert Zoellick, who has been nominated to become the president of the World Bank, said that he would make Africa his top priority”, The International Herald Tribune recently reported. “Clearly, there needs to be a big focus on Africa”, Zoellick said in an interview. “This isn’t new.”
These statements are ominous ones for the world’s poorest continent. As Zoellick’s words imply, the Bank – and its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund – has an extensive history in Africa. “Africa has seen the most intense and recurrent application of structural adjustment programs over the past two decades”, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) reports, referring to the notorious ‘free market reforms’ imposed on countries across the global South (“third world”) by the Bank and Fund.
This “big focus” has had catastrophic results, and there’s no evident reason to believe that Zoellick’s new push will end up any differently. Despite its rhetorical commitment to ‘fighting poverty’, ‘supporting good governance’ and ‘promoting development’, the World Bank is still fundamentally a Trojan horse used by rich countries to gain access to and to then exploit the economies of the global South. Its policies have played a major role in locking Africa in the prison of underdevelopment and dependency; their destructive nature is revealed by the fact that rich countries running the Bank systematically ignore the same prescriptions they force on the poor. If authentic, sustained economic development is the goal, history shows that Africa should seek less, not more, intervention from the Bank.
Posted by: b real | Jul 7 2007 5:29 utc | 7
Thanks Dick Durata for the link to the story about Israel blowing up Moslem monuments in Palestine during a war in 1950.
And welcome Marianne, summer has finally arrived here in the Pacific Northwest too. I hope you have more to tell us about your island people.
Posted by: jonku | Jul 7 2007 6:13 utc | 8
Italy’s military spooks ‘spied on magistrates to help Berlusconi’
Italy’s judiciary has accused military intelligence of spying on those judges it considered hostile to Silvio Berlusconi, and of plotting to obstruct them.
The spying allegedly took place from 2001 until 2006, when the media magnate was voted out and replaced as prime minister by Romano Prodi. Judges in Spain and the UK were also spied on, said the Superior Council of the Magistracy, which is chaired by Italy’s president, the leftwing Giorgio Napolitano.
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The council also said that a pan-European group, Magistrates for Democracy and Liberties, had also been spied on, and its internal emails intercepted.
A few weeks ago I posted about how Antioch College, home of radical-but-still-accredited liberal arts in America was closing. Since then, I have found myself almost totally immersed in the rather remarkable revitalization that the alumni and associates are putting together. When I wrote what I thought was something of an obit here, a few of you responded with some respect and love for Antioch, so I thought I’d let you know what was going on. We’ve got a website at http://www.antiochians.org , and we’re gathering allies, connections, and, well, money. so if you’d like to help, email me…
You can also read my personal account of Rowan’s delving into local politics and organizing at the reunion here: arkaeyn.livejournal.com .
Posted by: Rowan | Jul 7 2007 6:22 utc | 10
The actions of American troops have prompted much of the resistance in Diyala province. More important, these actions are symptomatic of other factors, including the short attention span of the American people, the regular rotation of our troops, the understandable desire of each commander to distinguish himself, and our very American belief that we can solve problems quickly when others can’t. We have allowed all of these factors to run away with the war in Iraq.
The writer is a retired Foreign Service officer who returned to duty to lead the provincial reconstruction team in Baqubah, Iraq, from April 2006 until January 2007.
Rebel groups step up kidnaps and attacks on aid workers in Darfur
Despite the signing of the Darfur peace agreement in May 2006, the violence has still increased. Almost 500,000 people have fled since the peace deal. Many of the camps are now at full capacity but people are still arriving every day.
The very nature of the peace agreement may have encouraged some groups to take up arms. By rewarding armed groups with political power if they sign the agreement, one diplomat warned it was encouraging the rise in insecurity. “Take your guns, grab some NGO vehicles, seize a small town, then declare you want peace,” he said.
At the time of the peace agreement there were three major rebel groups in Darfur. But just one group, a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), signed the agreement. Since then all three groups have splintered. There are now believed to be anywhere between 15 and 22 different armed groups in Darfur.
Rowan, thus are traditions born. The destroyed holy places in Palestine are commemorated by people from India and Ethiopia!
I hope the same efforts rally around Evergreen College in Washington State which claims two of my friends among its alumni. Your recent praise of Antioch reminds me that institutions as well as individuals can serve as exemplary beacons.
Posted by: jonku | Jul 7 2007 7:11 utc | 14
Friday Night Video Not a music video, unless music to your ears might be hearing Fouad Ajami blubbering into incoherence on Hardball. Tweety being replaced by new liberal chainsaw maestro David Shuster.
Posted by: anna missed | Jul 7 2007 7:39 utc | 15
anna missed: “new liberal chainsaw maestro David Shuster”
Yeah, I watched the show. I never saw Schuster act in such a non-accommodating way before.
Where were such critical questions by Schuster and the rest of the gang (K.O. excluded) the previous seven years?
Posted by: Rick | Jul 7 2007 8:37 utc | 16
You may want to check out Iran’s new 24hour station in english on Hotbird 12437. Called Press TV.
Posted by: ww | Jul 7 2007 10:00 utc | 17
To be filed under I Wouldn’t Put It Past Them:
Persian Press: Daily Says US, UK Forces in Iraq Buying Iranian Uniforms
Posted by: Alamet | Jul 7 2007 13:25 utc | 18
looks like the lovefest between Sunni insurgents and US troops in Anbar province continues apace with 7 GIs dead in Anbar in the first 6 days of July. I guess sometimes when they’re group hugging or exchanging gifts a gun or an IED will accidentally go off. dumb luck that.
Posted by: ran | Jul 7 2007 14:26 utc | 19
But ran, Senator Graham just said
“The military part of the surge is working beyond my expectations,” Graham said. “We literally have the enemy on the run. The Sunni part of Iraq has really rejected al-Qaida all over the country. We’re getting more information about al-Qaida operations than we’ve ever received.”
Don’t you believe the good Senator?
iraq market bomb
A deadly truck bombing in a busy market in northern Iraq has killed 105 people and injured 240, police said.
The morning blast destroyed the market in the small town of Amirli, south of Kirkuk, killing many people instantly and trapping dozens in the rubble.
Posted by: annie | Jul 7 2007 15:36 utc | 21
Al-Qaeda linked to operations from Iran
Sourced to those same impeccable fonts of information as always – unnamed western officials and analysts, and there is even an anonymous former Iranian official thrown in for extra credibility.
See also US concerns over China weapons in Iraq. “… the question of origin was less important than who was facilitating the transfer.” And the facilitator is… yes, you’ve guessed it.
(What in the world is “a more survivable nuclear force,” by the way?)
Posted by: Alamet | Jul 7 2007 15:51 utc | 22
yea b I don’t doubt there’s some in fighting among some of the various Sunni resistance groups possibly invloving the tiny percentage of fighters with some AQ loyalty but they all seem to agree that the only good GI is a dead GI, despite what various congenital liars in the Pentagon and WH would have us believe.
Posted by: ran | Jul 7 2007 15:55 utc | 23
Miscellany…
Pepe Escobar
Hamastan and Red Zoneistan
Iraq, the new Israel
Greg Palast
John Perkins: Jerk, Con-man, Shill
In France, a senior pol dares to question the 9/11 tale
Posted by: Alamet | Jul 7 2007 15:57 utc | 24
Plague of bioweapons accidents afflicts the US
Deadly germs may be more likely to be spread due to a biodefence lab accident than a biological attack by terrorists.
New Scientist, 5 July 07
This is a tip of the iceberg story.
Posted by: Noirette | Jul 7 2007 17:19 utc | 25
About, in France..questions 9/11…link
Following the work of Thierry Meyssan, the internet site Reseau Voltaire R V in French and his book, “9/11 The Big Lie”, in French: L’Effroyable imposture, wiki, book, in english a huge majority of the French don’t adhere to the official 9/11 script. I never met one who did.
Major and minor pols, as representatives reflect that opinion, and it is hard for them to toe the line. It is a potential embarassment for the pro-Israel Sarkozy. The best he can do is ignore it all, which is what he will do.
Posted by: Noirette | Jul 7 2007 17:45 utc | 26
Tribal Chief Says NATO Airstrike Kills 108 Afghan Civilians
Amid a continuing flurry of reports about civilian casualties in Afghanistan, the leader of a tribal council in Farah Province on Saturday said that 108 noncombatants were killed on Friday in a NATO airstrike.
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Also, Reuters reported that residents and officials in Kunar Province said that 36 civilians had been killed in recent airstrikes, 11 of them on Thursday during a bombardment, and 25 more on Friday as they attended a funeral for the deceased.
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Maj. John Thomas, a spokesman for NATO, said that the alliance had ordered airstrikes in both Farah and Kunar during the times in question. “We’re aware of the reports of civilian casualties but none of it tracks with the information we have, which is pretty extensive,” he said. “In both cases, we had good reconnaissance before and after.”
Good reconnaissance, yeah. How do you fdifferentiate between a Pashtun villager and a Pashtun guerillia. You can’t.
As even military folks like Phil Carter says
Counterinsurgency is, at its core, a human endeavor. It requires careful discrimination, targeting and calibration in the use of force. In Afghanistan, we have started down a dangerous path of error towards losing the support of the people. These airstrikes may succeed in killing a few suspected Taliban or Al Qaeda fighters. But ‘twould be a shame to see these strikes result in us losing the war.
But there is a fight beween the air-force (i.e. Boeing, Lockheed) and the Army over counterinsurgance strategy.
The plane-makers (air-force) want to sell new planes, so they have to take care that the old ones are used up. Therfore, they argue, use of such bombing helps against counterisurgency. Total bullshit, but it pays a lot.
Currently US is spending $12 billion per month in Iraq and Afghanistan …
For a weekend diversion, are any barflies interested in how sports are being taken over & brought into line by the Predators of Finance Capital to reflect & express their War Against Civilization? Let me know. Otherwise I won’t waste my time crafting a post on their takeover & devastation of tennis. Rules? F*** Rules… We’re Lords of the Universe & what we say goes. We Rig ‘n’ Wreck ABSOLUTELY EFFING EVERYTHING WE TOUCH til they reflect our image & sate our greed addicted lust for profit. So, anyway, let me know & I’ll give y’all a rundown. Needless to say others who enjoy tennis are like so many children at a puppet show, too ignorant & well-trained to dare look at who is pulling the strings & casting out w/silence or ridicule anyone who dares mention such topics, much less in their larger cultural context. Conversely, those interested in such matters are rarely attached to sports – or if they aren’t they don’t bring it in here. (The biggest & most prestigious tennis tournament in the world wraps up tomorrow in London.)
Posted by: jj | Jul 8 2007 2:28 utc | 28
@jj
I personally would love to read anything on that topic…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 8 2007 4:15 utc | 29
@jj
I personally would love to read anything on that topic…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 8 2007 4:16 utc | 30
New York Times OpEd: The United States Must leave Iraq Without Delay
no shit
Posted by: anna missed | Jul 8 2007 6:29 utc | 33
@anna missed
Surprising for the NYT. Perhaps the end is near after all. Perhaps all this “long haul”, Korea analogy hype is just that.
The penultimate paragraph says it all [my snide inclusion] :-
President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney [and slothrop] have used demagoguery and fear to quell Americans’ demands for an end to this war. They say withdrawing will create bloodshed and chaos and encourage terrorists. Actually, all of that has already happened — the result of this unnecessary invasion and the incompetent management of this war.
Posted by: DM | Jul 8 2007 9:39 utc | 34
I was once tangentially involved in a football club. What these ppl did was buy young boys in the third world – mostly Africa- and then trained them here in Switzerland and, well, sold them on. I forget the finances (according to me they hadn’t calculated it right, but me and football are two different things) but it works out something like for one ‘jackpot’ you can train ten, while still making a pile. So this was the ‘club’ in cahoots with a private school that I can’t describe at all as it would be identified, which is probably already saying too much. Of course these boys had to have some schooling. I warned that it would not work, etc. leaving the other aspects aside (the scheme was perfectly legal.) It was abandoned after a few nasty events.
La Suisse Lave Plus Blanc!
Posted by: Noirette | Jul 8 2007 9:46 utc | 35
anna, thanks for pointing out the NYT article. I almost fell off my chair. One thing amused me, though: The Editorial states: “Leaving troops in Iraq might make it too easy — and too tempting — to get drawn back into the civil war and confirm suspicions that Washington’s real goal was to secure permanent bases in Iraq.”
SUSPICIONS??? I suppose there was nothing ‘suspicious’ about the already constructed 14 giant military bases. And how about the state-of-the-art Embassy, the world’s largest, with a full-time staff of 1000? I mean, with 20 people required to stamp visas, what were the other 980 employees supposed to be doing? ….. But kudos for the rest of the article which was very atypical NYT.
Posted by: Parviz | Jul 8 2007 11:42 utc | 36
Interesting – on of the British “Doctors” in the incident in Glasgow was an engineer, not a medic.
Man charged over ‘airport bomb’
The most dramatic images are those of Kafeel Ahmed, 27, from Bangalore, India. He is still in a critical condition in a specialist burns unit at Glasgow Royal Infirmary after suffering 90% burns.
…
It emerged that contrary to earlier reports, Mr Ahmed was not a medic but an engineer with a PhD in design and technology.
That is the very last sentence of the BBC piece.
Now please explain, how does a Ph.D. in engineering builds such crumby “bombs” that aren’t bombs at all (i.e. no explosives, no oxidiser, faulty trigger?
After Al Gore’s promotional world-show yesterday, when will he join up with Michael Moore (not really), but when will he take on the universal healthcare issue?
He has already captured the global warming field and if he uses the momentum Moore’s film creates on health care he would have enough acceleration to immediately run to the front of the Dem candidate crowd.
The only other question is if he will do so before Iowa or after it. Best guess, after, because then he can lock in the money streams of everyone who looses the primaries there and take on a partly exausted Hillary campaign.
Been really, really hot here this weekend. Makes ya wanna get some “Ice Cream”. 😉
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 8 2007 17:28 utc | 41
b @ 37,
“Kafeel Ahmed, the alleged driver of the car bomb at the Glasgow airport, earned a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering in 2003 from Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland,” it says here. Queen’s University of Belfast may want to look into the quality of the education they offer, post-haste.
Posted by: Alamet | Jul 8 2007 17:40 utc | 42
Now please explain, how does a Ph.D. in engineering builds such crumby “bombs” that aren’t bombs at all (i.e. no explosives, no oxidiser, faulty trigger?
or for that matter Evil Doctors – they are all scientifically trained and horribly prudent and circumspect, that is how they have to be. They can read and figure things out, dope out the science, manage, even bombs.
Evil doctors murder elderly patients, use their status to coerce sexual relations, or go for wild extra-curricular medical quasi experiments, sometimes with some support. Or, terribly banal, they fudge accounts and rip off the insurance Cos.
Bombs, or burning cars all over the media, to what end? What demands? Effect? Change in what? Doc-007 Power? For muslim fundamentalists? Support for 9/11 terrorists?
Al Qaida with stethoscopes! 😉
Posted by: Noirette | Jul 8 2007 17:54 utc | 43
On a more serious note, what such incidents show is that top-down management is no longer implemented. Any sensible script would associate doctors to bio-terror.
Security, Police, etc, know on which side their bread is buttered, who pays for their cars and hats, and so they go off half cocked and feed the media, Proudly! Sincerely! There are clues, contacts, we have a terrorist cell phone! Arrests, many, will be made. With panache and speed, take pictures please!
The terror meme is part of the accepted landscape, the forces on the ground are now a little puzzled and isolated. That can be seen as bad news, like true terror is coming up, this little fiddlesticks stuff can play out, who cares.
Posted by: Noirette | Jul 8 2007 18:24 utc | 44
Jesus fucking Christ…Is the United States Killing 10,000 Iraqis Every Month? Or Is It More?
As someone else said, Genocide under cover of civil war. I know this is a painfully obvious analogy but if we don’t look at this war in the same terms as America’s 19th century “conquest of the west”, we’re missing the point.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 8 2007 18:57 utc | 45
@Noirette – I am getting more and more suspicious of the “bombs” in London and Glasgow.
(Note – these were very similar to the untriggered “bombs” on a German train some month ago – something the press seems to have forgotton.)
Talked to a friend who is medic yesterday. Just like any engineer, basic chemistry (i.e. input/output of energy in chemical reactions) is quite a part of the basic semesters.
The idea of using gasoline to ignite some cooking gas flask is nutty. To put nails UNDER that flasks is outright stupid. If one wants a big show and no results that’s a way to go, but it’s certainly not a “bomb”.
Trigger:
Steal a cell phone – take away the “ring” speaker and connect the ring speaker wires to a $0.50 relay (available at any RadioShack or slaughter a decent toaster). Use a 12v battery to feed the power side of that relay. Take a bicyle light bulb, crack the bulb’s glass wall without cracking the thin wolfram spiral that, within a bulbs vacuum, gives light. Without that vacuum the wolfram spiral under electric current will heat up and burn and ignite any explosive athmosphere.
Coating the wire with some (oxidised) explosive or just burning it in a saturated gas/oxygene athmosphere will trigger an ignition.
Now the above was a three minute idea done without checking around/testing, but I’m pretty sure it would do what it is supposed to do. Ringing the phone closes the low voltage part of the relay which then closes the higher voltage part, burns the wolfram spiral and ignites by its very high temperature an exothermal reaction in the surrounding oxidized media (gas-air mixture).
I’m only a half assed engineer mostly doing software, but if I can come up with that, about anyone with a bit of science knowledge can.
Now can someone tell me how a Ph.D. in aeronautic (rockets(!) – the ultimate controlled explosives) engineering can fail to check, verify/test and build a decent trigger and “bomb”?
Cindy Sheehan challenges Nancy Pelosi – Yeehaw!
CRAWFORD, Texas – Cindy Sheehan, the soldier’s mother who galvanized the anti-war movement, said Sunday that she plans to run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unless she introduces articles of impeachment against President Bush in the next two weeks.
It seems someone has awoken and finally gotten past the forever feedback loop of Coke and Pepsi! she’ll get my vote…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 9 2007 0:57 utc | 47
Uncle #47,
Cindy Sheehan would get my vote too, but Uncle, Pelosi is a California Representative and I thought you were a Montana resident. Anyways, when Pelosi said that “impeachment is off the table”, she lost the little respect she had in my opinion.
Posted by: Rick | Jul 9 2007 4:18 utc | 48
The 150plus who died in an attack on them Saturday in Iraq were Turkmen people. These are bethrens of the Turks in Turkey and got support from them.
Was this a “warnung” to Turkey not to attack the Kurdish guerilla PKK in North Iraq as planned?
Yes Rick, I’m in Montana. I was speaking metaphorically. And not that she would win or that I even think she could, which is highly unlikely against a seasoned politician. But it would force the Dems to talk about a lot of things. Things they would rather not address. Don’t you think?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 9 2007 5:12 utc | 50
The “system”
Los Angeles City Tears Apart Gore Vidal’s Elevator, Solar Power System; Forces Him Back On the Grid
SURPLUS: TERRORIZED INTO BEING CONSUMERS (1-10)
Moo.
Any questions?
“War Makes Privatization Easy…”
“…First you destroy society; then you let the corporations rebuild it.” –Hacene Djemam
Across the political spectrum in Washington, many now demand that the Maliki government meet certain benchmarks, which presumably would show that it’s really in charge in Iraq. But there’s a particular problem with the most important benchmark that the Iraqi government is being pressured to meet: the oil law. The problem is, in Iraq, it may be the single most unpopular measure the United States is trying to get the government to enact.
In the United States, this law is generally presented as a means to share the oil wealth among different geographic regions of the country. Many Iraqis, however, see it differently. They look the proposed law and see instead the way its welcomes foreign oil companies into the oil fields. They see the control it would give those oil companies over setting royalties, deciding on production levels, and even determining whether Iraqis get to work in their own industry.
The article outlines the grim determination with which the Bush administration is working to hand over Iraqi oil to the multinational conglomerates. But the article is surprisingly upbeat, illustrating the strength of the oil unions in Iraq and the popular support they have among the people.
No doubt about it, the Democrats are balking on a pull-out because they want to see this oil law passed, which would reserve only about 12-25% of Iraqi oil revenues for the Iraqi people. The rest would be used to keep our gas prices down. Yet the unions are not backing down. They can and have shut down pipelines and are demanding to participate in a rewrite of the law, confounding both the Maliki government and Washington.
So, more power to Cindy Sheehan and what she’s doing.…Folk the System!
But alas, it will all be for naught, you will be assimilated by hook, crook or rook. Now, or Later. Why? because Corporations have more rights than you do. And as entities they can will and do out live you. How ya like the system now?
“We are as forlorn as children lost in the wood. When you stand in front of me an look at me, what do you know of the grief’s that are in me and what do I know of yours. And if I were to cast myself down before you and tell you, what more would you know about me that you know about Hell when someone tells you it is hot and dreadful? For that reason alone we human beings ought to stand before one another as reverently, as reflectively, as lovingly, as we would before the entrance to Hell.”
~Franz Kafka
Work will set you free!
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 9 2007 5:57 utc | 51
secrecynews: The Rise of Intelligence Fusion Centers
One of the few comparatively new features in the post-cold war landscape of U.S. intelligence is the emergence of dozens of domestic intelligence “fusion centers.”
These are state and local offices across the country that are supposed to integrate (or “fuse”) multiple information streams from national intelligence sources together with local law enforcement and other data in order to enhance homeland security and increase preparedness against terrorism or natural disasters.
A major new report from the Congressional Research Service finds that this aspect of the domestic intelligence and homeland security infrastructure is still far from mature.
“It is unclear if a single fusion center has successfully adopted a truly proactive prevention approach to information analysis and sharing. No state and its local jurisdictions appear to have fully adopted the intelligence cycle.”
In principle, fusion centers represent a conduit “through which federal intelligence can flow across the country.”
But “numerous fusion center officials claim that although their center receives a substantial amount of information from federal agencies, they never seem to get the ‘right information’ or receive it in an efficient manner,” the CRS report stated.
…
There are now more than 40 intelligence fusion centers around the country. The 100-page CRS report includes a map and a list of these centers.
rpt linked at above
the u.s. is using a fusion center (tripartite fusion ctr) in central africa to consolidate & evaluate individuals and groups to be blacklisted from participating in local politics, e.g. rwanda, congo, uganda.
do/will the same objectives apply domestically?
Posted by: b real | Jul 9 2007 16:47 utc | 52
even worse b real – it will be Lockheed and Raytheon creating the information to keep you away from getting elected …
Who Runs the CIA? Outsiders for Hire.
Over the past five years (some say almost a decade), there has been a revolution in the intelligence community toward wide-scale outsourcing. Private companies now perform key intelligence-agency functions, to the tune, I’m told, of more than $42 billion a year. Intelligence professionals tell me that more than 50 percent of the National Clandestine Service (NCS) — the heart, brains and soul of the CIA — has been outsourced to private firms such as Abraxas, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.
These firms recruit spies, create non-official cover identities and control the movements of CIA case officers. They also provide case officers and watch officers at crisis centers and regional desk officers who control clandestine operations worldwide. As the Los Angeles Times first reported last October, more than half the workforce in two key CIA stations in the fight against terrorism — Baghdad and Islamabad, Pakistan — is made up of industrial contractors, or “green badgers,” in CIA parlance.
Intelligence insiders say that entire branches of the NCS have been outsourced to private industry. These branches are still managed by U.S. government employees (“blue badgers”) who are accountable to the agency’s chain of command. But beneath them, insiders say, is a supervisory structure that’s controlled entirely by contractors; in some cases, green badgers are managing green badgers from other corporations.
Imagine all the potential for double loyality etc …
Lockheed employees payed by the CIA detecting a secret Chinese weapon threat that requires to buy the Air Force more Lockheed F-22 fighters to combat it …
Recommended Documentary ‘The Israel lobby – The influence of AIPAC on US Foreign Policy’
(–English version–) An episode of the Dutch documentary program “Tegenlicht” about the Israel lobby in the USA.
Google Video
Wow, b real, where did you find out about these fusion centers?!
Posted by: Jane | Jul 9 2007 18:29 utc | 55
jane- i’ve been catching items re the african fusion cell here & there on the web & then saw the CRS rpt today re the domestic networks.
in africa, this type of network was developed (by the u.s.) to track & neutralize the opposition to the great lakes region govts, which are strong u.s. partners & have been integral players in making resource extraction in the region feasible. more of the DoD talk on AFRICOM is featuring this information network jargon, and since the objective of AFRICOM is to dominate the continent through civil govt & military means — good governance & accountability (to u.s. interests) along w/ professionalization of the militaries — i see this particular fusion cell concept as part of that effort. it has similarities to earlier proposals that were touted for the sahel as part of the netwar vision.
some background on the tripartitie fusion cell
The three neighbouring countries of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda in October 2004 hammered out a political mechanism to help them secure peace from marauding rebels that were rendering the region insecure.
…
According to a Memorandum of Understanding establishing TJC, now TPJC [tripartite plus joint commission], member states agreed to “establish a mechanism to share intelligence and otherwise exchange information among themselves concerning any identified threat.”
And it is because of this need to share intelligence on the activities of targeted rebel groups for eventual joint action, that later evolved into the establishment of what was to be called Intelligence Fusion Centre (IFC). The fusion cell was set up by the Sub-Commission on Defence and Security of the Tripartite Commission (comprising DRC, Rwanda and Uganda) in a meeting held in Kampala from February 22-23, 2004.
The cell was borne at the initiative of the United States government, which shared the understanding that by sharing intelligence on a regular basis, these countries would eventually herald the region into peace which had remained hard to achieve for many years.
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Since this particular style of sharing intelligence information was new to the four countries, the US offered to train six officials from each member state in Intelligence Preparation of Battlefield (IPB). The training was conducted by staff of the Military Professionals Resource Incorporation (MPRI), after which the US mentors remained permanently in Kisangani to guide the work of the IFC.
Sources say that it was around this time, that participating countries also agreed on the standards each state must meet before requesting other members to blacklist any negative force.
[source]
according to that article, there are stringent criteria in place to prevent political blacklisting, but then other rpts have shown that questionable blacklists of names of people “ill disposed” toward the ruling parties in rwanda & uganda have made their way through the process. the CRS rpt shows that the processes are flawed domestically, and i don’t assume any likelihood that they are much better in repressive central african nations like rwanda.
Posted by: b real | Jul 9 2007 19:45 utc | 56
@Jane – b real does not mention it, but s/he has written a very good piece about such connections in Understanding AFRICOM: A Contextual Reading of Empire’s New Combatant Command
A real eye opener …
Consumer borrowing jumps in May
The Federal Reserve reported Monday that consumer credit rose at an annual rate of 6.4 percent in May, far above the small 1.1 percent gain of April. The advance was about double what analysts had been expecting.
The increase was propelled by a surge in the category that includes credit cards, which rose at a rate of 9.8 percent in May after having a tiny increase of 0.2 percent in April.
…
The report on consumer borrowing will provide support for the view that consumer spending has held up, despite the weakness in home sales and soaring gasoline prices during the spring.
For May, consumers increased their borrowing by $12.9 billion to a record level of $2.44 trillion. Economists had been forecasting that consumer borrowing would rise by a much smaller $6.5 billion.
Someway down the road there is a hard wall that inevitably will hit …
@remberinggiap:
namaste. Great choices. Muchas gracias. I wish you good and long health.
Posted by: Argh | Jul 10 2007 0:58 utc | 62
there’s been increasing western coverage & recognition of the sitch in the ogaden region of ethiopia. some of it is still pretty weak & misleading, like this chicago tribune article, which tries to conflate the ONLF’s activities w/ the GWOT and political islam, painting a picture of a religious war triggered by the ethiopian invasion of somalia & entirely avoiding the context cited by the ONLF in their dispatches.
Fallout from war on terror hits Ethiopia
JIJIGA, Ethiopia — The gray-faced young man lying in bed number 15 of the run-down local hospital wasn’t much of a talker. In truth, few people are these days in Jijiga, a desert town whose tense streets are patrolled by swarms of Ethiopian police.
But Nur Omar Ali, 25, whose neck was patched with dingy bandages, had a particularly good reason for being silent. His throat had been cut. He’d been attacked and left for dead nine days earlier at his remote village. When he was asked to identify his assailants, the camel herder’s eyes shined with hate.
“Christians,” rasped Nur, clamping a hand to his stitched-up neck. “Ethiopian soldiers.”
Then, scowling, he rolled over and turned his back on his hospital visitors. After all, one was a reporter from the United States, a nation closely allied with the Ethiopian government that is conducting a fierce anti-insurgency campaign in the Ogaden Desert — a civil war in Ethiopia’s impoverished Muslim east that appears to be worsening thanks, at least in part, to the global confrontation between the U.S. and Islamic radicalism.
Human-rights groups and media reports accuse Ethiopia — a key partner in Washington’s battle against terrorism in the volatile Horn of Africa — of burning villages, pushing nomads off their lands and choking off food supplies in a harsh new campaign of collective punishment against a restive ethnic Somali population in the Ogaden, a vast wilderness of rocks and thorns bordering chaotic Somalia.
…
..in Jijiga, the only town in the embattled region still open to journalists, residents told of the secret arrests of prominent ethnic Somali businessmen with purported links to the rebels — hotel owners, construction contractors and traders in qat, the intoxicating plant chewed by millions in the region.
One man in that raw frontier outpost described walking eight days through the bush to escape a war-ruined zone called Fik, where he claimed he saw torched and depopulated villages. And a displaced camel herder told how his village close to the Somalia border had been emptied by the Ethiopian army and its residents trucked to garrison towns such as Shilabo, a counterinsurgency tactic once used by the U.S. in Vietnam, and meant to deprive the rebels of their civilian support base.
“They loaded people into trucks and just abandoned them there,” said Farah, 60, who like most people in Jijiga refused to give his full name for fear of police reprisal. “They treated us like animals.”
here’s the human rights watch stmt issued last week,
Ethiopia: Crackdown in East Punishes Civilians
(New York, July 4, 2007) – The Ethiopian military has forcibly displaced thousands of civilians in the country’s eastern Somali region in recent weeks while escalating its campaign against a separatist insurgency movement, Human Rights Watch said today. Both the government and rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) must protect civilians and ensure their access to humanitarian relief.
In Ethiopia’s eastern Somali region, also known as the Ogaden or Region 5, the Ethiopian military attacks on villages have displaced civilians in the Wardheer, Qorahey and Dhagahbur zones, even in areas where there is no known ONLF presence.
“Ethiopian troops are destroying villages and property, confiscating livestock and forcing civilians to relocate,” said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director of Human Rights Watch. “Whatever the military strategy behind them, these abuses violate the laws of war.”
Eyewitnesses told Human Rights Watch that Ethiopian troops burned or ordered civilians to vacate at least a dozen villages around the towns of Dhagahbur (Degehabur), Qabridahare (Kebre Dehar) and Wardheer. In Wardheer zone, many of the residents of villages located within a 100-kilometer radius of Wardheer town have been forced to relocate to other towns because of attacks on their villages, orders from the Ethiopian military or – less frequently – fighting between the Ethiopian army and the ONLF. Villages around Shilaabo, in Qorahey zone, and around Dhagahbur and Qabridahare towns have also been affected by the Ethiopian army campaign.
Witnesses described Ethiopian troops burning homes and property, including the recent harvest and other food stocks intended for the civilian population, confiscating livestock and, in a few cases, firing upon and killing fleeing civilians. Ethiopian security forces are also responsible for arbitrary detentions in the larger towns, particularly of family members of suspected ONLF members.
the crackdown is in part collective punishment against the peoples of the region for the successful strikes against ethiopian forces by ONLF forces, esp the april attack on chinese oil facilities, which brought int’l attention to the plight of the indigenes there. other communiques from the ONLF claim successful ongoing attacks on ethiopian forces in the area.
while there has been a continuous separatist mvmt there, much of the recent animosity is over land, and what lay underneath.
In Somalia, It’s The Blood Money, Stupid!
In the specific case China’s oil drillings in Ogaden, China is implicated in Zinawi’s program of genocide against the people of Ogaden. This is because Zinawi’ program of death and destruction against the people of Ogaden, makes Ogaden “safe” for China to exploit the oil and natural gas in Ogaden. Thus, exploitation of natural resources of Ogaden and Zinawi’s program of the systematic liquidation of the people of Ogaden are linked.
China had been able to keep quite about its increasing penetration deep into Ogaden and or by masking it in the name of “bring development to Africa”. China’s dubious collusion with Zinawi’ gross human rights violation in Ogaden might have remained hidden from the international community for a long time. No more. The international community knows more about the plight of the people of Ogaden due to, in large measure, a recent attack by Ogaden Liberation Front [ONLF] against Zinawi’s Tigre army killing scores of Ethiopian soldiers and nine Chinese oil workers.
It is pertinent to point out that while Ogaden is one of the most underdeveloped areas under Ethiopia’s control, China brought to Ogaden its own workforce to work in Ogaden’s oil fields rather than hiring the local people. Thus, while China seeks to promulgate its colonizing designs on Africa’s natural resources through the rhetoric of “bring development to Africa,” in reality, China is systemically undercutting Africa’s workforce by bring Chinese workforce to Africa rather than hiring local workers.
It is equally pertinent to point out that whilst Zinawi’s chosen tactic in dealing with the Bush administration, is the need to fight “Islamic terror,” in order to ally himself and his tribal based Tigre regime with the US’s war against global terror, with China, Zinawi does not need to hide his ruthless human rights violations against the people of Ogaden and other Ethiopian citizens. As a result, China and Zinawi have developed a cozy relationship predicated on genocide, murder and exploitation of the people of Ogaden. Consequently, China might be exporting economic “development” to other parts of Africa but in Ethiopia’s occupied Ogaden, China brought in as well as has exacerbated Zinawi’ culture of gross human rights violations. It is in this specific context that China’s collusion with Meles Zinawi’s program of genocide against people in Ogedan must be critically examined, understood and contested.
…though let’s not leave out that the u.s. assists in training & supplying the ethiopian military
Posted by: b real | Jul 10 2007 4:08 utc | 64
b #59,
Yeah and with so many people hitting the wall at the same time, sure gives food for thought. With increasing oil prices seemingly inevitable within the next several years, things sure don’t look good. Conservative is nothing but a meaningless political term, but it sure would be nice to put some conservation into practice here in the U.S., especially when it comes to the American appetite for oil.
Posted by: Rick | Jul 10 2007 4:23 utc | 65
b real,
These “fusion centers” sound horrible. Nothing surprises me anymore. As usual, it is the poor who continue to get trampled on. Thanks again for your invaluable posts.
Posted by: Rick | Jul 10 2007 4:37 utc | 66
rick- they sound even more horrible to me tonite as i’ve been reading a book on the u.s. in guatemala & the cia’s penchant for “disposal lists”…
Posted by: b real | Jul 10 2007 4:41 utc | 67
To Save Her Life: Disappearance, Deliverance, and the United States in Guatemala by dan saxon
Posted by: b real | Jul 10 2007 4:54 utc | 69
b real,
Being too lazy too read while using the excuse of too litte time, I have a secret desire to sit in a classroom with r’giap as a teacher regarding CIA “adventures”.
Even though the World is getting smaller, it is still a huge place. In this respect, b’s comment on a different thread that the Internet is changing perceptions is right on. The Internet did not come a day too soon. Sometimes I have to go back and reread “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” to regain some perspective!
Posted by: Rick | Jul 10 2007 4:54 utc | 70
I have a secret desire to sit in a classroom with r’giap as a teacher
it would be so cool to plan our next gathering around tutorials.ahhhh, imagine.. just imagine..in person, these lessons,this education… live.
Posted by: annie | Jul 10 2007 4:59 utc | 71
b real,
I just went to your link regarding Saxon’s book. Seems like an excellent read so laziness would not be a proper excuse in this case, but I’m not sure I’m emotionaly equipped right now for such an extented excursion into more sadness.
Posted by: Rick | Jul 10 2007 5:10 utc | 72
geesh my spelling/typos are terrible tonight… but It’s very late here and it has been a long hard day…just trying to get a few posts off in appreciation of everyone’s great work.
annie @71,
That would be cool. With the excitement of meeting everyone at b’s over New Year’s, it was difficult for deep discussion.
I would also like to have Uncle host a discussion – I am eager for his views although the tin foil hat I wear may not be quite as “heavy duty” as his. Maybe my hat needs to be more heavy duty, I don’t know.
Posted by: Rick | Jul 10 2007 5:21 utc | 73
Only 133 Iraqi refugees have been allowed into the US by the Bush administration over the past nine months, instead of the promised 7,000.
Initially the administration had predicted to house 7,000 refugees by the end of September. Efforts to accept the world’s largest refugee population, however, are unsatisfactorily slow and only 2,000, less than 30 percent, now have a chance of acceptance before that deadline.
Officials said the delays are due to enhanced security vetting by the Homeland Security Department, which is overseeing the program to take Iraqis referred by the UN.
Background checks on Iraqis take more time than other nationalities and each must undergo extensive individual interviews before qualifying for admission due to fears that some seeking to enter the United States may be terrorists or other undesirables.
Posted by: Rick | Jul 10 2007 5:54 utc | 74
ethiopia: US to Build Largest Embassy Structure in Addis
The United States (US) government is soon to erect perhaps its largest single structure in Africa, in the compound of its Embassy in Addis Abeba, which is also one of the three largest embassies it has on the continent. When the construction is completed in three years, the four-storey building is projected to consume a total investment of 140 million dollars.
This investment will be one of two such projects in the Horn of Africa; the US government also plans to build a brand new Embassy in Djibouti City, projected to cost 100 million dollars.
Clearing works inside the Embassy compound in Addis Abeba has already begun, although the construction contract is due to be awarded to an American firm in October 2007, according to senior diplomatic sources.
…
The four-storey building, depicting a ship, will be erected right in front of his residence, on the vast green area. It will serve as offices to the various bureaus the Embassy has inside the compound.
…
The white building that serves as the ambassadors’ residence, recently renamed after President Theodore Roosevelt…
“depicting a ship”… interesting b/c ethiopia is a land-locked country that has been trying to conquer territory (eritrea, somalia) providing access to the sea. one may also read into the image that of “gunboat diplomacy”, given the larger role the u.s. navy will play in “securing” africa & communication lines, or as demonstrated recently in the naval destroyer shelling of peoples in puntland.
anyway, the larger (unmistakable) message that is sent to the peoples of africa & the world-at-large is that the u.s. has no real problem w/ supporting & rewarding the ethiopian dictatorship in spite of the rhetoric about democracy & human rights.
from the recent state dept rpt on human rights practices in ethiopia
Human rights abuses reported during the year included: limitation on citizens’ right to change their government during the most recent elections; unlawful killings, and beating, abuse, and mistreatment of detainees and opposition supporters by security forces; poor prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention, particularly those suspected of sympathizing with or being members of the opposition; detention of thousands without charge and lengthy pretrial detention; infringement on citizens’ privacy rights and frequent refusal to follow the law regarding search warrants; restrictions on freedom of the press; arrest, detention, and harassment of journalists for publishing articles critical of the government; restrictions on freedom of assembly; limitations on freedom of association; violence and societal discrimination against women and abuse of children; female genital mutilation (FGM); exploitation of children for economic and sexual purposes; trafficking in persons; societal discrimination against persons with disabilities and religious and ethnic minorities; and government interference in union activities.
but, as shown in the first article, people hardly figure into the equation
The firm to be awarded the project is, however, expected to sub-contract much of the local component to local construction firms, and anticipated to offer job opportunities to over a 1,000 people, according to these sources.
“More than the employment opportunities, we at the Embassy are very excited for the technology transfer this project will bring to local companies,” Donald Yamamoto, US ambassador to Ethiopia, told Fortune.
technology transfer… as in using the u.s./TNC big stick to level the playing field.
Posted by: b real | Jul 10 2007 18:55 utc | 76
My sources in Baghdad are saying dozens of rockets and shells have struck the Green Zone.
More as I receive it …
Update: Sharqiya, Baghdadia and Al Furat satellite stations have all just confirmed the above. No news on casualties or what in particular was struck.
TAI
also from the same site..
Iraqi PM Maliki has indirectly threatened Iyad Allawi as the latter announced the formation of a new nationalist bloc in Iraq.
Allawi said his bloc would strongly oppose sectarianism and that it included major political forces (read: Baathists and technocrats).
…
Meanwhile, Vice-President Tarqi Al-Hashimi said he does not advise Maliki to continue on the same course his government has taken after July 15.
Crossroads, Iraq is coming to a crossroads. I predict fire fights between bodyguards of various factions in the days to come.
Five days till the 15th … seven days till the July 17th revolution commemoration. And yesterday, Izzat al Douri reportedly delivered a speech.
Posted by: annie | Jul 10 2007 19:30 utc | 77
b real: Why do you think a 4-story building in Addis Abeba will cost 140 million dollars? What in the world is going into this thing? Doesn’t that price tag sound inflated to you?
Posted by: Jane | Jul 10 2007 19:55 utc | 78
@r’giap – 75 – do you really have to channel Michael Scheuer?
That guy is an outright fascist and as soul-less as one can imagine. If you think the SS was bad, you haven’t encountered Scheuer yet …
From his Congress testimony (pdf) in April:
Mr. SCHEUER. Let’s be clear, Mr. Chairman. The only reason we would have preferred that is because we knew we were going to get hung out to dry at the end of the day. No one really cares what happens to these people—let me speak for myself.
Mr. DELAHUNT. All what people?
Mr. SCHEUER. I don’t care what happens to the people who are targeted and rendered. We wouldn’t be operating against them unless they were enemies of the United States.
Mr. DELAHUNT. What about those that clearly eventually were determined to be innocent?
Mr. SCHEUER. Mistakes are made, sir.
Mr. DELAHUNT. Mistakes are made.
Mr. SCHEUER. And if you can prove that there was not due diligence in designing the target package or assembling the information that caused that operation to go forward, then you have a case against someone. Otherwise, it is a mistake.
Mr. DELAHUNT. It is just a mistake.
Mr. SCHEUER. Yes, sir. They are not Americans. I really don’t care.
Mr. DELAHUNT. And if they were not Americans you don’t care. That is very interesting.
Mr. SCHEUER. I never got paid, sir, to be a citizen of the world. Maybe you do.
…
That is exactly the type of guy that would kill millions without any after thought because he was “not paid” to care for them …
Keep the barf bag ready while reading the rest and tell me again about ANY Scheuer statement.
sorry for the scheur, b but these deadshits dazzle me with what they say to particular audience & contexts
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jul 10 2007 22:11 utc | 80
jane- i have no idea what all goes into those numbers. the bid for the embassy in djibouti appears to have finally went to a firm named cadell, which bid $90,115,000. the GAO’s estimate was $81 million & had originally been $50-60 million. i’m sure corruption & padded billings figure into the final numbers. but yes, it does sound high to me. $100 million & $140 million could help a lot of people in those two nations, whereas the state dept is there to help the u.s.
Posted by: b real | Jul 10 2007 22:32 utc | 81