Sorry for little posting – busy days – but there is always interesting News & Views …
Open thread …
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July 24, 2007
OT 07-51
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Gonzales hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee just closed.
A major point was the question of why he “visisted” Ashcroft in hospital to get a signiture on some intelligence program.
What is still unclear is how many programs were there. While some Senators still think its one program, Gonzales is clearly evasive about “programs”.
In the first about this I already had the impression of multiple programs. (Or major different parts of one program, with only one part being in question)
The committee tried, but could not clear this up.
Gonzales also said that before he went to the hospital there was a meeting with house and senate leaders plus intelligence committee leaders (of both sides, i.e. gang of eight) in the White House and tried to to use that as cover.
He didn’t say what that meeting included, but instead of that being positive for Gonzales, I believe that in that meeting the gang of eight did deny to back Bush’s policy and Gonzales had to get Ashcroft’s signature because the gang of eight did require it.
So my best guess: The White House tried to get Congress heads agreement to do something illegal and that was denied to them.
I wonder if we’ll ever learn more about that meeting …
Hagel: White House Originally Wanted 2002 Iraq War Resolution to Cover Entire Middle East
In an interview in GQ Magazine, Hagel reveals that the Bush administration tried to get Congress to approve military action anywhere in the Middle East — not just in Iraq — in the fall of 2002.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 24 2007 18:33 utc | 2
swans: The Essential Significance Of Ralph Nader:
Or, Who’s the Idiot, Markos Moulitsas Zúniga?
(Swans – July 16, 2007) It did not take long before the guard dogs of the Citadel began barking after their favorite prey — whoever wants to open the gates wide and allow fresh air to flow through the corrupted and antisepticised corridors of the Palace. Ralph Nader dared say that he was considering a run for the 2008 presidential contest and within minutes the masters unleashed the dogs. The pyretic clarions of The Politico, the Daily Kos, The Washington Post, and many others in and out of the Blogosphere sounded their shrill smear-and-slander snarlings (Mr. Moulitsas bloviated that Ralph Nader was “still an idiot”). What the masters and their underlings ignore at their own peril is the growing disillusion with the Citadel. The rumble of the people remains faint, but it is there, a potential growing tsunami in the making. More and more, people want to shout “enough is enough” and ask for change. In turn, the guardians of the gates call with increasing stridency upon the militarization and penalization of society to save them from the unruly masses and the rowdy rumbles. The law and order reactionaries that have invaded all our institutions — e.g., the Courts, the two parties, Congress, the Executive, the TV networks, the printing press… — are second to none to let the country know what needs be — stability for the privileged few. Those who resist the present conditions and want to offer alternatives depend on Ralph Nader and other voices of sanity (that have not sold out to the system in place) to represent their aspirations for a more hopeful world. Many, while increasingly demonized, vilified, and repressed, shall not fall for lesser-evilism, which espouses evil nonetheless. For those who do not consider the either-or soft dictatorship of the duopoly a constructive proposition, Ralph Nader is their spokesperson. They long for real change, not a fresh coat of paint spread hastily on the same old façade every four years.
Let’s look at the slanderers and the kind of candidates the gatekeepers will happily support. Then, let’s ask a few questions on the type of policies that ought to be implemented, keeping in mind whether any of the candidates supported by the smearers would indeed back them. Finally, after briefly elucidating the importance of Ralph Nader, let’s challenge the representative of the status quo ante, and end with a plea.
Posted by: b real | Jul 24 2007 18:48 utc | 4
Operation FALCON – The USA is turning into a Police State
The Bush administration has carried out three massive sweeps in the last two years, rolling up more than 30,000 minor crooks and criminals, without as much as a whimper of protest from the public.
So far, not one of the more than 30,000 victims has been charged with a terror-related crime. So far, not one of the more than 30,000 victims has been charged with a terror-related crime.Operation Falcon is the clearest indication yet that the Bush administration is fine-tuning its shock-troops so it can roll up tens of thousands of people at a moment’s notice and toss them into the newly-built Halliburton detention centers. This should be a red flag for anyone who cares at all about human rights, civil liberties, or simply saving his own skin.
Would you like turnips with your cabbage soup, yet again today, comrade?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 24 2007 19:43 utc | 6
S & U$,
Why not send the Falcon forces to crack down on the Tour de France? A mass arrest of blood-doping cyclists would send a strong message throughout the cycling community.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Jul 24 2007 20:04 utc | 7
Cindy Sheehan arrested @ Conyers office during sit-in
Cindy Sheehan Occupies John Conyers’ Office
by bob fertik
Mon Jul 23, 2007 at 10:45:33 AM PDT
Cindy Sheehan led 2-300 impeachment activists on a march from Arlington Cemetary to the Congressional office of Rep. John Conyers, whose job as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee puts him in charge of impeachment. AP reports:
“Impeachment is not a fringe movement, it is mandated in our Constitution; Nancy Pelosi had no authority to take it off the table,” Sheehan told her group of orange-clad activists Monday. “If Nancy Pelosi doesn’t do her constitutionally mandated job by midnight … I will announce that I’m going to run against her.”
I just got a live report from David Swanson, who says Conyers is nowhere to be found – but Sheehan, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, and former CIA presidential briefer Ray McGovern are inside his office holding a press conference!
In fact, there are so many reporters with Cindy that they are taking turns going into the packed office to ask questions.
At least 300 activists are lining the halls outside the office, both the marchers and those who went directly to the Capitol.
bob fertik’s diary :: ::
Update 1:30: Conyers staff is negotiating with activists to move the protest to a larger room.
In Detroit, 50 people went to Conyers’ district office, but they only let 5 people in and wouldn’t let them keep their cellphones so we’re not getting any reports.
Update 1:35: Conyers just arrived!! As he walked down the hall, activists shouted IMPEACH so loud the whole floor echoed. Conyers and his staff took Cindy, Rev., and Ray into a private office without the media. Stay tuned!
Update 2:55: After an 80-minute meeting, Cindy emerged and told the activists that Conyers said “our only recourse is elections,” and the activists groaned. Cindy announced she will run against Pelosi because she and Conyers haven’t “stepped up,” and the activists cheered. Rev. Yearwood is giving a fired-up speech and activists are crowding in to Conyers’ office for the sit-in.
Update 3:43: Capitol Police arrested Cindy Sheehan, Ray McGovern, Rev. Yearwood, David Swanson, and 20 other activists and put them on a police bus. But all is not grim – Cindy is calling it her “campaign bus.”
by bob fertik on Mon Jul 23, 2007 at 10:37:23 AM PDT
The first comment reads:
I’m trollrating you (27+ / 1Cool
because you are supporting Cindy Sheehan and relaying messages from her and her wacko contingent to Daily Kos, where she has been banned.
Obama-Villaraigosa 08′!
by SoCalLiberal on Mon Jul 23, 2007 at 10:58:31 AM PDT
Way to go, “SoCalledLiberal” and dkos!
Sheehan was BANNED at DKos And SO, all information including news of anything related to her is Verbotten?
Cindy’s awesome, and she just gets better. Many are becoming more open to this whole orthrian politics business. There are a lot of “leftists” who, when they open their mouths, sound very much like someone who I am compelled to speak against.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 24 2007 20:43 utc | 8
Ethiopia deadline for Red Cross
The Red Cross has been given seven days to leave the Ogaden region bordering Somalia by the Ethiopian government.
The ICRC has been carrying out water and sanitation projects there.
An army crackdown in the area after a series of rebel attacks has restricted the movement of essential goods.
The rebel group, the Ogaden National Liberation Movement, accuses the government of blockading the region, and producing a “man-made famine”.
On Monday, the New York Times carried an article saying that Ethiopian troops were preventing emergency aid reaching the mainly Somali speaking region.
But aid agencies have been reluctant to complain publicly about the lack of access, fearing that it might compromise their work in the future.
The regional president of Ethiopia’s Somali region, Abdullai Hassan, told the BBC that the ICRC had been given seven days to leave the area.
He accused the organisation of collaborating with the enemy and of spreading baseless accusations against the regional government on its website.
Posted by: b real | Jul 25 2007 2:50 utc | 9
Re: my # 6
Cannon ask’s, “Could Bush use the latest EO to go absolutely freaking nuts? Could he, in short, institute the long-dreaded Big Blogger Roundup?
I think it is certain that dissents will be scooped up in mass arrests with the caveat that it will happen only if, and when we attack Iran. I have said, that I DO NOT believe we will attack unless, and or until this crew’s last few days in office or if the heat –which ain’t likely to come from the dems– gets too much that they (Bushco) needs cover. Having said that, this doesn’t make me feel any better about the prospect: B-2s being fitted for Bunker Buster Bombs .
Also of note, Passive Police State – the calm before the storm. Of course, no one mentions Amdocs. With all these snoop program(s). I suspect it is not only the people, Congress, –both dem and repub– under surveillance, but also the media in one big Hooveresque control AND blackmail fest.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 25 2007 3:21 utc | 10
tom barry: analysis: The New Politics of Political Aid in Venezuela
In the name of promoting democracy and freedom, Washington is currently funding scores of U.S. and Venezuelan organizations as part of its global democratization strategy—including at least one that publicly supported the April 2002 coup that briefly removed Chávez from power.
When he first heard the news of the coup, the president of the International Republican Institute (IRI) praised those “who rose up to defend democracy,” ignoring the fact that Chávez was the twice-elected president of Venezuela. Despite this declared support for a coup against a democratically elected president and for the opposition’s blatant disregard for the rule of law, IRI still runs democratization programs in Venezuela that are underwritten by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
The IRI, a supposedly nonpartisan institute established to direct U.S. democratization aid for which Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is chairman, is one of five U.S. nongovernmental organizations that channels funding from USAID to Venezuelan organizations and political programs. USAID also funds the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDIIA) and three U.S. nongovernmental organizations: Freedom House, Development Alternatives Inc., and Pan-American Development Foundation.
The United States has supported democratization and human rights groups in Venezuela since the early 1990s, but funding for “democracy-building” soared after Chávez was elected president in 1998. Both USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which funds IRI and NDIIA, sharply increased their funding to Venezuela’s business associations, its official labor confederation, human rights organizations, and political party coalitions.
Several months after the unsuccessful April 2002 coup in Venezuela, the U.S. State Department established an Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) in Caracas, using money from USAID. Operating out of the U.S. Embassy, OTI has two stated objectives, according to the agency: to “strengthen democratic institutions and promote space for democratic dialogue,” and “encourage citizen participation in the democratic process.”
USAID established OTI with the all-but-explicit intention of aiding efforts to oust President Chávez. According to USAID, the new office would “provide fast, flexible, short-term assistance targeted at key transition needs.”
Although it did not spell out what would be the desired “transition,” USAID warned that Chávez “has been slowly hijacking the machinery of government and developing parallel non-democratic governance structures.” In its 2001 job description for the new OTI director in Caracas, USAID stated that the director’s responsibilities would include “formulating strategy and initiating the new OTI program in close coordination with U.S. political interests” and “developing an exit strategy and operational closeout plan.”
Rather than directly funding Venezuelan organizations and political parties, OTI channels USAID funding through U.S. nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that in turn fund scores of Venezuelan NGOs and political party projects. In its January-March 2007 report, USAID reported 139 subgrants to Venezuelan entities working in 19 of the country’s 23 states.
…
In May 2007, Eva Golinger, Venezuelan-American author of The Chávez Code and a prominent critic of U.S. aid programs in Venezuela, accused Freedom House and other U.S. organizations receiving U.S. government funding of orchestrating a “destabilization plan” (see Venezuelanalysis.com, May 26, 2007). Golinger claimed Freedom House was designing a campaign of nonviolent resistance to the Chávez government.
Freedom House collaborates with the Belgrade-based Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (Canvas), which has singled out Venezuela along with Zimbabwe and Ukraine as principal targets for its training programs. Describing Canvas’s approach to political transitions, the center’s website says: “Mass political defiance has occurred in Burma, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and Tibet in recent years. Although those struggles have not brought victory over dictators, they badly harmed the authority of those oppressive regimes both in the countries and in the international community.”
At a May 2007 press conference in Caracas, Golinger noted that the clenched fist featured on the flyer for a protest against the closure of RCTV, the country’s largest television station (accused by the government of having supported the attempted coup), is the same logo used in opposition campaigns in Serbia, Georgia, and Ukraine—it is also the symbol featured on the Canvas website.
USAID and NED funding of NGOs in Venezuela reflects the U.S. government’s conviction that the democratic process is badly flawed and that such political aid will contribute to a “transition” to more democratic governance—or at least, to a leader more acceptable to Washington. The focus on NGOs shown by recent democratization aid is also a reflection of a new trend in aid that regards NGOs’ nonviolent resistance as the most effective instrument for moving dictatorships to democracies.
This new method of instigating regime change has been promoted by NED, Freedom House, Albert Einstein Institution, and the Council for a Community of Democracies. In recent years Freedom House prominently advocated nonviolent civil action to overturn dictatorial regimes. Its 2005 study, entitled “How Freedom is Won,” concluded that 50 of the 67 “transitions to democracy over the previous third of a century” were driven in large part by “civil resistance, featuring strikes, boycotts, civil disobedience, and mass protests.”
Posted by: b real | Jul 25 2007 3:28 utc | 11
Meet Republican*, Terrance W. Gainer, Sergeant at Arms of the US Senate and hopefully the Harriet Meirs arrester. Of course he’s currently in the news due to his ability to enforce orders of civil contempt. Could come in handy if, say, you wanted to arrest someone for disobeying a subpeona, but can’t turn to the Justice Dept. On the orders of the Senate, the Sergeant at Arms can even arrest the President of the United States. Well, theoretically, I suppose. But come on, you would only need that if our Executive Branch was, like, fundamentally corrupt, or something ridiculous like that. /snark
Also see, Sergeant At Arms History.
*According to wikipedia.org,”he was the Republican candidate for Cook County State’s Attorney in 1988, losing to then incumbent Richard M. Daley.”
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 25 2007 3:52 utc | 12
Looks like neo-con the wurmster is waving goodbye — and opening a risk assessment consulting firm, wouldn’t you know it.
Posted by: anna missed | Jul 25 2007 4:40 utc | 13
churchill is a fighter, and he’s definitely in the right on this one, so this could get interesting & serve as a catalyst for something
Posted by: b real | Jul 25 2007 4:59 utc | 15
Did the awful Obama really reduce the african amerikan experience to the difficulty of catching a cab in Manhattan? eg:
Jordan Williams, a Kansas student, who asked Mr Obama whether he was “authentically black enough”. Mr Obama said he had suffered the same difficulties as other African-Americans in hailing a taxi in New York: “You know, when I’m catching a cab in Manhattan in the past, I think I’ve given my credentials.”
Without getting into the whole epigenetics debate agin, aren’t people just a little puzzled by the fact that two of the most successful black men in amerika, Colin Powell and Barack Obama, both come from the tiny percentage of black amerikans whose ancestors weren’t dragged to the country in chains? And yes I am aware that in Powell’s case his forbears may have been enslaved in one of the Caribbean colonies.
There were substantial differences in treatment of slaves around the various colonies, many were freed long before amerikan slaves and were free of the lynching redneck culture.
Now why is it more likely that ‘good’ black men don’t have a heritage of slavery, lynching and continuing disempowerment? Ummmmmmm.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Jul 25 2007 5:01 utc | 16
I’m seriously distressed about this Iran warmongering. But I do hope that EVERYONE read my link on previous open thread concerning the drought in the Amazon Rain Forest. If the drought continues this yr. & next, the Amazon would collapse, releasing 90 Billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere, doubling the rate of global warming. Weather cycles as we know them would shift drastically w/in 1-3 yrs. What would happen to agriculture…food supplies…immigration of desperate vast masses.
I’m not sure if I posted this link when I heard it, { Peter Schwarz head of Global Business Network (Stew Brand’s group?) did worst case scenario on global climate change. } but that is the reason/cover for the Pentagon to authorize building detention centers. At the time I thought it was just obvious cover for the police state they want for political reasons, but perhaps they’re deliberately creating a political crisis as a cover to implement a Police State which they really want to impose World State in desperate attempt to deal w/Peak Oil & Climate Changes. Did anyone consider that? What do you think?
Perhaps I should post this for wkend listening, & perhaps I’ll repost it then, as it’s impt. stuff. For ex. they discuss vast teeming masses forced to flee Pakistan & how the country would have to nuke them to stop it to prevent global chaos- rare bit of candor. These guys suggest building detention facilities domestically to handle masses that would flood in should there be drastic climate change w/in a decade. As we have to now say there’s at least a 50-50 chance of the Amazon burning to the ground next yr, listening to this presentation again is very chilling.
While we express our outrage at their assault on political dissent, in fact we’re NOW actually looking down the barrel of total chaos…
Just saying…any thoughts…
Posted by: jj | Jul 25 2007 5:20 utc | 17
I find Bob Jensen’s take on Ward Churchill to be reasonable and constructive as do others.
This is nothing more than ideological intimidation on the part of the modern day Pinkertons* Neo club. It isn’t a conspiracy merely against academics, it is framing against anyone whom ‘pushes back’.
Note: *Churchill retitled his article to emphasise the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act it is now entitled: The Trajectory of Political Policing in the United States, 1870 to the Present From the Pinkertons to the PATRIOT Act: The Trajectory of Political Policing in the United States, 1870 to the Present
And the joke is really on sloth and hir sock-puppet Citizen X K.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 25 2007 5:29 utc | 18
@jj
Remember all that talk about the Gulf stream turning south and England entering an new Ice Age?
Well, better take a look at this one.
Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 25 2007 6:01 utc | 19
@U$ I saw Jensen’s article this morning but didn’t have time to read it, something i have just corrected. It is great that he came out to offer support for Churchill but it would have been better if he hadn’t devoted so much time to hairsplitting.
The ‘little Eichmanns’ issue, where Jensen argues that Churchill is wrong to say “If there was a better, more effective, or in fact any other way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, I’d really be interested in hearing about it.” Jensen argues that the attack on the twin towers doesn’t meet the test that a social conscience must apply to any act of violence to ensure that it is justifiable, before being violent. The problem with that view is that Jensen’s test is about whether the violence will correct injustices, restore power to the people etc.
Churchill is discussing whether what happened to the stock brokers and other integral parts of the engine of capitalism that day was a fitting punishment. Punishment is punishment it doesn’t bring back the dead, help the blind see, or the lame walk. It just is, it has no objective outside of punishing.
In his own way Jensen makes the same error as the neo-cons who sought Churchill’s dismissal. That is when Churchill writes of his understanding of the anger that those expoited by western corporate capitalism feel and how they decide to attack that capitalism; the neo-cons claim wrongly that Churchill is endorsing the act, which he isn’t, he is merely stating that he can see how the 911’s actors thinking went and that others will also come to think that way.
Some of what Jensen writes appears to be in that same mould. He appears to accuse Churchill of condoning the attack, when Churchill is merely attempting to describe the attackers thought processes.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Jul 25 2007 6:21 utc | 20
I have also come to see the Falcon crackdown drills & Halliburton camps as preparation for another horror scenario following a major terrorist attack: namely coping with hordes of fanatically patriotic militiamen going about hanging suspected terrorists (i.e., anyone with dark skin) from lamp posts.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Jul 25 2007 6:23 utc | 21
Debs is dead@16,
epigenetics is fascinating stuff. And it kind of makes sense.
the discussion is primarily focused on certain observed negative outcomes of epigenetics like stress & diabetes. But epigenetics is sure to carry positive outcomes too.
and coming soon to your debating hall : “nature vs nurture vs nexus”
it will also be interesting to know what magnitude the half-life of epigenetic events fall into.
Posted by: jony_b_cool | Jul 25 2007 10:07 utc | 22
The proud Lebanese army is still busy converting Nahr al-Bared into rubble. This is tenth’s or so “final push”:
Lebanese army begins final push against militants
Lebanese troops advanced towards fortified positions of Islamist militants at a Palestinian refugee camp on Wednesday in what political sources said was the start of a final assault to root out the gunmen.
Moving in under cover of artillery and tank fire, soldiers killed at least three Fatah al-Islam militants at Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon, raising the overall death toll from two months of fighting to at least 245, security sources said.
…
“At its heaviest shortly after dawn, some 20 shells a minute were hitting the camp,” said one witness who watched the fighting from a distance. “It was deafening.”
As I sugggested in comment 1, Gonzales did lie in yesterdays testimony about a “gang of eight” meeting at the White House:
WaPo
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales testified yesterday that top congressional leaders from both parties agreed in March 2004 to continue a classified surveillance activity that Justice Department officials had deemed illegal, a contention immediately disputed by key Democratic lawmakers.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va.), who were briefed on the program at the time, said there was no consensus that it should proceed. Three others who were at the meeting also said the legal underpinnings of the program were never discussed.
…
What to do about Gonzales? I see clear cases of perjury before Congress on at least three issue – the above, his denial of influencing Goodling and the lies about the “program”. Sen. Specter nearly asked for a special prosecuter yesterday. That certainly would be nice. Impeachment of Gonzales should also be possible.
What is holding Congress back?
“What is holding Congress back?”
Cowardice, plain and simple.
Posted by: Parviz | Jul 25 2007 11:39 utc | 25
This is a good background article on the overall political situation in Lebanon today. It helps put the Nahr al-Bared situation in context but also helps fill in the picture of how the various pieces of the Middle East puzzle fit together. Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Iran — they are all intertwined in some ways. Sometimes watching what key players are doing in one country is a clue to their intentions in another. So I recommend this piece as a general backgrounder to help those interested in learning more.
Lebanon’s Bloody Summer (The Nation)
Posted by: Bea | Jul 25 2007 12:11 utc | 26
Several very moving stories of Palestinians who struggle to make some sense of the devastation and inhumane conditions in which they live.
From Gaza: A Tribute to My Grandparents’ Home
From the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing: My Mother is in her Last Moments and I Cannot Cross the Borders
From Baddawi camp in Lebanon (which is housing most of those who fled from Nahr al-Bared: A Confined Space
From Burj al-Barajne camp in Lebanon: Smiling Through the Pain
Posted by: Bea | Jul 25 2007 12:43 utc | 27
really, gonzales is a piece of work – equal mix of one of the diabolic boys in lord of the flies &the mad judge freiser
the jagged jurisprudence that is the inheritance of schmitt & strauss
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jul 25 2007 13:42 utc | 28
Has anyone more recent information on detention centers than the 2006 info my Google search turned up? Anything that could add credibility to the doomsday assertions?
The FALCON roundup and Bushman’s July 17 Executive Order add up to some pretty bone chilling scenarios.
Posted by: Juannie | Jul 25 2007 13:46 utc | 29
Juannie: I’ve done some investigative work on the detention camps. It is old and incomplete. Could do some more if anyone is interested.
I have no doubt that the govt is preparing for massive civil unrest in the cities.
Posted by: Jake | Jul 25 2007 16:04 utc | 30
Lessee, is that squad of goons kicking in my door local cops, or a SWAT team, or NorthCom special forces?
Posse Comitatus, RIP.
Posted by: ran | Jul 25 2007 16:40 utc | 31
I don’t think that the Halliburton Detention Centers and the Falcon trial runs are just for rounding up dissidents: I seriously fear that in the wake of a serious terrorist attack, there will be anarchy in the form of bands of militiamen and “patriots” out in their SUV’s, rendering peremptory and preemptive “justice” against anyone they perceive as a potential threat to security: illegal immigrants, dark-skinned minorities and anyone wearing a turban or head scarf.
On the other hand, the authorities might not want to take on the armed militias and merely opt to use the HDC’s to provide these threatened minorities with “protective custody”.
Either way, it gives me the massive creeps.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Jul 25 2007 16:47 utc | 32
Jake, it’d be interesting if you wish to update yr. info & share it w/us. I’m curious how close to operational they are & what type of capacity they’re planning for.
Posted by: jj | Jul 25 2007 18:04 utc | 33
Jake, it’d be interesting if you wish to update yr. info & share it w/us. I’m curious how close to operational they are & what type of capacity they’re planning for. Also, does anyone know if such things are going on in Europe?
Posted by: jj | Jul 25 2007 18:05 utc | 34
july 24: NATO takes steps to demonstrate interest in N/Delta
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has deployed six warships to orbit Africa in what is seen as a show of force and a demonstration that the world powers are closely monitoring the worsening security situation in the Niger Delta.
The multinational force comprising six ships from six different NATO nations, Canada, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, Portugal and the United States are scheduled to embark on a historic 12,500 nautical mile circumnavigation of Africa on a two month deployment from August to October this year as part of NATO’s commitment to global security.
Coming soon after the Bush Administration announced the creation of a new unified [combatant] command, Africa Command (AFRICOM) to promote U.S. national security objectives in Africa, the NATO move is already being seen as the deepening of the West’s scramble for Africa in the bid to checkmate China’s growing diplomatic and economic influence in the continent. The world’s most populous country and Asia’s emerging economic giant has recently been exerting escalating economic sway especially in the sub-region’s energy sector where it has invested heavily in Nigerian and Sudanese oil fields. Analysts see Chinese mounting influence in a sphere formerly controlled by the West exclusively as a threat to Europe and America both of which are looking at the West African Coast for their energy needs in view of the increasing volatility of the Middle East.
…
By August 4, NATO’s Standing Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1), one of NATO’s four standing maritime forces, will sail from the Mediterranean to the west coast of Africa and the Niger Delta.
most related links i’ve been trying to follow to this SNMG1 mission, including northwoods’ site, are no longer functional. the u.s. navy assumed command of SNMG1 from canada back on january 26 & will be leading this expedition.
a cached copy of a press release states that the force will consist of “one cruiser, four frigates and a tanker.”
USS Normandy – “The flagship of SNMG1, the USS Normandy is a guided missile Ticonderoga class cruiser. She is a multi mission anti-air, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare ship with a distinguished history of active service particularly in the Gulf and off the Former Republic of Yugoslavia. She has the Aegis Weapon System, Tomahawk, two 5-inch guns and can operate two Seahawk helicopter.”
HTLMS Evertsen – “HNLMS Evertsen is a state of the art air defence and command frigate of the Zeven Provinciën class, Royal Netherlands Navy. Her stealth like construction makes her less detectable by radar. She is equipped with an impressive sensor array combined with the Standard Missile, Sea Sparrow, Harpoon, 127 mm main gun, torpedo weapon systems and an NH 90 size Helicopter.”
HMCS Toronto – “The Canadian Halifax Class multi-role patrol frigate HMCS Toronto has an impressive range of tactical and defensive weapons including the Harpoon anti ship and Sea Sparrow anti-aircraft missile systems, a 57 mm gun and anti-submarine Sea King helicopter. She has taken part in Operation Active Endeavour (OAE) in the Mediterranean and in Hurricane Katrina relief operations.”
NRP Alvaras Cabral – “one of the major ships of the Portuguese Navy. She is a Vasco de Gama Class frigate fitted with Harpoon, Sea Sparrow, Torpedo systems and a large flight deck and hangar to operate two Lynx helicopters. Portugal regularly contributes to the Standing NATO Maritime Forces and has long standing historical links with Africa.”
HDMS Olfert Fischer – “The Royal Danish Navy Niels Juel Class corvette, HDMS Olfert Fischer, has been a regular participant in Standing Naval Force Atlantic since 1992. She has served in the Gulf War and Iraq and is fitted with Harpoon, Sea Sparrow and a 76 mm gun”
FGS Spessart – “The German Navy Rhone Class Replenishment Tanker, FGS Spessart will support SNMG1 throughout the deployment, ensuring that the Force has sufficient fuel and provisions to sustain operations far from home for long periods of time. She has a displacement of 10,800 tonnes and is 427 ft long.”
“The Africa 2007 deployment will include conducting ‘presence operations’ in the Gulf of Guinea, a region that has seen many incidents in recent months of attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta and kidnapping of oil workers. During this phase the NATO force will be in a position to make a difference to security in the region, deterring criminal groups and enabling NATO maritime commanders to compile a picture of maritime activity in the area.”
“SNMG1 will conduct surveillance and ‘presence operations’ in the Gulf of Guinea and off the Horn of Africa passing information back to the two NATO Surveillance Coordination Centres (SCCs) at Northwood in the UK and Naples in Italy.”
Posted by: b real | Jul 25 2007 18:35 utc | 35
Y’all got me thinking about these camps. (Sorry for the screwup w/double post above.) Given weather turbulence, approaching Peak Oil, converting corn fed to animals to ethanol insuring most will not be able to afford to eat meat w/in next year or 2 max, resource wars, does anyone actually see any way that the entire 2000 year old project of civilization is not coming down verrry soon & verry rapidly? Then, in America, throw in hyper-inflation, retirees starving, elite plans to merge w/a completely corrupt Mexico in next 1-2 yrs. w/full-rights of immigration about which the masses know nothing… So, why wouldn’t you build them? How are we not staring the Apocalypse in the Face?
Posted by: jj | Jul 25 2007 18:38 utc | 36
ouch – from Froomkins WaPo chat today
Bessemer, Ala: In spite of the many abuses Bush administration has heaped on the country, war, torture, spying on Americans, why can’t we stop him before he does more harm?
Dan Froomkin: A two-part response:
1) For Congress to pass veto-proof legislation will require the defection of a significant number of Republican elected officials. Despite some rhetorical fireworks from a small number of Republicans, there is still no sign that they will stop reflexively siding with him pretty much across the board. So you can blame them.
2) You (and the press corps) might want to focus more specifically on one particular question: Why can’t we stop him before he attacks Iran? (Or can we?)
That from one of the most intense White House watchers …
Should have opened a thread on the Gonzales lies – no time.
Glenn has good piece on it today hitting one of my central points: There is another “program”:
Since the end of 2005, Gonzales in particular has qualified almost every statement he has made before the Senate Judiciary Committee by drawing a distinction between (a) the “Terrorist Surveillance Program” (which means the NSA warrantless eavesdropping program in its incarnation when it was revealed in 2005 by the NYT) versus (b) “other intelligence activities,” including whatever it was they were doing prior to March 2004 that prompted Ashcroft and Comey’s objections.
My well founded guess – it spies on “political enemies”, i.e. Democrats in Congress and journalists. That also explains their behaviour …
So Glenn is still a bit on the believer side when he asks:
Our Beltway political class just has chosen not to demand to know what was done, notwithstanding its blatant illegality. How can we just allow these government activities — of plainly illegal government spying on us during 2001-2004 — to remain concealed?
Simple answer: They would have to un-conceal themselves …
@jj – 36 – Then, in America, throw in hyper-inflation, retirees starving, elite plans to merge w/a completely corrupt Mexico in next 1-2 yrs. w/full-rights of immigration about which the masses know nothing… So, why wouldn’t you build them? How are we not staring the Apocalypse in the Face?
not going to happen – not the hyper inflation only 20% interest rate, retirees starving is just normal today, merge with Mexico, only for oil not immigration …
Abocalypse? – What right wing religious web site are you consulting on that …
You may be right b but that doesn’t negate the possibly sinister intent of the building of these detention centers. If they turn out to be as the rumors have it. So jj spoke for me also Jake. I’d be interested in what you’ve got and whatever else you can glean. Thanks jj.
Posted by: Juannie | Jul 25 2007 21:29 utc | 40
b real@35,
the goal obviously is intimidation — to put the leaders of the oil-producing countries of West Africa (particularly Nigeria) on notice that NATO/USA is united and will assert force if need be, if the Wests oil interests are threatened.
the problem with this approach is the Africans are already highly suspicious in their perception of the Wests motives. And theres not much of a credibility vibe left. And pretty much anything that comes along thats out of the ordinary will generate serious opposition there.
the initial approach was to make the Niger-Delta an anti-terrorist theatre. Thats totally collapsed. It was a wack idea to begin with & only goes to show just how so out of touch the planners are.
what may happen is down the line, USA/NATO stirs-up or false-flags something down there to justify intervention or seizure of the oil fields, directly or indirectly.
but theres a lot that can go wrong in this unfolding picture because they will be dealing with people much smarter than they are willing to accept.
Posted by: jony_b_cool | Jul 25 2007 22:13 utc | 41
that is to say, they’re dealing w/ people who have more on the line, their lives, heritage & homes at stake
Posted by: b real | Jul 25 2007 22:27 utc | 43
Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 25 2007 22:54 utc | 44
@jony_b_cool it is the short sighted stupidity of the way that niger delta issues are handled that gets me pissed. It was obvious 10 years ago when Ken Saro-Wiwa was legally murdered that the Ogoni people were not going to allow their home to be destroyed and polluted without putting up a fight.
The murder took place right at the time when most of the then heavy hitters from Clinton ChinaCorp on down were meeting at an APEC knees-up/photo op.
If they had stuck together and insisted that Saro-Wiwa not be martyred, and that the Ogonis must be looked after even if it came down to taking the cost outta USuk’s share rather than the Nigerian regime’s; this mess would never have got so bad. I mean we are talking pretty small potatoes compared to what they are making out of the oilfield – so why not pay up and have happy families all round?
Cut to nowadays – Any credible local leadership has been killed or imprisoned and the place is an anarchic chaotic horror show. It will cost a great deal more to fix up so that the hydro-carbons can be efficiently extracted than it would have back in 1995.
That is looking at it from the bean counters point of view. Looking at the situation from a human perspective it is awful and going to get much worse.
This is the worst facet of corporate capitalism – they always complain that centralised controlled economies don’t work – that bureaucrats can’t pick ‘winners’ – yet capitalism’s insistent reverence for next quarter’s bottom line has a worse effect. No one wants to make the decision that may appear to be an unforseen/unnecessary expense thereby reducing net earnings over the period they are seen to be ‘in control’ Situations are allowed to degenerate into unmanageability simply because of this corporate cowardice.
Unless amerika ‘goes in’ to the region to slaughter the locals, it is difficult to imagine how Nato will pull it off. The issue is too big for the French foreign legion (too busy sewing up ownership of diamond mines elsewhere in Africa) much less the Gurkhas (also busy in Afghanistan, Brunei and Saudi)-so that means Nato will have to put european citizens into the area to ‘pacify’ it.
Naturally those believed to benefit most from the intervention will be those nations expected to put most ‘boots on ground’.
Britain is the greatest beneficiary (BP and Shell) after that probably the Netherlands through the Shell Oil Co. Maybe the Dutch can get away with putting troops in – their current administration seems to reflect a Dutch return to more ‘traditional’ values of rampantly racist colonialism but the Brits haven’t adjusted to the brave new world where you can no longer have your cake and eat it too.
That is the Brits demand the benefits of colonial corporate capitalism but are still uncomfortable with the more base implications – E.G. the periodic neccessity of slaughtering ‘fuzzy-wuzzies’ in a no-longer far off or distant land (thanks to 21st century telecommunications) The new bloke is incapable of truly creative politics, he is a determined plodder and will see any intervention in Africa as a mistake exactly like Bliar’s Iraqi misadventure.
So the Ogonis are in for a long drawn out hell where just enough of them will be butchered each year to allow the oil to get out.
Oh and Darfur too? It’s just about over there. I suspect the non-Arabic clans have been pursued into super power irrelevance really. Whatever happens now even if China loses control of the oil -which in itself is a somewhat unlikely proposition – it is difficult to envisage a situation where they win back their former homelands.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Jul 26 2007 0:32 utc | 46
debs is dead –
the ogoni are only one tiny peoples out of many in the delta area. they were the ones who gathered the most int’l awareness, thanks to saro-wiwa’s journalism/scriptwriting background & his ability to mobilize euro activists against shell. however, the ijaw are the largest & probably the most affected in numbers, currently, though there’s also the urhobo, etche, itsekiri, edo, & efik, all dealing w/ the same root problem.
the nigerian govt did release the leader of the NPDVF (niger-delta peoples volunteer front), alhaji mujahid dokubo-asari, one month ago to appease some of the more militant groups, though that didn’t pan out as they hoped. more groups seem to be popping up taking credit for kidnappings & sabotage, operating outside of — and denounced by — the MEND coalition. (curious as to whether some aren’t provocateurs, whose key purpose is to divide the mvmts & provide a pretext for greater crackdown. definitely have been more rpts of militants being killed by nigerian joint task forces in the past several weeks, which is something that rarely occurred in the past.)
right now the west seems to be banking on stepped up marine activities — building up nigerian riverine units, integrated guinean maritime communications & fleets, semi-permanent u.s. navy presence — rather than putting any boots on the ground, actually it’d be butts in boats. have seen some rpts — nothing official — that special ops forces have been in the area for awhile gathering intel & providing training etc (the u.s. military provides equipment to all subsaharan nations loan-free).
though there are those who call for outright u.s. military intervention in the delta — rightwing think tanks, hawkish counterinsurgency “experts”, and, no doubt, oil barons — the immediate negative int’l PR that would bring — removing all doubt that the u.s. military were petro police — makes it unlikely. that is, barring any, as jony_b_cool put it, false flags or similar provocations. attempts to link AQ into the equation have been laughed off by anyone but the most fanatic (pham et al).
u.s. crude imports from nigeria have fallen off again since overtaking saudi arabi back in march. no doubt this is due to the ongoing on-again off-again operations at production & transport facilities under seige by the locals.
– — — –
wondering if this is related at all to william jefferson trial
Justice Department Probing Oil Operations in Nigeria
The U.S. Justice Department is conducting a criminal inquiry of nearly a dozen oil and oil-services companies, focusing on potentially illegal payments to customs agents who provided freight forwarding and other services, in Nigeria, Dow Jones Newswires learned Tuesday.
A civil investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission also is underway.
…
“It’s a very difficult operating environment, even if you’re trying to do everything by the book,” said an individual familiar with operating in Nigeria, who agreed to speak anonymously. Another individual, who has conducted business in Nigeria, who also agreed to speak anonymously, said corruption in Nigeria is so widespread, “you can’t pass through the Lagos airport without being asked to pay a bribe.”
Firms that refuse to pay bribes cannot obtain permits needed to conduct business in Nigeria, while those that pay run the risk of being charged with violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practice Act, according to individuals familiar with the matter, speaking anonymously.
U.S. oil and oil-services companies that do business in Nigeria are keenly interested in having the U.S. government address such issues, and hope Nigeria’s recent elections might offer an opportunity for change, these individuals said. They spoke on condition they not be identified because they are not authorized to talk to reporters.
Solutions are in short supply, however. Pulling out of Nigeria would help U.S. companies avert potential legal harm, but wouldn’t benefit the nation’s energy supply or U.S. consumers. Remaining in Nigeria carries other risks, particularly for companies found to be repeat offenders of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
In February, Vetco Gray Controls, a Houston oil-services company, and two other Vetco International Ltd. subsidiaries, paid a $26 million settlement to the Justice Department, a record for a criminal foreign corrupt practices case. The units admitted paying about $2 million in bribes to Nigerian customs officials through an international freight forwarding and customs clearing company, ending in 2005. Vetco had agreed in 2004 not to make such payments.
Baker Hughes (BHI) and a subsidiary paid $44 million in April to settle criminal charges involving bribes in Kazakhstan and SEC civil charges involving payments elsewhere, including Nigeria, the largest combined penalty for such charges. Baker Hughes had a 2001 agreement not to pay bribes under an SEC settlement related to payments in Indonesia.
As the Justice Department focuses on 11 oil and oil-services firms that relied on Panalpina for services, including in Nigeria, four others are voluntarily scrutinizing operations, a process that might or might not yield criminal charges depending on the findings.
New Orleans-based Tidewater Inc. announced in April that it was investigating payments to a customs agent to obtain permits to operate in waters off Nigeria. It cited concerns stemming from the fact that its Nigerian affiliate used the same customs agent thought to be implicated in the Vetco case.
Noble Corp., of Sugar Land, Texas, GlobalSantaFe Corp., of Houston, and Global Industries Ltd., of Carlyss, Louisiana followed suit in June. Noble announced an internal investigation of its Nigerian operations, focusing on reimbursements to customs agents for expenses for import permits. GlobalSantaFe said it is examining agents who handled customs matters in Nigeria, and Global Industries reported it was probing payments in Nigeria that may violate laws meant to prevent U.S. firms from bribing officials overseas.
Posted by: b real | Jul 26 2007 3:12 utc | 47
wrt #11 above
At a May 2007 press conference in Caracas, Golinger noted that the clenched fist featured on the flyer for a protest against the closure of RCTV, the country’s largest television station (accused by the government of having supported the attempted coup), is the same logo used in opposition campaigns in Serbia, Georgia, and Ukraine—it is also the symbol featured on the Canvas website.
gringoinvenezuela has put the icons side-by-side so’s you can compare them
Posted by: b real | Jul 26 2007 3:40 utc | 48
Inside Higher Education On Ward Churchill Dismissal
When did the university discover for the first time that he had problems with credentials and citations and research difficulties? Did his work get published and peer reviewed and accepted? Or….
Ah, so, –he was tenured since 91–and none of that stuff ever came up? Not possible. Fucking travesty. It’s only going to embolden Horowitz and his ilk.
The McCarthyite chilling of campus faculty of course.
Clearly the guy had been working at the school for 25 years, and now they discover that he has academic problems and decide now to tighten up vetting process…
Since he had tenure, then it’s clearly a rightwing scalp. And I hope he gets millions IN SETTLEMENT.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 26 2007 5:13 utc | 49
@b- Religious Cult???? My brain shuts down @mention of “god”….I’m a pagan buddhist! What have I been reading – about the Amazonian Drought which, if it persists would have unknown but significant immediate ramifications for all of us. And also the Energy Bulletin .
Plans for merging w/Mexico call for free rights of immigration, as Europe has – at least for now. They’re also building super-highway up from Mexican coast through to Canada to off-load Chinese garabage in non-union Mexican port, allowing them to bust the powerful longshoremens union domestically. Where I live, there’s hardly any trash pickup ‘cuz the WalMart of Garbage Cos. is engaging in a union-busting strike.
No, retirees starving hasn’t been par for the course in America since the 60’s; but plans are to at best cap Social Security & Medicare while living costs skyrocket at an ever accelerating rate.
You may be underestimating what they’re doing to the currency, ‘cuz Americans aren’t going to go for having the same currency as Mexico, unless they’ve destroyed the dollar, and the xUS Elites have already named the one they hope to replace it with…Masses ain’t gonna take that sitting down if they have a choice.
Posted by: jj | Jul 26 2007 6:39 utc | 50
wrt Gonzo…
An Administration that doesn’t give a rat’s a$$ about subpoenas from Congress isn’t going to care about the AttyGen getting grilled and shown up like this. “L’État, c’est moi, said George; If the DOJ is going to refuse to act against itself or its sponsor, impeachment won’t matter either: About the only things left are either armed insurrection or waiting until Jan 2009.
The Executive Branch, if they weren’t fucking reptiles at heart, would be embarassed by this, But they aren’t, because they know if Gonzo can sit there and shit on Congress without Congress hitting back, they (the administration) win. This is political dick waving of the highest order.
Bush and his cronies, whom claim to be America-lovin’ patriots, one and all, are dismantling the Constitution in front of everyone’s eyes — and no one has the balls to call them on it. They can invoke “executive privilege” for anything they don’t want to talk about — but that doesn’t make it proper or correct.
Congress is tasked with oversight. The Executive is tasked with upholding the law, not creating it. The Gonzales brouhaha is critically important because the Executive branch has been attempting to stack the Judicial branch in their favor so, if Congress attempts to use its oversight powers, any legal disagreements would likely be found in favor of the Executive. It’s an inside move to consolidate power in a single branch. I’d call that about as unAmerican as it gets.
It’s especially troubling because it involves a President and Attorney General who argue that a blanket right to privacy doesn’t exist (because it’s not in the Constitution), and that there are no blanket habeas corpus rights (because it’s not in the Constitution), but that a blanket right to executive privilege does exist – even though it’s NOT IN THE FUCKING CONSTITUTION.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it?!
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 26 2007 6:50 utc | 51
jj, thanks for putting the north american union plan into perspective. Union busting is a tangible reason why business interests would want to do this.
I’m not in favor simply because there is no public hearing or oversight, so what is being hidden? I’m appalled at my federal (Canada) gov’t and provincial (BC) gov’t selling off our commons and strive to learn more about the ideas of community ownership of such including airwaves, minerals and fish.
It may increase our local budget surplus but the money gets spent on tax breaks instead of infrastructure and education. And the local economy still depends on US trade so we attempt to prop that economy up.
I have hard-won attitudes about what is mine and at what price I might part with same however toadying to the buyer is a losing game.
Glad to see you all here tonight.
Posted by: jonku | Jul 26 2007 7:47 utc | 52
Some intellectual light relief:
The following is (apparently) an actual question given on a University of Washington Chemistry mid-term test.
Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?
Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:
“First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.
This gives two possibilities:
1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.
So which is it?
If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, “It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,” and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct……leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting “Oh my God.””
THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY “A”
Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 26 2007 7:53 utc | 53
from keeping and eye on past and recent presidential executive orders,and the trial runs of the falcon program,i think that when the administration finally acts on their plan, be it an attack on iran,a terriort (real or orchestrated)attack or anything that falls under the idea bush has that he can in-act marshall law.the american people may just wake up and head strait towards washington.only to find out what those detention centers are for.once 1/2 a million disappear and armed militia show up on our streets the rest of the sheeple will fall into place.or so they may believe.i hope i’m wrong about a devious plan and the american shepple,if not see you there.
Posted by: onzaga | Jul 26 2007 7:53 utc | 54
b real, I am trying to pay attention to your in-depth reporting on Africa, please keep it coming.
Much like rememberinggiap’s posts years ago you provide so much information that it takes a conscious effort to read and understand.
A summary would be very helpful because I for one could use a framework to work in. One obvious pillar would be the understanding that the west is exploiting Africa’s human and natural resources using its usual tools — including finance and mercenaries.
Thank you.
Posted by: jonku | Jul 26 2007 7:54 utc | 55
@jj – you are mostly right of course – I simply hate the word apocalypse – it carries too much religion and too little reality.
—
@jonku
b real gave an excellent summary in his series: Understanding AFRICOM: A Contextual Reading of Empire’s New Combatant Command linked at the homepage here.
—
@3:53 – excellent answer and a well deserved A 🙂
The “old guard” is really pissed: Here are two very, very conservatives coming out against Bush’s torture decree in a WaPo oped – War Crimes and the White House
One of us was appointed commandant of the Marine Corps by President Ronald Reagan; the other served as a lawyer in the Reagan White House and has vigorously defended the constitutionality of warrantless National Security Agency wiretaps, presidential signing statements and many other controversial aspects of the war on terrorism. But we cannot in good conscience defend a decision that we believe has compromised our national honor and that may well promote the commission of war crimes by Americans and place at risk the welfare of captured American military forces for generations to come.
From B’s #57,
“To date in the war on terrorism, including the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and all U.S. military personnel killed in action in Afghanistan and Iraq, America’s losses total about 2 percent of the forces we lost in World War II and less than 7 percent of those killed in Vietnam. Yet we did not find it necessary to compromise our honor or abandon our commitment to the rule of law to defeat Nazi Germany or imperial Japan, or to resist communist aggression in Indochina. On the contrary, in Vietnam — where we both proudly served twice — America voluntarily extended the protections of the full Geneva Convention on prisoners of war to Viet Cong guerrillas who, like al-Qaeda, did not even arguably qualify for such protections.”
Which is probably why bush must amplify the al-Qaeda smearing in Iraq, because the resistance in Iraq is no different (& setting precedence) than the Viet Cong. By calling the resistance al-Qeada it attempts to distinguish and re-brand the resistance as being non-state non-nationalists participants, and thereby justifying (his) extra-judicial behavior. A distinction that goes well beyond its propaganda motive.
Posted by: anna missed | Jul 26 2007 9:27 utc | 58
b- check. I have zippo religious background, so Apocalypse has no religous overtones for me. It simply conveys imminant catastrophe to me. I’ll substitute the term “Abyss”. The Amazonian drought story just tossed me over the edge, as it is the first story I’ve read that gives a date, next year, to potentially catastrophic climate changes. Then I posted it & no one reacted, so I got even more freaked. I flipped from thinking about elites as “they”, to asking myself what I would do if I were a planner & read that story. You have to shift from thinking that perhaps we can “manage” the transition, however fanciful & ludicrous that is, to just trying to cobble together some vague contingency plans for increasingly global social breakdown.
########
A friend just returned from Norway & told me the Swedes are celebrating ‘cuz they just won “Nature’s Lottery”, ie found oil.
And on another fun note, is anyone else also impressed w/the apparent commitment of the French, or all Europeans, in cleaning up cycling & their un-american transparency in doing so. Top Guardian sportswriters are writing about Tour de France being a disaster this year. I think it’s a cause for celebration. Maybe they’ll actually succeed in purging drugs from the sport – a sport that’s actually appropriate to the End of Oil Age. (Unlike the Americans who w/complete lack of transparency are merely switching from the drugs that made East Germany famous, to capitalism’s most perfect expression in drugs, human growth hormone, or at least they are in baseball & tennis. Don’t know about soccer/Euro. football, etc.)
Posted by: jj | Jul 26 2007 10:09 utc | 59
Welcome back, onzaga & jonku. Been wondering about you. Onzaga, are you still in N.O? How are things in general/w/you if you feel like discussing it?
Posted by: jj | Jul 26 2007 10:11 utc | 60
Israel approves transfer of weapons to PA
Israel authorized the transfer of 1,000 rifles from Jordan to the security forces of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, Israeli and Palestinian security sources confirmed to Haaretz last night.
This is the largest arms transfer authorized in recent years, and it is meant to aid forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in preventing the possibility of a Hamas challenge and possible takeover similar to the Gaza Strip.
The weapons were delivered to the PA security forces three weeks ago following Israeli authorization.
The transfer of the M-16s was kept under strict confidence on both sides, in an effort to prevent any possible leak that could undermine Abbas’ standing.
Earlier this year, several thousand rifles were delivered to Fatah forces in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, but most of those arms came under Hamas’ control following its takeover.
…
On the Palestinian side, Chairman Mahmoud Abbas appointed Hussein al-Sheikh to run the Civil Affairs Administration, responsible for coordination with Israel in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Al-Sheikh is a former leader of the Tanzim, a Fatah militia.
…
Al-Sheikh’s cellular phone rings constantly, and each time, he mentions the name of the Israeli officer on the other end of the line. The conversations are in fluent Hebrew, of course, part of his education during his many years at the “university” – Israeli prison.
FBI Proposes Building Network of U.S. Informants
The FBI is taking cues from the CIA to recruit thousands of covert informants in the United States as part of a sprawling effort to boost its intelligence capabilities.
According to a recent unclassified report to Congress, the FBI expects its informants to provide secrets about possible terrorists and foreign spies, although some may also be expected to aid with criminal investigations, in the tradition of law enforcement confidential informants.
…
Other recent proposals include expanding its collection and analysis of data on U.S. persons, retaining years’ worth of Americans’ phone records and even increasing so-called “black bag” secret entry operations.
To handle the increase in so-called human sources, the FBI also plans to overhaul its database system, so it can manage records and verify the accuracy of information from “more than 15,000” informants, according to the document.
Debs is dead@46,
you have it exactly right on “corporate cowardice”. It would have cost less than a cent on the dollar its going to take to get the Niger Delta in decent shape. Also, as you say, the Brits will be very tentative especially on Nigeria (their former colony). As you know, the Brits & Nigeria mutually place a very high-value on their relationship. And the Brits also remember back when the Nigerians faced down Maggie Thatcher & nationalized BP (they let them back in later though). By the way, you may have noted that this NATO exercise does not include a British ship. This may or may not mean anything but its worth mentioning.
b real@47
yes, these are some of the intangibles. The ND is a complex mix of ethnic minorities & interests. Saro-Wiwa was the go-to man on the ND issue in his time. Now the militants in the creeks have succceeded him as the main players. Its much more complex and the stakes are way higher now. You also mention the impact of int’l PR. Interestingly, Biafra was fought in large part over the air-waves. Any crisis in the ND will be likewise. Nigerians breathe media like we breathe air. By the way, Nigeria produces more movies than any other country in the world and its a huge industry.
one feature thats not talked about at all for now, but which may ultimately have a major impact on what happens in the ND/Nigeria is nationalism. And it can play out in several different ways.
also FWIW, the UK recently adviced its citizens to vacate the ND.
Posted by: jony_b_cool | Jul 26 2007 12:22 utc | 63
onzaga,
whatever the camps are actually used for, I will bet dollars to doughnuts that we will be informed that the folks held there are being kept in “protective custody”, like the Japanese-Americans were in WWII. It will be for their own good, and for ours as well to keep us well separated.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Jul 26 2007 12:26 utc | 64
(ties in w/ the issue of self-determination that slothrop & citizen k brought up in another thread)
fpif: The Future of Western Sahara
Morocco’s ongoing refusal to allow for the long-planned UN-sponsored referendum on the fate of Western Sahara to move forward, combined with a growing nonviolent resistance campaign in the occupied territory against Moroccan occupation authorities, has led Morocco to propose granting the former Spanish colony special autonomous status within the kingdom.
The kingdom of Morocco, generously supplied with American-made weapons, invaded the largely desert nation – then known as Spanish Sahara – more than three decades ago. It has controlled much of the territory ever since. More then 75 nations have recognized the government-in-exile of Western Sahara, led by the nationalist Polisario Front, and it is a full member state of the African Union.
A series of resolutions by the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly, as well as a landmark 1975 advisory ruling by the International Court of Justice, have recognized the right of self-determination by the people of Western Sahara. However, France and the United States have blocked the Security Council from enforcing its resolutions. Both countries have perceived a need to strengthen the Moroccan monarchy as a bulwark against Communism and radical Arab nationalism during the Cold War and, in more recent years, as an important ally in the struggle against Islamist extremism.
…
The Bush administration and a bipartisan group of congressional leaders have enthusiastically supported the Moroccan autonomy plan as a means of ending the conflict. But Morocco’s plan for autonomy falls well short of what is necessary to bring about a peaceful resolution to the conflict. It also poses a dangerous precedent that threatens the very foundation of the post-World War II international legal system.
The autonomy plan is based on the assumption that Western Sahara is part of Morocco, a contention that the United Nations, the World Court, the African Union, and a broad consensus of international legal opinion have long rejected. To accept Morocco’s autonomy plan would mean that, for the first time since the founding of the UN and the ratification of the UN Charter more the 60 years ago, the international community would be endorsing the expansion of a country’s territory by military force, thereby establishing a very dangerous and destabilizing precedent.
If the people of Western Sahara accepted an autonomy agreement over independence as a result of a free and fair referendum, it would constitute a legitimate act of self-determination. However, Morocco has explicitly stated that its autonomy proposal “rules out, by definition, the possibility for the independence option to be submitted” to the people of Western Sahara, the vast majority of whom – according to knowledgeable international observers – favor outright independence.
…
Congressional leaders of both parties appear to be allying themselves with administration hard-liners. Congressman Tom Lantos of California, whom the Democrats have chosen to chair the House International Relations Committee, referred to the Moroccan proposal as “reasonable and realistic” and called on the Polisario to accept it. He was joined by 172 other members of the House, who signed a letter declaring it “a breakthrough opportunity” and a “realistic framework for a political solution.” Given the widespread opposition in the international community to legitimizing Morocco’s act of aggression, the letter concludes by urging President Bush to “embrace this promising Moroccan initiative so that it receives the consideration necessary to achieve international acceptance.”
The letter was drafted and circulated by Congressman Gary Ackerman of New York, whom the Democrats have chosen to chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East. Other Democratic leaders joining their foreign policy leadership in supporting Morocco’s right of conquest included Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Democratic Caucus Chair Rahm Emanuel. Prominent Republicans signing the letter included Minority Leader John Boehner, House Republican Whip Roy Blunt, and former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Indeed, more than 80 of the signers are either committee chairmen or ranking members of key committees, subcommittees and elected leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives, yet another indication in this post-Cold War era of a growing bipartisan effort to undermine the longstanding principle of the right of self-determination.
Former Clinton administration officials have also weighed in to support the contention that the people of Western Sahara should give up on their widely acknowledged claim to independence and instead accept the suzerainty of the autocratic Moroccan monarchy. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, in an open letter to President Bush, also encouraged him to back the Moroccan plan, which she claimed gave “the people of the Western Sahara a true voice in their future through the full benefits of autonomy as presented by Morocco, a credible political solution can be achieved.” The letter was signed by a host of other prominent Democrats.
Posted by: b real | Jul 26 2007 15:02 utc | 65
this is one of the sources i cited quite a bit throughout my AFRICOM rpt (and who kindly dropped some brecht into the comments)
UC Berkeley geography professor wounded in Nigeria
BERKELEY – A University of California, Berkeley, geography professor who studies violence in the oil fields of Nigeria was injured today in the center of the country’s oil-rich Niger delta by a group of gun-wielding men who attacked a newspaper office.
Michael Watts, professor of geography and director of UC Berkeley’s Center for African Studies, was shot in the hand by one of nearly a dozen heavily armed men and told the Associated Press that he believes they followed him to the office after he’d made a trip to the bank.
In an e-mail to UC Berkeley colleague Edward Miguel, associate professor of economics, Watts said he was visiting a radical journalist and friend at the National Point newspaper in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State in the Niger delta, when the gunmen, some apparently high on drugs, arrived on motorcycles.
“In the total chaos, there was a lot of shooting; one (person was) shot in the leg,” he wrote. “They came calling for ‘the white man’ and asked me for money after hitting me on the head with a Beretta,” which is a brand of handgun.
Watts told reporters that some of the men appeared to be aiming to shoot him in the leg, but missed and hit his left hand instead.
“Please assure people I am OK, if shaken,” he wrote in response to an e-mail from the NewsCenter.
Posted by: b real | Jul 26 2007 15:24 utc | 66
democracynow coverage today on the attack on the newspaper
Insecurity continues to escalate in the oil-rich Niger Delta. On Wednesday morning unidentified gunmen stormed the office of an independent weekly newspaper, the National Point. The paper is published by activist journalists and had recently reported on the alleged links between local politicians and criminal gangs. University of California – Berkeley professor Michael Watts was among the wounded. We go to Nigeria to speak with award-winning Nigerian journalist Ibiba Donpedro, who witnessed the attack.
(audio download available after 11 am NY time)
Posted by: b real | Jul 26 2007 15:29 utc | 67
more navy guys getting nominated for promotion to the higher ranks of AFRICOM and EUCOM. (more evidence of a shift into a new era of gunboat diplomacy?)
stars and stripes: Two Stuttgart-based admirals nominated for promotion
STUTTGART, Germany — The future of military leadership in Europe became clearer this week when two Stuttgart-based admirals were nominated for promotions.
Rear Adm. Richard K. Gallagher has been picked to become deputy commander of the U.S. European Command, and Rear Adm. Robert T. Moeller was chosen to lead military operations at the new Africa Command, the Pentagon announced Tuesday.
The two officers would be promoted to vice admiral as part of their appointments, both of which need to be approved by the Senate.
Gallagher would replace Gen. William E. Ward, who has been nominated to become commander of the U.S. military’s new combatant command, Africa Command.
…
Moeller is director of the AFRICOM Transition Team, which in February began designing the command and hiring people to work there. His new title would be deputy to the commander for military operations.
Posted by: b real | Jul 26 2007 15:44 utc | 68
two rpts show that citizens are mobilizing into demonstration mode in somalia, and, surprise surprise, they’re not protesting against the insurgents
Somalia: Demonstrators accuse govt. troops of raping five refugee women
Mogadishu 26, July.07 ( Sh.M.Network)- – Some of Mogadishu’s Internally Displaced People in Heliwa district staged a huge protest against Somali government troops who raided a refugee camp and raped at least five refugee women including a teenage a girl.
The demonstration which was orchestrated by the relatives and neighbors of the victims took place in north of the capital with protestors chanting anti-government troops slogans.
…
In the protest, they asked Somalia’s transitional government to do something about their complaints and punish the soldiers who commited the cruel acts against them.
On Wednesday a demonstration against government troops also took place in north of the capital. Protesters were complaining that troops robbed their properties.
Hundreds of Somali businessmen and women were chanting anti-government slogans, marching inside Karan district for hours.
Some of them told Shabelle that the market in the area was raided and robbed twice in this week, demanding that the government should release one of their fellow traders.
Mohamoud Hassan Kulmiye, one of the rally-makers, said that they will continue staging demonstrations against the government until Aweys Mohammed Gaal, a shopkeeper, who was apprehended by Somali troops is released.
there was also a rpt earlier this week of what sounds/looks like a staged rally to indicate public support for the national reconciliation conference still underway in mogadishu
Thousands come out in support of Somalia conference
MOGADISHU, Somalia July 24 (Garowe Online) – Thousands of Somalis poured onto Mogadishu’s dangerous city streets on Tuesday to support the ongoing National Reconciliation Conference, residents said.
Demonstrators, including women and children, walked the streets in Mogadishu’s Abdiaziz neighborhood before convening at Konis Stadium at the heart of the city.
Mogadishu Mayor Mohamed “Dheere” Omar and NRC Chairman Ali Mahdi addressed supporters at the crowded stadium.
“This demonstration dismisses the notion that the public opposes the conference,” Chairman Mahdi said, who went on to call on the Somali people to “forget the past” and stand up for national interests and the resurrection of the Somali state.
Posted by: b real | Jul 26 2007 15:57 utc | 69
@jj/Jake/b re: doomsday/apocalypse/climate change
Here are some layman’s observations of local (So Calif) weather that are scaring the s#!+ out of me…
1) We are missing our ‘monsoon’ (summer thunderstorms) in the local mountains and nearby desert. The storm track has been pushed inland and weakened, so now the Calif/Ariz border region is getting what we should be getting. This may be due to, or just partly coincide with, the cloud layering being severely disrupted. The cloud layers have been pushed up by 500′-1000′ (150m-300m) and have been compressed. It is possible that increasing the altitude of the storm track has caused it to slide eastward. Exacerbating this problem are the high-altitude contrails from aircraft. The contrails are spreading and causing a partial cooling, which seems to be robbing the desert of the heat (energy) that is required to build the big thunderstorms we normally get in the summer.
2) Plant species are beginning to drop dead from drought! In the Santa Monica Mountains near Los Angeles, sumac and other species are dying out below 1500′ (450m) elevation. Coastal live oaks, which are highly drought-resistant, are losing whole branches. Oaks, pines, and firs in the 5000′-7000′ (1500m-2100m) elevation range in the San Gabriel Mountains are succumbing to mistletoe, a plant-like parasite. Also, many of these trees that are not infected with mistletoe are dying of drought.
3) In the southern Sierra Nevada, many of the streams that run year-round are now dry. The Kern River has much less water than normal, and the early-summer level of Lake Isabella (reservoir on the Kern) is the lowest I’ve ever seen. Water here is slowly becoming a bigger issue, though in most cases the changes are under the radar. I found out, to my dismay, that after moving 2 years ago, my new apartment is supplied water by ‘Yet Another Big Giant Texas Ripoff’ in the form of Minol of Addison, Texas. They are charging about 10 times what LA Department of Water and Power charges for water. LA DWP is the ‘nationalized’ water company that supplies Los Angeles and the surrounding cities.
4) Gasoline prices here are being kept artificially low after the oil companies found the demand threshold to be at $3.50/gal and have since kept them in the $3.10/gal range. Los Angelinos are being encouraged to keep driving…same old same old. Though this last point isn’t strictly an observation of weather, it is an observation of behavior that will ensure continued decline.
The s#!+ is really hitting the fan here, but most Los Angelinos don’t get out of their cars long enough to notice the stench.
Posted by: Dr. Wellington Yueh | Jul 26 2007 16:25 utc | 70
Good news of the day: Mohammed Dahlan resigns following Fatah’s Gaza defeat
Former Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan resigned as Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ national security adviser Thursday, a month and a half after his men were routed in the Gaza Strip by their rivals from Hamas.
In a statement sent to reporters, Dahlan cited health reasons, but Palestinian Authority sources said he had been asked to resign by a government committee that concluded that he bore much of the responsibility for Fatah’s humiliating defeat by Hamas in mid-June.
Well – that is not the REAL reason why he had to be fired.
This is the real reason: Documents seized by Hamas reveal Palestinian security chief planned to kill Arafat
Hamas has released correspondence that disclosed a Palestinian plot to kill Yasser Arafat.
The correspondence, found in Preventive Security Apparatus headquarters in Gaza City, disclosed correspondence between PSA chief Mohammed Dahlan and then-Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz in 2003. Dahlan was said to have pledged to assassinate Arafat, who died a year later.
“Be sure that Mr. Yasser Arafat is now counting his final days,” Dahlan was said to have written Mofaz in a hand-written letter dated July 13, 2003. “But let us slaughter him our way — not yours.”
No way Abbas could stick to Dahlan after that …
Looks like some of the missing money in Iraq may have magically found its way into the pockets of this serving officer and family.
Posted by: anna missed | Jul 26 2007 19:27 utc | 72
@72 anna missed
“We’re suffering injustice in the name of justice,” Cockerham shouted. “I guess we can thank the Department of Justice for this.”
boggles the mind.
Posted by: beq | Jul 26 2007 19:42 utc | 73
narco news: US Relations with Venezuela Take Center Stage in the US Presidential Campaign
Will North Meet South? Obama Said Yes, Clinton Said No, and It’s a Whole New Ballgame in the US Presidential Campaign
– — – — – —
interesting stmt in an interview in the special interest
Q: Does the Somali Model apply to Darfur?
A: I think not. Sudan has a regime that controls the country. The thing that made encouraging the Ethiopians so easy is that Somalia didn’t really have a central government in place, which made breaching its sovereignty so easy. In fact, the Ethiopians tried to consolidate a government in exile that would be internationally recognized. So, Somalia was a unique situation from the standpoint of international law. You couldn’t send in a proxy force of any kind into Sudan without raising sovereignty issues.
Posted by: b real | Jul 26 2007 19:42 utc | 74
@72 anna missed:
These contractor bribery funds probably do not originate from the same truckloads of missing cash that Bremer has been unable to account for, though for sure it is probably scammed taxpayer dollars one way or the other.
Hey! So much corruption, so little time…
Posted by: Rick Happ | Jul 26 2007 21:16 utc | 75
Still giving us the same old B.S.
CNN today – General: Death toll down as U.S., Iraq forces take control
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/07/26/iraq.us.deaths/index.html?iref=newssearch (not worth reading or linking to)
Discussed at this blog
– BTW, give it a little time to load then take a look at “the decider” at the top of the blog.
Posted by: Rick | Jul 26 2007 21:37 utc | 76
thanks jonku
— — —
more ammo for shooting down a current rightwing talking point
Chile and Venezuela: Myths and Realities of the Arms Race
The recent trip by President Hugo Chávez to Russia has been seen as part of the arms race in which the Bolivarian leader is engaged. However, facts indicate that Venezuela is far behind Washington’s two main allies in the region, Colombia and Chile, in the purchase of weapons.
Although Venezuela garners the headlines, as it turns out it is not the country at the forefront when it comes to acquiring armaments. In recent years Chile has purchased weapons valued at US$2.785 billion, Venezuela at US$2.200 billion, and Brazil, greatly lagging, occupies third place at US$1.342 billion. A recent report in the industry magazine Military Power Review affirms that the trans-Andean country has risen from fourth to third place in the “military capacity” ranking for South America, displacing Argentina from that position and approaching Peru, which continues to occupy second place.
Venezuela also rose one place, but continues to lag a considerable distance behind the most powerful countries militarily. Taking into account Defense spending as a percentage of Gross National Product (GNP), Chile takes first place as well, with 3.8% in 2005, followed by Colombia with 3.7%, a country which also benefited from a large amount of military aid from the United Status that amounts to US$3 billion since 2001 due to Plan Colombia and Plan Patriota. In 2005 Venezuela was still behind, with 1.6% of GNP in military expenditures, very similar to the percentage in the country before the arrival of Hugo Chávez’s government.
this was pointed out back in june in an analysis over at oilwars, which i linked to at the time.
Posted by: b real | Jul 27 2007 3:50 utc | 77
Tillman 3 shots in the forehead close range by M-16
By MARTHA MENDOZA
The Associated Press
Thursday, July 26, 2007; 7:59 PM
SAN FRANCISCO — Army medical examiners were suspicious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman’s forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player’s death amounted to a crime, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
“The medical evidence did not match up with the, with the scenario as described,” a doctor who examined Tillman’s body after he was killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2004 told investigators.
The doctors _ whose names were blacked out _ said that the bullet holes were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.
Ultimately, the Pentagon did conduct a criminal investigation, and asked Tillman’s comrades whether he was disliked by his men and whether they had any reason to believe he was deliberately killed. The Pentagon eventually ruled that Tillman’s death at the hands of his comrades was a friendly-fire accident. Much more at the link…
However, this…from the article:
In his last words moments before he was killed, Tillman snapped at a panicky comrade under fire to shut up and stop “sniveling.”
“And Tillman says to him, `Would you shut your (expletive) mouth? God’s not going to help you; you need to do something for yourself, you sniveling …”
Bullying, whether on the schoolyard or on the battlefield, sometimes yields unexpected but understandable reactions, if indeed it are true.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 27 2007 4:19 utc | 78
Uncle – I doubt Tillman said anything with those 3 bullets in the forehead. Guess they fragged him …
stan goff recently wrote
…I have reviewed thousands of pages of testimony on the incident, and know the family quite well. Infantry platoons don’t commit political assassinations, and Pat’s killing was not planned by anyone. This is my absolute and categorical opinion. I have written a series about Pat’s death for the now-defunct From the Wilderness Publications, called “The Tillman Files,” and my basic prosecutorial hypotheses remain unchanged. I have since learned many more details and had names corrected from previously redacted documents; but long-story-short, no conspiracy. More than that I can’t say now, because I have signed a confidentiality aggreement that limits my discussion of this case.
that doesn’t rule out an unplanned murder
Posted by: b real | Jul 27 2007 4:58 utc | 80
Watch the oil prices – when such pressure annoys the Saudis, they might start to have some “technical production problems” …
U.S. Officials Voice Frustrations With Saudis, Citing Role in Iraq
Now, Bush administration officials are voicing increasing anger at what they say has been Saudi Arabia’s counterproductive role in the Iraq war. They say that beyond regarding Mr. Maliki as an Iranian agent, the Saudis have offered financial support to Sunni groups in Iraq.
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Senior Bush administration officials said the American concerns would be raised next week when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates make a rare joint visit to Jidda, Saudi Arabia.
…
Saudi Arabia months ago made a pitch to enlist other Persian Gulf countries to take a direct role in supporting Sunni tribal groups in Iraq, said one former American ambassador with close ties to officials in the Middle East. The former ambassador, Edward W. Gnehm, who has served in Kuwait and Jordan, said that during a recent trip to the region he was told that Saudi Arabia had pressed other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council — which includes Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman — to give financial support to Sunnis in Iraq. The Saudis made this effort last December, Mr. Gnehm said.
When the military really, really needs to get out of Iraq it can be done pretty fast
Denmark pulls out Iraq troops early: report
Denmark has withdrawn most of the 430 troops it has stationed in Iraq earlier than expected, a report said Wednesday quoting the Danish military.
The battalion, stationed in the southern city of Basra since 2003, under British command, was supposed to begin pulling out its soldiers on August 10.
But, according to a report by the Iraqi correspondent of the Danish TV channel TV2, sustained attacks by insurgents have led to most of them heading home early.
Former Ambassador Craig Murray on Afghanistan (and Litvinenko):
Britain is protecting the biggest heroin crop of all time
Afghanistan was not militarily winnable by the British Empire at the height of its supremacy. It was not winnable by Darius or Alexander, by Shah, Tsar or Great Moghul. It could not be subdued by 240,000 Soviet troops. But what, precisely, are we trying to win?
In six years, the occupation has wrought one massive transformation in Afghanistan, a development so huge that it has increased Afghan GDP by 66 per cent and constitutes 40 per cent of the entire economy. That is a startling achievement, by any standards. Yet we are not trumpeting it. Why not?
The answer is this. The achievement is the highest harvests of opium the world has ever seen.
…
Our economic achievement in Afghanistan goes well beyond the simple production of raw opium. In fact Afghanistan no longer exports much raw opium at all. It has succeeded in what our international aid efforts urge every developing country to do. Afghanistan has gone into manufacturing and ‘value-added’ operations.
It now exports not opium, but heroin. Opium is converted into heroin on an industrial scale, not in kitchens but in factories. Millions of gallons of the chemicals needed for this process are shipped into Afghanistan by tanker. The tankers and bulk opium lorries on the way to the factories share the roads, improved by American aid, with Nato troops.
…
My knowledge of all this comes from my time as British Ambassador in neighbouring Uzbekistan from 2002 until 2004. I stood at the Friendship Bridge at Termez in 2003 and watched the Jeeps with blacked-out windows bringing the heroin through from Afghanistan, en route to Europe.
I watched the tankers of chemicals roaring into Afghanistan.
Yet I could not persuade my country to do anything about it. Alexander Litvinenko – the former agent of the KGB, now the FSB, who died in London last November after being poisoned with polonium 210 – had suffered the same frustration over the same topic.
…
Litvinenko uncovered the St Petersburg end and was stunned by the involvement of the city authorities, local police and security services at the most senior levels. He reported in detail to President Vladimir Putin. Putin is, of course, from St Petersburg, and the people Litvinenko named were among Putin’s closest political allies. That is why Litvinenko, having miscalculated badly, had to flee Russia.
…
Thank you, Dr, Yueh, for your superb post. Do you or anyone else know of any sites that are tracking on an ongoing basis ecosystem disruptions, including weather changes?
Here’s some more encouraging thinking from our most knowledgeable & creative optimist, Amory Lovins. DeA- will be very encouraged by what he has to say on nuclear power – on effect of govt. intervention to rejeuvenate this destructive industry:
So I think even such a massive intervention will give you about the same effect as defibrillating a corpse — it will jump but it will not revive.
As he’s already helped design a number of highly efficient cars, what he has to say is far more informed & hopeful than Kunstlers’ ravings, however much the latter’s well-crafted prose conceals his technical ignorance. Lovins discusses technical improvements that can be rapidly implemented that would lower oil utilization to 3% of the oil/mi. you started w/. He doesn’t however discuss price, although the ultr-lights he mentions would presumably use carbon fibre which is quite expensive, at least in the sailing world. Nevertheless barflies who’ve hardly been breathing recently will be seriously encouraged by this interview w/Amory Lovins
Posted by: jj | Jul 27 2007 9:32 utc | 85
Sorry, I’m tired. I neglected to include that he thinks that private transportation is more feasible than public transportation given population distribution in america – unlike Kunstler who makes his living flying around the world from his rural abode, berating everyone for said distribution. A.L. doesn’t have a problem w/that for the reason I mentioned above, while neglecting to provide context for that info.
Posted by: jj | Jul 27 2007 9:37 utc | 86
Study: Iraqis May Experience Sadness When Friends, Relatives Die
A field study released Monday by the University of North Carolina School of Public Health suggests that Iraqi citizens experience sadness and a sense of loss when relatives, spouses, and even friends perish, emotions that have until recently been identified almost exclusively with Westerners.
…
“Contrary to conventional wisdom, it seems that Iraqis do indeed experience at least minor feelings of grief when a best friend or a grandparent is ripped apart by a car bomb or shot execution style and later unearthed in a shallow mass grave,” Prytzal said.
U.S. drops Baghdad electricity reports
Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that Baghdad residents could count on only “an hour or two a day” of electricity. That’s down from an average of five to six hours a day earlier this year.
But that piece of data has not been sent to lawmakers for months because the State Department, which prepares a weekly “status report” for Congress on conditions in Iraq, stopped estimating in May how many hours of electricity Baghdad residents typically receive each day.
A good one on the current credit crunch by Jerome at DKos: ‘For all practical purposes the markets are closed right now’
Dr Haneef has been freed. Haneef is the Doctor who was the first person to be accused of being a terrorist by association under Australia’s new mad and bad ‘anti-terra’ laws. According to the Sydney Morning Herald
The case against the Indian doctor collapsed spectacularly yesterday as embarrassed federal authorities admitted bungling the investigation.
Dr Haneef, 27, was released from a Brisbane jail into “residential detention” hours later.
There are a number of interesting issues arising out of the whole mess. The Australian domestic ones may not interest many but I will mention them.
Firstly the opposition to his continued incarceration which had moved from a quiet groundswell of opinion into loud outrage when he was moved from jail to an immigration Department ‘custodial centre’.
He was re-imprisoned under Australia’s draconian immigration laws after the judge hearing his case gave him bail, yet still the official opposition stayed silent. The obvious tutelage of Hilary Obama all too apparent, they were too scared to say anything in case the by now outraged electorate judged them ‘soft on terror’.
These blokes (Kevin Rudd & Co) are either very stupid, very deaf (ie couldn’t hear what their citizens were saying) or so far up amerika’s ass that I feel like asking them to have a look around for a Harley Davidson hard-tail of mine that went missing in Kansas many years ago. Probably all three.
The SMH and the rest of the print media were also absolutely silent on the abuse of human rights which characterised this case from beginning to end, choosing to publicise blatant abuse only after the courts had quashed the Australian Government’s excesses. Aaah I could wax lyrical about the independent judiciary in Oz for ever, they never cease to amaze me; and will be the fly in the ointment of Howard’s Aboriginal land expropriation. But I would hate to hex them by overstating their integrity.
None of this would normally matter especially not the independent judiciary bit since both the immigration act and the anti-terra laws are specifically designed to remove the meddlesome legal profession from these processes.
However there was a third force in play, a foreign force that would have been unheard of even two years ago. I saw no reference to that force in the SMH article but the NZ Herald story did emphasise it. (Any viewers of ‘The Flight of the Conchords’ will know that many NZers harbour a deep and irrational resentment towards things Australian.) Anyway right at the end of the Herald story:
In Bangalore, Dr Haneef’s wife, Firdous Arshiya, said she was extremely pleased the charges had been dropped and that the “truth has come out”.
“I thank the Indian Government, our Prime Minister, our Minister for External Affairs for the support they have given,” she said. “It wouldn’t have been possible without their help and intervention.”
India is now most defininately a player. Some of you may remember a year or two ago I posted a yarn which mentioned the dismissive attitude that Maori and Pacific Island people had towards the poor people from the Indian sub-continent who had started to populate the poorer areas of NZ cities. Well the attitude of John Howard and his government towards India was similar. Somewhere sometime I will complete a post on the touchy subject of “White Australia” which is by no means a uniform attitude but which is the bailiwick of Howard and his ilk. Fear of the huddled masses of Asia is one of the primary contributors. That and the lower middle class racism that is endemic in many white dominated cultures. Those lower middle class types were the prison warders or “traps” that were brought to Australia centuries ago and abused their power into continued power in the Australian Liberal Party which Howard is the leader of.
Anyway the days of Howard the brown nose only having to listen to amerika or england have passed, as the world’s geo-political power has shifted so has Howard’s ear, nose and throat. The Chinese have been doing pretty much what they want to Australia and in Australia for more than 10 years -but we don’t talk about that – a Chinese security official defected from the Canberra embassy and everyone has to work hard to ignore his tales.
Now India’s size and economic power must be taken into consideration in Australia’s dealings with Indian nationals. Nothing demonstrates better than this incident exactly how much global power politics have changed.
The Indian government would always have taken issue with this matter as the Indian media see these types of story, where Indian nationals are mistreated throughout the ‘western’ world, as both racist and contemptuous of India’s highly ethical character.
However even a couple of years ago even if India had been able to put the squeeze on Australia over something like this nothing would happen. That is on a security issue in one of the most coveted of the whitefellas’ resource stash spots.
All Howard or any of his predecessors would have needed to do would be to ring Uncle Shrub or Aunty Bliar. That is if the bossfellas hadn’t already called with their instructions.
Admittedly this was more an election issue (Howard wanting to play the terror card in the face of very ordinary poll figures)that a security one, but still USuk don’t like any ructions down at mill, and demand anyone suspected of causing any such thing to be dealt with promptly.
But they have to consider India’s feelings now too. Fuck what is happening to the world? Can’t a whitefella have a quiet beer anywhere warm anymore?
Once the decision on Haneef’s future was moved out of the courts and onto the government it was over. Howard couldn’t tell India that the matter was sub-judice, that in a democracy “one doesn’t interfere in the court process” thereby lightening up the mood with that little joke.
It was all over. Haneef was free. There will be a few face saving exercises like keeping him away from seeing his first child for a few more days just to make it look like Howard’s the boss – maybe they won’t let him come back to Oz afterwards. That is unlikely as it would only serve to re-raise the issue in the public consciousness.
There will be blood on the floor of a few bureaucrats hang outs. The public collapse of the charges was Mick Keelty’s payback for being forced into harassing Haneef and charging him early as Howard wanted, in order to maximise the link to Haneefs cousins’ publicity, thereby earning Howard kudos. But it backfired. Howard’s gone for all money. Damn shame that the new boss is gonna be just like the old boss.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Jul 28 2007 4:32 utc | 90
Thanks Did – quite interesting how dominant India and China are becoming. And good that Haneef is free again (almost).
—
Worth your time: a BBC documentation
The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression.
Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy.
b #91
Retired Major General Smedley Butler, USMC, who some of you here may know of, was the one they tried to recruit to execute the coup against Roosevelt but he thwarted their evil intent. This may be an inspiration for answers to my following post.
I need some help or opinions.
I talked to my congressional representative this morning both in a group setting and one on one afterward. He (a liberal Democrat) opposes impeachment and I don’t think he’ll be dissuaded although he actively does opposes the war. I think he has integrity and is aware of the nefarious, though maybe not psychopathic nature of the Cheney, Rowe, Gonzales, Bush, cabal.
I ranted to him about all the acts and presidential signing orders, including July17th, that have militarized our country and prepared Bush to impose martial law when the right time comes. I stressed that the cabal are psychopathic and criminal tyrants and we are now legally at their mercy. They can do as they pleases with no legally effective checks on their dictatorship. I didn’t mention the detention centers, I’m unsure of the validity of the rumors I hear.
I think he heard me and agrees though he probably sees me as over reacting. He asked me a sincere question, I believe, “So what can I do about it?” and I had no answer other than “get together with those who truly recognize this and prepare for a Rowevian/Cheney inspired worst scenario” when they are faced with expulsion from power by the legal and elective course of inaction.
I think there may be many sincere congress critters who are faced with this same question, So my question to Moon flies, if you happen think there is a high probability of the worst case scenario (false flag attack, a new war, or the likes) happening:
As a US congressman, what can I do, if and when impeachment fails, to thwart the cabal from reeking mayhem on our country?
Posted by: Juannie | Jul 28 2007 18:11 utc | 92
As a US congressman, what can I do, if and when impeachment fails, to thwart the cabal from reeking mayhem on our country?
1.step: Stop helping them do so. No further security laws, no FISA changes, deny budget etc.
2.step: Keep them busy. There were over 1,000 supeonas etc against Clinton. A handful against Bush. Hammer them with such now …
3.step: Find the good guys in the military (in JCOS etc.) that could stop this. Prepare with the state goveners do deny Bush access to the National Guard. Have the legal briefs and scenarios ready to immediately challenge anything Bush would do in court. Discuss off the record with some journalists …
b @ 91
I have sometimes wondered how the world would look now if the the US had not sided with Britain in the second great war. If that coup had taken place, and the US had allied itself with Germany and Italy, would the world be a better or worse place than it is right now?
Russia might very well be part of Europe now and the middle east would be all colonized and most likely under European domination.
One of the points made in the radio show was that US citizens most likely would have accepted a dictatorship then as they probably would now. Security is that important to a lot of folks.
Posted by: dan of steele | Jul 29 2007 17:49 utc | 94
Russia might very well be part of Europe now and the middle east would be all colonized and most likely under European domination.
Well – Russia IS part of Europe now and the middle east is mostly under U.S. domination.
Not much change …
If the coup in the U.S. would have taken place, a coup in UK would probably have followed. Hard to imagine what else would have happened. Maybe the US and UK would have turned on the Germans anyway because a Germany ruling over the natural reserves of the “east” would have been too much of a competition …