IranContra Trading Cards w/Histories-educational
Each card has an excellent history of the perp. Great idea.

1 The Iran-Contra Hearings
2 Anastasio Somoza
3 Enrique Bermudez
4 Adolfo Calero
5 William Casey
6 Caspar Weinberger
7 John Singlaub
8 Thomas Posey
9 The La Penca Bomber
10 Rene Corvo & Felipe Vidal
11 The Medellin Cartel
12 John Hull
13 Oliver North
14 Robert Owen
15 Carl “Spitz” Channel
16 Joseph Coors
17 King Fahd
18 Elliot Abrams
19 Richard Secord
20 Albert Hakim
21 Richard Gadd & Robert Dutton
22 Thomas Clines
23 Rafael “Chi Chi” Quintero
24 Theodore Shackley
25 William Buckley
26 Manucher Ghorbanifar
27 David Kimche
28 Robert McFarlane
29 Eugene Hasenfus
30 Felix Rodriguez
31 Donald Gregg
32 George Bush
33 Edwin Meese III
34 Fawn Hall
35 John Poindexter
36 Ronald Reagan

And damn it, I could kick myself for not buying these when I could have…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 22 2007 5:04 utc | 3

Goddamn it, they moved it…try here: Iran/Contra
Same players different stanza…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 22 2007 5:11 utc | 5

For Uncle, & anyone else who needs a bitter laugh over their late night drink – CAUTION – don’t read w/full mouth…Grabbed this from comments @Kunstler’s place:
The so-called “bankruptcy reform” added a brand new chapter that Bear Stearns is going to be using: Chapter 15. This allows corporations (who got far easier bankruptcy terms added in the alleged reform) to jurisdiction shop for the most favorable bankruptcy courts worldwide, while requiring US courts to run interferance.
Posted by: Tangurena | August 20, 2007 at 09:35 AM

Posted by: jj | Aug 22 2007 5:57 utc | 7

Hannah, I thought of you as I read this online book Trail Of The Octopus kindly linked by our Uncle.
It is revealing, the story of a US fellow who worked for his government in Lebanon during the 1980s and early 1990s.
The book reveals much detail, he was hung out to dry by the US and sought refugee status in Sweden where he decided to tell what he knew.
Victor Bout is mentioned I believe, in the context of US gun running and drug smuggling/sting operations/interdiction.
Good to hear from you, I’ll take a look at your link. Thank you.

Posted by: jonku | Aug 22 2007 8:57 utc | 9

@ jonku 9
Yes, I read “Octopus” several months ago, and found it an interesting (probable and partial) corroboration of previous “suspicions”: indeed, one wonders about who controlled the “controlled deliveries” of heroin and whether or not they were used for “sting operations” or mere enrichment of the controllers.
In a related vein, it may well be that the operative motivation for invading Afghanistan was control of the opium trade rather than the much bruited (and debunked) pipeline, with the “harboring” of Osama as a
highly popular casus belli against the Taleban. But this is, of course, pure conjecture (not to say fantasy).

For those interested in some official documentation on the details of the
Maher Arar case this official
Canadian site is of interest.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Aug 22 2007 9:56 utc | 11

@ uncle (3) – I have one of these for what they’re worth.

Posted by: beq | Aug 22 2007 12:17 utc | 13

Unc, if you jump fast, there is another set with a buy it now.

Posted by: Ensley | Aug 22 2007 17:05 utc | 15

Alamet, you’re referring to an incident that occurred at an organized protest located off-site of the Mexico, US Canada summit in Quebec.
RossK has been covering this on his blog, The Gazetteer. The link is to his home page where there are currently 3 articles about this.
He’s unearthed this image on Democratic Underground that shows one of the three arrested “protesters” with a yellow logo on the sole of his boot under the ball of the foot, seemingly identical to the boot of a kneeling policeman who is handcuffing him. It probably says “Vibram,” a brand of work-shoe and hiking-boot soles. Circumstantial evidence but not compelling on its own. The Vibram logo is actually rectangular with the corners trimmed off, making it a squashed octagon.
RossK also links to more photos and a video.
Incidentally, the federal and provincial police report that four people were arrested in total, all known to the organizers of the protest, but no mention of these three who walked away from the leader of the protest who told them to go protest somewhere else (one guy was carrying a rock) at which time they moved to the police line and were taken into custody and led away.
In photos, one of the three men who attempted to disrupt the peaceful nature of the protest was quite tall, short-haired, and wearing new-looking camouflage pants, boots and wearing a small gray nylon packsack.
To my eye it’s hard to distinguish him from the police who are leading him away except for the fact that his hands are secured behind his back.
It certainly seems possible that the three were provocateurs, but who sent them?

Posted by: jonku | Aug 22 2007 17:12 utc | 17

Hi y’all – and thanks jonku for the link.
Been awhile since I’ve been to to moon – apologies.
This is not a trivial matter for reasonable people up here in the country formerly known as Canuckistan.
What I found most distressing was the fact that, regardless of who these fellows actually are and/or who they are affiliated with, this was a deliberate attempt at provocation that would have involved all kinds of innocent, unarmed and unprotected people if it had succeeded.
Furthermore, those unprotected people were actually there doing their best to make sure such a provocation did not occur.
The video itself really is chilling.
Following the developments as they move forward….one of the labour groups says they have ‘proof’ that the fellows were associated with authorities.
Thanks again.
.

Posted by: RossK | Aug 22 2007 18:45 utc | 19

crap, the above was me.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 22 2007 19:05 utc | 21

My $.02 on the Vibram boot soles…
The soles pictured on the three ‘protesters’ is identical to the soles on the police boots. The yellow octagonal Vibram logo is usually only applied to their higher-end soles, and the soles pictured are not your standard hiking boot sole, but more of a ‘street-smart’ lug pattern. Almost all hiking boots will have a more aggressive tread, affectionately known among hikers as ‘waffle stompers’ due to their blocky tread pattern, as opposed to the ‘stripes’ tread pattern pictured.
I personally have never seen this sole pattern on civilian boots, and I’ve seen (literally!) thousands of Vibram-soled boots in person, and many more thousands in catalogs and on the Net. You can probably buy boots with these soles, but why go to the expense and trouble (special order or lots of shopping around) to duplicate the police boots? And why would three people at the same location in the same protest have gone to the same trouble? They’re cops…or maybe members of a militia?

Posted by: Dr. Wellington Yueh | Aug 22 2007 19:35 utc | 23

To add insult to injury as the say, what even more of a depravity is the thuggs standing around on people graves Grave walkers?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 22 2007 19:55 utc | 25

correction: pay ’em a coffee/beer ..
—
A bit of ‘streetfighter’ talk:
Some issues on the Canadian police – looks unexperienced and is protected too much. They didn’t stop the demo at a chocke point, i.e. the most narrow place they could. From the video it looks like 100 yards back would have been a better position (I might err here – the video doesn’t show the complete scene) Where is the back up? The water cannons?
They also have quite a nerveous line moving a lot left/right. They thin the line quite a bit after they take those three “prisoners” to their cars. Let them take 20 real hasseling prisoners that way and there is no operational line left at all …
Wearing the gas mask under those visors is stupid. They keep the masks open to real air, but with restricted intake and while carrying quite bulky body armour. Even when trained you can’t run in formation more than 50 yards under these mask and weight at decent speed. Let them take some folks, break the then thinned line, outrun them to the objective … disperse …
Those helmet visors are a weak point. (Special police units here don’t use them anymore.) A decent paint spray can will blind some 30 of these in no time – just someone running parallel to them along the front line, spraying her/his can and vanishing in the mass (some of these graffity folks are great at doing that.)
In close confrontation some legaly owned pepper spray aimed from the hip upwards under that visor will to disorientate these guys too.
It’s not that you want to fight such lines. Avoid them if possible. They hurt (I know.) But sometimes you have to and a bit of experience/knowledge thereabout might help …
Best successes we had against the usual police folks guarding big internationmal meetings with undignifying celebrities here: Attack them – sort of, run, let them follow you to a quarter where you know the area or have scouted the roads and backyards and trap them there. Some smoking garbadge containers on the road might be sufficient to hold them up.
Suddenly disperse from there (SMS signal – one of many prepared ones) and head back fast by any means to the meeting place you wanted to disturbe in the first place – rinse, repeat – police is slower to react than any entrepreneurial crowd. I once saw 500 police folks tactically encircling a big road crossing which was totally empty while half a mile away a 300 determined folks broke up an international meeting at a big hotel.
Usually this ends in chaos for the police and next day bad press for them (you still need good spokes people though to feed that angle AND YOUR MESSAGE).
Genereal conclusion: prepare.
Here we have some sympathetic “emergency on-call lawyers”. We distribute their centralized phone number before any demo. Everyone writes it down on their forearm. If they catch you, you know where to call and they will take care … We have first aid teams, doctors, with any decent demo. Refugee houses if needed …
Folks, you’ll see a lot of this during the next years. It’s nothing new though. There are ways to get through it and to be successful.

Posted by: b | Aug 22 2007 20:56 utc | 27

Folks, you’ll see a lot of this during the next years. It’s nothing new though. There are ways to get through it and to be successful.
Indeed,…reminds me of this:
Miami Police Shot Protester, then laugh about it.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 22 2007 21:42 utc | 29

Dear b,
Wonderfully good tactical advice, brother (forgive the solidarity, my long hair is showing). Rinse, repeat indeed.
Expect much more street fighting if the Cheney cabal attacks Iran. See Ray McGovern’s column today at Antiwar.com

Posted by: Wolf DeVoon | Aug 22 2007 23:55 utc | 31

This is BIG! and getting bigger, This is becoming a huge story. (of course everywhere but here in America)
Lead piece right now on the Globe and Mail website:
Fake summit protesters provoked violence: Union

Canadian Press
August 22, 2007 at 3:01 PM EDT
OTTAWA — Organizers of a peaceful protest at this week’s Montebello summit want answers from the Prime Minister about three demonstrators whom they say were police agents.
Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union, says the three were trying to provoke violence.
A video of a confrontation with the three, posted on YouTube, shows one of the men holding a rock in his hand.
The men, who had their faces masked by bandannas, eventually got through police lines where they were whisked away.
But there is no record of their arrests and police have refused to comment on the matter.
Video and photos of the men show them wearing boots with the same marking as police boots.
Activists say they believe the three were planted in the crowd to provoke a confrontation to give police justification for moving on the peaceful protesters.
Mr. Coles wants the Prime Minister’s Office and the office of Quebec Premier Jean Charest to say whether they had any knowledge of the protest infiltrators.

Finally, the most devious tactics of suppression are being OUTED and PREVENTED.
The anti-fascist activist community is losing their naivete and GETTING SMART.
It only took decades but this kind of savvy is becoming institutionalized.
Now we know what COINTELPRO tactics are when we see them and are ready to stop them.
OLD OLD tactics.
If you read ex-CIA whistleblower Philip Agee’s 1975 expose, ‘CIA Diary,’ he writes about the same police agent provocateur tactics being used in South America with right-wing bombings being used to discredit the left.
Here’s Agee’s notes on false-flag bombing in Quito, Equador where he was stationed as CIA:
‘CIA Diary,’ page 229 of soft-cover printing-
“March 31, 1962-
The Social Christian (right-wing) bomb squad finally slipped up last night. Just after midnight they bombed the home of the Cardinal (who was sleeping downtown at the Basilica) and a couple of hours later they bombed the Anti-Communist Front. By a stroke of bad luck the two bombers were caught and have admitted to police that they are members of the Anti-Communist Front itself. So far they haven’t been traced to the Social Christian Movement which planned the bombings. These produced lots of noise but little damage, to provide a new pretext for demonstrations of solidarity with the Cardinal.”
_________________
of course LETS NOT FORGET this:
Operation in Basra: Agents Provocateurs

SAS soldiers who were ‘liberated’ after being arrested by the Iraqi police on 19 September — by a phalanx of tanks and helicopter gunships that stormed the police station where the two undercover soldiers were being held after they allegedly failed to stop at an Iraqi police roadblock and subsequently opened fire on the Iraqi police, killing one and wounding another.

G. Gordon Liddy, in his autobiography “Will,” recounts many such stories as dressing-up as a “hippie” to infiltrate and disrupt protests using violence.
It’s a wonderful autobiography that everyone should check out, especially the first chapter in which Liddy warmly waxes nostalgic over his childhood awakening to his love for Adolf Hitler.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 23 2007 3:05 utc | 33

on monday, the warlord mayor of mogadishu, dheere, turned up the rhetoric & really pissed off a lot of people. shabelle media reported:

Mayor of Mogadishu, Mohammed Dheere, has accused members of Hawiye clan leaders in Mogadishu of being responsible for the insurgency in the capital.
Dheere was addressing journalists at the headquarter of Somali police force in south of the capital where cluster of weapons seized in the government’s latest search operations in the volatile city were displayed Monday.
Dheere particularly condemned members of Hawiye clan elders opposing the Somali reconciliation congress.
He said if they don not halt adding fuel to the fire, they will end up in Eritrea. “Who lights a fire will burn himself in the end,” he said.
He said people who fled the capital to Elasha settlements on the southern outskirt of the capital were the wives and the children of the insurgents.
“Those agencies from the international community helping them must know that they are feeding Al-Qaeda members,” he said.

garowe online’s report that day added

Mohamed “Dheere” Omar Habeb, the mayor of Mogadishu, launched scathing accusations against key clan figures and an independent radio broadcaster Monday as attacks continued in the capital.
…
“Remnants of the Islamic Courts, Mohamed Hassan Haad and Ahmed Dirie who claim to be Hawiye clan elders but represent no one are responsible for attacks in Mogadishu,” Mayor Mohamed Dheere said today at a ceremony where police showcased weapons confiscated in the last 48 hours of operations.
The mayor of Mogadishu also accused the independent HornAfrik radio station of fabricating news and exaggerating reports on refugees.
Mr. Haad and Mr. Dirie belong to a group of Hawiye clan elders who have refused to participate at the ongoing reconciliation conference.
“These men will either die or flee to Asmara like [Islamic] Courts leaders,” said Mayor Dheere.
The aforementioned Hawiye elders issued a strong statement later today condemning the Mogadishu mayor’s comments, and saying that he has “threatened their lives.”

one of the public voices condemning dheere’s remarks came from the somali justice minister, as covered by garowe online

Somalia’s justice minister, Hassan Dhimbil, has criticized controversial comments made yesterday by Mogadishu Mayor Mohamed “Dheere” Omar Habeb, who blamed clan elders, radio broadcasters and refugees for daily bombings in the capital.
Minister Dhimbil addressed lawmakers Tuesday in the inland town of Baidoa, temporary home of the parliament.
“Mohamed Dheere cannot represent the citizens of Banadir [region] and he cannot hold the post of governor because he calls his own citizens ‘terrorists’ and ‘al-Qaeda’,” Minister Dhimbil said.
The Justice Minister said there is “no question” that thousands of civilians have fled Mogadishu violence to surrounding regions, including Afgoye. For Mayor Dheere to refer to suffering civilians who sought refuge and water in Afgoye as “terrorists” is a clear sign that he does not merit leadership of the Somali capital.
Dhimbil also criticized Mayor Dheere’s regional administration for filling up jails with young men but not bringing any to be tried in court.
…
Mayor Dheere has warranted both support and anger for his comments yesterday linking clan elders who have refused to participate at the national reconciliation conference with the Mogadishu insurgency.

but the article also suggests a bit of historical clan rivalry figures into this

Observers of the Somalis’ dynamic political and clan landscape suggested that the friction between Mayor Dheere and Minister Dhimbil represents reality on the ground, where Dheere’s Abgaal clan functions as government troops and the insurgency is believed to be led primarily by Dhimbil’s Habr Gedir-Ayr sub-clan fighters, who formed the core of the Islamic Courts movement.
During the 1990s, these two Hawiye sub-clans fought repeatedly and maintained a de facto “Green Line” dividing the city into northern and southern parts.

still, the news service for the u.n.’s humanitarian operations, irin, picked up on the story backing up dhimbil’s concerns
Somalia: Displaced People Branded ‘Terrorists’ by Mogadishu Mayor

Allegations that humanitarian operations fuel insurgency in the Somali capital Mogadishu by the city’s mayor have been slammed as “irresponsible” by a minister in the fragile transitional government as analysts expressed concern.
Mayor Mohamed Umar Habeb (better known as Mohamed Dheere) told the local media on 20 August that the international community was feeding what he termed as “terrorists” and warned that they would have to deal with the consequences.
Minister of Justice Hassan Dhimbil Warsame told IRIN: “To say not to give food to the [displaced] people, most of them women and children, in these camps and call them terrorists is irresponsible. He is not fit to be the mayor of Mogadishu.”
Warsame also said that he had raised the issue in parliament in the town of Baidoa, to be discussed “as a matter of serious concern”.
A regional analyst based in the Kenyan capital Nairobi said the humanitarian community was very concerned that a Transitional Federal Government (TFG) official should make such hostile statements. “People displaced by the violence in Mogadishu are victims of a political conflict and this statement clearly sends the wrong message about their status and how they should be treated,” he said.
The allegation would impact on aid delivery, he warned. “These statements create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation among the general population and hinder aid agencies trying to assist those affected by conflict and other disasters in Somalia.”
The analyst, speaking on condition of anonymity, called on the international community to hold Mohamed Dheere and the government accountable for such behaviour: “Statements such as this only undermine the legitimacy of the TFG.”

enter reuters, who were obviously not a recipient of that call for holding dheere accountable (or were they?)
reuters: Mogadishu mayor says govt has boosted security

Somalia’s fledgling interim government has committed all its resources to restoring stability in the capital Mogadishu during major reconciliation talks threatened by Islamist insurgents, the mayor said.
Mohamed Omar Habeeb “Dheere” told Reuters in an interview late on Tuesday that security had improved in a city mostly in chaos since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991.
“Hundreds used to die,” the former warlord said. “Only a few people die these days from pistol and grenade attacks. We hope to end these minor attacks as soon as possible.
“Most of our resources go to security in order to return peace to the city. We expect to deploy more police officers in the streets.”
But Mogadishu remains one of the world’s most dangerous cities, with Islamist rebels and clan militia fighting a guerrilla war against government troops and their Ethiopian military allies.
In the latest violence, residents said seven civilians were killed in separate attacks across the capital on Tuesday. Two of them died in a landmine blast at one of the squalid camps on the outskirts of the city populated by displaced families.
Dheere said his forces had reliable intelligence that “terrorists” were hiding in those camps.
“We will go after them wherever they are for the sake of security of the region,” he said.
The insurgency is blamed on remnants of a hardline Islamic Courts movement chased out of Mogadishu by a joint Somali and Ethiopian force at the start of the year.

not a mention of the controversy over his remarks on monday that was covered locally. instead, plain spin for the international audiences.

Posted by: b real | Aug 23 2007 4:19 utc | 35

Uncle what does Porter Goss have to do w/Nov. 11??
It’s only recently w/the BBC special on Grandpa, whose Nazi ravings I’ve long thght. shaped Jr., that I realized the terrifying legacy of this true Nazi crime family – Grandpa instrumental in fomenting coup against FDR as a Nazi sympathizer; Daddy the first guy JEdgar called after the assasination who was said to have been photographed in Dallas on that day (in Dealey Plaza as some have said??); & now Jr. party to 2 successive coup d’etats, shredding the Constitution & bankrupting the Republic setting the scene for true fascism – Grandpa’s wet dream come true.
Funny how NYT et al didn’t make his family history central feature of his CV as candidate – blanketing the front pages for as long as it took for him to be forced to drop out of the “race”…

Posted by: jj | Aug 23 2007 5:27 utc | 37

check out badger

Posted by: annie | Aug 23 2007 6:45 utc | 39

b- Regarding the comments on the Canadian Protest….Thanks
A few tidbits in response:
1) This is Canada – we don’t do this kind of thing very often, of course our police are ill-prepared
2) You said: “It’s typical here that the provocateurs will attack the unit they have trained themselves, trained with, or are part of. In the case here, it didn’t look like they knew each other” Sure, except you have to realize that the group they targetted which was full of labour leaders and supporters were a big target at this demonstration. In fact, together with an anti-Anschluss (ie. SPP) group called the ‘Council of Canadians’ they were the big group that had collected thousands of signatures etc. that they wanted to present to the Pols but were not allowed to. Thus, I think it may have been this group, which was doing their utmost to keep the young anarchists and the police from clashing that the provocateurs might have been checking out. And if this was the case it would explain why the provocateurs were not with a group of police they knew.
3) The police likely were not at a choke point because there were none in that location which actually wasn’t on route to the conference itself but instead in one of the designated ‘protest zones’ (ie. freedom cages). Curious that, don’t you think?
So, more and more, based on accumulating circumstantial evidence, it looks as if the folks like the older gentleman in the suitcoat in the video (David Coles, one of the labour leaders) may themselves have been targetted for some sort of ‘aggressive surveillance-type prodding’.
.

Posted by: RossK | Aug 23 2007 8:00 utc | 41

jj–
Not big media play up here but some. Generally focuses on two themes….on the positive side (most of it) is how smooth it will make it for trade and ease travel over the border (which has tightened considerably even for Canadians over the past couple of years); on the negative side is not the deal itself (because we know little about it, really) but rather the secrecy with which it is being conducted.
Interesting that here, unlike down in the States, most of the opposition from the Citizenry is actually from progressives who bemoan the loss of sovereignty on things like oil and water exports and (and this is really important as you can imagine) the ability to keep social programs as being deemed subsidies in trade disputes.
Now the fact that protest against the SPP down there has been spearheaded mostly by xenophobes was great cause for concern up here, especially when U.S. progressives started dismissing all concerns about the SPP as looney-tunes. Led to some protracted ‘discussions’ on the comment threads of a number of blogs in the last couple of weeks including D. Niewart’s and Digby’s places.
(sorry for being so long-winded, but this is important to us up here; thus, it’s about way more than a 5 minute YouTube video of some bad police tactics)

Posted by: RossK | Aug 23 2007 8:37 utc | 43

Fed bailout for Countrywide:
Mortgage giant set for $2bn rescue package

America’s largest mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial, appeared last night on the verge of receiving a $2bn (£1bn) bail-out from Bank of America, alleviating the threat of a bankruptcy that could have rocked the US financial system.
…
Bank of America is reportedly paying $2bn for bonds convertible into Countrywide shares. Countrywide will pay interest of 7.25 per cent on the bonds, it was believed, and they can be converted into shares at a price of $18 per share – in effect putting a floor under the Countrywide share price, which has tumbled close to that level on fears that it may be about to go bust.
…
The rescue plan from Bank of America, reported by the Wall Street Journal, sent Countrywide shares up almost 20 per cent in after-hours trading.
Bank of America was also among four big banks which stepped up to support the Federal Reserve’s attempts to restore order to the debt markets. It said they had each borrowed $500m at the Fed’s “discount window”, where the central bank lends cash to banks and takes in government or commercial debt instruments as collateral.
…
Citigroup said it was “pleased to inject liquidity into the financial system during times of market stress”. And in a joint statement, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Wachovia said they believed “it is important at this time to take a leadership role in demonstrating the potential value of the Fed’s primary credit facility and to encourage its use by other financial institutions”.

2 billion in Countrywide “bonds” and 4×500 million from the Fed to 4 banks in exchange for “commercial debt” as collateral.
So this is how the Fed arrange it. The fonds were transfered through 4 big banks, 3 of which just channeled them through to BoA. BoA gave the $2 billion to Countrywide and the paper they got made their way to the Fed as collateral.
The market is “safe” – Countrywide shares up 20% after the floor closed.
When the markets open today, the “insiders”, i.e. the 4 involved banks will have made a killing having bet their personal and their banks money on higher Countrywide share prices.
The normal investors who rightfully betted on sinking Countrywide shareprices (the company is rot at the core) will take big losses.
Wall Street is happy, the managers of those banks will get big premiums, the indexes will go up today and if Countrywide eventuall fails, the Fed will take the losses.
These folks love “free markets” just as much as neocons love “Democracy”.

Posted by: b | Aug 23 2007 10:35 utc | 45

White House Declares Office E-Mails Off-Limits

Administrator of Missing E-Mails Not Subject to Open-Records Law, It Says
The Bush administration argued in court papers this week that the White House Office of Administration is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act as part of its effort to fend off a civil lawsuit seeking the release of internal documents about a large number of e-mails missing from White House servers.
The claim, made in a motion filed Tuesday by the Justice Department, is at odds with a depiction of the office on the White House’s own Web site. As of yesterday, the site listed the Office of Administration as one of six presidential entities subject to the open-records law, which is commonly known by its abbreviation, FOIA.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit group, filed a lawsuit in May seeking Office of Administration records about the missing e-mails, including when they were deleted from government computer files. CREW said it understood that internal White House documents had estimated at least 5 million e-mails were missing from March 2003 to October 2005.
(snip)
Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director, said that “one has to wonder if this is an effort by the White House to keep secret the details of how millions of White House e-mail suddenly went missing. The OA’s disingenuous claim that it is not subject to the FOIA is contradicted by its own actions and statements.”

WHERE THE FUCK DOES IT SAY THAT IN THE CONSTITUTION? These fucks just make up shit as the go now?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 23 2007 11:34 utc | 47

jonku- that’s a big subject — it’s a huge, diverse continent — and i don’t have anything fantastic handy to link to for you right now outside of what you can find on your own, such as wikipedia, africa guide, or the cia factbook on individual nations.
google maps are great for exploring the terrain, boundaries, & countries of africa at many different levels, but if you’re on dialup it’s probably not going to work for you.
breaking the continent down by how the countries are grouped by region, there’s
north africa
algeria
egypt
libya
morocco
tunisia
western sahara
east africa
comoros
djibouti
eritrea
ethiopia
kenya
madagascar
mauritius
seychelles
somalia
sudan
tanzania
uganda
central africa
angola
burundi
cameroon
central african republic
chad
congo brazzaville
congo kinshasa
equatorial guinea
gabon
rwanda
sao tomé and principé
west africa
benin
burkina faso
cape verde
côte d’ivoire
gambia
ghana
guinea
guinea bissau
liberia
mali
mauritania
niger
nigeria
senegal
sierra leone
togo
southern africa
angola
botswana
lesotho
malawi
mozambique
namibia
south africa
swaziland
zambia
zimbabwe
every country — there are 54 of ’em — has some array of natural resources that western societies value & have designs on. the big oil producers right now are:
nigeria
libya
algeria
egypt
angola
gabon
congo
cameroon
tunisia
equatorial guinea
the democratic republic of the congo
cote d’ivoire
and this year more countries continue to come onboard w/ oil discoveries.
mineral, timber, foodstuffs & other agricultural products are also highly sought after. i’ll see if i can come up w/ some specialized resources on this for ya when i get time & depending on how detailed you want to get.

Posted by: b real | Aug 23 2007 15:31 utc | 49

A friend sent an email with this link and comment: Implode-o-Meter

They sell a premium service to identify listed put options on strung-out financial institutions, but you can gloat for free.
If you think America is doomed, you could make a fortune by betting on it.
Or at least make enough to get you started when you emigrate to a humane and decent society like Cuba or North Korea. A little cash goes a long way in worker’s paradise. Free health care too.

Posted by: catlady | Aug 23 2007 18:16 utc | 51

In comment 45 I claimed the 4 involved banks to rescue Countrywide would make “a killing” without risk on the Fed’s (your) dime:
Countrywide Gives Bank of America $700 Million Gain

Bank of America Corp., the second- biggest U.S. lender, is already up about $700 million on its $2 billion preferred stock investment in Countrywide Financial Corp.
This is “something of a sweetheart deal,” David Hendler, an analyst at research firm CreditSights Inc. in New York, said in a report.
Bank of America, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, can convert the preferred stock to common shares at $18 each, compared with a high reached today of $24.46. Countrywide, the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, will also pay interest of 7.25 percent on the preferred shares.

Now that’s what I call a sweet deal. Where is my bonus?

Posted by: b | Aug 23 2007 19:08 utc | 53

b real, thanks for your notes and suggestions. I grew up thinking Africa was unfathomable.
Since then I have met decent folks from South Africa (colleagues years ago) and a good friend who was raised in Kenya who told me about the Masai who waited on the highway for a ride, so proud they would not deign to stick out a hitchhiker’s thumb — and sat upright and silent during the ride — as well as heard tourism stories from two safari organizers, and another friend who spent three years in Africa telling me of the beautiful people of Burkina Faso.
So I am open to learning about this wonderful place which is under the heel of continued revolution, resource exploitation and colonial wars.

Posted by: jonku | Aug 23 2007 22:08 utc | 55

oops. left sudan off that list of oil producers.

Posted by: b real | Aug 23 2007 22:35 utc | 57

jonku@55,
OK. Africa cannot be characterized as a whole. Far too much cultural diversity. Like your friend I myself admire the Masai for their stoicness. They are also I think the tallest people in the world.
Every group in Africa is very relevant. But no more relevant that any other group elsewhere in the world.
Whats missing is class & affinitive structure that brings out the best & brightest. Compared to other parts of the world, post-colonial Africa is burdened seriously by this lack. Most of Africa has been independent less than 50 years. But considering the chaos & disruptions to existing affinities & class-structures brought on by partitioning & colonization its not going to be easy for Africa to get to where it deserves.
But nobody should feel sorry for Africans or feel compelled to do anything for Africa. The Masai certainly do not want anyone feeling sorry for them. Nor do the Wollof, Fulani, Anago, Ashanti, Amharics, Zulus … and countless others.

Posted by: jony_b_cool | Aug 23 2007 23:34 utc | 59

U.S. missile shield is provocation: Austrian minister

VIENNA (Reuters) – Austrian Defense Minister Norbert Darabos has called U.S. plans for a missile defense shield in eastern Europe a “provocation” reviving Cold War debates.
“That the United States are installing a defense shield in eastern Europe is a provocation in my view,” Darabos was quoted as saying in an interview with daily Die Presse on Thursday.
“The U.S. has chosen the wrong path in my opinion. There is no point in building up a missile defense shield in Europe. That only unnecessarily rekindles old Cold War debates.”

Posted by: b | Aug 24 2007 1:56 utc | 61

RossK,
Good roundup, thanks. I liked the quote: Why not just hire Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 ?
I read some more about it here also.

Posted by: Rick | Aug 24 2007 4:04 utc | 63

yes, r’giap, pilger’s work here is essential. hopefully enough u.s. citizens will see it & find ways to bring about change.
—
as for all those glossy sales pitches about AFRICOM being empire’s humanitarian gift to the children of africa, consider one of the promotions announced today in stars and stripes:

STUTTGART, Germany — The U.S. Africa Command took further shape Wednesday when the Pentagon named two officers to leadership slots for planning and special operations.
…
The Defense Department also confirmed that Africa Command, known as AFRICOM, will have its own special-operations component when it named Col. Patrick M. Higgins — who has been nominated for his first star — to become commander of U.S. Special Operations Command Africa.
Higgins is currently director of the Joint Interagency Task Force, Joint Special Operations Command, U.S. Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg.
…
Higgins and his command would be responsible for coordinating the work of Green Berets, Navy SEALs and other special-operations troops.

and caught this in a story on the ongoing national reconciliation conference in mogadishu

There are widespread concerns that some of the more than 1,000 delegates from across Somalia might leave Mogadishu due to financial constraints, problems with lodging and transportation, and growing security concerns, inside sources said.
Some of the delegates, who spoke with Garowe Online on the condition of anonymity, threatened to leave Mogadishu by next week and return to their home region if they do not receive the stipend promised by the UN and conference organizers.

a while back i linked to a rpt or two claiming, before the conference began, that visiting u.n. delegates were carrying suitcases of cash to bribe organizers & participants. hmmm.

Posted by: b real | Aug 24 2007 4:24 utc | 65

b real 48:
I think a fear of any successful Islamist model.
Well I don’t think they fear Saudi Arabia too much or the Islamist model in Iraq where they are forcing women to wear burkas, kil barbers, blow up liquor stores and stage huge religious processions that were banned under Saddam.
remember that it was the council which helped provide the justification for the illegal invasion & occupation of somalia in the first place.
What’s even more ironic is North Korea was allowed to replenshis Ethiopia’s North Korean based military machine in preperation for the invasion.

Posted by: Sam | Aug 24 2007 7:04 utc | 67

British Army deploys new weapon based on mass-killing technology

Posted by: annie | Aug 24 2007 7:27 utc | 69

sam @67- you are correct. rosen left off a qualifier in his observation, so i’ll add it for him – a fear of any successful independent Islamist model.
as for the u.s. arranging for ethiopia to rcv north korean supplies, not to include nk specifically, but it does follow an established pattern of arming proxies w/ caches not directly traceable back to the sponsor, doesn’t it.

Posted by: b real | Aug 24 2007 14:45 utc | 71

to go along w/ that new AFRICOM promotion of col. higgins to head special ops (mentioned in #65), WRT the other appt, that of maj. gen. altshuler to be director of plans & programs,

Maj. Gen. Herbert L. “Buz” Altshuler will become director for plans and programs. The Army Reserve officer is special assistant to the commander of U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg.
He stepped down in June as commander of U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command at Fort Bragg after six years in the job. The soldiers of that command focus on the population that lives in the areas where military operations are taking place rather than the enemy. [“Bragg officers join Africa command”]

from an spring 2006 article on him, titled “The Army’s top civil affairs commander,”

Altshuler was first mobilized and deployed to Bosnia in 1995, where he served as commander of Combined Joint Psychological Operations. When he returned home, he assumed leadership of the 351st Civil Affairs Command. He was again sent to Bosnia with the 351st, as commander of the Combined Joint Civil Military Task Force. When he returned in June 1997, he was promoted to brigadier
general. In October 2000, he earned the rank of major general.
He became commanding general of the United States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command at Fort
Bragg in April 2001. In his current position, Altshuler directs more than 10,000 soldiers in 81 units and 27 states. These soldiers have been busy in Afghanistan,
Iraq and on the Gulf Coast, assisting the victims of Hurricane Katrina. “The young men and women in the Army today are Altshuler’s civil affairs units are made up of individuals specially trained to interface with the civilian population. “Our job is to specifically represent our military to that population to keep that population out of the way of military operations,” he explains.
…
Altshuler has been able to use much of his printing background in psychological operations, which incorporate print and broadcast media. “We take the commander’s message to the people,” he says. “In places where we’re involved in democratizations such as Iraq and Afghanistan, we distribute information about democracy, one man one vote, suffrage … all of the kinds of things we want people to know to help them understand why we are there.”

Posted by: b real | Aug 24 2007 15:28 utc | 73

oops. some of the txt was cut off in the blockquote in #73. should read

“The young men and women in the Army today are unbelievable … the country’s in good hands,” Altshuler says.
Altshuler’s civil affairs units are made up of…

Posted by: b real | Aug 24 2007 15:42 utc | 75

& i wished i shared the optimism of pilger – he is a good man – & perhaps the last of that generation that created real journalists
my fear is that once u s armed force is not so concentrated in the middle east – it will return to south america – to recreate its waves of murders

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Aug 24 2007 17:25 utc | 77

The latest post by Brenda Norrell about our ongoing effort to keep the brown hordes from overrunning Arizona:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2007/08/life-and-death-on-border-no-significant.html

Posted by: jake | Aug 24 2007 19:57 utc | 79

VOA has more on the story at #’s 35 & 48
Aid workers in Somalia fear government attack on camps near Mogadishu

International humanitarian agencies and local aid workers in Somalia say they fear that camps for internally displaced people in the southern outskirts of the capital, Mogadishu, may be the target of a military operation by Ethiopian and Somali troops. VOA correspondent Alisha Ryu has details from our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi.
VOA has not been able to independently confirm the reports of a possible military action against IDP camps in the Afgoye District, 30 kilometers south of the capital, Mogadishu.
But remarks made by interim government leaders in the past week strongly suggest that, at the very least, the camps are under intense government scrutiny.
On Monday, Mogadishu’s Mayor Mohamed Dheere said that internally displaced people in the Afgoye area were terrorists with links to the al-Qaida terror network. Two days later, Somalia’s interior minister, Mohamed Mohamud Guled, said that 4,500 newly trained government soldiers were ready to be deployed to wipe out terrorists and pacify Mogadishu within three weeks.
The IDP camps in Afgoye are home to tens of thousands of people, mainly from the Hebr Gedir sub-clan of Mogadishu’s largest tribe called the Hawiye.
…
The unconfirmed reports say the goal of the operation is to root out radical Islamists and opponents of Somalia’s western-backed Transitional Federal Government. Government officials say some insurgents are using the camps as base for their operations.
The director of operations for a non-governmental organization called SAACID-Australia, Tony Burns, says that the reports have greatly alarmed his organization and other humanitarian groups working in Somalia.

if indeed the somali & ethiopian troops are undergoing an operation involving these refugee camps, it makes the recent reports that rwanda forces are training the somali troops all the more ominous, considering kagame’s history of military operations on refugee camps in congo. and speaking of rwanda & the congo, there’s an increase in conflict once again inside the latter & involving the former along w/ uganda. haven’t been following it closely enough yet, but african news analysis has some coverage including the effects on burundi.

Posted by: b real | Aug 25 2007 3:35 utc | 81

Like NAFTA, the FTA will forever change Korea’s agricultural economy.

Dunno who writes that shit that b real linked above – that gobbledygook translates into English as “FTA” will DESTROY Korean agriculture & the lives & the people who depend upon it.

Posted by: jj | Aug 25 2007 12:34 utc | 83

Even hersh can’t figure it out.
It Will All Fall Down: A Conversation with Seymour Hersh

DC: It seems that they never did the math and they realized that one person, one vote, was going to mean a Shia win in Iraq.
SH: Well of course they did the math but, I think that they thought they could control it better than it turned out they could.
DC: Is that a theme? That they seem to think that they can control situations and they consistently get out of hand?
SH: Again, it seems like it is, but it’s also very possible that everything that’s happening is also what they want. It could be, basically, the notion of chaos. Kissinger once said about the Iran-Iraq War back two decades ago when they were killing each other: “Let them kill each other.” Let’s help each side kill the other guy. And that may be one of the theories to explain the Sunnis versus Shia. It’s almost impossible to figure out what they’re thinking.

Posted by: b | Aug 25 2007 14:39 utc | 85

Vick = two minutes hate at the Circus. Brings the fan- atics to a feverish pitch.
Corruption in professional sports is persecuting Vick for doing what is done all the time by corporations. Corruption is not George Bush making a killing with the Texas Rangers by seizing 100 very valuable downtown acres.
The lesson to be learned by the fan-atics is that the “authorities” are ever-vigilant, and that they can go back to bleating meaninglessly to each other.
Works the same way when the odd soldier is prosecuted.
Deflect attention and control the narrative. Liberals who argue “more humane solutions” are completely lost and drowning in the power of elitist narrative.

Posted by: Malooga | Aug 25 2007 16:08 utc | 87

with Vicks troubles, dog-fighting may no longer constitute one of America’s dirty-little-secrets. At least for now.
when James Baker said of the Iran-Iraq war — “we do’nt have a dog in this fight”, most Americans, red-blooded or not, knew exactly what he was talking about.
and depending on where they live & who they talk to, they might know a little bit more.

Posted by: jony_b_cool | Aug 25 2007 16:49 utc | 89

Something to do.

Posted by: beq | Aug 25 2007 20:36 utc | 91

didn’t somebody buy up al jazeerah and kick out the old staff? replace it w/a ‘moderate’ which is just another name for a US flakey

Posted by: annie | Aug 25 2007 21:39 utc | 93

Here is a very interesting story that has been raging in the US for a while but I don’t believe I’ve seen it mentioned here (although I’ve been in and out so I might have missed it).
The Anti-Defamation League takes the heat for denying the Armenian genocide – Massachusetts town of Watertown rescinds its membership in the ADL-sponsored program “No Place for Hate” as a result.
Very interesting politics here. The site I’ve linked to, called Muzzlewatch, has a videtape of the actual town meeting in Watertown, which is home to one of the largest populations of Armenians in the country, as well as the Museum of Armenian History.
Neighboring communities are now considering following suit. Lots and lots of bad blowback for the ADL in this case. Interesting ramifications for the entire foreign policy debate. The local event definitely had a big ripple effect at the national level.

Posted by: Bea | Aug 25 2007 22:16 utc | 95

a little research. he is more commonly known as jackas berkman & he is of course a republican strategist – just the sort of corrupt guest the new al jazeera needs

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Aug 25 2007 22:39 utc | 97

something i haven’t heard anyone else mention yet in the dogfighting case–how much of the response has to do with the bonding that goes on between people and their pets? there’s the whole pet-as-child furkid thing, but dog people develop a pack bond that is somewhat different from what cat people do. different body language, different emotional connection. (for the RAW readers, all that circuit 1-2 language)
i haven’t come across any references to cat-fighting except as a metaphor for chick battles, Xtians vs. the lions, and assorted teenage prank/torture stories that make my stomach turn. if there are other modern cat-on-cat versions involving betting, i don’t want to know.

Posted by: catlady | Aug 26 2007 0:13 utc | 99