From Antiwar.com this characterization of Petraeus by his direct superior, Admiral Fallon, and the background to it.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Sep 13 2007 9:30 utc | 4

Ted Rall echoes what many here and others have been saying, that Democrats do not want to end the war, they are just making motions to pretend they are:
The War Party

Posted by: brewster_north | Sep 13 2007 9:44 utc | 6

Harold Meyerson at Wapo on Bush’s tee vee talk tonight:

If you believe what you read in the papers, President Bush will go on television tonight to announce that he will adopt the Petraeus plan as his own, if for no other reason than it really is his own. I’m not in the business of offering tactical advice to the administration, and it’s not in the business of taking it. But if I were Josh Bolten (I think he’s still in the White House; I can’t vouch for anyone else), I’d try mightily to keep the president off the tube. The whole point of the Petraeus PR offensive, after all, is to decouple the war from the president. If it’s the president’s war, no one will vote to keep it going.
…
The administration had already run through a dozen raisons d’etre for the war. The latest — we’re helping the tribes defeat al-Qaeda in Iraq; we’re helping promote reconciliation in Baghdad, or a devolution of authority to the provinces, or both; we’re nation-building toward a soft partition; we’re working toward limiting the civil war when we leave even though we’re arming the rival factions because of our immediate tactical needs; we’re buying time for the Maliki government to settle the civil strife it’s fomenting; we’re fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq so we don’t have to fight it here and because our Iraqi occupation doesn’t leave us with a large enough force to do anything about the real al-Qaeda in Pakistan — don’t really pack much of a punch.
…
For the president and his party, though, Petraeus is messenger and message rolled into one. It’s his war now, they say; he has begun the war anew; all they are saying is give Petraeus’s war a chance. He enables Republican presidential candidates to avoid breaking with the president while at the same time not having to mention the president’s name. The general enables Republican legislators to attack Democrats for squishiness without having to bring up Bush.
In the end, I don’t think Petraeusization will succeed. The American people will understand it’s the same stinking war. And for those who don’t, George Bush will go on television tonight to drive that point home.

Posted by: Hamburger | Sep 13 2007 10:12 utc | 8

Part 1 of a 3-part video recording of a speech and Q&A by David Simon, Baltimore newspaper reporter and creator of HBO’s “The Wire” (which, depending on taste and belief might be anything from another TV cop show to the greatest work of dramatic art in the last hundred years) on the end of the American Empire. Parts 2 and 3 should show up in the youtube sidebar at the link.
Form the youtube blurb:

Speaking at Loyola College, David Simon, an author and creator of the acclaimed HBO program, “The Wire,” shares his views on the end of the American Empire in three video segments. He says we’re headed for separate Americas of “haves and have-nots.” Simon faults “unencumbered Capitalism” for making our country care less about the most vulnerable of our citizens. Unless we change, he predicts “we are doomed.”

Posted by: mats | Sep 13 2007 13:43 utc | 10

Moment of truth. If this piece in Haaretz is to be believed, we must bomb Iran or face a certain nuclear holocaust.

The effort to prevent Iran from joining the prestigious club of nuclear powers will top Israel’s strategic and diplomatic agenda during the new year. There is no national or international issue that is more important, and the decisions that will be made by U.S. President George W. Bush will shape the regional balance of power for many years to come. The talks Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is conducting with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will be a sideshow, no more than a warm-up act, even if they result in agreements, understandings and spectacular ceremonies….
But the envelope Bush will consider sending to Iran is heavier and its postage is more costly. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who met Bush during a short summer vacation he spent not far from the Bush family estate in Penobscot, Maine, correctly identified the approaching moment of decision. The Iranian nuclear program, he declared upon his return, is the number 1 international problem. And if this is how things look from tranquil Paris, certainly they appear this way in threatened Israel.
Ever since the cease-fire in Lebanon, the regional arena has been preparing for a confrontation between the United States and Iran that will determine which of the two will be the leading power in the region. As has been the case before every major war in history, this time, too, the two sides are forming alliances. The Iranians with Syria, Hezbollah and “Hamastan” in the Gaza Strip, and more loosely with Russia; the Americans with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Fatah in the West Bank, and Israel. These alliances are manifested in massive transfers of arms and military aid, in increasing operational coordination between Iran and its partners and, from another angle, in an attempt to revive the peace process between Israel and the Arabs.
The gathering forces themselves testify that a war is inevitable. Or they could lead to an increase in deterrence and give rise to a cold war in the Middle East that would manifest itself in a struggle for spheres of influence and wars by proxy, like the Second Lebanon War or Hamas’ takeover of Gaza.
Bush will have to decide whether to throw his waning power into a final fight against Iran or to procrastinate in barren diplomatic talks and pass the buck to his successor. The risks of an attack on Iran are tremendous. Iran is strong enough to respond and to cause harm around the world. It is doubtful that a new president would want to take upon him- or herself the risk of a new war in the Middle East. This is why, if Bush blinks and refrains from taking action, Iran will be able to luxuriate in its new status as the world’s 10th nuclear power. Tenth, but certainly not last.
Assessments have already been written in Washington predicting that many states will follow in Iran’s footsteps: Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia. The nuclear anti-proliferation regime will collapse – in the Middle East of all places, where the ties between states and dubious organizations can make Washington’s ultimate nightmare scenario come true: the atom in the service of terror.

Posted by: Bea | Sep 13 2007 14:14 utc | 12

while terror & fear are such an important constitutive factor of the entertainment – you never see the dead & mutilated bodies of either the citizens of iraq or of the soldiers who perpetrate the crimes of occupation
This.is.so.true. It strikes me as the penultimate manifestation of being severed/disconnected from the product of one’s labor… in the most abhorrent possible sense.

Posted by: Bea | Sep 13 2007 14:33 utc | 14

Contrast the tone in the piece I excerpted in #12 with this:

Ahmadinejad: Iran doesn’t need nuclear bomb
LONDON – Iran is not looking to develop nuclear weapons, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Britain’s Channel 4 News Wednesday amid continued global concern at its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.
In a live interview from the grounds of the presidential palace in Tehran, Ahmadinejad told the broadcaster through a translator: “We don’t want a bomb. We are against bombs, actually…
“From a political point of view, it’s not useful… Why do we want a bomb?… What’s the use of it? We don’t need it.”
The Iranian president said there was no reason for the Islamic republic to stop enriching uranium.
He was speaking after his chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, warned that a third set of UN sanctions on Iran could put in danger its current co-operation with international inspectors.
Ahmadinejad earlier told state television in Iran that they will not step down under pressure.

I know he could be lying through his teeth, but still, it is worthy of note.

Posted by: Bea | Sep 13 2007 15:21 utc | 16

As Oil Revenues Boom, Islamic Banking Goes Global

….It may come as a surprise, then, to know that Caribou Coffee is “Shariah compliant,” one of the largest American businesses to run its operations in accordance with Islamic law.
Caribou isn’t alone. After decades on the economic backburner, flush oil revenues are giving Middle Eastern companies and investors new prominence on the global financial stage. As a result, rising demand for Islamic-friendly investments is forcing multinational corporations — and not just in Muslim-majority countries — to consider what the Quran has to say about their business practices. The boom carries over to the financial sector, where firms offering Shariah-compliant products or consulting services to companies that seek compliance have themselves seen explosive growth rates.

Shariah-compliance as competitive advantage…

Posted by: Bea | Sep 13 2007 15:43 utc | 18

re: #19
Denial is really a very, very powerful force that takes a huge effort to break through. However, in regards to the nature of the state of Israel, I feel it is finally in the process of being slowly but surely shattered. When highly respected and mainstream Israelis speak the truth about their own country and are then rudely disinvited from events, you know that the end is near. That is a preposterous level of suppressing reality that simply cannot continue for long.

Posted by: Bea | Sep 13 2007 16:04 utc | 20

Are we going from KIA to RTA? Has the US military decided to classify a lot of the dead US soliders in Iraq from now on as victims of “road traffic accidents” (RTAs)?
To whit, Time magazine, 10 Sept 07:

(Baghdad) — Nine American soldiers were killed in Iraq on Monday, including eight who died in vehicle accidents that also claimed the lives of two detainees, the military said.
The deadliest of the vehicle accidents, in western Baghdad, killed seven Multi-National Division-Baghdad soldiers and wounded 11, and left two detainees dead and a third injured. The cause of the accident was under investigation, the military said.
In a separate accident, east of Baghdad, an American soldier was killed and two injured when their vehicle flipped and caught fire. A ninth soldier died of injuries sustained Sunday while on patrol in the Kirkuk area of northern Iraq.

So that’s not an IED that caused the vehicle to flip and catch fire?

Posted by: Dismal Science | Sep 13 2007 17:22 utc | 22

@ Dismal Science 22
No way to know from here. But even if it wasn’t an IED, it should still be KIA. Soldiers in transit are always moving targets. One survival tactic they rely on is to drive as fast as the road will permit. Sometimes, no doubt, they misjudge. This will flip a truck too. The driving speed is the result of standard enemy action; thus KIA.

Posted by: small coke | Sep 13 2007 17:31 utc | 24

I do love a bit of black humor.
And found a marvelous slice of it Here

Posted by: Antifa | Sep 13 2007 17:42 utc | 26

Are you gonna do a Putin post soon? Been wondering about his latest political moves and then thinking about a recent MofA posting on catastrophe capitalism.
And correlating: if Putin wants a sound excuse for remaining in power (third term, president-for-life, crowning as Tsar Vladimir I, etc.) then a bit of a catastrophe in the world would serve his purposes well.
And Russia does not even have to create one directly. There are enough troubles brewing all over the globe that they just have to allow an exiting one to get out of hand.
And Russia is in a favorable position to do so: their economy is not highly dependent on imports or foreign capital (except for luxury automobiles & Gucci bags) and have their media under the sort of control that most demagogues can only dream of.
And then Putin can have himself named president for life and beyond: he will be allowed to appoint a spiritual medium who will continue to channel his directives from beyond the grave…

Posted by: ralphieboy | Sep 13 2007 18:58 utc | 28

@ralphieboy – Are you gonna do a Putin post soon? Been wondering about his latest political moves and then thinking about a recent MofA posting on catastrophe capitalism.
What is the relation? Putin has been fighting “catastrophy capitalism” since he became president. The Jelzin 1990’s and Friedman recipies were a catastrophy for Russia. Putins model is state capitalism.
And correlating: if Putin wants a sound excuse for remaining in power (third term, president-for-life, crowning as Tsar Vladimir I, etc.) then a bit of a catastrophe in the world would serve his purposes well.
Why would he want to stay in power. He has made it clear over and over that he will respect the constitution and not stay in his current jobe. Again, unlike Jelzin. May Putin come back in four years as the constitution would allow?
Maybe, but that’s far down the road. Currently he would win any election in Russia. That may change.

Posted by: b | Sep 13 2007 20:42 utc | 30

for the german readers of the site – i’d like to speak of my comrade-in-arms, friend, comrade, colleague & translator of my work – thomas harlan
there are two books available this month – die stadt ys (the city of ys) & an anti biography –thomas harlan das gesicht deines feindes -ein deutsches leben (the face of your enemy – a german life) both by eichborn in frankfurt – also a landmark work that was published last year heldenfriedhof (cemetry of heroes)
& a film that is being shown throughout germany wandersplitter – this 2 hour film will also come out as a 6 hour dvd
thomas’s work, the central task of thomas has been memory & acting on it – thomas was responsible for over 2000 processes against nazi war criminals who the world would have preferred to forget
his films whether about germany – ‘wundkanal’ – about the revolution in portugal ‘torra bella’ & the sublime film on haiti ‘souvenance’ began a process of docudrama that has become the chief tool of many documentary filmmakers
but again this work is about remembereing, remembering, remembering until the breath breathes blood
it is a work that not only says ‘never again’ – but that i will fight to my last breath that it never happens again – his life & art have been a commitment to memory, an agressive violent & passionate act against forgetting
i owe a great debt to thomas as a man but also as an artist who has always reminded me what remains the central task
i suggest it here – in our community – because i think he has much to teach us

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Sep 13 2007 23:04 utc | 32

@32 How interesting r’giap. Is any of this available in English?
A friend and I were discussing this week the place of memory, and the anguish of memory that makes many want not to remember. We were realizing all the individuals we know who were inside wars, one way or another, and rarely, if ever, speak of this. And how we do hold and form our notions of war out of the treasured bits of stories, usually cotidien, that occasionally these survivors of wars mention, when something in their present life trips a memory.
The Palestinian Christian doctor who arrived in the community of my childhood shortly after his hospital, clearly flying a Red Cross or Crescent, was bombed by Israeli air attacks.
The Polish woman with the number tatooed on her arm, who recalls her much admired brother leaping from the cattle train in which they were crowded and running for the woods, shot and killed as he ran, as she watched.
The Latin professor, who occasionally would tell a story from WWII as we students struggled with Ceasar’s Gallic Wars; not the usual heroic stories. There was the time German and American troops both found themselves on far sides of some fields in Europe, ahead of their war gear; they improvised teams and somehow ended up playing baseball and soccer with each other, until the armaments arrived, they retired to separate sides, and fired at one another again.
An engineer elated when, 30 years after his time in Vietnam, he heard from a man from his platoon. “He was shot so badly. I put him on the helicopter, and I knew he wouldn’t make it. But he did!” Until the wounded man called, the engineer had assumed him dead. The call meant to him that all of the men who served in his platoon had survived the war. And that had been his one goal – staying alive and keeping 20 men with him alive. Like many who found themselves drafted into that war, he had quickly understood the futility of it.
The Burmese doctor who found herself diagnosing the first cases of HIV in her country among the soldiers that she was treating.
The spontaneous, deep, and rippling cheer from the scruffy crowd of Vietnam veterans, as four helicopters flew in formation over them at the dedication of their black Memorial of names. There had been speeches, and music, and fighter jets and bombers in formation, all of which the crowd stood through in a respectful, rustling quiet. Then the sudden joy of the crowd, the electric air, the rising rumble of shouts of gratitude and applause on top of it, as the low thwacka-thwacka of helicopters in the distance materialized and flew directly toward the motley, gathered crowd, told an onlooker everything about their war. The helicopters and helicopter pilots, the guys who pulled soldiers out of the war, were the heroes.
It isn’t just the stories, is it? It is the slope of a body, the look in eyes, the emotion in a voice as the story tells, that conveys all the meaning.
The black, horrifying events, the grim sounds, moments of terror stretching on and on, betrayals of the human heart, these are almost never told. Is it a wish not to remember or the difficulty of finding words for horrors?
My friend and I were imagining that if more individuals told their war stories, real ones, then maybe youth and everyone else would not rush to war so readily. If they understood that it was not like videogames or the pornographies of violence, which pass for entertainment on film and tv. Do you think?
What a burden to take on, as your friend Thomas has, if I understand your post, to be a vessel of remembrance. And a service.

Posted by: small coke | Sep 14 2007 0:17 utc | 34

small coke… thanks for sharing those stories with us…

Posted by: crone | Sep 14 2007 1:18 utc | 36

More stories please. Thanks small coke. Were you there for the dedication? As a native of the city it overwhelms me when I go there but the last time it was fenced and blocked off by a group who claimed it and wouldn’t allow anyone who opposed war to get near it.

Posted by: beq | Sep 14 2007 1:54 utc | 38

More…The morning of 9/11, CNN reported a mystery jet plane flying above Washington, DC. At 9:54 a.m., correspondent John King, who was standing near the White House, reported that about ten minutes earlier (hence, around 9:44 a.m.), there was “a white jet circling overhead.” He added: “Now, you generally don’t see planes in the area over the White House. That is restricted air space. No reason to believe that this jet was there for any nefarious purposes, but the Secret Service was very concerned, pointing up at the jet in the sky. It is out of sight now, best we can tell.” [1] Shortly after, another CNN correspondent, Kate Snow, also reported having seen a plane, “circling over the Capitol” building at around the same time. She said: “Now whether that may have been an Air Force plane, it’s unclear. But that seemed to be the reason, according to security guards that I talked with, towards the evacuation of the Capitol.” [2]
Yet the identity of this “white jet” aircraft has been a mystery. Indeed, there has been virtually no discussion of its existence, even though it was flying above Washington at a time when America was under attack, and when the only aircraft in the area should have been fighter jets, there to protect against possible further attacks. The 9/11 Commission, which claimed that its aim had been to present “the fullest possible account of the events surrounding 9/11” appears not to have investigated the identity of this plane, and made no mention of it in its final report.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 14 2007 2:47 utc | 40

fidel castro’s 911 essay: The Empire and Falsehood

How enormously different is the conduct of the Cuban government from that of the government of the United States! The Revolution, based on truth, and the empire, based on lies!

two from eva golinger
USAID in Bolivia and Venezuela: The Silent Subversion

The United States government has almost perfected a method of intervention that is able to penetrate and infiltrate all sectors of civil society in a country which it deems to be of economic and strategic interest. In the case of Venezuela, this strategy began to take form in 2002, with the increase in financing of sectors of the opposition via the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the opening of an Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) of USAID in Caracas. These efforts were able to achieve the consolidation of an opposition movement during those moments, which, despite the failure of the coup d’etat, was able to cause severe damage to the oil industry and the national economy via economic sabotage and a “stoppage” by managers and business owners. Following the division in the opposition, the strategy reoriented its principal focus towards poor communities, the ‘Chavista’ sectors, media and the necessities in the interior of the country. The US embassy in Caracas opened up a series of “satellite consulates” (American Corners) in five states across the country – without the authorisation of the Ministry of Foreign Relations – it has an official presence in regions seen as important to the energy vision of Washington. These states, Anzoátegui, Bolívar, Lara, Monagas, and Nueva Esparta (Margarita) are rich in oil, minerals and other natural resources, which the US is seeking to control. These US headquarters found spaces inside lawyers associations and municipal councils controlled by the opposition, and continue to function as centres of propaganda, conspiring against the Bolivarian revolution.

Submarines and Lots of Dough

What do a nuclear submarine off the coast of Venezuela and a bunch of NGOs have in common? Why, US intervention in Venezuela, of course!!
Yes, once again the United States is floating nuclear submarines just twenty miles off Venezuela’s northwest coast in the Dutch island of Curaçao. The USS Albuquerque, a 110-meter long nuclear submarine docked last Friday, September 7th, at the Bay of Santa Ana on the island of Curaçao, the largest of the Dutch Antilles and Venezuela’s closest neighbor in the Caribbean. Since 1999, the United States has maintained a small operative air force base within Curaçao’s Hato International Airport. However, during 2006, construction began to expand the air base and US military and intelligence presence was pumped up throughout Curaçao, including an astonishing increase from what used to be no more than 10 US warships, aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines passing through Curaçao’s vast ports annually to over 100 just last year. Many of these battleships formed part of a sudden desire by the Pentagon’s Southern Command to conduct a dozen or so military exercises in the Caribbean Sea that responded to hypothetical “terrorist” threats in the region or provided “humanitarian” support to neighboring islands. Considering that simultaneously, the US State Department was classifying Venezuela as a nation “not fully collaborating” with the war on terrorism and labeling President Chávez as “authoritarian” and “dictatorial”, it isn’t paranoid to assume that the increase in US military presence on Curaçao and surrounding bases is directed at intimidating Venezuela. Furthermore, the USS Albuquerque was last spotted just a mere three weeks ago on the island of Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela’s closest neighbor in the northeastern Caribbean region. One has to wonder what the nuclear submarine was doing from the time it left Trinidad and Tobago and arrived at Curaçao, all that time just floating around off the coast of Venezuela…
So here’s the juice on the new National Endowment for Democracy (NED) figures for funding activities in Venezuela during fiscal year 2006-2007.
…

Posted by: b real | Sep 14 2007 4:58 utc | 42

What small coke refers to – is exactly what has been missing from the hearings on capital hill – the human experience of warfare. What we get instead is endless, pointless, and circular nomenclature ridden tautologies. That sound like science, military science. That attempt in all their sanctimonious authority to distill the human experience of war down to the essential facts objectified by their secret language of “battle space”, “collateral damage”, or “flame field expedients”- as if the entire truth of experience could encapsulated in this language. Which is on some level, probably the point, to present the events (in Iraq) is a language totally beholden to its military source and dependent upon it for its “sense” in filling out its full meaning. Which as it happens, intentionally excludes all other realms of intrinsic human experience. Like culture, like morality, like emotions, like feelings, grief, suffering, pain, loss, introspection, anxiety, or alienation – all placed in abience and placed totally out of the equation. As if warfare and its effects could be understood divorced from the experience of it, as if it were fundamentally only an engineering problem. So as we see after 3 days of inquiry, little is mentioned of the Iraqi’s own experience of the occupation (like the recent poll), as if what could they know about what is going on, they’re only living its experience – nothing is mentioned about the legality of the occupation, the morality, the long term effects, the death, suffering, or exodus of millions caused by the occupation – these things that fill out the fullest human dimension and meaning of the war are never the subject of analysis, debate, or even inquiry. All of which is reprehensible enough in itself, but considering that it is these very things that, being an occupation after all, will be the final arbitrator, that trumps all these convenient metrics, in determining what really (in the end) constitutes “progress” or “victory”. And in the end, lacking these things, how could we even know if they have been achieved or not? Are our insatiable demands for denial so great that we have forgotten why we demand it? Satisfied that it only continue. Is that why science has become the ultimate ritual language of transcendence in the exclusive service of power.

Posted by: anna missed | Sep 14 2007 5:44 utc | 44

b,
the economic situation in Russia under Jeltzin was all shock, no therapy. It was simply state-tolerated chaos, which people like Putin used as a justification for coming back into power and asserting it in a rather authoritarian fashion.
And why would Putin not want to stay in power? Or have you started believing politicians at their word?

Posted by: ralphieboy | Sep 14 2007 7:15 utc | 46

Before you dismiss Putin as simply another power crazed politician, you might consider that by staying in power he might wish to forestall another Rape Of Russia by the West.
(This is best discussion, concise but reasonably thorough overview, I’ve found of the subject. It’s via a link from Catherin Austin Fitts siteA Review of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, by Fitts.)

Posted by: jj | Sep 14 2007 8:07 utc | 48

In any case, the USSR did a heck of a job ruining its own economy without any direct help from the West.
No direct help?
The Harvard Boys Do Russia

The architect of privatization was former First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais, a darling of the U.S. and Western financial establishments. Chubais’s drastic and corrupt stewardship made him extremely unpopular. According to The New York Times, he “may be the most despised man in Russia.”
Essential to the implementation of Chubais’s policies was the enthusiastic support of the Clinton Administration and its key representative for economic assistance in Moscow, the Harvard Institute for International Development. Using the prestige of Harvard’s name and connections in the Administration, H.I.I.D. officials acquired virtual carte blanche over the U.S. economic aid program to Russia, with minimal oversight by the government agencies involved. With this access and their close alliance with Chubais and his circle, they allegedly profited on the side. Yet few Americans are aware of H.I.I.D.’s role in Russian privatization, and its suspected misuse of taxpayers’ funds.
…

Also: Washington’s “Fifth Column” in RussiaChess champion Gary Kasparov, his comrades and supporters in the west

Posted by: b | Sep 14 2007 9:35 utc | 50

Neo-cons: Invasion of the Party Snatchers Part 1

Bill Moyer interviews conservative Victor Gold on how the neo-cons have corrupted the Republican Party.

Also see, Bush 41 aid says neoCONS would have used false flag
A GOP insider, former Bush 41 speechwriter and close friend of the Bush family writes in his new book that before 9/11, the Neo-Cons in control of the Bush administration were eager to seize upon a manufactured provocation to go to war – just as LBJ had done with the Gulf Of Tonkin in 1965, and questions the official 9/11 story.

“Had it not been for 9/11, the Bush White House, determined to go to war, would no doubt have seized on some synthetic provocation, on the order of the one LBJ used to push through the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1965,” Gold writes.

Gold confirms that war in Iraq was decided upon from day one, and that a fake pretext was readied and anticipated before 9/11 happened.

Finally, don’t forget, Bush and Blair discussed using American spy plane in UN colors to lure Saddam into war.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 14 2007 10:24 utc | 52

Khamenei:

Iran’s supreme leader Friday compared U.S. President George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler and predicted that he would eventually be brought to court as a war criminal.
“[Bush] has to reply to the simple question why a rich country like Iraq has no water, no electricity, no hospitals, no schools… the only thing the U.S. brought into Iraq was terrorism,” Khamenei added.
The Ayatollah said that the U.S. had in the last three decades followed the plan to have full domination of the Middle East with “Israel as its capital,” but failed in Iraq, as well as in Iran, Lebanon and the Palestine Territories.
He added that the U.S. used Iraq to stage a war against Iran (1980-1988)with the aim of toppling the Islamic system, but failed.
He said the U.S. staged elections in the Palestine Palestinian Authority, in which Hamas emerged as the winner, and tried to disarm the Hezbollah in Lebanon only to suffer “a humiliating defeat for what was believed to be the undefeatable Israeli army.”
Khamenei added that U.S. plans to impose sanctions on Iran due to the continuation of its nuclear programs would “just make the nation stronger than before.”

Posted by: Bea | Sep 14 2007 12:28 utc | 54

Here is a link to the original essay by Avrum Burg in Haaretz, mentioned above. I don’t believe it was ever posted here but it was hugely important and made many waves in Israel when it was first published earlier this year:
Burg: Defining Israel as a Jewish state is the key to its end
~Snip

Avraham Burg, former Knesset speaker and former head of the Jewish Agency says “to define the State of Israel as a Jewish state is the key to its end. A Jewish state is explosive. It’s dynamite.” In an interview in Haaretz Weekend Magazine, he said that he is in favor of abrogating the Law of Return and calls on everyone who can to obtain a foreign passport.
Burg, who was interviewed on the occasion of the publication of his book “Defeating Hitler” said “the strategic mistake of Zionism was to annul the alternatives. Israeliness has only body; it doesn’t have soul.”

Read the whole thing. It’s very important.

Posted by: Bea | Sep 14 2007 13:05 utc | 56

I meant in #56 to post a link to the entire original interview with Burg and I moved too fast and posted to a short piece about the interview instead. So here is the link to the original interview in Haaretz:
Leaving the Zionist Ghetto
It is continued in a second part, which can be accessed by clicking “More” at the end of the first.
This remarkable interview is what I referred to as “very important” above. Sorry for the confusion.

Posted by: Bea | Sep 14 2007 14:54 utc | 58

Pentagon censors tape of alleged 9/11 mastermind
Snip…

The Pentagon has censored an audio tape of the suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks speaking at a military hearing — cutting out Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s justification for waging jihad against the United States.
After months of debate by several federal agencies, the Defense Department released the tape Thursday. Cut from it was 10 minutes of a more than 40-minute closed court session at Guantanamo Bay to determine whether Mohammed should be declared an “enemy combatant.”
Since the March hearing, he has been assigned “enemy combatant” status, a classification the Bush administration says allows it to hold him indefinitely and prosecute him at a military tribunal.
Officials from the CIA, FBI, State Department and others listened to the tape and feared it could be copied and edited by other militants for use as propaganda, officials said.
“It was determined that the release of this portion of the spoken words of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would enable enemies of the United States to use it in a way to recruit or encourage future terrorists or terrorist activities,” said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. “This could ultimately endanger the lives and physical safety of American citizens and those of our allies.”
Calling Mohammed a “notorious figure,” Whitman added, “I think we all recognize that there is an obvious difference between the potential impacts of the written versus the spoken word.“

Um, obviously.

Posted by: Monolycus | Sep 14 2007 16:59 utc | 60

Osama is in Yemen or Somalia, not Pakistan: US counter-terrorism expert

The Bush Administration’s former chief counter-terrorism adviser, Richard Clark, has claimed that Osama bin Laden is either in Yemen or Somalia, and not in Pakistan.
Clark, who was also the chief counter-terrorism adviser to the National Security Council during the Clinton Administration, said that bin Laden was propagating a kind of propaganda to lure Washington into a sense of neutrality to enable it to strengthen itself.
“Osama bin Laden had been saying for years, ‘America wants to invade an Arab country and occupy it, an oil-rich Arab country.’ He had been saying this. This is part of his propaganda,” the Daily Times quoted Clark, as saying.
“In other words, we stepped right into bin Laden’s propaganda. And, the result of that is that al Qaeda and organisations like it, offshoots of it, second-generation al Qaeda have been greatly strengthened,” he added.

i’ve read this two times & it’s still not clear what his argument is. that the u.s. has been “neutral” on the GWOT, esp WRT UBL? that makes no sense. but then, neither does the argument that UBL would be in somalia right now, of all places. so who’s “propagating a kind of propaganda” now

Posted by: b real | Sep 14 2007 18:08 utc | 62

More tensions over the oil law, or laws, in Iraq.

Iraq’s northern Kurdish administration has demanded Baghdad’s oil minister be sacked, following his remarks that oil contracts signed by the regional government are “illegal.”
The call by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) late Thursday deals another blow to attempts by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to forge a national consenus on the controversial issue of dividing up the spoils of Iraq’s vast oil reserves.

Posted by: Bea | Sep 14 2007 19:08 utc | 64

i have watched the film of my friend thomas, wandersplitter
it is magisterial
i hope that b, hamburger, noirette & other german speaking comrades see it
the dvd has english subtitles & is ok in all zones (it is with edition flimmuseum (no 35)

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Sep 14 2007 20:06 utc | 66

Just for fun, the http://www.losanjealous.com/nfc/perm.php?c=29&q=16” rel=”nofollow ugc”>Nietzsche Family Circus. Refresh for random matches.

Posted by: catlady | Sep 14 2007 20:47 utc | 68

@59,
your right, its huge. This is the first word out that Nigeria is actively organizing the ECOWAS bloc in opposition to an Africom base. Chances are this is occuring in coordination with the SADC (the southern Africa bloc) & the AU.
its incredoulous that the USA appears to be at serious odds with its two most valuable economic & political friends in Africa — South Africa & Nigeria, at the same time, as well as the AU.
and for the first time I am starting to wonder if the USA planners are not over-estimating their ability to assert USA power in Africa. How much of this is driven by hubris ? And what do these planners really know about Africa ?
back in the old days, such uppityness by any African leader would result in a military coup by a more “friendly” soldier. Could it possible happen again ?
its not clear what the USA is counting on. Then again, maybe its not worth thinking too hard trying to rationalize what might just be plain incompetence.

Posted by: jony_b_cool | Sep 14 2007 20:55 utc | 70

the USA has to learn to compete for resources & market share in a world thats much more of a level playing field than ever before. And it can definitely do it.
but neglecting to properly manage its huge debt, the inevitable reduced relevance of the dollar, the export of its manufacturing base, lopsided consumptions of global resources, lack of effective sustainable energy initiatives, expensive unending wars … is just not going to do it

Posted by: jony_b_cool | Sep 14 2007 21:12 utc | 72

found that other al jazeera video clip i was thinking of earlier. it’s not the same clip as linked in #65 and only shows a small segment of the american giving a msg to the somali people. the first one shows him training other militants in building/handling explosives.

Posted by: b real | Sep 14 2007 21:45 utc | 74

Harper’s comments insightfully on the “state of the Union:”

On September 11, staffers for Barack Obama had a campaign ad taken down that had appeared as a “sponsored link” on Amazon.com’s web page for The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, the controversial new book by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. Obama’s campaign didn’t place the ad; it apparently appeared on the Amazon page because his campaign, like those of other presidential candidates, pay to have their ads pop up when people do searches for key words like “politics.”
That same day, in the face of questions from the media, Obama’s campaign released a statement saying that while he had not actually read the book, its conclusions were “dead wrong” and that the senator “has stated that his support for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, which includes both a commitment to Israel’s security and to helping Israel achieve peace with its neighbors, comes from his belief that it’s the right policy for the United States.”
Yet just five days earlier, Daniel Pipes–who, as I first reported here, has signed on as a foreign policy advisor to Rudy Giuliani’s campaign–essentially argued for war crimes against Palestinians, and there was no cry of protest from the media or anywhere else….
For the record, there’s much I disagree with in the Mearsheimer/Walt Book. But there’s something terribly wrong with the American debate on the Middle East when, due to public criticism, Obama’s campaign flees from an unintentional link to that book, while a Giuliani advisor argues for a policy of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians and his comments pass unremarked.

Indeed.

Posted by: Bea | Sep 14 2007 22:58 utc | 76

the act of remembering, remembering everything has not only remained the vow that all artists should keep but that now all citizens are obliged to do unless they want to be disembowelled culturally by their elites. the elites & whatever vassal they choose to use in this or that moment. politically or culturally
i come from a time where the inequalities of opportunities were profound & by a mixture of circumstance, chance & will – i was able to escape from the burnt cinders of the prison life had held out to me & people of my class
i remember on matriculating – a rare thing in a district of some 40,000 people – that the catholic doctor patted me on the head & hoped i would get a job as a foreman & that i shouldn’t consider university or higher learning because that was not for my class. he sd that. he insisted on it. to go beyond my class would only bring sorrow or shame. he also sd that
& by the time he had sd that i had clndestinely been in two countries china & vietnam where i had seen worlds that this little nazi of a doctor could not even imagine. i had witnessed worlds on the street that perhaps he had read about in the dirty journals he kept hidden under his desk. the fact was i knew the world at 17 & he did not. not him nor his class
& the inequalities of that time are worse now. from time to time i wander as you do to the journals on the net & i read the age for example or its sister the sydney morning herald & i witness inequalities in the extreme – for the aboriginals & the poor – they are being wiped off the demographic map as is the thatcherite rule. they do not exist. they do not exist culturally or existentially. we are after all not human
i have seen things that no man should see but i have tried to transform them with my art & through my teaching. at best i have always understood that the best one can do is leave a trace. more than that is a bonus
even life itself has become a bonus for a person like me. that i have reached this my fifth decade is in & of itself a miracle & i never, never forget that
& the work of artists like thomas serve as exemplary figures that illustrate how instinct knowledge & a cunning & noble humanity can help to change things, to help change the state of things
people will of course say they know this or that. but they do not. they do not know what it is for 20 million russian citizens to die fighting the fascist beast, they forget the terrible toll exacted on the vietnames by the japanese, french & the americans, they forget the shck troops sent out by the cia & suharto to behead half a million people – people in the streets of indonesia. they forget that the greeks lived under a disctatorship where tens of thousands were tortured & imprisoned because the ameriicans wanted it so, they forget that the andreottis & toto riinas of italy corrupted public life because u s imperialism wanted it so. people wwant to forget the milllions of bofies littered over africa, over latin america over country after country – because if we are not lying dead in the fields – we are the beneficiaries of such acts
because we know & we know now
the good german gave us that as a gift – we could not forget unless we willingly did so
& when i seee a film of my friend thomas or read a book or talk with him – i am reminded again & again in the softest possible way – what is the duty of the creator & of the citizen
the act of remembering is not nostalgia or a form of scholaely stasis but is instead a form of living life – of living life poerhaps at its highest level
not as an escape from life but as a tunnel to enter its subterranean levels – even in societies such as our who follow hofmanstahls dictum of living on the surface. what a surface
with the wars on the middle east we are faced with unparralled evil, of a quotiduan horror being exacted before our very eyes & these clown commentators trying to turn it into a comedy
what is happening in the middle east is a tragedy of the most profound proportion – of hurt pain & loss for them but of loss & shame for us
the work of thomas harlan serves as an irrevocable bridge into seeing what we are. now & forever
still steel

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Sep 15 2007 0:14 utc | 78

anna, not a “engineering problem” but a “butchering problem”.
and not “science”, but “shechitah” in the service of power.
ritual slaughter, meat processing, rending soul from flesh.
automated, but no more talent than a cudgel and sharp stick.
“We know that a man can read Goethe or Rilke in the evening,
he can even play Bach and Schubert all night long, then go
to his day’s work at the Auschwitz ovens when morning comes.”

Posted by: Dallas Fortworth | Sep 15 2007 5:11 utc | 80

while i disagree w/ the author’s contention that meles is misleading the u.s. — he’s only telling them what they already want or expect to hear — this is a very plausible analysis
Is an Ethiopian Invasion of Eritrea Eminent?

Ethiopia’s Tigrai Liberation Front could be entertaining two possible scenarios:
1. Decapitation/ coup d’etat against the Eritrean leadership; or
2. Outright invasion.
The first scenario is what Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and his politburo would prefer. The decapitation can be accomplished with logistical and intelligence support from the Israel and the United States.
The Ethiopian leadership has come to the conclusion that isaias Afewerki is weak and unpopular; hence easily replaceable. Afeworki may be unpopular, but it remains to be seen whether Ethiopia’s Tigrian leadership could easily orchestrate regime change in neighboring Eritrea.
The Tigrian leadership brags that the road to Asmara can be a cakewalk. It has amassed enough troops on three fronts to engage in a pincer movement. In addition, some 5,000 highly trained special forces are said to be on standby to parachute to the environs of Asmara on short notice.
The preparation for regime change appears to be in full throttle. Ethiopia is also training and supporting dissident forces such as the Eritrean Democratic Alliance.
If a coup d’etat or decapitation of the Eritrean leadership is not possible, Prime Minister Zenawi of Ethiopia will have to resort to a costly invasion. An invasion will very likely be supported by secret US air strikes and satellite intelligence.
The US will also provide the disinformation, demonizing the Eritreans while legitimizing violence initiated by Ethiopia. As a prelude to what is in the pipeline, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer indicated the US readiness to label Eritrea a terrorist state. This could presumably be followed by some UN resolution, which will then provide a legal cover for the invasion of Eritrea.
For the Pentagon and its newly minted Africa Command (AFRICOM) as well as the Department of State, condoning an invasion may be a tempting way to reward the Ethiopian leadership for being good boys. Zenawi and company have been both the manipulators and the compliant locals always eager to do any dirty deed and to please the master. The invasion of Somalia was a reflection of the incestuous relationship between the local tyrants and the Bush administration.

Posted by: b real | Sep 15 2007 6:05 utc | 82

Grand Theft Iraq
Funny, I don’t remember any of this mentioned in the ”
“hearings”.

Posted by: anna missed | Sep 15 2007 7:35 utc | 84

Haleh Esfandiari on her time in the Iranian Evin prison: Held in My Homeland

The interrogators’ tone, in turn, remained correct and civil. They did not threaten; they never mentioned formal charges or a trial. On occasion, they took the trouble to explain their concerns about U.S. intentions in Iran — explanations that seemed to reflect Intelligence Ministry thinking.
This is the belief that the Bush administration, entangled in Iraq and Afghanistan, no longer contemplates military action against Iran. Rather, it hopes to encourage a “velvet” revolution, like the peaceful ones that occurred in Georgia and Ukraine. To achieve this end, it uses think tanks, foundations and even universities to organize workshops for Iranian women, to invite Iranian opinion-makers and scholars to conferences and to offer them fellowships. In time, the officials believe, the administration hopes to create a network of like-minded people in Iran who are intent on regime change.
Iranian officials also seem to believe that an alert and vigilant Islamic Republic is successfully foiling — and effectively discouraging the United States from pursuing — this coordinated plan.
…
I spent as much time on the terraces as I could. Sometimes, I was allowed many more hours outdoors than the regulation one hour a day. I was always alone and never met another inmate on the terraces. But one day I saw a white butterfly. I thought to myself: “I am compelled to be here, but what are you doing in this place?”
At 6 p.m. every day I would shower and change. I remembered a friend telling me that at her English boarding school, everyone had to change for dinner, and I had seen movies in which the British aristocracy did the same. So I would put on an unironed T-shirt and a wrinkled but fresh pair of cotton pants and sit down in grand style to read books between 6 and 10 p.m., stopping only to eat.
One of the guards brought me books from the prison library — mostly on Shiism and Islamic subjects. Kian Tajbakhsh, another Iranian American prisoner who lived and worked in Iran and could get English language books from home, was allowed to share books with me, including Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot” and Georges Simenon’s police thrillers. They made excellent prison reading. In return, I was once allowed to send fruit to Kian.
My mother came to visit me during my third month of captivity. I hadn’t wanted her to see me in prison or to see how much weight I had lost. But the visit did us both much good. I couldn’t help thinking about the Irbil five — Iranian officials arrested by U.S. forces in Irbil, Iraq, in January and, I was told, denied any family visits. The subject of humanitarian gestures such as family visits had come up repeatedly during my exchanges with my interrogators.

Posted by: b | Sep 15 2007 9:03 utc | 86

So… is this a problem that comes from subprime lending in the United States
Definitly not. There is a big real estate bubble in the UK too. Northern Rock has been lending up to 120% of home values. This bust was expected just as the bust in the U.S. (Spain will follow in a few weeks.)
But the reason for all this crazy lending was very cheap (low interest) short term money these banks could borrow and lend out as higher interest long term mortgages. This again was the result of Alan Greenspan/Bush policy of reigniting a crazy economy after the stock bubble went bust. Add the usual moral hazards of greed and outright corruptions of the lenders and rating agencies.
Greenspans recent critizism on Bush is outrages hypocritical. Greenspan suggested people take on Adjustable Rate Mortgages right when the interest rates were at their lowest. That was outright criminal …

Posted by: b | Sep 15 2007 10:33 utc | 88

b
did you get my email because i am not sure it is working
c

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Sep 15 2007 13:11 utc | 90

There’s this analysis of what’s happening in Russia from WSWS :

In order to understand the political significance of the developments in the Politkovskaya investigation and the insinuated claim by the general prosecutor’s office that Berezovsky was involved in the journalist’s murder, it is important to bear in mind the growing tensions within the Russian political establishment.
In 2008 there will be presidential elections in Russia. Putin is expected to leave office, as he will have reached the term limit set down in the Russian constitution. While previously there was some speculation that Putin might attempt to remain in office by changing the constitutional terms limit, it is now expected that he will relinquish the presidency next year.
The question of who will take Putin’s place has become an enormously contentious political issue. Despite Putin’s authoritarian hold on power, his administration sits atop a vast array of conflicting interests within the ruling elite and criminal world, all of which are competing with one another to gain an edge as the political brawl in the Kremlin intensifies in advance of next year’s election.
The attacks on Berezovsky are not simply an attempt to pin on him responsibility for crimes that likely originated in the Kremlin, but also an attempt to neutralize his ability to play a role in these political struggles through his ties with the so-called “liberal” opponents of the Putin regime.
The fact that Berezovsky does not have any mass support within the Russian population itself, which generally despises the multibillionaire for his role in raping the country of its wealth and resources, does not mean that the oligarch will be unable to forge a political opposition to Putin among layers within the ruling elite. The political confusion and alienation of the Russian masses from political life only makes it easier for cliques from various sides of the political spectrum to advance their interests.
The Kremlin’s claims about foreign interference in domestic affairs are entirely in keeping with Putin’s efforts to appeal to Russian nationalist sentiments as a prop for his authoritarian political role. Over the course of his presidency, Putin has proven himself to be fairly skilled in tapping into the sense of humiliation and despair among ordinary Russians over the socioeconomic and cultural collapse of their country and diverting it into the safer channels of Russian nationalism.
In a recent interview with the radio station Eko Moskvi, the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, Dmitry Muratov, indicated that the newspaper believes that the government is self-sabotaging its case against the alleged killers of Politkovskaya in order to keep the investigation from uncovering the truth about the murder. Muratov expressed this opinion after news broke that the lead investigator, Gabriyan, had been demoted. Other media reports, which are unconfirmed, have stated that the work of certain detectives assigned to the investigation team has been blocked by those in charge of the process.
“The siloviki are achieving what they set out to achieve,” according to Muratov. “They wanted to ruin the case, and now they will remove Gabriyan and finish that process.” The Russian word “siloviki” is a term used to describe the security apparatus that dominates all levels of political life in the Kremlin and of which Putin himself, as a former FSB agent, stands at the head.
However, particularly given the political turmoil within the Kremlin, it is also possible that the chaos in the Politkovskaya murder investigation was not Putin’s intention. Had the general prosecutor’s office been able to maintain the position that the case was solved with the arrest of the 10 suspects, proving the existence of ties to the Chechen criminal underworld, rogue elements within the police and security services, and ultimately Berezovsky, this would have been a boon for the Putin administration.
The current state of the Politkovskaya case may be the product of machinations within the police and security apparatuses, all of which have extensive and complex ties to the criminal world, in pursuit of their own aims, as various cliques within the government vie for positions of power and attempt to undermine their opponents in advance of the Duma (Russian parliament) elections this winter and the presidential elections next year.

To truly grasp how much Russia, and the issues it faces, have changed in the past seven years, one might go back to this analysis from 2000.
I guess those boys over at The eXile have had one helluva wild ride.

Posted by: Malooga | Sep 16 2007 15:41 utc | 92

Update on the Nahr al-Bared Situation

The UN Relief and Works Agency “cannot last much longer” caring for the more than 31,000 Palestinians displaced from the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp unless donors answer UNRWA’s Monday appeal for $55 million in emergency relief, UNRWA public information officer Hoda Samra Souaiby said Thursday.
The agency will not cease providing services to the tens of thousands of evacuees living in schools in the Beddawi refugee camp and the village of Beddawi near Nahr al-Bared, but the crisis is acute, she added.
“We’re not going to stop tomorrow, but it’s urgent,” she told The Daily Star. “It’s pressing. The needs are great.”
UNRWA and the Lebanese government appealed on Monday for $55 million in emergency relief to see the evacuees through August 2008. While donors pledged some $15 million at the donor conference, led by a US promise to deliver $10 million, no money has arrived, Souaiby said….
In other news related to the Nahr al-Bared crisis, the security services and judiciary will release at the September 24 [Editorial Note: This is the day before the scheduled presidential elections…] Cabinet session the results of their investigations into the escape and false identification of Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker al-Abssi, Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said late Wednesday.
Aridi acknowledged that many questions remained unanswered about Abssi, from the pressing mystery of his whereabouts to his escape from the Nahr al-Bared camp to why his wife and daughter identified the corpse of another man as Abssi….
In the Nahr al-Bared camp Thursday, army sappers continued disposing of booby traps and land mines left behind by Fatah al-Islam, said the source, adding that he did not know how much longer clearing the camp of leftover explosives would take nor did the army have a timeframe for completing the work. [Possible translation: The camp needs to be leveled before any type of reconstruction is decided upon, so there will be no justification for rebuilding in the same place.]
Soldiers outside the camp also kept up their search for fugitive members of Fatah al-Islam, aided by helicopters providing aerial reconnaissance, the source added.[Possible translation: Future battles are coming soon to other Palestinian camps.]

Posted by: Bea | Sep 17 2007 16:11 utc | 94