U$cam – my buddy sent me a similar article just the other day. The story is creating a buzz
imagine one of them buggers with a 76cm wingspan

Posted by: jcairo | Oct 12 2007 20:50 utc | 4

Juannie and others who want to view the link, simply remove the final slash at the end of the url and it will open.
one possible positive thing to come out of this enormous scam is that farmers in central america and africa can go back to farming again. they were driven out by the extremely low prices of US foods. now that the price of wheat and corn has gone up, others will be able to make money as well. hopefully they have their own seed which has also gone up a lot.

Posted by: dan of steele | Oct 12 2007 21:37 utc | 6

Game, Set, Match !
Iraq in perspective. It’s the Oil by Jim Holt.

Posted by: DM | Oct 12 2007 21:54 utc | 8

Just to clarify, I hope my #7 wasn’t read the wrong way, I certainly was not calling Juannie a spook, at all, at all.
This has a Taoist ring to it, I think…
George Carlin is a cynic. That’s obvious from his comedy routines dating to the Vietnam era. But he’s an oddly happy cynic.
“I discovered I didn’t care about the outcome on this planet or this country. A lot of comedians and social critics are rooting for a certain outcome or result. I don’t. I just enjoy watching the destruction,” Carlin said during a recent phone interview to promote his Fox Theatre appearance Saturday night.
Carlin’s biting commentaries on culture and language have entertained multiple generations. His rant from the early ’70s about the seven words you can never say on television has become folklore and still resonates as people wrangle over the issue of obscenity decades later.
He has taped 13 HBO specials and is set to do his 14th early next year. He’s working on his fourth book. Despite some heart problems earlier this decade, he said he feels good and, at age 70, he keeps on touring with an indefatigable spirit.
“I still like people to know what I’m thinking,” he said. “I do this for me, not for them. I enjoy getting these thoughts off my chest in my own unique way.”
Then again, Carlin is gratified he still has an audience, including plenty of younger people who weren’t around when he began his career. “People say I’ve changed their whole outlook on things in more profound ways than comedy normally affects them. Things like, ‘My father and I weren’t getting along, but we watched your show and now we’re buddies again.’ I don’t aim for that sort of thing, but it’s gratifying and makes me feel worthy.”
Carlin said he has no real hobbies, no need to ride motorcycles or cook gourmet meals. (“My hobby is being alive,” he notes.) He doesn’t blog about his thoughts on his Web site, which hasn’t been updated in years. He doesn’t hobnob with other celebrities, much less other standup comics.
“I love watching people destroy themselves in public,” Carlin said. “That’s kind of fun. But I don’t participate in show business. I just do my stuff. I’m a combination artist and entertainer. The artist does the writing. The entertainer performs. They live happily together and have a good time.”
And though Carlin keeps up with the news and mines it for material, his routines don’t play off the headlines a la Jay Leno. “It’s too easy,” he said. “I don’t like targets that are easy. I do mention people along the way to make a point. I mention George Bush a couple of times in my current show. It’s not about him specifically, but he comes in for a little abuse on the side.”
Take Michael Vick. Carlin sighed and called the star quarterback’s dog-fighting travails a “side attraction in the big circus of America. That’s not the kind of thing I generally talk about. But I did write about how I feel about humans vs. animals. I agree with the writer Patricia Highsmith. She said a friend told her if she saw a baby human and a baby kitten crying in the street, she’d feed the baby kitten. I agree with that. That’s what I would do: Put animals ahead of human beings.”
In fact, Americans in his mind prefer to focus on the sideshows and ignore the big picture.
“People have lost interest in governing themselves,” he observed, “for the sake of gizmos and toys. They sold out for jet skis and cellphones and salad shooters and leaf blowers. It’s just a shame. It will be the ruin of this country. But it’s fun to watch.
So by all means, lets watch…
George Carlin – Who Really Controls America

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 12 2007 22:14 utc | 10

I believe there is a course of action that would offer the best bet for survival but if my local friends are any indication of we here at the Moon, we’re mostly unprepared and/or unwilling to give up what we have to make the adjustments. More later if any interest.
Juannie, please do share. I have been gradually changing the way I live over the past year, but it’s a lonely project. I would love to hear your ideas!

Posted by: moonshadow | Oct 13 2007 3:20 utc | 12

U$,
a sense of justice, character-building and a few family values thrown in for good measure: that’s what makes our youth strong
boot camp killing suspects acquitted

Posted by: ralphieboy | Oct 13 2007 6:44 utc | 14

throwing together some pieces i spent way too much time digging up tonite
started when i saw this story
Namibia: U.S. Security Company Defends Iraq Mission

THE former U.S. military officer who set up a new security company last week to train Namibians in Iraq for security services says this has nothing to do with mercenary work and there is nothing secret about it.
Paul Grimes of SOC Namibia, a subsidiary of the US-based SOC-SMG company, also introduced his Namibian consultant, Alex Kamwi, one of the leaders of the Namibian association of ex-combatants who are demanding huge sums of money from Government for having fought in the liberation struggle.
“We are looking for non-combatant security guards to guard dining facilities, gyms, military base hospitals in Iraq,” Grimes said.
…
“Contracts run for one year and they get a two-week paid vacation. Contracts are renewable,” Grimes added.
The guards would get US$1 000 a month paid out to them directly and the rest of the – undisclosed – salary would be deposited into their personal bank accounts back in Namibia.
The company could use between 3 000 and 4 000 people.
…
Last week, Minister of Information Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah criticised the company and its recruitment drive for possible mercenary work.
According to the Namibian Constitution, no Namibian may engage in mercenary work in foreign countries without the written permission of the Ministry of Defence.

from last week
Namibian govt warns on mercenary-for-hire plans

Windhoek, Namibia – The Namibian government has clamped down on plans by a local labour hire firm, Africa Personnel Services (APS), and an American company, SOC-SMG, to hire Namibian mercenaries to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The government warned of the ‘consequences’ of Namibians fighting in other countries’ wars without the blessing of the government.
Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, said here Thursday the government only learnt about the recruitment from media reports.
“Although the reports claim that Namibians will only be allowed to depart for training in Iraq with the blessing of the Namibian government, the government did not receive any formal request in this regard.
“Had the government been formally approached, it would have found it difficult to consent to such a request,” Nandi-Ndaitwah said.
…
Analysts said Africa, because of its experience in peace-keeping efforts, had become a breeding ground for mercenaries and mercenary activities.

sounds like the company has moved to namibia after problems w/ ugandan recruits
from an npr story — U.S. Contractors in Iraq Rely on Third-World Labor — the other day

In many of the fortress-like U.S. bases in Iraq, Ugandan soldiers pull security duty. Many American military officers confuse these Ugandans with members of the “coalition of forces” fighting the global “war on terror.” But in fact, they’re paid private security guards.
An estimated 1,500 Ugandans work for an American security firm called Special Operations Consulting-Security Management Group (SOC-SMG). The company is based in Minden, Nev., and was founded by two ex-Navy SEALs. Over the past two years, SOC-SMG has racked up nearly $30 million in Pentagon contracts in Iraq alone.
SOC-SMG is now the target of litigation in Uganda among former employees, many of whom claim they were misled about the amount of money they would be paid. The average Ugandan guard will earn about $3.33 an hour, leaving the bulk of the rest of the contract money in the hands of their American employers.
SOC-SMG disputes the claims and says it will fight the litigants in court.

from may 2006
IRAQ: Ugandan Guards in Iraq Face Abuse

Amid allegations that Ugandans working with the United States forces in Iraq are sexually abused and their contracts changed arbitrarily by the recruiting agencies, a compassionate senior US officer has been working hard to restore the morale of 600 or so guards, most of them serving abroad for the first time.
Some of the Ugandan recruits at Alasad Airbase, North West of Iraq, one of the biggest US fortresses, were allegedly sodomised by foreign soldiers and admitted at the Gettysburg health facility inside the fortress, sources in Iraq and Uganda told Daily Monitor this week. It is said that some Ugandan women employed there were used as sex objects by members of one of the foreign armies in Iraq.
Sources said two Ugandans, Mr Enock Bashaija and Mr Geoffrey Kawuka slipped into a coma due to brutal assaults at the hands of foreign officers at Alasad Airbase after they queried terms of the contract.
Had it not been the intervention of Lt. Col (rtd), Fred Lynch, the Commanding Officer of the US army at the airbase and Mr. Paul Hegue, the executive officer of SOC-SMG, a private security management firm that manages the airbase, Ugandans would have gone on strike to protest the beatings of Bashaija and Kawuka, sources said.
…
But documents obtained from sources in Iraq and Kampala said all is not rosy between Ugandans and the private firms contracted by the US government to recruit them. Ugandans are unhappy that after leaving Uganda they are forced to change from one contractor to another, some reported to be middlemen.
Ugandans guard US military bases, oil fields, airports, highways, towns, water and electricity installations among others under multinational forces to pacify the volatile Iraq. For this work, they earn US$1000 (about shs1.8m) with US$100 deducted at source as out of pocket allowance, leaving US$900 (about shs 1.6m) which is wired to their accounts back home. On the other side, the other nationals doing similar work get US$4000 (about shs7.2m) with allowances.

from this past july
Uganda: 150 Ugandans Deported From Iraq

The US forces in Iraq have deported 150 Ugandans who have been working as security guards at various military installations and camps in the war-torn country.
Daily Monitor has learnt that most of the expelled guards have been charged with various counts ranging from indiscipline, tribalism, insubordination, and health related problems.
The 150 deportees were some of the 1,800 Ugandans who were recruited by Dreshak; a private company owned by Mumtaz Muslim, a Pakistani affiliated to an American firm SOC-SMG from July 2005 to date.
…
There are already 5,000 Ugandans working in Iraq. The guards earn between $900 and $1,200 a month and the project pumps about $1.5m per month into the Ugandan economy.
…
[Dreshak Director Alok] Dheer said some women guards were deported after becoming pregnant, which condition could not allow them continue serving in a war zone.

other reasons provided for the deportations included “indiscipline, tribalism, insubordination, and health related problems”. the broker dheer talked badly of the returning indentured laborers, expressing that “Some of these deportees were sleeping on duty, late comers and many others were not up to their respective tasks, making it impossible for the Americans to continue using them.”
some of the suits filed against the company lend more credence to the earlier reports of dubious enticements to ship off
Uganda: Former Iraq Guards Sue Contractor Over Breach of Contract

Dreshak International – a major recruiter of Ugandan guards for work in Iraq – is the target of a slew of pending litigation for breaches of contract and workplace abuses in Iraq, charges that security contracting firm not only denies, but is relishing disproving in court.
Leading the charge is Joseph Kitungi, who worked in Iraq from January 2006 until this June. The 14-year veteran of the UPDF has already filed a lawsuit against the Dubai-based company, claiming that Dreshak promised $6,000 a month in a newspaper advertisement but only ended up paying him $1,000 a month.
More litigation will be arriving in court in the coming weeks, much of it propelled by Dr. Gideon Tusigye, who worked in Iraq from April 2006 until this June. Dr. Tusigye charges that after a few months in Iraq, Dreshak and its parent company Special Operations Consulting – Security Management Group (SOC-SMG) forced him and other guards to sign different, less favorable contracts – including a provision that required them to buy $621 worth of gear that had initially been free.
Dr. Tusigye carries a thick stack of documents to meetings that he says proves Dreshak’s guilt: an email from Crane Bank citing monthly payments ranging from $450 to $1150, short of the $1400 he says was promised him, as well as the initial contract and the agreement he signed in Iraq that forces guards to pay for their own gear.
Mr Kitungi is seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages from the company, and Dr. Tusigye and other guards are expected to make similar demands.

if the namibian govt can’t apply the anti-merc statutes, namibians considering signing up may do well to pay attention to the experiences of ugandans. but then the lack of other opportunities to earn cash is what brings employers to these (cheap) labor pools in the first place.
testosterone-fueled video of SOC-SMG whitefellas at work & play in iraq. definitely not guarding dining halls or gymnasiums in that clip. guess that’s what the hired servants are for.

Posted by: b real | Oct 13 2007 7:44 utc | 16

Anti-semitism …

It’s a list of “the world’s most powerful people,” 100 of the bankers and media moguls, publishers and image makers who shape the lives of billions. It’s an exclusive, insular club, one whose influence stretches around the globe but is concentrated strategically in the highest corridors of power.
More than half its members, at least by one count, are Jewish.
…
For Aaron, the list shows how “vital” Jews have become in American life. The Vanity Fair rankings, he writes, “[tell] you so much about the place of Jews in this country, about the amazing people Jews are.”

There are some 18(?) million jews and 6 1/2 billion others. But half of the top 100 are jewish – hmmm. That is because of their “vitality”.
Consider the source

Posted by: b | Oct 13 2007 10:22 utc | 18

head on over and vote for MoA, only takes a few seconds to sign up.

Posted by: dan of steele | Oct 13 2007 11:37 utc | 20

Juannie at 5, this is a detail, still. It is generally assumed that US Gvmt. subsidies to corn-to-ethanol plants are creating a kind of boom in producing regions, etc., the subsidies are quite high, many get on the gravy train, etc., fuel rather than food is being paid for by the taxpayer, with all the consequences we know about or surmise.
I wondered about that, why should Repubs or Bush hand out more Gvmt largesse, contrary to their principles, and this article from USDA shows why :
Ethanol Reduces Government Support for U.S. Feed Grain Sector
Amber waves, USDA

Posted by: Tangerine | Oct 13 2007 12:30 utc | 22

Thanks norret…er uh, Tangerine…lol and whom ever originally posted that, I forget.
Hey, btw also, where the heck are the Moon girls? We’ve heard from annie, but where are the rest of the amazon brigade lately??? This place has to much testosterone of late, we need some estrogen for balance…lol

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 13 2007 13:08 utc | 24

glenn greenwald recently had a column taking the ADL to task for condemning antiwar folks all the while letting the faux news goons get away with murder. a couple of letters from abe foxman to greenwald did little to explain why this is allowed. however ann coulter’s statement that jews need to be perfected was too much even for the grizzled likud sycophants and ADL finally came out with a statement denouncing ms coulter.
link

Posted by: dan of steele | Oct 13 2007 16:59 utc | 26

Beyond satire …
Rice in Russia

The Russian government under Vladimir Putin has amassed so much central authority that the power-grab may undermine Moscow’s commitment to democracy, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Saturday.
“In any country, if you don’t have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development,” Rice told reporters after meeting with human-rights activists.
“I think there is too much concentration of power in the Kremlin. I have told the Russians that. Everybody has doubts about the full independence of the judiciary. There are clearly questions about the independence of the electronic media and there are, I think, questions about the strength of the Duma,” said Rice, referring to the Russian parliament.

Posted by: b | Oct 13 2007 18:03 utc | 28

@uncle #17 – you were thinking of this comment in the blackwater thread, which includes the same book link that tangerine added above.

Posted by: b real | Oct 13 2007 19:21 utc | 30

Yes, b real thank you, and thanks to Chris too.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 13 2007 21:21 utc | 32

Thanks for the fix for my url dan. And no Uncle, I didn’t get the impression you were calling me a spook.
@moonshadow,
An idea that has started to take hold in my mind lately was introduced to me my Derrick Jensen in his two part book, “End Game”. (Disclaimer. I don’t buy into all of his ideas although some that I don’t, I find difficult to refute.) The first of his 20 premise is that “Civilization is not and can never be sustainable. This is especially true for industrial civilization.”
By civilization I think he is referring to the city states or large metropolitan densely populated cities. I had a hard time with this at first but it makes sense when one considers that sustainability is dependent on a productive land base and a consistent flux of solar energy. For all practical purposes the sun is our only source of energy. We’ve been quite literally feeding off large reserves of solar energy stored millions of years ago in the form of fossil fuels but which are now dwindling. The nonproductive city states have always had to draw from the surrounding productive land bases, most usually by violence. A reprieve came for cities, or more correctly the surrounding productive land bases, with the availability of cheap fossil fuels. Now that that’s all changing, how will civilizations feed themselves without plundering the production of rural producers to the point of distruction. There are elites that recognize this as well as myself or Jensen so what do you suppose their solutions would involve? The drive to control food production, ranging from patented seed genetics to restrictive regulation of independent producers (NAIS for example) are to my mind conscious ploys by elites in the know. Those that own most of the economic world are in a mad scramble to increase their holdings and acquire as complete control of both resources and people as they can. I believe many elites are consciously and deliberately preparing for and facilitating the breakdown to happen in ways that will enhance and expand their already existing power bases.
For the last ten years or so I have been concerned about my survival and quality of life as I move into my retirement years (I’m in my late 60’s now.) I watched my parents and other elders dwindle away in retirement institutions, most who never had the luxury of frequent visits from their children. Not a pretty sight for those many. I decided that I would like to live less independently and more surrounded by or in close proximity to my friends as I aged. My idea was for my friends and I to collectively buy a property that eventually we could all move to and share communally. No great conceptual breakthrough on my part but a pragmatic approach that I thought could work. It didn’t. I never was able to generate the interest to move beyond the “hey, great idea Juannie.”
I now believe we shouldn’t wait until our waning years to implement communal or tribal groups. Ten acres of reasonably productive land could go a long way to sustaining several dozen individuals and networking and sharing with other like minded local groups would fill most all of our needs on a level where we could still explore our individual creative impulses. Most of us now live totally dependent on the economic system the elites own. Because we live in our own homes or apartments we are lulled into a sense of autonomy and independence. But it is a false sense. Total independence is a myth. We are all interdependent (or dependent or co-dependent but interdependent is a more highly evolved condition) and the sooner we recognize this and structure our lives accordingly, the better our chances to find some niche in the interstices or fringes where we may survive and maybe even prosper during the breakdown.
It looks very bleak out there in the elite’s world. My mind refuses to let go of it’s search for a more sane existence. Changes are happening whether we make volitional choices or not. I choose to try to find a more viable even if less comfortable way.

Posted by: Juannie | Oct 13 2007 22:56 utc | 34

The ‘Good Germans’ Among Us – New York Times

“BUSH lies” doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s time to confront the darker reality that we are lying to ourselves. Enlarge This Image Barry Blitt

Ten days ago The Times unearthed yet another round of secret Department of Justice memos countenancing torture. President Bush gave his standard response: “This government does not torture people.” Of course, it all depends on what the meaning of “torture” is. The whole point of these memos is to repeatedly recalibrate the definition so Mr. Bush can keep pleading innocent.

By any legal standards except those rubber-stamped by Alberto Gonzales, we are practicing torture, and we have known we are doing so ever since photographic proof emerged from Abu Ghraib more than three years ago. As Andrew Sullivan, once a Bush cheerleader, observed last weekend in The Sunday Times of London, America’s “enhanced interrogation” techniques have a grotesque provenance: “Verschärfte Vernehmung, enhanced or intensified interrogation, was the exact term innovated by the Gestapo to describe what became known as the ‘third degree.’ It left no marks. It included hypothermia, stress positions and long-time sleep deprivation.”

Still, the drill remains the same. The administration gives its alibi (Abu Ghraib was just a few bad apples). A few members of Congress squawk. The debate is labeled “politics.” We turn the page.

Posted by: Anonymous | Oct 14 2007 5:09 utc | 36

So much for Sunni/Shiite historic animosity. Can there be any doubt now that that animosity is a problem of context and manipulation? Slothrop?

Posted by: anna missed | Oct 14 2007 5:17 utc | 38

Good to see you fran…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 14 2007 5:29 utc | 40

Recommended – Uri Averny: The Mother of all Pretexts

WHEN I hear mention of the “Clash of Civilizations” I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry.
To laugh, because it is such a silly notion.
To cry, because it is liable to cause untold disasters.
To cry even more, because our leaders are exploiting this slogan as a pretext for sabotaging any possibility of an Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation. It is just one more in a long line of pretexts.
…
The salvation came from America: a professor named Samuel Huntington wrote a book about the “Clash of Civilizations”. And so we found the mother of all pretexts.
THE ARCH-ENEMY, according to this theory, is Islam. Western Civilization, Judeo-Christian, liberal, democratic, tolerant, is under attacked from the Islamic monster, fanatical, terrorist, murderous.
Islam is murderous by nature. Actually, “Muslim” and “terrorist” are synonymous. Every Muslim is a terrorist, every terrorist a Muslim.
A sceptic might ask: How did it happen that the wonderful Western culture gave birth to the Inquisition, the pogroms, the burning of witches, the annihilation of the Native Americans, the Holocaust, the ethnic cleansings and other atrocities without number – but that was in the past. Now Western culture is the embodiment of freedom and progress.
Professor Huntington was not thinking about us in particular. His task was to satisfy a peculiar American craving: the American empire always needs a virtual, world-embracing enemy, a single enemy which includes all the opponents of the United States around the world.
…
THIS WORLD VIEW is tailored for us. Indeed, the world of the clashing civilizations is, for us, the best of all possible worlds.
The struggle between Israel and the Palestinians is no longer a conflict between the Zionist movement, which came to settle in this country, and the Palestinian people, which inhabited it. No, it has been from the very beginning a part of a world-wide struggle which does not stem from our aspirations and actions. The assault of terrorist Islam on the Western world did not start because of us. Our conscience can be entirely clean – we are among the good guys of this world.
…

Inbetween Averni has a good history of Zionist “excuses” to colonise Palestine.

Posted by: b | Oct 14 2007 9:15 utc | 42

Yes b that NYT article was a classic. In fact I pictured you reading it 3 times… thanks for mOa.

Posted by: koreelattor | Oct 14 2007 15:30 utc | 44

anna missed at 38, of course the sectarian strife or bitterness (as in title on yahoo news) between Sunni and Shia is not original to Iraq, it was induced by the US, and I mean that literally.
Turning politics into the ‘fair’ representation of different communities / different religions / different sexes, modeled on US identity politics, or even various liberation movements, as was done in the ‘new Iraq constitution’, which in then layered with all the subsequent pundit blather tied such distinctions to specific, delimited territories is guaranteed, absolutely guaranteed, to create murderous actions on the ground, not to mention a non-functional Parliament (or other democratic institution of that kind.)
Other conditions are necessary as well, but they are not difficult to implement: control of media, handing out millions of dollars to anyone who sucks up, furnishing arms or turning a blind eye to their procurement and use. Keeping control by having superior arms / grunts, arbitrary arrests in the night, huge prisons, control of agri, oh I could go on, will do the rest.
The aim was always to turn Iraq into small powerless ethnic states antagonistic to each other and dependent on external support thru the conduit of corrupt, or better dependent, chiefs of one kind or another. They might be war-lords, clan chiefs, influential business types, drug barons (soon coming to a home near you…), pious elected officials (UN stamped!), popular religious leaders, or even just anyone who has some following and wants to be on the take, either through cynical calculation, or need coupled with sincere naiveté. It matters not. The prisons, the torture, the bombs, the bases, the domination of cherry picking ‘leaders’ will be a constant.
How much has the aggression on Iraq cost? One trillion dollars? More? Not quite … yet?
How much are the energy resources of Iraq worth?
30 trillion dollars? 15 trillion only? Even less?
I don’t know, but the order of magnitude is somewhere in there. Ask Cheney.
Bush’s character faults are irrelevant.

Posted by: Tangerine | Oct 14 2007 15:54 utc | 46

Right on mppnshadow. Now tell me why “we germans” (I am one) should be responsible for the holocaust …
—-
Glenn Greenwald takes another well phrased ride against the windmills: The Beltway Establishment’s contempt for the rule of law

By definition, our Beltway establishment does not believe in the rule of law — at least not for them. They are creating a completely segregated, two-track system where high Beltway officials and their corporate enablers arrogate unto themselves the power to decide when they can break the law. They are thus literally exempt from our laws, even our criminal laws, while increasingly harsh, merciless, and inflexible punishments are doled out for the poorest and least connected criminals — who receive no consideration of any kind, let alone presidential commutations or special laws written for them by Congress retroactively rendering legal their patently criminal behavior.

1. Yep
2. So what …

Posted by: b | Oct 14 2007 17:42 utc | 48

a thought –
the proliferating presence of private contractors, in iraq primarily, but also afghanistan & other u.s. military bases blotting the biosphere, is the weak link in empire’s expanding military hegemony. as inexpensive indentured foreign citizens supplant good ole’ ‘merikan-made men & women in uncle sam’s services — scrubbing, serving, washing, watching, warrior’ing & whatnot — what better opportunity for international infiltration, espionage & other injurious endeavors?

Posted by: b real | Oct 14 2007 22:13 utc | 50

Right on mppnshadow. Now tell me why “we germans” (I am one) should be responsible for the holocaust …
You aren’t. This is what enrages me so much about the Rich article. When the institutions of a democratic society cease to function, the power of the people within it to effect change becomes severely limited. It’s a gross injustice for the people who did have that power to then place the blame on the general public who did not. Instead of restructuring our media, shoring up our democratic institutions, addressing the core economic issues that keep us locked in warfare, we will instead endure endless handwringing over the shortcomings of the American public, thus ensuring that nothing is fixed. In another generation we will again find ourselves marching off to war for the benefit of an elite who haven’t had to face their own shortcomings.
Manonfyre, thank you for the reminder of Rock’s skit. It is an apt description. I hope you are right. Rich’s point would have more credibility with me if the media hadn’t been complicit in deceiving the public. It’s not fair to blame the 30-40% in the middle for “lying to themselves” when the news sources they trusted didn’t provide honest coverage. If, however, by “we” Rich means his fellow journalists then yes, he deserves a hearty amen!

Posted by: moonshadow | Oct 14 2007 23:19 utc | 52

A few days ago I had linked to news about the arrest of a Georgian opposition leader. Here is the follow up:
Georgian Ex-Minister in Public Climbdown

The political situation in Georgia took another extraordinary twist this week when former defence minister Irakli Okruashvili, who had dramatically denounced his former boss President Mikheil Saakashvili two weeks before, publicly repudiated his own allegations.
On October 8, twelve days after the ex-minister was arrested, the Georgian prosecutor general’s office released a videotape of Okruashvili in which he was shown pleading guilty to the charges of extortion and abuse of office made against him, and one by one retracting all the accusations he had levelled against the president.
(snip)
The video showed Okruashvili looking despondent and reacting slowly to the questions put to him, causing opposition politicians to allege that he had been drugged or tortured into making his confession.
(snip)

The credentials of Okruashvili’s ally Patarkatsishvili – Media moghul, ex Berezovsky sidekick, wanted in Russia, current business partner of Murdoch – leave me doubtful there are any good characters in this story… But, that aside, imagine the international media outcry if anything even remotely similar to what is described above took place in Russia or in Venezuela. This being US friendly, NATO aspirant Georgia, the most we get to hear is The Economist sounding mildly censorious while it reminds the reader “Of course it is not realistic to hold Georgia to the same standards of democratic development as Western states”…

Posted by: Alamet | Oct 15 2007 0:52 utc | 54

update on #16
Namibia deports US security employees

WINDHOEK, Namibia – Authorities have ordered the deportation of two Americans working for a security firm that was trying to recruit Namibians to work as guards at U.S. facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, a government minister said.
The Namibian Cabinet also recommended the closure of the local branch of the Nevada-based security firm, Special Operations Consulting-Security Management Group (SOC-SMG), which was set up earlier this month, Information Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah said Friday.
Nandi-Ndaitwah said two American employees of the firm — Paul Grimes, the firm’s country representative and Fredric Piry, the chief of operations — were to be “immediately removed” from the country. They had been given 24 hours to leave Namibia, she said Friday.
…
The U.S. Embassy in Windhoek and the State Department did not comment on the situation Sunday. Calls to the security firm’s headquarters in Minden, Nev., were not immediately returned.
…
The firm had been targeting Namibians over the age of 25 as well as veterans of Namibia’s lengthy war with South Africa for independence. The company is reported to have held meetings with some increasingly disaffected war veterans, who have been campaigning for hefty pensions and gratuities from the state for their roles in the guerrilla war.
A sparsely populated desert country, Namibia presents an easy option for companies hoping to operate under the legal radar. The country also presents an alternative to neighboring South Africa, where controversial anti-mercenary legislation has been introduced which will clamp down on citizens wanting to work in security and military sectors abroad.
An estimated 2,000 to 4,000 South Africans worked in Iraq last year, helping guard oil installations, hotels and foreign residents. Thousands more are in other countries like Nigeria and Afghanistan. Many of them are white former members of the apartheid-era armed forces.

Posted by: b real | Oct 15 2007 1:36 utc | 56

subtitle: wicked bastard dies in his own bed
French mercenary Bob Denard dies

BORDEAUX, France, Oct 14 (Reuters) – Bob Denard, the French soldier-of-fortune whose near mythical involvement in African wars since the 1960s made him one of the world’s most famous mercenaries, has died at the age of 78.
He had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Denard, whose death was confirmed by his sister Georgette Garnier, became legendary for his role in attempting to overthrow regimes in a series of wars during the 1960s and 1970s that accompanied the decolonisation of Africa.

wikipedia entry for those not familiar w/ denard
good backgrounder from a paper in sierra leone, dated 2001, on mercs in africa
Mercenaries: Messiahs of Terror
one thing to remember is that these guys generally don’t operate w/o the financial backing of at least one powerful govt. for denard, it was the french.
which reminds me of a statement that the u.s. official, theresa whelan, made in 2003 to

an influential group of US “private military companies”, the IPOA (International Peace Operations Association).
Ms Whelan told the group the Pentagon was keen to see them operate in Africa, saying: “Contractors are here to stay in supporting US national security objectives overseas.” They were cheaper, and saved the use of US forces in peacekeeping and training.
She added: “The US can be supportive in trying to ameliorate regional crises without necessarily having to put US troops on the ground, which is often a very difficult political decision. Sometimes we may not want to be very visible.”

as a newsweek piece put it

The International Peace Operations Association has a lot more clout at the Pentagon than the name might suggest. Calling itself an “association of military-service provider companies,” it’s the closest thing in Washington to a lobbying group for soldiers of fortune. At the outfit’s annual dinner last November, the guest speaker was Theresa Whelan, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for African affairs, from the policy directorate headed by Douglas Feith, the controversial under secretary of Defense. Whelan’s topic: the U.S. government’s increasing use of private military contractors, especially in Africa.

wikipedia entry on International Peace Operations Association

The International Peace Operations Association (IPOA) is a non-governmental trade and lobbying association representing the “peace and stability industry,” more commonly referred to as private military companies (PMCs) or mercenaries. The IPOA is located in Washington DC, USA, and was founded in April 2001 by Doug Brooks, who currently serves as the association’s president. The IPOA currently represents 42 companies which are required to pay dues and submit delegates to various committees within the IPOA.

mother jones article on brooks from late september
Blackwater’s Man in Washington

Meet Doug Brooks, whose trade group represents the private military industry’s biggest players. He makes hired guns sound like U.N. peacekeepers.
…
Brooks first became intrigued by private military contractors as a doctoral candidate at the University of Pittsburgh in the late 1990s, where he indulged his childhood interest in military history by studying Vietnam and Southeast Asian security. Realizing he was “writing papers that could have been written 20 years earlier,” he soon tired of the subject. It was then that he began reading newspaper articles about Executive Outcomes, a private mercenary company operating in Africa. He changed his academic focus and, shortly thereafter, managed to win a fellowship to the South African Institute of International Affairs, where he began churning out papers extolling the promise of “private military companies”—a controversial term he has since abandoned—and their potential use in international peacekeeping operations.
…
Brooks doesn’t shy away from Executive Outcomes’ controversial legacy. While he says that Executive Outcomes-style offensive operations no longer have a place in the industry—”none of the companies do it”—he credits the company with saving thousands of lives in Sierra Leone and even points to it as a model for the future of international peacekeeping.

Posted by: b real | Oct 15 2007 2:24 utc | 58

borev.net spices up a propaganda film on chavez & venezuela put out by the american security council & featuring, among others, otto reich (in case you’ve never seen his bullshit in action)
Hey Look What I Did!

Ok some crazy people made a funny/scary agit-prop video about Venezuela a few weeks back. And by “crazy people,” I mean “Connie Mack” and “Otto Reich,” so you know it’s going to be awesome. Anyway I got ahold of a copy and made some improvements to it (Pop Up Video style!) so you can sit through the whole thing without totally losing your lunch. Enjoy!

the ASC is one of the original pressure groups of the “military-industrial complex,” founded in 1955 by a coalition of arms, oil, big biz & big media anti-commie shucksters who never fail to see subversion of their idea of democracy & freedoms or fail to find justification for a military response to other countries they don’t like – for instance guatemala, indonesia, cambodia, angola, nicaragua, etc — and now they’ve made up a ridiculous propaganda film about venezuela. if ASC (& its many offspring) weren’t so influential w/ a lot of the insane inhabitants on the hill, it could be viewed strictly as a work of comedy. it’s interesting to watch though, for anyone wanting to see how thin these “patriots” are willing to stretch credulity. and the enhancements made at the link above do provide some levity.

Posted by: b real | Oct 15 2007 4:43 utc | 60

Amira Hass: The 41st kilometer

A zoo. This is one of the ways that Palestinians describe the conditions under which nearly 1.5 million of them have been living: in an area of some 360 square kilometers, closed in on three sides by sophisticated barbed-wire fences, concrete walls and military lookout towers, and to the west by Israeli navy ships that seal them off from the sea. Overhead, in the sky, unmanned aircraft and hot air balloons continually photograph whatever happens inside this closed cage, which has seven gates connecting it to the world, all of which are sealed off almost hermetically.
…
Since 1991, Israel has been using the partial or total imprisonment of the Gazans in their cage, for longer or shorter periods, as a political strategy: Sometimes it is depicted as punishment, sometimes as a deterrent action and always as a preface to a political plan. Until not long ago, it seemed as though the terms of imprisonment could not be any worse. The past four months have proven that there is always “worse.”

Posted by: b | Oct 15 2007 10:34 utc | 62

This take on U.S. “interest” in Pakistan’s nuclear program and its consequences for an investigator is interesting. I suspect that the sordid high-level collusion adumbrated here was probably quite pragmatic: why not make money and maintain some input over a nuclear program that was going to come to fruition with or without U.S. consent. Why such realism is heresy in the case of Iran is much more puzzling if such buzzword criteria as the “security of Israel” are taken to be the main issues, but becomes quite comprehensible in the optic of a thrust toward hegemony over oil supplies.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Oct 15 2007 11:01 utc | 64

Le Monde Diplomatique: …
The sun sets early on the American Century

For the US power elite, being on top of the world has been a habit for 60 years. Hegemony has been a way of life; empire, a state of being and of mind. The institutional realist critics of the Bush administration have no alternative conceptual framework for international relations, based on something other than force, the balance of power or strategic predominance. The present crisis and the deepening impact of global concerns will perhaps generate new impulses for cooperation and interdependence in future. Yet it is just as likely that US policy will be unpredictable: as all post-colonial experiences show, de-imperialisation is likely to be a long and possibly traumatic process.

Posted by: b | Oct 15 2007 16:42 utc | 66

There are elections in Poland next week and the current far-rightwing administration wants to stay in Iraq. The opposition and 80% of Poles want to leave. The current nuts may or may not win, but the Iraqis are doing there best to make it unlikely.
Shi’ite groups say attacked Polish envoy and embassy in Iraq

Poland’s ambassador to Iraq, General Edward Pietrzyk, was wounded in a triple bomb attack on his diplomatic convoy in Baghdad earlier this month. A Polish secret service officer and an Iraqi were killed in the attack.
Five days later a car bomb killed two people near Poland’s Baghdad embassy. There were no casualties among staff or damage to the building.
“The attacks are a natural reaction to what the Polish troops are doing in Diwaniya, from killing to detentions and torturing of the people in Diwaniya,” the masked man said in the video, which was dated last week.

Attack on Polish military base in Iraq kills five

Militants attacked a mainly Polish military base in central Iraq with mortars and machine guns on Monday, killing five civilians and wounding two Polish soldiers, officials said.
…
Lieutenant Colonel Wlodek Glogowski, spokesman for Polish forces in Iraq, told Poland’s PAP news agency that a Polish helicopter was hit by machinegun fire during the attacks.

Poland denies Shiite militia torture allegations

Poland has denied torturing any of some 88 suspected terrorists whom Polish troops had taken into custody in Iraq, Defence Minister Aleksande Szczyglo said Monday. He said Polish troops “immediately” handed over some 88 terror suspects detained in Iraq to US forces.

Militants mortar Polish bases in Iraq

Glogowski said there was also a mortar attack on Camp Echo, which is just south of Diwaniya and houses U.S. and other multinational forces and is under Polish command, but there were no casualties.

Quite a campaign …

Posted by: b | Oct 15 2007 19:29 utc | 68

Treachery for treatment

Israeli security conditions the health of sick Palestinians on their becoming informants
His calm demeanour belies the personal tragedy he is living. Journalist Bassam Al-Wahidi, 30, is on the verge of giving in to perpetual darkness. This will happen if he doesn’t have an operation to reposition his retina, an operation that he was supposed to have had last month in a Palestinian hospital in Jerusalem. Although Al-Wahidi, a news presenter on the Voice of the Workers radio station in Gaza, had completed all the necessary administrative procedures required of him to travel to Jerusalem, officers in the Israeli domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet, at the Erez Crossing on the northern border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, won’t allow him to cross until he agrees to become an Israeli agent and provide information on the activities, leaders and members of Palestinian resistance movements active in Gaza.

More at the link…

Posted by: Alamet | Oct 16 2007 0:33 utc | 70

My last link for tonight, from Voices of Iraq
Former defense minister CIA agent, says political analyst

Posted by: Alamet | Oct 16 2007 0:50 utc | 72

first press briefing for gen. ward since being named the commander of AFRICOM was held on monday. the occasion was the announcement of a new effort at presenting a multilateral face on the u.s. naval presence in the gulf of guinea, a hoped-to-become-permanent mission entitled “the African Partnership Initiative,” focused on ‘promoting maritime security and safety.’ DoD transcript here.
it was a little rough for the commander, who sounded at times wooden & awkward in his responses, yet he stayed mainly on msg in spite of fielding some direct & informed questioning on AFRICOM’s motives, reception & obstacles on the continent (which surprised me a little, as, after reading thru so many of these transcripts, the press generally sticks to throwing softball questions w/i the talking points outlined in the briefer’s opening stmts.)
and one of those messages today was “we’re bringing value-added” to investments in africa. foreign investments, primarily, which is what the “partnership” in “the African Partnership Initiative” really is about.
last week the corporate council on africa, a u.s. biz lobby centered on creating and retaining wealth in africa through private enterprise, hosted their second annual U.S.-Africa Infrastructure Conference: Building on Stability in dc, brining together players from private enterprise, govt and military, to network & discuss infrastructure development opportunities throughout africa. one of the plenary sessions was titled “AFRICOM And Its Potential To Safeguard And Encourage New Infrastructure Development In Africa,” of which the description promised attendees “The focus of the discussion also will pertain to infrastructure development priorities that will arise throughout Africa as a result of AFRICOM’s presence. Panelists will overview the vital role of the private sector in the development and success of those new projects.”
i haven’t found any transcripts of the panel yet, but there was a DoS piece from the end of last week that gives us the general drift
New U.S. Command To Take Broad, Inclusive Approach to Africa

Enhancing security and stability will foster conditions for economic growth
Washington — The new U.S. regional military command for Africa, an integrated defense, diplomatic and economic organization, will enhance U.S. efforts to advance security and prosperity in Africa, U.S. officials say.
…
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Africa, said that the United States hopes its support for defense reform and military capacity-building not only will help African nations to manage conflicts and mitigate violent extremism but also will create conditions conducive to further economic growth.
Thomas-Greenfield spoke at an October 9-10 conference on infrastructure investment in Africa. Its private-sector participants viewed stability as the critical precondition for investing in telecommunication, transportation, power-generation and other infrastructure projects.
Underdeveloped and dilapidated infrastructure has hampered efforts by many African countries to sustain fast economic growth and engage more fully in international trade.
Thomas-Greenfield said only private capital markets can bridge the gap between what is required to fund costly infrastructure projects and the scarce resources available to most African governments.
Despite significant improvements in the security and business climates in Africa, many U.S. investors still consider long-term infrastructure projects on the continent too risky because of what they perceive as a lack of stability.
Thomas-Greenfield said that the formation of AFRICOM is an acknowledgment that Africa warrants special U.S. attention, and thereby helps boost the U.S. private sector’s confidence in the continent.
Security and stability not only make it possible to maintain existing infrastructure, she said, but they also create the right environment for the private sector to contribute to its expansion.

now it’s an outrageous stmt that thomas-greenfield makes when she says that “only private capital markets can bridge the gap between what is required to fund costly infrastructure projects and the scarce resources available to most African governments” since those govts have every right & obligation to oversee & regulate the use of those resources to benefit the people and could very well fund their own infrastructure projects w/ the profits realized off such control, given the opportunity. but then, the idea is the further opening of african resources to private foreign investors so, as the late johnny carson used to say, “buy the premise, buy the bit.”
which brings us back to gen. ward & monday’s press briefing. leading off his opening stmt, ward states

First, let me thank you for coming this morning to listen to Admiral Ulrich and I talk about the African Partnership Station. And I think it provides a good example of what the newly established U.S. Africa Command is about as it relates to helping out partner nations on the continent of Africa build their capacity to better govern their spaces, to have more effects in providing for the security of their people, as well as doing the things that are important in assuring the development of the continent in ways that promote increased globalization of their economies, as well as the development of their societies for the betterment of their people.

doing the things that are important in assuring the development of the continent in ways that promote increased globalization of their economies
economic globalization, of course, is just another form of neo-colonialism – a neoliberal attempt at removing all barriers to investment, trade, regulation, and capital accumulation for the benefit of the moneyed classes. africans know all about neocolonialism & living in the periphery, so it’s surprising that AFRICOM would be openly pushing the economic angle to their operations. another poor PR move for a newly-birthed enterprise that’s already largely still-born.
ward stresses the phrase “value added” seven times throughout the briefing, adapting a financial term to define a cornerstone of AFRICOM’s mission that aims to advertise the command’s usefulness in achieving a return on investment for all takers.
the state dept story stated that

Despite significant improvements in the security and business climates in Africa, many U.S. investors still consider long-term infrastructure projects on the continent too risky because of what they perceive as a lack of stability.

gen. ward offered a reason why AFRICOM is focused on stability today

..we think that we have the best chance of doing work today that helps bring stability so that we are not in a position of having to do things 10, 20 years from now that are problematic for the continent and as well for our global society.

which brings us (via images of the persian gulf) right to the gulf of guinea
joining gen. ward in the briefing was adm. henry ulrich of EUCOM (nice picture of him flipping off the press here) to discuss the dispatch of the USS Fort McHenry to the gulf region, now labeled as the aforementioned “african partnership station initiative.” ulrich gives some cockamamie explanation for the increased u.s. naval presence in the oil-rich gulf region — ranging from “it’s just a matter of time before they use our maritime infrastructure against us” (which is a strange claim to make considering we’re talking about west africa here) to a consensual relationship w/ coastal nations there to build maritime programs “to protect against ocean-related terrorists; hostile, criminal and dangerous acts … with international cooperation, … new partnerships, and so forth and so on”, again all in foreign territory.
ulrich tells how they got african nations to sign on

And at the same time that was going on [u.s. creating a strategy defining the need for maritime security in the gulf], the — our African friends, the nations that have started getting together in several symposium and other different fora — and they issued what is also is in your package, called the Benin communique, this time last year, where we said: We, the ministers attending the Gulf of Guinea Maritime Safety and Security Conference, agree to commit to address the following elements of maritime governance — partnership, maritime domain awareness — and agree to continue engagement with international maritime partners to improve our maritime safety and security.

“we said”? other words that come to mind are “recommended” and “dictated”.

We had our African friends on the west coast ask for some help in developing their maritime safety and security. And so we in the last year did a lot of exploration and meetings and discussions on how we might do this. And we’ve sent some ships and airplanes down there to work with our folks there and our new partners there to try to understand where they were in their development and how we might help them.
And so we came to the conclusion that the way to do this is to use a delivery vehicle. We use a ship — go figure — as we talk about maritime safety and security. We went out to a lot of our European partners that had an interest off the west coast of Africa. Six of them agreed — six different nations agreed that this was important and they would like to work with us.
We reached out to the other agencies and departments here, and our own government, the State Department, USAID, NOAA, Coast Guard, Homeland Security all wanted to work with us on this. And then we reached out to NGOs that had an interest in the maritime domain.
And so we brought that together, and the ship leaves — sails from Norfolk tomorrow. We’ll go to Spain to pick up all these riders, and then we’ll travel a circuit down off the West Coast of Africa with training teams that will work as a group. So we’ve, if you would, convened a center of excellence. And we have a center of mass now on this ship that can help these nations seek what they want, which is maritime safety and security so that they can continue to develop ashore in all the activities that we support, other nations support. And so that’s kind of the long and short of what maritime safety and security is, why we’re going to the West Coast of Africa and why we decided to use a ship, called an Africa Partnership Station, to work this problem.

heh. partner-ship. get it? funny guys.
here’s why the benin communique came about, according to the priorities listed by the top DoS official on africa, jendayi frazer, as part of her keynote speech to the ministry

Yesterday a reporter asked me what are U.S. interests in the Gulf of Guinea? Achieving coastal security in the Gulf of Guinea is key to America’s trade and investment opportunities in Africa, to our energy security, and to stem transnational threats like narcotics and arms trafficking, piracy, and illegal fishing – we share these interests in common with our Gulf of Guinea partners.
…
Experts estimate that over the next 10 years, oil production in the Gulf of Guinea will grow by 40%. By 2020, the Gulf of Guinea is expected to be one of the world’s top oil-producing regions. Yet, private companies are the vast majority of operations in the Gulf of Guinea. If kidnapping of their workers and attacks on their facilities continue, they are unlikely to make the necessary investments to increase production, or even maintain current levels.
…
What we hope is that everyone here will be galvanized to return home and impress upon your government the importance of Maritime safety and security, including the economic and governance issues that are at its very foundation.
…
Let me be clear, the purpose of American involvement is not to impose our policy vision, but rather to alert you to our willingness to support [our] well-conceived plans reflecting your government’s policy commitment and resources [which i have already provided to each of you in your “appreciation package”]. Toward that end, the United States and other donor partners are committed to providing support for this initiative in the form of seminars, training, and equipment. The U.S. government intends to support African institutions as they develop political buy-in for regional maritime security cooperation, whether that involves the AU, ECOWAS, CEEAC, Maritime Organization of West and Central Africa (MOWCA), the Gulf of Guinea Commission, or any others.

iow, we’re going ahead w/ our plans, ya’ll figure out how you want to adapt.
later on in monday’s DoD briefing, someone asks ulrich about naval initiatives to build brown-water assets (riverine forces), “particularly in nigeria,” to which the admiral replies

Well, I’m not going to talk about individual countries, because we quite frankly haven’t been asked by those countries to help them. Having said that, they are keenly aware that we’re developing a, what you refer to as a brown-water capability. … But if we were asked, I would work very, very hard to comply with their request.

no doubt. not sure how important it is anymore, since the oil companies are definitely not complaining about the money they’re raking in these days, but the price per barrel of crude has been affected by events in nigeria for some time now. the ongoing militant attacks on pipelines and infrastructure supposedly costs up to 500,000 bpd in missed production, affecting both prices availability (nigerian imports to the u.s. are down so far this year), and then a short strike at a chevron facility last week raised global rates for a day or two. all this has led to a near-permanent naval presence in the gulf now, as ulrich acknowledges

..we pretty much have a continuous presence, defined as either a ship off the West Coast of Africa or some maritime patrol aircraft off the West Coast of Africa or training teams that are downrange in some of the West Coast. And we’re there 360 days a year now.

working to maximize everyone’s ROI

Posted by: b real | Oct 16 2007 6:35 utc | 74

Maybe Qatar needs some Missile Defense? Then again, maybe its better to have none:
Misfired Patriot missile hits farm in Qatar: report

A Patriot missile hit a farm in Qatar after being accidentally fired from a base used by U.S. forces in the Gulf Arab state, Al Jazeera television said on Tuesday.
The Qatar-based television said the missile launched from Assayliyah base did not cause any casualties. The Patriot system is an anti-missile system.

“accidentally fired” – hmmmmm

Posted by: b | Oct 16 2007 10:52 utc | 76

Ericsson.
Gold. US$88/b oil. Turkey.
Everything’s just fine, though.
Really.

Posted by: Dismal Science | Oct 16 2007 12:05 utc | 78

1. Pope refuses to meet Condi Rice
2. Dalai Lama meets George Bush

Posted by: DM | Oct 16 2007 20:28 utc | 80

Here’s the latest on Russian-Iranian agreements. Does anyone know anything more on the subject? If xUS attacked Iran, would Russian help Iran? Have they been supplying them w/weapons, etc?

Posted by: jj | Oct 17 2007 1:21 utc | 82

Heh.
It turns out that quite a bit of the Antarctic belongs to us, actually.
Who said empire was dead?
Now I know what we fought that pesky Falklands war for.

Posted by: Dismal Science | Oct 17 2007 11:11 utc | 84