So very off thread, but I just came away from a link Glenn Greewald gave for a Billmon post.
Thank you all here for keeping the flame alive.
I do miss Billmon so very, very much.
I’m actually tearing up a bit.

Posted by: jawbone | Nov 28 2007 22:09 utc | 3

Towards the end of the sixth book of the Aeneid Anchises tells his son Aeneas about the greatness of Rome which is not that of casting beautiful statues or creating splendid poetry as the Greeks have done but that the greatness of Rome resides in establishing the rule of Law and under this rule of law “debellare superbos, parcere subiectis” that is annihilate those that resist and spare those that submit. There you have summarized in a famous verse the essence of Empire. But that attitude requires an enormous optimism about oneself and there is no better demonstration of the boundless optimism of the American people than the behavior of the stock market yesterday and today. Simply we cannot imagine that events may go wrong, that we have to pay our debts. All problems will be solved, according to market speculators, through more debt creation, actually free money. This boundless optimism is what sustains the American power.

Posted by: jlcg | Nov 28 2007 23:17 utc | 5

two on the cia’s memo to destabilize the venezuelan govt (w/ conflicting translations of the operation name)
eva golinger: CIA Operation “Pliers” Uncovered in Venezuela

Last night CNN en Español aired the above image, which captions at the bottom “Who Killed him?” by “accident”. The image of President Chavez with the caption about killing him below, which some could say subliminally incites to assassination, was a “production error” mistakenly made in the CNN en Español newsroom. The news anchor had been narrarating a story about the situation between Colombia and Venezuela and then switched to a story about an unsolved homicide but – oops – someone forgot to change the screen image and President Chavez was left with the killing statement below. Today they apologized and admitted it was a rather “unfortunate” and “regrettable” mistake. Yes, it was.
On a scarier note, an internal CIA memorandum has been obtained by Venezuelan counterintelligence from the US Embassy in Caracas that reveals a very sinister – almost fantastical, were it not true – plan to destabilize Venezuela during the coming days. The plan, titled “OPERATION PLIERS” was authored by CIA Officer Michael Middleton Steere and was addressed to CIA Director General Michael Hayden in Washington. Steere is stationed at the US Embassy in Caracas under the guise of a Regional Affairs Officer. The internal memorandum, dated November 20, 2007, references the “Advances of the Final Stage of Operation Pliers”, and confirms that the operation is coordinated by the team of Human Intelligence (HUMINT) in Venezuela. The memo summarizes the different scenarios that the CIA has been working on in Venezuela for the upcoming referendum vote on December 2nd.
…
Operation Tenaza has the objective of encouraging an armed insurrection in Venezuela against the government of President Chavez that will justify an intervention of US forces, stationed on the military bases nearby in Curacao and Colombia. The Operation mentions two countries in code: as Blue and Green. These refer to Curacao and Colombia, where the US has operative, active and equipped bases that have been reinforced over the past year and a half in anticipation of a conflict with Venezuela.
The document confirms that psychological operations are the CIA’s best and most effective weapon to date against Venezuela, and it will continue its efforts to influence international public opinion regarding President Chavez and the situation in the country.

james petras: CIA Venezuela Destabilization Memo Surfaces

On November 26, 2007 the Venezuelan government broadcast and circulated a confidential memo from the US embassy to the CIA which is devastatingly revealing of US clandestine operations and which will influence the referendum this Sunday, December 2, 2007.
The memo sent by an embassy official, Michael Middleton Steere, was addressed to the Director of Central Intelligence, Michael Hayden. The memo was entitled ‘Advancing to the Last Phase of Operation Pincer’ and updates the activity by a CIA unit with the acronym ‘HUMINT’ (Human Intelligence) which is engaged in clandestine action to destabilize the forth-coming referendum and coordinate the civil military overthrow of the elected Chavez government.
…
The ultimate objective of ‘Operation Pincer’ is to seize a territorial or institutional base with the ‘massive support’ of the defeated electoral minority within three or four days (presumably after the elections though this is not clear. JP) backed by an uprising by oppositionist military officers principally in the National Guard. The Embassy operative concede that the military plotters have run into serous problems as key intelligence operatives were detected, stores of arms were decommissioned and several plotters are under tight surveillance.

doesn’t look like the original of the alleged memo is up anywhere yet, only the spanish translation

Posted by: b real | Nov 29 2007 5:03 utc | 7

quick note that just maybe the u.s.-trained burundi peacekeepers are honestly headed for mogadishu to … do what exactly? stop the ethiopians from indiscriminately killing somalis? anyway, there was a very brief mention in the ugandan press that

Burundi peace keepers are deploying in Somalia in two weeks time to bolster the pacification efforts by the Ugandan contingent, the UPDF Chief of Training and Operations, Brig. Silver Kayemba has said.
“In a fortnight’s time, Burundi’s peace keepers will be deploying in Somalia,” Brig. Kayemba said at the award of French language diplomas to 24 UPDF officers yesterday.

they’ve been saying that they’re on the way for a couple months now, but then it turns out that they’re not ready yet, not equipped properly, not enough money, and so on, though who in their right minds would want to step into a situation like what is going on in occupied mogadishu currently, and then an article from monday sorta provides a context for how the u.s. finally convinced burundi to deploy some forces.
Airmen provide optometry care to deploying African troops

Air Force optometry speicialists [sic] provided eye care to two battalions of African military members prior to the battalions leaving on a peace keeping mission in Somalia.
The team, which saw 1,597 Burundi, Africa, military troops Nov. 6 to 15 at Gakumbu military base, Africa…
The team was sent to provide optometry and eye care because International Crisis Operations and Peace Keeping trainers reported that individual weapons qualifications and accuracy beyond 50 meters were hindered due to poor eyesight. The trainers placed a request for an eye-care team to evaluate and provide glasses for the two battalions.
The 52nd AMDS Optometry Flight was given four duty days to build their team and gather the necessary equipment to deploy into the austere environment.
Additionally, the team went in expecting to face further challenges due to illiteracy.

gotta hurry up & get them there before they start reading up on what they’re getting themselves into 😉

Posted by: b real | Nov 29 2007 5:34 utc | 9

bea (all MoA’s), watch this: video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279
It’s important not to become dazzled by the pundits and polls and latest news rolls.
In due history, they’ll all be dead. Just audit the estate. Nothing else matters.

Posted by: Schmellow Yellow | Nov 29 2007 7:43 utc | 11

There was an odd news item on the Danish Radio this morning:
[from memory…] …the US has tried for several years to get countries — including Denmark — to accept released prisoners from Guantanamo who present no danger but cannot be sent to their homeland because they risk being executed/jailed/tortured. Denmark has refused, as have the other (unnamed) countries, even though the US assures that these people are no risk and do not need surveillance…
As I understood it, it was a question of some 300 people. All I can say is WTF!!!

Posted by: Chuck Cliff | Nov 29 2007 9:06 utc | 13

As we document the details of the US, and of course in my case Canada, and the UK, AUS, other ‘free’ countries’ vector towards the police state, I must say this.
I have always lived knowing this is happening, it is no surprise.
The surprise may be in that the details are showing in public laws, transcripts of conversations, interviews.
My two-score and seven years in fortress north america have been informed, well informed, about what happens if you step out of line.
Anyone who has ever taken an extra day off work knows what I’m talking about — you gotta do what you gotta do.
The machine can carry on without you, just take the day off.
I don’t mean to be obscure, just saying that petty disobedience is a good example for learning how to do the more grievous version. We all know how to speak to our friends on the phone when someone is listening in, you just talk about “him, them” or “her” without naming names.
I’ve known that there is a surveillance society, or at the least the hope for same, since I was 7 years old.
I read science fiction (written in English by English speaking engineers, mathematicians and scientists during the ’60s and ’70s) and they sure the * knew what was going on.
The fact that today’s technology realizes the dreams of the post war era doesn’t mean that we should be shocked by it.
It’s no surprise, we’ve spent decades sitting in our bunkers waiting for this.

Posted by: jonku | Nov 29 2007 10:07 utc | 15

a couple of updates re AFRICOM
xinhua: UMA rejection frustrates U.S. efforts to find home for AFRICOM

The U.S. efforts to seek a home for the Africa Command (AFRICOM) have suffered one more blow as the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) stated strong opposition Tuesday to any foreign military establishments on the soil of African countries.
The UMA, founded in 1989 by Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Moroccoand Tunisia, said through its consultative committee that such foreign establishments would not bring any benefit to the UMA or the African Union countries.
Instead, they will risk catastrophic results for host countries and might be used as an excuse for certain factions to launch attacks on organizations of foreign, especially U.S., interests.
The rejection was not the first to U.S. plans to find a host country for its military headquarters in Africa, approved by President George W. Bush in February.
Many African countries, starting from those in the north of the continent, have already made it clear that they would not host the AFRICOM or provide permanent bases for the U.S. forces.
Nations including Uganda, Algeria, Libya and the 14 members of the Southern African Development Community all refused to provide a home for the headquarters.
Analysts said refusals from so many countries showed that African nations have reached a broad consensus on rejecting the U.S. military headquarters for fears of sacrificing their own sovereignty.

and in #4 i mentioned that an AFRICOM delegation was headed to abuja, nigeria for “more bullshittin'”. well, here’s the verification
panapress: US military officials consult with Nigeria on AFRICOM

Abuja, Nigeria – Worried by Nigeria’s opposition to the possible siting of military bases in the country under the aegis of the newly-established US Africa Command (AFRICOM), US military officials have met with key Nigerian officials to explain the security initiative for Africa.
Deputy to the AFRICOM Commander for Military Operations, Vice Admiral Robert Moeller, and the Deputy to the AFRICOM Commander on Civil-Military Activities, Ambassador Mary Carlin, said they had spent the past three days explaining the concept of the command to the officials.
…
“It has nothing to do oil resources in the Gulf of Guinea. The resources there are Nigerian. They belong to Nigeria and to the countries of the region. What we do is work with partner nations to make sure that the resources are available for the global community, and for what they are intended for,” Moeller said.
…
Ambassador Carlin admitted that AFRICOM had “been misunderstood”, saying the result of her discussions with top Nigerian leaders showed that they should have come for consultation “earlier.”
Admiral Moeller noted that “the US AFRICOM does not intent to station large troops in the African continent. We don’t have need for stationing garrisons in the continent. But small number of forces can come into the continent, carry out a particular duty and leave.
“If some future expansion makes it imperative for the AFRICOM to come in and stay, it will be on the invitation of the leadership of the host country. We will only discuss future presence with such countries,” he said.
…
Ambassador Carlin added that “AFRICOM has no intention of undermining the sovereignty of any African nation.”
She also said in future, the body would bring in military personnel of partner nations into the headquarters of AFRICOM in order to “allow us to be better organized to reach our goal of a peaceful and better Africa.”

hah. imagine the nigerian military setting & then talking about their goals for a “better” usa.
“AFRICOM does not intent to station large troops in the African continent … AFRICOM has no intention of undermining the sovereignty of any African nation”
we all know what they say about intentions & the road to hell.
the argument of concern about ‘stationing large troops’ on the continent is really a red herring, as military strategies are trending away from large permanent bases to small nodes of access across the planet (“lilypads”). along w/ the increasing number of u.s. military-led training programs & exercises taking place on african soil, which create various military dependencies on the the superpartner in these contexts, the u.s. military can quietly gain control over african nations through their militaries. and, along w/ the objectives of protecting capital investments, developing export infrastructure for extraction industries, and controlling africa’s resources, the access that the u.s. military is gaining on the continent facilitates the u.s. battle against its main global challenger.
that article/report i pointed out recently on renewed u.s. basing in the philippines is particularly instructive in this subject.
How the US got its Philippine bases back

Last year, the United States Quadrennial Defense Review, a public and official document required by the US Congress from the Pentagon to express US military strategy, announced that: “Of the major and emerging powers, China has the greatest potential to compete militarily with the United States and field disruptive military technologies that could over time offset traditional US military advantages absent US counter-strategies.”
Capping a series of pronouncements by high-level US officials warning China not to challenge the US as well as a series of actions indicating US moves to encircle China with US military assets and allies, the document confirmed what many had long suspected to be the case: that the US sees China as the rival whose rise it must prevent and whose military power it must contain. One of the countries in which the US has been deepening its military presence in is the Philippines – considered by US analysts as firmly located within what they call “the dragon’s lair” – that strategic area around China where decisive battles could erupt in certain war-planning scenarios.
Though the US military officially vacated the Philippines and its mammoth Subic Bay base in 1991, since 2001 it has moved to re-integrate the Philippines firmly within what it now calls its “global defense posture”. Despite the US and Philippine governments’ efforts to play down their presence, a clearer but still incomplete picture of the extent and depth of the re-establishment of the US’s military presence in the Philippines has emerged.
First, the US has stepped up deploying troops, ships and equipment to the country, ostensibly for training exercises, humanitarian and engineering projects and other missions, even though its military officially vacated the Philippines and its mammoth Subic Bay base in 1991.
…
Though presented largely as efforts to improve the skills of Filipino soldiers, the aim is also to gain strategic ground. As former US Pacific Command chief Thomas Fargo himself has pointed out: “The habitual relationships built through exercises and training and a coherent view of regional security with regional partners is our biggest guarantor of access in time of need … Access over time can develop into habitual use of certain facilities by deployed US forces with the eventual goal of being guaranteed use in a crisis, or permission to preposition logistics stocks and other critical material in strategic forward locations.”
As US troops come and go in rotation for frequent regular exercises, their presence – when taken together – makes up a formidable forward-presence that brings them closer to areas of possible action without need for huge infrastructure to support them – and without inciting a lot of public attention and opposition.
…
And as US troops depart then come back again, they leave behind the infrastructure that they had built and used ostensibly for the exercises and which could still be of use to the US military in the future for missions different from those for which they were initially built.
…
Second, the US has secured arrangements and built infrastructure that would allow it to use ports and airfields to pre-position equipment, secure logistics support and engage a broad range of locally-provided services that would enable it to launch and sustain operations from the Philippines if necessary.
…
In September 2001, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo granted the US free access to its ports and offered it over-flight rights to its airspace. In November 2002, the US and Philippine governments signed the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA), which has been described by researchers with the US Congressional Research Service as “allowing the United States to use the Philippines as a supply base for military operations throughout the region”. The MLSA obliges the Philippine government to exert “best efforts” to provide the US logistics supplies, support and services during exercises, training, operations and other US military deployments.
The agreement defines these to include food, water, petroleum, oils, clothing, ammunition, spare part and components, billeting, transportation, communication, medical services, operation support, training services, repair and maintenance, storage services, and port services. “Construction and use of temporary structures” is also covered. In other words, the MLSA gives the US access to the full range of services that the US military would require to operate in and from the country. Also through the MLSA, the US has secured the services that it would normally be able to provide itself inside a large permanent base but without constructing and retaining large permanent bases – and without incurring the costs and the political problems that such bases often pose.
In 2003, an analyst reported that among all Southeast Asian countries only the Philippines has provided a “forward positioning site” for the US to store equipment to be used for regional operations. In August 2005, the Overseas Basing Commission, the official commission tasked to review US basing, identified the Philippines as one of the countries – along with Thailand, India and Australia – in which so-called “Cooperative Security Locations” (CSLs) are being developed by the US in the region. According to the Pentagon, CSLs are a new category of bases that refer to facilities owned by host-governments but are to be made available for use by the US military as needed.
…
The terms of the MLSA and the establishment of CSLs reflect the US’s increasing emphasis on just-in-time logistics support and pre-positioning of equipment to ensure that US forces – dispersed as they are around the world, often far away from main bases where they store equipment and tap all kinds of services – are always ready and rearing to go. It is not so much the size of the base that matters, but whether it can provide the US military with what it needs and when it’s needed.
…
Third, the US has already succeeded in stationing indefinitely a US military unit in the Philippines. Since 2002, a unit now called the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P) has been deployed to and based in Zamboanga, Basilan, Sulu and other areas in Mindanao in the southern Philippines.
While initially presented as part of on-again, off-again temporary training exercises, it has since been revealed that this unit has continuously maintained its presence in the country for the past six years.
…
In an apparent effort not to draw attention to the unit, the US and Philippine governments have publicly revealed little about the real nature and mission of the JSOTF-P, except to project it as part of the US-led “war on terror” and to highlight the humanitarian and civil engineering projects that it undertakes.
…
In terms of profile and mission, the JSOTF-P is similar to the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-Horn of Africa), which was established in Djibouti in eastern Africa in 2003 and also composed mostly of Special Forces. Like the JSOTF-P, the CJTF-Horn of Africa has also been conducting “humanitarian”missions and aid projects. Similar to the Philippines, Djibouti has also seen a dramatic increase in the amount of military aid it receives from the US. As a sample of the US’s new austere basing template, the CJTF-Horn of Africa has been described as the “model for future US military operations”.
…
In his 2005 Annual Defense Report, Rumsfeld said that the US military “will improve its global force posture to increase strategic responsiveness while decreasing its overseas footprint and exposure. In place of traditional overseas bases with extensive infrastructure, we intend to use smaller forward operating bases with prepositioned equipment and rotational presence of personnel … We will maintain a smaller forward-presence force in the Pacific while also stationing agile, expeditionary forces capable of rapid responses at our power projection bases.”
…
Strategically positioned between two routes at the entrance of a major sea lane, the Makassar Strait, at the southwestern rim of the South China Sea, closer to Malaysia and Indonesia than most of the rest of the Philippines, the JSOTF-P, according to C H Briscoe, the unit’s official historian, is “now better able to monitor the pulse of the region”.

also, the CJTF-HOA is comfortably positioned at a bottleneck in the red sea

Posted by: b real | Nov 29 2007 16:32 utc | 17

McClatchey: U.S. sponsorship of Sunni groups worries Iraq’s government

The American campaign to turn Sunni Muslims against Islamic extremists is growing so quickly that Iraq’s Shiite Muslim leaders fear that it’s out of control and threatens to create a potent armed force that will turn against the government one day.

The U.S. wants 100,000 of these “concerned (sunni) citizens”. The costs is $300 per month per head so it’s relative cheap.
But what happens when the U.S. stops to pay (which it will evidently do at some point)?
What happens when these people fight the Iraqi Army and official police?
The U.S. calculation is obvious. It buys off part of the guerillia and then has the back free to attack al-Sadr’s force which should be back in January/February. It is also a nice guesture towards Saudi Arabia (which may pick up the bill).
The most important effect might be that there are then three large Iraqi groups with weapons, the official (Shia) government, the Kurdish Peschmerga and the Sunni “concerned citizens”. The U.S. can play off one against the other and be the indispensible “judge”.

Posted by: b | Nov 29 2007 17:53 utc | 19

nice, a.m., it’s good to spell it out from time to time.

Posted by: citizen | Nov 29 2007 22:00 utc | 21

‘good germans’ u s a 2007

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 30 2007 0:05 utc | 23

After watching r’giap’s #23 and reading Ghost’s #22 I have to ask, Are We Sane?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Nov 30 2007 0:32 utc | 25

the worrying news of today amongst a multitude of others- is the very clear attempts to destabilise both bolivia & venezuela. these attempts at destabilisation are happening on a whole lot of levels with the complete complicity, as is its habitude – of the media(s)
“they carry out their plans with knife like precision, nothing matters to them, to them blood equals medals & slaughter an act of heroism”
victor jara
beq , i don’t know if you have it there but there is a channel here on the cable called godchannel which possesses both a mind numbing criminality as well as a stupidity so implacable that it directs you towards involuntary trances but largely there is only a quantitative difference between the babblers of god & the junk bond journalists who jack off to the juggernaut

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 30 2007 1:42 utc | 27

Well Uncle,
It all comes down to the American people will be completely bankrupt, (are bankrupt) before they catch on. I was at a statewide conference this fall and I brought up the 401K thing to a fellow that teaches at the University of Michigan and he’s a fellow at the Brookings Institute. He looked at me dumbfounded. His seminar was about angel investors. We have been instilled with Wall Street finance. Wall Street is considered the free market. They are strip mining assets from the US heartland just as DC does in taxes. DC set the model.
These people have been brainwashed since the start of the Reagan years and have no concept of local investment in local communities. It all started with the Feds taking more money and then sending it back to states in grants (now called investment). The dis function comes from who the leaders are as you so well point out. That model of investment was adopted by Wall Street where Wall Street talked Federal Legislators into creating investment funds and then Wall Street invest the monies giving greater returns.
Our Governor just went looking to California for investment monies. She does not realize that Calpers (the large California pension fund invest 20% directly into California business. We could do the same here. We have to stop looking global and start looking local. We need to bring the money back to the local level.
Sorry for skipping around.

Posted by: jdp | Nov 30 2007 2:26 utc | 29

time magazine keeps up its reputation as a reliable state propaganda/disinfo outlet w/ a new story on somalia, the horn of africa, & islamic terrorists — Remember Somalia?
worth a read for students of propaganda

Posted by: b real | Nov 30 2007 3:25 utc | 31

@jj #32:
RE: spray-ons
My former boss told me 15 yrs ago about a guy who invented this stuff, and sprayed it all over his electric VW. He ‘disappeared’ and the tech went unreported…until now. I believe this is the same goo that was used to make mylar-substrate cells for use on spacecraft (and now elsewhere).

Posted by: Dr. Wellington Yueh | Nov 30 2007 4:05 utc | 33

jj:
Going to do some research, and probably contact my old boss. I’m doing some cursory searches, and finding that about 1990 or so a lot of labs were working on this stuff.
Slightly OT — My boss was NASA- and Hughes-connected, and also a Larry Niven fan, attending occasional parties with Niven and other SF authors and various super-geeks (pardon the colloquialism) from the aerospace and computer fields. He’s told me some interesting stories…
Will post again if I find anything conclusive.

Posted by: Dr. Wellington Yueh | Nov 30 2007 5:43 utc | 35

jdp,
those are the commentaries (local to national issues) I’ve missed from you – welcome back

Posted by: anna missed | Nov 30 2007 8:08 utc | 37

An interesting cold-warrior op-ed by Zbigniew Brzezinski.
Short version:
“Let’s work with China to negotiate with Iran. A U.S. conflict with Iran would be to the benefit of Russia and we can not have that.”
Some people have lifelong boogeyman.

Posted by: b | Nov 30 2007 10:17 utc | 39

Annals of dumb headlines:
The Guardian: Berezovsky jailed in absentia

Posted by: b | Nov 30 2007 11:08 utc | 41

i’ve missed you too jpd.

Posted by: annie | Nov 30 2007 16:32 utc | 43

Alan: Well, last week we showed you how to become a gynaecologist. And this week on ‘How to do it’ we’re going to show you how to play the flute, how to split an atom, how to construct a box girder bridge, how to irrigate the Sahara Desert and make vast new areas of land cultivatable, but first, here’s Jackie to tell you all how to rid the world of all known diseases.
Jackie: Hello, Alan.
Alan: Hello, Jackie.
Jackie: Well, first of all become a doctor and discover a marvellous cure for something, and then, when the medical profession really starts to take notice of you, you can jolly well tell them what to do and make sure they get everything right so there’ll never be any diseases ever again.
Alan: Thanks, Jackie. Great idea. How to play the flute. (picking up a flute) Well here we are. You blow there and you move your fingers up and down here.
Monty Python
Saturday am TV is never particularly elucidating, this morning’s dose taken whilst waiting for the teenagers to surface was remarkably disturbing.
It featured a famous movie actor with art with a capital A pretensions and a former soccer player allegedly of some note flitting about poverty stricken Swazi communities, while picking holes in the HIV remedy programs.
It seems so simple to those of us born into a 20th century science and technology based society. One provides the pills, people take them and AIDS disappears.
Of course it is nothing like that simple, firstly contrary to normal practice the fix is distributed by someone they don’t even know much less respect as a community leader. The drugs have no obvious linkage to the disease in the way that many African people of animist bent would consider a linkage, and because the remedies must be taken many times at fixed times often requiring transport to the clinic dispensing them, major changes to the lifestyle of the HIV infected person will be required if the treatment is to be successful.
The mummer and the soccer player regarded these impediments to a ‘good outcome’ as mere obstacles to be overcome by playing upon white middle class guilt sufficiently to get the guilty parties to reach for their wallets and throw cash at the problem.
No one discussed the fucking huge pachyderm in the parlor.
The only way to cure Africa of AIDS and make it fit for decent white people to visit and sexually exploit the kaffirs once more, is if we make them just like us.
Wearing wristwatches, trusting science, commuting outside their communities, becoming good little consumers.
Is it any wonder Gambian President Yahya Jammeh claims to have found an alternative? Of course CNN disparages his remedy only slightly less hysterically and patronizingly than a Murdoch mouthpiece would; but considering the obstacles to science based cures in traditional African communities, I wonder if Jammeh will be more successful. Surely what science calls the placebo effect is more likely to take hold with a remedy that aligns with the patients culture? And one would think that the anti-retro-viral regimes pushed by the western medical charities are likely to rely more on a placebo cure than the types of results they expect in a society which understands the precepts of their medicine.
I have no idea of which method is best for the people of Africa now or in the long term, but I do know that the people who are required to give ‘informed consent’ prior to an anti-retro-viral treatment are unlikely to be informed that they are signing up for the destruction of their traditional culture.
Another of the questions for which there is no ‘right’ answer. But that’s OK we (western technology based society ‘we’) will answer that question for ‘them’.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Dec 1 2007 0:45 utc | 45

Confirming Bernhards long held suspicion that drug use in Iraq by U.S. soldiers is problematic and covered up:

Veterans’ advocacy groups charge that the problem of substance abuse is much greater than the Army wants to publicly acknowledge, and it’s growing.
“I’ve met with veterans from coast to coast, and I will tell you that there is a catastrophe on the horizon,” said Paul Sullivan, director of Veterans for Common Sense.
Three thousand fifty-seven veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were potentially diagnosed with a drug dependency from fiscal year 2005 through March 2007, according to figures provided to ABC News from the Veterans Health Administration. From 2002 through 2004, only a total of 277 veterans were diagnosed with drug dependency, the numbers show.
“The military right now can say whatever they want, but the truth on the ground is that the soldiers are in a lot of pain, emotional and physical pain, and they’re turning to drugs in order to alleviate that,” said Sullivan.

Posted by: anna missed | Dec 1 2007 6:20 utc | 47

I have been avoiding any ‘news’ of the ‘peace process’ especially Annapolis as much as possible since once should never intentionally cause apoplexy brought on by frustration at selfish instransigence, but I couldn’t help but notice:
US suddenly withdraws UN resolution an AP story on Israeli reaction to amerika’s attempt to set the tiny and limited outcomes of last weeks photo op in concrete.
Of course it won’t have been Zalmay Khalilzad’s idea but now the whole thing has back-fired on State it’s always a good plan to blame a arab when something goes wrong in Israel’s drive for world domination.
One can assume Dr Rice, who must be becoming increasingly frustrated at her inability to create any legacy other than as an enabler of the illegal invasion of Iraq, decided to get the Security Council stamp on the festivities in Maryland, thereby making it a ‘reference point for peace’ (count the lies etc)
Anyway that wouldn’t have suited the Israeli’s one little bit – the trouble being that if the agreement is subject to a security council resolution it makes it tough for a lying parasite of a state to go back on it’s word.
Israel has always been big on pulling other nations up for breaching Security Council resolutions. The amerikan veto has meant that the only resolutions Israel breaks are ones from the general assembly. This time amerika was putting the motion up, there would be no veto, so the zionists spoke to their mates who know that loyalty to Israel is a far more important pre-requisite for an amerikan power-broker than loyalty to the amerikan Secretary of State. Israel before amerika!
Fuck me dead it never end, because Israel says the UN is anti-Israel? Of course in effect it is really saying amerika is anti-Israel but that has always been the subtext of the ‘holocaust trumps all’ line.
Hence even an amerikan resolution has an anti-Israel bias.
There is no point in even trying to highlight that by the Security Council resolving what Israel had agreed to the other allegedly anti-Isaeli general assembly resolutions will have been superseded. Surely by setting in place what had been agreed to by Israel that is a good thing?
No – murderers, rapists and thieves know that this week’s weasel words may become next weeks denials.
When Israel goes back on it’s treaties as it has more times than can be counted, it uses the excuse of a change of government causing a change of policy. In other words for Israel democracy is the right to never have to keep your word. The UN never ever pulls Israel up for lying and cheating on agreements, meanwhile Arab states are hounded and bombed and invaded over nothing.
amerikan taxpayers wake up. These pricks are taking your money, going back on their word, then calling you the wrong doer.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Dec 1 2007 6:44 utc | 49

Jordan’s Spy Agency: Holding Cell for the CIA Foreign Terror Suspects Tell of Torture

AMMAN, Jordan — Over the past seven years, an imposing building on the outskirts of this city has served as a secret holding cell for the CIA.
The building is the headquarters of the General Intelligence Department, Jordan’s powerful spy and security agency. Since 2000, at the CIA’s behest, at least 12 non-Jordanian terrorism suspects have been detained and interrogated here, according to documents and former prisoners, human rights advocates, defense lawyers and former U.S. officials.
…
The General Intelligence Department, or GID, is perhaps the CIA’s most trusted partner in the Arab world. The Jordanian agency has received money, training and equipment from the CIA for decades and even has a public English-language Web site. The relationship has deepened in recent years, with U.S. officials praising their Jordanian counterparts for the depth of their knowledge regarding al-Qaeda and other radical Islamic networks.
In the aftermath of Sept. 11, however, the GID was attractive for another reason, according to former U.S. counterterrorism officials and Jordanian human rights advocates. Its interrogators had a reputation for persuading tight-lipped suspects to talk, even if that meant using abusive tactics that could violate U.S. or international law.
…

Posted by: b | Dec 1 2007 9:39 utc | 51

geez…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 1 2007 15:21 utc | 53

For those of you who feast on military analysis, I have a question to ponder over the weekend.
China recently finished up massive navy exercises around Taiwan – just before the War Dept. put out what b- said was a bogus press release about them sneaking up undetected on the Am. fleet. Does anyone know if the Chinese Navy (etc?) is ready now to retake Taiwan? My thinking is this – is China ready militarily to say to xUS – you attack Iran? Ok, but while you’re thusly pre-occupied we’ll take back Taiwan? Obviously, they’re planning for the day that they will have the military to do so, but has that day arrived? I’ve just read & heard that Chinese military exercises “were massive”.

Posted by: jj | Dec 1 2007 23:31 utc | 55

jj-55- Does anyone know if the Chinese Navy (etc?) is ready now to retake Taiwan? My thinking is this – is China ready militarily to say to xUS – you attack Iran? Ok, but while you’re thusly pre-occupied we’ll take back Taiwan? Obviously, they’re planning for the day that they will have the military to do so, but has that day arrived? I’ve just read & heard that Chinese military exercises “were massive”.
Mainland China could take Taiwan by force but it would be very, very bloody and could end with nukes. Why use force?
The Chinese will just wait. They need a credible military threat position to prevent Taiwan from openly declaring itself independent and getting a UN seat. But that is it.
See China Matters for the longer argument.

I’ve previously argued that the objective of China’s naval build up is not to slug it out with America’s Seventh Fleet, or create a deterrent to U.S. intervention opposing a Chinese move on Taiwan.
The Chinese do intend to use military power for Taiwan reunification, but only to demonstrate to Taipei the advantages and inevitability of coming to terms peacefully with the dominant power in the west Pacific.
And the true inauguration of the Chinese century—if it’s really coming—will be marked by the arrival of the Chinese navy at Taiwan—during a peaceful, invited port call.
By this reading, the strategy is to establish the Chinese navy as the credible security guarantor (in superpower parlance) for the smaller Pacific nations falling within its economic sphere–or biggest bully on the block in the west Pacific in blunter terms–to a line extending out to the “second line” Pacific Island chain.
A Chinese navy with reach—but not necessarily hyper-power sized technology or muscle– removes the “the world can’t accept a power vacuum out here” justification for a forward U.S. naval presence in the region, which currently conducts massive exercises in Asian waters on anti-piracy, disaster relief, and near-shore interdiction missions that seem better suited to the Coast Guard.
…

Posted by: b | Dec 2 2007 6:48 utc | 57

has any of such weapons ever been used ?
Who spread the Anthrax?
—
US says it has right to kidnap British citizens

AMERICA has told Britain that it can “kidnap” British citizens if they are wanted for crimes in the United States.
A senior lawyer for the American government has told the Court of Appeal in London that kidnapping foreign citizens is permissible under American law because the US Supreme Court has sanctioned it.
…
Until now it was commonly assumed that US law permitted kidnapping only in the “extraordinary rendition” of terrorist suspects.
The American government has for the first time made it clear in a British court that the law applies to anyone, British or otherwise, suspected of a crime by Washington.
…

Posted by: b | Dec 2 2007 14:43 utc | 59

Interesting NYT piece about Malawi – Ending Famine, Simply by Ignoring the Experts
Malawi told the World Bank to sell it’s neo-liberal junk talk elsewhere and suddenly – no more famine.

Malawi hovered for years at the brink of famine. After a disastrous corn harvest in 2005, almost five million of its 13 million people needed emergency food aid.
But this year, a nation that has perennially extended a begging bowl to the world is instead feeding its hungry neighbors. It is selling more corn to the World Food Program of the United Nations than any other country in southern Africa and is exporting hundreds of thousands of tons of corn to Zimbabwe.
…
Over the past 20 years, the World Bank and some rich nations Malawi depends on for aid have periodically pressed this small, landlocked country to adhere to free market policies and cut back or eliminate fertilizer subsidies, even as the United States and Europe extensively subsidized their own farmers. But after the 2005 harvest, the worst in a decade, Bingu wa Mutharika, Malawi’s newly elected president, decided to follow what the West practiced, not what it preached.
Stung by the humiliation of pleading for charity, he led the way to reinstating and deepening fertilizer subsidies despite a skeptical reception from the United States and Britain.

Posted by: b | Dec 2 2007 20:39 utc | 61

adding to #62, i meant to also point out that not only is the AFP article incorrect in stating that the new cabinet was “sworn in at the Villa Somalia presidential palace in Mogadishu,” but, as the bylines show on the other article, the announcement took place in baidoa, the “alternative” seat of the TFG — since the capital is so hot & unwelcoming of the transitional govt — and not in mogadishu.

Posted by: b real | Dec 3 2007 4:43 utc | 63

Here’s a link for the result of the referenda in Venezuela. I’d be interested in a more detailed analysis of the two referenda, the “presidential” part and the “parliamentary” part.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Dec 3 2007 7:19 utc | 65

I’ve long said that any idiot can shove a hook into a fish’s mouth but an artist will convince the fish to do it themselves.
That said, if one more person sends me an invitation to sign up for this creepy–ass, malware infested garbage, I’m gonna scream.

Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 3 2007 15:18 utc | 67

CNN mistake or CIA PsyOps ?
Yeah, Monolycus, many are victims of the Devil’s NSA’s greatest trick of, convincing the world it doesn’t exist.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 3 2007 16:03 utc | 69

@ Monolycus, breal, and Uncle $scam:
I share your distaste at being invited to make surveillance
easier for our guardians, but assume that we are already surveilled anyway, presumably with robots, crawlers, key-word
filters and compendious data-bases of our sins, and only occasionally by in-the-flesh spooks. Those who are seeking non-violent and democratic methods for implementing change might want to consider questions relating to “help the system change itself”. If the already bloated “security apparatus” were forced to expand exponentially by hiring thousands of new “operatives” to deal with the false positives produced by their web crawlers and a vast school of red herrings, one might create a class or subclass of “guardians” who were quite aware that their activity was pretty much on a par with that of the Stasi at its acme. I’m too old, too cowardly, and too
technically inept to undertake such a project, but I can’t help wondering if this may not indeed be the way the “surveillance world” ends, not with a repressive bang, but rather with a whimper of self-disgust.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Dec 3 2007 16:25 utc | 71

now the putchist opposition are obliged to respect all parts of the bolivarian constitution . it’s win win for chavez but i would be arming the people just in case

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Dec 3 2007 18:44 utc | 73

‘they have been using us for experiments’ (Gitmo)
It’s short so here’s all…

Habib points finger at ‘inhumane’ Australia
December 3, 2007 – 11:58AM
Mamdouh Habib says he was beaten until his final days in the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and has accused Australian officials of having “no humanity” for failing to intervene.
Mr Habib is suing Nationwide News over a February 2005 newspaper column that implied he made false claims about torture.
A jury found he had been defamed by the article, and Nationwide News is now mounting a defence of truth and justification in the NSW Supreme Court.
Mr Habib today said he was beaten from the day of his arrest in Pakistan in 2001 until his final moments in 2005 at Guantanamo Bay, where he claimed he was experimented upon.
“People have no humanity, they have been using us for experiments,” he told the court.
“They [were] using us like rats and dogs and animals.
“Every single injection, I take it by force.”
Mr Habib denied a number of claims made by an Australian team which visited Guantanamo Bay in May 2002, including statements allegedly made by him that he was being treated well and had no major complaints.
“I say that’s not true, I never been treated well in Guantanamo Bay, or Egypt, or Pakistan,” Mr Habib said.
“They drag me (to interrogations) maybe half a kilometre in the gravel,” he said.
Mr Habib said he told “every single person I saw” about his torture and mistreatment and Australians were “definitely” involved.
“Australians, they aware of my torture and they be involved, definitely, with my torture,” he said.
Alec Leopold, acting for Nationwide News, asked Mr Habib whether he was accusing Australian officials of being inhumane.
“If Australian team was there when I was tortured, when I was given injection, yes,” he replied.
The hearing continues.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 3 2007 23:22 utc | 75

some bits ‘n pieces from the press today wrt the u.s. in africa
an article in the air force times today states

…while no decision has been made about where the new combatant command will be headquartered, the [senior Air Force] official said Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is emerging as a leading contender.
…
The official … said Addis Ababa is looking increasingly likely as a permanent headquarters for the command, which is currently being run out of Stuttgart, Germany.
Addis Ababa is already home to the African Union, the official said, and is one of the more sophisticated cities on the continent. Ethiopia is also a close U.S. ally in the region.

i’m not able to find any evidence that ethiopia has signed a SOFA w/ the u.s. up to this point, which is one of the prereq’s from what i’ve gathered, and it has no seaport or coastline (yet), but prime minister meles is definitely uncle sam’s favorite authoritarian mass murderer of the moment in africa & the military reports have mentioned u.s. interest in establishing a parallel network of their own based on the AU hub-spokes setup.
of course, ethiopian troops are killing innocent people all over the region right now, which doesn’t look too good for u.s. being all buddy-buddy w/ the regime, which is probably part of the agenda for secretary rice’s upcoming quickie (“minute rice,” anyone?) in the horn this week.
imagine if the general media started connecting the dots here — the u.s. planning to establish the HQ for their mission to help poor, confused africans help themselves in the heart of a govt of which human rights watch, in a press release today, points out

Human Rights Watch has found that Ethiopian troops have used scorched-earth tactics to depopulate the rural areas and terrorize rural communities in the Somali Region. Their crimes include the burning of villages, public summary executions, sexual violence against women and girls, and confiscation of livestock – the main asset of the predominantly pastoralist population.

or today in mogadishu, ethiopian troops were shelling a children’s hospital

Using heavy tank missiles the government and Ethiopian forces today bombarded the area around the children’s village. At least four missiles landed on the children’s village and the SOS Hospital. The hospital is still functioning and treating the wounded. The killed person is an SOS aunt who was recently employed by SOS Children’s Villages. The injured include an SOS mother who, due to the severity of her injuries, is being cared for at the Red Cross Hospital, and an SOS aunt.

pretty serious stuff, eh? and that’s not even broaching the subject of meles’ treatment of the political opposition or control over the media & internet, making ethiopia one of the worst offenders of the concept of free speech & press freedoms on the planet.
but the u.s. state dept is right on top of it, issuing a stmt from jendayi fraser & two fact sheets today on human rights violations in …zimbabwe! apparently, drawing outrage over such facts as “22 NCA members were beaten by thugs linked to the Mugabe regime, according to eyewitnesses” is vastly more important than worrying over the ethiopian occupation of somalia in violation of international law & the massive war crimes being committed by them on a daily basis.
whaddya wanna bet that tomorrow, and up through the int’l human rights day on the 10th, the western press picks up on the demonization of mugabe while taking the heat offa meles, rice & team?
on that scorched earth counterinsurgency battle that ethiopia is waging in it’s ogaden region, an opinion piece at garowe online mentions something that i’ve read of in other sources

Probably, one good way to understand the deep rooted problem of Ogaden is to visit the area independently and read the faces of the victims directly! I say independently because I remember what happened to Jendayi Fraser when her visit was arranged by the oppressors. The US marines, for example have been to Ogaden independently to monitor what is going on in Ogaden. Their interest in the region grew after September 11. They have independently met with ONLF army on the ground and received their cooperation. The marines confirmed what they have seen was not a terrorist organisation as claimed by desperate TPLF; instead the marines described to their seniors the nature of ONLF as a liberation movement. Two US soldiers and their Ogadeni-American interpreter Mohamed Abdi have been arrested by TPLF army in a remote village in Ogaden. The marines were promptly released and transferred to United States embassy in Addis Ababa. However, the interpreter remained in custody and was later released on july 29 after spending more than two months in a military camp without being charged.

that’s why the u.s. official position so far is that the ONLF is not a terrorist organization & does not go on the list of international terrorist organizations, despite meles’ persistent cries otherwise. we’ll have to see how long that position holds out. the western media has been slowly ratcheting up the “AQ in the horn” stories over the past couple weeks now, typically citing ‘unnamed’ official sources.
and finally, on the topic of AFRICOM and sec gates’ visit to the u.s. military base in djibouti (people already forget that is already a u.s. base on the continent w/ 16-1800 personnel), the armed press services monday actually reported

Gates told reporters today that he looks at Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa as a model of that concept through its military-to-military efforts and humanitarian and civic-support activities.
“It’s a good model for Africa Command, but also an indication of the mix of activities I think we should be doing more of,” he said.
“Kinetic efforts alone cannot achieve our goals in today’s type of conflict,” a senior defense official traveling with Gates told reporters.
She pointed to the “three Ds” — defense, diplomacy and development — as “three legs to a stool” that provide a solid base of support. “And you can’t succeed in one without moving forward on all three in order to get to a stable environment,” she said.
CJTF-HOA serves as a unique model for this approach, another official explained.
…
Today, CJTF-HOA applies the “three Ds” as personnel representing the Defense Department, State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development work hand-in-hand to create a stable climate that promotes a better quality of life for the local population.

student’s of imperial history will no doubt see the irony in this 21st century update/advance of livingstone’s 3 c’s which set off first scramble for africa.

Posted by: b real | Dec 4 2007 6:37 utc | 77

@b 78
Yeah, if I recall correctly there have been a number of “black” flights
into “Puntland”, presumably with weapons shipments, over the last year.
It’s interventions like this that ought to bring isolationism back in the U.S. (or at least it’s weak-sister “non-interventionism”).

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Dec 4 2007 8:42 utc | 79

Look whose holding hands now…a picture is worth a 1000 words.
The Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad leader was invited for the first time to the OCC meeting of six Gulf Cooperation Council leaders

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 4 2007 9:53 utc | 81

b @78 – that is interesting
three things come to mind initially on this:
1. location, location, location. geostrategically, somaliland is in a sweet spot for both the u.s. and ethiopia interests.
2. oil. most of somalia’s oil potential (& current activity) is in the northern part of the country – somaliland and puntland. both have been been fighting over territory, with somaliland regaining control of the sool region in october which probably has as much to do w/ oil contracts as anything else.
3. perhaps this is a move to protect ethiopia as the powerhouse of the region. as michael weinstein @ PINR noted back in october

[Somaliland’s seat of govt] Hargeisa’s nightmare scenario is that Puntland unites with south and central Somalia under a Darod-dominated government led by the Darod president of the T.F.G., Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who has his power base in Puntland, has served as its president and its strongman, and has fought against Somaliland. Yusuf, who is in the process of making a power play to eliminate his rivals in the T.F.G., seeks to set himself up as the power broker of a united Somalia after projected elections for a permanent government in 2009.
Although Yusuf’s ambitions are likely to fail, Hargeisa has watched developments to the south with concern, particularly Yusuf’s success in getting Puntland’s president, Mohamud Adde Muse, to agree to closer ties to the T.F.G., including the merger of Puntland’s security forces with the T.F.G.’s forces. As long as Yusuf remains the major player in Somalia’s politics, Puntland appears to be on track to give up its autonomy if it can make a favorable deal, leaving Hargeisa with the possibility of confronting a restored Somalia, which would have irredentist aims to match its own, on its doorstep.
A united Somalia holding the Sool and Sanaag regions would shift the regional balance of power to Hargeisa’s serious disadvantage, impairing its territorial claims diplomatically and foreclosing the possibility of making good on them militarily, thereby diminishing its chances for international recognition and increasing the possibility of international pressure to federate with Somalia or of an invasion from Somalia.
…
More than anything else, Somaliland needs allies, but it is difficult to imagine where they would come from. In mid-October, Hargeisa sent out feelers to the Arab states, which desire to contain Ethiopia, requesting that they open diplomatic offices in Somaliland as a stepping stone to recognition by the African Union and United Nations. Thus far, the initiative has not borne fruit, but it shows a direction that Hargeisa is likely to try to take.
Were Hargeisa to succeed in realigning itself, which is currently a slim possibility, the balance of power would shift slightly against Ethiopia and deprive it of leverage over Hargeisa. Such an eventuality would further complicate the conflicts in the Horn of Africa by introducing a wild card.
At the remotest edge of possibility, a tilt by Hargeisa away from Addis Ababa and toward the Arab states would lead to its joining with Eritrea in the anti-Ethiopian bloc and increasing its chronic tensions with Djibouti that center on rivalry for trade conducted through their respective ports. That would bring Hargeisa into conflict with the Western donor powers, which support Djibouti — Washington and Paris have military bases there — and have chosen Ethiopia over Eritrea. PINR projects this unlikely scenario only to highlight Somaliland’s growing isolation. It does not reflect Hargeisa’s present strategy; it is a limit case of what PINR sees as Hargeisa’s underlying desperation.

or maybe all this talk is designed to provide the u.s. more leverage over meles. or yusuf. or both.
will have to investigate further.

Posted by: b real | Dec 4 2007 16:26 utc | 83

file this under my first item in #83 above
stratfor rpt from december 10, 2001, prior to the u.s. choosing to base in djibouti
Somalia port extends U.S. anti-terror reach

Reports are surfacing that Washington is finalizing an agreement to move intelligence and naval assets to the key Somali port of Berbera, near the Arabian Sea.
…
Using the base at the northwestern city of Berbera would give the United States several strategic advantages in conducting military operations throughout East Africa and the Middle East. However, in the process, Washington will also contribute to the de facto partitioning of Somalia.
…
While Ethiopian troops are driving Islamic militants out of the north, it appears that Washington is also making a deal to secure access to Berbera in Somaliland. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a German daily, reported in November that U.S. and German officials toured Berbera and were negotiating to use the port and airfield.
London-based Arabic daily Al-Zaman also reported a similar story Dec. 3, though it said only U.S. forces would use the facilities. A U.N. publication later that week reported Germany would likely make a basing agreement with nearby Djibouti.
Berbera has several advantages for Washington. The deepwater port, developed by the Soviet navy in the 1970s, is one of the best in the Indian Ocean. The airfield also has one of the longest runways in North Africa. Washington once stationed assets at Berbera in the early 1980s when tensions in Iran forced Washington to look for new bases in the Middle East.
The United States was interested in the region even before Sept. 11. Washington last year was trying to persuade the government of Yemen to allow U.S. warships to dock at the port of Aden – right across the water from Berbera – before the terrorist attack on the USS Cole derailed negotiations.
Stationing U.S. assets at Berbera gives the same benefits to Washington without it having to negotiate the minefield of Yemeni politics. In addition, the United States would have a difficult time persuading the Yemeni government to permit port access at Aden as Washington is considering military operations against militant Islamists in Yemen.

Posted by: b real | Dec 4 2007 16:42 utc | 85

hkol – actually, i’m just coming up to speed on the area. berbera is in somaliland, though; puntland’s main port is bosaso. benIAM mentioned the israeli-eritrean connection previously but i haven’t had time to explore it.
before the age of hi-tech satellites, the kagnew station outside asmara was a key SIGINT post due to the atmospherics in the highlands. i haven’t found a whole lot of info on the nsa-israeli jointly-operated “8200” SIGINT island post, which i assume is still current. (e.g., village voice, chicago sun times) if you have any good links, please share.

Posted by: b real | Dec 4 2007 18:05 utc | 87

uncle – never heard of the former; the latter i’ve seen occassionally, as it picks up a lot of stuff from the blog’osphere but i’ve rarely found much there that helps me in my research (found more in gv-latin america than africa) & haven’t parsed it close enough to discern any specific agenda. no time to explore afrigator now. is there a reason to be skeptical?
two similar websites that i’ve been checking weekly are africa news, whose content is also penned by africa journalists and provides a glimpse into what people are talking about, and pambazuka news, which typically posts very intelligent & useful reports/articles/commentary.

Posted by: b real | Dec 4 2007 18:25 utc | 89

Gentrification by any other name…
Merry Christmax we bulldoze New Orleans on December 12th…
Justice for New Orleans.
The advancement project.

On the 12th day before Christmas, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is planning to unleash teams of bulldozers to demolish thousands of low-income apartments in New Orleans. Despite Katrina causing the worst affordable housing crisis since the Civil War, HUD is spending $762 million in taxpayer funds to tear down over 4600 public housing subsidized apartments and replace them with 744 similarly subsidized units – an 82% reduction. HUD is in charge and a one person HUD employee makes all the local housing authority decisions. HUD took over the local housing authority years ago – all decisions are made in Washington DC. HUD plans to build an additional 1000 market rate and tax credit units – which will still result in a net loss of 2700 apartments to New Orleans – the remaining new apartments will cost an average cost of over $400,000 each!

Palfrey’s escort service user David Vitter (R-La.) likes to fuck people.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 4 2007 21:10 utc | 91

Grrrr… disregard the above #92
I posted this hit and run without checking it out –which is something I rarely do– because, well, mainly because it was an alternet article.
What the fuck alternet!? that’s some pretty sloopy publishing. There is no there, there…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 4 2007 21:58 utc | 93

@94
park was scottish & didn’t set eyes on the niger until 1796, eight years after the formation of the african association in england w/ one of its primary objectives being to find the sources of africa’s major rivers, among them the niger. and park wasn’t even the first euro to set out in search of the niger’s source. he was the first to report back to his financier’s some success in traveling a stretch of it however and, while not actually getting too far, the marketing team at the AA did a bang-up job promoting his exploration in an effort to drum up investors for export biz. since history is typically written by powerful whitefellas, what knowledge of the river by africans & arabs existed didn’t really count, and making the river all the more mysterious only added to the appeal of conquering africa’s interiors.
according to a short history of west africa: a.d. 1000 to the present (editors: t.a. osae, s.n. nawabara, and a.t.o. odunsi; university of london press, 1973)

It had been known for centuries that the Niger was the major river in the Western Sudan. In the whole of Africa it was second only to the Nile, the source of which also remained unknown. During the early part of the nineteenth century all sorts of fantastic ideas and theories were were entertained concerning the course and termination of the Niger. It was thought by some that it flowed progressively eastward until it mixed with the waters of the Nile. Some said it disappeared somewhere under the hot sands of the Sahara Desert.

Posted by: b real | Dec 5 2007 3:45 utc | 95

Haynes said he doubted the latest incident was a real suicide attempt, and characterized it instead as an act of “self-harm.”…….Haynes said there have been up to half-dozen “self-harm incidents” in the two months
jesus. how many in the last year? 1/2 dozen? why don’t they just say 6. 3 a month? once a week give or take?
SELF HARM INCIDENCE???
sorry, going back into my hole now.

Posted by: annie | Dec 5 2007 5:43 utc | 97

Somalia: – Somali President Hospitalized in Nairobi
Premier Will Take His Place at Meeting With Rice; Food Aid Delayed in South

MARKA, Somalia, Dec. 5 — Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf checked into a Nairobi hospital Tuesday complaining of difficulty breathing, according to Western diplomats in the region, who said his health problem is unlikely to trigger a new political crisis in this fragile Horn of Africa nation.
Yusuf, who is 72 and had a liver transplant in 1996, was expected to fly to London for medical treatment Wednesday, when he had been scheduled to meet Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, U.S. officials said.
His newly appointed prime minister, Nur Hassan Hussein, will represent him in that meeting, the officials said. Rice will be in Addis Ababa for consultations with leaders from the region.
…
Somalia’s national security chief, quoting an order from Yusuf, had directed that all ports and roads in the country’s south be closed to the United Nations and international relief organizations, according to Peter Smerdon of the U.N. World Food Program. No explanation was given, Smerdon said.
…

Posted by: b | Dec 5 2007 9:33 utc | 99