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February 6, 2008
OT 08-07
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Must read linked by Alamet in the other OT – Scott Ritter: Iraq’s Tragic Future
The year 2008 will bring with it a major escalation of Turkish military operations against northern Iraq, a strategic break between the Kurdish factions there and with the central government of Baghdad, and the beginnings of an all-out civil war between the KDP and PUK.
…
2008 will see the collapse of the Sunni “awakening” movement, and a return to large-scale anti-American insurgency in western Iraq. It will also see the continued viability of al-Qaida in Iraq in terms of being an organization capable of wreaking violence and dictating the pace of American military involvement in directions beneficial to the Sunni resistance and detrimental to the United States.
…
Given the past record of cooperation between the Mahdi Army and the Sunni resistance, and the ongoing antipathy between Sunnis and SCIRI, there can be little doubt which Shiite entity the Sunnis will side with when it comes time for a decisive conflict between the Mahdi Army and the Badr Brigade, and 2008 will be the year which witnesses such a conflict.
…
At the risk of being wrong (and, indeed, I hope very much that I am), I will contradict the rosy statements of the president in his State of the Union address and will throw down a gauntlet in the face of ongoing public and media ambivalence by predicting that 2008 will be the year the “surge” in Iraq is exposed as a grand debacle.
…
That the Sunni resistance will continue to fight an American occupation is a guarantee. That it will continue to persevere is highly probable. That the United States will be able to stop it is unlikely. And so, the reality that the only policy direction worthy of consideration here in the United States concerning Iraq is the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of American forces continues to hold true. And the fact that this option is given short shrift by all capable of making or influencing such a decision guarantees that this bloody war will go on, inconclusively and incomprehensibly, for many more years.
Well Uncle, without being too pedantic here – a hallmark characteristic of exceptionalism is an absolute myopic and narcissistic view of adversary, that in this case is an epidemic symptom of the entire WOT. The U.S. is fighting and making deals with figments of its own imagination. These figments are created to satisfy their own delusions and designs and have no locus in reality. It is entirely probable that the Baath have taken a page from Chalibi and have managed to role play into these delusions to their own benefit, profit, and tactical advantage – and still remain invisible. Simply by saying but of course, we want to be like you.
Posted by: anna missed | Feb 6 2008 9:58 utc | 2
But but, anna missed, that would mean we don’t have, ‘Full Spectrum Dominance'(TM).
All snark aside, I suppose you are right, for as much as we want to be the all seeing all knowing roving eye, we fool ourselves and therefore can be fooled by others.
Monolycus had a apt word for it a while back, had to do with ‘shadow boxing’, but damn if I can recall the specific word…
A shadow government boxing itself… geez.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 6 2008 10:22 utc | 4
Uncle,
Before the war started Tareq Aziz said (on nightline) that if the U.S. invaded Iraq they, would be chasing shadows. How right he was.
Posted by: anna missed | Feb 6 2008 10:30 utc | 5
@Unca #4
The word you are looking for is sciomachy.
It’s not Monolycus’ word, but an obscure psychological term. And I was just thinking about it two days ago. Odd.
Posted by: Monolycus | Feb 6 2008 10:45 utc | 6
Utah police show community spirit by helping the elderly with chores.
Posted by: DM | Feb 6 2008 10:58 utc | 7
Something which makes my inner engineer smile …
Drug Traffic Beneath the Waves – Sophisticated Submersibles Are Raising New Challenges for Colombian Navy
Now, the cartels seem to be increasingly going beneath the waves, relying on submarines built in clandestine jungle shipyards to move tons of cocaine.
Last year, 13 of the vessels were seized on dry land or stopped at sea by Colombian or U.S. patrol boats — more than in the previous 14 years combined, according to the Pacific fleet of the Colombian navy
…
One of the vessels on display here, resting on wooden blocks on the naval dock after being seized shortly after its construction, has a 450-horsepower diesel engine that could power the craft to North America. At 60 feet in length, it is designed to reach speeds of 11 1/2 mph and carry up to 10 tons of cocaine, five times as much as a “go-fast.”
Because it was sheathed in fiberglass — indeed, much of its superstructure is fiberglass — it is virtually impossible to detect via sonar. It also has ballast tanks for balance and a global positioning system for navigation. Officials here have grudging admiration for the engineers who designed the vessels, saying they were built to cut through water seamlessly while withstanding long voyages.
…
“The question that is up in the air is how many have gotten out,” said Angel.
Some have surely made it far. In 2006, a 33-foot sub was found abandoned on the northern coast of Spain, where the authorities suspect the crew had unloaded a cargo of cocaine before fleeing.
In 2000, Colombian police discovered a 78-foot submarine, half-built with the help of Russian engineers, in a warehouse outside Bogota high in the Andes.
The authorities said the plan had been to complete construction and transport the parts to the coast, where the sub would have been reassembled. The double-hulled vessel could have traveled 2,000 nautical miles, dived 330 feet and carried 150 tons of cocaine.
Industrial production of submarines … only few nation states can do that … but the drug-cartels …
Adding to Scott Ritter, Bill Lind:
The widespread caching of weapons and explosives lends credence to his claim, but until we find documentary evidence dating back before the campaign opened, we cannot be sure.
Why is the question important? Because if Saddam did plan to defeat America by going to guerilla warfare after losing the conventional campaign, we can be reasonably certain anyone else we threaten with invasion will adopt the same plan.
Well, look at the Taliban …
Anyone reported this yet on here?
FIVE undersea cables cut so far
comments here speculating “whoddunit” are amusing. Not sure b whether you agree with this count? (no time today to fact check myself.)
Posted by: Bea | Feb 6 2008 18:58 utc | 10
Scott Ritter’s analysis is certainly right (b-1 above), though I would dispute the title ‘Iraq’s Tragic Future’.
The fact is that the occupation is winding down. $720 million a day cannot be maintained for no clear objective, in an atmosphere where the US economy has serious problems. Problems no different from those of the European economies. McCain or Hillary may say they will continue another 10, another 100, years, but as they don’t have the determination of GWB, who is committed, they will soon be looking to wind down, without saying it. If they are realistic.
The problem with that is that the Sunni resistance could easily relaunch, as indicated by Scott Ritter, perhaps before the election in November. The ‘Tragic Future’ must firstly be of the US occupation: there is no way that it can end well. The future is not nice for the Iraqis either, but at least there is a future of getting rid of the Americans.
Posted by: Alex | Feb 6 2008 21:41 utc | 12
@bea – 10 – that is a report from some no-nothing guy.
But I’ll take it apart anyway.
Cable damage hits 1.7m Internet users in UAE
Quoting TeleGeography and describing the effect the cuts had on the Internet world, Mahesh Jaishanker, executive director, Business Development and Marketing, du, said, “The submarine cable cuts in FLAG Europe-Asia cable 8.3km away from Alexandria, Egypt and SeaMeWe-4 affected at least 60 million users in India, 12 million in Pakistan, six million in Egypt and 4.7 million in Saudi Arabia.”
A total of five cables being operated by two submarine cable operators have been damaged with a fault in each.
These are SeaMeWe-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4) near Penang, Malaysia, the FLAG Europe-Asia near Alexandria, FLAG near the Dubai coast, FALCON near Bandar Abbas in Iran and SeaMeWe-4, also near Alexandria.
The first cut in the undersea Internet cable occurred on January 23, in the Flag Telcoms FALCON submarine cable which was not reported. This has not been repaired yet and the cause remains unknown, explained Jaishanker.
A major cut affecting the UAE occurred on January 30 in the SeaMeWe-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4). “This was followed by another cut on February 1 which was on the same cable (FALCON). This affected the du network majorly as connections from the Gulf were severed while there was limited connectivity within the region,” said Khaled Tabbara, executive director, Carrier Relations, du.
1. I find no report for the alleged first cut on the 23rd. In the industry such cuts do not go unreported (At least I, in several years with lots on traffic on big cable systems, have not experienced/heard of unreported cuts. As I was practically “sitting on the routers”, I would have know of cuts even without reports. The cable companies don’t lie about such cuts. If they would, they immediatly would lose customers. It’s a tight market where people know each other …)
2. I find absolutly no source for the alleged SeaMeWe-4 cut near Malysia
A major cut affecting the UAE occurred on January 30 in the SeaMeWe-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4). “This was followed by another cut on February 1 which was on the same cable (FALCON).
That paragraph does not make sense the way its written as SeaMeWe-4 and FALCON are independent systems and definitly not “the same cable”.
To my knowledge the FLAG cable system does not run near the Dubai cost. The system with a cable break there is FALCON. The FALCON system is owned and maintained by FLAG Telecom. That might have let to confusion.
So I am still at 3 cables.
There was a report from Oman about an additional cable problem there. But that wasn’t a cut, but a temporary power-supply problem.
Here is the recent update by FLAG Telecom.
Cut # 1: FLAG EUROPE ASIA Cable cut between Alexandria (Egypt) and Palermo (Italy)
– The ship loaded with spares has reached the fault location and has initiated the repair work; the repair work is estimated to be completed within 6-7 days.
…
Cut # 2: FALCON Cable cut between Dubai (UAE) and Al SEEB (Oman)
The ship loaded with spares, marine experts, and optical engineers have reached the site yesterday. The crew has recovered the one end of the cable and cable joining work is in progress.
For your mid-week edification amusement or both…
Highest recommendation for this Emory mp3.
Its title is “Waco” (pt 1 and 2) but actually Emory covers a wide spectrum of topics, including Jonestown, MK Ultra, Charles Manson, school shooters, Bill Clinton, Reagan intelligence ops, the CIA Langley HQ shootings, and more.
Much food for thought especially with consideration of the aforementioned Bush-Clinton, Clinton-Bush axis.
As with many things I post, this should be rated CD for ‘critical discernment’, i.e., put on your open mind face, but reserve the right to switch it off like a light switch the second something breaches your comfort zone…lol
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 6 2008 22:07 utc | 14
Is there any aspect of the online world our meddling nanny state paranoiacs doesn’t see as a national security threat
fucking absurd.
Posted by: ran | Feb 6 2008 22:38 utc | 15
Nuclear Iran scare mongering: Iran testing advanced centrifugesA senior diplomat familiar with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s file on Iran confirmed it recently began testing centrifuges based on a “P-2” design, used more recently in the West and able to enrich uranium 2-3 times as fast as the P-1.
…
So what is new here?
Iran says it is developing advanced P-2 centrifuges, 17 April 2006
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told students that the country was testing the P-2 centrifuge – a more sophisticated type – in a speech last Wednesday, a day after he had trumpeted Iran’s success in enriching uranium using a less-sophisticated type of centrifuge.
“Our centrifuges are P-1 type. P-2, which has quadruple the capacity, now is under the process of research and test in the country,” Ahmadinejad told the students in a speech in Khorasan in northeastern Iran. His comments, made last Wednesday, were subsequently posted on the official presidential Web site.
Nothing new – but Reuters has anonymous “western officials” who have “access to intelligence” with important news of what Ahmedinejad said publicly two years ago.
Iraq
US Army in Iraq hit by anti-armor attack every three days
The US Army Wednesday reported its forces in Iraq are on average hit with an anti-armor attack once every three days for over a month now.
A statement by the MNF said such attacks increased over the past 35 days but caused no serious losses or damage.
(snip)
More Iraqis heading to Syria than returning home: UN
Iraqis are once again leaving Iraq for Syria in greater numbers than are returning, despite the lower level of bloodshed in their homeland, the UN refugee agency said on Wednesday.
A report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, citing Syrian immigration officials, said that in late January an average of 1,200 Iraqis entered Syria every day compared with around 700 who returned.
Most of those Iraqis who return say they are doing so because their Syrian visas have expired or because they have run out of money, rather than because conditions in their homeland have improved, the report said.
(snip)
BP positions itself for share of Iraqi oil
(snip)
BP said it was “possible” some of its executives might meet the Iraqi oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, today at a Royal Institute of International Affairs conference in London, sponsored by BP, Shell and other western oil majors.
A spokesman for BP, which will report annual profits of about $18bn, confirmed managers met Iraqi oil officials last week in Jordan and talked about providing technical assistance.
Iraq has more than 115bn barrels of recoverable reserves, an attraction for oil groups at a time when easily recoverable reserves are becoming more difficult to secure.
BP was last night playing down any likelihood of an imminent move into Iraq. “It is a country of interest to us but we are waiting for political and security stability to return before we will take anything further,” a spokesman said.
The group has already undertaken technical studies on the Rumeila oilfield for the new government of Iraq. It is gearing up for further involvement following the drafting of a new oil law in Iraq. The chief executive of Shell, Jeroen van der Veer, also admitted last week that his company was looking closely at re-entering Iraq.
(snip)
Posted by: Alamet | Feb 7 2008 0:10 utc | 18
About the undersea cables, this McClatchy article says a looped cable was cut in two places, “off the coast of Dubai and between islands near Iran”. Maybe this is why there is a confusion over the total nr.
Posted by: Alamet | Feb 7 2008 0:14 utc | 19
@b and alamet
thanks for shedding light on the cable situation. much appreciated.
Posted by: bea | Feb 7 2008 12:22 utc | 20
CIA Monitors YouTube For Intelligence
U.S. spies are looking increasingly online for intelligence and they’ve become major consumers of social media.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 7 2008 22:16 utc | 21
@alamet: BP positions itself for share of Iraqi oil
some background connecting dots:
BP was once a principal stakeholder of the Iraq Petroleum Company [IPC]– along with Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, and Anglo/Dutch Shell (or their precursors). For decades, the IPC dominated and essentially “owned” much of Iraq’s oil production industry, splitting their profits 50/50 with the Iraqis.
Iraq’s Ba’athists, however, began whittling away IPC’s oil field “concessions” in the 60’s. Ultimately, they “nationalized” IPC’s holdings, in 1973, and specifically excluded BP, Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, and Shell from getting to play in any longer in anymore Iraqi oil field games. Tsk, tsk.
Fast forward:
In 1999, Dick Cheney, while he was still chief executive of the oil services company Halliburton, states that the world would need an additional 50 million barrels of oil a day by 2010: “So where,” he asked, “is the oil going to come from?… The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world’s oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies.”
Former IPC principals huddle with Dick Cheney, after the 2000 (s)election, to discuss, among other things, “Iraq Oil Foreign Suitors.”
The White House Iraq Group gins up a tapestry of lies — long-awaited reclamation of “our oil” now a critical objective in the GWOT.
US/British forces invade Iraq.
Lead US Marines, upon entering Bahgdad, race to and secure their primary objective: The Iraqi Oil Ministry Building.
Bush signs first Executive Order following invasion, granting proactive immunity from criminal and civil prosecution to (can you guess?) former-IPC-principals/task-force-participants — re: whatever it is they are about to get up to now that they are “back in Iraq!”
US soldiers subsequently name their forward bases after former-IPC-principals/task-force-participants: “Camp Exxon,” “Camp Chevron”
Secondary invasion force of former-IPC-principals/task-force-participant bag men, er, “lawyers” march into Iraq to “help outline” that country’s emerging “Oil Law.”
links:
Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq’s Oil Wealth
Cheney’s Energy Task Force
task force graphics
White House Iraq Group
The Lie Factory
Slick Connections: U.S. Influence on Iraqi Oil
Seems corporations, like other tribes, can have long memories, and can harbor simmering resentments for years.
On US armed forces as the blunt instrument of corporate “market penetration,” see: War is a Racket.
[released from spam trap – b.]
Posted by: manonfyre | Feb 7 2008 22:53 utc | 22
TEST POST —
have attempted 5 times, in the last, oh, 90 minutes or so, to add a comment to this thread — re: oil in Iraq.
the “post”-ed comment appears (or reappears) only as a “preview.”
concerned that i’ve got a re-re-Re-RE-posted comment bottlenecked somewhere in the system, i’ve written to B, at his aol account, to apologize, and to inquire: whussup?
is there some comment “filter” that steers my comment into a “preview ONLY” loop?
it’s not really very long, by MOA standards.
it does include 5 web links. it that too many?
is there a “comments-per-hour” limit?
is there some specific “content” in my comment that is excluded? (can’t be that.)
anyway, just checking. and, not taking this personally.
Posted by: manonfyre | Feb 8 2008 0:31 utc | 23
[maybe sans links (see above)]
@alamet #18: BP positions itself for share of Iraqi oil
some background connecting dots:
BP was once a principal stakeholder of the Iraq Petroleum Company [IPC]– along with Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, and Anglo/Dutch Shell (or their precursors). For decades, the IPC dominated and essentially “owned” much of Iraq’s oil production industry, splitting their profits 50/50 with the Iraqis.
Iraq’s Ba’athists, however, began whittling away IPC’s oil field “concessions” in the 60’s. Ultimately, they “nationalized” IPC’s holdings, in 1973, and specifically excluded BP, Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, and Shell from getting to play in any longer in anymore Iraqi oil field games. Tsk, tsk.
Fast forward:
In 1999, Dick Cheney, while he was still chief executive of the oil services company Halliburton, states that the world would need an additional 50 million barrels of oil a day by 2010: “So where,” he asked, “is the oil going to come from?… The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world’s oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies.”
Former IPC principals huddle with Dick Cheney, after the 2000 (s)election, to discuss, among other things, “Iraq Oil Foreign Suitors.”
The White House Iraq Group gins up a tapestry of lies — long-awaited reclamation of “our oil” now a critical objective in the GWOT.
US/British forces invade Iraq.
Lead US Marines, upon entering Bahgdad, race to and secure their primary objective: The Iraqi Oil Ministry Building.
Bush signs first Executive Order following invasion, granting proactive immunity from criminal and civil prosecution to (can you guess?) former-IPC-principals/task-force-participants — re: whatever it is they are about to get up to now that they are “back in Iraq!”
US soldiers subsequently name their forward bases after former-IPC-principals/task-force-participants: “Camp Exxon,” “Camp Chevron”
Secondary invasion force of former-IPC-principals/task-force-participant bag men, er, “lawyers” march into Iraq to “help outline” that country’s emerging “Oil Law.”
Posted by: manonfyre | Feb 8 2008 0:40 utc | 24
YEA!
links:
Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq’s Oil Wealth
Cheney’s Energy Task Force
task force graphics
White House Iraq Group
The Lie Factory
Slick Connections: U.S. Influence on Iraqi Oil
[released from spam trap – b.]
Posted by: manonfyre | Feb 8 2008 0:43 utc | 25
YEA!
(but still can’t get links to post. maybe . . .)
some related links:
Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq’s Oil Wealth
Cheney’s Energy Task Force
task force graphics
[crisis ends. apologies to b.]
Posted by: manonfyre | Feb 8 2008 0:55 utc | 26
. . . the rest of the story:
White House Iraq Group
The Lie Factory
Slick Connections: U.S. Influence on Iraqi Oil
Posted by: manonfyre | Feb 8 2008 0:57 utc | 27
fbi thinks its tops making its hit on the gambino crime family – who are these days very small fish indeed while the cheney-bush crime family goes about its business as usual
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 8 2008 2:06 utc | 29
Hey kids, remember the DARPA iXo Artificial Intelligence Control Grid? Well, now we have something even better to spend your hard earned money on, behold:
The 2008 International Symposium on Spectral Sensing Research on the use of Spectral Sensing Technology.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 8 2008 3:50 utc | 30
Laptops, cellphones and cameras are “just like suitcases” according the US Feds. I, myself, always keep a spare pair of socks and underwear in my cellphone in case there’s an emergency.
Snip…
…Shirin Sinnar, a staff attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, said that by scrutinizing the Web sites people search and the phone numbers they’ve stored on their cellphones, “the government is going well beyond its traditional role of looking for contraband and really is looking into the content of people’s thoughts and ideas and their lawful political activities.”
If conducted inside the country, such searches would require a warrant and probable cause, legal experts said.
Customs sometimes singles out passengers for extensive questioning and searches based on “information from various systems and specific techniques for selecting passengers,” including the Interagency Border Inspection System, according to a Customs statement. “CBP officers may, unfortunately, inconvenience law-abiding citizens in order to detect those involved in illicit activities,” the statement said. But the factors agents use to single out passengers are not transparent, and travelers generally have little access to the data to see whether there are errors.
At least there seems to be a decrease in incidents of those dangerous scofflaws trying to keep themselves hydrated by carrying dangerous bottles of water with them on international flights.
Posted by: Monolycus | Feb 8 2008 4:35 utc | 31
wow, weird. sorry about all my “oil grab” clutter and duplication, above.
it happens, eh?
didn’t feel like i was “manic” about dropping my 2 cents in, but it sure looks that way.
🙂
have since discovered the writings of Richard W. Behan, whose research and commentary on this issue parallels (though, in every respect, exceeds and outshines) my own.
see, for example: Nancy Pelosi, You Must Impeach!
Posted by: manonfyre | Feb 8 2008 12:54 utc | 32
What have we here?
Russia suspicious over Iran test
“Russia thinks the launch of an Iranian rocket into space raises suspicion over the true aim of its nuclear programme, a foreign ministry official has said.
“Long-range missiles are one of the components of a [nuclear] weapons system,” Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov told Interfax.
Therefore Monday’s test launch of Iran’s Explorer-1 space rocket was “of course, a cause for concern”, he said. “
Anybody know what to make of this story?
Are we seeing a move in the bishop or knight on the grand chessboard? or the hopes that Russia may hold the brakes against a catastrophe just got dimmer? Why this turn-around in attitude? Were they not, along with China, holding back sanctions against Iran? This along with the recent cable cuts sure has me on edge.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 8 2008 14:42 utc | 33
One urban newspaper finally gets back into the news business. Watch out Village People!
FORECLOSURE CRISIS PUTS MANY AT RISK; OUR GUIDE CAN HELP
Posted by: citizen | Feb 8 2008 17:53 utc | 34
WATCH OUT – is the perfect lead in to this. Mussolini told us the essence of fascism is the merger of the Corp. & the State. So, once you’ve got that framework in place you only need to merge it w/the State Political Police, and Voila…
Doesn’t get much scarier than this exclusive that Matt Rothschild of the Progressive dug out…The New Haves & Have Nots – or – Exclusive! The FBI Deputizes Business

Today, more than 23,000 representatives of private industry are working quietly with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The members of this rapidly growing group, called InfraGard, receive secret warnings of terrorist threats before the public does—and, at least on one occasion, before elected officials. In return, they provide information to the government, which alarms the ACLU. But there may be more to it than that. One business executive, who showed me his InfraGard card, told me they have permission to “shoot to kill” in the event of martial law.
InfraGard is “a child of the FBI,” says Michael Hershman, the chairman of the advisory board of the InfraGard National Members Alliance and CEO of the Fairfax Group, an international consulting firm.
InfraGard started in Cleveland back in 1996, when the private sector there cooperated with the FBI to investigate cyber threats.
“Then the FBI cloned it,” says Phyllis Schneck, chairman of the board of directors of the InfraGard National Members Alliance, and the prime mover behind the growth of InfraGard over the last several years.
InfraGard itself is still an FBI operation, with FBI agents in each state overseeing the local InfraGard chapters. (There are now eighty-six of them.) The alliance is a nonprofit organization of private sector InfraGard members.
“We are the owners, operators, and experts of our critical infrastructure, from the CEO of a large company in agriculture or high finance to the guy who turns the valve at the water utility,” says Schneck, who by day is the vice president of research integration at Secure Computing.
“At its most basic level, InfraGard is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the private sector,” the InfraGard website states. “InfraGard chapters are geographically linked with FBI Field Office territories.”
In November 2001, InfraGard had around 1,700 members. As of late January, InfraGard had 23,682 members, according to its website, http://www.infragard.net, which adds that “350 of our nation’s Fortune 500 have a representative in InfraGard.”
To join, each person must be sponsored by “an existing InfraGard member, chapter, or partner organization.” The FBI then vets the applicant. On the application form, prospective members are asked which aspect of the critical infrastructure their organization deals with. These include: agriculture, banking and finance, the chemical industry, defense, energy, food, information and telecommunications, law enforcement, public health, and transportation.
…
One business owner in the United States tells me that InfraGard members are being advised on how to prepare for a martial law situation—and what their role might be. He showed me his InfraGard card, with his name and e-mail address on the front, along with the InfraGard logo and its slogan, “Partnership for Protection.” On the back of the card were the emergency numbers that Schneck mentioned.
This business owner says he attended a small InfraGard meeting where agents of the FBI and Homeland Security discussed in astonishing detail what InfraGard members may be called upon to do.
“The meeting started off innocuously enough, with the speakers talking about corporate espionage,” he says. “From there, it just progressed. All of a sudden we were knee deep in what was expected of us when martial law is declared. We were expected to share all our resources, but in return we’d be given specific benefits.” These included, he says, the ability to travel in restricted areas and to get people out.
But that’s not all.
“Then they said when—not if—martial law is declared, it was our responsibility to protect our portion of the infrastructure, and if we had to use deadly force to protect it, we couldn’t be prosecuted,” he says.
I was able to confirm that the meeting took place where he said it had, and that the FBI and Homeland Security did make presentations there. One InfraGard member who attended that meeting denies that the subject of lethal force came up. But the whistleblower is 100 percent certain of it. “I have nothing to gain by telling you this, and everything to lose,” he adds. “I’m so nervous about this, and I’m not someone who gets nervous.”
So, the answer to why they haven’t staged another 911, is that they’re preparing…
But what happens, if the Pres., whoever that poor shlep hapens to be at the time, isn’t interested in doing so…after all the WH was burned during War of 1812 & martial law wasn’t instituted, Britain had plenty of bombings during War w/Ireland…
Posted by: jj | Feb 8 2008 20:07 utc | 35
This is the only fitting follow-up to the above – and, NO, I’m not making this up…
A professor at Northwest Iowa Community College in Sheldon is on paid administrative leave after he says the school accused him and his students of supporting al Qaeda by selling pirated music and videos.
The school has confirmed the FBI is investigating activity on the college’s computers.
The Northwest Iowa Community College is the center of a federal investigation. And Steven Gifford says he’s the target.
“I went to school Friday and my keys didn’t work,” Northwest Iowa Community College Professor Steven Gifford said.
For the past week Steven Gifford has been sitting at home. He’s been with the school as a computer programming professor for nine years and says the school’s administration first put him on leave because of budget issues.
“The vice president in the past said she wasn’t happy about the software I bought. She didn’t think it had educational value,” Gifford said.
But while Gifford was sitting at home, the FBI showed up and said there may be more to the investigation at the school.
“They told us the college had alleged that my students and I were running a piracy ring. We were downloading, cracking and re-selling software, movies and music and were doing this in support of al Qaeda terrorists,” Gifford said.
“Today I find out that we’re being proclaimed as terrorists. I’m a soldier in the U.S. Army, I volunteered for my second deployment, this pisses me off,” Gifford’s student Richard Sittig said.
…
“The timing of all of these things seems very unusal to me,” Gifford said.
That’s because Gifford says he’s about to become the president of the school’s faculty association and the administration doesn’t like him.
“I’ve been an irritant in their side for quite a while,” Gifford said.
But Gifford says to claim he and his students ran a video and music piracy ring to support terrorists is completely false. Oppose Admin. of yr. College & you’re reported to FBI as a terrorist
Posted by: jj | Feb 8 2008 20:29 utc | 36
Isn’t Professors story just a contemporary variant of Iraqis under Saddam who had to join Baath Party & be loyalists to keep their jobs? Oppose Power & you’re a “terrorist” is here….
Posted by: jj | Feb 8 2008 20:32 utc | 37
The US Secretary of Education Rod Paige declared him one in 2004, if he’s a member of the NEA.
Posted by: Browning | Feb 8 2008 21:33 utc | 38
Check out the new NASA non lethal weapon, the L.E.D. Incapacitator (LEDI) for law enforcement on the market by 2010 vid here.
Intelligent Optical Systems
Enough to Make You Sick
Its inventors call it the LED Incapacitator (L-E-D, as in light-emitting diode). Weapons buffs call it a nonlethal weapon. But test subjects who have buckled and reeled from its nauseating strobe call it other names—none printable.
A flashlight designed to make you nauseatingly ill? What fiendish minds would invent such a tool? The minds of Bob Lieberman and Vladimir Rubtsov, president and senior scientist of Intelligent Optical Systems, Inc., a small R&D company in Torrance, CA. Under a multiphase contract from the S&T Directorate’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Office, with technical direction from S&T program manager Gerald Kirwin, the two physicists are refining an ultra-bright, multicolored, pulsing “lightsaber” that’s more disorienting, dazzling, and dizzying—though a tad less dangerous—than disco. It’s enough to make you sick. And that, Lieberman says, is not always a bad thing.
How does the LED Incapacitator incapacitate? By simultaneously overwhelming the subject both physiologically (temporarily blinding him) and psychophysically (disorienting him). A built-in rangefinder measures the distance to the nearest pair of eyeballs. Then, a “governor” sets the output and pulse train (a series of pulses and rests) to a level, frequency, and duration that are effective, but safe. The colors and pulses continuously change, leaving no time for the brain or eyes to adapt. After a few minutes, the effects wear off.
The light could be used to make a bad guy turn away or shut his eyes, giving authorities enough time to tackle the suspect and apply the cuffs … all while sparing the lives of passersby, hostages, or airline passengers.
“There are often confrontations at border crossings with suspected illegal aliens or drug runners,” Lieberman says. “You don’t want to hurt or kill them, just take them into custody. With this,” he smiles, “they don’t need to know English to comply.”
Output and size can easily be scaled up to fit the need; immobilizing a mob, for instance, might call for a wide-angle “bazooka” version. Scaling down is more difficult. At 15 inches long by 4 inches wide, the current prototype is more transportable than portable. The next-generation weapon must be as short and svelte as a D-cell Maglite, designed to fit on a duty belt. “Phase 3 will be our shrink phase,” Lieberman says.
This fall, in Phase 2, researchers at Pennsylvania State University will test the LED Incapacitator on volunteers at the school’s Institute of Nonlethal Defense Technology. Intelligent Optical Systems will use the test results to evaluate design features and tweak the strobe’s pattern and colors. “There’s one wavelength that gets everybody,” says Lieberman. “Vlad calls it the evil color.” Further tests are scheduled for the fall, and production could begin by December. By 2010, the LED Incapacitator could be in the hands of thousands of policemen, border agents, and National Guardsmen.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 8 2008 22:57 utc | 39
For anyone interested, I posted a review of the Coen brothers film, “No Country for Old Men” at Louis Proyect’s blog: The Unrepentent Marxist at the end of a long thread over two blog posts by Louis.
Sorry I have not had time to follow up more here.
Posted by: Malooga | Feb 9 2008 2:00 utc | 40
“We are painting a picture with evil ripping the canvas with every stroke, with five and seven and 10 levels of bureaucracy gone through before applying the brush, with every stroke of the brush liable to be ripped from your grasp by a VBIED [vehicle-borne improvised explosive device].Every day brings insurmountable problems.” …
A Death Reconsidered
Was Col. Ted Westhusing’s death in Iraq something more sinister than suicide?
Posted by: annie | Feb 9 2008 2:14 utc | 41
malooga
a very fine considered piece of writing
& yes that is a beautiful citation of horkheimer
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 9 2008 2:23 utc | 42
malooga
a very fine considered piece of writing
& yes that is a beautiful citation of horkheimer
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 9 2008 2:23 utc | 43
annie
it surprises me not at all that the colonel was executed. after all u s power is there for profit & not for ethics
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 9 2008 2:32 utc | 44
“With this,” he smiles, “they don’t need to know English to comply.”
the voice of swaggering zenophobic arrogance. the voice of the Master Race. pukeworthy.
@malooga I liked that review very much — it confirmed what the trailers had suggested to me, i.e. that I would not bother seeing the film as it was just another bunch of shiny propaganda.
w/your permission I would really like to run that film review over at Feral Scholar as our Friday Film Review for this week, since I’ve been too busy to write one — with of course a link back to LP’s blog. would that be OK?
Deanander-
As always feel free to do what you want with whatever I write. (especially as I invariably hate whatever I write after I am done 😉 )
If you shoot me an email, I will send you the full version with the dozen or so typos corrected and the hyperlink to the swans piece. Feel free to edit as you wish.
By the way, I really enjoyed your sojourn into radio. Also a post you wrote here some time back on an open thread. Hope the move went well.
Posted by: Malooga | Feb 9 2008 4:04 utc | 47
Anyone need a good laugh?????
A former senior accountant at Oral Roberts University alleges that more than $1 billion annually was inappropriately funneled through the school.
Trent Huddleston claims in a lawsuit filed Thursday that he discovered an “unrestricted” account used to funnel “unusually large” sums of money through the university each month — which would exceed $1 billion on an annual basis — that wasn’t used for any legitimate university purpose.
University spokesman Jeremy Burton dismissed any wrongdoing, saying the allegations had “no basis in fact.” John Tucker, an attorney for the university, said the petition appeared to be “grounded in fantasy.”
Huddleston, who was hired in 2006 and spent 15 months at the school, said he was discharged because school officials feared he would reveal that the account existed.
…
Roberts resigned as president days after Huddleston’s lawsuit was filed. He and his wife have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.Oral Roberts U = Money Laundering U
Posted by: jj | Feb 9 2008 4:32 utc | 48
zenophobic???
I must be getting Shavian/phonetic in my old age.
that was of course supposed to be xenophobic
Thanks a lot Malooga. NOT. I was looking forward to renting that film. I dont have anything to look forward to be dissapointed in now.
Going to give “no end in sight” a spin tonight instead.
What ever happened to the Barton Fink Cohen Bros? Are they now highbrow Tarentino?
Posted by: anna missed | Feb 9 2008 4:50 utc | 50
very thoughtful review, malooga. movies == psycotropic mechanisms for altering ones body chemistry. really good ones (in the proper setting) provide a grand thrill. the rest hollow you out.
Posted by: b real | Feb 9 2008 5:53 utc | 51
If you only read one article this weekend, let it be this one…
Manifesto or Requiem? – Awesome article
Must read. So much has been lost – perhaps never to be recovered.
America, was it always just a myth or a preposterous dream?
Who is William Ney anyway?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 9 2008 9:08 utc | 52
The Independent with a good piece telling the recent history of Somalia:
Somalia: The World’s forgotten catastrophe
By the time the warlords were defeated the TFG had managed to install itself inside Somalia. Mogadishu wasn’t deemed safe enough, so the government found itself in the central town of Baidoa. Attempts by European diplomats to bring the TFG and the Islamic Courts together failed. The US and Ethiopia encouraged the TFG, led by a former warlord, Abdullahi Yusuf, not to negotiate.
In October 2006, four months after the warlords strategy had failed, Frazer travelled to Baidoa to meet President Yusuf. According to people present at the meeting, Frazer told Yusuf the US would help him “sweep out the Islamists”. Ethiopia was also prepared to help. Since July 2006 Ethiopian troops had been in Somalia, training TFG forces.
…
As America has lost its grip on southern and central Somalia it has turned its attention further north. Somaliland, formerly a British protectorate, declared itself independent in 1991, while Puntland, at Africa’s most easterly tip, gained semi-autonomy from the rest of Somalia in 1998. Both provinces have their own intelligence services; both are funded by the US.
So far there appears to have been little reward. One Puntland Intelligence Service officer thinks he knows why. “The Americans know nothing,” he said, sitting in a café in the port city of Bosasso. “They pay for information, but they don’t know what’s right and wrong.” This officer insisted he gave only good information but knew of others who used their position to settle old scores.
…
The June attack was a signal of the changing nature of US operations in Somalia. Following the attack contractors were hired with US money to rebuild Bosasso’s crumbling runway. This was no aid project. Once completed, Bosasso, a steamy port city of 500,000 people, will be home to the third-largest airstrip in Africa. “The US wants to be able to land anything in Bosasso,” said one senior diplomat based in the city. “Anything.”
…
Took a bit of digging, but I uncovered the source of the “Obama reminds me so much of JFK meme”. And you gotta admit Emperor David’s left hand Zbig is a first-rate fixer. They arranged for Obamination to have speech writers who’ve worked with the Kennedys’ own speechwriter-courtier Ted Sorenson. Goodbye To All That (#2) by Robin Morgan Mystery solved…
Posted by: jj | Feb 9 2008 11:18 utc | 54
Air Force Academy watch: Speakers at Academy Said to Make False Claims
The Air Force Academy was criticized by Muslim and religious freedom organizations for playing host on Wednesday to three speakers who critics say are evangelical Christians falsely claiming to be former Muslim terrorists.
The three men were invited as part of a weeklong conference on terrorism organized by cadets at the academy’s Colorado Springs campus under the auspices of the political science department.
OT – a recent article in Times Online reminded me of something …
Oil was around $25 bbl before the Iraq Invasion. Was $100 bbl an unintended consequence? Oil companies have never had it so good.
From Times Online, 27 January, 2008
Secret of treasure islands
The Falklands is sitting on deep-sea oil riches that could turn out to be worth a fortune
…
When the search for Falklands oil was first taken up, a consortium of big companies, led by Shell, carried out survey work. In 1998, it drilled a cluster of six test wells. Traces of oil were found, but none of the deposits appeared to be commercially viable.
… with the price of oil at a record high and the Falkland Islands charging a corporate tax rate of 25% and royalties of just 9%, the potential rewards make it worth the risk.
Internet “nutcase” Joe Vialls ( deceased? ever existed? website still running .. ), updated 16 February, 2003
The Falklands Alternative
America’s motive for invading Iraq
The destruction of Iraq would enable religious fanatics in New York to expand eastwards towards a “Greater Israel”. It would also kick oil prices high enough to start exploitation of Falklands oil. Two birds with one stone.
Posted by: DM | Feb 9 2008 12:17 utc | 56
U$ @ 52, does read like him but William Ney is not Billmon
This is pretty much how the history books will read in a few years. The rise and fall of the great north american empire.
think I will go shopping now.
Posted by: dan of steele | Feb 9 2008 12:18 utc | 57
Abandoned anchor cut Gulf Internet cable
A FLAG Telecom repair crew discovered the anchor near where the fiber-optic cable was severed Feb. 1 in the Persian Gulf, 35 miles north of Dubai, between the Emirates and Oman.
Weighing more than 5.5 tons, the anchor has been pulled to the surface. The company did not immediately explain whether the anchor moved and snapped the cable or whether the cable itself was drifting when it was sliced.
…
Meanwhile, a second FLAG repair ship continued work on two undersea cables that were cut Jan. 30. They are about 5 miles off the north coast of Egypt, near the port city of Alexandria, and run between Egypt and Palermo, on the Italian island of Sicily.
Repairs at both locations are expected to be done by Sunday.
One of the two Mediterranean cables was owned by FLAG. The other, identified as SEA-ME-WE 4, or South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 cable, was owned by a consortium of 16 international telecommunication companies.
…
Reports of additional cuts in Middle East Internet cables could not be confirmed.
annie
wanted to say in relation to the execution of the ethics colonel – that the execution was one favoured by the nazis – it is called wunkanal – – it was used against high level french army staff at sigmaringen – & it was the method used to execute the red army fraktion members in stammheim prison
my friend & colleague thomas harlan – has done a film where this form of execution – is used as a point connecting many others
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 9 2008 19:16 utc | 59
& while i’m at it fuck them & their fucking reagan revolution. reagan was a fucking clown, a stooge, dumbest of all the dumbest motherfuckers – & the blood of others ought to have drenched his coffin with all the programmes of murder he initiated or allowed. fuck them & their economics de merde – that fucked up an entire planet – fuck him & the privatisation agendas of a thousand corrup leaders all over the world, fuck him & the world of super security he created. fuck him for his racism that was both personal & profound
i hope the fucker went to hell
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 9 2008 19:22 utc | 60
dear rjj,
that site you reference is pretty darn shoddy. they are relying on pings, or echo requests to see if the router is alive. Common security measures have you disable the ping response and it is apparent that router router1.iust.ac.ir has done just that. However, it is alive and if you had a login and password you could view its configuration since http is enabled. don’t believe me? type router1.iust.ac.ir into your browser and see what comes up.
Posted by: dan of steele | Feb 9 2008 20:18 utc | 62
@rij – that idiotic claim has been debunct like ten times by now. For a real professional source with real data see here
b
hhave we a link here in relation to berezovsky’s relation with neil bush in latvia
this world would be a lot less sordid if the 4 b’s were not in it – bush, berezovsky, blair & berlusconi
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 9 2008 21:19 utc | 65
@r’giap – this or earlier ones? Berezovsky, Neil Bush, Latvian businessmen meet
Sep 23, 2005
RIGA – Exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky was in Riga along with Neil Bush, the brother of the U.S. president, to discuss an educational project with Latvian businessmen.
Berezovsky and Bush are promoting new educational software developed by Ignite Learning. The software is designated for primary school students teaches curriculum by developing children’s thinking and imagination, according to reports.
…
thanks for the link on somalia @ #53, b. it’s pretty good.
i’ll also draw attention this part
President Yusuf and his prime minister, Ali Mohammed Gedi, never really got on. The final straw was a row over a donation of $32m Saudi Arabia made to the government for a national reconciliation conference. Gedi kept most of the money for himself. Frustrated by the impasse, the Americans took control. Gedi was summoned to Addis Ababa where he spent two days locked in meetings with US and Ethiopian officials.
In return for stepping down, Gedi was given asylum in the United States and was allowed to keep the remains of the Saudi money. He has bought a house in Los Angeles and US officials have negotiated a position for him at the University of California in Los Angeles.
leaves out the role of gedi & his controversial draft for a new national oil law, but…
Posted by: b real | Feb 9 2008 22:52 utc | 69
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 9 2008 22:59 utc | 70
MATT TAIBBI in Rolling Stone on The Chicken Doves
In reality, though, Pelosi and the Democrats were actually engaged in some serious point-shaving. Working behind the scenes, the Democrats have systematically taken over the anti-war movement, packing the nation’s leading group with party consultants more interested in attacking the GOP than ending the war. “Our focus is on the Republicans,” one Democratic apparatchik in charge of the anti-war coalition declared. “How can we juice up attacks on them?”
The story of how the Democrats finally betrayed the voters who handed them both houses of Congress a year ago is a depressing preview of what’s to come if they win the White House. And if we don’t pay attention to this sorry tale now, while there’s still time to change our minds about whom to nominate, we might be stuck with this same bunch of spineless creeps for four more years. With no one but ourselves to blame.
Funny: US Judge Blocks Bandar Funds Transfer
WASHINGTON — A federal judge has temporarily blocked Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the former Saudi ambassador to the United States, from removing real estate sales proceeds from the United States pending resolution of a class-action lawsuit.
The suit filed last September by a tiny Michigan city retirement system accuses current and former directors of BAE Systems PLC, a giant British defense company, of breaches of fiduciary duties in connection with $2 billion or more in alleged illegal bribes paid to Bandar in connection with an $86 billion BAE arms sale to Saudi Arabia in 1985.
Bandar also is named a defendant in the suit, along with the former Riggs Bank of Washington and its successor, PNC Financial Group.
BAE and Bandar have strongly denied that illegal payments were made to Bandar.
Without ruling on the merits of the case, U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer said in a temporary restraining order, signed Feb. 5, that the suit by the City of Harper Woods Employees’ Retirement System raises serious questions of law that warrant a temporary order keeping Bandar from taking the proceeds of real estate sales out of U.S.-based accounts.
Pat Lang, former spy chief and fairly ‘realist’ conservative, someone who I respect despite severe disagreements, was recently in Israel/Palestine/Jordan on a private welfare mission. In a comment at his blog he reports on the West Bank:
Israeli government movement controls are more effective than ever. There seem to be fewer IDF roadblocks, but the manner of the troops towards the Arabs is so degrading and humiliating as to be difficlut for me to watch. The IDF does not seem to care what the psychological effect of their behavior might be. In fact, I think they relish it. A common humiliation is for the father of a family to be hauled out of his car, made to stand in the road with his armes raised for a while and then searched by some kid with a gun while the kid’s buddies look on laughing. The effect of this on children watching from the car is ominous in terms of the future. Humiliation is a powerful word in arab culture. I have to believe that the Israeli government knows this and does not care or hopes that this pressure along with many others will cause these people to leave the country.
The lack of career NCOs in the Israeli ground forces may be a factor in the bullying behavior of IDF troops. As a result, privates, NCOs and junior officers are all pretty much of an age. Imagine a bunch of post-adolescents with uniforms and guns .
The Wall is effective. It lowers the incident rate along the “border” and prevents the Palestinians from moving around in patterns that they have long known. It also profoundly affects Palestinian life. Example; Bethlehem U. formerly had quite a lot of students from the WB north of Jerusalem. Now they have virtually none. The Wall took care of that.
The Israeli government is also in the habit of applying the strict letter of laws and agreements in ways that raise a question of whether or not there is reall good will on their side.
this was from friday, but i don’t recall seeing it posted here
abc news: Exclusive: Peace Corps, Fulbright Scholar Asked to ‘Spy’ on Cubans, Venezuelans
In an apparent violation of U.S. policy, Peace Corps volunteers and a Fulbright scholar were asked by a U.S. Embassy official in Bolivia “to basically spy” on Cubans and Venezuelans in the country, according to Peace Corps personnel and the Fulbright scholar involved.
“I was told to provide the names, addresses and activities of any Venezuelan or Cuban doctors or field workers I come across during my time here,” Fulbright scholar John Alexander van Schaick told ABCNews.com in an interview in La Paz.
Van Schaick’s account matches that of Peace Corps members and staff who claim that last July their entire group of new volunteers was instructed by the same U.S. Embassy official in Bolivia to report on Cuban and Venezuelan nationals.
The State Department says any such request was “in error” and a violation of long-standing U.S. policy which prohibits the use of Peace Corps personnel or Fulbright scholars for intelligence purposes.
…
The Fulbright scholar van Schaick, a 2006 Rutgers University graduate, says the request came at a mandatory orientation and security briefing meeting with Assistant Regional Security Officer Vincent Cooper at the embassy on the morning of Nov. 5, 2007.
According to van Schaick, the request for information gathering “surfaced casually” halfway through Cooper’s 30-minute, one-on-one briefing, which initially dealt with helpful tips about life and security concerns in Bolivia.
“He said, ‘We know the Venezuelans and Cubans are here, and we want to keep tabs on them,'” said van Schaick who recalls feeling “appalled” at the comment.
“I was in shock,” van Schaick said. “My immediate thought was ‘oh my God! Somebody from the U.S. Embassy just asked me to basically spy for the U.S. Embassy.'”
A similar pattern emerges in the account of the three Peace Corps volunteers and their supervisor. On July 29, 2007, just before the new volunteers were sworn in, they say embassy security officer Vincent Cooper visited the 30-person group to give a talk on safety and made his request about the Cubans and Venezuelans.
“He said it had to do with the fight against terrorism,” said one, of the briefing from the embassy official. Others remember being told, “It’s for your own safety.”
Peace Corps Deputy Director Doreen Salazar remembers the incident vividly because she says it was the first time she had heard an embassy official make such a request to a Peace Corps group.
Salazar says she and her fellow staff found the comment so out of line that they interrupted the briefing to clarify that volunteers did not have to follow the embassy’s instructions, and she later complained directly to the embassy about the incident.
…
“These are serious incidents that we will investigate thoroughly,” says Bolivia’s Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca in an interview.
“Any U.S. government use of their students or volunteers to provide intelligence represents a grave threat to Bolivia’s sovereignty.”
Bolivian law provides severe penalties in espionage cases. According to Article 111 of the country’s penal code, “he who procures secretive documents, objects or information&concerning [Bolivia’s] foreign relations in an espionage effort for other countries during times of peace, endangering the security of the State, will incur a penalty of 30 years in prison.” In lay man’s terms: if any U.S. citizen provides information of use in a spying effort, they would be subject to Bolivia’s maximum prison sentence.
But the U.S. citizens who reported being approached in this way by the State Department official said no mention was made of any legal risks arising from complying with the request to keep tabs on foreign nationals in Bolivia.
Posted by: b real | Feb 11 2008 5:20 utc | 74
The piece is by Michael Gordon so there is an agend behind it – anyway:
Army Buried Study Faulting Iraq Planning
After 18 months of research, RAND submitted a report in the summer of 2005 called “Rebuilding Iraq.” RAND researchers provided an unclassified version of the report along with a secret one, hoping that its publication would contribute to the public debate on how to prepare for future conflicts.
But the study’s wide-ranging critique of the White House, the Defense Department and other government agencies was a concern for Army generals, and the Army has sought to keep the report under lock and key.
…
The study chided President Bush — and by implication Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who served as national security adviser when the war was planned — as having failed to resolve differences among rival agencies. “Throughout the planning process, tensions between the Defense Department and the State Department were never mediated by the president or his staff,” it said.
The Defense Department led by Donald H. Rumsfeld was given the lead in overseeing the postwar period in Iraq despite its “lack of capacity for civilian reconstruction planning and execution.”
The State Department led by Colin L. Powell produced a voluminous study on the future of Iraq that identified important issues but was of “uneven quality” and “did not constitute an actionable plan.”
Gen. Tommy R. Franks, whose Central Command oversaw the military operation in Iraq, had a “fundamental misunderstanding” of what the military needed to do to secure postwar Iraq, the study said.
This is indeed absurd:
Bush orders clampdown on flights to US
The US administration is pressing the 27 governments of the European Union to sign up for a range of new security measures for transatlantic travel, including allowing armed guards on all flights from Europe to America by US airlines.
…
According to a US document being circulated for signature in European capitals, EU states would also need to supply personal data on all air passengers overflying but not landing in the US in order to gain or retain visa-free travel to America, senior EU officials said.
And within months the US department of homeland security is to impose a new permit system for Europeans flying to the US, compelling all travellers to apply online for permission to enter the country before booking or buying a ticket, a procedure that will take several days.
The data from the US’s new electronic transport authorisation system is to be combined with extensive personal passenger details already being provided by EU countries to the US for the “profiling” of potential terrorists and assessment of other security risks.
Washington is also asking European airlines to provide personal data on non-travellers – for example family members – who are allowed beyond departure barriers to help elderly, young or ill passengers to board aircraft flying to America, a demand the airlines reject as “absurd”.
Andrew J. Bacevich in LAT: NATO at twilight
NATO is no longer a fighting organization. Keeping the Americans in, the Germans down and the Russians out no longer demands the sort of exertion that was required half a century ago. If the alliance retains any value, it is as an institution for consolidating European integration and prosperity.
No amount of browbeating by the United States is going to change that. The Bush administration is kidding itself if it expects Europeans to save the day in Afghanistan. To think of NATO as a great alliance makes about as much sense as thinking of Pittsburgh as the Steel City or of Detroit as the car capital of the world. It’s sheer nostalgia.
Marc Lynch follows the “other” great unraveling. The “awakening” is going to sleep.
Posted by: anna missed | Feb 11 2008 11:04 utc | 78
ap: U.S. warships fire on Somali pirates in hijacked Danish boat
MOGADISHU, Somalia: U.S. warships fired on Somali pirates trying to resupply colleagues who hijacked a Danish-owned tug boat, a district commissioner said Monday.
“Some of the artillery shells hit around the coastline but no human casualties were reported. Unfortunately the gangs escaped,” Abdullahi Said, the district commissioner for Eyl, told the AP by phone.
The hijacked ship, which has six crew members onboard, is stationed around 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of Eyl, he said. The coastal town is some 900 kilometers (560 miles) north of the capital, Mogadishu.
All crew members on the Svitzer Korsakov — a British captain, an Irish engineer and four Russian crew — were believed to be unharmed.
also see, from feb 4
garowe online: We are not pirates, say ship hijackers
GAROWE, Somalia Feb 4 (Garowe Online) – The spokesman of a group of gunmen who hijacked two ships off of Somalia’s northeastern coast has said that they are not pirates.
The man, who did not identify himself, contacted Radio Garowe, a station based in the regional capital of the semiautonomous state of Puntland.
“I have contacted you after hearing reports through international media that pirates hijacked a ship after it left the port of Bossaso,” the man told Radio Garowe.
He claimed that the Russia-registered ship, Svitzer Korsakov, is “part of the environmental destruction” being committed by various foreign ships off of Somali shores.
“We are the gentlemen who work in the ocean…since the [Somali] civil war began the ocean has been our Mother,” the man said.
Some reports said a second foreign ship has been seized off the Somali coast and is also being kept near the natural port of Eyl. Both ships are controlled “by the same group,” according to the spokesman.
He said, “their group’s name is the Ocean Salvation Corps, and they are a group of Somali nationalists who took it upon themselves to protect the country’s shores.”
“The ships we now control have the equipment which destroyed the Indian Ocean,” the man said, adding: “More than 70,000 tons of fish species is on abroad.”
The group’s spokesman said, “it is their promise to protect any reporter willing to verify his claims first-hand”.
Asked whether or not the group would ask for ransom, the man said, “It has been the tradition to take ransom payment, but we will bring these ships in front of the law.”
meanwhile, to the south
shabelle media network: US warships disembark Somalia coast
Shabelle.net/english-09.02.08-United states war vessels have reached at Lower Jubba region coastline and started to patrol around Kismayu Town’s entire shorelines later on Saturday witnesses said.
The US marines on the ships have as well initiated to make more searches with the fishing boats and business material transportation ships heading to Somalia” fishermen said.
One of the commercial goods ship workers told Shabelle English section that the ameican naval forces have been warily examining the boats including small fishing boats and ships to Somalia to foil the pirates habitually kidnap the commercial and aid ships arrive on Somalia’s unsafe coasts although its unknown the real point behind the arrival of American marine forces docked at Somali coast.
in addition to that It’s also unidentified the motive that US marine ships are patrolling the coast of Kismayu town the provincial capital of lower Jubba region although it comes as Lower Jubba region authorities have declared on Saturday that some of the former ousted Islamic courts leaders have intimidated them that there will be an offensive on the way to Kimayu town from the Islamic courts fighters.
shabelle media network: Canadian marines reportedly arrive off Somalia coast to combat pirates
Shabelle January 11.02.08-Canadian marines have joined the other foreign forces operating off the coast of Somalia in a bid to fight Somali pirates.
Canadian marines have joined the NATO forces fighting the Somali pirates, which hijack the humanitarian vessels and the Kenya-Somalia business vessels. About 235 Canadian marine troops equipped with high-speed boats and a 5000 tone of weapons have arrived in Indian Ocean. The troops are said to join the US marines based there. However, there are other troops which are already present off the Somalia coast, particularly the Danish forces present near Djibouti. Forces from USA, Canada, Holland, Denmark, Portuguese and Germany equipped with warships are based there. The arrival of Canadian marines off the coast of Somalia is a new move by Canada aimed at combating pirates.
Posted by: b real | Feb 11 2008 19:01 utc | 79
two earlier links on the tugboat “Svitzer Korsakov”, though none mention what it was doing in somalia
news feed researcher
Russian-built Svitzer tugs to serve Sakhalin II
Posted by: b real | Feb 11 2008 19:25 utc | 80
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 11 2008 20:24 utc | 81
The Independent: How the spooks took over the news
For the first time in human history, there is a concerted strategy to manipulate global perception. And the mass media are operating as its compliant assistants, failing both to resist it and to expose it.
The sheer ease with which this machinery has been able to do its work reflects a creeping structural weakness which now afflicts the production of our news. I’ve spent the last two years researching a book about falsehood, distortion and propaganda in the global media.
The “Zarqawi letter” which made it on to the front page of The New York Times in February 2004 was one of a sequence of highly suspect documents which were said to have been written either by or to Zarqawi and which were fed into news media.
This material is being generated, in part, by intelligence agencies who continue to work without effective oversight; and also by a new and essentially benign structure of “strategic communications” which was originally designed by doves in the Pentagon and Nato who wanted to use subtle and non-violent tactics to deal with Islamist terrorism but whose efforts are poorly regulated and badly supervised with the result that some of its practitioners are breaking loose and engaging in the black arts of propaganda.
…
The Independent: How the spooks took over the news
For the first time in human history, there is a concerted strategy to manipulate global perception. And the mass media are operating as its compliant assistants, failing both to resist it and to expose it.
The sheer ease with which this machinery has been able to do its work reflects a creeping structural weakness which now afflicts the production of our news. I’ve spent the last two years researching a book about falsehood, distortion and propaganda in the global media.
The “Zarqawi letter” which made it on to the front page of The New York Times in February 2004 was one of a sequence of highly suspect documents which were said to have been written either by or to Zarqawi and which were fed into news media.
This material is being generated, in part, by intelligence agencies who continue to work without effective oversight; and also by a new and essentially benign structure of “strategic communications” which was originally designed by doves in the Pentagon and Nato who wanted to use subtle and non-violent tactics to deal with Islamist terrorism but whose efforts are poorly regulated and badly supervised with the result that some of its practitioners are breaking loose and engaging in the black arts of propaganda.
…
this may have been asked before, but why all the global warming focus on CO2 emissions?
“A recent study by the Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen shows that the official estimates have ignored the contribution of nitrogen fertilisers. They generate a greenhouse gas – nitrous oxide – which is 296 times as powerful as CO2. These emissions alone ensure that ethanol from maize causes between 0.9 and 1.5 times as much warming as petrol, while rapeseed oil (the source of over 80% of the world’s biodiesel) generates 1-1.7 times the impact of diesel(12). This is before you account for the changes in land use.”
Posted by: jcairo | Feb 11 2008 21:19 utc | 86
BlackBerry Service Out in N. America
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-blackberry-outage,0,6903456.story
By Associated Press
4:23 PM CST, February 11, 2008
NEW YORK – An outage has disconnected BlackBerry smart phones across North America.
AT&T Inc. says the disruption Monday is affecting all wireless carriers. AT&T first learned about the problem at about 3:30 p.m. EST.
There’s no word on the cause or when the problem might be fixed.
BlackBerry maker Research in Motion did not immediately return a phone call.
———————————–
WHY NOW??
WHO DONIT?
WHY WORRY?
Posted by: gus | Feb 11 2008 22:39 utc | 87
Almost missed this!
OPEC may switch to euro
Producer group OPEC may abandon the dollar for pricing oil and adopt the euro but any such switch will “take time”, OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri was quoted as saying by a weekly magazine.
“Maybe we can price the oil in the euro,” the London-based Middle East Economic Digest quoted Badri as saying in an interview. “It can be done, but it will take time.”
Reuters obtained an advance copy of the interview which will be published in the London-based magazine’s next issue.
“Badri tells MEED … that the producers’ cartel may switch to the euro within a decade to combat the dollar’s decline,” the magazine said without providing a direct quote about the time frame.
(snip)
Posted by: Alamet | Feb 11 2008 23:51 utc | 89
The assertion is not news to people here, but do see who is putting it forth this time:
The US and its allies want Lebanon to sink into quagmire
Beirut, 8 February – In talks with the news magazine Al Intiqad, reported by Al Manar, French former chief of DST (Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire) Yves Bonnet was surprisingly outspoked about Lebanese politics and the cause of the current crisis. Bonnet said that the USA, Saudi Arabia and Israel are all three engaged in a deep cooperation to get a permanent foot into Lebanon. Their cooperation, according to Bonnet, is being operated through “David Welch’s people, namely the head of the Progressive Socialist Party MP Walid Joumblatt, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, Future Movement chief Saad Hariri and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora”. Lending a Western voice to the deep concerns that are moving the entire opposition bloc and motivating its coherence, Bonnet explained that the US wants Lebanon to be turned into its staging ground from which to put pressure on Syria and Hezbollah.
In this context he accused the US of obstructing all efforts made by various Lebanese forces to form a government of national unity “because divisions in Lebanon serve Israel’s interests in the first place”. Bonnet also denounced the American determinataion to set military foot on Lebanon through the north of the country “and this is why the incident of Nahr el-Bared and the Fatah al-Islam problem took place”. Regarding the series of assassination that rocked Lebanon, Bonnet flatly ruled out the legend, fostered by the ruling bloc, about a Syrian responsibility, saying that the purpose of the assassinations is to maintain Lebanon in a state of crisis and nurture complications. Regarding the role of Hezbollah, he asserted its importance for the preservation and guarantee of the Lebanese Christian’s role in the country and beyond, in the wider Middle East.
The French security expert was less lenient with his own country’s foreign policy: describing France’s attitude towards the Lebanese issue, he said it was “pitiful”, due to the fact that former French President Jacques “Chirac did not differentiate between his pocket and France’s interests whereas President Nicholas Sarkozy is close to the Americans and his Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has his own beliefs which rule his conduct”, adding that Kouchner was among the very few in France who backed the US invasion of Iraq.
(Copied in full before it goes inaccessible.)
Posted by: Alamet | Feb 11 2008 23:56 utc | 90
Alamet,
Can there be any doubt that the U.S & allies model of middle east intervention is to create failed states – with only marginally functioning powerless central governments, with social conditions mired in civil strife. With the sole purpose of generating the demand for its military presence – as the sole arbitrator of security. Foreign policy by militant extortion. Unbelievable, were it not for the facts on the ground.
Posted by: anna missed | Feb 12 2008 1:14 utc | 91
***EVERYONE NOTE *****
We have spoken repeatedly of the State giving Halliburton contracts to build detention camps in xUS. For all the real nightmares of the Boyking Admin., I’d assumed this was more of his/Cheney’s initiatives. SUPRRISE — this was begun under beloved “Democrat” Wm. Jefferson Clinton:
…
Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees.
According to diplomat and author Peter Dale Scott, the KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of “all removable aliens” and “potential terrorists.”Rule by Fear or Rule by Law
The article goes on w/succinct list of laws passed by boyking that allow us to be arbitrarily rounded up etc. Handy pocket guide to Dictatorship. Interesting things about this article is that one of the authors is a retired Congressman & it appeared in a Major Daily Newspaper.
Michael Hudson, the economist we’ve linked to repeatedly, noted that these could be filled w/the homeless when the system crashes.
Posted by: jj | Feb 12 2008 2:34 utc | 92
(Copied in full before it goes inaccessible.)
thanks alamet, i tried the link and they wanted me to pay for it
. i read something this morning on roads to iraq “Something really bad is going to happen in Lebanon’, but the source document wasn’t in english and frankly i found it confusing.
….And I hope my speculations are wrong, but check out this billboard above put in Beirut’s streets, urging the [1 Million] people to participate in Hariri assassination memorial 14-Feb-‘o8 [next Thursday] it says:
“They cannot hijack our Lebanon from us”
Who are they??? Totally different language used in Hariri’s third memorial than in the same event in the previous years, in his last interview [yesterday] Sa’ad Al-Hariri also used a confrontation language saying:
“If confrontation is our destiny, then we stand ready”
Junblatt put it plain:
“If you want chaos, we welcome chaos. If you want war, we welcome one.”
[Rumors say that in his visit to Saudi Arabia few days ago, he received financial support to escalate the situation].
It was only few days ago when newspaper Manar reported about the secret American officials visits to the Middle East [read….American officials secretly visiting the Middle East] and sure it is something related to Syria, if anything planned to happened to give Syria the final knockdown, then it is going to happened next Thursday.
also, note new post @RTI SA created lebanese conflict
explained today the secret behind the hysteric escalation on war threats languages in the American-camp in Lebanon.
According to the newspaper the Saudi foreign minister “Saud Al-Faisal” secretly visited Damascus to negotiate the Lebanese situation but he was surprised by the Syrian answer saying they cannot bypass the Lebanese opposition demands.
Rumors are now, the Saudis are rallying to cancel or at least fail the coming Arab Summit hosted in Damascus. [and I think this going to happen next Thursday, the Lebanese is in reality a Syrian – Saudi Arabia conflict
anna missed #89, U.S & allies model of middle east intervention is to create failed states
jackpot!
Posted by: annie | Feb 12 2008 3:35 utc | 93
oh my, another ‘telegraphed’ AQ report.
Hospital boss arrested over al-Qaeda attack by human boobytraps
The acting director of a Baghdad psychiatric hospital has been arrested on suspicion of supplying al-Qaeda in Iraq with the mentally impaired women that it used to blow up two crowded animal markets in the city on February 1, killing about 100 people.
…….
An insight into the way al-Qaeda thinks came in a letter written by one of its leaders in Anbar province that the US military seized in November and released in part on Sunday. “It is possible to use doctors working in private hospitals and where the infidels/ apostates are treated who have serious conditions to be injected with [air bubbles] that will kill them,” it said.
didn’t the military just release an AQ diary? they are so lucky AQ writes this stuff down.
Posted by: annie | Feb 12 2008 3:57 utc | 94
jj- do you think that story (#90) connects up w/ that recent revealing of InfraGard?
upon reading rothschild’s article, my first thought was of the American Protective League (APL).
from david cunningham’s book there’s something happening here: the new left, the klan, and fbi counterintelligence,
Meanwhile, in 1917 the United States entered World War I, spurring the growing public concern with alien subversive forces and providing the impetus for a new, Bureau-led campaign to track down those suspected of failing to register for the draft. Enlisting the help of the American Protective League (APL), a volunteer organization of “loyal citizens” devoted to assisting with wartime work, the Bureau initiated a series of “slacker raids” to round up the young draft dodgers. APL membership quickly grew to 250,000 with chapters across the country, and — wearing badges proclaiming themselves an “Auxiliary to the U.S. Department of Justice” — members worked with police and Bureau agents in a series of raids in May 1918 to track down anyone not possessing a draft card. Fewer than 1 percent of the thousands arrested were actually in violation of the draft; many were too old, young, or sick to serve, and many others were registered but happened not to have their draft cards with them at the time. But this didn’t dissuade Bureau agents from repeating the raids four months later, with similar egregious results.
Despite such inefficiency and the questionable effect on constitutional rights, the raid soon became the Bureau’s tactic of choice to round up huge numbers of suspects in a short period of time. [pp. 16-7]
Posted by: b real | Feb 12 2008 3:59 utc | 95
No surprise here:
Ultra-rich lobby group with influence at No 10
Posted by: Rick | Feb 12 2008 7:09 utc | 96
b real, I’ll address that later. At the moment, I think i’ll have a rare drink to ponder the fact that they’ve already ordered the Railway Cars (to transport “potential terrorist”, peaceful demonstrators, etc. to the camps). While adding 20,000 more names per month to their Roundup Lists.
Posted by: jj | Feb 12 2008 7:55 utc | 97
What if anything do you kats think of this?…
Russia sees Iraqi oil deal revival in debt write-off
Someone calling themselves, ‘swift creek’ in b’s ‘Horserace watch’ thread mentioned that, “You would go mad trying to understand the US political system”… Hell, I believe they are half right, I propose, you would go mad trying to understand the worlds geo-politics…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 12 2008 9:49 utc | 98
Ahhh, nevermind, lol…I think I just found the answer to my conundrum above…
Russian bombers flew over US aircraft carrier: official
I just happened upon this seconds after posting # 98
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 12 2008 9:53 utc | 99
Paul Craig Roberts with pitch fork and torch in hand. I mean really, the U.S.(Gates no less) begging the French to bail them out of Iraq and Afghanistan. How long can Wiley E. Coyote spin his legs and remain aloft? It is after all only a matter of cognition catching up to reality that maintains the illusion of levitation – so what! the U.S. must be going for the cartoon record. Even the British weren’t that stupid.
Posted by: anna missed | Feb 12 2008 11:00 utc | 100