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February 6, 2008
OT 08-07
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that’s quite a doozy anna missed. here’s the latimes version of gates begging, NATO at twighlight
some choice segments of robert’s article you linked to
If the U.S. now needs foreign troops to save its bacon in these two lost wars, it should demand them from Israel. Israel is why the U.S. is at war in the Middle East. Let Israel supply the troops. The neocons who dominated the Bush regime and took America to illegal wars are allied with the extreme right-wing government of Israel. The goal of neoconservatism is to remove all obstacles to Israeli territorial expansion. The Zionist aim is to grab the entirely of the West Bank and southern Lebanon, with more to follow later.
Remember “mission accomplished”? Remember all the strutting neocons with their promises of a “cakewalk war”? Remember all the ignorant bragging about having “defeated the Taliban”? All of these lies were designed to tie American down in interminable wars in the Middle East for Israel’s benefit.
Posted by: annie | Feb 12 2008 14:50 utc | 101
This link to the Independent picked up at Cryptome will not surprise the MOA crowd,
but it is interesting to see what is in substance b’s analysis from a couple of years ago breaking into the “mainstream” media.
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Feb 12 2008 16:52 utc | 103
Palestinians say settlements cut the West Bank from East Jerusalem
Israeli housing minister Zeev Boim says tenders will soon be issued for construction of more than 1,000 new homes for Jews in East Jerusalem.
..He added that what had been portrayed as delays in construction in East Jerusalem “are in fact final stages of coordination” with the municipal authorities.
Mr Boim said there would be an additional 370 new residences in Har Homa, known as Jabal Abu Ghneim in Arabic, and that bids would be issued for 750 more in Pisgat Zeev.
“We condemn these Israeli declarations, and once again we ask the Israeli government to give peace a chance by stopping all settlement activity,” Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
Posted by: annie | Feb 12 2008 18:25 utc | 104
As was to expect – the Dems enable retroactive immunity for the telcos spying on you.
wow
australia says i’m sorry.
The day the nation apologised
Historic day for Australia as Kevin Rudd’s Government says sorry to the stolen generations.
Posted by: annie | Feb 12 2008 23:35 utc | 106
annie, I wouldm’t be so WOWed if I were you, this reeks of the vivacious ploy of classic Rovian meme-reversal.
In other words, these type things have become institutional and structural tools of crime cover up; acknowledge the abuse on one hand while simultaneously increasing the abuse on the other. It’s methodically meant to create cognitive dissonance. If I am correct, this is no apology as much as a reminder of who’s in charge. This is a strategic result and very useful by product of the psychological and ideological warfare apparatus’s of the global ‘full spectrum dominance’ trend.
It reinforces dominance by co-opting it, for example sorta like how our own government took control of the word, ‘organic’ and now uses it to label things ‘organic’ that never ever were to begin with, for instance naming toxic sludge as healthy. It’s prop-agenda.
Does that at all make sense?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 13 2008 0:56 utc | 107
Annie # 93,
A part of what Roads to Iraq is writing about is,
Political rhetoric fuels fears of new civil strife in Lebanon
(snip)
Two political heavyweights from the anti-Syrian majority, made up of Sunnis, Christians and Druze, have ratcheted up the rhetoric by saying they were ready for confrontation with the Iranian and Syrian-backed opposition.
“You want disorder? It will be welcomed. You want war? It will be welcomed. We have no problem with weapons, no problem with missiles. We will take them from you,” Druze leader Walid Jumblatt thundered on Sunday.
The head of the Future movement, Saad Hariri, a Sunni, said that if the country’s destiny was confrontation, they were ready.
This toughening of rhetoric amid an already delicate situation has translated into clashes on the streets of Beirut and its outskirts.
(snip)
Not related, but while we are on Lebanon, UNRWA say they are going to reconstruct Nahr el-Bared, and they sound as if they mean it.
Statement by the UNRWA Commissioner-General, Karen Koning AbuZayd on Nahr el-Bared camp Master Plan
It’s something to hope for…
Posted by: Alamet | Feb 13 2008 1:00 utc | 108
i’m with uncle
the apology comes too late & it is completely insincere
the destruction of aboriginal culture is as close to total as can exist
it is a nation of crooks cheats & liars as the great novelist xavier herbert sd in his ‘poor fellow my country’ – & i wouldn’t believe a word that comes out of their mouths – especially those of the political elite
the calumny australia has brough down on itself is as deserved as that of apartheid south africa
the point the elites in australia fear the most is that these mealy mouthed words take on a jurisprudential importance (which i hope it does – but would not count on it) & that reasonable claims on land & compensation will upset the profoundly apathetic australian applecart
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 13 2008 1:04 utc | 109
Rick # 96,
From your link,
Niall Fitzgerald, head of Unilever at the time, said the proposed tax would have made it “increasingly difficult to attract the best and brightest from around the world to work in the UK with consequent negative effects on the UK’s competitiveness and the UK’s attractiveness as a location for international companies”. The lobbying, allied with protests from other business groups, forced Brown to rethink. Within a few months, he had loosened the proposed cap on their pension pots so that more of their money would escape the tax net.
Lovely! So good to know they averted that crisis. Now that the ordinary British workers are going to have more time on their hands (courtesy of UK’s competitiveness, no doubt), maybe they can study the art of lobbying, too:
Britain ‘facing huge job losses’
TWO in every five employers plan redundancies over the next three months, according to an influential survey to be published tomorrow. It comes as two leading business groups warn of weak business confidence and a sharp slowdown in growth.
(snip)
Posted by: Alamet | Feb 13 2008 1:07 utc | 110
Uncle $cam, if you’re around…??? Re your #107 post. Fascinating, but new to me – would you elaborate/unpack/develop???
Posted by: jj | Feb 13 2008 2:02 utc | 111
Just to keep up with the latest from the Democrat-led US Congress…
Senate OKs Immunity for Telecoms
In full, sorry…
The Senate voted Tuesday to shield from lawsuits telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on their customers without court permission after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
After nearly two months of stops and starts, the Senate rejected by a vote of 31 to 67 a move to strip away a grant of retroactive legal immunity for the companies.
President Bush has promised to veto any new surveillance bill that does not protect the companies that helped the government in its warrantless wiretapping program, arguing that it is essential if the private sector is to give the government the help it needs.
About 40 lawsuits have been filed against telecom companies by people alleging violations of wiretapping and privacy laws.
The Senate also rejected two amendments that sought to water down the immunity provision.
One, co-sponsored by Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, would have substituted the government for the telecoms in lawsuits, allowing the court cases to go forward but shifting the cost and burden of defending the program.
The other, pushed by California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, would have given a secret court that oversees government surveillance inside the United States the power to dismiss lawsuits if it found that the companies acted in good faith and on the request of the president or attorney general.
Full telecom immunity must still be approved by the House; its version of the surveillance bill does not provide immunity.
At issue is the government’s post-9/11 Terrorist Surveillance Program, which circumvented a secret court created 30 years ago to oversee such activities. The court was part of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a law written in response to government abuse of its surveillance authority against Americans.
The surveillance law has been updated repeatedly since then, most recently last summer. Congress hastily adopted a FISA modification in August in the face of dire warnings from the White House that changes in telecommunications technology and FISA court rulings were dangerously constraining the government’s ability to intercept terrorist communications.
Shortly after its passage, privacy and civil liberties groups said the new law gave the government unprecedented authority to spy on Americans, particularly those who communicate with foreigners.
That law expires Feb. 15, the deadline against which the Senate is now racing to pass a new bill.
In a separate voice vote Tuesday, the Senate expanded the power of the court to oversee government eavesdropping on Americans. The amendment would give the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court the authority to monitor whether the government is complying with procedures designed to protect the privacy of innocent Americans whose telephone or computer communications are captured during surveillance of a foreign target.
The bill would also require FISA court orders to eavesdrop on Americans who are overseas. Under current law, the government can wiretap or search the possessions of anyone outside the United States_even a soldier serving overseas_ without court permission if it believes the person may be a foreign agent.
“You don’t lose your rights when you leave American soil,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in an interview. Wyden wrote the provision into the bill when it was still being considered by the Senate Intelligence Committee. “In the digital age, an American’s rights shouldn’t depend on their physical geography.”
The House approved its own update last fall. If the Senate passes its bill, differences between the two versions remain to be worked out, approved by both houses, and delivered to the president for his signature.
Posted by: Monolycus | Feb 13 2008 3:45 utc | 112
this goes w/ #79
garowe online: U.S. Navy missiles strike coastal town in Somalia
GAROWE, Somalia Feb 12 (Garowe Online) – U.S. Navy warships off of Somalia’s northeastern coast fired at least three missiles at locations inside the coastal town of Eyl, local sources reported Tuesday.
One of the missiles hit a part of the town’s small airstrip, with the other two missiles landing in the vicinity, a local elder told Garowe Online by telephone.
No one was hurt and there was no damage report.
Posted by: b real | Feb 13 2008 5:26 utc | 113
That law expires Feb. 15, the deadline against which the Senate is now racing to pass a new bill.
monolycus 112 House Republicans staged a walk-out
House Republicans staged a walk-out Thursday afternoon to protest Democratic plans to bring contempt charges against two Bush aides and speculation that the chamber’s majority members are planning not to bow to President Bush’s demands on a controversial spying law.
“We will not stand here and watch this floor be abused for pure political grandstanding at the expense of our national security. … Let’s just get up and leave,” Republican Leader John Boehner advised his colleagues as they dramatically left the floor Thursday afternoon.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer took the floor to rebut Boehner’s actions, chastising the Republicans for voting en mass against a measure to give the House more time to work on updating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. And he took aim at President Bush for trying to stoke national security fears to force quick action from the House.
“Every one of us wants to keep America and Americans safe,” he said, eliciting applause from Democrats remaining in the chamber. “Not one of us wants to subject America or Americans to danger. The president’s assertion is wrong.”
Hoyer noted that the House has only had since Tuesday night to consider the final surveillance law passed by the Senate, and he accused the president of creating a false sense of urgency to provoke quick action and preclude the full legislative process.
“It is somewhat ironic that on the one hand they say we ought to be doing something, and on the other hand they walk out to preclude us from doing our business,” Hoyer said after the GOP walkout.
Posted by: annie | Feb 14 2008 19:45 utc | 117
Lurch, the veteran who ran the Main and central blog is dead.
I’ll miss his knowledgable Iraq coverage and his snark. Damn.
Check is January archive.