White House: Computer hard drives tossed

WASHINGTON – Older White House computer hard drives have been destroyed, the White House disclosed to a federal court Friday in a controversy over millions of possibly missing e-mails from 2003 to 2005.
The White House revealed new information about how it handles its computers in an effort to persuade a federal magistrate it would be fruitless to undertake an e-mail recovery plan that the court proposed.
“When workstations are at the end of their lifecycle and retired … the hard drives are generally sent offsite to another government entity for physical destruction,” the White House said in a sworn declaration filed with U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 22 2008 13:04 utc | 4

Wall Qaeda’s Neo-American Halliban Holds All Americans Hostage
Threat: “Pay our engorged housing prices, or we’ll IAD your pension funds!!”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23729202/
By John W. Doe
Senior Retiree
AARP
updated 4:43 a.m. PT, Fri., March. 21, 2008
Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), head of a House Investigation Committee
delving into recent lending transactions by the Division of Mortgage Financial
Services Security, a Neo-ly created branch of Department of Homeland Security,
spoke at a press conference today, on a Global War of Terror here in the USA.
“Wall Qaeda terrorists are threatening the toilet paper value of American home
security with Individual Auction Devices. We must prevent this threat at all costs.
All costs!. Our committee recommended we negotiate with the Neo-Halliban,
and agree to their ransoms, in exchange for our retirement pension funds back.”
[All Congressmen have significant pensions and grossly engorged home valuations.]
“It’s a no-brainer,” Frank explained to reporters later. “Either Bush.Con will
create another Maktab al-Khadamat in the Department of Homeland Security, as the
Republicans are doing with their Division of Mortgage Financial Services Security,
and watch our future disappear down the IDIQNB rathole of Fed credit window bank
bailouts, throwing $T’s of good paper after bad like Alice in Wonderland, and with
it invoking Neo-DHS up-your-ass oversight of every real estate loan, refinance and
luxury item purchase, … or,” Frank paused, “Or, we capitulate now, nationalize
housing, admit America is Socialism for the Elites, and send our mortgage payments
directly to some privatized arm of DMFSS, some Carlyle Mortgage & Trust Services,
so that we can avoid explosive growth of Big Brother into every our every life and
breath, and so that we can hang onto our retirement pension funds, those who have them. Of course, this ends all jibber-jabber of a National Healthcare Program.”
He splayed his hands, imitating a bubble of hope bursting. “Poof! … Any questions?”
Frank gave no answers, as their were none. The Press adjourned in stunned silence,
trying to cipher how to spin a gang rape, into a tiptoe through the spring tulips,
as they digested the full impact of Frank’s disclosure.
A young Rolling Stone reporter were heard asking an old Popular Music pundit, “So I get the hostage:ransom thing, but hey .. dude .. What’s a pension?!”

Posted by: Stior Noirmin | Mar 22 2008 16:40 utc | 6

Mortgage Fraud Now a Felony
Washington State Slams Barn Door Shut
[FOR IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE]
[LEAD WITH]
Washington State Governor Christine Gregiore has signed a House law making
full disclosure of mortgage terms compulsory, and mortgage fraud, a felony.
Interstate-5 and -90, the main arterials through Washington State, were
crowded this afternoon with bank and mortgage lenders, fleeing the state.
Early spring snows have made their exodus hazardous. Towing services report
up to an hour’s wait for fleeing exstatriate’s to get hauled out of ditches.
In Washington DC, President George W. Bush refused to return any calls.
Paparazzi were able to photograph Bush through the Oval Office’s windows,
ripping stitches from the 45th star on the American Flag, (as an advisor
leaned close in to remind Bush he’d just removed the star for Utah), while
Secretary of State Condi Rice stood by, with a red phone call from Puerto
Rico, eager to take the place of the renegade breakaway Evergreen State.
[photo: Crowds in San Juan carry banners, “America es Muerto! Viva America!!”]
Ironically, blue-bloods in Washington State’s San Juan Islands were more
concerned today about a looming end to State subsidies for ferry and bridge
travel from their chi-chi island estates, back to the mainland hoi-paloi,
whose own home values are now surely destined to plunge by -25% to -50%.
[EVENING NEWS ROLLUP TO FOLLOW]

Posted by: Foster Grant | Mar 22 2008 17:26 utc | 8

pour Uncle $cam et al in de spiritus sancti de la weekend
i once had a major hand in a sarbox process that was adopted on the first iteration, subsequently undermined by management at every opportunity and roundly dismissed by auditors upon first inspection
it is make-work giving the appearance of compliance with fiscal responsibility, considering that the same corporate deference to authority applies to the company oaficers granting them access and the means to report any numbers they see fit

Posted by: jcairo | Mar 22 2008 23:06 utc | 10

robert parry: Obama’s Passportgate: Historical Echo

Five presidential elections ago, when another George Bush was in the White House and when Bill Clinton was the Democratic nominee, State Department officials conducted an improper search of Clinton’s passport files, an echo of the current case in which Barack Obama’s passport files were penetrated three times this year.
…
In 1992, the evidence revealed that representatives of George H.W. Bush, then fighting for a second term, pulled strings at the State Department and at U.S. embassies in Europe to uncover and disseminate derogatory information about Bill Clinton’s loyalty and his student trips to the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia.
That assault on Clinton’s patriotism moved into high gear on the night of Sept. 30, 1992, when Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Tamposi – under pressure from the White House – ordered three aides to pore through Clinton’s passport files in search of a purported letter in which Clinton supposedly sought to renounce his citizenship.
…
The disclosure that three State Department contractors accessed Obama’s passport files on Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and March 14 may not have the high-level political intrigue of the Clinton passport case, but the intrusion does have a troubling precedent.

Posted by: b real | Mar 23 2008 3:06 utc | 12

The Forever War just keeps on keeping on: It’s been five years, and the fog of war that settled over our nation has never really lifted. Public opinion has turned against the war without really turning toward peace. We’re still wandering around, lost in the fog, while the madness continues.

Posted by: Madison Guy | Mar 23 2008 3:16 utc | 14

which headline to believe?
ap: Somalia: Militants Glad to Be on U.S. List

Islamic militants in Somalia welcomed being added to the United States’ list of terrorist organizations, saying they wished only that the designation had come sooner. The State Department announced Tuesday that it added to its list the military wing of the Council of Islamic Courts, called Al Shabab, or the Youth, because it is affiliated with Al Qaeda, according to American officials. “We are happy that the U.S. put us on its list of terrorists, a name given to pure Muslims who are strong and clear in their religious position,” Sheik Muqtar Robow, Al Shabab’s spokesman, said.

that is a rewrite of an earlier version that the associated press put out on the 20th w/ the same headline, only it had some more content and more on one of the sentences that remained in the later versions.
specifically,

“We are happy that the U.S. put us on its list of terrorists, a name given to pure Muslims who are strong and clear in their religious position,” Sheik Muqtar Robow, al-Shabab’s spokesman, told The Associated Press by phone from an undisclosed location in Somalia.

it also quoted another somali

Earlier in the day [wednesday], Council of Islamic Courts leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys denied links between terrorists and al-Shabab and said the militants “are part of the coalition for the reliberation of Somalia.”
“The U.S. policy toward Somalia is always wrong and twisted,” Aweys said. “They made the wrong decision in 2006 when they backed the Ethiopian invasion, and they are wrong to designate part of the resistance as terrorists.”

now let’s look at a reuters article from saturday
reuters: Somali Islamists say US terror listing forges unity

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Islamist insurgents in Somalia say their inclusion on a U.S. terrorism list will help recruiting and has spurred them to strengthen ties with other groups blacklisted by Washington.
“We were not terrorists,” rebel commander Mukhtar Ali Robow told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
“But now we’ve been designated … we have been forced to seek out and unite with any Muslims on the list against the United States,” he said late on Thursday.
…
“We want to be very, very clear that this is not a designation against opposition groups,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States’ number two diplomat for Africa, told Reuters.
“Al Shabaab has tried to conflate the anti-Ethiopian agenda with their terrorism agenda and it’s very dangerous,” she said.
“There are lots of people in Somalia who have a nationalist agenda … and I think people are not aware of just how strong the al Shabaab links with al Qaeda are.”
When the sharia courts group was in power in Mogadishu, Washington focused on another leader it says has al Qaeda ties.
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, now in exile in Eritrea, told Reuters the U.S. designation of al Shabaab was wrong.
“The Americans labelled me a terrorist and God knows that was a lie,” he said. “I didn’t do anything to them … it’s the habit of Americans who found themselves rich and powerful and handed the leadership of their country to crazy people.”

curious that both wire services use the same exact phrasing when describing what sheik muqtar robow “told _____ by telephone from an undisclosed location”. it looks to me like they are both working off the same copy or template. what are the odds of such a coincidence? several other outlets picked the earlier version of the ap story w/ that sentence intact. one i saw changed it to “undisclosed site” rather than location, but the later is the term the original used.
i’d wager that it a sign of a propaganda op. after all, the articles quote both robow & aweys explicitly stating ‘we are not terrorists, that is incorrect’ yet the focus of the articles are then that they are “happy” about being labeled terrorists?
islam online has the more correct headline — Somali Fighters Reject Terror Label

MOGADISHU — Somali resistance fighters have bristled at the US designation of their group as a terrorist organization, vowing not to lay down their arms until the Ethiopian invaders withdraw from their homeland.
…
The Islamic Courts, which ruled Somalia for six months after routing a Washington-backed alliance of warlords, managed to briefly restore unprecedented order and stability on most of the Somali territories after more than 15 years of unrest.
But since their ouster, Somalia has descended into chaos with almost daily attacks against Ethiopian troops and government forces.
Somali experts have said that the Islamic Courts fighters have grown more powerful in recent months, regaining control of at least one-third of Somalia thanks to sophisticated attacks and unified ranks in the face of the weak government.

evidently, robow communicated w/ the bbc too, though it’s not disclosed how or from where

..ironically the fact that the US has repeatedly made statements linking al-Shabab with al-Qaeda may have made it more attractive to some of the foreign fighters.
A senior member of the al-Shabab, Sheikh Muktar Robow, told the BBC he welcomed the US decision.
“Al-Shabab feels honoured to be included on the list. We are good Muslims and the Americans are infidels. We are on the right path,” he said.
But he rejected the US’s accusations that members of the group are linked to al-Qaeda.
“We are fighting a jihad to rid Somalia of the Ethiopians and its allies, the secular Somali stooges,” he said.

earlier in the piece, the bbc article, for whatever purpose, misinforms their readers by pretending to point out a “pattern” in the insurgency

In the past few weeks, al-Shabab has attacked a number of strategic towns, including Dinsor in the south-west and Bur Hakaba, near the seat of parliament in Baidoa.
A pattern is emerging whereby the militia briefly occupy the town, often killing a number of people, then withdraw with arms, ammunition and military vehicles seized from Somali government and Ethiopian troops.

attacking a number of “strategic towns” whereby “often killing a number of people” is rather ambiguous. don’t they mean that the insurgency is taking out military bases/strongholds and killing (though mostly forcing out) those same soldiers whose ammo & equip they take? there have been assassinations of collaborators w/ the occupation & TFG, but those are not part of the “pattern” the bbc is looking for. since there are firefights in these attacks, civilians are indeed killed in the crossfire, but the way the article presents the “pattern” is a falsehood, most likely deliberate.

Posted by: b real | Mar 23 2008 4:40 utc | 16

U$,
I must admit that the completely humorless, deep-and-meaningful tone of the naarator added to my rather extreme sense of Schadenfreude at what happened to the Lady and the Lion. I generally do no not laugh at other people’s misfortunes unless they are self-inflicted.

Posted by: ralphieboy | Mar 23 2008 7:31 utc | 18

At last. Fisk writes about something he knows about.
So much for the flags in St Patrick’s Cathedral.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Mar 23 2008 13:25 utc | 20

cockburn on the empire’s lies

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Mar 23 2008 15:30 utc | 22

phooey

Posted by: beq | Mar 23 2008 17:43 utc | 24

Welcome to the Jungle: US Military Psychological Operations and You
I’d recommend, becoming familiar with the Smith-Mundt Act, as I have redundantly expressed, (prolly to the annoyance of many here) what they are doing is using computer algorithms and simulations to psychologically profile us individually, in order to, yes, control us. I know it sounds wacky, and beyond imaginable, as well as impossible. Never less, they are attempting it largely unbeknownst to the vast majority of folks; even highly informed folks here at MOA.
Here are a few very short notable podcast’s (interviews)of familiar radio host’s to ease you into her work:
Note these are direct links to audio mp3’s (you can copy and paste the address into your favorite media player)

http://www.heatherwokusch.com//interviews/Heather_Wokusch_on_Thom_Hartmann_Aug_07_48Kbs.mp3

or here’s the direct links:
Interview with Thom Hartmann on “Under the Radar” and “Welcome to the Jungle”

http://www.heatherwokusch.com//interviews/Heather_Wokusch_on_CollinsShow_3_2008.mp3

or direct link:
Interview with Peter B Collins on “The US Military’s Human-Testing Program Returns”
And here is her latest presentations via the youtube medium on :
he US Military’s Open air Human-Testing Program.
As she and other note, this info shouldn’t frighten you as much as make you aware of what they would do if given the opportunity and will.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 23 2008 20:57 utc | 26

Larisa Alexandrovna reports:

“Moscow(dpa) – The head of the state radio and television in the Russian autonomous Republic of Dagestan was shot dead on Friday in the capital Makhachkala, the Russia state prosecutor Yuri Chaika told the Interfax news agency on Friday.
The death of Gaji Abashilova marks the second murder of a journalist in Russia Friday.
Abashilova, who shot on the street in Makhachkala by assailants who fired from a car, according to the Interfax report, which added that Chaika would personally take over the investigation into the murder.
Earlier Friday, Russia state-television journalist Illyas Shurpayev (a native of Dagestan) was found strangled with a belt and stabbed in his burning apartment by firefighters.
Three days before his death, the news portal Caucasian Knot reported that Shurpayev had complained of being at the top of a blacklist of journalists who were no longer allowed to publish for a Dagestani newspaper.”

Two Russian Journalists Killed on the Same Day…Same Place…

Posted by: Copeland | Mar 24 2008 5:41 utc | 28

alot here already read counterpunch, i gather, but this article needs highlighting
The Coming War on Venezuela

Perhaps the most intriguing and frightening revelation in [golinger’s book] Bush Versus Chávez surrounds a 2001 NATO exercise carried out in Spain under the title “Plan Balboa.” Here we should bear in mind the open support provided by then Popular Party Prime Minister José Maria Aznar for the brief coup against Chávez. And while we might be struck by the irony of naming a NATO operation after the Spanish conquistador who invaded Panama, the name is far more accurate than we might initially believe.
Plan Balboa was, in fact, a mock invasion plan for taking over the oil-rich Zulia State in western Venezuela. In thinly veiled code-names (whose coded nature is undermined by the satellite imagery showing the nations involved), it entailed a “Blue” country (the U.S.) launching an invasion of the “Black” zone (Zulia) of a “Brown” country (Venezuela), from a large base in a “Cyan” country (Howard Air Force Base, in Panama) with the support of an allied “White” country (Colombia) (95-98). The fact that a trial-run invasion was carried out less than 11 months before the 2002 coup against Chávez should further convince us that this was mere contingency planning. [emphasis in original]
But Plan Balboa would be only the beginning…
…
Furthermore, the revelations gleaned from the FARC’s magic laptop, which allegedly implicate Chávez himself in funding the FARC (a charge which Colombia, not coincidentally, eventually decided not to pursue), are also drawn straight from the playbook of Plan Balboa, which was premised upon the threat posed by an alliance between the radical sectors of the “Brown” and “White” countries. The U.S. seems to be preparing to put that plan into motion with its recent legal gestures toward declaring Venezuela a supporter of terrorism, and given recent evidence of a massive influx of Colombian paramilitaries into the “Black Zone” of western Venezuela, the danger that Plan Balboa might become a reality should not be underestimated.

Posted by: b real | Mar 24 2008 18:41 utc | 30

I bet the Egyptian public will be quite upset about this:
US Navy confirms Suez Canal shooting

An American cargo ship under contract to the U.S. Navy opened fire on a small Egyptian boat while moving through the Suez Canal, the U.S. military said Tuesday in a statement. Egyptian authorities said at least one man was killed, but the U.S. said it had no reports of casualties.
…
“The boats were hailed and warned by a native Arabic speaker using a bullhorn to warn them to turn away. A warning flare was then fired,” said a statement from the U.S. embassy in Cairo. “One small boat continued to approach the ship and received two sets of warning shots 20-30 yards in front of the bow.”
The statement added that “All shots were accounted for as they entered the water.” It also said that “initial reports indicate that no casualties were sustained on either vessel.”
An Egyptian security official at the canal, however, said that after the warning shots, a man was shot dead in the small boat and that the three other men with him were wounded.
…

Yeah – all shots were “accounted for” …
The ship looked civilian, the men in the boat wanted to sell cigarettes as they do to any non-militray vessel in the canal.

Posted by: b | Mar 25 2008 14:33 utc | 32

Rebel Blues in the Sahara: A Desert Guitar Primer

The world as we know it today would be quite different without Kel Tamashek, better known to the world at large as the Tuareg. It was they who facilitated the trans-Saharan caravan routes that kept the Arab and Berber traders of Africa’s Mediterranean coast in contact with the cities and empires of Sub-Saharan Africa, and this had a huge effect on the distribution of wealth in the world before the age of European dominance. (For many centuries, it also abetted an appalling slave trade.) But for all their centuries of mastering the Sahara in all its harshness and scarcity, today the Kel Tamashek are forced to navigate a post-colonial international system that frowns on nomads. Their homeland is split among Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Libya, and Algeria, and while it could be argued that the borders are simply lines on a map drawn at random by the French (that’s essentially the case, after all), those lines are still enforced by militaries and customs outposts.
The political realities of the last 100 years, from the colonialism to the post-colonial carve-up of Africa, have forced changes to Kel Tamashek culture and daily life, sparking a longing amongst the people for a homeland to call their own. Over the past century, theirs has been a history of rebellion, first against French invaders, and later against the governments those invaders left behind. If there is anything that can give a voice to rebellion and the collective longing of a people, it is music, and the past few years have seen profusion of desert guitar bands who together have created that voice through powerful songs and hypnotic rhythms.

Posted by: b real | Mar 25 2008 18:22 utc | 34

Grounded at the airport? Apparently, you have no rights, because you are commerce, not, according to the court, people.

Posted by: citizen | Mar 26 2008 3:33 utc | 36

I think this article should be passed along and read.
Euphemism and American Violence

Posted by: ww | Mar 26 2008 8:10 utc | 38

Condi Rice and John McCain – makes sense when Obama is the other side:
Condi Rice Flirts With VP Possibility — Speaks to Grover Norquist’s Wednesday Group Meeting

As one major Republican operative told me yesterday:
Someone like Condi Rice doesn’t go to Grover Norquist’s den to talk about the Annapolis Middle East peace process. She’s going to secure her future in Republican politics and to position herself as a ‘potential’ VP candidate on the McCain ticket.

Posted by: b | Mar 26 2008 16:54 utc | 40

robert dreyfuss on john mccain the neocon on wednesday’s democracynow
A Century in Iraq, Replacing UN with “League of Democracies,” Rogue State Rollback? A Look at John McCain’s Foreign Policy Vision

AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. You cite Brookings Institution analyst Ivo Daalder as saying, quote, “If you thought George Bush was bad when it comes to the use of military force, wait ’til you see John McCain.” Can you explain?
ROBERT DREYFUSS: Well, what I did in putting this piece together was look at McCain’s own writing and speeches, his article in Foreign Affairs, and I spoke to a number of his advisers, including Randy Scheunemann, who is his chief foreign policy strategist. I spoke to John Bolton. I spoke to Jim Woolsey. I spoke to a number of people who are neoconservative in thought who have now clustered around the McCain campaign and see his effort to become president as a way for them—that is, for the neoconservatives—to return to the position of power they had in the first Bush administration from 2001 to 2005.
McCain has an instinctive preference for using military power to solve problems overseas. And when you couple that with a kind of hotheaded temperament, with a kind of arrogance and really a tendency to fly off the handle, I think we have a lot to fear…
…
AMY GOODMAN: And the others in the neocon circle, the advisers, like, for example, Bill Kristol, like Max Boot, tell us about their involvement.
ROBERT DREYFUSS: You know, it’s very interesting, Amy. If you look at the list of people who say they’re advising the McCain camp, you find a broad range of people. You find people like Henry Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft, Larry Eagleburger. These are the traditional kind of Nixon-era realists, many of whom certainly wouldn’t be considered liberals, but who certainly are realists. But when you look at McCain’s positions, his views on things, you don’t find any of the influence of people like Eagleburger and Scowcroft.
What you see instead is that the rest of McCain’s advisers, and you named several of them—James Woolsey, the former CIA director, who has been traveling and campaigning with McCain and who I interviewed for this piece; Bill Kristol, who’s very close to McCain for probably a decade and has been kind of an angel sitting on his shoulder and whispering in his ear all that time; people like Scheunemann; people like Max Boot; Ralph Peters; there’s a long list of people who have joined the McCain advisory team—and it’s these people whom McCain listens to when it comes to foreign policy. He certainly hasn’t expressed anything in any foreign policy area that you would identify with the Republican realist camp. He’s much closer to the neocons.
And he seems to be, as I said earlier, the true neocon himself, someone who, after early in his career in the ’80s being kind of suspicious about some foreign interventions that happened at that time, at the end of the Cold War, when the Soviet Union collapsed, McCain seemed to have felt unburdened, like now American power can express itself. And that’s when he attached himself to the neoconservative vision that America, as the sole superpower, could throw its weight around, could remake the world in its own image and that there would be no effective opposition to it.

of what i’ve read of his over the years, dreyfuss’ sources are usually from the realist camp & he helps to advance their messages, however i don’t find much to differ w/ on his take on mccain.
another thing he mentioned in today’s interview

And if you look at his broad policies that he’s outlined, he has suggested point blank that we’re in a long-term, almost unending struggle with al-Qaeda and various other forms of Islamism. And as a result, he wants to create a whole new set of institutions to deal with those. One of those institutions would be what he calls the League of Democracies, which is basically a way of short-circuiting the UN, where Russia and China, in particular, but also various non-aligned countries often stand up to the United States.
Also, he wants to create a new much more aggressive covert operations team. He says he wants to model it on the old Office of Strategic Services, the World War II era OSS, and to create this out of the CIA but include into it psychological warfare specialists, covert operations people, people who specialize in advertising and propaganda, and a whole bunch of other kind of—a wide range of these kind of covert operators, who would then form a new agency that would be designed to fight the war on terrorism overseas and to deal with rogue states and other troubling actors that we—or McCain decides he happens not to like at that moment.

dreyfuss’ article in the nation
Hothead McCain

If McCain intends to be a shoot first, ask questions later President, consider a couple of the new institutions he’s outlined, which seem designed to facilitate an unencumbered, interventionist foreign policy.
First is an unnamed “new agency patterned after the…Office of Strategic Services,” the rambunctious, often out-of-control World War II-era covert-ops team. “A modern day OSS could draw together specialists in unconventional warfare; covert action operators; and experts in anthropology, advertising, and other relevant disciplines,” wrote McCain in Foreign Affairs. “Like the original OSS, this would be a small, nimble, can-do organization” that would “fight terrorist subversion [and] take risks.” It’s clear that McCain wants to set up an agency to conduct paramilitary operations, covert action and psy-ops.
This idea is McCain’s response to a longstanding critique of the CIA by neoconservatives such as Richard Perle, who have accused the agency of being “risk averse.” Since 2001 the CIA has engaged in a bitter battle with the White House and the Pentagon on issues that include the Iraq War and Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The agency lost a major skirmish with the creation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which put the White House more directly in charge of the intelligence community. And now McCain wants to put the final nail in the CIA’s coffin by creating a gung-ho operations force. Scheunemann, who credits Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations with the idea, says the new agency is urgently needed to “meet the threats of the twenty-first century in a time of war, much as the OSS was created in a time of war.” And he disparages the CIA as a bunch of has-beens. The new agency would eclipse “an organization created to meet the needs of the cold war and hang out in embassies and try to recruit a major or two or deal with walk-in defectors,” Scheunemann told The Nation.

a policy of “rollback” is straight outta the neocon playbook from the reagan years. what next? IRI w/ guns?

Posted by: b real | Mar 26 2008 16:58 utc | 42

re Gaianne #15

What happens next may not be clear–as there are huge conflicting forces (fascism vs. collapse)–but restoration of national democracy, or even law, seems not to be in the cards. Yes, but fascism will only be “vs collapse” as Gore/Obama are likely to be vs Son-of-Caine/Rice. (Biggest tag team matchup since Atlantis, decided at inland conventions this year.)
All not under water will be under martial law, after a cleansing period of prepared “governmental incompetence.”

Posted by: plushtown | Mar 26 2008 17:15 utc | 44

Bush Administration Seeks Libya Waiver

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration is asking Congress to exempt Libya from a law allowing terrorism victims to seize the U.S. assets of state sponsors of the attacks.
The law was part of a defense policy bill that President Bush signed in January.
The bill’s passage had been held up over Bush’s objections to the provision letting victims of state-sponsored terrorism sue responsible foreign governments and collect judgments by seizing their assets in the United States. Bush was concerned the provision would be applied to Iraq, so Democrats gave ground by giving the president permission to waive it for that country. He did so immediately upon signing the legislation.
Now, the administration has asked lawmakers to quickly grant Bush waiver authority for Libya.
Gordon Johndroe, Bush’s national security spokesman, said the seizing of assets provision in the law could discourage nations like Libya that have renounced the export of terrorism from now helping the United States to fight terrorism. There is potential for billions of dollars in investment by U.S. companies in Libya’s oil sector, as well as in other areas, meaning Libyan assets increasingly could wind up on American soil.

Posted by: b real | Mar 26 2008 19:29 utc | 46

islam online: Somali Courts Seize Strategic Towns

MOGADISHU — Fighters of the ousted Supreme Islamic Courts of Somalia (SICS) captured on Wednesday, March 26, two strategic towns from the West-backed interim government, the latest of several towns seized in recent months.
“We woke up to the sound of gunfire,” one eyewitness in the strategic southern town of Jowhar told IslamOnline.net.
“The Islamic Courts fighters then entered our city and the government troops fled to nearby areas.”
At least four government soldiers and two civilians were killed in the clashes.
“The fighting lasted for nearly 40 minutes before the government soldiers took to their heels,” said resident Abdi Ali Othman.
He added that SICS fighters released all prisoners held in the town’s jail and seized government vehicles and offices.
The SICS confirmed earlier Wednesday its fighters have taken control of Jowhar to show the interim government and Ethiopian troops they can strike at anytime.
Jowhar served as a temporary base for the interim government in 2005.
…
A few hours after controlling the city, SICS fighters declared the seizure of the strategic town of Mahadai to the north.
“They took the town without much of a fight,” said one eyewitness.
Experts believe the fall of Jowhar and Mahadai reflects a growing public dissatisfaction with the interim government and its unwelcomed Ethiopian allies.
“Residents are being alienated by the actions of the government troops in their towns,” Salad Abdulah, a former army colonel, told IOL.
“They accuse government soldiers of looting their homes and properties.”
The recent months have seen a strong comeback for the Islamic Courts.
SICS fighters had seized four smaller towns and a military checkpoint near Mogadishu earlier this month.

Posted by: b real | Mar 27 2008 3:59 utc | 48

Big NYT story: Supplier Under Scrutiny on Aging Arms for Afghans

Since 2006, when the insurgency in Afghanistan sharply intensified, the Afghan government has been dependent on American logistics and military support in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
But to arm the Afghan forces that it hopes will lead this fight, the American military has relied since early last year on a fledgling company led by a 22-year-old man whose vice president was a licensed masseur.
With the award last January of a federal contract worth as much as nearly $300 million, the company, AEY Inc., which operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, became the main supplier of munitions to Afghanistan’s army and police forces.
Since then, the company has provided ammunition that is more than 40 years old and in decomposing packaging, according to an examination of the munitions by The New York Times and interviews with American and Afghan officials
…
Public records show that AEY’s contracts since 2004 have potentially been worth more than a third of a billion dollars. Mr. Diveroli set the value higher: he claimed to do $200 million in business each year.

Posted by: b | Mar 27 2008 6:50 utc | 50

To B @ 50: Where is Victor Bout when you really need him (and why does he
seem so relaxed, almost smiling, in the photos taken after his arrest in Thailand)? Maybe it has to do with the Thai legal system:

Gen. Adisorn said Mr. Bout could face up to 10 years in prison or a maximum fine of Bt200,000 (US$6,250) in Thailand if he was found guilty on charges of procuring weapons for terrorists.

Yet, extradition to the U.S. is said to be possible after the Thai trial. Moreover, the fact that the sting (if indeed there was such an operation) is attributed to the DEA is also striking, in view of the often prickly relations between DEA and intelligence services. Furthermore, the nominal involvement of FARC at a moment when the latter group is at the center of obscure maneuvers by the U.S. government seems providential.
All in all, the story of the incompetent arms trafficker and Bout’s arrest both seem to be stories where one has the sensation that some major pieces of the puzzle are missing.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Mar 27 2008 11:26 utc | 52

sudan tribune: Bush informs Congress of immunity for US forces in Darfur

March 27, 2008 (WASHINGTON) — US President George W. Bush submitted a certification to congress today on the immunity of US forces serving as part of the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) from prosecution.
Bush asked the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a memorandum issued today to transmit the certification to the US Congress and publish it in the Federal Register.
This is the first time the US administration spoke publicly about the existence of US army members working as part of the UNAMID.
UN Security Council adopted resolution 1769 on July 31st which authorized a hybrid UN-AU force (UNAMID) consisting of 26,000 troops and police but so far it only has only 9,000 personnel.
The Sudanese government has insisted that all forces come from Africa and its president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir said he will not accept any “westerners” as part of UNAMID. Norway and Sweden were forced to withdraw their offer for an engineering unit as a result of stiff resistance from Khartoum.
The immunity of US armed forces in the memorandum is derived from resolution 1593 referring the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March 2005.
The US administration at the time fiercely resisted the referral of Darfur war crimes to ICC and threatened to veto any resolution pushing for that. Washington instead proposed a special tribunal but members of the European bloc turned down the proposal.
After intense negotiations members of the UN Security Council convinced Washington to drop its objection in return for incorporating a clause in the resolution protecting US nationals from the jurisdiction of the ICC.
The Bush administration Monday renounced its obligations as a signatory to the Rome Statute which forms the basis to the ICC in May 2002 on the grounds that it can be used for politically motivated prosecutions of U.S. troops stationed overseas.

from the wh memorandum

Consistent with section 2005 of the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act (Public Law 107-206; 22 U.S.C. 7421 et seq.), concerning the participation of members of the Armed Forces of the United States in certain United Nations peacekeeping and peace enforcement operations, I hereby certify that members of the U.S. Armed Forces participating in the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) are without risk of criminal prosecution or other assertion of jurisdiction by the International Criminal Court (ICC) because the United Nations Security Council has permanently exempted members of the U.S. Armed Forces participating in UNAMID from criminal prosecution or other assertion of jurisdiction by the ICC for actions undertaken by them in connection with UNAMID by deciding, in Resolution 1593 (2005), that “personnel from a contributing state outside Sudan which is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of that contributing State for all alleged acts or omissions arising out of or related to operations in Sudan established or authorized by the Council or the African Union, unless such exclusive jurisdiction has been expressly waived by that contributing State.”

Posted by: b real | Mar 28 2008 4:45 utc | 54

Hi Hannah – wrote to Laura about that Amir Farshad Ebrahimi a few minutes ago.
First issue:
The guy isn’t German, hasn’t a German passport. The passport number given is not a German passport number (9 digits, all numerical). All German sources refer to him as Iranian.
Second issue:
Check his wiki entry

He got a bachelor of Fine Arts in 1997 with a cinema major. He was the media attaché of the Iranian embassy in Beirut, Lebanon from 1997 to 1998. After coming back from Lebanon, he went to the law school and got his Master Degree in International Law from Tehran University in 2002. He is currently a Doctoral student in the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey majoring in human rights.

A disgruntelt member of the Iranian elite, pepped up by “exiles”. The Turks seem to have reason to connect him to the FBI. If the Turks think he has done something wrong they are right to extradite him to Iran.
Don’t know where that “bulletin” comes from – some “exiles”? MEK?

Posted by: b | Mar 28 2008 8:23 utc | 56

Somalia

The takeover of Jowhar, about 55 miles north of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, was the most recent in a series of advances by a radical Islamist faction of a broader insurgency against the transitional government and the Ethiopian military that installed it more than a year ago.
…
Somalia’s national army, which began last year with about 20,000 troops, has dwindled to about 2,000, many of whom spend much of their time looting the homes and businesses of ordinary Somalis.
Soldiers who have not been paid in months are deserting, weapons in hand, and returning to their clans or joining the insurgency.
…
Pentagon and State Department officials are debating whether to shift U.S. support from the transitional government to the relatively stable region of Somaliland, which declared independence from Somalia in 1991 but has yet to receive international recognition.
In recent weeks, the State Department dispatched a team of contractors to Somaliland to explore the idea of establishing a military presence at an old airstrip there, according to members of the team interviewed in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. Somaliland’s government, eager for recognition, welcomed the possibility.
“If the U.S. wishes to have a military presence in Somaliland territory, we will welcome them and accept them,” said Somaliland President Dahir Rayale Kahin. “There are discussions, and we agreed to work together toward mutual ends. But things have not materialized so far.”
…
A peace activist who shares a name with the Somali president, Abdullahi Yusuf, said international support for the transitional government — and, by extension, the Ethiopian troops backing it — is making the situation worse.
“The occupation is coming not only from Ethiopia but from the international superpowers, and that is making everything difficult,” he said from Mogadishu. “The solutions are difficult, and the problems are increasing day by day. Everything is getting worse.”

Posted by: b | Mar 28 2008 13:44 utc | 58

@48 – that wapo article states

The United States this month conducted its fourth airstrike inside Somalia aimed at al-Qaeda associates whom U.S. intelligence officials blame for the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
The strikes have failed to hit any of their intended targets, however, and have increased resentment toward the United States among Somalia’s moderate Muslims.

should have stated “suspected al-Qaeda asssociates” and those strikes, even though they may “have failed to hit any of their intended targets”, resulted in death & destruction. the paper should have pointed that out to be fair about it.
from today’s news
afp: US drone crashes south of Mogadishu

MOGADISHU (AFP) – A US military drone crashed in a Somali coastal area south of Mogadishu Friday, a local government official and witnesses told AFP.
“It’s a small unmanned American plane. It’s small and can be carried by three people,” said Mohamed Mohamoud Helmi, the government official in charge of security in the town of Merka.
“The object, a small plane, is now in the hands of the police forces. It fell near the coastal area of Agaren,” said Osman Hassan Hussein, Merka’s police chief.
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
…
“It was flying from the direction of the ocean and it crashed in an area where children were playing football,” said Helmi.
“It doesn’t appear to be damaged and we are ready to hand it back to anyone who claims ownership,” he added.
Several witnesses told AFP the drone was found early Friday.
“I saw the small plane, it’s about one metre and a half (five feet),” local president Mohamed Saddam said. “It has cameras on it and things like computer components.”

shabelle’s coverage didn’t mention anything about wanting to hand it back to whomever claimed it
US plane crashes in Somalia

A suspected American Infiltrator hydroplane has crashed in Lower Shabelle region south of Somalia on Friday-witnesses said.
The plane has fallen into the earth in Agaran area 3km north of Marka town the provincial capital of lower Shabelle region.
Its unknown whether the plane was shot down or it had Human faults that caused it to crash into the region.
The plane was measured as height 1.72Cm with camera plus military data line phones.
Some eye witnesses confirmed Shabelle that no Human was aboard that plane nevertheless this aircrafts was one of US warplanes has been flying over an areas of Lower Shabelle region for the last weeks.
Hundreds of people have suddenly stormed at the site the plane crashed also some the region’s officials have reached there to investigate the incident.

the picture shabelle ran in that article is obviously not correct

Posted by: b real | Mar 28 2008 18:57 utc | 60

wm. arkin’s column friday
Fighting the War on Terror in the Caribbean and Central America

Here’s an odd news story that puts meat on the bones of the phrase “global war on terror”: The United States is fighting that war in the Caribbean and Central America.
My assumption was that “Operation Enduring Freedom — Caribbean and Central America,” a formal military operation I’d never heard of before yesterday, is oriented toward Cuba and Venezuela. But it is not. The U.S. military is indeed engaged in a global war, and the terrorist threat, at least in the eyes of the counter-terror warriors, extends to our backyard.
I don’t know whether the actual threat necessitates such an “operation,” but its bureaucratic existence says a lot about our overreliance on the military and the belief of many in government that the GWOT is a real war, equivalent to the Cold War, and is one that the United States should and will be fighting for decades.
The Rhode Island media this week was filled with the news that a unit of the state’s National Guard, an organization called Special Operations Detachment — Global (SOD-G), is deploying this week in support of something called Operation Enduring Freedom — Caribbean and Central America.
Working for U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), SOD-G is moving to an airbase in Homestead, Fla., where it will take up contingency counter-terrorism planning responsibilities for the region, seeking to characterize how al Qaeda and other terrorists might exploit drug trafficking routes and patterns or other gaps in American defense to infiltrate into the United States.
…
The 36-man detachment, according to a senior military officer, who asked for anonymity based upon the sensitive nature of special operations, is deploying to help prepare the plan for Southern Command to fight al Qaeda, Hezbollah and other international organizations that are thought to be present in small numbers.
…
Is this for real? Or is this just a bureaucratic invention to extend the GWOT to every nook and cranny of the globe?

the latter, definitely, w/ a side order of cheney’s one-percent doctrine smothered in paranoic hysteria mandate

Posted by: b real | Mar 29 2008 4:56 utc | 62

not seeing any more reports on the u.s. drone that went down in southern somalia outside of what i already posted in #60. a reuters article on somalia does mention it but then in the context of a propaganda op from the folks at the SITE institute — the same people who brought us that UBL video last sept before AQ even released it — to help sell the pretext for the u.s. being there:

A Somali jihadist group calling itself the Young Mujahideen Movement issued a Web message on Friday referring to a U.S. spy plane that “fell in the city of Merka” and threatening the United States, according to the SITE Institute, a U.S.-based monitoring service.
“We are preparing for America … what will make them forget the blessed attacks in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam,” the SITE Institute translation, monitored in London, said. It said the message was distributed by the Global Islamic Media Front.

gettlemen has another awful attempt at reportage up at the NYT, finally taking notice that Somalia’s Government Teeters on Collapse – something it’s been doing ever since it was created in kenya, actually – which i’m really only drawing attention to for the following ‘graf

Government officials say much of the resistance is simply spoilers who are deeply invested in the status quo of chaos, like gun runners, counterfeiters and importers of expired baby formula.[lol!]
But some of the men believed to be the biggest spoilers are part of the government. To get clan support and — just as crucially — more militiamen, transitional leaders have cut deals with warlords like Mohammed Dheere, now Mogadishu’s mayor, and Abdi Qeybdid, now the police chief. These are the same men whom the C.I.A. paid in 2006 to fight the Islamists, a strategy that backfired because the population turned against them, mostly because of their legacy of terrorizing civilians.

“cut deals with”
“now the”
those are more weasel words though, as the TFG itself is comprised of warlords — temp prez yusuf is a former warlord — and both dheere & qeybdid have been in their current positions since the TFG moved into mogadishu earlier in 2007, a story which i covered here. glad to see the NYT is on the ball 😉 otherwise, the article is pretty worthless outside of limiting the reader’s understanding of the real story in somalia.
for instance, gettleman writes:

By its own admission, the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia is on life support. When it took power here in the capital 15 months ago, backed by thousands of Ethiopian troops, it was widely hailed as the best chance in years to end Somalia’s ceaseless cycles of war and suffering.
…
The Islamists have been gaining recruits, overrunning towns and becoming bolder. The new prime minister, credited as the government’s best — and possibly last — hope, is reaching out to them, and some are receptive. But it is unclear whether he has the power within his own divided government to strike a meaningful peace deal before it is too late.
The looming failure is making many people here and abroad question the strategy of installing the transitional government by force. In December 2006, Ethiopian troops, aided by American intelligence, ousted the Islamist administration that briefly controlled Mogadishu, bringing the transitional government to the city for the first time.
The Bush administration said it was concerned about terrorists using Somalia as a sanctuary. The hunt for them continued with a recent American cruise missile strike aimed at a suspect in southern Somalia, but it missed, and wounded several civilians and promptly incited protests.

most media reports, quoting local somali officials, put the casualties at 4-6 persons dead w/ a number of others wounded.
two human rights watch staffers also write only of the wounded in an los angeles times op-ed on friday, but, despite their fence-sitting stance on the legitimacy of state/int’l violence, at least they don’t play along w/ the lie that the TFG ever had a chance at establishing rule
Off-target: When missile strikes at alleged terrorists go awry, U.S. policy takes a hit

Fifteen months ago, the Bush administration supported a full-scale Ethiopian military offensive that ousted the ruling Islamist authority from Mogadishu and installed a weak but internationally backed transitional government. The intervention triggered a predictable insurgency by both Islamist militants and ordinary Somalis, who view Ethiopia as a historic foe.
Ethiopian and Somali troops together are fighting against a coalition of insurgents demanding Ethiopian withdrawal. The escalating conflict has killed thousands of Somali civilians and forced up to 700,000 people — 60% of the residents of Mogadishu — to flee the city. Insurgents, Ethiopian troops and Somali government forces have each committed serious crimes — mutilating captured soldiers, bombarding residential blocks and hospitals, and systematically looting homes, respectively.
The result? An unsurprising growth in anti-Western and anti-American sentiment among Somalis who never supported radical Islamist movements before. Fifteen months after the Ethiopian invasion, insurgents are gaining strength in Mogadishu and other areas of the country, capitalizing on the anger and resentment caused by these atrocities. Credible reports indicate that Islamist recruitment of Somali youth is growing, a backlash that will complicate U.S. counter-terrorism goals long into the future.

look, “counter-terrorism” is still terrorism. if they really wanted to address the causes of what the normal, thinking individual would consider terrorism, then there would be anti-terrorism goals. iow, this is intentional – create more conditions for the long war to guarantee an pretext for a multiplicity of “national interests.” why is that not obvious to journo’s, poli’s, and professional human rights workers?

Posted by: b real | Mar 29 2008 6:43 utc | 64

Interesting, if true.
Russian Intelligence see US military buildup on Iranian Border

Posted by: ww | Mar 29 2008 17:23 utc | 66

ww
b would know better than i but novosti is relatively conservative news outlet – a russian reuters – so i son’t think it would be that far-fetched

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Mar 29 2008 19:20 utc | 68

novosti is relatively conservative news outlet – a russian reuters – so i son’t think it would be that far-fetched
I’ve seen them distributing unreliable news just as much as the quite biased Associated Press. They have an agenda as most national news agencies have. (AP-US, Reuters-UK, AFP-French, DPA-German, XINHUA-Chinese, Novosti-Russian, …) You have to read more than one to get reliable information …

Posted by: b | Mar 29 2008 19:45 utc | 70

the volunteer army ?

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Mar 29 2008 22:15 utc | 72

condolences Uncle $cam

Posted by: jcairo | Mar 31 2008 7:44 utc | 74

the pardoning of these petite french hoodlums is a scandal – so it’s o k maintenant to barter with little black babies – for the rich crackers of europe & the unityed states. they should have served their time in a chadian prison
as the anarchists say – police everywhere, justice nowhere

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Mar 31 2008 20:43 utc | 76

wondering again if typepad’s spam filter scrutinizes on ip address or additional criteria in addition to simply preventing more than x number of hyperlinks. i noticed that one comment in the recent music video thread contained 6 hyperlinks. i just submitted a comment w/ 5 and it was trapped by typepad. sure would be interesting to know what algorithm or filtering they actually do apply. it really hinders (beyond nuisance) to not be able to post a researched comment w/ more than 4 links in it.

Posted by: b real | Apr 1 2008 15:57 utc | 78

@ b real – I assume it was my comment with the 6 links. I got caught in the filter too. So I submitted a comment with one link and it came through. It was b who removed my 2nd comment and posted the first. Patience.

Posted by: beq | Apr 1 2008 17:00 utc | 80

thanks beq, i thought of that possibility too after i had posted. (enjoyed your selections too, btw!) maybe it is just a cutoff at 4 links then. if so, it’s an arbitrarily low threshold for this medium & works against its very purpose, not to mention creating more work for our gracious host.

Posted by: b real | Apr 1 2008 17:15 utc | 82

citizen – I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Cyborg Ethics”.
Heh. Don’t forget to pull the shades.

Posted by: beq | Apr 1 2008 17:25 utc | 84

Stop! Stop! Oh! Oh! I’m laughing to death. The torture…

Posted by: beq | Apr 1 2008 17:41 utc | 86

I agree, have mentioned it to b, only to be ignored, so I gave up…
Sorry Uncle – I didn’t ignore you. It is just like I said before – I can’t change the way the filter works or inable it.
Just released b real comment from the spam trap – read it here.

Posted by: b | Apr 1 2008 18:16 utc | 88

sez beq (above)

Posted by: beq | Apr 1 2008 19:28 utc | 90

Good article, r’giap.
Some in DC might not be entirely disappointed with the course of recent events. Might have hoped for the destruction of the Mahdi Army, but maybe this will at least stop talk of reducing US forces – as McClatchy headline suggests.

That the Iraqi forces couldn’t defeat rogue fighters in Basra has some in Washington saying they can no longer predict when it might be possible to reduce the number of troops in Iraq to pre-surge levels.
… Britain announced Tuesday that it’s freezing plans to withdraw 1,500 of its 4,000 remaining troops from southern Iraq …

McClatchy suggests the direction that some are looking for explanations.

Questions remain about how much Bush and his top aides knew in advance about the offensive and whether they encouraged Maliki to confront radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr.
One senior U.S. military commander in Iraq said the Iraqi government originally told the United States about a longer-term plan to rid Basra of rogue elements. But Maliki changed the timing, and the nature of the Iraqi operation changed, he said.

Maliki certainly did not make changes on his own.

There’s no evidence, however, that the U.S. tried to dissuade Maliki from executing either plan.

In the larger sense, “this is a reminder that nothing has changed,” said a senior State Department official…
Will the hand be strengthened of those pushing for a diplomatic resolution with Iran and other neighbors?
Certainly Iran has registered the message that they can turn up and turn down the levels of violence quickly. And, as McClatchey goes on to mention, levels of violence in Iraq have risen already in areas (both Sunni and Shia) where US forces have recently been reduced. U.S. has used up forces and cannot continue at surge levels much longer.
cui bono?

Posted by: small coke | Apr 2 2008 0:13 utc | 92

cool video
Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of American Empire. Empire or Humanity?
has anyone been following the green zone exodus?

Posted by: annie | Apr 2 2008 8:35 utc | 94

mugabe is an old revolutionary transformed into a fool but Tsvangirai is yet another criminal in the service of the empire & its minions
the campaign of disinformation by the west & tsvangirai’s appropriation of the strategies of the latin american right is a sight to behold

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Apr 2 2008 13:06 utc | 96

professor john you white house psychopath

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Apr 2 2008 14:43 utc | 98

small coke tsvangirai is in the model of mobote & bokassa – he is a puppet. he is the kind of man that both fela & fema kuti have sung about over & over again – these corrupt kings welcome in the corridors of washington london & paris. loathsome

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Apr 2 2008 21:05 utc | 100