Obama announces his “National Security Working Group”
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
Senator David Boren, former Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Secretary of State Warren Christopher
Greg Craig, former director of the State Department Office of Policy Planning
Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig
Representative Lee Hamilton, former Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee
Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder
Dr. Tony Lake, former National Security Advisor
Senator Sam Nunn, former Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Secretary of Defense William Perry
Dr. Susan Rice, former Assistant Secretary of State
Representative Tim Roemer, 9/11 Commissioner
Jim Steinberg, former Deputy National Security Advisor
http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/working_group.php
anybody care to comment?

Posted by: charmicarmicat | Jun 21 2008 8:03 utc | 4

bothersome thought as of late — obama is the establishment’s choice of a “populist leader” who will eloquently convince the rabble to accept defeat (nonviolently) when mccain wins in november

Posted by: b real | Jun 21 2008 8:18 utc | 6

yeah b real, the straw that broke the camel’s back for me is when obama decided to back the FISA bill. He has shown his true colors that everyone else it seems already knew. I wanted to believe he was different and had planned to vote for him. No more.
Now I have to decide on which other candidate to support, mccain is out of the question and I am reluctanct to vote for barr. knowing mine will be a protest vote with very little chance of making any difference is of little consolation but I simply cannot condone obama’s choice.
what a gloomy future I see.
one thing that completely boggles my mind is the right’s embrace of a monarchy. I just can’t get my head around the hypocrisy.

Posted by: dan of steele | Jun 21 2008 11:24 utc | 8

CP, what puzzles me even more is why the UK continues to increase their footprint in Afghanistan. America has Bush, and that explains our insanity. What’s in it for them?
Over the last several years, Britain had maintained about 8,000 troops in Iraq compared to America’s 150,000. With the recent increase in Afghanistan, Britain now has 8,000 compared to America’s 32,000. Why are they so interested in getting killed in Afghanistan in Bush’s war? I can’t figure it out.

Posted by: Ensley | Jun 21 2008 13:13 utc | 10

I’m in the same place, Dan of Steele. I’m not sure what I’ll do in November, but Barr is a definite possibility.

Posted by: Maxcrat | Jun 21 2008 15:04 utc | 12

Thanks, hamburger. I agree with the pipeline cause. Yet I would say that Iraq has more oil to offer, yet the Brits didn’t really inject themselves there as wholeheartedly.
At present, I plan to vote for Bob Barr as a protest, unless Obama unequivocally firms up his antiwar and Constitutional rights positions. Then again, maybe we will end up with neither Obama nor McCain being chosen as their respective parties’ candidates. I don’t see how the first would happen, but the latter is not etched in stone; McCain is very unpopular with many Conservatives/Libertarians and Republicans in general. Just a couple weeks ago, Ron Paul took nearly 25% of the Republican vote in the Idaho primary, and even Romney, who wasn’t running any longer took about 10% from McCain. That McCain, the presumptive nominee, can’t do better than that within his own party is not at all promising for the national election. And his age may yet disqualify him (America doesn’t disqualify candidates on the basis of them being rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth lunatics, unfortunately).

Posted by: Ensley | Jun 21 2008 15:55 utc | 14

Was wondering, apparently idly now, in light of Obama.con’s Bilderberg right-flank pincer movement, what Obama could offer as an alternative to the $1T Future Warrior Trilogy takedown of the US economy, then came back to a speech he gave, probably a talking point in some Latter Day unionist enclave in Ohio, about infrastructure. Beating swords into cement mixers.
But we all know what happens with Fed infrastructure funding, you only have to look at Boston’s Big Dig, or Texas-Kansas’ NAFTA Super-Corridor. Our local boondoggle, an aging elevated freeway which responsible engineers felt could be reinforced and rehabilitated for a meager $80M, came back “Oh no!” BigDig engineering constructors howled! “Oh no!” It’ll cost anywhere from $2-$5B, , and we’re the engineering experts!! Oh, mayor had a blue-ribbon BigDig panel on his side alright, cleverly concealing aging municipal infrastructure problems of his own, behind a Grand BigDig Chunnel undergrounding of the entire freeway!! Wow!! What a visionary!!
Gradually it came to light the tunnel was just a way for the city to solve it’s own problems on the cheap. It had nothing to do with the freeway, except, perhaps, that Vulcan (Allen) wanted newly-minted land on top of the tunnel for a prime waterfront office campus, a real tight little Project for a New Vulcan Century, all paid for by the State, and ultimately, I suppose, by diverting interstate funds, or closing unmaintained rural roads. Some areas of our state are so unmaintained, the bridges won’t support trucks, and farmers are forced to detour for hours to get to market.
So rehabilitating old public infrastructure is out. Too corrupt.
What about new infrastructure?! An auspicious local port development authority plan to build a major truck-train transfer center, like they’re doing in enlightened EU, moving towards more efficient port services, would have brought thousands of jobs and $Ms of revenues, but with that, raising property values, increasing taxes, and besides the NIMBYs didn’t want it! Nevermind it’s a public infrastructure project, instead, the plan is abandoned now. NIMBYd and STUDYd to death. Now the State will have to buy the property from the PDA, so we’ll pay out taxes in any case, for idle land in perpetuity, for welfare ecology projects to grow swamp mint or buttercups.
Winnie the Pooh would be proud. Another development reverting back to weeds.
But then just as I’d given up on infrastructure, in an instant, our power went out! Not just ours, but the whole town’s! On a sunny Saturday, all the radio stations gone silent. All the gas station pumps gone idle. All the refrigerators at Costco, melting. The baker’s ovens, growing cold. The tire changers at Sears, tireless. All you could hear were birds chirping in the trees and bees buzzing. The power company phone message said they know, if you have a crisis, call 9/11. The battery powered wall clock slowly ticked around the dial. The TV gone black. The Internet … gone!!
Just a lazy summer Saturday, and we couldn’t even get the garage door open to go enjoy a bike ride! (metaphor!) Our neighbor started playing a guitar on his porch.
People were standing around in the street, laughing. Someone ran to get a frisbee.
Then it hit me like a bolt of … well, electricity! Enron!! Blackouts!! NY power grid failure!! If Obama really wanted to make a name for himself, he’d embrace an all-encompassing rural electric infrastructure project, not seen since the last Depression. Total rural re-electrification! Federal tax credits to those highly regulated, highly overseen private power companies, to start at one shining sea, and sweep across America to the other shore, creating millions of jobs, insuring that, if nothing else, if our country grinds to a halt over the credit collapse, at least baby’s in incubators won’t go cold, at least senior’s on life support won’t die, and at least, on a sunny Saturday, sports fans won’t miss their bowl games!
There’s nothing that will sober US up faster than a power outage, not even Iran.
National Electrification Rehabilitation Plan for America’s 21st Century Salvation
Can you feel me, AIPAC?!

Posted by: Charles Schultz | Jun 21 2008 18:09 utc | 16

“Don’t you wish you could drive the Beltway with the skill of a counterterrorist operative?”
$1200 for 1 day (a fun way to use gas!)

Posted by: Henry | Jun 21 2008 21:08 utc | 18

Midsummer Open THREAT??!!
(from a NGO friend in Africa, regarding international aid theory in general)
Africa is not your local ZOO
RE: The exchange of arguments related to the pro’s and con’s of the OLPC ($100 laptop computer distributed to African village schools) crusade can be compiled to:
” it is better than nothing” whereas i’d argue ”nothing is better than nothing ”
It is in the line with the tradition of abusing a whole continent and the poor population of the world, first we enslaved them, fair enough then is then and now is now, than we occupied their land, stole whatever of any value, raped, abused, infections, religion, alcohol, and disrupted the tribal based society in such way that their is no way back. Like Nobel Prize winner
Mr. Desmond Tutu said ” They came to our country and handed us the bible, asked to close our eyes as to prey together, and when we opened our eyes they had taken our land, and we stood with there with their bible in our hands”
Since 40 / 50 years a wide variety of assistance has been given with practically no result as the NGO’s have been “digested” when it comes to projects sponsored, financed or donated more often than not it is a waste of time and money.Civil unrest, wars, structural corruption and poorly trained administrators, very poor education and on top of that the devastating impact of AIDS.
18 % HIV positiv, 1 million who even don’t know they are HIV positive, average age decined for women to 53 and men 49 which is about 13 years less than 10 – 20- years ago.Last and not least 30 – 35 % unemployment and a new wave of youth to arrive.
Reason enough for digital assistance, no doubt, but not this way, just a few reasons :
– still a huge lack of classrooms, streaming water, toilets, books etc.
– children up and down to school with a $100 laptop is too dangerous and will become a major source of problems and conflicts with possible physical injuries, knives are very common here.
– At home on a good friday or saturday evening that $100 laptop is gone for a bottle of beer before you know it.
– A major part of the problem is the from the day kids are born and at 5 years are physically and mentally already light years behind. 5 years and ask to give red, blue, yellow the name of the color, and when they go to school a large % is not able to pick it up (using a computer) and are sitting in total isolation, leave school at 10 // 12 crime, prostitution, mother at 14 // 15 years.
To do a better job as parents they have to have access or be accessible via internet at home and with the access the little ones can be stimulated to actively use and develop their brains and curiosity and eagerness to know / learn more.
For the schools the laptop is a total waste “mesh” “videocamera” “wireless” for the sake of what ? To benefit from technology adapted tuition material is required and the teacher must have direct access to the screen of the 40 /45 pupils, which most probably the years after is less than half, and each child could at its own speed and interest measured in time learn much more, others don’t have to wait for her / him and the slower ones both the constant pressure of hardly or nothing to
understand.
– Without a pre commitment from the government regarding the implementation of the widebank network to support laptop equipment the investment becomes a total waste.
Intel is and has spent and arm and leg in time and money to educate teachers which is a serious investment, less flashy, it is the dirty job, yes indeed someone has to do it and will be bottomline much more effective.
– in sofar one can attach any value to calculations made by the UN, the few who reach a respectable age will cost on a day to day basis quite some money and let it be 200 / 300 USD more or less it makes the 100 Dollar a joke, money from Google, help from a few others, an ex factory price, not by far any close to the 100 Dollar when you add transport, import duties and VAT.
That brings me where it is actually all about, a combination of gifts, philantropy, a contract, a pop concert, artists who have to sort of discuss with the G-8 the debts and are slaughtered by the politicians, it is done with the best intentions but not functional.
Combining straight forward business with aid is not the way to do it as it undermines the normal way of trade, business on one side and where and when needed assistance, food relief, medicines, one day you pay and the other they are for free. The laptop in question should under “normal circustances” cost today let say 250 – 300 usd and perhaps in a year 150 – 250 Dollar
One will never know, as without the crusade of Mr. Negroponti the laptop would not have been the consideration to buy or not to buy in the first place and what is furthermore damaging is the impression people get that something is done to address the digital divide issue and the same sort of impression all of us have had the last 40 / 50 years.
The relation between donor and receiving countries must become much more a business model , not for the sake of business but for the sake of accountability. When the local rulers are not hold accountable the waste of good money and energy will be wasted and ultimately bring the poor not a step further and what is really needed is P2P based help, the knowledge gap is enormous and millions, often quite simple, questions remain unanswered as there is no infrastructure but slowly more and more people will get access to the web and when for whatever reason someone has questions
and could obtain some information or advuse from the rest of the world.
—
Ahh yes, that pesky “rest of the world,” … that the rest of the world is becoming.

Posted by: Peter Piper | Jun 22 2008 20:45 utc | 20

AMERICA IS TYRANNY – George Carlin fitting and final words…
Fuck. I haven’t been this upset since Joe Strummer died.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 23 2008 6:15 utc | 22

Bush&co War Crime Trials: Planning Conference Announced

Law School to Plan Bush War Crimes Prosecution
Press Release: Massachusetts School Of Law
17/06/08 “ICH” — – A conference to plan the prosecution of President Bush and other high administration officials for war crimes will be held September 13-14 at the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover .
“This is not intended to be a mere discussion of violations of law that have occurred,” said convener Lawrence Velvel, dean and cofounder of the school. “It is, rather, intended to be a planning conference at which plans will be laid and necessary organizational structures set up, to pursue the guilty as long as necessary and, if need be, to the ends of the Earth.”
“We must try to hold Bush administration leaders accountable in courts of justice,” Velvel said. “And we must insist on appropriate punishments, including, if guilt is found, the hangings visited upon top German and Japanese war-criminals in the 1940s.”

Word is, this conference may well be seeded with professional saboteurs.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 23 2008 13:05 utc | 24

what a complete bummer about carlin – huge loss

Posted by: b real | Jun 23 2008 14:09 utc | 26

RIP Carlin, Voting in America

Posted by: Anonymous | Jun 23 2008 16:57 utc | 28

@29 – when Mubarak jailed his competition in the election in Egypt, nobody took note. The UK wants Zimbabwe back – so now everyone takes note.

Posted by: b | Jun 23 2008 18:32 utc | 30

Old but very important. Gen. Jammerson was at EUCOM in the 1990s.
AFRICOM: Implications for African Security and U.S.-African Relations
Start: Thursday, September 20, 2007 8:30 AM
End: Thursday, September 20, 2007 2:00 PM
Location: Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, AEI
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
Directions to AEI
American policy toward Africa will soon enter a new era: the establishment of the joint military United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) creates an important instrument and signals a new direction for U.S. security strategy. On September 20, AEI will hold a conference to better understand the role and mission of this new command, both from U.S. and African perspectives.
Though AFRICOM has yet to be formally established, it is already controversial. Some in the United States and in Africa worry about the “militarization of aid.” Other debates have focused on the possible locations of AFRICOM’s headquarters and speculated about the “real” U.S. interests–such as balancing China’s growing presence in Africa or securing the continent’s natural resources–that the new structure is designed to serve. At the same time, relatively little attention has been devoted to understanding Africa’s security dilemmas from an African perspective and articulating how the United States can respond to African priorities with the limited set of security cooperation tools at its disposal. In sum, AFRICOM’s mission, plans, and purpose are poorly understood.
Speakers at this AEI conference will address some of the major questions raised by AFRICOM’s creation: What are U.S. interests in Africa, and what forms of security partnership will protect them most effectively? How does Africa define its own security priorities, and what forms of U.S. engagement does it find most valuable? Does this signal a fundamental shift away from a primarily humanitarian foreign policy toward Africa to a more “normal” policy based on mutual interests and common threats?
Join us on September 20 to answer these and other questions with current and former U.S. and African defense officials and analysts.
8:30 a.m. Registration and Breakfast
9:00 Panel I: What’s New about AFRICOM and What’s Not?
Panelists: Gen. James L. Jamerson, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), Lockheed Martin Corporation
Theresa M. Whelan, U.S. Department of Defense
Paul Wolfowitz, AEI
Moderator: Thomas Donnelly, AEI
10:30 Panel II: African Security Priorities
Panelists: Lt. Gen. Tsadkan Gebretensae, Center for Policy Research and Dialogue, Addis Ababa
James Kimonyo, Embassy of Rwanda
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Department of State
Brig. Gen. Robert Winful, Ghana Armed Forces
Moderator: Mauro De Lorenzo, AEI
Noon Luncheon and Panel III: Models of U.S.-African Security Cooperation
Panelists: Lt. Gen. Daniel I. Opande, Kenya Armed Forces (Ret.)
Brownie J. Samukai, Liberian Ministry of Defense
Michael L. Smith, U.S. Department of State
Moderator: Mauro De Lorenzo, AEI
2:00 p.m. Adjournment
More Information
David Peyton
American Enterprise Institute
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-862-5946
E-mail: David.peyton@aei.org
Media Inquiries
Veronique Rodman
American Enterprise Institute
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-862-4870
E-mail: VRodman@aei.org
AEI Print Index No. 22225

Posted by: Anonymous | Jun 23 2008 23:56 utc | 32

As an American, I know I’m automatically on shakey ground, complaining about Zimbabwe’s “crazy leader”; however Mugabe is 85 years old, and is clearly out of his stinking mind. He is quoted to the effect that “how can Zimbabwean’s give up their country?– how can a bic pen [that marks balllots] take power from those who have the guns?” This is megalomania and despotism of a high order, with a possible sidebar of genocide, if things deteriorate further.
If what is coming is some kind of mass murder, won’t the international community have to consider doing something?
Awhile back Bernhard even considered that in an extreme case (Pol Pot for instance) the kind of intervention the UN might do ought to be an option (an exception) in such an extreme case. Zimbabwe and its people may be running out of time, with a total nutter in power, who has projected brutal state repression across the country, and smashed an electoral process with trucheons and bullets.

Posted by: Copeland | Jun 24 2008 3:13 utc | 34

“If what is coming is some kind of mass murder”
i doubt that. from an otherwise ridiculous current bbc article

The outside world, which mostly sympathises with him [tsvangirai], can do nothing whatever to help him.
The suburban street outside the Dutch embassy where he’s taken refuge in Harare is empty, except for a few security policemen on the look-out.
Even his choice of embassy has been turned against him by his political enemies. It might well have been better for him politically if he had chosen an African rather than a European country to ask for help.
As it is, MDC supporters are gloomy and resentful. They are also cowed.
The streets of Harare are quiet because there is no longer any need for the groups of violent political activists in Zanu-PF T-shirts who have been roaming them, looking for people to beat up.
There will be no demonstrations in favour of the man inside the Dutch embassy. He seems as cowed as his supporters.

on the u.s. response, keep an eye out for whether these recommendations from mark bellamy & stephen morrison get enacted
Getting Past Mugabe

Change requires that the United States mount an intensive diplomatic campaign, one where the United States is a catalyst of international action. The purpose will be to rally international support for moving Zimbabwe rapidly into the post-Mugabe era. To be successful, this initiative must move forward quickly at a high level, targeting a few key audiences and goals.
A top priority has to be ending South Africa’s patronage of Mugabe through diplomatic pressure that exploits growing regional dissatisfaction with Thabo Mbeki’s leadership. … Once the South African linchpin is removed, the other external props that sustain Mugabe — Angola, Namibia, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, and China — will cease to matter.
…
The Bush administration should quickly designate an envoy, a distinguished former official or public figure, to lead its efforts. It should help the envoy assemble a small team of prominent international figures from Africa, Europe, and the Commonwealth to travel to southern Africa for intensive consultations on ending the crisis in Zimbabwe. That team will need to be in the region for an extended period. Lacking internal consensus, neither the United Nations nor the African Union can mount such a mission. From its position in the U.N. Security Council, the U.S. should work in New York and in African capitals to demand more African involvement in solving the crisis in Zimbabwe.
The U.S. effort should be organized around four pillars.
First, it should create a shared consensus that Mugabe must leave office.
…
Second, it should create a shared determination to contain Mugabe’s chief lieutenants. … support must be summoned for possible deployment of a modest African Union or U.N.-authorized monitoring force. Meanwhile, the Bush administration should disclose publicly details of the extensive corruption surrounding Mugabe’s inner circle.
…
Third, it should press for resumed negotiations on constitutional reform, cut short by Mugabe last year, and for an early date for new presidential elections.
…
Last, if should accelerate international planning and support to rebuild Zimbabwe’s shattered economic and social infrastructure.
…
The United States has nothing to lose by investing in a bold diplomatic initiative to fix one of the world’s worst man-made humanitarian disasters. What better legacy could George Bush leave in Africa than to close out this terrible chapter of tyranny and restore to a nation its lost freedoms?

what – no mention of land reform, guys? heh.

Posted by: b real | Jun 24 2008 4:25 utc | 36

Copeland@37,
we all want to see an end to the chaos & violence in Zimbabwe.
To put things in perspective, what we are looking at here is a highly polarized conflict that originates from the British/USA determination that Mugabe must be removed for standing up to the USA/UK for their duplicity on the issue of land-reform. And so we have a race issue with the USA/UK firmly assuming the cause of White Zim farmers to the total detriment of Black Zims who were enslaved. Because what the Blacks of Zim, South Africa & Namibia endured over a few hundred years is indistinguishable from slavery, And it is heart-breaking that the USA/UK would be so callously biased & one-sided on this issue.
Mugabe is rightly regarded as an African hero by a large number of people, especially those aware of his role in the liberation of Zimbabwe from the brutally racist regime of Ian Smiths Rhodesia. By no means does this grant him license to abuse & oppress his people. On the contrary, he appears to be clear & firm in his mind that he is protecting his people from yet another racist onslaught as he has done all his life. Ad he feels vindicated, Its really not very hard to see why he would feel this way.
And in our concern for Zim, we should not be blinded into betrayal of the people of Ethiopia, Somalia, Egypt, Gaza … whose plight is kept away from our eyes & ears because their governments are friends of the USA.

Posted by: jony_b_cool | Jun 24 2008 6:52 utc | 38

Democracy Now: “Meanwhile, in news from Iraq, a local Iraqi council member from the town of Salman Pak shot and killed two US soldiers on Monday. Four others were injured. The shooting occurred outside a municipal council meeting.” McClatchy calls it a “bizarre shooting incident”.
I’d like to hear your take, b.

Posted by: PeeDee | Jun 25 2008 1:47 utc | 40

some interesting news on the u.s. colony in africa
‘US gangsters’ upset Taylor

Monrovia – The family of former Liberian strongman Charles Taylor is up in arms after Americans allegedly searched his family home this weekend, Sando Johnson, the spokesperson for Taylor’s family, told AFP on Tuesday.
The men came to the house in US embassy vehicles on Sunday backed by heavily armed national police officers and took the keys from Taylor’s security guards at gunpoint, said Johnson.
According to the family, the Americans brandished a search warrant from the Special Court for Sierra Leone, where the former Liberian president is currently on trial for war crimes, but the court denied any involvement.
“Prosecutor Stephen Rapp told me it was not done by the special court or at the request of the special court,” court spokesperson Peter Andersen told AFP by phone from Sierra Leone on Tuesday.
“They pushed the security man out and went in. They were there for 40 minutes while the police officers prevented us from entering to see what they were doing,” Johnson told AFP.
During the search a huge crowd gathered in front of the residence, and began to boo the Americans. A lawyer for the family said the men showed him a warrant from the court.
The American embassy in Monrovia and the Liberian minister of justice both refused to comment on Tuesday.
Observers said the search might be linked to the US indictment of Charles Taylor’s son Charles McArthur Emmanuel, also known as Chuckie Taylor, on torture charges.
Chuckie Taylor, formerly head of his father’s anti-terrorism unit, is awaiting trial in the US on charges that he tortured several people in Liberia between 1999 and 2003.
Charles Taylor’s party, the former ruling National Patriotic Party (NPP), reacted with fury to the search on Tuesday.
“I do not understand why the government will allow a bunch of gangsters to do what they feel like in our country,” Cyril Alen, chairperson of the NPP, told Star Radio.

or they could be trying to find damning evidence
this story ran on the 13th
Sec. Cohen hints U.S. role in Taylor’s ill-fated revolution

..two questions regarding Taylor’s uprising continue to haunt observers to date, even those who wanted Taylor to topple Doe: “Who sponsored Taylor and how did he get out the U.S. maximum security House of Corrections in Plymouth, Massachusetts where he was held under protective custody?” Those questions were never answered.
But now it seems the TRC sessions currently holding in the U.S. gave an inkling of an answer.
The Analyst Staff Writer has been sifting a press dispatch from TRC hearings in the U.S.Former US under Secretary of State for African Affairs, Herman J. Cohen, says the Bush Administration brokered a deal in 1990 to install Charles Taylor as President after the U.S. secretly evacuated President Samuel Doe and flew him to Togo.
…
Many at the time, including the U.S. government at least covertly, thought the civilian interim government concept was the better of the two evils of uprooting a civilian, elected government by the force of arms.
Political and diplomatic pundits at the time said to allow the rebels to overrun a sitting civilian government was to condone and reward armed insurrection in a region that was used to and weary of the imposition of military violence over civil rule.
Notwithstanding that generally acclaimed understanding amongst stakeholders and peace brokers, the former maverick Foreign Service official noted that the U.S. moved unilaterally to reach the understanding with the rebels that once Doe left the country, Taylor would move into the capital and install his government.
…
Observers say while they welcomed the inclination by the U.S. to intervene directly in the conflict to end the spate of cruelty and civilian deaths, they blamed Taylor’s insistence in having his way during dozens of peace talks organized by ECOWAS to end Liberia’s bloodbath on the secret nod he got from Washington to rule Liberia.
“Taylor was in the U.S. maximum security House of Corrections in Plymouth, Massachusetts where he was held under protective custody. His lawyer US Attorney General Ramsey Clark said he would fight his extradition from the safety of that prison since he argued that agents of the Liberian government would kill Taylor.
“Circumstances under which Taylor broke jail from that facility still baffle security minds to date. Who freed him from there and who sponsored his way out of the U.S. into Burkina Faso, Libya, and back to Burkina Faso, to Ivory Coast and eventually to Liberia to begin the killing spree under the guise of a liberation war?” wondered secondary school Civics teacher, Billy J. Toe.
He said at the time the U.S. was negotiating Taylor’s takeover of the Liberian government to replace it with a murderous rebel junta, his legal status was anything but baffling.
“It was clear that Taylor was a fugitive to both the Liberian and U.S. governments. He broke jail in the U.S., which is a crime, and he was wanted for theft of property for siphoning into a New York bank $922,000 of government funds intended for machinery parts.
So how come the U.S. laid a red carpet for its fugitive caught subverting a government that accused him of embezzling more than half a million dollars?” wondered Moses V. Andrews, another observer who said he lost his entire family to rebels in areas ruled by the man the U.S. saw as a savor for Monrovians.
He said even though Cohen’s testimony was scanty, it provided insight into the role the Regan and Bush administrations played in the death of millions of Liberians and the ravaging of Liberia.
“One day the full story will be told and Liberians will demand reparation for the wholesale missteps perpetrated by the U.S. government,” he said. Meanwhile, the TRC hearings, now it their fifth day, continues. They will be concluded on June 14, 2008.

if anyone knows of good links/sources that spell out the larger story, please share. curious on the earlier role in supporting kennedy school of govt graduate/citibank/world bank employee ellen johnson-sirleaf too.

Posted by: b real | Jun 25 2008 15:29 utc | 42

PeeDee@40
Hmm – what to say about that. I believe the guy was simply pissed – who knows who of his relatives have been killed wounded or otherwise hurt by the U.S. – if I were Iraqi, I wouldn’t need any special reason to attack the occupation.

Posted by: b | Jun 25 2008 16:58 utc | 44

Congratulations to the Turks. You played a great tournament. Sorry that you lost this game after playing so well. There was no bad scene in this one and no bad referee decision so no need for any bad blood.
Next time, it’s yours. Promissed.

Posted by: b | Jun 25 2008 20:43 utc | 46

excellent. thanks xcroc. i do remember the kabba article now.

Posted by: b real | Jun 26 2008 2:47 utc | 48

Seven Word Pairs You Can’t Say On American Television
Vegan-Burger
Natural-High
Freedom-Fighter
Legal-Prostitute
Flower-Adult
Government-Layoffs
and especially
Who-Cares
yeah, yeah, definitely:
“Well, Tom, that’s the grim financial news tonight!”
“Aww, who cares….”

Posted by: Peris Troika | Jun 26 2008 7:03 utc | 50

There was a bug for a while in the “Post a comment” section on this blog. Even if the “Remember personal info?” tag was checked, that info was not stored properly and got lost.
I have cleaned that up and also some display issues under IE.
Please let me know if it now works for you and especially if it does not.
Thx.

Posted by: b | Jun 26 2008 15:58 utc | 52

bah. synapse problems on this end – of course i meant addington

Posted by: b real | Jun 26 2008 17:44 utc | 54

“wasn’t that obvious before the hearing”
from what i’d read, yes, but then i’d never listened to either of them speak/dissemble before. hearing is believing.

Posted by: b real | Jun 26 2008 19:36 utc | 56

re the supreme court ‘judgement’ –
it seems that the only thing that the u s empire is capable of socialising is – murder

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jun 26 2008 21:58 utc | 58

This review of The Mighty Wurlitzer written from a CIA perspective will probably infuriate some here, and, not surprisisngly, breaks no new ground, but it still makes for interesting reading, at the very least as a reminder that “broad bi-partisan consensus” in subterfuge and skulduggery is nothing new.
Hat tip to John Young’s ever stimulating Cryptome site.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Jun 27 2008 8:48 utc | 60

hkol – i apologize for still not finishing the boston review series yet (hope to get back to it over the w/e) but i see that the econ prof from oxford who penned one of the responses to miguel’s essay, collier, is the interviewee in a cfr piece today – Five Steps to Sustainable Governance in Africa
it contains an example of what bugs me about the unstated premises, thinking & quest for magic bullet solutions proposed by these “experts” inculcated in western economics

Your research suggests that for a change to happen, it must come from within a country. So what can be done to cultivate those sorts of reformers—the people who think about institutions rather than individual agendas?
There are severe limits on what we as outsiders can do. These are internal processes. Our role is just to do as much as we can to strengthen the position of the forces for change within these societies. In the case of a country like Nigeria, the dominant issue is: Can they handle natural resource revenues well? What I’ve been trying to promote is the idea of a set of voluntary international guidelines on the key decision points. There are about five key decision points, which, if they’re taken right, you’ll get sustained development.
Can you outline those?
You can think of the economic process underlying it as very simple. It’s taking assets from out of the ground and you want to end up with assets on top of the ground. You can just think of a logical sequence of steps along that way.

Posted by: b real | Jun 27 2008 19:01 utc | 62

BenIAM – exactly. part of it can also be explained by the sources of their funding, i’d imagine
their research is often so abstracted from reality that in any other circles, they’d be either laughed or chased off the stage. but yet their role for the certain interested parties allows them influential access/exposure time & time again
here’s sachs, for example,evangelizing at the u.n. one week ago
inner city press: At UN, Sachs Defends Monsanto and Terminator Seeds, Praises Pharmaceutical Industry and Patents

UNITED NATIONS, June 23 — Monsanto, the subject of protests throughout India and much of the developing world for its use of so-called death or single-use seeds, has a defender it emerges in the UN system, Jeffrey Sachs. Following a June 20 talk extolling the virtual of genetically modified food, Sachs was asked by Inner City Press about a counter-example, that of Monsanto and its death seeds, which are sterile so that farmers have to continue buying from Monsanto for each and every crop. “That never happened,” Sachs said. “That’s a story from a long long time ago, but it showed the reputational challenges. It became a massive issue at the time.”
…
Sachs seems to have bought Monsanto’s logic. Three times he cited “drought-tolerant crops” as justifying bio-agriculture. But as quoted in the Daily Mail on June 20, Professor Ossama El-Tayeb of Cairo University, condemns “big business” for claiming that “GM crops will alleviate poverty soon, while currently available ones mostly contribute negatively to poverty alleviation and food security, and positively to the stock market.”
Then again, Sachs also praised the pharmaceutical industry, with which he has worked for a decade he said and “has now in general made its life saving medicines available at cost in the poorest countries.” Sachs seems to have inordinate faith in powerful corporations. “Let me say clearly,” he responded about Monsanto’s use of terminator or death seeds, “no company would have that intention right now because the backlash would be very serious.” But Monsanto is in fact using the technology. And Jeffrey Sachs, from a UN platform, is among those trying to dampen the backlash.

Posted by: b real | Jun 27 2008 20:57 utc | 64

@Dan – thanks – its halftime now and so far the Spainards are better … I try to look at the better game players, not the nationality of the better team.

Posted by: b | Jun 29 2008 19:51 utc | 66

U.S. Advised Iraqi Ministry on Oil Deals

A group of American advisers led by a small State Department team played an integral part in drawing up contracts between the Iraqi government and five major Western oil companies to develop some of the largest fields in Iraq, American officials say.
…
At a time of spiraling oil prices, the no-bid contracts, in a country with some of the world’s largest untapped fields and potential for vast profits, are a rare prize to the industry. The contracts are expected to be awarded Monday to Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Total and Chevron, as well as to several smaller oil companies.

Posted by: b | Jun 30 2008 5:23 utc | 68

b 68
Consultants said the advice was necessary because the Oil Ministry, like other sectors of the Iraqi government, has experienced an exodus of qualified employees and lacks lawyers schooled in drawing up contracts.

cough. y’know, those iraqis are challenged when it comes to drawing up contracts. we were just offering a helping hand.
The American government lawyers provided specific advice, the State Department official said, like: “These are the clauses you may want. You will need a clause on arbitration. You will need this clause to make this work.”
arbitration is so groovy, prevents punitive damages down the road. wouldn’t want those oil companies ending up in an iraqi court.

Posted by: annie | Jun 30 2008 18:56 utc | 70

the sach’s link was to point out how far removed from reality these characters are – “that never happened” he says. pshaw!
thanks for the two links, esp the yara prize link – interesting now in light of the current food situation in ethiopia. i posted a healthy number of links/resources re the push for a “new” green revolution in africa in an earlier thread, starting here. there’ve been related items since, but it only takes a few to see what’s really going on (again).

Posted by: b real | Jun 30 2008 22:06 utc | 72

fyi Queen of Hawaii demands independence from ‘US occupiers’
The United States is an illegal occupying force that should hand the 132 islands of Hawaii back to the monarchy overthrown more than a century ago, according to members of a Native Hawaiian sovereignty movement.

Posted by: annie | Jun 30 2008 22:37 utc | 74

B – @71 – There may come a day when the UN agencies will be perceived as “enemies” and beyond the pale much like it was/is in Iraq due to the UN’s role in the sanctions and now invasion.
U.N. Personnel Increasingly Under Attack, Study Finds

United Nations personnel around the world are increasingly likely to be targets for attack because the organization is perceived by some as a tool of powerful members, rather than an unbiased advocate for all nations, Lakhdar Brahimi, a veteran diplomat who headed a global study on the security of United Nations staff members, said Monday.
The study, conducted by a seven-member panel that was organized after 17 United Nations workers were killed in a bombing in Algiers last December, concluded that neither individual staff members nor the organization had fully grasped the change in perceptions, Mr. Brahimi said.
…

Posted by: b | Jul 1 2008 6:32 utc | 76

there are genuine problems w/ drug trafficking etc in west african nations (e.g., guinea-bissau), however, when you look at the DoD’s so-called “war on drugs” interventionism that replaced the threat of the red menace in latin america following the official end of the cold war, caution/skepticism in the u.s. military taking it on is indeed warranted. take colombia & bolivia, for example. the “war on drugs” has done little to seriously take on its namesake, instead providing the cover for counterinsurgency training & operations against new classifications of internal enemies that threaten(ed) the status quo order. in bolivia, this new enemy were the peasants of the chapare and elsewhere in opposition to the govt’s draconian neo-lib policies. in colombia, the influx of funding, arms, training & intel were aimed at countering FARC and other mvmts that threatened the govt & the pipelines it contracted to occidental. they’ve gone from being ‘communist subversives’ to ‘narcoguerillas’ to ‘terrorists’ over the past two decades, but the objective of the state’s military apparatus remains the same – squash any threat to the ruling power.
the u.s. employs all these so-called wars — cold war, war on drugs, and now the WOT — to expand & control hegemony thru military allies in regions that serve its perceived national interests. DoD may be able to offer some assistance to west african govts facing problems w/ the illicit drug trade – equipment, intel, training, $$ – but at what price? the track record of this type of “assistance” in latin america speaks for itself.

Posted by: b real | Jul 1 2008 15:06 utc | 78

secrecy news: Court Invalidates Detainee’s “Enemy Combatant” Status

A federal appeals panel found that the designation of a Chinese detainee held in U.S. custody as an “enemy combatant” was “not valid” because the classified evidence offered by the government was not sufficient to sustain the charge.
…
Military prosecutors argued that he qualified as an enemy combatant because he was “affiliated” with military forces that were “associated” with al Qaida and the Taleban.
In a straightforward but nevertheless thrilling exercise of judicial authority, judges said that the classified evidentiary basis for that argument could not be independently validated and was therefore inadequate.
“We must be able to assess the reliability of that evidence ourselves,” the judges wrote.
“The government suggests that several of the assertions in the intelligence documents are reliable because they are made in at least three different documents. We are not persuaded,” the court said.
Adding a literary flourish, the judges wrote that “the fact that the government has ’said it thrice’ does not make an allegation true. See LEWIS CARROLL, THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK 3 (1876) (’I have said it thrice: What I tell you three times is true.’).”
Likewise, they wrote, “the government insists that the statements made in the [classified evidentiary] documents are reliable because the State and Defense Departments would not have put them in intelligence documents were that not the case. This comes perilously close to suggesting that whatever the government says must be treated as true, thus rendering superfluous both the role of the Tribunal and the role that Congress assigned to this court.”
In a court of law, the prosecution must prove its case and not simply assert it, the judges explained.
“We […] reject the government’s contention that it can prevail by submitting documents that read as if they were indictments or civil complaints, and that simply assert as facts the elements required to prove that a detainee falls within the definition of enemy combatant. To do otherwise would require the courts to rubber-stamp the government’s charges,” the ruling stated.

Posted by: b real | Jul 1 2008 16:33 utc | 80

Bush’s top general quashed torture dissent

In late 2002, documents show, officials from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps all complained that harsh interrogation tactics under consideration for use at the prison in Guantánamo Bay might be against the law. Those military officials called for further legal scrutiny of the tactics. The chief of the Army’s international law division, for example, said in a memo that some of the tactics, such as stress positions and sensory deprivation, “cross the line of ‘humane treatment'” and “may violate the torture statute.”
Myers, however, agreed to scuttle a plan for further legal review of the tactics, in response to pressure from a top Pentagon attorney helping to set up the interrogation program for then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Posted by: annie | Jul 1 2008 22:21 utc | 82

Over on Counterpunch, Mike Whitney interviews the economist, Michael Hudson. It’s worth a read.

MW: Is the dollar doomed, or can the US lower its dual-deficits (fiscal and trade deficits) and continue to attract foreign capital in the future? And if the recession takes hold, business slows and unemployment rises, would that strengthen the dollar?
Michael Hudson: I assume that by doom you mean that the dollar will continue to sink against foreign currencies, while price inflation eats away at what wages will buy. The idea that a worse economy will be self-curing is IMF anti-labor ideology and Chicago School propaganda. This is indeed what Nobel Economic Prizes are given for, I grant you. But it’s Junk Economics. A falling dollar threatens to become self-reinforcing. For starters, dollar-denominated stocks, bonds and real estate are worth less and less in terms of euros, sterling or other harder and foreign currencies. This doesn’t provide much incentive for foreigners to invest here. And if we go into a recession (not to speak of depression), there will be even fewer profitable opportunities to invest.
Meanwhile, U.S. import dependency will continue to rise as the economy de-industrializes ­ that is, as it is further financialized. U.S. overseas military spending will throw yet more dollars onto the world’s foreign exchange markets. So a weak economy here does NOT mean that the dollar will strengthen; it means we have a bad investment climate! Austerity will make us more dependent on foreign countries. For a foretaste, just look at what has happened when the IMF has imposed austerity plans on Third World debtors. And remember, last time when Robert Rubin was given a free hand, in reforming Russia under Clinton, the result was industrial collapse and bankruptcy.

Posted by: Copeland | Jul 2 2008 4:43 utc | 84

McCain does Summerstock, frees hostages.

Posted by: biklett | Jul 2 2008 20:20 utc | 86

certainly, the story as it is being released is completely fabulist – with heavily infiltrated farc by heroic colombian operatives – all written somewhere in hollywood
i’m thankful for the release of the hostages but i am convinced uribe had no part, whatsoever

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jul 2 2008 20:54 utc | 88

Christopher Hitchens gets waterboarded.And lasts a few seconds. Hope this at least kills the myth that waterboarding is “simulated drowning”, as opposed to actual drowning. One can only imagine the effect of this not being simply a “demonstration” but being carried out by those with hostile intent.

Posted by: anna missed | Jul 3 2008 10:08 utc | 90

Journalist Charges Censorship by U.S. Military in Fallujah

U.S. journalist Zoriah Miller says he was censored by the U.S. military in the Iraqi city of Fallujah after photographing Marines who died in a suicide bombing.
…..
Miller ran with the Marines he was with to the scene of the attack. “As I ran I saw human pieces…a skull cap with hair, bone shards,” he told IPS during a telephone interview from the so-called Green Zone in Baghdad. “When we arrived at the building it was chaotic. There were Iraqis, police and civilians running around screaming. Bodies were being pulled out of the building.”
……

photos of the attack
very powerful images. censored.

Posted by: annie | Jul 4 2008 4:12 utc | 92

obviously making the MoA rounds tonight thought i might preemptively pen a few celebratory lines in recognition of benevolent amerika’s b-day:
sap the clever nudges of curious tongues
take joy in stupid fuses and dumb effects
delight is a combustible Chinese bouquet
blooming in proud opposition to the stars

Posted by: Lizard | Jul 4 2008 7:14 utc | 94

Ingrid Betancourt’s liberation was staged.
The story is all over french and swiss media outlets. Seems they paid some 20$ million dollars to free her and help Uribe’s numbers.
It was just too perfect, wasn’t it.
More here, in french also.

Posted by: L’Akratique | Jul 4 2008 13:36 utc | 96

Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis
Internal World Bank study delivers blow to plant energy drive

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% – far more than previously estimated – according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.
The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.
The figure emphatically contradicts the US government’s claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.

Posted by: b | Jul 4 2008 15:02 utc | 98

wiki
Allegations of payment
On July 4, 2008, Radio Suisse Romande reported that unnamed “reliable sources” had told it the rescue took place after a payment of USD 20 million by the United States.[13] According to Le Monde, the French Foreign Ministry denied the payment of any ransom by France.[14]
Frederich Blassel, the author of the Radio Suisse Romande story, told Colombia’s W Radio that, according to his source, the release wasn’t negotiated directly with FARC but with alias César, one of the two guerrillas captured during the operation, who would have received the payment of USD 20 million. According to Blassel, the two rebels could be given new identities by Spain, France and Switzerland. [15][16]
According to Colombia’s El Tiempo, General Fredy Padilla de León., Commander of the Colombian Armed Forces, denied the existence of any payment by the Colombian government. General Padilla argued that if any payment had been made, it would have been better to make it publicly known, to use it as an incentive and to cause confusion within FARC’s ranks.

Posted by: annie | Jul 4 2008 17:10 utc | 100