Links April 08 09 – Moon of Alabama

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April 8, 2009

Links April 08 09

Annie linked this yesterday: Baghdad, City of Walls by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, four parts. Please watch at least part 3 and remember that those instigated this are still being payed by U.S. taxpayers or this or that lobby.

FDIC preparing for the big one: 'FDIC Job Postings are Bad News For Big Banks' (FDL)
'Communities print their own currency to keep cash flowing' (USA Today) In the late 1920s in Germany this was called Notgeld, 'Emergency Money', and every city or bigger county had its own.
'Default Count Rises to Highest Since Great Depression' (Bloomberg)
US, UK to default? 'The green shoots are weeds growing through the rubble in the ruins of the global economy' (Willem Buiter)

Unsuccessful color revolution attempt? 'Protests in Moldova Explode, With Help of Twitter' (NYT)

'What's the Problem With Pakistan? (Foreign Affairs) One big problem is Indian mangling in Afghanistan:

"Having visited the Indian mission in Zahedan, Iran, I can assure you they are not issuing visas as the main activity! Moreover, India has run operations from its mission in Mazar (through which it supported the Northern Alliance) and is likely doing so from the other consulates it has reopened in Jalalabad and Qandahar along the border. Indian officials have told me privately that they are pumping money into Baluchistan. Kabul has encouraged India to engage in provocative activities such as using the Border Roads Organization to build sensitive parts of the Ring Road and use the Indo-Tibetan police force for security."

Please add your news and views in the comments.

Posted by b on April 8, 2009 at 06:44 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Thanks, annie, and b for reposting this. Absolutely heart-rending. When one thinks that these are just one or two vivid accounts of the one million deaths it really puts the devastation into perspective. As for the human rubbish tips and unmarked graves, …..
Finally, the Shiíte indoctrination of a new generation of fanatics doesn´t give much hope for the future. Very depressing.

Posted by: Parviz | Apr 8 2009 8:32 utc | 1

This is totally irrelevant, insignificant and off-topic, but I thought you´d like to see how Iranians celebrated the Persian New Year 1388 (March 21st, 2009 – March 20th, 2010).
I never thought I´d see NY policemen waving Iranian flags! It looks as if they were caught up by the occasion and the good-natured attitude of ´real´ Iranians as opposed to the wailing, fundamentalist idiots who occupy most of the world´s TV space. We used to be secular, colourful, fun-loving people before religious fundamentalism introduced us to repression, depression and economic decline.
Footnote: The Iranian flags displayed are the old, traditional version minus the crown, so it can be described as a ´nationalist´ flag without any political affiliation:

Persian Nowrooz Parade in NY

Posted by: Parviz | Apr 8 2009 9:27 utc | 2

Yes, the City Walls really brings home the pervasive personal tragedy that is Iraq. For Lyndsey Graham to call this “winning in Iraq” – may you rot in hell.

Posted by: anna missed | Apr 8 2009 9:28 utc | 3

apropos to nothing; life should be like this.

Posted by: beq | Apr 8 2009 11:11 utc | 4

Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system likely to be ready by 2010.
Dahr Jamail latest report about Iraq.
The Samson gambit.

Posted by: andrew | Apr 8 2009 11:30 utc | 5

Glenn Greenwald on Obama and the ICRC.
From Antiwar news, “Congressmen told to expect US-Israel confrontation” over the two states solution.
Gates and the system.

Posted by: andrew | Apr 8 2009 11:43 utc | 6

apropo to an uplifting start for my day. Thanks beq.

Posted by: Juannie | Apr 8 2009 11:45 utc | 7

ISLAMABAD: US intelligence about the make-up and recruiting power of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan was so shallow that it impeded the American war effort, President Barack Obama’s special envoy to the region said on Tuesday.
‘I am deeply, deeply dissatisfied with the degree of knowledge that the United States government and our friends and allies have on this subject,’ Mr Holbrooke told reporters during a break in daylong talks with Pakistan government officials.
He blamed the shortcoming partly on the intense US intelligence focus on Iraq over the past six years. Another factor, he said, was the high priority placed on gathering intelligence about al Qaeda in the years since the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
He did not mention another contributing factor: the smaller US troop presence in Afghanistan, relative to Iraq, which makes it more difficult to gather detailed and current information about an adversary adept at hiding and adapting.
The lack of depth in US understanding of the Taliban, who have mounted attacks both in Pakistan and Afghanistan, has weakened efforts to counter the propaganda they use to recruit new fighters and to discredit the US, according to Mr Holbrooke.
‘We need to make sure we know what the appeal of the Taliban is,’ he said.
That would be critical in enabling the US and its allies to split the hard-core Taliban leaders, who must be dealt with militarily, from less ideologically driven fighters who might be co-opted, he said.
Mr Holbrooke said there were indications that ‘well over half’ of the Taliban were not committed to the radical Islamic ideology.

Holbrooke laments gaps in intelligence, from Dawn.

Posted by: andrew | Apr 8 2009 11:52 utc | 8

This should make for an interesting day:
Somali Pirates Seize Cargo Ship, 21 US Sailors

Posted by: Ensley | Apr 8 2009 11:59 utc | 9

How Obama took over the peace movement.

Posted by: andrew | Apr 8 2009 12:06 utc | 10

Holbrooke is very busy not dealing with India, in New Delhi together with the Indian foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon and national security advisor Narayanan.

Posted by: asdf | Apr 8 2009 12:26 utc | 11

Thanks annie. Everyone should see this.

Posted by: beq | Apr 8 2009 13:01 utc | 12

New reserves of oil found in Iran (I’m holding myself from adding a joke about Cheney declaring war to Iran and then realizing he’s no more vice president).
What Obama didn’t see in Iraq.
Escobar, The president makes a victory lap.

Posted by: andrew | Apr 8 2009 13:42 utc | 13

paul street: Obama Does Strasbourg: Imperial Deception with a Smiling Face

Smooth-talking Barack Obama is a brilliant corporate-imperial bullshit machine. He is perfectly designed and expertly calibrated to “re-brand” American Empire and Inequality, Incorporated in the wake of the long national and global public relations nightmare that was the Cheney-Bush II period (2001-2008). He is a genius when it comes to putting the domestic and global populace to sleep and wrapping the authoritarian state-capitalist American System in fake-progressive rebel’s clothing. He is an advertising masterpiece for Superpower’s corporate-managed democracy. It’s why the United States ruling class hired “Brand Obama” – partly out of a desire to overhaul that damaged product line called “Brand USA” – after a careful vetting process, initiated in late 2003, determined his “deeply conservative” safety to dominant domestic and global hierarchies and doctrines. It’s why the popular consciousness-manipulators in corporate media fell head-over-heels in love with the Obama phenomenon and sold that love with remarkable effectiveness at home and abroad. It’s why I picked Obama as the next president the minute he declared his candidacy and it’s why I’ve been exposing his grand deceptions and his dangerous, oppression-legitimizing essence for more than four and a half years now.
To see the master at work in the midst of a global economic crisis triggered by his leading Wall Street campaign sponsors, let’s look briefly at his recent hour-long “town hall” meeting before hundreds of star-struck schoolgirls at the Rhenus Sports Arena in Strasbourg, France. This exquisitely Obamanistic public relations extravaganza was loaded with standard Orwellian absurdities and deletions that have gone unmentioned – also standard – in the usual fawning U.S. press coverage.
…

Posted by: b real | Apr 8 2009 14:24 utc | 14

beq
i would have been happoer if they were singing the internationale but….

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Apr 8 2009 14:27 utc | 15

more on andrew’s #6 US/IS confrontation from haaretz

According to the reports received in Israel, the U.S. administration is not concerned about recent statements by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman calling for a rejection of the Annapolis process or overtures made by Netanyahu during the election campaign.
U.S. officials say they will wait and hear Netanyahu’s position from the prime minister himself when he meets Obama in Washington next month.
No hurry to play mediator
The Obama administration is also not opposed to the resumption of negotiations between Israel and Syria but will insist that the Syrian track not be used in Jerusalem as a way of evading obligations undertaken by Israel as part of the Annapolis process.
Obama is in no hurry to bring the U.S. in as lead mediator between Israel and Syria. American involvement, which both Israel and Syria consider essential for substantive progress, will remain conditional on progress in the dialogue between Washington and Damascus.
Regarding Iran, the Obama administration is preparing the ground for a policy distinguishing between Iran’s right to have nuclear technology, including uranium enrichment done under international supervision, and the actual building of a nuclear weapon.

Posted by: annie | Apr 8 2009 14:31 utc | 16

re the 2nd bold section in my last link, this IS/syria/US fandangle is an evasion tactic pushed by the right as a way of evading progress wrt palestine. the rt wing media monitor spells it out.

If Netanyahu wants to be absolutely sure of smooth sailing with Obama, his best bet is to ask Washington to take the lead in facilitating Israel-Syria peace talks.”
…
Netanyahu may initiate political negotiations with the PLO leadership in order to preempt criticism, they will be even slower and less productive than the abortive talks conducted by the Olmert government.
….
if Netanyahu plays his cards right, it is hard to conceive of a serious confrontation between him and Obama over an Israeli-Palestinian peace process in the coming year given the weakness of the Palestinian leadership, the Hamas-Fateh unity talks and the prospect of new Palestinian elections. If Netanyahu wants to be absolutely sure of smooth sailing with Obama, his best bet is to ask Washington to take the lead in facilitating Israel-Syria peace talks.
Netanyahu, we recall, was far more forthcoming in his secret talks with Syria during his previous term as prime minister (1996-99) than in his Oslo talks with the PLO. (So, incidentally, was then-PM Barak in 2000.) Now, with his recognition of the Iranian threat as Israel’s primary strategic challenge, Netanyahu should have little trouble engaging Obama concerning the need to neutralize the Syrian link in the chain of Iran’s hegemonic designs in the Levant region, thereby weakening both Hamas and Hizballah as well. Even Obama would then have to acknowledge that one Israel-Arab peace process at a time is all Israel can handle, especially at a time when prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian breakthrough are in any case poor. Besides, moderate Palestinians are the first to admit that an Israeli-Syrian accommodation would improve their lot by weakening Hamas.

Posted by: annie | Apr 8 2009 14:46 utc | 17

beq, great video, thanks!

Posted by: annie | Apr 8 2009 14:48 utc | 18

From the front & center of nytimes.com:

Moment of Heroism After a Blast in Iraq
By SAM DAGHER
The rescue of a baby from the wreckage of a bombing that killed eight seemed to be proof that Iraqis were still capable of extraordinary acts of humanity.

Language matters, and one would assume it would matter to writers and editors of the paper of record more than to most. It took me a few minutes to figure out the why of my initial cringing reaction to the sentence above, but it should have been obvious: it’s the word “capable”.
If the Times wants to write a story about how despite so many years of crushing war and brutality there are still people in Iraq who are not so calloused by all they’ve been through that they went and saved a baby from bomb wreckage, well, OK I guess. But for the reporter to reach for the word ‘capable’ and for an editor to let it stand is just appalling. It shows – what? – surprise that these people are human? The uncovering of the default view of Iraqis is striking. Who the hell isn’t capable of saving a baby in that circumstance? The phrase drips with condescension.
I can’t help but think that if the same story had been set in Sarajevo in the early 90’s that some other combination of words – willing to perform? moved to perform? drawn to? compelled to? – would have been chosen rather than ‘capable of’.

Posted by: mats | Apr 8 2009 15:11 utc | 19

mats
yes, they have corrupted & debased language
as i have said ever since i have been here – for u s imperialism & the west – the other has never, never mattered, not as a human being nor even as a thing
when u s armed forces encouraged & allowed the sacking of iraq’s & the world’s cultural heritage – the empire was too depraved to be even conscient – that the world pays for such an evil crime
all the psychopaths of the occupation forces have yet to face real justice for their crimes – like haditha or fallujah, or tal afar. no then the cultured gentlemen of the new york times write all sort of sob stories for their ‘valiant’ soldier
our disgust with them should be total

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Apr 8 2009 17:40 utc | 20

ward churchill has been vindicated but in a decision by the corrupt supreme court – mumia abu-jamal is being railroaded for the electric chair or whatever form of execution pleases a sorry excuse for a state

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Apr 8 2009 17:49 utc | 21

Great Roger Cohen Op-Ed in today´s NYT. This guy has done a 180-degree about-turn on both Israel and Iran. He´ll probably have a dead horse´s head in his bed tonight, courtesy of AIPAC:

Israel Cries Wolf

Posted by: Parviz | Apr 8 2009 21:45 utc | 22

ruh-roh: evil Chinese and Russian geeks have hacked into the US power grid and left trojan horses to be activated whenever it suits their nefarious purposes. now to fix that we’ll have to throw extra trillions at the Pentagon and CIA. dumb luck that!
in other news, a senior Pentagon official who requested anonymity assured me that the reds have also activated billions of “whirling dervish” nanobots that upon arrival on these shores will mercilessly drain us of our precious bodily fluids. unless 100% of the non-defense portion of the budget is handed over to the Pentagon that is.
interesting times indeed!

Posted by: ran | Apr 8 2009 22:58 utc | 23

great link b real!
“corporate-imperial bullshit machine”. yep.

Posted by: ran | Apr 8 2009 23:44 utc | 24

@23, beltway bandits deceptively distorting an inside job to justify more funding for internet surveillance.

Posted by: …—… | Apr 9 2009 0:14 utc | 25

Armed settlers attack, injure 38 Palestinians – Teenager in critical condition

Posted by: ptw | Apr 9 2009 4:35 utc | 26

ptw,
on Wednesday morning.
….One eyewitness said that some 25 settlers from the nearby settlement Bat Ayin approached Palestinian houses and began shooting randomly. He said that Israeli military patrols were present, and watched the settlers shooting without stopping them.

wednesday, passover. sheesh.

Posted by: annie | Apr 9 2009 4:53 utc | 27

yea …–…, and I’m proudly awarding the original WSJ reporter the coveted “Stenographer of the Month” bronzed hack trophy.

Posted by: ran | Apr 9 2009 13:15 utc | 28

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