Links May 19 09
- Not going to happen - Why Obama Must Shackle Bibi - (Rootless Cosmopolitan)
- Netanjahu's gift for Washington - Israel begins new settlement, despite U.S. opposition - (Haaretz)
- As expected - No progress visible from Obama-Netanyahu talks - (McClatchy)
- James Petras - Obama’s Animal Farm: Bigger, Bloodier Wars Equal Peace and Justice - (VoltaireNet)
- Pakistani news - 'US special squad killed Benazir' - (The Nation)
- More Pakistani news - I did not say Cheney killed Benazir: Hersh - (DailyTimes)
- A new puppet for Afghanistan - Ex-U.S. Envoy in Talks for Key Role in Afghan Government - (NYT)
- Slowly but steady - Brazil and China eye plan to axe dollar - (FT, alt. link)
- No "single payer" - The Health Care Cave-In - (Robert Reich)
- Character assassination - At Geithner's Treasury, Key Decisions on Hold - (WaPo)
Please add your links, views and news in the comments.
Posted by b on May 19, 2009 at 6:16 UTC | Permalink
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2009/05/did-cheney-have-benazir-bhutto.html
LAHORE: US journalist Seymour Hersh on Monday contradicted news reports being published in South Asia that quote him as saying a “special death squad” made by former US vice president Dick Cheney had killed Benazir Bhutto. The award-winning journalist described as “complete madness”
Posted by: Eureka Springs | May 19 2009 7:21 utc | 2
The dirty secret behind Obama's "clean coal":
'Appalachian Apocalypse': Obama Permits Mountaintop Removal Mining
My friend Jeff Biggers, a noted author on Appalachia and a strong ally in the fight against mountaintop removal, just emailed me the link to his latest HuffPo blog with a one-word note: "depressing." One click revealed the shocking, utterly heartbreaking news that the Environmental Protection Agency appears poised to let the Army Corps of Engineers proceed with its plan to approve dozens of MTR permits that have been under scrutiny by order of the Obama administration.[...]
[The] EPA is set to approve 42 out of 48 MTR permits -- more than were approved during the entire Bush administration -- which could lead to the destruction of hundreds more miles of Appalachian streams and thousands of acres of forests -- along with the flattening of peaks and filling of valleys.
Colin,
Do you know if http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/29/614212/-Mountain-Monday:-The-Legacy-of-Labor-and-Blair-Mountain,-WV>Blair Mountain is on the list? It has apparently been approved for historic preservation, but the governor has de-approved it. You'd think that the site of the largest post civil war, civil insurrection in U.S. history would claim some importance - but hey, since it was also one of the few examples of the illegal use of U.S. federal troops and air force (using WWI poison gas bombs) against the rights of labor to organize, it seems they'd rather like to plow it under with the rest of W Virginia. This country hates its memory, as well as its land.
Posted by: anna missed | May 19 2009 9:26 utc | 4
b,
If Cheney formed that squad and they assassinated a foreign leader, should he not be tried for war crimes? Or perhaps that is the wrong charge?
Posted by: heru-ur | May 19 2009 9:38 utc | 5
Hersh was careful not to say which foreign leaders were actually assassinated by Cheney's assassination team . . . plausible deniability reigns!
Posted by: Gaianne | May 19 2009 10:17 utc | 6
Raw Story interviewed Hersh on the issue: Hersh did not say Cheney ordered Bhutto assassination
@heru-ur - If Cheney formed that squad and they assassinated a foreign leader, should he not be tried for war crimes? Or perhaps that is the wrong charge?
Not for war crimes. Simply for murder.
Speaking of NuCuLar power: Mini reactors
A little business propaganda from Monday's Denver Post. “The Voice of the Rocky Mountain Empire”
Posted by: DavidS | May 19 2009 11:31 utc | 8
Tony Karon's well written piece linked above was followed in it's comments by trolls one could snarkily describe as fiddler's on the roof. Well worth the read.
Tony Karon explains in very clear and concise language why Obama needs to do everything in his power to put the brakes on Bibi. Let me also add that if Israel were to use its military might to undermine Iran, Iran would retaliate by blocking oil from being shipped out of the Middle East, thus causing oil prices to soar. Because cheap oil is one of the few bright spots in our less-than-bright economy, if oil prices were to take flight, especially with little to no end in sight, whatever green shoots that are trying to take roots in our economy will suddenly turn brown and fall to the ground, causing our already depressed economy to collapse into a full-blown depression.
Posted by: Cynthia | May 19 2009 15:17 utc | 10
Interesting... Looks like the Pakistani agencies doing a "NYtimes" on the US with the Cheney story. So the media war is starting first... lets grab some popcorn... :)
Posted by: a | May 19 2009 17:22 utc | 11
I wanted to comment on the map of Israel that shows one colored block, no “Palestine” in one of the previous links threads.
For its purposes the map is perfectly adequate (no great ambitions) and correct within conventions of political mapping on a geographical substrate.
The country is Israel, the occupied territories, are just that, occupied by Israel, and such a map is not supposed to enter into the complexities of different administrative statuses / regions.
I am not in favor of a 2-state solution, just to be clear. I know Yossi Beilin and others have devoted their lives to working it out, and that the Swiss Gvmt. has pushed it as hard as it could. So much so, in fact, that at one point I hesitantly, at least in public, joined the ‘least bad solution’ camp that is a common feature of thinking around here. As a supposed quote unquote solution, it is logical and respectable, and it is hard to argue against it. It seems simple, and fair. No doubt that is why Obama can make noise about it.
(I have not read what he has said at different times in detail..)
A dead end. It will never happen. If Palestine becomes a country, it will immediately be recognized by every country in the world including the US who will, perforce, have been the organisors /enforcers.
When, if, Palestine becomes an official entity it will have all the rights of a Nation State, they will have a seat at the UN, and all the protection that statute confers. The fur will fly immediately, to put it mildly, and Israel will be in deep doo-doo. Its supporter, enabler, the US, will be cut off at the knees, and if Palestine is just Bantustans, Israel will be that *as well.*
Israel will never accept it. Never. They, the military, the Zionists, the financial ganstas in charge who manipulate these attitudes, will prefer any other outcome, including giving up and moving away... or more serious actions, whatever.
So B.O. mouthing about what is on the face of it a step forward, a fair deal, is fake, it is PR, it looks good at first blush but smells like dead fish. It is media hullaballoo, temporising gloss, obfuscation. Bullsh*t with smooth smiles and gestures, etc.
Posted by: Tangerine | May 19 2009 17:23 utc | 12
Robert Dreyfuss: Israel Lobby Is in a Public Opinion Pickle: Jewish Voters Went for Obama Big Time, and He's No Neocon.
B, Anna Missed, intelvet, or other of you knowledgeable folks at the bar, what do you make of the fake Sy Hersh story re B. Bhutto? Is it a CIA faction (via ISI) sending a shot across Cheney's bow? Trying to deepsix the McChrystal promotion as some sort of payback?
I'm just trying to map out who is doing what to whom in this dark world.
Posted by: Maxcrat | May 19 2009 17:37 utc | 14
Israel will never accept it. Never. They, the military, the Zionists, the financial ganstas in charge who manipulate these attitudes, will prefer any other outcome, including giving up and moving away... or more serious actions, whatever.
I find that kind of remark incomprehensible. Why say it?
Sure, that's what the Israelis want us to believe. The Mad Dog syndrome. So what are we supposed to do? Give up, and let Israel do what it wants?
Actually, I agree they do mean it. But that just shows how far Israel is along the road to destruction. Becoming a normal member of the international community is impossible for them.
Posted by: alex | May 19 2009 18:36 utc | 15
@Maxcrat - what do you make of the fake Sy Hersh story re B. Bhutto? Is it a CIA faction (via ISI) sending a shot across Cheney's bow?
Certainly not. This was an attempt to de-legitimize Hersh by presenting him as a lunatic.
Guess who arranged for that ...
i'm just trying to map out who is doing what to whom in this dark world. - maxcrat
i think each day, every night we are working on that coalface - & the work is certainly not getting any lighter
the butchere of world war l are banal in comparison to the carnage the cretins create today
Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 19 2009 20:02 utc | 17
@b
Irrespective of the possibility that this story was done to cast Hersh as a lunatic. It put the US in a more difficult position in winning the hearts and mind of the pakistani population. The rebuttal from Hersh was printed as a much smaller news. The people of Pakistan would think that Hersh was on to the truth, but changed his position later to save himself from the umreekan beast. The story that the US was behind the BB murder (although still quite prevalent in Pakistan) has gotten further traction.
It is unfortunate that, in an implicit manner, you cast the US to be the center of the universe wrt all that goes around in the world. Especially information warfare.
Posted by: a | May 20 2009 5:20 utc | 18
Here is how damaging to the Hersh-BB-Cheney story has been to the image of the US in Pakistan. This is a letter to the editor in the Dawn newspaper (dated 20th may) from the US ambassador in Pakistan:
REGARDING your story, ‘Squad run by Dick Cheney assassinated Benazir: Hersh’ (May 19), we take exception to allegations that the US government had anything whatsoever to do with the tragic assassination of Pakistan’s former prime minister, the late Benazir Bhutto.
With deep admiration for Ms Bhutto, we are offended and outraged that your newspaper would republish this especially repugnant brand of spurious and unsubstantiated rumour.
Apart from the circuitous and obscure web of allegations for this story, most troubling of all is the complete failure to provide an opportunity to the accused party, the United States government, to refute these baseless and sensational claims.
ANNE W. PATTERSON
Ambassador of the United States of America Islamabad
It is funny how "empire-centric" we have become in explaining everything.
Posted by: a | May 21 2009 18:20 utc | 19
The comments to this entry are closed.
Debkafile, which I take as a public outlet for Israeli the intelligence community, thinks Obama will accept Iranian enrichment.
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=6082
Our intelligence sources report that Obama is seriously considering taking up the Anglo-German proposal for an international monitoring mechanism strict enough to preclude Iran's attainment of weapons-grade enriched uranium.
The president was convinced by American intelligence and nuclear experts that this can be done. He also believes that nothing will persuade Tehran to cede its right to enrichment activity on its soil.
Posted by: Arnold Evans | May 19 2009 7:04 utc | 1