Links May 20 09 – Moon of Alabama

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May 20, 2009

Links May 20 09

Chomsky – The Torture Memos and Historical Amnesia – (TomDispatch)
Hang'em high – The 13 people who made torture possible – (Salon)
On McChrystal – The new face on Washington's war – (Socialist Worker)
Cowards – Democrats in Senate Block Money to Close Guantánamo – (NYT)

Moving target – Iraq slides election until January – (AP)
Psychos – U.S. military: Heavily armed and medicated – (MSNBC)
Forget the 'May Be' – Arms From U.S. May Be Falling Into Taliban Hands – (NYT)

With some interesting details on Iran negotiations – Interview with Mohamed Elbaradei – (Spiegel)
U.S.-Russian Team Deems Missile Shield in Europe Ineffective – (WaPo)

Dennis Ross 2008 income includes $214,605 for speeches to AIPAC etc. – 2 special envoys prove well-heeled – (USA Today via FLC)
Bibi's answer to Obama – Israel unleashes new war upon Gaza ghetto – (PressTV)

Invade the Cayman – Lax Little Islands – (The Nation)
Our ruling oligarchs – Beware bail-out kings and backbench barons – (FT, alt. link)

Please add your links, views and news in the comments.

Posted by b on May 20, 2009 at 06:31 UTC | Permalink

Comments

from the moving target/election link
In other developments Monday, Iraqi television aired partial footage of the interrogation of a man it says is Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the al-Qaida front group, the Islamic State of Iraq. The government says it arrested al-Baghdadi on April 23.
A speaker who identified himself as al-Baghdadi denied the arrest in an audio message posted last week on a militant Web site.
The man on the grainy video shown Monday said his real name was Ahmed Abed Ahmed Khamees al-Mujamaie, born in 1969 in Diyala province north of Baghdad. He said al-Qaida in Iraq relied for funding on money sent by charities in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria as well as from robberies carried out inside Iraq.
He said the group was responsible for the 2006 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra north of Baghdad that sparked sectarian Shiite-Sunni killings that claimed thousands of lives. He also suggested the group cooperated with Saddam Hussein’s now-banned Baath party.
The U.S. military has not confirmed al-Baghdadi’s arrest. Past Iraqi claims to have captured or killed al-Baghdadi turned out to be wrong. The U.S. has even said al-Baghdadi was simply an actor used by the terror movement to give an Iraqi face to an organization dominated by foreign al-Qaida fighters.
the revival of al baghdadi. a connection between saddam and AQ plus the perpetrator of the samarra bombing? how convenient.

Posted by: annie | May 20 2009 12:47 utc | 1

what happened to my blockquote?

Posted by: annie | May 20 2009 12:48 utc | 2

would people mind adding the urls until something gets fixed. i can’t read any links except b’s, in any of the threads.

Posted by: annie | May 20 2009 13:20 utc | 3

The headline in the Financial Times (20 May 2009) reads “Iran missile threat not seen in six years” quoting a report by the US and Russian experts
(http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/832dc218-4496-11de-82d6-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1)
The Haaretz on line headline on the same day reads “U.S., Russian experts: Iran could have nukes in 1 to 3 years” (http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1086867.html)
Should these experts not stop telling different things to different people?

Posted by: TutuG | May 20 2009 14:12 utc | 4

annie
do you have a link for the actual video of al-Baghdadi? Looks like this guy confessed to everything he was asked to. Perfect case of torture confession. I don’t doubt for a moment that Maliki’s people torture. But then, they are not pretending to be a paragon of civilisation.

Posted by: alex | May 20 2009 15:36 utc | 5

alex, that segment was copied from b’s link above
“Moving target – Iraq slides election until January – (AP)”
the first time i heard of al baghdadi it sounded like a think tank inspired name perfect for american consumption (baghdad, how hard could that be to forget?). plus, the ‘Islamic State of Iraq’ sounded like a think tank inspired ‘group’ perfect for american consumption. just somebody and some group to dump all out pretexts for warring on. then low and behold he gets killed, then resurrected (like big z as i recall), then dead again, then the announcement from the US military maybe he never existed at all! hello! and americans are so forgetful he’s being hauled out again this time by the iraqi gov. i wonder if iraqis are buying this at all or if it is even in the arab press (close your ears sam).
here’s the 5/2 wapo link
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/01/AR2009050100366.html
‘ “We have not had any access to him,” Maj. Gen. David G. Perkins, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said Friday. “We are in discussions with the Iraqis to determine how we can confirm or deny who he is.”
Iraqis have hailed the arrest, which they say was carried out with no assistance from U.S. troops, as a testament to their readiness to take control of security as the U.S. military starts withdrawing from urban areas. ‘
it would not surprise me in the least if the entire ‘confession’ of ‘al baghdadi’ is a fabrication from a psyops group. so no, i don’t have a video of it nor do i think one exists because i doubt any questioning took place.

Posted by: annie | May 20 2009 16:10 utc | 6

Notice to all:
There is currently a new bug Typepad managed to introduce that somehow prevents pages to get generated with the appropriate HTML for formatting and links in the comments. I have opened a ticket for that and hope to hear back soon.
Sorry …

Posted by: b | May 20 2009 16:56 utc | 7

for parviz: Michael Hudson @ Counterpunch
a taste:
There are, in this current crop of books, the usual pro forma calls to re-industrialize America, but not to address the financial debt dynamic that has undercut industrial capitalism in this country and abroad. How will these timid “reforms” look in retrospect a decade from now? The Bush-Obama bailout pretends that banks “too-big-to-fail” only face a liquidity problem, not a bad debt problem in the face of the economy’s widening inability to pay. The reason why past bubbles cannot be restored is that they have reached their debt limit, not only domestically, but also the international political limit of global Dollar Hegemony.
What don’t these books address? Everything economics really is all about: the debt overhead; financial fraud and crime in general (one of the economy’s highest-paying sectors); military spending (a key to the U.S. balance-of-payments deficit and hence to the buildup of central bank dollar reserves throughout the world); the proliferation of unearned income and insider political dealing. These are the core phenomena that “free market” choristers have relegated to the “institutionalist” basement of the academic economics curriculum.
*
parviz, do you really think the Paulson/Geithner plan is working?

Posted by: Lizard | May 20 2009 16:57 utc | 8

once again, links and blockquotes gone. fucking bullshit.

Posted by: Lizard | May 20 2009 16:58 utc | 9

sorry b, i just saw your explanation. i really hope these kinks get figured out.

Posted by: Lizard | May 20 2009 16:59 utc | 10

annie@6
I think a video does exist, as there was a photo of it on Iraqi tv in the AFP report.
I am sure the person who confessed is not fictional. Whether he is genuinely Abu Umar al-Baghdadi, and whether Baghdadi did the things he confessed to, are entirely other, and unanswerable, questions. That is the point about torture confessions, is it not?

Posted by: alex | May 20 2009 17:13 utc | 11

alex “as there was a photo of it on Iraqi tv in the AFP report”
well, i don’t know. we had that video of bin laden too. then there is this allegedly from Al-Fajr Media Center The Ministry of Information — The Islamic State of Iraq,(in english). pronouncing Abu Omar al-Baghdadi Is Alive and Not Imprisoned. circa 5/11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaoeqcnCHR0
i didn’t see the AFP video.
b, #7. thanks for all you do for us. i know this must be a hassle for you. no worries, we’re just grateful to have this place, speaking for myself anyway.

Posted by: annie | May 20 2009 17:38 utc | 12

here is a page of random stuff (the revolution)in case link doesn’t take: http://therevolutionwillnotbeorganized.org/ regarding the times we are living in… it does include this new look at Gil Scott Heron’s “the revolution will not be televised” by Jock Doubleday, as well as some interesting links, poster, and other media.
“The Revolution Will Not Be Organized”
The revolution will not be organized,
the revolution will not be organized.com,
the revolution will not be Yahoo Grouped, Meetuped,
downloaded, uploaded, QWERTY’d, or blogged.
The revolution will not be handled by webmasters,
think-tankers, authors of policy position papers,
authors of anti-policy position papers,
secretaries, executives, executive assistants,
insiders, whistle-blowers, informants, counter-informants,
committees or sub-committees.
Your neighbor with excellent leadership qualities
will not lead you into, through, or out of the revolution.
The revolution will not be inspired, instigated, managed
or controlled by him, her, or them.
The revolution will not be organized.
No matter if you eat at McDonald’s and can barely walk,
no matter if you drive an S.U.V. and rarely walk,
no matter if you were public school indoctrinated,
vaccinated, humiliated, ostracized, terrorized, minimized,
no matter if you live in a house owned by BofA,
no matter if you eat cat food, dog food,
Puppy Chow for your inner child,
no matter if you shop at Salvation Army, Saks, TJ Maxx,
when the Cold Hand of Power touches you,
it touches revolution.
They will come to chip you, rape you,
tell you you are theirs, imprison you in FEMA camps
because you spoke out,
because you doubted the official story,
because you looked with your own eyes,
spoke from your own heart.
They will come for you in black uniforms, black helmets,
swinging black batons, symbols of the New Authority,
and you will say,
“No, my children and I will not come with you.”
You will say no — not because Charlie Sheen
inspired you one night on FOX News
to look more closely at falling towers.
You will say no — not because Alex Jones
led you through the darkness with a bullhorn.
You will say no — not because Howard Zinn
handed you the Book of Truth on a silver platter.
You will say no because you are your own
star of truth shining the way.
At your unique hour, in the dark,
beneath a burning paper currency moon,
the Cold Hand of Power will touch you and revolt you.
At your unique hour,
when they come for you because you asked questions,
because you did not lower your eyes,
because you did not bow down,
at your unique hour,
in your unique circumstance,
you will find yourself in the grip of a courage
you have not known but which you are.
You will stand in front of black helmets with invisible faces,
and you will say,
“No, my children and I will not come with you.”
Daughters and sons of revolutionaries,
blood burning for freedom,
eyes set toward tomorrow,
each of you alone in the darkness,
beneath tender constellations burning gold and silver,
each of you will remember the path to take
when the Cold Hand of Power comes for you,
each of you will make your way without direction or encouragement,
as those before you made their way without direction or encouragement,
forging history, embracing destiny.
You will not march in file.
You will not march.
The revolution will not be organized.
In your darkest hour,
beneath the burning moon,
you will pledge allegiance to the truth,
as those before you pledged allegiance to the truth.
The truth cannot be organized.
“The Revolution Will Not Be Organized”
written on September 24, 2008 by
Jock Doubleday

Posted by: DavidS | May 20 2009 17:44 utc | 13

“Psychos – U.S. military: Heavily armed and medicated – (MSNBC)”
If our troops must stay doped up just to stay afloat in battle, then it’s high time we grab our guns and goodies and hightail it out of Dodge!

Posted by: Cynthia | May 21 2009 14:53 utc | 14

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