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February 17, 2011
Some Links – Feb 17

How Goldman Killed A.I.G. – NYT
Interesting but a bit one sided. AIG made, driven by greed, lots of mistakes. But in the end it was Goldman which willfully and out of pure greed took AIG down.

Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? – Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
Because they bribe the politicians, regulators and justices.

Spy Games: Inside the Convoluted Plot to Bring Down WikiLeaks – Wired
How the Chamber of Commerce and Bank of America planned to use military COIN tools to suppress critics.

Egypt's Cauldron of Revolt – Anand Gopal, FP
Worker strikes and their role in the Egyptian revolution.

Tactics and self-defense for the modern protester (pdf)
A short booklet which urgently needs some rewriting and extending – may be usefuls to some.

I still need to read up on Bahrain. The protests there have the usual background. They are about dignity and social-economic issues. But there is an additional layer. The majority Shia Bahrain was invaded by a Sunni tribe some 230 years ago and is still under its occupation. There is said to be split in the ruling family with prime minster and defense minister on one side and the king and the interior minister on the other. The army and police is made up of lots of foreigners, Pakistanis, Syrians etc. That may well explain their brutal behavior. The violence they used is tactically idiotic and the amount of teargas deployed against totally peaceful demonstrators is just insane.



Posted by b on February 17, 2011 at 17:47 UTC | Permalink
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Obama’s pro-democracy PR blitz gets hijacked by reality: Bahrain. Mark Landler, writing in the NYT, points out that “For the second time in two weeks violence has broken out in a restive Arab ally of the United States, confronting the Obama administration with the question of how harshly to condemn a friendly leader who is resisting street protests against his government…criticism would be an even sharper break for the United States than it was in the case of Egypt, since just two months ago Washington was holding up Bahrain as a model of reform for the region.
What the administration does with Bahrain is likely to be a telling indicator of how it will deal with the balance between protecting its strategic interests, and promoting democracy — a balance some critics said it never properly struck in its sometimes awkward response to the Egyptian turmoil. What will make this diplomatic maneuvering even more complicated is Bahrain’s proximity to Saudi Arabia, another Sunni monarchy with even greater strategic value to the United States.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/world/middleeast/18diplomacy.html?_r=1&hp
It will indeed interesting to watch Obama twist himself into knots, publicly advocating democracy while privately backing the US security state, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.

Posted by: JohnH | Feb 17 2011 19:45 utc | 1

Formerly run by the British, Bahrain’s secret police are now assisted by the Jordanians.
This is a dangerous business for Jordan, as it is for Saudi Arabia. Both are becoming clearly identified as financial and military bases of pro-US reactionary forces in the Arab world. These regimes are putting their own survival on the line for their friends, their fellow tyrants. By doing so they risk losing the support of many of their domestic conservative supporters. It is one thing for Jordan’s ruling class to tolerate their Royal Family, but setting up as the US/Israeli alliance’s security guards, in opposition to Arab public opinion, is something else.
It is dangerous for regimes to back too many losers in succession: Ben Ali, Mubarak, Abu Mazem and now doubling down on the Emir of Bahrain.
In Saudi Arabia, where the succession is very much up in the air and the charmed circle of the Royal Family is split asunder, those getting too close to the USA and Israel run the risk of being outmanouevred by more reform inclined descendants of Ibn Saud.
As to the Hashemites, high speed and courting dangers have always been a family failing. It’s what playboys do. And it often leads to grief. I expect that the Amir of Bahrain and Abdullah went to University together in England.

Posted by: bevin | Feb 17 2011 21:32 utc | 2

it remains true

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 17 2011 23:42 utc | 3

What the administration does with Bahrain is likely to be a telling indicator of how it will deal with the balance between protecting its strategic interests, and promoting democracy — a balance some critics said it never properly struck in its sometimes awkward response to the Egyptian turmoil.
There is no interest in Democracy, whatsoever. For certain, their is feigned interest in Democracy as witnessed by the nauseous propaganda issuing forth from Washington, but it’s not sincere in the least. It never was, and it never will be.
Oh, and I can assure you Obama is not in knots. He merely says what he supposed to say, and be what he’s supposed to be. He’s not running the show, he’s not driving the bus. No, he’s just some glitzy advertising plastered all over the outside telling us how grand it all is.

Posted by: Morocco Bama | Feb 18 2011 0:10 utc | 4

Someone must have mentioned this by now, but it seems that one of the best historical analogues for what is now happening in the Arab world is constituted by the Uprisings of 1848 which swept across Europe (and were, in the short run, almost all brutally repressed). It’s only an analogy, of course, but perhaps it provides some useful perspective.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Feb 18 2011 9:39 utc | 5

Yes, I have also been thinking of 1848, not least beacause of the monarchial charachter of the arabian dictators (even those who do not use ‘king’ as title) and the collaboration among the oppressors. There is also a similarity in the population pressure of mid 19th century Europe and todays arab world.
And hi again.

Posted by: a swedish kind of death | Feb 18 2011 12:37 utc | 6

Yes, I have also been thinking of 1848, not least beacause of the monarchial charachter of the arabian dictators (even those who do not use ‘king’ as title) and the collaboration among the oppressors. There is also a similarity in the population pressure of mid 19th century Europe and todays arab world.
And hi again.

Posted by: a swedish kind of death | Feb 18 2011 12:37 utc | 7

‘giaps post tells us of what is lost and what is to be gained..these letters in the link provided speak to people and to parents as i am …of undying love and commitment to struggle…the saddest moment in this history is that people are not listening to the voices of their fellow people..therein is for me th horror

Posted by: noiseannoys | Feb 18 2011 12:51 utc | 8

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/SaccoV/S&Vletters.html

Posted by: noiseannoys | Feb 18 2011 12:52 utc | 9

Beautiful, giap thank you.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 18 2011 14:46 utc | 10

is it spreading? 25,000 protested In Madison, Wisconsin today and then 4000 protested in Columbus Ohio where an almost identical bill is set to pass.
This is is the biggest fear our leaders of our Corporatocracy have. This will be put down, post haste.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 18 2011 14:55 utc | 11

This is a dangerous business for Jordan, as it is for Saudi Arabia.
I don’t know whether you saw what happened in Jordan a week ago (I don’t mean the change of govt.), but it was an error that could lead Jordan straight to the edge.

The king was on a field visit to Al-Hashemiyah University, in the rural area of Mafraq, East of Jordan. Upon the King’s arrival at the university, protesters from Bani Hassan tribe, one of the biggest tribes, gathered before the King’s motorcade; they were protesting their living conditions and the fact that the government has been stripping them from their rural-land possessions.
Members of the Royal Jordanian Guards accompanying the king opened fire on the protestors, injuring at least four according to several stories leaked to the Jordanian media. Official reports claim only two protesters were shot and nobody killed; nonetheless rumors circulated over several Jordanian website spoke of four dead young men.
The King’s visits to the area seemed to be a public relations move following a harsh statement released by the Bani Hassan tribe, in which they criticized the King for his “constant absence from the country on leisure travel” and “for not making the time for Jordan.”

The East Bank tribes, including the Bani Hasan, are the mainstay of the regime’s support, and have staffed for years the Arab Legion, now the Jordanian Army.
Not wise to go round shooting your principal support.

Posted by: alexno | Feb 18 2011 15:17 utc | 12

The Angry Arab calls the Jordan Royal couple King Play Station and Queen You Tube.

Posted by: Noirette | Feb 18 2011 16:26 utc | 13

Sorry for little posting. This story kept me busy today: Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg: Baron without a title

Names and titles matter in Germany. For the moment, Defence Minister Dr zu Guttenberg will be plain Mr or Minister – or maybe Baron – and that will be painful.
He told a swarm of reporters enquiring about the plagiarism allegations swirling around him: “I will temporarily – I repeat temporarily – give up my doctoral title.”
He will do so, he said, while the university that gave him the doctorate completes its investigation into whether it really was all his own work.
It follows the publication of pages from his thesis alongside pages from other articles by other authors. His writings mirror word for word the writings of the earlier articles.
The allegations have great force because Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is a dream of a politician: rich, good-looking with a beautiful wife, the very model of a German aristocrat.

Guttenberg was the Bilderberg candidate for the next German chancellor. An “Atlanticist” selected and bred more by the U.S. establishment than the German one. A marketing product without any real content pushed by the big right-wing Springer media in Germany.
To see him going down over an obviously cheaply ghostwritten dissertation is a beauty. What a nice day!

Posted by: b | Feb 18 2011 19:15 utc | 14

Forgot this link in German. On at least 118 pages of the 475 page long Guttenberg dissertation text is found that was copied from other works available on the Internet, including from a first semester student paper, without being marked as such.
Guttenberg’s family has a net worth of some $800 million. But obviously he was too greedy to pay for a qualified ghostwriter. And then signed in lieu of an oath that the “dissertation” was his own writing.

Posted by: b | Feb 18 2011 19:21 utc | 15

matt taibbi

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 18 2011 20:45 utc | 16

that piece of shit president using his first veto -surprise, surprise – against the palestinians – supporting the occupation – the arab people will draw their lessons from that

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 19 2011 0:25 utc | 17

Defense minister relinquishes Ph.D. over plagiarism charges | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 18.02.2011

Newsmagazine Spiegel said Guttenberg even passed off US Embassy material as his own text – translated directly into German – in a string of allegations that has prompted German media to turn the posh Franconian surname “zu Guttenberg” into a far less noble “zu Googleberg.”

Love the new nickname for Guttenberg. 🙂

Posted by: Fran | Feb 19 2011 6:01 utc | 18

the massacre at night was the worst so far. Take a look at this brilliant photo gallery documenting the protests in Bahrain

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 19 2011 8:53 utc | 19

From b.’s opening post:

Spy Games: Inside the Convoluted Plot to Bring Down WikiLeaks – Wired
How the Chamber of Commerce and Bank of America planned to use military COIN tools to suppress critics.

Two related links: particularly the first one merits attention:
From Ars Technica, part of a series, other articles are linked from there:
Black ops: how HBGary wrote backdoors for the government As some commenters there have noted: “you wouldn’t believe it if it were a movie…”.
And sort of elaborating on the previous link, a guest post at naked capitalism:
You Know Those Obnoxious Posters Who Almost Seem Like Alter Egos Of The Same Person? They Actually Might Be … – I found this one amusing to read, particularly some of the comments.
That whole HBGary fiasco is interesting on many levels, including in the context of recent comments here on Moa, ref Twitter and Facebook. I’ve no doubt that both are heavily manipulated.
(I’ve always been surprised at the ease with which both of them have been able to rise capital to fund their operation. Facebook I more or less understand, its reason d’être is selling your data to advertisers. Twitter ? still doesn’t even have a clear business plan. Note that I’m not saying that it has been set up by spooks and other dark forces).

Posted by: Philippe | Feb 20 2011 11:50 utc | 20

Uncle $cam,
Labor activists should frame workers’ rights within the context of civil rights. It worked for blacks back in the ’60s, so it should also work for workers today. But the hard part is convincing black activists to share some of their civil rights’ power with labor activists.
I have my doubts about this ever happening given that black activists seem more interested in removing power from white workers and packing the corporate power structure with blacks than they do in uniting black and white workers as a single force against the corporate power structure.
And it doesn’t help that most black activists today, at least the ones that live in the Deep South where I live, double as right-wing Christian activists that preach the doctrine of Biblical capitalism, which demonizes labor unions as the work of the devil, while embracing the notion that Wall Street is doing God’s work. No doubt that Barack Obama is their dream come true.

Posted by: Cynthia | Feb 21 2011 14:46 utc | 21

Glen Ford, who co-founded the Black Agenda Report, speaks the ugly truth that many black Americans turn a blind eye to Barack Obama being the antithesis of Martin Luther King, meaning that they refuse to admit that America’s first black president almost always sides with the powerful over the powerless, regardless of their skin color:
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=6075

Posted by: Cynthia | Feb 22 2011 1:24 utc | 22

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