CONTACT: taylore@marlboro.edu

July 26, 2009

Eliot Spitzer and Toure roleplay the bailout

This video is very good.  Best part is when Eliot Spitzer calls the Federal Reserve a Ponzi Scheme.


Also, this is an Washing Post op-ed on predatory lending Eliot Spitzer wrote one month before he was forced to resign after it was leaked to the press that he was the one millionth politician to sleep with a hooker.

Dennis Ross

Right at the start of the Iranian election turmoil, Dennis Ross left his job at the State Department and joined the National Security Council.  This is his new job (from the Washington Independent):
Dennis Ross will become Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for the Central Region with overall responsibility for the region.  He will work with Don Camp, Senior Director for South Asia, Lt. Gen. Doug Lute, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Adviser and Coordinator for Afghanistan-Pakistan, Dan Shapiro, Senior Director for Near East and North Africa, and Puneet Talwar, Senior Director for the Gulf States, Iran and Iraq.
Also, everyone should read William Polk's recent Counterpunch post, which reminded me of Dennis "Israel's Lawyer" Ross:
"In the White House, I think it would be hard to find a worse choice than the new Special Assistant to the President, Dennis Ross. Three examples of his skill: a) in the early negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, when he was supposedly the honest broker, he took a more disruptive position than even the Israelis, apparently shocking even them; b) in the build-up to the Iranian elections he sponsored and organized a program to "electronically invade" Iran with destabilizing messages trying, more subtly to be sure than the 1953 CIA-MI6 coup, to "regime change" it."

Sarah Palin Copyedited

This is funny.

July 25, 2009

AIG

Michael Lewis has a new piece out in Vanity Fair on how A.I.G. managed to end up insuring so many subprime mortgages.
The article is called "The Man Who Crashed the World," and it is definitely worth a read.

Also, if you haven't read it yet, Matt Taibbi's scathing Rolling Stone article on Goldman Sachs, "The Great American Bubble Machine" is a must.  (And his vampire squid image seems to be a lasting one). 

Tel Aviv Twitters

I found this Counterpunch article by Jonthan Cook last week, but forget to post it.  It's called "Israel's Internet War," and it details the new Israeli "internet warfare team" that was allocated $150,000 in the current government budget.
"Mr Shturman, the deputy director of the ministry’s hasbara department, admitted his team would be working undercover.“Our people will not say: ‘Hello, I am from the hasbara department of the Israeli foreign ministry and I want to tell you the following.’ Nor will they necessarily identify themselves as Israelis,” he said. “They will speak as net-surfers and as citizens, and will write responses that will look personal but will be based on a prepared list of messages that the foreign ministry developed.
"The new team is expected to increase the ministry’s close coordination with a private advocacy group, giyus.org (Give Israel Your United Support). About 50,000 activists are reported to have downloaded a programme called Megaphone that sends an alert to their computers when an article critical of Israel is published. They are then supposed to bombard the site with comments supporting Israel."
I bring up again my previous post "Twitters impact inside Iran is zero," where i brought up the analysis done by Chartingstocks.net on the original Twitter posts that sparked the media idea of a "twitter revolution" in Iran.  Chartingstocks.net found (through unscientific methods) that the Jerusalem Post was the first media outlet to use twitter posts as legitimate news on the election.

True Crimes: The Untold Story behind the devastation of Iraq

I found this Nation Institute forum from 2008.  Seymour Hersh, Jeremy Scahill, Chris Hedges, and Lailia al-Arian having a freewheeling discussion of Iraq and American policy in general.  1 hr. 36 min.  Very much worth watching.


July 24, 2009

Nazis and the Mufti

Apparently Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's far-right foreign minister, is throwing out all the stops in trying to distract the world as Israel tears down more Palestinian homes and builds Israeli homes in their place.
According to Haaretz, "Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has ordered diplomats to use an old photograph of a former Palestinian religious leader meeting Adolf Hitler to counter world criticism of a Jewish building plan for East Jerusalem.  Israeli officials said on Wednesday that Lieberman told Israeli ambassadors to circulate the 1941 shot in Berlin of the Nazi leader seated next to Haj Amin al-Husseini, the late mufti or top Muslim religious leader in Jerusalem."   
Daniel Luban writes on Jim Lobe's Blog that the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, a powerful Washington lobby, has taken Lieberman's advice  and in a recent statement included the Mufti's Nazi ties (which certainly do exist) as a "disturbing" reason  why there should be no opposition to further Israeli colonies being built in East Jerusalem.

Pushing Back the Withdrawal Date

It is being reported that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is starting to waver on the December 31st, 2011 withdrawal date for all American soldiers in Iraq.  The status of force agreement signed in the waning days of Bush has a renegotiation clause at the end, and advisors like General Jack Keane want the U.S. military to never, ever give up its imperial garrisons in Iraq.  
What will be interesting to watch is the multiple forces working on al-Maliki, one from Washington and Tampa trying to pull the puppet strings, and one from Iraq wanting the Americans out.

July 22, 2009

Great Game 2.0


It seems that as the Obama administration's war policy matures, Southwest Asia is being turned inside out in the name of America's Overseas Contingency Operation (the official "new" term for the Global War on Terror).

My favorite frontline reporter, Syed Saleem Shahzad, has a new article out, "Pakistan-U.S. plan falls into place."  The article is worth reading multiple times, and perhaps printing out and saving, as it lays out the framework for what will be, in Shahzed's words "a struggle of unprecedented proportions."

  On one side of the struggle are the military politicians of the imperial states.  Shahzad writes "The seamless friendship between the chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani, has cemented the relationship between the military establishments of the two countries to levels not seen since the 1950s."  According to Shahzad, the "cemented relationship" will proceed along two path.

First, "Pakistan will launch a comprehensive battle against all Taliban groups in the country, irrespective of whether they are perceived as good or bad."  Second, "an initiative will be made by the Pakistani government, supported by the country's Western allies, for better relations with India, strongly mediated by the Pakistan army."

In order to understand this alliance, it must be understood that the U.S. is thoroughly engaged in a Great Game, meaning that the military is only a facade for underlying economic concerns.  

In Pakistan, the American's have been setting up quite a "civilian" task-force in Islamabad.  They currently have more than 500 advisors in the capital city, and earlier this year the White House asked Congress for $736 Million to build a new super-embassy in the capital city. (To put that price tag in perspective, when the U.S. built the world's largest embassy in Baghdad's Green Zone, it cost $740 million.)  And what have these "civilians" been advising the Pakistani government to do?  According to Shahzad, they have told the Pakistani Army to declare war westward, rather than eastward.  My asumption right now is that the U.S. is hoping to benefit itself, and not India, from a shift in Pakistani belligerence.  It was rumored that when Richard Holbrooke was put it charge of diplomacy for the region, his original title included Kashmir, but it was removed at India's request.

Across the Durand Line, in Afghanistan, all signs are pointing to a continuation of the neoliberal occupation of the state.   Zalmay Khalizad as CEO?  James Carville as campaign strategist?  Chances are that Afghanistan is still a pipeline war, or a surround Iran war, and Zbig has no plans to give up on his policy.  The recent American military operation, Operation Daggerthrust, sprawled 5,000 marines out over Helmand Province, where a new 443 acre military base, Camp Leatherneck, is being built (near both the Iran and Pakistan border).  The operational is out of style for General Stan McChrystal, who specializes in small Special Forces operations.  There has been, however, talk of Special Forces raids from Helmand province into Pakistani Baluchistan, which according to Pepe Escobar, is the greatest prize in Great Game 2.0.  Watch for the ultra-remote Nimruz province of Afghanistan to start cropping up in the news, as it will be the staging ground for any cross border operation.   


  As it stands, Pakistan lives off of an IMF lifeline, a fact that the military leaders of both America and Pakistan are fully aware of.  Therefore, if the U.S. military needs an allied army to join the fight for empire, Pakistan has no choice but to agree.  Washington has all the cards, and it seems that Richard Armitage's September 11th "with us or against us" ultimatum is still being adhered to.  All that is left to be seen is how hard the other side of the struggle, the Southwest Asian militants, will fight.  For that, read Shahzad's article.

July 20, 2009

Inevitable War

Is a coming attack on Iran a foregone conclusion in Washington and Tel Aviv?  Paul Craig Roberts thinks so.  Read his latest Counterpunch article "Threatening Iran."  The Times of London also thinks so (read my previous post "War with Iran.")

Also, props to someone else for pointing out the glaring possibility that Twitter manipulation is the easiest PSYOPS trick in the book.

July 19, 2009

Fuck You Tom Friedman

Does Thomas L. Friedman have no limits?  

In his Sunday op-ed (Teacher, Can We Leave Now? No.) Mr. Friedman writes of taking a "fun" helicopter ride with the Admiral Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and therefore the most powerful man in the U.S. military, in order to "cut the ribbon" on a secular all-girls school built by the American humanitarian Greg Mortenson.
Mr. Friedman then concludes:
 "But when you see two little Afgahn girls crouched on the front steps of their new school, clutching tightly with both arms the notebooks handed to them by a U.S. Admiral--as is they were their first dolls--it's hard to say: "Let's just walk away." Not Yet."
First of all Mr. Friedman, have you ever read a cynical book about the Vietnam War, one that mocks the journalists who go on helicopter trips with generals and report it as the truth?  Well you are now that journalist, falling for the military's PR, hook, line and sinker.  (and if you haven't read any of those books, maybe you should.  I recommend starting with Dispatches, by Michael Herr.)
Secondly, your concern for education is truly touching.  However, for some reason you conflate the military occupation with Mr. Mortenson's private efforts to open schools.  Does this mean that we should invade every country in which Mr. Mortenson works?  Moreover, perhaps you haven't noticed, but the U.S. military hopes to employ over 100,000 Afghans not as teachers, or doctors, or engineers, but as soldiers.  In the 2009 Supplemental Appropriations Act, passed in June, the U.S. taxpayers spent close to four times as much money on fighting a war in Afghanistan as it did on civilian aid to Afghanistan.  You also seem to have it stuck in your head that when the U.S. military ends the Afghanistan War, anything related to the West will end with it.  Just maybe Mr. Mortenson's schools would not be blown up if his tax dollars were not blowing up wedding parties. 
Lastly, please don't ever writs this paragraph again (or alternately, go work for the Weekly Standard):
Mortenson's efforts remind us what the essence of the War on Terrorism is about.  It's about the war of ideas within Islam--a war between religous zealots who glorify martyrdom and want to keep Islam untouched by modernity and isolated by other faiths, with its women disempowered, and those who want to embrace modernity, open Islam to new ideas and empower Muslim women as much as men.

Syed Saleem Shahzad






In his latest column for the Asia Times, "Pakistan wields a double edged sword," Pakistan Bureau Chief Syed Saleem Shahza writes about the different factions that have emerged among the militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as the militants changing reaction to Operation Rah-e-Raast, the Pakistani Military Campaign against them that began earlier this year.

New Player in the (Great) Game:
Bin Yameem: After the military operation, emerged as new supreme commander of Swat Valley, "He is fiercely anti-army and insiders say that even if ceasefires agreements are made, he will ignore them and fight to his last man and last bullet...He [Bin Yameen] was the victim of the worst sort of torture by army personnel, right up to the time it became crystal clear that he was not involved in any activity against the army or Musharraf. He became full of venom against the army." 

Some other highlights:
"Contrary to the military's claims of hundreds of militants killed, the militants say they have lost only 50 of their men, with the remainder being civilians killed in crossfire or in aerial bombings. Of the 50, two commanders - one named only as Daud and the other as Shah Doran - have died."

"A few months ago, when the Malakand operation was in full swing, the Americans became so desperate that action should be taken against Pakistani militants who were due to go into Helmand that the Pakistani establishment believed they would take matters into their own hands and move into Pakistan. 
To pre-empt this, all possible tribal rivals of Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan were organized (all were Taliban) under the banner of the Pakistan army."

Jabbar had always opposed attacks on the Pakistani security forces as well as jihadi operations in Pakistan. Under US pressure (more than 500 Americans have arrived in Islamabad to observe developments) an operation was organized against militants in the southern Punjab and several high-profile commanders, including one named Farooq and other members of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, were arrested. 
A top jihadi leader commented to Asia Times Online, "We never imagined such a reaction. We have not fought against the Pakistan army and we do not consider it right.
But if the present arrests continue, what option will we have ... without going to Waziristan and doing what other people are doing there? 
(Image courtesy of BBC)

Torture Talk

Today, the Washington Post ran a nice piece, "Internal Rifts on Road to Torment," detailing the CIA's decisions on the interrogation of Abu Zubaida.  The story gives a good depiction of the chain of command, as well as the use of contractors in carrying out interrogations.  If people wish to know more about this episode, they should read Ron Suskind's excellent book, "The One Percent Doctrine."

Here is a video of the author, Joby Warrick, talking about his article to MSNBC's Chris Jansen.  

July 18, 2009

Breaking the Silence

Here is a full copy of the recent Breaking the Silence report that i wrote about this week.  Thanks to Phillip Weiss at Mondoweiss.com

July 17, 2009

War with Iran

The Times of London, Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper, seems to have figured out the geopolitics of Obama's Middle East.  In yesterdays article "Israeli Navy in Suez Canal Prepares for Potential Attack on Iran," author Sheera Frenkel concludes an informative piece on recent Israeli military exercises with these incredibly disturbing lines:

The exercises come at a time when Western diplomats are offering support for an Israeli strike on Iran in return for Israeli concessions on the formation of a Palestinian state.

If agreed it would make an Israeli strike on Iran realistic “within the year” said one British official.

Diplomats said that Israel had offered concessions on settlement policy, Palestinian land claims and issues with neighboring Arab states, to facilitate a possible strike on Iran.

Israel has chosen to place the Iranian threat over its settlements,” said a senior European diplomat.

My hope is that these "Western Diplomats" are only trying to help News Corp spin the Atlantic political climate into a warlike state, but i would not be surprised for one moment if Rahm Emanuel and company in Washington struck this type of deal.  Israel has never been one to sit down and behave, and if another deceitful "peace process" is indeed underway, no doubt Israel will do everything it can to milk the diplomatic procedures to its benefit.

I've been to Manchester New Hampshire

"U.S. Shopper Charged $23 Quadrillion for Cigarettes"

July 16, 2009

Orders from above

Recently, IDF soldiers have put down some damning testimonies relating to Operation Cast Lead, Israel's brutal invasion of the Gaza strip over the New Year.  The testimonies, from about 30 soldiers, were gathered by Breaking the Silence, "an army veterans organisation that seeks to "expose the Israeli public to the routine situations of everyday life in the occupied territories."
As reported in The Independent, "Israeli Soldiers Reveal the Brutal Truth of Gaza Attack":
The first eye-witness accounts of the war by serving Israeli reservists and conscripts describes the Israeli use of Palestinian civilians as "human shields". They detail the killing of at least two civilians, the vandalism, looting and wholesale destruction of Palestinian houses, the use of deadly white phosphorus, bellicose religious advice from army rabbis and what another battalion commander described to his troops as "insane firepower with artillery and air force". 
Despite official accounts that homes were only destroyed for strictly "operational" reasons, one reservist, a veteran of the conflict in Gaza since before 2005, said "I never knew such fire power" used by tanks and helicopters for the "constant destruction" of houses. 
 Palestinian human shields – or "johnnies" as they were termed by soldiers on the ground – were suborned to enter surrounded houses ahead of troops, including houses known to contain armed militants.
One soldier said an army rabbi had "aimed at inspiring the men with courage, cruelty aggressiveness, expressions as 'no pity. God protects you. Everything you do is sanctified'... there were specific scenarios discussed... but from the context it was pretty obvious he came to tell us how aggressive and determined we need to be, that we must win because this is a holy war"


Wizards and Weed

Jamie Waylett, an actor in the recent Harry Potter movie was caught growing weed.  That's pretty funny.  
If my Harry Potter lore is correct (which I'm pretty sure it is) Waylett's character, Vincent Crabbe, could easily have grown weed in Hogwarts.  He was a Slytherin crony of Draco Malfoy, and was certainly not adverse to breaking the law.  In fact, JK Rowling could have taken a page from the U.S. Government and had the Slytherins sell weed to finance some type of evil plan, like resurrecting the Dark Lord Cheney (oops, Voldemort)

Roving Eye

In his latest Roving Eye for The Asia Times, "Kashmir: Ground zero of global jihad," Pepe Escobar has a very long interview with Arif Jamal, the author of "Shadow War: The Untold Story of Jihad in Kashmir"
Some Highlights:

PE: Was the operation in Swat Valley [this year] nothing but a big show put up by the army for the benefit of Washington - of course, with the "collateral damage" of displacing 3.4 million people? 
AJ: It appears so more and more with the passage of time. In the beginning, it appeared they were serious in eliminating the terrorists there. However, knowingly or unknowingly, they gave enough time to top terrorists like Sufi Mohammad and Maulana Fazlullah and their followers to escape. As a result, the terrorists disappeared from Swat Valley but re-emerged elsewhere.

AJ: The new Jihad International Inc appears to be aiming at Pakistan rather than at the West. It seems to be trying to take over Islamabad and to turn it into a springboard for global jihad. The difference between the "historic" al-Qaeda and the new Jihad International Inc is that the latter is dominated by Pakistani jihadis while the former was Arab-oriented with an Arab, Bin Laden, at the top. The other difference is that new Jihad International Inc is aiming at India as a primary target while al-Qaeda under Bin Laden wanted to destroy America. 

PE: What's substantially wrong with US President Obama's AfPak strategy? Did he get his priorities right? How come he doesn't even mention Kashmir? 
AJ: The Obama administration is not striking very hard on the source of global jihad, which is the jihad in Kashmir. My sense is the Obama administration understands the issue of terrorism more than the [George W] Bush administration. But, it seems to have accepted pressure from India, and is not mentioning the Kashmir conflict. The earlier idea of appointing a special envoy to Kashmir was a brilliant idea and abandoning it, I think, is the biggest mistake they are making. 

PE: What's the ultimate solution for Kashmir? What does the majority, on both sides of the LoC, really want? And who's more flexible, those living in India or in Pakistan? 
AJ: It is too premature to talk of an ultimate solution. The Kashmir conflict is too complex to talk about in just an interview. The real issue is that India is not ready to deviate from its position and Pakistan is not ready to accept the status quo as the solution.

Scary Scary Darpa

The military is developing a robot that can fuel itself on biomass, including "human and animal corpses," sure to be "plentiful in a war-zone." According to Fox News, "The advantages to the military are that the robot would be extremely flexible in fuel sources and could roam on its own for months, even years, without having to be refueled or serviced."
My question is, what will stop a wild roaming robot from trying to take a bite out of my arm  (Like CyberCom, this actually scares me).

July 15, 2009

Pepe Escobar Video

Pepe Escobar talking about the recent unrest in Western China:

This will certainly be a scandal

As pissed off as i am every time i still see Michael Jackson in the news, it seems that there is a new kink in the story.

They really don't like our soldiers

If anyone thinks that six years of military occupation left Iraqi's with a favorable view of the average American soldier, you only need to observe the attitude of post-"sovereignty" (and yes, those are cynical quotation marks) Iraqi authorities  to see otherwise.
According to McClatchy, ""The Iraqis have been hell-bent on taking control of all security operations in the city and completely excluding the Americans," one U.S. officer in Baghdad said, "to the point of completely refusing to permit U.S. patrols of any kind into the city except logistics convoys." 
And in Mosul, the Iraqi police are accusing the U.S. of breaking the current SOFA by entering an Iraqi police station on a patrol.
Remember that Iraq is getting more violent, not less, and so the decision by the Iraqi authorities to exclude the American military from helping with security is truly a sign that the "long-term partnership" that General Odierno and the rest of the Pentagon is hoping for might only have one willing side.  Although i wrote about it not too long ago, i recommend that Michael Schwartz's recent article for Tomdispatch.com, "Colonizing Iraq" be reread and absorbed, as it deals with many of these same issues.

July 14, 2009

It will get much worse in Afghanistan

In the Asia Times, Syed Saleem Shahzad's latest article "Taliban will let guns do their talking" contains a warning that should strike fear in the hearts of anyone who knows a US or NATO soldier currently in Afghanistan:
In the process of running from pillar to post, though, the militants sought each other's help and established new lines of cooperation and coordination - and Mullah Omar once again became active.  A grand shura (council) was convened in the southwest, bringing together big and small commanders, including Abdullah Saeed, al-Qaeda's commander-in-chief for Afghanistan.  Mullah Omar, a source from the al-Qaeda camp told Asia Times Online, emphasized that each group should set up a coherent fighting strategy, and their preference should be Afghanistan. 
Significantly, a major role was envisaged for al-Qaeda and the Afghan war will now be its prime goal. Al-Qaeda will continue to shift its manpower from the Middle East to the South Asian war theater, especially from Iraq. These men bring with them vast experience, especially in the field of improvised explosive devices and ambush techniques. 

Ms. Alexandrovna, you are my favorite

On her blog at-Largely, Raw Story editor Larisa Alexandrovna has just explained the recent CIA assassination ring story perfectly.  You should read the whole post, but here is the final section.
A former Vice President (really President) - we will call him Mr. Smith - gets wind that a reporter will soon be coming out with a book in which it is alleged that Smith ran a death squad, which operated in several countries, including our own. Smith knows that he will have to admit to some of this, because the reporter has managed to get some incriminating information. Smith decides that he will get ahead of this story by controlling it. Smith's version will be that he had initiated a program to assassinate ONLY the really bad guys plotting to kill us. But, he decided against activating the program because it was illegal and he was having second thoughts. In Smith's version of the story, it will be admitted that Smith did in fact mislead Congress and ordered others to do so, but ONLY because the program was never activated.

Smith will then have a few loyal pals still active in government launder this version of events by planting the story in the press. Smith won't comment for the story, but Smith's daughter will do the TV rounds and point to the article(s) and say see, it never operated and if it had it would have only gone after the really evil guys who tried to blow up America. 
Also, everyone should listen to Alexandrovna's interviews on Antiwar Radio, especially concerning PlameGate (something else that Dick Cheney has recently been found culpable for).

The lighter side of life

"A Lawsuit Against a Genie"

Keeping up with Africom

As AFRICOM--the Pentagon's African Command Center--rarely breaks into the news, its worth posting any update on it that is found.  So far, AFRICOM's most prominent actions have been against Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army in Congo.  In late 2008, AFRICOM helped the Ugandan government with the failed operation "Lightning Thunder," and it appears that recently the U.S. Congress has been pushing for more military help.
"In a little-noticed piece of bipartisan legislation introduced this spring — the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act — a group of U.S. lawmakers is urging the Obama administration to form a strategy for taking out one of the most dangerous rebel leaders roaming the jungles of Africa: Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army."

Al-Jazeera English Comes to the U.S.

"Al Jazeera's "alternative" world view reaches US"
"The deal with MHZ, a Washington-based educational broadcaster, will beam AJE to 2.3 million North American viewers."
I wonder if this means that the U.S. military will end its practice of bombing al Jazeera offices.  I also wonder when Comcast will put AJE on its cable package (my guess is never).

July 12, 2009

CIA Secrets

Adding to the deluge of Bush era CIA programs that are now coming under intense Washington scrutiny, Siobhan Gorman of the Wall Street Journal has broken a story specifying the secret CIA program that DCI Leon Panetta terminated in June.  
So far, the story goes that Panetta was first told of the program by subordinates on June 23rd. Immediately following, "he ordered the program ended, requested the review of briefing practices and arranged to meet the Senate and House Intelligence Committees in closed-door sessions June 24 to inform them of the program."
According to Gorman, in the 45 minute sessions, Panetta informed the committee of a secret program that:
"Was an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives... One former senior intelligence official said the program was an attempt "to achieve a capacity to carry out something that was directed in the finding," meaning it was looking for ways to capture or kill al Qaeda chieftains...Some officials who advocated the approach were seeking to build teams of CIA and military Special Forces commandos to emulate what the Israelis did after the Munich Olympics terrorist attacks, said another former intelligence official.....Eventually Mr. Bush issued the finding that authorized the capturing of several top al Qaeda leaders, and allowed officers to kill the targets if capturing proved too dangerous or risky. 
Panetta also told the two Intelligence Committees that Dick Cheney had "directly ordered" the CIA to conceal the program from Congress over the past eight years.
Following the briefing, members on both committees were very upset.  Diane Fienstien (D-CA) who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, stated that "this is a big problem, because the law is very clear. ...And I understand the need of the day...— but this — I think you weaken your case when you go outside of the law."

In the Blogosphere, Laura Rozen speculates that the Presidential finding may have allowed Americans to assassinate people in friendly countries without consulting the allied government.  Congress already knows that the CIA captures and kills targets in foreign countries, either through drone strikes or elite commandos.  It does not matter if the foreign government approves the murder in a place like Pakistan (where the practice infuriates the puppet government) but if the country was Britain or Germany, the Democratic Congress would definitely go apeshit.  This may also be the "executive assassination ring" story that Seymour Hersh has been sitting on for a couple months now.

Mindfuck of a Video

This is an advertisement for an Israeli cellphone company.  It features Israeli soldiers playing soccer with Palestinians over the Israeli built concrete wall that runs roughly along (and sometimes exceeds) the pre-1967 border of Israel.  Considering that Israel just imprisoned a former U.S. congresswoman for trying to bring toys into Palestine, the commercial, while a nice dream, seems further from reality than ever before.


Propaganda

Did anyone else notice this paragraph, tucked into the middle of the New York Time's current attempt at propaganda, "A Call to Jihad, Answered in America:"
The story of the Twin Cities men does not lend itself to facile categorizations. They make up a minuscule percentage of their Somali-American community, and it is unclear whether their transformation reflects any broader trend. Nor are they especially representative of the wider Muslim immigrant population, which has enjoyed a stable and largely middle-class existence.
I just wonder why a report detailing a "miniscule percentage" that is "not especially representative" warrants a front page, above the fold placement in the Sunday Edition, complete with two page spread inside, including around 5 color photographs.  I'm just saying.

The Federal Reserve

A nice report on the Federal Reserve and Congressman Ron Paul's legislation to audit the private bank.

July 10, 2009

Colonialism in Iraq

The newest Tomdispatch, "Colonizing Iraq: The Obama Doctrine?" by Michael Schwartz, released on Thursday, was conveniently timed to follow up on a drunken argument i had on Wednesday night.  I was trying to talk about the Iraq War with a bunch of hipsters (some of them remarkably eloquent), and one in particular couldn't conceive of the application of new-age imperialism, whether it be called neocolonialism, neoliberal colonialism, or anything else.  Thankfully Dr. Schwartz and Mr. Englehardt come around the next day to arm me with an abundance of evidence.
Schwartz's point is fairly succinct:
"Traditional colonialism was characterized by three features: ultimate decision-making rested with the occupying power instead of the indigenous client government; the personnel of the colonial administration were governed by different laws and institutions than the colonial population; and the local political economy was shaped to serve the interests of the occupying power. All the features of classic colonialism took shape in the Bush years in Iraq and are now, as far as we can tell, being continued, in some cases even strengthened, in the early months of the Obama era."
Following this is a detailed point by point breakdown of how Americans still control Iraq in matters military and economic.  I think that the scariest point the author makes is how the occupation of Iraq is beginning to resemble the occupation of Palestine.  (However, i would argue that the authors phrase "may have been borrowed" does not come close to indicating the level of collusion between Israel and America in Iraq):
"Recently, the occupation has also been appropriating various streets and roads for its exclusive use (an idea that may have been borrowed from Israel's 40-year-old occupation of the West Bank). This innovation has made unconvoyed transportation safer for embassy officials, contractors, and military personnel, while degrading further the Iraqi road system, already in a state of disrepair, by closing useable thoroughfares."
Once Again, thank you Tomdispatch.com for not fearing the truth.

July 8, 2009

Israeli Cyberwar

"Wary of Naked Force, Israel Eyes Cyberwarfare in Iran"

The Real News Network interviews William Engdahl

Dahr Jamail's latest article, "Refusing to Comply: The Tactics of Resistance in the All-Volunteer Military"" is very good, and gives the reader some new vocabulary terms-- "search and avoid missions," as well as some scary and never mentioned statistics
"Between 2003 and 2007 there had been an 80% increase in overall desertion rates in the Army."
"Between 2000 and 2006, more than 40,000 troops from all branches of the military deserted, more than half from the Army. Army desertion rates jumped by 42% from 2006 to 2007 alone."
"While no broad poll of troops has been conducted recently, a Zogby poll in February 2006 found that 72% of soldiers in Iraq felt the occupation should be ended within a year."
The last statistic is sickly funny, because it was right after the poll when General Patreus "surged" in even more troops, continuing a military occupation which under the current SOFA must be completely dismantled by the end of 2011, save for a caveat at the end that allows either side to renegotiate it at any time.  So when 72% of soldiers wanted one more year of war, the Washington Politicians settled on 5 to endless years of war.  
There is also an interview with the author about the article, but i haven't listened to it yet. (http://antiwar.com/radio/2009/07/03/dahr-jamail-11/)

And the battle continues...

Now that the Pentagon has an official Cybercommand, it appears that the new, mission-less government-bought hackers (collaborators?) have quite a job ahead of them.  Independence Day saw attacks on both the U.S. an South Korean government websites, shutting them down for extended periods of time.  
It's interesting that the New York Times story is reported on from Seoul, and the U.S. is not mentioned until the 4th paragraph.  Will we see another post 9/11 fear-mongering, or is Washington trying to hide the fact that it can't defend its own websites.  Notice the last paragraph, and judge the media consensus by this statistic: "The Homeland Security Department, meanwhile, says there were 5,499 known breaches of U.S. government computers in 2008, up from 3,928 the previous year, and just 2,172 in 2006."

July 3, 2009

tjsgidyc9e

Nobel laureate arrested by Israeli Navy speaks from jail cell

Democracy Now! has an interview with Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire,  one of 21 activists arrested by the Israeli Navy while trying to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. 


CIA distributed $400 million in Iran

My guess is that the Iranian clerics will soon start to produce the documents and receipts that show CIA involvement in the recent election.  A former Pakistani general has said  that the CIA spent $400 million dollars to assist opposition forces following the disputed election:

In a phone interview with the Pashto Radio on Monday, General Beig said that there is undisputed intelligence proving the US interference in Iran.

“The documents prove that the CIA spent 400 million dollars inside Iran to prop up a colorful-hollow revolution following the election,” he added.


July 2, 2009

CIA black sites are still intact

Despite the fact that President Obama signed an executive order on January 22nd that "unilaterally closed" all CIA black sites, it is now being revealed that the CIA has not yet shut down the secret prisons.  Ahmed Ghailani, who is now being tried for his role in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings, was reportedly detained at one of these sites, and now his lawyer is asking to inspect them:
"In court papers Tuesday, Ghailani's lawyers asked the government to preserve secret locations known as "black sites" so they can inspect them as they gather evidence for his trial...Kaplan said he was pleased that the government will not dismantle the locations, as the CIA had indicated earlier this year it intended to do."

July 1, 2009

Greatest "New World Order" Proponents Ever!!!!!!

It seems that MTV tools Heidi and Spencer are warming up to some conspiracy theories.  They will be interviewed on Alex Jones's Infowars radio show and have recently been twittering (to the confusion of Miley Cyrus) about the "New World Order." 
I think this is my favorite news story of the summer.

Israeli Navy kidnaps 21 activists, including former U.S. Congresswoman and Nobel Laureate

Yesterday, the Israeli Navy boarded the ship Spirit of Humanity and kidnaped the 21 passengers attempting to bring humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.  The 21 passengers included Cynthia McKinney, a former U.S. Congresswoman and Maired Maguire, a Nobel laureate.  FreeGaza, the group attempting to help the Palestinians released a press release stating the following:
"This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip," said Cynthia McKinney, a former U.S. Congresswoman and presidential candidate. "President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that's exactly what we tried to do. We're asking the international community to demand our release so we can resume our journey."...Thousands of Gazans whose homes were destroyed earlier during Israel's December/January massacre are still without shelter despite pledges of almost $4.5 billion in aid, because Israel refuses to allow cement and other building material into the Gaza Strip...Just before being kidnapped by Israel, Huwaida Arraf, Free Gaza Movement chairperson and delegation co-coordinator on this voyage, stated that: "No one could possibly believe that our small boat constitutes any sort of threat to Israel. We carry medical and reconstruction supplies, and children's toys.