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Lorenzo's
Random Musings
. . . about Chaos,
Reason, and Hope

 

Wafa Sultan Debating Islamic Cleric

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posted by Lorenzo 11:44 AM

 

Peru's Army About to Attack Indigenous Tribes
(Daniel Howden, The Independent, 21 August 2008)
Peru is considering sending in the army to break up protests by Amazonian Indians who claim the government is preparing a massive land grab in the country's remote jungles. . . . Indigenous groups have blockaded roads and a river and set up pickets at energy installations to protest changes in the law which would make it easier for commercial interests to buy up collectively owned tribal lands in the northern regions of Peru. . . . The government has responded to an appeal for talks by declaring a state of emergency in three states and threatening protesters with military action. . . . "Indigenous people are defending themselves against government aggression," said an Amazon Indian rights campaigner, Alberto Pizango. "This is not an ordinary or everyday demonstration. The Indians have told us they are not afraid. If the government declares a state of emergency they prefer to die there and show that this government violates human rights." . . . Relations between indigenous groups and the President Alan Garcia have become increasingly hostile as the government has sought to exploit what are thought to be rich oil and gas deposits in lands owned by Amazon Indians. Energy companies have pushed deep into supposedly protected areas in the past year, leading to clashes with some of the most remote tribal peoples left in the world. . . . Ten days of protests have so far seen thousands of Indians from all over the Peruvian Amazon mobilised. A small number of arrests have followed and a clash between police officers and hundreds of spear-carrying Indians on Saturday led to eight people being injured, according to local media reports. Police claim that two of their officers have been taken hostage after being sent to a protest site over the weekend. . . . Protesters have also surrounded Peru's largest natural gas installation, the Camisea field, in the south of the country. . . . The Environment Minister Antonio Brack said protesters have closed a bridge and highway "and threatened to cut the supply of oil via the oil pipeline and gas through the Camisea gas pipeline". . . . The protests are in response to new laws passed by the government. The Indians say the changes undermine their rights and make it easier for companies to take control of their territories. Under old laws a two-thirds majority of each community was required before land could be sold, this has been changed to a simple majority.

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posted by Lorenzo 6:45 PM

 

Edgar Mitchell Confirms UFO Visitations
No matter where you stand on the UFO issue, you will most likely find this interview with the sixth man to walk on the moon to be extremely interesting.

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posted by Lorenzo 10:19 AM

 

The Olympics: Unveiling Police State 2.0
(Naomi Klein, Huffington Post, August 7, 2008)
Chinese corporations financed by U.S. hedge funds, as well as some of American's most powerful corporations -- Cisco, General Electric, Honeywell, Google -- have been working hand in glove with the Chinese government to make this moment possible: networking the closed circuit cameras that peer from every other lamp pole, building the "Great Firewall" that allows for remote internet monitoring, and designing those self-censoring search engines. . . . By next year, the Chinese internal security market is set to be worth $33-billion. Several of the larger Chinese players in the field have recently taken their stocks public on U.S. exchanges, hoping to cash in the fact that, in volatile times, security and defense stocks are seen as the safe bets. . . . Much of the Chinese government's lavish spending on cameras and other surveillance gear has taken place under the banner of "Olympic Security." But how much is really needed to secure a sporting event? The price tag has been put at a staggering $12-billion -- to put that in perspective, Salt Lake City, which hosted the Winter Olympics just five months after September 11, spent $315 million to secure the games. Athens spent around $1.5-billion in 2004. Many human rights groups have pointed out that China's security upgrade is reaching far beyond Beijing: there are now 660 designated "safe cities" across the country, municipalities that have been singled out to receive new surveillance cameras and other spy gear. And of course all the equipment purchased in the name of Olympics safety -- iris scanners, "anti-riot robots" and facial recognition software -- will stay in China after the games are long gone, free to be directed at striking workers and rural protestors. . . . What the Olympics have provided for Western firms is a palatable cover story for this chilling venture. Ever since the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, U.S. companies have been barred from selling police equipment and technology to China, since lawmakers feared it would be directed, once again, at peaceful demonstrators. That law has been completely disregarded in the lead up to the Olympics, when, in the name of safety for athletes and VIPs (including George W. Bush), no new toy has been denied the Chinese state. . . . There is a bitter irony here. When Beijing was awarded the games seven years ago, the theory was that international scrutiny would force China's government to grant more rights and freedom to its people. Instead, the Olympics have opened up a backdoor for the regime to massively upgrade its systems of population control and repression. . . . The numbers on this trend are frightening. In April 2007, officials from 13 provinces held a meeting to report back on how their new security measures were performing. In the province of Jiangsu, which, according to the South China Morning Post, was using "artificial intelligence to extend and improve the existing monitoring system" the number of protests and riots "dropped by 44 per cent last year." . . . Activists in China now find themselves under intense pressure, unable to function even at the limited levels they were able to a year ago. Internet cafes are filled with surveillance cameras, and surfing is carefully watched.

. . . Read more!


posted by Lorenzo 7:05 PM

 

Phorm Internet spying software 'illegal' says policy group
(BBC News, 17 March 2008)
Online advert system Phorm is illegal in the UK, the Foundation for Information Policy Research (Fipr), has argued in an open letter. . . . BT, Talk Talk and Virgin have all signed up to use Phorm, which targets adverts to users based on web habits. . . . Fipr believes Phorm contravenes the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (Ripa), which protects users from unlawful interception of information. . . . Phorm and BT have said the technology does not breach any UK laws. . . . The debate over the deployment of Phorm, legal or otherwise, is based on the interpretation of Ripa. . . . Fipr has written an open letter to the Information Commissioner Richard Thomas in which it argues that Phorm must not only seek the consent of web users but also of website operators. . . . Phorm's system works by "trawling" websites visited by users and then matches keywords from the content of the page to a profile. . . . Users are then targeted with adverts that are more tailored to their interests on websites that have signed up to Phorm's technology. . . . Richard Clayton, treasurer at Fipr, said: "The Phorm system is highly intrusive; it's like the Post Office opening all my letters to see what I'm interested in, merely so that I can be sent a better class of junk mail. . . . "Not surprisingly, when you look closely, this activity turns out to be i4llegal. . . . "We hope that the Information Commissioner will take careful note of our analysis when he expresses his opinion upon the scheme."

ALSO SEE: Web inventor's warning on Phorm spy software

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posted by Lorenzo 9:24 AM

 

Mysterious cuts on Internet Cables plagues mideast
By Richard Sauder, PhD, Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. 2-5-8)
The last week has seen a spate of unexplained, cut, undersea communications cables that has severely disrupted communications in many countries in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. As I shall show, the total numbers of cut cables remain in question, but likely number as many as eight, and maybe nine or more. . . . The trouble began on 30 January 2008 with CNN reports that two cables were cut off the Egyptian Mediterranean coast, initially severely disrupting Internet and telephone traffic from Egypt to India and many points in between. According to CNN the two cut cables "account for as much as three-quarters of the international communications between Europe and the Middle East." . . . The cable cutting was just getting started. Two days later an undersea cable was reported cut in the Persian Gulf, 55 kilometers off of Dubai.(11) The cable off of Dubai was reported by CNN to be a FLAG Falcon cable.(10) And then on 3 February came reports of yet another damaged undersea cable, this time between Qatar and the UAE (United Arab Emirates).(6)(7)(11) . . . The evidence therefore suggests that we are looking at a coordinated program of undersea cable sabotage by an actor, or actors, on the international stage with an anti-Muslim bias, as well as a proclivity for destructive violence in the Middle Eastern region. . . . The question then becomes: are there any actors on the international stage who exhibit a strong, anti-Muslim bias in their foreign relations, who have the technical capability to carry out clandestine sabotage operations on the sea floor, and who have exhibited a pattern of violently destructive policies towards Muslim peoples and nations, especially in the Middle East region? . . . The answer is yes, there are two: Israel and the United States of America. . . . It is little known by the American people, but nevertheless true, that Iran intends to open its own Oil Bourse this month (February 2008) that will trade in "non-dollar currencies".(16) This has massive geo-political-economic implications for the United States and the American economy, since the American dollar is at present still (if not for much longer) the dominant reserve currency internationally, particularly for petroleum transactions. However, due to the mind-boggling scale of the structural weaknesses in the American economy, which have been well discussed in the financial press in recent weeks and months, the American dollar is increasingly shunned by corporate, banking and governmental actors the world over. No one wants to be stuck with vaults full of rapidly depreciating dollars as the American economy hurtles towards the basement. And so an operational Iranian Oil Bourse, actively trading supertankers full of petroleum in non-dollar currencies, poses a great threat to the American dollar's continued dominance as the international reserve currency. . . . Maybe this sudden spate of cut communications cables is what it looks like when the American military uses a "robust offensive suite of capabilities" and mounts an "electronic and computer network attack" in order to "fight the net" in one region of the world. They have the means, and the opportunity, I've amply demonstrated that in this article. And now we also have the motive, in their own words, from their own policy statement. The plain translation is that the American military now regards the Internet, that means the hardware such as computers, cables, modems, servers and routers, and presumably also the content it contains, and the people who communicate that content, as an adversary, as something to be fought. . . . Oh yes, just a couple of more dots to connect before you fall asleep tonight: 1) The USS San Jacinto, an anti-missile AEGIS cruiser, was scheduled to dock in Haifa, Israel on 1 February 2008. The Jerusalem Post reported that this ship's anti-missile system "could be deployed in the region in the event of an Iranian missile attack against Israel."(1) Are we to expect another "false flag" attack, like the inside job on 9-11 perhaps? -- an attack that will be made to appear that it comes from Iran, and that is then used as a pretext to strike Iran, maybe with nuclear weapons? And when Iran retaliates with its own missiles, then the Americans and Israelis will unleash further hell on Iran? Is that the Zionist-NeoCon plan, or something generally along those lines? . . . 2) I have to wonder because just this past Saturday, there was a report in the news that, "Retired senior officers told Israelis ... to prepare 'rocket rooms' as protection against a rain of missiles expected to be fired at the Jewish State in any future conflict." Retired General Udi Shani reportedly said, "The next war will see a massive use of ballistic weapons against the whole of Israeli territory."(4) . . . Now that we know the Israeli military establishment's thinking, and now that we have a view into the American military mindset, we ought to be looking at international events across the board with a very critical, analytical eye, especially as they relate to possible events that either are playing out right now, or may potentially play out in the relatively near future, say in the time frame of the next one month to five years. These people are violent and devious; they have forewarned us, and we should take them at their word, given their murderous record on the international stage.

Contact the author at:
dr_samizdat (at) yahoo.com

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posted by Lorenzo 4:57 PM

 

Burma: Thousands dead in massacre of the monks dumped in the jungle
(MARCUS OSCARSSON, Daily Mail, 1 October 2007)
Thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle, a former intelligence officer for Burma's ruling junta has revealed. . . . The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: "Many more people have been killed in recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand." . . . Mr Win, who spoke out as a Swedish diplomat predicted that the revolt has failed, said he fled when he was ordered to take part in a massacre of holy men. He has now reached the border with Thailand. . . . Meanwhile, the United Nations special envoy was in Burma's new capital today seeking meetings with the ruling military junta. . . . Ibrahim Gambari met detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon yesterday. But he has yet to meet the country's senior generals as he attempts to halt violence against monks and pro-democracy activists. . . . It is anticipated the meeting will happen tomorrow. . . . Heavily-armed troops and police flooded the streets of Rangoon during Mr Ibrahim's visit to prevent new protests. . . . Mr Gambari met some of the country's military leaders in Naypyidaw yesterday and has returned there for further talks. But he did not meet senior general Than Shwe or his deputy Maung Aye - and they have issued no comment. . . . Reports from exiles along the frontier confirmed that hundreds of monks had simply "disappeared" as 20,000 troops swarmed around Rangoon yesterday to prevent further demonstrations by religious groups and civilians. . . . Word reaching dissidents hiding out on the border suggested that as well as executions, some 2,000 monks are being held in the notorious Insein Prison or in university rooms which have been turned into cells. . . . There were reports that many were savagely beaten at a sports ground on the outskirts of Rangoon, where they were heard crying for help. . . . Others who had failed to escape disguised as civilians were locked in their bloodstained temples. . . . There, troops abandoned religious beliefs, propped their rifles against statues of Buddha and began cooking meals on stoves set up in shrines. . . . In stark contrast, the streets of Rangoon and Mandalay - centres of the attempted saffron revolution last week - were virtually deserted. . . . A Swedish diplomat who visited Burma during the protests said last night that in her opinion the revolution has failed. . . . Liselotte Agerlid, who is now in Thailand, said that the Burmese people now face possibly decades of repression. "The Burma revolt is over," she added. . . . "The military regime won and a new generation has been violently repressed and violently denied democracy. The people in the street were young people, monks and civilians who were not participating during the 1988 revolt. . . . "Now the military has cracked down the revolt, and the result may very well be that the regime will enjoy another 20 years of silence, ruling by fear." . . . Mrs Agerlid said Rangoon is heavily guarded by soldiers. . . . "There are extremely high numbers of soldiers in Rangoon's streets," she added. "Anyone can see it is absolutely impossible for any demonstration to gather, or for anyone to do anything. . . . "People are scared and the general assessment is that the fight is over. We were informed from one of the largest embassies in Burma that 40 monks in the Insein prison were beaten to death today and subsequently burned." . . . The diplomat also said that three monasteries were raided yesterday afternoon and are now totally abandoned. . . . At his border hideout last night, 42-year-old Mr Win said he hopes to cross into Thailand and seek asylum at the Norwegian Embassy. . . . The 42-year-old chief of military intelligence in Rangoon's northern region, added: "I decided to desert when I was ordered to raid two monasteries and force several hundred monks onto trucks. . . . "They were to be killed and their bodies dumped deep inside the jungle. I refused to participate in this." . . . With his teenage son, he made his escape from Rangoon, leaving behind his wife and two other sons. . . . He had no fears for their safety because his brother is a powerful general who, he believes, will defend the family. . . . Mr Win's defection will raise a faint hope among tens of thousands of Burmese who have fled to villages along the Thai border. . . . They will feel others in the army may follow him and turn on their ageing leaders, Senior General Than Shwe and his deputy, Vice Senior General Maung Aye.

. . . Read more!


posted by Lorenzo 1:13 PM

 

Blair ignored Chirac`s warning on Iraq 'disaster'
(ZeeNews.com, February 25, 2007)
A senior aide of Tony Blair has said the British Prime Minister ignored French President Jacques Chirac's warning that an invasion of Iraq would have "disastrous" consequences. . . . Sir Stephen Wall, formerly Blair's chief policy adviser, accused Blair and then-press secretary Alastair Campbell of deliberately misrepresenting France's opposition to the Iraq war to justify the invasion, according to media reports today. . . . Wall, who accompanied Blair to a crucial EU summit in October 2002, said Chirac argued strongly that while Saddam Hussein could be overthrown, the subsequent consequences would be disastrous. . . . Chirac even used the then-infant son of Blair to bolster his argument, saying, "Leo will not thank you if you take Britain into war." . . . "But Blair never paid any attention to what Chirac said. He'd kind of come out rolling his eyes and say Oh dear, dear old Jacques, he doesn't get it, does he?" Wall said. . . . Blair and Campbell reportedly decided to place the blame for a UN deadlock squarely on Chirac, following a breakdown of diplomatic efforts to get a second Security Council resolution that could have delayed an invasion. . . . "I recall the moment," Wall says in the documentary, "because I happened to be in the corridor in number 10 when he and Alastair Campbell were walking down the corridor and they decided effectively to play the anti-French card." . . . "It was clear that Chirac had not ruled out the possibility of future French support for the resolution," Wall said.

. . . Read more!


posted by Lorenzo 9:45 AM

 

Bush Orders Iran Attack Preparations
(Larry Chin, Al-Jazeerah, carolynbaker.org, February 12, 2007)
Bush administration pushes for attack with provocations, espionage, official deceptions, and false flag terror . . . The Bush administration will attack Iran as early as spring 2007. The administration is on total war footing. . . . Over the next few months, the administration and its allies and functionaries will create and provoke a pretext that forces a political consensus behind an attack on Iran. . . . In Brzezinski's words, the Bush administration's mismanagement of Iraq is an "historic, strategic and moral calamity", "driven by Manichean impulses and imperial hubris" that "intensifies regional instability" and (of primary, if not sole concern to Brzezinski) "undermines America’s global legitimacy". Brzezinski, a chief architect of the US "Grand Chessboard" geostrategy, which laid the foundation for the 9/11 attacks, has been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration’s “mishandling” of the war. The Bush administration has longed for the right moment to set off "the next 9/11". Gates lays the propaganda groundwork . . . Gates, who skated into his post as Donald Rumsfeld's replacement posing as a critic of the Bush administration's Iraq war policy, is now the Bush administration's number one weapon of mass deception on Iran. . . . The Iran-Iraq region has been brimming with CIA activity for well over a year. It is already a known fact that George W. Bush personally ordered provocative covert operations several months ago, aimed at baiting Iran into a war. . . . Iran's intelligence minister Gholam Hossein Ejeli claims that Iran has uncovered a network of 100 CIA and Mossad agents.(Also see here.) . . . This comes in wake of a Bush "shoot to kill" order: hunt down and kill Iranians in Iraq. . . . Events are unfolding exactly as warned by former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, whose book Target: Iran has predicted every step the criminal Bush administration and its allies have taken. . . . In the view of John Pilger, the war is already on. . . . As noted by Dmitriy Sedov, preparations for devastation of Iraq in the spring are well underway. . . . The Bush administration's buildup comes simultaneous with new and resurfacing threats from "terrorists" working covertly on behalf of Anglo-American interests. Bush-Cheney’s "war on terrorism" criminal network is ramping up for a new phase of violence that it will connect to Iran. . . . The administration also faces the prospect of embarrassing, and potentially devastating, revelations from the Scooter Libby/Dick Cheney/Plamegate trial, and other investigations of Bush administration crimes. Cheney, and George W. Bush himself, have now been directly implicated in the Libby proceedings. . . . The greater the damage to the Bush administration, the greater the odds of a new "wag the dog" distraction--- "the next 9/11"---orchestrated by the Bush administration and Karl Rove. . . . Some skeptics have maintained for years that the Bush administration will not attack Iran, based on the rational concept that not even the Bush administration and its neocons would be insane enough risk a full-blown superpower nuclear war. . . . But in a testimony before Congress, Robert Gates declared that the Pentagon, indeed, has plans for full-scale war against Iran, Russia and China. This statement, a virtual promise of world war, suggests that the Anglo-American establishment is prepared to wage the endless war. So much for sanity.

. . . Read more!


posted by Lorenzo 7:43 AM

 

Bush Planning Massive Nuclear Attack on Iran
(Craig Unger, Vanity Fair, March 2007)
The same neocon ideologues behind the Iraq war have been using the same tactics—alliances with shady exiles, dubious intelligence on W.M.D.—to push for the bombing of Iran. . . . In a clear reference to the Islamic Republic and its sometime ally Syria, Bush vowed to "seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies." At about the same time his speech was taking place, U.S. troops stormed an Iranian liaison office in Erbil, a Kurdish-controlled city in northern Iraq, and arrested and detained five Iranians working there. . . . "Everything the advocates of war said would happen hasn't happened," says the president of Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist, an influential conservative who backed the Iraq invasion. "And all the things the critics said would happen have happened. [The president's neoconservative advisers] are effectively saying, 'Invade Iran. Then everyone will see how smart we are.' But after you've lost x number of times at the roulette wheel, do you double-down?" . . . Once again, neocon ideologues have been flogging questionable intelligence about W.M.D. Once again, dubious Middle East exile groups are making the rounds in Washington—this time urging regime change in Syria and Iran. Once again, heroic new exile leaders are promising freedom. . . . Meanwhile, a series of recent moves by the military have lent credence to widespread reports that the U.S. is secretly preparing for a massive air attack against Iran. (No one is suggesting a ground invasion.) First came the deployment order of U.S. Navy ships to the Persian Gulf. Then came high-level personnel shifts signaling a new focus on naval and air operations rather than the ground combat that predominates in Iraq. In his January 10 speech, Bush announced that he was sending Patriot missiles to the Middle East to defend U.S. allies—presumably from Iran. And he pointedly asserted that Iran was "providing material support for attacks on American troops," a charge that could easily evolve into a casus belli. . . . "It is absolutely parallel," says Philip Giraldi, a former C.I.A. counterterrorism specialist. "They're using the same dance steps—demonize the bad guys, the pretext of diplomacy, keep out of negotiations, use proxies. It is Iraq redux." . . . The neoconservatives have had Iran in their sights for more than a decade. On July 8, 1996, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's newly elected prime minister and the leader of its right-wing Likud Party, paid a visit to the neoconservative luminary Richard Perle in Washington, D.C. The subject of their meeting was a policy paper that Perle and other analysts had written for an Israeli-American think tank, the Institute for Advanced Strategic Political Studies. Titled "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," the paper contained the kernel of a breathtakingly radical vision for a new Middle East. By waging wars against Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, the paper asserted, Israel and the U.S. could stabilize the region. Later, the neoconservatives argued that this policy could democratize the Middle East. . . . Ten years later, "A Clean Break" looks like nothing less than a playbook for U.S.-Israeli foreign policy during the Bush-Cheney era. Many of the initiatives outlined in the paper have been implemented—removing Saddam from power, setting aside the "land for peace" formula to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon—all with disastrous results. . . . Nevertheless, neoconservatives still advocate continuing on the path Netanyahu staked out in his speech and taking the fight to Iran. As they see it, the Iraqi debacle is not the product of their failed policies. Rather, it is the result of America's failure to think big. . . . More recently, Netanyahu himself, who may yet return to power in Israel, went as far as to frame the issue in terms of the Holocaust. "Iran is Germany, and it's 1938," he said during a CNN interview in November. "Except that this Nazi regime that is in Iran … wants to dominate the world, annihilate the Jews, but also annihilate America." . . . Like the campaign to overthrow Saddam, the crusade for regime change in Iran got under way in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. One of the first shots came in The Wall Street Journal in November 2001, when Eliot Cohen, a member of the neoconservative Project for the New American Century (PNAC), declared, "The overthrow of the first theocratic revolutionary Muslim state [Iran] and its replacement by a moderate or secular government … would be no less important a victory in this war than the annihilation of bin Laden." . . . Tanter went as far as to suggest that the U.S. consider using tactical nuclear weapons against Iran. "One military option is the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, which may have the capability to destroy hardened deeply buried targets. That is, bunker-busting bombs could destroy tunnels and other underground facilities." He granted that the Non-Proliferation Treaty bans the use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states, such as Iran, but added that "the United States has sold Israel bunker-busting bombs, which keeps the military option on the table." In other words, the U.S. can't nuke Iran, but Israel, which never signed the treaty and maintains an unacknowledged nuclear arsenal, can. . . . To Israel, however, it didn't matter whether a secret weapons program existed. For a state as antagonistic as Iran even to know how to make nuclear weapons was unacceptable. Long before the Iraq invasion, Israeli officials had told the Bush administration that Iran was a far greater threat than Iraq. . . . But waging war against Iran could be the most catastrophic choice of all. It is widely believed that Iran would respond to an attack by blockading the Strait of Hormuz, a 20-mile-wide narrows in the eastern part of the Persian Gulf through which about 40 percent of the world's oil exports are transported. Oil analysts say a blockade could propel the price of oil to $125 a barrel, sending the world economy into a tailspin. There could be vast international oil wars. Iran could act on its fierce rhetoric against Israel. . . . America's 130,000 soldiers in Iraq would also become highly vulnerable in the event of an attack on Iran. "Our troops in Iraq are supplied with food, fuel, and ammunition by truck convoys from a supply base in Kuwait," says Lang. "Most of that goes over roads that pass through the Shiite-dominated South of Iraq. The Iranians could cut those supply lines just like that—the trucks are easy to shoot at with R.P.G.'s," or rocket-propelled grenades. . . . He's got the power to do that as commander-in-chief. We set that up during the Cold War. It may, after the fact, be considered illegal, or an impeachable offense, but if he orders them to do it, they will do it." . . . Lang also notes that the recent appointment of a naval officer, Admiral William Fallon, to the top post at CentCom may be another indication that Bush intends to bomb Iran. "It makes very little sense that a person with this background should be appointed to be theater commander in a theater in which two essentially 'ground' wars are being fought, unless it is intended to conduct yet another war which will be different in character," . . . Whatever the administration's master plan may be, parts of it are already under way. In mid-January, the U.S. sent a second aircraft-carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf. According to Gardiner, by the end of February the United States will have enough forces in place to mount an assault on Iran. That, in the words of former national-security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, would be "an act of political folly" so severe that "the era of American preponderance could come to a premature end." [Which wouldn't be such a bad thing when you think about it.]

. . . Read more!


posted by Lorenzo 7:41 AM

 

Somalia: US Foreign Policy and Gangsterism
(AntiWar.com, December 29, 2006)
. . . using Ethiopia, a major recipient of American arms and technical support, as our proxy – in a new project that ought to be named Operation Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here. In the post-9/11 Bizarro World alternate universe that our leaders and policymakers seem to have slipped into, the Bad Guys have become the Good Guys, and the formerly fiendish Somalian warlords are now part of the "anti-terrorism coalition" that the U.S. is assembling in the region. . . . This latest American turnabout – flooding Somalian warlords with money and arms – came about largely as the result of an imaginary confrontation between U.S. officials and supposed "terrorists." [Click link above for the full text, which includes an excellent explaination of the event that led to this incorrect conclusion.] . . . When the warlords were driven out, the U.S. resorted to its ally in Addis Ababa to return its gangster-proxies to power. Washington has openly signaled its support for the Ethiopian invasion, which is shortly about to be billed as a "liberation" and a great "victory" in the "war on terrorism." The illusion can be maintained only so long as one squints one’s eyes sufficiently to blur the exact identity of these "liberators" – Somalian thugs and the army of Ethiopia’s dictator, "President" Meles Zenawi. . . . A former pro-Albania communist and leader of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, comrade Zenawi morphed into George W. Bush’s staunchest ally in the Horn of Africa. U.S. military aid increased by leaps and bounds. Zenawi’s trajectory parallels Somalia’s Mohamed Siad Barre, the former Soviet client and avowed Marxist, who seized power in 1969, immediately became a Soviet client, and eventually led his Somalian Socialist Revolutionary Party into a military and political alliance with the U.S. (The Soviets had championed Barre's Ethiopian arch-enemies in the ongoing dispute over the Ogaden region.) One of Africa’s most brutal despots, Barre enjoyed Washington’s full support right up until he was driven from the country, in 1991, by numerous local uprisings. . . . Zenawi is a budding Barre. In the summer of 2005, his U.S.-trained-and-equipped army fired on student protesters who objected to the blatant rigging of the recent election: over 20 were killed, and many wounded. This same army has now turned its guns on the Somalian people, violated Somalian sovereignty, and set up a puppet Somalian "government" that virtually no one in Somalia recognizes –again, with full American support. . . . Our complete misunderstanding of Somalia, its culture and unique politics, has led us into the trap of making decisions based on ideological constructs rather than anything related to the facts on the ground. The blundering into a local clan dispute and mistaking it for an armed attack on U.S. interests is emblematic of the problem: in the end, it seems, it’s always about us. A foreign policy founded in the spirit of hubris, and based on pretensions to "global hegemony," is inevitably blinded by a disabling narcissism. . . . That is what’s really frightening about U.S. foreign policy and the decision-makers who have such an adverse impact on the lives of people around the world. These guys are wandering around in the dark, utterly clueless: i.e. they’re typical government employees. . . . Policy is made not only with imperfect knowledge but with a complete disdain for knowledge, as such. That’s for the "reality-based community," as one White House advisor put it to Ron Suskind – those vulgar empiricists who insist that American policy must have some anchor in factual knowledge, as opposed to the neo-Trotskyite wet-dreams of various neoconservative gurus and White House speechwriters. . . . This anti-realist methodology is precisely what lured us into Iraq. In the case of Somalia, yet another quagmire beckons with its siren song of "fighting terrorism." How long before Ethiopia requires the presence of U.S. "advisors" – in addition to those already there – can probably be measured by the time it takes to post this piece. No doubt U.S. "emergency" aid to Ethiopia is being rushed to Zenawi even as I write, and you can bet we won’t hear much protest anywhere. Certainly not from most Democrats in Congress. Anyone who doubts that the U.S. is acting out of motives other than those that are proclaimed will immediately be smeared as an enabler if not outright supporter of "terrorism." Congress hasn’t got the gumption to cut off aid to the death squad "government" of "liberated" Iraq – and I doubt they’ll deprive murdering dictator Zenawi of his blood money as compensation for their cowardice. . . . The Islamic courts movement was a logical response to the condition of Somalian society, and the complete absence of any law enforcement whatsoever. For the Americans to hold up this movement as proof that "terrorism" has taken power in Somalia is the best evidence that, as Michael Scheuer puts it, the U.S. government is Osama bin Laden’s one "indispensable ally." If al-Qaeda is credited with reversing the threat of a complete social breakdown in Somalia, and the gangster warlords we once held responsible for the country’s torment, in league with a foreign invader, is held up as the only alternative, then surely the terrorist leader is smiling somewhere in a deep dark cave, rubbing his hands together and chortling at his extraordinary good fortune.

. . . Read more!


posted by Lorenzo 7:43 AM

 

StopKillingUs.org Campaign Launches with a Song
If you haven't yet seen the StopKillingUs Web site, just click the link above to see what this campaign is all about.

And to hear the theme song for this campaign, check out the StartHearingUs Web site where you can download this inspiring music.

. . . Read more!


posted by Lorenzo 9:43 AM

 

Fracas mars Mexico inauguration
(BBC News, 1 December 2006)
Felipe Calderon has been sworn in as Mexico's president to jeers, after brawls in Congress between lawmakers, divided by the nation's tight election. . . . Just an hour before the ceremony, deputies seized the speaker's platform and blocked the doors of the chamber. . . . Members of the left-wing (sic) Democratic Revolution Party say Mr Calderon, a conservative, won July's poll by fraud. . . . The row followed an unusual midnight ceremony in which the outgoing president handed power to Mr Calderon. . . . In the closed-door ceremony, Vicente Fox handed over power to Mr Calderon, who described the event as the start of the process of taking possession of the presidency. . . . . . . However, opposition deputies argued that Mr Calderon could not become president without taking the oath of office, as outlined in Mexico's constitution. . . . Surrounded by ruling party lawmakers and flanked by Mr Fox, the new president swore to uphold the constitution. . . . The national anthem was played, and the new president was ushered out of the chamber, as ruling party deputies cheered: "He did it!" . . . Dignitaries who arrived amid the chaos included Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. . . . The Democratic Revolution Party - whose candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, lost the run-off by half a percentage point - has massed crowds of supporters in the capital. . . . Mr Lopez Obrador, who claims he was robbed of the presidency, said he plans to march peacefully with his supporters to the national auditorium, where Mr Calderon is to address the nation. . . . Thousands of riot police have been deployed. . . . Mr Lopez Obrador last week launched a "parallel government" in Mexico City and held an unofficial swearing-in ceremony.

. . . Read more!


posted by Lorenzo 1:23 PM

 

Open Letter to the Mexican Government
An open letter from Independent media organiziations working in Oaxaca to the
Mexican Goverment, Mexican and International Human Rights agencies, and
international civil society.

Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca. 7 de noviembre, 2006.

A Vicente Fox Quezada, Presidente de la República
A Carlos Abascal Carranza, Secretario de Gobernación
A José Luis Soberanes, de la Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos
A la Comisión Internacional de los Derechos Humanos
A los Defensores de los Derechos Humanos Independientes
A la Sociedad Civil Nacional e Internacional

Since the beginning of the conflict, in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, the
majority of the national and international media have systematically failed to
tell the whole story of what is happening in Oaxaca, and especially with regard
to the acts of violence carried out by the state government, and more recently
by the federal police.

In recent weeks, many journalists covering the conflict for independent
media have been subjected to all kinds of threats and harassment by
paramilitary groups operating on behalf of the state government; by the
pirate radio operating under the permission of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz; and now
by the federal police as well. It’s clear that the work of the independent
media presents an obstacle to the repressive actions carried out by the State.


The death of the North American journalist, Brad Will, at the hands of
municipal functionaries who sympathize with Ulises Ruiz Ortiz is a clear
example of the above mentioned situation. Despite the scandal generated by his
death, the situation has become even more precarious for those of us working as
organizations, collectives, and independent journalists.

Examples are: Calls for aggression against “foreign” reporters, on the
so-called “Citizen Radio,” generating a xenophobic campaign against anyone who
isn’t Oaxacan; direct death threats against journalists; the theft of their
footage; physical attacks and threats with firearms.

As independent journalists we also condemn the interference of University
Radio’s broadcast as a violation of university autonomy and the freedom of
speech protected by the Mexican Constitution and the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.

We oppose the differentiation between officially accredited media outlets
and the independent media, because we are all working to provide information.

For the above mentioned reasons, we hold Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and President
Vicente Fox Quesada responsible for anything that might happen to any
member of the below signed organizations and collectives, or to any other
journalist.

Sincerely,

Agencia Popular de Fotografía Lok’tavanej
Bibaani, A.C.
Canal 6 de Julio
Centro de Información y Documentación Comunitaria Yagavila
Centro de Medio Libres DF
Colectivo Chanti Ollín
Colectivo Radio Zapote
Convergencia de Colectivos de la ENAH
Editorial Lucía Zenteno
Estéreo Comunal
Frente Oaxaqueño de Comunicación Alternativa
Indymedia Oaxaca
Kehuelga Radio
Mal de Ojo TV
OaxacaLibre
Ojo de Agua Comunicación
Radio Bemba
Radio Chapingo
Radio Guetza
Radio Maíz
Radio Molocha
Radio Nandiá
Radio Pacheco
Radio Plantón
Radio Reforma
Radio Sabotaje
Radio Tupa Oaxaca
Radio Universidad
Red de Radios Comunitarias del Istmo (Radio Ayuuk, Radio Ikoots, Radio
Umalalang, Radio Totopo, Radio Huave)

Corrugated Films
Indymedia Barcelona
Indymedia NYC
Kaos en la Red
La Haine.org
Organización Inglesa de Periodistas

43 firmas de comunicadores independientes

. . . Read more!


posted by Lorenzo 10:24 AM

 

Good News from Nicaragua
(Hector Tobar, Los Angeles Times, 2 November 2006)
"The Godfather," "Commander Bull's-Eye" and "the Alligator": To a man, they either fought in or backed the contra war that sought to overthrow Ortega's revolutionary Sandinista government in the 1980s. Now all three are working to get him elected president . . . Once the contras' top political negotiator, Morales lost his palatial home in Managua, the capital, when the Sandinistas expropriated it and gave it to Ortega, who still lives there. Morales now is Ortega's running mate in Sunday's presidential election. Across Nicaragua, pictures of the graying Morales occupy billboards alongside portraits of Ortega, a 60-year-old with thinning black hair who bears a diminishing resemblance to the youthful rebel he once was. The Ortega-Morales ticket leads in all polls. . . . No one worries much anymore about communism or a Reaganesque counterrevolution. Instead, people wonder what Ortega stands for and if there's anyone he won't make a deal with. . . . Most observers in Nicaragua agree an economic crisis that has forced thousands of Nicaraguans to emigrate is feeding Ortega's lead in the polls. On the campaign trail, he's portrayed himself as the antidote to the conservative economic ideas backed by the country's past three presidents. . . . "We've had 16 years of these democratic governments, and what have they given us?" Ortega asked in Leon, 50 miles northwest of Managua. "They've turned us into beggars." . . . Unemployment is about 17 percent, and since 1990, 500,000 Nicaraguans have left in search of work in the United States and nearby countries.

. . . Read more!


posted by Lorenzo 10:08 AM

 

British Army chief calls for Iraq pullout
(CNN, October 12, 2006)
The chief of the British Army has called for a pullout of British troops from Iraq "sometime soon" and said that post-invasion planning for that war was "poor, probably based more on optimism than sound planning." . . . Gen. Richard Dannatt told London's Daily Mail newspaper that he had "more optimism" that "we can get it right in Afghanistan." . . . Dannatt said that Britain's continued presence in Iraq had made the country less secure. . . . Britain should "get ourselves out sometime soon because our presence exacerbates security problems," he told the newspaper in an interview published Thursday. . . . "I don't say that the difficulties we are experiencing round the world are caused by our presence in Iraq, but undoubtedly our presence in Iraq exacerbates them." . . . Dannatt's views directly contradicts the position of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is a staunch supporter of the war and U.S. President George W. Bush's closest ally in the fight. . . . Blair and Bush both insist that troops must stay in Iraq until Iraqi security forces are able to stand up on their own. . . . But with the country edging nearer to civil war -- if not already immersed in it -- Dannatt said that the strategy for implementing an Iraqi democracy was ill-prepared. . . . "I think history will show that the planning for what happened after the initial, successful war-fighting phase was poor, probably based more on optimism than sound planning," he said. . . . Dannatt said that Britain had essentially overstayed its welcome in Iraq. . . . "The military campaign we fought in 2003 effectively kicked the door in," he said, noting that was a far cry from being invited into the country. . . . "Whatever consent we may have had in the first place may have turned to tolerance and has largely turned to intolerance."

. . . Read more!


posted by Lorenzo 7:45 PM

 

Genocide in Gaza - Israel is starving millions of Palestinians
(Patrick Cockburn, Information Clearing House, 13 September 2006)
GAZA is dying. The Israeli siege of the Palestinian enclave is so tight that its people are on the edge of starvation. Here on the shores of the Mediterranean a great tragedy is taking place that is being ignored because the worldÂ?s attention has been diverted by wars in Lebanon and Iraq. . . . A whole society is being destroyed. There are 1.5 million Palestinians imprisoned in the most heavily populated area in the world. Israel has stopped all trade. It has even forbidden fishermen to go far from the shore so they wade into the surf to try vainly to catch fish with hand-thrown nets. . . . Many people are being killed by Israeli incursions that occur everyday by land and air. A total of 262 people have been killed and 1,200 wounded, of whom 60 had arms or legs amputated, since June 25, says Dr Juma Al Saqa, the director of the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City which is fast running out of medicine. Of these, 64 were children and 26 women. This bloody conflict in Gaza has so far received only a fraction of the attention given by the international media to the war in Lebanon. . . . Gaza has essentially been reoccupied since Israeli troops and tanks come and go at will. In the northern district of Shajhayeh they took over several houses last week and stayed five days. By the time they withdrew, 22 Palestinians had been killed, three houses were destroyed and groves of olive, citrus and almond trees had been bulldozed. . . . Sometimes the Israeli army gives a warning before a house is destroyed. The sound that Palestinians most dread is an unknown voice on their cell phone saying they have half an hour to leave their home before it is hit by bombs or missiles. There is no appeal. . . . But it is not the Israeli incursions alone that are destroying Gaza and its people. In the understated prose of a World Bank report published last month, the West Bank and Gaza face "a year of unprecedented economic recession. Real incomes may contract by at least a third in 2006 and poverty to affect close to two thirds of the population." Poverty in this case means a per capita income of under $2 a day. . . . There are signs of desperation everywhere. Crime is increasing. People do anything to feed their families. Israeli troops entered the Gaza industrial zone to search for tunnels and kicked out the Palestinian police. When the Israelis withdrew they were replaced not by the police but by looters. On one day this week there were three donkey carts removing twisted scrap metal from the remains of factories that once employed thousands. . . . The Israeli assault over the past two months struck a society already hit by the withdrawal of EU subsidies after the election of Hamas as the Palestinian government in March. Israel is withholding taxes owed on goods entering Gaza. Under US pressure, Arab banks abroad will not transfer funds to the government. . . . Two thirds of the people are unemployed and the remaining third who mostly work for the state are not being paid. Gaza is now by far the poorest region on the Mediterranean. . . . As the economy collapses there will be many more young men in Gaza willing to take Ala Hejairi's place. Untrained and ill-armed most will be killed. But the destruction of Gaza, now under way, will ensure that no peace is possible in the Middle East for generations to come.

. . . Read more!


posted by Lorenzo 7:33 AM

 

Obrador Plans Parallel Rule
(The Australian, September 9, 2006)
Presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador plans a shadow government, insisting he is the rightful leader of Mexico even as president-elect Felipe Calderon seeks reconciliation. . . . "We will decide if we want to obey an obsolete government that is run by a minority or if we will declare the abolition of this corrupt regime," Mr Lopez Obrador said in Mexico City's downtown square late Thursday, the 40th day of his campaign of "peaceful civil disobedience." . . . He announced a September 16 rally, on Mexico's independence day, at which his supporters would decide his title, whether "chief of the resistance government," or "president of Mexico" or merely "coordinator" of his movement. . . . Mr Calderon, the official president-elect, has extended his hand to Mr Lopez Obrador and insists he is open to dialogue. . . . However, Mr Lopez Obrador rejected the offer this week, calling his opponent an "illegitimate president" responsible for a "coup d'etat" which he said was sending "Mexico's institutions to hell," in remarks to hundreds of admirers outside the electoral tribunal in Mexico City. . . . Since the July 2 election, which Mr Calderon won by a scant 0.56 per cent, Mr Lopez Obrador has lived in a tent city with backers of his Democratic Revolution Party and kept up a campaign of civil disobedience, blocking traffic and protesting in the capital. . . . On Tuesday, the Federal Electoral Tribunal named Mr Calderon president-elect, in a decision that cannot be appealed. . . . The tribunal overturned hundreds of objections filed by Mr Lopez Obrador, who claimed fraud had tipped the election Mr Calderon's way, including accusations of illegal electioneering by President Vicente Fox on behalf of Mr Calderon, who is also of the National Action Party.

. . . Read more!


posted by Lorenzo 10:07 AM

 

Israel Accused of War Crimes
(BBC News, 23 August 2006)
Amnesty International has accused Israel of committing war crimes by deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure in Lebanon. . . . The human rights group says attacks on homes, bridges, roads and water and fuel plants were an "integral part" of Israel's strategy in the recent war. . . . The group also calls for a UN investigation into whether both Israel and Hezbollah broke humanitarian law. . . . In a report released on Wednesday, Amnesty International bases its accusations on an examination of Israeli attacks and comments made by Israeli officials during the 34-day conflict with the militant group Hezbollah. . . . "The pattern, scope and scale of the attacks makes Israel's claim that this was 'collateral damage', simply not credible," said Kate Gilmore, Executive Deputy Secretary General of Amnesty International. . . . The document details what it describes as "massive destruction by Israeli forces of whole civilian neighbourhoods and villages", together with attacks on bridges "in areas of no apparent strategic importance", on its list of supporting evidence. . . . It also says Israel targeted supermarkets, water pumping stations and water treatment plants, which may have broken a prohibition in humanitarian law against targeting objects crucial to civilian survival. . . . The report lists Israeli statements - such as comments made by Israeli Chief of Staff Lt Gen Dan Halutz that "nothing is safe [in Lebanon], as simple as that" - to support its claims. . . . Ms Gilmore said Israel's claims that attacks on infrastructure were lawful was "manifestly wrong". . . . "Many of the violations identified in our report are war crimes, including indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks," said Ms Gilmore. . . . The human rights organisation said it would look into Hezbollah's attacks on Israel separately. . . . About 1,000 Lebanese - most civilians - died in the conflict, while 161 Israelis, mainly soldiers, were killed.

. . . Read more!


posted by Lorenzo 4:44 AM

 

The UK Terror plot: what's really going on?
(Craig Murray, August 14, 2006)
None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency would mean they couldn't be a plane bomber for quite some time. . . . In the absence of bombs and airline tickets, and in many cases passports, it could be pretty difficult to convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt that individuals intended to go through with suicide bombings, whatever rash stuff they may have bragged in internet chat rooms. . . . What is more, many of those arrested had been under surveillance for over a year - like thousands of other British Muslims. . . . Nothing from that surveillance had indicated the need for early arrests. . . . Then an interrogation in Pakistan revealed the details of this amazing plot to blow up multiple planes - which, rather extraordinarily, had not turned up in a year of surveillance. Of course, the interrogators of the Pakistani dictator have their ways of making people sing like canaries. As I witnessed in Uzbekistan, you can get the most extraordinary information this way. Trouble is it always tends to give the interrogators all they might want, and more, in a desperate effort to stop or avert torture. What it doesn't give is the truth. . . . We then have the extraordinary question of Bush and Blair discussing the possible arrests over the weekend. Why? I think the answer to that is plain. Both in desperate domestic political trouble, they longed for "Another 9/11". The intelligence from Pakistan, however dodgy, gave them a new 9/11 they could sell to the media. The media has bought, wholesale, all the rubbish they have been shovelled. . . . There could be no clearer evidence that our Police are now just a political tool. Like all the best nasty regimes, the knock on the door came in the middle of the night, at 2.30am. Those arrested included a mother with a six week old baby. . . . We will now never know if any of those arrested would have gone on to make a bomb or buy a plane ticket. Most of them do not fit the "Loner" profile you would expect - a tiny percentage of suicide bombers have happy marriages and young children. As they were all under surveillance, and certainly would have been on airport watch lists, there could have been little danger in letting them proceed closer to maturity - that is certainly what we would have done with the IRA. . . . In all of this, the one thing of which I am certain is that the timing is deeply political. This is more propaganda than plot. Of the over one thousand British Muslims arrested under anti-terrorist legislation, only twelve per cent are ever charged with anything. That is simply harrassment of Muslims on an appalling scale. Of those charged, 80% are acquitted. Most of the very few - just over two per cent of arrests - who are convicted, are not convicted of anything to do terrorism, but of some minor offence the Police happened upon while trawling through the wreck of the lives they had shattered. . . . Be sceptical. Be very, very sceptical.

. . . Read more!


posted by Lorenzo 2:20 PM