charging the canvas

Saturday, April 12, 2003

On the training and arming of Columbian paramilitaries by Israel
According to his book, not all was study for Casta�o in Israel, and he used his free time to meet with Colombian soldiers undergoing regular military training there -- soldiers of the worst human rights violators in the western hemisphere were being trained by some of the worst human rights violators in the Middle East. But these were precisely the connections that would prove so useful in the future.

"In the Sinai desert, I also had the opportunity of meeting military men from our country, the men of the Colombia battalion [of the Colombian Army]. I did not meet the battalion as a whole, but on my R & R days, we went to the same places, and I spent time in the company of sergeants and officers."

[...]

...in 1987 the Israelis were called in to help, probably through Colombian Army intermediaries.

In the mainstream media the 16 Israeli and some British trainers were presented as "mercenaries," perhaps because of the bias of the Colombian DAS agents who wrote a report on them. These foreign military trainers were far too well connected to be ordinary "mercenaries" -- they clearly acted with some government approval, most definitely that of Israel, and probably of some US entity also -- as we shall see below. Casta�o, who attended these courses, said that members of the Colombian Army had actually arranged the courses, which featured the training by a famous Israeli officer, Yair Klein.

Again, it was Casta�o ally Henry Perez who picked the candidates -- along with drug kingpin Gonzalo Rodr�guez Gacha. According to his book, Carlos Casta�o took part in the courses, and their organization occupied five of the 50 scholarships.

1:03 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Friday, April 11, 2003

Antiwar protest planned in London tomorrow, over 100,000 expected

10:40 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Yes, My Lord Bush

Demo congressman introduces bill to repeal the 22nd Amendment (limiting a President to 2 terms) [Agonist]

8:03 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

The Secrets of Drudge Inc.[Newsmakingnews]

10:12 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

"Details on how the United States would plant the seeds of democracy in a postwar Iraq remain shrouded in secrecy."

Interesting sentence, eh?

It's a line pointing to this story on "Rebuilding Iraq," which goes into some detail.
Yount said lawmakers have been regularly briefed on developments. USAID agreed to provide a broad overview of some of the work put out to bid, including seaport and airport administration, school and hospital construction, teacher training, textbook printing and promotion of democratic principles through local governments. But lawmakers say that not enough has been done to explain to the U.S. public what the long-term plans are.

"I do have doubts about whether or not the American people truly understand or have been given the chance to understand the magnitude of the task the country is setting for itself," Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., said at the hearing last week.

10:05 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Meet the new boss. . .
The new Iraqi government most probably will be populated with Baathist survivors, said Kenneth Waltz, author of "Man, the State and War," an examination of war's nature and causes.

"You go into these countries after a war has been won, and it's amazing," said Waltz, adjunct political science professor at Columbia. "The old guard survives and works its way into prominent positions."

Waltz recalled a visit he made to China in 1996. He was dining in a large hall, surrounded by government officials. "I asked the fellow beside me, `The former Red Guards, where are they now?'," referring to the notoriously vicious young Communists.

"He waved his hand around and said, `Look around this room.' They'd risen to positions of more or less prominence," Waltz said.
From a good little piece by Dru Sefton on the "perplexing disconnects" surrounding the war.

10:01 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Digby provides context for the Chinese double agent/GOP operative story this week
And now we find that one of the FBI agents who was heavily involved in the Chi-Com fundraising scandal was also heavily involved sexually with a Chinese double agent who also happened to be a well known Republican fundraiser. Meanwhile, the company that was portrayed as a treasonous Chi-Com front for Bill Clinton and his commie brethren hires a bunch of neocon heavyweights in the Defense Department to get it out of its mess.

Oh congressional committees, where art thou? Anybody? No treason? What about the "smell test?" As Senator Specter (R-Gasbag) said at the time, "these matters may be coincidences, but they raise an unsavory inference and ought to be investigated."
Long post worth a read, since we'll all be too busy watching Rumsfeld punish Syria next week to pay attention to any more GOP law-breaking or shrubco's list of impeachable offenses.

Not that many -- Demo or GOP -- wouldn't sell info or influence to China or anyone else for a nickel.

After all, if plutocrats here can buy pols, why can't foreign plutocrats belly up too?

It's just good business.

9:42 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Hilarious Zippy today

9:07 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Spooky Parallax View-type company that hit my site today searching for "kellogg brown and root civilian contract employment"
PSI possesses the technology to identify assignment or mission-relevant competencies, and using those competencies to select, develop and optimise the effectiveness of individuals and teams. The instrument of greatest value in this process is The Attentional and Interpersonal Style (TAIS) inventory. TAIS has been used to assess, evaluate and develop individuals from CEOs and senior executives to Olympic and professional athletes, to the U.S. Navy SEALS, and U.S. Army Special Forces, any arena where successful and effective performance under pressure matters.

8:56 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Newly elected President of Ecuador subject of foiled assassination attempt

Perhaps a little too close to his people and too far from US interests?
Newly elected Ecuadorian President Lucio Gutierrez has been a harsh critic of the drug war and U.S. intervention in South America. In a July 2001 interview with The Week Online conducted in El Salvador, Gutierrez railed against Plan Colombia, calling it "a massacre of innocent people" and "environmental terrorism."

Since being elected, however, Gutierrez has toned down his discourse against Plan Colombia as he negotiates with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

But leading members of the Pachakutik Movement, the political branch of the nation?s largest indigenous organization, CONAIE, and the driving force behind Gutierrez's electoral victory, continue to criticize U.S. drug policy openly in the region.

Some background:
Ecuador plays a significant role in the US Andean Initiative; more than being a neighbor to Colombia, Ecuador is the site of the US Forward Operating Location at Manta, on the coast. Manta is considered a disgrace to many Ecuadorans, a result of the Mahuad presidency.

One of the many actions that caused President Mahuad's removal in 2000 was his signing of the treaty with the United States. Alexis Ponce, of the local group Assemblea Permanente por Derechos Humanos, describes the base at Manta as a step towards the Hondurization of Ecuador, referring to the major role Honduras played in the Central American wars of the 1980�s. Ponce speculates that the claims by the United States that "Andean intelligence agencies need to improve their capacity and their coordination" could be a preamble to another Operation Condor, the notorious US-supported intelligence plan of South American dictatorships in the 1980�s. Following this logic, Manta plays a central role in this intelligence coordination. Ponce has first-hand knowledge of these intelligence operations, as he recently received a disk from an unnamed source including transcripts of telephone calls and computer images of his family members, all originating from the Ecuadoran Police.

According to retired General Rene Vargas Pazzos, former head of the Ecuadoran Armed Forces and Lucio's former professor, Manta is a scar on the face of Ecuador and is being used for all manner of covert and grey activities by the US military and their notorious contractors, Dyncorp. Pazzos noted that Manta is large enough for the largest US troop carrier airplanes, such as the C-5 Galaxy, the C-130, and the C-140, an indication that the base is intended to be used not just for drug interdiction, but for staging a major invasion. According to Pazzos, the United States is far overstepping the limits of the agreement, and is making Manta a staging area for future US interventions in the Andes and beyond. Pazzos indicated that Lucio is stuck with Manta, for the agreement that allowed for the US base has a duration of 10 years. What Pazzos claims is that Lucio can push the United States to abide by the agreement to the letter and only use the base for anti-drug operations and prevent any more expansions of the base.

8:27 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

US art dealers prepare to loot Iraqi treasures

8:10 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Young American soldiers mystified and deeply troubled by Iraqi resistance and the subsequent massacre

Never having had their homeland invaded, how could they?

This wasn't just about Saddam, but most Americans don't get that yet.

7:59 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

CIA ties to Saddam date back to "botched" 1959 assassination attempt on coup leader
"It bordered on farce," a former senior U.S. intelligence official said. But Qasim, hiding on the floor of his car, escaped death, and Saddam, whose calf had been grazed by a fellow would-be assassin, escaped to Tikrit, thanks to CIA and Egyptian intelligence agents, several U.S. government officials said.

Saddam then crossed into Syria and was transferred by Egyptian intelligence agents to Beirut, according to Darwish and former senior CIA officials. While Saddam was in Beirut, the CIA paid for Saddam's apartment and put him through a brief training course, former CIA officials said. The agency then helped him get to Cairo, they said.

One former U.S. government official, who knew Saddam at the time, said that even then Saddam "was known as having no class. He was a thug -- a cutthroat."

7:53 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

US soldiers join in widespread looting in Iraq

7:46 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Israeli airstrike "executions without trial" continue in Gaza

7:43 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sex crime scandal dating back up to 40 years may be end of Pitcairn Island community

Only 45 people live on the island populated by descendants of the Bounty and Polynesian settlers.

The full trial will be in Auckland, 3200 miles away, since it is the nearest city with the facilities for the trial, and many of the people involved now live there.

7:35 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Thursday, April 10, 2003

South American soldiers taking part in covert exercises with US Marines in Argentina

Preparing for "contingency plans" for "unfriendly" nations?

9:55 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Günter Grass on "the moral decline of a superpower"
Based on this injustice, the mighty have the power to buy and reward those who might be willing and to disdain and even punish the unwilling. The words of the current American president - "Those who are not with us are against us" - weigh on current events with the resonance of barbaric times.

It is hardly surprising that the rhetoric of the aggressor increasingly resembles that of his enemy. Religious fundamentalism leads both sides to abuse what belongs to all religions, taking the notion of God hostage in accordance with their own fanatical understanding. Even the passionate warnings of the Pope, who knows how lasting and devastating the disasters wrought by the mentality and actions of Christian crusaders have been, were unsuccessful.

Disturbed and powerless, but also filled with anger, we are witnessing the moral decline of the world's only superpower, burdened by the knowledge that only one consequence of this organized madness is certain: Motivation for more terrorism is being provided, for more violence and counterviolence.

9:39 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Enspelled construction workers and firefighters demonstrate at Ground Zero in support of "war that started right here on Sept 11, 2001"

A truly scary level of disconnect and denial, which I can't even begin to address -- though if you're a regular reader, I don't have to I'm sure.

6:54 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Norman Solomon on US forces murdering "un-embedded" journos -- just like they promised
The U.S. government's response has been to scold journalists for trying to do their jobs. "We continue to warn news organizations about the dangers," said the Pentagon's Victoria Clarke, who added: "We've had conversations over the last couple of days, news organizations eager to get their people unilaterally into Baghdad. We are saying it is not a safe place, you should not be there."

The key word in Clarke's statement was "unilaterally" -- as opposed to "embedded" with U.S. troops. Decoding the Pentagon's message to journalists isn't too difficult: If you don't play by our rules, you're much more likely to find yourself on a stretcher -- or dead.

I certainly wouldn't argue with the father of the journalist killed by the U.S. missile that hit the Al-Jazeera office in Baghdad. "My son is a martyr who was killed as a result of America's so-called civilization in an attack on press freedom," said Naeem Ayub. He added: "They are attacking journalists to hide the truth."

6:51 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

NYC cops to destroy database of political affiliations of antiwar protesters

Or so they claim.

Also:

Law Requiring Drug Testing of Welfare Parents Is Voided

Remember New York Times and other registration-only sites user & pass info in left column.

1:47 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

From Daily Kos, the email address of the Baseball Hall of Fame

1:35 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Cockburn on post-invasion nightmare

1:26 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

3 from Agonist

Tehran Times on possible deal between Russians, US and Saddam: exile for Baghdad.

Sarandon & Robbins appearance at Baseball Hall of Fame cancelled because of antiwar stance.

Mob killing of 2 Shi'ite clerics in Najaf partially aimed at US -- Abdul Majid al-Khoei was backed by the US, while Haider al-Kadar was associated with Saddam. There is probably much more to this.

1:21 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

19th century Brit disinfo scam took credit for Neptune discovery

11:49 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

pl post on new Handmaid's Tale opera in Britain

11:11 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Simple instructions for setting up a circumventor on a home PC which people on PCs with blocking software installed can use to bypass the block [u]

You need a broadband ("always on") connection and Windows 2000 or XP. It essentially turns your PC into a mini-Web server. You can't be behind a firewall.

Those accessing your circumventor can use any connection or OS. There are issues with Yahoo and Hotmail, and sites with javascripts might not work.

Still, this might be quite handy, and is apparently the first set-up novices can manage.

1:47 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

US military "detains, beats and threatens" journos [u]

1:34 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Update on the Carlyle Group and the pesky issue of funding Osama bin Laden at the same time they're reaping contracts from the Iraq War [u]

If there's any connection between bin Laden and Iraq, it's the Carlyle Group.

1:32 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Good Michael Lind piece on the uh braintrust behind shrubco [u]
Most neoconservative defence intellectuals have their roots on the left, not the right. They are products of the largely Jewish-American Trotskyist movement of the 1930s and 1940s, which morphed into anti-communist liberalism between the 1950s and 1970s and finally into a kind of militaristic and imperial right with no precedents in American culture or political history. Their admiration for the Israeli Likud party's tactics, including preventive warfare such Israel's 1981 raid on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor, is mixed with odd bursts of ideological enthusiasm for "democracy". They call their revolutionary ideology "Wilsonianism" (after President Woodrow Wilson), but it is really Trotsky's theory of the permanent revolution mingled with the far-right Likud strain of Zionism. Genuine American Wilsonians believe in self-determination for people such as the Palestinians.

The neo-con defence intellectuals, as well as being in or around the actual Pentagon, are at the centre of a metaphorical "pentagon" of the Israel lobby and the religious right, plus conservative think-tanks, foundations and media empires. Think-tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) provide homes for neo-con "in-and-outers" when they are out of government (Perle is a fellow at AEI). The money comes not so much from corporations as from decades-old conservative foundations, such as the Bradley and Olin foundations, which spend down the estates of long-dead tycoons. Neoconservative foreign policy does not reflect business interests in any direct way. The neo-cons are ideologues, not opportunists.

1:14 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Taliban re-organizing [u]
In the latest killing in southern Afghanistan, gunmen on Thursday shot to death Haji Gilani, a close Karzai ally, in southern Uruzgan province. Gilani was one of the first people to shelter Karzai when he secretly entered Afghanistan to foment a rebellion against the Taliban in late 2001.

International workers in Kandahar don't feel safe anymore and some have been moved from the Kandahar region to safer areas, said John Oerum, southwest security officer for the United Nations. But Oerum is trying to find a way to stay in southern Afghanistan. To abandon it would be to let the rebel forces win, he says.

The Red Cross, with 150 foreign workers in Afghanistan, have suspended operations indefinitely.

[...]

Khan Mohammed, commander of Kandahar's 2nd Corps, says his soldiers haven't been paid in seven months, and his fighting force has dwindled. The Kandahar police chief, Mohammed Akram, said he wants 50 extra police in each district where the Taliban have a stronghold. But he says his police haven't been paid in months and hundreds have just gone home.

"There is no real administration all over Afghanistan, no army, no police," said Mohammed. "The people do not want the Taliban, but we have to unite and build, but we are not."

1:09 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Good piece on shrubco's Propaganda Ministry [u] [Chicago Tribune user: ridgewood pass: callow]
So controlled is the administration's message that officials from Bush on down often use identical anecdotes to make their points, for example about Hussein's brutality. But the White House sometimes has been unable to provide details or documentation to back up those stories, and some human-rights activists have expressed skepticism about them.

One oft-repeated anecdote, for example, concerned an Iraqi woman who ostensibly waved at a U.S. military unit. When the unit returned to the area, the story goes, it found the woman hanged from a lamppost.

Yet U.S. officials never specified where that happened or gave any further details, and they declined to say how they know about it beyond citing "intelligence reports."

1:04 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

"We will export death and violence to the four corners of the Earth in defense of our great nation."

George W Bush, from Bush at War. [Undernews]

1:00 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Wednesday, April 09, 2003

The numbers [News Insider (last 2 posts)]

Excerpt:
50 per cent: Spending increase on U.S. national defence projected between 2000 and 2007.

320 metric tonnes: Amount of depleted uranium left in region after 1991 Gulf War.

200,000: Estimated number of U.S. soldiers said to be suffering from Gulf War Syndrome.

700: Between 1991 and 94, percentage increase in cancer rates in Iraq.

1 in 6: Chance the U.S. bombed Iraq on any given day last year.

9: Percentage of U.S. munitions dropped during the first Gulf War that were classified as precision-guided.

75: Percentage used during current war.

98: During the first Gulf War, the reported "success rate" (or percentage of accurate strikes) by Tomahawk cruise missiles.

10: Pentagon's estimated "success rate" after the war ended.

6:52 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

"What you believe is what you see" file:

Iraqi "torture chamber and execution site" actually a repatriation facility for soldiers killed during the Iraq-Iran war

Or was it intentional disinfo?

6:47 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

4 Miami cops convicted in cover-up of 4 shootings
In the biggest Miami police scandal in a generation, a federal jury convicted four officers of corruption Wednesday for planting a gun on an unarmed homeless man or lying to cover it up.

The officers, all assigned to elite undercover teams, were charged after four police shootings in the mid-1990s wounded the homeless man and left three other people dead. One of the victims, an elderly drug suspect, died in a hail of more than 100 bullets.

[...]

The shootings happened between 1995 and 1997, a time when Miami was under international pressure to crack down on roving gangs of armed robbers preying on tourists.

It was the city's worst police scandal since the 1980s, when rogue cops peddled cocaine they stole from drug traffickers. In that case, more than 100 officers were arrested, fired or disciplined.

This time, prosecutors said the defendants - all drug, robbery and SWAT officers - felt they were "above the law."

6:41 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

FBI agent charged with gross negligence for "allowing" classified material to fall into the hands of Republican political activist Katrina Leung, an alleged Chinese double agent

The agent, Joseph Smith, was working undercover in Chinese counter-intelligence and investigating Democratic campaign finance irregularities.

Go ahead and sort that one out for me.

6:30 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

45 Princeton profs sign statement condemning war as illegal and immoral

Con't find corroboration (nothing at the Daily Princetonian site), but no reason to believe it isn't true.

6:20 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Jim Rarey notes the curious timeline coincidence of the Congressional resolution approving force in Iraq and the sniper attacks last October

6:02 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Hat tip to The Daily Dystopian for the link!

5:44 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Digby's darkly hilarious take on the new regime's beginnings
Surely, the new sub-Viceroys who have no experience with Iraq or the language or large organizations are sure to be able to sort all this out, though. And, although he has not been to Iraq since 1958, Mr Chalabi's vast experience leveraging his position in neocon salons from one end of Georgetown to the other will stand him in very good stead in putting together a government from scratch.

2:13 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sterling on "stateless globalized predation" from the Contras to al Qaeda [STARE]
The next Iran-Contra is waiting, because the contradictions that created the first have never been resolved. Iran-Contra wasn't about eager American intelligence networks spreading dirty money in distant lands; it was about the gap between old, legitimate, land-based governments ruled by voters and the new, stateless, globalized predation. The next scandal will erupt when someone as molten, self-righteous, and frustrated as John Poindexter uses stateless power for domestic advantage. That's the breaking point in American politics: not when you call in the plumbers, but when you turn them loose on the opposition party. Then the Empire roils in a lather of sudden, indignant fury and strikes back against its own.

1:35 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

$800mil refund on illegal foreign purchase fee demanded of VISA/Master Card

9:51 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Dissenting musicians' families harassed by military [u]
The incident surfaced a week ago when Michael Franti, the front man for the band Spearhead, told Pacifica Radio network's "Democracy Now" that military investigators visited the mother of an unnamed band member in Boston. The woman also has a daughter stationed with U.S. military forces in the Middle East.

The mother, whom Franti also declined to name for her safety, said plainclothes investigators appeared at her door on March 16, showing pictures of the band performing at an anti-war demonstration the previous day in San Francisco, Franti said. They questioned her about entries made in her son's checking account, his travel records for the past several months, and his general whereabouts, Franti said.

Franti said they told the woman which members of the press she could talk to, and which she couldn't. They had confiscated CDs her daughter had brought to the Middle East, calling two Spearhead albums "the resistance."

12:07 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

GIs tempering shrubco's civilian slaughter in Iraq with surreptitious water and supplies to Iraqis [u]

12:04 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Also google-related: the search engine returns press releases under "news" search [u]
Pay attention: you may not think of Coca Cola, the Microsoft Corporation or the RIAA as legitimate news organizations, but Google News thinks so. It's redefined the term "news" so that press releases from corporate sites or lobby groups are acceptable content for the "automated" news harvester, Google confirmed to The Register today.

12:01 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Tuesday, April 08, 2003

End of anonymity file:

From Undernews: if you have a listed phone number and plug it into the google window, your name and address come up, with a Mapquest link showing how to get there

I tried it and it worked with the first number I tried.

Great.

For now, unpublished numbers (like ours) don't work.

Here's the google results page for the 2 VC companies that fund google with their CIA connections.

11:56 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Super-Orwellian fascism sounding just fine to some Republicans

Move already on to make PATRIOT Act permanent, 2 1/2 years before it's up for review [Agonist]

Demos stamp bunny-slippered feet and squeal "nonono!"

11:23 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

The remarkably weak PR push to sell the war to the Arab world -- which would be a tough sell for the best PR
The central problem was underscored for me by a Chinese journalist who sat next to me during a U.S. military briefing here in Doha.

"This is propaganda," he said brightly. "I was born and grew up in a propaganda country, and so I know it well." He beamed. "Actually, they do the propaganda very well, better than we do it. We in China can learn from this propaganda."

Fundamentally, the administration's overseas efforts resemble those of the Chinese Communist Party: excellent effort, lousy execution. The Bush administration knows how important this issue is (which the Clinton administration never did), but there's a Beijing-style rah-rah self-righteousness, too earnest by half, so the propaganda fizzles.

[...]

Moreover, as Raghida Dergham, a columnist for Al Hayat, an Arabic newspaper published in London, says, "It's the policy, stupid." Arab perceptions of America are framed by Bush's coziness with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel. No amount of spin can soften that. It will take a serious and balanced Middle East peace initiative of the kind that Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain is urging.

8:29 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

CIA disses Pentagon man Chalabi
A former U.S. intelligence official familiar with the report said, "They basically say that every time you mention Chalabi's name to an Iraqi, they want to puke." This official however questioned how accurate the CIA's assessment of Iraqi politics could be given the fluidity of events on the ground there.

2:16 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

2 main gas pipelines in Pakistan bombed, seriously disrupting supply

Apparently tribal warfare the government can't control.

2:12 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Spate of self-immolations in Czech Republic

2:09 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

GRU off the air

Wonder if that Guardian article had anything to do with it?

10:56 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Why you can't trust the press file:

L.A. Times war photo digitally altered

Not for any invidious reason in this case, but this is how easy it is.

1:07 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Digby of Hullabaloo on the pervasive influence of Newt Gingrich on current US war policy [skimble]
Last week I wrote a post about the likelihood that Newt Gingrich is heavily involved in the actual war planning for the Iraq invasion. I had no proof other than some gossipy items in newspaper columns. However, I have since been informed that Newt has had almost unequalled influence in long term strategic military planning for many, many years.

1:00 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Thoughtful take on the post-war evolution of policy towards the US by other states
It may not be the case that policy elites in the other powers (their counterparts to our neocons) have not resigned themselves to the Bush Doctrine, but rather understand that it cannot be opposed head on, as during the UN Security Council debate. The costs are too high, and the need to cooperate with the United States on other issues is too great.

However, rather than submitting to a U.S foreign policy they regard as reckless and destructive, perhaps the middle powers are coming to the realization that they will need to fight a protracted struggle against it - in the UN, in the Islamic world and even inside their own countries.

Such tactics could, for example, make the occupation and reconstruction of Iraq considerably harder. For example, UN failure to recognize an interim Iraqi government might make it difficult or impossible to sell Iraqi oil on the world market, increasing the financial burden for the United States. And while a diplomatic harassing action might not prevent US aggression against Iran or Syria, it could make it more expensive, more dangerous and less sustainable over time.

[...]

They say Nature abhors a vacuum, but she also hates its political opposite: overwhelming power. The end of the Cold War created a huge disequilibrium in the global order -- and 9/11 made it impossible to ignore, much to the neocons' glee. But the diplomatic reaction has already begun. If that is enough to bring the US back into tolerable balance with the rest of the world, so much the better. If not, then the reaction will continue to gather strength, and so will the risks to the stability of the entire system.
One possible scenario -- and a depressing one -- but worth a read.

12:41 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

WWII UK intel training center for spies, Camp X was documented offically by writers including Roald Dahl -- but the story remains under wraps [cicentre]
Twenty copies were printed and bound in leather (by an Oshawa [Ontario] press, which is now in the possession of the historical society). [Sir William "Intrepid"] Stephenson stowed 10 in a safe somewhere in Montreal, but later ordered them destroyed. The remaining 10 manuscripts he sent to leaders of the free world and intelligence organizations. When and where they will surface -- if ever they do -- is as much a mystery as their content.
Operatives who "would form the core" of the CIA after the war were dispatched there by Bill Donovan.

12:22 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

New Hungarian "House of Terror" shows how the country still struggles with its past [cicentre]
Few residents would disagree that the capital's newest museum, the House of Terror, is haunted. The museum, in an elegant former apartment building in the heart of [Budapest], was the headquarters of the Hungarian fascist movement during World War II. It was later the nerve center of the dreaded communist political police.

But the ghosts of a turbulent history have not been put to rest. Fourteen years after Eastern Europe shrugged off communism in favor of free elections and free markets, interpreting the past often provokes fierce controversy. Since it opened in February 2002, the museum continues to foster a storm of debate.

[...]

The most chilling part of the exhibition are the reconstructed jail cells in the basement, where political prisoners were tortured and often killed. The political police moved out of the building in 1956, the year that Soviet troops crushed the uprising in Budapest.

For some the museum is a slick presentation with little substance. A surly guard outside the building keeps visitors waiting in line as if they were trying to enter a popular nightclub. Foreigners are required to pay twice as much -- about $13 -- for entry as Hungarians, a relic of communist-era double-pricing in which hard currency was milked from tourists.

Dramatic music, sounding much like a film score, fills many of the rooms.

"It's absolutely professional kitsch. It's something I don't admire, but I look at it with respect," said Laszlo Rajk, 54, a former communist-era dissident.

[...]

But Karsai said that the museum is more symbolic of Hungarian society's polarization.

"I'm very sad. After the collapse of communism, I had the dream to live in a free, liberal, democratic country. . . . But the country is extremely divided, into two or three factions. Between the factions there is no debate, but mutual hate and distrust."

12:05 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Monday, April 07, 2003

shrubco plans US -- not international -- war crime tribunal for Iraqi leaders

Eventually, their hypocrisy will catch up with them.

Not to say some Iraqis aren't guilty of war crimes.

But the way shrubco has been playing fast and loose with the Geneva accords itself has not been lost on anyone outside the US.

Which the refusal to use the International War Crimes court (which the US has refused to take part in) only underlines.

Which leads one to wonder if shrubco isn't being given a long leash to ultimately bring the US under the umbrella of international laws which would be a bad thing (like the NAFTA regs that allow corps to sue governments if they can't do business because of, say, environmental laws), unlike the War Crimes court.

Just like the arrogance and greed of the plutocrats re the environment can be used to enact draconian environmental legislation down the line, that goes well beyond protecting the environment.

11:41 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Papua New Guinea devolving

Unlike many postcolonial states, Papua New Guinea has maintained a record of formal democracy since independence from Australia in 1975. Changes of government have been regular and constitutional. But the chaos, violence and fraud that marred the 2002 elections indicate an emerging crisis of governance and state legitimacy.

[...]

The fragility of Papua New Guinea also has broader regional security implications. Weak states are easy prey for terrorists and transnational criminals. Although Papua New Guinea has not been identified as a major target for transnational criminal activity, a small but significant firearms-for-marijuana trade across the Torres Strait has already contributed to the corrosive effects of rising crime and violence in Papua New Guinea's major towns and its highland region. This increased availability of, and resort to, arms makes conflict more protracted and difficult to resolve, particularly when warlords and criminals outnumber and outgun police and defense forces.

Grim prognoses for the future of Papua New Guinea are growing, but the worst has not yet happened. It has so far "muddled through" despite severe economic difficulties and political instability. But several trends suggest that each year of "muddling" ultimately reduces the prospect of getting "through."

11:23 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

"War crime" (them) vs "relaxed grooming standards" (us): soldiers acting like civilians [a]

6:09 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Good summary of neocon foreign policy agenda [a]
There's no official membership list, but some names are familiar: President Bush could be called one. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld was one of the first neocons, as was Vice President Dick Cheney. Powell has been at odds with Cheney and Rumsfeld from time to time, so he may not not consider himself one.

Others are less well known, but influential nonetheless: Paul Wolfowitz is Rumsfeld's top deputy and, with Perle, has been an early and frequent supporter of war with Iraq; John R. Bolton is Undersecretary of State For Arms Control and International Security; Douglas J. Feith is Undersecretary of Defense For Policy; William Kristol publishes the Weekly Standard, reportedly a must-read in Cheney's office.

In one view the neocons are patriots who have convinced President Bush to seize a historic opportunity to disarm enemies and spread U.S.-style democracy around the world.

In another view, they are a group of opportunistic hawks -- often Jews and evangelical Christians -- whose support for Israel underpins and colors their thinking about U.S. policy in the Middle East.

"It's a matter of public record that this war with Iraq is largely the brainchild of a group of neoconservative intellectuals, who view it as a pilot project," said economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.

6:02 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

CIA/Neocon/Likud dupe and convicted criminal Chalabi spirited into southern Iraq by US [a]

Not so long ago it looked like Chalabi was out of favor.

Obviously a weak attampt by shrubco to mask their annexation of the country.

In the proud tradition of Karzai and Diem and countless others.

Chalabi was sentenced in absentia in Jordan to 22 years hard labor for "embezzlement, fraud and currency-trading irregularities." He had skipped the country.

Robert Dreyfuss's fine profile is at the first link above.

5:58 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Marines discard chemical suits [a]

So much for the WMD.

5:34 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Congo violence escalates [Agonist]

5:32 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Pics of injured protesters in Oakland today [Agonist]

Mayor Brown's contact info and more links here

5:28 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

The Guardian likes the Russian army intel updates on the war
The Dow Jones is 200 up on today's headlines, 200 down on tomorrow's. Currencies soar and crash with every Qatar press briefing. Truth is not the first casualty of current war reporting, it's the daily casualty. Place your stock-market bets according to CNN and you'll be broke in a week.

[...]

The fluctuations have never been more volatile than in the past couple of weeks. Guess right and get rich. But, as one mathematician trader put it to me: "How can I model madness?" He went on to give the answer.

You don't factor news into your model, but intelligence. There is a surfeit of war news, but reliable intelligence is hard to come by. The canny trader in these parlous days has a first port of call - GRU (Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravleniye), the espionage arm of the Russian military.

GRU is the most sophisticated agency of its kind in the world. And, since Glasnost, the most transparent. GRU has thousands of agents worldwide (especially in countries such as Iraq, where Russia has traditional trade links).

1:12 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Oakland police use tear gas, concussion grenades, rubber bullets and sandbags (you can shoot a sandbag?) on antiwar protesters -- and on longshoremen standing nearby not protesting

Something else going on there? A little reminder from the plutocrats of who's boss?

1:07 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sean-Paul (The Agonist) admits attribution issues and fixes them

If only the mainstream media were as responsive to criticism.

And as reliable.

1:02 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Is the Syria-has-Iraqi-WMD story a sign of where the next invasion will be?

4:22 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Leonard Horowitz on SARS as an experiment in mind control
...a careful study of this multi-disciplinary subject reveals something amiss far more insidious and deadly than SARS. This spreading scourge of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome stretching from Asia to North America has all the earmarks of a novel social experiment in population manipulation aimed to culture the mass mind for the arrival of "the Big One" -- a biological agent that will facilitate decimation of approximately a third to half of the world's population, in keeping with current official population reduction objectives.

4:10 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Iraq is "a 'CIA and special ops playground.'"
In the north, special operations forces are credited with calling in airstrikes on Ansar al-Islam, a militant group operating near the border of Iran. The group has been linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network. Late last week, U.S. special operations forces held a rare news conference with Kurdish fighters to announce their success against the militants. Special ops also are credited with clearing the way for the largest military parachute landing since World War II. The 173rd Airborne Brigade was flown to northern Iraq last week from Italy to protect the northern oil fields.

In Iraq's western desert, U.S. special operations forces working with their British and Australian counterparts seized two airstrips that could have been used by Iraqi aircraft. They also destroyed Scud missile launchers Saddam had threatened to use against Israel and intercepted weapons that reportedly were being sent to Republican Guard forces from Syria.

Special operations forces in southern Iraq helped secure oil terminals and gain control of the northern Persian Gulf to cut off any weapons shipments and prevent Iraqi officials from escaping.

In the Baghdad area, they secured a dozen of nearly 1,000 suspected biological- and chemical-weapons sites and called in airstrikes on Saddam's palaces and Republican Guard headquarters.

They took control of the Haditha Dam, which the Pentagon feared Iraqis might destroy to flood the battlefield. And they tapped into Iraq's Chinese-built fiber-optic communications lines, which allowed U.S. forces to intercept the conversations of Iraq's military and political leaders.

3:30 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Emergency "doctor draft" plan drawn up by Pentagon
The president would issue a proclamation ordering an estimated 3.5 million health care workers to register for a draft within 13 days. Congress would quickly enact legislation authorizing the draft for health care workers aged 20 to 44.

For the first time, the draft would include women.

3:21 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sunday, April 06, 2003

Pentagon won't allow replacement of embeds
More than 600 journalists are traveling with units from all four branches of the U.S. military as embedded correspondents under the pilot program. Among the rules that the reporters and photographers had to agree to before becoming embedded was that they would give up their slots if they chose to leave. However, now that the length of the war seems more in doubt than during the initial attacks, some editors have told E&P they would like the flexibility of being able to replace embeds if the fighting lasts for weeks or months. As E&P reported Monday, many top papers are already naming or even training replacement reporters.

9:25 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Jimmy Breslin on the blood (with some commentary from a poet)
Out, damned spot! out, I say!--One: two: why,
then, 'tis time to do't.--Hell is murky!--Fie, my
lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we
fear who knows it, when none can call our power to
account?--Yet who would have thought the old man
to have had so much blood in him.

The red cloud then comes down on the White House lawn and it does more than sprinkle, it splashes the helicopter of the president and he strolls out with his wife, his dog and his chesty walk and slight smirk and the wife at his side is smiling, for it is the end of the week and we are good, decent Christian people, God bless us and God bless everybody, and as they are about to get into the helicopter, an Air Force officer rushes up in alarm and says, please, just give us a moment, and he has three people scrubbing so quickly to clean the blood from the helicopter and then Bush and his wife get aboard and they fly off to Camp David, for where else would you go on a weekend, and as they have neglected to have two men hanging out of the windows and inspecting the sides of the craft in midair, nobody can see the blood back on the helicopter.

All is the fear and nothing is the love;
As little is the wisdom, where the flight
So runs against all reason.

6:55 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Brit Mark Steel: [a]
The presenters who front this bilge should say: "We're here to bring you 24-hour rolling cack that's been made up. The minute it's made up, you'll hear about it. And there's some breaking cack being made up right now, apparently Saddam has filled some clouds with anthrax and he's forcing giants in the Republican Guard to blow them towards Bournemouth. We'll bring you more as soon as it's made up."

[...]

The terrifying thing is that the people who seem to fall for the propaganda most of all are the governments who make it up in the first place. The result is that the first two weeks of this war can appear like the first four years of Vietnam with the film speeded up. They expected to be welcomed, and when they weren't, they almost pleaded: "Can't you see? We're here to liberate you." So when civilians oppose them the generals declare they're "Republican Guard" in civilian clothing. So the whole population becomes a potential enemy, the troops get edgy and fire on women and children. And, as in Vietnam when Kissinger bombed Laos and Cambodia, the Americans are already threatening Syria and Iran.

So I don't follow the line that "We must support the war to back our troops". If teenagers run off to join the mafia, you don't say: "I was against them going but now they're there we can't undermine them by saying they should come home."

11:13 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

shrubco actively maneuvering to keep Sharon in power

Also see Gideon Samet on "The Israelization of America".

11:08 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

xymphora:
Why do the Americans stumble across some powder in Iraq, and immediately, before doing any investigation, start to talk about weapons of mass destruction? It's powder. The vast majority of powders aren't biological or chemical weapons. If the Americans ever encounter a bakery they'll have a fit. Each time they have a false alarm, it only emphasizes that they have not found one shred of evidence of these weapons of mass destruction.

10:26 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

GM Canada pulls ads calling transit riders "creeps and weirdos" [u]

1:13 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Actual effects of "smart" bombs [u]
The air where the explosion takes place is compressed and driven outward at supersonic speed, creating a pressure wave that results in, as one medical treatise chastely puts it, "patterns ranging from traumatic amputation to total body disruption." If you are not blown apart or don't suffer massive trauma from being slammed into a wall or other object, chances are your internal organs will be crushed by overpressure that may reach thousands of pounds per square inch (normal pressure on a human being at sea level is 14.5 psi). The inner ear, lungs and intestines are usually the first to go.

1:00 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Just Amazing file:

Preparing the populace for their Holy Capitalist Future, the US military at first gave tank truck owners water to sell to desperate and mostly poor Iraqis [u]

Then newly arrived Pro Consul Garner stepped in
Garner sought to gloss over what had become an increasingly angry U.S.-British dispute on the direction and goals of the relief effort. The Americans wanted to jump-start a free-market economy by letting Iraqi contractors sell water at a modest profit to encourage private business in general.

But British officers were exasperated at what they viewed as a heavy-handed and unrealistic American attempt to impose supply-side economic theory on what is essentially a barter economy in the aftermath of dictatorship and war.

"We're going to build on what the British have done," Garner said, putting an end to the initial U.S. approach that was enthusiastically outlined Monday by Army Col. David Bassert of the 354th Civil Affairs Brigade.

Bassert grudgingly admitted defeat yesterday.

"Please accept my apologies for being incorrect yesterday, but what I told you was correct yesterday," he said.

Bassert said seven Iraqi contractors had been hired to distribute water, and "they are not to charge for water."

But he made clear he has reservations about the new plan. He said selling water was meant to nudge the Iraqis into free-market practices "so that they don't get used to a welfare system."

12:45 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

charging the canvas

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