Was Raymond Davis trying to ignite a false flag war to pre-empt the collapse of the global economy...?

if true, this could be one of the final nails in the coffin of the super-rich elite domination of global affairs and the beginning of the real changes i have been fervently praying for for so very, very long...

"CIA spy" Davis was giving nuclear bomb material to Al-Qaeda, says report

Double murder-accused US official Raymond Davis has been found in possession of top-secret CIA documents, which point to him or the feared American Task Force 373 (TF373) operating in the region, providing Al-Qaeda terrorists with "nuclear fissile material" and "biological agents," according to a report.

Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is warning that the situation on the sub-continent has turned "grave" as it appears that open warfare is about to break out between Pakistan and the United States, The European Union Times reports.

The SVR warned in its report that the apprehension of 36-year-old Davis, who shot dead two Pakistani men in Lahore last month, had fuelled this crisis.

According to the report, the combat skills exhibited by Davis, along with documentation taken from him after his arrest, prove that he is a member of US' TF373 black operations unit currently operating in the Afghan War Theatre and Pakistan's tribal areas, the paper said.

While the US insists that Davis is one of their diplomats, and the two men he killed were robbers, Pakistan says that the duo were ISI agents sent to follow him after it was discovered that he had been making contact with al Qaeda, after his cell phone was tracked to the Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan, the paper said.

The most ominous point in this SVR report is "Pakistan's ISI stating that top-secret CIA documents found in Davis's possession point to his, and/or TF373, providing to al Qaeda terrorists "nuclear fissile material" and "biological agents", which they claim are to be used against the United States itself in order to ignite an all-out war in order to re-establish the West's hegemony over a Global economy that is warned is just months away from collapse," the paper added. [emphasis added]

then there's this from the asian tribune...

[H]ypocrisy in America is now so commonplace it is no longer noticed. While it enjoys torturing other peoples for American sins, it objects to human rights abuses of countries it despises such as Burma, Pakistan, Iran, Syria. In USA if a person tortures a dog he is sent to jail, but a government functionary indulging in torture against fellow beings is ignored.

[...]

America has provided licenses to kill to its soldiers and secret agents and desires Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq, the three most affected countries to grant full immunity to all US nationals. Musharraf regime as well as current regime had given their consent on the quiet but now that the ruling regime is in dire straits; and the Army and ISI have adopted principled stand on national security matters, the US is finding it difficult to have its own way and is off colors.

[...]

Detained Davis has become a ticking bomb for Pakistan. His safety till completion of his trial which will take a considerable length of time has become an utmost concern for law enforcement agencies in Lahore. There are possibilities he could be swooped away by the US Special Forces already secretly positioned in Pakistan through a sting operation. RAW could play a dirty role in harming him to put Pakistan in another tight corner. Fearful of Davis divulging CIA’s clandestine operations in Pakistan, the CIA could get him bumped off. Anti-American militant groups based in Pakistan may attempt to kill him in case they feel that he is being freed without a trial.

definitely worth keeping an eye on this developing story...

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Our stunningly context-free news media

a story from cbs news yesterday out of afghanistan...

ArmorGroup Hires Untrained Nepalese Nationals to Guard Kabul Embassy

A new report from the State Department Inspector General's Office found that a private security firm in Afghanistan hired more than 400 Nepalese nationals who lacked training and English languages skills to protect the U.S. embassy in Kabul.

According to the report, ArmorGroup of North America (AGNA) was awarded a contract from the Department of State in July 2007 to protect the embassy. Through June 2010, AGNA has been allocated $97.5 million by the State Department.

the story did contain a link to but no actual mention of this story from last year...

Were ArmorGroup Allegations Quashed?

CBS News first reported this month on the hazing and humiliating of local employees and other serious breaches of ethics and policy by civilian security guards during wild parties at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Turns out, the State Department was warned that things weren't right at the embassy, but nothing was done. Now there are troubling questions for the man once in charge of investigating those problems, reports CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.

As inspector general for the State Department, Howard Krongard was supposed to be an independent watchdog.

It was his job to investigate the very type of misconduct alleged at the U.S. embassy in Kabul: forced sexual hazing of guards, contract fraud and waste of tax dollars.

CBS News has learned that serious allegations about the embassy reached Krongard's office two years ago - where they apparently vanished into thin air.

the above story, in turn, contained a link to the following story but mentioned no details...

Shocking Hazing at U.S. Embassy in Kabul

On August 4, rockets land near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. On August 15, a suicide bomber hits close by killing or wounding 98. The attacks punctuate the dangers faced by hundreds of American diplomats and staff who work there. Yet some of the Embassy's own security guards are alleging shocking work conditions that put American lives at risk.

In numerous e-mails, the guards describe a crisis in discipline and morale, understaffing, sleep deprivation, "threats and intimidation." One guard refers to a group of guards and supervisors from the security contractor ArmorGroup as "sexual predators, deviants running rampant."

Guards provided dozens of graphic photos and videos depicting shocking scenes of hazing and humiliation by superiors, most of them too lewd to show. The guards recount a climate of fear and coercion where those who refuse to participate are retaliated against, even fired.

The State Department contracts with a private security firm - ArmorGroup North America, owned by Wackenhut. ArmorGroup employs 450 guards at the Kabul Embassy - two-thirds from Nepal and India, the rest from the U.S. and other English-speaking nations.

it's bad enough that, if you only read yesterday's news, you wouldn't know anything at all about the bigger, sordid story about armorgroup from last september (full details here in the mother jones article)... you also wouldn't know that armorgroup was a subsidiary of wackenhut, a notorious blackwater-style contractor, raking in gazillions of u.s. taxpayer dollars... you also wouldn't know that wackenhut is now owned by the british security conglomerate, g4s... and you ALSO wouldn't know this about howard krongard...

Brothers, Bad Blood and the Blackwater Tangle

They were smart, scrappy brothers who rose from modest circumstances in Baltimore to become lacrosse stars at Princeton, succeed in business and land big government jobs.

Now the Krongard brothers — who have carried childhood nicknames, Buzzy and Cookie, through long careers — are tied up in the tangled story of Blackwater, the security contractor accused in the deaths of at least 17 Iraqis while guarding a State Department convoy in Baghdad.

or this...

Howard J. "Cookie" Krongard (born December 12, 1940), was an appointee in the government of President George W. Bush. Krongard was head of the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of State. His position was known as the State Inspector General or State IG. After being accused of averting probes into contracting fraud in Iraq and a possible conflict of interest regarding investigations into Blackwater Worldwide, Krongard left his post on January 15, 2008, and was not eligible for retirement.

He is the brother of former CIA Executive Director A. B. Krongard.

yes, howard is the brother of the former cia executive director, a brother who also has this item on his resume...

Krongard resigned from the CIA shortly after the arrival of DCI Porter Goss in September 2004. While at the CIA, he was the connection between Erik Prince of Blackwater Security Consulting and the CIA. Through his influence, Blackwater was able to receive its first black contract.

see what happens when you add context...? suddenly, things get a LOT more interesting...

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The CIA - oops, I mean Blackwater - dodges accountability... What a bunch o'crap...!

erik prince's cia cut-out organization never did have to worry about being held accountable...

Judge dismisses all charges in Blackwater shooting

A federal judge on Thursday threw out charges against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards accused of killing 14 people in a 2007 shooting in downtown Baghdad.

and a happy new year to all...!!

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Mr. CIA - more on Erik Prince and Blackwater

hoo-boy... surprising but not surprising if you know what i mean...

[T]he truth about [Erik] Prince may be orders of magnitude stranger than fiction. For the past six years, he appears to have led an astonishing double life. Publicly, he has served as Blackwater’s C.E.O. and chairman. Privately, and secretly, he has been doing the C.I.A.’s bidding, helping to craft, fund, and execute operations ranging from inserting personnel into “denied areas”—places U.S. intelligence has trouble penetrating—to assembling hit teams targeting al-Qaeda members and their allies. Prince, according to sources with knowledge of his activities, has been working as a C.I.A. asset: in a word, as a spy. While his company was busy gleaning more than $1.5 billion in government contracts between 2001 and 2009—by acting, among other things, as an overseas Praetorian guard for C.I.A. and State Department officials—Prince became a Mr. Fix-It in the war on terror. His access to paramilitary forces, weapons, and aircraft, and his indefatigable ambition—the very attributes that have galvanized his critics—also made him extremely valuable, some say, to U.S. intelligence.

no question about it... you couldn't make this shit up...

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Blackwater assassinations in Pakistan - more change we can believe in

and more change to be thankful for on this thanksgiving week...

jeremy scahill in the nation...

At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help run a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.

The source, who has worked on covert US military programs for years, including in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has direct knowledge of Blackwater's involvement. He spoke to The Nation on condition of anonymity because the program is classified. The source said that the program is so "compartmentalized" that senior figures within the Obama administration and the US military chain of command may not be aware of its existence.

[...]

The previously unreported program, the military intelligence source said, is distinct from the CIA assassination program that the agency's director, Leon Panetta, announced he had canceled in June 2009. "This is a parallel operation to the CIA," said the source. "They are two separate beasts." The program puts Blackwater at the epicenter of a US military operation within the borders of a nation against which the United States has not declared war--knowledge that could further strain the already tense relations between the United States and Pakistan.

[...]

A former senior executive at Blackwater confirmed the military intelligence source's claim that the company is working in Pakistan for the CIA and JSOC, the premier counterterrorism and covert operations force within the military. He said that Blackwater is also working for the Pakistani government on a subcontract with an Islamabad-based security firm that puts US Blackwater operatives on the ground with Pakistani forces in counter-terrorism operations, including house raids and border interdictions, in the North-West Frontier Province and elsewhere in Pakistan. This arrangement, the former executive said, allows the Pakistani government to utilize former US Special Operations forces who now work for Blackwater while denying an official US military presence in the country. He also confirmed that Blackwater has a facility in Karachi and has personnel deployed elsewhere in Pakistan. The former executive spoke on condition of anonymity.

His account and that of the military intelligence source were borne out by a US military source who has knowledge of Special Forces actions in Pakistan and Afghanistan. When asked about Blackwater's covert work for JSOC in Pakistan, this source, who also asked for anonymity, told The Nation, "From my information that I have, that is absolutely correct," adding, "There's no question that's occurring."

"It wouldn't surprise me because we've outsourced nearly everything," said Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff from 2002 to 2005, when told of Blackwater's role in Pakistan. Wilkerson said that during his time in the Bush administration, he saw the beginnings of Blackwater's involvement with the sensitive operations of the military and CIA. "Part of this, of course, is an attempt to get around the constraints the Congress has placed on DoD. If you don't have sufficient soldiers to do it, you hire civilians to do it. I mean, it's that simple. It would not surprise me."

over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go...

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Scahill on Maddow: is Blackwater still around because Obama's afraid?

here's an interesting twist on the on-going blackwater story...

Despite news reports that the security contractor formerly known as Blackwater has seen its contracts dry up and its influence wane, the company continues to do brisk business in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and the Obama administration may be too afraid of the firm to do anything about it, says investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill.

"You know who's guarding Hillary Clinton in Afghanistan right now? Blackwater," Scahill told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Tuesday night. "You know who guards members of Congress? Blackwater. They have half a billion dollars in contracts in Afghanistan right now. CIA, State Department, Defense Department. Why is President Obama keeping these guys on the payroll? There has never been a company in recent history that made the case that corporations are corrupt, evil organizations [better] than Blackwater."

Scahill was on The Rachel Maddow Show discussing the New York Times' revelation that senior Blackwater executives allegedly arranged for bribes of up to $1 million for Iraqi politicians in a bid to retain its contracts and silence criticism of the company in the wake of the Nissour Square massacre in 2007, in which 17 Iraqi civilians died after Blackwater guards opened fire.

so, afraid why...? afraid to lose a kickback...? afraid of what they know and would be willing to tell...? afraid for his life...? afraid why...?

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Blackwater can run but it can't hide

what a bunch of sleazeballs...

Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials.

Blackwater approved the cash payments in December 2007, the officials said, as protests over the deadly shootings in Nisour Square stoked long-simmering anger inside Iraq about reckless practices by the security company’s employees. American and Iraqi investigators had already concluded that the shootings were unjustified, top Iraqi officials were calling for Blackwater’s ouster from the country, and company officials feared that Blackwater might be refused an operating license it would need to retain its contracts with the State Department and private clients, worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Four former executives said in interviews that Gary Jackson, who was then Blackwater’s president, had approved the bribes and that the money was sent from Amman, Jordan, where the company maintains an operations hub, to a top manager in Iraq. The executives, though, said they did not know whether the cash was delivered to Iraqi officials or the identities of the potential recipients.

Blackwater’s strategy of buying off the government officials, which would have been illegal under American law, created a deep rift inside the company, according to the former executives. They said that Cofer Black, who was then the company’s vice chairman and a former top C.I.A. and State Department official, learned of the plan from another Blackwater manager while he was in Baghdad discussing compensation for families of the shooting victims with United States Embassy officials.

Alarmed about the secret payments, Mr. Black cut short his talks and left Iraq. Soon after returning to the United States, he confronted Erik Prince, the company’s chairman and founder, who did not dispute that there was a bribery plan, according to a former Blackwater executive familiar with the meeting. Mr. Black resigned the following year.

Stacy DeLuke, a spokeswoman for the company, now called Xe Services, dismissed the allegations as “baseless” and said the company would not comment about former employees. Mr. Black did not respond to telephone calls and e-mail messages seeking comment.

what's most interesting about this story is not the bribery itself but the fact that the company's vice chair, ace sleazeball cofer black, AFTER making his discovery and "confronting" erik prince, didn't take his knowledge public...

patético...

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Punish the weak and vulnerable...? Absolutely...! The REAL crooks and criminals...? Not so much...

jeremy scahill in the nation via raw story and msnbc's rachel maddow...

Lawmakers’ defunding of community activist group ACORN “means there is no spine in Congress when it comes to standing up against the real crooks and criminals in this society,” military-affairs reporter Jeremy Scahill says.

Scahill, a writer for The Nation who this summer broke the story that Erik Prince, CEO of Blackwater, had been implicated in at least one murder, told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that ACORN got “pennies” compared to military contractors who have been convicted of crimes but continue to receive hundreds of millions of dollars from US taxpayers.

Scahill suggested that it’s relatively easy to go after a grassroots community group like ACORN, while pursuing much worse allegations against defense contractors requires actual courage.

“This is political, this isn’t really about upholding the law,” Scahill said on the Rachel Maddow Show. “On the one hand, you have an organization that registered 1.3 million people to vote, 400,000 members, works with the poor and working class people of this nation, and they don’t have lobbying power in the form of massive campaign contributions.

O beautiful, for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America! God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.

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Dribble,dribble, dribble... Slowly, very slowly, the truth trickles out...

and absolutely none of it in the least bit surprising...

C.I.A. Sought Blackwater’s Help in Plan to Kill Jihadists

The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside
contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater
USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top
operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former
government officials.

Executives from Blackwater, which has generated controversy
because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq, helped the spy
agency with planning, training and surveillance. The C.I.A.
spent several millions dollars on the program, which did not
capture or kill any terrorist suspects.

hey...! let's PRIVATIZE the assassination programs of our intelligence service... whaddaya say...?

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Are Blackwater (a/k/a Xe Services LLC) and its founder Erik Prince going down...?

suggestion for the prosecutors... first, follow the money... second, make sure that when you do follow the money, you follow it UPSTREAM...

A former Blackwater [Xe Services LLC] employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."

In their testimony, both men also allege that Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq. One of the men alleges that Prince turned a profit by transporting "illegal" or "unlawful" weapons into the country on Prince's private planes. They also charge that Prince and other Blackwater executives destroyed incriminating videos, emails and other documents and have intentionally deceived the US State Department and other federal agencies. The identities of the two individuals were sealed out of concerns for their safety.

and while you're swimming upstream, be sure to check out cofer black...

Cofer Black, the company's current vice chairman, was director of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center (CTC) at the time of the September 11 attacks in 2001. He was the United States Department of State coordinator for counterterrorism with the rank of ambassador at large from December 2002 to November 2004. After leaving public service, Black became chairman of the privately owned intelligence gathering company Total Intelligence Solutions, Inc., as well as vice chairman for Xe. Robert Richer was vice president of intelligence until January 2007, when he formed Total Intelligence Solutions. He was formerly the head of the CIA's Near East Division.^[23][24] Black was senior advisor for counterterrorism and national security issues for the 2008 Presidential election bid of Mitt Romney.^[25]

swell folks, eh...?

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Remembering Baghdad on the bayou and exploding the myth of Bush administration incompetence

even though i've cut WAY back on my blogging, and, yes, even though barack obama officially became the democratic nominee for president in what will be seen as one of the nation's most historical moments, i would be less than true to myself if, on its third anniversary, i didn't honor the national tragedy and monumental disgrace that was hurricane katrina...

first, let's put the lie once and for all to the myth of bush administration "incompetence"...

courtesy of brasscheck tv...



incompetence...? i don't think so...

Mission accomplished Mr. President

In the chaos and trauma that accompanied the levee collapses in New Orleans in 2005, a few basic facts were obscured:

1. Katrina was not a natural disaster. It was an engineering disaster caused by the federally funded U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

2. Far from performing incompetently, the Bush administration and reactionary forces in local government were extremely effective in attaining their aims.

Specifically:

1. The Bush administration did an extremely effective job of withholding vital "life and death" information that levees had not only topped, they had also catastrophically collapsed.

(Reference: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/79.html)

2. FEMA did an extremely effective job of discouraging qualified relief workers from coming to the area, going so far as to turn many back at gunpoint.

They also turned away much needed supplies like water and fuel and sabotaged local communications lines.

3. Thousands of flood victims were very effectively herded and held in concentration-like conditions within the city for many days after the flooding.

4. Though it claimed to be unable to bring food, water, medicine or transportation into the flood zone, Homeland Security did an extremely effective job of quickly hiring and deploying highly paid gun thugs to the region who were employed by companies that had made massive contributions to the Bush campaign.

5. The Bush administration and their friends in the news media did an extremely effective job of painting the victims of the flooding as dangerous and not worthy of being helped.

6. The Bush administration did an extremely effective job of erasing a carefully researched and thought out evacuation plan developed over many years by LSU and replacing it with NOTHING.

(Reference: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/79.html)

7. Post-flood law enforcement did an extremely effective job of illegally seizing fire arms from hundreds of law abiding citizens while allowing criminals to run amok.

Incompetence? Poor planning?

You've got to be kidding....

The Bush administration wanted to destroy the black Democratic voting block in New Orleans - and it did. New Orleans and southern Louisiana, one of the last Democratic hold outs in the South, is Republican now.

It wanted a justification for seizing guns and declaring martial law and succeeded in creating conditions where people would beg for military intervention.

It wanted practice holding large numbers of civilians in concentration camp-like conditions - and it got the opportunity.

It wanted to obscure the fact that instead of using the tax dollars it's collected over the decades to repair and maintain levees, it's used the money to engage in illegal foreign wars.

Mission accomplished on every score.

But they made one miscalculation.

So conditioned were administration planners by their own habitual depravity, it never occurred to them that the rest of the country would object to seeing their fellow citizens suffer so outrageously at the hands of the government.

The good news is the moral instincts of Americans still function well. The bad news is their ability to see what is being done to them in broad daylight is highly impaired.

new orleans today...

from bill quigley at counterpunch via alternet...

Katrina hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast three years ago this week. The president promised to do whatever it took to rebuild. But the nation is trying to fight wars in several countries and is dealing with economic crisis. The attention of the president wandered away. As a result, this is what New Orleans looks like today.

0. Number of renters in Louisiana who have received financial assistance from the $10 billion federal post-Katrina rebuilding program Road Home Community Development Block Grant -- compared to 116,708 homeowners.

0. Number of apartments currently being built to replace the 963 public housing apartments formerly occupied and now demolished at the St. Bernard Housing Development.

0. Amount of data available to evaluate performance of publicly financed, privately run charter schools in New Orleans in 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 school years.

.008. Percentage of rental homes that were supposed to be repaired and occupied by August 2008 which were actually completed and occupied -- a total of 82 finished out of 10,000 projected.

1. Rank of New Orleans among US cities in percentage of housing vacant or ruined.

1. Rank of New Orleans among US cities in murders per capita for 2006 and 2007.

4. Number of the 13 City of New Orleans Planning Districts that are at the same risk of flooding as they were before Katrina.

10. Number of apartments being rehabbed so far to replace the 896 apartments formerly occupied and now demolished at the Lafitte Housing Development.

11. Percent of families who have returned to live in Lower Ninth Ward.

17. Percentage increase in wages in the hotel and food industry since before Katrina.

20-25. Years that experts estimate it will take to rebuild the City of New Orleans at current pace.

25. Percent fewer hospitals in metro New Orleans than before Katrina.

32. Percent of the city's neighborhoods that have less than half as many households as before Katrina.

36. Percent fewer tons of cargo that move through Port of New Orleans since Katrina.

38. Percent fewer hospital beds in New Orleans since Katrina.

40. Percentage fewer special education students attending publicly funded, privately run charter schools than traditional public schools.

41. Number of publicly funded, privately run public charter schools in New Orleans out of total of 79 public schools in the city.

43. Percentage of child care available in New Orleans compared to before Katrina.

46. Percentage increase in rents in New Orleans since Katrina.

56. Percentage fewer inpatient psychiatric beds compared to before Katrina.

80. Percentage fewer public transportation buses now than pre-Katrina.

81. Percentage of homeowners in New Orleans who received insufficient funds to cover the complete costs to repair their homes.

300. Number of National Guard troops still in City of New Orleans.

1,080. Days National Guard troops have remained in City of New Orleans.

1,250. Number of publicly financed vouchers for children to attend private schools in New Orleans in program's first year.

6,982. Number of families still living in FEMA trailers in metro New Orleans area.

8,000. Fewer publicly assisted rental apartments planned for New Orleans by federal government.

10,000. Houses demolished in New Orleans since Katrina.

12,000. Number of homeless in New Orleans even after camps of people living under the bridges have been resettled -- double the pre-Katrina number.

14,000. Number of displaced families in New Orleans area whose hurricane rental assistance expires in March 2009.

32,000. Number of children who have not returned to public school in New Orleans, leaving the public school population less than half what it was pre-Katrina.

39,000. Number of Louisiana homeowners who have applied for federal assistance in repair and rebuilding who still have not received any money.

45,000. Fewer children enrolled in Medicaid public healthcare in New Orleans than pre-Katrina.

46,000. Fewer African-American voters in New Orleans in 2007 gubernatorial election than in 2003 gubernatorial election.

55,000. Fewer houses receiving mail than before Katrina.

62,000. Fewer people in New Orleans enrolled in Medicaid public healthcare than pre-Katrina.

71,657. Vacant, ruined, unoccupied houses in New Orleans today.

124,000. Fewer people working in metropolitan New Orleans than pre-Katrina.

132,000. Fewer people in New Orleans than before Katrina, according to the City of New Orleans current population estimate of 321,000 in New Orleans.

214,000. Fewer people in New Orleans than before Katrina, according to the US Census Bureau current population estimate of 239,000 in New Orleans.

453,726. Population of New Orleans before Katrina.

320 million. Number of trees destroyed in Louisiana and Mississippi by Katrina.

368 million. Dollar losses of five major metro New Orleans hospitals from Katrina through 2007. In 2008, these hospitals expect another $103 million in losses.

1.9 billion. FEMA dollars scheduled to be available to metro New Orleans for Katrina damages that have not yet been delivered.

2.6 billion. FEMA dollars scheduled to be available to State of Louisiana for Katrina damages that have not yet been delivered.

when the tragedy was unfolding, i was in buenos aires watching cnn international, transfixed and alternately weeping and bellowing in anger at what i was seeing... now, three years later, we still don't have the full story or anything even faintly resembling the truth... i'm not holding my breath...

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The Nation's Jeremy Scahill reports on Blackwater

the rise of blackwater usa, the world's most powerful mercenary army...



from brasscheck tv...

Bush has his own private army.

It's called Blackwater.

The company was caught red handed murdering
Iraqi civilians in cold blood.

No problem according to the US State Department
(Condi Rice). Their contract to provide protection
to US "diplomats" in Iraq was just renewed.

Why?

The State Department claims it could not find
anyone else to do the job.

"We cannot operate without private security firms in Iraq,"
said Patrick F. Kennedy, the under secretary of state for
management. "If the contractors were removed, we would have
to leave Iraq."

Bizarre, isn't it?

bizarre is an understatement...

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We're the United States... Obeying the law is for other people...

and we wonder why the rest of the world hates us...

US officials are dragooning Iraq into accepting immunity for US civilian contractors in new negotiations with the Iraqi government just months after a feud over a private defense contractor exploded into an international outcry.

The Bush administration insists that Baghdad give the US "broad authority to conduct combat operations and guarantee civilian contractors specific legal protections from Iraqi law, according to administration and military officials," a front page story in Friday's New York Times reports.

The Administration's proposed security agreement would replace the current United Nations mandate authorizing the US presence in Iraq, which is set to expire Dec. 31, 2008.

No other country working with the US military in Iraq is exempt from local laws.

hey... first of all, as colin powell said, we broke it and now it's OURS, so now we get to do what we want with it, right?... i mean, it's OUR country... in any case, we can't have OUR people subjected to the laws of some piss-ant little country we conquered... but, BECAUSE we can continue to keep up the charade that iraq is sovereign and is indeed foreign soil, OUR people don't have to obey u.s. laws there either... sick slick, eh...?

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Our troops: stealing to survive

i just got back from the va hospital where i had an appointment this morning to have blood drawn in preparation for a regular check-up next week... the lab there manages to do a pretty damn good job processing what i imagine must be at least a hundred or more folks a day... i had brought along a book and, even though i wasn't anticipating a long wait, i figured i could move ahead a bit in my latest cyber-punk novel... i couldn't concentrate on the reading, however, because these two guys across from me were having a conversation that could easily be heard well into the next room... it's when the conversation took this turn that i started to unobtrusively pay attention...

both guys, as it so happened, had served in different parts of alaska, and both had assignments that required them to visit remote areas to inspect and service radar and other electronic surveillance stations... the interesting part, for me, was that both of them were taking turns topping each other's stories about how much government stuff, mostly gas and oil, they were able to steal without getting caught... one guy talked about driving his official car by his house near elemendorf afb and stopping to siphon gas into his private vehicle... the other bragged about stopping by a storage depot late at night and filling 50-gallon drums with motor oil and then selling it to friends and acquaintances... "everybody did it, nobody gave a shit," one of them said... "how else are you gonna make it on what they pay you..."

i drove home and it just now hit me... those guys have the very same mindset that those running kbr, halliburton, blackwater, and lockheed martin have... yeah, and probably cheney and gates too... the big difference...? they saw themselves as stealing to survive... but if they were suddenly plopped down in senior exec positions in one of those companies, would they behave any differently...?

This is my country! Land of my birth!
This is my country! Grandest on earth!
I pledge thee my allegiance,
America, the bold,
For this is my country to have and to hold.

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did the Illuminati rig the schools, etc?

Are you aware that our Constitution is generally regarded as a dead letter except when it serves the politicos? Or are you confident that all that is needed is to point out where some errant naïve pol has simply gone astray and then, who in gratitude, will embrace you for setting him/her back upon the right path?

So, how's that coming?

Thanks to profmarcus posting Alex Jones' video, I have become more inclined to believe in secret societies and hidden hands that pull the strings and call the shots. My instincts tell me that big money, to the tune of billions of dollars, is controlling the media and our courts and the political process.

I remember watching congressional hearings when L. Paul Bremer was supposed to testify about the job he was doing in Iraq. I saw him make the excuse that he didn't have time to testify and he had a job to do, so his was just going to have to be going and get right back. It sounded just like the rogue DEA agent, Stansfield, (played deftly by Gary Oldman), in the movie Léon (1994), who bellows, "I haven't got time for this Mickey Mouse bullshit."

Wikipedia states: "Blackwater attained its first high-profile contract when it received a $21 million no-bid contract for guarding the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, L. Paul Bremer."

TPM wrote:

During his time as head of the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority, Bremer was stalked by the United States' top fraud-buster in Iraq, Stuart Bowen, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. The two were like the cartoon Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote: Bowen -- Mr. Coyote -- would come after Bremer with ever more devastating reports of fraud, mismanagement, abuse and utter chaos within Bremer's operations; yet Bremer had a road-runner-like ability to escape every time. Indeed, he walked away with a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Department of Defense award for Distinguished Public Service, and even the Nixon Library's 'Victory of Freedom Award.'

Both men have testified before Congress, but never at the same hearing, a fact confirmed for me by Bowen's press aide, Christine Belisle. That could soon change: Waxman has "invited" the two men to testify at a Feb. 6 hearing on a lingering issue from Bremer's tenure: how nearly $9 billion in reconstruction funds went missing -- or in audit-speak, was "disbursed. . . without accountability."

DoD accounting failures could also hide untold billions. Outrageous tax breaks for the Rich imply an enormous quid pro quo. The betrayal of the public by allowing predator media conglomerates to devour smaller outlets smells of grease. Presidential libraries are huge cash cows. Sub Prime rackets abound and there is corporate welfare awash, galore.

The initial investment by hidden hands, in priming such systems to behave in such ways, didn't necessary have to cost huge sums. But they must have dumped a bundle at the start, in order to grab control of the schools, for instance, and of the kids, so that they could entirely marginalize them. Along with their new morals crusade, (I can tell you that the child nude model sites have all but disappeared). This long child porn and abstinence hysteria, simply points to that secret society's machinations yet at work. Those moves have robbed kids of their humanity. That particular political inculcation as well, as told in the video that follows, seems entirely consistent with such plans.

In the thread over at DU, "The Final Nail in America's Coffin", is a post that says, "The New World Order is upon us. Four things to investigate: Bilderberg Group - Gen. Smedley Butler - Project for the New American Century - Norman Dodd", and he points to this video. The first 16 minutes of the 50 minute video is spent establishing Norman Dodd's bona fides. To jump directly to his points, you can advance the video ahead to the 16 minute mark:

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this now rogue government

Two salient videos that respond to this now rogue government which has clearly gone astray, include Amy Goodman's interview of Studs Terkel on Democracy Now!

The Huffington Post/Truthout's interview of Jeremy Scahill on the exigent dangers that Blackwater poses to America, is another.

Both videos are well worth your time, by going into explaining the illegitimacy of our government, as it has been unlawfully exercising its authority.

In "DECEPTION 101 - PRIMER ON DECEPTION", it states: "there is no constitutional principle that says that the President of the United States or the Executive Branch must tell the truth." -- Joseph W. Caddell (pdf)

That perhaps explains the cheap shot that George Bush took at teenagers on Tuesday, as if any teenager has ever burned money like him. The off-hand slight appears to have been timed to set the public up for agreement that teenagers are irresponsible, concomitant with government's plans to ram through yet more laws marginalizing kids on the Internet with yet even more child apartheid bills that they are constantly and malevolently springing by the fistfuls.

Next, consider how the deception practiced by government doesn't just trade genocide for oil, or treat people like the Blacks and Native American Indians were treated; they are presumably poised to hand out billions of dollars to private cronies such as Blackwater in order to enforce their frauds. Can you imagine Blackwater with billion dollar computers? Yet additional billions and billions of dollars have gone missing alongside government's myriad deceits, so how does the common man stand against that kind of wicked, crooked and ruthless power? Aside from government's weapons of killing and torture and imprisoning and taxing, deception appears to be their next effective cudgel. Should we believe anything then, that issues from the mouths of government?

By the time people realize that the State has its own sexual appetites and it will not be happy ultimately with its cameras only in the master bedrooms, it should at that point be easier for all to see that government cameras are eventually destined for the children's bedrooms and baths, as well, so that with all this newfangled micro-management, government will know the exact moment that the children step out of line as well.

Incidentally, the record shows that laws against pornography are of historically recent advent and that the initial purpose was to keep children from masturbating at all in the first place. That surely will make former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders scowl.

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it is happening...

John Stewart signaled the start of the writer's strike on Thursday. His shows are written fresh so none are in the can. HBO: Real Time with Bill Maher is also fresh and Friday's featured an Interview with Blackwater expert Jeremy Scahill:



Blackwater's Total Intelligence Solutions, LLC, very name suggests a private version of what SAIC/Government's attempted with the Total Information Awareness program. SourceWatch calls Blackwater USA, "America's Holy Warriors". And why not, as Friedrich Nietzsche said:

Morality is the best of all devices for leading mankind by the nose."

That is why "America's Holy Warriors" are so intent upon private military warriors smiting sin. It is another reason that people should become alarmed at Scahill's disclosure that Erik Prince of Blackwater, USA, just received part of a $15 billion contract to fight the war on drugs. And that is just some of what we know about. Blackwater seems eager to smite sin with military force. How long before Blackwater gets into smiting sex porn and nudity, despite our First Amendment, et al?

So when my First Amendment right to what I want to write, see, produce or watch is encroached upon, I am loudly a First Amendment absolutist. And then Bill Mahers' other guests, Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, were a direct dichotomy to an absolute First Amendment. Valerie Plame agreed that the death penalty was appropriate for those that revealed her CIA employment. The blueprints that are used to destabilize parties, religions, race relations, labor, states and regions can anger opponents. It is better to carve out exceptions to our First Amendment, we are told.

On PBS: Bill Moyers Journal, we learned that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is pushing for even more media consolidation and plans to ram it through before Christmas.

What is happening in Pakastan CAN happen here. Look around. It is happening already. We need our First Amendment and our writers now more than ever.

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Blackwater: bringing it back home

what goes around, comes around...

Seven people were arrested Saturday at Blackwater Worldwide’s front entrance after protesters re-enacted the Sept. 16 shooting incident in Baghdad involving Blackwater in which 17 Iraqis died.

It was the first protest at the 10-year-old private military company’s headquarters, a reflection of its heightened profile since the Baghdad shootings stirred Iraqi anger and created a diplomatic crisis for Blackwater’s client, the U.S. State Department.

The protesters drove a small gray station wagon, covered with simulated bullet holes and smeared with red paint, onto Blackwater’s property. One lay back in the driver’s seat and five others got out and lay on the ground, as if they had been shot.

The scene was intended to mimic that in Baghdad’s Nisour Square, where an Iraqi doctor and her son died in a fusillade of gunfire as their car approached a Blackwater diplomatic convoy.

The protesters also smeared red handprints on two Blackwater signs.

let's not kid ourselves here... the united states has a long history of training its young people to kill, and then placing them in situations where that particular skill is required and often must be used... the employees of blackwater are no different from the soldiers the u.s. has deployed around the globe for generations... many, if not most, of blackwater's employees are, in fact, former military... they represent a vast number of americans - either current or former members of the armed forces, as well as an equally large number who are not, never have been, nor ever will be in the military - who support war as a common tool of foreign policy, rather than as an extraordinary measure to be used only when all else fails...

as a vietnam army veteran, i, too, am a product of our warrior society... along with my fellow citizens, i have been schooled in countless ways that our wars are necessary and just, and that those we are sent to fight are cruel and barbaric... is it any wonder that we have incidents like nisour square in baghdad, haditha, abu ghraib and my lai...? is it any wonder that those higher up the food chain aren't held accountable...? after all, they're only carrying on with our rich heritage of death and destruction...

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A "misunderstanding" on Waxman's part - of COURSE it is

we're right, you're wrong... is that clear...? if not, let me say it again... we're right, you're wrong... is that better...? you think you've got it now...?

An ongoing battle between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a House committee investigating Iraqi government corruption and the activities of the Blackwater security firm erupted into another skirmish yesterday as Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) accused Rice of interfering with the committee's work and preventing administration and Blackwater officials from providing pertinent information.

In the latest of a series of exchanges, Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wrote Rice to urge that she "reconsider the unusual positions you are taking." Congress has a "constitutional prerogative" to look into the issues, he wrote, and she is "wrong to interfere with the Committee's inquiry."

State Department spokesman Tom Casey cited a "misunderstanding" on Waxman's part. "All information requested by the committee has been or is in the process of being provided," he said.

< sigh >

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Any lingering doubts about Iraq's sovereignty have now been put to rest

iraq is, plainly and simply, merely a pawn of the united states government...

The security company Blackwater USA was approved Friday to resume escorting American officials in Baghdad, just days after the fatal shooting of 11 Iraqis galvanized the Iraqi government over the company's conduct and the immunity its employees enjoy from Iraqi law.

The decision by the U.S. Embassy came despite Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's insistence that the State Department sack the company and his government's demand that Blackwater and other such security firms be stripped of the immunity granted them in 2004 by L. Paul Bremer III, the administrator of the former U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority.

can you imagine something like this happening in the united states and having the government of another country announcing that they were going to go ahead and continue what they were doing on our soil despite our government's demands...? i didn't think so...

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