Death to the House of Saud

russ baker reports on the middle east uprising that has scarcely been mentioned in either the u.s. or international news media...

Those wanting a closer look at what is going on in Saudi Arabia can go to the site Liveleak, where there’s highly disturbing video accompanied by this text: “Qatif—Firing live bullets at the demonstrators November 21, 2011: Video shows the brutal style Saudi security forces in dealing with the demonstrators by firing live bullets.” Another source is a blog called “Angry Arab News Service,” which features video in which a large and vocal group in Qatif are apparently chanting “Death to the House of Saud”:

That kind of material seems to warrant worldwide attention. And with that, we might reasonably expect the protests to grow. But the coverage has not come, nor the greater uprising.

[...]

[Saudis] cannot count on the handy boost the West gave to revolutions in nearby countries. Nor can they count on the Western media, which brays about its independence and initiative, but, increasingly, shows neither where the West’s precious oil supplies are involved.

Protesters in Qatif chant "Death to Al Saud" after 2 protestors were shot
dead by the security forces. The interior ministry then refused to give the
bodies to the families unless they waived their rights regarding compensation.

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Yemeni president resigns in Saudi Arabia and heads straight to the U.S.

hey...! y'all come on over, y'hear...!

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed a Gulf initiative on Wednesday to hand over power to his deputy as part of a proposal to end months of protests that have pushed the Arab country to the brink of civil war.

Saudi state television broadcast live images of Saleh signing the accord in the presence of Saudi King Abdullah and Crown Prince Nayef. Yemeni opposition officials signed the accord after Saleh.

The deal was signed in the Saudi capital Riyadh and King Abdullah hailed it as marking a "new page" in Yemen's history.

Meanwhile, Saleh has told UN chief Ban Ki-moon he will go to New York for medical treatment immediately after signing the deal, Ban said.

so, is handing over power to his deputy any better than handing egypt over to the military after mubarak's ouster...? somehow, i seriously doubt it... it'll be interesting to see how the protesters respond...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

The U.S. global military empire just keeps on a' truckin'

the u.s. is going to try to maintain its position as universal lord and master no matter how flimsy the house of cards, how empty the coffers, how hypocritical the posturing, or how bankrupt the system...

today's nyt...

The Obama administration plans to bolster the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq this year, according to officials and diplomats. That repositioning could include new combat forces in Kuwait able to respond to a collapse of security in Iraq or a military confrontation with Iran.

[...]

In addition to negotiations over maintaining a ground combat presence in Kuwait, the United States is considering sending more naval warships through international waters in the region.

With an eye on the threat of a belligerent Iran, the administration is also seeking to expand military ties with the six nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. While the United States has close bilateral military relationships with each, the administration and the military are trying to foster a new “security architecture” for the Persian Gulf that would integrate air and naval patrols and missile defense.

when i look at what's going on in this world and then read shit like this, it feels like i'm reading something from the historical archives... i can't wait until it really IS in the historical archives...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

A humanitarian military intervention in Libya...? Glenn: "Please."

glenn has the same visceral reaction to glaring hypocrisy that i do...

[W]hat I cannot understand at all is how people are willing to believe that the U.S. Government is deploying its military and fighting this war because, out of abundant humanitarianism, it simply cannot abide internal repression, tyranny and violence against one's own citizens. This is the same government that enthusiastically supports and props up regimes around the world that do exactly that, and that have done exactly that for decades.

By all accounts, one of the prime administration advocates for this war was Hillary Clinton; she's the same person who, just two years ago, said this about the torture-loving Egyptian dictator: "I really consider President and Mrs. Mubarak to be friends of my family." They're the same people overseeing multiple wars that routinely result in all sorts of atrocities. They are winking and nodding to their Yemeni, Bahraini and Saudi friends who are doing very similar things to what Gadaffi is doing, albeit (for now) on a smaller scale. They just all suddenly woke up one day and decided to wage war in an oil-rich Muslim nation because they just can't stand idly by and tolerate internal repression and violence against civilians? Please.

yep... where's our "humanitarian intervention" in gaza...? ivory coast...? equatorial guinea...? nothing like displaying our true colors for all the world to see and, believe me, they see them... here in the u.s., we may allow ourselves to be deluded by the constant barrage of media and government propaganda, but most of the rest of the world gets it and stands by in amazement that we don't - or won't...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 2 comments

Fake Democracy - Noam Chomsky, March 13

great stuff from professor chomsky - as always...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Egypt update: several of the policemen stripped off their uniforms and badges and joined the demonstrators

not lookin' good for mubarak...

In one of many astonishing scenes Friday, thousands of anti-government protesters wielding rocks, glass and sticks chased hundreds of riot police away from the main square in downtown Cairo and several of the policemen stripped off their uniforms and badges and joined the demonstrators.

if mubarak, certainly one of the strongest of the middle east strongmen, goes down, look out... yemen, algeria, morocco, syria, jordan, saudi arabia, the uae, iran, kuwait, and - dare i say it - even iraq, are sitting ducks... in fact, any country with a corrupt and repressive leader at the helm (think karzai) is going to be seriously vulnerable...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

What IS it with this guy Obama anyway...?

if he had a soul to begin with, he must have sold it immediately following the election in order to get elected...

a SIXTY BILLION DOLLAR arms deal with saudis...?

US President Barack Obama's administration will soon notify Congress of plans to offer advanced military aircraft to Saudi Arabia in a deal worth up to 60 billion dollars, congressional sources said Monday.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the transaction has not yet been formally announced, confirmed a Wall Street Journal report about the deal but warned that key US lawmakers would block the move.

"You can fully expect that a hold will be placed on this deal," thought to be the largest ever arms sale of its kind, said a senior congressional source.

"There is serious concern about some sensitive material which is expected to be included in the deal," said another source, who told AFP that Obama aides would brief congressional staff on the deal on Monday.

A "hold" would come from the chair or ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee or Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which typically must sign off on arms transfers, and could change what is in the package.

The Journal, which cited unnamed officials, said the administration was also in talks with the kingdom about potential naval and missile-defense upgrades that could be worth tens of billions of dollars more.

The administration sees the sale as part of a broader policy aimed at shoring up Arab allies against Iran, the report said.

fuck me... there's gotta be a lot o' celebratin' goin' on in the defense industry...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 1 comments

When anxiety strikes, go for the status quo - sell more weapons and ditch accountability for the guilty

an addict's first response to anxiety is to turn to the substance(s) of choice... in the case of the leaders of our dear country, the substances high up on the preferred list have always been 1) selling more arms and defense systems to ensure that the bottomless cravings of the super-rich elites who profit from our policy of endless war continue to be fed and 2) that those who supported those elites by aiding and abetting criminal and unconstitutional actions remain unaccountable...

so, on this sunday morning, the last day of the first month of the year 2010, i wake to find a two-fer...

U.S. steps up arms sales to Persian Gulf allies

The Obama administration is quietly working with Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf allies to speed up arms sales and rapidly upgrade defenses for oil terminals and other key infrastructure in a bid to thwart future military attacks by Iran, according to former and current U.S. and Middle Eastern government officials.

The initiatives, including a U.S.-backed plan to triple the size of a 10,000-man protection force in Saudi Arabia, are part of a broader push that includes unprecedented coordination of air defenses and expanded joint exercises between the U.S. and Arab militaries, the officials said. All appear to be aimed at increasing pressure on Tehran.

The efforts build on commitments by the George W. Bush administration to sell warplanes and antimissile systems to friendly Arab states to counter Iran's growing conventional arsenal. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are leading a regionwide military buildup that has resulted in more than $25 billion in U.S. arms purchases in the past two years alone.

cool, eh...? now, let's have the double shot...

No sanctions for Bush lawyers who approved waterboarding, report will say

Bush administration lawyers who paved the way for sleep deprivation and waterboarding of terrorism suspects exercised poor judgment but will not be referred to authorities for possible sanctions, according to a forthcoming ethics report, a legal source confirmed.

The work of John C. Yoo and Jay S. Bybee, officials in the Bush Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, provided the basis for controversial interrogation strategies that critics likened to torture in the years after al-Qaeda's 2001 terrorist strikes on American soil. The men and their OLC colleague, Steven G. Bradbury, became focal points of anger from Senate Democrats and civil liberties groups because their memos essentially insulated CIA interrogators and contractors from legal consequences for their roles in harsh questioning.

The reasoning, set out in a series of secret memos only months after Sept. 11, 2001, prompted a multi-year investigation by the department's Office of Professional Responsibility, which reviews the ethics of Justice lawyers. The legal source was not authorized to discuss the report's conclusions and described them on the condition of anonymity.

ya know, sometimes i just hate reading the news...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

The BIG fear - when food is unavailable at any price

so, if you've got money - lots of it - whaddaya gonna do...? why, buy up farm land from poor people and impoverished countries, folks so desperate for money they're practically willing to give it away, and lock it up for yourself... lovely, eh...?

A variety of factors — some transitory, like the spike in food prices, and others intractable, like global population growth and water scarcity — have created a market for farmland, as rich but resource-deprived nations in the Middle East, Asia and elsewhere seek to outsource their food production to places where fields are cheap and abundant.

[...]

Foreign investors — some of them representing governments, some of them private interests — are promising to construct infrastructure, bring new technologies, create jobs and boost the productivity of underused land so that it not only feeds overseas markets but also feeds more Africans. (More than a third of the continent’s population is malnourished.) They’ve found that impoverished governments are often only too welcoming, offering land at giveaway prices. A few transactions have received significant publicity, like Kenya’s deal to lease nearly 100,000 acres to the Qatari government in return for financing a new port, or South Korea’s agreement to develop almost 400 square miles in Tanzania. But many other land deals, of near-unprecedented size, have been sealed with little fanfare.

Investors who are taking part in the land rush say they are confronting a primal fear, a situation in which food is unavailable at any price.

it's simple... when you've got more money than god, you just buy the means of production...

“When some governments stop exporting rice or wheat, it becomes a real, serious problem for people that don’t have full self-sufficiency,” said Al Arabi Mohammed Hamdi, an economic adviser to the Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development. Sitting in his office in Dubai, overlooking the cargo-laden wooden boats moored along the city’s creek, Hamdi told me his view, that the only way to assure food security is to control the means of production.

[...]

“There is no problem about money,” Hamdi said. “It’s about where and how.”

the problem with the super-rich elites, particularly those from the gulf states and saudi arabia, is that they honestly believe that money is the answer to everything... unfortunately, so far, they're proving they're right... meanwhile, the rest of us are left to suck hind tit...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

A call for reconciliation that's desperately overdue

but better late than never...

Obama Calls for New Beginning Between U.S., Muslims

In Cairo, president says no single speech can eradicate years of mistrust, adding that America and Islam share common principles of justice, progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.

it's worth pointing out that, no matter how disappointed i am in much of what obama hasn't done and apparently isn't GOING to do, i simply can't imagine john mccain extending a hand like this... and george bush...? yeah, when pigs fly out of my butt...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

In Aqaba, Jordan

It's early on Monday morning and I'm listening to the gentle wash of the waves on the Red Sea shore outside my hotel room and thinking about my first impressions of Jordan.

My only previous experience with an Islamic country was the recent one in Afghanistan and so I was curious to see what Jordan would be like. The similarities are many - an Islamic people; a rugged, arid, desert landscape; muezzins singing prayers from the many mosques; women in headscarves and full-length, shapeless garments; and arabic people, most of whom are descended from nomadic tribes - but the differences are dramatic. For one thing, Jordan is not at war or at constant risk of terrorist activity, which makes it safe to walk the streets and generally to come and go as you please. For another, there is a much larger middle class and the abject, mind-numbing poverty on display everywhere in Afghanistan is mostly absent. The national infrastructure - what I have seen of it so far - is good. The 3 1/2 hour drive from Amman here to Aqaba was on a 4-lane divided highway that had obviously been recently resurfaced.

Aqaba is well laid-out with wide streets, often divided by medians full of palm trees, walking paths and places to sit and relax. The hotel I'm staying at is on a par with any other first-class hotel anywhere in the world, and there are a number of others in the same category and many more in various stages of construction. Restaurants are within walking distance and the sound of languages from numerous other countries - Germany, France, eastern Europe, and other Arab states - can be heard as tourists and their families come and go from beach outings.

The sheer volume of world history available within a two-hour drive of the city is amazing. From Lawrence of Arabia, to the Crusades, to major events recorded in the Bible, to the 4000 years of history and culture surrounding Petra, it's obvious that this is a truly ancient land with stories literally embedded in every rock.

The 40 kilometers of Jordanian coastline, stretching from Aqaba to the border with Saudi Arabia on the south, was increased to that amount a number of years ago by virtue of a land swap with Saudi Arabia, and it constitutes Jordan's only access to the sea. The port of Aqaba is a busy one and is equipped to handle both container and cruise ships and port facilities are being rapidly expanded.

Some people in my UNR class asked the other night why the U.S. was interested in giving foreign aid money to Jordan, and I had to confess I wasn't sure. Since coming here, I think I've found out why. The Islam practiced in Jordan is of the moderate, more open-minded variety and the country is relatively peaceful and stable and my guess is that the U.S. would like it to stay that way which means keeping the people happy and the current ruler, King Abdullah, in power. On the more immediately practical side, the port of Aqaba handles several hundred container ships a month where supplies for Iraq are off-loaded on trucks, and driven to Iraq by way of Amman.

I'll share other observations as I get them and when I have time. In the meantime, enjoy the photo below which was taken from the balcony of my hotel room. It's looking out at the Red Sea toward the south with the coastline of the city of Aqaba in the center right and unfortunately includes a construction site, only one of many here in this a-building resort city. To the far lower left right, well outside the border of the photo, is the city of Eilat, Israel. The border crossing to Israel is only minutes from the center of Aqaba and I am sure I'll be making that trip at least once during my visit. The map at the top of the post gives you a sense of place.

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

So much for the naive belief that increasing Saudi oil output will help reduce gas prices

many years ago, a san francisco city alderman running for re-election offered this visually arresting quote: "it's time to grab the bull by the tail and look facts in the face"...

folks, the u.s. economy - nay, the GLOBAL economy - fell off the cliff some months ago... it may be a long, lo-o-o-ong way down, and it may be happening in slo-mo, but the fact is, we be headin' do-o-o-own, and no amount of carefully staged p.r. stunts like the saudis announcing that they're increasing oil output is going to make a single goddam bit of difference...

be sure to check the last sentence...

Oil prices fluctuated Monday as traders shrugged off a pledge by Saudi Arabia to increase its production and the dollar gained strength in Europe.

Saudi Arabia said Sunday it would produce more crude oil this year if the market needs it. The kingdom announced a 300,000 barrel per day production increase in May and said before the start of the meeting in Jeddah that it would add another 200,000 barrels per day in July, raising total daily output to 9.7 million barrels.

The announcement had already been factored into oil prices, analysts said.

"The meeting was mildly positive but it wouldn't really deliver anything that would give a heavy correction in oil," said Mark Pervan, a senior commodity strategist at the ANZ Bank in Melbourne, Australia. "They pledged production increases that the market thought was base case."

the only possible thing that could change the disaster scenario that's playing out right now is some sort of deus ex machina intervention, but the magnitude of such an intervention and the unimaginable sums of money necessary to accomplish it, are now too great for even the super-rich elites to cough up... besides, why should they...? money is still overflowing their coffers like the mississippi out of its banks... (yeah, i know... that last one was a really bad and, trust me, completely unintentional pun...)

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Saudi Arabia and 9/11

the philadelphia daily news is doing a super job of investigative jounalism with an epic story on the suit pending before the u.s. court of appeals for the second circuit...

this is from the first of two parts...

Cozen O'Connor law firm has filed an 812-page lawsuit on behalf of U.S. and global insurance companies alleging that Saudi Arabia and Saudi-backed Islamist charities nurtured and financed al-Qaeda, the author of those deadly attacks.

[...]

Round 1 in this titanic legal battle went to the Saudis and their high-powered lawyers three years ago when a U.S. District Court judge removed the government and Saudi royals as defendants.

[...]

But Cozen argued that the kingdom and its officials should be restored as defendants. A fiercely competitive lawyer who built a tiny practice into one of the world's leading law firms for insurers, Cozen, 67, contended that the defendants "knew and intended to support al-Qaeda through these charities."

With a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit imminent, Cozen and his partners have unearthed facts and made connections missed not only by the 9/11 Commission but also by Congress in its investigations.

[...]

Cozen is suing under the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which protects foreign governments from being sued by U.S. citizens except in rare circumstances. While the standard is extremely high, federal courts have permitted lawsuits in cases where foreign countries engaged in criminal conduct, such as murder.

Even if Cozen loses the appeal and the Saudis retain immunity, U.S. District Judge Richard Conway Casey ruled that there is enough evidence to proceed against several Islamist charities, banks, and alleged terrorism financiers named in the lawsuit.

While Cozen was the first, a half-dozen other groups have sued the Saudis to hold them liable for supporting Islamist charities allegedly tied to al-Qaeda.

Among the other plaintiffs: the estate of an FBI agent killed in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, and the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost 657 employees when American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the north tower.

even though part 1 was published on saturday, the website says part 2 will be posted "tomorrow," and the website is carrying news datelined monday, i am having no success finding part 2... stay tuned...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Why would Saudi Arabia want to get its embassy employees killed in Iraq? Oh, yeah, and then there's the political reasons...

o-o-o-o-oooooh no-o-o-o-oooo, there's NO reservations about contact with the iraqi government, absolutely NONE, unless, of course, you want to consider that the saudi government thinks the iraqi government is biased against sunnis... but, really, that's just a teeny-tiny little thing... pay it no mind...

The Iraqi capital isn't secure enough yet for an embassy, Saudi Arabia said Wednesday, insisting its diplomatic absence there doesn't reflect a lack of support for the country.

Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal's comments following months of urging by both Iraq and the United States for the kingdom to establish an embassy.

His statement was an apparent retreat from September comments that his country would open a Baghdad embassy soon.

"There aren't any reservations at all regarding contact with the Iraqi government by Arab countries," Saud told reporters.

"The real reason why there's no embassy in Baghdad is not for political but for security reasons," said Saud. "When secure conditions are present, then embassies ... will go to Iraq."

Iraqi and U.S. officials have been pushing Baghdad's Sunni neighbors to open embassies in Iraq as a sign of support for the Shiite-dominated government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia has kept al-Maliki's government at arm's length and has criticized it as biased against Iraq's Sunni Arab minority.

i don't know what their problem is... isn't the green zone safer than washington d.c...? i must remember to ask mccain about that when i see him again...

speaking of embassies and security, the employees of denmark's embassy here in kabul were "evacuated" to "undisclosed location" here in the city yesterday... it seems there's been a little flap over another cartoon...

The Danish Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that it has evacuated its staff from embassies in Algeria and Afghanistan because of threats after newspapers reprinted a cartoon depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

Embassy employees have been moved to secret locations in both countries' capitals but continue to work, Foreign Ministry spokesman Erik Laursen said.

The announcement comes after Danish intelligence officials warned of an "aggravated" terror threat against Denmark since newspapers in the country in February reprinted a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

The warning specifically singled out North Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The threat "is so concrete that we had to take this decision," Laursen told The Associated Press. "The decision is based on intelligence," he said, declining to elaborate.

sunday is the day afghanistan celebrates gaining its independence from britain back in 1919... damn near every morning at the ungodly hour of 6, choppers are doing practice fly-bys right past my window, at least ten of them, two-by-two, followed by another ten screaming jets... as soon as it finishes its agonizingly slow upload, i will post a youtube video of two of the choppers on the fly-by that i took about 45 minutes ago...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Ruh-roh... More holes in the official 9/11 story...

the official line is unraveling faster than a twelve-dollar, wal-mart, polyester sweater...

larisa alexandrovna and raw story have the scoop and a lot more...

Newly-released records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request contradict the 9/11 Commission’s report on the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and raise fresh questions about the role of Saudi government officials in connection to the hijackers.

The nearly 300 pages of a Federal Bureau of Investigation timeline used by the 9/11 Commission as the basis for many of its findings were acquired through a FOIA request filed by Kevin Fenton, a 26 year old translator from the Czech Republic. The FBI released the 298-page “hijacker timeline” Feb. 4.

The FBI timeline reveals that alleged hijacker Hamza Al-Ghamdi, who was aboard the United Airlines flight which crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center, had booked a future flight to San Francisco. He also had a ticket for a trip from Casablanca to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.

Though referenced repeatedly in the footnotes of the final 9/11 Commission report, the timeline has not previously been made available to the public.

The FBI timeline is dated Nov. 14, 2003 but appears to have been put together earlier (since the last date mentioned in the document is Oct. 22, 2001) and was provided to the 9/11 Commission during its 2003 investigation. The final Commission report cites the FBI timeline 52 times.

The FBI timeline reveals that Al-Ghamdi, the alleged United hijacker, was booked onto several flights scheduled for after the 9/11 attacks, a piece of information not documented in the Commission’s final report. According to the FBI timeline, Al-Ghamdi was booked on another United Airlines flight on the very day of the attack.

and ya gotta LOVE this line...

“There are enough discrepancies and unanswered questions in the 9/11 Commission report that under a friendly administration, the 9/11 investigation should be re-opened,” Baer wrote in an email message Tuesday night [Robert Baer, a former CIA case officer in the Middle East whose See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism became the inspiration for the award winning film Syriana].

we need the truth and i'm sick and goddam tired of waiting for it...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

"Removed" video restored - for a while, anyway

i had a post up the other day, a clip from a local newscast in ohio describing the kind of degrading and quite likely criminal behavior that was inflicted on a perfectly innocent woman by sheriff's deputies in stark county, ohio... the video was subsequently removed from youtube, citing "copyright violation..." it's now back up, at least for the time being...



meanwhile, i've continued to read posts at other weblogs screaming bloody murder about the strip search of a woman in saudi arabia who was "caught" at a starbucks, drinking coffee with a man... commenters to those posts have been quick to engage in islamophobia and to decry the heathen conduct of the "thugs" who live by the koran... my point is, we've got our own "thugs" right here...

i have the same visceral reaction to people in the u.s. attacking the behavior of people of other countries that i do to those who sanctimoniously drive around with bumper stickers reading "free tibet..." should the "thugs" in saudi arabia be stopped...? absolutely... should tibet be free...? no question... but, ferchrissake, people, wake up and smell the coffee, and, once you have, look out your kitchen window to see what's happening in your own backyard...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Bush: one of the more monstrous figures in recent world history

juan cole...

Bush-Aznar Transcript: The War Crime of the Century

I made two claims about the transcript published by El Pais of Bush's conversations with Spanish leader Jose Maria Aznar on 22 February, 2003, at Crawford, Texas.

The first is that the transcript shows that Bush intended to disregard a negative outcome in his quest for a UN Security Council resolution authorizing a war against Iraq.

[...]

Bush made it very clear that he was willing to trash the charter of the United Nations and to take the world back to the 1930s,to an era of mass politics when powerful states launched wars of choice at will on the basis of fevered rhetoric and fits of pique.

The second claim that I made was that Bush was aware of, and rejected, an offer by Saddam Hussein to flee Iraq, probably for Saudi Arabia, presuming he could take out with him a billion dollars and some documents on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs.

[...]

By refusing to allow Saddam to flee with guarantees, Bush ensured that a land war would have to be fought. This is one of the greatest crimes any US president ever committed, and it is all the more contemptible for being rooted in mere pride and petulance.

Note that even General Pervez Musharraf allowed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to go to Saudi Arabia with similar guarantees, even though Sharif was alleged to have attempted to cause Musharraf's death. A tinpot Pakistani general had more devotion to the good of his country, and more good sense, than did George W. Bush.

The passage in which Bush agrees with Aznar that it would be better if Baghdad fell without a fight refers to the possibility that the Iraqi officer corps would assassinate Saddam and decline to put up a fight. Bush would very much have liked such a fantasy to come true.

But he did not need to fantasize. He had a real offer in the hand, of Saddam's flight. He rejected it. By rejecting it, he will have killed at least a million persons and became one of the more monstrous figures in recent world history.

you can read the transcript here...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

The business of America is business - $1.6B in arms sales to Iraq (and $3.5B to Pakistan and $1B to Egypt and...)

it seems i post all too frequently on u.s. arms sales (here, here, here and here just since this past march)... with all the attention going to pakistan, egypt, saudi arabia and india, the 800-lb. gorillas of u.s. arms sales, i had completely neglected to consider the possibility that iraq was now an official member of that club... silly me... but OF COURSE they would be... we didn't invade just for their oil...

from salon...

The Pentagon confirmed that this fiscal year, the United States has finalized $1.6 billion in arms sales to Iraq, placing the country in an elite club of weapons buyers. For example, in recent one-year periods Saudi Arabia bought $800 million and Egypt bought $1 billion in arms from the U.S., while Pakistan spent $3.5 billion, including the purchase of jet fighters. "This would put [Iraq] right up there with the top handful of arms buyers," said William Hartung, a weapons proliferation expert at the New America Foundation.

In fact, the numbers Petraeus presented on Iraq were the tip of the iceberg. According to data obtained by Salon from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency at the Pentagon, which manages the arms sales, the military has alerted Congress to up to $4.3 billion in arms sales that have been under discussion since at least 2006 between the U.S. and Iraqi governments.

gotta keep that military-industrial complex cranking along at full capacity, dontcha know...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Texas Straight Talk

This comes from Rep. Ron Paul's weekly newsletter, Texas Straight Talk. It's fairly short, so I'll post it in it's entirety. I'm sure he wouldn't mind.

Surrender Should Not Be an Option

Faced with dwindling support of the Iraq War, the warhawks are redoubling their efforts. They imply we are in Iraq attacking those who attacked us, and yet this is not the case. As we know, Saddam Hussein, though not a particularly savory character, had nothing to do with 9/11. The neo-cons claim surrender should not be an option. In the same breath they claim we were attacked because of our freedoms. Why then, are they so anxious to surrender our freedoms with legislation like the Patriot Act, a repeal of our 4th amendment rights, executive orders, and presidential signing statements? With politicians like these, who needs terrorists? Do they think if we destroy our freedoms for the terrorists they will no longer have a reason to attack us? This seems the epitome of cowardice coming from those who claim a monopoly on patriotic courage.

In any case, we have achieved the goals specified in the initial authorization. Saddam Hussein has been removed. An elected government is now in place in Iraq that meets with US approval. The only weapon of mass destruction in Iraq is our military presence. Why are we still over there? Conventional wisdom would dictate that when the "mission is accomplished", the victor goes home, and that is not considered a retreat.

They claim progress is being made and we are fighting a winnable war, but this is not a view connected with reality. We can't be sure when we kill someone over there if they were truly an insurgent or an innocent Iraqi civilian. There are as many as 650,000 deaths since the war began. The anger we incite by killing innocents creates more new insurgents than our bullets can keep up with. There are no measurable goals to be achieved at this point.

The best congressional leadership can come up with is the concept of strategic redeployment, or moving our troops around, possibly intoSaudi Arabia or even, alarmingly enough, into Iran. Rather than ending this war, we could be starting another one.

The American people voted for a humble foreign policy in 2000. They voted for an end to the war in 2006. Instead of recognizing the wisdom and desire of the voters, they are chided as cowards, unwilling to defend themselves. Americans are fiercely willing to defend themselves.

However, we have no stomach for indiscriminate bombing in foreign lands when our actual attackers either killed themselves on 9/11 or are still at large somewhere in a country that is neither Iraq nor Iran. Defense of our homeland is one thing. Offensive tactics overseas are quite another. Worse yet, when our newly minted enemies find their way over here, where will our troops be to defend us?

The American people have NOT gotten the government they deserve. They asked for a stronger America and peace through nonintervention, yet we have a government of deceit, inaction and one that puts us in grave danger on the international front. The American People deserve much better than this. They deserve foreign and domestic policy that doesn't require they surrender their liberties.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

WMDs are good business

and, after all, the business of the united states IS business... never mind that a great deal of that business is arms sales... wars, death and destruction are hugely profitable... god help us all if peace breaks out...

meanwhile, just listen to that cash register ring... ka-CHING...!

The Bush administration will announce next week a series of arms deals worth at least $20 billion to Saudi Arabia and five other oil-rich Persian Gulf states as well as new 10-year military aid packages to Israel and Egypt, a move to shore up allies in the Middle East and counter Iran's rising influence, U.S. officials said yesterday.

The arms deals, which include the sales of a variety of sophisticated weaponry, would be the largest negotiated by this administration. The military assistance agreements would provide $30 billion in new U.S. aid to Israel and $13 billion to Egypt over 10 years, the officials said. Both figures represent significant increases in military support.

the u.s. not only sells arms to allies, we sell arms to ANYBODY who will buy, even if it's a developing country already involved in conflict...


Global arms deliveries in 2005

The United States last year provided nearly half of the weapons sold to militaries in the developing world, as major arms sales to the most unstable regions -- many already engaged in conflict -- grew to the highest level in eight years, new US government figures show.

According to the annual assessment, the United States supplied $8.1 billion worth of weapons to developing countries in 2005 -- 45.8 percent of the total and far more than second-ranked Russia with 15 percent and Britain with a little more than 13 percent.

[...]

The United States, for instance, also signed an estimated $6.2 billion worth of new deals last year [2005] to sell attack helicopters, missiles, and other armaments to developing nations such as the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, India, Israel, Egypt, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. Developing nations are designated as all those except in North America, Western Europe, Russia, Australia, and New Zealand.

In addition to weapons already delivered, new contracts for future weapons deliveries topped $44 billion last year -- the highest overall since 1998, according to the report. Nearly 70 percent of them were designated for developing nations.

it would be nice if more people realized that the backbone of the u.s. economy involves the manufacture and sales of arms... if somebody is killed by violence anywhere in the world, the odds are great it will be done with a u.s.-made weapon...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments