Now we hear the internet's down in Syria [UPDATE]

oh, my... things are really moving FAST...!

On the same day that Egypt has suspended online activity, Syria has also blocked internet service, according to reports.

Syria is known for a tight control of the internet, which was tightened further after the unrest in Tunisia, reports Reuters. Now, Al Arabiya is reporting that internet services have gone down completely in the country. Previously, Syria had blocked programs that "allow access to Facebook Chat from cellphones," according to Reuters.

things are going so fast, it's hard to keep up...

[UPDATE]

according to a tweet from jeremy scahill, reports that syria's internet is down are false...

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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...

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More absolute, in-your-face, blatant hypocrisy

the biggest purveyor of arms, weapons and defense systems on the planet complains about arms sales and there's no mention of that fact in the article...? god, ya just gotta love context-free news...!

U.S. Strains to Stop Arms Flow

Just a week after President Bashar al-Assad of Syria assured a top State Department official that his government was not sending sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah, the Obama administration lodged a confidential protest accusing Syria of doing precisely what it had denied doing.

“In our meetings last week it was stated that Syria is not transferring any ‘new’ missiles to Lebanese Hizballah,” noted a cable sent by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in February, using an alternative spelling for the militant group. “We are aware, however, of current Syrian efforts to supply Hizballah with ballistic missiles. I must stress that this activity is of deep concern to my government, and we strongly caution you against such a serious escalation.”

A senior Syrian Foreign Ministry official, a cable from the American Embassy in Damascus reported, flatly denied the allegation. But nine months later, administration officials assert, the flow of arms had continued to Hezbollah. According to a Pentagon official, Hezbollah’s arsenal now includes up to 50,000 rockets and missiles, including some 40 to 50 Fatah-110 missiles capable of reaching Tel Aviv and most of Israel, and 10 Scud-D missiles. The newly fortified Hezbollah has raised fears that any future conflict with Israel could erupt into a full-scale regional war.

[...]

The Syrian episode offers a glimpse of the United States’ efforts to prevent buildups of arms — including Scud missiles, Soviet-era tanks and antiaircraft weapons — in some of the world’s tensest regions.[emphasis added]

meanwhile, in the good ol' u.s. of a, business goes on as usual...

US Plans $60 Billion Arms Sale to S. Arabia -- Biggest Ever

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Canada and the UK "get" accountability, why doesn't the U.S.? The sad case of Mahar Arar

item...

The British soldiers who killed 13 Catholic demonstrators in Northern Ireland during "Bloody Sunday" nearly four decades ago committed "unjustified and unjustifiable" killings of unarmed and innocent victims and then lied about it, a fact-finding investigation concluded Tuesday after a 12-year hunt for the truth.

More than 1,000 Londonderry residents applauded, hugged and cried outside city hall as the long-awaited verdict was announced live on a huge television screen. They had campaigned for 38 years for the victims — originally branded as Irish Republican Army bombers and gunmen — to have their good names restored and the guilt of the soldiers proved beyond doubt.

"Unjustified and unjustifiable. Those are the words we've been waiting to hear since January the 30th of 1972," Tony Doherty, the son of one Bloody Sunday victim, told the crowd to cheers. He was one of dozens of relatives who took turns declaring the innocence of lost loved ones to the crowd as the TV screen displayed black-and-white portraits of each of the 13 dead and 15 wounded.

"The victims of Bloody Sunday have been vindicated, and the soldiers of the Parachute Regiment have been disgraced. Their medals of honor have to be removed!" Doherty declared to more cheers.

In London, British Prime Minister David Cameron said the investigation — based on evidence from 921 witnesses, 2,500 written statements and 60 volumes of written evidence — demonstrated that the soldiers' shooting into the crowd protesting the internment without trial of IRA suspects was "both unjustified and unjustifiable."

item...

Canada will formally apologize on Friday [26 January 2007] to software engineer Maher Arar, who was deported to Syria by U.S. agents after Canadian police mistakenly labeled him an Islamic extremist, and offer him C$10 million ($8.5 million) compensation, according to media reports.

Arar, who says he was repeatedly tortured during the year he spent in Damascus jails, had initially sued Ottawa for C$400 million, a figure he later cut to C$37 million. CBC Television said the settlement would be for C$10 million, while CTV said Ottawa would also pay Arar's C$2 million legal bills.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will make a statement on the case at 12:15 p.m. (1715 GMT).

The affair tarnished the reputation of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and strained Canada's relations with the United States, which has kept Arar on a security watch list even though Ottawa insists he has no links to terror groups.

CTV said Harper was likely to criticize Washington's stance, something which could prove useful politically. Critics regularly accuse Harper's Conservative government of being too close to President Bush.

"I think it (the settlement) is wonderful because it will hopefully put this thing behind Mr. Arar and he can live his life now like a normal Canadian," Paul Cavalluzzo, lead counsel for an official probe into the affair told CTV.

"He suffered severe economic -- and most importantly -- psychological damage as a result of what occurred to him."

but, in the case of mr. arar and the u.s., as glenn laments, accountability is still a very foreign concept...

The Supreme Court today denied a petition of review from Maher Arar, the Canadian and Syrian citizen who was abducted by the U.S. Government at a stopover at JFK Airport when returning to Canada in 2002, held incommunicado for two weeks, and then rendered to Syria, where he spent the next 10 months being tortured, even though -- as everyone acknowledges -- he was guilty of absolutely nothing. Arar sued the U.S. Government for what was done to him, and last November, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of his lawsuit on the ground that courts have no right to interfere in these decisions of the Executive Branch. That was the decision which the U.S. Supreme Court let stand today, ending Arar's attempt to be compensated for what was done to him.

[...]

By stark contrast [to Canada], the U.S. Government, which played a far more active role in his abduction and rendition to Syria, has never apologized to Arar (though individual members of Congress have). It has never clearly acknowledged wrongdoing (the only time it even hinted at this was when Condoleezza Rice called U.S. conduct in this case "imperfect" -- you think? -- and generously added: "We do not think this case was handled as it should have been"). In fact, it continuously did the opposite of providing accountability: in response to Arar's efforts to seek damages from the U.S. Government, the U.S. raised -- under two successive administrations -- a slew of technical arguments to persuade American courts not to hear his case at all, including the argument that what was done to Arar involved "state secrets" that prevented a judicial adjudication of his claims. The U.S. even continued to ban Arar from entering the U.S. long after it was acknowledged that he had done nothing wrong, thus preventing him for years from appearing before Congress or in the U.S. to talk about what was done to him. Indeed, after the Bush administration spent years arguing that courts were barred from hearing Arar's case on the ground of "state secrets," the Obama administration embraced those same arguments and then urged the Supreme Court not to hear his appeal.

tonight's focus in the mba class on leadership that i'm teaching in the summer session is on accountability... where are the role models...? patético...

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The U.S. will send airplane parts to Syria for "the safety of civil aviation"... What about Iran...?

there have been a series of civil aviation disasters in iran dating back to before 2001...

Following is a timeline of aircraft crashes involving Iran in the last 10 years:

Feb. 2, 2000 - An Iranian Air Force C-130 runs out of control while taking off from Tehran airport and crashes into an empty Iran Air A300. Both aircraft are destroyed and all six aboard the C-130 are killed.

May 17, 2001 - A Russian Yak-40 plane carrying 29 people, including Iranian Transport Minister Rahman Dadman and some deputy ministers crashes in northern Iran killing all on board.

Feb. 12, 2002 - An Iran Air Tours Tupolev-154 crashes near the western city of Khorramabad. All 118 aboard are killed.

Dec. 23 - A Ukrainian Antonov An-140 plane crashes into a mountain in central Iran, killing all 46 aboard. Most of the passengers were top Ukrainian and Russian aerospace officials travelling to Iran to test fly an Iranian-built copy of the plane. The crash was blamed on pilot error.

Feb. 19, 2003 - An Iranian Ilyushin-76 troop carrier crashes in southeast Iran killing all 276 Revolutionary Guard soldiers and crew aboard.

Feb. 10, 2004 - A Kish airlines Fokker-50 plane crashes while landing at Sharjah airport in the United Arab Emirates killing 43 of the 45 passengers and crew aboard.

Dec. 6, 2005 - An Iranian Air Force C-130 aircraft with 94 people on board crashes into a 10-storey apartment block in the Shahrak-e Towhid area of Tehran, killing all on board and at least 22 people on the ground.

Jan. 9, 2006 - An Iranian military plane crashes in northwest Iran, killing at least 11 people on board, including several Revolutionary Guard commanders.

Sept. 1 - An Iran Air Tour Tupolev 154 passenger plane catches fire on landing at an airport in the northeastern city of Mashhad, killing 29 people.

Nov. 27 - An Antonov-74 military aircraft crashes shortly after takeoff from a Tehran airport, killing 36 people on board.

Aug. 24, 2008 - A Boeing 737-200 belonging to private Kyrgyz company Itek-Air, chartered by an Iranian company and bound for Iran, crashes at Bishkek airport. Around 70 people, including members of a local teenage basketball team, die.

July 15, 2009 - A Caspian Airlines Tupolev aircraft, carrying 153 passengers and 15 crew from Tehran to Yerevan in Armenia, crashes near the city of Qazvin killing all aboard.

July 24, 2009 - A passenger aircraft with 153 people on board catches fire while landing at Mashhad airport in northeast Iran, killing 17 and injuring 23, the state broadcaster's website quotes an airport official as saying.

it's a pretty grim record, due in no small part to the sanctions the u.s. and, through u.s. pressure, the u.n. security council, has imposed on iran, particularly the ban on selling aircraft and repair parts to iranian aviation companies that's been in place since 1995...

now we learn that that same restriction is going to be eased against syria...

The Obama administration said Tuesday that it would take new steps to ease American sanctions against Syria on a case-by-case basis, the latest sign of a diplomatic thaw.

[...]

Under the Syria Accountability Act, as the sanctions are known, the president can work through the Commerce Department to grant exemptions for national security reasons in one of six categories, including one that allows for the sale of airplane parts to ensure safe civil aviation. Under the Bush administration, however, a limited number of such exemptions were granted.

“We are going to look at these waivers, especially on airplane spare parts, and our predisposition is going to be, view them favorably, as opposed to the prior administration’s policy,” said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.

given the abominable track record for aviation in iran over the past eight years, wouldn't it stand to reason that the great benevolent united states of america might see fit to ease the restriction for iran in the interest of reducing civilian deaths from aviation accidents...?

sigh...

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The Prez asks GM CEO to step down and also reportedly intervened to stop the massacre in Gaza

hmmmm... maybe there's more going on behind the scenes than i thought...

general motors...

The chief executive of struggling US car company General Motors - Rick Wagoner - has agreed to step down.

He will leave his post immediately at the request of the White House, a government official confirmed.

[...]

In an interview with US broadcaster CBS, President Obama said the firms must do more to justify further aid, saying "they're not there yet".

"We think we can have a successful US auto industry," the president said.

"But it's got to be one that's realistically designed to weather this storm and to emerge - at the other end - much more lean, mean, and competitive than it currently is.

"
seymour hersh on obama's role in gaza...

Even before his inauguration, Hersh notes,"the Obama transition team also helped persuade Israel to end the bombing of Gaza and to withdraw its ground troops."

and that step in the right direction, naturally, didn't please the dark lord...

When former Vice President Dick Cheney learned that Obama had been putting pressure on the Israelis, he angrily disparaged him as "pro-Palestinian" and described him as someone who would "never make it in the major leagues."

hersh also thinks obama is going to play a major role in moving things forward in that benighted region...

"The differences between Obama’s Syria policies and those of the Administration of George W. Bush have attracted relatively little attention," Hersh writes, recalling Bush's long list of preconditions for any improvement in US-Syrian relations and mockery of Syrian President Bashar Assad for believing that he holds the key to peace in the region.

According to Hersh's sources, Syria is eager for peace with Israel and is backed in this by "Arab leaders who are invested in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process." In addition, the failure of Israel's campaign in Gaza to dislodge the Hamas government has given Assad room to negotiate without seeming to be appeasing Israel.

Assad himself emailed Hersh last winter to say, "We still believe that we need to conclude a serious dialogue to lead us to peace" and to note that he believes a personal meeting with President Obama would be essential. Obama, for his part, has expressed a willingness to meet with Assad without preconditions.

some cause for cautious optimism...? let's fervently hope so...

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Stand Clear of the Fan

Israeli police question Olmert

Ehud Olmert, Israel's prime minister, is being questioned for a second time by the police, as a part of a bribery investigation.

Friday's investigation will probe Olmert's alleged role in accepting money from Morris Talansky, an American Jewish businessman.

Olmert has denied accepting any bribe from

US businessman Morris Talansky [GALLO/GETTY]

Earlier, Israel's chief prosecutor had said that investigators suspected Olmert had taken envelopes of cash from Talansky, a New York based fundraiser.

[...]

Meanwhile, Talansky has said that he received nothing from Olmert in exchange for the money. He is due to give evidence in court on Sunday.

Prosecutors want Talansky to give evidence under oath before a court order banning him from leaving Israel expires on Monday.

Jacques Chen, Talansky's lawyer, said: "He is anxious to return to the US immediately thereafter."

Olmert's defence team, however, wants to put off Talansky's testimony, saying it needs more time to prepare for his cross-examination.

Israel announced on Wednesday that it had begun indirect peace talks with Syria in Turkey, a move that many Israelis think is meant only to divert attention from the inquiry into Olmert.

Ya'know....... I wondered why they were having those peace talks. But it still doesn't answer the question of why the U.S. was left out of them.

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Hey... If we can't go to war with Iran, how about Venezuela...?

if the u.s. can't manage to get a war with iran going, there's always venezuela, and ecuador too if they don't mind their p's and q's...

Venezuela's president has warned Colombia against building a US military base on the countries shared border, saying he would consider such a move an act of "aggression".

Hugo Chávez said on Thursday that he would not allow a US military base to be established in La Guajira, a region spanning northeastern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela.

"We will not allow the Colombian government to give La Guajira to the empire," Chávez said, referring to the US during a speech to a packed auditorium of uniformed soldiers.

"Colombia is launching a threat of war at us."

The Venezuelan leader said that if Colombia built the base, his government would revive a decades-old territorial conflict and stake a claim to the entire region.

The US maintains a military base at the Pacific port of Manta in Ecuador, but Rafael Correa, Ecuador's president and an ally of Chávez, has repeatedly said he will not renew the 10-year leases when it runs out next year.

Chávez said that William Brownfield, the US Ambassador to Colombia, had suggested that the Ecuador base could be moved to La Guajira.

and, of course, the u.s. is still banging the same drum that it's been banging on since the illegal attack by colombia on ecuadorean soil of a couple of months ago...

Diplomatic relations between Caracas and Bogota have come under increasing strain in recent months after Colombia unveiled documents allegedly showing that Chávez sought to arm and finance Farc, an armed anti-government group in Colombia.

Last week the US claimed the documents, contained on a laptop, were "authentic" and showed ties between Chávez and Farc.

Chávez, whose sympathies for Farc are well known, said the files had been faked by the Colombian government.

The computer files were found after Colombian forces mounted a raid inside Ecuador to kill a Farc commander at his camp across the border.

The raid sparked a regional crisis when briefly raised fears of war when Chávez threatened to send troops to the border with Colombia.

"authentic" like the syrian nuclear reactor was "authentic," like the iranian weapons in iraq are "authentic," like saddam's wmd's were "authentic"... horse hockey...

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Jimmy Carter: "The problem is that Israel and the United States refuse to meet with someone who must be involved"

i'm watching an interview with jimmy carter in jerusalem conducted a short while ago by al jazeera...

Jimmy Carter, the former US president, has called for Hamas to be included in peace negotiations, saying they are willing to "live as a neighbour next door in peace" with Israel if Palestinians approve a deal.

Carter said on Monday that Hamas leaders told him they would accept a negotiated peace agreement, if voted for by the Palestinian people.

His comments, delivered in an address to the Israel Council on Foreign Relations and a subsequent news conference at the King David Hotel in West Jerusalem, came after he met several Hamas leaders, including Khaled Meshaal, the group's exiled political bureau chief, in Syria last week.

Carter said Hamas leaders had told him they would accept a peace agreement negotiated by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president whose Fatah faction controls the West Bank, if Palestinians approved the deal in a vote.

carter doesn't beat around the bush when describing the worthless duo of george and condi, who coupled with israel, have zero intention or desire to seek peace...

Carter, who has angered Israel by meeting Hamas, also said the peace efforts had "regressed" since a US-hosted conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November.

"The problem is not that I met with Hamas in Syria," he said.

"The problem is that Israel and the United States refuse to meet with someone who must be involved."

and that's to say nothing of the fact that israel continues to flip the middle digit to palestine, despite the agreements of annapolis a few months ago...

The Israeli Housing and Construction Ministry yesterday [April 18] published construction bids for 100 homes in two Jewish settlements, one of them deep inside the West Bank, in violation of its pledge to freeze settlement expansion.

Palestinian officials said the new construction in the settlements of Ariel and Elkana is undermining US-backed effort to reach a peace deal by the end of 2008. According to the bids, 52 new residential units will be built in Elkana and 48 in Ariel.

The Housing Ministry said that the 52 housing units in Elkana would replace the old ones built there when the settlement first began, while in Ariel 48 units would be built within an existing neighborhood. Ariel Mayor Ron Nachman said the residential units had been approved for construction eight months ago.

According to Nachman, the plots are in the center of the settlement and some of them are intended for the construction of permanent residences for settlers evacuated from Gush Katif settlement in 2005.

Since a US-hosted Mideast peace conference in November, Israel has announced several new building projects in areas of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinians for their future state. However, yesterday’s announcement marked the first time the Israeli government approved construction deep in the West Bank.

i'm increasingly of the opinion that, after he passes on, jimmy carter should be considered for sainthood...

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John Pilger: "The threat to our societies comes not from Al Qaeda but from the terrorism of powerful states"

needless to say, in my present situation in afghanistan, i hear a lot of people mouthing "democracy," "free market economy," "reform," and "capitalism"... not surprisingly, those from whom i hear those things the most are the few who have managed to profit the most from the mess that the country is in...

"Democracy" is now the free market – a concept itself berefet of freedom. "Reform" is now the denial of reform. "Economics" is the relegation of most human endeavour to material value, a bottom line. Alternative models that relate to the needs of the majority of humanity end up in the memory hole. And "governance" – so fashionable these days - means an economic system approved in Washington, Brussels and Davos. "Foreign policy" is service to the dominant power. Conquest is "humanitarian intervention". Invasion is "nation-building".

Every day, we breathe the hot air of these pseudo ideas with their pseudo truths and pseudo experts. They set the limits of public debate within the most advanced societies. They determine who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. They manipulate our compassion and our anger and make many of us feel there is nothing we can do. Take the "war on terror". This is an entirely bogus idea that actually means a war of terror. Its aim is to convince people in the rich world that we all must live in an enduring state of fear: that Muslim fanatics are threatening our civilisation.

In fact, the opposite is true. The threat to our societies comes not from Al Qaeda but from the terrorism of powerful states. Ask the people of Iraq, who in five years ago have seen the physical and social destruction of their country. President Bush calls this "nation-building". Ask the people of Afghanistan, who have been bombed back into the arms of the Taliban - this is known in the West as a "good war". Or the people of Gaza, who are denied water, food, medicines and hope by the forces of so-called civilisation. The list is long and the arithmetic simple. The greatest number of victims of this war of terror are not Westerners, but Muslims: from Iraq to Palestine, to the refugee camps of Lebanon and Syria and beyond.

We are constantly told that September 11th 2001 was a day that changed the world and - according to John McCain - justifies a 100-year war against America's perceived enemies. And yet, while the world mourned the deaths of 3,000 innocent Americans, the UN routinely reported that the mortality rate of children dead from the effects of extreme poverty had not changed. The figure for September 11th 2001 was more than 36,000 children. That is the figure every day. It has not changed. It is not news.

The difference between the two tragedies is that the people who died in the Twin Towers in New York were worthy victims, and the thousands of children who die every day are unworthy victims. That is how many of us are programmed to perceive the world.

over the past few days, i have had several deep and passionate conversations with locals here who question me intensely on ways to change "the system," the term we have agreed best captures the powerful stranglehold the entrenched interests have on us all... i'm unable to give them the magic solution they're looking for simply because there isn't one... all i can say is that it's up to us, that we are all we have, and that it will be through each of us doing what we can, living our lives the way we know is right, and seizing opportunities to help others see the light that things will eventually change... the little understood fact is that revolution contains within it the seeds of its own gradual demise... for true systemic change to manifest, it will only be by letting our individual lights shine forth...

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Attempting to read the tea leaves about a pending war with Iran

william l. polk, writing in juan cole's informed comment, referencing the march 12 article in u.s. news and world report, “6 signs the U.S. may be headed for war in Iran,” carefully lays out the reasons why he thinks the bush administration, either itself or by using israel as a proxy, is poised for imminent war with iran... it's a bit lengthy but quite thorough...

from the u.s. news article, here are the six reasons

1. Fallon's resignation

2. Vice President Cheney's peace trip

3. Israeli airstrike on Syria

4. Warships off Lebanon

5. Israeli comments

6. Israel's war with Hezbollah

here's polk...

[A] massive build-up of forces inevitably creates the “climate” of war. Troops and the public, on both sides, come to accept its inevitability. Standing down is difficult and can entail loss of “face.” Consequently, political leaders usually are carried forward by the flow of events.

polk quotes from the 2005 national defense strategy of the u.s...

“America is a nation at war…[and] will defeat adversaries at the time, place, and in the manner of our choosing…[rather than employing] A reactive or defensive approach…Therefore, we must confront challenges earlier and more comprehensively, before they are allowed to mature…In all cases, we will seek to seize the initiative and dictate the tempo, timing, and direction of military operations.” In short, as Henry Kissinger pointed out in The International Herald Tribune, April 14, 2006, it is an assertion of the intention to engage in preëmptive or “first strike” warfare.

[...]

Iran is the major perceived adversary capable of doing what National Defense Strategy of the United States of America termed “adopting threatening capabilities, methods, and ambitions…[to] 1) limit our global freedom to act, 2) dominate key regions, or 3) attempt to make prohibitive the costs of meeting various U.S. international commitments.”

if there was ever a time when the bush administration could take advantage of a major global distraction to take the stage and divert people's attention from the massive disaster it has become, it's now... while i'm not going to sit around, soiling my tighty-whities thinking about it, nevertheless, we would all do well to keep it in mind as a serious possibility...

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"Sibel Edmonds must be heard"

phil geraldi in the huffpo...

Sibel Edmonds is the FBI translator turned whistleblower who decided to go public late in 2002 and has been seeking to tell her story about high level corruption in the United States government involving Turkey and Israel. What makes her story particularly compelling is that the corruption relates to the theft and sale of United States defense secrets, most particularly nuclear technology. Sibel obtained her information while translating Turkish language telephone intercepts directed against several Turkish lobbying groups who had contact with senior officials in the Bush Administration, both at the Pentagon and in the State Department. Many of the officials involved are apparently the same neoconservatives who cooked the books to enable the rush to war against Iraq and who are continuing to urge more wars in the Middle East, most notably against Iran and Syria. Several of them are close allies of leading Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

To stop Sibel from telling her story, then Attorney General John Ashcroft subjected her to a state secrets privilege gag order after her appearance on CBS's 60 Minutes in October 2002 that not only forbade her providing details of her employment with FBI but also made the ban retroactive so that anything relating to her case would be considered a state secret. Edmonds had been discouraged by her experience with CBS as her most important points wound up on the cutting room floor. Then came the gag order, which she has observed while working assiduously to get bits and pieces of her story out in various ways. In October 2007 she decided to tell all without regard for the consequences, stating that she would provide details of her allegations to any American media outlet that would let her collaborate in the final edit so that her message would not be lost. There were no takers. Last month, The Sunday Times of London decided to pick up her story and has now produced a long feature article called "For Sale: the West's Deadliest Nuclear Secrets" plus two follow-ups. The story was picked up and replayed all over the world, but not by the mainstream media in the United States.

Why should Sibel be heard? Mostly because her story, if true, involves corruption at the highest levels of government coupled with the sale of secrets vital to the security of the United States.

goddam it... will a major u.s. news outlet PLEASE give her a forum...? PLEASE...?

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Juan Cole on the SOTU: "He won't be missed"

wasn't interested, didn't watch it and, other than this from juan cole, so far haven't read anything about it, but nevertheless thought professor cole's summary and rebuttal must be about as good as it gets...

When Bush first came in, the comedian Will Ferrell did a skit on the television show "Saturday Night Live" that depicted the president cowering under his desk as bombs went off in Washington and the country went down the tubes. Coming after the prosperity and relative peace of the Clinton years, it seemed a fantastic parody. Little did we know that if anything SNL did not begin to capture the full extent of the catastrophe.

Nobody cares any more, unlike in 2003 when shills for the war were always on my case to "report the good news" and lay off Bush. Some of my "arguments with Bush" during the past 7 years were internet bestsellers. Now, the man has discredited himself so badly, he can't even get people to so much as yawn at him. But in honor of all those arguments of the past, I'm doing it one last time.

As usual, most of what he said in the State of the Union address was transparent lies. He praised private groups for doing charity work in Louisiana because he hasn't followed through on his own promises after Katrina. He did that phony thing of reporting the average tax "increase" if his "tax cuts" were allowed to expire. If I'm in the room with someone who made a billion dollars last year and Bush doesn't cut my taxes at all but he cuts those of the billionaire such that he saves 5% of his income, then the two of us in the room have an average tax cut of $25 million apiece. But in the real world, I get bupkus and the billionaire gets $50 million. That shell game sums up the Republican "tax cut" scam they keep running on the American middle class, which always falls for it.

So here are some last arguments with the man's bald faced lies, for old times sake.

Bush assertion: "We believe that the most reliable guide for our country is the collective wisdom of ordinary citizens."

Sad Fact: Indiana GOP tries to keep ordinary citizens from voting with restrictive photo identification law.

Bush assertion: "And so, in all we do, we must trust in the ability of free peoples to make wise decisions and empower them to improve their lives for their futures."

Sad fact: Amit Paley writes, "A strong majority of Iraqis want U.S.-led military forces to immediately withdraw from the country, saying their swift departure would make Iraq more secure and decrease sectarian violence, according to new polls by the State Department and independent researchers.
In Baghdad, for example, nearly three-quarters of residents polled said they would feel safer if U.S. and other foreign forces left Iraq, with 65 percent of those asked favoring an immediate pullout . . ."

Bush assertion: "We've seen Afghans emerge from the tyranny of the Taliban and choose a new president and a new parliament."

Sad fact: "Afghanistan Journalist sentenced to Death for Blasphemy" and I don't think women would agree with Bush's rosy picture of progressive democracy in Kabul. Not to mention that half the country's gross domestic product is generated by the heroin trade. Bush goes on to say that his democratic projects are only being interrupted by terrorists; but all the problems above are problems with the establishment, not with terror groups.

Bush assertion: "From expanding opportunity to protecting our country, we've made good progress."

Sad fact: Bush's Iraq is a major generator of terrorism, which it was not before 2003. "Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the prime training ground for foreign terrorists who could travel elsewhere across the globe and wreak havoc, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials and classified studies" by the CIA and the Department of State, Warren P. Strobel reported July 4, 2005. "Iraq's emergence as a terrorist training ground appears to challenge President Bush's rationale for invading and overthrowing leader Saddam Hussein in March 2003," Strobel wrote." So we are safer how again?

Bush assertion: "We launched a surge of American forces into Iraq. We gave our troops a new mission: Work with the Iraqi forces to protect the Iraqi people, pursue the enemy in his strongholds, and deny the terrorists sanctuary anywhere in the country."

Sad fact: "The Iraqi Red Crescent Organization and the U.N. reported last month that the "number of Iraqis fleeing their homes has soared since the American troop increase began in February". . . The chart reports some decreases in the intensity of "ethno-sectarian violence" in certain Baghdad districts (Note: This is based on military data). But where there have been decreases, they are due largely to the fact that "mixed Muslim" areas are being overrun by either Shia or Sunni enclaves.The map above demonstrates that Shias have been gradually taking over all of Baghdad (noted by the green mass that now covers much of the city), wiping out Sunni communities that stood in their path. Center for American Progress analyst Brian Katulis estimated that Baghdad, which once used to be a 65 percent Sunni majority city, is now 75 percent Shia."

A large proportion of the 1.5 million Iraqi refugees in Damascus was displaced to Syria during 2007, apparently as a side effect of Bush's troop surge.

So all this involves "protecting the Iraqi people" how, exactly? Does Bush think Iraqis are safer when they are refugees in a foreign country?

He won't be missed.

now, if we can just figure out how to remove the legacy of unfettered, criminal executive power along with the man...

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Canada wussies out

as i posted the other day, canada placed both the u.s. and israel on a torture "watch list..." needless to say, it caused a lot of huffing and puffing in the rarefied air of the upper echelons of both governments, forcing canada to backpedal...

The Canadian foreign minister has apologised for including the US and Israel on a list of states where prisoners are at risk of torture.

Maxime Bernier said the list, which formed part of a manual on torture awareness given to diplomats, "wrongly includes some of our closest allies".

Mr Bernier insisted the manual was not a policy document and did not convey the official views of his government.

The listing was criticised by the US and Israel, who demanded it be changed.

"We find it to be offensive for us to be on the same list with countries like Iran and China. Quite frankly it's absurd," said the US ambassador to Canada, David Wilkins.

A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Ottawa, Michael Mendel, said the Israeli Supreme Court was "on record as expressly prohibiting any type of torture".

"If Israel is included in the list in question, the ambassador of Israel would expect its removal," he added.

yeah, maxime, we can plainly see you're trying to save face, but, the fact is, the u.s. and israel weren't put on that list by mistake and we all know it... furthermore, i suspect that we were put on the list with a full understanding of the consequences, and an official policy prepared for when the shit hit the fan, as everyone knew it would... regardless of the underlying motivation, mr. foreign minister, i greatly appreciate the service that your country has done for mine by calling worldwide attention to just how criminal our official behavior and that of our "closest ally," israel, has become...

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When Canada puts its southern neighbor on a torture watch list, we've sunk pretty low

this is shameful...

[Canada] has put the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on a watch list for torture.

[...]

The list includes Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, and China. But surprisingly, it also included the United States, Guantánamo, and Israel.

It notes specific "U.S. interrogation techniques," which include "forced nudity, isolation, and sleep deprivation." The U.S. has repeatedly denied allegations by international groups that it tortures prisoners captured in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. However, U.S. officials have refused to comment on the Canadian list.

But international observers say they are heartened by the specificity of the Canadian list. Alex Neve of Amnesty International says he is surprised that Canada would risk offending allies by naming countries that potentially torture prisoners.

"These are countries where, sadly, the record is clear -- torture and ill treatment happens," said Neve.

But it appears that Ottawa may have had second thoughts about being so explicit. After the documents were released as evidence in a court case relating to Afghan detainees, the government tried to get them back. Sources say that Ottawa apparently wanted to black out sensitive parts that may anger allies.

tough noogies, canada... the cat's out of the bag, and i have to say, i'm heartened that you folks in the great white north have enough integrity to put us on the list in the first place...

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Larisa boils Bush's speech down to 10 highly manipulative and misleading points

and, as is her wont, does an outstanding job of it...

The real speech is...

In my view, if you take out all the filler, that is, all of the items not in bold, you get a real sense of what is being said, here is the summary version:

1. We were asked by the Iraqis to help defend them from Al Qaeda, an Iraqi evil that attacked us on September 11, 2001.

2. We defended the Iraqis against Al Qaeda and they were appreciative and vowed to continue what we started, so our mission to come to the defense of the Iraqi people was a success.

3. But other countries (Iran) and groups (Al Qaeda) keep interfering, killing Iraqis and Americans alike, despite all of our progress.

4. We won't be safe from another 9/11 attack until we secure Iraq, which we cannot do because Iran and Al Qaeda won't let us.

5. Iran, Syria, and Al Qaeda are the real problem, not our efforts to secure Iraq, which have proved a success.

6. Patriotic Americans will understand this, despite their party affiliations, they understand that until Iraq is secure, we are not safe, and we cannot secure Iraq because of Al Qaeda and Iran.

7. Those in the region and elsewhere better take sides now, because you are either with us (our energy war) "for peace" or against us - terrorists - who will not have peace.

8. We have a moral obligation to the Iraqi people and an security obligation to our own country to ally ourselves with Iraq as she defends herself from Al Qaeda and Iran.

9. The leaders of Iraq and the United States have agreed to defend Iraq from terrorism from Al Qaeda and interference from Iran, who is likely soon to have WMD to use against the entire region.

10. We must secure Iraq and stop the enemy (any country, but for the present Iran, who controls the global energy market).

lies... damned lies...

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One in ten Iraqis

from der spiegel...

Losing It's Best and Brightest: Iraq's Elite Fleeing in Droves

One in ten Iraqis has left the country. Baghdad's elite are trying to make ends meet in neighboring Jordan and Syria. Washington wants the United Nations to address the refugee crisis. In the meantime, the country is losing its best minds -- the very people needed to rebuild Iraq.

look at the incredible mess we've made...

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A day late and a dollar short, but at least Powell is speaking out

i'm still left with the question as to why the hell he didn't open his yap when all this stuff was going down...

colin powell on meet the press, courtesy of think progress...

• The U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay [is] “a major problem for America’s perception” and charg[ed], “if it was up to me, I would close Guantanamo — not tomorrow, this afternoon.”

• He also called for an end to the military commission system ... . “I would simply move them to the United States and put them into our federal legal system,” Powell said.

• He scoffed at criticism that the detainees would have access to lawyers and the writ of habeas corpus: “So what? Let them. Isn’t that what our system’s all about?”

• "[W]e have shaken the belief that the world had in America’s justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open… We don’t need it, and it’s causing us far more damage than any good we get for it."

• Powell endorsed direct talks [with Syria and Iran] “not to solve a particular problem or crisis of the moment or the day, but just to have dialogue with people who are involved in this region in so many ways.”

good on you, colin... the road to redemption is long and hard, but you gotta start somewhere...

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"Black" operations against Syria, Iran, and Lebanon by both CIA and Pentagon

larisa does her usual in-depth and thorough investigative reporting...

[T]he Pentagon is continuing to conduct more aggressive “black” operations, approved by the National Security Council and the Office of the Vice President.

Current and former intelligence officials would not identify new specific covert programs running out of the Pentagon, though sources stressed these are far riskier and more truly covert operational activities against Iran than the activities of the CIA.

These operations started almost immediately after the Iraq war and have continued for several years. Because they can be considered part of a military operation, they are not subjects to the same requirements for Congressional authorization as the activities of the CIA.

The majority of these efforts to destabilize Iran through a covert war of aggression have been carried out by the Department of Defense, largely steered by the Office of the Vice President and by then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

but we can rest assured, at least on the cia side... (ya, right...)

“The CIA does not, as a matter of course, publicly discuss allegations of covert action, whether the assertions are wrong, right, or somewhere in-between,” [CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano] said. “That's one reason why the term ‘covert action’ still exists.”

“But it's important to remember that, through the Congress, there is vigorous oversight of secret intelligence activities,” he added.

given the obsession with stonewalling, secrecy, and lawlessness in the bush administration, the almost complete abdication of congressional oversight responsibility during the republican-led years, and the lack of spine being shown by the dems today, i think "vigorous oversight" is nothing but a line of crap... you can be sure, if larisa has managed to uncover this much, there's a ton more going on we know nothing about... you only need to read something like the following to feel the certainty of that assumption...

Intelligence sources interviewed for this article all expressed concern over the lack of attention to the Pentagon’s covert activities. Some believe illegal activities like those of the Iran-Contra days are now being hidden under the loophole of “traditional military activities” to avoid Congressional oversight.

so, even if there was "vigorous oversight" being conducted - which there isn't - the blackest of the "black" ops are exempt anyway... someday, maybe it'll be all out on the table and we can collectively gasp at the brazen and illegal deeds of our government...

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Continuing to push Bushco spin, context-free journalism hits a new low

condi meets with syria, shuns iran, the u.s. anti-iran propaganda machine grinds on, and neither the washington post nor the associated press bother to reference relevant events that only happened a month ago...

wapo headline...

Projectile Bomb Attacks Hit Record High in Iraq
U.S. Says Weapons Are Made in Iran

a.p...

The United States accuses Iran of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons as well as funneling money and weapons [to] the Shiite militias responsible for much of Iraq's violence.

but since both condi and manouchehr just so happened to be in sharm el-sheikh at the same time, do you think they could have seized the opportunity...? oh, no-o-o-o-oooo...

a.p...

"There was no direct meeting [between Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice] but they were in the same room and they were discussing the issues," said Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

wapo...

Senior Bush administration officials said that she would not hold a widely anticipated meeting with Iran's foreign minister, but that the United States plans to hold direct talks with Tehran in the near future.

however, after the white house and congressional republicans united in a talking point assault on nancy pelosi's trip to syria a few weeks ago, we now have this...

wapo...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met here Thursday with her Syrian counterpart in the first high-level talks between the two governments in more than two years.

[...]

Officials said the decision to end the U.S. isolation of Syria and Iran -- which the administration accuses of facilitating insurgent and militia violence in Iraq -- was made in Washington in the days leading up to the conference.

[...]

Acknowledging a change in policy, officials characterized it as a response to direct appeals from the Iraqi government and emphasized that it should be seen in the context of the conference.

and what's missing from both the a.p. and the wapo stories...? not only no mention of nancy pelosi, but, as i posted the other day in reference to a wapo op-ed, ALSO no mention of...

either the republican house member, david hobson, who traveled with pelosi or the republican house delegation, robert anderholt and frank wolf, who preceded her or the republican congressman, darrell issa, who followed her...

then, after ignoring the recent congressional efforts to reach out to syria, the wapo grabs one more opportunity to quote bush administration spin by including this pathetic state department attempt to add its OWN version of context by reaching all the fracking way back to the carter administration...

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said in Washington on Thursday that the last U.S.-Iran "direct high-level meeting . . . that was substantive" was when President Jimmy Carter visited Iran in December 1977, before the revolution.

and, to add insult to injury, after grabbing the state department's reference to carter, the wapo neglects to mention that none other than jimmy carter HIMSELF voiced support for pelosi's trip...

Former President Jimmy Carter expressed his support for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria, rejecting White House criticism of the visit.

"I was glad that she went," Carter said Wednesday. "When there is a crisis, the best way to help resolve the crisis is to deal with the people who are instrumental in the problem."

ok, look... i'm just an old fart, sitting around, blogging away, and it took me all of 30 minutes to put this post together, a post which, imho, contains more context than the combined resources of the washington post and the associated press could muster... is it because i'm smarter...? is it because i did more research or have access to more information...? we all know the answers to those questions - HELL, NO...! so why is the context missing...? there can only be one reason... THEY DIDN'T WANT TO PUT IT IN... and why not...? now, THERE'S the big question... we could sit around and speculate all day on why, but the fact remains, it's not there, and anyone reading these stories is missing a huge amount of relevant information - and that is a complete disgrace...

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