Our nation’s oligarchs believe at their core that they are entitled, by all notions of what they believe to be basic fairness, to be exempt from the rules they impose on everyone else

glenn calls out dianne feinstein, the epitome of corrupt, super-rich, elite arrogance and hypocrisy, for her crusade against leakers and whistleblowers when she herself is one of washington's biggest leakers...

Dianne Feinstein’s “espionage”

The California Democrat is both the prime enemy of leaks and "one of the biggest leakers in Congress"

[...]

That the powerful Senator who has devoted herself to criminally punishing low-level leakers and increasing the wall of secrecy is herself “one of the biggest leakers in Congress” is about as perfect an expression as it gets of how the rule of law and secrecy powers are sleazily exploited in Washington . . . Dianne Feinstein should be criminally prosecuted for espionage and threatened with decades in prison (indeed, as an American citizen and government employee, she certainly has greater legal duties not to leak than does, say, private Australian citizen Julian Assange, whose espionage prosecution she is demanding).

But as Democrats are very fond of pointing out these days — as they did, very fairly, when Mitt and Ann Romney recently took angry offense at the notion that they should disclose more than two years of their tax returns (“Dear me, it appears that Lady Romney has lost her patience with the riff raff and their unseemly questioning about money”) – our nation’s oligarchs believe at their core that they are entitled, by all notions of what they believe to be basic fairness, to be exempt from the rules they impose on everyone else. That is Dianne Feinstein at her core. It’s how she can be both Prime Enemy of leaks and “one of the biggest leakers in Congress” without having her brain even recognize, let alone recoil from and revolt against, this most grotesque of aristocratic privileges.

glenn makes note not only of the senator's hypocrisy but also her corruption...

[T]he senior Democratic Senator from California and Intelligence Committee Chairwoman, Dianne Feinstein, who also serves as the National Security State’s most faithful servant (a National Security State which, just by the way, has greatly enriched her extremely rich military contractor husband, Richard Blum; Feinstein herself reported a net worth of $80 million back in 2006).

it's the same arrogant, corrupt, hypocritical mindset that lets the u.s. preach human rights to the rest of the world while maintaining the practice of indefinite detention without either charges or trial and killing innocents via remote control while decrying the horror of "terrorist" attacks...

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The leading weapons seller in the world creates more jobs by selling more weapons - 70% more than 2011

i think one of the most disgusting things - among many - that the united states does is to produce and sell massive amounts of weaponry and defense items to countries around the world... i've posted on it repeatedly and i continue to find it unconscionable... now, the u.s. is setting another record...

US Sets Another Record on Defense Sales, Already 

The United States is set to far surpass previous records for defence sales this year, according to U.S. officials.

"Despite the global economic strain, demand for U.S. defence products and services is stronger than ever," Andrew J. Shapiro, an assistant secretary in the U.S. State Department, said on Thursday.

He confirmed that the U.S., long the world's largest weapons exporter, has already seen more than 50 billion dollars in government-to-government military sales this fiscal year.

"This represents at least a 20-billion-dollar increase over fiscal year 2011, and we still have more than a quarter of the fiscal year left," Shapiro said, speaking with reporters. The current fiscal year will end in September.

"To put this in context, fiscal year 2011 was a record-setting year at just over 30 billion. This fiscal year will be at least 70 percent greater."

Observers noted the administration's evident pride at the high numbers.

"An Obama arms bazaar is going on – this is further evidence of that," Jeff Abramson, director of Control Arms, an international civil-society alliance based in Washington, told IPS.

"This administration has made defence trade an economic rather than just a security issue – part of the agenda in terms of keeping the U.S. economy going. I think human rights issues should trump those concerns. Selling to countries such as Saudi Arabia, people need to ask whether the U.S. is living up to its promises on rights obligations."

Shapiro, who noted that the U.S. only allows a sale "after we carefully examine issues like human rights", spoke a week after the launch of the newest edition of the 655 Report, an annual compilation of defence products and services authorised for export.

Many have cautioned that the U.S. defence trade is notoriously difficult to estimate, given the numerous ways available to calculate the figure. Several point to a lower number of 30 billion dollars worth of actual transfers, rather than the larger sales number, not all of which may ultimately take place.

[...]

In a major priority for the U.S. government today, Shapiro noted that the Saudi Arabia deal alone would support more than 50,000 jobs.

[...]

According to Amnesty International, a watchdog group, today it is easier to trade in weapons than in bananas.

like i said - disgusting...

 

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Slashing the financial security of American citizens would be more persuasive if the country didn't continue its posture of Endless War

glenn...

As we endlessly hear about a massive debt crisis, the current President has started one optional war that has already exceeded its estimated costs, plans to continue (if not escalate) two more, is drone-attacking a new country on a seemingly weekly basis, expands sprawling covert military actions in still other countries, builds new overseas detention facilities, all while offering only the most modest, symbolic and illusory "cuts" in military spending. The alleged need to slash the financial security of American citizens -- and the notion that America faces a severe debt crisis -- would be more persuasive if the country didn't continue its posture of Endless War and feeding the insatiable, bloated National Security State (to say nothing of the equally insatible and wasteful Drug War and its evil spawn, the increasingly privatized American Prison State, which the Obama administration is expanding as aggressively as the War on Terror).

While it's true that reducing American military spending to a level in line with the rest of the world would not erase American debt levels, it would be a meaningful contributor. More important, it would indicate that American elites are willing to do more than blithely impose pain on, and demand sacrifice from, ordinary Americans, already suffering economically in so many ways and victimized by third-world levels of rapidly growing wealth inequality. That America's war-making industry is largely shielded from this "austerity" reveals how pretextual are these claims of crisis.

take a look at this chart that details u.s. discretionary spending for fy 2011...



so, not only is defense spending a sacred cow - the elderly and disadvantaged be damned - it's also going to further line the pockets of our already super-rich elites and their bought-and-paid-for toadies...

The Pentagon is not just incompetent. It is corrupt. In November 2009 the Pentagon’s Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), the federal watchdog responsible for auditing oversight of military contractors, raised the question of criminal wrongdoing when it found that the audits that did occur were riddled with serious breaches of auditor independence. One Pentagon auditor admitted he did not perform detailed tests because, “The contractor would not appreciate it.”

Why would the Pentagon allow its contractors to get away with fraud? To answer that question we need to understand the incestuous relationship between the Pentagon and its contractors that has been going on for years, and is getting worse. From 2004 to 2008, 80 percent of retiring three and four star officers went to work as consultants or defense industry executives. Thirty-four out of 39 three- and four-star generals and admirals who retired in 2007 are now working in defense industry roles — nearly 90 percent.

so, tell me, how is it that defense spending still remains virtually untouchable...?

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Oh, yay...! A new war...!

yes, gadhafi is a complete and total nutcase and, yes, killing his own people is a very bad thing, but WHAT THE FUCK does the united states think it's doing, getting involved in an air war in libya...? oh, wait... it's going to require defense contractors to bring out their order books to replenish the 110 tomahawk missiles we fired today, the 110 we will fire tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day...

war is a business and the business of the united states is arms and it's all powered by oil... power, money, global hegemony... never forget those simple facts for a single moment...

U.S. Missiles Strike Libyan Air Defense Targets

American and European forces began a broad campaign of strikes against the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi on Saturday, unleashing warplanes and missiles in the first round of the largest international military intervention in the Arab world since the invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon said.

Pentagon and NATO officials detailed a mission designed to impose a United Nations-sanctioned no-fly zone and keep Mr. Qaddafi from using airpower against beleaguered rebel forces in the east. While the overall effort was portrayed as mostly being led by France and Britain, the Pentagon said that American forces dominated an effort to knock out Libya’s air-defense systems.

In a briefing Saturday afternoon, Vice Adm. William Gortney told reporters that about 110 Tomahawk missiles, fired from American warships and submarines and one British submarine struck 20 air-defense targets around Tripoli, the capital, and the western city of Misurata. He said the strikes were against longer-range air defense missiles as well as early warning radar sites and main command-and-control communication centers.

kee-fucking-rist...! here we go again...

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A union member, a CEO and a Tea Party member are sitting at a table with 12 cookies

the only part of the following i have a quarrel with is where he says, "our military spending grabs 11 cookies"... it may seem like a small thing, but all of the money that nominally goes to the military actually doesn't... it goes to the defense contractors who are headed - mostly behind the scenes, of course - by our super-rich elites who are highly motivated to keep the rivers of cash flowing...

A union member, a CEO and a Tea Party member are sitting at a table with 12 cookies. The CEO grabs 11, turns to the Tea Partier and says “The Union's out to take your cookie!”

I've been thinking that the joke applies pretty well to another situation. For instance, the military. Our military spending grabs 11 cookies and leaves us all battling over the 12th.

Christopher Hellman at TomDispatch added up all the military-related spending in the budget and came to a startling number: for fiscal year 2012, the actual military budget is something like $1.2 trillion dollars.

Trillion with a T.

Just to put that in perspective for a second, a million seconds is 12 days. A trillion seconds is 31,688 years.

So after all that cash is gone, what are we left with? Not a whole heck of a lot for the rest of us. “Discretionary” spending is nearly 40% of the budget, but if Hellman's numbers are accurate, that $1.2 trillion eats up nearly 90% of discretionary funds, leaving just 10% for the rest of us. (That doesn't include mandatory spending on things like Social Security and Medicare, which are separate.)

on the plus side, i think it's critical for us to understand that the current fiscal dilemma that the federal government, states and municipalities find themselves in (to say nothing of the fiscal dilemma most of us average peasants find OURSELVES in) is a direct result of our slavish devotion to insuring those rivers of cash keep flowing to those already super-rich elites whether they be defense contractors, bankers or hedge fund managers... the full extent of the nasty picture is only beginning to dawn on the american people but, ya know, it ain't that difficult to see if you only bother to look...

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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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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...

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The part of Obama's State of the Union address where he called for DOUBLING arms exports somehow escaped me

jumpin' jeebus on a zwieback...



i have this thing about the u.s. commanding a full thirty percent of the world's weapons market, amounting to a whopping $6.8B in 2009... for one thing, there's a hell of a lot of money being made by a very few people, absolutely none of whom have any incentive whatsoever to see world peace suddenly break out... second, flooding the world with weapons is a sure-fire way to make sure that they get used, not only guaranteeing we won't see peace in our time but also that those "used" weapons have to regularly be replaced with - wait for it - the latest high-tech, super-destructive models fresh from the defense labs of our already super-rich defense contractors...

unaccountably, this obscenity continues year after friggin' year and now our hopey-changey president wants to re-write the regs to make it EASIER to export weaponry and to DOUBLE current export levels by 2015...!

The United States is currently the world biggest weapons supplier — holding 30 per cent of the market — but the Obama administration has begun modifying export control regulations in hopes of enlarging the U.S. market share, according to U.S. officials.

President Barack Obama already has taken the first steps by tucking new language into the Iran sanctions bill signed in early July. His aides are now compiling the "munitions list," which regulates the sale of military items.

The administration's stated reason for the changes is to simplify the sale of weapons to U.S. allies, but potential spinoffs include generating business for the U.S. defense industry, creating jobs and contributing to Obama's drive to double U.S. exports by 2015.

Critics say the reforms are being rushed and warn that the expedited procedures could allow weapons technology to fall into the wrong hands.

India, which currently is seeking 126 fighter-jets worth over $10 billion, 10 large transport aircraft worth $6 billion, and other multi-billion dollar defense sales, could be among the possible beneficiaries. Allies seeking advanced U.S. weaponry and equipment, who now often buy elsewhere due to the cumbersome U.S. approval process, would draw immediate benefit from the reforms, U.S. officials said.

i DID NOT cast my vote for this shit, believe me...!

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The U.S. - making sure that purveyors of death and destruction have the latest and best tools for the job

it makes me slightly ill when i think just how much the u.s. economy is based on death and destruction and how little awareness of that fact exists, primarily due to an almost complete lack of media attention... we collectively wring our hands over people getting knocked off in wholesale fashion around the globe and yet it's u.s. weapons that are being used to do it... it's also a shame that there isn't more attention paid to those who are profiting the most from perpetrating these horrors and how much they are engaged in making sure that there is an unending stream of armed conflicts to keep demand high...

from information clearing house...

In 2008, according to an authoritative report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), $55.2 billion in weapons deals were concluded worldwide. Of that total, the United States was responsible for $37.8 billion in weapons sales agreements, or 68.4% of the total “trade.” Some of these agreements were long-term ones and did not result in 2008 deliveries of weapons systems, but these latest figures are a good gauge of the global appetite for weapons. It doesn’t take a PhD in economics to recognize that, when one nation accounts for nearly 70% of weapons sales, the term “global arms trade” doesn’t quite cut it.

Consider the “competition” and reality comes into focus. Take a guess on which country is the number two weapons exporter on the planet: China? Russia? No, Italy, with a relatively paltry $3.7 billion in agreements with other countries or just 9% of the U.S. market share. Russia, that former Cold War superpower in the “trade,” was close behind Italy, with only $3.5 billion in arms agreements.

U.S. weapons manufacturers have come a long way, baby, since those Cold War days when the United States really did have a major competitor. For instance, the Congressional Research Service’s data for 1990, the last year of the Soviet Union’s existence, shows global weapons sales totaling $32.7 billion, with the United States accounting for $12.1 billion of that or 37% of the market. For its part, the Soviet Union was responsible for a competitive $10.7 billion in deals inked that year. France, China, and the United Kingdom accounted for most of the rest.

Since then, the global appetite for weapons has only grown more voracious, while the number of purveyors has shrunk to the point where the Pentagon could hang out a sign: “We arm the world.” No kidding, it’s true.

Cambodia ($304,000), Comoros ($895,000), Colombia ($256 million), Guinea ($200,000), Greece ($225 million), Great Britain ($1.1 billion), the Philippines ($72.9 million), Poland ($79.8 million), and Peru ($16.4 million) all buy U.S. arms, as does almost every country not in that list. U.S. weapons, and only U.S. weapons, are coveted by presidents and prime ministers, generals and strongmen.

From the Pentagon’s own data (which differs from that in the CRS report), here are the top ten nations which made Foreign Military Sales agreements with the Pentagon, and so with U.S. weapons makers, in 2008:

Saudi Arabia $6.06 billion

Iraq $2.50 billion

Morocco $2.41 billion

Egypt $2.31 billion

Israel $1.32 billion

Australia $1.13 billion

South Korea $1.12 billion

Great Britain $1.10 billion

India $1 billion

Japan $840 million

That’s more than $17 billion in weapons right there. Some of these countries are consistently eager buyers, and some are not. Morocco, for example, is only in that top-ten list because it was green-lighted to buy 24 of Lockheed Martin’s F-16 fighter planes at $360 million (or so) for each aircraft, an expensive one-shot deal. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia (which inked $14.71 billion in weapons agreements between 2001 and 2008), Egypt ($13.25 billion) and Israel ($11.27 billion) are such regular customers that they should have the equivalent of one of those “buy 10, get the 11th free” punch cards doled out by your favorite coffee shop.

To sum up, the U.S. has a virtual global monopoly on exporting tools of force and destruction. Call it market saturation. Call it anything you like, just not the “global arms trade.”

why do people and countries buy arms...? to use them, of course... the more they're available and the more they're marketed and the more new models are introduced, the more they'll be used which will in turn drive more demand...

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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...

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The last time there was a troop surge in Afghanistan, 3M people fled to Pakistan

juan cole...

The last time a foreign military staged a 'surge,' i.e. the Soviets in the early 1980s, it produced so much violence that 3 million Afghans were forced to flee to northern Pakistan. Islamabad is wary lest that patter be repeated.

which would explain why pakistan has more than a few concerns about obama's proposed escalation in afghanistan... i know quite a few afghans who had to beat feet across the khyber pass to peshawar and beyond to save their skins when things got too hot in kabul... the refugee existence was unimaginably miserable for most of them, one which nobody i know desires to repeat any time soon...

al jazeera...

Pakistani government officials have expressed concern about President Barack Obama's new Afghan strategy, which calls for Pakistan to step up its co-operation against the Taliban in exchange for a pledge of a long-term partnership.

In an address to unveil a new strategy for the eight-year conflict in Afghanistan, Obama said on Tuesday a cancer had taken root in Pakistan's border region with Afghanistan and promised US help to end it.

The Pakistani Foreign Affairs Ministry issued a cautious response that stressed the "need for clarity" in the new US policy.

"Pakistan looks forward to engaging closely with [the] US in understanding the full importance of the new strategy and to ensure that there would be no adverse fallout on Pakistan," the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Pakistan and the US need to closely co-ordinate their efforts to achieve shared objectives. There is certainly the need for clarity and co-ordination on all aspects of the implementation of the strategy."

what puzzles me the most is that job creation and poverty alleviation, two critical elements that almost every afghan i talk with says could significantly reduce the level of violence, were nowhere to be found in obama's speech ... it was only two weeks ago that i posted (here) on a poll taken by oxfam in afghanistan that unequivocally said this...

Poverty and unemployment are overwhelmingly seen as the main reasons behind conflict in Afghanistan, according to a survey in that country.

[...]

Oxfam said the survey showed that the country needed more than military solutions.

so, who the hell is obama listening to anyway...? oh, never mind... silly me... it must be the defense contractors...

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Now, let's all feel sorry for the poor lobbyists and defense contractors

how 'bout it...? do ya think you can muster some sympathy...?

In a year when Washington's influence industry should be thriving, with epic battles over health-care and energy legislation, lobbying in many sectors is in marked decline as defense contractors, real estate firms and other companies pull back in a down economy.

Overall spending on lobbying has leveled off for the first time in a decade, according to disclosure data filed with Congress. Lobbying revenue for many of the city's most powerful advocacy firms, including bellwethers such as Patton Boggs and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, plunged 10 percent or more in the first half of the year.

Washington also has 2,200 fewer registered lobbyists than it did a year ago, the lowest tally since shortly after George W. Bush took office in January 2001.

[...]

The formidable defense industry, reeling from tens of thousands of layoffs, has cut back expenditures by 17 percent this year. That was true even with the lobbying effort triggered by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates's cancellation of the F-22 fighter jet and other major weapons projects, which had long survived thanks to the lobbying prowess of major contractors. Northrop Grumman has slashed its spending for lobbying in half, and Boeing and Lockheed Martin each have reduced spending by more than $1 million.

boo-freakin'-hoo...

p.s. ya gotta love that term, "influence industry"...

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Promoting fear of (choose one: biological, nuclear, terrorist, conventional weapons) attack - it's good for business

a friend sent me this article with the following question...

the question...

What's your read on this having spent time near the country mentioned?

the article...

The United States can expect a terrorist attack using nuclear or more likely biological weapons before 2013, reports a bipartisan commission in a study being briefed Tuesday to Vice President-elect Joe Biden. It suggests the Obama administration bolster efforts to counter and prepare for germ warfare by terrorists.

[...]

Al-Qaida remains the only terrorist group judged to be actively intent on conducting a nuclear attack against the United States, the report notes. It is not yet capable of building such a weapon and has yet to obtain one. But that could change if a nuclear weapons engineer or scientist were recruited to al-Qaida's cause, the report warns.

The report says the potential nexus of terrorism, nuclear and biological weapons is especially acute in Pakistan.

"Were one to map terrorism and weapons of mass destruction today, all roads would intersect in Pakistan," the report states.

my response...

i think 90+ percent of these stories are designed as fear-mongering, pure and simple... a population living in fear is, by definition, easier to control...

however, if sophisticated biological attacks become part of the arsenal of ANY group, it will because the technology and skill required for their development became available in some manner, intended or otherwise, through the incessant research on same being done by countries like the u.s., in precisely the same way that nuclear weapons technology became available to pakistan and, now, india...

don't think for a moment that a new weapons race such as that announced today by russia in response to the u.s. plans to position missiles in poland and the czech republic isn't planned as a means to increase defense research and weapons systems spending... likewise, nuclear and biological weapons systems proliferation is equally good for business... as always, follow the money...

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The Washington Post won't provide context even from their OWN newspaper, even when it's from YESTERDAY

god, it's SO-O-O-O-OOO ANNOYING...!

on page one of today's edition, gates says...

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates says that even winning the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan will not end the "Long War" against violent extremism and that the fight against al-Qaeda and other terrorists should be the nation's top military priority over coming decades, according to a new National Defense Strategy he approved last month.

yeah, ok, we're all familiar with the "Long War"/endless war rhetoric... it's been shoved down our collective throats for years as the no-argument excuse for lining the pockets of defense contractors and bush cronies, shredding the constitution, stripping our civil liberties, justifying torture, collecting mountains of private information on everyone and everything, and perpetrating abuses unimaginable in what we thought was the land of liberty and justice for all... but yesterday, in this very newspaper on page 4, it was revealed that the rand corporation, not exactly a bastion of peace-loving, dope-smoking hippies, had this to say...

The Bush administration's terrorism-fighting strategy has not significantly undermined al-Qaeda's capabilities, according to a major new study that argues the struggle against terrorism is better waged by law enforcement agencies than by armies.

The study by the nonpartisan Rand Corp. also contends that the administration committed a fundamental error in portraying the conflict with al-Qaeda as a "war on terrorism." The phrase falsely suggests that there can be a battlefield solution to terrorism, and symbolically conveys warrior status on terrorists, it said.

[...]

"In most cases, military force isn't the best instrument," said Jones, a terrorism expert and the report's lead author.

Addressing the U.S. campaign against al-Qaeda, the study noted successes in disrupting terrorist financing, but said the group remains a formidable foe. Al-Qaeda is "strong and competent," and has succeeded in carrying out more violent attacks since Sept. 11, 2001, than in all of its previous history. Moreover, its organizational structure has adapted and evolved over time, "making it a more dangerous enemy," Jones and Libicki wrote.

The authors call for a strategy that includes a greater reliance on law enforcement and intelligence agencies in disrupting the group's networks and in arresting its leaders. They say that when military forces are needed, the emphasis should be on local troops, which understand the terrain and culture and tend to have greater legitimacy.

very interesting, no...? but did the high potentates who exercise the ever-so-thorough oversight on the news that gets printed in the wapo see fit to mention THAT in the gates article...? of course not... so, the very day after the rand corporation story is published, decrying the entire notion of the "Long War," our secretary of defense bald-facedly declares that we're not only fighting the "Long War," but that it will continue on for DECADES, without ONE SINGLE MENTION of what the very same newspaper published the day before...

yeah, i know... it's not news to anyone that our news media practices propaganda instead of journalism, nor is it news that they pretend that what they reported as news yesterday is somehow irrelevant to today, but it's still shocking to see such a graphic display of dishonesty, to say nothing of a goddam shame...

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Lockheed Martin - "Our hiring patterns nationwide ... are totally unaffected by the state of the economy"

the glorious benefits - to some - of endless war...

The big defense company Lockheed Martin of Bethesda [MD] has nary a concern about the national economic downturn. It is hiring -- not laying off -- employees.

"Our hiring patterns nationwide and in the Washington area are totally unaffected by the state of the economy," said Ken Disken, senior vice president for human resources.

meanwhile, for the REST of us...

Renee Warren, 49, a Gaithersburg waitress who has been staying home to take care of her disabled husband, saw her lights go dark recently because she couldn't pay her electricity bills, which have reached $400 a month.

"It's just ridiculous," Warren said. "You can't live. I can't even get shoes for my husband, clothes, the things we need because of the bills."

The sagging national economy is widening the gap locally between people who work for the giant base of consulting and technology firms that rely on the government for revenue and lower- and middle-income people in jobs exposed to the downturn, such as retail and construction.

what's the message in this...? aw, c'mon... repeat after me...

I. LOVE. WAR.

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So, now Carlyle gets to control the part of government business it doesn't ALREADY control

well, at least they're keeping it all in the family...

The consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton said yesterday it is splitting up, selling its U.S. government business to private-equity firm Carlyle Group for $2.54 billion and spinning off its commercial business into a separate company.

< rolls eyes >

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Is it just because I'm here, or is Afghanistan suddenly generating a lot more news?

typical bush administration nonsense, blindly supporting war profiteering...

this from a just-received nyt news alert...

[T]he American military has relied since early last year on a fledgling company led by a 22-year-old man whose vice president was a licensed masseur.

With the award last January of a federal contract worth as much as nearly $300 million, the company, AEY Inc., which operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, became the main supplier of munitions to Afghanistan’s army and police forces.

Since then, the company has provided ammunition that is more than 40 years old and in decomposing packaging, according to an examination of the munitions by The New York Times and interviews with American and Afghan officials. Much of the ammunition comes from the aging stockpiles of the old Communist bloc, including stockpiles that the State Department and NATO have determined to be unreliable and obsolete, and have spent millions of dollars to have destroyed.

In purchasing munitions, the contractor has also worked with middlemen and a shell company on a federal list of entities suspected of illegal arms trafficking.

Moreover, tens of millions of the rifle and machine-gun cartridges were manufactured in China, making their procurement a possible violation of American law. The company’s president, Efraim E. Diveroli, was also secretly recorded in a conversation that suggested corruption in his company’s purchase of more than 100 million aging rounds in Albania, according to audio files of the conversation.

This week, after repeated inquiries about AEY’s performance by The Times, the Army suspended the company from any future federal contracting, citing shipments of Chinese ammunition and claiming that Mr. Diveroli misled the Army by saying the munitions were Hungarian.

it's a lengthy article and, i confess, i didn't read through to the end to find out if mr. daveroli had some kind of personal or political connection to the bush administration... my guess is that he has one tucked away somewhere...

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A tale of two headlines: hard to eradicate Afghan opium economy and need for more drones in Afghanistan

headline one...

Opium economy will take 20 years and £1bn to remove

Europe and other major heroin markets should brace themselves for health consequences of harvest, warns UN

headline two...

Pentagon seeks money for unmanned drones

Pentagon's Increased Reliance on Unmanned Drones Evident in Budget

When a missile fired from a U.S. Predator killed a top al-Qaida leader last week it underscored the warfighting power of unmanned aircraft, which are being considered for even greater use in Afghanistan and would consume at least $3.4 billion in the Pentagon's 2009 proposed budget.

well, gosh and go-l-l-l-leee, sports fans... anybody remember this post i put up on 20 january with an excerpt from a story in the nyt back in june 2001...?

The unexpected success of the Taliban in Afghanistan in eradicating three-quarters of the world's crop of opium poppies in one season is leading experts to ask where production is likely to spring up next.

The director of the United Nations Drug Control Program, Pino Arlacchi, said there was no chance that opium from other sources would compensate this year for the loss of Afghan crops, and the prices of opium and heroin will rise substantially, with opium already worth five to seven times its usual price. His program helped convince the Taliban that opium is a disgrace to Islam.

lemme see if i get this straight... the taliban had ERADICATED THREE-QUARTERS OF THE WORLD'S CROP OF OPIUM POPPIES IN LATE 2001 IN AFGHANISTAN PRIOR TO THE U.S. INVASION... in 2006, largely under u.s. control, afghanistan is BACK TO BEING THE WORLD'S NUMBER ONE PRODUCER...

ya don't think the money from the opium economy that will take 20 years and £1bn to remove could be used to finance those drones, do ya...? nah... i'm just a conspiracy theorist who hasn't had his morning coffee...

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Iraq spending vs. spending on energy research and development

wow... THAT'S one hard graph to swallow...

These figures are in millions. The source for energy R&D expenditures is from the National Council for Science and the Environment.

Though the war in Iraq now costs about $120B a year, two authors (one a Nobel prize winner) estimates the total cost of this war exceeds 2 Trillion Dollars.

(thanks to kevin at cryptogon...)

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Hillary's Wall Street, weapons and defence industry contributors

just sayin'...

The US arms industry is backing Hillary Clinton for President and has all but abandoned its traditional allies in the Republican party. Mrs Clinton has also emerged as Wall Street's favourite. Investment bankers have opened their wallets in unprecedented numbers for the New York senator over the past three months and, in the process, dumped their earlier favourite, Barack Obama.

[...]

Employees of the top five US arms manufacturers – Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop-Grumman, General Dynamics and Raytheon – gave Democratic presidential candidates $103,900, with only $86,800 going to the Republicans. "The contributions clearly suggest the arms industry has reached the conclusion that Democratic prospects for 2008 are very good indeed," said Thomas Edsall, an academic at Columbia University in New York.

[...]

So far, Mrs Clinton has received $52,600 in contributions from individual arms industry employees. That is more than half the sum given to all Democrats and 60 per cent of the total going to Republican candidates. Election fundraising laws ban individuals from donating more than $4,600 but contributions are often "bundled" to obtain influence over a candidate.

The arms industry has even deserted the biggest supporter of the Iraq war, Senator John McCain, who is also a member of the armed services committee and a decorated Vietnam War veteran. He has been only $19,200. Weapons-makers are equally unimpressed by the former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Despite a campaign built largely around the need for an aggressive US military and a determination to stay the course in Iraq, he is behind Mrs Clinton in the affections of arms executives. Mr Giuliani may be suffering because of his strong association with the failed policies of President Bush and the fact he is he is known as a social liberal.

Mrs Clinton's closest competitor in raising cash from the arms industry is the former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who raised just $32,000.

thanks to kevin at cryptogon, who calls hillary "cheney in drag..."

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