verbena-19

ICH: 57% Americans favor military action in Iran / More ICH News

"I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world - no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men. ": Woodrow Wilson

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"I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.": Thomas Jefferson - (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President - Source: letter to William Plumer, July 21, 1816

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"Today democracy is a facade of plutocracy. Because the peoples will not tolerate naked plutocracy, power is nominally turned over to them, while real power rests in the hands of the plutocrats. In democracies, whether republican or monarchical, the statesmen are marionettes, and the capitalists are the wire pullers: they dictate the political guidelines, they control the voters by buying public opinion, through business and social connections [they control] higher government officials ... The plutocracy of today is more powerful than the aristocracy of the past, because nothing stands above it except the state, which is its tool and helper.": Count Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, "Pan-european" publicist and political figure, in his book Praktischer Idealismus ("Practical Idealism"), Vienna, 1925.

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"I would rather lose in a cause that will some day win, than win in a cause that will some day lose.


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To read this newsletter online http://informationclearinghouse.info/ or http://snipurl.com/ayzc


RSS FEED

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Number Of Iraqi civilians Slaughtered In America's War 100,000 +


Number of U.S. Military Personnel Slaughtered (Officially acknowledged) In Bush's War 2239


The War in Iraq Costs
$236,545,016,437 (and climbing)
See the cost in your community


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57% Americans favor military action in Iran:

Despite persistent disillusionment with the war in Iraq, a majority of Americans supports taking military action against Iran if that country continues to produce material that can be used to develop nuclear weapons, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.
Read More

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Who will tell the people?

By Sheila Samples

George Orwell wrote that people who neither read nor ask questions will ultimately lose all desire to question "Big Brother." What is so frightening as we descend into the new world order fascism is not that we no longer read -- it's that we no longer can read.
Read More

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Understanding Root Causes

By Charles Sullivan

Consider the difference between George Bush and John Kerry in the last presidential election was more a matter of semantics than of substance. Both men are the product of wealth and privilege; neither of them represents the great majority of the people, the working class. Neither do their cohorts in Congress, an increasing number of which are millionaires. The appearance of choice is only an illusion, designed to deceive and to paralyze.
Read More

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The Killing Fields: Ghosts of the Walking Dead

By Manuel Valenzuela

Iraq’s Killing Fields are as real as the sun, as dangerous as a nuclear weapon, as devastating as any plague. The devastation taking place inside it is anathema to humanity, a war crime and crime against humanity, a malfeasant manifestation by Machiavellian miscreants. If the world entire were made aware of its seriousness, of its criminality and of the callousness of American leaders the backlash would be a giant tsunami of anger.
Read More

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A New World Is Possible

By Cindy Sheehan

It is our governments who want to demonize and marginalize other cultures, religions, races and ethnic groups. George Bush and his cold-hearted cronies and his easily misled and willingly blind followers want to "fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here!" Who are these "thems" that we are fighting over there?
Read More

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Iraq war veteran's suicide a cry for helping others, friend says:

"He just wanted people to know what he was dealing with and didn't want anyone else to go through the same thing." He had waged a private and public battle to get the care he needed.
Read More

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Spoils of war:

Halliburton swings to $1.1 billion profit:

The income reversed a loss from a year earlier for Houston-based Halliburton, the company once led by Vice President Dick Cheney. Its KBR unit has become known for its support work for troops stationed in the Middle East.
Read More


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Barghouthi: Israel no longer only democracy in Middle East:

Dr. Barghouthi stated that legislative elections were the culmination of a democratic revolution that had begun with last year’s presidential and local council elections, and that Israel could not longer claim to be the only ‘democracy’ in the Middle East.
Read More


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Palestinians Face Possible Cash Crunch:

The grim existence of many Palestinians might be about to become even bleaker. They now face the prospect of having western aid cut in response to the resounding victory handed to Hamas in parliamentary elections on Wednesday.
Read More

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Carter calls for funding Palestinians:

The Palestinian Government is destitute, and in desperate financial straits. I hope that support for the new government will be forthcoming," Carter said at a Jerusalem press conference.
Read More

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Mr. President, The Terrorists Have Won :

The White House staff would have had the singularly uncomfortable task of informing President Bush that, in spite of all his Evangelical Zionist beliefs, the terrorists had in fact won the free and fair parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories.
Read More

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Juan Cole: How do you like your democracy now, Mr. Bush?:

He sounds like a spokesman for Hamas, underlining the irony that Bush and his party have given Americans the least honest government in a generation, have drastically cut services, and have actively opposed extension of healthcare to the uninsured in the United States.
Read More

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Hamas Election Victory: A Vote for Clarity:

In Israel's conception the Palestinian Authority was supposed to crush Palestinian resistance to make the occupied territories safe for continued Israeli colonization. Hamas will certainly not allow that to continue, but whether it will be able to tranform the Authority into an arm of the struggle against Israel is by no means certain.
Read More

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Uri Avnery: Why Did Hamas Win?:

In the end, everybody will agree that a peace, in which Hamas is a partner, is better than a peace with Fatah alone. Let's pray that not too much blood is spilled before that point is reached.
Read More

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Profiles of key Hamas leaders:

MESHAAL, Hamas's politburo chief, survived a 1997 Israeli attempt to kill him in Jordan by injecting him with a drug in a botched daylight attack on an Amman street.
Read More

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Fourteen of Newly elected Palestinian MPs Are in Israeli Prisons
Read More

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How Middle East Media Cover Hamas Victory:

Mosaic Compiles Arab T.V. News for U.S. Audience
Read More

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In case you missed it:

**Video; Promises and Betrayals: Britain and the Struggle for the Holy Land :

An intriguing look at how the British double-dealing during WWI ignited the conflict between Arab and Jew in the Middle East. A disturbing picture of a duplicitous wartime government.
Read More

posted by Annamarie at 6:11 PM | 3 comment(s)

US Radio Host Upsets Muslim Group / Hamas to Talk 'Partnership'

posted by Annamarie at 1:46 AM | 1 comment(s)

VIDEO SPECIAL | Venezuela Day 1: Kickoff at the World Social Forum

posted by Annamarie at 12:03 AM | 0 comment(s)

Iraq Dispatches: Saint Patrick’s Four

“We are about caring for the poor, needy and disenfranchised,” Teresa told me two days ago when I asked her to sum up what the Catholic Worker movement was about, “We do this while confronting the political and economic structures that cause poverty.”

“As a mother who knows the preciousness of children, not just mine - but all children - I want the court to understand that before we walked into the recruiting station a million people had already died in Iraq from U.S. imposed sanctions, half of them children,” her sister Clare said earlier that day at her sentencing in Binghamton federal court.

“War is bloody. The blood we brought to the recruiting station was a sign of the blood inherent in the business of the recruiting station,” read the statement the group issued the day of their action, “The young men and women who join the military, via that recruiting station, are people whose lives are precious. We are obligated, as citizens of a democracy, to sound an alarm when we see our young people being sent into harm's way for a cause that is wholly unjust and criminal.”

“Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland,” she said, “We are named after him because he represents all of us as Ireland is our heritage.”

“We poured it on the posters of those beautiful people-to see the blood on them. It was perverse…but it was truthful because war is ugly and perverse. People who join the military, like those in the posters, will be made ugly and perverse by war. And as far as the flag-some of the blood dripped down on the flag-we didn’t pour it on the flag to start. But when I saw the blood get on the flag, I decided to add more-because there really is blood on our flag now.”

“The action, the upcoming half a year in federal prison, was it worth it?”

“After seeing that film, this feels right to me,” she said while nodding, “It feels right that I’m gong to jail. It feels like a piece of cake. Watching the film I thought ‘This is criminal.’ We belong in jail for allowing that kind of atrocity to occur.”

“No measure of punishment could change the rightness of the act of March 17th 2003 to call people to conversion of heart and mind away from a great national tragedy. My heart is at peace, in that my actions were in concert with the millions of people of our nation who protested this war.”

“What human being would sit silently by, listening to the screams of a child who is being bludgeoned to death, and do nothing? The people of Iraq were, and are being bludgeoned by our policies.”

posted by Annamarie at 11:08 PM | 0 comment(s)

Probable Cause for Alarm: Press Ignores Ex-NSA Chief's Ignorance of Constitution

Media Advisory

Probable Cause for Alarm
Press ignores Ex-NSA chief's ignorance of Constitution

1/27/06

When FEMA Director Michael Brown claimed not to be aware of the evacuee crisis at the New Orleans Convention Center following Hurricane Katrina (NPR, 9/1/05), many journalists expressed astonishment that a high-ranking official could be so uninformed about a crucial aspect of his job (e.g., Nightline, 9/1/05). But when Gen. Michael Hayden, principal deputy director of National Intelligence and former director of the National Security Agency, displayed an equally astounding lack of knowledge about a matter just as basic to his job, media as a whole let it pass without comment.

The subject in question was the constitutional protections the American public has against government spying--surely a vital thing to understand for the former head of the nation's top surveillance agency, and the person currently in charge of "overseeing the day-to-day activities of the national intelligence program," as his Air Force bio states. Those protections are specified in the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which reads in full:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Surely it's not too much to ask that the officials who are entrusted with the ability to spy on virtually any electronic communication have an appreciation of how this amendment limits that ability. Yet in a question-and-answer session at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on January 23--before an audience consisting largely of journalists--Hayden repeatedly demonstrated that he does not know the basic language of this key part of the Bill of Rights.

The subject came up when reporter Jonathan Landay of Knight Ridder attempted to preface a question by stating that "the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution specifies that you must have probable cause to be able to do a search that does not violate an American's right against unlawful searches and seizures." Hayden interjected: "Actually, the Fourth Amendment actually protects all of us against unreasonable search and seizure. That's what it says."

Landay politely corrected him, saying, "But the measure is 'probable cause,' I believe." But Hayden insisted: "The amendment says 'unreasonable search and seizure.'" When Landay continued, "But does it not say probable--" he was interrupted by Hayden, who said, "No.... The amendment says 'unreasonable search and seizure.'"

Landay went on to ask his question, which was whether the NSA, by bypassing the special court mandated by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, had "crafted a detour around the FISA court by creating a new standard of 'reasonably believe' in place of 'probable cause.'" Hayden's response returned to the issue of the Fourth Amendment: Read More

posted by Annamarie at 10:01 PM | 1 comment(s)

Scholars Repudiate Official Version of 9/11

Scholars claim government's account violates laws of physics and engineering.

January 27, 2006 -- An influential group of prominent experts and scholars have joined together alleging that senior government officials have covered up crucial facts about what really happened on 9/11. The members of this new non-partisan association, "Scholars for 9/11 Truth" (S9/11T), are convinced their research proves the current administration has been dishonest with the nation about events in New York and Washington, D.C.

These experts contend that books and articles by members and associates have established that the World Trade Center was almost certainly brought down by controlled demolitions and that the available relevant evidence casts grave doubt on the official story about the attack on the Pentagon. They believe that the government not only permitted 9/11 to occur but may even have orchestrated these events to facilitate its political agenda.

The society includes U.S. and international faculty and students of history, science, military affairs, psychology, and even philosophy. According to its spokesmen, S9/11T represents a concerted effort to uphold the standards of truth and justice and to strengthen democracy in this nation, which has taken a terrible hit in the aftermath of 9/11, when "everything changed." Its function is to bring scientific rigor to the study of 9/11 phenomena.

The members of this group are dedicated to exposing falsehoods and to revealing truths behind 9/11, "letting the chips fall where they may." The evidence has become sufficiently strong that they are speaking out. They are actively devoting themselves to reporting the results of their research to the public by means of lectures, articles, and other venues.

The society includes numerous notable professors and scholars, including:

• Morgan Reynolds, Texas A & M Professor Emeritus of Economics, former Chief Economist for the Department of Labor for President George W. Bush, and former Director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis

• Steven E. Jones, Professor of Physics, Brigham Young University, co-chair of S9/11T and the creator of its home page and its forum

• Robert M. Bowman, former Director of the U.S. "Star Wars" Space Defense Program in both Republican and Democratic administrations, a former senior Air Force Colonel with 101 combat missions, who is also a Catholic Archbishop

• Lloyd DeMause, Director of The Institute for Psychohistory, President of the International Psychohistorical Association and Editor of The Journal of Psychohistory

• James H. Fetzer, Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, author or editor of more than 20 books and co-chair of S9/11T

• Daniele Ganser, Senior Researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

• Andreas Von Buelow, former assistant German defense minister, director of the German Secret Service, minister for research and technology, and member of Parliament for 25 years

The society, founded by Professors Fetzer and Jones, who serve as its co-chairs, is approaching 50 members to date. Fetzer, a philosopher of science, observed that the government's "official account" is not even physically possible, because it violates laws of nature. "What we have been told is fine," he said, "if you are willing to believe impossible things. Serious scholars don't believe in tooth fairies."

Beyond encouraging its members to vigorously express their concerns on this score through lectures, conferences, symposia, articles, and books as well as other access routes that publicize their findings, the society's initial activities, which are expected to increase in frequency and intensity, include the following projects and endeavors:

• Professor Jones is refining his influential analysis of the physics of the collapse of buildings at the World Trade Center.

• Professor Fetzer is editing a collection of new studies about 9/11 that will include contributions from the members of S9/11T.

• A major conference is being planned for this fall to further inform the American public about the group's most recent findings

posted by Annamarie at 9:18 PM | 2 comment(s)

AFSC Premieres Antiwar Music Video

Last November 1, as the sun rose over a farm near Dover, New Hampshire the Eyes Wide Open crew once again began laying out more than two thousand pairs of boots representing the U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq. But this was not a standard stop on the nation-wide tour of AFSC’s acclaimed anti-war exhibit.

The boots were being prepared to play a role in a music video for blues musician Robert Cray’s poignant new song, “Twenty”, telling the story of a young soldier, who questions his mission in Iraq, but is killed before his deployment is up.

The video, directed by Robert Cray’s wife, Susan Turner-Cray stars Aidan Delgado, a 23-year-old Iraq-war veteran who served in Nasiriyah and at Abu Ghraib prison, before securing conscientious objector status and returning to the U.S. David Goodman, one of the Eyes Wide Open tour managers, has a cameo role in the video as a Vietnam Veteran.

The Crays had heard about the Eyes Wide Open exhibit, but had not seen it when they began developing ideas for the music video. They contacted the Chicago AFSC office and began arrangements to feature the exhibit in the production. After many potential sites were considered, the rolling hills behind the New Hampshire farmhouse of Todd and Kristin Adelman was offered and chosen. Cinematographer, Jonathon Millman signed on to shoot the video and other local actors and crew joined the effort – donating their time out of commitment to the concept.

Earlier this year, it was announced that Cray’s album, also named “Twenty” has been nominated for a Grammy as Best Contemporary Blues Album.

American Friends Service Committee

posted by Annamarie at 7:04 PM | 0 comment(s)

Iraqi Family Should be Compensated After Air Strike Mistake

Washington, DC, January 10, 2006 -- Following the January 5th announcement by U.S. military officials that a residence was mistakenly bombed near Baiji, the Campaign for Innocent Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) today expressed sympathy for the victims and urged the U.S. government to compensate surviving family members.

On January 2nd, an air strike targeted at insurgents instead killed at least six civilians in their home. U.S. officials on the ground in Iraq have the discretionary authority to compensate innocent persons who have suffered losses as a result of U.S. actions, including the family members of those killed. In 2003, the Congress established the "Marla Ruzicka Iraqi War Victims Fund" and has appropriated some $38 million to help civilian victims of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. CIVIC and other nongovernmental organizations are working with the U.S. government to make the best use of these funds, and CIVIC urged a thorough investigation of the Baiji incident so that assistance can be given to surviving family members.

“The United States military deserves credit for the considerable efforts it makes to avoid harming civilians," said Sarah Holewinski, executive director of CIVIC. “But when mistakes happen, we have a responsibility to help the victims and their loved ones.”

The U.S. government does not keep an official count of civilian casualties in Iraq. With the U.S. military’s reliance on air strikes increasing, a record of incidents should be maintained so that efforts to prevent civilian casualties can be evaluated and improved. “Keeping as accurate a record as possible and compensating victims is important for the U.S. to maintain the respect and support of the Iraqi people,” said Holewinski.

CIVIC is a Washington-based organization founded by the late Marla Ruzicka, who was killed by a suicide bomb in Baghdad while advocating for civilian victims' families in Iraq. CIVIC believes that civilians killed or injured in conflict should be counted and their families compensated by the governments involved, and is working in conflict zones to identify and help the families of civilian casualties.

posted by Annamarie at 6:49 PM | 1 comment(s)

U.S. Audit Finds 'Spectacular' Misuse of Funds in Iraq

"Spectacular misuse of tens of millions of dollars."

posted by Annamarie at 6:22 PM | 0 comment(s)

Iraqi Wives Used as Leverage by U.S.

The U.S. Army in Iraq has at least twice seized and jailed the wives of suspected insurgents in hopes of “leveraging” their husbands into surrender, U.S. military documents show.

In one case, a secretive task force locked up the young mother of a nursing baby, a U.S. intelligence officer reported. In the case of a second detainee, one American colonel suggested to another that they catch her husband by tacking a note to the family’s door telling him “to come get his wife.” Read more here

posted by Annamarie at 5:24 PM | 0 comment(s)

Hamas Victory Fuels Uncertainty (Updated)

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Hamas's surprising landslide victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections upended Middle East politics yesterday, making the militant group that has long sworn to destroy Israel a principal player in Palestinian governance.

The entire Palestinian Cabinet resigned even before election officials confirmed that Hamas had captured 76 of 132 seats. Fatah, the longtime ruling party founded by Yasser Arafat, won just 43 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council, with the remaining 13 going to smaller parties and independents, according to nearly complete returns.

The Hamas victory ended the dominance of the secular Fatah movement that for decades led the Palestinians' quest for statehood, and signaled the rise of an Islamist movement that Israel and the United States consider a terrorist organization. The outcome also throws into turmoil the future of already troubled peacemaking efforts. Read full story here.

Throughout the campaign, leaders sent mixed signals, hinting they could be open to some sort of accommodation with Israel. Its apparent victory will now force it to take a clearer position on key issues, including whether to abandon its violent ideology.

Hamas officials tried to reassure the world of its intentions.

"Don't be afraid," Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, told the BBC. "Hamas is a Palestinian movement, it is an aware and mature movement, one which is politically open in the Palestinian arena, and to its Arab and Islamic hinterland, and similarly open to the international arena." Read full article here

posted by Annamarie at 4:45 PM | 2 comment(s)

Reminder: TWO EVENTS in Hamilton & Burlington

The President of the World Bank has predicted that the wars of the 21st century will be over water. Water - its ownership, safety and security - is
literally a matter of life and death.

Speakers:
Hamilton Councillor Brian McHattie and Paul Lemieux,
Animator for the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace.
For more information, call Joy Warner of Kairos at
905-521-0017, or IDEA at: 905-637-3110

In February 2004, Canada, France and the United States removed from power the democratically-elected President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In the intervening two years, Haiti has been ruled by an unelected interim government, supported by national police and a UN-sanctioned foreign military-political occupation force, in which Canada is an active participant. Canada justifies its action in Haiti by a new doctrine called "Responsibility to Protect." Although the situation has been often unclear, there have been reports of thousands of deaths and of hundreds of Haitians incarcerated without charges being laid, and forced into internal or external exile.

Speaker: Justin Podur is a writer (often for Z Magazine), translator and activist living in Toronto. He has undertaken several research trips to Haiti, most recently in November 2005.
Video: Haiti: The UNtold Story

posted by Annamarie at 2:23 AM | 1 comment(s)

Tomgram: Gareth Porter on Standing Up an Army Bent on Revenge

"Maybe they just need to have their civil war"
Fueling Sectarian Violence in Iraq
By Gareth Porter

Since last summer, the ad-jingle-style centerpiece of the U.S. mission in Iraq, as defined by George Bush, has been: "As Iraqis stand up, we will stand down." In recent months, that "standing up" of Iraqi security forces to gradually replace American occupation troops has become even more important in administration pronouncements on the war. The objective is now accepted as self-evident wisdom in the mainstream media and among the punditocracy, the only question being whether it can be successfully accomplished. The Democratic Party leadership has not challenged this goal in any way, even as Democrats complain that it is simply not being done fast enough or effectively enough.

Click here to read more of this dispatch.

posted by Annamarie at 1:12 AM | 1 comment(s)

Iraq Dispatches: Interview with Karen Kwiatkowski

OK: Could you say something about your reasons for joining the Air Force some 20 years ago?

KK: Basically, they gave me a full ROTC scholarship, and I needed money to go to college. That was the deal. I was happy to do it actually. I had applied for navy and army, and the one that I got was Air Force.

My dad had served in the navy for 4 years in, I guess, the late 50s. And he used to always talk about how great the military was. So we were pretty disposed to the military, but I joined the Air Force because they’re the ones that coughed up the money for college.

OK: So military service has been a tradition in your family for at least two generations.

KK: It’s definitely looked highly upon in my family. Actually, I have two brothers, both—one was for his career in the navy, just retired. The other was in the marines for about seven or eight years.

OK: What do you mean when you’ve elsewhere referred to the military as an apolitical institution?

KK: When I refer to the military as apolitical, that’s because, as an institution, it’s supposed to be. But it’s kind of political in the sense that if you’re what’s called a conservative—usually you’re in good company when you’re in the military. You’re around a lot of people that care about some of those basic things. So there’s that aspect. But technically apolitical.

We swear an oath to the constitution—to defend it against enemies, both foreign and domestic. They’re words, but every time you get promoted you have to retake the oath. So it does make you think about the constitution. You’re reminded of it in a way that other people in other jobs are not reminded of it. So we have this constant idea—it’s kind of reinforced to us throughout our careers: what we’re supposed to be doing, what we’re all about.

OK: How did you see whistleblowing in terms of these values?

KK: Your oath is not to a political party, it’s not to an institution, but to an idea: to a constitutional republic. So we have a president who
serves for 4-8 years.

And he has—according to the constitution—limited duties that he takes care of. We have a legislature; and a judiciary. So if you care about those things, and you’re out to preserve that balance—to respect that balance rather than persons—you don’t think of it as whistleblowing, you think of it as, you know, my loyalty is to what is right, to how these things are supposed to work. I was working pretty closely with those who lied to the American people into buying an unnecessary war, an illegal
war, I think. But my loyalty is not to those people—whether those people are the president, Republican or Democrat, whether those people political appointees, whether those people are civil servants. The loyalty is to the system, and the system is set up in such a way to prevent stupid things from happening in foreign policy.

OK: What do you mean when you characterize neoconservatism as a dead
philosophy of anticommunism?

KK: In 2002, before I was actually working with people doing Near East policy and seeing and meeting these neoconservatives—I didn’t even know what a neoconservative was. I began to look at who these individuals were, what they were doing before in our government, and what they cared about politically. These are the same guys that are responsible for Iran-Contra. They don’t care about the law. They are liberals at home—very much not a traditional conservative political perspective
domestically, but closer to the more Social Democratic approach, somewhat like our Democratic party used to be, domestically; but, in terms of foreign policy, very hawkish, extremely hawkish, extremely aggressive—black and white, murder, death, kill basically. I hate to say that, but that’s what it is: they have to die so we can live. Intervention oriented foreign policy, which is not conservative either. This is kind of the political home of neoconservatives.

The Cold War was perfect for this crowd; and this crowd made their political bones during that time. These guys were the hardcore anticommunists even within the Reagan administration. Richard Perle actually left the administration in 1986 based on Reagan’s overtures and receptivity to Gorbachev. Perle, Wolfowitz, Armitage, Rumsfeld, Cheney—all these guys, though not always in the exact same way, had a
place in the Reagan administration as hardline hawks, even though many of them were not Republicans. In fact Richard Perle to this day is a registered Democrat.

OK: What is your view of the legacy to which the neocons are heirs?

KK: The intellectual fathers of neoconservatism—what shapes their
approach internationally—are the Bolsheviks. International revolution, international change—radical change, global revolution. And these same terms, these same ideas—of international change, revolution, transformation—these are the words of Michael Ledeen and some of the other articulators of neoconservatism. And the actual people, and they’re not ashamed to really say this, but guys like Irving Crystal and other intellectuals of the 30s had actually been Bolsheviks.

One of the characterizations of neocons today is that they are neo-Jacobins—philosophically, this idea that people are the same, all want the same thing, and should have the same thing. That ‘same thing’ in a modern neoconservative view is this idea of ‘democracy.’ But is it really democracy that they want, or is democracy simply a trojan horse? Certainly for Iraq, George Bush has been left with one story as to why we went in.

If they had democracy, they’d take a vote, and we’d be kicked out of there immediately.

Certainly we don’t want them to have democracy, because then they’ll make us leave. So it’s unclear that democracy is a goal, but that’s what they talk about: the God of Democracy. So it’s not like Trotskyism in the sense that they’re not advocating global communism but they are advocating universal, radical—and in effect, catastrophic—change. And this is kind of a clear thread for many years.

So the neoconservatives are not new; during the Reagan era, the ‘Cold War’ was their vehicle for credibility—this evil enemy that we must face, or else the end of the world is coming. They cannot work without this global enemy, almost a kind of class warfare. You can’t just have a mere enemy; it has to be a monstrous enemy, something that can destroy us. They’ve found that in, or rather cultivated it, in what is called ‘Islamic Fascism.’ Unfortunately this doesn’t exist. No one advocates
it. No one articulates it. In the 1930s, Hitler had fascism and he talked about it. Islamic Fascism is a made up thing. But it doesn’t matter: what matters is that it’s useful in generating fear, and serves that same larger purpose—providing a platform from which to operate.

Now you can follow the money too. The neocon philosophy provides a construct within which we can—‘we,’ being the establishment, corporatism—can move. So you have this construct that talks of ‘fear’ ‘protection,’ ‘security.’ Which are used to advocate
intervention—intervention for security, what Iraq was effectively sold as: 'intervention for American security.’

OK: Please say a little bit about your experience in the Pentagon.

KK: I worked four and a half years for the Pentagon. Between May of 2002 and March of 2003, I worked in Near East South Asia (NESA) bureau in the
Pentagon, which worked alongside The Office of Special Plans (OSP)—a group of twenty-five people or so in August 2002—under Bill Luti. It was dissolved in August 2003—about four months after the invasion and the mission accomplished declaration by the president.

Its job had been done.

The whole idea with Iraq was to destroy Iraq. It was not to rebuild it, turn it into a democracy. It was simply to take a country that had no navy, no airforce, and a very small—you know—fourth rate army and turn it into a country with no navy, no airforce, and no army. We did this, and OSP did its part in promoting that. Once it was done there was no need for OSP.

One of the amenities with which we were provided as staff officers were talking points—Saddam Hussein, WMD, and terrorism. If there is anything that you’d need to research on Iraq, you’d only need to take verbatim from the latest version of what OSP had produced on any one of these talking points. These same bullet points would of course be in presidential speeches. I can only assume—since they were producing them for us, on a very routine basis—I can only assume that OSP was the creative entity here in doing that.

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) had a staff of 6 or 7 people dedicated intelligence people who had no other job than to support our boss, Bill Luti (Deputy under NESA and OSP). Their only job was to answer Bill Luti’s questions and provide Bill Luti with the intelligence that the intelligence community had, particularly DIA intelligence. So the means by which a policy receives its information was perverted. It may have been perverted before then, but I know that it was perverted in the time that I was there, from May 2002 to March 2003. The DIA people were told: ‘no this is not what I want to hear, go back and do a better job’

This is what I saw as an observer. Not as a person inside DIA. But I can tell you, I talked to these guys—who’d come over to brief the lower level people on a routine basis:

They were always under pressure. OSP saying, ‘I don’t need that, give me what I need,’ and DIA saying, ‘I can’t give you something that doesn’t exist.’

I actually explained this to the Senate staffers during the Phase I investigation of intelligence. They were like: oh, whatever. Basically unwilling to entertain the possibility. But there was clearly a huge contempt for information; what they did, instead was to ask for exactly what they wanted to hear, probably about 95% of which was entirely false.

Anyone who talked of sanctions and continual bombing of Iraq over a dozen years, or said that there’s no evidence of Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Pentagon in 2002 was going to be told: I don’t want to hear that, go back and find me something I can use. And if you didn’t do that, like in the case of the DIA guy, who went back and looked and couldn’t find anything, he was then disinvited from meetings. Bill Luti
had one briefing on Weapons of Mass Destruction, supposed to be prepared by the DIA—had been historically prepared by the DIA guy. He didn’t like the way the DIA guy
had done it, so transferred the responsibility to a policy office, that of course exaggerated, presented a threat that didn’t exist. But this made everybody happy, since Americans were getting excited for war. A noble lie taken as far as it can go.

OK: How does this fit into what you’ve called ‘grand plans’ that today ‘walk the corridors of the Pentagon’?

KK: This global enemy—‘Islamic fascism,’ ‘Islamic terrorism,’ or whatever it is—enables war in the Mideast. So the ‘grand plan’ is a Mideast transformation plan, which guys like Michael Ledeen have been talking about for a long time. Since we have this apocalyptic enemy, it’s either us or them. So in Iraq: the money goes for ‘security’— American bases, and police power to defend those bases. The things we’ve destroyed we have not rebuilt or fixed. The things that we have protected have been the Oil Ministry and the Finance Ministry. This is
from the very beginning. Those bases in Iraq will be how we deal with (intimidate) the rest of the Middle East. Keep those other countries in line—politically, economically, and in every other way. This is clearly articulated, for example, in “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm,” actually written for Netanyahu: Iraq must first be changed, and from there we will be able to deal with our enemies—primarily, Syrians and Iranians. But this has nothing to do with America, or with American interests—in my opinion, anyway. Who benefits from this kind of
foreign policy? This needs to become a topic that can be publicly discussed. If we can’t talk about it, then we shouldn’t be paying for it. What are they forecasting: something like 2 trillion dollars, or something, for this war? This is not an insignificant amount of money. So this question—Who benefits from this kind of foreign policy?—needs to become a topic that can be publicly discussed.

posted by Annamarie at 12:10 AM | 1 comment(s)

The Return of the Nation State

Ending the big ‘ism
Tom Nairn
26 - 1 - 2006


John Ralston Saul's book "The Collapse of Globalism" provokes Tom Nairn to dissect identity-formation in Canada and Australia as the bedrock of different visions of nation, state and world in the 21st century.


“All men at God’s round table sit, And all men must be fed; But this loaf in my hand, This loaf is my son’s bread. The pine-tree is a king, He lifts high his steeple; But greater is the wheat — The wheat is a people.”

Mary Gilmore (1865-1962), “Nationality”, in Les Murray, ed., Hell and After: Four early English-language poets of Australia (2005)


Globalism is in trouble these days. Even the Economist has found itself driven to pedal harder in order to restore the faith (see its issue of 5-11 November 2005: "Tired of Globalisation...but in need of much more of it"). The time of easy prophecies is past. Though mostly written at earlier stages, John Ralston Saul’s book The Collapse of Globalism and the Rebirth of Nationalism (2005) remains a good guide to the process as a whole. It is well and lightly written, often humorous, and properly scathing about both the zealots and their politician-donkeys.

But some critical caution is also called for. Saul is writing about global-ism (or "globalisation" in the now standard journalistic sense) and not about what might better be described as "globality" — that is, those ways in which, since the 1980s, the globe has become more united, acquired common features and recognised important elements of common destiny and interest. The latter are indeed largely irreversible, and the author doesn’t claim otherwise. What he does assert, rightly, is that such truths bear little relationship to the political and ideological follies still being committed in their name — like the massed choirs of Rupert Murdoch, and the war dances of John Howard, George W Bush and Tony Blair.
Read More

This article originally appeared on openDemocracy.net under a Creative Commons licence. To view the original article, please click here.

posted by Annamarie at 4:26 PM | 1 comment(s)

The World Social Forum in Search of Itself

When 100,000 optimistic activists get together in one of the most colourful and dynamic events the world has ever seen, you've got to expect a good deal of music and dancing, clapping and stomping. But as the sixth World Social Forum slowly unravels, first in Bamako, Mali and now in Caracas, Venezuela, there is also a great deal of frustration over the fact that "nothing" seems to be coming out of this enormous effort.

Certainly, the world is still a terrible mess, and many of the participants of the forum – or in most cases the people they represent – live in extreme poverty and face early deaths. Neoliberal capitalism is still king, and in spite of victories across South America especially, the global left still has less impact that their counterparts at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland who are also gathering this week. Read More

This article originally appeared on openDemocracy.net under a Creative Commons licence. To view the original article, please click http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-world/wsf_3211.jsp.

posted by Annamarie at 4:09 PM | 1 comment(s)

Pettigrew Defeat a Warning / Preston Manning

posted by Annamarie at 3:59 PM | 2 comment(s)

A Week in Venezuela

posted by Annamarie at 3:29 PM | 1 comment(s)

BREAKING | Hamas Claims Victory in Palestinian Elections

posted by Annamarie at 3:22 PM | 1 comment(s)

Depleted Uranium: A Looming Worldwide Calamity / Dispatches from the World Social Forum in Venezuela / More from Toward Freedom

Depleted Uranium: A Looming Worldwide Calamity:
by Stephen Lendman

Forget about Avian bird flu. The threat of it becoming a pandemic is more a political scare tactic and potential bonanza for drug company profits and its major shareholders' net worth (including Gilead Sciences, the developer of the Tamiflu drug and its former Chairman and major shareholder Donald Rumsfeld) than a likely public health crisis - unless you live around infected chickens or take an unproven safe immunization shot. There are much more other likely killer bacterial and viral threats than Avian that get little attention. Don't worry about possible or unlikely threats. Worry about real ones. Bacteria and viruses untreatable by anti-biotics are good examples. So are global warming and many others. But, there's possibly one threat that tops all others both in gravity and because it's been deliberately concealed from the public – never discussed, explained or had any action taken to remediate it. It's the global threat from the toxic effects of depleted uranium (DU), and like global warming; DU has the potential to destroy all planetary life.
How can something so potentially destructive be hidden and ignored and why?
Read More


Remembering the Day They Kicked Khrushchev Out of the Kremlin:
by Jack Goldfarb

October has ever been a fateful month in Russian history: the October Revolution (1917), launching of Sputnik I, world’s first space satellite (1957), Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), and that startling day, 61 years ago, on October 16, 1964, when the Soviets announced the astonishing ouster of their top leader, Nikita Khruschchev. Khruschchev thus became the first Soviet boss removed from power in a bloodless coup.
Read More


Between the Lines Radio: Former CIA Field Agent Asserts U.S. Intelligence Agencies Broken; Income Inequality in America Deepening; Airborne Toxic
Sediment Endangers New Orleans' Residents and Underreported News Summary from Around the World.
Read More

Why We Fight:
By Rob Williams Documentary director Eugene Jarecki,
director of the "The Trials of Henry Kissinger," has hit a triple with his new film "Why We Fight." There are many compelling reasons why the Sundance Film Festival may have decided to bestow the Jury Prize on "Why We Fight" last year. Jarecki is a talented filmmaker, with a keen aesthetic sense (his celluloid mojo – lighting, camera work, sound, artistic delivery - makes a film like Robert Greenwald’s recent "Wal-Mart" adventure look downright sloppy by comparison). He also is not afraid to
serve up controversy.
Read More

posted by Annamarie at 2:56 PM | 2 comment(s)

Counting Starts in Palestinian Poll / Mubarak's Son Attacks Brotherhood

posted by Annamarie at 1:33 AM | 0 comment(s)

The Life and Death of an Iraq Veteran Who Could Take No More

The life and death of an Iraq veteran who could take no more

By his own admission Douglas Barber, a former army reservist, was struggling. For two years since returning from the chaos and violence of Iraq, the 35-year-old had battled with his memories and his demons, the things he had seen and the fear he had experienced. Recently, it seemed he had turned a corner, securing medical help and counselling.

But last week, at his home in south-eastern Alabama, the National Guardsman e-mailed some friends and then changed the message on his answering machine. His new message told callers: "If you're looking for Doug, I'm checking out of this world. I'll see you on the other side." Mr Barber dialled the police, stepped on to the porch with his shotgun and - after a brief stand-off with officers - shot himself in the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Read rest of this article here


'We live with permanent scars from horrific events'

Doug Barber wrote this internet article on 12 January, just before he died

My thought today is to help you the reader understand what happens to a soldier when they come home and the sacrifice we continue to make. This war on terror has become a personal war for so many, yet the Bush administration do not want to reveal to America that this is a personal war. They want to run it like a business, and thus they refuse to show the personal sacrifices the soldiers and their families have made for this country. Read rest of Doug Barber's heartfelt, compelling message, the last one he wrote before he took his life

posted by Annamarie at 12:04 AM | 0 comment(s)

Globe and Mail Article on Electoral Reform

"Can we get the young voting again?"

NO: Not unless we start the process of democratic reform by changing the very mechanism of voting. Read full article here

posted by Annamarie at 10:44 PM | 2 comment(s)

Amazon Pipeline Plan Shocks Ecologists

posted by Annamarie at 10:22 PM | 2 comment(s)

Iraqi Journalist Killed in Ramadi // Iraqi Reconstruction Cash Scandal

posted by Annamarie at 10:17 PM | 2 comment(s)

Light Sentence for Abusive US Army Interrogator Affects US Image

posted by Annamarie at 10:13 PM | 0 comment(s)

Tomgram: Hiro on the Palestinian Elections and Political Islam

"First they were going to turn Iraq over to [neocon favorite Ahmed] Chalabi within six months. Then Bremer was going to be MacArthur in Baghdad for years. Then on November 15, 2003, Bremer announced a plan to have council-based elections in May of 2004. The US and the UK had somehow massaged into being provincial and municipal governing councils, the members of which were pro-American. Bremer was going to restrict the electorate to this small, elite group."

posted by Annamarie at 8:19 PM | 1 comment(s)

Maps for Illegal Mexican Migrants / Deadlock Paralyses Iraq / 9 Killed in Nigeria Oil Raid / Palistinians Pray for Peaceful Polls

posted by Annamarie at 3:40 AM | 1 comment(s)

In the Name of Democracy: Towards a Global Political Intervention Monitor

In an influential paper for the Council on Foreign Relations in 2003, former Assistant Secretary of Defense (1981-85) Lawrence J. Korb declared, “The ultimate goal of American foreign policy will be to use…power, alone if necessary, to extend free-market democracy around the globe.” Korb was explaining the logic that took the US to Iraq that same year. But he was also describing another development in United States foreign policy born of the Reagan administration and continued under every administration since: the pursuit of US foreign policy goals by ostensibly overt, peaceful means, through the promotion of “free-market democracy.” The US is, in fact, spreading “free-market democracy” by both consensus and coercion, by carrot and by stick. The stick is the more visible of the two strategies, yet over the past twenty years “consensus-building” in the form of the promotion of a particular kind of low-intensity democracy has begun to take precedence. In this, the US is not alone. Canada, the European Union, Japan, and a host of multi-lateral institutions from the World Bank to regional diplomatic and trade groups actively support and facilitate what has become a transnational hegemonic project. But, while the promotion of restricted democracy is undoubtedly transnational in scope, the US plays a fundamental leading role. Read more

posted by Annamarie at 2:43 AM | 1 comment(s)

U.S. Secretly Funds Anti-Lavalas Groups in Haiti // Evo Morales & Bolivia

** Anthony Fenton, independent Canadian journalist and co-author of the book "Canada in Haiti: Waging War On The Poor Majority". He will be posting leaked NED documents on Haiti at www.inthenameofdemocracy.org -- a new group dedicated to monitoring government-funded "democracy-enhancement" projects.

posted by Annamarie at 1:37 AM | 1 comment(s)

Pulp Factions: Uruguay’s Environmentalists v. Big Paper

The culprit, it turns out, is the Eucalyptus tree, or rather the large-scale plantations run by international corporations that are spreading across Uruguay.

posted by Annamarie at 1:27 AM | 4 comment(s)

NIGERIA: Blood Flows With Oil in Poor Villages

Africa is in the midst of an oil boom, with companies and governments pouring $50 billion into projects that may double the continent's oil output in the next decade.

posted by Annamarie at 1:12 AM | 1 comment(s)

The End of 'Unalienable Rights'

posted by Annamarie at 1:04 AM | 0 comment(s)