Water: Without It, There's Neither Life Nor Liberty

It all boils down to this (article by by: Maude Barlow, YES! Magazine):

As climate change and worldwide shortages loom, will people fight over
water or join together to protect it? A global water justice movement is
demanding a change in international law to ensure the universal right to clean
water for all.
It's a colossal failure of political foresight that water has not emerged as an important issue in the U.S. Presidential campaign. The links between oil, war, and U.S. foreign policy are well known. But water - whether we treat it as a public good or as a commodity that can be bought and sold - will in large part determine whether our future is peaceful or perilous.
Americans use water even more wastefully than oil. The U.S relies on non-renewable groundwater for 50 percent of its daily use, and 36 states now face serious water shortages, some verging on crisis. Meanwhile, dwindling freshwater supplies around the world, inequitable access to water, and corporate control of water, together with impending climate change from fossil fuel emissions, have created a life-or-death situation across the planet.

We heard about this when Atlanta was thirsty, but when that crisis was averted, politics forgot the basics of life.

We forgot to think about water. But the Pentagon did not forget.

Now the Pentagon, as well as various U.S. security think tanks, have
decided that water supplies, like energy supplies, must be secured if the United
States is to maintain its current economic and military power in the world. And
the United States is exerting pressure to access Canadian water, despite
Canada's own shortages.
Under the name, "North American Future 2025 Project," the U.S. Center for
Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) brought together high level
government officials and business executives from Canada, the United States, and
Mexico for a series of six meetings to discuss a wide range of issues related to
the Security and Prosperity Partnership, a controversial and tightly guarded set
of negotiations to expand NAFTA."As ... globalization continues and the balance
of power potentially shifts, and risks to global security evolve, it is only
prudent for Canadian, Mexican, and U.S. policymakers to contemplate a North
American security architecture that could effectively deal with security threats
that can be foreseen in 2025," said a leaked copy of a CSIS backgrounder.

And there in plain English, "water consumption, water transfers, and artificial diversions of bulk water" were right on the table.

The water and security connection deepens with the fact that Sandia
National Laboratories, a vital partner with CSIS in its Global Water Futures
Project, also plays a major role in military security in the United States.
While Sandia is technically owned by the U.S. government, and reports to the
Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, its management
is contracted out to Lockheed Martin, the world's biggest weapons
manufacturer.

So why would they want water? For workers and others extracting oil from the Alberta tar sands to drink. But why would a weapons manufacturer be in on this? It has to do with corporate profit and control of resources, both energy resources and that most precious of life resources, water.

In language that will be familiar to critics who argued that the United
States invaded Iraq not for democracy but for access to oil and profits for
corporations, a 2005 report from CSIS's Global Water Futures project had this to
say about water:
"Water issues are critical to U.S. national security and integral to upholding American values of humanitarianism and democratic development. Moreover, engagement with international water issues guarantees business opportunity for the U.S. private sector, which is well positioned to contribute to development and reap economic reward."

It's another phase of disaster capitalism: anticipated disaster capitalism. The world is in a water crisis, right? Countries like India and China may be economically "rising", but they also have a huge water crisis - potable water crisis, that is - on their hands. And that's a disaster in the making. So the U.S. wants its "private sector" - not you and me, but huge corporations - to "capitalize" on this "disaster potential" and thus control the world ... again... or something to that effect...

Clearly, the powers that be in the United States have decided that water is
not a public good but a private resource that must be secured by whatever
means.
But there are alternatives.
North Americans must learn to live within our means, by conserving water in agriculture and in the home. We could learn from the many examples here and beyond our borders-from the New Mexican "Acequia" system that uses an ancient natural ditch irrigation tradition to distribute water in arid lands to the International Rainwater Harvesting Alliance in Geneva, that works globally to promote sustainable rainwater harvesting programs.

Is it not true that we live in a global economy and one planet, that one nation's disaster is no longer our business opportunity, but somehow the source of our next disaster? And if we privatize what essentially is a human right and a human necessity, do we not endanger our entire species and its civilizations in toto? But the corporate powers are a formidable beast.

Conservation strategies would undermine the massive investment now going
into corporate technological and infrastructure solutions, such as desalination,
wastewater reuse, and water transfer projects. And conservation would be many
times cheaper, a boon to the public but not to the corporate interests that are
currently driving international water agreements.

Certainly, corporations will fight tooth and nail for this most lucrative commodity, even though in essence it's a sort of blackmail: we'll take your water and sell it back to you for our profit - and power. This gets especially nasty when multinational or foreign corporations "claim" water belonging to original residents of an area, among them animals and plants... But there is hope, and something we can do, and it is of incredible importance:

At the grassroots, a global water justice movement is demanding a change in
international law to settle once and for all the question of who controls water,
and whether responses to the water crisis will ensure water for the public or
profits for corporations. Ricardo Petrella has led a movement in Italy to
recognize access to water as a basic human right, which has support among
politicians at every level. The Coalition in Defense of Public Water in Ecuador
is demanding that the government amend the constitution to recognize the right
to water. The Coalition Against Water Privatization in South Africa is
challenging the practice of water metering before the Johannesburg High Court on
the basis that it violates the human rights of Soweto's citizens. Dozens of
groups in Mexico have joined COMDA, the Coalition of Mexican Organizations for
the Right to Water, a national campaign for a constitutional guarantee of water
for the public.
The U.S. and Canada are the only two countries actively
blocking international attempts to recognize water as a human right. But
movements in both countries are working to change that. A large network of human
rights, faith-based, labor, and environmental groups in Canada has formed
Canadian Friends of the Right to Water to get the Canadian government to support
a U.N. right-to-water covenant. And a network in the United States led by Food
and Water Watch is calling for a national water trust to ensure safekeeping of
the nation's water assets and a change of government policy on the right to
water.

The U.N. recognizes water as a basic right for all humans, which may help. But it is grassroots work on the part of many, with a little help and recognition of the issue from those in power - how about you, Barack Obama??? - that can ensure that our most precious resource is not improperly used, polluted, diverted, or otherwise mishandled to the detriment of all inhabitants of our most valued planet. It is more urgent than almost any other issue - just ask anyone in India who has to spend their entire day on the logistics of obtaining water ... are we going to wait until it comes down to that?

Dems Capitulate to Neocons' Spy Bill: New Fisa Bill Gets W Off Hook

According to this article in Alternet entitled "Dems Have Legalized Bush's War Crimes", some of the real story behind the new FISA bill and its passage is detailed:

It wasn't that Bush and his team didn't understand the old law's language;
they simply believed they could violate the law without consequence, under the radical theory that at a time of war -- even one as vaguely defined as
the "war on terror" -- the President's powers trump all laws as well as the
constitutional rights of citizens.
Essentially, Bush was betting that even if his warrantless wiretap program was disclosed -- as it was in December 2005 -- that he could trust his Republican congressional allies to protect him and could count on most Democrats not to have the guts to challenge him.
His bet proved to be a smart one. After the New York Times revealed the warrantless wiretaps two and a half years ago, Congress took no steps to hold Bush accountable. Before the 2006 elections, Pelosi declared that Bush's impeachment was "off the table."

Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wisconsin, a strong constitutionalist, termed the
new bill "not a compromise; it is a capitulation."
One of the bill's illusions would seem to be that the precedent of a President ignoring the FISA law and escaping any accountability can somehow be negated by restating what the original, violated law had declared.
In her June 20 floor statement, Pelosi said in her view this was a crucial feature of the bill, the statement that the President cannot ignore the FISA law again. However, Pelosi's position sounded like the words of an indulgent parent of a spoiled child: "This time I really mean it!"

Pelosi, she of the "impeachment is off the table" and other disasters, doesn't have the courage to face a criminal administration with consequences. Now the Imperial Presidency is clinched. Let's hope McCain doesn't get the imperial crown, or we may lose our Constitution forever. Oh, and with a flag pin placed ceremoniously on the grave.

Truce Between Hamas & Israel: Reprieve or Improvement?

From the Guardian:

On Thursday at 6 am, following a furious final burst of activity from Qassam rocket teams against the residents of the towns of the Western Negev, and by Israel's air force against the Qassam rocket teams, silence descended on Gaza and its environs. The six-month "tahdiya" (period of calm) declared between the Hamas rulers of Gaza and Israel is the latest move in a long and exhausting war currently under way in the Middle East. This war pits a coalition of rejectionist (mainly Islamist) forces centered on Iran against pro-western elements in the region. A central goal of the pro-Iranian alliance is the destruction of Israel. Hamas is the main representative of this alliance in Gaza and the West Bank. The "tahdiya" represents a significant achievement for Hamas, and therefore for this camp.
The "tahdiya" is the fruit of the campaign of attacks launched by Hamas against the communities of the western Negev. This campaign began in the days following Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in the summer of 2005. Since that time, of course, Hamas has won PA elections, and destroyed its Fatah opponents in Gaza. The Egyptian-brokered period of calm is a de facto recognition by the government of Israel of the Hamas regime in the Strip.
Hamas gave some ground in the indirect negotiations in the period leading up to the ceasefire. Most significantly, the movement had originally wanted the ceasefire to extend to the West Bank. Israel, fearing the possibility of a creeping Hamas takeover of this area, refused. But this caveat notwithstanding, the tahdiya will allow Hamas a breathing space in which it will consolidate its rule and build up its forces.
According to the ceasefire, Israel will begin to ease its blockade of Gaza if the quiet holds for three days. A week later, again dependent on the maintenance of quiet, Israel will then further ease restrictions on cargo crossings. Talks will then begin over the re-opening of the Rafah Crossing between Egypt and Gaza, and for the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. (The causal relation between these two final aspects is not clear, and it will be interesting to observe whether the Egyptian decision to re-open Rafah will indeed be conditioned on progress regarding Shalit, or whether the one will be quietly de-coupled from the other in the weeks to come.)

Israel's Breach of Conscience Breeds More Terrorism Than Peace

Even when a new "shaky" ceasefire is in place, it helps to consider the plight of Gaza again.
When this came out last May 30

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has denounced the international community for its "silence and complicity" on what he called Israel's "abominable" 11-month blockade of Gaza.

and

The Archbishop, mainly here on a UN mission to investigate what he called the Beit Hanoun massacre of 21 civilians by Israeli tank shelling 18 months ago, said: "All we had heard about conditions in Gaza – deprivation, a sense of despair, the lack of economic activity – had not prepared us for the stark reality which we saw."

Of course, this gets little response, thanks to "fear of AIPAC." But AIPAC may ultimately be working against Israel's long-term interests, and so are others who support the blockade, which has radicalized more moderates and villainized Israel to more people than any "Islamist" propaganda ever could.

Nobody in their right mind expects the candidates to stand in sympathy with Gaza or the Palestinians. Candidates have to be all things to all people, and even more particularly, all things to all power-brokers. So to whom do we turn to stand up to the almighty power of AIPAC about which is said:

Former president Bill Clinton defined it as "stunningly effective". Former speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich called it "the most effective general-interest group across the entire planet". The New York Times as "the most important organization affecting America's relationship with Israel".

and

AIPAC maintains a virtual stranglehold over the US Congress. Critics of the Israel lobby other than Walt and Mearsheimer also contend that AIPAC essentially prevents any possibility of open debate on US policy towards Israel.

Or towards Palestinians. Or towards ... Iraq?

It has become relatively fashionable for some members of the Israeli lobby to deny any involvement in the build-up towards the war on Iraq. But few remember what AIPAC executive director Howard Kohr told the New York Sun in January 2003: "Quietly lobbying Congress to approve the use of force in Iraq was one of AIPAC's successes over the past year."

And in a New Yorker profile of Steven Rosen, AIPAC's policy director during the run-up to the war on Iraqi, it was stated that "AIPAC lobbied Congress in favor of the Iraqi war".

Compare it with a 2007 Gallup study based on 13 different polls, according to which 77% of American Jews were opposed to the Iraq war, compared to 52% of Americans.

Walt and Mearsheimer contend

"the war was due in large part to the lobby's influence, and especially its neo-con wing. The lobby is not always representative of the larger community for which it often claims to speak."

Does this mean AIPAC is overextending itself and in fact, doing the Jews - or actual human beings who identify themselves as Jews - and even Israel in a more long-term sense - more harm than good??

Does that apply also to the Palestinian issue? Of course it does! Look at Amy Goodman, who frequently hosts Palestinian-sympathizing guests and expresses strong opposition to the hawkish Security First line.

Nothing ever gets solved without the willingness to actually discuss and communicate as human beings. Once both sides become Untouchable Aliens, there is no solution but war, violence and suffering. And this doesn't occur in a vaccuum.
The problem also lies in what has been defined as "nationalism" vs. "patriotism".

George Orwell wrote that nationalism was one of the worst enemies of peace. He defined nationalism as the feeling that your way of life, country, or ethnic group were superior to others. These types of feelings lead a group to attempt to impose their morality on any given situation. When those standards were not met, more often then not, war would result.

In contrast he stated that patriotism was the feeling of admiration for a way of life etc. and the willingness to defend it against attack. The obvious difference between the two is that while patriotism is a passive attitude, nationalism is aggressive by nature.

Israel's Security First right wing enforces strong nationalism. Nationalism that displays in US foreign policy that blares to the world "Israel Right or Wrong". It's presented as a patriotic thing, but in practice, with the pre-emptive attack policy, it cannot be described as merely "defense".

On the other hand, Israel has failed to recognize that it actually has neighbors to whom it must prove itself as a good neighbor so as to get off US life-support, finally graduate from Protected Fetus status, and become a viable nation in every sense of the word. In other words, Israel will remain in vitro, a sort of implant in the Middle East, as long as it keeps this "I am God, You are Dirt" attitude. The blockade of Gaza signs, seals and delivers that impression on all those neighbors. Those nasty little vermin anti-semitic terrorists/ tyrants.

Can't you even pretend they're human? Turn on the electricity or open some freaking road so the dying can get treatment in the hospitals? Can't you see how tyrannical, nasty, mean, racist, and downright immoral this looks? The taste of genocide is in the air... where's those talented PR guys??? A token loaf of bread, some baby formula, something...

Israel cannot maintain its current position forever, much to some Israeli right-wingers' disbelief. The US empire is crumbling in the wake of the disastrous so-called "War on Terror" which has proved to be more of an apocalyptic-styled war on any non-totalitarian Muslim society that claims to have an "Islamic" government.

The US and Israel, by their policies, are feeding the fire, creating more terror, more enemies, more worldwide resentment. They are becoming, in the eyes of the rest of the world, pariahs. Their policies are intransigent, highly aggressive, featuring torture and "pre-emptive strikes". What was once the sole domain of Israel and done with some trepidation is now US foreign policy and done without a single pang of conscience.

What is conscience? An inconvenience? A nagging UN-leftwing-bleedingheart-vegan-weenie-antisemitic rant? Or is it that very thing that forces humankind to do what they hate most - consideration for others? It is that painful, dreaded submission of pride to some alien group again.

Conscience is replaced by rhetoric. Discourse is replaced by rant.

On the one hand, we hear citations of numerous threats by Hamas or Hamas sympathizers that they will somehow return Palestine to its original, Jew-free state. Just as Palestinians see Israel's insistence that recognition include the phrase "Jewish Homeland" which they take to mean recognition of the right of Israel to expel all non-Jews from Israel, to create an Arab-free state. But everyone knows reality is never dictated by threats, dreams, commands, or dictates issuing from leaders or governments.

Even Hamas leader Misha'al stated (quoted here)

We have the Palestinian Conciliation Document of 2006, in which all the organizations agreed clearly to a state based on the borders of 1967 including Jerusalem, the right of return and full sovereignty.

At some point, Israel will have to listen to its own people and take them into consideration, not for their fears but for their hopes and aspirations - but realistically. That means facing the ugly consequences of what the Israeli government is doing now so aggregiously, so aggressively, so cold-heartedly. So devoid of conscience. As Desmond Tutu said:

"The entire situation is abominable. I believe the ordinary Israeli citizens would not support this blockade if they knew what it really meant to ordinary people like themselves... My message to the international community is that our silence and complicity, especially on the situation in Gaza, shames us all. It is almost like the behaviour of the military junta in Burma."

And here's the crux of the matter:

... he said that events in both South Africa and Northern Ireland had shown that peace would come through negotiations "not with your friends. Peace can only come when enemies sit down and talk".

Of course, fat chance of that from nationalist Israel:

... less than 24 hours after the Archbishop's visit to Beit Hanoun, 60 Palestinians were arrested during a pre-dawn raid by the Israeli military on the northern Gaza town. Palestinian witnesses said that residents had been summoned to a local square before dozens were taken away for questioning, and that armed military bulldozers had destroyed some farmland in the area.

Some think they can obliterate a population and then, as if committing the perfect crime, simply deny they ever existed, thus exonerating their deed. Others prefer using semantics, calling Palestinians "terrorists" and "antisemites" (implying "racist") while Jews are "God's chosen people" and part of Biblical destiny and "holocaust victims" - meaning not simply victims of the Holocaust, but people who, having collectively undergone such a horrible disaster, now are justified in doing anything whatsoever to maintain their security. It's a feeling, but Israel needs more self-confidence, less defensiveness. Hey, they're nuclear armed in a sea of Arab military nothingness!

Finally, the net result of Israel's blockade of Gaza may be to create more extremism and terrorism in the region, since all Palestinians and Arabs can see of Israel is cruelty and oppression and a callous disregard for their humanity. They don't see that Hamas is also culpable in this, that they may be "abusing" their population in some ways.

Palestinian children in Hamas-controlled Gaza are being taught to take an active role in terrorist operations against Israel and are thus placed in mortal danger by those who should be responsible for their safety and well-being. The children, too young to fully understand even the meaning of death, are taught to aspire to "martyrdom" in children's television shows produced by the Hamas.

The blockade is NOT having the desired effect of limiting Hamas' power, but rather increasing their hold on people who see Hamas, like them, as being victimized. It gives Hamas the role of "voice of the people", a role I believe Israel, in its most nationalistic right-wing dream, would prefer it not to have.

Conscience has its perks. People recognize good works and human consideration for others. They really do. And ultimately, what could hurt Israel in the region is disregard for Palestinians and the human wasteland they've made of Gaza. You can blame Hamas. You can call them terrorists. But what the people feel is that Israel wants to destroy them, not Hamas. And only Israel can have a change of conscience. The US will do nothing with theirs, as long as Bushco and AIPAC remain in their positions of unmitigated power.

Gitmo Now Breeding Ground for Terrorists

According to this article,

A McClatchy investigation found that instead of confining terrorists,
Guantanamo often produced more of them by rounding up common criminals,
conscripts, low-level foot soldiers and men with no allegiance to radical Islam
- thus inspiring a deep hatred of the United States in them - and then housing
them in cells next to radical Islamists.
The radicals were quick to exploit the flaws in the U.S. detention system.
Soldiers, guards or interrogators at the U.S. bases at Bagram or Kandahar
in Afghanistan had abused many of the detainees, and they arrived at Guantanamo
enraged at America.
The Taliban and al Qaida leaders in the cells around them were ready to preach their firebrand interpretation of Islam and the need to wage jihad, Islamic holy war, against the West. Guantanamo became a school for jihad, complete with a council of elders who issued fatwas, binding religious instructions, to the other detainees.
Rear Adm. Mark H. Buzby, until recently the commanding officer at Guantanamo, acknowledged that senior militant leaders gained influence and control in his prison.
"We have that full range of (Taliban and al Qaida) leadership here, why would they not continue to be functional as an organization?" he said in a telephone interview.
"I must make the assumption that there's a fully functional al Qaida
cell here at Guantanamo."

Congratulations, neocons! Now we won't run out of enemies when we need them, so we can fight more cool wars and ruin more economies and increase the gap between rich and poor which should create the huge vacuum we need to survive as neocon "profligate conservatives"!

Genius!

US Maneuvers to Annex Iraq as a Base to Control that Pesky Middle East

If there were any doubts about US intentions in Iraq, their plans and demands laid down before Nouri al-Maliki, this should put them to rest:

On Friday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told reporters in Amman, Jordan that negotiations over initial U.S. proposals for bilateral political and military agreements between the United States and Iraq had "reached a dead end" after U.S. negotiators demanded "control of Iraqi airspace and immunity from prosecution for U.S. troops and private contractors." BBC reports the disagreement between Maliki and U.S. negotiators "goes to the heart of the immensely sensitive issue of who is actually in charge in the country: the Americans or the Iraqis." "The Iraqi demands are unacceptable to the Americans, and the American demands are unacceptable to the Iraqis," Maliki said. "Iraqis will not consent to an agreement that infringes their sovereignty." The disposition of the negotiations will determine the future of the U.S. involvement in Iraq. Last week, members of the two ruling Shia parties leaked details of the U.S. proposal, telling McClatchy News that the United States is "demanding 58 bases as part of [an] agreement that will allow U.S. troops to remain in the country indefinitely."

Hopefully, the Iraqis will NEVER give in to the American demands, which should totally destabilize the region and radicalize whatever moderates were "undecided" as to whose interests the United States works on in the region. The US is fighting tooth and nail to become the actual ruler of the region, militarily and economically. Politically? Well, the plan is to use clout on that front.

Establishing bases in Iraq from which to project American power through the
region has been one of the underlying goals of the war from its inception, and
partially explains why the United States has been willing to accommodate parties
such as Maliki's Da'wa and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (who
are close to Iran but also support U.S. goals), at least in the
short term. Conservative pundit Dick Morris spoke for much of the pro-war
community when he told Fox News that, after 4,000 American casualties in Iraq,
"I want bases out of that."

At least somebody agrees with me:

If the administration gets its way, American troops would be stationed in the
heart of the Middle East for the foreseeable future -- likely fueling continued
extremist anti-American sentiment and political unrest. This highlights the
tension between the U.S. goals of a democratic Iraq and a continued U.S.
military presence in Iraq. For that presence to be legal and legitimate, it must
be subject to agreement by the Iraqi government. But it is extremely unlikely
that any Iraqi government that agrees to an extended U.S. presence -- especially on the terms the U.S. is currently demanding --
will be viewed as legitimate by the Iraqi people.

As for national sovereignty, that's a thing of the past. Ahhhh, Empire..... it hurts so good... if you're from Richistan, that is....

23 Billion Dollars LOST in Iraq: BBC Uncovers it, US Gags It

Click the link above for must-read news. The disasters keep on coming: when it rains, it pours.
This war, the Bush-Cheney War, is turning out to be the absolute worst debacle in every respect ever perpetrated by anyone on the US - they beat out al-Qaeda by a long shot.

While Presdient George W Bush remains in the White House, it is unlikely
the gagging orders will be lifted.
To date, no major US contractor faces
trial for fraud or mismanagement in Iraq.
The president's Democratic
opponents are keeping up the pressure over war profiteering in Iraq.
Henry Waxman, who chairs the House committee on oversight and government reform, said:
"The money that's gone into waste, fraud and abuse under these contracts is just
so outrageous, it's egregious.
"It may well turn out to be the largest war profiteering in history."
In the run-up to the invasion, one of the most senior officials in charge of procurement in the Pentagon objected to a contract potentially worth $7bn that was given to Halliburton, a Texan company which used to be run by Dick Cheney before he became vice-president.

Read it and weep...

Omar Khadr Lawyer: Gitmo Interrogators told to Trash Notes

San Juan, Puerto Rico - The Pentagon urged interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to destroy handwritten notes in case they were called to testify about potentially harsh treatment of detainees, a military defense lawyer said Sunday.
The lawyer for Toronto-born Omar Khadr, Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, said the instructions were included in an operations manual shown to him by prosecutors and suggest the U.S. deliberately thwarted evidence that could help terror suspects defend themselves at trial.
Kuebler said the apparent destruction of evidence prevents him from challenging the reliability of any alleged confessions. He said he will use the document to seek a dismissal of charges against Khadr.
A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, said he was reviewing the matter Sunday evening.

US Holds Terror Subjects on Prison Ships!!

Actually, this came out around June 1st (it was reported by ask on dkos), and I just found out about it. It falls right in line with the horrors of the Bush Administration: Guantanamo, torture, secret renditions to outsource torture to other countries like Syria, Abu Ghraib and a thousand similar incidents as yet minimally reported or unreported, bold outright lies to con the American public to go to war for his personal/cronies' profit in oil, manipulation of the justice system, building up huge "security" prisons in America and housing entire families including infants in their prison walls... etcetera...


And now... prison ships!

The United States is operating "floating prisons" to house those arrested
in its war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has
been an attempt to conceal the numbers and whereabouts of detainees.
Details of ships where detainees have been held and sites allegedly being used in
countries across the world have been compiled as the debate over detention
without trial intensifies on both sides of the Atlantic. The US government was
yesterday urged to list the names and whereabouts of all those
detained.
Information about the operation of prison ships has emerged through
a number of sources, including statements from the US military, the Council of
Europe and related parliamentary bodies, and the testimonies of prisoners.

You can thank Reprieve for this investigation, which sounds almost out of another era, or a horror film. They also revealed:

there have been more than 200 new cases of rendition since 2006, when
President George Bush declared that the practice had stopped.
According to research carried out by Reprieve, the US may have used as many
as 17 ships as "floating prisons" since 2001. Detainees are interrogated aboard
the vessels and then rendered to other, often undisclosed, locations, it is
claimed.
Ships that are understood to have held prisoners include the USS Bataan and USS Peleliu. A further 15 ships are suspected of having operated around the British territory of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, which has been used as a military base by the UK and the Americans.
Reprieve will raise particular concerns over the activities of the USS Ashland and the time it spent off Somalia in early 2007 conducting maritime security operations in an effort to capture al-Qaida terrorists.
At this time many people were abducted by Somali, Kenyan and Ethiopian forces in a systematic operation involving regular interrogations by individuals believed to be members of the FBI and CIA. Ultimately more than 100 individuals were "disappeared" to prisons in locations including Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Guantánamo Bay.

Remember the South American dictators and the "disappeared" and the "mothers of the disappeared"? Now we have Muslim mothers worldwide whose sons have suddenly and unexplicably "disappeared" into the evil vortex of the so-called "War on Terror" in a supposed effort to maintain Americans' alleged "security". In fact, nothing could be further from the truth, of course.

The Reprieve study includes the account of a prisoner released from Guantánamo
Bay, who described a fellow inmate's story of detention on an amphibious assault
ship. "One of my fellow prisoners in Guantánamo was at sea on an American ship
with about 50 others before coming to Guantánamo ... he was in the cage next to
me. He told me that there were about 50 other people on the ship. They were all
closed off in the bottom of the ship. The prisoner commented to me that it was
like something you see on TV. The people held on the ship were beaten even more
severely than in Guantánamo."
Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve's legal director, said: "They choose ships to try to keep their misconduct as far as possible from the prying eyes of the media and lawyers. We will eventually reunite these ghost prisoners with their legal rights."

We hope this ugly history will unravel when Bush and his cronies-in-crime leave office.
CIA "black sites" are also believed to have operated in Thailand, Afghanistan, Poland and Romania.
In addition, numerous prisoners have been "extraordinarily rendered" to US allies and are alleged to have been tortured in secret prisons in countries such as Syria, Jordan, Morocco and Egypt.

As Reprieve's Director Clive Smith said:

“By its own admission, the US government is currently detaining at least
26,000 people without trial in secret prisons, and information suggests up to
80,000 have been ‘through the system’ since 2001. The US government must show a commitment to rights and basic humanity by immediately revealing who these
people are, where they are, and what has been done to them.”

Revealed: Secret plan to keep Iraq under US control

MUST READ THIS - use link above (click title)

A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American
military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US
presidential election in November.
The terms of the impending deal, details
of which have been leaked to The Independent, are likely to have an explosive
political effect in Iraq. Iraqi officials fear that the accord, under which US
troops would occupy permanent bases, conduct military operations, arrest Iraqis
and enjoy immunity from Iraqi law, will destabilise Iraq's position in the
Middle East and lay the basis for unending conflict in their country.

British Court "Forces Government" to Hand Over Torture Docs in Gitmo Case

Here it is, from the Guardian's mouth:

(below is the article in its entirety, with my emphasis)

A British resident facing a life sentence at Guantánamo Bay has won a battle in a British court to force the government to hand over documents showing he was tortured into confessing he was a terrorist.
Binyam Mohamed, once a cleaner in Kensington, west London, is accused by the US of being an al-Qaida terrorist intent on the mass murder of civilians.
Yesterday it emerged that the high court had rejected a British government attempt to avoid a court hearing which would decide whether it should reveal evidence showing Mohamed was tortured by the US.
Mohamed, through his lawyers, who have visited him in Guantánamo, alleges he was "rendered" to Morocco, where his torture included his genitals being slashed.
The high court found the UK government supplied America with information to interrogate Mohamed and said the hearing should be held as soon as possible.

Mohamed's lawyer, Clive Stafford-Smith, said: "I have seen not one shred of evidence against him that was not tortured out of him. We know the British talked to Binyam in Pakistan, told him he was to be rendered and gave information to the US that was used in his torture in Morocco."

Total Joy! Obama Clinches Nomination ... Finally

Many said it was impossible. He proved them wrong, bringing an incredible mix of networking, good organization, inspiration and charisma... plus message! Compare his speeches on the stump to Hillary's: his are all on the issues - especially toward the end - and hers are all about ... well, ... her. Oh, and "you". "I love West Virginia!" and "When I grew up in Scranton..." And what's gonna happen to all those bitter, resentful women? What's with that? Personally, I'd like to have a woman do it on her own, without her husband's "brand".
Obama did it amazingly well.

Sobering News: Iraq War Vets Recount Atrocities from US Occupation

Dahr Jamail's latest report "Enough Is Enough, It's Time to Get Out" recounts the daily horror stories shared by Iraq War veterans in Seattle in what was "a continuation of the "Winter Soldier" hearings held in Silver Spring, Maryland in March."

If this isn't enough incentive to pull out of that occupation, what is?

"We were told we'd be deploying to Iraq and that we needed to get ready to have
little kids and women shoot at us," Sergio Kochergin, a former Marine who served
two deployments in Iraq, told the audience. "It was an attempt to portray Iraqis
as animals. We were supposed to do humanitarian work, but all we did was harass
people, drive like crazy on the streets, pretending it was our city and we could
do whatever we wanted to do."

">Dahr Jamail's latest report "Enough Is Enough, It's Time to Get Out" recounts the daily horror stories shared by Iraq War veterans in Seattle in what was "a continuation of the "Winter Soldier" hearings held in Silver Spring, Maryland in March."
If this isn't enough incentive to pull out of that occupation, what is?

"We were told we'd be deploying to Iraq and that we needed to get ready to have little kids and women shoot at us," Sergio Kochergin, a former Marine who served two deployments in Iraq, told the audience. "It was an attempt to portray Iraqis as animals. We were supposed to do humanitarian work, but all we did was harass people, drive like crazy on the streets, pretending it was our city and we could do whatever we wanted to do."

Kochergin continued, "We were constantly told everybody there wants to kill
you, everybody wants to get you. In the military, we had racism within every
rank and it was ridiculous. It seemed like a joke, but that joke turned into
destroying peoples' lives in Iraq."

"I was in Husaiba with a sniper platoon right on the Syrian border and
we would basically go out on the town and search for people to shoot," Kochergin
said. "The rules of engagement (ROE) got more lenient the longer we were there.
So if anyone had a bag and a shovel, we were to shoot them. We were allowed to
take our shots at anything that looked suspicious. And at that point in time,
everything looked suspicious."

Kochergin added, "Later on, we had no ROE at all. If you see something
that doesn't seem right, take them out." He concluded by saying, "Enough is
enough, it's time to get out of there."

The huge disconnect between rhetoric fed to the American public/protoplasm at home and the reality on the ground in US-occupied Iraq boggles the still-working mind. No wonder the Republican agenda is based on dumbing-down and distraction - to coverup for their blatant crimes, lies, and cruel policies.

We claim to oppose racism and promote democracy and higher values. Like this, perhaps?

Doug Connor was a first lieutenant in the army and worked as a surgical nurse in
Iraq. While there he worked as part of a combat support unit, and said most of
the patients he treated were Iraqi civilians. "There were so many people that
needed treatment we couldn't take all of them," he said. "When a bombing
happened and 45 patients were brought to us, it was always Americans treated
first, then Kurds, then the Arabs."

Or how about these "family values"?

Connor added quietly, "It got to the point where we started calling the Iraqi
patients 'range balls' because, just like on the driving range (in golf), you
don't care about losing them."

So that's how they laid down the "groundwork for peace" as W claimed? Maybe he was thinking of the peace one finds in cemeteries? But there's more than just the "peace" of death.

"I watched Iraqi Police bring in someone to interrogate," Seth Manzel, a vehicle
commander and machine gunner in the U.S. Army, told the audience. "There were
four men on the prisoner...one was pummeling his kidneys with his fists, another
was inserting a bottle up his rectum. It looked like a frat house gang-rape."

Of course, they will say "those were Iraqis"... But who set the example for them? Abu Ghraib, no doubt - which was no exception.
This has to be Job One: Get out of Iraq asap. Occupation can never be victory. It was a mistake, a lie, a humanitarian disaster, a shame, a gigantic drain on the economy, and now a burgeoning tragedy.

Convicted for Unlawful Free Speech!: 34 Gitmo Protestors

According to this important report from Alternet:

Thirty-four Americans arrested at the Supreme Court on January 11, 2008
were found guilty after a three-day trial which began on Tuesday, May 27th in
D.C. Superior Court. The defendants represented themselves, mounting a spirited
defense of their First Amendment rights to protest the gross injustice of abuse
and indefinite detention of men at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.
Charged with "unlawful free speech," the defendants were part of a larger
group that appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on January 11 -- the day marking
six years of indefinite detention and torture at Guantanamo. "I knelt and prayed
on the steps of the Supreme Court wearing an orange jumpsuit and black hood to
be present for Fnu Fazaldad," said Tim Nolan, a nurse practitioner from
Asheville, NC who provides health care for people with HIV.

Wait a minute! "Unlawful Free Speech"???? Doesn't the US Constitution prohibit passing any law that curtails Americans' right to free speech? Especially when that free speech right is used to express an opinion? Especially an opinion about a government policy? Isn't that a basic right guaranteed to all US citizens??? What does this mean?????

According to one of the convicted protestors:

Defendants and witnesses argued that they did not expect to be arrested at
the Supreme Court, "an internationally known temple to free speech." Ashley
Casale, a student at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, told the court, "I am
19 -- the youngest person in this courtroom--and I come on behalf of all the
prisoners at Guantanamo who were younger than I am now when they were detained.
According to the U.S. Constitution we have a right to petition the government
for a redress of grievances and Guantanamo Bay prison is beyond grievous."

According to Historian Michael S. Foley, a professor at the City University of New York:

if "you told me that the defendants would be arrested for 'unlawful free
speech' just twenty feet from where the Justices decide First Amendment cases,
I'd say you were 'crazy.'"

According to Arthur Laffin, an attorney at Gitmo in his closing statement at the January Guantanamo Trial:

My name is Arthur Laffin and I am representing Mane'I al Otaybi, a Saudi
national who was 25 years old when he was taken into U.S. custody in
Afghanistan. He died at the Guantanamo military prison on June 10, 2006 of a
reported suicide. To date, there has been no independent investigation of his
death or the others who have died at
Guantanamo. We remember these dead prisoners in a special way here in this court today.
The government has asserted that this case is not about Guantanamo. We respectfully and vehemently disagree. In our defense, we have to put forth to this court overwhelming evidence that the U.S. government has engaged in criminal conduct. What is at issue here is: what do citizens do when all three branches of government are in violation of divine law, international law, and its own Constitution? When habeas corpus rights are denied to persons, when persons are held indefinitely
without being charged, when persons are tortured by U.S. personnel in violation
of the Geneva Conventions and the Eighth Amendment to the Bill of Rights, we
citizens have a right and a duty to petition the government and to seek redress.
This is what we defendants did on January 11.

According to Usama Abu Kabir, a Guantanamo prisoner, who expressed himself in this poem:

IS IT TRUE
By Usama Abu Kabir (Guantanamo Prisoner)
Is it true that
the Grass grows again after the rain?Is it true that the Flowers will rise up in
the Spring?Is it true that the Birds will migrate home again?Is it true that the
Salmon swim back up the stream?
It is true. This is true. These are all
miracles.But is it true that one day we'll leave Guantanamo Bay?Is it true that
one day we'll go back to our homes?I sail in my dreams, I'm dreaming of
home.
To be with my children, each one part of me;To be with my wife, and the
ones that I love;To be with my parents, my world's tenderest hearts.I dream to
be home, to be free from this cage.
But do you hear me, O Judge, do you hear
me at all?We are innocent, here, we've committed no crime.
Set me free, set
us free, if anywhere still--May justice, compassion remain in this world!

Only those with a conscience will be moved.
Or join with Witness Against Torture and keep working to shut Gitmo and the whole "Homeland Security" torture racket down.

Israel Uses Gunfire Against Gaza Protesters

Talk about Israel's "democratic ideals" and "peaceful neighborliness" - those quotes are presumed, not real - and here you've got it! Or check this NYT article.

Israeli troops used gunfire and teargas on Friday to keep more than 3,000 Hamas
supporters from approaching one of the Gaza Strip's main border crossings with
Israel, wounding at least six Palestinians,
witnesses said.
At least two of the wounded were in a critical condition,
Palestinian medical workers said.

Freedom of speech under the gun. I guess the right to protest, to express oneself, to speak one's mind, is VERBOTEN under an OCCUPATION. Wonder why they "resort" to violence? Since when did peaceful means work with Israel???? WHen????

Remember this in Iraq. Israel, the occupier, uses guns because in their minds, Palestinians are not people, they're terrorists! Nothing like a label to destroy human relations. Nothing like guns to destroy peace. It's all about "preemptive strikes", that right-wing catchall for paranoid nationalism. Gee, did anybody ever hear that Nazi Germany was into the same thing? Maybe you should mend some fences with the extreme right, Israel. You have so much in common.

Separately, Palestinian medical workers said a 65-year-old woman died on
Friday from wounds suffered a day earlier.
The Palestinians said the woman was hit during an Israeli army raid near her home in the southern Gaza Strip.

Ahhh, another day, another raid, another dead body, another reason to keep killing each other.

And America is doing the same in Iraq, only more heavy-handedly, unbeknownst to the press. Notwithstanding the dancing GI's with Iraqis celebrating their battle victory over an al-Qaeda "cell". Lots of people in Iraq say they are much worse off now, and democracy is far more difficult to achieve. When will the Republicans ever learn freedom is not by force?

Probably when the Israelis learn civility and peace is not by force, either. You don't get good neighbors by starving their children and bulldozing their homes. Duhhhhh....

Supreme Court OKs Racial Profiling

Either racial profiling is odious and unconstitutional, with personal and social consequences for communities of color — or it’s not.

On April 23, the U.S. Supreme Court, without any dissent, decided that it was not. The ruling obliquely, but forcefully, slammed the courthouse door on any attempts to challenge this widespread law enforcement practice.

... Read more ...

Global Slavery Could Be Eradicated With 10% of US Stimulus Checks

Although there are now more people enslaved worldwide than at any time in human history, according to acclaimed human rights activist and leading expert on slavery, Kevin Bales, founder of Free The Slaves, an organization devoted to rescuing and rehabilitating slaves worldwide, as reported here:

Of course, this would require a process that could take years - but even though, Bales' assertion that it's doable is itself amazing. As Bales said in this interview,

"It would be interesting if we held a national referendum and asked people if they'd be willing to take ten percent of their stimulus check and use it to eradicate slavery across the globe,"

Some of the largely little known facts about slavery - there are:

• 27 million slaves world-wide



• 50,000 slaves in the US are forced to work as prostitutes, farm workers and domestic servants



• There are roughly the same number of people trafficked into the United States every year as there are murders committed



• 17,500 slaves are brought into the United States every year (acc. to State Dept.)



• The United Nations reports that human trafficking is now the third largest moneymaker for criminals, after drugs and weapons



• Definition of slavery: Slaves are under the complete, violent control of another person; they are economically exploited, and get only enough food and shelter to keep them alive (see this article



• Since about 1950, the average price for a human life has collapsed to a historic low of less than $200



• Research in the US shows that about one-third of those liberated owed their freedom to the actions of ordinary citizens
  

In his latest book,"Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves," Bales describes the horrors of modern slavery and comes up with real solutions. He also examines slavery's ties to global industry and business, as well as the activists who risk their lives to bring people out of slavery.

This story from the book is enough to motivate anyone:

In a section of the book titled "A Wake-Up Call in San Diego," Bales recounts the story of a sex-slavery operation in the small town of Oceanside, California, just north of San Diego, where Riena, a 15-year-old Mexican girl was forced to have sex with scores of migrant farmworkers on a daily basis. On the outskirts of the strawberry fields where the migrants worked, "pimps pushed paths through the tall reeds, and hollowed out small 'caves' along the paths. There on the ground, with scraps of clothing, bits of blankets, used condoms, spit, empty bottles and trash, teenagers were on their backs, forced to have sex with the two hundred men a day who prowled these paths."

Riena had been smuggled into the US and held captive by her pimp, who threatened to kill her infant daughter in Mexico if she ran away. After seven months, Riena tried to escape despite the threat. She was caught and brutally beaten. On her second attempt, she managed to reach the local police station.

Finally, Mexican authorities returned her baby to her, and some of the criminals involved were caught and charged with lesser crimes. It brings the issue of slavery closer to home.

According to Bales,

Since 1950, factors as diverse as war, environmental destruction, kleptocratic governments and ethnic cleansing have made populations especiallyvulnerable to enslavement. When the end of the cold war eliminated barriersbetween states, the trade in people accelerated. ...
The good news about modern slavery is that, possibly for the first time in human history, it can be eradicated. With laws against it in every country, and the lack of any large vested economic interest supporting it, slavery can be ended when the public and governments make it a priority. Based on analysis of anti-slavery projects in south Asia and west Africa, the current estimated cost of the enforcement and rehabilitation programmes needed to eradicate slavery around the world is about $15bn over a 25-year period. This is approximately what Saudi Arabia is intending to spend in the UK buying military aircraft.

Which brings me to Saudi Arabia, whose royal family notoriously overspend on personal luxuries and care little for others' lives. Slavery is strongly deplored in Islam, contrary to popular opinion, and even contrary to the ideas held by many Muslims. As an Islamic Nation, Saudi Arabia both practices and condones slavery in action, and does nothing to stop it, making it an obvious showplace of hypocrisy and corruption. Freeing of slaves itself is featured in the Qur'an as a path to redemption, a path many Muslim leaders apparently reject.

If only more people had a conscience, slavery could be almost eradicated.

Wow! Rumsfeld on Tape Says Americans Need "Another 9-11" To Get Them On the "Right" Track

Conspiracy Theorists, rejoice! Harry Reid and Joe Biden, here's vindication! After the Republican Revolution fizzled in 2006, Secy of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is caught on tape saying:

This President's pretty much a victim of success. We haven't had an attack in
five years. The perception of the threat is so low in this society that it's not
surprising that the behavior pattern reflects a low threat assessment. The same
thing's in Europe, there's a low threat perception. The correction for that, I
suppose, is an attack.

Which means, of course, another 9/11... Jason Linkins reports here on Huffpost:

An ongoing exploration of the documents related to the Pentagon's "message
force multipliers" program has unearthed a clip of former Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld suggesting that America, having voted the Democrats back into
Congressional power, could benefit from suffering another terrorist attack, and
doing so in the presence of the very same military analysts who went on to
provide commentary and analysis of the Iraq War.
As documented by Newsvine, it all went down at a valedictory luncheon Rumsfeld
hosted for those analysts on December 12, 2006.

The comments from Newsvine also reveal:

...while the USA is involved in asymmetric warfare, we can't lose
militarily--but we can't win militarily, either.

and this gem, where an analyst says to Rumsfeld:

Iraq needs a Syngman Rhee. Rhee, if you are unaware, was the ruthless authoritarian dictator of South Korea from after World War II through the Korean War to 1960. Yeah, he was a son of @!$%#, but he was our son of a @!$%#, to borrow a phrase Franklin Roosevelt said of Somoza. Well, well, well. So much for "democracy," huh? But the special treat in this little clip--before Rumsfeld wistfully closes by bemoaning the fact that Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki is "no Syngman Rhee"--is the way Rumsfeld utterly trashes Maliki's predecessor Ibrahim al-Jaafari,
calling him a "wind sock."

And it goes on:

The kicker in this clip is at the very end where he insults the American people
for "weakened will" as he praises the Iraqi insurgents for being a "hellava lot
more skillful" at influencing the American public than is the Bush
Administration.

This is the perfect description of the Republican concept of "influence" and "argument": it's all about the military solution.

Now will someone ever proclaim loudly that it takes a helluva lot more taxes and spends a helluva lot more government money and makes a helluva Bigger Government to solve everything by war and by promoting "security" via more guns, less education, less health care, less social investment, less diplomacy??? So who's about lying, taxing, spending ... and killing? It feeds into the conspiracy theory that 9-11 was a plot to get people to follow the Republican line.

That may be absurd, but everything's possible when there's no conscience evident. And where is it? Where's the conscience?

IRAQ: Praying, Not Playing: How War Kills Sports

Dahr Jamail does a piece about what happened to that winning Iraqi soccer team - thanks to the US invasion. When it's war vs. peace, guess what wins out?

Remembering Malcolm X

Check this out. There's always more to say, but not always more time.

Revenge Against Children for Parents' "Crime": Being Arab

Israelis are very defensive. No argument on that point. So they must hate "Save the Children" when that organization described the situation in Gaza as a "man-made, completely avoidable" "humanitarian implosion", laying the blame for the suffering of Gaza's children, who make up almost half of the population, on Israel's morally abhorrent policy of communal punishment on Gazans.

The number of people living in absolute poverty in Gaza has increased
sharply. Today, 80% of families in Gaza currently rely on humanitarian aid
compared to 63% in 2006. This decline exposes unprecedented levels of poverty
and the inability of a large majority of the population to afford basic
food. ...
In June 2005, there were 3,900 factories in Gaza employing 35,000 people. One and a half years later, in December 2007, there were just 195 left employing
only 1,700. The construction industry is paralysed with tens of thousands of labourers out of work. The agriculture sector has also been badly hit and
nearly 40,000 workers who depend on cash crops now have no income....
In September 2007, an UNRWA survey in the Gaza Strip revealed that there was a nearly 80% failure rate in schools grades four to nine, with up to 90% failure rates in Mathematics. In January 2008, UNICEF reported that schools in Gaza had been cancelling classes that were high on energy consumption, such as IT, science labs and extra curricular activities.

This is not the result of some unforeseen tragedy. This is deliberate, calculated "punishment" against children first - for they suffer the most - because of rockets launched by Hamas militants. Did this policy succeed to stop the rockets? No. Did it bring the region closer to peace? Quite the opposite. Did it succeed to kill and sicken innocent children, bringing them to the brink of starvation in front of their desperate, heartbroken, trapped and walled-in parents? Yes!

As the head of UNRWA has pointed out, ‘Hungry, unhealthy, angry communities do not make good partners for peace.’

Someone - wonder who? - said "You shall know them by their fruits." Here are the fruits of the Israeli occupation: Suffering and pain, near-starvation, deprivation of freedom - against children first! They are the most vulnerable, and the ones who bear the brunt of Israel's retribution and thirst for revenge. Is that the nation who celebrates their 60th anniversary? Do I hear a party?
Partying at the expense of whom? Do they feel no shame, dancing on the graves and pain of innocent children? What just God could possibly sympathize with them?

DN!: US Targeted Baghdad Hotel Before 2 Journalists Killed

Just in from Democracy Now!: "Fmr. Military Intelligence Officer Reveals US Listed Palestine Hotel in Baghdad as Target Prior to Killing of Two Journalists in 2003"

Last month marked the fifth anniversary of the US military shelling of the
Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. The attack killed two journalists: Reuters cameraman
Taras Protsyuk and Jose Couso, a cameraman for the Spanish television network
Telecinco. The Pentagon has called the killings accidental, but in this
broadcast exclusive Army Sgt. Adrienne Kinne (Ret.) reveals she saw secret US
military documents that listed the hotel as a possible target. Kinne also
discloses that she was personally ordered to eavesdrop on Americans working for
news organizations and NGOs in Iraq.

Here's the link to the video. One quote:

One of the instances was the fact that we were listening to journalists who
were staying in the Palestine Hotel. And I remember that, specifically because
during the buildup to Shock and Awe, which people in my unit were really
disturbingly excited about, we were given a list of potential targets in
Baghdad, and the Palestine Hotel was listed as a potential target. And I
remember this specifically, because, putting one and one together, that there
were journalists staying at the Palestine Hotel and this hotel was listed as a
potential target, I went to my officer in charge, and I told him that there are
journalists staying at this hotel who think they’re safe, and yet we have this
hotel listed as a potential target, and somehow the dots are not being connected
here, and shouldn’t we make an effort to make sure that the right people know
the situation?
And unfortunately, my officer in charge, similarly to any
time I raised concerns about things that we were collecting or intelligence that
we were reporting, basically told me that it was not my job to analyze. It was
my job to collect and pass on information and that someone somewhere higher up
the chain knew what they were doing.

Now the question is: why?

McCain's Preacher Says America's Mission is to "Destroy" Islam

Here's a Warning - Non-Armageddonists Beware the McCain Thing:

During a 2005 sermon, a fundamentalist pastor whom Senator John McCain has
praised and campaigned with called Islam "the greatest religious enemy of our
civilization and the world," claiming that the historic mission of America is to
see "this false religion destroyed." In this taped sermon, currently sold by his
megachurch, the Reverend Rod Parsley reiterates and amplifies harsh and
derogatory comments about Islam he made in his book, Silent No More, published
the same year he delivered these remarks. Meanwhile, McCain has stuck to his
stance of not criticizing Parsley, an important political ally in a crucial
swing state.

If this is not right in line with the Armageddonists' Principles of shaking up the mideast with war and then "fighting the good fight" against the "false religion" of Islam, and all those sick religious self-proclaimed Doomsday Generators ... then what is? McCain himself is probably more about political expedience. He coddles religious extremists because that's what he needs, as he sees it, to win the nomination and later, the election. That "later" clause may prove to be his undoing, though.

Public Opinion Polls show:

"...evangelicals remain just 7% of the adult population. That number has
not changed since the Barna Group began measuring the size of the evangelical
public in 1994....less than one out of five born again adults (18%) meet the
evangelical criteria."

"...the number of Protestants soon will slip below 50 percent of the
nation's population." National Opinion Research Center's General Social Survey,
2004.

Of those who claim to be Protestant, most presumably are not Armageddonists.
Actually, he might do well to give a nod to less traditional religion.

The fastest growing religion (in terms of percentage) is Wicca -- a Neopagan religion that is sometimes referred to as Witchcraft. Numbers of adherents went from 8,000 in 1990 to 134,000 in 2001. Their numbers of adherents are doubling about every 30 months.

OK, so you need millions. Ok, so Muslims in America number about 1,558,068, as "estimated" in 2004. But in the world, their numbers get a bit larger: 1.61 Billion, as estimated for 2007. Does that give them the right to protest in the world court? Well, there's no Muslim nation that can veto the United States in the U.N. But even so, isn't it extremely irresponsible for a nominee for President of the United States to endorse and praise a guy who calls on America itself to destroy Islam? Say, why didn't we hear about this, but Wright/Obama was bleeding all over the media?

In March 2008—two weeks after McCain appeared with Parsley at a Cincinnati
campaign rally, hailing him as "one of the truly great leaders in America, a
moral compass, a spiritual guide"—Mother Jones reported that Parsley had urged Christians to wage a "war" to
eradicate Islam in his 2005 book. McCain's campaign refused to respond to
questions about Parsley, and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee
declined to denounce Parsley's anti-Islam remarks or renounce his
endorsement.

At a time when Barack Obama was mired in a searing controversy involving
Reverend Jeremiah Wright, McCain escaped any trouble for his political alliance
with Parsley, who leads the World Harvest Church, a supersized Pentecostal
institution in Columbus, Ohio. Parsley, whose sermons are broadcast around the
world, has been credited with helping George W. Bush win Ohio in 2004 by
registering social conservatives and encouraging them to vote. McCain certainly
would like to see Parsley do the same for him—which could explain his reluctance
to do any harm to his relationship with this anti-Islam extremist.

It may also have something to do with this:

If Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright were white, he'd probably have his own church
show on television.
Maybe even his own network.
...
If he were white, Rev. Wright could stand up before the cameras and make
his nuttiest statements -- that the U.S. government deliberately spread AIDS in
the inner cities, for example -- and most white Americans wouldn't be so
shocked.

So is it all about racism? Not exactly. But after his singing debut in "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran", you'd think McCain would be a little more careful. Maybe he thinks Karl Rove's got his back. Ahhh, McCain... For those who love More of the Same.

Thank God Obama is Presumptive Nominee: Hillary's No Feminist

Check out this editorial from Buzzflash with the great title "Except for Her Anatomical Features, Clinton is No Feminist. But George Wallace Would be Proud of Her Today."

Does a true Feminist support "obliterating Iran"? Senator Clinton didn't
even discuss the complexities behind the whole notion of Iran hypothetically
attacking Israel, an ally with enough nuclear capability to "obliterate" the
entire Middle East on its own. In short, wasn't it more Texas macho (think Bush
and the Neo-Cons) for Clinton to offer her "obliterate" comment than reassuring
Feminist diplomacy?

Wouldn't it have been the more Feminist thing to do to answer by saying,
"As leader of the strongest nation on earth I would look at every effort to
prevent such an occurrence and I think that can be done through diplomatic
means. Look, we survived decades of the cold war without a nuclear attack
because we were patient and diplomatic. I believe that we can do the same in the
Middle East."
But, no, Hillary went Texan on us, and that's not Feminist.
In fact, Mary Matalin's uxorious husband, James Carville, boasted
the other day that -- and we are not making this up -- if Hillary gave one of
her three gonads to Barack Obama, they would each have two.
Now would a Feminist keep a high-testosterone male chauvinist clown like that on her staff?
Of course, wouldn't a Feminist have read the NIE before authorizing
Bush to proceed with the Iraq War?
Wouldn't a Feminist have voted for the banning of cluster bombs in civilian areas, instead of for their continued use in populated communities, where they particularly kill children?
Wouldn't a Feminist be supporting MoveOn.org's anti-war work and party activists for peace instead of denouncing them as extemists?
Would a Feminist have stood by and
said nothing during the slaughter in Rwanda?
Would a Feminist have sat back and let the Bush Administration run roughshod through our civil liberties?
Would a Feminist, today, May 8th, channel the ghost of George
Wallace and openly run as the candidate of "white" people "who are hard-working"
(as compared to those "other" non-white ones -- we are to assume -- who are
not).
We can go on and on about Senator Clinton's "male" positions on
domestic and foreign policy. Yes, she once worked for the Children's Defense
Fund, before becoming a corporate lawyer who also defended rapists, before
joining the Wal-Mart board which was crushing unions, before supporting a
"welfare reform" program which was vigorously opposed by the Children's Defense
Fund.
Progressives support positions that embetter our country, champion our
Constitution, and promote the equality of all. It is not a gender issue.

You can be a man, as Barack Obama is, and promote international
reconciliation and dialogue (the assumed Feminist position). Or you can be a
woman, as Hillary Clinton is, and basically be a war hawk who only came to
claiming to want to end the Iraq War once she declared for president.

You can be a man, as Barack Obama is, and promote racial healing. Or you can be a woman, as Hillary Clinton is, and exacerbate the racial divide by re-opening the wound of racial division.
You can be a man, as Barack Obama is, and promote a politics that doesn't depend upon character assassination and guilt by association. Or you can be a woman, as Hillary Clinton is, and run a campaign out of the Karl Rove-Lee Atwater playbook.
...
Certainly, blatantly pouring hot coals in America's festering racial
history is not "Feminist." To be a Feminist is to nurture and to heal, not
to render asunder a nation that is seeking to overcome its differences and
divisive history.
Hillary Clinton has employed the basest of political tactics. She has betrayed the accomplishments and advancements of the Civil Rights movements to become the "Great White Hope" of 2008.
Is it because she wants to wound Obama to the point that he cannot win and then she presumes that she will be able to walk into the Democratic nomination in 2012?
We are not mind readers, so we don't know.
But we do know this. George Wallace would be proud of her.

Couldn't have said it better. Thanks, Buzzflash Editors!

Torture Memo Turned Over to Judge: Let's Hope It Hits the Fan

Just in from NYT: "Judge Orders CIA to Turn Over "Torture" Memo: ACLU"

The American Civil Liberties Union said the memo was written by the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel and sent to the CIA in August 2002. The ACLU described the memo as "one of the most important torture documents still being withheld by the Bush administration."
In a copy of the order posted on the ACLU's Web site, Judge Alvin Hellerstein told the government to produce the memo so he can determine whether it should be made public as part of a lawsuit the ACLU and other organizations filed in June 2004 requesting records concerning the treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody abroad.
Hellerstein has scheduled a review of the document for Monday.
"This memo authorized the CIA to use specific torture techniques --
including waterboarding," Jameel Jaffer, ACLU's national security project
director, said in a statement.

"CIA agents waterboarded prisoners because this memo told them that they
could," he said. "The memo is being withheld not for legitimate security
reasons, but in order to protect government officials from accountability for
their decisions."

Let's hope it causes a public outcry. After getting away with a war based on lies and defiance of the Geneva Conventions, it's a shame and a mockery of justice that Cheney-Bush were never impeached. Are these not "high crimes and misdemeanors"?

Marketing Ethnic Cleansing: Israel Parties Like It's 1948 on its 60th Birthday

This article is too good to be true - alternet sees through the smoke and mirrors. The title here is your link to one great article on the con job that is Israel, American-style - sans Palestine. The latter is effectively hidden behind a wall of silence, written in the word "terrorism" - a term originally invented by Israelis to obfuscate the issues of Palestinian nationality and counter with a term that criminalizes any resistance to the occupation.

Imagine, this 60th Anniversary "Celebration", on the twin anniversary of the Nakba, the expelling of thousands of Palestinians from their homes to make room for the Zionist dream, and the beginning of a war without end, that has destabilized the middle east and the Muslim world for generations. About the Jews having the right to a homeland after the horrors of the Holocaust, there's a powerful public sentiment in their behalf. About taking that homeland by force from people living already on the land in question - well, not so easy to accept. About what to do now.... requires mind, discipline, and a sense of fairness. Who has that?

Meanwhile,In economic terms, you could say that Israel Independence Day has
"market dominance." When most people think of Israel Independence Day -if they
contemplate it at all- they think of it in terms of Israel's national narrative.
But in spite of all the festivities, Israel Independence Day may
be losing some of its market share. Unable to market the brand to at least two
demographics (Muslim and Arab Americans) and losing market share to a generation transformed by a deeper understanding of military occupation (whether in
Palestine, Iraq or Tibet), a quality of desperation seems to underlie the latest
efforts to sell the holiday.
While advocates of Israel Independence Day still market the holiday to the country as a whole, they're increasingly turning to niche markets like health & wellness and adventure travel to achieve their main objective: market saturation.
But is it working?
...
But the edifice of legend is cracking. M.J. Rosenberg, director of the
Israel Policy Forum, recently wrote about the reluctance of young Jewish
Americans to embrace the Israel of lore, saying in a newsletter that "The
Internet generation is not into tired organizational talking points which mix
facts and myths in equal measure." Rosenberg argues that, "you can't defend the
occupation and sell Israel at the same time."
For those trying to sell Israel
to the public, opinion polls show that, while Americans tend to sympathize more
with Israelis, most people believe that Israelis and Palestinians share the
blame for their conflict -along with the United States. A BBC World Service Poll
released in early April describes the American public as "nearly evenly divided"
in their opinions on Israel. This doesn't jibe with a narrative that casts
Israelis as innocent transplants who got stuck in a bad neighborhood, but are
thriving just the same.
...
There is a new ethos now: If you feel for one side, you should feel for the
other. Those who subscribe to this view condemn all violence. They put the needs
of the people, Israelis and Palestinians, before everything else. You could call
them the People-First Movement.
The advocates of this movement, many of whom are American Jews and Israelis, believe that the official Israeli story has to be outsold by a new narrative. This means, first, acknowledging all that happened in 1948, including al nakba: the organized killings of Palestinians, the destruction of hundreds of Palestinian towns and villages, and the expulsion of over seven hundred thousand Palestinians from their land. And it means looking at the US-backed occupation, and the fact that all Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank live under the reach of Israeli military power.
The most striking thing about this movement is how grassroots it is.
...
In the IPF newsletter cited earlier, Rosenberg describes this trend within
the Jewish community: "They are losing the campus battle big time....I'm talking
about young opinion leaders who are turned off by the occupation and identify
Israel with settlers there and neoconservatives like Feith, Perle, and
Krauthammer here. They hate the paranoid style in which all dissent from the
status quo is deemed anti-Israel or anti-Semitic and, generally, have no use for
the mindless emotionalism and ethnic sentimentality that characterize so much of
the organized pro-Israel community. As third or fourth generation Americans,
they cannot be won over with scare tactics about the Holocaust or Ahmedinejad."
...
Omar Baddar, who works with the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation,
explains that "Activism had died down in the 1990s due to the misconception that
the 'peace process' was working and could achieve something. Once that fell
through, and it became obvious that Israel was choosing illegal territorial
expansion over peace with the Palestinians, people felt the need to get active
on the issue again." Baddar believes the movement is growing because it engages
supporters "democratically and on many different levels." The anniversary of Al
Nakba on May 15 provides a focal point.
...
On April 24, The Washington Post reported on the Bush Administration's
"secret" agreement with Israel to support settlement expansion in the West Bank.
But it's no secret that, even since the Annapolis talks in November, the Israeli
government has authorized a surge of settlement construction in the West Bank
and East Jerusalem. And it's no secret that the US backs virtually all of
Israel's policies: its settlements and separation wall, its occupation and
siege; policies that have strangled the Palestinian people and resulted in many
lost lives on both sides.
...
But the peace movement is growing, and it's drawing support from people
across the country who think that two safe and viable nations will best serve
the Israeli and Palestinian people. Now that would truly be something to
celebrate.

How likely is this to succeed? It depends on the courage of the grassroots. What'll you have - war with fake peace, or real peace with less hype? The choice is yours.

GOP Warns of Political Climate Change: "November Nosedive" Syndrome

Republicans are jittery, falling apart. Could it be ... Bush-Cheney fallout? And coming on the heels of Obama's for-all-intents-&-purposes nomination-clinching Tuesday wins, does this also bode well for Dems in November? According to this account from CBS News, old neocons are breaking out in a cold sweat:

“There is an attitude that, ‘I better watch out for myself, because nobody
else is going to do it,’” the member said. “There are all these different
factions out there, everyone is sniping at each other, and we have no real plan.
We have a lot of people fighting to be the captain of the lifeboat instead of
everybody pulling together.”

In a piece published in Human Events, the Republicans’ onetime captain,
former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, warned his old colleagues that they face
“real disaster” on Election Day unless they move immediately to “chart a bold
course of real reform” for the country.

Someone apparently caught them red-handed turning blue in the face.

“The Republican brand has been so badly damaged that if Republicans try to
run an anti-Obama, anti-Rev. Wright or, if Sen. Clinton wins, anti-Clinton
campaign, they are simply going to fail,” Gingrich said. “This model has already
been tested with disastrous results.”

Wow. You mean, the old bulldozer don't work no more?

Gingrich, who was pushed out as speaker following GOP losses in the 1998
midterm elections, advocated “an emergency, members-only” meeting of House
Republicans in order to hash out a new reform agenda before Memorial Day. He
also called for a “complete overhaul” of the NRCC. Gingrich said that if the GOP leadership would not go along with his plan, “then the minority who are
activists should establish a parallel organization dedicated to real change.” He
offered nine policy proposals designed to achieve that goal, including repealing
federal gas taxes, reforming the Census Bureau and declaring English as the
official language of the United States.

Wow. Real change, that. Repeal gas taxes and get us even more carbon-dependent! And I'm sure everyone can get excited about Census Bureau reform, what with the war in Iraq and Climate Change on the back burner. And "declaring" English as the "official" language is even cooler than making "refusal to wear flag pins" a misdemeanor. See how the Republicans could get so much more inspiring by taking on the tough issues like that. Newt, how do you stay in touch like that? By reading Geriatrics Illustrated?

No wonder the Republicans are worried. Their visionaries are blindfolded.

George McGovern backs Obama, Urges Clinto to Quit

From the Washington Post:

Former Sen. George McGovern, an early supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton, urged her to drop out of the Democratic presidential race and endorsed her rival, Barack Obama. After watching the returns from the North Carolina and Indiana primaries Tuesday night, McGovern said Wednesday it's virtually impossible for Clinton to win the nomination. The 1972 Democratic presidential nominee said he had a call in to former President Clinton to tell him of the decision, adding that he remains close friends with the Clintons.

He's not a superdelegate, but the 85-year-old former Presidential
nominee expresses the general consensus that it's time to put the bickering
behind and unite the Democratic Party.

Realism rules.