PetroVietnam

Annually oil and gas production of Petrovietnam rapidly increased and reached 16.8 millions tons and 1.6 billions cubic meters respectively. Total petroleum production is over 98 millions tones of oil and 5.6 billions cubic meters of gas.

Despite the 1998 - early 1999 economic crisis and incredible fall in price of oil, mergers of petroleum giant and "wait and see" attitude by the others, petroleum exploration and production in Vietnam kept on advancing and resulted in new gas discoveries on the Khanh My structure in block 46, Ac Qui & Ca Voi structures in block 52/97 of Malay - Tho Chu Basin, and Su Tu Den structure in the Cuu Long Basin.

THE SILOVIKI/CHEKIST ARE HERE TO STAY

There are three factions;

THE LIBERALS

led by Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref and Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin. More interventionist than Western liberalism. Generally comprised of economists and former businesspeople. The weakest of the three

THE TECHNOCRATS

Led by First Deputy Prime Minister and Gazprom Chairan Dmitry Medvedev and Gazprom president, Aleksei Miller. Derives it's power from it's control of Gazprom.


THE SILOVIKI (force structure)

a reference to the armed services, law enforcement bodies, and intelligence agencies that wield the coercive power of the state.

Core members.

Igor Sechin, deputy head of the presidential administration, Vikro Ivanov, an adviser to the president, and Nikolai Patrushev, director of the the FSB. Current and former intelligence officers from St. Petersburg.

Sergei Bogdanchikov, president of state owned oil giant Rosneft has never served in the force structure

United by outlook and interests than by background. Share similar political views, pursue a common policy agenda, and seek joint control over economic assets.

It is a hierarchy of a series of concentric circles.

Secondary members

include Bogdanchikov and Vikro Cherdesov, Putin's drug czar.

Tertiary level

Many reached positions after the Yukos affair. Justice Minister, Vladimir Ustinov, was prosecutor general who pursued Khodorkovsky's case, and was once associated with the Yelsin-era "family."

----------------

Spoils available: oil and gas revenues, substantial bribes, control over major enterprises and political power.

A long standing feud between Patrushev and Cherkesov spilled onto the front pages of the Russian press in late 2004.

They control more than 10 agencies

Force structure - law enforcement, intelligence services, and the armed forces.

Energy Agency, Customs Services, Federal Property Fund, Financial Monitoring Service. Significant regulatory power in key industries.

Control of Rosneft - Bogdanchikov is president, Sechin is chairman, huge source of income

Top positions in two military-industrial giants - Rosoboronexport and Almaz-Antie.

Aeroflot

Russian Railroads

Banking; Vneshekonombank, Mezhprombank, and Rossiya Bank.

State owned company managing the country's ports.

Gazprom - four VP's tied to Ivanov, Sechin and Patrushev

In Gref's agency, The Agency for State Reserves

In Kudrin's Ministry, Service for Financial Monitoring.

YUKOS production subsidiary Yuganskneftegaz went on the auction block. Rosneft, via a front company, bought it for 9.3 billion. The source, Vneshekonombank. Yuri Zaostrovtsev, a siloviki heavyweight is first deputy chair of the bank's board.

They are tied together by:

Consolidation of political and economic power within a highly centralized state

Buttressed by large, well-financed security and defense structures.

The official of these agencies deserve special status in the government and economy as they carry out the work of state building project.

Law and order and stability are much higher priorities than democratic process or an active civil society.

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, close to the core group but remains independent in his thinking. Promoted to deputy prie minister which made him a target.

CORE BELIEFS

Statism is an economic policy program.

A strong state should play a decisive role in the country's economic life.

Strategic sectors should not be in private hands,

Domestic producers should be protected from the forces of globalization.

The oligarchs should be eliminated as a class.

-----------------------------

They are economic nationalists

The country's natural resources belong to the Russian people and that, in the people's name, the state should eventually control every aspect of their exploitation.

In the meantime, they favor limiting foreign investment in the natural resources sectors and the imposition of steep royalties.

--------------------------------

Promote the restoration of Russia's greatness on the international stage.

The USA and NATO represent an external threat, actively undermine Russia's sovereignty and ultimately would like to force the collapse of the Russian state.

Russia should regain the respect of the Soviet Union by maintaining a strong army and state of the art military capabilities.

Former soviet states should be reintegrated with Russia to the greatest extent possible.

---------------------------------

Endorse the nationalistic, xenophobic, an sometimes anti-semitic views of the most conservative elements within the Russian Orthodox Church.

Actively promotes the role of the church in public life

Would like to impose stringent restriction on immigration.

Aleksei Mordashev of Severstal and Vladimir Bogdanov of Surgutneftegaz as "good" oligarchs - "they're Russians." "All Jews are traitors, oriented toward the West. That's how it's always been".

--------------------

Intent on controlling major economic resources. To use economic power to further their policy goals and to safeguard their continued dominance of Russian political life.

To control as much of Russia's energy revenue as possible,

Rosneft and other siloviki controlled companies will expand by strategic acquisition of smaller oil and gas firms.

A preference for a single state controlled energy giant, incorporating all of Russia's major oil, gas and electricity companies into one holding.

Control Russia's military-industrial complex, and they will continue to promote increased arms sales aggressively.

In the presidency, they will promote someone who will protect their interests and extend their influence.

Durable alliance with China causes siloviki anxiety, but are considered palatable partner in the short term.

Strengthening the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Promote ties with Iran.

Within the former Soviet space, the seek to strengthen economic and political integration, especially vis a vis Ukraine and Georgia.

----------------------

US involvement in Russian politics will backfire

Attacks on Putin and his policies strengthen the siloviki, confirms their world view.

NEOLIBERLISM IN RUSSIA

In Russia, the catastrophe of shock therapy was unleashed on 2nd January 1992. The shock came in two ways – first, the price explosion (food suddenly cost four times what it used to), and second, the massive public expenditure cut-backs. Inflation did drop – from almost 250% in January 1992 to approximately 30% in December 1992. Progress indeed. By 1995, it was estimated that 80% of Russians had suffered a serious decline in their income. Income from work for families had dropped from being about half of all income at the start of the 1990s to just 39% in 2000. From a mortality rate of 11 per thousand in 1990, the death rate soared to 15 per thousand in 2000, peaking in 1994 at almost 16 per thousand. In fact, in this “unprecedented peace time mortality”, we find an alarming underlying truth about Russian society. Between 1990 and 1999, there were 3,353,000 excess deaths in the whole Russian territory. Male life expectancy fell from 63.5 years in 1991 to 57.6 years in 1994. Female life expectancy fell from 74.3 years in 1991 to 71.2 years in 1994.

THE OIL DRUM: A PRIMER ON CASPIAN OIL

A primer on Caspian Oil

BEYOND KOSOVO

"Independence in the Brave New World Order: NATO's Kosovo Colony", Diana Johnstone

ISRAEL AND KOSOVO

By way of Angry Arab

"By identifying Israel with the supposed underdog, ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, Haaretz implicitly recognizes that there are indeed some striking similarities though not ones it would acknowledge. Kosovo, like Israel, was illegally severed by force of arms from another country against the wishes of the majority population of the whole territory. Both entities came into being and can only survive with the sponsorship and support of the Great Powers of the day who sustain them in violation of international law because it suits their imperial interests.


Furthermore, both entities are animated by a virulent ethno-nationalism that is fundamentally incompatible with the values of freedom, tolerance and democracy that they claim to have come into being to uphold. In this sense, Kosovo is the latest in a collection of Western-backed pseudo-states that also includes the Kurdish entity in northern Iraq."

NAFTA BITES CLINTON IN THE ASS

http://ruralvotes.com/thefield/?p=749

I don't think a more clear, short, and concise explanation of what has happened as a result of NAFTA in terms of it's effect on places like Ohio, Mexico, and finally on the Clinton campaign can be found than in this article.

After fourteen long, miserable years chickens come home to roost and Clinton has to pay the piper. They say that US public opinion is incredibly dumb until it loses its job and then it gets incredibly smart.

G#ddamn, I love this. I don't know if the universe is dealing out justice or irony, but it's quite tasty.

I think I am beginning to see the corporate media lose control of the narrative and Americans starting to write their own. Isn't that really where Saul Alinsky starts? Write your own narrative?

The conundrum: Is Obama a Saul Alinsky operation or a George Soros operation? We don't know and he wont tell.

IRAN FIGHTS THE VELVET REVOLUTION USING A PSA

John McCain makes the cut because he is on the board of the International Republican Institute (IRI) branch of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Soros is there because of his Open Society Institute (OSI) and Gene Sharp is there because of his Albert Einstein Institute and association with Robert Helvey. Serbia's Otpor , Georgia's Kmara, Ukraine's Pora, Kyrgyzstan's KelKel and Belarus' Zubr were directly trained by the Albert Einstein Institute.I am surprised that the left out Peter Ackerman and Freedom House with Frank Gaffney and James Woolsey.


This PSA was ran on Khozestan TV. I think that is instructive. The Neocon battle cry for years has been "real men go to Khozestan". Khozestan is the province next to Basra and it is where all the oil is. It analogous to Kosovo. Where Kosovo is a security enclave, Khozestan is an energy enclave. You dont have to defeat all of Iran to get the oil, you just have to carve out Khozestan, much like BP did with Kuwait.


So Iran's "problem" in Khozestan is very significant these days.

I think the "Velvet Revolution" has run it's course. These are engineered revolutions of which the world is very aware . In fact some of the "revolutions" are beginning to unravel. Boris Berezovsky recently demanded his money back from the OSI. The internet is full of research on the matter. Eva Golinger is the latest to publish, but there are many, many others.

Russia uses Nashi, Myanmar uses brute force against "The Saffron Revolution", Venezuela uses "leaked CIA memos", Laos throws out NGO's, and now we have PSA's from Iran.

Vietnam is the latest government to start inoculating itself against the velvet revolution.

Actually, I think Obama's campaign looks alot like a velvet revolution - lots of politically naive young people swarming, lots of symbology, etc. Now that's something that Noah Pollack at Commentary could use.

BTW, MEMRI's translations are always suspect, they have an ulterior motive, although in this case it's probably right. You always have to get an independent translator to check anything MEMRI has put up.

PART ONE

PART TWO

CUBA'S ETHANOL

It wouldn't happen overnight, and it would take a huge investment in the country's rickety sugar industry, but Cuba has the potential to produce 3.2 billion gallons of ethanol annually, according to an analysis (.pdf) by Juan Tomas Sanchez of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy. Another Cuba expert, Jorge Hernandez Fonseca, puts the figure (.pdf) closer to 2 billion gallons but even that figure would place Cuba third -- behind Brazil and the United States -- in worldwide production.

Cuba doesn't have much need for ethanol, Sanchez writes, and could export as much as 3 billion gallons a year -- worth about $7 billion at today's prices. Don't look for any of that ethanol to flow in America though. The State Department says it won't lift the trade embargo on Cuba any time soon.

THE NAME FOR OUR PROFITS IS DEMOCRACY

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."- Lincoln, Nov 21, 1864





"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes." - Smedley Butler, "War Is a Racket" (1935)





This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. Dwight Eisenhower, Jan 17, 1961






"The high office of the President has been used to foment a plot to destroy the American people's freedom, and before I leave office, I must inform the citizens of this plight." JFK, Nov 12, 1963






“The name for our profits is democracy” – Phil Ochs, Cops of the World

WATER TORTURE PHILLIPINES

A picture of a “water detail,” reportedly taken in May, 1901, in Sual, the Philippines. “It is a terrible torture,” one soldier wrote.


Many Americans were puzzled by the news, in 1902, that United States soldiers were torturing Filipinos with water. The United States, throughout its emergence as a world power, had spoken the language of liberation, rescue, and freedom. This was the language that, when coupled with expanding military and commercial ambitions, had helped launch two very different wars. The first had been in 1898, against Spain, whose remaining empire was crumbling in the face of popular revolts in two of its colonies, Cuba and the Philippines. The brief campaign was pitched to the American public in terms of freedom and national honor (the U.S.S. Maine had blown up mysteriously in Havana Harbor), rather than of sugar and naval bases, and resulted in a formally independent Cuba.

MID CENTURY WATER BOARDING

Soldiers in Vietnam use the waterboarding technique on an uncooperative enemy suspect near Da Nang in 1968 to try to obtain information from him.

CUBA IN TRANSITION

**5 Billion barrels of oil, 10 trillion c.f. of gas. Drilling by China, Canada, India, Brasil**


When Castro withdrew from the daily running of the country two years ago, he spread his duties among six close advisors. The first among equals was his brother Raul, but along with him six more figures were appointed to key positions in Cuban politics. Thus he hoped to prevent a political struggle from breaking out.

"THE OLD GUARD"

Raul Castro (Centrist)
Ricardo Alarcon (71)(Centrist), National Assembly President



Raul Castro - remains a committed communist and a fidelista, but has been always far more pragmatic and administratively competent than his older brother.

Raul Castro will remain the head of state, but it is not know whom he will pick for his cabinet and which of his brother's favorites he will hold off at a distance. The goal is to not to block the way for younger people, but to provide experience and ideas. Castro wanted to prepare his compatriots psychologically for his departure, so that it would not come as a shock. He hoped to prevent a political struggle from breaking

Economic reforms managed by the Cuban Armed Forces headed by Raul Castro as the best hope for the near future

The Cuban Armed Forces were the first to introduce capitalist business practices into Cuba and now control technology and computing firms, beach resort hotels, car rental firms, an airline, a fleet of buses and a large retail chain.

The Cuban sugar industry is run by a general, as is the ports administration and the lucrative cigar industry.

(?) Minister of Information Ramiro Valdes, who many believe is in a power sharing arrangement with Raul.

(?) Culture Minister Abel Prieto (Centrist).

They support martket mechanisms to improve the state-run economy and are behind modest reforms


"THE CHINESE"

Carlos Lage (Reformer) (57), Vice President


The technocrats. Old veterans who have a reputation as liberals. They are considered supporters of economic reform on the Chinese model. Carlos Laje, deputy chairman of the State Council and third-ranking figure in the Cuban state after the Castro brothers, is considered the leader of the Chinese. His main base of influence is that he is responsible for the country's electrical power and is a link between Cuban authorities and Cuba's main sponsor, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The big winner in the shuffle appears to Lage: credited with implementing limited reforms that rescued Cuba's faltering economy in the 1990s. And last month, Lage - who holds the key position of secretary of the executive committee of the Council of Ministers, a top policymaking body - led a high-level delegation to Venezuela to sign a series of economic accords that farther cemented ties between the two leftist nations.

Lage is credited with engineering and implementing the limited reforms that restarted Cuba's economy after the Soviet collapse. The programs included legalizing the dollar, creating small private enterprises and agricultural cooperatives, and increasing foreign investment and tourism. Although Fidel Castro reversed many of the reforms in 2003, Lage is viewed favorably among foreign businessmen in Cuba as a pragmatist open to economic change.

the economic reins are specifically handed over to a “commission” made up of

• Carlos Lage (Reformer), a vice-president and member of the Communist Party’s Political Bureau,

• Francisco Soberon (Reformer), who heads the Central Bank, and

• Felipe Perez (Fidel protege, hardliner), the Minister for Foreign Affairs, also known to Cubans as “Fax” because he always repeats everything Castro says or does.

Responsibility for the “energy revolution” – the most pressing of hundreds of infrastructure issues in Cuba at the moment – is handed over to Lage

They are more willing to tolerate dissidents and a loyal opposition. Recognize the efficacy of a market system and embrace a mixed economy.


"THE TROPICAL TALIBAN"

Felipe Perez Roque (42), Foreign Minister, Castro's former head of staff.


A group of young Cuban communists that Castro has promoted in the last ten years. Initially developed in response to the Elian Gonzales controversy. They were all active in the Communist Youth Union until recently and are considered more radical than their elders. This has earned them the nickname of the “tropical Taliban.” The charismatic leader of the Taliban is Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. It is thought that Castro was grooming him as his successor, but did not transfer power to him because of his youth. He is clearly the one whom Castro was talking about when he said that a good replacement for him who be a young person who has accomplished several international missions. They would join the ranks of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Chavez in their anti-American rhetoric. Raul Castro does not have particularly good personal relations with Perez Roque.

• Otto Rivero, vice president of the Council of Ministers for the Battle of Ideas,

• Hassan Perez, vice president of the Union of Communists,

• Miriam Yanet Martin, president of the Jose Marti pioneers youth group

The so-called "fourth-generation" revolutionaries were promoted to key positions by Fidel Castro but may not fit into Raul Castro's priorities, suggesting less focus on ideology and international affairs and more on governing efficiently.


"They have lost the kind of power that Fidel gave them to go everywhere giving orders and saying what should be done," said a Havana-based diplomat who asked not to be identified.


"The ministries have returned to their logical role. Raul wants an effective organization," the diplomat said.

Source



"THE DOCTORS"



Jose Ramon Machado Ventura (78) (Hardliner)
Jose Ramon Balaguer (75)

They are the “doctors,” headed by the former and current ministers of health, Jose Ramon Machado Ventura and Jose Ramon Balaguer. In the last two years, they were the closest to Castro, as he lied in the hospital. Also, the development of medicine has always been an important national project in Cuba, and it has become almost comparable to national security since Castro's hospitalization. The doctors are attempting to play the role of mediators.


Health, which is a huge export earner for the regime (doctors for sale in exchange for cheap oil from Venezuela) is given to Jose Balaguer, the minister of public health. And so on.


Miami Deck of Cards

The post-Fidel moment

NIHILISM

One can be a nihilist in how one sees the ontological reality of the world: there is no meaning to be found, there is "nothing" out there. Only systems to be created by dishonest philosophers.

And one can be a nihilist in how one reacts to that ontological reality: by being paralyzed by the "abyss" of meaninglessness, or of lapsing into pessimism a la Schopenhauer.

Nietzsche is a nihilist in the first sense, but not in the second. There is no meaning to be found, but this is not his last word. There is meaning to be created, "life" to be affirmed. This is why both posters above can be right: Nietzsche is a nihilist, and he rails against nihilism.

CAMP BONDSTEEL KOSOVO

Balkans Crisis supports US Corporate Interests

WILL NOT RETURN TO LEAD

Cuban leader Fidel Castro poses in this file photo taken by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during their meeting in Havana January 15, 2008. Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said on February 19, 2008 that he will not return to lead the country, retiring as head of state 49 years after he seized power in an armed revolution. REUTERS/Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva/CubaVision TV/Handout (CUBA). EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS.

Slideshow

Vice President Carlos Lage (57) or National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon (71) who are both capable and running the country as much as Raul. All three are reformers potentially in the direction of Gorbachev or Deng but Washington is locked down by Miami. Fidel has not left a power vacuum. The immediate post-Fidel moment has very nearly come and gone. Other options are available. Cuba is in the midst of an oil boom with US companies cut out of the deal. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the North Cuba Basin has potential reserves of between 4.6 and 9.3 billion barrels of crude. There is no “democratic” revolution in the works. The Cuban people are not interested in the Washington Consensus “all for us, nothing for you” model, but then, who is anymore? Now that Putin has been screwed on Kosovo, who knows of the possibilities.

KOSOVO DECLARES THEIR INDEPENDANCE

SOURCE
SOURCE

OBAMA THE ISRAEL HATER

The Podhoretz’s over at Commentary are the primary source of the Obama trash

http://tinyurl.com/3ars3k

You can scroll back for Noah Pollak entries and see that he has been at it for awhile

Of course, NRO cant be left out

http://tinyurl.com/2sn5q7

In the fall look for Ari Fleischer’s Freedom Watch with unlimited funding from Sheldon Adelson.

Since you can read about the process in an US paper you can go here to the great newspaper, Haaretz of Israel, to get up to speed on the routine

IN SEARCH OF A NARRATIVE

But when the sermonising or preachiness upholds an agenda that we are not allowed to name (like, say, heteronormativity or male supremacy or capitalism or neodarwinism) it passes for “objective” just because our literary feelers aren’t calibrated to scan the bar code on the agenda; we come up against a Laingian void — the Unmarked Category — be it neoliberalism or masculinism or US exceptionalism or whatever, and have to resort to unfamiliar “left-specific” jargon, clumsy locutions, and “argh can’t quite put my finger on it” unease to identify it.

Knowledge

remember what Einstein said “the only thing interfering with my learning is my education” or


Socrates “all I know is that I know nothing.”

END OF HUMAN HISTORY

The problem with the concept of a “deep state” is that it’s the nature of EVERY state.

You can’t have a criminal state if you don’t have a state in the first place.

You can’t have “corporations’ running the state if 1) you realize that corporations are creations of the state, and 2) you don’t have a state to create them.

But it’s irrelevant to point this out because the state is an ingrained concept in human culture at this point - like the notion of religion - and it will never be excised - except by the appropriate technology.

Fortunately, we Transhumans will have that technology in another few decades.

And then both the state and religion will be destroyed, and human nature will be transcended, and human history brought to a deserved end.

In the meantime, as the villain in the movie “Gorky Park” said, “You see, corruption is part of us. All of us. The very heart of us…”

The Transhumans Are Coming!

WORLD TRADE CENTERS

If the laws of physics were in place on 9/11, the towers were demolished with incendiaries (thermate has been proven to be used by Prof. Steven Jones). A total collapse AT FREE FALL SPEED is a physical impossibility without the structure being progressively demolished ahead of the collapse front. FACT. FACT. Even if the towers DID begin to collapse from impact and fire (they didn’t), then the top of the building COULD NOT HAVE FALLEN THROUGH THE STRONGEST STRUCTURE (the rest of the building) EVER BUILT AT FREE FALL SPEED!

tell us how 3 steel concrete bldgs just disappeared in a flash with only supposedly 2 planes envolved.
I SAID SUPPOSEDLY! And while your at it–explain to us how a aluminum plane can smash into such a strong built bldg and the plane’snose cone come out the other end ? Smart folks know that the video of the plane was also a scam-came out–24 hrs after the hit.

If one jet plane could bring a tall steel framed highrise so perfectly straight down like its claimed happened that day, how come demolition experts don’t use the comparatively cheap method of igniting multi-gallons of jetfuel(karosene) instead of the millions spent on intricately rigged controlled demolition which it obviously was.

10,000 YEARS

NORTH EAST INDIA

source

Pakistan did not hesitate to jump in where the British left off in the post-partition period, and has since used its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency to fund, train and arm these rebel groups in order to keep India’s hands tied. The largest and most powerful of the northeast secessionist movements is the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA). Once a student movement with populist aims to redistribute the state’s oil wealth, ULFA has gradually changed into what appears to be a moneymaking machine with a strong willingness to do the ISI’s bidding. ULFA runs an impressive extortion racket in the northeast, where Assam’s tea plantation owners and corporate leaders are regularly targeted.

EDWARD SAID

Years ago I read some words of Edward Said that seemed at the time rather innocuous but which I think, in retrospect, really lie at the heart of the I/P conflict and help to explain why it has remained unresolved so long: "Until the time comes when Israel assumes moral responsibility for what it has done to the Palestinian people, there can be no end to the conflict".

The Zionist vision is based, among other things, on the assumption that its fulfillment need not cause injustice to anyone: If only the Arabs would relinquish their nationalist yearnings and agree to the fulfillment of our dream, it would be good for everyone, including them.

This historical fiction is very harmful because as long as we convince ourselves that we have no part in the responsibility for the creation of the Palestinian tragedy, we have no real reason to try to correct the injustice. This is the importance of acknowledging our responsibility.

This really goes to the heart of the cultural unpleasantness of Israel and of a great many Jews today, particularly those in the public eye.

Leaving aside that the state of denial serves notice that the zionists don't intend that any of their wrongs be righted, a culture of deceipt pervades Israeli Jewish society and dominates organised Jewish communal life.

source

Mullah Nasreddin's donkey

There is a story about the Sufi sage, Mullah Nasrudin, which goes that one day he was seen riding frantically through the streets of the town on a donkey, looking this way and that, reaching the walls of the town and doubling back, constantly crossing the main marketplace. Eventually one of the townspeople called out to him, "Mullah, what are you looking for?", and without stopping he cried over his shoulder, "I'm looking for my donkey!"

source

FROM THE WAPO

CHAD BACKGROUND

For three years, the world has been ignoring or refusing to confront some of the originators of the war in Darfur, namely General Idriss Deby Itno of Chad and part of his Zaghawa tribe. Everybody knows that he is behind the rebel groups fighting in Darfur. Everybody knows that he is funding them and providing all the material, military and logistical support to factions like the Justice and Equality Movement lead by Dr. Khalil Ibrahim or the Sudan Liberation Movement via his older brother Daoussa Deby Itno and General Mahamat Ali Abdallah Nassour. Why this silent complicity with the Chadian regime? Does it come down to oil again? It’s time for the world not only to confront General Al-Bashir but also get tough on General Deby who is a big chunk on the problem.

As Minni Minnawi Arkou, one of the leaders of the Darfur rebellion who signed the Abuja agreement, now advisor to President Al-Bashir said during a meeting with President Bush a few months ago, ”as long as General Idriss Deby Itno of Chad will remain in power, there will be no peace neither in the Darfur nor in Chad.” This is exactly what is happening today. General Idriss Deby Itno is now arming and paying Arab tribes on the border with Sudan to go on a rampage killing Chadian civilians from other ethnic groups in order to blame the Sudanese government and its Janjaweed militias.