mid-2008, the FARC drew criticism from Brazil's Lula and Venezuela's Chavez, an armed guerrilla movement is out of place."
brother Adan, in MIR a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla, later, Party of the, Venezuelan Revolution, an urban underground with Douglas Bravo.
Adan put it to Alan Woods, did not have contact with the masses, to allow the taking of power, needed influence within popular masses and Armed Forces
self-criticism of the Venezuelan Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN)
"infantile subjectivism...
Hugo Chavez attempted a coup in 1992, por ahora, Chavez converted his popularity into a mass movement. between 1992 and 1998 their gloom was evident.
Guerrilla warfare had ended by the mid-1990s, for the Maoists it was the Shining Path, Guzman, was captured, in 1991, in Ayacucho
The Venezuelan left was unable to see the barrios, the slums that ring the city
Against US pressure and machinations of the oligarchy, Chavez's movement held firm. It began the "long march through the institutions," and culminated in the revision of the Constitution. The new Bolivarian Constitution (1999) draws from the liberator Simon Bolivar, the Marxist Jose Carlos Mariategui, and from Marxist theory (notably the remarkable Soviet jurist Evgeny Pashukanis). Provisions for deeper democracy at one level, and for the widest recognition of human rights.
Barrio Adentro, to provide healthcare. Now, the Constitution directs the government to provide healthcare funded by the oil revenues. It threatened the oligarchy with extinction and the US with the loss of its own power in its backyard
Distracted by the middle east, the US was unable to extend itself against the Bolivarians. US pushed for coup in 2002. The Bolivarians, they had been organized for just this eventuality. Chavez would not fall like Pinochet with support of the military and he had not allowed the population to remain demobilized, neighborhood committees, self-defense leagues, the time to unholster the gun, was not yet at hand
Lula was nineteen, the military deposed Joåo Goulart. The military rule that ran from 1964 to 1985. During this long era the urban middle class that leaned left went either into clandestine trade union organizational work or into gclandestine urban guerrilla units.
The most spectacular was Carlos Marighella's National Liberation Alliance
Marighella was the author of the influential Small Manual of the Urban Guerrilla (June 1969), a touchstone for the urban guerrilla from Montevideo to Mexico City. The police killed Marighella the same year as his manual came out (he was 57 years old, a veteran of the Brazilian CP who had broken with it over the strategy of violence)
The urban guerrilla did not influence Lula. The lessons went with him and the other labor activists into the Workers' Party (PT). In 1980 Brazilian campesinos formed National Confederation of Agricultural Workers and Movimiento Los Sin Tierra (MST), eleven million members. The fundamental constituents of the PT
Lula remained with mass organizing. this long campaign resulted in the Diretas Ja! (Direct Elections Now) movement of 1984 which toppled the dictatorship. Not once did Lula move to the gun. This despite the Roosevelt Corollary (1904), the right to intervene. From the 1846 invasion of Mexico
to the soft coup of 2009 Honduras it came equally with its Dollars and Free Trade Agreements clear Uruguayan Communist Party leader Rodney Arismendi by 1947 "Anglo-Yankee financial oligarchies," same tonic from the local oligarchs and their North American allies
deliverance came in 1959 with the Cuban Revolution. luck and pluck enabled them to enlarge their base (their foco), create alliances with urban mass movements which had been awoken by Castro. Che Guevara's call to revolt (his Guerrilla Warfare, 1961)
Regis Debray wrote a manifesto for Castroism 1965. Che Guevara ultimately went to Bolivia, to try out his method for the last time. Not only were the guerrillas isolated geographically, but also they were isolated from the people. this image provoked Teododo Petkoff of Venezuelan CP then of the MAS
In 1976 'stony eyes' of the Bolivian peasants.
guerrilla movements had dissolved into driblets took root in the Andes, Shining Path. FARC in 1964 rump group Colombian Communist Party (and led Manuel Marulanda, Tiro Fijo went deep Colombia profunda rural leadership Massive assault could not destroy it, 1980s Colombian Left signed a peace agreement with the oligarchy. FARC did not leave the mountains. The accord failed, politicians of the Left were killed. FARC restarted. It was FARC that pushed the Plan Colombia. The situation went to a stalemate. FARC pays little attention to the building up of mass struggles. Colombian activist and economist Hector Mondragon put it recently. Chavez and Lula's plea to FARC. They want the muscle of this organization to come above ground. The Bolivarian project to build electoral-parliamentary movements in concert with social movements power of the majority to seize state power
ALBAm the mechanism to bring the 1999 Venezuelan Constitution to the hemisphere. Chavez's callm a Fifth International, as "an instrument for the unification and the articulation of the struggle of the peoples to save this planet,"
This is Marxism without the Blanquist move to the gun, using what institutions exist to move a progressive agenda
Sunday, January 10, 2010
YEMEN BIT PICTURE
Jan 9, 2010
A year ago, Saleh foung a group of Islamists linked to the Israeli intelligence forces. General David Petraeus, dropped in on Saturday. Obama
assuring step up intelligence-sharing and training and joint attacks against militants. The intervention in Yemen is America's answer to China's surge.
Uncle Sam is "marking territory". The US is also moving into Somalia and Kenya
in an entire unbroken stretch of real estate all along the Indian Ocean's western rim. US has now foreclosed China's options. The coastline that is available for China to set up a naval base in the region will be Iran
Obama's main core objective will be to establish an enduring military presence
This serves many purposes.
A new great game begins
First, the US move has to be viewed against the historic backdrop of the Shi'ite awakening in the region (mostly of the Zaidi group). They could be anywhere up to 45%, in the northern part of the country, they constitute the majority. The Believing Youth Organization led by Hussein Badr al-Houthi
is modeled after Hezbollah in Lebanon in all respects - politically, economically, socially and culturally. Next-door Oman, which is a key American base, is predominantly Shi'ite. The idea of Shi'ite empowerment spreading to Saudi Arabia's highly restive Shi'ite regions adjoining Yemen is a problem. There is a new generation is set to take over the leadership in Riyadh. There is a vast scale of institutionalized Shi'ite persecution in Saudi Arabia by the Wahhabi establishment. Riyadh is petrified as the recent
resort to military power against the north Yemeni Shi'ite testifies
US faces a classic dilemma. Obama highlight the need of reform
in his Cairo speech but democratization in the Yemeni context would involve Shi'ite empowerment. The US would rather be with the repressive, autocratic government of Saleh than let the genie of reform out of the bottle.
The paradox: Iran happens to be the only "democratic" system operating in that entire region. Iran's shadow over the Yemeni Shi'ite worries the US
Obama, Conceivably, isn't finding it easy. If his own memoirs are to be believed vague recollections of his childhood in Indonesia and his precious memories of his own mother, a free-wheeling intellectual and humanist, must be stalking him
Israel moves in
With Yemen, the US has tightened the cordon around Iran. Yemen could be put to use as a springboard by the Israelis. It is a cakewalk for the formidable Israeli intelligence to carve out a niche in Yemen. Islamism doesn't deter Israel at all. Yemeni Islamists are a fragmented lot. Israeli intelligence operates in such twilight zones. Israel has always been handicapped by its lack of access to the Persian Gulf region. The overarching US military presence helps Israel politically to consolidate its Yemeni chapter. Petraeus is moving on Yemen in tandem with Israel, "pro-West" Arab states remain as mute spectators. Israeli is a safer bet than the spread of Shi'ite empowerment
out of Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah. Israeli will infiltrate extremist Sunni outfits known as affiliates of al-Qaeda. Infinite possibilities exist
It's all about China
Most important the port of Aden the gateway to Asia. Control of Aden and the Malacca Strait. the US in the "great game" of the Indian Ocean. The sea lanes
the jugular veins of China's economy. India is a natural ally of the US Both disfavor Chinese naval presence. India to roll back Chinese influence in Sri Lanka. US has taken a u-turn in its Myanmar policy. US is unhappy with China's efforts to reach the warm waters of the Persian Gulf through the Central Asian region and Pakistan. Washington is tightening the noose. Pakistani elites will make a strategic choice between the US and China. The existential questions, will Obama, building up India as the pre-eminent power
US-India-Israel axis
Delhi is concluding that he is a clone of his predecessor, containment of China is a core template. Delhi takes the surge of the Israeli lobby as the litmus test. the Jewish lobby was always a helpful ally. India-Israel security relationship is gaining greater momentum. a massive avenue of military cooperation is about to open and will make India a serious challenger to China's growing military prowess. a cozy three-way US-Israel-India alliance provides the underpinning for all the maneuvering that is going on.
terrorism experts are missing when they analyze Yemen in terms of hunting down al-Qaeda. Obama's presidency is like driving a train rather than a car
it must run on its tracks. There is no instances of a declining world power meekly accepting its destiny and walking into the sunset. The US cannot give up on its global dominance without putting up a real fight. And the reality of all such momentous struggles is that they cannot be fought piece-meal. You cannot fight China without occupying Yemen.
Saturday, January 09, 2010
YEMEN
*Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), as this offshoot is called, is linked directly to the "core" group in Pakistan and it is now "one of the most lethal" affiliates
Saleh who controls about $70 million in aid for Yemen's military. It's a budget that could soon be at least doubled
the smart-alecky antics of Ali Abdullah Saleh have begun to seriously grate on Washington, it has been hopelessly ineffective at keeping Al Qaeda from infiltrating the country—and possibly even Yemen's own security services, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman breathlessly repeat warnings it is destined to become "tomorrow's war."
Xenophobic tribal culture, divided by seven local dialects, civil war in the north, separatist sentiment in the south, Yemen is part of the fluid, ever-shifting "Jihadistan", including neighboring countries like Somalia
Al Qaeda has also mutated into a franchised brand name that is no longer centrally directed, that inspired both Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the would-be bomber aboard Northwest Flight 253, and U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, this past fall.
Both men had links to Yemen and were in contact with Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric who foments jihad on the Internet and has long been hiding out in Yemen
Just before Christmas, Yemeni forces, targeting key Qaeda figures, including Awlaki. But Abdulelah Haider Shaya, a Yemeni journalist who is close to Al Qaeda, told NEWSWEEK that Awlaki survived. Both Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and Said Ali Al-Shihri, another key Qaeda figure in Yemen, also survived the strikes
Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi. In July Saleh met with Gen. David Petraeus. Al-Qirbi told, leaders agreed to "enhanced cooperation"
The island of Socotra, 200 miles off the Yemeni coast, will be beefed up to a full base in order to support the larger aid program as well as battle Somali pirates
Western officials want Saleh to compromise and end his civil war with a Shiite separatist tribe called the Houthis so he can concentrate on Al Qaeda
Friday, January 08, 2010
Changing the Story: Story-Based Strategies for Direct Action Design
Direct Action as Storytelling
Narrative Power Analysis
Direct Action at the Point of Assumption
Story-Based Strategy
1. Framing: Meta-Verbs and Action Logic
2. Characters: The Messenger is the Message
3. Show Don’t Tell: Engage with Values
4. Foreshadow: Tell The Future
Towards New Stories
Narrative Power Analysis
Direct Action at the Point of Assumption
Story-Based Strategy
1. Framing: Meta-Verbs and Action Logic
2. Characters: The Messenger is the Message
3. Show Don’t Tell: Engage with Values
4. Foreshadow: Tell The Future
Towards New Stories
Thursday, January 07, 2010
FAMILY OF SECRETS
Also learn:
* Why George H.W. Bush can’t remember where he was on November 22, 1963
* Why oilman George H.W. Bush shows up in early CIA documents
* The real story behind George W. Bush’s missing military service
* The inside scoop on the Bushes and Saudi influence in America
* The strange saga of Harvard University and its endowment
* The untold real story behind George W. Bush’s religious awakening
* Never before told anecdotes from George W. Bush’s wild past
* How the CIA monitors the White House and its occupants
* Why Barack Obama and his supporters should read this book
AND MUCH MUCH MORE
See also
YEMEN
Pentagon and US intelligence are moving to militarize a strategic chokepoint for the world’s oil flows, Bab el-Mandab
Abdulmutallab, reportedly has been talking, claiming he was sent on his mission by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen
In early 2009 Tariq al-Fadhli announced he was joining Southern Movement (SM)
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, southern Peoples’ Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY)
Unification ended in a brief civil war in 1994, corrupt crony state rule of northern Yemen with President Ali Abdullah Saleh
Southern army revolt failed as Saleh enlisted al-Fadhli. The recent break with Saleh by al-Fadhli and his joining the southern opposition group mark a major setback for Saleh.
After al-Fadhli joined the Southern Movement, April 28, 2009 protests in the southern Yemeni provinces of Lahj, Dalea and Hadramout intensified. The April demonstrations included for the first time a public appearance by al-Fadhli. His appearance served to change a long moribund southern socialist movement into a broader nationalist campaign
In the north Saleh faces an al-Houthi Zaydi Shi’ite rebellion. On September 11, 2009. Saleh accused Iraq’s Shi’ite opposition leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, and also Iran, of backing the north Yemen Shi’ite Houthist rebels
What about Al Qaeda?
In 2008 world oil prices collapsed. Saleh sits in former North Yemen in Sana’a, while the oil is in former South Yemen, buying off opposition impossible.
Into this chaotic picture, January 2009 announcement Al Qaeda new branch in Yemen, group’s leader Nasir al-Wahayshi. Also, former Guantanamo detainee (Number 372), Abu-Sayyaf al-Shihri, would serve as al-Wahayshi’s deputy
Days later al-Wahayshi appeared. "We Start from Here and We Will Meet at al-Aqsa."
Also a statement from Abu-al-Harith Muhammad al-Awfi a field commander and Guantanamo detainee 333. Real goal at Guantanamo to train or recruit sleeper terrorists.
Al Qaeda in Yemen is apparently anathema to al-Fadhli. al-Fadhli declared, "I have strong relations with all of the jihadists in the north and the south and everywhere, but not with al-Qaeda." there are a grand total of perhaps 200 Al Qaeda members in southern Yemen. Al-Fadhli gave an interview distancing himself from al Qaeda in May 2009. The same day, Al Qaeda made a large profile declaring its support for southern Yemen’s cause. On May 14 al-Wahayshi, leader of al Qaeda "What is happening in Lahaj, Dhali, Abyan and Hadramaut and the other southern provinces cannot be approved.
Obama has now offered military assistance to the Saleh Yemen government. Somali Pirates escalate as if on cue. As if on cue, at the same time Somalia pirate attacks escalated dramatically December 29. RAI Novosti reported Somali pirates seized a Greek cargo vessel in the Gulf of Aden. The same day a British-flagged chemical tanker were also seized in the Gulf of Aden. pirate commander Mohamed Shakir told The Times "We have hijacked... Stratfor, reports neo-conservative financial backer, Rupert Murdoch is sometimes used by Israeli intelligence to plant useful stories.
The open question is, who is providing the Somali "pirates" with arms and logistics sufficient to elude international patrols from numerous nations? On January 3, President Saleh got a phone call from Somali president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed told Saleh he would share information terror activities that might be launched from Somali territories targeting stability and security of Yemen and the region.
The Oil chokepoint and other oily affairs
Bab el-Mandab lists as seven strategic world oil shipping chokepoints an estimated 3.3 million barrels a day Bab el-Mandab would give Washington another major link in its pursuit of control of the seven critical oil chokepoints around the world, a major part of any future US strategy aimed at denying oil flows to China deter the Saudi Kingdom from
transacting oil sales no longer in dollars also threaten China’s oil transport from Port Sudan. In addition Yemen is reporte untapped oil reserves. Yemen’s Masila Basin and Shabwa Basin "world class discoveries."
Abdulmutallab, reportedly has been talking, claiming he was sent on his mission by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen
In early 2009 Tariq al-Fadhli announced he was joining Southern Movement (SM)
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, southern Peoples’ Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY)
Unification ended in a brief civil war in 1994, corrupt crony state rule of northern Yemen with President Ali Abdullah Saleh
Southern army revolt failed as Saleh enlisted al-Fadhli. The recent break with Saleh by al-Fadhli and his joining the southern opposition group mark a major setback for Saleh.
After al-Fadhli joined the Southern Movement, April 28, 2009 protests in the southern Yemeni provinces of Lahj, Dalea and Hadramout intensified. The April demonstrations included for the first time a public appearance by al-Fadhli. His appearance served to change a long moribund southern socialist movement into a broader nationalist campaign
In the north Saleh faces an al-Houthi Zaydi Shi’ite rebellion. On September 11, 2009. Saleh accused Iraq’s Shi’ite opposition leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, and also Iran, of backing the north Yemen Shi’ite Houthist rebels
What about Al Qaeda?
In 2008 world oil prices collapsed. Saleh sits in former North Yemen in Sana’a, while the oil is in former South Yemen, buying off opposition impossible.
Into this chaotic picture, January 2009 announcement Al Qaeda new branch in Yemen, group’s leader Nasir al-Wahayshi. Also, former Guantanamo detainee (Number 372), Abu-Sayyaf al-Shihri, would serve as al-Wahayshi’s deputy
Days later al-Wahayshi appeared. "We Start from Here and We Will Meet at al-Aqsa."
Also a statement from Abu-al-Harith Muhammad al-Awfi a field commander and Guantanamo detainee 333. Real goal at Guantanamo to train or recruit sleeper terrorists.
Al Qaeda in Yemen is apparently anathema to al-Fadhli. al-Fadhli declared, "I have strong relations with all of the jihadists in the north and the south and everywhere, but not with al-Qaeda." there are a grand total of perhaps 200 Al Qaeda members in southern Yemen. Al-Fadhli gave an interview distancing himself from al Qaeda in May 2009. The same day, Al Qaeda made a large profile declaring its support for southern Yemen’s cause. On May 14 al-Wahayshi, leader of al Qaeda "What is happening in Lahaj, Dhali, Abyan and Hadramaut and the other southern provinces cannot be approved.
Obama has now offered military assistance to the Saleh Yemen government. Somali Pirates escalate as if on cue. As if on cue, at the same time Somalia pirate attacks escalated dramatically December 29. RAI Novosti reported Somali pirates seized a Greek cargo vessel in the Gulf of Aden. The same day a British-flagged chemical tanker were also seized in the Gulf of Aden. pirate commander Mohamed Shakir told The Times "We have hijacked... Stratfor, reports neo-conservative financial backer, Rupert Murdoch is sometimes used by Israeli intelligence to plant useful stories.
The open question is, who is providing the Somali "pirates" with arms and logistics sufficient to elude international patrols from numerous nations? On January 3, President Saleh got a phone call from Somali president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed told Saleh he would share information terror activities that might be launched from Somali territories targeting stability and security of Yemen and the region.
The Oil chokepoint and other oily affairs
Bab el-Mandab lists as seven strategic world oil shipping chokepoints an estimated 3.3 million barrels a day Bab el-Mandab would give Washington another major link in its pursuit of control of the seven critical oil chokepoints around the world, a major part of any future US strategy aimed at denying oil flows to China deter the Saudi Kingdom from
transacting oil sales no longer in dollars also threaten China’s oil transport from Port Sudan. In addition Yemen is reporte untapped oil reserves. Yemen’s Masila Basin and Shabwa Basin "world class discoveries."
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
JFK, DULLES AND RAY MCGOVERN
Did Allen Dulles and other “cloak-and-dagger” CIA operatives have a hand in killing President Kennedy and then covering it up? The most up-to-date—and, in my view, the best—dissection of the assassination appeared last year in James Douglass’ book, JFK and the Unspeakable. After updating and arraying the abundant evidence, and conducting still more interviews, Douglass concludes the answer is Yes.
Ray McGovern was an Army officer and CIA analyst for almost 30 year. He now serves on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. He is a contributor to Imperial Crusades: Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair (Verso). He can be reached at:Monday, January 04, 2010
QUESTIONS
Griffin stated quite clearly on the program: "There are all sorts of possible theories as to what happened. You don't have to come up with an alternative theory to show that the 'official' theory is very problematic."
Berlet countered by saying, "It's not good to believe in conspiracies that cannot be proven by available evidence." But this principle does not take into account the prevalent role of cover-ups in these types of operations (such as this one being perpetrated by the US Government), which prevents potentially enlightening evidence from ever being examined.
Some more notable examples include the
Berlet's approach to discrediting "conspiracy theory" reinforces what can be called the "disbelief" factor, as in
Griffin did end up writing a lengthy response to Berlet's misleading critique,
Berlet countered by saying, "It's not good to believe in conspiracies that cannot be proven by available evidence." But this principle does not take into account the prevalent role of cover-ups in these types of operations (such as this one being perpetrated by the US Government), which prevents potentially enlightening evidence from ever being examined.
Some more notable examples include the
- total failure of air defenses and
- the role of hijack-based "war games" exercises taking place that morning,
- the admitted controlled-demolition of Building 7 which had to have been pre-wired,
- all the steel from the Twin Towers which was immediately shipped to China without being studied,
- all the video footage of the Pentagon strike which was promptly seized by the FBI (even though disclosure would have put an end to all the wild "no plane, missile strike" theories of Meyssan and others), and
- the notes from the now infamous closed-door Bush/Cheney "visit" with the 9/11 Commission, which were promptly confiscated.
Berlet's approach to discrediting "conspiracy theory" reinforces what can be called the "disbelief" factor, as in
- "I just can't believe that the Bush Administration/US Government/Americans/people would do such a thing!" Although this knee-jerk emotional response is understandable and easily explainable within the context of human psychology, it does not amount to a logical defense of the "official" story. In the absence of any substantive debate, another psychological factor operated alongside the "disbelief" factor: As Griffin states,
- "the Bush administration created a halo over 9/11, so it became not only unpatriotic, but almost sacrilegious to raise any questions."
Griffin did end up writing a lengthy response to Berlet's misleading critique,
LEFT GATEKEEPERS
The Gatekeepers of the So-Called Left
- by Charles Shaw ©, May 16th, 2005 (originally published here on May 3rd)
United for Peace and Justice
investigative report "The Left Gatekeepers", journalist Bob Feldman
CIA, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, and even the much-maligned Carlyle Group
Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11,
UFPJ Steering Committee
Medea Benjamin, and Leslie Cagan
UFPJ's National Director
Medea Benjamin and Kevin Danaher
MacArthur Foundation
George Soros
Code Pink Women for Peace, and Danaher's Green Festivals
Green Party
"ABB" movement—Anybody But Bush
one hundred-thirteen member "Nader 2000 Citizens Committee"
David Cobb
Leslie Cagan's Pacifica Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Working Assets
George Soros
Ford Foundation
Astraea
Peace Action
Working Assets
(the last year UFPJ published their financial statements
(the last year UFPJ published their financial statements
Funding Exchange
Trading with the Enemy, Charles Hingham
Council on Foreign Relations, and David Rockefeller was cofounder of the Trilateral Commission.
"Carter Doctrine" of the late 1970s
(CFR)
United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization (WTO), and NATO
enigmatic Bilderberg Group
Progressive Democrats of America
Peter Camejo wrote in an open letter to the Green Party,
"regulated resistance"
refusal to report
possible US government involvement in 9/11, and the relationship between the Bush family and the Nazi regime in Germany
the corporate media has never once challenged the "official" story.
raq settled comfortably into its role as "Bush handmaiden and peace movement disciplinarian."
raq settled comfortably into its role as "Bush handmaiden and peace movement disciplinarian."
The 9/11 Truth movement
May 26th, 2004, when, Amy Goodman
agreed to host prominent theologian David Ray Griffin
relentless "Waking Amy" campaign organized by Emanuel Sferios of the 9/11 Visibility Project.
Goodman abruptly
"anti-conspiracist" Chip Berlet
Political Research Associates
French researcher Thierry Meyssan
"straw man argument"
Bush/Cheney "visit" with the 9/11 Commission
Emanuel Sferios
"conspiracy theory movement."
David Corn and Norman Solomon
MacArthur-funded Nation
MacArthur-funded Nation
William Casey, and the Manhattan Institute,
Heuval's father was involved in "Operation Mockingbird",
Solomon is the Director of the Institute for Public Accuracy in Washington
FAIR
Bush Family and the Nazi Party during the 1930's, 40's, and early 50's
John Buchanan
"Bush—Nazi Dealings Continued Until 1951" in his 2004 book, Fixing America: Breaking the Stranglehold of Corporate Rule, Big Media, and the Religious Right.
A. Averell Harriman of Brown Brothers Harriman
Fritz Thyssen
Union Banking Corporation
Silesian-American Corporation
slave-labor from the Auschwitz
The Guardian of London
Katrina vanden Heuvel, and her assistant Peggy Suttles
Don Hazen, a founder of alt-media online syndicate, Alternet,
Norman Solomon, a regular op-ed
Center for American Progress, a George Soros-funded
John Podesta
former Nazis
Michael Novick of the Anti-Racist Action network
501(c)3/NGO/not-for-profit corporate model has been the death of popular movements and authentic resistance
501(c)3/NGO/not-for-profit corporate model has been the death of popular movements and authentic resistance
vacuumed up the flotsam and jetsam of the resistance movements of the 60s and 70s
'anti-war movement'
women's movement
Black and Chicano liberation
"Left Gatekeepers" chart go here
FINKLESTEIN AND LIBERATION THEOLOGY
Before I adduce what I think are other unmentioned, if not hidden, seminal factors contributing to this dismissal
Dr. Finkelstein has made significant contributions in the fields of Zionism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and established, almost single-handedly, the field of critical Holocaust studies, work which required considerable courage as it is contrary to the political position of the United States and the Israeli/Zionist lobby
His critique connected anti-Semitism and the Holocaust to Zionist protectionism with respect to Palestinians. For decades Israel and its apologists have insisted that a critique of Israeli policies and practices is always a cover-up for a deeply-seated and incorrigible anti-Semitism, the very same poison that led to the Holocaust. Thus anyone criticizing Israel, the Jewish state, is ipso facto an anti-Semite who wishes to bring about second Holocaust upon the Jewish people. The Roman Catholic Church has been in the Jewish firing line for decades
continuing to be charged with both a historical and an enduring anti-Semitism. That there was both collaboration between the Church and some Nazis
Of course it is also true that the Church and many of its members were persecuted by the Nazis, is not politically advantageous to the Zionists
another three factors connected to this scandal
Two are intra-Catholic issues: the issue of Catholic university autonomy and the issue and status of liberation theology. The third issue concerns the Church leadership and political Islam. The former may explain how the firing took place, as well as indicate future positions that will be taken in Catholic universities, while the latter two provide two reasons for it
Until 1991, a Catholic university enjoyed full autonomy as an independent institution
In 1991, Pope John Paul II issued his Apostolic Constitution on Catholic Universities, known by its introductory latin phrase, Ex Corde Ecclesiae--from the heart of the Church
Two examples stand out
During the
Pope John Paul II, Prof. Fr. Hans Küng, at Tübingen University in Germany had his faculties as a Catholic theologian removed by Rome for daring to question the issue of papal infallibility, while Prof. Fr. Charles Curran, teaching about homosexuality in a questioning and opening manner that did not contradict any infallible statements made by the Pope, was dismissed from the pontifical Catholic university in Washington DC
The Finkelstein affaire seems to justify the deep felt fear of those who were originally against Ex Corde Ecclesiae and in a manner possibly more insidious than originally suspected
no longer confined to arcane doctrinal issues
but to issues of the wider political arena, which the Church hierarchy will either promote or defeat, depending on how it assesses its interests,
how the Church leadership is positioning itself in this changing world. Dr. Finkelstein's work, both academic and political, relates indirectly to the doctrinal issue of liberation theology
Rome had both condemned its focus, its approach and methods and some of its leading exponents
it has recently begun to raise its head once again
the state of affairs
has worsened exponentially in the more than two decades since it was first censured
it has now been explicitly referred to in the political arena of the new governments
in South America
and whose programs are threatening the status quo determined by the US
What was and is Roman Catholic liberation theology? And how does it affect Dr. Finkelstein?
the Roman Catholic Church
church of the empire, has been aligned with the rich and the powerful, or what is called at times "law and order
With respect to the poor, the underprivileged and the oppressed
it developed the giving of alms
to relieve their suffering
With the development of sociology in the nineteenth century by Marx
and the modern phenomenon of an urban proletariat in the industrializing cities
a social phenomenon dependent upon capitalism
a new understanding of
poor
to understand the
poor either as a class, or as a level of society that was the outcome of particular political and social powers, institutions and structures.
Popes have condemned capitalism
they have completely shied away from taking any positions
liberation theology began to flourish after Vatican II
Church's confident entry into modern life breaking with its traditional, conservative, pre-modern, pre-industrial and pre-urban past
Vatican II took place both in the wake of, and during the time which the liberation movements in Africa and Asia brought about the dismantlement of the old empires
which surged visions of freedom and development for
populations
experienced oppression, deprivation and dispossession under the yoke of colonialism.
Liberation theology
went far beyond traditional metaphysical doctrines in its search of liberation of the individual. It recognized that if poverty, deprivation and oppression were the material conditions of a person's life
set as its goal to analyze the society in which such
Using Marxist tools of analysis, these studies revealed that these social conditions of poverty were the deliberate and predictable results of the structures and institutions of capitalist society, and not mere accidents
not as backward, incompetent lazy people, who brought their fate upon themselves, but rather as victims of institutional violence
"preferential option for the poor"
The focus of salvation swung
to consciousness-raising of the poo
the poor began to be empowered by running their own lives
Given that South America's economies were dominated by a capitalist United States
Two historical events occurred
to bring to a halt the spread of liberation theology
election of Pope John Paul II in 1978, and his appointment, in 1981, of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Both men were intractably anti-Communist
identified Marxism with the communism of the Soviet Unio
Pope from his experience living in Communist Poland
Cardinal Ratzinger as a result of the student uprising in Tübingen University in 1968
placing him firmly on the right in the conservative camp
the conservation of those structures of power that already exist for the sake of order
late 1970's, first under Carter
then under Reagan
began covert persecutions of political liberation movements, informed by liberation theology, in Central and South America, in particular Nicaragua and then El Salvador
collapse of the Somoza regime
result of the exposure of its huge corruption
to the funds that had poured into the country to aid in the reconstruction, following an earthquake that devastated the capital Managua
failure of a rightist, repressive, pro-US government to take power
The Sandinistas, with Catholic priests in leadership positions, espoused a political program to benefit the poor through government programs for literacy, medical care, housing, etc. and aided by Cuba, led the struggle for power in Nicaragua and won
In El Salvador, the violence
was being exposed by
Archbishop Oscar Romero
the horror of the violence brought about his political conversion
adopting a liberation theology stance, he used his church
in the struggle against the government's violence
Reagan government saw the liberation movements as being against the interests of the US
he labeled them both "communist" and "terrorist"
Rome began to seriously question liberation theology
at this time, the non-Communist trade union in Poland, led by Lech Walesa, was being supported openly by the Pope
contributed to the collapse of Communism in Poland
This assault led, in 1984, to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under Ratzinger, issuing its first Instruction against liberation theology
many theologians were persecuted
the defection
Leonardo Boff, one of the leading Brazilian liberation theologians
liberation theology has come back to haunt
by politicians
most recent theologian to be condemned is Fr. Jon Sobrino, sj
In December, 2006, the Congregation
under its new prefect
the American, William Joseph Cardinal Levada, appointed by Pope Benedict XVI
issued a Notification
that have no bearing on the life of an ordinary Catholic, let alone
all those who have joined their ranks as a result of the unchecked, rapacious, capitalist imperialist policies of the US, Europe and their client states, such as Israel.
What served as the provocation at this time?
the Church does not act
without a policy
immediate effect of this censure on Sobrino
removed his teaching faculty
given the historical context, there is a much broader thrust
Sobrino is a Basque
teaching in the Jesuit University
in San Salvador, El Salvador, where four Jesuits, with whom he was living, were killed by an assassination squad in 1989
as part of the US supported murderous political repression of indigenous political liberation movements
Sobrino escaped
only because he was out of the country
Sobrino continued his work in liberation theology
a focus which is reflected in these new regimes in South America
It comes at a period when indigenous governments are actually standing up
First and foremost
Hugo Chavez
Rafael Correa
Evo Morales
Luis da Silva
Michelle Bachelet
Chavez has not hesitated to call upon the Jesus of liberation theology in support of his socio-political goals
domino effect
phrase coined by Chomsky
the "threat of a good example"
to wrest their fate out of the rapacious grip of US capitalism
This is what happened with Saddam Hussein who had both modernized and strengthened Iraq
regional power
influencing the surrounding countries
the confrontation of power that is lining up in South America is not for amateurs
the very highest stakes
control of resource and markets.
the intention of Sobrino's censure is to condemn these new leftist leaders
while aligning the Church
with the US
the problem for Dr. Finkelstein is that in the context of Palestine/Israel, he has addressed the same questions that liberation theology addresses, and has also taken the side of the "poor and the oppressed."
the same damning assessment of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians and its ally, the US, as liberation theology draws about the oppressive regimes of Central and South America and their ties with the US.
It has not been remarked that there is an almost virtual identity of the repressive and violent Central and South American governments and the repressive and violent Israeli government
These governments
have not hesitated to conduct attacks in neighboring countries
it would not be unreasonable to expect progressive Arab and Palestinian movements to begin to make common cause with forces with the progressive governments of South America,
This nexus continues to maintain that Zionism is not colonialism, is not an integral part of the capitalist-imperialist hegemonic outreach in the Middle East, nor is it a loyal client for other capitalist ventures, eg Iran-Contra affair
to maintain the bluff of a legitimate Jewish state in Palestine, the Zionist/Holocaust narrative is promoted
with full force
Norman Finkelstein has challenged these positions
also
one of its supreme spokesmen, Alan Dershowitz
at this critical juncture in world politics
is what caused De Paul University
to either go along
The third factor
It is
a well-known fact that "Islamic fundamentalists" were invented originally by the US, in order to discredit and prevent the spread of Arab democratic secularism, which spearheaded Arab liberation movements. They naturally posed a threat to the capitalist, imperialist ambitions, particularly in the oil-rich Middle East, just in the same manner as the South American liberationist governments are doing at this time
it turns out that the Islamic liberationist movements are no less anti-US than the secular democratic ones were and therefore have been attacked
This anti-Islamic stance
has found a very deep resonance in the pronouncements of Pope Benedict XVI
He called Islam a "violent" religion
contrasting it
peaceful Christianity
Europe is a "Christian" continen
inappropriate
for Turkey, a Muslim country, to join the European Union
this condemnation of Islam finds a resonance in attitudes towards Palestine, where the democratically elected Islamic Hamas government has been attacked and mortally undermined by Israel, the US and Europe
Hamas was elected because of the corruption of the pro-Western Fatah leadership
Hamas seems to function in Palestine pretty much as liberation theology functions in South America
serving society at its most basic level
providing material and communal services, while condemning the US-backed Israeli onslaught
Christians that many of them voted for Hamas because they are not corrupt and have been serving the people who they say they represent
Thus we have several interests converging in the demise of Dr. Finkelstein: the loss of autonomy of Catholic universities, the anti-liberationist position of the Church and its lining up with Western capitalist global interests and an anti-Islamic stance which harks back to a xenophobia one would have wished had disappeared from the world. Is it any wonder, then, that Dr. Finkelstein was booted from De Paul Catholic University?
Dr. Finkelstein has made significant contributions in the fields of Zionism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and established, almost single-handedly, the field of critical Holocaust studies, work which required considerable courage as it is contrary to the political position of the United States and the Israeli/Zionist lobby
His critique connected anti-Semitism and the Holocaust to Zionist protectionism with respect to Palestinians. For decades Israel and its apologists have insisted that a critique of Israeli policies and practices is always a cover-up for a deeply-seated and incorrigible anti-Semitism, the very same poison that led to the Holocaust. Thus anyone criticizing Israel, the Jewish state, is ipso facto an anti-Semite who wishes to bring about second Holocaust upon the Jewish people. The Roman Catholic Church has been in the Jewish firing line for decades
continuing to be charged with both a historical and an enduring anti-Semitism. That there was both collaboration between the Church and some Nazis
Of course it is also true that the Church and many of its members were persecuted by the Nazis, is not politically advantageous to the Zionists
another three factors connected to this scandal
Two are intra-Catholic issues: the issue of Catholic university autonomy and the issue and status of liberation theology. The third issue concerns the Church leadership and political Islam. The former may explain how the firing took place, as well as indicate future positions that will be taken in Catholic universities, while the latter two provide two reasons for it
Until 1991, a Catholic university enjoyed full autonomy as an independent institution
In 1991, Pope John Paul II issued his Apostolic Constitution on Catholic Universities, known by its introductory latin phrase, Ex Corde Ecclesiae--from the heart of the Church
Two examples stand out
During the
Pope John Paul II, Prof. Fr. Hans Küng, at Tübingen University in Germany had his faculties as a Catholic theologian removed by Rome for daring to question the issue of papal infallibility, while Prof. Fr. Charles Curran, teaching about homosexuality in a questioning and opening manner that did not contradict any infallible statements made by the Pope, was dismissed from the pontifical Catholic university in Washington DC
The Finkelstein affaire seems to justify the deep felt fear of those who were originally against Ex Corde Ecclesiae and in a manner possibly more insidious than originally suspected
no longer confined to arcane doctrinal issues
but to issues of the wider political arena, which the Church hierarchy will either promote or defeat, depending on how it assesses its interests,
how the Church leadership is positioning itself in this changing world. Dr. Finkelstein's work, both academic and political, relates indirectly to the doctrinal issue of liberation theology
Rome had both condemned its focus, its approach and methods and some of its leading exponents
it has recently begun to raise its head once again
the state of affairs
has worsened exponentially in the more than two decades since it was first censured
it has now been explicitly referred to in the political arena of the new governments
in South America
and whose programs are threatening the status quo determined by the US
What was and is Roman Catholic liberation theology? And how does it affect Dr. Finkelstein?
the Roman Catholic Church
church of the empire, has been aligned with the rich and the powerful, or what is called at times "law and order
With respect to the poor, the underprivileged and the oppressed
it developed the giving of alms
to relieve their suffering
With the development of sociology in the nineteenth century by Marx
and the modern phenomenon of an urban proletariat in the industrializing cities
a social phenomenon dependent upon capitalism
a new understanding of
poor
to understand the
poor either as a class, or as a level of society that was the outcome of particular political and social powers, institutions and structures.
Popes have condemned capitalism
they have completely shied away from taking any positions
liberation theology began to flourish after Vatican II
Church's confident entry into modern life breaking with its traditional, conservative, pre-modern, pre-industrial and pre-urban past
Vatican II took place both in the wake of, and during the time which the liberation movements in Africa and Asia brought about the dismantlement of the old empires
which surged visions of freedom and development for
populations
experienced oppression, deprivation and dispossession under the yoke of colonialism.
Liberation theology
went far beyond traditional metaphysical doctrines in its search of liberation of the individual. It recognized that if poverty, deprivation and oppression were the material conditions of a person's life
set as its goal to analyze the society in which such
Using Marxist tools of analysis, these studies revealed that these social conditions of poverty were the deliberate and predictable results of the structures and institutions of capitalist society, and not mere accidents
not as backward, incompetent lazy people, who brought their fate upon themselves, but rather as victims of institutional violence
"preferential option for the poor"
The focus of salvation swung
to consciousness-raising of the poo
the poor began to be empowered by running their own lives
Given that South America's economies were dominated by a capitalist United States
Two historical events occurred
to bring to a halt the spread of liberation theology
election of Pope John Paul II in 1978, and his appointment, in 1981, of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Both men were intractably anti-Communist
identified Marxism with the communism of the Soviet Unio
Pope from his experience living in Communist Poland
Cardinal Ratzinger as a result of the student uprising in Tübingen University in 1968
placing him firmly on the right in the conservative camp
the conservation of those structures of power that already exist for the sake of order
late 1970's, first under Carter
then under Reagan
began covert persecutions of political liberation movements, informed by liberation theology, in Central and South America, in particular Nicaragua and then El Salvador
collapse of the Somoza regime
result of the exposure of its huge corruption
to the funds that had poured into the country to aid in the reconstruction, following an earthquake that devastated the capital Managua
failure of a rightist, repressive, pro-US government to take power
The Sandinistas, with Catholic priests in leadership positions, espoused a political program to benefit the poor through government programs for literacy, medical care, housing, etc. and aided by Cuba, led the struggle for power in Nicaragua and won
In El Salvador, the violence
was being exposed by
Archbishop Oscar Romero
the horror of the violence brought about his political conversion
adopting a liberation theology stance, he used his church
in the struggle against the government's violence
Reagan government saw the liberation movements as being against the interests of the US
he labeled them both "communist" and "terrorist"
Rome began to seriously question liberation theology
at this time, the non-Communist trade union in Poland, led by Lech Walesa, was being supported openly by the Pope
contributed to the collapse of Communism in Poland
This assault led, in 1984, to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under Ratzinger, issuing its first Instruction against liberation theology
many theologians were persecuted
the defection
Leonardo Boff, one of the leading Brazilian liberation theologians
liberation theology has come back to haunt
by politicians
most recent theologian to be condemned is Fr. Jon Sobrino, sj
In December, 2006, the Congregation
under its new prefect
the American, William Joseph Cardinal Levada, appointed by Pope Benedict XVI
issued a Notification
that have no bearing on the life of an ordinary Catholic, let alone
all those who have joined their ranks as a result of the unchecked, rapacious, capitalist imperialist policies of the US, Europe and their client states, such as Israel.
What served as the provocation at this time?
the Church does not act
without a policy
immediate effect of this censure on Sobrino
removed his teaching faculty
given the historical context, there is a much broader thrust
Sobrino is a Basque
teaching in the Jesuit University
in San Salvador, El Salvador, where four Jesuits, with whom he was living, were killed by an assassination squad in 1989
as part of the US supported murderous political repression of indigenous political liberation movements
Sobrino escaped
only because he was out of the country
Sobrino continued his work in liberation theology
a focus which is reflected in these new regimes in South America
It comes at a period when indigenous governments are actually standing up
First and foremost
Hugo Chavez
Rafael Correa
Evo Morales
Luis da Silva
Michelle Bachelet
Chavez has not hesitated to call upon the Jesus of liberation theology in support of his socio-political goals
domino effect
phrase coined by Chomsky
the "threat of a good example"
to wrest their fate out of the rapacious grip of US capitalism
This is what happened with Saddam Hussein who had both modernized and strengthened Iraq
regional power
influencing the surrounding countries
the confrontation of power that is lining up in South America is not for amateurs
the very highest stakes
control of resource and markets.
the intention of Sobrino's censure is to condemn these new leftist leaders
while aligning the Church
with the US
the problem for Dr. Finkelstein is that in the context of Palestine/Israel, he has addressed the same questions that liberation theology addresses, and has also taken the side of the "poor and the oppressed."
the same damning assessment of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians and its ally, the US, as liberation theology draws about the oppressive regimes of Central and South America and their ties with the US.
It has not been remarked that there is an almost virtual identity of the repressive and violent Central and South American governments and the repressive and violent Israeli government
These governments
have not hesitated to conduct attacks in neighboring countries
it would not be unreasonable to expect progressive Arab and Palestinian movements to begin to make common cause with forces with the progressive governments of South America,
This nexus continues to maintain that Zionism is not colonialism, is not an integral part of the capitalist-imperialist hegemonic outreach in the Middle East, nor is it a loyal client for other capitalist ventures, eg Iran-Contra affair
to maintain the bluff of a legitimate Jewish state in Palestine, the Zionist/Holocaust narrative is promoted
with full force
Norman Finkelstein has challenged these positions
also
one of its supreme spokesmen, Alan Dershowitz
at this critical juncture in world politics
is what caused De Paul University
to either go along
The third factor
It is
a well-known fact that "Islamic fundamentalists" were invented originally by the US, in order to discredit and prevent the spread of Arab democratic secularism, which spearheaded Arab liberation movements. They naturally posed a threat to the capitalist, imperialist ambitions, particularly in the oil-rich Middle East, just in the same manner as the South American liberationist governments are doing at this time
it turns out that the Islamic liberationist movements are no less anti-US than the secular democratic ones were and therefore have been attacked
This anti-Islamic stance
has found a very deep resonance in the pronouncements of Pope Benedict XVI
He called Islam a "violent" religion
contrasting it
peaceful Christianity
Europe is a "Christian" continen
inappropriate
for Turkey, a Muslim country, to join the European Union
this condemnation of Islam finds a resonance in attitudes towards Palestine, where the democratically elected Islamic Hamas government has been attacked and mortally undermined by Israel, the US and Europe
Hamas was elected because of the corruption of the pro-Western Fatah leadership
Hamas seems to function in Palestine pretty much as liberation theology functions in South America
serving society at its most basic level
providing material and communal services, while condemning the US-backed Israeli onslaught
Christians that many of them voted for Hamas because they are not corrupt and have been serving the people who they say they represent
Thus we have several interests converging in the demise of Dr. Finkelstein: the loss of autonomy of Catholic universities, the anti-liberationist position of the Church and its lining up with Western capitalist global interests and an anti-Islamic stance which harks back to a xenophobia one would have wished had disappeared from the world. Is it any wonder, then, that Dr. Finkelstein was booted from De Paul Catholic University?
BOMBING GAZA LYNDA BRAYER
January 4, 2010
Bombing Gaza
Revenge and Retaliation
By LYNDA BRAYER
over the past five days Israeli F-16 fighters have bombed Gaza City while tanks and missiles targeted several other areas in the Gaza strip of Palestine
Israelis attempted to assassinate the secretary-general of the PRC, the Palestinian Resistance Committee
co-ordinated with the timing of the Gaza Freedom March
directed against the Declaration in Cairo of the Gaza Freedom March both condemning the siege and demanding its lifting
taken
against those who dared to speak out and demonstrate against the continuing Israeli murderous siege of Gaza
one cannot help but be reminded of the Zionist/Holocaust voices continuing to condemn the silence ordinary people maintained the face of the mass extermination of European Jewry during WWII
the fate of the Jewish woman from Breslau, the philosopher Edith Stein
main assistants of the philosopher Edward Husserl
forerunner of Martin Heidegger
who developed
phenomenology
which grounded one's
understanding of life within material existence, rather than in ideal, conceptual notions – an approach to human life not much different from historical materialism
She converted in 1922 to Roman Catholicism
enter religious life in 1933, becoming the Roman Catholic Carmelite nun Sister Teresa Benedicta in the Carmel of Cologne, St Maria von Frieden
rise of the Nazis
she and her sister Rosa
were transferred to the Carmel Convent in Echt, Holland
On July 20, 1942, the Dutch Bishops' Conference issued a statement which was read in all the churches condemning Nazi racism
on July 26, 1942, the Nazi government of occupied Holland, Reichkommissar Arthur Seyss-Inquart, ordered the arrest of all Jewish converts who had previously been spared from deportation. Stein and her sister Rosa were arrested and deported to Auschwitz on August 9, 1942, where they met their death.
Lynda Brayer is an Israeli human rights lawyer who represented Palestinians in the Israeli High Court of Justice for twelve years.
http://www.counterpunch.org/brayer07032007.html
JEWISH BLOGGERS
If you live in the Chicago area, I’ll be speaking with two of the best bloggers around – Cecilie Surasky from MuzzleWatch and Rabbi Brant Rosen from Shalom Rav – next weekend in Oak Park, IL. The event is being organized by the Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine. Hope to see you there.
OBL'S FULL BODY SCANS
Think about it. One angry young man with about three ounces (around 80 grams) of explosive material, $2,000, and a pair of specially tailored underwear has completely disrupted the US aviation system.
It does not even matter that he failed to blow up the plane.
The costs associated with preventing the next attack from succeeding will measure in the tens of billions of dollars
Will the US ramp up its efforts in a new country each time there is an attempted attack, putting US "boots on the ground" against an enemy that is impossible to defeat?
Such a policy would fulfill al-Qaeda's wildest dreams, as the US suffers death by a thousand cuts, bleeding out in an ever wider web of interconnected and unsustainable global conflicts.
The rampant poverty, corruption and violence that
plague Nigeria are an inheritance of British rule
built up on centuries of slave raiding and trading
It took decades after the end of the British empire for the impact of British colonialism in South Asia and Africa to blow back onto British soil. The US has not even finished her imperial moment and it has already arrived.
"Yemen's government is corrupt and repressive," the paper intoned. "But President Ali Abdullah Saleh seems to want to cooperate."
The world's paper of record is utterly clueless as to the intimate link between the corruption and oppression of the Yemeni government and its willingness to "cooperate" with the US, and the roots of radicalism in Yemen.
press
Obama
re unwilling to recognise the inextricable ties between oppression, poverty, corruption and violence by governments like Nigeria and Yemen, and the rise of religiously grounded extremism and violence there, then its increasing foot- or boot-print there will strengthen rather than weaken al-Qaeda and similar movements
Invasive frisking of the most intimate areas
full body scans
Salafi perspective an almost unbearable
indignity -one they will surely relish seeing millions of the enemy routinely suffer, especially when such violations mirror the daily indignities and sexual humiliation infamously suffered by inmates in Guantanamo and other US-run prisons.
Call it a politics or strategy of shame
which will erode support for the 'war on terror' from within even as Western governments strengthen their ties to oppressive front line states.
Osama bin Laden could not have planned it better if he tried.
Mark LeVine
Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University, Sweden
It does not even matter that he failed to blow up the plane.
The costs associated with preventing the next attack from succeeding will measure in the tens of billions of dollars
Will the US ramp up its efforts in a new country each time there is an attempted attack, putting US "boots on the ground" against an enemy that is impossible to defeat?
Such a policy would fulfill al-Qaeda's wildest dreams, as the US suffers death by a thousand cuts, bleeding out in an ever wider web of interconnected and unsustainable global conflicts.
The rampant poverty, corruption and violence that
plague Nigeria are an inheritance of British rule
built up on centuries of slave raiding and trading
It took decades after the end of the British empire for the impact of British colonialism in South Asia and Africa to blow back onto British soil. The US has not even finished her imperial moment and it has already arrived.
"Yemen's government is corrupt and repressive," the paper intoned. "But President Ali Abdullah Saleh seems to want to cooperate."
The world's paper of record is utterly clueless as to the intimate link between the corruption and oppression of the Yemeni government and its willingness to "cooperate" with the US, and the roots of radicalism in Yemen.
press
Obama
re unwilling to recognise the inextricable ties between oppression, poverty, corruption and violence by governments like Nigeria and Yemen, and the rise of religiously grounded extremism and violence there, then its increasing foot- or boot-print there will strengthen rather than weaken al-Qaeda and similar movements
Invasive frisking of the most intimate areas
full body scans
Salafi perspective an almost unbearable
indignity -one they will surely relish seeing millions of the enemy routinely suffer, especially when such violations mirror the daily indignities and sexual humiliation infamously suffered by inmates in Guantanamo and other US-run prisons.
Call it a politics or strategy of shame
which will erode support for the 'war on terror' from within even as Western governments strengthen their ties to oppressive front line states.
Osama bin Laden could not have planned it better if he tried.
Mark LeVine
Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University, Sweden
AFGHANISTAN POT
The reality on the ground.This is what American troops have to deal with on the ground,unmotivated,lazy,Afghan istan troops.This is what's actually going on in the field. What kind of psychopathic...
http://www.warisboring.com/?p=2937
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/12/video-afghanistans-toking-troops-not-exactly-battle-ready/
Top NATO commander General Stanley McChrystal calls training local soldiers and cops “our main effort” in Afghanistan. But whipping recruits into shape is a whole lot harder when they’re stoned out of their minds.
“You walk into a whole squad of ANA [Afghan National Army] smoking hashish. They don’t understand that the use of drugs, it effects the way that they accomplish their mission,” says one disgusted marine. “Soldiers come out without helmets, soldiers come out missing a lot of gear.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/22/afghan-armys-hashish-smok_n_400441.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/mar/27/obama-afghanistan-military
THE GREAT GAME 2009
the efforts of Moscow and India to blunt China's soft-power push into Russia's "near beyond" - the oil and gas-rich former Soviet republics
India's opportunistic decision to play the "Great Game" on the cheap - piggybacking the military
and diplomatic presence of Moscow and Washington in selected pro-Russian and pro-Western states in Central Asia to score points off its rivals China and Pakistan
Indian Air Force base in, of all places, Mongolia.
thwarting of India's signature piece of air-base diplomacy - in
Tajikistan
Russia-India strategic partnership looks like a bad marriage
unwittingly reveal their inadequacies.
The joint communique
Beyond irking Beijing and creating an additional counterweight to China
an attempt to gain vitally needed support from a credible, emerging superpower for Moscow's faltering security doctrine.
Russia has been laboring with scant success to leverage its potential utility on Afghanistan
Putin succumbed to
Georgia's
provocations (and the West's
orchestration of the
independence of Kosovo) with overwhelming force in 2008
Russia won the war but no overt backing from ex-Soviet states
attempts to build a culture of dependency on Russian military might and arms sales
India
has endured legendary difficulties
with Moscow
Russia's anxiety has increased exponentially as India enjoys its new strategic partnership - and the potential for arms sales - with the United States instead
Russia struggles with its diplomatic isolation
success
China - the SCO.
formed
resisting both US-sponsored color revolutions
and brutal Islamicist insurgencies
to China's control of its restive Muslim autonomous region of Xinjiang did not take root in the region
the point of the SCO is multi-lateral economic and security integration that creates a profitable, stable, and strategically friendly backyard for China
China has resisted calls to use the SCO as the basis for a military alliance.
shaped by awareness that any military organization would be dominated by the Russians
and attract the
overwhelmingly hostile interest of the US
China is very anxious to keep a lid on things in Central Asia
to the aggrieved Uyghur separatists of Xinjiang
SCO has a
office in Tashkent
combating the "three evils" of terrorism, extremism and separatism
Beijing's vision
to demonstrate the advantages of stable, pro-Chinese regimes
October meeting of SCO
China
reiterated a pledge of $10 billion
ride out the global financial crisis
China's extensive economic penetration of Central Asia is a matter of public record.
bank of the Amu Darya River on December 14
China, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan turned the valves
30 billion cubic meters per annum
to Xinjiang
multi-national project
distinction between promoting regional integration and assembling a geopolitical bloc
Turkmenistan now has a major alternative
to Russia's contentious and overbearing Gazprom
"China's gas supply from Turkmenistan" published on December 28, 2009, by Hurriyet Daily News
The additional bargaining power Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan gained from diversifying their energy export routes, thanks to the Chinese assistance, strengthens their political and economic independence and reinforces regional stability and security and that achievement deserves recognition.
Russia's riposte
to assert the existence of an existential narcotics and Islamicist security crisis in Central Asia
can only be resolved with
Russian military muscle.
Russia has been able to enlist India
firmly committed to the civilization-versus-terror narrative courtesy of its burgeoning partnership with the US
Russia and India share
strategic interests in Afghanistan
that conflicts with China's desire to let the Pashtuns sort things out
eye of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence
Russia hopes to leverage
Afghan
into an acceptance of Moscow's security leadership by Stans vulnerable to
Islamic militancy
India recognizes any victory by pro-Pakistan Pashtun factions
as a defeat for its efforts to distract and bedevil Pakistan.
This shared interest
joint statement of Manmohan and
Medvedev
to preclude negotiating with the Taliban insurgency
the
centerpiece of the US strategy
political settlement and depart
[Russia and India] agree that the fight against terrorism cannot be selective, and drawing false distinctions between 'good' and 'bad' Taliban would be counter-productive."
a meaningful alliance
founder on the collision between Moscow's crude anti-diplomacy and India's ineffectual and opportunistic outreach
neatly illustrated
Tajikistan
The Tajik
disregards the artificial border and dominates northwestern Afghanistan, including the Ferghana Valley, the legendary bulwark of the anti-Pashtun, anti-Taliban Tajik leader and Russian asset, Ahmad Shah Massoud
Russia relied on Tajikistan to provide a logistical rear area for its support of the Northern Alliance during the period of Taliban domination
India pitched in by constructing a military hospital at the town of Farkhor in Tajikistan territory a scant two kilometers from the Afghan border
Massoud
died at the hospital two days before the September 11, 2001 attacks
Tajikistan is the new
hotspot in the global "war on terror" as
the centerpiece of
Petraeus' efforts to support the Afghan surge with a new supply route - the Northern Distribution Network (NDN)
bringing an ocean of cash
Tajikistan security has deteriorated
as militants fleeing the Pakistan government crackdown in Waziristan have found refuge in Tajikistan's vulnerable border regions
the movement of militants to
peaceful northern border districts to attack the NDN
the US and NATO, Russia and India sense opportunity in Tajikistan, giving the local boss, Emomali Rahmon, a chance to play off one
against the other
and reveal the fragility
between Russia and India
India maintained its presence at Farkhor
negotiated terms in 2002 for its first significant military base outside India, at the Ayni airport on the outskirts of Tajikistan's capital of Dushanbe
India's ubiquitous quasi-military Border Roads Organization
increasingly finds itself operating beyond India's borders
went to work expanding Ayni's runway
Stories were floated
India would station helicopters or even MiG fighters at Ayni
Ayni would be operated in rotation by Russia, India and Tajikistan
Indian Air Force would be reliant on Russia's good offices and logistical support to maintain its presence
But what Russia giveth, it taketh away.
Russia has been eyeing India's rapprochement with the US with considerable jealousy and anxiety
also covets Ayni
as a platform for its own aircraft
Russian-backed
CSTO
its importance in the suddenly significant northern Afghan theater
Last September, India
tried to bypass
and play its own bilateral hand in Tajikistan
Tajikistan, responding to some combination of Russian resentment, Chinese objections, and insufficient bribery, decided to evict 150 Indian military
from Ayni
Moscow
telling New Delhi not to "stray" into the American military hardware camp
India annually conducts defense business of over $1.5 billion
Over the next decade
$40 billion to replace or upgrade
predominantly
Russian
equipment
with Russia wanting to renegotiate
its $85 billion Sukhoi 30MkI multi-role fighter deal
In July
Tajik
declared
Dushanbe was not negotiating with New Delhi about permitting India a military base at Ayni
the US
forestall eviction from its airbase at Manas Airport in Kyrgyzstan
hopeless situations can be turned around
combination of concessions to Russia and payoffs to the local potentate
So India might still find a
foothold for its air force
but it will remain beholden to
Russian
has forestalled a genuine strategic partnership between Moscow and New Delhi that will counter the "soft power" outreach of Beijing through the SCO
the December Russia-India communique made no mention of Russia's pet geopolitical projects: the European Security Treaty or the CTSO
As long as India continues to rely on its equivocal relationship as an auxiliary to Russia and
the US in their great power machinations
it is likely that India and Russia will keep spinning their gears as China and the SCO continue to move ahead
Peter Lee
India's opportunistic decision to play the "Great Game" on the cheap - piggybacking the military
and diplomatic presence of Moscow and Washington in selected pro-Russian and pro-Western states in Central Asia to score points off its rivals China and Pakistan
Indian Air Force base in, of all places, Mongolia.
thwarting of India's signature piece of air-base diplomacy - in
Tajikistan
Russia-India strategic partnership looks like a bad marriage
unwittingly reveal their inadequacies.
The joint communique
Beyond irking Beijing and creating an additional counterweight to China
an attempt to gain vitally needed support from a credible, emerging superpower for Moscow's faltering security doctrine.
Russia has been laboring with scant success to leverage its potential utility on Afghanistan
Putin succumbed to
Georgia's
provocations (and the West's
orchestration of the
independence of Kosovo) with overwhelming force in 2008
Russia won the war but no overt backing from ex-Soviet states
attempts to build a culture of dependency on Russian military might and arms sales
India
has endured legendary difficulties
with Moscow
Russia's anxiety has increased exponentially as India enjoys its new strategic partnership - and the potential for arms sales - with the United States instead
Russia struggles with its diplomatic isolation
success
China - the SCO.
formed
resisting both US-sponsored color revolutions
and brutal Islamicist insurgencies
to China's control of its restive Muslim autonomous region of Xinjiang did not take root in the region
the point of the SCO is multi-lateral economic and security integration that creates a profitable, stable, and strategically friendly backyard for China
China has resisted calls to use the SCO as the basis for a military alliance.
shaped by awareness that any military organization would be dominated by the Russians
and attract the
overwhelmingly hostile interest of the US
China is very anxious to keep a lid on things in Central Asia
to the aggrieved Uyghur separatists of Xinjiang
SCO has a
office in Tashkent
combating the "three evils" of terrorism, extremism and separatism
Beijing's vision
to demonstrate the advantages of stable, pro-Chinese regimes
October meeting of SCO
China
reiterated a pledge of $10 billion
ride out the global financial crisis
China's extensive economic penetration of Central Asia is a matter of public record.
bank of the Amu Darya River on December 14
China, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan turned the valves
30 billion cubic meters per annum
to Xinjiang
multi-national project
distinction between promoting regional integration and assembling a geopolitical bloc
Turkmenistan now has a major alternative
to Russia's contentious and overbearing Gazprom
"China's gas supply from Turkmenistan" published on December 28, 2009, by Hurriyet Daily News
The additional bargaining power Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan gained from diversifying their energy export routes, thanks to the Chinese assistance, strengthens their political and economic independence and reinforces regional stability and security and that achievement deserves recognition.
Russia's riposte
to assert the existence of an existential narcotics and Islamicist security crisis in Central Asia
can only be resolved with
Russian military muscle.
Russia has been able to enlist India
firmly committed to the civilization-versus-terror narrative courtesy of its burgeoning partnership with the US
Russia and India share
strategic interests in Afghanistan
that conflicts with China's desire to let the Pashtuns sort things out
eye of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence
Russia hopes to leverage
Afghan
into an acceptance of Moscow's security leadership by Stans vulnerable to
Islamic militancy
India recognizes any victory by pro-Pakistan Pashtun factions
as a defeat for its efforts to distract and bedevil Pakistan.
This shared interest
joint statement of Manmohan and
Medvedev
to preclude negotiating with the Taliban insurgency
the
centerpiece of the US strategy
political settlement and depart
[Russia and India] agree that the fight against terrorism cannot be selective, and drawing false distinctions between 'good' and 'bad' Taliban would be counter-productive."
a meaningful alliance
founder on the collision between Moscow's crude anti-diplomacy and India's ineffectual and opportunistic outreach
neatly illustrated
Tajikistan
The Tajik
disregards the artificial border and dominates northwestern Afghanistan, including the Ferghana Valley, the legendary bulwark of the anti-Pashtun, anti-Taliban Tajik leader and Russian asset, Ahmad Shah Massoud
Russia relied on Tajikistan to provide a logistical rear area for its support of the Northern Alliance during the period of Taliban domination
India pitched in by constructing a military hospital at the town of Farkhor in Tajikistan territory a scant two kilometers from the Afghan border
Massoud
died at the hospital two days before the September 11, 2001 attacks
Tajikistan is the new
hotspot in the global "war on terror" as
the centerpiece of
Petraeus' efforts to support the Afghan surge with a new supply route - the Northern Distribution Network (NDN)
bringing an ocean of cash
Tajikistan security has deteriorated
as militants fleeing the Pakistan government crackdown in Waziristan have found refuge in Tajikistan's vulnerable border regions
the movement of militants to
peaceful northern border districts to attack the NDN
the US and NATO, Russia and India sense opportunity in Tajikistan, giving the local boss, Emomali Rahmon, a chance to play off one
against the other
and reveal the fragility
between Russia and India
India maintained its presence at Farkhor
negotiated terms in 2002 for its first significant military base outside India, at the Ayni airport on the outskirts of Tajikistan's capital of Dushanbe
India's ubiquitous quasi-military Border Roads Organization
increasingly finds itself operating beyond India's borders
went to work expanding Ayni's runway
Stories were floated
India would station helicopters or even MiG fighters at Ayni
Ayni would be operated in rotation by Russia, India and Tajikistan
Indian Air Force would be reliant on Russia's good offices and logistical support to maintain its presence
But what Russia giveth, it taketh away.
Russia has been eyeing India's rapprochement with the US with considerable jealousy and anxiety
also covets Ayni
as a platform for its own aircraft
Russian-backed
CSTO
its importance in the suddenly significant northern Afghan theater
Last September, India
tried to bypass
and play its own bilateral hand in Tajikistan
Tajikistan, responding to some combination of Russian resentment, Chinese objections, and insufficient bribery, decided to evict 150 Indian military
from Ayni
Moscow
telling New Delhi not to "stray" into the American military hardware camp
India annually conducts defense business of over $1.5 billion
Over the next decade
$40 billion to replace or upgrade
predominantly
Russian
equipment
with Russia wanting to renegotiate
its $85 billion Sukhoi 30MkI multi-role fighter deal
In July
Tajik
declared
Dushanbe was not negotiating with New Delhi about permitting India a military base at Ayni
the US
forestall eviction from its airbase at Manas Airport in Kyrgyzstan
hopeless situations can be turned around
combination of concessions to Russia and payoffs to the local potentate
So India might still find a
foothold for its air force
but it will remain beholden to
Russian
has forestalled a genuine strategic partnership between Moscow and New Delhi that will counter the "soft power" outreach of Beijing through the SCO
the December Russia-India communique made no mention of Russia's pet geopolitical projects: the European Security Treaty or the CTSO
As long as India continues to rely on its equivocal relationship as an auxiliary to Russia and
the US in their great power machinations
it is likely that India and Russia will keep spinning their gears as China and the SCO continue to move ahead
Peter Lee
Sunday, January 03, 2010
THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES
The Power of Nightmares, The films compare the rise of the Neo-Conservative movement in the United States and the radical Islamist movement, making comparisons on their origins and claiming similarities between the two. More controversially, it argues that the threat of radical Islamism as a massive, sinister organised force of destruction, specifically in the form of al-Qaeda, is a myth perpetrated by politicians in many countries—and particularly American Neo-Conservatives—in an attempt to unite and inspire their people following the failure of earlier, more utopian ideologies.
The Power of Nightmares has been praised by film critics in both Britain and the United States. Its message and content have also been the subject of various critiques and criticisms from conservatives and progressives.
THE CORPORATION
The Corporation is a 2003 Canadian documentary film written by Joel Bakan, and directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. The documentary is critical of the modern-day corporation, considering its legal status as a class of person and evaluating its behaviour towards society and the world at large as a psychiatrist might evaluate an ordinary person. This is explored through specific examples. The Corporation has been displayed worldwide, on television, and via DVD, file sharing, and free download. Bakan wrote the book, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, during the filming of the documentary.
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