http://www.sott.net Signs of the Times, featuring news and commentary on world events. Never wavering in our unending search for the light of truth in a pathocracy driven world! en-us Original content Copyright 2009 by Signs of the Times. For other content, see our Fair Use Policy at www.sott.net Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:01:45 -0500 http://www.sott.net/images/sottlogo_rss.jpg SOTT.net http://www.sott.net http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196348-The-Evil-Empire The US government is now so totally under the thumbs of organized interest groups that "our" government can no longer respond to the concerns of the American people who elect the president and the members of the House and Senate. Voters will vent their frustrations over their impotence on the president, which implies a future of one-term presidents. Soon our presidents will be as ineffective as Roman emperors in the final days of that empire. Obama is already set on the course to a one-term presidency. He promised change, but has delivered none. His health care bill is held hostage by the private insurance companies seeking greater profits. The most likely outcome will be cuts in Medicare and Medicaid in order to help fund wars that enrich the military/security complex and the many companies created by privatizing services that the military once provided for itself at far lower costs. It would be interesting to know the percentage of the $700+ billion "defense" spending that goes to private companies. In American "capitalism," an amazing amount of taxpayers' earnings go to private firms via the government. Yet, Republicans scream about "socializing" health care. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196348-The-Evil-Empire Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:51:23 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196332-Our-terrorists Islamic fundamentalist militants are the enemies of Israel and Western governments, right? Think again. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed reports. Once upon a time, the CIA trained, financed and supported Osama bin Laden and his mujahidin networks in Afghanistan to repel the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. After the end of the Cold War, bin Laden turned against the West and we no longer had any use for him. His persistent terrorist attacks against us for more than a decade, culminating in 9/11, provoked our own response, in the form of the 'War on Terror'. This is the official narrative. And it's false. Not only did Western intelligence services continue to foster Islamist extremist and terrorist groups connected to al-Qaeda after the Cold War; they continued to do so even after 9/11. The CIA's jihad The story begins in the summer of 1979, six months before the Soviet invasion, when the CIA had already begun financing elements of an emerging Islamist mujahidin force inside Afghanistan. The idea, according to former US National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski and former CIA Director Robert Gates, was to increase the probability of a Soviet invasion, and entrap 'the Soviets into a Vietnamese quagmire'.1 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196332-Our-terrorists Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:43:37 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196328-J-Street-is-just-another-Israel-advocacy-group As readers of Antiwar.com certainly are aware, J Street was created a year and a half ago to serve as an alternative to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). J Street supports creation of a viable Palestinian state that would exist side-by-side in peace with Israel. Unlike AIPAC, J Street advocates first negotiating issues rather than dropping bombs and it rejects the view that American Jews should close ranks and reflexively and unconditionally support every government in Israel. J Street targets liberal minded American Jews who are troubled by the Israel Lobby's right wing-Likud orientation. It promotes itself as pro-Israel, pro-American, and pro-peace, maintaining that it is possible to support Israel without having to endorse all Israeli government actions. It has recently concluded its first Washington conference which attracted a smattering of politicians. General James Jones, President Barack Obama's National Security Adviser, was a featured speaker. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196328-J-Street-is-just-another-Israel-advocacy-group Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:57:02 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196318-Report-237-millionaires-in-Congress Talk about bad timing. As Washington reels from the news of 10.2 percent unemployment, the Center for Responsive Politics is out with a new report describing the wealth of members of Congress. Among the highlights: Two-hundred-and-thirty-seven members of Congress are millionaires. That's 44 percent of the body - compared to about 1 percent of Americans overall. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196318-Report-237-millionaires-in-Congress Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:55:15 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196248-Connecting-the-Dots-The-Mass-Poisoning-Begins-the-Secret-Team-s-Tricks-Continue-and-the-Dollar-s-Supremacy-Heads-for-its-End Terrorism has been defined as "a criminal act that influences an audience beyond the immediate victim". We agree, but the question is, what entity today has the greatest capacity to carry out criminal acts and influence an audience beyond the immediate victim? Figure that one out, and you've got the real terrorists. But first, let's look at some of the influences we've all come under during the month of October. Vaccination season has kicked off in US, Canada and UK and Obama has declared the swine flu a national emergency! Well, if Mr. Charm, Change and Hope says so, it must be true! Right? Read on and we'll take you through the talking points... http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196248-Connecting-the-Dots-The-Mass-Poisoning-Begins-the-Secret-Team-s-Tricks-Continue-and-the-Dollar-s-Supremacy-Heads-for-its-End Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:51:20 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196246-Israel-s-worst-enemies-are-those-who-support-its-policies-claims-Chomsky Israel's Greatest enemies are those who support its decline into moral degeneration and destruction, philosopher and political activist Noam Chomsky has told an audience in Dublin. Chomsky, who is retired professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said Israel was once a civilised society similar to those found in Scandinavia. Now, however, that has changed. There is high inequality just as in the US, and the social security system has collapsed, he said. In the 1970s, he said, Israel had a choice between security within its existing borders and expansion into settlements and it chose expansion. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196246-Israel-s-worst-enemies-are-those-who-support-its-policies-claims-Chomsky Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:43:14 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196244-Pentagon-pursuing-new-investigation-into-Bush-propaganda-program The Pentagon's Office of Inspector General is conducting a new investigation into a covert Bush administration Defense Department program that used retired military analysts to produce positive wartime news coverage. Last May, the Inspector General's office rescinded and repudiated a prior internal investigation's report on the retired military analyst program, which had been issued by the Bush administration, because it "did not meet accepted quality standards for an Inspector General work product." Yet in recent interviews with Raw Story, Pentagon officials who took part in the program were still defending it by referencing this invalidated report. Gary Comerford, Inspector General spokesman for the Defense Department, told Raw Story last week that his office is conducting an investigation into the retired military analyst program and confirmed that the investigation began during the summer. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196244-Pentagon-pursuing-new-investigation-into-Bush-propaganda-program Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:54:48 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196225-US-Used-False-Pretext-to-Invade-Iraq-in-2003-ElBaradei-Says New York - Outgoing UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei criticized the United States on Monday for using a 'false pretext' to invade Iraq, costing 'the lives of possibly hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.' http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196225-US-Used-False-Pretext-to-Invade-Iraq-in-2003-ElBaradei-Says Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:49:14 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196218-2014-or-Bust-The-Pentagon-s-Building-Boom-in-Afghanistan-Indicates-a-Long-War-Ahead An Introduction by Tom Engelhardt: In our day, the American way of war, especially against lightly armed guerrillas, insurgents, and terrorists, has proved remarkably heavy. Elephantine might be the appropriate word. The Pentagon likes to talk about its "footprint" on the geopolitical landscape. In terms of the infrastructure it's built in Iraq and Afghanistan, perhaps "crater" would be a more reasonable image. American wars are now gargantuan undertakings. The prospective withdrawal of significant numbers/most/all American forces from Iraq, for instance, will -- in terms of time and effort -- make the 2003 invasion look like the vaunted "cakewalk" it was supposed to be. According to Pentagon estimates, more than 1.5 million (yes, that is "million") pieces of U.S. equipment need to be removed from the country. Just stop and take that in for a second. Of course, it's a less surprising figure when you realize that the Pentagon managed to build, furnish, and supply almost 300 bases, macro to micro, in Iraq alone in the war years. And some of those bases were -- and still are -- the size of small American towns with tens of thousands of troops, private contractors, and others, as well as massive perimeters, multiple bus routes, full-scale PX's, fast-food outlets, movie theaters, and the like. In many ways, Iraq-style war has now become the gargantuan template for the Afghan War build-up that Nick Turse describes below. (His is the sort of summary picture of a less-than-adequately-covered situation that TomDispatch specializes in, based in part on investigative Internet reporting and the mining of Pentagon contracts, government and corporate websites, and military publications.) In fact, some percentage of those 1.5 million pieces of equipment will undoubtedly simply be sent Afghanistan-wards. As the Bush administration built the world's largest -- and shoddiest -- embassy in Baghdad, our own mother ship, mission control center for the region, and modern ziggurat, so now, the Obama administration is about to do the same (at approximately the same startling cost) in Islamabad, Pakistan, as a monstrous mission control center for the Af/Pak theater of operations. In Iraq, structures like Balad Air Base or the ill-named Camp Victory just on the edge of Baghdad are so massive, so permanent-looking -- so clearly built for long-term occupation -- that it's still hard to imagine how the Pentagon will abandon them to the Iraqis. Now, as Turse reports, the U.S. military seems intent on beefing up another network of bases for another surging war, involving another heavy presence in another distant land -- and these bases, too, the Pentagon will undoubtedly be loath to turn over or evacuate. Every army carries a version of its society on its back into battle. We emphasize poundage. Like our culture, our wars are spendthrift and consumption-oriented. If continued, they will someday bust us. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196218-2014-or-Bust-The-Pentagon-s-Building-Boom-in-Afghanistan-Indicates-a-Long-War-Ahead Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:42:58 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196202-John-Dean-Cheney-may-have-given-false-statements-to-FBI-in-the-Plame-affair There is "a lot of evidence" that Vice President Dick Cheney gave false statements to the FBI during its investigation of the Valerie Plame leak affair, says former White House attorney John Dean. Dean told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann that Cheney attained "something of a record" by refusing to answer or claiming to not recall the answer to 72 questions posed by the FBI during a May, 2004, interview. "If you'll recall, former Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman did 150 'I don't recalls' during his three days before the Senate Watergate committee," Dean said. "This is 72 in less than three hours, that's right up there." The comparison is striking, because Haldeman served 18 months in prison for conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the Watergate scandal. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196202-John-Dean-Cheney-may-have-given-false-statements-to-FBI-in-the-Plame-affair Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:37:55 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196191-On-the-92nd-anniversary-of-the-infamous-Balfour-Declaration Hamas marked the 92nd anniversary of the infamous Balfour Declaration by recalling the misery of the 1948 Nakba (Catastrophe) and insisting that European states in general and Britain in particular make amends for the crimes committed against Palestine. It is worth reminding ourselves from time to time what started the trouble all those years ago. Arabs know the details only too well, but you would be surprised how the British people are kept in ignorance. The history of the Arab-Israeli struggle is seldom taught in schools and our politicians are afraid to talk freely about it. To all intents and purposes the fuse to the present powder-keg was lit by the British foreign secretary, Lord Balfour, on 2 November 1917 in a letter to the most senior Jew in England, Lord Rothschild, pledging assistance for the Zionist cause. It was a moment of madness that showed utter disregard for the likely impact on Islamic sensibilities and the day-to-day lives of those (Muslim and Christian) already living in the Holy Land, and for peace in the region. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196191-On-the-92nd-anniversary-of-the-infamous-Balfour-Declaration Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:46:17 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196176-Former-UK-ambassador-CIA-sent-people-to-be-raped-with-broken-bottles- The CIA relied on intelligence based on torture in prisons in Uzbekistan, a place where widespread torture practices include raping suspects with broken bottles and boiling them alive, says a former British ambassador to the central Asian country. Craig Murray, the rector of the University of Dundee in Scotland and until 2004 the UK's ambassador to Uzbekistan, said the CIA not only relied on confessions gleaned through extreme torture, it sent terror war suspects to Uzbekistan as part of its extraordinary rendition program. The following videos were posted to YouTube by the Real News Network on Oct. 26 and Nov. 4, 2009. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196176-Former-UK-ambassador-CIA-sent-people-to-be-raped-with-broken-bottles- Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:58:12 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196174-House-Resolution-Designates-Venezuela-a-State-Sponsor-of-Terrorism At a time of growing US poverty, hunger, homelessness, and despair, imperial wars without end, and the Obama administration even worse than its predecessor, Venezuela: -- is a model participatory democracy; -- holds free, fair and open elections; -- respects the rule of law, civil liberties, and human rights; -- doesn't intimidate its neighbors; -- uses its resources responsibly for the people; -- provides essential social services for the needy; -- champions judicial fairness and the rule of law; -- has a model free and open media; -- wages no foreign wars; -- doesn't torture or imprison its adversaries; -- conducts effective operations to halt illicit drugs trafficking; -- promotes global peace, solidarity, equality and social justice; and -- its only threat is its good example that shames its northern neighbor. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196174-House-Resolution-Designates-Venezuela-a-State-Sponsor-of-Terrorism Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:28:02 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196154-Today-s-U-S-Army-and-Its-Ambitions It is possible that the creation of an all-professional U.S. Army has been Congress' most dangerous decision. The nation now confronts a political crisis in which the issue has become an undeclared contest between Pentagon power and that of a newly elected president. Barack Obama has yet to declare his decision on the war in Afghanistan, and there is every reason to think that he will follow military opinion. Yet he is under immense pressure from his Republican opponents to, in effect, renounce his presidential power and step aside from the fundamental strategic decisions of the nation. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196154-Today-s-U-S-Army-and-Its-Ambitions Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:49:29 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196153-Kipling-Haunts-Obama-s-Afghan-War The White Man's Burden, a phrase immortalized by English poet Rudyard Kipling as an excuse for European-American imperialism, was front and center Thursday morning (October 29) at a RAND-sponsored discussion of Afghanistan in the Russell Senate Office Building. The agenda was top-heavy with RAND speakers, and the thinking was decidedly "inside the box" - so much so, that I found myself repeating a verse from Kipling, who recognized the dangers of imperialism, to remind me of the real world: It is not wise for the Christian white To hustle the Asian brown; For the Christian riles And the Asian smiles And weareth the Christian down. At the end of the fight Lies a tombstone white With the name of the late deceased; And the epitaph drear, A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196153-Kipling-Haunts-Obama-s-Afghan-War Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:49:26 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196143-US-Government-Lawyers-Seek-to-Quash-Rendition-Lawsuit The long road to the proverbial day in court just got longer for five men who claim they were "disappeared" and tortured by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The men, who say they were victims of the extraordinary rendition programme conducted during the administration of President George W. Bush, have been trying since 2007 to get their cases heard on the merits. But it is now far from clear that the merits of these cases will be heard any time soon - if ever. The reason is that the Department of Justice - first through Bush administration lawyers, now through Barack Obama administration lawyers - has invoked the so-called "state secrets" privilege, claiming that a public trial would endanger U.S. national security. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196143-US-Government-Lawyers-Seek-to-Quash-Rendition-Lawsuit Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:30:40 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196140-Bush-s-interrogators-used-slaps-to-instill-fear-and-despair- Recently declassified documents on the Bush administration interrogation program describe several techniques used on detainees in US custody, some of which may have violated the United Nations Convention Against Torture, to which the United States is a signatory. Included in the large cache of documents is one which describes (pdf) stress positions to be used as interrogation techniques, as well as the use of an abdominal slap as a punishment tool. The "purpose" of the abdominal slap is defined in the documents as being "to instill fear and despair, to punish selective behavior and to instill humiliation or cause insult." The documents were requested by the American Civil Liberties Union via a Freedom of Information Act request in 2004 and were made public on Oct. 30, 2009. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196140-Bush-s-interrogators-used-slaps-to-instill-fear-and-despair- Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:25:00 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196133-Saying-Yes-to-State-Terror-US-Second-Circuit-Court-Affirms-Dismissal-of-Arar-Case "When the history of this distinguished court is written, today's majority decision will be viewed with dismay," writes Guido Calabresi, the former Yale Law dean and a man widely viewed as the most illustrious living member of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. He is lodging his dissent in a 7-4 decision of the en banc court concluding that a Canadian software engineer named Maher Arar has no right to sue government officials. What has Calabresi so worked up? http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196133-Saying-Yes-to-State-Terror-US-Second-Circuit-Court-Affirms-Dismissal-of-Arar-Case Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:18:29 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196128-Mass-Mobilization-to-Shut-Down-the-School-of-the-America-November-20-22-2009-Fort-Benning-Georgia Washington - The military coup led by SOA graduates in Honduras has once again exposed the destabilizing and deadly effects that the School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC) has on Latin America. Torture survivors and human rights activists from across the Americas, including Bertha Oliva, the founder of the Committee of the Family Members of the Disappeared (COFADEH) from Honduras and human rights defenders from Colombia will travel to Fort Benning, Georgia to participate in the mobilization. The SOA graduate-led military coup in Honduras and the increasing U.S. military involvement in Colombia put a renewed focus on the School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC) and the policies it represents. Thousands from across the Americas will converge on November 20-22 at Fort Benning, GA for a vigil and civil disobedience actions to speak out against the SOA/ WHINSEC and to demand a change in U.S. foreign policy. The vigil will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 1989 SOA graduate-led Jesuit massacre in San Salvador, and the many other thousands of victims of SOA/ WHINSEC violence. The campaign to close the SOA/ WHINSEC is in a crucial phase right now. Despite promising comments from President Obama during his 2008 election campaign, the SOA/ WHINSEC is still in operation, the U.S. is poring millions into failing "military solutions" to combat the drug problems in Mexico and the Pentagon is moving forward with plans to use seven Colombian military bases in Colombia for offensive U.S. military operations. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196128-Mass-Mobilization-to-Shut-Down-the-School-of-the-America-November-20-22-2009-Fort-Benning-Georgia Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:41:12 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196087-Jewish-Directors-Challenge-Israel A series of controversial Israeli films are provoking outrage and plaudits in equal measure at the London Film Festival. The best documentary award has gone to one of the year's most controversial films. Defamation is a polemic by Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir. In his expose of America's Anti-Defamation League (ADL), he claims anti-Semitism is being exaggerated for political purposes. He argues that American Jewish leaders travel around the world exploiting the memory of the Holocaust to silence criticism of Israel. At one point, an ADL leader admits to Shamir that "we need to play on that guilt". Shamir says his film, Defamation, started out as a study of "the political games being played behind the term anti-Semitism". "It became more a film about perceptions and the way Jews and Israelis choose to see themselves and define themselves - a lot of the time unfortunately choosing the role of eternal victims as a way of life." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196087-Jewish-Directors-Challenge-Israel Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:55:41 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196084-No-precise-number-for-contractors-in-Iraq-Afghanistan-US Washington - The US government has no precise figure for how many contractors are employed in Iraq and Afghanistan, inviting the risk of fraud and security threats, a US commission warned on Monday. "It is both peculiar and troubling that eight years after the overthrow of the Taliban regime, in Afghanistan, and more than six years since the overthrow of Baathist regime in Iraq, we still don't know how many contractor employees are working in the region," said Michael Thibault, co-chairman of the commission on wartime contracting. The independent commission found that "there is no single source for a clear, complete and accurate picture of contractor numbers, locations, contracts and cost," Thibault said at a commission hearing. "How can contractors be properly managed if we aren't sure how many there are, where they are and what are they doing?" http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196084-No-precise-number-for-contractors-in-Iraq-Afghanistan-US Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:57 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196068-The-Official-Unofficial-Story-of-Operation-Orchard-How-Israel-Destroyed-Syria-s-Al-Kibar-Nuclear-Reactor In September 2007, Israeli fighter jets destroyed a mysterious complex in the Syrian desert. The incident could have led to war, but it was hushed up by all sides. Was it a nuclear plant and who gave the orders for the strike? The mighty Euphrates river is the subject of the prophecies in the Bible's Book of Revelation, where it is written that the river will be the scene of the battle of Armageddon: "The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East." Today, time seems to stand still along the river. The turquoise waters of the Euphrates flow slowly through the northern Syrian provincial city Deir el-Zor, whose name translates as "monastery in the forest." Farmers till the fields, and vendors sell camel's hair blankets, cardamom and coriander in the city's bazaars. Occasionally archaeologists visit the region to excavate the remains of ancient cities in the surrounding area, a place where many peoples have left their mark -- the Parthians and the Sassanids, the Romans and the Jews, the Ottomans and the French, who were assigned the mandate for Syria by the League of Nations and who only withdrew their troops in 1946. Deir el-Zor is the last outpost before the vast, empty desert, a lifeless place of jagged mountains and inaccessible valleys that begins not far from the town center. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196068-The-Official-Unofficial-Story-of-Operation-Orchard-How-Israel-Destroyed-Syria-s-Al-Kibar-Nuclear-Reactor Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:29:18 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196058-Lawsuit-Probes-Role-of-Psychologists-in-Terror-War New York- The state board responsible for licensing - and disciplining - psychologists in Louisiana is accused of turning a blind eye to serious allegations of abuse against one of its members, including complicity in beatings, religious and sexual humiliation, rape threats and painful body positions during his service as a senior advisor on interrogations for the U.S. military in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Dr. Trudy Bond, an Ohio-based psychologist, is suing the Louisiana State Board of Examiners of Psychologists to compel it to investigate the actions of Louisiana psychologist and retired U.S. Army colonel Dr. Larry C. James, a former high-ranking advisor on interrogations for the U.S. military in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Deborah Popowski, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, part of the legal team representing Bond, told IPS that, according to James's own statements, he played an influential role in both the policy and day-to-day operations of interrogations and detention at the prison camps. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196058-Lawsuit-Probes-Role-of-Psychologists-in-Terror-War Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:24:29 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196057-FBI-Kills-Islamic-Cleric-Arrests-Followers-for-Being-Muslims-at-the-Wrong-Time-in-America On October 28, New York Times writer Nick Bunkley wrote the following: "Federal agents (today) fatally shot a man they described as the leader of a violent Sunni Muslim separatist group in Detroit." Targeted was Luqman Ameen Abdullah "whom agents were trying to arrest in Dearborn on charges that included illegal possession and sale of firearms and conspiracy to sell stolen goods." The Times echoed FBI allegations that Abdullah "began firing at them from a warehouse (and) was shot in the return fire...." Ones also that he said: "America must fall;". if police tried to arrest him he'd "strap a bomb on and blow up everybody;" and. that he urged his followers to get bulletproof vests by "shoot(ing) a cop in the head and tak(ing) their vest.". In fact, neither happened, and no surprise. No bombs were found or went off, and bulletproof vests are easily bought online from web sites like bulletproofme.com, so why shoot anyone to get them. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196057-FBI-Kills-Islamic-Cleric-Arrests-Followers-for-Being-Muslims-at-the-Wrong-Time-in-America Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:09:30 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196038-Opium-Rape-and-the-American-Way The warlords we champion in Afghanistan are as venal, as opposed to the rights of women and basic democratic freedoms, and as heavily involved in opium trafficking as the Taliban. The moral lines we draw between us and our adversaries are fictional. The uplifting narratives used to justify the war in Afghanistan are pathetic attempts to redeem acts of senseless brutality. War cannot be waged to instill any virtue, including democracy or the liberation of women. War always empowers those who have a penchant for violence and access to weapons. War turns the moral order upside down and abolishes all discussions of human rights. War banishes the just and the decent to the margins of society. And the weapons of war do not separate the innocent and the damned. An aerial drone is our version of an improvised explosive device. An iron fragmentation bomb is our answer to a suicide bomb. A burst from a belt-fed machine gun causes the same terror and bloodshed among civilians no matter who pulls the trigger. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196038-Opium-Rape-and-the-American-Way Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:51:38 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196036-Orwell-s-Epiphany And it was at this moment, as I stood there with the rifle in my hands, that I first grasped the hollowness, the futility of the white man's dominion in the East. Here was I, the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed native crowd -- seemingly the leading actor of the piece; but in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind. - George Orwell in Shooting an Elephant George Orwell, as a policeman in Burma in 1924, found that he was forced to shoot an elephant that had earlier run amok but, by the time he arrived, had already calmed down and was harmless. It was the expectations of the huge crowd (he estimated it at at least 2000 people) that forced him to shoot the elephant. "A sahib has got to act like a sahib," he comments. That he was forced to do what he did not want to do, that he had become a "puppet" the crowd manipulated, was, to Orwell, what marked imperialism as absurd and futile. He concludes, "I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool." Today no American would think of doing in Iraq what Orwell did in Burma -- saunter out in front of a large crowd armed only with an old gun and shoot an elephant essential to somebody's life. Someone would be sure to pop him off. Americans cannot administer the nether regions the way the British did. They have to ride around in heavily armed vehicles when they go on patrol. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196036-Orwell-s-Epiphany Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:48:19 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196027-Former-Blackwater-now-marketing-services-to-civilians The Moyock firearms training center formerly known as Blackwater is now marketing its services to civilians in addition to law enforcement and the military. A recent ad for the facility now called the U.S. Training Center in The Virginian-Pilot highlighted an array of course offerings, for beginners on up, for handgun, shotgun and carbine. Women-only classes also are available. Shotgun Life, an online magazine for wing-and-clay shotgun enthusiasts, is promoting a three-day, $1,700 course at the center. The "shooting package" includes three nights at the Westin Virginia Beach Town Center and dinner "with one or two members of U.S. Training Center's management team." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196027-Former-Blackwater-now-marketing-services-to-civilians Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:26:03 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196016-Cheney-FBI-Interview-72-Instances-Of-Can-t-Recall Washington - Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald famously declared in the Valerie Plame affair that "there is a cloud over the vice president." Last week's release of an FBI interview summary of Dick Cheney's answers in the criminal investigation underscores why Fitzgerald felt that way. On 72 occasions, according to the 28-page FBI summary, Cheney equivocated to the FBI during his lengthy May 2004 interview, saying he could not be certain in his answers to questions about matters large and small in the Plame controversy. The Cheney interview reflects a team of prosecutors and FBI agents trying to find out whether the leaks of Plame's CIA identity were orchestrated at the highest level of the White House and carried out by, among others, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's chief of staff. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196016-Cheney-FBI-Interview-72-Instances-Of-Can-t-Recall Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:19:20 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196001-Torture-Taxi-spotted-in-Birmingham-UK An American plane named in an inquiry by the European parliament into alleged CIA torture flights landed at Birmingham airport last month and was met by British special forces helicopters. Plane spotters said the Gulfstream jet touched down from an undisclosed location on 2 October and was met by two army air corps Dauphin 2 helicopters used by the SAS at Hereford. The 22-seat plane is registered to L-3 Integrated Systems, a Montana-based subsidiary of a US defence corporation. It made numerous flights between Ireland and Egypt in 2003 and was involved in an accident at Bucharest airport in Romania in 2004 after a flight from Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/196001-Torture-Taxi-spotted-in-Birmingham-UK Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:49:27 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195976-America-stop-sucking-up-to-Israel Barack Obama has been busy - offering the Jewish People blessings for Rosh Hashanah, and recording a flattering video for the President's Conference in Jerusalem and another for Yitzhak Rabin's memorial rally. Only Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah surpasses him in terms of sheer output of recorded remarks. In all the videos, Obama heaps sticky-sweet praise on Israel, even though he has spent nearly a year fruitlessly lobbying for Israel to be so kind as to do something, anything - even just a temporary freeze on settlement building - to advance the peace process. The president's Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, has also been busy, shuttling between a funeral (for IDF soldier Asaf Ramon, the son of Israel's first astronaut Ilan Ramon) and a memorial (for Rabin, though it was postponed until next week due to rain), in order to find favor with Israelis. Polls have shown that Obama is increasingly unpopular here, with an approval rating of only 6 to 10 percent. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195976-America-stop-sucking-up-to-Israel Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:34:20 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195960-US-Israel-special-ties-near-breaking-point- The US-Israeli relations, on the surface, is depicted by many as a "special relationship," but a silent battle over Tel Aviv's attempts to spy on Washington is underway with the mainstream media opting to keep silent on the issue. The spying case of a US scientist, Stewart David Nozette, popped up in the media this week, with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, charging that the US citizen has been funneling Washington's defense and space secrets to Israel. It is not the first time that the United States has charged individuals with top government security clearances with spying for Israel. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195960-US-Israel-special-ties-near-breaking-point- Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:21:04 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195950-Documents-Detail-Conditions-Found-at-Secret-C-I-A-Jails F.B.I. agents who arrived at a secret C.I.A. jail overseas in September 2002 found prisoners "manacled to the ceiling and subjected to blaring music around the clock," and a C.I.A. official wrote a list of questions for interrogators including "How close is each technique to the 'rack and screw,' " according to hundreds of pages of partly declassified documents released Friday by the Justice Department. The documents include handwritten notes, apparently prepared by Justice Department officials, discussing the possibility of prosecuting some employees of the Central Intelligence Agency. The notes reveal that the Justice Department considered prosecuting a C.I.A. interrogator for a previously reported incident in which a detainee was threatened with a gun and a power drill, but it says department officials declined to prosecute the case. The documents were released in the latest response to several Freedom of Information Act lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Judicial Watch, a Washington advocacy group. Some are new versions of documents previously released. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195950-Documents-Detail-Conditions-Found-at-Secret-C-I-A-Jails Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:19:54 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195937-Israel-confirms-running-spy-networks-in-Lebanon Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon has confirmed that Israel is running intelligence-gathering networks in Lebanon. "When we are in conflict with an enemy, we gather information about them," Haaretz quoted Ya'alon as saying on Saturday. "The moment Hezbollah renewed their attacks, we began to collect intelligence. We will stop when Hezbollah disarms itself and the [Israel-Lebanon] border is a border of peace," he added. In October, two explosions over occurred in southern Lebanon after Lebanon's Hezbollah discovered cables used for spying in the al-Abbad area near an Israeli border post. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195937-Israel-confirms-running-spy-networks-in-Lebanon Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:36:03 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195920-9yr-old-boy-tortured-says-former-Guantanamo-abductee A British Muslim detained for three years at the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison manned by the United States, revealed that the youngest detainee he knew of was a nine-year-old boy who was also tortured like the rest. Ruhal Ahmed's story was among more accounts of atrocities committed against the detainees at Guantanamo, told before an open commission hearing which began Friday on the sidelines of an international conference to criminalise war. The testimonies before the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission Hearings will be submitted to a tribunal in conjunction with the Criminalise War Conference and War Crimes Tribunal 2009 spearheaded by former Malaysian prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195920-9yr-old-boy-tortured-says-former-Guantanamo-abductee Sun, 01 Nov 2009 06:17:59 -0500 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195905-China-Inspired-Interrogations-at-Guant-namo The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of "coercive management techniques" for possible use on prisoners, including "sleep deprivation," "prolonged constraint," and "exposure." What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners. The recycled chart is the latest and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by the Central Intelligence Agency. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195905-China-Inspired-Interrogations-at-Guant-namo Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:58:21 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195904-Versch-rfte-Vernehmung-Hitler-s-Enhanced-Interrogation The phrase "Verschärfte Vernehmung" is German for "enhanced interrogation". Other translations include "intensified interrogation" or "sharpened interrogation". It's a phrase that appears to have been concocted in 1937, to describe a form of torture that would leave no marks, and hence save the embarrassment pre-war Nazi officials were experiencing as their wounded torture victims ended up in court. The methods, as you can see above, are indistinguishable from those described as "enhanced interrogation techniques" by the president. As you can see from the Gestapo memo, moreover, the Nazis were adamant that their "enhanced interrogation techniques" would be carefully restricted and controlled, monitored by an elite professional staff, of the kind recommended by Charles Krauthammer, and strictly reserved for certain categories of prisoner. At least, that was the original plan. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195904-Versch-rfte-Vernehmung-Hitler-s-Enhanced-Interrogation Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:46:16 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195901-Waterboarding-Used-to-Be-a-Crime As a JAG in the Nevada National Guard, I used to lecture the soldiers of the 72nd Military Police Company every year about their legal obligations when they guarded prisoners. I'd always conclude by saying, "I know you won't remember everything I told you today, but just remember what your mom told you: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." That's a pretty good standard for life and for the law, and even though I left the unit in 1995, I like to think that some of my teaching had carried over when the 72nd refused to participate in misconduct at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. Sometimes, though, the questions we face about detainees and interrogation get more specific. One such set of questions relates to "waterboarding." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195901-Waterboarding-Used-to-Be-a-Crime Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:27:29 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195881-Israel-endorses-Iran-nuclear-plan-So-what-s-the-catch- Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has praised a UN proposal to regulate Iran's uranium enrichment programme. Speaking before talks with US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, he called it a "positive first step" in stopping Tehran developing a nuclear weapon. Under the plan, low-enriched fuel would be further processed outside Iran. On Thursday, the UN's nuclear watchdog confirmed it had received Iran's response to the directive, but its contents have not been released. Mr Netanyahu said: "I think that the proposal to have Iran withdraw its enriched uranium, or a good portion of it, outside Iran is a positive first step." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195881-Israel-endorses-Iran-nuclear-plan-So-what-s-the-catch- Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:45:10 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195868-Obama-s-Real-Death-Panels Shortly after 9/11, George W. Bush secretly signed two executive orders. Both violated basic constitutional protections as well as U.S. obligations under international treaties, yet both carried the force of law. They still do. The first order grants the president (and other officials, including the secretary of defense, the secretary of homeland security and presumably certain postal clerks) the right to declare anyone--including an American citizen--an "unlawful enemy combatant." A person so declared has no redress, no way to appeal, no ability to challenge that designation. Once a person has been named an enemy combatant, according to the Bush Administration--and now to the Obama Administration--he has no rights. He can be held without charges forever, tortured, you name it--well, actually, the president or the secretary of defense names it. In the second covert executive order, Bush authorized the CIA to target and assassinate said "enemy combatants"--again, including American citizens. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195868-Obama-s-Real-Death-Panels Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:04:02 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195694-Secret-Team-outs-Afghan-President-Karzai-s-brother-as-CIA-Why-now- Kabul, Afghanistan - Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country's booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials. The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.'s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai's home. The financial ties and close working relationship between the intelligence agency and Mr. Karzai raise significant questions about America's war strategy, which is currently under review at the White House. The ties to Mr. Karzai have created deep divisions within the Obama administration. The critics say the ties complicate America's increasingly tense relationship with President Hamid Karzai, who has struggled to build sustained popularity among Afghans and has long been portrayed by the Taliban as an American puppet. The C.I.A.'s practices also suggest that the United States is not doing everything in its power to stamp out the lucrative Afghan drug trade, a major source of revenue for the Taliban. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195694-Secret-Team-outs-Afghan-President-Karzai-s-brother-as-CIA-Why-now- Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:55:24 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195840-Propaganda-Alert-Magic-Al-Qaeda-passports-place-9-11-patsies-in-Pakistan Pakistani troops sweeping through the mountains of South Waziristan have discovered startling evidence that appears to show a direct link between the lawless tribal belt and al-Qaida attacks in America and Europe. Last week soldiers raiding Taliban compounds in Shelwasti village, on the edge of the Mehsud tribal territory, recovered a passport in the name of Said Bahaji, a German national accused of being part of the Hamburg cell that coordinated the September 11 2001 attacks. They also found a Spanish passport in the name of Raquel Burgos García, whose Moroccan husband, Amer Azizi, is accused of playing a role in the Madrid train bombings of 2004. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195840-Propaganda-Alert-Magic-Al-Qaeda-passports-place-9-11-patsies-in-Pakistan Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:03:40 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195837-Report-slams-bank-links-to-clusterbomb-production London - Leading banks have funded arms manufacturers, whose products include cluster bombs, to the tune of $5 billion in the past two years, despite an international accord to ban such weapons, a study said Thursday. The report by Profundo consultancy and several NGOs said the banks loaned money to companies whose products include cluster bombs or their components. It did not say the funds went directly to make cluster bombs. The manufacturers could use the money for any of their production lines. The top five loan providers were Bank of America, Citigroup , JP Morgan, Barclays and Goldman Sachs, the study said. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195837-Report-slams-bank-links-to-clusterbomb-production Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:29:39 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195820-The-Dark-Side-of-the-Special-Relationship-Spy-vs-spy-Israel-vs-America A silent battle has been raging right under our noses, a fierce underground struggle pitting the U.S. against one of its closest allies. For all its newsworthiness, the media has barely noticed the story - except when it surfaces, briefly, like a giant fin jutting above the waves. The aggressor in this war is the state of Israel, with the U.S., its sponsor and protector, playing defense. This is the dark side of the "special relationship" - a battle of spy vs. spy. Convicted spy Jonathan Pollard - now serving a life sentence - stole secrets so vital that an attempt by the Israelis to get him pardoned was blocked by a massive protest from the intelligence and defense communities. Bill Clinton wanted to trade Pollard for Israeli concessions in the ongoing "peace process," and he was only prevented from doing so by a threat of mass resignations by the top leadership of the intelligence community. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195820-The-Dark-Side-of-the-Special-Relationship-Spy-vs-spy-Israel-vs-America Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:30:20 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195819-What-are-US-troops-dying-for-in-Afghanistan- At least 21 US soldiers and Marines have been killed in Afghanistan since last weekend, making October the bloodiest month for US forces since they invaded the country eight years ago. Still more have been wounded by roadside bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. Among those killed in the last several days was a 24-year-old California mother of two young daughters, Sgt. Eduviges Wolf, who died of wounds suffered when her vehicle was attacked wit a rocket-propelled grenade in Kunar province. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195819-What-are-US-troops-dying-for-in-Afghanistan- Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:26:24 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195817-Secret-Team-s-definition-of-fun-and-games-CIA-kept-detainees-alive-to-keep-torturing-them According to human rights lawyer John Sifton, the CIA tortured some of its detainees in the War on Terror so severely that it had to take measures to keep them alive so they could continue being tortured. Sifton, who is the executive director of One World Research, told an interviewer for Russia Today that there was both a CIA detention program and a military detention program and that "The CIA program was by far the most secretive. ... That's the one that only had a few dozen detainees at any given time -- but it's the one that saw the biggest abuses, the most serious forms of torture." "In the military, there was actually a larger number of deaths than with the CIA," Sifton continued. "The CIA engaged in some horrendous abuses, but they appear to have taken precautions to have actually prevented people from dying -- which might sound humanitarian, but in fact was kind of sickening." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195817-Secret-Team-s-definition-of-fun-and-games-CIA-kept-detainees-alive-to-keep-torturing-them Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:56:47 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195815-Pentagon-s-domestic-propaganda-program-may-not-have-been-terminated The covert Bush administration program that used retired military analysts to generate favorable wartime news coverage may not have been terminated, Raw Story has found. In interviews, Pentagon officials in charge of the press and community relations offices - which worked in partnership on the military analyst program - equivocated on the subject of whether the program has ended. Last May, the Pentagon's Office of Inspector General issued a memorandum rescinding a Bush administration investigative report on the retired military analyst program because it "did not meet accepted quality standards for an Inspector General work product." The now-retracted report had exonerated officials of using propaganda and referred to the program as just "one of many outreach groups." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195815-Pentagon-s-domestic-propaganda-program-may-not-have-been-terminated Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:45:59 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195809-President-Signs-Law-Giving-Defense-Department-Authority-To-Exempt-Photos-From-Freedom-Of-Information-Act ACLU Renews Call For Secretary Gates Not To Block Release Of Torture Photos Washington - President Obama today signed into law a Homeland Security appropriations bill that grants the Department of Defense (DOD) the authority to continue suppressing photos of prisoner abuse. The amendment, which would allow the DOD to exempt photos from the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), is aimed at photos ordered released by a federal appeals court as part of an American Civil Liberties Union FOIA lawsuit for photos and other records related to detainee abuse in U.S. custody overseas, although it would apply to other photos in government custody as well. Earlier this month, the ACLU sent a letter to Secretary Robert Gates urging him not to exercise the authority to suppress the photos in their case, stating that the photos "are of critical relevance to an ongoing national debate about accountability." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195809-President-Signs-Law-Giving-Defense-Department-Authority-To-Exempt-Photos-From-Freedom-Of-Information-Act Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:37:12 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195802-US-Israeli-Missile-Defense-War-Game-Signals-Israeli-Attack-on-Iran There's no word in the Western press, but AlJazeera reports that the US and Israel are conducting tests of the high-altitude missile defense system that the US has provided to Israel. The anti-missile system is useless against the short-range rockets of Hamas and Hezbollah. Its purpose is to protect Israel from longer-range Iranian missiles. Everyone understands that Iran would not attack Israel except in retaliation. It is logical to conclude that the missile defense system signals an upcoming Israeli attack on Iran. If the US were opposed to an Israeli attack on Iran, the US would not provide Israel with protection against retaliation and would not engage in war games with Israel to test the system. The best way to prevent an Israeli attack on Iran is to leave Israel open to retaliation. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195802-US-Israeli-Missile-Defense-War-Game-Signals-Israeli-Attack-on-Iran Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:59:56 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195797-Rape-in-the-Ranks-The-Enemy-Within Journalists Pascale Bourgaux and Mercedes Gallego in their trips to Iraq as war correspondents were stunned to hear from military women in Iraq that they should be very careful working in military units due to sexual assault and rape. When they left Iraq they decided to investigate the issue of rape in the U.S. military. In 2007, they filmed the stories of four military women who had been raped and made a documentary, Rape in the Ranks: The Enemy Within. The documentary was shown for the first time in the United States on October 26 at the New York Independent Film Festival. Tina Priest was raped in Iraq and then found dead of a gunshot in her dormitory room. The U.S. Army claims Tina committed suicide 11 days after she was raped. The mother and sister of Tina Priest don't believe Tina committed suicide. The documentary captures remarkable interactions with them and military officers from Fort Hood who arrive at their doorstep. Tina's rapist was never prosecuted. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195797-Rape-in-the-Ranks-The-Enemy-Within Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:48:31 -0400 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195782-AFRICOM-and-America-s-Global-Military-Agenda-Taking-The-Helm-Of-The-Entire-World "The developments come as the White House seeks grounds to establish a major military presence in Africa...[A]nalysts caution that similar pretexts were used to justify the US invasion of Afghanistan, the missile attacks in Pakistan, and its waning military operations in Iraq, where the civilian population continues to bear the brunt of the US intervention." "AFRICOM facilitates the United States advancing on the African continent, taking control of the Eurasian continent and proceeding to take the helm of the entire globe." October 1st marked the one-year anniversary of the activation of the first U.S. overseas military command in a quarter of a century, Africa Command (AFRICOM). AFRICOM was established as a temporary command under the wing of U.S. European Command (EUCOM) a year earlier and launched as an independent entity on October 1, 2008. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/195782-AFRICOM-and-America-s-Global-Military-Agenda-Taking-The-Helm-Of-The-Entire-World Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:29:00 -0400