Genocide in Slow Motion

"In Darfur genocide is taking place in slow motion, and there is vast documentary proof of the atrocities. Some of the evidence can be seen in the photo reproduced with this essay, which was leaked from an African Union archive containing thousands of other such photos. And now, the latest proof comes in the form of two new books that tell the sorry tale of Darfur: it's appalling that the publishing industry manages to respond more quickly to genocide than the UN and world leaders do."

"In my years as a journalist, I thought I had seen a full kaleidoscope of horrors, from babies dying of malaria to Chinese troops shooting students to Indonesian mobs beheading people. But nothing prepared me for Darfur, where systematic murder, rape, and mutilation are taking place on a vast scale, based simply on the tribe of the victim. What I saw reminded me why people say that genocide is the worst evil of which human beings are capable."

Umm, didn't we accept one of our Presidents lame justifications for going to war in Iraq (after no WMDs were found) as being the fact that Saddam had killed thousands of his own people, years before? So where's the call to arms now? Don't these people deserve to be "liberated" from their homicidal ruler too? This isn't news. It didn't just start. It's been going on long enough for everyone in the world to know about, and try to stop. So again I ask; Where's the call to arms? Where's the public outcry? Why the indifference? Are these people simply to "dark" to bother helping? Yeah, I said it!! Do we always have to wait until our leaders tell us we should be concerned?

I guess since no one has much of a corporate or strategic interest in that country, it's not worth losing any sleep over. Why is it whenever we should get involved, we just can't find a good enough reason. I smell hypocracy again.

SUDAN: Darfur Overview

Consultants Advisory Group (CAG) Spying in Haiti

"I seem to have uncovered a strange little black ops organization that's spying in Haiti and elsewhere. Not long ago, they were also looking to drum up some business in the US in the Homeland Security market. I got a few tips from whistleblowers. But all of the most substantial information has come from one of their own employees who wrote me a number of long letters."

"This post covers a lot of ground, ranging from a mysterious company owned by US ex-pats placing spies disguised as journalists in the audience of Haitian presidential debates, to CAG arranging for the detention of people who wrote to me to ask for information about CAG and complain about CAG's involvement in human rights violations in Haiti. So bear with me. This is my second post about CAG, and part of an ongoing series on Top Cat Marine Security."

This is an intriguing tale, highlighting what appears to be a growing trend; corporate thugs for hire.

In the old days, American companies would create a presence in a foreign land, and if they had enough money to throw around, would use some of it to buy U.S. political or military presure to force countries into corporate compliance. Keep those governments corrupt, and they'd allow these (fruit, tobbaco, rubber, chemical, oil, etc,.) companies to ravage their lands and abuse their workforce. Tons of examples of that throughout Central and South America. When they rebelled, the companies paid our government to step in. This is why Chavez of Venezuela is currently making noise. He's rebelling against multi-national corporate abusers, and their political/military 'enforcers'. Is it any wonder that those that rebel, shift towards socialism, after the way capitalism has treated them? Not that socialism's any better. Whatever corporate abuse takes place here in America, it's multiplied a hundred fold in countries that are kept weak, poor, and powerless. We, of course, reap the benefits of cheap foreign made goods. You think it's worth it, to live in comfort, at the expence of so many others? (sorry, I'm side-tracking again)

What also used to happen was that when our governments' intervention was necessary, it would create it's own front companies, manned and operated by intelligence agents. One of those examples was the CIAs' Vietnam-era airline, Air America.

But today, instead of the government being in direct control of these operations, they're begining to 'outsource' them to private 'security companies', usually staffed by former military personnel, former police, former intelligence agents, and other mercenaries. Only some, not all of these companies, are U.S. based. We see this in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are a number of private security companies working there. You hear about them sometimes, like when they get themselves killed, they're reported as "private contractors". Sometimes we outsource to companies, that in turn, hire private security as "subcontractors". One such "general contractor" company you may recognize; Halliburton. These companies are making a fortune, especially wherever there's a war.

PBS' Frontline series did a program on their use in Iraq, and you can watch it online if you like. Their website also lists a number of articles on the subject too. Here's the link...

PBS Frontline: Private Warriors

With all that in mind, CAG appears to be an outsourced company working directly for either some government, or corporate interest, that is trying to manipulate Haiti to it's advantage. Ever wonder why such a small country (as well as others of this hemisphere), never seems to be able to stabilize? If not for outside manipulation for years, that has kept people south of our border in a constant state of poverty, they could've had a chance to stabilize and prosper long ago. Or maybe not, who can tell, many have never been allowed. And it looks like Haiti still won't be allowed to try this time either.

A slight correction

My apologies. Yesterday I made a post and just discovered a typo bad enough to warrant a separate post, because my typo changed the word, and my intended meaning. In the second paragraph of my comment on

'The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse'

I wrote:

"The creation of an Iranian oil bourse, and their desire
for nuclear weapons to protest it, makes sense."

It was supposed to read:

"The creation of an Iranian oil bourse, and their desire
for nuclear weapons to protect it, makes sense."

Now it makes sense.

Full Text of Bin Laden Tape

"The following is the full text of a new audiotape from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Parts of the tape were aired on Al-Jazeera television, which published the entire version on its Web site. The text was translated from the Arabic by The Associated Press."

As always, it's best to get your information, in full, and from the original source. Assuming you can trust the translator....

[UPDATE]

Well, what do you know, up pops an alternate translation. You'd think I saw this coming wouldn't you.

"There Is No Shame In This Solution"

What they don't want you to know about the coming oil crisis

"Soaring fuel prices, rumours of winter power cuts, panic over the gas supply from Russia, abrupt changes to forecasts of crude output... Is something sinister going on? Yes, says former oil man Jeremy Leggett, and it's time to face the fact that the supplies we so depend on are going to run out."

"We have allowed oil to become vital to virtually everything we do. Ninety per cent of all our transportation, whether by land, air or sea, is fuelled by oil. Ninety-five per cent of all goods in shops involve the use of oil. Ninety-five per cent of all our food products require oil use. Just to farm a single cow and deliver it to market requires six barrels of oil, enough to drive a car from New York to Los Angeles. The world consumes more than 80 million barrels of oil a day, 29 billion barrels a year, at the time of writing. This figure is rising fast, as it has done for decades. The almost universal expectation is that it will keep doing so for years to come. The US government assumes that global demand will grow to around 120 million barrels a day, 43 billion barrels a year, by 2025. Few question the feasibility of this requirement, or the oil industry's ability to meet it."

This is very much a 'doom and gloom' piece. It goes into detail about why some think that within a few short years, literally less than a decade, we're all going to be in deep trouble.

Aside from predicting economic disaster for the near future, this is also a long article that may just bore you to death, but it's important to read. Whether you believe those that say a crash is coming in a few short years, or the ones that say we have longer, the time for us to prepare for it is......yesterday, or maybe even, last week. We can't keep saying we want alternatives to oil, and not do anything to move towards that goal. Even if we have another hundred years, we can't wait for the 99th year to take action.

[UPDATE]

The original article at The Independent is no long available in its' entirety except to subscribers, so here's the complete article found on another site:

What they don't want you to know

The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse

[note: bourse = stock exchange]

"Historically, taxing the subject state has been in various forms-usually gold and silver, where those were considered money, but also slaves, soldiers, crops, cattle, or other agricultural and natural resources, whatever economic goods the empire demanded and the subject-state could deliver. Historically, imperial taxation has always been direct: the subject state handed over the economic goods directly to the empire."

"For the first time in history, in the twentieth century, America was able to tax the world indirectly, through inflation. It did not enforce the direct payment of taxes like all of its predecessor empires did, but distributed instead its own fiat currency, the U.S. Dollar, to other nations in exchange for goods with the intended consequence of inflating and devaluing those dollars and paying back later each dollar with less economic goods-the difference capturing the U.S. imperial tax. Here is how this happened."

Here's an economic history lesson that attempts to explain the true nature of our military aggression in the world today. As I've said before, this "War on Terror" is nothing but a smokescreen, and is being used as an excuse to take actions, that to the normal person, seem counterproductive if we are truely interested in lessening the threat of terror to ourselves and the rest of the world.

A few years ago we were given reasons why we should invade Iraq, but none of them included Iraqs' interest in creating a stock exchange that would hurt the U.S. economy. Today, we are being given reasons why we should not tolerate Irans' nuclear ambitions, but not the probable reason they may be interested in a nuclear deterrent. Sure, they'd like to see Israel cease to exist, but they already know Israel has its own nukes, so attacking them for the sake of cleansing the area of a Jewish State would be impractical, and suicidal. Sure, the Iranians are mouthing off about going nuclear, but it's seemed obvious to me that they want a deterrence that would make anyone think twice before attacking them. The creation of an Iranian oil bourse, and their desire for nuclear weapons to protect it, makes sense. They saw what happened to Iraq when it didn't have a deterrent and they don't want it to happen to themselves.

Then we have the spector of nuclear terrorism, where terrorist could obtain such weapons from Iran which does sponsor terrorism. Think about this for a minute. What government could successfully supply terrorists with nuclear material, and not be discovered? If a nuclear 9/11 took place, anywhere, the list of suspected sponsors would be very small, and if that sponsor were to be discovered, it would naturally be considered an act of war by that State, with resulting consequences. It's in no ones' interest to supply such material to fanatics. The real threat comes from existing nuclear states that don't have proper safeguards against theft, such as the former Soviet Republics.

Whichever side of the growing tensions between the U.S. and Iran you decide to take, you should do so with as much information as possible. That includes investigating information that you are not told about from governments and mainstream media.

I've blogged about this oil bourse previously here:

The Story about Oil you NEED to Hear

And of course, you also need to be made aware of all the evidence that contradicts everything we were told about why we invaded Iraq:

Rep. Conyers' Iraq Report

Corruption Digest

"As my new book Hostile Takeover about political corruption prepares to be released in the Spring, here is your January 17, 2006 briefing on how America's political system is being sold to the highest bidders."

Here's a book excerpt that lists quite a number of political, corporate, and media corruption cases. We all know it's taking place, but to compile them (at least the reported cases) in one place, can really become disheartening if you had any faith in the system. Fortunately for me, I lost that faith sometime back in.....puberty I think it was.

Colin Powell Interview

"Jeremy's been speaking to Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell - about Iran, rendition, the decisions that took the US and Britain to war, and that notorious presentation to the United Nations on Iraq's weapons programme. It's worth watching."

'First broadcast - BBC - 01/16/06'

This is another of those damned embedded videos from Information Clearing House. As a result, I've again prevented the title from being clickable so you won't go without my warning you first. There's no separate download link, so the following link will open the page and begin loading the file immediately in Realplayer. I'd much prefer they provide the transcript and then give you the added option of playing the audio if you want, but they didn't, so here's the page:

Colin Powell interview

[UPDATE]
Sorry, I forgot to re-present the evidence that makes everything Powell says about Iraq, a lie:

The Iraq Report

Transcript of Al Gores' speech

As we begin this new year, the Executive Branch of our government has been caught eavesdropping on huge numbers of American citizens and has brazenly declared that it has the unilateral right to continue without regard to the established law enacted by Congress to prevent such abuses.

It is imperative that respect for the rule of law be restored.

So, many of us have come here to Constitution Hall to sound an alarm and call upon our fellow citizens to put aside partisan differences and join with us in demanding that our Constitution be defended and preserved.

It is appropriate that we make this appeal on the day our nation has set aside to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who challenged America to breathe new life into our oldest values by extending its promise to all our people.

On this particular Martin Luther King Day, it is especially important to recall that for the last several years of his life, Dr. King was illegally wiretapped-one of hundreds of thousands of Americans whose private communications were intercepted by the U.S. government during this period.

The FBI privately called King the "most dangerous and effective negro leader in the country" and vowed to "take him off his pedestal." The government even attempted to destroy his marriage and blackmail him into committing suicide.

This campaign continued until Dr. King's murder. The discovery that the FBI conducted a long-running and extensive campaign of secret electronic surveillance designed to infiltrate the inner workings of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and to learn the most intimate details of Dr. King's life, helped to convince Congress to enact restrictions on wiretapping.

Well let's hope this isn't just blowing hot air. So far, all any of them have done is talk, then fade back into the background, while the bullshit continues. If the Congress doesn't take decisive action, they can count themselves as treasonous companions of the Bush administration who should pay a high price for breaking their oaths of office and subverting the Constitution and Bill of Rights out of existance. If they don't want the citizens to act, they'd better start doing their jobs and protecting our Republic. If they fail, there's only one course of action left, as prescribed by the Declaration of Independence itself:

".......We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness........."

"War on Terror" Continues to Create Terrorists

"The CIA’s recent botched attempt to kill al Qaeda’s number two man, Ayman Zawahiri, in Pakistan illustrates why the Bush administration’s overly aggressive “war on terror” actually motivates terrorists to attack the United States. Certainly, capturing or killing the brains behind al Qaeda is an important goal. Unfortunately, in the U.S. method of warfare—which unduly emphasizes attrition, heavy firepower and sophisticated weaponry, even against guerrillas and terrorists—the technology of killing has outstripped the quality of human intelligence needed to hit the correct targets. The CIA’s unmanned Predator drone fired missiles that killed many Pakistani civilians, including women and children, but apparently not Zawahiri."

"Making things even worse, the killing of women and children continues to spark public outrage all across Pakistan, leading to mass protests in all of Pakistan’s major cities and the trashing and burning of a U.S.-supported aid organization. Such public ire will make it even less likely that the United States will receive accurate. future intelligence about where Zawahiri and his boss, Osama bin Laden, are hiding, even though the prices on their heads are substantial."

You know, there's nothing new here. I've said myself many times that our tactics are destined to create more terrorist than we can get rid of. But the thing is, while reading this, I've decided to stop thinking that they just aren't thinking things through. I have to stop thinking that they actually believe that the things they're doing, are in our best interest and will bring about an end, or even just slow down the degree of terrorism in the world. I think the plan is much greater, or I should say, much graver.

Take this incident for example. Why do you think they used an unmanned drone to fire missles into a crowded area with women and children, in the reported hope that they'd get one specific man? On the face of it, it would seem logical that they did it that way, to avoid putting our soldiers in danger by sending in a commando unit that could've visually aquired the correct target (or could see that he wasn't there, and aborted), and take him out with one sniper shot. It was much safer to use the armed drone. But was the safety of our personnel the real reason? After all, not one single day goes by, not one, that we don't lose people in Iraq. And we don't lose them all in battles. Many are not killed or wounded in a firefight, they are getting killed while simply driving down the street, or standing at checkpoints. They are dying, many of them, because they have insufficient equipment. All this time, and many still aren't being supplied with proper armour. The government has clearly demonstrated that it isn't particularly interested in the deaths of our people, or they would've sent in thousands more to do the job. So why are they cautious in situations like this? Could it be that they fully intended to kill a number of women and children?

You saw the first Gulf War, and you saw the second. You saw their video-war toys, they bragged about them. You could see the degree of clarity afforded by the cameras used in their drones and on their missiles, and it's a safe bet that they only showed us the technology they wanted us to see. In light of this, I find it hard to continue to think that it was just a tragic mistake that so many innocent lives were lost the other day, and in other instances. I find it hard to believe they didn't know they were going to kill women and children. I'm sure they knew they were there. As I've watched the TV reports on the event, I've noticed a distinct lack of concern about the innocent lives lost, both by our government officials, and the media reporting it. The main emphasis has been on the missed "target", and speculation that the Pakistani President my be losing control, because so many of his people have dared protest our humanitarian effort to wipe out "the terrorists". Yes, that was sarcasm.

Up to now, I've been willing to go along with the theory that all this "collateral damage" is unintended. not any more. We claim that we had good intelligence that terrorist were supposed to be there. We are told that bodies have been taken away to be identified. Sorry, but they've just lied to us one too many times. What the hell is the truth? We found out terrorist were going to be there, so we blindly fired missiles into an area, without knowing there were women and children there? Well, it may have happened that way, but I don't think so. I think it's intended that innocent people should die. I think it's intended that we hold and torture people, sometimes for years, and then release them without charges ever being brought.

I think it serves two purposes. One, that it intimidates not only the people immediately affected, but people everywhere, that we are taking charge, and there's nothing they can do about it. An attempt to make everyone, everywhere, afraid of us. The other reason, I believe, is designed to make sure the "war on terror" lasts indefinately. The best way to do that, is to torture and murder innocent people, making their friends and relatives, who may have looked on us favorably before, take up arms against us. As long as there's a terrorist threat, our government will make itself ever stronger, and exert its' will throughout the world. At the same time, it will further destroy our own Republic by destroying what's left of the Constitution, using the pretext of national security. It is not in the best interest of the people in charge of our government, to win the war on terror, but to perpetuate it.

I have to tell you, I really feel bad about making this post. I may just delete it after a short time. I may sleep on it and see how I feel about it in the morning. Sure, I've ranted about these criminals many times, but there's just something about this time, that just hurts. I want to be wrong about this. I love my country.

"The Osama bin Laden I Know"

"Osama bin Laden has been seen largely as a symbol, rather than as a man. Now an unprecedented portrait emerges from interviews with bin Laden's family and inner circle. In an excerpt from his new book, the author reveals the influences that led a privileged young Saudi to form his own army and eventually take advantage of what he saw as inevitable: the U.S. invasion of Iraq."

There's an old saying; "Know Thine Enemy". Well here's a look at ours that reveals a far more complex personality than simply a madman who "hates us for our freedoms".

I know we're suppose to simply demonize and denigrate our enemies, but you don't win wars against people you don't know. Just assuming they're raving lunatics, will only cause us to underestimate and misjudge them with tragic consequences.

Chomsky: 'There Is No War On Terror'

The acclaimed critic of U.S. foreign policy analyzes Bush's current political troubles, the war on Iraq, and what's really behind the global 'war on terror.'

I don't always agree on the things Comsky says, or his politics, but I do agree on most of what he says in this interview. The one exception is his view on China being no economic threat, and that the free market should take care of everything.

I won't get into that now, as I'd like to emphasize his point about the lack of any real opposition party here in the U.S.. That's a big problem here. With all the evidence of lies and corruption, not only within the Whitehouse, but also throughout the Republican party, the Democrates are doing nothing. Even though they hold minority leadership in this country for now, they don't seem to even want to take advantage of the crimes of their supposed opponants of the other party. That's because, as I've said before, there's very little difference between the two. The Democrates are just as guilty as the Republicans.

I still say we need an altogether new party. One that puts the interests of the people and the Republic, over the wealthy and corporate special interests, that have never cared about the wishes of the people. The parties we have, have long since betrayed the people in favor of their own profit.

Government appeal delays back pay for reservists

"The federal government has made a last-minute appeal of a ruling that could award thousands of dollars in compensation to as many as 200,000 military reservists who held federal civilian jobs in the 1980s and ’90s."

"The appeal by the Agriculture Department means the workers will have to wait several more months before learning whether they will be repaid for policies that they say inappropriately charged them days for military leave."

How often are we asked to support our service personnel in the performance of their duties, and how often does the government fail to give them the material and financial support they require and deserve? A lot, in both cases. We do our part, without having to be told, but the government always seems to need a good swift kick in the ass to do theirs.

New Truthout Spying "Scoop" Doesn't Prove What It Says It Does

"Jason Leopold came out with what seemed to be a real scoop yesterday (and which was the subject of a recommended diary)--the news that Bush ordered NSA surveillance of Americans before 9/11. But his article doesn't prove it's central assertion: that Bush authorized the domestic surveillance program James Risen exposed on December 16 before 9/11. Leopold relies on a December 2000 document for much of his article and quotes it out of context to suggest the Risen-exposed program predates 9/11. Then, Leopold shows that three different surveillance programs pre-date 9/11. Those other three programs are disturbing. But it's not clear they violate FISA."

Because I posted that Truthout article here yesterday, I need to make you all aware that questions have arisen as to it's accuracy. There's a discussion at this page where people are picking over the details. The article in question can be found in yesterdays' post:
Bush Authorized Domestic Spying Before 9/11

The Vanished Gallery: The Desaparecidos of Argentina

"Desaparecidos is the Spanish word for "The Disappeared." For thousands of Argentine families, this word has become a symbol of a long harrowing nightmare."

"In a coup on March 24, 1976, a military junta seized power in Argentina and went on a campaign to wipe out left-wing terrorism with terror far worse than the one they were combating. Between 1976 and 1983 - under military rule - thousands of people, most of them dissidents and innocent civilians unconnected with terrorism, were arrested and then vanished without a trace."

A little history lesson in what happens when governments get out of control. This can be considered a warning for today, as our (U.S) government fights to retain the "right" to cause disappearances internally and externally, in our crusade on terror, as mentioned in the previous post;
The Disappeared - A New Treaty.