Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
NOT HEZBOLLAH, BUT WACHOVIA, BANK OF AMERICA ADMITTED LAUNDERING MONEY FOR MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS
Banks Financing Mexico Drug Gangs Admitted in Wells Fargo Deal
From Bloomberg
June 29 (Bloomberg) -- Just before sunset on April 10, 2006, a DC-9 jet landed at the international airport in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, 500 miles east of Mexico City. As soldiers on the ground approached the plane, the crew tried to shoo them away, saying there was a dangerous oil leak. So the troops grew suspicious and searched the jet.
They found 128 black suitcases, packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100 million. The stash was supposed to have been delivered from Caracas to drug traffickers in Toluca, near Mexico City, Mexican prosecutors later found. Law enforcement officials also discovered something else.
The smugglers had bought the DC-9 with laundered funds they transferred through two of the biggest banks in the U.S.: Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp., Bloomberg Markets reports in its August 2010 issue.
This was no isolated incident. Wachovia, it turns out, had made a habit of helping move money for Mexican drug smugglers. Wells Fargo & Co., which bought Wachovia in 2008, has admitted in court that its unit failed to monitor and report suspected money laundering by narcotics traffickers -- including the cash used to buy four planes that shipped a total of 22 tons of cocaine.
The admission came in an agreement that Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia struck with federal prosecutors in March, and it sheds light on the largely undocumented role of U.S. banks in contributing to the violent drug trade that has convulsed Mexico for the past four years...
________________________
Meanwhile a congresswoman, Homeland Security and the scumbags on Fox News are pushing the same tired Israeli propaganda about Hamas and Hezbollah working with Mexican drug cartels on the Mexican border as you can see here.
This story is not a new one, it's old and fake, like everything the corporate establishment creates. Here is their last bit of cow crap from two years ago.
As Infowars said then:
Editor’s note: Of course, this is utter nonsense. The CIA — in collaboration with Wall Street banks and the Pentagon, is behind the Mexican drug cartels — not Muslims. “The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, as is by now well-known by anyone who has cared to be informed, has long been deeply involved in the international trafficking of the addictive drugs heroin and (since the early 1980s, if not earlier) cocaine, the enormous profits from which have financed, and continue to finance, both U.S. covert operations and the U.S. military (via payments to Pentagon contractors).” — The CIA
America’s Premier International Terrorist Organization.
What Really Happened goes further debunking the current congresswoman's claims:
Sue Myrick is a card-carrying Israel-Firster, and a signatory to the "Hoyer-Cantor Letter reaffirming the US-Israel Alliance",as confirmed at the following AIPAC website:
http://www.aipac.org/Publications/SourceMaterialsCongressionalAction/Signatories_to_Hoyer-Cantor_Letter.pdf
Note that she is also prominently displayed at the AIPAC website with a link to her own official website as follows:
http://aipac.capwiz.com/bio/id/449
Notice also that Ms. Myrick presents absolutely no proof of this allegation; she simply has made this allegation against Hezbollah per se.
One has to wonder if this accusation is the ramp-up an Israeli "false flag" against a US target, to be blamed on either Hezbullah or Iran.
But the most ludicrously hysterical portion of this article is the following bit:
"The congresswoman, who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said members of drug cartels imprisoned in South America have been spotted lately tattooing Persian writing on their bodies, evidence of Iranian involvement."
According to:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080110053911AAyhen5
Tattoos are strictly forbidden under Islam because they are perceived as mutilating the body.
That this woman actually sits on the House Intelligence Committee is truly frightening.
From Bloomberg
June 29 (Bloomberg) -- Just before sunset on April 10, 2006, a DC-9 jet landed at the international airport in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, 500 miles east of Mexico City. As soldiers on the ground approached the plane, the crew tried to shoo them away, saying there was a dangerous oil leak. So the troops grew suspicious and searched the jet.
They found 128 black suitcases, packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100 million. The stash was supposed to have been delivered from Caracas to drug traffickers in Toluca, near Mexico City, Mexican prosecutors later found. Law enforcement officials also discovered something else.
The smugglers had bought the DC-9 with laundered funds they transferred through two of the biggest banks in the U.S.: Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp., Bloomberg Markets reports in its August 2010 issue.
This was no isolated incident. Wachovia, it turns out, had made a habit of helping move money for Mexican drug smugglers. Wells Fargo & Co., which bought Wachovia in 2008, has admitted in court that its unit failed to monitor and report suspected money laundering by narcotics traffickers -- including the cash used to buy four planes that shipped a total of 22 tons of cocaine.
The admission came in an agreement that Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia struck with federal prosecutors in March, and it sheds light on the largely undocumented role of U.S. banks in contributing to the violent drug trade that has convulsed Mexico for the past four years...
________________________
Meanwhile a congresswoman, Homeland Security and the scumbags on Fox News are pushing the same tired Israeli propaganda about Hamas and Hezbollah working with Mexican drug cartels on the Mexican border as you can see here.
This story is not a new one, it's old and fake, like everything the corporate establishment creates. Here is their last bit of cow crap from two years ago.
As Infowars said then:
Editor’s note: Of course, this is utter nonsense. The CIA — in collaboration with Wall Street banks and the Pentagon, is behind the Mexican drug cartels — not Muslims. “The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, as is by now well-known by anyone who has cared to be informed, has long been deeply involved in the international trafficking of the addictive drugs heroin and (since the early 1980s, if not earlier) cocaine, the enormous profits from which have financed, and continue to finance, both U.S. covert operations and the U.S. military (via payments to Pentagon contractors).” — The CIA
America’s Premier International Terrorist Organization.
What Really Happened goes further debunking the current congresswoman's claims:
Sue Myrick is a card-carrying Israel-Firster, and a signatory to the "Hoyer-Cantor Letter reaffirming the US-Israel Alliance",as confirmed at the following AIPAC website:
http://www.aipac.org/Publications/SourceMaterialsCongressionalAction/Signatories_to_Hoyer-Cantor_Letter.pdf
Note that she is also prominently displayed at the AIPAC website with a link to her own official website as follows:
http://aipac.capwiz.com/bio/id/449
Notice also that Ms. Myrick presents absolutely no proof of this allegation; she simply has made this allegation against Hezbollah per se.
One has to wonder if this accusation is the ramp-up an Israeli "false flag" against a US target, to be blamed on either Hezbullah or Iran.
But the most ludicrously hysterical portion of this article is the following bit:
"The congresswoman, who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said members of drug cartels imprisoned in South America have been spotted lately tattooing Persian writing on their bodies, evidence of Iranian involvement."
According to:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080110053911AAyhen5
Tattoos are strictly forbidden under Islam because they are perceived as mutilating the body.
That this woman actually sits on the House Intelligence Committee is truly frightening.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Former teacher sentenced to 10 years for having sex with students
Only in America. This Florida judge, Chet Tharpe, shows himself to be truly barbarian in his punishment of this teacher. Granted she did something deserving of losing her job, and never teaching again, but the penalty of this judge is outlandish and inappropriate, like so much of what comes out of our country. Why not hunt witches? Lynch shoplifters? The young boys, 14 and 16 years of age, could have been more scarred if they had been beat up at school or countless other common events in the life of a young man. Many young boys of this age have sex, and it might be illegal, still, 10 years? 15 years probation as a sex offender?
Of course this fits with the current fascist American mindset of locking away any "deviants", and waging war on the world. That she appears in court shackled with chains and wearing her "scarlet letter," an orange jumpsuit, is outrageous and only highlights the barbarity, not of her supposed crime, but of our vindictive society which apparently has changed little since the days of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
From CNN
(CNN) -- A judge in Tampa, Florida, on Monday sentenced Stephanie Ragusa, a former middle school math teacher, to 10 years in prison for having sex with two underage students in 2008.
"As parents, we place our trust in teachers to provide a safe environment in which our children can learn," Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Chet Tharpe said in handing down the sentence. "You violated that trust in the worst imaginable way."
Tharpe also sentenced Ragusa to 15 years of sex offender probation following her prison time.
Ragusa, 31, pleaded guilty in April to three counts of lewd and lascivious battery in a March 2008 case involving a 14-year-old boy, and two counts of having unlawful sex with a minor in an April 2008 case involving a 16-year-old student.
Ragusa has been in jail since she was arrested in 2008 leaving one of the victims' homes...
In a statement before her sentencing, an emotional Ragusa -- wearing an orange jumpsuit and shackled at her hands and ankles -- expressed remorse for her actions.
"I'm sincerely sorry for the pain and aggravation I have caused to the victims and their families," she said...
Cybersecurity Measures Will Mandate Government “ID Tokens” To Use The Internet
And I thought it was bad that I need to have a password to order a pizza online....
From Prison Planet
Gargantuan move against Internet freedom accelerates into high gear
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones
Prison Planet.com
Monday, June 28, 2010
The move to shut down and regulate the Internet under a new government-controlled system has accelerated into high gear with the announcement that the government’s cybersecurity strategy revolves around issuing Internet users with ID “tokens” without which they will not be able to visit websites, the latest salvo against web freedom which, in combination with Senator Joe Lieberman’s ‘kill switch’ bill, will serve to eviscerate the free Internet as we know it.
Under the guise of “cybersecurity,” the government is moving to discredit and shut down the existing Internet infrastructure in the pursuit of a new, centralized, regulated world wide web.
It is important to stress that “cybersecurity” has nothing to do with protecting the infrastructure of the United States and everything to do with taking over the Internet. Cybersecurity is about attacking non-compliant Internet users, not defending against hackers. Non-compliance equates as using the Internet as a political tool to dissent against the policies of the U.S. government. Having already tried and failed in flooding the web with paid disinformation agents, the government is now turning to its only recourse, exploiting hyped or outright staged cyberattacks as an excuse through which to implement an Internet 2 system controlled and regulated solely by the authorities... Read more here.
From Prison Planet
Gargantuan move against Internet freedom accelerates into high gear
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones
Prison Planet.com
Monday, June 28, 2010
The move to shut down and regulate the Internet under a new government-controlled system has accelerated into high gear with the announcement that the government’s cybersecurity strategy revolves around issuing Internet users with ID “tokens” without which they will not be able to visit websites, the latest salvo against web freedom which, in combination with Senator Joe Lieberman’s ‘kill switch’ bill, will serve to eviscerate the free Internet as we know it.
Under the guise of “cybersecurity,” the government is moving to discredit and shut down the existing Internet infrastructure in the pursuit of a new, centralized, regulated world wide web.
It is important to stress that “cybersecurity” has nothing to do with protecting the infrastructure of the United States and everything to do with taking over the Internet. Cybersecurity is about attacking non-compliant Internet users, not defending against hackers. Non-compliance equates as using the Internet as a political tool to dissent against the policies of the U.S. government. Having already tried and failed in flooding the web with paid disinformation agents, the government is now turning to its only recourse, exploiting hyped or outright staged cyberattacks as an excuse through which to implement an Internet 2 system controlled and regulated solely by the authorities... Read more here.
New York Times reporter calls Zionist terrorism ‘romantic’
From Raw Story
A little-noticed comment in a New York Times interview with Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni has critics arguing that it shows the media has a "double standard" when it comes to terrorism.
In an interview published Tuesday, Livni, the leader of Israel's centrist Kadima party, boasted that her parents, both members of the Zionist militant group Irgun in the 1940s, were the first couple to be married in the newly-formed state of Israel.
"Both of them were in the Irgun," Livni said. "They were freedom fighters, and they met while boarding a British train. When the British Mandate was here, they robbed a train to get the money in order to buy weapons."
To which New York Times reporter Deborah Solomon responded: "It was a more romantic era."
"I've met interviewer Deborah Solomon -- smart lady," writes Philip Weiss, who brought attention to the comment on his blog. "I wonder whether she was inoculated, as I was, by Zionism, and to what degree. This is typically one-sided."
Weiss points out that Irgun, which was fighting for the creation of a Jewish state, was responsible for the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in 1946. That attack killed 91 people, including US and British nationals, and is believed to remain to this day as the most deadly militant attack in the history of the conflict between Israel and its neighbors.
Irgun's membership was absorbed into the Israeli Defence Force after the creation of Israel. Its political arm is a predecessor to today's Likud party, whose leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, is prime minister of Israel.
Matt Duss at ThinkProgress goes even further than Weiss in his criticism of the Times' portrayal of Irgun.
"What’s amazing here is not only does Solomon neglect to challenge Livni’s characterization of her parents’ membership in a terrorist group as 'freedom fight[ing],' Solomon herself volunteers further assistance in the whitewash," he opines.
Duss points out that, at the time of Irgun's attacks, the Times itself referred to the group's activities as "terrorism."
"Can you imagine any mainstream American journalist performing this service in regard to Hamas terrorism? I doubt it," Duss writes.
A little-noticed comment in a New York Times interview with Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni has critics arguing that it shows the media has a "double standard" when it comes to terrorism.
In an interview published Tuesday, Livni, the leader of Israel's centrist Kadima party, boasted that her parents, both members of the Zionist militant group Irgun in the 1940s, were the first couple to be married in the newly-formed state of Israel.
"Both of them were in the Irgun," Livni said. "They were freedom fighters, and they met while boarding a British train. When the British Mandate was here, they robbed a train to get the money in order to buy weapons."
To which New York Times reporter Deborah Solomon responded: "It was a more romantic era."
"I've met interviewer Deborah Solomon -- smart lady," writes Philip Weiss, who brought attention to the comment on his blog. "I wonder whether she was inoculated, as I was, by Zionism, and to what degree. This is typically one-sided."
Weiss points out that Irgun, which was fighting for the creation of a Jewish state, was responsible for the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in 1946. That attack killed 91 people, including US and British nationals, and is believed to remain to this day as the most deadly militant attack in the history of the conflict between Israel and its neighbors.
Irgun's membership was absorbed into the Israeli Defence Force after the creation of Israel. Its political arm is a predecessor to today's Likud party, whose leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, is prime minister of Israel.
Matt Duss at ThinkProgress goes even further than Weiss in his criticism of the Times' portrayal of Irgun.
"What’s amazing here is not only does Solomon neglect to challenge Livni’s characterization of her parents’ membership in a terrorist group as 'freedom fight[ing],' Solomon herself volunteers further assistance in the whitewash," he opines.
Duss points out that, at the time of Irgun's attacks, the Times itself referred to the group's activities as "terrorism."
"Can you imagine any mainstream American journalist performing this service in regard to Hamas terrorism? I doubt it," Duss writes.
So Far, 400 Have Sought Medical Care After Visits to Escambia County Beaches
From Cryptogon
The Escambia County Health Department lifted a health advisory on Pensacola Beach on Friday on the advice of a beach official and against the advice of a federal environmental official...
The Escambia County Health Department lifted a health advisory on Pensacola Beach on Friday on the advice of a beach official and against the advice of a federal environmental official...
Sunday, June 27, 2010
USS Carrier Harry Truman Now Officially Just Off Iran, As Israel Allegedly Plotting An Imminent Tehran Raid
From Zerohedge.
As we first reported last week, in an article that was met with much original skepticism, the Pentagon has now confirmed that a fleet of 12 warships has passed the Suez Canal, and is now likely awaiting orders to support the escalation in the Persian Gulf. The attached image from Stratfor shows the latest positioning of US aircraft carrier groups as of June 23: the USS Harry Truman (CVN-75) is now right next to USS Eisenhower (CVN 69), both of which are waiting patiently just off Iran.
As for the catalyst the two carriers may be anticipating, we provide the following update from the Gulf Daily News where we read that Israel may be on the verge of an attack of Iran, with an incursion originating from military bases in Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Israel is massing warplanes in the Caucasus for an attack on Iran, it was revealed yesterday.
Preparations are underway to launch the military attack from Azerbaijan and Georgia, reports our sister paper Akhbar Al Khaleej, quoting military sources.
Israel was, in fact, training pilots in Turkey to launch the strike and was smuggling planes into Georgia using Turkish airspace, they said.
However, Turkey was unaware of Israel's intention of transferring the planes to Georgia, the sources said...
Update: G-8 'fully believes' Israel will attack Iran, says Italy PM
From Haaretz
World leaders "believe absolutely" that Israel may decide to take military action against Iran to prevent the latter from acquiring nuclear weapons, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Saturday.
As we first reported last week, in an article that was met with much original skepticism, the Pentagon has now confirmed that a fleet of 12 warships has passed the Suez Canal, and is now likely awaiting orders to support the escalation in the Persian Gulf. The attached image from Stratfor shows the latest positioning of US aircraft carrier groups as of June 23: the USS Harry Truman (CVN-75) is now right next to USS Eisenhower (CVN 69), both of which are waiting patiently just off Iran.
As for the catalyst the two carriers may be anticipating, we provide the following update from the Gulf Daily News where we read that Israel may be on the verge of an attack of Iran, with an incursion originating from military bases in Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Israel is massing warplanes in the Caucasus for an attack on Iran, it was revealed yesterday.
Preparations are underway to launch the military attack from Azerbaijan and Georgia, reports our sister paper Akhbar Al Khaleej, quoting military sources.
Israel was, in fact, training pilots in Turkey to launch the strike and was smuggling planes into Georgia using Turkish airspace, they said.
However, Turkey was unaware of Israel's intention of transferring the planes to Georgia, the sources said...
Update: G-8 'fully believes' Israel will attack Iran, says Italy PM
From Haaretz
World leaders "believe absolutely" that Israel may decide to take military action against Iran to prevent the latter from acquiring nuclear weapons, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Saturday.
TASTE OF TOTALITARIANISM/ Charlie Veitch: Arrested, Tortured, Caged by Toronto Fascist Police at G8/G20
Editor's Note: This and the other entry below is what is coming for the journalists, activists, homeowners, protesters, jobless, families, hard working citizens, and anyone of conscience in the totalitarian future the scumbag elite of our world plan for us.
From Prison Planet
Charlie Veitch, founder of activist group The Love Police describes his ordeal at the hands of Canadian jackboots on the scene of the G8/G20 meeting in Toronto.
From Prison Planet
Charlie Veitch, founder of activist group The Love Police describes his ordeal at the hands of Canadian jackboots on the scene of the G8/G20 meeting in Toronto.
Guardian journalist Jesse Rosenfeld beaten and arrested by Toronto police at G20
From Rabble.ca
A journalist on assignment for The Guardian newspaper was arrested and beaten by police officers at the site of a peaceful demonstration on The Esplanade near the G20 security fence in downtown Toronto at approximately 11:00PM on June 26, 2010. Having been punched in the stomach and elbowed in the back by officers, it is believed that Jesse Rosenfeld, a 26-year-old writer from Toronto, was then taken to the temporary detention facility on Eastern Avenue in Toronto...
A journalist on assignment for The Guardian newspaper was arrested and beaten by police officers at the site of a peaceful demonstration on The Esplanade near the G20 security fence in downtown Toronto at approximately 11:00PM on June 26, 2010. Having been punched in the stomach and elbowed in the back by officers, it is believed that Jesse Rosenfeld, a 26-year-old writer from Toronto, was then taken to the temporary detention facility on Eastern Avenue in Toronto...
G-20 Gets 4 Burning Police Cars; Norwegian Foreign Minister: "No One Needs A New Congress Of Vienna."
But not only the demonstrators are unhappy with the G-20 as we can see from this Spiegel interview with Norway's Foreign Minister.
Støre: The G-20 is a self-appointed group. Its composition is determined by the major countries and powers. It may be more representative than the G-7 or the G-8, in which only the richest countries are represented, but it is still arbitrary. We no longer live in the 19th century, a time when the major powers met and redrew the map of the world. No one needs a new Congress of Vienna...
Raw Story also reported on the summit.
Reporters covering the G20 summit in Toronto say they were the target of police violence overnight, as riots blamed on anarchist groups left four police cars burning in the financial district and resulted in the arrests of some 150 people.
"A newspaper photographer was shot with a plastic bullet in the backside, while another had an officer point a gun in his face despite identifying himself as a member of the media," reported the Canadian Press news agency. The agency did not say if it was its own reporters who were targeted...
"As I was escorted away from the demonstration, I saw two officers hold a journalist. The journalist identified himself as working for 'the Guardian.' He talked too much and pissed the police off. Two officers held him a third punched him in the stomach. Totally unnecessary. The man collapsed. Then the third officer drove his elbow into the man's back. No cameras recorded the assault. And it was an assault."
Paikin had been at a demonstration in Toronto's Esplanade neighborhood, a densely-populated area near the waterfront. He said police moved in on a crowd of peaceful, "middle class" protesters and began arresting them.
"Police on one side screamed at the crowd to leave one way. Then police on the other side said leave the other way. There was no way out," he Tweeted. "So the police just started arresting people. I stress, this was a peaceful, middle class, diverse crowd. No anarchists. Literally more than 100 officers with guns pointing at the crowd. Rubber bullets and smoke bombs ready to be fired. Rubber bullets fired."
Gulf Oil Spill ‘Could Go Years’ If Not Dealt With
From theoneclickgroup
By F. William Engdahl, author of A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order 10 June 2010
The Obama Administration and senior BP officials are frantically working not to stop the world’s worst oil disaster, but to hide the true extent of the actual ecological catastrophe. Senior researchers tell us that the BP drilling hit one of the oil migration channels and that the leakage could continue for years unless decisive steps are undertaken, something that seems far from the present strategy...
By F. William Engdahl, author of A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order 10 June 2010
The Obama Administration and senior BP officials are frantically working not to stop the world’s worst oil disaster, but to hide the true extent of the actual ecological catastrophe. Senior researchers tell us that the BP drilling hit one of the oil migration channels and that the leakage could continue for years unless decisive steps are undertaken, something that seems far from the present strategy...
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Controlled Demolition Expert: WTC 7 "Explicit Demolition"
From AE911truth.org
And as Sullivan watched the towers collapse that day, like so many did, he pondered at how fast it all took place, and how suddenly and symmetrically they were brought down. "I knew it was an explosive event as soon as I saw it, there was no question in my mind," said Sullivan. Most of us agree -- it's not by chance that the first tower just happened to collapse -- then the second in the same manner. What convinced him completely is when he watched Tower 7 fall that day, "I mean, come on, it was complete destruction. I've seen buildings fall like that for years -- that was the end game for me." Keep in mind that Sullivan did this for a living for several years -- it is like second nature for him to see this type of demolition. If anybody would know, it should be him. But we went ahead and asked him, “Is there any chance that normal office fires (the official cause of the ’collapse’) could have been responsible for the smooth, symmetrical, free-fall acceleration of building 7? “Not a chance,” he retorted. We just wanted to be sure.
And as Sullivan watched the towers collapse that day, like so many did, he pondered at how fast it all took place, and how suddenly and symmetrically they were brought down. "I knew it was an explosive event as soon as I saw it, there was no question in my mind," said Sullivan. Most of us agree -- it's not by chance that the first tower just happened to collapse -- then the second in the same manner. What convinced him completely is when he watched Tower 7 fall that day, "I mean, come on, it was complete destruction. I've seen buildings fall like that for years -- that was the end game for me." Keep in mind that Sullivan did this for a living for several years -- it is like second nature for him to see this type of demolition. If anybody would know, it should be him. But we went ahead and asked him, “Is there any chance that normal office fires (the official cause of the ’collapse’) could have been responsible for the smooth, symmetrical, free-fall acceleration of building 7? “Not a chance,” he retorted. We just wanted to be sure.
Is Petraeus McChrystal’s Replacement or Obama’s?
From Infowars
Paul Craig Roberts
Infowars.com
June 25, 2010
...The most telling aspect of the McChrystal-Obama contretemps is that it has caused no one in the US government, or media, to ask why the US is still killing women and children in Afghanistan after 9 years. The US government is prepared for everyone except itself to be tried at the War Crimes Tribunal.
Fred Branfman writing in AlterNet on June 22 reminds us that unnumbered Iraqis were killed, maimed, tortured and displaced by an American invasion based on lies told by the highest officials in the American government. Yet, no one has been held accountable.
But Gen. McChrystal is held accountable for letting off steam.
Once the Roman senate, the legislative branch, collapsed, the caesars, the executive branch, became the captives of the military. Now with Gen. Petraeus once again moved to the fore as McChrystal’s replacement in Afghanistan, we have Obama elevating Petraeus to the Republican presidential nomination in the next election. Thus has Obama replaced himself with a man who will unify the military and executive branch...
Paul Craig Roberts
Infowars.com
June 25, 2010
...The most telling aspect of the McChrystal-Obama contretemps is that it has caused no one in the US government, or media, to ask why the US is still killing women and children in Afghanistan after 9 years. The US government is prepared for everyone except itself to be tried at the War Crimes Tribunal.
Fred Branfman writing in AlterNet on June 22 reminds us that unnumbered Iraqis were killed, maimed, tortured and displaced by an American invasion based on lies told by the highest officials in the American government. Yet, no one has been held accountable.
But Gen. McChrystal is held accountable for letting off steam.
Once the Roman senate, the legislative branch, collapsed, the caesars, the executive branch, became the captives of the military. Now with Gen. Petraeus once again moved to the fore as McChrystal’s replacement in Afghanistan, we have Obama elevating Petraeus to the Republican presidential nomination in the next election. Thus has Obama replaced himself with a man who will unify the military and executive branch...
How many Americans are targeted for assassination?
From Prison Planet.
Glenn Greenwald
Salon
June 26, 2010
Obama terrorism adviser John Brennan: Dozens of Americans face execution.
When The Washington Post’s Dana Priest first revealed (in passing) back in January that the Obama administration had compiled a hit list of American citizens targeted for assassination, she wrote that “as of several months ago, the CIA list included three U.S. citizens.” In April, both the Post and the NYT confirmed that the administration had specifically authorized the assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki. Today, The Washington Times‘ Eli Lake has an interview with Obama’s top Terrorism adviser John Brennan in which Brennan strongly suggests that the number of U.S. citizens targeted for assassination could actually be “dozens”...
Glenn Greenwald
Salon
June 26, 2010
Obama terrorism adviser John Brennan: Dozens of Americans face execution.
When The Washington Post’s Dana Priest first revealed (in passing) back in January that the Obama administration had compiled a hit list of American citizens targeted for assassination, she wrote that “as of several months ago, the CIA list included three U.S. citizens.” In April, both the Post and the NYT confirmed that the administration had specifically authorized the assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki. Today, The Washington Times‘ Eli Lake has an interview with Obama’s top Terrorism adviser John Brennan in which Brennan strongly suggests that the number of U.S. citizens targeted for assassination could actually be “dozens”...
Fisherman's Wife Says BP Spill Will Destroy One Third of World's Water; Slimy Border Propaganda Washes Up On U.S. Shores Again
From Washington's Blog
In a must-watch video, Arnesen says:
BP is given advanced warning when an official is going to show up to any place where there is oil. All assets are deployed. As soon as the official leaves, 75-80% of the assets are removed. BP calls it a "pony and balloons" show.
"We are expendable to these people. We do not matter."
They're not cleaning it up, they're covering it up.
BP is making it impossible for clean-up workers to wear respirators.
She saw hundreds of thousands of fish dying, so disoriented by the oil that they crashed into her boat.
There is a media blackout.
If the country does not stand up and say "no more", this will go global. All of the world's oceans are connected. If not stopped, it will destroy one-third of the world's water.
Meanwhile a congresswoman, Homeland Security and the scumbags on Fox News are pushing the same tired Israeli propaganda about Hamas and Hezbollah working with Mexican drug cartels on the Mexican border as you can see here.
This story is not a new one, it's old and fake, like everything the corporate establishment creates. Here is their last bit of cow crap from two years ago.
As Infowars said then:
Editor’s note: Of course, this is utter nonsense. The CIA — in collaboration with Wall Street banks and the Pentagon, is behind the Mexican drug cartels — not Muslims. “The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, as is by now well-known by anyone who has cared to be informed, has long been deeply involved in the international trafficking of the addictive drugs heroin and (since the early 1980s, if not earlier) cocaine, the enormous profits from which have financed, and continue to finance, both U.S. covert operations and the U.S. military (via payments to Pentagon contractors).” — The CIA
America’s Premier International Terrorist Organization.
What Really Happened goes further debunking the current congresswoman's claims:
Sue Myrick is a card-carrying Israel-Firster, and a signatory to the "Hoyer-Cantor Letter reaffirming the US-Israel Alliance",as confirmed at the following AIPAC website:
http://www.aipac.org/Publications/SourceMaterialsCongressionalAction/Signatories_to_Hoyer-Cantor_Letter.pdf
Note that she is also prominently displayed at the AIPAC website with a link to her own official website as follows:
http://aipac.capwiz.com/bio/id/449
Notice also that Ms. Myrick presents absolutely no proof of this allegation; she simply has made this allegation against Hezbollah per se.
One has to wonder if this accusation is the ramp-up an Israeli "false flag" against a US target, to be blamed on either Hezbullah or Iran.
But the most ludicrously hysterical portion of this article is the following bit:
"The congresswoman, who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said members of drug cartels imprisoned in South America have been spotted lately tattooing Persian writing on their bodies, evidence of Iranian involvement."
According to:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080110053911AAyhen5
Tattoos are strictly forbidden under Islam because they are perceived as mutilating the body.
That this woman actually sits on the House Intelligence Committee is truly frightening.
In a must-watch video, Arnesen says:
BP is given advanced warning when an official is going to show up to any place where there is oil. All assets are deployed. As soon as the official leaves, 75-80% of the assets are removed. BP calls it a "pony and balloons" show.
"We are expendable to these people. We do not matter."
They're not cleaning it up, they're covering it up.
BP is making it impossible for clean-up workers to wear respirators.
She saw hundreds of thousands of fish dying, so disoriented by the oil that they crashed into her boat.
There is a media blackout.
If the country does not stand up and say "no more", this will go global. All of the world's oceans are connected. If not stopped, it will destroy one-third of the world's water.
Meanwhile a congresswoman, Homeland Security and the scumbags on Fox News are pushing the same tired Israeli propaganda about Hamas and Hezbollah working with Mexican drug cartels on the Mexican border as you can see here.
This story is not a new one, it's old and fake, like everything the corporate establishment creates. Here is their last bit of cow crap from two years ago.
As Infowars said then:
Editor’s note: Of course, this is utter nonsense. The CIA — in collaboration with Wall Street banks and the Pentagon, is behind the Mexican drug cartels — not Muslims. “The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, as is by now well-known by anyone who has cared to be informed, has long been deeply involved in the international trafficking of the addictive drugs heroin and (since the early 1980s, if not earlier) cocaine, the enormous profits from which have financed, and continue to finance, both U.S. covert operations and the U.S. military (via payments to Pentagon contractors).” — The CIA
America’s Premier International Terrorist Organization.
What Really Happened goes further debunking the current congresswoman's claims:
Sue Myrick is a card-carrying Israel-Firster, and a signatory to the "Hoyer-Cantor Letter reaffirming the US-Israel Alliance",as confirmed at the following AIPAC website:
http://www.aipac.org/Publications/SourceMaterialsCongressionalAction/Signatories_to_Hoyer-Cantor_Letter.pdf
Note that she is also prominently displayed at the AIPAC website with a link to her own official website as follows:
http://aipac.capwiz.com/bio/id/449
Notice also that Ms. Myrick presents absolutely no proof of this allegation; she simply has made this allegation against Hezbollah per se.
One has to wonder if this accusation is the ramp-up an Israeli "false flag" against a US target, to be blamed on either Hezbullah or Iran.
But the most ludicrously hysterical portion of this article is the following bit:
"The congresswoman, who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said members of drug cartels imprisoned in South America have been spotted lately tattooing Persian writing on their bodies, evidence of Iranian involvement."
According to:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080110053911AAyhen5
Tattoos are strictly forbidden under Islam because they are perceived as mutilating the body.
That this woman actually sits on the House Intelligence Committee is truly frightening.
The Runaway General
From Cryptogon.
...Here’s the most important sentence in the piece below: “The very people that COIN seeks to win over – the Afghan people – do not want us there.” Take any class in Small Wars 101 and you will learn that the U.S. has no chance for “victory” in Afghanistan, in any common sense interpretation of the term. So, check your so-called normal sensibilities at the door.
There are, however, a few metrics by which “victory” for the U.S. in Afghanistan may be measured.
First of all, the fact that mayhem continues is a victory for the corporations that profit from the absurd war-related contracts
There’s the unknown billions of heroin related dollars that are generated from covert operations in Afghanistan. The transformation of Afghanistan into a narcostate is a victory for black money operators.
Ultimately, victory will mean that Afghanistan becomes pacified in a manner that facilities effortless corporate rape. The purpose of the U.S. military is to tie the victim down. Then the people in the suits step into the room…
...Here’s the most important sentence in the piece below: “The very people that COIN seeks to win over – the Afghan people – do not want us there.” Take any class in Small Wars 101 and you will learn that the U.S. has no chance for “victory” in Afghanistan, in any common sense interpretation of the term. So, check your so-called normal sensibilities at the door.
There are, however, a few metrics by which “victory” for the U.S. in Afghanistan may be measured.
First of all, the fact that mayhem continues is a victory for the corporations that profit from the absurd war-related contracts
There’s the unknown billions of heroin related dollars that are generated from covert operations in Afghanistan. The transformation of Afghanistan into a narcostate is a victory for black money operators.
Ultimately, victory will mean that Afghanistan becomes pacified in a manner that facilities effortless corporate rape. The purpose of the U.S. military is to tie the victim down. Then the people in the suits step into the room…
Vision Of Evil: “Kill TV” in the “Death Star”
From Cryptogon
They called it the “Death Star” because according to one source who worked inside it, “you could just reach out with a finger and eliminate” somebody.
On the walls were television screens, known by the special forces boys as “Kill TV”, where footage from image-intensifier cameras of the enemy being blown up by air strikes, or being gunned down by undercover hit teams was shown.
This place was “the Machine”, a state-of-the-art military command centre hidden away in an airbase in Balad, a desolate stretch of land north of Baghdad...
They called it the “Death Star” because according to one source who worked inside it, “you could just reach out with a finger and eliminate” somebody.
On the walls were television screens, known by the special forces boys as “Kill TV”, where footage from image-intensifier cameras of the enemy being blown up by air strikes, or being gunned down by undercover hit teams was shown.
This place was “the Machine”, a state-of-the-art military command centre hidden away in an airbase in Balad, a desolate stretch of land north of Baghdad...
Friday, June 25, 2010
BANKERS, INVESTORS TAKE GREEK ISLANDS FOR THEMSELVES
From The Guardian
Greece starts putting island land up for sale to save economy
Desperate attempt to repay debts also driven by inability to find funds to develop infrastructure on islands.
There's little that shouts "seriously rich" as much as a little island in the sun to call your own. For Sir Richard Branson it is Neckar in the Caribbean, the billionaire Barclay brothers prefer Brecqhou in the Channel Islands, while Aristotle Onassis married Jackie Kennedy on Skorpios, his Greek hideway.
Now Greece is making it easier for the rich and famous to fulfill their dreams by preparing to sell, or offering long-term leases on, some of its 6,000 sunkissed islands in a desperate attempt to repay its mountainous debts.
The Guardian has learned that an area in Mykonos, one of Greece's top tourist destinations, is one of the sites for sale. The area is one-third owned by the government, which is looking for a buyer willing to inject capital and develop a luxury tourism complex, according to a source close to the negotiations.
Potential investors also looking at property on the island of Rhodes, are mostly Russian and Chinese. Investors in both countries are looking for a little bit of the Mediterranean as holiday destinations for their increasingly affluent populations. Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea football club, is among those understood to be interested, although a spokesman denied he was about to invest.
Granny "Took A More Aggressive Posture In Bed"; 10 Police Officers Were "Fearful" And Tasered Her And Put Her In Mental Hospital
From Prison Planet
The latest from pathological America....
Police Taser 86-Year-Old Bedridden Granny
COP: She took ‘aggressive posture in her bed’…
Courthouse News Service
Friday, June 25, 2010
Comment: This is yet another example of how Tasers are nothing more than 21st century cattle prods for roid-head coward cops who are trained that the American people are their enemy. The Taser is not a tool of law enforcement, it is a torture device employed to make the scum public follow orders given by their jackbnooted masters.
Police Tasered an 86-year-old disabled grandma in her bed and stepped on her oxygen hose until she couldn’t breathe, after her grandson called 911 seeking medical assistance, the woman and her grandson claim in Oklahoma City Federal Court. Though the grandson said, “Don’t Taze my granny!” an El Reno police officer told another cop to “Taser her!” and wrote in his police report that he did so because the old woman “took a more aggressive posture in her bed,” according to the complaint.
The latest from pathological America....
Police Taser 86-Year-Old Bedridden Granny
COP: She took ‘aggressive posture in her bed’…
Courthouse News Service
Friday, June 25, 2010
Comment: This is yet another example of how Tasers are nothing more than 21st century cattle prods for roid-head coward cops who are trained that the American people are their enemy. The Taser is not a tool of law enforcement, it is a torture device employed to make the scum public follow orders given by their jackbnooted masters.
Police Tasered an 86-year-old disabled grandma in her bed and stepped on her oxygen hose until she couldn’t breathe, after her grandson called 911 seeking medical assistance, the woman and her grandson claim in Oklahoma City Federal Court. Though the grandson said, “Don’t Taze my granny!” an El Reno police officer told another cop to “Taser her!” and wrote in his police report that he did so because the old woman “took a more aggressive posture in her bed,” according to the complaint.
Obama Declares Victory; Wall Street Wins
From CNBC
Wall Street Wins, Main Street Loses in Bank Overhaul: Bove
The financial reform bill will likely hurt consumers more than banks because Wall Street will find a way to get around it, Richard Bove, banking analyst at Rochdale Securities, told CNBC Friday.
From News Channel 8
Obama Declares Victory on Financial Reform Bill
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama declared victory Friday after congressional negotiators reached a dawn agreement on a sweeping overhaul of rules overseeing Wall Street. Lawmakers shook hands on the compromise legislation at 5:39 a.m. after Obama administration officials helped broker a deal that cracked the last imediment to the bill - a proposal to force banks to spin off their lucrative derivatives trading business...
From Bloomberg
Banks ‘Dodged a Bullet’ as U.S. Congress Dilutes Trading Rules
June 25 (Bloomberg) -- Legislation to overhaul financial regulation will help curb risk-taking and boost capital buffers. What it won’t do is fundamentally reshape Wall Street’s biggest banks or prevent another crisis, analysts said...
Thursday, June 24, 2010
'McChrystal deserves no praise' And Oil Rain
From Russia Today. At least the Russians have news media not owned by the Pentagon, Wall Street, the Israelis or all of the above. And people used to make jokes about Pravda, now we have CNN, The New York Times and Fox lying to us in their pro-corporate, pro-war fashion on a daily basis and the Russians want to "Question More."
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Israel Vows To Tighten Gaza Blockade – U.S. Media Reports Blockade Eased
From Prison Planet.
Black is white, down is up
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Wednesday, Jun 23rd, 2010
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to tighten the blockade against Gaza, the castrated corporate media in the U.S. is reporting that Israeli restrictions are being eased....
Read more here.
Black is white, down is up
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Wednesday, Jun 23rd, 2010
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to tighten the blockade against Gaza, the castrated corporate media in the U.S. is reporting that Israeli restrictions are being eased....
Read more here.
The Threads Come Together: Deepwater Horizon Was Rushed As Emergency Reserve Oil For Impending Iran Attack
From Zerohedge and Oilprice.com
Guest Post: Obama Administration Knew About Deepwater Horizon 35,000 Feet Well Bore, Green-Lighted And Fast-Tracked Project
Submitted by Wayne Madsen of www.OilPrice.com
Obama Administration Knew About Deepwater Horizon 35,000 Feet Well Bore
President Obama and Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were informed that BP would drill an unprecedented 35,000 feet well bore at the Macondo site off the coast of Louisiana. In September 2009, the Deepwater Horizon successfully sunk a well bore at a depth of 35,055 below sea level at the Tiber Prospect in the Keathley Canyon block 102 in the Gulf of Mexico, southeast of Houston.
During the September drilling operations, the Deepwater Horizon drill penetrated a massive undersea oil deposit but BP's priorities changed when the Macondo site in the Mississippi Canyon off the coast of Louisiana was found to contain some 3-4 billion barrels of oil in an underground cavern estimated to be about the size of Mount Everest. It was as a result of another 35,000 feet well bore sank by the Deepwater Horizon at the Macondo site that the catastrophic explosion occurred on April 20.
According to the Wayne Madsen Report (WMR) sources within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Pentagon and Interior and Energy Departments told the Obama Administration that the newly-discovered estimated 3-4 billion barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico would cover America's oil needs for up to eight months if there was a military attack on Iran that resulted in the bottling up of the Strait of Hormuz to oil tanker traffic, resulting in a cut-off of oil to the United States from the Persian Gulf.
Obama, Salazar, Chu, and Gates green-lighted the risky Macondo drilling operation from the outset, according to WMR's government sources.
WMR learned that BP was able to have several safety checks waved because of the high-level interest by the White House and Pentagon in tapping the Gulf of Mexico bonanza find in order to plan a military attack on Iran without having to be concerned about an oil and natural gas shortage from the Persian Gulf after an outbreak of hostilities with Iran.
BP still has an ongoing operation to drill down to 40,000 feet below sea level at the Liberty field off the north coast of Alaska.
Source: http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Obama-Administration-Knew-About-Deepwater-Horizon-35000-Feet-Well-Bore.html
By. Wayne Madsen for Oilprice.com who offer detailed analysis on Oil, alternative Energy, Commodities, Finance and Geopolitics. They also provide free Geopolitical intelligence to help investors gain a greater understanding of world events and the impact they have on certain regions and sectors. Visit: http://www.oilprice.com
Guest Post: Obama Administration Knew About Deepwater Horizon 35,000 Feet Well Bore, Green-Lighted And Fast-Tracked Project
Submitted by Wayne Madsen of www.OilPrice.com
Obama Administration Knew About Deepwater Horizon 35,000 Feet Well Bore
President Obama and Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were informed that BP would drill an unprecedented 35,000 feet well bore at the Macondo site off the coast of Louisiana. In September 2009, the Deepwater Horizon successfully sunk a well bore at a depth of 35,055 below sea level at the Tiber Prospect in the Keathley Canyon block 102 in the Gulf of Mexico, southeast of Houston.
During the September drilling operations, the Deepwater Horizon drill penetrated a massive undersea oil deposit but BP's priorities changed when the Macondo site in the Mississippi Canyon off the coast of Louisiana was found to contain some 3-4 billion barrels of oil in an underground cavern estimated to be about the size of Mount Everest. It was as a result of another 35,000 feet well bore sank by the Deepwater Horizon at the Macondo site that the catastrophic explosion occurred on April 20.
According to the Wayne Madsen Report (WMR) sources within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Pentagon and Interior and Energy Departments told the Obama Administration that the newly-discovered estimated 3-4 billion barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico would cover America's oil needs for up to eight months if there was a military attack on Iran that resulted in the bottling up of the Strait of Hormuz to oil tanker traffic, resulting in a cut-off of oil to the United States from the Persian Gulf.
Obama, Salazar, Chu, and Gates green-lighted the risky Macondo drilling operation from the outset, according to WMR's government sources.
WMR learned that BP was able to have several safety checks waved because of the high-level interest by the White House and Pentagon in tapping the Gulf of Mexico bonanza find in order to plan a military attack on Iran without having to be concerned about an oil and natural gas shortage from the Persian Gulf after an outbreak of hostilities with Iran.
BP still has an ongoing operation to drill down to 40,000 feet below sea level at the Liberty field off the north coast of Alaska.
Source: http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Obama-Administration-Knew-About-Deepwater-Horizon-35000-Feet-Well-Bore.html
By. Wayne Madsen for Oilprice.com who offer detailed analysis on Oil, alternative Energy, Commodities, Finance and Geopolitics. They also provide free Geopolitical intelligence to help investors gain a greater understanding of world events and the impact they have on certain regions and sectors. Visit: http://www.oilprice.com
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Adam Gadahn American Al-Qaeda Warns of New Terror Attacks
I stumbled upon Adam Gadahn on www.nationalterroralert.com.
According to the article he has "warned President Barack Obama Sunday that the militant group may launch new attacks that would kill more Americans than previous ones."
What could that be? Nuke? Bioweapon? Soon to come to a city near you?
Well, meet Emmanuel Goldstein, ah excuse me, I mean Adam Gadahn. They could have done better. This is like Ralph Nader crossed with Woody Allen as evil incarnate. Hard to buy, but then again one shouldn't overestimate the critical thinking abilities of the broader masses. However if you want to laugh out loud after watching these videos, you might still possess a brain. The manufactured reality being created for us IS that absurd. If you want artful filmmaking instead of this amateurish propaganda, I would recommend The Ghost Writer by Roman Polanski.
And to end, let us have a direct quote from Mr. Gadahn, AKA "evil guy with turban" who reminds me of someone selling a self help video.
"Come on Barack, be honest for once. Just what is stopping you from doing the right thing and ending this bloody crusade?"
Oh how dare those evil Al-Qaeda try to manipulate us so!
Also see: Former CIA Officials Admit To Faking Bin Laden Video
According to the article he has "warned President Barack Obama Sunday that the militant group may launch new attacks that would kill more Americans than previous ones."
What could that be? Nuke? Bioweapon? Soon to come to a city near you?
Well, meet Emmanuel Goldstein, ah excuse me, I mean Adam Gadahn. They could have done better. This is like Ralph Nader crossed with Woody Allen as evil incarnate. Hard to buy, but then again one shouldn't overestimate the critical thinking abilities of the broader masses. However if you want to laugh out loud after watching these videos, you might still possess a brain. The manufactured reality being created for us IS that absurd. If you want artful filmmaking instead of this amateurish propaganda, I would recommend The Ghost Writer by Roman Polanski.
And to end, let us have a direct quote from Mr. Gadahn, AKA "evil guy with turban" who reminds me of someone selling a self help video.
"Come on Barack, be honest for once. Just what is stopping you from doing the right thing and ending this bloody crusade?"
Oh how dare those evil Al-Qaeda try to manipulate us so!
Also see: Former CIA Officials Admit To Faking Bin Laden Video
Monday, June 21, 2010
Lieberman: Shut Down The Net Like China; Iceland: Freedom of Communication!
Iceland is passing resolutions to protect freedom of expression on the Internet. Obama and Lieberman would like to have a "kill switch."
It's not hard to see who is on the right side of this one. One more reason to leave the land of the morons. I've heard the flights to Iceland are cheap. Tempting.
The online freedom law passed in Iceland as you can read here. The vote was 50 in favor and zero against. Can you imagine how that vote would go down in our corrupt country?
Eventually every smart person will just leave the U.S. and only the brain dead will remain to eat burgers and watch football, kill civilians in wars or sit in prison.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
12 American Warships, Including One Aircraft Carrier, And One Israeli Corvette, Cross Suez Canal On Way To Red Sea And Beyond
From Zerohedge.
Arabic newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi reports that 12 American warships, among which one aircraft carrier, as well as one Israeli corvette, and possibly a submarine, have crossed the Suez Canal on their way to the Red Sea...
Arabic newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi reports that 12 American warships, among which one aircraft carrier, as well as one Israeli corvette, and possibly a submarine, have crossed the Suez Canal on their way to the Red Sea...
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Did BP Start Losing Containment of the Oil Well in February?
From Washington's Blog
The Deepwater Horizon blew up on April 20th, and sank a couple of days later. BP has been criticized for failing to report on the seriousness of the blow out for several weeks.
However, as a whistleblower previously told 60 Minutes, there was an accident at the rig a month or more prior to the April 20th explosion...
But the trouble was just beginning: when drilling resumed, Williams says there was an accident on the rig that has not been reported before. He says, four weeks before the explosion, the rig's most vital piece of safety equipment was damaged....
The Deepwater Horizon blew up on April 20th, and sank a couple of days later. BP has been criticized for failing to report on the seriousness of the blow out for several weeks.
However, as a whistleblower previously told 60 Minutes, there was an accident at the rig a month or more prior to the April 20th explosion...
But the trouble was just beginning: when drilling resumed, Williams says there was an accident on the rig that has not been reported before. He says, four weeks before the explosion, the rig's most vital piece of safety equipment was damaged....
Disaster capitalists: Halliburton to make money off oil spill
From Raw Story
Does a company that both builds oil rigs and cleans up oil spills have any motivation to prevent oil rig disasters?
That's the question some people in business and politics are asking themselves after Halliburton's purchase of an oil clean-up company 10 days before the Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 workers and launched the worst oil spill in US history.
Some observers see a conspiracy in the actions of the company once headed by Dick Cheney. Halliburton, which built the cement casing for the Deepwater Horizon's drill, announced its purchase of Houston-based oilfield services company Boots and Coots for $240 million on April 9, just 11 days before the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
According to a report at the Christian Science Monitor Friday, Boots and Coots is now under contract with BP to help with the oil spill...
See also: Halliburton Did Work On Deepwater Horizon Rig Hours Before Blowout
Does a company that both builds oil rigs and cleans up oil spills have any motivation to prevent oil rig disasters?
That's the question some people in business and politics are asking themselves after Halliburton's purchase of an oil clean-up company 10 days before the Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 workers and launched the worst oil spill in US history.
Some observers see a conspiracy in the actions of the company once headed by Dick Cheney. Halliburton, which built the cement casing for the Deepwater Horizon's drill, announced its purchase of Houston-based oilfield services company Boots and Coots for $240 million on April 9, just 11 days before the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
According to a report at the Christian Science Monitor Friday, Boots and Coots is now under contract with BP to help with the oil spill...
See also: Halliburton Did Work On Deepwater Horizon Rig Hours Before Blowout
Friday, June 18, 2010
U.S. Ties to Ex-Kyrgyz Regime Are Questioned
I sat through the typical PBS News Hour discussion of Kyrgyzstan and I knew I wasn't getting the full story. Too little mention, in fact none, was being given to the fact the the U.S. has an important fueling and transport base into Afganistan near Bishkek and had a complicated, yet better relationship with the ousted corrupt former regime of Kyrgyzstan then the new regime which has "hostility...towards the U.S. fuel dealings."
An excellent article, U.S. Ties to Ex-Kyrgyz Regime Are Questioned, in the Wall Street Journal brings important details to the table. For some of you out there, the appearance of the name Kroll Associates should ring a few 9/11 bells, as they also play a small role in the drama taking place. Below are portions of the article.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan—Weeks before ethnic clashes killed hundreds of people in this Central Asian republic, an audio recording was posted on YouTube that presaged the mayhem.
"We need to find 500 b—ds…and keep [the country] in a constant mess," said a voice that government officials here say was that of Maksim Bakiyev, the 32-year-old son of the ousted president. "Somebody needs to kick up a fuss."
...The new leaders in Bishkek say the U.S. government, keen to maintain a crucial military base here used to funnel troops and supplies into nearby Afghanistan, pursued a dangerous policy of ignoring the regime's abuses right up to the moment it collapsed after a popular revolt.
Kyrgyzstan's new leaders charge that America's relationship with the Bakiyevs before they fled provided a patina of respectability to a brutal, corrupt government through high-level contacts and dubious fuel deals. Now, both the U.S. and Kyrgyz citizens are feeling the blowback
Roza Otunbayeva, head of Kyrgyzstan's new interim government, says the YouTube recording is authentic, and that the former regime "provoked and orchestrated" the ethnic violence that has left an estimated hundreds dead and sent tens of thousands fleeing into neighboring Uzbekistan....
Kyrgyz prosecutors want to try Maksim Bakiyev for abuse of office, misuse of government funds and money laundering, a prosecutor's spokesman said Tuesday.
While details of the charges are sketchy, one involves the younger Mr. Bakiyev's relationship with Asia Universal Bank, a Kyrgyz bank that was advised by U.S. consultants APCO Worldwide and Kroll Associates and whose board members included three former U.S. senators. Prosecutors allege that the younger Mr. Bakiyev steered to AUB part of a $300 million Russian state loan to Kyrgyzstan, and personally benefitted from it, the spokesman said.
Mr. Baisalov said U.S. business ties with Maksim Bakiyev were part of a larger pattern of the U.S. turning its back on human rights in the region, dialing back its criticism of authoritarian regimes so it could win their support for the war in Afghanistan...
The U.S. government responded with a "stunning silence" in the last year of the Bakiyev government's existence, as officials rigged elections, and shut down websites and newspapers as opposition figures were killed or arrested, he said. "We were shocked, dismayed by the silence and we felt betrayed."...
The new government has also accused the U.S. of enriching Maksim Bakiyev through fuel supply deals. It says a fuel-supply contractor, Mina Corp., a privately-owned company based in Gibraltar, had lucrative U.S. government contracts to supply fuel to the U.S. base. The government says Mina, which is operated by a former U.S. military attaché, used smaller delivery companies, that were allegedly controlled by Maksim Bakiyev, and funneled as much as $70 million a year to them.
The Kyrgyz government has produced no evidence of the alleged payoffs, saying the case is under investigation. Mina denies the accusation, and its operations manager, Chuck Squires, says he never even met the president's son.
But hostility in the new government towards the U.S. fuel dealings have led to supply disruptions at the base. Kyrgyzstan's acting president, Ms. Otunbayeva, said Kyrgyzstan will abolish an exemption on jet-fuel taxes that made the business especially profitable under Mr. Bakiyev. In an interview, Ms. Otunbayeva said she wants no more "corrupt schemes."
In Washington, the finger-pointing prompted the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to launch an investigation in April into allegations that Pentagon fuel contracts to supply fuel to the Manas Air Base "substantially enriched family members of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev."
Whether true or not, the "perception of corrupt" deals between the U.S. and the Bakiyev family has already undermined U.S. interests in the region, and may have helped topple the Kyrgyz government, said Scott Horton, a lecturer at Columbia Law School in New York and a trustee of the American University in Bishkek who testified at one of the Congressional hearings...
And getting back to the bank scandal involving Kroll....
In 2005 the Central Bank of Russia launched an investigation of AUB, and later issued a statement reviewed by the Wall Street Journal saying it suspected the bank of "suspicious operations" to help companies evade taxes. Mr. Sarbanov said that when he tried to help the Russian bank investigate, he was forced out of his job by President Bakiyev.
After Mr. Sarbanov's departure, AUB went into the retail banking business. Mr. Nadel, AUB's chairman, says this had nothing to do with any favors from the government, and that AUB had spent "several years" working to obtain the retail banking license and the Russian Central Bank investigation proved nothing against AUB.
The following year, the bank hired APCO Worldwide and Kroll as advisors. Kroll published a report in early 2007 saying the bank had a "solid foundation" to enact controls against money laundering. Former U.S. Senators Bob Dole (R., Kan.) and J. Bennett Johnston (D., La.) joined its board. Earlier this year, Mr. Dole resigned and his seat was filled by former Democratic Sen. Donald W. Riegle, Jr. from Michigan.
In April 2007, Mr. Dole and Mr. Johnston visited Bishkek on AUB's invitation. Mr. Dole also visited the U.S. air base, and had an audience with President Bakiyev.
Mr. Dole declined to comment for this article. Mr. Johnston denied ever meeting with Mr. Bakiyev "or any of his family or anyone who spoke for him."...
U.S. officials said Maksim Bakiyev's official status made it necessary to invite him to Washington in April, where he was to be a featured speaker at the Kyrgyz Opportunities Forum, hosted by the Commerce Department. The top State Department official for Central Asia, William O. Blake, was also to appear. But events in Kyrgyzstan forced an abrupt cancellation of the gala event...
Now take a look at the video mentioned at the top of the article below:
An excellent article, U.S. Ties to Ex-Kyrgyz Regime Are Questioned, in the Wall Street Journal brings important details to the table. For some of you out there, the appearance of the name Kroll Associates should ring a few 9/11 bells, as they also play a small role in the drama taking place. Below are portions of the article.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan—Weeks before ethnic clashes killed hundreds of people in this Central Asian republic, an audio recording was posted on YouTube that presaged the mayhem.
"We need to find 500 b—ds…and keep [the country] in a constant mess," said a voice that government officials here say was that of Maksim Bakiyev, the 32-year-old son of the ousted president. "Somebody needs to kick up a fuss."
...The new leaders in Bishkek say the U.S. government, keen to maintain a crucial military base here used to funnel troops and supplies into nearby Afghanistan, pursued a dangerous policy of ignoring the regime's abuses right up to the moment it collapsed after a popular revolt.
Kyrgyzstan's new leaders charge that America's relationship with the Bakiyevs before they fled provided a patina of respectability to a brutal, corrupt government through high-level contacts and dubious fuel deals. Now, both the U.S. and Kyrgyz citizens are feeling the blowback
Roza Otunbayeva, head of Kyrgyzstan's new interim government, says the YouTube recording is authentic, and that the former regime "provoked and orchestrated" the ethnic violence that has left an estimated hundreds dead and sent tens of thousands fleeing into neighboring Uzbekistan....
Kyrgyz prosecutors want to try Maksim Bakiyev for abuse of office, misuse of government funds and money laundering, a prosecutor's spokesman said Tuesday.
While details of the charges are sketchy, one involves the younger Mr. Bakiyev's relationship with Asia Universal Bank, a Kyrgyz bank that was advised by U.S. consultants APCO Worldwide and Kroll Associates and whose board members included three former U.S. senators. Prosecutors allege that the younger Mr. Bakiyev steered to AUB part of a $300 million Russian state loan to Kyrgyzstan, and personally benefitted from it, the spokesman said.
Mr. Baisalov said U.S. business ties with Maksim Bakiyev were part of a larger pattern of the U.S. turning its back on human rights in the region, dialing back its criticism of authoritarian regimes so it could win their support for the war in Afghanistan...
The U.S. government responded with a "stunning silence" in the last year of the Bakiyev government's existence, as officials rigged elections, and shut down websites and newspapers as opposition figures were killed or arrested, he said. "We were shocked, dismayed by the silence and we felt betrayed."...
The new government has also accused the U.S. of enriching Maksim Bakiyev through fuel supply deals. It says a fuel-supply contractor, Mina Corp., a privately-owned company based in Gibraltar, had lucrative U.S. government contracts to supply fuel to the U.S. base. The government says Mina, which is operated by a former U.S. military attaché, used smaller delivery companies, that were allegedly controlled by Maksim Bakiyev, and funneled as much as $70 million a year to them.
The Kyrgyz government has produced no evidence of the alleged payoffs, saying the case is under investigation. Mina denies the accusation, and its operations manager, Chuck Squires, says he never even met the president's son.
But hostility in the new government towards the U.S. fuel dealings have led to supply disruptions at the base. Kyrgyzstan's acting president, Ms. Otunbayeva, said Kyrgyzstan will abolish an exemption on jet-fuel taxes that made the business especially profitable under Mr. Bakiyev. In an interview, Ms. Otunbayeva said she wants no more "corrupt schemes."
In Washington, the finger-pointing prompted the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to launch an investigation in April into allegations that Pentagon fuel contracts to supply fuel to the Manas Air Base "substantially enriched family members of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev."
Whether true or not, the "perception of corrupt" deals between the U.S. and the Bakiyev family has already undermined U.S. interests in the region, and may have helped topple the Kyrgyz government, said Scott Horton, a lecturer at Columbia Law School in New York and a trustee of the American University in Bishkek who testified at one of the Congressional hearings...
And getting back to the bank scandal involving Kroll....
In 2005 the Central Bank of Russia launched an investigation of AUB, and later issued a statement reviewed by the Wall Street Journal saying it suspected the bank of "suspicious operations" to help companies evade taxes. Mr. Sarbanov said that when he tried to help the Russian bank investigate, he was forced out of his job by President Bakiyev.
After Mr. Sarbanov's departure, AUB went into the retail banking business. Mr. Nadel, AUB's chairman, says this had nothing to do with any favors from the government, and that AUB had spent "several years" working to obtain the retail banking license and the Russian Central Bank investigation proved nothing against AUB.
The following year, the bank hired APCO Worldwide and Kroll as advisors. Kroll published a report in early 2007 saying the bank had a "solid foundation" to enact controls against money laundering. Former U.S. Senators Bob Dole (R., Kan.) and J. Bennett Johnston (D., La.) joined its board. Earlier this year, Mr. Dole resigned and his seat was filled by former Democratic Sen. Donald W. Riegle, Jr. from Michigan.
In April 2007, Mr. Dole and Mr. Johnston visited Bishkek on AUB's invitation. Mr. Dole also visited the U.S. air base, and had an audience with President Bakiyev.
Mr. Dole declined to comment for this article. Mr. Johnston denied ever meeting with Mr. Bakiyev "or any of his family or anyone who spoke for him."...
U.S. officials said Maksim Bakiyev's official status made it necessary to invite him to Washington in April, where he was to be a featured speaker at the Kyrgyz Opportunities Forum, hosted by the Commerce Department. The top State Department official for Central Asia, William O. Blake, was also to appear. But events in Kyrgyzstan forced an abrupt cancellation of the gala event...
Now take a look at the video mentioned at the top of the article below:
Call the Politburo, We're in Trouble
From Cryptogon and Asia Times.
...Even when, after years of astronomical growth, Gates began to talk about cost-cutting at the Pentagon, it was in the service of the reallocation of ever-more money to war-fighting. Here was how the New York Times summed up what reduction actually meant for America’s ultimate super-sized institution in tough times: “Current budget plans project growth of only 1 percent in the Pentagon budget, after inflation, over the next five years.” Only 1% growth – at a time when state budgets, for instance, are being slashed to the bone. Like the Soviet military, the Pentagon, in other words, is planning to remain obese whatever else goes down.
Meanwhile, the “anti-war” president has been overseeing the expansion of the new normal on many fronts, including the expanding size of the army itself. In fact, when it comes to the “war on terror” – even with the name now in disuse – the profligacy can still take your breath away....
...Even when, after years of astronomical growth, Gates began to talk about cost-cutting at the Pentagon, it was in the service of the reallocation of ever-more money to war-fighting. Here was how the New York Times summed up what reduction actually meant for America’s ultimate super-sized institution in tough times: “Current budget plans project growth of only 1 percent in the Pentagon budget, after inflation, over the next five years.” Only 1% growth – at a time when state budgets, for instance, are being slashed to the bone. Like the Soviet military, the Pentagon, in other words, is planning to remain obese whatever else goes down.
Meanwhile, the “anti-war” president has been overseeing the expansion of the new normal on many fronts, including the expanding size of the army itself. In fact, when it comes to the “war on terror” – even with the name now in disuse – the profligacy can still take your breath away....
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
SEC: Government Destroyed Documents Regarding Pre-9/11 Put Options
From Washington's Blog
Specifically, David Callahan - executive editor of SmartCEO - submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the SEC regarding the pre-9/11 put options.
The SEC responded:
"This letter is in response to your request seeking access to and copies of the documentary evidence referred to in footnote 130 of Chapter 5 of the September 11 (9/11) Commission Report.
***
We have been advised that the potentially responsive records have been destroyed."
If the SEC had responded by producing documents showing that the pre-9/11 put options had an innocent explanation (such as a hedge made by a smaller airline), that would be understandable.
If the SEC had responded by saying that the documents were classified as somehow protecting proprietary financial information, I wouldn't like it, but I would at least understand the argument.
But destroyed? Why?
Specifically, David Callahan - executive editor of SmartCEO - submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the SEC regarding the pre-9/11 put options.
The SEC responded:
"This letter is in response to your request seeking access to and copies of the documentary evidence referred to in footnote 130 of Chapter 5 of the September 11 (9/11) Commission Report.
***
We have been advised that the potentially responsive records have been destroyed."
If the SEC had responded by producing documents showing that the pre-9/11 put options had an innocent explanation (such as a hedge made by a smaller airline), that would be understandable.
If the SEC had responded by saying that the documents were classified as somehow protecting proprietary financial information, I wouldn't like it, but I would at least understand the argument.
But destroyed? Why?
Matt Simmons Revises Leak Estimate To 120,000 Barrels Per Day, Believes Oil Covers 40% Of Gulf Beneath The Surface
From Zerohedge.
Matt Simmons was on Bloomberg earlier, adding some additional perspective to his original appearance on the station, in which he initially endorsed the nuclear option as the only viable way to resolve the oil spill. Simmons refutes even the latest oil spill estimate of 45,000-60,000 barrels per day, and in quoting research by the Thomas Jefferson research vessel which was compiled late on Sunday, quantifies the leak at 120,000 bpd. What is scarier is that according to the Jefferson the oil lake underneath the surface of the water could be covering up to 40% of the entire Gulf of Mexico....
Matt Simmons was on Bloomberg earlier, adding some additional perspective to his original appearance on the station, in which he initially endorsed the nuclear option as the only viable way to resolve the oil spill. Simmons refutes even the latest oil spill estimate of 45,000-60,000 barrels per day, and in quoting research by the Thomas Jefferson research vessel which was compiled late on Sunday, quantifies the leak at 120,000 bpd. What is scarier is that according to the Jefferson the oil lake underneath the surface of the water could be covering up to 40% of the entire Gulf of Mexico....
Pentagon report in April never mentioned $1 trillion in Afghan wealth
From Raw Story
Original goal of Pentagon task force that performed Afghan minerals survey was to get "contracts going between US firms and Iraqi firms"
A RAW STORY investigation has revealed that a report released by the Pentagon last April on the progress of the Afghanistan "surge" included only a single passing reference to a survey that is now being touted as having discovered mineral resources in that nation potentially worth $1 trillion.
The lack of any mention of dramatic new discoveries is likely to reinforce suspicions that there is something bogus about the claim in last Sunday's New York Times that "the United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself..."
Original goal of Pentagon task force that performed Afghan minerals survey was to get "contracts going between US firms and Iraqi firms"
A RAW STORY investigation has revealed that a report released by the Pentagon last April on the progress of the Afghanistan "surge" included only a single passing reference to a survey that is now being touted as having discovered mineral resources in that nation potentially worth $1 trillion.
The lack of any mention of dramatic new discoveries is likely to reinforce suspicions that there is something bogus about the claim in last Sunday's New York Times that "the United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself..."
Afghanistan Mineral Riches Story Is War Propaganda
From Prison Planet
“Liberal” New York Times sells globalist occupation once more with fake news
Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
Tuesday, Jun 15th, 2010
News that the U.S. has suddenly discovered $1 trillion-worth of mineral deposits in Afghanistan, and descriptions of the bounty as a “game changer” by the corporate media, represent nothing more than crude war propaganda designed to reinvigorate public support for a failing and ever more pointless occupation.
The “liberal” New York Times, which previously brought us fantastical stories of WMD in Iraq and yellowcake from Niger, is at it once again, describing huge deposits of minerals in Afghanistan as “previously unknown”.
In a story the Times ran on Sunday, the newspaper pointed to an “internal Pentagon memo” as its source, noting that U.S. officials now believe Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium”.
The article claims that “a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists” has also recently discovered huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt and gold, that could transform Afghanistan into one of the most important mining centers in the world.
The idea that this information is new, however, is manifestly ludicrous.
In an interview with Politico, a retired senior U.S. official notes that anyone with a memory span longer than a goldfish will realise the supposedly “new discovery” is anything but that:
“When I was living in Kabul in the early 1970’s the [U.S. government], the Russians, the World Bank, the UN and others were all highly focused on the wide range of Afghan mineral deposits. Cheap ways of moving the ore to ocean ports has always been the limiting factor,” the official said...
“Liberal” New York Times sells globalist occupation once more with fake news
Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
Tuesday, Jun 15th, 2010
News that the U.S. has suddenly discovered $1 trillion-worth of mineral deposits in Afghanistan, and descriptions of the bounty as a “game changer” by the corporate media, represent nothing more than crude war propaganda designed to reinvigorate public support for a failing and ever more pointless occupation.
The “liberal” New York Times, which previously brought us fantastical stories of WMD in Iraq and yellowcake from Niger, is at it once again, describing huge deposits of minerals in Afghanistan as “previously unknown”.
In a story the Times ran on Sunday, the newspaper pointed to an “internal Pentagon memo” as its source, noting that U.S. officials now believe Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium”.
The article claims that “a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists” has also recently discovered huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt and gold, that could transform Afghanistan into one of the most important mining centers in the world.
The idea that this information is new, however, is manifestly ludicrous.
In an interview with Politico, a retired senior U.S. official notes that anyone with a memory span longer than a goldfish will realise the supposedly “new discovery” is anything but that:
“When I was living in Kabul in the early 1970’s the [U.S. government], the Russians, the World Bank, the UN and others were all highly focused on the wide range of Afghan mineral deposits. Cheap ways of moving the ore to ocean ports has always been the limiting factor,” the official said...
Monday, June 14, 2010
U.S. Identifies Vast Mineral Deposits Worth $1 Trillion in Afghanistan; “The Saudi Arabia of Lithium”; “One of The Most Important Mining Centers"
Oh, blimey, what a lucky streak!
From Cryptogon.
June 14th, 2010
I am Jack’s complete lack of surprise.
—Fight Club
The Soviets knew about it! They did geological surveys during their occupation of Afghanistan.
Which makes you wonder… Did the U.S. actually know about it all this time? This piece says otherwise, but it’s the New York Times.
Was this part of the internal narrative, part of the reasoning, for carrying out the 9/11 spectacle? CIA asset Bin Laden… Operating in the “Saudi Arabia of lithium.” Tell me another one....
From Cryptogon.
June 14th, 2010
I am Jack’s complete lack of surprise.
—Fight Club
The Soviets knew about it! They did geological surveys during their occupation of Afghanistan.
Which makes you wonder… Did the U.S. actually know about it all this time? This piece says otherwise, but it’s the New York Times.
Was this part of the internal narrative, part of the reasoning, for carrying out the 9/11 spectacle? CIA asset Bin Laden… Operating in the “Saudi Arabia of lithium.” Tell me another one....
Sunday, June 13, 2010
May Levels of Toxic Gases in Gulf Back Up Claim Made by Lindsey Williams
From Prison Planet.
Appearing on the Alex Jones Show earlier in the week, pastor Lindsey Williams said that gases — Hydrogen Sulfide, Benzene, Methylene Chloride, and other toxic gases — pose a greater risk to human health than the presence of oil washing up on Gulf of Mexico beaches. Williams said the EPA is not reporting on the amount of gases escaping from the BP oil gusher. However, the [first] video below suggests the EPA has released data on the amount of Hydrogen Sulfide and Benzene in the air in Louisiana...
Appearing on the Alex Jones Show earlier in the week, pastor Lindsey Williams said that gases — Hydrogen Sulfide, Benzene, Methylene Chloride, and other toxic gases — pose a greater risk to human health than the presence of oil washing up on Gulf of Mexico beaches. Williams said the EPA is not reporting on the amount of gases escaping from the BP oil gusher. However, the [first] video below suggests the EPA has released data on the amount of Hydrogen Sulfide and Benzene in the air in Louisiana...
"The place is almost completely corrupted."
The quote above comes from Tom Drake, NSA employee, and the place he is referring to is the NSA itself. The quote comes from the third page of a New York Times article, Obama Takes a Hard Line Against Leaks to Press, which discusses how the Obama administration is aggressively seeking to punish whistleblowers like Mr. Drake who voice their criticisms of government agencies to the press.
The article also mentions the competition between two surveillance projects, an older and allegedly more effective one entitled ThinThread, and a later faulty but implemented one entitled Trailblazer.
An article in Common Dreams, NSA Killed System That Sifted Phone Data Legally, describes the shelving of the ThinThread computer program which protected U.S. citizens privacy through encryption while according to testimony at the 9/11 Commission, also "could have identified the hijackers had it been in place before the attacks, according to an intelligence expert close to the commission."
Update: Copies of the articles in The Baltimore Sun which created much of the controversy can be found here on DOD Leaks.
The article also mentions the competition between two surveillance projects, an older and allegedly more effective one entitled ThinThread, and a later faulty but implemented one entitled Trailblazer.
An article in Common Dreams, NSA Killed System That Sifted Phone Data Legally, describes the shelving of the ThinThread computer program which protected U.S. citizens privacy through encryption while according to testimony at the 9/11 Commission, also "could have identified the hijackers had it been in place before the attacks, according to an intelligence expert close to the commission."
Update: Copies of the articles in The Baltimore Sun which created much of the controversy can be found here on DOD Leaks.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
A 30 Year Leak? Poisoned Gulf? Poisoned Atlantic Ocean?
I found some excellent videos and information on Washington's Blog concerning the gulf situation:
As I noted Tuesday, there is growing evidence that BP's oil well - technically called the "well casing" or "well bore" - has suffered damage beneath the level of the sea floor.
The evidence is growing stronger and stronger that there is substantial damage beneath the sea floor. Indeed, it appears that BP officials themselves have admitted to such damage. This has enormous impacts on both the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf, and the prospects for quickly stopping the leak this summer...
The following video concludes with Simmons mentioning what I thought myself after seeing the Nasa photos of the enourmous oil spill in the Gulf. This disaster could over years potentially poison the whole Gulf and possibly the Atlantic Ocean. Probably an overstatement at this point, but Simmons sounds serious about it. Another worst case scenario mentioned has to do with a hurricane spreading the oil to the coast, blackening the entire southern Gulf Coast.
As I noted Tuesday, there is growing evidence that BP's oil well - technically called the "well casing" or "well bore" - has suffered damage beneath the level of the sea floor.
The evidence is growing stronger and stronger that there is substantial damage beneath the sea floor. Indeed, it appears that BP officials themselves have admitted to such damage. This has enormous impacts on both the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf, and the prospects for quickly stopping the leak this summer...
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
The following video concludes with Simmons mentioning what I thought myself after seeing the Nasa photos of the enourmous oil spill in the Gulf. This disaster could over years potentially poison the whole Gulf and possibly the Atlantic Ocean. Probably an overstatement at this point, but Simmons sounds serious about it. Another worst case scenario mentioned has to do with a hurricane spreading the oil to the coast, blackening the entire southern Gulf Coast.
Saudi Arabia gives Israel clear skies to attack Iranian nuclear sites
From TIMESONLINE
Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to stand down its air defences to enable Israeli jets to make a bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities, The Times can reveal.
In the week that the UN Security Council imposed a new round of sanctions on Tehran, defence sources in the Gulf say that Riyadh has agreed to allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran.
To ensure the Israeli bombers pass unmolested, Riyadh has carried out tests to make certain its own jets are not scrambled and missile defence systems not activated. Once the Israelis are through, the kingdom’s air defences will return to full alert...
Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to stand down its air defences to enable Israeli jets to make a bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities, The Times can reveal.
In the week that the UN Security Council imposed a new round of sanctions on Tehran, defence sources in the Gulf say that Riyadh has agreed to allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran.
To ensure the Israeli bombers pass unmolested, Riyadh has carried out tests to make certain its own jets are not scrambled and missile defence systems not activated. Once the Israelis are through, the kingdom’s air defences will return to full alert...
Austin Mother of Five Gets FBI Visit for Exercising First Amendment
From Infowars.com
In his book Friendly Fascism, author Bertram Gross argues that when fascism comes to America it will be “friendly” and lack the overt brutality of the classic varieties of German and Italian fascism.
Richard Nixon once said that average American is like a child in the family.
Nixon was merely expressing the dominant opinion of the ruling elite who consider us contemptible children in need of adult supervision. Hitler, too, considered the German people children in need of adult supervision...
In his book Friendly Fascism, author Bertram Gross argues that when fascism comes to America it will be “friendly” and lack the overt brutality of the classic varieties of German and Italian fascism.
Richard Nixon once said that average American is like a child in the family.
Nixon was merely expressing the dominant opinion of the ruling elite who consider us contemptible children in need of adult supervision. Hitler, too, considered the German people children in need of adult supervision...
Friday, June 11, 2010
Transcript: Daniel Ellsberg Says He Fears US Might Assasinate Wikileaks Founder
From FDL
Daniel Ellsberg, the former US military analyst who released the pentagon papers in 1971, appeared on MSNBC today with Dylan Ratigan. He said he fears for the safety of Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, who is reportedly on the verge of leaking secret State Department cables. The Daily Beast reports that Assange is currently being sought by the pentagon, and Ellsberg advises him not to reveal his whereabouts...
Daniel Ellsberg, the former US military analyst who released the pentagon papers in 1971, appeared on MSNBC today with Dylan Ratigan. He said he fears for the safety of Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, who is reportedly on the verge of leaking secret State Department cables. The Daily Beast reports that Assange is currently being sought by the pentagon, and Ellsberg advises him not to reveal his whereabouts...
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Images of Missile and Cluster Munitions Point to U.S. Role in Fatal Attack in Yemen
From Cryptogon.
Amnesty International has released images of a US-manufactured cruise missile that carried cluster munitions, apparently taken following an attack on an alleged al-Qa’ida training camp in Yemen that killed 41 local residents, including 14 women and 21 children...
Amnesty International has released images of a US-manufactured cruise missile that carried cluster munitions, apparently taken following an attack on an alleged al-Qa’ida training camp in Yemen that killed 41 local residents, including 14 women and 21 children...
Chairman of Goldman Sachs International Was - Until Last Year - Also Chairman of BP
From Washington's Blog
A window into how the power structure of our world really works can probably be found by looking at the biography of Peter Sutherland taken from a new Washington's Blog article:
Peter Sutherland is chairman of BP plc (1997 - current). He is also chairman of Goldman Sachs International (1995 - current). He was appointed chairman of the London School of Economics in 2008.... Before these appointments, he was the founding director-general of the World Trade Organisation. He had previously served as director general of GATT since July 1993 [and was] chairman of the Board of Governors of the European Institute of Public Administration (Maastricht) 1991-1996....
Mr. Sutherland served as an Attorney General of Ireland and also served as European Commissioner from 1985 to 1989 where he was responsible for competition policy.... He serves as the Chairman of British Petroleum, BP Amoco PLC and United Kingdom. From 1989 to 1993, he served as the Chairman of Allied Irish Bank. .... He serves as a Non-Executive Director of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson. He serves as a Director of Goldman Sachs International. He has been Member of Supervisory Board at Allianz SE since January 2010 and serves as its Member of International Advisory Board .... Mr. Sutherland served as a Non Executive Director of BP Plc since July 1995. He serves as a Member of Foundation Board of World Economic Forum. He served as an Independent Non Executive Director of National Westminster Bank PLC since January 2001. He served as an Independent Non Executive Director of The Royal Bank Of Scotland Plc from January 2001 to February 6, 2009.... In addition, he serves on the board of Allianz, Koc Holding A.S. and is a member of the advisory board of Eli Lilly.... He served as a Director of LM Ericsson Telephone Co since 1996, Ericsson SPA since 1996 and Investor AB since 1995. He served as a Non Executive Director of Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc from January 2001 to February 6, 2009.
A window into how the power structure of our world really works can probably be found by looking at the biography of Peter Sutherland taken from a new Washington's Blog article:
Peter Sutherland is chairman of BP plc (1997 - current). He is also chairman of Goldman Sachs International (1995 - current). He was appointed chairman of the London School of Economics in 2008.... Before these appointments, he was the founding director-general of the World Trade Organisation. He had previously served as director general of GATT since July 1993 [and was] chairman of the Board of Governors of the European Institute of Public Administration (Maastricht) 1991-1996....
Mr. Sutherland served as an Attorney General of Ireland and also served as European Commissioner from 1985 to 1989 where he was responsible for competition policy.... He serves as the Chairman of British Petroleum, BP Amoco PLC and United Kingdom. From 1989 to 1993, he served as the Chairman of Allied Irish Bank. .... He serves as a Non-Executive Director of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson. He serves as a Director of Goldman Sachs International. He has been Member of Supervisory Board at Allianz SE since January 2010 and serves as its Member of International Advisory Board .... Mr. Sutherland served as a Non Executive Director of BP Plc since July 1995. He serves as a Member of Foundation Board of World Economic Forum. He served as an Independent Non Executive Director of National Westminster Bank PLC since January 2001. He served as an Independent Non Executive Director of The Royal Bank Of Scotland Plc from January 2001 to February 6, 2009.... In addition, he serves on the board of Allianz, Koc Holding A.S. and is a member of the advisory board of Eli Lilly.... He served as a Director of LM Ericsson Telephone Co since 1996, Ericsson SPA since 1996 and Investor AB since 1995. He served as a Non Executive Director of Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc from January 2001 to February 6, 2009.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
