I don't get HBO - but it sounds like this may be a good documenty.
THE JOURNALIST AND THE JIHADI: THE MURDER OF DANIEL PEARL
The Centre for Research on Globalisation had pieced together some info on this back in 2002.
"Daniel Pearl and the Paymaster of 9/11"
Their version sounds more plausible than what the corporate media spits out. I'd be curious to know what HBO does with it.
From the simplified synopsis
@ globalresearch.ca:
A mere week after the destruction of the World Trade Center, authorities were gradually building toward an official announcement that would definitively link Osama bin Laden to the events of September 11 - a wire transfer of $100,000 to lead hijacker Mohamed Atta. To an increasingly skeptical public, here was the "smoking gun", a bona fide money trail that would demonstrate how al-Qaida planned and financed the operation.
On October 1, 2001, the press revealed the pseudonym of the al-Qaida operative who allegedly passed on the funds to the hijackers. Days later, CNN revealed that the pseudonym belonged to a 28-year old Pakistani militant, a former student at the London School of Economics named Omar Saeed Sheikh. Yet on October 9, the Times of India reported that Omar Saeed was in fact acting under the authority of General Mahmud Ahmad, the chief of Pakistani intelligence, who had spent the morning of September 11 in deep discussion with Sen. Bob Graham and Rep. Porter Goss (now the co-chairmen heading up the "independent" investigation into 9/11). An intricate disinformation campaign was now set in motion to control any damaging fallout that might have implicated elements of the U.S. government in the events of September 11.
At the insistence of U.S. authorities, General Ahmad was "quietly retired," and a cover story was then elaborated to explain that General Ahmad was "purged" by the Pakistani President for being "pro-Taliban" - yet distancing him from any connection to the 9/11 money trail....
From the main version:
Thus, courtesy of The Times of India, by October 9, Omar Saeed was not only tagged as the "bagman" of 9/11, but he was now reported as acting under the orders of the chief of Pakistani intelligence. That in itself is not so surprising, as the ISI was long acknowledged as being the primary backer - pre-9/11 - of the Taliban. Yet why, then, would the U.S. government insist on nothing more punitive than the general's immediate retirement? Here is one possible reason, courtesy of the archives of Karachi News, datelined September 9, 2001 (two days before 9/11, for those who didn't notice):
"ISI Chief Lt-Gen [Mahmud Ahmad's] week-long presence in Washington has triggered speculation about the agenda of his mysterious meetings at the Pentagon and National Security Council. Officially, State Department sources say he is on a routine visit in return to CIA Director George Tenet's earlier visit to Islamabad...What added interest to his visit is the history of such visits. Last time Ziauddin Butt, [General Ahmad's] predecessor, was here during Nawaz Sharif's government, the domestic politics turned topsy-turvy within days. That this is not the first visit by [General Ahmad] in the last three months shows the urgency of the ongoing parleys."
Monday, September 25, 2006
Saturday, September 23, 2006
"Ill-Gotten Gains"
I used to think that this did not make sense - the idea that restitution should be paid by institutions that capitalized on slavery. But in the political climate that we have - with a government which has no intention of trying to level any playing fields - which let the rich keep larger portions of their money - dead or alive - I've been rethinking my position.
When you have to have capital to get much done - when "old money" allows some people to live very well (and to start new businesses) - based on money that has been capitalized off of the labor and ownership of people 150+ years - it makes sense to have some kind of payback. Since neither the slaves nor their descendents were then nor since compensated. And yet other people keep profiting.
_____
Corporate America's Uncashed Check: Disgorging the Ill-Gotten Gains of Slave Labor
On September 27th in a federal courthouse in Chicago an appellate panel will hear argument in the first case that seeks to hold major American financial institutions liable for their role in financing, underwriting and profiting from slavery in the United States.
Many groups have received reparations for past atrocities and historical injustices, but never African-Americans.
This recent lawsuit marks a new departure in the battle for reparations. Rather than seek to hold the government responsible for the general historic wrongs of slavery, this litigation targets the companies that specifically profited – often illegally – from slavery. The plaintiffs are descendants of slaves upon whom these financial institutions profited...
Institutions mentioned include: JP Morgan Chase , Bank of America, Brown Brothers Harriman, Aetna
When you have to have capital to get much done - when "old money" allows some people to live very well (and to start new businesses) - based on money that has been capitalized off of the labor and ownership of people 150+ years - it makes sense to have some kind of payback. Since neither the slaves nor their descendents were then nor since compensated. And yet other people keep profiting.
_____
Corporate America's Uncashed Check: Disgorging the Ill-Gotten Gains of Slave Labor
On September 27th in a federal courthouse in Chicago an appellate panel will hear argument in the first case that seeks to hold major American financial institutions liable for their role in financing, underwriting and profiting from slavery in the United States.
Many groups have received reparations for past atrocities and historical injustices, but never African-Americans.
This recent lawsuit marks a new departure in the battle for reparations. Rather than seek to hold the government responsible for the general historic wrongs of slavery, this litigation targets the companies that specifically profited – often illegally – from slavery. The plaintiffs are descendants of slaves upon whom these financial institutions profited...
Institutions mentioned include: JP Morgan Chase , Bank of America, Brown Brothers Harriman, Aetna
"Western" Trash in Africa
We have 2 or 3 computers and other assorted extinct gadgets that we never have gotten around to discarding. Knowing how bad a system there is that exists for their disposal is not encouraging.
Toxic Shock: How Western Rubbish is Destroying Africa
Western corporations are exploiting legal loopholes to dump their waste in Africa. And in Ivory Coast, the price has been death and disease for thousands.
One August morning, people living near the Akouedo rubbish dump in Abidjan, capital of the Ivory Coast, woke up to a foul-smelling air. Soon, they began to vomit, children got diarrhoea, and the elderly found it difficult to breathe. "The smell was unbelievable, a cross between rotten eggs and blocked drains," said one Abidjan resident. "After 10 minutes in the thick of it, I felt sick."
As they live near the biggest landfill in Abidjan, the people of Akouedo are used to having rubbish dumped on their doorstep. Trucks unload broken glass, rotting food and used syringes. Children try to make the best of their dismal playground, looking for scraps of metal and old clothes to sell for a few cents.
But this time, the waste would benefit no one. By yesterday, at least six people, including two children, had died from the fumes...
Probo Koala, the ship that offloaded the waste, is registered in Panama and chartered by the Dutch trading company Trafigura Beheer. Trafigura had tried to offload its slops in Amsterdam, but the Amsterdam Port Services recognised its contents as toxic and asked to renegotiate terms. Trafigura said shipping delays would mean penalties of at least 250,000 US dollars (£133,000) so handed it over to a disposal company in Abidjan alongside a "written request that the material should be safely disposed of, according to country laws, and with all the correct documentation."
This story is a common one. All down the West Africa coast, ships registered in America and Europe unload containers filled with old computers, slops, and used medical equipment. Scrap merchants, corrupt politicians and underpaid civil servants take charge of this rubbish and, for a few dollars, will dump them off coastlines and on landfill sites....
The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that worldwide, 20 million to 50 million tons of electronics are discarded each year. Less than 10 per cent gets recycled and half or more ends up overseas.
Update: There have been 7 deaths and 44,000 seeking hospital treatment. The company denies disposing of toxic waste.
Toxic Shock: How Western Rubbish is Destroying Africa
Western corporations are exploiting legal loopholes to dump their waste in Africa. And in Ivory Coast, the price has been death and disease for thousands.
One August morning, people living near the Akouedo rubbish dump in Abidjan, capital of the Ivory Coast, woke up to a foul-smelling air. Soon, they began to vomit, children got diarrhoea, and the elderly found it difficult to breathe. "The smell was unbelievable, a cross between rotten eggs and blocked drains," said one Abidjan resident. "After 10 minutes in the thick of it, I felt sick."
As they live near the biggest landfill in Abidjan, the people of Akouedo are used to having rubbish dumped on their doorstep. Trucks unload broken glass, rotting food and used syringes. Children try to make the best of their dismal playground, looking for scraps of metal and old clothes to sell for a few cents.
But this time, the waste would benefit no one. By yesterday, at least six people, including two children, had died from the fumes...
Probo Koala, the ship that offloaded the waste, is registered in Panama and chartered by the Dutch trading company Trafigura Beheer. Trafigura had tried to offload its slops in Amsterdam, but the Amsterdam Port Services recognised its contents as toxic and asked to renegotiate terms. Trafigura said shipping delays would mean penalties of at least 250,000 US dollars (£133,000) so handed it over to a disposal company in Abidjan alongside a "written request that the material should be safely disposed of, according to country laws, and with all the correct documentation."
This story is a common one. All down the West Africa coast, ships registered in America and Europe unload containers filled with old computers, slops, and used medical equipment. Scrap merchants, corrupt politicians and underpaid civil servants take charge of this rubbish and, for a few dollars, will dump them off coastlines and on landfill sites....
The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that worldwide, 20 million to 50 million tons of electronics are discarded each year. Less than 10 per cent gets recycled and half or more ends up overseas.
Update: There have been 7 deaths and 44,000 seeking hospital treatment. The company denies disposing of toxic waste.
Spinach
So essentially - the problem is that spinach is being grown using very contaminated water (esp. in California - not as much in Florida).
Spinach: What you should know
Q: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration recommend discarding bagged salad mixes that contain spinach, and not eating fresh spinach in its raw state for now. Is cooked spinach safe?
A: According to Tom Skinner, a CDC spokesman in Atlanta, fresh spinach should not be consumed raw. "We think that cooking to 160 degrees for 15 seconds will do what needs to be done to make it safe, but that's 160 degrees all the way through and it's hard to take the temperature of a leaf of spinach. For now, use frozen packaged spinach and cook it as directed." Microwaving can't guarantee a safe temperature.
Q: Will washing take away the E. coli?
A: "This is a very hardy bacteria," Skinner says. "Thoroughly washing fresh produce is always a good thing to do, but cook it properly too."
Q: So E. coli isn't just dangerous in meat or dairy products?
A: "These outbreaks are usually associated with undercooked meat, but we have seen a number of outbreaks related to produce," Skinner says.
Q: What other type of produce poses an E. coli risk?
A: Any produce that is irrigated. "It's not the produce itself, it's how it's grown, harvested and packed," Skinner says.
_________________
From the LA Times:
E. Coli Pervades Harvest Area
Salinas Valley waterways are known to carry the bacteria that poisoned at least 145 people and killed one who ate tainted spinach.
September 21, 2006
The bacterium that has sickened people across the nation and forced growers to destroy spinach crops is so pervasive in the Salinas Valley that virtually every waterway there violates national standards.
"There are many sources of water coming into the watershed, and I guarantee you that they all have generic E. coli," and many carry the deadly E. coli strain linked to food poisonings, said Christopher Rose, an environmental scientist at the state's Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, which tests the region's waterways.
Federal officials said Wednesday they are focusing on nine fields in San Benito, Santa Clara and Monterey counties as possible sources of the bacteria-contaminated spinach that killed one woman and sickened at least 145 others in 23 states.
Investigators also announced that spinach found in the refrigerator of a New Mexico resident who became ill tested positive for E. coli 0157:H7, the dangerous bacteria strain responsible for the outbreak. The finding confirmed suspicions that the tainted spinach originated from California's Central Coast, where it was packaged by Natural Selection Foods under the Dole label....
The O157:H7 strain was first recognized as a cause of illness during a 1982 outbreak traced to fast food hamburgers. But its prevalence in most regions is unknown because there is no EPA requirement to test for it in waterways, wells or irrigation water, Kemery said.
After food poisoning outbreaks several years ago, regional water officials stepped up sampling and added analysis for the deadly strain in the Salinas watershed, finding the bacteria in several waterways next to areas where livestock graze.
E. coli is a national problem, but it is especially severe in livestock areas. A single cow can shed as much as 100 billion fecal bacteria per day. The food-poisoning outbreak could pit vegetable growers against livestock owners, both economic powerhouses in the state.
Monterey County's spinach fields are downstream of the Gabilan Mountains, where beef cattle, dairy cows and horses graze. En route to the Salinas River, many tributaries flow through the livestock areas, picking up bacteria. The water then flows through the low-lying valley where vegetables are grown.
Cattle and other livestock graze near the banks of the creeks, and their manure can easily contaminate the water with millions of E. coli organisms. "In some areas, grazing has resulted in manure lining the banks of channels of tributaries to the Salinas River," a June report by the Central Coast water board stated.
Spinach: What you should know
Q: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration recommend discarding bagged salad mixes that contain spinach, and not eating fresh spinach in its raw state for now. Is cooked spinach safe?
A: According to Tom Skinner, a CDC spokesman in Atlanta, fresh spinach should not be consumed raw. "We think that cooking to 160 degrees for 15 seconds will do what needs to be done to make it safe, but that's 160 degrees all the way through and it's hard to take the temperature of a leaf of spinach. For now, use frozen packaged spinach and cook it as directed." Microwaving can't guarantee a safe temperature.
Q: Will washing take away the E. coli?
A: "This is a very hardy bacteria," Skinner says. "Thoroughly washing fresh produce is always a good thing to do, but cook it properly too."
Q: So E. coli isn't just dangerous in meat or dairy products?
A: "These outbreaks are usually associated with undercooked meat, but we have seen a number of outbreaks related to produce," Skinner says.
Q: What other type of produce poses an E. coli risk?
A: Any produce that is irrigated. "It's not the produce itself, it's how it's grown, harvested and packed," Skinner says.
_________________
From the LA Times:
E. Coli Pervades Harvest Area
Salinas Valley waterways are known to carry the bacteria that poisoned at least 145 people and killed one who ate tainted spinach.
September 21, 2006
The bacterium that has sickened people across the nation and forced growers to destroy spinach crops is so pervasive in the Salinas Valley that virtually every waterway there violates national standards.
"There are many sources of water coming into the watershed, and I guarantee you that they all have generic E. coli," and many carry the deadly E. coli strain linked to food poisonings, said Christopher Rose, an environmental scientist at the state's Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, which tests the region's waterways.
Federal officials said Wednesday they are focusing on nine fields in San Benito, Santa Clara and Monterey counties as possible sources of the bacteria-contaminated spinach that killed one woman and sickened at least 145 others in 23 states.
Investigators also announced that spinach found in the refrigerator of a New Mexico resident who became ill tested positive for E. coli 0157:H7, the dangerous bacteria strain responsible for the outbreak. The finding confirmed suspicions that the tainted spinach originated from California's Central Coast, where it was packaged by Natural Selection Foods under the Dole label....
The O157:H7 strain was first recognized as a cause of illness during a 1982 outbreak traced to fast food hamburgers. But its prevalence in most regions is unknown because there is no EPA requirement to test for it in waterways, wells or irrigation water, Kemery said.
After food poisoning outbreaks several years ago, regional water officials stepped up sampling and added analysis for the deadly strain in the Salinas watershed, finding the bacteria in several waterways next to areas where livestock graze.
E. coli is a national problem, but it is especially severe in livestock areas. A single cow can shed as much as 100 billion fecal bacteria per day. The food-poisoning outbreak could pit vegetable growers against livestock owners, both economic powerhouses in the state.
Monterey County's spinach fields are downstream of the Gabilan Mountains, where beef cattle, dairy cows and horses graze. En route to the Salinas River, many tributaries flow through the livestock areas, picking up bacteria. The water then flows through the low-lying valley where vegetables are grown.
Cattle and other livestock graze near the banks of the creeks, and their manure can easily contaminate the water with millions of E. coli organisms. "In some areas, grazing has resulted in manure lining the banks of channels of tributaries to the Salinas River," a June report by the Central Coast water board stated.
"Russia sets the pace in energy race"
Article in the Asia Times:
Speaking at a conference under the rubric "Summit on Energy Security" at West Lafayette, Indiana, this month, the powerful chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar, characterized Venezuela, Iran and Russia as "adversarial regimes" that were using energy supplies as "leverage" in foreign policy.
Lugar said: "We are used to thinking in terms of conventional warfare between nations, but energy is becoming a weapon of choice for those who possess it."
(big snip).....In conclusion, the Caspian Great Game is fraught with serious contradictions cutting across different levels. On the one hand, Russia is arrayed against the US and the EU in controlling Central Asian energy flows to the West. But having thwarted the latest US-EU plans of sourcing Caspian energy bypassing Russia, for the time being at least, Russia and the EU have a commonality of interests in meeting the energy security of the European market. The US becomes the odd man out in the cold, while European countries are busily negotiating their bilateral energy supplies from Russia.
For the EU, the viable alternative supply source of gas is Iran. But the policy of its US ally apropos containment of Iran precludes any near-term possibility for the EU to enter any form of expanded energy dialogue with Tehran. On the other hand, in keeping Iran out of the European market, Russia and the US would have a common interest at this juncture, though Washington ought to be aware that any realistic possibility of reducing its European allies' dependence on Russian energy supplies would depend on Iran being allowed into the European market.
Again, Russia and China are finding themselves competing for Central Asia's energy reserves, while the Central Asian exporting countries are gaining space to maneuver between Russia and China for extracting better prices for their oil and gas. And all this is while all three protagonists are members of an ambitious forum of regional cooperation called the SCO.
To the extent that the US realizes that it has become the "underdog" with regard to Russia in the Caspian energy race, it is keen to coordinate with China and India in evolving a common platform of "energy consuming countries". But would Washington succeed in subsuming the economic nationalism of the Asian giants, when it miserably failed to marshal the EU? After all, India just led a bruising dissenting campaign against Washington's move to give increased voting rights to China in the International Monetary Fund.
Speaking at a conference under the rubric "Summit on Energy Security" at West Lafayette, Indiana, this month, the powerful chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar, characterized Venezuela, Iran and Russia as "adversarial regimes" that were using energy supplies as "leverage" in foreign policy.
Lugar said: "We are used to thinking in terms of conventional warfare between nations, but energy is becoming a weapon of choice for those who possess it."
(big snip).....In conclusion, the Caspian Great Game is fraught with serious contradictions cutting across different levels. On the one hand, Russia is arrayed against the US and the EU in controlling Central Asian energy flows to the West. But having thwarted the latest US-EU plans of sourcing Caspian energy bypassing Russia, for the time being at least, Russia and the EU have a commonality of interests in meeting the energy security of the European market. The US becomes the odd man out in the cold, while European countries are busily negotiating their bilateral energy supplies from Russia.
For the EU, the viable alternative supply source of gas is Iran. But the policy of its US ally apropos containment of Iran precludes any near-term possibility for the EU to enter any form of expanded energy dialogue with Tehran. On the other hand, in keeping Iran out of the European market, Russia and the US would have a common interest at this juncture, though Washington ought to be aware that any realistic possibility of reducing its European allies' dependence on Russian energy supplies would depend on Iran being allowed into the European market.
Again, Russia and China are finding themselves competing for Central Asia's energy reserves, while the Central Asian exporting countries are gaining space to maneuver between Russia and China for extracting better prices for their oil and gas. And all this is while all three protagonists are members of an ambitious forum of regional cooperation called the SCO.
To the extent that the US realizes that it has become the "underdog" with regard to Russia in the Caspian energy race, it is keen to coordinate with China and India in evolving a common platform of "energy consuming countries". But would Washington succeed in subsuming the economic nationalism of the Asian giants, when it miserably failed to marshal the EU? After all, India just led a bruising dissenting campaign against Washington's move to give increased voting rights to China in the International Monetary Fund.
Friday, September 22, 2006
Not so Hopeful
Sounds like the same old same old runaround the law. The torture and treatment situation (and absence of accountability) might be even worse once this is passed....
From Democracy Now! :
Bush, GOP Senators Reach Prisoner Treatment Compromise
The Bush administration and dissident Republican Senators have resolved their dispute on the interrogation and trial of prisoners in US custody. Both sides say President Bush has dropped his insistence on being allowed to re-interpret the Geneva Conventions.
But in a major victory for the White House, the President will not have to follow the conventions themselves but only how they are interpreted under the congressional War Crimes Act. President Bush will also be allowed to interpret the Geneva conventions for practices the Washington Post says fall "between cruelty and minor abuse."
White House counselor Dan Bartlett explained: "We proposed a more direct approach to bringing clarification. This one is more of the scenic route, but it gets us there." In another victory for the Bush administration, prisoners tried by military courts will only have limited access to the evidence used against them. The prisoners will be allowed to see summaries of the evidence. But even those will be subject to major redaction from prosecutors.
The agreement also bars defendants from invoking the Geneva Conventions in any habeas or civil action involving government officials.
The so-called compromise is already coming under criticism. In an editorial today, the Washington Post writes: "The agreement means that U.S. violations of international human rights law can continue as long as Mr. Bush is president, with Congress's tacit assent."
The agreement is expected to go before Congress next week.
More from the Post editorial:
The bad news is that Mr. Bush, as he made clear yesterday, intends to continue using the CIA to secretly detain and abuse certain terrorist suspects. He will do so by issuing his own interpretation of the Geneva Conventions in an executive order and by relying on questionable Justice Department opinions that authorize such practices as exposing prisoners to hypothermia and prolonged sleep deprivation.
Under the compromise agreed to yesterday, Congress would recognize his authority to take these steps and prevent prisoners from appealing them to U.S. courts. The bill would also immunize CIA personnel from prosecution for all but the most serious abuses and protect those who in the past violated U.S. law against war crimes.
___
From Democracy Now! :
Bush, GOP Senators Reach Prisoner Treatment Compromise
The Bush administration and dissident Republican Senators have resolved their dispute on the interrogation and trial of prisoners in US custody. Both sides say President Bush has dropped his insistence on being allowed to re-interpret the Geneva Conventions.
But in a major victory for the White House, the President will not have to follow the conventions themselves but only how they are interpreted under the congressional War Crimes Act. President Bush will also be allowed to interpret the Geneva conventions for practices the Washington Post says fall "between cruelty and minor abuse."
White House counselor Dan Bartlett explained: "We proposed a more direct approach to bringing clarification. This one is more of the scenic route, but it gets us there." In another victory for the Bush administration, prisoners tried by military courts will only have limited access to the evidence used against them. The prisoners will be allowed to see summaries of the evidence. But even those will be subject to major redaction from prosecutors.
The agreement also bars defendants from invoking the Geneva Conventions in any habeas or civil action involving government officials.
The so-called compromise is already coming under criticism. In an editorial today, the Washington Post writes: "The agreement means that U.S. violations of international human rights law can continue as long as Mr. Bush is president, with Congress's tacit assent."
The agreement is expected to go before Congress next week.
More from the Post editorial:
The bad news is that Mr. Bush, as he made clear yesterday, intends to continue using the CIA to secretly detain and abuse certain terrorist suspects. He will do so by issuing his own interpretation of the Geneva Conventions in an executive order and by relying on questionable Justice Department opinions that authorize such practices as exposing prisoners to hypothermia and prolonged sleep deprivation.
Under the compromise agreed to yesterday, Congress would recognize his authority to take these steps and prevent prisoners from appealing them to U.S. courts. The bill would also immunize CIA personnel from prosecution for all but the most serious abuses and protect those who in the past violated U.S. law against war crimes.
___
Oil and Stones
"The Stoneage didn't end because we ran out of stones."
- Al Gore on CNN today.
Meanwhile:
"Saudi Wary Of 'Green' Policies To Reduce Oil Consumption"
OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia has expressed concern that oil could become a victim of "selective" environment policies and called for striking a balance between a cleaner environment and development. The kingdom, whose economy heavily relies on oil income, said the use of advanced technology to carry out environment-friendly projects is the best solution to achieve economic development without harming the climate.
"We are concerned that some environment-related decisions, which some countries are trying to impose, could reduce global consumption of oil," Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi said....
_______
It seems to me that G.W.Bush is too close to the Saudis for our own good. A lot of people remember the footage of Bush and one the Saudi princes walking hand in hand as if they were best friends (or better). The Bushes profit from Oil, along with the Saudis. It's not surprising that they are against recognizing global warming - or at least in taking any meaningful steps to reduce it.
The Nation is reporting "the Bush Administration and the Pentagon have issued orders for a major "strike group" of ships, including the nuclear aircraft carrier Eisenhower as well as a cruiser, destroyer, frigate, submarine escort and supply ship, to head for the Persian Gulf, just off Iran's western coast.
....official sources in the public affairs office of the Navy Department at the Pentagon confirm that this powerful armada is scheduled to arrive off the coast of Iran on or around October 21.
It's hard to know where the Israeli/Palestine conflict starts and stops and where the protection or control of oil begins and ends, instead. It seems to be all mixed up. And then there is the war profiteering of Haliburton/Cheney and all of that. There may be someone in government who thinks that what they are doing is for the public good - if they tell themselves that we need to use as much oil as possible and/or that we are the "good guys" for killing Muslims. It's hard to figure - and I don't see any good from any of it.
And we all know how a military strike bolsters the president's (and his party's) popularity polls - with this Iran thing coming just in time for the midterm elections. Blech.
___
- Al Gore on CNN today.
Meanwhile:
"Saudi Wary Of 'Green' Policies To Reduce Oil Consumption"
OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia has expressed concern that oil could become a victim of "selective" environment policies and called for striking a balance between a cleaner environment and development. The kingdom, whose economy heavily relies on oil income, said the use of advanced technology to carry out environment-friendly projects is the best solution to achieve economic development without harming the climate.
"We are concerned that some environment-related decisions, which some countries are trying to impose, could reduce global consumption of oil," Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi said....
_______
It seems to me that G.W.Bush is too close to the Saudis for our own good. A lot of people remember the footage of Bush and one the Saudi princes walking hand in hand as if they were best friends (or better). The Bushes profit from Oil, along with the Saudis. It's not surprising that they are against recognizing global warming - or at least in taking any meaningful steps to reduce it.
The Nation is reporting "the Bush Administration and the Pentagon have issued orders for a major "strike group" of ships, including the nuclear aircraft carrier Eisenhower as well as a cruiser, destroyer, frigate, submarine escort and supply ship, to head for the Persian Gulf, just off Iran's western coast.
....official sources in the public affairs office of the Navy Department at the Pentagon confirm that this powerful armada is scheduled to arrive off the coast of Iran on or around October 21.
It's hard to know where the Israeli/Palestine conflict starts and stops and where the protection or control of oil begins and ends, instead. It seems to be all mixed up. And then there is the war profiteering of Haliburton/Cheney and all of that. There may be someone in government who thinks that what they are doing is for the public good - if they tell themselves that we need to use as much oil as possible and/or that we are the "good guys" for killing Muslims. It's hard to figure - and I don't see any good from any of it.
And we all know how a military strike bolsters the president's (and his party's) popularity polls - with this Iran thing coming just in time for the midterm elections. Blech.
___
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Atheist Fundamentalists
That's how I see Sam Harris. He is anti-all-religion (or at least all Western religion) - doesn't see any good in any of it. Yet, his article, Head-in-the-Sand Liberals, could have been written by a Christian Fundamentalist with very few changes.
He spouts the "liberals are soft on terrorism" meme.
I noticed that a lot of people who like Harris, also like Daniel Pipes.I expect that they like being given more reasons to hate Muslims - that is what Harris really focuses on. Some people assume that he is some kind of liberal just because he is an atheist. I think that Harris makes the case that intolerance (esp. of other's religions) and liberalism are basically opposites (that's not the case he intended to make).
I see him as encouraging atheists to be extremists - as intolerant as the Christian Right. It's too bad that those are the people who make headlines - not the reasonable people. Harris makes it easy for people to characterize atheists as the "other" as "Atheist Fundamentalists" not as people who seek common ground. "Atheists for Peace" don't make headlines.
He spouts the "liberals are soft on terrorism" meme.
I noticed that a lot of people who like Harris, also like Daniel Pipes.I expect that they like being given more reasons to hate Muslims - that is what Harris really focuses on. Some people assume that he is some kind of liberal just because he is an atheist. I think that Harris makes the case that intolerance (esp. of other's religions) and liberalism are basically opposites (that's not the case he intended to make).
I see him as encouraging atheists to be extremists - as intolerant as the Christian Right. It's too bad that those are the people who make headlines - not the reasonable people. Harris makes it easy for people to characterize atheists as the "other" as "Atheist Fundamentalists" not as people who seek common ground. "Atheists for Peace" don't make headlines.
Indiana Jellyfish
The Indiana University newspaper has an article about jellyfish that live in fresh water lakes around here. That's pretty fun - it's not something that I usually think about - jellyfish in Indiana. It just goes to show you how universal they are. :)
Jelly fish Season
The white cross of the jellyfish distinguished its body against the dark background of Yellowwood Lake in Brown County. The rest of its transparent structure appeared as it slowly glided through the water. As stealthily as it surfaced, it sunk back into the darkness below the boat.
No one is quite sure when these elegant creatures arrived in local lakes, but their existence speaks to Indiana's impressive biodiversity and begs the question: Why would an animal so closely associated with marine environments annually show up hundreds of miles away from the nearest ocean?
....Jellyfish are most often spotted in August and September when the water is warm enough to allow them to grow....
People see the more recognizable medusa stage, or reproductive stage, of the jellyfish life cycle, said Terry Peard, professor of biology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, who studies freshwater jellyfish. Most of the rest of the year is spent attached to the underside of a log as a polyp, a tiny speck of an animal barely 1 millimeter in height.
Peard's research shows that these jellyfish are heartier -- and more adaptable -- than their delicate bodies, composed of more than 99 percent water, might suggest.
"We have collected jellies from bodies of water that run the gamut from pristine to various levels of pollution"...
Peard said he has found that jellyfish in the medusa form might migrate from site to site in boats, in bait buckets, by flooding or via underground aquifers connecting bodies of water....
"Most people are unaware they can find them as close to home as Indiana," (Cotten) said.
Jelly fish Season
The white cross of the jellyfish distinguished its body against the dark background of Yellowwood Lake in Brown County. The rest of its transparent structure appeared as it slowly glided through the water. As stealthily as it surfaced, it sunk back into the darkness below the boat.
No one is quite sure when these elegant creatures arrived in local lakes, but their existence speaks to Indiana's impressive biodiversity and begs the question: Why would an animal so closely associated with marine environments annually show up hundreds of miles away from the nearest ocean?
....Jellyfish are most often spotted in August and September when the water is warm enough to allow them to grow....
People see the more recognizable medusa stage, or reproductive stage, of the jellyfish life cycle, said Terry Peard, professor of biology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, who studies freshwater jellyfish. Most of the rest of the year is spent attached to the underside of a log as a polyp, a tiny speck of an animal barely 1 millimeter in height.
Peard's research shows that these jellyfish are heartier -- and more adaptable -- than their delicate bodies, composed of more than 99 percent water, might suggest.
"We have collected jellies from bodies of water that run the gamut from pristine to various levels of pollution"...
Peard said he has found that jellyfish in the medusa form might migrate from site to site in boats, in bait buckets, by flooding or via underground aquifers connecting bodies of water....
"Most people are unaware they can find them as close to home as Indiana," (Cotten) said.
Sailing to the North Pole
Scientists shocked as Arctic polar route emerges
European scientists voiced shock as they showed pictures which showed Arctic ice cover had disappeared so much last month that a ship could sail unhindered from Europe's most northerly outpost to the North Pole itself.
The satellite images were acquired from August 23 to 25 by instruments aboard Envisat and EOS Aqua, two satellites operated by the European Space Agency (ESA).
Perennial sea ice -- thick ice that is normally present year-round and is not affected by the Arctic summer -- had disappeared over an area bigger than the British Isles, ESA said.
Vast patches of ice-free sea stretched north of Svalbard, an archipelago lying midway between Norway and the North Ple, and extended deep into the Russian Arctic, all the way to the North Pole, the agency said in a press release.
"This situation is unlike anything observed in previous record low-ice seasons," said Mark Drinkwater of ESA's Oceans/Ice Unit....
European scientists voiced shock as they showed pictures which showed Arctic ice cover had disappeared so much last month that a ship could sail unhindered from Europe's most northerly outpost to the North Pole itself.
The satellite images were acquired from August 23 to 25 by instruments aboard Envisat and EOS Aqua, two satellites operated by the European Space Agency (ESA).
Perennial sea ice -- thick ice that is normally present year-round and is not affected by the Arctic summer -- had disappeared over an area bigger than the British Isles, ESA said.
Vast patches of ice-free sea stretched north of Svalbard, an archipelago lying midway between Norway and the North Ple, and extended deep into the Russian Arctic, all the way to the North Pole, the agency said in a press release.
"This situation is unlike anything observed in previous record low-ice seasons," said Mark Drinkwater of ESA's Oceans/Ice Unit....
Something Hopeful
Even if these CIA people were basically acting in their own self interest (not wanting to be prosecuted) - that's a hell of a lot better than having people in government who think that they are above the law and can do whatever....
CIA ‘refused to operate’ secret jails
Published: September 20 2006 22:07
The Bush administration had to empty its secret prisons and transfer terror suspects to the military-run detention centre at Guantánamo this month in part because CIA interrogators had refused to carry out further interrogations and run the secret facilities, according to former CIA officials and people close to the programme.
The former officials said the CIA interrogators’ refusal was a factor in forcing the Bush administration to act earlier than it might have wished.
When Mr Bush announced the suspension of the secret prison programme in a speech before the fifth anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, some analysts thought he was trying to gain political momentum before the November midterm congressional elections.
The administration publicly explained its decision in light of the legal uncertainty surrounding permissible interrogation techniques following the June Supreme Court ruling that all terrorist suspects in detention were entitled to protection under Common Article Three of the Geneva Conventions.
But the former CIA officials said Mr Bush’s hand was forced because interrogators had refused to continue their work until the legal situation was clarified because they were concerned they could be prosecuted for using illegal techniques. One intelligence source also said the CIA had refused to keep the secret prisons going.
_______
The Bush Administration has recently been trying to push for legislation that would make such illegal activity legal. In another article:
John McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, called his opposition to an administration plan to allow aggressive interrogation techniques of detainees “a matter of conscience”.
“Are we going to be like the enemy, or are we going to be the United States of America?” said Mr McCain, who argues the White House plan would redefine US obligations under the Geneva conventions and put US forces at risk if they were captured in future wars. “We have to keep the moral high ground,” he told ABC News.
P.S. McCain ended up endorsing the torture/treatment deal (see 9.22) - so he was just blowing hot air - according to this - it had all been figured out a couple weeks ago, anyway. He likes to sound like the anti-torture guy - but that is apparently meaningless.
_______
John Yoo (a deputy assistant attorney general from 2001 to 2003) - had quite the long op-ed Sunday in the New York Times - he wrote:
"The White House has declared that the Constitution allows the president to sidestep laws that invade his executive authority."
It was Yoo, along with Gonzalas, who wrote the nonsensical torture memos to begin with. As if since he said something was legal that that made it so. Or that he had the right the interpret the Constitution so it meant whatever he wanted it to mean.
The bottom line is that Bush and many people in his administration are guilty of war crimes. And they documented them, themselves - even as they lie about it.
_______
A good NewYorker article from last year - OUTSOURCING TORTURE
CIA ‘refused to operate’ secret jails
Published: September 20 2006 22:07
The Bush administration had to empty its secret prisons and transfer terror suspects to the military-run detention centre at Guantánamo this month in part because CIA interrogators had refused to carry out further interrogations and run the secret facilities, according to former CIA officials and people close to the programme.
The former officials said the CIA interrogators’ refusal was a factor in forcing the Bush administration to act earlier than it might have wished.
When Mr Bush announced the suspension of the secret prison programme in a speech before the fifth anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, some analysts thought he was trying to gain political momentum before the November midterm congressional elections.
The administration publicly explained its decision in light of the legal uncertainty surrounding permissible interrogation techniques following the June Supreme Court ruling that all terrorist suspects in detention were entitled to protection under Common Article Three of the Geneva Conventions.
But the former CIA officials said Mr Bush’s hand was forced because interrogators had refused to continue their work until the legal situation was clarified because they were concerned they could be prosecuted for using illegal techniques. One intelligence source also said the CIA had refused to keep the secret prisons going.
_______
The Bush Administration has recently been trying to push for legislation that would make such illegal activity legal. In another article:
John McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, called his opposition to an administration plan to allow aggressive interrogation techniques of detainees “a matter of conscience”.
“Are we going to be like the enemy, or are we going to be the United States of America?” said Mr McCain, who argues the White House plan would redefine US obligations under the Geneva conventions and put US forces at risk if they were captured in future wars. “We have to keep the moral high ground,” he told ABC News.
P.S. McCain ended up endorsing the torture/treatment deal (see 9.22) - so he was just blowing hot air - according to this - it had all been figured out a couple weeks ago, anyway. He likes to sound like the anti-torture guy - but that is apparently meaningless.
_______
John Yoo (a deputy assistant attorney general from 2001 to 2003) - had quite the long op-ed Sunday in the New York Times - he wrote:
"The White House has declared that the Constitution allows the president to sidestep laws that invade his executive authority."
It was Yoo, along with Gonzalas, who wrote the nonsensical torture memos to begin with. As if since he said something was legal that that made it so. Or that he had the right the interpret the Constitution so it meant whatever he wanted it to mean.
The bottom line is that Bush and many people in his administration are guilty of war crimes. And they documented them, themselves - even as they lie about it.
_______
A good NewYorker article from last year - OUTSOURCING TORTURE
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Ecotopia
Google the word and all sorts of sorts of things come up. There is also an exhibition by the name in New York City:
“Ecotopia: The Second I.C.P. Triennial of Photography and Video” at the International Center of Photography - through Jan. 7.
“Ecotopia” is the center’s second “triennial of photography and video,” and like the first, it is purposefully germane. Its predecessor, “Strangers,” in 2003, explored the confusion of the post-9/11 world as it struggled with religious fundamentalism. Since the losses inflicted by the Indonesian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, a fear of political chaos has been at least equaled by a fear that the natural world itself is fatally compromised.
As Al Gore notes toward the end of “An Inconvenient Truth,” the film in which he charts the grim, imminent future of global warming, terrorism is not the only, nor necessarily the most urgent, problem confronting us today.
“Ecotopia” might be described as “An Inconvenient Truth” in exhibition form. It is a tale of beauty and devastation told by nearly 40 photojournalists and artists. Their viewpoints vary, as do their subjects and forms, but you rarely escape a sense of nature’s vast, incalculable richness or of photography’s ability to do it justice. There may be no greater meeting of subject and medium.
_____________________
It's always an odd thing when people make beautiful photos of ugly things. That is not what all of what the exhibit is - but some of it - as you will see at the link.
I do mostly photograph things that are conventionally beautiful - like wildflowers or beaches. I edit out the trash, the inconvenient run down building or new development project. Sometimes it becomes quite a challenge - to get the beach photo without the condominum.
It helps having the National Wildlife Refuges, the State and National Parks. But those things seem so small in comparison to the developed land. In Florida - the St. Joe company (apparently friends of Jeb Bush) has been given much land to develop. They often have a marketing campaign that shows the land (or some land) in pristine condition - before development as a way to sell the land post-development. It seems really messed up.
If I were in charge of the world - there would not be development on the shoreline. It would all be free space for the public and for crabs and whatever else. Not only would this be beneficial to wildlife - it would save tons of reconstruction money. Resorts and houses built on sandbars are ridiculous and beaches restricted to local residents are one of my pet peeves in life. There would always be competition to be the closest property to the shore - whatever that was.
“Ecotopia: The Second I.C.P. Triennial of Photography and Video” at the International Center of Photography - through Jan. 7.
“Ecotopia” is the center’s second “triennial of photography and video,” and like the first, it is purposefully germane. Its predecessor, “Strangers,” in 2003, explored the confusion of the post-9/11 world as it struggled with religious fundamentalism. Since the losses inflicted by the Indonesian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, a fear of political chaos has been at least equaled by a fear that the natural world itself is fatally compromised.
As Al Gore notes toward the end of “An Inconvenient Truth,” the film in which he charts the grim, imminent future of global warming, terrorism is not the only, nor necessarily the most urgent, problem confronting us today.
“Ecotopia” might be described as “An Inconvenient Truth” in exhibition form. It is a tale of beauty and devastation told by nearly 40 photojournalists and artists. Their viewpoints vary, as do their subjects and forms, but you rarely escape a sense of nature’s vast, incalculable richness or of photography’s ability to do it justice. There may be no greater meeting of subject and medium.
_____________________
It's always an odd thing when people make beautiful photos of ugly things. That is not what all of what the exhibit is - but some of it - as you will see at the link.
I do mostly photograph things that are conventionally beautiful - like wildflowers or beaches. I edit out the trash, the inconvenient run down building or new development project. Sometimes it becomes quite a challenge - to get the beach photo without the condominum.
It helps having the National Wildlife Refuges, the State and National Parks. But those things seem so small in comparison to the developed land. In Florida - the St. Joe company (apparently friends of Jeb Bush) has been given much land to develop. They often have a marketing campaign that shows the land (or some land) in pristine condition - before development as a way to sell the land post-development. It seems really messed up.
If I were in charge of the world - there would not be development on the shoreline. It would all be free space for the public and for crabs and whatever else. Not only would this be beneficial to wildlife - it would save tons of reconstruction money. Resorts and houses built on sandbars are ridiculous and beaches restricted to local residents are one of my pet peeves in life. There would always be competition to be the closest property to the shore - whatever that was.
AccuVote
A misnomer if there ever was one.
I've read enough to believe that the 2000 as well as the 2004 elections were stolen (Florida and Ohio, respectively especially). Also there are midterm election questions as well. People - like Secretaries of State who are in position to purge voting rolls - have been one aspect - voting machines are another (voter suppression is also a component and unreliable voting machines adds to that). If our media was worth anything - this would be the main story until it was solved.
Princeton University came out with a study recently - it mostly confirms the problems with voting machines that we already knew about. See video here.
The main findings of our study are:
Malicious software running on a single voting machine can steal votes with little if any risk of detection. The malicious software can modify all of the records, audit logs, and counters kept by the voting machine, so that even careful forensic examination of these records will find nothing amiss. We have constructed demonstration software that carries out this vote-stealing attack.
Anyone who has physical access to a voting machine, or to a memory card that will later be inserted into a machine, can install said malicious software using a simple method that takes as little as one minute. In practice, poll workers and others often have unsupervised access to the machines.
AccuVote-TS machines are susceptible to voting-machine viruses — computer viruses that can spread malicious software automatically and invisibly from machine to machine during normal pre- and post-election activity. We have constructed a demonstration virus that spreads in this way, installing our demonstration vote-stealing program on every machine it infects.
While some of these problems can be eliminated by improving Diebold's software, others cannot be remedied without replacing the machines' hardware. Changes to election procedures would also be required to ensure security.
___
Update - a new article about this - Will The Next Election Be Hacked? Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
I've read enough to believe that the 2000 as well as the 2004 elections were stolen (Florida and Ohio, respectively especially). Also there are midterm election questions as well. People - like Secretaries of State who are in position to purge voting rolls - have been one aspect - voting machines are another (voter suppression is also a component and unreliable voting machines adds to that). If our media was worth anything - this would be the main story until it was solved.
Princeton University came out with a study recently - it mostly confirms the problems with voting machines that we already knew about. See video here.
The main findings of our study are:
Malicious software running on a single voting machine can steal votes with little if any risk of detection. The malicious software can modify all of the records, audit logs, and counters kept by the voting machine, so that even careful forensic examination of these records will find nothing amiss. We have constructed demonstration software that carries out this vote-stealing attack.
Anyone who has physical access to a voting machine, or to a memory card that will later be inserted into a machine, can install said malicious software using a simple method that takes as little as one minute. In practice, poll workers and others often have unsupervised access to the machines.
AccuVote-TS machines are susceptible to voting-machine viruses — computer viruses that can spread malicious software automatically and invisibly from machine to machine during normal pre- and post-election activity. We have constructed a demonstration virus that spreads in this way, installing our demonstration vote-stealing program on every machine it infects.
While some of these problems can be eliminated by improving Diebold's software, others cannot be remedied without replacing the machines' hardware. Changes to election procedures would also be required to ensure security.
___
Update - a new article about this - Will The Next Election Be Hacked? Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Pakistan, the ISI & State Sponsored Terrorism
I saw this posted over at Daily Kos by London Yank
It's a timeline that shows how many of the terrorist attacks since 1993 have been connected to Pakistan (and the ISI - Pakistan's CIA). Also - releasing a U.S. shipment of F-16 fighter jets to the Pakistani government was one of the demands of Daniel Pearl's Pakistani kidnapper/killers.
"It struck me a week or so ago that every time Bush and Musharraf get together there is another major incident of terrorism somewhere in the world followed by another grant of billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan. Pay off or blackmail, I couldn't say, but surely more than coincidence. With Musharraf coming to the White House this week, and Bush's warning last week that the terrorists "will strike again", I felt it was time to do a little research.
....The Bush administration has been very generous to Pakistan while being very tight with just about every other developing nation."
Quoting from the Times(London)
"Pakistan has again become one of the biggest recipients of US aid -- just as it was during the Afghan war against Soviet occupiers when ISI was the main conduit for arms and funds. Since September 11, America has dismissed $1.5 billion in debt and provided Pakistan with more than $3 billion in military assistance.
Last year Pakistan was one of the world's fastest-growing economies. It recently placed a $2.5 billion order for American F-16 jet fighters -- as much as Afghanistan's entire annual foreign aid."
PAKISTAN TERRORISM TIMELINE
(see the Kos site for links & more info)
1993 (Feb.): Bombing of World Trade Center (WTC); 6 killed. Mastermind was Ramzi Yousef, a Pakistani with links to the Pakistani government.
1998 (Aug.): Bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania; 224 killed, including 12 Americans. Masterminds were all terrorists based in Pakistan. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was captured by Pakistani security forces in the eastern city of Gujrat in 2004.
1999 (Dec.): Plot to bomb millennium celebrations in Seattle foiled when customs agents arrest an Algerian smuggling explosives into the U.S.
Algerian plotters were trained in Pakistan and co-ordinated by Pakistan leadership.
2000 (Oct.): Bombing of the USS Cole in port in Yemen; 17 U.S. sailors killed.
Mastermind later captured in Pakistan and turned over via rendition to CIA.
2001 (Sept.): Destruction of WTC; attack on Pentagon. Total dead 2,992. All 19 terrorists and Zacarias Moussaoui (suspected 20th) spent time in ISI-financed institutions in Pakistan. In Septmeber 2001, the Bush administration proposes an aid package to Pakistan worth billions in sweeping debt rescheduling, grants stretching over many years and trade benefits as a reward for its support against terrorism.
2001 (Dec.): Man tried to denote shoe bomb on flight from Paris to Miami. Richard Reid trained at an ISI-financed institution in Pakistan by the same explosives expert who taught Moussaoui.
2002 (April): Explosion at historic synagogue in Tunisia left 21 dead, including 11 German tourists.
Bomber trained in Pakistan and Al Qaeda unit in Pakistan claims responsibility for bombing.
2002 (May): Car exploded outside hotel in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 14, including 11 French citizens.
2002 (June): Bomb exploded outside American consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 12.
2002 (Oct.): Boat crashed into oil tanker off Yemen coast, killing 1.
2002 (Oct.): Nightclub bombings in Bali, Indonesia, killed 202, mostly Australian citizens.
The leaders and perpetrators of the bombings were trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
2003 (May): 4 bombs killed 33 people targeting Jewish, Spanish, and Belgian sites in Casablanca, Morocco. Bombers linked to Zarqawi and other Pakistan-linked terrorists.
2004 (Jan.): Daniel Pearl, journalist for the Wall Street Journal investigating financing of 9-11, kidnapped and killed in Karachi.
2004 (March): 10 bombs on 4 trains exploded almost simultaneously during the morning rush hour in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 and injuring more than 1,500.
Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, the Syrian-born mastermind of the Madrid bombings, fled to Pakistan where he lived quietly until his reported arrest in 2005 when he was rendered to either the Americans or Syrians.
2004 (July): Pakistani arrested for plotting bombing of 34th Street Herald Square subway station.
2005 (July): Bombs on 7 July exploded on 3 trains and a bus in London, England, killing 52. Mohammed Sidique Khan atttended a madrassa in northern Pakistan in July 2003, and Khan and Shehzad Tanweer took the same flight from London to Karchi on 19 November 2004, returning together 8 February 2005. A Pakistani who remains unidentified led the group of bombers on a white water rafting trip in Wales a month before the bombings. Bombs on 21 July in London. The leader of the bombers travelled to Pakistan in December 2004. Sophisticated road-side bombs detonated by long range cellular phones are deployed in Afghanistan. Investigators conclude that insurgents, training and equipment are all coming from ISI in Pakistan.
2005 (Nov): Australian police arrest Islamic militants in raids in Sydney and Melbourne. Arrested Australian Khaled Cheikho trained in a paramilitary camp run by ISI-connected Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2001.
2006 (March - June): 12 Pakistanis and Bangladeshis arrested for bomb plot in Toronto.
2006 (Feb.): Southern Afghanistan bombings intensify. Attacks were reported by suspects as organised and led by Taliban in Pakistan using Pakistani bombers.
2006 (March): 7 Pakistani Britons arrested for plotting shopping mall bomb.
2006 (Aug.): More than 25 arrested in plot to blow up jetliners between London and U.S. At least 17 suspects arrested in London had ties to Pakistan. Two ringleaders had travelled to and received funding from Pakistan.
Just this month Pakistan has agreed a truce with extremists, assuring them territorial sovereignty over the border region with Afghanistan and amnesty from arrest, including Osama Bin Laden. The Bush response has been to defensively assert in a press conference that we can't get OBL because it would violate Pakistani sovereignty. (Sovereignty didn't stop him in Afghanistan or Iraq, did it?)
It's a timeline that shows how many of the terrorist attacks since 1993 have been connected to Pakistan (and the ISI - Pakistan's CIA). Also - releasing a U.S. shipment of F-16 fighter jets to the Pakistani government was one of the demands of Daniel Pearl's Pakistani kidnapper/killers.
"It struck me a week or so ago that every time Bush and Musharraf get together there is another major incident of terrorism somewhere in the world followed by another grant of billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan. Pay off or blackmail, I couldn't say, but surely more than coincidence. With Musharraf coming to the White House this week, and Bush's warning last week that the terrorists "will strike again", I felt it was time to do a little research.
....The Bush administration has been very generous to Pakistan while being very tight with just about every other developing nation."
Quoting from the Times(London)
"Pakistan has again become one of the biggest recipients of US aid -- just as it was during the Afghan war against Soviet occupiers when ISI was the main conduit for arms and funds. Since September 11, America has dismissed $1.5 billion in debt and provided Pakistan with more than $3 billion in military assistance.
Last year Pakistan was one of the world's fastest-growing economies. It recently placed a $2.5 billion order for American F-16 jet fighters -- as much as Afghanistan's entire annual foreign aid."
PAKISTAN TERRORISM TIMELINE
(see the Kos site for links & more info)
1993 (Feb.): Bombing of World Trade Center (WTC); 6 killed. Mastermind was Ramzi Yousef, a Pakistani with links to the Pakistani government.
1998 (Aug.): Bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania; 224 killed, including 12 Americans. Masterminds were all terrorists based in Pakistan. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was captured by Pakistani security forces in the eastern city of Gujrat in 2004.
1999 (Dec.): Plot to bomb millennium celebrations in Seattle foiled when customs agents arrest an Algerian smuggling explosives into the U.S.
Algerian plotters were trained in Pakistan and co-ordinated by Pakistan leadership.
2000 (Oct.): Bombing of the USS Cole in port in Yemen; 17 U.S. sailors killed.
Mastermind later captured in Pakistan and turned over via rendition to CIA.
2001 (Sept.): Destruction of WTC; attack on Pentagon. Total dead 2,992. All 19 terrorists and Zacarias Moussaoui (suspected 20th) spent time in ISI-financed institutions in Pakistan. In Septmeber 2001, the Bush administration proposes an aid package to Pakistan worth billions in sweeping debt rescheduling, grants stretching over many years and trade benefits as a reward for its support against terrorism.
2001 (Dec.): Man tried to denote shoe bomb on flight from Paris to Miami. Richard Reid trained at an ISI-financed institution in Pakistan by the same explosives expert who taught Moussaoui.
2002 (April): Explosion at historic synagogue in Tunisia left 21 dead, including 11 German tourists.
Bomber trained in Pakistan and Al Qaeda unit in Pakistan claims responsibility for bombing.
2002 (May): Car exploded outside hotel in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 14, including 11 French citizens.
2002 (June): Bomb exploded outside American consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 12.
2002 (Oct.): Boat crashed into oil tanker off Yemen coast, killing 1.
2002 (Oct.): Nightclub bombings in Bali, Indonesia, killed 202, mostly Australian citizens.
The leaders and perpetrators of the bombings were trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
2003 (May): 4 bombs killed 33 people targeting Jewish, Spanish, and Belgian sites in Casablanca, Morocco. Bombers linked to Zarqawi and other Pakistan-linked terrorists.
2004 (Jan.): Daniel Pearl, journalist for the Wall Street Journal investigating financing of 9-11, kidnapped and killed in Karachi.
2004 (March): 10 bombs on 4 trains exploded almost simultaneously during the morning rush hour in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 and injuring more than 1,500.
Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, the Syrian-born mastermind of the Madrid bombings, fled to Pakistan where he lived quietly until his reported arrest in 2005 when he was rendered to either the Americans or Syrians.
2004 (July): Pakistani arrested for plotting bombing of 34th Street Herald Square subway station.
2005 (July): Bombs on 7 July exploded on 3 trains and a bus in London, England, killing 52. Mohammed Sidique Khan atttended a madrassa in northern Pakistan in July 2003, and Khan and Shehzad Tanweer took the same flight from London to Karchi on 19 November 2004, returning together 8 February 2005. A Pakistani who remains unidentified led the group of bombers on a white water rafting trip in Wales a month before the bombings. Bombs on 21 July in London. The leader of the bombers travelled to Pakistan in December 2004. Sophisticated road-side bombs detonated by long range cellular phones are deployed in Afghanistan. Investigators conclude that insurgents, training and equipment are all coming from ISI in Pakistan.
2005 (Nov): Australian police arrest Islamic militants in raids in Sydney and Melbourne. Arrested Australian Khaled Cheikho trained in a paramilitary camp run by ISI-connected Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2001.
2006 (March - June): 12 Pakistanis and Bangladeshis arrested for bomb plot in Toronto.
2006 (Feb.): Southern Afghanistan bombings intensify. Attacks were reported by suspects as organised and led by Taliban in Pakistan using Pakistani bombers.
2006 (March): 7 Pakistani Britons arrested for plotting shopping mall bomb.
2006 (Aug.): More than 25 arrested in plot to blow up jetliners between London and U.S. At least 17 suspects arrested in London had ties to Pakistan. Two ringleaders had travelled to and received funding from Pakistan.
Just this month Pakistan has agreed a truce with extremists, assuring them territorial sovereignty over the border region with Afghanistan and amnesty from arrest, including Osama Bin Laden. The Bush response has been to defensively assert in a press conference that we can't get OBL because it would violate Pakistani sovereignty. (Sovereignty didn't stop him in Afghanistan or Iraq, did it?)
"Report: Mercury accumulating in food chain"
This doesn't really seem like news - but apparently there is a new study out. Another reason to mostly eat vegetarian - the low end of the chain.
From the article @ the Union Leader:
A national study on environmental contamination released yesterday shows that the toxic effects of mercury are more widespread than once thought, reaching beyond fish and waterfowl, with measurable accumulation in all levels of the food chain.
However, the National Wildlife Federation report, "Poisoning Wildlife: The Reality of Mercury Pollution," also supports evidence from more than 65 studies that the cumulative effects of mercury can be reversed in a matter years, not decades.
"Nature can clean itself over time," said wildlife toxicologist Dr. David Evers, of Maine's Bidoiversity Research Institute, who addressed a national conference call on the subject yesterday.
From the article @ the Union Leader:
A national study on environmental contamination released yesterday shows that the toxic effects of mercury are more widespread than once thought, reaching beyond fish and waterfowl, with measurable accumulation in all levels of the food chain.
However, the National Wildlife Federation report, "Poisoning Wildlife: The Reality of Mercury Pollution," also supports evidence from more than 65 studies that the cumulative effects of mercury can be reversed in a matter years, not decades.
"Nature can clean itself over time," said wildlife toxicologist Dr. David Evers, of Maine's Bidoiversity Research Institute, who addressed a national conference call on the subject yesterday.
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