re: this song…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Minutes_(Bonzo_Goes_to_Washington_song)
https://youtu.be/h3CUHnUsk8M?t=10s
re: this song…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Minutes_(Bonzo_Goes_to_Washington_song)
https://youtu.be/h3CUHnUsk8M?t=10s
Stephen Kinzer writes:
‘…When Americans look out at the world, we see a swarm of threats. China seems resurgent and ambitious. Russia is aggressive. Iran menaces our allies. Middle East nations we once relied on are collapsing in flames. Latin American leaders sound steadily more anti-Yankee. Terror groups capture territory and commit horrific atrocities. We fight Ebola with one hand while fending off Central American children with the other.
In fact, this world of threats is an illusion. The United States has no potent enemies. We are not only safe, but safer than any big power has been in all of modern history.
Geography is our greatest protector. Wide oceans separate us from potential aggressors. Our vast homeland is rich and productive. No other power on earth is blessed with this security.
[….] I recently asked a United States Navy officer what threats he believed the United States might confront in the future. To my astonishment, he answered, “Venezuela.” The South American country is in political crisis and careening toward bankruptcy. Its combat navy counts six frigates and two submarines, none of them seaworthy. Yet last month President Obama designated Venezuela an “extraordinary threat to US national security.” The search for enemies can lead to odd places….’
via The world of threats to the US is an illusion – Opinion – The Boston Globe.
2013.03.19 CNN.com ‘…both American and foreign companies have profited from the conflict — with the top 10 contractors securing business worth at least $72bn between them.
None has benefited more than KBR, once known as Kellogg Brown and Root. The controversial former subsidiary of Halliburton, which was once run by Dick Cheney, vice-president to George W. Bush, was awarded at least $39.5bn in federal contracts related to the Iraq war over the past decade.
Two Kuwaiti companies — Agility Logistics and the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation — are the second and third-biggest winners, securing contracts worth $7.2bn and $6.3bn respectively.
The US hired more private companies in Iraq than in any previous war, and at times there were more contractors than military personnel on the ground….’
via Contractors reap $138B from Iraq war – CNN.com.
…But there is a real scandal here, and that’s Israel using stolen intelligence as part of a deliberate campaign of messing around with American partisan politics. That’s why the White House is angry: "It is one thing for the U.S. and Israel to spy on each other. It is another thing for Israel to steal U.S. secrets and play them back to U.S. legislators to undermine U.S. diplomacy," a senior US official told Entous.
If Entous’ reporting is correct, the Israeli government used the leaked information to help Republicans build support for new sanctions among Democrats, which would be necessary to overcome Obama’s veto. Israel was using stolen information to help Mitch McConnell and John Boehner foment a Democratic rebellion against the president….’
via Israel stole classified US information and used it to help congressional Republicans – Vox.
‘…A new analysis by the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Stateline blog, shows that the percentage of middle-class households — defined as those earning between 67 and 200 percent of a state’s median income — dropped in every U.S. state between 2000 and 2013. Median income also fell in most states during that period.
[….] The decline of the American middle class is unsurprising by now. The middle class has seen its wages change little since the turn of the millennium, while high-earning individuals keep making more and more each year. And middle-class wages are a long way from catching up to the rising costs of child care, tuition, and hospital visits…’
via The Middle Class Has Gotten Smaller In Every State Since 2000.
‘…Condemns in the strongest possible terms the vast, systemic, blanket collection of the personal data of innocent people, often comprising intimate personal information; emphasises that the systems of mass, indiscriminate surveillance by intelligence services constitute a serious interference with the fundamental rights of citizens; stresses that privacy is not a luxury right, but that it is the foundation stone of a free and democratic society; points out, furthermore, that mass surveillance has potentially severe effects on the freedom of the press, thought and speech, as well as a significant potential for abuse of the information gathered against political adversaries; emphasises that these mass surveillance activities appear also to entail illegal actions by intelligence services and raise questions regarding the extra-territoriality of national laws;…’
via European Parliament: Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs .
Tom Engelhardt writes:
I’ve often said that Edward Snowden’s revelations gave us the impression that we now more or less know what the American secret world of intelligence, surveillance, and spying is doing. We don’t. Snowden illuminated the workings of one of 17 intelligence outfits in the U.S. Intelligence Community. To have a real sense of what’s been going on, we would need Edward Snowdens to walk out of the CIA, the DIA, and a whole series of other agencies and outfits. Until then, we don’t even know what we don’t know.
via TomDispatch – I've often said that Edward Snowden's revelations….
Tom Engelhardt: TomDispatch.com
Trevor Timm writes:
‘…Much of this was Top Secret, and some was SCI (Sensitive Compartmented Information) higher than Top Secret – and he admitted in his plea to lying to the FBI about his leaks, knowing that doing so was a crime in itself.
Despite the gravity of Petreaus’ actions, he agreed to a single misdemeanor guilty plea for improperly “retaining” classified information, and prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of two years probation and no jail time.
Compare that to the actions of Chelsea Manning, who is serving 35 years for leaking classified information. As Ellsberg noted: “Chelsea Manning had access to SCI every day… where she worked in Iraq. She chose to disclose none of it, nothing higher than Secret”.
[….] Petraeus is apparently an exception only because his leaks came to the attention of the FBI inadvertently, and they involved a large volume of exceptionally sensitive information.)
The government had the chance to hold Petreaus out as an example on the same felony Espionage Act charges they’ve leveled (unfairly) against every conscientious whistleblower they’ve indicted. Their answer? Leaking should no longer be a felony. Let’s make sure we hold them to that, and not only for CIA Directors….’
via Petraeus won't serve a day in jail for his leaks. Edward Snowden shouldn't either | Comment is free | The Guardian.
‘An average of 545 people killed by local and state law enforcement officers in the US went uncounted in the country’s most authoritative crime statistics every year for almost a decade, according to a report released on Tuesday.
The first-ever attempt by US record-keepers to estimate the number of uncounted “law enforcement homicides” exposed previous official tallies as capturing less than half of the real picture. The new estimate – an average of 928 people killed by police annually over eight recent years, compared to 383 in published FBI data – amounted to a more glaring admission than ever before of the government’s failure to track how many people police kill….’
via Police killed more than twice as many people as reported by US government | US news | The Guardian.
Rahm Emanuel was Obama’s right-hand man for years in the White House, today domestic ‘black sites’ exist in his city. Who will be held responsible?
In a letter to Rahm Emanuel, Amnesty USA’s executive director Steven Hawkins wrote: “As the mayor of Chicago, you have a responsibility under US and international law to ensure that human rights violations are not committed within the city.”
via ‘Gestapo’ tactics at US police ‘black site’ ring alarm from Chicago to Washington — The Guardian
Notice that, again, the only way the public can know about the truth of these ‘free-trade’ deals is from leakers — from criminal good samaritans that expose secret government negotiations. Manning, Assange, Snowden, who ever did this, etc – we all owe them an apology and a hero’s status in any real democracy.
The European Commission has also previously said TTIP would not affect how NHS services are provided, whether in Scotland or the rest of the UK. But the trade union Unite said “real risks” remained because of the dispute resolution mechanism TTIP is expected to include. The union’s Scottish regional secretary, Pat Rafferty said: “Last week Lord Livingston tried to pull the wool over the eyes of the Scottish people. “Now this leaked document has confirmed Unite’s expert legal advice, that NHS services in Scotland and the rest of the UK do fall within the scope of the TTIP. “This means that American investors in NHS services that are privatised now or in the future will be able to use TTIP to sue the government if it tries to bring them back into public hands”. via BBC News – TTIP: Transatlantic trade deal text leaked to BBC.
Another reason to not trust the mainstream media, right from the start, they do not protect their sources…
‘…a survey of 65 major news organizations to see if they have implemented a common security protocol known as STARTTLS that can protect their e-mails from being intercepted as they travel across the Internet.
We found that news organizations like the Associated Press, Le Monde, LA Times, CBS News, Forbes, Baltimore Sun, and Der Spiegel are still not protecting journalists and their sources from this type of surveillance, and are putting all of the people who communicate with them at risk of being spied on. You can see the full results of our survey…’
via Why aren’t more news organizations protecting their e-mail with STARTTLS encryption? | Freedom of the Press Foundation.
‘In all, Gemalto produces some 2 billion SIM cards a year. Its motto is “Security to be Free.”…’
via The Great SIM Heist: How Spies Stole the Keys to the Encryption Castle.
Poland is a country with Rule of Law, America not so much
‘Poland will comply with a court order to pay $262,000 to two Guantánamo Bay inmates, foreign minister Grzegorz Schetyna said on Wednesday, as reparations for the country’s role in hosting a CIA black site where the men were tortured. “We have to do it,” Schetyna said in an interview on Trójka Polish Radio, “because we are a country that abides laws.” He said the money would be paid out within a month…’
via Poland agrees to pay reparations to Guantánamo detainees | World news | The Guardian.
‘…Let’s start at the beginning. By the time of the American Revolution, a sizeable Moroccan Muslim community—known as “Moors” in the language of the era—had developed in and around Charleston, South Carolina. Some of the community’s members were likely former slaves, but many others had chosen to immigrate from Morocco, with which the U.S. had a so-called “Treaty of Friendship.” Morocco, indeed, was the first African nation to recognize the new United States during the Revolution. Worried about being denied rights due to South Carolina’s system of slavery, a group of Muslim Americans petitioned the state’s courts requesting that they be recognized as white. A tribunal of judges led by prominent South Carolinian Charles Pinckney agreed with their petition, and the state legislature passed the Moors Sunday Act (1790), designating this Moroccan Muslim American community white for purposes of the law….’
via If This 1780s Southern Politician Fought Islamophobia, We Can Too.
Bruce Ackerman writes:
‘…The problem is the double-barreled position advanced by Mr. Obama. He asserts that he already has sufficient congressional authority for an open-ended war with the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS. He bases this claim on an expansive reading of Congress’s 2001 resolution authorizing President George W. Bush to make war on Al Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks. As long as this resolution remains on the books, Mr. Obama claims, he can continue fighting, even if Congress never agrees to a new resolution.
[….] In short, “Heads I win; tails you lose.” Whether or not Congress passes Obama’s new resolution, the next president can continue making war indefinitely….’
via Congress, Don’t Be Fooled; Obama Still Believes in Unlimited War – NYTimes.com.
Just wow.
‘…A federal appeals judge wrote in a column published on Sunday that people who accuse former President George W. Bush of lying about the Iraq War are peddling myths like those that led to the rise of Hitler….’
via Federal Appeals Judge Compares People Who Say Bush Lied To Rise Of Nazis.
and, as if facts mattered, read this:
CNN 2008: ‘President Bush and his top aides publicly made 935 false statements about the security risk posed by Iraq in the two years following September 11, 2001, according to a study released Tuesday by two nonprofit journalism groups….’
via Study: Bush, aides made 935 false statements in run-up to war – CNN.com.
‘…Troublingly, Sterling was convicted not just of passing classified information, but causing Risen to write about the information. These charges were brought under the Espionage Act–a law designed to punish people for selling secrets to enemy nations, but here used to bring multiple charges against Sterling for Risen reporting on the Iran fiasco both in the Times and in his book State of War. Yes, in the United States today, you can face prison time not just for revealing a secret, but for encouraging someone to write a book about that secret…’
via Sterling Conviction a Victory for Government’s Right to Hide.