4.02.2004
"The Creative Maladjustment of a Nonconforming Minority"
"This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. Our planet teeters on the brink of atomic annihilation; dangerous passions of pride, hatred and selfishness are enthroned in our lives; and men do reverence before false gods of nationalism and materialism. The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority."-- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Quotation from the site ImpeachCentral. Stop on by and give it a good peruse.
No new content until Monday. Make yourself to home, there are a bunch of news sources on the sidebar...
4/02/2004
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4.01.2004
Where is Justice?
So much for International Law.
The U.S. will assure Israel that it will not have to withdraw to the Green Line in a future permanent settlement with the Palestinians.
I'm not clear how and under what authority the US can contravene UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions so readily.
UNGA Resolution 181 (II) concerning the Future Government of Palestine (November 29, 1947) establishes the parity of the two peoples with respect to their respective rights to establish states on the former mandated territory of Palestine, and the duty of both states to respect both minorities and the special juridical status of Jerusalem.
UNGA Resolution 194 (III) (December 11, 1948) affirms the right of Palestinians to return to their original homes and lands, and to receive compensation for any losses incurred, as well as the right of resettlement for those Palestinian refugees choosing not to return, and compensation for their losses. The UN established the UN Conciliation Commission to uphold the rights of Palestinian refugees.
UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338 (November 22, 1967 and October 22, 1973) require Israeli withdrawal from territory occupied during the 1967 and 1973 wars, and call for "a just settlement of the refugee problem."
UNGA Resolution 34/70 (December 6, 1979) asserts the need for any solution of the conflict to be in accordance with the right of self-determination, regardless of what the parties might negotiate.
UNGA Resolution 43/177 (December 15, 1988) acknowledges the 1988 Palestinian proclamation of a Palestinian state as consistent with UNGA Resolution 181.
UNSC Resolutions 476, 480 and 1322 (June 30, 1980, November 12, 1980 and October 7, 2000) reaffirm the basic principle of international and UN law that it is inadmissible to acquire territory by force or conquest, as well as the unconditional applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the civilian population of occupied territory.
The US has a history of using its' veto to stymie the application of international law to the Israel/Palestine situation. The veto against the UN condemnation of the assassination of elderly quadriplegic Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and his caregivers is just the latest in a series of vetoes that defy the collective will of a majority of the world's governments.
4/01/2004
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Air America featuring "The O'Franken Factor" with Al Franken, talk radio with a thinking persons perspective. Check out the Air America roster.
4/01/2004
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3.31.2004
Carlyle Investing in America, Sort of
The Carlyle Group doesn't come up on the evening news very often. It will serve you to be aware though of the groups connection to the Saudi's as well as the GOP and the US intelligence community. You'll recognize a bunch of names...
The Family Steering Committee for the 9/11 Commission urges the de-classification of the 28 blank pages of the Joint Inquiry Final Report that refer to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government urges this also. The first link offered will show you why this won't happen.
Information Clearing House offers an enlightening 48 minute video on The Carlyle Group.
Lately The Carlyle Group has made the news in China, Russia and Korea. A Carlyle member shares a 6 person advisory board membership with William Frist's brother, Thomas Jr to help Avondale Partners
negotiate "issues confronting growing organizations".
Carlyle Group is a majority stockholder of a company that specializes in decontamination of radioactive situations. In another that decontaminates anthrax. But there's more.
The Washington investment firm, run by a who's who of Republican heavyweights, including former Secretary of State James Baker and former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci, has put money into about 300 different companies and properties.
Those investments include United Defense Industries, a maker of combat vehicles, naval guns and missile launchers; and Sippican, a maker of submarine systems and countermeasures to protect warships.
They also include a New Jersey pharmaceutical firm called MedPointe, which just so happens to be one of only three companies licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to manufacture over-the-counter potassium iodide pills.
That's significant because potassium iodide can help protect against thyroid cancer in the event of exposure to large amounts of radiation -- from a small, easily transported nuclear weapon, say, or a terrorist attack on a nuclear power plant.
Are you feeling safer?
3/31/2004
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Is Fix in at 9/11 Commission? by Paul Sperry.
The fine print of the deal takes the chance of the commission taking sworn public testimony from any other White House official – including Rice's deputy Stephen Hadley, Bush's political adviser Karl Rove, President Bush himself or Vice President Dick Cheney – completely off the table. It also precludes the panel from having the option of calling Rice, who's made media statements contradicting evidence and sworn statements by other officials, back to testify.
Why would a White House "truth commission" purportedly looking for the facts fetter itself concerning substantive testimony when it has subpoena power on its side?
3/31/2004
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3.30.2004
9/11 Panel Background
National Security Advisor Condaleeza Rice will testify before the 9/11 commision, under oath and in public.
The catch?
The commission quickly agreed to the White House demands, including that it not seek additional public testimony from any White House official.
Mr Cheney and Mr Bush will talk with the panel in private. Unsworn.
The Centre for Research on Globalisation has a fact filled paper by Michel Chossudovsky entitled "Who's Who on the 9/11 "Independent" Commission" that will give you a sense just how "independent" the questioning panel isn't.
Knowing that Philipo Zelikow wrote a book with Ms Rice seems pretty darn important. That Thomas Kean had business ties to Osama's brother-in-law (as has George Bush, filtered through his buddy James Bath who coincidently lost his ability to fly for the Texas Air National Guard a month later than his buddy George), Khalid bin Mahfouz seems important. Have you heard any of this on the evening news?
a 1999 audit conducted by the Saudi government that reportedly discovered that the bin Mahfouz family's National Commercial Bank had transferred at least $ 3 million to charitable organizations believed to be fronts for bin Laden's terror network.
You really need to spend a moment looking at the links to get a fuller picture. A piece of paper and a pen will help you keep track of the players and companies involved.
Along with another Kean Hess-Delta business partner, Mohammed Hussein al Amoudi, bin Mahfouz is being sued by 9/11 families for the WTC attack. James Baker is representing them against the lawsuit brought by the victims families.
Check out the connections. The panel steers the inquiry on the basis of the questions asked. And not asked. Consider these connections when you reflect on Mr Bush and Mr Cheney talking to the panel unsworn, in private.
I mentioned some odd coincidences yesterday concern what else was going on in America at the time 9/11 unfolded.
Here's another.
Like everyone else in the United States, the group stood transfixed as the events of September 11 unfolded. Present were former secretary of defense Frank Carlucci, former secretary of state James Baker III, and representatives of the bin Laden family. This was not some underground presidential bunker or Central Intelligence Agency interrogation room. It was the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C., the plush setting for the annual investor conference of one of the most powerful, well-connected, and secretive companies in the world: the Carlyle Group.
3/30/2004
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3.29.2004
No Warnings, Ms Rice? Obviously, You Are "Out of the Loop"
John Ashcroft stopped flying in commercial aircraft the summer of 2001. San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown got a warning not to fly on September 10th. Ha'aretz reported that an Israeli company, Odigo, gave the FBI the IP address of a message warning
two employees of the attack on the WTC, so the Intelligence Bureau could track the source of the message.
Newsweek magazine reported that Pentagon officials cancelled their 9/11 travel planes on 9/10.
An internal memo at Goldman Sachs in Tokyo alerted it's employees of a terrorist threat, recommending they stay away from government buildings- on September 10.
Anne Tatlock, CEO of Fiduciary Trust was at an event at Offutt Air Force Base sponsored by Warren Buffet when the hijacked jetliners crashed into the WTC, one directly through the trusts offices on the 92nd through 95th floors of the south tower. Thomas Kean of the 911 commision was a former director of Fiduciary Trust.
A jet from a Buffett subsidiary company, NetJets was shadowing flight 93 over Pennsylvania.
Dick Cheney tells Mr Bush to stay out of DC- he lands at Orfutt Air Force Base after touching down in Louisiana.
As the airliners were taken and eventually crashed NORAD was several days into exercise called Vigilant Guardian.
Charles Burlingame, the pilot of ill-fated flight 77 was reported in the Washington Post (9.16.01) to have worked up a response plan while working at the Pentagon concerning an airliner hitting the Pentagon.
The CIA was running a simulation of an airplane hitting the National Reconnaissance Office at this time. Dick Cheney was in the Situation Room to run the exercise.
The Amalgam Virgo 01 NORAD training exercise(.pdf) focused on Air Sovereignty, on joint training for unconventional threats- in June of 2001.
Democratic commission member Richard Ben-Veniste disclosed this week that Rice had asked, in her private meetings with the commission, to revise a statement she made publicly that "I don't think anybody could have predicted that those people could have taken an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center . . . that they would try to use an airplane as a missile." Rice told the commission that she misspoke; the commission has received information that prior to Sept. 11, U.S. intelligence agencies and Clarke had talked about terrorists using airplanes as missiles.
Ms Rice, you should testify under oath or quit. Obviously as National Security Advisor you were "out of the loop" information wise concerning the national security of the United States of America.
Or you are a liar.
3/29/2004
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3.28.2004
A Few Thoughts on "Missile Defense"
Fourty-Nine retired Generals and Admirals have counselled the Bush Administration to toss the unproven "missile shield" idea aside in favor of spending defense budget money where it can succesfully be used.
"to secure the multitude of facilities containing nuclear weapons and materials and to protect our ports and borders against terrorists who may attempt to smuggle weapons of mass destruction into the United States."
Why would Mr Bush want to throw 10.2 Billion dollars at a missile defense shield that is untested, making it the highest funded arms program in the current GOP bag of tricks?
It is one element of a larger missile defense effort -- estimated to cost $53 billion over the next five years -- that will use ships at sea and other methods to track and deflect missile launches. Navy Secretary Gordon England announced Monday that a specially equipped Aegis destroyer will be positioned this fall in the Sea of Japan, where it will be an alert for North Korean missile launches.
Let's follow the money. Below I list some missile defense "biggies" and where thier campaign contributions went- I offer the percentage that went to GOP coffers..
Boeing $184,400 64%
General Dynamics Corp
Lockheed Martin Corp $756,041 61%
Northrop Grumman Corp $741,772 60%
Raytheon Co. $396,644 53%
"Axis of Influence: Behind the Bush Administration's Missile Defense Revival" can fill you in on the confluence of Neocons, lobbyists and industry insiders that both promote and gain from this unproven weapons system trhat has already cost taxpayers 160 billion dollars. Yes, the report is nearly two years old- but it serves up the meat on the matter, offering history and players to give you context for the todays news reads.
The Union of Concerned Scientists offers a graphic with links showing just how artificial tests of this system are. With the amount of money flowing into a system that has failed so readily in tests that are obviously non-reality oriented one might come to the conclusion that the whole deal is rigged, a subsidy for GOP aero-space supporters. You'd be wrong.
The same non-working systems have been sputtering halfassedly through tests through the Clinton presidency as well. A history of "fixed" tests have followed this "missile Shield" concept since it's inception under Mr Reagan. I say "followed" because the truth of the tests rigging doesn't usually see light right away- it took 9 years for the truth of its bogus 1984 tests to come to light.
The top ten states benefiting from development of the missile shield, 1998-2001:
Alabama
$4,018,262,000 ( Red State)
California
$3,213,418,000 (Blue State)
Virginia
$716,019,000 (Red State)
Colorado
$459,776,000 (Red State)
Massachusetts
$323,462,000 (Blue State)
Florida
$248,747,000 (Grey Area?)
Washington
$99,217,000 (Blue State)
Maryland
$95,615,000 (Blue State)
New Mexico
$84,878,000 (Blue State)
Utah
$81,511,000 (Red State)
Total Funds Contributed:
$9,340,905,000
Recent article:
The top U.S. weapons tester told Congress Thursday it was too early to say if a multibillion-dollar missile shield -- due to start deployment this year -- would thwart a North Korean attack.
Article from '99>
"They can't get it to work, but the political momentum is probably irresistible," said John Pike, a space specialist with the Federation of American Scientists and a longtime critic of the program.
The Center for Defense Information offers up current, factual information on missile defense "tests". Read and learn. Your tax dollars at work. Or not.
An Afterthought
Donald Rumsfeld is a long time proponent of this consistently failing program. We have covered that he has "cooked the books" to counter a CIA estimate that Missile Defense was unnecessary while he chaired the "Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States".
A non-effective missile defense plan that enriches corporate contributors while actually increasing the worlds arms-race. Effectively keeping arms manufacturers rolling in the green in a world made less stable.
Same as it ever was...
3/28/2004
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