Bring The Noise! The Al Jazeera Memo Will Be The Soundtrack To Blair’s Exit

Anthony Blair has little over a month remaining in office but now the big boys of the MSM are waking up to the Al Jazeera memo, they are pisssed off they can’t report on the case material that has previously been in the public domain, they are going to court. And finally American blogs seeing the UK MSM interest and Democracy Now’s coverage with Davide Simonetti of Blairwatch have woken up. This is putting me in mind of things like tipping point, pressure building, the center cannot hold:-

More worrying is the extention of the contempt order to comments made by Mr Keogh in open court (at approxiamately 11.45am on 30 April 2007) attempting to justify the disclosures. The decision is currently being appealed by The Guardian, The Times and the BBC. Index on Censorship and the New Statesman also back the appeal.
The conditions of this order should be unacceptable to any journalist who cares about the freedom of the press in this country. It is my belief that, should the appeal fail, senior journalists associated with the case should combine to breach the order as an act of civil disobedience.
The judge in the case, Mr Justice Aikens, made no reference to the internet. But we have to be careful here. All I can say is that I would always encourage readers of this blog to read all the postings.-

It’s good the MSM are developing a set and want to report the case openly, of course down the disreputable end of town in blogville we have the cojones (ironically Bush said to Alastair Campbell “Your man has got cojones”referring to Blair’s continuing support of the war crimes) to print the whole damn memo. We just need someone to send it, within the hour a thousand blogs will post it across the world, within the day, thousands, hundreds of thousands. Mirrors upon mirrors an infinitely expanding virus of truth, you can’t stop the signal (oh yeah, that was a ‘Serenity’ ref, you better believe it). So c’mon fire up that email, attach that bad boy and click- Send. The world has changed since “Spycatcher”.

Blair is not going to get to walk out of office without the memo going public, without his malicious prosecution of David Keogh and Leo O’Connor being seen for the injustice that it is and them being freed and compensated. Without the cry of IRAQ! Ringing in his ears. Because that is his legacy, a war crime. Too late to impeach Blair, we can at least do this. We can at least begin to cost the people who made this country a perpetrator of the ‘Supreme War Crime‘ something, because if the killers don’t pay any price, nothing will stop it happening again. And I don’t like being a Good German.

And to my American chums, you get to beat Bush with the fact he wanted to bomb a TV station to control the media (terrorism, war crime) and cover up the razing of Fallujah to the ground (1,000+ civilians killed, war crime). Maybe you could even parley that into some impeachments? Huh? Would be nice, or do I have to go over their and blow the guy and get jism all up my cocktail dress ? (Ok and Cheney too, man I’ll need some mouthwash after that, and years of therapy).

Get the memo out. This is fucking on baby. It’s coming. So in the famous words of the man himself Mr. Chuck D–

Bring The Noise!

Al Jazeera Memo Trial- The Jury Wimped Out

Just got in, the jury failed to take the wider context of war crimes into account, this is a sad day, a criminal govt intimidated the courts and the jury and got the verdict they wanted. Publish the memo! I will, we all will. This was a proxy prosecution, persecution- for the Bush crime family. 51st state be-atches.

Al Jazeera Memo Trial Update- Jury Considering Verdict & Kilfoyle Won’t Be Prosecuted

The jury in the case of two men accused of leaking a secret memo about talks between George Bush and Tony Blair has retired to consider its verdict.-

And earlier this about Labour MP Peter Kilfoyle:-

LIVERPOOL MP Peter Kilfoyle will escape prosecution despite admitting passing on secret details of George Bush’s alleged threat to bomb the Al-Jazeera TV station. The Labour left-winger was questioned under caution for three hours last year by Scotland Yard detectives investigating a possible breach of the Official Secrets Act.

It followed the leak of what was said to be a summary of President Bush’s meeting with Tony Blair in April 2004, at which the Prime Minister apparently argued against missile strikes on Al-Jazeera’s Qatar headquarters. The two leaders also discussed the American assault on the Iraqi city of Falluja, in which up to 1,000 civilians are feared to have died. Pictures were shown on al-Jazeera, infuriating US generals.

Mr Kilfoyle did not see the four-page memo himself, but admitted passing on the information it contained to John Latham, a leading Democrat in California. The police inquiry threatened the Walton MP with a possible two-year prison term, the maximum sentence for breaching the relevant section of the 1989 Act.

However, the Metropolitan Police’s special prosecution unit has now told Mr Kilfoyle that no further action will be taken “due to insufficient evidence”. In the letter, DC Jasper Bartlett said: “I am writing to you regarding the police investigation into the leak of a classified government document, for which you were interviewed under caution.

“The Crown Prosecution Service has advised me that no further action shall be taken with regards to this investigation due to insufficient evidence.” Last night the MP told the Daily Post: “I think the case has been dropped for political reasons, because they did not want me to discuss the memo in open court.

“They knew that’s what I would do, even if it breached the Official Secrets Act, because I wanted to ensure the information got out. Thousands of people died at Falluja, which must be considered a war crime, and there has been a cover-up of what happened there.”

Section five of the Official Secrets Act forbids a person from revealing any information “disclosed to them by a Crown servant without lawful authority”. Asked last year if he believed he was guilty of breaching the Act, Mr Kilfoyle replied: “I think the public will be the best judge of that.”

The MP had hoped to influence the 2004 US election, but the memo was not revealed in the US because Democrats feared the revelation would be a vote-winner for President Bush. Mr Kilfoyle has become one of the fiercest critics of the Iraq invasion, supporting moves to impeach the Prime Minister for allegedly deceiving MPs and the public. He has also sponsored two motions in the House of Commons calling on Mr Blair to publish the memo, to show “just what George Bush stands for”. –

So they attack the lowly non-MP’s and run from someone who would make headlines, there is virtually no mention of it in the US, this is from 2005:-

So far there has been no comment on the trial in the U.S. that can be found through Google News. At the time of the Daily Mirror story, there was some questioning in the White House as reported by Dan Froomkin. He was interested in the nature of the denials.

First there was an email from Scott McLellan: “We are not interested in dignifying something so outlandish and inconceivable with a response.” Froomkin suggested that “nothing arouses White House reporters more these days than a non-denial denial,” but then added, “I apparently overestimated the mainstream press corps’ baloney detectors. By contrast, the corps was downright dogged yesterday when it came to rooting out the details of Bush’s summons to jury duty in Crawford. Now there’s a big story.”-

Also this interesting kink on the timing of the memo leak:-

Previously Life Style Extra reported evidence by Tony Blair’s senior foreign policy adviser Sir Nigel Sheinwald.
“Sir Nigel told the court that the breach of security came at a difficult time for the coalition as a new Spanish government announced it was withdrawing its troops from Iraq following the Madrid train bombings. “Also violence was increasing and Westerners and contractors were being targeted by kidnap gangs and the leak would have ‘raised international tensions.'”-

Al Jazeera Memo Trial Update- Closing Arguments For Leo O’Connor & David Keogh

Well yesterday the prosecution rested its case against Leo O’Connor and David Keogh (I’m not linking to that shit, if you must, google the motherfucker) and today their defence made its closing arguments:-

A civil servant accused under the Official Secrets Act of leaking a confidential memo wanted to reveal the truth about Iraq, a court has heard. David Keogh, 50, and MP’s researcher Leo O’Connor, 44, are on trial accused of trying to leak a record of a meeting between Tony Blair and George Bush.-

Ahem, which detailed Bush’s wish to attack a news organisation’s studio in another country neighbouring Iraq and the blitzkrieg on Fallujah, both incidentally war crimes, just filling in the blanks the BBC won’t-

The men, both from Northampton, deny making damaging disclosures. Counsel for Mr Keogh asked jurors if they would “do the courageous thing” if they were placed in his position.

Few details of the “highly sensitive” memo, which is known to have included discussions about military tactics, have been made public. Its contents are considered so secret that much of the trial is being held behind closed doors, and have not been directly referred to in court by counsel or witnesses.

The court heard earlier that Mr Keogh gave the memo to political researcher Mr O’Connor at a dining club in Northampton. It was passed to Northampton South MP Anthony Clarke, who called the police.

Speaking outside the Old Bailey on Thursday, BBC correspondent Ben Geoghegan said Mr Keogh’s barrister Rex Tedd QC had reminded the jury of the context in which he says the actions of the two men should be seen. The British and Americans had gone to Iraq and taken a “tiger by the tail” but did not know how to safely let go, he said.

He said it was ironic, something that “even the scriptwriters of Blackadder couldn’t come up with” when President Bush described the campaign as “mission accomplished”. Mr Tedd said Mr Keogh had wanted to seek to reveal the truth of what was happening in Iraq while others were trying to conceal that truth.

He asked the jury whether if they were put in that position where they had some across such a document – whether they would have done the “courageous thing and release it” or “do what you are supposed to do?” which was to hand it in. Earlier this week Mr O’Connor had never been “so worried and so fearful” when he was passed the document.-

Well you know what? I would be scared, then I would publish, which by the way this and many other blogs and magazines (Private Eye, The Spectator) will do if someone sends it. C’mon!

Al Jazeera Memo Trial Update

From the Guardian:-
David Keogh, a Foreign Office official, said he had “very strong feelings” when he first read the document. When he started to explain why, the trial judge, Mr Justice Aikens, imposed a contempt order preventing journalists from reporting Mr Keogh’s remarks to the jury.

Mr Keogh said he held “unfavourable” views about President Bush. He wanted the document to be seen by John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate in 2005, and raised in the House of Commons.
Mr Keogh and Leo O’Connor, a researcher to the former Labour MP for Northampton South, Anthony Clarke, are charged with breaking the Official Secrets Act by leaking the document, official minutes of a meeting between Mr Blair and Mr Bush in the White House Oval Office on April 16 2004. They both deny that the disclosure of the document was damaging.

The jury has been given copies of the leaked document and told that the meeting between Mr Blair and Mr Bush and their close advisers took place at the most difficult time for US, British and other foreign forces since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Mr Keogh told the jury the consequences of disclosure of the document would be “purely embarrassment” and would not pose a significant risk to any British individual, civilian or in uniform.

The AP in The International Herald Tribune:-

David Keogh, 50, a cipher expert, told the court he gave Leo O’Connor, a lawmaker’s aide, the secret memo about April 2004 talks between the two leaders in which Bush purportedly referred to bombing the Arab television station Al-Jazeera. Both Keogh and O’Connor deny violating the Official Secrets Act.

Keogh told London’s Central Criminal Court he felt strongly about the memo, which he had to relay to diplomats overseas using secure methods. He said he hoped the memo would be used to raise questions in the House of Commons, and also it would trigger debate in the U.S.-

From the BBC:-

Mr O’Connor, who worked for anti-war Labour MP Anthony Clarke, said he was approached by Mr Keogh and told about “some quite embarrassing, outlandish statements” in the four-page document.

But he told the jury that he took the claims, which are so sensitive that much of the trial is being heard behind closed doors, with a “pinch of salt”.

“I wasn’t convinced that this thing actually existed,” said Mr O’Connor.

“My recollection of the conversation was around, ‘can you get this to the people that can do something with it?’ I think at the time I said yes.

“If it was true, and at the time I wasn’t convinced it was true, then this needed to get back to where it actually belonged.” The pair arranged for Mr Keogh, a Cabinet Office communications officer, to bring it to Mr Clarke’s constituency office, where Mr O’Connor worked, and make a copy.

“I can’t remember a time in my life when I have been so worried and so fearful,” Mr O’Connor said. “It was the fear of knowing that I’d got something that I shouldn’t have been in possession of, that I needed to get back to where it came from.”

Asked if he intended to send copies of the document to newspapers or members of Parliament he said: “The thought never crossed my mind.” Instead he decided to put it in the papers of his boss Mr Clarke, so that he could give it back to Downing Street and an investigation could take place, he told the jury.

He told the Old Bailey he had been “100% confident” Mr Clarke would return it to the appropriate people.-

Hey jury members remember- I and many other bloggers will publish the memo, c’mon.

Al Jazeera Memo Trial Surfaces

Because it tells a story of lying to parliament, conspiring in war crimes and the state using all of its mechanisms to crush opposition this jolly little trial is being held mostly in secret and the MSM is being ever so obedient. As the prosecution is making its case suddenly we get to hear about it, funny that. Still willing to publish the memo, like so many other blogs, c’mon, leak that motherfucker.

It detailed Bush wanting to bomb Al jazeera’s HQ in Qatar and reportedly also included details of the blitzkrieg on Fallujah. Blair has already lied about his knowledge of the memo, so not only is the memo evidence of appalling activity, crimes have been committed after the fact in covering up.

– On 13 November 2001 a U.S. missile hit Al Jazeera’s office in Kabul, Afghanistan, during the U.S. invasion of that country. Although no Al-Jazeera staff were hurt in the attack, the building was destroyed and some employees’ homes were damaged. At the time, Mohammed Jasim al-Ali, managing editor, said that the coordinates of the office were well known to everyone including the Americans.
When former British Home Secretary David Blunkett published his memoirs in late 2006, it was revealed he had advised Prime Minister Tony Blair in late March 2003 to bomb the Al Jazeera television transmitter in Baghdad. “There wasn’t a worry from me because I believed that this was a war and in a war you wouldn’t allow the broadcast to continue taking place,” Blunkett said.
On 8 April 2003 a U.S. missile hit an electricity generator at Al Jazeera’s office in Baghdad. The resulting fire killed reporter Tareq Ayyoub and wounded another staff member. On 24 February, Mohammed Jasim al-Ali had sent a letter with the coordinates of the offices to Victoria Clarke, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs(the location had not been officially requested by the U.S. government). This incident, which occurred during the U.S. assault on Baghdad and after criticism of Al Jazeera’s coverage from those supportive of the war aims of the United States forces, gave rise to suspicions that the network had been targeted.
Pentagon advisor Frank Gaffney published an opinion piece on 29 September 2003 calling for both Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya to be “taken down” “one way or another” because they constitute “enemy media”.–

The Al Jazeera Memo

Email me.

Just a reminder now the state is trying to imprison two men for trying to let the public know about the war criminals and their plans, I will publish the memo and I will send it round to everyone, within a few minutes it will be all over planet earth. Email to askhal at gmail, c’mon once it’s out there the case collapses and Blair and Bush are that much closer to the Hague. It’ll get posted everywhere, the cat will be sans bag, come on you know you want to.

BlairWatch On The Al Jazeera Memo Case

Y’know when Bush & Blair discussed not just gagging the press but killing them with great big bombs, well the trial of the two leakers is coming up and our govt. is trying to hold it in secret, almost as if they have something to hide…

PRESIDENT Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar, a “Top Secret” No 10 memo reveals.
But he was talked out of it at a White House summit by Tony Blair, who said it would provoke a worldwide backlash.
A source said: “There’s no doubt what Bush wanted, and no doubt Blair didn’t want him to do it.” Al-Jazeera is accused by the US of fuelling the Iraqi insurgency.

The attack would have led to a massacre of innocents on the territory of a key ally, enraged the Middle East and almost certainly have sparked bloody retaliation.
A source said last night: “The memo is explosive and hugely damaging to Bush.
“He made clear he wanted to bomb al-Jazeera in Qatar and elsewhere. Blair replied that would cause a big problem.-

Nice of Anthony to be covering for his chum overseer idiot boy King George.

Blairwatch has it all.

Imperial Scribes- Anita Powell In Ethiopia

Anita Powell writing for the AP manages a long article about a gathering tension towards war between Ethiopia and Eritrea and yet something is missing from her long piece…she writes-

Ethiopia sent military support to Somalia last year to drive a radical Islamic group from power, and is now fighting alongside Somali government troops beset by remnants of the Islamic force waging an Iraq-style insurgency.

Which I think is comparable to the Kremlin-tastic: Afghanistan inviting the USSR to invade. Although it differs in that it completely omits the fact of the main protagonists involvement, America’s active military role in the invasion of Somalia-

On December 4 (2006), General John Abizaid, the commander of US forces from the Middle East through Afghanistan, arrived in Addis Ababa to meet the Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi. Officially, the trip was a courtesy call to an ally. Three weeks later, however, Ethiopian forces crossed into Somalia in a war on its Islamist rulers, and this week the US launched air strikes against suspected al-Qaida operatives believed to be hiding among the fleeing Islamist fighters. “The meeting was just the final handshake,” said a former intelligence officer familiar with the region.

Pentagon officials and intelligence analysts say a small number of US special forces were on the ground before Ethiopia’s intervention in an operation planned since last summer, soon after the Islamic Courts Union took control of Mogadishu. Press reports have said US special forces also accompanied the Ethiopian troops crossing into Somalia.

She also omits the state departments work in the Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission which is far from straight forward, US operative Jendayi Frazer, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs is a republican pro-military Rice clone, in fact she was at Stanford where Rice previously served as Provost. So something was very odd in what happened, unfortunately this comes from John Bolton, so truth is fairly liquid, but something was amiss-

In his recently published memoir – “Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad” (Threshold Editions) – former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton states that in February 2006, Jendayi Frazer, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs informed him that she wanted him to “reopen” the 2002 EEBC decision. Bolton describes his surprise at Frazer’s position, because in January 2006, he had gotten the Security Council to agree to a Frazer-led “U.S. initiative” on the border issue. Bolton believed that the “Initiative” would focus solely on the expeditious implementation of the Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission’s (EEBC) Final and Binding decision delivered on 13 April 2002. He was in for a surprise. Here is what he wrote on the now infamous Page 347:

“…For reasons I never understood Frazer reversed course, and asked in early February to reopen the 2002 decision, which she had concluded was wrong, and award a major piece of disputed territory to Ethiopia. I was at a loss how to explain that to the Security Council, so I didn’t…”

Eritreans who had always suspected the State Department’s underhanded and illegal attempts to amend, change, revise and reverse the Final and Binding EEBC decision in order to appease their ally, Meles Zenawi, the leader of the mercenary minority regime in Ethiopia, were not surprised by Bolton’s revelations. Today, Jendayi Frazer who had openly and vocally defended and supported Meles Zenawi’s obstruction of international law, invasion and occupation of Somalia finds herself defending her actions and denying Bolton’s accusations by presenting even more contradictory statements on the Eritrea Ethiopia demarcation issue and US policy.

Powell writes-

After the war ended, the international Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission gave the town to Eritrea, but Ethiopia has not conceded. Late last month, the panel ended its work after both countries failed to allow it to physically mark out the border, and formally grant Badme to Eritrea. The panel said it considers its work done, and that Badme belongs to Eritrea.

A sort of sophomoric ‘oh won’t both sides just be sensible’ approach often used in regard to Israel and Palestine which largely ignores the greater injustices being experienced by the side not favoured by America and the other territorial issues. But her own empire friendly smushing gives us the Pravda tip- if the EEBC awarded Badme to Eritrea which they are happy with, how come ‘both’ countries are preventing the demarcation. Clearly it is the sulky Ethiopia who rejects the commission but as it is a US ally it gets a pass and we are left thinking another war by intransigent nations with the peace loving US trying to be impartial referee is about to kick off.

Whereas Ethiopia is a US ally and client state led by Meles Zenawi who even now is locking up anyone who notices he fiddled the last election (a true Bush protégé), a former communist who now espouses neo-liberalisation and hung with Tony. Somalia has become a disaster, so the discretion about US involvement is most polite, although y’know, the press is not actually the official PR wing of the empire. So very possibly any minute now we will get flak jacketed reporters looking heroic on Eritrea/Ethiopia battle lines and the narrative of warring Africans will be rolled out with zero mention of how we were right in there handing them the guns and saying- ‘I heard them say your mum was fat, I wouldn’t take that if I were you, oh and when you get back we’ll do those contracts yeah?’

A much better piece on the coming wars in Africa can be found at Black Agenda Report by Glen Ford-

A largely Muslim country that won independence from Ethiopia in 1993 in a socialist- guided war of liberation, Eritrea fought another two-year border war with Ethiopia (1998-2000) before international mediators fixed the lines of demarcation. Tensions remained extremely high, and have been exacerbated by Washington’s opportunistic decision to take Ethiopia’s side in a dispute that the world considered settled. Eritrea now plays the role of Syria and Iran in the U.S. State Department’s cookie-cutter formula for American “war on terror” aggression: the designated demon.

All of East Africa south to the border of Mozambique falls under the purview of the Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa, a wing of the U.S. Central Command (the war-wagers in Iraq): Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Yemen, the Comoros Islands, Mauritius, and Madagascar (Malagasy Republic).

Stretching across the breadth of Africa, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Sudan, is the U.S. “war on terror” apparatus dubbed the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative. Designed, like its predecessor, the Pan-Sahel Initiative, as a means of luring African military commanders into the U.S. orbit through “general-to-general” and “captain-to-captain” collaboration – and, of course, lots of U.S. equipment and training (and officer-to-officer bribery) – the Initiative coordinates U.S. military activity in Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Nigeria, and Tunisia.

Kidnapped Journalist May Be Freed From Gitmo

An Al Jazeera cameraman held in the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay may soon be released, a relative says. Sami al-Hajj, who has been detained at the prison camp in Cuba for nearly six years without charge, could be released by the end of August, Asim al-Hajj, his brother, said on Wednesday. Ali Sadiq, a Sudan foreign ministry spokesman, said negotiations are under way with the US to secure al-Hajj’s release.

Nakba Day

 

Every year Palestinians commemorate the Nakba (“the catastrophe”): the expulsion and dispossession of hundreds of thousands Palestinians from their homes and land in 1948. In 1948 more than 60 percent of the total Palestinian population was expelled. More than 530 Palestinian villages were depopulated and completely destroyed. To date, Israel has prevented the return of approximately six million Palestinian refugees, who have either been expelled or displaced. Approximately 250,000 internally displaced Palestinian second-class citizens of Israel are prevented from returning to their homes and villages.

Philip Weiss reports on a Nakba remembrance in New York- Led by a rabbi, Jews and Palestinian-Americans mark Nakba in Passover-derived ceremony–  that shows the Zionists are losing their power even as the extremists take hold in Israel.

Thousands of Palestinians have marked the 61st anniversary of the “Nakba” or “catastrophe,” in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced following the creation of Israel. Demonstrators marched through cities across the West Bank on Thursday, holding Palestinian flags and images of Arab villages razed by Israeli forces in 1948. The ceremonies took place a day early because the May 15 anniversary of the Nakba falls this year on a Friday, a day off in the mostly Muslim Palestinian territories.

 In Ramallah, demonstrators waved banners reading, “The right of return is sacred,” and “Return, Jerusalem And Self-Determination: Our Struggle Will Continue” as they gathered at the tomb of Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader. The commemoration followed an announcement by Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s foreign minister, that he intends to ban Israeli Arabs from marking the anniversary of the Nakba.

Rafah Crossing Staying Open, For Now… & A Blog Whine

Which is better than nothing but US pressure remains and…little pressure in the US to help the Gazans-

The Egyptian government has been heavily criticised by the US for allowing the border to remain open and the US congress has suspended $100 million of aid to Cairo because of its failure to close the border.

Now maybe I missed it, I haven’t had time to make an authoritative trawl of the ‘liberal/progressive’ US blogosphere but I have not seen many calls on the big name culprits to try and stop congress from denying the aid and thus removing this weapon of pressure. There was huge attention paid to the FISA issue as they tried to stop the party they support from betraying them, but the Gazans have not warranted solidarity or often even a mention from sites that often will talk about the human rights of groups under threat. Not so surprising you big eejit, some might say, and fair enough. After all look at this atrocity by a progressive star (who is now sneaking it down the memory hole)-

The Republicans ONLY want to help the rich, and the Democrats ONLY want to help the poor. Screw everybody else. I am so sick of these people. 

The whole thing is laughable (Dems help the poor? What recently? & Boohoohoo my poor friend on 75 grand a year, why must the poor get all the attention? -Really, read it). I think what happened here is going to happen in America, a thoroughly corrupt party in power makes even a lukewarm opposition seem attractive, but just as NuLabour betrayed their supporters I think some years into a Dem presidency the big name prog/lib blogs are going to undergo a shaking out. There will be those who won’t go too much against the party because they take it as a zero sum game where lack of support for the Dems = helping the Repubs, and also -like the above gentleman- they are basically conservatives. But others will realise the whole shebang is fucked and the choice is not reforming the Dems but either retaking the party from conservatives or abandoning it and forming an actual party of the left. I think an awful lot of people are going to be disappointed as a Dem president presides over a long term occupation. I would love to be wrong and I think if it is between Obama & Clinton then Obama is the lesser of two evils and might not be quite as comfortable with Empire as Clinton is. But then that is simply hope (how audacious, ahem) there is not much evidence either way. The corporatists apparatus has already censored out Edwards, a process begun many months ago and Kucinich has officially dropped out (rumours there was some pressure from dems who were mounting challenges to his congress seat? Nice).

For the moment it is disappointing that timidity of the zionist lobby and an inability to view events outside the ‘homeland’ with anything but starts & stripes tinted designer specs (Empirio Armerica) sometimes lurk beneath anti-Bush bonhomie on big name blogs. Smaller blogs are kicking ass, but it seems the big audience is lagging behind, perhaps even needing the comfort of the thought a change of occupant in the Whitehouse will end the nightmare. I think a lot of people are doing good work on worthwhile projects but I think they are going to find themselves betrayed. At which point they will ask why and then it is time for the grown up discussion of capitalism, theocracy and empire and how democracy cannot survive them. Or put another way Bush isn’t the problem so much as his inarticulate criminal viciousnesses revealed it, as Michael Moore said at the time of the collapse of the USSR- One evil empire down, one to go.

Operation Pincer- Another US Backed Coup In Venezuela?

Update: Now in the corporate media although they studiously avoid ‘CIA’ or quoting any of the document.

On November 26, 2007 the Venezuelan government broadcast and circulated a confidential memo from the US embassy to the CIA which is devastatingly revealing of US clandestine operations and which will influence the referendum this Sunday… The memo sent by an embassy official, Michael Middleton Steere, was addressed to the head of the CIA, Michael Hayden. The memo was entitled ‘Advancing to the Last Phase of Operation Pincer’…

The US operatives emphasized their capacity to recruit former Chavez supporters among the social democrats (PODEMOS) and the former Minister of Defense Baduel, claiming to have reduced the ‘yes’ vote by 6% from its original margin. Nevertheless the Embassy operatives concede that they have reached their ceiling, recognizing they cannot defeat the amendments via the electoral route. The memo then recommends that Operation Pincer (OP) [Operación Tenaza] be operationalized. OP involves a two-pronged strategy of impeding the referendum, rejecting the outcome at the same time as calling for a ‘no’ vote. The run up to the referendum includes running phony polls, attacking electoral officials and running propaganda through the private media accusing the government of fraud and calling for a ‘no’ vote.

The ultimate objective of ‘Operation Pincer’ is to seize a territorial or institutional base with the ‘massive support’ of the defeated electoral minority within three or four days (before or after the elections – is not clear. JP) backed by an uprising by oppositionist military officers principally in the National Guard. The Embassy operative concede that the military plotters have run into serous problems as key intelligence operatives were detected, stores of arms were decommissioned and several plotters are under tight surveillance.

The key and most dangerous threats to democracy raised by the Embassy memo point to their success in mobilizing the private university students (backed by top administrators) to attack key government buildings including the Presidential Palace, Supreme Court and the National Electoral Council. The Embassy is especially praiseworthy of the ex-Maoist ‘Red Flag’ group for its violent street fighting activity.

Any port in a storm eh? Anyways, if things start to go down as suggested by this memo we know what the deal is and this is genuine. The break down of the tentative relationship with Colombia and Uribe- the terrorist US & UK backed criminal- might signal word is out the empire is going to turn the referendum into a precipitating event for unrest and a takeover.

Burma, Fragments Of Truth

(When I type ‘Junta’ it makes me think of Jabba the Hutt, hmmm) The junta admit to almost 3,000 arrests, which is still only a partial truth-

Myanmar’s military government says it is still hunting for protesters who took part in recent anti-government demonstrations. It said on Wednesday that nearly 3,000 had been detained since the crackdown started last month and hundreds remain in custody.

Diplomats and dissidents say they believe up to 6,000 people were arrested in the crackdown, including thousands of monks who led the rallies. They also believe the toll is much higher than the official figure of 10 given by the military when troops fired into crowds on September 26 and 27. The opposition National League for Democracy party of detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi said more than 300 party members had been detained since August, including 60 within the past week.

The EU sanctions have been welcomed but the International Trade Unions Confederation points out how they sort of missed out on two things, nothing big really, just oil & gas-

Frank William, researcher of the ITUC Human and Trade Rights Department said, “We are happy that they [EU] decided to put pressure on the regime but we think they should do more,” suggesting that the new sanctions should hit the oil and gas sectors. “The complete embargo should include oil and gas,” said William, adding that only such an embargo will affect the Burmese regime.

As the new set of sanctions do not include the oil and gas sectors, companies in the EU like Total of France can still continue their operations in some of Burma’s gas fields in Yadana and Yetagun.

Guy Ryder, ITUC General Secretary in a statement released on Tuesday said,” These new restrictions are welcome, but they don’t go far enough. The oil and gas sectors are the single largest source of revenue for the military regime, and we are extremely disappointed that the EU has left this huge revenue stream untouched.”

The statement said more than 400 foreign companies are still operating and investing in Burma and particularly companies in EU are investing in the oil and gas sectors. ITUC, which represents over 168 million workers in 153 countries and Territories, said the EU sanctions will only be complete and effective if it hits the oil and gas sectors hard.

Meanwhile, Burma, which has one of the largest oil reserves in Southeast Asia, in collaboration with Daewoo international led conglomerate are drilling and exploring off shore oils field in Burma’s western coastal state of Arakan. While Thailand and India are into a race for gas, the Burmese military junta has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with China for the sale of gas from the A1 block of the offshore oil field in Arakan state.

And in Arakan state, coincidentally I’m sure-

Party chairman U Kyaw Khine, 85, and secretary Ko Min Aung, 40, were each sentenced to seven and a half years’ imprisonment by the township court on Monday, NLD party members in Taunggok told DVB. Party members in Sandoway township, also in Arakan state, reported that two members of the township’s NLD organising committee, U Htun Kyi and U Than Pe, had each been sentenced to four and half years by Sandoway court, Another party member from Gwa township, U Sein Kyaw, is also standing trial at this court.

Keeping the world safe for fossil fuels, phew!

The Iraq Oil Law Swizz

Updated: It goes like this, there are 2 bills/proposed laws. One is about how the revenue (left over after big oil et al have their way) will be shared out to the country. This is the law that supposedly is to calm the fighting because all groupings get a cut. That bill is not the one they are talking about now, the bill now -the hydrocarbons law- is the one that gives the Iraq oil over to big oil and it’s chums (hereinafter referred to as Bushco). Accompanied by much union busting and minimising the nationalised oilfields. This bill being pushed through now and being hailed by corporate media has a small mention of revenue sharing (and is ineffective without a subsequent bill), that the morons latch onto this (press, Dems -who enabled this in the war supplemental bill- included) and pretend that is the focus of this bill is appalling, part of the same lying deference to power that cheer led the invasion. This bill right now is the key part of the invasion oil grab:

Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, former commander of the Multinational Security Transition Command-Iraq, forwarded claims made by the Bush administration and Congress that if Iraq passes an oil law, the fighting factions there will come together because revenue from oil sales will be distributed to all.

The oil law (also known as the hydrocarbons law), however, does no such thing. A separate revenue-sharing law would decide how the oil revenue is spread around the country. It is currently being negotiated, though far behind the hydrocarbons law in the Iraqi legislative process.

Only a small portion of the law mentions revenue, and explicitly states that, according to the Iraqi Constitution, a separate “federal revenue law” is required to dictate how the revenue is spent.

President Bush, during remarks with visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on May 21, said, “We’re working very hard, for example, on getting an oil law with an oil revenue-sharing code that will help unite the country.”

Such a law was included in Bush’s “benchmarks for reconciliation” in Iraq. The Democratic-led Congress, despite calls from the more progressive members, enshrined the oil law benchmark for the Iraqi government in the Iraq war-spending bill…

“The draft hydrocarbons framework law does not define specific terms for the distribution of Iraq’s oil revenue,” Christopher Blanchard, Middle East policy analyst for the Congressional Research Service, told United Press International. “The law would require Iraq’s Council of Ministers to submit a separate federal revenue law to regulate a central Oil Revenue Fund and ensure the fair distribution of oil revenue.”

As an occupying power in a country rocked by instability after more than four years of war, the misguided pressure on the oil law from the U.S. government actors is likely to work against their stated aims — ensuring Iraqis reap the benefits from their oil.

Because as ever the stated aims are a pleasant lie for sheeple so they think -we are the good guys- how did Bushco’s oil get under the Iraqi’s feet? The process is so murky that key groups still have not seen the draft law, pushed through by a boycotted parliament by puppets (likely bribed or in fear of their lives). One of the main objectives of the invasion is closer to being realised.

Iraq’s Kurdish and Sunni leaders have complained that they have not yet seen the draft oil legislation which is to be put to parliament.

The amended oil bill was approved by the cabinet of Nuri al-Maliki, the prime minister, on Tuesday and forwarded to parliament for a first reading, but the debate is not likely to take place for a week.

It was unclear how many ministers were present at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, as six ministers from Muqtada al-Sadr’s group and six ministers from the Sunni bloc are currently boycotting the government.

Additional Update: (via, Crooks&Liars) The privatisation of the rest of Iraq’s assets is also speeding onwards with the hydrocarbon law acting as a symbol and catalyst:

The Iraqi government has begun preparing the groundwork for what could be one of the biggest privatisations of state-owned assets.

The Sunday Telegraph has learned that officials from the government have recently held talks with banking and legal advisers in London. City sources said Iraq’s minister for industry, Fawzi Hariri, was looking to appoint advisers to draw up a memorandum of understanding to sell off the country’s non-oil assets, ranging from petrochemical plants to construction companies, hotels and airlines, as early as this month.