Horse, Stable Door, Bolted

You figure it out, apparently Senator Joe Biden is not sure of the order-

“The President has no authority to unilaterally attack Iran and … if he does, as foreign relations committee chairman and former chairman of judiciary, I will move to impeach him,”

Whoa there, sure you don’t want to think about forming a committee to propose thinking to discuss of moving to begin debate of impeachment after the bombs have dropped? Meanwhile a teevee pundit reacted by saying this-

“And everybody knows that Ahmadinejad is a madman, and that Iran is one of the most dangerous planets on Earth.”- Joe Scarborough

Erm, yes. Does this mean the pro-war numpties do actually think they are in a space adventure in a universe called ‘earth’ and they must defend planet ‘America’ from… Ming the Merciless, Klendathu bugs, the Cylons, Daleks, the Martians from ‘Mars Attacks!’ that go ‘ack ack’ (which might be right as according to wiki -Novelist Martin Amis was employed as a script consultant on the film.) Yes, Martin ‘thesaurus’ Anus Amis??

Friday! Public Enemy- He Got Game

In haste, what with the possible shenanigans planned for Venezuela, a whacky hostage drama at a Clinton campaign office (is this a case of wingnuts taking their misogyny really seriously?) I have to go off to take my shift of emergency baby sitting while the youngest niece and worried parents enjoy casualty on a Friday night. Something is happening here. (ps can’t find uncensored version dammit). Naughty Youtube.

Update: All is well.

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.

UN Body Finds Torture ‘Routine’ In Uzbekistan

This as right now the UK government tries to deport a member of the opposition Jahongir Sidikov back to Uzbekistan where he will meet that ‘routine’ treatment, this is what our government thinks is a safe place for someone whose family has already been harassed by the authorities after he was filmed protesting in the UK by Uzbek government operatives-

the bulk of the document six of nine pages expressed a range of serious concerns about what the committee termed “[n]umerous, ongoing and consistent allegations concerning routine use of torture committed by law enforcement and investigative personnel or with their instigation or consent,” and “[f]ailure to conduct prompt and impartial investigations into such allegations.” 

The committee further expressed concern about the Uzbek government crackdown on civil society…The committee also called for “a full, effective, impartial inquiry” into the May 2005 massacre in Andijan where Uzbek government forces killed hundreds of mostly unarmed demonstrators. Further on the Andijan events, the committee noted “with concern” the government’s “failure to conduct full and effective investigations into all claims of excessive force by officials,” and the fact that it had “limited and obstructed independent monitoring of human rights in the aftermath of these events, thereby further impairing the ability to obtain a reliable or credible assessment of the reported abuses, including ascertaining information on the whereabouts and reported torture or ill-treatment of persons detained and/or missing.”

The committee also highlighted for particular concern “reports of forcible return of recognised refugees and/or asylum seekers from neighbouring countries” and the lack of information about their “conditions, treatment and whereabouts” in Uzbekistan. It called on the Uzbek government to allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees which it expelled in March 2006 to return to the country. 

Holy shit we are not even a neighbouring country and for some reasons our government wants to pay the airfare to send him back to this UN condemned totalitarian state. They plan on doing it this evening, is kidnap, false imprisonment and delivering the hostage to known and universally condemned torturers and murderers what our government should be doing in our name? Problem is this is institutional, with no one bothering to see what the immigration service and their home office conspirators are doing they are routinely sending desperate people back to appalling fates. Immoral, illegal and absolutely not fit for the purpose, yet in immigration scare mass media culture no one even gives a shit, in fact they celebrate this cruelty under their masters instructions. Just a while back we made a big fuss over the abolition of slavery, well woo-fucking-hoo we effectively still condone and perpetrate the treatment of people as subhuman baggage to be inhumanly treated, ignored and despised by demagoguing media of low intelligence and ethics. All of which enables the government to proceed with its brutal repatriation crimes in the hidden ghetto of the migrant gulag. Often under that catch all badge for the repression of civil society into the lockdown- the war on terror. Write to this ‘gentleman’ and tell him what you think-

Mr Liam Byrne MP
Minister of State (Borders and Immigration)
Home Office
2 Marsham Street
LONDON SW1P 4DF

Or- The Home Office 020 7035 4848

Or use Write to them or They work for you to use the customary channel of using your constituency MP.

Respect & A State Funeral For Bernie Banton

Mr Banton, a former machine operator, had already received A$800,000 (£338,000) compensation for his asbestosis in 2000. But he and his fellow campaigners were determined to force James Hardie to increase its compensation fund. It is estimated that up to 56,000 Australians will be affected by asbestos-related illnesses by 2020, with a large proportion caused by James Hardie products.

In 2001, the company bowed to pressure and set up a foundation to compensate victims of diseases caused by its products. But the sum it set aside – A$293m (£123m) – was laughable. When that fact was pointed out, the company refused to increase the fund. Then it moved its headquarters from Sydney to the Netherlands, saying this was for tax reasons. Critics accused of it of trying to avoid lawsuits.

Thanks to Mr Banton’s six-year campaign, combined with pressure from politicians and regulatory bodies, the company agreed last December to a package worth up to A$4.5bn (£1.9bn) over 40 years. The deal was approved by shareholders in February. Greg Combet, the leader of the Australian trade union movement, said: “Bernie has been there every day [of the campaign] and has lent to this entire process a decency and humanity that was sorely needed.”

When he recently presented a 17,000 name petition to the (now extinct) Howard government the conservative minister called it a ‘stunt’ and smeared him & his motives. Rudd mentioned Banton in his victory speech and will attend the state funeral. Exactly how conservatives rationalise allying with a corrupt, lying, tax evading corporation that is causing deaths while smearing a heroic campaigner as ‘politics’ is a mystery, yet they seem so adept at it. Howard and his administration were rejected because they repeatedly committed immoral acts and called it politics, something we have our own problems with here and there. At least in Oz they had a better alternative.

Ps. If you have to deal with asbestos, don’t cut corners, take all the right precautions. Because otherwise you’ll really be kicking yourself 20 years later when you die. Do not fuck with it.

Evil Twin Jesus: The 13th Disciple

This might explain the christianist dominionists, they are signed up to the evil twin-

German filmmaker Robert Sigl’s “The 13th Disciple” is still in the planning stage but producer Mario Stefan is in India’s western tourist state of Goa trying to attract an Indian co-producer for the project.

“It’s a fantasy-adventure film and takes place completely in present-day India,” Stefan said on the sidelines of the 38th International Film Festival of India, which opened over the weekend.

The story traces the journey of two German archaeologists looking for evidence that Jesus visited India. The researchers, who are twins themselves, find that Jesus had an evil twin brother who is reincarnated in the present as the scheming head of a religious sect. (ht2 Defamer)

Genius, as long as wildly silly crap movies like this get made, there may be hope for the human race. I reckon this project is go, hell I want to see it already. Fuck the paltry €5 million budget, this baby has buzz, go for at least $150m, this is going international, the protests from evangelicals alone will mean virtually free promotion. I smell Oscars, this is gonna be huge! Throw some alien robot ghosts in there (never hurts) and of course the evil twin’s girlfriend falls for the hero…while pregnant…sequel! Kerching!

The Worst Use Of Electricity

Ever.

Satire Of The Day

Courtesy of Reuters:-

They really are just too funny. Instead check out Franklin Lamb at People’s Geography–

The Annapolis gathering is not being convened to benefit Palestinians. It is designed to give Israel a cover for taking more Palestinian land and cleansing more of the Arabs from the “the land of Israel”, by setting up Palestinian leaders for the ‘Israel has no peace partner’ hustle just as the Clinton, Dennis Ross, and Barak trio did to Arafat at Camp David in 2000. The Annapolis get-together is designed for legacy-building for Bush and CV enhancement for Rice, as well as pressuring Iran, weakening Hamas, and shoring up Arab ‘leaders’ support for the US occupation of Iraq.

This Is A Lie- The Fix Is In: Iraq Puppets Ask For Domination

Hypocracy spreads, as previously posted first they deny the parliament the right to vote because they would vote out the US/Coalition (ha!)-

when the only people who all those purple-fingered Iraqi voters actually elected to office try to attach some conditions to the U.N. mandate, demand a timetable for withdrawal or come out against privatizing Iraq’s natural resources, then somehow the legislature magically disappears

Read full post here.

Now today this utter capitulation to imperial exploitation-

Iraq’s government is preparing to grant the US a long-term troop presence in the country and preferential treatment for American investors in return for guaranteed security, it emerged today.

By disappearing previous legislation attempts the US/UK have forced the only negotiations over the UN mandate into a corner where the Iraq govt. shills must hand over their country to a genocidal shock doctrine takeover by US & other multinationals.

Preferential treatment for US investors could provide a huge windfall if Iraq can achieve enough stability to exploit its vast oil resources.

Christopher Pang, the head of the Middle East programme at the Royal United Services Institute, said the proposals were continuing the “pattern since 2003”. “That US troops will stay in Iraq is a fait accompli. They have just built their largest embassy there,” he said.

But promises of long-term troop deployments were “jumping the gun”, Pang said, because a president coming to power after US elections next year could change policy.

Would a Democrat president end this murderous occupation and thus endanger all that oil they need for the huge dirty and inefficient US energy economy? I wouldn’t hold you breath. In return for fewer above the law death squads the Iraqis get some internal control back but tens of thousands of US troops and permanent bases remain and the assets are given preferentially to US investors. Utterly repulsive, immoral, an illegal invasion rubber stamped into a long term resource grab by the Empire. Shame on anyone, anyone who goes along with this in America.

UN Committee Against Torture: Tasers Constituted A Form Of Torture

A United Nations committee said Friday that use of Taser weapons can be a form of torture, in violation of the U.N. Convention Against Torture. Use of the electronic stun devices by police has been marked with a sudden rise in deaths – including four men in the United States and two in Canada within the last week.Canadian authorities are taking a second look at them, and in the United States, there is a wave of demands to BAN them. The U.N. Committee Against Torture referred Friday to the use of TaserX26 weapons which Portuguese police has acquired. An expert had testified to the committee that use of the weapons had “proven risks of harm or death.”

“The use of TaserX26 weapons, provoking extreme pain, constituted a form of torture, and that in certain cases it could also cause death, as shown by several reliable studies and by certain cases that had happened after practical use,” the committee said in a statement.

We’re almost 2 months into national trials of widespread Taser deployment in the UK, so there is still time to avoid them being permanently issued to all our police. Or look to America where 280 people have died after being Tased with this ‘non lethal’ technology. The technology itself has been in use enough to see comparisons with results from classic experiments on sadism and authoritarian dysfunction.

Q2N: Tidbits From The Pimps Table

Via The Fanonite this Esquire (!) article is an interview with the two ex Bush administration officials who originally leaked the information about the US turning down talks with Iran in ’03. It’s worth a read (excusing some of the conservative and MSM talking points) some excerpts-

Months before September 11, Mann had been negotiating with the Iranian diplomat at the UN. After the attacks, the meetings continued, sometimes alone and sometimes with their Russian counterpart sitting in.

at the old UN building in Geneva, they hammered out plans for Iranian help in the war against the Taliban. The Iranians agreed to provide assistance if any American was shot down near their territory, agreed to let the U.S. send food in through their border, and even agreed to restrain some “really bad Afghanis,” like a rabidly anti-American warlord named Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, quietly putting him under house arrest in Tehran. These were significant concessions.

“This is off the record,” she says. “This is going to have to be on background.” She’s not allowed to talk about confidential documents or intelligence matters, but the topic of her negotiations with the Iranians is especially touchy. “As far as they’re concerned, the whole idea that there were talks is something I shouldn’t even be talking about,” she says.All ranks and ranking are out. “They don’t want there to be anything about the level of the talks or who was involved.”

“They won’t even let us say something like ‘senior’ or ‘important,’ ‘high-ranking,’ or ‘high-level,'” Leverett says. But the important thing is that the Iranians agreed to talk unconditionally

The fax was from the Swiss ambassador to Iran, which wasn’t unusual — since the U.S. had no formal relationship with Iran, the Swiss ambassador represented American interests there and often faxed over updates on what he was doing. This time he’d met with Sadeq Kharrazi, a well-connected Iranian who was the nephew of the foreign minister and son-in-law to the supreme leader. Amazingly, Kharrazi had presented the ambassador with a detailed proposal for peace in the Middle East, approved at the highest levels in Tehran. A two-page summary was attached. Scanning it, Mann was startled by one dramatic concession after another — “decisive action” against all terrorists in Iran, an end of support for Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, a promise to cease its nuclear program, and also an agreement to recognize Israel.

This was huge. Mann sat down and drafted a quick memo to her boss, Richard Haass. It was important to send a swift and positive response. Then she heard that the White House had already made up its mind — it was going to ignore the offer. Its only response was to lodge a formal complaint with the Swiss government about their ambassador’s meddling.

“The reason I have to be so careful now is that I’m legally on notice and they will prosecute things that I say or do,”

Please read it, it is clear long term plans are operating to attack Iran, to think we could let this happen again after Iraq showed how they lie and how disastrous their plans in the real world are is just unconscionable. Iran wanted to talk, the Bush administration rejected them, they plan on attacking Iran, they must be stopped.

Norman Finkelstein More Taboo Than The BNP

To the Oxford Union that is, Prof. Finkelstein was invited to a debate but became ‘uninvited’ now the OU president Luke Tryl, who the Guardian describes as- chairman of the Halifax branch of Conservative Future, formerly known as the Young Conservatives– (imagine a decent northern place like Halifax and he runs the tory kids club, meh) are having Nick Griffin (& David Irving) turn up, like some kind of attention seeking, media career elevating pantomime for Tryl. But it also reveals the idiot Griffin gets an easier ride than Norman Finkelstein which is utterly outrageous, Griffin is a racist and a fascist, Finkelstein is a renowned academic whose only crime is pissing off fanatical numpties like Alan Dershowitz. But apparently it turns out real discussion of Israel & Palestine is forbidden but moronic boobs like Griffin get the floor. So all the protestations of free speech are bit weak because when it came to defending Norman Finkelstein’s free speech the OU folded like a cheap suit. So I think we come back to toryboy Tryl and his future ambitions and woohoo, he gets in the papers again and as a conservative, never hurts to defend a far right parties rights, sets out your credentials without having to be too explicit. Palestinians meanwhile are kept in the shadows, silenced unpeople, the taboo that exists in America infecting the UK.

Please *God* Make It Stop

I blame Blairwatch for leading me to this article-

The former prime minister’s comments came as he admitted for the first time that his faith was “hugely important” in influencing his decisions during his decade in power at Number 10, including going to war with Iraq in 2003. Mr Blair complained that he had been unable to follow the example of US politicians, such as President George W. Bush, in being open about his faith because people in Britain regarded religion with suspicion.

“It’s difficult if you talk about religious faith in our political system,” Mr Blair said. “If you are in the American political system or others then you can talk about religious faith and people say ‘yes, that’s fair enough’ and it is something they respond to quite naturally.

“You talk about it in our system and, frankly, people do think you’re a nutter. I mean … you may go off and sit in the corner and … commune with the man upstairs and then come back and say ‘right, I’ve been told the answer and that’s it’.”

Peter Mandelson, one of Mr Blair’s confidants, claimed that the former premier “takes a Bible with him wherever he goes” and habitually reads it last thing at night. 

“To do the prime minister’s job properly you need to be able to separate yourself from the magnitude of the consequences of the decisions you are taking the whole time. Which doesn’t mean to say … that you’re insensitive to the magnitude of those consequences or that you don’t feel them deeply.

“If you don’t have that strength it’s difficult to do the job, which is why the job is as much about character and temperament as it is about anything else. But for me having faith was an important part of being able to do that… Ultimately I think you’ve got to do what you think is right.”

Which bible was it? Because the one I have read and had to study came off as a tad disapproving of liars and warmongers but clearly that was the bad bible, no Tony had the good bible where geopolitical game playing and resource grabs are noble godly pursuits especially when you get to kill a million people. And so glad to see he can divorce himself from the magnitude of the consequences of his actions, it does rather prove that those with psychopathology’s either end up in jail or at the top of business or politics. Except I’m not so sure about Anthony, this sounds like an ad hoc assemblage of platitudes to fend off the screaming demons he sees closing in on him sometimes from the corner of his eye. This is a man grabbing at straws and happy American christianist dominionism passes him a big handful, but he’s on the run, he’s put thought into this defence which means he thinks he needs one, which means somewhere he knows he has done great wrong. Although it looks like his aim now is to hunt down that shred of conscience and waterboard the motherfucker to oblivion, which explains why he looks to Bush and his messianic sadism with such admiration.

Howards (A)way

The baldy Bush poodle wanker is done. Hugh Manatee has up to the minute coverage at Typing is Not Activism and summaries at Mask of Anarchy. Americans should not be confused by Howard being the Liberal leader in OZ that means right wing…as it does in America! (who couldn’t see that coming). Some countries in the world are not afraid to have parties with the word ‘labor’ in their name, ahem (ok NuLabour doesn’t count). As a hilarious side note Howard may be about to lose his own seat in Bennelong-

In Bennelong, where Mr Howard is battling to survive against the high-profile Labor candidate, former journalist Maxine McKew, the swing to Labor was 5.2% with 70% of votes counted. Mr Howard’s buffer of 4.1% appeared set to be eclipsed.

It’s really close and appears to be down to postal ballots now (oh dear lots of chance to fiddle those) but fingers crossed for total humiliation, yet another Bush ally soundly rejected by his country.

Kissinger & The Nazi Loving Jew Torturing Dirty War

In fair Argentina where we set our stage, enter stage extreme right the Nazis-

Argentina became a post-war haven for Nazis mainly because of one man, Juan Domingo Peron. A key participant in a 1943 coup that brought the military to power, Colonel Peron later was elected President in 1946 and governed the country until he was overthrown in 1955. A pro-Nazi sympathizer during the war, Mr. Peron and his government later smoothed the way for Germans and pro-Nazi collaborators to settle in Argentina after 1945.

Swiss banks, the Roman Catholic Church and Argentine politicians conspired to loot hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and other valuable assets held by the Third Reich. “The German Connection” focuses largely on Mercedes-Benz, the automobile, bus and truck manufacturer that is today a unit of Daimler-Chrysler. But others offered by Ms. Weber as beneficiaries of the plan include German makers of electrical and railway equipment and other capital goods, as well as producers of items as varied as tractors and television sets.

According to records now emerging from Swiss archives and the investigations of Nazi hunters, an unpublicized side of Evita’s world tour was coordinating the network for helping Nazis relocate in Argentina. Even as the Third Reich crumbled in the spring of 1945, Peron remained a pro-fascist stalwart, making available more than 1,000 blank passports for Nazi collaborators fleeing Europe.

With Europe in chaos and the Allies near victory, tens of thousands of ranking Nazis dropped out of sight, tried to mix in with common refugees and began plotting escapes from Europe to Argentina across clandestine “ratlines.” At the Argentine end of that voyage was Rodolfo Freude. He also was Juan Peron’s private secretary, one of Evita’s principal benefactors and the chief of Argentine internal security.

The Nazis in Argentina kept Hitler’s torch burning, won new converts in the region’s militaries and passed on the advanced science of torture and “death squad” operations. Hundreds of left-wing Peronist students and unionists were among the victims of the neo-fascist Argentine junta that launched the Dirty War in 1976.

When the junta started its “war without borders” against the left elsewhere in Latin America, it used Nazis as stormtroopers. Among them was Klaus Barbie, the Gestapo’s Butcher of Lyon who had settled in Bolivia with the help of the “ratline” network. In 1980, Barbie helped organize a brutal putsch against the democratically elected government in Bolivia. Drug lords and an international coalition of neo-fascists bankrolled the putsch. A key supporting role was played by the World Anti-Communist League, led by World War II fascist war criminal Ryoichi Sasakawa of Japan and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

So safely ensconced in the Argentinian establishment and sharing their practiced torture techniques with state security services what would Henry Kissinger make of the ‘Dirty War’-

”Look, our basic attitude is that we would like you to succeed,” Kissinger reassured Guzzetti in the seven-page transcript, marked SECRET. “I have an old-fashioned view that friends ought to be supported. What is not understood in the United States is that you have a civil war. We read about human rights problems but not the context. The quicker you succeed, the better.”

He supported it, but then he wasn’t the only one-

The “Report on the situation of the Jewish detainees-disappeared during the genocide perpetrated in Argentina” was for the first time published in print in Argentina to make it widely available to the public, by the Delegation of Argentine Jewish Associations’ (DAIA) Social Studies Centre (CES), with the backing of the government Human Rights Secretariat.

“The book forms part of DAIA’s commitment to the families of the victims,” CES director Marisa Braylán told IPS. She was alluding to complaints by families of victims, who have accused DAIA of keeping a low profile during the de facto regime despite the disappearance of members of the community.

“The families were asking for help, and the current leadership assumed the responsibility of reviewing past actions and acknowledging that several errors had been made,” said Aldo Donzis, president of DAIA.

And given the Nazi element of Argentina the torture was tailored to fit-

Many survivors said there were Nazi symbols, like the swastika or pictures of Adolf Hitler, on the walls in the clandestine detention centres were they were held, and that they were subjected to anti-Semitic insults during the torture sessions. In addition, Hitler’s speeches were often played over loudspeakers, during torture sessions or at night.

survivor Daniel Fernández said Jews were subjected to an especially cruel and sadistic form of torture: “the ‘rectoscope’, which consisted of inserting a tube into the victim’s anus, or into a woman’s vagina, then letting a rat into the tube. The rodent would try to get out by gnawing at the victim’s internal organs.”

So yet again our ‘enry coats himself with glory, allying with a pro-Nazi regime that tortured and killed jews. Yet he probably reasoned as they also wiped out thousands of other lefty types, hey you make an omelet, some eggs get broken, whadya gonna do? But this reveals an old lesson, a ruling clique will ally to likeminded groups, likeminded bastards and if you think your shared ethnic or religious background will protect you from base human ambition, greed and sadism you are in trouble. The real price of entry to the ruling gang is the capacity for cruelty. Something Israelis should think about if they make the mistake of thinking their government is acting in their best interests by imposing apartheid.