Monterrico Metals Majaz Torture Case Comes To Britain

I do trust they will be hauling ‘Ambassador’ Richard Ralph up before the court too (ht2 Otto)-

Hundreds of people had converged on the mine from communities scattered across the region. Some had walked for several days to reach the site. Once there, they say, they were attacked by the mine’s security guards and by contingents of the Peruvian federal police firing teargas.

Two protesters were shot in their legs, one man lost an eye to gunshot wounds and a farmer called Melanio Garcia, 41, suffered a fatal gunshot. Photographs allegedly taken by a Monterrico supervisor, which the protesters say support their allegations of abuse by the police, show Garcia lying on the ground, apparently alive but badly injured. Several other pictures taken 30 hours later, according to their time and date stamps, clearly show Garcia to be dead.

The protesters – who have launched a multimillion-pound claim for damages at the high court in London – claim Garcia was left to bleed to death at the mine site. Monterrico says Garcia was shot some distance from the mine and it vigorously denies that any of its officers or employees were in any way involved with the alleged abuses at Rio Blanco.

Richard Meeran, of Leigh Day, the London law firm bringing the high court case, said the evidence of torture was incontrovertible and that it was inconceivable the company could have been unaware of what was happening on its site.

One of the former mine employees said in his statement that before the protest began the manager of the mine’s security force gave orders to the police “pointing out strategic points of the operation on a map, for instance, geographical points, the rotation of the police personnel and the dangers they could encounter in each area. He also explained that they had to report every 10 to 15 minutes via the Motorola radio to the management of the mining company.”

When the protesters arrived, he added: “The police shot teargas immediately. I saw the community members who wanted to talk but this was immediately denied and they were teargassed. After this clash the community members, who were about 500 or 600, retreated and stopped at about 15 metres from the police. It could be observed that among the protesters there were some children, young ladies, and elderly people. The community members raised the national flag, and sang the national anthem.”

See previous posts.

Easter Feast- The Business Of War

Saddam Hussein banned unions for public workers in 1987 because he feared a progressive movement would topple his dictatorship. When the U.S occupation of Iraq began, the U.S authorities refused to repeal that law. Instead in September of 2003, Paul Bremer, the top U.S. official overseeing the Iraqi occupation, issued an order to privatize the country’s state owned industries, which include its oil industry.

The GUOWT issued a statement on the 2 August and again on the 7 August deploring the approach taken by the Oil Minister and called on him to withdraw the memo sent and signed by his legal adviser Mr Laith abd al Hussein, on 18 July 2007 under his personal instruction to the Iraqi oil companies in Baghdad, Bejy, Kirkuk and Basra ordering them not to deal with oil unions members, and instructed them not to allow oil unions members to be part of any committee formed at the work place. The Oil Minister refused to meet the leadership of the GUOWT and sent the General Director of Information Bureau of the Oil Ministry to inform the oil workers delegation that the Oil Minister will not meet with people that represent unions in the oil sector for he said that there are no workers here but state employees. In this he is wittingly or unwittingly relying on Saddam’s decree of 150 that banned workers from organizing in the public sector. 

Hassan Juma’a Awad Southern Oil Company Union– The next government should not only ensure the security of the Iraqi people, but also oppose the privatization of industry. We oppose privatization very strongly, especially in the oil industry. It is our industry. We don’t want a new colonization under the guise of privatization, with international companies taking control of the oil. The day will come when the occupation forces leave. The US timetable foresees the formation of an Iraqi government after the elections. The US should then leave, but I don’t have faith that they will leave so easily. We should all come together to resist the occupation.

FALEH ABOOD UMARA: [translated] According to Article 111 of the Iraqi Constitution, which states that the oil and gas of Iraq are owned by the Iraqi people and they have the right to control it. But when you look into the details of the law, many of the articles of the law actually conflict with this preamble of the law, the most important point of which is the issue of the production-sharing agreements, which allows the international oil companies, especially the American ones, to exploit the oil fields without our knowledge of what they are actually doing with it. And they take about 50% of the production as their share, which we think it’s an obvious robbery of the Iraqi oil. 

This week-

The Iraqi government is expected to pay up to $2.5 billion to five top oil companies to increase the country’s oil output by nearly a quarter, a government adviser has admitted. In what would be the biggest foreign involvement for decades, Baghdad is close to signing technical support contracts with BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Total.

Shell is negotiating for the northern Kirkuk oilfield and is also in talks, along with BHP Billiton, for the development of the Maysan fields. BP also has its eyes on Iraq’s southern Rumaila field, while Exxon wants the contract for the Zubair oilfield in Basra. Finally, Chevron and Total are looking to work together to develop the West Qurna oilfield.

Iraq’s Oil Ministry said Sunday that it has invited local and international oil companies to bid for contracts including one to develop a natural gas field in a Sunni area in the west of the country…Early this year, the ministry said it was negotiating with Royal Dutch Shell PLC to conduct output tests for the field which has five wells that are ready to be interconnected…In a separate tender, the ministry has also invited companies to submit detailed engineering study and procurement of equipment and materials of two oil pipelines linking the Basra oil fields in southern Iraq with Iran’s Abadan refinery. 

Today at least 54 Iraqis were killed and the green zone is under attack, but we are not invited by the corporate coverage to include the context of the oil & gas resources being sold off, the anti union policies of Saddam being reinforced by the occupiers or the wholesale privatisation of Iraq. Nor in the simpleton greenwash media landscape is Iraq perceived for the environmental disaster, no, buy a cotton shopping bag & an eco bulb (of course all the solutions they offer always depend on you buying something), nevermind about the war-

Projected total US spending on the Iraq war could cover all of the global investments in renewable power generation that are needed between now and 2030 in order to halt current warming trends.

The war is responsible for at least 141 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e) since March 2003. To put this in perspective, CO2 released by the war to date equals the emissions from putting 25 million more cars on the road in the US this year.

In 2006, the US spent more on the war in Iraq than the whole world spent on investment in renewable energy.

…if the war was ranked as a country in terms of annual emissions, it would emit more CO2 each year than 139 of the world’s nations do. Falling between New Zealand and Cuba, the war each year emits more than 60% of all countries on the planet. 

Military emissions abroad are not captured in the national greenhouse gas inventories that all industrialized nations, including the United States, report under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It’s a loophole big enough to drive a tank through.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) is the largest oil consuming government body in the US and in the world… in Fiscal Year 2004, the US military fuel consumption increased to 144 million barrels. This is about 40 million barrels more than the average peacetime military usage. By the way, 144 million barrels makes 395 000 barrels per day, almost as much as daily energy consumption of Greece.
The US military is the biggest purchaser of oil in the world.

May ’05 “The Third Army (of General Patton) had about 400,000 men and used about 400,000 gallons of gasoline a day. Today the Pentagon has about a third that number of troops in Iraq yet they use more than four times as much fuel.”

Some figures show that the U.S. military uses enough oil in one year to run all of the U.S. transit systems for the next 14-22 years. In less than one hour a U.S. F-16 fighter jet uses twice as much fuel as the average U.S. auto driver. One-quarter of the world’s jet fuel is consumed by the world’s military. And worldwide the military consumption of copper, nickel, aluminum and platinum exceeds that of the Free World. 

2007 U.S. MILITARY FUEL CONSUMPTION EQUALS:+
– 90 percent more than Ireland’s annual consumption
– 38 percent more than Israel’s annual consumption
– 20 times Iceland’s annual consumption
– 1.7 percent of U.S. annual consumption

My Sweet Lord.

Tesco Pulls An Enron

Your friendly (every) neighbourhood Tesco supermarket hates you, when you need the police, or a hospital, or safe roads, or schools they most assuredly wish to deny them by not paying their way. Good job they come across so friendly in their teevee adverts, because really they just want your money and then for you to fuck off and die (and their custard slices taste like shit).

Tesco has created an elaborate corporate structure involving offshore tax havens which enables it to avoid paying what could be up to £1bn of tax on profits from the sale of its UK properties.

The complex new structures uncovered by a six-month Guardian investigation include a string of Cayman Island companies, each named after a different colour, from aqua to violet. These are being used by the supermarket giant as it proceeds with its announced programme to sell and lease back £6bn worth of its UK stores.

The Guardian’s analysis of Tesco’s accounts over the past five years also shows that the company has paid an effective tax rate of just over 20% on the rest of its profits, at a time when the UK corporation tax rate is 30%.

· New company structures set up by Tesco to own stores that are being sold and leased back mean that 99.9% of the company that owns the stores could end up being held offshore. Tesco would be liable to pay UK tax on only the 0.1% of its profit on the sale of the stores held in the UK. Tesco’s first two property deals, worth about £1bn, have used this structure and will avoid tax on £500m of profits.

· Although its accounts for the past five years report an average rate of corporation tax of 29%, the actual rate of tax Tesco paid, according to its cash flow statement, is closer to 20%. This is on profits separate from the property deals. UK corporation tax is 30%.

· Tesco has sold its 37 stores in the first two sale and leaseback deals at twice the book value that is included in its accounts, making a profit of about £500m on the £1bn of stores sold. If it achieves the same rate of return on all its disposals as expected, its share of profits from property sales would come to about £3bn. The UK corporation tax due on this would be as high as £1bn, but the retailer could avoid paying this because of its offshore structure.

· A string of other company structures leading to the Cayman Islands have been set up and more of Tesco’s properties have already been transferred to them so that they could be quickly activated for the next tranche of store sales.

So weirdly if you went shoplifting in one of their stores and absolutely crammed your coat with stuff you’d still be nothing like the thief that the shop around you is. Not that I’m suggesting you go shoplifting in Tescos, after all why mix with such lowlife corporate crooks?

See also Korova’s posts at Mask of Anarchy on Tesco.

Exxon Attacking Venezuelan Oil Nationalisation

“If you end up freezing (Venezuelan assets) and it harms us, we’re going to harm you,” Chavez said. “Do you know how? We aren’t going to send oil to the United States. Take note, Mr. Bush, Mr. Danger.”

Exxon Mobil has gone after the assets of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA in U.S., British and Dutch courts as it challenges the nationalization of a multibillion dollar oil project by Chavez’s government.

A British court has issued an injunction “freezing” as much as $12 billion in assets.

“I speak to the U.S. empire, because that’s the master: continue and you will see that we won’t sent one drop of oil to the empire of the United States,” Chavez said during his weekly radio and television program, “Hello, President.”

“The outlaws of Exxon Mobil will never again rob us,” Chavez said, accusing the Irving, Texas-based oil company of acting in concert with Washington.

Chavez has repeatedly threatened to cut off oil shipments to the United States, which is Venezuela’s No. 1 client, if Washington tries to oust him. Chavez’s warnings on Sunday appeared to extend that threat to attempts by oil companies to challenge his government’s nationalization drive in courts internationally.

“If the economic war continues against Venezuela, the price of oil is going to reach $200 (a barrel) and Venezuela will join the economic war,” Chavez said. “And more than one country is willing to accompany us in the economic war.”

This neatly reveals the political totalitarianism of the corporatocracy, people who work for corporations will often not think that what they do is any more than their job/career. When they vote, that’s politics, but not what they do for many hours every weekday. Thus reinforcing the false assumption that the current global capitalism is some kind of common-sensical natural order and democracy is really just choosing different management styles. As if something you do once every few years for a few minutes is somehow more powerful than that which you do for thousands of days between each election. Thus the scam of pretending capitalism=democracy thrives.
But here a political and economic war is taking place where a global corporation closely allied to national governments and military power is attacking a sovereign nation. Support Hamas and you will be called a terrorist, but work for Exxon? Well that’s just a job, innit?

Turkish ‘Gladio’ Fascists In Trouble & State Terror

About frickin’ time-

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish authorities charged on Saturday 13 ultra-nationalists, including retired army officers, with involvement in plans for a violent uprising against the government, Turkish media said.

The court decision followed the arrests of dozens of people this week in a police investigation into a far-right group known as Ergenekon. Turkish media say the group had been plotting a series of bomb attacks and assassinations.

Retired brigadier general Veli Kucuk, retired major Zekeriya Ozturk and lawyer Kemal Kerencsiz were among those facing charges of inciting people to armed revolt, private broadcaster CNN Turk said.

Kerencsiz is well known in Turkey for prosecuting writers and journalists, including Nobel Literature Laureate Orhan Pamuk, under article 301 of the country’s penal code that makes it a crime to insult “Turkishness”.

Officials have declined to comment on the Ergenekon case, which began with the seizure of explosives and weapons at a house in Umraniye, Istanbul, last summer.

Turkish newspapers said this week the group had been planning to kill Pamuk, author of novels such as “Snow” and “My Name is Red”, as well as several Kurdish politicians.

The newspapers also said the group was preparing a series of bomb attacks aimed at fomenting chaos ahead of a coup in 2009 against Turkey’s centre-right government, whose European Union-linked reforms are opposed by the ultra-nationalists.

The Ergenekon group may have been behind the murder last January of Hrant Dink, a prominent Turkish Armenian journalist, outside his office in Istanbul, newspapers have quoted police sources as saying.

Some commentators have seen in the Ergenekon case the workings of a “deep state”, a phrase used to denote ultra-nationalists in the security forces and state bureaucracy who are ready to subvert the law for their own political ends.

Police have been observing Ergenekon, which is named after a valley in Turkish nationalist mythology, for several years and have compiled a 7,000-page dossier on the group and its activities, newspapers say.

But please ladies & gentlemen notice how these ‘ultra-nationalists’ do not get tarred with the ‘terrorist’ brush and the case is not exactly headline news. Interestingly one Turkish site says-

Turkey determined to purge its Gladio: The prime minister has said a police inquiry resulting in the arrest of dozens of people, including ex-army officers and lawyers, shows the determination of Turkey to bring an end to state and military-linked gangs.

No wonder this is not a big item, the right are always excused their terrorism as a matter of European policy, instead it is called extremism. Gladio and the left behind program where America and Britain funded Nazis & right wing nationalists to perpetrate terror attacks to be blamed on the left is still a much denied open secret, yet the evidence abounds of state sponsored terrorism, except they are our states doing the false flag sponsoring. Thus the mainstream press is extremely reluctant to broach the subject, for example this from the Independent recently headlined How Britain plotted coup d’état to topple Italy’s Communists yet no mention of Gladio at all in the article, an oblique reference to Kissinger is as far as the writer will go (ooh that connects Gladio, Turkey, Pakistan, BCCI etc etc Sibel Edmonds and nuclear proliferation! Oh my, lions and tigers and bears! The tales ‘enry could tell). A sort of insider tip, if you know the history the story ads something to it, if you don’t it is unlikely this will enlighten you much. Gladio is also important because neo-cons who helped lie us into Iraq and are doing the same with Iran were cutting their teeth in these programs, (hello Michael ‘yellow cake‘ Ledeen). And now another state within the state of right wing terrorists is revealed in Turkey, ostensibly because Turkey wants to play nice with the EU, but what is for sure is yet again the story is not going to lead to a full revelation of the extent of right wing terrorism in Europe and governments involvement in it. Which reminds me, can you imagine you had a story that connected the British government, with terrorists and a multi-million narcotics kingpin, imagine the splash that would make, yeah ok you see where this is going, a handful of reports on local Northern Irish news, otherwise silence.

An ex-RUC reservist who had 40 properties worth about £5m confiscated by the Assets Recovery Agency has said he is happy with what he kept. In an out of court settlement, Colin Armstrong, 40, from Tullynewbank Road, Glenavy, retains four properties, including a house in France.

It’s hilarious, out of court and he keeps a King’s ransom anyway-

…retains four properties, including a house in France…He also keeps a motorbike, cars, including a Porsche, and bank accounts… The Assets Recovery Agency has agreed to pay Mr Armstrong’s legal costs which amount to £175,000.

Hmmm, buying silence perchance? No one wants to get into loyalist collusion with the government’s security forces especially where drugs are concerned. No, only the bad guys on the other side do that. Meanwhile the government expects us to trust it with a 4 week -and if they get their way 6 week- detention without charge or evidence in ‘terrorist’ cases. Oh yeah, nothing to worry about there. Go back to sleep, everything’s fine…

Update: Part 3 of Sibel Edmonds Times interview and analysis without fear of UK libel (ie. “State Department official” come on down Marc Grossman!). Still a corporate news blackout in the homeland. The ‘war on terror’ the biggest grift going.

War On Democracy: SOA Involved In False Flag Attacks In Colombian ’06 Elections

From SOA watch-

A director of Colombian military intelligence and another officer implicated in a series of false attacks and a bombing that killed a civilian and injured 19 soldiers in Bogotá in 2006, attended the US Army School of the Americas, an examination of records shows.

The Colombian Public Ministry is investigating Colonel Horacio Arbelaez, former director of the Army’s Joint Intelligence Center; Major Javier Efrén Hermida Benavides; and Captain Luis Eduardo Barrero for orchestrating placement of bombs in a Bogota shopping mall and other sites in July 2006, on the eve of President Uribe’s inauguration for his second term. At the time of the bombing and false attacks, they were attributed to guerrillas of the FARC. In most cases, the bombs were not detonated, but were denounced by the accused officers and deactivated to demonstrate the FARC threat and show military intelligence was doing its work.

Hermida took two courses at the School of the Americas, including a three-month military intelligence intensive in 2000, while Arbelaez took an infantry course at the School in 1981. A statistical study by sociologist Katherine McCoy found that the more courses Latin American officers took at the School, the more likely they were to commit abuses. (Latin American Perspectives, 2005, http://lap.sagepub.com )

In addition, the Army Joint Intelligence Center that Arbelaez directed receives US aid, according to a State Department list of units vetted to receive assistance.

The officers reportedly collaborated with a FARC deserter on placing the bombs, according to tapes, videos and documents. Hermida, who claims his innocence, told a Colombian radio station that the operation at the shopping mall was carried out with knowledge of high military officials.

Hermida and Barrero also face criminal charges for the false attacks, five of which had been united into one case by the Prosecutor General’s office.

Arbelaez, who is now Colombia’s defense attaché in Israel, was previously head of intelligence for the Army’s 18th Brigade. That brigade, based in oil-rich Arauca state, has received extensive assistance and in-country training from US Special Forces.

Press reports identified Hermida and Barrero as belonging to the Army’s 13th Brigade part of which receives US assistance, as well as to a regional military intelligence center that also receives US aid.

I could try really, really hard and be surprised but…America training people to fake terror attacks to help the election of a right wing client leader, it’s all so Gladio darling! Not to mention all the labour organisers who keep turning up dead, the corporate backing of paramilitary terror gangs and the support from both main parties in America & Britain for Uribe’s terrorist regime (with some notable and brave exceptions).

Sibel Edmonds Speaks- Updated

Via Larisa Alexandrovna– This is important also what Larisa adds is crucial, The Times bottled out of naming names but she fills in the blanks, also worth noting not a single large media outlet in the USA would handle this, some excerpts-

Sibel Edmonds, a 37-year-old former Turkish language translator for the FBI, listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based at the agency’s Washington field office.

She approached The Sunday Times last month after reading about an Al-Qaeda terrorist who had revealed his role in training some of the 9/11 hijackers while he was in Turkey.

Edmonds described how foreign intelligence agents had enlisted the support of US officials to acquire a network of moles in sensitive military and nuclear institutions.

Among the hours of covert tape recordings, she says she heard evidence that one well-known senior official in the US State Department was being paid by Turkish agents in Washington who were selling the information on to black market buyers, including Pakistan.

The Times won’t name him, Larisa does- Marc Grossman United States Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2001 to 2005.

She claims that the FBI was also gathering evidence against senior Pentagon officials – including household names – who were aiding foreign agents.

“If you made public all the information that the FBI have on this case, you will see very high-level people going through criminal trials,” she said.

The Turks and Israelis had planted “moles” in military and academic institutions which handled nuclear technology. Edmonds says there were several transactions of nuclear material every month, with the Pakistanis being among the eventual buyers. “The network appeared to be obtaining information from every nuclear agency in the United States,” she said.

They were helped, she says, by the high-ranking State Department official who provided some of their moles – mainly PhD students – with security clearance to work in sensitive nuclear research facilities. These included the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory in New Mexico, which is responsible for the security of the US nuclear deterrent.

“The Turks, she says, often acted as a conduit for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s spy agency, because they were less likely to attract suspicion. Venues such as the American Turkish Council in Washington were used to drop off the cash, which was picked up by the official.

Edmonds said: “I heard at least three transactions like this over a period of 2½ years. There are almost certainly more.”

The Pakistani operation was led by General Mahmoud Ahmad, then the ISI chief.”

Now, who is General Mahmoud Ahmad?

“Intelligence analysts say that members of the ISI were close to Al-Qaeda before and after 9/11. Indeed, Ahmad was accused of sanctioning a $100,000 wire payment to Mohammed Atta, one of the 9/11 hijackers, immediately before the attacks.”

Of course the Times likes to play up the Al Qaeda and nationalist us/them angle but really what is being described here is the transnational nature of power, influence and wealth. And how patriotism is the sucker bet laid out for electorates to volunteer their labour for enterprises that enrich global elites. An Empire allowing favours and laying further grounds for profitable wars. Of course many insist this is a time of war (when excusing their crimes and domestic repression) which does make many actions of the people Edmonds heard treason..and punishable by death. Petard, hoist, you figure it out.

Update: Also loads more at Brad Blog.

Update: Larisa names names, reproduced here to spread the word-

I have decided that after years of not getting anyone to publish what I have found out about the Edmonds case, I am simply going to give you folks some names. I won’t explain what the allegations are, or how these people might fit together or even if they fit together. I also don’t claim to have all the names or know the full story by any means. But I am certain, that brilliant bloggers, researchers, and journalists will finally figure it out:

Richard Perle
Doug Feith
Eric Edelman
Marc Grossman
Larry Franklin
Dennis Hastert
Roy Blunt
Dan Burton
Tom Lantos
Bob Livingston
Stephen Solarz
Graham Fuller
David Makovsky
Alan Markovsky
Enver Yusuf
Sabri Sayari
Mehmet Eymur

And a few phrases for you folks to play around with (in no particular order):
Gray Wolves
Shanghai Cooperation Organization
RAND Corporation
PNAC
East Turkmenistan
Iran
Syria
Foreign Policy
King Faisal
ISI

Shit I Did An Hour Ago To Get Column For The New York Times

Actually that’s not true, the turd demanded too much money so they went with the their back up option- William ‘this man is a war criminal, a racist inciter of genocide’ Kristol.

There Is No Part Of This Story That Isn’t Sickly, Ironically Funny

Ex- RUC officer who is ‘used to liaising with the British army ‘ signs up to mercenary firm ArmorGroup, deploys to Iraq where his corporate bosses tell him not to pass on intelligence to the British Army about militia infiltration of the Basra police.

“Why? Because our bosses and probably, in turn, the FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office] didn’t want to expose how corrupt and infiltrated by the militia the police were.” 

He is a comedy god.

War Of Terror: Lies Inc.

There are several wretches currently spewing abominable lies, which like all the best lies are strategic deployments to advance the cause of the mendacious scum utilising them.

Lie 1.

Gee shucks waterboarding is torture, but it works. Beautiful, by admitting it’s torture you open the feeble minded to hearing your lies, hmmm seems like a reasonable patriotic guy, he hated to do it but hey turns out it worked. One small problem the only, the only people saying it worked are the criminals who perpetrated the torture and one more thing, the man they tortured was mentally ill, that ain’t getting much play.

Abu Zubaydah, his captors discovered, turned out to be mentally ill and nothing like the pivotal figure they supposed him to be. CIA and FBI analysts, poring over a diary he kept for more than a decade, found entries “in the voice of three people: Hani 1, Hani 2, and Hani 3” — a boy, a young man and a middle-aged alter ego. All three recorded in numbing detail “what people ate, or wore, or trifling things they said.” Dan Coleman, then the FBI’s top al-Qaeda analyst, told a senior bureau official, “This guy is insane, certifiable, split personality.”

Abu Zubaydah also appeared to know nothing about terrorist operations; rather, he was al-Qaeda’s go-to guy for minor logistics — travel for wives and children and the like. That judgment was “echoed at the top of CIA and was, of course, briefed to the President and Vice President,” Suskind writes. And yet somehow, in a speech delivered two weeks later, President Bush portrayed Abu Zubaydah as “one of the top operatives plotting and planning death and destruction on the United States.” And over the months to come, under White House and Justice Department direction, the CIA would make him its first test subject for harsh interrogation techniques.

Torture is a terror tactic to intimidate both your enemy and domestic dissenters while simultaneously it creates the information that confirms the torturer’s world view. Thus the hideous practices are justified in a circular reinforcing logic. But added to that here is a criminal trying to avoid war crimes prosecution by claiming the actions saved lives, a claim that of course we will never be allowed to verify, because it is false. And the other thing being fogotten- a regime that tortures has no legitimacy and all good people must unite to destroy it, no exceptions, no excuses. You do this, you are over.

PS. This torture promoting ingenue now works in the private sector most recently he worked for Viacom on The Kite Runner. I’m sure they’ll follow that up with a movie about coalition atrocities.

PPS. It is not simulated drowning, your lungs are filled with water, it is actual drowning, that’s the point- you fear for your life. Jeebus first ‘enhanced interrogation’ now ‘simulated’. The underground whirring from Sutton Courtenay must be deafening.

Lie 2.

President Bush on Tuesday called on Iran to explain why it had a secretive nuclear weapons program, and warned that any such efforts must not be allowed to flourish “for the sake of world peace.”

“Iran is dangerous,” Bush said after an Oval Office meeting with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. “We believe Iran had a secret military weapons program, and Iran must explain to the world why they had a program.”

Okay, here we go shit for brains-

Name a country’s nuclear program that is not ‘secretive’, civilian power stations (let alone any military facilities) have armed guards in this country as they do in yours you fucking imbecile. Oh yeah and…Israel. But lets face it you are obliquely referring to the war pimps promotion of the ‘laptop of death’ fantasy.

A false accusation is a potent weapon, it puts the burden of proof on the target removing their ability to engage in a discourse not dictated by the attacker. To the enfeebled they assume simply because an accusation is made that the accuser simply wouldn’t lie from out of the blue, the ignorant ‘there’s no smoke without fire’ approach to small minded idiocy. And , umm when he says they had a program, that would also be your people saying that, not for example the IAEA-

 it would be worthwhile to remember that despite the clandestine importation of centrifuges from Pakistan, Iran’s plan to develop the uranium enrichment process was hardly a secret. For example, Iran had invited IAEA inspectors to visit Iran’s uranium mines in 1996. There is no use for uranium ore except to be enriched – or, I guess, to be made into paperweights. In fact, 10 years prior to that, the discovery of uranium deposits and plans to mine uranium were all discussed on Iranian national radio with a director of Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency. Iran and the IAEA had even drawn up plans whereby the IAEA was to provide technical assistance to Iran’s enrichment program – but that as well as subsequent Iranian contracts with other foreign governments to build enrichment facilities in Iran fell through under US pressure (thus forcing the Iranians to go to Pakistani sources to obtain the centrifuge technology that they were fully legally entitled to have in the first place.)

What sort of a “secret nuclear weapons program” invites IAEA inspectors and announces its existence on the radio? On what basis should we simply accept the NIE’s recent version of history regarding Iran’s nuclear program? Why should we believe that Iran EVER had a nuclear weapons program when there is absolutely no evidence for it?

Of course Bush has been sent out there to continue to push the idea Iran is a threat and if enough stupid people buy that then they get their attack and suffer no consequences. Yes, despite the mutiny of the establishment via the NIE the cabal of war criminals are unsurprsisngly…undeterred. We know they have psychopathic levels of shamelessness, he must of really chuckled giving the WWIII speech even as he knew what the NIE said.

Lie 3.

The Democratic politicians briefed on the torture program were so bound by secrecy oaths they could not speak up. Errr…NO.

The Speech and Debate clause has been interpreted to extend beyond floor speeches, e.g. to committee statements, but it unquestionably applies to floor statements. Thus, it would have been possible for Rep. Harman, or Senator Rockefeller, or the others allegedly briefed to go to the floor, either during the times when members may speak on topics of their choice, or under one of the extraordinary mechanism for privileged statements, and denounce the Bush administration’s determinate to torture helpless captives in secret offshore detention facilities. 

Not really much more to say to that, no. That is a lie, therefore for reasons of cowardice, submission or approval you kept schtum. Just one teesny weensiest problemissimo with that- YOU ARE THE FUCKING OPPOSITION. Consequently we may conclude there is no effective opposition to the descent into an end stage metastasised fascist imperium.

Lie 4.

We need 42 day detention without charge and parliament’s oversight will be an effective check on that. First of all lets say six weeks, as that is the time they propose, it’s just 42 days sounds shorter. No, six weeks where you are completely at the mercy of the police. No, what six weeks is for brings us back to our merry torturer friend, it means the suspicions of the authorities may be imprinted on an individual who can be worn down so they reflect those suspicions. It will simply lead to another stream of wrongful convictions, we did it with even less detention time to numerous Irish people, this time I’m guessing the main beneficiaries of Her Majesty’s pleasures will be of a darker hue and rarely catholic.

The current time of 28 days/ four weeks is already an outrage, anti terrorist laws are routinely used as a means of public control and numerous peaceful protesters have been detained under them which goes toward demonstrating that whatever this government claims, the reality of how it uses the law is provably radically different. So no, they should not be trusted with locking people up for six weeks of interrogation. No one should. They even knew that in 1215 which I would say is reasonably long enough ago to be sufficiently embedded in our history and culture so that even an Oxford graduate would be aware of it, huh Jacqui? (look I’ve even provided a link, I know you ex-economics teachers aren’t so clever with the ‘finding out information off your own initiative’ thing, too much like thinking, eh?)

Thirst For Murder

The midday sun beats down on a phalanx of riot police facing thousands of jeering demonstrators, angry at proposals to put up their water bills by more than a third. Moments later a uniformed officer astride a horse shouts an order and the police charge down the street to embark on a club-wielding melee that leaves dozens of bloodied protesters with broken limbs.

 It’s a description of a real-life event in Cochabamba, Bolivia’s third largest city, where a subsidiary of Bechtel, the US engineering giant, took over the municipal water utility and increased bills to a level that the poorest could not afford.

He and others, including the World Bank, believe that private industry can – sometimes – solve problems by taking water out of government hands and removing subsidies. If water becomes more expensive, so this argument goes, people are more reluctant to waste it, although Taylor agrees that government needs to make certain that the poorest sections of society are protected, and that there is ‘proper [price] regulation’.

GE and Dow Chemical are among big US companies diversifying into water services, while the UK-based Thames Water is expanding overseas. 

Max Lawson, senior policy adviser for Oxfam, says: ‘We are sceptical that private-sector involvement is the solution for very poor countries. In fact, there is an argument that much greater public sector involvement and cash is needed to channel supplies to where they are most needed.’ 

Read on to laugh as a World Bank scumbag says they are not ideologically motivated and leap with joy as various City types salivate at the money to be made in the ‘water sector’, bless. Oh and being ‘reluctant to waste it’, um, firstly we have not provided basic potable water to ourselves worldwide, second, you sort of…how can I put this…die quite fucking quickly without water. It’s sort of the basic essential for all human (& indeed any) life, damn those wasteful decadent types unwilling to die of thirst so profits can be increased. Not to mention those selfish bastards wanting to wash and have sewerage systems so large scale public health disasters can be avoided. And again we have not even got to the point where everyone has even safe drinking water before we’ve made it scarce by irresponsible industry and want to create a new source of lovely revenue for the corporations (profit vs. poor people dying of thirst and disease, hmm which would the markets choose, I wonder, oh wait people are dying now while others make profit, kerching we have an answer!) by privatising the water of planet Earth.

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.

Omertà

The IPCC also said the tradition of police officers being allowed to write up their notes together should stop. It said it could be significant that none of the 17 civilian witnesses in the tube carriage – who were not allowed to confer with other passengers before giving statements – heard officers shout: “Armed police.” All eight police officers on the train recall hearing this being shouted, the report said.

Meanwhile Blair has until November 22nd to blackmail the members of the Metropolitan police authority.

• Police officers failed to take advantage of a 30-minute window of opportunity to correctly identify whether Mr de Menezes was a suspected terrorist;
  
• There was no contingency plan available to deal with a suspect travelling on public transport despite the nature of the 7/7 and 21/7 attacks;
  
• None of the 17 members of the public on board the Stockwell Underground train recalled hearing officers shout “armed police” but all eight police in the carriage said they had;
  
• Ms Dick missed part of the early morning briefing at New Scotland Yard after being sent to the wrong room;
  
• Armed response officers from the Met’s CO19 unit were not in place to intercept suspects leaving Scotia Road and were later in the wrong place to intercept him;
  
• There were “gaps in the planning” about how the premises would be contained
  
• It was a “failure of strategy” to allow Mr de Menezes to board the number 2 bus at Tulse Hill towards central London, including an “inexplicable” failure to stop him reboarding the vehicle.
  
• Ms Dick should have said that the Met’s shoot-to-kill policy, Operation Kratos, had not been engaged and there was confusion over what the order to “stop” Mr de Menezes meant.

-‘failed’, ‘inexplicable’, ‘gaps’- Nice to see the IPCC has the big book of euphemistic platitudes on hand for its report.

it says Commissioner Sir Ian Blair tried to prevent its investigation. 

This is the most powerful police chief in the UK obstructing a legal investigation of his activities after his organisation murdered a man, resignation? Fired and prosecuted and if I’m feeling charitable he’ll be allowed soap on a rope when he’s sent down.

Burma The Change Coming

The ongoing process for democracy-

Around 200 monks from several monasteries in Pakokku staged a walking protest at 8.30 this morning, according to a monk who participated in the march. The monk said that the protest was a continuation of last month’s demonstrations as he said the monks’ demands have still not been met. “Our demands are for lower commodity prices, national reconciliation and the immediate release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners,” the monk explained.

“We are not afraid of getting arrested or being tortured. We are doing this for Sasana,” he said.

The monks reportedly notified the authorities in advance, telling them that if a pro-government demonstration was taking place then the monks should also be allowed to hold their protest. The monk said there would be more and larger demonstrations in the future. “We did not have much time to organise the protest as we did not actually plan for it, so there weren’t a lot of monks. But there will be bigger and more organized protests soon,” he said. The monk said that civilian bystanders supported the protest but were afraid to express this openly. “We would like to urge people not to be afraid since we are doing this for good future of our country,” he said.

And exiled monks have formed an alliance to raise international awareness of Burma’s situation and lobby international governments. Yesterday Human Rights Watch released a report saying the Junta press gangs children into military service, this is not really news if you are informed on the situation but it was useful to keep Burma in the news. Teenagers have long been snatched/beguiled/conned and brutalised into becoming agents of state repressive apparatus & aggression…and that also happens in Burma, ahem. UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari is due back in Burma on Saturday, the generals wanting to grease as many palms and return to a false facade of calm for the ASEAN meeting in November. So the envoy’s presence and this latest protest are key signifiers of a continuing struggle that must be recognised and supported. The military is looking to divide and weaken the opposition while recruiting militias-

Residents of Mingalar Taung Nyunt township, Rangoon, have claimed that local police have been conducting military training for township residents and offering rewards to those who attend. Police sergeants from the township police have reportedly delivered basic military training to around 120 local people. They also claimed that police promised to give a reward of 3000 kyat a day to the participants, and that most of those who took part were poor or unemployed young people motivated by the reward.

Via Ko Htike a four hour debate in the UK parliament addresses Burma-

British Members of Parliament called for an investigation into crimes against humanity in Burma and increased aid to the Burmese people during a four-hour debate on the current crisis held in the House of Commons last night. MPs, human rights campaigners and members of the Burmese exiled community held a vigil in Parliament Square during the debate.

In the historic debate, MPs called for the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to visit Burma and urged the British Government to investigate crimes against humanity and bring a case against Burma’s military regime to the International Criminal Court.

The Secretary of State for International Development, Douglas Alexander MP, announced plans to double British aid to Burma from £8.8 million this year to £18 million by 2010. His announcement follows criticism that the Department for International Development (DfID) failed to act on key recommendations from the House of Commons International Development Committee in July. The Committee had called for British aid to be quadrupled by 2013, and for funding for cross-border aid to internally displaced people and support for pro-democracy and human rights projects.

The Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell MP, who travelled with Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) to the Thai-Burmese border and visited Rangoon earlier this year, told the House of Commons: “I am surprised and rather disappointed that the Government have not accepted in full the recommendations of the [Committee’s] excellent report. Indeed, they have rejected the most important ones…We agree entirely with the Committee’s recommendation. If we are in government after the next election, we will implement that proposal in full and immediately.”

Well that’s good to hear, but it is tory in opposition so I won’t get all shocked & shit if/when that promise is broken and the govt. has still not accepted the full recommendations and little mention is made of oil and arms. So some progress, still a way to go Gordon. A word to the Thai govt. wouldn’t go amiss, they are staging raids on immigrants, criminalising refugees from Burma. Internally guilt by association causes a whole rubber plantation’s staff detained by criminal state sanctioned volunteer police gangs-

A resident of Inntakaw township, Bago, where the rubber plantation is located, told DVB that plantation owner Aung Gyi and his workers were arrested by a volunteer police force led by chief Hla Moe Aung, who set up an interrogation camp in the plantation after his group arrested Htay Kywe.

“The plantation owner and his workers were arrested and are now being interrogated by Hla Moe Aung and his group. They are questioning people who live in the area as well,” said an Inntakaw resident, speaking on condition of anonymity. “They demand liquor and livestock from the neighbourhood. They have stolen and sold everything in the plantation as well.” According to unconfirmed sources, Hla Moe Aung was given a 2.5 million kyat reward by Burma police chief Khin Yee for the arrest of Htay Kywe.

And in oil rich Arakan state the lockdown continues-

The junta authorities of Arakan State have  ordered the administration of northern Arakan on October 29 to check family lists, tighten security on the border and watch the movement of monks, said a local in Maungdaw… Burma’s Border Security Force (Nasaka) has also been asked to check anyone leaving their village or entering with or without permission, he added.

TOC (Tactical Operation Command) also told the administration to check villages twice or thrice a month. If anyone stays without permission or overstays with permission, he will be punished according to the law. The authorities ordered the Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) not to permit anyone to stay in the villages for more than three days, said a member of the VPDC.

According to a villager, VPDC gives permission to villagers to go to another village for only three days. If anyone does not come back within the time frame, he will be fined by the authorities.

So, the Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) and Head Quarters (HQS) of Burma’s border security forces (Nasaka) has ordered the administration to watch the movement of monks and to arrest monks if they see new faces in northern Arakan. The authorities have information that monks involved in the recent uprising are trying to cross the Burma-Bangladesh border and were coming from outside northern Arakan.

As One Door Closes…

Mercenaries will lose their license to kill in Iraq-

The Iraqi government plans to submit a draft law to parliament soon to bring foreign private security contractors under Iraqi jurisdiction and end their immunity from prosecution, an Iraqi official said on Wednesday. The legislation follows a number of deadly shootings involving foreign security guards, most controversially a Sept. 16 incident in which guards employed by U.S. firm Blackwater killed 17 people.

But why dwell on the past when you can pimp up new wars-

The United States on Thursday escalated tensions over Iran’s nuclear drive and alleged backing for terrorism with a raft of new sanctions against the Islamic republic’s military and banks. Iran denounced the unilateral sanctions as illegal and “doomed to failure” and Russia sounded a note of concern. But US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington was well within its rights. “We’re taking additional actions to defend our interests and our citizens, and to help our friends to secure their countries,” she told reporters.

We’ve all seen the picture of Rice ignoring her crimes and from that post by Naj is this linked article-

Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni met today (Tuesday, 23 October 2007) with Mr Gela Bezhuashvili, foreign minister of the Republic of Georgia. During the discussion, FM Livni stressed the problematic view Israel has of the ongoing dialogues between Georgia and Iran.

With regard to the negotiations with the Palestinians, FM Livni told the Georgian FM that “it must be clearly understood that any agreement with the Palestinians must be conditional upon the implementation of Palestinian commitments to the war against terror”.

TWAT is really just a brand name for the old game, a set of conditions to subservience that must be met, a code of hegemony that unless submitted to you will be designated ‘enemy’ & ‘terrorist’, bombed, tortured, treated as sub-human until you obey the overseer empire’s (and its familiars) diktats. That is what the rhetoric on Iran is about, though luckily it does provide an easy test for identifying morons- if mention of Iran makes them worry/talk/write/run think-tank seminars/appear on news programs /host radio shows about being attacked with nuclear weapons and thus ‘we’ must strike first… they are a moron. You don’t need to thank me for this useful cretin divining service, just doing my job keeping the world safe from witless buffoons.