We are told by many Democrats that the era of partisanship is over. And in this spirit we are told, is that any movement of holding the previous administration accountable for crimes against the Constitution and crimes against the laws of this country is a partisan witch hunt we should not seek because the country needs to move forward and fix the problems the American people would like them to fix. And in doing things this way, the Obama administration is being a presidency for all the people of the United States, both red America and blue America. And then Obama gives a speech with The Constitution as his backdrop, that he will reestablish the rule of law, our Constitution, and our nation’s founding principles. He does this while he proposes a continuance of questionable military commissions with a little tweaking on his part and a concept as foreign to the Constitution, the development of western law, and the founding principles of this country as “prolonged detention” without trial or evidence and still retains rendition in the continuing war against a concept called “a war against terrorism”. Of course, it is not the purview of the executive branch and the executive branch alone in a nation built on the principles of checks and balances and division of power in the United States to claim to reestablish laws since those laws are still the laws of this country nor to propose new laws such as providing legal concepts foreign to our body of law. Obama claims that no one is above the law and that we have mechanisms to punish violators and uphold the law through the courts and congress. He says this as he has expressed he is against congressional hearings and investigations. He says this while his Justice Department uses the state secrets privilege on many remaining cases to deny those who were wronged by the previous administration’s illegal activities their day in court and which has been used against American whistleblowers such as Sibel Edmonds. This Department of Justice has shown just how far it is willing to go to defend former Bush administration officials by its interjection into the civil case of Joe and Valerie Plame Wilson vs. Cheney, Rove, Libby, and Armitage through issuance of court briefs.
We are told that those who seek investigations, impeachment, and justice concerning Bush administration illegalities are political partisans seeking criminalization of policy differences. We hear this theme from Obama administration officials and we hear it from Cheney spewing on television his defense of torture and various fabrications. If it is true this is a partisan issue from “liberal Democrats” seeking political retribution, then how does one explain the diverse political leanings and opinions of those that seek application of the law? How could diverse persons such as liberal Congressman Dennis Kucinich and Republican Bruce Fein, former associate attorney general and general counsel of the FCC under President Reagan as well as Research Director to then-Congressman Dick Cheney on the Joint Congressional Committee on Covert Arms Sales to Iran as well as a former Visiting Fellow for Constitutional Studies at the Heritage Foundation, both be on the same side of this issue? In fact, one could look at not prosecuting former Bush administration officials as the ultimate partisan fight between political parties. That would be a competitive fight for ultimate power beyond Constitutional and legal restraints and for ultimate geopolitical power in a world that seeks and tries to protect itself through the use of international law and cooperation which our recent actions have rejected.
Don’t be seduced by the false arguments and distractions by the media and political operatives such as what did Pelosi know when she was minority leader or whether waterboarding is torture and don’t be seduced with the words “enhanced interrogation techniques” and the TV show 24. Waterboarding or “water torture” is one of the oldest forms of torture. The United States prosecuted Japanese military leaders at the end of World War II for its use. Enhanced Interrogation Techniques comes from “Verschärfte Vernehmung” or enhanced interrogation which was a system of torture designed to “leave no marks” and was a form of torture the Gestapo created in World War II designed for “civilian insurgents without uniforms” and from which the Bush administration borrowed heavily from in constructing its techniques. Both are torture and are illegal under United States law and are considered war crimes. Don’t be seduced by leaders that say some of the rights of citizens need to be curtailed or that they need extra emergency powers for national security for history has shown them to be the arguments of tyranny throughout history. One of the beautiful things the U.S. gave the world were the concepts of self government through our Constitution and the Bill of Rights which also stresses no one is above the law. Another was the Nuremberg Principles of which through these principles was formed the basis of international law. Do not give into those who sully this reputation concerning the rule of law that is our legacy but which we have abandoned recently. It is time to return to those American principles and the freedom and moral guidance they have provided. Let’s not lose America’s greatest nonpartisan fight, the fight for liberty and justice for all.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Brzezinski's War
As we look over today's American landscape, what do we see? We see a nation strained by giving all the commonwealth's money to its military industrial complex and Wall Street through "privatization" while its main street suffers. We see a nation that has squandered its defining concepts of a nation "By the People For the People" and liberty and justice for all for concepts of "unitary executive", signing statements, and military conquest. We see a nation of war and "security" profiteers, "global war on terrorism" and the concepts of global hegemony with a forced strident Friedman school of economics and Grover Norquist. We see a nation where people inside and outside government participate in the nuclear black market of the Middle East and Central Asia, international terrorism, money laundering, and the global heroin trade as revealed in the case of F.B.I. whistleblower Sibel Edmonds ( http://letsibeledmondsspeak.blogspot.com/ / , http://www.justacitizen.com/ / ). How in the world did we get to this state of affairs?
It all appears it began in earnest when Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor to Jimmy Carter, came up with a plan to give the Soviet Union their "Vietnam", a long lasting quagmire to weaken them. This would be acheived by arming the mujahadeen fighters in Afghanistan to create civil disturbance for the Soviet backed government there. Thus the journey began in earnest and invariably has led us to today where it has become our lasting quagmire and quite possibly, with all the turmoil now in in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, our declining moment as it was originally for the Soviet Union. I wrote in September of 2007 in MMonk's Journal a piece about terrorism and foreign policy I think bears repeating.
Understanding terrorism as policy construct, oil, and why we are in Iraq.
In 1979, a group of powerful people from various countries gathered together in Jerusalem to promote the idea of "international terrorism" as a sort of policy construct. It was a forum set up by Benjamin Netanyahu and was officially known as the Jerusalem Conference on International Terrorism. The idea was originally formulated to blame terrorist activities on the Soviet Union as a continual pretext to protect the free enterprise areas of the world dominated by U.S. based multi-national corporations from being taken over by host states as national companies. Some prominent attendees were as follows; George Bush Sr., Ray S. Cline (former Deputy Director for Intelligence at the CIA), Henry M. Jackson (Sen. from Washington State), Richard Pipes (professor and Russian expert in Reagan's Security Council), Sir Hugh Fraser (Conservative MP and former British Undersecretary of State for Colonies), Paul Johnson (former editor of New Statesman), Maj. General Schlomo Gazit (former military intelligence chief of Israel), Lt. Gen Aharon Gazit (Israel), Shimon Perez, Manachem Begin, and Benzion Netanyahu (Cornell University professor emeritus) among others. Interestingly enough, operations of the US helping the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan in an attempt to get the Soviet Union to step into a quagmire and experience their “Vietnam” was underway.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, many thought there could be a peace dividend. Many in the pentagon and the state department had another idea. The US was the remaining super power, and thus with the collapse of the soviet union, there didn’t have to be any more constraints on US policy. This they thought, meant the US could control the world and its economies with its 700+ military bases around the world. Any who opposed this American run world could be dealt with without serious consequence as such was the thinking. The pentagon had always thought that if the US could control central Asia and the Middle East, it could control the energy resources of the world. Hence the real reason of why we are where we are today.
Any doubters need only take a look at the Bremer “orders” implemented after the invasion of Iraq. It is very clear and probably why the compliant media doesn’t discuss such things. Examples are as follows: Order 1-deBathification , Order 2- Dissolve the Iraqi military and intelligence apparatus, Order 12 and Order 54- Trade Liberalization, Order 14 -Prohibited media activity, Order17 -Contractor and military immunity from Iraqi laws, Order 37 and 49- Replace progressive tax system with flat tax system, Order 40 and 94- Iraqi banking open to foreign ownership, Order 62 -Bremer to determine who could run for office, Order 65 Iraqi Communications and Media Commission appointed by Bremer, Order 57 and 77-place American representatives in key decision making positions in the government ministries, Order 80, 81, and 83 Rewrote Iraq’s patent, trademark, and copy write laws. But the most obvious is Order 39. Provision-1, privatization, Provision 2-100 percent Foreign Ownership of Iraqi Businesses, Provision 3 National treatment of foreign investment, Provision-4 Unrestricted Repatriation of Profits for Foreign Investors, Provision 5-Forty Year Leases of Iraqi Real Estate by Foreign Entities and Provision 6 Disputes could be settled in international tribunals instead of Iraqi Courts.
This is, of course why we are over there. This is not the common cry of the followers of the right that we are there so we don’t have to fight them over here. Americans must push for their politicians to come clean. No more talk about a “war on terrorism” or if we left there would be chaos.
Sources
The Bush Agenda. Invading The World One Economy at a Time by Antonia Juhasz
The War on Truth. 9/11, Disinformation, and the Anatomy of Terrorism by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/mmonk/26
It all appears it began in earnest when Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor to Jimmy Carter, came up with a plan to give the Soviet Union their "Vietnam", a long lasting quagmire to weaken them. This would be acheived by arming the mujahadeen fighters in Afghanistan to create civil disturbance for the Soviet backed government there. Thus the journey began in earnest and invariably has led us to today where it has become our lasting quagmire and quite possibly, with all the turmoil now in in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, our declining moment as it was originally for the Soviet Union. I wrote in September of 2007 in MMonk's Journal a piece about terrorism and foreign policy I think bears repeating.
Understanding terrorism as policy construct, oil, and why we are in Iraq.
In 1979, a group of powerful people from various countries gathered together in Jerusalem to promote the idea of "international terrorism" as a sort of policy construct. It was a forum set up by Benjamin Netanyahu and was officially known as the Jerusalem Conference on International Terrorism. The idea was originally formulated to blame terrorist activities on the Soviet Union as a continual pretext to protect the free enterprise areas of the world dominated by U.S. based multi-national corporations from being taken over by host states as national companies. Some prominent attendees were as follows; George Bush Sr., Ray S. Cline (former Deputy Director for Intelligence at the CIA), Henry M. Jackson (Sen. from Washington State), Richard Pipes (professor and Russian expert in Reagan's Security Council), Sir Hugh Fraser (Conservative MP and former British Undersecretary of State for Colonies), Paul Johnson (former editor of New Statesman), Maj. General Schlomo Gazit (former military intelligence chief of Israel), Lt. Gen Aharon Gazit (Israel), Shimon Perez, Manachem Begin, and Benzion Netanyahu (Cornell University professor emeritus) among others. Interestingly enough, operations of the US helping the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan in an attempt to get the Soviet Union to step into a quagmire and experience their “Vietnam” was underway.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, many thought there could be a peace dividend. Many in the pentagon and the state department had another idea. The US was the remaining super power, and thus with the collapse of the soviet union, there didn’t have to be any more constraints on US policy. This they thought, meant the US could control the world and its economies with its 700+ military bases around the world. Any who opposed this American run world could be dealt with without serious consequence as such was the thinking. The pentagon had always thought that if the US could control central Asia and the Middle East, it could control the energy resources of the world. Hence the real reason of why we are where we are today.
Any doubters need only take a look at the Bremer “orders” implemented after the invasion of Iraq. It is very clear and probably why the compliant media doesn’t discuss such things. Examples are as follows: Order 1-deBathification , Order 2- Dissolve the Iraqi military and intelligence apparatus, Order 12 and Order 54- Trade Liberalization, Order 14 -Prohibited media activity, Order17 -Contractor and military immunity from Iraqi laws, Order 37 and 49- Replace progressive tax system with flat tax system, Order 40 and 94- Iraqi banking open to foreign ownership, Order 62 -Bremer to determine who could run for office, Order 65 Iraqi Communications and Media Commission appointed by Bremer, Order 57 and 77-place American representatives in key decision making positions in the government ministries, Order 80, 81, and 83 Rewrote Iraq’s patent, trademark, and copy write laws. But the most obvious is Order 39. Provision-1, privatization, Provision 2-100 percent Foreign Ownership of Iraqi Businesses, Provision 3 National treatment of foreign investment, Provision-4 Unrestricted Repatriation of Profits for Foreign Investors, Provision 5-Forty Year Leases of Iraqi Real Estate by Foreign Entities and Provision 6 Disputes could be settled in international tribunals instead of Iraqi Courts.
This is, of course why we are over there. This is not the common cry of the followers of the right that we are there so we don’t have to fight them over here. Americans must push for their politicians to come clean. No more talk about a “war on terrorism” or if we left there would be chaos.
Sources
The Bush Agenda. Invading The World One Economy at a Time by Antonia Juhasz
The War on Truth. 9/11, Disinformation, and the Anatomy of Terrorism by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/mmonk/26
Monday, January 21, 2008
Where oh Where Did the U.S. Media Go?
On January 6th, 2008 and January 20th, 2008, The Sunday Times of London broke a huge story internationally concerning the conduct of U.S. government officials that included passing nuclear secrets on the international blackmarket, sabotaging counter intelligence efforts, and a cover up in the F.B.I. of documentation( http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3137695.ece?Submitted=true , http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3216737.ece ). It all concerns the ongoing saga of F.B.I. whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, a contract linguist or language specialist hired by the F.B.I. after September 11th, 2001 because they needed more translators, and what she heard listening to taped conversations in her job capacity and what she ran into on the job including moles for suspect interests and criminal activities. She has pursued this through all proper channels of government and her unclassified testimony to congress was retroactively classified by the Justice Department, in my opinion, through improper application of the "States Secrets Privilege", again, in my opnion, to silence her and protect corrupt parties rather than to protect intelligence methods. For background, I suggest readers go to reknown Sibel Edmonds case expert lukery's blog http://letsibeledmondsspeak.blogspot.com/ and Sibel's website http://www.justacitizen.com/ and Bradblog http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5582 .
The condition of the U.S. press concerning this story is well described by Daniel Ellsberg of the Pentagon Papers fame at Bradblog http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5583 . But in hindsight, should we be surprised at the failure of today's media? Afterall, this is the media of Judith Miller and the selling of the Iraq war with all its lies and exaggerations and links to Scooter Libby and the media of Bob Novak who helped knock out counter proliferation efforts by exposing the identity of the C.I.A. 's Valerie Plame. In this crucial part of our history, the U.S. media no longer is the fourth estate or watchdog. It seems more to be an arm of government conspirators and cover up operations.
The condition of the U.S. press concerning this story is well described by Daniel Ellsberg of the Pentagon Papers fame at Bradblog http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5583 . But in hindsight, should we be surprised at the failure of today's media? Afterall, this is the media of Judith Miller and the selling of the Iraq war with all its lies and exaggerations and links to Scooter Libby and the media of Bob Novak who helped knock out counter proliferation efforts by exposing the identity of the C.I.A. 's Valerie Plame. In this crucial part of our history, the U.S. media no longer is the fourth estate or watchdog. It seems more to be an arm of government conspirators and cover up operations.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)