geopolitiks/warwhores: powderkegs looking for sparks

drills, bolton, harvard - putting pieces together
from of goats & men: We mentioned in the blog earlier how John Bolton thinks an Iran attack must proceed within days if it is to occur at all. Terror drills and military exercises have begun in Korea. Harvard has divested itself from Israeli investments which one could speculate has to do with fear of war in the Middle East. Gold is on the rise. None of this definitely means war is coming, but it certainly suggests it could very well be.

USrael increase military cooperation, hold joint exercises

israeli soldier defends her 'sexy' fbook prisoner pics
from danger room: Posing and smiling with blindfolded Palestinian prisoners — and then posting the pics to Facebook? What’s the big deal, an Israeli reserve officer asks. “There’s no violence or intention to humiliate anyone in the pictures,” Eden Abergil tells Army Radio. “I know I didn’t do anything wrong,” she said. Nonetheless, the photos, taken during Abergil’s active duty and part of a gallery labeled “IDF – the best time of my life,” have drawn condemnation from Israeli and Palestinian officials alike. In a YouTube clip, IDF spokesman Captain Barak Raz calls Abergil’s photos “repulsive” and “shameful.” Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib calls them “an example of life under occupation.”

egypt seizes explosives on ship coming from israel

real war against 'terrorists' not in afghanistan -
but in pakistan, yemen & somalia

geopolitiks: inside bombs, payrolls & the daily show of force

video: largest iraq bombing in 2yrs may have been inside job*
twin suicide car bombs in baghdad kill 136*
car bomb kills 90 in pakistan as hillary visits*
car bomb kills 100 in pakistani city of peshawar*
pakistan bomb kills 92 as clinton visits*
pakistan moves for maritime body to prevent terror attacks*
ex-cia agent robert baer confirms US ties with jundullah*
israel wants free warships from germany*
amnesty intl says israel 'cuts palestinian water'*
in israel, a key test of obama’s retooled missile shield*
rothschild zionist bolton: israel has a right to pre-emptively strike iran *
video: daily show under fire for covering israeli-palestinian conflict*
israelis at center of ecstasy drug trade*
mystery of the missing iranian scientist*
afghan police open fire at demonstration*
karzai's brother said to be on cia payroll: report*
afghan opium kingpin on cia payroll*
video: author on karzai’s brother: ‘the generals dropped the dime on the spooks’*
new US bases on the black sea*
czech pres klaus still holding out over lisbon treaty*
new US/eu energy council to be set up early november*
brown to 'buy off' germany & france to get president blair*
blow to blair's hopes of eu job*
US & eu ink extradition pact*
church of scientology convicted of fraud in france*
alleged intel adviser makes lurid claims about prince albert of monacco*
japan shoots down missile in test off hawaii*
china says two executed for tibet riots*
soros: china will lead new world order*

obamessiah: staged politricks & the left/right facade

both parties love big government - just different programs

gordon brown appeals to US congress for help to save the world
from telegraph: Gordon Brown has attempted to establish himself as an international statesman with the vision to lead the world out of recession in a speech to the US Congress in Washington.

video: nuking chicago would teach obama a lesson

new world order crony gary hart calls for 'civic duty'

georgia politicos haven't filed federal & state taxes in years

tax evading geithner will go after tax evaders
from fox: The pot has issued the kettle an ultimatum: tax dodgers beware. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who was forced to fork up $34,000 in unpaid back taxes, told the House Ways and Means Committee Tuesday that the Obama administration will be going after people who avoid and evade taxes. In prepared remarks before Congress, he said the president is intent on "tackling tax shelters and other efforts to abuse our tax laws, including international tax evasion efforts." Geithner himself never used a tax haven to avoid payment, but did neglect to pay Medicare and Social Security taxes while he was a self-employed staffer for the International Monetary Fund. He even hired an accountant for two of the years he forgot to file.

twitter, blumenauer, mccain & oregon's solar highway

theater of the mind controlled: limbaugh challenges obama to duel
from usa today: Rush Limbaugh, apparently taking to heart the Obama administration's description of him as the leader of the Republican Party, has invited President Obama to come on his radio show for a debate. The edgy, bombastic conservative, describing himself as a "harmless, lovable little fuzzball" and "the Last Man Standing," wrapped the invitation in a long series of jibes at Obama, his policies, his party, his aides, his speaking style and the entertaining he's done during his six weeks at the White House. "You are one of the most gifted public speakers of our age. I would think, Mr. President, you would jump at this opportunity," Limbaugh said on his show, which has millions of listeners on more than 600 radio stations. Read the whole segment here. There's even a cartoon invitation in fancy script.

obama urges americans to invest in plummeting stock market

obama announces plan to continue US military occupation of iraq
from wsws: President Obama formally announced his administration's plans for the continued US military occupation of Iraq on Friday [feb27], in remarks delivered at the Camp Lejeune marine base in North Carolina. Far from bringing the war to an end, the plans will maintain present troop levels for one year and ensure a substantial military presence for at least three years, through the end of 2011.

court rejects obama bid to stop wiretapping suit

obama: change, but not from bush
from ap: For all the sweeping changes that President Barack Obama has delivered, there also has been an ample helping of more-of-the-same. The Bush policy of imprisoning enemy combatants in Afghanistan without trial? The Obama White House is OK with that. The Bush tax cuts for the rich that candidate Obama promised to wipe out early? President Obama will let them run their course. The Bush team's claim of a "state secrets" privilege to avoid releasing information? The Obama White House has agreed thrice over, even as it reviews the policy. Across the landscape of government, there are plenty of other instances in which Obama is staying his Republican predecessor's course, at least for now.

bush considered revoking 1st amendment*
bush lawyers approved constitution-free domestic military ops*
olc authorized pentagon to ignore bill of rights on US soil*
cia destroyed nearly 100 tortue tapes*
cia ruined 92 interrogation tapes*

politico conflates obama 'birthers' with 9/11 truthers
from politico: Bill Clinton had the Vince Foster "murder." George W. Bush had 9/11 Truth. And the new administration has brought with it a new culture of conspiracy: The Birthers. Out of the gaze of the mainstream and even the conservative media is a flourishing culture of advocates, theorists and lawyers, all devoted to proving that Barack Obama isn't eligible to be president of the United States.

man held after mailing hiv-tainted blood to obama

obama & biden chipped or wearing tracking devices?
from the memory hole: While profiling White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for The New Yorker, Ryan Lizza saw something interesting in Emanuel’s office. It’s mentioned only in passing: "Next to his computer monitor is a smaller screen that looks like a handheld G.P.S. device and tells Emanuel where the President and senior White House officials are at all times." So, Obama, Biden, and other “senior White House officials” are lojacked? It makes sense that they’d be wearing/carrying something (or is it, as seems likely, an injected RFID chip?) that always gives their location in case of kidnapping, medical emergency, etc. But here’s the kicker: The device is obviously giving off a signal, which is how it can be tracked, and that signal could theoretically be intercepted by unauthorized parties. And it could probably be blocked, faked, etc. One of the main objections to Obama keeping his BlackBerry is that the signal could be used to track him. Now that he’s keeping it, he’s trackable in two ways. Undoubtedly, strong measures have been taken to prevent his trackability via the BlackBerry or the monitoring device. But in the case of the latter, it’s supposed to monitor his movements. Its whole purpose is to let certain people know where he is at any given moment. Thus, the signal can’t be completely blocked because then it would be useless. More questions: Who besides Emanuel is authorized to have the receivers showing the real-time location of the country’s leaders? How many receivers are there?

shadow games behind obama's missile deal

obama vs pentagon bureaucracy, round1 (of a fake fight)
from danger room: Everybody in D.C. knows that the way the federal government - and the Pentagon especially - handles contracts is beyond screwed-up. Sweetheart deals, busted budgets, and lax oversight, and missed deadlines are pretty much the norm, on every major deal. Yesterday [mar4], President Barack Obama sent a message yesterday to the federal paper-pushers: the days of contract shenanigans are over. But can anything - even a direct order from the Oval Office - change one of the planet's most dysfunctional bureaucracies? Obama signed a memorandum yesterday that gives the Office of Management and Budget until July 1 to issue new guidelines for identifying government contracts "wasteful, inefficient, or not otherwise likely to meet the agency's needs, and to formulate appropriate corrective action in a timely manner." This move would give agencies the potential authority to cancel contracts outright, if deemed necessary. Interpreted liberally, this could include most of the big weapons development deals that the Pentagon has on the books today. It's part of a larger push to rein in government spending. In a speech yesterday, Obama said government contracting practices needed to be overhauled to cut back on waste, fraud and abuse. "Over the last eight years, government spending on contracts has doubled to over $500 billion," he said. "Far too often, the spending is plagued by massive cost overruns, outright fraud, and the absence of oversight and accountability."

'obama deception' coming soon

bolton to face citizen’s arrest in wales?

from thinkprogress: Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton is scheduled to speak at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival in Wales today. The Telegraph reports that after his speech, Bolton may face a citizen’s arrest:

Mr Monbiot, a columnist for The Guardian newspaper, plans to detain him as he steps off stage at the end of his talk. He said he was prepared to jump on stage and perform the citizen’s arrest there if necessary.

He claimed Mr Bolton was “instrumental in preparing and initiating the Iraq war by disseminating false claims through the State Department” while he was under-secretary of state for arms control. […]

Explaining his motivation for carrying out what will be a purely symbolic gesture, Mr Monbiot said: “Many people accept that the launching of the Iraq war was an international crime, but no one has yet been prepared to act on it by arresting one of the perpetrators.”

update: surprise! bolton escapes citizen's arrest
from telegraph: Security guards blocked the path of columnist and activist George Monbiot, who tried to make the arrest as Mr Bolton left the stage. The former ambassador - a key advisor to President George W Bush who argued strongly in favour of invading Iraq - had been giving a talk on international relations to more than 600 people at the literary festival. Mr Monbiot was blocked by two heavily-built security guards at the end of the one-and-a-half hour appearance, before he could serve a "charge sheet" on him.

un human rights official wants new 9/11 investigation

john bolton: "this is exactly why we voted against the new human rights council."
from steve watson: An official in the newly formed UN Human Rights Council has called for a fresh investigation into the events of 9/11 in order to examine the possible role that neoconservatives may have played in the attacks. The New York Sun picked up the story today, explaining that Richard Falk, a professor of international law emeritus at Princeton University, and an expert on human rights was assigned to a new position within the council on March 26. His role is to report on human rights in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs.

aei: the root of bush’s right-wing ideology

from think progress: Today, President Bush delivered a speech on Afghanistan at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. AEI and the Bush administration are deeply entwined, something Bush admitted during his speech. “I admire AEI a lot,” Bush said. “After all, I have been consistently borrowing some of your best people. More than 20 AEI scholars have worked in my administration.”

Below are a few examples of the people and ideas that AEI has shared - or tried to share - with the Bush White House over recent years:

– Escalation. President Bush’s escalation plan is based on a report by AEI scholar Frederick Kagan. CNN reporter Suzanne Malveaux said of AEI’s influence on Iraq policy: “One conservative policy group that has the president’s ear and is influencing his thinking is the American Enterprise Institute.”

– The Cheneys. Dick Cheney served as AEI Senior Fellow from 1993-1995, and his wife Lynn currently serves as Senior Fellow studying education and children. “Both Lynne and I have a long history with the American Enterprise Institute, and we value the association,” Vice President Cheney said in 2005.

– Bomb Iran. “We must bomb Iran,” AEI Resident Scholar Joshua Muravchik wrote in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times. Muravchik called for an “air campaign against Tehran’s nuclear facilities”

– Richard Perle. Perle has been at AEI since 1987, and currently serves as a Resident Fellow. A leading neoconservative, Perle was a fierce proponent of regime change in Iraq. He served as Chairman of the Defense Policy Board from 2001 to 2003.

– John Bolton. Served as Senior Vice President of AEI before coming to the Bush administration. Bolton currently serves as a Senior Fellow at AEI. “There is no such thing as the United Nations,” Bolton said. “If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.”

– Climate change inaction. AEI offered $10,000 to climate change deniers to speak out against the recent IPCC climate change study.

– Karl Zinsmeister. Worked for 12 years at the American Enterprise magazine. He became Bush’s top domestic policy adviser, but only after he admitted to padding his resume.

– Social Security privatization. AEI has long been a vocal supporter of Social Security privatization.

– Greg Mankiw. A visiting scholar at AEI, Mankiw served as Bush’s chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from 2003 to 2005. In 2004, Mankiw said the outsourcing of U.S. jobs overseas was “probably a plus for the economy in the long run.”

– John Yoo. Currently a visiting scholar for AEI, and a former deputy assistant attorney general in the office of legal counsel of the Department of Justice. Yoo authored the infamous torture memo that argued interrogation techniques only constituted torture if they are “equivalent in intensity to… organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.”

bolton resigns: one more neocon down

from ap/msnbc: Unable to win Senate confirmation, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton will step down when his temporary appointment expires within weeks, the White House said Monday.

Bolton’s nomination has languished in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for more than a year, blocked by Democrats and several Republicans. Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a moderate Republican who lost in the midterm elections Nov. 7 that swept Democrats to power in both houses of Congress, was adamantly opposed to Bolton.

Critics have questioned Bolton’s brusque style and whether he could be an effective bureaucrat who could force reform at the U.N.

President Bush gave Bolton the job temporarily in August 2005, while Congress was in recess. Under that process, the appointment expires when Congress formally adjourns, no later than early January.

The White House resubmitted Bolton’s nomination last month. But with Democrats capturing control of the next Congress, his chances of winning confirmation appeared slight. The incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, said he saw “no point in considering Mr. Bolton’s nomination again.”