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Sunday, July 31, 2011

WASTE and WAR and WANT


A Somali woman holds a malnourished child waiting for
medical assistance from 
the African Union Mission in Somalia.
Buying and selling of U.S. governance while Africa suffers needlessly
Excerpt, editing and comment by Carolyn Bennett


There’s money out there, more than enough for all people to live in dignity, free from want. But a few are hoarding it and passing it around among themselves.

They buy and sell governance and government officials. Some of the Center for Responsive Politics' latest figures illustrate this shameful buying and selling of U.S. governance, even as peoples of the world (including U.S. citizens) languish in unspeakable misery. 

2012 U.S. Presidential Candidate 

Fundraising Summary
On July 15, 2011, most major-party presidential candidates filed campaign finance reports with the U.S. Federal Election Commission. Below are OpenSecrets.org highlights of candidates' growing chest for the chase.

Barack Obama (D)
Raised $48,662,185
Spent $80,235,455
Debts $412,878
Cash on Hand $37,110,346
See Bundlers at OpenSecrets.org
End Date June 30, 2011

Mitt Romney (R)
Raised $18,284,223
Spent $5,575,690
Debts $0
Cash on Hand $12,715,495
End Date June 30, 2011

Ron Paul (R)
Raised $4,514,166
Spent $1,547,989
Debts $0
Cash on Hand $2,966,177
End Date June 30, 2011


Tim Pawlenty (R)
Raised $4,473,673
Spent $2,472,583
Debts $1,915
Cash on Hand $2,001,090
End Date June 30, 2011

Michele Bachmann (R)
Raised $3,636,523
Spent $257,456
Debts $364,120
Cash on Hand $3,379,067
End Date June 30, 2011
 
Herman Cain (R)
Raised $2,552,835
Spent $2,070,941
Debts $0
Cash on Hand $0
End Date June 30, 2011

Newt Gingrich (R)
Raised $2,094,866
Spent $1,772,644
Debts $1,030,628
Cash on Hand $322,222
End Date June 30, 2011

Rick Santorum (R)
Raised $582,098
Spent $352,983
Debts $0
Cash on Hand $229,115
End Date June 30, 2011

Fred Karger (R)
Raised $266,511
Spent $264,208
Debts $0
Cash on Hand $2,304
End Date June 30, 2011

Gary Johnson (R)
Raised $180,237
Spent $174,230
Debts $227,360
Cash on Hand $6,007
End Date June 30, 2011

Buddy Roemer (R)
Raised $95,635
Spent $76,577
Debts $10,000
Cash on Hand $19,058
End Date June 30, 2011

Thad McCotter (R)
Raised $33,055
Spent $54,637
Debts $0
Cash on Hand $478,780
End Date March 31, 2011
Center for Responsive Politics

Others, however, languish in unspeakable misery in places where these men and women of power and its abuse wage war against them and around them causing them to flee, to suffer, to lose their lives and their future.
In an effort to try to curb the crisis (war and conflict, global warming, epic drought conditions, famine and disease), to keep it from growing into an even ‘greater catastrophe,’ the United Nations last Monday (July 29, 2011) appealed for an added $1.4 billion to save the lives of an estimated 12 million people across the Horn of Africa.

More than 12 million people – in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti – are in dire need of help.  

Up to 100,000 internally displaced people have arrived in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, over the last two months in search of food, water, shelter and other vital humanitarian assistance after fleeing famine-hit areas.

The number is growing by the day, with daily arrivals averaging 1,000 in July, said Vivian Tan speaking to reporters in Geneva for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. 


It is fair to say that corruption and unconscionable waste and war perpetrated by top public officials and those aspiring to high office in U.S. branches of government are, in a real sense, the cause and perpetuators of other peoples’ languishing in want, disease, consequences and fallout of war.

What activist Ken O'Keefe said about Gaza can be said as well about sub-Saharan Africa:
The people “are more than capable of taking care of themselves” [but] they need self-determination, to profit from their own labor, their own natural resources, and resourcefulness.  Once their import and export trade is established, they will no longer need handouts, alms from the mighty.

As it stands now, countries of Africa (these old civilizations) have been forced open to other countries’ and their corporations’ profit heists. “The darker-skinned people,” as O’Keefe puts it, “are used like modern-day slaves, and this is happening all around the world.”

So, in the face of real tragedy, what is happening in the United States and in other Western countries, particularly in government and mass media, is beyond shameful.

It doesn't have to be this way.



Sources and notes

NOTE: All the numbers on this page are for the 2012 election cycle and based on U.S. Federal Election Commission data released electronically. NOTE: This profile is based on a preliminary analysis of second quarter data for 2011 and does not yet include second quarter contributions made through joint fund-raising committees. Feel free to distribute or cite this material but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics. http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/summary.php

UN News Agency reporting on the Horn of Africa, July 26 and 29, 2011, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39146&Cr=Somali&Cr1=
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39189&Cr=horn+of+africa&Cr1=

Continent to the south

WEST
Western Africa is the region lying south of the Sahara and east and north of the Atlantic Ocean. Western Africa is divided latitudinally into two parallel belts of land: the western portion of the Sudan, a geographic area that stretches across the entire width of Africa, and the coastal region, or Guinea Coast. Each belt has its own geography, cultures, and history.

The nations of the western Sudan include Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta), Cape Verde, Chad, The Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal. The nations of the Guinea Coast are Benin, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

EAST
Eastern Africa is part of sub-Saharan Africa comprising two traditionally recognized regions: East Africa (made up of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda); and the Horn of Africa (made up of Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, and Ethiopia).


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Articles also at Bringing Women a Global Voice: http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]
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Saturday, July 30, 2011

Washington Wizards unfit for purpose at home and abroad

Compiled, re-reported, edited with comment by Carolyn Bennett

As callous incompetents in Washington continue their summer theater — and a nation escapes in collective hysteria and ceaseless drama the drones of their wars continue blowing up innocent peoples across three continents and leaving their lives, their futures in ruins.

Drones have become more widespread throughout the world — in Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and not only these — Deutsche Welle reports from interviews this week. “The United States has especially increased its use of drones in Pakistan.” Between 2004 and 2007, there were nine drone attacks. In 2008, they rose to 33, the next year to 53, and last year the attacks hit 118.

University of Dortmund physicist and cofounder of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC), Jürgen Altmann, told Deutsche Welle, ‘I can't imagine that the USA would launch this many manned air attacks in Pakistan.’

Civilian deaths, future foreign relations
Professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at Sheffield University (UK), Noel Sharkey, told the news organization “the new development is not just dangerous for civilians living in enemy territory, ‘It is also dangerous for our own civilians, because lopsided wars lead to new terrorism. … People won’t just give up because we’ve got the best technology.’”

Ethics
Furthermore, a killing machine without feeling or conscience is also incapable of forming ethical judgments. “‘No one knows what it means to bring ethical considerations into programming,’ said Hans-Jörg Kreowsky, a professor of computer science at the University of Bremen. ‘Algorithms cannot define ethics. That means you cannot build [an ethical drone].’”

As evidenced in the tone and violence emanating from and led repeatedly by Washington — the United States of America in this era has ceased all pretenses of civil discourse, dialogue and diplomacy and any attempt to respect, listen, understand and adopt strategies of cooperation and negotiation (sans bribery or corruption) with the world’s nations and peoples.


AFGHANISTAN [U.S. war]
U.S. officials call them ‘militants,’ villagers call them ‘civilian victims’ of war crimes

Civilians
Afghanistan suffered its latest invasion on the Western pretext of “curbing militancy and bringing peace and stability” to the country. Nine years later, Afghanistan is unstable. Civilians continue paying the price. Their casualties continue rising as U.S.-led foreign troops’ attacks rise. Reports say that in the past few months “hundreds of civilians have been killed in U.S.-led airstrikes and ground operations” in various parts of this war-torn country.

The latest reports from “troubled eastern Afghanistan” said, “a large number of civilians” died and several were wounded “in a U.S.-led military operation.” These casualties came “after foreign forces pounded a residential area in Paktia Province.”

The U.S. army “confirmed the operation” but claimed the casualties were militants.” Villagers and eyewitnesses said the victims “had no links to militant groups.”


Rising numbers of foreign casualties are also causing rising opposition to the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan from NATO member countries and from other non-NATO countries that have contributed troops to this invasion and war and occupation.

Today, as foreign forces experienced some of their deadliest days, two U.S.-led NATO soldiers reportedly died in eastern Afghanistan.  Yesterday, two other U.S.-led foreign soldiers died when a roadside bomb exploded in the east. These deaths bring this year’s estimated number of foreign fatalities to more than 330.

“Official figures” report more than 2,611 U.S.-led soldiers have died since the U.S. launched the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Geopolitics


ARABIAN SEA
Lies in the northwestern part of the Indian Ocean covering about 1,491,000 square miles
(3,862,000 square kilometers) and
Forming part of the principal sea route between Europe and India
Bounded to the west by the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula
To the west, the Gulf of Aden connects it with
Red Sea via the Bab el-Mandeb Strait
To the north by Iran and Pakistan
To the north, the Gulf of Oman connects
Arabian Sea with the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz
To the east by India
To the south by the remainder of the Indian Ocean
The Arabian Sea has a mean depth of 8,970 feet (2,734 meters)


PAKISTAN [U.S. bombed]
“Hundreds of people have died in Balochistan since 2004 when militants began fighting for political autonomy and a greater share of the revenues from the oil and gas resources of the region.”

Quetta, Balochistan — At least thirteen Shiites died yesterday and several others were injured when shooters opened fire at a passenger pick-up in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan.

A similar incident on Friday left seven (est.) Shiite Muslim pilgrims dead and several others wounded. A group of heavily armed militants reportedly attacked a bus on the outskirts of Quetta.

Also on Friday, at least three people died and 25 were injured when a bomb exploded during a football match in Balochistan.


IRAQ [occupied]
More than a million Iraqi citizens have faced ‘violent deaths’ since the U.S.-led military invasion of this country began in 2003, according to a study by the British polling group, Opinion Research Business (ORB).

Tikrit — Thursday, 130 kilometers north of Baghdad 12 people died and 34 were wounded when two bombs exploded near the state-run Al-Rafidain Bank in the Iraqi city of Tikrit.

“Bombings and other forms of violence are a near-daily occurrence in war-torn [and occupied] Iraq,” Press TV reports. “June was the deadliest month this year for both Iraq and the U.S., with the occupiers losing 14 of their soldiers.”

From Iraq's Foreign Ministry — though combat operations have officially ended, approximately 50,000 U.S. troops will remain in the country until the end of 2011 to ‘advise Iraqi forces and protect U.S. interests.’ However, on Wednesday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Baghdad has decided not to allow U.S. military troops to stay in the country past the 2011 deadline.

Geopolitics


PERSIAN GULF (Arabian Gulf)
A shallow marginal sea of the Indian Ocean that
Lies between the Arabian Peninsula and southwestern Iran
Bordered on the north, northeast and east by Iran;
On the southeast and south by part of Oman and by the United Arab Emirates;
On the southwest and west by Qatar, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia; and
On the northwest by Kuwait and Iraq
The term Persian Gulf sometimes refers not only to Persian Gulf proper but
Also to its outlets —
The Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman, which open into the Arabian Sea


PERSIAN GULF
UAE — Although it is a leading oil exporter, the United Arab Emirates “has embarked on a nuclear program to meet its domestic demand for power.” The UAE is said to be “advancing its plans to buy the uranium that will be needed to begin operating nuclear power plants.”

Saudi Arabia — Senior officials at the White House, according to today’s press reports, have said the Obama administration “is planning to resume talks with Saudi Arabia about a potential nuclear cooperation.”

BAHRAIN (occupied by U.S. Fifth Feet)
Bahrain’s largest political party, Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, has repeatedly called for ‘elected government,’ ‘elected parliament with full legislative powers,’ and ‘fair and independent judicial system’ in the kingdom.

Opposition groups and anti-government activists are accusing Washington of “supporting the ruling Al Khalifa regime and turning a blind eye to atrocities committed by Bahraini authorities against peaceful protesters.”

Saudi-backed Bahraini forces have massed around the U.S. Embassy in the capital this weekend to prevent a scheduled protest sit-in outside the U.S. diplomatic compound.

Tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators have taken to the streets outside the capital to condemn the results of a National Dialogue, saying it had failed to address people’s demands.

Geopolitics


GULF OF ADEN
A deepwater basin that forms a natural sea link between the
Red Sea and the Arabian Sea
Named after the seaport of Aden, in southern Yemen,
The gulf lies between the coasts of Arabia and the Horn of Africa


YEMEN [U.S. ally]
Yemen has been the scene of violence since the popular revolution began in late January. Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis have been taking part in regular mass demonstrations in the nation’s major cities.

Forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh “often resort to brutal violence to disperse peaceful Yemeni protesters, killing hundreds of protesters and leaving many more injured.”  Pro-Saleh forces reportedly “have attacked several villages near the capital Sana’a. Today, five (est.) villagers died in an attack.

Tribal leaders have vowed to guard the demonstrations, promised to support anti-regime protests. They “formed an alliance, called on the international community to back the revolution, and issued a warning to “those who brutally attack the Yemeni people.”

Geopolitics

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

Intercontinental sea 
stretching from the Atlantic Ocean on the west 
to Asia on the east
separating Europe from Africa — ancient ‘sea between the lands,’
often called the incubator of Western civilization

From the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco (west-east extent)
to the shores of the Gulf of Iskenderun [seaport/chief city Iskenderun
in southern Turkey on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Iskenderun]
on the southwestern coast of Turkey—is
approximately 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers).

Between the shores of Yugoslavia and Libya
(its average north-south extent) is about 500 miles.

The Mediterranean Sea, including the Sea of Marmara,
occupies an area of approximately 970,000 square miles
(2,510,000 square kilometers). [Britannica]


AFRICA (NORTH and the HORN)
In mid-March, NATO launched a major air campaign against Libya’s government saying that UN Security Council Resolution 1973 gives the military bloc a mandate to ‘protect the Libyan population.’

Libya [U.S.-led NATO war]

NATO is now reportedly “intensifying its attacks on Libya in an alleged attempt to increase pressure” on that country’s president. In this foreign aggression, “the attacks by the U.S.-led military alliance have killed scores of civilians and wounded many others in key Libyan cities.”

A report published July 28 by Reuters says since taking command of airstrikes on March 31, NATO “has conducted more than 16,822 sorties [attacks, raids, acts of violence from afar] including at least 6,339 strike sorties” into Libya.

Today, NATO announced airstrikes carried out by its warplanes on the Libyan capital, Tripoli, hit three television transmitters. The strikes “disabled three ground-based Libyan state TV satellite transmission dishes.”


SOMALIA [attacked, occupied, threatened, blackmailed]
Thousands of Somalis have fled to the neighboring Kenyan camp of Dadaab. The camp currently has “more than 440,000 refugees.”

Today, at least sixteen children died of hunger and diseases caused by the lack of food in Somalia. The food crisis on the Horn of Africa escalates.  Medical sources confirmed that the children died in lower Shabelle regional town of Merka.


OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

West Bank [U.S. extremist support of Israel, unsupportive of Palestine]
Palestinian farmers in the occupied territories every year plant some 10,000 olive trees.

Olive oil is regarded the backbone of the Palestinian economy. It is the second major export item in the occupied territories.  

Israeli settlers this week set olive trees alight in the West Bank village of Burin. Their attempt — not for the first time — is “to target a key product of the Palestinian economy.”

GAZA Strip [U.S. hostile, unsupportive]
Israel has imposed a blockade on the Gaza strip since the democratically elected Hamas government took control of the territory in 2007. The crippling blockade on the territory has triggered a humanitarian crisis. Because of the blockade, Palestinians in Gaza have trouble coping with everyday life and struggle to attain basic needs.

“I do not want to see Gaza opened up like all of the other markets of the world where the darker-skinned people are being used like modern-day slaves — and that is happening all around the world,” activist Ken O'Keefe said today in a Press-TV interview.

Palestinians “are more than capable of taking care of themselves [but] they need to have freedom of movement, self-determination [It is an insult to Palestinians and an insult to our intelligence to think we should be providing Palestinians with aid]. Once their import and export trade is established, Palestinians will have no need, whatsoever, for handouts.”

Geopolitics

ATLANTIC OCEAN
‘Sea of Atlas’ (salt water, second in size to the Pacific Ocean)
covering approximately a fifth of the Earth’s surface
separating continents of
Europe and Africa to the east
North and South America to the west

Without its dependent seas, the S-shaped Atlantic is
approximately 31,830,000 square miles (82,440,000 square kilometers);
with them, 41,100,000 square miles (106,460,000 square kilometers).
Average depth (with its seas) of 10,925 feet (3,300 meters); maximum depth of 27,493 feet (8,380 meters) in the Puerto Rico Trench, north of the island of Puerto Rico.
From east to west, the ocean’s breadth varies considerably:
between Newfoundland and Ireland, it is about 2,060 miles;
farther south, it widens to more than 3,000 miles before narrowing again
so that the distance from Cape São Roque, Brazil, to Cape Palmas, Liberia,
is only some 1,770 miles.

Southward it again becomes broader and is bordered by
simple coasts almost without islands;
between Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope,
the ocean approaches Antarctica on a broad front nearly 4,000 miles wide.
[Britannica]

NORTH AMERICAS update August 8, 2011

Deepening violent occupation— U.S. in Mexico

New York Times reveals (Democarcy Now re-reporting) United States’ increased “involvement in Mexico’s bloody drug war.”

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents and U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials along with retired military personnel are, for the first time, being deployed in Mexico with that country’s military and authorities at an intelligence outpost — “modeled after compounds the United States operates in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Officials from the United States and Mexico are also “considering embedding private security contractors [mercenaries] in a specially vetted Mexican counter-narcotics police unit.”

The United States also in recent months began “flying unmanned drones over Mexican soil.” [Source: Democracy Now: “U.S. Expands involvement in Mexican Drug War with CIA, DEA Intelligence Post,” August 8, 2011, http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/8/headlines]

NORTH AMERICA
Since the president of the United Mexican States (Mexico), Felipe Calderon, launched his army-led drive to crush drug cartels in late 2006, nearly 35,000 people have died in this war.

Mexico is stumbling under the weight of imprisoned people as the country’s government ramps up its campaign against drug cartels and increases detentions.

On Monday, at least seventeen people died and four others were injured in a prison riot in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez. [In the United States of America, prisons too are overflowing and prisoners are rioting, some dying in protest to abuse and inhumane prison conditions.]

In the United States government, meanwhile, federal officials reportedly have failed to find more than two dozen rifles allegedly “stolen from a military base in California on July 15.” Several agencies have investigated the theft(s) and found one rifle.  

Federal officials are offering a reward for information leading arrests.

FINALLY
In further evidence of Washington’s incompetence and corruption, violence overshadowed by hysteria and bad theater, economics professor Richard D. Wolff said this week on the Democracy Now program, “The United States government refuses to tax corporations and the rich. It then runs a deficit. It spends more than it takes in because [the government] is not taxing them [corporations]. … The government then turns around to the people it didn’t tax — corporations and the rich — and borrows the money from them, paying them interest and paying them back.…

“We’re running a deficit because the people who run this society would like us to deal with our economic problems, not by taxing those who have it, the way we used to; but, instead, by endlessly borrowing from them.

“The ultimate irony,” he said, “is that we have borrowed so much as a nation from the rich and the corporations [and] they now are not so sure they want to continue lending to us, because we’re so deeply in debt. Instead of lending, they want us, instead, to go stick it to poor people and sick people.

“It is an extraordinary moment in our history as a nation.”



Sources and notes
“Drone usage on the rise in conflicts worldwide,” July 21, 2011, http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15253842,00.html [www.dw-world.de | © Deutsche Welle]

The International Committee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC) is a non-profit organization that advocates a reevaluation of automated war technologies like drones.

“Dozens killed by suspected U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan — Pakistan has repeatedly called for an end to the drone strikes, which the US never confirms. However, the U.S. military and the CIA are the only forces in the region to deploy the armed, unmanned Predator aircraft in the region,” July 12, 2011, http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6570004,00.html

AFGHANISTAN
“U.S.-led operation kills Afghan civilians,” July 30, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191516.html

“Two U.S.-led troops die in Afghan war,” July 30, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191488.html

PAKISTAN
“13 Shia Muslims killed in SW Pakistan,” July 30, 2011, http://www.press”tv.ir/detail/191454.html

“Three killed in Pakistan stadium attack,” July 30, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191421.html

IRAQ
“Iraq twin bomb attack kills 12, hurts 34,” July 29, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/section/351020201.html
                   
“Iraq against U.S. presence beyond 2011,” July 27, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191101.html


UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
“UAE to buy uranium for nuclear plants,” July 30, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191420.html

SAUDI ARABIA
“The U.S. plans nuclear talks with Saudi Arabia,” July 30, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/section/351020205.html

BAHRAIN
“Bahraini forces surround U.S. Embassy,” July 29, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191402.html
“Bahrainis to stage anti-U.S. Friday sit-in — Friday, Bahrain’s February 14 Movement has called for a mass sit-in in front of the U.S. embassy in Manama to condemn Washington’s interference in the internal affairs of the Persian Gulf country,” July 29, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191151.html

Al Wefaq National Islamic Society (also known as the Islamic National Accord Association) is a Bahraini political society. It is Bahrain’s largest party, both in terms of its membership and its results at the polls.  

YEMEN
“Yemeni forces heavily shell villages,” July 30, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191515.html

LIBYA
“NATO: 3 TV transmitters hit in Libya,” July 30, 2011,  http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191451.html

“‘NATO should cut Qaddafi arms supply’— a former Libyan commander, colonel Hamed Al-Hassi,”
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191539.html

SOMALIA
“16 Somali children die of hunger,” July 30, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191479.html

OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
“Israeli settlers torch Palestinian trees,” July 30, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191549.html

“‘Blockade on Gaza root cause of crisis,’” July 30, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191562.html

Press TV interviewed Ken O'Keefe, an Irish- American activist, tells us what he has seen on his visit to Gaza.

Kenneth Nichols O'Keefe is an Irish-American activist and former United States Marine who led the human shield action to Iraq and was a passenger on the MV Mavi Marmara during the Gaza flotilla raid.

NORTH AMERICA
“17 killed in Mexican prison riot,” July 26, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/190930.html

“FBI fails to recover stolen army rifles,” July 30, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/191552.html

“Richard Wolff: Debt Showdown is ‘Political Theater’ Burdening Society’s Most Vulnerable,”
Democracy Now July 28, 2011, http://www.democracynow.org/2011/7/28/richard_wolff_debt_showdown_is_political   

Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University (New York City). He also teaches classes regularly at the Brecht Forum in Manhattan.

Since 2005, Richard Wolff has written analytical pieces focused chiefly although not only on the emerging and then exploding global capitalist crisis. Professor Wolff’s public speaking engagements and media interviews usually focus on one or more of the following topics: The Current Economic Crisis: Origins and Consequences; The Current Economic Crisis: Why Bailouts Fail and Alternative Responses;  The Current Economic Crisis and Globalization; Economic Crisis and Socialist Strategy, 2009;  The Difference Among Economic Theories (Neoclassical, Keynesian and Marxian); The History of the Marxian Theoretical Tradition; The Contemporary Relevance and Unique Insights of Marxian economics; A Class Analysis of the Rise and Fall of the USSR, http://www.rdwolff.com/content/about


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Articles also at Bringing Women a Global Voice: http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]
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“Seeing ‘Islamic Terror’ in Norway” — media critique

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting wrote in a July 25, 2011, Media Advisory “Learning no lessons from Oklahoma City mistakes”
Excerpts by Carolyn Bennett

“Right-wing terror suspect Anders Behring Breivik reportedly killed 76 people in Norway on Friday [July 22], by all accounts driven by far-right anti-immigrant politics and fervent Islamophobia.   However, many early media accounts assumed that the perpetrator of the attacks was Muslim.

“On news of the first round of attacks — the bombs in Oslo — CNN’s Tom Lister (7/22/11) didn’t know who did it, but knew they were Muslims:

‘It could be a whole range of groups but the point is that Al-Qaeda is not so much an organization now. It’s more a spirit for these people. It’s a mobilizing factor.’

“… An early Wall Street Journal editorial (7/22/11) dwelled on the —

‘explanations furnished by jihadist groups to justify their periodic slaughters,’ before concluding that because of Norway’s commitment to tolerance and freedom, ‘Norwegians have now been made to pay a terrible price.’

“Once the alleged perpetrator’s identity did not conform to the Journal’s prejudice, the editorial was modified, but it continued to argue that Al-Qaeda was an inspiration:

‘Coordinated terrorist attacks are an Al-Qaeda signature. But copycats with different agendas are surely capable of duplicating its methods.’

“…It is not new for media to jump to the conclusion that Muslims are responsible for any given terrorist attack; the same thing was widespread after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombings (Extra! 7-8/95).

‘It has every single earmark of the Islamic car-bombers of the Middle East,’ syndicated columnist Georgie Anne Geyer (Chicago Tribune, 4/21/95) asserted.

‘Whatever we are doing to destroy Mideast terrorism, the chief terrorist threat against Americans, has not been working,’ wrote New York Times columnist A.M. Rosenthal (4/21/95).

‘Knowing that the car bomb indicates Middle Eastern terrorists at work, it’s safe to assume that their goal is to promote free-floating fear,’ editorialized the New York Post (4/20/95).

“It is unfortunate that so many outlets have failed to learn any practical lessons from such mistakes — or to question the beliefs that drive them.”


Sources and notes

Media Advisory: “Seeing ‘Islamic Terror’ in Norway — Learning no lessons from Oklahoma City mistakes,” July 25, 2011, http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4359


Listen online or to Pacifica radio stations to CounterSpin (7/29/11-8/4/11)  — “Devin Burghart on Norway terror, Julianne Escobedo Shepherd on Strauss-Kahn case,” http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4369


Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) is a national media watch group that has been offering well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship since 1986.

FAIR works to invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity in the press and by scrutinizing media practices that marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints.

As an anti-censorship organization, FAIR exposes neglected news stories and defends working journalists when they are muzzled.

As a progressive group, FAIR believes that structural reform is ultimately needed to break up the dominant media conglomerates, establish independent public broadcasting and promote strong non-profit sources of information.

FAIR works with both activists and journalists and maintains a regular dialogue with reporters at news outlets across the country, providing constructive critiques when called for and applauding exceptional, hard-hitting journalism.

FAIR encourages the public to contact media with their concerns, to become media activists rather than passive consumers of news.

EXTRA!
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting publishes Extra!, the hard-hitting magazine of well-documented media criticism, and produces the weekly radio program CounterSpin, the show that brings you the news behind the headlines. FAIR’s thriving listserv distributes regular Action Alerts to its international network of over 50,000 activists, http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=100

Extra! receives no money from advertisers or corporate underwriters and depends on subscribers for its existence. http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4

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Articles also at Bringing Women a Global Voice: http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]
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Friday, July 29, 2011

Appeal to UNSC — End NATO war on Libya

Marinella Correggia — ecopeace activist
Italy, July 2011
Excerpt and editing by Carolyn Bennett

“Certain NATO member countries in alliance with oil-rich monarchical Gulf States [are] conducting an illegal war in Libya. For more than three months, they have backed one of two factions.

“This war is based on false information, thrust obstinately forward without regard for its direct and indirect impact on victims.”

Despite many opportunities for negotiation presented from the onset — and now clearly verified and in contrast to what media have transmitted —  the NATO war on Libya continues.

What must we do?  Bring popular pressure to bear on NATO member countries, yes, but this is not enough.

Sample mail to United Nations Security Council

An e-mail campaign en masse to “UN Security Council’s non-belligerent and other members,” appealing to them to take action could have some effect.

“Many of these countries, and even more non-members of the UN Security Council, such as Venezuela and ALBA countries (Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Venezuela), have already demonstrated a willingness to back and promote negotiations toward peace and could make use of such a call from the citizens of NATO countries as an additional tool and support in the pressure they can then apply.

"No War Network and U.S. Citizens for Peace and Justice in Rome have hand-delivered appeals to embassies in Rome and they invite others to take part in the Appeal to UNSC to End NATO war on Libya campaign.

“Send an e-mail to appropriate representatives of Russia, China, India, South Africa, Nigeria, Gabon, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lebanon, Colombia, Portugal, and Germany. [See sample email — It is best to send emails one by one, if you have time, as multiple addresses may trigger spam filters — text in four languages at www.interculture.it/libia]”

Email addresses
ChinaMissionUN@Gmail.com, rusun@un.int, India@un.int, portugal@un.int,contact@lebanonun.org, chinesemission@yahoo.com, delbrasonu@delbrasonu.org,siumara@delbrasonu.org, bihun@mfa.gov.ba, colombia@colombiaun.org,pmun.newyork@dirco.gov.za,  perm.mission@nigerdeleg.org, aumission_ny@yahoo.com, presidentrsa@po.gov.za, dpolitical@africa-union.org, info@new-york-un.diplo.de,dsatsia@gabon-un.org, LamamraR@africa-union.org, waneg@africa-union.org, au-amisomhom@africa-union.org, gabon@un.int, Nigeria@un.int, unsc-nowar@gmx.com

Sample Subject box:

APPEAL TO NON-BELLIGERENT UNSC MEMBERS — Please Put a Stop to NATO War in Libya

Sample Body text:

“PLEASE PUT A STOP TO THE NATO WAR ON LIBYA!”
We appeal to non-belligerent members of the UN Security Council to — 
  • ·       Put an end to the misuse of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973 to influence the internal affairs of Libya through warfare, by revoking it, and 
  • ·       Press for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Libya, backing the African Union’s central role in this context.
We thank those countries that have tried, and are still trying, to work towards peace. Our appeal rises from the following facts and beliefs: 
  • ·       The military intervention undertaken by some NATO members against Libya has gone far beyond the provisions of Security Council Resolution 1973 and is based on hyped-up accounts of defenseless citizens being massacred by their government, while the truth is that, in Libya, there is an on-going and intense internal armed conflict; 
  • ·       We are aware of the economic and geo-strategic interests that lie behind the war in Libya and, in particular, behind NATO support of one of the two armed factions; 
  • ·       NATO military intervention in Libya has killed (and is continuing to kill) countless civilians and has harmed and endangered the civilian population including, in various other ways, migrants and refugees; 
  • ·       At this stage, we believe that only non-belligerent countries — and particularly those with voting rights within the United Nations Security Council — can successfully bring a peaceful end to the conflict through negotiations, and by implementing the opening paragraph of UNSC Resolution 1973 calling for an immediate ceasefire.

We ask you to act to end the carnage, end the breach of Libya’s sovereignty and violent overthrow of its government, act to end the failing of another state.  

Respectfully yours,
Name (or association)
Address (optional)


Sources and notes
Marinella Correggia has been an ecopeace activist since 1991. She is author who is now committed to stand against the awful NATO war against Libya
Posts by Marinella Correggia at http://www.mathaba.net/news/libya

Marinella Correggia Thursday on Flashpoints
Flashpoints with host Kevin Pina, July 28, 2011, http://www.flashpoints.net/
Guests: Mahdi Nazemroaya-Flashpoints correspondent on the ground in Libya, Marinella Correggia, and Eric Walberg – journalist and author of new book Postmodern Imperialism

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Flashpoints:  Flashpoints continued in-depth coverage of the situation in Libya and the breaking news that the Chief of Staff of the rebels has been killed. We also look into the role of human rights organizations in Libya many of which are now being accused of presenting a false view of the situation…

 Mathaba (we open minds and news): Campaign: send an email to non-belligerent members of UN Security Council, Posted: July 3, 2011, from: Mathaba: Campaign against the NATO war in Libya — Send an e-mail to non-belligerent members on the UN Security Council


ALBA — The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (Spanish: Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América, or ALBA) — is an international cooperation organization based on the idea of social, political, and economic integration between the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The member nations are Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Venezuela, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALBA
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Articles also at Bringing Women a Global Voice: http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]
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Thursday, July 28, 2011

U.S. Patriot punished by abusive Power

Whistle blower Bunnatine Greenhouse

My name is Bunnatine H. Greenhouse. I have agreed to voluntarily appear at this [Congressional] hearing in my personal capacity because I have exhausted all internal avenues to correct contracting abuse I observed while serving this great nation as the United States Army Corps of Engineers Senior Procurement Executive.


Greenhouse was testifying in 2005.

In order to remain true to my oath of office, she said, I must disclose to appropriate members of Congress serious and ongoing contract abuse I cannot address internally. 


I can unequivocally state that the abuse related to contracts awarded to KBR [Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton] represents the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career.

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

After surviving various forms of retaliation and threats to her life, and after recent settlement of a lawsuit, American Bunnatine H. Greenhouse appeared this week on Pacifica’s Democracy Now program. This is some of what she said in interview with Amy Goodman.

“I had taken an oath of office that said that I was going to conduct the business of procurement and contracting in the [U.S.] Corps [of Engineers] impartially, beyond reproach, with the highest degree of integrity, and with preferential treatment toward none. That was federal law, and one that I respected.

“I noticed that when they sent in the sole-source, no-bid contract justification, it had in there only government-imposed uniqueness of the company (KBR [Halliburton]), not their own uniqueness — a contingency plan, for example, that the winner had to be familiar with a contingency plan.

“That was a plan that … the government had developed under another—out of scope, under another contract, which is like an economic analysis that determines all of the budgeting, all of the actions and movements that were going on in the prosecution of that war [in Iraq].

“Halliburton had been granted that privilege to do that at $2 million.

“I felt that that was a conflict of interest for any follow-on contracts resulting out of that contingency plan.

“They also had to know—the winner had to know the day-to-day operations of CENTCOM.

“Halliburton also had been awarded the LOGCAP contract, you know, which also was a government-imposed uniqueness on them; so they [Halliburton and the U.S. government] were the only one[s] who knew the day-to-day operations.

“These kinds of things I felt were unfair, a conflict of interest; and those conflicts of interest had been mitigated.

“Also, they [Halliburton and the U.S. Defense Department] were asking for a five-year contract for compelling emergency. There is no compelling emergency in the world that people sitting back in Washington would not have an effect upon after a one-year period to change or to continue if it was needed for the same contractor for that venture.

“Five years just could not be tolerated. They immediately changed it to a two-year base and three-year options, when it came to me as the final signatory.

“When I found out that [U.S. Army] Gen. Strock had [approved] … the five years — and because the war was imminent — I had no choice but to write my objections above my name to let them know that we possibly would be misunderstood … with a contract for five years, even though it was two years and three one-year options. …

The Department of Defense had total responsibility for getting this done — this contract, the whole operation was under the U.S. Department of  Defense and the Department of Defense had chosen the Army as the executive agency; then it [authority] flowed down to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to do the execution under this contract.

“Had I not [written my objections above my signature to let them know that we possibly would be misunderstood], those five years would never have been revisited, and that would certainly hurt the industrial base, where this contract was supposed to be a bridge.”


Sources and notes

“EXCLUSIVE: Fired Army Whistleblower Receives $970K for Exposing Halliburton No-Bid Contract in Iraq,” Democracy Now, July 26, 2011, http://www.democracynow.org/

Bunnatine (Bunny) Greenhouse is a former chief oversight official of contracts at the Army Corps of Engineers. She reached a settlement with the government six years after she was demoted for publicly criticizing a multi-billion-dollar, no-bid contract to Halliburton, a company formerly headed by then-Vice President [Richard] Dick Cheney. [DN]

BUNNY GREENHOUSE

Bunnatine (Bunny) H. Greenhouse is a former chief contracting officer Senior Executive Service (Principal Assistant Responsible for Contracting (PARC)) of the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

On June 27, 2005, she testified to a Democratic Party public committee, alleging specific instances of waste, fraud, and other abuses and irregularities by Halliburton with regard to its operations in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. She described one of the Halliburton contracts (secret, no-bid contracts awarded to Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) — a subsidiary of Halliburton) as ‘the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career.’

A long-time government employee, Greenhouse was hired by Lieutenant General Joe Ballard in 1997 to oversee contracts at the Army Corps of Engineers. After Ballard retired in 2000, Greenhouse’s performance reviews, which had been exemplary throughout her public career, suddenly soured. Greenhouse filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint alleging race and gender discrimination, which, according to her attorney, had never been investigated.

In August 2005, Greenhouse was demoted in what her lawyer called an ‘obvious reprisal’ for her revelations about the Halliburton contracts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunnatine_Greenhouse

The United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) is a theater-level Unified Combatant Command unit of the U.S. armed forces, established in 1983 under the operational control of the U.S. Secretary of Defense. It was originally conceived of as the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force (RDJTF).

Its area of responsibility includes countries in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia — most notably Afghanistan and Iraq. CENTCOM has been the main American presence in many military operations, including the Gulf War, the United States war in Afghanistan, and the Iraq War. Forces from CENTCOM currently are deployed primarily in Iraq and Afghanistan in combat roles and have bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Pakistan, and central Asia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CENTCOM

The Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) provides contingency support to augment the U.S. Army force structure means to adequately support its forces using private military companies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOGCAP

Carl Ames Strock (Ret ... 1948) was a United States Army officer, and was Chief of Engineers and the Commanding General of the United States ... Carl A. Strock, Lieutenant general shows up "On Hurricane preparedness for New Orleans." General Carl Strock, Chief of Engineers at the Corps of Engineers, testified before Congress. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers civil works controversies (New Orleans): Gen. Carl Strock testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Energy and Water that, ‘We have now concluded we had problems  ...’  [June 2011], http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=Gen.+Strock+

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Articles also at Bringing Women a Global Voice: http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]
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