The imperialist state's first concern is not to protect the direct investments of any particular company, although it sometimes does that, but to protect the global system of private accumulation from competing systems.
--Michael Parenti, Against Empire: A Brilliant Expose of the Brutal Realities of U.S. Global Domination
Saturday, November 28, 2009
In The News
-Government settles for $3 million with ex-DEA agent alleging illegal State Department and CIA interference with his anti-narcotic efforts in Burma in the 1990s.
-Today, the New York Times reports on Afghan allegations of a secret 'black jail' at Bagram Air Base near Kabul:
The site, known to detainees as the black jail, consists of individual windowless concrete cells, each illuminated by a single light bulb glowing 24 hours a day. In interviews, former detainees said that their only human contact was at twice-daily interrogation sessions.
“The black jail was the most dangerous and fearful place,” said Hamidullah, a spare-parts dealer in Kandahar who said he was detained there in June. “They don’t let the I.C.R.C. officials or any other civilians see or communicate with the people they keep there. Because I did not know what time it was, I did not know when to pray.”
The prison is run by Special Operations forces.
It should be noted that although President Obama signed an order closing all CIA "black sites" in January, the order contained a loophole allowing the CIA to continue operating temporary detention facilities abroad.
-President Obama has decided to send an additional 30,000 or so American forces to Afghanistan in an effort to ensure terrorist networks can no longer operate out of Afghanistan. According to the Washington Times:
He [Obama] repeated his contention that the American goal was not to build Afghanistan into a modern, well-functioning state -- something that most experts think is well beyond the capability of any outside force. Instead, he said, it will be to turn the largely lawless and hardscrabble corner of the globe into a place that is sufficiently stable so al Qaeda and its extremist allies cannot operate effectively.
"We are going to dismantle and degrade their capabilities and ultimately dismantle and destroy their networks. And Afghanistan's stability is important to that process," the president said.
-A Chinese magazine, Outlook, ran an expose detailing the Chinese government's system of secret jails used to detain petitioners seeking redress from the central government in Beijing.
-A 10-month freeze on settlement building by the Israelis in the occupied West Bank announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a bit misleading. According to Ethan Bronner of the New York Times:
The 10-month settlement freeze excludes more than 2,500 housing units being built or recently authorized. The moratorium allows a limited number of schools, synagogues and community centers, the kind of “natural growth” banned by the dormant 2003 “road map” for peace, agreed to by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.
In other words, although this represents a painful political concession by the Israeli government and is causing it internal trouble, there will never be a moment in the coming months when construction will stop in West Bank settlements.
And Israeli building in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as their capital, will be unaffected.
-Today, the New York Times reports on Afghan allegations of a secret 'black jail' at Bagram Air Base near Kabul:
The site, known to detainees as the black jail, consists of individual windowless concrete cells, each illuminated by a single light bulb glowing 24 hours a day. In interviews, former detainees said that their only human contact was at twice-daily interrogation sessions.
“The black jail was the most dangerous and fearful place,” said Hamidullah, a spare-parts dealer in Kandahar who said he was detained there in June. “They don’t let the I.C.R.C. officials or any other civilians see or communicate with the people they keep there. Because I did not know what time it was, I did not know when to pray.”
The prison is run by Special Operations forces.
It should be noted that although President Obama signed an order closing all CIA "black sites" in January, the order contained a loophole allowing the CIA to continue operating temporary detention facilities abroad.
-President Obama has decided to send an additional 30,000 or so American forces to Afghanistan in an effort to ensure terrorist networks can no longer operate out of Afghanistan. According to the Washington Times:
He [Obama] repeated his contention that the American goal was not to build Afghanistan into a modern, well-functioning state -- something that most experts think is well beyond the capability of any outside force. Instead, he said, it will be to turn the largely lawless and hardscrabble corner of the globe into a place that is sufficiently stable so al Qaeda and its extremist allies cannot operate effectively.
"We are going to dismantle and degrade their capabilities and ultimately dismantle and destroy their networks. And Afghanistan's stability is important to that process," the president said.
-A Chinese magazine, Outlook, ran an expose detailing the Chinese government's system of secret jails used to detain petitioners seeking redress from the central government in Beijing.
-A 10-month freeze on settlement building by the Israelis in the occupied West Bank announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a bit misleading. According to Ethan Bronner of the New York Times:
The 10-month settlement freeze excludes more than 2,500 housing units being built or recently authorized. The moratorium allows a limited number of schools, synagogues and community centers, the kind of “natural growth” banned by the dormant 2003 “road map” for peace, agreed to by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.
In other words, although this represents a painful political concession by the Israeli government and is causing it internal trouble, there will never be a moment in the coming months when construction will stop in West Bank settlements.
And Israeli building in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as their capital, will be unaffected.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Rethinking 9/11
Below is a video of investigative journalist Peter Lance, a former ABC correspondent and current independent writer. Lance is discussing his third book, Triple Cross, which details the gross negligence on behalf of the FBI beginning in the 1980s and continuing right up until 9/11. Lance places special emphasis on Mohamad Ali, al-Qaida's top spy in the US. The story is simply amazing, and quite frightening.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Maher Arar Denied Justice After Being Tortured
I believe that when the history of this distinguished court is written, today's majority decision will be viewed with dismay.
--Judge Guido Calabresi, dissenting judge in Arar's appeal
Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen born in Syria and a practicing engineer, was arrested on September 26, 2002 at JFK airport after returning home from a family vacation in Tunisia. Arar's name was on a US watchlist of terror suspects, and while trying to change planes to return home, was arrested and placed into FBI custody. After being questioned for 13 days, without access to a lawyer, Arar was awaken in the middle of the night and put on a plane that eventually took him to Syria. Arar's case was a dramatic example of extraordinary rendition, an official US policy that has been adopted by President Obama's administration. After being sent to Syria, Arar was brutally interrogated and tortured, and forced to confess to having visited Afghanistan. Here is an excerpt of his videotaped testimony to the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committee (Arar could not physically be present at the hearing, as he is barred from entering the US) via Democracy Now!:
Let me be clear: I am not a terrorist. I am not a member of al-Qaeda or any other terrorist group. I am here to tell you what happened to me and how I was detained and interrogated by the US government, transported to Syria against my will, tortured, and kept there for over a year.
Upon reviewing my passport, an immigration officer pulled me aside. Officers from the FBI and New York police department arrived and began to interrogate me. My repeated requests for a lawyer were all denied. I was told I had no right to a lawyer, because I was not an American citizen.
On October 8th at 3 in the morning, I was awakened and told that they had decided to move me to Syria. By then, it was becoming more and more clear that I was being sent to Syria for the purpose of being tortured.
There, I was put in a dark underground cell that was more like a grave. It was three feet wide, six feet deep, and seven feet high. Life in that cell was hell. I spent ten months and ten days in that grave.
During the early days of my detention, I was interrogated and physically tortured. I was beaten with an electrical cable and threatened with a metal chair, the tire and electric shocks. I was forced to falsely confess that I had been to Afghanistan. When I was not being beaten, I was put in a waiting room so that I could hear the screams of other prisoners. The cries of women still haunt me the most.
After 374 days of torture and wrongful detention, I was finally released to Canadian embassy officials on October 5th, 2003.
Even after enduring this barbaric ordeal, this headline appeared in the New York Times yesterday: "Appeals Court Rejects Suit by Canadian Man Over Detention and Torture Claim." According to the article:
A federal appeals court in Manhattan ruled on Monday that Maher Arar, a Canadian man who claimed that American officials sent him to Syria in 2002 to be tortured, cannot sue for damages because Congress has not authorized such suits.
The case has been widely watched because Mr. Arar claimed to be a victim of extraordinary rendition, the government policy of sending terrorism suspects to other countries for detention and interrogation.
After years of our country committing numerous and well documented war crimes, including torture, extraordinary rendition (which almost inevitably leads to torture), and the killing of innocent civilians across the globe, our government still cannot be held accountable. What does that say about a country that supposedly prides itself on the rule of law and accountability?
--Judge Guido Calabresi, dissenting judge in Arar's appeal
Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen born in Syria and a practicing engineer, was arrested on September 26, 2002 at JFK airport after returning home from a family vacation in Tunisia. Arar's name was on a US watchlist of terror suspects, and while trying to change planes to return home, was arrested and placed into FBI custody. After being questioned for 13 days, without access to a lawyer, Arar was awaken in the middle of the night and put on a plane that eventually took him to Syria. Arar's case was a dramatic example of extraordinary rendition, an official US policy that has been adopted by President Obama's administration. After being sent to Syria, Arar was brutally interrogated and tortured, and forced to confess to having visited Afghanistan. Here is an excerpt of his videotaped testimony to the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committee (Arar could not physically be present at the hearing, as he is barred from entering the US) via Democracy Now!:
Let me be clear: I am not a terrorist. I am not a member of al-Qaeda or any other terrorist group. I am here to tell you what happened to me and how I was detained and interrogated by the US government, transported to Syria against my will, tortured, and kept there for over a year.
Upon reviewing my passport, an immigration officer pulled me aside. Officers from the FBI and New York police department arrived and began to interrogate me. My repeated requests for a lawyer were all denied. I was told I had no right to a lawyer, because I was not an American citizen.
On October 8th at 3 in the morning, I was awakened and told that they had decided to move me to Syria. By then, it was becoming more and more clear that I was being sent to Syria for the purpose of being tortured.
There, I was put in a dark underground cell that was more like a grave. It was three feet wide, six feet deep, and seven feet high. Life in that cell was hell. I spent ten months and ten days in that grave.
During the early days of my detention, I was interrogated and physically tortured. I was beaten with an electrical cable and threatened with a metal chair, the tire and electric shocks. I was forced to falsely confess that I had been to Afghanistan. When I was not being beaten, I was put in a waiting room so that I could hear the screams of other prisoners. The cries of women still haunt me the most.
After 374 days of torture and wrongful detention, I was finally released to Canadian embassy officials on October 5th, 2003.
Even after enduring this barbaric ordeal, this headline appeared in the New York Times yesterday: "Appeals Court Rejects Suit by Canadian Man Over Detention and Torture Claim." According to the article:
A federal appeals court in Manhattan ruled on Monday that Maher Arar, a Canadian man who claimed that American officials sent him to Syria in 2002 to be tortured, cannot sue for damages because Congress has not authorized such suits.
The case has been widely watched because Mr. Arar claimed to be a victim of extraordinary rendition, the government policy of sending terrorism suspects to other countries for detention and interrogation.
After years of our country committing numerous and well documented war crimes, including torture, extraordinary rendition (which almost inevitably leads to torture), and the killing of innocent civilians across the globe, our government still cannot be held accountable. What does that say about a country that supposedly prides itself on the rule of law and accountability?
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
CIA, Espionage, and Sibel Edmonds: Smoking Gun?
According to the New York Times yesterday, the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Ahmed Wali Karzai, is said to be on the payroll of the CIA, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. According to the article:
The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the CIA's direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai's home.
(...)
The relationship between Mr. Karzai and the CIA is wide ranging, several American officials said. He helps the CIA operate a paramilitary group, the Kandahar Strike Force, that is used for raids against suspected insurgents and terrorists. On at least one occasion, the strike forces has been accused of launching an unauthorized operation against an official of the Afghan government, the officials said.
Mr. Karzai is also widely believed to be involved in Afghanistan's booming opium trade, a $65 billion global industry.
As our political leaders consider further escalating the war in Afghanistan, a consideration that 54% of Americans oppose, the history of the CIA, foreign intelligence agencies (particularly Turkish, Israeli and Pakistani agencies), and their ties to various U.S. officials is worth remembering. After all, it is widely documented that the CIA had countless dealings with the mujahdeen in Central Asia during the 1980s and 1990s, principally the CIA's funding of Muslim guerillas, including Osama bin Laden, resisting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Also, as Michael Moore pointed out in his film, Farenheit 9/11, many members of the bin Laden family and other Saudi nationals were flown out of the country shortly after 9/11, and many of them were not even interviewed or questioned by FBI agents. This fact alone should make one rethink what actually happened on 9/11 and who was involved.
The NYT article mentioned above startled me for a number of reasons. First off, why would the U.S. government, through the CIA, be funding a warlord directly involved and personally benefiting from the drug trade, something US and NATO forces have been trying to disrupt and eliminate since the beginning of the invasion? The fact that the CIA, and quite possibly other foreign intelligence agencies, are still involved in covert and illegal dealings with thugs in Central Asia should give every American pause.
On Monday, Sibel Edmonds and John Cole, both former FBI agents, had a lengthy, but detailed, interview with Scott Horton of Anti-War Radio that shed some light on all of this. Edmonds, who worked primarily as a Turkish translator for the FBI, has risen numerous issues regarding 9/11, foreign espionage carried out by US agents on behalf of other countries (principally Israel and Turkey), and other nefarious activities that have not been investigated.
In a recent interview with Philip Giraldi of The American Conservative magazine, Edmonds highlights some important individuals that she claims were highly involved in espionage, bribery, and other illegal activities, including Marc Grossman, Air Force Major Douglas Dickerson, Dickerson's wife (who worked with Edmonds as a translator at the FBI), the Turkish born Can Dickerson, Richard Perle, and Douglas Feith. The entire article is simply a must read, but I will highlight some main points here.
-Numerous investigations, dating back to the 1970s, were launched by the FBI against Feith, Perle, Grossman and others who were suspected of providing classified information-- military technology, access to weapons systems, policy proposals, ect.-- to various foreign governments, most notably Turkey and Israel. These investigations were never fully brought to fruition, which explains why Edmonds was fired after raising serious objections to her superiors at the FBI about this activity.
-This classified information was paid for using bribes and front companies, which many of the officials listed above worked for, and was then resold to other foreign intelligence agencies in many instances
-Numerous Congress members and their staffers were involved in some of these dealings
-Can Dickerson, Douglas Dickerson's wife who was hired by the FBI and given top security clearance, had a history with the American Turkish Council and was suspected of hiding intelligence and covering up various wrongdoings
There are many more details to this story that this amateur writer could not possibly cover, and I encourage all to thoroughly research and investigate this story for themselves. It is very confusing, and has not been covered by the mainstream media in any serious way for the past 5 years (or more). What is apparent is that intelligence agencies, both foreign and domestic, have shady dealings, high level contacts, and enormous budgets to engage in this type of activity (espionage, bribery, extra-judicial killings, ect.) and that should come as no surprise to anyone. What is extremely troubling, especially in light of the recent outrage expressed by Republican members of Congress claiming that the Council on American-Islamic Relations was trying to infiltrate the US government, is that this woman and the claims she makes are hardly noticed by the American public. This is one investigation that needs to take place immediately. Given the fact that numerous high ranking and influential individuals in our government, private sector, and international community are involved in this scandal, any investigation seems unlikely. Not to mention the fact that virtually no mainstream media outlet is covering this story...
The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the CIA's direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai's home.
(...)
The relationship between Mr. Karzai and the CIA is wide ranging, several American officials said. He helps the CIA operate a paramilitary group, the Kandahar Strike Force, that is used for raids against suspected insurgents and terrorists. On at least one occasion, the strike forces has been accused of launching an unauthorized operation against an official of the Afghan government, the officials said.
Mr. Karzai is also widely believed to be involved in Afghanistan's booming opium trade, a $65 billion global industry.
As our political leaders consider further escalating the war in Afghanistan, a consideration that 54% of Americans oppose, the history of the CIA, foreign intelligence agencies (particularly Turkish, Israeli and Pakistani agencies), and their ties to various U.S. officials is worth remembering. After all, it is widely documented that the CIA had countless dealings with the mujahdeen in Central Asia during the 1980s and 1990s, principally the CIA's funding of Muslim guerillas, including Osama bin Laden, resisting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Also, as Michael Moore pointed out in his film, Farenheit 9/11, many members of the bin Laden family and other Saudi nationals were flown out of the country shortly after 9/11, and many of them were not even interviewed or questioned by FBI agents. This fact alone should make one rethink what actually happened on 9/11 and who was involved.
The NYT article mentioned above startled me for a number of reasons. First off, why would the U.S. government, through the CIA, be funding a warlord directly involved and personally benefiting from the drug trade, something US and NATO forces have been trying to disrupt and eliminate since the beginning of the invasion? The fact that the CIA, and quite possibly other foreign intelligence agencies, are still involved in covert and illegal dealings with thugs in Central Asia should give every American pause.
On Monday, Sibel Edmonds and John Cole, both former FBI agents, had a lengthy, but detailed, interview with Scott Horton of Anti-War Radio that shed some light on all of this. Edmonds, who worked primarily as a Turkish translator for the FBI, has risen numerous issues regarding 9/11, foreign espionage carried out by US agents on behalf of other countries (principally Israel and Turkey), and other nefarious activities that have not been investigated.
In a recent interview with Philip Giraldi of The American Conservative magazine, Edmonds highlights some important individuals that she claims were highly involved in espionage, bribery, and other illegal activities, including Marc Grossman, Air Force Major Douglas Dickerson, Dickerson's wife (who worked with Edmonds as a translator at the FBI), the Turkish born Can Dickerson, Richard Perle, and Douglas Feith. The entire article is simply a must read, but I will highlight some main points here.
-Numerous investigations, dating back to the 1970s, were launched by the FBI against Feith, Perle, Grossman and others who were suspected of providing classified information-- military technology, access to weapons systems, policy proposals, ect.-- to various foreign governments, most notably Turkey and Israel. These investigations were never fully brought to fruition, which explains why Edmonds was fired after raising serious objections to her superiors at the FBI about this activity.
-This classified information was paid for using bribes and front companies, which many of the officials listed above worked for, and was then resold to other foreign intelligence agencies in many instances
-Numerous Congress members and their staffers were involved in some of these dealings
-Can Dickerson, Douglas Dickerson's wife who was hired by the FBI and given top security clearance, had a history with the American Turkish Council and was suspected of hiding intelligence and covering up various wrongdoings
There are many more details to this story that this amateur writer could not possibly cover, and I encourage all to thoroughly research and investigate this story for themselves. It is very confusing, and has not been covered by the mainstream media in any serious way for the past 5 years (or more). What is apparent is that intelligence agencies, both foreign and domestic, have shady dealings, high level contacts, and enormous budgets to engage in this type of activity (espionage, bribery, extra-judicial killings, ect.) and that should come as no surprise to anyone. What is extremely troubling, especially in light of the recent outrage expressed by Republican members of Congress claiming that the Council on American-Islamic Relations was trying to infiltrate the US government, is that this woman and the claims she makes are hardly noticed by the American public. This is one investigation that needs to take place immediately. Given the fact that numerous high ranking and influential individuals in our government, private sector, and international community are involved in this scandal, any investigation seems unlikely. Not to mention the fact that virtually no mainstream media outlet is covering this story...
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Is Our Economy Based on War?
With the healthcare debate stirring up fiscal conservatives and even some Blue Dog Democrats who worry about the long-term costs of health care reform, Obama has announced that any bill he will sign will be "deficit neutral", which shows the lengths any politician will go to ensure that they are not irresponsible, tax-spend bueauracrats sitting in Washington "redistributing" wealth around the nation. As if our national debates weren't skewed and slanted enough, the fact that any health care bill has to be "deficit neutral" while we continue to spend billions of dollars in pointless, brutal, and, ultimately, counter-productive wars overseas is a terrible indictment of our political discourse. The Obama administration is even contemplating escalating the war in Afghanistan, and military leaders, particularly Obama's hand-picked man to run the show in Afghanistan, General Stanely McChrystal, have put pressure on the administration to deploy more troops and more resources to Afghanistan. So, while it is perfectly OK and fiscally responsible to advocate and prosecute war in foreign countries thousands of miles away and literally hand over billions of dollars to the most irresponsible and criminal financial institutions in the history of this country, any health care reform bill that is not "deficit neutral" is irresponsible and foolish. Does it sound like we have our priorities in the right places to you?
Below is a conversation Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! and Jo Comerford had today regarding our insane military spending and where we place our priorities:
Below is a conversation Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! and Jo Comerford had today regarding our insane military spending and where we place our priorities:
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