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2 Nov 2004 @ 08:13
Tonight on CBc's "Ideas" Naomi Klein gave a talk on her one month journalism expedition to Baghdad last April, the details which can be found in this Harpers magazine article Baghdad Year Zero, but I liked the radio title better, "War and Fleece." This article clears up a lot of mysteries about what and why is currently happening in Iraq.
Naomi opened her talk by saying she was going to discuss the details of an illegal invasion and occupation by fundamentalist terrorist, and that these were economic fundamentalists and the terrorists were the United States government. She said it wasn't true that Bush didn't have a post war plan, he had a plan, it just wasn't a good plan. The plan was to disappear the previous culture and in its place install a "gleaming showroom for laissez-faire economics, a utopia such as the world had never seen. Every policy that liberates multinational corporations to pursue their quest for profit would be put into place: a shrunken state, a flexible workforce, open borders, minimal taxes, no tariffs, no ownership restrictions."
Paul Bremmer lead the US occupation of Iraq from May 2 2003, and initiated an economic and cultural shock and awe campaign to the reconstruction. In one summer he was able to make more changes in Iraq than the IMF had been able to make in three decades in Latin America. While the fires were still burning, his first job was to fire 500,000 state workers (without even giving them back pay), and With unemployment running at 67% and no social assistance. Back in the western world we hear of $18 billion in reconstruction but there were no cranes, no bulldozers, no electricity in Baghdad, but in the military controlled green zone construction was going non-stop on 16 permanent military bases. Then within a month Bremmer had thrown the doors of the country wide open to unrestricted foriegn investment. The theory of placing an entire country under such an extreme state of shock that the population would be unable to resist was based on the same torture theory for individuals, and it's worth while reading the article for the details.
Iraqi exciles that were pushing for the invasion were divided into two camps, the pragmatists "who favored getting rid of Saddam and his immediate entourage, securing access to oil, and slowly introducing free-market reforms"; and the Year Zero camp "who believed that Iraq was so contaminated that it needed to be rubbed out and remade from scratch. The prime advocate of the pragmatic approach was Iyad Allawi, a former high-level Baathist who fell out with Saddam and started working for the CIA. The prime advocate of the Year Zero approach was Ahmad Chalabi, whose hatred of the Iraqi state for expropriating his family’s assets during the 1958 revolution ran so deep he longed to see the entire country burned to the ground—everything, that is, but the Oil Ministry, which would be the nucleus of the new Iraq, the cluster of cells from which an entire nation would grow."
On the American side of the table the pragmatists were Colin Powel and the military generals who wanted to hold quick and dirty elections and then establish permanent military bases on the model of the Phillipines. The PNAC crowd wanted this plus an idealist free market that delivered everything on a multinational corporation's wishlist.
One problem with the pillage plan was that it was illegal. UN resolution 1483 did give US and Britian the position of legal occupiers but there was also the provision that they had to abide by the Geneva convention and the Hague resolutions, both of which had safeguards to prevent this kind of massive theft. The corporations were reluctant to come swarming in to the newly opened market because the insurance companies wouldn't give them political risk insurance against future nationalization.
Time is ticking away and the privatization of Iraq, with it's 40 year contracts needs to get in place before the elected government takes over in the promised six months which was the original plan A. The reason for the alternate plan B of the appointed interim government, ala Allawi was to create a loophole and solve the resolution 1483 problem. The interim government could make the privatization deals and subsequent governments would be stuck with them for the next 40 years. This was why the people were so adamant about not having the interim government and why they wanted an election rather than a selection.
Naomi delivered a great talk and cleared up a lot of little mysteries about why the neo-cons continue to keep repeating lies that have already been proved to be untrue, namely because there are serious legal implications down the road once this finally lands up in the world courts, and it will land up in the world courts. My personal opinion is that the only thing that can delay this is by Bush staying in power and which is why I think he will steal the election tomorrow and it will be the last election the US has for a long time. More >
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1 Nov 2004 @ 00:10
Is there any doubt that Vice President Cheney is an influential person in the Bush government, and yet there is almost a total absence of media coverage concerning him, or at least in the American controlled mass media. Lately all attention has been focused on the George and Kerry horse race as each attempt to outdo the other on how severely they will smite the 'evildoers' once they are elected, nobody even knows who Edwards is, and the mass media is valiantly trying to keep Cheney out of the spotlight. Cheney's profile from "Project for an Old American Century" a PNAC watch group (also the source of the above picture).
HalliburtonWatch.org is one of the sites that keeps up to date on the latest tricks and dirt of Halliburton and its number one man in the White House, Dick Cheney. Dick claims there is no conflict of interest between himself and Halliburton but the facts beg to differ. Dick still receives a deffered salary, and he still has stock options in the company.
Halliburton has also been given no bid contracts for military support that cost plus, which means the bill is determined by expenses plus an additional percentage of expenses as profit, and yes that means the more money you waste the more profit you make, what a sweetheart deal that is, eh.
There have been attempts to bring him to justice, even to the point of subpoena but those apparently don't apply to vice presidents. As long as Dick stays within the boundaries of USA he is exempt from the law. Halliburton on the other hand is subject to law and sanctions by other countries, and Dick as well through his connections as former CEO.
The list just goes on and on, it never ends, so I'm opening this topic to serve as a repository more than anything. However, if anybody does want to jump into the frey to discuss this, please do.
enron hesitation on an end run and too late
if press house pets turn into feral hyienas
barking at barbarian pounding down the gate
multiple coverups play out political arenas
fools peekaboo and poke persuasive rhetoric
at the naked president whereas the big dick
and kenny boy are artfully dodging subpoena
More >
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29 Oct 2004 @ 00:47
It is quite evident by now that the Iraq war was about oil. In 1997 the US national security advisor Brzezinski wrote the book The Grand Chessboard. In it, Brzezinski claimed the US must take control of the world’s oil and gas reserves to gain total control over the world - or “full spectrum dominance” (yes, the very same “full spectrum dominance” Bush, Rumsfeld and Powell have referred to several times in the past 4 years.) In 1999 the Pentagon declared readiness to wage an oil war. Another part of the plan for global domination, a new American empire, is to stop any regional power, friend or foe, from becoming powerful enough to rival US hegemony. The book says the greatest threat to US hegemony would be a united Europe, or worse, a united Eurasia: Europe and Asia working together peacefully. The Neocons, who have hijacked the White House, have made this idea of worldwide US hegemony, an American empire, their declared policy goal. That explains why Rumsfeld tried to drive a wedge between European countries with his “old” Europe and “new” Europe comment.. It also explains the madness behind the US policy to pre-emtively shoot down European satellites, if or when they will threaten US space superiority. Shortly before the Iraq war, Cheney and his close buddy Baker announced that the US was facing an unprecedented energy crisis and that the US had to gain access to Iraq’s oil, by military force if neccesary. Notice, in that policy statement, there was nothing mentioned about Iraq posing a threat to the US with WMD. Instead, the policy paper states that Iraq is a threat to the US, because Iraq has a lot of oil, which the US may not be able to get under Saddam. And today we know that every word about the WMD was a lie. There were no WMD. Iraq was not a threat to the US. Those WMD claims were delusional. Cheney held a secret energy meeting about Iraq’s oil fields. Then, during the war, the first objective was to secure the oil fields and the oil ministry. And while American tax payers have to pay billions for this war, that money goes straight into the pockets of Halliburton and other war profiteers. At this point, anyone with at least half a brain can see that the Iraq invasion indeed was all about oil and profit. So, what is the rest of the world doing about it? For one, even our oldest allies no longer trust us. US reputation is at an all time low. And sooner or later, the rest of the world may very well unite against us, and use economic pressure, rather than military force, to end American imperialism. More >
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27 Oct 2004 @ 20:11
Tonight there will be a blood red lunar eclipse. This should be a good one seeing as how it is in the harvest moon period of the year. The eclipse affect occurs because the earth's atmosphere absorbs the sun's blue light leaving the red light which bends around the earth and lights up the moon in bright red when the eclipse is full.
The astrological signs that I've been hearing about say that there will be a major turning point in the cosmic plan right now. Hmmm, this is the stuff of legends. There are clear skies over Vancouver and I'm really looking forward to seeing this.
NASA site for timetable and more details. More >
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18 Oct 2004 @ 17:57
It is encouraging to see that more Conservative Republicans are starting to stand up to the Neo-Conservatives that are currently in power. This Demand Letter Sent to Bush by Corp CEO is an open letter that has been sent to George W. Bush, and is also being circulated around the net. Lots of very valid questions that need to be answered now, should have been asked and answered a long time ago.
From Karl W. B. Schwarz
President, Chief Executive Officer
Patmos Nanotechnologies, LLC
10-13-4
By Email, By Facsimile to White House
Mr. President,
I am a Conservative Christian Republican that has no intentions of voting for you in this year's election and many other Conservative Republicans are following me.
America demands the TRUTH and not after the elections; this nation demands the truth from you RIGHT NOW! This letter and an identical email will be going out to hundreds of thousands by me, millions by others. The following content was sent to the White House by facsimile earlier today from Ground Zero in New York City.
-- The letter then continues with thirty direct questions and a general condemnation of Bush's performance as president. Gotta love that internet, eh? More >
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The cosmic orgasm is still a go but that little date with destiny hasn't even got to the restaurant yet so please be patient. Update as of 2007, I think we're at the restaurant. Passion plays out best with patience. Then again, the speed with which this is unfolding we might just have to sweep the dishes off the table and go for it. hehehe
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