December 2007
Monthly Archive
December 18, 2007
It all looked so clear when Bush/Cheney invaded Iraq. It was all about toppling Saddam and cleaning out the Sunni’s Baathist regime.
That went pretty well except that Washington found itself with a bunch Iraq’s great unwashed, its Shiites, demanding democracy of all things – neatly put, a transfer of the political reins from Sunni to Shia control. Ouch! Shiites in control, just ’cause they’re the majority?
In one blistering moment of clarity amidst a thick fog of idiocy, the White House realized it had just made Shiite controlled Iran, the dominant power in the region. Its options were rapidly being foreclosed.
Oh dear. Then followed the kiss and make up moment with Iraq’s Sunni leadership. The Americans even gave the “former” insurgents (ha, ha, ha) weapons and equipment so they could fight al-Qaeda terrorists. Now the Shiite government in Baghdad saw the US lavishing arms on he very group they know they’re going to have to fight once the Yanks leave. Grrrrrreat!
Not to worry. Roughly a billion dollars worth of arms and equipment has somehow vanished from the Abu Ghraib compound. The stuff has vanished alright, that is if you don’t bother following the tire tracks to the Shiite militias.
Isn’t that great. Iraq’s enormous weapons shortage has now been relieved!
But there were always the Kurds in the north to remain America’s trusted and grateful allies. Not so much as you might think. First there was the poison pill of the Kurdish Autonomous Region’s constitution that managed to get infiltrated, er incorporated into the Iraq constitution. This is the deal that will likely lead to the Arab-Kurd war over Kirkuk.
And then there’s the Turks and their own Kurdish rebels. Now the Kurdish rebels, or freedom fighters, or terrorists, have been using northern Iraq as a safe haven from which to raid targets in Turkey. In response the Turks sent about 100,000 forces to the Iraq border.
The Americans have tried to get Turkey to back off but Ankara is in virtually the same moral position as Israel was when it invaded Lebanon last year to go after Hezbollah – with complete American support. So, Turkey’s now saying “me too, me too” and has launched air strikes and even a small ground raid into the Kurdish Autonomous Region.
Then word leaked out that the Americans are helping the Turks target Kurdish sites inside Iraq. The Iraqi Kurds are livid. So is the Baghdad government even though it’s Arab dominated.
What to do, what to do? The Sunni don’t trust them and the Shiite don’t trust them and, now, the Kurds don’t trust them. Best send Condi to Iraq to soothe hurt feelings.
I think even the Bushies are realizing you can only play this game so many times before it gets old. That message got delivered to Condi today when the head of the Kurdish Autonomous Region, President Massoud Barzani, refused to meet with her. From BBC:
Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said: “It was decided that Massoud Barzani would go to Baghdad to take part in a meeting with Condoleezza Rice and other officials, but he will not go now as a sign of protest against the American position on the bombings by Turkey.
“It is unacceptable that the United States, in charge of monitoring our airspace, authorised Turkey to bomb our villages,” he said.
December 18, 2007
Is the Republican presidential
frontrunner a genuine sociopath? Here are a few of the common characteristics:
Glibness and Superficial Charm
Manipulative and Conning They never recognize the rights of others and see their self-serving behaviors as permissible. They appear to be charming, yet are covertly hostile and domineering, seeing their victim as merely an instrument to be used. They may dominate and humiliate their victims.
Grandiose Sense of Self Feels entitled to certain things as “their right.”
Pathological Lying Has no problem lying coolly and easily and it is almost impossible for them to be truthful on a consistent basis. Can create, and get caught up in, a complex belief about their own powers and abilities. Extremely convincing and even able to pass lie detector tests.
Lack of Remorse, Shame or Guilt A deep seated rage, which is split off and repressed, is at their core. Does not see others around them as people, but only as targets and opportunities. Instead of friends, they have victims and accomplices who end up as victims. The end always justifies the means and they let nothing stand in their way.
Shallow Emotions When they show what seems to be warmth, joy, love and compassion it is more feigned than experienced and serves an ulterior motive. Outraged by insignificant matters, yet remaining unmoved and cold by what would upset a normal person. Since they are not genuine, neither are their promises.
Incapacity for Love
Need for Stimulation Living on the edge. Verbal outbursts and physical punishments are normal. Promiscuity and gambling are common.
Callousness/Lack of Empathy Unable to empathize with the pain of their victims, having only contempt for others’ feelings of distress and readily taking advantage of them.
Poor Behavioral Controls/Impulsive Nature Rage and abuse, alternating with small expressions of love and approval produce an addictive cycle for abuser and abused, as well as creating hopelessness in the victim. Believe they are all-powerful, all-knowing, entitled to every wish, no sense of personal boundaries, no concern for their impact on others.
Irresponsibility/Unreliability Not concerned about wrecking others’ lives and dreams. Oblivious or indifferent to the devastation they cause. Does not accept blame themselves, but blames others, even for acts they obviously committed.
Promiscuous Sexual Behavior/Infidelity Promiscuity, child sexual abuse, rape and sexual acting out of all sorts.
Lack of Realistic Life Plan/Parasitic Lifestyle Tends to move around a lot or makes all encompassing promises for the future, poor work ethic but exploits others effectively.
Criminal or Entrepreneurial Versatility Changes their image as needed to avoid prosecution. Changes life story readily.
Welcome to the life and times of Rudolph Giuliani, overall still the favourite of Republicans to become the next president of the United States. It’s telling that the one place not in thrall to Giuliani is the one place where his true character is best known – New York City. In its December 17 edition, The New Yorker takes a funny peek at “America’s Mayor”
On Giuliani:
“His goal in life is to spear people, destroy them, to go for the jugular” – Former Mayor Ed Koch
“He is not bound by the truth. I have studied animal life, and their predator/prey relations are more graceful than his.” – Schools chancellor Rudy Crew
“It’s like a cult he’s got there. You can’t work with the guy unless you’re willing to drink the Kool-Aid.” – Police Commissioner William Bratton
“[He] didn’t bring us together, our pain brought us together… We would have come together if Bozo was the mayor.” – Al Sharpton
“He is a small man in search of a balcony” – Columnist Jimmy Breslin
On The Blame Game:
When Giuliani blamed an underling named Jerome M. Hauer for the foolhardy idea of placing the city’s emergency=management headquarters in the World Trade Center, he was confronted with a memo in which Hauer had argued against the site and in favor of a less visible target in Brooklyn.
On Early Rudy:
Q: Who is Leo D’Avanzo? A: The Mob-connected uncle who employed Giuliani’s father as a bat-wielding debt collector.
On Abusing the Rights of Others:
What action by the Giuliani administration was found by the courts to have violated the First Amendment rights of New Yorkers?
(a) Preventing taxi-drivers from assembling for a protest.
(b) Requiring city workers to obtain permission to speak to the press.
(c) Refusing to issue a permit for an anti-police-brutality march.
(d) All of the above, and many more.
Don’t even ask.
On Giuliani’s Vindictiveness:
His legal skirmish with New York magazine over a bus ad touting the magazine as, “possibly the only good thing in New York Rudy hasn’t taken credit for.”
On Judiths:
Judith Regan – carried on an affair with a top city official in an apartment near Ground Zero donated for the use of the relief workers.
Judith Nathan – carried on an affair with a top city official at a house in Southhampton.
On Rudy’s Appointees:
Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik – indicted on sixteen charges, including corruption, mail fraud and tax fraud.
Housing Commissioner Richard Roberts – pleaded guilty to perjury
Housing Development Corporation head Russell Harding – found guilt of embezzlement and possession of child pornography.
But wait, there’s more, so much more but I’ll have to post that later. The point is that Republican presidential frontrunner Rudy Giuliani would be one scary guy as leader of the free world. What’s scarier, however, is that all this background, and more, is public knowledge and yet a lot of Republicans would still support a Giuliani presidency. Heaven help us!
December 18, 2007
Posted by MoS under
Bush,
Rice
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Wonder what you’ll get US state secretary Condoleeza Rice for Christmas this year? Here’s what she wants more than anything. Ready? She wants a calendar – one of those big, wall calendars with separate boxes for every day. And to go with it she wants a box of red felt marker pens.
Condi wants to slap that sucker up on the wall of her office and use the pens to cross off the days until it’s all over, when it becomes somebody else’s miserable job to try to clean up the messes she and her bosses have made around the world, the day when she can say “screw it” and kick back with a pitcher of margaritas.
Maybe if she can just down enough tequila she’ll be able to overcome any residual traces of conscience, integrity and decency in time to bundle up three hundred pages of hallucinations, spin and outright lies to pour into a volume of memoirs. Lord knows she’s done enough spinning and lying over the past seven years that, by the time Bush is run out of Washington, that she should be able to do it even passed out in a pool of vomit.
Then, as the hangover fades and the hands steady, she can ready herself for the real challenges of the coming years – defending herself and her masters against their accusers and attackers. They’ll likely be challenged as no other administration in history. That’s because there’s been no previous administration so incompetent, self-serving, dishonest, secretive and utterly abusive of the public trust that attends high office. It’ll be a whistle blowers’ Mardi Gras and all those minions, keepers of the darkest truths, who’ve buried their heads all these years out of fear of the fabled retribution of the masters, will be free at last to talk, to reveal and indict, even to draw maps showing where the bodies are buried.
Yes, I would think that, much as the Bushies must be looking forward to being released from the constant shirking of responsibility, they must also view life after 2008 with a certain dread. Unless, of course, the Terror continues. Unless luck is with them one more time and the November runoff comes down to Clinton versus Giuliani. Then there may yet be hope.
December 18, 2007
It sounded like facile sophistry. “We waterboarded the guy and, viola, a few days later he spilled his guts. See, waterboarding works. And, best of all, we saved the world.” That was the line the CIA was peddling about its use of torture on Abu Zubaida, who the agency claims was a really, really important, al-Qaeda kingpin.
Yeah, sure.
The FBI has come out in reply with what’s been known about this guy for a long time – he’s a mentally disturbed loudmouth. From the Washington Post:
While CIA officials have described him as an important insider whose disclosures under intense pressure saved lives, some FBI agents and analysts say he is largely a loudmouthed and mentally troubled hotelier whose credibility dropped as the CIA subjected him to a simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding and to other “enhanced interrogation” measures.
Bush has sided publicly with the CIA’s version of events. “We knew that Zubaida had more information that could save innocent lives, but he stopped talking,” Bush said in September 2006. “And so the CIA used an alternative set of procedures,” which the president said prompted Abu Zubaida to disclose information leading to the capture of Sept. 11, 2001, plotter Ramzi Binalshibh.
But former FBI officials privy to details of the case continue to dispute the CIA’s account of the effectiveness of the harsh measures, making the record of Abu Zubaida’s interrogation hard for outsiders to assess.
There is little dispute, according to officials from both agencies, that Abu Zubaida provided some valuable intelligence before CIA interrogators began to rough him up, including information that helped identify Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and al-Qaeda operative Jose Padilla.
Retired FBI agent Daniel Coleman, who led an examination of documents after Abu Zubaida’s capture in early 2002 and worked on the case, said the CIA’s harsh tactics cast doubt on the credibility of Abu Zubaida’s information.
“I don’t have confidence in anything he says, because once you go down that road, everything you say is tainted,” Coleman said, referring to the harsh measures. “He was talking before they did that to him, but they didn’t believe him. The problem is they didn’t realize he didn’t know all that much.”
December 18, 2007
I’ve been bothered by a nagging, undefined feeling I was left with after watching Brian Mulroney’s performance before the Commons ethics committee. That’s why I found Heather Mallick’s take on it positively uproarious. Enjoy. From CBC.ca:
“I’d have paid good money not to see Brian Mulroney testify to the Ethics Committee. It was like watching your father get drunk at a party or seeing your mother naked.* I kept having to straighten myself out of the fetal position.
It was excruciating because it was so revealing but only in the worst way, like a group therapy session for the nation.
Over all of us glowered the shadow of the family patriarch, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, a man who inherited money and never developed a taste for it. It wasn’t good for the deficit but at least we know Trudeau’s deft, aristocratic hands never soiled themselves with thousand-dollar bills from any Mr. Dodgy.
A handful of MPs stood out. Pat Martin, the NDP’s Ethics and Privacy critic and MP for Winnipeg Centre, is the stalwart son, Matt Damon in Syriana. “I’m not calling you a liar, Mr. Mulroney, but I don’t want anybody here to think I believe you,” he said wryly, which was as good a summing-up of our relationship with Brian Mulroney as has ever been spoken.
The essence of the intervention was all about dirt, in the anthropological sense. Dirt is matter out of place. Envelopes of thousand-dollar bills are matter that should never have touched Mulroney’s hands. They did. Ergo, he has dirty hands.
It was a mistake, he tells the family, and besides they weren’t really dirty in the first place. “I erred in judgment,” he says. No. I erred in judgment when I didn’t get my eavestroughs cleaned in November. You took cash from a German bagman. It’s different.
He just can’t help himself. Unctuous as ever, he goes over the top. He doesn’t work at a law firm, but one of “the great law firms of Canadian history.” He doesn’t just have a family but a wife by his side and four young children and an ailing mother and a dead father … Brian, everyone in the room has a family. Everyone has a boss. It’s not special.
“We all have enemies,” he says, and waxes philosophical. But that’s not how he really feels, so why pretend. He rails at Stevie Cameron, one of Canada’s best and most implacable journalists, for talking to the RCMP in her office at home, which must mean she’s some kind of informant. He doesn’t realize that informants don’t invite you to their home; they meet you in hotel rooms.
Canada is my family. I love them, I don’t love them. After they looked like fools at the Bali summit, from now on when I go out with them, I’ll pretend I don’t know who these people are.
But I know Brian. Every family has a Brian.”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_mallick/20071214.html
December 18, 2007
Organized crime must have been delighted with prime minister Harper’s decision to scrap the Martin government’s marijuana initiative. Criminalizing the production of even small amounts of pot ensures that it will remain the exclusive preserve of organized crime. It also ensures these career criminals will be able to line their pockets with huge profits, completely untaxed, with which they can import other drugs like cocaine and even weapons. See, everybody wins – everybody except you and me, that is.
Now we all know that pot leads to harder drugs. According to the RCMP’s annual report, this is especially true of oganized crime. From Canadian Press:
The Mounties say the involvement of organized crime has significantly expanded the Canadian drug trade, with outlaw motorcycle gangs and Asian groups the reigning kingpins of the marijuana industry.
The report notes crime groups that once specialized in a single drug have branched out into various substances, including popular club drug Ecstasy.
“These organizations are powerful, well-connected and are dealing in high profit-yielding illicit ventures across the globe.”
Based on seizure data for 2006, Canadian police prevented an estimated $2.3 billion in drugs from reaching the streets. The report suggests, however, that may represent between just five and 20 per cent of the total amount of illegal drugs in Canada.
Some 90 per cent of Canadian-grown marijuana is produced in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.
So Steve, keep up the good work. Organized crime is counting on you.
December 17, 2007
Funny how “new
Europe” was clamouring to get under the skirts of NATO but seems intent on doing bugger all to show any gratitude. We’re now obliged to defend countries like Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Latvia, and Lithuania but just where are these clowns when they’re needed to lend a hand in Afghanistan? If you chose Door “2”, “nowhere to be seen”, you’re right.
Now, admittedly, some of these newcomers are lightweights – total populations smaller than middle sized cities. But then there’s Poland with 38-million, Romania with 22-million, Hungary and the Czech Republic, each with 10-million. Here are NATO’s own figures:
“…the Alliance’s total population [has] increased from 735 million to 839 million since 1999 – an expansion of 104 million or roughly 14 per cent (see table with data from 2000, the most recent year for which detailed comparative information is available). NATO’s active armed forces will have increased by a similar proportion, from 3,448,590 to 3,986,045 — an expansion of about 16 per cent. Reserve forces, however, will have grown substantially in size, with the Central and Eastern European states bringing an additional 1,714,700 reserves to the “old” NATO’s 3,774,000 – an increase of about 45 per cent.”
Excuse me? The new kids have 1,714,700 soldiers in their reserves and we’re left struggling with a piddling 26,000 soldiers at the wet end of a pissing contest in Afghanistan? By the way, did you get that combined total – just shy of FOUR MILLION “ACTIVE” SOLDIERS. And we can’t find reinforcements and reserves to supplement and relieve the 26,000 in Afghanistan, about half of which are doing the ‘heavy lifting’?
I’m sorry but usually when you come into a club you pay your dues. A lot of these countries were falling all over each other to brown nose George Bush when it came to invading Iraq. Why aren’t they making anything resembling a decent effort to wade in and help when it comes to Afghanistan?
If these numbers shock you, they should. Canada, and the Dutch and the Brits are hanging our soldiers’ butts out there without the support of either “old” or “new” Europe. If that’s the best Jaap de Hoop Scheffer can do, he ought to resign.
December 17, 2007
Robert Latimer, who presents no risk to re-offend, is slammed back in prison. Robert Gary Wallin, well he’s another story entirely. The Canadian Parole Board has decided that Wallin, who strangled a girl in Stanley Park, leaving her brain damaged, is still capable of violence, but is to be let out early anyway.
In 2002, Korean student Ji-Won Park was jogging through Stanley Park. Wallin attacked her, choking her with the wire of her headset and then using his hands. She’s in a wheelchair and can no longer speak.
So the parole board believes Wallin is still capable of doing the same thing but – this is the best part – he’s made some changes to his life and is supported by family. So, out he goes.
Sorry but if you believe the guy’s a risk to cause further violence to the public, keep him inside. He can have Latimer’s cell.
December 16, 2007
From the “it was bound to happen” file, Agence France-Presse reports the White House is already expressing “strong concerns” about the minimalist climate change deal reached at Bali.
As negotiators headed home after two weeks of intense haggling, the White House complained that the agreement did not do enough to commit major emerging economies such as China and India to big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
It underlined lingering division over how to confront the perils of global warming, which scientists warn will put millions of people at risk of hunger, homelessness and disease by the end of the century if temperatures keep rising at current rates.
An isolated US delegation had backed down during an unplanned 13th day of talks and said it would finally accept the deal, but hours later US President George W. Bush’s administration counter-attacked.
The White House said any Kyoto successor treaty must acknowledge a nation’s sovereign right to pursue economic growth and energy security.
While there were several positive aspects to the Bali deal, it added, the “United States does have serious concerns about other aspects of the decision as we begin the negotiations.”
The drama of Bali will be minor compared to the poker game when talks on a new treaty reach crunch point, said Fernando Tudela, Mexico’s under-secretary for environmental policy.
“The mother of all battles will be in 2009,” he cautioned. “This is just a warm-up.”
December 16, 2007
No, they’re not going to help NATO fight the Taliban or al-Qaeda. Instead the Chinese will be helping themselves to one of the largest copper deposits in the world. It’s the Aynak copper mine in Logar province and the Chinese beat out rivals from Canada, the US and Russia to get it.
China Metallurgical Group has committed $4-billion to the project which will also see a direct rail line constructed linking Afghanistan and China. I wonder if the Chinese project will be using electricity generated by the Kajaki dam NATO has been struggling to defend against the Taliban? Maybe NATO will even wind up providing security for China’s investment.
It’s believed that part of the investment is a desire, on China’s part, to “push back” against India and the Indian/US efforts to contain China. Now it’s seen in some quarters that it’s China working to encircle India. This is the take of M K Bhadrakumar, a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service for over 29 years, published in Asia Times Online:
“…the mother of all Chinese encirclement of India still remains largely unnoticed in Delhi – the Beijing-Tehran axis. There is wide recognition that if the United States hasn’t been able to push through another tougher United Nations Security Council resolution against Iran over its nuclear program, that has been largely because of China’s reluctance to concur.
But what happened last Sunday still came as a bolt from the blue. China Petroleum Corporation, better known as the Sinopec Group, signed a contract with the Iranian Oil Ministry for the development of the Yadavaran oil and gas fields in southwestern Iran.
The current estimation is that the project cost will be $2 billion. Under the contract, China will make the entire investment necessary to develop the fields. The first phase is to produce 85,000 barrels of oil per day and the second phase will add another 100,000 barrels. According to Iranian estimates, Yadavaran has in place oil reserves of 18.3 billion barrels and gas reserves amounting to 12.5 trillion cubic feet.
China outmaneuvered both the US and India on Iran. When the American National Intelligence Estimates collapsed Bush’s claims of Iran’s imminent nuclear threat to the world, China was ready to move – and quickly. India, meanwhile, found itself shut out, having succumbed to US pressure to sanctions against Iran.
Indian diplomacy has a lot of catching up to do. In the short term, Delhi will have to pay a price for overlooking the geopolitical reality that Iran is the only really viable regional power in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. Delhi’s best hope is that true to their innate pragmatism, Iranians will let bygones be bygones.
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