From our desk dictionary:

Main Entry: subjugate

Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): sub·ju·gat·ed; sub·ju·gat·ing
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin subjugatus, past participle of subjugare, from sub- + jugum yoke — more at yoke

1 : to bring under control and governance as a subject : conquer
2 : to make submissive : subdue

Intro:

The Pacific Northwest is a region in the northwest of North America, bound by the Pacific Ocean to the west. Always included are the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. Southeast Alaska, Idaho, western Montana and northern California are often included. The region's largest metropolitan areas are Seattle/Tacoma, Washington, with 3.3 million people; Vancouver, British Columbia, with 2.3 million people; and Portland, Oregon, with 2.2 million people. This area is sometimes seen as a megacity (also known as a conurbation, an agglomeration, or a megalopolis). This "megacity" stretches along Interstate 5 in the states of Oregon and Washington and Hwy 99 in the province of British Columbia. As of 2004, the combined populations of the Greater Vancouver/Lower Mainland area, the Seattle metropolitan area and the Portland metropolitan area totaled almost nine million people.

Cascadia (commonly called the Republic of Cascadia as a full name) is a proposed name for an independent sovereign state advocated by a grassroots environmental movement in the Pacific Northwest of North America. This state would hypothetically be formed by the union of British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington. Other suggested boundary lines also include Idaho (all or parts), western Montana, Northern California, parts of Alaska, and parts of the Yukon. This type of "federation" would require secession from both the United States and Canada. The boundaries of this proposed republic could incorporate those of the existing province and states. At the maximum extent, Cascadia would be home to more than 17 million people and would boast an economy that generates more than $450 billion worth of goods and services annually, which would place Cascadia in the top 20 economies of the world.

After Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark into the Pacific Northwest in 1803, Jefferson envisioned the establishment of an independent nation in the western portion of North America which he dubbed the "Republic of the Pacific".] Jefferson's original idea has since been embraced by a number of different groups with generally similar aims. Elements among the region's population sought to form their own country from the very beginning. John McLoughlin, the chief factor of the Hudson Bay Company's Columbia District , administered from Fort Vancouver, was involved with the debate over the future of the Oregon Country. Before British claims north of the Columbia River were ceded to the U.S.A. by the Oregon Treaty of 1846; he advocated an independent nation that would be free of the United States during debates at the Oregon Lyceum in 1842, through his lawyer. This view won support at first and a resolution adopted, but was later moved away from in favor of a resolution by George Abernethy of the Methodist Mission to wait on forming an independent country.

The modern concept of Cascadia is closely identified with the environmental movement. To counter what some environmental movements see as improper stewardship of the land, they have defined what is called the Cascadia Bioregion (also referred to as the Pacific Northwest Bioregion). Joel Garreau's Nine Nations of North America (1981) has the region as one of his nine 'nations', which he named "Ecotopia" after the Ernest Callenbach novel.

Pacific Coast Collaborative

"Leadership now for a sustainable tomorrow"

With a combined population of 52 million and a GDP of $2.5 trillion, Alaska, British Columbia, California, Oregon and Washington are poised to emerge as a mega-region and global economic powerhouse driven by innovation, energy, geographic location and sustainable resource management, attracting new jobs and investment while enhancing an already unparalleled quality of life.

On June 30, 2008, the leaders of the five jurisdictions signed the Pacific Coast Collaborative Agreement, the first agreement that brings together the Pacific leaders as a common front to set a cooperative direction into the Pacific Century. Out of this agreement was born the Pacific Coast Collaborative -- a formal basis for cooperative action, a forum for leadership and information sharing, and a common voice on issues facing Pacific North America. ...

Item: Pacific North American regional integration and control
Dana Gabriel Be Your Own Leader USA March 9, 2010


Protecting our planet has turned increasingly more political and profitable. Visit this page for its embedded links.

U.S.-Canadian state and provincial integration is being achieved in areas of transportation, the economy, energy and the environment. With some national, trilateral and global initiatives being discredited, stalled or ineffective, it appears as if the strategy has further shifted to a regional and local level in an effort to lay the groundwork for new agreements.

In 2008, the Pacific Coast Collaborative was established between Alaska, British Columbia, California, Oregon and Washington as, “a formal basis for cooperative action, a forum for leadership and information sharing, and a common voice on issues facing Pacific North America.” Some of its key priorities include action on clean energy, regional transportation, emergency management, sustainable regional economy, ocean conservation and climate change, as well as other issues. The inaugural Leaders’ Forum of the Pacific Coast Collaborative was held in Vancouver, British Colombia on February 12, 2010. It was hosted by Premier Gordon Campbell and chaired by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The meeting was also attended by Washington Governor Christine Gregoire and Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown. Although Alaska is also a member of the group, they were not able to send a representative to the meeting. It was announced that Oregon will be hosting the next forum to be held later this year. The Pacific Coast Leaders signed two action plans. The first being- Innovation, the Environment and the Economy which, “sets out a series of co-operative initiatives to promote renewable and low-carbon energy and energy conservation, including developing Interstate 5/Highway 99 as a green transportation corridor. It also promotes development of high-speed rail from San Diego to Vancouver and the move to ‘Green Ports’ through co-operation to reduce local air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions.” The second action plan on Ocean Conservation and Coastal Climate Change Adaptation, “focuses on co-operation on invasive species, reductions in toxins and other pollutants, promoting sustainable fisheries management and research into impacts from climate change and adaptation options.” The leaders also released a document entitled Vision 2030: Positioning Pacific North America for Sustainable Prosperity which sets out a strategic outlook for regional collaboration. ...

Related: Cascadia Times. Investigative journalism from the Cascadia Bioregion

... The Pacific Northwest, the region that extends from Northern California through Oregon, Washington and British Columbia to Alaska, and inland to Idaho and Montana, is a region whose identity and character have been formed by its natural environment. The region's natural resources have been the traditional mainstays of the region's economy, and the source of its quality of life. Cascadia Times was created to foster a broad public understanding of the natural environment of the Pacific Northwest, and the forces of politics, economics, science and community life that influence policies that affect it, as the region changes and adapts to new environmental and economic conditions.

Cascadia Times aims to be a responsive and responsible publication providing the Pacific Northwest with in-depth coverage of environmental and natural resource issues. Cascadia Times uses the tools of investigative journalism to produce accurate, fair and timely articles that examine and expose public policies which foster unsustainable depletion or degradation of the region's natural resources, as well as articles that explore activities in the region which foster conservation and sustainable use of those resources. ...

Noted: Tofino set to ban Starbucks, Tim Hortons and McDonalds
Stefania Seccia Canwest News Service/Vancouver Sun British Columbia Canada March 10, 2010

TOFINO — District of Tofino council wants to keep its unique charm by keeping out franchises like the golden arches, Starbucks and Tim Hortons. Council made a motion Tuesday directing staff to draft a bylaw that would ban franchises in Tofino utilizing a section of the official community plan which discourages future development and location of large-format retail chains and fast-food chains that do not reflect the character of Tofino, according to Coun. Stephen Ashton who proposed the motion. Ashton said he is concerned Tofino would lose its distinctness among other communities. “We are very unique where you can come to this place and you don't have a Starbucks, Tim Hortons or a McDonalds,” he said. ...

Bob Long, chief administrative officer, said the bylaws will have to be enforceable and council will have to assess the risks involved. “There is something called the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” Long said to council. “And sometimes these types of things can conflict with each other. You can't really enact legislation that is contrary to those freedoms and rights.” However, Ashton said one community he knew of passed a bylaw banning restaurants without table service. “It's do-able…there's different ways of doing it,” he explained. “I'm not suggesting that that would be a solution, but that's how they got around franchises.” ...

Iran’s refutation of US’ lies of nuclear weapons censored by corporate media, political “leaders”
Carl Herman LA County Nonpartisan Examiner USA March 9, 2010

Visit this page for its embedded links.

Levying war against the US is defined as treason in the US Constitution. The political and corporate media oligarchy who lied to levy war in Iraq committed treason against the US.
The political and corporate media fascists now lie for war with Iran. The latest lie is one of egregious omission: refusing to communicate to the American public Iran’s refutation of US government lying rhetoric of a nuclear weapons program in Iran; printed below. When media and government silence the voice of opposition, this shouts-out as propaganda that middle school students are taught to recognize. In addition, IAEA has used curious and twisted language in their reports; finding no diversion of nuclear material from legal and lawful use should be their emphasis. The fact it is not is prima facie evidence that political pressure is being exerted on IAEA leadership to spin their reports against Iran. The history of US political pressure to cause war rather than ethical address of concerns is powerful evidence. IAEA is likely under the same type of political pressure to make a case for war with Iran that we witnessed before the US invasion of Iraq: the US eliminated the UN agency director who would have resolved concerns of alleged Iraq weapons. ...

Again, the bottom line is that war rhetoric against Iran is in the face of Iran’s compliance with legal and peaceful use of nuclear energy and medicine under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The false outrage Obama and other war mongers have is the more complicated issue of Iran’s voluntary adaption and then withdrawal from Additional Protocol above and beyond NPT. The current non-issue is US prevention of Iran buying medical isotopes on the open market for crucial medical imaging procedures and treatment to nearly one million Iranians, and US complaint when Iran legally produces it in their own facility. The tragic-comic propaganda on this issue is revealing of the US treasonous lies for war: the amount of medical isotope needed for a year in Iran is less than one gram at a production cost to Iran for the fuel of ~$75,000. Please let this evil propaganda sink in: the US is threatening war, including first-strike nuclear weapons, over a volume of legitimate medicine less than a sip of your morning coffee that the US withholds from Iran. Criminally complicit political leaders and corporate media show their commitment to war by not simply communicating these facts that prove how easily this issue could be resolved. The links above include additional resources and policy recommendations to end US unlawful wars. Here is Iran’s communication in good faith effort to represent their refutation of US claims and the twisted IAEA report language: ...

Related: Iran says nuclear fuel swap on the table
Press TV Iran March 9, 2010


Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, said Iran is focusing on obtaining fuel for a Tehran medical research reactor.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Tuesday that Iran considers a nuclear fuel swap with any supplier as a valid option providing its conditions are met. During his weekly press conference, Mehmanparast said that Iran's "priority is to obtain fuel" for a Tehran medical research reactor. An IAEA-backed deal requires Tehran to send most of its low-enriched uranium abroad for further processing to be formed in special rods for the research reactor. Iran says it would agree to a deal if guarantees are provided by the West that the fuel would be shipped to the country in a timely manner, but such demand has been shrugged off by the West. Iran is currently enriching uranium to the level of less than 20 percent and the country's nuclear chief says the special plates for the fuel will be manufactured in the next few months. Mehmanparast made it clear Tuesday that Iran was still open to a swap. "If the [International Atomic Energy] Agency suggests a country in possession of the 20-percent enriched fuel, we are ready to buy [the fuel]. Besides, if there are countries ready for a swap which will fulfill our conditions, we are ready; otherwise, we will produce the fuel [ourselves]," he said.

On threats of new sanctions against Iran, Mehmanparast said that such punitive measures were legally baseless as Tehran's nuclear work is being fully monitored by the UN nuclear watchdog. US-led calls for more sanctions against Iran have mainly received a chilly response by China, a veto-wielding member of the UNSC, which insists that diplomacy should be exercised regarding the nuclear standoff.

AP interview: Silva says Iran sanctions dangerous
Alan Clendenning Associated Press USA March 9, 2010

BRASILIA, Brazil — Brazil's president warned Tuesday that U.S.-proposed sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program could lead to war in the Middle East. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in an interview with The Associated Press that sanctions could isolate Iran so much that tensions would spiral out of control. And that, he suggested, might lead to war. "We don't want to repeat in Iran what happened in Iraq," Silva said, a week after rebuffing U.S. Secretary Hillary Clinton's appeal for Brazilian support for a new round of tough sanctions. ...

Silva said that Brazil won't support the sanctions and that he will try during to convince Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a visit in Tehran in May to restart negotiations to ease concerns about the nation's nuclear program. "I have already told them (Iranian officials) that a war must be avoided at all costs," Silva said. "In whose interest is a war?" He made the comments before heading to the Middle East this week for visits to Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian-governed West Bank. Silva said Brazil is uniquely qualified to be an intermediary in negotiations with Iran because Brazil has a peaceful nuclear program and is using its growing economic heft to assume a larger role on the international stage. ...

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire, French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 - 1778)

When it comes to individuals, such extreme narcissism would be diagnosed as a form of mental illness, or at least a disabling idiosyncrasy of the sort that would generally keep one well out of polite company. However, when certain powerful nations act out their internal obsessions and unnatural drives on the global stage, wreaking havoc and causing untold death and destruction, they become a danger not only to the whole world but to themselves. It therefore falls on the citizens of that rogue nation to rein in their government. This rising possibility is precisely the main concern of our top military strategists, who want to overcome the infamous "Vietnam Syndrome" by concentrating their efforts on the war skeptics at home, rather than the armed enemy abroad. - Justin Raimondo

Obama’s Potemkin Afghanistan: It's as phony as he is
Justin Raimondo Antiwar.com USA March 10, 2010

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... It wasn’t quite as elaborate a production as in Wag the Dog, a movie in which a President in trouble on the home front cooks up an overseas "crisis" – complete with phony footage of US soldiers in action – to divert attention away from his own foibles. Sure, there was a battle, but the stakes weren’t nearly as high as we were led to believe, and the scope of this largely imaginary "offensive" was deliberately hyped. Which leads us to the inevitable conclusion that this mighty offensive was launched, not against the Taliban, or al-Qaeda, but against the natural skepticism of the American people. While not quite measuring up to the production values of Wag the Dog, "Operation Marjah," or whatever they’re calling it, comes awfully close. In effect, the "Marjah offensive" – hailed as a great victory by US-NATO propagandists – was cooked up in the news rooms of the "mainstream" media, and dished out to the American people. See? We’re making progress, the War Party assures us. Marjah was a glorious "victory," and we’re on the road to ultimate success. That is the "lesson" this administration hopes we’re learning. Forget truth and falsehood: we’re talking about war propaganda, which is concerned with neither. As [Gareth] Porter points out in his piece, "A central task of ‘information operations’ in counterinsurgency wars is ‘establishing the COIN [counterinsurgency] narrative,’ according to the Army Counterinsurgency Field Manual as revised under Gen. David Petraeus in 2006." But just who is this narrative aimed at?

The primary targets, I would argue, are not the Afghans, but us – we, the American people, who after all have to give their tacit consent to Obama’s war, however passively and reluctantly. The insurgency the Pentagon is concerned with preemptively countering isn’t in Afghanistan, or Pakistan, but right here in the good ol’ US of A. With an economic recession fast turning into a full-blown depression, and US troops still in Iraq, an antiwar insurgency on the home front is the Pentagon’s worst nightmare. Their field manual [.pdf] aims at neutralizing it, and reflects the view of their top strategists that it’s just a matter of creating – and disseminating – the right "narrative." ... This war is just another "job-creating" government program to keep restless youth off the streets – and, in these hard times, record numbers are signing up. Imperialism as a way to solve the unemployment problem: it’s military Keynesianism, the latest in "progressive" chic. So much of what this war is about has nothing to with Afghanistan, or Pakistan, or the very real and deadly serious issue of terrorism – it’s all about politics, and economics, i.e. money and power. This war is being driven by the internal political dynamics of the West, and the "enemy" – in the Pentagon’s view – isn’t so much the fanaticism of the Taliban, or the devilish nihilism of al-Qaeda, but the natural skepticism and "isolationism" of their own countrymen. ...

Obama’s Potemkin village in Afghanistan may succeed in fooling some people for a limited period of time, but the flaw in the COIN strategy embraced by this administration is that it overlooks a key point. A self-serving and demonstrably false "mainstream" narrative invariably provokes a counter-narrative, one much closer to the truth. The War Party may be able to rely on the "mainstream" media to go along with the fraud for a good long time, but they would have to shut down the Internet to preemptively kill the counter-narrative and silence its adherents. Although, I hear, they’re working on that ….

The truth blurts
Commander Jeff Huber, U.S. Navy (Retired) Pen and Sword USA March 9, 2010

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Individuals in the Pentagon and media polloi are beginning to commit a cardinal sin. They’re blurting the truth—sort of. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the military’s senior spin surgeon (his father was a Hollywood publicity agent), says that “Afghans are in the lead” of the Marja offensive. But not everybody involved in writing the narrative is willing to tell a lie that big. New York Times journalist C.J. Chivers, a former Marine, was among the first mainstream media voices to shoot down claims the Afghan army was leading the operation. In a February 20 article posted from Marja, Chivers reported that Marines were doing the “heavy lifting” while the Afghans lagged behind. They lagged so far behind, Chivers noted, that the Marines coined a new acronym: WOA (waiting on the Afghans). “Statements from Kabul have said the Afghan military is planning the missions and leading both the fight and the effort to engage with Afghan civilians caught between the Taliban and the newly arrived troops,” Chivers wrote. “But that assertion conflicts with what is visible in the field. In every engagement between the Taliban and one front-line American Marine unit, the operation has been led in almost every significant sense by American officers and troops.” In response to truth-outs like Chivers’, unnamed “senior military officials” tell us via NPR that the U.S. definition of “in the lead” means the Afghans are “planning the operation” and are “sitting down with Afghan elders in mosques or in meetings known as shuras.” If the Afghans are sitting down with elders in mosques it’s because U.S. planners told them to go find another babysitter. Planning a military operation like the Marja madness involves a lot of things; talking to old civilians isn’t really one of them. The logistical complexity of moving and equipping and feeding a force the size of the one General Stanley McChrystal drove into Marja is something far beyond anything the Afghans are capable of. Marine Brigadier General Larry Nicholson blurted to NPR that the quality of Afghan troops and police is so poor that “probably 3 to 4 out of every 10 we have probably need to really go home." ...

In July 2009, five years after “King” David Petraeus was in charge of training Iraqi security forces, Colonel Timothy Reese, chief of the U.S. Army’s Baghdad Operations Command Advisory Team, blurted a memo lambasting the Iraqi’s lack of combat readiness. Corruption in the Iraqi officer corps is “widespread,” Reese said. Enlisted men are neglected and mistreated. Cronyism and nepotism are “rampant.” Laziness is “endemic.” Lack of initiative is “legion.” Iraq’s forces are “unable to plan” and their “near total effectiveness” prevents them from becoming self-sustaining. Prior to Iraq’s fourth election since U.S. psychological operations forces staged the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue in Baghdad nearly seven years ago, violence is once again rampant and the hapless Iraqi forces are helpless to stop it. Conditions in Iraq are so bad that Petreaus’s pet ox “Babe” Odierno, who always makes me think of John Candy’s character in the film Stripes, is again echoing the mantra that he may have to delay the timeline for sending combat troops home. (Lean-mean-fightin’ Odierno has been the official mascot of the Long War Society since February 2009, when he went on record with Petraeus hagiographer and former journalist Thomas E. Ricks as wanting to scrap President Obama’s withdrawal plan and keep 30,000 or so U.S. troops in Iraq until 2015 or whenever.) As investigative correspondent Gareth Porter notes, the main purpose of the Marja offensive was not to gain a military advantage over the Taliban and other militants in Afghanistan. The operation was geared to influence U.S. public opinion. In operational art, this sort of thing is called an incremental victory, a success (usually a meaningless one) designed to dupe the folks on the home front to continue to support an unjustifiable war. ...

Related:


U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates speaks with 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, troops at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Frontenac, 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Kandahar, Afghanistan, Tuesday, March 9, 2010. He told these troops in southern Afghanistan they will soon be part of a "decisive phase" in the 8-year-old war; An operation to impose control over the Taliban heartland of Kandahar province. Photo: Jim Watson/AP

Gates praises troops in Afghanistan: Says that despite heavy losses, effort helped the U.S. begin to push back against the Taliban
Anne Gearan Associated Press/Washinton Times USA March 9, 2010

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FRONTENAC, Afghanistan (AP) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a hard-hit battle unit Tuesday that its heavy losses have helped the U.S. begin to push back against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. Gates visited a small, remote outpost 30 miles north of Kandahar, where the Fort Lewis, Washington-based Stryker unit has lost 22 men and suffered an additional 62 wounded since arriving here last summer. The latest injuries came Monday night, and the latest death three days ago. "You all have had a very tough time," especially at the start of the tour, Gates told members of the 800-soldier unit. "You came into an area totally controlled by the Taliban. You fought for a critical battle space, you bled for it and now you own it." He told the troops that as the fight shifts toward securing Kandahar itself later this year, they will again be "at the tip of the spear." ...

On Monday, the Pentagon chief said the progress made in the Marjah offensive, launched last month, is encouraging, but he stopped short of saying the war is at a turning point. The Marjah campaign routed most Taliban fighters from a town they once controlled, without a high casualty toll for U.S. troops and the Afghan security forces fighting alongside them. "People still need to understand there is some very hard fighting, very hard days ahead," Gates told reporters. Gates met Monday in Kabul with Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan. McChrystal said preparations have begun for a crucial campaign to assert Afghan government control over Kandahar, spiritual home of the Taliban. ...


Gen. McCrystal, Hamid Karzai visit Nawa district in Afghanistan. U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, sets his sites on Kandahar. Photo: Brian Tuthill/DOD/UPI

Stage set for Kandahar, McChrystal says
United Press International USA March 9, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 9 (UPI) -- International and Afghan forces will "absolutely" gain control over the southern restive province of Kandahar, said U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Afghan and international forces launched Operation Moshtarak in Helmand province Feb. 13 to remove the Taliban from power and prop up a new government. Military officials there warn the fighting isn't over but the mission is moving beyond the military offensive.

U.S. military planners said the Helmand offensive serves as a model for counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan. McChrystal, the head of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, said in Kabul that there were roughly 30,000 troops deployed near Kandahar, the U.S. Defense Department said. "We are absolutely going to secure Kandahar," he said. "We are already doing a lot of operations in Kandahar but it is our intent under (Afghan) President (Hamid) Karzai's direction to make an even greater effort there." McChrystal said the Helmand offensive showed Afghans that counterinsurgency operations could develop with a light footprint. "We want the Afghan people to see the approach of security does not necessarily mean there will be a set-piece battle in their neighborhood," he said.



Secretary of Defense Robert Gates speaks with Marines of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, at Combat Out Post Cafereta, Tuesday. Gates told troops they would be part of a "decisive phase" in the Afghanistan war - an operation in Kandahar province. In the next stage in the Afghanistan war, coalition forces are expected to build up gradually on the outskirts of the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, perhaps for months. That strategy departs from the one executed in the Marjah offensive, in which troops entered quickly. Photo: Jim Watson/Reuters

Afghanistan war: Fight for Kandahar won't be like fight for Marjah
Gordon Lubold Christian Science Monitor USA March 9, 2010

Washington -- The operation that American and coalition forces are planning for Kandahar in southern Afghanistan won’t look like D-Day, the top commander there said Tuesday. Fresh off a recent success, so far, in Helmand Province, American military planners are thinking ahead to the next phase of challenging the Taliban in southern Afghanistan: Kandahar. But the fight for Kandahar – described as the New York City of Afghanistan for its cultural, political, and economic significance – is expected to be more measured than the operation in Marjah in Helmand, which was a precision strike that began with the insertion of hundreds of US marines by helicopter. “There won’t be a D-Day that is climactic,” said Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander there told reporters in Kabul, during a trip in which he escorted Defense Secretary Robert Gates. “It will be a rising tide of security when it comes.”

The operation in Marjah included about 2,500 marines and 1,500 Afghan soldiers – with as many as 10,000 troops in support. The top Marine commander in Marjah said last week the objective there was to come in “big, strong, and fast, [to] put the enemy on the horns of a dilemma.” By contrast, the mission in Kandahar, expected to begin by summer, will be more gradual. Few details are clear, even in a counterinsurgency in which the NATO command has telegraphed its intentions before starting an operation, such as in Marjah last month. But military officials say Kandahar will require a more nuanced, measured approach in which forces will build up slowly, probably on the outskirts, before entering the city itself perhaps months later. Kandahar is a much larger city and province, and coalition forces will take their time to enter due to the area's more complex political and tribal nature. ...

Vancouver Island beekeepers warn of crisis
Katie Derosa, with files from Tiffany Crawford Canwest News Service/Vancouver Sun Canada March 9, 2010

Vancouver Island beekeepers are reeling from the worst commercial honeybee die-off in recent memory, with some estimating almost 90 per cent of colonies have been wiped out in the last few months. Many blame a harmful parasite called varroa mites that have become immune to some pesticides, and fear the shortage of bees could affect spring pollination. "The amount of bees that have been lost is just phenomenal," said Sol Nowitz, a veteran commercial beekeeper who breeds bees and produces honey at the Jingle Pot Apiary in Nanaimo. "It's the biggest catastrophe to kill bees on the Island ever." He estimates there are between 2,000 and 3,000 colonies on the Island, about a quarter of the 12,000 colonies that flourished a few years ago. In 2007, Nowitz had 275 colonies. Now left with 15, he is sold out of honey and can no longer afford to sell bees to other beekeepers. The last major die-off was in 2007 and 2008, when some breeders lost 55 to 65 per cent of their stock. This year, however, the almost total depletion is a full-blown disaster, Nowitz said. ...

The mites were first discovered on the Island in 1997 and have wreaked havoc on honeybees since. They infect the bees' immune systems, making them more susceptible to viruses and deformed wings. But Stan Reist, president of the B.C. Honey Producers Association, said a variety of factors contributed to the deaths -- including a late fall harvest that tires out the bees and the timing of pesticide treatments. Some fear honey producers will be forced to raise prices or abandon the business altogether. Reist said the latest crisis could cripple some Island beekeepers. "We have had three successive years of problems and there are going to be some people who are not going to be able to rebuild," he said.

Meanwhile, in the Fraser Valley, where there are many large commercial apiaries, keepers are reporting that it looks like a stellar year for bees. If the beekeepers in the Fraser Valley and in the B.C. Interior have been so successful this year, then it gives hope that the problem in the Cowichan Valley is isolated, said provincial apiculturist Paul van Westendorp. Simon Fraser University bee expert Mark Winston said pesticide use, as well as farming a single type of crop are "bad for bees" because the bee may not be getting enough nutrients from only one kind of nectar or pollen. "The residue [from pesticides] in bee colonies are showing low levels of hundreds of different compounds. It has become a toxic soup." Bees thrive in urban areas like Vancouver because of the diversity in plant life, he said, adding that officials should look at ways to create more urban gardens. "Reduce space for cars and increase opportunities for growing food. And bees will be much happier."

Related: California beekeepers again grapple with colony collapse disorder
Robert Rodriguez McClatchy Newspapers/The Olympian USA March 8, 2010

FRESNO, Calif. – A mysterious problem that causes bee colonies to decline is once again taking its toll on California's beekeepers. The problem known as colony collapse disorder is characterized by a sudden drop in a bee colony's population and the inexplicable absence of dead bees. The disorder has no known cure and appears to be cyclical. After several mild years, it has resurfaced with a vengeance, said Eric Mussen, apiculturist with the University of California at Davis. "It never went away, but this year a substantial number of beekeepers got walloped again," said Mussen, the state's leading bee expert. "And worse than they had been hit before." Although Mussen said it is too early to tell exactly how many bees have been lost, a bee industry official said losses in the state vary from 30 percent to 80 percent. ...

Here at home on Salt Spring Island:

Camembert is a soft, creamy, surface-ripened cow's milk cheese. The first Camembert was made from unpasteurised milk, and the AOC variety "Camembert de Normandie" is still required by law to be made only with unpasteurised milk. Many modern cheesemakers, however, use pasteurized milk for reasons of safety, compliance with regulations, or convenience.

Listeria leads to B.C. cheese recall
CBC News Canada March 8, 2010

Moonstruck White Moon Camembert, along with the Salt Spring Island company's Savory Moon Camembert and Ash-Ripened Camembert, have been recalled. The Grace sisters' hard cheeses are made from raw milk. Their soft and surface ripened chesses (such as Camembert) are made with pasteurized milk.

A warning has been issued about a brand of Camembert cheese made in B.C. that could be contaminated with potentially deadly Listeria bacteria. The cheese was manufactured on Salt Spring Island by Moonstruck Organic Cheese, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) said in a release Monday. No reported infections had yet been traced to consumption of the cheese. This recall is the result of what the BCCDC said was a routine sampling it performed on one wheel of the finished product that contained Listeria monocytogenes bacteria. There were concerns that other batches of the cheese might also be affected. Three Camembert varieties are potentially contaminated, including White Moon, Savory Moon and Ash-Ripened. Affected products include: ...

A Canadian soldier takes custody of an Afghan prisoner in the Panjwaii district, May 2006. Photo: Janis Mackey Frayer/CTV. CSIS, Canada's spy agency, is legally permitted to gather intelligence anywhere in the world concerning threats to the security of Canada, and has increasingly operated abroad in recent years. In Kandahar, CSIS officers conducted what's known as tactical field questioning, essentially the first interrogations of suspects, said another source familiar with the process.

CSIS had role in Afghan prison interrogations: Docs
Canadian Press/CTV News Canada March 7, 2010

OTTAWA — Officers of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service have played a crucial and long-standing role as interrogators of a vast swath of captured Taliban fighters, The Canadian Press has learned. The spies began working side-by-side with a unit of military police intelligence officers as the Afghan war spiralled out of control in 2006, according to heavily censored witness transcripts filed with the Military Police Complaints Commission. The spy agency's previously unknown role in questioning detainees adds a new dimension to the controversy about the handling and possible torture of prisoners by Afghan security forces. It also raises more questions about the critical early years in Kandahar when the Canadian military found itself mired in a guerrilla war it had not expected to fight. CSIS acknowledged in 2006 that its members gathered intelligence in Afghanistan, but the spy service's precise role has remained in the shadows until now.

Maj. Kevin Rowcliffe, former staff adviser to Canada's overseas operations commander, told investigators with the complaints commission there were questions about how much experience the army's intelligence officers had in grilling prisoners. "There was a lot of discussion in my headquarters about who was qualified to do interrogations, because we're not talking the normal police interview, we're talking interrogations, which (censored) were doing, not (military police)," says an edited transcript of the Dec. 6, 2007, interview. A copy of the document was obtained by The Canadian Press.

Military police "were involved in that, but they weren't necessarily involved in interviewing or interrogation related issues; that would be (censored) or some other parade that had special training in interrogation." Sources familiar with the unedited version say the blanked out references are to CSIS. Intelligence expert Wesley Wark says the revelations are disturbing, partly because CSIS would have had no specialized knowledge of how to elicit information from Afghan prisoners. "I find that stunning," said Wark, a historian at the University of Toronto. ...

CSIS secretly interrogated Afghan prisoners
Murray Brewster and Jim Bronskill Canadian Press/Toronto Star Canada March 8, 2010

... The Military Police Complaints Commission tried to ask questions about CSIS's role in Kandahar but abandoned that approach when it became bogged down in legal challenges about its authority to investigate Ottawa's overall prisoner transfer policy. ...

Rowcliffe's interview transcript prompts questions about whether the military and CSIS officers had enough time to conduct proper interrogations so early on in the insurgency, when newly arrived troops had little intelligence on the threats they faced. The military has 96 hours after capture to decide whether to hand a prisoner over to Afghan authorities, but Rowcliffe said there was pressure to turn them over sooner. He said he took up the concerns with the commander of overseas operations, saying: "I understand the time sensitiveness of this issue to the Government of Canada, but we may have Osama bin Laden, yet you are trying to get me to give him over as quickly as possible." Often his superior's answer was "no." His boss, Lt.-Gen. Michel Gauthier, indicated his hands were tied and told Rowcliffe the federal government's policy was firm.

"I said we need to take the time to do a proper investigation, interview, interrogation, whatever you want to call it, to confirm who we have and what has this guy done or gal done," Rowcliffe said in his statement. He was asked by commission investigators how he thought the military would obtain its intelligence if the instructions were to transfer detainees quickly to the Afghans. "My impression was they didn't seem to care about that," said Rowcliffe. "I don't know if they didn't grasp the importance of it, or just that it was not important because the pressure was ... to get rid of them because of the Government of Canada." He said he wasn't sure whether there was pressure from the defence minister and chief of defence staff. ...

Military relies on CSIS info in Afghanistan: MacKay
Canwest News Service/Montreal Gazette Canada March 7, 2010

Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Sunday he had not yet read a report that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service played a role in determining which detainees should be transferred to Afghanistan’s intelligence service. But he acknowledged that the military does rely on “CSIS and other departments.” “Officials from the Department of Public Safety (which includes CSIS) clearly do play an important role depending on what particular Taliban prisoners may have to say, what information is being sought, and clearly it’s in all our interests to have accurate information as we attempt to protect people — which is what we’re there to do,” he said in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

MacKay’s comments come two days after government officials announced that a former Supreme Court justice has been hired to screen secret documents on Afghan detainees. He will then decide whether they can be released to MPs. Last fall, senior Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin told a committee that government officials received warnings about torture, but continued nonetheless to surrender Afghan captives. The government has denied the accusations.

PM defends spy agency's Afghan role
CBC News Canada March 8, 2010

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has defended the role of Canada's spy service in the questioning of Afghan prisoners, saying the agency respects its "international obligations at all times." The prime minister's defence of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service came in response to fresh calls from opposition leaders for a public inquiry into Afghan detainee transfers amid media reports detailing CSIS's previously undisclosed role in the interrogation of suspected Taliban fighters. During Monday's question period, Harper chided the opposition for unfairly accusing "public servants" of concealing documents related to the Afghan detainee affair and said his government is providing further assurances with the appointment of retired Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci to review the documents.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, who called the media reports "disturbing," said the government "lacks all credibility" on the Afghan detainee file and questioned how Iacobucci could do his job properly with such an unclear mandate. "They have withheld uncensored evidence to Parliament. Now, they've asked the justice to decide what evidence Parliament should and shouldn't see," Ignatieff told the House. "Why not give Canadians the truth, why not appoint a full public inquiry, to get to the bottom of this sorry affair?" Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, a member of the special House committee on Afghanistan, asked the prime minister whether the government conducted a deliberate policy of rendition and outsourcing of torture of Afghan detainees for extracting additional information. Harper did not shed any light on the level of CSIS participation in Afghan interrogations, but insisted Iacobucci will give a public report on his review of all federal documents. "I hope if the honourable member does not trust the government, if he doesn't trust the Canadian Forces, doesn't trust the foreign service or anybody else, maybe he can trust Justice Iacobucci to review the documents," the prime minister told the Commons. ...

NDP Leader Jack Layton accused the Conservatives of "playing for time" and denying a parliamentary order to provide the documents in unredacted form to the Afghanistan committee, which was conducting hearings into the allegations of detainee torture at the hands of Afghan intelligence officials prior to Harper proroguing Parliament. "CSIS is not and should not be the CIA," Layton said, an apparent reference to the U.S. spy agency's controversial extra-judicial renditions of suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives and leaders in recent years. Harper replied that CSIS "is not the CIA, but is Canada’s premier intelligence service and respects its international obligations at all times." ...

Pak army equipped with US weapons a serious concern: Antony
Indian Express India March 6, 2010

Government on Saturday expressed serious concern over the US equipping Pakistan army with modern weapons and asked Washington to ensure that they were not used against India. "United States decision to provide sophisticated weapons (to Pakistan) is a matter of serious concern to India. The US should ensure that these weapons are not targeted against India", Defence Minister A K Antony told reporters here. Noting that the issue had already been taken up with the US Defence Secretary during his visit to India recently, he said the American explanation that Pakistan army has to be strengthened to fight terrorist outfits like Al-Qaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan was not convincing to India. ...

On the latest position on purchase of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov from Russia, he said the process was in the final stages. ...

Noted A spate of sex and murder scandals involving India's "god-men" - Hindu ascetics who claim spiritual and mystic powers - has exposed local politicians who patronize the influential holy men to gain the votes of their millions of disciples. Narendra K is a journalist based in Ghaziabad, India.

Politicians in bed with India's 'pimp gurus'
Narendra K Asia Times Online Hong Kong Dateline March 10, 2010

GHAZIABAD, Uttar Pradesh - His silk robes, ornate turbans and high-end imported sedans belie his status as "god-man", a Hindu ascetic who guides people in their spiritual quest. In fact, the personalized carriage that chugs around a specially laid railway track in his ashram, as well as his sprawling farms, dairies, factories, bakeries, schools and floating, revolving restaurant, all point to a life of luxury. Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim is the head of Dera Sacha Sauda, a religious sect in Sirsa (a city in the west of Haryana state, about 255 kilometers from New Delhi) that has millions of disciples. He is a prime example of why notoriety follows India's self-proclaimed "god-men".

When the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India's central investigative agency, recently charged him in connection with the murder of Faqir Chand, a former associate in the Dera Sacha Sauda, his followers went on a rampage, bringing life to a standstill in parts of Punjab and Haryana states. After passenger trains and the Punjab finance minister's bus were set alight, additional police forces had to be drafted in with fire extinguishers as rumors spread that the Baba's devotees planned to self-immolate. It is not the first time that the police's attempts to detain Baba Gurmeet have led to riots. Last year, his private guards were accused of shooting a Sikh dead in Mumbai, leading to mass unrest. Disciples also protested in 2008 when the CBI implicated him in two murders and the rape of a sadhvi (female disciple). The Faqir Chand murder is the fourth CBI case involving the Baba, who is 43. ...

Try as it might, the CBI has not been able to detain Baba Gurmeet. While his co-accused cool their heels behind bars, Gurmeet has been granted bail and will testify in Ambala court through a video conference. Some say this is because, with his millions of disciples, Gurmeet is still very useful tool for local politicians. Before the controversies, various leaders from political parties such as the Shiromani Akali Dal, the ruling Congress party and the Indian National Lok Dal, would all regularly visit him. "Politicians still patronize him for votes. That is why his supporters can indulge in arson and rioting and the police stay away from him," said Anshul Chhatrapati, the son of Ramchander Chhatrapati. Gurmeet's spokesperson, Aditya, denies the charges and says the media should instead focus on the charities financed by the Dera Sacha Sauda sect. Besides Gurmeet, other religious gurus have recently been implicated in unsavory episodes that purportedly involved police and politicians. ...

Russia, Azerbaijan/Armenia: All roads lead to the Caucasus
The Vineyard of the Saker USA March 9, 2010

Georgia is eager for another war, but there are other fires there which refuse to die -- Russia’s battles with terrorism and separatists and Azerbaijan’s bleeding wound in ethnic Armenian Nagorno Karabakh, notes Eric Walberg.

The Russian Federation republics of Chechnya, Dagestan, North Ossetia and Ingushetia have experienced a sharp increase in assassinations and terrorist bombings in the past few years which have reached into the heart of Russia itself, most spectacularly with the bombing of the Moscow-Leningrad express train in January that killed 26. Last week police killed at least six suspected militants in Ingushetia. Dagestan has especially suffered in the past two years, notably with the assassination of its interior minister in last June and the police chief last month. The number of armed attacks more than doubled last year. In February, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev replaced Dagestan president Mukhu Aliyev with Magomedsalam Magomedov, whose father Magomedali led Dagestan from 1987-2006. Aliyev was genuinely popular, praised for his honesty and fight against corruption, but was seen as too soft on terror. President Magomedov has vowed to put the violence-ridden region in order and pardon rebels who turn in weapons.”I have no illusion that it will be easy. Escalating terrorist activity in the North Caucasus, including in Dagestan, urges us to revise all our methods of fighting terror and extremism.” He vowed to attack unemployment, organised crime, clan rivalry and corruption. Violence continues to plague Chechnya as well. Russian forces have fought two wars against separatists in Chechnya since 1994, leaving more than 100,000 dead and the region in ruins, inspiring terrorist attacks throughout the region. Five Russian soliders and as many rebels were killed there at the beginning of February. According to the Long War Journal, in February, Russia’s Federal Security Bureau (FSB) killed a key Al-Qaeda fighter based in Chechnya, Mokhmad Shabban, an Egyptian known as Saif Islam (Sword of Islam), the mastermind behind the 6 January suicide bombing that killed seven Russian policemen in Dagestan’s capital Makhachkala. He was wanted for attacks against infrastructure and Russian soldiers throughout Chechnya and neighbouring republics.

Since the early 1990s, militants such as Shabban have operated from camps in Georgia's Pansiki Gorge, and used the region as a safe haven to launch attack inside Chechnya and the greater Caucasus. The FSB said Shabban “masterminded acts of sabotage to blast railway tracks, transmission lines, and gas and oil pipelines at instructions by Georgian secret services." This is impossible to prove, but Georgia was the only state to recognise the Republic of Ichkeria when Chechens unilaterally declared independence in 1991 and his widow Alla has a talk show on First Caucasus TV, a station located in Georgia and beamed into Chechnya. Interestingly, from 2002-2007, more than 200 US Special Forces troops were training Georgian troops in Pansiki, though neither the Americans nor the Georigans were able to end the attacks on Russia. Medvedev said last month that violence in the North Caucasus remains Russia’s biggest domestic problem, arguing that it will only end once the acute poverty in the region and the corruption and lawlessness within the security organs themselves is addressed. He has undertaken an ambitious reform of security organs and the police throughout Russia with this in mind.

Sceptics may point to the parallel between the US-NATO occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and Russian policy in the north Caucasus. Yes, there is a Russian geopolitical context, but the comparison is specious. These regions have been closely tied both economically and politically to Russia for two centuries, which Abkhazian President Sergei Bagpash shrewdly decided to celebrate last month in order to ensure Moscow’s support. The patchwork quilt of nationalities of the Caucasus has survived under Russian sponsorship and now has the prospect of prospering if left in peace. Politicians like Bagpash make the best of the situation, as do sensible politicians throughout Russia's "near abroad". To alienate or try to subvert a powerful neighbour and potential friend as does Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is plain bad politics. ...

Related: Doug Bardow talks about the congressional resolution to condemn as genocide the Ottoman Empire's actions against its Armenian subjects during World War I in the light of how a variety special interest groups meddle in US foreign policy. Eric Walberg looks at Israeli influence in Canada. (Israel is an important sponsor of Georgia.)

Lobbyists
Doug Bandow National Interest USA March 8, 2010

U.S. foreign policy matters, especially to other countries. Just ask the citizens of nations invaded or bombed by Washington, or suffering under American sanctions, or simply annoyed by our tendency to hector, pester and insist regarding all manner of issues, big and small. Today Washington is deeply involved in a war in Afghanistan and ongoing civil strife in Iraq. The United States continues to threaten Iran with military action. Washington has promiscuously issued security guarantees throughout Asia and Europe. American bases and troops circle the globe; American ships and aircraft dominate the oceans and atmosphere. The price for this presence is high: at a time of budget crisis, the United States spends more, adjusted for inflation, on the military than at any point since World War II and accounts for nearly half the globe’s military spending.

So what issue is roiling Congress today? Whether the Ottoman Empire committed genocide against its Armenian subjects during World War I. It is a bizarre question. And it is being asked only because foreign policy has become yet another battlefield for influential interest groups. Americans now are routinely held hostage by ethnic groups determined to use the U.S. government to aid their families, friends, and co-ethnics abroad. Policy toward Cuba, Eastern Europe, Haiti, Israel, Turkey and more has been deformed by domestic politics. Consider the Armenian genocide resolution, approved by one-vote margin by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Why are American congressmen judging the character of mass killings which occurred nearly a century ago halfway around the world? The nation accused of committing genocide no longer exists. Every government official who plotted the murders and almost certainly every soldier or civilian who committed a murder is dead. Whether or not the actions technically constituted “genocide” does not affect the obvious brutality and inhumanity of the killings. And the pronouncement of Congress will not matter. American legislators can neither make a genocide where none existed nor eliminate one that did occur. No historian will care one whit how a majority of American lawmakers opine. Indeed, if U.S. policy makers are entitled to judge the Ottoman Empire, why stop there? ...

Obviously, the resolution on genocide against Armenians has nothing to do with genocide against Armenians. Instead, the measure has everything to do with criticizing Turkey. ... There’s nothing wrong with interested groups lobbying on foreign as well as domestic affairs. But policy makers should be skeptical of self-serving arguments and citizens should demand that legislators put America’s interest first. This is not to vilify advocates as suffering from a dual loyalty, but to highlight that foreign-policy advocates—no less than their domestic counterparts—are often willing to sacrifice the national and public interest for narrower parochial concerns. Consider farm subsidies, corporate welfare, political pork, Wall Street bailouts and much more. Unfortunately, with international issues the consequences of special interest policy-making run far beyond America’s shores. Most Americans care little about the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. However, foreign policy often has expensive and even deadly results at home. It is time for American citizens to demand that policy makers treat matters of war and peace as something more than just another battle among special interests.

Israel in Canada: Promised lands
Eric Walberg OpEdNews USA October 21, 2009

The Teflon cloak Israel has tried to wrap itself in since Operation Cast Lead, the invasion of Gaza in December 2008, looks as strong as ever in Canada. "Canada is so friendly that there was no need to convince or explain anything to anyone. We need allies like this in the international arena," gushed Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in July. Toronto's new Israeli consul, Amir Gissin, recently announced his Toronto staff would be expanded, despite the fact that Canada already has more Israeli diplomatic staff per capita than any other country in the world, due to "the city's large Israeli population" and the fact that Toronto is "an arena for Israel from a PR, cultural and commercial point of view". He also said it "reflects the importance of the Toronto Jewish community" in supporting Israel. Indeed, there are an estimated 100,000 Israelis who prefer the joys of living in Canada to facing the violence-charged daily life of Israel, and many Canadian Jews who opt for instant citizenship in Israel. Toronto Jews have been generous in their support of Israel since its founding.

Three Israel-related events this year have stayed in the headlines, reflecting the importance of Israel in Canadian political and cultural life. ...

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. - Arthur Schopenhauer (German philosopher, 1788-1860)

A leading Japanese politician espouses a 9/11 fantasy
Editorial Washington Post USA March 8, 2010

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Yukihisa Fujita is an influential member of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan. As chief of the DPJ's international department and head of the Research Committee on Foreign Affairs in the upper house of Japan's parliament, to which he was elected in 2007, he is a Brahmin in the foreign policy establishment of Washington's most important East Asian ally. He also seems to think that America's rendering of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, is a gigantic hoax. Mr. Fujita's ideas about the attack on the World Trade Center, which he shared with us in a recent interview, are too bizarre, half-baked and intellectually bogus to merit serious discussion. He questions whether it was really the work of terrorists; suggests that shadowy forces with advance knowledge of the plot played the stock market to profit from it; peddles the fantastic idea that eight of the 19 hijackers are alive and well; and hints that controlled demolition rather than fire or debris may be a more likely explanation for at least the collapse of the building at 7 World Trade Center, which was adjacent to the twin towers.

As with almost any calamity whose scale and scope assume historic proportions, the events of Sept. 11 have spawned a thriving subculture of conspiracy theorists at home and abroad. The only thing novel about Mr. Fujita is that a man so susceptible to the imaginings of the lunatic fringe happens to occupy a notable position in the governing apparatus of a nation that boasts the world's second-largest economy. We have no reason to believe that Mr. Fujita's views are widely shared in Japan; we suspect that they are not and that many Japanese would be embarrassed by them. His proposal two years ago that Tokyo undertake an independent investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks, in which 24 Japanese citizens died, went nowhere. Nonetheless, his views, rooted as they are in profound distrust of the United States, seem to reflect a strain of anti-American thought that runs through the DPJ and the government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

Mr. Hatoyama, elected last summer, has called for a more "mature" relationship with Washington and closer ties between Japan and China. Although he has reaffirmed longstanding doctrine that Japan's alliance with the United States remains the cornerstone of its security, his actions and those of the DPJ-led government, raise questions about that commitment. It's a cliche but nonetheless true that the U.S.-Japan alliance has been a critical force for stability in East Asia for decades. That relationship, and its benefits for the region, will be severely tested if Mr. Hatoyama tolerates elements of his own party as reckless and fact-averse as Mr. Fujita.

Japanese have Washington Post running scared over 9/11
David Martin dcdave.com USA March 8, 2010

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The issue, as framed by the U.S. ruling elite’s hometown house organ is very simple; a top insider in Japan’s new government has lost his marbles. The Washington Post’s apoplexy over the fact that Councilor Yukihisa Fujita isn’t buying the official version of what happened on September 11, 2001, is well reflected in the two headlines it gave to its March 8, 2010 editorial. First we have the print edition:

Poisonous Thinking in Japan
Has a conspiratorial view of 9/11 taken hold in the ruling party?

Then we have the even more hysterical headline in the electronic version:

A Leading Japanese Politician Espouses a 9/11 Fantasy

The two paragraphs below capture the flavor of The Post’s screed. I have provided some educational assistance for the reader by supplying useful links. Only the last of the six links was in The Post’s original online version.

Fujita's ideas about the attack on the World Trade Center, which he shared with us in a recent interview, are too bizarre, half-baked and intellectually bogus to merit serious discussion. He questions whether it was really the work of terrorists; suggests that shadowy forces with advance knowledge of the plot played the stock market to profit from it; peddles the fantastic idea that eight of the 19 hijackers are alive and well; and hints that controlled demolition rather than fire or debris may be a more likely explanation for at least the collapse of the building at 7 World Trade Center, which was adjacent to the twin towers.

As with almost any calamity whose scale and scope assume historic proportions, the events of Sept. 11 have spawned a thriving subculture of conspiracy theorists at home and abroad. The only thing novel about Mr. Fujita is that a man so susceptible to the imaginings of the lunatic fringe happens to occupy a notable position in the governing apparatus of a nation that boasts the world's second-largest economy.

The giveaway as to how frantic The Post is over this matter is that they are editorializing before reporting. That Fujita, who as a graduate of Keio University is about as plugged in to Japan’s ruling “old boy” network as it is possible to be, has abandoned the 9/11 sinking ship was not previously even mentioned in The Post or anywhere else in the mainstream U.S. press, to my knowledge.

Now The Post tells us that they have interviewed him, and here we see them running out of the interview screaming like Chicken Little. So where is the interview itself? Shouldn’t we all raise a hue and cry for The Post to print the whole thing so we can decide for ourselves whether Fujita’s "ideas" (conclusions based upon an examination of the evidence?) really "are too bizarre, half-baked and intellectually bogus to merit serious discussion." The Post can’t claim lack of print space. We’re in the Internet age now. We don’t really need the mainstream media to give us all our opinions pre-chewed and digested.

I’m not holding my breath waiting for The Post to print that interview, no matter how much we might clamor for it. It would be nice if Fujita taped it and publishes it himself.

David Martin

Related:




Major 9/11 breakthrough in Japan, spectacular support for Yukihisa Fujita
Heiner Buecker 911truth.org USA April 24, 2009

Yukihisa Fujita, a member of the Upper House of the Japanese Parliament has recently published a book titled: Questioning 9/11 in Japan's Parliament - Can Obama Change the USA? Co-authors of book are David Ray Griffin, Yumi Kikuchi, Akira Dojimaru and Chihaya.

Councilor Fujita is a current member and former director of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense. In this function he questioned 9/11 three times in parliament. Fujita claims that 9/11, as the main reason for the "War on Terror," needs to be newly investigated in order to find peaceful solutions. ...

Ralph Klein's shaky and scary grasp of history
Ricardo Acu rabble.ca Canada May 12, 2004

Premier Ralph Klein's statements about Chile in the Alberta legislature last Thursday were incredibly offensive. They display an alarming lack of understanding of history, and clearly expose the Alberta government's frightening disregard for democracy and its institutions. ... For 17 years after the coup, Pinochet presided over one of the most deadly, oppressive and brutal dictatorships the world has ever known — a dictatorship that resulted in the murder of thousands of Chileans by agents of the government. Thousands more were imprisoned, tortured, forced into exile or made to disappear, never to be heard from again. All of this for simply having the “wrong” political beliefs.

As someone whose father survived 12 months of imprisonment, torture and interrogation at the hands of this government, I find the Premier's suggestion that somehow these acts were justified terribly offensive — as I am sure do the thousands of other Chilean-Canadians who came to Alberta to escape torture, oppression, and almost certain death. It is mind-boggling that a Premier who claims to speak for average Albertans could show such contempt for those Albertans who came here in search of a society that valued and respected democracy, human life and freedom of political affiliation. Klein's assertion that Pinochet was “not much better” than Allende makes one wonder what kind of history books the Premier has been reading. To equate the murderous criminal acts of the Pinochet dictatorship with Allende's democratic coalition government is a gross transgression of history. Allende's only “crime” was to institute the social and economic reforms he had promised in his election platform — reforms that a majority of Chilean voters gave him a clear mandate to implement. Those reforms were implemented within the parameters of Chilean law, and with complete respect for and abidance by the decisions of Congress, the Senate and the Supreme Court — institutions that Pinochet dismantled immediately upon attaining power. Klein's demonstrated lack of knowledge of history would be alarming in anyone, but it is inexcusable in the elected leader of a provincial government. What is perhaps most frightening about the Premier's statement, however, is what it reveals about his level of contempt for democracy. His assertion that Pinochet was “forced” to mount a coup because of Allende's policies demonstrates that, for Klein, democracy and human life take a back seat to ideology. ...

Chile's socialist rebar
Naomi Klein Huffinton Post USA March 3, 2010

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Ever since deregulation caused a worldwide economic meltdown in September '08 and everyone became a Keynesian again, it hasn't been easy to be a fanatical fan of the late economist Milton Friedman. So widely discredited is his brand of free-market fundamentalism that his followers have become increasingly desperate to claim ideological victories, however far-fetched. A particularly distasteful case in point. Just two days after Chile was struck by a devastating earthquake, Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens informed his readers that Milton Friedman's "spirit was surely hovering protectively over Chile" because, "thanks largely to him, the country has endured a tragedy that elsewhere would have been an apocalypse.... It's not by chance that Chileans were living in houses of brick -- and Haitians in houses of straw -- when the wolf arrived to try to blow them down."

According to Stephens, the radical free-market policies prescribed to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet by Milton Friedman and his infamous "Chicago Boys" are the reason Chile is a prosperous nation with "some of the world's strictest building codes." There is one rather large problem with this theory: Chile's modern seismic building code, drafted to resist earthquakes, was adopted in 1972. That year is enormously significant because it was one year before Pinochet seized power in a bloody U.S-backed coup. That means that if one person deserves credit for the law, it is not Friedman, or Pinochet, but Salvador Allende, Chile's democratically elected socialist President. (In truth many Chileans deserve credit, since the laws were a response to a history of quakes, and the first law was adopted in the 1930s). It does seem significant, however, that the law was enacted even in the midst of a crippling economic embargo ("make the economy scream" Richard Nixon famously growled after Allende won the 1970 elections). The code was later updated in the nineties, well after Pinochet and the Chicago Boys were finally out of power and democracy was restored.

Little wonder: As Paul Krugman points out, Friedman was ambivalent about building codes, seeing them as yet another infringement on capitalist freedom. As for the argument that Friedmanite policies are the reason Chileans live in "houses of brick" instead of "straw," it's clear that Stephens knows nothing of pre-coup Chile. The Chile of the 1960s had the best health and education systems on the continent, as well as a vibrant industrial sector and rapidly expanding middle class. Chileans believed in their state, which is why they elected Allende to take the project even further. After the coup and the death of Allende, Pinochet and his Chicago Boys did their best to dismantle Chile's public sphere, auctioning off state enterprises and slashing financial and trade regulations. Enormous wealth was created in this period but at a terrible cost: by the early eighties, Pinochet's Friedman-prescribed policies had caused rapid de-industrialization, a ten-fold increase in unemployment and an explosion of distinctly unstable shantytowns. They also led to a crisis of corruption and debt so severe that, in 1982, Pinochet was forced to fire his key Chicago Boy advisors and nationalize several of the large deregulated financial institutions. (Sound familiar?) ...

Related: Money for nothing
Duncan Cameron rabble.ca Canada February 17, 2009

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If you think banks on the verge of bankruptcy, widespread job losses, declines in world trade and the spread of economic and financial distress signal the end of "free" market capitalism; or that talk of Keynesian economics, and the adoption of "stimulus" packages by Canada and the U.S. signify the end of right-wing policies, think again. The analysis of the financial mess that guides the U.S. Federal Reserve and Treasury originated with Milton Friedman, intellectual godfather of the American right. The policies adopted in the U.S., supposedly to fight off the threat of world depression, are designed to re-empower financial capitalists, not to, say, replace them with nationally owned credit institutions. And, the main lesson the depression era taught everybody except the right-wing followers of Friedman, the need to transfer income from those who are sitting on their money, to those who will spend it -- because they do not have enough to live on -- is being ignored.

In his analysis of the U.S. economy in the 1930s world depression, Friedman pointed to the collapse of the U.S. money supply as the cause of the crisis, and Federal Reserve Bank inaction as the culprit. Current Fed Chief Ben Bernanke made an academic reputation as a specialist on the depression. Now he is applying the Friedman medicine. The Fed has been furnishing liquidity to the banks non-stop for months. From September 2008, until the end of that year, the Federal Reserve expanded the U.S. monetary base by $1.35 trillion, which more than doubled its size. ...

Undoubtedly, the root causes of the current economic mess include the failure of private finance to build the economic structure needed to meet human needs, even in the wealthy countries, let alone in the rest of the world. It makes no sense whatever that the U.S. banks are considered to be verging on insolvency (however defined), despite receiving trillions in public aid. The much vaunted conversion to "stimulus" unveiled in Canada by the Conservatives in Budget 2009, and supported by the Liberals as if it were true, conceals an unwillingness to take on the shrinkage of family and individual purchasing power that underlies the economic slow down. It ignores the need for progressive policies, tax increases for the wealthy and major increases in income support for low-income people. Such an approach is not charity, force fed; it is good economics. Without a straightforward redistribution of income from rich to poor, the day-to-day economy is going to keep slowing down. ...

The siege of the fictional city of Marja
Gareth Porter CounterPunch USA March 8, 2010

For weeks, the U.S. public followed the biggest offensive of the Afghanistan War against what it was told was a "city of 80,000 people" as well as the logistical hub of the Taliban in that part of Helmand. That idea was a central element in the overall impression built up in February that Marja was a major strategic objective, more important than other district centres in Helmand. It turns out, however, that the picture of Marja presented by military officials and obediently reported by major news media is one of the clearest and most dramatic pieces of misinformation of the entire war, apparently aimed at hyping the offensive as a historic turning point in the conflict. Marja is not a city or even a real town, but either a few clusters of farmers' homes or a large agricultural area covering much of the southern Helmand River Valley. "It's not urban at all," an official of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), who asked not to be identified, admitted on Sunday. He called Marja a "rural community". "It's a collection of village farms, with typical family compounds," said the official, adding that the homes are reasonably prosperous by Afghan standards. ... The ISAF official said the only population numbering tens of thousands associated with Marja is spread across many villages and almost 200 square kilometres, or about 125 square miles. ... However, the name Marja "was most closely associated" with the more specific location, where there are also a mosque and a few shops. That very limited area was the apparent objective of "Operation Moshtarak", to which 7,500 U.S., NATO and Afghan troops were committed amid the most intense publicity given any battle since the beginning of the war. So how did the fiction that Marja is a city of 80,000 people get started? ...

The decision to hype up Marja as the objective of "Operation Moshtarak" by planting the false impression that it is a good-sized city would not have been made independently by the Marines at Camp Leatherneck. A central task of "information operations" in counterinsurgency wars is "establishing the COIN [counterinsurgency] narrative", according to the Army Counterinsurgency Field Manual as revised under Gen. David Petraeus in 2006. That task is usually done by "higher headquarters" rather than in the field, as the manual notes. The COIN manual asserts that news media "directly influence the attitude of key audiences toward counterinsurgents, their operations and the opposing insurgency." The manual refers to "a war of perceptions…conducted continuously using the news media."

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of ISAF, was clearly preparing to wage such a war in advance of the Marja operation. In remarks made just before the offensive began, McChrystal invoked the language of the counterinsurgency manual, saying, "This is all a war of perceptions." The Washington Post reported Feb. 22 that the decision to launch the offensive against Marja was intended largely to impress U.S. public opinion with the effectiveness of the U.S. military in Afghanistan by showing that it could achieve a "large and loud victory." The false impression that Marja was a significant city was an essential part of that message.

Related: All who draw the sword will die by the sword. - Yeshua ha-Notsri, Palestinian dissident, c. 33 CE. Yeshua ha-Notsri ("Иешуа га-Ноцри", literally Yeshua of Nazareth) is the common term for Jesus Christ in modern Hebrew. A Christian is a person who is trusting that Yeshua is the promised Messiah and Savior of Israel and the world. In Mikhail Bulgakov's novel, The Master and Margarita, arguably one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, Yeshua is presented as a simple man, not braver nor more intelligent than most, but more moral. Like the Jesus of Biblical tradition, he fascinates Pilate with the meek humanity of his ideas, but unlike the Jesus of the Bible he does not display a sense of security about the overall rightness of his death. The most striking aspect of Yeshua's conversation is that he believes in the goodness of all humans, even those who are cruelly persecuting him: "There are no evil people on earth," he tells Pilate.

Unnatural acts: Breaking the fever of militarism
Chris Floyd Empire Burlesque Netherlands March 6, 2010

Visit this page for its embedded links.

I.
As we all know – or rather, as everyone but those who climb and claw their way to the top of power's greasy pole knows – the effects of war are vast, unforeseeable, long-lasting -- and uncontrollable. The far-reaching ripples of the turbulence will churn against distant shores and hidden corners, then roil back upon you in ways you could never imagine, for generations, even centuries.

Nor is "victory" in war proof against these deleterious effects. For the brutalization, moral coarsening, corruption and concentration of elite power that attend every war do not simply disappear from a society when the fighting stops. They persist, like microbes, in myriad forms, working with slow, corrosive force to degrade and deform the victors. Indeed, victory in battle often leads a society to enshrine war's most pernicious attributes: violence is ennobled, and becomes entrenched as an ever-ready instrument of national policy. Militarism is exalted, the way of peace dishonored: cries of "Appeasers! Cowards! Traitors!" greet every approach that fails to brandish the threat of extreme violence, that fails to "keep all options on the table."

The apparent "lesson" of victory – that there can be no right without armed might to win and safeguard it – quickly degenerates into the belief that armed might is right. (William Astore has an excellent article here on how the collision with Nazi Germany infected America's military with a continuing admiration for the German war machine.) Military power becomes equated with moral worth, and the ability to wreak savage, unimaginable destruction through armed violence -- via thoughtless obedience to the orders of "superiors" – becomes a cherished attribute of society.

War is no longer seen as a vast, horrific failure of the human spirit, a scandalous betrayal of our common humanity, a sickening tragedy of irrevocable loss and inconsolable suffering – although this is its inescapable reality, even in a "good" war, for a "just" cause. (And of course no nation or faction has ever gone to war without declaring that its cause is just.) Instead of lamenting war, and girding for it, if at all, only in the most dire circumstances, with the most extreme reluctance, the infected society celebrates it at every turn. No national occasion – even a sporting event! – is complete without bristling displays of military firepower, and pious tributes to those wreaking violence around the world in blind obedience to their superiors. Oddly enough, when a modern nation consciously adopts a "warrior ethos," it casts aside -- openly, even gleefully -- whatever virtue that ethos has historically claimed for itself, such as courage in battle and honor toward adversaries. In its place come the adulation of overwhelming technological firepower and the rabid demonization of the enemy (or the perceived enemy, or even the "suspected" enemy), who is stripped of all rights, all human dignity, and subject to "whatever it takes" to break him down or destroy him. ...

The fact that the world changes rapidly is exciting, but everyone knows about that. There is much change that is neither fast nor momentous, but no less breathtaking, writes Samuel Arbesman below. Photo: European South Observatory/Associated Press

Human culture, an evolutionary force
Nicholas Wade New York Times USA March 1, 2010

As with any other species, human populations are shaped by the usual forces of natural selection, like famine, disease or climate. A new force is now coming into focus. It is one with a surprising implication — that for the last 20,000 years or so, people have inadvertently been shaping their own evolution. The force is human culture, broadly defined as any learned behavior, including technology. The evidence of its activity is the more surprising because culture has long seemed to play just the opposite role. Biologists have seen it as a shield that protects people from the full force of other selective pressures, since clothes and shelter dull the bite of cold and farming helps build surpluses to ride out famine. Because of this buffering action, culture was thought to have blunted the rate of human evolution, or even brought it to a halt, in the distant past. Many biologists are now seeing the role of culture in a quite different light.

Although it does shield people from other forces, culture itself seems to be a powerful force of natural selection. People adapt genetically to sustained cultural changes, like new diets. And this interaction works more quickly than other selective forces, “leading some practitioners to argue that gene-culture co-evolution could be the dominant mode of human evolution,” Kevin N. Laland and colleagues wrote in the February issue of Nature Reviews Genetics. Dr. Laland is an evolutionary biologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. The idea that genes and culture co-evolve has been around for several decades but has started to win converts only recently. Two leading proponents, Robert Boyd of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Peter J. Richerson of the University of California, Davis, have argued for years that genes and culture were intertwined in shaping human evolution. “It wasn’t like we were despised, just kind of ignored,” Dr. Boyd said. But in the last few years, references by other scientists to their writings have “gone up hugely,” he said. ...

With archaic humans, culture changed very slowly. The style of stone tools called the Oldowan appeared 2.5 million years ago and stayed unchanged for more than a million years. The Acheulean stone tool kit that succeeded it lasted for 1.5 million years. But among behaviorally modern humans, those of the last 50,000 years, the tempo of cultural change has been far brisker. This raises the possibility that human evolution has been accelerating in the recent past under the impact of rapid shifts in culture. Some biologists think this is a possibility, though one that awaits proof. ...

Warning: Your reality is out of date
Samuel Arbesman Boston Globe USA February 28, 2010

When people think of knowledge, they generally think of two sorts of facts: facts that don’t change, like the height of Mount Everest or the capital of the United States, and facts that fluctuate constantly, like the temperature or the stock market close. But in between there is a third kind: facts that change slowly. These are facts which we tend to view as fixed, but which shift over the course of a lifetime. For example: What is Earth’s population? I remember learning 6 billion, and some of you might even have learned 5 billion. Well, it turns out it’s about 6.8 billion. Or, imagine you are considering relocating to another city. Not recognizing the slow change in the economic fortunes of various metropolitan areas, you immediately dismiss certain cities. For example, Pittsburgh, a city in the core of the historic Rust Belt of the United States, was for a long time considered to be something of a city to avoid. But recently, its economic fortunes have changed, swapping steel mills for technology, with its job growth ranked sixth in the entire United States.

These slow-changing facts are what I term “mesofacts.” Mesofacts are the facts that change neither too quickly nor too slowly, that lie in this difficult-to-comprehend middle, or meso-, scale. Often, we learn these in school when young and hold onto them, even after they change. For example, if, as a baby boomer, you learned high school chemistry in 1970, and then, as we all are apt to do, did not take care to brush up on your chemistry periodically, you would not realize that there are 12 new elements in the Periodic Table. Over a tenth of the elements have been discovered since you graduated high school! While this might not affect your daily life, it is astonishing and a bit humbling. For these kinds of facts, the analogy of how to boil a frog is apt: Change the temperature quickly, and the frog jumps out of the pot. But slowly increase the temperature, and the frog doesn’t realize that things are getting warmer, until it’s been boiled. So, too, is it with humans and how we process information. We recognize rapid change, whether it’s as simple as a fast-moving object or living with the knowledge that humans have walked on the moon. But anything short of large-scale rapid change is often ignored. This is the reason we continue to write the wrong year during the first days of January. Our schools are biased against mesofacts. The arc of our educational system is to be treated as little generalists when children, absorbing bits of knowledge about everything from biology to social studies to geology. But then, as we grow older, we are encouraged to specialize. This might have been useful in decades past, but in our increasingly fast-paced and interdisciplinary world, lacking an even approximate knowledge of our surroundings is unwise. ...

The Ten Commandments were set in stone, but it may be time for a re-chisel. With all due humility, Christopher Hitchens takes on the job, pruning the ethically dubious, challenging the impossible, and rectifying some serious omissions. Illustration by Edward Sorel for Vanity Fair magazine

The New Commandments
Christopher Hitchens Vanity Fair USA April 2010

Contains an eight minute, seven second video "Christopher Hitchens' Ten Commandments" by Jacques del Conte.

What do we say when we want to revisit a long-standing policy or scheme that no longer seems to be serving us or has ceased to produce useful results? We begin by saying tentatively, “Well, it’s not exactly written in stone.” (Sometimes this comes out as “not set in stone.”) By that, people mean that it’s not one of the immutable Tablets of the Law. Thus, more recent fetishes such as the gold standard, or the supposedly holy laws of the free market, can be discarded as not being incised on granite or marble. But what if it is the original stone version that badly needs a re-write? Who will take up the revisionist chisel?

There is in fact a good biblical precedent for doing just that, since the giving of the divine Law by Moses appears in three or four wildly different scriptural versions. (When you hear people demanding that the Ten Commandments be displayed in courtrooms and schoolrooms, always be sure to ask which set. It works every time.) The first and most famous set comes in Exodus 20 but ends with Moses himself smashing the supposedly most sacred artifacts ever known to man: the original, God-dictated panels of Holy Writ. The second edition occurs in Exodus 34, where new but completely different tablets are presented after some heavenly re-write session and are for the first time called “the ten commandments.” In the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses once more calls his audience together and recites the original Sinai speech with one highly significant alteration (the Sabbath commandment’s justifications in each differ greatly). But plainly discontented with the effect of this, he musters the flock again 22 chapters further on, as the river Jordan is coming into view, and gives an additional set of orders—chiefly terse curses—which are also to be inscribed in stone. As with the gold plates on which Joseph Smith found the Book of Mormon in upstate New York, no trace of any of these original yet conflicting tablets survives.

Thus we are fully entitled to consider them as a work in progress. May there not be some old commandments that could be retired, as well as some new ones that might be adopted? Taking the most celebrated Top 10 in order, we find (I am using the King James, or “Authorized,” version of the text): ...

The folloing book poses the big questions about what it means to be human and what we now need to do to survive. It incorporates the big ideas that the world's current leaders are failing to seize upon. Questions it seems we have neither the political will to address nor the moral probity to drive us.

The way we live now
Book review by Lynsey Hanley Guardian UK March 14, 2009

The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. Published by Allen Lane, City of Westminster, London, UK, March 5 2009. ISBN-10: 1846140390; ISBN-13: 978-1846140396

We are rich enough. Economic growth has done as much as it can to improve material conditions in the developed countries, and in some cases appears to be damaging health. If Britain were instead to concentrate on making its citizens' incomes as equal as those of people in Japan and Scandinavia, we could each have seven extra weeks' holiday a year, we would be thinner, we would each live a year or so longer, and we'd trust each other more.

Epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett don't soft-soap their message. It is brave to write a book arguing that economies should stop growing when millions of jobs are being lost, though they may be pushing at an open door in public consciousness. We know there is something wrong, and this book goes a long way towards explaining what and why. The authors point out that the life-diminishing results of valuing growth above equality in rich societies can be seen all around us. Inequality causes shorter, unhealthier and unhappier lives; it increases the rate of teenage pregnancy, violence, obesity, imprisonment and addiction; it destroys relationships between individuals born in the same society but into different classes; and its function as a driver of consumption depletes the planet's resources. ...

There is a growing inventory of serious, compellingly argued books detailing the social destruction wrought by inequality. Wilkinson and Pickett have produced a companion to recent bestsellers such as Oliver James's Affluenza and Alain de Botton's Status Anxiety. But The Spirit Level also contributes to a longer view, sitting alongside Richard Sennett's 2003 book Respect: The Formation of Character in an Age of Inequality, and the epidemiologist Michael Marmot's Status Syndrome, from 2005. Anyone who believes that society is the result of what we do, rather than who we are, should read these books; they should start with The Spirit Level because of its inarguable battery of evidence, and because its conclusion is simple: we do better when we're equal.

It's money that matters
Interview by Jenna Russell Boston Globe USA February 21, 2010

If you like to think of America as The Greatest Country on Earth, and you’d rather not examine its claim to that title too closely, The Spirit Level will not be your favorite new book. On nearly every one of its 250-plus pages, a stark, unflattering graph shows the USA topping the charts among developed countries for some social ailment: drug use, obesity, violence, mental illness, teenage pregnancy, illiteracy. But authors Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson, a pair of British social scientists, have another, more enlightening point to make. With striking consistency, they say, the severity of social decay in different countries reflects a key difference among them: not the number of poor people or the depth of their poverty, but the size of the gap between the poorest and the richest.

It is economic inequality, not overall wealth or cultural differences, that fosters societal breakdown, they argue, by boosting insecurity and anxiety, which leads to divisive prejudice between the classes, rampant consumerism, and all manner of mental and physical suffering. Though Sweden and Japan have low levels of economic inequality for different reasons - the former redistributes wealth, while in the latter case, the playing field is more level from the start, with a smaller range of incomes - both have relatively low crime rates and happier, healthier citizens.

The idea at the heart of the book is not new; human beings through the ages have intuitively understood as much. What is groundbreaking is Pickett and Wilkinson’s compilation of data, much of it only recently available, allowing sweeping comparisons across dozens of nations and areas of well-being, and showing, for the first time, the breadth and strength of the statistical link. Between the two of them, the authors say, they have devoted some 50 years to conducting and collecting the research. Their efforts have been hailed by left-leaning thinkers and critics as a compass for righting the nation’s current course; the book - its title refers to the tool known in America as a carpenter’s level, which measures slopes - is being translated into 13 languages, including Arabic, Korean, and Norwegian. The authors spoke to "Ideas" from a friend’s home in Washington, D.C., where they were wrapping up a three-week, cross-country book tour. ...

Comments by Michael Calum Jacques
Amazon.uk UK March 9, 2009

Part of a review of The Spirit Level. Jacques is author of the book 1st Century Radical: The shadowy origins of the man who became known as Jesus Christ (ISBN 9781438915746). He is currently director of The Diana Princess of Wales International Study Centre at Riddlesworth Hall Preparatory School, Riddlesworth Hall, Near Diss, Norfolk.

... Simply put, their method is to plot the level of health related/social problems against the difference in income of the world's twenty richest countries. Cleverly, this is repeated for each of the fifty United States. Each problem is dealt with separartely, the data being represented in graphic form. Wherever there is a large differential betwixt the two ends of the income scale, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, obesity, mental problems, and even teenage pregnancy occur more frequently, people live for a shorter period and commit suicide more regularly. Additionally, but just as damningly, children are not as well educated and less literate .

So which countries score well on this scale? Interestingly, if not entirely surprisingly, Scandanavia and Japan have can be seen to have the narrowest of divergence betwixt highest and lowest incomes and, indeed, boast the best psychological health of all. Conversely and rather predictably, those nations with the widest gulf between rich and poor, are thus plagued by the highest occurrence of health-related and social problems. Here's the rub; those countries are, in fact, Britain, the USA and Portugal.

Why is this? Well, their answer is simple, profound and disquieting; they argue that inequality, ipso facto, breeds stress across the full spectrum of society, not just among down trodden. Indeed, whilst subject to stress, individuals become far more susceptible to syndromes like depression, phobias of divers sorts, and basic anxiety This fact renders the individual far more likely to develop one of a range of physical potentially perilous conditions such as obesity, accompanying heart disease, addictions, immune deficiency as well as premature ageing. The super-rich thus become demons, a drain and a plague on society rather than a super-hero class of noble society saving investors, or the like.

If you're worried by all of this, have a good read of this book and act upon it! And on that very point, the authors themselves urge that greater equality becomes grounded and 'built in' to the models of present and future societies. Moreover, they have actually taken the commendable step of putting their actions where their thoughts are and have founded a non-profit making trust - entitled 'equalitytrust.org' - so that the data and evidence, which is presented within the pages of their book, can be better distributed and accessed on a broader scale; good thinking, guys!

It’s important to realize how rapidly our inequality has grown, and how different our society used to be. Inequality isn’t some entrenched characteristic. It’s become much worse since the 1970s. And it's important to realize we can shift things back. A large body of research and observation has revealed that the removal of economic impediments to feeling valued - such as low wages, low benefits and low public spending on education, for instance - will allow a flourishing of human potential.

[British Columbia's] government is pure flim-flam, where the elites have elected a shill to pander to their pocketbooks and to hell with everyone else. - DMJ in a comment on Harv Oberfeld's blog, March 4, 2010

BC Libs love regressive taxation
Norman Farrell Northern Insights British Columbia Canada March 4, 2010



The single overriding purpose of the Gordon Campbell government has been to widen the gap between rich and poor. It is an incredibly selfish plan of the top 2% to enrich themselves at the expense of others. Over time, the policy will lead to economic disaster and social unrest. No empire of the rich and powerful has survived for more than a few moments in history. Like a stick, ordinary society can only be bent so far.

Cast your mind to the earliest financial moves of this Campbell administration. It was to reduce income taxation on the highest earners and corporations. Campbell's Liberals have been steadily shifting tax burdens from business and the wealthiest citizens to persons less affluent. While income tax rates rise with income, sales taxes and fees apply uniformly, regardless of income or wealth. Under Liberals, the highest personal tax rates dropped substantially while fees and sales taxes rose and rise dramatically. Remember increased ferry fares, rising tuition, parking taxes, transit levies, fees for government services, carbon taxes, planned bridge and highway tolls, etc. Regressive taxes all. Tax revenues from business continue to fall. The Government's three year revenue forecast expects a growth in personal income tax of $865 million and a reduction of corporate income tax of $70 million in the same period. Additionally, the move to HST this year takes billions more from ordinary consumers so it can be paid as HST tax rebates to businesses, including huge foreign companies that will quickly repatriate the money. Liberals plan now to strip more than $500 million from ICBC reserves. Clearly, that will lead to large insurance premium increases for all drivers. In reality, excess premiums resulting from payments to Victoria by ICBC, and its assumption of driver and vehicle administration costs, are regressive taxes. Liberals will remove billions more from BC Hydro and require the crown corporation to increase domestic rates by 29%. That will fund, not system maintenance as they claim, but the fortunes to be paid to independent power producers under secret take or pay agreements signed with Liberal friendly privateers. Medical Services Plan premiums increase again, 6% this year. Despite reductions in coverage, MSP fees rise annually, accounting for about $1 billion more each year now compared to when Liberals took office. ...

The Campbellites are already planning for their eventual ouster. The next Premier, whether it is a rebellious Liberal or from the present Opposition, will find the financial cupboards bare. Every agency surplus will have been picked clean and a legacy of billions will be due private operators who are being franchised to control this province.

They still think voters are DUMB
Harvey Oberfeld Keeping it Real British Columbia Canada March 3, 2010

B.C. Liberals apparently learned nothing from the angry public reaction to their pre-election deceit and, some would say, outright lies. They fed the voters another big deception in Tuesday’s budget. ... In Tuesday’s Budget, Finance Minister Colin Hansen announced the government will introduce legislation requiring all HST revenue to be used on health care spending.

What a farce! Is there extra revenue coming from the HST after all? Or is it all just sleight of hands? Doesn’t all tax revenue just go into the huge provincial pot … to be pulled out if and as needed for ANY government spending. I believe it is just another attempt to deceive the public and to soften the hatred of the HST by pretending it’s all going to pay ONLY for health care. After all, if they said the money would be just going into the provincial pot and could be used for anything (AS IS THE REALITY) we might actually THINK some of it was going to, say, ministerial spending on trips, on pet projects aiding favored groups or party supporters, or spending on … horrors of horrors … the Public Affairs Bureau, to propagandize the pe0ple even further. They think voters are too dumb to really understand what they are doing. I wonder if they laugh out loud behind closed doors when they come up with these farcical deceptions ? But who knows, judging by past electoral experiences, they just could be right!

Related: With an eye on activities by other corporatist governments.

McGuinty eyes selling shares in LCBO, Hydro One
Robert Benzie Toronto Star Ontario Canada March 6, 2010

The Ontario government is looking at creating a publicly held $60 billion "super corporation" of assets such as the Liquor Control Board of Ontario and Hydro One and then selling a minority share to private investors, sources told the Star. Insiders say that is an option under active consideration as part of Premier Dalton McGuinty's ambitious five-year plan called Open Ontario, which will be spelled out in Monday's Speech from the Throne. ...

Unlike the failed scheme by the previous Progressive Conservative government to sell Hydro One in 2002, the Liberals would not have an outright sale of Crown holdings. Nor would any deal be structured like the Tories' controversial 1999 liquidation of Highway 407 for $3.1 billion, which has led to soaring tolls for drivers. "You would put all the assets inside a shell and then issue shares on that shell. That way there's still an element of public ownership," a Liberal insider said Friday. ... Another official close to McGuinty, who regularly consults with business leaders like TD Bank chair Ed Clark, emphasized "the decision has not been made." But in a major speech Friday, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan telegraphed that the government, which has paid CIBC World Markets and Goldman Sachs about $200,000 to examine the value of public holdings, is moving in this direction. Speaking to a Canadian Club luncheon at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, Duncan admitted he was "doing what the spinmeisters call preconditioning" on the eve of the throne speech and a provincial budget later this month. ...

It’s still a war budget
Joan Rustow Peace, Earth & Justice News British Colubmia Canada March 5, 2010

The Conservative’s 2010 Budget still represents an unprecedented increase in defence spending, says the Canadian Peace Alliance, Canada’s largest peace network. While there is a small decrease in the amount previously allocated to the military under the Canada First Defence Strategy, overall defence spending continues to go up. “This is still a war budget,” said Christine Jones, co-chair of the Canadian Peace Alliance. “While the Harper government wants Canadians to tighten their belts, the military gets billions more each year.” The Budget reduces annual defence spending by $525 million in 2012 and $1 billion annually after 2012, but this is an insignificant change to the Canada First Defence Strategy, which allocates $490 billion in military spending by 2025. “The Conservatives are giving 20 billion annually to the arms dealers rather than to Canadians who are reeling from the economic crisis”, said Derrick O’Keefe, co-chair of the CPA. “Worse still, the Budget figures don’t include the costs of ‘incremental funding’ such as the war in Afghanistan, which has already cost Canadians more than $20 billion.” ...

We want bigger houses and more cars, not because we need them, but because we use them to express our status. Material goods are how we show the world we’re keeping up, and in a more hierarchical society that’s more important. Status competition becomes more intense, and that increases our need to consume.... - Richard Wilkinson, co-author of The Spirit Level (published in the UK in 2009), a book that argues economic inequality, not overall wealth or cultural differences, is what fosters societal breakdown by boosting insecurity and anxiety, which leads to divisive prejudice between the classes, rampant consumerism, and all manner of mental and physical suffering.

According to a recent study commissioned by the Ombudsman for Children in Poland, 20 per cent of teenage prostitutes in Poland sell their bodies to earn money for designer clothes, fancy gadgets or concert tickets. Girls on average enter the sex trade at age 15; boys at 14. - Dan Bilefsky reporting. Jim comment: Poland has exhanged one tyranny for another—from a state that tells the people what to say and wear to a market that dictates what people "need" and "must have" to find their identities. Welcome to our world of obsessive superficial materialism and domination, girls and boys.

"Potentially good sex is a small price to pay for the freedom to spend money on what I want." - 'Stacey', a 17-year-old, who in 2003 was working the Mall of America, Minnesota's vast shopping megaplex

"One reason people misconstrue teenage sexual behavior is that the system of dating and relationships has changed significantly. In the first half of the 20th century, dating was planned and structured -- and a date might or might not lead to a physical relationship. In recent decades, that pattern has largely been replaced by casual gatherings of teenagers," in which teenagers "fool around," and may or may not start regular dating," a shift which began around the late 1960s. - Tara Parker-Pope, The myth of rampant teenage promiscuity, January 26, 2009

Advertising and media feed off each other, generating a proliferation of images that are sexually suggestive or blatantly pornographic. These ads, music videos, video games, television shows, internet sites, and teen fiction then become guidelines for acceptable teenage social behavior. Sexual imagery is such a normal part of teens’ daily lives that, regardless of family pressures, disapproving peers, or religious taboos, very young girls are influenced into dressing provocatively, acting sexy, and becoming sexually active. - Sharlene Azam in her 2009 book, Oral Sex Is The New Goodnight Kiss, Chapter 3

I know dozens of healthy young women who are grappling successfully with media culture, and are reacting to the Girls Gone Wild phenomenon in a solid way due to critical thinking skills and strong role models. Though a few clearly need immediate rescue, most of "our girls" are doing just fine, thank you. Unlike some members of the cultural media. - Vanessa Richmond

Designing teens trade sex to sate lust for fashion
Dan Bilefsky New York Times/Toronto Star USA/Ontario Canada March 6, 2010



WARSAW–They loiter at the mall for hours, young teenage girls selling their bodies in return for designer jeans, Nokia cellphones, even a pair of socks.

Katarzyna Roslaniec, a former film student, first spotted a cluster of mall girls three years ago, decked out in thigh-high latex boots. She followed them and chatted them up over cigarettes. Over the next six months, the teens told her about their sex lives, about the men they called "sponsors," about their lust for expensive labels, their absent parents, their premature pregnancies, their broken dreams. Roslaniec, 29, scribbled their secrets in her notepad, memorizing their speech, peppered with words like frajer – "loser" in English. She gossiped with the teenagers on Grono.net, the Polish equivalent of Facebook. Soon, she had a large network of mall girls. The result is the darkly devastating fictional film, Galerianki, or Mall Girls, which premiered in Poland in the autumn and was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, and has provoked a national debate about moral decadence in this conservative, mainly Catholic country, 20 years after the fall of communism. The film tells the story of four teenage girls who turn tricks in the restrooms of shopping malls to support their clothing addiction.

The revelation that Catholic girls, some from middle-class families, are prostituting themselves for a Chanel scarf or an expensive sushi dinner is causing many here to question whether materialism is polluting the nation's soul. The real-life mall girls say that after choosing a benefactor, they follow him into a shop, and seduce him by trying on clothes. Sex is exchanged only for an agreed item like a blouse, never for cash. It usually takes place in the stalls of mall bathrooms or in a car in the parking lot – which has prompted intensified security at malls and forced the girls to seek out alternate venues. Roslaniec called mall girls the daughters of capitalism. "Parents have lost themselves in the race after a new washing machine or car and are rarely home. A 14-year-old girl needs a system of values that can't be shaped without the guidance of parents. The result is that these girls live in a world where there are no feelings, just cold calculation." ...

Related: USA 2003: Pimps are increasingly targeting girls at the local mall, a place many parents consider a haven for their kids to gather after school and on weekends.

Nationwide increase in teen prostitution
Newsweek/Couples Company USA August 10, 2003

NEW YORK, Aug. 10, 2003 -- Over the last year, local and federal law-enforcement officials say they have noted a marked increase in teen prostitution in cities across the country, reports Assistant Editor Suzanne Smalley in the August 18 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, August 11). Law-enforcement agencies and advocacy groups that work with teen prostitutes say they are increasingly alarmed by the trend lines: the kids are getting younger. According to the FBI, the average age of a new recruit is just 13; some are as young as 9. And, while the vast majority of teen prostitutes today are runaways, illegal immigrants and children of poor urban areas, experts say a growing number now come from middle-class homes. "Compared to three years ago, we've seen a 70 percent increase in kids are from middle- to upper-middle-class backgrounds, many of whom have not suffered mental, sexual or physical abuse," says Frank Barnaba of the Paul & Lisa Program, which works with the Justice Department and the FBI in tracking exploited kids.

Child advocates are especially concerned that pimps are increasingly targeting girls at the local mall, a place many parents consider a haven for their kids to gather after school and on weekends. "Ten years ago you didn't see this happening," says Bob Flores, who heads the Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. "We've got kids in every major city and in suburbia all over the place being prostituted." "Potentially good sex is a small price to pay for the freedom to spend money on what I want," says 17-year-old Stacey [not her real name], who liked to hang out after school at the Mall of America, Minnesota's vast shopping megaplex, Newsweek reports. After being approached last summer by a man who told her how pretty she was, and asked if he could buy her some clothes, Stacey agreed and went home that night with a $250 outfit. Stacey, who lives with her parents in an upscale neighborhood, began stripping for men in hotel rooms -- then went on to more intimate activities. She placed ads on a local telephone personals service, offering "wealthy, generous" men "an evening of fun" for $400. ... All the while, she told her parents she was out with friends or at the mall, and was careful to be home before her midnight curfew. ... Earlier this summer, undercover detectives responded to a phone advertisement for an evening's entertainment. Arriving at the hotel at the agreed upon time, they found Stacey waiting with two other teenagers. When her mom came to pick her up at the police station a few hours later, Stacey protested that the whole thing was a big misunderstanding. She wasn't charged, and the police haven't contacted her since her arrest. Soon, Stacey says, she was back at the mall, shopping and looking for someone to meet.

Return of the scary teen blowjob
Vanessa Richmond TheTyee.ca British Columbia Canada April 29, 2009

Cover of Sharlene Azam's new book. Visit this page for its embedded links.

Some Canadian teen girls are working in oral sex prostitution rings, offering services in exchange for clothes, accessories, money, and drugs, according to Oral Sex Is the New Goodnight Kiss, a new book and documentary by Sharlene Azam. I haven't read the book or seen the documentary, only read many reviews (more on that in a minute), but if the claims are true -- and I have no reason to think they're not -- the phenomenon is horrible, heartbreaking, and evidence of a total breakdown in both parental and institutional care. If even one teen girl is working in an oral sex prostitution ring, we should thank Azam for bringing it to the table so we can find ways to make sure it doesn't happen again. But looking for more facts and solutions is not what's happening in medialand. ...

I mean, please tell me why it's necessary to mention the girl's hair was "blonde and sun-kissed" in any kind of report genuinely focused on sexual health? Or, while I'm on a roll, why it's relevant to mention class, without explaining its relevance. Without context, it can only be to increase the sense of dramatic tension and shock value. I guess middle class prostitution is more shocking than working class prostitution. Would it be OK if they were street prostitutes? Do they not need our concern? And don't even get me started on asking why any review mentions, out of context, that the girls are white.

And it's not just the descriptions that distort the situation. The hyperbole in the titles makes the practice sound far more widespread than it is. The Globe and Mail's headline is "Teen girls are swapping sex for ... just about anything." As one commenter said, "This headline is irresponsible. Try 'Eight or so teen girls are swapping sex for ... just about anything.' You cannot come to a conclusion about the way teen girls across North America are behaving because one author went out and interviewed several of them." It's important to point out it's more than eight girls, but it's still statistically very rare and doesn't reflect the way teen girls are behaving in general. ...

Oral Sex Is the New Goodnight Kiss

Website for the book and documentary, copyright (2009) Sharlene Azam.

The new documentary and book chronicle the shocking sex lives of teen girls. You'll be surprised to learn what activities they engage in and why they do it. Hear from the author and filmmaker, Sharlene Azam, and find out why other girls may be the biggest threat to your daughter’s safety. Sharlene Azam examines the recent emergence of teenage prostitution in affluent suburbs. Middle class girls as young as 12 are having sex with up to seven men a night, several times a week, so they can go shopping. This book and film are a wake up call for parents showing them how girls are groomed by our culture into seeing sex as "no big deal" and the attention-getting behavior that is leading some girls into trading sex for money, drugs or clothes.

Chapter 3 A Poisonous Culture
Copyright (2009) Sharlene Azam All Rights Reserved.
Please feel free to duplicate or distribute this file as long as the contents have not been changed and this copyright notice is intact. Thank you.

Twenty-five years ago, a balding, middle-aged man approached a 13-year-old girl at a school play and invited her to model in his hotel room. Knowing her father would object, the girl asked her mother to take her. They met in the lobby of the Hotel Vancouver, where the man told the mother to wait in the bar. Instead of insisting that she accompany her, her mother asked the teenager what she wanted. He wasn’t thrilled, but he shot several rolls with her mom in the room. A few weeks later the girl received a copy of the photos, along with a note indicating that she was “not model material” because she was “unable to take direction.” She understood what he meant—she had worn her mother’s modest bathing suit rather than a bikini or scanty underwear, and she had refused to peek out from behind the shower curtain or lie on the bed with her legs in the air. That girl is me. I had allowed myself to be photographed by a complete stranger based on the promise that he could fulfill my fantasy to be gazed upon and admired by the entire world. But I had not been able to do the overtly sexual things he had asked me to do. I had never been naked in front of anyone. I hadn’t even kissed a boy. Would I do it today if I were 13 and asked to pose topless? Maybe. Bombarded with images that link a woman’s value to her sexual willingness, girls see their role models engaging in graphic, exhibitionist behavior—and being rewarded for it (at least in the short term).

The training starts early. ... With role models like these, immersed in a culture where sexuality is tied to celebrity status and money, girls are conditioned to feel empowered whenever they are the sexual center of attention. “At a party or wherever, to get attention, two girls will start kissing and then all of a sudden it’s like everyone is looking and all of the attention is on you. It’s like you’re on fire,” explains Juma, a high school student.

To maintain that level of attention, many girls are transmitting nude or sexually explicit photos of themselves via cell phone. The practice is called “sexting.” “It is a way to become famous at their school, because those photos are widely forwarded among students,” explains Joy Becker, a youth counselor at Options For Healthy Sexuality (formerly Planned Parenthood) in Vancouver. “I’ve seen everything from your basic striptease to sexual acts being performed,” says Detective Brian Marvin of the FBI Cyber Crime Task Force of Central Ohio. Girls understand that the most valuable commodities are youth and beauty, both of which they possess. And they identify as sex objects because being a sex object is about being desirable, getting attention, and feeling powerful. ...

Girls are sent the message that they should be available for sex and skilled at it. Adorable magazine sent their teen subscribers a sex guide entitled 99 Naughty Tricks, including tips on French kissing and oral sex. Seventeen and CosmoGirl magazines regularly offer sex advice, often without mentioning a relationship as the context in which the sexual contact might take place. Sex as recreation, sex as inevitable adolescent experimentation, sex as obsession are so pervasive that the editors of the recently released True Images: The Bible for Teen Girls (Zondervan) feel it’s essential to discuss oral sex, lesbianism, and “dream” guys alongside the study of scripture. ...

Siblings: A picture from Kabul in the late 1960s. The picture is selected from Afghanistan Gallery #1. The link leads to photographs of Afghanistan, mostly in Kabul in 1967-68 taken by Dr. Bill Podlich, photographer. Scanned from slides and restored by C. Esterson.

America's almost complete destabilization/destruction of Iraq society is recent. Its program of destruction in Afghanistan is decades-old and still ongoing. James Lucas writes "... the U.S. was the main force that created the conditions that allowed the Mujahideen and the Taliban to come to power because of the support it gave 20 to 30 years ago to the most violent and anti-democratic forces within Afghanistan who ruled ruthlessly, eradicating educated progressive leaders, driving others into exile, and corrupting the minds of many of its young males. ... U.S. officials talk about nation-building in Afghanistan. But what they neglect to say is that the U.S. has actually done just the opposite: it has fostered the destruction of much of that nation and now poses a clear and imminent danger to what remains of the rest of that beleaguered country."

Intro: Afghan mission creep: Back to nation-building
Bobby Ghosh TIME USA August 19, 2009

President Barack Obama prioritized the conflict in Afghanistan soon after taking office, but he made it clear that the U.S. would scale down its ambitions there. The objective of the mission would be to defeat al-Qaeda and its supporters in the Taliban, rather than trying to turn Afghanistan into a modern, well-governed state. "We are not going to be able to rebuild Afghanistan into a Jeffersonian democracy," the new President said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was even more blunt: "If we set ourselves the objective of creating some sort of a Central Asian Valhalla over there, we will lose," Gates told Congress. "Because nobody in the world has that much time, patience or money, to be honest."

But last week, when Obama's Afghanistan point man Richard Holbrooke and his team laid out the Administration's aims for Afghanistan during a briefing at Washington's Center for American Progress, it was clear that the agenda had grown more ambitious. There was talk of creating jobs, growing agribusiness, reforming the justice sector, promoting mobile banking, starting a media commission, fighting corruption. Holbrooke never actually used the phrase, but his program sounded suspiciously like nation-building. It fell to Holbrooke's host, former Clinton White House chief of staff John Podesta, to point out that the policy "reflects a much larger strategy than the very narrow definition that the President used." For many Afghanistan experts, that's as it should be. U.S. security goals in the region, they argue, cannot be achieved purely by military means; good governance and modern institutions are essential to prevent the resurgence of extremism and to allow American and NATO troops to someday head home. "Democracy and development have to be part of any exit strategy," says the Rand Corp.'s James Dobbins, who was President Bush's first envoy to Kabul. But if the Obama Administration has indeed signed up for nation-building in Afghanistan, it hasn't told the American electorate — an omission that could bring political grief at home and strategic costs in Afghanistan. In his comments on Afghanistan to date, Obama has "never owned up to state-building, never said so," says Ashley Tellis, an Afghanistan expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "He's committed to doing something that the country has not been brought along." ...

Item: America’s nation-destroying mission in Afghanistan
James Lucas Antiwar.com USA March 6, 2010

Visit this page for its embedded links.

Interference by the U.S. in the internal affairs of Afghanistan has been a tragic chapter in our nation’s history. Over three decades ago, there were social movements in Afghanistan to improve the standard of living of its people, to provide greater equality for women, and there was a functioning, if imperfect, democracy. However the U.S., using subversion, weapons, and money was able, as the leader of coalition of nations, to stop progress in these areas of human welfare. In fact, the gains that had already been made were actually reversed. By 2010 the economic and social status of Afghans has been set back generations; women’s status has deteriorated to such an extent that the prevalence of self-immolation has increased among discouraged women, and there is no democracy now, with the U.S. making major decisions as an occupying power. With President Obama’s recently announced military buildup, our nation’s leaders are on the verge of doing the virtually impossible — making the situation even worse. But the most cataclysmic aspect of this chronology of events is that the U.S. and the world are less safe, since the image of the U.S. in the world is that of the leading military power attacking possibly the poorest nation on earth.

Afghanistan in the late 1970s was a predominantly poor, rural, and moderate Muslim nation. Although they were second class citizens, women were allowed to unveil and had the right to vote. From 1933-1978 women started to enter the workforce and become teachers, nurses, and even politicians. They worked to end illiteracy and forced marriages. Most of these advances were in Kabul, the most modern and populous city in Afghanistan, while in most of the rural areas women were treated as property. In the 1970s Afghanistan also had serious economic problems, one of which the concentration of ownership of most of the land in the hands of tribal and religious leaders (mullahs). Only 3% of the rural population owned 75% of the land. Labor unions were legalized, a minimum wage and a progressive income tax were established, and a separation of church and state was adopted. Then, in the latter years of that decade various progressive and communist groups struggled over how to modernize Afghanistan and resolve these inequities. Unfortunately, their efforts to introduce changes involved a degree of coercion and violence directed mainly toward those living in areas outside of Kabul where the vast majority of the population lived in mountainous, rural and tribal areas where there was an exceptionally high rate of illiteracy. Steps to redistribute land were initiated but were met by objections from those who had monopoly ownership of land.

By the spring of 1979, rebellion had spread to most of the country’s 29 provinces. ... The situation was very grave in Afghanistan at that point, but the U.S. was destined to make it much worse. The initial conflict might have been resolved far short of a civil war if the U.S. had refrained from fostering the uprising. Even if the struggle had progressed to a civil war, the nation might eventually have recovered and moved ahead. Civil wars are disastrous for nations, but after great pain and suffering they can eventually overcome this setback, as the U.S. did after its civil war. The following is an account of how the U.S. laid the groundwork for its encouragement of the uprising and the enormous support that it gave later for the ongoing revolt that would lead to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

The U.S. involvement in Afghanistan began in the 1950s and 1960s. The CIA used impressive bribes and threats to support this growing opposition to the progressive changes, and it also recruited Afghan students in the U.S. to act as agents for them when they returned home. During this period at least one president of the Afghanistan Students Association (ASA), Zia H. Noorzay, was working with the CIA in the U.S. and later became president of the Afghanistan state treasury. One of the Afghan students whom Noorzay and the CIA tried in vain to recruit, Abdul Latif Hotaki, declared in 1967 that a good number of the key officials in the Afghanistan government who studied in the U.S. "are either CIA-trained or indoctrinated." According to Roger Morris, National Security Council staff member, the CIA started to offer covert backing to Islamic radicals as early as 1973-1974. Subsequently, various other U.S. officials would also indicate their willingness to sacrifice the welfare of the Afghan people in the interest of the American goal of worldwide domination. ...

Related: In Afghanistan, NATO denounces an ally
Michael M. Phillips in Marjah, Afghanistan, Matthew Rosenberg in Kabul and Peter Spiegel in Washington Wall Street Journal USA March 5, 2010


Abdul Zahir, right, listens to a concern at the end of a council of elders. Photo: Michael Phillips/The Wall Street Journa

The U.S.-led effort to flush the Taliban from a stronghold in southern Afghanistan—the first test of the new surge strategy to turn the tide of the war—has been dealt a setback by a dispute over the personal history of the man chosen by the Afghan government to run the town. The top allied commander in southern Afghanistan says coalition officials in the past two weeks have been told that the new administrator of Marjah, Abdul Zahir, served four years in a German prison for assault. Behind closed doors, Western officials have been pressing Afghan officials to have Mr. Zahir removed from his post, which he assumed last month after thousands of U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers fought their way into the Taliban-held town, say other coalition officials.

Mr. Zahir, in an interview, says he neither committed nor was charged with such an offense. He says the allegations are the product of malicious rumor-mongering by personal and political enemies. "I don't think it is the Americans or the British who are spreading these rumors," Mr. Zahir said Friday. "I think it is the people who forced me to flee Afghanistan to Germany. Now they can't tolerate seeing me as governor of Marjah." Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, the top allied commander in southern Afghanistan, said in an interview: "It's no secret that [Mr. Zahir] was found guilty of a charge in Germany which I'm not sure what it would be under German law, but I think you and I would describe it as assault." Gen. Carter, who is British, said Mr. Zahir was convicted of beating his stepson and served four years in prison before returning to Afghanistan in 2002. ...

Destablizing Iraq was, most definately, a part of Israel/US Iran policy.

Iraq 'condemned' to democracy
Robert Grenier Al Jazeera Qatar March 7, 2010


Around 19 million eligible voters will choose from over 6,000 candidates. Photo: Agence France-Presse. Robert Grenier was the CIA's chief of station in Islamabad, Pakistan, from 1999 to 2002. From October 2002 until December 2004, he was the CIA Iraq Mission Manager. He was also the director of the CIA's counterterrorism centre.

As Iraqis go to the polls to cast ballots in the second parliamentary election since the US invasion in 2003, there is great trepidation among both foreign and domestic observers: Not only over the outcome, and whether it will enhance or decrease political stability and good governance in the country, but over the future of the democratic experiment in Iraq itself. There are good reasons for such concerns. Prominent among these is the ruling from the Commission for Accountability and Justice, charged with the "de-Baathification" of Iraqi politics and public life, handed down only weeks before the election, to ban close to 500 candidates from participating. The Commission, not incidentally, is dominated by two politicians - Ahmed Chalabi and Ali Faysal al-Lami - who are affiliated with the Iran-leaning Iraqi National Alliance, which combines the two main Shia Islamist parties, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, and the Al-Sadr Trend. Among the individuals banned are two of the most prominent Sunni politicians in Iraq: Saleh al-Mutlaq and Dhafir al-Ani. This move harkens back to the sweeping purges of even relatively low-level Baathists mandated in 2003 by the Supreme National Debaathification Commission chaired by -who else? - Ahmed Chalabi, whose handiwork certainly hastened the advance of a Sunni-led insurgency against the US occupation and, later, against the nascent Iraqi government as well. Now, the ruling of the Commission for Accountability and Justice, reinforced by a judicial review panel which has refused to overturn all but 26 of the exclusions despite the vague criteria upon which they were based, has threatened to undermine Sunni participation in the political process precisely at a time when sectarian violence was generally on the wane. Linked to this development in the eyes of many, and to the more general exploitation of Shia fears of a resurgence of the Baath Party, is Iran's apparently growing influence over key Iraqi Shia parties and political figures, and with it, growing Persian influence over the Iraqi political process itself. Indeed, Iranian support for violent Shia organisations such as Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq appears to continue apace. ...

All this puts me in mind of a conversation I had with a prominent Iraqi back in 2003, after the toppling of Saddam Hussein. This individual suggested that Iraqis were simply not ready for democracy, and that a move in that direction could lead to internal chaos and exploitation by regional powers. My reaction at the time was to say that given the many political divisions within Iraq, and with the annihilation of the centralised control formerly exerted by Saddam and the Baath Party, Iraq was "condemned" to democracy. I felt strongly then, as I continue to believe now, that the many political forces released as a result of the US invasion cannot be put back in the bottle, and that the only way for these opposing tendencies to be reconciled, or for any of the many contending communities to realise their individual goals, is through a robust democratic process. ...

Neighbours eye Iraq elections
Sam Sasan Shoamanesh Al Jazeera Qatar March 7, 2010


Despite violence on election day, voter turnout has been high at the 50,000 polling stations. Photo: Agence France-Presse. Sam Sasan Shoamanesh is the co-founder and associate editor of Global Brief, Canada’s first foreign policy magazine (www.globalbrief.ca). The magazine's website features, inter alia , Arabic, Farsi, Dari and Turkish language blogs.

In the run-up to today's historically significant parliamentary polls in Iraq, a volume of commentary has been offered on the complex internal dynamics in play and their critical import for the future direction of the country. But a question that begs asking is where do Iraq's neighbours stand on these critical elections. Given the volatile reality of the Middle East and its tortuous geopolitics, states in the region have an intimate interest and much at stake in how their neighbours are run. With much at risk for the stability of Iraq and its concomitant effects on bordering states, today's elections will be watched with great anxiety in capitals across the Middle East. Tehran, in particular, will be following electoral developments over its western border in Iraq. Iranian foreign policy vis-à-vis Iraq is not necessarily ideological in its underpinnings. It is misleading to analyse Iran-Iraq relations through the prism of a Shia alliance.

Whether under a Shia dominated theocracy, a secular democratic Iran, or any other form of political rule in Tehran, the country's Iraq policy would be based, at any given time, on pragmatic calculations to meet security and strategic objectives measured against realities on the ground. Clearly, given the state of US-Iran relations today, Iran is in favour of the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq, and as a consequence, rather wary of any renewed post-election violence that may derail the withdrawal plan scheduled for the end of August. A stable Iraq, free from ethnic strife is in line with Iran's national interests. The last thing Iran needs is a disintegrated Iraq, with an energised surge of ethnic and sectarian clashes causing havoc in the country, placing Iraq's territorial integrity at risk, and producing a refugee flow to its borders – a consequence of internal Iraqi instability that Jordan in particular is well too aware of. The former is a disastrous precedent for Tehran given Iran's ethnic diversity and internal geopolitics. ... Similar to Iran, Syria and Turkey with significant minority populations of their own will frown upon any election outcome that may ignite ethnic rivalries and threaten to spiral the country toward civil war. In particular, any result that will reinvigorate calls for a separate Kurdish free state will be a direct national security threat to all three nations. Iran, along with other regional stake holders, will therefore be looking to see an election outcome in Iraq, which establishes a strong central government capable of maintaining stability in the country. Contrary to popular belief, an independent, balanced nationalistic and united Iraq is in step with Iran's interests. A divided Iraq with weak regional groupings separated along ethnic lines, each competing for control in the country will render these factions susceptible to foreign tampering. This is a scenario Iran considers a serious security threat to be avoided. ...

Although Damascus may be timidly yet increasingly open to rapprochement with Washington, it sees in Iran a close historical ally and strategic partner. It would be interesting to observe how Israeli-Iraqi relations evolve from a new Iraq. In the current geopolitical map of the region, Israel's interests favour strong ties between Baghdad and Washington. The snapshot outlined above raises a fundamental point, and that is as long as the region as a whole stays divided, its existing geo-political realities will continue to generate power-plays and zero-sum competition. This regional formula is destined to continue to leave victims in its tracks, keeping the region weak, and prohibiting its progress. While beyond the scope of this commentary, suffice it to say that for the region to finally see prosperity and progress both as individual sovereigns and in the collective, it needs to work toward a regional alignment founded indigenously by and for Middle Eastern states. A regional organising framework has the potential to act as a constructive game changer for the Middle East in the 21st century. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was in breach of international law, and its aftermath of carnage and violence, the cause of great suffering for the Iraqi people. Yet perhaps there is solace in knowing that in every tragedy, there is opportunity. ...


Iraqi security forces inspect the site of a car bomb attack in the holy city of Najaf yesterday. Photo: European Press Agency

Larijani blames US for attacks during Iraq elections
Press TV Iran March 7, 2010

The family members of Saleema Hussein, who was killed on Friday in a bomb blast in Iraq. Photo: Associated Press. According to the latest figures, at least 24 Iraqis have been killed and dozens of others wounded by mortar attacks since polling stations opened early Sunday in Baghdad. Also, sixteen people were killed after two massive blasts flattened two residential buildings Agence France-Presse reported.

As Iraqi people prepare to cast their ballots in a key parliamentary election, Iran's Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani warns against US interference in the voting process. Speaking on the morrow of a deadly blast which killed at least four Iranians in the central Iraqi city of Najaf, Larijani said Washington's ongoing military presence in the country is the main reason behind the recent wave of violence, which has reached a new high in the lead-up to Iraq's general election. “The US government should be held responsible for [ongoing terror attacks in Iraq,” said Larijani in a parliamentary session on Sunday. The Iranian Parliament Speaker said the Iraqi nation will show that they do not need the help of Washington statesmen in deciding their country's affairs. ...

Related: U.S. plans for possible delay in Iraq withdrawal
Craig Whitlock Washington Post USA February 23, 2010

The U.S. military has prepared contingency plans to delay the planned withdrawal of all combat forces in Iraq, citing the prospects for political instability and increased violence as Iraqis hold national elections next month. Under a deadline set by President Obama, all combat forces are slated to withdraw from Iraq by the end of August, and there remains heavy political pressure in Washington and Baghdad to stick to that schedule. But Army Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Monday that he had briefed officials in Washington in the past week about possible contingency plans. ... With several major coalitions competing for power, U.S. officials said they are bracing for a prolonged period of political instability in Iraq after the elections. Many predicted a repeat of 2005, when it took Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki several months to form a government. "How long this is going to take, this government formation, that is really the rub," Christopher R. Hill, U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, told the Council on Foreign Relations last week. "There's a good reason why people are worried." ...

Iraqi leader willing to ask some U.S. troops to stay
CNN USA March 4, 2010

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has left open the possibility of asking U.S. forces to stay in Iraq longer than planned, depending on the security situation and the readiness of Iraqi troops. In an exclusive interview Thursday, CNN's Arwa Damon asked the prime minster whether he would ask the United States to extend any of its deadlines for withdrawing troops. "This depends on the future, on whether the established Iraqi army and police would be enough or not," he said, "so this issue is depending on the developments of the circumstances, and regulated by the Strategic Framework Agreement between the United States and Iraq." He has not previously said he would consider asking U.S. forces to extend any of their withdrawal deadlines.

"So just to clarify," Damon asked, "if the situation dictated it, you would be willing to have U.S. forces extend their stay in Iraq?" "Absolutely," al-Maliki said. The United States plans to withdraw all of its combat troops by the end of August, leaving 50,000 in advisory roles, and then withdraw those by the end of 2011.

Well, Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, said on March 4 that continuing the fight against insurgents in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul might lead to U.S. troops remaining in the city past a June 30, 2009 deadline for all U.S. combat troops to leave Iraqi cities, but only if the Iraqi government made such a request. 'Advisors', 'trainers', call them what you will. Based on numerous reports, the fact is that at least four brigade combat teams of American troops (approximately 16,000 to 20,000 soldiers out of the 50,000) will remain in Iraq for a long time to come. That has always been the plan. As The Independent reported June 5, 2008, Revealed: Secret plan to keep Iraq under US control

A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November. The terms of the impending deal, details of which have been leaked to The Independent, are likely to have an explosive political effect in Iraq. Iraqi officials fear that the accord, under which US troops would occupy permanent bases, conduct military operations, arrest Iraqis and enjoy immunity from Iraqi law, will destabilise Iraq's position in the Middle East and lay the basis for unending conflict in their country. ... Under the terms of the new treaty, the Americans would retain the long-term use of more than 50 bases in Iraq. ... Iraq's Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, is believed to be personally opposed to the terms of the new pact but feels his coalition government cannot stay in power without US backing. ...

• Click on a headline below to go to that news item

Friday, March 5,2010

Commentary
Resistance: Freedom fighters, killer whales

World News
Diplomats at work: Confounding and confusing Tehran and Beijing & Neo-cons, Falklands and historical revisionism

World News
Need them bad boys to wage our corporatist wars: Is patience with Blackwate/Xe finally beginning to flag? In some circles yes, but does it matter to Pentagon—probably not

Commentary
Is America's AfPak diplomacy unraveling? Sure looks like it

World News
Counting down to Kandahar offensive: 'Canadians are going to be in the thick of it,' says Brig.-Gen. King; US plans new command in south; Marines in Marjah face skepticism and IEDs & Resistance fighters infiltrate Afghan army

Thursday, March 4,2010

Regional News
British Columbia's seniors’ care homes in need of care

Social Ideas
When and how to act? People involved in cultural creation must see themselves as part of a resistance movement that supports and encourages action against the forces that are dismembering our planet

World News
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: 'US debt-based money printing biggest theft in history'

World News
A strain on the US-Brazilian relationship? Lula wants the same right for Iran as for Brazil, the development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes

Commentary
Georgia: Saakashvili pursuing a propaganda campaign aiming to destabilize the region with the tacit approval of Washington and Brussels (and Tel Aviv)

Wednesday, March 3,2010

Commentary
A coming world that's 'a whole lot smaller': Ironically, it's going to be a return to the past and the re-emergence of local economies

Living
Who buys after the last job is outsourced? A quality-of-life vignette

Commentary
BC budget: Finance ministry deeply concerned that U.S. will retreat into "double dip recession," and take a sizable chunk of the global economy along with it

Commentary
USA: Don't bet on a recovery

Commentary
Eurozone: "Bad feeling about this"

Tuesday, March 2,2010

World News
Lebanon: With the prospect of yet another Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon looming large, Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri calls for international help for new peace talks

World News
Charlie Foxtrot? In anticipation of the upcoming Kandahar offensive

World News
Labor dispatches: Serfs and oligarchs

Monday, March 1,2010

National News
From sea to shining sea: Theft of the commons and public treasury

Living
As global crisis deepens; as the United States' social structures implode; as grim federal and provincial budgets loom before Canadians; the forces charged with controlling the people prepare for tense future

Sunday, February 28,2010

Arts
Willing suspension of belief: Imagine if a tenth of the people who now sympathize with these bony blue beings in "Avatar" were sympathetic with the victims of our 'Long War'

World News
Afghanistan: Marjah warm-up exercise winding down; on to Kandahar! Canadian forces gird for summer fighting season

World News
With the Dubai assassination in the news and the bluster aimed at Iran's nuclear program, its worth remembering Mossad's role in the JFK assassination conspiracy

Preface: The function of the preface is to get readers ready to read the book.

The Joe Stack manifesto: What it really means
Christopher Ketcham CounterPunch USA February 22, 2010

If, as author Bill Blum has noted, a terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn’t have an air force, then the suicide pilot Andrew “Joe” Stack most certainly qualifies as a terrorist, having made an effective little bomb out of his Piper Cherokee. At the minimum, he appears to have been a thoughtful terrorist, so we should pause a moment to consider his thinking. ... The individual, taken alone, is worth nothing in the face of [the] monstrously outsized structural imbalances [of our corporatist society]. It’s clear that Joe Stack understood this, feeling worthless enough that the only conceivable act of value was ultimate destruction.


The Spartacus of SeaWorld? Photo: Getty Images. Was Tilikum, that SeaWorld orca, like Spartacus who led the doomed slave revolt in ancient Rome? In an earlier show before he killed trainer Dawn Brancheau, Tilikum (captive for decades) reportedly was not responding to directions.

Intro: Resistance resisters
Derrick Jensen Orion Magazine USA March/April 2010

Another 120 species went extinct today; they were my kin. I am not going to sit back and wait for every last piece of this living world to be dismembered. I’m going to fight like hell for those kin who remain—and I want everyone who cares to join me. Many are. But many are not. Some of those who are not are those who, for whatever reason, really don’t care. I worry about them. But I worry more about those who do care but have chosen not to fight. A fairly large subset of those who care but have chosen not to fight assert that lifestyle choice is the only possible response to the murder of the planet. They all carry the same essential message—and often use precisely the same words: Resistance isn’t possible. Resistance never works.

Meanwhile, another 120 species went extinct today. They were my kin. ...


Dawn Brancheau, a whale trainer at SeaWorld Adventure Park, is seen in this photo taken in December, 2005. Brancheau was killed by Tilikum in February, 2010. It was not the first time Tilikum had killed a keeper. Orca blamed for B.C. death kills SeaWorld trainer. A marine conservationist with the American Museum of Natural History says killer whales are intelligent creatures that don't do things accidentally. He says he believes the whale's actions at SeaWorld Orlando were intentional.

Items: Freedom fighters, killer whales
Rick Salutin Globe and Mail Canada March 5, 2010

The Spartacus of SeaWorld: Who knows, of course, if Tilikum the SeaWorld orca had a motive in killing his trainer, Dawn Brancheau, and withholding her from rescuers. But an impulse to attribute humanish motives to animals is ancient and irresistible. I don't think we do it from egocentrism, but rather from fellow feeling and analogy. We are, after all, animals, too. We have an inner life, for which there's no external proof. Why shouldn't they? But the motives attributed change with the times. A new book, Fear of the Animal Planet: The Hidden History of Animal Resistance, by Jason Hribal, comes out this fall. From bestiality to politics, as it were. Writer Philip Hoare told Slate that orcas test for intelligence just below us, and above primates. They are a rare species, like us, that have sex for its own sake. Penned in tanks instead of roaming the oceans at play, what else can they do except, occasionally, lash out in – who knows what? – rage, frustration? Like Spartacus who led the doomed revolt of the slaves in ancient Rome. Tilikum had been involved in the deaths of humans twice before. So was this some kind of statement, unlike the ducks who died mute in the tar sands? And stating what? For 20 years in prison, Nelson Mandela was a terrorist. Then he was released as a freedom fighter. He hadn't changed, not a bit, but the times had.

What typifies our era is the extension of dignity and humanity to “others” once deemed lesser. Racism is now officially frowned on. So is gender bias. Former colonials sit as equals at the United Nations. China and India are major forces. A lot of it is half-assed, but it's still a big change. So it might follow to attribute a certain dignity, respect and sense of self to other living creatures, as part of the temper of our times. We may never know if it truly applies – not because it's unknowable in principle but because our mental apparatus just isn't up to some kinds of knowledge and may never be. Still, it makes you think. Of what? Of Moby Dick, and that appalling, tantalizing whiteness of the white whale, which rebuffs all mastery. ...

Jim comment: Moby Dick is my favorite American novel. It is epic in scope. This quest tale was first published in 1851, but the book didn't achieve its acclaim as a masterpiece until many years after author Herman Melville was dead. I find the sweeping tale, with a vengeful mad man and a resistance fighter whale at its center, rewards my every rereading. Here are three random excerpts:

"All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it."

"There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he for ever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar."

"Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!"

Orca resistance at Sea World: The struggle of Nootka and Tilikum
Jason Hribal CounterPunch USA February 25, 2010

Editors' Note: Counterpunches can be landed in a variety of ways. In November 2006, Kasatka, the Sea World Orca, attempted to drown her trainer. Yesterday, it was Tilikum’s turn—killing his aquarium trainer. This fall, Fear of the Animal Planet: The Hidden History of Animal Resistance, will be published by AK Press/CounterPunch Books. Below is a poignant excerpt from the book, which details the decades long struggle of two notable orcas: Nootka and Tilikum.

--AC / JSC

It was the first time that a trainer had ever been killed by a group of captive killer whales. There had been previous attempts, a great many actually. But the trainers involved, whether through rescue by other employees or a stroke of luck on their part, had always managed to survive. This attack, however, proved to be different and fatal. It occurred on February 21, 1991 at Sealand of the Pacific.

That day’s final performance had just ended at the Victoria, British Columbia based aquarium and the audience was pleased. They got to watch three killer whales, Nootka, Haida, and Tilikum, perform tricks, including one trick wherein a young female trainer rode on the back of one of these great sea mammals. It seemed to be wonderful fun—that is, until that particular female trainer fell into the water. As she attempted to climb out, an orca latched on to her. “The whale got her foot,” an audience member recalled to reporters, “and pulled her in.” We do not know which orca it was that started it, but all three, Nootka, Haida, and Tilikum, took their turns dunking the screaming woman underwater. “She went up and down three times,” another visitor continued. The Sealand employees “almost got her once with the hook pole, but they couldn’t because the whales were moving so fast.” One trainer tossed out a floatation ring, but the whales would not let her grab it. In fact, the closer that such devices got to the young woman, the further out the whales pulled her into the pool. It took park officials two hours to recover her drowned body.

Responding to the death, Sealand dismissed any claims that the whales had hurt the woman on purpose. “It was just a tragic accident,” the park manager lamented. “I just can’t explain it.” A few of the trainers speculated that Nootka, Haida, and Tilikum might have been playing “a game” that simply went wrong, and their coworker was mistakenly killed in the process. There was, however, precedent for a different interpretation.

In 1989, there had been two violent incidences involving Nootka. The first occurred in April. A trainer was in the middle of a routine activity, scratching the orca’s tongue, when that orca decided to turn the tables. Nootka “bit her hand and dragged her into the whale pool.” The woman had to be rescued by a fellow employee. Sealand, for its part, chose not to notify the authorities or the press. It believed that, although the trainer received lacerations and needed stitches, Nootka did not really intend to bite the person, and the situation remained in control. The trainer thought differently. Citing “unsafe conditions,” she quit her job.

Nootka struck again later that year. A tourist was taking pictures, when he accidentally dropped his camera in the water. The orca quickly noticed the object and put it into her mouth. When a trainer tried to retrieve the camera, Nootka used the opportunity to grab a hold of the man’s leg and jerk him into the pool. The trainer had to be rescued. Sealand administrators chose, once again, to deny that there was intentionality behind Nootka’s actions. No one needed to know about this incidence. Nevertheless, more trainers did resign their positions. Nootka, they believed, was purposeful and dangerous in her actions.

Elsewhere in Canada, other theme parks were having their own troubles. ...

Orcas, by means of their resistance, have forced several highly profitable North American theme parks to close.

The Obama administration is determined to "return to Asia" - and Latin America and the Middle East - and reclaim the geopolitical and economic ground the US lost to China in these crucial regions during the George W Bush administration. The concessions and reassurances the US can offer China on symbolic issues such as meetings with the Dalai Lama and arms sales to Taiwan pale into insignificance next to Beijing's perception that the US, India and the European Union are determined to roll back Chinese influence around the world. If the US and China experience continued friction on the issues of Iran and the NPT, it will be because the Obama administration finds it impossible to deliver what Beijing craves - the "strategic reassurance", in James Steinberg's words, that the US will make room for China's continued rise. - Peter Lee

For neo-cons of the time [1982], notably UN Amb. Jeane Kirkpatrick, Michael Novak, and Elliott Abrams ... within the Reagan administration, Argentina was seen as the model “friendly authoritarian” (which had been unfairly victimized, in their view, by Carter’s hopelessly naive human rights policy) to be welcomed into the “Free World” in its monumental battle against the Soviet Union and its alleged “totalitarian” allies and clients, including the Sandinista government in Nicaragua against which the new Reagan administration eagerly enlisted veterans of the junta’s “dirty war” to train contras in Honduras. - Jim Lobe

US seeks to turn China over Iran sanctions
Peter Lee Asia Times Online Hong Kong March 4, 2010

A flurry of recent diplomacy has centered on the United States' drive to have a further round of United Nations sanctions slapped on Iran over its nuclear program on concern that it might not be solely for peaceful purposes; something Tehran consistently denies.

The most magnificent gesture, according to a report in the UK's Telegraph newspaper on February 28 , was made by Tehran:

Seeking to undermine [sanctions] efforts, Iran on Sunday presented Russia with two rare Persian leopards - a gift personally solicited by Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister.

However, it will take more than exotic livestock to derail the US-led drive to sanction Iran. In recent days, the focus has shifted to Asia as Iran has lobbied Japan and the United States has finally turned its attention to China. However, the risks to China of the Iran sanctions campaign are clear, and the case for how it benefits Beijing have been made poorly and unpersuasively.

After the Barack Obama administration's two top China hands, James Steinberg and Jeffrey Bader, visit Beijing this week, the world may learn if the US has been able to crack the China puzzle. If Steinberg and Bader fail, there is the danger that China will play the spoiler, both on Iran sanctions and at a conference in New York in May on reforms to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that the Obama administration sees as a set piece of its anti-proliferation-centered foreign policy. Iran last week sent a high-level delegation to Japan, headed by the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Ali Larijani, previously Iran's top nuclear negotiator, in search of a potential crack in the West's united front. Instead of leopards, it offered discussions on enrichment and cooperation in civilian nuclear energy. The Iranians may have thought Japan would be interested in proactive nuclear diplomacy in light of its history as a victim of atomic attacks, and because a Japanese citizen, Yukiya Amano, is now head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). However, according a Japanese report, the Iranian delegation received little comfort as Japan didn't seem interested in undercutting Amano's position at the IAEA. Note that Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada called on Iran to "end'' - not "suspend" - its enrichment activities:

Okada told Larijani on Wednesday that he hopes Tehran will take steps to regain the trust of the international community and end its nuclear enrichment activities.

"If a resolution against Iran is passed in the UN Security council, there is little that Japan can do but to abide by it," local media reported Okada telling Larijani. "And there is little time left to prevent this from happening."

Little time, indeed.

Despite a conspicuous lack of enthusiasm by China, Brazil, and even Russia for "crippling" sanctions, and a widespread attitude that more "jaw-jaw" inside the IAEA is preferable to a destabilizing combination of UN Security Council and bilateral and multilateral sanctions, the campaign for sanctions gained momentum with the leaking of a critical IAEA report on Iran's nuclear program in mid-February. The Obama administration hopes the sanctions campaign will rush ahead at a speed designed to confound and confuse Tehran and Beijing. ... Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the scramble for China's vote - and the entire Iran sanctions process - has been the conspicuous participation of Israel. In addition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's high-profile visit to Moscow and Defense Minister Ehud Barak's visit to Washington, Israeli diplomats are reaching into corners of the world not usually associated with Israel's sphere of influence: places like Brazil, Gabon and Nigeria - and China. ...

Lest we forget, take 2: Neo-cons, Falklands and historical revisionism
Jim Lobe LobeLog.com USA March 4, 2010

While this is not by any means the most egregious example, recent complaints by neo-conservatives about the Obama administration’s neutrality in the ongoing dispute between Argentina and Britain over the sovereignty of the Falkland/Malvinas Islands — now heating up over London’s recent launch of oil-drilling operations in the vicinity — offer yet one more illustration of their tendency to revise history when it suits their narrow political purposes. ...

First, it needs be said, the Obama’s administration’s position on the sovereignty of the Falklands/Malvinas Islands is exactly the same as that of neo-conservative hero Ronald Reagan. As stated clearly by then-Secretary of State Alexander Haig during a debate by the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) on May 26, 1982,

“The United States has not taken -and will not take – any position on the substance of the dispute. We are completely neutral on the question of who has sovereignty.”

... For neo-cons of the time, notably UN Amb. Jeane Kirkpatrick, Michael Novak, and Elliott Abrams (Decter’s son-in-law) within the Reagan administration, Argentina was seen as the model “friendly authoritarian” (which had been unfairly victimized, in their view, by Carter’s hopelessly naive human rights policy) to be welcomed into the “Free World” in its monumental battle against the Soviet Union and its alleged “totalitarian” allies and clients, including the Sandinista government in Nicaragua against which the new Reagan administration eagerly enlisted veterans of the junta’s “dirty war” to train contras in Honduras. (Unfortunately, much of the neo-cons’ defense of the generals was waged on the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal and are thus unavailable on the net.) ... Indeed, so encouraged was the junta by the warmth and speed with which the neo-cons and other right-wingers in the Reagan administration had embraced it after taking office that it thought Washington would prevent — or at the very least discourage — London from going to war, according to a number of Argentine and U.S. analysts and officials at the time.

Finally, contrary to The Scrapbook’s musings about the environment in which Obama found himself as a junior at Columbia at the time of the 1982 war, “good leftists in those days” did not side “with the Argentine generals against Margaret Thatcher’s Britain.” Despite the efforts of Kristol, Decter, Kirkpatrick et. al., the junta’s egregious abuses, as well as its co-operation with the Reagan administration in building up the contras, were well known on the left and much despised. And while there was no great enthusiasm for Maggie Thatcher and the flotilla that came to reclaim British honor (and drilling rights) in the South Atlantic, there was certainly a great deal of satisfaction on the left with the generals’ humiliation and their departure from power the following year. The same could not be said about Kirkpatrick and the neo-cons of the time.

Blackwater's migraines multiply
William Fisher Inter Press Service International February 28, 2010

Legal headaches are growing exponentially for the security firm formerly known as Blackwater – once the darling of the military-industrial community. In separate developments, two former employees of the company charged that the security firm committed "systematic fraud" under its contracts with the U.S. State Department in Iraq and Afghanistan; the Iraqi government announced it would seize heavy weapons from foreign security firms and expel ex-Blackwater contractors still in the country; and a U.S. Senate hearing learned that Blackwater employees stole more than 500 assault rifles intended for the Afghan police force. ... Blackwater changed its name to Xe - pronounced "zee" - early last year in an effort to shed the negative baggage acquired from its frequent run-ins with Iraqi, Afghan, U.S. and NATO forces. The Blackwater Lodge & Training Centre, the subsidiary that conducts much of the company's overseas operations and domestic training, has been renamed U.S. Training Centre Inc. ...

And in yet another development, it emerged at a hearing of the Senate armed services committee that Blackwater employees took more than 500 assault rifles intended for the Afghan police force and routinely carried weapons without permission. It also emerged that to burnish its negative image to win contracting business in Afghanistan, Blackwater created what one senator called a shell company. Senators said that company, Paravant, deceived U.S. officials. It claimed Blackwater was not involved but used Blackwater's past performance to establish its credentials. "They made representations here that are wildly false," said Senator Carl Levin, a Democrat. "Everyone knew in the field it was Blackwater trying to get rid of a negative name." Levin warned that Afghan civilians did not distinguish between troops and contractors, and that when contractors misbehaved it turned the population against U.S. forces and encouraged them to side with the Taliban. ...

Senator warns against $1B deal with Blackwater
Anne Flaherty Associated Press USA March 4, 2010

A senior Senate Democrat said Thursday the Pentagon should consider barring Blackwater, now called Xe Services, from a new $1 billion deal to train Afghan police because of "serious questions" about the contractor's conduct. The comments by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin suggests thinning patience in Congress for the Pentagon's heavy reliance on contractors on the battlefield. U.S. efforts to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan using independent contractors has been a boon for companies like Blackwater and saved money and time for the Defense Department, whose forces are busy in combat. But the outsourcing has made it more difficult for military commanders to control what happens on the battlefield. ...

"The inadequacies in Blackwater's performance appear to have contributed to a shooting incident that has undermined our mission in Afghanistan," Levin, D-Mich., wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Blackwater, headquartered in Myock, N.C., changed its name to Xe Services after its security guards were accused of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians more than two years ago. Mark Corallo, a company spokesman, said Xe Services agrees with Levin that the Pentagon should carefully review its past performance when deciding future contracts. "We are confident that Xe's record of service in training thousands of security personnel in Afghanistan demonstrates the companys strong record of supporting critical U.S. government initiatives in Afghanistan, which are essential to advancing the United States national interest," he said in an e-mailed statement. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Thursday he knew of no effort under way to ban Xe Services from contracting with the military. Until then, the company would be legally allowed to submit a bid, he said. ...

The London conference on Afghanistan in January was a high-point for US special envoy Richard Holbrooke but AfPak diplomacy began crashing no sooner than the talking ended as Pakistan's capture of the Taliban's deputy leader stopped reconciliation with the US in its tracks. With Afghan President Hamid Karzai going his own way and Islamabad holding a trump card to deliver the Taliban to the negotiating table, the US's evolving policy is in a sorry state.

Natural law brings AfPak crashing
M K Bhadrakumar Asia Times Online Hong Kong Dateline March 6, 2010

Be it a baseball struck in a neighborhood sandlot game or in high-wire diplomacy, an elementary principle of physics holds good - what goes up must come down. In a way, the sheer dynamics of the nosedive of the United States' AfPak diplomacy in the four weeks since the London conference on Afghanistan on January 28 can be attributed to gravitational pulls. Earth's gravity does not permit animated suspension, and US's AfPak special representative Richard Holbrooke has found it difficult to keep up the entente cordiale worked out in the British capital. United States President Barack Obama may need to act faster than he would have thought. The US's AfPak special representative Richard Holbrooke has run into head wind almost simultaneously in four key capitals in and around the Hindu Kush - Islamabad, Kabul, Tehran and New Delhi. Holbrooke no doubt achieved spectacular success in London, by rushing an agenda of "reintegration" and reconciliation of the Afghan Taliban through the assembled gathering of statesmen. The gathering included such inveterate critics of the doctrine of the "good Taliban" as India, China and Russia. But Holbrooke kept the lot together. That was probably the finest hour of AfPak diplomacy.

But did he force the pace? No sooner had the crowd dispersed from London, than AfPak diplomacy began unraveling. First, Pakistan went ahead and "captured" the Taliban's deputy head Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. The funny thing is that Baradar was shaping up as a key interlocutor for AfPak diplomacy. The Mullah or his men were darting in and out of the Persian Gulf oasis towns having secret rendezvous with American envoys. Call it Track II or whatever, but a track was being cleared for the US's reconciliation with the Taliban's Quetta shura - its top leadership organ. Or, at least, that was how Washington assessed the situation. Of course, these goings on were completely in the know of Pakistan. But there was a crucial difference: they were not being conducted through Pakistani mediation. So, Pakistan just nabbed Baradar. The dilemma facing AfPak diplomacy today is: how do you negotiate when you don't have an interlocutor? A kind of recess is developing in the AfPak diplomatic calendar. Pakistan's message is straightforward: any negotiations with the Taliban ought to be conducted through the proper channel, namely, Pakistan's ISI. Actually, it is not too much to demand. Pakistan committed a great deal of resources to stop the Taliban disintegrating through some of their darkest days between 2001 and 2004. Islamabad cannot be expected to just roll over and let the Americans inherit the crown jewels ("strategic assets") when the hour of glory is nearing.

Witnessing the determination in Islamabad to lock the stable doors to prevent the studs from being stolen, Kabul seems to have followed suit. Afghan President Hamid Karzai went ahead with a decree "Afghanizing" the country's election commission. Curiously, Karzai acted unilaterally, just as Holbrooke was on a visit to Kabul. There is some dramatic irony insofar as Karzai intended his move with the primary purpose of preempting the sort of regime change that Hobrooke attempted during the last presidential elections. Karzai has decreed that the Afghan election commission shall henceforth have no more foreigners - that is to say, there is no more scope for the US to plant proxy agents who might dictate terms within the election supervisory body. The timing is interesting insofar as the Afghan parliamentary elections are due in August. Karzai expects insurgent groups to increase their participation in the elections to make the new parliament more representative. He has negotiated with the Taliban with this objective in mind. Karzai hopes to see the new parliament as an Afghan political base for himself that would insure against any US attempts to oust him. ...

From Kabul, Holbrooke apparently headed for his first ever tour of Central Asian capitals as "part of an accelerating intensification of our [AfPak] diplomatic outreach efforts". But Iranian reports have since interpreted that Holbrooke's real mission was to hold a clandestine meeting with the Jundullah terrorist leader Abdul Malik Rigi at the US airbase at Manas on the outskirts of the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek. Washington is studiously keeping mum at the Iranian allegation. But Tehran has followed up on the matter with Bishkek. The Kyrgyz ambassador in Tehran has been summoned to the foreign ministry and asked to explain how his country's government got mixed up with a notorious terrorist like Rigi. The story is still unfolding and there is no need to second-guess that if the Iranians chose to divulge so much already to the media, they must know a lot more. Rigi is presently undergoing interrogation at the hands of the Iranian authorities. If the Iranian media reports have any basis, AfPak diplomacy stands exposed as inept and ludicrous. The Iranians seem to have not only plucked Rigi out of the hands of his American mentors (which doesn't speak highly of the US intelligence capability) but it is all but certain that Pakistani intelligence may have directly or indirectly been privy to the Iranian operation. ...

Hey, Canada! With apologies to Country Joe:

Well, come on all of you, big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
He's got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Afghanistan
So put down your books and pick up a gun,
We're gonna have a whole lotta fun.

And it's one, two, three,
Is this what we are fighting for?