Fifty Years of US Targeted ‘Kill Lists’: From the Phoenix Program to Predator Drones
by DOUG NOBLE
“A broad-gauged program of targeted assassination has now displaced counterinsurgency as the prevailing expression of the American way of war.”
–Andrew Bacevich [1]
Counterpunch, 19 July 2012
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EXTRACT:
In fact, US assassination and targeted killing, with presidential approval, has been going on covertly for at least half a century. Ironically, all this drone killing now offers us a new opportunity: to pry open the Pandora’s box hiding long-held secrets of covert US assassination and targeted killing, and to expose them to the light of day. What we would find is that the only things new in the latest, more publicized revelations about kill lists and assassinations are the use of drones, the president’s hands-on approach in vetting targets, and the global scope of the drone killing.
Sustaining the construction and dynamic of psychosocial reality through questioning
EXTRACT:
In a period in which security concerns have given a special sense to exclusive acquisition of “intelligence” on a global scale, there is a case for exploring the implications of other understandings of intelligence in a global knowledge-based society. What of distributed intelligence, collective intelligence, self-reflective intelligence and the nature of indwelling intelligence — as a complement to corresponding forms of ignorance?
On Sunday, July 15th, longtime Washington DC attorney and natural health advocate, Jim Turner, joined me for an inspiring conversation on what he calls the “innate intelligence of the body politic.”
It was unlike any of my previous dialogs, focusing (on the surface) not on spirituality and consciousness but on the practical matters of bringing holistic principles to bear on Washington, DC political processes, the kinds of issues we hear about on the news.
Terry Patten
But Jim approached these issues from a very different perspective, and I left my conversation with him with an unexpected sense of uplift and inspiration. I highly recommend you download the dialog if you haven’t listened already!
Our conversation began with Jim describing the importance of and inspiring possibilities for transpartisanship in American politics, and then he explained the vision of the political organization he is now leading, Voice for HOPE (Healers of Planet Earth).
America’s leading Health and Nutrition Expert
Alternative Medicine and Natural Healing Advocate
Award-Winning Talk Radio Host, Documentary Filmmaker & Investigative Reporter
Time magazine called him “The New Mr. Natural.” My Generation magazine dubbed him one of the top-four health gurus in the United States. For over three decades, Gary Null has been one of the foremost advocates of alternative medicine and natural healing.
An award-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author, Dr. Null has over 70 books on nutrition, self-empowerment and public health issues, including his most recent, Power Aging. His syndicated public radio show, Natural Living with Gary Null, earned eight Silver Microphone Awards and was the longest-running, continuously aired health program in America (27 years). Currently The Gary Null Show can be heard on the number one Internet talk radio show VoiceAmerica (www.voice.voiceamerica.com) from 12 noon to 1 p.m.EST. Null also broadcasts on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays on WPFW (89.3 FM) from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m EST in Washington D.C. The Gary Null Show is on WWRL (1600 AM) from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in New York. In addition, he can be heard in Los Angeles on Something’s Happening with Roy of Hollywood on KPFK (90.7 FM) from 12 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. PST. Lastly, Dr. Null can be heard on Sunday evenings on the Health Radio Network in New York.
His listeners are progressives – politically very independent and don’t identify with Democrats or Republicans, but most would lean a bit towards being liberals but greatly disdaining orthodox liberals and liberal Democrats. Again, very independent thinkers, ranging from college kids to elderly former 1960’s former radicals and former hippies now retiring, and all kinds of people. It’s a wonderful audience though, comprised of people who are very decent, intelligent, well-read, well-educated, and crave integrity and truth. BTW, his father was a policeman. He grew up in Parkersburg, West Virginia.
Jamie Drummond, Executive Director and Global Strategy for ONE, delivers a TED talk focused on the much-debated issue of the Millennium Development Goals. More specifically, he discusses what is to come after 2015 and how the new goals will be determined.
“As we gather here in Edinburgh, technocrats appointed by the UN and certain governments, with the best intentions, are busying themselves designing a new package of goals. And currently they are doing that through pretty much the same old late-20th century, top down, elite, closed process.”
What’s exciting is that, unlike in 2000 when the first goals were agreed, internet and mobile phones have spread all around the world. People are more connected than ever. So, I’d like to explore how we could use this technology to involve people from around the world in co-designing an historic first: the world’s first ever truly global poll and consultation on “What the World Wants”. Let’s crowd-source the new Millennium Development Goals. I believe that through this crowd-sourcing we won’t just improve the quality of the goals, we will also increase the quality of support for getting the goals done.
In the talk, he lays out the three steps to move the new agenda forward.
The article about the Libor scandal, coauthored with Nomi Prins, received much attention, with Internet repostings, foreign translation, and video interviews. To further clarify the situation, this article brings to the forefront implications that might not be obvious to those without insider experience and knowledge.
EXTRACT:
Does this mean that the US and UK financial systems can only be kept afloat by fraud that harms purchasers of interest rate swaps, which include municipalities advised by sellers of interest rate swaps, and those with saving accounts?
The answer is yes, but the Libor scandal is only a small part of the interest rate rigging scandal. The Federal Reserve itself has been rigging interest rates. How else could debt issued in profusion be bearing negative interest rates?
As villainous as they might be, Barclays bank chief executive Bob Diamond, Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan, and Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs are not the main villains. The main villains are former Treasury Secretary and Goldman Sachs chairman Robert Rubin, who pushed Congress for the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, and the sponsors of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley bill, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act. Glass-Steagall was put in place in 1933 in order to prevent the kind of financial excesses that produced the current ongoing financial crisis.
CONCLUSION:
To sum up, what has happened is that irresponsible and thoughtless–in fact, ideological–deregulation of the financial sector has caused a financial crisis that can only be managed by fraud. Civil damages might be paid, but to halt the fraud itself would mean the collapse of the financial system. Those in charge of the system would prefer the collapse to come from outside, such as from a collapse in the value of the dollar that could be blamed on foreigners, because an outside cause gives them something to blame other than themselves.
