The US expectation that the Taliban would learn to live with the American occupation in their lust for power in Kabul is far-fetched and can only be seen as wishful thinking.
. . . . . .
Equally, the ‘hidden agenda’ of the US invasion of Afghanistan can no longer be disowned. Quite obviously, the US intends to plunge into the ‘great game’ in Central Asia.
Phi Beta Iota: This is absolutely worth a complete read. The US is, as the author suggests, delusional in thinking the Taliban is going to put up with a US presence beyond this winter. The US has sentenced Karzai to death, and may well lose another 1,000 troops to body bags before the public has its “Tet Offensive” wake-up. There is nothing in Central Asia worth blood, spirit, and treasure–what is there is vastly over-stated in relation to what could be gained by refocusing on rebuilding America from inside out. This is a study in corruption across the legislative and executive branches of the US Government.
NEW DELHI—Last fall, a group of leading anticorruption activists in India had reached a dead end. Their appeals to authorities to crack down on graft after a wave of high-profile scandals were going unheeded. They needed a figurehead to galvanize the masses and shame the government into action.
One of the activists traveled to a rural outpost in western India to enlist Kisan “Anna” Hazare, a military veteran best known for turning a village that was stricken by drought and hooked on alcohol into a model of economic development. In Mr. Hazare, the movement tapped a leader whose austere lifestyle and history of nonviolent protests, including fasts, recalled the spirit and tactics of modern India's most iconic founding father, Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi.
In the ensuing months, Mr. Hazare has achieved much of what his backers hoped, harnessing Indians' rage and disgust over corruption to create an unprecedented standoff between civil society and the government.
This PressTV bit with me was recorded at 2:30 pm New York time yesterday (22 Aug 2011). At that time, I questioned the veracity of the claimed capture of Gadaffi's sons and of rebel control of the city of Tripoli. It turns out I was right.
No, I don't have a crystal ball – just good contacts on the ground who don't lie or hold their tongues when they see horrible wrong being done. NATO – that's Obama to the apologists – has done everything to keep this information from you, but the truth will out!
Phi Beta Iota: US Information Operations (IO) includes Pyschological Operations (PSYOP, now under a new name, same mindset, which is to deceive rather than to promulgate the truth). It has improved since its signal success in sending Iraqi troops home rather than having to deal with their surrender. What we are seeing in relation to Libya, apart from the impeachable crimes of pilots, generals, Congress, and the White House, is a major IO/PSYOP campaign that is driven by Wall Street and Big Oil, not by the public interest. Interestingly, this is also the first time that the truth is being crowd-sourced in a moderately effective manner, suggesting that in the future any IO/PSYOP campaign that is less than truthful will be outed in quick time.
Phi Beta Iota: The respective press–those trapped in a hotel in Tripoli and those embedded with the rebels–are seeing only what they are allowed to see. Apart from Patrick Meier, Arno Reuser and a few others, no one is actually putting together “ground truth” based on widely scatted Twitter and other forms of communication. The West sees Libya as oil, water, and gold. The Africa Union has failed to see the urgency of protecting its interest in all three.
Most of what has been coming through the Total Information Dominance machinery about the situation in Tripoli – and Libya proper – is untrue. The situation there is very bad for the people, that much is true. But not only is the battle not with an indigenous rebellion – it is, rather, with a NATO expeditionary force comprised mainly of Qatari and other troops and irregulars under local Qatari regular command and coordinate with NATO proper.
Most reporting is being done from inside or near the journalists' hotels. Outside the primary location, snipers have fired at – and in one case, shot – non-mainstream journalists. Only those who are embedded with the invaders have been permitted to shoot outdoors, while the Libyan media has had its power cut off and is thus off the air.
You must recall that only this past Friday, we were told in full spectrum broadcast that Gadhaffi had left with his family for Tunisia. As it turns out, that was untrue.
Here's what I was told by some of the journalists stuck in the hotel who have been able to call around the city to the many residents they know personally:
The invaders have been largely turned back. They arrived under severe aerial attacks across the city, including strafing of civilians intended to clear the streets for the invasion. They were supplemented with troop landings from NATO naval vessels in the port. This was apparently the source of many of the Qatari personnel.
The invaders have been routed in many sectors, and, in fact, most of the city is calm with the exception of aerial activity.
What is needed right now is not despair on our part, but the dissemination of information, which NATO has decided is the most important battleground. Please visit my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/don.debar for a long string of information that needs to be shared with everyone you know – especially those in, or in contact with people in, Libya.
EW YORK (CNNMoney) — Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has retained the services of prominent defense attorney Reid Weingarten.
Investors did not take the news well. Goldman shares plunged in the final minutes of trading, following a report published late Monday by Reuters. Shares dropped almost 5% to $106.51 — a fresh 52-week low. The stock lost another 1.5% in trading after the close.
Weingarten, an attorney at Steptoe & Johnson, is one of the nation's premier white-collar crime attorneys. He represented WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers and former Enron accountant Richard Cause, among others.
In a SPIEGEL interview, Mikhail Gorbachev, 80, discusses the last days of the Soviet Union, his failure to resolve problems with the Communist Party and the ensuing bloodshed he says still troubles him today. He also accuses Vladimir Putin of pulling the country “back into the past.”
My colleague Robert Soden was absolutely right: Tomnod is definitely iRevolution material. This is why I reached out to the group a few days ago to explore the possibility of using their technology to crowdsource the analysis of satellite imagery for Somalia. You can read more about that project here. In this blog post, however, is to highlight the amazing work they’ve been doing with National Geographic in search of Genghis Khan’s tomb.
