The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Phi Beta Iota: With a tip of the hat to Marcus Aurelius, this document is provided for information. On balance it is rich with insights that are not available elsewhere and consequently must be very highly regarded as a baseline for where US intelligence reform (and US intelligence) are today: dead, with a $75 billion a year casket that shows no signs of atrophy. Below are summary extracts both positive and negative.
Continue reading “Reference: Intelligence Reform Death Notice”
The Iran Threat in the Age of Real-Axis-of-Evil Expansion
by Edward S. Herman and David Peterson
It is intriguing to see how whoever the United States and Israel find interfering with their imperial or dispossession plans is quickly demonized and becomes a threat and target for that Real-Axis-of-Evil (RAE), and hence their NATO allies and, with less intensity, much of the rest of the “international community” (IC, meaning ruling elites, not ordinary citizens). If and when the need arises, any bit of news that is damaging to the targeted state will be fed into the demonization process — and in the marvelous propaganda system of the West, the grossest distortions will be swallowed and regurgitated without much guilt or apology, even upon the exposure of exceptional gullibility and dishonesty. The dishonesty, gullibility, double standard, and hypocrisy are handled with an aplomb that Pravda and Izvestia could never muster in the Soviet era.
. . . . . . .
Edward S. Herman is professor emeritus of finance at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and has written extensively on economics, political economy, and the media. Among his books are Corporate Control, Corporate Power (Cambridge University Press, 1981), The Real Terror Network (South End Press, 1982), and, with Noam Chomsky, The Political Economy of Human Rights (South End Press, 1979), and Manufacturing Consent (Pantheon, 2002). David Peterson is an independent journalist and researcher based in Chicago
Phi Beta Iota: See the table at the Monthly Review Zine to truly appreciate the spectacular relevance of the total commentary by the lead author who with Noam Chomsky was a half-century ahead of the pack in understanding how Potemkin Democracy might be foisted on a deliberately disengaged public.
It’s thought a single pillow killed a Hamas operative in Dubai this January. Yet this astonishing spy story involved 27 secret agents, some pilfered European passports and countless security cameras.
On January the 19th, an unremarkable parade of foreigners passed through Dubai’s cosmopolitan airport, strode from one CCTV camera to another, and then assassinated Palestinian resistance fighter Mahmoud Mabhouh in his hotel room. For Mossad – the Israeli Intelligence agency thought to be behind it all – the operation was a success. Yet the maelstrom of ugly consequences for the agency, Israel, and the hapless citizens whose passport details were used, have left many baffled. “To describe this as anything other than a fiasco, I don’t see how you can do it”, says former CIA agent, Robert Baer, “why would you sacrifice 27 people?”. Israel’s iron-fisted approach is embedded in its history as a state, constantly defending its survival. There is some speculation that Israelis with dual citizenship may even have agreed for their passport details to be used. “The Israelis want to seem to be invulnerable”, says Baer, “you kill us we kill you – we don’t get caught, and there’s no international condemnation”. Whether or not the killers are to be called to account, a death squad has had its cover blown and a legendary spy agency has been all but outed.
ABC Australia
On Distant Battlefields, Survival Odds Rise Sharply
Every war brings medical innovations, as horrific injuries force surgeons to come up with new ways to save lives. During the Civil War, doctors learned better ways to amputate limbs, and in World War I they developed the typhoid vaccine. World War II brought the mass use of penicillin, Korea and Vietnam the development of medical evacuation by helicopter.
The lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan, medical experts say, are still emerging. One legacy is new ways to control bleeding before soldiers lapse into comas or their vital organs shut down. Thanks to new clotting agents, blood products and advanced medical procedures performed closer to the battlefield, wounded American soldiers are now surviving at a greater rate than in any previous war fought by the U.S.
The rising survival rate, now touching 95% for those who live long enough to get medical treatment, is in turn introducing new problems caring for patients with serious and chronic injuries, including multiple amputations and brain damage. The cost of treating such lasting injuries will be borne by the U.S. medical system for decades to come.
Continue reading “Journal: Military Medicine Up, Military Strategy Not…”
Guardians of the Free Republics' letters to governors spur inquiry
At least 30 governors have received the group's demand that they cede office in three days. Federal officials say they're investigating whether the message might be considered a threat.
Reporting from Washington – Governors across the country have received letters from a quasi-religious, anti-government group ordering them to step down from office in three days, in what the group's website said was the first step to disband parts of the U.S. government.
Homeland Security Department and FBI officials said Friday that there didn't appear to be an immediate threat, and they were investigating whether the message could be considered dangerous.
The Guardians of the Free Republics describes its plan as a nonviolent and legal attempt to “restore the true Republic.”
Thursday, April 01, 2010
AltNews3 http://alcuinbramerton.blogspot.com/
CMKM Diamonds was used by the US government as part of a covert sting operation – unbeknown to shareholders – to apprehend criminals for their offences. However, instead of prosecuting most of them, restitution deals were cut. CMKM was registered as a publicly traded diamond and gold mining company. By 2005, concrete evidence detailing fraud within the company emerged. CMKM sold hundreds of billions of unregistered shares (naked short selling) to third parties. One official estimate cites two trillion phantom shares and 40,000 shareholders as being involved. Eventually, the US Securities and Exchange Commission moved to delist CMKM stock, whose value never exceeded one penny per share. After several administrative proceedings, CMKM Diamonds stock was ultimately deregistered in October 2005. The legal status of a meeting held in Las Vegas and chaired by Robert A. Maheu is being questioned. In exchange for a US Government promise of no prosecution for phantom share sales in CMKM Diamonds, brokers, dealers, market makers and hedge fund managers promised to pay negotiated amounts to a frozen trust for disbursal at a later time. What happened to these trust monies is not clear. Robert A. Maheu was heart-attacked out in Las Vegas on Monday 4th August 2008, and died aged 90. The Central District of California Court document (08.01.10 – Case Number CV10-00031-JVS [MLGX]) can be viewed heere. Deep background here (31.03.10), here (02.03.12), here (29.01.10) and here (09.01.10). And more about Bivens Actions (Constitutional Torts) can be found here.
An excellent summary of the ongoing dispute over Global Warming. Chuck.
Climate Catastrophe:A Superstorm for Global Warming Research
By Marco Evers, Olaf Stampf and Gerald Traufetter
Der Spiegel 1 April 2010
Plagued by reports of sloppy work, falsifications and exaggerations, climate research is facing a crisis of confidence. How reliable are the predictions about global warming and its consequences? And would it really be the end of the world if temperatures rose by more than the much-quoted limit of two degrees Celsius?
… are they ready for the Rubber Room or Both? My guess is the answer is “both.” But read the attached article by Jonathan Cook and judge for yourself. One thing that is becoming clear, however: Global Warming can be used as a canonical fear to justify just about anything — from Obama's plan to resurrect the nuclear power industry (while at the same time, he punts on the nuc waste issue by caving into political pressure to close the Yucca Mountain waste depository, after spending $17 billion since the 1980s) to Israel's crackpot plan to win the so-called war on terror by impoverishing the petro-states via the weaning the industrial world off hydrocarbons (see below). If you want to get a realistic idea of the size of the energy numbers as well as the socio-economic implications of the policy transformations implied by displacing the West's reliance on hydrocarbons, I urge you read my good friend Robert Bryce's important new book, Power Hungry: The Myths of Green Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future, Public Affairs Press, April 2010. You do not have to agree with his specific recommendations to accept the value of his important work.
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