Bin Laden Show Part 04: President of Pakistan and China Against the Pakistani Military & Tribes

02 China, 02 Diplomacy, 03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Iran, 06 Russia, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Military
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Pakistan did its part

By Asif Ali Zardari, Monday, May 2

Although the events of Sunday were not a joint operation, a decade of cooperation and partnership between the United States and Pakistan led up to the elimination of Osama bin Laden as a continuing threat to the civilized world. And we in Pakistan take some satisfaction that our early assistance in identifying an al-Qaeda courier ultimately led to this day.

China carries Benazir Bhutto’s dream – by Antoaneta Becker

Zardari and Chinese leaders reportedly discussed investment opportunities in numerous sectors, including port development, hydropower, roads, railways, mining and others.

Among the projects discussed between Beijing and Islamabad is a proposed railway to link Kashgar to the southern Pakistan port of Gwadar. If realized, it would give China direct access to the Arabian Sea and provide an alternative route should a naval blockade cut oil supplies from the Middle East.

“All Chinese plans for gaining access to resource-rich Central Asia and building energy pipelines pass through Gilgit-Baltistan,” said Syed. “Gilgit, the northern areas capital, has acquired the status of gateway to Central Asia after Pakistan-China barter trade agreement and accords with Central Asian States.”

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Pakistan: Bhutto's shadow lingers as Zardari takes reins of power

Benazir's husband is voted in amid muted rejoicing, but army hostility and militant violence could threaten hopes for stability, reports Jason Burke

Phi Beta Iota: The Op Ed is “party line” stuff.  Not in the Op-Ed is the fact that China is the President's primary ally, and the military and the tribes do not like him.  Not in the Op Ed is China's enormous success across multiple fronts in Pakistan, including its ownership of the port of Gwadar, previously addressed here at Phi Beta Iota.  While the USA has been waging war, badly, without a strategy and without a return on investment in mind, China has been waging peace.  We are reminded of how Iran lured the US neoconservatives into Iraq.  In the absence of intelligence and integrity at the highest levels of the US Government, China wins, Russia ties, and US loses, across Central Asia, over the next decade.  Ultimately this region is about water and rare metals.  The region is not conquerable.  Brzezinski and his disciple Obama don't get that yet.  President Zardari is not the man his wife was (see our review of her book below).

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Continue reading “Bin Laden Show Part 04: President of Pakistan and China Against the Pakistani Military & Tribes”

Bin Laden Show Part 03: Fox News Take

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Military
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1.  Waterboarding produced the first “lead”–waterboarding is good, this is the silver bullet on waterboarding.

2.  Intelligence Community nailed it, over the years, and finally did this without Pakistani assistance to include surveilling the courier in what is the equivalent of a denied area.

3.  Bin Laden's presence so close to the military academy in Pakistan is proof positive of the duplicity of the Pakistani government and military, the time has come to “get tough” with them.

4.  Afghanistan is a much needed base from which to attack Pakistan, we need to do more of that.

Phi Beta Iota: We don't make this stuff up.  As skeptical as we are of everything coming out of the White House on this, mindful of the high probability that Bin Laden died years ago, if he does turn out to have been “cornered” in this villa, we are certain he was brought there, put there, by the Pakistanis, as a sitting duck, for the theater operation, with very specific quid pro quos vis a vis US withdrawal from Afghanistan.  CIA retirees (Robert Grenier) are now spinning on CNN that the Pakistanis were not aware of Bin Laden's being hidden 1.3 kilometers from the Pakistani military academy.  The furniture has been cleared out, the press is not allowed into the compound, and it will probably be refurbished and returned to its original owner, probably a senior Pakistani general who loaned it for the one act play.

See Also:

Obama on Bin Laden: “We Make It Up As We Go…”

White House Theater Part II: Basic Questions

Bin Laden Show Part 02: Basic Questions

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Military, Officers Call
Richard Wright

Rush to Judgment 2011 Style

President Obama’s May Day announcement that Osama bin Laden had been killed by U.S. Forces has been a cause of general rejoicing in the U.S. and, apparently, a good deal of backslapping among the National Security Establishment. Yet prudence would suggest that some caution might be in order until more information is available.

There are a number of questions about this event which really have not been asked or answered that would greatly assist in verifying the account given by the President:

  1. The courier: a false name for the preferred courier of bin Laden was extracted from detainees at Gitmo and later intelligence was able to discover his real name, yet how did intelligence know what this courier looked like? Also how was an American able to unobtrusively follow a courier daily in a small town like Abbotabad?  Why did nobody in the town notice the Americans conducting a six month surveillance of the compound in question?
  2. The faithful number two man:  Osama bin Laden supposedly routinely travels with his doctor and chief lieutenant Ayman al Zawahiri, where was he when the attack occurred?
  3. Proof by DNA: whose DNA was bin Laden’s compared to and where was the comparison test conducted?   I would add one note. In the case of Osama bin Laden (or any Arab for that matter) DNA matches are tricky. For example, bin Laden has 50 sibelings by the same father but different mothers so not all his sibelings would have the same DNA although it should be possible to determine 50 to 60 per cent matches with all, but only a few 80 to 99 per cent matches with only a few.
  4. Allowing for the sensitivity of this event in the Islamic World and the burial within 24 hours rule, bin Laden’s body should have been examined by a forensic pathologist to determine his medical condition at time of death. More to the point why burial at sea?
  5. When the President made his announcement, there already was a crowd of mostly young, mostly white demonstrators with hand held American flags in front of the White House Gates. Where did they come from and how did they know what the President was going to announce?

Having listened to John Brennan’s noon news conference this day (2 May) one can’t help but conclude this whole event was a put up job, possibly representing collusion between the U.S. and Pakistani Governments. Was this entire event a staged show to bolster this administration’s counter-terrorism credentials and open the way for quick exit from Afghanistan?

Phi Beta Iota: As with 9/11, we believe the Administration is engaged in impeachable activities that are not in the public interest.  There is absolutely ZERO evidence to back up the Administration's wild claims, and all common sense questions such as asked above cannot be answered by the Administration.  The “system” is corrupt;  we pray this is the final outrage that opens the eyes of the millions of naive US citizens that want to believe in America the Beautiful but cannot get a grip on just how evil neo-facsism can be.

See Also:

Obama on Bin Laden: “We Make It Up As We Go…”

Seth Godin: The Disney-Industrial Complex…

Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, IO Impotency
Seth Godin Home

Dreams, princesses and the Disney-industrial complex

“Like a dream come true”

Choose your dreams carefully.

Everyone is entitled to a dream. It gives us hope, focuses our energy, makes us human.

Sometimes, though, we get sold a dream instead of creating our own.

Is it really every girl's dream to become a princess, to be chosen by someone of royal birth and to have a $34 million wedding? Or is that the Disney-industrial complex betraying you, selling you short?

I just read that the folks who brought us the Mall of America are going to redo the troubled Xanadu shopping complex in New Jersey and rename it The American Dream. Is this the best we can do? Shop?

Dreams are too important to sell cheap, to give over to some organization trying to make a buck.

Catherine Casey chose a different dream–to move to Accra on her own to build an outpost of the Acumen Fund. It's a dream that scales, that pays dividends, and most of all, that she can make come true.

It's so easy to be sold on the combination of compliance, consumption and approval by the powers that be. Of course, you're entitled to any dream you like, but I hope you will choose a bigger one.

Pakistan Rules in Afghanistan–Petraeus Who?

02 Diplomacy, 03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, History, Intelligence (government), IO Impotency, Methods & Process, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Waste (materials, food, etc)
DefDog Recommends....

I'm told this story is in every newspaper and on television in Afghanistan.  Most Afghans believe it to be true.  Basically, in spite of the Administration's posturing, Pakistan would become the governing power in Afghanistan…..The Administration's statements show a clear lack of understanding about this region….

Pakistan Tells Afghanistan: Expel the Americans

ByAhmad K. MajidyarNational Review Online

Thursday, April 28, 2011

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Pakistan's leaders “bluntly” told Afghanistan's president “to forget about allowing a long-term U.S. military presence in his country,” and urged him instead “to look to Pakistan–and its Chinese ally–for help in striking a peace deal with the Taliban and rebuilding the economy.” According to Afghan officials, at an April 16 meeting in Kabul in which the leaders of Pakistan's military and intelligence also participated, Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told Pres. Hamid Karzai that “the Americans had failed them both,” and that it was time for Kabul to choose “alternative allies.” The Pakistani delegation also outlined a number of demands to the Afghan leader. Afghanpaper.com, quoting an unnamed Afghan official, lists Pakistan's demands as:

Read full article….

Continue reading “Pakistan Rules in Afghanistan–Petraeus Who?”

De-Programming the “American Hologram”

07 Other Atrocities, Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), IO Impotency, Policies, Reform
Jock Gill

It is not about politics.  It is about the “American Hologram”, as Joe Bageant calls it:

“All Americans, regardless of caste, live in a culture woven of self-referential illusions. Like a holographic simulation, each part refers exclusively back to the whole, and the whole refers exclusively back to the parts. All else is excluded by this simulated reality.”

The Great American Media Mind Warp: A Feast of Bullshit and Spectacle

Of course Joe, who died recently, is pretty far out there.  But his notion of the Hologram, which has become almost sacred in some parts of our culture, is pretty accurate.  Compare and contrast, for example, main stream media with Rachel Maddow.  She reports, I am told, on the negative receptions GOP members get at their so called town hall meetings.  But the MSM?  Or look at Wikileaks on Gitmo vs the MSM on Gitmo.  Or look at the failure of the MSM to link the decline of the dollar to the price of gasoline.

So what we need is a counter-narrative that strips the current hologram of its power to delude and anesthetize. IE, until we see through the hologram and realize it is naked, as it were, we are not going to get much meaningful change.  Change is not what the powers that be want, which of course is why they promote consumption, celebrity and entertainment over all.  A nation of zombies, who don't even know they are being duped, is what they want.

This is not rocket science and is well known, but so far no one has been able to articulate a sufficiently compelling alternative narrative.

See Also:

Massimo Pigliucci on Ignorance Today

AMERICA: Y UR PEEPS B SO DUM? Ignorance and courage in the age of Lady Gaga

Journal: USA Theater of Politics Adds a Side Show

Review: Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle

2008 ELECTION 2008: Lipstick on the Pig

Reference: Dr. Joseph Tainter, Seven YouTube Segments on “Why Societies Collapse and What It Means to Us”

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, InfoOps (IO), IO Impotency, Methods & Process, Officers Call, Policies, Policy, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Real Time, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Serious Games, Strategy, Threats, YouTube
Dr. Joseph Tainter

Utah State University. Professor in the Department of Environment & Society, (Social conflict in environmental issues, human responses to climate change and environmental degradation, human uses of energy and resources).

“We Need An Adult Conversation–Our Political System is Dysfunctional”

See Also:

Review: The Collapse of Complex Societies

Worth a Look: Book Review Lists (Positive)

Worth a Look: Book Review Lists (Negative)

Wikipedia Joseph Tainter

FEATURED (2010):

Collapse of Complex Societies by Dr. Joseph Tainter (1 of 7)

Collapse of Complex Societies by Dr. Joseph Tainter (2 of 7)

Collapse of Complex Societies by Dr. Joseph Tainter (3 of 7)

Collapse of Complex Societies by Dr. Joseph Tainter (4 of 7)

Collapse of Complex Societies by Dr. Joseph Tainter (5 of 7) (Conclusions)

Collapse of Complex Societies by Dr. Joseph Tainter (6 of 7) (Q&A)

Collapse of Complex Societies by Dr. Joseph Tainter (7 of 7) (Q&A)

Tip of the Hat to newculture at YouTube for gifted uploads.

Found and recommended by Contributing Editor Lucius.

Phi Beta Iota: There are no challenges that cannot be addressed with a combination of collective intelligence and individual integrity.  Infinite free energy, and the eradication of waste across all industries, are immediately achievable if (big if) the public will reengage in its own governance.

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