E-mails released Monday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the environmental group Friends of the Earth paint a picture of a sometimes warm and collaborative relationship between the lobbyist for the pipeline company, Trans-Canada, and officials in the State Department, the agency responsible for evaluating and approving the billion-dollar project.
In a stunning conflict of interest, public hearings on federal approval for a proposed tar-sands pipeline are being run by a contractor for the pipeline company itself. The U.S. Department of State's public hearings along the proposed route of the TransCanada Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline this week are under the purview of Cardno Entrix, a “professional environmental consulting company” that specializes in “permitting and compliance.”
by PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS, Counterpunch, 4 October 2011
September 30, 2011 was the day America was assassinated.
Some of us have watched this day approach and have warned of its coming, only to be greeted with boos and hisses from “patriots” who have come to regard the US Constitution as a device that coddles criminals and terrorists and gets in the way of the President who needs to act to keep us safe.
In our book, The Tyranny of Good Intentions, Lawrence Stratton and I showed that long before 9/11 US law had ceased to be a shield of the people and had been turned into a weapon in the hands of the government. The event known as 9/11 was used to raise the executive branch above the law. As long as the President sanctions an illegal act, executive branch employees are no longer accountable to the law that prohibits the illegal act. On the president’s authority, the executive branch can violate US laws against spying on Americans without warrants, indefinite detention, and torture and suffer no consequences.
Phi Beta Iota: Every single major flaw in the US Government can be connected to the corruption that is made possible by a two-party tyranny divorced from reality and accountable to none. Electoral Reform is the singular demand of OccupyWallStreet movement, and with good reason. It is the “one thing” that can cleanse the government and restore the integrity of the Republic.
CORRUPTION is the common enemy, both in government and in the private sector.
The Russians over-hyped the headline, but otherwise did a superb job of cutting to the chase and presenting a short live (no edits) interview and a compelling transcript.
Fury over corporate power in the US is spreading from New York across the country. Thousands have joined the ‘Occupy Wall Street' movement, angered by the economic slump that may lead to a revolution in the country.
Robert David Steele, political analyst and former intelligence officer, told RT the US right now is much more desperate than people realize.
“We have 22 per cent unemployment and on our way to 30 per cent. We are 16 per cent below the poverty line and on our way to 30 per cent. There is no question in my mind that this is going to be a very dark winter in the United States,” he stated. “Unless the government restores its own integrity and starts paying attention to the public interest rather than to the special interests, I believe that we will have a form of revolution, initially non-violent, but with the potential to become violent,” he added.
Despite the fact that “Occupy Wall Street” protesters have raised everything from lack of jobs to global warming, there is a common cause uniting the activists, Steele believes.
“These are not stupid people. They are very smart and they understand that at root this is about corruption in government and corruption on Wall Street,” he explained. “And until you have electoral reform, you cannot restore the integrity of US government. So there is a common cause, but it is voiced in many different ways,” he maintained.
The protest started out peacefully, but now it is the third week and more than 700 people have been arrested on Brooklyn Bridge. And according to Steele, the NYC police have on the one hand been very well-managed and on the other hand have gotten out of control at lower levels.
“My personal hope is that the general non-violent strike will be used to force the issue of electoral reform,” he concluded.
Core Proposed Program for Occupy Wall Street (Across the Nation):
CORRUPTION is the common enemy, both in government and in the private sector.
This type of protest has been very effective over the last year in toppling regimes in north Africa. It's proving relatively successful in the US too.
Open source protest is an organizational technique. Probably the only organizational technique that can assemble a massive crowd in today's multiplexed environment. Essential rules of open source protest include:
A promise. A simple goal/idea that nearly everyone can get behind. Adbusters did pretty good with “occupy wall street.” Why? Nearly everyone hates the pervasive corruption of banks and Wall Street. It's an easy target.
A plausible promise. Prove that the promise can work. They did. They actually occupied Wall Street and set up camp. They then got the message out.
A big tent and an open invitation. It doesn't matter what your reason for protesting is as long as you hate/dislike Wall Street. The big tent is already in place (notice the diversity of the signage). Saw something similar from the Tea Party before it was mainstreamed/diminished.
Let everyone innovate. Don't create a leadership group. The general assembly approach appears to work.
Support anyone in a leadership role that either a) grows the movement or b) advances the movement closer to its goal. Oppose (ignore) anybody that proposes a larger, more complex agenda or those that claim ownership over the movement.
If a new technique works, document it, use it again, and share it with everyone else. Copy everything that works.
Spread the word of the movement as widely as possible.
That's the gist of it.
What's the real goal of this protest? Frankly, it's probably a recognition that the center of power in the US doesn't reside in Washington anymore. It's on Wall Street. This protest dispenses with the middle men (the US government) and goes straight after the real power.
My guess is that the Adbuster team that launched this open source protest felt that an October financial meltdown was possible, hence the September start-date. If the meltdown does occur, this movement is going to go global, just at the moment when the banks are going to be at their most vulnerable. Regardless, this effort is going to set the groundwork for a fast launch in the future when the next financial meltdown occurs.
What's the big picture? Global guerrillas are getting better at building open source protests. We are going to see more and they are likely to become a prominent feature of the geopolitical landscape. It will also be interesting to see if open source protests could end up taking down a Too Big To Fail bank (i.e. Goldman) or a US President in the next 5 years. That would be very cool to see.
Phi Beta Iota: Goldman Sachs could be destroyed by liquidation in the face of government claims starting with Greece. All evidence points to the high likelihood that Goldman Sachs as an institution, and its partner-owners, will be bankrupted by legitimate documented claims. What the OccupyWallStreet movement can do is bring down the two-party tyranny and restore integrity to the US electoral system. As we have been saying for some time, there is nothing wrong with America that cannot be fixed quickly by restoring the integrity of the electoral system, and hence of the government. This is what we see when we look at Day of Rage and OccupyWallStreet:
CORRUPTION is the common enemy, both in government and in the private sector.
Interview with Jonathan Fryer, broadcaster and journalist
American Awakening?
As many political analysts believe recent revolts in the US and Europe against the ruling economic systems are part of a global movement, some other observers argue that the uprisings simply seek personal demands.
Phi Beta Iota: Excellent lead-in video, video interview with three figures, focus on global banking system optimized to fraudulently confiscate wealth. Transcript also included.
Further Note: The well-intentioned mobs are falling apart for lack of a narrative and organization scheme. They need to get a grip, to include having articulate spokespersons to counter the Wall Street narrative now playing out, that they are spoiled mis-behaving children who will go away once it gets cold.
CORRUPTION is the common enemy, both in government and in the private sector.
According to a spokesman of the Libyan National Transitional Council Qadhafi is believed to be holed up near the western town of Ghadamis near the Algerian border under the protection of Tuareg tribesmen. Qadhafi supported Tuareg rebellions against the governments of Mali and Niger in the 1970s and allowed them to settle in Libya.
The Algerian Foreign Minister announced last week that his country was ready to work closely with the new Libyan authorities, adding that Algeria would eventually recognise the National Transitional Council.
We circulate below an article published by Al Jazeera which attempts to consider the many and confusing factors which influence developments in the Sahara including the position of Niger, Chad and Mali as well as Algeria and Libya, the Tuareg and other Saharan people, al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), American pursuit of the “global war on terror” GWOT, and most recently the possibility that Qadhafi or his supporters will continue disruptive activity after their defeat in Libya itself. The author is a professor of social anthropology at the London School of Oriental and African Studies who seems to be the only analyst of the area writing in English.
Libya's uprising is causing turmoil in amid its neighbours and speculation of a Tuareg rebellion has emerged.
Jeremy Keenan
Aljazeera, 28 Sep 2011
EXTRACT:
Prior to the start of Libya's revolution in February, the Sahelian regions of Niger and Mali had already suffered eight years of increasing political instability and insecurity. The reasons for this are complex:
First, having partially recovered from the Tuareg rebellions of the 1990s, the rulers of both Niger and Mali became willing, pliant and corrupt partners in the global war on terror (GWOT). This transformation occured following the complicity between the US and Algeria's mukhabarat [security services] and the Departement du Renseignement et de la Securite [DRS – Department of Intelligence and Security] in fabricating terrorism in the region in order to justify the launch of the 2003 second front in the GWOT in the Sahel/Sahara. That alone brought an almost instant decimation of the predominantly Tuareg tourist industry and an annual loss of an estimated $50m.
Another factor contributing to instability in the region occured in 2005, following the political provocation of the Tuareg by the Niger government. This led to a short-lived rebellion, while in May 2006 the US and Algeria's DRS orchestrated a Tuareg rebellion in northeastern Mali. This was followed, four to five months later, by two contrived “terrorist” engagements designed to facilitate the name change of Algeria's GSPC into al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its “insertion” into the Sahel.
Follow the Online Trading of Greek & other EU PIIGS CDS Bankruptcy Defaults. Discover how all EU PIIGS Govt Bond Spreads, Interest Rates & Govt Lending Programs are daily Manipulated
Submit your Complaint, attaching any Document or other Proof of Fraud.
Bank Docs, Receipts, Greek Bonds Buy/Sell Orders & Order Forms, Short Selling Proof Docs, Transactions & Settlements Information & Docs, CDS Contracts, Agreements, Banks, Companies, Investment & Hedge Funds details, Speculators, Accomplices & Partners details, Greek Partners, Intermediaries & Govt Officers details, Corruption Proofs, Articles, Blogs, etc.
SPANISH CRIMINAL CHARGE AGAINST RATING AGENCIES : A dozen Spanish Layers, represented by Gonzalo Boye, following to our lawsuit, charged with criminal fraud the US Rating Agencies Moody's, Standard & Poors and Fitch Ratings.
Phi Beta Iota: We anticipate the eventual eradication of Goldman Sachs particularly, and the New York banks generally. Governments and the public are beginning to recognize the possibilities of mass legal action and the value of both the re-nationalization of property and the confiscation of third-country assets acquired by Goldman Sachs as a result of its fraud.
