Another misstep by the IC…..Zawahiri has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, the same group that has brought you the “Arab Spring”, Washington's perception of a move toward democracy…..
Zawahiri's goal has always been to overtake AQ (hence the belief he was responsible for Azam's death) and make it a weapon of the Islamic Jihad. If true, and the Arab Spring is tied to the Brotherhood, then giving up UBL is another step of the ladder. He was no longer needed.
Now that Ayman Zawahiri has assumed leadership of al-Qaeda, it is important to end the widespread perception that he is a dour intellectual who is disconnected from young, would-be jihadists. The fact is, Zawahiri is a wily, dangerous and imposing leader who should be considered no less of a threat — and perhaps even more so — than his predecessor.
Each week, on a Friday, Alexander Cockburn publishes a weekly diary in the weekend edition of Counterpunch, which he co-edits with Jeffrey St. Claire. Last week’s diary included a particularly important entry that expands on earlier CP essay analyzing the possibility of increased infant deaths in the western US resulting from the poisons spewed out by the multiple meltdowns in the Fukushima nuclear power facility in Japan.
Cockburn enlisted Pierre Sprey, a recognized expert in the proper use of nonparametric statistics to extract unbiased information out limited but important data samples, to examine the data/analysis in the original CP essay and to expand or critique the analysis, if possible. (caveat: Pierre is a close friend of mine)
Attached below is Cockburn’s summary of Pierre’s findings … it makes for very important reading for two reasons: it is a good discussion of the limits implicit in in quality statistical analysis, and it is a sobering discussion of a danger that has receded from the public consciousness.
Last weekend on this site we ran a piece by Dr. Janet Sherman and Joseph Mangano, reviewing some recent figures from the Center for Disease Control: here's how they interpreted the data in the context of the disaster at Fukushima on March 11, 2011:
“The recent CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report indicates that eight cities in the northwest U.S. (Boise ID, Seattle WA, Portland OR, plus the northern California cities of Santa Cruz, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, and Berkeley) reported the following data on deaths among those younger than one year of age:
“4 weeks ending March 19, 2011 – 37 deaths (avg. 9.25 per week)
10 weeks ending May 28, 2011 – 125 deaths (avg.12.50 per week).
“This amounts to an increase of 35 per cent (the total for the entire U.S. rose about 2.3 per cent ), and is statistically significant. Of further significance is that those dates include the four weeks before and the ten weeks after the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster…
The CIA base in the Persian Gulf came up in several conversations over the week-end, along with the “nominal” subordination or transfer of JSOG to the CIA.
This is clearly an Executive move to sidestep the War Powers Act.
This means that the military-industrial complex is in charge of our “national security” apparatus and policy, we now have four wars, and we are certain to have seven in the near term, adding Somalia, Yemen, and Iran as well as Syria while scuttling out of Afghanistan.
Phi Beta Iota: Dr. Robert Gates spent the week-end telling obvious lies and strong mischaracterizations about every topic he addressed. The US Executive is out of control and detrimental to the Constitutional health of the Republic. Impeachment is called for now–and could explain the timing of Gates/ departure.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is expanding its shadowy battle against militants in Yemen, including a planned new CIA base nearby in the Persian Gulf, in an attempt to stop a lethal branch of al-Qaida from capitalizing on the political turmoil in Yemen.
The White House has increased the numbers of CIA officers in Yemen, and has signed off on the new base from which to fly armed drones to hunt militants in Yemen, to be completed by next year.
WASHINGTON — President Obama rejected the views of top lawyers at the Pentagon and the Justice Department when he decided that he had the legal authority to continue American military participation in the air war in Libya without Congressional authorization, according to officials familiar with internal administration deliberations.
Phi Beta Iota: Obama is in violation of the Constitution and an active sponsor of crimes against humanity that should subject him to consideration for appearance before an International Tribunal. His “national security advisor” is a Goldman Sachs apparatchik with his eyes fixed on the substantial holdings of real gold that could be looted (as opposed to paper gold where Goldman holds a strong but fraudulent position). Congress remains a craven foot-soldier to the Executive, and is liable for impeachment in detail for failure to fulfill its Article 1 responsibilities. US soliders are starting to come back from Libya in body bags, making it starkly clear that the US already has “boots on the ground” and blood in the sand. NATO pilots and commanders attacking Libya (not part of the “no fly” mandate) are liable for prosecution as war criminals. US flag officers accepting illegal orders are liable for court-martial should the US have an honest president in the future. An invasion of Libya is said to be planned for October, with the oil and the water and the gold as the presumed objectives. The lunacy continues….
Phi Beta Iota: Cynthia McKinney has integrity, and is committed to transparency and truth. Most of what the public is viewing and reading about Libya is a manufactured lie. What NATO is doing in attacking Tripoli is illegal, immoral, and a war crime by any standard. As we have previously shown, this is about oil, water, and gold (the paper gold market is about to crash, Libya has a great deal of real gold that has not been tainted with titanium by the New York banks).
Below the line is a lengthy post from Cynthia McKinney in Tripoli, with many links and some photographs.
