The issue is heating up in America as well, and will soon be heard in court.
On April 5th, 2011, at 11 a.m., at the Federal Courthouse at 141 Church Street in New Haven, Connecticut, the case of Gallop v. Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Myers will be heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.
Phi Beta Iota: There is not a sufficiency of evidence to convict, but there is assuredly a sufficiency of evidence to indict, and we are equally certain that the 911 Commission was at best a mediocre and incomplete endeavor and at worst a complete cover-up. As Penguin notes, the truth will come out.
EXTRACT: DU contains less than one third as much U-235 and U-234 as natural uranium. The external radiation dose from DU is about 60% of that from the same mass of natural uranium. Experts have cited that uranium has unique chemical and physical properties, which makes its toxicity mechanisms complicated to comprehend.
During the Gulf War, planes, helicopters and tanks fired some 300 tons of DU “munitions”. DU was used in the Balkans, and now, in Iraq and Afghanistan. DU hardens the tips of bullets and artillery shells, giving them the ability to pierce the toughest armor.
EXTRACT: Between the toxic burn pits, the slow acting poison of DU and the crushing effects of 2, 3, 4 or more forced deployments, we are building an army of suicidal, PTSD afflicted, homeless and unemployable young people who we are addicting to a cornucopia of drugs…for life. We're already building special courts, special jails, special hospitals, special housing, special welfare programs, drug treatment centers and more for our young vets. In the next decade, our youngest veterans will become THE major problem in this country. This isn't going to be pretty.”
AMERICA: Y UR PEEPS B SO DUM? Ignorance and courage in the age of Lady Gaga By Joe Bageant Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico
If you hang out much with thinking people, conversation eventually turns to the serious political and cultural questions of our times. Such as: How can the Americans remain so consistently brain-fucked? Much of the world, including plenty of Americans, asks that question as they watch U.S. culture go down like a thrashing mastodon giving itself up to some Pleistocene tar pit.
One explanation might be the effect of 40 years of deep fried industrial chicken pulp, and 44 ounce Big Gulp soft drinks. Another might be pop culture, which is not culture at all of course, but marketing. Or we could blame it on digital autism: Ever watch commuter monkeys on the subway poking at digital devices, stroking the touch screen for hours on end? Those wrinkled Neolithic brows above the squinting red eyes?
But a more reasonable explanation is that, (A) we don't even know we are doing it, and (B) we cling to institutions dedicated to making sure we never find out.
Safety Copy below the line. Original Counterpunch article still online dated December 10-12, 2010. This is circulating today as an email among the conscious counter-elite.
EXTRACT: The executive order makes the customary reference to the new appointee's worthy credentials as “an experienced diplomat and Orientalist”. And then, out of the blue, it adds that Kabulov “repeatedly held talks on the release of Russian pilots with the leadership of the Taliban in Kandahar, including [Taliban leader] Mohammed Omar”. There was no real need to have said that. It almost seems jarring to single out one mission in a distinguished diplomat's checkered career. But it said all that needed to be said.
By the language of the sport of cricket, one would shout from the crease in the heat of the moment: “Howzaat!” Is there an umpire nearby who could annotate the trajectory of Russian thinking? Not much ingenuity is needed to comprehend that Moscow is opening a line to the Taliban leadership and sending into the Hindu Kush someone who can meaningfully converse with the Quetta shura (council). Pakistanis know Kabulov, Iranians know him and Mullah Omar knows him. Afghan President Hamid Karzai knows him, too.
EXTRACT: Kabulov's mind is an open book – as far as a diplomat's mind can be. While serving in Kabul, he was an easily accessible ambassador and even American military commanders used to drop by to pick his brains. Kabulov's main complaint, though, was that the Americans were good listeners, but not good learners.
He kept harping on that the United States was repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made in Afghanistan during its occupation in the 1980s, and to complicate matters, American policies have been innovating on Soviet mistakes by inventing original mistakes of their own for which as he once told John Burns of the New York Times, “We [Russia] do not own the copyright.”
Troubling End Note: Asia Times Online on 24 March published an article by Syed Saleem Shahzad, who is an insightful commentator on South Asian affairs, as well as the publication's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He has studied al Qaida a long time. He wrote that US intelligence has actionable information that Osama bin Laden has been “criss-crossing” the Pakistan – Afghanistan border region in northwestern Pakistan during the past few weeks.
Shahzad wrote that US officials are “stunned” by bin Laden's visibility and the frequency of his movements. Bin Laden's purposes are not known. Terrorist analysts reportedly think the new level of activity means bin Laden is planning another large attack, though the 9/11 planning was actually not done by bin Laden. The South Asia analysts think he is meeting with friendly Afghan warlords to bring the Afghan War to a favorable conclusion for the Taliban.
What is disturbing is how little mainstream media attention this article has received. Readers are encouraged to read it.
Synopsis: 10 days after 9-11, visiting Joint Staff, not only knew we were going to take down Iraq, a few weeks later but got the list of six other countries:
Phi Beta Iota: This is somewhat consistent with the published book Endgame–The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror by Thomas McInerney and Paul Vallely with an introduction by Oliver North. Published in 2004, they focused on the need to use our military to wipe out Syria and Iran while intimidating Libya and Pakistan. What is quite clear is that regardless of which political party is nominally in power, the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex (MICC) has taken on a life of its own that is expensive, dangerous to all, clearly at odds with the US Constitution, and totally out of control. For a third of what we spend on war we could be waging peace and providing all 44 dictators with non-violent exit strategies. The gap between the public and the government has never been greater in the modern history of the USA, in our collective view.
