Mini-Me: Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños (CELAC)

The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Spanish: Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños, CELAC, Portuguese: Comunidade de Estados Latino-Americanos e Caribenhos, French: Communauté des États Latino-Américains et Caribéens, Dutch: Gemeenschap van de Latijns-Amerikaanse en Caribische landen) is the tentative name[1] of a regional bloc of Latin American and Caribbean nations created on February …

Chuck Spinney: Break-Up of Iraq, History of Oil Invasions

The below report by Patrick Cockburn, one of the best reporters now covering the Middle East, describes the growing tensions in Iraq over the question of sharing its oil wealth among its constituent regions.  Although his report is important in its own right, its contents become even more ominous when they viewed in a larger historical context: …

Mini-Me: European-US Banking–Tangled Web — Tell Me Again, Why Shouldn’t We Default and Let the Banks Fry? + Financial Terrorism RECAP

The question has to be asked: “Why shouldn’t we default and let the banks fry?” What possible benefit it there to the people of a nation whose previous leaders “sold out” the entire country on the basis of lies from the banks, notably Goldman Sachs? Why not default and focus on full employment and resilience …

Reference (2010): Human Intelligence (HUMINT) – All Humans, All Minds, All the Time [PDF & Full Text Online]

Human Intelligence (HUMINT): All Humans, All Minds, All the Time (US Army Strategic Studies Institute, June 2010) Short URL: http://tinyurl.com/Steele-HUMINT Below the line: full text for automated translation.  The Amazon version is published by someone else abusing my original copyright granted only to SSI. Click on cover for free PDF download, or read full text …

Chuck Spinney: From Algeria to Libya –Lessons Not Learned + USG CIA Web of Deceit in Arabia RECAP

The triumphalism in the US surrounding the liquidation of Qadaffi may be short lived.  That is because most Americans do not appreciate how the legacy of anti-colonialism shapes the contemporary cultural DNA in North Africa or how influential that legacy has been in shaping the revolts of what is now called the Arab Spring.  There …