Tuesday, July 29, 2008

SOMETHING ROTTEN There is something rotten in our institutions that should safeguard democracy, peace and justice. Our democracy and its institutions appear to be privatized and are only working for the benefit of neocon corporations. SundayHerald: "MI5 has rebuilt the life of a 'killer spy' who was the British Army's highest- ranking double agent at the heart of the IRA, and a man implicated in dozens of murders. Scappaticci was an informer for the army's Force Research Unit (FRU), a shadowy wing of military intelligence, which used terrorists on both sides of the divide in Northern Ireland as proxy assassins. The FRU allowed paramilitaries, who they were running as agents, to carry out bombings and shootings in order to preserve their cover and keep passing high grade information to their army handlers." Britain has several of the most dangerous secret services in this world. And behind the myth of the English gentleman is the reality of political murder. Secret services don't give a hoot about killing people even in their own camp. It's the oldest trick in the world. They simply blame the enemy for things they did themselves. EUObserver: "Washington is set to electronically collect data on all European visitors who currently enjoy visa-free travel to the United States. An online registration system, first kicking-in on a voluntary basis, will ask for a number of personal data, including on health. The Electronic System of Travel Authorisation (ESTA) - presented by US Department of Homeland Security representative Jackie Bednarz on Monday (28 July) - is designed to track high-risk passengers and will be officially launched on 1 August. The procedure will become mandatory only on 12 January 2009, with all passengers from visa vaiwer programme countries - including children - required to receive an authorisation to travel before they board a US-bound airplane or vessel. On top of 15 EU states - Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK - the obligation will also apply to Andorra, Australia, Brunei, Iceland, Japan, Liechtenstein, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, San Marino, Singapore and Switzerland." The US itself is a rogue state, that sends out its killers and spies everywhere. Paranoia in the Bush administration is skyrocketing. Of course, a war criminal needs to be informed; a war criminal has many enemies. Bush was charged with murder during the House Judiciary Committee hearing on the constitutional limits of executive power. Vincent Bugliosi "argues that since Bush took the country to war against Iraq on false pretenses and that therefore he is guilty of tens of thousands of counts of murder." Impeachment hearings. 935 lies. AlterNet: "Chalmers Johnson has produced a superb new article on what privatization has meant to the U.S. Intelligence Community. Focusing on Tim Shorrock's new book, Spies for Hire, Johnson traces the history of 'the wholesale transfer of military and intelligence functions to private, often anonymous operatives' from Ronald Reagan's day to the present, reminding us of just how crucial the Clinton administration was to this development. He also lays out just what can happen when the intelligence budget soars and startling amounts of it are placed in private, for-profit hands. Not only, he claims, has the privatization of intelligence made it easier for enemies to penetrate American intelligence and greased the slippery slope to the loss of professionalism within the community of intelligence analysts, but, perhaps most serious of all, it has ensured the loss of the most valuable asset any intelligence organization possesses - its institutional memory. Johnson concludes: 'The current situation represents the worst of all possible worlds. Successive administrations and Congresses have made no effort to alter the CIA's role as the president's private army, even as we have increased its incompetence by turning over many of its functions to the private sector. We have thereby heightened the risks of war by accident, or by presidential whim, as well as of surprise attack because our government is no longer capable of accurately assessing what is going on in the world and because its intelligence agencies are so open to pressure, penetration, and manipulation of every kind." ThinkProgress: "Last night on PBS, Bill Moyers interviewed investigative journalist Jane Mayer and mentioned that in Mayer's new book, she notes that FBI agents refused to participate in the CIA's interrogation of terror suspects at Guantánamo Bay because they determined it to be 'borderline torture'. Moyers then asked, 'Who were some of the other conservative heroes, as you call them, in your book?' Mayer remembered one top Justice Department lawyer and 'very conservative member of this administration' who said that after participating in White House meetings authorizing torture, he believed that 'lunatics had taken over the country'. Mayer said two other top DOJ lawyers had to develop a system of speaking codes because they feared they were being wiretapped while others described an 'atmosphere of intimidation', mainly from Vice President Dick Cheney: MAYER: There was such an atmosphere of intimidation. ... They felt so endangered in some ways that, at one point, two of the top lawyers from the Justice Department developed this system of talking in codes to each other because they thought they might be being wiretapped ... by their own government. They felt like they might be kind of weirdly in physical danger. They were actually scared to stand up to Vice President Cheney." And now a black American threatens to win the elections. In the first place, will Obama have any leeway to define his own agenda and counteract the neocon ideology of privatization and deregulation? No, he won't. Second, will he be allowed to be elected by the people? There are serious doubts about that as well. Greg Palast: "In swing-state Colorado, the Republican Secretary of State conducted the biggest purge of voters in history, dumping a fifth of all registrations. Guess their color. In swing-state Florida, the state is refusing to accept about 85,000 new registrations from voter drives - overwhelming Black voters. In swing state New Mexico, HALF of the Democrats of Mora, a dirt poor and overwhelmingly Hispanic county, found their registrations disappeared this year, courtesy of a Republican voting contractor. In swing states Ohio and Nevada, new federal law is knocking out tens of thousands of voters who lost their homes to foreclosure. It's time SOMEBODY raised the alarm about these missing voters; not to save Obama's candidacy - journalists should stay the heck away from partisan endorsements - but raise the alarm to save our sick democracy." But just suppose Obama is elected, what is the legacy he inherits from Bush? ICH: "Something has gone terribly wrong with the economy, but no one knows what it is? In the last three months bank credit has shrunk faster than any time since 1948. The banks aren't lending and people aren't borrowing; that's a lethal combo. When credit-creation slows, the economy falters, unemployment rises and the misery index soars. That's why Bush will have to mail out more stimulus checks whether he wants to or not; his back is against the wall. He'll try to make it look like the economy is still breathing on its own and just needs a spell on the respirator before resuming its normal activities. But Bush is wrong; we've reached Peak credit and the blood-transfusions won't work anymore. The vital signs have shut down and rigamortis is already setting in. Our goose is cooked." Bank failures so far. The second half of this year could be disastrous. Take care. God bless Americans! 10:59:01 AM

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