Thursday, November 13, 2008

'UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE' NationalSecurityArchive: "A court ruled today that the National Security Archive may proceed with its effort to force the White House to recover millions of Bush Administration Executive Office of the President (EOP) e-mail records before the presidential transition. Rejecting the government's motion to dismiss the Archive's lawsuit, the Court ruled that the Federal Records Act permits a private plaintiff to bring suit to require the head of the EOP or the Archivist of the United States to notify Congress or ask the Attorney General to initiate action to recover destroyed or missing e-mail records." CQPolitics: "Let's say that on Jan. 21 a massive car bomb meant for Osama bin Laden goes off in a Pakistani village, killing 120 local citizens but missing the elusive al Qaeda leader, who was riding in another vehicle. In an elaborate press conference, the president of Pakistan blames the CIA. On an easel next to him is a three-by-five foot photo of the CIA's station chief in Islamabad, who is sent packing. President Obama, in office for mere hours, finds out that the CIA did, in fact, plant the bomb, based on what it thought was solid intelligence that bin Laden was in the car. How will the new president react? That's much on the mind of intelligence officials awaiting the Jan. 20, 2009, inauguration of Obama, a short-time U.S. senator with no discernable record and little demonstrated interest, so far, in intelligence issues." AlterNet: "This article discusses a scenario in which the CIA blows up a car they mistakenly believes contains bin Laden, and asks whether or not the Obama administration will stand by them. But that's not what this is really all about. It's important to remember that this was at the heart of what Cheney and Addington's War On Terror legal reasoning was all about. The John Yoo Torture Memo of 2002, was written at the CIA's request that the Bush administration 'get their backs'. Just last March Bush vetoed the bill which would have required the CIA to adhere to the rules set forth in the Army Field manual in order to protect the CIA from being held culpable for torture. The CIA will put a lot of pressure on Obama over this. They even got the ambitious wimp McCain to vote against the Field Manual (anti-waterboarding) bill, despite what it might do to his reputation, on the heels of his earlier cave-in on the Military Commissions Act. They are dead serious about being allowed to do what they feel 'needs to be done' with the full backing of the president. And they always hold the security of the United States hostage when they do it ('we'll become too 'risk averse' and then you'll all die!')." The CIA (and MI6) are involved in many illegal and murderous activities. They breach against national and international laws, to say nothing of ethics or morality and democracy. The US is at present a rogue state, a belligerent state, creating revolutions and rebellion abroad for its own neocon interests. The new field manual for the Army Special Operations Forces Unconventional Warfare is perfectly clear. The US is guilty of illegal activities that amount to war crimes. "UW [Unconventional Warfare] remains an enduring and effective means of warfighting and is recognized as a central effort in the WOT [War on Terror]. Although the classification of existing doctrine is prudent for operational security, it limits the distribution of concepts necessary for an effective joint, interagency, and multinational effort. ARSOF and other audiences require an unclassified conceptual manual useful to understanding the nature of UW and its role in the nation's application of power. This manual provides that unclassified conceptual treatment. The current definition of UW is as follows: Operations conducted by, with, or through irregular forces in support of a resistance movement, an insurgency, or conventional military operations. Along with many other operations, UW is now considered a component part of IW [Irregular Warfare]. JP 1-02 defines IW as 'a violent struggle among state and nonstate actors for legitimacy and influence over the relevant populations. Although IW is a violent struggle, not all participating irregulars or irregular forces are necessarily armed. People, more so than weaponry, platforms, and advanced technology, will be the key to success in IW. It is important for the official agencies of government, including the armed forces, to recognize the fundamental role of the media as a conduit of information. At a minimum, all governments oppose threats to their existence. However, the apparatus of government represents only a small portion of a citizenry and directly controls only a small portion of its subject territory. Regardless of its desire to do so, no government can control everything within its jurisdiction or prevent all violations of law all of the time. The attitude of the population, degree of control provided by competing (nonstate government) enforcers of law, and traditions of civic order - or lack thereof - are key components of the overall law enforcement environment. All of these varying conditions will contribute to the degree of lawlessness in any given society. These conditions and the political willingness of other states to cooperate in such efforts affects the ability of the United States to use the law enforcement instrument of power abroad." "ARSOF [Army special operations forces] are inherently offensive in nature because they seek to strike or engage the enemy to compel, deter, or counter enemy actions. In UW, such initiative is conducted by, with, or through an irregular surrogate." FAS: "Thus, U.S. support of the Contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s constituted unconventional warfare, as did U.S. support of anti-Soviet mujahideen in Afghanistan in the 1980s." Which is just another way of saying that the US will do anything, really anything, to impose its will on foreign nations and subvert the democratic course of politics and justice. Which makes the US a de facto fascist state. The US and Britain not only have their CIA and MI6 but also use mercenary armies, sometimes called 'security firms', which completely evade any democratic control. 11:02:49 AM

REALITY And now a message from the real New York Times: NYTimes: "Sorry, folks, the paper isn't free. And the Iraq war isn't over, at least not yet. In an elaborate hoax, pranksters distributed thousands of free copies of a spoof edition of The New York Times on Wednesday morning at busy subway stations around the city, including Grand Central Terminal, Washington and Union Squares, the 14th and 23rd Street stations along Eighth Avenue, and Pacific Street in Brooklyn, among others." Well, I wouldn't call them 'pranksters'. They have made a fool of the American establishment, who in fact are the real pranksters and have imposed a weird reality on us. Here's a video impression. NYT-se: "George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, was indicted Monday on charges of high treason. The charges, filed by Attorney General Russ Feingold late in the evening, allege that Mr. Bush, knowing full well that Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction, falsified information in order to pursue the disastrous Iraq War." Arresting Bush and Blair would be the right thing to do. And is it so difficult? I wish Obama would do the right thing and read this paper very carefully. If he doesn't live up to expectations he's going to get a lot of flak, probably more than Dubya ever got. 10:13:52 AM

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