Monday, February 16, 2009

THE LOOTING IS STARTING TheNation: "Governing elites in Washington and Wall Street have devised a fiendishly clever 'grand bargain' they want President Obama to embrace in the name of 'fiscal responsibility'. The government, they argue, having spent billions on bailing out the banks, can recover its costs by looting the Social Security system. They are also targeting Medicare and Medicaid. The pitch sounds preposterous to millions of ordinary working people anxious about their economic security and worried about their retirement years. But an impressive armada is lined up to push the idea - Washington's leading think tanks, the prestige media, tax-exempt foundations, skillful propagandists posing as economic experts and a self-righteous billionaire spending his fortune to save the nation from the elderly." 11:58:44 AM

THE INVASION OF THE HAGUE AlterNet: "In 2002, Congress passed a law enabling United States forces to unilaterally storm into peaceful Holland to liberate American soldiers held for war crimes. Coming in the early days of the war on terrorists, and as the International Criminal Court was being formed here, the measure provoked controversy and seemed to the Dutch - stout US allies - an absurd example of America's 'with us or against us' foreign policy. The law is still on the books. Formally titled the American Service Members Protection Act, the measure is widely and derisively known here as the Invasion of The Hague Act. Odd as it may seem, the law allows the US to constitutionally send jack-booted commandos to fly over fields of innocent tulips, swoop into the land of wooden shoes, tread past threatening windmills and sleepy milk cows into the Dutch capital - into a city synonymous with international law - and pry loose any US troops. 11:54:36 AM

FRAUD BBC: "Two US judges charged with taking more than $2m (£1.4m) in kickbacks from a privately-run detention centre have pleaded guilty to fraud. Prosecutors say Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan took the money in return for giving young offenders long sentences to serve in the centre." Independent: "In what could turn out to be the greatest fraud in US history, American authorities have started to investigate the alleged role of senior military officers in the misuse of $125bn (£88bn) in a US-directed effort to reconstruct Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The exact sum missing may never be clear, but a report by the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) suggests it may exceed $50bn, making it an even bigger theft than Bernard Madoff's notorious Ponzi scheme." Commondreams: "Blackwater Worldwide is abandoning its tarnished brand name as it tries to shake a reputation battered by oft-criticised work in Iraq, renaming its family of two dozen businesses under the name Xe. The parent company's new name is pronounced like the letter z." DePers: A business-class club for ex-convicts? Yes, it exists, in the Netherlands. The purpose is to teach them to build up an enterprise. These ex-convicts would certainly fit into Dutch commerce quite well, as fraud now seems to be the rule rather than the exception. 11:51:14 AM

SAAKASHVILI NO LONGER WANTED IN GEORGIA Guardian: "For a few days last summer Georgia was under the world spotlight, portrayed by Mikheil Saakashvili, its president, as a victim of Russian aggression on a par with the invasion of Hungary in 1956 or Hitler's blitzkriegs. As Russian tanks rolled across northern Georgia and smoke from burning villages plumed into the sky, western politicians and the media rushed into talk of a new cold war. Six months later, Georgia is a different place. Leading figures in the opposition openly blame Saakashvili for the five-day war. So, too, do several recent defectors from his team, including two who were his standard-bearers last summer at the United Nations and in Moscow." Reuters: "It's been dubbed 'Protest TV'. A man in an improvised prison cell under the 24-hour gaze of television cameras, promising to stay put until Georgia's president quits. 'Cell No. 5' on Maestro Television has become the talk of Tbilisi's cafes and bars since airing on January 20. It represents the extreme face of an opposition push to unseat President Mikheil Saakashvili that has gained momentum since war with Russia last year." More. Now we also know that it was Croatia that started the war against Yugoslavia. De-Construct: "In the exclusive interview, Franjo Tudjman's Internal Affairs Minister Josip Boljkovac admitted Croat leadership carried out planned attacks on Croatia Serbs in 1991, in order to start a war. 'Tudjman wanted the war at any cost, following the concept according to which Serbs must disappear from Croatia,' Boljkovac said." 11:37:29 AM

TOTALITARIANISM IN THE NAME OF ANTI-TERRORISM 1854: "Monday 16 February 2009, the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 will come into force, potentially making it a crime to take a picture of members of Her Majesty's armed forces, including constables. The Act amends the Terrorism Act 2000 regarding offences relating to information about members of armed forces, a member of the intelligence services, or a police officer. The new set of rules, under section 76 of the 2008 Act and section 58A of the 2000 Act, will target anyone who 'elicits or attempts to elicit information about (members of armed forces) ... which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism'. The penalty could be of up to 10 years in prison. While BJP does not believe the Act will result in the imprisonment of photographers and photojournalists, we believe the Act could be abused by some police officers who are already loosely using Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 to prevent photographers from taking pictures in public places. So, we have joined the National Union of Journalists' call for photographers to make their voices heard at a media event on 16 February in front of New Scotland Yard. The plan is simple, turn up with your camera and exercise your democratic right to take a photograph in a public place. The event starts at 11am." NUJ: "Comedian Mark Thomas is to join with NUJ members in an event to highlight the threat of a new UK law that could be used against press photographers taking pictures of the police. The Counter Terrorism Act allows for the arrest and imprisonment of anyone whose pictures are 'likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism'." TheRegister: "A former Assistant Chief of the UK's shadowy Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, aka MI6) has played down the threat of jihadi terrorism, saying that other dangers are more serious. The ex-spy also said that global counterterrorism database plans were 'unlikely ever to succeed'." The present policy of the UK is aimed at the liberties of the citizen. The recent banning of a Dutch parliamentarian is one of the many breaches of freedom of speech. Though I don't like Mr Wilders' ideas, he must have the right to speak and travel freely. Independent: "Let's start by getting a couple of things clear: Jacqui Smith is an idiot for banning Geert Wilders, and even more of an idiot to do it after the Government was lobbied to ban him by Lord Ahmed. The Home Secretary's argument for refusing to admit Mr Wilders again (he was here in December) is feeble; the only way his presence might threaten public security is if there was an intemperate reaction by people who don't like his views. Demands for a ban are based on the same perverse reasoning that led to Salman Rushdie's being accused of having 'blood on his hands' - by Lord Ahmed - because some idiots chose to respond violently to his novel The Satanic Verses. According to this sophistry, it isn't someone's fault if he loses his temper and hits me; it's mine for upsetting him in the first place." Britain accuses and threatens anyone who dares to speak the truth or question the flawed British policies. Guardian: "Yesterday it emerged that a senior British army officer, Colonel Owen McNally, had been arrested under the Official Secrets Act for allegedly passing classified information to a human rights worker in Afghanistan. Unnamed sources suggested he had become 'close' to the campaigner Rachel Reid." Great Britain is becoming more totalitarian each day, while war criminals like Tony Blair, a real terrorist, are running free. 11:25:16 AM

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