Monday, March 29, 2004

Posted here Monday, March 29, 2004 at 6:41:54 PM     I raised the issue of Israeli intelligence a week ago. Here is some fairly substantial info - which could be embedded in disinfo - from the very good Juan Cole today http://www.juancole.com/ Israeli Intelligence Blasted by the Knesset over Iraq Failure A subcommittee of the Israeli Parliament has issued a report sharply critical of Israeli intelligence failures concerning weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It notes that Mossad thought Iraq's programs and stockpiles were a threat, which they were not, and yet seemed unaware of how much progress Libya had made on nukes. The fact is that Israeli intelligence failures in Iraq contributed to drawing the United States into the war (pace the Knesset report). Undersecretary of Defense for Planning Douglas Feith, a representative of the American branch of the Likud Party, met repeatedly with Israeli generals at the Pentagon (who were not properly signed in, contrary to post-9/11 regulations), and they gave him fodder for his pre-determined insistence on ginning up a war against Iraq, reinforcing what was being said by liars like Ahmad Chalabi. They were conveying Israeli intelligence to a key American policy maker, and it was wrong. Of course, being wrong is one thing. Deliberately being wrong is another. Although the subcommittee report refuses to consider the possibility, it seems clear that there were conspiracies within the intelligence and military services of the UK, Israel and the US intended to draw the US into war against Iraq. One sees reports in the British press of a "Rockingham Group" in the UK ministry of defense pushing for war, and of British intelligence planting anti-Iraq stories in the US press. ********

Posted here Monday, March 29, 2004 at 4:57:04 PM     It is important to keepopn about Iraq, to keep working contrary opinions against each oher,surfacing facts and intrpretations thatcan make a difference.there is no easy path now. This From Mario Vargas Llosa Saturday March 27, 2004 The Guardian http://books.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4888448-99819,00.html  What is going to happen now in Spain, with the new government of Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero? In economic policy, probably nothing. Fortunately for everyone, the Spanish Socialists are now a party much more liberal than socialist, their economic approach being essentially similar to that of Aznar's Popular party, so that everything indicates that support for the market economy, private enterprise and the insertion of Spain into world markets will continue, though with different rhetoric and faces. It seems impossible that the country could now return to the populism of lamented memory, or to corrupting interventionism. In this ambit, at least, the progress attained in the past eight years should continue. In international policy, Zapatero proposes a prudent, non-acrid distancing from the United States, to approach the version of Europe personified by France and Germany. This may mean much or little, apart from insubstantial gestures. The latter is the best that could happen to Spain, of course, if it does not wish to lose the international role it has attained in recent years and return to its previous role of nobody, or at most an obscure acolyte of France, without presence or voice. The announcement made by Zapatero that he will withdraw the Spanish troops from Iraq unless the UN takes charge of the situation has in my view been a mistake, as pointed out by senator Kerry, who is likely to be the next president of the United States. The new leader's opposition to the invasion, perfectly legitimate, is one thing; another is the presence of Spanish soldiers in that country, where they are not fighting but on a mission of peace as generous and noble as that of the same troops in Afghanistan, ex-Yugoslavia and the Latin American countries where they train police and soldiers to act in democracy. To withdraw them now, when according to the Oxford Research International survey published on March 17, 70% of Iraqis declare that (despite the monstrous attacks) their life has improved since they were relieved of Saddam Hussein, is an unjust, unfriendly act to the millions of Iraqis who, like millions of Spaniards in the times of Franco, desire to live in peace and liberty, and also, a message that not only al-Qaida and its demented killers, but the democratic countries themselves would interpret as a surrender to terror, admitting that by placing bombs and killing innocent people they achieve what they want. The Iraq war is in the past. What is now at stake there is a slow and difficult transition to democracy, and a country like Spain, with a new socialist government, cannot cease to lend a hand in this process toward legality and liberty for the Iraqi people. ********

Posted here Monday, March 29, 2004 at 1:30:28 PM     Tech controlled by market, not by wisdom, nor any toehr social process,if it can be built, some will come. http://www.gizmo.com.au/public/News/news.asp?articleid=2750 Scubadoo is an underwater motorcycle which lets even inexperienced divers bop around under the waves. An integrated tank fills the dome with air, letting the driver breathe (and drink beer) normally while cruising at speeds of up to 2.5 knots. Initial price is recommended to be around $13,000, with the first units available in May. As a scuba diver, I'm torn: in the hands of an unconscientious pilot, the Scubadoo could cause a lot of damage to delicate marine habitats, yet I really want to ride around in the world's first underwater biker gang punching sharks. ********

Posted here Monday, March 29, 2004 at 1:26:55 PM     Technology can cause problems.. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/29/technology/29nano.html?ex=1081141200&;en=16276286ce5a855c&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE Buckyballs, the spherical carbon molecules important to many current nanotechology projects (and much of your future gadgetry), has been found to cause brain damage and affect liver cells in fish. While the doctor running the toxicity experiment cautioned that the discovery was "a yellow light, not a red one," the information does rekindle awareness of the potential dangers in creating new molecular structures that interact with our own tissue. Because even if buckyballs and carbon nanotubes lead to discoveries that make us a species of immortal superhumans, what kind of eternal utopia would it be if all the fish were retarded? Not one I'll be levitating cupcakes with my mind in, for sure   ********

Posted here Monday, March 29, 2004 at 8:48:59 AM     See the Washinton Monthly blog for a good insight into Clark's state of mind. Very worth while. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2513 So what was it that seemingly turned him into a Democratic partisan? Oddly enough, it appears that the turning point came in August 1998 and was a combination of two things: the Monica Lewinsky scandal and al-Qaeda's attacks on two American embassies. It was only a couple of years earlier that the CIA had finally connected the dots and figured out that the al-Qaeda organization even existed, and the embassy bombings were their first major attack since then. Unfortunately, Republican opportunism made it hard to fight back. Although Clarke says he was "beyond mad" at Clinton for failing to keep his zipper shut, he became flatly infuriated with the recklessness of his conservative opposition: I was angrier, almost incredulous, that the bitterness of Clinton's enemies knew no bounds, that they intended to hurt not just Clinton but the country by turning the President's personal problem into a global, public circus for their own political ends. Now I feared that the timing of the President's interrogation about the scandal, August 17, would get in the way of our hitting the al Qaeda meeting. ....Our response to two deadly terroist attacks was an attempt to wipe out al Qaeda leadership, yet it quickly became grist for the right-wing talk radio mill and part of the Get Clinton campaign. That reaction made it more difficult to get approval for follow-up attacks on al Qaeda, such as my later attempts to persuade the Principals to forget about finding bin Laden and just bomb the training camps. For a true believer like Clarke, the partisan posturing in response to what he thought was the most important problem facing our country must have convinced him that many Republicans simply didn't take national security seriously. And what he saw when Bush took office must have convinced him even further: ********

Posted here Monday, March 29, 2004 at 8:33:34 AM     In jail for political activity.. from http://www.counterpunch.org/ entitled No Shame, No Stigma Here Last Lines Before Vanishing By KATHY KELLY In 1988, upon entering the Cass County jail in Harrison, MO, my heart sank as I realized how intensely the other 12 women in the cell, a dingy area called "the bullpen," didn't want to see a new person encroach on the minimal space allotted to them. Most had already been there for many weeks. The bullpen was meant to be a small holding cell area, but because the jail was so overcrowded, the six bunk beds, exposed toilet, metal table and spray-mist shower with a ripped curtain became housing for women prisoners awaiting transport. I had just been released from the hospital following major surgery after a lung collapse caused by a congenital abnormality. Friends said that in my prison uniform I could have posed for a Soviet Union poster charging the US with abusing prisoners. The women prisoners glaring at me were seeing a 90 pound woman with pink eye, a runny nose, tangled hair, an obnoxious cough, and a facial rash. Eyeing the top bunk assigned to me, I wondered how I'd heave myself up there without stepping on another woman's bed. And how could I stuff the lumpy mattress I carried into the prison issue casing when I could barely bend down to tie my shoes? At that point, the most intimidating woman in "the bullpen" laughed, rolled her eyes, and said, "I don't know what I did so wrong to be locked up with this white motherfucker with AIDS!" My heart sank. I managed to occupy the top bunk and, over the next hours, women closest to me were curious and then kindly, asking me how I'd ended up in the bullpen. We found small ways to be helpful to one another. For instance, I had my "week-at-a-glance" address book with me which included a small map of the US. Together, other inmates and I found the various federal prisons to which each of us could be sent. I started to feel better. Within three days, all of the women treated me with affection, calling me "Missiles" for short. (I made a mental note not to trivialize our action in planting corn at nuclear missile silo sites but decided not to argue with the nickname.) "Missiles," said the woman who had first erupted upon seeing me, "I tried my hardest not to like you, but I just can't help myself --I like you." Major Nick and Sargeant Roy, the officers responsible to run the Cass County jail, were stingy beyond belief when it came to spending the federal money sent to them as reimbursement for housing federal prisoners awaiting transport. We never had adequate supplies of toilet paper, paper towel, cleaning supplies, or eating utensils. In the two months I spent there, only once was a guard "free" to take us outside for fresh air. Painted battleship grey, with bars on three sides of the enclosure, and flourescent lights that were never turned off, the "bullpen" was one of the worst places the prison system in the US maintained. One day a woman came into the cell who had been charged with a DUI, driving unde the influence. Her lawyer came to bail her out the next day. As she left, I asked if she could leave behind her newspaper. "Oh honey," she said, "you all shouldn't have to read yesterday's news. I'll get them to send in today's paper." I politely said that we'd rather have the old one because when we ran out of toilet paper we used newspaper. As soon as she was outside, she slapped a lawsuit against the prison for failing to respect human rights. As soon as Major Nick learned of it, he stormed into "the bullpen." "Which one of you all bitches in this here bullpen had the nerve to say that we do not GIVE you toilet paper?" he bellowed. I expected a chorus of angry responses, but instead heard, "Musta' been Missiles. She thinks she's living in some kind of hotel!" I was stunned. I felt like a general leading the charge who looks behind, asking, "Where are the troops?" Major Nick polled each woman in the cell. "Have you EVER had an experience in this bullpen where your needs were not met?!" Each woman avowed that Major Nick and Sargeant Roy took good care of them. When my turn came, I listed the items they didn't supply, told him how awful the slop they fed us had been, complained about the miasmic cloud of cigarette smoke hovering over us, and assured Major Nick that he shouldn't run a kennel for dogs much less a place where human beings lived. ********