Thank you for saving so many lives, Bingham !!

Lord Bingham! He waited until after retirement to condemn ‘serious violation of international law’ by US and UK

You can’t begin to imagine how grateful the 1.5 million slaughtered victims are for your 5-year stammer!

The Law Lord from Hell: Thomas Henry Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill, KG, PC, FBA (born 13 October 1933), was the senior law lord in the United Kingdom. The Times called him “the pre-eminent lawyer of his generation with a brilliant, incisive mind.” Photo: Balliol College . Image may be subject to copyright.

Lord Bingham, the famed British judge who recently retired as the senior law lord, described the 2003 invasion of Iraq as a serious violation of international law, and accused Britain and the US of acting like a “world vigilante.”

Some five years and nearly 1.5 million corpses later, Bingham finally rejected [the then attorney general] Lord Goldsmith’s defense of the 2003 invasion as fundamentally flawed.  Bingham said: “It was not plain that Iraq had failed to comply in a manner justifying resort to force and there were no strong factual grounds or hard evidence to show that it had.” Bingham added that the fact Britain and the US had unilaterally decided that Iraq had broken UN resolutions “passes belief.” Read the rest of this article …

Lord GoldSmith:  Peter Henry Goldsmith, Baron Goldsmith, PC, QC (born 5 January 1950), is a former Attorney General of England and Wales. On 22 June 2007, Goldsmith announced his resignation which took effect on 27 June 2007, the same day that prime minister, Tony Blair, stepped down. Photo: Source. Image may be subject to copyright.

[In his final advice to the Government, written on 17 March 2003, the war criminal Lord Goldsmith stated that the use of force in Iraq was lawful.]

The Moderators say:

Thank you, Lord Bingham, for waiting 5 years and 1.5 million slaughtered victims later to finally say your piece!

We won’t spoil things by calling you a hypocrite and a coward of Royal Order!

And the Nobel War Prize for 2008 goes to …

The dreaded Olympics comes every four years; the agony of Nobel Pe*ce Prize is annual!

Martti Ahtesaari won the prize for 2008. It really makes sense, in a perverted sort of way, when you think about it!

Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari (born on June 23, 1937) is a former President of Finland (1994–2000) and a United Nations diplomat and mediator, who thought the Iraqi invasion was a good thing!

Henry Kissinger won the prize 35 year ago today. Like Martti Ahtisaari, he, too, was a warmonger and a member of the Bilderberg group.

And his award of Nobel Peace Prize was just as controversial as Ahtisaari’s. In fact the award was so contentious two disgusted Nobel Peace Prize Selection Committee members resigned.

Wikipedia entry for Ahtisaari has a section under the the heading of ‘Criticism.’ It reads: “The Finnish intellectual and the professor of history, Juha Sihvola, who thinks current Iraq’s war was not justified, criticized Ahtisaari’s conclusions about the morality of the war saying that they were ‘astounding’.[15]

“Norwegian founder of peace studies, Johan Galtung, has criticized heavily Ahtisaari’s way to handle peace processes. Galtung claims that ‘Ahtisaari does not solve conflicts but drives through a short-term solutions that please western countries’. He further says that Ahtisaari ‘let’s EU to abuse himself’. According to Galtung Ahtisaari does not hesitate to favour solutions that bypass United Nations and international law.[16] [Emphasis added.]

“The Finnish branch of Friends of the Earth and Finnish intellectual and philosopher Thomas Wallgren have criticized Ahtisaari’s actions in Finnish companies that were chopping rain forests in Indonesia.”

Unfortunately references [13][15] and [16] point to documents that are written in Finnish.

In another section of Ahtisaari entry Wikipedia says: “Ahtisaari strongly defended the actions of United States at the crisis that preceded the current war of Iraq.[13] After the war had started, Ahtisaari issued a statement in November 2003: “Since I know that about million people have been killed by the government of Iraq, I do not need much [of] those weapons of mass destruction”.[14] (Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction were the primary reason the USA gave to justify its attack).”

But you don’t have to learn Finnish to understand what’s happening.

The Next time a Finn packs his Walther P22 and incendiary grenades in a rucksack and heads toward school … you know where the confusion came from!

Image of the Day: Police liability insurance

Freedom of What?

Mick Kelly shows off a bruise at a news conference, Friday, in St. Paul, that he said he received after getting hit by a projectile fired by riot police on anti-war protesters Thursday night. Photo: Jim Mone, AP. Image may be subject to copyright.

Police made about 152 arrests in association with the GOP convention in Denver… In St. Paul, police arrested about 660 … [Source]

US human rights violations exposed
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-03/13/content_6533121.htm

Full Text of Human Rights Record of United States in 2007
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-03/13/content_6533800.htm

Haiti: An Unending Nightmare of Humanitarian Crisis

The Haiti Nightmare

“I have never seen anything so painful,” as what he has just seen in Haiti. — Paul Farmer

Paul Farmer is a professor of medical anthropology at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Partners in Health.  http://pih.org. He is the author of The Uses of Haiti,  Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues, Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor and From Outrage to Courage: Women Taking Action for Health and Justice. 

Recent interview: Haiti Struggles with Humanitarian Disaster in Aftermath of Deadly Storms

The catastrophe in Haiti

“The catastrophe in Haiti is only a partly natural disaster. It is not natural that Haiti will once again suffer more deaths in the storms than all the other countries in the storm paths, combined. The deadly combination of poverty, weak governance and foreign interference has left the country unable to enforce laws on cutting down trees, install adequate drainage systems or effectively execute disaster planning and response. Haiti has never recovered the governmental capacity it lost in the U.S.-supported coup d’état in 2004, and we are now seeing the consequences.

“Although the international community’s emergency help is needed now, it is even more important in the long term for the donor countries to let Haiti develop its governmental capacity, so it can respond to the next, inevitable natural disaster. This means no more undermining of Haitian governments, even if we do not like their policies; canceling Haiti’s unfair debt to the International Financial Institutions like the World Bank; and implementing trade policies that allow Haiti to develop a broad-based, sustainable national economy.” —BRIAN CONCANNON

Brian Concannon,  is the Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti. http://www.ijdh.org.

End the war in Iraq, invest in our future!

Please forward widely. 1 million doors. 1 million conversations. 1 million voters. Be one of the 25,000 peace activists to knock on a Million Doors for Peace on Saturday, September 20. United For Peace and Justice is joining with other major national organizations and scores of local groups across the country to send a message to Congress: End the war in Iraq, bring all our troops home, and start investing in our country’s future! We have marched in massive numbers, but now we are using a new model for organizing a movement with long-term staying power at the grassroots level. On Saturday, September 20, in all fifty states, we will knock on a million doors to: Talk to our neighbors about the war and its costs to our communities Ask that they sign a petition to Congress that calls for an end to the war Discuss what we can do in this important election year to build up the antiwar movement in our own neighborhoods When you sign-up here, you will get: 40 names of registered voters in your zip code Hand-outs and petitions Talking points and tips for effective door-knocking In some areas, peace and justice groups will be hosting a gathering of volunteers for a brief training and to pair up volunteers who prefer to canvass in a team. If this is being organized in your direct or nearby area, you will receive a Million Doors for Peace email with the meet-up information. Help us take the next step in building the antiwar movement! September 20 is the day to engage one-on-one with our neighbors to strengthen the movement to end the war. Sign-up right now at the Million Doors for Peace website here.

UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545 PO Box 607; Times Square Station; New York, NY 10108

Protecting the Crown’s Extrafinancial Investments in Afghanistan?

submitted by a NZ reader:

Heaven knows what the New Zealand SAS are doing in Afghanistan

The British journalist Robert Fisk visiting New Zealand this week to promote his new book spoke to a local journalist in Wellington about western military presence in Middle East:

Concerning New Zealand’s special forces, who are based in Afghanistan, he said:

“Heaven knows what they (the SAS) are doing and Afghanistan is a disaster anyway.”

He said New Zealand was under no threat from any country in the Middle East.

“There are no Syrian soldiers on the streets of Wellington.

“(Western nations) have no business to be there, historically it is a disaster. We never have any business there, we’re always going to the Middle East with huge armies.

The morally castrated New Zealand “Defence Minister”, Phil Goff, immediately declared: “I’d say Mr Fisk should talk to the Hazara people whose civic leaders were executed in the market place, whose 2000-year-old cultural heritage, the Bamyan statutes of Buddha, were destroyed.”

Ah, so the New Zealand SAS are not there to protect the poppy fields and the thriving opium business and the drug warlords, they are there playing Bamyan Buddha dolls with the local kids!

The following is an excerpt from The SAS (SPECIAL AIR SERVICE): Prince Philip’s manager of terrorism,  by Joseph Brewda.

SAS methods and procedures

According to the British Army handbook, the SAS is “particularly suited, trained, and equipped for counter-revolutionary operations,” with a specialization in “infiltration,” “sabotage,” “assassination,” as well as “liaison with, organization, training, and control of friendly guerrilla forces operating against the common enemy.” From its inception in World War II, Special Air Services was detailed to run sabotage behind enemy lines and to organize popular revolt, at first in North Africa, and then in the Balkans, where another Stirling cousin, Fitzroy Maclean, ran British operations.

At the end of the war, SAS was disbanded, but it was soon revived to crush the Malay insurgency in Malaysia, and the Mau Mau insurgency in Kenya. The principle employed was to take over the insurgency from within, and use it to destroy the native population. In his 1960 book Gangs and Countergangs, Col. Frank Kitson boasted that the British were covertly leading several large-scale Mau Mau units, and that many, if not all Mau Mau units had been synthetically created by the colonial authorities. As a result of this practice, 22 whites were killed during the insurgency, as compared to 20,000 natives.

Based on this principle, SAS emphasized recruitment of natives, as it received increasing responsibilities for overseeing counterinsurgency within the postwar empire, as well as organizing insurgencies elsewhere. In New Zealand, 30% of SAS was drawn from the indigenous Maori tribes, later supplemented by Sarawak tribesmen from Indonesia. By the 1960s, New Zealand SAS was active throughout Southeast Asia, organizing tribal revolts against the Burmese government, and stirring similar movements in Northeast India. Similarly, SAS squadrons based in Rhodesia ran the 1960s tribal separatist insurgency in Zaire. They later recruited and deployed natives in terrorist raids in Mozambique and Zambia.

Today, there are three known SAS regiments, comprising 4,500 highly trained commandos in total. Training exercises for 15-man teams simulate terrorist assaults, in order, it is said, to “know the mind of the terrorist.” Such teams are often sent abroad, to train British Commonwealth and other military units in the techniques of terrorist assault, as well as the use of tribal auxiliaries in covert warfare. Through such means, SAS has built an extensive terrorist control capability, especially in its former colonies. Its soldiers currently serve officially in some 30 countries.  Full article is available here.

Afghanistan, Opium and the Taliban

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (February 15, 2001 8:19 p.m. EST)
(Source)
U.N. drug control officers said the Taliban religious militia has nearly wiped out opium production in Afghanistan — once the world’s largest producer — since banning poppy cultivation last summer.

A 12-member team from the U.N. Drug Control Program spent two weeks searching most of the nation’s largest opium-producing areas and found so few poppies that they do not expect any opium to come out of Afghanistan this year.

“We are not just guessing. We have seen the proof in the fields,” said Bernard Frahi, regional director for the U.N. program in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He laid out photographs of vast tracts of land cultivated with wheat alongside pictures of the same fields taken a year earlier — a sea of blood-red poppies. (Full report)

End of Taliban will bring rise in heroin

By Richard Lloyd Parry in Islamabad
The Independent (Source)
Date: 19 October 2001

The defeat of the Taliban would result in a surge in opium production, which has beenvirtually halted in Afghanistan by the Kabul regime over the last year, United Nations officials have warned.

A new UN survey reveals that the Taliban have completed one of the quickest and most successful drug elimination programmes in history.

Vice creeps back to Kandahar. Ellen Knickmeyer, Associated Press – (Source) Image may be subject to copyright.

The area of land given over to growing opium poppies in 2001 fell by 91 per cent compared with the year before, according to the UN Drug Control Programme’s (UNDCP) annual survey of Afghanistan. Production of fresh opium, the raw material for heroin, went down by an unprecedented 94 per cent, from 3,276 tonnes to 185 tonnes.

Almost all Afghan opium this year came out of territories controlled by America’s ally in the assault on Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance. Because of a ban on poppy farming, only one in 25 of Afghanistan’s opium poppies was being grown in Taliban areas. (Full story)

Fisk on Israel-led US Foreign policy:

Having studied for 30 years the United States’ Middle East policies, I can tell you that regardless of whether Barack Obama or John McCain won the upcoming American presidential election, the new president would not bring peace to the area, Fisk said.

“Every time there’s an American presidential election the Arabs say `Ah, maybe there’ll be change in the Middle East. Maybe America will be fairer, maybe it will concern itself with the security of the Arabs as well as the Israelis’.

“And then afterwards there’ll be a war in the Middle East and the President will call upon both sides to exercise restraint and there’ll be billions of dollars of weapons sent to Israel to bomb Lebanon, or whoever they are bombing.

“My experience over 32 years is whoever’s in the White House, the bombs go on falling. And they will.”

Related Links:

• NZ troops in Afghanistan popular with locals
• NZ forces need to leave Middle East – Fisk
• The SAS: Prince Philip’s manager of terrorism
• Afghanistan, Opium and the Taliban

Image of the Day: The Unreality!

Hiding Behind the Monkey Mask

Riot police face off with demonstrators as the police block a bridge into downtown St. Paul to keep protesters from getting close to the site at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minnesota September 4, 2008.  REUTERS/Damir Sagolj – Image may be subject to copyright!

Related Links:

• Time We Elected an Independent Candidate for President?
• P2. Time We Elected an Independent Candidate for President?

War With Russia Is On The Agenda

By Paul Craig Roberts

26/08/08 “ICH” — Thinking about the massive failure of the US media to report truthfully is sobering.  The United States, bristling with nuclear weapons and pursuing a policy of world hegemony, has a population that is kept in the dark—indeed brainwashed—about the most important and most dangerous events of our time.

The power of the Israel Lobby is an important component of keeping Americans in the dark. Recently I watched a documentary that demonstrates the control that the Israel Lobby exercises over Americans’ view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  The documentary is available here: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14055.htm

Public Domain Photo: USAF/Dept of Defense. The Orwellian named
MGM-118A “Peacekeeper nuclear missile”

As a result of the US media’s one-sided coverage, few Americans are aware that for decades Israel has been ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their homes and lands under protection of America’s veto in the United Nations.  Instead, the dispossessed Palestinians are portrayed as mindless terrorists who attack innocent Israel.

If one reads Israeli newspapers, such as Haaretz, or publications from Israeli organizations, such as the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, one gets a radically different view of the situation than the propagandistic version delivered by US media and evangelical pulpits.

Most Americans know of the 2000 attack by Muslim terrorists on the USS Cole in Aden harbor that resulted in 17 dead and 39 wounded American sailors. But few have heard of Israel’s 1967 attack on the USS Liberty that left 34 American sailors dead and 174 wounded.  Pressured by the Israel Lobby, President Johnson ordered Admiral McCain, father of the Republican presidential nominee, to cover up the attack. To this day there never has been a congressional investigation.

Torpedo damage to Liberty’s research compartment (Starboard side).

Russian peacekeepers, together with Georgian ones, had been stationed in South Ossetia since the early 1990s. On orders from Mikheil Saakashvili, the American puppet “president” of Georgia, the Georgian peacekeepers turned their weapons on the unsuspecting Russian peacekeepers and murdered them.

This action by Saakashvili, elected with money from the neoconservative National Endowment for Democracy, an election-rigging tool of US hegemony, was a war crime.  In truth, the Russians should have hung Saakashvili, as he is far more guilty than was Saddam Hussein.  But it is Russia, not Saakashvili, that the US media has demonized.

Americans have become perfect subjects for George Orwell’s Big Brother.  They sit stupidly in front of the TV news or the New York Times or Washington Post and absorb the lies fed to them.  What is wrong with Americans?  Why do they put up with it?  Are Americans the nation of sheep that Judge Andrew P. Napolitano says they are?  Americans flaunt “freedom and democracy” and live under a Ministry of Propaganda.

Two decades ago, President Reagan reached agreement with Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev to end the dangerous cold war.  But every one of Reagan’s successors has sought to pick a new fight with Russia.  In violation of the agreement, NATO has been taken to Russia’s borders, and the US is determined to put former constituent parts of Russia herself into NATO.  In an effort to neutralize Russia’s nuclear deterrent and compromise her independence, the US is putting anti-ballistic missile bases on Russia’s borders.

The failure of the American media is again evident in the coverage of the Georgian-Russian conflict.  The US media presented the conflict as a Russian invasion of Georgia, whereas in actual fact the American and Israeli trained and equipped Georgian military launched a sneak attack to kill and to drive the Russian population out of South Ossetia, a separatist province.

A Minuteman III ICBM test launch from Vandenberg AFB, California, United States.
Source: Wikimedia Commons

The gratuitously aggressive US military policy toward Russia will lead to nuclear war. I am confident that if Americans elect John McCain, or the Republicans steal another presidential election, there will be nuclear war in the second decade of the 21st century.  The neocon lies, propaganda, macho flag-waving, and use of US foreign policy in the interests of a few military-security firms, oil companies, and Israel are all leading in that direction.

The November election is perhaps the last chance to avoid nuclear war. But the opportunity might already have been missed.  The Republicans have chosen as their candidate one of the most

ignorant warmongers alive.  The Democrats’ choice was between one of the most divisive women in America and a man of mixed race with a funny name.  Considering American’s taste for war, the Democratic candidate could fail to defeat the GOP war candidate.

Many Americans will vote against Obama because he is black.  Why does mixed ancestry confer the black label?  If America’s population was predominantly black, would Obama be considered white?

Race and propaganda are more likely to determine the outcome of the November election than any awareness or consideration of real issues by voters.

The real issues are suffocated by the media.  The American middle class is being destroyed by jobs offshoring and work visas for foreigners, while the incomes of the super rich are soaring. The US dollar’s reserve currency status is eroded. The US is massively in debt at home and abroad.  Health insurance is unaffordable for the vast majority of the population. Injured veterans are being nickeled and dimed, while Halliburton’s profits escalate. Americans are losing their homes, while the US government bails out banks. Wars with Iran, Russia, and China are being planned in order to secure US hegemony.

Americans no longer have a government that is for the people and by the people. They have a government for and by special interests and an insane ideology.

Trident missile launch at sea from a UK submarine. Source: Wikimedia Commons

But Americans have war, which lets them take out all their frustrations, resentments, and disappointments on “Muslim terrorists” and “Russian aggressors.”  Few Americans are disturbed that 1.25 million Iraqis and an unknown number of Afghans have died as a result of American invasions based on Bush regime lies and deceptions. Even Americans, like Senator Biden, Obama’s selection for vice president, who understand that the wars are based on lies, still want the US to win.  So, it was all a mistake and a deception, but let’s win anyway and keep on killing.

I know people who still complain that the US did not nuke North Vietnam.  When I ask why Vietnam should have been nuked, they reply, “if we had nuked them we would have won.”

What would America have won?  The answer is world loathing and the loss of the cold war.

For many Americans, war is like a sports contest in which they take vicarious pleasure and cheer on their side to victory.  Millions of Americans are still bitter that “the liberal media” and war protesters caused America to lose the Vietnam war, and they are determined that this won’t happen again.  These Americans have no realization that there was no more reason for the US to be fighting in Vietnam 40 years ago than to be fighting today in Iraq and Afghanistan or tomorrow in Iran.

Obama, if elected, is no guarantee against nuclear war.  Obama has shown that he is as much under the Israel Lobby’s thumb as McCain.  Obama’s foreign affairs advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, is not a neocon, but he was born in Warsaw, Poland, and has the Pole’s animosity toward Russia.  The Bush administration has already changed US war doctrine to permit preemptive nuclear attack. With the US government determined to ring Russia with puppet states and military bases, war is inevitable.

Presidential appointees face confirmation in the Senate. Any of Obama’s appointees who might be out of step with plans for US and Israeli hegemony could expect opposition from large corporations and the Israel Lobby.  There is no assurance that an Obama administration would not be positioned on “the issues” by the same special interests that have positioned the Bush administration.

Americans are filled with hubris, not with knowledge.  They have no awareness of the calamity that their government’s pursuit of hegemony is bringing to themselves and to life on earth.

Dr. Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury in the Reagan Administration. He is a former Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal, a 16-year columnist for Business Week, and a columnist for the Scripps Howard News Service and Creator’s Syndicate in Los Angeles. He has held numerous university professorships, including the William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He was awarded the Legion of Honor by the President of France and the US Treasury’s Silver Medal for “outstanding contributions to the formulation of US economic policy.”

Related Links:

• Giga Trends
• Nuking Earth for Lifestyle

• The Attack on USS Liberty

Image of the Day: Slow Genocide

Submitted by a reader:

“Don’t Murderers Still Hang in Texas?”

A girl carries a cooking pot filled with water on her head in Baghdad’s Sadr City August 14, 2008. Millions of Iraqis lack access to sufficient clean water and proper sewage five years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Picture taken August 14. REUTERS/Mahmoud Raouf Mahmoud. Image may be subject to copyright.

• About a billion liters of raw sewage is dumped into Baghdad waterways each day—enough to fill 370 Olympic-sized pools. (Reuters).

• Acute cases of diarrhea are three times more common in eastern Baghdad, where water service is most problematic, than in the rest of the city, the United Nations says. That side of the city has also seen a higher incidence of cholera. (Reuters).

War On Iraq: The Costs

• Number of Iraqis Committed to Genocide Since the U.S. Invasion in 2003: 1,252,595 (Aug 22, 2008 )

• Number of Iraqis wounded: UNKNOWN

• Number of U.S. Military Personnel Used as Cannon Fodder (Officially acknowledged) In America’s War On Iraq: 4,146

• Other Iraqi Invasion Coalition Troops deaths: 314
• As above, but in Afghanistan : 580
  
• Other Invasion Coalition Troops deaths: 363

• Number of foreign mercenaries killed and wounded in Iraq: UNKNOWN

• Total US Iraq War Casualties Plus Soldiers Evacuated: 65,137 ( as of 2/29/08 )
  

• Number of US troops suffering brain injuries from Iraq and Afghanistan wars: 320,000

• Direct Cost of the War and Occupation of Iraq: $547,571,898,643
  See the cost in your community

• Total Cost of US War On Iraq: $3,000,000,000,000 (three million million dollars)

Related Links:

• The three trillion dollar war
• 2 million+ deaths in Iraqi Holocaust, Genocide
• The Three Trillion Dollar War (Video report)

“Bush has no right to lecture about human rights”

A message from Ramsey Clark

“Bush has no right to lecture about human rights”

Please make a donation today so that the movement to Impeach and Indict Bush and Cheney will keep growing. Click this link to donate online or by sending a check.

A price the American people are paying for the failure of the House of Representatives to impeach Bush, Cheney and their cabal for crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity — the greatest assaults on peace and human rights of this century — is the Bush Administration’s bellicose drum beat for war against a widening circle of chosen enemies.

Imagine George Bush with the blood of a million Afghans and Iraqis on his hands, the shame of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo hanging around his neck, having trashed the Bill of Rights, the Geneva Conventions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, lecturing China for violating human rights at the World Olympics in Beijing, a hopeful symbol of international cooperation through the peaceful competition of athletes in friendship.

Imagine George Bush lecturing Russia on human rights after insisting on putting U.S. (not NATO) Star War missile sites on the Russian border in Poland and the Czech Republic despite the tragic lessons of the Cold War, all told the greatest crime in history. Among its costs are expenditures that could have provided food for all, vastly reduced poverty on the planet, progressed toward quality universal health care, education and housing for everyone. Instead it took more lives by military violence on five continents and greater military expenditures than World War II and released the genie of nuclear weapons to a status beyond control. Can the planet survive another arms race? And what was George Bush planning when he urged immediate admission of Georgia to NATO just months before Georgia invaded South Ossetia?

Imagine George Bush who committed wars of aggression, the “Supreme International Crime,” against Afghanistan and Iraq, invading and occupying both, judging Russia’s conduct as” unacceptable,” and demanding withdrawal of Russian forces because it sent troops into Georgia to protect the population of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from an invasion by Georgia that killed citizens and peace keepers alike, destroyed property and had driven tens of thousands from their homes.

Nor was Georgia a stranger to Russia. It had been a part of Russia since 1801 for nearly all the last two centuries. It had great power within the USSR. Joseph Stalin was from Georgia, as were L. P. Beria, longtime head of the NKVD and many others, Edward Shevardnadze, the Soviet Union’s last Foreign Minister and the first President of the Government of the independent Georgia that separated from the Soviet Union in 1990.

George Bush took a keen interest in Georgia, which is on Russia’s southern border, but on the opposite side of the planet from the U.S., early in his Presidency and in Mikhail Saakashvili. Under Bush’s direction the U.S. provided major military arms and training for Georgia. It persuaded, or paid Georgia which had no interest in Iraq to send 2000 troops to there, a number exceeded only by the U.S. and U.K. It trained and supported the Georgian troops for duty in Iraq. Saakashvili, a U.S. law school graduate, to quote the New York Times “…positioned himself to become one of the world’s most strident critics of the Kremlin” and with the strong support from the U.S. he was elected President of Georgia.

The U.S. helped them militarize what had been a weak Georgian state. The Pentagon helped overhaul Georgia’s military forces, train its commanders and staff officers. U.S. marine strained Georgian soldiers in the fundamentals of battle. The forces were equipped with Israeli and U.S. firearms, reconnaissance drones and other sophisticated equipment, including anti aircraftweaponry. That the U.S. trained and equipped Georgian forces fled in the face of Russian forces should have told us something about the U.S. training and equipping of foreign militaries.

All this U.S. support and manipulation was with the public goal, urged by George Bush, of making remote Georgia, though a thousand miles from Europe across the Black Sea and Russia, member of NATO and placing Abkhazia and South Ossetia under Georgian control by force.

As in most matters in which George Bush takes aggressive action, oil is a factor in some form. Georgia has made itself available for a pipeline from the Caspian Sea through Azerbaijan then across Georgia to the Black Sea, a major Bush goal, carrying oil from Azerbaijan and former Soviet Republics in Central Asia, produced in large part by U.S. oil companies, to Western markets by-passing Russia. Western Europe shared this U.S. interest.

President Bush visited Georgia in 2005, the first U.S. President to do so. Condoleeza Rice visited while National Security Advisor to Bush and since. Saakashvili has been a frequent guest at the White House and in the Washington corridors of power.

It is George Bush’s enticement and incitement of Georgia that created the present crisis. We have not been told what has been paid Georgia for it.

Suppose NATO had agreed to Georgia membership before Georgia invaded South Ossetia, as the U.S. urged. NATO would have been bound by mutual defense pact to defend Georgia as a Member. NATO, a Cold War creation, which includes all the former colonial powers, should be abolished. The U.S. persuaded NATO to share blame for its assaults that balkanized Yugoslavia which was created to end centuries of violence in the Balkans through unity. It tried to persuade NATO to join in its wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq. It nearly succeeded in Georgia.

The U.S. has a major military airbase in Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet Republic to Russia’s south and more than 1500 miles east of Georgia which is used to bomb Afghanistan. The U.S. has surrounded Russia with military bases from the Baltic states south across its western border with Europe then east for more than 2500 miles to its borders with Xinjiang Province in western China and Mongolia.

Now we can see the hypocrisy of the U.S. calling NATO into emergency session to address the Georgia crisis with false claims made repeatedly about the ceasefire and withdrawal terms negotiated by President Sarkozy of France, only to back down from all its threats and demands for action after fomenting international friction on false pretenses. The world cannot be made safe for hypocrisy, or mendacity.

It is noteworthy that Georgia is within one hundred miles of the border of Iran across Armenia. While George Bush vigorously protests Russian confrontation with Georgian troops which invaded South Ossetia, he has continued his threatening of Iran with a war of aggression for its alleged but unproven efforts to achieve nuclear weapons capability while he engages in a huge U.S. expenditure for new nuclear weapons. The U.S. now has its largest Naval presence in the Gulf region since the Gulf war, pointed toward Iran. The probability that President Bush will cause Israel and the U.S. to attack Iranian nuclear facilities plants during his remaining months in office remains high. Such an attack would violate the Nuremberg Charter and Article 56 of Protocol 1 Additional to the Geneva Convention 1979, which protects “Works and Installations Containing Dangerous Forces,” including nuclear facilities, from attack, because of the “consequent severe losses among the civilian population” from the blast and radiation.

As Bush’s crimes grow, so does our responsibility to act. Please bring your friends and family members into the impeachment movement by sending them to ImpeachBush.org and make a donation today so that the movement to Impeach and Indict Bush and Cheney will keep growing. Click this link to make your donation.

Ramsey Clark
August 22, 2008

Images of the Day: Madness!

Georgian Style Madness

Georgian troops fire rockets at a South Ossetian separatist territory near a settlement in Ergneti, 59 miles from Tbilisi, August 8, 2008. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenedze. Image may be subject to copyright.

Portrait of an Aggressor and a War Criminal

Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili (2nd L) and Defence Minister David Kezerashvili (3rd L) inspect troops near the town of Tskhinvali, some 100 km (62 miles) from Tbilisi, August 10, 2008. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich (GEORGIA). Image may be subject to copyright.

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Another Apple From the Rotten Barrel

“A Conspiracy Against the Public”: For political reasons, Google has blocked this post.

Alaska Sen. Stevens Bites the Dust

Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) poses in an undated handout photo.

Republican U.S. Sen. [for 40 years] Ted Stevens was charged with concealing gifts worth more than $250,000, including home renovations “baksheesh” that he received from an oil company, the Justice Department said.

Stevens was charged in a federal grand jury indictment with seven counts of making false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms from 2001 to 2006.

“I am innocent of these charges and intend to prove that,” Stevens said. “I have never knowingly submitted a false disclosure form required by law as a U.S. senator.” [Yeah, right!]

“Stevens … knowingly and intentionally sought to conceal and cover up his receipt of things of value by filing financial disclosure forms that contained false statements and omissions concerning Stevens’ receipt of these things of value,” the 28-page indictment said.

“The Alaskan investigation covered suspected influence peddling by officials at VECO, then the state’s largest oil-services company and a major patron of Alaska Republicans.” Reuters reported.

“Stevens was the 10th person to be charged. Last summer, agents from the FBI and Internal Revenue Service searched his home in the ski resort of Girdwood, south of Anchorage.”

Could you be silent when major crimes are being committed?

“To be silent when major crimes are being committed against all humanity makes us accomplices”

Four peace activists who attempted to make a “citizens arrest” of Karl Rove, were arrested by Des Moines police in Iowa.

A dozen protesters had gathered outside a country club where Rove spoke at a private Republican party fundraiser. As the four were put into a police van, the demonstrators shouted: “It should be Karl Rove in that van. War Criminal!”

Chet Guinn, a retired Methodist Minister, was among those arrested. He told reporters: “To be silent when major crimes are being committed against all humanity makes us accomplices,” as he was led away. (Source)

An official portrait of Karl Rove

Karl Rove (born December 25, 1950) was Deputy Chief of Staff to President [sic] George W. Bush until his resignation on 31 August 2007. He has headed the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Public Liaison, and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives. Since leaving the White House, Rove has worked as a political analyst and contributor for Fox News, Newsweek, and the Wall Street Journal.

Investigation by the Office of Special Counsel

On April 24, 2007, it was revealed that Rove is being investigated by the Office of Special Counsel for his involvement in the email scandal, the firing of US attorneys, and for “improper political influence over government decision-making.” In response to this investigation and other pending complaints, 2004 Democratic candidate for U.S. Vice President and former 2008 presidential hopeful John Edwards initiated a petition drive calling for Bush to fire Rove. After Rove announced his resignation, Edwards’ reply was “good riddance”. (Source and more information on this character: Wikipedia.)

Reality Shows: The Greatest NOTHING!

When you know you are being shafted!

TV for the Dogs
by Ralph Nader
July 22, 2008

CBS’s new reality show is called “Greatest American Dog,” with pet expert-zoologist Jarod Miller as the host. Twelve “dog-and-human teams are vying for the grand prize of $250,000. These teams are in intense training “by running, jumping, fetching and just looking adorable,” reports the Washington Post.

The show’s executive producer, R.J. Cutler requires the teams to all live together during the weekly competition at a “canine academy” where they will be carefully observed acting and interacting.

There is 5 year old Andrew, a Maltese, whose owner Laurie is a dog day-care owner in Stafford, Virginia. Then there is 1 year old Beacon, a miniature Schnauzer owned by a Los Angeles fashion designer. Beacon will have to get along with Kenji, also a 1 year old, a giant Schnauzer owned by Elan, described as an aspiring dog-salon owner in Portland, Oregon. Other dogs include a Pomeranian, an English bulldog, a Border Collie, a Boxer and a Boston Terrier named Ezzie whose owner, Michael, is an aspiring comic in Los Angeles.

“Although the dogs are beautiful, this is not a beauty contest,” Cutler cautions, adding that “the dog-owner relationship is the central part of the show.”

Non-dog owners, especially cat-lovers, may be snickering at the fastidious details and the presumed smarts of dogs. But behind this contest are standards for judging these dogs, beyond aerial tricks and obedience commands. The Post writes that “Each episode tests a specific quality, such as loyalty, courage or intelligence, and is developed to show how humans and animals cooperate.”

Ah, would that the television networks create reality shows highlighting the courage and intelligence of humans working to improve our society at all levels.

What about “Greatest Community Organizer” or “Greatest Consumer” which would include astute non-consumption or “Greatest Taxpayer” in terms of demanding and receiving efficient government services, or “Smartest Voter.” Or, what about “Greatest Mother, Father, Mother-in-Law and Father-in-Law, Grandmother and Grandparent,” “Greatest Storyteller, Hitch-Hiker, Babysitter, Gardener, Youth-Hobby-Instructor, Temper-Tantrum-Reducer, Neighborhood Myth-Buster, Complainer, Injustice Fighter,” or just plain “Greatest Neighbor?”

“Bah,” say the reality-show promoters. These “greatest” are not low enough on the sensuality ladder. Reality shows have to evoke, greed, danger, ego, adventure, sex, manipulation and self-absorption. Raw cravings!

Some of you may remember that Hollywood had a formula for popular films. Celebrities, romances of the rich and powerful, extravaganzas or thrillers, but above all don’t show the common folk for they live in Dullsville.

But, then after World War II, different films began to come to the screens. Out of war-torn Italy came “The Bicycle Thief” and “Bitter Rice” about ordinary people negotiating the travails of life. Presto, the movie screens became wider in more ways than one and a larger panorama of life entered the cinemas.

The point about these possible reality shows is that they help recognize or reinforce standards in a fast-changing, evolving, devolving society which blurs, depreciates, and jettisons standards that form the connectedness and meaning of inter-generational life lived on small-scales in small communities or neighborhoods.

Sure, such shows would require breakthrough imaginations by their creators. Knee-jerk prejudgments would not be given the benefit of the doubt.

Whole worlds of daily life would open up for audiences accustomed to being treated as Pavlovian specimens—who were, after all, dogs.

end

Serbian Genocide Meister Arrested

Radovan Karadzic the Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive was arrested in Belgrade where he reportedly lived posing as a doctor of alternative medicine, officials said today.

Portrait of a genocidal psychopath: The Serbian Messiah

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic attends a Bosnian Serb parliament session in Pale in this May 1993 file photo. REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic/Files. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

“He happily, freely walked around the city,” Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said. “Even the people he rented a flat from were unaware of his identity.”

Karadzic and his army commander, General Ratko Mladic, were indicted for genocide at Srebrenica, where about 8,000 unarmed Bosnian Muslims were rounded up, murdered and bulldozed into mass graves in July 1995.

He is also charged with authorizing the shooting of civilians during the Sarajevo siege in which an estimated 11,000 people were killed, Reuters reported.

“The arrest of Radovan Karadzic is confirmation that every criminal will eventually face justice,” said Munira Subasic, head of a Srebrenica widow’s association.

A combination photo shows Bosnian Serb wartime leader and indicted war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic (L) in a recent photo released to media July 22, 2008 and (R) in the eastern Bosnian town of Bijeljina October 23,1995. REUTERS/Staff. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

However, Karadzic is still regarded as a national hero by Serbian nationalists following the collapse of Yugoslavia.

A pro-Karadzic demonstrator throws a stone sculpture at Serbian riot police in Belgrade July 22, 2008. War crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic was arrested on Monday near Belgrade posing as a doctor of alternative medicine, sporting long hair, a beard and glasses to hide his face, officials said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Marko Djurica. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

“This is payback to the EU for bringing this new government to power,” said Aleksandar Vucic a member of the nationalist Radicals, which is one of Serbia’s strongest parties. “Karadzic is a Serbian hero. There will be a strong backlash.”

More…

Bosnian Serbs hold up pictures of Radovan Karadzic in his wartime stronghold of Pale, near the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo July 26, 2008. Karadzic, who had been indicted for genocide during the Bosnia wars, was captured in Belgrade earlier this week after 11 years in hiding. REUTERS/Danilo Krstanovic. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

Time for justice to be seen to be done … Time the following too were indicted and prosecuted for genocide and crimes against humanity

George Bush, “Dick” Cheney, Colon Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Madeleine Albright … and everyone else responsible for War on Iraq, Tony Blair, his former Cabinet and all other war-makers in the UK, the former Australian PM, John Howard, and his sidekick, Alexander Goose Downer, and all other warmakers in Australia …