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robotica

lifestyles of the renditionati

 

Former CIA Reichsführer George Tenet awoke this fine morning with a serious case of the heebie-jeebies. You see, Italy prosecuted 23 CIA operatives and found them guilty of kidnapping. Those zany CIA operatives in Italy had perpetrated a little “extraordinary rendition” on an Egyptian Muslim Cleric that was living in exile in Italy. Milan to be quite specific.

Well the CIA figured it was just Italy and so what? After all, they are the vainglorious CIA and of course, they are above law. Any and all law. And yes, the orders to pull off the kidnapping came from above. You know, like from the Oval Office. That far above.

Back to the narrative. The Egyptian Cleric’s name is Usama Mostafa Hassan Nasr. Western media types call the man ‘Abu Omar’. Possibly on account of western media types haven’t a clue as to what’s proper in Muslim culture. My conjecture entirely and I’m thinking that Muslims would generally just call Mr. Nasr, Imam.

Anyway, Mr. Nasr was abducted off a Milan street in broad daylight by those zany CIA spooks and whisked away to parts heretofore unknown. Mr. Nasr was shuffled around Europe and found himself back in Egypt. For an unpleasant visit with Egyptian jailers and the dungeon masters that do the torturous dirty work for the CIA in dank Egyptian prisons. Usama Mostafa Hassan Nasr was tortured (by the Egyptians) and held incommunicado from family and friends courtesy of the United States Central Intelligence Agency’s above the law operatives. Pretty darn sporty, no?

Now a former CIA operative that was “in” on the “extraordinary rendition” of Mr. Nasr, one Sabrina DeSousa, has admitted to the crime. DeSousa told ABC News that “yes, the CIA broke the law.” Wow, go figure. We should remember that Amerika is in that “war of terror” on Muslims and the gloves are off. Hmmm, shouldn’t that just be called a “crusade?”

Dick Cheney (boo boo boo!) claims that Amerika “must embrace the dark side.” Illegal rendition and torture seem fairly dark. “We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will.” Cheney to Tim Russert Sept. 16, 2001.

Would it be “moral” to slap a Muslim cleric in an iron maiden? Poke out the cleric’s eyes with a hot iron? Racks? Evisceration? Cause you know, that’s exactly what Dick Cheney (boo boo boo!) is hinting at with his remarks about the “dark side.” Anyway…

Italian prosecutors weren’t exactly thrilled by the CIA exploits. Nope. And yes, the Italian “intelligence spooks” were in on the CIA hijinxs. There was an inordinate amount of diplomatic grumbling and fingers pointing at them, at each other, and U.S. State Department screams about “diplomatic immunity” and “pissing on international law.”

According to one Robert Seldon Lady, who worked as CIA station chief in Milan and coordinated the operation, “I am not guilty. I am only responsible for following an order I received from my superiors.” Wow, didn’t Nazi war criminals use that same lame rationale at Nuremberg? I’m remembering they said exactly the same thing.

Back to former CIA Reichsführer George Tenet’s waking up in a cold sweat. Tenet was the CIA superior that would have green lighted the operation. Tenet was CIA Reichsführer from 11 July 1997–11 July 2004. Golly George, what in hell were you thinking?

Mr. Nasr got ‘abducted/renditioned’ in 2003. Tenet was CIA Reichsführer, Dick Cheney (boo boo boo!) was ‘sub-lord of the Sith’. and George Bush was ‘el commandante-in-chief’ of the whole of Amerika. Just minor detailing of the record and factual associations.

So Petey Hoekstra (R-Mi) chimes in on the CIA convictions, “the trial was a disaster for CIA officers on the frontline. These people have been put out there. They’ve been hung out to dry. They’re taking the fall potentially for a decision that was made by their superiors in our agencies.” Gosh Petey, you think? CIA’s Bob Lady said “ I am only responsible for following an order…” Hmmm.

TO THE DARK SIDE-

The Queen’s former Ambassador to Uzbekistan and current rector of the University of Dundee in Scotland, one Craig Murray, maintains that the CIA “relied on intelligence based on torture in prisons in Uzbekistan, a place where widespread torture practices include raping suspects with broken bottles and boiling them (the suspects) alive. Boiled alive? That certainly isn’t sushi.

More from Murray. “I’m talking of people having their children tortured in front of them until they sign a confession. The intelligence from these torture sessions was being received by the CIA and was being passed on. Suspects in Uzbekistan’s gulags were being told to confess to membership in al-Qaeda. They were told to confess they’d been in training camps in Afghanistan. They were told to confess they had met Usama bin Ladin in person. The CIA intelligence constantly echoed these themes.”

“I was absolutely stunned– it changed my whole world view in an instant. To be told that London knew the intelligence coming from torture, that it was not illegal because our legal advisers had decided that under the U.N. convention against torture, it is not illegal to obtain or use intelligence gained from torture as long as we didn’t do the torture ourselves.”

Anyone remember John Yoo?

Changed the Queen’s Ambassador’s world view and I’ll bet it did. Part and parcel of wholesale inhumanity and brutish torture. Glossing over the violations of the Geneva Convention, violations of international law, and just plain nasty bullshit.

It’s called “contract horror.” It’s called war crime. The CIA is in it up to their convicted necks. Bush is in it. Cheney is in it. Tenet, Rice, Rumsfeld, Yoo, the U.S. Congress, Britain, Blair, and dang the list isn’t even exhausted.

This is just the beginning. The beginning of the end that Barack Obama and Eric Holder do NOT want you to know about. The crimes against humanity are real and they WILL come out. Slowly and torturously prolonged to maximum disadvantage. Horror will leak out from this corner and from under that suppressed rock and from the dank unspeakable places that have been kept “top secret” for the obvious reasons.

It is apparent that Italy has done a great service for our miserably suffering world. When the pillars of ‘moral democracy’ partake in criminality, there is nothing left to celebrate. There is no moral high ground. There is only war crime that Amerika must now come face to face with and deal with.

sources and stuff-

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5A40SQ20091105

http://rawstory.com/2009/11/italian-court-convicts-25-americans-kidnapping-cia-rendition-case/

http://rawstory.com/2009/11/ambassador-cia-people-tortured/

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/5/italian_prosecutor_in_case_against_cia

 

 

status woe

Hypocrisy du Jour!

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

News

November 2, 2009
US government congratulates President Hamid Karzai on his reelection

The government of the United States today welcomed the decision by the Afghan Independent Election Commission to forego the runoff, and congratulated President Hamid karzai for his reelection in the Afghan elections.
The US Embassy in Kabul issued a statement on Monday stating, “The United States welcomes the decision by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to conclude Afghanistan’s electoral process by foregoing a second round of balloting.  We appreciate that the IEC has taken this decision according to its mandate under Afghan law.
Throughout, the United States has been committed to supporting the Afghan people and the institutions of their government in carrying out a constitutional electoral process.
We congratulate President Karzai on his victory in this historic election and look forward to working with him, his new Administration, the Afghan people and our partners in the international community to support Afghanistan’s progress towards the institutional reforms, security and prosperity. We also congratulate Dr. Abdullah and all the other candidates for their efforts to strengthen Afghanistan’s democratic future.”

 

Abject bullshit of the highest order!

 

 

lifestyles of the stimulati

opi-yummy!

Dancing Fools

Is This Tom Friedman’s ‘Walter Cronkite Moment’ on Afghanistan?

by Harvey Wasserman

The Iraq war’s chief New York Times cheerleader has reversed field on Afghanistan. Does it mean there will be no escalation?

In early 1968, after the devastating Tet Offense, CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite pronounced the Vietnam War unwinnable. Lyndon Johnson knew he had “lost middle America” and soon declined to run for a second term. The war dragged on for seven more hellish years. But the hearts and minds of the American public had been lost.

Tom Friedman is no Walter Cronkite. His Times column is influential in certain circles, but has nowhere near the nationally unifying force as Cronkite’s evening broadcasts.

On the other hand, his admonition to “Don’t Build Up” in Afghanistan indicates that the Pentagon PR blitzkrieg demanding more troops has failed in key corporate circles.

Friedman’s arguments are both strategic and monetary. “We simply do not have the Afghan partners, the NATO allies, the domestic support, the financial resources or the national interest to justify an enlarged and prolonged nation-building effort in Afghanistan,” he warns.

Ceding (finally!) the inability of the United States to dictate to countries that don’t like us, Friedman manages to make the whole argument without mentioning Vietnam. He never even hints at the possibility that the US might not actually have the RIGHT to interfere in the politics of other nations.

But in this case he says the military’s plan to pour troops into “stabilizing” Afghanistan” is a 20-year project at best, and we can’t afford it.”

This stunning admission comes alongside Friedman’s signature assertion that “we are the world. A strong, healthy and self-confident America is what holds the world together and on a decent path.”

What he fears is that “a long slow bleed in Afghanistan” could doom the United States, and thus the planet. “Shrinking down in Afghanistan will create new threats,” he concedes. “But expanding there will too. I’d rather deal with the new threats with a stronger America.”

Above all, we “desperately need nation-building at home.”

Thomas Friedman is nothing if not a megaphone for the corporate elite. He supports atomic power and consistently pumps global trade agreements, US military adventurism and top-down decision-making in ways that can draw howls of outrage with a single smarmy sentence.

His Times cohort Roger Cohen has been selling the war as hard as he can. Puff pieces on hawk General Stanley McChrystal’s global campaign to build military support for a massive escalation have been filling the Times’s pages for weeks now. It recently concocted a non-story about the “impatience” of the military brass awaiting tens of thousands of new troops. It gave front page billing to McChrystal’s completely inappropriate campaigning with NATO commanders who love McChrystal’s demand for more troops but likely won’t be sending more of their own any time soon.

It’s impossible to assign tangible value to Friedman’s loss of faith in escalation. But those of us hoping to avoid a catastrophic dive off the Afghani abyss have expected nothing but grief from this mainstay of the Iraqi catastrophe.

That a key cheerleader for that war is now waving his editorial pompoms for de-escalation can only be good. Let’s make sure the White House gets the message.

Harvey Wasserman’s SOLARTOPIA! OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH is at www.harveywasserman.com , along with HARVEY WASSERMAN’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.

 

 

Swine Flu Juju

 

So being off the grid for a month, I had plenty of spare time on my hands to think about stuff, wander around, and contemplate the interlocked workings of our miserably suffering little planet. You know, that war crap and corrupt politicians and Israeli atrocity on Palestinians and the U.S. Congress and pandemics.

You know if’n it ain’t one thing, it’s about ten other things, and misery does love company. So when we’ve got war we’ve got an assortment of miseries and suffering seems about an in general motif.

Hey, has the Obama brought about an end to ALL war yet? I mean, I was off the grid for a month and the Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize and dang, don’t that just beat all? Well don’t it? I mean, dang! So did the Obama bring an end to ALL war? He should have you know. I mean, he won the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobelites don’t give that “Peace Prize” to just anybody. No they do not.

Well and so having a month off the grid and just about way too much time on my hands, I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to find news. You know the old fashioned way, television and print media. What in hell happened to news? Real news. Where one can find out fact and fact-checked journalism and relevance. Doesn’t seem to be any of that anymore. Nope.

You get “media stars” and crap but no real fact. Well okay, I admit that I found out about the Obama “winning the Nobel Peace Prize” from the television. I’m thinking it was Brian Williams told “America” about that. That Brian Williams sure is pretty.

Anyway, I learned that America is still caught in the grips of “pandemic swine flu.” Yup. Oh holy pig plop on viral crackers, the swine flu is everywhere.

I had the swine flu back in April. After listening to the “pundits and CDC brainiacs” on the television, I’m convinced I had it. Back in April. It’s now almost November.

So after listening to and watching the panic on television and reading about it in the local daily rag, I “learned” that the CDC while championing a “swine flu vaccine,” isn’t quite up to speed to handle the sickies that are dying across America. Ain’t no dang vaccine. Ain’t gonna be no dang vaccine until sometime about next year.

Now there is SOME vaccine. Available for “special” Americans like the Obama kids but, not enough to go around. Hmmm, why would the Obama kids get swine flu vaccine but not the poor kids in Compton? Oh right. Privilege. Hmmm, maybe the Obama kids getting vaccinated has something to do with the Nobel Peace Prize.

Now I know for a fact that folks were lining up at 4:00 a.m. in the freaking early pre-dawn hours to get vaccine from a local clinic. A local clinic told the public on the radio that they’d have the vaccine. The killer swine flu vaccine and given the hysteria that seems to finally be taking hold on America, folks got their little darlings up pre-dawn and bundled their tiny bodies up for the ride to clinic and waited. And waited and waited and waited and then the burly surly clinic nurse came out and told the folks that hadn’t made it in clinic for the vaccine yet, to go home. Vaccine gone and no more vaccine was to be forthcoming.

Hmmm, Sasha and Malia didn’t have to bundle up and wait at some clinic in the cold for their vaccine. Nope, they’re “special!” Sasha and Malia didn’t have to wonder why mom was doing the freak-out cause there wasn’t any more vaccine. No they did not.

Anyway and so, I decided to take a walk out to Dolly Varden. Dolly Varden, Nevada. Just south and west of the Gaza Strip, Utah/Nevada. That’s where Mammy Sammy lives. Mammy Sammy is the Elko County voodoo lady. Sometimes one can have just too much time on one’s hands.

Now Mammy Sammy concocts the ever so popular Mammy Sammy’s Magic Mojo and Mystical Healing Elixir. The Elixir is some guaranteed to work juice. I’ve used Mammy Sammy’s Elixir on numerous cuts, scraps, moles, warts, splotches, mars, marks, wrinkles, and general malaise. Works like magic. That’s no joke either. Mammy Sammy’s Elixir is some powerful liquid and has baffled the medical professional all up and down northeast Nevada and the western portion of Utah for years. I swear by the stuff. Works and that’s gospel.

Mammy Sammy isn’t just any voodoo lady. Oh hell no. Mammy Sammy knows all manner of mystical stuff about all kinds of healing ways and means. Ancient shamanic wonders and tribal medicines and herbal healing crap and she doesn’t suffer fools lightly. One had best make an appointment to see Mammy Sammy and considering that she lives out in Dolly Varden, that is no mean feat.

You see Dolly Varden, Nevada is a no-bars dead zone and getting a call through is difficult on the best of days. So you’ll walk if’n you want to see Mammy Sammy and you’d better have an appointment. Yup. See, I’ve got an inside connection with Mammy Sammy and I can get in to see her.

Anyway, I asked Mammy Sammy what she thought about the swine flu paranoia, the CDC, and did she have a sure-fire cure for the flu. Not for me see, nope, for all the poor folks that weren’t “connected” enough to get into a clinic and get vaccinated. You see, just regular folk are waiting for the CDC to pull their heads out long enough to do the job they get paid those pricey government bucks to do. You know, like vaccines and ‘sound’ medical advice and stuff like that there.

Mammy Sammy likes to refer to the CDC as the “Center for Diseased Confusion.”

“Don’t be planning any long wait on the federal government” claims Mammy Sammy. “The CDC/federal government couldn’t cure a bad case of ass-hives if’n their lives depended on it!”

Mammy Sammy tells it like she sees it. Always has and will for the foreseeable future.

“So?” I asked Mammy Sammy. “What kind of wisdom can you depart to the little people?”

Mammy Sammy gave me an evil eye glare that she sometimes offers up when she feels like you’re being disrespectfully or just being a dummy. I shut up and waited.

“First, the folks need the Mystic Mojo and Magical Healing Elixir. One full Mason jar full. Then, the folks need one large clove of raw garlic. Not that store bought crap, gots to be Gilroy, California garlic. Fresh from Gilroy. This is a must for the remedy. Garlic from Gilroy. Gilroy is close to San Francisco and that makes all the difference.”

“Let me make some notes” I told Mammy Sammy. Mammy Sammy continued…

“Now, two fresh antelope pellets. Two, got that? One fresh sage sleeve. The flower from a blossoming Rabbit Brush. Three egg shells. Six live fire ants. One teaspoon of bat shit. Fresh. Two pinches of alkaline from off’n the flats. Charcoal and not that crappy store charcoal. Make your own. One half pint of deep clay. A pinch of Shafter quartz dust. Four Mormon crickets and it doesn’t matter if they’re dead or whatever.”

“Now you mix all the ingredients in a bowl and smash then grind everything together. Now you’ll want to wash the mash with my Mystic Mojo Elixir. Just a wash and don’t get too carried away with the liquid. You don’t want soup, you’ll want a rub. Pasty like. Now rub your clothes with the preparation and shower using the remainder like soap. In that exact order too. You mess up the proper order of the preparation and you won’t get the natural benefit. You’ll have to wait on the CDC and won’t you be in big trouble then.”

“I guarantee you won’t have to worry about the swine flu, the CDC, the federal government, or the neighbor’s kids. You’ll have the natural immunity needed to avoid being infected by the federal government or the swine flu. Now get the hell off’n my property and don’t come back without an appointment!”

Getting Mammy Sammy to part with her medicinal remedies can be a trying experience. It can also be a touch dangerous. Mammy Sammy keeps an old Remington pump shotgun loaded and propped in the corner by her door. But given the panic and worry that plagues the American people over the lack of swine flu vaccine, visiting Mammy Sammy is a sacrifice I’m willing to make and share with everybody. Besides, the walk to Dolly Varden is good for one’s health. Wears out at least two pair of shoes but mostly worth every minute of the visit.

So the Nobel dummies gave Obama the Nobel Peace Prize? Really?