October 2007

West's development models abortive
Posted: Wednesday, October 31, 2007

By Mabasa Sasa
October 31, 2007

The Herald

CONVENTIONAL economic wisdom since the start of the 20th Century has offered very few alternatives for developing world progress in general and African development in particular.

Development discourse since the 1950's has focused on very few models for the improvement in the quality of life of non-white peoples while concentrating on sustaining growth in the West.

In Africa, this dearth in alternatives has limited discourse to modernisation models and Marxist offshoots based on Socialism that have largely proved to be untenable in a world that is rapidly becoming a global village dominated by US interests.

The net result has been continued underdevelopment of an already woefully underdeveloped world reeling from the cumulative effect of economic theories that do not take into account the peculiarities consistent with localised communities that have benefited little or absolutely nothing from integration into the so-called global community.

All too often, it is believed that the dispatching of extension workers to Africa's rural areas and marginalised communities to virtually force-feed the people there unhealthy doses of neo-liberalism will "save" the "dark continent".

Local traditions and cultures have largely been ignored by mainstream development and this has impacted negatively on efforts to alleviate people's standards of living.

As a consequence, when such aspects of society are ignored, the targets of the "development" initiative naturally resist when the traditions they have lived by for centuries are treated like the superstitions consistent with innately illiterate societies.

In fact, modernisation models and their off-shoots have gone to the extent of labelling "tradition" as an irrational concept that is detrimental to development.

NGOs, the prime movers of these economic models insist that "development" targets must initiate a new culture of bureaucracy as a mark of advancement, never mind that most bureaucracies appear to be the mortal enemies of ordinary people trying to get on with the essential business of surviving.

The governments of southern Africa, through Sadc – which is probably the most effective regional grouping in the developing world – should seriously consider the long held notions of what constitutes development and how it can be achieved.

The role of language, that is the semantics of development has to be re-analysed in the arena of development strategies.

President Mugabe has gone some way in promoting this approach while President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa too has consistently questioned the language used in the development discourse by comprador institutions like the IMF and the World Bank.

What is needed is a re-examination of the region's entire education system so that people can access knowledge that is appropriate to their contemporary and historical context.

As one University of Zimbabwe academic wryly noted in 1993 when the negative effects of ESAP started being felt: "Of what use is learning physics when one is going to earn their livelihood from agriculture? I am not saying we should limit ourselves to agriculture, but I think we need mechanisms that contextualise our education curricula."

It is hardly debatable that education systems in southern Africa – and indeed most of Africa – contain the seeds of inequality sowed by colonialism and perpetuate the dependency syndrome.

Current notions of development are the children of the linearised thinking that has characterised European epistemology from the time Rene Descartes claimed "I think therefore I am", and constitutes what they see as progress but is actually a subconscious fleeing from nature.

Technological advancement (regardless of its propriety to social context), rapid urbanisation as well as mass industrialisation of economies are taken as the be-all and end-all of development.

This neo-liberal approach results in our governments spending billions on building high-rise structures in cities surrounded by squatters and have huge housing backlogs for formal and informal sector employees.

The psycho-cultural side effects of development as we have often tried to achieve are disastrous as can be seen in the US and the South Africa that the ANC inherited from apartheid.

"Ultimately, development is not supposed to be a measure of technological advancement or the number of factories or even the size of urban areas. Development is more about the general quality of life of the population," was the assessment of one Economic History lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe.

He noted: "It's all fair and fine for a CEO to earn his millions. Even if you look as far back as Aristotle you will find that is the nature of division of labour. All that we want is for people to have safe drinking water; adequate shelter, food and enough time left over for leisure and rest once in a while. That is the true meaning of development as opposed to mere economic growth."

An alternative that has been very minimally explored by institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank and the thousands of developmental NGOs, was proposed as far back as the late 1970's by Chilean economist Manfred Max-Neef.

In the critically acclaimed work "From the Outside Looking In: Experiences in Barefoot Economics" he proposed a revitalisation of small to medium scale communities.

His development approach was geared towards the attainment of self-reliance and self-sufficiency in an environmentally sustainable manner.

In such a set-up, localised communities would have the advantage of defining what development means to them and how best they feel and think it can be realistically achieved.

"After all, these people are not stupid, in many cases they have been living in their respective environments for centuries. Hence, they would know best what models and strategies would be sustainable and ensure the preservation of their local cultures, traditions as well the environment.

"Bio-diversity would not be subjugated to the whims of agencies that value technology over nature," elaborated the UZ lecturer while explaining Max-Neef's ideas.

The facet of self-reliance is not new to the development models that developing world nations have experimented with over the years.

Before many of our governments had trooped to the offices of the IMF, dependency theorists like Walter Rodney had advocated for such an approach.

South-South co-operation is something many people are aware of by now. However, what the Max-Neefs of this world desire is to first foster co-operation within localised communities before attempting co-operation on a larger scale.

Sustainable and people-centred development strategies are easier to implement where people within individual nations are initially empowered to be self-reliant. At present, South-South co-operation as espoused by most economists and development theorists today is the horizontal co-operation between government institutions without incorporating ordinary people.

However, some progress has been made towards achieving this.

Initiatives like CAMPFIRE are directly aimed at empowering rural communities and facilitating greater self-reliance.

Furthermore, the project is primarily environmentally friendly and local communities have greater control over their natural resources.

Greater integration of such community-based schemes with institutionalised initiatives such as the Government's farm mechanisation programme would go a long way in attaining real development in Zimbabwe's rural areas, where the majority live.

It is perhaps this lack of integration that has resulted in earlier economic development programmes such as ESAP, ZIMPREST, NERP and the NEDPP failing to realise their targets despite the best of intentions.

Turning truth on its head
Posted: Wednesday, October 31, 2007

¤ Japan PM forced to withdraw Afghan war backing
¤ HIV's Path Out Of Africa: Haiti, The US Then The World
¤ Depressed America

¤ Public Relations Disaster Management
Though time will certainly tell, the Bush administration so far has not yet surpassed that of Richard Nixon’s in its contempt for a free press and its unrelenting war on the truth. Its latest miscarriage of misinformation-a fake "press conference" run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to update the country on the California wildfires-doesn’t match Nixon’s inclusion of disfavored journalists on an "enemies list" to be targeted with wiretaps and tax audits.
Yet the FEMA fiasco does fit in neatly with the Bush pattern of duplicity, secrecy and possible lawbreaking in its public relations. And it works. That is, until someone catches them in the act.

¤ LA fire started by boy with matches

¤ Turning truth on its head
The US has opened up a new front in its now sharply accelerated war drive on Iran. The announcement last week by Condoleezza Rice, branding Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist organisation, and imposing the strongest sanctions yet since 1979 Iranian Revolution, alarmed several democratic presidential candidates who described it as an indication that the White House had begun its "march to war".

¤ War Protests: Why No Coverage?

¤ Preparing for National Suicide
The reason? They say they feel threatened by Iran's pursuit of nuclear power technology, although they formally granted Iran that right when they ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968. The IAEA has found no evidence of a nuclear weapons program. They say they feel threatened by Iran's support of the Shia militia, especially those in Iraq and Lebanon. Iran has traditionally played the role of defending Shia communities, even in the Ottoman era. They say they feel threatened by Iran's opposition to Israel's expansion and Israel's oppression of Palestinians, which is against international law and many UN resolutions. They say they feel threatened by Iran's energy exports and its ability to influence world prices. In general, they feel threatened by an independent nation in an oil-rich region they wish to dominate. Therefore, they threaten to bomb Iran. "All options are on the table."

¤ Will History Repeat Itself?
¤ Pilfered Scholarship Devastates General Petraeus's Counterinsurgency Manual
¤ The Catastrophic Military Occupation of Iraq is Rarely Described Accurately
¤ Shouting at the Devil: "Fuck You, Capitalism!"
¤ Business as usual - Iraq Body Count, Human Rights Watch and that empire-building business
¤ Iraq's biggest dam at risk
¤ What happened in Basra few days ago?
¤ Where Have All the Protests Gone?
¤ IRAQ: When Blackwater Kills, No Questions Asked
¤ Rumsfeld is warned: "A torturer is an enemy of all humankind"
¤ A Catastrophe on the Way
¤ Pound hits 26-year US dollar high
¤ U.S Dollar falls to record lows ahead of Fed decision
¤ IAEA findings on Iran dismissed

¤ Criminal business as usual in Iraq
While you resist the US occupiers and their collaborators, inflict the US occupation and its forces horrendous losses, and you teach them the lessons of bitterest defeat, you confront mass murder on identity, compulsory displacement and suffer from the deprivation of any requirements for a dignified livelihood and services such as running water, electricity, fuel and you name it.. while the US, British, Australian etc.. so called security companies, shed with impunity your innocent and pure blood.. This is what ugly Blackwater gangsters have undertaken when murdering thirteen Iraqi martyrs and wounding 25 others in the al Nessur square in Baghdad's al Mansur neighborhood, for no reason and restarted their criminal business as usual in Iraq, four days only after the US puppet Maliki government fake announcement "to withdraw their permit to work in Iraq!" Everyone knows that this government has no authority whatsoever to withdraw anything, due to "Bremer' bills" who imposed these governments and all the other precedent puppet governments.

¤ Death toll reaches 38 as Tropical Storm Noel rages across Caribbean

¤ King Abdullah flies in to lecture us on terrorism
In what world do these people live? True, there'll be no public executions outside Buckingham Palace when His Royal Highness rides in stately formation down The Mall. We gave up capital punishment about half a century ago. There won't even be a backhander – or will there? – which is the Saudi way of doing business. But for King Abdullah to tell the world, as he did in a BBC interview yesterday, that Britain is not doing enough to counter "terrorism", and that most countries are not taking it as seriously as his country is, is really pushing it. Weren't most of the 11 September 2001 hijackers from – er – Saudi Arabia? Is this the land that is really going to teach us lessons?

¤ The Twisted Logic of U.S Drug Laws

How The U.S. Administration Starts Wars
Posted: Monday, October 29, 2007

¤ The Ethnic Cleansing Of Palestine
Having sent up numerous trial balloons over the past several weeks, Israel now will work on shutting down the Gaza Strip. Having kept it virtually sealed off from the outside world ever since Hamas beat Fatah for control of it, Israel now plans to use creeping electric power outages to make life in that open-air prison totally intolerable. Since no major power appears to have objected loudly enough to the trial balloons, Israel seems confident it can shut Gaza down without significant political repercussions.

¤ Tearful Oprah begs forgiveness
¤ French president walks out of US TV interview
¤ Oil strikes record near $94
¤ Iran says papers show U.S. backing ‘terrorists'
¤ Questions hang over taser death
¤ Iran steps up preparations for US war
¤ A royal guest to be proud of?
¤ Argentina's first lady wins poll
¤ Argentine first lady claims victory in presidential elections
¤ Officials blame each other over California fires
¤ Twenty decapitated bodies found in Iraq

¤ US Gives Immunity to Blackwater Guards
The State Department promised Blackwater USA bodyguards immunity from prosecution in its investigation of last month's deadly shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians, The Associated Press has learned.
As a result, it will likely be months before the United States can - if ever - bring criminal charges in the case that has infuriated the Iraqi government.
"Once you give immunity, you can't take it away," said a senior law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.

¤ Castro likens Bush to 19th century imperialist monarch
Cuban leader Fidel Castro compared US President George W. Bush to the king of a 19th century colonial power, in an article published on Sunday.
Reacting to Bush's calling out the independence slogan "Viva Cuba Libre " -- Long Live Free Cuba -- in a speech Wednesday, Castro branded Bush a "fake" freedom-fighter in calling for Cuba's liberation 139 years after the Caribbean island launched its war for independence from royalist Spain.

¤ Five flagrant, fallacies Bush exploits to wage illegal war
¤ The Undead Walk Among Us: Chalabi Returns!
¤ Corporate Murder in Brazil
¤ While California Burns, Hurricane Giuliani Looms

¤ Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before
In an apparent last-ditch effort to expand the country's national missile defence (NMD) capabilities before he leaves office, President George W. Bush has declared "a real and urgent need" to take action that will protect the United States and its allies from weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Oh wait, not Iraq! Iran! To protect the United States and its allies from weapons of mass destruction in Iran. To wit, ballistic missiles capable of striking the United States.
There isn't really any hard evidence to support the president's belief that Iran has these ballistic missiles or that they represent an imminent threat, but he undoubtedly trusts his instincts for getting this kind of thing right.
Either it's deja vu all over again or he's pandering to American's industrial and military complex for which NDM represents gazillions of dollars.

¤ How Is This Different? (Kill Your TV)
Old media personnel are puzzling over FEMA's fake press conference this week which was alleged to be just a result of poor judgment by well-intentioned bureaucrats. When you read press reports about this however, you get the feeling that reporters weren't so upset that they could probe beyond the talking points issued by Bush's press secretary, Dana Perino.

¤ American kids, dumber than dirt
¤ It's Kidnapping and Torture, Not Rendition and Interrogation
¤ Bush Insiders Describe How This Administration Starts Wars
¤ Dominican storm kills at least 20 people
¤ Doctors test hot sauce for pain relief
¤ AIDS virus invaded U.S. from Haiti: study

'War on terror' is now war on Iran
Posted: Sunday, October 28, 2007

¤ Chavez: Take Bush to madhouse
¤ German parties blast Bush remarks
¤ U.S. Announces Sanctions Against Iran

¤ Cheney's Plan for Iran Attack Starts With Israeli Missile Strike
US Vice President Dick Cheney -- the power behind the throne, the eminence grise, the man with the (very) occasional grandfatherly smile -- is notorious for his propensity for secretiveness and behind-the-scenes manipulation. He's capable of anything, say friends as well as enemies. Given this reputation, it's no big surprise that Cheney has already asked for a backroom analysis of how a war with Iran might begin.
In the scenario concocted by Cheney's strategists, Washington's first step would be to convince Israel to fire missiles at Iran's uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Tehran would retaliate with its own strike, providing the US with an excuse to attack military targets and nuclear facilities in Iran.

¤ US denies being on warpath with Iran
¤ 'War on terror' is now war on Iran
¤ Torture, Then And Now

¤ The Media Frenzy and the Forgotten Refugees
As the California fires rage and millions of Americans are displaced, the US media has mobilized, devoting almost all their coverage to the event. But what about coverage of another serious displacement issue: Iraqi refugees? Watch as we explore the US coverage vs. world coverage of these two very different groups of refugees

¤ Taxi to the Dark Side
Must Watch Award-Winning Documentary

¤ Army to review Iraq contracts for fraud
¤ Foul Play
¤ Undiagnosed brain injury - the hidden legacy of Iraq
¤ Murdoch's Cuckoo's Nest: The Wall Street Journal's Op-ed Page

¤ Truth Matters
I have been writing political essays for a few years now. I do so as a reluctant enthusiast, not because I wanted to write on these themes; but because, it seemed to me, that professional journalists were not telling the whole story; that significant parts that would allow people to connect the dots and understand what is happening from a historical perspective, was being deliberately omitted from the official version of current events, and from history.
As propaganda, the elements that are deliberately left out of media are as important as those that are retained. It is propaganda by omission, as much as by content. What people are not told shapes their world view and influences their behavior, as surely as what they are told. Imposed ignorance and selective knowledge go hand in hand to forge public opinion and to shape cultural identity. These conditions set the stage for belligerent government and aggressive nationalism.

¤ US practicing systematic rape, torture, sadism against women in Iraqi prison camps.
¤ Donald Rumsfeld charged with torture during trip to France
¤ US, Russia at impasse on missile defense
¤ Putin warns of new Cuban missile crisis
¤ Guantanamo military lawyer breaks ranks to condemn 'unconscionable' detention
¤ U.S. agency apologizes for fake wildfires news conference
¤ Wilson released after two years behind bars for teen sex conviction
¤ Did you know?

¤ The Politics of Hypocrisy
The news is no more from Burma. The young monks are quiet in their cells, or they are dead. But words have escaped: the defiant, beautiful poetry of Aung Than and Zeya Aung; and we know of the unbroken will of the journalist U Win Tin, who makes ink out of brick powder on the walls of his prison cell and writes with a pen made from a bamboo mat - at the age of 77. These are the bravest of the brave. What shame they bring to those in the west whose hypocrisy and silence helps to feed the monster that rules Burma.
Condoleezza Rice comes to mind. "The United States," she said, "is determined to keep an international focus on the travesty that is taking place in Burma." What she is less keen to keep a focus on is that the huge American company, Chevron, on whose board of directors she sat, is part of a consortium with the junta and the French company, Total, that operates in Burma's offshore oilfields. The gas from these fields is exported through a pipeline that was built with forced labour and whose construction involved Halliburton, of which Vice-President Cheney was chief executive.

¤ On Track for U.S. Collapse
¤ Big-Game Hunting in Iraq
¤ Thousands call for swift end to Iraq war
¤ About those burned-down houses in California
¤ Breaking Down an Innocent Man
¤ Cuba, Claims and Confiscations
¤ The Arsonists in the West Wing

¤ Iraq, Iran and the U.S. "Vision"
The U.S.'s current cheerleader for American imperial arrogance, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, has now stated that Iran presents a major obstacle blocking the U.S.'s vision for the Middle East. In her fairy-tale world, this vision is of a region where the countries "trade more, invest more, talk more and work more constructively to solve problems."
This entire bizarre concept needs further exploration.

¤ For the Sake of Argument, What If...
¤ Israel 'reduces Gaza fuel supplies'
¤ GM: The Secret Files

Conversations with Castro
Posted: Saturday, October 27, 2007

Aged 81, the world's longest-serving leader is turning his thoughts to his legacy and the succession. In an exclusive extract from his autobiography, Fidel Castro talks to Ignacio Ramonet about vanity and cruelty - and reveals his salary and plans for retirement
Full Article : guardian.co.uk

We all have one drop
Posted: Friday, October 26, 2007

Barack Obama; his eighth cousin, a guy named Cheney; and Bobby (nee Priyush) Jindal: the bad and the good stuff in America are unavoidably mixed in together, writes Gary Younge
Full Article : guardian.co.uk

Chemical Weapons Myths
Posted: Friday, October 26, 2007

¤ Cuba responds to Bush
¤ Campaigners and MPs Condemn New Bush Aggression Against Cuba
¤ How The Brain Generates The Human Tendency For Optimism

¤ The California wildfires and the American social crisis
Once again, the world watches as a natural disaster in the United States threatens to become a social catastrophe. Once again, a million Americans are forced from their homes by a long-forecast calamity, with little planning or preparation by the local, state and federal governments. Once again, tens of thousands of refugees seek shelter at a football stadium in a major American city—this time, San Diego.
There are, of course, many differences between the experience of New Orleans two years ago and San Diego today. The urban core of San Diego and Los Angeles and their infrastructure remain intact. Utilities and other essential services are still in place, and the death toll is far lower. Property losses are estimated at several billion dollars, mainly from destroyed homes as well as crop damage in San Diego County; the damage from Hurricane Katrina was at least 50 times as great.

¤ Feds Join Probe in SoCal Wildfire
¤ Don't Let Bush Burn California
¤ Iraq meeting 'final chance' for diplomacy, says Turkey
¤ Stress Mess In U.S. 48% Can't Sleep

¤ U.S. bunker-buster request prompts Iran attack fears

¤ Attack Iran and you attack Russia
The barely reported highlight of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Tehran for the Caspian Sea summit last week was a key face-to-face meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
A high-level diplomatic source in Tehran tells Asia Times Online that essentially Putin and the Supreme Leader have agreed on a plan to nullify the George W Bush administration's relentless drive towards launching a preemptive attack, perhaps a tactical nuclear strike, against Iran. An American attack on Iran will be viewed by Moscow as an attack on Russia.

¤ Iran denounces 'hostile' US sanctions
¤ Putin warns against more Iran sanctions
¤ Goodbye dollar, hello inflation
¤ Zionists enjoy torturing Palestinians
¤ Fallibility + Unchecked Power = Trouble

¤ Straitjacket Bush
Forget impeachment.
Liberals, put it behind you. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney shouldn't be treated like criminals who deserve punishment. They should be treated like psychotics who need treatment.
Because they've clearly gone mad. Exhibit A: We're in the middle of a disastrous war in Iraq, the military and political situation in Afghanistan is steadily worsening, and the administration's interrogation and detention tactics have inflamed anti-Americanism and fueled extremist movements around the globe. Sane people, confronting such a situation, do their best to tamp down tensions, rebuild shattered alliances, find common ground with hostile parties and give our military a little breathing space. But crazy people? They look around and decide it's a great time to start another war.

¤ Iranian nuclear arms pose little threat to Israel
¤ What Happened in Nahr Al Bared?
¤ Suicide explosion in northern Pakistan kills 40
¤ Afghanistan is lost
¤ Altered Words Not Enough to Alter Reality
¤ Rice Admits US Erred in Deportation, But Offers No Apology For Rendition
¤ Use It or Lose It: Why Language Changes over Time
¤ Crude Hits $92 on Supply Fears
¤ Baghdad to Bush: You Have 14 Months
¤ Israeli authorities demolish all houses in an unrecognized Arab village in the Negev

¤ CHEMICAL WEAPONS MYTHS
One of the most overstated subjects in recent history is the Iraqi chemical weapons program. First, we heard about the massive stocks of chemical weapons Iraq had prior to 1991. When U.N. inspectors arrived in Iraq, they were quite surprised to find that the alleged number of weapons mentioned in the Western media and by U.S. politicians, was no where near reality. There were many fewer.

¤ Google updated Syria satellite images 5x sharper
¤ IRAQ: Child prisoners abused and tortured, say activists

¤ Torture, Paramilitarism, Occupation and Genocide
On October 5, George Bush confronted a public uproar and defended his administration claiming "This government does not torture people." Again he lied. Once secret US Department of Justice (DOJ) legal opinions confirm the Bush administration condones torture by endorsing "the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency." It also condones paramilitary thuggery, oppressive occupation, and genocide. This unholy combination is the ugly face of an imperial nation run by war criminals. That's the state of things today. First, the practice of torture.

¤ Papier Mache...

Venezuela Warns U.S. that 'Cuba is Not Alone'
Posted: Friday, October 26, 2007

Responding to US President George W. Bush's threats towards Cuba on Wednesday, Venezuelan authorities warned yesterday that "Cuba is not alone." The US president called on the international community to prepare for a "transition" in Cuba and vowed to maintain the embargo of the island. Both Venezuelan and Cuban authorities rejected the statements, labeling them "imperialist aggression."

"He spoke like an imperialist and a colonialist," said Venezuelan parliamentarian Saul Ortega about Bush's statements. Ortega assured that the reaction to these threats will be increased unity among the people of Latin America. "In response we have to close ranks in defense of the principles of sovereignty and self-determination," he said.
Full Article : trinicenter.com

A World at War
Posted: Thursday, October 25, 2007

by Shawn Hattingh

A savage war is being waged against the majority of the people on Earth by the governments of the North on behalf of their multinational companies. This war is not being fought with bombs or bullets; it is being fought through neo-liberal economic policies. Its weapons are not being delivered by stealth bombers; they are being delivered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization (WTO). The consequences of this onslaught are, however, as deadly as any conventional war. Indeed, the policies being pushed by the imperial powers through the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO have forced billions of people to live in absolute misery. As happens in any war, however, this onslaught has sparked resistance, and this resistance is beginning to turn the tide.
Full Article : monthlyreview.org

US deception shameful
Posted: Thursday, October 25, 2007

By Mabasa Sasa
Octobewr 25, 2007

Samuel Huntington — perhaps alongside Francis Fukuyama — can be classified as one of the most controversial political scientists of the 20th Century for originating what is commonly referred to as "the Clash of Civilisations".

This is an analytical tool that contends that the central political actors of our times will be civilisations rather than nation-states as was the norm from the time the Holy Roman Empire fell, Napoleon started his wars, and Western Europe as we more or less know it came into being.

Of course, for Africa and much of the Developing World, the history of contact with Europe and America has always been essentially one of a clash of civilisations and Huntington rather astutely put it thus:

"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organised violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do."

This is not to say Huntington is opposed to the use of military might to establish the supremacy of one civilisation over the other as he was after all an influential advisor of Lyndon Johnson when that US president bombarded the South Vietnamese countryside in the 1960s.

The clash of civilisations, however, will not always take on the air of military offensives by the industrially stronger against the weak.

Famed linguist Noam Chomsky for one will tell you that more and more, the subjugation of one civilisation by another has taken on a semantic hue and the full arsenal of the English dictionary is now being deployed to assert the ascendancy — and facilitate the demise — of any given civilisation. The English say, "Give a dog a bad name and hang him!" or, "He that has an ill name is half-hanged."

The logic is simple: the assignment of a name gives one the power to place anything and anyone the power to define and to categorise as good or bad. And the West, probably as the originators of the clash of civilisations and the deployment of arms and language, are particularly adept at this art of war.

For instance, as noted by African scholar Mahmoud Mamdani, the mass death of civilians in Darfur has been classified as genocide while the American-abetted atrocities by the Israelis that have become a way of life for Palestinians is not. Perhaps it was with this in mind that former US President Jimmy Carter balked at the thought of calling Darfur, genocide.

After a recent visit to the region, Carter said, "If you read the law textbooks . . . you'll see very clearly that it's not genocide and to call it genocide falsely just to exaggerate a horrible situation I don't think it helps."

Carter has been joined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in slamming what is going on in Palestine with the latter in 2002 likening the Zionist regime of Israel to that of apartheid South Africa.

For his pains, Tutu has been barred from speaking at the University of St. Thomas in the US for his 'anti-Semitism' and perhaps the man now knows that the adjectives he recklessly deploys against Zimbabwe can just as easily be mobilised against him.

And today it is near impossible to level any criticism against Israel without incurring the full wrath of the linguist arsenal in the hands of those behind the clash of civilisations.

Any word questioning Israel's policies makes one liable to labelled anti-Semitic, Satanic and a holocaust denier.

Francis Boyle, a professor of international law is of the opinion that Palestine should in fact take Israel to The Hague for genocide against non-Jews in the region, but this is an idea that the good legal beavers in Holland will find incredulous.

During the Nato strikes on the unfortunate former Yugoslavia, over 40 Serbian Orthodox Churches and at least one Cathedral were razed to the ground by something called the Kosovo Liberation Army.

It is believed that the KLA massacred some 20 000 Serbian civilians while Nato looked on and said it did not have the capacity to control the army.

Three points: The KLA is a 'liberation' army and not a terrorist movement as Zanla and Zipra were called during the Second Chimurenga, the killing of 20 000 non-combatants belonging to an "undesirable civilisation" is fair game and the almighty West will let it happen, and it is not classified as genocide.

According to Martin McLaughlin writing on WSWS in May 1999 when the Serb-killing frenzy was at its peak, "The US-Nato onslaught against Yugoslavia must be recorded as one of the great crimes of the twentieth century, an entire society, and a major European city, are being pounded into rubble.

"Overwhelming military force is being employed against a semi-defenceless opponent, with a ruthlessness and cynicism not seen on the European continent since Hitler's bombers struck Warsaw and Rotterdam."

But this is not genocide.

In Iraq, a reported 600 000 people have died since the US invasion of 2003 — the figure could be higher — remember that there were 800 000 genocide victims in Rwanda — while a further 3,7 million have fled the country but no one in the West has ever thought of referring to this as a genocide.

Writes Mamdani, "I read about all sorts of violence against civilians and there are two places that I read about — one is Iraq, and one is Darfur. . . . And I'm struck by the fact that the largest political movement against mass violence on US campuses is on Darfur and not on Iraq."

Similarly, nothing is said about the American-backed genocide carried out by rebels in the DRC and yet an estimated four million civilians were butchered in that country while in Somalia another 460 000 have been displaced by US-supported Ethiopian troops.

And out of all this what do we get?

We get such high-sounding nothings as Save Darfur Campaign. We even had, for a mercifully short time, a Save Zimbabwe Campaign. But we never saw a Save Yugoslavia Campaign nor will we see a Save Iraq initiative.

Instead, institutions like the US government funded National Endowment for Democracy (appropriately named for the linguist aspect of the clash of civilisations warfare) creating things like Sokwanele — a bastard child of Otpor which was at the centre of the raping of Yugoslavia.

Again the logic is simple: the West cannot carry out acts of genocide but the "crazy Africans" in Darfur are most certainly capable of it.

And neither can Israel nor any group armed by the Americans be accused of genocide.

Genocide is the preserve of Africans.

Madness as Method
Posted: Thursday, October 25, 2007

¤ Chief in Blackwater row quits
¤ When 'Good Men' do Nothing

¤ Cliches
It's fun sometimes to collect current clichés, which are worn-out uses of the language, such as "at the end of the day." Why can't we just say at twilight or after the sun sets?
Another cliché is "you can run but you can't hide." Osama bin Laden has disproved that, and indeed there are literally thousands of fugitives in the U.S. who have successfully both run and hidden.
Usually when some politician says "the reality is" or "the facts are," the reality isn't and the facts are fiction. The Bush administration continues to claim that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon. There is no evidence to support that claim. It continues to claim that the Iranians have called for the destruction of Israel. They have not. They have called for a change of government in Israel.

¤ Oil: The sovereignty showdown in Iraq
The oil game in Iraq may be almost up. On September 29, like a landlord serving notice, the government of Iraq announced that the next annual renewal of the United Nations Security Council mandate for a multinational force in Iraq - the only legal basis for a continuation of the American occupation - will be the last. That was, it seems, the first shoe to fall. The second may be an announcement terminating the little-noticed, but crucial companion Security Council mandate governing the disposition of Iraq's oil revenues.

¤ Oil higher in Asian market
¤ Is America burned by Mexicans?
¤ SoCal Fires: Product of Federal Neglect?
¤ Fox Links Al-Qaida to Calif. Wildfires

¤ The Trap That Is Iraq

¤ Facing the Reality of America's Lost War (No, Not That One)
Afghanistan is America's lost war - lost in the sense of failure but also in the sense of being forgotten. Even if by some miracle the situation in Iraq turned around 180 degrees during President Bush's remaining 15 months, our self-described “war president" would still leave office having lost one far-more-winnable war.

¤ Madness as Method
¤ When is Torture not Torture? When The President Says It Isn't.
¤ War Costs Spiral out of Control
¤ The Collapse of Bush's Foreign Policy
¤ Bush's Cuba Detour

¤ The Guantánamo Suicides
The grim story of the Guantánamo suicides--the deaths of three men, Ali al-Salami, Mani al-Utaybi and Yasser al-Zahrani in June 2006, and another, Abdul Rahman al-Amri, in May this year--took another turn last week, when, in the absence of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service's long-awaited report into the deaths, Navy Capt. Patrick McCarthy, the senior lawyer on Guantánamo's management team, spoke out in an interview, declaring that all four men had killed themselves with "craftily fashioned nooses."

¤ U.S. "undoubtedly in recession": Jim Rogers
¤ Israel to cut off power to Gaza Strip
¤ Woman Wants Accused Torturers to 'Fry'
¤ Strong earthquake hits Indonesia
¤ "Come and see the rubble of your surgical air-strikes"
¤ Bush Regime Preaches Democracy, Proposes Tyranny

¤ Hans Blix questions U.S. fears over Iran
Former United Nations' chief weapons inspector Hans Blix has challenged U.S. President George Bush's assertion that Iran poses a nuclear threat and the world should take pre-emptive action.
Bush has recently renewed calls for a missile defence shield in Europe, issuing grim warnings that Iran could have a ballistic missile capable of reaching Europe and the U.S. by 2015.

¤ Helicopter Fire Kills Iraqis, Days After Sadr City Battle
¤ Wars may cost $2.4 trillion over decade
¤ The True Relationship Between Europe and America

The True Cost of War for Oil
Posted: Tuesday, October 23, 2007

¤ Mercenaries Part of U.S. Plot to Destroy the Iraqi People ...
After the crimes committed against Iraqi citizens by the company "Blackwater," and after the crime that followed when another private American security firm killed 2 Iraqi women, the Arab media began to take an interest in the issue of private security companies operating in Iraq.
Even before these crimes, the issue had been examined in several documentary films. But perhaps because the Arab media has been unaware of the issue, up to now it had gone largely unexamined within the Arab world.

¤ Rain of terror in the U.S. air war in Iraq
Monday, the Pentagon acknowledged a long-unspoken truth: that the bombardment of civilian neighborhoods in Iraq is an integral part of the vaunted "counterinsurgency" doctrine of Gen. David Petraeus. The number of airstrikes in the conquered land has risen fivefold since George W. Bush escalated the war in January, as USA Today reports:
"Coalition forces launched 1,140 airstrikes in the first nine months of this year compared with 229 in all of last year, according to military statistics ... In Iraq, the temporary increase of 30,000 U.S. troops ordered by President Bush in January has led to the increase in bombing missions. The U.S. command has moved forces off large bases and into neighborhoods and has launched several large offensives aimed at al-Qaeda ... 'You end up having that many more opportunities for close air support,' said Air Force Brig. Gen. Stephen Mueller, director of the Combined Air Operations Center in Doha, Qatar."

¤ U.N. challenges U.S. on illegal air strikes in Iraq
¤ Clinical death of Palestinian prisoner officially announced
¤ Israel Does Not Want Eyewitnesses of Its Crimes in the Gaza Strip

¤ Bush's Catastrophic Rhetoric
Mired in the disastrous Iraq quagmire, opposed by a majority of Americans, George W. Bush has reached new depths of reckless, belligerent bellowing. At a recent news conference, he volunteered that he told our allies that if they're "interested in avoiding World War III," Iran must be prevented from both developing a nuclear weapon or having "the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."

¤ California wildfires trigger state of emergency
¤ California burning
¤ The True Cost of War for Oil
¤ Comparing the Canadian Government and Media Response: Burma and Haiti

¤ On the Eve of Destruction
Don't worry, the White House is telling us. The world's most powerful leader was simply making a rhetorical point. At a White House press conference last week, just in case you haven't heard, President Bush informed the American people that he had told world leaders "if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing [Iran] from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon." World War III. That is certainly some rhetorical point, especially coming from the man singularly most capable of making such an event reality.

¤ United States Has Double Standard at Home and Abroad
"If the United States is going to criticize other countries' behavior, both historical and current, it should eliminate the double standard at home and abroad, and clean up its own act first."

¤ Castro Claims Bush Could Spark WWIII
¤ US might delay missile defense sites
¤ U.S. offers to keep missile shield on stand-by
¤ Iran won't negotiate over atomic rights: president

¤ Strange things are currently happening in Venezuela
Many times we have warned about coming plots ... they came ... but could not topple the Venezuelan government. This does not mean that we erred. We are scientists and philosophers, we are not prophets.
It would have been an equivocation not to warn about coming events whose roots and reasons historically and globally are crystal clear.
Whether we like it or not, the Bush regime, together with its European and Israeli allies, have declared us as part of the 'axis if evil,' as 'international terrorists' who deserve the royal military humanist treatment: violent invasion and genocide, by capturing our wealth, oil, gas, biodiversity, water, strategic minerals, metals and oxygen.

¤ Senate and Neocons Agree to Carve Up Bill of Rights

America's war without end
Posted: Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Planned US spending on the "global war on terror" is set to rise sharply in the coming year, despite claims from the president, George Bush, that al-Qaida is on the run in Iraq.

A funding request sent to Congress this week seeks $196.4bn (£96bn) for counter-terrorism in 2007-8, $25bn up on this year. The Pentagon's separate budget request amounts to an additional $481.4bn.

Justifying these whopping increases, Mr Bush repeats a favourite mantra, that "America is safer but not yet safe", implying that absolute safety is attainable at some point in the future. In a speech this week, his vice-president, Dick Cheney, was franker: he said the US was engaged in an ideological struggle amounting to war without end.
Full Article : guardian.co.uk

Fidel Castro's new reflections: Bush, hunger and death
Posted: Tuesday, October 23, 2007

In elections where voting is not mandatory, our people have just given their verdict, with more than 95 percent of the electorate casting their vote at 37,749 polling stations, in ballot boxes guarded by school children. That is the example provided by Cuba.

For the first time, just before the UN discusses, as it does every year, the project of the Cuban resolution condemning the blockade, the President of the United States announces that he will adopt new measures to accelerate the "transition period" in our country, equivalent to a new conquest of Cuba by force.
Full Article : cubaheadlines.com

Cheney Raises the Rhetoric Against Iran
Posted: Monday, October 22, 2007

¤ Cheney Raises the Rhetoric Against Iran
In the harshest speech against Iran given by a top Bush administration official to date, Vice President Dick Cheney Sunday warned the Islamic Republic of "serious consequences" if it did not freeze its nuclear program and accused it of "direct involvement in the killings of Americans."
"Given the nature of Iran's rulers, the declarations of the Iranian president, and the trouble the regime is causing throughout the region – including the direct involvement in the killing of Americans – our country and the entire international community cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its most aggressive ambitions," Cheney warned in a major policy address to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP).

¤ Cheney: US Will Not Let Iran Go Nuclear

¤ The Secret History of the Impending War with Iran That the White House Doesn't Want You to Know

¤ On the Eve of Destruction
Don't worry, the White House is telling us. The world's most powerful leader was simply making a rhetorical point. At a White House press conference last week, just in case you haven't heard, President Bush informed the American people that he had told world leaders "if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing [Iran] from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon." World War III. That is certainly some rhetorical point, especially coming from the man singularly most capable of making such an event reality.

¤ Steep Decline In Oil Production Brings Risk of War
¤ Children Detach From Natural World As They Explore The Virtual One

¤ US Denial of the Armenian Genocide
It continues to boggle the mind what the Democratic leadership in Congress will do whenever the Republicans raise the specter of labeling them "soft on terrorism." They approve wiretapping without a court order. They allow for indefinite detention of suspects without charge. They authorize the invasion and occupation of a country on the far side of the world that was no threat to us and then provide unconditional funding for the bloody and unwinnable counter-insurgency war that inevitably followed.
Now, it appears, the Democrats are also willing to deny history, even when it involves genocide.

¤ Is There a Method to Bush's Middle East Madness?
¤ Should Blacks Go Green?
¤ The Quagmire of Masculinity
¤ Why Is Moonshine Against the Law?

¤ Guns, butter and blood baths
As of September 30, US aircraft have conducted nearly 1,500 airstrikes in the country, up from fewer than 300 last year. The USA Today story on the increase says the figures don't include helicopter assaults, so add that apocalyptic noise into the mix atop the jets. (In Afghanistan, the number of air strikes has climbed from around 1,700 last year to more than 2,700 through September of this year).

¤ Destruction of Evidence - Ohio's 2004 Presidential Ballots
¤ Bombings greet Bhutto
¤ Bin Laden Asks Iraq Insurgents to Unite

¤ Turkish Troops, Weapons Head Toward Iraq
¤ Turkish Prime Minister warns US
¤ U.S. air strikes in Baghdad kill toddlers
¤ Iran to fire '11,000 rockets in minute' if attacked
¤ Refugees and Puppets
¤ Iran bomb would take '3-8 years' to build
¤ The Sadism of the Israeli Occupation
¤ Kelly disinformation
¤ Mission Accomplished: A New Look at Bush's Victory in Iraq
¤ Bush Asks for $46 Billion More for Wars

Iran's president moves to tighten grip on nuclear policy
Posted: Monday, October 22, 2007

Doubts surrounded the future of Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, yesterday after the departure of the country's chief nuclear negotiator appeared to signal a significant power shift to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A day after Ali Larijani resigned as secretary of the supreme national security council, speculation grew that the foreign minister, a career diplomat, may be the next to go as the president tightens his grip on nuclear policy.

Mr Larijani quit after differences with the president over Iran's negotiating strategy. Despite being staunchly opposed to abandoning the country's uranium enrichment programme - which the west suspects is designed to build a nuclear bomb - Mr Larijani favoured diplomatic engagement to relieve international pressure, in contrast to the president's defiant approach.
Full Article : guardian.co.uk

It's the Oil
Posted: Sunday, October 21, 2007

¤ Bhutto bombing kicks off war on US plan
The first shot has already been fired in the battle that Islamists have vowed to wage against the Washington-inspired and brokered attempt at regime change in Pakistan. It came in the form of twin bomb blasts aimed at Benazir Bhutto, the lynchpin in US machinations, within hours of her arrival in Karachi after years in exile.
The bombs narrowly missed Bhutto but killed up to 150 and injured hundreds of the rapturous supporters who thronged the Karachi streets to greet her. The windshield of her vehicle was shattered and members of her entourage on the roof of the vehicle were injured. A car that was part of her convoy was destroyed.

¤ It's the Oil
¤ It's The Resistance, Stupid
¤ U.S. Assisted Israel In Syrian Attack
¤ Wind-driven fires rage in Calif.; 1 dead

¤ US air raids kill 49 Iraqi civilians
American air strikes on Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City killed 49 people including women and children, Iraqi officials said on Sunday.
Iraqi officials said that bombardment of Sadr City turned residential area into rubble killing civilians indiscriminately including women and children.
Reporters gave gloomy picture from massacre of civilians and innocent people in Baghdad district.

¤ Kelly family appeals for calm after new murder claims by MP

¤ Venezuela to skip IMF meeting
Venezuela will not attend the upcoming meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which leftist President Hugo Chavez accuses of being pawns of Washington.
The announcement was made by the Venezuelan Finance Ministry on Saturday.
Chavez earlier this year promised to withdraw the OPEC country from the IMF.

¤ REMEMBER
¤ Treachery for treatment

¤ Comcast blocks some Internet traffic
Comcast Corp. actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online, a move that runs counter to the tradition of treating all types of Net traffic equally.
The interference, which The Associated Press confirmed through nationwide tests, is the most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a U.S. Internet service provider. It involves company computers masquerading as those of its users.

¤ Haditha: Crime And Punishment And Disinformation

¤ Legal center: 360 children imprisoned in Israeli jails

¤ Convicted Bomber of Pan Am Flight 103 May Have Been Wrongly Sentenced
"A sensational article in the June 24, 2007 edition of The Scotsman includes allegations by the unnamed "Golfer"--a Scottish police officer who worked at a senior level on the Lockerbie case--in which "Golfer" claims there was a plot to blame Libya for the crash of Pan Am 103."

¤ Lions for Lambs
¤ The Shame of Diego Garcia
¤ Bhutto's Bloody Return

Scientists a step closer to steering hurricanes
Posted: Sunday, October 21, 2007

Scientists have made a breakthrough in man's desire to control the forces of nature – unveiling plans to weaken hurricanes and steer them off course, to prevent tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina.
Full Article : telegraph.co.uk

The War on Afghanistan Was Wrong, Too
Posted: Sunday, October 21, 2007

by Jacob G. Hornberger

While most Americans have turned against the Iraq War, many of them still think that the war on Afghanistan was morally and legally justified. Their rationale is that the United States was simply defending itself by attacking Afghanistan and retaliating against those who had conspired to commit the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Of course, the last thing on people's mind was that the 9/11 perpetrators themselves were retaliating for the bad things that the U.S. government had long been doing to people in the Middle East.

In fact, the irony of the attacks on both Afghanistan and Iraq is that both actions are simply a continuation of regime-change operations that have long characterized U.S. foreign policy, operations that are in large part responsible for much of the anger that foreigners have for the United States.
Full Article : lewrockwell.com

The War on Afghanistan Was Wrong, Too
Posted: Saturday, October 20, 2007

¤ The War on Afghanistan Was Wrong, Too
While most Americans have turned against the Iraq War, many of them still think that the war on Afghanistan was morally and legally justified. Their rationale is that the United States was simply defending itself by attacking Afghanistan and retaliating against those who had conspired to commit the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Of course, the last thing on people's mind was that the 9/11 perpetrators themselves were retaliating for the bad things that the U.S. government had long been doing to people in the Middle East.

In fact, the irony of the attacks on both Afghanistan and Iraq is that both actions are simply a continuation of regime-change operations that have long characterized U.S. foreign policy, operations that are in large part responsible for much of the anger that foreigners have for the United States.

¤ Who Restarted the Cold War?
¤ How the State Leads People to Their Own Destruction
¤ Bhutto bombing kicks off war on US plan
¤ Why Males Die Before Females
¤ SAfrica reggae star Lucky Dube shot dead

¤ Benazir survives mid-night assassination plot; 139 killed
In the worst-ever terrorist attack in Pakistan, at least 139 people were killed and more than 500 injured when radical opponents of democracy made a vain attempt to assassinate former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto late last night by triggering two powerful suicide explosions as her homecoming procession after eight years in self-imposed exile made its way to her ancestral home here.

¤ Bhutto alleges military link to suicide bombing

¤ West won't win Afghan war: former UN envoy

¤ Why I know weapons expert Dr David Kelly was murdered
For Tony Blair it was a glorious day. He was in the United States being feted by the U.S. Congress and President Bush.
Their adulation was such that he was being offered the rare honour of a Congressional Gold Medal.
Naturally enough, Bush and his administration were hugely grateful for Blair's decision to join the United States in its invasion of Iraq.

¤ Top army officer reprimanded for using Palestinian Civilians as Human Shields in Nablus

¤ Blackwater and Haditha
The recent public outrage over the conduct of Blackwater Security mercenaries in Iraq, after an unprovoked massacre of at least 17 Iraqi civilians in western Baghdad has been heartening; unfortunately, there has been virtually no attention a far more important concurrent development -- the ongoing collapse of the military prosecution in the Haditha massacre.
Paul Bremer's decision at the eleventh hour before his departure in June 2004 to set all private contractors in Iraq above the law (they are not subject to Iraqi law, U.S. military law, or U.S. civilian law) stands out as one of the more cynical decisions of a war that has redefined cynicism, and attention to that fact is a positive development.

¤ All the lies that fit
¤ IRAQ: Assassination of Sheikh Shakes US Claims
¤ The Silence of Sheep...

¤ Watson makes humiliating return to US after row over race comments
¤ A Case Study in the Limits of Propaganda

¤ 9/11 Fatigue
9/11 Fatigue creeps up on you when you least expect it and it occupies every minute of your day. You start to see boogey men around each corner and tense yourself even when you're trying to relax. You lie awake at night looking for ways to protect yourself from those who would harm you because, of course, you never know whom to trust. Worse yet, you spend endless hours trying to persuade others to join you in fighting an ever-elusive enemy. It's almost as bad as post-traumatic stress syndrome that soldiers must contend with after serving in Iraq for their second, third, fourth and even fifth tours of duty.

¤ Government Surveillance Threatens Your Freedom

A lesson in humility for the smug West
Posted: Friday, October 19, 2007

¤ If USA fires its missiles, Russia will fire back, Putin says

¤ Putin Says U.S. Wants Iraq's Oil
President Vladimir Putin, in his latest jab at Washington, suggested Thursday that the U.S. military campaign in Iraq was a "pointless" battle against the Iraqi people, aimed in part at seizing the country's oil reserves.
The Russian leader was responding to one of dozens of questions from the public in an annual televised Q&A session, his sixth since taking office in 2000. The event broadcast live on state-controlled TV channels and radio stations consisted largely of people from around the country quizzing Mr. Putin mainly on such bread-and-butter issues as pensions, public workers' salaries and school funding.

¤ A lesson in humility for the smug West
¤ Nobel Hypocrisy

¤ Bitter vengeance on the American Taliban
THE British military is facing allegations that the bodies of Iraqi prisoners showed evidence of eye-gauging, genital mutilation and hanging.
Hospital workers allegedly reported the signs of torture and murder on the bodies Iraqi insurgents left dead after a gun battle with British troops and Iraqi insurgents three year ago, according to reports from UK newspaper The Guardian.

¤ Bush intensifies anti-Iran rhetoric
¤ Afghan suicide bombing leaves nine dead
¤ Putin says US-led military action in Iraq turns into campaign against Iraqi people

¤ The Science and Assumptions Behind Watson's Views on Blacks
James Watson's assertion that black people are intrinsically less intelligent than other, fairer-skinned folks has been condemned, and rightly so. But even when based in fact rather than conscience, the reflexivity and vehemence of the condemnations makes it easy to forget that Watson's comments weren't the isolated bile of a single intellectually sclerotic man, but the perfectly predictable outcome of a set of widespread assumptions about genetics, development and humanity.

¤ DNA pioneer breaks his silence on racism row
¤ Watson's words disowned by own institute
¤ James Watson: Master of the scientific gaffe
¤ James Watson has Nobel Syndrome

¤ Claims of secret CIA jail for terror suspects on British island to be investigated
¤ Oil futures surpass $90 a barrel
¤ Putin warns Washington over missile shield
¤ US should set a date for Iraq withdrawal
¤ Turkish MPs back attacks in Iraq
¤ Bush urges Turkey against Iraq incursion
¤ Africans are less intelligent than Westerners

¤ The United States of Violence
We keep hearing that Iraq is not Vietnam. And surely any competent geographer would agree. But the United States is the United States -- still a country run by leaders who brandish, celebrate and use the massive violent capabilities of the Pentagon as a matter of course.

¤ Who Wouldn't Want Us Dead?
¤ Wi-Fi, the Death of Us All

Iraqi Contracts With Iran and China Concern U.S.
Posted: Thursday, October 18, 2007

By James Glanz

BAGHDAD, Oct. 17 — Iraq has agreed to award $1.1 billion in contracts to Iranian and Chinese companies to build a pair of enormous power plants, the Iraqi electricity minister said Tuesday. Word of the project prompted serious concerns among American military officials, who fear that Iranian commercial investments can mask military activities at a time of heightened tension with Iran.

The Iraqi electricity minister, Karim Wahid, said that the Iranian project would be built in Sadr City, a Shiite enclave in Baghdad that is controlled by followers of the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr. He added that Iran had also agreed to provide cheap electricity from its own grid to southern Iraq, and to build a large power plant essentially free of charge in an area between the two southern Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf.
Full Article : nytimes.com

The Iran hawks
Posted: Wednesday, October 17, 2007

¤ Darfur vs. Ogaden, Mugabe vs. Meles
Many left activists and progressives claim to be equally opposed to oppression, whether practiced by the friends of imperialist powers or their enemies, but are virtually silent on the well documented oppressions of such US client states as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Ethiopia, while exhibiting an uncritical zeal in denouncing the enemies of Anglo-American imperialism, often for crimes that have been exaggerated or invented to be used as pretexts for Western intervention and fulfillment of imperialist goals.

There is no better illustration of this tendency to profess principled neutrality while regularly exhibiting a pro-imperialist bias, than the current obsession with the alleged genocide in Darfur and the claims of unjustified political oppression in Zimbabwe, while a virtually unremarked series of crimes and oppressions is carried out by the US and British client government of Meles Zenawi in Ethiopia.

¤ The Price Of an Iraqi Life - $500 to $5,000
The price of an Iraqi life, for purposes of compensation for the families of civilians killed by Americans, can be as low as $500 and as high as $8 million. It depends on who does the assessment.
On the low end, $500 was paid to the brother of a man caught in a firefight outside the gate of his house.
The $8 million is what the Iraqi government is demanding for the families of each of the 17 people it said were killed when private security contractors guarding U.S. diplomats opened fire in a crowded Baghdad square on September 16.

¤ Blackwater: Mercenaries by Definition
¤ Blackwater Won't Allow Arrests

¤ Paths Towards Fascism
Americans expect to have freedom around us just as we expect to have air to breathe, so we have only limited understanding of the furnaces of repression that the Founders knew intimately. Few of us spend much time thinking about how "the system" they put in place protects our liberties. We spend even less time, considering how dictators in the past have broken down democracies or quelled pro-democracy uprisings.

¤ The "Fix"
¤ The Iran hawks
¤ Putin sides with Iran on nuclear question
¤ Russians Will Finish Iranian Nuclear Power Plant

¤ Caspian summit a triumph for Iran

¤ Bush hosts Dalai Lama amid Chinese outrage
¤ Drug-Resistant Staph Germ's Toll Is Higher Than Thought

¤ US 'delayed' British withdrawal from Basra
British forces were prevented from pulling out of their last base in Basra City for five months because the Americans refused to move their consulate, according to senior military sources.
The US warned that a brigade of troops would be sent from Baghdad to take "appropriate action" to maintain security. The delay in withdrawal resulted in some of the fiercest fighting faced by British forces since the invasion of 2003, leading to the deaths of 25 British soldiers and injuries to 58 others, as well as dozens of Iraqi casualties. Two of the British dead were at the base, Basra Palace, while at least 10 others died in supporting operations.

¤ Iraq, Iran and the US
¤ The New Billionaire-Criminal Class
¤ 'The Moment Has Come to Get Rid of Saddam'

¤ Will We Fall For War Vs. Iran?
It would appear, according to news reports, that the hard-liners in the Bush administration, led by the vice president, are pushing for a war with Iran. The tactics are the same. Once you've played the fear card to start one war, the second time is easier.
Iran is a threat to American security and freedom. They are trying to build nuclear bombs to use against us. They are already killing Americans in Iraq. They hate us and our freedom. Eliminating the Iranian government and destroying its nuclear facilities is essential to the security of the United States and part of the international war on terror.
Will the shell game work again? I would like to think that it would not, that the American people will not be won over by "war on terror" propaganda, that Congress would not be taken in this time (not even Sen. Hillary Clinton), and that the national media would raise a loud hue and cry against yet another "preemptive war."

Bush warns of World War III if Iran goes nuclear
"So I've told people that, if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon," said Bush.

Galloway on the Lie Ahmadinejad Called for Israel to be 'Wiped Off the Map'
By Kurt Nimmo - June 15, 2007

"Wiped Off The Map" - The Rumor of the Century
By Arash Norouzi - January 18, 2007

Does Iran's President Want Israel Wiped Off The Map

- Does He Deny The Holocaust?
By A. Fikentscher and A. Neumann - April 19, 2006

Drug-Resistant Staph Germ's Toll Is Higher Than Thought
Posted: Wednesday, October 17, 2007

A dangerous germ that has been spreading around the country causes more life-threatening infections than public health authorities had thought and is killing more people in the United States each year than the AIDS virus, federal health officials reported yesterday.

"The infection is most common among African Americans and the elderly, but also commonly strikes very young children."

documented the emergence of an antibiotic-resistant strain of another bacterium known as Streptococcus pneumoniae, which causes common ear infections.

The researchers attributed the emergence of the strain to a combination of the overuse of antibiotics and the introduction of a vaccine that protects against the infection.

"The use of the vaccine created an ecological vacuum, and that combined with excessive use of antibiotics to create this new superbug," Pichichero said.
Full Article : washingtonpost.com

Crude oil hits record high
Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007

¤ Putin seeks to prevent USA's unilateral military course against Iran
Russian President Vladimir Putin, shrugging off reports of a plot to assassinate him in Tehran, said he'll go ahead with a planned trip to Iran where talks will include the Islamic Republic's "nuclear dossier."

¤ Putin and Ahmadinejad imply USA has no rights to launch military action against Iran

¤ By only focusing on most extreme, radical notions coming out of Tehran, we let radicals win

¤ Iran wins security pledge at Putin summit
President Putin used an historic visit to Iran today to make the case against Western military action and help deliver a regional security guarantee for the Islamic republic.
Mr Putin ignored warnings of a possible suicide attack against him to become the first Kremlin chief to visit Tehran since Josef Stalin met other Allied leaders there at the height of the Second World War in 1943.

¤ A prostituted UN acquiesces to Palestinian human rights violations

¤ Iran, Russia warn against using Caspian territories for military action
¤ Crude oil hits record high
¤ Chávez talks of Cuban and Venezuelan confederation

¤ In The Kingdom of Fear
My friend Bernie says since Democrats won the Congress, George Bush reminds him of a cartoon where this destructive Texas jackrabbit was careening headlong down a path, his eyes riveted on a rabbit hole in the distance. A tortoise, sunning himself at the side of the path, looked behind the rabbit where a baying pack of dogs, in hot pursuit, was gaining on him. The tortoise smiled. The poor bunny was in a race for his life. As he shot by, the tortoise called out lazily, "Think you'll make it?" The rabbit, looking neither to the right nor left, shot back desperately -- "I gotta make it..."
Bernie says Bush is running scared. So scared he's "pantin' like a lizard..."

¤ Inconvenient Corrections
¤ Iraq - What Happened, Why and What Do We Do Now?

¤ On Propaganda and Islamophobia
"The propagandists confidently count on their ferocious "noise machine" made of primarily a network of pseudo-media and loyal bloggers with capacity to repeat any lie long enough to turn it into the prevailing 'truth'."

¤ WMD Chaser, Scott Ritter, Spreads Anti-War Advice

¤ Sun Sets Early on the American Century
The disastrous outcome of the invasion and occupation of Iraq has caused a crisis in the power elite of the United States deeper than that resulting from defeat in Vietnam 30 years ago. Ironically, it is the very coalition of ultranationalists and neo-conservatives that coalesced in the 1970s, seeking to reverse the Vietnam syndrome, restore U.S. power and revive "the will to victory" that has caused the present crisis.

¤ Africans are less intelligent than Westerners, says DNA pioneer

Russia backs Iran nuclear rights
Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has offered qualified support for Iran's nuclear programme on a visit to Tehran.

Mr Putin told journalists that "peaceful nuclear activities must be allowed" and cautioned against using force to resolve the dispute over Iran.
Full Article : news.bbc.co.uk

WMD Chaser, Scott Ritter, Spreads Anti-War Advice
Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Pima County Democrats were taken to school Sunday by a lifelong-conservative-Republican- turned-anti-war activist.

Scott Ritter, the buff and bespectacled former Marine and United Nations weapons inspector, made a name for himself on cable news during the run-up to the war in Iraq. He argued that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction.

Ritter was at the University Park Marriott hotel Sunday to speak to about 60 Pima County Democrats and to try to teach them a thing or two.

Lesson one: The term should be "war prevention," not "anti-war." It sounds better, Ritter said.

Lesson two: Act like a military operation - learn the battlefield, prepare it and anticipate the other side's moves before acting.

"We need to start waging peace with the same tenacity with which we wage war,' Ritter said.

Too often the peace movement isn't ready for obvious attacks and gets defined by its own fringe political tendencies.
Full Article : commondreams.org

Sun Sets Early on the American Century
Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007

The disastrous outcome of the invasion and occupation of Iraq has caused a crisis in the power elite of the United States deeper than that resulting from defeat in Vietnam 30 years ago. Ironically, it is the very coalition of ultranationalists and neo-conservatives that coalesced in the 1970s, seeking to reverse the Vietnam syndrome, restore U.S. power and revive “the will to victory” that has caused the present crisis.

There has been no sustained popular mass protest as there was during the Vietnam War, probably because of the underclass sociology of the volunteer U.S. military and the fact that the war is being funded by foreign financial flows. However, at the elite level the war has fractured the national security establishment that has run the United States for six decades. The unprecedented public critique in 2006 by several retired senior officers over the conduct of the war, plus recurrent signs of dissent in the intelligence agencies and the state department, reflects a much wider trend in elite opinion.
Full Article : commondreams.org

Cuba and Venezuela Deepen Alliance with More Accords
Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007

by Chris Carlson
October 16, 2007
Venezuelanalysis.com

Cuba and Venezuela announced an increased economic and political alliance yesterday after signing several bilateral economic agreements. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban leader Raul Castro met in Havana on Monday to discuss a number of joint projects as a part of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), and President Chavez proposed a future joining of the two countries into a confederation.

Just as Cuba and Venezuela were the first two countries in the formation of ALBA, the new regional alliance that Nicaragua and Bolivia later joined, the Venezuelan president suggested that Cuba and Venezuela be the first in forming a confederation of nations.

"Now we should be looking ahead, Cuba and Venezuela could perfectly form a confederation of nations in the near future, two countries in one," he proposed.

The proposal comes as the two nations continue to forge a tighter relationship, both economically and politically. President Chavez spent the weekend in Cuba where he paid tribute to the 40th anniversary of the death of Che Guevara, and broadcast his Sunday TV and Radio show Aló Presidente from the island. Chavez said on the show that the two countries are governed by "just one government."

"We are going towards a confederation of Bolivarian nations," he said in reference to the South American independence leader Simon Bolivar who proposed the unification of the region in the 19th century.

"We are going to transform this group of ALBA countries, and more countries, into a confederation, the unification of our people. We are going to transform it into a regional power," he said.

Cuba and Venezuela signed a total of 14 economic agreements yesterday, including a joint oil refinery, the exploration for oil in Cuba and in the Gulf of Mexico, an underwater fiber optic cable connecting the two countries, and several joint companies to undertake other ventures. They also made agreements to study many other prospects for "a growing process of union and integration."

By the end of the year the two governments plan to inaugurate a refinery on the southern coast of Cuba that will initially process 65 thousands barrels of oil per day, and later up to 108 thousand barrels. An old Soviet plant that stopped functioning after the fall of the Soviet Union, the refinery will require an initial investment of 236 million dollars to modernize and expand.

The two countries' state oil companies signed joint contracts to explore oil in western Cuba, as well as in Cuban territory in the Gulf of Mexico. A joint company was created to exploit nickel and other mineral deposits in Cuba, and agreements were signed to study the construction of a petrochemical plant, the production of cement, and the creation of an industry to construct ships for fishing, among other proposals.

President Chavez also proposed the establishment of "aggressive" plans to increase agricultural production in both countries with the goal of making them self-sustaining in their food supply. He emphasized the need to break the countries' dependence on food imports and said that agriculture is the most important sector to develop.

"We should make this our highest priority and concentrate our best researchers, our best scientists on searching for the best land, and accelerate the production of materials, tools, machinery, and fertilizers," he said.

The Cuban leader Raul Castro expressed his satisfaction with the growing alliance between the two countries and applauded the new agreements.

"With the signing of these agreements we make a significant contribution to the growing process of unification and integration between Cuba and Venezuela that began with the Cooperative Agreement signed by both countries on October 30th of 2001," he said.

Raul Castro emphasized that commerce between the two countries has seen a continued increase with a tendency to increased diversification and cooperation. According to the Cuban leader, the two countries are now carrying out 352 joint projects in 28 different areas of economic and social development. He emphasized that these types of projects are now growing to other parts of the region as well with the entrance of Bolivia and Nicaragua to the ALBA block.

Source: www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/2733

Putin's visit to Iran to go ahead
Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed that he will visit Iran, despite reports of a possible plot to kill him there.
"Of course I'm going," Mr Putin told a news conference, ending earlier uncertainty about the visit.
Full Article : news.bbc.co.uk

Zimbabwe: It's the land, stupid!
Posted: Monday, October 15, 2007

¤ Zimbabwe: It's the land, stupid!
Three pieces - seemingly small and unimportant - came through the media this week. One relates to eleven white farmers who appeared before the magistrate in Chegutu, facing criminal charges for failing to vacate properties acquired by the State for purposes of resettling the landless.
The farmers lost the case with costs, with the magistrate, Tinashe Ndokera, agreeing with the prosecutor that the farmers merely sought to frustrate land reforms by abusing court processes.

¤ The land of optimism is in the dumps
¤ Outsourcing Torture
¤ Maternal Mortality Shames Superpower US
¤ A Future Only a Pentagon Planner Could Possibly Love
¤ Iraq, Iraq, Partitioning Iraq for a Nomination
¤ Bush administration was either incompetent or is guilty of malfeasance

¤ Something is Rotten in Iraq and the Pentagon
Isn't it odd that in the air attack that the US military claims killed 19 high-ranking leaders of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and 15 civilians, all the slain Al Qaeda members were men and all the men were Al Qaeda, while all the civilians were women (6) and children (9)?
Think about this a minute.
This means that no women were Al Qaeda--and yet we know that women also fight, and also blow themselves up as suicide bombers. Yet these women were all civilians. The children, of course, were children.

¤ Many Americans Still Don't Grasp Iraq War Is Illegal
Mistakenly, many Americans still believe President Bush's war on Iraq is justified because Congress supported it and funds it.
Yet, as international legal authority Francis Boyle of the University of Illinois points out, President Bush got congressional backing by lying that Hussein had W.M.D. and that Hussein was connected to 9/11. That's fraud, probably the bloodiest, costliest lie in White House history.

¤ No Legitimate Justification for War with Iran
¤ Iranian threat "overly exaggerated" - Margelov
¤ Where are the images of Syria nuclear site?
¤ Former US commander blames "partisan" politics and "agenda-driven" media for Iraq debacle

¤ Police could not find any fingerprints on Dr Kelly's 'suicide' knife
Fresh doubts were raised over the suicide of Dr David Kelly after it emerged that no fingerprints were found on the knife he supposedly used to kill himself.
The Hutton Inquiry into the death of the Ministry of Defence weapons expert ruled that he slashed one of his wrists with a blunt garden knife and took an overdose of pills.
But the campaigning Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker has carried out his own investigation after forensic experts questioned the official version of events.

¤ Australian election: an ominous silence on US war plans against Iran
¤ US air strikes kill 34 Iraqis

Zimbabwe: It's the land, stupid!
Posted: Sunday, October 14, 2007

By Nathaniel Manheru
October 13, 2007

The Herald

Three pieces — seemingly small and unimportant — came through the media this week. One relates to eleven white farmers who appeared before the magistrate in Chegutu, facing criminal charges for failing to vacate properties acquired by the State for purposes of resettling the landless.

The farmers lost the case with costs, with the magistrate, Tinashe Ndokera, agreeing with the prosecutor that the farmers merely sought to frustrate land reforms by abusing court processes.

It was a judgement which more than settling the matter, also carried a rebuke. Expectedly, the farmers are angry and traduce the ruling as "a farce". The farmers told both the BBC and Al Jazeera that they mean to fight on, including putting their lives on the line to keep the land.

A BBC/CNN in borrowed robes

Al Jazeera reporter, one Haru Mutasa, surprising still expected the minister responsible for lands to waste his breath addressing worn-out arguments from these farmers whose defence had been rejected by the courts anyway.

This absurd expectation, apart from betraying the location of the sympathies of the station she reports for, and possibly her own sympathies too, amounted to turning Al Jazeera into a superior court, an appellate court with powers of judicial review.

I have dismissed Al Jazeera as the BBC and CNN in borrowed Arab robes, to capture the rather disconcerting editorial discrepancy between the original, pro-Third World Arab Al Jazeera on the one hand, and this Caucasian medley which uses a branding subterfuge to push and defend white interests, on the other.

Mutasa tried to build emotion and empathy for the convicted white farmers by showing off their well-fed animals, contrasted by their faces made haggard by the dim prospects which land justice would soon bring and deliver. She did not find time to give her viewers a comparable and certainly compelling predicament of Zimbabwe's black landless who have had to endure the same predicament for generations.

And in their country too! Surely she was here enough (with Mighty Movies) in 2000 and beyond, to know that the debate on land reforms has evolved to stages where no one — I repeat no one in their right mind — is interested in revisiting arguments which justify the whole programme for the benefit of anyone, least of all that of white farmers who must know better. Until recently, they stood out as uninterrupted beneficiaries of African landlessness, most poignantly represented by the Tangwena people who survived just on the other side of Haru's birthplace.

The white squatters are the evil part of the colonial piece, and no amount of haggardness can ever lift them from their status as villains of this great injustice suffered by generations of Africans. Clearly, the girl seeks to come into the story too late, hoping she can breathe new life into cadaverous claims. In that futile effort, she looks quite hackneyed, strange and misplaced.

To SADC with cynicism

The second piece related to three equally defiant farmers who are in the courts in Rusape facing exactly the same charges. The third referred to a white farmer who has decided to take his case to the Sadc Tribunal, charging that Zimbabwe's land reforms are an exercise in racism and cronyism, and are pushing out people with the competence to work the land.

Interestingly, this particular white man has been on the land from time of birth, and certainly after 1980 when SADCC, precursor to the current Sadc, was formed.

At no point did he think of taking himself to a similar tribunal to raise the racism argument against the all-white colonial land reform programme which kept all Africans on the margins for so long. So much about human rights and racism.

Rhodesia's media A-Team

But something else happened. Rhodesia's indefatigable media A-Team is back in the country to mind this particular story of white struggle. Led by Peta Thornycroft, they have been running up and down, court to court, to ensure the world is roused once more to the "harrowing" plight of the vestigial white tribe left and lost in "Mugabiland".

It is a pleasure to watch their nimble footworks, and how they attempt to pull the entire media fraternity with them. Why a simple and straightforward case in the magistrates' court in small Chegutu proved to have a better appeal than a whole Vice-President opening an international Travel Expo, is something so hard to fathom. What is at stake which makes tourism and its fabulous receipts a drab in comparison? Why would Al Jazeera, itself an Arab channel, worry more about a handful of remnant, sunburnt, racist and law-breaking Rhodesian farmers, and not an Expo so overwhelmingly patronised by Arab buyers? But then again, what's in a name?

Against better sense, world sympathies

There is so much at stake, made worse by the fact that President Mugabe keeps moving on to new "outrages", from the point of view of white British interests here.

Between September and now, Brown has taken telling direct hits from the Zimbabwean leader. He faces a fractured EU he cannot look up to for salvation. If anything, the EU seems to be throwing more dust into Britain's already weeping eyes.

The latest admission by Brussels that the EU was narrow and vindictively British in its rush to impose sanctions against Zimbabwe before exhausting provisions and channels for dialogues can only spell further embarrassment for Brown.

Indeed it can only signal a regional bloc quite fed up with shoring up an unreasonable member's brittle policy of spite, against better sense and world sympathy. The hungry eastern dragon that continues to rumble in the background, eyeing all manner of resources, can only motivate greater rebellion within the European bloc.

Quite a brown headache

Much more happened. Germany will attend Portugal. France is seeking justification to attend through the dutiful Senegalese president Wade who thinks he can do better than Mbeki in bringing about a resolution of an impasse which has already been unclocked. In Shona we call it bravely slaying the dead and cold, muchekadzafa.

In the end France will attend, which means EU's two out of three most powerful economies will be in Lisbon. That isolates Brown, making his absence completely immaterial. Of course Sarkozy is under tremendous pressure from Britain to abscond so the EU, through its attendance register does not validate Mugabe's argument that this is a bilateral dispute. Quite a brown headache!

Stitching and stretching

But Mugabe continues to move on. His Indigenisation Bill is as good as done, only awaiting his assent. Judging by the most recent debate in the House of Lords, the British whose defence of white interests in respect of land was severely breached, are having to stitch and stretch the same tattered defence to cover another assault further up. It cannot be worse.

The Lords want to know what Her Majesty's Government is doing to protect British commercial interests threatened by "Mugabi". Malloch-Brown, himself a Rhodesian, was quite humble and modest: pretty precious little, beyond praying that Mugabe is restrained by Mbeki. Mugabe cannot be made to quack in his boots, he told the hoary lords.

Malloch-Brown gave a very sober response, itself quite a departure from the bellicosity of the supposedly suave House of Lords. Britain seems to be enjoying a blast of realism. Britain is worried