Archive for February 2nd, 2008
DARFURISM, UGANDA, & US WAR IN AFRICA: THE SPECTRE OF CONTINENTAL GENOCIDE
DARFURISM, UGANDA, & US WAR IN AFRICA :
THE SPECTRE OF CONTINENTAL GENOCIDE
THE `SAVE DARFUR’ NARRATIVE
“Save Darfur” is the predominant propaganda front running on Africa and it has overwhelmed the public consciousness with deceptions. In this establishment narrative Arabs on horseback, the Janjaweed, backed
by the Sudan government seated in Khartoum, are the purveyors of genocide. This mirrors the establishment narrative of Rwanda, 1994, which said that the Hutus and the nasty Interahamwe militias committed genocide against the Tutsis in 100 days of killing with machetes. The Rwanda genocide narrative—combined with the narrative about “humanitarian” intervention in Yugoslavia, where the final blow to dismember the country came with the NATO bombing campaign—set the stage for the Darfur genocide narrative.
All over the United States, Britain and Canada advocates and activists
who claim to be concerned about human rights, and even those who
otherwise would not get involved, have supported the “Save Darfur”
movement, a political movement similar to the anti-Apartheid movement
mobilized against South Africa in the 1980’s. The “Save Darfur”
movement has resulted in a huge outpouring of funds, and it has
mobilized support from people in all walks of life, and across the
political spectrum, on the “never again” platform of “stopping genocide.”
Hollywood personalities dubbed “actorvists,” including Mia Farrow, Don
Cheadle and George Clooney, have helped to whip up the “Save Darfur”
hysteria. From Elie Wiesel to Barak Obama, people are “outraged” by
genocide that the Bush Administration, we are told, is reluctant to
stop. And it is hysteria, in the true definition of the word, but it
did not simply rise out of a sudden concern for a bunch of Africans in
some far-off God-forsaken place (as it is portrayed).
At a “Voices for Darfur” fundraiser held on October 21, 2007 at Smith
College in Northampton, Massachusetts, for example, the local chapter
of the Congregation B’Nai Israel Darfur Action coalition, raised over
$14,000 for “humanitarian” aid to Darfur. The B’Nai Israel Save Darfur
Coalition had a broad array of public and organizational support,
including other Jewish organizations, Smith College, Northampton Mayor
Claire Higgins, Massachusetts’ Senator Stan Rosenberg and
Representative Peter Kocot. The campaign organizers claim that “more
than 90% goes to direct-on-the-ground AID.” Working with big
humanitarian groups like Doctors Without Borders and Save the
Children, it is impossible that 90% of funds will hit the ground in
Darfur.
Behind the “Save Darfur” movement are fundamentalist organizations and
think tanks with a deeply nationalistic, militaristic, religious
fundamentalist agenda. The Center for Security Policy, for example,
supports the “star wars” Strategic Defense Initiative, Homeland
Security—which is nothing more than expanding militarism and
emasculated public rights—and the Biometric Security Project. The BSP
centers around emerging biological technologies that will be used to
register, identify, monitor, track and control each and every U.S.
citizen. They call it “identity assurance,” it involves
state-of-the-art recognition equipment, sensors and security
technologies, and it is a central component of the evolving national
security and “counter-terrorism” apparatus.
The Center for Security Policy is the nerve center of the U.S.
military and intelligence apparatus, a deeply nationalist, neoliberal
think-tank and flak organization promoting the all-out attack against
non-cooperative governments—dubbed “rogue states”—peripheral to
Western economic control. These, of course, are primarily Iran, Iraq,
Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, North Korea and Cuba. Zimbabwe is a special
case that has joined the list to some degree. What these states have
in common is that they are all targeted for divestment by the Center
for Security Policy brainchild, www.divestterror.org. Sudan is another
of the “rogue states” targeted.
The establishment narrative on Darfur motivates U.S. citizens to take
action to “Save Darfur,” thus facilitating popular support for
heightened U.S. military involvement. The truth is that the United
States military is already there, in its various incarnations, and the
United States is involved in atrocities…
It is believed that Rwanda Defense Forces (RDF) sent to Darfur on the
African Union “peacekeeping” mission include black U.S. Special Forces
disguised as RDF—just as the black U.S. Special Forces were disguised
as UPDF during the invasion of Zaire…
Israel has strengthened ties with the regime in Chad, from which more
weapons and troops penetrate Darfur. The refugee camps have become
increasingly militarized. There are reports that Israeli and U.S.
military and intelligence operate from within refugee camps in Darfur.
Israel is all over the Sahara, from Burkina Faso to Ethiopia and
Uganda. Israel’s clandestine actions are partly funded by
Israeli-American diamond magnates involved in Angola, Sierra Leone,
C.A.R. and Congo, especially Dan Gertler (G.W. Bush’s unofficial
Ambassador to Congo), Beny Steinmetz, Nir Livnat, Lev Leviev and
Maurice Tempelsman.
African Union (A.U.) forces in Darfur include Nigerian and Rwandan
troops responsible for atrocities in their own countries. Ethiopia has
committed 5000 troops for a U.N. force in Darfur. A.U. troops receive
military-logistic support from NATO, and are widely hated. Early in
October 2007, SLA rebels attacked an A.U. base killing ten troops. In
a subsequent editorial sympathetic to rebel factions Smith College
English professor Eric Reeves espoused the tired rhetoric of
“Khartoum’s genocidal counter-insurgency war in Darfur,” a position
counterproductive to any peaceful settlement.83 To minimize the
damage this rebel attack has done to their credibility Reeves and
other “Save Darfur” advocates cast doubt about the rebels’ identities
and mischaracterized the SLA attackers as “rogue commanders.” However,
there is near unanimous agreement, internationally, that rebels are
“out of control,” committing widespread rape and plundering with
impunity, just as the SPLA did in South Sudan for over a decade.Debunking the claims of a “genocide against blacks” or an “Islamic
holy-war” against Christians, Darfur’s Arab and black African tribes
have intermarried for centuries, and nearly everyone is Muslim. The
“Save Darfur” campaign is deeply aligned with Jewish and Christian
faith-based organizations in the United States, Canada, Europe and
Israel. These groups have relentlessly campaigned for Western military
action, demonizing both Sudan and China, but they have never addressed
Western military involvement—backing factions on all sides.
Christian and Jewish involvement in the “Save Darfur” campaign centers
on a long-running but deeply manipulative narrative about slavery and
genocide in South Sudan. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum furthered
the establishment narrative about Darfur in keeping with the genocide
theme; no one ever examines the interests behind the Holocaust
Memorial Museum (e.g. Bob Dole), it is merely some apolitical
institution with the championing of supposed “universal” human rights
of all people everywhere as its raison d’etre. The new political and
propaganda doctrine that uses “genocide” as a political tool is
morally ambiguous, it attacks the crimes of some and passes over the
crimes of others. It uses as its universal principle the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and its complementary covenants and
proclamations. On the one hand, however, this involves genocide
inflation, and on the other hand genocide denial. But the USA—with
good Christian and Jewish foot soldiers—is always the final
arbitrator: global cop, judge, jury, executioner, surgeon and savior
all in one.
Christian organizations involved in Sudan for years include Servant’s
Heart and Christian Solidarity International. On Servant’s Heart’s
“Board of Reference” is British Baroness Caroline Cox, who is also
closely affiliated with Christian Solidarity International (CSI)—one
of the main Christian allies of the SPLM/A war in southern Sudan. The
propaganda system advocates in favor of the “rebels” in Darfur using a
handful of techniques developed in their propaganda campaign behind
the “rebels” in South Sudan. Rebels are supported partly by never
mentioning them, partly by decrying abuses against them, partly by
providing sympathetic one-sided accounts of Khartoum government
attacks, and partly by defending their excesses if and
when—infrequently—the rebel abuses come to light.84Christian Solidarity International (CSI) in 2006 issued press releases
claiming that the Lebanese organization Hezbollah “is using Christian
villages to shield its military operations in violation of
international law.” These reports appear to be fabrications to
begin with and the CSI accusation a projection of their own
involvement with the SPLA in South Sudan, where the SPLA for over a
decade used the civilian population as human shields, used the Western
AID apparatus (Operation Lifeline Sudan) as cover for military
support, and used food as a weapon. If Hezbollah did this during the
recent U.S.-Israeli invasion they Hezbollah certainly learned it by
studying SPLA (CSI) tactics in Sudan. Thus we have twisted
triple-standards where the establishment propaganda accuses Hezbollah
of violating international law, but the SPLM/A—and the “rebel” groups
in Darfur—while doing exactly the same thing, are never anything but
poor, defenseless Christians under attack in a “genocidal
counter-insurgency” run out of Khartoum government.Who are the rebels in Darfur? Where do they get new uniforms and
modern weapons? With the establishment propaganda on Rwanda and the
invading Rwanda Patriotic Front/Army from 1990-1994, all abuses were
covered up, the government of Juvenal Habyarimana was blamed for
everything, and the “rebels”—backed by Washington, partnered with the
Pentagon—were never exposed for atrocities and scorched earth attacks.
It was the same with the establishment propaganda that covered for the
SPLA: their role in committing and provoking atrocities in South Sudan
from 1983 to 2003 has been greatly misrepresented and mischaracterized
by virtually every popular source cited in the western press. No one
has pressed this line more than Dr. Eric Reeves, the Smith College
English professor and most widely cited “expert” behind the
establishment narrative to “Save Darfur.”
There is growing dissent within the “Save Darfur” movement as more
supporters question its motivations and the Jewish/Israeli link. “Save
Darfur” leaders have been replaced after complaints surfaced about
expenditures of funds. Many rebel leaders reportedly receive tens of
thousands of dollars monthly, and rebels emboldened by the “Save
Darfur” movement commit crimes with impunity. There is a growing
demand to probe the accounts of “Save Darfur” to find out how the tens
of millions collected are being spent due to allegations of arms-deals
and bribery—rebel leaders provided with five-star hotel
accommodations, prostitutes and sex parties.
The French “humanitarian” charity NGO Zoe’s Ark (L’Arche de Zoé)
involved in Chad and Darfur is under investigation by the United
Nations, France and Chad for trafficking in black children in the
widely under-reported “L’Arche de Zoé affair.” Chadian President
Idriss Déby came under attack for alleging “pedophilia” and “organ
trafficking” and for arresting seventeen Europeans intercepted at an
airport in Chad attempting to depart to France with 103 “Darfur
orphans” aged six to ten. However, there is some serious issue about
whether these children were indeed destined for some shady fate or
merely being kidnapped for “loving” white parents as the western media
indicated (by reporting that on October 24 some French families were
waiting at an airport in France for the airplane full of needy orphans
to arrive but it never did). The French President apparently is afraid
of something and has some history behind this story and does not want
the truth to come out in a court of law in Chad…
ETHIOPIA’S GENOCIDES
The Ogaden, Oromo and Anuak regions of Ethiopia have seen massive
military occupation and state repression. The Ethiopian government of
Meles Zenawi has perpetrated mass starvation and scorched earth policy
in the region. There has been very little international media coverage
and most is favorable the Zenawi regime or pressing the upside-down
stories about “relief” and “starvation” that serve the Western
“humanitarian” business sector. The Ogaden basin is a bloodbath today.
Applying the same legal standards as in Darfur, all three Ethiopian
regions qualify as ongoing genocides against indigenous people.
Failure to apply the genocide standards constitutes genocide denial.
The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1778 (2007) on 25
September 2007 established the United Nations Mission in the Central
African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT). According to the U.N.’s October
2007 Expression Of Interest, “in it’s Presidential Statement of 30
April 2007, the Security Council requested the Secretary General to
`immediately begin appropriate contingency planning for a United
Nations mission to Somalia’. At this early stage it is planned to have
a U.N. logistics base at Mombassa, Kenya to support the main supply
line from Mombassa to Kismayo, Mogadishu and Hobyo, which will serve
as secondary logistics bases in Somalia. At this early stage the
number and location of these sites is unknown, but it is envisaged
that approximately 24,000 personnel may be required.”Ethiopia’s war in Somalia has taxed the government drawing widespread
criticism. The U.S. is pressing for an African Union mission as a
proxy force to replace the Ethiopian troops and further U.S.
interests. Mombasa, Kenya is a U.S. military port. The U.S. war in
Somalia is ongoing. More than 100 U.S. military “trainers” supervised
“combat training” of two Burundian “African Union” battalions (1700
troops) in Bujumbura, Burundi, in advance of their deployment in
Somalia expected in November 2007. French military also provided
training, while the U.S. and France both are providing logistical and
telecommunications support. Burundian troops are also in Darfur.
On November 28, 2004, the Bush White House issued a document
announcing a cooperative agreement with Burundi, Guyana and Liberia
preventing the International Criminal Court from proceeding against
U.S. personnel operating in these countries.
In March 2007 the Pentagon deployed an additional 150 SOCOM Forces in Uganda. The troops were part of the Combined Joint Task Force Horn-of-Africa, an “anti-terrorist naval force” deployed around the Horn of Africa with support points in Bahrain and Djibouti. Ugandan sources divulged that the SOCOM troops would be dispersed “around the country” to “support UPDF troops” and “provide support to distribute humanitarian aid.” It was openly reported that the SOCOM are “possibly training the South Sudanese army, which has just signed an agreement for this with its Ugandan counterpart, strengthening Ugandan capacity to fight terrorism.” The U.S. military has also modernized the old Entebbe airport for UPDF operations, and the Entebbe airport supports a small but permanent U.S. military contingent. 56
It is believed that U.S. SOCOM troops are operating in blood-drenched Eastern Congo. Ugandan opposition sources have reported that SOCOM forces in UPDF uniforms have joined the more than 2000 Pentagon-trained UPDF forces sent by Museveni to Somalia. The UPDF troops operating in Somalia behind a “peacekeeping” propaganda front have been accused of widespread atrocities. More than 1000 people die daily in Eastern Congo where fighting since 1996 has claimed at least 7 million lives. The Democratic Republic of Congo has seen multiple genocide campaigns, and multiple genocide denials are ongoing.
SOCOM forces have been openly reported in Niger, where operations are billed as “humanitarian” and “human rights” training of Nigerien troops.57 But the insurgency and “rebellion” by the Tuareg and Toubou nomads has always been about uranium and depopulation: Canadian and Chinese companies have recently gotten involved but Esso (Exxon), Japan and French corporations were exploiting the Agadez and Air regions in the 1970’s and 1980’s (at least), dumping radioactive sickness and social devastation on another indigenous population.58 Niger is the poorest country in the world. Yet another genocide?
Exxon, Elf and Hunt Oil are in Niger for oil. Barrick Gold is also in Niger, and in Guniea, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Madagascar and Mali; through their partnership with Anglo-Ashanti, Barrick is responsible for atrocities and plunder in eastern Congo. Directors of the G.H.W. Bush-connected Barrick Gold include former U.S. Senator Howard Baker (R-TN), whose wife, Nancy Kassebaum Baker, has been an outspoken advocate for immediate action on Darfur.
“I was in the Senate at the time of Rwanda,” said Kassebaum Baker at a speech in 2006 where discussed Darfur. Kassebaum Baker served as chairwoman of the Foreign Relation Committee’s Subcommittee on African Affairs. “We were all aghast at what was taking place there [Rwanda], but I must say no one really knew what to do about it,” Kassebaum Baker said.59
The Bakers are on the advisory board for the nationalist think-tank Partnership for a Secure America—another policy-formulating-perception-management-force behind the “Save Darfur” movement—along with a stellar cast of corporate executives involved in war and plunder in Africa.60 Most notable of these are Frank G. Wisner, Richard Holbroke, Anthony Lake, Thomas Pickering, Carla Hills and Sam Nunn. Wisner was also on the National Security Council under Clinton, along with the International Crisis Group (ICG) Special Advisor and ENOUGH co-chair John Prendergast. Wisner’s co-directors of the American International Group include: Marshall Cohen, a director of the Bush-connected Barrick Gold Corporation; Clinton Cabinet members William Cohen and Richard Holbrooke; and Carla Hills, NAFTA negotiator and director of Chevron-Texaco and the ICG. Partnership for a Secure America advisory board members Zbigniew Brzezinski, Pickering, Hills, and Kassebaum Baker are all on the Board of Trustees for the ICG—International Crisis Group—the leading flak organization pressing the “Save Darfur” and Lord’s Resistance Army (Uganda) narratives.
DARFURISM
The Darfur region of western Sudan has been a hotbed of clandestine activities, gunrunning and indiscriminate violence for decades. The Cold War era saw countless insurgencies launched from the remote deserts of Darfur. Throughout the 1990’s factions allied with or against Chad, Uganda, Ethiopia, Congo, Libya, Eritrea and the Central African Republic operated from bases in Darfur, and it was a regular landing strip for foreign military transport planes of mysterious origin.
In 1990, Chad’s President Idriss Déby launched a military blitzkrieg from Darfur and overthrew President Hissan Habre; Déby then allied with his own tribe against the Sudan government. Sudanese rebels today have bases in Chad, and Chadian rebels have bases in Darfur, with Khartoum’s backing. When the regime of Ange-Félix Patassé collapsed in the Central African Republic in March 2003, soldiers fled to Darfur with their military equipment. Khartoum supported the West Nile Bank Front, a rebel army operating against Uganda from Eastern Congo, commanded by Taban Amin, the son of the infamous Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin, who heads Uganda’s dreaded Internal Security Organization.
France is deeply involved in covert operations and genocide in Africa. Central Africa Republic (C.A.R.), run by General François Bozizé, is a major base of French defense and intelligence operations linked to security regimes in the bloody dictatorships of Republic of Congo, Togo, Cameroon and Gabon, and France backs guerilla groups committing atrocities in Chad, Sudan, DR-Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi. C.A.R. is also a conduit for blood diamonds, and the back-up for France’s nuclear policy, today heavily reliant on uranium exploitation in Niger: C.A.R. reportedly has massive uranium reserves. Like oil-cursed Equatorial Guinea, C.A.R. is also a bloodbath, completely off the international media screen.61
Darfur is another epicenter of the modern-day international geopolitical scramble for Africa’s resources. Conflict in Darfur escalated in 2003 in parallel with negotiations “ending” the south Sudan war. The U.S.-backed insurgency by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the guerilla force that fought the northern Khartoum government for 20 years, shifted to Darfur, even as the G.W. Bush government allied with Khartoum in the U.S. led “War on Terrorism.” The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA)—one of some twenty-seven rebel factions mushrooming in Darfur—is allied with the SPLA and supported from Uganda. Andrew Natsios, former USAID chief and now U.S. envoy to Sudan, said on October 6, 2007 that the atmosphere between the governments of north and south Sudan “had become poisonous.” This is no surprise given the magnitude of the resource war in Sudan and the involvement of international interests, but the investigation should center on the involvement and activities of USAID officials Andrew Natsios, Roger Winter and Jendayi Frazer.
Roger Winter, USAID chief in Khartoum today, is directly linked to the Rwandan Patriotic Front/Army and U.S. military campaign that destabilized Rwanda and decapitated the leadership of Rwanda and Burundi. USAID’s affiliations with the Department of Defense are now openly advertised with the propaganda peddling AFRICOM—the Pentagon’s new Africa Command. AFRICOM combines U.S. CENTCOM, PACIFICOM and EUCOM operations in Africa; it is nothing new, merely the consolidation and expansion of widespread and ongoing involvement.62
Darfur is reported to have the fourth largest copper and third largest uranium deposits in the world.63 Darfur produces two-thirds of the world’s best quality gum Arabic—a major ingredient in Coke and Pepsi. Contiguous petroleum reserves are driving warfare from the Red Sea, through Darfur, to the Great Lakes of Central Africa. Private military companies operate alongside petroleum contractors and “humanitarian” agencies. Sudan is China’s fourth biggest supplier of imported oil, and U.S. companies controlling the pipelines in Chad and Uganda seek to displace China through the U.S. military alliance with “frontline” states hostile to Sudan: Uganda, Chad and Ethiopia.
There are claims in the Arab community that Israel provides military training to Darfur rebels from bases in Eritrea, but insiders in Eritrea dispute this. Israel has a deep history of intelligence and military relations with both Eritrea and Ethiopia, and Israel reportedly has a naval and air base on Eritrea’s Dahlak and Fatma islands, from which German-made Dolphin-class submarines patrol the Red Sea with long-range nuclear cruise missiles.64 Eritrea reportedly serves as Israel’s outpost for spying on enemies Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Sudan.65 Africa Research Bulletin in 1998 reported an Israeli base in Eritrea’s Mahal Agar Mountains.66 Israel has clearly strengthened ties with the regime in Chad, from which more weapons and troops penetrate Darfur. The refugee camps have become increasingly militarized. There are reports that Israeli and U.S. military and intelligence operate from within refugee camps in Darfur. Israel is all over the Sahara, from Burkina Faso to Ethiopia and Uganda. Israel’s clandestine actions are partly funded by Israeli-American diamond magnates involved in Angola, Sierra Leone, C.A.R. and Congo, especially Dan Gertler (G.W. Bush’s unofficial Ambassador to Congo), Beny Steinmetz, Nir Livnat, Lev Leviev and Maurice Tempelsman.67
African Union (AU) forces in Darfur include Nigerian and Rwandan troops responsible for atrocities in their own countries. Ethiopia has committed 5000 troops for a UN force in Darfur. AU troops receive military-logistic support from NATO, and are widely hated. Early in October 2007, SLA rebels attacked an AU base killing ten troops. In a subsequent editorial sympathetic to rebel factions Smith College English professor Eric Reeves espoused the tired rhetoric of “Khartoum’s genocidal counter-insurgency war in Darfur,” a position counterproductive to any peaceful settlement.68 To minimize the damage this rebel attack has done to their credibility Reeves and other “Save Darfur” advocates cast doubt about the rebels’ identities and mischaracterized the SLA attackers as “rogue commanders.” However, there is near unanimous agreement, internationally, that rebels are “out of control,” committing widespread rape and plundering with impunity, just as the SPLA did in South Sudan for over a decade.
Debunking the claims of a “genocide against blacks” or an “Islamic holy-war” against Christians, Darfur’s Arab and black African tribes have intermarried for centuries, and nearly everyone is Muslim. The “Save Darfur” campaign is deeply aligned with Jewish and Christian faith-based organizations in the United States, Canada, Europe and Israel. These groups have relentlessly campaigned for Western military action, demonizing both Sudan and China, but they have never addressed Western military involvement—backing factions on all sides.
Christian and Jewish involvement in the “Save Darfur” campaign centers on a long-running but deeply manipulative narrative about slavery and genocide in South Sudan. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum furthered the establishment narrative about Darfur in keeping with the genocide theme; no one ever examines the interests behind the Holocaust Memorial Museum (e.g. Bob Dole), it is merely some apolitical institution with the championing of supposed “universal” human rights of all people everywhere as its raison d’etre. The new political and propaganda doctrine that uses “genocide” as a political tool is morally ambiguous, it attacks the crimes of some and passes over the crimes of others. It uses as its universal principle the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its complementary covenants and proclamations. On the one hand, however, this involves genocide inflation, and on the other hand genocide denial. But the USA—with good Christian and Jewish foot soldiers—is always the final arbitrator: global cop, judge, jury, executioner, surgeon and savior all in one.
Christian organizations involved in Sudan for years include Servant’s Heart and Christian Solidarity International. On Servant’s Heart’s “Board of Reference” is British Baroness Caroline Cox, who is also closely affiliated with Christian Solidarity International (CSI)—one of the main Christian allies of the SPLM/A war in southern Sudan. The propaganda system advocates in favor of the “rebels” in Darfur using a handful of techniques developed in their propaganda campaign behind the “rebels” in South Sudan. Rebels are supported partly by never mentioning them, partly by decrying abuses against them, partly by providing sympathetic one-sided accounts of Khartoum government attacks, and partly by defending their excesses if and when—infrequently—the rebel abuses come to light.69
Christian Solidarity International (CSI) in 2006 issued press releases claiming that the Lebanese organization Hezbollah “is using Christian villages to shield its military operations in violation of international law.” 70 These reports appear to be fabrications to begin with and the CSI accusation a projection of their own involvement with the SPLA in South Sudan, where the SPLA for over a decade used the civilian population as human shields, used the Western AID apparatus (Operation Lifeline Sudan) as cover for military support, and used food as a weapon. If Hezbollah did this during the recent U.S.-Israeli invasion they [Hezbollah] certainly learned it by studying SPLA (CSI) tactics in Sudan. Thus we have twisted triple-standards where the establishment propaganda accuses Hezbollah of violating international law, but the SPLM/A—and the “rebel” groups in Darfur—while doing exactly the same thing, are never anything but poor, defenseless Christians under attack in a “genocidal counter-insurgency” run out of Khartoum government.71
Who are the rebels in Darfur? Where do they get new uniforms and modern weapons? With the establishment propaganda on Rwanda and the invading Rwanda Patriotic Front/Army from 1990-1994, all abuses were covered up, the government of Juvenal Habyarimana was blamed for everything, and the “rebels”—backed by Washington, partnered with the Pentagon—were never exposed for atrocities and scorched earth attacks. It was the same with the establishment propaganda that covered for the SPLA: their role in committing and provoking atrocities in South Sudan from 1983 to 2003 has been greatly misrepresented and mischaracterized by virtually every popular source cited in the western press. No one has pressed this line more than Dr. Eric Reeves, the Smith College English professor and most widely cited “expert” behind the establishment narrative to “Save Darfur.” 72
There is growing dissent within the “Save Darfur” movement as more supporters question its motivations and the links to Israel. “Save Darfur” leaders have been replaced after complaints surfaced about expenditures of funds. Many rebel leaders reportedly receive tens of thousands of dollars monthly, and rebels emboldened by the “Save Darfur” movement commit crimes with impunity. There is a growing demand to probe the accounts of “Save Darfur” to find out how the tens of millions collected are being spent due to allegations of arms-deals and bribery—rebel leaders provided with five-star hotel accommodations, prostitutes and sex parties.73
The French “humanitarian” charity NGO Zoe’s Ark (L’Arche de Zoé) involved in Chad and Darfur is under investigation by the United Nations, France and Chad for trafficking in black children in the widely under-reported “L’Arche de Zoé affair.” Chadian President Idriss Déby is under attack for alleging “pedophilia” and “organ trafficking” and for arresting seventeen Europeans intercepted at an airport in Chad attempting to depart to France with 103 “Darfur orphans” aged six to ten. The Zoe’s Ark project began fundraising April 28, 2007 to “evacuate 10,000 orphans facing certain death” to France and the United States. Some 300 European’s paid 2000 Euros ($3450) each as “donations” toward logistics costs to receive an orphan. UNHCR determined the children “were living with their families in communities”—they were neither from Darfur nor were they orphans—and their health was not a serious concern.74 The NGO was reportedly provided logistical support by the French military, and they had made numerous trips to villages on the Darfur border offering enticements and taking children.75 Outraged Chadians on the border with Sudan had already been questioning the motives of scores of foreign aid groups that work with Darfur refugees.76 The United Nations and other relief organizations initially denied all knowledge of the Zoe’s Ark NGO but the NGO was registered as an international charity with the UN Mission in Sudan. The Zoe’s Ark website (www.archedezoe.fr/accueil.htm) lists 800,000 children “in mortal danger today who must be saved now!”
Humanitarian relief is an industry, with corporate directors, big salaries, career advancement, permanent infrastructure in white economies but mobile, structurally nebulous projects in black countries that entrench structural violence and perpetuate dependence and suffering. Nancy Kassebaum Baker, the outspoken advocate for Congo and Darfur, is also a Director Emeriti for the International Medical Corps (IMC), a “humanitarian” NGO with operations in Darfur, South Sudan, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Sierre Leone—all the “problem” countries involved in the transcontinental warfare and then some—and 14 countries outside Africa, including the U.S.-occupied Iraq and Afghanistan. Total revenue to IMC in 2005 was $101,727,119.
Amongst the (many) large IMC donors for 2005 and 2006 were numerous Christian and Jewish organizations, charities and missionary affiliates, the Christian right organization euphemistically named Bread for the World (Bob Dole, Donald Payne, David Beckman, Leon Panetta links), and the American Jewish World Service, Pfizer, BP, American Friends Service Committee, Chevron, Trammel Crow (affiliated with Barrick Gold directors), Coca Cola, World Food Program (Bob Dole link), USAID, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Department of Defense.
“Save Darfur” is today the rallying cry for a broad coalition of special interests. Advocacy groups—from the local Massachusetts Congregation B’Nai Israel chapter to the International Crises Group and USAID—have fueled the conflict through a relentless, but selective, public relations campaign that disingenuously serves a narrow policy agenda. These interests offer no opportunity for corrective analyses, but stubbornly press their agenda, and they are widely criticized for inflaming tensions in Darfur. This is what we might call Darfurism.
The latest Lockheed Martin contract with the United Nations illustrates the latest stage in the transformation of international conflict whereby military-industrial giants are openly engaged, rather than clandestinely, as has been previously the case. This development parallels the rise of Darfurism— a mass movement in the West designed to channel popular sympathy and agitate people to act on a cause they know nothing about, but think they do. Darfurism is a pathological mix of fear, patriotism, social immaturity, opportunism and unconsciousness akin to fascism. Under the current climate of apathy, fear and public opinion, anything goes, and warfare involves humanitarian agencies as active players in the mix. Like the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum they are seen as neutral, described as apolitical, but nothing could be further from the truth.
The United Nations and African Union serve as pseudo-privatized military forces backing a hegemonic, corporate, political and economic agenda. Someone who produces both the danger and, at a price, the shield against it is a racketeer.77 The future has arrived, and it uses human rights institutions, the label of genocide and accusations of atrocities, and the ever-expanding international AID and charity industry—operating out of pure profit motives—as pivotal elements in the Western portfolio of soft and hard weapons used to further the prerogatives of Empire and clear the land for absolute corporate exploitation. ~
Keith Harmon Snow— www.allthingspass,com —is an independent human rights investigator and war correspondent that worked with Survivors Rights International (2005-2006), Genocide Watch (2005-2006) and the United Nations (2006) to document and expose genocide and crimes against humanity in Sudan and Ethiopia. In January 2006 he produced a report on genocide in Ethiopia, co-authored with an international humanitarian law and genocide expert now working for the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal on Yugoslavia. He released this report without authorization in December 2006 because the United Nations buried the report and remained silent about the genocide and the Ethiopian government’s role in it. He has worked in 17 countries in Africa, heavily focused on the Great Lakes region, and he recently worked in Afghanistan.
More information:EXPOSE UGANDA’S GENOCIDE: http://www.exposeugandasgenocide.blogspot.com/ CEGUN: Campaign to Stop Genocide in Uganda Nowhttp://www.cegun.org/ UNIGHT: FOR THE CHILDREN OF UGANDAhttp://www.unight.org/FRIENDS OF THE CONGOhttp://www.friendsofthecongo.org/ANUAK JUSTICE COUNCIL http://www.anuakjustice.org/
NOTES1 Maurice Tempelsman chairs the International Advisory Council at the Harvard AIDS Institute (HAI) of the School of Public Health; his involvement in covert actions and interventions flags this program as cover for clandestine biowarfare. HAI partners with the U.S. Military HIV Research Program (USMHRP), a program whose said purpose is to develop vaccines and AIDS prevention for U.S. Military servicemen: <http://www.aids.harvard.edu/collaborations/external4.html#Anchor-United-58521>.2 http://www.malariavaccine.org/files/020425-USArmy.htm 3 Dulue Mbachu, “Africa’s Unfolding Desert War,” ISN Security Watch, July 11, 2007.4 Tourist Killings in Buhoma,” Gorilla Journal, June 18, 1999 <http://www.berggorilla.org/english/gjournal/texte/18buhoma.html>. 5 See the 1885 map before partition <http://www.newberry.org/smith/k-12plans/africa/images/map_a.jpg> and after <http://www.newberry.org/smith/k-12plans/africa/images/map_b.jpg>.6 Abu Iskandar as-Sudani, “Darfur: The New American French Protectorate,” translated by Muhammad Abu Nasr from Al-Hadaf, Damascus, No.1365, May 2005, pp. 22-25.7 Pratap Chatterjee, “Darfur Diplomacy: Enter the Contractors,” CorpWatch, 21 October 2004, < http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11598 >.8 FIFTH COMMITTEE CONCLUDES CONSIDERATION OF FINANCING OF UN MISSION IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, Press Release GA/AB/3499, United Nations, 12/3/2002, <http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2002/GAAB3499.doc.htm>.9 <http://www.daher.com/gb/the-group/presentation.asp>.10 Statistics generated by United Nations bodies and reported by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre: <http://www.internal-displacement.org/>. 11 See: National Oil Corporation of Kenya: <http://www.nockenya.co.ke/content.asp?title=Upstream&ctid=3&childtitle=Hydrocarbon%20Packages%20Reports&contentid=40>; and Beicip-Franlab <http://www.beicip.com/>.
12 “Lundin Petroleum Signs Production-sharing Contract with Kenya,” Alexander’s Gas & Oil Connections, June 10, 2007, <http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cna74384.htm>.
13 See: Livelihoods & Vulnerabilities Study Gambella Region of Ethiopia, UNICEF, January 2006.
14 See: Michael Maren, The Road To Hell: The Ravaging Affects of Foreign Aid and International Charity, 1996.
15 From the BSP web site: “As biometrics becomes an increasingly important component of physical and logical security systems there is a need for an authoritative and regularly updated reference and data base on virtually all aspects of biometrics and identity assurance.” <http://www.nationalbiometric.org/>.
16 See e.g. Uprooted and Forgotten: Impunity and Human Rights Abuses in Northern Uganda, Human Rights Watch, Vol. 17, No. 12a, September 2005.
17 David M. Rosen, “Child Soldiers, International Humanitarian Law, and the Globalization of Childhood,” American Anthropologist, Vol. 109, Issue 2, 2007, p: 299.
18 See: Keith Harmon Snow, “A People’s History of Congo’s Jean-Pierre Bemba,” Toward Freedom, September 18, 2007; and Effacer le Tableau: Rapport de la mission internationale de recherche surles crimes commis, en violation du droit international, contre les Pygmées bambuti dans l’est de la République démocratique du Congo, Minority Rights Group International, ISBN 1904584217, July 2004.
19 Private interviews, eyewitnesses, October 2007.
20 Karen Parker, Forced Displacement in Northern Uganda, United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, <http://www.webcom.com/hrin/parker/sub01wsu.html>.
21 Wayne Madsen, Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999, Mellen Press, 1999.
22 Private interviews, eyewitnesses, October 2007.
23 See: Tullow, Hardman and Heritage Oil concessions maps: <http://www.allthingspass.com/journalism.php?catid=49>.
24 keith harmon snow & Georgianne Nienaber, “Are USAID Gorilla Conservation Funds Being Used for Covert Operations in Central Africa?” Z Magazine Online (ZNET) September 19, 2007.
25 Angelo Izama, “How badly did Libya want the Kenya-Uganda oil pipeline deal?” Alexander’s Gas and Oil Connections, Vol. 11, Issue 12, November 24, 2006.
26 Ralph G. Kershaw, “Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda: International Justice According to Washington,” Covert Action Quarterly, No. 74, Fall 2002.
27 Jeevan Vasagar, “Uganda hires PR agency to buff up its image,” The Guardian, May 21, 2005.
28 Private interview, Eastern Congo, March 2007.
29 See: <http://www.internal-displacement.org/8025708F004CE90B/(httpCountries)/4745C8FA9EAB6F8A802570A7004B697A?OpenDocument >.
30 “Are the Internally Displaced Persons in Rwanda?” ReliefWeb, July 2003, <http://wwww.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/AllDocsByUNID/3009aad694977bddc1256d6c002c5100>.
31 The Rwandan Patriotic Army was renamed the Rwanda Defense Forces (circa 2000?).
32 “Uganda: Kampala-Kigali Oil Pipeline Estimated at $ 193.6 Million,” 16 October 2007, Rwanda News Agency, <http://allafrica.com/stories/200710160576.html>.
33 Laton McCartney, Friends in High Places: The Bechtel Story, Simon & Schuster, 1988.
34 SAIC information is taken from their Annual Reports, Proxy Statements, and web site.
35 Wayne Madsen, Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999, Mellen Press, 1999: 358.
36 Keith Harmon Snow and Georgianne Nienaber: “Gorillas ‘Executed’ Stories front for Privatization and Militarization of Congo Parks, Truth of Depopulation Ignored,” ZNET, August 3, 2007; and “King Kong: The Map, The Mad Scientist, and the Mayor,” <http://www.allthingspass.com/journalism.php?catid=45>.
37 “Rwanda’s Karisimbi Antenna to Cost USD 2.3 Million,” New Times (Rwanda), 2007.
38 David Barouski, “Laurent Nkundabatware, His Rwandan Allies and the Ex-ANC Mutiny: Chronic Barriers to Lasting Peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” ZNET, February 2007.
39 “Rwanda documentary to open US Black gala,” Rwanda Cinema Center, January 2007, <http://www.rwandacinemacenter.org/RwandaRising.html>.
40 “Rwanda documentary to open US Black gala,” Rwanda Cinema Center, January 2007, <http://www.rwandacinemacenter.org/RwandaRising.html>.
41 Mathew Russel Lee, “At UN, Darfur No-Bid Contract Spun by UK, Chad and Somalia Preemptively Bid Out,” Inner City Press, October 24, 2007, <http://www.innercitypress.com/uklockheed102407.html >.
42 Mathew Russel Lee, “At UN, Darfur No-Bid Contract Spun by UK, Chad and Somalia Preemptively Bid Out,” Inner City Press, October 24, 2007, <http://www.innercitypress.com/uklockheed102407.html >.
43 See, e.g., Wayne Madsen, “The CIA’s Counter-Proliferation Division (CPD) and British intelligence have evidence that then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney lost three nuclear weapons in 1991,” Madsen Report, May 2, 2007; Alexander Cockburn, “Broken Arrows and Iran,” Counterpunch, August 3, 2005.
44 Pauline Jelenek, “U.S. special forces in Somalia,” Associated Press, November 1, 2007.
45 Stephanie McCrummen, “U.S. Warship Fires Missiles at Fighters in Somalia,” Washington Post, June 3, 2007.
46 “HMS Bulwark welcomed home after Lebanon operations,” defense news, 15 August 2006.
47 “U.S. Gunships Battle Pirates Who Seized Ships Off Somalia, Mogadishu,” Fox News, October 30, 2007, <http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,306161,00.html>.
48 keith harmon snow, “State Terror Against Indigenous People in Ethiopia: Another Secret War for Oil,” World War Four Report, April 2004.
49 See: keith harmon snow, Today is the Day of Killing Anuaks, Genocide Watch and Survivor’s Rights International Report, February 25, 2004.
50 Mark Fineman, “The Oil Factor in Somalia,” Los Angeles Times, January 18, 1993.
51 See: Ituri: Covered in Blood (part VII), Human Rights Watch, July 2003, <http://hrw.org/reports/2003/ituri0703/DRC0703-08.htm>.
52 Xan Rice, “US military ‘used Ethiopian base’ to attack Somali militants,” Guardian Unlimited, February 23, 2007.
53 Livelihoods and Vulnerabilities Study, Gambella Region of Ethiopia, UNICEF report, December 13, 2006.
54 Burundi: Troops Ready for Deployment in Somalia,” www.allafrica.com, October 5, 2007.
55 Waiving Prohibition on United States Military Assistance with Respect to Burundi, Guyana, and Liberia, Presidential Determination No. 2005–08 of November 29, 2004, The White House.
56 “Uganda: American Advisors Being Deployed,” Indian Ocean Newsletter, No. 1209, March 3, 2007.
57 Robert Kaplan, “America’s African Rifles,” Atlantic Monthly, April 2005; Dulue Mbachu, “Africa’s Unfolding Desert War,” ISN Security Watch, July 11, 2007.
58 See e.g.: Mouvement des Nigeriens Pour la Justice: <http://m-n-j.blogspot.com/>; James Finch, “Uranium Mining in Niger at Risk,” The Conservative Voice, July 20, 2007; “Niger’s Uranium and Oil Sector Threatened by Rebels” <www.Canada.com> July 9, 2007; “Uranium prices fall again, conflict in Niger,” The Conservative Voice, July 9, 2007; “Niger Rebels Pressure Uranium Miners,” Reuters, July 5, 2007; “Niger rebels attack power plant in uranium area,” Reuters, June 27, 2007.
59 Bill Blankenship, “Ex-senator speaks out: Kassebaum Baker touches on politics of Sudan, Iraq,” The Capital-Journal, October 16, 2006.
60 See: DARFUR ACTION NOW, Partnership for a Secure America, <http://www.psaonline.org/article.php?id=114>.
61 Johann Hari, “Inside France’s Secret War,” The Independent, October 5, 2007.
62 AFRICOM <http://www.africom.mil/africomFAQs.asp>.
63 Abu Iskandar as-Sudani, “Darfur: The New American French Protectorate,” translated by Muhammad Abu Nasr from Al-Hadaf, Damascus, No.1365, May 2005, pp. 22-25 ; see also : keith harmon snow, “Oil in Darfur? Covert Ops in Somalia ? The New, Old Humanitarian Warfare in Africa,” Global Research, February 2007.
64 See: “Close intelligence relations between Israel and Ethiopia, Eritrea
,” June 26, 1998, <www.arabicnews.com>; “Israel to acquire two more German Submarines,” IMRA Newsletter, December 22, 2004, <http://www.kokhavivpublications.com/2004/israel/12/0412231619.html>; Muhammed Salahuddin, “How Israel Casts Its Dark Shadow Over Horn of Africa,” Arab News, August 31, 2006.
65 Muhammed Salahuddin, “How Israel Casts Its Dark Shadow Over Horn of Africa,” Arab News, August 31, 2006.
66 Africa Research Bulletin, Vol. 35, Issue 6, p. 13131-13166, June 1-30, 1998.
67 keith harmon snow and Rick Hines, “Blood Diamond: Doublethink and Deception Over Those Worthless Little Rocks of Desire,” Z Magazine, June & July 2007.
68 Eric Reeves, “Darfur’s Bitter Ironies,” Guardian Online, October 4, 2007.
69 See: keith harmon snow, “Oil in Darfur? Covert Ops in Somalia? The New, Old Humanitarian Warfare in Africa,” Global Research, February 2007, <http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20SN20070207&articleId=4717> and revised for allthingspass, April 2007, <www.allthingspass.com>.
70 “Hezbollah is Using Christian Villages to Shield its Military Operations in Violation of International Law,” Christian Solidarity International, 1 August 2006, < http://www.csi-int.org/lebanon_immediate_release_c.php >.
71 See: keith harmon snow, “Oil in Darfur? Covert Ops in Somalia? The New, Old Humanitarian Warfare in Africa,” Global Research, February 2007, <http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20SN20070207&articleId=4717> and revised for allthingspass, April 2007, <www.allthingspass.com>.
72 See keith harmon snow, Oil in Darfur? Covert Ops in Somalia? The New Old Humanitarian Warfare in Africa, <http://www.allthingspass.com/journalism.php?catid=24> and, e.g. “SPLA Offensive Overwhelms Muslim Forces,” excerpted from Frontline Fellowship News, 197, Edition 2, <http://www.frii.com/~gosplow/2ffn97b.html>.
73 Private communication, October 2007. See also, e.g.: “Gaddafi, the Peacemaker in Chad and Darfur,” <http://www.wagingpeace.info/?q=node/67>.
74 Stephanie Hancock, “Most Chad Case Children Not Orphans,” Reuters, November 1, 2007.
75 “CHAD: French NGO Accused of Trafficking Children,” IRIN News, October 26, 2007, <http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75019>; “Chad: Government Accused of Hypocrisy in Zoe’s Ark Affair,” IRIN News, November 8, 2007, <http://allafrica.com/stories/200711080847.html?page=2>; Guillemette Faure, “Trafic d’enfants ou pieds nickelés de l’humanitaire?,” October 26, 2007, <http://www.rue89.com/2007/10/26/trafic-denfants-ou-pieds-nickeles-de-lhumanitaire/feed>, Anne Else, “Untangling the Zoe’s Ark Affair,” Anne Else’s Letter from Elsewhere, November 6, 2007, <http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0711/S00107.htm>.
76 Stephanie Hancock, “Most Chad Case Children Not Orphans,” Reuters, November 1, 2007.
77 Charles Tilly, “War Making and State Making as Organized Crime,” In Bringing the State Back In, Peter Evans et al.
Isolation Wards Readied in Karachi Area
Isolation Wards Readied in Karachi Area
Recombinomics Commentary 17:27
February 2, 2008
The farms have been sealed off and officials began culling around 10,000 chickens, RH Usmani added.
Following confirmation of bird flu virus in Karachi, emergency has been declared and isolation wards have been set up in all government hospitals in Sindh.
Sindh DG Health Dr Abdul Majeed said that a 4-member committee had been made on district level to examine all poultry farms in the province and steps have been taken at all government hospitals to ensure precautionary measures and in time diagnose of bird flu virus. “Our medical teams have put them under observation,” Abdul Majeed said. “We may quarantine them if it is necessary,” he added. Health authorities said they were monitoring at least 15 poultry workers from the two farms.
Meanwhile, Hundreds of chickens have died in several poultry farms in Thatha and Badin. The samples taken from the deceased chickens have been sent to Islamabad for medical examine.
The above comments describe the monitoring of 15 poultry workers from two culled farms. It is still unclear why three farm workers have been placed in isolation As noted above, isolation wards have been set up at all government hospitals in Sindh.
Moreover, the poultry deaths in two additional locations (see satellite map here and here) raise concerns that the H5N1 infections in the south have spread.
In the north, many human H5N1 cases, including a sustained transmission chain that was laboratory confirmed in Pakistan, were reported late last year. It is likely that the outbreaks in the south are due to H5N1 that is genetically related.
Not all of the earlier cases in Pakistan developed pneumonia, raising concerns linked to undetected mild cases.
Middle East Internet Blackouts Spur Geopolitical Suspicions
Middle East Internet Blackouts Spur Geopolitical Suspicions
Internet blackouts are impacting large tracts of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa after four undersea cable connections were severed. However, Israel and Iraq are unaffected by the outage. The cause behind the severing of the cables remains unknown. by Paul Joseph Watson
(Prison Planet)
Unprecedented mass Internet outages throughout the Middle East and Asia after no less than four undersea Internet cables were cut without explanation are spurring suspicions that a major event of geopolitical proportions may be just around the corner.
Internet blackouts are impacting large tracts of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa after four undersea cable connections were severed. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Pakistan and India, are all experiencing severe problems.
According to InternetTraffic.com, Iran has been completely cut off from the Internet, though Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s blog can still be accessed.
Most notably, Israel and Iraq are unaffected by the outage.
“Stephan Beckert, an analyst with TeleGeography, a research company that consults on global Internet issues, said the damaged cables collectively account for the majority of international communications between Europe and the Middle East,” reports CNN.
Officials say that the cause behind the severing of the cables remains unknown, but United Arab Emirates’ second largest telecom company said the cables were cut due to ships dragging their anchors.
Is this a pre-cursor to throw a veil over an imminent staged event in the Middle East?
“What are the odds? Who benefits? asks the Crimes and Corruptions blog. “Let’s see. Iranian rapprochement: “Recent months have brought signs of a growing rapprochement between Iran and Egypt.”
“What nation would not like this and has subs which could cut the cables? Why do it? Payback as over the net business is badly damaged. Or is this a setup for more? Note the internet is working just fine in Israel.”
Over at WhatReallyHappened.com, Mike Rivero points out that the mysterious cable sabotage could portend another imperial Neo-Con crusade in the works.
“The biggest problem the Bush administration faced during Iraq were images coming over the internet that showed the horrors being visited on the Iraqi people, and exposed the government’s lies about Saddam,” he writes.
“I am greatly concerned that these undersea cable cuttings are intended to prevent the world from seeing something that is about to happen, other than through the government-controlled propaganda/media.”
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2nd FLAG Undersea Cable Cut, Now Between UAE and Oman
2008/02/02
Two days after the cable cut which “cut off Iran” and affected the rest of the Middle East and West Asia but left communications in Israel and Iraq “intact”, another cable owned by the same British company is severed, once again plunging the region into “Internet darkness”. Image: FLAG’s Europe-Asia “FEA” undersea cable network. Omar Sultan, chief executive of Dubai’s Internet Service Provider “DU”, said on Friday that an undersea cable had been cut in the Persian Gulf, causing severe phone line disruptions and making worse the already existing Internet outage across large parts of the Middle East and West Asia after two other undersea cables owned by the same British company were cut this week in the Mediterranean Sea 8.3 kilometers (5 miles) north of Alexandria, Egypt.
Mr Sultan said that the incident was “very unusual.” He said it was not known how the underwater cable, owned by British FLAG FALCON company, which runs between the United Arab Emirates and Oman, had been damaged. DU said in a press release that the cause of the incident “had not yet been identified.”
The owner of the FALCON cable, U.K. FLAG Telecom said the cable was cut at 05:59 UTC on Friday, 56 kilometers (35 miles) off the coast of Dubai and that a “repair ship has been notified and expected to arrive at the site in the next few days.” The British company is also the owner of one of the undersea cables linking Egypt (Alexandria) with Italy (Palermo) that were sliced Wednesday in the Mediterranean Sea. That damage triggered wide Internet outages, hampering businesses and private usage across the Middle East and West Asia, and cutting off Iran “completely”, according to reports.
The only 2 countries that were unaffected were Israel and Iraq, the only two close Anglo-American allies in the region, both remaining completely unaffected by the cable cuts, leading to theories for the causes of the cuts, which have so far been given as having been caused by ships dragging their anchors across the cables. The fact that two rare incidents have happened in the same week, and both with cables owned by the same company, on either sides of Israel and the importance of the Internet to telecommunications and business, lends suspicion to the events.
Agency reports state that a FLAG official in India, speaking on condition of anonymity because of company policy, said workers were still trying to determine how the Persian Gulf cable was cut. Earlier Friday, FLAG said that a repair ship was expected to arrive Tuesday at the site of the damaged cables off the coast of Alexandria, and that repair work would likely take a week, but gave no explanation why repairs would take so long.
FLAG Europe Asia (FEA) is the world’s longest privately funded submarine cable. FLAG Telecom owns undersea communication cables across the United States of America, to England, West Europe and the Middle East, onward to South Asia and the Far East, and again across to the United States thus spanning the northern world.
Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Tarek Kamil on Friday said the reason behind Wednesday’s cut undersea cable would only be determined once repair teams with their robot equipment reach the damaged cables.
http://mathaba.net/rss/?x=580589
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CIA ops:2 female suicide attack to overshadow the horrific massmurder committed against the people of Mosul by the US detonating 15 tonnes of explosives
CIA ops: 2 female suicide attack to overshadow the horrific massmurder committed against the people of Mosul by the US detonating 15 tonnes of explosives ( The American military did the explosion in Mosul-Video)
Right now I have come to understand the “pet market 2 female suicide attack” as having been simply a distraction operation meant to overshadow the horrific massmurder committed against the people of Mosul by the US detonating 15 tonnes of explosives and ammunitions in a house densly populated with Iraqi mosul civilians.See, before the “pet market thing”, the video of the angry Mosul inhabitants testifying that US soldiers told them that no big explosion will accure, was in the spotlight.With the whole thing definitely bearing the potential to become a big big scandal, much bigger then Haditha and only a bit smaller than Abu Ghuraib.And especially since the US & it puppets are planning attacking the town and people of Mosul on the pretext of exactly that massive US self-created house civilian masslaughtering which background has just started to come to light, the whole Mosul offensive is in danger of getting back-stabbed by the surfacing scandal.
And the US knows that. They know that if the story reaches headlines of big papers the whole operation against Mosul now in planning would be impossible to be carried out and would end up in Fallujah-I like desaster, where the US was military fought back and unable to enter the city on the one hand because of fierce resistance from within the City but on the other hand because Abu ghuraib scandal was just surfacing and stuck into the back of the US military.
And from military view I think the Mosul thing in connection to planned Mosul offensive would be even worse then that, because the whole Mosul offensive will be derailed and dragged ad absurdum the moment the whole world comes to know that the pretext for the operation is US self-created massmurder of Mosul people.
It’s like the 9/11 thing and Iraq. The moment people came to realize that 9/11 did have nothing to do with Iraq and that Iraq has no WMDs and that everything was just US self-fabricated crap, meant to have pretext to invade Iraq, the US had the wrath of the world exploding into its face. With the whole Iraq war becoming totally clear visible before the eyes of the people of the world as a genocidal record crime committed by Usrael in order to grab Iraqi oil resources.
And nearly the same effect is to be expected the moment the whole world starts coming to know that the US blew up a house full of civilians in Mosul and then blamed the incident on Al Qaida to have pretext for the long planned for offensive which it (the US) is now up to unleash against the City of Mosul.
This whole thing is similar even to 9/11 itself, if you look close enough.
So the Mosul incident harbours even bigger potential to be the final blow to the US occupation of Iraq ( following the Abu Ghuraib, Fallujah-white phosporous, and Haditha-massacre scandal ).
And like I said, I think US knows about this and has learned from its former mistakes in covering up big stories and is now in full force putting everything they have into the game to subdue and surpess the news behind the Mosul incident from coming to the conciousness of the wider public.
And moreover I promise you that we will very likey see more gruesame bombings against civilians in the run-up to the coming US Mosul offensive and even through out the offensive itself, as the US is in need to distract the public consciousness from the newest US record crime.
But even though they try hard and are throwing millions of dollars in, in order to hinder the truth from coming to light, they’ll not succeed, that’s for sure.
Ok they have the ability to blow up thousands of Iraqi civilians if they like to. They can cut undersea cables and block internet access to half of the Middle East and for sure can and will do many other things more.
(..as they have learned how desastarous a big scandal can be to their campaign)
But despite all this they are far away from having the power to block the truth from reaching its destination. They can just try to hide it, and of course gain some time, but finally truth will prevail. They simply can t stop the truth, it’s that simple. Cutting undersea cables is not sufficient to stop the truth. And also blowing up market places is not. Nothing is sufficient to do so.
Wherefore Americans are not in control. They are not in control of Iraq nor in control of their own affairs back home in the US, they are not even in control of themselves, but they don t know it.
by Seele on 02.02.2008
Baisse des taux de la Fed : « Bush et Bernanke vont couler le dollar »
Baisse des taux de la Fed : « Bush et Bernanke vont couler le dollar »
30 janvier 2008 (LPAC) – En réponse à la nouvelle baisse des taux opérée par la Fed hier – de -0,5 % après les -0,75 % du 22 janvier – l’économiste américain Lyndon LaRouche a lancé un avertissement cinglant :
« Bush et Bernanke vont couler le dollar ». « Il faut le dire clairement et on doit l’empêcher.
Le président Bush doit être renvoyé en cure de désintoxication. Cette politique mène tout droit à l’Allemagne de Weimar, 1923, hyperinflation II le retour, c’est une folie absolue qu’un gouvernement suive cette politique. »
« Comme on dit dans le jargon, ces mecs sont complètement fadas » a t-il dit. « Ils semblent aller vers une politique hyperinflationniste de taux zéro, mais ils ne survivront même pas jusqu’à là.
Le pays pourrait ne pas y survivre. » « Cette crise a montré un président des Etats-Unis cliniquement fou. Il promeut le dollar « à la Ezra Pound », il faut l’interner à St Elizabeth ! »
(Ezra Pound était un poète fasciste promouvant Mussolini ainsi que les théorie monétaires britanniques pour le dollar, alors même qu’il était interné à l’hôpital St Elizabeth de Washington – l’équivalent de St Anne à Paris).
Face à cela, il a proposé la seule réelle alternative :
un taux d’intérêt à deux vitesses, avec des taux bas pour les activités économiques de base et un taux élevé pour les spéculateurs qui entendent profiter du différentiel de taux entre l’Europe et les Etats-Unis.
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Comment défendre le dollar
Appuyés par l’arrogance du gouverneur de la BCE Jean Claude Trichet, certains intérêts britanniques ont déclaré la guerre à l’économie américaine. Ils ont induit cet idiot de Président américain, son idiote de Présidente de la Chambre, et cet idiot de Directeur de la Réserve Fédérale Ben Bernanke à déprécier le dollar, pendant que Trichet & co. se vantent d’avoir amené le dollar à s’autodétruire. Si les Etats-Unis adoptaient mes recommandations pour la défense du dollar, les spéculateurs qui misent sur l’hypocrisie de Trichet pourraient se retrouver le nez dans leur propre faillite, une expérience qui ne manquerait pas de les inciter à mieux se tenir dans les prochaines semaines.
Les Etats-Unis doivent abandonner les politiques hyperinflationnistes insensées de Ben « helicopter money » Bernanke au profit d’une politique d’émission monétaire à deux vitesses, par le Trésor américain, pour combler les besoins en capitaux. Le coût général de l’émission monétaire par le Trésor américain (soit le département du Trésor, soit l’actuel système de la Réserve Fédérale) doit être une politique à deux vitesses : a) Un prix pour le marché ouvert, assurément supérieur à celui de la BCE, et b) un prix spécial protégé pour les crédits à long et moyen terme destinés à couvrir les besoins de base, comme les crédits hypothécaires des ménages qui seraient alors protégés par l’autorité fédérale, ainsi qu’aux banques agréées par ces autorités ou par celles des différents Etats. Les taux accordés à la catégorie « b » devraient être fixés entre 1 et 2 % l’an. L’intention ici n’est pas de faire du tort aux gouvernements de nos voisins européens et à leurs autorités financières, et particulièrement les agences multinationales, mais de les encourager à reconnaître à nouveau les effets bénéfiques des modes de coopération civilisés entre Etats, en cohérence avec la Paix de Westphalie qui régit encore aujourd’hui, les rapports entre les nations d’Europe.
Cette correction dans le comportement du Président américain et du Directeur de la Réserve Fédérale est un élément indispensable de la défense des Etats-Unis et de son peuple contre la dépression hyperinflationniste qui est en train de dévaster la communauté transatlantique dans son ensemble. Sans les mesures spécifiques que j’ai prescrites ici, les Etats-unis seront bientôt en banqueroute et notre peuple ruiné par les politique folles de Bernanke, Bush et Pelosi.
Les spéculateurs européens doivent prendre garde, le tigre américain est blessé, mais a toujours ses griffes et ses crocs. Qu’ils continuent leur coup contre les Etats-Unis, et de nombreux spéculateurs européens trop avides se réveilleront appauvris mais assagis. Si j’étais Président, je garantirais qu’un tel changement s’opère de la veille au soir. Les américains qui ne soutiennent pas ma politique souffriront si durement et si soudainement qu’ils seront moins long à la détente lorsque ce problème se posera à nouveau.
Par Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.
One world government
One world government
Is this the beginning of a one world government being put forth secretly instead of a slow steady process guaranteeing freedom will always be put before the idea of a one world government? Will this make the chance of a dictatorship much greater and is that what it is aiming for?
Obama’s Handler – The Brzezinski WWIII Machine
Obama’s Handler – The Brzezinski WWIII Machine
Can’t Pay Your Mortgage? Trash Your House and Leave
Can’t Pay Your Mortgage? Trash Your House and Leave
By: Scott Thill, AlterNet.
on: 01.02.2008
On the lookout for disturbing trends? Here’s one for your pile: According to a recent article in Fortune, there has been a noticeable increase in not just fraud but arson that has kept pace with the housing depression. Professionals in the insurance and lending industry are bracing themselves for all manner of similar situations, as homeowners either trash, or simply leave their trash lying around their houses, often taking off without even claiming their furniture. This is already a dirty problem in the housing business, with owners, lenders and banks having to figure out a way to stick each other with the check when tenants destroy their property on their way out the door. Woe is the person left behind to clean up the chaos.
“We just estimated a trashout yesterday where we’re going to have to drain the pool,” one Fontana, CA resident posted on AgentsOnline.Net, a resource and idea site for realtors, “and the stench from it when you enter the backyard is overwhelming. Then, of course there are mosquitoes all over the top and it’s been sitting so long without chemicals that it’s green on top and murky black on the bottom. We’ve already had to refuse one pool because of its really creepy condition and I’m not so sure about this one either. I just hope we don’t find the previous homeowner at the bottom when we drain it.”
“Vacant homes attract vandals and depress property values,” explained Douglas Robinson, spokesman for NeighborWorks America, a nonprofit created by Congress to offer financial and technical support and training for community-based revitalization. “This negatively affects existing owners and reduces local property tax revenues. But very few homeowners walk away, although those who do believe that is their best option. Of course, trying to get a loan modification so that the payments are affordable is their best option.”
As if it were that easy. Especially for those homeowners, including those with good and bad credit, who have seen the light at the end of our current economic crisis only to decide there isn’t a house in it. In fact, one could almost see the Wall Street Journal frown with disapproval upon reading the title of their December 2007 piece, “Now Even Borrowers With Good Credit Pose Risks.” But the title no doubt was influenced by the comments of Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis in the piece itself. It seems that Lewis, whose company recently bought the housing meltdown’s poster boy for bad lending, Countrywide, for $4 billion in stock, nevertheless feels confounded that customers of questionable loans would simply choose to abandon ship, er, house. “There’s been a change in social attitudes toward default,” Mr. Lewis told the Journal. “We’re seeing people who are current on their credit cards but are defaulting on their mortgages. I’m astonished that people would walk away from their homes.” While Lewis may scratch his head in disbelief, employees of the bank Wachovia have an explanation that might work for him: Homeowners have crunched the numbers and decided their houses are worth less than their mortgages. According to a recent conference call, many of Wachovia’s current losses in California are originating not from subprime buyers fallen on financial hardship, but from homeowners who can pay their cleverly structured loans but are just choosing a different fate. “They’ve been from people that have otherwise had the capacity to pay,” a Wachovia spokesperson said on the call, “but have basically just decided not to because they feel like they’ve lost equity, value in their properties. It’s hard to know right now, but we may have seen somewhat of an acceleration problem…as people have reached that conclusion.”
But that is what things usually do when you drive them off a cliff: Accelerate, ever faster. The open secret about the current housing crisis is that it is almost wholly built upon debt, which is to say the opposite of money. Everyone owes everyone: American banks borrow money from overseas, structure bizarre loans at home for Americans, which are then sliced and diced into securities and sold back to the international debt markets. The whole thing is a feedback loop made of bills needing to be paid. The best-kept secret of the crisis, however, is that homeowners at the mercy of those greedy banks and lenders — including Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, who sold off his stock before the crisis to net a cool $290 million while the company’s value shrank to practically nothing — are bailing out and leaving the banks and lenders to sort out the mess of past-due notices themselves.
And that’s a problem the banks or lenders can’t handle, according to Tricia Canites, managing attorney for Human Rights/Fair Housing Commission in Sacramento, one of the housing meltdown’s most impacted cities. “The banks are not in the business of renting or selling properties,” she explained by phone. “If the homeowners are willing to work with them, banks will work to get something rather than nothing. But it’s a lose-lose situation, because you have homeowners who are willing to leave.”
Not that they should, if you ask the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Many of those fed-up homeowners, according to HUD, might not understand the intricacies of their financial agreements and relationships with their lenders, and may miss an opportunity for renegotiation if they decide to simply mail in their keys and never look back.
“We strongly encourage homeowners facing a financial crisis to stay in close touch with the lender holding the mortgage on their home,” advised Larry Bush, Public Affairs Officer for HUD’s California network. “Because of the number of foreclosures, many lenders would prefer not to add to the inventory of foreclosed homes but instead work out an agreement with the homeowner. Lenders likely have higher costs for a vacant home than a homeowner has for living in the home. They have to make certain the property is kept in good condition, in most jurisdictions this means keeping the electricity and water hookups active, security monitoring to ensure there are no squatters or break-ins, and new appraisal and inspection. Homeowners absorb many of those costs.”
Of course it’s expensive, one might say, but it’s arguably more expensive for a homeowner to hang onto a money pit. Billions of equity lost, companies teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, the dollar sinking like a stone, the recession at the door: Some homeowners read those tea leaves and decide to leave well enough alone.
While that kind of payback might not sit well with banks and lenders who kick-started the so-called subprime crisis by taking advantage of ridiculously low lending rates, courtesy of free-marketeer and now-disgraced Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, they cannot argue with its purely financial logic. These are people who refer to the market as a living thing, and place their bets across its expansive craps table in hopes of hitting the mad jackpot. And for the years following Greenspan’s loony monetary policy, that jackpot was in housing.
“Most of the homeowners now facing problems bought their homes when the market was at its recent height in 2005-2006, and paid prices that have not held up in the current market,” added Bush. “That leaves the homeowner owing more than the current value of the home.”
That, at least for conventional gamblers, is usually a sign to walk away from the table, which is what compromised homeowners are doing in greater numbers than before. But it has yet to reach the stage where it is has become an epidemic concern, according to Bush.
“There isn’t a one-size rule for all communities,” he explained. “We see some homeowners losing their homes, but HUD certainly does not see an exodus underway. In many cases, the trend is now toward resolving the financial challenges.”
Perhaps for now, in an economic crisis that looks like it might have a bottom, or could be solved by the recent bipartisan band-aid designed to give taxpayers rebate checks ranging from $600 to $1200. But that’s not the kind of money that is going to save a homeowner from default or bankruptcy; it’s merely spending money the government hopes will be liquidated at the mall, so that its resultant consumption can jump-start our debt-based economy back to life again. And, for many homeowners, even ones with good credit, loan modifications are just different arrangements of the same basic pain, one with root in the American Dream of housing for sure, but also one with root in dense financial contracts no one has time to read because they’re too busy working to pay them off. As an alternative, rentals offer less migraines and less responsibility, because responsibility at the bottom and accountability at the top are rare things these days.
Too bad one is frowned upon by the powers-that-be, while the other is ignored outright.
