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Thomas Paine

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

Monday, October 25, 2010

25 October - WikiLeaks Reactions

Logo used by WikileaksImage via Wikipedia

Wikileaks chief, on run, besieged from all quarters

Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders have joined the Pentagon in criticizing the organization for risking people’s lives by publishing war logs identifying Afghans working for the Americans or acting as informers.

( I'm considering that as being somewhat revealing about the reliability of those organizations as well. )

 Why Do We Keep Ignoring the WikiLeaks Threat?

This is a serious challenge to our national security. ( Do tell. How ? )

This is an act of political warfare against the United States. WikiLeaks is a foreign organization that obtained these documents as a result of espionage and it means to use the information to thwart and alter U.S. policy.

( Opposing invasion of other nations and ongoing murder of their citizens is therefore reprehensible for a foreign national. No ? )

In addittion to possibly getting some cooperating individuals named in these reports killed, this mass compromise of classified data will make it much harder to find people willing to cooperate with the United States.

( I strongly suspect that message has been getting out for a while. Well - maybe not in the U.S. )

 Here are some of the things the U.S. could do:

1. Indict Mr. Assange and his colleagues for espionage, regardless of whether he is presently in a U.S. jurisdiction, and ask our allies to do the same.
2. Explore opportunities for the president to designate WikiLeaks and its officers as enemy combatants, paving the way for non-judicial actions against them.
3. Freeze the assets of the WikiLeaks organization and its supporters, and sanction financial organizations working with this terrorist-enabling organization so they cannot clear transactions denominated in U.S. dollars.
4. Give the new U.S. Cyber-Command a chance to prove its worth by ordering it to electronically assault WikiLeaks and any telecommunications company offering its services to this organization.
5. Holding meaningful congressional hearings to look into how this much classified information could ever be compromised and how the U.S. can better identify and combat political warfare organizations like WikiLeaks.
( Translation : God have mercy on anybody who dares to dispute the lies flogged nonstop from the Pentagon via the world's media )

 Christian Whiton is a former State Department senior adviser.

Wikileaks, Assorted Actors And Faith-Based Frolics In The War On Terror 
I really wish I had access to a reliable census on what the majority of people in this world believe about the purported 'Islamic terror threat', 9/11 etc. etc.
"Media reports". We use and hear that term so often in reference to the 'war on terrorism' that we can easily forget what it actually means. It means that everything you know, or think you know, about the global terror threat has come to you via media corporations that are either owned or controlled by the governments that are waging the 'war on terror' and profiting handsomely from it.
The stories you watch, listen to and read concerning what's what and who's who in Muslim terror-land are invariably provided by the intelligence arms of the same governments. There are no 'al-Qaeda' TV or radio stations, no 'Muslim Terrorism' weekly magazines with articles and Op-Eds penned by Osama and his alleged cohorts. And before you protest, all of the 'al-Qaeda' internet video and audio tapes that you vaguely remember seeing and hearing have long since been deemed so suspect by objective analysis that they are inadmissible as reliable evidence.  
It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn't a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries.
In this most recent download, the mainstream media has, once again, been gifted with a plethora of 'logs' that allow them to do three main things:

1) Dig up and retell the officially fabricated history of Muslim terrorists and terrorism

2) Remind the world that Iran is really to blame for everything

3) Reveal selected isolated stories of complicity in torture and killing of civilians by US and British forces and thereby provide Wikileaks' bone fides as an honest anti-war organisation, despite the fact that much worse abuse had already been exposed long ago.  

In all, the Wikileaks documents claim an extra 15,000 civilians were killed, bringing the total to about 100,000. Assuming no one in the mainstream media or Wikileaks dares to mention the most reliable estimates of over 1 million excess Iraqi civilian deaths as a direct result of the invasion, both the Pentagon and Wikileaks can feel content that they've done their job.  

Deaths from military actions

One good reason Iranians might hate us

The Central Intelligence Agency used to be proud of its role in the 1953 coup in Iran, in which the democratically-elected nationalist leader, Mohammad Mossadeq, was overthrown, and the repressive Shah restored to power. Especially back in the 1950s and ‘60s, CIA officials oozed with smug self-satisfaction as they leaked accounts of their derring-do to sympathetic journalists.

Before the United States is maneuvered into supporting an Israeli attack on Iran, we should know more of the truth about why the Iranian people might be suspicious of the West.

The 1953 coup has often been depicted as a CIA venture to save Iran from international communism. In fact, it was a joint British-American venture to preserve the international oil cartel.

Economic warfare was decisive.


What is an Afghan "rebel?" Rebel against what? The U.S. invasion? Karzai? The Taliban? Pakistan? The place is a ludicrous clusterfuck and a giant steaming shitpile of failure. Get out now. "Afghan security forces have killed four militants who attacked a UN compound in the western city of Herat, officials say. A fifth attacker blew himself up at the gates, before the others, wearing suicide vests got inside, triggering a gun battle with police. A UN guard and a policeman were lightly hurt. The assault is reminiscent of an attack on a USAID office in July in Kunduz province, which left four people dead. In the latest incident, the four attackers, dressed in burkas worn by women, ambushed the compound just before midday."
We're sure it's necessary, but it seems like a violation of separation of powers. "Iraq's Supreme Court has ordered the country's parliament back to work, more than seven months after inconclusive elections left Iraq in political limbo. The court said lawmakers' self-declared absence was unconstitutional. Iraq has faced political deadlock since the 7 March elections, when a bloc led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi emerged with a slender advantage. Neither he nor current PM Nouri Maliki has since formed a coalition, and parliament has met for just 20 minutes. At that meeting, in June, lawmakers were sworn in and then decided to delay the formal return of parliament in order to give political leaders time to negotiate alliances. However, progress has since been slow and Iraq now holds the world record for the longest time without a government."

Be a Fighter Among the Lovers 

by: Yellow Dog

Digby explains why punishing the dems never works.

 Repeat after us: Childhood nutrition is a national security issue The reason we started the school lunch program in the late 40s was because so many young men showed up at recruiting stations to volunteer for service in WW II and they were rejected because they were malnourished. Over the years the program has expanded to include breakfast and snacks, and now there is discussion of expanding the prograbeen m again to offer dinner during the school week to children who stay on after the school day in after school programs while their parents are at work. Of course the hyperbolic shriekers on Faux Noise see it as the final nail in America's coffin and a move that will destroy the American family.

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