The political left chokes–allows Bradley Manning to be tortured

There are a few news media figure who are taking principled stands regarding the the horrific way that the United States government is treating Bradley Manning, who has not been convicted of any crime. Glen Greenwald is one of the few with scruples. Other principled voices can be read at Alternet, including Lynn Parramore, who (rightfully) suggests that we'd be outraged if we viewed a fictitious movie of someone being treated as badly as Manning, but since it's happening in real life we don't give a shit. Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake has admirably covered the story. Andrew Sullivan has weighed in. Barack Obama has fully earned the title of America's Second Modern Torture President. This is not hyperbole. Bradley Manning is being tortured by the United States. We are enthusiastically treating Manning the way we treated the (mostly innocent) prisoners at Gitmo. We are doing to Manning what we criticize when other countries do it. Dylan Ratigan of MSNBC has also presented the story with energy. The torture is bad enough, but the silence by mainstream Democrats is infuriating. We're running a great country, aren't we? No need to speak out about Wall Street corruption, massive problems with health care "reform," the right to assassinate U.S. citizens, government spying on its own citizens, and not blatant torture.

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Continue ReadingThe political left chokes–allows Bradley Manning to be tortured

How bad is the Gulf? How bad is American media?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has endorsed Arab news organization Al Jazeera as offering "real news", superior to ersatz U.S. news which is full of commercials, talking-heads and soundbites that are "not particularly informative to us." Perhaps that explains a part of the reason why U.S. audiences are largely unaware of the continuing ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in the aftermath of BP's Deepwater Horizon blowout last year. Al Jazeera, on the other hand, brings us this story of sickness and death on the Gulf Coast.

[caption id="attachment_16980" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Eco-terrorism in Gulf of Mexico. Image via Leoma Lovegrove (creative commons)"][/caption] "I have critically high levels of chemicals in my body," 33-year-old Steven Aguinaga of Hazlehurst, Mississippi told Al Jazeera. "Yesterday I went to see another doctor to get my blood test results and the nurse said she didn't know how I even got there." Aguinaga and his close friend Merrick Vallian went swimming at Fort Walton Beach, Florida, in July 2010. "I swam underwater, then found I had orange slick stuff all over me," Aguinaga said. "At that time I had no knowledge of what dispersants were, but within a few hours, we were drained of energy and not feeling good. I've been extremely sick ever since."
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NPR needs help to find the culprit who killed the WPEA

The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) passed the Senate unanimously last December. It was tweaked and passed unanimously in the House, then sent back to the Senate for a final vote - where someone blocked it by the an anonymous hold, killing it on December 22. On January 7th, NPR’s On the Media, with the Government Accountability Project, set out to find out who. Now they are down to three: Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), all of whom have declined to deny placing the hold. WNYC and the GAP still need help to blow the whistle on who killed the WPEA. They need residents of Alabama, Arizona and Idaho to call their respective Senators and ask for confirmation or denial of responsibility for the hold, and more pointedly, ask “why they believe the public does not have a right to hold them accountable for something as basic as killing a bill.” They suggest asking the following questions “as a way to guide the conversation”:

1) Did you place the anonymous hold on the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act? 2) What is the Senator's policy regarding inquiries from constituents about his use of the anonymous hold? 3) When is the Senator’s “hold” the public’s business, about which the public has the right to know? 4) What determines when use of the “hold” is a “personal, private matter” that is not the public’s business? 5) Why would the Senator be publicly supportive of the bill but work to defeat it in private? 6) All but three Senators have confirmed that they did NOT use the hold to kill S. 372, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. Assuming that the senator who placed the hold is eventually identified - as they frequently are - and it is your senator, is he prepared to deal with the fallout that comes from ignoring constituent questions?
These are good questions to ask about any anonymous hold on Senate bills, not just this one. You can read about what the Act would have done here, and if you have any information, email blowthewhistle@wnyc.org. WNYC is collecting and posting the responses.

Continue ReadingNPR needs help to find the culprit who killed the WPEA

Military Psy-ops, this time illegally directed at Congress

Keep President Eisenhower's warning in mind as you read this post (see video below). The U.S. Department of Defense defines "Psychological Operations" or "Psy-Ops" as "Planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign government, organizations, groups, and individuals." Such operations may be based upon truth or based upon deception, but the goal is the same: to alter perceptions and "ultimately the behavior" of others. As a matter of law, such actions are supposed to be directed against the "foreign hostile groups", or at least not against Americans. Unfortunately, this law is routinely ignored:

  • In 2009, the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) awarded a multi-million dollar contract to General Dynamics to wage a psy-ops campaign aimed at France and Britain. The goal of the campaign was to create "influence websites" to build support for the Global War on Terror.

Continue ReadingMilitary Psy-ops, this time illegally directed at Congress

Devastating Wikileaks leaked cables: Saudi Arabia has peaked

Wikileaks continues to drop bombshells, even as Julian Assange finds himself on trial.  Unfortunately, the news about Assange is overshadowing some of the latest, and most devastating, leaks.  Namely, that Saudi Arabia has probably been overstating their reserves-- no big surprise to those of us who have been studying peak oil.   But where we only had speculation and circumstantial evidence before, now we have confirmation in the form of statements from credible Saudi Arabian authorities. The first cable deals with a meeting with Dr. Sadad al-Husseini, former Executive Vice President for Exploration and Production at the state-owned Saudi Aramco.  It's almost comical as al-Husseini goes to great lengths to insist that the theory of Peak Oil is wrong, even as he describes it occurring within the kingdom.  For example, the cable says:

He stated that the IEA's expectation that Saudi Arabia and the Middle East will lead the market in reaching global output levels of over 100 million barrels/day is unrealistic, and it is incumbent upon political leaders to begin understanding and preparing for this "inconvenient truth." Al-Husseini was clear to add that he does not view himself as part of the "peak oil camp," and does not agree with analysts such as Matthew Simmons. He considers himself optimistic about the future of energy, but pragmatic with regards to what resources are available and what level of production is possible.

Continue ReadingDevastating Wikileaks leaked cables: Saudi Arabia has peaked