How would you headline today's meeting between Bush & Blair?

Me: BUSH WALKS THE DOG

Or, BUSH WALKS THE POODLE

Blair's tongue darts out, his eyes like saucers with excitation; meanwhile Bush swaggers around the room doing his John Wayne impression . . . he tosses a letter opener onto the carpet and Blair bounces over to it immediately, takes it into his slobbering mouth and brings it over to Bush on hands and knees.

Door opens: the servant is here with a silver platter of beer and pretzels. Bush swaggers over to the couch, sits down, turns on football and Blair curls up at his feet, preparing for sleep. What a day! Tired doggie, but good doggie.

White House Cancels Poetry Symposium

In a obvious attempt to head off this action, the White House said Wednesday it postponed a poetry symposium because of concerns that the event would be politicized. Some poets had said they wanted to protest military action against Iraq.

The symposium on the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman was scheduled for Feb. 12. No future date has been announced.

Note: LAME! Gotta watch out for those SPIES ya know...

What sphinx of cement and aluminium bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?

Not About Nothing


The risks of doing nothing, the risks of assuming the best from Saddam Hussein, it's just not a risk worth taking.
-- Dubya, Jan. 29

Let’s get something straight once and for all.

This is not a choice between war and nothing.

Inspections are something.

Giving intelligence to the inspectors so they can do their jobs better is something.

Allowing the inspectors enough time to properly complete their work is something.

Economic and diplomatic pressure is something.

Direct support of Iraqi opposition groups is something.

Targeted military strikes to destroy known sites of weapons production is something.

No one (outside of the A.N.S.W.E.R. steering committee) is assuming the best of Saddam.

And it’s completely dishonest to characterize the majority of Americans who are against unilateral war as believing as such.

via Liberal Oasis

Kurt Vonnegut vs. the !&#*!@
I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d’etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka “Christians,” and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or “PPs.” (via)

I recently got back from the Maldives. Departing from Rome, there was a 2 hour layover in Dubai and thus the possiblity to ready Arab-based newspapers in English. Aside from the fact that, in between Rome and the Maldives, every newspaper I read gave radically different figures for how many U.S. troops were heading towards Iraq --one wrote 35,000, another 50,000, one even wrote 100,000,000. It makes one wonder where journalists get their information.
But the most interesting article I read while in Dubai claimed that Bush wanted to attack Iraq, not only for obvious reasons, but also to appropriate land to give to the Palestines for the creation of their own state and thus resolve the problem for the Israelis.

Jonathon Delacour offers a nuanced, powerful account of American power as seen from the Southern Hemisphere. These days, I wish I was down there with him.

From Eric Alterman: Altercation quoting a paragraph from Richard K. Betts in Foreign Affairs by "Some Americans also become indignant when it is suggested that an Iraqi counterattack could be considered the fault of American initiative. This stance, they argue, is like blaming the victim. But this argument again confuses moral and material interests. If the snake strikes back when you poke it, you may blame the snake rather than yourself for being bitten. But you will still wish that you had not poked it.”

After decades of putting it off, here's my first post to American Samizdat.

Say you wanted to explain to someone--who has totally absorbed the CNN/Fox news produced unreal fantasy world where the capitalists won't even take your money to show your "anti-war" ads--how a war with Iraq could easily balloon into World War III, replete with bio and nuclear attacks. And yet, you thought, if only I could do it with Flash.

This is why I love the Internet. Unfortunately, my favorite shows tend to be cancelled. Let's all root root root for public telcos folks...

Weapons of Mass Asphyxiation
Must we trek Into the Lake of Fire?
Take some time and visit Mike Golby's disturbing finds, a compelling argument against an unnecessary war, complete with images that will smother your being.
For so many, the allure of our military toys are a validation of power, a testimony to glorious tax dollars spent in pursuit of safety, domination, and triumph.
The realities of war are horrid. A simple bulldozer becomes an Armored Combat Earth Mover. ..for burying bodies.. the 'armored burial brigade'.
We are all aware of the 'clean surgical strikes' that so dominated the previous Gulf War. What we were not aware of were the gruesome images of bodies buried alive, scooped up by the glorious Earth Movers and deposited seamlessly. leaving no trace of bodies or the smell of death.
Mike will lead you to What Bodies? written by Patrick J. Sloyan which exposes what mass media missed, or was steered away from, in 1991.
A vivid pictorial of war torn countries and inhumane acts need to be exposed. I think it is an extremely valid argument against war. A young child, seeing this, would not be expected to grow up bitter compelled to retaliate, and filled with hatred for the country that did this?

Anarchists and the fine art of torture
Bauhaus artists such as Kandinsky, Klee and Itten, as well as the surrealist film-maker Luis Bunuel and his friend Salvador Dali, were said to be the inspiration behind a series of secret cells and torture centres built in Barcelona and elsewhere...

"The avant garde forms of the moment - surrealism and geometric abstraction - were thus used for the aim of committing psychological torture.

"The creators of such revolutionary and liberating [artistic] languages could never have imagined that they would be so intrinsically linked to repression."

February 12 a day of Poetry Against the War

HI Poets!
Now's our chance to get your poem against the war delivered to the White House. Spread the news! All good wishes, to all beings.

-Diane di Prima
======================
Dear Friends and Fellow Poets:
When I picked up my mail and saw the letter marked "The White House," I felt no joy. Rather I was overcome by a kind nausea as I read the card enclosed:

Laura Bush
requests the pleasure of your company
at a reception and
White House Symposium on
"Poetry and the American Voice"
on Wednesday, February 12, 2003
at one o'clock

Only the day before I had read a lengthy report on the President's proposed "Shock and Awe" attack on Iraq, calling for saturation bombing that would be like the firebombing of Dresden or Tokyo, killing countless innocent civilians.

I believe the only legitimate response to such a morally bankrupt and unconscionable idea is to reconstitute a Poets Against the War movement like the one organized to speak out against the war in Vietnam.

I am asking every poet to speak up for the conscience of our country and lend his or her name to our petition against this war, and to make February 12 a day of Poetry Against the War. We will compile an anthology of protest to be presented to the White House on that afternoon.

Please submit your name and a poem or statement of conscience to: kokua@olympus.net

There is little time to organize and compile. I urge you to pass along this letter to any poets you know. Please join me in making February 12 a day when the White House can truly hear the voices of American poets.

Sam Hamill

Frans Masereel, by Jacques Mesnil (1934, Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Oriole Press; Bookman and Hadriano types; printed in black and red; 100 copies on Bay Path paper). From Types of the Oriole Press at Joseph Ishill and the Authors and Artists of the Oriole Press. "...Ishill published more than 200 books and pamphlets, all of them typeset and printed by hand. In spite of toiling in relative obscurity he has been lauded both by radicals, who recognize him for his efforts in publishing radical materials, and by fine press enthusiasts, who consider him to be one of the finest American printers and typographers of the twentieth century."

Pentagon Eyes Mass Graves for US GIs

The bodies of U.S. soldiers killed by chemical or biological weapons in Iraq or future wars may be bulldozed into mass graves and burned to save the lives of surviving troops, under an option being considered by the Pentagon.

Since the Korean War, the U.S. military has taken great pride in bringing home its war dead, returning bodies to next of kin for flag-draped, taps-sounding funerals complete with 21-gun salutes.

But the 53-year-old tradition could come to an abrupt halt if large numbers of soldiers are killed by chemical or biological agents, according to a proposal quietly circulating through Pentagon corridors. [more]

BUSH WAR ON CLEAN AIR VICTORIOUS

Welcome to Bush Country.

Russian Source: US 'Will Attack Iraq Next Month'

"According to the information we have, the operation is planned for the second half of February. The decision to launch it has been taken but not yet been made public," the source said.

The source claimed that toppling the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, was a pretext allowing the US to acquire control of Iraqi oilfields.

"The military operation against Iraq will be conducted by a combination of means. Strikes will be from the air, land and sea," the source said, claiming that Washington expects the military campaign to last for around a month. [more]

Worst
President
Ever

The Guilt-Free Soldier

"It's the morning-after pill for just about anything that produces regret, remorse, pain, or guilt," says Dr. Leon Kass, chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, who emphasizes that he's speaking as an individual and not on behalf of the council. Barry Romo, a national coordinator for Vietnam Veterans Against the War, is even more blunt. "That's the devil pill," he says. "That's the monster pill, the anti-morality pill. That's the pill that can make men and women do anything and think they can get away with it. Even if it doesn't work, what's scary is that a young soldier could believe it will." [more]

Helen Thomas on President-Select George W. Bush: "This is the worst president ever . . . He is the worst president in all of American history."

Hear, hear, Helen! [via Unknown News]

The Class President

Zander's Peace /War school project poll

via Rittenhouse I learned of this poll
Zander "designed the two polls that you see in the left column and right column. The LEFT poll asks opinions of people that believe Peaceful solutions are the way to solve the problems in Iraq, or are generally against military means being used. The poll on the RIGHT is for people who believe that a military solution IS the answer to the problems. Please help me out...."
He's getting a good response from the blogging community. I'd like to see him get an overwhelming response.

Librarians and Privacy: Big Brother is Reading Over Your Shoulder

NPR's Larry Abramson reports on librarians' concerns that anti-terrorism laws will require them to violate their patrons' privacy. Librarians are holding workshops to learn about their responsibilities and options.
Listen Here.

Washington-engineered misery worse than Saddam

Garofalo lights up campus with wit
Comedian takes on the media, government, teen pop stars

"The news disrespects us," Garofalo said. "How is the world supposed to make decisions, especially about Iraq, when we don't get relevant information? The information we get includes words like 'evil-doers' -- is this a fucking bed-time story?"

She spoke out against the pending war with Iraq but encouraged students to form their own opinions.

"We might as well live in a gated community if we choose to invade Iraq," she said. "The pro-American status might just come to bite us in the ass. I'm not saying that I hate America. I'm saying that I hate the arbitrary imperialism of a country who wants to make all the rules."

Garofalo also pointed out the "stupidity" of the American public.

"People say the American people aren't stupid. ... America is like the drunken frat guy of nations," she said as NU students burst into giggles.

Could the Pentagon disable the Internet or portions of it in the event of war?

Bruce Schneier Founder and CTO of Counterpane Internet Security thinks so. "My guess is that the U.S. military could disable large parts of the Internet, at least for a while, if they wanted," writes Schneier in this month's issue of Cryptogram. "But I doubt that they would do so; it's far too useful an asset, and far too large a part of our economy. More interesting is whether they would try to disable pieces of it. If we went to war with country X, would we want to disable their portion of the Internet, or remove connections between their Internet and our Internet? Depending on the country, a low-tech solution might be the easiest: disable whatever undersea cables they're using as access. Could the U.S. military turn the Internet into a U.S.-only network if they wanted? That seems less likely, although again a low-tech solution involving the acquiescence of companies like Cable & Wireless might be the easiest. One important thing to remember here is that you only want to shut an enemy's network down if you aren't getting useful information from it. The best thing to do is to infiltrate the enemy's computers and networks, spy on them, and surreptitiously disrupt select pieces of their communications, when appropriate. The next best thing is to passively eavesdrop. After that, the next best is to perform traffic analysis. Only if you can't do any of that do you consider shutting the thing down. "

Lying Bastards: from Paul Krugman's Off the Wagon "The administration's top economist certainly changed his mind about deficits very late in the game. Glenn Hubbard, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, recently denied that deficits raise interest rates and depress private investments. Yet Mr. Hubbard is also the author of an economics textbook; as Berkeley's J. Bradford DeLong points out on his influential Web site, the 2002 edition of that textbook explains how, yes, deficits raise interest rates and depress private investment."

As Goes Rutland, So Goes The Nation

The Rutland, Vermont, Herald puts yesterday's DC protests at 200,000, which probably a fair median. There were undoubtedly more, and most media are putting it at less, so we'll happily take 200,000.

There were also rallies in El Paso, and Montana, and las vegas-reno, and North Carolina, and Orange County Calif, and New Jersey, and Minneapolis, and all over the world, including Japan and and Germany and London, Moscow, Liverpool, Damascus and Tokyo, and

On the left coast, tens of thousands in San Francisco marched against the war. Unfortunately, some anarchists had to get into the act and broke windows and tossed newspaper boxes. This is not going to help our cause, kids! Leave your black clothing and attitudes at home next time!

In Dc, the protests are still going on today. And, about a dozen got arrested:

When the marchers met another group of demonstrators waiting at Lafayette Park across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, there was a surge of enthusiasm and some began running toward, and over, the barricades blocking that section of the street. Police forced them face down on snowy grass and bound their wrists with plastic handcuffs. A dozen police were on horseback and many more were on the scene, warning people that anyone going over the barricades would be taken into custody.

Sorry, Mr. Helpful!

War Games from What's Left
It's not about facts it's about what Bush can sell. War, just another product to peddle and George just another huckster.

Paul Boutin : Astroturf "demonstrating genuine leadership"

An alert Google user noticed that dozens of local newspapers from Boston to Honolulu have run the same letter to the editor under different names nationwide (the Eschaton weblog posted a partial list).

It's not the first time a form letter has been a hit, but you'd think by now it would be easier to catch them. Idly curious as to who authored and distributed it, I've left a couple of phone messages with people whose names have appeared in print under the letter, which reads...

When it comes to the economy, President Bush is demonstrating genuine leadership. The economic growth package he recently proposed takes us in the right direction by accelerating the successful tax cuts of 2001, providing marriage penalty relief, and providing incentives for individuals and small businesses to save and invest. Contrary to the class warfare rhetoric attacking the President’s plan, the proposal helps everyone who pays taxes, and especially the middle class. This year alone, 92 million taxpayers will receive an immediate tax cut averaging $1,083 - and 46 million married couples will get back an average of $1,714. That’s not pocket change for a family struggling through uncertain economic times. Combined with the President’s new initiatives to help the unemployed, this plan gets people back to work and helps every sector of our economy.

Global protests against Iraq war

A day of worldwide protests against a looming US-led war on Iraq has culminated in giant peace rallies in Washington, San Francisco and other US cities. More than 50,000 Americans converged on the National Mall in the centre of Washington, in one of the biggest protests since the build-up for war began.

Disgruntled Artists Do It Better.

War, baby, war! Some graphic designers and artists just ain't into it, and they're making some very fun, very free imagery for anti-war.us. You can download print-quality PDFs for making stickers, illustrations, posters, or whatever you like... or just browse... or contribute something fabulous of yr own. -mag

Senators vow to halt `data mining' project

Reflecting increased alarm about a Pentagon plan to find terrorists by trolling the electronic records of all Americans, several senators took steps Thursday to rein in the project and halt other ``data mining'' efforts until Congress can review the implications on civil liberties. Sens. Dianne Feinstein, Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., drafted an amendment Thursday night to the $390 billion federal spending bill now being considered by Congress to temporary stop the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness project.

via What's Left
What the North Korean "standoff" is really about

By Stephen Gowans

Nuclear stand-off on the Korean peninsula. The Korean crisis. North Korea playing with matches. Pyongyang becomes increasingly belligerent. President Bush won't reward North Korea's bad behavior. An irrational regime plays brinkmanship.

From the headlines you'd think North Korea had declared the United States part of an axis of evil, and had put the country on a nuclear hit list, rather than the other way around.

You might also think North Korean submarines, equipped with nuclear tipped missiles, were lurking off the coast of the United States, while tens of thousands of North Korean GI's lay in wait in Mexico, ready (according to a thin official story) to push back an American invasion of Mexico, should it come. You might think this was true, though it is North Korea, not the United States, that is surrounded by a vast, nuclear-equipped, and hostile military presence.

What's more, you might think there was far more to the "stand-off" than this: Washington says North Korea can't have nuclear weapons, and Pyongyang says "piss off."

But that's all there is to it. So, why the fuss?

Who is Washington to tell North Korea that it can't have nuclear weapons? Granted, as the world's most powerful country, the United States is able to use its leverage to get its way. It can wage an economic war against North Korea (which it has done), and it can threaten military intervention (which it has also done), but that's simply using economic hardship and the threat of force to extort concessions. In other words, it's behavior that fits Washington's own definition of terrorism to a tee.

But what legitimate authority does Washington have to issue diktats to other countries? You'd think from the way Washington is behaving, that it is perfectly within its rights to tell North Korea what to do.

Moreover, from the media's references to North Korea's "bad behavior" and "defiance" you'd think North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was a naughty child who has to be disciplined by papa. Indeed, the White House, in its paternalistic way, even talked about North Korea needing to "feel a firmer hand."

But as it turns out, Washington has absolutely no legitimate authority to tell North Korea it can't have nuclear weapons. While it had signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), once it decided to reopen its mothballed Yongbyon nuclear power plant (which is capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium), Pyongyang announced its withdrawal from the treaty. Washington, it will be recalled, not too long ago announced its withdrawal from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty, on grounds the treaty was no longer compatible with US defense requirements. Similarly, the NPT no longer serves North Korea's defense requirements.

Given that Washington virtually declared war when it said North Korea was part of an axis of evil (North Korea's inclusion reflecting Washington's need to take a firmer hand, according to David Frum, the White House speechwriter who coined the phrase) and given that North Korea, along with six other countries, have been declared fair game for a US nuclear first strike, it's hardly surprising Pyongyang has decided it needs to develop a nuclear deterrent. Far from being irrational, as the country's leaders are often called in the press, the move is entirely rational.

History, it can be said, is the story of how the powerful have used law, morality, and religion to turn the ability to force compliance into a shared expectation of compliance. Kings, it was said, ruled by divine right; the aristocracy, it was claimed, ruled by virtue of inherited traits congenial to governance. Britain's conquest of other people's land and resources was based on a moral mission of civilizing the dark corners of the world, it was said, as today, the Anglo- American, Washington-London axis portrays its program of conquest as a mission of bringing democracy and human rights to countries presided over by dictators. Wherever a class of people or country has grown powerful enough to compel compliance through force or sanction it seeks to justify its raw exercise of power through law or morality or religion.

Having no legitimate authority to demand North Korea fall in line with its edicts (not only on leaving itself defenseless to US military depredations by foregoing a deterrent nuclear weapons program, but also in refusing to open its doors to US trade and investment on terms favorable to US capital), the media, ever the willing janissaries of Washington, have stepped up to the plate: if Washington has no legitimate grounds to assume the role of world dictator, the media will confer it upon them.

It's not as if the press is unaware that Washington is vastly overstepping its bounds; it just doesn't say anything about it. When the Pentagon starting abducting Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters from Afghanistan and elsewhere, throwing them like animals into cages at Gauntanamo Bay, a reporter grilled White House spokesman Ari Fleischer on whether Washington had the authority to do what it was doing. After ducking and weaving, Fleischer finally said in exasperation, "Look, there's a war going on." In other words, Washington has no legitimate authority whatever to abduct and cage al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters, but uses, wherever it can, the events of Sept. 11 as legitimation for scores of illegal, immoral, indecent, inhumane and repellent acts that it gets away with by virtue of having a larger military and more economic leverage than anyone else. Lamentably, vast sections of the American population, including large parts of what passes itself off as the political left, have bought into the idea that the deaths of 3,000 on Sept. 11 justify all manner of US outrages. Sept. 11, with all its associated rhetoric of good vs. evil, has become what the divine right of kings was to monarchs: an excuse to exploit, plunder and abuse the weak.

Regrettably, you'll hear few Americans complain about the treatment of abductees at Gauntanamo Bay, or the flagrant Constitutional violation that has seen American citizens tossed into military brigs without charge, where they're to be held indefinitely as combatants in a war that has no planned end. "The bastards should be treated even more severely," is the accustomed cry, while the minority that lean away from these punitive excesses hold their tongues, cowed by the prospect of being seen to defend monsters, for how can al-Qaeda or Taliban fighters be seen as sympathetic figures, worthy of a defense? Though hardly admirable and cleaving to reactionary and repellent views, they are human beings, and are deserving of respect as such by a country that professes to be civilized and humane. And while their views are repellent to us, how many can say their own views are not repellent to the viciously right- wing thugs who have their hand on Washington's tiller, and may decide, some day, for the sake of homeland security, that you too should be locked away?

For as long as governments have resorted to propaganda to justify acts of war and conquest, demonizing the enemy has been the standard way of drawing attention away from relevant questions, like, Have all countries a right to defend themselves?, to irrelevant questions, like, What are we going to do about this monster?

This technique has been used repeatedly by Washington to great effect, in Yugoslavia, where all kinds of wildly exaggerated claims were made about Slobodan Milosevic, including the charge that he ordered the killing of 100,000 ethnic Albanians (whose bodies were never found), and in Iraq, where Saddam Hussein has been portrayed as more evil than Old Nick himself.

"What are we going to do about this monster?" it is asked. Well, what has the "monster" Saddam done that we need to do something about? Not a hell of a lot, except, we're told, he has cleverly hidden weapons of mass destruction, after the UN told him to disarm. Of course, we don't know that Iraq is hiding weapons. The UN inspectors have turned up zilch, and all we have to go on is the word of Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush who have shown themselves over and over again to be notorious liars.

And then we can ask whether an edict from the UN Security Council for Iraq to disarm is legitimate. Doesn't the demand that Iraq disarm amount to the world's great powers forcing a country that is strategically situated atop great oil wealth to abandon its right to self-defense, thereby allowing one or more of those powers to take control of the country's assets for their own benefit? Doesn't Iraq have a right to defend itself from aggression, either that of neighbouring countries, or that of UN Security Council members?

But these issues -- though central to the question of war in the Middle East -- aren't addressed. Instead, the discussion centers on Saddam Hussein's personal qualities, as the pro-war propaganda's standard operating procedure prescribes. But Saddam Hussein's personal qualities, and whether there's a dictatorship of capital (under the guise of a US imposed democracy) or a dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, are completely irrelevant to the question of whether (a) the United States or NATO or the UN Security Council or any other group has a legitimate authority to go to war with Iraq over weapons of mass destruction and (b) whether Iraq has the right to defend itself against attack. (Equally, do Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters have the right to defend themselves from US attack on Afghanistan soil? The answer is obvious -- they do; the question, however, is never asked.)

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il is also a target of a demonization campaign. We're told (by the ultra-reliable source George W. Bush) that Kim starves his people, and the equally reliable media heap all manner of pejorative adjectives on Kim, the meaning of which -- other than implying something bad -- is unclear. Kim and his country are irrational, unpredictable, neo-Stalinist, secretive, reclusive, bizarre, militaristic. No article on North Korea can be written without using at least two of these words. Press accounts conjure up a picture of a vast and grim concentration camp, where an evil and irrational dictator indoctrinates ordinary North Koreans into supporting his malefic designs on the world, including a nuclear strike on the US and its allies, carried out because Kim resents US power and hates American freedoms and democracy -- another Osama bin Laden, but this time one with a bad haircut and a funny jacket and a neo-Stalinist moniker.

Kim should forget about the American left springing to his country's defense. It's too concerned that to do so would invite the charge that it's Stalinist and supports dictators, a charge it will twist itself into innumerable contortionist knots to avoid, even siding with decidedly conservative and neo-liberal forces such as the MDC in Zimbabwe and the DOS in Serbia to avoid the taint of being seen to support a victim of Washington's demonization exercises.

The demonization is necessary. Without it, Washington can't make its case, can't be seen to be reacting, rather than instigating, for the truth of the matter is that Washington instigates, while pretending it's simply reacting to a threat. As one writer of a letter to a newspaper editor sarcastically put it, "Sure, when I hear Mike Tyson say that Woody Allen threatened him, and that he'll have to beat the snot out of the filmmaker in self-defense, I believe Tyson."

It's a nasty world out there, we're led to believe, where all kinds of crazy and evil dictators are plotting harm to the US, and if you doubt it, remember September 11. The United States government must be tough if it's going to protect its citizens, and if that means telling unpredictable dictators like Kim Jong Il that he can't have nuclear weapons, so be it.

Were Kim (or equally Saddam Hussein) portrayed otherwise, the deceit wouldn't work. Neither can be allowed to attend to their country's self-defense by acquiring weapons of mass destruction, because (the deception goes) they may use those weapons against the United States in an unprovoked attack. After all, they're evil, they're unpredictable, they're unbalanced and they resent US power, US democracy and US freedoms. Would you leave the world's most destructive weapons in the hands of unpredictable, irrational, evil dictators?

That the view is kindergarten-like is, of course, no deterrent to its being imbibed holus bolus, and regurgitated in an attractive package by the Anglo- American media, resulting in a level of discourse on world affairs that operates at the level of a nine-year old. They're evil and unpredictable; we're good and moral; therefore, they must be smashed. Remember Sept. 11?

A more adult view, far closer to the truth, is that the powerful seek ways of extending their power, because they can. Washington has made no secret of its desire to establish its primacy in the world by containing regional rivals (countries that are large enough and strong enough to pursue an independent course), and by undermining anti-capitalist countries (those that don't wholly respect the claimed right of US firms and investors to exploit the former's labor, resources and markets.) Countries that have weapons of mass destruction aren't so easy to push around, and can hardly be expected to submit to US primacy or leadership or however else you want to dress it up to hide what it is -- global hegemony, a dictatorship of US capital.

And it is very much a dictatorship of US capital that Washington desires; this, too, the White House has made no secret of. The President's National Security Doctrine reads like a handbook on spreading US trade and investment to every corner of the world, which it is. National security, it must be understood, means freedom for US firms to go anywhere they wish, to sell into any market they wish, and to extract profits from any country they wish, with the security of their investments safeguarded. Ultimately, to borrow from New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, it is the US military that vouchsafes that security, and, through threat or war, that smashes down the doors that lock US investment out. It's no surprise that Washington's axis of evil countries, whether the original three or the larger list that includes Cuba, with Venezuela and Zimbabwe as satellites, are either completely closed to unfettered US trade and investment, have nationalized, or are planning to nationalize, key parts of their economy, or have threatened what stands as US capital's -- and therefore, Washington's -- highest good: private ownership and the security of private investment.

Capitalism is the only sustainable model, says Bush. And he's got a $400 billion per annum military to back him up on it.

Statement by University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman

If you're going to San Francisco (or DC) be sure to wear some flowers in your hair...

This weekend will see a huge anti-war march in both washington dc and san francisco. details on International Answer and Vote No War.

A fitting activity for Martin Luther King Day.

Empty Gun, No Smoke

No, it's not another rant about John Lott fudging his numbers.

The weapons inspectors in Iraq have found empty warheads. That's right. Another example of finding nothing.

The inspectors found 11 empty 122 mm chemical warheads and one warhead that requires further evaluation. the warheads are similar to ones imported by Iraq during the late 1980s, the spokesman said.

Imported in the 1980's? imported from where, we wonder?

Unfortunately for the press, empty chemical warheads really don't mean a whole heck of a lot. Now, if they had found full warheads, that might be a different story. Wolf Blitzer might be putting war graphics up on his screen even as we speak. But alas, it's hard to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, and equally hard to make a smoking gun out of an empty bullet cartridge.

However, the press, ready for action, is trumpeting this find as a possible "trigger" for war. Guess the economy is not that exciting of a story.

Speaking of the economy, here's some good news, if you believe the spin: new unemployment claims fell 32,000 last week.

Claims dipped by 32,000 to a seasonally adjusted 360,000 in the week, down from a revised 392,000 in the prior week.

But remember, that's new unemployment claims, not total. And it's not really good news if you're one of the 360,000 people who filed new claims for unemployment last week, like Skippy did.

"Escalate non-violence." --MLK

Today is Martin Luther King's birthday.

Also today: President-Select Bush announced that his administration would lend some legal aid to the fight against the affirmative action policies of the University of Michigan. He added, "And if we had never had affirmative action in the first place, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, neitha . . . "

Well, no, he didn't say that, actually, but the Trent Lott connection should be clear, right? This is, after all, the party of racists . . . What is that called, "the Southern Solution?" Whereby Republican power is culled by courting the bigotry-friendly American southern states? Oh hey now, and don't forget the re-nomination of Judge Pickering--who fights for the little man, as long as the little man is burning a cross on the lawn of the nigra and his honky ho.

And they do both of these things right after the whole Trent Lott fiasco?

Aw man, they're just throwing it at you.

And to do it on Martin Luther King's birthday?

That's just a little extra something for you,

the taxpayer

the citizen

the slave

USA prepares rebuild plan for post-conflict Iraq
Not like it's for sure or anything...but...

The US Department of Defense (DoD) is preparing for its role in rebuilding Iraq after a projected US-led invasion and is expecting significant demands for units that can provide intelligence capabilities, chemical and biological detection and defence, civil affairs and force protection, US defence officials have disclosed to Jane's Defence Weekly.

The US armed forces are expected to maintain a significant presence in Iraq, well beyond the end of combat operations, to deal with what defence and humanitarian experts say could be a dangerous and volatile situation. Predictions range from the formation of armed resistance factions to water and food shortages. US officials would also want to seek out and destroy or secure any remaining stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and related equipment. They also are preparing for more conventional threats against US forces.

Anxiety Bubbles Beneath Support For War With Iraq (washingtonpost.com)

A solid majority of Americans consistently tell pollsters that they favor attacking Iraq to topple President Saddam Hussein. But beneath that bedrock of support lies a deep sense of anxiety.

The worries poured out in dozens of interviews conducted in recent days across the nation, from this bustling Atlanta suburb to the North Side of Chicago, from Maryland shopping malls to Los Angeles coffee shops. Americans wonder whether the nation can wage war even as the economy is slumping, and worry that war would make things worse. They are concerned that the Middle Eastern world will label the United States a bully if it attacks Iraq, and they fear retaliation. And there are new fears about North Korea. [MORE]

Old Words on War Stirring a New Dispute at Berkeley

In her own day, the Russian-born anarchist Emma Goldman roused emotions including considerable fear with her advocacy of radical causes like organized labor, atheism, sexual freedom and opposition to military conscription. "Emma Goldman is a woman of great ability and personal magnetism, and her persuasive powers are such to make her an exceedingly dangerous woman," Francis Caffey, the United States attorney in New York, wrote in 1917. Goldman died in 1940, more than two decades after being deported to Russia with other anarchists in the United States who opposed World War I. Now her words are the source of deep consternation once again, this time at the University of California, which has housed Goldman's papers for the past 23 years. In an unusual showdown over freedom of expression, university officials have refused to allow a fund-raising appeal for the Emma Goldman Papers Project to be mailed because it quoted Goldman on the subjects of suppression of free speech and her opposition to war. The university deemed the topics too political as the country prepares for possible military action against Iraq. [MORE free reg-req.]

Turkey prepares for Iraq refugees

The Turkish Red Crescent has started preparations for the arrival of refugees from Iraq in the event of war.
A 24,000-tent refugee camp is planned near Turkey's border with Iraq. During the Gulf War, almost half a million refugees entered Turkey from Iraq. A 10-member team from the Red Crescent has been in the border province of Sirnak for four days. In all, the Red Crescent hopes to be able to accommodate up to 100,000 refugees. [MORE]

"You're a borderline freak."

"So? Aren't we all?"

"No. You ever read the war bloggers?"

"Oh yes. I'm very fond of them."

"They're normal."

"I know."

"Depressing, isn't it?"

"Uh-huh."

Annan Sees No Reason for Attack on Iraq

Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday he sees no reason for an attack on Iraq and is optimistic that war can be avoided if the international community maintains pressure on Saddam Hussein and inspectors do their job aggressively.

Nonetheless, he said the United Nation is making plans to deal with an exodus of refugees and potential humanitarian crisis in the event of military action. U.N. experts are also doing some "preliminary thinking" about a possible post-conflict political organization and administration in Iraq, he said.

'You can't get even but your dog can'
chewable political pet toys

'Fuck That Flag' - a short story by the mutant

I am Jack's complete lack of patriotism.

The sickness swept across the company, and with it now came the labels, "Jack is un-american. Jack is a communist. Must be a democrat. Child abuse, I heard. A satanist..." They just could not understand it. Why would anyone hate the flag so much?

Thou shalt have no other god before me. Unless it's the flag. Amen.

UK 'rejects' lone action against Iraq

The UK would not join American unilateral military action against Iraq, according to International Development Secretary Clare Short.
Ms Short said the UK had a duty to try to keep the world united over the Iraq crisis and ensure the danger of Saddam Hussein was only tackled through the United Nations.

Other ministers have shied away from saying whether or not the UK would join America if it decided to act alone against Iraq.

US accelerates Gulf build-up

The United States is dramatically accelerating its build-up in the Gulf, with the deployment of another 27,000 troops.
A senior Pentagon official told the BBC that Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had signed his second order in 24 hours, adding to 35,000 personnel who were deployed on Friday.

Riyadh: Linchpin to a new religious order

"The fact is, whether or not the US overthrows Saddam Hussein, its armed forces will remain face to face with the country at the ideological center of fundamentalist Islam. That country is not Iraq; it is Saudi Arabia."

-- US military buildup is sufficient to take over more than one Middle Eastern country.
-- The Islamic tradition that developed in the Turkish Empire, Sufism, teaches love, not quarrels.
-- So far, the House of Saud is not happy about heavy-handed US suggestions to change the curricula of religious schools.
-- And the author concludes:

"A majority of the House of Saud is still an ardent believer of the Salafi branch of Islam and its strict practice as this ideology is the foundation of Saudi rule and, indeed, the country of Saudi Arabia itself. In the presence of these realities, laying the foundation stone of Western democracy and civil society in a country like Saudi Arabia under the shadow of US guns would jolt the foundation of the House of Saud, its patron religious forces and their ideologies."

Gary Hart urges Democrats to be proactive on national defense

US Border Patrol has NO PLANS TO MONITOR ARMED VIGILANTES

"TOMBSTONE - The Tombstone-based Civil Homeland Defense began patrolling for illegal Mexican border crossers Saturday, but no apprehensions or incidents were reported.

Chris Simcox, organizer of the volunteer group and publisher of the Tombstone Tumbleweed, planned to start armed patrols this weekend, including one with invited media today."

Gritty article on the consequences of an unregulated porn industry - LA Times

"The public sees these people as disposable." - David Gurley, staff attorney for the California Labor Commissioner's office. "An alarming number of performers are infected with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. And nobody seems to care."

"There are no condoms on the set. There's no toilet paper in the bathroom. The performers brought boxes of baby wipes. Soiled sheets litter the ground, creating a trail to the bed. For more than two hours, Taylor and Rain engage in unprotected sexual acts with a male performer. During a break, Rain asks director Thomas Zupko for her co-workers' HIV tests. Handed a stack of papers, she flips through the documents. One is missing--Taylor's. Rain asks repeatedly for her paperwork, but she balks. "I don't have [expletive] AIDS," Taylor finally says. "I am not [having sex with] you."'

"Yet actors and actresses are discouraged from wearing prophylactics during filming because porn producers believe the public wants to see unprotected sex. So adult porn stars commonly engage in sexual acts with scores of partners, and then return each evening to their private lives--dating or having relationships with people across Southern California."

"Gay pornographers abide by a different set of rules: No condom, no HIV test, no audience ... The decision is rooted in financial concerns ... "Gay actors and gay viewers don't see unprotected sex as a fantasy. They see it as watching death on the screen."

NRC staff afraid to raise safety issues
- Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Only about half of the agency's employees - 53 percent - feel it is "safe to speak up in the NRC."

Employees are worried that the NRC "is becoming influenced by private industry, and its power to regulate is diminishing."

N. Korea Sends U.S. Mixed Messages

North Korea sent sharply mixed messages Saturday, vowing to "smash U.S. nuclear maniacs" in a "holy war" while its diplomats told New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson their country had no intention of building nuclear bombs.

Pyongyang's belligerent message included threats as well to resume long-range missile tests and to begin reprocessing spent fuel rods from its nuclear reactor to make atomic bombs.

Row over Sharon TV blackout

Israeli election officials are due to review an unprecedented decision to take Prime Minister Ariel Sharon off the air during a live TV broadcast on Thursday.
Mr Sharon had called a news conference to rebut allegations of corruption - but the election committee decided he was engaged in unlawful election propaganda and ordered the broadcast be cut.

Spam 'em back to the stone age?
U.S. e-mail attack targets key Iraqis

U.S. military and other U.S. government agencies have begun a surreptitious e-mail campaign inside Iraq, CNN has learned, in an effort to get some Iraqis to defy President Saddam Hussein. Thousands of e-mail messages have been sent out since Thursday, a military source told CNN.
The official says "this is just the beginning of a psychological warfare campaign" to convince the Iraqi leadership they cannot win a war against the United States and its allies. The message includes instructions to the e-mail recipients to contact the United Nations in Iraq if they want to defect.
Senior military sources told CNN this was the first time the military had engaged in this type of "information warfare campaign." Sources say the program was developed by the military and intelligence agencies in recent weeks.

US boosts Gulf presence

The United States has announced that it is sending tens of thousands of additional military personnel to the Gulf in the biggest deployment yet of its military build-up against Iraq.
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld signed the order to send up to 35,000 reinforcements to the region, including more marines who would spearhead any possible invasion force.

marchin' to the shibboleth...or at least the city library

remember, you kids in the socal area, there is a march and demonstration against any iraqi war tomorrow in los angeles. details here. apparently martin sheen and ron kovic will be among the speakers.

Material Breach

DNC Inspectors stated today that the absence of a 'smoking bum', and the prompt denials we've had so far, and which by the way are most welcome is not a guarantee that George Bush is not an asshole. Inspectors have scoured the country from Washington to Texas, but he is keeping the evidence well hidden. "We know for a fact that he is an asshole," said the Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe. If we could get the White House Staffers to a safe location and guarantee their continued employment they would be willing to confirm the charges. We're sure the fear of being declared enemy combatants by John Ashcroft is having a chilling effect. Still the fact that no one has come forward is a problem. It's time for George to come clean, and just a change of underwear will not be enough. We want regime change. Tom Daschle said that George was in material breach of promises he made during the 2000 Campaign. ." It is simply not possible to be an asshole and compassionate at the same time." We would like to promise to have him out of the White House by February, but due to constitutional constraints it is unlikely we will be able to accomplish it before 2004.

More airstrikes as pressure on Iraq increases

In the sixth coalition strike day in southern Iraq since the beginning of the new year, six U.S. and British warplanes dropped bombs Friday on several Iraqi communications sites south of Baghdad in what the Pentagon said were defensive strikes.

The strikes came as the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency said weapons inspectors in Iraq need more intelligence information from the United States and greater cooperation from Baghdad.

"love those media logos

every different news outlet has their own memorable logo design and headline to further what they believe are the top stories of the day. cnn has that catchy "countdown to iraq" graphic, complete with dramatic music. fox news has the gripping "war on terror" shouting out at you.

but the one we really like is from north korea's government-controlled news agency: world war 3!!

the communist nation has warned us officials that another military conflict on the korean peninsula, will finally lead to a third world war. the bold statement appeared in a news article, carried by north korea's government-run news agency. the article also bragged, that north korea would win a "fire to fire" standoff, with the us. the threat showed up just hours, after north korea pulled out of the "global nuclear arms control treaty."

those wacky north korean papers! and we thought we had trouble with rupert murdoch!

wow. good thing we've got all those troops overseas. oh, wait. they're over in another part of the world. oh yeah.

meanwhile, anna of annatopia directs us to a empty bottle, a blog by an ex-pat canadian in south korea (living near the dmz) for an on-the-ground view of the whole situation.

Thank You For Not Smoking, Guns

Bad news for Mr. Bush!

Apparently the result of the U.N. weapons inspectors' recent assignment to find WPM (Weapons of Mass Destruction) in Iraq is JDS: Just Diddly Squat.
U.N. weapons inspectors have not found any "smoking guns" in Iraq but are receiving intelligence from several nations that could be helpful, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said Thursday.

Nor apparently any smoking biological or chemical weapons, either. Maybe they should look over in North Korea, where smoking is encouraged.

But just so it's not a total loss, here's a picture of Hans Blix smiling.

Court backs holding citizens as enemy combatants

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the government can hold U.S. citizens as enemy combatants during wartime without the constitutional protections afforded Americans in criminal prosecutions.
In overturning a lower court ruling, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., said the status of 21-year-old Yaser Esam Hamdi as a citizen did not change the fact he was captured in Afghanistan while fighting alongside Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.

Answer an e-mail, get a subpoena

Let me see if I have this straight: You get a email telling you, "You are hereby informed that (under the privacy act), the International Information System Security Certification Consortium (ISC)2 has sold your information including,

Name ,
E-Mail address,
Residential address,
Credit and savings information,
Social Security information,
and Occupation details.
This information has been sold to a third Party \ Parties and this E-mail serves as notification for such action.

This information was sold under the premise for marketing and research.

Under the privacy act you may request to see in writing any information that we have about you. Please write to the following address with a self addressed envelope.


So, you write back and make some further inquires, etc. You of course make all this public, on your website. The next thing you know, you're getting a subpoena that demands: "...all logs recording the I.P. addresses and/or users who visited "http://cryptome.org/sec-con.htm" between 11/7/02 00:00:00 GMT and 11/14/02 23:59:59 GMT. If no such log exists for the specific page in question, please provide any logs that would cover the domain together with an explanation of what the log covers."

Do I have that right?

Iraq: U.S. Wants to Subjugate Middle East

Coalition warplanes struck air defense targets in southern Iraq on Wednesday for the second time this week, and a key Iraqi official said the United States and Britain were bent on war with Baghdad to subjugate the Middle East.

What A Difference A News Source Makes

It is interesting to note the bias made by these 2 articles which I assume were based on the same speech made today by Tony Blair (the British Prime Minister). Note the headlines:

Blair Calls on World to Back Any War Against Iraq (Reuters)
vs
Listen to the world's fears, Blair tells US (Guardian)

The first article makes it look like Blair has given Bush carte blanche to attack Iraq and that Britain will support him regardless. The section on listening to world opinion is merely a footnote. The second article makes a slight reference to Blair trying to woo sceptics on the possibility of conflict with Iraq but seems to insist that in order to do so, the US must obtain the world's permission.
Is this a clear cut case of right wing bias in the American media or left wing bias in the British? Personally I have always valued the British press more highly (Britain being a country where people actually read newspapers and watch the news as opposed to the US where news is classed as "Infotainment"). Of course here in the States, the radio and TV news have been focussing on Bush's tax cut for the rich. Found on Plastic

When Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was asked what he liked best about America by photographer Harry Benson in Cavendish, Vermont in 1981, Solzhenitsyn replied: "The air is free in America."

Ah, the good old days . . .

Solzhenitsyn Suffers a Stroke

U.N.: No New Weapon Info in Iraq Paper

Iraq's arms declaration fails to provide new answers to key questions on stocks of biological agents such as anthrax, the nutrients used in their production and the means to deliver them, according to U.N. officials and an Associated Press review of the dossier.
In response to many of the questions, the Iraqis enclosed photocopies of 4- and 5-year-old answers long considered insufficient by inspectors.

UN prepares for huge Iraqi casualties

Up to 500,000 people could suffer serious injuries during the first phase of an attack on Iraq, a confidential United Nations report says.
That includes up to 100,000 wounded in combat, and another 400,000 hurt in the devastation expected during any US-led attack on Iraq.
The UN has confirmed the authenticity of the report, posted on the website of a Cambridge University group which opposes sanctions against Iraq.
The BBC UN correspondent says the United Nations has been somewhat embarrassed by the revelation of the details of its contingency planning, given that the exercise could be interpreted as an assumption that military action against Iraq is almost inevitable. [Ongoing Compilation Here]

Defense Tech

Technology is shaping how borders are protected, wars are fought, crooks are caught, and individual rights are defined.I've started a new website, Defense Tech (www.defensetech.org), to track these developments. On the site, I'll round up the day's news, link to relevant sources of information, and provide analysis on what's ahead.From Predator drones to biowar defense, computer security to nuclear threats, the site aims to examine the intersection of technology and defense from every angle, covering the exploits of soldiers and hackers, madmen and geniuses, inventors and dictators. Via CDC

Western allies ready troops for Gulf

Britain and France put their forces on alert for a possible war with Iraq, as the US sends ships and thousands of soldiers to the Gulf.

Analysis: Signs pointing to war

Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said that the chances of war with Iraq have fallen from 60:40 in favour to 40:60.
But the language he used in an important speech to a mass gathering of British ambassadors in London indicates that he is preparing the groundwork to justify a war.
And in any case, do not rely on those odds. Mr Straw himself added that they could change from "day to day".

N. Korea Warns 'Sanctions Mean a War'

A defiant North Korea warned that sanctions against it would "mean a war," as thousands of people rallied Tuesday in the communist capital to support the country's military.

Report: Britain, France Prepare for War

British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon will announce the call-up of thousands of reservists Tuesday as part of the military build up in the Persian Gulf, news reports said.

Meanwhile back at the Ranch- FBI sources: Informant's story about U.S. infiltrators is false

Some FBI officials now believe an account of five men infiltrating the United States from Canada -- leading to a nationwide manhunt for the men for questioning -- was fabricated, sources inside the FBI said Monday. The alert, based on an account by Michael John Hamdani, prompted widespread news coverage and fears of possible terrorism around the holiday season. The FBI and 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies made finding the quintet a top priority. Now, said sources, the account may have been bogus.

Here, mostly because I spotted a guy on the train home who looked a lot like him but probably wasn't, is the links page to the Fifth Aeon Agregore, which is Phil Hine's home on the web, and a useful archive of Chaos Magick resources. I did a workshop with Phil Hine about nine years ago in Wales, and iit was great fun. If Phil is reading this, hello. You may be amused to hear that the daemon we inaugurated that day near Machynlleth is still alive and well, and living in my teapot. Which reminds me, the kettle boiled some time ago...

Sit yourself in your favorite chair, pour a tasty beverage, and settle in for a long stretch of reading:

United Nations Security Council Resolutions Currently Being Violated by Countries Other than Iraq

This list does not include resolutions that merely condemn a particular action, only those that specifically proscribe a particular ongoing activity or future activity and/or call upon a particular government to implement a particular action. Nor does this list does include resolutions where the language is ambiguous enough to make assertions of noncompliance debatable, such as UNSC resolutions 242 and 338 on the Arab-Israeli conflict that put forward the formula of "land for peace," to cite the most famous. Similarly, it does not include broad resolutions calling for universal compliance not in reference to a particular conflict, particularly if there is not a clear definition. For example, in a resolution that proscribes the harboring of terrorists, there is no clear definition for what constitutes a terrorist. This list does not include nonstate actors, such as secessionist governments, rebel groups or terrorists, only recognized nation-states.

Resolution 252 (1968) Israel
Urgently calls upon Israel to rescind measures that change the legal status of Jerusalem, including the expropriation of land and properties thereon.

262 (1968) Israel
Calls upon Israel to pay compensation to Lebanon for destruction of airliners at Beirut International Airport.

267 (1969) Israel
Urgently calls upon Israel to rescind measures seeking to change the legal status of occupied East Jerusalem.

271 (1969) Israel
Reiterates calls to rescind measures seeking to change the legal status of occupied East Jerusalem and calls on Israel to scrupulously abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding the responsibilities of occupying powers.

298 (1971) Israel
Reiterates demand that Israel rescind measures seeking to change the legal status of occupied East Jerusalem.

353 (1974) Turkey
Calls on nations to respect the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of Cyprus and for the withdrawal without delay of foreign troops from Cyprus.

354 (1974) Turkey
Reiterates provisions of UNSC resolution 353.

And many, many more...

::Foreign Policy In Focus: United Nations Security Council Resolutions Currently Being Violated by Countries Other than Iraq

German TV airs documentary charging American war crimes in Afghanistan
US State Department denounces broadcast

The US State Department has reacted angrily to the showing of a documentary on German television alleging that US soldiers were involved in war crimes in Afghanistan. The film, Massacre in Afghanistan—Did the Americans Look On?, was produced by Irish filmmaker Jamie Doran. It was shown December 18 on one of the main German public channels—ARD. The 45-minute documentary had previously been shown by the British Channel 5 and the Italian station RAI.

Prior to the German broadcast, a spokesman for the US State Department, Larry Schwartz, declared: “It is a mystery to us why a respected television channel is showing a documentary in which the facts are completely wrong and which unfairly depicts the US mission in Afghanistan.”

In fact, the allegations in Doran’s film have been public for over half a year and the US government has refused to make any statement or advance any argument to refute its detailed evidence of complicity by US soldiers in war crimes. The film makes the point that the Pentagon has refused numerous requests by Doran for an interview or comment on the events that it depicts. [MORE]

Annan Sees No Reason Yet for Military Action Against Iraq

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan says he sees no reason for military action against Iraq at this time. In an interview with Israel's Army Radio, Mr. Annan said U.N. inspectors should be allowed to finish their work.

Kofi Annan said the U.N. inspectors are in Iraq to ferret out banned weapons or weapons programs Iraq may have. He told Israel's Army Radio it was agreed that the inspectors should report their findings to the U.N. Security Council January 27.

Therefore, he said there is no basis for further action now, since Iraq has cooperated with the inspectors. "Iraq is cooperating, and [the inspectors] are able to do their work in an unimpeded manner," said Mr. Annan. "Therefore I do not see an argument for a military action now."

Meanwhile Back at the ranch: A little insider info from a source that formerly served as a Pentagon advisor- "The US is leaning so far forward (a reference to the economic and political ramification of the current mid-east military build-up) that war is inevitable no matter the outcome of the inspections." One could even say that the US has been marching off to war from the beginning.

PROGRESS REPORT: The OSX installation seems to have worked, but I haven't got the internet connection to happen yet, so I'm back here in the dead of night, revisiting 9.2, with my sense of reality skewed beyond easy redemption. Off to bed now, and a good long think in the morning before anything else happens.... I am so glad that I don't have to go through anything like this more often than every year or two...

Happy New Year According to Whose Calendar?

Here's a little ditty from William Burroughs that goes down good this time of year.

To achieve independence from alien domination and to consolidate revolutionary gains, five steps are necessary:

1. PROCLAIM A NEW ERA AND SET UP A NEW CALENDAR*
   
2. REPLACE ALIEN LANGUAGE
   
3. DESTROY OR NEUTRALIZE ALIEN GODS
   
4. DESTROY ALIEN MACHINERY OF GOVERNMENT AND CONTROL
   
5. TAKE WEALTH AND LAND FROM INDIVIDUAL ALIENS.
   

In his The Revised Boy Scout Manual from which the above quote is from, William S.Burroughs is exploring 'revolutionary tactics and weapons'. He is referring to the Ruling Class as 'Aliens' and shows examples and strategies how to overthrow them. For a period of time he appears to have been actually convinced that the Earth was run by agents from Venus. He was right. (There's also some nice calendar based ruminations in Book of Breething: Text and Conception, but this one is harder to find.)

*Obviously this means abolishing the Christian Calendar. It's high time the final death blow is dealt to the cultural domination of this scum. There will be no more saint days or any of this bullshit; there will hardly be need for holidays as everybody does what s/he wants to do all the time anyway. Important big festivals can be held at certain days or at random. On the whole the 20th century and all the centuries before will be remembered as dark ages, when people had to work, were controlled, brainwashed and oppressed. Even the most sophisticated mind control techniques of the Old Rulers will be pale remnants of idiocy compared to the "delirious freedon and splendid poetry" that will fill the vacuum they will have left behind.

Happy New Year? Whatever...