The Guantánamo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle

Kidnap, torture, murder, cover-up. The crimes of the Bush Administration continue under Obama. The United States is a criminal state.

Here is Scott Horton's account in Harper's of yet more immorality coming out of Guantamo. What is extraordinary is there are human beings who defend this twisted demented behaviour.

Read the whole thing here.. And Horton's follow-up here.

Also check-out Horton's interview with Keith Olbermann:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Bin Laden Found!

Last night, I was watching the evening news on Spanish TV1 and there was a news item about how the FBI had released digitally enhanced photos of bin Laden, as the Times put it: "showing how he might look today; one in his traditional outfit, the other showing him with trimmed beard and Western clothing."

 Here is the Spanish news report:

"

El nuevo rostro de Bin Laden

"


Well, imagine my surprise when I saw the photo of how he might look today with the beard shaved off. "I know that guy!" I said to my wife. "So that's where he's been hiding all this time. Its Gaspar Llamazares!"

Gaspar Llamazares is the IU left wing Spanish deputy and ex leader.

As the Telegraph reported:

"Using sophisticated digital enhancement techniques, forensic artists at the FBI’s laboratory in Quantico, Virginia have age progressed old photos of the 18 most wanted terrorist suspects.
"It is our hope that these digitally enhanced images will help someone recognise these terrorist suspects and then contact the Rewards for Justice program with information that leads to their apprehension," said Robert Eckert, assistant director for Diplomatic Security’s Threat Information and Analysis Directorate, which oversees the Rewards for Justice program.
"These new images are powerful examples of how advances in technology and science can be used to help find and bring to justice wanted persons,” said Louis E. Grever, Executive Assistant Director for the FBI's Science and Technology Branch.
“The FBI has and will continue to apply cutting-edge forensic, biometric, and technical capabilities to our most challenging cases. Together with our many partners, both here and abroad, we now call on the public to help us locate and take into custody those who threaten us," he added."

Dicho y hecho as we say in Spain - said and done. My e.mail was sent off to the FBI:

"I know where bin Laden is, thanks to your new digitally enhanced photos. He's going under an assumed name and living in Spain. He has managed to work himself into a Spanish political party and is representing the damn Commies. His new name is Gaspar LLamazares ex leader of the IU party.

I claim my $25 million reward. "

Imagine my disappointment when I found out the "sophisticated digital enhancement techniques", "advances in technology and science" and "cutting-edge forensic, biometric, and technical capabilities" are in fact a bit of photo-shopping of a pic from Google Images!

  (the guy on the right is Llamazares)

Llamazares thought the whole thing was a joke at first, but when he realised it wasn't he started to take it seriously because, 'FBI errors affect citizens' security'. Llamazares also commented on the piss 'poor standards of US intelligence agencies'...

Llamazares has now said he wouldn't deam of traveling to the US again as he fears he could suffer "difficulties". In commentaries to Spanish National Radio (RNE) he said "La seguridad de Bin Laden no peligra, la mía sí" - "Bin Laden's security isn't in danger, mine is"


Llamazares was most probably thinking "Of all the faces in all the world and they have to use mine!"

Or as Cayo Lara actual leader of IU said:

'Of 6 billion inhabitants on this planet, and they had to choose Llamazares' photo to use as part of a new portrait of the most wanted terrorist in the world'
("Entre 6.000 millones habitantes que tiene el planeta, han tenido que elegir la fotografía de Llamazares para formar parte del retrato del terrorista más buscado del mundo".)


Stop Press:


Could it actually be Spanish TV chef Karlos Arguiñano??

Reply to 'The Censor' Oliver Kamm: "the cause of jihadist rage against our side is not what we have done but what we are"

Oliver Kamm has now taken to censoring his blog. He has refused to publish my comments to his latest piece of facile, shallow opinion. Here they are anyway:

Kamm: "the cause of jihadist rage against our side is not what we have done but what we are...As Osama bin Laden stated on 23 February 1998..."

But, Mr Kamm, ObL wrote in his "letter to the American people" and published in the Observer on 30 November 2002:

"we form our reply based on two questions directed at the Americans:

"(Q1) Why are we fighting and opposing you?

Q2)What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?

As for the first question: Why are we fighting and opposing you? The answer is very simple:

(1) Because you attacked us and continue to attack us.

a) You attacked us in Palestine:

(b) You attacked us in Somalia; you supported the Russian atrocities against us in Chechnya, the Indian oppression against us in Kashmir, and the Jewish aggression against us in Lebanon.

(c) Under your supervision, consent and orders, the governments of our countries which act as your agents, attack us on a daily basis;

d) You steal our wealth and oil at paltry prices because of you international influence and military threats. This theft is indeed the biggest theft ever witnessed by mankind in the history of the world.

(e) Your forces occupy our countries; you spread your military bases throughout them; you corrupt our lands, and you besiege our sanctities, to protect the security of the Jews and to ensure the continuity of your pillage of our treasures.

(f) You have starved the Muslims of Iraq, where children die every day. It is a wonder that more than 1.5 million Iraqi children have died as a result of your sanctions, and you did not show concern. Yet when 3000 of your people died, the entire world rises and has not yet sat down.

(g) You have supported the Jews in their idea that Jerusalem is their eternal capital, and agreed to move your embassy there. With your help and under your protection, the Israelis are planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque. Under the protection of your weapons, Sharon entered the Al-Aqsa mosque, to pollute it as a preparation to capture and destroy it. "

See also articles:

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/010810b.html

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/01/09/thomas/index.html

CSM 21 September 2001:

"a mood of resentment toward America and its behavior around the world has become so commonplace in their countries that it was bound to breed hostility, and even hatred."

But the ultimate put-down to Mr Kamm's wild theory comes from Mike Scheuer, former head of the CIA's bin Laden Unit, and author of Imperial Hubris, when he was still in the CIA, in which this topic comes up again and again. A quote:

"the genesis, dimensions, and threat of the bin Laden problem...is knowable for anyone who takes the time to read and ponder a representative sample of relevant open-source literature. The conclusions a fair-minded individual would fraw from this endeavour would, I believe include the following...bin Laden was precise in telling America the reason's he is waging war on us. None of the reasons have anything to do with our freedom, liberty, and democracy, but everything to do with U.S. policies and actions in the Muslim world...Indeed, the United States, and its policies and actions, are bin Laden's only indispensable allies....Given that these easy-to-reach conclusions can be drawn from materials found in the public library, and on the internet, Americans should wonder why their political, intelligence, military and media leaders have not made them. The answer, I believe, lies in another point made by Robert Baer: "I know enough about the way Washington worked to know that when it did not like the some piece of informationit did everything in its power to discredit the messenger," he wrote in See No Evil."

(from Imperial Hubris, Anonymous -Mike Scheuer, Preface, pp. x-xi)

Rather similar to Mr Kamm's own modus operandi..."

I'm not the first however. Another person who occasionally posts on the Media Lens message board, 'macky' was "blocked by Kamm long before I started posting here, simply for once having the temerity to provide Hansard references when challenged to by Kamm, on Galloways’ record on opposition to Saddam. It sort of spoilt the little petulant & puerile anti-Galloway piece he had just written"

Another, who goes by the name of 'rippon', also wrote:

"I have apparently been barred from commenting on Oliver Kamm's blog.

Despite repeated attempts, he declines to publish my comment.

Although I disagree with the principle he espouses (that I should declare my 'membership' of Media Lens), I have nevertheless prefaced my comment with the parenthetical remark: "(I am a member of Media Lens.)"

Despite this, he still declines to publish my comment.

Does any other 'member' of ML find that this applies to them?

Kamm has replied to me that he is "not able to post" +his+ views at Media Lens.

I have sought (but not received) clarification on this from both ML and Kamm: Is Kamm not free (as free as me) to post on this message board? "

[NB. The Editors of Media Lens confirmed: "Thanks Rippon. Kamm has not been prevented from posting here. Best Eds "]

Here is Kamm's e-mail to me in which he tries to explain his decision:

"Dear Mr Sketchley,

Thank you for posting comments at TimesOnline. As I've said to your comrades, I welcome contributions from Media Lensers, but I'm now turning my previous requests into a requirement. I'd be grateful if you would preface your remarks with the information that you're a member of Media Lens and that this is an organisation that denies the genocide at Srebrenica. As Media Lens members post assiduously on my bog, this is a mere courtesy to my regular readers to alert them to the provenance of these views.

Oliver Kamm
Leader Writer & Columnist,"

Mr.Kamm is a class A liar.

Chris Hedges: Wall Street Will Be Back for More

If any of you who come across this blog find time to read anything at all, then please click on the links here and read Pulitzer-Prizewinner Chris Hedges' latest article on corporations , and bookmark his weekly column over at truthdig.com. You won't regret it. Chris Hedges comments in this article are spot on, as anyone who has worked in one of these corporations knows, and full of sense and sensitivity:

"Corporations, which control the levers of power in government and finance, promote and empower the psychologically maimed. Those who lack the capacity for empathy and who embrace the goals of the corporation—personal power and wealth—as the highest good succeed. Those who possess moral autonomy and individuality do not. And these corporate heads, isolated from the mass of Americans by insular corporate structures and vast personal fortunes, are no more attuned to the misery, rage and pain they cause than were the courtiers and perfumed fops who populated Versailles on the eve of the French Revolution. They play their games of high finance as if the rest of us do not exist. And it is a game that will kill us."

Read the rest over at truthdig.

Israeli general denies Iran is nuclear threat

Surprisingly from the Sunday Times, comments from the "former director-general of Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission":


"A general who was once in charge of Israel’s nuclear weapons has claimed that Iran is a “very, very, very long way from building a nuclear capability”.

Brigadier-General Uzi Eilam, 75, a war hero and pillar of the defence establishment, believes it will probably take Iran seven years to make nuclear weapons."

That is, if they wanted to...and anyone who says anything different has an agenda.

Who will pay for Amazon's 'Chernobyl'?

From the Independent:

"Crude tells a story more complex than even that, and it began when Steve Donziger, a lawyer acting for the Ecuadorians, arrived at the film-maker's office. "The story the lawyer told me was indeed shocking," said Berlinger.

In the words of the film's producers, the claim was "that from the mid-1960s until the early 1990s, Texaco (now Chevron) dumped 18 billion gallons of toxic waste and formation water directly into streams, rivers, and the jungle floor; that nearly 18 millions of crude oil was spilled and leaked from pipelines, that more than 235 billion cubic feet of natural gas was burned into the atmosphere, and that nearly 1,000 unlined toxic waste pits were built throughout the region."

"War is a challenge to law, and the law must adjust"

Does this statement come from Nazi Germany, asks Chris Floyd? No, this "quoted opinion" from Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the United States Court of Appeals - District of Columbia Circuit "was part of a sweeping ruling that greatly magnified the powers of the government to seize foreigners and hold them indefinitely without charges or legal appeal"

Floyd reminds us that "It is often forgotten how "legal" the Nazi regime in Germany really was. It did not take power in a violent revolution, but entered government through the entirely "legal" procedures of the time. The "legal" vote of the "legally" elected Reichstag gave Adolf Hitler the powers to rule by decree, thus imparting strict "legality" to the actions of his government. " 

He has also dug up a US Supreme Court ruling from "December 1866 -- more than 140 years ago: Ex Parte Milligan. In this ruling, which grew out of the wartime excesses of the Lincoln Administration, the Court -- dominated by five Lincoln appointees -- was unequivocal:

Constitutional protections not only apply "equally in war and peace" but also – in a dramatic extension of this legal shield – to "all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances." No emergency – not even open civil war – warrants their suspension. Even in wartime, the President's powers, though expanded, are still restrained: "he is controlled by law, and has his appropriate sphere of duty, which is to execute, not to make, the laws."

Read the whole thing here.

The Weight Of Chains | Trailer

Check the trailer out for a new documentary which "will deal with tough issues concerning the breakup of Yugoslavia and the consequences of a decade of instability and war." The Weight of Chains.

This was by the same director, Boris Malagurski, who did  "Kosovo: Can You Imagine?".

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

CIA takes revenge with missile strikes in Pakistan

That's the WSWS' take.

"In an apparent campaign of revenge at least 20 people have died in drone missile attacks in Pakistan since the December 30 suicide bombing that killed seven CIA operatives and a Jordanian intelligence agent.

The most deadly of the strikes by the CIA’s Predator drone aircraft took place Wednesday in the Datta Khel region of North Waziristan, near the Afghanistan border.
Citing unnamed intelligence oficials, the Associated Press reported that one of the pilotless drones fired two missiles into a house, killing seven people. This was followed more than an hour later by another missile, launched as local villagers struggled to rescue survivors and pull bodies from the rubble. This second strike killed at least another five people. Some Pakistani media put the total death toll from the two missile strikes at 15."

Why is "one of the greatest medical scandals of the century" under the radar of the MSM?

Why has the media been almost completely silent about what Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, "the chair of the Health Committee in The European Council" called "one of the greatest medical scandals of the century”?

According to the online Pharma Times:

"The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is to hold an emergency debate and inquiry this month into the “influence” exerted by drugmakers on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) global H1N1 flu campaign.

The text of the resolution approved by the Assembly calling for the debate and inquiry states that: “in order to promote their patented drugs and vaccines against flu, pharmaceutical companies influenced scientists and official agencies responsible for public health standards to alarm governments worldwide and make them squander tight health resources for inefficient vaccine strategies, and needlessly expose millions of healthy people to the risk of an unknown amount of side-effects of insufficiently tested vaccines.”

The WHO’s “false pandemic” flu campaign is “one of the greatest medicine scandals of the century,” according to Dr Wolfgang Wodarg, chairman the PACE Health Committee, who introduced the parliamentary motion. “The definition of an alarming pandemic must not be under the influence of drug-sellers,” he adds. 

Dr Wodarg, a doctor and former SPD member of the German Bundestag, says that the “false pandemic” campaign began last May in Mexico City, when a hundred or so “normal” reported influenza cases were declared to be the beginning of a threatening new pandemic, although there was little scientific evidence for this. Nevertheless the WHO, “in cooperation with some big pharmaceutical companies and their scientists, re-defined pandemics,” removing the statement that “an enormous amount of people have contracted the illness or died” from its existing definition and replacing it by stating simply that there has to be a virus, spreading beyond borders and to which people have no immunity.

These new standards forced politicians in most states to react immediately and sign marketing commitments for additional and new vaccines against swine flu, through “sealed contracts” under which orders are secured in advance and governments take almost all responsibility. “In this way, the producers of vaccines are sure of enormous gains without having any financial risks. So they just wait until WHO says ‘pandemic’ and activate the contracts,” says Dr Wodarg.

“In January, we will arrange an emergency debate about the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on the WHO, and 47 parliaments all over Europe are going to be informed. Following this, we will initiate an investigation and hearings involving those responsible for the pandemic emergency. The aim is that none of the pharmaceutical companies under any circumstances must be allowed to make their influence felt on pandemic emergencies,” he went on."

No where in the MSM has there been any coverage of this at all. BBC, Guardian, Times, Telegraph have nothing. The only mention came in the Independent. It was well-hidden in the Business News section under the heading "Novartis launches $40bn Alcon buyout", allowing the Independent to say, if challenged,  that they had indeed reported on it:

"Swine flu swindle? Calls for EU debate

A key European Union body is considering an investigation into the role of drug companies in the World Health Organisation's swine flu campaign. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Pace) has had a request to hold an emergency debate this month on the "influence" of pharmaceutical groups on the WHO's efforts to inform governments on the dangers of an H1N1 pandemic.

The WHO's "false pandemic" flu campaign is "one of the greatest medicine scandals of the century," claimed Dr Wolfgang Wodarg, chairman of the PACE Health Committee. A number of drugs companies have made hundreds of millions of pounds after governments across the globe submitted orders for millions of doses of specialist vaccine and treatments. The number of swine flu deaths is dramatically lower than initial predictions had forecast."

That's 138 words in the whole of the British press about "one of the greatest medicine scandals of the century,"

And that's another scandal!

F. William Engdahl was the first one to break this here.

UPDATE: 08 JAN 2010

The Independent has done it again. The same story (this time only 95 words) is tagged on to the bottom of an article "Germany cancels part of GSK swine flu vaccine order",

UPDATE: 12 JANUARY 2010

Thanks to MikeD over at the Media Lens Message Board for posting a link to this Aljazeera report, and see this in the coments below:

The Daily Mail took up the story here yesterday:

The 'false' pandemic: Drug firms cashed in on scare over swine flu, claims Euro health chief

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1242147/The-false-pandemic-Drug-firms-cashed-scare-swine-flu-claims-Euro-health-chief.html#ixzz0Ny0kfkCS