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20040430
"After a decade of intense study an American, Robert Sarmast, claims to have assembled evidence to prove that the fabled island lies a mile deep in the sea between Cyprus and Syria. He says he has detected 'around 48' of the 50 geographical features Plato described the island as having before it was 'swallowed up by the earth.'"
Long-serving prisoners from across France have teamed up with one of the country's top chefs to produce a book of recipes which its promoters hope will become a reference for impecunious kitchens everywhere.
The recipes were the best from among 600 sent in from France's 165 prisons as part of a nationwide competition.
The winner -- a prisoner in the Normandy city of Caen -- proposed "sea-bream with mushrooms on a bed of lettuce." His prize was a television set from the jail authorities.
Unfortunately the book has not found a commercial publisher but is being distributed by post to prisoners who request it.
"It is a shame because these ideas could be really useful to old people or students. It's a lesson in how to manage on next to nothing."
20040429
Oh good lord...
I hadn't even noticed that the name of the firm that facilitated the blog monitoring discussion was Open Source Solutions. OSS.
As in OSS.
Sigh.
Blog-Tracking May Gain Ground Among U.S. Intelligence Officials
You know, I really don't know what to think of this story (and it sounds like a story). I mean, what useful and timely information could the intelligence apparatchiks hope to get from a blog? While I certainly think that there are scores of resourceful and evocative writers out there, and hundreds more tireless and info-hungry blogeurs who aggregate and absorb information to present to others, is there any information that comes into the blogosphere that an operative couldn't gain by, you know, doing his or her job in the field?
Do they think that there are hundreds of little-known Raeds posting al-Sadr militia positions, or uploading real-time declarations of fugitive al-Qaeda leaders?
8 Rabi al-Awwal
The neighbor's donkey won't stop braying.
I want to throw a shoe at it, but the trigger-happy
infidel Marines will think I'm tossing a grenade
and level the house.
Spoke to Zarqawi last night about the next truck
bombing. They'll be using 20kg of explosives
from the Kut stockpile (the secret stash that
Saddam so masterfully used to hide the Ames-strain
anthrax spores). I asked who the shaheed would be,
but Z was mum about it... he wants to keep that
out of the street until after the attack. I think
it might be one of the fighters who had just come
in from Kuwait -- wait till the Americans find that out.
But they'll probably lie and blame it on Syria again.
Justice will rain on these invaders, inshallah.
But I wish someone would deal with that donkey first.
posted by Rolyat al-Nomad, 01:55 Makka -- [permalink]
Sigh.
mr damon 07:04
20040428
This is an edited extract from "The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession With Weight Is Hazardous To Your Health," by Paul Campos, to be published in May. The majority of this article derides the importance of the Body Mass Index and the exclusion of factors that relate to cardiovascular health, poverty, and diet.
"In West Africa today, beauty pageants feature contestants who would be considered markedly "obese" in the US; many of the young women who represent the pinnacle of female beauty in these cultures weigh more than 14 stone. In this regard, contemporary West Africa is quite similar to the US in the 1890s, when the 14-stone actress Lillian Russell was considered the undisputed beauty of her time. Historically speaking, far more cultures have mirrored contemporary West Africa and America in the latter half of the 19th century than have resembled the US today, where an almost unprecedented ideal of thinness reigns supreme.
"This is a culture whose need to control the world and the people in it is so intense that it has been driven to the preposterous conclusion that millions of unique individuals should all weigh within 10lb of an imaginary ideal weight. In fact, as we have seen, there is no valid medical reason why two women of the same height cannot weigh seven and 14 stone respectively, while both maintain optimum cardiovascular and metabolic fitness, and excellent overall health. However, there are enormously powerful cultural, political and economic forces that ensure we do our best to make sure one of these women will remain miserable about her "disease."
"The single most noxious line of argument in the literature about obesity is that black and Hispanic girls and women need to be "sensitised" to the "fact" that they have inappropriately positive feelings about their bodies. One University of Arizona study found that, while only 10% of the white teenage girls surveyed were happy with their bodies, 70% of the black teenage girls were happy with theirs (the black girls weighed more, on average, than the white girls).
"When asked to define "beauty", the white girls described their feminine ideal as a woman 5ft 7in tall, weighing between seven and seven and a half stone (ie, someone thinner than the average model). By contrast, the black girls described a woman whose body included such features as visible hips and functional thighs [and, no doubt, the oft-derided "J-Lo butt" - DT].
"Obesity researchers and diet companies are doing their best to change this unacceptable situation. In recent years, diet companies have targeted much of their advertising specifically toward upwardly mobile black and Hispanic women. As for obesity researchers, a recent article noted that black girls have better body images and lower rates of eating disorders than white girls, and also noted that they weighed more.
"These findings," the authors concluded, "should be used in the development of culturally sensitive public health intervention programmes to help reduce the high rates of obesity within the black community and encourage black youth to achieve a healthy and reasonable [sic] body size." Here again, we see how crucial the health justification remains to all aspects of the war on fat.
"How would a proposal for "culturally sensitive public health intervention programmes" sound if it were translated (accurately) as a proposal to make black and Hispanic girls as neurotic about their weight as white girls tend to be, because these groups represent the best opportunity for expanding the market for the useless, expensive and dangerous products of the weight loss industry?
"The obesity myth (which Campos challenges by pointing to a lack of correlation between weight, disease and mortality) thrives in contemporary America because America is an eating-disordered culture. Moreover, the prime symptoms of this situation - our increasing rates of "overweight," bulimia and anorexia - are also symptoms of, and have become metaphors for, a broader set of cultural anxieties.
"Americans worry, with good reason, that we have become too big for our own good: that we consume too much, too quickly; that our cars, our houses, and our shopping malls are too large; that our imperial ambitions to make the world safe for democracy and McDonald's are too grand. Under these circumstances, obsessing about the 10lb of "extra" weight that the average American adult has gained over the past 15 years has become a convenient way of avoiding a more direct engagement with any number of issues regarding America's excesses.
"We may drive environmentally insane SUVs that dump untold tonnes of hydrocarbons into the atmosphere; we may consume a vastly disproportionate share of the world's diminishing natural resources; we may support a foreign policy that consists of throwing America's military weight around without regard to objections from our allies - but at least we don't eat that extra cookie when it's offered to us."
20040427
TOIL
Torment
Oppression
Intervention
Liberation
TOIL
mr damon 05:20
Unless, of course, you're really, really afraid of what she might say...
"The Bush administration will today seek to prevent a former FBI translator from providing evidence about 11 September intelligence failures to a group of relatives and survivors who have accused international banks and officials of aiding al-Qa'ida.
"Sibel Edmonds was subpoenaed by a law firm representing more than 500 family members and survivors of the attacks to testify that she had seen information proving there was considerable evidence before September 2001 that al-Qa'ida was planning to strike the US with aircraft. The lawyers made their demand after reading comments Mrs Edmonds had made to The Independent.
"But the US Justice Department is seeking to stop her from testifying, citing the rarely used 'state secrets privilege.' Today in a federal court in Washington, senior government lawyers will try to gag Mrs Edmonds, claiming that disclosure of her evidence 'would cause serious damage to the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.'"
20040426
Full-Spectrum Dominance (that will not make us any safer)
"The official estimate of the US military budget is US$400 billion. When the costs of other defence-related activities are added, such as Homeland Security, the nuclear weapons program of the Department of Energy, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, etc., then the 2004 fiscal year figure reaches the tragic total of $754 billion, twice the GDP of Russia.
"If this amount was poured into poverty programs, al Qaeda would be short of recruits. According to the UN, around 6% of this budget -- a mere $40 billion -- would ensure the essentials of life to everyone in the world."
from Journal of a Futurist
20040425
"Fifty percent of invertebrates are in decline," says Buglife's Matt Shardlow. "These are creatures [that] are a very important part of the environment. They play an essential role in ecosystems -- the very same ecosystems that support us." At least 98% of all animal species are invertebrates. They are an essential food to most birds and mammals, to pollinating plants and recycling nutrients. Unfortunately, many species are now under pressure, primarily because of changes brought on the environment by human activity.
I think that this is/was an assignment page for students at Pittsburgh State... but have at it.
20040424
 "This is how Nicole Goodwin travels these days: with her 1-year-old daughter pressed to her chest in a Snugli, a heavy backpack strapped across her shoulders, and a baby stroller crammed with as many bags of clothes and diapers as it can hold. When you are a homeless young mother, these are the things you carry.
"And tucked away somewhere are the documents attesting to Ms. Goodwin's recent honorable discharge from the United States Army, as well as Baghdad memories that are still fresh."
Racism and Reproductive Rights
"I firmly believe that if the politicians could figure out a way to make abortion illegal for white women but not women of color, they'd be sending limos to take us to the clinics."
Dep. Under Secretary of War John Molino "denied the suggestion that restricting access to the photographs was an attempt at damage limitation by the Bush administration, which is under pressure over its policy of invading and occupying Iraq.
"'I don't see that as our motivation. To be very frank with you, we don't want the remains of our service members who have made the ultimate sacrifice to be the subject of any kind of attention that is unwarranted or undignified,' said Mr Molino."
Unwarranted? Documentation of the shipment of coffins that contain soldiers' remains is not unwarranted. Such an event is the inevitable and unfortunate result of warmaking. Someone died. His or her body was put into a box. This is what happens when humans are sent to fight and kill each other.
To prohibit documentation or publication of these events is to deny that there is a negative aspect to this kind of action. The line about "deferring to the bereaved" is a screen. Who will see photos like these and not empathize with or acknowledge the loss that some family will have to endure? That's being human. I think that it is because our humanity, our emotions and our contemplative selves are stirred by this evidence that the government wants to control it. Human concerns and compassion have a tendency not to square with policy. And when policy leads to an invasion that Paul Wolfowitz himself said "was probably illegal," then it becomes all the more important to hide its negative consequences.
When confronted by the evidence of death, people are reminded of their life. They are reminded that they feel and yearn, that they hope and hurt and fear and love... and they are reminded of how all of that is lost to the dead. Perhaps people will wonder if the person in the box was someone they knew. They might wonder if someone they know will end up in such a box.
Confronted by the evidence of death, people are reminded of their life and the fact that they have voices. Perhaps people will ask when the coffins will stop being shipped, when "victory" will be won. They might not so fervently wave those 99-cent flags if they continue to see flag-draped coffins flown home from countries whose inhabitants don't want to be beholden to our mandates and military force.
Of course, many people will see photos like these and harden their resolve. Their commitment to the cause and to the government will strengthen. They will want the soldiers who have died not to be forsaken, forgotten, or to have died in vain. It's relative. Each individual will see things differently.
However, I think that to deny individuals the opportunity to reflect on these events, to see and read about the effects of this war, is to corrupt the idea of democracy for which these soldiers supposedly died.
And in regard to dignity... no one making decisions in this matter
has the right to speak of it when 10 Iraqis die for each American,
and so many have been civilians.
But, again, how often do you see evidence of that?
Just to add a little background: The ban on showing the arrival of soldiers' coffins began in '91 after a live, split-screen broadcast in '89 that showed George I "acting the fool as the bodies of the men he had sent to war (in Panama) were borne from a military transport."
Early Saturday morning: Scores of photos released by government actually show coffins of Columbia shuttle crew
20040423
Question to Jimmy Carter: "How do you think the fundamentalist Christian Right has misrepresented Christianity, as well as the democratic process?"
Well, what do Christians stand for, based exclusively on the words and actions of Jesus Christ? We worship him as a prince of peace. And I think almost all Christians would conclude that whenever there is an inevitable altercation -- say, between a husband and a wife, or a father and a child, or within a given community, or between two nations (including our own) -- we should make every effort to resolve those differences which arise in life through peaceful means. Therein, we should not resort to war as a way to exalt the president as the commander in chief. A commitment to peace is certainly a Christian principle that even ultraconservatives would endorse, at least by worshipping the prince of peace.
And Christ reached out almost exclusively to the poor, suffering, abandoned, deprived -- the scorned, the condemned people -- including Samaritans and those who were diseased. The alleviation of suffering was a philosophy that was enhanced and emphasized by the life of Christ. Today the ultra-right wing, in both religion and politics, has abandoned that principle of Jesus Christ's ministry.
Those are the two principal things in the practical sense that starkly separate the ultra-right Christian community from the rest of the Christian world: Do we endorse and support peace and support the alleviation of suffering among the poor and the outcast?
You spent so much of your career working toward a reasonable, peaceful solution to violence and strife in Israel and Palestine. Increasing attention has been paid to traditionalist evangelicals' strong support for Israel, based on the New Testament prophecy that the reconstruction of the ancient kingdom of David will usher in the "end times" and the Second Coming of Christ. As a believer and a peacemaker, how do you respond to this?
That's a completely foolish and erroneous interpretation of the Scriptures. And it has resulted in these last few years with a terrible, very costly, and bloody deterioration in the relationship between Israel and its neighbors. Every president except for George W. Bush has taken a relatively balanced position between the Israelis and their enemies, always strongly supporting Israel but recognizing that you have to negotiate and work between Israel and her neighbors in order to bring about a peaceful resolution.
It's nearly the 25th anniversary of my consummation of a treaty between Israel and Egypt -- not a word of which has ever been violated. But this administration, maybe strongly influenced by ill-advised theologians of the extreme religious right, has pretty well abandoned any real effort that could lead to a resolution of the problems between Israel and the Palestinians. And no one can challenge me on my commitment to Israel and its right to live in peace with all its neighbors. But at the same time, there has to be a negotiated settlement; you can’t just ordain the destruction of the Palestinian people, and their community and their political entity, in favor of the Israelis.
And that's what some of the extreme fundamentalist Christians have done, both to the detriment of the Israelis and the Palestinians" [and many millions of people the world over, I'd add].
The politics (and pharmacology) of mind control
This comes from the current week's interview at NewScientist.com.
"[In regard to Sell v. United States], we wanted the court to recognise that we have entered an age where freedom of thought will become meaningless if we don't recognise and protect the individual's right to privacy, autonomy and choice with respect to his or her own brain chemistry.
So who should have control?
It's clear that by manipulating the brain you can change thought, and because your thoughts are central to who you are, and because freedom of thought is necessary for all our other freedoms, it ought to be the case that the individual, as opposed to the government, has the ultimate control over matters of the mind. Without freedom of thought, what freedom remains?
Should the US government use what it calls "pharmacotherapy" in its drugs war?
We have a big report coming out soon on pharmacotherapy. The focus is on how the new breed of neuro-drugs are helping to shift the old rhetoric of the "war on drugs" away from drug users as "the enemy" to being "sick people" who need treatment. It will then become a war of "good" new drugs versus the "bad" drugs. The good drugs are drugs that keep the bad, illegal drugs from passing through the blood-brain barrier. So policing the drug war is going to move from the external world of cops and helicopters to the internal world of increasing pressure to use these "neurocops" to reduce or entirely block the effects of illegal drugs.
Are there such drugs?
There is one under development by a French company called Sanofi-Synthelabo called SR141716 that blocks or reduces the effects of marijuana. It is in Food and Drug Administration clinical trials. The National Institute on Drug Abuse published findings in 2002 showing that this "anti-drug" reduces the effects of smoked marijuana by up to 75 per cent. The US government is serious about this effort to make not only the US but also the rest of the world drug-free, supposedly. It is now shifting this metaphor from "war" to "treatment". And in 2002, the Office of National Drug Control Policy even coined the term "compassionate coercion", saying that people who use illegal drugs are often in denial, so the government needs to act in this compassionately coercive way to get them the treatment that the government says they need.
The bottom line is that cognitive liberty is becoming one of the major civil rights issues of this century. Our goal is to rally the folks interested in fighting on the side of freedom of thought."
20040420
20040419
"In a society where freedom of the press is enshrined in the Constitution, our media largely acts as a megaphone for those in power."
"That's why people are so hungry for independent media -- and are starting to make their own."
20040418
"In the beginning there was the Great Goddess, and the Goddess was the Earth, and the Earth was the Goddess. The origins of the cult of the Great Goddess lie hidden in the dim twilight of prehistoric time. The Goddess ruled for hundreds of thousands of years. In the course of time, the Mother-Goddess was overthrown and driven under, and the triumph of the most patriarchal of archetypes -- Jahwe, God the Father, Allah -- was complete in the Judaic, Christian and Moslem worlds. It was only in the tamed form of Mary, Mother of God, that some aspects of the Mother Goddess were permitted to survive. Various Black Madonnas in ancient sanctuaries still bear witness to her."
The Black Moon Lilith as an indicator of the inner self and sexual expression (PDF)
"From ancient Jewish folklore to modern astrological practice, the Lilith archetype, by its very durability, has proven its value in helping us understand our own inner landscapes. One of the lessons that Lilith teaches is that what we reject or see as ugly in ourselves is much less daunting when we have the courage and will to examine it in the light of day. Just as Lilith has been transformed historically from the child-slaughtering demoness of the Alphabet of Ben-Sira into an image of affirmation, we have the ability to transform our inner demons into images of power."
20040417
The last sentence says a lot.
Signs of Long Ascension are: Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius.
Signs of Short Ascension are: Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus and Gemini.
They are so called because the signs of Long Ascension rise slowly in Northern latitudes, taking a much longer time than the two hours required if all the twelve signs rose at a uniform rate during the 24-hour day. Leo takes about two hours and 45 minutes to rise above latitude 40N (New York), while Pisces and Aries, two signs of Short Ascension, take only one hour and 10 minutes.
The reason for this lies in the obliquity of the ecliptic. The effect is that most people in the Northern Hemisphere are born under the signs of Long Ascension. In the Southern Hemisphere, the signs listed as those of Short Ascension in the foregoing classification become signs of Long Ascension. Most people are born under them, while the Northern signs of Long Ascension rise quickly and relatively few are born under them.
Thus, the people of the opposite hemispheres are also opposite in their inner natures, and show different characteristics.
Taken from The Philosophic Encyclopedia of Astrology
20040416
Plutonic relationship
So... I've been sitting here looking at the different aspects of my own chart, and when I got to Pluto, I noticed that the text I was using (published in 1970) only gave speculative ideas on the influence of Pluto in Virgo (1958-71) and Libra (1971-83). Since the next sign was Scorpio (ruled by Pluto) and the period of transit was 1984 to 1996, I wanted to know if there was a connection between the seemingly higher prevalence of darkness/transgression/violence exhibited by some of the soon-to-be-adult generation and Pluto's position.
And soon enough, I found this:
"Pluto moves through the sign Scorpio in 12 years, more rapidly than any other sign in the zodiac. It has been noted that if Pluto remained in Scorpio any longer, humanity would not survive. A quote from the Bible referring to this same assertion states, "And if those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved" (Matthew 22:24). This transit occurs once every 247.8 years. Last century, another cycle coincided with the moving of Pluto into the sign Scorpio: the 49.7 year close approach of the star Sirius B to Sirius A, which causes a "welling up of magnetic force" in this system. This occurred between 1993 and 1995. These facts are of great significance to all of us, for we chose to incarnate during this long-predicted time of transformation. It is, in essence, an open doorway through which we are receiving powerful spiritual energy, imparting us with the opportunity to evolve.
"Pluto in Scorpio is very intense, here the drive for power is strong. Pluto is a dynamic force of creation and destruction. It assists in the destruction of the lower desires so that more highly evolved qualities can be expressed by the human being. In the destruction of old forms -- be they physical, astral or mental -- Pluto literally changes their atomic structure. Pluto causes major changes and forces the transcendence of personal desires into a more universal orientation. Pluto is the planet of death and rebirth. It personifies the destruction of things whose time has come to an end, and the generation of what is new. It is like decaying autumn leaves becoming nutrients for the spring, or the caterpillar changing into a butterfly. It is the transformer that stimulates and catalyzes the Will."
Now, of course, Pluto has moved out of the sign of Scorpio and it is now in Sagittarius (until 2008):
"On a personal note, Pluto in Sagittarius involves each person feeling that they MUST find out what truth is for them. Whether this is through philosophy, religion, higher learning, or their own personal quest people will feel a compelling drive to find out the truth.
"Since Sagittarius rules politics as well, Pluto in Sagittarius demands leaders who are truthful and have a fiery enthusiasm. They demand leaders who promise that they will not be encumbered by bureaucracy or regulations. During this time we will see political problems and want to set up reforms. One radio station has a motto coined during this time: 'Speak truth (Sagittarius) to power (Pluto).'
"Pluto in Sagittarius is a time of openness to new ways of thinking, new ways of looking at the world. Commitment is a problem and the side of each of us that wants to be free to travel from place to place or lover to lover is enhanced during these years.
"Pluto in Sagittarius, among other things, is the reality T.V. we are seeing, where "reality" (Pluto) means "gritty truth in a foreign land" (Sagittarius). During past periods, Sagittarius has been associated with muckraking -- with opening up corruption. The muckraking today has more to do with physical muck. But people are also demanding (Pluto) openness and truth from people in power."
20040414
"The bulk of eminent legal opinion in the West has long agreed that the invasion of Iraq was unlawful. One of the architects of the war, Paul Wolfowitz, has admitted 'it was probably illegal.' Former Chief UN Weapons Inspector Hans Blix does not 'buy the argument' that Iraq’s violation of previous resolutions makes the war legitimate. Even the British Foreign Office, it now turns out, sent a secret memo to Tony Blair’s Cabinet advising that resolution 1441 failed to justify war. Blair’s attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, also voiced concerns that the war lacked legality without a second UN resolution.
"Last year, more than 40 Australian experts on international law and human rights signed a joint statement that the invasion of Iraq is a "fundamental violation" of international law that could involve war crimes and crimes against humanity. Robert Black QC, Professor of Scots law at Edinburgh University, and a key figure in the Lockerbie trial in The Hague, has written: 'It is perfectly plain that none of the Security Council resolutions relating to Iraq authorised armed intervention. It's possible to cobble together what looks like a legal argument, but the real test of any legal argument is whether a court would accept that argument.' Black weighed up the odds of the International Court of Justice supporting the Blair Government’s case. In his view, 'the odds against it are greater than 10 to one.'"
Had enough?
"Traditionally, Americans have worked hard to leave a better country for their kids. That’s the "Generational Promise of America." President Bush is abandoning that promise. That’s the big issue of the 2004 election. To satisfy his corporate cronies, George Bush is willing to leave our air and water poisoned, our global alliances broken, our education and health care system bankrupt, and our country crippled by national debt. If we care about preserving the American Promise, we need to act now."James Carville for Click Back America
Also:
"Just a few weeks ago, [I] signed the petition demanding that President Bush fire his Secretary of Education, Rod Paige. More than 240,000 parents, teachers, students, and concerned Americans signed up and spoke out! Be sure to visit www.FirePaige.org to read comments from folks in your state."
20040413
"Warring Somalis ought to learn a lesson from this. I have brought together hawks, cats, chicken, cattle, goats and a hyena who are all sworn enemies and they are all living harmoniously in one place. It's time Somalis reflected and thought of their interests and stopped feuding."
20040410
In what way does Bush chiefly command?
Mosaic available at American Leftist and Photo Matt.
20040409
Iraqi marchers persist in bid to relieve Falluja
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Thousands of Iraqi sympathisers, both Sunni and Shiite Muslim, forced their way through US military roadblocks in a bid to bring aid from the capital to the besieged Sunni rebel bastion of Fallujah.
Troops in armoured vehicles attempted to stop the convoy of cars and pedestrians from reaching the western town where US marines have met ferocious resistance in a two-day-old offensive against the insurgents.
But the US contingents were overwhelmed as residents of villages west of the capital came to the convoy's assistance, hurling insults and stones at the beleaguered troops.
Some 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of Baghdad, a US patrol was attacked just moments before the Iraqi marchers arrived, and armed insurgents could be seen dancing around on two blazing military vehicles.
Two US Humvees attempted to stop the marchers but were forced to drive off as residents joined the marchers, shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greater).
US troops armed with machine guns and backed up by armour again blocked the highway further west, but were forced to let the Iraqis past as they came under a hail of stones.
The cross-community demonstration of support for Fallujah had been organized by Baghdad clerics both Sunni and Shiite amid reports that the death toll in the town had reached 105 since Tuesday evening.
The rare display of sectarian unity came after Shiite radicals launched an uprising in cities across central and southern Iraq, shattering a year of relative tolerance of the US-led occupation from the country's majority community.
"No Sunnis, no Shiites, yes for Islamic unity," the marchers chanted. "We are Sunni and Shiite brothers and will never sell our country." (Well, there it is. If this unity holds and strengthens, then it will have a formidable influence on who will take control of the country -- and how.)
The marchers set off from the Um al-Qora mosque in west Baghdad where wellwishers donated food, drinks and medicine.
They carried portaits of Shiite radical leader Moqtada Sadr, as well as pictures of Sunni Islamist icon, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the spiritual leader of the Palestinian Hamas movement who was assassinated in an Israeli air raid last month.
"Our families in Fallujah, remember that our dead go to heaven and theirs to hell," read a banner held aloft by the crowd.
Mosque imam Sheikh Ahmad Abdel Ghafur al-Samarrai said the US-led coalition had given the Iraqi Red Crescent permission to organize a relief convoy but made no secret of his hostility to the US offensive in Fallujah.
"The Iraqi Red Crescent got permission from the coalition, following negotiations over one day and one night to bring these supplies into the city," Samarrai said.
"Baghdad residents decided to send initially 90 cars with food and medicines to Fallujah families," he told AFP.
"We want to express solidarity with our brothers who are being bombed by warplanes and tanks.
"It is a form of jihad (holy war), which can also come in the form of demonstrations, donations and fighting. The people who are occupied have the right to fight occupation, whatever the means they use."
The Sunni cleric called on US commanders to stop the bloody offensive they launched in Fallujah on tuesday after four US civilian contractors were killed in the town and two of their bodies mutilated.
"This only brings hatred and enmity," Samarrai said of the US assault.
"They killed the elderly praying at the mosques, as well as women and children. This is indiscriminate killing."
The cleric said he opposed the way the bodies of the American contractors had been treated but insisted that what the US marines were now doing in Fallujah was no better. They "are doing the same by mutilating the residential neighborhoods," he said.
A letter to Congress, the first I've written in five years
I am very disheartened by what I see and read in regard to American military operations in Iraq. Of particular concern at this moment are the reports about what is happening in the city of Falluja, where four Americans were brutally killed last week.
The images and reports of the punitive action being undertaken by the Marines against the population of this city -- 300-500,000 people that have had transit, food and water cut off since Monday -- is frankly disgusting. I am left to wonder how this mission to "pacify" violent resistance will be considered a success if it entails killing and wounding what are reported to be hundreds of residents, including many children.
I question the logic (and the morality) of this occupation when the tactics used do more to harm, humiliate and kill the people who were supposed to have been liberated from abuse and exploitation.
Yes, there are obviously those among the Iraqis who have taken up arms against American troops. Those troops have the right and necessity to defend themselves and the security of the general population. But are siege tactics that punish everyone within a location the only means to deal with this situation? Does killing the children of the people who might've welcomed American intervention serve the cause of stability... or, I might add, stem the tide of anti-American sentiment and support for terrorism around the world?
Or do the people who conceive and approve of these operations only concern themselves with sending messages and making examples? Do these civilian deaths and the clamoring for self-determination in Iraq not matter because the administration's goal is to show how tough, resolved and unshakable it is, no matter the cost or carnage?
If, for a moment, one takes that view of the situation, then how are the tactics of our government and our forces any different than those of Al Qaeda? Both organizations employ tactical violence to strike at the civilian population, military personnel or the infrastructure of the other. Both characterize their actions as means to defend faith, honor, identity and lifestyle... and to avenge attacks and incursions that the other committed in the past. Both entities also compromise and endanger the constituencies for whom they claim to fight because their indiscriminate shock tactics against civilians encourage their foes to respond in kind.
And so here we are on April 8th 2004: More than 650 U.S. troops dead and 3,000 injured in Iraq and Afghanistan; at least 10-15 times as many civilians killed and injured in both countries (the Pentagon has not kept count of enemy combat casualties). Civilian security and aid workers killed or taken hostage (three Japanese are being held at this moment). More than a dozen journalists killed -- most of them by U.S. troops. Increasing discontent and armed resistance across Iraq. Tenuous central control in Afghanistan, where, incidentally, opium production will be at record levels for the second year in a row. No evidence of an Iraqi biological, chemical or nuclear weapons program. No trace (or mention) of Osama bin Laden. And within our borders, a program of reactionary fear and isolation, along with a spiralling budget deficit, that is focused on the spectre and symptoms of terrorism, but not the causes.
At what point will we admit that there is a shortfall -- a dysfunction -- between our methods and expectations? How many more people will die before a change in tactics and exchange takes place? Or should we just prepare ourselves for a long, hard slog of pre-emptive and retaliatory violence that ends when neither side has anymore families to target?
As intelligent and interconnected human beings, we owe ourselves and our world much, much more.
This story was filed at 11:11 GMT
Hundreds killed and wounded
in Falluja siege, which has been undertaken
with complete restriction against
journalists entering the city.
Aljazeera was already there...
unfortunately accustomed
to being targets themselves.
"Recall that during the US involvement
in Vietnam, every civilian killed
by US forces was labeled
a 'Viet Cong sapper.'
Here, they are all 'insurgents' or 'bad guys.'
"Fallujah remains under siege.
Iraqis from all over the country
are converging to protest...
This occupation by Marines,
uncomfortably reminiscent of
Israeli Defense Force tactics
on the West Bank and Gaza,
seems to be uniting Iraqis
against the US military."
20040408
"...but blocking traffic will not be permitted."
This was a declaration made to those who rallied in support of Moqtada al-Sadr on Sunday, as reported by Naomi Klein in Baghdad. She asserts that the increased violence in central Iraq has been instigated by the occupation authority in order to delay the June 30 handover.
"A continued occupation will be bad news for George Bush on the campaign trail, but not as bad as if the hand-over happens and the country erupts, an increasingly likely scenario given the widespread rejection of the legitimacy of the interim constitution and the US-appointed governing council."
20040407
 "All the bluster, PR, good press, bullying, distortion, deception, and military tough-guyism cannot keep a flawed policy afloat. The invasion of Iraq, sold as the 'liberation' of "the Iraqi people," was a movie with a bad script, flawed characters, and no third act."
Unless, of course, an onslaught of pacifying violence and indiscriminate, punitive attacks from both sides (or is it three sides, at this point?) is what the liberators had planned. Or was the only plan "Fuck Saddam and grab the oil?"
First and foremost, this was an oil and land grab, undertaken to ensure a few more years of petroleum addiction as the reserves dwindle... and to position American troops amidst all the states that Israel fears. Interference from or real interest in these poor Iraqi heathen (and I think some in the administration call them just that) was never a concern.
And now that error is going to add to the suffering.
"The biggest myths of modern medicine were challenged in a new guide for patients launched yesterday that sets out the best treatment for 60 of the commonest medical conditions.
"Instead of claiming miracles, the guide admits that often the best treatment is no treatment. Devised by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), it is based on evidence from thousands of research studies and is being made available through the NHS Direct website, the advice service for patients."
from also not found in nature
20040406
Then is it tradition or business? What's traditional about crushing the skulls of as many seals as you (legally) can for profit? This turns my stomach.
"Hunting seals is no worse than people taking the heads off chickens, butchering cows and butchering pigs."
A good point. Thank you for reinforcing my adherence to vegetarianism.
20040405
I need to interrupt the regular content in order to bring you this INTERPERSONAL ALERT (from MeFi, of all places)
So here I sit on the night of a near-full moon, having felt more than a little uncertain about myself in regard to employment, prospects of securing such, connections with people, ability to fulfill my potential and achieve my goals. And as I made a cursory read-through of the latest threads, this title caught my attention... because I thought it was about Iraq or the federal politics.
The Drama Triangle
"Most of us unconsciously react to life from a position of victim-hood. Anytime we refuse to take responsibility for ourselves, we are opting to play victim. This leaves us feeling at the mercy of, done in by and un-faired against; no matter what our situation might be.
"Victim-hood consists of three positions outlined by Stephen Karpman, a teacher of Transactional Analysis, on what he called the "Drama Triangle". Having learned of it some thirty years ago, it has been one of the most important tools in my personal, as well as professional life. As my understanding of the Drama Triangle has expanded, so has my appreciation for this simple, but powerfully accurate instrument. I call it the "shame machine" because through it we unconsciously re-enact our vicious cycles, thereby creating shame. Every dysfunctional interaction takes place on the Drama Triangle! Until we make these dynamics conscious, we cannot transform them. Unless we transform them, we cannot move forward on our journey towards re-claiming our spiritual heritage.
"Karpman named the three roles on the Drama Triangle Persecutor, Rescuer and Victim and placed them on an upside down triangle representing the three faces of victim. Even though only one is called Victim, all three originate out of and end up back there. Therefore they are all stopping places on the road to victim-hood. We each have a most familiar, or what I call, starting gate position..."
"In order to get off the Triangle, we must first decide to take responsibility for ourselves. We then begin to allow ourselves to acknowledge and express our true feelings, even when doing so is uncomfortable. As we explore our core beliefs and starting gate positions, we become better able to recognize when someone is attempting to hook us, and refuse to allow it...
"Ironically, the doorway off the triangle for all players is through the persecutor position. This is because when we decide to get off the triangle, we are often seen as persecutors by those still on it. Once we decide to take self-responsibility and tell our truth, those still aboard are likely to accuse us of victimizing them."How dare you refuse to take care of me!", a Victim might cry. Or"What do you mean you don't need my help?", says a primary enabler when a victim decides to become accountable. In other words, to escape the victim grid, we must be willing to be perceived as the"bad guy". This doesn't make it so, but we must be willing to sit with the discomfort of being perceived as such."
And look! There's still a little geopolitical commentary!
"We live in a Victim based society. In the United States, we like to think of ourselves as Rescuers. For many years we identified Russia as the Persecutor with third world countries being the identified under-dog, or Victim. Several years ago, USSR's President Gorbachev was said to tell President Bush,"I'm about to do the worst thing imaginable, I'm going to take away your enemy!" Here was a man who innately understood our country's need to have a scapegoat, providing us the chance to say,"It's those bad communists again". Otherwise, we, as Americans might be forced to take responsibility for our own perpetrator tendencies.
"Of course, Russia does perpetrate, as witnessed by the doings of their KGB, but haven't our own CIA shown similar tendencies? Our very history is built on persecution. Within a few years of arriving in America, our forefathers began to systematically oppress and subjugate the Native Americans who had lived here for centuries! It seems a wearisome task for this country to be willing to be accountable for the ways we have persecuted. Instead, we seem bound and determined to hold onto the idea of being the world's "good guy." It is always difficult for Persecutors to perceive themselves as such, however. It is much easier to justify persecutor behavior than it is to own the oppressor role."
20040403
"[Army Specialist Jason Gunn] came within inches of death last November 15, when the Humvee he was driving hit a roadside bomb, killing his sergeant. The entire left side of Gunn's body was splattered with shrapnel, his elbow was shattered and, as he lay in the US military hospital bed in Germany, he was tortured by nightmares.
"Late on March 23, Gunn told his mother, Pat, that his commanders were putting pressure on him to return to Iraq, but there was no way he was getting on that plane. A few hours later, he was airborne. This week, Gunn's distraught mother, who is herself a navy veteran, received a first official response to her demands to know why a soldier, who was being treated by military doctors for combat stress, was sent back to the war.
"The note, which acknowledged Gunn suffered post-traumatic stress, said: 'After discussion of his case it was determined ... this may be in his best interest mentally to overcome his fear by facing it. Therefore, he has been cleared for redeployment.'
"Gunn is not the only broken soldier being sent to battle. The Guardian has uncovered more than a dozen instances in which ill or injured soldiers were sent to war by a US military whose resources have been stretched near to breaking point by the simultaneous fronts in Afghanistan and Iraq. In its investigation, the Guardian learned of soldiers who were deployed with almost wilful disregard to their medical histories, and with the most cursory physical examinations. Soldiers went to war with chronic illnesses such as coronary disease, mental illness, arthritis, diabetes and the nervous condition, Tourette's syndrome, or after undergoing recent surgery."
"The Pentagon's senior health official told Congress this week that the military had carried out 18,000 evacuations from Iraq of wounded or ill soldiers.
"Meanwhile, 15,000 soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan have filed for disability claims. Some 12,000 have sought medical treatment from facilities run by the department of veterans affairs. About 4,600 have sought psychological counselling. That demand threatens to overwhelm a veterans' healthcare system that has received no new funding since the Iraq war began."
Are you even kidding me? Bush and Rumsfeld fall over themselves to "honor America's heroes," commit themselves and these people to this asinine "war without end..." and they don't even give more money to the VA to serve the soldiers who are going to need support and care? Is that what I just read?
They've got to go.
Either way, you're still going to be on this planet, which still needs to be dealt with intelligently.
So it seems that the only person who hadn't warned of a terrorist attack was my three-year-old niece.
"[Former. Sen.] Gary Hart was co-chair (with former Sen. Warren Rudman) of the U.S. Commission on National Security, a bipartisan panel that conducted the most thorough investigation of U.S. security challenges since World War II. After completing the report, which warned that a devastating terrorist attack on America was imminent and called for the immediate creation of a Cabinet-level national security agency, and delivering it to President Bush on January 31, 2001, Hart and Rudman personally briefed Rice, Rumseld and Secretary of State Colin Powell. But, according to Hart, the Bush administration never followed up on the commission's urgent recommendations, even after he repeated them in a private White House meeting with Rice just days before 9/11."
20040402
Sibel Edmonds in the UK Independent
"A former translator for the FBI with top-secret security clearance says she has provided information to the panel investigating the 11 September attacks which proves senior officials knew of al-Qa'ida's plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the strikes happened."
"RFID tags are tiny transponders that send out radio signals and some experts predict they will become commonplace over the next decade or so." (RFIDs are obviously used in security tags for consumer goods and in machinery, and the uses are likely to increase.)
"The use of the technology in credit cards has been tested by Mastercard. Last year it ran a nine-month pilot in the US, involving some 15,000 consumers. People could pay for goods by waving their cards near special tills, which would receive the information transmitted by the cards. (That's already been used by petrol co.s for years, mind you.)
"'Wouldn't it be great if we could get the protection of having a personal identification number, without having to have a pad to type it into?' asked Prof Selker, who heads the Context Aware Computing group at the MIT's Media Labs. 'Wouldn't it be nice if something better than my signature would be transmitted without me having to use an external device?'
(Wouldn't it be nice if we just gave ourselves over to technology? Wouldn't it be great to be reduced to an indexed conduit of consumption?")
Of course, here comes my quasi-contradiction -- another device that the Media Lab has cooked up: The I/O Brush. You know, for kids!
20040401
This is not an April Fool's hoax.
It's one of the most positive developments I've read in some time (and a welcome counterpoint to yesterday's carnage).
"In 1995, Kiyoshi Amemiya, president of Yamanashi Hitachi Construction Machinery, set up a six-member project team within the company to begin the development of a mine clearing machine. The company is to ship the new machine to Afghanistan at the end of {March} and Amemiya is scheduled to visit the country in June to instruct Afghan mine clearers in using it.
An estimated five to seven million mines are scattered throughout Afghanistan, according to the United Nations -- while an estimated 110 million landmines are strewn in more than 70 countries, killing and maiming 20,000 each year.
"For Afghanistan, we made the blades strong enough to resist sand and rocks while in Nicaragua we had to adjust the blades so that they could work in mud."
The machine has a one-man cab, protected by special tempered glass but it can also be operated by remote control. After the mine explodes, the metal fragments are collected with a magnet and the machine can also plow the ground and even sprinkle fertilizer.
The mine clearer's reputation for doing its vital task well eventually reached the Indian Defense Ministry, which asked to buy it, with the US Defense Department also inquiring about it.
But Amemiya rejected both offers. "I have no business with the military," he said.
While searching for some supporting links, I found out about Kohei Minato's magnetic/electric motor, which consumes 20% of the energy needed by conventional motors.
No one wins here.
"The steadily deteriorating security situation in the Falluja area, west of Baghdad, has become so dangerous that no American soldiers or Iraqi security staff responded to the attack against the contractors. [Just read: "The four Americans killed in Fallujah were civilians who worked for a private company named Blackwater Security Consulting based in Moyock, North Carolina." See post on mercenaries below]
There are a number of police stations in Falluja and a base of more than 4,000 marines nearby. But even while the two vehicles burned, sending plumes of inky smoke over the closed shops of the city, there were no ambulances, no fire engines and no security.
Instead, Falluja's streets were thick with men and boys and chaos."
There's nothing to celebrate, no one to blame or counterattack. This is simply a terrible manifestation -- a collision -- of exploitation and resentment, fear and distress. None of these people needed to put into this situation. This is a complete degradation of humanity, and I want people to see that this is a crisis to which we are all bound.
from Major Barbara's Arms and The Man:
"More than 15,000 contractors work in Iraq -- about one for every 10 U.S. soldiers, {the Brookings Institution's Peter} Singer estimated. "More than $20 billion, one-third of the U.S. Army's operating budget in Iraq and Afghanistan, goes toward contractors, he said.
""They are playing a whole range of mission-critical roles," Singer said. "That's in spite of our doctrine which says you don't turn over mission-critical roles to private contractors."
"The Pentagon does not track the exact number of contractors or their casualties. Singer estimates at least 30 have been killed in Iraq, and about 180 have been wounded. That total does not include missionaries or contractors handling reconstruction projects.
""They are very clearly going after civilian contractors, and today is absolutely tragic," said Singer. "It's chilling."
"No one died because of the abuses of power known as Watergate. Too many have died because of the abuses of power by this presidency."
"The short summary of what is really a thread that runs through [Worse than Watergate] is that when you have a presidency that has no regard for human life, that develops and implements all (not just national security) policy in secrecy, and is driven by political motives and a radical philosophy, it is impossible not to conclude that they will overreact -- and at the expense of our constitutional safeguards. Bush and Cheney enjoy using power to make and wield swords, not ploughs. They prefer to rule by fear. We've had three years to take the measure of these men. I've done so and reported what I found in a book I never planned to write, but because others were not talking about these issues, I believed they needed to be placed on the table.
"Bush and Cheney have exploited terrorism ever since 9/11. Now they are exploiting it to get reelected. Should there be an even more serious threat, they have found that when Americans are frightened they can be governed like sheep, which suits Bush and Cheney perfectly. Rather than taking the terror out of terrorism by educating and informing Americans, they have sought to make terrorism as frightening as possible -- using terrorism to launch a war of aggression that is breeding a new generation of terrorists and getting the Congress to pass the most repressive new laws imaginable and calling it an act of patriotism."
--John Dean, White House Counsel to Richard Nixon
This is almost an incentive to frequent Starbucks
"Talking points, hand-written notes on spin tactics that reveal the White House was worried about former Bush adviser Richard Clarke's charges, and a hand-drawn map to [Donald Rumsfeld's] house* were found by a resident of DuPont Circle, who made them available to the Center for American Progress."
* The hottest item of them all, when you consider the school buses full of activists that rolled up to Karl Rove's house that same day.
from metafilter
Adrian Lamo...
"...Known as the Homeless Hacker before his arrest, did most of his virtual exploring from the Internet connections at Kinko's copy shops. Besides his laptop -- an eight-year-old Toshiba with six keys missing -- he traveled light, usually with a blanket, a change of clothes, and a Taser stun gun, which he used to pick electronic locks and sometimes to shock vending machines to see if they would drop food or spare change.
"Asked if he was afraid of going to jail, Lamo said simply, "I'm sure it would be educational. The beautiful thing about the universe is that nothing goes to waste."
Three stories on intelligence
Fmr. FBI Translator [Sibel Edmonds]: White House Had Intel On Possible Airplane Attack Pre-9/11
FBI informant revealed 9-11 plot in April 2001-- 2 D.C. agents filed report that al-Qaida planned suicide attacks involving planes
Senator demands hearings on translator crisis at FBI -- Leahy warns al-Qaida wiretaps piling up, asks bureau for full audit of backlogs
"Two and a half years into the 'war on terror' it is apparent that the winners are the terrorists -- while Al Qaeda's finances are still intact, the US is running the highest budget deficit in history. What can be done? Start by treating terrorism for what it is: a global business. Force our Muslim allies to act immediately to curb terror funding and concentrate our efforts to hunt terror money in our countries, even if that implies putting under investigation the strongholds of Western capitalism: Wall Street, the City of London and the thousand offshore centres linked to them."
--Loretta Napoleoni is an economist who has worked for banks and international organizations in Europe and the US. She developed the idea to research and write a book on the economics of terrorism while interviewing the leaders of the Red Brigades. Napoleoni's latest book, published September 2003, is Modern Jihad: Tracing the Dollars Behind the Terror Networks
On April 19, I added:
"Despite the war on terror, the US government has turned a blind eye when big business has supported the enemy, according to the Sierra Club."
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"Don't tread on me, either."
HST 1937-2005
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