May 21 posting, featuring John Dean

May 21 Sending,

Featuring John Dean


http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20060519.html

where you can find most of his other first rate analyses of Bush + Co's extraordinary rendition of the U.S. legal system. And there's a man who knows whereof he speaks!

the rest of the pieces that interested me this past week, and links, can be found at
http://summapolitico.blogspot.com

Next week, I will send a round-up of links to commemorations of Sigmund Freud on the occasion off his 150th birthday.
The progress that the monkey has made since reminds me of Oedon von Horvarth's comment that there's nothing like eternity to give you an idea of stupidity. I prefer to look on the bright side of thins: how much does a fruit fly know, as long as I remind myself that I am someone's fruit fly.

==============================
Published on Sunday, May 21, 2006 by the Independent/UK
Breaking point: Inside Story of the Guantanamo Uprising
The camp commander's claims of a co-ordinated revolt are challenged by new details of the violence.
by Severin Carrell

The prison camps at Guantanamo Bay were gripped by a series of uprisings and disturbances last week which suggest a state of near revolt, it emerged yesterday

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0521-01.htm

Arlen Specter, Another Phony "GOP Moderate." He Sold His Soul to Become Chair of the Judiciary Committee and Give the Bush Administration Whatever They Want to Ensure Their Secret, Shadow Government. He'll Yap Indignantly Now and Then, And Then Go to the White House to Get His Marching Orders.

http://www.progressivedailybeacon.com/more.php?id=1143&ARCHIVAL=TRUE

U.S. reserves nearly 'broken,' says chief
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6790738/

I know, we've been distracted of late by talk of massive NSA surveillance of Americans, slipping poll numbers, and the War on Immigration, but let's not lose track of the real kicker: will Bush defy common sense, global opinion, his own advisors, any shred of decency or intelligence, and the interests of the American people by bombing Iran?

Here's the official calculation of the odds as of the beginning of the year—things can only have gotten worse since then.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/05/15/bombs_over_tehran.php

The Right Kind of Paranoia
How the NSA could fix its data-mining program.
By Fred Kaplan
Posted Friday, May 12, 2006, at 5:00 PM ET

http://www.slate.com/id/2141643/nav/tap2/

just now, some 56 months after the fact, we are learning that both Judy Miller and her editors at the New York Times had information that foretold the 9/11 terror attacks and elected not to publish it."
http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/003394.html


The Privatization of the Internet Gains Ground in the Senate. Telecom Firms Stuffing the Pockets of Senators with Campaign Contributions.
http://esterrepublic.blogspot.com/2006/05/ted-stevens-vs-net-neutrality.html


How does this threat to Internet freedom affect you?
http://www.savetheinternet.com/=threat

Principles, power and pre-emption - Neal Ascherson
Alan Dershowitz's advocacy of new rules to codify state violence in the "war on terror" era is partisan sophistry with chilling historical echoes

http://www.opendemocracy.net/conflict-terrorism/dershowitz_3561.jsp


theres the 60 minute man and the invariably melodramatic 6 month man, thom friedman

THURSDAY, MAY 18, 2006
Friedman's do-or-die dates never seem to get any closer
(http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2884)
Fair.org

* New York Times columnist Tom Friedman in 2003: "The next six months
in
Iraq -- which will determine the prospects for democracy-building there
--
are the most important six months in U.S. foreign policy in a long,
long
time."

ttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060513/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/spies_eyes;_ylt=AkWmk90bjLH5OI1R5B00cVus0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--


Spy Agency Watching Americans From Space

By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer Sat May 13, 6:29 AM ET

WASHINGTON - A little-known spy agency that analyzes imagery taken from the skies has been spending significantly more time watching U.S. soil.
ADVERTISEMENT

In an era when other intelligence agencies try to hide those operations, the director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, is proud of that domestic mission

Published on Friday, May 12, 2006 by Inter Press Service
Iran Nuclear Conflict Is About U.S. Dominance
by Gareth Porter


WASHINGTON - As the George W. Bush administration pushes for a showdown over Iran's nuclear programme in the U.N. Security Council, it has presented the issue as a matter of global security -- an Iranian nuclear threat in defiance of the international community. But the history of the conflict and the private strategic thinking of both sides reveal that the dispute is really about the administration's drive for greater dominance in the Middle East and Iran's demand for recognition as a regional power.

It is now known that the Iranian leadership, which was convinced that Bush was planning to move against Iran after toppling Saddam Hussein in Iraq, proposed in April 2003 to negotiate with the United States on the very issues which the administration had claimed were the basis for its hostile posture toward Tehran: its nuclear programme, its support for Hizbollah and other anti-Israeli armed groups and its hostility to Israel's existence.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0512-04.htm

Correspondents of the Other Journalism have been at the side of
Alexis Benhumea this week, and today file a special report from their
interviews with his family, all of whom are supporters of the
Zapatista Other Campaign. Benhumea lies in a coma after being struck
in the head by a teargas canister in Atenco, Mexico on May 4.

http://www.narconews.com/otroperiodismo

Narco News also obtained the object that struck Benhumea: a "Spede-
Heat" long-range CN gas canister; high-resolution photographs are
available online at the above link. The projectile was, surprisingly
enough, "Made in the USA" - part of the chemical arsenal sold by
Defense Technology Federal Laboratories.


ee "Historical Dictionary of Israeli Intelligence" by Ephraim
Kahana, Scarecrow Press, Inc., Lanham, MD, May 2006:

http://tinyurl.com/zf6r4


Bowing To The Police State
by Ray McGovern, TomPaine.com
In order for Congress to exercise oversight, it first needs to start looking.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/05/16/bowing_to_the_police_state.php


Two new reports shine a light on corporate corruption. And both have a connection to Dick Cheney.
http://www.tompaine.com/uncommonsense/index.php#8398



U.S. Secretly Backing Warlords in Somalia

By Emily Wax and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, May 17, 2006; Page A01

More than a decade after U.S. troops withdrew from Somalia following a disastrous military intervention, officials of Somalia's interim government and some U.S. analysts of Africa policy say the United States has returned to the African country, secretly supporting secular warlords who have been waging fierce battles against Islamic groups for control of the capital, Mogadishu

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/16/AR2006051601625.html


State Department Looking for a Fight in which it Might get a Black Eye


In yet another blow to the credibility of one of its annually released "certification" reports on the performance of other nations on some broad social or political issue – this time on the degree of cooperation in the anti-terrorism struggle – the State Department in its 2006 compilation included Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, and accused Venezuela of a high degree of non-cooperation. The decades-old and always sketchy evidence involving the Castro regime in alleged terrorist activity has been used to buttress Washington's crusade against Havana. As for the spurious nature of its case against Chávez, this has caused a number of area specialists to dismiss Washington's claims as disgraceful inventions that are totally devoid of substance or integrity.

http://www.coha.org/NEW_PRESS_RELEASES/New_Press_Releases_2006/COHA%20Report/COHA_Report_06.10_Venezuela_Terrorism_Arms_Sanctions.html


-----------------------------------------
John Negroponte and the Latin Americanization of US politics
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/may2006/negr-m17.shtml


A major piece of the puzzle of U.S. law enforcement in Colombia
corruption has fallen into place. An anonymous source has leaked to
Narco News correspondent Bill Conroy a report from the Drug
Enforcement Administration that further strengthens allegations of
DEA and other agents collaborating with Colombian drug traffickers
and paramilitaries. It also makes some surprising claims about the
U.S.-sponsored drug crop fumigation program.

http://www.narconews.com


Iraq's Impending Fracture to Produce Political Earthquake in Turkey
Drafted By: Jephraim P. Gundzik
http://www.pinr.com

Unusual political stability in Turkey faces upheaval from Iraq's impending fracture along sectarian lines. The birth of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq will end Turkey's E.U. accession hopes. The collapse of the accession process will strongly undermine the legitimacy of the ruling Justice and Development Party (A.K.P.), making it increasingly vulnerable to political attacks from Turkey's secular establishment. These attacks could prompt the disintegration of the Erdogan government as soon as the end of 2006.


Chertoff: National Guard on the Border Would Be "Horribly Over-Expensive and Very Difficult". DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff said this six months ago on O'Reilly's show. Does anyone talk to anyone else at the WH?
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000661.php




The meaning of Ramin Jahanbegloo's arrest
Rasool Nafisi
16 - 5 - 2006
The authorities in Tehran have silenced Ramin Jahanbegloo – philosopher, democratic voice and advocate of non-violence. Rasool Nafisi asks why.
------------------------------------------


On 27 April 2006, the Iranian philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo experienced what is coming to be commonplace for many Iranian intellectuals and political activists. In Tehran's Mehrabad airport, on his way to India, he heard his name being called out from the loudspeakers. He followed instructions and went to the security department of the airport where he found himself subject to the re-enactment of a frightening scenario.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-irandemocracy/jahanbegloo_3545.jsp

Internet Storm Swirls Around Rove (WSJ)
Over the weekend, an Internet posting set off a media frenzy by saying Karl Rove had been indicted. It made clear how bloggers have changed reporting dynamics as more people turn to the Web for news.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114774060320053665-yW4EYDFzYadmGaqpnXr0ZlqmEF0_20070515.html?mod=blogs


Slate's Online Lessons for Newspapers (EditorsWeblog)
While America's most popular online magazine understands today's online journalism, it has no idea where the medium will be in 10 years. Newspapers could learn a few things about where they should be taking their own journalism, but there are other aspects of Slate's journalism that are questionable. Slate: "Today's Papers" column now available via textcast.


http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2006/05/online_magazine_lessons_for_newspapers.php

Jay Bookman | Sacrifice Liberty For Security? Not Without a Fight
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0515-22.htm