U.S. EXPANDS STATE TERROR WAR

U.S. official confirmed attack by Special Forces to NBC's Richard Engel -- "al qaeda" the usual pretext

DEBKAfile’s military sources report: This was not the first US military incursion of Syria. Previous US strikes on Syrian soil in 2004 and 2005 targeted al Qaeda exit points to Iraq and involved bombardments and clashes with Syrian border units. These US attacks were discontinued for three years. Sunday’s operation was an extension of the US-Iraqi offensive to purge the northern Iraqi town of Mosul and northern Syria of al Qaeda elements, the jihadists’ last two strong bastions in the region.
According to eye witnesses, 8 US troops dropped by at least 2 helicopters stormed a farm house in Sukkariya and killed 8 people before flying back to Iraq. Damascus announced it held US forces responsible for “this aggression and all its repercussions.” It called on the Iraqi government to launch an immediate investigation into “this serious violation and prevent the use of Iraqi territory for aggression against Syria."...
DEBKAfile’s political sources note that the northern Syrian operation bears strongly on the US presidential campaign 10 days before voting. Both candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, will no doubt comment and if the attacks continue and meet with Syrian reprisal, they could become a focal campaign theme.[digest: apparently candidates not yet authorized to speak]

US cross-border incursions from Afghanistan drones firing missiles at Taliban and al Qaeda havens in Pakistan are ongoing. The latest attack took place Sunday night killing up to 20 insurgents.
http://debka.org/headline.php?hid=5676

Pakistan: Another Suspected U.S. missile strike reported
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Suspected U.S. missiles struck a militant-linked religious school [SIC] in Pakistan's northwest and killed five people Thursday, intelligence officials said....hours after parliament warned against "incursions" on Pakistani soil... The U.S. is suspected in a barrage of recent missile strikes on militant hideouts in Pakistan's northwest. The attacks signal Washington's impatience with Pakistan's efforts to root out militants allegedly involved in attacks on U.S. forces across the border in Afghanistan....The crossborder missile attacks have spurred frustration among Pakistani lawmakers, and the pro-U.S. government has protested them as violations of the country's sovereignty while seeking to build a national consensus on fighting the war on terror.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/10/22/2008-10-22_pakistan_...

“There’s class warfare, all right...it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
Warren Buffett

[same thing they're preparing Obama to prepare public opinion for]
What “incredibly tough” foreign policy actions is Obama preparing?
By Patrick Martin
"WSWS' -- - In remarks made in Seattle, Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Biden warned that Barack Obama, if elected president, would be compelled to take deeply unpopular actions in both domestic and foreign policy within months of taking office. In closed-door gatherings with two audiences of Democratic Party insiders and fundraisers, Biden forecast a major international crisis in the first six months of an Obama administration.... "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy," Biden said. "The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Watch. We're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy." Biden mentioned the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Korea and Russia as potential points of conflict, but did not spell out the exact nature of such a crisis, observing, "I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate." He made it clear that Obama would respond forcefully: "They're going to want to test him. And they're going to find out this guy's got steel in his spine."

The most politically significant portion of Biden's remarks came when he admitted that the decisions of an Obama-Biden administration were likely to be deeply unpopular, and he called on the Democratic Party regulars to stand behind the new president even when public opinion turned against him. "He's going to need help," Biden said. "He's going to need you—not financially ---- to help him—we're going to need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not going to be apparent initially, it's not going to be apparent that we're right." "There are going to be a lot of you who want to go, ‘Whoa, wait a minute, yo, whoa, whoa, I don't know about that decision.' Because if you think the decision is sound when they're made, which I believe you will when they're made, they're not likely to be as popular as they are sound. Because if they're popular, they're probably not sound." ...voicing his contempt for public opinion—"if decisions are popular, they're probably not sound"—and warning his wealthy audience that the new Obama-Biden administration will have to defy public opinion to carry out its policies. Biden's language suggests that the ferocity of the new administration's response will shock not only public opinion, but even its own supporters.

In that context, one must point out Biden's suggestions that nuclear weapons might play a role in one or more of the potential crises. A nuclear-armed Korean Peninsula could lead to "Japan as a nuclear power," he said, which could push China into expanding its nuclear weaponry. The Pakistan-Afghanistan border is "crawling with Al Qaeda" and "Pakistan is already bristling with nuclear weapons, all of which can hit Israel." Biden also noted Iran's alleged drive to build a nuclear weapon. Foreign policy journals and pundits linked to the Democratic Party have undoubtedly been discussing many such doomsday scenarios, and Biden's language suggests that the use of the US nuclear arsenal, the world's largest, is under consideration by those who are formulating the foreign and military policy of an Obama-Biden administration. Biden himself has been one of the most hawkish on foreign policy among leading congressional Democrats, backing the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and advocating a US-led military intervention in Darfur. During the Democratic presidential primary campaign, he was the most vociferous of all the candidates in denouncing antiwar protest groups seeking a cutoff of funds for the war in Iraq.

Biden's expectation of widespread popular hostility to an Obama administration applies not only to foreign and military policy, but to domestic policy. He told the Seattle audience, "I promise you, you all are going to be sitting here a year from now going, ‘Oh my God, why are they there in the polls, why is the polling so down, why is this thing so tough?' We're going have to make some incredibly tough decisions in the first two years." An Obama administration would not be an "innocent abroad," picked on by dictators out to "test the mettle" of a US president. American imperialism continues from administration to administration, Democratic or Republican. If elected, Obama will take office heading the world's largest military machine, engaged in violent provocations in dozens of countries, any of which could flare up unexpectedly, especially under the impact of the deepening world economic crisis.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21083.htm

BIDEN'S 2001 "PREDICTION"
9/10/01 In this video, Joseph Biden on Foreign Policy 9/10/01, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHtGTvTZ-wc utilizing his highly effective “clairvoyant” abilities...one day prior to the 9/11 attacks... at the national press club... made an unbelievable prediction, "we will have diverted all that money to address the least likely threat while the real threats come into this country in the hold of a ship, or the belly of a plane, or are smuggled into a city in the middle of the night in a vial in a backpack." ---which came only true hours later.

10/19/08 fortune teller Joe Biden not only predicted but “PROMISED” and “GUARANTEED” ..."Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."
Biden also offered four or five scenarios that, according to ABC news, include the middle east, Russia, a nuclear capable Pakistan, and of course Osama bin Laden.... a gifted clairvoyant or an elite insider with foreknowledge of astounding events before they occur? If an average American would have made these predictions with such impunity and certainty, then would an average American be arrested and interrogated for at least suspicion of terrorism or aiding a terrorism?

["Homeland Security' & Pentagon cover all possible bases: state terrorist chief going out with a bang? speaking from experience to lay groundwork for 'domestic violence' and 'unexpected national emergency]

No signs of Qaeda election threat - U.S.
"I have not seen evidence that a major element of al Qaeda's planning is our anniversaries or our elections," Chertoff told Reuters... but the government must keep guard during the 2-1/2-month transition to a new president, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Thursday. "Terrorist operations are undertaken when they are operationally ready. They don't wait for something that's an external event, and they don't rush it." [911 comes to mind]... Asked about the potential for domestic violence, Chertoff warned that hot rhetoric could trigger a "disturbed individual," something the United States has long lived with. "We live in an intemperate time, when a lot of people take political positions which they express not just with vigor but so often with animosity and anger, and there is always a danger that someone reading that or listening to that suddenly decides now they want to act out.... He said he intended to leave around the presidential inauguration to go into the private sector.... http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-36126520081023?sp=true

[note: politicians & mainstream media still silent about prevaricator general's big announcement]
Colin Powell Echoes Biden Obama will be tested ".... on the 21st, 22nd of January that we don't even know about right now."

Remember Remember the Fourth of November
...Colin Powell, one of the major war criminals with the blood of millions of innocent people on his hands, endorsed Barack Obama who, in exchange, has endorsed war criminal Powell: Obama told NBC TV Powell was welcome to campaign for him and might have a place in his administration.... Powell "will have a role as one of my advisers" and a formal role in his government was "something we'd have to discuss." The (ex)change we can believe in. All the President's Men. Among Barrack Obama's godfathers there are: Warren Buffett, the world's richest man, George Soros (the multibillionaire 'Good Samaritan' affiliated with the Council on Foreign Relations, [Open Society Institute, Freedom House] International Crisis Group, Human Rights Watch, etc.), the diabolical Zbigniew Brzezinski, and media mogul Rupert Murdock with his nefarious empire. The list goes on and on..http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48173

Military bracing for wartime presidential transition
By ANN SCOTT TYSON Washington Post
..."I think the enemy could well take advantage" of the transfer of power in Washington, said the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, who launched preparations for the transition months ago, and who will brief the president-elect, the defense secretary nominee and other incoming officials on crisis management and how to run the military.
Officials are working "to make sure we are postured the right way around the world militarily, that our intelligence is focused on this issue, and in day-to-day operations the military is making sure it does not happen," Mullen said in an interview. "If it does happen, we need to be in a position to respond before and after the inauguration."

Mullen, who will serve at least another year in his two-year appointment as the nation's top military officer, expects to provide critical continuity between the two administrations at a dangerous juncture, the senior officials said. He "will be in effect the bridge between the two," said a senior military official familiar with Mullen's transition team, made up of 14 senior officers from across the services.
The military's primary focus during the transition is twofold: to heighten preparations for a crisis requiring military force, and to anticipate and advise the incoming administration on likely new directions in Iraq and Afghanistan, officials said. High-level briefings on the risks and benefits of new strategies in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as longer-term issues such as military modernization, are already being prepared for national security officials of the incoming administration, they said.

Historically, transition periods are times "of significant vulnerability. ... The number of major incidents is alarming," Mullen said. In presentations he uses a chart that highlights pre- and post-inauguration crises from the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A second, classified chart shows the biggest threats today. "I run out the worst-case scenarios," Mullen said.... In recent days, commentaries on Web sites linked to al-Qaida have suggested that a terrorist strike might swing the U.S. presidential election in favor of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., leading to an expansion of U.S. military commitments in the Islamic world and further "exhausting" the United States.

Senior military officials and national security experts say major threats before and after the elections include an al-Qaida strike on the United States that would originate from Pakistan's tribal areas, as well as a terrorist attack involving nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. "With the election, the economic issues and what is going on in Pakistan and Afghanistan, all this converging at once, it makes a pretty enticing target for al-Qaida to consider disrupting U.S. national security interests in the short term," said John Rollins, a terrorism expert at the Congressional Research Service....The goals of such an attack could include swaying the election, testing a new administration and demonstrating a continued ability to attack U.S. interests at will, Rollins said.

The military is also watching closely for destabilizing events in Iraq and Afghanistan, while monitoring Iran's nuclear activities, Russia's military presence in Georgia and other areas of concern, a senior military official said.

The Joint Staff transition team — with input from the Army, Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy chiefs and regional military commanders — is now focused mainly on preparing the briefings that Mullen will use to advise the incoming president and the presumptive defense secretary. After the Nov. 4 elections, the team will facilitate Mullen's top-level briefings while starting immediately to instruct new senior administration officials on how to run the military. "The day after the election, the winning party will come over and occupy this building, and they will be the first wave of the transition," said the senior official familiar with Mullen's team. A new defense secretary is likely to be named in December, and he or she will then bring a second wave of new officials to the Pentagon, the official said. "A new administration will certainly want to do some things differently; whether it's Senator Obama or Senator McCain, they're going to approach problems from a different angle," the official said. Mullen must therefore be prepared to offer advice on a range of new policies for the war zones, such as a more rapid withdrawal from Iraq.

Mullen has asked the transition team, led by Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, to anticipate and prepare for a number of changes — from whom the new administration will pick for its top defense officials to what new policies it may adopt, particularly for Iraq and Afghanistan. The team reports to a senior Pentagon steering group set up for the transition that includes Mullen, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and other senior military and defense leaders and is chaired by Gates's special assistant, Robert Rangel.

Mullen's team will carry out exercises to show new administration officials the mechanics of handling a crisis. "We will ... show them how you actually operate the levers of the military power of the United States," said the official familiar with the team. "You don't want to go cold in a crisis, without having established a common framework of understanding" and a rapport between the incoming Pentagon leadership and Mullen and other top military officers, he said. "Anything we can do to shorten the learning curve ... will help."

"You'll have a revolution on your hands"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/25/business/25nocera.html
As Mark Landler reported in The New York Times earlier this week, “the government wants not only to stabilize the industry, but also to reshape it.”... one of Treasury’s key rationales for the recapitalization program - namely, that it will cause banks to start lending again - is a fig leaf, Treasury's version of the weapons of mass destruction. In fact, Treasury wants banks to acquire each other and is using its power to inject capital to force a new and wrenching round of bank consolidation... Treasury would funnel some bailout money to help banks buy other banks. And, in an almost unnoticed move, it recently put in place a new tax break, worth billions to the banking industry, that has only one purpose: to encourage bank mergers... I caught up with Senator Dodd, and asked him what he was going to do if the loan situation didn’t improve: "If it turns out that they are hoarding, you’ll have a revolution on your hands. People will be so livid and furious that their tax money is going to line their pockets instead of doing the right thing. There will be hell to pay."

The Opium of the Masses
Max Kantar
...Elections in the US are nothing more than ratifications of illegitimate power and approval of concentrated wealth. So long as we continue to rationalize our vote by selecting the "lesser of two evils" vying for Chief Terrorist Commander and Upholder of Elite Interests, we will be giving our tacit approval to and consent of the continued human rights violations committed by the bipartisan power structure.
This business of selecting indentured servants of existing power is more symbolic as a means of conquest of the popular will rather than that of democracy. Perhaps we were never taught that the wonderful advancements our country has made over the years came as a result of popular struggle, not electoral politics.
When we cast our ballots for the McCains and Obamas of this country, blood continues to be shed on the battlefields of justice, not only around the world as the US continues its imperial crusade to protect the world from the threat of democracy, but at home as well in America’s prisons, hospitals, factories, courts, ghettos, working neighborhoods—in essence, on America’s "main street."
When we place our political energy into elections, power and privilege always win while our movements die. In our country, voting is the opium of the masses.
www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/10/the-opium-of-the-masses/

digest: ORGANIZE - NO PASSIVE BOYCOT!
TO BUILD RESISTANCE TO EMPIRE WE MUST FIRST DARE TO SEE AND HEAR REAL LEADERS, DARE TO STAND WITH THE MILLIONS WAGING RESISTANCE AGAINST U.S. IMPERIALISM, WITH THOSE WE ABANDON FOR THE SAKE OF THE EMPIRE'S BLOODY CRUMBS. OUR SISTERS & BROTHERS GIVING THEIR LIVES & LANDS TO RESIST OUR COMMON ENEMY, ARE THROWING A WRENCH IN ITS WORKS, OBSTRUCTING THE GENOCIDAL U.S. BIPARTISAN AGENDA FOR GLOBAL DOMINATION. WHEN WILL WE HAVE THE GUTS TO STAND WITH OUR REAL ALLIES IN THE FIGHT FOR OUR COMMON FUTURE?

[A suicidal rescue mission: saving the shit on top,or,why capitalism can't fix the horrors it creates: the producers of finance capitalist profits and power, working and oppressed classes pay capitalism debts to screw us]

Rescuing Capitalism
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/25/opinion/25sat2.html?th&emc=th

Insurers Getting in Line for Piece of Federal Bailout
The government considered extending the bailout to include insurance companies, and the auto industry stepped up efforts to secure a share of the money.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/25/business/25bailout.html?th&emc=th

all aboard to save the bipartisan ship of state with increased hard & soft power....
Obamacans: Prominent Republicans Line Up Behind Obama
Since Colin Powell crossed party lines to endorse Barack Obama last Sunday, a steady stream of prominent Republicans have endorsed the Illinois senator...Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld ... a public supporter of Mitt Romney in the Republican primaries... called Obama a “once-in-a-lifetime candidate who will transform our politics and restore America’s standing in the world.”..., former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson ... “I think we have in Barack Obama the clear possibility of a truly great president,”...Scott McClellan, former Bush spokesman... Ken Adelman, a prominent conservative on foreign policy matters announced his support for Obama on Tuesday, telling the New Yorker that his decision was based on temperament and judgment. http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/10/24/obamacans-prominent-republicans...

Solicitor General of the United States under Reagan and recent McCain adviser Charles Fried Charles Fried, professor at Harvard Law School...long one of the most important conservative thinkers in the United States... announced he had voted for Obama by absentee ballot. New York Times endorse Obama for president

McClellan, White House spokesman from 2003 to 2006... steadfastly defended the US war in Iraq against harsh attacks from Democrats and the media....[his book] "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," deeply criticized his former employer but also hit out at the US media for too easily accepting the early justifications for the war. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hmSOCPsXq3Nwa4snARSuJV7Qto3A

Imperialist imprimatur
Major U.S. papers back Obama: NYT, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Detroit Free Press Los Angeles Times.

Ex-IDF, Mossad officials praise Obama
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017457443&pagename=JPost%...
A U.S. Jewish group recruited several retired IDF and high-ranking Mossad officials to appear in a video supporting Barack Obama as a better partner for Israel in the White House.

Militarization of the American Homeland: Suppression of "Civil Disturbances"
ACLU Demands Information on U.S. Military Domestic Operations
Tom Burghardt
http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=48249&s2=26
October 25, 2008
On October 2, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request demanding information from the government on U.S. Northern Command's (NORTHCOM) deployment of the 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Combat Brigade Team (BCT) on U.S. soil for "civil unrest" and "crowd control" duties.
In tandem with the elite 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, the 1st BCT participated in mock drills designed to "coordinate with local governments and interagency organizations such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Emergency Management Agency," U.S. Northern Command News reported. ...

Since the late 1960s, the military has gradually expanded its brief to include domestic law enforcement, drug interdiction and border security, in clear violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. The 1878 law specifically bars the use of the military in domestic policing. However the trend towards militarizing the inherently civilian nature of locally controlled law enforcement has accelerated since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, most infamously with the October 2002 creation of NORTHCOM itself.

U.S. Northern Command's original mandate "to provide command and control of Department of Defense (DoD) homeland defense efforts and to coordinate defense support of civil authorities," has since expanded with the May 2007 National Security Presidential Directive 51, Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20 (NSPD 51/HSPD 20).

A 2002 REPORT
Operation Endless Deployment
William D. Hartung, Frida Berrigan and Michelle Ciarrocca
8/29/2002
Since September 2001 US forces have built, upgraded or expanded military facilities in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Turkey, Bulgaria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan; authorized extended training missions or open-ended troop deployments in Djibouti, the Philippines and the former Soviet republic of Georgia; negotiated access to airfields in Kazakhstan; and engaged in major military exercises, involving thousands of US personnel, in Jordan, Kuwait and India. Thousands of tons of military equipment have been added to stockpiles already pre-positioned in Middle Eastern and Persian Gulf states, including Israel, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar. And discussions are still under way with Yemen about increasing American access to facilities there and establishing an intelligence-gathering installation aimed at monitoring activities in Sudan and Somalia.
These forward bases, many of which have been arranged through secretive, ad hoc arrangements, currently house an estimated 60,000 US military personnel. This includes 20,000-25,000 troops in the Persian Gulf, poised to serve as the opening wave of a US invasion of Iraq.

Funds for training and military aid, which are often used to grease the wheels of US access to overseas military facilities, have been increased substantially since the start of the Administration's war on terrorism. The budget request for training foreign military personnel is up by 27 percent in the fiscal-year 2003 budget, while funding for the government's largest military aid program, Foreign Military Financing, is slated to top $4 billion. The bulk of this additional funding is going to countries like Uzbekistan, Pakistan and India, which had previously been under restrictions on what they could receive from the United States because of records of systematic human rights abuses, antidemocratic practices or development of nuclear weapons. Now these same nations are viewed as indispensable allies in the Administration's war on terrorism.
The new global buildup represents not so much a return to the cold war, when the United States had many more troops stationed overseas than it does today, but rather an elaboration of a new, more flexible infrastructure for intervening in--or initiating--"hot wars" from the Middle East to the Caucasus to East Asia.
Military analyst William Arkin has noted that in the first four months after the September 11 attacks, thirteen military tent cities were hastily assembled to shelter US personnel in nine different countries. Many of the sites include "expeditionary airfields" that were built or upgraded on short notice to facilitate their use by US combat and transport planes.
Despite protestations to the contrary by Pentagon officials, there are questions about how many of the new US forward bases will in fact be temporary. The US Central Command has long been seeking alternatives to Saudi Arabia to use as springboards for future interventions in the Persian Gulf, as well as access to facilities in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. While Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has been purposely vague about the length of the US stay at any of the new facilities, Air Force Col. Billy Montgomery, who headed a team that expanded an air base in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, for use by US and allied forces in Afghanistan, told the Washington Post, "I think it's fair to say there will be a long-term presence here well beyond the end of hostilities." In a mid-August briefing, Gen. Tommy Franks, the head of the Central Command, suggested that the length of the US military presence in Afghanistan could end up rivaling the fifty-year US presence in South Korea.

LEAVING IRAQ ...
Engineering, construction and services company KBR Inc. said late Thursday it received multiple project task orders from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers totaling just over $197 millionThe projects, which fall under the company's current CENTCOM multiple award task order contract, include the construction of maintenance facilities and airfields for helicopters and other aircraft, along with the construction of a dining facility, at all U.S. air bases in Iraq. http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/10/24/ap5601436.html

CHANNELING THE MASTERS' VOICE AS IF HE'S THE 'DECIDER'
Obama favours U.S. troop surge in Afghanistan
PAUL KORING, Globe and Mail
Senator Barack Obama said Wednesday he would order a surge of U.S. troops – perhaps 15,000 or more – to Afghanistan as soon as he reached the White House. "We're confronting an urgent crisis in Afghanistan," Mr. Obama, the Democratic contender and now clear front-runner to replace George W. Bush, said Wednesday. "It's time to heed the call … for more troops. That's why I'd send at least two or three additional brigades to Afgh anistan," he said in his most hawkish promise to date... A U.S. army brigade includes about 5,000 soldiers along with tanks, armoured personnel carriers and helicopter gunships.... Mr. Obama huddled with a high-profile panel of experts before a news conference aimed at showcasing his command of global affairs...."The terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 are still at large and plotting," he said, echoing Mr. Bush's oft-repeated refrain.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081022.wcampaign_sp...

USAF Creates New Global Strike Command
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=defense...
The U.S. Air Force will stand up a new major command called Global Strike Command devoted strictly to the nuclear enterprise, the service announced Oct. 24 at the Pentagon. Air Force leaders released a so-called roadmap, titled "Reinvigorating the Air Force Nuclear Enterprise," that details major actions the service will take.
US air force creates new nuclear command centre
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200810/s2401177.htm
25 Oct 2008 The United States air force is creating a new command centre to control nuclear weapons, after several high profile errors led to the dismissal of two top officials. In 2007 an air force bomber accidentally flew across the United States loaded with six nuclear weapons. Earlier this year it was revealed that nuclear missile fuses were inadvertently sent to Taiwan in 2006

Agent boy Burns omits a few relevant details -- like the above NEW USAF Nuclear Command Center, plus the fact that mr. unequivocally anti-nuke Obama said he'll likely keep Gates in place for 'continuity' dontcha know...
US considering implications of nuclear decline
By ROBERT BURNS
AP Military Writer
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=20083...
...The number of nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal is a state secret. But Kristensen and a fellow expert, Robert S. Norris, estimate that the total stood at nearly 5,400 warheads at the start of this year. That includes an estimated 4,075 ready for potential use and 1,260 in backup status.... The mighty U.S. arsenal of nuclear weapons, midwived by World War II and nurtured by the Cold War, is declining in power and purpose while the military's competence in handling the world's most dangerous arms has eroded. At the same time, international efforts to contain the spread of such weapons look ineffective.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, for one, wants the next president to think about what nuclear middle-age and decline means for national security.Gates joins a growing debate about the reliability and future credibility of the American arsenal with his first extensive speech on nuclear arms Tuesday. The debate is attracting increasing attention inside the Pentagon even as the military is preoccupied with fighting insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. The unconventional tools of war there include covert commandos, but not nuclear weapons. Gates is expected to call for increased commitment to preserving the deterrent value of atomic weapons. Their chief function has evolved from first stopping the Nazis and Japanese, then the Soviets. Now the vast U.S. stockpile serves mainly to make any other nation think twice about developing or using even a crude nuclear device of its own....
Of the two senators competing to succeed President Bush, Democrat Barack Obama is most unequivocally against building new nuclear weapons.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, wrote in the current issue of an internal publication, Joint Force Quarterly, that the United States is overdue to retool its nuclear strategy. He referred to nuclear deterrence - the idea that the credible threat of U.S. nuclear retaliation is enough by itself to stop a potential enemy from striking first with a weapon of mass destruction.
Gates... has expressed concern about lack of official attention to the nuclear arsenal."Even though the days of hair-trigger superpower confrontation are over, as long as other nations possess the bomb and the means to deliver it, the United States must maintain a credible strategic deterrent," he said Sept. 29 in a speech at the National Defense University. Gates tied the question of credibility to well-publicized slip-ups in Air Force nuclear operations. In June he fired the Air Force's top general, Michael Moseley, as well as the top civilian, Michael Wynne, after an outside investigation concluded that the Air Force had not adequately heeded warning signs that its nuclear expertise, performance and stewardship were eroding over a period of years.
In August 2007, a B-52 bomber flew from an Air Force base in North Dakota to a base in Louisiana with nuclear warheads that neither the bomber's pilots nor its crew knew were aboard. Then came the revelation that electrical fuses that trigger the detonation of strategic nuclear missiles had been shipped mistakenly to Taiwan - and the mistake was not discovered for months.
Richard Wagner, a physicist who worked in the government's nuclear weapons laboratories for many years, told a conference in Washington this past week that the August 2007 incident was "the worst breach of security of nuclear weapons that the United States has ever had." U.S. Strategic Command: http://www.stratcom.mil/

Huge New Biodefense [SIC] Lab Is Dedicated at Fort Detrick
Washington Post October 24, 2008
The Department of Homeland Security dedicated a massive biodefense laboratory in Frederick yesterday, moving toward the facility’s opening despite questions raised about the risks of deadly pathogens to be studied there....when the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center at Fort Detrick is fully operational in March, about 150 scientists in the lab will be tasked with protecting the country from a bioterrorist attack through prevention or containment. Another goal is to allow investigators to fingerprint biological agents such as viruses and bacteria, quickly tracing their source and catching the offender....

more preparations for urban warfare in the 'slums'
Pentagon's Research Arm DARPA Coming into your place from the cold
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/10/darpa-see-throu.html
The Pentagon wants to be able to peer inside your apartment building -- picking out where all the major rooms, stairways, and dens of evil-doers are....once those foes duck into houses, they become a whole lot harder to spot. ..." The ultimate goal of this Harnessing Infrastructure for Building Reconnaissance (HIBR) project: "reverse the adversaries' advantage of urban familiarity and sanctuary and provide U.S. Forces with complete above- and below-ground awareness. By the end of the project, Darpa wants technologies that can see into a 10-story building with a two-level basement in a "high-density urban block" -- and produce a kind of digital blueprint of the place. Using sensors mounted on backpacks, vehicles, or aircraft, the HIBR gear would, hopefully, be able to pick out every room, wall, stairway, and basement in the building -- as well as all of the "electrical, plumbing, and installation systems." Although radar technologies exist that can track people in adjacent rooms, it is much more difficult to map an entire building. “Going through one wall is not that bad, but a building is basically an RF hall of mirrors. You’ve got signals bouncing all over the place,” Darpa program manager Dr. Edward J. Baranoski says. Field trials are supposed to get underway this fall.

enforcing 'the war on the net' and more
Air Force 'Freedom to Attack' Online
October 24, 2008
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/10/in-new-doctrine.html
"Cyberspace Operations -- Air Force Doctrine Document 2-11," obtained by Inside Defense. “Freedom of action... can be seen as freedom from attack and freedom to attack,” the paper states. “The size and complexity of the domain and the extensive collection of networks... can make freedom of action difficult and perhaps elusive.”... In 2005, the Air Force changed its mission statement to read, "As Airmen, it is our calling to dominate Air, Space, and Cyberspace." Then the service announced a far-reaching effort to set up a "Cyber Command," responsible for that dominance. But by August of this year, that project was put on hold, after it became painfully obvious that no one was really sure what the new command would really do (or even how to define the term "cyber.") Now, those network warriors will fall under the purview of Air Force Space Command. According to Inside Defense , the Air Force's new, 70-page document uses a broad definition of what could be considered cyber, " everything from bombs against enemy network nodes to radar-jamming aircraft, computer firewalls and fake e–mails to terrorist operatives." Even "rapid software development" and "psychological operations" are counted as components of information warfare.

'lowest moment' pretty much says it all: which side are you on?
Barack Obama’s lowest moment as a community organizer in the 1980s came when he brought the executive director of the Chicago Housing Authority to Altgeld Gardens, a decrepit housing project, to hear complaints about asbestos. Seven-hundred residents [at] the meeting grew so raucous that the director fled after 15 minutes, to chants of “No more rent!” The young organizer was humiliated and angry, at himself. “It was embarrassing to him to have the residents out of control,” said Johnnie Owens, whom Mr. Obama would hire as a community organizer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/weekinreview/26kantor.html?hp=&pagewan...

Chomsky, Zinn, and Obama
Mickey Z.
You don’t stick a knife in a man’s back nine inches, and then pull it out six inches, and say you’re making progress.
Malcolm X
...Fast forward to 2008 Chomsky... "I would suggest voting against McCain, which means voting for Obama without illusions." And once again, Howard Zinn is in agreement: "Even though Obama does not represent any fundamental change, he creates an opening for a possibility of change." (Two word rejoinder: Bill Clinton)
This strategy of choosing an alleged "lesser evil" because he/she might be influenced by some mythical "popular movement" would be naïve if put forth by a high school student. Professors Chomsky and Zinn know better....
In 2004 Chomsky and Zinn were joined in the vocal, visible, and vile Anybody-But-Bush ranks by "stars" like Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon, Medea Benjamin, Sean Penn, Barbra Streisand, Manning Marable, Naomi Klien, Phil Donahue, Barbara Ehrenreich, Martin Sheen, Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, Cornel West, etc. etc. and John Kerry still lost....
Conclusion: A vote for either John McCain or Barack Obama is—at best—an act of criminal negligence.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/10/chomsky-zinn-and-obama/

Additional articles from NECDP, onepalestine.org, on The Treachery of Noam Chomsky's Liberal Zionism from Arabian Nights at http://www.burbankdigest.com/node/137
See NECDP's 'Palestine Solidarity Principles of Unity' onepalestine.org, also posted at http://www.burbankdigest.com/node/138

"Noam Chomsky and 'Left' Apologetics for Injustice in Palestine"
August 2004: http://www.onepalestine.org/resources/articles/Left_Apologetics.html

"Chomsky's 'Realism' and 'Advocacy' : Advocacy for what and for whom?
August 2004: http://www.onepalestine.org/resources/articles/Advocacy_for_what.html

CAPITALIST COMPLEMENT TO HARD POWER, SOFT POWER " DEVELOPMENT AID"
WB / IMF speculate about how many Anglos can dance on the head of a peon...
Racism and Poverty
John Maxwell
http://www.creative-i.info/?p=1629
The people of Haiti are as poor as human beings can be.
According to the statisticians of the World Bank and others who speculate about how many Anglos can dance on the head of a peon, Haiti may either be the second, third or fourth poorest country in the world. In Haiti’s case, statistics are irrelevant. When large numbers of people are reduced to eating dirt – earth, clay – it is impossible to imagine poverty any more absolute, any more desperate, any more inhuman and degrading.

The chairman of the World Bank visited Haiti this past week. This man, Robert Zoellick, is an expert finance-capitalist, a former partner in the investment bankers Goldman Sachs, whose 22,000 ‘traders” last year averaged bonuses of more than $600,000 each. Goldman Sachs paid out over $18 billion in bonuses to its traders last year, about 50% more than the GDP of Haiti’s 8 million people.The chairman of Goldman took home more than $70 million and his lieutenants – as Zoellick once was – $40 million or more, each...
Haiti is now forced by the World Bank and Its bloodsucking siblings like the IMF, to pay more than $1 million a week to satisfy debts incurred by the Duvaliers and the post-Duvalier tyrannies. Haiti must repay this debt to prove its fitness for further ‘help’ from the Multilateral Financial Institutions (MFI). One million dollars a week would feed everybody in Haiti even if only at a very basic level – at least they would not have to eat earth patties. Instead the Haitians export this money to pay the salaries of such as Zoellick But Zoellick doesn’t see it that way. According to the World Bank’s website the bank is in the business of eradicating poverty. At the rate it does that in Haiti the Bank, I estimate, will be in the poverty eradication business for another 18,000 years.

The reason Haiti is in its present state is pretty simple. Canada, the United States and France, all of whom consider themselves civilised nations, colluded in the overthrow of the democratic government of Haiti four years ago. They did this for several excellent reasons:

Haiti 200 years ago defeated the world’s then major powers, France (twice) Britain and Spain, to establish its independence and to abolish plantation slavery. This was unforgivable.
Despite being bombed, strafed and occupied by the United States early in the past century, and despite the American endowment of a tyrannical and brutal Haitian army designed to keep the natives in their place, the Haitians insisted on re-establishing their independence. Having overthrown the Duvaliers and their successors, the Haitians proceeded to elect as president a little black parish priest who had become their hero by defying the forces of evil and tyranny.

The new president of Haiti, Jean Bertrand Aristide refused to sell out (privatise) the few assets owned by the government (the public utilities mainly);
Aristide also insisted that France owed Haiti more than $25 billion in repayment of blood money extorted from Haiti in the 19th century, as alleged compensation for France’s loss of its richest colony and to allow Haiti to gain admission to world trade;
Aristide threatened the hegemony of a largely expatriate ruling class of so-called ‘elites’ whose American connections allowed them to continue the parasitic exploitation and economic strip mining of Haiti following the American occupation.

Haiti, like Cuba, is believed to have in its exclusive economic zone, huge submarine oil reserves, greater than the present reserves of the United States
Haiti would make a superb base from which to attack Cuba.

The American attitude to Haiti was historically based on American disapproval of a free black state just off the coast of their slave-based plantation economy. This attitude was pithily expressed in Thomas Jefferson’s idea that a black man was equivalent to three fifths of a white man. It was further apotheosized by Woodrow Wilson’s Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan who expostulated to Wilson: “Imagine! Niggers speaking French!”

The Haitians clearly did not know their place. In February 2004, Mr John McCain’s International Republican Institute, assisted by Secretary of State Colin Powell, USAID and the CIA, kidnapped Aristide and his wife and transported them to the Central African Republic as ‘cargo’ in a plane normally used to ‘render’ terrorists for torture outsourced by the US to Egypt, Morocco and Uzbekistan.

Before Mr Zoellick went to Haiti last week, the World Bank announced that Mr. Zoellick’s visit would “emphasize the Bank’s strong support for the country.” Mr. Zoellick added: “Haiti must be given a chance. The international community needs to step up to the challenge and support the efforts of the Haitian government and its people.”...

Poverty and Globalisation President Jean Bertrand Aristide, now in enforced exile in South Africa, might be sardonically entertained by a new report just published by the world’s Club of the Rich, the OECD –Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. This report, titled “Growing Unequal” examines the accelerating trend toward economic inequality in the societies of the world’s richest countries. The report contains several mind-blowing discoveries which will, no doubt, amaze journalists and policy-makers in the Western hemisphere and keep them entertained for many years.
The major finding is that globalisation and free trade have hurt millions of people, particularly the poorest....
John Maxwell jankunnu@gmail.com
[for more on U.S. 'soft power' see "Behind made-in-usa 'color revolutions' " http://www.burbankdigest.com/node/117]

projections as public propaganda and strategic perspective
Rising Ambitions, Sinking Population
By Nicholas Eberstadt, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior adviser to the National Bureau of Asian Research.
Op-Ed Contributor
RUSSIA is a rising power today, and will be doing a lot more rising in the decades ahead. At least this is what we hear nowadays from pundits, Western intelligence services, presidential candidates and, of course, Russian officials themselves. The Kremlin’s own supreme confidence in this vision of the Russian future was captured nicely by its announcement last year that it expects to be the world’s fifth largest economy in 2020, along with China, India, Japan and the United States. Despite the current global economic crisis, Russian officials are still predicting continuing rapid growth for their nation; Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is even talking of a robust 5.5 percent growth rate for Russia for the coming year.
To international audiences transfixed by Moscow’s military swaggering in Georgia or dazzled by the newfound oil wealth of the Russian petro-state and its billionaires, this notion of an unstoppable Russian ascent may seem plausible, even compelling. To anyone who pays attention to population trends, however, it is absurd....
If projections by the United Nations Population Division come to pass, Russia’s population will fall by 10 million more from now to 2020. Those same projections envision Russian life expectancy lagging ever further behind global averages by 2020 to 2025, in this view, overall life expectancy in Russia would actually be a year lower than average for the world’s less-developed countries — with the men’s expectancy nearly five years below the third world mean. Demography may not be destiny, of course. But this is not a portrait of a successfully and rapidly developing economy — much less an emerging economic superpower.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/25/opinion/25eberstadt.html?_r=1&th=&emc=...

imperialist demands -- comprador crisis
OPEC ordered a cut in production of at least 1.5 million barrels a day, but a benchmark price dropped further. OPEC struggles to get ahead of an economic slowdown so severe it could leave the world awash in oil. The stunning decline of oil prices in recent weeks has left oil-exporting countries fearful that they will have to cut government budgets, including the popular social programs that cement many leaders’ hold on power. Oil has dropped from a high close of $145.29 on July 3 to $64.15 a barrel on Friday, a 56 percent decline in 16 weeks that marks one of the steepest in the history of the oil markets. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/25/business/worldbusiness/25oil.html?8au&...

Hell of a Success: Iraq After the Surge
Chris Floyd
Michael Schwartz paints a picture of what Barack Obama and John McCain have both called the "success" of George W. Bush's "surge" in Iraq. Indeed, Obama has stated that the "surge" -- the euphemism immediately adopted by the entire press and political establishment for what used be known in plain English as an "escalation" -- has "succeeded beyond our wildest dreams": a mighty strong endorsement from a man who way, way back in olden times -- the cave-man days of, oh, 200 6 or so -- was once perceived as "anti-war.". And the surge is a great success in at least one of its aims: removing the topic of America's horrific war crime in Iraq from public debate. Ironically, the "anti-war" candidate has been the chief beneficiary of this development. If the war is practically over, and we have practically won, then what's the big deal now about Obama's once-controversial plans for a (partial) withdrawal of an unspecified number of troops from Iraq? Especially after he solemnly pledged to send the withdrawn troops into another big ole "surge," this time in Afghanistan... I can understand and respect the argument that says, well, it's a horribly brutal and rapacious system we've got here, but one side might possibly mitigate some of its worst aspects and even do a bit of good around the edges, so you must go for the lesser of two evils, and so on and so forth. But great God Almighty, shouldn't "change" -- or even slight mitigation -- be made of sterner stuff than this?" http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48200

liberal perspective: 'work' for whom, YES, for U.S.; 'security' means for the invaders', violence means the Iraqis' against the genocidal occupiers
Iraq: Did the Surge Work?
George Hunsinger
... The so-called Surge -- a euphemism for escalation -- was designed to increase security in Iraq. In January 2007, a year after being launched, the Surge was widely acclaimed as a triumph.... In September 2007, Juan Cole, the respected Middle East expert, wrote an article called "Big Lies Surround the Iraq 'Surge.'" At that time he stated: "US troop deaths in Iraq have not fallen and . . . violence in Iraq has not fallen because of the Surge. Violence is way up this year." A widespread consensus exists today throughout the political campaigns and the mainstream media that the great success of the Surge is beyond doubt. "My thesis," wrote Cole, "would be that the U.S. inadvertently allowed the chasing of hundreds of thousands of Sunni Arabs out of Baghdad (and many of them had to go all the way to Syria for refuge). Rates of violence declined once the ethnic cleansing was far advanced, just because there were fewer mixed neighborhoods." Cole's thesis has received important confirmation. According to Bob Woodward, in his new book The War Within the biggest factor behind the reduced violence in Iraq was "very possibly" not the Surge, but a resort to Death Squads.... http://www.uruknet.de/?p=4822
[emphases added; for documentation of U.S. "civil war" exit strategy starting in 2002, see http://www.burbankdigest.com/node/125

the Iraqi people will not offer peace for quislings...
Washington warns Iraq to accept security deal
ROBERT BURNS
The Bush administration on Wednesday warned of "real consequences" for Iraq if it rejects a newly negotiated security pact. Without a deal, the United States could be forced to end its military operations. [precisely what Iraqis want but ominous to u.s. puppets]. At the Pentagon, press secretary Geoff Morrell said the U.S. fallback position is to extend the U.N. Security Council mandate authorizing U.S.-led coalition operations in Iraq, but he emphasized that the Bush administration's preference is to complete a bilateral U.S.-Iraqi agreement....the Iraqi government decried what it called the "not welcomed" statements from Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who cautioned the Iraqis of unwelcome consequences in the event that the security pact is not signed by the end of the year.

"terrorist" a badge of honor: resistance to U.S. state terrorism
Seyed Mousavi: Guilty of Being Muslim in Police State America
Stephen Lendman
...After conviction, Mousavi was returned to solitary confinement (on May 22), and it took its toll. He was isolated in a small room. Restricted to uncooked zucchini and cauliflower plus occasional uncooked rice that's inedible. After June 21, he was denied permission to buy food and water from the prison store. Previously, limited amounts of dates, oatmeal and chocolate were allowed. No longer for a time. In addition, all phone access was denie d for another three years. These and other punitive measures were employed until finally they were relaxed later on. It was classic police state justice. A common DOJ practice against "war on terror" targets. Figures like Sami Al-Arian, Rafil Dhafir, Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan Al-Moayad, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, and Lynne Stewart. Known for their prominence, leadership positions, charitable efforts, affiliations with Islamic organizations, or in the case of Lynne Stewart for being a notable civil rights lawyer... http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48203

Afghan resistance statement
Americans Last Ditch Attempt
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
...The Americans are determined to form tribal militias via dispensation of dollars and play the tribal people against the Mujahideen. During his visit to Afghanistan, US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, indicated that they were pondering to hammer out a new strategy for Afghanistan and the region, because the tribal militias strategy has proved its effectiveness in Iraq. The US Defence Secretary and the masterminds behind the formation of the tribal militias should know that the tribal militias strategy was never a successful one in Iraq either. The lull in fighting in Iraq allegedly ascribed to the formation of Al-Sahwa militia does not mean that indignation against and opposition to the presence of the Americans stationed there, have mitigated but only fighting among armed ethnic factions have spiralled down. Last week, the Pentagon acknowledged that in every 24 hours, 10-15 martyrdom attacks are carried out against US forces, either killing or injuring ten American troops on an average. On the other hand, the Americans should not look at Afghanistan in the spectacle of Iraq. Here sectarian differences do not exist among the people in the tribal areas as it is the case in Iraq... http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48188

in case you missed this:
HOW THE 'NEW WORLD' IS IN FACT BEING 'ORDERED'
International Justice and Impunity: The Case of the United States
THE TRIAL OF SADDAM HUSSEIN by Dr. Abdul-Haq Al-Ani
http://www.atlasbooks.com/clarity/b0037.htm
The trial of Saddam Hussein marks the first time since the UN was created that a head of state has been put on trial by an invading, occupying power. This book seeks to draw public attention to the threat this precedent poses to developing nations worldwide, and to its distortive influence on the further evolution of international law. Al-Ani document s the trail of illegalities marking the destruction of Iraq at the hands of the US and UK, from the genocidal sanctions of the 1990s, the US State Department pre-invasion planning that commenced in 2001, and the 2003 invasion, to the setting up and proceedings of the tribunal that swiftly dispatched Saddam Hussein...

U.S.-ISRAELI AGENTS EXPOSED...AGAIN
Fatah in turmoil
Khaled Amayreh
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/919/re1.htm
The sacking by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas of Intelligence Chief Tawfiq Tirawi on Tuesday seems to be more than just a "formality" related to the latter reaching the age of retirement, as PA spokesmen have been saying. Tirawi, along with a number of other PA security chiefs, spearheaded the relentless campaign against Hamas's supporters and institutions in the West Bank, even to the point of active coordination and collaboration with Israel. This fact, which became well known to many Palestinians, including Fatah's followers, eventually rendered most security chiefs a serious liability, undermining Fatah's image as a national liberation movement. Moreover, critics, including Hamas, have used the "excesses" to portray the PA as a quisling entity working in concert with Israel against the national cause. Last month, a number of security chiefs met with commanders of the Israeli army at the settlement of Beit El near Ramallah and reportedly told them: "Israel and the PA are allies against a common enemy, which is Hamas." ....

[note: lesson in why capitalism cannot resolve the horrors it creates: the sources of finance capitalist profits and power, the working and oppressed classes now owe its debts to ensure the shit stays on top
Insurers Getting in Line for Piece of Federal Bailout
The government considered extending the bailout to include insurance companies, and the auto industry stepped up efforts to secure a share of the money.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/25/business/25bailout.html?th&emc=th