"Obama is now in the great game of global competition — and in that game, presidents rarely get to set the agenda"
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20090119_obama_enters_great_game
Our position on the "ceasefire," "calm" and the weapons of the resistance
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PFLP]
www.pflp.ps/english/?q=pflp-our-position-ceasefire-calm-and-weapons-resi...
We have continually opposed the politics of "calm," because it presents an opportunity and yet another false justification for Israel to attack our people and increases the pressure on the resistance from all of the forces in the enemy camp -- not only Israel's military assaults, but also the political pressure and attacks from Arab regimes, the European Union, the United States and the so-called "Quartet." The politics of "calm" becomes a trap for the resistance that we should always seek to avoid, since occupation itself is an act of aggression. Our people have the right to resist, as an occupied people, and while the resistance can make tactical decisions about how to wage that struggle, we can never allow that decision and determination to become a weapon in the hands of our enemies.
Elements of the enemy ground forces remain in Gaza and the siege has not been ended, nor have the crossings, particularly Rafah crossing, been opened. The enemy did not declare the end of its naval siege and their air force continues to invade our skies, in an attempt to create fear and terror among our people who have given over 1300 martyrs in the past 3 weeks, as well as over 5000 wounded, amid the destruction of over 4000 homes, entire neighborhoods, and much of our civil infrastructure in Gaza. The borders have not been opened, and at all crossings, particularly the Rafah crossing, goods intended for our people are waiting for safe and secure passage.
The enemy is trying to achieve by political means what it could not achieve by military means. It failed, despite its scorched-earth tactics and its massacres of our people, to eliminate our resistance or crush the steadfastness of our people. Now, it is trying to cover its failure with the Livni-Rice agreement with the United States -- an agreement not worth the paper it is written on. The PFLP is making clear with this position that our people and our resistance will not give up our rights or our arms, and that, in fact, this latest aggression is only going to strengthen our determination to build our resistance and the capabilities of our forces.
In addition, the summit of Sharm el-Sheikh between the Europeans and some Arab regimes represents a threat to the entire Arab world and is a symbol of an attempt to revive colonialism in the Arab world. "Monitoring" the Egyptian-Palestinian borders only means that there is no sovereignty in the Arab world, neither in Egypt nor in Gaza, and that these colonial powers and their forces are returning to our region. Sovereignty is a critical question and differentiates a free people and nation from one that is under the boots of colonialism and occupation. The use of the term "smuggling of weapons" is yet another method of turning our national cause into a "security question" and is an attempt to make the weapons of the resistance of our occupied people illegitimate. The right of a people under occupation to resist through all means, including armed struggle, is fundamental and inviolable, and we will not allow our rights to be liquidated under the slogan of "security" or "stability."...
www.uruknet.info?p=51027
"When 2.5 million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it’s going to be a human catastrophe. Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. The pressure at the border will be awful. It’s going to be a terrible war. So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day."
Arnon Soffer, Sharon adviser and Israeli demographer
Israel wanted a humanitarian crisis
Targeting civilians was a deliberate part of this bid to humiliate Hamas and the Palestinians, and pulverise Gaza into chaos
Ben White
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/20/gaza-israelandthepal...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21802.htm
...The first aim is to humiliate and weaken Hamas. On the one hand, this seems obvious, but contrary to how the goal is often understood, this is not primarily to protect the Israeli public - as pointed out previously, ceasefires and negotiations are far more likely to deliver security for Israeli citizens - but rather it is a political goal. Hamas had withstood isolation, a siege, mass arrests, and an attempted western-backed coup. Moreover, cracks were appearing in the international community's resolve to parrot Israel's line on Hamas. The group, with its resilience and ability to deliver on negotiated ceasefires, was threatening the chance to make a deal with the Ramallah "moderates", and so:
A hammer blow that shattered the movement, launching some of the resulting splinters in directions that once again put all of them beyond the pale, was the most effective way to keep at bay those third parties reaching the conclusion that engaging rather than excluding Hamas could enhance the prospects of peace.
Back in December, before both the end of the six-month truce and the start of Operation Cast Lead, foreign minister Tzipi Livni stated that an extended truce "harms the Israel strategic goal, empowers Hamas, and gives the impression that Israel recognizes the movement". By the end of the month, Livni would be telling a press conference that "Hamas wants to gain legitimacy from the international community" and stressing that it is "important to keep Hamas from becoming a legitimate organisation" (apparently winning a democratic election isn't enough to confer legitimacy).
Just as Israel chose "blood over diplomacy" in order to avoid enhancing "Hamas's image as a responsible interlocutor", so this weekend, Israel chose a unilateral ceasefire for the same reason, "hoping to send the message that Hamas is not a legitimate actor". A war begun in order to delegitimise Hamas would not make way for a ceasefire in which Hamas was a partner at the negotiating table.
The second aim of Israel's war is to teach a lesson to the Palestinians in Gaza, and elsewhere, that the only way to avoid the wrath of the Israeli military is to accept Israel's idea of a two-state solution, a generous concession to be gratefully received by Abbas and fellow moderates. It is a reflection of the approach outlined by the IDF chief of staff, Moshe Ya'alon, in 2002 that "the Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people"....
The third aim of Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip is to further "catastrophise" the territory, reducing the capacity for continued existence to the barest of minimums - perhaps to bring about "an end to the persistence of Gaza's ordinary people in wanting the chance of a peaceful and dignified life". One obvious benefit to Israel of pulverising "civilian Palestinian infrastructure" is that "people who lack collective institutions and are reduced to scrabbling for their very survival are easier to dominate"....
...Yet, there is more going on here. Israel seeks to turn the Gaza Strip into a depoliticised humanitarian crisis, always on the brink of catastrophe, always dependent; its population reduced to ration-receiving clients of international aid. Yitzhak Rabin famously wished that Gaza "would just sink into the sea", but perhaps the best Israel can do is to share the problem with the international community, possibly to the extent of troops on the ground....
In all of this, the Gaza Strip has become a laboratory for future possible scenarios in the West Bank (where a process of "development-isation" and NGO-funded occupation is well established). All three of these Israeli aims - to delegitimise and sideline Hamas, to persuade Palestinians to give up their resistance and to shirk responsibility for a shattered Gaza Strip - require the deliberate commission of war crimes and gross human rights abuses. As time will tell, they are also doomed to fail.
Ben White is a writer living in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He has spent several summers in Palestine/Israel based in the West Bank and written extensively on the Middle East.
Israeli officials: Obama a true friend
Following historic day in Washington, officials in Jerusalem say they... expect Israel to remain America's "strategic, intimate partner' during Obama era. "Our advantage is that we have become familiar with many of the new Administration's members during joint activity spreading over 10-15 years," a foreign ministry official said. The sentiments expressed in conversations with Ynet reflect the view of Israel's political and security establishment, ranging from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Even those who can be expected to have concerns about Obama – including right-wing parties headed by Likud – say they view the new president as a friend. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3659548,00.html
and its master
A Decisive Loss For Israel
By Mousa Abu Marzook
If anything, the last three weeks, and previous 18 months, proved that the Palestinians can never be broken by either starvation, economic strangulation or brutal attack.
http://www.countercurrents.org/marzook230109.htm
friendlier face makes u.s. bipartisan strategist's agenda continuity 'clear'
“The outline for a durable ceasefire is clear: Hamas must end its rocket fire: Israel will complete the withdrawal of its forces from Gaza: the US and our partners will support a credible anti-smuggling and interdiction regime, so that Hamas cannot re-arm,” the US president said.
“As part of a lasting ceasefire, Gaza’s border crossings should be open to allow the flow of aid and commerce, with an appropriate monitoring regime, with the international and Palestinian Authority participating.”
Under its ceasefire, Hamas has given Israel until Sunday to open the borders. Much of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure has been destroyed during the three-week Israeli offensive and, without building materials and other supplies, there is little hope of rebuilding the water, sewage and power networks as well as private homes and key government buildings. But many foreign donors share Israel’s concerns that the reconstruction efforts should not be led by Hamas, or enhance the group’s legitimacy.
“Let me be clear: America is committed to Israel’s security and we will always support Israel’s right to defend itself against legitimate threats,” Mr Obama said.
But in comments referring to the Gaza conflict he added: “I was deeply concerned by the loss of Palestinian and Israeli life in recent days and by the substantial suffering and humanitarian needs in Gaza. Our hearts go out to Palestinian civilians who are in need of immediate food, clean water, and basic medical care, and who’ve faced suffocating poverty for far too long.” He called on Arab governments to “act on” the promise of a Saudi-led 2002 Arab peace initiative by supporting the Palestinian Authority headed by President Mahmoud Abbas “taking steps towards normalising relations with Israel, and by standing up to extremism that threatens us all.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7cf745dc-e8ce-11dd-a4d0-0000779fd2ac.html?ncli...
CONTINUITY IN PURSUIT OF U.S GEOSTRATEGIC AGENDA FOR GLOBAL DOMINANCE IS HIS ASSIGNMENT
Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, said the two appointments underscored his commitment to "actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians as well as Israel and its Arab neighbours" ...said he was "deeply concerned by the loss of Palestinian and Israeli life in recent days and by the substantial suffering and humanitarian needs in Gaza" but re-iterated the Bush administration's position that it would not deal directly with Hamas, which controls Gaza, unless it recognises Israel's right to exist, renounces violence, and agrees to abide by past accords negotiated between the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Israel....All U.S. humanitarian and reconstruction aid, he said, would be channeled through the Palestinian Authority which holds power only on the West Bank.
Fatah Fears Gaza Conflict has put Hamas in the Ascendancy
The sharp decline in support for Fatah and the discrediting of Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority will make it very difficult for the US and the EU to pretend Fatah are the true representatives of the Palestinian[s]. The international community is likely to find it impossible to marginalise Hamas in reconstructing Gaza.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21826.htm
u.s.govt.& media silent as israeli enforcer continues 'ceasefire' war bombing tunnels
Palestinian medical official says an Israeli gunboat off the shores of Gaza City has opened fire on Gaza, wounding at least five people.
Gunboats off Gaza have been firing for several days despite a cease-fire, which ended a three-week Israeli offensive, being in place. The humanitarian situation in the besieged strip has not changed as the Gaza blockade continues Gazans are facing harsh conditions without food, water, fuel and electricity.
The hospitals and other medical facilities suffer from severe shortages of medical supplies and electricity. The crossings into the Gaza Strip still remain closed and the humanitarian aid permitted to enter the besieged strip is below the survival levels. http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=83300§ionid=351020202
"core american value"
1996 A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm
A policy blueprint for incoming Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu prepared by The U.S. Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies’ "Study Group on a New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000."
http://www.israeleconomy.org/strat1.htm
Barcelona Cancels "Holocaust" Ceremony in Protest of Gaza
"Marking the Jewish Holocaust while a Palestinian Holocaust is taking place is not right"
23/01/2009
The Catalunya government has called off the ceremony marking the "International Holocaust Remembrance Day", which was scheduled to take place January 27, in protest of the Israeli offensive on Gaza. The Gaza war has inflamed the already pro-Palestinian public opinion in the northeastern Spanish region, and the local media has run endless stories comparing the Israeli stance on the situation in the Strip to Nazi atrocities. Over 30,000 people marched in Catalunya's streets in support of Hamas...
Few Israelis Near Gaza Feel War Achieved Much [e.g. ENOUGH]
...Israelis were hoping to see a more definitive picture of victory, like a scene of Hamas leaders coming out of their bunkers raising a white flag... David Moshe, field crops manager at Nir Oz, said Hamas had won on one level, hardening the feelings of Israelis against the suffering of others.... that the military operation was “absolutely necessary,” but...that even in the relatively left-wing environment of the kibbutz, most people “felt it was not enough.”... Rachel Uliel, 75, was leaning on the front gate of her house, festooned with Israeli flags said...“I do not understand why the army went out now,” she said. “We should have finished them off.” With Hamas still in control of Gaza, nobody here saw any real end in sight.... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/world/middleeast/21israel.html?fta=y
USRAEL'S GAZA HOLOCAUST COST POLITICALLY, SETS STAGE FOR U.S. 'NEGOTIATIONS'
President Barack Obama pledged his support to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, as foreign policy took centre stage on his first full day in the White House.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/01/2009121152645112618.h...
...One of the pressing issues confronting Mr. Obama is the conflict in Gaza, and his press spokesman said the president called four Middle East leaders — President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel, King Abdullah of Jordan, and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority — in a renewed pursuit of peace. In his phone calls to the Middle East leaders, Mr. Obama’s spokesman Robert Gibbs, said the president vowed “his commitment to active engagement in pursuit of Arab-Israeli peace from the beginning of his term, and to express his hope for their continued cooperation and leadership.” “In the aftermath of the Gaza conflict, he emphasized his determination to work to help consolidate the ceasefire by establishing an effective anti-smuggling regime to prevent Hamas from rearming, and facilitating in partnership with the Palestinian Authority a major reconstruction effort for Palestinians in Gaza,”....
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/us/politics/22obamacnd.html?_r=1&8au&e...
Seasoned Negotiator to Serve as a Mideast Envoy
Mr. Obama did not announce any new initiatives, though he promised deeper American involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than was evident during the Bush administration...In calls to leaders in Egypt, Jordan and Israel, and the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mr. Obama said he would work to solidify the cease-fire in Gaza and pledged “his commitment to active engagement in pursuit of Arab-Israeli peace from the beginning of his term,”...The American effort will include help for Israel in stemming the smuggling of arms to Hamas militants, as well as aid for the Palestinian Authority in rebuilding Gaza...“He’s neither pro-Israeli nor pro-Palestinian,” said Martin S. Indyk, former American ambassador to Israel and adviser to the Clinton administration... Mr. Mitchell, 75, brings his own credibility in the region, Mr. Indyk said. The commission he led under President Clinton investigated the roots of the violence between Israelis and Palestinians. Its recommendations were accepted by leaders on both sides. By choosing Mr. Mitchell, experts said, Mr. Obama can demonstrate his good intentions without being forced to embark on a new initiative when the conditions are not ripe.... The Bush administration, in one of its last acts of diplomacy, signed a memorandum of understanding with Israel Friday, pledging support for efforts to interdict the flow of weapons into Gaza, mostly via tunnels. Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton signed off on the agreement.
= HOW U.S. CONTROLS THE OCCUPATION & GENOCIDE AGAINST PALESTINE ENFORCED BY ITS ISRAELI PROXY: 'left liberal' reports and analyses almost universally serve as U.S. apologists by reducing u.s. role to one of 'applauder'. 'assistant', 'arms supplier', etc. -- not on behalf of its own imperialist global agenda, but due to 'pressure by the israeli lobby'
The Gaza Bombshell
By David Rose
January 21, 2009 "Vanity Fair"
The United States has been involved in the affairs of the Palestinian territories since the Six-Day War of 1967, when Israel captured Gaza from Egypt and the West Bank from Jordan.... After failing to anticipate Hamas’s victory over Fatah in the 2006 Palestinian election, the White House cooked up yet another scandalously covert and self-defeating Middle East debacle: part Iran-contra, part Bay of Pigs. With confidential documents, corroborated by outraged former and current U.S. officials, the author reveals how President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Deputy National-Security Adviser Elliott Abrams backed an armed force under Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan, touching off a bloody civil war in Gaza and leaving Hamas stronger than ever. Vanity Fair has obtained confidential documents, since corroborated by sources in the U.S. and Palestine, which lay bare a covert initiative, approved by Bush and implemented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, to provoke a Palestinian civil war. The plan was for forces led by Dahlan, and armed with new weapons supplied at America’s behest, to give Fatah the muscle it needed to remove the democratically elected Hamas-led government from power. (The State Department declined to comment.) But the secret plan backfired, resulting in a further setback for American foreign policy... Instead of driving its enemies out of power, the U.S.-backed Fatah fighters inadvertently provoked Hamas to seize total control of Gaza.
Some sources call the scheme “Iran-contra 2.0,” recalling that Abrams was convicted (and later pardoned) for withholding information from Congress during the original Iran-contra scandal under President Reagan. There are echoes of other past misadventures as well: the C.I.A.’s 1953 ouster of an elected prime minister in Iran, which set the stage for the 1979 Islamic revolution there; the aborted 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, which gave Fidel Castro an excuse to solidify his hold on Cuba; and the contemporary tragedy in Iraq....
There is no one more hated among Hamas members than Muhammad Dahlan, long Fatah’s resident strongman in Gaza. Dahlan, who most recently served as Abbas’s national-security adviser, has spent more than a decade battling Hamas. Bush met Dahlan on at least three occasions. After talks at the White House in July 2003, Bush publicly praised Dahlan as “a good, solid leader.” In private, say multiple Israeli and American officials, the U.S. president described him as “our guy.”Dahlan worked closely with the F.B.I. and the C.I.A., and he developed a warm relationship with Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet, a Clinton appointee who stayed on under Bush until July 2004. “He’s simply a great and fair man,” Dahlan says. “I’m still in touch with him from time to time.”...
How could the U.S. have played Gaza so wrong? Neocon critics of the administration—who until last year were inside it—blame an old State Department vice: the rush to anoint a strongman instead of solving problems directly. This ploy has failed in places as diverse as Vietnam, the Philippines, Central America, and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, during its war against Iran. To rely on proxies such as Muhammad Dahlan, says former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, is “an institutional failure, a failure of strategy."...
With few good options left, the administration now appears to be rethinking its blanket refusal to engage with Hamas. Staffers at the National Security Council and the Pentagon recently put out discreet feelers to academic experts, asking them for papers describing Hamas and its principal protagonists. “They say they won’t talk to Hamas,” says one such expert, “but in the end they’re going to have to. It’s inevitable.” [...] http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21800.htm
in case you missed it...
Bush clears way for Israeli ground operation, updates Obama: Day 8 of Gaza campaign
http://www.debka.com/
Israeli military intelligence Web site
January 3, 2009, 9:17 PM (GMT+02:00)
DEBKAfile's Washington source report that in a telephone conversation with prime minister Ehud Olmert, US president George W. Bush okayed Israeli air, sea and ground operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He promised the US would veto a resolution condemning Israel at the UN Security Council meeting next Monday. Early Saturday morning, Jan. 3, Day 8 of Israel's Gaza operation, US and British media described the Israeli invasion as hours away.
In his weekly radio address - brought forward by a day, the US president spoke with exceptional firmness: "Another one-way ceasefire that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable," he said. "This recent outburst of violence was instigated by Hamas – a Palestinian terrorist group supported by Iran and Syria that calls for Israel's destruction." He noted that "Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a coup and routinely violated an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire…" and went on to define the exit point for Israel's military operation: "Promises from Hamas will not suffice," he said. There must be "monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure that smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end. This left Israel the option of sustaining its military activity against Hamas until such a mechanism was installed. He implicitly criticized Egypt for failing to control the smuggling of rockets and other munitions through its territory.
In his radio address, President Bush noted that president-elect Barack Obama is being kept up to date on the latest developments. With just over two weeks left in power, the Bush administration is preparing to hand over the problem to his successor....
Bush's speech followed his conversations with Palestinian, Egyptian, Jordanian and Saudi leaders as well as Olmert. He said he was concerned by the humanitarian situation in Gaza and noted that "Hamas terrorists often hide within the civilian population which puts innocent Palestinians at risk."
AL QAEDA NOW CONVENIENTLY COMES TO OBAMA'S 'CONTINUITY' RESCUE : BRITS SCEPTICAL
Freed by U.S., Saudi Becomes a Qaeda Chief
The emergence of a former Guantánamo Bay detainee as leader of Al Qaeda's Yemeni branch illustrates the pitfalls of closing the detention center....
www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/world/middleeast/23yemen.html?em
'Al-Qaida members' arrested in Pakistan raid
Seven suspected members of al-Qaida have been arrested in a raid in Pakistan after a tip-off from US intelligence agencies, Pakistani security officials said today. The officials said one of the men detained could have played a role in the July 7 2005 London bombings. They said the raid was witnessed by US intelligence officials from a nearby car as an unmanned u.s. spy plane and three helicopters hovered overhead. ... the apparent co-operation comes despite tensions over US missile strikes, which Pakistan has condemned as an infringement of is sovereignty.... The Barack Obama administration is expected to focus on eliminating al-Qaida's top command and the terror threat in Afghanistan and Pakistan. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/22/al-qaida-pakistan-raid
Obama to triple aid if Pakistan counters terror
21 January 2009
US president Barack Obama has unveiled plans to triple non-military aid to Pakistan in exchange for its commitment to act against extremist activity the White House said in its foreign policy agenda document released soon after Obama occupied the Oval office. The foreign policy agenda of the Obama Administration on Pakistan is in tune with the well known policies of Biden, also echoed by the Secretary of State-designate, Hillary Clinton during her nomination hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee... As the key points of the Obama's foreign policy agenda, the new administration is expected to follow the key elements of Biden-Lugar proposals introduced last year... http://southasia.oneworld.net/todaysheadlines/obama-to-triple-aid-if-pak...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/world/middleeast/23yemen.html?th&emc=t...
The Clothes Wear A New Emperor
By Ramsefall
21 January, 2009
http://www.countercurrents.org/ramsefall210109.htm
"What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long, no longer apply." –
Barack Hussein Obama, 44th U.S. President
The Guest of Honor goes on to boast about the "skill and vision of those in high office". He couldn't be referring to the criminals who got the nation into its present mess; the Wall Street crooks and capitalist pigs who created what might turn out to be Great Depression II, or the 530 thugs in Congress who continue to support Israel as it commits genocide in Gaza. Or, could he?...
"Prepare the nation for a new age" is what President Obama encourages to fellow citizens; some 30 million men and women who go without health care, men and women who are losing their jobs, men and women who are experiencing foreclosure on their homes, men and women who have renewed faith in the system that screws them. The world is still in the age of the never-ending war against terror, so what new age might he be referring to?...
The Emperor may be new – image, articulation and character – but the clothes are sewn from the same silky, rhetorical themes of nobility, prosperity and patriotism which have been so deceptively and manipulatively spewed forth at previous inaugurations. National security, jobs, production, economy, education, leadership – Amerika's greatness and its God-proclaimed responsibility to lead the world is just as farcically magnanimous as it has been for so many generations.
Big Party, Small Change: Baby, We Were Born to Run...the Empire
Chris Floyd
... big party going on in Washington... hundreds of thousands... celebrate Bob Gates' retention as Pentagon chief....that is what this shindig is all about, isn't it? Hope and.... continuity? Bush's man still driving the war machine...got Bush's generals still waging the "War on Terror" all over the world... a president who is eager to spend his "political capital" on slashing "entitlements," because everyone must sacrifice, everybody's "going to have to have some skin in this game" -- everyone, that is, except for the president's Wall Street backers, who are about to receive yet another tranche of billions of taxpayer dollars in what they are now calling openly -- and rightly -- "opportunity funding." ... http://www.uruknet.de/?p=51015
Obama will double the number of state terrorist soldiers for "the central front in our enduring struggle against terrorism and extremism", in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
U.S. bombs Pakistan, 18 killed: Two suspected U.S. missile attacks today killed 18 people in Pakistan east of the Afghan border, the first such strikes since the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/576172
US accused of killing 25 Afghan civilians in raid on militants:
The US military is investigating claims that more than two dozen Afghan civilians were killed during an attack on militants. The issue has badly undermined support for the international coalition and President Hamid Karzai.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/22/us-military-afghanistan
Merger of 'hard' & 'soft' imperialist power to give U.S. global penetration & domination a friendly 'development' face will expand under Obama
Winning hearts and minds: strategy to polish America's image with communications and 'humanitarian aid' strategies.
By Peter A Buxbaum in Washington, DC for ISN Security Watch (28/07/08)
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=19238
...Two documents emblematic of enhanced US outreach efforts are worth noting. The first, a report from the Pentagon's Defense Science Board, released in September 2004, calls for the development of a national strategic communication strategy and the establishment of an independent Center for Strategic Communication to support the US National Security Council in its efforts to win the world's hearts and minds. The other, also emanating from the Pentagon, is Department of Defense Directive 3000.05, issued in November 2005, which states that addressing the basic human needs of civilians is "a core US military mission that the Department of Defense shall be prepared to conduct and support. They shall be given priority comparable to combat operations."
The fact that both of these documents originate with the Department of Defense is significant....both communication and humanitarian efforts are being funded and supported by the US military...." to synchronize diplomacy with military psychological operations to develop an overarching concept of creating the right message for the right audience delivered in the right way to help shape perceptions."...
"Military humanitarian projects are similar to those conducted by civilian aid agencies and non-governmental organizations," he told ISN Security Watch. "The difference lies in the strategic rationale with which these projects are selected and chosen by the military, rather than the principal focus on humanitarian need and sustainability that is held by civilian development experts." This has been borne out by the experience of the USAID. "I have worked with military officers who acted as development officers in Afghanistan," Elisabeth Kvitashvili, deputy assistant administrator in the Bureau of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance at USAID, told ISN Security Watch....
That the provision of humanitarian assistance is a strategic Pentagon priority was highlighted by the launch of the US Africa Command, or AFRICOM, in 2007. "As with other regional commands, AFRICOM will have responsibility for US military operations with a particular area of responsibility," said Brigety. "Yet it is distinguished from other regional commands because its primary mission will be conducting non-military operations."
buy the revolution off if you can't kill it...
A Stimulus Package for the World
A vulnerability fund for developing countries could help limit the severity of the international downturn and prevent the contagion of social unrest.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/opinion/23zoellick.html?th&emc=th
Obama's Orders Leave Framework of Torture, Indefinite Detention Intact
By Tom Eley
While the media is portraying these orders as a repudiation of the detention and interrogation policies of the Bush administration, they actually change little. They essentially represent a public relations effort to refurbish the image of the United States abroad after years of torture and extralegal detentions and shield high-ranking American officials from potential criminal prosecution. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21828.htm
U.S. Human Rights and Democracy Strategy
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/shrd/2006/80584.htm
Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs > Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
Guiding Principles on Non-Governmental Organizations
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/77771.htm
Washington’s New World Order “Democratization” Template
by Jonathan Mowat
Dr. Peter Ackerman, the author of “Strategic Nonviolent Conflict” in the “National Catholic Reporter” on April 26, 2002: “It is not true that the only way to ‘take out’ such regimes is through U.S. military action.”…Speaking at the “Secretary’s Open Forum” at the State Department on June 29, 2004, in a speech entitled, “Between Hard and Soft Power: The Rise of Civilian-Based Struggle and Democratic Change, ” Ackerman elaborated on the concept involved. He proposed that youth movements, such as those used to bring down Serbia, could bring down Iran and North Korea, and could have been used to bring down Iraq… And he reported that he has been working with the top US weapons designer, Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, on developing new communications technologies that could be used in other youth movement insurgencies.“There is no question that these technologies are democratizing,” he stressed, in reference to their potential use in bringing down China, “they enable decentralized activity. They create, if you will, a digital concept of the right of assembly.”...
The Democratic party’s National Democratic Institute, the Republican party’s International Republican Institute, the US State Department and USAID are the main agencies involved in these grassroots campaigns as well as the Freedom House NGO and billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Institute […]
CHINA
"more aggressive" than Bush admin.
Geithner Hints at Harder Line on China Trade
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/business/worldbusiness/23treasury.html...
WASHINGTON — Timothy F. Geithner, who moved closer to confirmation as Treasury secretary on Thursday, told senators that President Obama believed China was “manipulating” its currency, suggesting a more confrontational stance toward that country than under the Bush administration.... It remained unclear whether Mr. Geithner was signaling that Mr. Obama would officially declare later this spring that China was engaging in currency manipulation, when the administration is required by a 20-year-old trade law to report to Congress on exchange rate issues. Such a finding would begin a legal process that starts with diplomacy and could end with the imposition of trade barriers like tariffs. The objective would be to persuade China to let the value of its currency, the yuan, freely float — a move that would let its value rise and would increase the cost of its exports. “President Obama — backed by the conclusions of a broad range of economists — believes that China is manipulating its currency,” Mr. Geithner wrote. He stopped short of charging that China is manipulating its currency intentionally to gain an unfair trade advantage, as the 1988 law requires for an official citation of currency “manipulation.” Even so, the Obama administration’s restatement of that position in writing on its second day was immediately seen as significant. The Bush administration purposely did not use the term “currency manipulator” to avoid antagonizing the Chinese, even when it was criticizing China’s trade policies.
The more aggressive position will be popular with organized labor in the United States, a major supporter of Mr. Obama’s presidential campaign, and with many manufacturers who say China is purposely keeping its currency devalued against the dollar and leaving American exports at a competitive disadvantage against lower-priced Chinese goods. “It’s huge,” said Simon Johnson, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund who is now a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “I’m very supportive in general and I think China needs to be called to account and the I.M.F. has not done it,” he said.But, he added, “I have to say this is really a bit of an issue for Mr. Obama’s internationalist sort of theme for his foreign policy because this is going to be at least a spat with China, and if we don’t back down it’s then a row, and you know how that goes.” ....
As a senator, Mr. Obama supported legislation as recently as last year that would open the door to trade sanctions against China for currency manipulation.
The National Association of Manufacturers, whose members have pushed previous administrations to get tougher with China, was pleased, but also cautious given the potential for a confrontation that could exacerbate global woe“You know the world has changed a lot with the financial crisis and China has a lot in U.S. Treasuries,” said Frank Vargo, vice president for international economic affairs at the manufacturers’ association. “This needs to be done in a cooperative, not a confrontational, way.”
Some market strategists said Mr. Geithner’s statement inflamed a contentious issue unnecessarily given that China’s exports and economy were slowing significantly.
“Things have changed quite a bit since Hank Paulson made an issue of this,” said one, Edward Yardeni, an independent analyst, referring to Henry M. Paulson Jr., the just-departed Treasury secretary. “The Chinese trade surplus is shrinking dramatically and China’s economy is falling into recession. I think it really wasn’t necessary. It doesn’t accomplish anything.” Mr. Paulson initiated a round of strategic talks with the Chinese and, on his watch, the Chinese allowed the yuan to appreciate nearly 20 percent.
Mr. Geithner would be as aware of China’s sensitivity as anyone, and no one has suggested that he made his statement in error. Before taking his current post as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Mr. Geithner was a policy director at the I.M.F. Before that, he was the under secretary of the Treasury for international affairs in the Clinton administration, a crisis manager during the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s and a Treasury attaché to Japan. By his own description, Mr. Geithner’s expertise is in matters of currency exchange rates and monetary policy. In his written statement to the Senate panel, Mr. Geithner further noted Mr. Obama’s support as a senator for “tough legislation to overhaul the U.S. process for determining currency manipulation and authorizing new enforcement measures so countries like China cannot continue to get a free pass for undermining fair trade principles.”
Rand Study Suggests U.S. Loses War With China
Published: 16 Oct 11 2008
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=3774348&c=AME&s=TOP
"it's about global hegemony..."
Risky Geopolitical Game: Washington Plays ‘Tibet Roulette’ with China
By F. William Engdahl, April 10, 2008
... New York Council on Foreign Relations analysis in their Foreign Affairs magazine from Zbigniew Brzezinski from September/October 1997 is worth quoting. Brzezinski, a protégé of David Rockefeller... is today the foreign policy adviser to Presidential candidate, Barack Obama. In 1997 he revealingly wrote:
‘Eurasia is home to most of the world's politically assertive and dynamic states. All the historical pretenders to global power originated in Eurasia. The world's most populous aspirants to regional hegemony, China and India, are in Eurasia, as are all the potential political or economic challengers to American primacy. After the United States, the next six largest economies and military spenders are there, as are all but one of the world's overt nuclear powers, and all but one of the covert ones. Eurasia accounts for 75 percent of the world's population; 60 percent of its GNP, and 75 percent of its energy resources. Collectively, Eurasia's potential power overshadows even America's.
‘Eurasia is the world's axial super-continent. A power that dominated Eurasia would exercise decisive influence over two of the world's three most economically productive regions, Western Europe and East Asia. A glance at the map also suggests that a country dominant in Eurasia would almost automatically control the Middle East and Africa. With Eurasia now serving as the decisive geopolitical chessboard, it no longer suffices to fashion one policy for Europe and another for Asia. What happens with the distribution of power on the Eurasian landmass will be of decisive importance to America's global primacy….’15 (emphasis mine-w.e.).http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8625
"core american value" -- its ' manifest destiny'
Excerpts From Pentagon's Plan: 'Prevent the Re-Emergence of a New Rival'
NYT March 8, 1992
from the Pentagon's Feb. 18 draft of the Defense Planning Guidance for the Fiscal Years 1994-1999: This Defense Planning guidance addresses the fundamentally new situation which has been created by the collapse of the Soviet Union, the disintegration of the internal as well as the external empire, and the discrediting of Communism as an ideology with global pretensions and influence. The new international environment has also been shaped by the victory of the United States and its coalition allies over Iraqi aggression -- the first post-cold-war conflict and a defining event in U.S. global leadership. In addition to these two victories, there has been a less visible one, the integration of Germany and Japan into a U.S.-led system of collective security and the creation of a democratic "zone of peace."
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE1D7173AF93BA35750C0A...
''China's Distant Threat to U.S. Dominance in Asia''
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=87
China's Route Forward
China is starting to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure projects, fearing that widespread joblessness could lead to social unrest.
GUANGZHOU, China — Growth for all of 2008 was 9 percent, down from 13 percent in 2007, and every indication is that expansion has continued to slow....
In an effort to hold back the domestic effects of the global downturn, China is starting to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on new highways, railroads and other infrastructure projects. The stimulus plan, one of the world’s largest, promises to carry the modernity of China’s coasts deep into the hinterlands, buying the kind of great leap forward it took the United States decades — and a world war — to build, and priming China for a new level of global competition.... And, unlike the United States, China has the cash to pay for it, with few debts and a tiny deficit....
John Scales, the transport coordinator for China at the World Bank (said_) “The increased expenditure on infrastructure will certainly contribute to China’s productivity growth and improve its long-term competitiveness, allowing it to pull away from its Asian neighbors..." said Eswar Prasad, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/business/worldbusiness/23yuan.html?th&...
China, the largest foreign owner of U.S. Treasuries, increased its stake to a record $681.9 billion in November.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aPxxVXsVreKQ
U.S. DEFICIT AROUND 1 TRILLION
Longer-term Treasuries sold off amid concern that debt sales will increase to pay for Obama’s economic stimulus plan, expected to cost $825 billion, and a budget deficit expected to grow to more than $1 trillion ... Timothy Geithner, Obama’s nominee for Treasury secretary, pledged Jan. 21 an expanded and prolonged government role in everything from stabilizing banks to ensuring credit for small businesses.
China Denies Charge
A day later, Geithner charged China is “manipulating” its currency, fueling concern foreign demand for U.S. debt may ease. A Chinese commerce ministry spokesman... responded today, saying the country hasn’t manipulated the currency’s value....
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ath9NGzTQ0us&refer=h...
Yuan Little Changed; Banks Refute U.S. Claim China Curbs Gains
U.S. President Barack Obama is wrong to suggest China is manipulating its currency because economic conditions for the yuan to gain “don’t exist,” said Hua Ercheng, chief economist at China Construction Bank Corp.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aZU7OWRZ.ZdA
BEWARE “RAHNATAKIAS” – CURE FOR OBAMA FEVER IS “INDIAN” HISTORY
MNN. Jan. 21, 2009. U.S. President Barack Obama slipped a subtle comment into his inauguration “mind control” speech on January 20th. When Obama defined America as a nation of “Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and non-believers”, he deliberately left out Indigenous peoples. We have our value systems. We have our knowledge. He sneaked in the intention to ignore us when he said that “the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve”. To Americans the word “tribe” means the Ongwehonwe. We are the caretakers and trustees of the lands and resources of the world which the New World Order NWO or One World “Government” must steal to control the world. Our role puts us squarely in the path of this grand scheme of a few bankers, the governments they control and their deadly enforcement agencies.
Colonial “band or tribal councils” will be put in charge of indigenous people where possible such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Other Indigenous peoples will be “eliminated” or ignored. It looks like this program will be run by the United Nations “International Department of Indian Affairs” on behalf of the NWO war mongers.
Obama’s main message is, “If you don’t do it the American way, we will crush you”. It is all the more “devious” because it’s coming in this velvet glove that claims that it’s being done in a spirit of cooperation. The real message is, “we will defeat you”. A new disease is being spread called “Obama fever”. The symptoms are flag waving, millions gathering and clapping like a bunch of trained seals and hypnotic sectarian rapping. O-Ba-Ma, O-Ba-Ma! The following are comments by “Native Pride” and MNN Mohawk Nation News:
Tuesday, January 20, 2009: Obama: The New Lincoln? We Hope Not!
As the US crowns its new king, the world looks on with [media guided] hope and wonder. The former Illinois Senator has been compared to one of the most popular US Presidents, Abraham Lincoln who was seen as the Great Emancipator, Freer of the Slaves and the Healer of a Divided Nation. Obama swore his oath of office on Lincoln’s Bible.
Buried in that era of slavery and Civil War are a few chapters of the American “Indian” Holocaust of 115 million, the biggest in all humanity, that began long before Lincoln and continues today. While Mr. Lincoln was earning a fake place in history, he signed the Homestead Act in 1862. This was a law offering huge tracts of our lands to foreign white settlement. It was put through without consultation, without consent and without regard for the rights and needs of our people. Eventually 1.6 million homesteads were granted on our land and 270,000,000 acres of our territories were privatized between 1862 and 1986, which is 10% of all lands in the U.S. In the conflicts that raged over this illegal action, thousands of Ongwehonwe men, women and children were killed and millions of acres of our territories remain unlawfully occupied. This has nothing to do with honesty, courage, fair play and tolerance. Obama’s speech demonstrates clearly his concept of loyalty and patriotism has nothing to do with respect for the Ongwehonwe of Turtle Island and our future generations. [www.nathankramer.com]
Two days after Lincoln signed the “Emancipation Proclamation” in 1863, he signed an order to hang 38 Dakota Sioux in Mankato Minnesota. There were only about 40 adult men of fighting age left out of 400 “prisoners of war”. The U.S. agent refused to feed the Indigenous people and was selling the rations that were meant for them. The men begged for food for their people who were starving to death. He told them to eat grass. They killed him and stuffed his mouth with grass. [Visit www.republicoflakotah.com]
These details of American history are rarely visited. John F. Kennedy basks in the glow as a champion of civil rights. He had no problem violating human rights and the treaty with the Seneca Nation. In 1960 he broke a campaign promise and approved the flooding of thousands of acres of Seneca land and the construction of the Kinzua Dam in upper New York State.
Today New York State has a black Democratic Governor, David A. Paterson. He has just signed an illegal document authorizing the destruction of the existing economies of eleven Ongwehonwe communities in the state. It is obvious the Americans are the big bullies they’ve always been since King Henry VII issued the “Cabot Charter” in 1496. It authorized the capture and plunder of any lands belonging to non-Christian people that might be found. [Avalon.law.yale.edu/15ph_century/cabot01.asp]
Many Ongwehonwe have embraced this new U.S. President Barack Obama. Many of us do not. We hope that he will not earn the traditional title, “Rahnatakias”, which is our word for U.S. President. It means "town destroyer". In 1779 the first President, George Washington, ordered the genocide of all Rotino’shonni:onwe, Iroquois people, our communities and food sources in the lands between Wyoming and the Canadian border. He eliminated over a hundred thousand of us by famine and disease. [www.joycetice.com] No, Obama is not our president. He is the 44th man to hold the title of Rahnatakias on behalf of the colonists who are occupying our territories. The valid nation-to-nation relations with Ongwehonwe are always a low priority or non-existent for any colonial administration.
People are looking to Mr. Obama for a solution. The true test of his promise of change will come in the treatment of the Ongwehonwe. Is he going to be another two faced reformer, a Washington, a Lincoln or a Kennedy, who preaches equality and freedom while crushing us under his heel? We refuse to be put under colonial “Federal Indian Law” headlocks.
The U.S. will not stop its decline by continuing to dispossess and oppress us. They have to meet us on the original nation-to-nation terms. We have never surrendered our jurisdiction over ourselves or our resources or our territories. They have to acknowledge the crimes of the past. They have to reign in their colonizing beast. They have to stop feasting on the dead bodies of our ancestors. They have to stop dancing so hard on our lands and resources that they starve and suffocate the generations to come.
Native Price and MNN Mohawk Nation News Comment to: www.letstalknativepride.blogspot.com Posted by MNN Mohawk Nation News Staff, www.mohawknationnews.com Katenies20@yahoo.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
not fit to print in NYT: hilarious after hearing hypocritical u.s. pundits pretentiously pontificate about 'Obama's' brilliant eloquence
Obama inauguration: Words of history ... crafted by 27-year-old in Starbucks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/20/barack-obama-inauguration-us...
Jon Favreau, head speech writer for US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images
When Barack Obama steps up to the podium to deliver his inaugural address, one man standing anonymously in the crowd will be paying especially close attention. With his cropped hair, five o'clock shadow and boyish face, he might look out of place among the dignitaries, though as co-author of the speech this man has more claim than most to be a witness to this moment of history. Jon Favreau, 27, is, as Obama himself puts it, the president's mind reader. He is one of the youngest chief speechwriters on record in the White House, and, despite such youth, was at the centre of discussions of the content of today's speech, one which has so much riding on it. For a politician whose rise to prominence was largely built upon his powers as an orator, Obama is well versed in the arts of speech-making. But today's effort will tower over all previous ones.
It is not just that Obama has set an extremely high bar by invoking the inaugural speeches of Abraham Lincoln as his inspiration - admitting to feeling "intimidated" when he read them. It is also that, as he begins his term with the US in an economic crisis and two wars, he knows he needs to kick start his presidency with a soaring rhetoric that both moves and motivates the American people. The tone of the speech could be decisive in determining how the public responds to his first 100 days, as Franklin Roosevelt's famous line "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" helped to determine his. Obama aides have let it be known that a key theme will be restoring responsibility - both in terms of accountability in Washington and the responsibility of ordinary people to get involved. Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff, talks of a "culture of responsibility"..
For the presidential election, he wrote two speeches: one for a victory, one for defeat. When the result came through, he emailed his best friend: "Dude, we won. Oh my God." The tension between such youthful outbursts and his onerous role has sometimes cost the 27-year-old. In December, pictures of him and a friend mocking a cardboard cut-out of Hillary Clinton at a party, Favreau's hand on her breast, were posted on Facebook to his huge embarrassment.Obama is an accomplished writer in his own right, and the process of drafting with his mind reader is collaborative. The inaugural speech has shuttled between them four or five times, following an initial hour-long meeting in which the president-elect spoke about his vision for the address, and Favreau took notes on his computer. Favreau then went away and spent weeks on research. His team interviewed historians and speech writers, studied periods of crisis, and listened to past inaugural orations. When ready, he took up residence in Starbucks in Washington and wrote the first draft....
Jon Favreau in 2005 began working for Barack Obama in his U.S. Senate office, before joining Obama's presidential campaign as chief speechwriter in 2007, named to serve in President Barack Obama's White House as Director of Speechwriting. Previously was the chief speechwriter for Obama's 2008 campaign for U.S. President
http://change.gov/newsroom/entry/president_elect_barack_obama_names_two_...
