China Reaches for Deep Space
China’s second lunar probe has reached an orbit one million miles from Earth for an additional mission of deep space exploration (31 August 2011).
Archive for August, 2011
Turkey and the EU, 1959 — 2011
In September 1959, Ankara applied for associate membership of the then-European Economic Community (EEC). Four years later, the Ankara Agreement was signed to take Turkey into a customs union and finally full EEC membership. In 1967, the EEC was renamed the European Community (EC). On 14 April 1987 Turkey applied for full EC membership. On 1 November 1993, the Treaty on European Union, commonly referred to as the Maastricht Treaty, came into force formally establishing the EU. A customs union finally came into effect under Tansu Çiller in 1996. At the Helsinki summit in December 1999, Turkey was finally given the status of a candidate country. And then, on 17 December 2004, the European Council decided to open accession negotiations with Turkey on 3 October 2005. And basically, that is still the state of Turkey-EU relations today. Negotiations are ongoing, stalled, and arduous. On 9 November 2010, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told the Reuters news agency that “We have been kept waiting at the gates of the EU for 50 years. We are still waiting and waiting and still in the negotiating process”. Erdoğan added that public opinion in Turkey was becoming “offended with the situation”, and that “[s]ince the game [of accession negotiations] started, new rules have been brought into the game”.
Al Qaeda #2 Killed: Propaganda Wars
This news item is already some days old, but it is still a nice piece of propaganda spin in the War-on-Terror (2001-) that has now effectively replaced the Cold War (1946-91).
Unmanned drones killed Atiyah Abd al-Rahman in Pakistan . . . a ‘Libyan national who was considered Al Qaeda’s operational leader before rising to the No. 2 spot following Usama bin Laden’s death in May [2011]’, according to AP and Fox News.[1]
The above-quoted report quotes an U.S. ‘official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, [as saying that] al-Rahman was killed Aug. 22 in the Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan. That’s the same day a US drone strike in Waziristan’. The report continues that ‘[a]fter Navy SEALs killed bin Laden, they found evidence of al-Rahman’s role as operational chief, U.S. officials have said’.[2] This ephemeral evidence consisted of . . . In fact, the authorities have not revealed the actual contents of the raid on the Abbotabad house last May. The only credible reports regarding objects collected in Bin Laden’s house were to do with Bin Laden’s porn stash that had also been found.[3]
In the propaganda war that is now the War-on-Terror, the disclosure of this foruitous kill in Waziristan should be seen as another attempt to convince the global audience that the U.S. is still fighting the good fight and that the evil enemy is being slowly bled to death. Last month, the Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stated: “Now is the moment, following what happened with bin Laden, to put maximum pressure on [Al Qaeda] . . . because I do believe that if we continue this effort we can really cripple Al Qaeda as a major threat”.[4] In the absence of the Communist threat, Al Qaeda has now convincingly replaced the USSR as America’s apparent, if not necessarily de facto, opponent. But, this should not distract us into thinking that only the U.S. and American media promulgate propaganda dispatches. Here is the Asian News International, doing an admirable job as well: ‘Osama bin Laden’s long-time lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahri has taken command of Al-Qaeda after the killing of the group’s founder and leader, an Islamist website said on Thursday. Bin Laden was killed in a US commando raid in Pakistan last month. Al-Zawahri, who will turn 60 next week, had been bin Laden’s second in command. Zawahri is the son of an upper middle class Egyptian family of doctors and scholars. His father was a pharmacology professor at Cairo University’s medical school and his grandfather was the grand imam of Al-Azhar University, a premier center of religious study (16 June 2011)’.
[1] “Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 Leader Killed in Pakistan. U.S. Official Says” AP and Fox News(27 August 2011). http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/08/27/al-qaedas-no-2-leader-killed-in-pakistan-us-official-says/.
[2] “Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 Leader Killed in Pakistan. U.S. Official Says”.
[3] “Bin Laden Porn Stash” A Pseudo-Ottoman Blog (18 May 2011). http://sitanbul.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/bin-laden-porn-stash/.
[4] “Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 Leader Killed in Pakistan. U.S. Official Says”.
Nutter News USA: Bachman Exposed, Once Again
A New Yorker piece explains how 2012 Republican presidential candidate and Tea Party favorites Michele Bachmann has ties to a radical fundamentalist Christian movement known as Dominionism. The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down (29 August 2011).
2012 Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann is arguing that Hurricane Irene and the recent East coast earthquake may be a sign from God that the U.S. government should spend less. The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down (29 August 2011).
Even though Mister Uygur and his mannerisms can be a bit tiring at times, he is nevertheless making a serious effort to show the world what is really behind the frightening spectacle that is Michele Bachmann.
Role of Islam in New Libya Uncertain
Libyan rebels are still hunting for Moammar Gadhafi, but many of their countrymen are taking time marking the end of the first holy month of Ramadan without their longtime secular leader. Islam in Libya is undergoing a resurgence. The question now being asked is how much it will influence the next government. VOA’s Elizabeth Arrott has more from Tripoli.
The American Empire as a Cold War Legacy
The good people at Wikipedia provide this insight: in ‘the United States Federal Budget for 2010, entitled ‘A New Era of responsibility’, the DoD [or Department of Defense] was allocated a base budget of $533.7 billion, with a further $75.5 billion adjustment in respect of 2009, and $130 billion for overseas contingencies. The subsequent 2010 DoD Financial Report shows DoD total budgetary resources for fiscal year 2010 were $1.2 trillion. Of these resources, $1.1 trillion were obligated and $994 billion were disbursed, with the remaining resources relating to multi-year modernization projects requiring additional time to procure. Budgeted DoD expenditure for 2009 represented approximately 43% of global military spending, the U.S. ranking second in terms of per capita military spending behind The United Arab Emirates. In FY 2010 DoD budgeted spending accounted for 21% of the U.S. Federal Budget, and 53% of federal discretionary spending, which represents funds not accounted for by pre-existing obligations. As a percentage of its GDP, the U.S. spent 3% of GDP on military in the year 2000, ranking it 28th in the world. Budgeted 2010 expenditure (including the GWOT supplemental) had risen to 4.5 % of Assumed Nominal GDP’.[1] Or, as I posted last June: ‘Turns out that money does make the world go round, and money well spent is money no longer available for anything else. So, here is goes: “America spends more on its military than THE NEXT 15 COUNTRIES COMBINED”, “In 2007, the amount of money labeled ‘wasted’ or ‘lost’ in Iraq — $11 billion — could pay 220,000 teachers salaries [in the U.S.]”, “America’s defense spending doubled in the same period that its economy shrunk from 32 to 23 percent of global output”, “The yearly cost of stationing one soldier in Iraq could feed 60 American families”, “The total known land area occupied by U.S. bases and facilities is 15,654 square miles — bigger than D.C., Massachusetts, and New Jersey combined”, “Each day in Afghanistan costs the [U.S.] government more than it did to build the entire Pentagon”, “In 2008, the Pentagon spent more money every five seconds in Iraq than the average American earned in a year”, “The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population — but almost 50% of the world’s total military expenditure”’.[2] And the above map shows us where all that money goes to . . . NORTHCOM, SOUTHCOM, EUCOM, CENTCOM, AFRICOM, and PACOM.
Looking at that map, one cannot but understand fully all those people talking about the American Empire (and its imminent demise due to overstretch). As such, in addition to the command structure pictured higher, there are U.S. Army installations in Bulgaria, Germany, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Kosovo, and South Korea. Whereas the U.S. Air Force has bases in Afghanistan, Australia, Germany, Greenland, Guam, Italy, Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, and the UK. Last but not least, there is also the U.S. Navy which can avail itself of installations in these locations: Bahrain, the British Indian Ocean Territories, Egypt, Cuba, Djibouti, Greece, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, South Korea, Singapore, Spain, and the UAE.[3] This giant military footprint is a leftover from the Cold War, when the U.S. was fighting for the preservation of ‘freedom, democracy and the American Way’. On the other side of the fence, or rather the Iron Curtain was the Soviet Union and its client states. Josef Stalin’s long shadow is thus still able to motivate American policy- and lawmakers in the 21st century. During the early years of the Cold War, Curtis Lemay (1906-90) ensured that the U.S. Air Force received top priority in America’s war plans, prior to the adoption of the MAD strategy and the universal endorsement of producing ever more ICBM – Mutually Assured Destruction as a result of deploying Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles. As a result, today the U.S. Air Force is literally ubiquitous around the world, while successive administrations seem eager to pay for the continued upkeep of bases and manpower and machinery Here is a clip showing this year’s defense budget hearing. The HASC or House Armed Services Committee, firmly controlled by the Republicans, met to receive testimony on the fiscal year 2012 national defense authorization budget requests from the U.S. Central Command and the U.S. Special Operations Command (3 March 2011).
[1] “United States Department of Defense –Expenditures “ Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Defense.
[2] “Fun Facts about U.S. Military Spending as well as Global Military Expenditure” A Pseudo-Ottoman Blog (23 June 2011). http://sitanbul.wordpress.com/2011/06/23/fun-facts-about-u-s-military-spending-as-well-as-global-military-expenditure/.
[3] Cfr. Wikipedia.
Tar Sands and the Keystone XL Pipeline: Protest Continues Despite Irene
Last December I posted an entry on Canada’s tar sands and the projected pipeline that would transport the resultant oil all the way from Alberta in the north to Texas and the Gulf of Mexıco in the south.[1]
On this edition of the Big Picture, Jamie Henn and Cherri Foytlin join ‘Thom after getting out of jail. More arrests in front of the White House this week as demonstrators continue their push-back against the proposed TransCanada oil pipeline. Since Monday, 22 August, more than 160 people have been cuffed in protests. The project – mostly pushed for by oil oligarchs in Texas – will create a massive pipeline across America stretching from Canada to Texas – that will funnel 700,00 barrels of highly toxic crude every day across some of America’s most treasured and pristine lands. Protestors of the project describe it as: “A fifteen hundred mile fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the continent, a way to make it easier and faster to trigger the final overheating of our planet” President Obama can stop the project on his own with the stroke of a pen – and environmental activists around the country – many of whom believed President Obama’s promises to heal the planet and voted for him – are hoping he doesn’t turn their back on the them now’ (25 August 2011).
In view of President Obama’s much-vaunted championing of green jobs and sustainable development, the issue of his endorsement of the TransCanada pipeline seems crucial indeed. Fortunately for him, hurricane Irene has now diverted attention away from the protests and the projected pipeline. As reported by AP’s Jennifer Peltz and Michael Biesecker ‘Irene zeroed in on land Saturday [, 27 August], losing some power but still whipping up trouble even before a catastrophic run up the Eastern Seaboard. More than 2 million people were told to move to safer places, and New York City ordered the nation’s biggest subway system shut down for the first time because of a natural disaster. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the enormous storm’s top sustained winds were down to 90 mph early Saturday from 100 mph overnight but warned that Irene would remain a hurricane as it moves up the mid-Atlantic coast, even after losing some more strength once it hits land’.[2] The Tar Sand Action group, however, remains active on the interwebz, with a dedicated website and Facebook page.[3] On Friday, 26 August, the following was posted on the website: ‘Here is an update on our plans for the coming weekend as a result of Hurricane Irene: Being mindful of the State of Emergency declared, we will have a rally on Saturday, but will not engage in civil disobedience. We will meet at Lafayette Park for the rally at 10am, and hope to be done before the storm hits. That evening, we will still have the Artists For the Climate event (How to Defuse a Carbon Bomb) at St. Stephen’s Church (1525 Newton Street Northwest, near Columbia Heights Metro). Anyone concerned about travel arrangements or other issues related to the storm is encouraged to reschedule their plans to join us in the coming week, which we expect to be even bigger and stronger than the one past. We will discuss as a group our plans for tomorrow during this evening’s training session, which will continue as planned, based on the latest weather updates. Sunday’s demonstration will be cancelled, in the interests of safety, and out of respect for everyone dealing with the immediate effects of this monster storm. Sunday’s training for Monday’s action is still planned to happen at Mt. Vernon Church at
5pm, barring major power outages or other disruptions. It does not escape our attention that storms of this size and character will be the new normal on a warmer planet. We are more committed than ever to continuing our campaign to stop Keystone XL and the tar sands development, and we will be back in action Monday, [29 August 2011]’.[4]
[1] “Alternative Sources of Energy: Tar Sands in Canada” A Pseudo-Ottoman Blog (25 December 2010). http://sitanbul.wordpress.com/2010/12/25/alternative-sources-of-energy-tar-sands-in-canada/.
[2] Jennifer Peltz and Michael Biesecker, “Irene loses some strength off NC, still dangerous” AP (27 August 2011). http://news.yahoo.com/irene-loses-strength-off-nc-still-dangerous-072717354.html.
[4] “Weather Update for 8/27 and 8/28” Tar Sands Action (26 August 2011). http://www.tarsandsaction.org/.
The DSK Saga: Michael Obus Decides!!!
Turns out that justice is an expensive commodity in the land of the free . . . The Young Turks see it this way: ‘Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former International Monetary Fund chief, had all sexual assault charges against him dropped by a federal judge in New York. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks discuss’ (23 August 2011).
Even though Mister Uygur and Miss Kasparian appear convinced that the 32-year-old Guinean cleaning lady or “chambermaid” Nafissatou Diallo made up the story to . . . In Slate, the US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine, back in July, Jessica Grose points out correctly that “just because the hotel maid has links to criminal behavior and has lied in the past, that doesn’t necessarily mean she lied about this rape”, referring to Rachael Larimore’s earlier piece.[1] But, back in France, other women have also popped up claiming that DSK indecently groped them.
Grose writes that “Tristane Banon, a young journalist who had previously described DSK as ‘a rutting chimpanzee’ when he had allegedly attempted to rape her in 2003, has filed charges against him in France”.[2]
Would the New York Judge Michael Obus also have dismissed the criminal charges against DSK if the “chambermaid” had looked like Miss Banon, pictured above??? Alas, in New York the “rutting chimpanzee” assaulted but an immigrant from Guinea . . . The Hon. Michael J. Obus might have looked more kindly upon the plight of the alleged victim . . . gentlemen do prefer blondes, after all. In December 2007, Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau appointed Obus to his present position, giving the following appraisal of the man: “Judge Obus is an outstanding judge, and I am delighted that he has agreed to accept this critical assignment. During his lengthy career on the bench in Manhattan’s Criminal and State Supreme Courts, he has become known for his great intellect, vision and unstinting dedication to justice. These qualities will serve him well as Administrative Judge of Manhattan Supreme Court. I welcome him to his new post and look forward to working with him in this capacity”.[3]
Also in Slate, William Saletan related the case of DSK’s alleged French rape victim: Tristane ‘Banon says that in February 2003, when she was 23, she interviewed Strauss-Kahn for a book. Afterward, he phoned her and asked her to meet him at a Paris address for a follow-up interview. The address turned out to be an apartment. There, he touched her and became increasingly physical. She resisted. On a TV show four years ago, she said, according to a Telegraph translation, that the encounter “ended very, very violently because I told him clearly . . . We didn’t merely slap each other . . . I gave kicks, and he undid my bra, he tried to undo my jeans.” Agence France Presse translates her account differently: “I told him clearly ‘No, No!’—and we finished up fighting on the floor. There wasn’t just a couple of blows. I kicked him, and he tried to unclip my bra, to open my jeans.” In an interview just published in L’Express, Banon describes: “his fingers in my mouth, his hands in my pants . . . [He] grabbed my hand and arm, I asked him to let me go . . . He pulled me toward him, we came down and we fought on the ground for several minutes . . . He was violent. When I realized he really wanted to rape me, I started to give him a kick with my boots, I was terrified and I told him: “You’re not going to rape me?” And then I managed to free myself, I ran downstairs” . . . Banon says she tried to stop Strauss-Kahn by reminding him that she was close to his daughter’s age. She says he replied: “What does Camille have to do with it?”’.[4] Indeed, what does Camille Strauss-Kahn have to with anything, she isn’t even blonde . . . Was Nafissatou Diallo merely a victim of convenience??? Did she happen to be female in the wrong place at the wrong time???
[1] Rachael Larimore, “Why DSK Could Walk Even if His Victim Is Telling the Truth About Being Raped ” Slate (01 July 2011). http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2011/07/01/dominique_strauss_kahn_rape_case_released_recognizance.html.
[2] Jessica Grose, “DSK Will Face Attempted Rape Allegations in France” Slate (05 July 2011). http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2011/07/05/dsk_attempted_rape_of_tristane_banon_french_journalist_is_filing.html.
[3] “Hon. Michael J. Obus Appointed Administrative Judge of Manhattan Supreme Court, Criminal Term” New York State Unified Court System (07 December 2007). http://www.courts.state.ny.us/press/pr2007_21.shtml.
[4] William Saletan, “Did Dominique Strauss-Kahn Try To Rape Tristane Banon?” Slate (05 July 2011). http://www.slate.com/id/2298425/pagenum/all/.
What is really happening in Libya??? NATO Kills Civilians!!!
Quite some time ago, I noted how an Israeli-based organisation was claiming that prior to the outbreak of armed resistance in Libya something fishy was going on in the sand dunes of Libya: “The Israeli independent internet website DEBKAfile, founded by a team of journalists in June 2000, which aims to provide an intelligence and security news service, reported on 25 February 2011 that “[h]undreds of US, British and French military advisers have arrived in Cyrenaica, Libya’s eastern breakaway province, Debkafile’s military sources report exclusively. This is the first time America and Europe have intervened militarily in any of the popular upheavals rolling through the Middle East since Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution in early January. The advisers, including intelligence officers, were dropped from warships and missile boats at the coastal towns of Benghazi and Tobruk Thursday Feb. 24, for a threefold mission: 1. To help the revolutionary committees controlling eastern Libyan establish government frameworks for supplying two million inhabitants with basic services and commodities; 2. To organize them into paramilitary units, teach them how to use the weapons they captured from Libyan army facilities, help them restore law and order on the streets and train them to fight Muammar Qaddafi’s combat units coming to retake Cyrenaica. 3. To prepare infrastructure for the intake of additional foreign troops. Egyptian units are among those under consideration”. Since then, there has also been the embarrassing capture of an SAS team in Libya – an eight-strong group, who were escorting a junior British diplomat – which indicates that there is clearly more than meets the eye in the state of Libya”.[1] And there were reports that Russian satellite surveillance did not show any kind shelling or bombardment in Libya, prior to the UN-imposed No-Fly Zone that is. The Russian state-sponsored news broadcaster RT at the time worded the revelation in this way: “the Russian military, monitoring the unrest via satellite from the very beginning, says nothing of the sort was going on the ground”.[2] Then, it also transpired that U.S. “President Obama [had] . . . signed a secret order – a so-called “presidential finding”— authorising covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi”.[3] And now, the YouTube-based organisation AfriSynergy Productions, headed by a certain T. West, has produced a video that seems to corroborate these earlier claims of deceit and deception on the ground in Libya.
It is remarkable how the name Al Qaeda (as a “catch-all ghost entity”, again using Pepe Escobar’s apposite phrase) can nowadays be used by anyone to indicate a congregation of Muslims up to no good . . . As I said at the end of March: “the UN-mandated no-fly zone is but coded language for NATO-support for the forces opposing Colonel Gaddafi and his regime”,[4] for the sake of sweet sweet oil to flow in appropriate streams in a suitable direction.
[1] “Libya: Assisted Rebellion or a Just War?” A Pseudo-Ottoman Blog (31 March 2011). http://sitanbul.wordpress.com/2011/03/31/libya-assisted-rebellion-or-a-just-war/.
[2] “Libya Uprising??? — A Question of Timing Perhaps” A Pseudo-Ottoman Blog (05 March 2011). http://sitanbul.wordpress.com/2011/03/05/libya-uprising-a-question-of-timing-perhaps/.
[3] “Libya: Assisted Rebellion or a Just War?”.
[4] “Libya: Assisted Rebellion or a Just War?”.
Col Gaddafi forces given Surrender Ultimatum
Libya’s interim leader gives forces loyal to deposed ruler Muammar Gaddafi a four-day deadline to surrender towns still under their control or face military force (30 August 2011).
Category:
Africa, Alternative Energy, Current Affairs, Democracy, Libya, NATO, Oil and Gas, Political Commentary, Regime Change