Twelfth Bough

i run my own damn think tank

Archive for February, 2008

Beyond Sick

Feb 27

Posted by Marlena in Africa, Bush/Cheney, Corruption & Crime | No Comments

Today I watched a video from Brasscheck TV.

In the Western world, people get blood tests to confirm whether or not they have AIDS. In Africa, all you need is the following four symptoms: persistent cough, high fever, loose stools for 30 days, and a 10% loss of body weight over a two month period. Those four symptoms together equal an AIDS diagnosis. Is that unbelievable or what?

What would you tell your doctor if you had those four symptoms and he or she diagnosed you with AIDS. Would you demand a blood test? You bet your ass you would.

But with an AIDS diagnosis in Africa, you go home to die, cut off from your extended family, isolated and hopeless. It’s a death sentence based on four common symptoms, symptoms easily caused by any number of ailments, diseases and parasites which run rampant in poverty stricken areas.

Sanitation, food, clean water, shelter and basic health care would go a long way toward relieving the common diseases which plague poor people the world over. So do the rich nations help Africans by tackling these basic problems. No, but we are helping them with AIDS.

They don’t need help with AIDS. Once again, we’re seeing a manufactured crisis. We have been told that there is an AIDS epidemic in Africa, and we are sending lots of money to provide AIDS drugs to the poor Africans. And since most Africans cannot afford the drugs, the drug companies will collect payment from us. And since many of the Africans taking the drugs don’t actually have AIDS, the drugs will not help and may even hurt them. Many will die from their untreated illnesses, but the drug companies will still make a profit. Babies will die. But George Bush can give himself a big pat on the back for ‘helping’ the poor people of Africa.

When it comes to killing innocent people and making profits off the backs of unsuspecting US taxpayers, the cynicism of Bush and his corporate fascist henchmen knows no bounds.

Originally published 2/18/08.

Tags: ,

Putin

Feb 18

Posted by Marlena in Russia | No Comments

Putin gave a five hour press conference, his final one as Russian president. Putin will reportedly take over as Prime Minister when his hand-picked successor, Dmitri Medvedev, becomes President next month.

Putin’s state of mind seems, how shall I say, angry? Yes. Irritable. Bellicose. Perhaps a little psychopathic even. Putin makes a rival worthy of the insane Bush/Cheney tag-team. Look at this guy. Cheney’s got nothing on him. Putin can bore a hole through a human skull with that stare.

Vladimir Putin looking scary.Vladimir Putin has delivered perhaps his most menacing tirade against the West yet, repeating threats to train nuclear missiles on Europe and warning of unspecified retaliation if Kosovo declared independence.

Addressing his last press conference as Russian president, Mr Putin mounted a defiant display that demonstrated more emphatically than ever the widening gulf between Moscow and its former Cold War rivals.

In a vintage performance, the former KGB spy laced almost five hours of invective with crude insults, threats and admonitions often expressed in the argot of the Russian street.

Reserving his greatest ire for the United States, which he accused of harbouring a colonial mentality towards Russia, Mr Putin again said that Europe would pay the consequences for a Washington-backed plan to erect a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

“Our generals, our security council, consider these moves a threat to our national security,” he said. “We asked our partners to stop but no one listened to us. So if they continue we will have to react appropriately by retargeting our missiles.” Mr Putin also made similar threats against Ukraine if it joined Nato.

The Russian leader - often accused of returning his country to a state of autocracy - portrayed his nuclear threat as an act of democratic generosity, saying he was acting in the interests of Europeans who opposed American military expansionism.

Few western countries escaped the vitriol. Europe was scolded for its “silly”, “immoral” and “illegal” backing of Kosovo’s imminent unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia.

Although he did not elaborate, Mr Putin gave warning of retaliation once Kosovo broke away - a threat likely to chill Western leaders. “We have a ready-made plan and we know what we are going to do,” he said.

Eesh. And in a manner eerily reminiscent of our own sycophantic press, fawning journalists blew kisses and waved hankies at the manly Russian President.

Indeed, this was Mr Putin at his most combative. To the delight of fawning Russian journalists, he confirmed his intention to re-emerge as a powerful prime minister in a Medvedev administration - and pointedly told reporters that he had no intention of hanging his successor’s portrait on his office wall.

Encouraged by enthusiastic applause from his audience, Mr Putin often resorted to crude rhetoric to condemn his critics.

…Critics have accused Mr Putin of creating a personality cult during his years in power - an allegation that may have been borne out by the sycophantic and even simpering questions put to him by local reporters.

A Chechen journalist asked the president when he would grace the ravaged province with another visit, while a female reporter presented the president with a golden heart as a gift for Valentine’s Day.

And for a final forehead-slapping moment of bitter deja vu, check this out:

Asked what had made him such a great leader, Mr Putin suggested that he had been anointed by God to make Russia a great state and boasted that he had made no mistakes during his eight years in power.

The Building

Feb 16

Posted by Marlena in Civil Rights, Media, Unreality | No Comments

Either you can see that there is an entire real world outside of and all around the Corporate Media fantasy world, or you can’t.

Our democracy has been hollowed out, reminiscent of a Hollywood movie-set facade. It may look like a sturdy brick building with Democracy carved into the lintel, but as soon as you look around the sides, you will see that it’s actually a one-dimensional structure propped up with a wooden scaffolding of two by fours. It’s not even a building, really. It just looks like one if you sit in front of it. And as long as you don’t poke around you can continue to admire the lovely and impressive building from the outside. Should you need to use it, however, you will find out as soon as you walk through the door that it’s useless. It cannot provide shelter. Even a simple lean-to or straw hut would be more useful and safe in a storm than a heavy, brick facade propped up by wooden scaffolding.

Many Americans refuse to peek around the sides of our democracy. They insist on sitting in front of the facade, which they accomplish by parking their butts in front of the tv, and admiring the great building as seen through the tv. They cast vicious aspersions at the people standing off to the sides complaining that the building is gone. What are these crazy people talking about, they say to each other. It’s outrageous. It’s scandalous how these unpatriotic Americans accuse our government of being a hollow shell. If only they would sit in front of the building like we do, they would see that it’s just perfect. There’s nothing to worry about.

The people who sit in front of the building haven’t ever tried to go inside. They don’t actually use the building, you see, but they insist that they admire it more than anyone else.

Everybody needs to start peeking around the sides of the building, and that means looking at alternative news. Even five minutes a day scanning headlines would help. I ask you people sitting out front, can you give five minutes a day to inspect this important building? Can you come a little closer? Will you walk through the door? Will you go around back?

You still have a choice. If enough Americans actually care about our democracy, we will take a good look around. We will make a little effort to investigate what those people standing off to the sides have been complaining about.

Please, get off your ass and look before the storm blows this thing over and it crushes us all to death. Clouds gather on the horizon. Maybe together we can do something before it’s too late.

Try this one on for size. What? It’s too small?? Too tight?? There’s a big hole in it?

Feb 15

Posted by Marlena in Injustice, Israel | No Comments

This article by Kathy and Bill Christison describes their utter frustration trying to get a real discussion going among supposedly bright minds in America.

We have shown maps and pictures like these myriad times before, but have never been received with quite such disinterest. Here was a group of mostly retired U.S. government officials, academics, journalists, and business executives, as well as a few still-working professionals — all ranging in political orientation from center right to center left, the cream of informed, educated America, the exemplar of elite mainstream opinion in the United States. Their lack of concern about what Israel and, because of its enabling role, the U.S. are doing to destroy an entire people and their national aspirations could not have been more evident.

The first person to comment when our presentation concluded, identifying herself as Jewish, said she had “never heard a more one-sided presentation” and labeled us “beyond anti-Semitic” — which presumably is somewhat worse than plain-and-simple anti-Semitic. This is always a somewhat upsetting charge, although it is so common and so expected as to be of little note anymore. What was more noteworthy was the reaction, or lack of it, among the rest of the assembled, who never disputed her charge but spent most of the discussion period either disputing our presentation or trying to find ways to accommodate “Jewish pain.”

A few people did ask interested questions about the situation on the ground and about various aspects of Israeli policy. After the discussion had centered for quite a while on Jewish pain, one person pointed out that Palestinians too feel pain and live in fear, but no one else picked up on this. No one challenged the first speaker’s personal charge of anti-Semitism against us, and in the end there was almost no mention of the destructive Israeli practices that had been the subject of our presentation.

Apparently, many people just have a hard time imagining what things must be like for the Palestinians. Over and over again, people in America suffer from a failure of imagination. It’s as if American minds have been sucked dry of all empathy and creative spark.

Fortunately, some people in Vermont have made a picture that helps make the situation in Israel a little clearer for the imagination-impaired.

About the Map: Areas for all regions are drawn to closely approximate the relative areas of corresponding regions in the Middle East. The state of Vermont is three-quarters the size of the original Mandate of Palestine established by the British under the League of Nations following World War I.

Following the war and ethnic cleansing of 1948, Israel claimed 78 percent of this territory and refused to let three-quarters of a million Palestinians refugees return to their homes. Since the Six Day War of 1967, Israel has maintained an illegal military occupation and colonization project in the remaining 22 percent of the original Palestine: the occupied Palestinian territories.

The route of the fence-wall in the northern territory (red line) is derived from the completed sections of the separation barrier that Israel is building in the Palestinian West Bank, as well as from the Israeli government’s plans for the remainder of the project.

The number of checkpoints depicted in the northern territory conservatively approximates the relative number of stationary checkpoints maintained by the Israeli army in occupied Palestine. The Israeli military also erects mobile checkpoints and mounds of rubble and dirt to block Palestinian roads, and imposes curfews, closures, and a complex and arbitrary system of internal travel permits.

The descriptions of Montpelier and the Connecticut River Valley represent the current situations in Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, respectively, where “Judaization” campaigns have caused thousands of Palestinians to lose their homes, their legal residency, or both.

The injustice depicted by this map is supported in the Middle East by the US Congress and the Bush administration, who give Israel an estimated $5 billion in taxpayers’ money every year.

About VTJP: Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel is a local non-profit volunteer group that works to support the survival of the Palestinian people and end the illegal, immoral, and brutal Israeli occupation of Palestine through education, advocacy, and action. We are committed to selfdetermination for the Palestinian people, the right of return for Palestinian refugees, and full civil and political rights for all Palestinians in order to promote the equality and safety of both Palestinians and Israelis.

Contact us by e-mail at vtjp@vtjp.org

This is not a big deal?

Feb 14

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Iran, Iraq, Unreality | 1 Comment

President Ahmadinejad will be going to visit Iraq in March. That would be the same Ahmadinejad that caused a tremendous uproar when he visited the United States. The “madman”. He’s soon traveling to Baghdad, the heart of US occupied territory. No doubt US military personnel will escort him and provide his security. He’s perfectly safe. It’s not a big deal.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran will make a landmark visit to Iraq on March 2, the first trip ever made by an Iranian leader to Iraq, the government here said Thursday.

Ahmadinejad will meet with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani of Iraq during his two-day visit, a government spokesman said. “The two countries will discuss bilateral relations and joint projects,” said the spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh.

The White House expressed its support Thursday for good relations between Iraq and Iran after the announcement was made, but also urged Tehran to stop backing militants in Iraq.

Ahmadinejad’s trip was announced last month but Iraqi officials only made the date public on Thursday.

Also Thursday, officials said Iran had postponed the next session of expert-level talks on security with U.S. diplomats. The announcement of Ahmadinejad’s visit came soon afterward.

Hmm. It’s almost like everybody’s on the same page. Maybe my crazy theory from the other day isn’t so crazy after all.

The response from Washington was measured. “We want Iran and Iraq to have good relations,” Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman, said in a statement. “The fastest way for that to happen is for Iran to stop supporting extremists in Iraq who kill innocent Iraqis and Americans.”

The United States has accused Iran of training and supplying Shiite militia fighters with weapons and explosives in Iraq. Iran denies the accusations.

A State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said the United States did not see Ahmadinejad’s visit to Iraq as a provocative gesture but he hoped the message would be positive.

“We would look for Iran to play a positive role in Iraq’s present as well as its future,” McCormack said. “I know that in the past, Iraqi officials have talked to the Iranian government about playing a more positive role.”

You know that this magnanimous response can only mean one thing: Bush and Cheney approve. It must be part of the plan for Iran and Iraq to merge together. Look again at the Map of the New Middle East. Iran lies at the heart of it, and Iraq has been partitioned. The Persian Gulf is basically under Shia control.

I’m no expert, but what the hell other conclusion can one draw here? Stuff like this just goes to show that human suffering means nothing to Bush/Cheney. All the outrage about Iran? Fake. All these innocent people have been killed and lives ruined in order to redraw the map more to the neocons’ liking.

UPDATE: Iran’s Oil Bourse will open February 27, 2008, just days before Ahmadinejad goes to visit Iraq, a visit the US finds totally unprovocative.

The minister said his country’s oil revenue will reach $63 billion by the end of this Iranian year, which ends on March 20.

He said oil sales reached $55 billion in the first 11 months of the year, and that “if crude prices stand at the current level, next year’s oil revenues will be the same as this year.”

Nozari announced last week that Iran’s crude oil production had reached 4.184 million barrels per day, the highest level since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Big numbers. Very profitable.

Financial Genii

Feb 14

Posted by Marlena in Iran, Israel, Nuclear Weapons, Stupidity | No Comments

On the one hand we’re told that Iran continues to secretly conduct a nuclear weapons program, brilliantly hiding it from the IAEA and the rest of the world. Only the super-cunning Israeli Mossad can discern the even greater evil cunning of the Iranians. And they rend their clothes and throw ashes on their heads trying in vain to convince the Stupid World that the Iranians are making nuclear weapons. !!!

Yes. Let’s just go with this line of thinking for a minute. Just yesterday Thomas Fingar, who once upon a time had a reputation as a respected intelligence analyst, testified before the House Armed Services Committee that Iran was still developing technological and industrial capabilities that the intelligence community judges could be used to develop nuclear weapons, should the Irans want to, sometime between 2010 and 2015. I mean, it’s all very speculative, especially since the Iranians insist they merely want to pursue nuclear energy, and they are within their rights to do so, and the IAEA has made great progress certifying that Iran poses no danger to the world. But Still! Iran Is Dangerous and Don’t You Forget It.

It must cost the Iranians a fortune keeping all this under wraps. Secret underground facilities, huge bribes to buy off corrupt politicians and nosy reporters, high tech spy equipment…the works. Right? You can’t hide something like this with the US and Israel breathing down your neck unless you have deep pockets and a surplus of cunning, evil genius scientists and intelligence people in your employ.

On the other hand, what’s weird is that Iran has a very low defense spending per capita.

Iran’s defense expenditure per capita remains among the lowest in the Middle East region despite having the second highest population behind Egypt, according to the new publication of Military Balance.

The 2008 edition said that Iran’s total defense spending for 2006, the latest available, was nearly 55 percent less that Israel’s, despite having ten times the population of the Zionist entity.

Per capita, Israeli regime’s expenditure was calculated to be nearly 17 times higher at an average of $1,737 per person compared with only $110 for each Iranian.

Israel’s military spending was shown to be the second highest in the world and only $59 per capita behind the U.S., excluding Qatar, which only has a population of less than one million.

Even as a proportion of GDP, Iran’s defense expenditure of 3.3 percent was found to be well less than half of Israel’s 7.9 percent, which is among the highest in the world and even more than the U.S.

Oh dear. That is very perplexing, don’t you think? How could the Iranians possibly be doing all this super-secret nuclear weapons development, in secret, under pressure, on a shoestring budget?

You know, if they are doing this, we really need to talk to their budget guys, because damn they are good. We could use that kind of financial acumen around here. For example, we have this giant hole in our budget that really should be plugged up, but nobody seems to know what to do about it:

Under a new agreement with the U.S., it also said Washington was providing Israeli regime with a $30 billion package of Foreign Military Financing between 2009 and 2018, an increase amounting to around 25 percent more than in the previous ten-year period.

Blackmail: You want protection? It’s gonna cost you.

Feb 14

Posted by Marlena in 9-11, Bush/Cheney, Civil Rights, Economy, Politics, Surveillance | No Comments

It looks like House Democrats will let tomorrow night’s deadline pass without acting on the Senate’s FISA with telecom immunity monstrosity. That means it the broad spying powers approved last August would expire. Bush, of course, cannot resist scaring the folks.

At a morning appearance in the Oval Office, President Bush pressed the House to adopt quickly a plan the Senate approved on Tuesday to broaden the government’s spying powers and give legal immunity to telephone companies.

The plan is essential, Bush said, because terrorists are planning attacks on American soil “that will make Sept. 11 pale in comparison.”

Really? And how, pray tell, does Bush know this? And if he knows this, why isn’t he using the tremendous resources of the federal government to stop the evil terrorists? Or is he just lying again? Or is he predicting another inside job? No matter which way you slice it, the man does not have the interests of the American people in mind.

Bush maintained yesterday that letting the broadened surveillance powers lapse “would jeopardize the security of our citizens.”

Democrats insisted that a lapse would have no real effect.

The expiration of the powers “doesn’t mean we are somehow vulnerable again,” said Representative Silvestre Reyes, Democrat of Texas and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

The lapsing of the deadline would have little practical effect on intelligence gathering. Intelligence officials would be able to intercept communications from Al Qaeda members or other identified terrorist groups for a year after the initial eavesdropping authorization for that particular group.

If a new terrorist group is identified after Saturday, intelligence officials would not be able to use the broadened eavesdropping authority. They would be able to seek a warrant under the more restrictive standards in place for three decades through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Maybe next week they’ll discover some ‘new’ terrorist group out of Libya, but then they would be forced to use the ‘restrictive’ FISA standards that worked just great for over thirty years. Oh well.

Bush accused the Democratic-led House of needlessly prolonging the debate at the expense of the country’s safety.

“At this moment,” he said, “somewhere in the world terrorists are planning new attacks on our country. Their goal is to bring destruction to our shores that will make Sept. 11 pale by comparison.”

To stop an attack, he urged, Congress must act immediately to strengthen the eavesdropping.

Somewhere in the world? How about Dick Cheney’s office. Bush’s message bears a striking resemblance to blackmail.

In the House, which passed a more restrictive surveillance plan in November that intentionally left out protection for the utilities, Democratic leaders were not swayed.

“The president’s presentation this morning was, I think, basically dishonest,” said Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland, the majority leader.

Intelligence officials could continue intercepting suspect communications even if the deadline passes, Hoyer said. In pushing so hard for immunity for the utilities, he added, the Bush administration is “very nervous about what might be disclosed” if the lawsuits against the companies are allowed to continue.

“To some degree, therefore, I think it is a cover-up,” Hoyer said.

That’s right. I’m pleasantly surprised that the House has shown some backbone here. Scrappy is good.

Here’s the bottom line. Bush and Cheney have been telling us that we needed to give up our civil rights and privacy in exchange for protection. So our elected representatives, in their wisdom, handed over our civil rights. So where’s our protection?

We already paid, but Bush and Cheney want that last two cents or the whole thing is off. They’re nothing but a bunch of mobsters.

And by the way, look at the grim faces in the picture. Aside from Henry Paulson (next to Pelosi), they all look like they’re paying respects at a wake. The sign should read Burying Our Economy.

Guantanamo is closer than it appears

Feb 13

Posted by Marlena in Civil Rights, Corruption & Crime, Injustice, Religion | No Comments

A very disturbing video has made its way into the public sphere. You can watch it here. I encourage you to watch it and to imagine yourself or your loved one being treated this way.

Ask yourself what possible justification these officers had for their actions.

This is my response to the video.

To Timothy Swanson, Stark County Sherrif:

I just viewed the video of your officers strip searching a woman for no good reason. It’s quite obvious that your officers indulged in a gratuitous abuse of power, for even if they had a reason to consider this woman a threat, which they did not, it would not require stripping her naked against your own department’s policies.

This country moves closer and closer to a fascist police state with every passing week. Do you really think you are protecting people with this kind of behavior? When people need to be protected from the police, we have ceased to become America.

Will you turn messages like mine over to even higher authorities like the FBI? Is that the next step in this wet-dream of bringing about a police state? Are your officers making up arrest lists based on the people who still pay attention and witness their crimes against our democracy and our Constitution and our fellow citizens? Will you need those lists in the next national drill?

It wouldn’t surprise me at all if you did. All those FEMA camps will be filled with somebody some day, will they not? Who better to fill them than the citizens who pay attention to corruption and speak out against it? The evidence is all around that police across the country are merely playing small parts in grander plans.

You look like a nice man. Don’t forget that your children, too, will inherit the country our leaders are currently destroying. Why are you helping them dismantle our civil rights? Do you think your ancestors would be proud? Will you children thank you when they live in a police state? Are you absolutely sure the power will never be used against innocent people? How could you be? It just happened in your own jail.

Your website has a lot of noble words about serving and protecting the citizens of Stark County. I’m just curious. When did gratuitous violence toward citizens become an acceptable form of “public service”? Your officers have turned the very concept of public service on its head, shackled it, shaken it down and left it lying naked in a locked room.

All who hold the military and police in higher esteem than the citizens paying their salaries, the citizens they are sworn to serve and protect, make a mockery of their own oaths, values and professions.

We condemn or redeem ourselves with our own actions. This is true for every person.

So many people in this country boast of their Godly Patriotism as they hurry to deny civil rights to their fellow human beings. I trust they think from time to time about standing before God and defending their righteousness on that day. He may not be so understanding. God is not an American, and he’s not a cop or a soldier either. Having made everybody, one cannot assume any special privileges with God just because one carries a gun for a living. On the contrary, a person wielding such power in this life might reasonably expect to be held to a higher standard in the next. May you not condemn yourself.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Actions have consequences

Feb 13

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Iran | No Comments

Egypt and Iran have been warming up to each other despite all the heated rhetoric from Bush & Co. Or, perhaps because of all the heated rhetoric. That’s the thing about these bastards. They stun us with their undying commitment to evil, but they cannot seem to grasp all of the consequences they provoke. Of all people, the evil suffer the most from a failure of imagination. They cannot comprehend what kinds of things people will do out of a sense of solidarity with one another.

This is just a development to note:

CAIRO, Feb 12 (IPS) - In recent months, Washington has tried hard to convince Arab leaders of the threat to the Middle East posed by Iranian regional ambitions. Nevertheless, several recent visits to Egypt by top-level Iranian officials suggest that Cairo, despite U.S. objections, may be close to restoring diplomatic ties — severed for almost 30 years — with Tehran.

…Notably, signs of budding Arab-Iranian rapprochement have not been limited to Egypt.

According to Kandil, the notable shift in Arab attitudes towards Iran can be attributed chiefly to Washington’s massive policy failures in Iraq.

“For years, Washington’s Arab allies in the region have kept Iran at arm’s length to appease the U.S.,” he said. “But in the wake of the debacle in Iraq, many of them are reconsidering this policy.”

The article clearly notes that none of this is written on stone tablets, but all the same, it has become increasingly clear that the US does not exercise a vise-like grip on the Middle Eastern nations anymore. The Middle Eastern countries seem to be discovering a new solidarity among themselves.

They Write Letters

Feb 12

Posted by Marlena in Corruption & Crime, Libya, Media, Military, Psychology, Stupidity, Surveillance, Unreality | No Comments

A new book is out by Nick Davies called How the Spooks Took Over the News. You can read about it here.

On the morning of 9 February 2004, The New York Times carried an exclusive and alarming story. The paper’s Baghdad correspondent, Dexter Filkins, reported that US officials had obtained a 17-page letter, believed to have been written by the notorious terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi to the “inner circle” of al-Qa’ida’s leadership, urging them to accept that the best way to beat US forces in Iraq was effectively to start a civil war.

It’s really amazing how many letters and documents these terrorists write and leave lying around. They remind me of Josephine March in Little Women, penning their struggles and frustrations as they wage the War on Terror against the Infidels. Maybe they write by candlelight in their caves, sipping tea as they leaf through the pages of their diaries, pages stained with tears.

And then, luck of lucks, US Special Forces find the precious documents and breathlessly reveal the inner workings of our enemies.

Just recently we were told that Libyans now compromise the largest percentage of foreign fighters in Iraq. I just heard the story repeated on the news this morning by NPR. And how do we know that? Well, it turns out that Al Qaeda keeps detailed records lying aroud, and US forces found them.

Just yesterday the text of two more Al Qaeda letters were released.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq faces an “extraordinary crisis”. Last year’s mass defection of ordinary Sunnis from al-Qaeda to the US military “created panic, fear and the unwillingness to fight”. The terrorist group’s security structure suffered “total collapse”.

These are the words not of al-Qaeda’s enemies but of one of its own leaders in Anbar province — once the group’s stronghold. They were set down last summer in a 39-page letter seized during a US raid on an al-Qaeda base near Samarra in November.

The US military released extracts from that letter yesterday along with a second seized in another November raid that is almost as startling.

That second document is a bitter 16-page testament written last October by a local al-Qaeda leader near Balad, north of Baghdad. “I am Abu-Tariq, emir of the al-Layin and al-Mashahdah sector,” the author begins. He goes on to describe how his force of 600 shrank to fewer than 20.

If you google Al Qaeda letter, you will see the bountiful number of letters they write. One would think they might smarten up after a while.

But it doesn’t stop there! Even in America, people can’t stop themselves from writing letters. You probably receive them in your email in-box, those fact-free screeds angrily denouncing all the godless America haters. Pass it on OR ELSE! Maybe you would recognize this one. I’ve received it from friends and relatives, who obviously labor under the impression that they assist the GWOT by forwarding this garbage along.

Hey, psst. It’s all psyops propaganda coming out of Northern Virginia (wink wink). Google ‘CIA psyops Reston VA USA’. Pass it on.