Archive for December, 2009

an investor’s dream, a human being’s nightmare

Dec 16

Posted by A. Peasant in Africa, Minerals, Philippines, Psychopaths | No Comments

BusinessWeek: As BusinessWeek reports this week, global investors are snapping up thousands of acres of farmland in Africa. Money from everywhere—from Saudi Arabia to Wall Street-backed funds—is pouring in. Why the sudden focus on Africa?

Jim Rogers: The gigantic acreage in Africa has been underfarmed because there is not much infrastructure, not much machinery, not much expertise, not much fertilizer. I think the world is going to have huge food problems in the next few years. Other people seem to see that, too, so they’re buying up farmland. You can either buy it or lease it. It’s very, very cheap, it’s incredibly fertile, and it hasn’t been overexploited. And if you take in some expertise and some machinery and some fertilizer, you should make a lot of money. The labor’s cheap, everything’s cheap.

BusinessWeek: So you think Africa is a good investment opportunity?

Jim Rogers: I think it’s a fantastic investor opportunity. Now there are over 50 countries in Africa, so we can’t make too gross a generalization. But I mean, in the Congo, you don’t even have to plant anything. You just sit by the road long enough, something will grow. Yes, I am very, very optimistic.

BusinessWeek: What’s your outlook for commodities in 2010?

Jim Rogers: I’m not smart enough to know. But I will say that if the world economy gets better, then commodities will be one of the best places to be because of the shortages that are developing. If the world economy does not get better, commodities will still be the place to be because governments are printing all this money.

BusinessWeek: Tim Geithner has been under attack lately. How’s he doing?

Jim Rogers: Listen, I have been a critic for years. Geithner should never have been appointed to anything. He’s been wrong about just about everything for 15 years.

BusinessWeek: Do you think he’ll lose his job?

Jim Rogers: Of course he’s going to lose his job, because as Mr. Obama realizes that Geithner doesn’t know what he’s doing, he’s going to look for somebody else because he doesn’t want to take the heat himself. So he’s going to look to blame somebody, and the obvious person is Geithner.

Back at my think-tank office today, I read some crazy conspiracy stuff about Tim Geithner:

At about 3.00pm New York time on Tuesday 15th December 2009, the Secretary of the United States Treasury, Mr Timothy Geithner, was again confronted by enforcement personnel – from among the large and heavily armed contingent of Chinese police, Interpol officers, MI-6 operatives and Swiss enforcers acting for the injured plaintiffs, the Chinese parties and the British Monarchical Power, who are engaged in enforcing the World Court’s Writ of Execution and Lien(s) on the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve System.

And I also read some confirmed news about Congo, land of exceptional fertility, land where women and girls are brutally raped and murdered, along with their men. Because the land might be really fertile but the people — evidently they have to go:

MICHELLE FAUL
December 15, 2009

JOHANNESBURG — A U.N.-backed Congolese military operation to oust rebels from eastern Congo has caused more civilian casualties than damage to rebels, with more than 1,400 people deliberately killed over a nine-month period, human rights groups said Monday.

Human Rights Watch said it had documented “vicious and widespread” attacks against civilians by soldiers and rebels between January and September. Soldiers being fed and supplied with ammunition by the United Nations have killed civilians, gang-raped girls and cut the heads off some young men they accuse of being rebels or supporting the enemy, groups said.

“For every rebel combatant disarmed, one civilian has been killed, seven women and girls have been raped, six houses have been burned and destroyed and 900 people have been forced to flee their homes,” British-based organization Oxfam said.

Human Rights Watch said it documented the killings of 732 civilians between January and September by the Congolese army and troops from neighboring Rwanda fighting alongside it. In the same period, it counted 701 civilians killed by the rebels they are fighting.

“Some victims were tied together before their throats were, according to one witness, ’slit like chickens.’ The majority of the victims were women, children, and the elderly,” the group said.

More than 7,500 cases of sexual violence against women and girls were registered at health centers during that nine-month period, nearly double that of 2008 and likely representing only a fraction of the total.

Human Rights Watch said that the 19,000 peacekeepers in Congo – the biggest U.N. force in the world – must “immediately cease all support to the current military operation” until it can ensure there are no violations of international humanitarian law. The group also called for the U.N. to find “a new approach to protect civilians.”

“The U.N. peacekeepers are being put in an appalling situation where they are supporting an army that is attacking its own population,” it said.

You can read more about it here.

Human Rights Watch recommended the immediate creation and deployment of a civilian protection expert group that would put forward specific measures to improve strategies to protect civilians in eastern Congo. Alan Doss, special representative of the secretary-general in Congo, will address the Security Council on December 16. The Security Council is scheduled to vote on a renewal of the mandate of MONUC, the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, on December 21.

…Over the first nine months of 2009, the UN recorded over 7,500 cases of sexual violence against women and girls across North and South Kivu in eastern Congo, nearly surpassing the figures recorded during all of last year, and probably representing only a fraction of the total. Most of the women and girls were gang raped, some so violently that they later died. Many women and girls were held as sex slaves by both the Congolese army and the FDLR for weeks or months at a time; they were raped repeatedly and some were mutilated and then killed by machete or shot in the vagina.

The women massacred in Maguindanao Philippines received similar treatment.

The members of the convoy, along with people believed to be just passing through, were later found murdered, mutilated, some bearing signs of torture and rape. Most were buried with their vehicles in Ampatuan tow. Ginalyn bore gunshot wounds in the mouth; her vagina was slashed four times before it too was shot; her legs were sawed off.

What does this mean, this hatred toward women? Where does this urge to utterly destroy women, to destroy their fertility, to destroy life itself come from? It is not enough to kill women, apparently. It must be done with brutal emphasis on the hatred for what women symbolize: LIFE.

But the land….the land is so fertile. And with all those wonderful buried treasures, minerals, gold, diamonds…..

Africa is an investor’s dream. If it weren’t for all the people who live there. The people pose a problem. They must go. This is how it’s done.

turning the screws in Colorado

Dec 15

Posted by A. Peasant in Corruption & Crime, Iraq, Minerals, Oil, Oligarchs, Russia | No Comments

Several companies did very well in the latest Iraq oil auction, especially Russia and China. American companies…not so much.

A Petronas-Shell alliance got the highly coveted Majnoon (reserves of more than 12 billion barrels, projected output of 1.8 million bpd), near the Iranian border. Russia’s Lukoil (85%), with junior partner Statoil (15%), got phase 2 of the immense West Qurna (located 65 kilometers northwest of Basra; about 12 billion barrels of reserves; projected production of 1.8 million bpd) - which in theory it had already bagged under Saddam Hussein. When Lukoil was stripped of its contract by Saddam, it blamed US-instigated United Nations sanctions, while Saddam blamed Lukoil itself.

…What the early 2010s will definitely see is the rise of a relatively wealthy, Shi’ite-controlled Iraq friendly with Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Essentially, Shi’ite Islam on the rise. The US-friendly autocracies and dictatorships in the Gulf will cry again, “It’s the return of the Shi’ite crescent!” United States think-tanks may be tempted to define Maliki as the new Saddam. The only difference is that by then, Cheney and company will be safely ensconced in the dustbin of history.

So, you know, people can debate whether the new power configuration in Iraq is an accident, but power configurations don’t happen by accident. They might look like accidents, but that means accidentally on purpose, in order to gas up the tank on the Hegelian Mindfuck Endless Conflict for Fun and Profit bus for another World Tour.

And so what if Dick Cheney doesn’t like it? That doesn’t mean somebody else isn’t loving it and planning to make a bloody fortune. These people are cut-throats and Dick had his turn, he’s out of power, and he can try as he might to throw his weight around still or maybe he should just go be his cold-blooded retired reptile self back in Wyoming and enjoy, if that’s the word, whatever life he has left, laying around on a stone wall or something, while his enemies fuck with the people of the world. Like I said, they take turns and his turn ended.

Speaking of people making bloody fortunes…this Lukoil might be worth watching as it connects back to some other topics of interest like oligarchs, diamonds, and Colorado. Yup! More Intersecting Circles. I’m sure Lev Leviev must be around here someplace…

Jul 23, 2009 (MENA News from Al-Bawaba via COMTEX) — Court documents and testimony, presented recently in the Colorado District Court in Denver, expose substantial new evidence that LUKoil has operated a significant business in the state.

The new evidence, secret until now, stretches back for ten years, and shows a flow of cash every month from an alleged front company in Colorado to a LUKoil company in Israel.

The evidence reinforces the likelihood that LUKoil and its Russian subsidiary, Arkhangelskgeoldobycha (AGD), will be ordered to face trial on charges of defrauding Archangel Diamond Corporation (ADC) of its rights to develop the Grib diamond mine project.

In addition to its stake in the future Grib diamond mine project, ADC’s biggest current asset is its US lawsuit against LUKoil. This claims recovery of $30 million in investment, $400 million in ADC’s share of profits, and another $800 million in potential profits.

The newly disclosed evidence appears in a transcript of court proceedings on May 12; the transcript was made available after diamond giant De Beers attempted to halt the court case, and put ADC into bankruptcy.

Jonathan Oppenheimer and Gareth Penny have been asked to explain why they appear determined to stop the legal proceedings against LUKoil and AGD, now that, according to the latest evidence, they are close to a judicial order to commence trial. They refuse to respond.

The new evidence was presented to District Judge Anne Mansfield by ADC’s lawyer, Bruce Marks, a specialist on Russian racketeering. Marks presented the judge with invoices, and claimed that since 1998 until the present, LUKoil has been using a local company called DS Engineering to bill thousands of dollars every month for engineering and other services performed for LUKoil.

DS Engineering, Marks said, was “nothing more than a pass-through account.” Cash was moved in both directions, he added - from Colorado to Moscow, and from Moscow to Colorado. Documents for one month, October 2001, showed $32,000 in cash invoiced and paid by LUKoil for running a variety of business operations in Colorado.

LUKoil’s attorney, Frederick Baumann, told the judge in the hearing “there is no contact whatsoever between the facts of the plaintiff s claims and the State of Colorado.”

Judge Mansfield disagreed. On May 12, she overruled LUKoil’s objections, and ordered that “LUKOIL shall produce all information and documents responsive to all ADC s interrogatories and requests for production

If the judge had dismissed ADC’s application, the court case would have had little chance of succeeding. However, the May 12 orders apply serious pressure on LUKoil either to disclose, and risk trial on the substance of ADC’s charges; or else to negotiate a settlement on ADC’s terms. This in turn has renewed the pressure on diamond giant De Beers to call off its attempt to liquidate ADC.

Well, to get serious (ahem), the oligarchs in question are Vagit Alekperov and Alisher Usmanov, as explained here this week by John Helmer.

Archangel Diamond Corporation (ADC) has re-emerged from a bankruptcy proceeding initiated earlier this year by De Beers, to launch new charges in the Colorado state court against Russian oil company LUKoil, and well-known Russian oligarchs, Vagit Alekperov (lead bearer) and Alisher Usmanov (2nd bearer).

ADC is now being directed by a group of minority stakeholders, led by US attorney Bruce Marks; former board director, Clive Hartz; and the Firebird Global Master Fund of New York, with a stake of about 18%. De Beers owns 56% of ADC’s shares.
The new filing was lodged in the Denver city and county court for Colorado on November 24. It charges LUKoil, one of Russia’s largest oil companies, with racketeering, fraud, unjust enrichment, and civil conspiracy. Set out in detail is an alleged scheme by which LUKoil used Colorado, local companies, and at least a dozen Colorado employees to smuggle large sums of cash into Russia. The scheme has been revealed in order to buttress ADC’s claims that the Colorado court has jurisdiction over LUKoil to try the 11-year diamond mine case.

The new court papers charge that from March 1999 until now LUKoil has used a Colorado front company, DS Engineering, as “the fulcrum of illegal cash smuggling schemes in which the Lukoil Colorado Employees carried cash from Colorado to Russia, in amounts averaging $40,000 per month, totaling over $6 million.
…In other words, DS Engineering paid millions of dollars to Lukoil Israel which it then billed Lukoil Israel for reimbursement. Upon information and belief, this “circle” of monies paid to Lukoil Israel for “services” was wired to a different bank account from which DS Engineering received payment from Lukoil Israel and may constitute some type of fraud. Upon information and belief, Lukoil Israel never provided DS Engineering any invoices or billings which provided any substantive description of the services purportedly provided for the more than $3 million which DS Engineering wired out to Lukoil Israel from its bank account in Colorado.”

…the Cash Smuggling Schemes involved over 25 Lukoil Colorado Employees making over 1,000 separate trips over a ten year period smuggling over $6 million.

Et cetera.

But, for the record, Lukoil does tie back to Lev Leviev. (Doesn’t everything?) Lukoil owned one of the two diamond suppliers that Leviev needed to secure for his consolidated diamond business.

12/07: Israeli entrepreneur Lev Leviev is planning to consolidate his Russian diamond interests, creating a vertically integrated mining, manufacturing, and retailing group which will be offered for public shareholding subscription. According to Leviev’s Moscow representative, Valery Morozov, the assets to be combined include the small alluvial mining concern, Uralalmaz; Ruis Diamonds, Leviev’s Moscow manufacturing plant; Kama Kristall, a smaller cutting plant in Perm; and the Moscow jewellery plant. …It is clearly in Leviev’s interest to assure his rough supplies by taking equity stakes in new Sakha mines, or in one of the two diamond projects in Arkhangelsk region - Lomonosov controlled by Alrosa, or Verkhotina controlled by LUKoil. He has made moves in each of these directions, and courted some well-known Russian asset raiders.

What does it mean? Damned if I know. Just noticing I guess. But if I were to venture a guess, and I’m not saying I am, it looks like some more interference with the oligarch business model.

guilt, terror, mind control: oh hey it’s just global warming

Dec 14

Posted by A. Peasant in Experts, Global Warming, Mind-fucking, Terrorism, X Wars | No Comments

Extrapolate.

a new war based on old lies

Dec 14

Posted by A. Peasant in CIA, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Terrorism, Yemen | No Comments

So it looks like the US has just gotten involved in yet another war, this time in Yemen. I wondered about this just last week.

US special forces have been sent to Yemen to train its army amid fears the unstable Arab state is becoming a strategically important base for al-Qaeda.

American officials told The Daily Telegraph the country is becoming a “reserve” base for the terrorist network, which considers it a safe haven.The deployment comes as Yemen’s neighbours said they had arrested “dozens” of al-Qaeda fighters moving in and out of the country. Oman, a moderate Arab state on Yemen’s border, is to increase the number of naval patrols around the Arabian peninsula to try to intercept suspected terrorists on the move between bases in Yemen and South Asia.

Fearful that Yemen is in danger of becoming a failed state, America has now sent a small number of special forces teams to improve training of Yemen’s army in reaction to the threat.

…Ahmed Said Alkathiry, an Omani foreign ministry official, said: “We have intercepted increasing numbers of people who come from places like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia that are moving their operations up through Yemen.”…Yemen is the ancestral home of Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the local arm of the network, has provided many of the group’s leaders. One of al-Qaeda’s worst attacks on America, the bombing of the USS Cole, took place in Aden in 2000, killing 17 American sailors.

al Qaeda? The database slash organization created by the CIA slash ISI with help from Tim Osman slash Osama bin Laden who died in December 2001? That al Qaeda? The very same.

And Saudi Arabia? Does anyone remember on September 12, 2001 how the American newspapers all had full page ads, not just one but multiple pages per paper, in papers across the country, with condolences from Saudi Arabia? The pages had a lot of white space and some nice little stylized palm tree motif across the bottom. Anybody else remember this, because I’ll never forget it. Our friends in Saudi Arabia felt so badly about what happened. They really wanted to be sure we all knew, so they took out these ads hoping that everyone here would get the message that we’re good friends with Saudi Arabia.

According to the U.S. State Department 2007 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, “Saudi donors and unregulated charities have been a major source of financing to extremist and terrorist groups over the past 25 years.” The September 11, 2001 attacks fueled criticisms within the United States of alleged Saudi involvement in terrorism or of Saudi laxity in acting against terrorist groups. The final report released by the bipartisan National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission) indicates that the Commission “found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded [Al Qaeda].” The report also states, however, that Saudi Arabia “was a place where Al Qaeda raised money directly from individuals and through charities” and indicates that “charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship” may have diverted funding to Al Qaeda. U.S. officials remain concerned that Saudis continue to fund Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.

So to recap the situation thus far, Saudi Arabia, which spent $40.5B on arms in 2009 (compared to Israel’s $13B “allowance”), the largest defense budget in the Middle East, and which has long been suspected of funding the CIA-created al-Qaeda, now needs our help to fight al-Qaeda in Yemen.

I don’t know. Maybe I misunderstand, but that seems a little fucked up to me. But these articles from these respectable papers make it all seem so totally normal, so that you can read the lies and you know they’re lies but nobody calls them lies they just roll them over again and again. It’s too bad about all the civilians who have to die as a result. Back to the Telegraph:

US intelligence reports have said “dozens” of senior al-Qaeda members are established in Yemen. Telephone intercepts and other surveillance detected close ties with groups based in South Asia. Officials claimed that Saleh al-Somali, a Somali-born terrorist killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan last week, had orchestrated movement between the two war zones….

But officials in Yemen claim Iran, not al-Qaeda, poses the main threat to the country’s security.

Ali Mohamed al-Anisi, the chairman of Yemen’s national security agency, has blamed the Iran for fermenting the Shia rebellion. He said: “There are indeed signs, proof of Iranian interference.”

Allegations that Iran supports the rebels that attacked Saudi Arabia remain unproven. But Western diplomats claim it is probable that Iran is providing money or materiel to the group, as it has to Hizbollah in Lebanon.

Oh, so here we go. Of course this had to tie back to Iran and Hizbollah and Lebanon, just like the Kazakhs stopped in Thailand with weapons that Western intelligence sources say were “most probably destined” for Hizbollah and Lebanon, possibly even Hamas and Gaza.

Somehow, like a shamanic shape-shifter, the narrative will transform into a story about Israel, and Israel’s arch-enemies, and Israel’s security, and the existential threats that Israel faces, and the evil terrorists and Hizbullah and Hamas and Iran and Syria and Lebanon. And we will already be involved by then, because we’re involved now, by helpfully helping out our buddies in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

freedom of information

Dec 12

Posted by A. Peasant in Military, NWO, UK | No Comments

One thing leads to another.

Laptop containing secret data is stolen from MoD HQ
A laptop containing secret data has been stolen from the Ministry of Defence’s headquarters, it was disclosed today. The laptop, with an encryption key for unlocking sensitive files, was taken from the the MoD building on Whitehall in Central London in late November. An MoD spokesman said: ‘An investigation by MoD police is ongoing and it would be inappropriate to comment further.’ According to the Sun newspaper the laptop was left in the headquarters by a high-ranking RAF officer. He was removed from the building and posted to another station while the incident is investigated. Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox said: ‘If true this is an extremely worrying development. ‘This goes way beyond the careless loss of a laptop or lapses in personal security that we have seen in recent times. ‘I’ll be seeking clarification from the Secretary of State as soon as possible.’

“This goes way beyond the careless loss of a laptop or lapses in personal security that we have seen in recent times.”

Oh he must be referring to the hundreds and hundreds of laptops and memory sticks carelessly lost or stolen from the UK’s MoD over the past few years, the vast majority of which have never been recovered.

JULY 2008: The U.K. Ministry of Defence has revealed some startling figures about laptop loss for the last four years: 659 laptops have been reported stolen and 89 lost. These figures contradict earlier investigations by the Ministry of Defence that put the new figures at double previous figures. Of the laptops lost since 2004, only 32 have been recovered. In addition to these lost laptops, 121 USB memory sticks have been lost or stolen since 2004, some of which held restricted / classified data.

Or, maybe he refers to the data stolen on September 11, 2008 that raised serious blackmail concerns for senior RAF personnel.

Sensitive files detailing the extra marital affairs, drug taking and use of prostitutes by very senior officers in the RAF have been stolen, raising fears within the Ministry of Defence that personnel could be vulnerable to blackmail.Up to 500 people in the service could be affected by the theft. They have been interviewed individually about the possible consequences to them and to their families.

The potentially damaging information was stored on three computer hard drives that went missing from RAF Innsworth, Gloucestershire, last September. The files were not encrypted, so could be opened easily. The RAF disclosed the loss of the hard drives two weeks after they went missing, revealing only that the bank details and home addresses of 50,000 servicemen and women were on the computers.

It kept secret the fact that the “vetting” information about 500 staff had also disappeared. The defence secretary at the time, Des Browne, was not told, nor was Sir Richard Thomas, the then information commissioner. The details were also withheld from parliament.

But the seriousness of the potential loss, and the nature of the information, were outlined in an internal MoD memo, which was obtained under Freedom of Information legislation.

It said: “This information included details of criminal convictions, investigations, precise details of debt, medical conditions, drug abuse, use of prostitutes, extra-marital affairs including the names of third parties.

“The data is not routine vetting information, but relates to those cases that have been referred to RAF … because the individuals have serious vulnerabilities that affect their suitability to obtain/retain a security clearance. This data provides an excellent target list for foreign intelligence services, investigative journalists and blackmailers. Moreover, if the information relating to the private lives of RAF personnel, especially of some very senior officers, enters the public domain, the reputation of the service will be tarnished.

“The vetting information would be likely to generate further interest and, due to the profile of some individuals, would likely grab front page status.”

Well, I suppose there’s two ways of looking at this, and it totally depends on who has the information and what they plan to do with it.

As with climategate, the “hackers” have done us all a service by exposing scientists’ real attitudes. The leak clarified the situation and derailed the NWO agenda. Of course the “violated” parties immediately invoked the Rule of Law. They always know where to find it when they have been caught. Otherwise, they couldn’t care less about the Rule of Law.

Similarly, exposing purloined data might clarify other situations which have resulted in deaths and/or ruined lives: false wars, false flags, pedophilia and human trafficking rings reaching up to the highest levels. Unfortunately, it might also be used to further confuse, to trigger another false flag, to lie us into another war, to sacrifice more innocent lives.

Momentum has shifted in our favor. Do you feel it?

The truth shall set us free.

limited hangout Mumbai edition

Dec 9

Posted by A. Peasant in CIA, Identities, India, Israel, Mossad, Mumbai, Pakistan, Terrorism | No Comments

So here’s another rabbit hole to fall into. You probably heard about this guy David Headley, arrested in Chicago for involvement in the Mumbai terrorist attacks as well as attacks on a Danish newspaper? Healey’s real name is Daood Gilani. He was arrested in mid-October.

Who is this guy? Long story. Dramatic story.

For the record, my last post on Mumbai wondered why the terrorists’ bodies lay unclaimed in the morgue for a year.

Mumbai/New Delhi: Almost a year after they were killed during the terrible assault on Mumbai last November, the bodies of the nine terrorists continue to remain in Mumbai’s J.J. Hospital morgue. There are no claimants and the authorities are clueless on what to do with them.

They continue to remain in a room sealed with round-the-clock security and where the temperature is set at four degrees Celsius to prevent any decomposition.

The 10 gunmen killed over 170 people in a series of coordinated attacks that began Nov 26 last year. Mohammed Ajmal Amir alias Kasab, currently undergoing trial, was the only one captured alive after the strikes that targeted two luxury hotels, the city’s main train station, a hospital and a Jewish centre.

So please, if you haven’t read that, go right ahead because it’s pertinent. Bottom line: we really don’t know who committed the Mumbai terrorist attacks, but it was a big operation with a double cross involved, and plenty of gruesome torture — not your typical killings but the sort of thing that gives forensic doctors accustomed to murder in big cities nightmares.

Like 911, the official Mumbai story has some glaring problems. For instance, the Mumbai attacks were supposedly carried out by just 10 gunmen. These 10 gunmen were able to hold several huge buildings and multiple hostages for a couple of days while simultaneously fighting off swarms of heavily armed Indian forces. It doesn’t make sense, of course, but since there are only 10 people accounted for — 9 in the morgue plus Kasab — the narrative remains stuck on 10. If there were others, then how would they have gotten away, hmm? They couldn’t, see, unless they were for some inconceivable reason *allowed* to get away, like the people who did 911. Pfft. But that can’t happen, that would be a conspiracy, and conspiracies don’t exist, so these mystery terrorists don’t exist either. Simples.

But on the other hand, *somebody* must have helped these 10 guys land undetected. This is supposedly the “missing link” in the narrative. And so this is where Gilani comes in.

December 09, 2009 Edition 1

MUMBAI: Ever since his arrest in Chicago in October, India has been gripped by the case of David Headley, a Pakistani-American man who is alleged to have helped plan last year’s deadly attacks on Mumbai.

The plot, according to the media in India, reads like a movie thriller: a well-built fitness fanatic and white Muslim convert befriends Bollywood stars, using an alias and visa business as cover as he scouts out possible targets. He then reports back in coded e-mails to shadowy Pakistani agents directing operations, preparing for the high-profile strike that will kill 166 people, including 25 foreigners, sending shockwaves around the world.

With Headley now facing charges in the US, Indian security analysts believe the FBI could have found the vital missing link to the November 26 attacks on Mumbai.

The question about whether the 10 gunmen had specialist help to land undetected by sea and strike their targets with such precision has been posed ever since the attacks.

Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute of Conflict Management, agreed, suggesting Headley assumed “a very significant role” in the attacks.

The US Department of Justice said Headley made five trips to Mumbai from September, 2006, to July, 2008, “each time taking pictures and making videotapes of various targets, including those attacked in November, 2008″.

During those trips he reportedly befriended the gym instructor son of a Bollywood director, met a top actor and dated an actress and stayed in an expat enclave in south Mumbai, near the US consulate.

He is also said to have stayed at one of the targets, the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower H0otel. Sahni said the charges against Headley, plus a Pakistan-born Canadian and a retired Pakistani army major, would put pressure on Pakistan. The charges against Headley could raise questions about the supposed role played by two Indians on trial in Mumbai. The two men are accused of also being key planners behind the attacks. - Sapa-AFP

So what else do we know about Gilani? He’s from Philadelphia.

A former Philadelphia tavern operator-turned-terror suspect played a key role in planning last year’s deadly assaults in Mumbai, India, according to new federal charges.

David Coleman Headley, 49, who was brought to Philadelphia from Pakistan as a teenager, spent nearly two years scouting locations that figured in the attacks on targets including the Oberoi and Taj Mahal hotels, a cafe, and a Jewish center, federal authorities say.

…The Mumbai charges, filed yesterday in federal court in Chicago, added a chilling new dimension to the already strange saga of Headley - born Daood Gilani, the son of a prominent Pakistani broadcaster and a striking Main Line woman with a taste for adventure.

A U.S. citizen, Gilani attended Lashkar training camps beginning in February 2002. In 2006, after learning that the organization wanted him to perform surveillance in India, he changed his name to Headley in Philadelphia so he could travel more easily, authorities say.

Posing as a representative of an immigration-services business, Headley began traveling to Mumbai in September 2006, the charges say.

Actually it sounds like he was a bit of a fuck-up.

Headley was born in 1960 in Washington to Serrill Headley, who grew up in Bryn Mawr, and Syed Saleem Gilani. Headley married Gilani at age 19, according to an Inquirer story. After Gilani’s job in Washington ended, the couple returned to Pakistan.

The couple divorced. Headley married and later divorced a second Pakistani - an executive - before returning to Philadelphia. After several attempts, she was able to get her son Daood out of Pakistan in the 1970s and later bought and renovated a pub at 56 S. Second St. that she called the Khyber Pass. She died last year.

The boy - described by family friends as sullen but handsome, with one blue eye and one brownish-green - had trouble adjusting to life in the States after his conservative upbringing in Pakistan, friends said.

Headley later took over the bar but drove it into bankruptcy. He also took accounting classes at the Community College of Philadelphia in the 1990s but did not earn a degree, and he managed video stores for a time in Philadelphia and New York. In 1998, he was sentenced to 15 months in jail in New York for smuggling heroin from Pakistan.

The current case has been huge news in India, with media chasing scraps of information about Gilani’s comings and goings.

On Saturday, Danyal Gilani, a spokesman for the Pakistani prime minister, confirmed that Headley is his half-brother, but said he had little contact with him since 2002. He last saw him at his father’s funeral in 2008, according to a report in the Times of India.

He said his family was not related to the prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani. The prime minister did visit his house after his father’s death last year to offer condolences, he said.

You know the funny thing about people who have connections, they get a little tone deaf to reality. Those of us *without* connections know very well that if you bankrupt a bar, don’t have a degree, and get convicted for smuggling drugs from Pakistan, then you can not reasonably expect to get a good job. That’s how life works for us mere mortals. But the connected have different rules. The least you can do is become an informer for the DEA, and then use that cover to plot terrorist attacks.

Headley, 49, who was born Daood Gilani, the son of a Pakistani father and an American socialite mother, agreed to become an informer for the Drug Enforcement Administration as part of a plea deal after his conviction in 1998 on heroin-smuggling charges.

Law-enforcement and diplomatic officials say they are barred from speaking publicly beyond the court record in the terrorism case against Mr. Headley, who is alleged by American officials to have adopted his Western name in 2005 to make it easier to travel on terrorist missions.

But they acknowledge privately there is the possibility that Headley traveled to Pakistan on behalf of the DEA, which is part of the Justice Department, and used the trips instead as an opportunity to meet with leaders of the Pakistan terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba and plot attacks on Indian and Western targets.

You can also hook up with a couple of guys running a visa company, and use that as cover to bring suspicious people into the US. It helps keep the war on terror going.

The Justice Department has also not disclosed much of what it knows about the two immigration companies linked to Headley and a Pakistani-born Canadian, Tahawwur Rana, who is also under arrest in the United States and charged with terrorism.

News reports in the U.S. and India have identified the two men as owners or managers of First World Immigration, which had offices in Chicago, and the Immigrant Law Center, a much smaller company based out of a large air-conditioned market in south Mumbai. Both firms advertised their ability to help skilled and unskilled Indian immigrants obtain visas to enter the U.S.

Federal authorities say they believe that Headley used his connections to the companies as a cover for terrorist surveillance ahead of last year’s attacks in Mumbai, as well as surveillance of the offices of a newspaper in Copenhagen, Denmark, that was condemned by Muslim groups around the world after it published cartoons that depicted the Prophet Muhammed.

Headley’s affiliation with the visa companies raises an even more troubling concern for American law-enforcement officials, because there is the fear the firms may also have been used to obtain visas for extremists to enter the United States and Canada.

News reports in India this month said that at least one of the companies’ former Indian clients has already been deported from the United States after immigration officials here determined that he had false documents.

…The immigration companies put advertisements in Indian newspapers last November, only days before the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, promoting the firms’ ability to help ex-military officers obtain jobs in the United States and Canada.

Allright??!!! If you really feel adventurous, read this to see connections to Mulla Omar, Benazir Bhutto, etc. All this is totally normal see? He could have been your mailman, no?

Either Kafka is playing a joke on Gilani, or he is an intelligence operative being hung out to dry. I vote for B. And by the way, the correspondent for Dalit Voice has the following to say (scroll down):

26/11 Bombay attack was planned to kill Karkare

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Bangalore: S.M. Mushrif, a retired IG of police of Maharashtra, in his sensational just released book, Who killed Karkare? directly accuses the Brahminists in the Govt. of India’s Intelligence Bureau (IB), (virtually taken over by the Brahminical terrorist force, RSS), for bungling in the 26/11/2008 Bombay terrorist attack. In the country’s most famous terrorist attack on Bombay, he says the incident has to be divided into two parts. The CST-Cama Hospital-Rangabhavan Lane episode of the attack is mysterious because Maharashtra’s most famous ATS chief, Hemant Karkare, noted for bravery, impartiality and efficiency, was shot dead here at the instance of IB to save the notorious Brahminists involved in the Malegaon bombing.

Malegaon terrorists released

All the Malegaon accused who were arrested by Karkare are about to be released and will come out as heroes — thanks to the IB complicity, he says.

The two Pakistani terrorists, Ajmal Kasab and Ismail Khan, arrested in the CST-Cama Hospital episode are not foreigners but fluent Marathi-speakers, he says giving eye-witness reports in Bombay newspaper. Karkare was led to the trap laid by the IB.

In other words, the 26/11 terrorist attack was used by the IB to solely kill Karkare.

The 320-page book tears into pieces the country’s premier intelligence network IB, and says the IB is more interested in the micro-minority Brahminists but not in the 130-crore Indians and their security.

Object is to eliminate Karkare

The CST-Cama Hospital “terrorists” were not part of the terrorists from Pakistan but were local ones.

American warning suppressed

The operation was planned, directed and executed by the Brahminists under the IB with the sole objective of eliminating Karkare who had unearthed many Brahminist terrorist plots to establish Hindu Rashtra.

CST-Cama hospital part had nothing to do with the Taj-Oberoi-Nariman House attack. The Brahminical media cooperated with the IB.

Another sensational disclosure is the IB had received the warning of the terrorist attack on Bombay from the US but it deliberately suppressed the warning as it wanted to club the murder of Karkare along with the 26/11 so that the blame for the murder would go to Pakistani terrorists.

The author reveals that even top BJP leaders like L.K. Advani and Narendra Modi were not aware of the Brahminist conspiracy. This shows the Brahminists have no confidence in these two non-Brahmin leaders and even the Shiv Sena whose chief Bal Thackeray was called “a danger to Hindu community”.

Abhinav Bharat becomes hero

As soon as Karkare was got rid of by the Brahminists in IB, it managed to quickly appoint a top Brahmin, K.P. Raghuvanshi, IPS, to succeed him. The new ATS chief completely changed all the records and painted the Abhinav Bharat Brahminical terrorists involved in many murder cases, in glowing colours. Soon all the Malegaon accused in jail were released. They are now free to pursue their Hindu Rashtra-building mission.

Lt. Col. Purohit, heading the Malegaon bombing and other murders, is being hailed as a great patriot who sacrificed his life to protect India from Pakistan’s terrorists. Abhinav Bharat, a super RSS outfit with close connection to zionist Israel, has already resumed its “patriotic activities” with the support of the IB to rebuild the Brahminist Rashtra.The book is a fantastic documentary proof that defends all that we have so far said in Dalit Voice on this 2% micro-minority terrorist forces holding the country to ransom.

DV congratulates the author Mushrif, for his painstaking study, his bravery in exposing the IB — that too being a Muslim.

DV has proved right in all its report on the 26/11.

************************

“National” media gagged

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Bangalore: Representatives of all the national print and electronic media descended on the house of S.M. Mushriff, retd. IG of police Maharashtra, at Pune on Oct.28 as soon as they heard about the release of his sensational book, Who Killed Karkare? They spent almost the whole day interviewing him.

But nothing came out either on the TV or the “national” toilet papers the next day — because there was a gag order from their bosses. What transpired is not known but media sources in Pune and Bombay said the Intelligence Bureau threatened them in the name of “national security” — once again confirming our charge that the entire Indian media and our government machinery are controlled by the mere 2% Brahminical rulers.

It is these people who always harp on “freedom of press”. What they mean by this is they need the “freedom” to vilify if not eliminate the Bahujan forces fighting for human rights.

************************

WHO KILLED KARKARE?

(The real face of terrorism in India)

S.M. Mushrif, former IG, Police, Maharashtra

For the first time, it probes deep into the “Islamic terrorism” in India. Of particular interest is the book’s detailed study of the 26/11 attack on Bombay during which Maharashtra ATS cheif Hemant Karkare was killed.

2009 pp.320 Rs. 300 (US$25)

Pharos Media Ltd.,
D-84, Abul Fazal Enclave-I, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi - 110 025

Email: info@pharosmedia.com

Same shit, different country.

UPDATE: Lots more about Gilani at aangirfan.

plan c: back door through Saudi Arabia?

Dec 8

Posted by A. Peasant in Identities, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Military, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen | No Comments

So as far as we know Israel has not given up on the Iran war, but they have to proceed along some indirect route. Possible routes include Lebanon and Syria. What about Saudi Arabia?

Here’s some more unconfirmed information on the history of the Saudi Royal family actually being crypto-Jews, a deception allegedly started long ago in a tale of long-lost cousins reuniting by chance, except only one of them knew they were cousins.

In the year 851 A.H. a group of men from AL MASALEEKH CLAN, which was a branch of ANZA Tribe, formed a caravan for buying cereals (wheat and corn) and other food stuff from IRAQ, and transporting it back to NAJD. The head of that group was a man called SAHMI BIN HATHLOOL. The caravan reached BASRA, where the members of the group went to a cereal merchant who was a Jew, Called MORDAKHAI BIN IBRAHIM BIN MOSHE’. During their bargaining with that merchant, the Jew asked them : “Where are you from?” They answered: “From ANZA TRIBE; a clan of AL MASALEEKH.” Upon hearing that name, the Jew started to hug so affectionately each one of them saying that he, himself, was also from the clan of AL MASALEEKH, but he had come to reside in BASRA (IRAQ) in consequence to a family feud between his father and some members of ANZA Tribe. After he recounted to them his fabricated narrative, he ordered his servants to load all the camels of the clan’s members with wheat, dates and tamman; a remarkable deed so generous that astonished the MASALEEKH men and aroused their pride to find such an affectionate (cousin) in IRAQ- the source of their sustenance; they believed each word he said , and , because he was a rich merchant of the food commodities which they were badly in need, they liked him (even though he was a Jew concealed under the garb of an Arab from AL MASALEEKH clan). When the caravan was ready to depart returning to NAJD, that Jewish Merchant asked them to accept his company, because he intended to go with them to his original homeland, NAJD. Upon hearing that from him, they wholeheartedly welcomed him with a very cheerful attitude.

And so forth, a tale of deception that to me, a student of human nature, rings true. But whether it’s true I do not know.

Ever since his descendants grew up in number and power under the name of SAUDI CLAN, they have followed his steps in practicing under ground activities and conspiracies against the Arab Nation. They illegally seized rural sectors and farm lands, and assassinated every person who tried to oppose their evil plans. They used all kinds of deceit for reaching their goals: they bought the conscience of their dissidents; they offered their women and money to influential people in that area, particularly to those who started to write the true biography of that Jewish Family; they bribed writers of history in order to purify their ignominious history, and make their lineage related to the most prominent Arab Tribes such as RABI’A, ANZA and ALMASALEEKH.

Well, I fell down the rabbit hole in about three seconds flat here looking into this. Let’s just say it’s not for nothing they’re so tight with the Bushes. There’s too much here for it to all be wrong. But anyway, if you want a few laughs, go to the top link and read the descriptions of the Saudi princes, like this one:

Prince Khalid bin Sultan:
If one had to describe this big ugly huggable bear, the best description will have to be the quote provided anonymously by General Schwarzkopf staff during the Gulf war : “When it comes to military know how, he gets a C minus.When it comes to bravery, he gets a D. When it comes to intelligence, he gets a D minus. Other than that, he is OK”. This is the man who provided water and food to the Desert Storm troops through a contractual agreement with the government of Saudi Arabia. This contract alone made him $2 billion in commissions. After the war, he claimed that he was behind the victory of Desert Storm. Needless to say that he has been exiled to London where he has written a self-promoting book that exuded his intelligence and understanding of military operations. Even Prince Sultan wishes he never had that son. Today, he spends his time trying to impress Europeans and Americans alike through social activities. He is totally ignored except for those who benefit directly and indirectly from the crums of his money.

Given the descriptions of these clowns, and the accusations of their personal habits, it’s a wonder they haven’t slit each others’ throats. And no wonder they can’t get their family jewels back from the Thais. But I digress…

For more recent evidence of complicity with Israel’s agenda, in July 2009 the Times Online reported that Saudi Arabia would ‘turn a blind eye’ to Israeli jets flying over their airspace en route to attack Iran:

The head of Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence service, has assured Benjamin Netanyahu, its prime minister, that Saudi Arabia would turn a blind eye to Israeli jets flying over the kingdom during any future raid on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Earlier this year Meir Dagan, Mossad’s director since 2002, held secret talks with Saudi officials to discuss the possibility.

The Israeli press has already carried unconfirmed reports that high-ranking officials, including Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister, held meetings with Saudi colleagues. The reports were denied by Saudi officials.

“The Saudis have tacitly agreed to the Israeli air force flying through their airspace on a mission which is supposed to be in the common interests of both Israel and Saudi Arabia,” a diplomatic source said last week.

Although the countries have no formal diplomatic relations, an Israeli defence source confirmed that Mossad maintained “working relations” with the Saudis.

OK. Let’s see. What else do we know about Saudi Arabia? We know they spend a lot of money on military arms, for what purpose nobody seems to know for sure.

Saudi Arabia buys more arms than any other county in the Middle East. In 2009, the nation spent $40.5 billion on that. Israel comes second with a much smaller amount though - $13 billion.

Despite all that spending, two reports this week seem to indicate that something is going wrong for the Saudis and they need some assistance, although this has proven difficult to confirm.

One, they released an Iranian nuclear scientist to Washington. Why did they capture him and why would they release him, and why to Washington? Is it some sort of quid pro quo? If so for what?

An Iranian nuclear scientist who went missing in Saudi Arabia has been “handed over by Riyadh to Washington,” Mehr news agency reported on Tuesday, quoting Tehran’s foreign ministry spokesman. “Shahram Amiri, Iran’s nuclear scientist who had gone to hajj in Saudi Arabia, was handed over by Riyadh to Washington,” Ramin Mehmanparast told Mehr, referring to the Umra.

The spokesman said Amiri was one of 11 Iranian detainees currently held in US jails. His statement was the first acknowledgement by Tehran that Amiri was a nuclear scientist. Iranian officials have previously said Amiri went missing in Saudi Arabia soon after he landed there as a pilgrim earlier this year.

Two, they are reportedly in ‘panic mode’ because some of their own Saudi shi’ite military units refuse to fight the shi’ite Yemen rebels, who have now infiltrated deep into Saudi territory.

LONDON — Jordan has sent several hundred troops from its special operations forces to help the Saudi military with its many Shi’ite units contain the Yemeni Shi’ite rebellion, which has spread deep into the Arab kingdom.

Western intelligence sources said Jordan’s King Abdullah sent the SOF units to Saudi Arabia in November 2009. The sources said the Jordanian king was acting on an urgent request from his Saudi counterpart for elite soldiers who could hunt for Iranian-backed Shi’ite rebels in both Saudi Arabia and northern Yemen.”The Saudis are in a panic mode and don’t have the troops or capabilities to stop the Yemeni Shi’ites,” an intelligence source said.

The sources said Riyad’s need for foreign forces stemmed from a refusal by Shi’ite-dominated Saudi units to fight the Believing Youth. They said this has led to the dismantling of several local security units familiar with the Saudi-Yemeni border.

Saudi officials have not confirmed the assertion of the Western intelligence sources. But on Nov. 27, Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khaled Bin Sultan acknowledged that Yemeni Shi’ite fighters held at least two southern Saudi villages for nearly a month. Later, officials said 15,000 Saudis had been evacuated from their homes.

The sources said Jordan has been the only Arab League state to respond to Saudi appeals for help in fighting the Iranian-backed Believing Youth movement. Believing Youth has been fighting an intermittent war in northern Yemen since 2004, but in November 2009 invaded southern Saudi Arabia and captured several border villages.

“The Saudi air force has been heavily bombing villages inside Yemen, but this has not made a dent in the capabilities of the Shi’ite rebels,” the source said. “They have been well-trained by Iran and Hizbullah and have moved steadily north in Saudi Arabia.”

The Saudi military has focused on trying to impose a blockade on northern Yemen. The Royal Saudi Naval Forces has bolstered its presence with at least four fast attack craft and missile boats and reported the destruction of weapons smuggling ships from neighboring Somalia.

“The infiltrating terrorists intended to attack our nation when they encroached upon our territories and terrorized our peaceful people,” King Abdullah said in an address to his troops. “Undeterred by religion or ethical values, the intruders shed the blood of the people.”

Well, um, the US has a lot of forces stationed in Saudi Arabia. What if they ask the US to help? Is that why they handed over the Iranian nuclear scientist, to assist in that decision making process? Or to make sure that the US military also ‘turns a blind eye’ to Israeli jets flying over Saudi Arabia? And what happened to that Iranian nuclear scientist during his captivity? Is he now going to cough up some useful “evidence” against Iran? And can the Saudis seriously not handle, with their sophisticated military, a few rebels? Is the Saudi military really so undisciplined and/or estranged from the royal family that it refuses to fight the rebels? I don’t know the answers to these questions. But is this some kind of pathetic floundering plan C to get the Iran war started, or is it just pathetic floundering?

then why are you smiling?

Dec 6

Posted by A. Peasant in Mind-fucking | No Comments

Nothing like a crisis to pull people together, right? It’s too bad for some people that the global warming hot air balloon popped a big hole because that has been very useful for guilting the masses into all sorts of shakedowns. And now that plan might not work out. And the flu shots aren’t working out so good…and the tungsten filled gold…

You know when you pour yourself a nice fresh cup of coffee and you get the cream and pour it in your cup and it’s curdled, and you have to toss out the whole thing and start over? I think it must be like that, only much worse, because it takes a long time to set these things up.

Time to get serious.

[fencing]
Inigo Montoya: You are wonderful.
Man in Black: Thank you; I’ve worked hard to become so.
Inigo Montoya: I admit it, you are better than I am.
Man in Black: Then why are you smiling?
Inigo Montoya: Because I know something you don’t know.
Man in Black: And what is that?
Inigo Montoya: I… am not left-handed.
[Moves his sword to his right hand and gains an advantage]
Man in Black: You are amazing.
Inigo Montoya: I ought to be, after 20 years.
Man in Black: Oh, there’s something I ought to tell you.
Inigo Montoya: Tell me.
Man in Black: I’m not left-handed either.
[Moves his sword to his right hand and regains his advantage]

What would be really big news? What would get everyone’s attention and dwarf all this petty squabbling?

First watch this ten minute video:

watch out for exploding tires

Dec 5

Posted by A. Peasant in Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Terrorism | No Comments

Will Syria be moving into the cross-hairs next?

A recent article by the veteran and well-connected Israeli columnist, Alex Fishman, in the Hebrew language newspaper, Yediot Ahronoth, perhaps offers some insights into how Israelis may be speculating about such issues when he warns about “the approaching December winds”. These winds, Fishman tells us, will bring more and new revelations - not about Iran’s nuclear ambitions - but about Syria’s nuclear projects: the departure of Mohamed ElBaradei from the chair at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), he states, will open the door to new IAEA demands to inspect two suspected nuclear sites in Syria.

Fishman notes that, following the surfacing last month in Germany of stories that Israeli special forces had been on the ground covertly in Syria, no one should be surprised if more evidence and photographs of the nuclear reactor, destroyed by Israeli air attack in September 2007, come to dominate the headlines in the Western press this December.

The “star” turn in this prospective public relations campaign is to be evidence proving a direct Iranian nuclear connection and finance for Syria’s alleged nuclear project.

Fishman suggests that it suits “Israel’s internal as well as foreign PR efforts” for the time being to play along with talk of peace between Israel and Syria; but that both the December campaign against Syria’s alleged Iranian nuclear cooperation in the Western press, and the playing along with the Syrian peace track “are directly linked to negotiations” that the US is conducting with Iran. Fishman concludes that these could end in confrontation with Iran - “and also lead to a military strike”, in which case, “whomsoever is in the Iranian camp will also get a pounding” - a reference to Syria.

In light of this speculation, the “exploding bus tire” story bears a second look.

A blast has hit a bus in a crowded suburb of the Syrian capital of Damascus, leaving several people killed and more injured. The incident took place at around 9 am local time (0700 GMT) on Thursday when a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims exploded at a gas station near Damascus, Press TV correspondent reported.

Syria’s Interior Minister Said Mohammad Sammour said three people were killed in the incident, which he said was not a terrorist attack but a tyre exploding as it was being repaired. “Two workers who were repairing the tyre and the bus’s driver, who was standing near them, were killed in the explosion,” he told reporters at the scene of the incident. Hospital sources said an undisclosed number of people were being treated for the injuries they sustained in the explosion.

Did the bus explode or just the tire? We are told just the tire. How many people died? We are told three.

Well first of all, do tires really explode like this, killing people? It turns out yes, but typically only split-rim tires, which can come flying off the vehicle. Here’s one example, and here’s another.

Truck tires are sometimes mounted on split-rims, a one-piece locking ring that is split to fit between the rim and the bead of the tire. The split-rim ring is the only thing holding the tire to the rim. Such tires are placed in a protective cage when inflating, in case the split-rim ring slips and causes the tire to “explode.” I have heard of exploding split-rims punching holes through cinderblock walls. My guess is the heat from the torch caused the ring to expand and slip.

So it seems that the tires can, indeed, explode off the vehicle. It’s less clear that they actually explode like a bomb, or if they did, whether they might explode with enough force to destroy the vehicle.

The trouble comes in when we look at all the inconsistencies in the story. Just as with 9/11 and Fort Hood, and surely in countless other cases of suspected terrorism, it suddenly becomes very difficult to establish simple facts like — how many dead bodies?

Four? Likely to rise?

Damascus - Syrian Interior Minister Said Mohammed Sammur on Thursday said the deadly explosion on an Iranian bus at a Damascus petrol station was not the work of terrorists. The blast killed at least four people, including the Iranian bus driver and three workers at the petrol station, police and medics said. Police, supervised by the minister himself, quickly removed the wreck of the bus and cleaned up debris from the explosion. The number of confirmed casualties was likely to rise, they said.

Wait, no. Five, six? “Tens of victims?”

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT - The blast that killed three people in Damascus today set off alarm bells so far as Iran, before the highly secretive Syrian authorities say the explosion was due to the burst of a bus tyre rather than a terrorist attack. The Qatari al-Jazira TV, the first to break out the news about the explosion in a bus that occurred at 08:30 local time, quoted medical sources as speaking of ”tens of victims”. Later in the day, the death toll varied between five and six people, with only one certainty: the explosion was in a bus of Iranian pilgrims visiting the Shiite Shrine of Sayida Zeinab in Damascus.

…Today, after four hours of full silence by the Syrian media –all state-run– Interior Minister Saiid Sammur appeared on the scene of the blast to announce that the explosion was an accident and not a terrorist attack. ”The bus entered a reparation garage to fix a flat tyre, but the tyre exploded because of high pressure, which killed three people,” Sammur told the Syrian official TV. ‘‘We have not found explosive materials or signs of a terrorist attack,” he added. The close-up footage provided by the same outlet showed the wrecked rear part of the yellow pullman, including the engine. The bus’ windows were all blown out. ”A nearby wall was also damaged,” said Sammur. A witness told al-Manar TV of Hezbollah that the windows of surrounding buildings were shattered by the blast. The Saudi Elaph website quoted Iranian ”Asr Iran” site as saying that ”ambulances carried dozens of injured persons to hospitals and that some of them were in critical conditions.” The explosion took place as Said Jalili, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, was in an official visit to Damascus. (ANSAmed)

Ok it sounds a little more like a bomb than a tire explosion. But no, wait, it was just a tail pipe backfiring, killing up to 20 people. Yeah, that’s it.

(IsraelNN.com) Syrian officials denied that a terror attack occurred in Damascus Thursday morning. Arab satellite channels quoted Syrian officials as saying that the incident reported was not an explosion caused by a bomb or missile, but by a backfiring tailpipe on a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims.

The report said that there had been no signs of a bomb or missile at the site, according to Syrian officials. Earlier reports quoting eyewitnesses had described scenes of great destruction and as many as 20 dead in the blast.

Allright?

So, let’s go to some really crack analysis by Jonathan Spyer of jpost. Maybe he can tell us what *really* happened. Here’s the link: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1259831457361&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

The Syrian authorities are currently trying to attribute the blast Thursday on a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims near the Saida Zeinab mosque in Damascus to an exploding tire. However, eyewitnesses earlier reported a bomb explosion on the bus, killing a number of people and causing damage to buildings in the area. Syria’s Interior Minister Mohammad Sammour ruled out a terrorist attack in a statement to state-run Syrian TV. He said the bus driver and two gas station workers were killed when a tire into which they were pumping air exploded.

But a private Syrian television station, Ad-Dounial TV, said six people were killed in the blast, and Iranian state television also reported six killed, including two Iranian bus drivers.

The tire story, on the face of it, looks like a somewhat ludicrous attempt by the Syrian authorities to explain away an alarming episode for the regime. If what took place in the Saida Zeinab quarter was in fact a bombing, rather than an exploding tire, then it may be assumed that the perpetrators were intending to deliver a series of calculated insults.

First, and perhaps most importantly, such an act would constitute an attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran. The explosion took place as Saeed Jalili, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, was visiting Damascus. The targeted bus contained Iranian citizens, at least one of whom is reported dead.

This is the second apparent terror attack on an Iranian target in the last two months. The previous incident targeted Revolutionary Guard officers.

Such attacks have the quality of making a regime, which prides itself on its ability to project force and defiance, look suddenly vulnerable. Iran prefers to sponsor, not suffer, the attacks of terror organizations.

Second, such a bombing would be a slap in the face for the Assad regime. Syria has been emerging smartly from international isolation in recent years. Its practice of fomenting trouble for its neighbors - Israel, Iraq and Lebanon - and then offering to help solve the problems it is largely responsible for creating, has been paying dividends.

But a security-state such as Ba’athist Syria holds power because of its ability to inspire fear and impose quiet at home.

In the last two years a series of embarrassing events have served to tarnish the regime’s image of chilly authority. The killing of Imad Mughniyeh in February, 2008 was the first of these. The subsequent death of General Mohammed Suleiman in August of the same year further reduced the Syrian Ba’athists’ projections of invulnerability. In September, 2008, meanwhile, a car bombing on a security complex in a civilian neighborhood of Damascus took place.

An attack on Iranian pilgrims in Saida Zeinab would be yet more embarrassing for Syria because it would indicate its inability to protect the citizens of its closest regional ally from sectarian attack on its soil.

Third, a bombing of this kind would constitute an assault on Shi’ite Islam. It would bear the hallmarks of the sectarian attacks on Shi’ite targets which characterized the Sunni insurgency in Iraq. The Saida Zeinab shrine is a place of pilgrimage for Shi’ite Muslims everywhere. Saida Zeinab, a granddaughter of Mohammed, is venerated by Shi’ite Muslims as a heroine of the seminal battle of Karbala.

Hence, a bomb near the site of the Saida Zeinab shrine would be an expression of Sunni contempt for the symbols held dear by Shi’ite Islam - and for the Shi’ite practice of venerating individuals associated with the early years of the faith.

Now, assuming that a mysteriously potent puncture might not have caused the carnage at Saida Zeinab, what manner of organization could have been responsible? It is impossible to know for sure, of course, but the signs would suggest a Sunni jihadi grouping of some kind.

Syria’s relations with Sunni Islamists are complex. Damascus has offered support and safe passage to Sunni jihadis on their way to fight in Iraq. Yet the regime itself - non-Sunni, aligned with Shi’a Iran, and with a record of brutal suppression of the Muslim Brotherhood - is also a natural target of opposition for devout Sunni Islamists.

The world of extreme Sunni Islamism is notoriously murky and riven, with many groups operated and/or supplied by governments for their own aims. It can only be a matter for speculation and theorizing (of which there will be much) as to who might have had an interest in striking a blow at Iran, its religion and its allies in the heart of a regional capital. But the latest events in Damascus offer further potent proof to Iran and Syria that support for terrorism is a two-way street.

Wow, great analysis, almost like a proposal, hmm?

If the world of extreme Sunni Islamism wasn’t so damn murky, with shadowy groups operating for their own aims, then we wouldn’t have to be content with speculating and theorizing about who has an interest in striking a blow at Iran and humiliating Syria.

controlling resources

Dec 3

Posted by A. Peasant in Military, Minerals, Philippines, Terrorism | No Comments

Over 3000 armed troops now guard the Ampatuan family mansion in the Philippines. Why? To protect them of course.

The extra battalion of 400 soldiers brings to more than 3,000 the number of soldiers now guarding the home of the Ampatuan clan and government offices in Maguindanao province, military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner said….Brawner said that the deployment of the 33rd Infantry Battalion to Maguindanao Capitol in Shariff Aguak would be to guard at least two mansions of the Ampatuan clan and also to provide security to the members of the family.

Because somebody could get hurt. And nobody can be trusted…except the military of course, which can be trusted to protect the “clan.”

Supporters of the clan, which has ruled Maguindanao for a decade and has its own private army, were being barred from entering the home in the provincial capital of Shariff Aguak, Brawner said.

“First of all, we do not allow just anyone inside their houses because someone might manage to sneak in, someone might pose as a supporter of Ampatuan and then do something else. And of course, we are also restricting the movements of the Ampatuans because there are threats to their life,” Brawner said in Filipino.

The military spokesman refused to identify which group was threatening the Ampatuan clan but said that there was a “possibility of retaliation.”

“There is a possibility, of course, maaaring hindi mismo sa pamilya galing maaaring yung mga supporters nila [it may not come from the family but from their supporters]… maaaring may mga galit na galit dyan at gustong bumawi [there may be those who are mad and will want to retaliate] so this is also one thing that we are guarding against,” Brawner said.

Why would anyone be mad? Who would dare to be mad? This “clan” operates above the Rule of Law, for even when they are caught up in the Rule of Law after allegedly massacring dozens of innocent people in cold blood, mysterious threats get conveyed to judges and lo, the accused family may repose in their mansions with 3000 soldiers to protect them.

Well I’m sure the US has nothing whatsoever to do with any of this atrocity, despite all these things I collected on 11/10/09; but coincidentally, the US ambassador, Ms. Kristie Kenney, who actually said the magic words, “It’s something you could have never imagined,” has recently been replaced.

11/22/09: MANILA, Philippines–US President Barack Obama’s appointment of a new envoy to the Philippines to replace Ambassador Kristie Kenney augurs well for the two countries’ relations, Malacañang said Saturday.

“Considering that the incoming ambassador is the personal choice and personal nominee of President Barack Obama, that could only mean one thing: That this will all go well for friendlier, warmer and better US-Philippine relations,” Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said over dzRB radio.

His appointment of Harry K. Thomas was proof that Obama “walks his talk about giving importance” to the Asia-Pacific region, Remonde said.

The appointment came a week after the high-level visit to the country of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

And even though they really liked Ms. Kenney in the Philippines, the new ambassador has to deal with lingering problems.

But the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan warned Thomas that he would be facing a tough time in the Philippines because of lingering questions on the presence of US troops in Mindanao and the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), the treaty governing the conduct of American soldiers in the country.

“It won’t be smooth sailing for the new envoy. Ambassador Thomas will face the still unresolved issue of the Visiting Forces Agreement. He will face calls for the review and termination of the VFA. He will face queries on the permanent presence of US troops in Mindanao,” Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said.

He said Thomas would be judged “based on his engagement of issues.”

Reyes said Thomas’ predecessor, Kenney, often took time out to interact with Filipinos by showing up at collegiate basketball games and TV game shows, but she was leaving behind unresolved issues.

“While seemingly departing from the mold of the ‘cold warrior’ envoys of old through her populist actions, Kenney consistently upheld US imperial interests during her stint. Aside from watching college ball games and appearing on Wowowee, Kenney should also be remembered for taking in a convicted Lance Corporal Daniel Smith into US embassy custody in violation of Philippine laws,” he said.

After Smith was sentenced by a Makati court to 40 years in prison in December 2006 for the rape of a Filipino woman, Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo and Kenney forged an agreement to transfer Smith from the city jail to the US embassy.

Unresolved issues

The Court of Appeals acquitted Smith in April this year, saying the evidence did not convince it of the “moral certainty” of Smith’s guilt. He has since been freed and flown to the US.

“For all her efforts to give the ‘war on terror’ a chummy spin, controversies in the VFA, human rights violations and US basing in the South still came to the fore. She will leave behind many unresolved issues, including those that have spurred a Philippine Senate resolution calling for a review or termination of the VFA,” Reyes said.

Aha. So it’s not all honey and roses between the US and the Philippines. The US behaves in an imperialist fashion, evidently, and not with particular regard for the Philippines Rule of Law. There are calls to terminate the VFA, to end the permanent presence of American troops in Mindanao.

^^^^^^^

There used to be a US naval base at Subic Bay which has a long history that ended thusly: (links removed)

U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay was a major ship-repair, supply, and rest and recreation facility of the United States Navy located in Zambales, Philippines. It was the largest U.S. Navy installation in the Pacific and was the largest overseas military installation of the United States Armed Forces after Clark Air Base in Angeles City was closed in 1991.

…On June 15, 1991, Mount Pinatubo, just 20 miles (32 km) from Subic Bay, exploded with a force 8 times greater than the Mount St. Helens eruption. Day turned to night as volcanic ash blotted out the sun. Volcanic earthquakes and heavy rain, lightning and thunder from Typhoon Yunya passing over northern Luzon made Black Saturday a 36-hour nightmare.

By the morning of June 16, when the volcano’s fury subsided, Subic Bay, once one of the most beautiful and well-maintained Navy bases in the Pacific, lay buried under a foot of rain-soaked, sandy ash.

…Many months before the expiration of the Military Bases Agreement of 1947 intense negotiations between the governments of the United States and the Philippines began. These negotiations resulted in the Treaty of Friendship, Peace and Cooperation between the United States and the Republic of the Philippines. This would have extended the lease of the American bases in the Philippines.

On September 13, 1991, the Philippine Senate rejected the ratification of this treaty, citing a number of reasons for the rejection. This was a devastating blow to the Aquino administration, who were strongly pro-treaty and even called for a referendum by the Filipino people; a move that was declared unconstitutional.
In December 1991, the two governments were again in talks to extend the withdrawal of American forces for three years but this broke down as the United States refused to detail their withdrawal plans or to answer if nuclear weapons were kept on base. Finally on December 27, President Corazon Aquino, who had previously fought to delay the U.S. pullout to cushion the country’s battered economy, issued a formal notice for the U.S. to leave by the end of 1992. Naval Station Subic Bay was the U.S.’s largest overseas defense facility after Clark Air Base was closed.

During 1992, tons of material including drydocks and equipment, were shipped to various Naval Stations. Ship-repair and maintenance yards as well as supply depots were relocated to other Asian countries including Japan and Singapore. Finally, on November 24, 1992, the American Flag was lowered in Subic for the last time and the last 1,416 Sailors and Marines at Subic Bay Naval Base left by plane from NAS Cubi Point and by the USS Belleau Wood. This withdrawal marked the first time since the 16th Century that no foreign military forces were present in the Philippines.

Except that US forces are still in the Philippines, in Mindanao, working on some unspecified projects. And while projects in Minguindanao have been suspended, the Mindanao projects have not been suspended. According to Ms. Kenney:

Other US projects in Mindanao, she added, continue as they are more vital now than ever.

What are they and why are they more vital than ever?

Mindanao is also where the Irish Catholic missionary priest had recently been captured by a “separatist Muslim rebel group” (MILF), and subsequently released.

As tensions mounted anew in Mindanao, hundreds of residents in some Maguindanao towns reportedly fled after the MILF began massing its heavily armed forces following rumors that the military was poised to launch rescue operations.

Despite the row over Sinnot’s kidnapping, senior US Embassy officials in Manila have held clandestine meetings with MILF leaders in their Maguindanao camp. The US Embassy has kept mum on the meetings, but on its website, the MILF confirmed in a statement that it had held talks with a visiting group of American diplomats led by the US Embassy charge d’affaires, Leslie Basset, on October 16.

Lasting for two hours, the meeting “was warm and forthright”, the MILF said and quoted Basset as saying that the US was willing to play a role in the peace talks. “Helping attain and sustain peace, security and development in Mindanao is a priority concern of our government,” the MILF quoted Bassett as saying.

The US is a major aid donor, including for various development projects, making it a key stakeholder in Mindanao’s peace process. It has provided funds and built roads, bridges, school buildings and other infrastructure projects, particularly in impoverished Muslim-populated areas in Mindanao.

“Peace-making and peace-building must go hand-in-hand in resolving the Bangsamoro problem and the conflict in Mindanao,” the MILF said.

As part of the Visiting Forces Agreement, the US has also extended training and intelligence support to Filipino troops in their counter-terrorism operations. MILF vice chairman Ghazali Jaafar told the visiting US diplomats that the MILF welcomed Washington’s offer to push the peace process.

Warm and friendly secret meetings with Muslim terrorist groups? YES. It does not add up, does it. Either the MILF is not what they claim to be, or the US is not what it claims to be, or both.

Political analysts have blasted Bassett’s “secret visit” to the MILF’s camp in Mindanao. Jonathan de la Cruz, an independent political analyst and regular columnist at the People’s Journal, said the US diplomats’ visit was “sly”, “brazen” and “downright offensive” to “our integrity and independence as a sovereign country”.

“We cannot afford to have all kinds of peace workers roam the land, talk to rebel groups and insist that they are promoting peace and prosperity in the land,” he said. The diplomats should have been declared persona non grata and expelled by Manila, he asserted.

De la Cruz blamed the MILF for atrocities in Mindanao and recalled that the rebel group unleashed a killing spree last year after the Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional its proposal to establish a “juridical state” in Mindanao. The high court’s ruling aborted the signing of a memorandum of agreement between Manila and the MILF in Kuala Lumpur.

Despite the MILF’s well-documented acts of terrorism violence, the US has surprisingly excluded the secessionist group from its global list of terrorist organizations. The Islamic extremists Abu Sayyaf and communist-led New People’s Army are currently the only Philippine groups on Washington’s list.

Or not so surprisingly. Because what is this conflict about? It’s about control over the land, which is an “ancestral homeland” to indigenous people and, coincidentally, full of underground natural resources. Maybe this is why relations are so warm and friendly? Maybe this is why the Ampatuan clan enjoys protection? Whoever controls this land controls what’s buried underground. Certain factions in the US power structure might cozy up to some Muslim separatist rebel group or corrupt politician if they had something important in common: greed.

There’s no telling what might be buried underground in the Philippines.

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