It's the vacation season again, so I am taking it easy for some time. Have a look at my neighbourhood, the park, the lake.
And noodle around a bit on my YouTube channel.
IslamicObservations: "One poll conducted before the election by two US-based non-profit organizations forecast Ahmadinejad's reelection with surprising prescience. The survey was jointly commissioned by the BBC and ABC News, funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and conducted by the New America Foundation's nonprofit Center for Public Opinion, which, 'has a reputation of conducting accurate opinion polls, not only in Iran, but across the Muslim world since 2005'. The poll predicted an election day turnout of 89%, only slightly higher than the actual 85% who voted (that's a difference of fewer than 2 million ballots). According to pollsters Ken Ballen and Patrick Doherty, the 'nationwide public opinion survey of Iranians three weeks before the vote showed Ahmadinejad leading by a more than 2 to 1 margin - greater than his actual apparent margin of victory in Friday's election.'"
10:23:47 PM
United for Peace: "On Jun. 20, the day the crackdown began in Iran, the U.S. expeditionary strike group known as LHD-5 Bataan or 'Amphibious Group Two' passed through the Suez Canal, U.S. military sources reported Tuesday.
The commanding officer of the USS Bataan called the group 'a versatile force that's able to respond to tasking at a moment's notice.' Stratfor's naval update map showed the group to be in the Persian Gulf as of Jun. 24. PR human interest stories from the Bataan assault group failed to mention where the group was or where it was headed. The Daily News of Jacksonville, NC, reported that the group deployed (from its homeport of Norfolk, VA) in May before training had been completed for its maritime security mission.
BACKGROUND: Global Security's out-of-date description of the group says that 'The principal mission of WASP Class ships is to enable the Navy/Marine Corps team to accomplish a seamless transition from the sea to a land battle, primarily as the command ship of an Amphibious Ready Group. LHDs are specifically designed to lay off a troubled area of the world, and insert forces ashore by helicopters and 50 m.p.h. LCAC hover craft.' The USS Bataan, which is 844 feet long and carries 1,894 marines (plus 184 surge) as well as dozens of attack aircraft, can be seen leaving Norfolk on May 13, 2009, in this photograph. LHD-5 is said to be relieving the LHD-4 Boxer group, which has been in the region since January. Thus the U.S. now has two expeditionary strike groups off the shores of Iran. (By the way, as of Jun. 25, the USS Bataan's web site is still misreporting its location.)"
2:57:40 PM
ForeignPolicyJournal: "In February, 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice requested emergency funding from Congress to the amount of $75 million, on top of a previously allocated $10 million, 'to mount the biggest ever propaganda campaign against the Tehran government', in the words of The Guardian. The money 'would be used to broadcast US radio and television programmes into Iran, help pay for Iranians to study in America and support pro-democracy groups inside the country'. The propaganda effort would include 'extending the government-run Voice of America's Farsi service from a few hours a day to round-the-clock coverage'. In announcing the request, Rice said the U.S. 'will work to
support the aspirations of the Iranian people for freedom and democracy in their country'.
The Christian Science Monitor reported candidly on the 'implicit goal' of the requested funds as being 'regime change from within', and similarly noted that 'The money will go toward boosting broadcasts in Farsi to Iran, support for opposition groups, and student exchanges.'
In April, 2006, investigative journalist Seymour M. Hersh wrote in the New Yorker magazine that 'The Bush Administration, while publicly advocating diplomacy in order to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon, has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack.'
A source with ties to the Pentagon told Hersh that American units were operating in Iran and 'working with minority groups in Iran, including the Azeris, in the north, the Balochis, in the southeast, and the Kurds, in the northeast'. The principle goal was to 'encourage ethnic tensions' and undermine the regime.
Fred Burton, a former US State Department counter-terrorism agent and
author of Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent (published in 2008), also told the Telegraph that 'The latest attacks inside Iran fall in line with US efforts to supply and train Iran's ethnic minorities to destabilize the Iranian regime'.
Whatever the case may be, given the record of U.S. interference in the state affairs of Iran and clear policy of regime change, it certainly seems possible, even likely, that the U.S. had a significant role to play in helping to bring about the recent turmoil in an effort to undermine the government of the Islamic Republic."
Iranian: "One of the most crucial issues discussed much before and during the election campaign has been the problems with the economy of Iran and its critical components, such as high rates of unemployment and inflation, low levels of labor productivity, and handling the monetary and fiscal policies.
But among all these vital parts, privatization of the state's industrial, financial, mining and infra-structural assets attract the most attention of the domestic and foreign owners of capital - this is the focal point where the political agents of social forces fight to the death. Privatization of the state assets is the greatest motive force for capturing the state power for use as a tool to shape Iran's wealth distribution and concentration of capital in the hands of a few for decades to come.
While the working class, small shop keepers and family farmers are mainly concerned with the hazards and pain of unemployment, high prices of necessities of life such as food, shelter, means of transportation, health care services and educational expenses, the big landlords, owners of private banks, insurance companies and shareholders in the stock markets are busy purchasing the state-owned factories, railways and bank assets at fire-sale prices, an arrangement which had methodically been the fast track of becoming wealthy over-night at the expense of the entire nation.
While Tehran, Shiraz and Isfahan college students aspire to gain employment opportunities, cultural and social freedoms, the big capitalist class is networking the strategy of how to use the vigor and vital energy of the intellectuals, artists, university professors, along with the entire middle class to capture the state power, not for its own sake, but as a bridge to the national wealth, whose thousands of factories are awaiting to be auctioned soon after the election. Mir Hossein Mousavi cannot wait to be in charge of giving these establishments away to the rich Iranians.
This current election and the ensuing upheaval is in essence more about who - the capitalist class or the workers - will get the lion's share of the people's assets."
DavidDuke: "The great macho superpower is eager to restore its hegemony over the Iranian people, thus settling the score with the ayatollahs who overthrew American rule of Iran in 1978.
That is the script. You are watching it every minute on US television."
5:44:04 PM
JustWorldNews: "Five years after the much-hyped, west-backed 'Orange revolution' swayed Ukraine in 2004, the leadership it brought to power continues to disintegrate. The NYT's Clifford Levy reports:
Ukraine, which has suffered a roundhouse blow from the economic crisis, has had no finance minister since February. It also has no foreign minister or defense minister. The transportation minister just stepped down. The interior minister has offered to resign as well, after being accused of drunken behavior.
The president and the prime minister are no longer speaking, though they were once allies and heroes of the Orange Revolution...
The public appears so frustrated that the leader of the opposition, who has close ties to the Kremlin and is often portrayed as the villain of the Orange Revolution, is the early favorite to win the presidential election next January."
11:36:23 AM
Yesterday I saw a few images of Iranian demonstrators covered in blood, I think it was on BBC tv. From the regular nature of the wound, obviously cuts with a razorblade, one could easily see that the shallow cuts had been inflicted systematically and neatly to obtain the maximum result. The comment I heard was that the militiamen did use razorblades to injure demonstrators. Now that is a bit thick. It wouldn't be very practical to detain a person, cut him up neatly and then release him to show his wounds to the tv cameras. These were obviously self-inflicted wounds for propaganda use. Self mutilation is typical for some Arabic religions.
Moreover, this so-called revolution resembles so closely other recent revolutions of which we know they were orchestrated by the west that it is logical to conclude that this is another revolution concocted by Mossad, CIA and MI6. The typical tactics include mass rallies, a chosen colour (in this case green), no real demands except regime change, accusations of election fraud, first a demand for a recall then the annulment of the election. At the same time the western propaganda machine is in full swing, even the so-called leftist groups on the internet are buzzing with support for what they call a revolution by the people. When that happens you almost know for sure something is up. Most of these 'leftist' groups are not left at all, some were set up by governments to ridicule the real leftist message and to manipulate the left.
Then there is Mousavi himself, who is not a progressive politician.
BabakNamdar: "Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a cousin of Khamenei has worked in the Expediency Council for last twenty years or so. Mousavi was also responsible for closing the universities immediately after the hijacking of the revolution of 78, to conduct cultural re-education. During the Iran-Iraq war he served as the Islamic Republic's prime minister, helping extend the war for 5 long years even though at a point Iran had taken back all its cities from Iraq and the Arabs were willing to end the war and make huge financial compensations.
Mr. Mousavi presided over mass executions of 80-81 and the dark summer of 1988 where over thirty thousand political prisoners were executed and buried and mass graves. Given the amount of blood on his hands it's difficult to not to laugh when Mousavi speaks of creating a human rights council if [s]elected. As far as his anti-West views go, he stated in 1981 in the magazine Payameh Enghelab that 'We are ready to participate within an armed force to fight Israel... We have repeatedly announced that we are ready to have an actual, real and military presence in Southern Lebanon and on the borders of the occupied Palestinian lands... we believe that with the support of the popular forces in Lebanon we shall be able to gradually find effective and powerful bases in the area for fighting Israel ...we believe if the flow of oil in Muslim Lands is in the hands of Muslims and if the ideology of Islam controls the opening or closing of the oil valves we shall be able to bring the World Arrogance to its knees, to strike Israel and to destroy it.'"
The above information is not from a government source but from a reformist organisation.
Iran.org: "According to Saeed Behbehani of MihanTV, a U.S. government emissary met in Dubai two weeks ago with Mehdi Khazali, campaign manager for Mir Hossein Mousavi, bringing assurances of U.S. government support for his campaign."
The above seems to confirm my suspicion that this is indeed a revolution instigated by the US and Israel, and as such it will not benefit the Iranian people. On the contrary, Mousavi is a man who was responsible for mass murder and who will do it again. We have seen the carnage in Iraq, all in the name of the fight against repression and torture, but the result was more torture and repression after the American take-over.
TheUltimateGuide: "What do Michael Ledeen (the American 'neo-conservative'), Mir-Hossein Mousavi (the Iranian presidential candidate of 'change') and Adnan Khashoggi (the opulent Saudi Arabian jet-setter) have in common?
They are all good friends and associates of Manuchehr Ghorbanifar (an Iranian arms merchant, an alleged MOSSAD double agent, and a key figure in the Iran/Contra Affair, the arms-for-hostages deals between Iran and the Reagan administration). In one or two, at most three, degrees of separation, these people hung out in the same circles and very likely drank to the same toasts. You can find all kinds of trivia about Ghorbanifar in the Walsh Report on the Iran/Contra affair. In Chapter 8, for example, we learn:
'Ghorbanifar, an Iranian exile and former CIA informant who had been discredited by the agency as a fabricator, was a driving force behind these proposals [for arms-for-hostages deal]' or, 'Ghorbanifar, as broker for Iran, borrowed funds for the weapons payments from Khashoggi, who loaned millions of dollars to Ghorbanifar in 'bridge financing' for the deals. Ghorbanifar repaid Khashoggi with a 20 percent commission after being paid by the Iranians.' (see: FAS)."
Amnesty: "Twenty years after the then Iranian authorities began a wave of largely secret, summary and mass executions in September 1988, Amnesty International renews its call for those responsible for the 'prison massacre' to be held accountable. There should be no impunity for such gross human rights violations, regardless of when they were committed."
PressTV: "Iranian expatriates have criticized the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for the 'unfair' coverage of Iran's presidential election process."
DeepJournal: "However, on Wednesday 17 June we made a mistake in a picture caption published on BBC News online. In the story Obama refuses to 'meddle' in Iran, we mistakenly stated that a Getty agency picture of a pro-Ahmadinejad rally was a pro-Mousavi rally."
The situation as always in cases like this is difficult to grab in its entirety, but it looks like Mousavi is another mass murderer in the pay of the US and Israel. As usual the gullible left is falling in the same trap again and is full of wishful thinking. The fake left (i.e. the 'left' paid by our secret services) is shouting along with the reactionary media which shows which side they are on.
Iran is an essential building-stone in the geo-strategical game that the US, even under Obama, is trying to bring to a successful end: the total encirclement of Russia and China, and total control of the area from Turkey to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Anyone believing the US is not involved in this is terribly naive.
NotMyTribe: "The video footage is shocking. An attractive young woman watching the demonstrations in Tehran is struck by a sniper's bullet and dies before several video cameras. The tragedy is projected unto Facebook and Youtube, with advocates hoping it will galvanize (American) public support for the brave reform movement in Iran. News accounts blame Basij snipers on the rooftops. Other protesters have been killed in confrontations with Iranian riot police, without the benefit of video witnesses, much like two million Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis et al. Poor 16-year-old bystander Neda Soltani stood at the quite improbable convergence of bullet and camera, correction, cameras. I'm not suggesting the scene was staged, but I have a hunch the gunman could have been a US black-op hit-man who had his eye on the videographers approaching innocent Neda.
If the scenario was acted entirely, given the success with which the girl's face is being made into an icon, young Neda's life is probably as utterly expendable as already depicted."
It is certainly legitimate to ask oneself who killed this young woman. And it is also legitimate to note that no police with arms were near this incident. Cameras abound. Neda is being used as an icon. A man who calls his followers to demonstrate on the streets is in fact asking for martyrs. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the murderer belonged to the Mousavi camp. Who are those armed plainclothes men we see on some images? They might as well be Mousavi supporters. Inciting riots would make sense in a propaganda campaign to show the brutality of the Iranian government. Anything is possible. Fact is that this is being used in the same way images were used or staged to show the so-called brutality of the Russian troups in Georgia recently. We now know that Saakashvili was the one who attacked civilians and committed war crimes. The problem is that nobody is going to investigate this murder. The Mousavi camp is very happy with this horrible event.
Update June 22: Dutch public tv said on Monday that this Neda video might even be a hoax. When twitter becomes the standard for journalism there is not much hope for journalism or democracy.
10:51:25 AM
"In a front-page ad in today's International Herald Tribune, the leaders of the European Union thank the European public for having engaged in months of civil disobedience leading up to the Copenhagen climate conference that will be held this December. "It was only thanks to your massive pressure over the past six months that we could so dramatically shift our climate-change policies.... To those who were arrested, we
thank you."
There was only one catch: the paper was fake.
Looking exactly like the real thing, but dated December 19th, 2009, a million copies of the fake paper were distributed worldwide by thousands of volunteers in order to show what could be achieved at the Copenhagen climate conference that is scheduled for Dec. 7-18, 2009. (At the moment, the conference is aiming for much more modest cuts, dismissed by leading climate scientists as too little, too late to stave off runaway
processes that will lead to millions or even billions of casualties.)
The paper describes in detail a powerful (and entirely possible) new treaty to bring carbon levels down below 350 parts per million - the level climate scientists say we need to achieve to avoid climate catastrophe. One article describes how a website, BeyondTalk.net, mobilized thousands of people to put their bodies on the line to
confront climate change policies - ever since way back in June, 2009.
Although the newspaper is a fake (its production and launch were coordinated by Greenpeace), the website is real. Beyondtalk.net is part of a growing network of websites calling for direct action on climate change, building on statements made in recent months by noted political figures. (For example, in September Nobel laureate Al Gore asserted that "we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to
prevent the construction of new coal plants.")
Leading American environmentalist Bill McKibben was enthusiastic about the newspaper's message and the methods BeyondTalk.net calls for. "We need a political solution grounded in reality - grounded in physics and chemistry. That will only come if we can muster a wide variety of political tactics, including civil disobedience."
"Non-violent civil disobedience has been at the forefront of almost every successful campaign for change," said Andy Bichlbaum of The Yes Men, who helped write and edit the newspaper and are furnishing the technology for BeyondTalk.net. "Especially in America, and especially today, we need to push our leaders hard to stand up to industry
lobbyists and make the sorts of changes we need."
"Roosevelt would never have been able to push through the New Deal if people hadn't taken to the streets, occupied factories, and demanded it," noted newspaper writer/editor and University of California professor Lawrence Bogad. Segregation, British rule in India, and apartheid wouldn't have ended without a lot of people being creatively
uncooperative - even if that meant getting arrested. Nonviolent civil disobedience is the bread and butter of progress."
The fake newspaper also has an ad for "Action Offsets", whereby those who aren't willing to risk arrest can help those who are.
A HOPEFUL NEWS PANDEMIC?
Today's fake International Herald Tribune is part of a rash of recent publications which mimic prominent newspapers. Last November, a fake edition of the New York Times announced that the Iraq War was over. A few days earlier, a hoax USA Today featured the US presidential election result: "Capitalism Wins at the Polls: Anarchy Brewing in the Streets."
And this April 1st, a spoof edition of Germany's Zeit newspaper triumphantly announced the end of "casino capitalism" and the abolition of poor-country debt.
The rash of fakes is likely to continue. "People are going to keep finding ways to get the word out about common-sense solutions those in power say are impossible," said Kelli Anderson, one of the designers of the fake International Herald Tribune and co-designer (with Daniel Dunnam) of BeyondTalk.net.
"We already know what we need to do about climate change," said Agnes de
Rooij of Greenpeace International. "It's a no-brainer. Reduce carbon emissions, or put the survival of billions of people at risk. If the political will isn't there now, it's our duty to inspire it."
4:17:49 PM
Mikhail Gorbachev: "Today, the need for a more far-reaching perestroika - one for America and the world - has become clearer than ever.
In the West, the break-up of the Soviet Union was viewed as a total victory that proved that the West did not need to change. Western leaders were convinced that they were at the helm of the right system and of a well-functioning, almost perfect economic model. Scholars opined that history had ended. The dogma of free markets, deregulation and balanced budgets at any cost was force-fed to the rest of the world.
But then came the economic crisis of 2008 and 2009, and it became clear that the new Western model was an illusion that benefited chiefly the very rich. Statistics show that the poor and the middle class saw little or no benefit from the economic growth of the past decades.
The current model does not need adjusting; it needs replacing. I have no ready-made prescriptions. But I am convinced that a new model will emerge, one that will emphasise public needs and public good, such as a cleaner environment, well-functioning infrastructure and public transport, sound education and health systems and affordable housing.
Washington will have to play a special role in this new perestroika, not just because the United States wields great economic, political and military power, but because America was the main architect, and America's elite the main beneficiary, of the current world economic model. That model is now cracking and will, sooner or later, be replaced. That will be a complex and painful process for everyone, including the United States."
10:07:13 AM
Scotsman: "Up to 80 Labour MPs are preparing to sign a letter calling on Gordon Brown to quit Downing Street, as Labour faces the prospect of being beaten into fourth place in today's European elections.
It follows four ministerial resignations in the past two days, including that yesterday of Communities Secretary Hazel Blears, whose departure fuelled renewed calls for a leadership challenge to Mr Brown."
It's not that I particularly like Gordon Brown, but what has he done that deserves his ousting? He is not the prime minister who initiated the policy of liberal expenses for MPs. He did not start an illegal war.
New Labour did not remove Tony Blair from office for war crimes, now they are attacking Gordon Brown. It's a sign of total depravity. I suppose that the Labour MPs who were forced to return their expenses did not like that at all and are now getting back at Brown for cleansing the Augean stables. New Labour should be ashamed of themselves.
In a way it's only right that Labour should lose many votes in the European elections.
12:24:23 PM
Yesterday I saw a few images of Iranian demonstrators covered in blood, I think it was on BBC tv. From the regular nature of the wound, obviously cuts with a razorblade, one could easily see that the shallow cuts had been inflicted systematically and neatly to obtain the maximum result. The comment I heard was that the militiamen did use razorblades to injure demonstrators. Now that is a bit thick. It wouldn't be very practical to detain a person, cut him up neatly and then release him to show his wounds to the tv cameras. These were obviously self-inflicted wounds for propaganda use. Self mutilation is typical for some Arabic religions.
"