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NEWS DISSECTOR: On The Anniversary of THE Break In, Bush Notches Up The Pressure on Iran
NEWS DISSECTOR June 17, 2008
On The Anniversary of THE Break In, Bush Notches Up The Pressure on Iran
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING
June 17-why does this date resonate?…..I know. I know. How can I forget? It's the anniversary of the Watergate Break in 0f '72. So let's take a moment out and remember Frank Wills, the security guard who was on his appointed rounds that night, and saw a piece of tape that didn't belong there propping open a door and took it off, only to find it reappear. Ummmm, said he, and quickly called the DC cops who busted up the break in by the soldiers of CREEP-yes, the name of the Committee to Reelect the President-and so began the saga that led to the resignation of the Creep in Chief just two years later….
BUSH AND BROWN ESCALATE SANCTIONS ON IRAN
INDICTMENTS EXPECTED FOR SUBPRIME CRIMES
COUNTRYWIDE CO-OPTED POLS WITH CHEAP LOANS
Frank deserves American History's "if you see something, say something" lifetime achievement award…..Is there any significance to Al Gore choosing the eve of this anniversary to embrace Mr.Obama?
Sorry, yesterday I called Cedar Rapids Cedar Falls. Iowa, forgive me.
OAKVILLE, Iowa - The floodwaters that deluged much of Iowa have done more than knock out drinking water and destroy homes. They have also spread a noxious brew of sewage, farm chemicals and fuel that could sicken anyone who wades in.
26 LEVEES AT RISK, SAY FEDS.
NYT: Brown Says Europe Will Tighten Iran Sanctions
After talks with President Bush, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that Britain would freeze Iranian assets and increase its troop strength in Afghanistan. The White House was announcing that The European Union was going to announce new sanctions against Iran but that is not what happened:
Iran's Press TV reported: "The European Union says no new Iran sanctions have been discussed or agreed upon in the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. Bush's trip"
This seems to be a pattern. When Europe's Javier Solana went to Iran to negotiate on the nuclear issue. He was just making his pitch when President Bush from afar (No Americans were part of the 6 country delegation he was representing which included the US) announced that Iran had rejected what he and others in Washington had described as a "generous offer." The only problem was that Iran had not then rejected it-just objected once again to US imposed preconditions just as ending all uranium enrichment first-and in fact agreed to meet again. Solana said he was making progress while Bush and his friends in Britain, Italy and France were echoing each other with hostile comments not exactly conducive to building confidence or creating an atmosphere of good will.
How do I know all this? I read what BBC is reporting -not just what the US press is not reporting or more usually distorting. I also spent part of the day yesterday on a TV network originating in Iran-Press TV-analyzing the coverage of the issue. Other guests included an Iranian expert from Boston University who writes for the Carnegie Endowment on International Peace and who knew what he was talking about and a Bushevik thinktanker from Washington who sounded like he was in the tank, a broken record, and was arrogant to boot insisting everyone was wrong but him.
It was instructive but also troubling to find Iranian TV offering more balanced programming on an issue that could trigger the next war than our own networks.
Other news of interest: Israeli president Shimon Peres says Israeli and Syrian leaders should hold direct talks if both sides are interested in forging trust.
OUR THANKS TO BRIAN HAW
Whats with all the B's in England? First Blain, Now Brown. What about Brian, not the Monty Python version but the real deal. Not everyone in London was welcoming our King George. There were protests and scuffling between police and demonstrators as US President George Bush descended into London town.
"Twenty-five people were arrested in Parliament Square - yards from where Mr Bush and Prime Minister Gordon Brown were meeting in Downing Street - although the situation later returned to a tense calm, a Scotland Yard spokeswoman said.
Baton-wielding officers drove forward when protesters from a 2000-plus strong rally in Parliament Square, which was closed to traffic, tried to breach police barriers blocking the entrance to Whitehall, the main government thoroughfare which intersects with Downing Street.
Scotland Yard condemned the unrest, which erupted shortly after Mr Bush arrived in Downing Street in a motorcade with his wife Laura, on his second last stop on a European farewell tour.
"The acts that we have witnessed today are deplorable and cannot be described as lawful demonstration," said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison after the demo, which attracted between 2000-2500 people.
The rally was organized by the Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the British Muslim Initiative.
"George Bush is on his way out," said Paula Mitchell of the Socialist Workers Party, which is part of the coalition. "He as an individual is not that significant but it's what he represents."
"Whoever replaces him in the US is going to carry on with the same policy. They're preparing to install themselves in Iraq semi-permanently. It's turning Iraq into a colony while thousands of people continue to die." This report from the French Agency AFP appeared in an Australian, not an American newspaper.
And speaking of protests in Parliament, a tip of the Dissectors hat to BRIAN HAW who has been campaigning in a one-man protest against the war for seven-count them-seven YEARS 24/7. Check out his website. Thanks to Scotland's finest Paul O'Hanlon for first introducing me to this comitted conscience of London.
THE US WANTS ONE THING: SUBMISSION
Meanwhile in Iraq, as the war for Iraqi freedom stands exposed as the war for Iraqi oil, the government there and our government here are at loggerheads over a US demand for a new treaty. The Progress Center explains:
"On Friday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told reporters in Amman, Jordan that negotiations over initial U.S. proposals for bilateral political and military agreements between the United States and Iraq had "reached a dead end" after U.S. negotiators demanded "control of Iraqi airspace and immunity from prosecution for U.S. troops and private contractors." BBC reports the disagreement between Maliki and U.S. negotiators "goes to the heart of the immensely sensitive issue of who is actually in charge in the country: the Americans or the Iraqis." "The Iraqi demands are unacceptable to the Americans, and the American demands are unacceptable to the Iraqis," Maliki said. "Iraqis will not consent to an agreement that infringes their sovereignty." The disposition of the negotiations will determine the future of the U.S. involvement in Iraq. Last week, members of the two ruling Shia parties leaked details of the U.S. proposal, telling McClatchy News that the United States is "demanding 58 bases as part of [an] agreement that will allow U.S. troops to remain in the country indefinitely."
THE FUTURE U.S.-IRAQ RELATIONSHIP: A new agreement is necessary to legalize the U.S. presence in Iraq after the United Nations mandate expires at the end of 2008. In November 2007, President Bush and Maliki signed a non-binding "Declaration of Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship" that set out parameters for negotiating an "enduring" political, economic, cultural, and security relationship between the United States and Iraq. The Bush administration said that the proposed agreement would not be submitted to Congress for approval, with one analyst noting that this was "purely an executive agreement." However, critics have pointed out that status of forces agreements have not traditionally committed the United States to guarantee the security of other countries.
In testimony to Congress in March, the Center for American Progress's Lawrence Korb stated that the agreement was "substantially broader in scope than standard Status of Forces Agreements. The fact that the administration does not intend to submit the agreement for congressional approval is a testament to their own recognition of how the broad the implications of this agreement are." The United States has similar agreements with numerous countries where American soldiers are stationed on foreign soil, like South Korea, Japan, and Germany, but "none involve soldiers carrying out active combat operations."
Noam Chomsky characterized it this way in a conversation with Afshin Rattansi on Press TV. (It looks like you have to go Tehran to see Chomsky on TV !)
"It called for an indefinite long-term U.S. military presence in Iraq and that could include the huge air bases that are now being built around Iraq. The U.S. is building what's called an embassy but it's unlike any embassy in the world. It's essentially a city inside a city. These are all declared intentions to retain a permanent dominant presence in Iraq. The declaration also, a little to my surprise, had a rather brazen statement about exploiting the resources of Iraq. It said that the economy of Iraq, which means its oil resources, must be open to foreign investment, privileging American investors. That's pretty brazen. Now that's brazen imperialism saying we invaded you so that we can control your country; and so that our corporations can have privileged access to your resources. It was not at all clear that any Iraqi was ever going to accept this and in the steps that had followed as there was an attempt to sort of formulate it, more precisely, there have been predictably increasing objections."
Iraqi MPs speak out about occupation
Senior Iraqi MPs call for US troop withdrawal, saying US keeping Iraqi army dependent on US.
Can you believe this? Of course you can.
The SubCrime Indictments Are Coming: Watch For The Latest Perp Walk
Readers of this blog know that I have been jumping up and down calling for the prosecution of the Traders (traitors) and bankers who created and profited from the subprime boom and are responsible for the global economy being in freefall..
Finally, it looks like indictments may be coming:
But you have to read about in INDIA
The Bear Stearns Hedge Fund Managers are getting indicted for starting the credit crisis. According to media sources, Federal prosecutors are preparing to file criminal charges against managers of two Bear Stearns Cos. hedge funds whose collapse helped mark the start of the credit crisis. The U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn is in the process of completing interviews of witnesses and other key people in the case this week, and has indicated to lawyers with interest in the case that indictments could be imminent.
The former Bear Stearns managers, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, managed two high-profile bond portfolios for the securities firm's asset-management unit. Bo doubt they aere one of the helpers in triggering the crisis. But are they really the root cause of the credit crisis?
It was the biggest failure of the Federal reserve under Alan Greenspan. The Fed failed to foresee the problems and troubles with the structured debt instruments. While Mr. Bernanke's former employer Princeton University was busy building a new building for the Operations Research and Financial Engineering department, the Fed failed to understand the risks of these newly crafted untested financial instruments and other derivatives.
FINANCIAL TIMES: GOVERNMENT MUST INTERVENE
The Fed, the Dollar and Wider Price Concerns
The Fed can no longer carry the full burden for containing the housing slump. The White House and Congress must intervene with new policies to prevent a further upsurge in defaults and loan losses, or they may have to consider legislation mandating the government to assist in the recapitalization of the U.S. banking system with public money for the first time since the 1930s. If Congress does not want to be forced to rescue U.S. banks in 2009, it must stabilize the housing market in 2008. The dollar will only recover when housing does
COUNTRYWIDE CORRUPTION; POLS GET INTEREST FREE LOANS FROM NATION's #1 PREDATORY LENDER
More and more stories like this are finally in print:
SF CHRONICLE: It's time for lenders to be held accountable for tactics
When the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 was passed by the GOP Congress and signed by President Bush, supporters hailed the measure as a victory for "personal responsibility.
Three years later, the bill has managed to dent the number of bankruptcies filed in the U.S. - from 1.6 million in 2004 to 850,912 in 2007, according to the nonpartisan American Bankruptcy Institute.
That number is great for the banks, but in the wake of the U.S. subprime-mortgage and home-foreclosure wakeup call, you can't argue that either U.S. lenders or consumers are exhibiting more personal responsibility.
Forget high gas prices. If you're among the 1 in 5 households with credit-card- debt service payments exceeding 10 percent of your income, you probably have bigger problems. Congress refused to cap interest rates at 30 percent when it passed the bankruptcy bill. Predatory lenders remain free to charge usurious interest rates, as well as to assess whopping late-payment penalties.
NAKED CAPITALISM BLOG QUOTES CORPORATE ANALYST ADMITTING "CAPITALISM IS IN A CRISIS"
AIG's Connolly: "Crisis of Capitalism is Upon Us"
It's one thing to read an apocalyptic alarm from, say, a blogger or a newsletter writer. It's quite another to see it coming from an analyst at a large institution, in this case AIG.
Bernard Connolly is deeply critical of central banks, not just of their recent actions but also of their very existence, and thinks they have gone from bad to worse with their devotion to inflation targeting. Connolly believes the monetary authorities have gotten themselves in a fix where they lack good options, but he sees raising rates now as the worst move they could make….
The financial system is a mess. For instance, banks for some time have been well behind on foreclosures; it appears this is by design, so as not to alarm the public and shareholders. Similarly, the Bank of England says banks are hoarding cash, another sign of fragility. The Fed somehow hoped that banks would recapitalize in this window of improved market conditions, but they haven't to even remotely the degree necessary, and the losses in the pipeline are probably worse than the Fed has been willing to admit to itself.
As much as I don't like coddling banks, my sense is things are far more precarious than they appear.
HUMAN CASUALTIES OF THE MORTGAGE MASSACRE
Carolyn Baker and Melissa Taylor
THE BAD OLD DAYS: THE WAY THEY LIVED -FROM THE WASHINGTON POST (6./15)
The black-tie party at Washington's swank Mayflower Hotel seemed a fitting celebration of the biggest American housing boom since the 1950s: filet mignon and lobster, a champagne room and hundreds of mortgage brokers, real estate agents and their customers gyrating to a Latin band.
On that winter night in 2005, the company hosting the gala honored itself with an ice sculpture of its logo. Pinnacle Financial had grown from a single office to a national behemoth generating $6.5 billion in mortgages that year. The $100,000-plus party celebrated the booming division that made loans largely to Hispanic immigrants with little savings. The company even booked rooms for those who imbibed too much.
Kevin Connelly , a loan officer who attended the affair, now marvels at those gilded times. At his Pinnacle office in Virginia, colleagues were filling the parking lot with BMWs and at least one Lotus sports car. In its hiring frenzy, the mortgage company turned a busboy into a loan officer whose income zoomed to six figures in a matter of months.
"It was the peak. It was the embodiment of business success," Connelly said. "We underestimated the bubble, even though deep down, we knew it couldn't last forever."
Indeed, Pinnacle's party would soon end, along with the nation's housing euphoria. The company has all but disappeared, along with dozens of other mortgage firms, tens of thousands of jobs on Wall Street and the dreams of about 1 million proud new homeowners who lost their houses.
The Oil Conundrum, The Real Moonies, The News That Is Ignored
BAND AID FOR CANCER: SAUDIS MAY BOOST OIL PRODUCTION
WATCH MATT SIMMONS POWER POINT ON RISING OIL PRICES
ZOGBY ON AIPAC AND OUR CANDIDATES
WORLD POLL
World Poll Finds Global Leadership Vacuum: Bush Widely Mistrusted, But No Other Leader Does Much Better
Only UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Gets Moderately Positive Ratings
A new WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 20 nations around the world finds that none of the national leaders on the world stage inspire wide confidence. While US President George W. Bush is one of the least trusted leaders, no other leader-including China's Hu Jintao and Russia's Vladimir Putin-has gained a broad international base of support.
Only UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon received largely positive ratings in a worldwide poll that asked respondents whether they trusted international leaders "to do the right thing regarding world affairs."
THE NEWS THAT IS IGNORED
Jerry Policoff writes:
I'm sure you've been following the excellent McClatchy series on torture and abuse of detainees held at Bagram, Guantanamo, et al.
You'd think, on the heels of the Supreme Court decision last week and the debate that has followed it, that the rest of the corporate media would be giving this McClatchy series serious play. Think again.
There was a smattering of coverage for part one, but nothing by any major newspaper or network that I saw.(NOTE: I RAN IT!)
Some US terrorism suspects wrongly held -McClatchy
McClatchy said it interviewed 66 released detainees, more than a dozen local officials, primarily in Afghanistan and several US officials and former …
Part two looks even worse." (Jerry showed how little pick up the story received. Below is the sum total of the coverage according to Google News:
McClatchy did manage to get the attention of the rest of the media with another story though, one that virtually everyone is covering:
McClatchy Cutting 10 Percent Of Workforce As May Revenue Falls
Citing a "difficult advertising market" newspaper publisherMcClatchy ( NYSE: MNI) says it will eliminate about 1400 positions through voluntary and …
McClatchy to cut 10% of work forceYou can't say the corporate media doesn't know an important story when they see one, can you?
GORE TO FAN BASE: BACK BARACK
Jayne Stahl sent me Al Gore's letter to his lists on his endorsement of Obama Monday night:
Over the next four years, we are going to face many difficult challenges -- including bringing our troops home from Iraq, fixing our economy, and solving the climate crisis. Barack Obama is clearly the candidate best able to solve these problems and bring change to America.
I've never asked members of AlGore.com to contribute to a political campaign before, but this moment and this election are too important to let pass without taking action.
LETTERS
Da'ud X Mohammed of the Geeze writes about the coverage of Tim Russert's death:
Some blogger took issue with folk criticizing Russert so soon after his death. What better a time than when he is in the wall-to-wall Tim Russert news spotlight? We can't lose sight of the fact that Russert was one of the Bush administration enablers, and then an apologists for others in the news business who were not at least saying they were outraged over what was so obvious in the run up to the war; that Bush was going to invade Iraq for no real reason. Very simply for the millions of us who opposed Bush and company's invasion of Iraq, Cheney and Bush never made a case for war. How did Russert (and the rest) miss the obvious? Or, "Why did they miss it?" may be a better question that is about "Who pays the 'media whores' of this world?" Defense contractors and energy companies that own the major news media outlets is the answer.
The other day I wrote some variation on "The stain of shame on the post-9/11 [with us or against us] news media will be with us until that whole generation of 'journalists' dies off." Tim Russert dying at such a relatively young age gets us to that day all the sooner.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/16/12458/2363/405/536573
Grow. The. Fuck. Up.
By Melody, on dKOS
OTHER VIEWS: =
My bud Bill asks: "I wasn't exactly a deep student of the guy - I only saw him do his thing as the Wash. Bureau chief for the NBC Evening News - but he always struck me as very conventional, with not very much to say. Is it naive to wonder why everyone is kissing his ass?"
Scott Pellegrino, a media guerilla, agrees.
ON THE NEXT WAR?
Deborah Emin writes, on target again:
hope you are doing well and enjoyed the weekend because here we go again with the build up of fake nuclear evidence against Iran. I think it bears repeating that the Bush admin wants to go to war with Iran in the worst way. So now David Sanger of the NY Times has this new story out about the data on a computer. Well, the other day, last week in fact, a news story popped up and went missing fast that Khan in Pakistan says he was framed by the General and threatened to be killed. He is the fall guy for something or someone and since we do know that there are people within our own government who have been selling nuclear secrets for a very long time, it stands to reason, (we must remember Sibel Edmonds) that there is much changing of facts and stories to make the case that now, Iran has the info they need to speed up that day when they can cause nuclear havoc in the region. Oh my God, the Israelis will now have their suficient evidence because they are a shoot first ask questions later nation who see their demise in every tea leaf. And then if they attack, we will back them up and all of this will just happen and where are is the campaigning duo right now? Giving lectures on fatherhood and the other touting his war acumen.
Life in the good old USA is about to be very different and perhaps a truly distinct memory of those old enough to want to remember what we could have done with our resources if we had just had the courage to stop these madmen from creating the real final solution. If you want all the marbles in the game, you have to win big. What bigger win than to destroy the Middle East. I didn't say they were smart, only that they had a strategy.
WATCH: AL JAZEERA FILM ON THE KILLING OF JOURNALISTS
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