Kissinger Bombshell: Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan targeted to stop food-independence

[Dig]

Mubarak resignation throws into question U.S.-Egyptian counterterrorism work
By Mary Beth Sheridan and Joby Warrick Washington Post Staff Writers Sunday, February 13, 2011; 12:13 AM

For decades, Egypt's government has been a critical partner for U.S. intelligence agencies, sharing information on extremist groups such as al-Qaeda and working hand in glove on counterterrorism operations. Now the future of that cooperation is in question.  With the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, a staunch American ally, the contours of the U.S.-Egyptian relationship may well be redrawn. Analysts say a more democratic Egyptian government will have to be responsive to a public that may oppose such special and close ties with Washington.  Moreover, the Muslim Brotherhood is likely to gain influence if free and fair elections are held, analysts say. The Islamist group has renounced violence but is openly hostile to Israel and may call for more independence from U.S. policies.  "How will cooperation with the United States on counterterrorism develop in the view of these new constraints? I would argue the space will contract," said Aaron David Miller, a former State Department Middle East expert who is now at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.  Some U.S. officials and analysts say they are not overly worried, noting the continued strong role of the Egyptian military and the fact that the United States gives Egypt more than $1.3 billion a year in military aid. Robert Grenier, the former head of the CIA's counterterrorism center, said, "The Egyptians have as much interest in protecting themselves from violent extremism as everyone else."  But with a new government, "the comfort level with the United States may not be so high. They will be more distrusting," in part because of past U.S. efforts to prop up autocratic regimes, Grenier said.  Egypt's intelligence cooperation is extensive. Its security services have numerous sources in places where the U.S. government does not, such as Gaza and Sudan, according to analysts.  And the Egyptians have built up a trove of information on al-Qaeda and other radical Islamist groups in the Middle East. The Egyptian General Intelligence Service "has the reputation of being one of the best-informed intelligence agencies on Islamist fundamentalism and its international dimensions," according to Jane's intelligence information service.  Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University, noted that during the Cold War, the United States had a window into the Soviet Union through Iran, then a strong U.S. ally.  "We have the same kind of window into Iran and other countries via the Egyptians," he said. "Whatever happens next, this will never be the same."  In addition to passing on intelligence, Egypt's security services have worked closely on operations with their U.S. counterparts, particularly since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The cooperation became public after revelations surfaced that U.S. officials secretly "rendered" terrorism suspects to countries such as Egypt for interrogation. Human rights groups have denounced the practice because of the notorious torture record of those nations' security services.  Hoffman said the use of rendition has been on the decline, however, since the United States and many governments no longer wanted to be associated with it.  In the region, Mubarak's government played an important role in containing the Palestinian group Hamas, by blocking the smuggling of arms and militants into Gaza and supporting Israel's blockade of the strip. And Egypt served as a counterweight to Iran.  "A different government in Cairo may not see Iran as quite the same kind of threat. Or they might just look for ways to use Iran as a foreign-policy lever" in their relationship with the West, Hoffman said.  Some former officials, however, argue that Egypt is likely to continue much of its cooperation. They note the country has every interest in combating terrorism, having suffered years of assassinations and other attacks by extremist Muslim groups. Only last month, 21 people died in a car-bomb attack on a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria.

MORE
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/12/AR2011021203581.html

Hey look at the Washington Post Bilderberg Nazis doing exactly what I said they would do:

"We are so sorry we supported this obvious CIA/MI6 coup d'etat by the Kissinger puppets, the Muslim Brotherhood. We should have listened and not have played a central role in this conspiracy. But...now that it is done, let us tell you how evil Kissinger's puppets are..."

Washington Post has to be the most fraudulent company on the planet, how can anyone even work there anymore?

[No2NWO]

Egypt's generals impose martial law

CAIRO - Egypt's generals imposed martial law on Sunday, dissolving parliament and suspending the constitution, moves that many of the protesters who helped topple President Hosni Mubarak said were necessary to excise a rotten form of government.

The sweeping actions appeared to have their desired effect of calming the national mood. Under a celebratory facade, Egypt has remained on edge since Mubarak was forced to abdicate Friday, as uncertainty grew over the revolution's next stages.

In a written communique, the Supreme Military Council, led by Field Marshal Mohammed Tantawi, said the military rule was temporary and would last until elections are held, possibly as soon as six months from now. A new set of guiding laws will be drafted by an appointed committee and made subject to a popular referendum, the military chiefs said.

The parliament disbanded by the military had been a rubber-stamp body dominated by ruling-party members who prevailed in rigged November elections. The constitution had also been skewed heavily in favor of Mubarak's regime.Opposition figures praised the moves as important first steps toward free elections but urged further measures to sweep away Mubarak's old guard. Some expressed alarm at an aborted effort by the military early Sunday to clear Tahrir Square of remaining protesters. They also criticized a decision by the military rulers to leave Mubarak's cabinet in place.

"By no means can they concentrate on fixing the problems and investigating what happened under the former regime, because they are the ones responsible," said Alaa al Aswany, an Egyptian novelist and democracy activist.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/13/AR2011021302856.html

[thnkfstpal]

LA Times is a key piece of the Bilderberg propaganda weapons dictating US regime change operations. They are openly supporting CIA/MI6 coup d'etats overseas at a great cost to the constitutional republic and national security. These trilateral terrorists are out of control.

Hey LA Times...WHO KILLED ROBERT F. KENNEDY?

Why is the LA TIMES running 24/7 Bilderberg propaganda? Why do they have 90% of their journalistic staff dedicated to supporting MI6/CIA propaganda operations and what does that mean for our constitutional security?

I swear this is true I read the LA TIMES EVERYDAY and everyday its globalism is good, eugenics is good, war is good, outsourcing is good. It's out of control!!!

[bigron]

Middle East
Feb 15, 2011 
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MB15Ak01.html 
 
EGYPT IN CRISIS

Under the (Egyptian) volcano


By Pepe Escobar



The party - and what a party - is over. Now it's hangover time - and what a hangover.

Meet the new boss, or the Pharaoh rebuilt as Shiva; the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. If this was Southeast Asia, people would say "same same - but different".

Instead of a police state, it's communique time (talk about a throwback to the 1970s). President and vice president dissolved. Parliament dissolved (but with Pharaoh-appointed Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq insisting the current kangaroo cabinet will be in place for that "orderly transition".) Constitution suspended. The army trying to impose the notion it will run Egypt for the next six months. Vaguely sinister expected curbs on strikes and "chaos and disorder".

What can a Democrat, Nobel Peace Prize President of the United States do, except to support a military coup? (Yet another throwback to the 1960s and 1970s). Recap: the White House and the State Department wanted Hosni Mubarak gone.

But Saudi Arabia, Israel and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) badly wanted him to stay. While Mubarak - like a trashy dyed-hair version of Louis XVI - fought for his own survival, Vice President Omar "Sheikh al-Torture" Suleiman, endorsed by Washington and Brussels, fought for the survival of the regime (as in "orderly transition"), and Washington fought for the survival of one of the crucial pillars of "stability" in the Middle East. The street was fighting for their lives.

It's easy to explain why the CIA never saw it coming. The agency may have excelled in doing extraordinary rendition business with Sheikh al-Torture, but overall it has been imprisoned by a major ideological strait jacket since the Ronald Reagan years. The CIA simply does not talk to anybody who's not a vassal - from Iran to Hamas to the Muslim Brotherhood (MB).

Thus they cannot gather quality, on the ground, actionable intelligence. Egypt was bubbling underneath since at least 2005. The US Embassy in Cairo did not even have a liaison officer with the MB. And now their asset, Suleiman, is a non-entity (picture Langley submerged by a deluge of tears).

In the end, the Egyptian street did it. Miserably paid conscripts ready to raise hell if ordered to fire on ordinary citizens did it. Discreet union organizers active for years did it. Judges demonstrating on the streets did it. And youth groups did it. The January 25 young revolutionaries soon woke up to reality.

Now they clearly see Washington finally decided to cut its losses and give the green light for the onanism-plagued concept of a military coup against a military dictatorship. OK, as bright outlooks go, at least there is one hopeful precedent, the 1974 revolution in Portugal that ended up, within one year, in a solid, socialist-leaning democracy.
 
MORE

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MB15Ak01.html

 

[bigron]

Middle East
Feb 15, 2011 
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MB15Ak03.html 
 
Military's marching orders confused


By Victor Kotsev

TEL AVIV - "May God help everybody." This is how (former) Egyptian Vice President General Omar Suleiman concluded his address on Friday in which he announced the resignation of his boss, Hosni Mubarak, ushering in military rule. Mere hours earlier, Mubarak, who had held the presidency for 30 years, vowed to stay on until September, and to die on Egyptian soil. He delegated some of his powers to Suleiman, whom he put in charge of negotiating with protest leaders and overseeing the transition to democracy. Suleiman initially backed the president, but this initiative was short-lived.

"Suleiman's statement [Friday] is the clearest indication thus far that the military has carried out a coup led by Defense Minister Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi," influential American think-tank Stratfor commented. Other analysts followed suit, and over the weekend the phrase "soft coup" gradually started to replace the more innocent "transfer of power to the military".

A coup, in fact, had been in the works for some time, and there are indications that the Barack Obama administration actively encouraged it. Ten days ago, I considered this possibility in my story Battle lines begin to take shape (Asia Times Online, February 3).

More recently, since at least last Wednesday, Suleiman had been warning that, barring a resolution of the standoff between the government and the hundreds of thousands of protesters on the streets, a coup was to be expected. He described this option as "risky". On Thursday, furthermore, the army convened the first Supreme Council of the Armed Forces since 1973, and issued a statement indicating it was preparing to take charge.

The current situation prompts a number of pressing questions. Firstly, if Mubarak and Suleiman knew that a coup was coming, what were their calculations in the final hours? Their speeches on Thursday night enraged the crowds, and reportedly surprised everybody, including the army and the American administration. Mubarak was widely expected to quit, and Suleiman to replace him; if that was their plan, they bungled it spectacularly.

Both, however, are seasoned politicians who have demonstrated their ability to stage unexpected comebacks on several occasions during the current crisis. Did they finally lose touch with reality under pressure? Did they feel they had no other choice but to make a brave last stand? Or were they plotting something with their actions?

It is unlikely that we will find reliable answers to this first batch of questions until somebody with intimate knowledge of the regime speaks up; however, we will probably be able to obtain clues from the way the crisis develops. It is important to keep them in mind as we watch the events unfold and as we focus on other, even more urgent questions. Who is in charge of Egypt now? What are the dangers Suleiman spoke of? Now that the military holds all the power, what will it choose to do with it? How will the relationship between the army and the protesters develop?
 
MORE

 http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MB15Ak03.html

[bigron]

Egypt being governed same way as before, PM says


by Yasmine Saleh

Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik speaks during a news conference in Cairo February 13, 2011.

February 13, 2011

http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/02/13/idINIndia-54864520110213

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's new prime minister said on Sunday the country was being governed in the same way it was under the ousted president -- remarks likely to infuriate protesters keen to dismantle Hosni Mubarak's ruling system.

Apparently seeking to reassure Egyptians that everything was under control, Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq said government affairs were being presented to the Higher Military Council, "as they were presented to the president of the republic".

"There is no change in the form, method or process of work. Matters are completely stable," he told a news conference.

Shafiq was appointed by Mubarak after he sacked his former cabinet on Jan. 29 in a vain effort to quell an uprising against his rule.

Mubarak stepped down on Friday, handing power to the Higher Military Council, headed by Defence Minister and armed forces commander Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. The council said on Saturday Shafiq's government would stay on until a new one was formed.

"All matters are presented to the higher council, and the president of the higher council, as they were presented to the president of the republic," Shafiq said, signalling no alteration yet to the system of rule protesters want to change.

Shafiq said he believed Mubarak was in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, and that the cabinet had not made any request to freeze the deposed president's assets abroad. The cabinet spokesman added that "if there is a need, they will do it".

Shafiq said the military would decide the role of Omar Suleiman, who was appointed vice president by Mubarak last month. Suleiman's position has been in doubt since Mubarak resigned on Friday, handing power to the armed forces.

ECONOMY

MORE

http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/02/13/idINIndia-54864520110213

[Georgiacopguy]

While it may upset the protesters to hear that, it does seem that they are trying to prevent it from appearing, hopefully being, a military dictatorship. They are still trying to follow the same chain of command, and structure. That gives me some hope on how it will work out in the end, because they are trying to be faithful to the trust of the people. This may work out yet.

[Dig]

Middle East
Feb 15, 2011  
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MB15Ak01.html  
 
EGYPT IN CRISIS

Under the (Egyptian) volcano


By Pepe Escobar



The party - and what a party - is over. Now it's hangover time - and what a hangover.

Meet the new boss, or the Pharaoh rebuilt as Shiva; the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. If this was Southeast Asia, people would say "same same - but different".

Check out asia times try and call the usurpation of 80 million into Rothschild's cybernetic meat grinder a "party".

[birther truther tenther]

because this egypt thing could spread all around the planet.

You're right.

This Egypt thing will spread all over the planet as it is right out of Zbig and Henry's playbook.

Have downtrodden masses hit the streets to overthrow the puppet dictator, and then the army runs the country in his place while CSIS authors your new Constitution.

[citizenx]

The people in Egypt were suckered.

That doesn't mean they should stop protesting, just the opposite.

They should NOT stop protesting and merely accept the new order that has been imposed upon them from on top.

Nor should they be fooled by kind-sounding words from their "friends" like el Barradei and the Muslim Brothers.

But what are we really saying?  Are we saying with Omar Suleiman, they should go home, go back to work and STFU?

Is that really what you would do in this circumstance?

Because I'm a little bit confused by the point-of-view of a couple of the regular posters in these parts.

NOTE: For the one hundredth time I am only talking about peaceful civil disobedience, and am in no way defending the violent actions of an exteremely minuscule segment of the protesters in Egypt, many of who were probably gov't. agents provocateurs.

[Georgiacopguy]

Eh, in my case i hadn't thoroughly read enough about the situation when i posted my last comment. It seems the situation was more dire than i Had thought, and that they really do need to keep protesting until they get what they want, not what people will think will placate them.

[bigron]

Mullen Warns of ‘Foolhardy’ Call to Cut Aid to Egypt Junta

Insists US Enjoys 'Strong Military Relationship' With Egypt

by Jason Ditz, February 16, 2011

Speaking to Congress today, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen lashed calls to cut military aid to Egypt and other nations, insisting it would be “foolhardy” to cut funding to Egypt’s junta in the wake of that nation’s revolution.

MORE

http://news.antiwar.com/2011/02/16/mullen-warns-of-foolhardy-call-to-cut-aid-to-egypt-junta/

[bigron]

Where’s the American Outrage against U.S. Support of Dictatorships?

by Jacob G. Hornberger


Once it became clear that Egypt’s dictator Hosni Mubarak was on the way out, U.S. officials quickly shifted gears and took the side of the demonstrators, the people who had suffered for 30 years under the brutal Mubarak dictatorship. U.S. officials even offered their guidance for moving Egypt toward a democratic political system.

Of course, all this pro-democracy hoopla was designed to disguise the fact that the U.S. government has been the prime partner and enabler of this brutal dictatorship for the entire 30 years under which the Egyptian people have suffered. It has been the U.S. government that has been providing the $60 billion in U.S. taxpayer money to Mubarak and his henchmen in the Egyptian military and secret police. It has been the U.S. government that has been paying the salaries of Egypt’s jailors and torturers for the past three decades. It is the U.S. military that has been training the Egyptian military.

In fact, it’s actually worse than that. Believe it or not, U.S. officials actually cut a deal with Egypt’s torturers to torture people on behalf of the U.S. government. The deal called for the U.S. government to bring people into Egypt, where they would be tortured for information or confession, with the understanding that Mubarak would publicly deny that the prisoners would be tortured.

In that way, U.S. officials could proclaim, “We’re shocked that our prisoner has been tortured because they promised that they wouldn’t torture him.” Of course, it was all a sham, one that would enable U.S. officials to deceitfully express shock over the torture, acquire the information or confession with torture, and then secretly thank their Egyptian partners for employing their torture expertise on their behalf. The torture deal was a testament to the U.S. government’s partnerships with dictatorships.

Supporters of the U.S. Empire might respond, “But Jacob, the U.S. government’s longtime support of the Mubarak dictatorship is an exception because the U.S. government is an exceptional government.”

MORE

http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2011-02-16.asp

[citizenx]

How many tens of billions should we throw at Egypt and other countries over the next thirty years?

I have a number in mind.

Anybody want to guess what it would be?

It's the same whether we actually have any money or not.

[bigron]

Guestview: Misrepresenting Egypt – the Mubarak myth of “secular” vs “Islamic”

Feb 14, 2011 06:06 EST

   

(Protesters pray near tanks in Tahrir Square in Cairo, February 1, 2011/Yannis Behrakis)

The following is a guest contribution. Reuters is not responsible for the content and the views expressed are the authors’ alone. Elizabeth Shakman Hurd is assistant professor of Political Science at Northwestern University and author of The Politics of Secularism in International Relations (Princeton, 2008).

By Elizabeth Shakman Hurd


The term ‘secular’ and its conceptual affiliates are doing a lot of work in misrepresenting the uprising in Egypt. ‘Secular’ politics has been taken to mean ‘good’ politics (limited democratization, stability, and support for the peace treaty with Israel), and ‘Islamic’ politics is being translated as ‘bad’ politics (the myriad dangers allegedly posed by the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies). Accounts of the current situation in Egypt are handicapped by an inability to read politics in Egypt and Muslim-majority societies outside of this overly simplistic and politically distorting lens.

The indiscriminate association of the secular with good governance stabilizes an understanding of Islam as that which is not secular. It also, and perhaps even more dangerously, perpetuates the idea of the secular as the natural domain of rational self-interest and universalist ethics. Secular politics comes to stand as the opposite of Muslim politics and as the natural counterpart to all other dimensions of politics that don’t fit comfortably within the categories of rational self-interest or universalist ethics.

This is a powerful and capacious category. Beyond securing itself in distinction to Islam, the secular thereby comes to ground and secure a place for the good, rational, and universal, which is opposed to any number of irrational particularisms, aberrations, and variations.

This oppositional rhetoric closes down all kinds of political spaces and possibilities. And today this closure is occurring in real time, as Americans and Europeans rely upon unreflective blanket usages of the secular to organize their responses to the Egyptian crisis. It is striking the extent to which this term—and related constructs, such as secular democracy and secular leaders—serve as placeholders for all that is good, right, and universal in many Western accounts of developments in Egypt.

(Members of Islamist group "al-Gama'a al Islamiya" carry a picture of Hassan Al-Banna, the Muslim Brotherhood founder, at a protest against Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak in Beirut, February 4, 2011/ Sharif Karim)

The Muslim Brotherhood (MB), founded in 1928 and still officially outlawed in Egypt, is anxiously depicted in these accounts as ‘Islamist’ and represented as a potential danger that might result from the emergence of democracy in Egypt. Political positions expressed through reference to Islamic tradition, history, or politics are assimilated into the category of ‘bad’ politics and assumed to threaten normal, rational, and democratic politics. Political Islam is seen as a divergence from and/or infringement upon neutral secular public space, as a throwback to pre-modern forms of Muslim political order, or a toxic combination of the two.

Earlier work of mine on the politics of secularism described two widely held evaluative frameworks that fuel these representations of Islam, laicism and Judeo-Christian secularism. These same frameworks are now being mobilized by the media and other political actors to make sense of the crisis in Egypt, forming the backdrop out of which many Europeans and Americans understand developments on the ground.

In the first, laicist reading, political Islam is portrayed as a superficial expression of deep-seated economic and political interests and/or an infringement by irrational forms of religion upon would-be secular public life in Muslim-majority societies. In the second, ‘Judeo-Christian’ secularist reading, political Islam is depicted as an undemocratic commingling of Islam and politics that stands against the modern Christian or secularized Christian separation of church and state. This second narrative posits that distinctions between religious and political authority are not only historically absent from Muslim-majority societies but are unthinkable due to fixed characteristics of the Islamic religion

MORE

http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2011/02/14/guestview-misrepresenting-egypt-the-mubarak-myth-of-secular-vs-islamic/

[Anti_Illuminati]

US company 'helped' Egypt block web

NARUS a company owned by Boeing, the worlds 3rd largest arms manufacturer, supplied the Egyptian government with "Deep Packet" internet spying technology that is illegal in the U.S.

VIDEO
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/americas/2011/02/20112625021400967.html

When Egypt's uprising began nearly two weeks ago, there was a near-total internet blackout.

But exactly how was access cut off?

An American advocacy group called Free Press says it has uncovered a link to a California-based technology company that allegedly sold the Egyptian government equipment allowing it to track online activity.

Al Jazeera's Rob Reynolds reports.

This is pretty huge, and is an example of what they intend to do in the U.S.

http://www.afcea.org/signal/articles/anmviewer.asp?a=629&print=yes

Excerpt:

The capability to conduct tactical C2C SIGINT is gathering interest in units that provide commanders with battlefield intelligence. New companies are forming that specifically cater to this need, including Narus Incorporated and TopLayer Networks Incorporated. As the military depends on computer communications for passing its own intelligence, it also demands the ability to exploit enemy C2C communications. This power to “sniff” enemy network traffic is almost nonexistent in current military force structure, but a shift in thinking is underway. While current U.S. SIGINT efforts focus on the old reliable radio frequency monitoring services such as cellular telephones and radios, future missions will require C2C SIGINT as well.

New commercial technologies, such as Computer Associates’ SilentRunner and Forensics Explorers’ NetWitness, are enabling forces to close the C2C intelligence gap. This mission is being accomplished within the community through the acquisition of network capture-and-analysis tools coupled with a zealous commitment to computer network training. When U.S. forces are provided with accurate C2C SIGINT, the enemy is denied the anonymity that computer network communications have provided them.

Gathered C2C SIGINT can be used in a myriad of intelligence roles. Psychological operations can use network forensics for sowing dissent within organizations hostile to Western allies. Mark Longworth, a national security professional and cyberforensics expert, makes the case. “The ideas espoused by terrorists are finding audiences in nontraditional communications. In order to contradict those ideas, defense must be aware of their cyberexistence and be able to deny, distort, delay and destroy them at will,” he explains.
________________________________________

Greg Oslan, President and CEO of Narus corporation, say Narus’s software provides real-time traffic intelligence that helps carriers, service providers and governments around the world protect and manage large, complex networks. Although the Internet is still in its infancy,  Internet crime is a global issue, and it is time to set up a global ecosystem and police force. Global criminal behavior and cyber warfare may be death by a thousand papercuts, he states, but it is still death.

Here's a video of this assh0le criminal traitor:
http://www.gsnmagazine.com/videos/20346/narus_2010_rsa_conference

[bigron]

Middle East
Feb 19, 2011 
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MB19Ak02.html 
 

The spies who got it wrong


By Sreeram Chaulia

After every major foreign policy catastrophe in the contemporary history of the United States, the blame game goes around as to who "lost it'.

When the Chinese communists triumphed in the civil war of the late 1940s, the American press and congress zeroed in on a bunch of career US foreign service officials involved in intelligence gathering (the infamous "China hands") for misleading their own government and people and undermining the Kuomintang. The converse view was that president Harry Truman was the culprit for not providing adequate assistance to China's anti-communist forces.

When president John F Kennedy's Bay of Pigs invasion of communist Cuba backfired in 1961, the fiasco was attributed to bungling and serious miscalculations by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The CIA's own exculpating take was that Kennedy was plainly at fault for not using the US Air Force in tandem with the marines.

When Shah Reza Pahlavi of Iran was dethroned in 1979, this pattern was repeated. Hawkish Cold Warriors dug out embarrassing revelations of how the CIA was reporting just months before the Islamic revolution that "Iran is not in a revolutionary or even a pre-revolutionary situation". However, the left in the US argued that losing the shah to the ayatollahs was a natural boomerang effect of the age-old American policy of coddling brutish dictators.

In recent years, the US body politic performed a laborious stocktaking of the multiple failures that led up to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, with intelligence failure being bandied about as a prime contributing factor.

The 9/11 commission of inquiry concluded that fragmentation and shoddy coordination among the panoply of American intelligence agencies caused a preventable disaster. But here too, the longer-term view was that the problem went much deeper than incompetent turf battle among spy organizations and that it was actually a come-uppance for misguided American foreign policies in the Middle East.

Post mortems of events that generate a crisis for American overseas interests essentially go along two opposing lines. The first one is technical, which involves dissecting the minutiae of why the nation's assortment of spies did not provide accurate advance information so that the dreaded outcome could have been occluded or at least hedged against.

The second one is political, which asks why American interests were poorly defined and executed by the highest office holders in power when the realities on the ground were clearly headed towards a shocking denouement that would set back US influence in a country or region for decades.

The current self-introspection in the wake of the overthrows of pro-American despots in Tunisia and Egypt fit neatly into this dualistic framework. The US intelligence community is finding itself under a heap of brickbats from politicians and hindsight-equipped pundits for turning a blind eye to signs of the popular mobilization and protests that have toppled two solid US allies already and threaten to scalp some more in a hurry
 
MORE

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MB19Ak02.html

 

[bigron]

Law professor says Egypt was a common destination
for torture of detainees sent by U.S.


BY Amanda Bronstad



The National Law Journal, February 17, 2011

On Feb. 11, outgoing Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned, leaving the country's government under military rule and its hopes for democracy uncertain. Also unclear is whether the country's history of human rights abuses and torture will continue in Egypt, according to Marjorie Cohn, editor and co-author of The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse. The book, published last month, is a collection of essays on torture in various countries, including Egypt.

Cohn, who is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and past president of the National Lawyers Guild, talked to The National Law Journal about her new book's relevance in light of the recent events in Egypt. This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

NLJ: Why did you decide to publish this book?

MC: I had been researching and writing and speaking about the policy of torture and abuse that came to light during the Bush administration. So I collected a number of people from different disciplines to write chapters that would shed light on different aspects of this problem of torture and the U.S. involvement in it. Unfortunately, people don't get the full picture from the mass media about what the United States is doing — the policy of cruel treatment set during the Bush administration and the history of U.S. involvement in torture, which goes way back. The CIA wrote a torture manual. The School of the Americas in the United States trained many dictators from Latin America and military leaders in the art of torture, and the CIA pursued a program of research on psychological torture. It didn't start with the Bush administration. It was a continuation of a long policy in this country of not just engaging in torture ourselves but also supporting, training and financing repressive governments that torture and abuse their people.

NLJ: Your book talks about Egypt as an example of where this policy took place. What does it say?

MC: Egypt is discussed throughout the book, especially in Jane Mayer's chapter, a writer for The New Yorker. She talks about Egypt as being the most common destination for suspects that are sent by the U.S. for interrogation and ultimately torture. It's called "extraordinary rendition." And she describes the rendering of Ibn al–Shaykh al-Libi to Egypt, where he was tortured and made false confessions cited by Colin Powell when he appeared in the U.N. Security Council in approving the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The CIA knew it was a false confession, and he later recanted his confession.

NLJ: What's the "extraordinary rendition" program?

MC: Extraordinary rendition is a program where, for example, the CIA sends detainees to other countries where they are then interrogated and in many cases tortured. It's called torture by proxy, sometimes, or outsourcing torture. Now, sometimes CIA agents actually come with them, and they're in the interrogation room. Most of the time, they're outside the interrogation room so that after the detainee is tortured, the CIA can come in and ask them questions.

NLJ: How would you describe the torture methods that were used in Egypt during the time of President Mubarak's reign?

MC: I can quote from the State Department's 2002 report on Egypt, where it notes detainees were stripped and blindfolded, suspended from a ceiling or door frame with just their feet touching the floor, beaten with fists, metal rods, doused with hot or cold water, flogged on the back, burned with cigarettes, subjected to electric shock, forced to strip and threatened with rape, by the Egyptian secret police. And in 2005, the U.N.'s Committee Against Torture found that Egypt resorted to consistent and widespread use of torture, and the risk of such treatment was particularly high in the case of detainees held for political and security reasons. The United States sends Egypt $1.5 billion per year, most of which goes to the military. And yet all along the United States has known about these egregious human rights violations by the Egyptian government. We funded the whole government and the police who were committing the acts. Omar Suleiman, the vice president, was the linchpin for Egyptian torture when the CIA sent prisoners to Egypt in its extraordinary rendition program. And he actually committed some of the worst torture himself. He oversaw the torture by the secret police, and yet he's a very close friend of the U.S. government, including the Obama administration.

NLJ: What are your overall thoughts on what has happened in Egypt in the past few weeks?

MC: I think it's been an incredible revolution by the people of Egypt to throw off the yoke of tyranny they've suffered for the past 30 years with Mubarak. Since 2006, there has been a wave of strikes by workers against low wages and horrendous working conditions, and the economic and social conditions in Egypt have been horrendous for a long period of time. But it's still striking to see millions of people in the streets coming together, from all walks of life, to demand President Mubarak step down.

MORE HERE

http://uruknet.info/?p=m75099&hd=&size=1&l=e


 

[Dig]

Law professor says Egypt was a common destination
for torture of detainees sent by U.S.


BY Amanda Bronstad



The National Law Journal, February 17, 2011

On Feb. 11, outgoing Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned, leaving the country's government under military rule and its hopes for democracy uncertain. Also unclear is whether the country's history of human rights abuses and torture will continue in Egypt, according to Marjorie Cohn, editor and co-author of The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse. The book, published last month, is a collection of essays on torture in various countries, including Egypt.

Cohn, who is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and past president of the National Lawyers Guild, talked to The National Law Journal about her new book's relevance in light of the recent events in Egypt. This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

NLJ: Why did you decide to publish this book?

MC: I had been researching and writing and speaking about the policy of torture and abuse that came to light during the Bush administration. So I collected a number of people from different disciplines to write chapters that would shed light on different aspects of this problem of torture and the U.S. involvement in it. Unfortunately, people don't get the full picture from the mass media about what the United States is doing — the policy of cruel treatment set during the Bush administration and the history of U.S. involvement in torture, which goes way back. The CIA wrote a torture manual. The School of the Americas in the United States trained many dictators from Latin America and military leaders in the art of torture, and the CIA pursued a program of research on psychological torture. It didn't start with the Bush administration. It was a continuation of a long policy in this country of not just engaging in torture ourselves but also supporting, training and financing repressive governments that torture and abuse their people.

NLJ: Your book talks about Egypt as an example of where this policy took place. What does it say?

MC: Egypt is discussed throughout the book, especially in Jane Mayer's chapter, a writer for The New Yorker. She talks about Egypt as being the most common destination for suspects that are sent by the U.S. for interrogation and ultimately torture. It's called "extraordinary rendition." And she describes the rendering of Ibn al–Shaykh al-Libi to Egypt, where he was tortured and made false confessions cited by Colin Powell when he appeared in the U.N. Security Council in approving the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The CIA knew it was a false confession, and he later recanted his confession.

NLJ: What's the "extraordinary rendition" program?

MC: Extraordinary rendition is a program where, for example, the CIA sends detainees to other countries where they are then interrogated and in many cases tortured. It's called torture by proxy, sometimes, or outsourcing torture. Now, sometimes CIA agents actually come with them, and they're in the interrogation room. Most of the time, they're outside the interrogation room so that after the detainee is tortured, the CIA can come in and ask them questions.

NLJ: How would you describe the torture methods that were used in Egypt during the time of President Mubarak's reign?

MC: I can quote from the State Department's 2002 report on Egypt, where it notes detainees were stripped and blindfolded, suspended from a ceiling or door frame with just their feet touching the floor, beaten with fists, metal rods, doused with hot or cold water, flogged on the back, burned with cigarettes, subjected to electric shock, forced to strip and threatened with rape, by the Egyptian secret police. And in 2005, the U.N.'s Committee Against Torture found that Egypt resorted to consistent and widespread use of torture, and the risk of such treatment was particularly high in the case of detainees held for political and security reasons. The United States sends Egypt $1.5 billion per year, most of which goes to the military. And yet all along the United States has known about these egregious human rights violations by the Egyptian government. We funded the whole government and the police who were committing the acts. Omar Suleiman, the vice president, was the linchpin for Egyptian torture when the CIA sent prisoners to Egypt in its extraordinary rendition program. And he actually committed some of the worst torture himself. He oversaw the torture by the secret police, and yet he's a very close friend of the U.S. government, including the Obama administration.

NLJ: What are your overall thoughts on what has happened in Egypt in the past few weeks?

MC: I think it's been an incredible revolution by the people of Egypt to throw off the yoke of tyranny they've suffered for the past 30 years with Mubarak. Since 2006, there has been a wave of strikes by workers against low wages and horrendous working conditions, and the economic and social conditions in Egypt have been horrendous for a long period of time. But it's still striking to see millions of people in the streets coming together, from all walks of life, to demand President Mubarak step down.

MORE HERE

http://uruknet.info/?p=m75099&hd=&size=1&l=e

Looks like we are paying $150 Million to make sure the torture prisons get expanded:
US gives Egypt $150 mln to secure torture prisons for future use
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/17/us-gives-egypt-150-mln-to-help-with-transition/
By Agence France-Presse Thursday, February 17th, 2011 -- 3:52 pm

WASHINGTON — The United States gave Egypt $150 million in crucial economic assistance on Thursday to help the key US ally transition towards democracy following the overthrow of longtime president Hosni Mubarak. "I am pleased to announce today that we will be reprogramming $150 million for Egypt to put ourselves in a position to support the transition there and assist with their economic recovery," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

Yup...Organic and spontaneous.

[citizenx]

I just read about that.

So that would be our first 150 million dollar installment on the next 70 billion over the next 30 years, eh?

To support another military dictatorship to hold the Middle East together for Israel and Big Oil.

Brilliant.

70 billion we don't even have.

[bigron]

Egypt's Giant Step


BY Husayn al-Kurdi



February 21, 2011

(The following article is an official statement from the Iraqi-Palestine Committee concerning current occurrences in Egypt. It also gives a historic background to the events. It was written by IPC spokesman, Husayn al-Kurdi.)

The Egyptian people have removed the dictator President Husni Mubarak as a result of a determined and massive mobilization witnessed by billions on television and the Internet worldwide. We wholeheartedly support this historic breakthrough as a step on the path to the creation of a society which serves the basic needs of the people, facilitates the just distribution of the wealth and resources of the country and ultimately joins the rest of the Arab nation in attaining freedom from imperialist and Zionist domination.

The Mubarak regime colluded and compromised with the Zionist entity (Israel) while serving the US-led imperialist onslaught which has brought impoverishment and misery to the vast majority of more than 80 million Egyptians and to the Arab masses as a whole, who make up more than 340 million people, most of whom reside in the Arab national homeland which stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the borders with Iran.

Egypt has long struggled against foreign conquerors, among whom were Persians, Greeks, Romans, Ottoman Turks, Napoleon’s armies and the British empire, which occupied and controlled the country for over 70 years before the ouster of their puppet monarch Farouk in 1952.

Israel, Britain and France joined each other in attacking Egypt in 1956 after it nationalized its Suez Canal. The invaders retreated in the face of Arab resistance and universal condemnation, but only after bombing Egyptian cities and occupying the Canal Zone.

Egypt was attacked again in 1967, as the Zionist entity expanded its conquests to include Palestinian Gaza and the West Bank area, as well as part of Syria. The Egyptians recovered sufficiently in 1973 to engage Israel militarily in a manner which brought pride in their military capacity and showed that Arab armies could stand up to those who have invaded and occupied their lands. Unfortunately, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat yielded to US-Israeli pressure and signed the Camp David accords, which signified surrender of Palestine to its occupiers and a general capitulation to the enemies of the Arab cause. As a consequence of this betrayal, Sadat was removed from office via popularly-endorsed bullets, but the Camp David arrangements remained in force under his successor Husni Mubarak.

In addition to continuing the treachery ushered in by Camp David, the Mubarak clique implemented policies which brought new levels of suffering to the Egyptian people while amassing huge fortunes for a few corrupt families and their associates. The military hierarchy joined in sharing the spoils, while playing a leading role in ensuring the continuation of an unacceptable status quo. This brutal government has applied massive doses of imprisonment, torture and murder to silence the cries of its victims, while helping Israel in crushing the Palestinians, most notably and directly in Gaza.

MORE

http://uruknet.info/?p=m75231&hd=&size=1&l=e


 

[bigron]

Egypt’s Revolution Must Remain the People’s Revolution


By Ghada Chehade

February 22, 2011

In this article I will explore the uncertain fate of the Egyptian revolution given the problem of military rule, and the U.S’ attempts to control and contain genuine Arab uprisings and the reasons behind this. I will conclude with a brief mention of the universality of the Egyptian case and the need for a global uprising against a system that oppresses and exploits us all--organized, global capital.

Revolution in Egypt Still Open-Ended

Following Mubarak’s resignation, revolutionary fervour is spreading throughout North Africa and the Middle East. The day after the ouster of Mubarak, people took to the streets in Yemen (where they had already begun protesting during the Tunisian uprising) to demand the resignation of the president. In Algeria, inspired by the Egyptian Revolution, people are in the streets demanding freedom and justice despite an official ban. In Bahrain, people clash with the state, as they demand change. And in Libya, the people continue their own courageous uprising despite massacres by the repressive and murderous state (over 300 people have been killed in Libya from gunfire and possibly bombs) [1].

Clearly the success of the Egyptian people has sparked a positive chain reaction among the people of the region. Yet the situation in Egypt itself remains unclear and problematic given that the army is in power, and not the people. While the people succeeded in (and are to be applauded and admired for) getting him out, the problem remains that Mubarak handed power over to the military. There is speculation about whether what happened in Egypt was a revolution or "a coup d’etat staged by the already dominant military" [3]. Egyptian political analyst, Said Zulfica (speaking on Press TV Feb 11), maintains that the Egyptian military is most likely in regular contact with the Pentagon currently, and that the Pentagon may have told the military that Mubarak is a liability and has to go. Until the temporary government is a civilian one and not a military one, Zulficar is a bit hesitant to fully celebrate saying, "Mubarak was not ruling this country for the last five years, it was already being ruled by Suleiman and the people around him," so we have to wary of "any New Egypt that keeps these people in place." Whether or not Mubarak handed power over to the military willingly or not, the main issue is that having Mubarak’s old cronies and the main recipients of U.S bribe money in power (even if for only a short while) is hugely problematic. For example, Tantawi, the current head of the Supreme Military Council, was Mubarak’s defense Minister for 25 years, and during his service to Mubarak was staunchly against any types of reforms [2]. As long as Egypt is under military rule it will remain under the old Regime’s (and its patrons) control, making real and meaningful change impossible.

My impression so far is that what happened in Egypt was indeed the result of the will and work of a people in revolt. The military, taking lead or orders from the U.S and Israel, took a wait-and-see approach and did not attempt to crush the popular uprising (partly because it was totally unexpected and too massive), and has chosen instead to attempt to highjack (and co-opt) the revolution and try to get ahead of the curve. As mainstream media report, the Egyptian Army is making unilateral declarations of reform and senior officers are unwilling to open up sustained and transparent negotiations with those who helped organize the revolution [4]. While the army may be attempting to "placate the people" with Constitutional reforms, it can and must not be the authority to make reforms if this is indeed to be a genuine popular revolution and if we are to believe that the army intends to hand over power to an elected government that truly represents the people (which would no doubt change the military’s constitutional reforms anyhow). There has to be a civilian temporary governing entity established immediately. As has been pointed out, "the Egyptian military…has no culture of democracy much less any history of fostering real change." Financed with support from overseas, "it is subject to influences from all its many newfound friends of 'democracy,’ especially its patrons in Washington" [5]. At present the military is doing what anyone would expect an autocratic state army (especial one funded from abroad) to do; it is attempting to highjack the revolution and to uphold the status quo, which in this case includes martial law [6] and continuing support for Israel [7].

Peoples’ Revolutions Must be Wary of Co-optation Efforts

For this and other reasons it is surprising that some of the youth leadership of the Egyptian revolution have been willing to sit down and negotiate with the army and even feel the army will meet some of their demands [8]. Activists need to be wary of cooperation with the military, especially one that is funded by the U.S [9]. Instead of sitting down at the negotiating table with the U.S-backed military, activists should be urging the public to stay in the streets—to stay in revolt—by the millions until a transitional authority representative of the people is put into place.

While youth activists are playing a great and important (and admirable) role in the Egyptian revolution, they must be wary of potential appropriation efforts. As previously argued [10], both before and during the revolution, the U.S has made efforts to cozy up to youth opposition movements and groups in Egypt. One way that the U.S has attempted to do so is through the promotion of social networking media as a "basic right" [11]. It is important to note that social networking sites like facebook are a double-edged sword in that they are a relatively open and free media that can be used to organize and connect people that at the same time, allows government or corporate parties access to the information and the ability to data mine and profile individuals. The question of which corporate entities own facebook (and their affiliations) is also highly problematic [12]. While online social networking is a great way for youth activists in Egypt (and anywhere) to connect, organize and politically mobilize, they must always be wary of how it opens them up to information gathering and undercutting efforts by state and business interests. This is not meant to criticize but to urge caution. The complexity of the dynamic between authentic uprising and those that may seek to undermine it puts one in the (delicate) position of fully supporting and applauding the success of the people’s revolution while cautioning that the people remain vigilant and not acquiesce to internal or external forces that threaten it.

The people of Egypt rose up from every walk of life and across the age spectrum. They bravely and admirably fought for and accomplished much more than people in the U.S may ever have the motivation or courage to achieve-- they stood up to and removed a corrupt, exploitative, authoritarian ruler. And while they may not articulate an overtly anti-systemic stance [13], the uprisings were more than a revolt against an individual despot; they were "a denunciation of neo-liberalism and the political suppression required to impose it" [14]. Tyrants and dictators in the Arab region "serve the interests of organized capital" [15]. In rising up against the despotic servants of organized capital, the people also (even if for some, inadvertently) rose up against this global system of oppression. For this reason, "steps are being taken to hijack the Arab revolution" [16]. It is important to note that unlike pre-World War II empires, the U.S functions as type of economic Empire (without direct colonies), meaning it dominates the world through the often violent and/or forceful spread of its economic system—predatory, monopoly capitalism—across the globe. The US’ main task after WWII was to continue opening doors to capitalist markets, and thus began the U.S imperial project of capitalist globalization. [17]. Through structural adjustment programs and other policies forced on poor countries by the (U.S-controlled) IMF and World Bank, U.S policy and Business elites grow richer while further impoverishing farmers and ordinary people in other countries. Tyrants and despots in the Arab region make this exploitative process possible and as such are backed or installed by the U.S. Thus it is not surprising that the U.S’ "strategic objectives are aimed at ultimately repressing and co-opting the organic revolutionary uprisings in the Arab world." [18].

As the leader and main beneficiary of global capital, the U.S has played both sides in efforts to co-opt and contain the Egyptian revolution. While Obama duplicitously proclaims that "Egyptians want nothing less than genuine democracy," the reality is that the U.S administration (past, present or future) does not desire, support and would never allow "genuine democracy" to exist anywhere in the world (including the U.S), especially not in the geo-politically important and oil rich and/or adjacent countries of the Middle East and North Africa. The people of the region’s passion and desire for change is profoundly authentic, so too is their suffering. Poverty, exploitation and unemployment are very real, and the people are desperate to change and end this. However, the last thing the U.S administration wants in Egypt or any Arab country is true democracy:


"They simply will not tolerate democracy. They will talk democratic change; they will never allow it; they will never tolerate it. They will, maybe, institute its façade, but never the real thing. That is what the people have to be wary of" [19].

Realizing that the momentum for change in the Middle East is real and unstoppable, the U.S is positioning itself to attempt to get ahead of the curve and reshuffle the deck so to speak. Thus we see it "turning on" and disposing of long-time faithful puppets like Mubarak (and next, Gadaffi?). To the U.S (and Israel) the individual dictators are disposable/expendable and do not matter "so long as the regime (one that serves their interests while repressing domestic progress, democracy etc) stays" [20].

This is because, as previously stated, policy and Business elites in the U.S benefit (greatly) from the poverty, unemployment, and desperation of ordinary people [21] (including people in the U.S). And through enormous bribes from the West—to ensure that client regimes sell out their own people and markets to neo-liberal structural adjustment programs (i.e. to resource and labour exploitation, plundering, privatization etc.)—so too do the despotic rulers and militaries of the Arab region

MUCH MORE

http://uruknet.info/?p=m75255&hd=&size=1&l=e

[iks83]

"Sadat was removed from office via popularly-endorsed bullets"  haha popularly-endorsed bullets... i need to write that one down.

[agentbluescreen]

I don't know, is this good, or bad? A 30 year old government with the same leadership being over thrown by the people, even though Egypt is very friendly to the United States and Israel?

I say good!!! Gets the nerds and geeks to join the protests instead of sitting on their butts playing WoW all day.

I wonder if they know what they're actually fighting for?

Mid-East: Will there be a domino effect?

In the wake of the ousting of Tunisia's President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, observers have drawn parallels with other countries in the region. There is speculation about a possible domino effect similar to the collapse of Communist governments around Eastern Europe in 1989. In several countries of the Middle East and North Africa, youthful and rapidly growing populations face rising food prices, high unemployment and lack of political representation. Some are also ruled by aging autocrats facing succession issues.

Which are the countries involved, and what is the likelihood of real change?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12204971

In a way it is the Bush Mafia, Breyzinski and the CIA that's done/doing this WITH OUR 9/11 TRUTH Movement's well intentioned help.

Who do you think is now most offended about the TRUTH BEING PROVEN that "Muslims" were not really directly responsible for 9/11?

They are overthrowing leaders who have not spoken out and resisted the NeoWO like Ahmadinejad has.

And we MUST and will too!

V

[Dig]

Rothschild's Coup d'Etat of Egypt Must be Exposed

Rockefeller Foundation Proposal on a Revolution in Military Affairs, Military Operations, and Transformation of Psychological Operations to Psychological Domination of Large Populations
Operations to allow the United States to evolve from a Republic to a Monarch
British Intelligence Mandated "Above Sovereign Operations"
Project Monarch
Monarch 12 - Military Intelligence - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvfEl8Xt84o
Monarch 13 - Scientists - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je8rTnqkeHo
Monarch 14 - Patents Open Science - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVqzHUGyhTQ

Revolution in Military Affairs:
From Computer Generated Insurgents to Bioelectric Implants
http://www.oldthinkernews.com/?p=204
Old-Thinker News | May 4, 2008
By Daniel Taylor

In July of 1994 the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) produced the paper titled Revolution In Military Affairs And Conflict Short Of War that uncannily forecasted the future in a “hypothetical future history” written in the year 2010. The hypothetical situation contains many disturbing predictions, several of which have come true, some partially. After a series of terrorist attacks, foreign policy “fiascos” and various disputes between “supporters of multinational peace operations” and “isolationists”, a small number of “revolutionaries” recruits members in all branches of the U.S. government and shift American foreign policy to a practice of pre-emption. Computer generated insurgents claim responsibility for attacks that U.S. forces carry out, pharmaceutical drugs are used as a part of national security strategy, “attitude shaping campaigns” are directed against the American people, traditional boundaries between military and law enforcement are abolished, subliminal conditioning is used in combination with propaganda, and bioelectric tags are implanted in citizens. By 2010 the revolutionaries’ goals were met.

All of this will likely sound eerily familiar to followers of current events, or for that matter anyone who lived to see the events of September 11th 2001, its resulting wars, and its truly “revolutionary” effects in the reorganization of government and law. The Bush administration’s signature legislation, the Patriot Act, has infringed on multiple sections of the Bill of Rights and Constitution. Posse Comitatus, which has protected Americans from the military engaging in domestic law enforcement since 1807 was reversed when the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 was passed last year.

The Neoconservatives reign in the United States holds striking similarities to the scenario outlined in the 1994 SSI report. Interestingly, the document clearly stated that,

“Saddam Hussein’s Iraq or the other Third World caricatures of the Soviet Union are perfect opponents for a RMA-type [Revolution in Military Affairs] military.”

With this in mind, here are some disturbing and revealing excerpts from the Revolution In Military Affairs And Conflict Short Of War document:

The Revolutionaries’ rise to power

“This series of fiascos [terrorist attacks on the United States at home and abroad] led a small number of American political leaders, senior military officers, and national security experts to conclude that a revolution was needed in the way we approached conflict short of war. They held the Vietnam-inspired doctrine of the 1980s and 1990s directly responsible for these disasters. Only radical innovation, they concluded, could renew U.S. strategy and avoid a slide into global irrelevance.”

“The revolutionaries’ first task was to recruit proselytes throughout the government and national security community. Initially the revolutionaries, who called their new strategic concept “Dynamic Defense,” were opposed by isolationists who felt that new technology should be used simply to build an impenetrable electronic and physical barrier around the United States. Eventually the revolutionaries convinced the president-elect following the campaign of 2000 that Dynamic Defense was both feasible and effective–a task made easier by his background as a pioneering entrepreneur in the computer-generated and controlled “perception-molding” systems developed by the advertising industry. The President was thus amenable to the use of the sort of psychotechnology which formed the core of the RMA in conflict short of war.”
…

“The first step in implementing Dynamic Defense was reshaping the national security organization and its underlying attitudes and values. Technology provided opportunity; only intellectual change could consolidate it. With the full and active support of the President, the revolutionaries reorganized the American national security system to make maximum use of emerging technology and new ideas.

This loosely reflected the earlier revolution in the world of business, and sought to make the U.S. national security organization more flexible and quicker to react to shifts in the global security environment. The old Cold War structures–the Department of Defense, Department of State, Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Council, and others–were replaced by two organizations.”
…

“This integrated the military, civilian law enforcement, the diplomatic corps, and organizations responsible for gathering and analyzing intelligence. Since so many of the conflicts faced by the United States were “gray area” threats falling somewhere in between traditional military problems and traditional law enforcement problems, the organizational division between the two was abolished.”
…

“One of the turning points of the revolution came when its leaders convinced the President and key members of Congress that traditional American ethics were a major hindrance to the RMA. This was crucial: the revolutionaries and their allies then crafted the appropriate attitudinal vessel for the RMA. Through persistent efforts and very sophisticated domestic “consciousness-raising,” old-fashioned notions of personal privacy and national sovereignty changed.

This was relatively easy since frustration with domestic crime had already begun to alter attitudes and values. In fact, the RMA in conflict short of war was, in many ways, a spin-off of the domestic “war on drugs and crime” of the late 1990s when the military… became heavily involved in support to domestic law enforcement. The changes in American values that accompanied that struggle were easily translated to the national security arena. Once the norms concerning personal privacy changed, law soon followed.”
…

“With values changed, technology then opened the door to profound innovation. Vast improvements in surveillance systems and information processing made it possible to monitor a large number of enemies (and potential enemies)… As they advanced into the electronic and bioelectronic era, it was necessary to rethink our ethical prohibitions on manipulating the minds of enemies (and potential enemies) both international and domestic. Cutting-edge pharmaceutical technology also provided tools for national security strategists.”
…

“All of this reorganization and technological development was simply preface for the full flowering of the revolution in military affairs. American leaders popularized a new, more inclusive concept of national security. No distinction–legal or otherwise–was drawn between internal and external threats. In the interdependent 21st century world, such a differentiation was dangerously nostalgic.”

The Strategy

“The actual strategy built on the RMA was divided into three tracks. The first sought to perpetuate the revolution. Its internal dimension institutionalized the organizational and attitudinal changes that made the revolution possible, and pursued future breakthroughs in close conjunction with business, the scientific community, and local law enforcement agencies — the core troika of the 21st century security. The external dimension actively sought to delay or prevent counterresponses by controlling information and through well-orchestrated deception.”
…

“The second track consisted of offensive action. Our preference was preemption. In a dangerous world, it was preferable to kill terrorists before they could damage the ecology or strike at the United States… When preemption failed, the United States sought either passive containment where strikes (electronic, psychological, or physical) were used to limit the spread of the deleterious effects of a conflict. For opponents with the ability to harm the United States, the military preemptively destroyed their capabilities.”
…

“By 2010, the RMA accomplished its desired objectives.”

Operation Cerberus, computer generated insurgents and subliminal conditioning

“Probably the finest hour of the new warriors was the Cuba preemption of 2005–Operation Ceberus.”

“Potential or possible supporters of the insurgency around the world were identified using the Comprehensive Interagency Integrated Database. These were categorized as “potential” or “active,” with sophisticated computerized personality simulations used to develop, tailor, and focus psychological campaigns for each.”

“Individuals and organizations with active predilections to support the insurgency were targets of an elaborate global ruse using computer communications networks and appeals by a computer-generated insurgent leader.”

“Psychological operations included traditional propaganda as well as more aggressive steps such as drug assisted subliminal conditioning.”

“Since all Americans in Cuba had been bioelectrically tagged and monitored during the initial stages of the conflict, the NEO went smoothly…”

“The attitude-shaping campaigns aimed at the American public, the global public, and the Cuban people went quite well, including those parts using computer-generated broadcasts by insurgent leaders–”morphing”– in which they were shown as disoriented and psychotic. Subliminal messages surreptitiously integrated with Cuban television transmissions were also helpful.”

“In fact, all of this was so successful that there were only a few instances of covert, stand-off military strikes when insurgent targets arose and government forces seemed on the verge of defeat. U.S. strike forces also attacked neutral targets to support the psychological campaign as computer-generated insurgent leaders claimed credit for the raids. At times, even the raids themselves were computer-invented ‘recreations.’” [emphasis added]

Resistance beginning to emerge as “The Eagle Movement” rises

“Perhaps most important, Americans are beginning to question the economic, human, and ethical costs of our new strategy. A political movement called the “new Humanitarianism” is growing, especially among Americans of Non-European descent, and seems likely to play a major role in the presidential election of 2012. There are even rumblings of discontent within the national security community as the full meaning of the revolution becomes clear. Since the distinction between the military and non-military components of our national security community has eroded, many of those notionally in the military service have come to feel unbound by traditional notions of civil-military relations. This group has founded a new political party – The Eagle Movement – which is beginning to exert great pressure on the traditional political parties for inclusion in national policymaking. The traditional parties are, to put it lightly, intimidated by the Eagle Movement, and seem likely to accept its demands.” [emphasis added]


WAKE UP!

THE REVOLUTION IN MILITARY AFFAIRS IS THE HANDBOOK BEING USED!

IT WAS WRITTEN IN 1994!

SQUAREPUSHER, AI, BTT, AND OTHERS HAVE BEEN BEGGING EVERYONE TO UNDERSTAND ITS IMPLICATIONS!

THESE REVOLUTIONS OVERSEAS ARE FULL BLOWN OPERATIONS IN RMA!

9/11 WAS THE FIRST COMPLETE, FULL SCALE RMA OPERATION TO DEMONSTRATE THE FULL EFFECTS OF A "GAME CHANGING" WEAPON. THAT WEAPON IS A CYBERNETIC CONTROLLED "PEARL HARBOR EVENT". THE REVOLUTIONARY ASPECT OF THE WEAPON IS THAT IT INCLUDES SENSORS TO MONITOR POPULATION REACTION; A REAL-TIME CONTINUAL FEEDBACK LOOP TO CONTROL THE HISTORICAL MEMORY OF THE EVENT; A PREDICTIVE ANALYSIS ENGINE TO FORESEE ANY THREATS TO THE MANUFACTURED CONSENT OF THE HISTORICAL MEMORY OF THE EVENT; PHOENIX PROGRAM "PRECISION STRIKE" SOLUTIONS TO THREATS TO THE HISTORICAL MEMORY OF THE EVENT; CONTROLLED OPPOSITION TO PRE-EMPTIVELY GUIDE, MANIPULATE, COMPROMISE, DISCREDIT, AND EVENTUALLY ELIMINATE FORESEEABLE THREAT "MOVEMENTS" WHICH MAY COMPROMISE ACHIEVED MILESTONES AND EVOLUTIONARY DIRECTIONS NOW CONSENTED TO BY THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

OTHER REVOLUTIONARY ASPECTS OF THE WEAPON IS THE ABILITY TO INCLUDE ANALYTICS TO ASSESS NEARLY LIMITLESS ONGOING "DECEPTION OPERATION" EVENTS WHICH CAN BE MANIPULATED ON THE FLY UTILIZING THE MASSIVE DATA WAREHOUSES CONTINUALLY ASSISTING IN PROVIDING INFORMATION FOR REAL-TIME AND PREDICTIVE "WAR-GAMING".

LIKE 9/11, THESE FAKE REVOLUTIONS ARE 100% RMA, IT WAS ALREADY WRITTEN ABOUT AND COMBINED WITH DECLASSIFIED INFORMATION ABOUT THE PHOENIX PROGRAM THIS LEAVES LITTLE DOUBT WHO THE TARGET IS...

ALL OF HUMANITY THROUGH CYBERNETIC COMPLIANCE!

IN ORDER TO FULFILL THIS OBJECTIVE...THE CONSTITUTION AND THE IDEA UNALIENABLE RIGHTS MUST BE REMOVED THOUGH WILLFUL COOPERATION!

WE HAVE BEEN INVENTING WARS SINCE KOREA TO BE TEST BEDS FOR AN EVENTUAL COUP IN THE UNITED STATES BY THE BANKSTERS. THEY ARE THE SAME BANKSTERS THAT HAVE BEEN FORCING US INTO ILLEGAL WARS OVERSEAS. RMA AND THE NEW PHOENIX PROGRAM LEAVE NO DOUBT!

HEY RMA GAME-PLAYERS...THERE IS NO NEED FOR THESE ELABORATE SCENARIOS INVOLVING GENOCIDE OF MILLIONS, DEPOPULATION OPERATIONS, EUGENICS, MIND DOMINATION, TRAUMA BASED MIND CONTROL (INSTITUTIONALIZED TORTURE) AND THE THEFT OF $30 TRILLION TO CREATE AN "EAGLE MOVEMENT". IT WAS ALREADY CREATED IN 1776 AND IT IS ALIVE AND WELL BEFORE RMA EVER TRIED TO HIJACK IT (AS EVERYONE SHOULD BE ABLE TO NOW CLEARLY SEE). RMA GAME-PLAYERS...JUST SPEND 1/1,000,000TH OF THE ENERGY AND RESOURCES BY REQUIRING THE US CONSTITUTION TO BE DEFENDED FROM ALL ENEMIES FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. THAT IS YOUR PRIMARY DIRECTIVE, YOUR INITIAL DIRECTIVE, YOUR OVER-RIDING DIRECTIVE...YOUR ONLY F-ING DIRECTIVE! THE GLOBALIST SCUMBAGS ARE CONVINCING YOU THAT THIS IS THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE COUNTRY. BUT, JUST LIKE MUBARAK BEING CONVINCED INTO ALLOWING THE CIA TO TORTURE PEOPLE ON EGYPTIAN LAND, YOU ARE BEING CONVINCED TO SUPPORT ABSOLUTE ATROCITIES "FOR THE GREATER GOOD". THERE IS NO SUCH THING, IT DOES NOT EXIST, THE MOVIE WATCHMAN IS A FRAUD. YOU ARE BEING TRICKED INTO HELPING GLOBALISTS PUSH THIS COUNTRY INTO THE SPOTLIGHT OF A GLOBAL MOB WHICH WILL DEMAND JUSTICE FROM THE "GLOBALLY CONSENTED ENEMY - THE UNITED STATES".

THIS HAS ALREADY BEEN EXPOSED IN AN EARLIER THREAD HERE:
Proof that post 9/11 illegal wars were planned to find US guilty in Int'l Courts
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=201604.0
NOW DO YOUR JOBS!

[bigron]

Egyptian junta clamps down on strikes


By Chris Marsden



WSWS, February 23, 2011

Egypt’s military regime has threatened to illegalise strikes in the face of the ongoing social unrest following the removal of President Hosni Mubarak.

Beginning February 14, a wave of strikes erupted in Egypt. Industrial action closed down textile plants, chemical and pharmaceutical factories and Cairo airport. Transport workers put sleepers on the tracks to stop trains. Banks and government offices were also closed. At the strategic Suez Canal, around 1,500 workers staged protests in Ismailia, Suez and Port Said February 17, demanding better salaries and medical insurance. The protests included technicians and administrators.

One of the most important and largest disputes involved 15,000 workers at Misr Spinning and Weaving in Al-Mahalla al-Kubra. Egypt’s largest factory, which employs 24,000 people in the Nile Delta city, was the site of a strike and sit in that began February 10 in support of the protests against Mubarak, helping precipitate his fall a day later. It resumed February 14, demanding wage increases, the resignation of the company head and three other executives and a free trade union. A tank was stationed outside the factory by the military.

The Egyptian textile industry employs 48 percent of the country’s total workforce. In addition, 6,000 workers struck at Damietta Spinning and Weaving.

On Friday February 18, after two earlier warnings, Egypt’s military threatened that the wave of strikes was now considered illegal. The Armed Forces Supreme Council "will not allow the continuation of these illegal acts which pose a danger to the nation, and they will confront them," it announced.

Some groups "organise protests that obstruct production and create critical economic conditions that can lead to a worsening of the country’s economy," the military said. "The continuation of instability and its consequences will lead to harming national security."

The order banning strikes and industrial action came on the day of celebrations involving millions marking one week since Mubarak’s ouster. Walid Abdel-Sattar, a power industry executive, commented, "Though this statement should have come way earlier, I think the army was just allowing people to take their chance to voice their demands and enjoy the spirit of freedom."

No real "freedom" was ever intended by the junta.

MORE

http://uruknet.info/?p=m75278&hd=&size=1&l=e


 

[No2NWO]

Hosni Mubarak's cronies face corruption charges in Cairo court

Three stalwarts of the deposed Egyptian president are greeted by angry crowd at courthouse

Three former stalwarts of Hosni Mubarak's regime have appeared in a Cairo court to face charges ranging from abuse of state power to squandering public wealth.

The trio – former housing minister Ahmed Maghrapi, former tourism minister Zuheir Garana and Ahmed Ezz, steel tycoon and one-time secretary general of Hosni Mubarak's NDP party – arrived in police cars clanging with the sound of pelted stones and got out at the courthouse to a chorus of deafening insults.

"Here are the thieves!" yelled some members of the angry crowd; "Liars! Dogs!" taunted others. Inside, the defendants, clad in plain white jail uniforms, were forced to stand in a metal cage.

Their appearance came after Egypt's ruling army generals widened their corruption investigations to include two dozen other former regime stalwarts, from prominent politicians to leading lights of the business world.

"The supreme council of the armed forces strongly believes that freedom and the rule of law, supporting values of equality, democracy, social justice and uprooting corruption are the basis of any ruling system in the world," said a military statement.

The armed forces are walking a tricky tightrope in post-Mubarak Egypt, trying to balance the generals' desire for stability with an explosion of ground-level political and economic expectations that has penetrated every corner of the country.

Critics of the military argue that stability is merely a byword for maintaining the status quo. The army's stance on the prosecution of Mubarak regime officials is seen as a litmus test for the generals' promises of reform.

Travel bans have been placed on the former prime minister Ahmed Nazif, former culture minister Farouk Hosni and former information minister Anas al-Fiqi.

Many Egyptians hold al-Fiqi personally responsible for much of the deadly violence in the early days of the revolution because he is believed to have been behind the spread of misinformation about pro-change protesters.

Hundreds of thousands of people are planning to gather again in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday to mark the one-month anniversary of the protests that toppled the president. Concern is mounting over whether the army will offer up anything more than a few sacrificial lambs to appease a public desperate to see Mubarak's regime held to account.

"I will not be a scapegoat," cried Ahmed Maghrapi from behind bars as his trial session got under way.


More Story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/24/hosni-mubarak-cronies-corruption-charges

[Rebelitarian]

Out with one kakistocracy and in with another one.

 

Obama took such a great leadership role with this... NOT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[citizenx]

Hey, speaking of food independence, what happens if there is a gov't. "shutdown" in March in the U.S.?

What about the 43 million on food stamps?

That's bigger than a half an Egypt right there.

Is this how the Rothschild revlution is going to be brought to the U.S.?

Is that how close this thing is?

Is the business in Wisconsin prep. work for that?

[Suriel]

Hey, speaking of food independence, what happens if there is a gov't. "shutdown" in March in the U.S.?

What about the 43 million on food stamps?

That's bigger than a half an Egypt right there.

Is this how the Rothschild revlution is going to be brought to the U.S.?

Is that how close this thing is?

Is the business in Wisconsin prep. work for that?

Food stamps are handled by the states so I do not think that a federal shutdown would affect those programs.

[citizenx]

Aren' they originally issued by the Dep't. of Agriculture though?

I don't know. I have never received them, nor has any of my family.  (Kind of like unemployment.)

Admittedly I don't know much about them, but I believe it is a federal program and the feds are involved.

[kerrymti]

But, I'm sure none of this stuff is connected.

But, I'm sure that last thing is nothing.

Definitley not connected.

What was I thinking?

No...nothing to see here...move along...

[citizenx]

No...nothing to see here...move along...

Whew!

I feel much better now.

Thanks.

I must have forgot ny mantra someplace.   



Yeah, actually I had forgotten about that post.  This really does confirm my initial fears that something big was being planned for us, too.

It's comin'.  That is for sure.  But my hackles have been up for a while.

[Suriel]

Aren' they originally issued by the Dep't. of Agriculture though?

I don't know. I have never received them, nor has any of my family.  (Kind of like unemployment.)

Admittedly I don't know much about them, but I believe it is a federal program and the feds are involved.

I know that to get food stamps here you need to apply with The Texas Stamp Program.  If the money goes from the fed to the state then it could be that a federal government shutdown might not effect it much if the money is given to the states on a quarterly basis.  I really don't know how that works.

[citizenx]

But many of the states are broke.  I don't think it is issued quarterly to the states, but I am starting to think this is something I want to look into.

If you find out first, post it.

[Dig]

But many of the states are broke.  I don't think it is issued quarterly to the states, but I am starting to think this is something I want to look into.

If you find out first, post it.

the states are not broke, it is bullshit.

research

Combined Annual Financial Reports Alex Jones

[citizenx]

OK, Dig, actually I believe you -- but wouldn't they continue to pretend to be broke?

Why would they suddenly admit to having enough money to distribute benefits without remuneration from the feds?

It doesn't really change what I was driving at.


(And, really, thanks for the tip.  Yes, I was aware accounting games were possibly being played.)

[Dig]

OK, Dig, actually I believe you -- but wouldn't they continue to pretend to be broke?

Why would they suddenly admit to having enough money to distribute benefits without remuneration from the feds?

It doesn't really change what I was driving at.


(And, really, thanks for the tip.  Yes, I was aware accounting games were possibly being played.)

There are two awesome documentaries on CAFR that helped me understand it. It is fascinating, did not mean it as an insult, but as a kind suggestion for an area to research. And yes, they continue to act as if they are broke.

[citizenx]

All right.  I'm starting to look into it (again).

If you can either post or PM me with links to the documentaries if you can find 'em.

I'd really like to take a look at them.


But, yes, I think the states are just going to continue to play broke, at least most of them that might be playing that game.

I still think a gov't. shutdown will affect food stamps and unemployment (FICA), if it occurs -- though it is 100% absolutely unnecessary.  More reason why I think it's another game being played on all of us.

[citizenx]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFG9CW2RNkA

I think this is one of AJ's CAFR reports right now.  Very interesting -- watching it now.