Panel Questions State Dept. Role in Iraq Oil Deal

(An oil deal for Hunt Oil of Dallas, run by long time political ally of President Bush. This is part of the deal with the Kurdistan government that took place over a year ago, without much fanfare, and is a separate “sweetheart deal” than the ones for the Big Boy Oil Companies with Iraq happening this week. Did we go to war for oil companies? You’re damn right we did. Just how many US soldiers are they willing to sacrifice for a 20% rise in their stock portfolios? The world may never know. The owner of the company is Ray Hunt. He was handed his fortune by his daddy, just like Bush. And as it just so happens, he is also a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. He is also a board member of Halliburton and the Federal Reserve Board of Dallas. And just for good measure, he is on the Board of Trustess for the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation along with ties to the CIA.) SourceWatch.

By JAMES GLANZ and RICHARD A. OPPELJr. from NYT here.

Bush administration officials knew that a Texas oil company with close ties to President Bush was planning to sign an oil deal with the regional Kurdistan government that runs counter to American policy and undercut Iraq’s central government, a Congressional committee has concluded.

Baghdad’s walls keep peace but feel like prison

(The “surge” failed on many different levels. But the one thing they credit the surge with, the reduction of violence in Baghdad, isn’t about the numbers of troops on the ground; it’s about treating the inhabitants of Iraq as if they are all criminals, and forcing them to live in a ghetto-like prison of a city; where everyone is forced to move through checkpoints and “show their papers” many times a day. They have literally walled off the entire city so that they can control every movement of it’s inhabitants. This is the “freedom” they brought to Iraq. I wrote about this over a month ago, in an article called “The Israeli Model surges Toward Iraq“. Now, the real question is, when will they start selling this idea here at home? the answer, they already have.)

from MSNBC here. 

Baghdad hasn’t been this quiet in years. But the respite from bloodshed comes at a high price.

Up to 20 feet high in some sections.

Rows after rows of barrier walls divide the city into smaller and smaller areas that protect people from bombings, sniper fire and kidnappings. They also lead to gridlock, rising prices for food and homes, and complaints about living in what feels like a prison.

Kucinich: ” We went to war for the oil companies”

(So close, he is… Yes, we didn’t go to Iraq to bring “freedom” like Scott McClellen says so often in his new book and on almost every interview he gives. We didn’t go for cheap oil, and we didn’t even go for oil at all; we went into Iraq for the oil COMPANIES. And that is a big difference. At some point we are going to have to redefine treason to include selling out the American people to benefit corporations at the detriment of those same Americans.)

by Nick Juliano from Raw Story, here.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who has introduced measures to impeach George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, said Thursday that oil executives who secretly met with the vice president in 2001 should be held criminally liable for pushing an illegal war.

“In March of 2001, when the Bush Administration began to have secret meetings with oil company executives from Exxon, Shell and BP, spreading maps of Iraq oil fields before them, the price of oil was $23.96 per barrel. Then there were 63 companies in 30 countries, other than the US, competing for oil contracts with Iraq,” the Ohio Democrat said during a speech on the House floor.

Vidal: Bush ended US as a republic

(The only problem I have with the following article, and therefore Vidal’s conclusions, is that Bush does not have the capacity to formulate the destruction of the Republic as it has occurred. He also was not present in many of the secretive meetings that took place prior to 9/11 nor was he even trusted to be in charge on Sept. 11th, when all the plans of those who wrote them back in the ’90s were to begin. Instead they shipped him off to the kids table in Florida. He wasn’t a member of the Project for the New American Century nor was he really an oil man. But yes, Bush has presided over the ruination of the American experiment is self rule; the gradual decline of true democracy in this country crumbled at free-fall speed on the morning of Sept. 11th 2001. Now the “war on terror” is the verbal main course in every debate for both parties. Candidates are ridiculed for having a “pre-9/11 mind-set” or appearing “weak on terror”.) 

by Press TV, here.

Gore Vidal, US novelist, historian and social critic says the Bush regime has killed all of the constitutional links that made the US a republic.

On early Friday morning Iran time, in an exclusive interview with Press TV, Vidal said that President Bush has rid the country of the Bill of Rights, habeas corpus and the entire legacy of the Magna Carta in the name of war on terror.

The Eight Year Plan: Part 1

by Scott Creighton

I would like you to think about this objectively; not as an American or a Republican or a veteran. Just look at the sequence of events over the past 7 1/2 years, the full term of the Bush Administration, as one would review any long term business model performance report. I want you to look at it and I want you to think about the term “savage capitalism“. 

Think in terms of criminal investigations; of motive and opportunity. Right now you see part of the picture but I want us to look at it all like you would a business plan; with an unflinching indifference to “party” or nation. Just to look at the evidence as if you were a reporter, unaffected by by who owns the paper.

If the media won’t tell us these things, we are forced to tell each other, before they are lost to the revisionists history.

No Rest for the Working Poor

by Laura Carlsen from Counterpunch, here.

Globalization continues to break down its own myths, especially in developing countries.

In Mexico, the promise of more jobs withered shortly after NAFTA went into effect, when it became clear that displacement outpaced job generation. Now, its twin promise-that globalization would create better jobs and improve standards of living-has finally committed public suicide as well.

US Quits Human Rights Council

from Human Rights Tribune, here.

The news that the US has completely withdrawn from the Human Rights Council spread like wildfire Friday afternoon (June 6) through the corridors of the Palais des Nations in Geneva. There was general consternation amongst diplomats and NGOS. Reached by phone, the American mission in Geneva neither confirmed nor denied the report. Although unofficial, the news comes at a time of long opposition by the Bush administration to the reforms which created the Human Rights Council in June 2006. Washington announced from the beginning that the US would not be an active member but its observer status would mean that it could intervene during the sessions. To date even this has rarely happened.

Today’s Quiz

It’s 2009 and it’s Gitmo, Mexico City annex. And there are two people kneeling in their stress positions with zip-ties on their hands and black hoods over their heads. Both in orange jump suits and both with sense-dep ear muffs on and gags in their mouths. Both face east a with guard carrying an AR15 between them.

Which one is the republican and which is the democrat?

Forced Labor Fuels Development, U.S. Report Finds

(So how do we compete on a global market with this? Oh yeah;  Amendment XIII,1865:  

“1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” )

CNN story here. and my story here.

Slave labor in developing countries such as Brazil, China and India is fueling part of their huge economic growth, according to a State Department report released Wednesday.

The department’s annual “Trafficking in Persons Report” found increased allegations of forced labor made in connection with a variety of agricultural products and manufactured goods in developing countries.

Active Denial System Being Tested; And Look At Who They Are Testing It On

They are testing it on pretend peace activists.

Over at After Downing Street, Swanson has put up a video from 60 Minutes that shows the military testing their new toy. It’s called Active Denial System and it sends bursts of hi-frequency heat at the target.

According to the story, if used properly, it won’t cause any damage (apparently you can dial it up or down depending on what you want to do to the target.). This gives the operator the ability to disperse crowds at will with sudden intense pain, like boiling water or oil or perhaps even worse.

The pentagon spokesperson in charge of the development of this weapon giggles when she talks about it because, as she says, it gives them the ability to “read minds”. If the target runs away and submits to authority, then there you go. But, if they don’t then “they must be a terrorist” and a real threat (and I guess they can dial it up or just shot them to death). Nice huh? Submit or die. 

 Welcome to America.

Let me restate this in case you missed it: a giggling Pentagon zealot is playing with her ray-gun that lets her read-minds to determine which of the Peace Activists need to be zapped into submission and which need to be killed. You think I’m lying?  Go watch it yourself.