The fasces was the axe bound in a bundle of rods that the two lictors of ancient Rome had carried before them. The bundle signified their power either to chastise or to execute anyone they found guilty of having injured the people of Rome, for the lictors represented the population.
The Roman legions carried on their standards the letters SPQR, which stood for, not “small profits, quick returns” as might be supposed, but Senatu populoque Romano, by the Senate and people of Rome. Senate just comes from the word senex, an old man, and so the legions represented the people of Rome under the guidance of their wise tribal elders, as is the case in most communities. The lictors, however, who had the fasces carried before them were specifically the representatives of the people, the general population.
Benito Mussolini, the ruler of Italy during the second world war, adopted the fasces as the emblem, the symbol, the flag, of his political system, which he called “Fascismo,” signifying the power of that system to chastise or execute anyone it chose to. And implying, of course, some kind of link to the glorious days of ancient Rome.
Mussolini’s political system was a partnership between the government and the powerful industrial corporations, in which each supported the aims of the other. It is a system of immense destructive power.
The aim of the corporations is increased and ever increasing profit and profitability. They have absolutely no concern with the population, the environment, or even the continuing existence of the state or even of the earth itself. Although usually associated with extreme nationalism, that is merely Public Relations; their aim is the reduction of labor costs, and all other costs, with the subsequent reduction in living standards of the population that this creates. If possible, the corporations always wish to get as close as possible to the ideal of a human population living their entire lives in much the same conditions as cows, pigs, and chickens in their wire cages, piped in nutritious sludge keeping them alive for the optimum period.
The aim of any government is increasing and finally absolute power, in pursuit of which visible and demonstrated brutality is a great advantage, and the control of the military, the judicial system, and the media is a necessary foundation. The aim is no different from that of the war lords who have traditionally controlled human existence, forbidding the carrying of weapons – a helpless population is highly desirable – and having Buddhist monks create all the martial arts there are in response.
These are the aims of globalism, broadened to cover the entire earth. The ability of humans to survive like rats and cockroaches in the many open spaces on the planet is their defense, the culture of resistance and endurance.
If you go south through the Suez Canal, as the American convoy and one Israeli vessel recently did, and travel many, many miles through the Red Sea, leaving Yanbu and Mecca and Medina on your left, and passing the coasts of Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea on your right, you will come to the narrow gate where the Red Sea opens into the Indian Ocean. It is called Bab el Mandeb, the “Gate of Tears,” and as you come out onto the horn of Africa, with Somalia on your right and southern Yemen on your left, with the Empty Quarter stretching north of it, you may understand why.
The UN sponsored government of Somalia controls a couple of streets and a few blocks in the capital Mogadishu. All the rest is in the hands of Eshabab, ‘the young guys,’ the ones who capture oil tankers and ransom them. We get our word chap, from the Arabic shab meaning a young feller. The last US attempt to enter Somalia had a sorry end, you may remember, though a fine video taped beginning, and what the US Marines can not subdue the US corporations can not profit from. Eshabab are in no mood to take nonsense from any one, and have recently warned any African Union peace keepers thinking of entering to stay out or get mown down, and all the world’s navies have so far failed to provide protection in the endless Indian Ocean. Gate of tears all right.
Jul 29, 2010
Jul 26, 2010
Whatatangledweb
...we weave When first we practice to deceive...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23425.htm
This was written in September 2009, and probably posted at the time. I'm re-posting it because of the unedifying spectacle of Cameron the NeoCon and Mike Rivero's President Pussy hyperventilating in the past few days about some putative "oil deals" with Libya that supposedly led to Megrahi's release.
Lockerbie: Megrahi Was Framed By John Pilger
September 04, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- The hysteria over the release of the so-called Lockerbie bomber reveals much about the political and media class on both sides of the Atlantic, especially Britain. From Gordon Brown’s "repulsion" to Barack Obama’s "outrage," the theater of lies and hypocrisy is dutifully attended by those who call themselves journalists. "But what if Megrahi lives longer than three months?" whined a BBC reporter to the Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond. "What will you say to your constituents, then?"
Horror of horrors that a dying man should live longer than prescribed before he "pays" for his "heinous crime": the description of the Scottish justice minister, Kenny MacAskill, whose "compassion" allowed Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to go home to Libya to "face justice from a higher power." Amen.
The American satirist Larry David once addressed a voluble crony as "a babbling brook of bullsh*t." Such eloquence summarizes the circus of Megrahi’s release.
No one in authority has had the guts to state the truth about the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 above the Scottish village of Lockerbie on 21 December 1988 in which 270 people were killed. The governments in England and Scotland in effect blackmailed Megrahi into dropping his appeal as a condition of his immediate release. Of course there were oil and arms deals under way with Libya; but had Megrahi proceeded with his appeal, some 600 pages of new and deliberately suppressed evidence would have set the seal on his innocence and given us more than a glimpse of how and why he was stitched up for the benefit of "strategic interests."
"The endgame came down to damage limitation," said the former CIA officer Robert Baer, who took part in the original investigation, "because the evidence amassed by [Megrahi's] appeal is explosive and extremely damning to the system of justice." New witnesses would show that it was impossible for Megrahi to have bought clothes that were found in the wreckage of the Pan Am aircraft – he was convicted on the word of a Maltese shopowner who claimed to have sold him the clothes, then gave a false description of him in 19 separate statements and even failed to recognize him in the courtroom.
The new evidence would have shown that a fragment of a circuit board and bomb timer, "discovered" in the Scottish countryside and said to have been in Megrahi’s suitcase, was probably a plant. A forensic scientist found no trace of an explosion on it. The new evidence would demonstrate the impossibility of the bomb beginning its journey in Malta before it was "transferred" through two airports undetected to Flight 103.
A "key secret witness" at the original trial, who claimed to have seen Megrahi and his co-accused al-Alim Khalifa Fahimah (who was acquitted) loading the bomb on to the plane at Frankfurt, was bribed by the US authorities holding him as a "protected witness." The defense exposed him as a CIA informer who stood to collect, on the Libyans’ conviction, up to $4m as a reward.
Megrahi was convicted by three Scottish judges sitting in a courtroom in "neutral" Holland. There was no jury. One of the few reporters to sit through the long and often farcical proceedings was the late Paul Foot, whose landmark investigation in Private Eye exposed it as a cacophony of blunders, deceptions and lies: a whitewash. The Scottish judges, while admitting a "mass of conflicting evidence" and rejecting the fantasies of the CIA informer, found Megrahi guilty on hearsay and unproven circumstance. Their 90-page "opinion," wrote Foot, "is a remarkable document that claims an honored place in the history of British miscarriages of justice." (Lockerbie – the Flight from Justice by Paul Foot can be downloaded from the Private Eye website for £5).
Foot reported that most of the staff of the US embassy in Moscow who had reserved seats on Pan Am flights from Frankfurt canceled their bookings when they were alerted by US intelligence that a terrorist attack was planned. He named Margaret Thatcher the "architect" of the cover-up after revealing that she killed the independent inquiry her transport secretary Cecil Parkinson had promised the Lockerbie families; and in a phone call to President George Bush Sr. on 11 January 1990, she agreed to "low-key" the disaster after their intelligence services had reported "beyond doubt" that the Lockerbie bomb had been placed by a Palestinian group contracted by Tehran as a reprisal for the shooting down of an Iranian airliner by a US warship in Iranian territorial waters. Among the 290 dead were 66 children. In 1990, the ship’s captain was awarded the Legion of Merit by Bush Sr. "for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service as commanding officer."
Perversely, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1991, Bush needed Iran’s support as he built a "coalition" to expel his wayward client from an American oil colony. The only country that defied Bush and backed Iraq was Libya. "Like lazy and overfed fish," wrote Foot, "the British media jumped to the bait. In almost unanimous chorus, they engaged in furious vilification and op-ed warmongering against Libya." The framing of Libya for the Lockerbie crime was inevitable. Since then, a US defense intelligence agency report, obtained under Freedom of Information, has confirmed these truths and identified the likely bomber; it was to be centerpiece of Megrahi’s defense.
In 2007, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission referred Megrahi’s case for appeal. "The commission is of the view," said its chairman, Dr. Graham Forbes, "that based upon our lengthy investigations, the new evidence we have found and other evidence which was not before the trial court, that the applicant may have suffered a miscarriage of justice."
The words "miscarriage of justice" are missing entirely from the current furor, with Kenny MacAskill reassuring the baying mob that the scapegoat will soon face justice from that "higher power." What a disgrace.
www.johnpilger.com
**********************************************************************
The Frame-Up By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
"Was this corporation willing to trade justice in the murder of 270 innocent people for oil profits?” Not too many guesses as to which oil company is under discussion: BP, current epitome of Big Oil at its foulest. But what populist rabble-rousers were posing the question? Look no further than that errand boy of finance capital, New York’s senior senator, Charles Schumer.
On July 13, under Schumer’s senatorial letterhead he and his fellow New York senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, plus Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez of New Jersey, wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, widening the indictment of BP from the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe with the accusation that in 2007, in pursuit of valuable oil leases in Libya, it had twisted the arm of the British Government to arrange the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, convicted in the bombing of Panam flight 103 over the Scottish village of Lockerbie in 1988, with 281 dead.
“We write,” the senators informed Clinton, “to urge the State Department to fully investigate the disturbing news reports linking BP to the deal that allowed for the release of convicted Pan Am Flight 103 bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds. The information that such an investigation would yield is important to fully determine the legitimacy of the decision to release this mass murderer… As you may know, in 2007, BP and the Libyan government agreed upon a $900 million oil exploration deal, following two visits to Libya over the course of three years by then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair. It was reported in September of last year that BP communicated to the British government concerns that possible delays in the release of al-Megrahi could throw the oil deal into jeopardy.”
This coming July 29 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on which Gillibrand and Menendez serve, is scheduled to hold hearings into the circumstances of Megrahi’s release. Already the four senators have elicited a session with Britain’s new prime minister, David Cameron, during his recent visit to Washington DC, to discuss the affair. Cameron swiftly passed the buck to the Scottish authorities, who actually okayed the release of Megrahi last August on the “compassionate” grounds that he had prostate cancer and had only three weeks to live. Megrahi, safely back in Libya remains in fine fettle.
For the four senators, tv footage and news headlines of them flailing away at BP, and odious Libya, were opportunities not to be missed. BP freely admits that amid the 2007 negotiations with Libya –– the company had told the British government that failure to release Megrahi under a Prisoner Transfer Agreement would be a big problem, but insists it played no role in the “compassionate release” – not a formal PTA -- which was the sole decision of the Scottish authorities. Obama, who was very muted at the time of the compassionate release, said last week merely that it had been a "misguided decision" by Scottish authorities and that “most Americans were "surprised, disappointed and angry" about the decision to let al Megrahi go.
It’s hard to conceive of anything surpassing this merry-go-round of grandstanding and self-serving hypocrisy, with the possible exception of BP, which freely admits corporate self-interest in this instance. It was the United States, specifically the CIA, which originally framed Megrahi, because in the late 1980s it was eager to divert the investigation from – of all countries – Iran. It was the Scotch judiciary which bowed to pressure from Westminster to ignore mountains of evidence to the contrary and to convict Megrahi. It was a British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, who colluded with a U.S. President, G.H.W. Bush, in instigating this disgraceful miscarriage of justice. Will the Senate Foreign Relations Committee probe such matters? Of course not. Gillibrand and Menendez will erupt on schedule for the cameras and call it a day.
Megrahi was innocent, framed by the US and British security services. What follows is my brother, Andrew Cockburn’s investigation of the frame-up, which we published in our CounterPunch newsletter just after the original trial.
The original Lockerbie trial took place in 2000, presided over by three Scottish judges who travelled to a courthouse in the Netherlands, convicting Megrahi and acquitting his colleague, Lamen Khalifa Fhimah.
In a trenchant early criticism of the verdict, Hans Koechler, a distinguished Austrian philosopher appointed as one of five international observers at the trial in Zeist, Holland, by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, issued a well-merited denunciation of the judges' bizarre conclusion. “In my opinion,” Koechler said, “there seemed to be considerable political influence on the judges and the verdict.”
Koechler pointed out that the judges found Megrahi guilty even though they themselves admitted that his identification by a Maltese shop owner (summoned by the prosecution to testify that Megrahi bought clothes, later deemed to have been packed in the lethal suitcase bomb) was “not absolute” and that there was a “mass of conflicting evidence.”
Furthermore, Koechler queried the active involvement of senior U.S. Justice Department officials as part of the Scotch prosecution team “in a supervisory role.”
In essence, the case was based (a) on the presumption that the bomb timer on the Pan Am plane was from a batch sold by a Swiss firm to Libya; (b) that fragments of clothing retrieved from the crash site and identified as having been in the suitcase that contained the bomb, had been bought by the accused Megrahi from a shop in Malta; and (c) that a “secret witness,” Abdulmajid Gialka, a former colleague of the accused pair in the Libyan Airlines office in Malta, would testify that he had observed them either constructing the bomb or at least seen them loading on the plane in Frankfurt.
The prosecution was unable to produce evidence to substantiate any of these points or to encourage any confidence in Gialka’s reliability as a witness. The Swiss manufacturer of the timer, Edwin Bollier, testified he had sold timers of a similar type to the East Germans and conceded, in cross-examination by defense lawyers, that he had connections to many intelligence agencies, including not only the Libyans but also the CIA.
By the time of the trial, Gialka had been living under witness protection in the U.S.A. He had received $320,000 from his American hosts and, in the event of conviction of the accused, stood to collect up to $4 million in reward money. He had CIA connections, so the defense lawyers learned, before 1988.
The prosecution's case absolutely depended on proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Megrahi was the man who bought the clothes, traced by police to a Maltese clothes shop. In nineteen separate statements to police prior to the trial the shopkeeper, Tony Gauci, had failed to make a positive identification of Megrahi. In the witness box, Gauci was asked five times if he recognized anyone in the courtroom. No answer. Finally, the exasperated prosecutor pointed to the dock and asked if the man sitting on the left was the customer in question. Even so, the best that Gauci could do was to mumble that “he resembles him.”
Gauci had also told the police that the man who bought the clothes was 6 feet tall and over 50 years of age. Megrahi is 5 feet 8 inches tall, and in late 1988 he was 36. The clothes were bought either on November 23 or December 7, 1988. On an earlier occasion, when shown a photograph of Mohammed Abu Talb, a Palestinian terrorist whom the defense contended was the real bomber, Gauci used almost the same words with more confidence, declaring, according to his brother, that Talb “resembles” the clothes buyer “a lot.” Gauci's identification of Megrahi at the identity parade just before the opening of the trial was with the words, “not exactly the man I saw in the shop. Ten years ago I saw him, but the man who look [sic] a little bit like is the number 5” (Megrahi).
Megrahi was in Malta on December 7 but not on the November date. The shopkeeper recalled that the man who bought the clothes also bought an umbrella because it was raining heavily outside. Maltese meteorological records introduced by the defense showed clearly that while it did rain all day on November 23, there was almost certainly no rain on December 7. If it did rain on that date, the shower would have been barely enough to wet the pavement. Nevertheless, the judges held it proven that Megrahi had bought the clothes on December 7.
No less vital to the prosecution's case was its contention that the bomb that destroyed Pan Am 103 had been loaded as unaccompanied baggage onto an Air Malta flight to Frankfurt, flown on to London, and thence onto the ill-fated flight to New York. In support of this, prosecutors produced a document from Frankfurt airport indicating that a bag had gone from the baggage-handling station, at which the Air Malta bags (along with those from other flights) had been unloaded, and had been sent to the handling station for the relevant flight to London. But there was firm evidence from the defense that all the bags on the Air Malta flight were accompanied and were collected at the other end. Nevertheless, the judges held it proven that the lethal suitcase had indeed come from Malta. When Granada TV broadcast a documentary asserting such a transfer as a fact, Air Malta sued and extracted damages.
The most likely explanation of the judges' decision to convict Megrahi despite the evidence, or lack of it, must be that either they panicked at the thought of the uproar that would ensue on the U.S. end if they let both the Libyans off, or they were simply given their marching orders by high authority in London. English judges are used to doing their duty in this manner – see, for example, the results of various “impartial” judicial inquiries into British atrocities in Northern Ireland over the years, such as Justice Widgery’s whitewash in the immediate aftermath of Bloody Sunday.
In closing arguments, the prosecution stressed the point that Megrahi could not have planted the bomb without the assistance of Fhimah – that both defendants were equally guilty, and should stand or fall together. Nevertheless, the judges elected to find one of the two conspirators guilty and the other one innocent, a split verdict that Koechler found “incomprehensible.” It is, however, entirely comprehensible if we accept that the judges knew there was no evidence to convict either man, but that it was politically imperative for them to convict at least one.
Iran the Likely Sponsor
A former CIA official and friend of CounterPunch back at the time of the original trial in 2000, Andrew continues, notes that he had taken part in the original investigation of the Pan Am 103 bombing. He said that if the original CIA report was ever to be made public, it would provide “damning evidence” that “the Libyans were never directly involved in the Lockerbie bombing.” In fact, the evidence in the CIA’s possession pointed more clearly in the direction of the original suspects in the case, members of a group known as the PFLP-GC, closely linked to Iran.
The Iranians had a clear motive for an attack on an American airliner, following the destruction of an Iranian Airbus over the Persian Gulf carrying 290 passengers, including 66 children, on July 3, 1988. The U.S. Navy missile carrier Vincennes had casually blown it out of the sky despite clear indications it was a civilian plane. Afterwards, the U.S. Navy concealed the fact that the Vincennes had been in Iranian territorial waters at the time, refused to admit error or pay compensation, and handed out medals to the ship’s officers for heroism in combat.
The initial U.S. and British investigations pointed clearly to a case against the Iranians as having contracted with the Lebanon-based PFLP-GC, or a section thereof, to exact retribution. Two months before Lockerbie, the West Germans arrested members of this group outside Dusseldorf as they were preparing bombs specifically designed to bring down airliners. U.S. intelligence had traced a payment of $500,000 into the account of a professional bomber, Abu Talb, in April 1989. A British journalist showed the Maltese shop owner who sold the clothes found in the bomb-suitcase a photo of Talb, and he declared that the man in the photo “most resembled” the purchaser. At one point, the Scottish police were about to charge Talb who had, since 1989, been serving time in a Swedish jail for a series of bomb attacks in Sweden and Denmark.
In March 1989, however, Margaret Thatcher called President G.W.H. Bush to discuss the case. The two leaders agreed it was important to “cool it” on the Iranian angle, since they were in no position to punish the Tehran regime, which had just survived the eight-year war with U.S./U.K.-sponsored Iraq. Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, it became more imperative than ever to obscure any suspicion of Iranian complicity in the Lockerbie bombing, given the importance of Iranian assistance in the upcoming war with Saddam Hussein. Thus the perennial “rogue,” Muammar Al-Qaddafi, was drafted as the suspect of choice.
Another factor probably played a role in the Scotch decision to release him on compassionate grounds last year. Megrahi and his able legal team had been preparing an appeal which would have deeply embarrassing to the Scottish judiciary. But with the release, the thousands of pages of Megrahi’s appeal went into the trash bin and Megrahi will, in the complacent words of a Scottish government spokesman, “die a convicted man”, however long he evades the Reaper.
The irony is that today the U.S. would no doubt be only too eager to finger Iran as the perpetrator. Perhaps that at least might stir Schumer and his colleagues.
http://www.counterpunch.org/ July 23 – July 25, 2010
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23425.htm
This was written in September 2009, and probably posted at the time. I'm re-posting it because of the unedifying spectacle of Cameron the NeoCon and Mike Rivero's President Pussy hyperventilating in the past few days about some putative "oil deals" with Libya that supposedly led to Megrahi's release.
Lockerbie: Megrahi Was Framed By John Pilger
September 04, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- The hysteria over the release of the so-called Lockerbie bomber reveals much about the political and media class on both sides of the Atlantic, especially Britain. From Gordon Brown’s "repulsion" to Barack Obama’s "outrage," the theater of lies and hypocrisy is dutifully attended by those who call themselves journalists. "But what if Megrahi lives longer than three months?" whined a BBC reporter to the Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond. "What will you say to your constituents, then?"
Horror of horrors that a dying man should live longer than prescribed before he "pays" for his "heinous crime": the description of the Scottish justice minister, Kenny MacAskill, whose "compassion" allowed Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to go home to Libya to "face justice from a higher power." Amen.
The American satirist Larry David once addressed a voluble crony as "a babbling brook of bullsh*t." Such eloquence summarizes the circus of Megrahi’s release.
No one in authority has had the guts to state the truth about the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 above the Scottish village of Lockerbie on 21 December 1988 in which 270 people were killed. The governments in England and Scotland in effect blackmailed Megrahi into dropping his appeal as a condition of his immediate release. Of course there were oil and arms deals under way with Libya; but had Megrahi proceeded with his appeal, some 600 pages of new and deliberately suppressed evidence would have set the seal on his innocence and given us more than a glimpse of how and why he was stitched up for the benefit of "strategic interests."
"The endgame came down to damage limitation," said the former CIA officer Robert Baer, who took part in the original investigation, "because the evidence amassed by [Megrahi's] appeal is explosive and extremely damning to the system of justice." New witnesses would show that it was impossible for Megrahi to have bought clothes that were found in the wreckage of the Pan Am aircraft – he was convicted on the word of a Maltese shopowner who claimed to have sold him the clothes, then gave a false description of him in 19 separate statements and even failed to recognize him in the courtroom.
The new evidence would have shown that a fragment of a circuit board and bomb timer, "discovered" in the Scottish countryside and said to have been in Megrahi’s suitcase, was probably a plant. A forensic scientist found no trace of an explosion on it. The new evidence would demonstrate the impossibility of the bomb beginning its journey in Malta before it was "transferred" through two airports undetected to Flight 103.
A "key secret witness" at the original trial, who claimed to have seen Megrahi and his co-accused al-Alim Khalifa Fahimah (who was acquitted) loading the bomb on to the plane at Frankfurt, was bribed by the US authorities holding him as a "protected witness." The defense exposed him as a CIA informer who stood to collect, on the Libyans’ conviction, up to $4m as a reward.
Megrahi was convicted by three Scottish judges sitting in a courtroom in "neutral" Holland. There was no jury. One of the few reporters to sit through the long and often farcical proceedings was the late Paul Foot, whose landmark investigation in Private Eye exposed it as a cacophony of blunders, deceptions and lies: a whitewash. The Scottish judges, while admitting a "mass of conflicting evidence" and rejecting the fantasies of the CIA informer, found Megrahi guilty on hearsay and unproven circumstance. Their 90-page "opinion," wrote Foot, "is a remarkable document that claims an honored place in the history of British miscarriages of justice." (Lockerbie – the Flight from Justice by Paul Foot can be downloaded from the Private Eye website for £5).
Foot reported that most of the staff of the US embassy in Moscow who had reserved seats on Pan Am flights from Frankfurt canceled their bookings when they were alerted by US intelligence that a terrorist attack was planned. He named Margaret Thatcher the "architect" of the cover-up after revealing that she killed the independent inquiry her transport secretary Cecil Parkinson had promised the Lockerbie families; and in a phone call to President George Bush Sr. on 11 January 1990, she agreed to "low-key" the disaster after their intelligence services had reported "beyond doubt" that the Lockerbie bomb had been placed by a Palestinian group contracted by Tehran as a reprisal for the shooting down of an Iranian airliner by a US warship in Iranian territorial waters. Among the 290 dead were 66 children. In 1990, the ship’s captain was awarded the Legion of Merit by Bush Sr. "for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service as commanding officer."
Perversely, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1991, Bush needed Iran’s support as he built a "coalition" to expel his wayward client from an American oil colony. The only country that defied Bush and backed Iraq was Libya. "Like lazy and overfed fish," wrote Foot, "the British media jumped to the bait. In almost unanimous chorus, they engaged in furious vilification and op-ed warmongering against Libya." The framing of Libya for the Lockerbie crime was inevitable. Since then, a US defense intelligence agency report, obtained under Freedom of Information, has confirmed these truths and identified the likely bomber; it was to be centerpiece of Megrahi’s defense.
In 2007, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission referred Megrahi’s case for appeal. "The commission is of the view," said its chairman, Dr. Graham Forbes, "that based upon our lengthy investigations, the new evidence we have found and other evidence which was not before the trial court, that the applicant may have suffered a miscarriage of justice."
The words "miscarriage of justice" are missing entirely from the current furor, with Kenny MacAskill reassuring the baying mob that the scapegoat will soon face justice from that "higher power." What a disgrace.
www.johnpilger.com
**********************************************************************
The Frame-Up By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
"Was this corporation willing to trade justice in the murder of 270 innocent people for oil profits?” Not too many guesses as to which oil company is under discussion: BP, current epitome of Big Oil at its foulest. But what populist rabble-rousers were posing the question? Look no further than that errand boy of finance capital, New York’s senior senator, Charles Schumer.
On July 13, under Schumer’s senatorial letterhead he and his fellow New York senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, plus Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez of New Jersey, wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, widening the indictment of BP from the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe with the accusation that in 2007, in pursuit of valuable oil leases in Libya, it had twisted the arm of the British Government to arrange the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, convicted in the bombing of Panam flight 103 over the Scottish village of Lockerbie in 1988, with 281 dead.
“We write,” the senators informed Clinton, “to urge the State Department to fully investigate the disturbing news reports linking BP to the deal that allowed for the release of convicted Pan Am Flight 103 bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds. The information that such an investigation would yield is important to fully determine the legitimacy of the decision to release this mass murderer… As you may know, in 2007, BP and the Libyan government agreed upon a $900 million oil exploration deal, following two visits to Libya over the course of three years by then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair. It was reported in September of last year that BP communicated to the British government concerns that possible delays in the release of al-Megrahi could throw the oil deal into jeopardy.”
This coming July 29 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on which Gillibrand and Menendez serve, is scheduled to hold hearings into the circumstances of Megrahi’s release. Already the four senators have elicited a session with Britain’s new prime minister, David Cameron, during his recent visit to Washington DC, to discuss the affair. Cameron swiftly passed the buck to the Scottish authorities, who actually okayed the release of Megrahi last August on the “compassionate” grounds that he had prostate cancer and had only three weeks to live. Megrahi, safely back in Libya remains in fine fettle.
For the four senators, tv footage and news headlines of them flailing away at BP, and odious Libya, were opportunities not to be missed. BP freely admits that amid the 2007 negotiations with Libya –– the company had told the British government that failure to release Megrahi under a Prisoner Transfer Agreement would be a big problem, but insists it played no role in the “compassionate release” – not a formal PTA -- which was the sole decision of the Scottish authorities. Obama, who was very muted at the time of the compassionate release, said last week merely that it had been a "misguided decision" by Scottish authorities and that “most Americans were "surprised, disappointed and angry" about the decision to let al Megrahi go.
It’s hard to conceive of anything surpassing this merry-go-round of grandstanding and self-serving hypocrisy, with the possible exception of BP, which freely admits corporate self-interest in this instance. It was the United States, specifically the CIA, which originally framed Megrahi, because in the late 1980s it was eager to divert the investigation from – of all countries – Iran. It was the Scotch judiciary which bowed to pressure from Westminster to ignore mountains of evidence to the contrary and to convict Megrahi. It was a British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, who colluded with a U.S. President, G.H.W. Bush, in instigating this disgraceful miscarriage of justice. Will the Senate Foreign Relations Committee probe such matters? Of course not. Gillibrand and Menendez will erupt on schedule for the cameras and call it a day.
Megrahi was innocent, framed by the US and British security services. What follows is my brother, Andrew Cockburn’s investigation of the frame-up, which we published in our CounterPunch newsletter just after the original trial.
The original Lockerbie trial took place in 2000, presided over by three Scottish judges who travelled to a courthouse in the Netherlands, convicting Megrahi and acquitting his colleague, Lamen Khalifa Fhimah.
In a trenchant early criticism of the verdict, Hans Koechler, a distinguished Austrian philosopher appointed as one of five international observers at the trial in Zeist, Holland, by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, issued a well-merited denunciation of the judges' bizarre conclusion. “In my opinion,” Koechler said, “there seemed to be considerable political influence on the judges and the verdict.”
Koechler pointed out that the judges found Megrahi guilty even though they themselves admitted that his identification by a Maltese shop owner (summoned by the prosecution to testify that Megrahi bought clothes, later deemed to have been packed in the lethal suitcase bomb) was “not absolute” and that there was a “mass of conflicting evidence.”
Furthermore, Koechler queried the active involvement of senior U.S. Justice Department officials as part of the Scotch prosecution team “in a supervisory role.”
In essence, the case was based (a) on the presumption that the bomb timer on the Pan Am plane was from a batch sold by a Swiss firm to Libya; (b) that fragments of clothing retrieved from the crash site and identified as having been in the suitcase that contained the bomb, had been bought by the accused Megrahi from a shop in Malta; and (c) that a “secret witness,” Abdulmajid Gialka, a former colleague of the accused pair in the Libyan Airlines office in Malta, would testify that he had observed them either constructing the bomb or at least seen them loading on the plane in Frankfurt.
The prosecution was unable to produce evidence to substantiate any of these points or to encourage any confidence in Gialka’s reliability as a witness. The Swiss manufacturer of the timer, Edwin Bollier, testified he had sold timers of a similar type to the East Germans and conceded, in cross-examination by defense lawyers, that he had connections to many intelligence agencies, including not only the Libyans but also the CIA.
By the time of the trial, Gialka had been living under witness protection in the U.S.A. He had received $320,000 from his American hosts and, in the event of conviction of the accused, stood to collect up to $4 million in reward money. He had CIA connections, so the defense lawyers learned, before 1988.
The prosecution's case absolutely depended on proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Megrahi was the man who bought the clothes, traced by police to a Maltese clothes shop. In nineteen separate statements to police prior to the trial the shopkeeper, Tony Gauci, had failed to make a positive identification of Megrahi. In the witness box, Gauci was asked five times if he recognized anyone in the courtroom. No answer. Finally, the exasperated prosecutor pointed to the dock and asked if the man sitting on the left was the customer in question. Even so, the best that Gauci could do was to mumble that “he resembles him.”
Gauci had also told the police that the man who bought the clothes was 6 feet tall and over 50 years of age. Megrahi is 5 feet 8 inches tall, and in late 1988 he was 36. The clothes were bought either on November 23 or December 7, 1988. On an earlier occasion, when shown a photograph of Mohammed Abu Talb, a Palestinian terrorist whom the defense contended was the real bomber, Gauci used almost the same words with more confidence, declaring, according to his brother, that Talb “resembles” the clothes buyer “a lot.” Gauci's identification of Megrahi at the identity parade just before the opening of the trial was with the words, “not exactly the man I saw in the shop. Ten years ago I saw him, but the man who look [sic] a little bit like is the number 5” (Megrahi).
Megrahi was in Malta on December 7 but not on the November date. The shopkeeper recalled that the man who bought the clothes also bought an umbrella because it was raining heavily outside. Maltese meteorological records introduced by the defense showed clearly that while it did rain all day on November 23, there was almost certainly no rain on December 7. If it did rain on that date, the shower would have been barely enough to wet the pavement. Nevertheless, the judges held it proven that Megrahi had bought the clothes on December 7.
No less vital to the prosecution's case was its contention that the bomb that destroyed Pan Am 103 had been loaded as unaccompanied baggage onto an Air Malta flight to Frankfurt, flown on to London, and thence onto the ill-fated flight to New York. In support of this, prosecutors produced a document from Frankfurt airport indicating that a bag had gone from the baggage-handling station, at which the Air Malta bags (along with those from other flights) had been unloaded, and had been sent to the handling station for the relevant flight to London. But there was firm evidence from the defense that all the bags on the Air Malta flight were accompanied and were collected at the other end. Nevertheless, the judges held it proven that the lethal suitcase had indeed come from Malta. When Granada TV broadcast a documentary asserting such a transfer as a fact, Air Malta sued and extracted damages.
The most likely explanation of the judges' decision to convict Megrahi despite the evidence, or lack of it, must be that either they panicked at the thought of the uproar that would ensue on the U.S. end if they let both the Libyans off, or they were simply given their marching orders by high authority in London. English judges are used to doing their duty in this manner – see, for example, the results of various “impartial” judicial inquiries into British atrocities in Northern Ireland over the years, such as Justice Widgery’s whitewash in the immediate aftermath of Bloody Sunday.
In closing arguments, the prosecution stressed the point that Megrahi could not have planted the bomb without the assistance of Fhimah – that both defendants were equally guilty, and should stand or fall together. Nevertheless, the judges elected to find one of the two conspirators guilty and the other one innocent, a split verdict that Koechler found “incomprehensible.” It is, however, entirely comprehensible if we accept that the judges knew there was no evidence to convict either man, but that it was politically imperative for them to convict at least one.
Iran the Likely Sponsor
A former CIA official and friend of CounterPunch back at the time of the original trial in 2000, Andrew continues, notes that he had taken part in the original investigation of the Pan Am 103 bombing. He said that if the original CIA report was ever to be made public, it would provide “damning evidence” that “the Libyans were never directly involved in the Lockerbie bombing.” In fact, the evidence in the CIA’s possession pointed more clearly in the direction of the original suspects in the case, members of a group known as the PFLP-GC, closely linked to Iran.
The Iranians had a clear motive for an attack on an American airliner, following the destruction of an Iranian Airbus over the Persian Gulf carrying 290 passengers, including 66 children, on July 3, 1988. The U.S. Navy missile carrier Vincennes had casually blown it out of the sky despite clear indications it was a civilian plane. Afterwards, the U.S. Navy concealed the fact that the Vincennes had been in Iranian territorial waters at the time, refused to admit error or pay compensation, and handed out medals to the ship’s officers for heroism in combat.
The initial U.S. and British investigations pointed clearly to a case against the Iranians as having contracted with the Lebanon-based PFLP-GC, or a section thereof, to exact retribution. Two months before Lockerbie, the West Germans arrested members of this group outside Dusseldorf as they were preparing bombs specifically designed to bring down airliners. U.S. intelligence had traced a payment of $500,000 into the account of a professional bomber, Abu Talb, in April 1989. A British journalist showed the Maltese shop owner who sold the clothes found in the bomb-suitcase a photo of Talb, and he declared that the man in the photo “most resembled” the purchaser. At one point, the Scottish police were about to charge Talb who had, since 1989, been serving time in a Swedish jail for a series of bomb attacks in Sweden and Denmark.
In March 1989, however, Margaret Thatcher called President G.W.H. Bush to discuss the case. The two leaders agreed it was important to “cool it” on the Iranian angle, since they were in no position to punish the Tehran regime, which had just survived the eight-year war with U.S./U.K.-sponsored Iraq. Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, it became more imperative than ever to obscure any suspicion of Iranian complicity in the Lockerbie bombing, given the importance of Iranian assistance in the upcoming war with Saddam Hussein. Thus the perennial “rogue,” Muammar Al-Qaddafi, was drafted as the suspect of choice.
Another factor probably played a role in the Scotch decision to release him on compassionate grounds last year. Megrahi and his able legal team had been preparing an appeal which would have deeply embarrassing to the Scottish judiciary. But with the release, the thousands of pages of Megrahi’s appeal went into the trash bin and Megrahi will, in the complacent words of a Scottish government spokesman, “die a convicted man”, however long he evades the Reaper.
The irony is that today the U.S. would no doubt be only too eager to finger Iran as the perpetrator. Perhaps that at least might stir Schumer and his colleagues.
http://www.counterpunch.org/ July 23 – July 25, 2010
Jul 20, 2010
HalftheTigerYear
On August 14, 2010 we shall be half way through the year of the tiger. How is it shaping up?
Who pays the piper calls the tune
The US has been stripped of its AAA credit rating. So have Britain, France and Germany...
This morning, the Dagong Global Credit Rating Co., China's first real attempt at a ratings agency, initiated coverage on the sovereign debt of 50 different countries. Dagong analysts claim to give a greater value to nations with the best "wealth-creating capacity" and biggest foreign reserves. They strive to "not be affected by ideology," insisting that "it is the newly-created social wealth that supports the national funding capacity and constitutes the primary source of debt repayment." [Their ratings certainly have a more reasonable appearance than those of Moody who have a very cozy relationship to the companies they rate.]
WWW.AGORAFINANCIAL.COM
Perhaps we should consider these new ratings to be another subtle shot across the bow from the Far East... The Chinese are not nearly as ignorant as most Westerners would want them to be.
But there are larger trends afoot, fellow reckoner. Real estate in the US, for instance, is still trying to find a market-clearing price. Inventories are swelling, including the ominous-sounding "shadow inventory" - properties that would-be sellers are holding back from the market in the hope they'll fetch a better price down the road. And now we learn that the aftershocks of the subprime quake are beginning to ripple through the millionaire's market. You might have seen this quote in yesterday's issue, from The New York Times: “More than one in seven homeowners with loans in excess of a million dollars are seriously delinquent, according to data compiled for The New York Times by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic...”
Maybe the foreigners will buy them up on the cheap, then? Well, them foreigners 'ave got problems of their own, sir...
We can probably count the Europeans out of the game for a little while, at least. Ratings agency Moody's finally downgraded Portugal's sovereign debt rating today, sparking fresh concerns about "contagion" of the continent's ongoing crisis. The agency (which must fairly be in contention for the Christopher Columbus Award for discovering something a long time after a large number of people already knew about it) cited worsening public finances and weak growth outlook as the reason behind their knuckle-rap. Portugal's government finances will continue to deteriorate for "at least another two to three years," Moody's team of clairvoyants announced.
So how about all those cashed-up Asian buyers? Your editor is in Beijing this week, on his second visit to China's capital city. As you might expect, it's pretty hard to get a grasp on what's really going on here. Early this morning we took a taxicab to what we thought was going to be an old "Hutong" - traditionally some of the poorer areas of the city with narrow, snaking alleyways and, in recent years, very low cost housing for migrant workers from the provinces. After a 15-minute drive from our hotel, the taxi driver stopped in front of a shiny new shopping mall. "New China" was all he said before handing us the receipt.” The Daily Reckoning Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill
Multiple cracks and fissures are apparent in the sea floor of the Gulf of Mexico, mostly releasing bubbles of methane. Adolescents lighting each others’ farts have long demonstrated methane to be a very flammable gas. Bill Clinton advocates the Omega Plan, and the Los Alamos laboratories have been recruited to develop it. The Omega Plan is to seal the entire well by means of a nuclear device (a small atomic bomb). It seems certain to create an explosion that should wipe out all of Mexico and most of the continental United States to the Canadian border. The resultant fireball and tsunami will keep the president’s promise to get rid of Guantanamo, however. Areas of the central plains may survive, and hopefully the West Coast, but the New York to Washington power corridor should look much like Baghdad does now if the nuclear option goes ahead.
Individual Initiatives
“WHEN YOU'RE OLD AND DON'T MOVE FAST ANYMORE.
Phillip Hewitson, an elderly man, from Norwich in England, was going up to bed, when his wife told him that he'd left the light on in the garden shed, which she could see from the bedroom window. Phillip opened the back door to go turn off the light, but saw that there were people in the shed stealing things.
He phoned the police, who asked "Is someone in your house?"
He said “No, but some people are breaking into my garden shed and stealing from me.”
The police dispatcher said "All patrols are busy. You should lock your doors and an officer will be along when one is available."
Phillip said, "Okay."
He hung up the phone and counted to 30.
Then he phoned the police again.
"Hello, I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people stealing things from my shed. Well you don't have to worry about them now because I just shot them." and he hung up.
Within five minutes, six police cars, a SWAT team, a helicopter, two fire trucks, a paramedic, and an ambulance showed up at the Hewitson`s' residence, and caught the burglars red-handed.
One of the policemen said to Phillip, "I thought you said that you'd shot them!"
Phillip said, "I thought you said there was nobody available!"
Don't mess with old people”
The most controlled media in the world, in dutiful gridlock lockstep calling all Gaza relief convoys “Pro Palestinian” is concentrating on freak shows at the periphery, such as the inevitability of a Palin/Petraeus presidency to come.
Conclusion
“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” Aleister Crowley (“the man who chose evil”), mountaineer and magician
Update November 9, 2010
One of China’s leading credit rating agencies has downgraded United States of America government debt [from a previous rating of AA+ to A+] in response to what it sees as deliberate devaluation of the dollar by quantitative easing and other means.
If China, now the second biggest economy in the world, stops buying US government bonds this could have a very negative effect on the global recovery. The Dagong Global Credit Rating Company analysis is highly critical of American attempts to borrow their way out of debt. It criticises competitive currency devaluation and predicts a “long-term recession”.
Dagong Global Credit says: “In order to rescue the national crisis, the US government resorted to the extreme economic policy of depreciating the U.S. dollar at all costs and this fully exposes the deep-rooted problem in the development and the management model of national economy.
“It would be difficult for the U.S. to find the correct path to revive the US economy should the US government fail to understand the source of the credit crunch and the development law of a modern credit economy, and stick to the mindset of traditional economic management model, which indicates that the US economic and social development will enter a long-term recession phase.”
The analysis concludes: “The potential overall crisis in the world resulting from the US dollar depreciation will increase the uncertainty of the U.S. economic recovery. Under the circumstances that none of the economic factors influencing the U.S. economy has turned better explicitly it is possible that the US will continue to expand the use of its loose monetary policy, damaging the interests the creditors.
“Therefore, given the current situation, the United States may face much unpredictable risks in solvency in the coming one to two years. Accordingly, Dagong assigns negative outlook on both local and foreign currency sovereign credit ratings of the United States.”
The bombshell follows fears about the outlook for bondholders expressed closer to home by fund managers, including the American giant Merrill Lynch. Max King, global investment strategist at Investec Asset Management, who passed the Chinese note to me said: “Dagong is well respected as an independent credit rating agency which takes a more conservative view than better-known American credit rating agencies.
“It is interesting to see what people with money outside the American sphere of influence think. Until recently, the US had been regarded as beyond reproach but now independent analysts say the position is deteriorating and likely to deteriorate further."
Note
The recent assigning of a AAA credit rating to Great Britain by the US ratings firm Moody's was universally ignored.
Who pays the piper calls the tune
The US has been stripped of its AAA credit rating. So have Britain, France and Germany...
This morning, the Dagong Global Credit Rating Co., China's first real attempt at a ratings agency, initiated coverage on the sovereign debt of 50 different countries. Dagong analysts claim to give a greater value to nations with the best "wealth-creating capacity" and biggest foreign reserves. They strive to "not be affected by ideology," insisting that "it is the newly-created social wealth that supports the national funding capacity and constitutes the primary source of debt repayment." [Their ratings certainly have a more reasonable appearance than those of Moody who have a very cozy relationship to the companies they rate.]
WWW.AGORAFINANCIAL.COM
Perhaps we should consider these new ratings to be another subtle shot across the bow from the Far East... The Chinese are not nearly as ignorant as most Westerners would want them to be.
But there are larger trends afoot, fellow reckoner. Real estate in the US, for instance, is still trying to find a market-clearing price. Inventories are swelling, including the ominous-sounding "shadow inventory" - properties that would-be sellers are holding back from the market in the hope they'll fetch a better price down the road. And now we learn that the aftershocks of the subprime quake are beginning to ripple through the millionaire's market. You might have seen this quote in yesterday's issue, from The New York Times: “More than one in seven homeowners with loans in excess of a million dollars are seriously delinquent, according to data compiled for The New York Times by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic...”
Maybe the foreigners will buy them up on the cheap, then? Well, them foreigners 'ave got problems of their own, sir...
We can probably count the Europeans out of the game for a little while, at least. Ratings agency Moody's finally downgraded Portugal's sovereign debt rating today, sparking fresh concerns about "contagion" of the continent's ongoing crisis. The agency (which must fairly be in contention for the Christopher Columbus Award for discovering something a long time after a large number of people already knew about it) cited worsening public finances and weak growth outlook as the reason behind their knuckle-rap. Portugal's government finances will continue to deteriorate for "at least another two to three years," Moody's team of clairvoyants announced.
So how about all those cashed-up Asian buyers? Your editor is in Beijing this week, on his second visit to China's capital city. As you might expect, it's pretty hard to get a grasp on what's really going on here. Early this morning we took a taxicab to what we thought was going to be an old "Hutong" - traditionally some of the poorer areas of the city with narrow, snaking alleyways and, in recent years, very low cost housing for migrant workers from the provinces. After a 15-minute drive from our hotel, the taxi driver stopped in front of a shiny new shopping mall. "New China" was all he said before handing us the receipt.” The Daily Reckoning Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill
Multiple cracks and fissures are apparent in the sea floor of the Gulf of Mexico, mostly releasing bubbles of methane. Adolescents lighting each others’ farts have long demonstrated methane to be a very flammable gas. Bill Clinton advocates the Omega Plan, and the Los Alamos laboratories have been recruited to develop it. The Omega Plan is to seal the entire well by means of a nuclear device (a small atomic bomb). It seems certain to create an explosion that should wipe out all of Mexico and most of the continental United States to the Canadian border. The resultant fireball and tsunami will keep the president’s promise to get rid of Guantanamo, however. Areas of the central plains may survive, and hopefully the West Coast, but the New York to Washington power corridor should look much like Baghdad does now if the nuclear option goes ahead.
Individual Initiatives
“WHEN YOU'RE OLD AND DON'T MOVE FAST ANYMORE.
Phillip Hewitson, an elderly man, from Norwich in England, was going up to bed, when his wife told him that he'd left the light on in the garden shed, which she could see from the bedroom window. Phillip opened the back door to go turn off the light, but saw that there were people in the shed stealing things.
He phoned the police, who asked "Is someone in your house?"
He said “No, but some people are breaking into my garden shed and stealing from me.”
The police dispatcher said "All patrols are busy. You should lock your doors and an officer will be along when one is available."
Phillip said, "Okay."
He hung up the phone and counted to 30.
Then he phoned the police again.
"Hello, I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people stealing things from my shed. Well you don't have to worry about them now because I just shot them." and he hung up.
Within five minutes, six police cars, a SWAT team, a helicopter, two fire trucks, a paramedic, and an ambulance showed up at the Hewitson`s' residence, and caught the burglars red-handed.
One of the policemen said to Phillip, "I thought you said that you'd shot them!"
Phillip said, "I thought you said there was nobody available!"
Don't mess with old people”
The most controlled media in the world, in dutiful gridlock lockstep calling all Gaza relief convoys “Pro Palestinian” is concentrating on freak shows at the periphery, such as the inevitability of a Palin/Petraeus presidency to come.
Conclusion
“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” Aleister Crowley (“the man who chose evil”), mountaineer and magician
Update November 9, 2010
One of China’s leading credit rating agencies has downgraded United States of America government debt [from a previous rating of AA+ to A+] in response to what it sees as deliberate devaluation of the dollar by quantitative easing and other means.
If China, now the second biggest economy in the world, stops buying US government bonds this could have a very negative effect on the global recovery. The Dagong Global Credit Rating Company analysis is highly critical of American attempts to borrow their way out of debt. It criticises competitive currency devaluation and predicts a “long-term recession”.
Dagong Global Credit says: “In order to rescue the national crisis, the US government resorted to the extreme economic policy of depreciating the U.S. dollar at all costs and this fully exposes the deep-rooted problem in the development and the management model of national economy.
“It would be difficult for the U.S. to find the correct path to revive the US economy should the US government fail to understand the source of the credit crunch and the development law of a modern credit economy, and stick to the mindset of traditional economic management model, which indicates that the US economic and social development will enter a long-term recession phase.”
The analysis concludes: “The potential overall crisis in the world resulting from the US dollar depreciation will increase the uncertainty of the U.S. economic recovery. Under the circumstances that none of the economic factors influencing the U.S. economy has turned better explicitly it is possible that the US will continue to expand the use of its loose monetary policy, damaging the interests the creditors.
“Therefore, given the current situation, the United States may face much unpredictable risks in solvency in the coming one to two years. Accordingly, Dagong assigns negative outlook on both local and foreign currency sovereign credit ratings of the United States.”
The bombshell follows fears about the outlook for bondholders expressed closer to home by fund managers, including the American giant Merrill Lynch. Max King, global investment strategist at Investec Asset Management, who passed the Chinese note to me said: “Dagong is well respected as an independent credit rating agency which takes a more conservative view than better-known American credit rating agencies.
“It is interesting to see what people with money outside the American sphere of influence think. Until recently, the US had been regarded as beyond reproach but now independent analysts say the position is deteriorating and likely to deteriorate further."
Note
The recent assigning of a AAA credit rating to Great Britain by the US ratings firm Moody's was universally ignored.
Jul 7, 2010
Theweekandthegods
Sunday
Day of the Sun
Monday
Day of the Moon
Lundi from Lune
Tuesday
Day of the god of war
Tiu the one handed was Norse god of war
Mardi for Mars Day
Wednesday
Woden’s Day, from Norse Odin
Mercredi for Mercury’s day, Greek Hermes, conductor of the dead, god of secret knowledge
Thursday
Thor’s day from Norse
Jeudi for Jupiter’s day
Day of the thug
Friday
Freya’s day from Norse, goddess of love and beauty
Vendredi from Venus Day
Saturday
Saturn’s day, the less said about which, the better.
From the above list it is clear that the Norse (northern, Scandinavian) and the southern European nations (like the Greeks and Romans) were in perfect agreement about which days of the week belonged to which gods. The names are the Scandinavian names in English, and the Greek and Roman names in French, but the gods are recognizably the same.
Sometimes the language makes little or no difference. Sunday for the day of the sun, Monday for the day of the moon, and Friday for the goddess of love and beauty are recognizably the same whether we call the goddess Freya or Venus. It is only in the central three, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday that some interesting differences begin to emerge.
Sometimes these are just local tribal differences. Tiu the Norse god of war was one handed because he agreed to put his hand in the mouth of Fenrir the wolf when Fenrir agreed to let the gods bind him with the magic chain made of the sound of a cat’s footfall and other things which don’t exist, as a guarantee. The gods had no intention of taking the chain off once they had bound Fenrir, of course, and the price was Tiu’s hand. That the god of war is one handed sheds some interesting light on war.
What is most revealing is the different places occupied by Jupiter (or Thor) and Odin (or Mercury.)
If you happen to live in a warm fertile sort of place, where food and good looking women are easily available, the thug, the large muscular bully boy in the employ of the local war lord, the launcher of thunder bolts, is a fearsome figure. What do you call a six foot black man with a machine gun? You call him “Sir,” without any manner of doubt.
Now go and read Jack London’s story “To light a fire,” where a lonesome traveler in the frozen north tries to get his rapidly freezing fingers to work for long and efficiently enough to get a fire going. If he succeeds, he lives, at least for a bit longer; if he doesn’t, he doesn’t.
See why the possessor of secret knowledge, a figure of fun in warmer climes, might be the most highly valued asset in the frozen north?
In the frozen north it is Thor the thunderer, Jupiter the lord of hosts, who is the figure of fun. In the hall of the ice giants Thor is beaten in a wrestling match by an old woman. That she is later revealed to be old age, which nothing and no one can beat, displays a wisdom of a different kind.
Day of the Sun
Monday
Day of the Moon
Lundi from Lune
Tuesday
Day of the god of war
Tiu the one handed was Norse god of war
Mardi for Mars Day
Wednesday
Woden’s Day, from Norse Odin
Mercredi for Mercury’s day, Greek Hermes, conductor of the dead, god of secret knowledge
Thursday
Thor’s day from Norse
Jeudi for Jupiter’s day
Day of the thug
Friday
Freya’s day from Norse, goddess of love and beauty
Vendredi from Venus Day
Saturday
Saturn’s day, the less said about which, the better.
From the above list it is clear that the Norse (northern, Scandinavian) and the southern European nations (like the Greeks and Romans) were in perfect agreement about which days of the week belonged to which gods. The names are the Scandinavian names in English, and the Greek and Roman names in French, but the gods are recognizably the same.
Sometimes the language makes little or no difference. Sunday for the day of the sun, Monday for the day of the moon, and Friday for the goddess of love and beauty are recognizably the same whether we call the goddess Freya or Venus. It is only in the central three, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday that some interesting differences begin to emerge.
Sometimes these are just local tribal differences. Tiu the Norse god of war was one handed because he agreed to put his hand in the mouth of Fenrir the wolf when Fenrir agreed to let the gods bind him with the magic chain made of the sound of a cat’s footfall and other things which don’t exist, as a guarantee. The gods had no intention of taking the chain off once they had bound Fenrir, of course, and the price was Tiu’s hand. That the god of war is one handed sheds some interesting light on war.
What is most revealing is the different places occupied by Jupiter (or Thor) and Odin (or Mercury.)
If you happen to live in a warm fertile sort of place, where food and good looking women are easily available, the thug, the large muscular bully boy in the employ of the local war lord, the launcher of thunder bolts, is a fearsome figure. What do you call a six foot black man with a machine gun? You call him “Sir,” without any manner of doubt.
Now go and read Jack London’s story “To light a fire,” where a lonesome traveler in the frozen north tries to get his rapidly freezing fingers to work for long and efficiently enough to get a fire going. If he succeeds, he lives, at least for a bit longer; if he doesn’t, he doesn’t.
See why the possessor of secret knowledge, a figure of fun in warmer climes, might be the most highly valued asset in the frozen north?
In the frozen north it is Thor the thunderer, Jupiter the lord of hosts, who is the figure of fun. In the hall of the ice giants Thor is beaten in a wrestling match by an old woman. That she is later revealed to be old age, which nothing and no one can beat, displays a wisdom of a different kind.
Jul 4, 2010
Ashortsummaryofworldhistory
In 510 AD, the Romans started to withdraw their troops from Britain to defend Rome itself, but they had been losing control of much of Europe for some time before that.
During this time of ebbing Roman control, a Turkic tribe from the plains of Mongolia, where the generals on the losing side are boiled alive, trekked into Europe, bringing their tribal habits with them.
They established their capital at Ilit, on the shores of the Caspian Sea, with a Christian state for neighbors on one side, and a Moslem state on the other. Choosing one side meant being attacked by the other, and so in 742 AD they opted to convert to Judaism en masse, a traditional bridge between Christians and Moslems. The move succeeded brilliantly.
The lineal descendants of Abraham, Moses and the other people in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, known as Sephardi, currently number about half a million world wide. The Turkic tribe from Mongolia, known as Ashkenazi, currently number about twelve million world wide.
The Sephardi provided all the great Jewish scholars like Moses Maimonides in Moslem Spain. The Ashkenazi established the Khazar empire – empires can be quite small – and provided the large Jewish populations in Poland and other eastern European countries.
The Ashkenazi also provide the Zionist movement and the rulers of the state of Israel.
From Rense.com, below are some more recent events:
www.rense.com
Six Days That Changed Everything! By Jim Kirwan 6-10-10
Today marks the forty-third anniversary of the 1967, six day war that changed the military and political world forever. The history of events that transpired during that war literally upended the global power structure that had been operative until that point. This article will attempt to clarify the treasons committed by Lyndon Johnson and his administration when he became a traitor to this country that he was supposedly leading during the six-day war.
To understand Johnson's actions it is necessary to go back to JFK's final days, in 1962 before his assassination, when he was dealing with Israel's Ambassador to the US. Kennedy had summoned the Ambassador to a small White House office with only RFK in attendance.
The public might remember that during the Watergate hearings the fact that JFK had installed the now infamous taping-system that gave the world the Watergate tapes. Because of the existence of those clandestine tapes much of what took place at this meeting between these men could be known. The topic of this particular clandestine meeting was Kennedy's determination to inspect the nuclear facilities of Israel, at Dimona, for evidence of Israel's development of offensive nuclear weapons. (the 'inspection' under discussion never took place but the death of JFK is a matter of historical record).
"JFK: Now-the problem of your government's nuclear weapons site at Dimona is of great concern. I have told you many times now that I want our American inspectors to be allowed in regularly so we can find out
AMBASSADOR: No! Israel is a sovereign nation! A nation at war!
Have you forgotten that your inspectors were allowed inside Dimona in May of last year? For an entire day, I would remind you! No further American inspections will be allowed at Dimona, Mr. President, and that is final!
JFK: There is no war now! If you don't want Americans, we can approach a neutral nation to send inspectors! I insist that the Dimona Nuclear Site be opened to scheduled, outside inspection!
AMBASSADOR: With respect, Sir, you do not understand! Israel is ALWAYS at war! No foreigners will EVER be allowed to see the workings of Dimona Nuclear Site on some schedule they might demand!
AMBASSADOR: With respect, Sir, you do not understand! Israel is ALWAYS at war! No foreigners will EVER be allowed to see the workings of Dimona Nuclear Site on some schedule they might demand!
RFK: Sir, the president has authorized me to advise you that he will seek to cut off American aid for Israel until our inspectors have been allowed in at Dimona. We know you are producing offensive nuclear weapons there!
AMBASSADOR: That that is not a good decision, Sir! It may cost your brother-- dearly! Israel's enemies-all of them-- will be crushed!"
It is against this background that one must begin to evaluate what happened during the six day war throughout the Middle-East.
When the six day war began Israel's coastal waters were the same as every other nation twelve miles from their coast. As Israel's war grew to include Israel's attack upon Egypt; Israel unilaterally declared a one-hundred mile stretch of the Mediterranean as Israeli territorial waters in which they could attack anything they wished to, because "they were at war." The United States ship the USS Liberty, a spy ship, was sailing on station inside that exclusion zone and yet the US government did not advise the Liberty of Israel's unilateral decision to destroy anything, not Israeli, that was operating in those waters. The consensus was that Israel and the US were allies; so the Liberty would not be in danger.
What was unknown to the US at the time was that Israel had targeted the Liberty precisely because her sophisticated listening devices were monitoring everything that Israel was doing in the war; and that Israel did not consider that she had any allies; that everyone was her enemy and anyone that might be able to prove that fact would need to be destroyed. So the fate of the USS Liberty had to be sunk, with all hands so that there would be no evidence of the actual Israeli treachery involved.
The sinking of the Liberty was to have been blamed on the Egyptians in order to get America to attack Egypt and thus give Israel that which she was unable to get for herself: A total military victory over Egypt.
Again the history is important. It seems that LBJ and Mossad had a working relationship while Johnson was Vice-President and money had changed hands. This was the Israeli-Ace-in-the-hole, so that when the time came Israel demanded payment for their help with Johnson's problems that were magically solved by JFK's murder. To this end a Mossad agent summoned Johnson to a secret meeting-room beneath the White House.
"JOHNSON: You wanted to meet? Why?
MOSSAD AGENT: The time has come, Mr. President, a time of great danger, a time upon which the hinge of history will turn-a time of great sacrificefor everyone, I mean
JOHNSON: Say it!
MOSSADAGENT: Very well. We have destroyed the Egyptian and Syrian Air Forces and we occupy the Sinai. Our army is poised on the east bank of the Suez Canal! We are still not sure how many weapons and men the Egyptians have in reserve-possibly enough to maul or even repel our forces in a stand-up fight. We cannot be certainWe want your Navy and Air Force to attack the Egyptians so there will be no
JOHNSON:God-dammit, why? We have no argument with those sand niggers!
MOSSAD AGENT: There is also the matter of your ship, the spy ship off our coast listening to our communications...the LIBERTY...
JOHNSON: Shit!
Listen, motherfawker, everybody in the fckin' world has those ships! We're not gonna stop you! Do what the fawk you think you have to do. I told you, we have no argument with any god-damn rag-heads right now!
[Every major nation has these spy ships this is very similar to attacking other nation's embassies. It is not permissible to attack other nation's spies, because that would invite the same response to one's own spy-ships, so It's just not something that other nations do to each other Israel in this case felt justified because they are ISRAEL, and they are always 'at War' everywhere in the world.]
MOSSAD AGENT: If that ship wereattacked, ahhh we feel that a response should, ahhhh would be forthcoming from the United States
I mean-that your forces could, let us say contain the Egyptians, while we go about the business of ...ahhh expanding our nation's territory. We want the Golan, the Sinai, the West Bank, Jerusalem mmmm, for the future and national security of the Jewish people, of course, and
JOHNSON: Them fckin' Egyptians know better than to attack us! We'd destroy them!
MOSSAD AGENT: We will do the attacking, Mr. President. It is only one ship a very small ship and not well armed at that, as you know. We have photos. It would only take a few minutes, we feel not long, really. After we sink her, you could go on television say it was the Egyptians... Your Navy and Air Force could hold them at bay if you strike rapidly at their rear and bomb Cairo when we start our advance across the Canal They have no planes left to fly. It is for Israel! Of course...there will be no survivors to... tell a different story...we will see to that...
JOHNSON: What the fawk! What are you saying, you cocksucker! You crazy bastard! I'll kick your ass myself, by God! Right here and now! Bomb Cairo? fawk you!
MOSSAD AGENT: You owe us, Mr. President! You owe us everything! Everything-the White House, the presidency-everything. I said everything! I am here to collect ! Now, NOW is the time to pay! Remember, we control your corporate media...
JOHNSON: Alright. But as God is my witness, there can be no survivors! You understand? I'll deny it all if anyone is left alive to talk! You understand me?
MOSSAD AGENT: Of course, Mr. President. Certainly I, that is --we... understand. We will make it brief and as... painless... as possible. There will be no survivors. We will see to it!
JOHNSON: Get out! Get the fawk out of here! Now!"
And it was this critical series of facts concerning the factual-culpability of LBJ that led directly to the attack upon the USS Liberty and to the deaths and injuries suffered in that attack 43 years ago today; (1)
However Israel despite all of its oversized hatreds and military deceptions was unable to sink the USS Liberty which led directly to the US military failures created by Johnson and the then Secretary of Defense McNamara that should have resulted in the impeachment of Johnson and the prosecution of everyone involved in forciong the recall of the Navy fighters that had been sent to rescue the men of the embattled and unarmed USS Liberty. Here's how that went down.
"SIGNALMAN: Schematic (Sixth Fleet) this is Rockstar (USS Liberty). We are being attacked by aircraft. I just saw one with Israeli markings. Help us! Do you read? Help us!
SARATOGA SIGNALMAN: Rockstar, this is Schematic. I don't read you clearly. Repeat your message
LIBERTY SIGNALMAN: Repeat. We are under attack by aircraft, some showing the Star of David! We need help!
SARATOGA SIGNALMAN: Rockstar, I read you. Authenticate. Repeat, authenticate.
LIBERTY SIGNALMAN: Authenticate? Shit! Shit!
Oscar Quebec! Oscar Quebec, SARATOGA! Oscar Quebec, for Christ's sake! You read me?
SARATOGA SIGNALMAN: I read you, Rockstar. You are under attack! I will stand by for further traffic. ...SARATOGA SIGNALMAN: Take this to the bridge! Now!
And later on. . . LIBERTY SIGNALMAN: Schematic, we are still under
strong attack by aircraft. We need help!
SARATOGA SIGNALMAN: Rockstar, your message has been relayed
SARATOGA SIGNALMAN: Authenticate
LIBERTY SIGNALMAN: (kicking open the doorway to let in the sounds of the attackLiberty says) Authenticate this, you jackass!
The SARATOGA SIGNALMAN listens to his receiver, amazed at the loud series of thudding sounds and fierce explosions coming over the
airwaves as the latest attack unfolds. At last, he is chastened.)
SARATOGA SIGNALMAN: Yes Rockstar, authentication accepted."
On the USS Saratoga the Admiral at 2:20 pm issues orders:
"Scramble the duty squadron! We have a ship under attack!" and then reports his actions to DOD.
ADMIRAL: Phantoms launched, DOD COMMAND. Responding to air attack on USSLIBERTY!"
McNamara, inside DOD answers almost immediately.
"SARATOGA! DOD Command to USS SARATOGA! Come in!
This is the USS SARATOGA!
(At 2:26 pm) This is DEFENSE SECRETARY Mc NAMARA! Recall all planes! Bring them back at once. Do you read me?
ADMIRAL: But Mr. SECRETARY, one of our ships has been attacked! They say they're afire and have dead and wounded!
McNAMARA: What do you plan to do?
ADMIRAL: We're going to find out who is attacking our ship, Sir. Then we'll...
McNAMARA: By God, you bring those planes back now! Do you hear me?
ADMIRAL: Roger!"
After Israeli torpedo boats have attacked the Liberty and hit it with one torpedo, Israeli helicopters with troops on-board begin to circle the dying US ship.
"SIGNALMAN to SARATOGA: Help!
Helicopters circling with possible boarding crews! Are you gonna help us or not? Where the fawk you at?"
On the Saratoga at 3:45 pm
"ADMIRAL: Launch a squadron!
Tell the AMERICA I want a squadron launched. Send them to the last known position of theLIBERTY!
SAILOR: Yes Sir!
ADMIRAL: DOD COMMAND. This is SARATOGA. Do you copy
MCNAMARA: Come in, SARATOGA!
ADMIRAL: We have launched a second squadron and I have ordered the USS AMERICA to launch a squadron. Our planes will provide air cover above the USS LIBERTY, the ship under attack. Our men report seeing Israeli markings on both the boats and planes firing at them.
McNAMARA God-dammit, NO! YOU WILL ORDER ALL AIRCRAFT BACK TO BASE! SOME OF THEM MAY BE ARMED WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS! DO YOU READ ME! ANSWER! (Johnson was present with McNamara)
ADMIRAL: Mr. SECRETARY, we are in a battle zone! We have a US vessel attacked and burning with many wounded aboard. I think it might have been the Israelis! Do you read me?
JOHNSON: ADMIRAL, this is the president. Do you recognize my voice?
ADMIRAL: Yes, Sir.
JOHNSON: This can all be explained. It is...ahhhh...a tragic mistake. Bring all of your planes back to base. I will not embarrass an ally! Do you read me, ADMIRAL?
ADMIRAL: Yes Sir.
JOHNSON: Very well. Help the wounded as best you can.
ADMIRAL: (to a sailor on deck) Call all planes back here. "
This treason and its cover-up by a sitting president is what Americans were not allowed to know about for the last 43 years.
However the whole story of the Liberty was also integral in the power shift which the six-day war created based upon Israel's understanding of the failure of American arms in both Korea and in Vietnam, which Israel took to mean that the USA was finished as a leader in the world. So using deception and blackmail Israel decided to take over from the US and keep us hobbled through corruption and the cowardice of our leaders that has led the world directly to the events of the last week when Israel decided again to kill people blatantly and viciously, with US collaboration, for their actions even before they boarded any of the ships in the Freedom Flotilla. (2)
I began my career in political commentary with an attempted unpublished expose on the Johnson administration (long before the internet), but if I had had any real knowledge of what that war-criminal and thoroughly corrupt politician had been up to then, I think perhaps an entirely different outcome might have taken place then instead of now. (3)
However given the fact that most of America seems to have taken up permanent residence beneath some very heavy rocks of ignorance in order to hide from the truth of what has been happening at least throughout the first ten years of this new millennium-it would seem unlikely that even small bits of the raw proof against this traitor and collaborator with our enemies, who was a president at the time, might not be enough to cause any real change in the attitudes of the public here.
I don't really expect this to change anything substantially-I just want the willfully ignorant to know exactly what it is that they have been ignoring for the last forty-three consecutive years!
Happy Anniversary Amerika!
kirwanstudios@sbcglobal.net
Golda Meir, then prime minister of Israel, stated quite openly in an interview on BBC that the Israeli government would destroy the entire planet earth if ever there was a real danger of the state of Israel being removed or seriously threatened, and all subsequent Israeli rulers have repeated that statement, if only to encourage submission to their demands.
During this time of ebbing Roman control, a Turkic tribe from the plains of Mongolia, where the generals on the losing side are boiled alive, trekked into Europe, bringing their tribal habits with them.
They established their capital at Ilit, on the shores of the Caspian Sea, with a Christian state for neighbors on one side, and a Moslem state on the other. Choosing one side meant being attacked by the other, and so in 742 AD they opted to convert to Judaism en masse, a traditional bridge between Christians and Moslems. The move succeeded brilliantly.
The lineal descendants of Abraham, Moses and the other people in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, known as Sephardi, currently number about half a million world wide. The Turkic tribe from Mongolia, known as Ashkenazi, currently number about twelve million world wide.
The Sephardi provided all the great Jewish scholars like Moses Maimonides in Moslem Spain. The Ashkenazi established the Khazar empire – empires can be quite small – and provided the large Jewish populations in Poland and other eastern European countries.
The Ashkenazi also provide the Zionist movement and the rulers of the state of Israel.
From Rense.com, below are some more recent events:
www.rense.com
Six Days That Changed Everything! By Jim Kirwan 6-10-10
Today marks the forty-third anniversary of the 1967, six day war that changed the military and political world forever. The history of events that transpired during that war literally upended the global power structure that had been operative until that point. This article will attempt to clarify the treasons committed by Lyndon Johnson and his administration when he became a traitor to this country that he was supposedly leading during the six-day war.
To understand Johnson's actions it is necessary to go back to JFK's final days, in 1962 before his assassination, when he was dealing with Israel's Ambassador to the US. Kennedy had summoned the Ambassador to a small White House office with only RFK in attendance.
The public might remember that during the Watergate hearings the fact that JFK had installed the now infamous taping-system that gave the world the Watergate tapes. Because of the existence of those clandestine tapes much of what took place at this meeting between these men could be known. The topic of this particular clandestine meeting was Kennedy's determination to inspect the nuclear facilities of Israel, at Dimona, for evidence of Israel's development of offensive nuclear weapons. (the 'inspection' under discussion never took place but the death of JFK is a matter of historical record).
"JFK: Now-the problem of your government's nuclear weapons site at Dimona is of great concern. I have told you many times now that I want our American inspectors to be allowed in regularly so we can find out
AMBASSADOR: No! Israel is a sovereign nation! A nation at war!
Have you forgotten that your inspectors were allowed inside Dimona in May of last year? For an entire day, I would remind you! No further American inspections will be allowed at Dimona, Mr. President, and that is final!
JFK: There is no war now! If you don't want Americans, we can approach a neutral nation to send inspectors! I insist that the Dimona Nuclear Site be opened to scheduled, outside inspection!
AMBASSADOR: With respect, Sir, you do not understand! Israel is ALWAYS at war! No foreigners will EVER be allowed to see the workings of Dimona Nuclear Site on some schedule they might demand!
AMBASSADOR: With respect, Sir, you do not understand! Israel is ALWAYS at war! No foreigners will EVER be allowed to see the workings of Dimona Nuclear Site on some schedule they might demand!
RFK: Sir, the president has authorized me to advise you that he will seek to cut off American aid for Israel until our inspectors have been allowed in at Dimona. We know you are producing offensive nuclear weapons there!
AMBASSADOR: That that is not a good decision, Sir! It may cost your brother-- dearly! Israel's enemies-all of them-- will be crushed!"
It is against this background that one must begin to evaluate what happened during the six day war throughout the Middle-East.
When the six day war began Israel's coastal waters were the same as every other nation twelve miles from their coast. As Israel's war grew to include Israel's attack upon Egypt; Israel unilaterally declared a one-hundred mile stretch of the Mediterranean as Israeli territorial waters in which they could attack anything they wished to, because "they were at war." The United States ship the USS Liberty, a spy ship, was sailing on station inside that exclusion zone and yet the US government did not advise the Liberty of Israel's unilateral decision to destroy anything, not Israeli, that was operating in those waters. The consensus was that Israel and the US were allies; so the Liberty would not be in danger.
What was unknown to the US at the time was that Israel had targeted the Liberty precisely because her sophisticated listening devices were monitoring everything that Israel was doing in the war; and that Israel did not consider that she had any allies; that everyone was her enemy and anyone that might be able to prove that fact would need to be destroyed. So the fate of the USS Liberty had to be sunk, with all hands so that there would be no evidence of the actual Israeli treachery involved.
The sinking of the Liberty was to have been blamed on the Egyptians in order to get America to attack Egypt and thus give Israel that which she was unable to get for herself: A total military victory over Egypt.
Again the history is important. It seems that LBJ and Mossad had a working relationship while Johnson was Vice-President and money had changed hands. This was the Israeli-Ace-in-the-hole, so that when the time came Israel demanded payment for their help with Johnson's problems that were magically solved by JFK's murder. To this end a Mossad agent summoned Johnson to a secret meeting-room beneath the White House.
"JOHNSON: You wanted to meet? Why?
MOSSAD AGENT: The time has come, Mr. President, a time of great danger, a time upon which the hinge of history will turn-a time of great sacrificefor everyone, I mean
JOHNSON: Say it!
MOSSADAGENT: Very well. We have destroyed the Egyptian and Syrian Air Forces and we occupy the Sinai. Our army is poised on the east bank of the Suez Canal! We are still not sure how many weapons and men the Egyptians have in reserve-possibly enough to maul or even repel our forces in a stand-up fight. We cannot be certainWe want your Navy and Air Force to attack the Egyptians so there will be no
JOHNSON:God-dammit, why? We have no argument with those sand niggers!
MOSSAD AGENT: There is also the matter of your ship, the spy ship off our coast listening to our communications...the LIBERTY...
JOHNSON: Shit!
Listen, motherfawker, everybody in the fckin' world has those ships! We're not gonna stop you! Do what the fawk you think you have to do. I told you, we have no argument with any god-damn rag-heads right now!
[Every major nation has these spy ships this is very similar to attacking other nation's embassies. It is not permissible to attack other nation's spies, because that would invite the same response to one's own spy-ships, so It's just not something that other nations do to each other Israel in this case felt justified because they are ISRAEL, and they are always 'at War' everywhere in the world.]
MOSSAD AGENT: If that ship wereattacked, ahhh we feel that a response should, ahhhh would be forthcoming from the United States
I mean-that your forces could, let us say contain the Egyptians, while we go about the business of ...ahhh expanding our nation's territory. We want the Golan, the Sinai, the West Bank, Jerusalem mmmm, for the future and national security of the Jewish people, of course, and
JOHNSON: Them fckin' Egyptians know better than to attack us! We'd destroy them!
MOSSAD AGENT: We will do the attacking, Mr. President. It is only one ship a very small ship and not well armed at that, as you know. We have photos. It would only take a few minutes, we feel not long, really. After we sink her, you could go on television say it was the Egyptians... Your Navy and Air Force could hold them at bay if you strike rapidly at their rear and bomb Cairo when we start our advance across the Canal They have no planes left to fly. It is for Israel! Of course...there will be no survivors to... tell a different story...we will see to that...
JOHNSON: What the fawk! What are you saying, you cocksucker! You crazy bastard! I'll kick your ass myself, by God! Right here and now! Bomb Cairo? fawk you!
MOSSAD AGENT: You owe us, Mr. President! You owe us everything! Everything-the White House, the presidency-everything. I said everything! I am here to collect ! Now, NOW is the time to pay! Remember, we control your corporate media...
JOHNSON: Alright. But as God is my witness, there can be no survivors! You understand? I'll deny it all if anyone is left alive to talk! You understand me?
MOSSAD AGENT: Of course, Mr. President. Certainly I, that is --we... understand. We will make it brief and as... painless... as possible. There will be no survivors. We will see to it!
JOHNSON: Get out! Get the fawk out of here! Now!"
And it was this critical series of facts concerning the factual-culpability of LBJ that led directly to the attack upon the USS Liberty and to the deaths and injuries suffered in that attack 43 years ago today; (1)
However Israel despite all of its oversized hatreds and military deceptions was unable to sink the USS Liberty which led directly to the US military failures created by Johnson and the then Secretary of Defense McNamara that should have resulted in the impeachment of Johnson and the prosecution of everyone involved in forciong the recall of the Navy fighters that had been sent to rescue the men of the embattled and unarmed USS Liberty. Here's how that went down.
"SIGNALMAN: Schematic (Sixth Fleet) this is Rockstar (USS Liberty). We are being attacked by aircraft. I just saw one with Israeli markings. Help us! Do you read? Help us!
SARATOGA SIGNALMAN: Rockstar, this is Schematic. I don't read you clearly. Repeat your message
LIBERTY SIGNALMAN: Repeat. We are under attack by aircraft, some showing the Star of David! We need help!
SARATOGA SIGNALMAN: Rockstar, I read you. Authenticate. Repeat, authenticate.
LIBERTY SIGNALMAN: Authenticate? Shit! Shit!
Oscar Quebec! Oscar Quebec, SARATOGA! Oscar Quebec, for Christ's sake! You read me?
SARATOGA SIGNALMAN: I read you, Rockstar. You are under attack! I will stand by for further traffic. ...SARATOGA SIGNALMAN: Take this to the bridge! Now!
And later on. . . LIBERTY SIGNALMAN: Schematic, we are still under
strong attack by aircraft. We need help!
SARATOGA SIGNALMAN: Rockstar, your message has been relayed
SARATOGA SIGNALMAN: Authenticate
LIBERTY SIGNALMAN: (kicking open the doorway to let in the sounds of the attackLiberty says) Authenticate this, you jackass!
The SARATOGA SIGNALMAN listens to his receiver, amazed at the loud series of thudding sounds and fierce explosions coming over the
airwaves as the latest attack unfolds. At last, he is chastened.)
SARATOGA SIGNALMAN: Yes Rockstar, authentication accepted."
On the USS Saratoga the Admiral at 2:20 pm issues orders:
"Scramble the duty squadron! We have a ship under attack!" and then reports his actions to DOD.
ADMIRAL: Phantoms launched, DOD COMMAND. Responding to air attack on USSLIBERTY!"
McNamara, inside DOD answers almost immediately.
"SARATOGA! DOD Command to USS SARATOGA! Come in!
This is the USS SARATOGA!
(At 2:26 pm) This is DEFENSE SECRETARY Mc NAMARA! Recall all planes! Bring them back at once. Do you read me?
ADMIRAL: But Mr. SECRETARY, one of our ships has been attacked! They say they're afire and have dead and wounded!
McNAMARA: What do you plan to do?
ADMIRAL: We're going to find out who is attacking our ship, Sir. Then we'll...
McNAMARA: By God, you bring those planes back now! Do you hear me?
ADMIRAL: Roger!"
After Israeli torpedo boats have attacked the Liberty and hit it with one torpedo, Israeli helicopters with troops on-board begin to circle the dying US ship.
"SIGNALMAN to SARATOGA: Help!
Helicopters circling with possible boarding crews! Are you gonna help us or not? Where the fawk you at?"
On the Saratoga at 3:45 pm
"ADMIRAL: Launch a squadron!
Tell the AMERICA I want a squadron launched. Send them to the last known position of theLIBERTY!
SAILOR: Yes Sir!
ADMIRAL: DOD COMMAND. This is SARATOGA. Do you copy
MCNAMARA: Come in, SARATOGA!
ADMIRAL: We have launched a second squadron and I have ordered the USS AMERICA to launch a squadron. Our planes will provide air cover above the USS LIBERTY, the ship under attack. Our men report seeing Israeli markings on both the boats and planes firing at them.
McNAMARA God-dammit, NO! YOU WILL ORDER ALL AIRCRAFT BACK TO BASE! SOME OF THEM MAY BE ARMED WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS! DO YOU READ ME! ANSWER! (Johnson was present with McNamara)
ADMIRAL: Mr. SECRETARY, we are in a battle zone! We have a US vessel attacked and burning with many wounded aboard. I think it might have been the Israelis! Do you read me?
JOHNSON: ADMIRAL, this is the president. Do you recognize my voice?
ADMIRAL: Yes, Sir.
JOHNSON: This can all be explained. It is...ahhhh...a tragic mistake. Bring all of your planes back to base. I will not embarrass an ally! Do you read me, ADMIRAL?
ADMIRAL: Yes Sir.
JOHNSON: Very well. Help the wounded as best you can.
ADMIRAL: (to a sailor on deck) Call all planes back here. "
This treason and its cover-up by a sitting president is what Americans were not allowed to know about for the last 43 years.
However the whole story of the Liberty was also integral in the power shift which the six-day war created based upon Israel's understanding of the failure of American arms in both Korea and in Vietnam, which Israel took to mean that the USA was finished as a leader in the world. So using deception and blackmail Israel decided to take over from the US and keep us hobbled through corruption and the cowardice of our leaders that has led the world directly to the events of the last week when Israel decided again to kill people blatantly and viciously, with US collaboration, for their actions even before they boarded any of the ships in the Freedom Flotilla. (2)
I began my career in political commentary with an attempted unpublished expose on the Johnson administration (long before the internet), but if I had had any real knowledge of what that war-criminal and thoroughly corrupt politician had been up to then, I think perhaps an entirely different outcome might have taken place then instead of now. (3)
However given the fact that most of America seems to have taken up permanent residence beneath some very heavy rocks of ignorance in order to hide from the truth of what has been happening at least throughout the first ten years of this new millennium-it would seem unlikely that even small bits of the raw proof against this traitor and collaborator with our enemies, who was a president at the time, might not be enough to cause any real change in the attitudes of the public here.
I don't really expect this to change anything substantially-I just want the willfully ignorant to know exactly what it is that they have been ignoring for the last forty-three consecutive years!
Happy Anniversary Amerika!
kirwanstudios@sbcglobal.net
Golda Meir, then prime minister of Israel, stated quite openly in an interview on BBC that the Israeli government would destroy the entire planet earth if ever there was a real danger of the state of Israel being removed or seriously threatened, and all subsequent Israeli rulers have repeated that statement, if only to encourage submission to their demands.
Jul 1, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)