"Egypt's cutoff of the Net enrages the Netizenry, who are finding a bunch of ways — high tech and low tech — to fight back, from dial-up to ham radio, from mesh networks to Twitter.
The French non-profit ISP French Data Network set up a dial-up Internet access. This way, anyone in Egypt who has access to a analog phone line and can call France is able to connect to the network using the following number: +33 1 72 89 01 50 (login: toto, password: toto)."
Telecommunications can play a vital role in nonviolent resistance to aggression or repression, as shown by numerous historical examples. Yet there has been no systematic development of telecommunications research, policy or training for this purpose.
We interviewed a number of experts in telecommunications to learn how these technologies could be used in nonviolent struggle. We report our general findings and list a series of recommendations for use and design of telecommunications in nonviolent struggle. This pilot project reveals the radical implications of orienting telecommunications for nonviolent rather than violent struggle.
Mesh networking (topology) is a type of networking where each node must not only capture and disseminate its own data, but also serve as a relay for other sensor nodes, that is, it must collaborate to propagate the data in the network.
US banking powerhouse Goldman Sachs said Friday it was more than tripling the salary of chief executive Lloyd Blankfein to $2 million in 2011 from $600,000 last year.
The four other top executives of Wall Street's premier investment bank will also see their basic salaries triple from the present $600,000: chief operating officer Gary Cohn, finance director David Viniar, and two vice presidents Michael Evans and John Weinberg will each earn $1.85 million, Goldman said in a document published Friday.
Egyptian activists have circulated a 26-page plan called "How To Protest Intelligently" (via The Atlantic). Despite the polite title, the tone of this pamphlet is revolutionary. The demands of the people include "the downfall of the regime of "Hosni Mubarak and his ministers." Strategic goals include "to take over important government building." It also includes tips for fighting against riot police.
It is nighttime in Egypt and the riots continue for the fifth day. More than 100 people have been killed in the protests, according to Al-Jazeera. There is also extensive looting and destruction. President Hosni Mubarak has announced some changes to his cabinet, but no one is impressed. Previously at 11:59 ET: Clashes between police and protesters at a Cairo prison have left 8 dead, according to Reuters. No prisoners escaped. Also looters have destroyed several ancient mummies at a Cairo museum, according to Al-Jazeera.
Seeking the brightest engineers in the world to offer a solution building a mesh network for Egypt. Post on the forum, no registration required. We need solid ideas and engineers to help with the planning. This is a community effort. Jump in and help us.
Scenario: Your government is displeased with the communication going on in your location and pulls the plug on your internet access, most likely by telling the major ISPs to turn off service.
This is what happened in Egypt January 25 prompted by citizen protests, with sources estimating that the Egyptian government has cut off approximately 88 percent of the country's internet access. What do you do without Internet? Step 1: Stop crying in the corner. Then start taking steps to reconnect with your network. Here’s a list of things you can do to keep the communication flowing.
These days, no popular movement goes without an Internet presence of some kind, whether it's organizing on Facebook or spreading the word through Twitter. And as we've seen in Egypt, that means that your Internet connection can be the first to go. Whether you're trying to check in with your family, contact your friends, or simply spread the word, here are a few ways to build some basic network connectivity when you can't rely on your cellular or landline Internet connections. Do-It-Yourself Internet With Ad-Hoc Wi-Fi
Here's a form you can fill out to apply for a node number. Your application will be sent to the proper coordinator. This doesn't look viable cause there is no anonymity!
President Hosni Mubarak was a faithful servant of Western economic interests and so was Ben Ali of Tunisia. The national government is the object of the protest movement. The objective is to unseat the puppet rather than the puppet-master. The slogans in Egypt are "Down with Mubarak, Down with the Regime". No anti-American posters have been reported... The overriding and destructive influence of the USA in Egypt and throughout the Middle East remains unheralded. The foreign powers which operate behind the scenes are shielded from the protest movement.
I just phoned Tighe Barry, a great US activist with Code Pink, who has been in Cairo, Egypt, all week. Here is the audio. Tighe describes a different situation from what we get through the US media. --David Swanson
President Barack Obama says he's spoken to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and told him he has a responsibility to take concrete steps to deliver on promises of better democracy and greater economic opportunity.
Webmaster's Commentary: President Obama, if Mubarak hasn't delivered on "...better democracy and greater economic opportunity" for his people in 30 years, what the hell makes you think he's going to do it now?!? Mr. President, Mubarak is very unlikely to last: I suggest that you readjust the US's policies toward Egypt accordingly.
Egypt riots escalate: The riots raging on in Egypt have spread into several prisons in the country Saturday, as at last eight detainees were reportedly killed in a jail holding political prisoners.
Webmaster's Commentary: If Hosni Mubarak or his cohorts thought for one second that this was going to calm the situation down, these people are officially out of his mind.
A position paper by a senior policy analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs states that leaks of Israel-PA talks by Al-Jazeera are designed to harm the PA and block resumption of talks with Israel. Pinhas Inbari, a veteran Palestinian Authority affairs correspondent and the author of books such as “The Palestinians: Between Terrorism and Statehood,” writes that Al-Jazeera has an agenda to de-legitimize the PA in the eyes of its residents and the Arab world.
Webmaster's Commentary: A memo to the Israeli hasbara: attempting to shoot the messenger in this case is absolutely not going to work.
The Palestinian people now understand for whom Abbas works, and it is not for the good or future of the Palestinian people, or a Palestinian state.
Saudi Arabia slammed protesters in Egypt as "infiltrators" who seek to destabilize their country Saturday while an Iranian official called on Egypt to "abide by the rightful demands of the nation" and avoid violent reactions.
Saudi King Abdullah called Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and "was reassured" about the situation in Egypt, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.
Webmaster's Commentary: A memo to King Abdullah; please understand that the people in Egypt who are rioting are not "infiltrators", but Egyptian citizens, enraged by a dictatorship which has plundered the country for their own profit, while the quality of life stays generally lousy for the people of Egypt. They have had enough, thank you very much.
A small anti-government protest turned violent in the Yemeni capital Saturday, according to eyewitnesses, with demonstrators—emboldened by Friday's massive protests in Egypt—clashing with security forces.
London-based rights group Amnesty International condemned on Friday the findings of an Israeli inquiry into last year’s raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla as a “whitewash,” saying the Israeli investigating panel failed to account for the deaths of nine Turkish nationals at the hands of Israeli commando forces.
Kinzer explains America's stance succinctly and accurately : “The U.S. keeps Mubarak in power - it gave his regime $1.5 billion in aid last year -mainly because he supports America’s pro-Israel policies, especially by helping Israel maintain its stranglehold on Gaza. It supports Abbas for the same reason; Abbas is seen as willing to compromise with Israel and is, therefore, a desirable negotiating partner….. American support for Mubarak and Abbas continues, although neither man is in power with any figment of legality; Mubarak brazenly stage-manages elections, and Abbas has ruled by decree since his term of office expired in 2009.”
For the past twenty fours, many in the world have had the privilege of viewing the uprising through a live stream on Al Jazeera's website. The stream has made it possible for anyone interested in the Egyptian uprising to get a sense of what the people are feeling and what they are demanding and why they are so angry with their government.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Fear is a very foolish way to rule a nation, because fear is very tiring over time. No matter how tyrannical the despot, no matter how great the imposed terror; there comes a time when the people simply lack the energy to be afraid any longer, Fear vanishes from the population, and all that is left is blind uncompromising unquenchable rage.
Americans vastly underestimate the degree of wealth inequality in America, and we believe that the distribution should be far more equitable than it actually is, according to a new study.
(CNSNews.com) – The National Sheriffs’ Association on Wednesday named Arizona’s Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu “Sheriff of the Year.” On Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano delivered the first State of Homeland Security address, in which she gave an upbeat account of the agency’s accomplishments, including its efforts on immigration and securing the U.S. border. Babeu, however, indicated that Napolitano’s speech was selective in what it emphasized and what it did not disclose.
An agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will not happen in the next "one or two years", Israel's deputy prime minister said today, blaming the Palestinians for the lack of progress.
"We're fed up with giving and giving and giving, and not getting any real substance [in return]," said Moshe Ya'alon, the minister of strategic affairs, after this week's leak of secret documents on the peace talks. He dismissed the extensive concessions offered by Palestinian negotiators, revealed in the documents, saying they were insignificant compared to the "core of the conflict – our right to exist".
Webmaster's Commentary: OK, Minister Ya'alon,I have a question to ask: why doesn't Israel declare its borders?!?!? Your "right to exist" is absolutely not in question.
Of course, the answer to that is very simple. Israel doesn't want peace; it wants territory and by any means necessary. It doesn't want a "two-state solution: it wants a one-state solution, where Palestinians have no land, no homes, and no standing.
Amid rampant violence as hoards of protestors set the building of the ruling National Democratic Party on fire, others broke into the adjacent Egyptian Museum and destroyed two mummies on display, along with ransacking the ticket office.
Webmaster's Commentary:
I doubt Egyptians did this. Egyptians revere their ancient history. There is no reason to merely destroy mummies. Not for Egyptians. But there are other players, of course, with obvious motives to destroy Egypt's antiquities. One is Mubarak himself, who is looking for any way to demonize the revolutionaries, and there are reports that some of the looting is being done by Mubarak's thugs, but there is a larger player in the region with a well-documented hatred towards other nations' history.
Israel routinely exploits archaeology for political purposes, to justify its "ownership" of the holy lands. It hypes its own antiquities (always meager, often frauds), while destroying artifacts from history viewed as a political threat.
Egypt is literally littered with the ruins of the ancient temples and palaces of her rulers. As much as has been found, it is estimated that only 1/3 of Egypt's archeological wonders have been uncovered. A newly discovered temple was uncovered while digging a sewer line, and a cache of finely preserved mummies was literally stumbled over by a cow in a pasture.
All of this wealth of archaeological treasures must of course annoy Israel. We are raised from birth with Old Testament tales of the greatness of the ancient Israelites, of the powerful kingdoms of Solomon and David and the first temple. Yet Israel, while rich in antiquities, is almost totally devoid of artifacts from this supposedly glorious time in her history. The existence of the fabled First Temple was supported with just two artifacts, a carved staff ornament in the shape of a pomegranate and the Jehoash tablet. Both of these artifacts have been exposed as frauds. We are told that once there was a magnificent temple on that hill, but it "all went away." The wonders emerging from the soil of Egypt, Iraq, and Iran serve as a constant reminder that ancient buildings of such a scale as we are told the First Temple was simply do not vanish without a trace.
There is considerable reason to suspect that the tales told in the Old Testament are just that; tales. The Bible is not science, it is the collected stories of a primitive tribal people telling each other how important they are. And like fishermen talking about the one that got away, or Ramses with his temple carvings of the did-not-really-happen victory over the Hittites at Kadesh, the writers of the ancient testaments assumed that the people they were telling stories to had no way to verify the claims for themselves. So "embellishment" (lying) was a low-risk activity.
We do know from the available archaeological evidence that the Exodus probably actually happened to the Hyksos, not the Hebrews. We know that the story of Moses is suspect because no Egyptian princess would hide a Hebrew child inside Pharaoh's household, then give the kid a Hebrew name ("Moses" is actually an Egyptian title meaning "Prince" and is included in the names of many Pharaoh's names such as Tut-Moses, Ah-Moses, Ra-Moses (Ramses) etc.) Likewise, the story of Masada may be less than accurate. The remains found on the mountain were buried with pig bones, something no proper Jewish funeral would tolerate, which suggests that the bodies found and venerated as heroes of ancient Judea were actually those of dead Romans, who would be buried with animal sacrifices.
But a good story is a good story and the writers of the ancient texts were probably not thinking much further into the future than the guys who pen the "Celebrity dates space alien" stories you see at supermarket checkout lines. The fact that the celebrity is a real person does not prove the space alien exists. It's just a story. Given enough time, even a simple story written in jest can take on a life of its own. Scientology began as a bet between two science fiction writers; look what a headache that has become in just a short time.
Over time, entire religions with attendant wealth and power structures have been built on the premise that these old testament stories really happened exactly as written. And today, here in the 21st century world, science has started to catch up with these ancient legends and call many of them into doubt.
So, for a nation that justifies its existence on the writings of the Torah, the plethora of sites and artifacts confirming the ancient histories of Egypt, Iraq, Iran, etc. etc. etc. must seem a dire political threat for a nation whose own professed ancient history seems to have left virtually no trace at all.
In that context, the intentional targeting of Palestinian antiquities and the theft of their cultural treasures during CAST LEAD makes perfect sense, if the supporters of a very insecure nation decide that "leveling" the archaeological playing field is preferable to allowing the obvious disparity in artifacts to remain visible to the world.
In an attempt to attach ancient Israel to present day Jerusalem, Israeli authorities continue the attachment of spurious labels to Holy Basin landmarks, while claiming the falsification is due to the Byzantines, who got it all wrong.
King David’s Tower’s earliest remains were constructed several hundred years after the Bible dates David’s reign. It is a now an obvious Islamic minaret.
King David’s Citadel earliest remains are from the Hasmonean period (200 B.C.). The Citadel was entirely rebuilt by the Ottomans between 1537 and 1541.
King David’s tomb, located in the Dormition Abbey, is a cloth-covered cenotaph (no remains) that honors King David. It’s only an unverified guess that the casket is related to David.
The Pools of Solomon, located in a village near Bethlehem, are considered to be part of a Roman construction during the reign of Herod the Great. The pools supplied water to an aqueduct that carried the water to Bethlehem and to Jerusalem.
The Stables of Solomon, under the Temple Mount, are assumed to be a construction of vaults that King Herod built in order to extend the Temple Mount platform.
Absalom’s Tomb is an obvious Greek sculptured edifice and therefore cannot be the tomb of David’s son.
The City of David contains artifacts that date before and during David’s time. However, some archaeologists maintain there is an insufficient number of artifacts to conclude any Israelite presence, including that of King David, before the late ninth century. IAny Israelite presence must have been in a small and unfortified settlement to leave so few remains.
The Jerusalem Archaeological Park within the Old City, together with the Davidson Exhibition and Virtual Reconstruction Center also tell the story. Promising to reveal much of a Hebrew civilization, the museums shed little light on its subject. The Davidson Center highlights a coin exhibition, Jerusalem bowls and stone vessels. The Archeological Park in the Old City contains among many artifacts, Herodian structures, ritual baths, a floor of an Umayyad palace, a Roman road, Ottoman gates, and the facade of what is termed Robinson’s arch, an assumed Herodian entryway to the Temple Mount. The exhibitions don’t reveal many, if any, ancient Hebrew structures or institutions of special significance.
Reliable archaeologists, after examining excavations that contain pottery shards and buildings, concluded that archaeological finds don't substantiate the biblical history of Jerusalem and its importance during the eras of a united Jewish kingdom under David and Solomon.
Margaret Steiner in an article titled It's Not There: Archaeology Proves a Negative in the Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August, 1998, states:
"...from the tenth century B.C.E. there is no archaeological evidence that many people actually lived in Jerusalem, only that it was some kind of public administrative center...We are left with nothing that indicates a city was here during their supposed reigns (of David and Solomon)...It seems unlikely, however, that this Jerusalem was the capital of a large state, the United monarchy, as described in Biblical texts."
So, while it is doubtful that Egyptians would desecrate mummies simply to destroy them, Israel's agents in Egypt certainly would have a strong motive to damage the museum as much as possible, not only to reduce the obvious disparity between the plethora of ancient artifacts in Egypt and the paucity of same in Israel, but also because the Cairo Museum is home base to Dr. Zahi Hawass, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, and the archaeologist who demonstrated that the Exodus happened to the Hyksos, not the Hebrews. So the vandalism of the museum might just be a little bit of revenge.
The Egyptian government’s crackdown on protesters escalated dramatically today, leaving at least 30 people dead and over 1,000 others wounded. Reports have at least 13 people being slain in the city of Suez alone.
Much of the violence came early in the day, when the police were attacking protesters and in many cases using live ammunition against them. Eventually though, the police were driven back into their stations, and many of those stations were burned, which is when President Mubarak called in the military.
JOE CORTINA IS AN EX GREEN BERET, a former airborne special operations officer and US Army Training Center commander.
Joe Cortina’s subsequent experiences as an intelligence investigator and anti-terrorist adviser brought him to such hotbeds of turmoil as the State of Israel, adjacent Middle East nations, and Central America. Joe Cortina’s Web Site, “My Name Is Joe Cortina,” is a showcase of crimes committed against humanity by the Zionist global elite.
The letter below has been signed by over 60 young Israelis. These conscientious objectors are starting to go to jail, often with multiple terms, for refusing to support Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian people.
Webmaster's Commentary: These kids absolutely deserve to be supported and applauded for their courage under fire, and their bravery in their expressions of conscience.
The pro-democracy protests spreading across the Middle East have found some eager supporters in Jordan, where thousands took to the street of Amman to demand that Prime Minister Samir Rifal step down and that a new, elected government be allowed to take its place.
Webmaster's Commentary: Go.....Jordanians! Thinking Americans support you, and walk with you in spirit.
For decades it seemed that the US was able to keep its authoritarian allies propped up more or less indefinitely, but the simmering unrest combined with crumbling economies across the region have combined to produce a region-wide phenomenon, where every US-backed dictator appears at risk.
But in the near term, it is two of the most important President-for-life figures, Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh, that are at the most risk. In each case the US is giving lip-service to the notion of some “reforms” but are conceding they won’t want anything that might threaten the rule of their allies, particularly any pesky elections.
Webmaster's Commentary: The consistent, pathological hypocrisy of US foreign policy stinks mightily here. We cannot, as a nation, talk about human rights, human dignity, or the importance of free and fair elections when we do not practice what we preach. I would really like those in the bowels of power in DC to remember one thing; when peaceful revolution becomes impossible, violent revolution becomes inevitable; this is what we have seen happening in Tunisia, and are seeing happen in Egypt and Yemen.
When an entire population becomes enraged with a miserable quality of life; when they see the leadership plunder their country's wealth for their own empowerment, there aren't enough guns and bullets we can supply any tinpot dictator to ultimately stop these movements.
A program that allows airports to replace government screeners with private screeners is being brought to a standstill, just a month after the Transportation Security Administration said it was "neutral" on the program.
Webmaster's Commentary:
"Look, humiliating Americans and giving them sexually transmitted diseases is our job, dammit! And you better get used to it, too! We will give up our rubber gloves when you pry them from our cold, dead, hands!!!!!!" -- Tourism Suppression Agency.
Neva Khan of the charity Oxfam says of flood-ravaged Pakistan, "millions of people are still facing flood water, shivering in temporary shelters and struggling to find food.....we have only scratched the surface of human need." Children are suffering the most, and malnutrition is devastating Pakistan. Karen Allen, UNICEF officer in Pakistan, describes the crisis. She says, "I haven't seen levels of malnutrition this bad since the worst of the famines in Ethiopia, Darfur and Chad. It’s shocking, shockingly bad."
Webmaster's Commentary: So, "enlightened" US foreign policy, under the watch of President Barak Obama, means that we're continuing to bomb the crap out of innocent civilians, but aren't directly lifting a finger to assist Pakistan in feeding malnourished kids?
"The devastating monsoon floods that recently affected more than 20 million people in Pakistan—including 2.8 million children under the age of five—have brought many underlying problems to the surface. In a country that already had alarmingly high rates of malnutrition, the floods have made the situation worse."
A MAJOR opposition protest in Albania to commemorate three people shot dead in a rally last week has passed off peacefully after the European Union warned that further violence could put the country’s membership ambitions at risk. Tens of thousands of demonstrators proceeded in silence through the centre of the capital, Tirana. They laid flowers and candles at the place the protesters were shot, outside a government building heavily guarded by police and other members of the security forces.
The opposition movement, spearheaded by Tirana mayor and Socialist party chief Edi Rama, want a rerun of 2009 elections that they say were rigged by prime minister Sali Berisha.
Greek trade union federations have called for a general strike for February 23. The civil servants' union federation, Adedy, will join Greece's largest trade union federation, the General Confederation of Employees of Greece (GSEE), to protest the cuts in salaries and pensions that have been demanded by the European Union dictatorship, which is now running the country's economy.
Israeli security experts are casting an uneasy eye at the civil unrest spreading through the region. On Thursday, Yemen joined the list of Arab states experiencing unprecedented demonstrations calling for authoritarian leaders to step down, and Egypt braced for more civil unrest.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Decades of Israeli subversion of their neighboring nations, coupled with unprovoked wars of aggression, assassination, and unremitting land-theft are all coming back to haunt Israel now. Israel was rather cavalier pissing off Turkey with the attack on the aid flotilla, because Israel still had Egypt as a friend, bought and paid for with US tax dollars. Well, Israel no longer has Egypt as a friend. Which means they have no friends in the region at all, no matter how much tax money the US throws around.
The fading power of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's government leaves Israel in a state of strategic distress. Without Mubarak, Israel is left with almost no friends in the Middle East; last year, Israel saw its alliance with Turkey collapse.
Webmaster's Commentary: As ye sow, so shall ye reap!
Well, what I mean is that we in Hezbollah are pretty well known for kicking and keeping the Zionists out of Lebanon but our Party also seems to be catching on how to work in Lebanese and regional politics. And our people will benefit as we create social programs and honest government for the first time in Lebanese history.
A diverse panel of decision-makers and experts from the United States, Europe and the Middle East found common ground on just one thing when it comes to dealing with the Iranian nuclear program: A military strike could well spark a devastating counterattack.
In the debate at the World Economic Forum on Friday, former top U.S. diplomat Richard Haass said there were no good options should diplomacy fail, but stood apart from the others in advocating force as a viable option. He sparred repeatedly with Saudi Arabia's Prince Turki al-Faisal, who urged the United States to instead pressure Israel to quit its own reported nuclear weapons as a way of coaxing Iran to drop its suspected weapons program as well.
Webmaster's Commentary: OK, for the gazillionth time: Iran is a signatory to the NNPT, the international nuclear protocol which states that members can only use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and not for weapons.
The nuclear power plant they are building, with Russian technical assistance, is consistently inspected by the IAEA. To date, no nuclear materials have been found to have "gone walkabout", nor have the Iranian scientists enriched their uranium above 20%, which is the level necessary to create medical isotopes. In order to create weapons, one has to enrich the uranium to above 90%, which flat out hasn't happened.
The IAEA has reported nothing to date to indicate that the Iranian government is building a nuclear weapon.
On the other hand, Israel, which has nuclear weapons, refuses to become a signatory to the NNPT, nor will it allow its nuclear sites to be inspected. Saudi Arabia's Prince Turki Al-Faisal is absolutely right to suggest that the US should encourage Israel to let go of its nuclear weapons; unfortunately, that's only going to happen when pigs fly.
But let's say, for the point of argument, that Iran is truly in the process of developing a nuclear weapon; in light of the fact that the US gave both Iran and the world a very concrete object lesson in what can happen to a country without a nuclear deterrent as it did with the invasion and occupation of Iraq, who can blame them?!?
It would seem that the USA and Israel decided some time ago to topple Egypt's president Mubarak.
"The U.S. strategy for three decades ... has been to bet on Mubarak... But that cannot possibly be a smart bet for the next decade." - Elliott Abrams on 20 January 2011 (interview) Abrams, a neo-con Zionist, was involved in Iran-Contra. According to PressTV (Mossad was behind the Egypt church blast):
"Political experts believe that the US, the Israeli regime and Britain have crafted a long-term joint security program in the Middle East and North Africa...
"Part of the scenario is to ... split Egypt into a Christian-populated country and a Muslim-populated one ...
All over the Arab world, as a precursor to, all over the world period, the psychic locks that have held the populations in stasis have now been broken. We are standing before the walls of a metaphorical Jericho. The sound of magical trumpets fills the air but no one is directly aware of them. They’re hearing something but they can’t identify it. The effect of the sounds, is to open areas of awareness and action that do not depend on the reflection and judgment of the people involved. It’s always like this when the world goes into one of its dramatic change modes. All of a sudden everything is happening, as if it were detailed on a blueprint or in a book and no one questions it because they are in the middle of it.
"All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favoured few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately."
The resulting global political activism is generating a surge in the quest for personal dignity, cultural respect and economic opportunity in a world painfully scarred by memories of centuries-long alien colonial or imperial domination...
Washington needs a friendly regime in Cairo more than it needs a democratic government.
Webmaster's Commentary:
If Obama,Hillary and Biden are honest in their statements, they would have condemned the Mubarak regime. US cannot be with Mubarak and the Egyptian street in the same time.
Of course, the US has never actually supported Democracy. Whether it was Pinochet in Chile, the Shah of Iran, Batista in Cuba, Marcos in the Philippines, etc. the US talks Democracy but props up tyrants and dictators.
Washington sees the various local and national conflicts in the Middle East as part of a battle for regional hegemony between the U.S. and Iran. If this is true, the U.S. is losing. That is because it has stubbornly held onto Middle East policies that were shaped for the Cold War. The security environment in the region has changed dramatically since then. Iran has shown itself agile enough to align itself with rising new forces that enjoy the support of millions. The U.S., meanwhile, remains allied with countries and forces that looked strong 30 or 40 years ago but no longer are.
Webmaster's Commentary: So let me get my head around this: the greatest beneficiary of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq has been...IRAN!?!?!?!
Could we not characterize this as a catastrophically unintended consequence?
Any holdovers from the Bush administration still lurking about in the Obama administration who favored the US invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq should resign right the flip now, in abject humiliation.
The people in Egypt are under governmental siege. Mubarak regime is banning Facebook, Twitter, and all other popular internet sites Now, the internet are completely blocked in Egypt. Tomorrow the government will block the 3 mobile phone network will be completely blocked. And there is news that even the phone landlines will be cut tomorrow, to prevent any news agency from following what will happen.
Rachmi Haidi, a 60-year-old Egyptian school principal told Haaretz "What is happening now is the result of Mubarak and his gang plundering the nation for 30 years. They represent the interests of the United States and Israel, not Egypt."
Thinking Americans support your cause, and walk with you in spirit.
And to every tyrant on the face of this earth who mistakenly believes that they have enough guns and enough bullets to suppress your people forever, I would advise you to p[lease think again. What you are seeing in Egypt will not go away.
A program that allows airports to replace government screeners with private screeners is being brought to a standstill, just a month after the Transportation Security Administration said it was "neutral" on the program. TSA chief John Pistole said Friday he has decided not to expand the program beyond the current 16 airports, saying he does not see any advantage to it.
Webmaster's Commentary: "After all, where else on earth could those dolts we hire to do become our Gropenazis work?!? They are generally so stupid, they can't even get a job at a fast food place!!" - Official TSA Souse.
The ultra-loose monetary policy of the United States is setting the stage for "a world credit war," a Chinese rating agency said on Friday, in the latest warning against soaring debt burdens in developed economies. The Beijing-based Dagong Global Credit Rating firm took concerns about a world currency war to a higher level as it suggested China and other emerging market countries may need to reduce their U.S. Treasury holdings to "avoid unpredictable losses on their own interests." It also said in its 2011 Sovereign Credit Risk Outlook that quantitative easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve has "eroded the legitimacy of the global monetary system that takes the dollar as the key reserve currency."
Webmaster's Commentary: China is right on this: the US has no one else but itself to blame for these developments.
As street protests raged across Egypt on Friday, with the future of the Arab world seeming to hang in the balance, rapt viewers across the region — and the globe — watched it unfold on Al Jazeera, which kept up an almost continuous live feed despite the Egyptian government’s repeated efforts to block broadcasts.
Webmaster's Commentary: Al Jazeera's coverage puts US corporate coverage of this history unfolding absolutely to shame. Here's the link to the live feed:
Tea party hero Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) this week proposed a blueprint to eliminate $400 billion from the federal budget, which included billions in cuts to veterans' health care and disability benefits. Her plan would freeze health care funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and slash $4.5 billion in disability benefits to military veterans.
Webmaster's Commentary:
It's official: this woman can now be characterized as absolutely barking mad.
In fact, I would suggest, in the spirit of that biting satire "A Modest Proposal", that she propose that all of our injured Vets be immediately euthanized after their, injuries to save money.
To declare one's undying support for these immoral and illegal wars without end, and not declare that the Vets who have fought in these wars important enough to care for when they become injured, absolutely boggles the mind.
Israel watched fearfully Saturday as anti-government unrest roiled Egypt, one of its most important allies and a bridge to the wider Arab world.
The Israeli prime minister ordered government spokesmen to keep silent. Officials speaking anonymously nonethless expressed concern violence could threaten ties with Egypt and spread to the Palestinian Authority. The Egyptian unrest dominated Israeli media. Israeli TV news channels provided hourly updates. Israel Radio reported extensively on developments and dubbed its broadcasts "Fire on the Nile."
One question comes to mind, why is America afraid of Democracy? Why has the United States supported all of the undemocratic governments in this region, including the ‘only democratically elected dictatorship in the Middle East’? The unique eunuch President of the United States promised ‘change’, he obviously doesn’t have the cojones to do it himself so it is being done without him. But why can’t he support those moves?
Brooklyn College fired PhD student Kristofer Petersen-Overton yesterday, one day after New York state assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) sent a letter to BC president Karen Gould accusing Petersen-Overton of being an “overt supporter of terrorism.” Hikind has complained in interviews that Petersen-Overton’s academic work is anti-Israel, and that his attempt to “understand” suicide bombing is unfathomable. Petersen-Overton and I are colleagues at the CUNY Graduate Center.
With a speed that surprised many here, and with equally surprising cross-sectarian acquiescence this morning, Hezbollah and its allies constitutionally toppled Hariri’s government, constitutionally imposed new consultations to form a new government, and constitutionally transformed a minority into a majority and vice versa.
What’s remarkable is how twitchy these people get at the slightest possibility that someone will lift the lid on 9/11, their hysterical protests serving only to deepen already serious suspicions...observes Stuart Littlewood.
Falk’s crime was saying that the US administration’s reluctance to address the awkward gaps and contradictions identified by several scholars in the official explanations of 9/11, only fuels suspicions of a conspiracy. And he suggested that “what may be more distressing than the apparent cover up is the eerie silence of the mainstream media, unwilling to acknowledge the well-evidenced doubts about the official version of the events: "an al Qaeda operation with no foreknowledge by government officials".
Tyranny thrives by feeding on human necessity. It examines what sustains us, what we hope for, what we desire, what we love, and uses those needs as leverage against us...
FLASHBACK: In Malcolm Gladwell's provocative book The Tipping Point, he gives many examples of how seemingly small, insignificant decisions can radiate to cause an eventual wave of change that overtakes the prevailing modes of behavior. He clearly extrapolates how the silent leaders of society -- not the ones on TV, or the ones we appoint -- set trends through their singular ability to recognize an underlying need, or change of direction. It can be as simple as a clothing style, a type of cuisine, a new travel destination . . . or the need to change the world's political course. I believe there are signs that The Tipping Point for free humanity has been reached; from here on out, there will be an open dialogue between the forces of tyranny and the forces of freedom.
It is important to stress that Brzezinski was not lauding the onset of this “global political awakening,” he was decrying it. As one of the of the chief architects of the “existing global hierarchy” to which he makes reference, Brzezinski himself is under direct threat, as is the continuing ability of the global elite in general to control world affairs. Brzezinski laments the fact that the Internet has made it almost impossible for the global elite to control the political environment, to control the thoughts and behavior of one million people, which is precisely why Egypt moved to shut down the world wide web yesterday in a desperate bid to prevent activists from organizing against the state.
We Are Change I contend that this story is just the tip of the iceberg into the US government’s black operations to further the Patriot Act, funding for Homeland Security and the TSA, and to keep intensity up for the so called War on Terror.
Respected lawyer and community leader, Kurt Haskell, has nothing to gain from pointing his finger at the federal government...
Under a possible $1 billion state budget cut to city schools, Mayor Bloomberg warned Friday of possible layoffs for teachers hired in the last five years. Because state law requires cutting the most recently hired teachers in certain subject areas first, Bloomberg complained that schools will lose great new teachers in slimming their ranks by about 21,000.
"We'd have to part company with some of the best teachers," he said on WOR radio.
"It's a state law, 'Last in, first out,'" he added, referring to the rules requiring teachers hired last to go first...
Globalization is here and it is happening right now. It is destroying what still remains of the once great U.S. capitalist system. As our economy continues to be merged with the economies of the rest of the world, our standard of living will inevitably sink to match the standard of living that the rest of the world enjoys. The entire game is changing. All of the things that you were taught about trade and economics as you were growing up are being turned upside down. Globalization is a complete and total nightmare. Hopefully the American people will wake up before it is too late.
Besieged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a former air force officer whose 30-year-old authoritarian regime is under attack, presides over a country described as one of the major military powers in the region, ranking next to Israel and Turkey. Since it signed the U.S.-brokered Camp David Peace Treaty with Israel back in September 1978, Egypt has been the recipient of billions of dollars in U.S. military equipment, including state-of-the art fighter planes, warships, missiles, battle tanks, and electronic equipment.
If the Mubarak regime collapses, will all this U.S. equipment fall into the "wrong hands"?
January 28, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- While people in Tunisia and Egypt have taken to the streets in attempts to gain their liberty, Americans are losing their liberty with minimal protest. Even the American Civil Liberties Union seems unfocused. At a time when we are being surrounded by a police state and the federal judiciary is being taken over by the Federalist Society and unitary executive theory that places the president above the law, we need a heightened appreciation of civil liberty and the Constitution on the part of the American people. The American people need to come together and to take a united stand against the police state and unaccountable executive branch power.
How hard is it, exactly, to kill the Internet? Egypt seems to have been able to do it. But Egypt's situation isn't exactly the same as that in the Western world. And even though Egypt only has four big ISPs, the fact that everything went down after midnight local time suggests that it took considerable effort to accomplish the 'Net shut-off. After all, it seems unlikely that President Hosni Mubarak ordered the Internet to be shut down as he went to bed; such a decision must have been made earlier in the day, and then taken hours to execute.
In 2007, it was revealed by reporters in Texas that unmanned drones were being used in supposed border control operations. We detailed that report with supporting evidence that drones clearly were being used inland away from border control functions. Pending FDA approval these specific unmanned aerial vehicles are set to be used domestically throughout the United States. Besides the obvious uses for these drones such as during a legitimate raid, these drones may be used in order to further the police state and restrict free speech in America.
“U.K. police have used micro UAVs to monitor ‘anti-social behavior,’ writes Joseph Nevins of the Boston Review.
No comments:
Post a Comment