"Victory against al-Qaeda was in our grasp, and we were releasing the pressure" -- General Tommy Franks, CentCom Commander
Ever since September 11, 2001, we in 'the land of the free' and 'the home of the brave' have seen a steady assault on our liberties. Yet from the very beginning while the so-called "War on Terror" was being used to justify an unprecedented and unconstitutional expansion of executive power, the purported 'enemy' who must be be fought by 'all possible means' was being conveniently 'forgotten'.
"It took me a second to digest what he had told me. General Franks' mission in Afghanistan--which, as a good soldier, he was loyally carrying out--was being downgraded from a war to a manhunt. What's more, the most important tools for a manhunt, the Predators, had been redeployed to Iraq at the moment they were most needed in Afghanistan.
I was stunned. This was the first time I had been informed that the decision to go to war with Iraq had not only been made but was being implemented, to the substantial disadvantage of the war in Afghanistan.
Franks continued, "We can finish this job in Afghanistan if we are allowed to do so. And there is a set of terrorist targets after Afghanistan. My first priority would be Somalia--there is no effective government to control the large number of terrorist cells. Next, I would go to Yemen. Iraq is a special case. Our intelligence there is very unsatisfactory. Some Europeans know more than we on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction..." so writes former Senator Bob Graham in Intelligence Matters.
Now we learn that months before Sen. Graham the Chairman of the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence had that conversation, General Franks was in Oxfordshire drawing up secret plans for the Iraq invasion with Britain's' RAF.
So who is really in charge of U.S. foreign policy? The Framers of the Constitution specifically vested in Congress the sole and exclusive authority to initiate military hostilities, including full-blown war, as well as lesser acts of armed force, on behalf of the American people. The constitutional grant to Congress of the war power, which Justice William Paterson described in United States v. Smith (1806) as "the exclusive province of Congress to change a state of peace into a state of war," constituted a sharp break from the British model.
Yet here was the general in charge of U.S. military command drawing up war plans with a foreign government without informing the Congress. To illustrate the extent to which the American people have seen their rights routinely abused and eroded since George W. Bush took office, now the Justice Dept in defending against suits charging civil violations feels bold enough to invoke 'states secrets privilege' in order to circumvent the courts and carry on more illegal surveillance and even the assassination of U.S. citizens without so much an indictment of treason.
"The real rulers in Washington are invisible, and exercise power from behind the scenes."
-Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, 1952
So much for the Constitution. Like the Magna Carta it will remain an inspiring document, the one that set the standard in places like Kenya. Here at home we have bravely surrendered the right to be ruled Law. Instead we are to be ruled by men and women, their secretive goals enforced without question -- and if the teabaggers get their way, perhaps one day soon, by a President Palin.
Showing posts with label Kenya. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kenya. Show all posts
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Sunday, March 8, 2009
The Midas Touch
When Kamau Kingara was gunned down within the shadow of the presidential residence it seemed Kenya was doomed to descend into lawlessness and violent anarchy. That Kingara and his murdered friend were both campaigning against the police for illegal killings suggests that the brazenness of the attack was meant to send a message.
To their credit, the people have not been intimidated into helpless passivity. The day after the execution protesters had to be subdued by the Nairobi police who fired tear gas at students and demonstrators. But such is the tragedy that has befallen that once proud and possible land-- a legacy owed to the corrupting influence of the New World Order. As Professor Ali Masrui warned prophetically at the 23rd Congress for of the Society for International Development nine months after 9-11: "it is not just capitalism, which can be globalized. Anarchy can also be globalized. There was a time when we only knew that when the United States sneezed, Africa and Asia started coughing and shivering. But there are now signs that when Africa and Asia are in pain, it may not be long before the United States has a headache."
It was Kingara's determination to ameliorate Kenya's ills brought on by a quarter century of graft and corruption followed by the dictates of the imperial World Bank and the IMF's 'free market principles' engendering state sanctioned theft that led to the creation of his people's foundation.
About the Oscar Foundation
The tale of the social, political & economic woes & suffering that poor Kenyans are undergoing needs no retelling. The pains, fears and anxieties being experienced are written all over their faces. The question is, who will supply the true light? Who will lead the change for national salvation?
Kingara had framed his vision of OFFLACK poignantly-- "to translate into a fact the fictitious phrase that every man is deemed to know the law and that every man knows his rights and obligation and can seek justice through the law."
It has become common wisdom for us "westerners" to blame Mugabe for bringing Zimbabwe to its present abject despair. Never do we consider the possibility that the country's dilemma stems less from Mugabe's "racist misrule" than his stubborn resistance to accede to the New World Order. Europe grew rich exploiting Africa's riches. It is not preposterous to suggest that the anarchy that has spread from Rwanda to Zaire and now reaches to Sudan and the tragedy of Darfur is a result of the continent's former colonial masters sowing chaos. As observed from Lebanon to Iraq to Equatorial Guinea a country in chaos is easy to loot. When we view the anarchy taking hold across poor countries against the backdrop of our lawless bankers it comes clear that the New World Order is little more than a scheme for global extortion.
Here is how an astute Zimbabwean sums up the neoliberal game plan.
Kenya has a humanitarian crisis and the United Nations is appealing for US$390.05 million.
What has happened to all the World Bank/IMF loans that have been put its way by the friendly West? Is Kenya on sanctions? No! Does Kenya have commercial farmers? Yes, in the Rift Valley. So what has happened to the productivity of these farms that Kenya is now looking for $172.75 millions in food aid? Has there been a land reform programme in Kenya? No, the peasants are still disposed of their lands.
If Kenya has a humanitarian crisis whilst it enjoys the goodwill of the West, then it does not bode well for Zimbabwe under the financial plans of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC-T.
The West's strategy is to borrow money from China/East at a low interest rate and then re-package it as an IMF/World Bank loan and give it to Tsvangirai at very high interest rate. There goes our Chiadzwa diamonds for free. Has Tsvangirai got any Plan B at all?
Western countries have now ditched the free market economic fundamentals that have led their economies into free fall and are now fervent adoptees of State Capitalism as practiced by China and India (which appear to have weathered the economic tsunami much better than the West).
Ten years ago Kenya was being touted by the World Bank and IMF as a model for neo-liberalism. But prosperity cannot exist where there is no stable government-- yet it remains the great wish of our global capitalists to undermine the democracies of weaker states. The consequence of that strategy has been presaged by the Greeks. Kenya now turns its eyes to the ever more powerful East. As Herodotus and Ovid explained, in the end Midas was blinded not by his gold but by his own short-sighted greed.
To their credit, the people have not been intimidated into helpless passivity. The day after the execution protesters had to be subdued by the Nairobi police who fired tear gas at students and demonstrators. But such is the tragedy that has befallen that once proud and possible land-- a legacy owed to the corrupting influence of the New World Order. As Professor Ali Masrui warned prophetically at the 23rd Congress for of the Society for International Development nine months after 9-11: "it is not just capitalism, which can be globalized. Anarchy can also be globalized. There was a time when we only knew that when the United States sneezed, Africa and Asia started coughing and shivering. But there are now signs that when Africa and Asia are in pain, it may not be long before the United States has a headache."
It was Kingara's determination to ameliorate Kenya's ills brought on by a quarter century of graft and corruption followed by the dictates of the imperial World Bank and the IMF's 'free market principles' engendering state sanctioned theft that led to the creation of his people's foundation.
About the Oscar Foundation
The tale of the social, political & economic woes & suffering that poor Kenyans are undergoing needs no retelling. The pains, fears and anxieties being experienced are written all over their faces. The question is, who will supply the true light? Who will lead the change for national salvation?
Kingara had framed his vision of OFFLACK poignantly-- "to translate into a fact the fictitious phrase that every man is deemed to know the law and that every man knows his rights and obligation and can seek justice through the law."
It has become common wisdom for us "westerners" to blame Mugabe for bringing Zimbabwe to its present abject despair. Never do we consider the possibility that the country's dilemma stems less from Mugabe's "racist misrule" than his stubborn resistance to accede to the New World Order. Europe grew rich exploiting Africa's riches. It is not preposterous to suggest that the anarchy that has spread from Rwanda to Zaire and now reaches to Sudan and the tragedy of Darfur is a result of the continent's former colonial masters sowing chaos. As observed from Lebanon to Iraq to Equatorial Guinea a country in chaos is easy to loot. When we view the anarchy taking hold across poor countries against the backdrop of our lawless bankers it comes clear that the New World Order is little more than a scheme for global extortion.
Here is how an astute Zimbabwean sums up the neoliberal game plan.
Kenya has a humanitarian crisis and the United Nations is appealing for US$390.05 million.
What has happened to all the World Bank/IMF loans that have been put its way by the friendly West? Is Kenya on sanctions? No! Does Kenya have commercial farmers? Yes, in the Rift Valley. So what has happened to the productivity of these farms that Kenya is now looking for $172.75 millions in food aid? Has there been a land reform programme in Kenya? No, the peasants are still disposed of their lands.
If Kenya has a humanitarian crisis whilst it enjoys the goodwill of the West, then it does not bode well for Zimbabwe under the financial plans of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC-T.
The West's strategy is to borrow money from China/East at a low interest rate and then re-package it as an IMF/World Bank loan and give it to Tsvangirai at very high interest rate. There goes our Chiadzwa diamonds for free. Has Tsvangirai got any Plan B at all?
Western countries have now ditched the free market economic fundamentals that have led their economies into free fall and are now fervent adoptees of State Capitalism as practiced by China and India (which appear to have weathered the economic tsunami much better than the West).
Ten years ago Kenya was being touted by the World Bank and IMF as a model for neo-liberalism. But prosperity cannot exist where there is no stable government-- yet it remains the great wish of our global capitalists to undermine the democracies of weaker states. The consequence of that strategy has been presaged by the Greeks. Kenya now turns its eyes to the ever more powerful East. As Herodotus and Ovid explained, in the end Midas was blinded not by his gold but by his own short-sighted greed.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
The Trap for Obama, Updated w/video
Ever Deeper:
Now comes word that the official at the center of the fraud scandal at the Treasury Department has been allowed to quietly quit and retire from his job as a government regulator, despite allegations that he allowed a bank to falsify financial records (The federal government took over IndyMac back in July, after the bank's stock price plummeted to just pennies a share when it was revealed the bank had financial troubles due to defaulted mortgages and subprime loans, costing taxpayers over $9 billion. )
One becomes both dismayed and slightly amused when celebrated novelists bemoan the limitations of fiction. What their lament is meant to suggest is that there are realities specific to a particular time and place that demand authentic, unbiased reporting, that the conceit of universal truth is a 19th century pretense. One wonders where, if one accepts their premise, such an impartial observer might exist.
Just as the global financial meltdown continues to expose the glaring flaws in "free-market" capitalism, so have the recurrent tragedies of history shown that human stupidity, shortsightedness and greed know no cultural or geographical boundaries. For instance reading this : “If there is a single episode in this entire 18 months that has made me more angry, I can’t think of one other than AIG,” Bernanke said. “AIG exploited a huge gap in the regulatory system, there was no oversight of the financial-products division, this was a hedge fund basically that was attached to a large and stable insurance company.” --one doesn't know whether to laugh and go stock up on gold or simply become a hermit. Does the Chairman of the Federal Reserve not read the newspaper?
I submit that not only did Mr. Bernanke know that the "regulatory system" was being abused, his predecessor enabled the criminals. It is a crisis that President Obama, having wisely foreseen has now inherited, but he would be advised to observe the upheavals taking place in the land of his father. He will be facing a powerful backlash if he turns into the lightning-rod for the American public's simmering rage.
January 17, 2008 Protests Bring New Violence in Kenya
Jeffrey Gettleman, NYTimes, NAIROBI:
Opposition protests resumed in Kenya on Wednesday, and as many people here feared, violence erupted across the country once again. [ ] Opposition leaders have vowed to carry on protests for two more days, and it seems that Kenya’s security forces, which have deemed all protests illegal, are cracking down harshly. On Wednesday afternoon, police officers in padded suits sealed off downtown Nairobi, the capital, and ordered everyone out...
In the near quarter century of Daniel Arap Moi's rule the Kenyan people saw their once hopeful future crushed by their ruler's apparent greed. According to a report by the "Kroll Risk Consultancy", Mr Moi and his sons used a web of front men to manage their secret deals and hide their money. It estimated that Gideon Moi was worth some £550 million as of 2002, while Philip was worth about £384 million. The report was prepared at the request of the new Kibaki administration which succeeded in replacing President Moi by promising to end state corruption.
In 1999 John Githongo founded the Kenyan chapter of the anti-corruption organization Transparency International. In line with his pledge to wipe out government corruption Kibaki appointed Githongo as his "anti-corruption czar". When Githongo revealed that an Anglo Leasing fraud had siphoned off $100 million from inflated government security contracts via a phantom company listed in Britain he was denounced by his fellow ministers and eventually forced to leave the country. Githongo has finally returned to Kenya but what he is finding does not inspire him with hope.
That is the challenge facing President Obama ... as the SEC complicity clearly shows... the rot in Washington reaches clear to the head of the stinking fish. Now we learn that Obama's own White House Counsel Greg Craig represented Rove in his recent book deal, while Craig’s law partner, close associate and mentor, Emmet Flood, is representing Bush in executive privilege matters before the Washington D.C. Court of Appeals, where Bush officials are charged with the political firings of U.S. attorneys for failing to act on orders to prosecute Democrats prior to elections.
One does not need to be a famous novelist to conjure all the dire consequences to a country that accepts this level of corruption.
Charles Dickens' GREAT EXPECTATIONS
In his 'Great Expectations' Dickens takes on the corruption of the judicial system of his time. Dickens' masterful work was intended to propel those in power to institute reforms at a time when children, their parents having been forced into crime, were destined to share the same fate. Great Expectations contained the implicit warning that left unchecked, England would be guaranteed a future of violence, lawlessness and despair-- a fate that still gravely faces Kenya and our own USA.
Luckily, though we may not have a Dickensian novelist, we do have at least one incorruptible reporter who moonlights as a comedian:
Now comes word that the official at the center of the fraud scandal at the Treasury Department has been allowed to quietly quit and retire from his job as a government regulator, despite allegations that he allowed a bank to falsify financial records (The federal government took over IndyMac back in July, after the bank's stock price plummeted to just pennies a share when it was revealed the bank had financial troubles due to defaulted mortgages and subprime loans, costing taxpayers over $9 billion. )
One becomes both dismayed and slightly amused when celebrated novelists bemoan the limitations of fiction. What their lament is meant to suggest is that there are realities specific to a particular time and place that demand authentic, unbiased reporting, that the conceit of universal truth is a 19th century pretense. One wonders where, if one accepts their premise, such an impartial observer might exist.
Just as the global financial meltdown continues to expose the glaring flaws in "free-market" capitalism, so have the recurrent tragedies of history shown that human stupidity, shortsightedness and greed know no cultural or geographical boundaries. For instance reading this : “If there is a single episode in this entire 18 months that has made me more angry, I can’t think of one other than AIG,” Bernanke said. “AIG exploited a huge gap in the regulatory system, there was no oversight of the financial-products division, this was a hedge fund basically that was attached to a large and stable insurance company.” --one doesn't know whether to laugh and go stock up on gold or simply become a hermit. Does the Chairman of the Federal Reserve not read the newspaper?
I submit that not only did Mr. Bernanke know that the "regulatory system" was being abused, his predecessor enabled the criminals. It is a crisis that President Obama, having wisely foreseen has now inherited, but he would be advised to observe the upheavals taking place in the land of his father. He will be facing a powerful backlash if he turns into the lightning-rod for the American public's simmering rage.
January 17, 2008 Protests Bring New Violence in Kenya
Jeffrey Gettleman, NYTimes, NAIROBI:
Opposition protests resumed in Kenya on Wednesday, and as many people here feared, violence erupted across the country once again. [ ] Opposition leaders have vowed to carry on protests for two more days, and it seems that Kenya’s security forces, which have deemed all protests illegal, are cracking down harshly. On Wednesday afternoon, police officers in padded suits sealed off downtown Nairobi, the capital, and ordered everyone out...
In the near quarter century of Daniel Arap Moi's rule the Kenyan people saw their once hopeful future crushed by their ruler's apparent greed. According to a report by the "Kroll Risk Consultancy", Mr Moi and his sons used a web of front men to manage their secret deals and hide their money. It estimated that Gideon Moi was worth some £550 million as of 2002, while Philip was worth about £384 million. The report was prepared at the request of the new Kibaki administration which succeeded in replacing President Moi by promising to end state corruption.
In 1999 John Githongo founded the Kenyan chapter of the anti-corruption organization Transparency International. In line with his pledge to wipe out government corruption Kibaki appointed Githongo as his "anti-corruption czar". When Githongo revealed that an Anglo Leasing fraud had siphoned off $100 million from inflated government security contracts via a phantom company listed in Britain he was denounced by his fellow ministers and eventually forced to leave the country. Githongo has finally returned to Kenya but what he is finding does not inspire him with hope.
"In the past, the scandals that we had were of a scale that was mind-boggling to most people. Big sums, hundreds of millions of dollars! Those are many zeros and sometimes difficult to connect to your everyday circumstances," he said. "What is happening now is having a very direct impact on the poor."
Back to "Business as usual"
Despite President Kibaki's promises, Mr Moi and his sons remain highly influential, Gideon Moi is now an MP and former President Moi was recently named special envoy to Sudan's north-south peace process. Kenyans' great expectations that followed Kibaki's election have given way to despair as they watch the vultures both in and out of Kenya pick away their future through stealth and criminal deceit. As one reporter put it, "There was a feeling [in the new government]that pursuing corruption of the past was provoking corruption allegations in the present".That is the challenge facing President Obama ... as the SEC complicity clearly shows... the rot in Washington reaches clear to the head of the stinking fish. Now we learn that Obama's own White House Counsel Greg Craig represented Rove in his recent book deal, while Craig’s law partner, close associate and mentor, Emmet Flood, is representing Bush in executive privilege matters before the Washington D.C. Court of Appeals, where Bush officials are charged with the political firings of U.S. attorneys for failing to act on orders to prosecute Democrats prior to elections.
One does not need to be a famous novelist to conjure all the dire consequences to a country that accepts this level of corruption.
Charles Dickens' GREAT EXPECTATIONS
In his 'Great Expectations' Dickens takes on the corruption of the judicial system of his time. Dickens' masterful work was intended to propel those in power to institute reforms at a time when children, their parents having been forced into crime, were destined to share the same fate. Great Expectations contained the implicit warning that left unchecked, England would be guaranteed a future of violence, lawlessness and despair-- a fate that still gravely faces Kenya and our own USA.
Luckily, though we may not have a Dickensian novelist, we do have at least one incorruptible reporter who moonlights as a comedian:
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