June 24, 2006
Too Much News To Choose
There are so many lousy things happening so fast that before I can wrap my mind around one, another is on the front burner. I find myself with no time to absorb the blows that seem to be falling at manic speed. Hence, I will attempt a flash past of events.
In Iraq
More dead - U.S. troops and Iraqis. It is clear that there is no slowing of chaos. In fact, things seem to be getting worse. The Senate respond with lots of rhetoric, and no agreement on a way out. Meanwhile, the Iraqi "government" mulls offering amnesty to insurgent groups. And reportedly, Iran is funding extremist Shiite militias in Iraq.
Presidential Power Plays
Oh, where to start? How about the House approving the line item veto for Bush Co. "Republicans said it would help him slash wasteful spending and delete expenditures for specific projects from bills." Just what Bush needs - more power to rewrite legislation. They also voted to cut the estate tax to "relieve thousands of heirs from paying tax collectors beginning next decade." And that's all who will be "relieved" - thousands - though it will cost the rest of us billions.
Then we have the latest violation of our right to privacy. The newest invasion is the massive searches of banking records. Working with a Belgian company named SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), the government has been gathering up global banking data - including that of U.S. citizens. Like the other snooping that has now slipped by without oversight, we likely will not know how pervasive or deep the data being gathered actually is.
And while we are on the gathering and losing of data, the Data for 28,000 sailors, families found online. Here is the link to the Navy's press release. There is no word yet, about how the personal data found its way to an "open" web site. This is a different data loss than the one from Veterans Affairs.
Home Grown "Terrorists"
Seven men were arrested in Miami, purportedly a domestic "Islamic," "al Qaeda" linked terrorist cell. They were reportedly ready to blow up the Miami FBI office, the Sear Tower in Chicago, and "other" targets." In Alberto Gonzales press conference on June 23rd (transcript), he stated:
"As has been reported, seven men were arrested yesterday in Miami on charges of conspiring to support the Al Qaida terrorist organization by planning attacks on numerous targets, including bombing the Sears Tower in Chicago, the FBI building in North Miami Beach, Florida, and other government buildings in Miami-Dade County.Fortunately, because of the fine work of law enforcement, these men were unable to advance their deadly plot beyond the initial planning phase.
The seven men who were arrested -- Narseal Batiste, Patrick Abraham, Stanley Grant Phanor, Naudimar Herrera, Burson Augustin, Lyglenson Lemorin and Rotschild Augustine -- were named in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Miami."
However, the information coming to light paints a highly questionable picture. Reports from family members paint a far different picture. On the whole, it seems that these men were neither terrorists, nor even violent in orientation. At least some of them were not Muslims - in fact one is Catholic. The did belong to a karate group and called each other "brother." The primary "terrorist," seems to be the FBI informant who was trying to push the group towards violence, and reportedly offered to fund the attacks and provide the materials for them. In other words, the "informant" was apparently trying to create a "terrorist" cell. This is not the first time that such charges have been raised.
One of the alleged "terrorists" is nicknamed "Sunny." According to his sister, he has been called this since birth. However, on CNN (and assumedly from the FBI) he was being listed as "Sunni." This is remarkably similar to all those "Arab" sounding names that couldn't be differentiated by the powers that be.
There is no information at this time that would make this group any kind of threat whatsoever. In fact, the picture emerging is quite to the contrary. However, it does put African Americans in the "profiling" for "anti-American," "terrorist" profile. Just what we need, more racism.
Enough already!
I just want to tell you thank you, for all that you do, and for this great article.
Marilyse
Posted by: marilyse at June 24, 2006 7:03 AMI begin to wonder just how many such stories there are available in a locker somewhere to throw into the air when there is a really big, potentially very damaging story dropping on us out of the sun, so that we lose track of which one is Vital, as opposed to merely Important and therefore become paralyzed and unable to focus or respond with appropriate indignation in just about every case. Stories based in leaks and other questionable sources, with this kind of timing are suspicious, to say the least. If it is possible to so disorient and confuse a good mind, imagine what it is doing to lesser minds, most of whom seem to vote, mainstream Partisan tickets...!
Posted by: Ed at June 24, 2006 9:40 AMMy guess is that we are not supposed to be watching the navy off the the coast on North Korea, the "negotiations" with Iran, or most likely - the US attempt to destroy the UN.
Of course it could be a hundred other things as well.
Posted by: rowan at June 24, 2006 10:55 AMProbably not the Navy maneuvers, because we have the Chinese Observer to handle that for us and he says everything is above board and his group are learning a lot, which might be just as misleading for Chinese benefit as these efforts with sudden bursts of sensational "news" are designed to target and confuse conscientious and patriotic voters/believers. Maybe we should wonder what they are trying to pull over on the Chinese.
Iran is easy, since those in power have held significant backdoor influence in Tehran since at least when Reagan managed to steal the Presidency from Carter through stealthy smear back in eighty. Most people don't know an off shore subsidiary of Halliburton is upgrading Iran's oil retrieval systems as the melodramatic "Leaders" of these two naive peoples publicly posture, huff, and puff. Nothing has happened in the Middle East or will happen in the Middle East since at least WW II that has not had to do with Oil, especially Caspian Oil and Gas. We already know what's going on. We're just been dickering over the price....
But the Last, the US attempt to destroy the UN. That shows more promise as the biggest story. Let's all rush over to Eleanor Roosevelt's grave site and commence in a most exuberant way to pull up all the shrubbery! You know about "shrubbery's." You can't trust those shrubbery's! And by the way, "No one ever expects the Spasnish Inquisition!"
Posted by: Ed at June 25, 2006 2:19 AM