*Ø* Blogmanac | More bizarre every day
From Colleen in Canada:
Frightening indeed. Many Canadians are becoming frightened of the US government,
and they are well justified in that fear.
Justice Goes Offshore and is Imprisoned
By Tom Engelhardt, tomdispatch.com
Timothy Noah of Slate writes: "[Vice-president Dick] Cheney violated the Bush administration's policy of never saying the e-word in a Christmas card he and his wife sent out to various supporters and important Washingtonians. -- Along with their best wishes for this holiday season, the Cheneys included the following quotation from Benjamin Franklin: 'And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?'"
The imperial (vice-)presidency has new meaning -- and not just because Dick and Lynne implicitly plugged God's Empire, the United States of Everything, in a Christmas card. The New York Times had a fascinating, if chilling, front-page rundown on the underside of Cheney's imperial dream, the sort of thing for which his New Year's card might be inscribed, "Happy New Year, Welcome to Hell."
James Risen and Thom Shanker began their report, "Hussein Enters Post-9/11 Web of U.S. Prisons," this way:
"Saddam Hussein is now prisoner No. 1 in what has developed into a global detention system run by the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency, according to government officials. It is a secretive universe, they said, made up of large and small facilities throughout the world that have sprouted up to handle the hundreds of suspected terrorists of Al Qaeda, Taliban warlords and former officials of the Iraqi government?"
CONTINUE FOR FULL STORY
* Ø * Ø * Ø *
A "FLASHBACK' from WHATREALLYHAPPENED.COM
November 17, 2003 issue
Copyright ? 2003 The American Conservative
[You and me both! I never thought I'd reprint from a conservative
source either! But it's a definite MUST READ! LOL! -v]
Most Favored Democracy
The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies goes on offense.
By Daniel McCarthy
The images on the screen show American flags on fire, children dressed as suicide bombers, Saddam Hussein triumphantly addressing a throng of Iraqis, and grainy footage of the destruction wrought by a terrorist attack. These arresting pictures and the voice-over narration tell viewers that the war in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and al-Qaeda?s attacks against the United States are all part of a larger war that Israel and the U.S. must fight together.
Congressmen and senators, White House aides and Pentagon officials, lobbyists and journalists are seeing the ad, which has been running on cable television in the Washington D.C., area. It is just one tactic used by an aggressive new neoconservative think tank, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), to shape American thinking on war, terrorism, and the Middle East. The Foundation is only two years old, but already the group is making its influence felt on the nation's policymakers.
In early 2001, a tightly knit group of billionaire philanthropists conceived of a plan to win American sympathy for Israel's response to the Palestinian intifada. They believed that the Palestinian cause was finding too much support within crucial segments of the American public, particularly within the media and on college campuses, so they set up an organization, Emet: An Educational Initiative, Inc., to offer Israel the kind of PR that the Israeli government seemed unable to provide itself.
At first, Emet floundered, without an executive director or a well-defined mission. But that changed after Sept. 11, and Emet changed too, into what is now the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. The name is different, but the goal of influencing America's opinion-forming classes remains.
CONTINUE, by all means!
* Ø * Ø * Ø *
Israel to Request Billions from the U.S.
to Actualize Unilateral Separation Plan
14:40 Jan 08, '04 / 14 Tevet 5764
(IsraelNN.com) A "senior Jerusalem source" quoted by Israel Radio this morning stated Israel will be seeking billions of dollars in U.S. assistance to actualize Prime Minister Ariel Sharon?s unilateral separation plan to cut ties with the PA.
Funds would be required to pay for the logistical separation of forces/persons from the PA, as well as making compensatory payment to the tens of thousands of families residing in Yesha (Judea, Samaria & Gaza) communities.
SOURCE
From Colleen in Canada:
Frightening indeed. Many Canadians are becoming frightened of the US government,
and they are well justified in that fear.
Justice Goes Offshore and is Imprisoned
By Tom Engelhardt, tomdispatch.com
Timothy Noah of Slate writes: "[Vice-president Dick] Cheney violated the Bush administration's policy of never saying the e-word in a Christmas card he and his wife sent out to various supporters and important Washingtonians. -- Along with their best wishes for this holiday season, the Cheneys included the following quotation from Benjamin Franklin: 'And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?'"
The imperial (vice-)presidency has new meaning -- and not just because Dick and Lynne implicitly plugged God's Empire, the United States of Everything, in a Christmas card. The New York Times had a fascinating, if chilling, front-page rundown on the underside of Cheney's imperial dream, the sort of thing for which his New Year's card might be inscribed, "Happy New Year, Welcome to Hell."
James Risen and Thom Shanker began their report, "Hussein Enters Post-9/11 Web of U.S. Prisons," this way:
"Saddam Hussein is now prisoner No. 1 in what has developed into a global detention system run by the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency, according to government officials. It is a secretive universe, they said, made up of large and small facilities throughout the world that have sprouted up to handle the hundreds of suspected terrorists of Al Qaeda, Taliban warlords and former officials of the Iraqi government?"
CONTINUE FOR FULL STORY
A "FLASHBACK' from WHATREALLYHAPPENED.COM
November 17, 2003 issue
Copyright ? 2003 The American Conservative
[You and me both! I never thought I'd reprint from a conservative
source either! But it's a definite MUST READ! LOL! -v]
Most Favored Democracy
The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies goes on offense.
By Daniel McCarthy
The images on the screen show American flags on fire, children dressed as suicide bombers, Saddam Hussein triumphantly addressing a throng of Iraqis, and grainy footage of the destruction wrought by a terrorist attack. These arresting pictures and the voice-over narration tell viewers that the war in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and al-Qaeda?s attacks against the United States are all part of a larger war that Israel and the U.S. must fight together.
Congressmen and senators, White House aides and Pentagon officials, lobbyists and journalists are seeing the ad, which has been running on cable television in the Washington D.C., area. It is just one tactic used by an aggressive new neoconservative think tank, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), to shape American thinking on war, terrorism, and the Middle East. The Foundation is only two years old, but already the group is making its influence felt on the nation's policymakers.
In early 2001, a tightly knit group of billionaire philanthropists conceived of a plan to win American sympathy for Israel's response to the Palestinian intifada. They believed that the Palestinian cause was finding too much support within crucial segments of the American public, particularly within the media and on college campuses, so they set up an organization, Emet: An Educational Initiative, Inc., to offer Israel the kind of PR that the Israeli government seemed unable to provide itself.
At first, Emet floundered, without an executive director or a well-defined mission. But that changed after Sept. 11, and Emet changed too, into what is now the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. The name is different, but the goal of influencing America's opinion-forming classes remains.
CONTINUE, by all means!
Israel to Request Billions from the U.S.
to Actualize Unilateral Separation Plan
14:40 Jan 08, '04 / 14 Tevet 5764
(IsraelNN.com) A "senior Jerusalem source" quoted by Israel Radio this morning stated Israel will be seeking billions of dollars in U.S. assistance to actualize Prime Minister Ariel Sharon?s unilateral separation plan to cut ties with the PA.
Funds would be required to pay for the logistical separation of forces/persons from the PA, as well as making compensatory payment to the tens of thousands of families residing in Yesha (Judea, Samaria & Gaza) communities.
SOURCE
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