• A Space Journey HD, 8.59 min: A small tribute to HUBBLE, the Hubble Space Telescope;
• The Majestic Beauty of the Cosmos (Hubble) HD Relaxing space music NASA, 4.20 min: Each of these sights of the far away corners of the cosmos was captured thanks to the lenses of the Hubble telescope conquering these amazing distances. My little tribute to Carl Sagan;
• Intergalactic Journey (HD), 5.59 min: A music video with some science content or a science video set to some excellent music;
• Amazing video footage of flying through space, 3.34 min: This is a wonderful video of what it is like to travel through space;
• Stunning video: NASA captures giant comet hitting sun, 0.21 min: SOHO (NASA-ESA Solar & Heliospheric Observatory) watched as a fairly bright comet dove towards the Sun in a white streak and was not seen again after its close encounter (May 10-11, 2011). The comet, probably part of the Kreutz family of comets, was discovered by amateur astronomer Sergey Shurpakov. In this coronagraph the Sun (represented by a white circle) is blocked by the red occulting disk so that the faint structures in the Sun’s corona can be discerned. Interestingly, a coronal mass ejection blasted out to the right just as the comet is approaching the Sun. Scientists, however, have yet to find a convincing physical connection between sun-grazing comets and coronal mass ejections. In fact, analysis of this CME using images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory shows that the CME erupted before the comet came close enough to the solar surface to interact with strong magnetic fields;
• Vídeo impactante: un agujero negro devora una estrella, 0.31 min: Courtesy: NASA – Científicos lograron observar por primera vez un fenómeno espacial extremadamente infrecuente que se produce una vez cada 100 millones de años. A finales de marzo el telescopio orbital Shift de la NASA registró un potente destello de rayos X desde la constelación de Draco, a 3,9 millones de años luz de la Tierra. El destello lo provocó un agujero negro al capturar y asimilar una estrella;
• Plains Milky Way – Watch in HD, 3.17: Most questions about this, are answered in the description here, on Dakotalapse. (Windows Media /Quicktime);
• Earth From Space (full HD), 2.54 min, by Cmexxs: Downloadlink for the movie in FULL HD;
• Earth from Space, 9.40 min, by denmlaZg: Earth from Space video clips.Sound:NASA Space Recordings-Voice of Earth.Music: SomaFM radio station-Mission Control-Haiku-Chrystal Bath-Live and historic NASA mission audio mixed with electronic ambient;
• All Alone in the Night – Time-lapse footage of the Earth as seen from the ISS, 2.30 min: Inspired by a version of the opening sequence of this clip called ‘What does it feel like to fly over planet Earth?’, I tracked down the original time-lapse sequence taken on the International Space Station (ISS) via NASA, added some extras, and found a soundtrack that almost matches the awe and wonder I feel when I see our home from above. To those brave men and women who fly alone in the night to take us to the stars, we salute you. Serving Suggestion: 1080p, lights off, volume up;
• City Lights From Space, 1.42 min: Amazing pictures of cities at night taken by astronauts;
• Milky Way Galaxy From Earth, 3.32 min: Crazy Chris shows you how to spot a part of the milky way galaxy on a dark clear night, & then explains how we are able to see it from with in.

A recent study estimates that more than 170 million Chinese suffer from a mental disorder. But very few are receiving care, with mental health desperately short of financing, practitioners and esteem.   

In 2010, several attacks near schoolyards left 21 people dead. According to news reports, half of the attackers had earlier appeared deranged or suicidal, but Wen Jiabao, the Chinese prime minister, said only that China needed to resolve “social tensions” underlying the attacks.

Only one in 12 Chinese needing psychiatric care ever see a professional. China has little insurance coverage for psychiatric care, almost no care in rural communities, too few inpatient beds and a weak government mental health bureaucracy.

Most Chinese psychiatrists lack a university degree in any subject, much less mental health, while chronic shortages of doctors and facilities is leading families to either lock up or abandon mentally ill relatives.

The government has pledged to invest more in mental healthcare, pouring billions of dollars into new and renovated psychiatric hospitals, many of which are old and purposely located far from cities … (full text and a video, 23.50 min).

… How many of these problems relating to natural resources shortages do you expect man’s ingenuity and modern technology to solve – in other words, is a modern Utopia possible?

• “Nobody can predict that, but there certainly are theoretical possibilities. For example, if alternative sustainable energy can reach a sufficient scale – it is, in principle, possible to overcome the water shortage by desalination. But we are very far from achieving that. In the meantime, we have extremely serious problems. My morning newspaper today reports the very grim effects of what seems to be the worst drought in Mexico’s history. The rapid fluctuation of climate, which is what has been predicted by the global change models, has been quite striking in recent years. We are not addressing it. In fact, the US congress recently barred any inquiry into whether the climate extremes of the past few years have anything to do with global warming. And they say why, they say ‘if we allow an inquiry, there might be an opening to paying attention to the hoax that global warming is’. They don’t want to acknowledge that global warming is taking place or that it has anything to do with human activity. If that is the case in the richest and most powerful country in the world, then we are just like lemmings going off the cliff.”

And do you think there is a sense that certain parties like global warming because it could open up new territories for exploration in terms of fossil fuels and minerals – do you think that plays a part in the head-in-the-sand approach to climate change taken in some quarters?

• “Well, extracting more fossil fuels is like pouring gasoline on a fire. It may open up more minerals that are needed, but the harmful effects of global warming could be devastating.”

European Union member states like the United Kingdom are opening up public national health services to the market and actively seeking out American healthcare firms as potential service providers. Is this a good idea, in your view, when the system in the United States fails to care for some many millions of people without adequate medical insurance? And, more generally, are there any lessons that European welfare systems and public services can learn from the US?

• “Well, they can learn what to avoid. The facts are pretty clear and not at all controversial. Healthcare expenses are about twice as much per capita as other Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. The outcomes are not among the best. In fact, they are often quite low. And, as you said, there are millions without any health insurance. Indeed, there are many millions of deaths from lack of healthcare. There are parts of the US system that are as effective as Europe – the Veterans Administration, in particular, and the reason for that is because the VA is nationalised healthcare with preventative care and other measures. So, therefore, the government is permitted to negotiate drug prices. But it is barred from doing this in the privatised system, by law, with consequences that are obvious. The private system doesn’t have that reduction in prices and boost in outcomes that a nationalised system does.
• “So, if the question is – should Europe move towards a highly dysfunctional system and away from a system that is working pretty well? Then it is kind of hard to understand why that’s a question in the first place. The real question has to be – should the US move to the sort of system that other industrialised countries have at half the per capita cost and, generally, better outcomes? There is a good reason why the US system is so inefficient, it’s because it’s the only privatised system. After all, private insurance companies are businesses. Their goal is to make money, not to make people healthier.”

If we extend the discussion further – in the American higher education system, there is more of a focus on applied research rather than basic research. With Europe looking to move to a similar model – through marketisation of its universities – as a US academic, would you advise against this then?

• “Firstly, there is extensive basic research in US universities. Patents, publications and Nobel prizes and so on in basic research areas have been heavily based in the US. Take my own university, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which is a good illustration of this – when I got here in the 1950s, it was an engineering school where students were taught the available technology to apply at the time. Over the years, it has shifted substantially to a university based on science. Students here, since the 1960s, don’t take courses on a specific engineering speciality – say civil engineering or mechanical engineering. They just take basic science courses, for good reasons. Technology change has become much more rapid and you have to understand the basic science to keep up with what is going to happen next.”

But America is much better at creating university spin-off companies and bringing products to market. The US seems be much more proactive in terms of getting venture capitalists involved with pump-prime funding and so on

• “The way the system works here fundamentally is that the state sector, which is dynamic economically, produces funds and develops the core science and technology that’s done through government labs and publicly-funded universities as well as through procurement, a major form of development. And once the basic work is done, largely within the public sector, then it is handed over to private capital for commercialisation and profit. At that stage, venture capital comes in. Take the information technology revolution – computers, the internet and satellites. For decades, it was in the state system. The first digital computers were produced in the 1950s and were not useable in the business world. Computers finally became commercially marketable in the late 1970s, it’s a long time. The internet was in the public sector for almost 30 years before it became available for private profit. Much the same is true with pharmaceuticals. The spin-offs come much later after the basic research. It’s a system that sort of works.”

Here in Europe, we have just witnessed yet another EU summit achieve very little in terms of radical solutions to tackle the eurozone crisis. From an outsider’s point of view – what is your impression of the European Union; how do you see its institutions and member states; and do you think the eurozone economic crisis helps to make the case for a United States of Europe? … //

… And, given that, what is your prediction for which way the US presidential race is likely to go?

• “If you just take a look at the financing, which usually determines electoral outcomes, it is pretty clear that the Republican establishment is backing Mitt Romney and will beat back any opposition. After that, it is hard to predict, we can only look at the polls. It really will depend on the way forces are mobilised as well as the economy.”

(full long text).

• Scuba diving in paradise – in HD, 8.30 min;
• underwater paradise, 5.43 min;
• Diving with SOLO, part 1, 13.58 min;
• RAJA AMPAT PAPUA, 0.49 min.

Links for Informations:

Raja Ampat Islands on en.wikipedia;

Edi Frommenwiler’s website;

MV Pindito;

Join the Kalabia: Bird’s Head Seascape, Raja Ampat, Indonesia, 10.06 min;

Conservation International: Homepage, with it’s Blog, and it’s Posts Tagged Kalabia;

Pew Environment Group PEW: Homepage, About, Kalabia Floating Marine Conservation Education Program;

Images for Kalabia.

Davos pact diminishes sovereignty of european nations, deflation and inflation, employment not improving for election, more money managers bullish on gold, money chaos cover up is political, gold rush in China as the year of the dragon starts, Fed bolsters commodities despite economic decline … //  

… After having loaned the ECB $1 trillion they now tell us we’ll receive QE 3. In fractional banking that could be $10 to $20 trillion. Any substantial part of those funds are used and monetized you’ll see some stunning inflation.

Election is in view and employment is not improving. The Fed has pledged that it is prepared to provide for further monetary accommodation. Inflation is headed higher, not lower. All that money and credit will influence inflation. Yes, the EU, US and UK economies will be flat this year and probably slightly higher. What we are doing with QE 3 and other types of stimulus is just extending the game.

If everything is fine why did the US Mint sell 114,500 ounces of American Gold Eagles with still two days left in January to accommodate buyers? Maybe the total will be 145,000, the largest sale in 1-1/2 years. It’s because people do not trust their economies and their governments that is why and they are buying gold and silver coins to protect themselves. They only have to look at the Republican Presidential primaries where votes are stolen by computer, dead people vote and Ron Paul doesn’t get a chance to state his case. Our government is a criminal syndicate. All those American gold and silver buyers know this, and that is why they want gold and silver coins, not fiat dollars.

Finally we are starting to see money managers, hedge funds, and others getting more bullish on gold. This should lead to short covering in gold and silver and the shares.

Here we have QE 3 in the works as we predicted months ago. We said it would consist of the Fed buying the banks garbage so they have cash to follow the Fed’s orders. Those orders will be to buy Treasuries, Agencies and to make loans to small and medium companies. Before the Fed bought $1.4 trillion of this paper, mostly MBS and CDO’s. We never found out what the Fed paid for previous purchases and we won’t this time either. This is another gift the Fed, or should we say taxpayer gives the to the banks. What we are seeing in Europe and again shortly here is another stuffing of the system with money and credit. The Fed is headed down the road of no return and they know exactly what they are doing. That is playing money and credit creation to the bitter end. Historically no central bank has had the power to do this. If played out to the end we have to expect hyperinflationary depression, which will end in a deflationary depressionary collapse. This will destroy the value of the US dollar and its purchasing power. The entire system will probably collapse to a great extent including perhaps 60% of commerce, 40% to 50% unemployment, and the end of the financial system and resorting to bartering, the social support system and government. They will all collapse, so you had better prepare for it. All this will be expedited if Ron Paul is not elected our next president. If he were to be elected he could short-circuit many programs and policies that are destroying our nation.

The moves by the elitist Fed via the ECB to cover-up the monetary and financial chaos in Europe and in the US via QE 3 is in part political. Political in France and toward the next elections. France is a nightmare for the elitists and obviously those in power want Obama returned. He having done everything asked of him … (full long text with related links).

• Arrest and detenion of Alkarama executive director, Dr Mourad Dhina, on William’s Desk, by William Gomes, Date; 31 January 2012;
• et dans la Lique des droits de l’Homme LDH /Etrangers, par LDH, le 26 janvier 2012: RÉFUGIÉ POLITIQUE, Dr. Mourad Dhina: Des organisations de défense de droits de l’Homme appellent au rejet de la demande d’extradition du Dr. Mourad Dhina par les autorités algériennes:   
  Une coalition de 11 ONG nationales et internationales ont adressé une lettre ouverte au Premier ministre français M. François Fillon, l’appelant à refuser la demande d’extradition vers l’Algérie où le Dr. Mourad Dhina, directeur exécutif d’Alkarama, risque d’être torturé. C’est le Premier ministre qui en France est chargé de signer les décrets d’extradition … (le texte en entier).
• in arabic, french and english on YouTube.

Links:

Dr Mourad Dhina on en.wikipedia: … born 1961) is an Algerian physicist and activist living in Switzerland. He is a leading figure for a strategic and non violent change in Algeria[1]. Mourad is the executive director of the Alkarama NGO.

dans fr.wikipedia: Physicien algérien, opposant politique appartenant à la mouvance islamiste 1, mais partisan du changement non-violent, né à Blida en Algérie en 1961. Résidant en Suisse, marié et père de 6 enfants … // … Le 24 janvier 2012, une coalition de dix ONG de défense des droits de l’homme, parmi lesquelles la Fédération Internationale des Droits de l’Homme FIDH, Amnesty International, la Ligue Algérienne Des Droits de l’Homme LADDH (et dans fr.wikipedia), a adressé au Premier ministre français François Fillon une lettre demandant à la France de ne pas extrader Mourad Dhina en Algérie, comme le réclament les autorités algériennes 12 …

… He was detained in Britain in December 2010 on a European arrest warrant issued by a Swedish prosecutor after two female former WikiLeaks volunteers accused him of sexual assault. His lawyers have argued that the warrant is invalid because it was issued by a prosecutor rather than a neutral judge or court. 

A small group of demonstrators gathered outside the courthouse, braving a freezing morning to show support for Assange, who looked relaxed in a dark grey suit and purple tie as he entered court … //

… Assange gained recognition and infuriated the US government in 2010 when WikiLeaks released secret video footage and thousands of US diplomatic cables about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Denies any wrongdoing:

His arrest came shortly after WikiLeaks published the secret diplomatic cables that included unflattering views of world leaders and candid assessments of security threats.

Assange says the allegations are politically motivated, and that US authorities are looking for a way to go after him in retaliation for WikiLeaks’ revelations.

Washington is divided over Assange, with some officials calling for tough action against him to deter would-be leakers. Others argue that a prosecution would be legally problematic and would give him a boost when he appears headed for irrelevance.

Bradley Manning, a US army intelligence analyst suspected of passing thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks, is facing a court-martial on 22 charges including aiding the enemy and wrongfully causing intelligence to be published online.

US army investigators in December presented what they said was evidence for the first time in directly linking Manning to Assange.

The investigators told a US military hearing at an army base in Maryland that contact information for Assange was found on a computer hard drive belonging to Manning.

Assange has consistently denied knowing the source of the material received by his site but has expressed support for Manning. (full text).

Links:

WikiLeaks;

Julian Assange starts Wikileaks TV show;

MILITARY JUSTICE: The Bradley Manning Article 32 Hearing;

Julian Assange;

Bradley Manning;

European Court of Human Rights: articles on Al Jazeera, explained on en.wikipedia.

• Un récital de mélodies françaises au bénéfice de l’association proPhilo.
• Entrée libre, collecte à la sortie;
• Irène Paoletta, soprane et membre de proPhilo, sera accompagnée par Alain Porchet au piano.   

Tout comme lors des ateliers de dialogue philosophique en communauté de recherche, Irène et Alain nous invitent à venir découvrir le dialogue entre la voix et le piano, le compositeur et le poète, et dans une même quête de sens, l’espace d’un instant, un temps d’écoute, à découvrir un monde de pensées et de sentiments.

Cette soirée est organisée au bénéfice de l’association proPhilo. Venez nombreux.
Bea Vanhove, Présidente proPhilo

… Europe’s politicians continue to battle reality. Everyone knows that Greece cannot repay its massive pile of debts, now at more than €350 billion ($459 billion). But instead of effectively reducing the financial burden, European politicians intend to approve new loans for the government in Athens and go on fighting debt with new debt. “If the country wants to remain in the euro zone, we should support it,” says Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann.  

No Progress:

Though the rescuers may be issuing calls for perseverance, resistance is growing in Europe. In Athens, political parties and citizens are fighting too keep austerity measures from transforming their economic downturn into a full-on crash. And in Germany, the main donor country, leading politicians within the two coalition parties, the CDU and the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP), do not believe that a majority of parliamentarians will vote for additional aid to Greece. “Our position has not changed,” says Horst Seehofer, the chairman of the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU). “There is no money for a standstill in reforms.”

The effort to rescue Greece is clearly moving in circles, and there is no evidence of any progress.

Ironically, only three months ago European leaders believed that things were already on the mend. Greece’s private creditors were supposed to abandon half of their claims, and the partner countries planned to contribute another €130 billion ($172 billion). These efforts were expected to bring the country’s debt level from more than 160 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to a more tolerable 120 percent by 2020.

But these hopes were deceptive. The Greek economy is shrinking faster than European politicians believed was possible in autumn, and now the country is short on funds once again. The representatives of the so-called troika, consisting of the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), estimate the shortfall to be about €15 billion, meaning that Greece needs €145 billion instead of €130 billion. “We do not assume that the additional funds can be collected solely from private creditors,” say sources within the troika.

The only other option is to redistribute the burden. Under the current program, the IMF is responsible for about one-third, and the Europeans for two-thirds of the costs. But obtaining cash is becoming increasingly difficult. A serious dispute over who will come up with the additional money has been raging behind the scenes for days — a dispute that resembles a game of Old Maid.

Politicians Bicker with Banks:

The German government feels that the financial sector should bear much of the additional burden. If additional funds were needed, the banks would simply have to contribute more, the Germans argue. The countries involved are already pitching in €130 billion to the new bailout package, and Berlin feels that that ought to be enough … (full text).

(The article you are reading originally appeared in German in issue 5/2012 – Jan. 30, 2012 – of  DER SPIEGEL).

• Deuter – Buddha Nature, 10.03 min;
• Deuter – Gaia Dreaming Herself Awake (Garden of the Gods), 7.45 min;
• DEUTER in autoplay … almost endless.

Two recent stories out of Ottawa underline the ongoing political and economic assault on ordinary Canadians. More Canadians are now working for low wages than at any time in decades, continuing a trend that began in the early 1990s, and Stephen Harper has announced major changes to retirement benefits – including delaying Old Age Security(OAS) eligibility to age 67. What kind of society beggars those of its citizens who worked all their lives and now want to retire in dignity while privileging the rich and super-rich by slashing their income taxes and allowing them to transfer their wealth to their children untouched? … //  

… There is a solution to this ideological insanity, but don’t hold your breath for any Canadian government, federal or provincial, to implement it any time soon. If private capital refuses to invest because its policy preferences have snuffed out demand then governments must do two things. First, they must reverse labour flexibility policies and return the social safety net to at least its previous state. This goes beyond providing dignity for ordinary Canadians. For tens of thousands of small and medium businesses it actually means more money being spent in their stores.

Secondly, if the private sector refuses to invest the money they have accumulated (with the help of government policies) then this is the time to massively increase public investment. This cannot simply be temporary stimulus but a permanent policy shift back towards a coherent and creative – and high wage – industrial policy that directs the economy rather than assuming allocation of capital can only be done by the market.

Public investment must also bring back some dignity to working people in the form of child care, home care, pharmacare and accessible post-secondary education — all measures that would also enhance the economy.

Public investment could also begin address the crisis of over-production by gradually exploring a long-term de-growth strategy (including a different kind of growth) which addresses climate change and the rapid depletion of resources that scientists tell us is threatening the planet. Only by radically reducing the role of private capital can such an outcome even be imagined. (full long text).

• 1. Philo pour adultes: Cycles de 6 rencontres du 1er semestre 2012 à Genève et Lausanne – Attention délai d’inscription à fin janvier!
• 2. Philo pour ados: Animations à thèmes aux Club 44, février à mai, à La Chaux-de-Fonds (10 – 18 ans);
• 3. Philo pour enfants: Animations “philo-action” avec Rousseau, février et mars à Genève (9 – 12 ans).

Retrouvez tous ces ateliers philo sur notre site proPhilo.ch.

4. Echange de pratique pour enseignants:  

Le premier jour “portes ouvertes” d’un cycle de rencontres spécialement destiné aux enseignants.

• Date: Mercredi 12 février 2012
• Heures: 10h00 – 16h00 (pique-nique “canadien” pendant la pause de midi)
• Lieu: Ecole communale de Celigny (dans le “foyer”), Route de Crans 7, 1298 Céligny village

Cinq rencontres seront planifiées entre février et avril 2012. La première rencontre du 12 février est ouverte à tous les enseignants, sans pré requis, gratuite et sans engagement. Les objectifs de ces rencontres seront multiples:

• offrir un espace, où chacun aura l’opportunité de réfléchir ensemble sur la pratique du dialogue philosophique, dans un cadre scolaire ou éducatif;
• exprimer ses réussites, ses doutes et ses interrogations;
• consolider et enrichir ses pratiques;
• constituer ensemble une banque de références et d’outils.

Organisation: Claire Descloux et Alexandra Soudan, enseignantes et membres du comité de proPhilo.

Merci d’envoyer un message à proPhilo.ch pour indiquer votre intérêt selon les choix suivants:

• [ ] Je suis intéressé(e) et je me joindrai à vous à la “portes ouvertes” du 8 février 2012
• [ ] Je suis intéressé(e) mais je ne pourrai pas venir le 8 février 2012
• [ ] Je souhaite être informé(e) des dates des prochaines rencontres

5. DVD “Des enfants philosophent”:

Ce double DVD de 351 mn contenant les 13 émissions de la série documentaire produite par l’Université Laval (Québec) n’était plus disponible depuis plus d’un an. L’association proPhilo en a de nouveau quelques exemplaires en stock au prix de 55.- plus frais de port. Pour toute commande, merci d’adresser un message à proPhilo.ch.

Cordialement votre, proPhilo, Case postale 6577, 1211 Genève 6, Suisse.

… and now the article published on Global Research.ca, by Philip Fornaci and Susan Alfano, January 28, 2012.

Last month, at the massive Fort Meade army installation, Private First Class Bradley Manning, who grew in Crescent, OK, finally had his “day in court” – actually, seven days of a military “Article 32 hearing.” 

The outcome of those hearings is that Manning will stand trial for “aiding the enemy,” among other charges, which could put him in prison for the rest of his life, and possibly result in a death sentence.

Any resemblance to actual justice or due process in Manning’s Article 32 hearing was purely coincidental.

As most of the world now knows, Manning has been accused of making thousands of allegedly “secret” military videos, diplomatic cables, and other documents available to the media outlet, Wikileaks.

Before any evidence had even been presented to a court, Manning had already been punished beyond the bounds of the U.S. Constitution. He’d been subjected to months of torturous conditions of confinement, including sleep deprivation, complete isolation from human contact and forced nudity, before being transferred to reportedly more humane conditions in the wake of global outrage.

The evidence we saw presented at the Article 32 hearing does not justify keeping Private Manning in custody, much less continuing these proceedings for a formal trial.

The Article 32 hearing is roughly analogous to a “probable cause hearing” afforded to criminal defendants in civilian courts, but with significant differences. It is actually an “investigative process,” where the government is permitted to unveil its purported evidence in the presence of an Investigative Officer [IO], rather than a judge.

Motions to suppress potentially illegally-seized and questionable evidence were not heard [unlike civilian cases], essentially allowing the government to present its version of the case against Manning undeterred by due process considerations.

The most serious charge against Manning is violation of Article 104 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, “Aiding the Enemy,” claiming that Manning did “knowingly give intelligence to the enemy, through indirect means.”

The identity of the “enemy” was revealed on the last day of the hearing to be “Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and ‘classified’ enemies.”

Although there are allegations that Manning made secret documents available to Wikileaks, no one claims that he had any contact whatsoever with the shadowy “Al Qaeda” bogeymen.

His alleged crime is merely that he made information that is embarrassing to the U.S. government available to anyone with Internet access, including the American people and its enemies.

For this very questionable “crime,” the best the government has been able to produce is circumstantial evidence, secured via an array of seemingly illegal tactics, including the use of a highly dubious government informant, presented before an investigating officer with blatant conflicts of interest … //

… The stakes in the Manning affair are enormous for all Americans. Even if found guilty of releasing information, there is no evidence that any of the information allegedly sent to Wikileaks affected the national security of the United States.

To the contrary, the Wikileaks information has been credited with significant roles in, among other successes, the Tunisian revolution and the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq.

Yet it is far from clear that Manning even released the information, and it is increasingly evident that there is no way to definitively prove that he did. Meanwhile, this young soldier has been subjected to unspeakable torture at the hands of the military, serving as a reminder to all Americans of what will happen if you decide to speak the truth, or are merely accused of doing so.

Manning should be freed immediately. (full text).

(The authors are Washington attorneys with experience in civilian criminal prosecution and prisoner’s rights issues, but little exposure to the military justice system. They sat through much of Manning’s Article 32 hearing and filed this report for The Oklahoma Observer).

Links:

CIA Archives: The Cuban Revolution – Documentary History (1960), 51.14 minutes on YouTube;

Obama Faces GOP On Its Talking Points, 85.55 minutes on YouTube.

Sasha Lilley: Protests against Wall Street have inspired many people to move their money from big banks to smaller banks and credit unions and encourage others to do the same. Why might you be skeptical of this effort? 

• Doug Henwood: There are several reasons. First of all, I think a lot of the big banks wouldn’t be too sad to see some of these customers go. One of the reasons that the Bank of America and other big banks were imposing the five-dollar fee for the use of debit cards was that they’re trying to drive a lot of small customers away. They lose money on them and are happy to see them go. So I’m not sure this is going to cause a lot of consternation in the executive suites.

SL: How do they lose money on them?

• DH: Because it just takes them a few hundred bucks a year to process the accounts. If the balances and transactions are small, then they’re just not worth the bother … //

… SL: Taking things back much further than 1837, there are those uneasy about the current arrangement of our economic system who perennially launch community money initiatives. That is, they create a community currency that people can use for various local transactions, with the idea of keeping money within a community. In your view, what’s wrong with such efforts?

• DH: It runs into the same problems that I was talking about trying to go back before the corporate form. You run into the problem of scale and scope. The local currency might be appropriate for buying locally produced baked goods, but what about the flour, what about the wheat, what about the milling equipment to produce the flour?  It may be appropriate for haircuts, but what about scissors and the steel that makes the scissors?  Money isn’t just a substitute for barter. Money is like a system of social organization. It’s a way of organizing production on a large scale. And I don’t see how creating little community currencies can solve that problem. It can maybe mitigate things in a crisis, when there is a shortage of money, but as a principle of large-scale organization, it’s just not up to the task.

SL: Clearly, your skepticism about small banks, corporate personhood, and community money aren’t motivated by love of the established order. If these solutions aren’t radical enough, what would be?

• DH: Well, god, I don’t know. Our imaginations have been so constricted by 30-35 years of reaction that it’s almost hard to think about these things. And I think a lot of this smallish stuff actually is a symptom of 30-35 years of reaction. We think in terms of smallness, rather than bigness and boldness.
• It would be almost utopian to have a half-decent welfare state in the United States; we have nothing of that sort here. I would certainly like to see that. Full employment is something that the bourgeoisie can’t stand. They don’t like it because it gives workers confidence and gives them the boldness to demand more and makes them less willing to accept the dictates of the boss. But that’s only a beginning. Some of the things I was alluding to earlier: we need to think about different kinds of financial institutions, setting up different kinds of arrangements for people to keep their transaction accounts in, but also something different for financial institutions to do with the money they collect from their depositors. What does that mean?  Does that mean funding different kinds of models of ownership, some kinds of worker-owned businesses, which traditional capitalist markets might not fund?
• What about the corporate form?  How to think about socializing that in any meaningful way?  We’ve seen in periods of crisis that workers have been able to step in and take over firms and run them on their own. That happened in Argentina about 10-11 years ago when Argentina had its economic crisis. It happened after the Russian Revolution as well. Workers took over the plants and began to deal with suppliers and customers on their own, certainly tried to hire their own engineers and experts to run the plants. Those sorts of things have happened in crisis, but then when things go back to normal, that disappears. A lot of the experiments about worker ownership in Argentina disappeared when the economy recovered and a lot of the experimental stuff disappeared in the Soviet Union when the Bolsheviks consolidated their power. But you have to start thinking about how to get some kind of social control over corporations and financial markets. And it’s not an easy thing to think about. I’ve only begun to think about it myself and it makes me dizzy when I try to think about it in any kind of detail. But I think one of the great opportunities of the present moment is that people are really open to thinking and talking about these things in ways that they weren’t in more normal times. So we need to have a much more serious conversation about how to do these sorts of things, instead of falling back onto fanciful notions of going back to a simpler world that really never existed.

SL: There’s been a fair amount of debate over whether or not the Occupy movement should articulate demands. Where do you fall on this?  Can demands play a role in building a movement that is explicitly anti-capitalist and looking toward a post-capitalist future?

• DH: One of the inspiring things about this is that it has inspired other people to do all kinds of things. Here in New York, parents have been interrupting meetings of Bloomberg’s school advisory board, to try to challenge the privatization, charter schools, and testing agenda. We’ve seen marches against police brutality in the city that were inspired by OWS. People have been doing these things for a long time, but really they got a jolt of energy from the Occupy movement. Unions have been showing some signs of life as a result of this. One of the things the movement is doing, even if the people sitting in Zuccotti Park and similar encampments around the country are not themselves making demands and forming organizations, it’s inspiring other people to do those things, perhaps in more specialized realms. It’s focused attention on these sorts of issues in ways that have been extremely inspiring and surprising. Some friends who live in my apartment building — who were not at all political people, though they’re personally wonderful — they’ve just been fascinated by this and can’t stop talking about it. There are some people who are involved in Parents for Occupy Wall Street, just regular folks who’ve gotten involved because they were disgusted with the status quo and were inspired to do something different. So one of the ways this is having such a good effect is it’s such a catalyst to think and act differently and ask a lot of questions. Even if the movement itself doesn’t make these demands, it’s really inspiring an awful lot of other people to think about a different world and making it happen.
• It’s all rather fluid and I hope it doesn’t evaporate as fluids can sometimes do. But I’m not sure if the occupiers are the ones themselves who are going to coalesce into organizations and make demands. I was involved for a little while with the Demands Working Group of Occupy Wall Street. They even developed a demand for a large-scale jobs program and investment in infrastructure and a single-payer health plan. This is all wonderful stuff, and it was controversial with a lot of people around Occupy Wall Street because they didn’t like the idea of making demands for some reasons I find depressing, like: only terrorist make demands; by making demands of the state you’re legitimating the state; by talking about taxing and spending, you’re legitimating the money form. That’s not the position that I would take, but I could see that there were significant obstacles to getting the Occupy Wall Street itself to think that way. And also there are very opaque mechanisms of governance. Despite all the claims of horizontality and consensus, there also seems to be a little cabal of insiders running a lot of this stuff. None of that is very explicit or transparent. But I think what it’s done is energize a whole new way of thinking and acting. It’s been very impressive to see the way the mainstream has had to respond to it. It’s really changed the political conversation very dramatically in less than two months. I think that’s where the energy is and I don’t know if the occupiers themselves are going to be the ones making these demands.

(full long interview text).

(Doug Henwood edits Left Business Observer, a newsletter he founded in 1986. He also hosts Behind the News, a weekly radio show covering economics and politics on KPFA, Berkeley, which is rebroadcast on several other stations across the US and has a worldwide audience via its Internet archive. He is the author of three books: The State of the USA Atlas (1994), Wall Street (1997), now available for free download here, and After the New Economy (2004). He’s at work on a study of the American ruling class, whoever that might be. Sasha Lilley is a writer and radio broadcaster. She hosts the critically acclaimed program of radical ideas Against the Grain, and is series editor of PM Press‘ political economy imprint, Spectre. She is the author of Capital and Its Discontents and co-author of the forthcoming book Catastrophism: The Apocalyptic Politics of Collapse and Rebirth. This interview was conducted in mid-November 2011).

Links:

• Doug Henwood’s radio archives;
• LBOnews;
• Counterspin, Interview with Sasha Lilley on the War Comes Home, November 14, 2008;

Videos on YouTube:

• on the economic crisis,  10.47 min;
• Peter Schiff Debates Doug Henwood on the Stimulus, 27.46 min;
• Occupy Wall Street OWS: Virtual Teach-In with Doug Henwood, 50.51 min;
• Doug Henwood: Deficit Commission v. Medicare, 58.04 min;
• Christopher Hitchens and Chris Hedges Debate: Is God Great? 4.27 min, Moderated by Sasha Lilley, May 24, 2007.
• a debate on #occupyws, by Jacobin, 110.57 min, on vimeo;

… many more on YouTube.

• Diving the wreck of Salem Express 10-2007 … , 9.59 min;
• Salem Express 2011.wmv, 9.23 min;
• Tauchgang am Wrack der Salem Express, Egypt 2009, 4.45 min; 
• aqaba jordan scuba dive red sea wreck tank, 1.13 min: Int. Arab Divers Village;
• 05/27/07 USS Vermilion Dive, 8.46 min;
• The Vermilion Reef – June 20, 2009, 5.16 min;
• Sinking the USS Vermilion, 6.13 min: The sinking of the WWII era Liberty Ship, the USS Vermilion, off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This ship was later pushed nearly a quarter mile along the seafloor by Hurricane Hugo;
• Unidentified shipwreck off the Myrtle Beach Coast, 3.37 min;
• Diving in France – Donator wreck and La Gabinière, 6.19 min;
• Diving Pensacola, FL and the USS Oriskany, 7.45 min;
• Wreck diving at Scapa Flow.avi, 6.04 min;
• Underwater Steam Train wreck, 2.51 min;
• The Forgotten Underwater wrecks of WWII, 3.50 min;
• Divers find WW2 sunken sub, 0.56 min: The wreck of a Russian submarine sunk by a mine in 1940 is found by divers in the Baltic Sea;
• Wracks im Roten Meer: Salem Express, 7.43 min, by TaucherNet, 14 nov. 2006;

and also this:

• World’s largest swimming pool, 1.01 min:
  The world’s largest swimming pool has been built in Chile.The pool is a kilometer long and is as deep as 35 meters;
• SWIM BABIES UNDER WATER, 1.35 min: Are these parents nuts? Or is swimming for babies a beautiful thing?

Iran is ready to revive talks over its nuclear programme but tougher sanctions will not force it to give into Western demands, its president has said. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said it was evident that “those who resort to coercion are opposed to talks”. 

On Monday, the EU banned new oil contracts with Iran, saying it was not confident Tehran’s nuclear plans were “exclusively peaceful”.

Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for energy purposes.

Negotiations between Iran and the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany ended in a stalemate in January 2011.

President Ahmadinejad is the highest-ranking Iranian official since then to offer to resume talks … //

… IAEA Iran visit:

Earlier this week, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog confirmed it would send a team to Iran between 29 and 31 January “to resolve all outstanding substantive issues”.

In a report last November the IAEA said it had information suggesting Iran had carried out tests “relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device”.

Iran sells most of its oil to countries in Asia. The EU and the United States are now working to persuade Asian countries to reduce their purchases from Iran as well.

But Beijing has criticised the European Union for its ban. China – a big importer of Iranian crude oil – has long opposed unilateral sanctions targeting Iran’s energy sector. It says the nuclear dispute should be resolved through dialogue.

Iran has already threatened to retaliate to the sanctions against it by blocking the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Gulf, through which 20% of the world’s oil exports pass.

The US has said it will keep the trade route open, raising the possibility of a confrontation.

Iran’s top poé export destinations 2010: … (full text).

Links:

I-BOOKS SERIES on Global Research.ca;

Fukushima: A Nuclear War without a War, The Unspoken Crisis of Worldwide Nuclear Radiation, ONLINE READER, by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, January 25, 2012.

Japan Nuclear Crisis: The Dangers of Radiation, by Helen Caldicott, March 31, 2011;

Le fiasco des barbouzes français à Homs, par Boris V;

Le “Projet Jugement dernier” et les événements profonds: JFK, le Watergate, l’Irangate et le 11-Septembre, par Peter Dale Scott.

Link-update:

Shattering the last of our moral credibility: The killing of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan is a prime example of the impunity characteristic of US foreign policy, on Al Jazeera, by Najla Abdurrahman, January 25, 2012;

and on en.wikipedia: Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, the Nuclear program of Iran (very long article), Nuclear facilities in Iran, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

… The television show could be the best format for the former world traveler to get his message out — so long as it’s filmed at his current home. He’s currently under house arrest in Britian where he awaits a court decision on whether or not he should be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault. 

There are few details about the show, other than that it will air in March and requsts for licensing deals can be sent through Quick Roll Productions, a Web site that the Associated Press discovered only launched two weeks ago.

Assange founded Wikileaks in 2006, and skyrocketed to fame with the release of more than 250,000 classified diplomatic cables online. The cables have been credited with fomenting the Arab Spring, but they’ve landed Assange in the international spotlight, with the U.S. government starting a grand jury investigation of Assange, possibly for conspiracy.

Assange has kept out of the spotlight much of the past year while under house arrest in Britian, though he recently gave an extensive interview to Rolling Stone. He told reporter Michael Hastings he had been closely following the trial of Bradley Manning, an Army private accused of leaking the diplomatic cables to Wikileaks. (full text).

Link: Julian Assange extradited to Sweden—high comedy or political drama, by Siv O’Neall, November 18, 2012. Linked on our blogs with Siv O’Neall, Sweden.

… In the early 1960s, the Labour government of Harold Wilson secretly agreed to a demand from Washington that the Chagos archipelago, a British colony, be “swept” and “sanitised” of its 2,500 inhabitants so that a military base could be built on the principal island, Diego Garcia. “They knew we were inseparable from our pets,” said Lizette, “When the American soldiers arrived to build the base, they backed their big trucks against the brick shed where we prepared the coconuts; hundreds of our dogs had been rounded up and imprisoned there. Then they gassed them through tubes from the trucks’ exhausts. You could hear them crying.”

Lisette and her family and hundreds of islanders were forced on to a rusting steamer bound for Mauritius, a distance of 2,500 miles. They were made to sleep in the hold on a cargo of fertiliser: bird shit. The weather was rough; everyone was ill; two women miscarried. Dumped on the docks at Port Louis, Lizette’s youngest children, Jollice, and Regis, died within a week of each other. “They died of sadness,” she said. “They had heard all the talk and seen the horror of what had happened to the dogs. They knew they were leaving their home forever. The doctor in Mauritius said he could not treat sadness.”

This act of mass kidnapping was carried out in high secrecy. In one official file, under the heading, “Maintaining the fiction”, the Foreign Office legal adviser exhorts his colleagues to cover their actions by “re-classifying” the population as “floating” and to “make up the rules as we go along”. Article 7 of the statute of the International Criminal Court says the “deportation or forcible transfer of population” is a crime against humanity. That Britain had committed such a crime — in exchange for a $14million discount off an American Polaris nuclear submarine — was not on the agenda of a group of British “defence” correspondents flown to the Chagos by the Ministry of Defence when the US base was completed. “There is nothing in our files,” said a ministry official, “about inhabitants or an evacuation.”

Today, Diego Garcia is crucial to America’s and Britain’s war on democracy. The heaviest bombing of Iraq and Afghanistan was launched from its vast airstrips, beyond which the islanders’ abandoned cemetery and church stand like archaeological ruins. The terraced garden where Lisette laughed for the camera is now a fortress housing the “bunker-busting” bombs carried by bat-shaped B-2 aircraft to targets in two continents; an attack on Iran will start here. As if to complete the emblem of rampant, criminal power, the CIA added a Guantanamo-style prison for its “rendition” victims and called it Camp Justice.

What was done to Lisette’s paradise has an urgent and universal meaning, for it represents the violent, ruthless nature of a whole system behind its democratic façade, and the scale of our own indoctrination to its messianic assumptions, described by Harold Pinter as a “brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.” Longer and bloodier than any war since 1945, waged with demonic weapons and a gangsterism dressed as economic policy and sometimes known as globalisation, the war on democracy is unmentionable in western elite circles. As Pinter wrote, “it never happened even while it was happening”. Last July, American historian William Blum published his “updated summary of the record of US foreign policy”. Since the Second World War, the US has:

Attempted to overthrow more than 50 governments, most of them democratically-elected.
Attempted to suppress a populist or national movement in 20 countries.
Grossly interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries.
Dropped bombs on the people of more than 30 countries.
Attempted to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders.

In total, the United States has carried out one or more of these actions in 69 countries. In almost all cases, Britain has been a collaborator. The “enemy” changes in name – from communism to Islamism — but mostly it is the rise of democracy independent of western power or a society occupying strategically useful territory, deemed expendable, like the Chagos Islands … //

… The same shadow is across Britain and much of Europe where social democracy, an article of faith two generations ago, has fallen to the central bank dictators. In David Cameron’s “big society”, the theft of 84bn pounds in jobs and services even exceeds the amount of tax “legally” avoid by piratical corporations. Blame rests not with the far right, but a cowardly liberal political culture that has allowed this to happen, which, wrote Hywel Williams in the wake of the attacks on 9/11, “can itself be a form of self righteous fanaticism”. Tony Blair is one such fanatic. In its managerial indifference to the freedoms that it claims to hold dear, bourgeois Blairite Britain has created a surveillance state with 3,000 new criminal offences and laws: more than for the whole of the previous century. The police clearly believe they have an impunity to kill. At the demand of the CIA, cases like that of Binyam Mohamed, an innocent British resident tortured and then held for five years in Guantanamo Bay, will be dealt with in secret courts in Britain “in order to protect the intelligence agencies” – the torturers.

This invisible state allowed the Blair government to fight the Chagos islanders as they rose from their despair in exile and demanded justice in the streets of Port Louis and London. “Only when you take direct action, face to face, even break laws, are you ever noticed,” said Lisette. “And the smaller you are, the greater your example to others.” Such an eloquent answer to those who still ask, “What can I do?”

I last saw Lisette’s tiny figure standing in driving rain alongside her comrades outside the Houses of Parliament. What struck me was the enduring courage of their resistance. It is this refusal to give up that rotten power fears, above all, knowing it is the seed beneath the snow. (full long text).

Ireland has been one of the largest casualties in the global financial crisis, which began during the banking collapse of 2008 and has continued to impact markets and destabilise the developed world ever since.  

Following a government guarantee to underwrite the country’s six major banks shortly after the crisis broke, Ireland’s population of 4.5 million was shouldered with an enormous debt of €400bn ($515bn), proportionately the highest per capita commitment in the world.

Yet with bank liabilities accounting for an eye watering 309 per cent of GDP, it quickly became apparent that Ireland would fail to find its own way out of the economic downturn. As a consequence, in 2010, the EU and IMF stepped in to offer Ireland a rescue package worth €85bn ($109bn) – then one of the largest bailouts in history.

How different it had been only a couple of years earlier. Then the country was riding high, revelling in its reputation as the ‘Celtic Tiger’ … //

… In 2011, the Fianna Fail ruling party was comprehensively crushed in a general election dominated by angry recriminations over who was responsible for the crisis. But the problems facing Ireland have not gone away and as the years of austerity and cutback stretch out ahead, increasing numbers of young people are emigrating overseas, something that earlier generations of the Irish had been forced to do but which during the boom years had never seemed necessary.

Against this background, filmmaker Sinead O’Shea investigates how Ireland, once a beacon of booming development and social prosperity, could have reached such a point of economic desperation and asks whether the country can ever turn its fortunes around. (full text and a link to show 16 pictures).

Links:

The Enemy Within [Foundations] – Dr Stan Monteith interview with Norman Dodd, 59.06 minutes, on YouTube, uploaded by GoodFightUploads le 18 avril 2011: The First interview with Norman Dodd was by Dr Stan Monteith shortly before Mr. Dodd Passed away. He reveals the hidden truth about the Tax Exempt Foundations as chief investigator in The Reece Commitee Report authorized by Congress. This is about The Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Ford Foundations who since the turn of the century have set out to influence and manipulate the education and morals of not only the USA but Countries Globally. Reduced standards of Education and sexual promiscuity of today have their roots in these Foundations. He states that the foundations were very influential in instigating conflicts around the world;

The End Of Liberty, full Length HQ Film, 74.06 minutes, uploaded by joevlogger78,  January 10, 2011;

Corruption.

… The collective action void:

But beyond the intensification of global trade and capital flows, perhaps the single most important commonality between the industrial and post-industrial revolutions is that both periods exposed in a stark way the deep-seated internal contradictions in advanced countries’ societal modes of organization.  

Chief among those contradictions is the fierce tension between individual and collective well-being.

This tension, and the contradictions inherent to the way modern democracies are organized, lie at the heart of the work Mancur Olson.  Olson is the most distinguished expositor of the structural inefficiency of collective action, notably in The Logic of Collective Action.  One of his main insights is that, paradoxically, a group of people who have a common interest and the means to pursue this interest (e.g., consumer protection) will not always spontaneously act this way.  Thus the extension from invididual to collective action is not automatic or spontaneous.  It depends on the existence of appropriate organizations and institutions.

Olson also argued that democracy, rather than causing the exploitation of the minority by a tyrannical majority, can sometimes cause the opposite, because the few have concentrated benefits while the many have diffuse costs.  According to Olson, democracy holds the seeds of economic decline, yet at the same time it protects societies against predatory behavior by private agents and autocratic governments.  Olson famously argued that a stable democracy inherently favors powerful interest groups that protect their vested interests, which in turn hampers economic dynamism.  In The Rise and Decline of Nations, for example, Olson draws a contrast between post-World War II Japan and Germany, both of which grew rapidly after overthrowing powerful elites, and the United Kingdom, which stagnated under the weight of old vested interests.

While democracy may, according to Olson contain the seeds of economic decline, it seems that democracy itself is currently under threat, with powerful interests capturing governments and shaping policy-making in most of the world’s rich nations.

More troubling still, the legacy we are collectively creating is a very dangerous one.  It is a legacy of immense instability and systemic risk: the risk of hugely disruptive climate change; the risk of deep financial instability with potentially disastrous effects on the real economy; finally, the risk of nuclear catastrophe.

The supply of key “public goods” – containment of climate change, financial stability, and nuclear security – is being undermined by a failure of collective action on an unprecedented scale.  One of the most troubling aspects of this situation is that the required international policy cooperation – or the appropriate domestic policy responses – to address the complex but immensely important question of the provision of these global public goods seems more elusive than ever.

The paradox is that the more international cooperation and domestic policy responses are needed, the more elusive they become.  The drama of Europe’s crisis and European elites’ woefully inadequate policy response to the crisis over the past two years are a case in point of the extreme fragility and deep contradictions of the West’s societal mode of organization.

Thus, far more than an economic crisis, what may be happening to the West in the wake of its post-industrial, financial revolution is something much more profound – the gradual realization, in its collective psyche, that it is on course to suffer the consequences of one the biggest collective action failures in history. (full long text, inkl. 10 charts).

Watch this video, 2.07 min, published on Al Jazeera, January 21, 2012: In December, 22-year-old Habibur Rahman was tortured by eight Indian army soldiers for being caught illegally crossing into Bangladesh with cows he had purchased in India. Now, a month later, he is still shaking from the brutal, almost 24-hour-long beating he received. 

Cows are cheaper in India than Bangladesh, so Bangladeshis buy them across the border and smuggle them back inside to sell. But India has erected a 3,000-kilometre-long electrified and guarded fence between the two countries, purportedly to stop terrorism.

Every cow brought back earns around $20, but now Rahman must deal with the physical consequences of his trade and his fear that authorities will come looking for him again … (full text).

Yes, it really is another Vietnam, and just as in 1972, presidential elections will make no difference … //

… The counterinsurgency hurt the Taliban if only because the occupiers killed thousands of them. It no doubt caused splintering of Taliban forces, and contributed to the seemingly random violence. 

But it did little to endear the occupiers to the native population, and, according to a WikiLeak from former chairman of the US National Intelligence Council Peter Lavoy, seems to have prompted a new, less benign strategy. “The international community should put intense pressure on the Taliban to bring out their more violent and ideologically radical tendencies,” he argues, the logic being to prevent Afghans from giving up entirely on their occupiers.

Nagl and the boys are not pleased by such candor. Aghast, he told the Guardian: “It just goes completely against the ethos of the American military not to take more risks in order to protect civilians. I find it hard to believe elements of the US military would want to deliberately put more risk on to civilians.”

But he does admit the Taliban are effectively being forced by the occupiers to engage mostly in crude terrorism, stage one of Mao Zedong’s famous three phases of revolutionary warfare (phase two is larger teams of rebels taking on government forces, leading to full-blown conventional war in phase three). Still, he sees no nefarious intrigue on the occupiers’ part. “The Taliban have been knocked down to phase one and you see what you would expect to see, with the resulting risk of alienating the civilian population. If we can get the civilian population on our side in the south, in their heartlands, we can knock them back to phase zero,” enthuses Eagle Scout Nagl.

Such clever reading of Maoist tactics cannot hide the fact that US plans for Central Asia continue to stumble, stuck in the imperial groove. Looming large is Pakistan’s remarkable closure of the US drone base and its refusal to reopen supply routes after NATO killed 28 Pakistani soldiers last month. But equally foreboding is tiny Kyrgyzstan’s President Almazbek Atambayev’s quiet insistence that 2014 is the final final final date for US control of the Manas airbase, a key transfer point for Western troops and supplies to Afghanistan.

Just as Bush was boasting in 2008 of permanent US bases in Iraq, the recent Strategic Partnership agreement with the Afghan government to place permanent joint military bases in Afghanistan beyond 2024 is not a serious proposition.

Nor is the latest magic bullet — the Iron Man — being forged in NATO headquarters. The idea is to whip into shape an Afghan security force/ army and hand over nominal power by the end of 2014. But this force will be predominantly northern Tajik-speaking Afghans who make up only 28 per cent of the population and form the backbone of the current government. Less than 10 per cent of officers are Pashtun (vs 42 per cent of Afghans), and in any case the army attrition rate is 30 per cent, not to mention the infiltration rate of Taliban suicide martyrs.

Just as in 2012 in Iraq, we can expect some kind of handover in 2014 — the US people and economy simply cannot bear much more, but it will be to a chaotic police state, headed by the weak, discredited Hamid Karzai, with a confusing mix of army, police and mercenaries, much like the situation Afghanistan faced in 1993, at the end of the last US-Afghan love-in, in the 1980s. By 1996 a violent civil war had brought the country to a stand-still and the Taliban was the only way out. This scenario is about to repeat itself.

The Taliban are not the Vietnamese, with a clear, proven economic system and a powerful socialist sponsor able to help them heal. What post-2014 Afghanistan faces is less-than-friendly neighbours, including a very troubled Pakistani, with little to contribute to a post-occupation reconstruction. Perhaps the new Muslim Brotherhood governments in the Arab world will extend a more sympathetic hand, paid for by Gulf oil sheikhs. The Afghans have had quite enough of the kufars over the past three decades.

The counterinsurgency hurt the Taliban if only because the occupiers killed thousands of them. It no doubt caused splintering of Taliban forces, and contributed to the seemingly random violence. But it did little to endear the occupiers to the native population, and, according to a WikiLeak from former chairman of the US National Intelligence Council Peter Lavoy, seems to have prompted a new, less benign strategy. “The international community should put intense pressure on the Taliban to bring out their more violent and ideologically radical tendencies,” he argues, the logic being to prevent Afghans from giving up entirely on their occupiers.

Nagl and the boys are not pleased by such candor. Aghast, he told the Guardian: “It just goes completely against the ethos of the American military not to take more risks in order to protect civilians. I find it hard to believe elements of the US military would want to deliberately put more risk on to civilians.”

But he does admit the Taliban are effectively being forced by the occupiers to engage mostly in crude terrorism, stage one of Mao Zedong’s famous three phases of revolutionary warfare (phase two is larger teams of rebels taking on government forces, leading to full-blown conventional war in phase three). Still, he sees no nefarious intrigue on the occupiers’ part. “The Taliban have been knocked down to phase one and you see what you would expect to see, with the resulting risk of alienating the civilian population. If we can get the civilian population on our side in the south, in their heartlands, we can knock them back to phase zero,” enthuses Eagle Scout Nagl.

Such clever reading of Maoist tactics cannot hide the fact that US plans for Central Asia continue to stumble, stuck in the imperial groove. Looming large is Pakistan’s remarkable closure of the US drone base and its refusal to reopen supply routes after NATO killed 28 Pakistani soldiers last month. But equally foreboding is tiny Kyrgyzstan’s President Almazbek Atambayev’s quiet insistence that 2014 is the final final final date for US control of the Manas airbase, a key transfer point for Western troops and supplies to Afghanistan.

Just as Bush was boasting in 2008 of permanent US bases in Iraq, the recent Strategic Partnership agreement with the Afghan government to place permanent joint military bases in Afghanistan beyond 2024 is not a serious proposition.

Nor is the latest magic bullet — the Iron Man — being forged in NATO headquarters. The idea is to whip into shape an Afghan security force/ army and hand over nominal power by the end of 2014. But this force will be predominantly northern Tajik-speaking Afghans who make up only 28 per cent of the population and form the backbone of the current government. Less than 10 per cent of officers are Pashtun (vs 42 per cent of Afghans), and in any case the army attrition rate is 30 per cent, not to mention the infiltration rate of Taliban suicide martyrs.

Just as in 2012 in Iraq, we can expect some kind of handover in 2014 — the US people and economy simply cannot bear much more, but it will be to a chaotic police state, headed by the weak, discredited Hamid Karzai, with a confusing mix of army, police and mercenaries, much like the situation Afghanistan faced in 1993, at the end of the last US-Afghan love-in, in the 1980s. By 1996 a violent civil war had brought the country to a stand-still and the Taliban was the only way out. This scenario is about to repeat itself.

The Taliban are not the Vietnamese, with a clear, proven economic system and a powerful socialist sponsor able to help them heal. What post-2014 Afghanistan faces is less-than-friendly neighbours, including a very troubled Pakistani, with little to contribute to a post-occupation reconstruction. Perhaps the new Muslim Brotherhood governments in the Arab world will extend a more sympathetic hand, paid for by Gulf oil sheikhs. The Afghans have had quite enough of the kufars over the past three decades. (full text).

(Eric Walberg writes for Al-Ahram Weekly. You can reach him at Eric Walberg.com. His Postmodern Imperialism: Geopolitics and the Great Games is available at clarity press.com. Eric Walberg is a frequent contributor to Global Research.  Global Research Articles by Eric Walberg).

In 2030, the majority of U.S. residents under 18 will be people of color. If current household wealth trends continue, the majority of America’s young people will be growing up in economically insecure households.   

In the two decades between 1948 and 1968 — years that saw the income gap between America’s rich and everyone else narrow significantly — the income gap between black and white Americans also narrowed significantly.

United for a Fair Economy has the numbers on that narrowing in State of the Dream 2012: The Emerging Majority, the Boston-based group’s just-released latest annual Martin Luther King Jr. holiday report.

In 1948, the typical African American family in the United States made 53 cents for every dollar of typical white family income. In 1968, the median black family was making 60 cents for every dollar that went to the median white family.

But that progress has ended:

In 2010, typical African American and Latino families made only 57 cents for every typical white family dollar. And wealth disparities run far wider, especially since the Great Recession hit … //

… Stiff taxes on America’s wealthy, notes the new State of the Dream, could go a long way to help financing the KidSave-like efforts America needs to revitalize that middle class and close the racial wealth gap.

How long?

America’s 400 richest currently hold $1.53 trillion in personal wealth, Forbes reported this past September, a total 12 percent up from the previous year — and 608 percent more than the combined wealth of the Forbes 400 in 1982, after adjusting for inflation.

A simple 10 percent tax on just the wealth of Forbes 400 alone would raise enough money to bankroll a $35,000 KidSave nest-egg for every baby born this year in the United States. Dr. King would approve.

“A society based on making all the money you can and ignoring people’s needs,” as he told his future life partner Coretta Scott in 1951, “is wrong.” (full text).

(My comment: look, if poor want nourrish and develop correctly their children, they have three solutions: 1): stop producing children, 2): fight for equality, 3): wait until any Uncle Sam/ any gov does the job for them … See: forgotten how Govs have to be run?).

Nawaf al-Bashir, a tribal leader and MP from Deir Ezzor, told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya TV on Monday that he had “come to Turkey to activate the opposition”. He said he was a member of the Syrian National Council (SNC), the most prominent opposition bloc.  

Bashir’s announcement came a day after MP Imad Ghalioun, who represented the central city of Homs, also told Al-Arabiya that he had fled to Cairo.

He called Homs “disaster stricken” and said the city has been subjected to sweeping human-rights violations. Homs has been one of the most volatile regions in Syria since the uprising against Assad began in March … //

… The SNC statement said further meetings would be held involving military experts “to strengthen the capacity of the FSA against regime forces and to protect civilian regions which the regime wants to raid or pillage”.

The talks also focused on efforts to “restructure FSA units and create a modern and flexible structure … to allow for rapid deployment” and cope with the daily inflow of deserting officers and soldiers.

The FSA claims to have gathered some 40,000 fighters under its command since March.

On the diplomatic front, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, reiterated on Monday a call for Assad to “stop killing, and listen to his people”.

During a visit to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, he said: “I hope the UN Security Council handles Syria in a coherent manner and with a sense of gravity”, but did not recommend any specific action.

“The casualties have reached such an unacceptable stage, we cannot let the situation continue this way,” Ban said.

Assad issued a decree granting amnesty to anyone who committed crimes “in the context of the events taking place since March 15, 2011, till the date of issuing the decree”, SANA reported on Sunday.

Assad has freed 3,952 prisoners since the outbreak of the uprising, SANA said. The opposition, however, says there are thousands more held incommunicado in Syrian prisons.

Assad has made similar decrees on three previous occasions in May, June and November. (full text and a 1.54-minutes video).

Am 24. und 25. Januar 2012 stehen der Nahrungsmittelkonzern NESTLE und die Schweizer Sicherheitsfirma SECURITAS am Bezirksgericht Lausanne wegen Bespitzelung der globalisierungskritischen Bewegung Attac. Damit wird der Schleier der Verschwiegenheit gelüftet, der sich seit Juni 2008 über den Skandal „Nestlégate“ gelegt hat.   

Gegen NESTLE und SECURITAS wurde Strafanzeige erstattet und gleichzeitig eine Zivilklage eingereicht, nachdem das Westschweizer Fernsehen TSR am 12. Juni 2008 publik gemacht hatte, dass eine Gruppe von Attac-Waadt, die an einem Buch über die Nestlépolitik arbeitete (2005 auf Deutsch erschienen: Nestlé, Anatomie eines Weltkonzerns, Rotpunktverlag), von einer Securitasmitarbeiterin im Auftrag von Nestlé infiltriert und ausspioniert worden war. Die Frau war im Herbst 2003 unter der falschen Identität „Sara Meylan“ der Gruppe beigetreten, hatte Arbeitssitzungen besucht, sich Zugang zu vertraulichen Informationen beschafft und darüber detaillierte Berichte zuhanden von Nestlé erstellt. Auf zivilrechtlicher Ebene wird NESTLE und SECURITAS hauptsächlich vorgeworfen, die Persönlichkeitsrechte der AutorInnen des oben genannten Buches und der Organisation Attac selbst verletzt zu haben. Auf strafrechtlicher Ebene kamen verschiedene Verstösse gegen den Geheim- und Privatbereich in Betracht.

Während der strafrechtlichen Untersuchung hatten die beiden Firmen behauptet, die Spionage sei mit dem Weggang von „Sara Meylan“ im Juni 2004 beendet worden. Am 26. September 2008 hat Attac jedoch eine weitere Spionin von SECURITAS/NESTLE entdeckt und angezeigt, die 2008 unter ihrem richtigen Namen noch immer bei Attac aktiv war. Nach dieser Enthüllung haben die beiden Firmen behauptet, diese Agentin habe jedoch nach 2005 keine vertraulichen Berichte mehr für sie verfasst.

Die Bekanntmachung der Affäre Nestlegate rief 2008 beträchtliches öffentliches Interesse hervor und brachte 62 Nationalräte und 12 Ständeräte dazu, das Vorgehen von NESTLE und SECURITAS aufs Schärfste zu verurteilen (http://www.suisse.attac.org/Offentlicher-Appell-fur-die). Selbst die Vorsteherin des eidgenössischen Justiz- und Polizeidepartements, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, kritisierte die Spionage.

Nestlé versuchte die Spionage mit Sicherheitsbedenken in Bezug auf den G-8 Gipfel in Evian zu rechtfertigen. Die Spionin war jedoch erst im September 2003 – also nach Abschluss des G-8 Gipfels vom 1.-3. Juni 2003 – der pazifistischen Arbeitsgruppe beigetreten. Der Präsident des Zivilgerichts bezeichnete übrigens am 8. August 2008 in einer Ordonnanz bezüglich der Anordnung von vorsorglichen Massnahmen, die Spionage von Attac als „unerlaubt“ und konstatierte bereits, dass es tatsächlich zur „Verletzung der Privatsphäre der antragstellenden Mitglieder von Attac-Schweiz und des Vereins an sich“ gekommen ist.

Das Strafverfahren wurde im Juli 2009 eingestellt. Der kantonale Untersuchungsrichter übernahm weitgehend die Darstellungen von NESTLE und SECURITAS und vertrat die Ansicht, das einzige strafrechtliche Vergehen falle unter die dreijährige Verjährungsfrist des Datenschutzgesetzes. Dies, obwohl die zweite SECURITAS/NESTLE Agentin noch 2008 bei Attac aktiv war.

Nun kommt es am 24. und 25. Januar 2012 zur weiteren Verhandlung im Zivilverfahren, das im Juni 2008 eröffnet worden war. Der Prozess ist öffentlich und es ist somit eine einmalige Chance, dass Transparenz über das Handeln von NESTLE und SECURITAS hergestellt werden kann. Eine Reihe von Zeugen werden vernommen, insbesondere die Agentinnen von SECURITAS, die die Informationen gesammelt und vertrauliche Berichte über die ausspionierten Mitglieder von Attac verfasst haben, sowie die Angestellten von NESTLE, welche Empfänger dieser Berichte waren. Der Prozess findet im Tribunal d’arrondissement de Lausanne im Palais de justice de Montbenon am Dienstag und Mittwoch, 24. und 25. Januar von 9 bis 17 Uhr statt.

Am Vorabend des Prozesses, am 23. Januar 2012 um 20 Uhr, organisiert Attac Waadt im Bahnhofsbüffet Lausanne (Salle des Vignerons) einen öffentliche Vortrag mit einer der Prozessparteien, der bekannten Schriftstellerin Susan George, zum Thema « Ihre Krisen und unsere Lösungen ».

Für weitere Informationen: http://www.suisse.attac.org/-Nestle-wird-beschuldigt-attac-

Unterstützen Sie Attac mit einem Solidaritätsmail oder einer Spende und schicken Sie ein Protestbrief an Nestlé!

(Copleft (L) ATTAC-Schweiz Rue des Savoises, 15 1205 Genf – Tel: ++41 22 800 10 40 Fax: ++41 21 625 34 45, e-mail. Kopien erlaubt, sofern die Internetseite erwähnt wird).

Occupy Portland calls for a national day of non-violent direct action to reclaim our voices and challenge our society’s obsession with profit and greed by shutting down the corporations.  We are rejecting a society that does not allow us control of our future. We will reclaim our ability to shape our world in a democratic, cooperative, just and sustainable direction.  

We call on the Occupy Movement and everyone seeking freedom and justice to join us in this day of action.

There has been a theft by the 1% of our democratic ability to shape and form the society in which we live and our society is steered toward the destructive pursuit of consumption, profit and greed at the expense of all else.

We call on people to target corporations that are part of the American Legislative Exchange Council which is a prime example of the way corporations buy off legislators and craft legislation that serves the interests of corporations and not people. They used it to create the anti-labor legislation in Wisconsin and the racist bill SB 1070 in Arizona among so many others. They use ALEC to spread these corporate laws around the country.

In doing this we begin to recreate our democracy. In doing this we begin to create a society that is organized to meet human needs and sustain life … (full text).

related Links:

Black pastors urge followers to join Occupy fold, on SF Gate, by Joe Garofoli, January 16, 2012: The Rev. Harold Mayberry stood before his First African Methodist Episcopal Church congregation Sunday morning in Oakland and outlined how it was time for members to connect with the Occupy Wall Street movement …

Occupy the Dream: The Mathematics of Racism, on Business Insider (first on Huffington Post), by Dylan Ratigan, Jan. 16, 2012.

Helden und Verbrechen im Kaffeeland Guatemala. Guatemala ist ein wunderschönes Land – und eines der gewalttätigsten der Welt. In diesen prekären Verhältnissen gelang dem Schweizer Ueli Gurtner, die indianischen Kleinbauern zu einer eigenständigen Kraft im Kaffeegeschäft zu machen – gegen massive Anfeindungen der Mächtigen, die ihre Monopole nicht verlieren wollen.

Watch this videos, published on YouTube:

• Money As Debt, Revised, 36.05 minutes;
• Money As Debt-Full Length Documentary, 46.57 minutes;
• Money As Debt II-Promises Unleashed-Full Length Documentary, 77.29 minutes;
• CONSTANT VIGILANCE IS THE PRICE OF LIBERTY, 30.27 minutes.  

Links:

• Digital Coin;
• The Digital Coin Forum.