It's something....

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) - A former CIA contractor was found guilty on Thursday of assaulting an Afghan prisoner who later died in a case that raised new questions about the treatment of detainees by U.S. interrogators.

David Passaro, a 40-year-old former Special Forces medic, was the first civilian to be charged with abusing a detainee in the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Prosecutors said Passaro beat Abdul Wali so badly he pleaded to be shot to end his pain. Wali died of his injuries two days after the interrogation in June 2003.

[snip]

Passaro was found guilty on a felony charge of assault causing serious injury and three misdemeanor counts of simple assault. He faces a maximum of 10 years for the felony and six months on each of the three misdemeanors.

HT to Crooks and Liars.

Complete story here.

(AP)

Another call for Israeli elections…

From Haaretz:

...Olmert promised to teach Hezbollah a lesson. But what has the enemy learned? That Israel doesn't have what it takes to win; that its ground forces, mostly reservists marched in after a month of aerial bombing, were poorly equipped, with substandard weapons and worst of all, inadequate training.

"When they sent us into Lebanon a few days before the cease-fire, we got the same kind of surprise as in the Yom Kippur War," a soldier stationed in Lebanon told me. "We were like sitting ducks. There was a sense of panic. We were surprised and helpless as the best tanks we own were ripped apart by the advanced technologies Hezbollah was using. All we cared about was scrounging for food and staying alive until the cease-fire.

"I'm starting to think that the chief of staff cooked up the stock scandal himself," the soldier went on. "Better to be sacked for a financial indiscretion than for bungling a war."

The outcome of the war up until now has exposed our weak points. Apart from President Bush, who says we won, our overuse of air power and the huge amount of damage we inflicted on Lebanon and Lebanese infrastructure has prompted the world to change its mind about the justification of our actions. Hezbollah survived with most of its arsenal intact, and can always count on its patrons to replenish it. That, together with the fact that it stands a good chance of becoming part of the Lebanese establishment and winning the elections, has prompted Assad Jr. to rattle his saber.

[snip]

With a million refugees wandering around the country, millions of dollars in economic damage and the trauma of thousands of missiles hitting our homes and cities, there is no question that the public is going to rethink its trust in a government that indulges in such hasty decision-making. With so many questions in the air, with a commission of inquiry, defiant citizens and a political tsunami on the way, it's time to get set for early elections.

Complete column here.

Fair play to him...!

I'm hardly Michael O'Leary’s biggest fan, on account of his company's vehement union-busting stance alone, but I have to applaud his latest move.

Not only the rightness of threatening the British government with a multi-million dollar compensation claim if it didn’t drop its ridiculous, nearly fortnight-long airport security requirements--confiscation of mascara, bottled water, deodorant and other everyday items, and banning of books, iPods and all carry-on luggage--but the brilliance of tying the move visually to RyanAir’s newest ad campaign.

Ryanair today threatened to sue the government for compensation unless airport security measures are returned to normal within seven days.

Michael O'Leary, the outspoken chief executive of Ryanair, described the new restrictions as "farcical Keystone Cops security measures that don't add anything except to block up airports", as he issued the ultimatum.

At a news conference in London, Mr O'Leary, described as "nonsense" the increased body checks and the new carry-on restrictions. Flanked by a Winston Churchill figure - in reference to the company's advertising campaign - he went on to say that the disruption at airports handed extremists a public relations victory.

[snip]

Mr O'Leary ridiculed the notion of searching five- or six-year-old children and elderly people in wheelchairs going to Spain. Such scenes, he said, would have "terrorists laughing in the caves of Afghanistan".

Or the cafés of North-East London, as the case may be.

Complete story here.

And now it's time to laugh….

This one had me howling!!! What a clever little guy!



[Repaired the link, 18/8/06 10 p.m.GMT]

Cafferty on FISA....

Cafferty is smokin' in this clip!!

(Sorry, I can't figure out how to embed the clip here, so you'll have to click below and view it on C&L.)

Video-WMP Video-QT 

(HT to Crooks & Liars.)

(See this excellent image in its original animated format here.

We're losing....

Still believe the Iraq war hasn't hurt US prestige abroad?

Then check out this poll, taken in America's closest ally in the ill-begotten invasion.

Four out of five Britons believe the west is losing the "war against terror" and want Tony Blair to distance British foreign policy from the United States, a poll revealed today.

[snip]

Tony Blair's policy of standing shoulder to shoulder with President Bush on foreign policy, most recently seen in his backing of the US stance in the Israel-Lebanon war, is only supported by 14% of the public, according to the poll.

At the same time, the poll showed that the British are becoming more hawkish, favouring the jailing of terror suspects for a full 90 days without charges (rather than the current 28 days) and believing that the West is fighting a third world war against global terrorism which threatens their way of life.

Complete story here.

Get rid of those dangerous liquids!

Airport madness....

I've known several people who've had the misfortune to have to fly since the "liquid bomb" plot was "foiled" in the UK.

I await real proof, in the form of criminal charges followed by convictions in an open court of law, before I believe there really was a plot. In the meantime, I'm scheduled to fly from Ireland to California in October and I'm desperately hoping the airline security madness has abated by then. Otherwise, I don't know how I'll manage such a long flight without my iPod! Not to mention, leave my laptop at home?!

The measures being taken--banning bottled water, confiscating mascara, and handcuffing panicky sexagenarians for trying to take a Pepsi to the loo--are truly ridiculous. Do they honestly believe terrorists are too stupid to switch tactics, and simply plant a more conventional device in the relatively unscreened checked luggage on domestic American flights? Or target a totally different vulnerability, such as subways, ports, or sports events?

Salon author, Patrick (“Ask the Pilot” ) Smith has written a couple of outstanding columns since the latest worldwide airport fiasco. This one, in which he refers to a "liquid bomb" plot foiled in 1995, is from today’s Salon:

..."We can't keep weapons out of prisons. How can we hope to keep them out of airports?" poses Bruce Schneier, a prominent security expert and the author of "Beyond Fear."

Eleven years ago we were sensible enough to accept this -- and it's not as if terrorism was something new, with the Lockerbie bombing and '93 World Trade Center attack still fresh in our minds. Lo and behold, no American planes were bombed with liquid explosives -- or any other kind -- in the interim. The true nuts and bolts of keeping terrorists away from planes, meanwhile, was going on out of view -- the responsibility of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, not part-time screeners at the airport. Numerous intelligence failures were brought to bear on Sept. 11, certainly, but unfortunately our initial reaction was to scapegoat airport security, whose role in the attacks was all but irrelevant. At the time, box cutters were not prohibited items. If they had been, the hijackers would have fashioned some other weapon.

[Snip]

Real security isn't glamorous. It doesn't result in splashy news stories and footage of stranded travelers sleeping on terminal floors. And every penny spent confiscating mascara is a penny that could be spent elsewhere in the security hierarchy. The key is getting the most bang for your security buck, and you're not getting a whole lot of bang -- and you're losing a whole lot of bucks -- with yet another clampdown on this or that dangerous item du jour.

"Exactly two things have improved airplane security since 9/11," Schneier says. "Reinforcing the cockpit door and teaching passengers that they need to fight back. Everything else has largely been a waste of money."

Complete column here (requires subscription or obligatory ad).

Oh, he didn't mean to hurt him....

The first American civilian, former CIA contractor, David Passaro, 40, (above) is standing trial on charges of mistreating an Afghan detainee.

The detainee, Abdul Wali, died after being beaten over a period of 48 hours during questioning about rocket attacks on a remote base where Passaro was stationed in 2003 along with U.S. and Afghan troops. Passaro is not being charged with murder.

Despite the fact that the CIA contractor, according to federal prosecutors, kicked Wali hard enough to lift him off the ground, while the prisoner's head was covered with an empty sandbag and his hands were bound--in addition to beating him with the flashlight--Passaro's defence attorney still contends he didn't mean to hurt the prisoner.

In closing arguments, the government said David Passaro beat detainee Abdul Wali with a flashlight “to inflict pain” and make him talk. Wali later died. Passaro's lawyer countered that the civilian contractor had only tapped the detainee and did not intend to hurt him. [emphasis mine]

Wow. I wonder what would have happened had they really intended to hurt him?

Complete story here. And more detail in Salon here (but requires subscription or obligatory ad).

Dead man walking....

Columnist Ari Shavit is reiterating his prediction that Israeli PM Ehud Olmert will be forced to resign (in today’s Haaretz).

Turns out, Olmert is facing harsh criticism not only for his conduct of the Lebanese invasion, but for a cushy real estate deal he and his wife entered into to purchase their new Jerusalem home for half a million dollars below market value. The State Comptroller's office is investigating.

...It is highly doubtful that Olmert could even temporarily survive such a police probe considering the present public mood. Chances are that within about two months he will no longer be Israel's prime minister.

When reporter Yoav Yitzhak exposed the affair of Olmert's house sale before the last elections, other journalists defended Olmert. They portrayed the experienced investigator as eccentric, helping to smooth Olmert's way to the prime minister's office. But as soon as honest professional officials became involved, the path led instead to investigating Olmert.

The significance is clear: politically, Olmert is a dead man walking. Whatever Yoav Yitzhak did not do, the State Comptroller's men will do. Whatever they don't do, the police will probably do. Whatever the police don't do, the public, hopefully, will do. This time the public will not be deceived or keep quiet. Its cry of outrage will rock the foundations.

Too bad American government is too corrupt and sycophantic to truly investigate Bush and Cheney's questionable business deals.

Complete column here.

Israeli troops rest and unload their gear near the Israel-Lebanon border after returning from military operations in southern Lebanon, August 8, 2006.(REUTERS/GIL COHEN MAGEN)

Cheerleader on the rubble….

As usual, Sidney Blumenthal delivers a salient analysis of Israel’s Lebanese debacle, in today’s Salon.

...Israel's strategic debacle was a curiously warped and accelerated version of the U.S. misadventure in Iraq. It used mistaken means in pursuit of misconceived goals, producing misbegotten failure. Rather than seek the disarmament of Hezbollah, Israel sought to eliminate it permanently. If the aim had been to disarm it, in line with United Nations Resolution 1559, Israel might have initiated a diplomatic round, drawing in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, to help with the Lebanese government. But, encouraged by the Bush administration, Israel treated Lebanese sovereignty as a fiction. With U.S. support, Israeli unilateralism was unfurled. The possible consequences of anything less than stunning and complete triumph in a place where Israel had long experienced disaster were dismissed.

After having withdrawn in 2000 from its occupation of Lebanon, achieving few of the aims declared in the 1982 invasion, the Israeli government launched an air campaign that would supposedly extirpate Hezbollah. The wishful thinking behind the air campaign was similar to that of the Bush administration in its invasion of Iraq. Upon the liberators' entry into Baghdad, Vice President Cheney explained beforehand, the population would greet them with flowers. In Lebanon, the idea was that the more destruction wreaked by Israel, the more the population would blame Hezbollah. Of course, as common sense and every previous historical example should have dictated, the opposite occurred. When the air campaign obviously failed, the army was thrown into the breach, sent to relive Israel's 1982 agony. Cautions about repeating the past were ignored, and the past was repeated.

Israel's national security has never been so damaged and endangered. And none of it would have been possible without the Bush administration's incitement and backing at every calamitous turn. The further erosion of U.S. credibility has also been severe.

[snip]

It can be said with a high degree of certainty, not simply tragic precedent, that the Bush administration engaged in this latest fiasco by ignoring the caveats and worst-case scenarios that must have been produced by the intelligence community. It is inconceivable that there was no intelligence assessment of Hezbollah's military, social and political capabilities, along with a range of potential outcomes. Unquestionably, such documents exist. One of them might well have taken the form of a Presidential Daily Briefing, which would have been presented to Bush by National Intelligence Director John Negroponte. It is also inevitable to conclude that having been briefed, Bush heard only what he wanted to hear.

Afterward, as the Israelis tore at one another, Bush proclaimed victory, following his Iraq P.R. formula. While his phrases might be a tonic to his political base, the rest of the world, especially now the Israelis, receive it as the empty rhetoric it is. The more Bush declares success when there is failure, the more U.S. credibility is tattered.

My heading here is taken from a brilliant Blumenthal description of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. You must-read the whole piece here (requires subscription or obligatory advertisement).

The late, great Bill Hicks....

This brilliant clip begins with a riff on airport delays which is quite timely, though the subsequent hijacking jokes pull one up short in our post 9-11 era.

What would Hicks have made of our mad era, had he not been taken from us so shockingly young?

RIP. You are sorely missed.

I think we know the answer to this....

The fact that MSNBC is entertaining such a discussion is an answer in itself, isn't it?

(HT to Shakespeare's Sister.)

Break from the monotony....

Another fun video to cheer up. (HT to my friend, Jack!)

What a great idea!! The guy in pink stands out!

Sexy sexagenarian....

Light blogging over the past couple of days, as I've been both fighting a case of bronchitis and preparing for an important job interview, which took place this afternoon. Already found out I didn't get the job, too, they're leaning toward another candidate. Sad. I would've loved it.

Anyway, to cheer myself up, I'm posting this great video by two of my favorite rockers, David Bowie and Trent Reznor. (HT to Red State Son.)

Jeeze, hard to believe Bowie will be 60 on January 8th, isn't it?! Strangers used to say I looked like him when I first started transitioning.

Didn't bother me at all....

Kitty love....

Aww, why can't we all just get along like these two?

Defeating terrorism....

Glenn Greenwald is one of my favorite bloggers: astute, articulate, well-informed and thoughtful. This post on the apparent collapse of the Neocon's grand plans for the Middle East and the futility of addressing terrorism with military force shows him at his best.

…The blunt instrument of military force is particularly ill-suited to fighting a worldwide terrorism network, particularly one that spawns unaffiliated copycats. Nor is military force an effective way of attacking the "root causes" of terrorism, as the war in Iraq tragically illustrates. As a general matter, invading and occupying countries is a recipe for more terrorism, not less.

People like Sullivan seem to believe that because Islamic terrorism is such a serious threat, only a bold, audacious, totally unorthodox strategy is sufficient to deal with it. I very much question that assumption. There are no quick fixes when you are fighting an ideology. Like communism before it, I suspect Islamic fundamentalism will only be defeated through a slow war of attrition. Ideologies must die out, they cannot be killed.

Fighting terrorism effectively will involve working closely with other countries, even the ones we don't particularly like, to identify and cripple terrorist networks. Occasionally there will be ways to effectively use military force, like in Afghanistan, but these will be the exception not the rule. The most effective way to address the root causes of terrorism is to pursue policies that will hasten the spread of modernity, not just democracy, throughout the Middle East. When people have jobs and lives and hope, the ideology of jihadism will be far less appealing. But this process will take a long time, and we can't make it happen by brute force. We must be vigilant and patient. Very patient. The Cold War wasn't won overnight. But there were many points along the way where reckless ill-considered action could have been disastrous....

He’s also writing at Salon’s War Room now. I hope they keep him on, he’s a great addition to their lineup!

To read the complete post, go here.

(REUTERS/Ali Hashiso)

Breaking news....

Just heard on (Irish) radio NewsTalk 106 that Israel is expressing its willingness to negotiate the release of Lebanese prisoners in exchange for the release of the two Israeli soldiers whose July 12th capture was the excuse Israel used to invade Lebanon.

Hence, we arrive at the point of negotiation Hezbollah was allegedly seeking from the beginning of this madness. Only now, more than 900 Lebanese civilians and 100 Israelis have been killed, countless people severely injured, more than 1 million Lebanese made homeless, and millions (billions?) of dollars worth of Lebanese dwellings and infrastructure utterly destroyed.

The news report also said that as many as 24 Israeli soldiers were killed yesterday: the highest one-day toll for the Israeli army in this war to date.

Want to take odds that Ehud Olmert will be forced to resign?

If only his American enabler would be forced to do so as well.

Lipstick Conspiracy

Trans gal band....

This is a great interview of two very articulate members of what may be the world's first male-to-female transgendered rock band.

Check it out here! (And while you're at it check out the rest of Trevor's great blog!)

And then there's this gem....

Powerful, and to the point.



From here.

(Photo: Daniel Lai - USA)

Farewell to Global Eye....

Chris Floyd's farewell column is, like all his writing, worth the read. I particularly like this:

...It was immediately apparent that George W. Bush and his henchmen were going to use the "new Pearl Harbor" — which they had openly pined for, in print, before the election — to advance their long-standing agenda: "full spectrum dominance" over geopolitical affairs and world energy resources; rampant cronyism to loot the public treasury for private profit and partisan ends; a vast expansion of presidential powers, including arbitrary arrest, indefinite detention, even "extrajudicial killing" at Bush's whim; and the wanton destruction of civic society, of the very idea of a "common good" that might impinge upon the power and privilege of the wealthy elite.

He'll be moving to TruthOut.

Kiss of death....

This piece by one of my favourite Salon writers, Joe Conason, succinctly critiques the Right's panicked response to the Lieberman defeat.

...Such slurs and slanders were only to be expected from the ruffled chicken hawks, squawking over the potential loss of their favorite Democratic enabler and scared of the electorate's growing wrath. Equally predictable was the reaction of pundits and analysts, shocked by the diminishing impact of their bad advice and incoherent ideas. The great and the good of the punditocracy told the voters to shun Ned Lamont and to shut up about the war, and were duly ignored. Now those naughty children will pay the price, or so we are told.

Complete story here (requires subscription or viewing an advertisement).

George Galloway tells it like it is....

I don't always agree with Galloway, far from it, but this clip in which he “educates” Sky News is simply awesome.



HT to Red State Son.

Awesome French AIDS awareness video....

In case you missed this (it was circulating on the web a while back) by animator extraordinaire, Wilfred Brimo.




I love the points of view, the transitions between scenes, the excellent choice of music and the utterly sweet romantic ending.

Original here.

(Hat tip to Tom Tomorrow.)

(AP)

Premeditated murder....

In his incomparably thorough fashion, George Monbiot details the cross-border squabbling between Hezbollah and Israel that proceeded Israel's recent invasion and murder of more than 1,000 Lebanese civilians, the dislocation of a quarter of the country’s population, and the ongoing destruction of its entire infrastructure.

While Hezbollah had reason to believe their murder of three Israeli soldiers and abduction of two more on July 12th would be just another in the chain of preceding events resulting in little or no further bloodshed, Israel was actually poised and waiting for an excuse to go into Lebanon with full force.

...On July 12, in other words, Hizbullah fired the first shots. But that act of aggression was simply one instance in a long sequence of small incursions and attacks over the past six years by both sides. So why was the Israeli response so different from all that preceded it? The answer is that it was not a reaction to the events of that day. The assault had been planned for months.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that "more than a year ago, a senior Israeli army officer began giving PowerPoint presentations, on an off-the-record basis, to US and other diplomats, journalists and thinktanks, setting out the plan for the current operation in revealing detail". The attack, he said, would last for three weeks. It would begin with bombing and culminate in a ground invasion. Gerald Steinberg, professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University, told the paper that "of all of Israel's wars since 1948, this was the one for which Israel was most prepared ... By 2004, the military campaign scheduled to last about three weeks that we're seeing now had already been blocked out and, in the last year or two, it's been simulated and rehearsed across the board".

I still seriously wonder if the July 12th episode itself was not deliberately provoked by Israel. In my experience, the Israeli military does not typically make tactical errors like exposing a vulnerable patrol to ambush along the border.

In any case, I believe Hezbollah's fierce resistance has stunned Israel.

Complete column here.

Good news for a change....

(Berlin) A German court ruled on Monday that an Iranian lesbian cannot be deported because she risks a death sentence because of her sexuality.

The 27-year-old woman, whose name was not released, traveled to Germany in September 2003 and applied for asylum.

She argued that she would be persecuted if returned to Iran but was turned down by German immigration officials. She appealed, telling the court that she felt excluded from society in the Islamic republic and wanted to "live out her homosexuality openly without having to fear persecution."

The Stuttgart administrative court ordered the government to grant her request for asylum.

[snip]

According to Iranian human rights campaigners, over 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Ayatollahs came to power in 1979. [emphasis mine]

That's an average of 160 LGBT people executed per year!

Horrific!!!

Thank goodness the woman has been granted asylum.

Story here.

Pat Robertson speaks his mind....

Check out this clip of Robertson caught unaware during a break on the Larry King show in 1992.

(Sean Smith, The Guardian.)

Bring on more pilots like these...!

...Yonatan Shapiro, a former [Israeli] Blackhawk helicopter pilot dismissed from reserve duty after signing a 'refusenik' letter in 2004, said he had spoken with Israeli F-16 pilots in recent days and learnt that some had aborted missions because of concerns about the reliability of intelligence information. According to Shapiro, some pilots justified aborting missions out of 'common sense' and in the context of the Israeli Defence Force's moral code of conduct, which says every effort should be made to avoiding harming civilians.

Shapiro said: 'Some pilots told me they have shot at the side of targets because they're afraid people will be there, and they don't trust any more those who give them the coordinates and targets.'

He added: 'One pilot told me he was asked to hit a house on a hill, which was supposed to be a place from where Hizbollah was launching Katyusha missiles. But he was afraid civilians were in the house, so he shot next to the house ...

[snip]

So far none of the pilots has publicly refused to fly missions but some are wobbling, according to Shapiro. He said: 'Their target could be a house firing a cannon at Israel and it could be a house full of children, so it's a real dilemma; it's not black and white. But ... I'm calling on them to refuse, in order save our country from self-destruction.'

More here.

(Reuters.)

War madness....

I just don't understand how Israel can commit premediated murder on such a horrific, coldblooded scale.

...He said Qana was exactly what I saw on TV. He kept referring to going through Srifa as being very difficult. "Very difficult" he kept saying. Nearly all of Srifa is destroyed. Limbs covered in powdered concrete emerge from between the ravages of collapsed buildings. No one has had the energy or courage to pull out the dead. The Red Cross and Civil Defense ambulances have been targeted relentlessly by Israel. When the guns will quiet, we will discover that Qana is small-time compared to Srifa. There is a pattern emerging now: Marwaheen, Srifa, Blida and Qana: terror to induce forced displacement (or pardon my French, "deportation"). Scorched earth and mass graves, this is how we achieve the New Middle East.

Maher said nearly 60% of Bint Jbeil has now become flat rubble. Most of its central area. There two limbs stick out of collapsed buildings, and the smell of death is everywhere. While rescue workers pulled out the dead from that shelter in Qana, the IDF was shelling the only functioning hospital in Bint Jbeil, a day prior to Maher's visit. That's how battered Bint Jbeil was, even its hospital the IDF decided was a Hezbollah stronghold and posed a grave security threat on the well-being of the children of Kiryat Shmona who prefer to go to school and not dwell in shelters after they have kissed the shells that their army will shower on Lebanon to implement UN Resolution 1559 and eradicate terror.

In the convoy to Bint Jbeil, journalists outnumbered the rescue workers, and they found a group of elderly men and women who were trapped in a shelter. They could not ambulate without assistance and had not eaten for four or five days. They were carried out and given some water and driven to places where they could receive the care they needed....

Please, MAKE IT STOP!

Originally in Nesweek, but excerpted from Red State Son.

(AP)

Blair delays vacation....

Tony Blair today decided to delay his summer holiday for a few days to help secure a United Nations resolution that would call for an immediate cessation of hostilities in the Israel-Lebanon conflict.

Mr Blair's decision, following that of his foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, to delay her own break, came as attempts to secure a diplomatic solution at the United Nations in New York yesterday continued to prove elusive.

President Bush, however, hasn't seen fit to delay his "working vacation" for something as trivial as 900 dead Lebanese, 3,000 wounded Lebanese, 1 million displaced Lebanese (a quarter of the total population!) and 62 Israeli deaths.

And just who are the "terrorists" when the ratio of Lebanese to Israeli civilians killed is roughly 20 to one?

(Casualty figures here and here.

Complete story here.

Good news...!

...Fifteen Sierra Leonean women involved in female genital mutilation (FGM) made a collective public declaration at the weekend "completely" to abandon the practice, a local paper said.

The 15, who were not named by the Sierra News, are widely regarded as highly skilled in female circumcision in Lunsar, in Porto Loko district, 145 kilometres (90 miles) north of the capital, where the government estimates they were responsible for up to a third of the operations.

They pledged at a public ceremony to work now towards "safeguarding the health of women and girls," the state-owned newspaper said.

Now may the trend continue!

And while we're at it, let's look closer to home and eliminate the genital mutilation of intersexed infants in the US, Europe and other western countries.

Complete story here. And for more background, read this UN article.

Petrodollar wars....

Once upon a time in 1974, the US and OPEC came to an agreement: all petroleum sales throughout the world would have to take place using US dollars.

According to William Clark, the particulars of this deal are revealed in The Hidden Hand of American Hegemony: Petrodollar Recycling and International Markets, (1999) by Dr. David Spiro. In short, the Nixon administration negotiated with Saudi Arabia (which has the largest oil reserves in the world) to price oil in dollars, then invest their surplus oil proceeds back into US Treasury Bills. In return, the US would protect the Saudi regime.

The phenomenon has become known as "petrodollar recycling.” With several notable recent exceptions (that I’ll get to) the agreement has held to this day. Any country—Britain, Israel, Brazil, France, India, China, Russia, you name it—that wants oil needs to pay in US dollars and purchase the oil through one of two bourses, in New York or London.

Naturally, since every modern economy runs on petroleum, this forces the world’s national banks to maintain substantial reserves of US dollars. Which, in turn, keeps the dollar’s price artificially high despite America’s huge foreign debt, massive budget deficits, and incessant printing of dollars--all of which would normally devalue the dollar.

In essence, the US dollar is backed by petroleum—black gold—in the way it used to be backed by gold. This situation is no conspiracy theory: it's well documented across the web. See here, here, and this excellent movie. Or Google the topic.

So, what about those notable exceptions? Can you guess which countries they were?

First, in November, 2000 (10 months before the attacks of 9/11), Saddam Hussein in Iraq—which some estimate to possess the second largest oil reserves in the world—switched its UN oil-for-food sales from dollars to Euros. At the time, one Euro cost 82 cents. By June, 2003, when the US began once more selling Iraqi oil in dollars, one Euro cost $1.17. The exchange rate has since hovered between $1.21 and $1.29 for the two years I've lived in Ireland.

By late August, 2002, Iran had also shifted the majority of its currency reserves from US dollars to Euros in preparation for its widely publicized plans to establish in Tehran an oil bourse to rival New York’s and London’s. The bourse's start date was to have been March, 2006, but not surprisingly it has been delayed.

Next, North Korea shifted its trade from dollars to Euros in December, 2002, and the 'Axis of Evil" was complete. Kim Jong-il’s actions, however, including his dogged pursuit of nuclear weapons and the long-range missiles to deliver them, have so far failed to really get Bush's attention.

No oil reserves in North Korea.

Finally, Hugo Chavez--target of the failed CIA-backed coup in April, 2002--has been steadily removing large parts of Venezuela’s oil trade (world’s fourth largest producer) from the orbit of the US dollar. Ongoing US-backed attempts to remove him from power seem likely.

In sum, as William Clark says, while a collective switch by OPEC from the US dollar to the Euro appears extremely unlikely, a gradual shift seems plausible. With potentially devastating consequences for the US economy.

Combine this with the fact that the world has either reached or is close to reaching peak oil reserves, meaning the remaining oil will be increasingly more difficult and expensive to extract and refine, and the US invasion and permanent occupation of Iraq makes sense in a depraved "real-politic," imperial sort of way.

Far more sense than a mythical search for non-existent WMD.

Capitalism blows....

At 5:00 p.m., one of the highly paid executives I provide administrative support for at a small investment bank showed up for the first time today.

Not just one of the highly paid executives, but the highly paid executive whom everyone at the bank loathes. The one who can’t communicate to save his life beyond discussing golf, rugby, or football. The one who, 6-foot-something and weighing in at 300 pounds, pesters me like a 5-year-old tugging at his mommy’s skirts.

“Brynn?...Brynn!!” If I don’t immediately drop whatever I’m in the middle of and jump! “Brynn: can you do me a favour?”

How I've come to hate that phrasing. As if I have a choice! The boring, menial tasks he demands to have done at light-speed usually require the transformation of his ungrammatical chicken scratch into a professional memo, letter or (even!) email, as this guy is pathetically computer illiterate. Couldn’t attach a document to an email and forward it if the fate of the free world and his entire bonus besides rested in the balance!

To make matters disgustingly worse, he’s slovenly in his personal habits and grooming. Clothing wrinkled and disheveled, suit-coat off, tie-loose, shirt-tails partially tucked. Not the greatest body odour or breath. Chews food with his mouth wide open.

And. The. Very. Worst. ...He sheds skin, hair and other visible bodily detritus onto his desk top.

Eeeewwww!! The very thought makes me recoil!

No One wants to be this man’s personal assistant. His previous left on sick-leave around 14 months ago and never came back. My assuming the role was to have been temporary. Ha!

In addition to C, I’m primary support for the bank’s second-in-command who, while exhibiting better grooming and not so loutish, is still no joy to work for. Both men have the habit of dumping large, time-consuming projects on me at the end of the day and expecting me to stay and finish them, no matter how long they take—and mind you, I’m salaried, no overtime. Moreover, neither knows how to show gratitude.

So all this would be distasteful enough were I well paid. Which, sadly, is not the case. I started my position on September 9, 2004, at what would be a low salary for a PA in New York (equivalent cost-of-living as Dublin, believe it or not). I accepted that, thinking I’d have to prove myself, especially as an immigrant.

Which I proceeded to do: took only two sick days in nearly two years. Arrived early or on time everyday, and stayed overtime anywhere from 5 minutes to 3 hours everyday. Expanded the role, introducing digital document handling and signatures; scanning; various computer graphics, including Flash animation; and digital photography. I mastered a new program that handles company secretarial duties, which I took over for our 13 companies, including all the electronic filing of annual reports; appointments and resignations of directors; business name-changes, and so forth. Moreover, I'm the resident MS Office expert everyone comes to when they're stumped.

How was I rewarded in my second year, a year when the bank registered record multi-million Euro profits? Well. My annual raise equaled the paltry amount C files for in expenses for one two-day business trip to London. And my bonus was the same amount they’d offered me, unproven, to sign for the first year.

In other words, they pissed on me for all my hard work.

Consequently, this evening when C waltzed in at 5:00 p.m., conversing on his cell phone and five minutes later, after I’d signed out on my computer, asked me if I could stay and draft a letter for him, I lied. Said I was meeting someone and had to leave.

I’m done busting my butt for absolutely no return, no appreciation and no greater world good.

(Photograph: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images)

Emotional overload....

The carnage in Lebanon has left me at a total loss for words and struggling against depression the past several days.

It's not just the ruthless, deliberate targeting which has left more than 750 Lebanese dead, most of them civilians (versus 18 Israeli civilian casualties) but the utter lack of remorse on the part of US and Israeli leaders.

We may have a ceasefire by the end of the week (!) according to Secretary of State "We Haven't Killed Enough Arabs Yet" Condi Rice. Her boss, President "Moment of Opportunity for Broader Change in the Region" Bush as of this morning still refused to call for a cease-fire, opting instead to support a watered-down UN resolution calling for Hezbollah to lay down arms (nothing about Israel!) and allow an international peace-keeping force in to help the Lebanese Army.

If a just God exists, which I seriously doubt, there will be a special place in hell for Rice, Bush, Cheney and their aiders and abetters.

In the meantime, I took a sick day today, went to see an escapist film and hung out with a friend. Let capitalism and investment banking struggle on without me temporarily.

(AP Photo/Lotfallah Daher)

Israeli strike against UN post was deliberate....

Israel's assertions that their destruction of a UN observation post in southern Lebanon, leading to the deaths of four unarmed UN observers, was an accident are outrageous.

I'm going to copy an entire piece from the Irish Times here, as their site is subscription only.

Bear in mind when reading it that according to the AP, the UN Humanitarian chief had just publicly condemned Hezbollah, not Israel on Monday for the deaths of hundreds of civilians during the past two weeks of cross-border violence in Lebanon. (Here.)

Still, Israel deliberately destroyed the post and the four men.

Don't hold your breath for the Bush administration to condemn Israel's intentional murder of the “blue helmets.” I suspect that they, including the notoriously UN-phobic American UN ambassador, John Bolton, are only slightly less pleased than Bush loyalists in the Rightwing blogosphere, as evidenced by these offensive comments excerpted by Glenn Greenwald.

The Irish Times piece follows:

Tuesday's destruction by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) of the UN observation post at Khiam (OP Khiam) - occupied just 48 hours prior to the attack by Irish officers - is a very sinister development in the conflict in Lebanon and raises serious questions about the integrity and intent of Israeli military commanders in the area.

Any objective inquiry - however cursory - by the UN or the IDF into OP Khiam's destruction and the death of four unarmed UN observers deployed there will of necessity bring IDF claims that the destruction was "accidental" under sceptical and hostile scrutiny.

The UN OP at Khiam, like all UN positions in south Lebanon was very clearly identifiable as a UN post. It would have had the letters "UN" clearly painted - several feet high - on the north, south, east and west facing blast-walls and sides of the compound.

The UN designation would also have been clearly visible on the roof of the white-painted installation. This lettering would have been clear to the naked eye for many miles around the Khiam compound.

In addition, as an OP, Khiam - sited on high ground - would have been a very prominent, high-visibility feature on the landscape. Having been in situ for at least three decades, OPs such as Khiam are referred to by the military as "Known Points" or "KPs".

UN posts such as OP Khiam have served as visual reference points in south Lebanon for UN troops as well as Hizbullah fighters and the IDF for almost 30 years. As a consequence, all such UN posts are clearly marked on UN and IDF tactical maps of the area, and are considered to be invaluable visual aides for the orientation of ground and airborne units in the vicinity.

At night, all UN posts are illuminated by searchlight powered by diesel generators located within the positions. During the current shelling, with most villages and the surrounding countryside in complete darkness, the UN posts are all the more clearly identifiable as the only illuminated structures in the area.

In addition, all IDF artillery units have 12-figure grid references for each UN position.

All Israeli Air Force squadrons would have similar detailed information on UN locations to include both grid references and electronically programmed GPS co-ordinates.

Having adjusted and bracketed missile and shell fire into this terrain for the past 30 years - from ground, sea and air - the IDF are fully aware, to the nearest metre, the exact location of each UN post in south Lebanon.

From eyewitness accounts, it would appear that OP Khiam was destroyed from the air - most likely by a F-16 fighter deploying a laser-guided 1,000kg bomb. During the previous 48 hours, OP Khiam had reported at least 14 "firings close" or direct hits on its position from Israeli forces. These incidents were brought to the attention of the IDF and emphasised by UN Force Commander Gen Alain Pellegrini to his Israeli military counterparts.

To claim - as the Israelis are currently claiming - that this attack was accidental stretches credibility to breaking point. The deliberate targeting of such a high profile and clearly identifiable UN post - the eyes and ears of the international community in south Lebanon - by guided missile, speaks of another agenda. This agenda is perhaps to drive the UN out of its OPs and to blind the international community to IDF activities in south Lebanon.

Dr Tom Clonan is The Irish Times Security Analyst. He lectures in the School of Media, DIT

Source here.

(Photo, The Guardian.)

Sick to death....

Another day of bombing, burning, blasting and horrific suffering in the Middle East.

And another day of business as usual in the western world....Oil to trade, weapons to ship, war profits to bank!

I am sick to death with the utter depravity of the Israeli and US militaries. JUST SAY NO! Refuse the orders to fire. Point the muzzles to the dirt. Ground the warplanes. Drop the missiles harmlessly into the sea. Follow your consciences and stop the killing!

Or have your consciences been co-opted?! I don't think I've ever felt such despair at the actions of my fellow human beings. Here we stand, possibly on the precipice of the end of “civilisation” through global warming, and all we can do is hasten our misery by several decades?

Truly, Mother Earth will be better off without the cancer humans represent.

If I were financially solvent, rather than an indebted wage slave, I'd quit my pointless job and volunteer for humanitarian relief work in Lebanon. At least that way I could feel like part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

In the meantime, I’m intensifying my efforts to find a more meaningful job. This crisis has made it painfully clear: I hate working in a bank.

"Sure, keep right on killing." (Photo:Reuters, Pool. NYT.)

Disproportionate....

You decide:

Toll, since the outbreak:

Lebanon
Military deaths 66
Civilian deaths 377
Wounded 1,550+

Israel
Military deaths 24
Civilian deaths 17
Wounded 360+

Statistics from here.

Twice yesterday, a confrontational co-worker tried to start an argument over the Lebanese invasion, both times in an elevator.

As the man both outranks me to the point where one word and he could have me fired and he's a bully, I refrained from engaging with him. But his approach was remarkable.

The first time, this armchair warrior from the safety and comfort of our intact, modern office building thousands of miles from the scene of bloodshed, blustered (for the benefit of another man in the elevator) that “They should just roll over the whole thing. Level it!” referring to Lebanon.

“They are,” I thought to myself sadly, turning away from his arrogant smirk.

The second time, after telling me that his mother was from Tel Aviv, he proceeded to lecture me. “They,” he said, meaning “the Arabs,” won’t rest until Israel is “wiped from the map. Pushed into the sea. They won’t rest until they’re all dead!”

The last sentence was more than a little ambiguous, considering the relentless pounding Israel is delivering to Lebanon and Gaza. Though I’m almost certain the "they" he was referring to again was the “Arabs” and not the Israelis.

Thinking back on the disturbing exchanges, I marvelled on how innocent people are still dying for the sins of World War II. Almost in a time-warp, the Israelis are virtuously fighting to right the wrongs of the Nazis, and in so doing are sowing an entirely new legacy of bitterness and vengeance that will continue for generations.

Also, talk about psychological projection. One of the most militarily powerful nations on earth feels threatened by homemade rockets.

It would be laughable, if it wasn’t so heartbreakingly terrible.

(Ghaith Abdul-Ahad/Getty Images. Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company.)

The face of war....

I just read this story in the NYT this morning.

My heart goes out to this little boy and his mother!!! To his entire family.

Sitting at my desk afterwards, I look around at my neat, clean, air-conditioned office. Co-workers sit busy at their desks, tapping on keyboards, murmuring on phones, working as part of a much larger team that daily amasses hundreds of thousands of Euro profit for our South African investment banking employers. Below us, through floor-to-ceiling plate glass, Monday morning’s customary swarm of motor and foot traffic clogs Dublin’s city streets.

This is madness! Continuing on with business as usual while two time zones away, the Israeli air force rains down terror on fleeing families. The two worlds, Lebanon and Ireland, are not unconnected. What is happening there is a direct consequence of a series of actions, some of which undoubtedly flow through Dublin. Only through our collusion—all of us, every single average working person in Britain, the US, Ireland, France, Germany, the world over—does this carnage continue. Every one of us performing our little part of the bigger picture.

Were we to stop work, put down our pens, hang up our phones, leave our office buildings, refuse to continue to produce the profits that enable the so-called “world leaders” to perpetrate this immoral outrage, it would have to stop.

Without our continuing on with business as usual, this would have to stop.

NYT story here.

(From Middle East Online.

American complicity in war crimes....

WASHINGTON, July 21 — The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, American officials said Friday.

The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration, the officials said. Its disclosure threatens to anger Arab governments and others because of the appearance that the United States is actively aiding the Israeli bombing campaign in a way that could be compared to Iran’s efforts to arm and resupply Hezbollah.

The "appearance" that the United States is actively aiding the Israeli bombing campaign?

Say again?! The US is aiding the Israeli bombing campaign. Always has aided Israel in its wars against the Palestinians. And, I'm tempted to say based on the steadily rightward shift of US politics, always will. With weapons, tactical support, vetoes in the UN Security Council, diplomatic relations, PR, and billions of dollars in aid.

So, when the next strike occurs on American soil, will Bush and his supporters claim it's because the terrorists "hate freedom and democracy"?

I marched again today through Dublin's city centre in a demonstration organised by the Socialist Youth to "Stop the Bombing Now!" Our numbers were small but we were there, a sign that not everyone believes in going about with business as usual while innocent civilians are blown apart with American-made bombs and missiles, brutally losing their lives, limbs, livelihoods, homes, livestock, pets, books, EVERYTHING!

I am appalled that so many are standing by doing nothing as this travesty is carried out.

According to the rest of the pathetic story, Secretary of State Condie Rice is going to jet over to the region soon. She can't make unseemly haste, you see, as the Israelis need time to complete their slaughter.

I've lived in Israel. I believe in Israel's right to exist. But the horrific death and destruction the Jewish state is perpetrating in Lebanon and Gaza are nauseating in their utter lack of morality.

Must read....

If only for the powerful analogy at the beginning:

The other day, a woman came up to me at a party and slapped me in the face simply because I had lied about her behavior in public, and maybe stole a little money from her dresser late one night. I had also started up with her best friend, and told her other friends that she was a lesbian.

Oh yeah, I kind of took her apartment in Malibu away from her and didn't give it back.

Anyway, I immediately pulled out my 38 and shot her on the spot.

Complete post at one of my favorite blogs, here.

(ISNA/Photo:MASHHAD)

Sad anniversary....

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the brutal executions of two gay Iranian teenagers, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni (above).

Their deaths are the predictable and tragic outcome of “Vice and Virtues” nonsense like that reported in my post yesterday. The two boys—and they were boys: while their reported ages varied, with them being allegedly as young as 14 and 16 at their arrests, no one disputes that they had not yet turned 20 by the time they were killed. The two boys were incarcerated and tortured for 14 months, then hanged, for allegedly raping a 13-year-old boy. This accusation has been universally disputed by all but the most hardened homophobes.

Their real crime was engaging in a long-term consensual sexual relationship with each other in a country governed by Sharia. One speaker at a rally to honour the boys that I attended in Dublin’s city centre yesterday evening, Irish Senator David Norris, said a family member likely turned the boys in to the “religious” police.

So much for “family values.”

As religious fundamentalism strengthens its hold in countries as diverse as the US, Russia, Poland, Nigeria, and throughout the Middle East, LGBT folks are increasingly coming under both metaphorical and all-too-real fire. Calls for a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in the US, with the ensuing bashings and deaths such homophobic rhetoric fosters. Beheadings of gays in Saudi Arabia. Abductions, torture and murders of suspected gays in Iraq. Executions of gays by stoning in Nigeria. Police sanctioned beatings of demonstrators at a Gay Pride parade in Russia.

And this brutal hanging a year ago in Iran.

As speakers emphasised yesterday, this is not an LGBT issue, it’s a human rights issue.

Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni will be remembered.

(Photo here.)

Vice and virtue in the Middle East....

Afghanistan has announced plans to re-establish its "Vice and Virtues Ministry," the infamous government body which under the Taliban was charged with enforcing bans on morally questionable activities like girls' schools, television, card-playing, kite-flying and women's public baths.

But don't worry! Despite the identical name, girls who'd like to read, women who'd prefer to bathe, fans of Tolo TV, poker enthusiasts, kite-lovers and others, such as gays who'd rather leave the closet behind and artists who believe in freedom of expression, all have nothing to fear.

Karim Rahimi, Karzai's spokesman, said Afghans should not be worried.

"The people were scared of the Vice and Virtues Ministry under the Taliban, but this new ministry won't be like the Taliban's," Rahimi said. "It will take into consideration moral and religious activities to help improve Afghan society."

Oh, that's reassuring. The ministry will help improve Afghan society.

Lord knows it could use some improving. Afghanistan under American occupation is a country where, in May of 2005, a popular but controversial female TV presenter, Shaima Rezayee, 24, was shot dead in her home, execution style, one bullet to the head.

Victim of a family “honour killing"? Or of a religious zealot who believed no woman should appear on TV, especially in semi-western style clothing? Is there even a distinction between those two, other than that the latter could be a stranger? Her killing left a fellow male television presenter cowering in the studio, afraid to go home and desperately seeking asylum outside the country.

So, presumably with this new ministry in operation, Rezayee would never have had the opportunity of appearing on TV. Instead, shut away in the backroom of some Kabul home, unbathed, illiterate, and married to a man 30 years her senior, she may have still been "alive."

Salon story (requires subscription or ad-viewing) here.

(Thor Swift for The New York Times)

FTM scientist speaks out...!

Dr. Ben A. Barres, who has a degree in biology from M.I.T., a medical degree from Dartmouth, a doctorate in neurobiology from Harvard and teaches at Stanford (!) explodes some sexist myths in a courageous commentary in the journal, Nature, and in this short interview in the NYT.

...Q.What about the idea that men and women differ in ways that give men an advantage in science?

A. People are still arguing over whether there are cognitive differences between men and women. If they exist, it’s not clear they are innate, and if they are innate, it’s not clear they are relevant. They are subtle, and they may even benefit women.

But when you tell people about the studies documenting bias, if they are prejudiced, they just discount the evidence.

Q. How does this bias manifest itself?

A. It is very much harder for women to be successful, to get jobs, to get grants, especially big grants. And then, and this is a huge part of the problem, they don’t get the resources they need to be successful. Right now, what’s fundamentally missing and absolutely vital is that women get better child care support. This is such an obvious no-brainer. If you just do this with a small amount of resources, you could explode the number of women scientists.

[snip]

Q. Why didn’t you see these episodes as sexism?

A. Women who are really highly successful, they are just as bad as the men. They think if they can do it, anyone can do it. They don’t see that for every woman who makes it to the top there are 10 more who are passed over. And I am not making this up, that’s what the data show.

And it may be that some women — and African-Americans, too — identify less strongly with their particular group. From the time I was a child, from the littlest, littlest age, I did not identify as a girl. It never occurred to me that I could not be a scientist because I was a woman. It just rolled off my back.

Now I wonder, maybe I just didn’t take these stereotypes so seriously because I did not identify myself as a woman.

I am so impressed with Dr. Barres' courage.

For one thing, he is outing himself (with photo!) in one of the most public forums possible: the pages of the New York Times.

When I was shortly out of journalism school, I went for advice to one of my former professors. A letter I'd submitted to the editor of the NYT in which I'd identified myself as FTM had been accepted for publication, but their editorial policy reasonably demanded I use my name. My professor, a former NYT reporter herself, advised that I assume everyone I knew would read the letter. If I wasn't prepared to out myself to everyone, then best not go forward.

I wasn't. My teenaged daughter lived with me at the time and attended a local high school and I worried about the possible consequences to her. So I pulled the letter.

Dr. Barres, on the other hand, is bravely going forward.

I am sure he knows better than anyone just how conservative--and sexist--the scientific and academic worlds are. From this point on, he will be widely known as the "transsexual scientist." His opinions and work will be taken less seriously by many. Future grant applications could be affected. And I sincerely hope he already has tenure at Stanford, for notoriety like this could hurt his chances.

I so admire that he felt strongly enough about women and feminism to take this brave stand.

Nature editor's summary is here. (The commentary itself must be purchased.)

And the NYT's interview here.

[Typo corrected 15:47 18/7/06.]

Next target: Iran...?

On Irish radio this morning comes the alarming news that at least eight Israelis have been killed in Haifa (Israel's third largest city) by a Hezbollah missile strike. In response Israel is accusing Syria and Iran of culpability and threatening further vengeance. Meanwhile, the US government and Tony Blair keep reiterating "Israel's right to defend itself." President Bush was on Irish radio this morning from St. Petersburg, accusing Iran and Syria of supporting terrorism.

This disturbing rhetoric is truly frightening, especially in light of the assertion here that the current hostilities between Israel and Lebanon started with a deliberate provocation by Israel. [Hat tip to Shakespeare's Sister.]

If Israel really did entice Hezbollah to kidnap Israeli soldiers by deliberately placing them in harm's way, it's hard not to conclude that Israel's goal all along has been to create an incident to provide an excuse to invade Lebanon. The massive scope, rapidity and coordination of Israel's operation certainly lends credence to this theory. As does their destruction of the Beirut airport, bridges, roadways, a lighthouse, apartment complexes and other civilian targets.

So, if this is true, what to make of the escalating Israeli rhetoric?

Go back in time several months. When President Bush recently began (again) characterising Iran as an imminent threat to US security, using almost the exact rhetoric his regime employed in the lead up to the Iraq invasion, I began bracing myself for a US air invasion of Iran. (The US does not currently possess the ground troops to invade Iran by land.) Worse, given Seymour Hersh's reporting in The New Yorker, I’ve been terrified of a nuclear air war.

Facing mid-term Congressional elections in November in which they might lose control of at least one branch of the legislature, along with widespread and growing American opposition to the war in Iraq, it’s highly unlikely that Republicans would invade Iran without “serious provocation.” For this reason, among others, I’ve been bracing myself for “another 9/11.”

A second scenario, however, has always been that Israel would take the lead on an Iranian invasion by bombing selected targets in Iran, using the excuse that their own security was threatened, provoking an Iranian military response against Israel which would then “cause” America (and Great Britain) to jump in to defend their ally.

The second scenario may be unfolding before our eyes in this very moment.

I am seriously freaking out at this prospect.

The potential loss of life in the hundreds of thousands and the human suffering is horrific to contemplate.

As a friend of mine says, the human capacity for destruction and cruelty is heartbreaking, especially in light of the potential for beauty and love.

The face of America abroad....

Ann Coulter was interviewed on Dublin’s Talk Radio 106 “Wide Angle” show this morning by one of my favorite journalists, Karen Coleman (not related to RTE's Carole Coleman who held Bush’s feet to the fire in a legendary 2004 TV interview).

Unfortunately, this morning’s interview was recorded which meant that callers, like me, couldn't suggest questions. But Karen didn't do too badly. She challenged Coulter more than gutless American journalists. And Coulter, as batshit insane as ever, came off sounding—especially to a more informed Irish audience--as culturally chauvinistic, historically uninformed, religiously fanatical, uncharitable, foolhardy and rude. In other words, par for the course.

I did manage to get a comment read on air, as coming from an "American caller" which basically said that Coulter isn't widely supported in America but instead is regarded as an extremist and apologist for the American fundamentalist right-wing fascist fringe.

Not exactly what I said, but close enough!

Applying logic to the Middle East....

This excellent article in Salon (requires subscription or ad-viewing) articulately states what I've been trying to say since September 11, 2001 (and before): the situation in the Middle East will only be worsened by the US and Israel applying violence. The past three years' events support this conclusion.

...The Lebanese and Palestinians have responded to Israel's persistent and increasingly savage attacks against entire civilian populations by creating parallel or alternative leaderships that can protect them and deliver essential services. With every new Israeli attack against the Hamas and Hezbollah leadership or the civilian populations, four important things happen, and will probably happen during this round of war: The Lebanese and Palestinian governments lose power and impact; Hamas and Hezbollah garner greater popular support, which enhances their effectiveness in guerrilla and resistance warfare; they expand their military technical capabilities (mainly longer-range missiles and better improvised explosive devices); and the anti-Israel, anti-U.S. resistance campaign led by Hamas and Hezbollah generates widespread political and popular support throughout the Middle East and much of the world.

[snip]

The fourth pair of actors, the United States and Israel, find themselves in the bizarre position of repeating policies that have consistently failed for the past 40 years. Israel has this to show for its track record of being tough: It is now surrounded by two robust Islamist resistance movements with greater striking power and popular support; Arab populations around the region that increasingly vote for Islamist political movements whenever elections are held; immobilized and virtually irrelevant Arab governments in many nearby lands; and determined, increasingly defiant, ideological foes in Tehran and Damascus who do not hesitate to use all weapons at their means however damaging these may be to civilians and sovereignty in Lebanon and Palestine. [emphasis mine]

The United States for its part is strangely marginal. Its chosen policies have lined it up squarely with Israel. It has sanctioned and thus cannot even talk to Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, and it has pressured and threatened Syria for years without any real success. The world's sole superpower is peculiarly powerless in the current crisis in the Middle East.

As long as these four pairs of main actors [Hamas and Hezbollah; the Palestinian and Lebanese governments; Syria and Iran; and Israel and the United States] persist in their intemperate policies, the consequences will remain grim. The way to break this cycle is for all actors to negotiate a political solution that responds to their legitimate grievances and demands. Everyone involved seems prepared to do this, except for Israel and the United States, who rely on military force, prolonged occupations, and diplomatic sanctions and threats. What will Israel and the United States do when there are no more Arab airports, bridges and power stations to destroy? The futility of such policies should be clear by now, and therefore a diplomatic solution should be sought seriously for the first time.

Read the full piece here.

Magic of work....

With low unemployment and Ireland’s “Celtic Tiger,” it took me only two months to find a permanent job in Dublin. What’s more, the temp assignments that sustained me until then were far pleasanter than any I found in New York. That includes my five-month stint at ABC-Disney in Manhattan which, glamorous as it sounds, translated into enduring 21 weeks and three days of insults and temper tantrums at the hands of two spoiled producers of children’s programming. Magic kingdom indeed.

My other New York temp job was assistant to a senior VP of international branding. I came aboard Weider Publications just after the family-owned business sold out to a conglomerate, at a time when my boss was secretly organizing her department’s downsizing. Weeks of preparation culminated in a Monday morning bloodbath in which unsuspecting employees came to work only to be laid off before lunch and shown the door by security guards. Travel mugs sat, coffee going cold, on desks that would never again see their occupants. Wednesday, my boss was stunned to receive her own pink slip and I spent my final days there packing company freebies, pricey knick-knacks and expensive “product samples” for her to spirit away.

Improving upon those shining examples of neoliberalism was easy. My first Irish temp assignment was routine admin-support for Boots pharmacy and while their computer hardware was antiquated, software ancient and Internet connection dial-up, they were friendly, appreciative and a pleasure to work for.

Next came the mailroom of a Dutch investment company, where I made the acquaintance of the laziest person I’ve ever met. Scottish (just an observation, no reflection on Scotland!) and twenty-something, your man lived 15 minutes’ walk from work yet didn’t arrive on time once in six days. Forty-five minutes late, the first words out of his mouth would be, in his heavy brogue which I can't begin to recreate here, “Three buses went by without stopping!” Or, “Fell asleep on the bus and missed my stop!”

This hapless victim of a global conspiracy to make him late would then hand me half the work and head out to purchase a sticky bun. After eating breakfast while checking his email, he’d begin his daily routine of telephone calls to friends and cigarette breaks. By lunchtime, he’d have given me the other half of the work and as new work came in, he gave it to me without a pretense of taking half. He surfed the net, gossiped, fetched free Cokes from the canteen and disappeared, reeking of cigarettes on his return, while I stuffed envelopes, franked letters and logged courier packages. When half five rolled ‘round—as measured by a clock10 minutes fast—he was gone.

Temp work is short-lived and I gladly left this job behind and concentrated on interviewing for permanent positions. What I find hardest as a female-to-male transsexual job-seeker is a female work-history I can’t allude to. Given that I graduated from college in 1992, look15 years younger than I am and leave my birth date off my CV, I am taken as a youngish man starting out in life. In reality, I juggled fulltime office work on college campuses, lunchtime and evening classes and primary custody of a teenage daughter to become the first person in my family to graduate from university at age 40.

I don’t want to lie even by omission, but most employers shy away from transsexual applicants. So if asked, “Why didn’t you pursue journalism out of college?” I’m afraid to say, “I couldn’t face undergoing a sex-change in a newsroom.” I refer instead to the (truthful) fact that during my two years of graduate school, local newspapers laid off one in five seasoned reporters who then competed for available jobs. Likewise answering, “My daughter was in high school and I didn’t want to drag her out to the boondocks where journalism jobs could be found,” raises eyebrows, for “real men” prioritize career over a child’s preferences. Not to mention, a teenaged daughter ten years ago provokes a double-take on my age and age-discrimination is a genuine concern.

So the sex-change improved my job prospects as I’m now perceived as younger and male, but I’m at a disadvantage because socialized as a girl in the 1950’s, I lack male competitiveness. As I knot my tie preparing for a coveted second interview I wonder, how would I be greeted walking in as my former self? Who would get the job in a competition, the fifty-something divorced mother or the thirty-something single man? In dedication, intelligence, university degree and job skills, the two are identical, however, each walks a very different path.

(A version of this was originally published in 2005 in Dublin's Village Magazine.)

(Photo: AP)

War madness….

I've been unable to update PWCD since Tuesday due to other pressing commitments. In that time, the situation in Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon has seriously deteriorated.

According to today's Guardian::

Israeli jets continued to bomb Lebanon on Friday, hitting the airport and 18 other targets as Jerusalem threatened to escalate its attack on the besieged country even further. Three people were killed. Hizbullah fired 13 more rockets at northern Israel, but caused little damage.

[snip]

Israeli aircraft hit offices, fuel depots, roads, bridges and junctions, killing three people and injuring 50, according to news agencies. About 50 people, including four Brazilians, have been killed since Israel started attacking Lebanon.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said aircraft had targeted 18 sites, including the airport, the offices of Hizbullah in Beirut, and bridges and sections of road on the Beirut-Damascus highway. The conflict has affected both the Lebanese and Israeli economies. Tourists in both countries have fled and stocks and currency values have plummeted.

Yet Israeli officials vowed to escalate the conflict and assassinate Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizbullah leader.

[snip]

The crisis in the north has completely overshadowed the situation in Gaza, where Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit remains a captive of Hamas and the already desperate living conditions of Gazans continue to deteriorate.

Piles of rubbish are mounting in the streets as there is no fuel for garbage trucks. The shortage of electricity, caused by airstrikes on a power station, means there is not enough power to pump sewage or water. Untreated sewage is running directly into the sea and crowds gather round water tanks to fill jerry cans and plastic bottles.

Virtually no wages have been paid to employees of the Palestinian Authority and the rest of the economy is at a standstill. Israel allows enough fuel and food to enter but Gazans cannot leave or enter the strip. Thousands have been stuck on the Egyptian border waiting to return home. The Red Cross reported that four people had died because of the lack of shelter and services.

Israel pulled its forces out of central Gaza overnight, although they remain in the south near Rafah. The air force continued to bomb parts of Gaza, hitting buildings, roads and bridges, and the army shelled northern Gaza, where a man was killed when a tank fired at his car.

Since the offensive began, Israeli forces have killed 86 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier in a friendly fire incident. Many of the dead were gunmen, but about a fifth were civilians. The latest victim was a 10-year-old boy who died in a hospital on Friday, four days after being wounded in Beit Lahiya in the north.

Meanwhile, on Thursday the US vetoed an Arab-backed UN resolution condemning Israel.

Way to go, USA!

The one country in the world who could put a stop to this carnage is currently under the control of a fanatical, bellicose right-wing cabal whose nominal figurehead is a spoiled, imbecilic, ego-driven and religiously-militant blockhead.

And no, I’m not talking about Iran, though the description likewise fits the Iranian political situation.

I am at a loss to understand exactly how any thinking person anywhere—in the US, Israel, Lebanon, Gaza, or elsewhere—can believe that this destruction and bloodshed will resolve anything. Has it ever?!

But then, resolution and peace aren't really the goals here, are they? No, the situation in Lebanon and Gaza is a blatant, depraved power grab for land and resources on the part of a US-backed ally, endorsed and financed by an American establishment who is itself, in this very moment, engaged its own murderous power grab in Iraq. In both cases, the atrociously one-sided destruction and disproportionate casualties work against a negotiated end to strife anytime soon.

When are we going to learn to lock up psychopaths like Bush and Olmert, rather than voting them into office?

Guardian story here.

Bird flu update....

Given the mainstream media's ADHD, bird flu has pretty much dropped off the radar--and TV--screens.

Too bad the virus hasn't disappeared likewise.

In the first six months of 2006 the number of countries detecting infected birds has doubled. Case fatality remains extraordinarily high. And limited human to human transmission, with at least one moderately large cluster is becoming more evident. WHO continues to say most human infections come from poultry, although the evidence for this is not conclusive. Many cases have scant or no history. The feared easy person to person transmission has yet to occur, but the virus is not standing still. It continues to change genetically and move into wider and more varied niches. Sixty countries are said to be affected.

Southeast asia [sic] is said to have made progress controlling the disease and transmission to humans by aggressive programs of culling and vaccination, although the verdict is still out on whether this has truly worked. But meanwhile China, Indonesia and Africa struggle with their veterinary services and the hope of stamping out or controlling the spread in these places is slim. Too many birds, too wide an area, too little resources and public recognition of the problem. The virus is becoming endemic in a variety of bird species in large areas of the globe and is unlikely to go away soon.

[snip]

So it's mid July, now. Soon we will be moving into the northern hemisphere's colder months and "flu season." Most observers believe bird flu will also pick up speed.

Which is bad news, because it's already traveling awfully fast.

Effect Measure's bloggers, one of whom wrote the above, are all senior public health scientists and practitioners. Which lends credence to their concerns.

I'll confess, I'm the paranoid type. But what harm can it do to stock up on enough canned beans and rice, say, to get you through a couple weeks?

Full post here.

(Photo from here.

The unholy slaughter continues...

This, from a July 2 op-ed, made only more relevant by the destruction and deaths of the past week.

If you read the press coverage in the United States, you get a misleading idea about the balance of violence. But, as Amnesty International notes, “Since the beginning of this year, Israeli forces have killed some 150 Palestinians, including some 25 children, and Palestinian armed groups have killed close to 20 Israelis, including two children.”

None of those Israelis, none of those Palestinians, none of those children should have died.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government, Israel’s chief sponsor (to the tune of more than $3 billion in aide a year), does nothing except to give Israel a wink and a nod. “Let the Palestinians sweat a little,” one U.S. aide told the Israeli paper Haaretz.

Israel’s policy of collective punishment is reprehensible.

So, too, is U.S. support for it.

According to today's NYT, the toll since Israel pushed into northern Gaza on Thursday: at least 40 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier killed.

Complete op-ed here.
Complete NYT story here.

For shame....

My adopted country has yet to legalise abortion. Because of this, a woman seeking an abortion must cross the border, and most head for the UK.

This, from Salon's Broadsheet:

Among the news flashes we missed in the name of patriotism this week was the British Department of Health's release of the country's abortion statistics for 2005. Among the more distressing statistics was the number of Irish women who traveled to England and Wales to get abortions: 5,585, or an average of 15 a day.

The number represents a small percentage of the annual total of 186,400 U.K. abortions, but it's still pretty grim to think of the thousands of women forced to cross the border to terminate a pregnancy. And because department records only reflect the number of abortions performed on women who list Irish home addresses, rather than the U.K. addresses of friends or family members, the true tally may be higher.

Activists on both sides of the abortion debate sought to frame the statistic; choice advocates argued that Ireland needs to legalize abortion, while antiabortion voices noted that the number of Irish women seeking abortions in the U.K. is on the decline (it was 6,217 in 2004), so there's no need to make it legal back home. (Yes, yes, perfectly logical.) We're with Alliance for Choice spokeswoman Sian Muldowney, who sounded a little weary when she set out Ireland's reproductive-health to-do list: "Ireland needs to face up to its responsibility to Irish men and women to provide a comprehensive sex education strategy, a national sexual health services strategy and safe and legal abortion in Ireland."

In totally unrelated news, Reuters reports that the pope is traveling to Spain this weekend "to glorify traditional family values."

Story, which I've posted in its entirety, here (requires subscription).