Confrontational: Carter & Mujahideen; Obama & Neo-nazis

7 Comments

1. 

   Arthur Gilroy on May 9, 2014 at 1:25 pm

   Booman now parrots the DemRat talking points almost exclusively.

   So it goes.

   AG

2. 

   Arthur Gilroy on May 9, 2014 at 1:39 pm

   Even the Amazoonian…errr, ahhh…Washingtoonian Post is turning on Obama.

   At Wal-Mart, Obama touts efficiency, angers labor

   —snip—

   President Barack Obama is showcasing Wal-Mart, often a target of labor groups and other Democratic constituencies, to promote advances in energy efficiency in his broader campaign to confront climate change.

   Obama on Friday was to announce commitments from more than 300 companies and local and state governments to use solar energy technology. He also was announcing executive actions aimed at increasing energy efficiency in buildings and appliances. The White House says the solar effort will power the equivalent of 130,000 homes and the administrative actions could reduce carbon pollution in an amount equal to taking 80 million cars off the road for one year.

   The White House chose Wal-Mart because the company has committed to doubling the number of solar energy projects at its stores, Sam’s Clubs and distribution centers.

   But in choosing the giant retailer as the backdrop for his announcement, Obama triggered a backlash from labor unions and pay equity advocates who say Wal-Mart pays low wages and who archly noted that Obama has made pay equity a central issue of his presidency.

   “What numbskull in the White House arranged this?” former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who served in the Bill Clinton administration, said in a posting on Facebook on Thursday.

   “While he’s in California, I would hope President Obama would speak directly to Wal-Mart employees and hear from them about their daily struggles to pay the rent and put food on the table,” said Maria Elena Durazo, the executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO.

   —snip—

   Energy efficiency, eh?

   How many megatons of wasted energy and dangerous pollutants…let alone trillions of dollars…would be saved by a cessation of the world cop role that the U.S. has shouldered since the Korean War?

   Please.

   Turn out the light in the attic, Honey. I’m busy burning the house down.

   Nice.

   At least we’ll be able to toast marshmallows for dinner as long as the embers last.

   AG

3. 

   Oui on May 9, 2014 at 1:51 pm

   Is the Ukraine personal for Victoria Nuland? She participated under Cheney in the 2004 Orange Revolution and is under Obama ‘point man’ for policy development in Eastern Europe and liasion between State and the EU and NATO which pursues containment of Russia “making it a pariah state.”

   House grilled Nuland over US’ Cooperation with Neo-Nazis in Ukraine

   A two-hour hearing of US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland at the House Foreign Affairs Committee over the Obama administration’s and the US’ role in the developments in Ukraine nailed down Nuland over the United States overt cooperation with and use of neo-Nazis. Nuland tried to dodge questions, explained US plans for Ukraine and told the Committee outright lies about Kiev having “upheld the obligations of the Geneva agreement”. Nuland omitted that Kiev has mobilized Ukraine’s military forces and the presence of large contingents of Ukrainian troops near the Russian border.

   Hard times covering-up cooperation with neo-Nazis. It becomes increasingly difficult for the Obama administration and the corporate US press to cover-up the fact that the main driving force behind the coup in Ukraine are neo-Nazis and ultra-nationalists, supported by the US.

   While the Obama administration is pushing for Ukrainian elections on May 25, it transpires that about half of the 30.000 troops Kiev deployed to southeastern Ukraine are members of the National Guard, created in March, and “special regional military units” created this month, consisting predominantly of members of the neo-Nazi Pravy Sector and UNA-UNSO, militant members of the ultra-nationalist and overtly anti-Semitic Svoboda party and other radicals dressed in uniform to give the impression of “legality”.

   Nuland was nailed down by the Californian Republican Congressman Dana Rohrbacher who asked Nuland about the legality of the ousted Yanukovich government and the presence of neo-Nazis during the protests in Kiev and the coup. Rohrbacher served his entré, saying to Nuland:

   “We did have a legitimate election before, and the legitimate president was removed after we had major street violence. There were pictures of people running around, that we were told were neo-Nazis”.

   Nuland attempted damage control attempting to position the mobs in Kiev’s Maidan square as “peaceful protesters”, saying:

   “First of all, the vast majority of those who were participating on Maidan were peaceful protesters. There were mothers and grandmothers and veterans…

   Rohrbacher, obviously discontent with being served propaganda, reminded Nuland about the nature of his entré, about neo-Nazis, saying:

   “I saw those pictures and I also saw a lot of people throwing fire bombs at groups of policemen. There were people shooting into the ranks of police. So, yes, there were mothers with flowers, but there were also very dangerous street fighters engaged in those demonstrations. …The question is: were there neo-Nazis involved?”

   ○ RT: Nuland has tough time justifying US involvement in Ukraine

   Nuland, continued dodging a very direct questions, saying that “there were many colors of Ukraine involved, including very ugly colors”. It has become established fact [CIA participation in Gladio] that the US administration and allies have cooperated with neo-Nazis and ultra-nationalists in Ukraine since the end of WW II, and that the primus motor behind the coup were neo-Nazi organizations centered around Pravy Sektor and the Svoboda party.

   Nuland submitted and read out a statement on US policy towards Ukraine to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

   CrossTalk: Containment 2.0 with Stephen Cohen and John Mearsheimer

   Subcommittee Chairman Rohrabacher questions deteriorating relationship with Russia in last two years:

   Kerry bashes RT as “propaganda”

   • 

     Oui on May 9, 2014 at 4:32 pm

     Dutch military ordered to refuse ribbon from Russia on V-day

     On May 9, Russia commemorates the victory of the Soviet Union over Germany in 1945. This happens in Moscow with a big parade on the Red Square, but also in the Netherlands each year at the Russian cemetery in Leusden where Russian fallen soldiers are commemorated. A symbol used, both in Russia and in the Netherlands, is the St. George Ribbon. This is now also the symbol of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine and symbol of Russian imperialism. See intern email sent by Lt. Commander Geert Lalleman link here.

      « click for info Wikipedia
     Military may not accept Russian ribbon of valor(ANP/NOS)

     ○ Russian Field of Honor in Leusden
     ○ Georgian uprising on Dutch island Texel – April 1945
4. 

   Oui on May 9, 2014 at 2:09 pm

   In today’s new media, bloggers can perform as guerillas in warfare to undermine the old dominance of state propaganda, falsifications and outright lies. Both Hillary Clinton and John Kerry have been ‘surprised’ when they were caught on pure lies ‘based’ on articles written by friendly journalists in MSM.

   Hillary Clinton: “We Are Losing The Infowar” – 2011

   Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a tacit admission during a U.S. Foreign Policy Priorities committee meeting yesterday, arguing that the State Department needs more money because the US military-industrial complex is “losing the information war” to the likes of Russia Today and Al Jazeera due to the US corporate media having completely abandoned “real news”.

   …
   While the US media remains obsessed with polarizing left-right talking head nonsense, the likes of Al Jazeera, China’s CCTV and Russia Today are “winning” and attracting more viewers because they concentrate on reporting “real news,” according to Clinton.

   “You may not agree with it, but you feel like you’re getting real news around the clock instead of a million commercials and arguments between talking heads and the kind of stuff that we do on our news which is not particularly informative,” said the former First Lady.

   “Al Jazeera has been the leader in literally changing people’s minds and attitudes. And like it or hate it, it is really effective,” added Clinton.

   RT: Hillary Clinton declares international information war

   ○ Al Jazeera and Qatar: Muslim Brothers’ Dark Empire?
   ○ Al Mayadeen On Air as Anti-Al Jazeera Pan Arab News Channel
   ○ The Perils of Hillary Rodham Clinton

5. 

   Oui on May 9, 2014 at 3:00 pm

   .

   How to Lose Friends and Influence No One (The State Department Way)

   (TomDispatch) – Ignorance can be dangerous, as shown in a recent poll asking Americans what to do about the Ukraine crisis.  It turned out that the less those polled were capable of identifying where in the world Ukraine is, the more likely they were to want the U.S. to intervene militarily in that country.

   If ever there were a demonstration of what ignorance can lead to, that poll would be right at the top of the list of sobering examples.  Sometimes, of course, we don’t know where ignorance is going to lead, but that hasn’t stopped the U.S. government from making it a central policy principle of this era.  Just the other day, for instance, National Intelligence Director James Clapper imposed a remarkable, if little discussed, gag on the whole national intelligence “community” (and, by implication, on the media as well).  From now on, officials at the 17 agencies that make up that labyrinthine bureaucracy are barred from “speaking to journalists about unclassified intelligence-related topics without permission.”  Yes, you read that right: they are barred not just from discussing classified information with the media, but unclassified information as well.

   DNI James Clapper promises ‘transparency’ – Jan. 2014

   Cutting the State’s budget for the Fullbright scholarship  by Ann Jones

   Take the current case of an unprecedented, unkind, under-the-radar cut in the State Department’s budget for the Fulbright Program, the venerable 68-year-old operation that annually arranges for thousands of educators, students, and researchers to be exchanged between the United States and at least 155 other countries. As Washington increasingly comes to rely on the “forward projection” of military force to maintain its global position, the Fulbright Program may be the last vestige of an earlier, more democratic, equitable, and generous America that enjoyed a certain moral and intellectual standing in the world. Yet, long advertised by the U.S. government as “the flagship international educational exchange program” of American cultural diplomacy, it is now in the path of the State Department’s torpedoes.

   Right now, all over the world, former Fulbright scholars like me (Norway, 2012) are raising the alarm, trying to persuade Congress to stand by one of its best creations, passed by unanimous bipartisan consent of the Senate and signed into law by President Truman in 1946. Alumni of the Fulbright Program number more than 325,000, including more than 123,000 Americans.  Among   Fulbright alums are 53 from 13 different countries who have won a Nobel Prize, 28 MacArthur Foundation fellows, 80 winners of the Pulitzer Prize, 29 who have served as the head of state or government, and at least one, lunar geologist Harrison Schmitt (Norway, 1957), who walked on the moon — not to mention the hundreds of thousands who returned to their countries with greater understanding and respect for others and a desire to get along.  Check the roster of any institution working for peace around the world and you’re almost certain to find Fulbright alums whose career choices were shaped by international exchange.  What’s not to admire about such a program?

   ○ “Education is, in truth, the only key to genuine African independence and progress,” – Senator John Kennedy
   ○ John F. Kennedy and the Cold War

6. 

   Oui on May 9, 2014 at 3:04 pm

   Kerry should experience a warm bath here as I have referred to the right-wing Atlantic Council and its harsh statements of containment for Putin’s Russia in a New Cold War. The US wants to reduce its military presence in Europe and has set policy for NATO members to increase investments in its military: Navy, Air Force and Army. The Ukraine is an ideal nation to illustrate the “Imperial Danger” of the Russian Bear. A dangerous path to create division between new and old Europe, when did we take this path before? Rumsfeld in the lead-up to the Iraq War …

   Secretary Kerry at the Atlantic Council’s “Toward a Europe Whole and Free” Conference

   Thank you all for the privilege of sharing some thoughts with you at this both timely and very, very important gathering. It’s my privilege to be able to be here, and I’m particularly happy to be here with so many of my colleagues, both our foreign ministers and defense ministers who are here. We had a chance to chat briefly out there. We have been meeting regularly along the trail, and I have come to admire and respect each of them for the clarity of their vision and for the way in which they have been really prescient on many of these issues.

   I love the new digs and thank all those who are responsible for that. And also, Fred, thanks so much for your leadership and for the tremendous work that is being done at the Atlantic Council lately, the success of this particular conference but also the work, the groundwork you’ve been laying, and the focus that you have had on the criticality of the NATO relationship, the European relationship, which, as we know, thinking back to comments of the near past about Old Europe and New Europe and other times things that have been floating out there over these last years, this discussion is even more timely and relevant.

    « click for more info on New Atlanticists
   John Kerry delivered the confrontational call in a speech to the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, DC.(AFP/Mandel Ngan)

   This year marks a number of different milestones that are really worth remembering, obviously beginning with the fact that it is 65 years since Secretary of State Dean Acheson and his European counterparts came together to sign the North Atlantic Treaty. And it’s been 25 years, amazingly, since the fall of the Berlin Wall. And that wall, as we all know too well, symbolically and literally divided East and West and Europe.

   It’s been 15 years, and 10 years, and 5 years since then that NATO has welcomed new partners into the post-Cold War era. And as we have expanded as an organization, as NATO has expanded as an organization, I think it’s safe to say we have also expanded democracy, prosperity, and stability in Europe, and we have opened new opportunities in order to be able to advance security even further, and we have spurred economic growth around the globe.

   VIDEO: Secretary Kerry Delivers Remarks at a Atlantic Council Conference

   ○ Former US Ambassador at NATO, Ivo Daalder, at Atlantic Council
   ○ Trans-Atlantic global leadership at stake in Ukraine – Kerry
   ○ The Guardian: John Kerry rips into ‘Putin’s Russia’ over Ukraine crisis

   Old Europe and Disillusionment of America

   End of an affair?

   (The Economist) Sept. 10, 2009 – After two decades of sometimes fervent Atlanticism in the ex-communist world, disillusionment (some would call it realism) is growing. At its height the bond between eastern Europe and America was based, like the best marriages, on a mixture of emotion and mutual support. The romance dates from the cold war: when western Europe was sometimes squishy in dealing with the Soviet empire, America was robust. When the Iron Curtain fell, ex-dissidents and retired cold warriors found they had plenty in common. America pushed for the expansion of NATO, guaranteeing the east Europeans’ security. In return, ex-communist countries loyally supported America, particularly in providing troops for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    « click for info Germany’s Angela Merkel
   Illustration by Peter Schrank

   That relationship is now looking more wobbly. A new poll (see chart) by the German Marshall Fund, a think-tank, shows that western Europe is now much more pro-American and pro-NATO than the ex-communist east. Until last year, the eastern countries swallowed their misgivings about George Bush, while the west of the continent writhed in distaste at what many saw as his administration’s incompetence and heavy-handedness.

   The ascent of Barack Obama has boosted America’s image in most countries, but only modestly in places like Poland and Romania. Among policymakers in the east, the dismay is tangible. In July, 22 senior figures from the region, including Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa, wrote a public letter bemoaning the decline in transatlantic ties.

   One reason is that the Obama administration is rethinking a planned missile-defence system, which would have placed ten interceptor rockets in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic, in order to guard against Iranian missile attacks on America and much of Europe. That infuriated Russia, which saw the bases as a blatant push into its front yard. Changing the scheme–probably using seaborne interceptors–risks looking like a climb-down to suit Russian interests.

   Poland is also worried that a promised battery of Patriot air-defence missiles, originally to protect the interceptors, may now be only a temporary loan of dummy rockets for training purposes–“just a sales exercise”, says an official in Warsaw, crossly. America says it never intended to station real rockets there permanently.

   The administration also botched its participation in Poland’s 70th anniversary commemoration of the start of the second world war on September 1st. Other countries, including Russia and Germany, sent top people. America, initially, offered only a retired Clinton-era official. William Perry, who was a notable sceptic about NATO expansion. After squawks of dismay, Jim Jones, the national security adviser, went too. But Poles sensed a snub.

   My recent diary – Anglo-American Relationship, Atlanticists and Israel.