THAT DARK DAY IN DALLAS
TORTURE IN IRAQ
“FIXING” THE MEDIA

Today is the anniversary of that dark day in Dallas 42 years ago, in l963, the day President John F Kennedy was shot down. It was a turning point in contemporary history. Today is also the day when Ted Koppel formally retires to be replaced in part by Martin Bashir, the salacious documentary maker who “exposed” Michael Jackson. Bashir would later testify against the gloved one in a show trial that resulted in Jacko’s full acquittal. That too may have been a turning point in the continuing devolution of American television. (See Ted’s last show tonight.)

The forces behind the JFK murder are still being debated with a majority of Americans still convinced there was some kind of conspiracy. If you have never seen the famous Zapruder film that was said to have captured the killing, you now do so on line:

http://John-F-Kennedy.net/AbrahamZapruderFilm.htm

(Bear in mind that there are charges by assassinologists that it was doctored.)

That assassination marked a shift of interests as well that led us into the jungles of Vietnam and an economic crisis which has been papered over for years with other people’s money.

PAPER TIGER

President Bush’s failed visit to China this past weekend marks another shift as the United States proves itself to be the paper tiger that Mao laughed at. With a federal deficit over $300 billion, with China gaining the upper economic hand, the “American” century seems long over.

Not only is Iraq facing the same outcome as Vietnam, but US leverage is slip slip-sliding away No wonder that the the man responsible for auditing US government budgets compared the US to ancient Rome before its decline. He says its fiscal condition is “worse than advertised.”

Here’s the kind of fact I would rather not contend with before breakfast: “By 2010, the US debt is likely to rise to $ 11.2 trillion, or $ 38,000 for each man,is projected at $ 561 billion annually.

I’m missing a source here but I copied the claim right: “Douglas Holtz-Eakin, director of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, admits to being “terrified” about the budget deficit in coming decades. That’s when an aging population, health care inflation and advanced medical technology will create a perfect storm of spiraling costs.”

No wonder President Bush was grinning like an idiot when trying to “escape” out of the wrong door in Beijing. “It didn’t work,” he said. No, it won’t work, will it? It was hard not to feel sorry for him, being so far in over his head during what the Times called “tense talks.” Could you imagine Hu Jintao’s response to the President of the Republic of Guantanamo demanding he treat his prisoners better.

Many of us have been talking about “exit strategies” as if they are possible or achievable. Sartre wrote “No Exit” decades ago and that may, in the end, still be the metaphor to describe the beneath the surface economic and political transition that is going on out of media view. 30,000 GM workers laid off today. Whats next?

The economy is headed downhill forecasts Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “She sees a future of unfunded promises, trade imbalances, too few workers and too many retirees. She envisions a stock market dive, lost assets and a lower standard of living.”

THAT MURTHA MOMENT

I wrote yesterday about the pathetic nature of our Congressional politics on Mediachannel’s home page in a piece called “The Murtha Moment” I was interested to find that the far more conservative George Friedman of Stratfor, a Geo political analysis firm, also found the debate ridiculous:

”The current debate is making both sides look stupid. But lest we despair about the fate of the republic, it should be remembered that political debate in the United States has rarely been edifying and, during times of serious tension, has beendownright incoherent.

“What is important about the current debate is not so much its content — there is precious little of that — as the fact that it serves as a barometer of the current situation in Washington as well as in Iraq. What the debate is telling us is that we have come to a defining moment in the war and in U.S. policy toward the war. That means that it is time to step back and try to define the root issues…

“When people talk about intelligence failures, they inevitably speak about the WMD issue. That was trivial, however, compared to the failure of the U.S. intelligence community to discover that the Baathists had planned for continued warfare after the fall of Baghdad. Indeed, they did not even resist in Baghdad. Understanding that defeating the United States conventionally was impossible, they focused on mounting a guerrilla war after U.S. forces had occupied the country

“The guerrilla campaign was not spontaneous. It came together much too quickly and escalated far too efficiently for that to be the case. The guerrillas clearly had access to weapons caches, possessed a rudimentary command, control and communications system, and had worked out some baseline tactics. They were too widely dispersed in their operations to be simply a pick-up game. Somebody had set these things in place. That meant that someone should have detected the plans….”

http://www.stratfor.com/services/crisis-intelligence.php?ref=051121%20-%20GIR%20-%20GIR&camp=Product%20Mailing&format=HTML> Iraq: The Battle in the Beltway

DIEN BEN PHU REDUX

In a sense this analysis adds ammunition to my own sense that the Iraqis adaopted General Giap’s “Dienbenphu” strategy—a kind of “rope a dope approach”—to let the US feel overconfident and come into Baghdad in triumph. The Vietnames lured the French into the mountains of North Vietnam only to be defeated with a far superior force. Is it happening again?

TORTURE AND MORE TORTURE

As for whats happening on the ground, Riverbend, the “girl blogger” continues to be my best source. Her latest posting deals with the recent report that the US had “discovered” and stopped torture going on in the Ministry of the Interior in Baghdad. It was those type of practices by Saddam that we supposedly invaded to stop:

”We hear constantly about these torture dungeons. Right after the war, certain areas became infamous for them. The world knows them as ‘torture houses’ for the obvious reasons- they were once ordinary homes, and now they’ve become torture centers for suspects and innocents alike. The Iraqi government conveniently calls them ‘detention centers’ and the Iraqi Ministry of Interior oversees and funds them.

“One area which was well-known for its torture houses immediately after the war was Sadir City in Baghdad. Except they weren’t called torture houses back then. The people who ran them called them ‘ma7akim’ or ‘courts’. They would bring ’suspects’ in for interrogation- often ordinary citizens- and beat and whip them for various confessions involving accusations and alleged crimes. A ‘Sayid’ would then come in and sentence the culprit- the sentence would sometimes involve cutting off a hand or a foot and at other times it might be death. We heard this from an aunts neighbor who was mistakenly taken in and beaten as a suspected former security agent. His family connections with influential Shia clerics in the area were the only things that got him out alive- bruised and broken- but alive.

“These torture houses have existed since the beginning of the occupation. While it is generally known that SCIRI is behind them, other religious parties are not innocent. The Americans know they exist- why the sudden shock and outrage? This is hardly news for Americans in the Green Zone. The timing is quite interesting- it shouldn’t matter that this raid came immediately after the whole white phosphorous story came out, but the Pentagon and American military have proven to be the ultimate masters of diversion.”

She is contemptuous of Interior Minister Bayan Jabr (“SCIRI Thug-Made-Government-Official-In-Italian-Suits”)who says that torture in Iraq is meted out in a non-sectarian manner. I am sure they are equal opportunity employers too. See today’s New York Times for an interview with this GQ-looking minister. He denies the torture of course. And with a smile.

See George Monbiot in today’s Guardian for more on Torture and other war crimes inside war crimes.
monbiot.com

HAITIAN ELECTIONS: A FRAUD IN THE MAKING?

“New York, November 21, 2005 — Haiti is lurching towardsnational elections that may cost the impoverished country asmuch as $100 million. “These elections may be the mostexpensive Haitian vote to date,” says Jocelyn McCalla, ExecutiveDirector of the National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR),”but conditions for stable democratic progress barely exist.Consequently, electoral democracy may not trigger the functional democracy that Haitians yearn for.”

“In a report released today entitled Haiti: Lurching Towards2006, the NCHR notes that Haiti suffers from several importantinstitutional deficiencies that hamper the establishment of arights-respecting regime. These include a small, corrupt and unwieldy police force whose effective size remains a relative mystery since it collapsed before rebel advances in 2004.

“Corruption, abuse and maladministration are the defining features of the Haitian legal and penal system. “In Haiti, justice is for sale,” says Mr. McCalla, “they just don’t bother putting up the ‘for sale’ sign.”