Cuba's Going Down

Total overdose of information.  Winding down. Big news for a while has been the Sony Hack.  Don't know what the big deal is, save that it's amusing. CUBA Other big news is US moving towards being 'pals' with Cuba. US plans to reopen its embassy in Havana & US to significantly ease restrictions on travel and commerce. >> http://bernews.com/2014/12/cuba/ OBAMA: "today we are making these changes because it is the right thing to do". Anyone who believes the US does anything because it's the 'right thing to do' is an idiot.  There's got to be some agenda here. It appears the Vatican is still involving itself in politics. Vatican has long supported US-CUBA "normalisation of relations"  -- http://www.aleteia.org/en/world/article/the-churchs-long-standing-interest-in-normalizing-us-cuba-relations-5881514080337920 Sounds like USA getting foothold in Cuba through manipulation of religion / Catholic Church. US politicians speak out against closer ties with ‘Castro regime’ - http://on.rt.com/7wfprw Cuba Opposed US politicians: >John McCain >Lindsey Graham >Jeb Bush >Robert Menendez >Ted Cruz > House Speaker John Boehner also jumped on-board criticising US move to 'normalise' relations with Cuba >Florida Gov. Rick Scott is sharply criticizing Obama over his plans to normalise relations with Cuba --  http://www.bradenton.com/2014/12/17/5537543/gov-scott-rips-president-obama.html All this opposition is for show.  Don't be coy, guys, you know you want Cuba.  Meanwhile, Ecuador celebrates the decision to free x3 Cuban heroes from US prison & looks forward to new regional relations --  http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Ecuador-Celebrates-Freedom-of-Cuban-5-20141217-0049.html Cuban5  >>  x3 released in exchange for the release of USAID contractor Alan Gross - http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Ecuador-Celebrates-Freedom-of-Cuban-5-20141217-0049.html Obama's annual Hanukkah White House bash: small acts can make miracles ... Cuban5 -- Obama tied themes of Hanukkah to return of Alan Gross, a Jewish-American released by Cuba after five years in captivity.  >>   http://www.kjrh.com/news/national/obama-on-hanukkah-says-small-acts-can-make-miracles_06062097_ Call me cynical, but I think Obama might be hustling some Jewish votes for the Democrats.  UNNAMED US SPY: Cuba is releasing unnamed US spy imprisoned for nearly 20 years - http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20141217/ARTICLES/141219887?Title=Cuba-releasing-spy-for-US-in-move-to-restore-ties UNNAMED US SPY TO BE RELEASED: 1.  provided information:  identification & conviction of Ana Belen Montes (former senior analyst at the Defence Intelligence Agency).  Montes arrested in 2001 on charges of spying for Cuba -  serving a 25-year prison sentence. 2. helped prosecute:  retired State Department intelligence analyst Walter Kendall Myers & his wife, Gwendolyn, convicted in 2010 of spying for Cuba & are serving life in prison without parole. Unnamed US spy: Instrumental in US Cuba spy convictions: >Ana Belen Montes - 25yrs sentence >Walter Kendall Myers - 30yrs sentence >Gwendolyn Myers (wife) - 30yrs sentence Another Blogger's view (akahnnyc):  US goal in Cuba is eradication of Cuban Revolution & destruction of independent sovereign socialism. US embassy in Havana is a post for WA spooks to guide hand-picked neo-liberal "reformers" to seize control of a neutered Communist Party. Cuba be advised to stand by for a "sick, twisted Communist Disneyland" & no healthcare, education or social safety net. Will Cuba allow quicksand of imperialism & capitalism to envelop them, by not assuring future of socialism in Cuba? Slippery slope destruction of socialism:  US empire may count future successes as children beg in the streets outside Sheraton hotel in downtown Havana. USA - charge d’affaires: USA career foreign-service officer, at US mission Cuba -- Jeffrey DeLaurentis -- gets promotion to charge d’affaires   >>  http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/18/our-man-in-havana-for-real.html Jeffrey DeLaurentis described as: >career foreign-service officer >measured & cautious diplomat >businesslike >Prior Cuba & UN experience. It looks as though "Democracy in the Americas" has been lobbying for US policy change, from a humanitarian angle  >>  http://www.democracyinamericas.org/cuba/ And it looks like CIA is all over Cuba: CIA - USAID's secret Cuban hip-hop project - http://bigstory.ap.org/article/7c275c134f1b4a0ca3428929fcece82d/us-co-opted-cubas-hip-hop-scene-spark-change US focus in Cuba is to continue to improve human rights & democratic reforms, with the stated aim of:   political, economic & social freedoms.  Same humanitarian pretext.  No word on any other aims, of course. Voice of America & Radio Marti  International Broadcasting Bureau - CIA spin-off Runs Voice of America & Radio Marti propaganda for subverting Cuba’s communist regime *Now operates under the Broadcasting Board of Governors Pando  -  http://pando.com/2014/07/16/tor-spooks/ PREVIOUSLY UNIDENTIFIED US SPY TRADED, NOW NAMED: Rolando “Roly” Sarraff Trujillo cryptography expert for Cubans - http://www.matthewaid.com/post/105516524231/our-man-in-havana-rolando-roly-sarraff-trujillo "only thing that saved him from execution was the fact that both his parents were retired senior intelligence officers" ... and maybe the fact that you can't trade dead spies. Although I'm curious why US would want him.  Not sure what practical use a busted spy is.  After 20 years in prison, the cryptography skills might be a bit rusty. Terrorism Obama has initiated review of  Cuba designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. [John Kerry] US Cuba Recipe: * NGO - Humanitarian Spin * Religious leverage * Media / Communications influence * CIA meddling * USAID spies So what does this mean?  Looks like this is the beginning of the end.  Che Guevara died for nothing.  No cause is worth dying for. [Excuse typos or if this doesn't make sense.  Sleep deprivation.  Totally wrecked.]

Video: Come Out Ye Black and Tans

Played this heaps today.  Very moving. INLA, IRA Irish Freedom Fighters Wolfe tones - Come Out Ye Black and Tans I was born on a Dublin street where the Loyal drums do beat And those loving English feet they walked all over us, And every single night when me da'd come home tight He'd invite the neighbours outside with this chorus:   Come out ye black and tans,  Come out and fight me like a man  Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders  Tell her how the IRA made you run like hell away,  From the green and lovely lanes of  Killashandra. Come let us hear you tell How you slammed the great Pernell, When you fought 'em well and truly persecuted, Where are the smears and jeers That you loudly let us hear When our leaders of '16 were executed.   Come out ye black and tans,  Come out and fight me like a man  Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders  Tell her how the IRA made you run like hell away,  From the green and lovely lanes of  Killashandra.  Come tell us how you slew Them ol' Arabs two-by-two Like the Zulus they had spears and bow and arrows, How you bravely you faced one With your sixteen pounder gun And you frightened them damned natives to their marrow.   Come out ye black and tans,  Come out and fight me like a man  Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders  Tell her how the IRA made you run like hell away,  From the green and lovely lanes of  Killashandra. Now the time is coming fast And I think them days are here, When each English yeoman here run before us, And if there'll be a need Then our kids will say, "Godspeed!" With a verse or two of singing this fine chorus.   Come out ye black and tans,  Come out and fight me like a man  Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders  Tell her how the IRA made you run like hell away,  From the green and lovely lanes of  Killashandra.

Chelsea Manning - Birthday (17 December)

USA Whistleblower CHELSEA MANNNING HAPPY BIRTHDAY Born: December 17, 1987 (age 27 years) http://manningfamilyfund.org/ http://pardon.privatemanning.org/ https://twitter.com/savemanning http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/chelseamanning

20 DEC 1989 - USA INVASION OF PANAMA

ARTICLE  December 15, 2014 The Proclamation Of A Lone Superpower Above The Law The Invasion Of Panama by MATT PEPPE http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/15/the-invasion-of-panama/ .................................... COMMENT / NOTES Thought this was a very good article. Below is what I got out of it: US had large Panama-stationed military force:  18 bases. Occupied Panama Canal Zone territory = sovereign US territory until 1979. Scheduled hand-over of Panama Canal: Partial ... transfer in 1990 Full ......... transfer in 2000 *Control over vital strategic asset at issue.  Military occupier US at advantage. Applicable Panama (& any target) USA modus operandi in pursuit aggressive agenda: 1) disseminate propaganda about “human rights abuses” 2) accuse govt / leader of heinous deed/s 3) provoke the target to elicit pretext for invasion / aggression. 4) on eliciting response, launch planned attack. Note:  as in Panama case, human rights abuse overlooked while US maintains grip. Brutal tyrants are friends ... until they commit the 'crime of independence', when they become US agenda villains. Panama US Invasion: UNSC passed a resolution condemning invasion. US joined by allies #UK & #France – vetoed it. Dangerous precedent set. USA Panama Invasion set stage for:  Iraq (1) Somalia (1) Serbia NATO bombing Iraq (2)  Afghanistan  Iraq (3)  Pakistan  Libya  Somalia (2)  Yemen  Iraq (4)  Syria Human rights language appropriated by USA: “humanitarian intervention” became new propaganda tool to justify military aggression. New humanitarian ethos = ideological weapons to (domestically & internationally) justify & legitimise USA aggressive global strategies. Aggressive War  Panama - USA INVASION 1989 = aggression against SOVEREIGN NATION Nuremberg Trials defined 'aggressive war':  evil punishable by death. USA1989 Invasion of PANAMA - act against sovereign nation, evil punishable by death yet George HW Bush: enjoys a luxurious retirement. considered by mainstream USA political opinion-makers a "foreign policy moderate". Source:  http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/15/the-invasion-of-panama/ Wow, that last bit is rather scary.  [*Need to learn to summarise better.  Most of the summary form is the author's words.]

CIA Torture Report

CIA TORTURE REPORT What to do when too scattered to immerse oneself in social media escapism? Well, try to sleep.  Try, try and try again.  And if that fails, go play with the blog ... Hey, the CIA Torture Report is out - here (PDF - 525 pages) - finally published 9 December 2014. I'll forever associate CIA torture and the report with Obama's fairly ho-hum, casual: "We tortured some folks" The report's whittled down & heavily censored.  But what I read of the highlights 'most gruesome moments' (DailyBeast) (see also Guardian)  was enough to make me quite angry and disgusted. The treatment of the man that froze to death on the floor, naked and chained is beyond belief. Torture of people isn't something we usually give much thought to.  It's in the realm of maybe action-thriller movies and something we perhaps ever so vaguely figure 'might' happen in the underbelly of real life or, if we're pressed to stop to think about it, may have cynically shrugged and thought, yeah, bound to happen in some nasty underworld. But even if we could vaguely conceive of people maybe getting tortured in the course of lifestyle choices, such as a life of crime or a path of political dissidence, it would not enter our heads that agents of  democratic governments would subject living, captive, beings to torture -- and subject them to excesses of brutal torture repeatedly -- over the course of weeks of life-threatening and soul-destroying abuse. The 'enhanced interrogation' the US dished up to captives is reminiscent of torture harking back to Nazi Germans or the torture perpetrated by psychopathic sadists getting off on controlling and debasing helpless victims (which is, thankfully, quite rare among the general public, but maybe common among the CIA and cohorts by the look of things). So here we have representatives of the American state -- the symbol of the 'free, democratic world' -- sexually violating captives and subjecting them to insane, prolonged torture and even death, while America's preaching freedom, democracy, peace and moral superiority ... often at the point of a gun. That US allies were complicit in this violation of human rights and of international laws (they apparently only pay lip service to) is just as disgusting, mind-boggling and demoralising. Source:  Open Societies Foundations The above map is from the Open Societies Foundation Report -  'Globalising Torture: CIA Secret Detention & Extraordinary Rendition 2013 - here [PDF - 216 Pages]. Extraordinary Rendition:  abduction & extra-judicial transfer of persons from one country to another Just having a quick look at 'Globalising Torture', I note that Australia rates a mention because an Australian national went through the rendition and torture mill (2001-2005) before being released with no charge and finally getting an undisclosed settlement from the Australian government in 2010. The Australian government put on a bit of a show afterwards with an 'inquiry'.  But this was essentially the government investigating itself and (unsurprisingly) no wrongdoing was found. Nor did they find evidence of involvement of Australian officials: The inquiry seemingly did not investigate the statements of an Egyptian intelligence officer who alleged the involvement of Australian officials in Habib’s detention in Egypt, with Thom claiming that Habib did not provide the inquiry with a copy of the statements. The ECHR ordered Poland to pay restitution to abductees who were taken to a CIA black site in Poland & tortured.  Poland had denied culpability and had been planning to appeal the court's decision: In July 2014 the European Court of Human Rights condemned the government of Poland for participating in CIA extraordinary rendition, ordering Poland to pay restitution to men who had been abducted, taken to a CIA black site in Poland, and tortured.   Poland is appealing the decision. [wikipedia] But the cat's out of the bag now:  RT News reports that Poland had received hush money to host CIA prisons and that former President Aleksander Kwasniewski confirmed hosting CIA black sites (but had denied authorising torture).   Oh, and Poland was pissed that the US can't keep a secret.  Ah, well, you get that.  No honour among thieves (or violators). Anyway, there's 54 countries in the 'Globalising Torture' report and:  Russia's not in it!   Bring out the dancing girls & play the can-can. Moving away from the dancing girls and getting back to the subject of torture, this is some interesting information about US government funding of countries that commit torture: TOP 10 - USA AID COUNTRIES - THAT COMMIT TORTURE: 1. Israel – $3.1b 2. Afghanistan – $2.2b 3. Egypt – $1.6b 4. Pakistan – $1.2b 5. Nigeria – $693m 6. Jordan – $671m 7. Iraq – $573m 8. Kenya – $564m 9. Tanzania – $553m 10. Uganda -$456m Source:   http://leftfootforward.org/2014/01/top-ten-us-aid-recipients-all-practice-torture/ Having had a quick look at the CIA Torture Report (which I haven't read in full), the first thing I noticed was the eye-watering $81 million (plus $1 million legal indemnity) paid by the USG to the 'brains' of the torture program (which I'm pretty sure I could have devised for waaay less that fee).  What an obscene amount of taxpayer money to disburse on torturing, sexually violating and freezing people.  Oh, and I left out 'rectal feeding' or 'rectal rehydration'.  It is basically an enema -- an infusion of liquid poured into the rectum.  Liquid or ... liquefied food in the case of CIA-style 'rectal rehydration': One CIA cable released in the report reveals that detainee Majid Khan was administered by enema his “‘lunch tray’ consisting of hummus, pasta with sauce, nuts and raisins was ‘pureed and rectally infused’”. One CIA officer’s email was in the report quoted as saying “we used the largest Ewal [sic] tube we had”.  [Guardian] Daily Caller running a headline 'Former CIA Director Michael Hayden Says Rectal Feeding Not Torture, It's a Medical Procedure'.  Guess they need to have a look at the Guardian article above.  Far from 'medical' the way CIA goons applied it.  Shame on Daily Caller 'Crapper'  (hey, that's kinda apt given the subject).   Would you believe Hayden tried to deny it was a rectal procedure: Blitzer: Is that rectal though? Hayden: No, it’s not. And I’m not prepared to tell you why one method was chosen ... Wonder if the paper's having a quiet lend of us in that article ... or are Americans really, really, dumb and likely to fall for the comedic denials? Well, that's the long awaited CIA Torture Report.   I've not read either of reports in full yet or paid very close attention to the articles, but I may go back and check things out more thoroughly.  Notice the US media is big on repeating "Torture Is Not An American Value" ('TINAAV').  That's a distancing thing (that's not America, that's those bad, bad torture progam tailors).  It's also a positive spin thing in the headlines.  TINAAV repeated thousands of times in the media provides a counterbalance to 'CIA Torture Report Sparks World Outrage' [Sky Australia] type reporting.  That's my take on it, but I'm no media expert, so you might think otherwise. There's probably thousands of things that could be said.  OK, I'm exaggerating.  There are things that ought to be said in this post.  But I'm not sure I could be bothered (I'm just a blogger for fun).  And I'm running out of steam having done yet another all-nighter without sleep. Should probably point out that the report from Open Societies Foundations looks pretty good and is rather a surprising contribution to have come across, because I've been very suspicious of anything NGO related and anything associated with George Soros, as I see NGOs as instruments of influence and 'take-over'. Oh, now I remember what I wanted to say:  the CIA Torture Report will not change a thing.   Nobody is calling for military, political & economic leadership of Nazi Germany America to be held to account and tried before an international court of law. So, it will be business as usual for the US and for countries within the US sphere of influence (and we're taking over 50 countries involved in these CIA torture activities at last count in 2013). It's also worth mentioning that this is why we should make every effort to protect and support whistle-blowers (Bradley/Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden) and journalists and publishers (Julian Assange & WikiLeaks) who have taken enormous personal risk, and taken on world powers (yep, USA and friends, the same guys that were involved in kidnap, unlawful deportation and torture),  to disclose the truth of government wrongdoing and cover-up. That over 50 governments have joined the US in criminal activity in violation of international laws should ring alarm bells like crazy.  That, and the fact that anybody can be grabbed off the street in a democracy, and shipped off for USA torture anywhere in the world. It should also concern those who have watched their government clamp down on the free press and watched in dismay as governments rushed through laws that infringe on civil liberties, justified in the name of 'national security' and 'war on terror' (or merely European Union cohesion, in the case of the European Arrest Warrant) by governments that clearly cannot be trusted to adhere to principles of justice and democracy. The CIA Torture Report ought to be an impetus for voters to demand transparent and accountable government. -----------------    Freedom & democracy eroded by infringements on: * right to freedom from mass surveillance;  * right to privacy;  * right to freedom of information; * right to freedom from government censorship * right to open, public trials;  * right to presumption of innocence; * right to freedom from extradition without evidence; * right to transparent government;  * right to accountable government.  [Excuse any typos.  No sleep.  Very tired.]

 

Prison Break

Prison Break   In twitter prison, so I thought I'd drop by & share. Found this funny comment on a post titled "Don't Freak Out, Twitter Jail is Real": Wow, it's really hard adjusting to being somewhere else.   Twitter feels like a 'living' space because it's in constant motion, whereas this is rather static. What if I can only think & communicate in nothing but tweets?

MH17: Australian Politican vs Putin

Australian Politician vs Putin https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wR2elGUBLVI Source:  QualityControlCentre - YouTube MH17