16 - Late Links

Afghanistan Transparent

Paul Jay of The Real News interviews F. William Engdahl, economist and author of the best selling book "A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order" who explains US Geopolitical objectives in Afghanistan, in terms clear and simple enough even for US mainstream network television audiences - which is probably why you never see him on television.

Real News Network - December 9, 2009
Why is the USA in Afghanistan?
Engdahl: Key objective is a permanent military presence in Asia

Iraq's Oil Auction Hits The Jackpot

Originally published at Asia Times

BEIJING - Former United States vice president Dick Cheney, ex-defense minister Donald Rumsfeld and assorted US neo-cons will have plenty of time to nurse their apoplexy. One of their key reasons to unleash the war on Iraq in 2003 was to seize control of its precious oilfields and thus shape a great deal of the new great game in Eurasia - the energy front - by restricting the access of Europe and Asia to Iraq's staggering 115 billion barrels of proven oil reserves.

After at least US$2 trillion spent by Washington and arguably more than a million dead Iraqis, it has come to this: a pipe dream definitely buried this past weekend in Baghdad with round two of bids to exploit a number of vast and immensely profitable oil fields.

U.S. Imprisoned Iranian Engineer Secretly For Two Years Before Sentencing

In a case drawing criticism from outside lawyers, an Iranian engineer sentenced to prison Monday for violating arms control laws was lured to the nation of Georgia by American authorities for a fake arms deal, arrested, extradited to the U.S., and held in prison for two years -- including months in solitary confinement before his guilty plea last year -- all totally in secret, according to the Justice Department and media reports.

Export control lawyers told Politico's Laura Rozen the politically-charged case of Amir Hossein Ardebili -- which was under seal until this month -- is troubling for two reasons: first, he was an Iranian who never left Iran, nonetheless lured out of the country and targeted by U.S. law enforcement; and, second, that he was sentenced after two years of secret imprisonment.

Besides his extended secret confinement, one export control attorney told Rozen that there are jurisdictional issues in the case:

"What's most interesting here is the U.S. effort to expand, seemingly without limit, claims of U.S. jurisdiction over activities by foreign citizens which are performed in their own countries and which are legal in those countries," Clif Burns, an export control attorney with Bryan Cave said.

Americans would be "apoplectic" if the reverse scenario occurred, Burns posited.

"What would be the response if Iranian agents abducted the CEO of Twitter while he was in, say, the UAE, dumped him into solitary confinement in an Iranian prison, and secretly indicted him with aiding and abetting sedition by Iranian dissenters?" he said.

Iranian press account of Ardebili's sentencing carries the headline, "US court sentences abducted Iranian to prison."

CIA cancels Blackwater drone missile-loading contract

CIA Director Leon Panetta wanted such work to be done by the organisation's own employees only, officials said.

The New York Times revealed the existence of the secret contract with Blackwater, renamed Xe, in August.

On Thursday, the paper also reported that Xe employees had been involved in "snatch-and-grab operations" in Iraq.

Xe, based in North Carolina, changed its name from Blackwater after several of its employees were accused of killing 17 civilians in a shooting incident in Baghdad in September 2007.

Four men are due to stand trial next year.

Californians flock to the 'Disneyland' of Climate Change

Hundreds of delegates from nonprofits, state and local government and green-tech firms are making the rounds in Copenhagen, sitting on panels, schmoozing with other policy wonks and buying furry hats.

The UN I$ The Mo$t Corrupt In$titution On Earth

One has to wonder if or when organized crime will take over the UN (or have they already)? Because what we are learning about the corporate money flowing to the head of the IPCC (money likely to help fund golden parachutes for the Jones’ and Mann’s of the world) is sickening. Down right sickening.

Bishop Hill has a follow up to his previous post which showed all the corporate money being made by this chief global warming alarmist. Now it is being discovered how this cretin is poised to take control of a multi-billion dollar industry if dreams of Copenhagen were to come true:

Bearing in mind that the issue is based on the central deception that the life-giving gas carbon dioxide is a “pollutant”, behind the push to create this multi-trillion dollar industry is a vast nexus of influence, at or near the heart of which – is it emerging – is the chairman of the UN’s IPCC, Dr Rajendra Kumar Pachauri.

Carefully cultivating the image of the concerned “scientist”, he has on the back of the global warming hype not only been able to amass a considerable personal fortune (about which he is extraordinarily shy) but has also built a powerful global organisation under the brand-name “TERI”, as the front for his lobbying and power-broking activities.

( Quite the cretin. For that sort of money a bit of bullshit must seem a small price to pay. And as for the mafia 'taking over' the UN....shucks. I'm sure they've owned it since its inception. ) 

Trevor Davies, UEA on Leaked Documents: Then and Now

( And in Comments )

>Posted Dec 12, 2009 at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Reply

Lawrence Livermore Laboratories has discovered the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2 – 6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium’s mass will actually increase over time, since each re-organization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.

Found on the Swedish “climatescam today”

Global Warming ‘Believers’ Attempt to Silence ‘Climate Truthers’; Silencers: ‘Hitler Youth’,The UN,Al Gore; ‘Truthers’: Lord Monckton, Phelim McAleer, John Stossel

Apparently his [Monckton's] presentation in Copenhagen was interupted so he confronted the protesters the next day. This is a must see classic. Get it viral.

Climate change summit leaves sceptical Russia cold

Global warming, the Kyoto Protocol, cutting emissions, nuclear waste, incinerators - it might be a topic of discussion among Moscow's business elite, but the masses are nowhere near these issues. No-one's talking about them," said former Russian deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, an outspoken critic of the current Russian government.

"There is one popular opinion, though - that Russia is a cold country and warming it up slightly wouldn't do any harm."

Officially, the Kremlin has recognised that human activity has contributed to climate change. But this is at odds with the message put out by state television, which has screened documentaries on the "myth" of global warming.

Alexey Gorelov, a businessman from Armavir, meanwhile, said he was doubtful about the whole idea of man-made global warming.

"I think that 90% of efforts around global warming and emissions' cut have a different goal - getting more taxes from the entire world population.

"That tiny amount of emissions produced by human activity cannot even be compared to the global effects of the movement of the sun, planets, Earth's orbit shifts and fluctuations of the axis of the Earth."

UK's Vista telescope takes stunning images of space

Mass production of multi-purpose large-capacity Lithium-ion Battery Packs begins next year

XOR’s folding electric scooters: a new relationship with your wheels

(  I ran across an ex-cop's comment and backtracked : he wants to see if Vancouver will spring for some police models for 2010 )