Image via Wikipediahttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/secret-memos-expose-link-between-oil-firms-and-invasion-of-iraq-2269610.html
Lady Symons agreed to lobby the Bush administration on BP's behalf because the oil giant feared it was being "locked out" of deals that Washington was quietly striking with US, French and Russian governments and their energy firms.
Minutes of a meeting with BP, Shell and BG (formerly British Gas) on 31 October 2002 read: "Baroness Symons agreed that it would be difficult to justify British companies losing out in Iraq in that way if the UK had itself been a conspicuous supporter of the US government throughout the crisis."
The minister then promised to "report back to the companies before Christmas" on her lobbying efforts.
The Foreign Office invited BP in on 6 November 2002 to talk about opportunities in Iraq "post regime change". Its minutes state: "Iraq is the big oil prospect. BP is desperate to get in there and anxious that political deals should not deny them the opportunity."
After another meeting, this one in October 2002, the Foreign Office's Middle East director at the time, Edward Chaplin, noted: "Shell and BP could not afford not to have a stake in [Iraq] for the sake of their long-term future... We were determined to get a fair slice of the action for UK companies in a post-Saddam Iraq."
Whereas BP was insisting in public that it had "no strategic interest" in Iraq, in private it told the Foreign Office that Iraq was "more important than anything we've seen for a long time".
Libya conflict: EU awaits UN approval for deployment of ground troops
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/18/libya-conflict-eu-deployment-ground-troops
The EU has drawn up a "concept of operations" for the deployment of military forces in Libya, but needs UN approval for what would be the riskiest and most controversial mission undertaken by Brussels.
The armed forces, numbering no more than 1,000, would be deployed to secure the delivery of aid supplies, would not be engaged in a combat role but would be authorised to fight if they or their humanitarian wards were threatened. "It would be to secure sea and land corridors inside the country," said an EU official.
The decision to prepare the mission, dubbed Eufor Libya, was taken by the 27 governments at the beginning of April. In recent days, diplomats from the member states have signed a 61-page document on the concept of operations, which rehearses various scenarios for the mission in and around Libya, such as securing port areas, aid delivery corridors, loading and unloading ships, providing naval escorts, and discussing the military assets that would be required.
The planning has taken place inside the office of Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign and security policy chief. Officials are working on an "A-plan", the operational instructions that would specify the size of the force, its equipment and makeup, and the rules of engagement.
Diplomats and officials said this would not be finalised unless a request for an EU military mission came from the UN body the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha).
Valerie Amos, the head of Ocha, has privately told EU leaders she is reluctant to make the request and wants to explore all civilian options for the aid operation before seeking military help.
Amos said on Monday the Libyan government has promised the UN access to the besieged rebel city of Misrata, although they had not guaranteed a ceasefire during such a mission. She was in talks with the Libyan prime minister in Tripoli on Sunday and said she would send a team to the city of 300,000 as quickly as possible, adding that she was "deeply concerned" about the safety of civilians.
TOP U.S. MIL OFFICER TELEGRAPHED COVERT INTEL LIBYA WAR STRATEGY
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/top-u-s-mil-officer-telegraphed-covert-intel-libya-war-strategy
The emerging U.S. strategy in Libya -- a joint international air offensive supplemented by the infusion of covert American CIA intelligence operatives on the ground -- apparently has been hiding in plain sight for more than two years.
A position paper written by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen in January 2009 -- the "Capstone Concept for Joint Operations" -- candidly advocates the use of covert U.S. military power as a means to overcome political opposition to what he terms "overt" intervention.
The Pentagon's "revised" Capstone Concept outlined in Admiral Mullen's paper was "tested" by American and foreign military forces in a week-long war-game staged in McLean, Va. from May 31-June 5, 2009.
The revised "Capstone Concept" document is publicly available on the web site of the United States Joint Forces Command (USJFC), and here:
http://army.mil/-news/2010/01/04/32159-updated-army-capstone-concept-hits-web/
( S/B http://www.army.mil/-news/2010/01/04/32159-updated-army-capstone-concept-hits-web/
You can download a PDF version of the document here and watch the Army Capstone Concept video here. )
Admiral Mullen's revised Capstone Concept strategy raises the question as to whether the "Arab Spring" -- a series of supposedly spontaneous democracy movements in nations such as Tunisia, Egypt, and now, Libya -- was actually the manufactured product of a longstanding military operation fomented by covert U.S. intelligence assets posing as civilian political activists.
Admiral Mullen's strategy paper also raises the specter that the Pentagon has pursued its own foreign policy goals by engaging in covert foreign operations that may not have been fully disclosed all the way up the chain of command to the civilian leadership and to members of Congress, which, under the U.S. Constitution, solely holds the power to declare war.
# 2009 Army Capstone Concept is updated from 2005.
# The Army Capstone Concept aims to define the problem of future armed conflict and describes how the Army will function in the future.
# The document is titled, "Operational Adaptability: Operating under conditions of uncertainty and complexity in an era of persistent conflict 2016-2028"
Mystery illnesses plague Louisiana oil spill crews
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usoilpollutionenvironmentbphealth
BP Oil Spill: How Bad Is Damage to Gulf One Year Later?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20110419/hl_time/08599206603100
Scientists caution that a single year isn't long enough to draw any final conclusions about an environmental insult so huge. Samantha Joye, a marine scientist at the University of Georgia in Athens, found evidence of dead invertebrates - starfish and even coral - on the bottom of the Gulf, along with oily, sticky bacteria. "These are keystone species to the ecosystem," Joye said at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in February.
Japan Quake Caused Surprisingly Severe Soil Collapse
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20110419/sc_livescience/japanquakecausedsurprisinglyseveresoilcollapse
he 9.0 earthquake in Japan — the fourth most powerful quake ever recorded — also caused an unusually severe and widespread shift in soil through liquefaction, a new study suggests.
Near coastlines, harbors and rivers, earthquakes can make the wet, sandy soil jiggle, turning it temporarily from a solid to a liquid state, a process known as liquefaction. Heavy sand and rock sinks, while water and lighter sand bubble to the surface. The slurry spreads, often toward the water, and the surface shifts.
Japan's liquefaction occurred over hundreds of miles, surprising even experienced engineers who are accustomed to seeing disaster sites, including from the recent earthquakes in Chile and New Zealand.
The study raises questions about whether existing building codes in other vulnerable locations can enable structures to withstand massive liquefaction, including in areas of Oregon, Washington and California.
"We've seen localized examples of soil liquefaction as extreme as this before, but the distance and extent of damage in Japan were unusually severe," said Scott Ashford, a study team member from Oregon State University.
"Entire structures were tilted and sinking into the sediments, even while they remained intact," said Ashford, who is based in Corvallis, Ore. "The shifts in soil destroyed water, sewer and gas pipelines, crippling the utilities and infrastructure these communities need to function. We saw some places that sank as much as 4 feet," or 1.2 meters.
Balneus
Australian Lefty on Politics, Governance, Science and Info Management
http://balneus.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/the-libs-and-the-oz-do-not-want-government/#comment-17855I’m beginning to suspect that the Liberal party machine does not want a federal Liberal government soon, and neither do the major backers of the Liberal party – including the partisan mouthpiece, Murdoch’s The Australian.
The Libs could easily gain control of parliament before the year is out, simply by re-instating Turnbull as parliamentary leader – for Turnbull is the preferred leader of voters (even attractive to Labor and Greens voters), and could woo the independents to support a Liberal government in a month or two.
Why wouldn’t the Libs and their backers want government, want control of the country’s economic and social direction?
The implication of this unwillingness to take office is that the Liberal party machine and backers do not think the economy and society of Australia would be any better off under a Liberal government than it is under the ALP. Indeed, it is a massive if tacit expression of confidence in the Gillard/Swan handling of the economy.
2011-04-21 at Thu
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Um. Comparisons.
Labor’s nifty footwork hasn’t saved it from ‘big tax’ label
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/how-obama-is-morphing-into-bush-20110420-1docj.html
“Morphing into Bush was not a willful act. It was acquiescence to the policies his predecessor shaped and the cruel realities that Obama inherited.”
Not to mention that much of his staff served under both GWB and his father.
In 1993 the Canadian Cons fielded Kim Campbell – an attractive young lawyer and first female Prime Minister serving out the balance of Brian Mulroney’s term – running on continuing the Goods and Services Tax ( like the British VAT an intrusive pain revealing detailed sales records ) which equalized treatment of Canadian made goods so they were not taxed higher than imports, Free Trade having dissolved protections meant to subsidize the costs of East-West internal trade to transportation parity with North-South…and with continuing Free Trade, which was bleeding domestic distribution systems on the altar of access to the U.S. market; to the total detriment of Canadian agriculture which could not compete with a longer growing season, cheap import labour and lower costs for machinery on a ‘level playing field’ nor with practices like hormones by Monsanto used to stimulate milk production in cattle.
The ‘opposition’ ‘Lie-berals’ had a Chairman Mao size Red Book of election promises and ran on no Free Trade Agreement – which every Canadian schoolchild had been taught was the most fought over legislation in the first 40 years of the country’s history, but not that it was at the head of the CIA agenda in 1945 – and had been the government for much of Canada’s history. Pierre E. Trudeau was a history professor who had even spent time in North Korea and last previous PM…a rich pot smoking woman magnet.
The Cons were destroyed as a recognized political party : 2 seats in the House nationally. The Lie-berals…activated the program which they had run against, profiting from the loss of their ‘opposition’ and not enabling not one of their ‘promises’ that I can think of.
More recently a coalition threatened to overthrow the minority government of Steven Harper’s Cons ( yes, they are back ). The Lie-beral party leader was ousted during a Recess of Parliament requested by Harper from the Governor General and a suitable replacement found, who is now ‘running’ in federal election against a government found In Contempt of Parliament :having promised no ‘coalition’ government and since finding that won’t fly, trying to retract it. No wonder the New Democratic Party under Jack Layton is finding new heights of acceptance, helped no doubt by modern advertising practices.
“Parliament” is parlez-ment : a place for the serfs to talk while all their initiatives are formed by big money ( in Crown funds )and subject to ratification by the Senate. This is ‘proud British heritage’ from the time of Hastings in 1066, prior to revolt of the hereditary executive in 1215 against practices authorized variously by the War Measures Act or by the Patriot Act in the US.
Political terms examining this institutional deception and listed in ‘Perception Alteration’ in my Topical Index.
Plutocracy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutocracy
Kleptocracy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptocracy
Of particular interest when examining the continuation of the Great Game of imperial politics jointly by members of the ‘coaltion’ or NATO or British Commonwealth is the subset on Narco Kleptocracy which provides funds for Black Ops by a War on Drugs established by false testimony demonizing personal choice of psychotropic drugs so as to necessitate their control by the official cartel and keep up profits.
The saga of O$ama bin Laden ( admitted to be long dead just this week ! ) I located by querying “Bush family holdings in Afghanistan” and covered in
http://opitslinkfest.blogspot.com/2010/08/26-august-oama-who.html
which I mounted in the sidebar, its importance seemingly discounted by the world at large…certainly by search engines !
Teenage Mutant Theocrats
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/4/19/223838/063 *
Devin Burghart of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights reports that a recent regional Tea Party Patriots conference held in Idaho was a far-right stew of
"...racist "birther" attacks on President Obama, discussions of the conspiracy behind the problem facing America (complete with anti-Semitic illustration), Christian nationalism, anti-environmentalism, and serious calls for legislation promoting states' rights and "nullification."While Christian nationalism is often in the mix in such far right settings as this, the presentation on the subject stood out to veteran rightwatcher Burghart.
[One of the speakers was]...Sandpoint High School senior Brady Smith, who had attended something called "the patriot academy" in Texas. A lanky redhead in a dark suit. Smith read from his notes about how the root cause of the country's sickness was that we've forsaken our Godly heritage as a Christian nation. He listed several problems: the attack on "traditional marriage," abortion, and our public education system not teaching Christianity, as symptoms of the larger sickness. The cure to all that ails the country, according to Smith, was a return to our Godly heritage. His remarks were warmly received. But to the outside observer, Brady Smith's youth foretold a tragedy in the making.You may be wondering, as I did, what is the Patriot Academy? It turns out that it may not only be where Brady Smith got many of his ideas -- it provides us with a window on the growing role of conservative Christian homeschooling in Republican electoral politics.
* http://my.opera.com/oldephartte/blog/2011/04/18/weekly-digest-for-talk-to-action
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