|
 |
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
The Christmas Truce Of 1914
Christmas in the Trenches
by John McCutcheon
My name is Francis Tolliver, I come from Liverpool.
Two years ago the war was waiting for me after school.
To Belgium and to Flanders, to Germany to here
I fought for King and country I love dear.
'Twas Christmas in the trenches, where the frost so bitter hung,
The frozen fields of France were still, no Christmas song was sung
Our families back in England were toasting us that day
Their brave and glorious lads so far away.
I was lying with my messmate on the cold and rocky ground
When across the lines of battle came a most peculiar sound
Says I, "Now listen up, me boys!" each soldier strained to hear
As one young German voice sang out so clear.
"He's singing bloody well, you know!" my partner says to me
Soon, one by one, each German voice joined in harmony
The cannons rested silent, the gas clouds rolled no more
As Christmas brought us respite from the war
As soon as they were finished and a reverent pause was spent
"God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" struck up some lads from Kent
The next they sang was "Stille Nacht." "Tis 'Silent Night'," says I
And in two tongues one song filled up that sky
"There's someone coming toward us!" the front line sentry cried
All sights were fixed on one long figure trudging from their side
His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shown on that plain so bright
As he, bravely, strode unarmed into the night
Soon one by one on either side walked into No Man's Land
With neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to hand
We shared some secret brandy and we wished each other well
And in a flare-lit soccer game we gave 'em hell
We traded chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs from home
These sons and fathers far away from families of their own
Young Sanders played his squeezebox and they had a violin
This curious and unlikely band of men
Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more
With sad farewells we each prepared to settle back to war
But the question haunted every heart that lived that wonderous night
"Whose family have I fixed within my sights?"
'Twas Christmas in the trenches where the frost, so bitter hung
The frozen fields of France were warmed as songs of peace were sung
For the walls they'd kept between us to exact the work of war
Had been crumbled and were gone forevermore
My name is Francis Tolliver, in Liverpool I dwell
Each Christmas come since World War I, I've learned its lessons well
That the ones who call the shots won't be among the dead and lame
And on each end of the rifle we're the same
© 1984 John McCutcheon - All rights reserved
|
 |
| German and Russian soldiers together on the Eastern front, Christmas 1914. |
ALL really was quiet on the Western Front on Christmas Eve 1914. Shelling had stopped and the crack of sniper fire was sporadic. Rain had cleared, leaving the troops to cope with the clinging mud that clogged their rifles and froze on their uniforms.
Christmas hampers from home had been distributed. Princess Mary boxes, as they were called, contained chocolates, caramel, cigarettes and tobacco together with a picture card of George V's daughter, Mary, and a message from the king: "May God protect you and bring you safe home."
Across no man's land, often as close as 60m from the British lines, the German soldiers had their gifts from the kaiser: a meerschaum pipe for the troops and a box of cigars for officers.
Then the British lookouts noticed something odd. The Germans were hoisting Christmas trees, complete with flickering candles, above the parapets. Out of the gathering gloom came the sound of music: Christmas carols. First, Stille Nacht (Silent Night), followed by O Tannenbaum.
"We thought we ought to retaliate in some way," a British soldier wrote. "So we sang The First Noel and when we finished they all began clapping. And so it went. First the Germans would sing one of their carols and (then) we would sing one of ours until we started up with O Come All Ye Faithful and the Germans immediately joined in, singing the same hymn to the Latin words Adeste Fideles. And I thought, well, this is the most extraordinary thing, two nations both singing the same carol in the middle of a war."
Indeed it was. World War I was only five months old when the British and Germans stopped for Christmas in 1914, but already it was bogged down in the blood and mud that was to define the conflict until its end in 1918.
It may sound surprising that the men in the front line downed their weapons to celebrate a day of peace, but perhaps it was, to them, perfectly logical.
The soldiers were all stuck in the same mud. On both sides the military grunt was provided by ordinary men, plucked from their farms and factories to do their duty for monarch and country, to play their part as the pawns of politicians hell-bent on proving their point. They were told they must hate their enemy, yet they were so much alike. They shared not only Christianity, they shared Christmas and its carols, and they had learned from the cradle that Christmas was a time for peace and goodwill to all men.
The first push for a Christmas truce came from the pope, Benedict XV. His proposal was greeted warmly by the Germans but rejected by the Allies.
On Christmas Eve, the first moves came from the Germans. They lit their candles and lifted their trees along a 40km sector of the Ypres Salient in Belgium. They shouted "No shoot tonight" across no man's land and asked that the British refrain from violence.
This how a British soldier described the event. "Just before dinner I had the pleasure of shaking hands with several Germans," he wrote. "A party of them came halfway over to us, so several of us went out to them. I exchanged one of my balaclavas for a hat. I've also got a button off one of their tunics. We exchanged smokes etc and had a decent chat.
"They say they won't fire tomorrow if we don't, so I suppose we shall get a bit of a holiday perhaps. We can hardly believe we have been firing at them for the past week or two. It all seems so strange."
On Christmas morning British lookouts saw Germans moving above their trenches. George Anderson of the Gordon Highlanders reported: "Springing to arms, they could scarcely believe their eyes when they looked over the parapet and saw the enemy standing in the open, all unarmed. Some shouted 'no shoot' and after a little a number of our men also got out of the trench."
A chaplain proposed to a Highlanders colonel called McLean: "I'm off, sir, to speak to the Germans. Maybe we could get a truce to bury the dead in no man's land." The chaplain hurried forward, saluted the German commander and began to talk.
"Almost at the same moment a hare burst into view and raced between the lines," Anderson wrote. "Scots and Germans leapt from their trenches and joined the eager chase. The hare was captured by the Germans, but more was secured than the hare. A truce of God had been called, and the rest of Christmas Day was filled with peace and goodwill."
Soldiers from both sides mingled in no man's land. Some buried the dead; others exchanged clothes, buttons, cigarettes and food from their Christmas hampers. A game of football was organised, with officers' caps forming the goalposts. As one soldier reported: "Fritz won 3-2."
Short outbreak of sanity; war the only casualty
In 1914 the Christmas spirit rose from the trenches of Belgium and France, writes Alan Gill.
It was called the Great War, and "the war to end all wars", which it wasn't. Both sides took up arms in a mood of joyous certainty. They were confident their cause was just, their armies invincible and their consequent victories would be glorious, overwhelming and practically immediate.
They were wrong, of course. To men like my father, who fought in it, it seemed as if a whole lifetime had been spent in the trenches, mole-like below the surface of the earth, in circumstances of varying danger but invariable discomfort.
The war had positive features, including an incident - 90 years ago this month - when soldiers along the trench lines of Belgium and northern France set aside their weapons, and agreed to a Christmas truce. It was a true act of goodwill towards men. What better way to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace?
The image of opposing soldiers, shaking hands with each other one day and then trying to kill each other the next, is powerful. It shows decency and chivalry - qualities now unlikely to be seen on the battlefield - and also the innate stupidity of the entire conflict.
The Christmas truce of 1914 is one of the most remarkable incidents of World War I and perhaps of military history. It lasted as long as a week, and took place despite orders that those who fraternised with the enemy would be shot. That warning might have suggested a hidden message that the High Command had considered the possibility of some show of friendliness at Christmas.
The truce began on Christmas Eve and was first reported in the Ypres sector of the Belgian trenches occupied on the British side mainly by county infantry regiments. My late father, Percy Gill, was only 15, but had fooled a Life Guards recruiting sergeant because of his height. He participated in the truce. At least he said he did. As he would tell my sister and me annually over the breakfast table: "We were listening to Christmas carols on an old phonograph. One of our lot decided to play one for Fritz and put on a recording of Silent Night. The Germans replied with O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree). Then someone stuck a tin hat on a stick and raised it above the trenches. The Germans didn't shoot so we came out into the open."
Whether this was how the truce began is disputed. A map produced by London's Imperial War Museum says my father's unit was not even there. Received wisdom has it that the Germans, not the British, began the truce. It is claimed a small group of Germans, also in the Ypres sector, mounted the parapet of their trenches and, carrying lanterns, slowly began to walk unarmed towards the British trenches.
It happened under a full moon and a starry sky, and must have been an astonishing sight. Two British officers, Captain Sir Edward Hulse and a Lieutenant Barry, both of the Scots Guards, met the Germans. "The men felt it right we should come over and wish you a merry Christmas," said one of the Germans in perfect English.
The Illustrated London News published a stylised picture of the event, calling it "The Light of Peace on Christmas Eve". It showed a German soldier standing at the British lines holding aloft a small Christmas tree. Just looking at it brings tears to the eyes.
It is possible the truce started simultaneously in several places. http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/smh38.html Posted at 02:23 am by Psychomike
Monday, December 24, 2007
Missing Billions In Pakistan
After the United States has spent more than $5 billion in a largely failed effort to bolster the Pakistani military effort against militants from Al Qaeda and the Taliban, some American officials now acknowledge that there were too few controls over how the money was spent, and that the strategy to improve the Pakistani military needs to be completely revamped.
In interviews in Islamabad and Washington, Bush administration and military officials said they believed that much of the American money was not making its way to frontline Pakistani units. Money has been diverted to help finance weapons systems designed to counter India, not Al Qaeda or the Taliban, the officials said, adding that the United States has paid tens of millions of dollars in inflated Pakistani reimbursement claims for fuel, ammunition and other costs.
"I personally believe there is exaggeration and inflation," said a senior American military official who has reviewed the program, referring to Pakistani requests for reimbursement. "Then, I point back to the United States and say we didn't have to give them money this way."
Pakistani officials say they are incensed at what they see as American ingratitude for Pakistani counterterrorism efforts that have left about 1,000 Pakistani soldiers and police officers dead. They deny any overcharging has occurred.
The $5 billion was provided through a program known as Coalition Support Funds, which reimburses Pakistan for conducting military operations to fight terrorism. Under a separate program, Pakistan receives $300 million per year in traditional American military financing that pays for equipment and training. http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/24/asia/24military.php Posted at 06:12 am by Psychomike
Sunday, December 23, 2007
It remains the most censored story of 2007. It is about the massive drop of violence in Iraq. But why isn't the story reported? Difficult to guess. Several parties have to gain from it. For President Bush, the months of peace that have occured he can take credit for, pointing to the surge. For the Democrats, they can drop Iraq from their rhetoric and concentrate on domestic issues. That way they don't have to answer for President Clinton's bombing of Iraq before he left office to get WMD, which weren't apprently there. But why has the U.S. press ignored the story that has been reported all over the world? I honestly don't know. Here it is, the most banned story of 2007:
The year 2007 will be remembered as the beginning of the cyberwars. In late April, Western experts were caught off guard when a barrage of cyberattacks emanating from Russia crippled the banking, police, and government offices of Estonia. Many called it the world's first full-scale cyberinvasion. Then in June, Pentagon officials accused the Chinese military of hacking into a computer network used by top aides to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Near the end of the year, Britain's MI5 intelligence service sent a confidential letter to the CEOs of major multinationals warning them that the Chinese army was probing the cyberdefenses of their companies.
This emerging threat may explain why in September the U.S. Air Force quietly decided to form a Cyberspace Command.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/top10-2007/index.html
According to journalist Jason Leopold, sources at former Cheney company Halliburton allege that, as recently as January of 2005, Halliburton sold key components for a nuclear reactor to an Iranian oil development company. Leopold says his Halliburton sources have intimate knowledge of the business dealings of both Halliburton and Oriental Oil Kish, one of Iran’s largest private oil companies.
Additionally, throughout 2004 and 2005, Halliburton worked closely with Cyrus Nasseri, the vice chairman of the board of directors of Iran-based Oriental Oil Kish, to develop oil projects in Iran. Nasseri is also a key member of Iran’s nuclear development team. http://www.projectcensored.org/censored_2007/index.htm#2
In the fall of 2004, just before U.S. Marines led a final assault on the Iraqi insurgent stronghold of Falluja, 26 top Saudi clerics issued a fatwa inciting attacks on U.S. troops as a "lawful duty." Chief among them was Salman al-Awdah, a popular renegade cleric who once mentored Osama bin Laden.
In September, Awdah turned his back on his former pupil. Speaking on Saudi television to a large Ramadan audience, the cleric harshly rebuked bin Laden, asking, "How many innocents, old men, children are killed in the name of al Qaeda? . . . What have we gained from the destruction of a whole country such as Iraq and Afghanistan?" Arab News hailed the move as a "major blow to the ideology of Osama Bin Laden and his followers in the Kingdom." http://www.foreignpolicy.com/top10-2007/index3.html
The world’s most neglected emergency, according to the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, is the ongoing tragedy of the Congo, where six to seven million have died since 1996 as a consequence of invasions and wars sponsored by western powers trying to gain control of the region’s mineral wealth. http://www.projectcensored.org/censored_2007/index.htm#5
Most recent media attention on Cuba has focused on the health of long-time leader Fidel Castro. But while everyone has been reading the tea leaves in Havana, more Cubans have been quietly fleeing to the United States than ever before. According to a report by the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, nearly 77,000 Cubans crossed into the United States in 2006 and 2007. That's more than twice the number of refugees who arrived on Florida's shores during the summer of 1994, when more than 38,000 Cubans fled the island after Castro opened the ports to all who wished to leave. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/top10-2007/index5.html
Halliburton’s subsidiary KBR (formerly Kellogg, Brown and Root) announced on January 24, 2006 that it had been awarded a $385 million contingency contract by the Department of Homeland Security to build detention camps in the United States.
According to a press release posted on the Halliburton website, “The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs. The contingency support contract provides for planning and, if required, initiation of specific engineering, construction and logistics support tasks to establish, operate and maintain one or more expansion facilities.” http://www.projectcensored.org/censored_2007/index.htm#14
Americans let robots vacuum their floors, mow their lawns, and build their cars. Now, they're even letting them fight their wars. In June, with little fanfare, the U.S. Army deployed the first armed robots to Iraq, marking a new era in modern warfare. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/top10-2007/index10.html
Consumers spend a collective $100 billion every year on bottled water in the belief—often mistaken—that it is better for us than what flows from our taps. Worldwide, bottled water consumption surged to 41 billion gallons in 2004, up 57 percent since 1999.
“Even in areas where tap water is safe to drink, demand for bottled water is increasing—producing unnecessary garbage and consuming vast quantities of energy,” reports Earth Policy Institute researcher Emily Arnold. Although in much of the world, including Europe and the U.S., more regulations govern the quality of tap water than bottled water, bottled water can cost up to 10,000 times more. At up to $10 per gallon, bottled water costs more than gasoline in the United States.
http://www.projectcensored.org/censored_2007/index.htm#20 Posted at 09:39 am by Psychomike
Monday, December 17, 2007
IRISH TEEN ATTACKED PARAMILITARY STYLE, BURMA MILITARY INTERNAL CRACKS SHOWING, KOSOVO ON BRINK!
A teenager is recovering this morning from a paramilitary-style attack in south Belfast.
The victim was attacked with iron bars by a gang of six men in the predominantly loyalist Braniel area just after 8 o`clock last night. The man was attacked behind houses at Ravenswood Park and sustained arm injuries. It is understood he remains in hospital this morning and his injuries are not thought to be life-threatening. http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/Teenager-injured-by-gang-in.3596430.jp
The monk-led protest has apparently stirred up a conflict within the Myanmar military, most of whose member’s families are also suffering from the high fuel prices and low availability of basic foodstuffs.
Reports (unconfirmed) are that Than Shwe’s wife and business associates have left the country until the situtaion is resolved. While the protests have moved off the street, it appears that both the military and the protestors are regrouping and reorganizing for a long-term struggle.
One of the most unreported aspects of the Myanmar protests is the use of Than Shwe’s fake ‘grassroots organization’ known as the Union Solidarity and Development Association to attack the protestors. The use of similar fake grassroots groups is not unknown in the United States, as is the use of undercover police officers as agent provocateurs.
On Sunday, imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed to meet with UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari. However, thousands of monks and their supporters are still imprisoned and their fate remains unknown.
http://www.guerrillanews.com/headlines/15564/Cracks_emerge_in_Myanmar_military_unity
Russia's foreign ministry warned of a possible "uncontrollable crisis" in Kosovo and called for continued talks over the future status of the Serbian province.
"The situation is threatening to slip towards an uncontrollable crisis if international law is not upheld," the ministry said in a statement.
The "indulgence" of some countries towards allowing Kosovo to become independent "could lead to serious negative consequences for regional and international stability," the statement said. Kosovo's status "should be resolved without tragic consequences," he added.
In particular the statement said the rights of the Serb minority in Kosovo were being sacrificed in a drive towards independence for the province.
"The non-Albanian population, above all Serbs, mostly don't have minimal guarantees of security and their rights are not assured. In no way has the problem of return of refugees to Kosovo been resolved," the statement said.
"The key goals of achieving high political-democratic standards of living in the province have been replaced by a path towards accelerated independence," the statement said. http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=6449272&subject=general&action=article
NATO will lose the war in Afghanistan unless it changes its tactics in the fight against Taliban insurgents, the Australian newspaper reported, citing Australia's Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon.
``We are winning the battles and not the war, in my view,'' said Fitzgibbon, who attended talks in Scotland last week on how to end the six-year insurgency, the newspaper reported. ``We have been very successful in clearing areas of the Taliban but it's having no real strategic effect.''
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=abAPUOdfVIgs&refer=asia
A British terrorist suspect in an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic commercial jetliners managed to escape from a mosque when his police escorts allowed him to say prayers on their way back to the prison, police investigators said Monday. Rashid Rauf, a British citizen of Pakistani origin, escaped from guards on Saturday afternoon after appearing before a district court judge in Islamabad for an extradition hearing relating to a separate murder investigation in Britain.
His two escorts were immediately detained and were being investigated for possibly aiding the escape.
"The detained policemen told us that they were going back to the jail with the suspect in a private cab, when Rauf requested them to allow him to say noon prayers at a roadside mosque," said Syed Kalim Imam, the head of the investigation team and Senior Superintendent Police, Islamabad. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/159959.html
While a United States intelligence report stating that Iran has not pursued making a nuclear bomb since 2003 may blunt Washington’s warlike stance towards Tehran, it is far from being ‘Iran’s biggest victory of the century’, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has described it.
The National Intelligence (NIE) report was the ‘’final blow on all ill-wishers of the Iranian nation,’’ the Iranian President told a crowd of local people in Ilam in western Iran on Dec. 5, two days after its release. "The report was meant to help the American administration but in essence it announced the victory of the Iranian nation in the nuclear matter against all the big powers," he said.
Ahmadinejad’s rejoicing has since been echoed by his hard line supporters who said the publication of the report was a defeat for the neo-cons and a proof of Iran’s rightfulness.
Other hardliners and conservatives, not to mention reformists, are sceptical. While viewing the positive points in the report enthusiastically many of them criticised the President for being too hasty in welcoming the NIE as a huge victory.
Referring to the dividing line drawn between Iran’s nuclear activities before and after 2003 in the report, the hard line ‘Jomhuri Eslami’ newspaper warned that the division was a dangerous one for Iran. An editorial in the newspaper said the real aim of the was to build ''public opinion that continuation of pressure on Iran is a necessity and if pressure doesn’t continue Iran will once again move in the direction of building nuclear weapons’’ and added that it enabled U.S. administration to continue with its hostile policy towards Iran and proceed in the direction of a third anti-Iranian resolution in the United Nations Security Council.
Establishing arguments about Iran’s nuclear technology on the NIE report too boldly would mean accepting U.S. intelligence of the process of Iran’s nuclear technology development at least in the recent past seven years, the Tabnak news portal, close to Mohsen Reza’ei, secretary of powerful Expediency Council wrote. "In official reactions announced all these have unfortunately been ignored," it said.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40496
Sat. January 12
Did the Atomic Bombs End the War with Japan?
Meetings # 2847 - Michael Flores, local playwright and filmmaker, returns with recently declassified CIA / OSS, German, Japanese and Russian documents that present a very different version of the war than what we thought we knew
Saturdays
Presentation at 8:00 PM
Lincoln Restaurant
4008 N. Lincoln Avenue
intersection of Irving Park & Damen 4000N - 2000W
Free Parking Lot Available
1 block from Irving Park Brown Line EL Stop
Tuition $3 Mark your calendar now!
Posted at 05:12 am by Psychomike
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
What Mormons Believe: Cartoon!
‘Not us. We’re not going.’
Soldiers in 2nd Platoon, Charlie 1-26 stage a ‘mutiny’ that pulls the unit apart
Posted at 08:46 am by Psychomike
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Abolish the CIA: Destroying the interrogation tapes amounts to mutiny and treason.By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Monday, Dec. 10, 2007, at 12:09 PM ET
It seems flabbergastingly improbable that President George W. Bush learned of the National Intelligence Estimate concerning Iranian nuclear ambitions only a few days before the rest of us did, but the haplessness of his demeanor suggested that he might, in fact, have been telling the truth. After all, had the administration known for any appreciable length of time that the mullahs had hit the pause button on their program in late 2003, it would have been in a position to make a claim that is quite probably true, namely, that our overthrow of Saddam Hussein had impressed the Iranians in much the same way as it impressed the Libyans and made them at least reconsider their willingness to continue flouting the Non-Proliferation Treaty. (Given that the examination of the immense Libyan stockpile also disclosed the fingerprints that led back to the exposure of the A.Q. Khan nuke-mart in Pakistan, the removal of Saddam from the chessboard has had more effect in curbing the outlaw WMD business than it is normally given credit for.)
Nobody seems entirely sure what caused our intelligence agencies to reverse their opinion, but it seems rather likely that the defection and/or abduction of Brig. Gen. Ali Reza Asgari, Iran's former deputy minister of defense, in February of this year, has something to do with it. Asgari's ostensibly principal job had been that of liaison with Hezbollah in Lebanon, but his debriefing could also have helped confirm pre-existing surmises about Iran's reining-in of its nuclear ambitions.
Which is the most that can be said about those ambitions.
MORE EXPLOSIVE COMMENTS HERE: http://www.slate.com/id/2179593/pagenum/all/#page_start Posted at 01:55 pm by Psychomike
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Posted at 09:43 pm by Psychomike
Saturday, December 08, 2007
THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN, DEMOCRATS KNEW ABOUT CIA TORTURE VIDEOS, ISRAEL CONSIDERS STRIKE ON IRAN, BASRA MILITANTS ORDER CHRISTIAN WOMEN TO WEAR COVERING OR FACE DEATH!
Senior Israeli officials warned today they were still considering the option of a military strike against Iran, despite a fresh US intelligence report that concluded Tehran was no longer developing nuclear weapons.
Although Israel argues that it wants to see strong diplomatic pressure put on Iran, it is reluctant to rule out the threat of a unilateral military attack. Matan Vilnai, Israel's deputy defence minister, told Army Radio today: "No option needs to be off the table." http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2224052,00.html
The US reversal on Iran's nuclear weapons program has exposed a breaking of ranks within a waning administration, with US intelligence and military professionals asserting themselves on issues of war and peace, analysts said.
Senior US intelligence officials said this week they were responding to new information, subjected to more rigorous analysis than in the past, in declaring with "high confidence" that Iran halted a covert nuclear weapons program in 2003.
But their willingness to set aside all previous assumptions flowed from a determination not to repeat the errors made in 2002, when bogus intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction set the United States on a course to war, they said.
And unlike 2002, when US intelligence officials complained of administration pressure to "cherry-pick" intelligence that supported going to war, the intelligence community this time has asserted its independence.
"This is ours," a senior intelligence official said this week, telling reporters that policymakers had no input in the conclusions of the National Intelligence Estimate, as the assessment is called. http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_reversal_on_Iran_intel_reflects__12072007.html
On her first day at Basra University this year a man came up to Zeena, a 21-year-old Christian woman, and three other Christian girls and ordered them to cover their heads with a hijab, or Islamic headscarf.
“We didn't listen to him, and thought he might just be some extremist student representing only himself,” she said. The next day Zeena and two of her friends returned to class with uncovered heads.
This time a man in the black clothes of the Shia militia stopped them at the entrance and took them aside. “He said, 'We asked you yesterday to wear a hijab, so why are you and your friends not covering your hair?'. He was talking very aggressively and I was scared,” Zeena recalled.
The girls explained that they were Christians and that their faith did not call for headscarves. “He said: 'Outside this university you are Christian and can do what you want; inside you are not. Next time I want to see you wearing a hijab or I swear to God the three of you will be killed immediately',” Zeena recalled. Terrified, the girls ran home. They now wear the headscarf all the time. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3018766.ece
U.S. intelligence services were seeking to influence political policy-making with their assessment Iran had halted its nuclear arms programme in 2003, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said.
Der Spiegel magazine quoted Bolton on Saturday as saying the aim of the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), contradicting his and President George W. Bush's own oft-stated position, was not to provide the latest intelligence on Iran.
"This is politics disguised as intelligence," Bolton was quoted as saying in an article appearing in next week's edition.
Bolton described the NIE, released on Monday, as a "quasi-putsch" by the agencies, Der Spiegel said.
The NIE said Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons programme four years ago but was continuing to develop the technical means that could be applied to producing weapons. This contradicted the oft-stated position of President Bush that Iran is actively trying to develop an atomic weapon.
The hawkish Bolton has long criticised Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the Vienna-based U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), for refusing to declare that there was hard evidence Tehran was trying to develop nuclear weapons.
ElBaradei said the new NIE "somewhat vindicated" Iran, which has always denied allegations it was secretly trying to build atom bombs.
Earlier this year Bolton said: "Regime change or the use of force are the only available options to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapons capability, if they want it."
http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKL081165120071208?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
Burma's military killed 31 people who can be identified by name during a crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators – more than double the number acknowledged by the authorities, says a UN investigator who visited the country.
But Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, a UN human rights expert, said the toll was probably much higher because there were reported cases of killings where victims' names were not given.
He gave the junta a list of 16 people killed in the crackdown in September, which are in addition to the 15 dead he said had been acknowledged by Burma's authorities.
The new list "contains only those incidents where the names of the people involved are cited", Mr Pinheiro said in a 31-page report released by the UN yesterday. "There are a number of incidents where no names were reported but where there were allegations of groups of people reportedly killed, which have also been shared."
Mr Pinheiro, who visited the country from 11-15 November, said the report has a "list of names of 653 persons detained, 74 persons disappeared and 16 killed – in addition to the list of 15 dead provided by the authorities".
His report includes details of a visit to the Htain Bin crematorium, where authorities said 14 corpses were transferred from the Rangoon general hospital. The bodies were registered and cremated, but three of the dead could not be identified. Eleven of those cremated died as a result of firearm wounds.
Mr Pinheiro also said he received "credible reports" from a monk detained between 27 September and 5 October that at least 14 individuals died in custody. These included eight monks and one boy, who died on the first day, the monk told Mr Pinheiro, adding that the deaths were due to poor conditions in detention. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article3233336.ece
Amnesty International today expressed concern at the Somaliland government's order of expulsion against 24 Somali journalists who had fled to the Somaliland capital of Hargeisa from violence and grave human rights violations against media workers in Mogadishu.
The journalists, who worked for Shabelle Media, Hornafrik Media Network, Simba Radio and Dayniile On-line, fled from Mogadishu over the last three months. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0712/S00513.htm
It's the top news at Memeorandum this morning. The New York Times reported yesterday:
The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Al Qaeda operatives in the agency's custody, a step it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about the C.I.A's secret detention program, according to current and former government officials.
The videotapes showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting terror suspects — including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in C.I.A. custody — to severe interrogation techniques. They were destroyed in part because officers were concerned that tapes documenting controversial interrogation methods could expose agency officials to greater risk of legal jeopardy, several officials said.
The C.I.A. said today that the decision to destroy the tapes had been made "within the C.I.A. itself," and they were destroyed to protect the safety of undercover officers and because they no longer had intelligence value. The agency was headed at the time by Porter J. Goss. Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Goss declined this afternoon to comment on the destruction of the tapes.
The newspaper expresses its explicit hope that its scoop on the tapes will "reignite the debate over the use of severe interrogation techniques on terror suspects, and their destruction raises questions about whether C.I.A. officials withheld information about aspects of the program from the courts and from the Sept. 11 commission appointed by President Bush and Congress." But remember: Bill Keller tells us that he and his reporters "are agnostic as to where a story may lead; we do not go into a story with an agenda or a pre-conceived notion." Uh-huh. The news just happens to be perfectly timed as the Supreme Court hears a Gitmo case and, as the WaPo, notes, on the same day "House and Senate negotiators reached an agreement on legislation that would prohibit the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics by the CIA and bring intelligence agencies in line with rules followed by the U.S. military."
So, how bad is it? The Left is going bananas–with one its most unhinged bloggers now dubbing America a "Banana Republic." It is bad. Center and right-leaning bloggers are weighing in. James Joyner points out that "People have gone to jail for obstruction of justice for actions much, much less brazen than this." Ed Morrissey believes the tape destruction "looks a lot more like destroying evidence than tightening security." Rick Moran concludes "Any way you slice it, someone needs to be held accountable for the tape's destruction."
It is worth noting that the CIA actually informed members of Congress about the tapes four years ago and also informed them in advance about their intention to ultimately destroy the tapes. One leading Democrat admits he knew about the destruction of the tapes last fall. Via AP:
Rep. Jane Harman of California, then the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, was one of only four members of Congress in 2003 informed of the tapes' existence and the CIA's intention to ultimately destroy them.
"I told the CIA that destroying videotapes of interrogations was a bad idea and urged them in writing not to do it," Harman said. While key lawmakers were briefed on the CIA's intention to destroy the tapes, they were not notified two years later when the spy agency actually carried out the plan. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said the committee only learned of the tapes' destruction in November 2006.
They knew and they did nothing.
http://michellemalkin.com/2007/12/07/the-cias-destroyed-interrogation-videos-what-the-dems-knew-and-when/
Posted at 08:47 am by Psychomike
Monday, December 03, 2007
A new assessment by American intelligence agencies made public Monday concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold, contradicting an assessment two years ago that Tehran was working inexorably toward building a bomb.
The report seems likely to weaken international support for tougher sanctions against Iran and raise new questions about the credibility of the beleaguered American intelligence agencies, while reshaping the final year of the Bush administration, which has made halting Iran's nuclear program a cornerstone of its foreign policy.
The assessment, a National Intelligence Estimate that represents the consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran is most likely keeping its options open with respect to building a weapon, but that intelligence agencies "do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons."
Iran is continuing to produce enriched uranium, the report says, a program that the Tehran government has said is designed for civilian purposes. The new estimate says that the enrichment program could still provide Iran with enough raw material to produce a nuclear weapon sometime by the middle of next decade, a timetable essentially unchanged from previous estimates.
But the new estimate declares with "high confidence" that a military-run Iranian program intended to transform that raw material into a nuclear weapon has been shut down since 2003, and also says with high confidence that the halt "was directed primarily in response to increasing international scrutiny and pressure."
The estimate does not say when American intelligence agencies learned that the weapons program had been halted, but a statement issued by Donald Kerr, the principal director of national intelligence, said the document was being made public "since our understanding of Iran's capabilities has changed."
http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=8573960 Posted at 11:44 pm by Psychomike
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Putin/Chavez Win, KKK Secrets
KOSOVO ON THE BRINK, KREMLIN'S TOP SPY DIES, HOW THE CIA USES JORDAN, FEMINISM BEGAN AS A KKK BELIEF, THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE KKK- IN NYC!
President Vladimir Putin's party won a resounding victory in Russia's parliamentary elections, results showed Monday, but the opposition claimed massive vote violations and prepared protests.
With close to 80 percent of ballots counted, Putin's United Russia party had secured 63.3 percent of the vote and was on course to winning a two-thirds majority, the central elections commission said.
The Communist Party trailed far behind with 11.7 percent of the vote and only two other parties garnered enough votes to win seats in the State Duma lower house of parliament.
The results were hailed by the Kremlin, which had portrayed the elections as a referendum on Putin's record as he stakes his claim to retain a major say in running the country after standing down next year. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071203/wl_afp/russiavote&printer=1;_ylt=ArywjWRG5XOYZw3kZTM0G5GROrgF
The populist president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, was last night on the brink of claiming a narrow victory after Sunday's national referendum on a raft of constitutional amendments to propel forward his socialist vision for the country, at least according to anonymous government sources citing exit polls.
Officials results were not expected for several more hours, however, and opposition leaders who had spearheaded the campaign to block the proposed constitutional changes were insisting their own exit data suggested a different outcome – that Mr Chavez would be defeated.
"In my opinion, these are not the (real) numbers. The government is wrong," claimed Delsa Solorzano, a member of the New Time party at the opposition's referendum headquarters in Caracas. Earlier, Mr Chavez said voting was going well. "We're going to accept the results, whatever they are."
A win for Chavez would give him the tools to accelerate his socialist programme for Venezuela and potentially allow him to remain president for life if the people keep voting for him. Critics have warned, however, that Venezuela would wake up under a virtual dictatorship. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article3218050.ece
After years of dormancy, the problem of Kosovo has surged anew, reviving memories of bloody ethnic clashes and centuries-old rivalries in Europe's powder-keg, the Balkans.
Kosovo, a predominantly ethnic Albanian province of Serbia, has been under United Nations administration since a Nato air offensive forced out Serbian troops in 1999 to end a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Since then, Kosovo has itself been virtually "balkanised," with Serbs running their own areas and the Kosovars running theirs.
Two years of efforts to determine Kosovo's long-term future have run into the sand. Prospects are growing that Kosovar Albanian leaders will soon declare independence, a move that Serbia has darkly warned it will never accept.
A key deadline falls on December 10, when envoys from the European Union, the United States and Russia have to report to UN chief Ban Ki Moon on their attempts to mediate a deal. The issue will then be debated by the UN Security Council on December 19. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=359&objectid=10479718
When Vladimir A. Kryuchkov, the Kremlin's top spy for almost two decades, died in Moscow 10 days ago, little notice was taken in the U.S. media. That wasn't surprising because the Soviet apparatchik-turned-spymaster was hardly a household name. But in the CIA and the FBI, close attention was paid.
It was Kryuchkov who, first as head of the KGB's First Chief Directorate and then as chief of the spy agency, presided over the worst damage ever done to U.S. intelligence, inflicted by two super-moles, Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen. In large measure, Kryuchkov owed his job as KGB chairman to Ames, the CIA officer who was paid, or promised, $4.6 million for the secrets he sold to the Russians.
In June 1985, Ames, over lunch with a Soviet agent at Chadwicks restaurant in Washington, handed over the names of every Russian double agent working around the globe for the CIA. Viktor I. Cherkashin, the crafty KGB counterintelligence chief in Washington, had made the dicey decision that Ames was for real and not a CIA "dangle" to fool the Russians.
Over a six-week period that fall, the KGB, acting on Ames' list (and Kryuchkov's orders), rolled up all of the CIA's assets inside and outside the Soviet Union in a lightning strike that left the CIA's top echelons reeling. Ten spies were executed; many others were thrown in prison.Ames was appalled at the arrests, sure that they would point to a mole in the CIA and, worse yet, directly to him, because as chief of the Soviet counterintelligence unit, he was known to have access to the names. Cherkashin was also outraged at Kryuchkov's spy roundup, which he felt had jeopardized Ames' safety.
Interestingly, the Ames affair could have been a disaster for Kryuchkov -- because it revealed that the KGB was honeycombed with CIA spies, and Kryuchkov, as head of the First Chief Directorate, its foreign espionage arm, could have been held responsible and fired.
But the wily Kryuchkov managed to turn potential catastrophe to his advantage. According to Cherkashin, he never told the Politburo that the unmasking of the CIA's agents was the work of a mole. "Kryuchkov made it appear that the exposures resulted from hard work by the KGB under his leadership," Cherkashin wrote in "Spy Handler: Memoir of a KGB Officer." Instead of being fired, Kryuchkov was promoted to head of the KGB in 1988. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-wise2dec02,0,1862991.story?coll=la-news-comment
AMMAN, Jordan -- The CIA has been covertly transporting suspects here since at least 1999, when intelligence officials disrupted the Millennium Plot -- a plan by Islamic radicals to detonate bombs at tourist sites in Jordan.
On Dec. 14, 1999, Pakistani officials arrested Khalil Deek, a dual Jordanian-U.S. citizen, at his home in Peshawar. Intelligence agents believed he had arranged travel for Arab fighters seeking to cross the border into Afghanistan to join al-Qaeda training camps. He was also a prime suspect in the Millennium Plot; U.S. and Jordanian counterterrorism officials thought he might have information about conspirators still at large.
Two days later, Deek was flown to Amman in an operation arranged by the CIA, according to a former senior U.S. counterterrorism official. In the plane with him were three laptop computers that had been confiscated by Pakistani police.
Investigators suspected the computers -- which were secured by encryption software -- might contain vital information about the plot or other al-Qaeda operations. Deek had refused to divulge the password while in custody in Pakistan. U.S. officials thought interrogators with the General Intelligence Department in Amman might have better luck persuading him to cough it up, said the former senior U.S. official: "Time was of the essence."
Deek ultimately did reveal the passwords, the former senior U.S. official said. And there is evidence that he kept talking.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/01/AR2007120100444_pf.html
Following a revival of the KKK in the 1920s after a long dormancy, cross-burnings were a regular feature of life in the (NYC) region. Many of the earlier cross-burnings in the Klan era targeted Catholic institutions: St. John's Cemetery in Yonkers and St. Patrick's Church in Armonk, where a new chapel was being built, were targeted by racial arsonists in the mid-1920s. The Maryknoll Seminary in Ossining was vandalized with paint bearing the KKK insignia in 1925.
Vast gatherings of Klansmen and women were held at a farm three miles outside of Peekskill in the town of Cortlandt from the mid-1920s into the 1930s. Press accounts from the period indicate that as many as 10,000 to 20,000 Klan sympathizers from all over New York state attended, with large crosses, 20 feet tall, lit aflame as part of the events.
One rally in 1928 ended in a near-riot when about 80 Klansmen in full regalia drove to Verplanck, a largely Irish Catholic community, and were met with a torrent of bottles, eggs, rocks and fists. In 1936, the Cortlandt Town Board passed a law against cross-burnings, in reaction to the lobbying by a Catholic priest from Verplanck. http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071128/NEWS02/711280336/1018/NEWS02
Speaking of early feminism, did you know that feminism began as part of the Ku Klux Klan? That early feminists spoke at Klan gatherings? The story colleges do not want you to know!
Margaret Sanger founded PLANNED PARENTHOOD
Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, in a letter to Clarence Gamble in 1939 wrote,
"We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through religions appeal. We don't want the word to get out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members."
Women in the KKK could own property, seperate bank accounts and even give speeches.
Find out more here: http://xrl.us/bcbga
Posted at 11:13 pm by Psychomike
|
|
|
Robert B. Stinnett, World War II Pacific US Navy veteran and author of Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor, discusses the treason of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in approving a policy to force Japan into striking first and deliberately allowing their navy to strike ours at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.