Bush Sanctions Darfur Now That Peace Is Near To Prevent Peace! "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" + Around The World - RI10

Bush Sanctions

Darfur Now That

Peace Is Near To

Prevent Peace

"I'm shocked,

shocked to find

that gambling is

going on in here!”

+ Around The World

– RI10

This is extremely important:
By Ron Griesse - May 31st, 2007 at 12:29 pm EDT
Also listed in: Carmel Valley Democrats | Democrats Against Corrupt Government | Escondido democrats

For those of you, who do not know, last week president Bush added a directive NSPD 51 / HSPD 20. What this directive does is allows the president to take control of all branches of government in case of a national disaster. Yep you heard me right. I shiver to think that this could actually happen.

What this means is president Bush can call anything he likes a national disaster without the consent of congress, and take over all three branches of Government. This scares me to death! If this is not the first step to dictatorship, I do not know what is. When are we going to wake up!

It bad enough this administration has pulled the wool over our eyes for the last seven years, but this is going excessively too far. Please take the time to write your senators and congressional representatives about this issue.

Thank You:
Ron Griesse
Escondido, Ca.
Mail to a Friend | Link | Comments (2)
http://www.democrats.org/page/community/blog/rongriesse



Have you seen the 1942 film “Casablanca” with Humphrey Bogart as ‘Rick Blaine’, expatriate-American owner of a café in Casablanca under Nazi control and Claude Rains as ‘Captain Louie Renault’ of the Casablanca police under the thumb of the Nazis? A few quotes to jog your memory:

 

CAPTAIN RENAULT: Rick, there are many exit visas sold in this café, but we know that you've never sold one. That is the reason we permit you to remain open.

RICK: Oh? I thought it was because I let you win at roulette.

CAPTAIN RENAULT: That is another reason.
-----------------------

CAPTAIN RENAULT: What in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?

RICK: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.

CAPTAIN RENAULT: The waters? What waters? We're in the desert.

RICK: I was misinformed.

-----------------------

CAPTAIN RENAULT: My dear Ricky, you overestimate the influence of the Gestapo. I don't interfere with them and they don't interfere with me. In Casablanca I am master of my fate! I am...

POLICE OFFICER: Major Strasser is here, sir!

RICK: You were saying?

CAPTAIN RENAULT: Excuse me.

-------------------------

RICK: How can you close me up? On what grounds?

CAPTAIN RENAULT: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!

[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
CROUPIER: Your winnings, sir.
CAPTAIN RENAULT: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.

[aloud]
CAPTAIN RENAULT: Everybody out at once!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034583/quotes

Tabacco: Do the European Union & the George W. Bush administration want Peace in Darfur or do they desire Continuation of the War in Darfur and why? Answer this one question: Why would Bush wait until Peace is almost achieved to impose sanctions on Darfur and impede the peace process?

BUSH, "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!"


 

Mahmood Mamdani on Darfur: "The Politics of Naming:

Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency"

Monday, June 4th, 2007
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/04/1334230

As President Bush orders news sanctions to be placed on the Sudanese government, Columbia Professor Mahmood Mamdani discusses how the media and the Save Darfur Coalition have been misrepresenting the situation in Darfur. [includes rush transcript - partial]

President Bush has ordered new sanctions to be placed on the Sudanese government for its role in the violence in Darfur.

Last week's announcement blocks thirty-one companies tied to the Sudanese government from using the U.S. banking system.

The sanctions were seen as a victory for the Save Darfur Coalition, a U.S. group leading a vocal campaign pressuring the White House to take action. But the New York Times reported Saturday some of Save Darfur's public efforts have angered aid groups working on the ground in Sudan. The aid groups say Save Darfur's call for imposing a no-flight zone could lead to a halt in aid flights and put their workers at risk.

Aid groups have also criticized Save Darfur for not spending its multi-million dollar budget on aid to Darfur's refugees.

    * Mahmood Mamdani, one of the world's most prominent Africa scholars. Earlier this year he wrote a major piece for the London Review of Books titled "The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency". He was born in Uganda, and now splits his time between Uganda and New York, where he teaches at Columbia University. He is the author of many books including, "Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War and the Roots of Terror".

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...

AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to Darfur. President Bush has ordered new sanctions to be placed on the Sudanese government for its role in the violence in Darfur. Last week's announcement blocks thirty-one companies tied to the Sudanese government from using the US banking system.

The sanctions were seen as a victory for the Save Darfur Coalition, a US group leading a vocal campaign pressuring the White House to take action. But the New York Times reported Saturday some of Save Darfur's public efforts have angered aid groups working on the ground in Sudan. The aid groups say Save Darfur's call for imposing a no-flight zone could lead to a halt in aid flights and put their workers at risk. Aid groups have also criticized Save Darfur for not spending its multi-million dollar budget on aid to Darfur's refugees.

Mahmood Mamdani is one of the world's most prominent Africa scholars. Earlier this year, he wrote a major piece for the London Review of Books called “The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency.” He was born in Uganda and now splits his time between Uganda and New York, where he is a professor at Columbia University. Mahmood Mamdani stopped by our firehouse studio Friday. I began by asking him about the name of his article, “The Politics of Naming”.

      MAHMOOD MAMDANI: I think the larger question is the names -- genocide, in particular -- come into being against a background of the twentieth century and mass slaughter of the twentieth century, and particularly the Holocaust. And against that background, Lemkin convinced the international community, and particularly states in the international community, have an obligation to intervene when there is genocide. He’s successful in getting the international community to adopt a resolution on this.

      Then follows the politics around genocide. And the politics around genocide is, when is the slaughter of civilians a genocide or not? Which particular slaughter is going to be named genocide, and which one is not going to be named genocide? So if you look at the last ten years and take some examples of mass slaughter -- for example, the mass slaughter in Iraq, which is -- in terms of numbers, at least -- no less than what is going on in Sudan; or the mass slaughter in Congo, which, in terms of numbers, is probably ten times what happened, what has been happening in Darfur. But none of these have been named as genocide. Only the slaughter in Darfur has been named as genocide. So there is obviously a politics around this naming, and that’s the politics that I was interested in.

      AMY GOODMAN: And what do you think this politics is?

      AMY GOODMAN: The simplifying of the conflict by the US media, you write extensively about this, who the sides are.

      MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Well, I was struck by the fact -- because I live nine months in New York and three months in Kampala, and every morning I open the New York Times, and I read about sort of violence against civilians, atrocities against civilians, and there are two places that I read about -- one is Iraq, and the other is Darfur -- sort of constantly, day after day, and week after week. And I’m struck by the fact

that the largest political movement 

against mass violence on US campuses

is on Darfur and not on Iraq. And it puzzles me, because most of these students, almost all of these students, are American citizens, and I had always thought that they should have greater responsibility, they should feel responsibility, for mass violence which is the result of their own government's policies. And I ask myself, “Why not?” I ask myself, “How do they discuss mass violence in Iraq and options in Iraq?” And they discuss it by asking -- agonizing over what would happen if American troops withdrew from Iraq. Would there be more violence? Less violence?

AMY GOODMAN: Columbia University Professor Mahmood Mamdani. We’ll be back with him in a minute.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: We return to our conversation with Columbia University Professor Mahmood Mamdani, one of the world’s most prominent Africa scholars, speaking about Darfur in relation to other conflicts around the world.

      MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Well, let’s begin with the numbers of the dead, OK? The only group in a position to estimate how many people have died in Darfur is UNICEF, because UNICEF is the only one that did a comprehensive survey in 2005 in Darfur. Everybody else only knows the piece of ground on which they work and will then extrapolate from it, like any other NGO, like Oxfam or Medecins Sans Frontieres or World Food Program. The WFP estimate was 200,000. Out of these 200,000, the WPF report tells you that roughly about 20% died of actually being killed, of violence, and 80% died mainly from starvation and from diseases. And normally in our understanding of genocide, we put both those together and look at them as a result of the violence, because the violence prevents the medicine going in, etc., except in the case of Darfur, it’s not a single-cause situation.

      Darfur is also the place, which has been hit hard by global warming. The UN Commission, which sat on global warming very recently, spoke of Darfur as the first major crisis of global warming. In other words, from the late 1970s you have had a significant desertification, and you’ve been having in the north of Darfur basically a situation where people’s simply entire livelihoods are destroyed, and which has been one of the elements, because it has driven the nomadic population in the north down into the south. So how many people are dying from desertification? How many people are dying from the violence that has been unleashed through this civil war in Darfur?

      Second element in this is that there’s a civil war going on in Darfur. There are two rebel movements, and both rebel movements were born in the aftermath of the peace in the south. And those who were unwilling to accept the peace in the south, who thought the peace in the south should have included a resolution for all of Sudan, particularly for Darfur and not simply for the south, they were the inspiration behind the two movements that developed. One movement, the Sudan Liberation Army, was a movement strongly connected with the SPLA in the south, especially with those sections of the SPLA who were not happy with the partial nature of the settlement in the south.

      And the other movement --

      AMY GOODMAN: The SPLA is…?

      MAHMOOD MAMDANI: The SPLA, sorry, is the Sudan People's Liberation Army, which had organized and led the guerrilla war in the south for several decades under John Garang.

      The second movement was the Justice and Equality Movement. The Justice and Equality Movement, unlike the SLA, which is a secular movement, Justice and Equality is an Islamist movement. And it was a break-off from the regime in the Sudan. It was a break-off between two sections of the regime, the military and the civilian section, and particularly the section led by the chief ideologue, Hassan al-Turabi, who split from the military wing and was the inspiration behind the formation of the Justice and Equality Movement. So you have, in a way, a very strong Islamist rebel movement and you have a strong secular rebel movement, and these two began their operations in 2003.

      The government's response -- and I saw the ambassador's response there, which was as disingenuous as Bush's response, in a sense, because he’s claiming that it’s just a civil war inside, the government has nothing to do with it. It’s not true. The government's response was to pick a proxy and arm it. And the government was, in a way, smart enough to pick those who were the worst victims of the desertification and the drought. It picked the poorest of the nomads from the north whose livelihoods had been entirely destroyed and who had simply no survival strategy at hand and gave them weapons. And these guys went down south, and their object was not to kill the peasants in the south, but to drive them off their land.

      The government’s response was also to pick a second group, and that second group are the nomads from Chad who have come into Darfur. And to understand that, one has to look at the third dimension of the conflict, which is that over the last twenty-five, thirty years there has been a civil war going on in Chad. Chad, during the Cold War, was a bone of contention, first and foremost between the US and France, and both had their allies in the region. France allied with Libya. The US allied with the military dictatorship in Sudan, with the Numeri dictatorship in Sudan. And every oppositional movement in Chad had a base in Darfur, and they armed themselves, organized themselves in Darfur. So Darfur was awash with weapons for two decades, OK. And those who ran away from the civil war in Chad came into Darfur. So the other wing of those who were armed, whether by the government or whether by this weaponry which was awash, were the Chad refugees in Darfur. So what we call the Janjaweed are two groups. They are the Chad refugees in Darfur, and they are the poorest of the northern camel -- the pastoralists divide into two: the camel pastoralists and the cattle pastoralists. And the camel pastoralists, because the camel is the only game which will survive in the worst conditions where even cattle will not survive, they are the poorest of the poor. So these are what are called the Janjaweed.

      AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to play a clip for you from John Prendergast. He is the senior adviser for the International Crisis Group, leader of the Save Darfur Coalition, has argued that genocide is occurring in Darfur, that the Sudanese government is trying to mask what’s really happening.

            JOHN PRENDERGAST: This policy of divide and conquer, which has been in place since the early part of this decade, had as its objective the creation of anarchy in Darfur. So when people take a snapshot today and see Darfur and go,

“My god, all these groups are fighting

against each other. It seems like it’s

chaos”, it’s precisely what the

government intended.

      AMY GOODMAN: Your response.

      MAHMOOD MAMDANI: We need to keep in mind, and John Prendergast needs to keep in mind, that the history of state-sponsored terrorism in that part of Africa begins with the US providing a political umbrella to South Africa to create a state-sponsored terrorist movement in Mozambique: RENAMO. And it is after a full decade of that impunity that others learn the experience, and Charles Taylor begins it in Liberia, and the Sudanese government begins it in the south. But this is the second thing, which builds on this history of political violence.

      The third thing is that when the rebel movements begin in 2003 in Darfur, the Khartoum government responds in the same way, which is it looks at the scene, and it picks the weakest, the most vulnerable, the ones that they can bring under their wing, it arms them and says, “Go for it”, and they go for the land.

      AMY GOODMAN: Professor Mamdani, you quote the saying, “Out of Iraq, into Darfur”. What about intervention?

      MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Well, look; the question in Darfur is really, how do we stop the fighting, because if we want to stop the killing of civilians, we have to stop the fighting. We have -- and the only way to stop the fighting is a political resolution. In 2005, African Union troops came into Darfur. I interviewed the Ghanaian general who was deputy to Dallaire in Rwanda and who is the chief of the UN nucleus force in Darfur. And he said to me that the African Union troops were spectacularly successful in 2005. The killing came down dramatically.

      And then, he said, two things happened. Both happened around the question of finances, because African countries can provide troops but they don’t have finances to provide salaries or logistics. So the first shift was around salaries

The salaries of African troops were being

paid by the European Union, which paid

them from an emergency fund, and it

shifted the payment to quarterly 

payments, so they would make payment 

every three months, and they would only 

make the next three-month payment if the 

paperwork was done properly, if there was

accountability. So, as I speak now, African

Union troops have not been paid for four

months, because the EU says there hasn’t

been proper accountability.

      Second is about logistics. The troops

have to work with planes, and the planes

provided are not military planes. They are

planes flown by civilian pilots. And civilian

pilots have the right to refuse to fly in

areas, which they consider dangerous.

Now, of course, all these areas are

dangerous. So you’re operating with

logistics that you don’t control.

Civilian pilots will not. The Ghanaian general said to me -- I asked him, I said, “Why do you think these changes happened?” He said, “I don’t know. But the only thing I can think is that the reason would only be political.” I had the same response when I heard President Bush’s speech.

     MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Ineffective, exactly, because --

      AMY GOODMAN: Incapacitate them.

      MAHMOOD MAMDANI: -- the contention has been over who has political control over the troops in Darfur. OK. The African Union troops are under the political control of African Union. And there is a concerted attempt being made to shift the political control of any intervention force inside Darfur from inside Africa to outside Africa. The second thing is that the African Union is convinced that they cannot go in and fight. They can only go in with the agreement of both sides, so they can only intervene consensually. And that is crucial and important, because if they go in with the two sides not agreeing, the fighting will simply increase and the slaughter of civilians will increase.

      President Bush's speech yesterday -- the response of the UN, the UN Secretary General, was, “Look, we’re just arriving at an agreement. We’ve been working for the last four, five months, and the Sudan government is agreeing”. The South African response was the same.

      AMY GOODMAN: You mentioned Congo. What about the comparison of the conflicts and the attention given to each?

      MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Well, no two comparisons are exactly alike, of course. We know that. But to the extent that numbers are being highlighted, the numbers are huge in Congo. The Congo estimates are four million-plus over several years. The Darfur estimates go from 200,000 to 400,000. So why no concern about Congo? Congo involves, again, multiple causes, like Darfur. It’s a huge place. But in Kivu province, where I have been, the conflict has been very Darfur-like, in the sense that you’ve had proxies being fed from the outside, the Hema and the Lendu. You have the recruitment of child soldiers. You have two states in the region arming these proxies: Uganda and Rwanda. But both states are allies of the US in the region, so there's nothing said about it.

      The most recent example is Somalia. We can see that the civilian suffering is going up dramatically in Somalia since the intervention, Ethiopian intervention force. And we know that the Ethiopian intervention force had at least the blessings of the US, if not more than that -- I’m not privy to the information. And nothing is being said about it. So one arrives back at the question: what is the politics around it? And I’m struck by the innocence of those who are part of the Save Darfur -- of the foot soldiers in the Save Darfur Coalition, not the leadership, simply because this is not discussed.

      Let me tell you, when I went to Sudan in Khartoum, I had interviews with the UN humanitarian officer, the political officer, etc., and I asked them, I said, “What assistance does the Save Darfur Coalition give?” He said, “Nothing.” I said, “Nothing?” He said, “No.” And I would like to know. The Save Darfur Coalition raises an enormous amount of money in this country. Where does that money go? Does it go to other organizations, which are operative in Sudan, or does it go simply to fund the advertising campaign?

      AMY GOODMAN: To make people aware of what’s going on in Darfur.

      MAHMOOD MAMDANI: To make people aware of what is going on, but people who then, out of awareness, give money not to fuel a commercial campaign, but expecting that this money will go to do something about the pain and suffering of those who are the victims in Darfur, so how much of that money is going to actually -- how much of it translates into food or medicine or shelter? And how much of it is being recycled?

      AMY GOODMAN: Do you think the UN process, if allowed to carry forward, would be the answer right now?

      MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Well, the answer has to be a political process. The African Union, if its hands are not tied -- if this money was translated into salaries and logistics for the African Union force, it would untie those hands. If the

governments, who claim to be speaking

and acting for the people of Darfur, if they

actually directed the money they intend to

spend on intervention to paying salaries

for the African Union forces, to providing

the logistics without these constraints, the

problem would be much closer to solving.

Tabacco: So now you know! Neither the George W. Bush administration nor the European Union wants Peace & Tranquility in Darfur. That does not benefit them financially. What does benefit these War Mongering Caucasian Capitalists is War, Genocide & Destabilization. And the motive, as it is in Iraq, as it is in Iran, is O-I-L & Disaster Capitalism – both spell PROFITS FOR THE CAUCASIAN DISASTER CAPITALISTS!

This does not suggest that Negroids, Orientals or Islamics would not do the same if they had that kind of power. What it does suggest is that to date only the Caucasian Powers from Europe & the United States of America have that kind of power. And they use that power selfishly, genocidally and unscrupulously to achieve financial advantage when they are not using the World Bank to achieve the same ends without firing a shot. When Negroids, Orientals or Islamics achieve that kind of power, then Tabacco will rant against their Machiavellian evildoings. Until that time, it is a Caucasian thing. Should the Chinese ever get the “Upper Hand”, who can imagine what Armageddon-like destruction that ethnic group will unleash upon the Caucasian West! If that day ever comes, you will not have to ask, “Why?” You already know the answer.

AMY GOODMAN: Columbia University Professor Mahmood Mamdani. His article, “The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency” appeared in the London Review of Books. He’s the author of many books, including Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War and the Roots of Terror.



Headlines for June 4, 2007

Monday, June 4th, 2007
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/04/1334219

- Nearly 2,000 Iraqi Civilians Killed in May
- 14 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq Over Weekend
- Iraq Urged to Investigate Killing of Journalists
- Edwards Criticizes Obama and Clinton Over Iraq
- U.S. Warship Shells Somalia
- Fighting In Lebanon Extends to Southern Refugee Camp
- Murdoch to Meet with Bancroft Family Over Buying Wall Street Journal
- 80,000 Protest G8 Meeting In Germany

Nearly 2,000 Iraqi Civilians Killed in May
In Iraq, the number of civilians killed soared last month to the highest level since before the start of the so-called U.S. surge in February. Government records show nearly 2,000 Iraqi civilians died in May. The death toll was nearly 30 percent higher than in April. At least 174 Iraqi soldiers and police officers were also killed in the same period.

14 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq Over Weekend
Meanwhile 14 U.S. soldiers have died during the first three days of June. All but one of the soldiers was killed in roadside bombings. The number of U.S. troops killed during the war is now approaching 3,500. May was the third deadliest month of the war for U.S. forces with 127 troop deaths reported.

Tabacco: Do you care that 2,000 innocent Iraqi civilians were genocided? Do you care that 14 U.S. Soldiers were murdered? Maybe you do, but George W. Bush does NOT!

Bush will claim that the “Surge is Working”, and in fact it is. The crucial but missing information is “Working toward what purpose?”

Working to achieve peace in Iraq? No!

Working to end the War? Certainly Not!

Working to prolong the War and continue Destabilization? Most Definitely!

So when your president claims the “Surge is working” (and he will), now you will know what he means. Never assume that what Bush means is what you think is the obvious question. That’s how you lie and still pass a Lie Detector Test: by not revealing the actual question to which you are supplying the answer. That question is in the Liar’s head, but was not the question asked. By allowing the listeners to supply their own wrong question to your answer. That’s how Liars appear so honest in front of the cameras while lying their mother-fuckin’ heads off with little or no apparent signs of guilt or duplicity!

Turkey Shells Northern Iraq, Sends Tanks To Border
Concern is growing that a new front could open in the Iraq war. Turkish forces shelled a mountainous region of northern Iraq on Sunday and moved tanks to the Iraqi border. Turkey said the target of the shelling was fighters from the Kurdistan Workers Party or the PKK.

Iraq Urged to Investigate Killing of Journalists
In other Iraq news, Reporters Without Borders is calling for the establishment of a special Iraqi police unit to investigate the killings of journalists. Twelve journalists were killed in May making it the deadliest month of the war for media workers. On Thursday an Iraqi cameraman working for the Associated Press named Saif Fakhry was shot and killed in Baghdad. Earlier in the week, National Iraqi News Agency correspondent Abdul Rahman al-Isawi was dragged from his home and shot. Nazar Abdul Wahid, a reporter with the Aswat al-Iraq news agency, was shot outside a hotel. And newspaper editor Mahmoud Hakim Mustafa was shot dead near his home in northern Iraq.

Edwards Criticizes Obama and Clinton Over Iraq
The Democratic presidential candidates met last night for a debate in New Hampshire. Former Senator John Edwards accused Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama of failing to offer strong leadership to end the war.

* John Edwards: "And I said throughout the lead-up to this vote I said that I was against a funding bill that did not have a timetable for withdrawal, that it was critical for Congress to stand firm, that it had been given a mandate by the American people and others on this stage Chris Dodd spoke up very loudly and clearly. But I want to finish this, but others did not, others were quiet. They went quietly to the floor of the Senate, cast the right vote, and there is a difference between leadership and legislating."

Both Obama and Clinton rejected the criticism from Edwards.

    * Sen. Barack Obama: "I think it is important to lead and I think John, the fact is I opposed the Iraq war from the start. So you were about four and a half years late on leadership on this issue."

    * Sen. Hilary Clinton: "I think it's important particularly to point out this is George Bush's war. He is responsible for this war, he started the war, he mismanaged the war, he escalated the war and he refuses to end the war."

Tabacco: Edwards, of course, is telling the Truth about Clinton & Obama. But Obama tells the Truth about Edwards. Only Clinton is totally disingenuous because her prior position on the War is totally indefensible. Tabacco knew Bush was lying from the beginning, but Clinton did not? I find it difficult to believe, despite my own enormous ego, that I discerned the Truth while Hillary Clinton was completely deceived! I may be smarter than Hillary, but not that much smarter! Hillary is just “Passing the Buck!” Edwards and Obama are merely telling the Truth selectively with “Lies of Omission”. This demonstrates the usefulness of the ploy “Ask a person’s enemies if you want the Truth, not a person’s friends”. Edwards supplied the Truth about Obama and Clinton. Obama supplied the Truth about Edwards. And Tabacco has woven it all together into a complete Tapestry. Only those, with no vested financial interests in political careers such as Tabacco, can be trusted to reveal the whole Truth!

Former Senator Mike Gravel said the Democrats are complicit in the Iraq war as well. Congressman Denis Kucinich said Congress has the power to end the war now by simply cutting off the funding. After the debate Senator Chris Dodd criticized CNN for giving far more time to Senators Obama and Clinton. Obama spoke for 16 minutes. Dodd, Kucinich, Gravel and Senator Joe Biden were each given less than nine minutes.

Tabacco: Note that Mike Gravel is a “FORMER” Senator. His allegiances have changed. Even though he tells the Truth now, while he was a Senator, he did not! That’s like my telling you the winning Lottery numbers after the Drawing has occurred. Had I informed you before the Drawing, you could have won all the money. Now the information is of no use to you. Beware of politicians and generals, who tell the Truth, when the Truth will no longer be of use to you. Are you prepared to live long enough to find out what’s in Lyndon B. Johnson’s sealed documents? I think not! Even if you did survive for another century, what good will that information do you in the 22nd century!

Gen. Sanchez: U.S. Cannot Win In Iraq
While the Democrats debated the war, the man who commanded US-led coalition forces during the first year of the war says the U.S. can forget about winning in Iraq. In his first interview since retirement, Army Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez told Agence France Press: "I think if we do the right things politically and economically with the right Iraqi leadership we could still salvage at least a stalemate, if you will -- not a stalemate but at least stave off defeat." Sanchez is the highest-ranking former military leader yet to suggest the Bush administration has fallen short in Iraq.

U.S. Warship Shells Somalia
A U.S. warship has shelled a village in northern Somalia marking at least the third US strike in Somalia this year. U.S. officials said the target of the attacks was a base run by Islamic militants. The shelling came five months after U.S.-backed Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia and toppled the Union of Islamic Courts. Meanwhile, Somalia's transitional prime minister -- Ali Mohammed Ghedi – has survived an attempt on his life. On Sunday a suicide car bomber crashed into the gates of the prime minister's estate. Ghedi was unhurt in the blast but it killed six of his bodyguards and a local student.

Fighting In Lebanon Extends to Southern Refugee Camp
In Lebanon, fighting between Lebanese troops and Islamic militants has spread to the southern part of the country. For the past two weeks Lebanese forces have been shelling the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in the North in its fight against the group Fatah Al-Islam. Local residents said the fighting extended to the southern Palestinian refugee camp Ein al-Hilweh on Sunday after the army ignored a deadline set by a local militant group for lifting the siege on Nahr al-Bared. Aid groups have warned that refugees inside Nahr al-Bared are facing severe shortages of food, water and medicine. This is Amnesty International's Neil Sammond.

    * Neil Sammond: "Amnesty International is very concerned about the innocent Palestinians who have been killed, injured, displaced and subjected to cruel and inhumane conditions during the two weeks of this conflict. Currently we are particularly concerned about the fate and conditions of thousands of the civilians who remain inside Nahr el-Bared now. Among these we have many hundreds of handicapped people, of elderly people and women and children."

At least 113 people have died since May 20 and about 25,000 Palestinians refugees have fled the Nahr al-Bared camp due to worsening humanitarian conditions.

U.S. Identifies Saudi Prisoner Who Committed Suicide at Guantánamo
Military records show that the Saudi man, who committed suicide last week at Guantánamo, was a veteran of the Saudi army who had trained with U.S. forces. The man, Abdul Rahman Ma'ath Thafir al-Amri, had been held at Guantánamo for over five years. U.S. officials say he was first detained in Afghanistan while fighting with the Taliban. The New York Times reports Al-Amri had been involved in several hunger strikes. His weight dropped from about 150 pounds to only 88 pounds. He is the fourth prisoner at Guantánamo to have committed suicide.

Tabacco: But we all know the U.S. does NOT commit TORTURE at Guantánamo or Abu Ghraib or any other offshore Detention Center. Both Bush and Condoleezza Rice have told us so; and they can’t both be LIARS – can they? We are dealing here with Liars, whose definition of “Torture” differs distinctly from that of the World Court or your own definition. And Bill Clinton “did not have sex with that woman”. Am I getting through to you?

Three Arrested in Plot to Blow Up JFK Airport
In New York, federal and state law enforcement officials say they have disrupted a plot to blow up JFK International Airport. Three men were detained over the weekend in New York and in the Caribbean island of Trinidad. The suspects include a former cargo worker at the airport and a former lawmaker from the South American nation of Guyana. Officials said the men – along with a government informant – conducted surveillance of the airport but the men never obtained any explosives. It is unclear as to what role the informant played. He was a convicted drug dealer who agreed to infiltrate the group in exchange for a lighter sentence.

Murdoch to Meet with Bancroft Family Over Buying Wall Street Journal
In media news, Rupert Murdoch is scheduled to meet today with the Bancroft family to discuss his interest in buying the Wall Street Journal and its parent company, Dow Jones. The Observer newspaper of London reports some reporters at the Journal may stage a walkout if Murdoch buys the paper. Murdoch's News Corp. is already one of the world’s largest media companies. Its holdings include the TV network Fox, the book publisher Harper Collins, the New York Post, Myspace.com, the Weekly Standard and scores of other media companies.

Liberia's Charles Taylor Goes on Trial For War Crimes
The war crimes trial of former Liberian president, Charles Taylor has begun in The Hague for his role in the civil war in Sierra Leone. Taylor has been indicted on 11 charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and violations of international humanitarian law.

    * Stephen Rapp, chief prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone: "The event of Charles Taylor coming to trial as well as his arrest, and his transfer to Liberia and on to the Special Court for Sierra Leone in 2006 was historic, because it represented an effort by the international community by the countries of West Africa, particularly Nigeria, Liberia and Sierra Leone, to establish the principle that no one, not even a leader, not even a chief of state, is above the law."

Charles Taylor boycotted the opening of the trial saying he did not believe he would receive a fair trial.

Tabacco: I could have told him that! And why isn’t George W. Bush on trial somewhere?

 
80,000 Protest G8 Meeting In Germany
In Germany mass protests have already begun ahead of this week's G8 meeting of the world's richest nations. On Saturday as many as 80,000 demonstrators filled the streets of Rostock. The march was peaceful but after it ended, bloody clashes broke out between police and some protesters. Demonstrators accused police of using excessive force and provoking the street fights. At least 128 protesters were arrested. Protest organizers said over 500 demonstrators had been injured. Police said over 400 officers were also hurt.

    * Tim Laumeyer, a spokesperson for the protesters: "The people are scared of the police and what will happen now. We had more than 500 injured demonstrators and there are fears that some police units will do their own thing again or that the police will not stick to their de-escalation tactic and people are afraid of that. And so I don't think that we shall be seeing riot scenes to the same extent in the next few days."

Meanwhile hundreds of activist organizations and NGOs from the around the globe are gathering in Germany for the G8 conference.

    * Walden Bello, of Focus on the Global South: "The G8 must go into history now. We do not need the G8. What we really need are truly international people's organizations to be able to meet the challenges of these times."

Oxfam's Max Lawson criticized how the G8 nations deal with Africa.

    * Max Lawson: "What we want to demonstrate is that the G8 are gambling with lives of millions of Africans. Two years ago, they made promises at their summit in Gleneagles in Scotland to increase aid to Africa. Two years later countries like Germany, Italy, France, they have just not delivered on those promises, and that means they are gambling away lives of millions of women and children, desperately poor in Africa who need this money from rich countries."

President Bush's proposal for a new climate change strategy that rejects setting mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions has also been criticized ahead of the G8 meeting.

    * Michael Frein, of the Justice Now Campaign: "What Bush is trying to achieve with his initiative is to gain time. He is distracting people by saying 'you're all invited and we will then talk about specific issues'. In fact, he is perfectly able to talk about specific issues. There is a United Nations process where just that is being negotiated and he doesn't want to participate in it."

China Unveils National Plan For Climate Change
Meanwhile China has unveiled its first national plan for climate change. China said it intends to reduce its energy by a fifth before 2010 but that it would not make sacrifices at the expense of economic development. China said it would not commit to any caps on greenhouse gas emissions. Many analysts believe China could overtake the US this year as the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. China said rich countries were responsible for most of the greenhouse gases produced over the past century, and had an "unshirkable responsibility" to do more to tackle the problem.


Tabacco: Final Note – Isn’t it sad that intelligent Americans trust Comedy Network’s Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert for accuracy in news reporting more than they trust CBS, ABC, NBC, & FOX?
What makes it sad is

A) Colbert is pretending to be a Conservative Talking Head and the viewer must interpret the Truth from the disinformation Colbert gives in a satiric manner and

 
B) Intelligent Americans, who trust these two comics, are DEAD ON CORRECT in their perception. How Sad!

Tabacco: I consider myself both a funnel and a filter. I funnel information, not readily available on the Mass Media, which is ignored and/or suppressed. I filter out the irrelevancies and trivialities to save both the time and effort of my Readers and bring consternation to the enemies of Truth & Fairness! When you read Tabacco, if you don’t learn something NEW, I’ve wasted your time.


In 1981's 'Body Heat', Kathleen Turner said, "Knowledge is power".

 

T.A.B.A.C.C.O.  (Truth About Business And Congressional Crimes Organization)

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