Gore Vidal, Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got to Be So Hated

Lumi · Sep 28, 2010

[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Gore Vidal, Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got to Be So Hated[/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]by Len Hart[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]
[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]The People's Voice[/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Some of the early reviews of Gore Vidal's Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace called it "inflammatory." That's because truth is often inflammatory. It is a measure of the American descent into fascism when distinguished authors are denied access to the audience that their work, in fact, created. Neither self-publishing or the blogosphere is, as yet, the solution. Those venues, themselves, are under threat if the news we hear about Google is, in any way, true.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]So ? what was said by Vidal that scared the pants off the MSM, the mentally constipated, the poohbahs at the Pentagon? Simply ? Vidal found fatal flaws in U.S. foreign policy that inspire desperate measures abroad and, of late, at home. An empire whose exploitation of ever greater numbers leaves them desperate invites response and retaliation. A nation-state so exploited may fight back with conventional means ? armies and weapons. A "people" so exploited has only "terrorism" to fight back with.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Vidal found parallels between Timothy [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]McVeigh and Bin Laden. That, of course, assumes that we know anything at all about Bin Laden. For all we know, Bin Laden is long dead or never existed. He could very well have been a creation of clever video editors. Think about it: how many people do you know who have actually met him? What hard evidence do YOU have that he exists? He probably does (or did) exist, but ? to be honest ? I don't know that for a fact and cannot prove it! Neither does anyone else who, like me, never met him. Bin Laden is a name in a newspaper article or a blurry image on a TV[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Vidal makes little or no distinction between U.S. Foreign policy as practiced by George W. Bush or Bill Clinton. That is consistent with my position that the U.S. has but two wings of a single "Capitalist Party." Of the two, I believe the Democrats are preferable but that is a highly "qualified" endorsement based entirely upon the fact that Democrats have consistently outperformed the GOP economically. For example, every Democratic regime since WWII has presided over greater job growth and GDP growth than any GOP regime. The margin by which the GOP are beaten is impressive, clearly, a result of their utterly wrong and "top down" ideas about economics. Trickle-down or supply-side economics is the best example.[/FONT]

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[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]"Preferable" is, admittedly, is a qualifying word used when none of the choices are precise or perfect. Neither party has articulated a truly desirable or noble "America." Neither party has inspired us! Neither party has delivered a "higher pie"! Both parties have, in fact, triangulated not even a center but an "electorate" of some amorphous sort. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]No one ? most certainly not Bush ? has articulated what is right, noble and correct, merely whatever it is that might get one elected to office. Ronald Reagan, for example, had only to make psychopaths feel good about themselves.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Studs Terkel on Phil Donahue spoke of the need for a "major voice" to address the un-addressable of which 911 is the most notable example. Even now ? no one dares speak realistically about 911, an outcome openly desired by Bushco. The "patriotism" of anyone daring to speak openly or truthfully about 911 was impugned, castigated. Critics of Bush were called, in effect, "traitors." A legitimate government of broad-based support does not behave in this manner. It was Bush and his stolen "office" who was, rather, the traitor to the people and the last time I checked, the people are sovereign. But, in America, they seem to have forgotten that.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Vidal's voice needs to be heard now more than ever. 911 must not simply fade away. What was done to this nation and by whom are issues that must be faced and will be ? now or later! Calling opinions of any kind "un-American" is, itself, "un-American" and must not be tolerated. The alternative is censorship and fascism; conformity and totalitarianism, in this case, a dictatorship in which Fox and one or two other big networks play the role of "The Ministry of Truth" i.e., "The Ministry of Propaganda."[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Vidal committed the unpardonable sin. He questioned U.S. assumptions about the bombing of the Murrah building in Oklahoma City and the World Trade Center bombings. He wrote: "That our ruling junta might have seriously provoked McVeigh and Osama was never dealt with."[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]His critique of the 911 cover story is incomplete. I believe he had written prior to recent revelations that utterly disprove the official conspiracy theory, some of which you will find at: 911 Inside Job Chronicles.[/FONT]

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[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Perhaps the only surprise in this book is Vidal's convincing argument that McVeigh had not been behind the bombing of the Murrah building in OKC. Only Vidal could have held this collection of essays together with a single thesis: that we must take seriously people like Timothy McVeigh whom Vidal proves was genuinely outraged by the outrageous murder of civilians at Waco. We must take seriously people like Bin Laden, who may or may not exist. Vidal stopped short of the simplistic "evil begats evil" but he might have said it outright and would have been correct had he done so.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]The point of the book is captured in the first and only new essay ? "September 11, 2001 (A Tuesday)," and it is this essay that, presumably, kept the book from being published in this country until now. Has anyone noticed how quiet Vidal has been since 9/11? Well, it wasn't by choice. Just after the 9-11 attacks on the United States, Vidal's initial comments appeared in Portuguese when he shared his views with a Brazilian publication. Those comments were then translated into Spanish and published in the Mexican newspaper La Jornada. Vidal later revised and expanded these early remarks for a piece intended for Vanity Fair. The magazine ? among others, including The Nation, where Vidal is a longtime contributing editor ? passed on the piece as a result of its "anti-American sentiments," thereby keeping our leading publishers and primary voices of dissent in lockstep with the rest of the mainstream media's newfound desire to censor itself for the supposed good of the country. Even in those heady days immediately following the attacks, and given the "unified front" rhetoric that has enveloped the country since (a united front that has since made shopping, and consumption in general, as the way to return to those happy-go-lucky days of last summer), it seems astounding that a major American literary figure and cultural critic would have a hard time placing one of his works concerning the most significant domestic event since W.W.II. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Reprinted with permission from [/FONT][FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]The People's Voice[/FONT][/FONT].

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]September 28, 2010[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Len Hart blogs at The Existentialist Cowboy.[/FONT]

Lumi · Sep 28, 2010

GPS and the Police State We Inhabit: Living in Oceania

GPS and the Police State We Inhabit: Living in Oceania

[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]GPS and the Police State We Inhabit: Living in Oceania[/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]by John W. Whitehead[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]
[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]by John W. Whitehead[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Recently by John W. Whitehead: Scanners: No Place to Hide[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Voicing his discontent with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals? ruling in United States v. Pineda-Moreno, which declared the warrantless use of a GPS tracking device to be constitutional, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski warned, "We are taking a giant leap into the unknown, and the consequences for ourselves and our children may be dire and irreversible. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Some day, soon, we may wake up and find we?re living in Oceania."[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Indeed, we are already living in George Orwell?s totalitarian state known as Oceania, where the all-seeing government sees and tracks everything we do. By asserting that the police can constitutionally sneak onto a private driveway without a warrant and stick a GPS tag on your car so that they can remotely track you, the Ninth Circuit didn?t necessarily break any new ground. Rather, they merely confirmed what we have suspected all along: that the concept of private property is dead and along with it, the right against unreasonable searches and seizures once protected by the Fourth Amendment.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Having outstripped our ability as humans to control it, technology has become our Frankenstein?s monster. Delighted with technology?s conveniences, its ability to make our lives easier by doing an endless array of tasks faster and more efficiently, we have given it free rein in our lives, with little thought to the legal or moral ramifications of doing so. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Thus, we have no one but ourselves to blame for the fact that technology now operates virtually autonomously according to its own invasive code, respecting no one?s intimate moments or privacy and impervious to the foibles of human beings and human relationships. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]For example, consider how enthusiastically we welcomed Global Positioning System (GPS) devices into our lives. We?ve installed this satellite-based technology in everything from our phones to our cars to our pets. Yet by ensuring that we never get lost, never lose our loved ones and never lose our wireless signals, we are also making it possible for the government to never lose sight of us, as well. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]GPS, originally known as Navstar, is funded and operated by none other than the U.S. Department of Defense. The U.S. military controls the satellites used by GPS devices and transmits signals to ground GPS receivers. The U.S. Air Force, by means of ground stations, sustains 24 operational GPS satellites at all times. These synchronized satellites emit signals at the same time. A GPS receiver located on earth collects the signals that travel at the speed of light. The receiver calculates the distance to the satellites by determining the time it takes for the emitted signal to reach the GPS receiver. Once a time is determined for at least four of the GPS satellites, the receiver can pinpoint your location in three dimensions, including latitude, longitude, and altitude.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]While many Americans are literally lost without their GPS devices, it has also become a ubiquitous convenience for law enforcement agencies. For example, in 2009, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) introduced a prototype "smart" police car. This smart cruiser is the most advanced of its kind, equipped with license plate cameras, computers, a GPS projectile launcher, and even a heat detector in the front grill to differentiate between people and animals. The license plate reader can scan and download five to eight thousand license plates per shift. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]It saves the information it collects and can access the information instantaneously through the computer system installed in the car. If a stolen or wanted vehicle comes up in the scan, the license plate reader will automatically label the vehicle as a threat and a camera will take a colored picture of the vehicle and send the GPS coordinates of the vehicle to the police station. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]In addition to the high-tech license plate readers and cameras, the smart car is equipped with GPS-enabled projectiles. The device is similar to a dart launcher and is near the front bumper of the vehicle. The projectile is three inches in diameter. When engaged, the device shoots the GPS projectile at the target vehicle. The law enforcement agent inside the car arms and fires the projectile. With the aid of a military grade laser, the law enforcement agent can aim with tremendous precision. Once attached to the target, the projectiles have the capability of tracking the target in real time for days. The LAPD is currently shopping for a manufacturer willing to mass produce these cars in order to make them available to law enforcement agencies across the country. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Frankly, given how attached Americans have become to their cell phones ? and how easily trackable, as a result, it?s a wonder the government even bothers with any other technologies. Currently, cell phone service providers have the ability to pinpoint a phone?s location to an area as small as a city block. (It should come as no surprise that government agents have wasted little time in adding this technology to their bag of tricks, employing GPS on multiple occasions to track individuals without establishing probable cause or obtaining a search warrant.) Most corporate cell phone providers can also store vast amounts of data containing the location of the cell phone and its specific uses (such as the contents of text messages and websites visited), sometimes even in real time. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]In an effort to handle the massive amount of requests from federal agents for access to the GPS data, several cell phone providers now offer automated services for obtaining internal cell phone data. Sprint Nextel, for example, has an entire website devoted to cell phone records that law enforcement officers can access. Called the Mobile Locator, the system allows law enforcement to access information, such as call history, without a search warrant, thus completely bypassing the protections afforded us by the Fourth Amendment. It also enables government agents to monitor an individual in real-time on a zoomable, online map. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]A recent study by Indiana University reveals the extent to which government agents are making use of this resource. According to the study, over a period of 13 months, Sprint responded to eight million requests from law enforcement for GPS data. In addition to GPS data, Sprint also stores IP data and URL web history for a two-year period, which it also makes available to law enforcement upon request. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Intelligence and law enforcement agencies insist that a search warrant is not required to access the information because cell phone users, having disclosed their information to a third party, have no reasonable expectation of privacy anyhow. All the while, the American people remain clueless about the existence of these databases, the ease with which law enforcement agents can access them, and their overall loss of privacy. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]The bottom line: there really is no place to hide in the American Oceania. As Judge Kozinski concludes:[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]You can preserve your anonymity from prying eyes, even in public, by traveling at night, through heavy traffic, in crowds, by using a circuitous route, disguising your appearance, passing in and out of buildings and being careful not to be followed. But there?s no hiding from the all-seeing network of GPS satellites that hover overhead, which never sleep, never blink, never get confused and never lose attention. Nor is there respite from the dense network of cell towers that honeycomb the inhabited United States. Acting together these two technologies alone can provide law enforcement with a swift, efficient, silent, invisible and cheap way of tracking the movements of virtually anyone and everyone they choose. Most targets won?t know they need to disguise their movements or turn off their cell phones because they?ll have no reason to suspect that Big Brother is watching them.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]September 28, 2010[/FONT]

Lumi · Sep 28, 2010

Dodge City Meets Pakistan

Dodge City Meets Pakistan

[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Dodge City Meets Pakistan[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]by Eric Margolis[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]
[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]by Eric Margolis[/FONT][FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]
[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Recently by Eric Margolis: Kashmir: Three Minutes From Nuclear War[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Bob Woodward, the investigative reporter of Watergate fame, has a new book, Obama?s War, that gives new insights into the White House?s struggle over Afghan War policy. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Woodward?s most interesting revelation: the US Central Intelligence Agency is operating a secret, 3,000-man Afghan mercenary force whose mission is assassinating Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]The hunter-killer force described by Woodward was set up to operate inside Pakistan, where US troops are officially not allowed to go. The mercenaries are mostly Afghan Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Hazara ? all traditional enemies of the majority Pashtun ? as well as renegades, common criminals, and mercenaries. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Their raids into Afghanistan?s tribal territory are sometimes coordinated with CIA?s intensifying drone attacks on Pakistani tribesmen that are causing heavy civilian casualties. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]CIA also runs its own secret militias in southern Afghanistan and, reportedly, in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]We are also just receiving reports of a major US airstrike and special forces ground operation inside Pakistan. The target was the Haqqani guerilla network, a former major US ally during the 1980?s. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]To what degree, if any, CIA?s killer units cooperate with US Special Operations Forces, who have the same assassination mission, is unknown. CIA?s assassination campaign in Afghanistan and Pakistan is based on the agency?s successful campaign in Iraq that decimated Iraqi resistance groups. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]These Afghan guns for hire are richly rewarded by local standards and boast of high enemy body counts. Neither the US-installed Afghan government in Kabul or Pakistan?s government has any control over these paramilitary forces.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Crimes, atrocities and mistaken killings committed by CIA?s Afghan mercenaries go unreported and unpunished. They are a law unto themselves, with no apparent links to the US military command in Afghanistan. In addition, various other groups of US mercenaries and assassins from private "contractors" like the former Blackwater are also operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as Iraq.[/FONT]

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[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]The result is a dangerous, confusing m?l?e of hired gunmen, US special forces, militias, and government troops ? an Afghan/Pakistani version of America?s wild Dodge City.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]No one should be surprised by the news that US-led mercenaries are crossing into Pakistan and killing Pakistani Pashtun tribesmen as well as Taliban and even an occasional al-Qaida member. This writer has received reports of the hunter-killer force for years. It?s an open secret in Islamabad and Kabul. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Pakistan?s government has turned a blind eye, or even quietly approved US-led troops violating its sovereignty and assassinating its citizens. Islamabad also permits US drones to stage lethal attacks across the tribal zones of northwest Pakistan without any prior approval. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]In fact, the US has a long record of using mercenaries in its wars.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]During the Vietnam War, CIA created mercenary forces of Hmong and Meo mountain tribesmen (Operation Hotfoot) and ethnic Chinese Nungs to hunt and kill Vietcong cadres. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]They formed part of CIA?s notorious Phoenix Operation that reportedly assassinated some 26,000 Communist cadres and sympathizers. The head of this operation, William Colby, went on to become CIA director.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]CIA mercenaries were also used during the 1980?s in Nicaragua and El Salvador?s brutal conflict between rightists and Marxist rebels. El Salvador?s ruthless death squads were highly effective in liquidating leftists, as I saw while covering these conflicts [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]The model of El Salvador?s death squads was transposed to Iraq, where mercenaries, criminals and renegades were used to liquidate Sunni resistance groups. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]The Soviets also used similar tactics during their occupation of Afghanistan from 1979?1989. Gangs of ferocious Uzbek mercenaries know as "Jowzjani" were sent to slaughter Pashtuns resisting Soviet occupation. Other gangs of Tajik and Uzbek fighters were employed by Moscow to stir ethnic discord. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Concern is growing in the United States over CIA?s rapidly increasing paramilitary role in Afghanistan and Iraq ? to which Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and West Africa are now being added. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Many intelligence professionals warn that CIA?s primary role of providing unbiased intelligence to the president is being undermined by its growing combat mission. Once your men and "assets" are involve in assassinations and fighting, it?s very difficult to remain objective, detached and neutral. An institutional bias quickly sets in. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]

The US State Department is also taking on a paramilitary role in Iraq, risking the same clouding of its judgment. It?s worth recalling that State Department Intelligence was the only US agency that had the courage to oppose Bush?s unprovoked war against Iraq.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]The US military is highly displeased by CIA?s paramilitary role, accusing the agency of being "cowboys" and "armchair warriors." Some veteran CIA staff are also dismayed, claiming their job is to think, not to kill. [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]But funds are flowing to CIA?s warriors. Running gunmen in Pakistan is the agency?s new, hot assignment. Certainly more sexy than writing reports.[/FONT]

Lumi · Sep 28, 2010

What the hell is going on around here?

What the hell is going on around here?

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Who the hell you calling crazy!
You wouldn't know what crazy
was if Charles Manson was eating
fruit loops on your front porch

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