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2010 September 3
In a state of tranquillity, wealth, and luxury, our descendants would forget the arts of war* and the noble activity and zeal which made their ancestors invincible. Every art of corruption would be employed to loosen the bond of union which renders our resistance formidable. When the spirit of liberty, which now animates our hearts and gives success to our arms*, is extinct, our numbers will accelerate our ruin and render us easier victims to tyranny. If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude than the animating contest of freedom—go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!
- Sam Adams
Jim@JimSkipper.com
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2010 August 19
The Obama administration is deeply worried that an appeals court in Thailand will issue a ruling tonight allowing a Russian alleged to be one of the world’s most notorious illicit arms dealers to walk free. U.S. officials, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information, say that for months the Russian government led by Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev has been putting heavy diplomatic pressure behind the scenes on Thai authorities to release Victor Bout, a veteran black- and gray-market arms peddler sometimes known as the “merchant of death” who has been held in custody by Thailand since April 2008 for possible extradition to the U.S., where he faces two federal indictments on weapons and conspiracy charges. The appeals court has reportedly scheduled a hearing to release a ruling in the case on Friday morning, Bangkok time, which is in the middle of the night, Washington time.
U.S. officials say they don’t know how the court will rule. But the fear in Washington is that the ruling will somehow result in Bout being released temporarily or permanently. In either case, U.S. officials fear that Bout, who American officials believe is still well connected in the Kremlin, will disappear or seek protection from Russian authorities—for example, by taking refuge in the Russian Embassy in Bangkok—and therefore escape the long arm of the American law.
A year ago—according to an op-ed on the case by GOP Rep. Ed Royce that was published in The Washington Post on Thursday—a Thai court rejected a U.S. request for Bout’s extradition on the grounds that FARC, a Colombian militia the U.S. has formally labeled a terrorist organization and whose dealings with Bout were the focus of a 2008 U.S. indictment against him, was not a terror group. (In fact, the FARC operatives whose dealings with Bout led to his indictment turned out to be undercover informants for the Drug Enforcement Administration, who with the cooperation of Thai authorities had ensnared him in a “sting.”) In an effort to provide themselves with “insurance” that Bout could still be held and extradited even if Thai authorities rejected the 2008 U.S. charges, American prosecutors filed a new case against him last January. This case charged Bout and a sidekick with carrying out or brokering arms deals that fueled conflicts in Afghanistan, Angola, Liberia, Rwanda, and Sudan, among other places.
But U.S. officials are not convinced that even the fresh charges will be enough to persuade Thai authorities to hold onto Bout. One theory circulating among people in Washington who have been following the case closely is that the Thai court might decide to release him on “compassionate” or “humanitarian” grounds, in much the same way that Scottish authorities controversially decided last year to release Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of carrying out the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. In the Megrahi case, Scottish authorities released him on the grounds that he was suffering from prostate cancer and likely to die within three months. The fact that Megrahi is still alive today has caused heartburn for the new British coalition government and provoked demands in the U.S. Congress for investigations into whether his release was somehow engineered as a result of pressure from the disgraced British oil giant BP.
Details of Bout’s current medical condition were not immediately available. But a person in Washington who has followed the case closely said that in recent court appearances, the once corpulent Russian appeared to have lost a considerable amount of weight.
Officials said that the Obama administration—likely including officials at the White House—has engaged in very high-level contacts with Thai authorities over a period of months to try to convince them that Bout should be held and that the U.S. extradition request should be honored. But as the clock ticks down to Friday’s ruling, U.S. officials say the omens emerging from Bangkok are not encouraging.
Newsweek
Jim@JimSkipper.com
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2010 August 11
Israel again razes Bedouin village
By the CNN Wire Staff
Jerusalem (CNN) -- On the eve of the holy month of Ramadan, Israeli police re-entered a Bedouin village Tuesday to repeat the demolition of homes they had razed only a few days earlier.
Israeli police closed off entrances to Al-Araqeeb, in southern Israel's Negev Desert, and tore down houses that had been partially rebuilt in the past week, confiscated water tanks, attacked livestock and arrested five people, said Talab El-Sana, an Arab member of the Knesset.
Even the village sign was taken down, he said. And villagers, who were getting ready for Ramadan, set to begin Wednesday, resorted to the cemetery for shelter.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police were removing sheds that were built illegally.
According to Israeli civil rights groups, more than a 150,000 Bedouins live in villages like Al-Araqeeb, not recognized by the Israeli government, not provided with any municipal services.
Israel insists the villagers don't own the land or have building permits and the demolitions were in response to a court order.
"In compliance with court orders we will return if necessary," Rosenfeld said.
Villagers, however, say they've lived in the region dating back to Ottoman days before Israel was founded, and have original deeds to the land.
Police first raided Al-Araqueeb, five miles north of Beer Sheva, on July 27, leveling homes and uprooting trees. Villagers began rebuilding immediately.
Tuesday's raid was the third time the village has been demolished.
Jim@JimSkipper.com
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2010 August 11
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/319110
Rohri, Pakistan – The small rubber boat manned by two Pakistani navy personnel churned through the vast expanse of brown water, passing scattered clumps of treetops and the thatched roofs of a few houses in search of stranded villagers.
The craft was part of an operation to rescue people around Sukkur, the city in Sindh province where the wall of water unleashed by the worst flooding in Pakistan's history was cresting Tuesday as it moved south down the Indus River toward the Arabian Sea.
Those who didn't heed warnings to evacuate areas near the river, refusing to believe that their homes would be submerged, are now marooned on rooftops or in trees by a surging tide infested with snakes. They have little or no food, are forced to drink the filthy water and are prey to bands of boat-borne bandits.
The water, which had risen slowly here for a week, gushed up over the weekend as the main body of the torrent swept in from the north, drowning farmlands and jungle as far the eye can see.
The flooding has killed some 1,600 people and affected 14 million others, according to the United Nations, overwhelming the government's ability to cope and submerging some of the most heavily populated areas and fertile agricultural lands. In Sindh alone, some 1.5 million people have been displaced so far, provincial authorities said Tuesday.
A McClatchy reporter rode aboard the boat as it left the riverbank at Rohri, a small town near Sukkur, where the river was 13 feet deep. The craft had been under way for about an hour before our guide, a local man, pointed to trees sticking out of the water. There he said, was his village, Allah Dhinoo.
As the boat approached, a man's yelling led the boat through a tangle of treetops to a thatched roof. Nearby, two young men waded neck-high through the flood. From just under the roof, inches above the water, a third was carried to the boat, a disabled man who had been suspended on a bed placed on the rafters.
The men refused to leave without a goat, which was loaded onto the boat, along with what appeared to be a fighting cock, two smaller birds in a cage, two trunks of possessions and a cache of shotguns. Left behind on the roof were several dogs that howled pleadingly as the craft departed.
"That's to deal with the bandits," explained 30-year-old Nadir Ali Bhurro, pointing to the shotguns as he climbed aboard, clad in only a loincloth, having first taken care to lock his submerged house. "We have to bring our valuables because the bandits have big boats and they'll take our stuff when we're gone."
The Sindh countryside is notorious for bandits and the area by the river was always a favorite hideout. The outlaws apparently have been taking advantage of the floods by ransacking abandoned homes.
At the next stop, four men and a woman were huddled on a flimsy roof. They'd stacked their belongings in locked trunks atop a brick structure nearby, along with a tall metal cylinder for storing grain.
"We've just been eating rice for the last few days," said Atta Mohammad, 20. "And drinking the river water."
At a third stop, just a few hundred yards away, chickens that had been surviving on a thatched roof were tied up, bundled into a steel trunk, and brought aboard the boat, along with the man who had been minding them.
"The chickens are very valuable," explained Bhurro, who gave only one name. "What else are we going to live on once we're out of the village?"
The boat's crew was indulgent, allowing the animals and other belongings on board. The victims of this flood are dirt poor. Most have lost their annual store of grain.
"People don't leave their birds behind," said Guftar Ahmed, who was steering the craft. "We have to try to accommodate their needs."
As the boat turned to return to Rohri, small heads became visible bobbing along in mid-stream. Those too desperate to wait for rescue were swimming for dry land, a distance of several miles.
When we approached, it was obvious that the swimmers, several young men, were exhausted. With no room left on the boat, two clung to the sides and were pulled along through the flood.
Their shriveled hands, barely able to hang on, testified to the hours they'd spent in the water. They had lashed empty plastic jugs around themselves for buoyancy, and had wrapped their clothes around their heads.
Once on land, Ashiq Ali, 20, said that the pair had taken to the water when they finally abandoned a hope of saving their buffaloes.
"We got very tired (swimming)," said Ali, from Alaf Kacha village, about eight miles away. "Back there, we have 30 buffaloes. Each is worth 30,000 rupees ($350). How could we just leave them behind?"
The rescue mission had taken three hours. The boat turned around to retrieve other swimmers. Many such missions take five or six hours, said Major Noor Ulamin, who was supervising rescue missions from the riverbank.
"These people don't understand the gravity of the situation, how far the water will rise," Ulamin said. "It is still rising."
Jim@JimSkipper.com
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2010 June 25
So, President Obama to President Medvedev to Ray's Hell Burger for lunch, to repay Medvedev taking Obama to tea in the Winter Garden. Not quite the same. It reminds me of Obama's mediocre but typically American gifts to Gordon Brown and Queen Elizabeth, a gift set of DVDs and an iPod, repsectively, compared to their gifts ofan ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet, a framed commission for HMS Resolute and a first edition of the seven-volume biography of Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert, and the Queen's silver framed portrait. Crass to repay class.
Medvedev summed it up well: "An interesting place, or just typical American," President Medvedev said. "Probably it's not quite healthy, but it's very tasty. And you can feel the Spirit of America."
Yes, the Spirit of America; crowded, fast and unhealthy.
Jim@JimSkipper.com
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2010 June 21
Generation Y: Site of Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez makes for some interesting reading. Cuba is a fascinating case study. The United States government still treats it as if it is the greatest threat to America in the world. Despite a 50 year embargo by the US, the Cuban government is still strong and defiant. The small Communist government outlasted the Soviet Union.
The US has never learned the lesson that embargoes do not work. It only hurts the people, not the government. Do you want proof? Cuba is the proof. Open up trade and travel.
Jim@JimSkipper.com
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2007 March 22
Given that I have recently filed my taxes, a quote from Thomas Jefferson is in order.
We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our calling and our creeds...[we will] have no time to think, no means of calling our mis-managers to account but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers... And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for[ another]... till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery... And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.
He was practically a psychic. The federal government has been allowed to go into debt. Remember, it is the Federal Government that is in debt, not the people of the United States. The current federal debt is $8,841,235,362,509.02 This site says, "The estimated population of the United States is 301,245,285, so each citizen's share of this debt is $29,348.96." Oh, really. Send me an invoice. Show me what I am getting for my money. A war in Iraq. I want a refund. Welfare. I want a refund. Where can I get an itemized invoice of the national debt. Here is a nifty little site: Budget Explorer. Interesting, the government reduced the deficit and even had a budget surplus while Bill Clinton was president, but have run deficits since George W. Bush has been in office.
Junto
Jim@JimSkipper.com
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2007 March 21
John Bolton says, “I believe that ultimately the only real prospect of getting Iran to give up nuclear weapons is to change the regime.” source: MSNBC
Right, Johnny boy, because regime change has worked so well for the US in the past. Just take Iraq, for example, a stunning example of a successful regime change.
Or let's take Cuba. American "regime change" in Cuba in 1898 directly led to Fidel Castro's success, forming one of the most enduring, successful, anti-American governments in the world. Stephen Kinzer discuss 14 regime changes, from the more-or-less successful overthrow of Hawaii, to the current quagmire of Iraq.
Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq and an interview with the author and the continuation of the interview.
Time for Détente With Iran by Ray Takeyh
Regime Change and Its Limits by Richard N. Haass
Belgians Lead Push for Regime Change in America (humor)
Jim@JimSkipper.com
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