Clipmarks | ratilfar's 'empire' clips

U.S. officials condoned Kurdish oil deal

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:37:56 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: From the article....

"Kurdish officials have clashed with Baghdad over the national oil law, which will determine how contracts are awarded and how revenues are distributed. The northern Iraqi region has signed several exploration deals with foreign firms, which Baghdad says are illegal."

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials condoned Hunt Oil Co. efforts to obtain an exploration deal with Iraq’s Kurdish regional government, contrary to public statements discouraging it, according to documents cited by a congressional committee.

When the agreement was announced in September, it was criticized as undermining efforts to strengthen Iraq central government, which still had no national oil revenue-sharing law.

Bush administration officials expressed public concern and denied any knowledge of the contract.

On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman released e-mails and letters obtained by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that appeared to show the opposite.

“Contrary to the denials of administration officials, advisors to the president and officials in the State and Commerce Departments knew about Hunt Oil’s interest in the Kurdish region months before the contract was executed,” Waxman, a California Democrat, wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Tags: oil, iraq, kurdistan, empire, u.s.

Washington's War: From Independence to Iraq: an interview

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:49:37 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Great stuff here!

Clip Source: www.davidphinney.com

[Video]

Tags: war, u.s., history, iraq, conquest, empire

McNutty: WWIII and the Draft

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:28:33 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Oceania needs more soldiers, onward Xristian men and slay the heathens! Sign up TODAY!

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

John McCain said last night during a campaign tele-conference that he would bring back a military draft in the United States only in the case of a 'World War III' scenario.

Asked about that possibility by a potential voter in Florida during a telephone "town hall meeting," McCain said: "I don't know what would make a draft happen unless we were in an all-out World War III." ...

But McCain may be more open to the draft than it seems. During a July 2006 interview on CNN, McCain was asked about the following statement by Newt Gingrich: "We're in the early stages of what I would describes as the Third World War and, frankly, our bureaucracies aren't responding fast enough." Asked whether he agreed, McCain said:

Tags: mccain, mcbus, mcsame, mcnutter, mcnutty, forever war, empire

Key Iraqi Leaders Deliver Setbacks to U.S.

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:02:36 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: "Premier Rejects Terms of Proposed Pacts; Cleric Reactivates Militia"

The Surge? What Surge?

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

BAGHDAD, June 13 -- The Bush administration's Iraq policy suffered two major setbacks Friday when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki publicly rejected key U.S. terms for an ongoing military presence and anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for a new militia offensive against U.S. forces.

During a visit to Jordan, Maliki said negotiations over initial U.S. proposals for bilateral political and military agreements had "reached a dead end." While he said talks would continue, his comments fueled doubts that the pacts could be reached this year, before the Dec. 31 expiration of a United Nations mandate sanctioning the U.S. role in Iraq.

Maliki's comments came as Sadr called for a new armed wing of his Mahdi Army militia to fight U.S. troops. Sadr had ordered the militia to cease carrying weapons last August -- a leading factor in the recent decline in violence --

would operate in "total secrecy" and attack only American forces.

Tags: iraq, politics, war, surge, occupation, control, conquest, empire

McCain calls bringing troops home ‘not too important’

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:23:43 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Is this clip anti-American?

Clip Source: www.crooksandliars.com

After over a year of campaigning, you’d think John McCain would have a sense about how to talk about the war in Iraq. His support for the president’s policy, and his deeply held desire to stay the course, is, after all, his signature campaign issue.

And yet, McCain still doesn’t get it.

[Video]

To be sure, McCain has made comments like these before, most notably in response to questions about his stated willingness to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for 100 years. He frequently emphasizes his belief that as long as Americans are not being killed or seriously injured in Iraq, he doesn’t much care when we leave.

But he’s usually not this clumsy and politically tone deaf. Bringing the troops home is “not too important”? For thousands of Americans in uniform and their families, nothing is more important.

Tags: mccain, mcbush, mcsame, forever war, manchurian candidate, occupation, empire

Iraqis Condemn American Demands

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:21:00 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: "The Americans are making demands that would lead to the colonization of Iraq,"

Their words, not mine.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

BAGHDAD, June 10 -- High-level negotiations over the future role of the U.S. military in Iraq have turned into an increasingly acrimonious public debate, with Iraqi politicians denouncing what they say are U.S. demands to maintain nearly 60 bases in their country indefinitely.

"The Americans are making demands that would lead to the colonization of Iraq," said Sami al-Askari, a senior Shiite politician on parliament's foreign relations committee who is close to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. "If we can't reach a fair agreement, many people think we should say, 'Goodbye, U.S. troops. We don't need you here anymore.' "

U.S. officials have refused to publicly discuss details of the negotiations. But Iraqi politicians have become more open in their descriptions of the talks, stoking popular anger at American demands that Iraqis across the political spectrum view as a form of continued occupation.

Tags: iraq, war, colony, proxy, empire, conquest

Podcast #40: Why Iraq?

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:15:31 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar

Clip Source: ruinsofempire.blogspot.com

Click to Play

It is a question that has been on my mind for years, and now I have the answer. And it is not pretty, or good. It is ugly and dark. I don't like it and neither will you. But it is a question we must ask, and one we must answer.

And how can we answer this question? It took time to strip away the thin coat of paint covering the ugly facade. Piece by messy piece:

[Video]

Propaganda at home and complicity by the media led the world astray. For to long Congress turned a blind eye to the truth and then:

And what where they hiding?

[Video]

But what was it all for? What else bu the constant and predatory acquisition of wealth:

[Video]

And to be in the right position to acquire even more wealth:

[Video]

So at the end of the day, what is it all for? Why Iraq? Empire of course. But I think there is still hope:

[Video]

Tags: iraq, war, iran, conquest, lies

Did Iranian agents dupe Pentagon officials?

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 01:29:58 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: But wait there is more:

"The Senate report said that Pentagon officials never followed up on the investigators' recommendation for a comprehensive analysis of whether Ghorbanifar or his associates tried "to directly or indirectly influence or access U.S. government officials."

The counterintelligence investigators recommended that U.S. officials attempt "to map Ghorbanifar's relationship within Iranian elite social networks and, if possible, his contacts with other governments and/or intelligence organizations," but that effort was never undertaken."

Clip Source: www.mcclatchydc.com

WASHINGTON — Defense Department counterintelligence investigators suspected that Iranian exiles who provided dubious intelligence on Iraq and Iran to a small group of Pentagon officials might have "been used as agents of a foreign intelligence service ... to reach into and influence the highest levels of the U.S. government," a Senate Intelligence Committee report said Thursday.

A top aide to then-secretary of defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, however, shut down the 2003 investigation into the Pentagon officials' activities after only a month, and the Defense Department's top brass never followed up on the investigators' recommendation for a more thorough investigation, the Senate report said.

The revelation raises questions about whether Iran may have used a small cabal of officials in the Pentagon and in Vice President Dick Cheney's office to feed bogus intelligence on Iraq and Iran to senior policymakers in the Bush administration who were eager to oust the Iraqi dictator.

Tags: iran, iraq, lies, intelligence, stupidity, empire, forever war

US issues threat to Iraq's $50bn foreign reserves in military deal

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 07:07:37 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Iraqi sovereignty...HA!

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

The US is holding hostage some $50bn (£25bn) of Iraq's money in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to pressure the Iraqi government into signing an agreement seen by many Iraqis as prolonging the US occupation indefinitely, according to information leaked to The Independent.

US negotiators are using the existence of $20bn in outstanding court judgments against Iraq in the US, to pressure their Iraqi counterparts into accepting the terms of the military deal, details of which were reported for the first time in this newspaper yesterday.

Iraqi critics of the agreement say that it means Iraq will be a client state in which the US will keep more than 50 military bases. American forces will be able to carry out arrests of Iraqi citizens and conduct military campaigns without consultation with the Iraqi government. American soldiers and contractors will enjoy legal immunity.

Tags: iraq, war, conquest, empire, why

Colombia's Uribe refuses to rule out third term

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:24:41 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: "Uribe is a Wall Street favorite but many investors and analysts say a third term by the bespectacled conservative would present a threat to the independence of Colombian institutions, such as the courts and the central bank."

Clip Source: www.alertnet.org

BOGOTA, June 4 (Reuters) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, whose "Democratic Security" policies have put leftist rebels on the defensive and sparked economic growth, refused on Wednesday to rule out a third run for office.

Uribe, elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2006 after Congress passed a constitutional amendment allowing a second term, is flirting with running again in 2010. This would require another change in law.

"We seek to assure the re-election of Democratic Security and investor confidence," Uribe told local radio when asked if he would like to run again, declining to endorse allies such as Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos who are possible candidates.

Colombia, in the grips of a four-decade-old guerrilla insurgency funded by the cocaine trade, is home to regular political violence against trade unionists and others suspected of pro-rebel sympathies.

Tags: uribe, empire, colombia, proxy, south america, war, war crimes

Revealed: Secret plan to keep Iraq under US control

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 05:00:07 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Empire by any other name....

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November.

The terms of the impending deal, details of which have been leaked to The Independent, are likely to have an explosive political effect in Iraq. Iraqi officials fear that the accord, under which US troops would occupy permanent bases, conduct military operations, arrest Iraqis and enjoy immunity from Iraqi law, will destabilise Iraq's position in the Middle East and lay the basis for unending conflict in their country.

The timing of the agreement would also boost the Republican candidate, John McCain, who has claimed the United States is on the verge of victory in Iraq – a victory that he says Mr Obama would throw away by a premature military withdrawal.

Tags: iraq, war, occupationm, conquest, empire

Imperialism’s Cultural Impact & National Identity

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:47:23 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo

Clip Source: www.turkishweekly.net

In informal Empire, where this world did not pre-exist, companies tended to create it, building a “British culture” based on norms often associated with ideas of Empire. They built British-style houses, imported British plants to make British gardens, creating a little England outside England in what has been called “a colonialist fantasy of the colonies as part of Britain.”3

In this way, British company expatriates sought to create and affirm their British identities overseas. But on further examination, it can be seen that this approach used “British” norms that were in fact not British at all, but which were themselves often the product of previous colonial encounters, hybrids of adaptation and compromise to a foreign environment. My research shows that British identity was forged from transnational interaction with non-British peoples overseas, whose own cultures and identities influenced and helped to form ideas of Britishness.

Tags: culture, identity, imperialism

Appeasement: The Reagan Years

Sat, 17 May 2008 18:39:34 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: If these morons had their way, DC would be a glass parking lot by now.

Clip Source: www.salon.com

Conservative Caucus Chair Howard Phillips, for instance, "scorned President Reagan as 'a useful idiot for Kremlin propaganda,'" and published ads which, according to a January 20, 1988 UPI article (via LEXIS):

likens Reagan's signing of the INF Treaty to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's signing of an accord with Nazi Germany's Adolf Hitler in 1938. The ad, with the headline, "Appeasement Is As Unwise In 1988 As In 1938," shows pictures of Chamberlain, Hitler, Reagan and Gorbachev overhung by an umbrella. Chamberlain carried an umbrella and it became a World War II symbol for appeasement.

According to the January 19, 1988 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, when Pat Robertson was campaigning for President in Missouri in 1988, he "suggested that President Ronald Reagan could be compared to Neville Chamberlain . . . by agreeing to a medium-range nuclear arms agreement with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev."

Tags: idiots, morons, warmongers, dominionist, ww3, empire, madness

Military Matters: Iraq state fantasy

Fri, 16 May 2008 16:56:41 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: The truth about Iraq and 4GW conflicts that the GOP and the Pentagon (and their supporters) don't get:

"Because there is no state in Iraq, there is also no government. Orders given in Baghdad have no meaning, because there are no state institutions to carry them out. The governmental positions of Iraqi leaders have no substance. Their power is a function of their relationship to various militias, not of their offices. Maliki has no militia, which means he is a figurehead. "

Clip Source: www.upi.com

When Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki sent his "army" to fight the Mahdi Army in Basra, U.S. President Bush called it "a defining moment." It turned out instead to be a confirming moment. It confirmed that there is no state in Mesopotamia -- the geographical territory known as the nation of Iraq.

One of the most common signs that America's leadership is clueless about Fourth Generation war is the language they use.

Fourth Generation war has few if any defining moments. Nor does it have "turning points," another common Bushism. In his testimony to Congress, U.S. Gen. David Petraeus revealed the limits on his own grasp of 4GW when he said, "We've got to continue. We have our teeth into the jugular, and we need to keep it (sic) there."

Opponents in 4GW have no jugular. 4GW is war of the capillaries. What U.S. forces have their teeth into in Iraq is a jellyfish.

Tags: 4gw, iraq, insurgency, reality, truth, empire

Navy Denies Chelsea Clinton To Vieques, Puerto Rico

Thu, 15 May 2008 05:03:46 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Daddy didn't do the island any favors the last time around (nor did the Navy, the arrogant bastards). If Hillary wants the delegates, she should stop sending surrogates and come down herself. Then again Puerto Rico is a Imperial cold sore on both parties.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The U.S. Navy has denied Chelsea Clinton permission to campaign for her mother on a former bombing range on a small Puerto Rican island.

Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign wanted to use the land Wednesday as a setting to discuss the candidate's clean up plan for the region and call to give some areas to local residents.

But Navy spokeswoman Lt. Lara Bollinger said no one is allowed to campaign on federal property.

Chelsea Clinton is making her second campaign visit to Puerto Rico in the last three weeks. The U.S. territory has 55 delegates at stake in its June 1 Democratic primary.

The Navy closed the range in Vieques in April 2003 following years of protests after two errant bombs killed a security guard.

Tags: empire, politics, vieques, puerto rico, navy