Government extends work by Blackwater successor in Iraq - CIA Hires Blackwater for Assassinations

Government extends work by Blackwater successor in Iraq

see: reuters.com

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5817DB20090902



CIA Hires Blackwater for Assassinations

see: thenation.com

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090831/cia_video

The Crime of Israel… and the list of The Top Ten greatest Threats to the World

I haven’t written anything for this or any other of my blogs since 7 June 2007. That’s a long time ago and a lot has happened in the world since then. I gave up writing for my blog for a mixture of reasons. Firstly because I did not really have the time anymore, and since I thought no one ever really reads what I write I (rightly or wrongly, probably wrongly) kind of thought “why bother”. Other reasons played a role too and I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue with this kind of blog writing.

But I am back (for this one time).


My second to last article on my blog was titled “The Top Ten Greatest Threats to the World”.

Due to the length of time that had passed since I wrote this article I was surprised to receive a comment for this article on 18 October 2008 from: Blackrain. His comment was:

So right Joe. How prolific. You wrote this almost a year and a half ago, and look at us now!

Blackrain was of course referring to the latest economic situation in the world. Which I had listed many times in my list, directly and indirectly.

I also listed another major threat to the world. Listed at Nr. 5 that has now become acute.

Israeli Politics.

Once again, just as in Iraq, we in the World stand by and passively watch as human rights violations, unjust and disproportionate and illegal death and destruction, on MEN, WOMEN and CHILDREN is carried out by a superior power.

Yes, rockets have been and are being fired at Israel. Yes, this is not right and is not to be supported or condoned. This is a reality.

But there is also another reality. That these rockets (while they should not be excused, supported or condoned) usually only cause some damage and rarely death. This does not mean that this makes them right, or acceptable, or harmless, or any other thing. They are not right and should be stopped.

But to kill over 500 people (and how many more to come?) and create so much destruction of homes, properties and people lives is shameless, and is a far greater crime.

It is a crime against all human rights, and human life, and life in all forms.

It is a disproportionate, inhuman crime.

To treat people the way Israel treats Palestinians, treating them like dirt, like nothing, barricading them from food and supplies, from medical care and help, from travelling, from life, from their own land and property, building walls, denying them any real decency, hope or possibilities, or future, denying them their beliefs, denying their human rights, controlling them in every way possible, denying them energy and water….and continually using their superior and disproportionate military and technical power……and doing this year after year after year…then it is little wonder that you aggravate some reaction….

..it is to wonder if this is what Israel really wants…keep the rockets coming and they have arguments and excuses to squeeze the Palestinians from their land, their hopes, and…? They certainly do not show any real meaningful sign of truly wanting peace. Peace in any relationship has to be suitable for both sides. But Israel has the power and upper hand and is not willing to sacrifice this. And certainly not so long as it is supported by America.

As in the case of Iraq we, the rest of the World just stand by and watch, and do nothing. All too often we believe the arguments that Israel gives to support its actions and policies. Just as the Americans and so many others believed Bush about the reasons for (illegally) invading Iraq. It turned out not to be true.

Yet once again we do the same. We believe the arguments quickly. It is no surprise that Bush supports Israel, although he does it indirectly, as so many things. That politicians like rightwing Angela Merkel of Germany who also quickly supported Israel is probably also no great surprise, although downright disgusting and a shame and a crime against humanrights.

I think it is unlikely that much will change when Barack Obama is in power either. I would truly like to hope that he will bring change, but…If he truly wanted change from his heart he would not be keeping silent now. But in politics it is always politics that are more important, being popular and keeping in power…not real human lives…not real real change. If we see the people he is bringing into important positions in government then change would not seem to all that high on the list…..and certainly not human lives.

And what about us…we keep silent of course, just watch passively, believe the Israeli and other Western powers propaganda…the propaganda from (political background) radio and T.V. senders such as the BBC….

We see the destruction and the death…we know it is disproportionate…illegal….inhuman…a crime….we know it is power….. But we do nothing…

….are we not also committing a crime…

A crime against humanity, human rights, against life….?

The Day Liberty Lost Her Scales and Justice was Sentenced to Death by Hanging

Today is the day Liberty lost her scales and it is unlikely that the balance of Justice will ever be reached again wherever America lays its hands upon. That Saddam Hussein is guilty of crimes against the Iraqi people there can be little doubt. However, the trial that was instigated by the Americans and encouraged by a small group of former Iraqis who had lived outside Iraq there can be little doubt either. This has not been a trial of justice but a trial of politics, and despite the guilty verdict of death by hanging given to Saddam Hussein, it is in fact Justice that has been sentenced and Justice that will die by hanging.

Although the trial took place in Iraq, and was dressed up to look as though it was run by Iraqis, for Iraqis, in reality this trial was a farce, a showcase to please a select few. It was not authentic representation of a genuine Justice that covered and served all the Iraqi people. Did not even come remotely close to being this. It was show, a farce, puppets dancing on the end of strings to American political and certain Iraqi wishes, motivated by politics and for revenge.

Justice is not dying on the question of evidence, or lack of it, or on that of guilt or innocence. Justice is dying for the way the trail has been set up, run and manipulated. Justice is dying because it had nothing to do with real Justice. Justice is dying because it is not Saddam Hussein who has been sentenced to death by hanging but Justice.

Three Defending lawyers were shot dead and others intimidated, the first judge resigned because he did not like what was going on, the second judge who took over was then “removed” because he had been a former member of the Baath party and therefore was said not to be impartial, but then the third Judge who was “appointed” had family members who had been gassed by Saddam Hussein forces and was most certainly not impartial.

And this is being called Justice!

There was political interference, during the first year Saddam Hussein had no legal representation, and when representation was finally given to him it had great trouble in even trying to do so, and Saddam Hussein was held in prison by the Americans and not by the Iraqis. And as an Amnesty International person said: "The independence and impartiality of the court was impugned.

This is truly the day that Liberty lost her scales and Justice was sentenced to death by hanging!

But Liberty had been losing her scales and justice had been dying right from the start.

The illegal invasion of Iraq by America and the UK and other allies. People arrested illegally and held in illegal detention centres, secret prisons, torture and abuse of prisoners and innocent civilians, the deaths of thousands of innocent people…….the list goes on and on.

Liberty no longer holds the scales and Justice is as good as dead!

Never again will we be able to look toward America as representing Justice and liberty and freedom and honesty and all the other virtues we might once have valued America representing in a democratic and free world.

America today is no longer democratic or free to the outside world.

The policies and leadership of George W. Bush has destroyed the scales of Liberty and sentenced Justice to hang!

And this is being called Justice! A victory for Justice!

It is the day that Justice bows its head in shame as it walks to the gallows through the rubble of the broken scales!

And how many others will die or be imprisoned because of this?

Shocking Results! 75% of British see Bush as the Second Greatest Threat to World Peace

A report published today shows that the British public, so called allies of America, see George W. Bush as the second greatest threat to world peace.

Only Bin Laden came higher (87% think he is a danger) in the opinion poll survey. Bush is seen as a far greater threat (75% think he is a danger) than the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (69% think he is a danger), the president of Iran (62% think he is a danger), and the leader of Hizbullah Hassan Nasrallah (65% think he is danger).

Bush once saw both North Korea and Iran as part of an "axis of evil", yet Bush himself is now seen as a far greater threat, and has taken this roll over from Iran and North Korea. Bush now shares this position together with Bin laden!

71% of the British voters now say the invasion of Iraq was unjustified.

69% of the British voters believe US/Bush policy has made the world less safe since 2001

The survey was also carried out in Israel, Canada and Mexico.

62% of Canadians think the world has become more dangerous because of US/Bush policy.

in addition, 73% of Canadians think the war in Iraq was unjustified.

57% of Mexicans think the world has become more dangerous because of US/Bush’s policy

in addition, 89% of Mexicans see the invasion of Iraq as unjustified.

36% of Israeli voters say that the world is more dangerous because of US/Bush policy

(see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1938434,00.html)

Dialogue with God and the American Dream

 In October 2006 a senior U.S diplomat says “…. U.S. policy in Iraq displayed “arrogance” and “stupidity…..”

In 2001 a major U.S. company collapsed with $31.8bn in debts and throwing 21,000 workers around the world out of work. The prosecution against Enron bosses Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling said they stole from investors to line their pockets and stroke their egos. Both were found guilty of fraud, conspiracy and other charges.

Power, arrogance, stupidity, corruption, greed, personal gain, egotism, fraud, manipulation, the list goes on and on ………….

Is this the modern America, the new American Dream, now being exported around the world?

As the piles of bodies from the campaign in Iraq increase, to be placed alongside the hundred of thousands who died in the invasion of the country and the hundred of thousands who died as a result of the years of sanctions forced on Saddam Hussein’s regime by America and the UK before the invasion, we see U.S. stimulated sanctions being forced on North Korea. In the present political atmosphere in the U.S. it is at this moment unlikely that we will see any military action being taken against North Korea…..as long as nothing happens to make things worse…!

What could make things worse?

Well let’s look at America in a figurative, but symbolic, way. Let’s imagine those well known film pictures of a New York cop, or a U. S. soldier. They stand there in their uniform, the cop with his weapon holstered but hand ready to draw it, the soldier with his weapon slung across his chest resting on the fold of an arm and the finger of the other hand close to the trigger. They’re both a picture of tuned relaxation, ready to swing into heroic action at a moment of need. They portray an image of control, duty, alertness, morality, discipline, integrity, decency, comradeship, all for one and one for all, allegiance to the flag and to the greatest country of them all and to the American citizens of this, and so on.

This is how America likes to see or portray itself. At the same time America has assigned itself the task of policing the world. Yet here the conflicts or contradictions start to arise. The allegiance to the flag and to the greatest country of them all and the American citizens of this means that the rest of the world has to adjust to policies of America since a policeman enforces the laws laid down by the state or country he or she is responsible to. Although America tries to argue that it only enforces laws agreed upon by the world at the United Nations, in fact this is not really the case, as the illegal invasion of Iraq has proven. The meaning of the word world is also in realty mostly reduced to a handful of powerful countries with America at the lead of this handful. The arguments and jeering remarks of people such as President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela do have valid ground, no matter if you like the person or not. There is little doubt that America uses its powers to get its way within the UN, and bullying tactics to achieve its aims are not closed out. Even the pleas from North Korea for direct dialogue with America as a possible solution to conflict fall on deaf ears in American politics, although it would seem that North Korea, and other besieged countries, are only asking to be treated with respect, dignity and a certain amount of equal rights.

The world is told that America is protecting its rights, but the world is also told, whenever policies need this, that America is protecting the world. Some actions are enforced under the argument that they are done in America’s interest, while others are done in the interest of the world. The argument against any possible contradiction in the latter would be to argue that it is both in America’s and the world’s interest. It would seem that some things are conveniently in America’s interest and other things are conveniently in America’s and the world’s interest, depending on the (political) needs of America at that moment.

Who decides where the interest for the protecting of the rights lies? Well America does and since American political, financial and military power is spread around the world, the world mostly does what America wants and decides, and mostly does what it is told to do by America; the “you are with us, or you are against us” mentality.

But of course there are those who show disagreement with this, such as Iraq under Saddam Hussein which was said to be a renegade country, or North Korea, Syria, Iran, or political leaders such as Cuban leader Fidel Castro or President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, just to list a few examples. However under American leadership and pressure these countries or leaders are usually quickly denounced and isolated or not treated seriously or equally by the world.

The former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was also denounced and ridiculed when he failed to support President Bush’s and Tony Blair’s decision to (illegally) invade Iraq under the false pretences of being a nuclear threat. Now in a book of his memoirs due to be released this week Gerhard Schroeder apparently explains that he found it difficult to deal politically with President Bush because he (Bush) gave the impression or suggestion that he got his political (and other?) inspiration from our heavenly father (although no doubt his earthly father and fathers political cronies add their share of inspiration), that even before the Iraq war Bush seemed to be making political decisions based on his dialogue with God. .

Inspirations from our heavenly father, dialogue with god, are sure fire ways of catching votes in America and being elected into or kept in office. Yet religion is another area of conflict and contradictions within America. Despite official separation of church and state, many churches in the U.S. take strong stances on political subjects. Only about 26% of the people think the Democrats are favourable to religion. What do they exactly mean with this? That they think the democrats are heathens and demons and representing Saturn or are they just a bunch of anti religion atheists? Well quite a few people will think something along these lines; you get people who go so far as to preach and believe such things that the music of the Beatles is evil and filled with the work of Saturn. Yet while not everyone goes quite this far religious fanaticism is probably far more present in America than people really want to believe or accept, although perhaps by most expressed and practiced in terms that they believe are quite reasonable and normal, or hidden within or behind other issues. So are the Democrats then really true demons? Well many people will probably think not, but because the democrats have shown resistance to movements such as the anti-abortionists they are now seen as being unfavourable to religion by a large majority of the American population.

Once again you have the “you are with us or you are against us” mentality. This is not even considering the many contradictions and conflicts of the antiabortionists who argue for right of life but are willing to support such things as the death penalty and illegal invasion of foreign countries that leads to hundred of thousands of innocent lives, or sanctions that kill men, women and children, and other such things. The right for life would seem to take on another dimension in these cases. These same people are often the ones who denounce what they call religious fanaticism in Islamists; however this tends not only to cover real fanatics but the majority of Islamists. Followers of the Muslim faith only make up 1% to 3% of the American religions, of which there are numerous. 61% of Americans in a survey saw evil in the world as a threat to religious faith. It is probably unlikely that they might just see their own views as a threat to religious faith or that their own religious views might be conceived as being a possible form of fanaticism.

The Enron boss Jeffrey Skilling was sentenced to 24 years in prison and a fine of 45 Million Dollar while Kenneth Lay died of a heart attack after being found guilty and therefore his conviction was squashed, but no doubt there will be many who say he received his sentence from God. However another boss, Andrew Fastow, the former Enron finance executive, was sentenced to only 6 years in prison and did not have to pay a fine because he cooperated with the prosecution and showed remorse for his actions although he was just as criminally guilty of the collapse of Enron with $31.8bn in debts and throwing 21,000 workers around the world out of work as were the other two! In America you can be just as guilty of a crime as another but if you cooperate against others and show remorse then you will be rewarded with leniency, this would seem to be particularly so if you are a big boss, or have political power, or money. It is doubtful that a street criminal would receive the same kind or amount of leniency!

Despite the extremely heavy sentence given to one ex Boss of Enron crime pays might be the real motto that comes out of this for many big bosses and those with political power and money, just don’t get caught, and if you do, use the backdoor; and America likes having backdoors, among other things you have the third amendment, bankruptcy protection laws and when all else fails then cooperation with the prosecution and showing remorse.

Returning to the question: What could make things worse? Ask this question to people in America and they will look for the answer in such places as North Korea and perhaps say something like “…well if North Korea carries out another nuclear bomb experiment….” or perhaps “…if North Korea does this or that…” or “…if Iran….”!

But in reality the answer and the power of what might or can go wrong lies not in North Korea, or Iran, or in any other such place, the power and answer lies in all and more of the above!

Iraq - Palestine – Lebanon – Israel: The World Just Stands By and Watches

Whenever and wherever an accident happens you will get a crowd of people gathering to observe, no matter how gruesome or terrible the accident might be.

Yet, how much longer is the World going to stand by and just watch the tactics, actions and politics of Israel?

There is no doubt that most politicians are to blame, they are the worst at standing by and taking no action, or even worse, they often mange (intentionally or not) to throw “political petrol” onto a burning fire. We elect politicians expecting them to make wise decisions that secure our safety, take care of the country and the world we live in, give us structures which enable us and our neighbours to live the best life possible. Yet all too often we discover that once a politician is in power that they have their own agenda, and that agenda all too often has to do with personal power, or riches, or making a name for themselves, or whatever other demand their outsized and very personalised ego might be making.

But are politicians only to blame? It is not just politicians who are standing by and just watching, trying to cover there own political egos; we too are standing around and have been for a long time. We are also the ones that elect the politicians (and political petrol throwers) in the first place. Once we have elected them we stand around again. No matter how bad they are we tolerate them, make excuses for them, listen and believe them without taking any real meaningful and deep critical look at their deeds, words and actions, we seem to fall asleep and think we are powerless or decide that there is nothing to be done until the next election “happens” to come along, we might even help them throw that political petrol onto a burning fire.

There can be no doubt that the Jewish people suffered so terribly at the hands of the Nazis (although it was not only the Jewish people who suffered!). What happened then was a crime against humanity, horrible and shocking beyond words. No one can or should dispute this, and we should never forget this. However although we should never forget what happened we still have to move on, this is the way life is. Has Israel moved on? Are the politics and actions of Israel any better than those of the Nazis? True they are not of the same kind, perhaps do not have the same purpose or magnitude, but does this make them any better?

Have the wounds of those terrible years at the hands of the Nazis been allowed to fester instead of encouraged to heal? Has Israel, and perhaps the Jewish people in general, truly moved on from the past?

It does not seem like it. We all know that when we do not treat wounds and let the wounds heal then they turn septic, turn bad, poisonous, and even cancerous with possible disastrous results. This applies as much to psychological wounds as it does to physical wounds. The only difference being that some psychological wounds can be much harder to see or accept or be traced back to the root cause. And are such wounds confined to individuals, or is there such a thing as collective or national wounds? Since nations and groups of people are made up of individuals it would seem highly possible that at least psychological wounds can be collective or national.

There is no doubt that Israel is a country that has gathered many wounds and it would seem that those wounds have never truly been allowed to heal, at least it would seem that the psychological ones have not healed.

Clearly there was a great deal of sympathy from people around the world for the terrible sufferings of the Jewish people after the second world war, and only too naturally extra tolerance in many forms is often found when people have deep sympathy, a sympathy that is also possibly mixed with feelings such as anger, shame, guilt and such like.

It is clear that Israel has been allowed a great amount of lenience over the years by political leaders, not least by American political leaders. A lenience that is not usually leant to other countries. No one has ever put pressure on Israel for having a nuclear bomb or nuclear bomb capabilities like other countries such as North Korea or Iran. In fact it would seem that Israel can do almost anything it wants and get away with it, and in fact Israel does do want it wants and does get away with it.

Additionally a stifling atmosphere has been allowed or encouraged to be developed. If you criticise Israeli or the Jewish people you are likely to be quickly condemned s anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish or more recently possibly a terrorist.

Continually the impression is created that Israeli or the Jewish people are only “victims” and therefore have to be allowed this special lenience not usually leant to anyone else. That they are only victims doing nothing else other than just “protecting” themselves. Certainly this vision of being “victims” is a wound carried on from the Nazi period. Certainly the world has seen a period of time of the Jewish people being terrible victims and therefore had felt natural and healthy compassion but perhaps this compassion has been stimulated to continue and strayed over the years into unhealthy lenience and tolerance. However I seem to recall that going way back in the Jewish people history that considered themselves “victims” as they were forced to leave their homes or lands. Perhaps another unhealed wound? Yet an additional confusing psychological factor could be the fact I also seem to recall some reference to the past of them being “the chosen people”.

Whatever the cause, or the psychological structure, there can be no denying that Israel has developed the belief that it can do whatever it wants and the world, and certainly the American politicians, will do little or nothing to stop it. Unfortunately this belief would seem to be true. A belief that has been gently and even less gently cultivated over the many years since those Nazi years, cultivated from the compassion, tolerance and lenience, and from the continued and extended enforcement of the “victim” impression. Mixed up with this are the beliefs and ideas from the much longer past, and no doubt more recent financial and political positions of power. Israel (and perhaps the Jewish people in general?) seems to have developed the idea or belief, or see itself, or class itself as being “special”. With this “special” status comes the belief that it is allowed to do what it wants, do what most other (perhaps with the exception of such countries such as America) countries are not or would not be allowed to do or get away with.

The world is frozen in inaction. The extremely subjective political, military and financial power of America has many of the politicians around the world acting as little more than shadows following the path and desires of the political and industrial power of America. Any political leader or country that refuses to be a shadow is soon denounced as some kind of threat to the stability of the world (which can be translated to mean America) or democracy (which can be translated to mean changing things to suit American politicians and industrialists) – modern democracy means little more than doing what America (or such leaders as Tony Blair) and American industrialists want, it most certainly has nothing to do with real democracy – as we can see by what is happening in Middle Eastern countries and in many other places around the world.

But in the end it us that are to blame. We stay silent when we should speak out; we withdraw into our shells when we should act; we allow our politicians to act as shadows and chase their own personal egos; we gather to gawp in awe and fear; we allow false or outdated sentiments to tint our view of life; we so easily believe the forked tongues of politicians without true and intense critical assessment of what is being said; we allow real democracy to be manipulated to suit personal needs and ideas and psychological hangovers; we allow ourselves to be manipulated by false and unbalanced sense of threats and fear; we allow countries to be invaded illegally; we go to church and speak of love for our neighbours and yet allow injustices to be carried out - often in or name – knowing in our hearts that it is not right or just or often legal or loving or……..but we find or gladly accept reasons to turn away from these, from the truth……

Is it also not strange that we have certain leaders who spoke and speak of the Axle of Evil, and yet during the term of power of these leaders there is so much chaos, suffering, dying, killing and war…and so much injustice….in the world……

Does it not make you wonder what and where (and who) the real Evil is in this world?

And in the mean time “we” stand by and watch…….

Shame on you European citizens!

Is this what the EU, Europe, stands for:

• illegal invasion of another country
• secret prisons around the world
• torture
• reports of USA soldiers putting prisoners into lion cages
• reports of USA supported government forces pealing off prisoners skins, electric shocks, hanging people up by wrists from ceilings….and…and…and….
• Phosphorus (a chemical!) being used as weapon (questionably breaking international law on use of chemical weapons! and! One of the arguments given as reason for invading Iraq in the first place!)
• Lies and deceptions and manipulation of truth
• Dogs used against prisoners
• Humiliation
• Reports of Religious degradation
• Bombing of women and children
• People arrested and held without trail or legal representation
• Persons arrested on unclear, questionable, weak, superficial and fabricated charges
• Illegal, questionable, dishonest use of foreign countries air space
• Human rights of people everywhere, all persons, being corroded and reduced
• Questionable greater powers being given to forces all over the world without sufficient control or checks or reasons under pressure of Bushes anti terrorism
• Citizens rights all over the world brought into question
• More an more cameras
• More and more detention laws
• More and more power for the police
• And….and…..and….


The list goes on and on. And the news does not get better. In fact the worst is probably still to come!


Is this what citizens of Europe want for the EU? How much lower can the EU go? How much longer are EU citizens going to tolerate this? Allowing the politics and actions and decisions of one of our member EU countries to drag us down with them?

Of course we can say it is not us, it’s them, or the USA, or the UK, or the Iraqi’s themselves, or the terrorists, or…..but in our hearts we know that by allowing a member (or member states – Poland is a part of this too) EU state to be there, taking part, means in reality that all EU takes part because we refuse to take positive action against this……

…in fact we even allow it! We support it by our silence and none action!

Of course we can say there is not much we can do about it….but in reality what we are saying is…we do not really want to do something about it…we rather pretend we can’t do anything about it……!

Now it is even possible that one of our member EU states allows secret prisons to be set up in their country!

Is this the democracy we hear so much about? Is this the safety we hear so much about? Is this the security we hear so much about? Is this the kind of world we want? Is this the kind of EU we want?

Is this what the EU citizens want? How low are we prepared to go?

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