Radio Free Neptune

2004-08-09T18:20:00.000+01:00

One of the interesting things in Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11 is an excerpt from a speech given by G. W. Bush to some crowd of rich people. He starts by describing his audience as 'the haves... and the have-mores.' Then he observes that 'some people call you the elite. I call you my base.'
So if you don't believe that the class struggle is real, congratulate yourself - you have a worse grasp of politics than President Dumbfuck.

2004-07-31T13:12:00.000+01:00

The world's oldest, richest and most powerful paedophile ring is to offer an official position on the relations between men and women. It will no doubt bring comfort and joy to all those who loathe human sexuality and the miniscule advances won by feminists over recent decades.

2004-07-20T22:58:00.000+01:00

Oona King, terrified Nu-Labour MP for Bethnal Green & Bow, has been scouting for new careers just in case her 'safe' Labour seat goes the way of Leicester South at the next election. Yesterday she presented BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, rather badly. Since she voted for the war, apparently with the idea of improving the Israel / Palestine situation, many of her constituents have turned against her. Her almost uninterrupted campaigning in the St. Dunstan's ward of Stepney for the council election shows how rattled she is about the loss of faith among her core supporters, who showed such strong support for Respect on June 10th. There are dozens of Labour MPs in the same position, for whom a 'score draw' at the next election will mean retirement.

2004-06-23T14:00:00.000+01:00

ASBOs - they're not dark swellings in the armpits of plague victims, they're Anti-Social Behaviour Orders. They were invented by the current government in order to make life for urban teens even more miserable than it already is, so it must have come as a surprise to senior executives at Sony UK when Camden Borough Council applied to Highbury Magistrates' Court to slap an ASBO on them. Sony has irked the good burghers of Camden by using fly-posting companies to promote acts such as [sub - find out what young people are listening to], by illegally sticking posters up on anything flat.
The case was due to be heard on Monday, but Sony gave a written promise not to use the illegal advertising method any more in England or Wales, and Camden Council withdrew the action. A similar action against BMG UK is still with m'learned friends.
The Earth Desk's legal expert confidently expects that Sony will give a wheelbarrowful of cash to Nu Labour and then break all its promises, but in the meantime the only people to benefit will be the SWP, who won't have their posters inciting revolution pasted over by showbiz ones. Could Camden Council's ASBO threat be the spark?

2004-06-22T09:08:00.000+01:00

On the Today programme this morning Lord Tebbit was interviewed about Clinton's autohagiography - and his lordship failed to rant about buggery, as he did the last time he gave his keepers the slip. This lapse is a great cause for concern. One hopes he is not unwell.

2004-06-21T09:25:00.000+01:00

The government has responded to the 'pensions crisis', the economic / demographic trends which mean that a livable retirement pension is not going to be there for today's twenty and thirty-somethings, by planning to increase the retirement age to seventy, for those who wish to continue working past 65. As your joints stiffen, you contribute to labour market flexibility - clever, no? And it's all done using the language of choice - if you've chosen to be poor, you'll want to choose to work until you drop.

2004-06-18T12:36:00.000+01:00

The historic decision of the FBU to disaffiliate with the Labour Party is significant not for the size of the £50,000 per year contribution which will no longer be paid, but for the way it came about. It would almost certainly have happened last year, but the leadership of the union prevented a vote taking place - by suspending the annual conference. This year, the leadership proposed to cut the contribution to £20,000 but remain affiliated. The delegates were having none of it, and the disaffiliation was voted through by over 2:1, on the grounds that 'he aims and objectives of the party no longer reflected those of the FBU.'
The loss of further union funding would be a blow to Labour. The RMT was expelled in February when they voted to allow branch-level donations to 'other parties' (the SSP in Scotland), and as early as 2001 the GMB was cutting its funding.
The proportion of party funds which come from the unions has been dropping, from 66% in 1992, to 40% in 1997, to 33% in 2002, with the majority now coming from 'individual and corporate donations, membership fees, sponsorship and commercial events,' but Labour must fear that large donors will be fair-weather friends, and the membership is likely to be haemorrhaging like an Iraqi wedding party.

2004-06-18T10:51:00.000+01:00

The Blair government, taking a break from bringing democracy and self-determination to others, has tried again to finally suppress the hopes of the Chagos islanders. The entire archipelago was emptied of people, who were moved from their homes thirty years ago to make way for a US military base on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. They have taken various legal actions, and won a partial victory in 2000, but the Foreign Office has just issued an 'order in coucil' to bar them from returning to any of the islands. The order in council is a debate-free way to pass laws, or perhaps decrees is a better word.
On Radio 4 yesterday, the minister responsible justified the unjustifiable by talking about the expense of repatriating the islanders, and by alluding to the uncertain future of tropical islands due to global warming. He claimed that the US's 'defence needs' have also increased since 9-11, implying that people's 'human rights needs' will have to decrease in the War on Turrism.
The spirit of justice still burns fiercely in nu-Labour, it seems.

2004-06-16T11:34:00.000+01:00

There are some interesting data in a mid-May CPA poll of over 1000 Iraqis.
The explanation of attacks on US forces which was most agreed with was that the attackers 'believe the Coalition is trying to steal Iraqis wealth' (78% thought this totally or partially true, to 7% who thought it false.)
Other explanations seen as true were 'they believes all foreign forces must leave at once' (74%: 11%), and 'they believe national dignity requires the attacks' (68%: 13%)
The least likely explanations were those usually promulgated by the US and UK politicians:
'they want to return to Saddam and the Ba'ath Party' (20%: 61%),
'they are angry because they lost the privileges they had under Saddam' (32%: 48%), and
'they do not want democracy in Iraq' (38%: 48%).
The question on confidence in different institutions also made grim reading for the CPA:
78% of those polled had no confidence in the CPA, and 81% had none in the Coalition forces. The Governing Council and the UN inspired no confidence in 55% and 57% respectively, and the Iraqi police came out best, with 76% having a fair amount or a great deal of confidence in them. This is reflected in the response to other questions about security: 87% thought it likely or very likely that the Iraqi police and army could keep order on their own, and 55%:32% of those polled would feel more rather than less safe if foreign troops left immediately - foreign troops were seen as occupiers by 92%.
Meanwhile, with the purely paper excercise of the transfer of sovereignty only two weeks away, oil exports have been crippled after attacks on pipelines in both north and south, and three senior Iraqi officials have been killed in the last week: the head of security for the northern oilfields yesterday, after the Deputy Foreign Minister on Saturday, and the Education Ministry's Director of Cultural Relations on Sunday.
The British Prime Minister, the increasingly unhinged Tony Blair, responded to the Iraq-related hammering the voters gave him by saying (about his decision to join the American attack) 'the judgement will increasingly be seen to be to be right as time goes on.'

2004-06-14T08:39:00.000+01:00

From the Strange Observations department: Outside the UK headquarters of News International, Rupert Murdoch's empire of lies, is a row of flagpoles. The first flies the union jack, the next four fly flags with the logos of the Sun, Times, etc., and the last one flies... the EU flag of yellow stars in a circle on a blue field.

2004-06-09T09:30:00.000+01:00

The Information Commissioner reported yesterday on Blunkett's proposed ID card scheme - and was rightly scathing. Describing it as 'not an identity card, but a national identity register,' he criticised it as a 'really significant sea-change in the relationship between the state and every individual.' He viewed this change with 'increasing alarm,' and noted that the plans were 'more comprehensive and ambitious than any other scheme in the world.'
However, since people under capitalism can best be seen as commodities, it makes sense to give them all bar-codes. If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. Oh, except computer errors. And the recent legitimation of torture by the global ruler, to whom Blair has tied himself. But apart from that, you have nothing to fear.

2004-06-08T15:39:00.000+01:00

In Tony Blair's interview on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, he made a variety of risible statements, the worst of which was that Saddam turned out (after the fall of Baghdad) to be even more of a threat than the coalition thought before the invasion began.
Now, as a politician who has got to the top, Blair must have passed his Lying 101 course, and he should know that a key to succesful lying is that the truth of the issue should not be readily apparent to anyone over three years old. Comical Ali fell foul of this principle too, when announcing that Americans were nowhere near Baghdad while their tanks were trundling along behind him.
However for Blair, as for Ali, there is no fall-back position other than capitulation. Blair has completely dropped the 'Third Way' nonsense of his late opposition and early premiership, which is exploded even as a 'salutary myth'. His complete alignment with the demented Bush regime makes self-identification in a mid-position between corporate capitalism and socialism (even of the feeblest parliamentary kind) impossible. The Third Way, always vacuous, has vanished to be replaced by blatant kow-towing to the hegemony of capital, adorned with a sickly icing of simpering.
This is why Blair has to make assertions such as the one this morning. His rejection of ideology (and even history) means that his brand-image is the whole of his politics - the surface is the core; he is an authentic vacuum. Hence his 'integrity' now consists of telling lies that he knows that we know are lies, because he told them before.

2004-06-07T15:35:00.000+01:00

An interesting article by Slavoj Zizek, on a new category of Earthling, Homo Sacer, here.

2004-06-06T01:04:00.000+01:00

Former President Ronald Reagan has died.
This Earth Desk correspondent started studying Earth politics in the era when almost the whole of the world's thermonuclear arsenal was in the hands of two vegetables - between 1980, when Reagan came to power, and 1984 when Leonid Brezhnev died, life on Earth was balanced on a knife-edge - remember Reagan's 'bombing begins in five minutes' joke?
Other things to remember Ronnie for are the huge increase in military spending in peacetime, wrecking the US economy for the sole purpose of transferring tax dollars to military contractors, and for the filthy terrorism perpetrated (especially) against school-teachers and medical workers in Nicaragua, illegally funded by selling weaponry to extremists in Iran, and by flooding US cities with cocaine.
Good fucking riddance, Ronnie; rot quickly.

2004-06-01T16:44:00.000+01:00

Today, Radio Free Neptune is taking a day off from poking despairing fun at Earth's jaw-droppingly delusional poiliticians, and providing a public information bulletin on everyone's favorite strategic resources, hydrocarbons.

Ten largest proven oil reserves by country (2002, in billions of barrels, b bl)

263 - Saudi Arabia

115 - Iraq

99 - Iran

97.8 - UAE

96.5 - Kuwait

78 - Venezuela

78 - Former USSR

36 - Libya

31.5 - Nigeria

22.4 - USA

The world's two most populous countries, China and India have 18.25 b bl, and 5.3 b bl of oil reserves respectively.

Proven oil reserves by region (2002, b bl)

698.9 - Middle East

111.1 - Latin America

93.5 - Africa

79.1 - Eastern Europe

38.4 - Asia and Pacific

27.6 - North America

18.2 - Western Europe

World total, 2002, was 1067 b bl.

Ten largest proven natural gas reserves (2002, in billions of cubic metres)

56,900 - Former USSR

26,600 - Iran

25,800 - Qatar

6,600 - Saudi Arabia

6,000 - UAE

4,200 - Venezuela

4,500 - Algeria

4,500 - Nigeria

3,500 - Australia

3,100 - Iraq

Fifteen largest oil producers (2002, in millions of barrels / day)

8.8 - Former USSR

7.1 - Saudi Arabia*

5.8 - USA

3.4 - China

3.2 - Iran

3.1 - Mexico

2.9 - Norway

2.4 - Venezuela

2.2 - United Kingdom

2.1 - Iraq

1.9 - UAE

1.8 - Nigeria

1.7 - Kuwait

1.4 - Canada

1.4 - Brazil

*Saudi Arabia is now producing ~8.5 m bl / day, with ~1.5 m bl / day unused production capacity. It is the only country with significant unused capacity.

Global consumption rate, 2002 - 72.8 million barrels / day

Ten largest consumers (2002, in millions of barrels / day of refined products)

19.5 - USA

5.0 - Japan

5.0 - China

3.7 - Former USSR

2.6 - Germany

2.1 - India

2.0 - South Korea

1.9 - France

1.8 - Italy

1.6 - United Kingdom

Opec members

Algeria

Indonesia

Iran

Iraq

Kuwait

Libya

Nigeria

Qatar

Saudi Arabia

United Arab Emirates

Venezuela

Opec's 2002 Statistics Bulletin (150 page pdf, 2.0 Mb) can be downloaded here.

2004-06-01T12:47:00.000+01:00

A pundit on Radio Five has just observed, concerning rising oil prices, that there is 'no need for an emergency dash to the pumps yet' - very reassuring for R5's core audience of people serving long sentences in traffic jams.

2004-05-30T19:56:00.000+01:00

Professional liar and tottering fool General Kimmit has announced that the Iraqi people will forgive the occupation forces' torture of prisoners, in an early bid for this week's arrogant idiocy prize. (no, since you ask, he didn't use the t-word, nor the phrase 'copper green'.)
"It's because the scale of this was so small that the people of Iraq will forgive us," he mouthshat.
Forgiveness is unlikely when the occupying forces continue to kill innocent Iraqis, and then act with monstrous self-satisfaction concerning the dead, who automatically become turrists - an example being Kimmit's continuing lies about the slaughtered wedding-party in the very same press conference.

2004-05-29T21:00:00.000+01:00

A BBC reporter for Radio 4's PM programme found an Iraqi with a cautiously positive opinion of the probable PM-to-be, Iyad Allawi. The Iraqi chap said he'd give him a chance, and noted that it is good that Allawi was well educated. That citizens respect education is a good sign for democracy, but less suitable for the puppetocracy that the US usually implements.
Allawi, a founder member of the Iraqi National Accord (a rival organization to Chalabi's INC), certainly knows how to play politics - he has been spending lavishly on Washington lobby firms, and has kept up a better relationship with the CIA than Chalabi did. MI6 might have a less friendly view of him, as the INA was the source of the '45-minute' claim which idiot Blair shouted from the rooftops, but British influence in Iraq is negligible.
How the majority of Iraqis will see the Allawi - a former senior Ba'ath Party official who has not lived in Iraq for thirty years - remains to be seen.

2004-05-29T15:29:00.000+01:00

Signs of panic at the top levels of both the UK and US governments are now unmistakable. The recent public contradiction between Blair's and Powell's views on Iraqi control over the occupation forces shows that they are making policy on the hoof, and are mostly concerned with public opinion in their own countries. Blair doesn't want to be seen as an imperial occupier, Powell is playing to the traditional reluctance of the US to have any US soldiers or citizens under any sort of foreign command.
Similarly unable to coordinate their propaganda are the US Department of Justice and the Homeland Security Department, which is nominally coordinating all things anti-turrist. On the same day that Ashcroft announced that al-Qaida is ready to attack the US, Tom Ridge was on ABC playing down the threats as "not the most disturbing that I have personally seen during the past couple of years."
Confusion continues to reign in occupation politics, with the UN special envoy who is supposed to be responsible for manufacturing a new government reportedly 'not even in the room' when the Iraqi PM-to-be was announced by the Iraqi Governing Council. A UN spokesman, sounding a bit crestfallen, said "It's not how we expected it to happen."
Even some of the neo-cons can see that the invasion of Iraq has not gone to plan. 'Prince of Darkness' Richard Perle has described the occupation as a 'grave error,' although his claim that Iraq should have been handed over to Iraqis sooner seems mendacious in the light of Jay Garner's revelation: early elections were blocked so that Iraqi industry could be 'privatized' (aka 'stolen').
As the slime at the top engages in random spin and self-exculpation, one calls to mind Alexis de Tocqueville's comment, as true today as it was 160 years ago:
'On my arrival in the United States I was surprised to find so much distinguished talent among the citizens and so little among the heads of government. It is a constant fact that at the present day the ablest men in the United States are rarely placed at the head of affairs.'

2004-05-27T15:44:00.000+01:00

Abu-Hamza, the loopy Imam with the pantomime appearance, has been before British magistrates today, to be hauled off to the anti-turrism gulag run by the Americans.
The dangerous US Attorney-General, John Ashcroft, described the allegations against him in some detail, and noted that the most serious - conspiracy to take hostages - carries the death penalty. Despite noting that under law, someone is innocent until proven guilty, Ashcroft referred to terrorists as 'Hamza's co-conspirators' repeatedly. Whether Hamza gets a fair trial or no, it is a much-needed positive photo op for the War On Turrism.
The extradition would be a marked change of UK government practice - usually the UK does not extradite people who face death in a foreign court (although it does deport refugees back to war zones.)
One also wonders what evidence was shown by the Americans to the British establishment. Two US-brought cases in Germany have fallen foul of the letter of the law, because the American authorities were unwilling to give the German court important evidence. The supine British establishment is so subservient to Bush's maladministration that they may not have thought to ask about evidence. After all, Abu-Hamza has one eye and a hook hand - he certainly looks like a turrist, and Blair's co-religionist John Ashcroft could do with some good publicity.

2004-05-27T11:31:00.000+01:00

A detail that didn't make the BBC website story about a warehouse fire which destroyed various modern artworks:
Tracy Emin was asked if she was upset at the destruction of some of her artworks.
"Yes," she replied, "but not as upset as I am over the people being killed in Iraq."

2004-05-25T20:58:00.000+01:00

The recent suggestions that Ahmed Chalabi, 'Hero in Error,' has been manipulating the US into furthering Iran's regional interests is bad news for the most hawkish of the junta, who have tied their success to his analysis of Iraq. They have been losing ground to (what one hesitates to call) the moderates anyway, hence Colin Powell's open criticism of the hawks, and his admission that intelligence 'sourcing' was 'deliberately misleading'. However, Powell is an oddity, not a Republican bloc - the two main factions of the Republicans are the neo-con corporate fascists, and the fundamentalist Christian right. Although many rank-and-file Republican voters are neither, the secular and fiscally prudent Republicans are weak in the upper echelons.
There are signs that the cabal of neo-cons, including Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith and Perle are losing influence, as everyone but themselves can now see how delusional and inept their policy has been. Although Rumsfeld seems to have weathered the initial torture outrage, General Sanchez has just been removed from Iraq (for reasons unrelated to torture, of course), and pressure will continue to mount. Feith and Wolfowitz are deeply unpopular with the military, Feith being 'the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the Earth' according to General Tommy Franks. Perle had stepped down from the Defense Policy Board in March, because the tax-dollar-nozzle was too obviously sticking into his pocket. He was on BBC Radio 4 this lunchtime, denouncing the Iran-Chalabi story and suggesting that it was being put about by the CIA, who had never liked Chalabi. He sounded a little paranoid.
Meanwhile, the Christian right are not pleased with the Bush gang either. Stem cell research, the removal of the ten commandments from that courthouse, and the removal of the 'under God' part of the pledge of allegiance in some states all show that Satan is at work in Bush's USA, and no-one has been burnt at the stake! The maladministration's response - a move to make gay marriage unconstitutional - may not be enough to cheer up the Christian right, particularly because Bush's little chum Sharon says he is giving back the Gaza Strip to Palestinians, thus delaying the second coming...

2004-05-25T19:09:00.000+01:00

Blair made a statement at the monthly news conference, saying that the Iraqi government will choose 'whether the troops stay or not,' and will have 'final political control' over actions by coalition forces. This is not backed up by the documents issued by the US. The draft UN resolution makes no mention of an Iraqi right to order the troops out, a point specifically desired even by the puppet Iraqi Governing Council. The resolution allows 'US-led forces to take "all necessary measures" to keep the peace and fight terrorism.' (Reuters.) That sounds like a blank cheque.
The BBC gives some detail about the 'transfer of power':

What happens on 30 June?
Power will transfer from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to an interim Iraqi government. The CPA will cease to exist and its head Paul Bremer will return to the United States. Formally the occupation will end.
Who will be in the interim government?
This has not yet been decided. It will be a government appointed by the CPA with the agreement of the UN and Iraqi political leaders. A United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is currently holding discussions in Iraq and he hopes to have the names well before the handover date.
What powers will the interim government have?
Very limited. It will not be able to make or change any basic law. The US and UK have however recognised that they could hardly call the government "sovereign" if it does not have the ultimate right to ask foreign troops to leave. The government will formally control oil revenues but the budget for this year has been set so its actual influence will be limited. A big US embassy will largely control the flow of US aid.
What control will the government have over security?
It will have a theoretical right to ask foreign troops to leave but will not exercise it since those likely to be in the government have supported the presence of US and other troops.

Bush yesterday gave a weak speech, and where his allies hoped for something new indicating an understanding of the seriousness of the disaster in Iraq, he merely regurgitated the same line as before; the 'exit strategy' being:
Hand over authority to a sovereign Iraqi government;
Help establish the stability and security in Iraq that democracy requires;
Continue rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure;
Encourage more international support;

Move toward free, national elections that will bring forward new leaders empowered by the Iraqi people.

No-one would expect Bush to be told the details of what his administration is doing, but this simple repetition, stay-the-course, must-establish-stability tone indicates that the US is not learning from its mistakes. Response to the speech has been even more unenthusiastic than to the UN resolution.

2004-05-24T12:13:00.000+01:00

Only three days after patronizingly announcing that 'Iraqis are ready to ''take the training wheels off'' and assume political power,' President Dumbfuck has fallen off his bicycle while riding around his ranch, hurting his face. Absolutely priceless.

2004-05-24T10:37:00.000+01:00

BBC R4's Today programme interviewed Jimmy Massey, a former US Marine, who left the military after participating in the brutal occupation of Iraq and is now speaking out. He said vehicles were fired on 'time after time' at checkpoints, because troops had been told that Republican Guards had changed out of uniform, and that ambulances were being 'packed with explosives.' Pulling the trigger had 'no consequences.'
Asked if he was surprised by the Abu Ghraib 'abuses,' he said that type of abuse was 'routine in the US military. Period.'
This is only going to come as a surprise to liberal hawks, who bought the idea of humanitarian military intervention. Because the troops of the capitalist west represented 'civilization' in the form of liberal democracy, the invasion wouldn't lead to oppressive occupation. Oh no.

2004-05-22T12:15:00.000+01:00

This reads like science fiction. Could it be true?

2004-05-20T13:50:00.000+01:00

The ludicrous case brought by demented US Attorney-General Ashcroft against Greenpeace has been dismissed by a judge in Miami.
In April 2002, Greenpeace activists boarded a ship carrying illegally felled mahogany from Brazil to Florida. The minor charges against the peaceful protesters were quickly settled, but then the maladministration decided to prosecute Greenpeace itself. As the account on their website puts it:
'Unable to find a law against protecting the environment, the US government had to improvise. The best they could come up with was an obscure 1872 law against 'sailor mongering.' The bizarre statute was originally designed to discourage owners of inns and brothels from boarding ships as they were about to enter port, in order to lure the sailors into their establishments. It has only been used twice in its 132-year history.'
Fortunately, the judge accepted a Greenpeace motion to dismiss the case, ruling that federal prosecutors had not made their case. Even so, bearing in mind Ascroft's taste for obsolete statutes, his hatred of free speech, and his shiny-eyed Christian fanaticism, activists all over the US, but particularly those in Salem, should be worried.

2004-05-19T15:36:00.000+01:00

The Israeli Defence Force, or 'army,' has recently been underlining the obvious point that the Palestinians have no 'partner for peace' in the troubled region.
'Operation Rainbow,' an armoured assault on the Rafah refugee camp, had already led to 24 Palestinian deaths, when a demonstration against the operation took place today. The protesting locals, irritated at the loss of life and their dwindling stock of houses, was fired upon by the IDF with troops, tanks and helicopters, according to this BBC report. At least eight people were killed, including two children, and the local hospital was overwhelmed with the injured, numbering at least 50.
Amnesty International has noted that the destruction of houses 'violates fundamental principles of international human rights and humanitarian law,' and is now being carried out at 'an unprecedented level.' The same could be said of an army engaging a civilian crowd with helicopters.
Ha'aretz has commented that 'neither the armed men nor the weapons smuggled through the tunnels are a strategic threat to Israel.' Those tunnels are the official pretext for the attack.
President Dumbfuck is apparently 'troubled.'

2004-05-19T14:41:00.000+01:00

The Prime Ministerial peppering with purple powder probably produces a paucity of positive progress. The issue which the perpetrators, protest group 'Fathers for Justice,' were seeking to highlight will certainly get lost in all the coverage of the security issues raised. Security around politicians and the Houses of Parliament will be stepped up, making it harder to throw things at the Prime Minister in future. Worst of all, the democratic accountability of the PM relies on the spectacle of grown human beings shouting lies at each other as their overfed sycophants make grunting noises in the background, and today's democratic shouting and grunting session was shamefully curtailed.
So, protesters, please do not throw harmless things at the Prime Minister.

2004-05-19T14:30:00.000+01:00

The decision by India's presumed new Prime Minister, Sonia Ghandi, to decline the post is peculiar. After the sexist and racist campaigning of the mindlessly nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party was rejected by the electorate, the only explanation offered so far - that she stood down 'to end debate over her foreign birth' - does not cover the situation. If that was the motive, the reasonable time to step down would have been (long) before the election. Ghandi's 'inner voice' which she cited as prompting the decision is not an explanation.
The Indian stock market suffered its largest ever loss and trading was suspended on news of the pro-corporate, pro-globalization BJP's defeat, no doubt due to the Congress / left coalition promises to stop selling off state-owned companies, and make the booming private companies shoulder a larger proportion of the tax burden.
While the Indian people who voted for the Congress Party may feel that they've been the victims of a 'bait-and-switch,' the stock market has cheered up at the news that the most likely candidate is Manmohan Singh, 'safe pair of hands,' who was Governor of Reserve Bank of India ('82-'85.) In the 90s, as Finance Minister in Rao's government, he implemented free-market changes - a rationalisation of the tax system and the repealing of a significant amount of regulations on industry and commerce.

Breaking news:
The Congress PM will be Manmohan Singh. The Indian stock market continues to recover.

2004-05-18T10:13:00.000+01:00

Revolting Jack Straw, British Foreign Secretary and war criminal, seemed to be having difficulty choking out the lies this morning on BBC R4's Today programme. His delivery, normally nervous and staccato, was more than usually stumbling as he tried to fend off Humphrys' tepid questioning.
He conceded that the 'Coalition' was facing difficulties 'greater than it would have been reasonable to foresee nine months ago,' but the truth of this is dependent on accepting a very New Labour definition of 'reasonable.' Everyone capable of rudimentary thought has known for certain, ever since the statue of Saddam was decorated with the stars and stripes, that the famous American cultural sensitivity would produce a giant SNAFU for the occupiers in short order.
When asked if Labour realised that Blair had lost the trust of the bulk of the population over Iraq, and is now a liability for the party, he noted that governments normally faced mid-term difficulties, and went on to praise the economy and the unemployment statistics.
This is a total disconnection from reality, but it goes no further than the tiny clique at the top. Labour is going to get beaten like a red-headed stepchild in the forthcoming elections, and no amount of hot air about 'difficult decisions' will take attention away from the horror that most people feel about Blair's servile participation in Bush's imperial adventure.

2004-05-17T13:19:00.001+01:00

As befits the Land of the Free™, the USA has more prisoners than any other country. According to the UK Home Office's Research, Development and Statistics Directorate's latest findings, the US has both the highest total of caged people, now over 2 million, and the highest per capita rate of incarceration, of 701 prisoners per 100,000 population. By contrast, 60% of countries manage an incarceration rate of 150/100,000 or lower. The figure is only a count of domestic prisoners - those in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and other parts of the anti-terror gulag do not count.
The US domestic prison population does not reflect the ethnic proportions of the whole society. As is well known, the prison population is disproportionately black, with a nationwide per capita incarceration rate over eight times higher for African-Americans than white ones.
However, the US prisons do good for some. The largest players in the 'corrections' industry, such as Wackenhut and Corrections Corporation of America, are enormous companies.
In terms of the death penalty, the US is third, after Iran and China, and only the US and China executed children last year.

2004-05-17T13:19:00.000+01:00

Seymour Hersh has revealed a Pentagon office set up by mechanical sadist Rumsfeld to conduct clandestine war-on-terror-y things, including interrogation at Abu Ghraib. This may be the reason Rumsfeld didn't resign when the torture photos appeared - by waiting for the full development of the scandal, the administration benefits by appearing with as clean a slate as possible after Rumsfeld's departure.
However, political calculation of this kind is irrelevant to the situation in Iraq - half-hearted apologies, promises and a shuffle of defense secretaries will not change the perception of the US as an imperialist aggressor. Even Chalabi, the neo-con hawks' favorite, has been critical of US tactics so far. Many Iraqis believe the US has no intention of pulling out - and since any US puppet democracy will need military support, they're right.
Bush and Blair's reported hope for greater use of the Iraqi security forces will remain optimistic talk while any Iraqis working with the Coalition are seen as collaborators, as hostility to the Governing Council is not limited to the occasional bomber or mortaring of Iraqi police and army. The US would rather not rely on an Iraqi force, but its own forces are spread very thin at the moment. While in Afghanistan, a less integrated and modernised society, installing a puppet regime in Kabul wasn't so hard - US special forces protect him, and in the country-side the same old power factions govern their respective bits, as before. This model won't work in Iraq, which is a more secular, educated and urban society. The US aim of setting up a compliant democracy, which while appearing fair, governs in a manner pleasing to US foreign policy does not seem possible from here.

2004-05-16T13:22:00.000+01:00

The recent kerfuffle in the British press over Piers Morgan resigning from the Mirror, and the suggestions from idiot Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, have served to push the worsening situation in Iraq down the news bulletins' playlists. There has been fighting in Karbala today, and over the weekend in Najaf, resulting in some bullet-damage to the Imam Ali Mosque. The Italians in the Coalition offices in Nasiriyah came under seige, and are now reported to have been evacuated. According to Juan Cole fighting has also broken out in Samawah, the Sadr City area of Baghdad, and near Amara, where British troops were mortared.
The faint, plaintive cries of 'exit strategy?' in the press, and from senior politicians, can only get louder as the extent of the neo-cons' miscalculation becomes more painfully apparent. The current plan to hand over sovereignty in these conditions will be a purely ritual act, and doesn't meet the criterion of an exit strategy - it doesn't provide an exit.

2004-05-13T14:35:00.000+01:00

'Jihad' is a word one sees a lot at the moment, but the translation that is often given in English - 'holy war' - is misleading, and its widespread use is a deliberate attempt to whip up islamophobia.
The word is derived from the Arabic 'jahada,' the verb 'to struggle,' and any thought, speech or action by a Muslim with the aim of becoming a better Muslim is 'jihad.' If a Muslim struggles with temptation, for example the temptation to eat during the daylight fasting during Ramadan, that struggle can be called 'jihad.' The highest form of jihad is this personal struggle to overcome sin - Jihadun-Nafs. (Article.)
Fighting against oppression does also count as jihad, but the common misapprehension that Muslims are instructed by the Koran to wage holy war against non-Muslims is due to deliberate lying by people with a sinister political agenda - an external threat is handy to justify repressive, greed-based policies at home and abroad. If the external threat can be portrayed as implacable fanatics, so much the scarier, so much the better.
Ordinary people, of all nations, races, and creeds, simply wish to live in peace. Sadly, this does not fit in with the plans of the nutters at the top.

2004-05-12T14:14:00.001+01:00

The video clip of the murder of Nick Berg in Iraq is extremely disturbing. It is a very rare thing to see and hear a human being forced across the boundary between life and death. Despite the fact that violent death is a staple of news and current affairs reporting - 'if it bleeds, it leads' - the process of dying is almost never shown. When bodies are shown, they are often photographed from a distance, and particularly badly mangled ones don't pass the audition. Also invisible are those disfigured - known as 'the broken faces' in France after WWI. This squeamishness is particularly noticeable in US and European media, and the more graphic coverage on some Arabic stations such as al-Jazeera has been (implicitly or explicitly) portrayed as propaganda. What al-Jazeera has been doing, however, is showing images which the US doesn't want shown - the results of their bloody occupation. The US administration goes to great lengths to prevent unsavoury pictures appearing, for example the attempted censorship of any images of coffins at Dover AFB, which required a court case to overturn. The reason offered by the US military - that publishing the pictures would violate the privacy of the dead and their families - does not even make sense. The coffins were completely anonymous, and privacy cannot be violated unless individuals are identifiable.
The mainstream media generally co-operates - remember that CBS sat on its documentary showing the Abu Ghraib photos at the request of the US government.
The most squeamish media, by strange coincidence, are those of the countries with the worst records of imperial military intervention - the US and the UK. The truth about their foreign policies is 'far too gruesome to be broadcast,' to coin a phrase.

2004-05-12T14:14:00.000+01:00

From the WTF department: The Pentagon had Zarqawi in the crosshairs three times before the attack on Iraq, but the National Security Council nixed the plans to zap him with cruise missiles each time, allegedly because it would make it harder to get a coalition together to attack Saddam - you know the Hondurans and the Bulgarians are pretty touchy about that kind of thing.
Or perhaps there is a reasonable explanation. Maybe Condi has share options on al-Qaida's forthcoming IPO?

2004-05-11T10:31:00.000+01:00

Bizarre one, this. The fascist British National Party, headed by known Holocaust denier Nick Griffin, has found a Jewish candidate to stand in next month's elections. The BNP's obsessive anti-Semitism is well known to watchers of the tiny, evil sect (see here and pdf here), but the leadership is playing it down as much as possible due to the revulsion anti-Semitism rightly inspires.
Possibly the candidate will see the error of her ways, as did another naif earlier this year. If the BNP's secret heart were to achieve its horrible dreams, she would be disillusioned quite forcefully.

2004-05-10T18:53:00.000+01:00

On the BBC Radio 4 news at 6.00 BST today, British Defence Minister and hole-in-the-air Geoff Hoon declared that he only became aware of the Red Cross report detailing abuses in Iraq a few days ago, despite the fact that the Red Cross gave it to the government in February. He also lied that the Red Cross was generally satisfied with British handling of detainees, although the BBC website reports:
The ICRC examined the arrest of nine men, one of whom died, by coalition forces in Basra on 13 September 2003.
'Following their arrest, the nine men were made to kneel, face and hands against the ground, as if in a prayer position. The soldiers stamped on the back of the neck of those raising their head. ...' The report says the men were later 'severely beaten' by coalition troops. 'One of the arrestees died following the ill-treatment... Prior to his death, his co-arrestees heard him screaming and asking for assistance.' The report says the death certificate for the 28-year-old married father-of-two mentioned 'cardio-respiratory arrest - asphyxia' as the condition leading to his death but said its cause was 'unknown' and should be referred to the coroner. Eyewitnesses told the ICRC the man had a broken nose, several broken ribs and cuts to the face 'consistent with beatings'. ... It says two of the other men arrested were put in hospital with 'severe injuries'.
Disgusting mass-murderer Blair, at a press conference with the visiting Chinese Prime Minister, said that he still hadn't seen the document.
Meanwhile, in the USA, President Dumbfuck and Vice President Ming both said that blood-dripping Rumsfeld was doing a good job.
Hey, Earthlings, do your leaders think that you're all as thick as pigshit, or what?

2004-05-10T15:38:00.000+01:00

A tiny error crept into a Radio Free Neptune report a couple of days ago. We reported that:
'Heavy, physical torture is practiced in various states, such as Syria and Egypt, and although the US is happy to criticize these states...'
The US now appears less than happy to criticize these states: according to the New York Times' editorial last Friday, 'The United States has been humiliated to a point where government officials could not release this year's international human rights report this week for fear of being scoffed at by the rest of the world.'
The newfound sensitivity of the US is noted. But surely giving in to scoffers is tantamount to giving in to 'turrists' (whatever they are)? 'Publish and be damned' is the Neptunian way.

2004-05-09T12:38:00.001+01:00

'Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.' [Luke, 15:7]
Some of the scales appear to have fallen from the eyes of ex-right-wing US crap-monger David Brock, who has set up a website exposing the kind of right-wing media distortions and lies he used to peddle. Let us hope that he fights the vaguely liberal fight as staunchly as risible fellow-convert Arianna Huffington.
In a similar vein, ur-shock-jock Howard Stern has promised to deliver his flock of dittoheads to the Kerry camp, after the far right FCC made moves to crack down on the kind of salacious rubbish that is poor Howard's livelihood.
The current US junta, 'with foreheads villainous low,' is even frightening off its erstwhile buddies. What can it mean?

2004-05-09T12:38:00.000+01:00

Recent climate research involving satellite temperature measurements of different layers of Earth's atmosphere add weight to the already strong evidence of Earthling-induced planetary warming. The majority of boffins already accept that the 25 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide released by human activity every year probably contributes to the observed temperature rise.
The gist of the new research, by University of Washington atmospheric scientist Qiang Fu, is that the troposphere (the lowest layer of the Earth's atmosphere, the 7.5 km nearest the ground,) is in fact warming up, at a rate of about 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade. Previously, although surface temperatures had been observed to increase, warming in the troposphere had not been conclusively observed, and global warming skeptics seized on this to pooh-pooh the idea of human-caused climate change. That position is now harder to maintain, although mendacious Ann-Coulter-wannabe Melanie Phillips has tried to rubbish the work of Qiang Fu and his team. She had dug up the well-known Dr. Roy Spencer, a chum of Prof. John 'plant food' Christy, and peppered her opinion piece with snippets of his work, although there is not enough context for non-specialists to understand the detail of their piece. As quoted, it simply functions to impress the kind of people who take Phillips seriously with unintelligible jargon. She links to the Spencer's piece at Tech Central Station ('Where Free Markets Meet Technology',) and ends by repeating an unwarranted snipe at Nature, the peer-reviewed journal where Qiang Fu's work appeared.
Let's ignore the smokescreen, and state the position simply. Human activity is releasing large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The rate at which Earth absorbs the sun's heat is increasing, and a likely candidate for this phenomenon is atmospheric carbon dioxide. Average surface temperatures have been rising consistently over recent decades, to the extent that glaciers are melting, antarctic ice-shelves are becoming unstable, and extreme weather events appear to be occurring more often. Climate scientists are not unanimous, but the large majority believe that human activity is a factor in climate change and instability.
Those of us with long memories are strongly reminded of the fate of the poor Venusians.

2004-05-08T14:04:00.000+01:00

The security organs of the US have long condoned, taught and practiced torture.
For decades, the 'School of the Americas' at Fort Benning, Georgia, provided instruction in a range of repressive techniques to help their clients in Guatamala, El Salvador, Peru, Argentina and other Latin American states. The targets of repression included Trades Unions organisers, Catholic priests, Indigenous American's rights groups, and anyone else who threatened to reduce the profit margins of US corporations. The school's website is still up, maintained by the DOD 'for historical purposes,' and there you can read stories such as 'U.S. Army's School of the Americas excels in human rights' and 'Army School of Americas Attacked Unfairly.' The school itself was closed in January 2001, and reopened immediately with a new name: the 'Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.'
More interesting are the documents produced by this vile outfit, a sample of which can be found at GWU's National Security Archive. The 'Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual' became quite famous, and some handwritten alterations can be seen in the above archive to change the tone from 'this is how to...' to 'this is how it is done, but you mustn't...'
The pattern of torture currently emerging in Iraq fits the pattern established over decades in Latin America. But the organs can maintain that they only use 'torture-lite' (a phrase first heard in connection with Bagram AFB in Afghanistan,) because the heavy stuff is 'outsourced,' in accordance with war-criminal Rumsfeld's ideological bent. Heavy, physical torture is practiced in various states, such as Syria and Egypt, and although the US is happy to criticize these states, its organs also send random suspects to them for 'extraordinary rendition,' - torture.
As the torturers of the US organs try to disappear into a fog of euphemism, real people are disappearing into jails and camps all over the world.

2004-05-07T17:18:00.000+01:00

Today is the fiftieth anniverary of the French defeat at Din Bien Phu in northern Indochina, a battle which marked the end of French empire in Southeast Asia. To mark the occasion, here is an analysis of the later US-Vietnam war by the tactician responsible for both Vietnamese victories:
'We were not strong enough to drive a half million American troops out of Vietnam, but that wasn't our aim. We sought to break the will of the American government to continue the conflict. Westmoreland was wrong to count on his superior firepower to grind us down. Our Soviet and Chinese comrades also failed to grasp our approach when they asked how many divisions we had in relation to the Americans, how we would cope with their technology, their artillery, their air attacks. We were waging a people's war, à la manière vietnamienne - a total war in which every man, every woman, every unit, big or small, is sustained by a mobilized population. So America's sophisticated weapons, electronic devices and the rest were to no avail. Despite its military power, America misgauged the limits of its power. In war there are two factors - human beings and weapons. Ultimately, though, human beings are the decisive factor. Human beings! Human beings!'
- General Vo Nguyen Giap

2004-05-07T17:04:00.000+01:00

Another in the occasional series of interesting words from Earth languages:
Balagan (Modern Hebrew): Big mess.
Bu'ah (Modern Hebrew): A personal mental and behavioral 'bubble,' only extending to one's immediate neighbourhood, friends and family. A cognitive defensive mechanism, to prevent one from thinking about the balagan.
Hubris (Ancient Greek): Arrogance, overweening pride, defiance shown to the gods.
Miasma (Ancient Greek): Ineradicable moral or spiritual defilement, taint or corruption. Passed from father to son.
The Earth Desk can't think of a use for these words at the moment, but maybe they'll come in handy one day.

2004-05-06T14:18:00.000+01:00

'Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people. That's not the way we do things in America.' So said President Dumbfuck after the torture of detainees came to light.
This view was also expressed by malignant war-monger Rumsfeld, when he said that such abuse of power is 'un-American.'
Even some racist pseudo-progressive op-ed has included views such as:
'What sense can we make of the hideous photographs …? I don't think we will ever understand them, as we will never understand the minds of mass murderers and torturers.'
All this demonstrates profound ignorance of human psychology, as these two experiments show.
Stanley Milgram found that a large majority of normal people would torture other people if told to do so by an 'authority figure.' (brief, detailed.)
Philip Zimbardo found, in an experiment designed only to examine people in captivity, that many people will show surprising levels of brutality if there is institutional support for, or tolerance of, such behaviour. The two week experiment had to be called off after only six days, for fear that someone would get seriously hurt. (brief, detailed.)
People who say 'our people aren't like that' are delusional and bigoted.
People who believe that 'most people aren't like that' are delusional and naïve.
Authority = Institution + Violence.

2004-05-05T18:55:00.000+01:00

The members of the 372nd Military Police Company in the Abu Ghraib photos appear not to want to shoulder the whole responsibility for what they have done.
Their families are presenting an image of confused, untrained young people, well-meaning but out of their depth. Before arriving in Iraq, the 372nd newsletter (sent to soldier's families) reported that 'morale was high, church attendance was regular, and the marching was enthusiastic,' although the amount of sympathy gained by publicizing that is questionable.
"Why was a mechanic allowed to handle prisoners?" asked one parent. "Who was their supervisor? Where was the leadership?"
It's a fair point. The leadership does not appear in a good light either. The commander responsible for Abu Ghraib at the time, General Janis Karpinski, boasted to the St. Petersburg Times, "living conditions now are better in prison than at home. At one point, we were concerned they wouldn't want to leave." This shows a limited understanding of the human desire for freedom, surely surprising in an American.
Some of the soldiers have hired lawyers who are arguing that they were encouraged, even ordered, to perpetrate acts of torture on their captives. But their lawyers should know better. It's a defence that has been tried, and which has failed, before. The Nuremberg Tribunal ruled:
'The fact that the defendant acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior shall not free him from responsibility...' and
'That a soldier was ordered to kill or torture in violation of the international law of war has never been recognised as a defence to such acts of brutality.'
This remains the case, but the Nuremberg judges made another relevant ruling, on the subject of waging wars of aggression:
'War is essentially an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to belligerent States alone but affect the whole world. To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.'
Of course, Bush and Blair will escape trial. They are exempt, under what might be called the Kissinger Corollary:
Laws punish only the defeated, the weak, the helpless.

Breaking news:
A BBC correspondent was among a group who visited Abu-Ghraib today. He reported (Radio 4, 'PM') that a crowd of prisoners started chanting that their rights and dignity had been taken away. The US military wouldn't let the correspondent interview or film the shouting prisoners - on the grounds that filming them would violate their Geneva Convention rights. The group of correspondents were herded back onto their bus...

2004-05-05T09:41:00.000+01:00

Radio Free Neptune is considering offering Earthling cartoonist Steve Bell a solar-system-wide syndication deal, on the basis of work like this.

2004-05-04T23:25:00.000+01:00

Henry Kissinger, repugnant sugar-daddy to numerous tinpot dictators, surfaced on Wolf Blitzer's CNN programme 'Late Edition' last Sunday. The atrocity-monger made some illuminating comments on the Abu Ghraib photos. Let's pick up the interview after his boilerplate shock and outrage...
BLITZER: "But let me interrupt, Dr. Kissinger. Let me interrupt, Dr. Kissinger, and say this: Everyone is saying, "shocked, shocked." they're totally shocked by this. But you know the nature of interrogation of prisoners, prisoners who were suspected of knowing information that could result in the deaths of American soldiers, to humiliate them to stop just short of formally torturing them. Hasn't that been going on in every war?"
KISSINGER: "I suspect that pressure has been put on prisoners possessing intelligence information in every war, and I think what should also keep in mind who these people might have been."
They might have had all the hallmarks of al-Qaida. They might have been random Iraqis, picked up by the uniformly non-Arabic speaking grunts. Better torture 'em to find out, eh, Henry?
"Still, there is no excuse for the pictures that we saw."
Does he mean that there's no excuse for the actions depicted? Or does he mean what he said?
"We have to avoid generalizing this as an example of the conduct of the American armed forces, which behave honorably and decently and courageously."
We have to avoid generalizing, like Amnesty International and the US Army's own report do - Seymour Hersh, earlier in the same programme reported that "[General] Taguba [who investigated the torture reports] says otherwise. He says this is across the board. And what he says that's very important, is that these are jails, by the way, when we talk about prisoners, these are full of civilians. These are people picked up at random checkpoints and random going into houses. And even in the Taguba report, he mentions that upwards of 60 percent or more have nothing to do with anything."
Kissinger continued
"This was -- these events occur under tremendous pressure,"
The Americans in the photos certainly look stressed, don't they?
"when it is believed that very special intelligence information is available. I repeat, they are not excusable. But these are not standard procedures that are even conceivable toward ordinary prisoners."
Henry is lying. The US military is randomly disappearing citizens of the countries it occupies (Afghanistan too) who are detained indefinitely and often tortured. Welcome to the New American Century.

2004-05-04T00:24:00.000+01:00

Following the universal welcome the Iraqis gave to the new Iraqi flag, the CPA has decided to win further hearts and minds by changing the Iraqi national anthem too. Suggestions have been pouring in.
Ahmed Chalabi wants Gloria Gaynor's 'I Will Survive,' but this is thought to be unlikely.
UN Special Envoy Brahimi favours the Talking Heads' 'Road to Nowhere,' but General Kermit has vetoed any Talking Heads, and also ruled out 'Jailhouse Rock.' Sources close to the General have hinted that if he can't have the Muppet Show theme, he wants 'I Don't Like Mahdis' by Bon Jovi.
Viceroy Bremer himself has suggested Johnny Cash's 'The Green, Green Zone of Home.' Tony Blair is known to be a fan of '21st Century Schizoid Man' by King Crimson, but he has no say in anything, because he's a prick. President Cheney, of course, has backed ABBA's 'Money, Money, Money.' A spokesterrorist for al-Qaida suggested Bert Bacharach's 'Trains and Boats and Planes.' Another terrorist organisation, the US Marine Corps, voted for the Beatles song 'Happiness is a Warm Gun.'
General Abizaid thinks that Aretha Franklin's 'Chain (of command) of Fools' would be the ticket, putting him surprisingly close to influential Shia cleric al-Sistani, who chose her 'People Get Ready.'
Insane and sinister Richard Perle is already thinking about 'Next' (Jaques Brel), and hopeless Secretary of Offense Rumsfeld is thought to be backing the Guns 'n' Roses track 'Sweet Child of Mine.' Spain's new leader Sr. Zapatero mentioned 'I'm Leavin' Now' (Johnny Cash) in a bored voice. Chirac and Schroeder issued a joint recommendation for the Horace Silver Quintet's 'Sanctimonious Sam.'
Moqtadr al-Sadr wants Fatwah Domino's 'I Hear You Knocking (But You Can't Come In),' but Kofi Annan suggested Bob Dylan's 'Everything is Broken,' and many ordinary Iraqis chose Dylan's 'It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding).' Evil Paul Wolfowitz is also a Dylan fan, recommending 'Man In a Long Black-Op.'
Nobody at all has suggested Louis Armstrong's 'What a Wonderful World.'

2004-05-03T17:50:00.000+01:00

About a month ago, the Earth Desk wagered the sum of ten British pounds of money with the Resolute Cynic, concerning the forthcoming balloon-collecting competition in the US. Cynic thinks that Baby Bush will be a one-term president, just as Papa Bush was, because of the mounting body-count of US troops in Iraq, and the revelations of the stream of highly placed whistleblowers from the US establishment demonstrating how inept and delusional the US ruling junta is. The steady erosion of support for the as-stupid-as-he-is-odious president seems to bear out Cynic's view.
These are reasonable grounds for thinking that the Earth Desk tenner is going to be converted into beer by the Earthling, but there are also signs pointing the other way. The deeply sinister Diebold company which manufactures computerised voting equipment has just had all of its gizmos decertified in California, but they are not the only electoral machine company, nor have they been decertified in any other US state (yet). It is quite likely that the November election will feature inauditable electronic voting systems from Republican-supporting companies in a number of places, despite the efforts of the good people at Black Box Voting and others.
Even if the Republicans fail to steal the election with high-tech tomfoolery, there's another tried and tested method which they wouldn't scruple to use: disenfranchising African-Americans, an overwhelmingly Democratic demographic group.
The wager still looks finely balanced. Needless to say, Radio Free Neptune's coverage will remain objective and fair, despite financial interest in the outcome.

2004-05-03T13:49:00.000+01:00

Seymour Hersh's article on US abuse of Iraqi prisoners here.

2004-05-03T13:36:00.000+01:00

The insurgency/terrorism in Saudi Arabia is becoming harder to ignore - although media attention in the West has focused far more on neighbouring Iraq, it is clear that the temperature in the kingdom has been rising fast since 911.
On the BBC's Today program, Crown Prince Hassan of Jordan referred to 'enormous problems of explosions all over Saudi Arabia,' perhaps meaning attacks like these (here, here, and here.) As a result, some western companies are pulling their people out, US citizens have been advised to leave by their embassy, and US diplomatic staff are confined to their quarters and offices. The acting ruler, Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, has vowed to strike the terrorists with an iron fist, which usually does the trick.
The ruling family, after which the country was named, have some severe problems - the current king, King Fahd, is old and seriously ill, and his death may trigger political instability in the elite, who have been playing a double game for years.
They have conducted business in the traditional capitalist way, living a fabulously opulent lifestyle by maintaining close links with the capitalist elite in the west, the US in particular, and the filthy Nazi-collaborating Bush clan in particular in particular. As is well known, the bin Ladens have also traded merrily with the Bushes.
However, Saudi society has been governed in a repressive and puritanical way, following a school of Islamic thought totally at odds with the capitalist elite's lifestyle, and to maintain support from the clerics they seem to have been funding and supporting some very sinister organisations. (here and here, counter-argument here).
With the US tackling terrorism, not in terms of arresting criminals, but in terms of a war perceived as an attack on all things Islamic, the position of the House of Saud is becoming more precarious by the week.

2004-05-02T13:31:00.000+01:00

David Kay, ex-head of the Iraq Survey Group, today stated that the pre-war failure of intelligence to assess the position correctly, and to predict the 'post-conflict environment,' was due to an uncritical reliance on the tales told by Iraqi exiles. Since the neo-cons are generally fans of Machiavelli - one of the interests of Leo Strauss, their chief theoretician - it is surprising that they missed his explicit advice on exiles:
'so intense is their desire to get back home that they naturally believe much that is false and artfully add much more.' [Discourses, bk II, ch 31].
How true.

2004-05-01T13:56:00.000+01:00

Some British pundits have recently been rather smug about the superiority of British methods of colonial 'peacekeeping' (yup, thats what it is, sure) over American ones, as these remarks by hired killer General Sir Michael Jackson show, so the photos of British troops humiliating and torturing an Iraqi in today's Daily Mirror are rather embarassing.
Skull-faced auxiliary Jackson, the Chief of the General Staff, immediately went into a paroxysm of bullshit, the content of which you can easily guess:'not fit to wear the Queen's uniform... besmirched the good name of the Army... ill-discipline of a few soldiers... &c... &c...'
This off-the-shelf mendacity was given the stamp of approval by 10 Downing Street, and the Armed Forces Minister made his own noises of concern.
The fluency of the establishment when it comes to excusing the Army comes from years of practice. Brutality and torture have been hallmarks of Britain's military interventions since WWII, and similar reports of atrocities have come from Cyprus, Kenya (before and after independence,) and Ireland to name three. The fun and games in Malaya, Iran, Kenya and British Guiana are described in 'Web of Deceit' which makes interesting but grim reading.
Brutal government policy, implemented brutally. Same old same old.

2004-04-29T17:08:00.000+01:00

The US and UK have worked together many times before to bring self-determination to others. A good example is the treatment of the people of the Chagos Archipelago, a chain of small islands well to the south of India which are still nominally governed by the British as part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT.)
The islanders had unwisely chosen to be born on islands which are ideally placed for a military base controlling the Indian Ocean, and in 1966 the UK signed a lease for a US military base on Diego Garcia for fifty years, in return for a discount on the Polaris submarine missile system. The deal was kept secret from the US Congress and British parliament.
The problem was, the Americans wanted Diego Garcia, and the other islands of the archipelgo 'swept' clean of people. The UN Declaration of Human Rights states that 'No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.' (Article 9) and that 'Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.' (Article 13) Awkward, no?
Starting in 1965, legal and diplomatic shenanigans separated the islands from Mauritius, whence they had been administered, and while Mauritius became independent in 1968, the Chagos Islands were incorporated into the BIOT. The population was redefined as 'transients' by the 1971 Immigration Ordinance, which did not go before parliament, and a two-pronged strategy for dealing with the diplomatic issues raised was ironed out: keep quiet, and failing that, lie.
Between 1971 and 1973 the population was deported to Mauritius, to live among an ethnically different population and in an economy where the islanders' skills were not appropriate. They still live there in poverty.
In 2000, the islanders launched a High Court action against the British government, and despite Robin Cook's once-vaunted but quickly-forgotten 'ethical foreign policy,' the government contested the action after coming under pressure from the US government. The islanders wished to go back to two of the islands that the US were not using for bases - not to Diego Garcia - but even this 'would significantly degrade the strategic importance of a vital military asset unique in the region,' according to the US government.
Surprisingly, the islanders won a partial victory, the judges ruling that there was "no source of lawful authority" to justify deportation, and the Immigration Ordinance was repealed, hence the mistakenly optimistic last paragraphs of this detailed article from 2001. However, the military status of Diego Garcia was upheld, and the islanders were not allowed back. Their last legal action failed in October 2003, the judge ruling that they had 'no reasonable grounds for bringing the claim, and that it had no real prospect of success... The claim of unlawful exile as a legal wrong was not arguable.'
At least the US has been using the base to bring self-determination to Afghans and Iraqis - delivered by the B-52s based there - and they have laid to rest the myth that Americans have no irony - the base is apparently called 'Camp Justice.'

2004-04-29T15:24:00.000+01:00

The US military has had to start an inquiry into torture of Iraqi detainees by Americans in Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, now that 'dozens' of photographs of beatings, torture and humiliation have been given to CBS news.
One reservist interviewed by CBS said
"Military intelligence has encouraged and told us 'Great job.' ...
We help getting them to talk with the way we handle them. ... We've had a very high rate with our style of getting them to break. They usually end up breaking within hours."
CBS continues:
According to the Army’s own investigation, that’s what was happening. The Army found that interrogators asked reservists working in the prison to prepare the Iraqi detainees, physically and mentally, for questioning.
But so far, none of the interrogators at Abu Ghraib are facing criminal charges. In fact, a number of them are civilians, and military law doesn’t apply to them.
...
One of the civilian interrogators at Abu Ghraib was questioned by the Army, and he told investigators he had "broken several tables during interrogations, unintentionally," while trying to "fear up" prisoners. He denied hurting anyone.
Its about time the military cracked down on this sort of thing. How can their goons concentrate on torturing some captive when they're being distracted by cameras clicking away? And surely stronger tables can be found?

2004-04-28T21:05:00.000+01:00

The fictional cease-fire flared into the headlines again today, as the US used artillery and air strikes against Falluja.
Blair, controlled by the microchip implanted by the neo-cons, today described the resistance there as 'Saddam regime remnants and terrorists,' and Gen. Kimmit referred to a 'determined aspiration on the part of the coalition to maintain the ceasefire,' bizarrely opining that 'a military solution is simple, quick and easy to turn on and off.'
Back in the real world, other sources were more ambivalent. A BBC radio correspondent noted that many Iraqis were 'not wildly pro-American,' and the UN special envoy Brahimi said that 'there is great risk of a very bloody confrontation,' which is a safe prediction in the middle of a very bloody confrontation.
Joining in the state-the-bleedin'-obvious-fest was Kofi Annan, who stated that 'the more the occupation is seen as taking steps that harm the civilians and the population, the greater the ranks of the resistance grows.'
Meanwhile, the collective punishment of Falluja continues, in contravention of Article 33 of the 4th Geneva Convention, as ordered by Bush. There is an Amnesty USA campaign to write to Rumsfeld objecting to earlier incidents of collective punishment which wins the worthy-but-futile prize for this week. Please mark your envelopes 'FAO FBI.'

2004-04-28T01:06:00.000+01:00

The unprecedented criticism of Blair from senior diplomatic-establishment figures seems to have rattled him.
Yesterday he made two loud policy speeches before lunchtime. He prodded at the can of worms that is immigration, hoping to placate both normal people and Daily Mail readers with blather about 'managed migration' and a 'top-to-bottom' review of current practice.
He also sounded off about the environment - along the lines of 'gosh, yes, looks bad'. He claimed 'climate change was the single most important global issue' - but typically, he wouldn't criticize Bush, and all he contributed was hot air.
Blair's random hoofing at political footballs won't fool many - he is desperate to avoid his administration being defined by the Iraq war in history books of the future, and chaff thrown up on domestic issues will, he hopes, distract.
But the size of the Whitehall and intelligence iceberg that the Blair government has struck is only hinted at by the letter from former ambassadors. Further evidence comes from the state broadcaster. On BBC Radio 4 at midnight (BST) was a report of widespread understanding amongst Foreign Office apparatchiks of the concerns expressed; it was suggested that Sir Jeremy Greenstock was sympathetic to the statement. This is remarkably strong language.
There was a Soviet joke/observation that all the news was in 'Pravda', but you had to know how to read 'Pravda'. The Civil Service requires similar decryption.

2004-04-27T19:56:00.000+01:00

The Earth Desk's media section has just been to see 'The Fog of War.' This film is an extended interview with Robert McNamara, a senior member of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, intercut with archive footage and White House tape recordings. McNamara has a lot of blood on his hands - he was involved in the statistical analysis of bombing raids on Japan in the Second World War to improve their efficiency, and he was Secretary of Defense before and during the Vietnam War. He left office (was pushed, possibly) in 1968 when he failed to completely succumb to the disconnection from reality which characterised the LBJ administration's groupthink, but quietly went off to head the World Bank rather than speaking out.
When people leave public office during a crisis and immediately warn the public about their government (Clarke, O'Neill, Foster, Kay, various others), and criticism from retired diplomats and intelligence officers is voiced in public, it is reasonable to recall the Vietnam era - another case where the shrinking group of Believers at the top insisted on the wisdom of their folly against all evidence. The analogy might not be as 'false' as Rove's puppet told you.
McNamara knows that he made some very bad choices over Vietnam, and a huge number of people died as a result. This knowledge has plainly eaten away at him during the years he didn't speak about the subject, and even in this film he avoids answering the questions 'Why didn't you speak out after leaving the Johnson administration?' and 'Do you feel guilty?' In the end, the interviewer, Errol Morris, doesn't push McNamara on the hard questions. McNamara admits errors in general, but no specific errors, polishing his reputation with a little humility, but pleading guilty to nothing.
When talking about the Tokyo raids, McNamara recalls a comment in which he is told that what they were doing would constitute war crime if they were on the losing side. The camera stays on him as his eyes fill and his chin reddens and quivers. He appears as one of the Elder Statesmen, 'sensitive' (as he describes himself), and burdened with a troubled conscience. After a career like that, he should be.

2004-04-26T23:43:00.000+01:00

(Warning - this item contains links to tedious pages.)
The great virtue of the market is that it provides choice - in Britain, choice was widened a couple of years ago when the citizens were given a range of telephone directory enquiry services to choose from. Before, there was one damn communistic number, but now the freedom-loving British have a choice.
The free market model relies on people acting as self-interested, informed consumers. So, before dialling, they should choose the most cost-effective service. The different companies offering the service are motivated by profit, so the customer should be the beneficiary.
Once they have learned the tariffs of the directory enquiry companies, they are ready to move on to the cost-schemes of the mobile phone companies. Gas and electricity suppliers also compete for custom.
You have to hand it to the capitalists, they offer a bewildering variety of choices. Sadly, choosing to spend your spare time in a more fulfilling and creative way than poring over prices is not one of them.

2004-04-25T23:09:00.000+01:00

The British Home Secretary David Blunkett is accelerating the introduction of ID cards for his flock. The majority of the population is said to be willing to carry them, in the light of the War On Terror for which the government has such enthusiasm.
The common argument you will hear is that 'if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.' The problem with this argument is that there is no logical point at which it no longer applies. Full cavity search when you walk out of your front door? 'If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.'
Ownership of statistical data on populations by government has not always been beneficial, so even if you trust the present lot, you have to recognise that they're building tools which can be used for totalitarian purposes.
The kind of statistical processing of people which ID systems are designed for inevitably means 'false positive' identifications. When data for millions of people is sitting on a government database, some will be identified as 'terrorists' from their 'profile'. When people can be imprisoned without charge or trial, on the basis of information which is concealed under the cloak of 'national secirity,' the chain is complete - ID cards will mean more innocent people being imprisoned, indefinitely and without charges or trial.

2004-04-25T00:11:00.000+01:00

Osama bin Laden, shadowy evil genius and 2001 BAFTA winner, is not so unambiguously a product of the Heathen East as some would have you believe. His family are not ascetic imams, but super-wealthy capitalists enjoying very cosy business relationships with the Bush family. Big cars and shopping in the rich capitalist countries is their thing. And guess who was on the only non-military flights in the lockdown of US airspace after 9-11?
The fact that the budding 'al-Qaida' movement was trained and funded by the West's secret services is well known (e.g. here and here), but the whole idea may have come from the Eastern mystic Isaac Asimov's 'Foundation' sci-fi series - food for thought, unless you and your dialysis machine are fasting for Ramadan.

2004-04-24T23:34:00.000+01:00

The historical info in this post comes from Howard Zinn's 'A People's History of the United States.' Zinn was one of the people with whom Daniel Ellsberg left a copy of the 'Pentagon Papers' for safekeeping. Ellsberg sees a similarity between the way intelligence was used in the Vietnam war era and the way Baby Bush's maladministration uses it, and calls for leaks from insiders.
Howard Zinn, a history professor at Boston, draws the obvious conclusion from the fact that congressional and judicial 'checks and balances' (such as they are) have broken under the weight of the far right's determination to have a war.
'Big ups,' as younger Earthlings say, to both.

2004-04-24T09:19:00.000+01:00

In a recent tragic incident, a fifteen year old 'detainee' (he'd have to have lived another three years to become a 'prisoner') was overpowered, fatally, at Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre in Northamptonshire, England. A plod said "it was necessary for staff to exercise their normal techniques of physical control and care in dealing with Gareth. While that procedure was being undertaken he lost consciousness."
'Physical control' is euphemistic enough, but what is the 'and care' doing there? Physical care should mean a hug, or holding someone's hand if they are in pain. If they end up dead, you're doing it wrong.
The killers in this case weren't police or prison officers, but employees of Group 4, which may be some comfort to the market solutions fans out there - the private service can do everything the state one does.

2004-04-23T09:02:00.000+01:00

Bringing 'em on, and bringing 'em back...

An activist in the US has used the FOIA to get the military to release pictures of coffins arriving back at Dover Air Force Base. Notice how neatly and lovingly Old Glory has been wrapped round the caskets - it makes them look like lovely big Christmas prezzies.
The Pentagon is upset that they are appearing on the Web, so I'd like to express my sympathy for the top US brass at this difficult time. Lets hope it doesn't reduce popular enthusiasm for bloody imperial conquest.

2004-04-22T23:42:00.000+01:00

A friend of mine who has very acute political antennae sees Blair's decision to hold a referendum on the European constitution as follows:
"I can't help thinking that Blair's referendum idea is actually designed to give him grounds for resignation. Wouldn't you want your political obituary to end '...forced from office after his courageous effort to lead Britain into Europe failed in face of xenophobic tabloid press...', rather than '...forced to resign after the occupation of Iraq decended into chaos...' "
Sounds about right. Blair's statement today that he wouldn't have to resign if he lost the referendum is just window-dressing; he would say that, wouldn't he?

2004-04-22T17:29:00.000+01:00

Hey, guess what? Your leaders regard you as 'fungible' - bet that gets up your funny triangular noses!

Of course, people didn't used to be fungible - during the American Civil War, James Mellon avoided military service after his father wrote to him that "a man may be a patriot without risking his own life or sacrificing his health. There are plenty of lives less valuable." Other patriotic non-combatants included J. P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, Philip Armour and John D. Rockefeller. Couldn't happen today.

2004-04-22T00:03:00.000+01:00

I thought, what with al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army, that I ought to find out what 'Mahdi' meant. I wondered if it was the same sort of 'Mahdi' whose forces slaughtered General Gordon in Khartoum back in 1885, and caused the British considerable expenditure of blood and treasure as they showed how civilisation worked.
Turns out, 'Mahdi' is an Arabic word for 'he who is led aright [by Allah]'. Its a Shia thing, and it refers to a messianic 'spiritual and temporal leader.' [OED]
Is there an American word meaning 'he who is led entirely wrong [by Dick Cheney], lies to his people, and pisses their blood into foreign sand for the benefit of Halliburton, [whose company?]'
Is there a British word for 'grinning, lying whore whose knees go weak in the presence of rich men, who eagerly pisses other men's blood into foreign sand while deluding himself that he has integrity'?

2004-04-21T11:49:00.000+01:00

The thing that strikes all visitors to Earth about the US Marine Corps is their humanity and empathy with the poor and downtrodden - and their unflagging good sense.

2004-04-21T11:20:00.000+01:00

Last Sunday the 24th London Marathon was held, along the usual route which runs past my local pub. I normally wander along and have a few of your Earthling 'beers', watching as the procession gradually changes in composition from stick-thin obsessives zoned out on their own endorphins, to bleeding-nippled Elvises playing infarction roulette.
This year the weather was wet and grey, so I stayed in bed and missed it, but last year I observed an incident which offers a window into the tiny mentality of the British 'Bobby' (aka 'filth').
The runners drink energy drinks out of squashy plastic pouches as they run, and chuck them away when they've had enough. One of the coppers policing the event trod on a half-full one, and energy drink squirted over the leg of a nearby spectator, who good-naturedly began bantering with the copper, saying she would file a complaint. The cop's reaction was immediate - he covered his left shoulder with his right hand, and his right shoulder with his left hand, obscuring the ID numbers sewn onto the uniform there.
While all this was carried on in a humorous way, it does show the attitude of the police towards public complaints - 'make sure they can't identify you...' The commandment they try not to break is the eleventh, 'thou shalt not get caught.'
This wouldn't matter if it was only about trivial incidents like that one, but since the police make it their business to kick the shit out of (disproportionately non-white) citizens...

2004-04-20T13:03:00.000+01:00

One would be forgiven for thinking that even the US governing elite couldn't be stupid enough to make the mistakes that they have in Iraq. Examples are dismissing the Iraqi army with weapons but no pay, closing down al-Sadr's paper (circulation around 10,000),
and winning hearts and minds the Westmoreland way in Fallujah and elsewhere. Oh yes, and starting the war in the first place.
However, we can only call an action a mistake if we know what the actor's aim was - read an article about the ideas of the political science professor which form the basis of the neo-con philosophy here. A longer article on the same subject can be found here.
If the prospect of reading a short article on political philosophy fills you with fear or boredom, the main point can be summarised as:
"Scientists have proved that voting equipment gives off gases which cause cancer and worsen your accuracy at rifle- and handgun-shooting. Especially in November."

2004-04-20T12:47:00.000+01:00

Last week, before the scrunchy-faced chimp pointed out its irrelevance, I started reading Michael Herr's excellent and idiosyncratic book on the US war in Vietnam, "Dispatches."
Here is a morsel:

"It was axiomatic that it was about ideological space, we were there to bring them the choice, bringing it to them like Sherman bringing the Jubilee through Georgia, clean through it, wall to wall with pacified indigenous and scorched earth... There was such a dense concentration of American energy there, American and essentially adolescent, if that energy could have been channelled into anything more than noise, waste and pain it would have lighted up Indochina for a thousand years." (p 42)

2004-04-19T20:19:00.001+01:00

The once-noteworthy newspaper 'The Sunday Times' publishes a list of the richest people in the United Kingdom every year, possibly to encourage the rest, and as usual the state broadcaster the 'BBC' noted some salient points in its news bulletins on that day (Five Live radio, 18 April 2004). The point they drew attention to was the replacement at the top of the list of the Duke of Westminster (top for the last three years) by the Russian entrepreneur Roman Abramovich.
The BBC's coverage is only of interest for the precise wording of the bulletin. They announced that the Duke had been 'usurped' by the Russian. According to my guide to the local language, the 'Oxford English Dictionary', the verb 'usurp' means 'to seize or assume (a throne or power etc.) wrongfully'. Now, since the rich list is based on a simple total of the cash value of the assets of the hyper-wealthy, it is odd to bring in a word with moral freight. Perhaps the BBC is casting aspersions on the way Abramovich made his money (a sinister form of compulsory swindle the Earthlings refer to as 'capitalism'). Perhaps the BBC feels that the richest in the land should be a Duke. I can't fathom it, but I know that manipulation of public sentiment of this sort would never occur in Neptunian broadcasting.

More seriously, the BBC have just announced (6.00 pm BST, Five Live radio) that negotiations in Fallujah have led to a 'reduction in tension' between the Fallujans and the US Marines, 'tensions', the BBC notes, which have been 'high' since the killing of four US contractors (mercenaries). Tensions have been high? TENSIONS have been HIGH? Six hundred plus dead Iraqis and 'tensions have been high'? What happened, did the five-hundred-pound bombs dropped on their mosque cause them to forget to take their ulcer medication? Maybe they forgot to listen to their whale-song cassettes while US snipers shot up ambulances? Refering to the recent ground-assault against civilians as 'tensions running high' seems to be a slight understatement.

2004-04-19T20:19:00.000+01:00