Quote of the day: The ‘genius’ of neoconservatism

From Harvard international relations professor Stephen M. Walt, writing in Foreign Policy:

Neoconservatism’s final strand of twisted genius is its imperviousness to contrary evidence. Because most of their prescriptions are so extreme, they can explain away failure by claiming that the country just didn’t follow their advice with sufficient enthusiasm. If we lost in Iraq, that’s because Bush didn’t attack Iran and Syria too, or it’s because Obama decided to withdraw before the job was really done. (Such claims are mostly nonsense, of course, but who cares?) If Afghanistan turned into a costly quagmire on Bush’s watch, it’s because Clinton and Bush refused to ramp up defense spending as much as the neocons wanted. If we now headed for the exit with little show for our effort, it’s because we didn’t send a big enough Afghan surge in 2009-2010. For neocons, policy failure can always be explained by saying that feckless politicians just didn’t go as far as the neocons demanded, which means their advice can never be fully discredited.

To be sure, neoconservatives are not the only people who employ the latter tactic. Liberal economist Paul Krugman famously argues that Obama’s stimulus package failed to produce the desired results because wasn’t big or bold enough; the difference between Krugman and most neocons is that Krugman may well be right. By contrast, there’s hardly any evidence to suggest that the United States would be better off if it had done all of the things that neoconservatives advised; all we can say with confidence is that the country would now be poorer, less popular around the world, and more American soldiers would now be dead or grievously wounded.

In this sense, neoconservatives are like someone who is constantly telling you to jump off a twenty story building, and promising that if you do, you’ll fly. If you decide to be prudent and jump from the 10th floor instead, and find yourself plummeting toward earth, they’ll just say you failed because you didn’t follow their advice to the letter.

Read the rest.

Two remarkable videos on a crucial issue

The presidential foreign policy debate was dominated by one single issue: Whether Mitt Romney or Barack Obama would do the most for Israel.

As Stephen Colbert commented the next day, “I was playing a drinking game last night where I took a shot of Manischevitz every time someone said Israel, and by the end of the debate I was totally diabetic.”

So today we offer videos offering alternative views on that most contentious of issues.

How We Can Solve The Palestinian Israeli Problem

Sami Moukaddem, a writer and musician born in Lebanon and trained in psychology at Trinity College Dublin, writes that “In 2009 I bought a video camera with no training in film making and embarked upon making a documentary on the Palestinian/Israel problem.”

From the film’s website:

This film is about equality, which makes me on everybody’s side. It’s my belief that oppression harms the humanity of the oppressed as well as the humanity of the oppressor. While this happens in different ways, ultimately, I believe we’re all in this together.

While emotionally I resonate more with the oppressed, my aim is to find ways to empower the oppressed, and also inspire both societies of the oppressor and colluding societies, so that all are moving towards equality.

Among the interviewees are Denis J. Halliday [former United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq], British journalist Jonathan Cooke, Palestinian activist Omar Barghouti, Israeli economist Shir Hever, Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire, Noam Chomsky, former British intelligence [MI6] officer Alastair Crooke, Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, and Holocaust survivor Hajo Meyer [who draws some ominous historical parallels].

It’s a warm, poignant, and ultimately hopeful story, and well worth your time.

H/T to Moussequetaire.

America’s Secretary of State, Benjamin Netanyahu?

A remarkable video featuring University of Chicago political scientist and international relations expert John J. Mearsheimer examining the sad subservience of Barack Obama to the agenda set by the Israeli prime minister.

The talk was delivered earlier this month at Koç University in Istanbul.

It’s a stunning and informative talk, revealing the extent of a foreign power’s control over the American foreign policy agenda, and the abject surrender of the national political establishment.

H/T to Pulse.

Mearsheimer also delivered a second address at the university, “Realism and the Rise of China,” which can be viewed here.

And a bonus video. . .

Here’s a White House video from May, 2011, of Obama and Netayahu illustrating Mearsheimer’s remarks. Pay close attention to the body language, both postures and gestures.

Charlie Chaplin: A Message for All of Humanity

From vlogger and remix artist TragedyandHope, Charlie Chaplin’s soliloquy from The Great Dictator with images for our times:

Killing innocents, making enemies, breaking laws

Living Under Drones, a just-released and stunning report on America’s drone wars from the International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic of Stanford Law School and the Global Justice Clinic at New York University School of Law, offers a scathing debunking of the “death from above” strategy of “targeted killings” so eagerly embraced by both George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

First, a video featuring interviews with researchers and survivors from Brave New Foundation:

Rather than describe the report, here’s the first part of the Executive Summary and Recommendations, featuring a sharp, critical debunking of the rationale embraced by both administrations:

In the United States, the dominant narrative about the use of drones in Pakistan is of a surgically precise and effective tool that makes the US safer by enabling “targeted killing” of terrorists, with minimal downsides or collateral impacts.

This narrative is false.

Following nine months of intensive research—including two investigations in Pakistan, more than 130 interviews with victims, witnesses, and experts, and review of thousands of pages of documentation and media reporting—this report presents evidence of the damaging and counterproductive effects of current US drone strike policies. Based on extensive interviews with Pakistanis living in the regions directly affected, as well as humanitarian and medical workers, this report provides new and firsthand testimony about the negative impacts US policies are having on the civilians living under drones.

Real threats to US security and to Pakistani civilians exist in the Pakistani border areas now targeted by drones. It is crucial that the US be able to protect itself from terrorist threats, and that the great harm caused by terrorists to Pakistani civilians be addressed. However, in light of significant evidence of harmful impacts to Pakistani civilians and to US interests, current policies to address terrorism through targeted killings and drone strikes must be carefully re-evaluated.

It is essential that public debate about US policies take the negative effects of current policies into account.

First, while civilian casualties are rarely acknowledged by the US government, there is significant evidence that US drone strikes have injured and killed civilians. In public statements, the US states that there have been “no” or “single digit” civilian casualties.” It is difficult to obtain data on strike casualties because of US efforts to shield the drone program from democratic accountability, compounded by the obstacles to independent investigation of strikes in North Waziristan. The best currently available public aggregate data on drone strikes are provided by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), an independent journalist organization. TBIJ reports that from June 2004 through mid-September 2012, available data indicate that drone strikes killed 2,562-3,325 people in Pakistan, of whom 474-881 were civilians, including 176 children. TBIJ reports that these strikes also injured an additional 1,228-1,362 individuals. Where media accounts do report civilian casualties, rarely is any information provided about the victims or the communities they leave behind. This report includes the harrowing narratives of many survivors, witnesses, and family members who provided evidence of civilian injuries and deaths in drone strikes to our research team. It also presents detailed accounts of three separate strikes, for which there is evidence of civilian deaths and injuries, including a March 2011 strike on a meeting of tribal elders that killed some 40 individuals.

Second, US drone strike policies cause considerable and under-accounted-for harm to the daily lives of ordinary civilians, beyond death and physical injury. Drones hover twenty-four hours a day over communities in northwest Pakistan, striking homes, vehicles, and public spaces without warning. Their presence terrorizes men, women, and children, giving rise to anxiety and psychological trauma among civilian communities. Those living under drones have to face the constant worry that a deadly strike may be fired at any moment, and the knowledge that they are powerless to protect themselves. These fears have affected behavior. The US practice of striking one area multiple times, and evidence that it has killed rescuers, makes both community members and humanitarian workers afraid or unwilling to assist injured victims. Some community members shy away from gathering in groups, including important tribal dispute-resolution bodies, out of fear that they may

Spanish military threatens coup over Catalonia

While officers of the Portuguese military are warning that they might intervene against the austerity regime being forced on an increasingly angry nation, the military threat in Spain comes from the opposite direction, invoking the ghost of fascist dictator Francisco Franco.

The threat from Col. Francisco Alamán Castro was buried at the very bottom of a report on the secession movement in Catalonia by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the London Telegraph. Why it wasn’t the lead is simply beyond our ken:

A serving army officer, Colonel Francisco Alaman, has fuelled the flames by comparing the crisis with 1936 – when Gen Francisco Franco seized power – and by vowing to crush Catalan nationalists, described as “vultures”.

“Independence for Catalunya? Over my dead body [Spanish original "per sobre del meu cadàver" — esnl].  Spain is not Yugoslavia or Belgium. Even if the lion is sleeping, don’t provoke the lion, because he will show the ferocity proven over centuries,” he said.

Retired Lt-Gen Pedro Pitarch, a former army chief, said the words reflect “deeply-rooted thinking in large parts of the armed forces”. He also accused Madrid of bungling the Catalan drama disastrously.

“Are we looking at a failed state?” he asked. Investors holding Spanish debt are listening carefully.

Read the rest.

The Catalonian independence is becoming a formidable force, able to mobilize millions to march for their cause, ad they did earlier this month.

Here’s a video from the movement produced and aired before the 11 September march:

And here’s a brief video made on the day of the march, featuring interviews with English-speakers:

The movement also boasts an English-language website, Help Catalonia.

And in this remarkable October 2011 video, the late veteran socialist jurist and politician Gregorio Peces-Barba, one of the principal authors of the post-Franco constitution, jokes about bombing the Catalonian capital, Barcelona:

Here’s the quote, from the Help Catalonia website:

I believe that we’ll be in a better position than in the past. I don’t know how many times we had to bomb Barcelona in the past, but next time we’ll be able to find a solution that does not involve bombing that city.

For many centuries now, that has been Spain’s main concern regarding this issue, ever since Count-Duke Olivares had to confront the Portuguese and Catalan uprising. By the way, it seems to me that Catalans celebrate a defeat on their so called national day.

At that point in history a decision was made, namely, letting go of the Portuguese and retaining the Catalans. I always like to joke about this. What would have happened had we retained the Portuguese, but let the Catalans go? Perhaps it would have been a better deal for us. Well, that’s all in the past now, we can’t… anyway, it might’ve been a huge problem. We wouldn’t have had Madrid vs. Barcelona soccer matches. Of course, that’s always of the utmost importance.

There’s a certain irony in a man who professes to be a socialist harkening back to the bombing carried out by Franco during the Spanish Civil War.

Before Franco’s victory, the Second Spanish Republic had granted regional autonomy to Catalonia, which was quickly abolished by Franco after his victory, along with the use of the Catalonian dialect.

Ex-NYT reporter blasts paper’s propagandizing

An important report from former Berkeley Community Access journalist Abby Martin on her new RT series, Breaking the Set, featuring a former New York Times foreign correspondent on the paper’s relentless pushing of the Washington line in its Middle East coverage.

As a veteran of 47 years covering the news, we can say Martin’s exactly right when she called his former post “a dream job.”

A foreign correspondent traditionally had far greater freedom in covering stories in the full breadth, knowing that there was little risk in stepping on advertiser toes of those of the publisher’s club buddies [always a hazard when writing about things closer to home].

Another former Times foreign correspondent lost his job over Mideast issue, but Chris Hedges was sidelined for participating in a demonstration against America’s Mideast military adventurism — and participating in any kind of demonstration would get most reporters fired from most American newspapers, since the ethics of American journalism require a reporter conceal her honest opinions.

But Daniel Simpson quit his job, and as any honest journalist will tell you these days, finding new jobs is a hard thing to do in the days of rampant downsizing and newspaper revenue collapse. [We also quit a job at a well-known paper for similar reasons, the suppression of this story.]

When he joined the paper in 2002 — when the Times was publishing “fake intelligence information to promote the war in Iraq” — he was stationed in the Balkans where, he said, he was supposed to be reporting on another fake war created by false intelligence against manufactured enemies [Serbs].

In the paper’s “fixed narrative line,” the U.S. was “portrayed as the good guys who had gone in to fix a problem.

At one point, he says, fellow Times reporter Judith Miller — the conduit for all those false spook-and-White-House-spun stories about Iraqi WMDs — tried to get him to report that Serbs were trying to sell Iraq WMD delivery systems [actually, spare parts for planes].

Senior staff at the Times, he says, thinks exactly the same way as the people in power, the very sources they’re told to cultivate.

For more on Simpson see this Counterpunch interview. He’s also written a book about his experiences, A Rough Guide to the Dark Side.

RT’s program notes:

Abby Martin discusses the ongoing narrative of sweeping generalizations resounding in the establishment following the wave of protests spreading across the Muslim world. BTS then interviews former New York Times journalist, Daniel Simpson, about his choice to leave the famous newspaper after citing war propaganda in its publications. Abby wraps up the show with a look at the United States’ notorious international military training facility ‘the School of the Americas’, with interviews from peace activist Father Roy Bourgeois, and takes a closer look at US foreign Policy in Latin America with a discussion with RT Producer, Rachel Kurzius.

Deep politics, history, and the Afghan War

A superb interview by RT’s Marina Portnaya of veteran New York Times and CBS journalist Jere Van Dyke on the Taliban, the Afghan War, and the deeper political and cultural context of a war the U.S. can never win — in part because the war is being fought against forces the U.S. itself created.

Van Dyke, a graduate of the University of Oregon and a military veteran, was held captive by the Taliban for 45 days, then released without explanation.

The takeaway: The war against the Taliban is something very different than is portrayed so glibly by American politicians, and one that could never be won, as so many other empires found at great cost.

We’re also very impressed with Portnaya, a young  journalist whose sharp skills are growing ever-keener.

Her first question, asking Van Dyk what the war on terror looks like through the eyes of the Taliban, drew this response: “No one has ever asked me that. Very, very good question, very interesting question.” Coming from a journalist with Van Dyk’s credentials, that’s high praise indeed.

Quote of the day: The silence of the [media] hams

From William Greider, writing in The Nation:

Israel’s prime minister is provoking another political dust storm over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but US news stories once again fail to mention awkward facts that are the true linchpin for this threatening crisis. Israel itself already has the Bomb. It developed its own nuclear weapons several decades ago, but has never officially admitted as much. And unlike other nuclear powers, Israel has never signed anti-proliferation treaties, nor has it submitted its nuclear arsenal to regular inspections by international authorities.

Everyone knows this, at least the government officials on all sides do. Yet there seems to be a media taboo against sharing the information with the American public. Americans have a huge and dangerous stake in the matter. If things go wrong and Israel launches a pre-emptive unilateral strike against Iran, it would probably provoke retaliatory war-making by Iran. Like it or not, the United States could be pulled into yet another war in the Middle East to defend our ally. Shouldn’t people hear the whole story before the shooting starts?

DARPA’s killer robot sets a new speed record

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency proudly released a video of it’s latest record-breaking achievement Thursday, a robot that can outrun the world’s fastest human.

DARPA explains on its You Tube post:

DARPA’s Cheetah robot—already the fastest legged robot in history—just broke its own land speed record of 18 miles per hour (mph). In the process, Cheetah also surpassed another very fast mover: Usain Bolt. According to the International Association of Athletics Federations, Bolt set the world speed record for a human in 2009 when he reached a peak speed of 27.78 mph for a 20-meter split during the 100-meter sprint. Cheetah was recently clocked at 28.3 mph for a 20-meter split. The Cheetah had a slight advantage over Bolt as it ran on a treadmill, the equivalent of a 28.3 mph tail wind, but most of the power Cheetah used was to swing its legs fast enough, not to propel itself forward.

Cheetah is being developed and tested under DARPA’s Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (M3) program by Boston Dynamics. The increase in speed since results were last reported in March 2012 is due to improved control algorithms and a more powerful pump.

DARPA’s intent with the Cheetah bot and its other robotics programs is to attempt to understand and engineer into robots certain core capabilities that living organisms have refined over millennia of evolution: efficient locomotion, manipulation of objects and adaptability to environments. By drawing inspiration from nature, DARPA gains technological building blocks that create possibilities for a whole range of robots suited to future Department of Defense missions.

DARPA’s website adds this quote:

“Modeling the robot after a cheetah is evocative and inspiring, but our goal is not to copy nature. What DARPA is doing with its robotics programs is attempting to understand and engineer into robots certain core capabilities that living organisms have refined over millennia of evolution: efficient locomotion, manipulation of objects and adaptability to environments,” said Gill Pratt, DARPA program manager. “Cheetahs happen to be beautiful examples of how natural engineering has created speed and agility across rough terrain. Our Cheetah bot borrows ideas from nature’s design to inform stride patterns, flexing and unflexing of parts like the back, placement of limbs and stability. What we gain through Cheetah and related research efforts are technological building blocks that create possibilities for a whole range of robots suited to future Department of Defense missions.”

“Department of Defense missions”? Hmmm. Wonder what that could mean.

Fortunately, the BBC asked the right question:

Noel Sharkey, professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at the University of Sheffield, has mixed feelings about the development.

“It’s an incredible technical achievement, but it’s unfortunate that it’s going to be used to kill people,” he suggested.

“It’s going to be used for chasing people across the desert, I would imagine. I can’t think of many civilian applications – maybe for hunting, or farming, for rounding up sheep.

“But of course if it’s used for combat, it would be killing civilians as well as it’s not going to be able to discriminate between civilians and soldiers.”

Read the rest.

Ah, yes. That old “collateral damage.”

The New York Times: From watchdog to lapdog

The latest sad example of the demise of a once-great American newspaper.

First, a video report from RT:

From RT:

New York Times reporter Mark Mazzetti allegedly forwarded an advance copy of a column penned by colleague Maureen Dowd to a CIA spokesperson. The piece was about the film “Zero Dark Thirty” which is about the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Dowd’s column criticized the White House for giving Hollywood inside information while leaving the public in the dark about the operation – this all coming to light thanks to documents disclosed by the transparency group Judicial Watch. Jeff Cohen, media critic and journalism professor at Ithaca College, joins RT’s Liz Wahl to talk more about subjective journalism.

But there’s no “allegedly” involved, as Glenn Greenwald notes in The Guardian, where he reproduces the actual emails:

The CIA had evidently heard that Maureen Dowd was planning to write a column on the CIA’s role in pumping the film-makers with information about the Bin Laden raid in order to boost Obama’s re-election chances, and was apparently worried about how Dowd’s column would reflect on them. On 5 August 2011 (a Friday night), Harf wrote an email to Mazzetti with the subject line: “Any word??”, suggesting, obviously, that she and Mazzetti had already discussed Dowd’s impending column and she was expecting an update from the NYT reporter.

A mere two minutes after the CIA spokeswoman sent this Friday night inquiry, Mazzetti responded. He promised her that he was “going to see a version before it gets filed”, and assured her that there was likely nothing to worry about:

“My sense is there a very brief mention at bottom of column about CIA ceremony, but that [screenwriter Mark] Boal also got high level access at Pentagon.”

She then replied with this instruction to Mazzetti: “keep me posted”, adding that she “really appreciate[d] it”.

>snip<

Moments later, Mazzetti forwarded the draft of Dowd’s unpublished column to the CIA spokeswoman (it was published the following night online by the Times, and two days later in the print edition). At the top of that email, Mazzetti wrote: “this didn’t come from me … and please delete after you read.” He then proudly told her that his assurances turned out to be true:

“See, nothing to worry about.”

Read the rest.

As Greenwald notes:

Here we have a New York Times reporter who covers the CIA colluding with its spokesperson to plan for the fallout from the reporting by his own newspaper (“nothing to worry about”). Beyond this, that a New York Times journalist – ostensibly devoted to bringing transparency to government institutions – is pleading with the CIA spokesperson, of all people, to conceal his actions and to delete the evidence of collusion is so richly symbolic.

We shouldn’t be surprised. The Times sunk into into present slough of despond starting with Judith Miller, the reporter who did so much to boost the Bush administration’s case for invading Iran with all those stories about nonp-existent stocks of uranium.

The Times, as with all American newspapers, has been devastated by the Internet economy, downsizing its newsroom a reducing overseas bureaus — nad in the process becoming all too reliant on the goodwill of governments.

This latest scandal is merely symptomatic of the decline of American journalism.

Here in California, we’ve seen wave after wave of municipal government corruption, greatly facilitated by the devastation of the state’s newspapers, which once played a vigilant watchdog role in policing the actions of governments and elected officials.

Three of the five newspapers we worked for in the Golden State are gone, the cities they covered no longer regularly covered by full-time experienced journalists and the financial resources needed to support their work. That, in turn, creates an environment where corruption can thrive.

That the New York Times has fallen so low is a tragedy; one we mourn. But we save our tears for the thousands of communities left with either no newspapers or with decaying husks of once thriving institutions.

We’d say we expect more scandals, but who’s left to expose them?

Explosive blast from the past: A bomb in Munich

War, the gift that keeps on giving. . .

Construction workers in Munich’s Schwabing district [where Hitler hung out as a street artist after his arrival in Germany] uncovered a fat World War II souvenir, an unexploded bomb dropped by the Allies during one of the massive air raids on the Bavarian capital.

Unable to defuse it, officials took the only way out: They blew it up last night, resulting in some spectacular pyrotechnics and lots of broken windows.

From the London Telegraph:

A closer view from Bild:

Another view from OmniaVideo, featuring a lot of cheering at the end.

For our German speaking readers, this video has views of some of the resulting damage and interviews with residents and business owners.

The story from Spiegel, which also has a photo gallery:

Unable to defuse a 250 kilogram (550 pound) bomb found buried one meter (three feet) deep at the site of the former bar Schwabinger 7 in the heart of the Bavarian capital, authorities elected to detonate the explosive on site. The controlled blast, finally carried out just before 10 p.m., sent a fireball into the night sky, shattered windows in the vicinity and resulted in several small fires on surrounding rooftops. Nobody was hurt.

“Almost all the window panes in the immediate area were destroyed,” Diethard Posorski, from the Munich bomb disposal authority, told journalists. A fire department spokesman added: “It looked quite spectacular.”

Ahead of the detonation, some 2,500 people in the streets surrounding the site were evacuated and dozens of cars were removed, accounting for repeated delays. Several streets were closed, including the busy arterial Leopoldstrasse and parts of the ring road around the city center, as were a trio of subway stops. Further afield, thousands more residents were asked to stay inside.

The explosion was heard across the city. Clumps of hay, from the bails authorities stacked around the site in an effort to reduce the explosive concussion, caught fire in the blast and drifted onto surrounding rooftops. The blazes were quickly extinguished and damage was minor, the fire department said.

Read the rest.

One can’t help but wonder how many similar deadly surprises will result in years to come from all those NATO bombs dropped in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in Africa and the Middle East.

Chart of the day: Lots of bucks for their bangs

From the New York Times, which reports that U.S. arms manufacturers tripled their sales last year, outdistancing their nearest competitor, Russia, by a factor of nearly 14 to 1:

Video report: Sex, Lies and Julian Assange

From journalists Andrew Fowler and Wayne Harley of Four Corners, Australia’s prime time television news magazine [think 60 Minutes Down Under], a look at the charges against the WikiLeaks founder in context:

A full transcript is posted on the show’s website here. Click on the “show transcript” button at the bottom.

It’s a good piece of journalism. As Fowler notes, “At the heart of the matter is whether the Swedish judicial authorities will treat him fairly. Certainly, events so far provide a disturbing picture of Swedish justice.”

The journalists also received a copy of a sub poena that offers strong indications that, contrary to Justice Department denials, a grand jury is investigating Assange in espionage charges.

Jennifer Robinson, one of the attorneys representing assage, tells the reporters “We are very concerned about the very prospect of potential extradition to the US. We need only look to the treatment of Bradley Manning. He’s been held in pre-trial detention for more than two years now, in conditions for a large part of that detention which the UN Special Repertoire said amount to torture. We are very concerned about the prospect of him ending up in the US, and the risk of onward extradition from Sweden was always a concern and remains a concern.”

There’s little doubt that her concerns are fully justified.

Mr. Fish: A Word from Our Sponsor

From his cantankerously critical blog, Clowncrack.

And here’s a headline to go along with the cartoon. From The National Post:

Israel planning an ‘irresponsible event’ that may spark disastrous war with Iran: Netanyahu’s ex-deputy

Assange speaks out as diplomatic furor heats up

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange spoke to supporters today from the balcony of the Ecuadorean embassy in London as the diplomatic battle over the decision of the government of President Rafael Correa to grant him asylum.

Assange took the opportunity to deliver a plea from alleged WikiLeaker Bradley Manning, now facing an army court martial on charges he provided WikiLeaks with those diplomatic cables that infamous video of a 12 July 2007 U.S. helicopter gunship shooting down 14 Iraqi civilians and two Reuters journalists.

The BBC reports:

Julian Assange has urged the US to end its “witch-hunt” against Wikileaks, in his first public statement since entering Ecuador’s London embassy.

He also called for the release of Bradley Manning, who is awaiting trial in the US accused of leaking classified documents to the Wikileaks site.

Mr Assange spoke from a balcony at the embassy and thanked Ecuador’s president, who has granted him asylum.

He faces extradition to Sweden over sexual assault claims, which he denies.

Mr Assange said: “As Wikileaks stands under threat, so does the freedom of expression and the health of all our societies.

“We must use this moment to articulate the choice that is before the government of the United States of America.

“Will it return to and re-affirm the revolutionary values it was founded on?
Legal battle

“Or will it lurch off the precipice, dragging us all into a dangerous and oppressive world in which journalists fall silent under the fear of prosecution and citizens must whisper in the dark?”

Read the rest.

Before Assange spoke, his lawyer, suspended Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, spoke to reporters outside the embassy. From the London Telegraph:

The British government threat to invade the Ecuadorean embassy to arrest the WikiLeaks founder has provoked a furious response from that country.

From Emily Alpert of the Los Angeles Times:

As Britain and Ecuador remain locked in a diplomatic standoff over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the government in Quito made a public push to protect its London embassy.

Ecuador said Wednesday that Britain had threatened to storm its embassy to arrest Assange, who is being sought for questioning by Sweden on allegations of sexual assault. Ecuador has granted the activist political asylum, but Britain says it will not guarantee him safe passage out of the country. That leaves Assange marooned in the embassy, unable to leave despite winning asylum.

The British letter to Ecuador referenced a little-known law, saying, “You should be aware that there is a legal basis in the U.K. — the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act — which would allow us to take action to arrest Mr. Assange in the current premises of the embassy.”

The South American country has sought to marshal other nations across the Americas to insist that its embassy not be violated, calling a council meeting Friday of the Organization of American States.

At the meeting, Britain denied it had threatened Ecuador, saying Ecuador had aired a private note that had been misunderstood out of context.

“Allegations that the United Kingdom was threatening Ecuador and was about to storm the embassy are without foundation,” the British observer to the group told the council.

Read the rest.

Britain renounces doctrine of international law

Diplomatic asylum has been a key principle of international law, and embassy’s have traditionally reserved the right to house dissidents to shield them from persecution.

Embassy grounds are, by international law, sovereign territory of the state represented by the ambassador.

In perhaps the most famous case of diplomatic asylum of the 20th Century, the United States embassy in Budapest sheltered Hungarian Cardinal József Mindszenty from 1956 to 1971, when he was finally allowed to leave the country.

But now Britain’s Foreign Secretary says his country no longer recognizes the principle.

From Robert Hutton of Bloomberg:

U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain doesn’t recognize the concept of “diplomatic asylum” and won’t allow Wikileaks founder Julian Assange safe passage out of the country after Ecuador granted him political asylum.

“We cannot give safe passage to someone in this situation,” Hague told reporters in London today. “The U.K. doesn’t accept the principle of diplomatic asylum.”

The foreign minister’s remarkable declaration has drawn criticism and a warning from a former British ambassador of potentially grave consequence for the U.K.’s own diplomats.

But the government’s move poses dangers

That’s the opinion of the country’s former ambassador to Russia.

From Rosa Prince of the London Telegraph:

The Foreign Office risks breaching international law if it carries out its threat to revoke the status of the Ecuadorean Embassy in order to arrest Julian Assange, a former ambassador to Moscow has warned.

Sir Tony Brenton, who served as the United Kingdom’s ambassador to Russia between 2004 and 2008, said “arbitrarily” overturning the status of the building where Mr Assange has taken shelter to avoid extradition, would make life ‘impossible’ for British diplomats

GreeceWatch: Contraction, Germans, sell-offs

We’re late in posting today, having edited more than a hundred wedding photos taken Sunday. . .

But there’s lots to report, starting with the latest numbers, with economic contraction growing tighter still. We’ve got more signs of a coalition in jeopardy, more nasty jabs from up North, bond sales, a wave of selloffs and privatizations — including the ports and the postal service — and the fate of one man who stood up to austerity.

But the most amazing tale is of a the Troika-installed privatization czar, whoi was given her job as Greek overlord despite the fact she’d been booted from her previous job after revelations of corruption.

And then there’s the latest racist violence, including the murder of a young immigrant and the torching of a mosque, plus the likely culprits getting a taste of their own medicine.

There’s a cold winter ahead for Greek schoolchildren, fears of a Syrian refugee horde, and story about one business blessed by the crisis.

Greek economic contraction continues

And the latest numbers are — what else? — notably dour.

From Athens News:

The country’s economy contracted 6.2 percent in the second quarter as belt-tightening to slash deficits continued to take a toll, hampering efforts to meet targets set by the troika for continued bailout funding.

Currently in its fifth consecutive year, the economic downturn has driven unemployment to record highs, with nearly one in four unemployed and more pain expected ahead.

“It’s not a major surprise, we knew the economy was continuing to struggle but hopefully it’s some sign that the rate of decline is starting to bottom out,” said Chris Williamson, chief economist at London-based research firm Markit.

“Hopefully the first half of the year was as bad as it gets and we’ll see some improvement now,” he said.

The second quarter preliminary GDP estimate was based on seasonally unadjusted data and follows a 6.5 percent GDP decline in the previous quarter.

Read the rest.

Rally looks like that austerity is working like the Troika promised, no?

Coalition on the brink of breakup?

More signs are emerging that Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ three-party coalition is growing brittle, with the left-most party showing signs of nervousness at being linked to an austerity regime designed to meet the needs of investment banks and not their constituents.

From Ekathemerini:

Samaras is due to meet Eurogroup chief and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker in Athens on August 22 before talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on August 24 and French President Francois Hollande the following day. He is also pursuing meetings this month with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde.

Samaras could be in a position to present to Juncker, Merkel and Hollande the details of the 11.5 billion euros in savings Greece plans to make over the next couple of years. Samaras, PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos and Democratic Left chief Fotis Kouvelis are likely to be supplied with the final list of spending cuts around August 20. The measures will need the coalition leaders’ approval.

This appeared far from a foregone conclusion yesterday as two Democratic Left MPs, Odysseas Voudouris and Yiannis Micheloyiannis, both expressed doubts about the cuts their party leader is set to approve.

“The government is slipping and not keeping to its promises,” said Voudouris. “We were committed to finding the 11.5 billion from tax evasion and waste but I don’t see the Finance Ministry looking in these areas.”

“If farmers’ pensions are cut, if pensions under 1,400 euros are cut, if civil servants’ bonuses are reduced and if benefits for the long-term unemployed are cut, Democratic Left should leave the coalition,” said Micheloyiannis.

Voudouris and Micheloyiannis left PASOK to join Kouvelis’s party earlier this year.

Read the rest.

The inherent contradictions of the financial order on which globalization depends are becoming clear.

Money’s value depends on public confidence, and when those with the most money act like confidence men, the public will lose confidence, especially when the folks on whom they’re supposed to bestow their confidence at getting rich while everyone else is growing poor.

Another nasty sound bite from a German

They must use an alarm clock to keep these going, or maybe one of those fancy mechanical clocks they put in town squares centuries back.

You’ve got your mechanical Merkel, her finance ministers, the Bundesbankers, and her cast of CSU party luminaries.

Here’s the latest, from a foxy guy [his last name shared with a certain short-legged, bushy tailed canine], via A. Papapostolou of Greek Reporter:

Germany will block any new aid to Greece if Athens does not fully comply with the terms of previous rescue packages, even if other countries support unlocking funds, a senior lawmaker said today.

The deputy head of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative parliamentary bloc, Michael Fuchs, told business daily Handelsblatt that Berlin was ready to use its veto if it is unhappy with findings from the Greece creditors’ “troika”.

“You can quote me: even if the glass is half-full, that is not enough for a new aid package,” he said in an interview to appear in the paper’s Monday issue. “Germany cannot and will not agree to that.”

More from The Economic Times of India:

“Even if the glass is half full, that won’t be sufficient for a new aid package. Germany cannot and will not agree to that,” Michael Fuchs told German newspaper Handelsblatt.

“We long ago reached the point where the Greeks must show they are capable of delivering a shift. A policy of the last, last, last chance won’t work anymore and must come to an end.”

Read the rest.

But that was just the first cry of the clock

Greek Reporter’s A. Papapostolou brings us word of a second grumbling German:

German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler expressed disappointment with the efforts of debt-wracked Greece to implement necessary reforms, in an interview with the weekly magazine Focus.

“I’ve lost my illusions,” said Roesler, who is also vice chancellor and leads the pro-business Free Democrats in Germany’s ruling coalition.

“I proposed with German businesses a whole series of support measures for the Greek government. The Greeks have hardly responded to our offers,” he told Focus according to an advance copy of an article to appear in its Monday edition.

Read the rest.

That Greek big bang is the sound an auctioneer’s gavel

Unlike American banks, which have been sitting on a lot of foreclosed property, the usual suspects are demanding that Greek foreclosures go under the gavel. And that means more misery.

Here’s the story from Keep Talking Greece, with their headline:

Troika Pushes Greek Banks to Bring Under the Auction Hammer 100,000 Properties

Does the big bang rolls with forceful violence towards Greece’s property owners? Are those who bought homes on loans and found themselves unable to meet their obligations at risk to be kicked out of the four walls and the ceiling,  they used to call ‘their own’? The Troika apparently puts pressure on the banks to start foreclosures by

Headline of the day II: Not for our damn garden!

From the BBC:

Pentagon helps build Meshworm reconnaissance robot

Engineers have created a robot that mimics a worm’s movements – crawling along surfaces by contracting segments of its body

Headline of the day: We suspect that settles it

From Al Arabiya:

Russian general denies reports he was killed by Free Syrian Army

The Art of War: Navy drone development logo

The official logo of the U.S. Navy’s Program Executive Office for Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons:

BTW, the office — charged with developing new ways of killing people without risk — just got a new head according to Avionics Today, and he’s got a lot of money to play with:

Rear Adm. Mathias Winter was named head of the Naval Air System Command’s (NAVAIR) Program Executive Office for Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons (PEO(U&W)) during a change of command ceremony at Pax River last week.

Winter is the former commander of the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division base in China Lake/Point Mugu, Calif.; he replaces Rear Adm. Bill Shannon, who is retiring after overseeing the office for four years. In his new role, Winter will manage a total obligation authority of more than $46 billion and lead a workforce of more than 3,800 individuals.

“Still at war, our nation faces daunting challenges across the political, military, economic, social, informational, infrastructure domains,” Winter said. “But we have a plan to tackle these challenges … This year, during this tour, my focus for PEO(U&W) builds upon that bridging and my strategic framework of people, organization and programs.”

Read the rest.

For a detailed look at what the outfit does, see this official summary [PDF].

And do catch one of their latest editions, the WASP, launched with a handheld slingshot.

But relax, folks; they’re ‘green’ killers

And for folks who are worried about drones because they might be less than “green,” take heart! The folks with the spooky logo are also developing drones that fly on agrofuel:

The Navy reached a milestone in its quest to gain energy independence today, when an MQ-8B Fire Scout successfully flew the first unmanned biofueled flight at Webster Field in St. Inigoes, Md.

The Unmanned Aircraft Systems Test Directorate piloted the helicopter fueled with a combination of JP-5 aviation fuel and plant-based camelina. The biofuel blend reduces carbon dioxide output by 75 percent when compared to conventional aviation fuel.

“Today’s flight marks a significant milestone with Fire Scout being the Navy’s first unmanned aircraft to use biofuel technology,” said Rear Adm. Bill Shannon, Program Executive Officer for Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons. “I am very pleased we can add MQ-8B to the list of successful bioflights completed at Pax River this year, bringing us one step closer to achieving the Navy’s energy goals.”

Read the rest.

Gore Vidal on the American national security state

Provocative, outspoken, sometimes eccentric, and invariably interesting, Gore Vidal shuffled off the mortal coil last night in Los Angeles. He was 86.

A member of the American aristocracy and a man who delighted in provoking power, Vidal was, among other things, a brilliant novelist, a scintillating essayist, and a relentless critic of Imperial America, he was, above else, endlessly entertaining.

Here’s his 18 March 1998 appearance at the National Press Club, where his address starts at about the ten minutes mark and ends at the one-hour mark. It’s a devastating and witty critique of the national security state. Note his prescient critique of NATO:

Vidal was regarded by many in the elite as a class traitor, with William F. Buckley Jr. Among his most outspoken critics. Here’s a memorable confrontation between the two from 1968 during the Democratic National Convention:

From his Los Angeles Times obituary:

“Style,” Vidal once said, “is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.” By that definition, he was an emperor of style, sophisticated and cantankerous in his prophesies of America’s fate and refusal to let others define him.

Business Insider has a collection of quotes. A couple worth noting:

As the age of television progresses the Reagans will be the rule, not the exception. To be perfect for television is all a President has to be these days.

Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.

More from a compendium posted by The Guardian:

“The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return”

“We should stop going around babbling about how we’re the greatest democracy on earth, when we’re not even a democracy. We are a sort of militarised republic.”

“There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.”

UPDATE: Mr. Fish has just posted his own graphic tribute to the writer, via his blog Clowncrack, and titled simply “Gore Vidal”: