Al Qaeda, the database

Create an enemy, and ascribe to "him" all that you are against as a "patriotic" culture, and you have a target for all that's wrong with the world: Another (person, country, group or whatever). This takes the attention of the common person off what's really going on and blame a simple person/group. It plays well in Western socity, giving a simple name to a complex situation. But it serves the purpose well: "We" verses "Them". White hats, black hats. And that's how politics works regarding a chosen "enemy". And, of course, the people have to be "saved" from such an enemy. Ergo, our foreign and "defense" policy.

Shortly before his untimely death, former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook told the House of Commons that "Al Qaeda" is not really a terrorist group but a database of international mujaheddin and arms smugglers used by the CIA and Saudis to funnel guerrillas, arms, and money into Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. Courtesy of World Affairs, a journal based in New Delhi, WMR can bring you an important excerpt from an Apr.-Jun. 2004 article by Pierre-Henry Bunel, a former agent for French military intelligence.

"In the mid-1980s, Al Qaida was a database located in computer and dedicated to the communications of the Islamic Conference's secretariat.

"The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the 'devil' only in order to drive the 'TV watcher' to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US and the lobbyists for the US war on terrorism are only interested in making money." (Our emphasis, Ed.)
Al Qaeda, the database.

Iraq and Washington’s ‘seeds of democracy’

Click on map to enlarge.

This is just one example of "democracy" that has been imposed on Iraq. This "democracy" means total economic domination from the occupier, with all profits flowing out of the country to the huge corporations, giving another insight into globalization. It is nothing more than Empire disquised in sheep's clothing.

'The reason we are in Iraq is to plant the seeds of democracy so they flourish there and spread to the entire region of authoritarianism.’ - George W. Bush

When George W. Bush spoke of planting the ‘seeds of democracy’ few realized he might have had in mind Monsanto seeds.

Iraq is part of Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization, where the fertile valley between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers created ideal conditions for crop cultivation. Iraqi farmers have existed since approximately 8,000 B.C. and had developed the rich seed variety for almost every variety of wheat used in the world today. They did this through a system of saving a share of seeds and replanting, developing new naturally resistant hybrid varieties through the new plantings. For years, the Iraqis had held samples of such precious natural seed varieties in a national seed bank, located, ironically, in Abu Ghraib, the city made infamous as a US military torture prison site in 2004. Following the US occupation and various bombing campaigns, the historic and invaluable seed bank in Abu Ghraib vanished, a possible further casualty of the Iraq war. Bremer’s Pentagon advisers had very different plans for Iraq’s food future.

Bremer pushed through more drastic economic changes in one month than the International Monetary Fund managed over three decades in Latin America. Former World Bank chief economist and Nobel Prize laureate, Joseph Stiglitz, described Bremer’s reforms as ‘an even more radical form of shock therapy than pursued in the former Soviet world.’

Following the US occupation of Iraq in March 2003, the economic and political life of that country changed radically. Iraq is under the complete economic control of the occupying power, the United States. Despite nominal national elections earlier this year, control over the Iraqi economy is still run out of the Pentagon.

Read further...

More here: There is a Name for this Government-Corporation we call "The US Administration"

Further insight: Iraq fraud arrests expose criminality of US occupation

Bush ratings in a free fall

Bush's approval ratings are in free-fall! He is down to a 34 percent approval rating. Only Nixon in the last days of Watergate was doing worse. Seriously, I am worried about these numbers. At some point, the executive will stop being able to govern.

This and more at Informed Comment

More about Bush Polls at Wall St. Journal

More at my Politics International webog

Venezuela: The Bolivarian Revolution

To go to my main politics weblog, click on title of this log or link at right.






I've also been following Hugo Chavez and Venezuela this year. I began with skepticism and doubt, but gradually and increasingly began to realize that this was democracy and "power to the people" I have not seen in my lifetime. I mean actions, not words.

I can only hope that Chavez can continue his efforts to build his people and country. At this point, my greatest fear is that too much depends on Chavez alone yet. And he is vulnerable, of course, to attempts to take him out from different angles. And these attempts are ongoing.

What is also notable is that Venezuela's example is catching fire in Latin America. I can only hope that the neocons are so busy with the Middle East and their own internal situation that they will be less effective in their efforts to keep Latin America, and specifically, Venezuela, under their thumb. Venezuela's oil reserves are also a catch 22 situation for the neocons.

Author/analyst Richard K. Moore wrote an article that says pretty much what I've been thinking. Well worth the read.


I continue to be inspired and impressed by events in Venezuela. Here we can see an honest attempt by Chavez to empower the people themselves, in the grassroots, to take responsibility for solving their own problems and managing their own affairs. Similarly, as a player in Latin American affairs, Venezuela is setting up cooperative arrangements, and barter systems, aimed at building collaboration and economic self-sufficiency in Latin America, and directly confronting the forces of neoliberal globalization and the interests of financial elites. The recent defeat of the NTAA initiative, at the Americas conference, demonstrates a new spirit of independence and self-reliance in the region generally, a spirit to which Chavez' initiatives have clearly contributed.

Continue reading here:

Try something a little different....

Because of the lack of space at this web site for the articles I post, and especially for the links to many good independent sources, my main politics website is located at another web site.

I'm going to try something here and see how it works: Post limited articles here, perhaps one a day. Those wishing to read more, and also wish peruse the many links I have, can simply and easily go to my main web site with one click on either the title above or the link at right.

Latest Posts at my Politics International weblog.

Click on title above or link at right.





Venezuela: The Bolivarian Revolution
France: emergency extended for three months
Many Katrina victims to be evicted
Bush 'Unsigns' War Crimes Treaty
Pesticide testing on orphans, mentally handicapped
French 'riots' : What's the outcome?
Jordan Hotel Bombings - more evidence, analysis
Toxic Truths from the Iraqi Battlefront
US used white phosphorus in Iraq

Latest Posts at my Politics International weblog.

Click on title above or link at right.





'I treated people who had their skin melted
Civil liberties in danger
9/11 - BYU prof: Pre-positioned Explosives
This isn't the real America
The Jordan Hotel Bombings
Lies, Lies and More Lies
Report: Electric bills set to shock
Ali looked Bush in the eye and....