Al Qaeda Terrorist Worked For British, New Market Crash Feared

April 27th, 2011 - by: danny

Blasts From The Past

Today is South African Freedom Day. On this day, back in 1994, I was covering the country’s free election that put Nelson Mandela in office. I made the film, Countdown to Freedom: Ten Days That Changed South Africa. I will be going to a celebration marking the occasion tonight at a New York hotel.

I also note that Madame Nhu has died, She was the wife of the South Vietnamese leader (later overthrown by the CIA) and known as the “Dragon Lady” who the whole world denounced after she compared the immolations of protesting Buddhist nuns to “barbecues.” Back in 1963, I stood outside the Columbia University faculty club to protest her presence. Later on, she turned on the American “cause” in her country and supported those fighting for Ho Chi Minh’s dream of unifying and freeing the country.

Today, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Pakistan is calling on Hamid Karzai to dump the US, and work with them!

Up Against The Wall Street Journal

My New York Times didn’t come yesterday morning so I spent the day with the Wall Street Journal, a newspaper filled with all the contradictions and anxieties of capitalism.

P1. reports that big Hedge Fund managers are now funding Republicans because Obama did not move far enough to the center for their taste. So, now they pour money into a GOP that left the center years ago,

They report that the speculators who are driving up oil and food prices are also driving up the cost of production. Diapers are going up in cost. Seems like the Fed’s policies are one big failure.

I am still jet lagged after returning from the Al Jazeera Film Festival in Qatar so will have to pass along some news items of interest.

ACLG: AL Qaida Bomber worked For British

GuantÃƒÂ¡namo Bay files: Al-Qaida assassin, bomber ‘worked for MI6′ —

Leaked GuantÃƒÂ¡namo papers link UK to Algerian militant 25 Apr 2011 An al-Qaida [al-CIAduh] operative accused of bombing two Christian churches and a luxury hotel in Pakistan in 2002 was at the same time working for British intelligence, according to secret files on detainees who were shipped to the US military’s GuantÃƒÂ¡namo Bay prison camp. Adil Hadi al Jazairi Bin Hamlili, an Algerian citizen described as a “facilitator, courier, kidnapper, and assassin for al-Qaida”, was detained in Pakistan in 2003 and later sent to GuantÃƒÂ¡namo Bay. But according to Hamlili’s GuantÃƒÂ¡namo “assessment” file, one of 759 individual dossiers obtained by the Guardian, US interrogators were convinced that he was simultaneously acting as an informer for British and Canadian intelligence.

The NY Times reports that the government will not allow lawyers representing Guantanamo prisoners to even see the new Gitmo documents. much less use them.

The Real News Network Reports Many Gitmo Prisoners Are Innocent

Watch (FORA) Assange Blasts The New York Times, Accuses Newspaper of Fearing The Government

EJC: A German foundation says it supported WikiLeaks’ activities last year, with donations totaling EUR 402,000. The Wau Holland Foundation, which previously described itself as WikiLeaks’ main financial backer, said in a report published on its website Tuesday that it received EUR 1.3m in donations for the organization in 2010. It said it paid WikiLeaks EUR 143,000 to supports its campaigns of leaking documents to the public and EUR 104,000 was paid in regular allowances to “a few project managers and activists.”

About EUR 60.000 was paid to maintain WikiLeaks’ hardware, another EUR 62,000 for travel costs – “usually flights, train tickets in the Economy Class” – and EUR 33,000 in legal fees, it added. It said legal fees were not paid to individuals – a hidden reference to the website’s founder Julian Assange’s legal woes. (AP)

Self Satisfied Attorney General does not deal with Why No Prosecutions of Wall Street Crimesters?

Just as Alternet.org is carrying this commentary by Les Leopold:

How Wall Street Thieves, Led by Goldman Sachs, Took Down the Global Economy — Their Outsized Influence Must be Stopped

If we don’t bust up Big Finance, there soon will be another financial crisis that will destroy what’s left of our middle-class way of life.

Ironically, Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism reports that she has been interviewed by a FRENCH (not US) documentary on Goldman.

“One amusing tidbit: they were desperately pumping me to put them on to anyone credible who would say something positive, or even mixed, on camera about Goldman. They have been unable to find anyone independent of even moderate stature who will defend the firm.”

Perhaps there is one…..

Atty. Gen. Holder Delivers Uplifting, Cheerleader-like Speech to the Troops

By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com

WASHINGTON – Sometimes the troops need an uplifting, cheerleader-like speech.

And that’s what Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. – who has sometimes been the Republicans’ favorite pinata – delivered Monday to a crowd of more than 100 employees at the Great Hall at the Department of Justice at 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.

“I have been privileged to serve this Department, I have worked alongside — and learned from — some of the world’s most talented and dedicated lawyers, law enforcement officials, and public servants. Every day, you and your colleagues — a team that’s now more than 114,000 members strong — carry out your important jobs with the simple, but essential, goals of protecting and improving lives — and pursuing justice in every case, every circumstance, and every community.”

“Like you, I love this Department. And, like you, I am proud — not only to serve it, but also to champion its work.”

Lester Brown,The New Geopolitics of Food
From the Middle East to Madagascar, high prices are spawning land grabs and ousting dictators. Welcome to the 21st-century food wars.

Overseas:

Name Blame Game As Israeli-Palestinian Deadlock Persists

By Bernard Schell
IDN-InDepth NewsReport

CAIRO (IDN) – While the United Nations is urging Israel and the Palestinian Authority to end the deadlock in peace talks, representatives of the two conflict parties continue to cross swords blaming each other for the unending cycle of violence and ‘retaliation’.

The stalemate in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations had persisted over the past month and, with the state-building efforts of the Palestinians progressing, “bold and decisive steps” were needed to resolve the decades-old conflict, according to a top UN political official.

“Despite the Palestinian Authority’s accomplishments, the institutional achievements of the state-building agenda are approaching their limits within the political and physical space currently available,” B. Lynn Pascoe, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said on April 21, ahead of a day-long open debate in New York.

“Both parties should be concerned that the political track is falling behind the significant progress being made by the Palestinian Authority in its state-building agenda,” he added.

Martin Steele, Op Ed News, Fighting Islamophobia

New Book on Muslim Anger at America : Feeling Betrayed: The Roots of Muslim Anger at America by Steven Kull from the Brookings Institution Press

A new book, Feeling Betrayed: The Roots of Muslim Anger at America by Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, has been released by the Brookings Institution Press. Though it has been nearly a decade since the attacks of September 11, the threat of terrorism from the Muslim world remains real and many Americans question why some Muslims have such hostility toward the United States. What’s more, many wonder whether the current regime changes and upheaval may unleash an even more active aggression against the U.S. and its citizens. Steven Kull has sought to understand more deeply how Muslims see America. How widespread is hostility toward the United States in the Muslim world? And what are its roots? How much support is there for radical groups that attack Americans and why? The book is based on focus groups Kull conducted with representative samples in Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan, Jordan, Iran, and Indonesia; numerous in-depth; WorldPublicOpinion.org surveys in eleven majority-Muslim nations; and a comprehensive analysis of data from such organizations as Gallup, World Values Survey, Pew, and the Arab Barometer.

GET READY TO RELIVE THE CRASH

Paul Farrell on Marketwatch: “2008 Crash Deja Vu: We’ll Relive It And Soon”

Real News: How Stock Prices Are Manipulated

Deficit Fever: Dean Baker, TPM Cafe, Loon Tune Time Among the Elite

We already knew that the folks involved in debating and designing economic policy had a weak understanding of economics, that is why they couldn’t see the $8 trillion housing bubble that wrecked the economy, but now it seems that they are breaking their ties to reality altogether. The
country is still smoldering in the wreckage of the collapsed housing bubble, but the victims have left the policy debate altogether.

Twenty five million people are unemployed, underemployed or out of the workforce altogether, but that’s not on anyone’s agenda. Millions of homeowners are underwater in their mortgage and facing the loss of their homes, that’s also not on anyone’s agenda. Tens of millions of baby boomers are at the edge of retirement and have just lost their life savings.
This also is not on anyone’s agenda.

Deficit cutting fever is the current craze in the nation’s capital. But even here there is little tie to reality.

Reality?

Business Week: Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Decreased 3.3% From Year Ago

April 26 (Bloomberg) — Residential real estate prices dropped in February by the most in more than a year, a sign the U.S. housing market is struggling to stabilize.

Trend analyst Gerald Celente: America’s economic pre-eminence fades; its credit-worthiness at risk. The US dollar dives, gold and silver prices break records, oil and food prices soar.

MacArthur Foundation: U.S. Renters Face Increasing Affordability Pressures

Long-term increases in rental housing prices and utility costs combined with stagnant or falling incomes are creating escalating affordability pressures for U.S. renters. “Rental markets are now tightening, with vacancy rates falling and rents climbing,” finds a new report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. “With little new supply of multi-family units in the pipeline, rents could rise sharply as demand increases.”
Maintaining an adequate supply of affordable rental housing is important because nearly all Americans rent at some point in their lives. While renters reflect the diversity of the nation, they are more likely to be young, single, and low-income, which makes them particularly sensitive to increases in housing costs, according to the MacArthur-supported report.

“Over the course of the last decade, rental housing affordability problems went through the roof, with more renters spending half or more of their income on their housing costs, and these affordability problems are marching up the income scale,” said Eric Belsky, the Center’s Managing Director and an author of the report.

Between 2010 and 2020, the number of renter households could increase by 360,000 — 460,000. Given the long lead time required to replace depleted affordable rental housing, such a sharp increase in demand — driven by demographic trends, an economic upturn, or new directions in homeownership policies — could quickly reduce vacancy rates and put further upward pressure on rents.

While new rental units are needed to meet this uptick in demand, preserving current rental stock remains integral to meeting the overall rental housing needs, particularly for low- and moderate-income households.

How Empires Survive: Must Read

Media

UK: Miliband risks Murdoch rage with call for phone-hacking inquiry

Syria: An unnamed source at Al Jazeera is claiming that the Syrian regime is threatening family members of Syrian nationals working for Al Jazeera – asking they resign stating unrelated matters

Related: The American Journalism Review on Al Jazeeera. I am quoted in this report.

CNN Bias?

Richard Knee who is part of an effort to reform the Society of Professional Journalists writes: “Since ethical issues are at the heart of the reform effort, I thought I’d send along this message that I just shot over to CNN TV:

Approx 4:30pm EDT Brooke Baldwin read story about “threat” of China overtaking US as #1 world economic power by 2016. Why is that a “threat”? Does US have some god-given right to economic supremacy? That particular story reflects bias that violates journalism ethics. FYI, I’m a longtime journalist.

Oh, The Donald:

The Washington Post reports: Trump has given most of donations to Democrats

Billionaire Donald J. Trump has a highly unusual history of political contributions for a prospective Republican candidate: He has given most of his money to the other side.

Comment on Trump’s Use of the Birther Issue

Marc H. Morial, President and CEO, National Urban League writes:

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” Abraham Lincoln

A recent CBS/New York Times poll found that 25 percent of Americans and 45 percent of registered Republican voters believe that President Obama was not born in the United States. Another 22 percent of Republican voters say they don’t know. For the record, President Obama was born on August 4, 1961 at Kapi’olani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii. His birth certificate documents it. Hawaii officials confirm it. And no one seriously doubts it except for a vocal minority of “birthers” who will do or say anything to get America’s first Black President out of the White House.

Recently, the birthers have turned up the volume with the addition of the bombastic rantings of — Donald Trump, the New York business magnate, reality TV star and potential Republican candidate for president. In recent appearances on “The View,” “Good Morning America,” “NBC Today,” and other shows Trump, who is playing the media like a fiddle, has repeatedly made false and incendiary insinuations that Barack Obama may not be a U.S. citizen and therefore not qualified to be President of the United States. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence can see that Trump’s birther claims as well as his flirtation as a presidential candidate is nothing more than an insincere sideshow, intended to promote his personal brand and raise his TV ratings. But as the new polling shows, in the looney tunes world of modern American politics, a sizeable number of the electorate is responding. That is unfortunate. It is one thing for Trump to “fire” contestants weekly on his “Apprentice” TV show, it is quite another to cynically fire up the right wing base with lies that feed their already biased assertion that President Obama is somehow “not one of us.”

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