Back on September 30th of last year, I wrote a post entitled Burma/Myanmar: The Balkans' and Central Asia's Future (Part 1). It is now time for Part 2.
If the United States knew what was going on during the Holocaust, would it have been incumbent upon the United States government to try to stop it? Should the United States have used military force, if necessary, to prevent the extermination of innocent civilians from all over Europe at the hands of the Nazis?
What about if there had been no war raging in Europe, if the Nazis were only exterminating citizens of Germany? Does a government have a right to do that? Is that a national security threat to other nations? Would it have been appropriate for the United States to intervene militarily to put an end to such conduct?
What about if the Nazis were not actively exterminating people, but were rather allowing them to die in ghettos, cut off from the world, and not receiving what they needed to survive? Something akin, perhaps, to the Warsaw Ghetto, but inside of territory subject to the jurisdiction of the German government, and impacting only German citizens - would it have been appropriate for the United States to intervene militarily, and prevent mass deaths under such circumstances?
What if a natural disaster had placed a large part of the German population at risk, and the Nazi government were interfering with efforts to save them, thus letting them die, rather than actively murdering them? Would it have been appropriate for the United States to intervene militarily to prevent the deaths under such circumstances?
What if, instead of a Nazi government in Germany in the first half of the last century, it were a military government in a nation in Asia in the present - is it appropriate for the United States to intervene militarily to prevent mass death by neglect, killings of genocidal proportions?
What if the government doing this were not the lawfully-elected government, as the Nazis very arguably were, but were instead a junta that had seized power despite the will of the people? What if this government were now committing auto-genocide - the mass killing of its own people - by means of neglect and interference in the wake of a natural disaster?
These are questions that we need to ask ourselves, and questions to which We the People need to find answers with which we will be comfortable.
President Bush condemns the military junta in Burma/Myanmar - well, who doesn't?
But, when it was friends of the Saudis that were in a situation far less clear - a situation where they were far, far less innocent - the United States intervened militarily to assist them. The result is the establishment of failed states in Europe, specifically in the Balkans.
Beyond that, though, these failed states in the Balkans, together with Burma/Myanmar, share a trait that is developing elsewhere in between - Central and South Asian states are also teetering on the brink of being failed states.
Is international law merely a tool, to be used or discarded as convenient? Does might make right? Are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, having been endowed upon us by our Creator, now only for the elite - for those who have friends and influence to guarantee these things?
Amidst all this, vast enclaves of Western Europe have become ghettos, challenging the very stability of the nation-states in which they are located, threatening to bring them civil war; indeed, two nuclear-armed permament members of the UN Security Council may find themselves dissolving in civil war in the next decade or two, possibly even leaving failed states - nuclear-armed failed states - in their wake.
The world is a shabby and dangerous place.
Who will be the leader of the most powerful nation on earth in this Brave New World of ours? Which of the likely candidates has the answers? Which even knows what the questions are?
Which of them can we confidently say is even honest?
Showing posts with label Foreign Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Foreign Politics. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Genesis, Part 12
We continue reviewing declassified State Department cables addressing the rise of the Taliban. This is a February 21, 1995, cable from the US Embassy in Dushanbe to the US Secretary of State's office in Washington, DC.
Its subject is: "RABBANI EMISSARY STATES RABBANI WILL NOT SURRENDER POWER TO INTERIM COUNCIL UNTIL TALIBAN JOIN".
I have been using the term "Afghani" to refer to the people from Afghanistan.
I saw somewhere recently that the correct term is "Afghan"; apparently, "Afghani" is the monetary unit.
Please accept my apologies; no disrespect is intended.
An important description of the Taliban -- Pashtun, rural, conservative.... This corresponds to their reported origin in the border area near Pakistan, and indicates they have ethnic ties with a significant part of the Pakistani population.
It is worth recalling that Pakistan's northern border area is where the mujahideen staged out of during the 1980's jihad against the Soviets.
This border area also has a great many religious schools on the Pakistani side. This is undoubtedly where many of the Taliban were recruited from.
The religious schools have grown in quantity in recent decades, and their representatives function somewhat as chaplains in the Pakistani Army. There are extensive ties between the Pakistani Army and these madrassas. The system of religious schools in Pakistan and their influence and impact will be the subject of upcoming posts.
Ethnic and cultural differences -- the Taliban came from a different world, and were not well-received among the relatively cosmopolitan people of Kabul.
The security of roads was an issue most people could agree on -- perhaps especially the more urbanized people, who rely on supplies brought in from elsewhere?
Of course, Hekmatyar is now, as of 2008, considered to have sided with the Taliban, and Dostum is part of the current government in Kabul, although there has been trouble between him and other elements of the government. See Genesis, Part 5 for a little more info on Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and Afghan Government Tries to Arrest General Dostum for information about General Dostum.
It is difficult to assess from this cable the sincerity of Rabbani's viewpoint, as communicated by Shah.
Its subject is: "RABBANI EMISSARY STATES RABBANI WILL NOT SURRENDER POWER TO INTERIM COUNCIL UNTIL TALIBAN JOIN".
1. CONFIDENTIAL - ENTIRE TEXT.
2. ACTION REQUEST - PARA 18.
SUMMARY
-------
3. DURING AN ALMOST TWO HOUR MEETING WITH AMB AND POL/ECON CHIEF, RABBANI'S ECONOMIC ADVISOR AND SPECIAL EMISSARY (AND ACTING HEAD OF THE AFGHAN NATIONAL BANK), ASHRAF SHAH, SOUGHT U.S. ADVICE FOR RABBANI IN LIGHT OF THE RISE IN POWER OF THE TALIBAN AND THE ECLIPSE OF HEKMATYAR'S POWER. SHAH DEPICTED THE TALIBAN AS A LARGELY DURRANI PASHTUN, RURAL, UNSOPHISTICATED, DEEPLY SOCIALLY CONSERVATIVE FORCE UNLIKELY TO WIN THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF KABULIS BUT IN CONTROL OF SIX PROVINCES AND ENJOYING A DEGREE OF POPULAR SUPPORT. THUS, HE ARGUED, IT WAS IMPORTANT THEY JOIN THE INTERIM COUNCIL -- BEFORE RABBANI TRANSFERS POWER TO THE COUNCIL, LEST IT BE DEAD UPON ARRIVAL. WE ADVISED SHAH THAT IT WAS STILL BETTER THAT RABBANI SURRENDER POWER TO MESTIRI'S PLANNED INTERIM COUNCIL NOW. WE SEEK DEPT'S LATEST GUIDANCE ON MESTIRIS PLAN AND THE TRANSFER OF POWER QUESTION TO SHARE WITH SHAH. END SUMMARY.
INTRODUCTION
------------
4. ASHRAF SHAH, ECONOMIC ADVISOR AND SPECIAL EMISSARY OF RABBANI, SOUGHT AN URGENT MEETING WITH AMB AND POL/ECON CHIEF FEB 20. PREVIOUS EVENING HE ARRIVED IN DUSHANBE FROM MOSCOW. SHAH TOLD US HE CAME TO DUSHANBE SPECIFICALLY TO MEET WITH EMBASSY OFFICERS BEFORE RETURNING TO KABUL VIA TASHKENT AND NEW DELHI. SHAH STATED HIS TRIP TO MOSCOW WAS SHORT, THREE DAYS, TO TEND TO BUSINESS OF THE AFGHAN NATIONAL BANK ("AFGHANISTAN'S FEDERAL RESERVE BANK," AS HE DESCRIBED IT), OF WHICH HE IS ACTING CHAIRMAN BECAUSE THE CHAIRMAN IS SICK. SHAH DID NOT APPARENTLY COLLECT ANY MORE AFGHANIS, PRINTED IN RUSSIA, AS HE STATED THE RUSSIAN CONTRACT HAD BEEN COMPLETED. A GERMAN COMPANY NOW HAS THE CONTRACT TO PRINT AFGHAN CURRENCY.
I have been using the term "Afghani" to refer to the people from Afghanistan.
I saw somewhere recently that the correct term is "Afghan"; apparently, "Afghani" is the monetary unit.
Please accept my apologies; no disrespect is intended.
TALIBAN - A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH BUT UNLIKELY TO FIND GREAT POPULAR SUPPORT AMONG KABULIS.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. SHAH SUMMARIZED EVENTS IN AFGHANISTAN SINCE THE MUJAHIDEEN TAKE-OVER FROM THE SOVIETS, LAMENTED THE DWINDLING NUMBER OF EDUCATED "PROGRESSIVE" AFGHANS REMAINING IN AFGHANISTAN, AND FOCUSSED ON RECENT POLITICAL EVENTS -- PARTICULARLY THE RISE OF THE TALIBAN AND THE DIMUNITION OF HEKMATYAR'S POWER.
6. ON THE TALIBAN, SHAH PORTRAYED THEM AS A PREDOMINANTLY DURRANI PASHTUN, LARGELY RURAL, UNSOPHISTICATED, EXTREMELY CONSERVATIVE FORCE. THEY HAVE SUCCEEDED IN GAINING CONTROL OF SIX PROVINCES (HELMAND, KANDAHAR, ZABUL, GHAZNI, WARDAK, AND PAKTIKA), AND, THEREFORE, A SIGNIFICANT FORCE WITH WHOM TO BE RECKONED. WE NOTE THAT RADIO KHORASAN FEB 19 REPORTED THE TALIBAN TOOK CONTROL OF PAKTIKA PROVINCE WITHOUT A FIGHT AS FORCES OF JAMIAT-I ISLAMI (RABBANI) AND HARIKAT-I INQILAB-I ISLAMI (MUHAMMAD NABI) IN EFFECT HANDED THEM THE PROVINCE.
An important description of the Taliban -- Pashtun, rural, conservative.... This corresponds to their reported origin in the border area near Pakistan, and indicates they have ethnic ties with a significant part of the Pakistani population.
It is worth recalling that Pakistan's northern border area is where the mujahideen staged out of during the 1980's jihad against the Soviets.
This border area also has a great many religious schools on the Pakistani side. This is undoubtedly where many of the Taliban were recruited from.
The religious schools have grown in quantity in recent decades, and their representatives function somewhat as chaplains in the Pakistani Army. There are extensive ties between the Pakistani Army and these madrassas. The system of religious schools in Pakistan and their influence and impact will be the subject of upcoming posts.
7. THE TALIBAN ARE ALSO A DEEPLY CONSERVATIVE FORCE, BENT ON IMPLEMENTING DECREES IN THE SOCIAL ARENA BOUND TO GRATE ON MOST KABULIS, SHAH STATED. IN ADDITION TO THE BANS ON SOCCER, JUDO, AND KARATE MENTIONED REFTEL, SHAH SAID THE TALIBAN HAD ALSO FORBIDDEN CHESS-PLAYING AND MUSIC. THEY WERE ACTIVELY DESTROYING MUSIC CASSETTES. WHILE KEEPING BOYS' SCHOOLS OPEN, THEY WERE CLOSING GIRLS' SCHOOLS. THEY HAD RELENTED A BIT ON EARLIER DECREES BANNING WOMEN IN THE BAZAARS, NOW PERMITTING THEM IF VEILED IN THE CHADOR/BURKA AND ACCOMPANIED BY A MAN. THEY, OBVIOUSLY, OPPOSED WOMEN WORKING OUTSIDE THE HOME. SHAH FELT THE SUM TOTAL OF THESE BANS WOULD WIN THEM LITTLE POPULAR SUPPORT AMONG THE MORE URBANIZED, SOPHISTICATED INHABITANTS OF KABUL. THEIR PREDOMINANT DURRANI PASHTUN ETHNICITY WOULD ALSO WORK AGAINST THEM IN WINNING OVER THE POPULACE OF KABUL.
Ethnic and cultural differences -- the Taliban came from a different world, and were not well-received among the relatively cosmopolitan people of Kabul.
8. NEVERTHELESS, SHAH ACKNOWLEDGED THAT THE TALIBAN ENJOYED A DEGREE OF POPULAR SUPPORT IN THE AREAS THEY NOW CONTROLLED BECAUSE THEY HAD DISARMED RIVAL MUJAHEDIN GROUPS AND RESTORED SECURITY, PARTICULARLY FOR ROAD TRAVEL.
The security of roads was an issue most people could agree on -- perhaps especially the more urbanized people, who rely on supplies brought in from elsewhere?
HEKMATYAR, A SPENT FORCE
------------------------
9. SHAH CONFIRMED PRESS REPORTS OF THE PREVIOUS WEEK OF AN EASY TALIBAN VICTORY OVER HEKMATYAR AT CHARASIAB. HE CLAIMED THAT MASUD'S FORCES ACTUALLY ENTERED CHARASIAB ONE DAY BEFORE THE TALIBAN ARRIVED, IMMEDIATELY AFTER HEKMATYAR'S FORCES FLED THE CITY. MASUD'S FORCES TOOK POSSESSION OF HEKMATYAR'S HEAVY WEAPONRY ABANDONED IN THEIR HASTY FLIGHT. MASUD'S FORCES, IN TURN, ALSO VACATED THE CITY AT THE REQUEST OF THE TALIBAN, TAKING THEIR NEWLY GAINED WEAPONRY WITH THEM. AT THE SAME TIME AS OCCUPYING CHARASIAB, THE TALIBAN TOOK MAYDAN SHAHR AND CHOWK-I WARDAK, AS WELL AS THE ROAD FROM GHAZNI LEADING TO KABUL, TO CONTROL TOTALLY WARDAK PROVINCE.
10. SHAH CLAIMED HEKMATYAR HAD NOW FLED TO LAGHMAN, LEAVING SAROBI (ALTHOUGH HIG FORCES STILL CONTROLLED SAROBI). MANY OF HIS COMMANDERS HAD DISPERSED EVEN WIDER AFIELD FROM CHARASIAB. HEKMATYAR NOW ONLY CONTROLLED ONE PROVINCE, LAGHMAN, IN SHAH'S ASSESSMENT. WITH THE LOSS OF HEAVY WEAPONRY, THE DISPERSAL OF HIS COMMANDERS, AND EFFECTIVE CONTROL OVER ONLY ONE PROVINCE, SHAH PRONOUNCED HEKMATYAR A SPENT MILITARY FORCE.
11. IN SHAH'S ASSESSMENT, ONLY THREE SIGNIFICANT MILITARY FORCES REMAINED IN AFGHANISTAN: THE TALIBAN, DOSTOM'S JOMBESH, AND "THE GOVERNMENT," BY WHICH SHAH MEANT THE FORCES OF RABBANI, MASUD, AND ISMAIL KHAN (IN WESTERN AFGHANISTAN). HE DISMISSED GAILANI, KHALIS, SAYYAF, AND MUHAMMAD NABI AS INCAPABLE OF MOUNTING SERIOUS MILITARY CHALLENGES. THE SHI'A HIZB-I WAHDAT WAS ONLY MARGINNALY MORE CAPABLE.
Of course, Hekmatyar is now, as of 2008, considered to have sided with the Taliban, and Dostum is part of the current government in Kabul, although there has been trouble between him and other elements of the government. See Genesis, Part 5 for a little more info on Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and Afghan Government Tries to Arrest General Dostum for information about General Dostum.
SEEKING U.S. ADVICE
-------------------
12. AMB AND POL/ECON CHIEF NOTED THAT AMB MESTIRI WAS IN KABUL AND THAT TODAY, FEB 20, WAS THE DATE PRESIDENT RABBANI WAS SUPPOSED TO TURN OVER POWER TO THE INTERIM COUNCIL MESTIRI HAD SO PAINSTAKINGLY PIECED TOGETHER. SHAH, IN LIGHT OF THE RECENT DEVELOPMENTS HE HAD DESCRIBED ABOVE, ASKED FOR U.S. ADVICE. WE RESPONDED THAT THE USG CONTINUED TO STRONGLY SUPPORT MESTIRI'S EFFORTS. WE BELIEVED THAT RABBANI SHOULD STILL TURN OVER POWER TO THE INTERIM COUNCIL UNDER UN AUSPICES. NOT TO DO SO NOW WOULD BE A SEVERE SETBACK TO UN EFFORTS AND MIGHT PROVIDE THE TALIBAN AN EXCUSE TO MAKE WAR ON KABUL. IN ADDITION, AN EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITY TO BRING INTO EXISTENCE AN AFGHAN GOVERNING BODY OF GREATER LEGITIMACY IN THE EYES OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY WOULD BE LOST.
13. SHAH ARGUED THAT CONDITIONS HAD CHANGED SINCE MESTIRI'S PLANNED INTERIM COUNCIL. ALTHOUGH RABBANI STILL INTENDED TO RESIGN AT SOME TIME, HE SHOULD NOT TURN OVER POWER TO THE INTERIM COUNCIL IF THE TALIBAN WERE NOT MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL. IF THE POWERFUL TALIBAN, WHICH ENJOYED SOME DEGREE OF POPULAR SUPPORT, DID NOT JOIN THE COUNCIL, IT WOULD BE DEAD UPON ARRIVAL. WE RESPONDED THAT MESTIRI AND HIS AIDES WERE TALKING TO THE TALIBAN AND TRYING TO GAIN THEIR ACCEPTANCE OF THE INTERIM COUNCIL. FROM THE LITTLE WE KNEW ABOUT THE TALIBAN LEADERS, IT APPEARED THEY HAD NOT RULED OUT COOPERATION WITH MESTIRI -- ALTHOUGH THEY HAD FREQUENTLY RAILED AGAINST THE MUJAHEDIN LEADERS AND THEIR TANZIMAT. ALL IN ALL, WE BELIEVED IT BETTER FOR RABBANI TO SURRENDER POWER TO THE INTERIM COUNCIL, WHILE MESTIRI WORKED TO BRING ALONG THE TALIBAN.
It is difficult to assess from this cable the sincerity of Rabbani's viewpoint, as communicated by Shah.
14. SHAH ACKNOWLEDGED THE RATIONALE OF SOME OF OUR ARGUMENTS BUT HELD TO HIS BELIEF THAT RABBANI SHOULD NOT SURRENDER POWER AT THIS TIME. HE ASKED THAT WE CONVEY HIS VIEWS TO WASHINGTON POLICY-MAKERS, WHICH WE PROMISED TO DO.
COMMENT
-------
15. [redacted in its entirety]
16. [redacted in its entirety]
17. [redacted in its entirety]
ACTION REQUEST
--------------
18. SEPTEL SEEKS SPECIFIC GUIDANCE FROM THE DEPT IN RESPONS TO ANOTHER QUERY FROM SHAH. AT THE TIME WE RESPOND TO SHAH ON THAT QUESTION WE WOULD APPRECIATE ANY FURTHER GUIDANCE FROM THE DEPT CONCERNING CURRENT U.S. POLICY VIS-A-VIS MESTIRI'S PLANNED INTERIM COUNCIL AND THE TRANSFER OF POWER QUESTION, WHICH WE WOULD LIKE ALSO TO SHARE WITH SHAH. OUR INTERLOCUTOR WILL WAIT IN DUSHANBE A DAY OR TWO LONGER FOR FURTHER ELABORATION.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Kosovo in 1999, Part 3
We continue from Part 2, and conclude our review of the 1999 article that is an addendum to The Criminalization of the State: "Independent Kosovo", a Territory under US-NATO Military Rule.
As you read the following excerpt, please consider it carefully:
Does this remind us of the Sibel Edmonds case? Criminal syndicates that "need friends in high places", that "cultivate links to prominent political figures and officials of the military and intelligence estalishment"? That is exactly a description of the Turkish Deep State, and that is exactly what is described in the Sibel Edmonds case.
What else does this remind us of?
It is also worth recalling the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center, and all the stockbrokers that were in those three buildings that collapsed after the impact of two airliners. During the attack, stock trades continued whizzing through their computers -- at five to ten times the normal volume!
Interesting this idea that the IMF's interference caused the environment conducive to the trouble that developed.
It is also interesting looking into the influence that has been exerted on Pakistan regarding Pakistan's external debt, and Islamabad's reactions to that. That will be the subject of an upcoming post.
Regular readers of my blog know of the vast role that prostitution plays among the Albanian mafias in the Balkans, and how many of these groups actually got their criminal start and built up capital for other criminal activities by enslaving women and forcing them into prostitution.
What better way to launder drug money than through legitimate businesses in a nation where the path of the money is not traced? Ah, the advantages of globalization....
And this is exactly what is being established -- even now, February of 2008 -- in Kosovo.
Serbia was bombed and bullied by the West to establish a failed state in the heart of the Balkans.
This is not to blame all ethnic Albanians, nor is it to exonerate all ethnic Serbs. In that light, it is worth recalling from Part 1 a quote from earlier in the article:
Ethnic Albanians were "ethnically cleansed" by the KLA!
Picking up where we left off:
American troops on the border to enforce the embargo -- but somehow the guns and heroin magically get through!
Reminiscent of Afghanistan, where more than 90% of the world's heroin is now produced, and where US and NATO forces somehow can't seem to locate Sheikh bin Laden?
Similar to Afghanistan, where, during the jihad against the Soviets in the 1980's, the CIA, working through Pakistan's ISI, set up this guerrilla organization that was to an extent self-funding via its ties to heroin production.
As Professor Chossudovsky pointed out earlier in this article, in a statement which was quoted at the beginning of Part 2, this is a scheme similar to what was developed to fund the Contras in Nicaragua.
These are not just a bunch of angry young men -- they are organized, trained, armed, well-funded, and have state-backing.
It is both ethnic Serbs and ethnic Albanians who are being victimized by the alliance between corrupt Western leaders and organized crime. That article was from 1999; as I write this, in February of 2008, the Bush Administration is pushing for the independence of Kosovo, possibly in the next few weeks. This will be in violation of international law, and will give heroin traffickers and Islamic militants a nation-state as a base in Europe, under Western military and political cover.
On the other side of Europe, there are several nations with substantial and increasingly militant minority groups of immigrants from Islamic countries. The precedent that is being set in the Balkans will reach across Europe, and the dominoes will fall. The westernmost dominoes are nuclear-armed powers, permanent members of the UN Security Council; the first dominoes are being toppled by the Bush Administration in the Balkans.
As you read the following excerpt, please consider it carefully:
The laundering of dirty money
In order to thrive, the criminal syndicates involved in the Balkans narcotics trade need friends in high places. Smuggling rings with alleged links to the Turkish State are said to control the trafficking of heroin through the Balkans "cooperating closely with other groups with which they have political or religious ties" including criminal groups in Albanian and Kosovo.[21] In this new global financial environment, powerful undercover political lobbies connected to organized crime cultivate links to prominent political figures and officials of the military and intelligence establishment.
Does this remind us of the Sibel Edmonds case? Criminal syndicates that "need friends in high places", that "cultivate links to prominent political figures and officials of the military and intelligence estalishment"? That is exactly a description of the Turkish Deep State, and that is exactly what is described in the Sibel Edmonds case.
What else does this remind us of?
The narcotics trade nonetheless uses respectable banks to launder large amounts of dirty money. While comfortably removed from the smuggling operations per se, powerful banking interests in Turkey but mainly those in financial centres in Western Europe discretely collect fat commissions in a multibillion dollar money laundering operation. These interests have high stakes in ensuring a safe passage of drug shipments into Western European markets.
It is also worth recalling the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center, and all the stockbrokers that were in those three buildings that collapsed after the impact of two airliners. During the attack, stock trades continued whizzing through their computers -- at five to ten times the normal volume!
The Albanian connection
Arms smuggling from Albania into Kosovo and Macedonia started at the beginning of 1992, when the Democratic Party [of Albania -- YD] came to power, headed by President Sali Berisha. An expansive underground economy and cross border trade had unfolded. A triangular trade in oil, arms and narcotics had developed largely as a result of the embargo imposed by the international community on Serbia and Montenegro and the blockade enforced by Greece against Macedonia.
Industry and agriculture in Kosovo were spearheaded into bankruptcy following the IMF's lethal "economic medicine" imposed on Belgrade in 1990. The embargo was imposed on Yugoslavia. Ethnic Albanians and Serbs were driven into abysmal poverty. Economic collapse created an environment which fostered the progress of illicit trade. In Kosovo, the rate of unemployment increased to a staggering 70 percent (according to Western sources).
Interesting this idea that the IMF's interference caused the environment conducive to the trouble that developed.
It is also interesting looking into the influence that has been exerted on Pakistan regarding Pakistan's external debt, and Islamabad's reactions to that. That will be the subject of an upcoming post.
Poverty and economic collapse served to exacerbate simmering ethnic tensions. Thousands of unemployed youths "barely out of their teens" from an impoverished population, were drafted into the ranks of the KLA ...[22]
In neighbouring Albania, the free market reforms adopted since 1992 had created conditions which favoured the criminalisation of state institutions. Drug money was also laundered in the Albanian pyramids (ponzi schemes) which mushroomed during the government of former President Sali Berisha (1992-1997).[23] These shady investment funds were an integral part of the economic reforms inflicted by Western creditors on Albania.
Drug barons in Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia (with links to the Italian Mafia) had become the new economic elites, often associated with Western business interests. In turn the financial proceeds of the trade in drugs and arms were recycled towards other illicit activities (and vice versa) including a vast prostitution racket between Albania and Italy. Albanian criminal groups operating in Milan, "have become so powerful running prostitution rackets that they have even taken over the Calabrians in strength and influence."[24]
Regular readers of my blog know of the vast role that prostitution plays among the Albanian mafias in the Balkans, and how many of these groups actually got their criminal start and built up capital for other criminal activities by enslaving women and forcing them into prostitution.
The application of "strong economic medicine" under the guidance of the Washington based Bretton Woods institutions had contributed to wrecking Albania's banking system and precipitating the collapse of the Albanian economy. The resulting chaos enabled American and European transnationals to carefully position themselves. Several Western oil companies including Occidental, Shell and British Petroleum had their eyes riveted on Albania's abundant and unexplored oil-deposits. Western investors were also gawking Albania's extensive reserves of chrome, copper, gold, nickel and platinum.... The Adenauer Foundation had been lobbying in the background on behalf of German mining interests.[25]
Berisha's Minister of Defence Safet Zoulali (alleged to have been involved in the illegal oil and narcotics trade) was the architect of the agreement with Germany's Preussag (handing over control over Albania's chrome mines) against the competing bid of the US led consortium of Macalloy Inc. in association with Rio Tinto Zimbabwe (RTZ).[26]
Large amounts of narco-dollars had also been recycled into the privatisation programmes leading to the acquisition of state assets by the mafias. In Albania, the privatisation programme had led virtually overnight to the development of a property owning class firmly committed to the "free market". In Northern Albania, this class was associated with the Guegue "families" linked to the Democratic Party.
What better way to launder drug money than through legitimate businesses in a nation where the path of the money is not traced? Ah, the advantages of globalization....
Controlled by the Democratic Party under the presidency of Sali Berisha (1992-97), Albania's largest financial "pyramid" VEFA Holdings had been set up by the Guegue "families" of Northern Albania with the support of Western banking interests. VEFA was under investigation in Italy in 1997 for its ties to the Mafia which allegedly used VEFA to launder large amounts of dirty money.[27]
According to one press report (based on intelligence sources), senior members of the Albanian government during the presidency of Sali Berisha including cabinet members and members of the secret police SHIK were alleged to be involved in drugs trafficking and illegal arms trading into Kosovo:"(...) The allegations are very serious. Drugs, arms, contraband cigarettes all are believed to have been handled by a company run openly by Albania's ruling Democratic Party, Shqiponja (...). In the course of 1996 Defence Minister, Safet Zhulali [was alleged] to had used his office to facilitate the transport of arms, oil and contraband cigarettes. (...) Drugs barons from Kosovo (...) operate in Albania with impunity, and much of the transportation of heroin and other drugs across Albania, from Macedonia and Greece en route to Italy, is believed to be organised by Shik, the state security police (...). Intelligence agents are convinced the chain of command in the rackets goes all the way to the top and have had no hesitation in naming ministers in their reports."[28]
And this is exactly what is being established -- even now, February of 2008 -- in Kosovo.
Serbia was bombed and bullied by the West to establish a failed state in the heart of the Balkans.
This is not to blame all ethnic Albanians, nor is it to exonerate all ethnic Serbs. In that light, it is worth recalling from Part 1 a quote from earlier in the article:
Ironically Robert Gelbard, America's special envoy to Bosnia, had described the KLA last year [1998] as "terrorists". Christopher Hill, America's chief negotiator and architect of the Rambouillet agreement, "has also been a strong critic of the KLA for its alleged dealings in drugs."[3] Moreover, barely a few two months before Rambouillet, the US State Department had acknowledged (based on reports from the US Observer Mission) the role of the KLA in terrorising and uprooting ethnic Albanians:" ... the KLA harass or kidnap anyone who comes to the police, ... KLA representatives had threatened to kill villagers and burn their homes if they did not join the KLA [a process which has continued since the NATO bombings]... [T]he KLA harassment has reached such intensity that residents of six villages in the Stimlje region are "ready to flee."[4]
Ethnic Albanians were "ethnically cleansed" by the KLA!
Picking up where we left off:
The trade in narcotics and weapons was allowed to prosper despite the presence since 1993 of a large contingent of American troops at the Albanian-Macedonian border with a mandate to enforce the embargo. The West had turned a blind eye. The revenues from oil and narcotics were used to finance the purchase of arms (often in terms of direct barter): "Deliveries of oil to Macedonia (skirting the Greek embargo [in 1993-4] can be used to cover heroin, as do deliveries of kalachnikov rifles to Albanian 'brothers' in Kosovo".[29]
American troops on the border to enforce the embargo -- but somehow the guns and heroin magically get through!
Reminiscent of Afghanistan, where more than 90% of the world's heroin is now produced, and where US and NATO forces somehow can't seem to locate Sheikh bin Laden?
The Northern tribal clans or "fares" had also developed links with Italy's crime syndicates.[30] In turn, the latter played a key role in smuggling arms across the Adriatic into the Albanian ports of Dures and Valona. At the outset in 1992, the weapons channelled into Kosovo were largely small arms including Kalashnikov AK-47 rifles, RPK and PPK machine-guns, 12.7 calibre heavy machine-guns, etc.
The proceeds of the narcotics trade has enabled the KLA to rapidly develop a force of some 30,000 men. More recently, the KLA has acquired more sophisticated weaponry including anti-aircraft and anti-armor rockets. According to Belgrade, some of the funds have come directly from the CIA "funnelled through a so-called 'Government of Kosovo' based in Geneva, Switzerland. Its Washington office employs the public-relations firm of Ruder Finn--notorious for its slanders of the Belgrade government".[31]
Similar to Afghanistan, where, during the jihad against the Soviets in the 1980's, the CIA, working through Pakistan's ISI, set up this guerrilla organization that was to an extent self-funding via its ties to heroin production.
As Professor Chossudovsky pointed out earlier in this article, in a statement which was quoted at the beginning of Part 2, this is a scheme similar to what was developed to fund the Contras in Nicaragua.
The KLA has also acquired electronic surveillance equipment which enables it to receive NATO satellite information concerning the movement of the Yugoslav Army. The KLA training camp in Albania is said to "concentrate on heavy weapons training--rocket propelled grenades, medium caliber cannons, tanks and transporter use, as well as on communications, and command and control". (According to Yugoslav government sources).[32]
These are not just a bunch of angry young men -- they are organized, trained, armed, well-funded, and have state-backing.
These extensive deliveries of weapons to the Kosovo rebel army were consistent with Western geopolitical objectives. Not surprisingly, there has been a "deafening silence" of the international media regarding the Kosovo arms-drugs trade. In the words of a 1994 Report of the Geopolitical Drug Watch: "the trafficking [of drugs and arms] is basically being judged on its geostrategic implications (...) In Kosovo, drugs and weapons trafficking is fuelling geopolitical hopes and fears"...[33]
The fate of Kosovo had already been carefully laid out prior to the signing of the 1995 Dayton agreement. NATO had entered an unwholesome "marriage of convenience" with the mafia. "Freedom fighters" were put in place, the narcotics trade enabled Washington and Bonn to "finance the Kosovo conflict" with the ultimate objective of destabilising the Belgrade government and fully recolonising the Balkans. The destruction of an entire country is the outcome. Western governments which participated in the NATO operation bear a heavy burden of responsibility in the deaths of civilians, the impoverishment of both the ethnic Albanian and Serbian populations and the plight of those who were brutally uprooted from towns and villages in Kosovo as a result of the bombings.
It is both ethnic Serbs and ethnic Albanians who are being victimized by the alliance between corrupt Western leaders and organized crime. That article was from 1999; as I write this, in February of 2008, the Bush Administration is pushing for the independence of Kosovo, possibly in the next few weeks. This will be in violation of international law, and will give heroin traffickers and Islamic militants a nation-state as a base in Europe, under Western military and political cover.
On the other side of Europe, there are several nations with substantial and increasingly militant minority groups of immigrants from Islamic countries. The precedent that is being set in the Balkans will reach across Europe, and the dominoes will fall. The westernmost dominoes are nuclear-armed powers, permanent members of the UN Security Council; the first dominoes are being toppled by the Bush Administration in the Balkans.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Kosovo in 1999, Part 2
We continue from Part 1:
There are numerous allegations about planeloads of weapons going south to the Contras, or to whomever, and planeloads of drugs coming back north to the United States. It seems the aircraft going south with the weapons were not subject to customs and immigration inspections -- heh -- and so having them come back empty was too much of a lost opportunity. Some enterprising soul decided that they should be carrying cocaine! So, the 1980's -- the years of the battles against the Sandinistas and other Communist-backed groups in Latin America -- also became the years of Miami Vice.
For an interesting read, check out Powderburns.
Regardless, during those same years, the Reagan Administration was determined to put a full-court press on the Soviet Union. The Democrats, aligned with supporters from the far left, had the reputation of being soft on Communism, and tried to frame the Cold War debate as one of "guns or butter", implying that the Soviet Union was not a threat, and implying the military was getting preference while the American people suffered. Reagan, of course, knew that the American economy was powerful, and was merely chained by regulations and taxes -- in particular, he knew that while the Soviet Union perhaps had to deal with a question of "guns or butter", the American economy could provide both.
With the Soviets fighting in Afghanistan, an opportunity presented itself to recall our own experience from Vietnam, and to return the favor. This required, however, getting funding for clandestine and covert operations from an unfriendly Congress.
A more practical solution was found by the guys on the ground in South Asia. By producing opiates, they could make money. The money could pay for the jihad against Moscow, and the opiates could be sold to the infidel enemy, making the Soviet Army less effective, and starting a drug problem in the USSR akin to the one that had been growing in the US during the 1960's and 1970's.
The trouble was, there's money in drugs; sewing an arm on here, adding in the wrong kind of brain there, the US intelligence agencies helped piece together a monster, and this business took on a life of its own.
No more need to beg the liberal Democrats in Congress for money to battle the godless Communist hordes -- problem solved.
America's reliance on Middle East oil has been seen for the handicap that it is since the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo -- and the south of the former USSR is known to be an oil-rich area, out of reach of the Arabs.
That oil can come to market in tankers crossing the Black Sea, but then there's the bottleneck in the Turkish Straits. Weather in the Turkish Straits isn't always conducive to moving a tanker through, and some day, the political climate might not be conducive, either.
A pipeline across the Balkan Peninsula would solve that problem, but bring with it another: to get to a deepwater port that can handle supertankers in bad weather, such a pipeline would need to cross Yugoslavia -- and Yugoslavia was dominated and administered mostly by the Serbs, traditional allies of Russia.
With the fall of the Soviet Union, the oil itself was now outside of Moscow's reach; now what was needed was to make sure the pipeline carrying it across the Balkans was, too. By destabilizing Yugoslavia, new countries could be created where once there were republics of Yugoslavia -- and those countries would be beholden to the West who helped create them.
By the way -- to get to Western markets, that oil from the Caspian Basin also had cross the Caucasus, running near places like Chechnya. Are you beginning to get the picture?
And so, in a move that would be of long-term strategic damage to the oil-producing Persian Gulf, the Arab oil-producing nations there, especially Saudi Arabia, helped fund the jihad in the Balkans against the infidel Serbs, thus opening up the route to move non-Arab oil to the West.
What were the Saudis thinking?
Did they get duped?
Or, did they run some calculations of their own, and come up with the answer that the pipelines would transit new, radical Muslim nations, full of jihadis and Wahhabi mosques producing more jihadis -- nations with ties to Riyadh at least as strong as any dependence on the infidel West?
Perhaps cooperation with one infidel enemy was seen as a way to destroy another -- and perhaps it was also seen as good for Muslims.
To properly fund a terrorist jihad, it takes money -- and that money must not be traceable back to the sheikhs (or others) who fund the terror.
But, what was that trick we learned? Something about using drugs -- drug consumption destroys the infidel at home, and the profits fund the military jihad against the infidel.
As you read the statistics in this next paragraph, recall that the article is from 1999:
So, we have the mix: oil, heroin and Arab-Afghan mujahideen.
And, this brings us to an urgent need to launder money.
One main target on 9/11 was the World Trade Center.
Why was it that two buildings, both of which were overengineered to withstand the impact of an airliner full of jet fuel, collapsed in the same day, supposedly due to impact of airliners full of jet fuel?
Why was it that a third building, which was not hit by an aircraft, collapsed in the same complex later that day?
Does it have any relation to reports from the Sibel Edmonds case that plans for US skyscrapers had gone to the Middle East in the months before the attacks?
Why the World Trade Center?
Why were stock trades whizzing through the WTC's computers, even during the attack -- at five to ten times the normal volume?
Could it have anything to do with the need to launder money and cover one's tracks?
Ah, but we get ahead of ourselves... stay tuned for Part 3!
Covert financing of "freedom fighters"
Remember Oliver North and the Contras? The pattern in Kosovo is similar to other CIA covert operations in Central America, Haiti and Afghanistan where "freedom fighters" were financed through the laundering of drug money. Since the onslaught of the Cold War, Western intelligence agencies have developed a complex relationship to the illegal narcotics trade. In case after case, drug money laundered in the international banking system has financed covert operations.
According to author Alfred McCoy, the pattern of covert financing was established in the Indochina war. In the 1960s, the Meo army in Laos was funded by the narcotics trade as part of Washington's military strategy against the combined forces of the neutralist government of Prince Souvanna Phouma and the Pathet Lao.[6]
The pattern of drug politics set in Indochina has since been replicated in Central America and the Caribbean. "The rising curve of cocaine imports to the US", wrote journalist John Dinges "followed almost exactly the flow of US arms and military advisers to Central America".[7]
There are numerous allegations about planeloads of weapons going south to the Contras, or to whomever, and planeloads of drugs coming back north to the United States. It seems the aircraft going south with the weapons were not subject to customs and immigration inspections -- heh -- and so having them come back empty was too much of a lost opportunity. Some enterprising soul decided that they should be carrying cocaine! So, the 1980's -- the years of the battles against the Sandinistas and other Communist-backed groups in Latin America -- also became the years of Miami Vice.
For an interesting read, check out Powderburns.
Regardless, during those same years, the Reagan Administration was determined to put a full-court press on the Soviet Union. The Democrats, aligned with supporters from the far left, had the reputation of being soft on Communism, and tried to frame the Cold War debate as one of "guns or butter", implying that the Soviet Union was not a threat, and implying the military was getting preference while the American people suffered. Reagan, of course, knew that the American economy was powerful, and was merely chained by regulations and taxes -- in particular, he knew that while the Soviet Union perhaps had to deal with a question of "guns or butter", the American economy could provide both.
With the Soviets fighting in Afghanistan, an opportunity presented itself to recall our own experience from Vietnam, and to return the favor. This required, however, getting funding for clandestine and covert operations from an unfriendly Congress.
A more practical solution was found by the guys on the ground in South Asia. By producing opiates, they could make money. The money could pay for the jihad against Moscow, and the opiates could be sold to the infidel enemy, making the Soviet Army less effective, and starting a drug problem in the USSR akin to the one that had been growing in the US during the 1960's and 1970's.
The trouble was, there's money in drugs; sewing an arm on here, adding in the wrong kind of brain there, the US intelligence agencies helped piece together a monster, and this business took on a life of its own.
The military in Guatemala and Haiti, to which the CIA provided covert support, were known to be involved in the trade of narcotics into Southern Florida. And as revealed in the Iran-Contra and Bank of Commerce and Credit International (BCCI) scandals, there was strong evidence that covert operations were funded through the laundering of drug money. "Dirty money" recycled through the banking system--often through an anonymous shell company-- became "covert money," used to finance various rebel groups and guerrilla movements including the Nicaraguan Contras and the Afghan Mujahadeen. According to a 1991 Time magazine report:"Because the US wanted to supply the mujehadeen rebels in Afghanistan with stinger missiles and other military hardware it needed the full cooperation of Pakistan. By the mid-1980s, the CIA operation in Islamabad was one of the largest US intelligence stations in the World. 'If BCCI is such an embarrassment to the US that forthright investigations are not being pursued it has a lot to do with the blind eye the US turned to the heroin trafficking in Pakistan', said a US intelligence officer."[8]
No more need to beg the liberal Democrats in Congress for money to battle the godless Communist hordes -- problem solved.
America and Germany join hands
Since the early 1990s, Bonn and Washington have joined hands in establishing their respective spheres of influence in the Balkans. Their intelligence agencies have also collaborated. According to intelligence analyst John Whitley, covert support to the Kosovo rebel army was established as a joint endeavour between the CIA and Germany's Bundes Nachrichten Dienst (BND) (which previously played a key role in installing a right-wing nationalist government under Franjo Tudjman in Croatia).[9] The task to create and finance the KLA was initially given to Germany: "They used German uniforms, East German weapons and were financed, in part, with drug money".[10] According to Whitley, the CIA was subsequently instrumental in training and equipping the KLA in Albania.[11]
The covert activities of Germany's BND were consistent with Bonn's intent to expand its "Lebensraum" into the Balkans. Prior to the onset of the civil war in Bosnia, Germany and its Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich Genscher had actively supported secession; it had "forced the pace of international diplomacy" and pressured its Western allies to recognize Slovenia and Croatia. According to the Geopolitical Drug Watch, both Germany and the US favoured (although not officially) the formation of a "Greater Albania" encompassing Albania, Kosovo and parts of Macedonia.[12] According to Sean Gervasi, Germany was seeking a free hand among its allies "to pursue economic dominance in the whole of Mitteleuropa."[13]
Islamic fundamentalism in support of the KLA
Bonn and Washington's "hidden agenda" consisted in triggering nationalist liberation movements in Bosnia and Kosovo with the ultimate purpose of destabilising Yugoslavia. The latter objective was also carried out "by turning a blind eye" to the influx of mercenaries and financial support from Islamic fundamentalist organisations.[14]
America's reliance on Middle East oil has been seen for the handicap that it is since the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo -- and the south of the former USSR is known to be an oil-rich area, out of reach of the Arabs.
That oil can come to market in tankers crossing the Black Sea, but then there's the bottleneck in the Turkish Straits. Weather in the Turkish Straits isn't always conducive to moving a tanker through, and some day, the political climate might not be conducive, either.
A pipeline across the Balkan Peninsula would solve that problem, but bring with it another: to get to a deepwater port that can handle supertankers in bad weather, such a pipeline would need to cross Yugoslavia -- and Yugoslavia was dominated and administered mostly by the Serbs, traditional allies of Russia.
With the fall of the Soviet Union, the oil itself was now outside of Moscow's reach; now what was needed was to make sure the pipeline carrying it across the Balkans was, too. By destabilizing Yugoslavia, new countries could be created where once there were republics of Yugoslavia -- and those countries would be beholden to the West who helped create them.
By the way -- to get to Western markets, that oil from the Caspian Basin also had cross the Caucasus, running near places like Chechnya. Are you beginning to get the picture?
Mercenaries financed by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had been fighting in Bosnia.[15] And the Bosnian pattern was replicated in Kosovo: Mujahadeen mercenaries from various Islamic countries are reported to be fighting alongside the KLA in Kosovo. German, Turkish and Afghan instructors were reported to be training the KLA in guerrilla and diversion tactics.[16]
And so, in a move that would be of long-term strategic damage to the oil-producing Persian Gulf, the Arab oil-producing nations there, especially Saudi Arabia, helped fund the jihad in the Balkans against the infidel Serbs, thus opening up the route to move non-Arab oil to the West.
What were the Saudis thinking?
Did they get duped?
Or, did they run some calculations of their own, and come up with the answer that the pipelines would transit new, radical Muslim nations, full of jihadis and Wahhabi mosques producing more jihadis -- nations with ties to Riyadh at least as strong as any dependence on the infidel West?
Perhaps cooperation with one infidel enemy was seen as a way to destroy another -- and perhaps it was also seen as good for Muslims.
According to a Deutsche Press-Agentur report, financial support from Islamic countries to the KLA had been channelled through the former Albanian chief of the National Information Service (NIS), Bashkim Gazidede.[17] "Gazidede, reportedly a devout Moslem who fled Albania in March of last year [1997], is presently [1998] being investigated for his contacts with Islamic terrorist organizations."[18]
To properly fund a terrorist jihad, it takes money -- and that money must not be traceable back to the sheikhs (or others) who fund the terror.
But, what was that trick we learned? Something about using drugs -- drug consumption destroys the infidel at home, and the profits fund the military jihad against the infidel.
As you read the statistics in this next paragraph, recall that the article is from 1999:
The supply route for arming KLA "freedom fighters" are the rugged mountainous borders of Albania with Kosovo and Macedonia. Albania is also a key point of transit of the Balkans drug route which supplies Western Europe with grade four heroin. Seventy-five percent of the heroin entering Western Europe is from Turkey. And a large part of drug shipments originating in Turkey transits through the Balkans. According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), "it is estimated that 4-6 metric tons of heroin leave each month from Turkey having [through the Balkans] as destination Western Europe."[19] A recent intelligence report by Germany's Federal Criminal Agency suggests that: "Ethnic Albanians are now the most prominent group in the distribution of heroin in Western consumer countries."[20]
So, we have the mix: oil, heroin and Arab-Afghan mujahideen.
And, this brings us to an urgent need to launder money.
One main target on 9/11 was the World Trade Center.
Why was it that two buildings, both of which were overengineered to withstand the impact of an airliner full of jet fuel, collapsed in the same day, supposedly due to impact of airliners full of jet fuel?
Why was it that a third building, which was not hit by an aircraft, collapsed in the same complex later that day?
Does it have any relation to reports from the Sibel Edmonds case that plans for US skyscrapers had gone to the Middle East in the months before the attacks?
Why the World Trade Center?
Why were stock trades whizzing through the WTC's computers, even during the attack -- at five to ten times the normal volume?
Could it have anything to do with the need to launder money and cover one's tracks?
Ah, but we get ahead of ourselves... stay tuned for Part 3!
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Kosovo in 1999, Part 1
In Kosovo in 2008 I began to review a work by Professor Michel Chossudovsky entitled The Criminalization of the State: "Independent Kosovo", a Territory under US-NATO Military Rule.
I reviewed only the first part of the article; in particular, I did not review his 1999 article that was referenced, and which is reproduced at the bottom of the link. I have decided to review that 1999 article, beginning in this post.
Numerals in [brackets] are to footnotes; please see the original to evaluate Professor Chossudovsky's sources.
I have been promising a look at Slobodan Milosevic's words on the events in the Balkans, as heard during his trial for alleged war crimes. It makes captivating reading. For now, links for transcripts and further information can be found here, here and here, but -- Warning! -- beyond this place be TiNRATs!
Returning to the article...
Let us take a moment to recall the Sibel Edmonds case, with which my regular readers are somewhat familiar.
Edmonds has language skills that were desperately needed by the FBI. She had applied to be a translator, and nothing came of the application. In the days following 9/11, she was again in contact with the FBI, and quickly hired, where her knowledge of Turkish, Farsi and Azeri were quite useful.
While reviewing documents and tapes of information and conversations in Turkish, she came across information linking important US political leaders -- elected and appointed, Republican and Democrat -- to Turkish organized crime.
It is worth clarifying the relationship between organized crime and terrorism. Conventional organized crime breaks the law for profit; terrorists break the law for political motivations. But, organized crime often needs to pursue political goals to facilitate criminal operations, and terrorists need funding to operate. Consequently, it is not surprising that these are to some extent birds of a feather, and can be found flocking together. I go into this more extensively in my series entitled The Shadow Realm, which can be found linked in the sidebar.
With that understood, it should not now seem surprising that Edmonds came across information about terrorist operations while reviewing the material which she was expected to summarize, translate or otherwise classify.
Edmonds got a glimpse into this nexus -- which I call the Shadow Realm -- where Big Narcotics, Big Terror, Big Business and Big Government intermingle.
The information she was working with was in some cases several years old, thus it was contemporary to the events about which Professor Chossudovsky is writing in this article; that information included intelligence data about the 9/11 attacks, which were upcoming when the information was collected, but which were recent history as Edmonds was reviewing it.
With that in mind, we return to Chossudovsky's 1999 article:
It has been said that "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter."
I am trying to picture George Washington sending a suicide bomber into a crowded market place -- I can't.
There is political spin, where words are used to label people and actions, until the words themselves substitute for the people and their actions. In a world such as ours, whoever has the most money for a PR campaign -- whether for beating the wardrum or running for election -- has a distinct advantage.
No matter how obvious is the lie, tell it often enough and let it be repeated enough, and it begins to serve for many as the truth.
What is "ethnic cleansing" if not terrorising and uprooting a group of people, threatening to kill them and burn their homes? The KLA was observed by US government personnel doing just that to ethnic Albanians!
And the KLA, which quickly evolved into what is now recognized as the de facto representative of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, was identified by the US State Department for its role in doing this ethnic cleansing of Albanians right on the eve of US Government support for the KLA to begin to lead these Albanians toward an illegal independence from Serbia.
How bizarre!
Meanwhile, a Kosovo leader calling for peace somehow gets killed -- by the Serbs, according to the KLA.
No wonder -- peace does not serve the interests of the Islamic fundamentalist terrorists who have been supplying and infiltrating the region, peace does not serve the interests of the arms traffickers who are hoping for hostilities, peace does not serve the interests of the heroin- and human-traffickers, for whom the chaos facilitates smuggling and for whom UN or NATO troops are clients for their sex-slaves... and, by blaming the Serbs, the perfect excuse is in place to let the profitable festivities begin.
Stay tuned for Part 2!
I reviewed only the first part of the article; in particular, I did not review his 1999 article that was referenced, and which is reproduced at the bottom of the link. I have decided to review that 1999 article, beginning in this post.
Numerals in [brackets] are to footnotes; please see the original to evaluate Professor Chossudovsky's sources.
Kosovo "Freedom Fighters" Financed by Organised Crime
By Michel Chossudovsky
10 April 1999
Heralded by the global media as a humanitarian peace-keeping mission, NATO's ruthless bombing of Belgrade and Pristina goes far beyond the breach of international law. While Slobodan Milosevic is demonised, portrayed as a remorseless dictator, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) is upheld as a self-respecting nationalist movement struggling for the rights of ethnic Albanians. The truth of the matter is that the KLA is sustained by organised crime with the tacit approval of the United States and its allies.
I have been promising a look at Slobodan Milosevic's words on the events in the Balkans, as heard during his trial for alleged war crimes. It makes captivating reading. For now, links for transcripts and further information can be found here, here and here, but -- Warning! -- beyond this place be TiNRATs!
Returning to the article...
Following a pattern set during the War in Bosnia, public opinion has been carefully misled. The multibillion dollar Balkans narcotics trade has played a crucial role in "financing the conflict" in Kosovo in accordance with Western economic, strategic and military objectives. Amply documented by European police files, acknowledged by numerous studies, the links of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) to criminal syndicates in Albania, Turkey and the European Union have been known to Western governments and intelligence agencies since the mid-1990s." ... The financing of the Kosovo guerrilla war poses critical questions and it sorely tests claims of an "ethical" foreign policy. Should the West back a guerrilla army that appears to partly financed by organised crime."[1]
Let us take a moment to recall the Sibel Edmonds case, with which my regular readers are somewhat familiar.
Edmonds has language skills that were desperately needed by the FBI. She had applied to be a translator, and nothing came of the application. In the days following 9/11, she was again in contact with the FBI, and quickly hired, where her knowledge of Turkish, Farsi and Azeri were quite useful.
While reviewing documents and tapes of information and conversations in Turkish, she came across information linking important US political leaders -- elected and appointed, Republican and Democrat -- to Turkish organized crime.
It is worth clarifying the relationship between organized crime and terrorism. Conventional organized crime breaks the law for profit; terrorists break the law for political motivations. But, organized crime often needs to pursue political goals to facilitate criminal operations, and terrorists need funding to operate. Consequently, it is not surprising that these are to some extent birds of a feather, and can be found flocking together. I go into this more extensively in my series entitled The Shadow Realm, which can be found linked in the sidebar.
With that understood, it should not now seem surprising that Edmonds came across information about terrorist operations while reviewing the material which she was expected to summarize, translate or otherwise classify.
Edmonds got a glimpse into this nexus -- which I call the Shadow Realm -- where Big Narcotics, Big Terror, Big Business and Big Government intermingle.
The information she was working with was in some cases several years old, thus it was contemporary to the events about which Professor Chossudovsky is writing in this article; that information included intelligence data about the 9/11 attacks, which were upcoming when the information was collected, but which were recent history as Edmonds was reviewing it.
With that in mind, we return to Chossudovsky's 1999 article:
While KLA leaders were shaking hands with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at Rambouillet, Europol (the European Police Organization based in The Hague) was "preparing a report for European interior and justice ministers on a connection between the KLA and Albanian drug gangs."[2] In the meantime, the rebel army has been skillfully heralded by the global media (in the months preceding the NATO bombings) as broadly representative of the interests of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
With KLA leader Hashim Thaci (a 29 year "freedom fighter") appointed as chief negotiator at Rambouillet, the KLA has become the de facto helmsman of the peace process on behalf of the ethnic Albanian majority and this despite its links to the drug trade. The West was relying on its KLA puppets to rubber-stamp an agreement which would have transformed Kosovo into an occupied territory under Western Administration.
It has been said that "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter."
I am trying to picture George Washington sending a suicide bomber into a crowded market place -- I can't.
There is political spin, where words are used to label people and actions, until the words themselves substitute for the people and their actions. In a world such as ours, whoever has the most money for a PR campaign -- whether for beating the wardrum or running for election -- has a distinct advantage.
No matter how obvious is the lie, tell it often enough and let it be repeated enough, and it begins to serve for many as the truth.
Ironically Robert Gelbard, America's special envoy to Bosnia, had described the KLA last year [1998] as "terrorists". Christopher Hill, America's chief negotiator and architect of the Rambouillet agreement, "has also been a strong critic of the KLA for its alleged dealings in drugs."[3] Moreover, barely a few two months before Rambouillet, the US State Department had acknowledged (based on reports from the US Observer Mission) the role of the KLA in terrorising and uprooting ethnic Albanians:" ... the KLA harass or kidnap anyone who comes to the police, ... KLA representatives had threatened to kill villagers and burn their homes if they did not join the KLA [a process which has continued since the NATO bombings]... [T]he KLA harassment has reached such intensity that residents of six villages in the Stimlje region are "ready to flee."[4]
What is "ethnic cleansing" if not terrorising and uprooting a group of people, threatening to kill them and burn their homes? The KLA was observed by US government personnel doing just that to ethnic Albanians!
And the KLA, which quickly evolved into what is now recognized as the de facto representative of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, was identified by the US State Department for its role in doing this ethnic cleansing of Albanians right on the eve of US Government support for the KLA to begin to lead these Albanians toward an illegal independence from Serbia.
How bizarre!
While backing a "freedom movement" with links to the drug trade, the West seems also intent in bypassing the civilian Kosovo Democratic League and its leader Ibrahim Rugova who has called for an end to the bombings and expressed his desire to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the Yugoslav authorities.[5] It is worth recalling that a few days before his March 31 Press Conference, Rugova had been reported by the KLA (alongside three other leaders including Fehmi Agani) to have been killed by the Serbs.
Meanwhile, a Kosovo leader calling for peace somehow gets killed -- by the Serbs, according to the KLA.
No wonder -- peace does not serve the interests of the Islamic fundamentalist terrorists who have been supplying and infiltrating the region, peace does not serve the interests of the arms traffickers who are hoping for hostilities, peace does not serve the interests of the heroin- and human-traffickers, for whom the chaos facilitates smuggling and for whom UN or NATO troops are clients for their sex-slaves... and, by blaming the Serbs, the perfect excuse is in place to let the profitable festivities begin.
Stay tuned for Part 2!
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Kosovo in 2008
An article appeared at GlobalResearch.ca yesterday by Professor Michel Chossudovsky entitled The Criminalization of the State: "Independent Kosovo", a Territory under US-NATO Military Rule.
The first half of the page at the link is the new article from February 4th, the second half is a reprint of a 1999 article of the professor's on Kosovo; I reproduce only the first part of the February 4th article, with some comments, cleaning up a few punctuation and formatting issues.
The links between the KLA and organized crime are known to readers of my blog.
Albanian mafia groups have gotten a good foothold in the crime world by trafficking women for use as sex-slaves (forced prostitution); these groups also traffic weapons and narcotics.
It is not surprising that a group traffics in more than one illegal commodity -- whatever one is smuggling, the routes often are the same, the corrupt government officials often are the same....
I have previously documented all of this -- instead of providing links to past posts, I encourage you to do an internet search, including searching among government documents and Congressional testimony, and find the evidence yourself.
In the late 90's, the Clinton Administration was conducting the foreign policy initiatives in the Balkans that tied us in to organized crime and Islamic extremist terrorists, so the Republicans were good at documenting it for a while, and their talking points can still be found online.
At some point, the Republicans got on board with supporting the KLA, and now we are supposed to believe the KLA & their political heirs are freedom fighters, even though these people have extensive ties to al Qaeda and to heroin-traffickers.
This AMBO project is also well-documented, although I have not yet addressed it here.
Ring any bells?
The last paragraph that I will quote from Professor Chossudovsky's article:
The Western Powers, especially the United States, have dismantled a lawfully-recognized nation and member of the UN, Yugoslavia. In the power-vacuum created, Islamic extremists and organized crime have moved in. The Balkans are now a hub and transshipment point for narcotics, weapons, slaves and extremist terror.
This policy began under the Clinton Administration, and has continued full-force under the Bush Administration; American foreign policy in the Balkans works at a cross-purpose to what we would expect in a War on Terror, or in a War on Drugs, and this is a pattern of behavior that goes all the way to Afghanistan: American troops are in harm's way, fighting a war that they are not allowed to win, while heroin trafficking has become a $1,000,000,000,000-a-year industry under their watchful eyes; meanwhile, we are being given every excuse imaginable why that narcotics-trafficking, which benefits Al Qaeda and kills Europeans and Americans, cannot be stopped.
This is everything the Sibel Edmonds case is about.
American foreign policy has been hijacked by The Shadow Realm, and now serves the interests of Big Narcotics, which in many ways coincide with the interests of Big Terror -- it is as if the fire marshall were ordering that a fire be extinguished with gasoline.
If caught, these guys are going to plead that they are serving the interests of Big Oil -- which can be a legitimate foreign policy objective, assuming it is done with wisdom and within the bounds of international law.
But, of course, the Bush Administration long ago stopped worrying about abiding by international law, or any other law for that matter -- the Bush Administration's morality is about as good as the Clinton Administration's was: Can we get away with it?
I leave you now to read the rest of Professor Chossudovsky's article, The Criminalization of the State: "Independent Kosovo", a Territory under US-NATO Military Rule, at the link provided, as I begin a label that I should have begun long ago: The Balkans.
The first half of the page at the link is the new article from February 4th, the second half is a reprint of a 1999 article of the professor's on Kosovo; I reproduce only the first part of the February 4th article, with some comments, cleaning up a few punctuation and formatting issues.
While the European Union and the US have acknowledged that they would be "opposed" to a " unilateral" declaration of independence of Kosovo, the secession of Kosovo from Serbia is already de facto. It is part of a US-NATO military agenda. It is the culmination of the 1999 NATO led invasion. It responds to US-NATO strategic objectives.
Moreover, the "compromise" Ahtisaari Proposal under the helm of the former Finnish Prime Minister to establish a "multi-ethnic" Kosovar State has little to do with "national sovereignty" or "independence". It is a copy and paste replicate of the structures imposed on Bosnia-Herzegovina under the 1995 Dayton agreements. It essentially sustains the authority of the military occupation. Under proposed blueprint, all the major decisions pertaining to public spending, social programs, monetary and trading arrangements would remain in the hands of the NATO-UN occupation administration.
The re-election of a "pro-Western" president Boris Tadic in the Serbian elections is likely to "legitimize" Kosovo's de facto secession. Boris Tadic's Democratic Party takes its orders from Washington. In 2000, it actively participated in the ousting of Slobodan Milosevic from the Serbian presidency. Moreover, Boris Tadic as Serbian president, is also the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. He is unlikely to act without consulting Washington and Brussels in the event of a unilateral declaration of independence.
Since the 1999 NATO invasion, Kosovo has become a territory under foreign military rule. Kosovo remains under UN administration, In practice, however, it is under NATO military jurisdiction. Secession from Serbia would reinforce the control of the NATO-UN occupation authority.
The civilian government of the province is headed by Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) (Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës or UÇK in Albanian). Known for its extensive links to Albanian and European crime syndicates, the KLA was supported from the outset in the mid-1990s by the CIA and Germany's intelligence agency, the Bundes Nachrichten Dienst (BND). In the course of the 1999 war, the KLA was supported directly by NATO.
The links between the KLA and organized crime are known to readers of my blog.
Albanian mafia groups have gotten a good foothold in the crime world by trafficking women for use as sex-slaves (forced prostitution); these groups also traffic weapons and narcotics.
It is not surprising that a group traffics in more than one illegal commodity -- whatever one is smuggling, the routes often are the same, the corrupt government officials often are the same....
Prime Minister of Kosovo Hashim Thaci, who now heads the Democratic Party of Kosovo was known in the 1990s to be part of a crime syndicate, involved in drug trafficking and prostitution. During the Clinton administration, he was a protégé of Madeleine Albright. In the 1990s, Thaci founded the so-called "Drenica-Group", a criminal syndicate based in Kosovo, with links to the Albanian, Macedonian and Italian mafias. These links to criminal syndicates have been acknowledged both by Interpol and the US Congress.
In 1997, the KLA was recognized by the U.S. as a terrorist organization linked to the drug trade. President Clinton's special envoy to the Balkans, Robert Gelbard, described the KLA as, "without any questions, a terrorist group".
I have previously documented all of this -- instead of providing links to past posts, I encourage you to do an internet search, including searching among government documents and Congressional testimony, and find the evidence yourself.
In the late 90's, the Clinton Administration was conducting the foreign policy initiatives in the Balkans that tied us in to organized crime and Islamic extremist terrorists, so the Republicans were good at documenting it for a while, and their talking points can still be found online.
At some point, the Republicans got on board with supporting the KLA, and now we are supposed to believe the KLA & their political heirs are freedom fighters, even though these people have extensive ties to al Qaeda and to heroin-traffickers.
The Democratic Party of Kosovo is integrated by former members of a terrorist organization. It has maintained its links to organized crime. In fact, a large part of the political spectrum in Kosovo is dominated by former KLA members. Kosovo's previous prime minister Ramush Haradinaj and head of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, elected in 2004, is also a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army. In addition to his links to organized crime, Hadadinaj was also indicted in 2005 for war crimes by the The Hague ICTY Tribunal.
The NATO occupation of Kosovo responds to US foreign policy objectives. It secures a heavily militarized US zone of influence in Southern Europe. It ensures the militarization of strategic pipeline routes and transport corridors which link Western Europe to the Black Sea. It also protects the multibillion dollar heroin trade, which uses Kosovo and Albania as transit locations for the transshipment of Afghan produced heroin into Western Europe.
Camp Bondsteel
Kosovo is home to one of America's largest military bases, Camp Bondsteel.
Bondsteel was built on contract to the Pentagon by Halliburton, through its engineering subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR). Camp Bondsteel is considered to be "the largest and most expensive army base since Vietnam." with more than 6000 US troops."Camp Bondsteel, the biggest 'from scratch' foreign US military base since the Vietnam War (...) It is located close to vital oil pipelines and energy corridors presently under construction, such as the US sponsored Trans-Balkan oil pipeline. As a result defence contractors—in particular Halliburton Oil subsidiary Brown & Root Services—are making a fortune.
In June 1999, in the immediate aftermath of the bombing of Yugoslavia, US forces seized 1,000 acres of farmland in southeast Kosovo at Uresevic, near the Macedonian border, and began the construction of a camp.
Camp Bondsteel is known as the 'grand dame' in a network of US bases running both sides of the border between Kosovo and Macedonia. In less than three years it has been transformed from an encampment of tents to a self sufficient, high tech base-camp housing nearly 7,000 troops—three quarters of all the US troops stationed in Kosovo.
There are 25 kilometres of roads and over 300 buildings at Camp Bondsteel, surrounded by 14 kilometres of earth and concrete barriers, 84 kilometres of concertina wire and 11 watch towers. It is so big that it has downtown, midtown and uptown districts, retail outlets, 24-hour sports halls, a chapel, library and the best-equipped hospital anywhere in Europe. At present there are 55 Black Hawk and Apache helicopters based at Bondsteel and although it has no aircraft landing strip the location was chosen for its capacity to expand. There are suggestions that it could replace the US airforce base at Aviano in Italy.
(See Paul Stuart, Camp Bondsteel and America’s plans to control Caspian oil, WSWS.org, April 2002, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/apr2002/oil-a29.shtml)
Camp Bondsteel was not the outgrowth of a humanitarian or "Just War" on behalf of Kosovar Albanians. The construction of Camp Bondsteel had been envisaged well in advance of the bombings and invasion of Kosovo in 1999.
The plans to build Camp Bondsteel under a lucrative multibillion dollar DoD contract with Halliburton's Texas based subsidiary KBR were formulated while Dick Cheney was Halliburton's CEO.
Construction of Camp Bondsteel was initiated shortly after the 1999 invasion under the Clinton administration. Construction was completed during the Bush administration, after Dick Cheney had resigned his position as Halliburton's CEO:The US and NATO had advanced plans to bomb Yugoslavia before 1999, and many European political leaders now believe that the US deliberately used the bombing of Yugoslavia to establish camp Bondsteel in Kosovo.. According to Colonel Robert L. McCure, "Engineering planning for operations in Kosovo began months before the first bomb was dropped." (See Lenora Foerstel, Global Research, January 2008)
One of the objectives underlying Camp Bondsteel was to protect the Albanian-Macedonian-Bulgarian Oil pipeline project (AMBO), which was to channel Caspian sea oil from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas to the Adriatic.
This AMBO project is also well-documented, although I have not yet addressed it here.
Coincidentally, two years prior to the invasion, in 1997, a senior executive of Brown & Root Energy, a subsidiary of Halliburton, Edward L. (Ted) Ferguson had been appointed to head AMBO. The feasibility plans for the AMBO pipeline were also undertaken by Halliburton's engineering company, Kellog, Brown & Root Ltd.
The AMBO agreement for the 917-km long oil pipeline from Burgas to Valona, Albania, was signed in 2004.
Criminalization of the State
The KLA was set up as a paramilitary group in the mid 1990s. It was a US-NATO sponsored insurgency. The objective was to destabilize and ultimately break up Yugoslavia. The KLA had extensive links to Al Qaeda, which was also involved in military training. Mujahideen mercenaries from a number of countries integrated the ranks of the KLA, which was involved in terrorist activities as well as political assassinations.
In this context, what are the implications of the "Ahtisaari Plan." which envisages the formation of a separate multi-ethnic Kosovar State?
The proposed Kosovar political setup is integrated by criminal elements. Western politicians are fully aware of the nature of the Kosovar political project, of which they are the architects. . .
We are not, however, dealing with the usual links of individual Western politicians to criminal syndicates. The relationship is far more sophisticated. Both the EU and the US are using criminal organizations and criminalized political parties in Kosovo to reach their military and foreign policy goals. The latter in turn support the interests of the oil companies and defense contractors, not to mention the multibillion dollar heroin trade out of Afghanistan.
At the institutional level, the US administration, the EU, NATO and the UN are actually promoting the criminalization of the Kosovar State, which they control. In broad terms we are also dealing with the criminalization of US foreign policy. These criminal organizations and parties are created to ultimately serve US interests in Southern Europe.
Ring any bells?
The last paragraph that I will quote from Professor Chossudovsky's article:
Kosovo independence would formally transform Kosovo into an independent mafia state, controlled by the Western military alliance. The territory of Kosovo would remain under US-NATO military jurisdiction.
The Western Powers, especially the United States, have dismantled a lawfully-recognized nation and member of the UN, Yugoslavia. In the power-vacuum created, Islamic extremists and organized crime have moved in. The Balkans are now a hub and transshipment point for narcotics, weapons, slaves and extremist terror.
This policy began under the Clinton Administration, and has continued full-force under the Bush Administration; American foreign policy in the Balkans works at a cross-purpose to what we would expect in a War on Terror, or in a War on Drugs, and this is a pattern of behavior that goes all the way to Afghanistan: American troops are in harm's way, fighting a war that they are not allowed to win, while heroin trafficking has become a $1,000,000,000,000-a-year industry under their watchful eyes; meanwhile, we are being given every excuse imaginable why that narcotics-trafficking, which benefits Al Qaeda and kills Europeans and Americans, cannot be stopped.
This is everything the Sibel Edmonds case is about.
American foreign policy has been hijacked by The Shadow Realm, and now serves the interests of Big Narcotics, which in many ways coincide with the interests of Big Terror -- it is as if the fire marshall were ordering that a fire be extinguished with gasoline.
If caught, these guys are going to plead that they are serving the interests of Big Oil -- which can be a legitimate foreign policy objective, assuming it is done with wisdom and within the bounds of international law.
But, of course, the Bush Administration long ago stopped worrying about abiding by international law, or any other law for that matter -- the Bush Administration's morality is about as good as the Clinton Administration's was: Can we get away with it?
I leave you now to read the rest of Professor Chossudovsky's article, The Criminalization of the State: "Independent Kosovo", a Territory under US-NATO Military Rule, at the link provided, as I begin a label that I should have begun long ago: The Balkans.
Monday, February 4, 2008
UK: Newspeak Has Arrived
A link to the following article was in my email inbox: Whitehall draws up new rules on language of terror.
The official Newspeak handbook is here!
Shared values: "You want me to convert to Islam or feel subdued, and my government wants me to be a dhimmi. See? We have a lot in common."
There is absolutely no connection between Islam and terrorism, people.
(Hey, stop thinking that, you racist!)
"This is not about political correctness...."
What's scary is that they may actually believe that!
If it goes the way of other government programs, he's probably giving it to the mosques.
Ah -- a good point! The way the Muslim population is growing in the UK, you could probably just hand out the money in the streets and be giving it away to people in places where there has been high population growth in the Muslim community.
Maybe they should try that!
(Perhaps the blogger Lionheart has some suggestions on where they could hand out that money.)
There is limited understanding not just of the geography of violent extremism in Britain.
Translation: The more terrorists there are from your community, the more money your community will get from the government.
Maybe try to correlate the violence to the perps' politico-religious beliefs, and see what you come up with!
They will just find something else to screech about -- and UK society will never be perfect.
It's about killing infidels for Allah to get to those virgins, guys....
There's a value we don't share with the terrorists!
Translation: We are losing, so we are going to play their game.
If they are going to use "existing programmes", then there won't be much change.
The only way to do that is to give the "global opportunities fund" money to the SAS, and send them in to clean out Wahhabi mosques.
Hat tip to my email tipster!
Phrasebook designed to avoid blaming Muslims for extremism
Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Monday February 4, 2008
A new counter-terrorism phrasebook has been drawn up within Whitehall to advise civil servants on how to talk to Muslim communities about the nature of the terror threat without implying they are specifically to blame.
Reflecting the government's decision to abandon the "aggressive rhetoric" of the so-called war on terror, the guide tells civil servants not to use terms such as Islamist extremism or jihadi-fundamentalist but instead to refer to violent extremism and criminal murderers or thugs to avoid any implication that there is an explicit link between Islam and terrorism.
The official Newspeak handbook is here!
It warns those engaged in counter-terrorist work that talk of a struggle for values or a battle of ideas is often heard as a "confrontation/clash between civilisations/cultures". Instead it suggests that talking about the idea of shared values works much more effectively.
The guide, which has been passed to the Guardian, is produced by a Home Office research, information and communications unit which was set up last summer to counter al-Qaida propaganda and win hearts and minds.
Shared values: "You want me to convert to Islam or feel subdued, and my government wants me to be a dhimmi. See? We have a lot in common."
It shows that the government is adopting a new sophistication in its approach to counter-terrorism, based on the realisation that it must "avoid implying that specific communities are to blame" if it is to enable communities to challenge the ideas of violent extremists robustly. The new lexicon of terror surfaced briefly last month when the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, made a speech on counter-terrorism declaring violent extremism to be "anti-Islamic".
There is absolutely no connection between Islam and terrorism, people.
(Hey, stop thinking that, you racist!)
But the internal Home Office guide shows just how far a new official language, to use when talking about terrorism, is being developed. "This is not intended as a definitive list of what not to say but rather to highlight terms which risk being misunderstood and therefore prevent the effective reception of the message," says the Home Office paper. "This is not about political correctness, but effectiveness - evidence shows that people stop listening if they think you are attacking them."
"This is not about political correctness...."
What's scary is that they may actually believe that!
While the leaked Whitehall papers show a new sophistication in the government's approach to talking about terrorism they reveal that their profiling of those most likely to prove vulnerable to violent extremism remains very vague.
They also reveal the crude criteria under which the communities secretary, Hazel Blears, is distributing £45m over the next three years for local communities to build resilience to violent extremism.
If it goes the way of other government programs, he's probably giving it to the mosques.
In the first year the funds will only be distributed to areas with a Muslim population of more than 4,000 based on 2001 census data. "This data is now 6-7 years old and given high population growth in Muslim communities is likely to be fairly out-of-date," says the internal Whitehall correspondence adding that each qualifying local authority will receive a fixed minimum allocation with increments dependent on the size of its Muslim population.
Ah -- a good point! The way the Muslim population is growing in the UK, you could probably just hand out the money in the streets and be giving it away to people in places where there has been high population growth in the Muslim community.
Maybe they should try that!
(Perhaps the blogger Lionheart has some suggestions on where they could hand out that money.)
The limitations of this crude population approach suggest there is only a very limited official understanding of the geography of violent extremism in Britain.
There is limited understanding not just of the geography of violent extremism in Britain.
Officials admit this approach will mean that six areas currently funded for tackling violent extremism will not meet the criteria from April. That would include, for example, Crawley which was home to three of the five men convicted over the Operation Crevice plot to bomb the Bluewater shopping centre, in Kent, and the Ministry of Sound nightclub in London.
Translation: The more terrorists there are from your community, the more money your community will get from the government.
A separate joint Home Office/ Communities Department paper on the strategy to prevent people becoming or supporting violent extremists suggests a disturbingly vague description of those being targeted: "There is no single profile of those most susceptible to these factors but they are likely to be young (generally younger than 30) and male (although the number of women who support and participate in violent extremism is increasing)."
Maybe try to correlate the violence to the perps' politico-religious beliefs, and see what you come up with!
The same paper stresses that "grievances which ideologues are exploiting" to make new recruits should be addressed where they are legitimately based.
They will just find something else to screech about -- and UK society will never be perfect.
It's about killing infidels for Allah to get to those virgins, guys....
It says: "No perceived grievance can justify terrorism. But where concerns are legitimately expressed then we must be prepared to debate them.
There's a value we don't share with the terrorists!
"We are committed to better explaining existing policies, such as the UK's foreign policy, refuting claims made about them in the language of violent extremists."
Translation: We are losing, so we are going to play their game.
But it adds that where concerns are "legitimately based we must be prepared to address them."
However, it makes clear that this does not mean changes in British foreign policy but using existing programmes to tackle inequalities and unemployment of the Muslim community in Britain.
If they are going to use "existing programmes", then there won't be much change.
The "global opportunities fund" and overseas aid programmes would be used to "help address the real grievances of people in key countries overseas which can increase their susceptibility to the extremists' message".
The only way to do that is to give the "global opportunities fund" money to the SAS, and send them in to clean out Wahhabi mosques.
Hat tip to my email tipster!
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Afghan Government Tries to Arrest General Dostum
In Genesis, Part 11, we saw extensive reference to General Abdul Rashid Dostum (spelled "Abdur-Rashid" in the State Department cable).
We have not yet looked at General Dostum's background, and, considering there is some breaking news about him, now might be a good time to go a little more in depth.
An article appeared today, Afghanistan: Kabul Siege Underscores Warlord Threat To Rule Of Law, which I reproduce in its entirety, with comments and background information interspersed.
Dostum started out as a Communist union boss, until he formed a militia. When the Soviets invaded, his militia wound up fighting on the side of the Soviets against the mujahideen, and by the mid-1980's, he was in charge of a 20,000-man force that controlled Afghanistan's northern provinces.
He continued supporting President Najibullah's Soviet-backed regime after the Soviet withdrawal, but changed sides, and helped the mujahideen take Kabul in 1992.
He joined the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani for a while, then allied himself with the Islamist forces of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. By 1994, he was again besieging Kabul, this time against Rabbani's government. The cable reviewed in Genesis, Part 11 is dated shortly after these events, in January, 1995.
By 1996, when the Taliban had captured Herat and Kabul, Dostum realigned himself with Rabbani again, now battling against the Taliban.
The areas under his control were centered on Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan's fourth-largest city. According to Global Security:
After the Taliban captured his stronghold, he fled to Uzbekistan, Iran and, ultimately, Turkey, before returning in 2000. Allied with US-led forces in 2001, his was the second-largest component of the Northern Alliance, and he retook Mazar-i-Sharif from the Taliban.
He has been serving as Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief of the Afghan Army.
See BBC Profile: General Rashid Dostum and the previously mentioned Global Security biography.
Returning now to today's news about Dostum's current problems with the government.
I guess you can only try to arrest people who are lower in rank than you are.
Maybe that's how Bush and Clinton have gotten away with so much.
A more detailed account was found in the forum of Afghanistan Online, to which I now link in the sidebar:
Returning to Afghanistan: Kabul Siege Underscores Warlord Threat To Rule Of Law:
In the US, it is often a little more complicated than merely arresting someone.
For example, would a US President not have to be impeached and removed from office before being arrested? What about other elected officials -- Senators and Congressman? What about appointed officials -- cabinet members, for example?
It will be interesting to see what happens when Washington's scandals, such as the Sibel Edmonds case, finally break -- what will be the exact process of bringing some of these government officials to justice?
There's some truth to this warning about unrest. Dostum does still have a great many combat-experienced supporters.
Also, there is an ethnic aspect to this, as well. As another commentator on the forum explained it:
Returning to Afghanistan: Kabul Siege Underscores Warlord Threat To Rule Of Law:
Indeed!
As the forum commentator Khaak continues in the next comment:
The article concludes with some background on General Dostum:
We have not yet looked at General Dostum's background, and, considering there is some breaking news about him, now might be a good time to go a little more in depth.
An article appeared today, Afghanistan: Kabul Siege Underscores Warlord Threat To Rule Of Law, which I reproduce in its entirety, with comments and background information interspersed.
Afghan police have lifted a brief siege on the Kabul home of a longtime warlord and current presidential adviser, Abdul Rashid Dostum, after he and dozens of armed men allegedly beat up and kidnapped a former campaign aide, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reported.
The episode could bring further embarrassment over the government's association with the ethnic Uzbek strongman Dostum, who spent decades as a powerful northern warlord but was co-opted by President Hamid Karzai in 2005 to take a vaguely defined role as "Afghan Army chief command."
Dostum started out as a Communist union boss, until he formed a militia. When the Soviets invaded, his militia wound up fighting on the side of the Soviets against the mujahideen, and by the mid-1980's, he was in charge of a 20,000-man force that controlled Afghanistan's northern provinces.
He continued supporting President Najibullah's Soviet-backed regime after the Soviet withdrawal, but changed sides, and helped the mujahideen take Kabul in 1992.
He joined the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani for a while, then allied himself with the Islamist forces of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. By 1994, he was again besieging Kabul, this time against Rabbani's government. The cable reviewed in Genesis, Part 11 is dated shortly after these events, in January, 1995.
By 1996, when the Taliban had captured Herat and Kabul, Dostum realigned himself with Rabbani again, now battling against the Taliban.
The areas under his control were centered on Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan's fourth-largest city. According to Global Security:
It is claimed that he financed his army with profits from the opium trade. At the height of his power in 1997 - at the age of 43 - he controlled a kind of mini-state in northern Afghanistan.
After the Taliban captured his stronghold, he fled to Uzbekistan, Iran and, ultimately, Turkey, before returning in 2000. Allied with US-led forces in 2001, his was the second-largest component of the Northern Alliance, and he retook Mazar-i-Sharif from the Taliban.
He has been serving as Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief of the Afghan Army.
See BBC Profile: General Rashid Dostum and the previously mentioned Global Security biography.
Returning now to today's news about Dostum's current problems with the government.
Moreover, comments by Dostum allies during and after the siege highlight a smoldering debate over the influence of current and former warlords whose actions undermine the rule of law and public confidence in central authorities.
The acting head of Dostum's political party expressed surprise that police would respond by surrounding Dostum's home, since he "holds a higher position" in the government than the interior minister, Zarar Ahmad Moqbel.
I guess you can only try to arrest people who are lower in rank than you are.
Maybe that's how Bush and Clinton have gotten away with so much.
Settling A Score
Reports suggested that Dostum and around 50 armed men attacked and abducted one of his former campaign managers, Akbar Bay, and one of Bay's bodyguards late on February 2.
A more detailed account was found in the forum of Afghanistan Online, to which I now link in the sidebar:
This morning I was stuck in traffic jam for hours as police had blocked most of the roads towards Wazir Akbar Khan.
Anyways, it seems now that the police chickened out and lifted the siege of Dostum's house.
Here is my analysis :
1. Akbar Bai established the Turkman Tribe council some time ago and hence announced his separation from Jonbish and political opposition to Dostum. Dostum was pissed at him and once tried to kill him but managed to burn Akbar Bai's house and beat his people.
2. Dostum had the option and power to teach Akbar Bai a lesson even in his hometown of Jowzjan. But instead he decided to attack Akbar Bai in the middle of Kabul city under the nose of Afghan government and ISAF. One has to ask why??? Aparently he wanted to signal to the government that he is not not afraid of anything and that he has enough power to create chaos in kabul, let alone the Northeran provinces. There were reports on Afghan TV, that he fearlessly stood high up at the roof of his house and was ranting at the commander of the Afghan police who was behind his door, tell them to leave or he will kill them.
3. The police cowardly left his house and told the media that this case will be sent to the Attorney General's Office. Now let's see what will Jabar Sabit (the Attorney General) will do in pursuing this case. I think once General Dostum leaves kabul to Jawzjan, no one will be able to do anything.
4. I heard some shocking informal reports of what he actually did to Akbar Bai and his family. It seems that he entered their house by force with around 50 fully armed militiamen and beat Akbar Bai's wife and son. Then he forcefully takes Akbar Bai to his own house and orders his men to rape him, reportedly using human and non-human tools (excuse the language, this is the best i could do).
5. A tragic story, but a clever one on Dostum's part. Choosing a target and doing this in the capital, far away from his power base. Who else would now have the guts to mess with him??? Definitely not the Afghan police. or Maybe Jabar Sabit. Lets see how things unfold in this drama.
6. Another report also said that aparently Latif Pedram was together with Dostum while all this happened.
BachiKabul
Returning to Afghanistan: Kabul Siege Underscores Warlord Threat To Rule Of Law:
More than 100 police or security officers, armed with assault rifles and machine guns, later surrounded Dostum's home in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood of Kabul for several hours, while other officers took up positions on the roofs of nearby houses.
Police later lifted their siege, with Interior Ministry spokesman Zmarai Bashari saying security forces were referring the incident to prosecutors "as soon as possible" for possible legal action.
Both Bay and his bodyguard were reportedly freed and hospitalized.
The fiery Dostum's northern-based supporters have been at the heart of several violent clashes in the past year, although Dostum himself has generally maintained a low public profile.
Dostum has been accused by international groups of involvement in numerous human rights abuses dating back to Afghanistan's civil war in the 1990s.
Bashari suggested to Radio Free Afghanistan that Dostum was under the influence of alcohol during his armed raid on Bay's house.
"General Dostum is still an Afghan government official, and you know that," Bashari said. "This was a criminal case and the Afghan Attorney-General's Office will follow the case with details to identify the guilty or the innocent and hand it over to the law."
In the US, it is often a little more complicated than merely arresting someone.
For example, would a US President not have to be impeached and removed from office before being arrested? What about other elected officials -- Senators and Congressman? What about appointed officials -- cabinet members, for example?
It will be interesting to see what happens when Washington's scandals, such as the Sibel Edmonds case, finally break -- what will be the exact process of bringing some of these government officials to justice?
Threat To Police
Speaking at a press conference in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, Sayyed Nourallah, the acting leader of Dostum's political faction, the National Movement (Junbesh-e Milli), expressed surprise over the standoff at Dostum's house.
"Certainly we were not expecting that from security forces -- particularly from the Interior Ministry -- to surround the house of General Dostum in Kabul," Nourallah said. "[Dostum] holds a higher position than the interior minister in the government."
A spokesman for Dostum, Mohammad Alem Sayeh, insisted there was no truth to the accusations against Dostum and warned of unrest if police tried to arrest him.
There's some truth to this warning about unrest. Dostum does still have a great many combat-experienced supporters.
Also, there is an ethnic aspect to this, as well. As another commentator on the forum explained it:
The exact situation of disintegration of Afghanistan during Najib. Today NATO and US are working to change the horse. Exactly the same thing Russian started to do. Najib did work hard do something in his last minutes of talk but all failed.
Please think of the scenario in a bigger prospect. Karzai as a head of one thug group cannot arrest another thug. This is just another step forward in the direction of disintegration. You need to celebrate or mourn the disintegration of the country on the basis of ethnicity and language.
Today the puppet thug regime publicly announces they are ready to deal and forgive all Pashtun criminals in Afghanistan including Taleban and Gulbuddin supporters in Afghanistan but they attempt to act against an Uzbek criminal.
Congratulation for such moves in the direction of disintegration. If Afghans cannot co-exist what is wrong to disintegrate?
Khaak
Returning to Afghanistan: Kabul Siege Underscores Warlord Threat To Rule Of Law:
"If General Dostum is surrounded and anyone touches even one hair on Dostum's head, they must know that seven or eight northern provinces will turn against the government," Radio Free Afghanistan quoted Sayeh as saying.
Indeed!
In May, protests staged by his supporters against a controversial governor of the northern province of Jowzjan turned violent, leaving at least 10 people dead. Around the same time, armed Dostum supporters clashed with authorities in Faryab Province, forcing Kabul to send in troops to quell the violence. Provincial authorities in Jowzjan have accused his National Movement (Junbesh-e Milli) of rearming its supporters in the north.
In the context of Dostum's most recent scrape with authorities, the attack on Bay and his entourage, Afghan National Assembly member Shukaria Barkzay warned Radio Free Afghanistan that impunity represents one of the country's greatest challenges.
"The non-implementation of the law is one of [Afghanistan's] key problems, and this culture of immunity for any politically powerful people -- whether they have legal authority or not -- leads to their impunity," Barkzay said. He stressed that the problem extends to more than "one specific group" and cited public complaints regarding "several groups."
"Government officials are taking all these decisions about public trust, while the Afghan people want justice," Barkzay said.
As the forum commentator Khaak continues in the next comment:
Governance cannot be achieved through vulgarity. Today Karzai has filled the key government posts with his thugs in the name of Pashtuns to replace Panjshiri thugs. That is not the solution to the problems Afghanistan is facing. Today even a child in Afghanistan won't be cheated.
The solution to the problem is the introduction of a national government in the context of secularism and democracy to replace the US and NATO version of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. National figures should be put in charge of affairs.
You poor guys are busy with Dostom but you remain lip tied that the puppet regime ministers were humiliated like vulgar dogs in the parliament because of their inactions toward the tragedies Afghans are facing in this cold winter.
The article concludes with some background on General Dostum:
Political Chameleon
Dostum is a former union boss in the gas and oil sector who rose to command ethnic Uzbek fighters backing communist forces after the Soviet occupation in 1979.
But his three kaleidoscopic decades as a militia leader have been marked by many short-lived -- and frequently contradictory -- alliances.
In 1997, after unsuccessfully challenging Taliban forces in the capital, Dostum was forced to flee his stronghold around Mazar-e Sharif to live abroad. He reemerged to back the U.S.-led attacks to oust the Taliban regime in 2001, returning to the area to reclaim control of large swaths of northern Afghanistan.
Dostum placed fourth among the 18 names on the presidential ballot in October 2004 with 10 percent of the vote.
The next year, Dostum was named by the Karzai administration as its "Afghan Army chief command" in a move generally regarded as an effort to avoid friction ahead of key parliamentary and provincial elections in September 2005.
A security adviser to Karzai under the former Transitional Administration, Dostum has long wielded major influence in some northern provinces and consistently chafed at central authority out of Kabul.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
UK: Polygamist Muslim Men Receive the Jizya
A major slide downhill for the United Kingdom....
Multiple wives will mean multiple benefits is reproduced here in its entirety, with my comments:
Just another (big) step in the wrong direction for the UK.
See Islamic Imperialism 102 and Dysfunctional Religion, Dysfunctional Families: Dysfunctional Society for some thoughts on what impact polygamy has on Islamic society.
What do you want to bet the decision won't benefit Muslim women?
To say the least!
The important thing is that the dhimmis are supporting their Muslim overlords. Later, the Muslim men can get more demanding, and insist that the amount increase -- payable to the male head of household, of course.
We saw that coming.
And those millions of pounds will be paid until the citizens of the UK feel themselves subdued -- it's the second part of the infamous triple choice!
I wonder why they didn't announce it publicly?
Surely they weren't ashamed of their efforts to be more inclusive and tolerant?
Polygamy is also now punishable by forcing the offending Muslim male to receive free government money, proportional to the number of extra wives he has!
I wonder if there is any requirement for quality of time spent, or just for quantity?
For example, if the husband spends twenty minutes beating one wife, and twenty minutes sexually assaulting another, is the requirement met? Both kinds of conduct can be justified with Islamic texts!
The immigration rate for guys with multiple wives has been going down.
What do you want to bet that statistic turns around now?
And there is now greater incentive to do so!
In fact, now there is an incentive to bring in women to whom the man is not married -- he might be able to find a way to claim them and get more money!
So, he could have his four Islamic wives, but only have one of them recognized under British law.
I wonder what dhimmi put that clause in?
To say the least!
They should be proud of that! That puts the UK Government at the front of the line groveling before their new overlords!
An excerpt from The Jizyah Tax (one typo cleaned up):
And paying your Muslim overlords to break your society's laws certainly meets the requirement in my opinion.
This begins a new label: Britain.
"Ta!" for now, chaps!
________________
Feb 3 update:
A commentator sent me an email with the following statement:
I'm not sneering at you! I'm laughing at you!! There's a difference.
Your government is almost as bad as ours.
No wonder we started a revolution!
Multiple wives will mean multiple benefits is reproduced here in its entirety, with my comments:
Husbands with multiple wives have been given the go-ahead to claim extra welfare benefits following a year-long Government review, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
Even though bigamy is a crime in Britain, the decision by ministers means that polygamous marriages can now be recognised formally by the state, so long as the weddings took place in countries where the arrangement is legal.
Just another (big) step in the wrong direction for the UK.
See Islamic Imperialism 102 and Dysfunctional Religion, Dysfunctional Families: Dysfunctional Society for some thoughts on what impact polygamy has on Islamic society.
The outcome will chiefly benefit Muslim men with more than one wife, as is permitted under Islamic law. Ministers estimate that up to a thousand polygamous partnerships exist in Britain, although they admit there is no exact record.
What do you want to bet the decision won't benefit Muslim women?
The decision has been condemned by the Tories, who accused the Government of offering preferential treatment to a particular group, and of setting a precedent that would lead to demands for further changes in British law.
To say the least!
New guidelines on income support from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) state: "Where there is a valid polygamous marriage the claimant and one spouse will be paid the couple rate ... The amount payable for each additional spouse is presently £33.65."
The important thing is that the dhimmis are supporting their Muslim overlords. Later, the Muslim men can get more demanding, and insist that the amount increase -- payable to the male head of household, of course.
Income support for all of the wives may be paid directly into the husband's bank account, if the family so choose. Under the deal agreed by ministers, a husband with multiple wives may also be eligible for additional housing benefit and council tax benefit to reflect the larger property needed for his family.
We saw that coming.
The ruling could cost taxpayers millions of pounds. Ministers launched a review of the benefit rules for polygamous marriages in November 2006, after it emerged that some families had benefited financially.
And those millions of pounds will be paid until the citizens of the UK feel themselves subdued -- it's the second part of the infamous triple choice!
The review concluded in December last year with agreement that the extra benefits should continue to be paid, the Government admitted. The decision was not publicly announced.
I wonder why they didn't announce it publicly?
Surely they weren't ashamed of their efforts to be more inclusive and tolerant?
Four departments - the Treasury, the DWP, HM Revenue and Customs, and the Home Office - were involved in the review, which concluded that recognising multiple marriages conducted overseas was "the best possible" option. In Britain, bigamy is punishable by up to seven years in prison.
Polygamy is also now punishable by forcing the offending Muslim male to receive free government money, proportional to the number of extra wives he has!
Islamic law permits men to have up to four wives at any one time - known as a harem - provided the husband spends equal amounts of time and money on each of them.
I wonder if there is any requirement for quality of time spent, or just for quantity?
For example, if the husband spends twenty minutes beating one wife, and twenty minutes sexually assaulting another, is the requirement met? Both kinds of conduct can be justified with Islamic texts!
A DWP spokesman claimed that the number of people in polygamous marriages entering Britain had fallen since the 1988 Immigration Act, which "generally prevents a man from bringing a second or subsequent wife with him to this country if another woman is already living as his wife in the UK".
The immigration rate for guys with multiple wives has been going down.
What do you want to bet that statistic turns around now?
While a married man cannot obtain a spouse visa to bring a second wife into Britain, some multiple partners may be able to enter the country via other legal routes such as tourist visas, student visas or work permits.
And there is now greater incentive to do so!
In fact, now there is an incentive to bring in women to whom the man is not married -- he might be able to find a way to claim them and get more money!
In addition, officials have identified a potential loophole by which a man can divorce his wife under British law while continuing to live with her as his spouse under Islamic law, and obtain a spouse visa for a foreign woman who he can legally marry.
So, he could have his four Islamic wives, but only have one of them recognized under British law.
"Entry clearance may not be withheld from a second wife where the husband has divorced his previous wife and the divorce is thought to be one of convenience," an immigration rulebook advises. "This is so, even if the husband is still living with the previous wife and to issue the entry clearance would lead to the formation of a polygamous household."
I wonder what dhimmi put that clause in?
Chris Grayling, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said that the decision was "completely unjustifiable".
"You are not allowed to have multiple marriages in the UK, so to have a situation where the benefits system is treating people in different ways is totally unacceptable and will serve to undermine confidence in the system.
"This sets a precedent that will lead to more demands for the culture of other countries to be reflected in UK law and the benefits system."
To say the least!
Mr Grayling also accused the Government of trying to keep the ruling quiet because the topic is so controversial.
They should be proud of that! That puts the UK Government at the front of the line groveling before their new overlords!
An excerpt from The Jizyah Tax (one typo cleaned up):
Differences of taxation demonstrate distinctions in citizenship. As a symbol of subjection, it signifies that the state is not really the common property of all its permanent residents, but only the Muslims. The non-Muslims are conquered outsiders. It demonstrates their inferior condition. It also punishes them for their disbelief in Islam. Islamic law makes it very clear that the Jizyah is punitive in character. Further, it is levied with humiliation. Hence, it is in no way comparable to Western tax systems. Even progressive taxation is not a 'punishment' for economic success, nor is any tax specifically humiliating in character.
This illustrates that essentially, in an Islamic State, the non-Muslims are in a worse situation than prisoners out on parole, since they are still being punished – they are not considered 'good, law-abiding citizens' however exemplary their conduct, but rather criminals given day-leave. Their crime is their faith.
[snip]
Only by the wildest stretch of the imagination could the situation of non-Muslims under Islamic law be seen as one conferring equal citizenship, whatever Muslim apologists claim. Similarly, only a leap of fantasy could ever believe that such a situation is one that non-Muslims would welcome. The honour, dignity, equality and even the lives of non-Muslims are by no means guaranteed under Islamic law. The Jizyah tax in particular demonstrates the constitutional inferiority and humiliation such a legal arrangement confers.
And paying your Muslim overlords to break your society's laws certainly meets the requirement in my opinion.
This begins a new label: Britain.
"Ta!" for now, chaps!
________________
Feb 3 update:
A commentator sent me an email with the following statement:
BTW if you'll forgive a hint about style, as you're starting a 'British' section, we Brits don't take kindly to being sneered at - especially when we're in the wrong!
I'm not sneering at you! I'm laughing at you!! There's a difference.
Your government is almost as bad as ours.
No wonder we started a revolution!
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