how's this choice of descriptions : "eye-opening thoughts & information puncturing the spin-bubbles of a government and media that have failed us"...or ..."lampooning and exposing the public knuckleheads , liars & hypocrites where ever they are encountered" ? ...take your pick...
Saturday, March 29, 2008
cost of war
Iraq conflict has killed a million Iraqis: surveyWed Jan 30, 2008 1:55pm EST LONDON (Reuters) -
More than one million Iraqis have died as a result of the conflict in their country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to research conducted by one of Britain's leading polling groups.
The survey, conducted by Opinion Research Business (ORB) with 2,414 adults in face-to-face interviews, found that 20 percent of people had had at least one death in their household as a result of the conflict, rather than natural causes.
The last complete census in Iraq conducted in 1997 found 4.05 million households in the country, a figure ORB used to calculate that approximately 1.03 million people had died as a result of the war, the researchers found.
The margin of error in the survey, conducted in August and September 2007, was 1.7 percent, giving a range of deaths of 946,258 to 1.12 million.
ORB originally found that 1.2 million people had died, but decided to go back and conduct more research in rural areas to make the survey as comprehensive as possible and then came up with the revised figure.
The research covered 15 of Iraq's 18 provinces. Those that not covered included two of Iraq's more volatile regions -- Kerbala and Anbar -- and the northern province of Arbil, where local authorities refused them a permit to work.
Estimates of deaths in Iraq have been highly controversial in the past. Medical journal The Lancet published a peer-reviewed report in 2004 stating that there had been 100,000 more deaths than would normally be expected since the March 2003 invasion, kicking off a storm of protest.
The widely watched Web site Iraq Body Count currently estimates that between 80,699 and 88,126 people have died in the conflict, although its methodology and figures have also been questioned by U.S. authorities and others.
ORB, a non-government-funded group founded in 1994, conducts research for the private, public and voluntary sectors.
The director of the group, Allan Hyde, said it had no objective other than to record as accurately as possible the number of deaths among the Iraqi population as a result of the invasion and ensuing conflict.
(Reporting by Luke Baker; editing by Andrew Roche)
cheney & patraeus 3-17-08-- cheney's surprise visit to iraq
In push for political unity, Cheney visits Iraq Unannounced visit comes before fifth anniversary of U.S. invasion
3:50 a.m. ET, Mon., March. 17, 2008 BAGHDAD - Vice President Dick Cheney opened a new U.S. push for political unity in Iraq on an unannounced visit Monday, just ahead of the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion.
Cheney landed at Baghdad International Airport, then flew by helicopter into the dusty, heavily secured Green Zone for talks with U.S. military and diplomatic officials and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. It is Cheney’s third vice presidential trip to Iraq where 160,000 American troops are deployed and the U.S. death toll is nearing 4,000.
Cheney’s first meeting was a classified briefing with U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq who met him at the airport. Crocker and Petraeus are scheduled to travel to Washington next month to give a status report on the war.
So the liar-in-chief dubya bush pretended surprise earlier this week when his puppet government's prime minister in iraq, nouri al maliki launched an attack on the al madhi army of shia leader muktada al sadr.
bush in public statements claimed no prior knowledge of these attacks breaking the 6 months of ceasefire with al sadr's forces --a ceasefire al sadr had recently asked to renew btw when the fighting "suddenly" broke out between al maliki's government forces and al sadr's militia.
but the mainstream media seems to have forgotten that old "slick" cheney was in iraq about ten days prior to this week's attacks to meet with general petraeus and with iraqi government leaders including iraqi prime minister nouri al maliki himself.
wonder what they talked about?
well maybe it had something to do with this statement from an iraqi policeman in basra found 3-28-08 in an article at times online.co.uk :
“We already heard two weeks ago that we were going to attack the Mahdi Army, so we were ready,” he said. “I decided to take off my uniform and join my brothers and friends in the Mahdi Army."
so bush's pretense at surprise upon news breaking concerning the fighting and then yesterday calling it, "a defining moment in iraqi history",was more of his bullshit. this move on al sadr's militia was planned long in advance--and washington well aware of it.
al maliki , like bush, is a puppet carrying out, through cheney, daddy bush and friends' will. general petraeus was selected for the job that he has because he rewrote the Us army book on counterinsurgency.
the timing of this campaign becomes less curious considering bush has only ten months left in office to make iraq more pacified and not only are the 160,000 surged up american troops scheduled soon for draw downs in number , the british troops in southern iraq are also drawing down , reducing presence in iraq, preparing for a needed buildup in afghanistan against a rejuvenated taliban.
the Us by provoking this fight with al sadr, must believe it has the sunni insurgency pacified enough to risk having to make a sudden redeploy to southern iraq to help squash al madhi army--or to save the al maliki government's iraqi army if things continue to badly for them against al sadr's militia.
judging from the reports , things are not going well for the iraqi government's forces.
March 28, 2008 times online.co.uk
Iraqi police in Basra shed their uniforms, kept their rifles and switched sides James Hider in Baghdad
Abu Iman barely flinched when the Iraqi Government ordered his unit of special police to move against al-Mahdi Army fighters in Basra.
His response, while swift, was not what British and US military trainers who have spent the past five years schooling the Iraqi security forces would have hoped for. He and 15 of his comrades took off their uniforms, kept their government-issued rifles and went over to the other side without a second thought.
Such turncoats are the thread that could unravel the British Army’s policy in southern Iraq. The military hoped that local forces would be able to combat extremists and allow the Army to withdraw gradually from the battle-scarred and untamed oil city that has fallen under the sway of Islamic fundamentalists, oil smugglers and petty tribal warlords. But if the British taught the police to shoot straight, they failed to instil a sense of unwavering loyalty to the State.
“We know the outcome of the fighting in advance because we already defeated the British in the streets of Basra and forced them to withdraw to their base,” Abu Iman told The Times.
“If we go back a bit, everyone remembers the fight with the US in Najaf and the damage and defeat we inflicted on them. Do you think the Iraqi Army is better than those armies? We are right and the Government is wrong. [Nouri al] Maliki [the Iraqi Prime Minister] is driving his Government into the ground.”
The reason for his apparent switch of sides was simple: the 36-year-old was already a member of the al-Mahdi Army which, like other militias, has massively infiltrated the British-trained police force in the southern oil city. He claimed that hundreds of others from the 16,000-strong force have also defected to the rebels’ ranks.Abu Iman joined the new Iraqi police force after the invasion, joining the Mugawil, a special police unit infamous for brutality, kidnapping and sectarian murders.
“We already heard two weeks ago that we were going to attack the Mahdi Army, so we were ready,” he said. “I decided to take off my uniform and join my brothers and friends in the Mahdi Army. All these years, we were like a scream in the face of the dictator and the occupation.” He said: “I joined the police because I believed we have to protect Basra and save it with our own hands. You can see we were the first fighters to take on Sadd-am and his regime, the best example being the Shabaniya uprising.”
Abu Iman said that the fighting raging in Basra yesterday was intense because the al-Mahdi Army was operating on its own turf. He was confident that the Shia militia would prevail because its cause was just.
“The Iraqi Army is already defeated from within. They come to Basra with fear in their hearts, knowing they have to fight their brothers, the sons of Iraq, because of an order from Bush and his friends in the Iraq Government. For this reason, all of the battles are going in the Mahdi Army’s favour.”
Major-General Abdelaziz Moham-med Jassim, the director of operations at the Ministry of Defence, played down reports of defections in the Basra police force. “The problem of one policeman doesn’t make up for the whole of the force,” he said.
In recent months Major-General Abdul Jalil Khalaf, Basra’s police chief, has tried to shake up the force and drive out militia infiltrators, who have wrought havoc in the past, often turning police stations into torture cells in which factions settled vendettas and power struggles with murder and abuse. But he only narrowly escaped an assassination attempt yesterday when a suicide car bomb attack in Basra killed three of his policemen. A local tribal leader said the police directorate building was later gutted by fire.
after this article was brought to my attention , on further examination i ventured :
now , if the brits leave southern iraq, and things down there further unravel, the Us is fooked. bush doesn't have the troops to effectively garrison the sunni triangle and the south. if bush shifts significant troops to the south to bolster the failing iraqi army and police he risks being undermanned in the triangle .
should the sunni insurgency sieze the moment to go back on the offensive against the Us, that combined with the south in turmoil and in a Us election year, would be like the tet offensive from the vietnam era all over again .
this comparison could not have possibly escaped the sunni insurgents since saddam was the architect of the sunni insurgency and made the iraqi military officers carefully study vietnam as their model of insurgency.
politically, a tet-like offensive would knock out the last of the Us populace's stomach for this war. the idiot bush in this present gamble against al sadr's militia has handed the iraqis everything they need for a victory .
they have to know by now that it was bush and negroponte, not iran who orchestrated and unleashed the shia death squads against the sunni communities and sunni insurgents.
to oversee creation of iraqi versions of negroponte's battalion 316 death squads in honduras was why negroponte was brought to iraq. http://globalresearch.ca/articles/COH405A.html "torture at cia battalion 316"
the iraqis would have to be blind not to see the Us played shia against sunni by assassinating leaders ,raiding homes and executing inhabitants, car and truck bombing mosques and holy shrines on both sides to intensify the conflict and bleed off the strength of the sunni insurgents until the sunnis realized they could not win fighting both the Us and the shia and agreed to rent themselves to the Us for $10 per man per day.
now the "pacified" sunnis may need the Us like a big-daddy figure to keep the shia from trying to slaughter them --but can the Us get and keep the shia in check ?
for that bush needs the mullahs and ayatollahs in iran's good will and influence on iraq's shia--something the Us can't get by continuing to threaten iran and saber rattle against it and continuing to threateningly move Us aircraft carrier groups into the persian gulf and directly off the coast of iran .
if bush fails to check al sadr , the war could easily reintensify, Us casualities significantly increase, the country further fractionalize and unravel assuring a democratic party victory in november 08.
dub and cheney are betting the whole farm on 80,000 sunni militia/former insurgents continuing to live quietly on broken promises in the midst of raw sewage and sporadic electricity with limited amounts of clean drinking water -- with also every vestige of modern infrastructure and normal life in shambles under the constant overbearing presence of a hated, ham-handed and occupying foreign army--as the iraqis have lived for five years now.
*also , did you notice the policeman says he got word of this attack 2 weeks ago ? wasn't cheney in iraq the same time ? so much for the bush lie about al maliki deciding on his own to attack the madhi army.
the subprime bleedout continues despite the fed's increasing efforts at staunching the many deep wounds ;
in iraq, the 6 months of ceasefire between the Us ,its puppet al maliki and moktada al sadr's al medhi army dissolved as al maliki ,on his own --with absolutely no prodding from dick cheney who visited iraq two weeks ago-- decided to take on al sadr's army .
if you believe al maliki decided to do this by himself with no imput by the Us as bush is saying --i have swampland in florida and a bridge in brooklyn you might want to buy and if you are a woman , i promise i won't cum in your mouth either.
what this new fighting shows is al maliki and the iraqi army can't cut it --they are already begging to be bailed out by american air power and american armor on the ground . there have been reports of iraqi police and army units stripping off their uniforms and running away rather than face al sadr's medhi army . this fighting also reveals the Us double dealing that is the source behind the "calm" in iraq and the "success" of the surge.
not long ago , the iraqi insurgency that was killing about three american soldiers a day was largely sunni. about 5 percent was "foreign" jihadis-- misnamed "al qaeda" by the Us propaganda machine to build support for the war among the most brainwashed americans at home.
the bush administration dispatched to iraq ambassador john negroponte , veteran cia spook who made his fame in central america during the reagan-bush administration . negroponte has been labeled as the architect of central american counter insurgency death squads that neutralized the guerrilla movement there in the 80s.
not long after negroponte's arrival , death squads emerged in iraq . it was being commonly said that the death squads were mostly shia and largely recruited from moktada al sadr's al medhi army . this is when in the sunni triangle dozens of bodies began turning up everyday, most killed execution style.
the insurgency against the Us occupation was eventually upstaged by sectarian fighting and took a back seat as sunni and shia differences and old grievances were successfully exploited by "someone" and ethnic cleansing of sunnis from shia areas and vice versa took place and the balkanization of iraq began in earnest.
the sunnis were getting the worst of all this when their sheiks and tribal leaders made a deal with the Us. temporarily allying with the Us , they turned on the "foreign" jihadis-- that no one in iraq liked very much anyway and resented their interference (so much for the bush lies about saddam/ bin laden connections--but the media didn't seem to notice ).
to do this , the Us first had to agree to pay the young sunni fighters --many, members of the insurgency --and also the Us had to make a deal with the sunni sheiks that the shia death squads would be put in check .
the Us cut a deal --a ceasefire with al sadr's al medhi army. al sadr to a large degree, kept his part of the bargain ,the sectarian violence decreased. the sunnis kept their part of the bargain --"al qaeda in iraq"--even by Us estimates, never very numerous in the first place-- got shot up , run out and killed off by the Us with sunni help.
bush proclaimed the surge worked. iraq seemed pacified --but then al maliki decided all on his own --of course--to go after al sadr's al medhi army , but is not doing very well at the task.
basra , iraq
if you're keeping score the Us :
1.was getting blown up daily by the sunni insurgency
2. used its puppet "al qaeda in iraq" abu musab al zarqawi type idiots to car and truck bomb the shias --assassinate shia leaders stirring up the shia urges for revenge
3. created and armed the shia police militias and death squads as a counterweight
4..quietly promoted sectarian violence between sunni and shia --the Us was guarding the golden domed mosque when it was blown up--initiating shia-sunni sectarian violence in earnest
5. waited until the sectarian violence and ethnic cleansing reached the sunni breaking point
6. cut a deal with the sunnis to turn on the hated "al qaeda in iraq" puppets who had connected themselves to what was an iraqi insurgency
7. cut a deal with moktada al sadr's medhi army to rein in the shia death squads
8. then stabbed al sadr in the back by using al maliki and his puppet iraqi army to eliminate al sadr's medhi army --they tried anyway
9. the Us will probably have to finish the job of crushing al sadr's 60,000 man army --at some possible cost to its own forces
10. now remember back fifteen months ago to when they hung old saddam ? remember what the hangmen were chanting when saddam laughed at them ? was it "moktada al sadr"?
think about it , the iraqi puppet government would not hang saddam without the nod first from washington , so now we see a likely part of how the deal unfolded.
hanging saddam was a plum given to al sadr's crew as part of the deal for the eventual truce the Us would soon broker .
today , al sadr , even after being attacked by both the iraqi army and the Us military is still proclaiming the truce is in effect and has given orders for his army not to fight unless attacked first.
bush, on the other hand in a meeting with the new australian leader--a Us ally in iraq -- called the attack, "a defining moment in the history of iraq", lol .
can you guess what message is he sending ? if the fighting continues , will bush eventually demand al sadr's army surrender its weapons too --or be destroyed ?
use one side to put the other side in check and then turn on the side that you just used. cut a deal with the side you just put in check to help you put the other side in check too.
the sunnis are in general sitting back watching --after the shia death squads and the highly publicized hanging by shias of sunni saddam --will the sunnis lift a finger to save al sadr ? even i have to admit --after a very shaky start , the bushites recovered and played this one like a guitar---but being who they are,and where they are ,they can still easily fuck it all up .
by Us election time we may see an unrecognizable iraq , with the kurds in the north already autonomous and peacefully eating out of the Us hand .
in the sunni triangle in the middle , the 80,000 sunnis insurgents now on the Us payroll of $10 a day, manning neighborhood checkpoints and relatively calm before the potential storm .
in the south , if moktada al sadr and the medhi army are decimated and put out of commission, that leaves down there in the last man standing role, the badr brigade--the military wing of the shia's supreme islamic council in iraq --an organization which is more than minimally tied to iran and excepting for a secondary role played in manning the anti-sunni death squads , content to play and win at electoral politics (allegedly on instructions from iran) --ahmed chalabi must be somewhere laughing up his sleeve at all the sides --while working out his next banking swindle --that clown might even make his predictions come true and one day end up president of iraq after all--although that's a very very long shot requiring a very pacified iraq. chalabi meets ayatollah in iran
but anyway , the bush administration is making good in iraq on the strategy of "use them all and then throw them all away" --it's an old game but is still played because it still works so well --divide and conquer--winnow away your enemies .
hillary under fire
and back here in the Us news , a senator and presidential candidate recently snared by the media clearly in a lie, blames "sleep deprivation" and having "misspoke" when she listed among her vast experience with foreign policy as having landed while under "sniperfire" in bosnia during the meltdown of the former yugoslavia . did she get that one from bill ? did he tell hillary he had those affairs when he "mis-poked" those women because of sleep deprivation ? ha ha ha !
40 years later forensics experts says impossible that sirhan is rfk's killer- 13 gunshots from an 8 shot pistol
meanwhile the mainstream Us media FINALLY, after 40 years of eyewitness accounts and testimony of experts constantly put in the media's face by so-called "conspiracy theorists" , reports that scientific evidence points to a second gunman at work in the 1968 assassination of senator robert kennedy--a young, eloquent candidate for the democratic nomination for the presidency , highly popular with young voters , who campaigned on promises to end the vietnam war , bring the troops home, work to end poverty in the Us--and also reopen the investigation into his own brother's assassination ;
robert mugabe
at the same time now, in zimbabwe ,southern africa , octogenerian robert mugabe runs for yet another term for president in a nation devastated by hyperinflation-generating sanctions and broken promises by england to make a smoother transition from economic apartheid by paying white farmers--a tiny demographic minority-- to peacefully relinquish the overwhelming majority of the best farmland --lands their english fathers took by force from black farmers back in the days when the british ruled "rhodesia" the same way the dutch afrikanners ruled apartheid south africa.
mugabe again faces continuous political opposition from main rival morgan tsvangirai --caught on video in previous interviews openly discussing how he had aligned himself financially and politically with western interests plotting to install him as president of zimbabwe through violent coup d'etat . morgan tsvangirai
the fact that tsvangirai is not in prison for life or already executed for treason, indicates that mugabe ,until under constant attack and threat of violent overthrow-like so many african leaders before him-- may not have been as tyrranical and despotic as the western media claims --but 28 years as president is too much time even for jesus --mugabe should have stepped down long ago.
those who lead the liberation struggles against colonialism and imperialism in the name of the people, have a bad habit of not trusting that the beliefs and principles that carried the nation to independence are not sufficiently instilled in the people--who made the victory possible in the first place . do like mandela, lead for specific time and then step down ... if you have done your work , there will be others of the next generations who will be able to lead and give their interpretations of what you have striven to create. do your work correctly and they will hold true to the principles and ideals that you have worked and struggled for .
we do not need presidents for life. we need the principles that guided the various "nations" to independence understood clearly in the minds of the people so that even the youngest school child can express and articulate in their own terms what the struggle is for ,what goals are to be achieved and by what means the goals are to be arrived at and discern his or her own role and individual part to play in that macro-process .
for example : i am a soldier in the global struggle of the children of africa world wide for economic ,social, political and technological reempowerment. i make my own little contributions to the struggle for our global reempowerment in my writings, in my ideas, in my interactions with others, in how i live my life . in how i strive to inform, educate and treat others, and seek to uplift, enoble and bring out the best in us, i am a soldier for my people.
dr king was a soldier , malcolm x was a soldier, nelson mandela is a soldier , kwame toure was a soldier , huey and george were soldiers. rosa parks , corretta scot king , betty shabazz and fannie lou hamer were soldiers . queen nzinga was a soldier, harriet tubman was a soldier, all of the runaway slaves and maroons hiding in the quilambos and resisting the slave catchers were and are soldiers.
when bob marley sang his songs of freedom , when nina simone and aretha franklin sang for the children "to be young gifted and black is where it's at" , when james brown sang "say it loud i'm black and i'm proud", when curtis mayfield sang "we're a winner " and "people get ready because there's a train a coming", they were soldiers.
when muhammad ali refused the draft during the vietnam war, gave up millions of dollars , was stripped of the title , sentenced to five years in prison and still said "hell no i won't go ...the vietcong never called me n-----", he was a soldier.
being a soldier means being tuned in and having your life and goals so integrated into the the overall struggle of our people for our human rights, our dignity and respect,our mental reenlightment, our just economic rewards , that your own individual accomplishments dovetail directly into the needs and aspirations of the masses.
we can see a picture of ourselves and how we wish to be and where we wish to go in you and your accomplishments. drug slingers , wannabe pimps and gangsters do not do it for us because they destroy our peoples' lives rather than uplift and build our people up.
if i am a psychologist , i'm healing the wounded psyche of our people so they have the bulletproof self esteem needed to compete and succeed in a world that wipes its feet on black skin.
if i'm a realator i'm informing my people of the benefits and economic legacy of property ownership at the same time i'm schooling them to the necessary requirements and clearing a pathway AROUND predatory lenders--especially since the media is hinting that this subprime crisis is somehow our fault--"you people didn't read your contracts and didn't know your mortgage rates were due to reset... blah...blah...bs...bs..."
if i'm a computer programmer ,i'm doing more than just seeking a job at someone else's company , i'm networking with others like me-- building our own thing or helping others like us to build theirs--encouraging students to be their best and helping them get their feet in the door .
if i'm a student , i'm choosing my field of study from an informed position , making sure my skills are solid , my expertise cutting edge, my world view global instead parochial , using technology to reach out others like me , lending each other moral and tangible assistance and taking the greatest of care to ALWAYS avoid the "n-word-isms" of fratricide and the "crabs in a barrel" mentality which only makes losers of us all .
if i'm in a profession that places me in the public eye , i'm dignified without brattiness, regal without arrogance, of the everyday people without pettiness. my work celebrates ,showcases the best in us--points the way where we should strive to be--i seek to be someone any parent would want their child to emulate .
if i'm in a service profession , even if it's cooking fries at mc donalds , i'm making notes , studying the business model , determining what it is that makes so many people the world over willingly spend their money there. finding and discovering keys that i can use for my own dream someday and to make my own life and personal projects a success .
and whatever i am , whatever i do ,as a soldier for my people, i'm looking for ways that what i do and what i aspire to be will dovetail with the overarching goals of my peoples' global , economic, political, social and technological reempowerment.
this is not my idea , this is my interpretation of what i believe dr king meant when he said he was a "drum major" for peace , a drum major for justice , a drum major for equality --and is related to what i believe he intended what became his final work to be --his poor people's march.
a year ago , who'd a thunk it ? obama takes slight lead in texas & ohio
obama tries to neutralize vulcan death grip craftily applied by hillary during debate
Monday, March 3, 2008 Latest poll: Obama takes the lead in Ohio. Bye bye Hitlery Released: March 03, 2008
Reuters/C-SPAN/Houston Chronicle Poll: Too Close To Call! Obama Barely Overtakes Clinton in Ohio and Retains Small Edge in Texas
Republican McCain remains well ahead of Huckabee, but still faces some intra-party opposition
UTICA, New York – The Democratic Party presidential primaries in Texas and Ohio remain too close to call between Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, with momentum sloshing back and forth, a new Zogby International poll for Reuters/C-SPAN/Houston Chronicle two-day telephone tracking poll shows. As voters in these two big states prepare to wrap up their voting tomorrow, neither candidate has been able to break away from the other.
The two delegate-rich states with elections on Tuesday are among the last of the big states left in the primary election season, and both candidates stand to split the delegates under the party’s proportional delegate apportionment scheme.
The telephone surveys also show Republican front-runner John McCain, the senator from Arizona, moving two steps closer to sealing the GOP nomination, as he continues to enjoy a sizable lead over closest challenger Mike Huckabee of Arkansas.
In the Democratic race in Texas, Clinton and Obama saw stability set in among the key demographic groups. Obama leads among men, and the two are essentially tied among women. Clinton continues to enjoy a sizable lead among Hispanic voters, but Obama has made gains in the last day among white voters, where the two are now tied.
Obama continues to enjoy a two-to-one lead among voters under age 30, while Clinton leads 54% to 31% among voters age 65 and older. Obama continues to lead in the Dallas and Houston areas, while Clinton leads in more rural areas, including southern Texas. But in the key swing area of east Texas, Obama has surged into a tie with Clinton. While he trailed her 45% to 38% just a day ago, it was Obama 45%, Clinton 44% in that area at the end of yesterday’s polling, but the numbers in that region have been volatile.
In Ohio, there is very little movement as the Democratic candidates have solidified their support among those groups that have come to be familiar supporters of each. Obama leads Clinton among men by a 54% to 39% margin, while Clinton leads Obama among women by a 51% to 42% edge. The Obama increase in support among men is likely what has moved him ahead of Clinton.
Obama continues to lead among Ohio voters under age 50, while Clinton remains strongest among voters over age 50. Clinton leads in the rural areas of Ohio and in Cincinnati, while Obama leads in the Democratic bastion of Cleveland and the state capital of Columbus.
"How the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) engaged in framing political leaders and activists and how it has worked to contain, neutralize and destroy political organizations has been documented by a former FBI agent, M Wesley Swearingen, is his book FBI Secrets: An Agent's Expose.
Here is a relevant excerpt from that book:
In February 1968, Bobby Seale and Eldridge Cleaver planned the merger of the Black Panther Party with the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Stokely Carmichael was designated as honorary Prime Minister of the Panthers, H. Rap Brown as minister of justice, and James Forman as minister of foreign affairs.
FBI officials saw a strengthening coalition within the black community that they felt had to be stopped immediately. The FB[[iframe]]d Stokely Carmichael as an informer for the CIA by planting an informant report in his car where the other members could find it, with the help of another FBI informer. The report was discovered and the Panthers sent a "hit team" after Carmichael, who as a result departed immediately for an extended period in Africa.
The FBI's COINTELPRO had successfully neutralized the coalition between the Panthers and the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, instigated by Hoover's paranoia of African Americans, but the Panthers were gaining respect in the black community across the country. Hoover wanted the Black Panther Party neutralized immediately one way or the other.
In November 1968, Hoover wrote to the various FBI field offices in cities with growing Panther organizations that a serious struggle was developing between the Panthers and the United Slaves Organization. Hoover write that the struggle had reached such proportions that it was taking on the aura of gang warfare with threats of murder.
Then in December 1968, Hoover ordered these offices to submit letters every two weeks outlining the counter-intelligence measures that were being taken to neutralize the Black Panther Party. These bi-weekly letters were to list the accomplishments achieved in attacking the Panthers.
Soon after I had been assigned to the Los Angeles racial squad, I was told by a fellow that another agent on the squad, Nick Galt, had arranged for Galt's informers in the United Slaves to assassinate Alprentice Carter, the Panther's Los Angeles minister of defense, and John Huggins, the deputy minister of Information. Following Galts's instructions, informants George Stiner and Larry Stiner shot them to death on the UCLA campus on January 17, 1969.
I had thought Joel Ash had been kidding me because this was beyond any corruption or wrongdoing that I had witnessed or heard by FBI agents.
I later reviewed the Los Angeles files and verified that the Stiner Brothers were FBI informants. I knew they must be real informants, even though the informant program was 75% phony, because Hoover wanted the Panthers in jail or dead. That was why he had ordered bi-weekly reports from the field about the campaign against the Black Panther Party.
Darthard Perry, a self-admitted and publicly acclaimed informer for the FBI, filed an affidavit in a Black Panther Party lawsuit against the government charging that he knew that the United Slaves members who were responsible for the murders of the Panthers were FBI informers. Perry claims that the murders of the Panthers were committed by the Stiner Brothers, who were convicted and sent to jail in 1969, and their subsequent escape in the 1974 prison break from San Quentin, were engineered by the FBI. I then discovered the unthinkable, that FBI informants had actually been instructed by FBI agents to assassinate several other Black Panther members.
As of 1992, the Stiner brothers were still listed as fugitives. Either the FBI has disposed of the Stiners or they are in the FBI's witness protection program. I know that Darthard Perry was an FBI informant and that he is telling the truth about the FBI….
United Slaves member Bill Stark, an FBI informer, shot and killed Panther member Al Holt, another FBI informer, on March 14, 1969.
M. Wesley Swearingen, FBI Secrets: an Agents Expose (Boston South End Press 1995) pp. 81-83 "
this is an old interview of fbi informant darthard perry posted here to help shed light on this historical era --this is a part of our istory that needs to be preserved if simply for educationl purposes and the sake of historical continuity...
darthard perry pt 1
perry pt 2
perry pt 3
perry pt 4
perry pt 5 note* james carr was one of george jackson's closest comrades and according to the book "the glasshouse tapes" by lapd informant louis tackwood , tackwood was also married to carr's sister and had an inside view of all the activities going on and fed them directly to lapd . carr was later assassinated himself.
perry pt 6
the dragon has come : the last fourteen months in the life of george jackson
Location: Bab-bel-lawn Falls, all-ovah, United States
about me? ...working daily on developing and improving that state of 'mushin.'
...bruce lee would often say, "The question we must always consider is how do we actualize our vast human potential?"
to actualize our potential we must cultivate the habit of always doing our best and our best must always get better. i know of no other way.
