Friday, September 01, 2006
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Swept Away
Sept. 9, 2005, USA Today reported planners' expectations:
Government simulation predicted 61,290 deaths
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Katrina roared into the Gulf of Mexico, emergency planners pored over maps and charts of a hurricane simulation that projected 61,290 dead and 384,257 injured or sick in a catastrophic flood that would leave swaths of southeast Louisiana uninhabitable for more than a year.
These planners were not involved in the frantic preparations for Katrina. By coincidence, they were working on a yearlong project to prepare federal and state officials for a Category 3 hurricane striking New Orleans.
Their fictitious storm eerily foreshadowed the havoc wrought by Category 4 Katrina a few days later, raising questions about whether government leaders did everything possible — as early as possible — to protect New Orleans residents from a well-documented threat.
After watching many of their predictions prove grimly accurate, "Hurricane Pam" planners now hope they were wrong about one detail — the death toll. The 61,290 estimate is six times what New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin has warned people to expect.
"I pray to God we don't see those numbers," Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "My gut is ... we don't. But we just don't know."
The known Katrina death toll was less than 400 on Friday, but officials expect it to skyrocket once emergency teams comb through 90,000 square miles of Gulf Coast debris. Fears are particularly acute in New Orleans, where countless corpses lie submerged beneath a toxic gumbo that engulfed the city after levees gave way.
The death toll is just one of the many chilling details in a 412-page report obtained by the AP from a government official involved in the Hurricane Pam project. Written in ominous present-tense language, the report predicts that:
• Flood waters would surge over levees, creating "a catastrophic mass casualty/mass evacuation" and leaving drainage pumps crippled for up to six months. "It will take over one year to re-enter areas most heavily impacted," the report estimated.
• More than 600,000 houses and 6,000 businesses would be affected, more than two-thirds of them destroyed. Nearly a quarter-million children would be out of school. "All 40 medical facilities in the impacted area (are) isolated and useless," it says.
• Local officials would be quickly overwhelmed with the five-digit death toll, 187,862 people injured and 196,395 falling ill. A half million people would be homeless.
The report calls evacuees "refugees" — a term now derided by the Bush administration — and says they could be housed at college campuses, military barracks, hotels, travel trailers, recreational vehicles, private homes, cottages, churches, Boy Scout camps and cruise ships.
"Federal support must be provided in a timely manner to save lives, prevent human suffering and mitigate severe damage," the report says. "This may require mobilizing and deploying assets before they are requested via normal (National Response Plan) protocols."
Letter From Unknown
Le célèbre écrivain polonais Stanislaw Jerzy Lec avait dit : « Politiciens, demandez conseil aux gastro-entérologues : que peut-on encore faire avaler aux citoyens, parce que les blessures se cicatrisent, mais les cicatrices continuent de grandir avec nous. »
ET VOUS?...
Si vous aviez eu l'occasion de lui parler ou de lui écrire... que lui auriez-vous dit ?
Mon très cher ami Stanislaw, j’aime te lire, bien que je n’aie pas eu le plaisir de te connaître personnellement, tu es mort avant ma naissance, mais avec ma plume je vais te parler d’Haïti, mon pays. Le premier pays noir au monde devenu indépendant le premier Janvier 1804 après avoir combattu les troupes de Napoléon.
Nous sommes maintenant plus dépendant que jamais, les troupes de la Minustah sont en train de faire la loi, en plus, ils s’arrangent pour coucher avec nos femmes sans notre consentement. Avant, j’allais passer les vacances dans ma ville natale, j’étais le beau garçon qui venait de New York, sans problèmes avec les poches remplies de dollars américains.
Les jolies filles de ma ville voulaient toutes faire ma connaissance pour aller danser et jouir de l’été sur la plage tranquille. Je me sentais roi, aujourd’hui je ne suis rien parce les nanas sont devenues plus exigeante, du fait qu’il y ait beaucoup d’hommes pour peux de femmes. Pour sortir avec une fleur haïtienne, il faut montrer les deux (P) le pognon et le protège.
Stanislaw mon ami, j’ai eu le malheur d'immigrer une fois – je resterai toujours métèque toute ma vie, et étranger partout, même dans mon pays d'origine. J’étais comme les autres immigrants, un individu mal informé qui pensait qu’un pays était meilleur qu’un autre. C'est notre malédiction à nous, immigrants.
Stanislaw mon ami, l'histoire est un perpétuel recommencement, mais on ne recommence jamais. Si c'était à refaire, recommenceriez-vous ? dit la chanson ; jamais on ne recommencerait, à moins d'être gâteux ou d'ignorer le goût de l'expérience. Si je devais recommencer ma vie, je ferais les mêmes erreurs…sans laisser mon pays.
Stanislaw mon ami, je ne comprends pas ce que les citoyens des pays qui se disent ami d’Haïti accomplissent en Haïti. Notre pauvre peuple les appelle « Touristes de l’ONU. »Mes compatriotes pensent que ces touristes mondiaux sont : ceux qui troublent l'eau dans mon pays pour mieux pêcher. A chaque fois qu’on doit renouveler le contrat de la Minustah, la délinquance s’amplifie, le kidnapping augmente, ainsi que l’insécurité. Une fois le nouveau contrat approuvé pour six mois, le taux de criminalité diminue en moins d’une semaine.
Stanislaw mon ami, la nourriture nous manque, mais nous avons toujours assez de force pour tomber et mourir avec dignité devant les yeux froids de l’étranger. Un petit peuple libre, même dans la pauvreté est plus grand qu'un grand peuple esclave. La pauvreté des biens est facile à guérir, la pauvreté de l'âme, impossible ; de ce fait nous ne pouvons rien espérer des « Bureaucrato-Technocrates » en bleue de la force Onusienne. L’argent n’a pas d’odeur, mais la pauvreté en a une odeur nauséabonde et écœurante. La pauvreté met le crime au rabais, mais le peuple haïtien refuse de partager la grande fraternité de la merde. Le plus curieux, c’est que l'argent de la coopération internationale aide à supporter la pauvreté…dégoûtante.
Stanislaw mon ami, les gens de mon pays ne supportent pas le sentiment d'injustice. La pauvreté, le froid, même la faim, sont plus supportable que l'injustice. L’impunité continue d’être un vice privilégié chez moi. L'hypocrisie mondiale nous donne la mort dans l’âme, pendant que les criminels jouissent en repos d'une impunité tyrannique.
Stanislaw mon ami, Le sommeil occupe le tiers de notre vie, mais c’est le seul don gratuit qu’accordent les dieux, aussi la consolation des peines de nos journées ; je dois aller au lit.
Bonne nuit, mon ami.
L’Inconnu
New York/2006-08-29
Gilbert Achcar on Iraq
Gilbert Achcar: In the past six months, the situation in Iraq has deteriorated in a truly frightening manner, proceeding inexorably toward the actualization of the worst-case scenario -- the worst for Iraq, that is, which is not necessarily the worst for Washington, as I shall explain.
The outcome of the December 2005 parliamentary election was quite bad for U.S. plans in Iraq. The official results confirmed that the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) once again secured a major voting bloc in the parliament (128 seats out of 275), although they did not get the majority that they enjoyed in the previous assembly. That was foreseen, however, as the January 2005 election had been boycotted by most Arab Sunnis and its outcome was accordingly quite exceptional. Nevertheless, the loss of 12 seats by the UIA was rather less than the 22–seat loss by the Kurdish Alliance, while the coalition list headed by Washington's henchman, Iyad Allawi, suffered a very serious decline, falling to 25 seats from 40, which had already been a poor showing.These results meant that, had any of the "Sunni" coalitions -- whether the Iraqi Accord Front (44 seats), which is a coalition between the Islamic Party (i.e., the Iraqi "moderate" branch of the Muslim Brotherhood [the Association of Muslim Scholars being the "hard-liners" originating in the same tradition]) and traditionalist Arab Sunni tribal forces; or the Iraqi National Dialogue Front alone (11 seats), a motley Arab nationalist coalition including present or former Baathists who disavow Saddam Hussein's leadership -- agreed to join an alliance with the UIA, they would have secured together an absolute majority in the parliament.
(...)
The whole situation was clearly a setback for Sadr, however. As I mentioned earlier, he had tried hard to convince the Sunni Arab parliamentary and extra-parliamentary groups to join in an anti-occupation alliance. He failed totally in that respect: The Arab Sunni parliamentary groups rejected his advances, and stuck to their alliance with the Kurdish parties and Washington's proconsul. On the other hand, the Association of Muslim Scholars, which is very close to the Arab Sunni insurgency, disappointed Sadr bitterly: He couldn't get them to condemn Zarqawi and his al-Qaeda branch in strong terms (Sadr even wanted them to excommunicate Zarqawi's group), and his radical anti-Baathist attitude was equally a stumbling block in his relations with Sunni Arab nationalists. He has complained that of the Sunni groups he approached before the December election and asked to adhere to his "Pact of Honor," none have signed it.
The next major blow to Sadr's strategy of trying to build an anti-U.S. alliance with anti-occupation Arab Sunni forces was the single event that contributed most to fueling the sectarian tension between Arab Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq -- I mean, of course, the attack against the Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra on February 22, 2006. This sectarian attack unleashed reprisals on a large scale by Shiite militants infuriated by the unending series of murderous sectarian attacks to which their community had been subjected ever since the occupation started. In these reprisals, Sadr's ragtag "Mahdi Army" was apparently very much involved. Not that Sadr gave a green light for this -- on the contrary, like most other Shiite leaders, he tried his best to cool things down -- but since his militias are much less centralized than the quasi-military SCIRI Badr militia, Sadrist militiamen obeyed their impulses before considering any other option and before getting to listen to the voice of political rationality.
At any rate, these unfortunate events were hugely exploited by an odd array of forces -- including U.S. friends, pro-Zarqawi Sunni fundamentalists, and pro-Saddam Baathists -- in order to discredit Muqtada al-Sadr among Arab Sunnis and to destroy any appeal he might have had for both his uncompromising anti-occupation stance and his reputation for being very much independent of Iran. All that Sadr had achieved politically in the previous period, in terms of building his influence on a pan-Arab (Sunnis and Shiites) Iraqi basis, was thus shattered along with the dome of the Al-Askari Mosque.
(...)
To say this is to point to what I hinted at already, namely that the slide of Iraq toward the worst-case scenario for its population does not necessarily represent the worst-case scenario for Washington. Actually, most of what has happened in recent months in Iraq, except for the publicity surrounding U.S. troops' criminal behavior, has suited Washington's designs. The sharp increase in sectarian tensions as well as the defeat of Muqtada al-Sadr's project played blatantly into Washington's hands. Along with many others, I have warned for quite a long time that, when all is said and done, Washington's only trump card in Iraq is going to be the sectarian and ethnic divisions among Iraqis, which the Bush administration is exploiting in the most cynical way according to the most classical of all imperial recipes: "Divide and rule." This is what Washington's proconsuls in Baghdad, from L. Paul Bremer to Khalilzad, have tried their best to put in place and take advantage of.
Seen in this light, the present flare-up in sectarian tensions is a godsend for Washington, to the point that many Iraqis suspect that U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies stand behind the worst sectarian attacks. Note how the occupation seems now "legitimized" by the fact that many Arab Sunnis in mixed areas, who feel threatened, request the presence of foreign troops to guarantee their safety as they have no confidence in Iraqi armed forces. [3] What a paradox, when you think of the fact that Arab Sunnis were and are still the main constituency of the anti-occupation armed insurgency -- though surely not the only one: There has been a growing pattern of anti-occupation armed actions in southern Iraq that is hardly reported, if at all, in the Western media, or even in the Arab media for that matter.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Parenti Part 6
Parenti; do you have a conspiracy theory? Do you think these leaders are just trying to manipulate the whole world to suit themselves? What do you say?
Audience: yeah
Parenti: conspiracy theorists, how do you like that. I mean do you think there's actually, do you think there's actually a group of men sitting in a roooooom? who sit there and are plotting these things, for some reason - do you hear that? you have that up here? [British Columbia] do you think there's a group of people sitting around in a room? Because somehow that image is supposed to be - very compelling, you know, it's so improbable, and I always say oh no no they don't sit around in a rooooom! They uhm they meet on carousels and they talk to eachother that way. Or they do, what do they call that, free falling, with the parachute guy, they all lock arms, you see those parachute what -
Audience: skydiving!
Parent: skydiving! they're all skydiving, they all lock arms, what do you think they are talking about when they lock arms like that? That's where they meet. OF COURSE THEY MEET IN ROOMS! Where the hell else you think they're gonna meet?
Parenti; do you have a conspiracy theory? Do you think these leaders are just trying to manipulate the whole world to suit themselves? What do you say?
Audience: yeah
Parenti: conspiracy theorists, how do you like that. I mean do you think there's actually, do you think there's actually a group of men sitting in a roooooom? who sit there and are plotting these things, for some reason - do you hear that? you have that up here? [British Columbia] do you think there's a group of people sitting around in a room? Because somehow that image is supposed to be - very compelling, you know, it's so improbable, and I always say oh no no they don't sit around in a rooooom! They uhm they meet on carousels and they talk to eachother that way. Or they do, what do they call that, free falling, with the parachute guy, they all lock arms, you see those parachute what -
Audience: skydiving!
Parent: skydiving! they're all skydiving, they all lock arms, what do you think they are talking about when they lock arms like that? That's where they meet. OF COURSE THEY MEET IN ROOMS! Where the hell else you think they're gonna meet?
The Holy Jehad Brigades
There has been some discussion regarding the recent kidnapping of two Fox journalists in Gaza. Regarding Holy Jehad Brigades, their name is not new to Palestine. From the website 'Muslim Palestine' (2004 synopsis appears end of page):
The Holy Jehad Brigades:
The Higher Arab Authority (HAA) formed the Holy Jehad forces on December 25th, 1947, under the leadership of the mojahed Abdulqader al Hosseini, who enjoyed wider popularity among his comrades, not by virtue of being the scion of a distinguished family, but because the important matter of the Palestinian struggle consumed him.
The Holy Jehad Brigades (HJB) in the beginning were only a team of no more than 25 enthusiastic and young volunteer fighters who used the Hebron area as their base. Other teams subsequently formed in many other towns and villages.
The HAA had decided to take care of most of the Holy Jehad's expenses, and the HJB carried out several successful operations, especially in the city of Jerusalem, even with a severe shortage of weaponry and ammunition.
The HJB members fought in every town and village, and many fell martyred, and at their vanguard was the mojahed leader Abdulqader al Hosseini, who died a martyr at the Battle of al Qostoll.
Leaders of the HJB include: Khaled Sherif al Hosseini, who took over command after the leader Abdulqader's martyrdom; Kamel Orayqaat, Deputy Head; Qassem al Rimawi, Chairman; Munir Abu Fadhel; and Dr. Dawood al Hosseini.
And the sacrifice continues on the sacred land of Palestine, as the flag is handed down generation to generation until the Land is free of the criminal persecutors.
The Holy Jehad Brigades:
The Higher Arab Authority (HAA) formed the Holy Jehad forces on December 25th, 1947, under the leadership of the mojahed Abdulqader al Hosseini, who enjoyed wider popularity among his comrades, not by virtue of being the scion of a distinguished family, but because the important matter of the Palestinian struggle consumed him.
The Holy Jehad Brigades (HJB) in the beginning were only a team of no more than 25 enthusiastic and young volunteer fighters who used the Hebron area as their base. Other teams subsequently formed in many other towns and villages.
The HAA had decided to take care of most of the Holy Jehad's expenses, and the HJB carried out several successful operations, especially in the city of Jerusalem, even with a severe shortage of weaponry and ammunition.
The HJB members fought in every town and village, and many fell martyred, and at their vanguard was the mojahed leader Abdulqader al Hosseini, who died a martyr at the Battle of al Qostoll.
Leaders of the HJB include: Khaled Sherif al Hosseini, who took over command after the leader Abdulqader's martyrdom; Kamel Orayqaat, Deputy Head; Qassem al Rimawi, Chairman; Munir Abu Fadhel; and Dr. Dawood al Hosseini.
And the sacrifice continues on the sacred land of Palestine, as the flag is handed down generation to generation until the Land is free of the criminal persecutors.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Chomsky on Lebanon
At an emergency Arab League meeting, most of the Arab states (apart from Algeria, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen) condemned Hezbollah. In doing so, they were willing to "openly defy public opinion," as the New York Times reported. They later had to back down, including Washington's oldest and most important ally in the region, Saudi Arabia: King Abdullah said that "if the peace option is rejected due to the Israeli arrogance, then only the war option remains, and no one knows the repercussions befalling the region, including wars and conflict that will spare no one, including those whose military power is now tempting them to play with fire." Most analysts assume -- plausibly I think -- that their primary concern is the growing influence of Iran, and the embarrassment caused by the fact that alone in the Arab world, Hezbollah has offered support for Palestinians under brutal attack in the occupied territories.
Interviewed by Nermeen Al Mufti
The only meaningful support for Palestinians facing national destruction is from Hezbollah. For this reason alone it follows that Hezbollah must be severely weakened or destroyed, just as the PLO had to be evicted from Lebanon in 1982. But Hezbollah is too deeply embedded within Lebanese society to be eradicated, so Lebanon too must be largely destroyed. An expected benefit for the US and Israel was to enhance the credibility of threats against Iran by eliminating a Lebanese-based deterrent to a possible attack. But none of this turned out as planned. Much as in Iraq, and elsewhere, Bush administration planners have created catastrophes, even for the interests they represent. That is the primary reason for the unprecedented criticism of the administration among the foreign policy elite, even before the invasion of Iraq.
On the US-Israeli Invasion of Lebanon
Survey
The most recent survey, done in April this year, found almost no Iraqis who felt the United States had invaded to liberate their country from tyranny and build a democracy. Asked for "the three main reasons for the U.S. invasion of Iraq," fully 76 percent cited "to control Iraqi oil." That was followed by "to build military bases" (41 percent) and "to help Israel" (32 percent). Fewer than 2 percent chose "to bring democracy to Iraq" as their first choice.
(via)
Richard Croft as Septimus
Recitative
Mistaken wretches! Why thus blind to fate,
Do ye in private oratories dare
Oppose the President's decree, and scorn
With native rites to celebrate the day
Sacred to Cæsar and protecting Jove?
Air
Dread the fruits of Christian folly,
And this stubborn melancholy
Fond of life and liberty.
Chains and dungeons ye are wooing,
And the storm of death pursuing;
Rebels to the known decree.
Dread the fruits... da capo
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