While the world is reacting to leaks indicating that Saudi Arabia is funding Al Qaeda and Clinton ordered diplomats to engage in espionage, Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have called for the prosecution of those responsible for the leaks.
The leaks also show the Saudis pressuring the United States to attack Iran — once again having the United States do the dirty work for regional interests. Then there is the revelation that Iran smuggled weapons in ambulances to Hezbollah.
Graham insists that the matter is clear “we’re at war . . . If you can prosecute them, let’s try.” McCaskill agreed, stressing “I hope we can find out where this is coming from and go after them with the force of law.”
As with the disclosures of the torture program, some of these disclosures are likely not new information for Senators. Members of the intelligence committees have often been criticized for knowledge of abuses or even crimes in our government without making them public or taking significant action. Thus far, there has not been a single suggestion of public hearings on these allegations — only a demand to prosecute the person responsible for making them public. The problem is that some of this information shows that the public has been given false or misleading information on major policies. I guess this is an example of what Senator Rockefeller said was the harm of media coverage denying the public of its sense of happiness and contentment in their government.
I am a firm believer in the need to maintain secrecy in areas of national security, but some of these leaks raise (again) a growing lack of confidence in Congress in serving as a true check and balance on abuses.
Brian,
You and I have a lot in common it would seem. I’ve always lived by the axiom that “Good wisdom and knowledge is where you find it.”
Bdaman,
Thanks for the clarification, but I think that the same could be said about us… We went to war under false pretenses. And that’s just the beginning of it.
We need to begin by cleaning up our own house, beginning with Bush/Cheney, et al.
Here is an interesting quote in the Guardian from Israel:
“The WikiLeaks cables have been studied intently in Israel, and so far it appears to be one country where the nation’s diplomats haven’t been dismayed or embarrassed by the leaks.
Aluf Benn, one of Israel’s leading columnists, writes in Ha’aretz that the country’s diplomats and leaders appear to have been saying in private the same things they have been saying in public:
‘The secret documents sent by the US Embassy in Tel Aviv show that the heads of the Israeli intelligence apparatus and the defense establishment refer to the same talking points when briefing American bureaucrats and congressional delegations as they do when speaking to journalists and Knesset members…. Thus Israel has no reason to be embarrassed by the leak, because there are no large gaps between what it said domestically and what it said for public consumption.’“
Swarthmore mom,
Yep, she’d sell her soul to keep her seat. I watched her entire performance as she chaired the Impeachment trail a couple months ago … her arrogance and ignorance were on par with most republicans.
Sunday, October 17, 2010 09:47 AM
How propaganda is disseminated: WikiLeaks Edition
by Glenn Greenwald
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/10/17/wikileaks/index.html
This is no coincidence either, right after wikileaks release
Documents reveal China’s role in shipments of nukes to Iran
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/nov/28/wikileaks-releases-state-reports/
I don’t find any of it the least bit funny, including your comments, Bdaman. We’re in some serious trouble here, whether you know it or not, Bdaman.
And the not-so-funny thing about torture, Bdaman? It pretty much steals any sense of humor that one might once have had…
Anon Nurse thats why I brought it up. The video that you watched is a horrific video. Ask yourself why has this administration has given so much money to the Palestinian government which is controlled by Hamas. We can’t keep track of where the stimulus money went so you know they have no clue where the money goes over there. Why would we send a dime to a government that does that or allows that to happen to it’s own people. Muslim on Muslim violence.
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?ID=194796&R=R1
As far as Assange goes, the next several weeks will determine the amount of damage he has done. One thing for sure it is putting the Obama administration in a very tough bind and relationships will surely be put to the test. But hey transparency is great.
Then you can believe that last weeks contrail off the California coast was from a plane but most know this was an early warning shot from the Chinese prior to this weeks military exercises in the Yellow Sea and it was no coincidence that North Korea decided to lob 200 shells into a tiny Island while China remained silent.
Buddha mentioned on another thread about tipping points. I think we’re almost there as the atmosphere is changing quickly.
Buddah Is Laughing:
While I may be (in error?) labeled as “christian” (note the lower case “c”), I have endeavored for almost the whole of my life to live such of the teachings of one of “the great teachers” (Yeshua?) according to the teachings (the Four Noble Truths, the fourth of which being the Eightfold Path) of an earlier “great teacher,” and I would welcome nothing more than to be permitted to channel any useful truth from any “great teacher.”
I abhor most things traditionally labeled “Christian” (note the upper case “C”).
While we are at it, to the extent that “the Eternal Tao” cannot be told, surely such is so only because eternity is not yet fully completed.
Is not the traverse of the Eightfold Path the garnering understanding of the Eternal Tao as the Eternal Now?
Blouise I think McCaskill is up in 2012. She probably has an eye on the election. Missouri has turned as red or redder than Texas.
As it’s been said, never put anything in an e-mail that you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of the NY Times.
It would seem that the truth of this statement has been driven home…
According to several sources (UK Guardian, NYTimes etc.) it is the Republicans who are raising the biggest stink with only a few Democrats openly aligning themselves with the Republicans … like McCaskill …. let’s remember that the next time she appears at a fund raiser.
Bdaman on November 27, 2010 at 6:55 pm
England Arrests 15-Year-Old Girl For Allegedly Burning Koran
He wrote:
“All about control”
http://madaboutmahound.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-hamas-deals-with-fatah-in-gaza.html
==============
I made the mistake of watching it.
I don’t find any of it the least bit funny, including your comments, Bdaman. We’re in some serious trouble here, whether you know it or not, Bdaman.
And the not-so-funny thing about torture, Bdaman? It pretty much steals any sense of humor that one might once have had…
“Perhaps the day will come when people learn first how to actually understand themselves; and, through self-understanding, begin to learn to understand one another.”
You could have been channeling the historical Buddha there, Brian.
There is a method, sometimes named “system dynamics,” a variation on the theme of systems engineering, whereby a complex system which cannot be modeled perfectly is represented with causal loop diagrams along with stocks and flows.
Something funny happens when I apply what I understand of system dynamics to national and international security, when I include espionage and other forms of discerning or revealing “state secrets.”
What I find invariably happens with every system dynamics model I have yet been able to concoct or confabulate is that disclosure of “state security” secrets does indeed damage national security.
However, damaging national security, in every scenario scheme I have yet been able to imagine, improves the security of any and all individual persons.
Which leads me to ponder whether improving the security of fictional persons (the state, as a form of corporation) can ever other than impair the security of actual, living persons.
Perhaps humanity faces a curious choice, whether to believe only in fictitious persons (which, being fictitious, are simple to model) or “believe in” real, living persons (which, being real and living, are impossible to model because any model is immediately made obsolete by the ongoing process of life itself).
There may be a reason why some of the “founding fathers” observed that so-called democracies tend to self-destruct. Could the reason for this be the traditional use of fixed dogmas and fixed doctrines in attempting to make sense of a system which is inextricably not fixed?
One theory, never put to the test, would have it that the spying during the “cold war” allowed it to stay “cool” enough that there are people still living on this planet.
One of my Class of 1961 Carleton classmates, William McConochie, Ph.D., has studied aspects of war-mongering. I, personally, find his work to be of formidable merit.
Perhaps the day will come when people learn first how to actually understand themselves; and, through self-understanding, begin to learn to understand one another.
Bdaman:
“Maybe Assange is the Anti-Christ he looks like what Hitler was trying to achieve.”
====================
What follows is a link to (and excerpt from) a June news release by Coleen Rowley, Ray McGovern, and Daniel Ellsberg. I’m guessing that they might issue a similar release today. Traitors all of them! In bed with the evil Assange…
If only we had an army of them… I hope we do.
From IPA, The Institute for Public Accuracy
News Release
Rowley, McGovern and Ellsberg — Statement on Wikileaks
June 17, 2010
http://accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=2270
excerpt:
“Today, Washington is trying to shut down what it clearly regards as the most effective and dangerous purveyor of embarrassing information — Wikileaks, a self-styled global resource for whistleblowers. It is a safe bet that NSA, CIA, FBI and other agencies have been instructed to do all possible to make an example of Wikileaks leader, Australian-born Julian Assange, and his colleagues. Much is at stake — for both Pentagon and freedom of the press.
“Those who own and operate the corporate media face a distasteful dilemma, both in terms of business decision and of conscience. They must choose between the easier but soulless task of transcribing government press releases, on the one hand; or, on the other, following Wikileaks into the 21st century by adapting high-tech methods to protect sources while acquiring authentic stories unadulterated by government pressure, real or perceived.”
end excerpt
Swarthmore mom,
Yes, Nam opened my eyes … but I’m not really talking about war, I’m talking about U S politicians being eager to throw away their citizens’ lives simply to gain favor with some puny King ruling over a shaky kingdom. It’s as if our men and women are nothing more than currency for the U S House and Senate to spend on any gee-gaw that appeals. Tax dollars are one thing, but these are living, breathing human beings. It seems to me that the more time our politicians spend with Saudi officials, the more they (our politicians)tend to take on the Saudis’ view that the peasants are totally expendable and exist simply to serve those in charge.
You might want to find a sense of actual humor as yours seems to have taken leave with the rest of your senses.
“I was just kidding” for a statement like your previous one works just about as well as the excuse “I was only following orders.”
What a coincidence!
Isn’t that cute?
I thought it was, pretty funny actually. You might want to try a sense of humor, it might help you with your relationships
I read a piece by the Editor of The Guardian (London) wherein he states quite accurately and timely that “…it is not the news media’s job to protect governments from embarrassment…”.
Well said, sir.