Political Frenzy

Senator Barack Obama said in an interview yesterday that he can unite U.S. “More Effectively” than Clinton…so could a 7-year-old girl!

I definitely agree with Obama that he can unite the U.S. better than Clinton, but that isn’t saying much. Hillary Clinton is as polarizing a candidate we have seen in a long time. Her demeanor and tone of voice are of someone who thinks they are better than everyone, of someone who doesn’t listen. Her issue stances are flimsy, and her promises empty. Not to mention her biggest achievement, her husband’s presidency, is tainted. Does she think that we have forgotten that Bill Clinton was IMPEACHED?

Bill Clinton’s presidency looks like a shining beacon of hope right now because of the disasters that are unfolding under George Bush! It was a different time then, and if the Clintons had better foresight we would not have been attacked on 9/11.

She actually feels that she is qualified to be president, that she has ‘been there and done that.’

The debate over the new president meeting with heads of state from hostile nations displays Hillary’s attitude and stale 1993 thinking. Obama said that he would meet with these leaders without preconditions because “…setting preconditions for discussions would imply that the US is the superior power and other states have to give into our demands before we even meet with them…that reinforces the sense of the arrogance of US power around the world, which is a source of great damage — and makes us less safe.”

Of this new take on diplomacy Clinton called Obama, “irresponsible and frankly naive.” Does that make you grit your teeth also?

Some celebrate Memorial Day with a barbecue or a sale. Others celebrate it by visiting veterans. I take time to reflect on the history of the armed forces.

Today we must realize that the fallen heroes did not all salute Old Glory. The amazing men and women of the American Armed Forces were in good company. In World War II the British were fending off Fascism and suffering the bombs of Hitler for years before Americans stood up. Alongside them were the commonwealth nations - Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand, South Africa, and Nepal. Non-Vichy France held a successful resistance, many Frenchmen losing their lives to keep their nation free. Those that remained would usher in Allied forces during the liberation of Paris. And losing more men to combat than all other nations combined, Russia suffered massive losses, only to continue forward and bring down the Third Reich brick by brick.

In Asia the Chinese were in a civil war when Japan attacked, and despite their hatred for each other, both the Communist and Republican Chinese lay down their lives to protect their homeland. The Siamese (or later Thai), Cambondians, Laotians, and others all resisted the Japanese invasion force, later aiding Australian and American troops in overthrowing the Japanese.

And not to forget the Germans and Japanese who resisted their leaders’ tyranny, seeking to restore to their countries the honor and dignity of history, collaborating with allied forces and spies, sometimes taking on completely independant movements.

Today we remember that in the history of the world only one race has lived as heroes: the human race. We can all today bow our heads in thanks for those across the world who have engaged tyranny and oppression in any form and stopped it from entering our homes, whether they be American, Canadian, Thai, Chinese, or South African. Because the country we must pledge our highest allegiance to is greater than our nation, it is Earth. And despite all our troubles, we all call it home.

Memorial Day, World War II, Pan-Terranism

White House Spokeswoman Dana Perino spoke critically of Iran lack of compliance with the UN’s nuclear resolution. In order to get her point across, Perino talked down to the Iranian people:

We hope the Iranian people would see that the hard-line policies and the rhetoric that is coming out of its leaders such as President (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad is not helpful to the country

They elected him and they see him on television all the time. The breeze from the east is that Ahmadinejad is indeed an unpopular president because he is focusing on external affairs more than the domestic problems he promised to address in his election campaign. But it’s offensive that she would attempt to tell Iranians what’s good for them. “I know what’s best for you even though you don’t”.

The UN placed sanctions on Iran in response: financial and arms. Arms sanctions. Who was selling to Iran before? And why did they think that could possibly be a good idea? Oh wait, yea. That was us. And by us, I mean the US.

But the UK has been much more upset at Iran recently. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard captured several British sailors, and sent out a warning against attacking the Islamic Republic. Tony Blair and his cabinet have been working hard through diplomatic channels to have the sailors returned, but it has had little to yield as of yet.

Although this may inspire a conflict between Iran and the UK, the White House has made it very clear that it does not want to go to war with the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is painfully clear that if the US attempted an attack on Iran, it would lose. But Iran has an axe to grind with both the US and the UK after Operation Ajax. I urge all my readers to read the Wikipedia article here, and to go out to their local bookstore and pick up All the Shah’s Men : An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer to understand exactly why this is happening.

Dana Perino, Tony Blair, Operation Ajax, Iran, White House

News reached me today from Copenhagen resident Knud Erik Henriksen - who also happens to be my cousin and friend. In an email he described a current event in Denmark’s capital:

Since 1982 we have had a house for the youth in Copenhagen. It was owned by the city but the kids had the right to use it. In 1999 the [community] decided to sell it, and it was sold to a very religious and rightwing organisation. Since it has been brought to the court several times to throw out the youngsters. On [March] 1 the police cleared the house, and this morning they have started to tear down the place.

Continuing, he said that the now homeless youths responded with violence, going so far as to burn cars. Knud Erik said it best:

At the moment they express themselves in a way only few like, but what are they going to do else? They don’t have money. They don’t have polical influence.

The resulting riots can only be described as the desperate acts of the disenfranchised. Some I have discussed this with have said that it is odd for the young people to react in such a way, as Denmark is one of the most egalitarian states in the world. But it is precisely these kinds of things, Youth Houses and such, that help make the Danish socially so strong. It’s akin to removing bricks from a building just because there are so many. “No one’s going to miss this brick… or this brick… or this one…” Anyone who’s ever played Jenga knows this isn’t the case.

The most disturbing part, however, is not the actual event, but the Associated Press article regarding it. According to the AP’s article, published on English news site Guardian Unlimited (companion site to the Manchester Guardian), the kids were “squatters”, using the title Youth House exclusively in quotation marks. Shockingly enough, it makes no reference to the sale of the property, and concludes that the building was “used by young squatters since the 1980s”. Squatters? Until recently, they were legal residents. As Knud Erik filled me in, they had to take this to court several times to try and evict the young people.

My outrage builds as the Associated Press article attempts to pin the riots on specific sub cultures, citing anarchists and punks specifically. The influx of foreign Europeans to protest the removal of the house was the focus of the article, whose headline read “European Anarchists Join Denmark Rioters”. And as anyone can plainly see, anyone who believes in social welfare, high taxation in return for economic egalitarianism, and a social net is an anarchist. Yea right.

In a cheap shot by AP writer Jan M. Olsen, the former Communist leader Vladimir Lenin is somehow obscurely linked to the incident through having once visited the house when it was a conference center, predating its years as a youth house. The mention alone is enough to send red flags (pun intended) to any American reader - but Lenin having once visited the building long ago does not make the protesters all communists, despite the intentions. The very poor connection is meaningless to the topic at hand.

This is exactly the problem with media today. Anyone reading this article clearly knows my agenda - I support the protesters and condemn the violent rioters; I believe that houses like that should be built here in the United States and it is a travesty that they are being removed in Denmark - but the Associated Press has masked itself with the stench of false unbiased reporting. In presenting opinions as inherent truths (it can never be proven that these protesters are anarchists or communists, and is most likely not true) and omitting inconvenient facts (the sale of the property, the fact that they were up until recently legal residents) they make a case to the world that misrepresents reality.

Thank you, Knud Erik, for bringing this horrible injustice to Danish society and grievous injury to journalistic integrity to my attention.

Dear readers, please think critically before you read any news. Every journalist on Earth cares about what they write, one way or another. Don’t trust anyone claiming to be unbiased, because all that means is they are very good at making you hear what they want you to hear, and hiding their agenda in carefully worded sentences.

You show me an unbiased journalist, and I’ll show you a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Europe, United Kingdom, Denmark, Associated Press

Khaled el-Masri, a German national of Lebanese descent, had his claims against the CIA thrown out of American courts. According to Masri, he was on vacation in Macedonia when he was abducted by Macedonian officials and taken to Afghanistan where he was placed under scrutiny of CIA officials who tortured and beat him even after he was discovered to be innocent of any wrongdoing. He says that he was flown to Albania where he was dumped on the side of the road by CIA agents.

German Parliament, having little-to-no diplomatic sway on the United States, vocally supports Masri, but cannot do anything to pursue charges against the CIA. Masri was in illegal custody for several months, something that drew the attention of the American Civil Liberties Union, which handled Masri’s case. But even the ACLU has abandoned hope for further prosecution.

The case was not thrown out based on lack of evidence. In fact, the case was thrown out because the only way to link anyone with Masri’s arrest and alleged torture is to reveal major points of the CIA’s structure and name the operatives involved. This would result in catastrophe for the CIA, and the court decided that the safety of CIA protocol was more important than the suffering of a single foreign national.

What a world we have come to where the pain and suffering of a man is swallowed by the covert needs of the masses. This country was founded on the principles of individual liberties, and crimes by government officials against any man or woman of any nationality - foreign or American - should never be dismissed for any reason by anyone. Let us all take a minute to reflect on the emotional future of the abused man, a man who must have thought at some point he would die simply for being a Lebanese German in Macedonia.

Middle East, Europe, United States, Afghanistan, CIA, Lawsuits, Macedonia, Germany, Lebanon

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is refusing to give up Iran’s growing nuclear capabilities, in spite of the UN’s resolution and the US’s diplomatic assault. Iran has been developing a uranium enrichment center just outside of Shiraz in Natanz with uranium mined in Iran’s Yazd province. The Natanz center houses 300 centrifuges, with plans to install 3,000 more.

Iranian officials maintain that the uranium enrichment is for nuclear power, not nuclear weapons. This would be much less worrisome if it wasn’t for the recently announced Shahab-3D, a missile with an enormous range and accuracy, which experts say could soon be capable of reaching European cities as far away as Paris. Attach a nuclear warhead to the Shahab’s rocket, and Iran suddenly becomes a major military power.

Shahab means “Falling Star” in Farsi, and Hoot means “Whale” - but the Hoot is only cetacean in its enormity. The Hoot torpedo, which is installed on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ naval attack vessels, is the fastest torpedo in the world. Again, if installed with a nuclear warhead, this would make them extremely dangerous.

In order to protect the European nations who are within the Shahab’s range, the US has begun offering missile defense systems to Eastern European nations like Poland and the Czech Republic. England and France have also expressed interest in purchasing the defense systems, which would be based on the now outdated “Star Wars” system made popular by the Reagan White House.

Russia has been adamantly opposed to European countries purchasing such a defense system from Americans. Russian Generals have managed to bring up the fact that the Czech Republic and Poland could be targeted by Russia’s own rockets if they so chose. These comments have been taken as a threat, but most political observers agree that Russia is unlikely to take action, only blow hot air.

But why on Earth would Russia be so opposed to the purchase of a defense system? Some analysts say that Russia is upset at no longer being a superpower, and feels that they should be the ones supplying defense systems to European nations. One commenter brought up the fact that NATO has begun spreading to Russia’s borders and they feel boxed in by the member nations, which this reporter thinks has nothing to do with Russia’s opposition seeing as this is not a NATO plan; the NATO missile defense plan has been in development for decades without a single prototype.

The trail of breadcrumbs starts in Moscow, and trails back to that source of American distress: the Natanz facility in Iran, where the Iranians are enriching uranium. The facility has been under construction for years, originating from a building agreement between Iran and Russia.

That’s right, Russia is building the enrichment facility that has the United States crawling up its own poopshoot. Not only that but before Iran began mining for uranium in Yazd Province, Russia was their number one supplier of uranium. Iran has been enriching uranium for years, it’s just the volume at which they’re producing now that has American officials asking questions. Before the Natanz facility, Iran was using a series of centrifuges supplied by the United States and installed underneath Tehran University.

Russian diplomats to the UN have stated that if the US installs missile defense systems in Eastern Europe, it will be the beginning of another Cold War. They still have access to the technology to make atomic bombs measured by the tens of megatons, and since Agent Hanssen was arrested for selling American military secrets to the Russians, we can be sure that they’re still conducting spy operations.

Now the Kremlin seems to be prepping and grooming Iran as the next nuclear power, selecting a nation who has an axe to grind against the US. Everyone except the average American knows how the CIA, according to files released thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, sent in Agent Kermit Roosevelt to Operation Ajax during the 1950s. Roosevelt snuck in Tehran to topple Mohammed Mossadegh, the first elected leader of Iran, and replace him with the brutal dictator Shah Pahlavi. Roosevelt succeeded, and escaped. Mossadegh had to be removed because of his nationalization of Iranian oil, which many took to be a sign of Communism, but was really the only way to escape from the imperialist rape of his nation by English and American interests.

Iran has never forgiven the US, and is now seeking to pick a fight with its newly acquired weapons and powers, like the nerd who just took karate lessons saying “no” to the bully who took his lunch money. And Russia is the karate teacher.

News, Iran, Middle East, Poland, Czech Republic, Europe, United States, Russia, Iranian Nuclear Conflict, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Nuclear Power