BP AND THE GHOSTS OF GONZO...

Not since we had to suffer the arrogance of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have I heard so many uses of "I cannot answer that question", "I was not a party to that decision", "I am unfamiliar with the details of that", " I do not recall", etc etc etc.

BP president Tony Hayward has proven himself to be a more consummate liar than Gonzo himself. In a display of corporate arrogance so profoundly egregious that it simply boggles the mind, Mr. Hayward continues to stonewall, feign lack of knowledge of events, spins and frames his answers to his Congressional committee questioners. He is under oath. But, that oath obviously means nothing to him or the company he works for. It is simply CYA for Mr. Hayward, British Petroleum, and, by extension... every other oil company in the world.

Make no mistake... the board of directors of BP is just as culpable as Mr. Hayward and the rest of the BP corporate executive team. They hire him... and they continue to employ him. They foster the corporate culture of greed, sense of entitlement, and separation of themselves from those they refer to as the "small people".

Unfortunately for the citizens of the world, BP has no lock on this attitude. Every oil, gas, big coal, big pharma, and the corporate controllers of the worlds energy, health, and water resources have exactly the same attitude.

Let's not forget that the lack of government oversight is not lost on us here. Oversight, it seems,  means "being in bed with the corporations we are supposed to regulate"... literally and figuratively.  Effective regulation is comprised of winks and nods and looking the other way... all for a few perks.  Streetside harlots are better business people... and more honest.  What we {you and I} are left with is a cesspool of mismanagement, misconduct, flaunting the law, moral decay, and total disregard for everyone... of epic proportions.

What is unfolding to the world is an example of corporate greed run amok.  Mr. Hayward sits at the highest rungs of a corporate food chain that is very willing to put its own employees, and the health of the worlds environment, at risk... to achieve its profit goals... the public be damned.

Our own government have become the poster boys of enabler's. Regulators that do not know how to regulate. Law makers that do not act when necessary. Administrations that look the other way in order to feather their own nests. "Let them eat cake"... is the phrase that rings in ones ears... loudly and clearly.

(c)Thom Reece

"Be not ashamed to say you loved them..."

In the sincere hope that we all remember the true purpose of Memorial Day, I invite you to read a heartfelt appeal by a remarkable soldier poet... who, sadly, is one of those "left behind"...

Thom Reece
-------------------------------------------------------------------

A POEM BY:
Major Michael Davis O'Donnell

If you are able,
save them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can
no longer go.

Be not ashamed to say
you loved them,
though you may
or may not have always.

Take what they have left
and what they have taught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.

And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
to call the war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind.

Major Michael Davis O'Donnell
1 January 1970
Dak To, Vietnam

** Major O'Donnell was listed as MIA while piloting a
helicopter on a mission in Cambodia on 24 March 1970.
His remains were recovered and interred at
Arlington National Cemetery on 16 August 2001.
Lost for 31 years, Major O'Donnell is finally back home.

Major O'Donnell's remarkable poem was scrolled across
the screen at the end of the motion picture, "Hamburger Hill".

ENVIRONMENTAL ARMAGEDDON... a disaster of biblical proportions...

Only weeks after pandering to the "drill baby drill" crowd in the vain hope of collecting a few Republican votes for anything... we see with crystal clarity the folly in off shore drilling. It is no longer the threat of the possibility of an accident.

We now have crude oil washing ashore on the Gulf Coast shoreline. It is destroying sensitive ecosystems, wildlife, jobs, cultures, ... and for what? A few barrels of oil that will make absolutely no difference to the balance of power in the world.. .or add to the security of our nation?

Why, when the same investment in alternative energy would provide clean energy in limitless quantities for centuries... perhaps for eternity?

It is called "politics" folks. The president and administration I voted for... that I worked hard to elect... has made the most bone-headed decision of its short life span. What happened to the Obama I voted for? Where is the man who stood on hundreds of podiums across this nation and vowed to be and "environmental" president? Vowed NOT to allow offshore drilling. Vowed to invest in clean energy sources.

He disappeared in the harsh dog-fight we call American Politics of Power & Money. He tried to buy a few votes... an expediency that may just have destroyed his presidency... his legacy... and any chance that we will ever be able to make right what man has caused.

How can a man with so much intelligence, so much potential, so much promise ... make such a STUPID decision? And how, in the face of a disaster never before faced by mankind... can the current administration claim they will "stay the course". Not since this nation thrust atomic weapons upon the world has such a far-reaching destructive force been voluntarily unleashed upon the world.

Understand that this is not an Anti-Obama diatribe... it is a statement of amazement that such a decision could possibly come for such a source. President Obama has done much to improve the world and counter the decline that those who came before him.

However, in this decision... he proved he is a grossly fallible man... fully able to make the most ignorant and arrogant of decisions.

Hillary's Nasty Pastorate

Hillary's Nasty Pastorate: "There's a reason Hillary Clinton has remained relatively silent during the flap over intemperate remarks by Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. When it comes to unsavory religious affiliations, she's a lot more vulnerable than Obama." .... (Click on title link above to read entire article.) ...

Clinton Lie Kills Her Credibility on Trade Policy

Clinton Lie Kills Her Credibility on Trade Policy: "Now that we know from the 11,000 pages of Clinton White House documents released this week that former First Lady was an ardent advocate for NAFTA; now that we know she held at least five meetings to strategize about how to win congressional approval of the deal; now that we know she was in the thick of the manuevering to block the efforts of labor, farm, environmental and human rights groups to get a better agreement. Now that we know all of this, how should we assess the claim that Hillary's heart has always beaten to a fair-trade rhythm?" ... (Click on title link above to read entire Nation article on Hillary Clinton's lies about NAFTA.) ...

Blackwater's Bu$ine$$

Blackwater's Bu$ine$$
By Jeremy Scahill
The Nation
24 December 2007 Issue

Gunning down seventeen Iraqi civilians in an incident the military has labeled "criminal." Multiple Congressional investigations. A federal grand jury. Allegations of illegal arms smuggling. Wrongful death lawsuits brought by families of dead employees and US soldiers. A federal lawsuit alleging war crimes. Charges of steroid use by trigger-happy mercenaries. Allegations of "significant tax evasion." The US-installed government in Iraq labeling its forces "murderers."

With a new scandal breaking practically every day, one would think Blackwater security would be on the ropes, facing a corporate meltdown or even a total wipeout. But it seems that business for the company has never been better, as it continues to pull in major federal contracts. And its public demeanor grows bolder and cockier by the day.

Rather than hiding out and hoping for the scandals to fade, the Bush Administration's preferred mercenary company has launched a major rebranding campaign, changing its name to Blackwater Worldwide and softening its logo: once a bear paw in the site of a sniper scope, it's now a bear claw wrapped in two half ovals - sort of like the outline of a globe with a United Nations feel. Its website boasts of a corporate vision "guided by integrity, innovation, and a desire for a safer world." Blackwater mercenaries are now referred to as "global stabilization professionals."

Blackwater's 38-year-old owner, Erik Prince, was No. 11 in Details magazine's "Power 50," the men "who control your viewing patterns, your buying habits, your anxieties, your lust.... the people who have taken over the space in your head."

In one of the company's most bizarre recent actions, on December 1 Blackwater paratroopers staged a dramatic aerial landing, complete with Blackwater flags and parachutes - not in Baghdad or Kabul but in San Diego at Qualcomm Stadium during the halftime show at the San Diego State/BYU football game. The location was interesting, given that Blackwater is fighting fierce local opposition to its attempt to open a new camp - Blackwater West - on 824 acres in the small rural community of Potrero, just outside San Diego. Blackwater's parachute squad plans to land at the Armed Forces Bowl in Texas this month and the Virginia Gold Cup in May. The company recently sponsored a NASCAR racer, and it has teamed up with gun manufacturer Sig Sauer to create a Blackwater Special Edition full-sized 9-millimeter pistol with the company logo on the grip. It comes with a Limited Lifetime Warranty. For $18, parents can purchase infant onesies with the company logo.

In recent weeks, Blackwater has indicated it might quit Iraq. "We see the security market diminishing," Prince told the Wall Street Journal in October. Yet on December 3 Blackwater posted job listings for "security specialists" and snipers as a result of its State Department diplomatic security "contract expansion." While its name may be mud in the human rights world, Blackwater has not only made big money in Iraq (about $1 billion in State Department contracts); it has secured a reputation as a company that keeps US officials alive by any means necessary. The dirty open secret in Washington is that Blackwater has done its job in Iraq, even if it has done so by valuing the lives of Iraqis much lower than those of US VIPs. That badass image will serve it well as it expands globally.

Prince promises that Blackwater "is going to be more of a full spectrum" operation. Amid the cornucopia of scandals, Blackwater is bidding for a share of a five-year, $15 billion contract with the Pentagon to "fight terrorists with drug-trade ties." Perhaps the firm will join the mercenary giant DynCorp in Colombia or Bolivia or be sent into Mexico on a "training" mission. This "war on drugs" contract would put Blackwater in the arena with the godfathers of the war business, including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon.

In addition to its robust business in law enforcement, military and homeland security training, Blackwater is branching out. Here are some of its current projects and initiatives:
Blackwater affiliate Greystone Ltd., registered offshore in Barbados, is an old-fashioned mercenary operation offering "personnel from the best militaries throughout the world" for hire by governments and private organizations. It also boasts of a "multi-national peacekeeping program," with forces "specializing in crowd control and less than lethal techniques and military personnel for the less stable areas of operation."

Prince's Total Intelligence Solutions, headed by three CIA veterans (among them Blackwater's number two, Cofer Black), puts CIA-type services on the open market for hire by corporations or governments.

Blackwater is launching an armored vehicle called the Grizzly, which the company characterizes as the most versatile in history. Blackwater intends to modify it to be legal for use on US highways.

Blackwater's aviation division has some forty aircraft, including turboprop planes that can be used for unorthodox landings. It has ordered a Super Tucano paramilitary plane from Brazil, which can be used in counterinsurgency operations. In August the aviation division won a $92 million contract with the Pentagon to operate flights in Central Asia.
It recently flight-tested the unmanned Polar 400 airship, which may be marketed to the Department of Homeland Security for use in monitoring the US-Mexico border and to "military, law enforcement, and non-government customers."

A fast-growing maritime division has a new, 184-foot vessel that has been fitted for potential paramilitary use.

Meanwhile, Blackwater is deep in the camp of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Cofer Black is Romney's senior adviser on counterterrorism. At the recent CNN/YouTube debate, when Romney refused to call waterboarding torture, he said, "I'm not going to specify the specific means of what is and what is not torture so that the people that we capture will know what things we're able to do and what things we're not able to do. And I get that advice from Cofer Black, who is a person who was responsible for counterterrorism in the CIA for some thirty-five years." That was an exaggeration of Black's career at the CIA (he was there twenty-eight years and head of counterterrorism for only three), but a Romney presidency could make Blackwater's business under Bush look like a church bake sale.

In short, Blackwater is moving ahead at full steam. Individual scandals clearly aren't enough to slow it down. The company's critics in the Democratic-controlled Congress must confront the root of the problem: the government is in the midst of its most radical privatization in history, and companies like Blackwater are becoming ever more deeply embedded in the war apparatus. Until this system is brought down, the world's the limit for Blackwater Worldwide and as its rebranding campaign shows, Blackwater knows it.

--------
Jeremy Scahill, a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute, is the author of the bestselling Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, published by Nation Books. He is an award-winning investigative journalist and correspondent for the national radio and TV program Democracy Now!

MEDIA CENSORSHIP IN AMERICA...

US corporate media deliberately censors the news...By Peter Phillips

The corporate media in the US likes to think of themselves as the official most accurate news reporting of the day. The New York Times motto of “all the news that’s fit to print” is a clear example of this perspective. However with corporate media coverage that increasingly focuses on a narrow range of celebrity updates, news from “official” government sources, and sensationalized crimes and disasters the self-justification of being the most fit is no longer valid in the US.

We need to broaden our understanding of censorship in the US. The dictionary definition of direct government control of news as censorship is no longer adequate. The private corporate media in the US significantly under covers and/or deliberately censors numerous important news stories every year.

The common theme of the most censored stories over the past year is the systemic erosion of human rights and civil liberties in both the US and the world at large. The corporate media ignored the fact that habeas corpus can now be suspended for anyone by order of the President.

With the approval of Congress, the Military Commissions Act (MCA) of 2006, signed by Bush on October 17, 2006, allows for the suspension of habeas corpus for US citizens and non-citizens alike. While media, including a lead editorial in the New York Times October 19, 2006, have given false comfort that American citizens will not be the victims of the measures legalized by this Act, the law is quite clear that ‘any person’ can be targeted. The text in the MCA allows for the institution of a military alternative to the constitutional justice system for “any person” regardless of American citizenship. The MCA effectively does away with habeas corpus rights for all people living in the US deemed by the President to be enemy combatants.

A law enacted last year allowing the government to more easily institute martial law is another civil liberties story ignored by the corporate media in 2007. The John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007 allows the president to station military troops anywhere in the United States and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder." The law in effect repealed the Posse Comitatus Act, which had placed strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement in the US since just after the Civil War.

Additionally, under the code-name Operation FALCON (Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally) three federally coordinated mass arrests occurred between April 2005 and October 2006. In an unprecedented move, more than 30,000 “fugitives” were arrested in the largest dragnets in the nation's history. The operations, coordinated by the Justice Department and Homeland Security, directly involved over 960 agencies (state, local and federal) and are the first time in US history that all of the domestic police agencies have been put under the direct control of the federal government.

Finally, the term “terrorism” has been dangerously expanded to include any acts that interfere, or promotes interference, with the operations of animal enterprises. The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA), signed into law on November 27, 2006 expands the definition of an “animal enterprise” to any business that “uses or sells animals or animal products.” The law essentially defines protesters, boycotters or picketers of businesses in the US as terrorists.

Most people in the US believe in our Bill of Rights and value personal freedoms. Yet, our corporate media in the past year failed to adequately inform us about important changes in our civil rights and liberties. Despite our busy lives we want to be informed about serious decisions made by the powerful, and rely on the corporate media to keep us abreast of significant changes. When a media fails to cover these issues, what else can we call it but censorship?

A broader definition of censorship in America today needs to include any interference, deliberate or not, with the free flow of vital news information to the American people. With the size of the major media giants in the US, there is no excuse for consistently missing major news stories that affect all our lives.

[Peter Phillips is a professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University and Director of Project Censored. His latest book Censored 2008 from Seven Stories Press is available in bookstores nationwide or at www.projectcensored.org.]