"Mission Accomplished"

Days after the U.S. officially ended combat operations and touted Iraq’s ability to defend itself, American troops found themselves battling heavily armed militants assaulting an Iraqi military headquarters in the center of Baghdad on Sunday, September 5th. The fighting killed 12 people and wounded dozens.

There is a little-known agreement between the United States and Iraq that Iraq can call on American forces at any time to assist in combat.

Apart from 50,000 US troops remaining in Iraq, there are an estimated 50,000 mercenaries, and perhaps another 100,000 “advisors” in the country.

Now that the bulk of US troops have left, Iraq’s political instability is threatening the country’s security. Six months after an inconclusive election, Iraq still has no new government. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, is struggling to keep his job after his Shiite coalition came in second to a Sunni-backed alliance in the March 7 vote.

Conditions are ripe for an Iraqi civil war between the country’s Shiites and Sunnis. This is because the US invasion altered the balance of power in Iraq. Prior to the US invasion, the Sunnis were in control, even though they represented only 35% of the population—not that the Sunni government was admirable.

Now the Shiites with 65% of Iraq’s population have the upper had – due to their greater numbers, and the backing of Iran – a Shiite nation.

As the Iraqi civil war develops, it is doubtful that the United States can remain uninvolved. First there is the agreement that the US must come to Iraq’s aid militarily, and secondly the balance of power in the Middle East is at stake.

3 Trillion and growing

Economically this is a damaging position for the United States. Joseph Stiglitz had estimated that the war in Iraq cost the US $3 trillion. Now Stiglitz is revising this estimate upward. For example, the cost of diagnosing, treating and compensating disabled veterans has proved higher than was expected.

In calculating our $3 trillion estimate two years ago, Stiglitz blamed the war for a $5-per-barrel oil price increase.

It now appears that a more realistic (if still conservative) estimate of the war’s impact on oil prices works out to at least $10 per barrel. This adds at least $250 billion in direct costs to the original assessment of the war’s price tag.

The Iraq war has had a devastating effect on the US economy. With the civil war in Iraq the economic devastation will become even worse.

Combat deaths

US General David Petraeus acknowledged Tuesday that the Taliban were expanding their footprint across the country even as foreign forces close in on their traditional southern strongholds.

Petraeus acknowledged the spread of Taliban influence, especially to parts of the formerly peaceful north, but said the campaign to counter the insurgency was nearing its final stages. Really?

“I don’t think anyone disagrees that the footprint of the Taliban has spread,” he said, adding the insurgents had “reconnected in various safe havens and sanctuaries outside and inside the country,” a reference to Pakistan.

However, Petraeus said a sharp rise in attacks on international troops showed that the hardline Islamist militia were feeling threatened in their safe havens after almost nine years of war.

The number of American troops killed fighting the Taliban hit 21 on in the last 48 hours.

“Levels of attacks have gone up and that’s a manifestation of us increasing our resources substantially and taking away safe havens that the Taliban have been able to establish over the course of the last several years,” Patraeus said.

Continuing his excuse, Patraeus stated “I said in testimony last year several times… that indeed it would become harder before it got easier. That’s the nature of these endeavors.”

In other words, Patraeus is saying that America’s success in Afghanistan is resulting in more American combat deaths.

This misleading and self-serving logic is Petraeus’ attempt to excuse his failure and to deceive the American people.

USAID boss Rajiv Shah on his way to visit terrorists

August 25, 2010, ISLAMABAD: As voices are being raised against extremist groups using flood assistance to lure recruits for militancy, the US overseas aid chief, Rajiv Shah, created a storm on Wednesday by visiting a Sukkur relief camp run by the banned terrorist organization al Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Taiba (The Army of the Pure).

Shah, a former Gates Foundation employee, is known for using USAID to outsource computer jobs to Sri Lanka and Armenia—for the benefit of his former boss, Bill Gates, and Microsoft—not exactly helpful with the growing unemployment in the U.S.

After Shah’s visit, al Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Taiba said in a statement reported by Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper that it was in charge of the camp and that Shah was endorsing its activities.

Hafiz Saeed, head of al Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Taiba

Osama bin Laden encouraged Hafiz Saeed to form Lashkar-e-Taiba in the late 1980s, and helped fund the establishment of the terror outfit.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, like al Qaeda, practices the Wahabi strain of Islam, and receives funding from Saudis and other wealthy individuals throughout the Middle East—and now from USAID’s Rajiv Shah.

Lashkar-e-Taiba is an ally of al Qaeda; the two groups provide support for each other, and their operatives train in each other’s camps. Lashkar-e-Taiba has established training camps in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province and the tribal areas.

A senior US military intelligence official described the group Shah visited as “al Qaeda junior,” as it has vast resources and is able to carry out complex attacks throughout its area of operations. “If by some stroke of luck al Qaeda collapsed, Lashkar-e-Taiba could step in and essentially take its place,” the official told The Long War Journal in November 2008.

Lashkar-e-Taiba attack on Mumbai, in 2008

Senior military officials have claimed that Lashkar-e-Taiba has expanded to the West since its bloody attack on Mumbai on Nov 26, 2008 and posed a serious threat to world peace.

Attempting to justify USAID’s visit by Mr. Shah to the camp and his donation, US Embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire said people in the camp needed food and Mr. Shah did what he thought should have been done.

USAID’s Rajiv Shah is not only sleeping with the enemy, but supporting them with American taxpayer dollars.

Pew Research Center

A substantial and growing number of Americans say that Barack Obama is a Muslim, while the proportion saying he is a Christian has declined.  More than a year and a half into his presidency, many of the public say they do not know what religion Obama follows.

A new national survey by the Pew Research Center finds that close to one-in-five Americans (18%) now say Obama is a Muslim, up from 11% in March 2009.

The Rev.  Franklin Graham made his own controversial explanation of why people wrongly believe the president is a Muslim.  Graham was asked whether he has any doubts about Obama’s Christian faith. “I think the president’s problem is that he was born a Muslim, his father was a Muslim.  The seed of Islam is passed through the father like the seed of Judaism is passed through the mother.  He was born a Muslim, his father gave him an Islamic name,” Graham told CNN.

In September 2008, The Democratic presidential candidate appeared on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos, which aired Sunday morning. Obama was addressing the  rumors that he is Muslim.  He suggested that Republican rival John McCain was behind them, according to ABC News. Obama was reminded that McCain denied spreading the rumors. “You’re absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith,” Obama said, before being corrected by Stephanopoulos.

Did Obama blurt out the truth, or was this a Freudian slip?

U. S. Stamp celebrating the Muslim Eid

Clearly Obama is the first president of the United States with Muslim roots, or who was born a Muslim.

Obama’s Kenyan birth father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. (1936-1982) was a Muslim who named his boy Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.  In Islam, if your father is a Muslim, you are a Muslim.

Given the fact that “Hussein” is Obama’s middle name, he was most likely born as a Shia Muslim.  Hussein was one of the original Shiites and was killed in 680 CE at the Battle of Karbala.

Obama’s Indonesian stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, was also a Muslim.  In fact, as Obama’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng explained to Jodi Kantor of the New York Times: “My whole family was Muslim, and most of the people I knew were Muslim.”  Maybe she misspoke?

During an interview with the New York Times, Obama described the Muslim call to prayer as “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.” I, myself, have lived nine years in Saudi Arabia, and can vouch that the call to prayer being a bit mesmerizing, but would not describe it as “”one of the prettiest sounds on Earth,” as many Muslims would.

The Times’ Nicholos Kristof wrote Obama recited, “with a first-class [Arabic] accent,” the opening lines of the Muslim call to prayer.

Certainly, anyone who has a lot of exposure to Muslims, either by living in a Muslim country, or by having Muslim relatives is apt to feel comfortable with the religion as it is a known quantity.

In Sharia law, the consensus view is that if a Muslim gives up his or her religion, the penalty is death.  This, however, is not the only interpretation of Sharia law as it pertains to apostasy.

Colin Powell made a memorable interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, prior to the presidential election in 2008, regarding questions about Obama’s religious beliefs.

I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say.  And it is permitted to be said such things as, “Well, you know that Mr.  Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian.  He’s always been a Christian.  But the really right answer is, what if he is?  Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?  The answer’s no, that’s not America.

Unemployment claims soaring! Click for larger picture.

Claims for U.S. jobless benefits jumped to the highest level since last year. This shows that no progress has been made putting Americans back to work- in fact employment is increasing – and rapidly.

This is a result of  federal stimulus TARP money is wasted on large corporations and foreign banks along with sending American jobs offshore.

The chart shows that unemployment claims shot up by 12,000 to 500,000 in the week ended Aug. 14, according to the Labor Department figures.

In addition the economic indicators of the the Federal Reserve Bank turned negative in August, signaling economic contraction.

“There’s a red flag being waved right now that says ‘Danger,’” said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina. “Growth is going to slow in the second half and we might face something a little more ominous than that.”

It looks as though it is going to be a lot more “ominous than that.”

As a bonus for their poor performance and growing private-sector unemployment, federal workers now earn double that of people in the private sector.

Federal workers have been awarded bigger average pay and benefit increases than private employees for nine years in a row.

The compensation gap between federal and private workers has doubled in the past decade.

Federal civil servants earned average pay and benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while private workers made $61,051 in total compensation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The average federal salary has grown 33% faster than inflation since 2000. Federal compensation has grown 36.9% since 2000 after adjusting for inflation, compared with 8.8% for private workers.

The rape and pillage of our federal government and the sending American jobs offshore by agencies such as USAID is rapidly destroying the U.S. economy.

The old-style revolution

On August 16, 2010, Paul Craig Roberts wrote, “How Close is America’s Demise? The Ecstasy of Empire.”

Mr. Roberts puts forth a number of true and correct statements, begging the question, “Without revolution, the Americans are history.”

He comes up with the wrong answer by not realizing the fact that American has already had its revolution – game over.

Modern revolutions do not involve tanks, troops, and people battling in the streets. It is nothing like the revolutionary cartoon which accompanies Mr. Roberts’ article. No modern revolutions are far more sophisticated than that. They take place quietly, surreptitiously, and pass virtually unnoticed.

Revolutionary Cartoon

The most recent American Revolution was over, done with, and won during the reign of George W. Bush.

Instead of mobs in the streets, the most recent American revolution was won by bureaucrats, lobbyists, and our elected officials. The winner was the American military-industrial complex.

Game over.

Below, as a memorial to the defeated, are some of the astute observations made by Mr. Roberts.

The United States is running out of time to get its budget and trade deficits under control.  Despite the urgency of the situation, 2010 has been wasted in hype about a non-existent recovery.  As recently as August 2 Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner penned a New York Times column, “Welcome to the Recovery.”

US military spending reflects the unaffordable and unattainable crazed neoconservative  goal of US Empire and world hegemony. What fool in Washington thinks that China is going to finance US hegemony over China?

The only way that the US will again have an economy is by bringing back the offshored jobs. The loss of these jobs impoverished Americans while producing oversized gains for Wall Street, shareholders, and corporate executives…

Obviously, the corporations and Wall Street would use their financial power and campaign contributions to block any legislation that would reduce short-term earnings and bonuses by bringing jobs back to America. Americans have no greater enemies than Wall Street and the corporations and their prostitutes in Congress and the White House.

Without a revolution, Americans are history.

U. S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

The $700 billion U.S. bailout program launched in response to the global economic meltdown had a far greater impact overseas than other countries’ financial rescue plans did on the U.S., according to a new report from a congressional watchdog.

Apparently, tax cheat and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has caused billions of dollars in U.S. rescue funds (TARP) to wind up in big banks in France, Germany and other nations.

Whereas Geithner failed to keep the TARP funds from foreigners, most of our foreign friens cleverly focused their efforts on banks in their nations that lacked major U.S. operations.

Major French and German banks were among the biggest beneficiaries of the U.S. rescue of American International Group Inc. (AIG).

Much of the $182 billion in federal aid to AIG flowed through to its partners, including French banks Societe Generale, which received $11.9 billion in AIG money, and BNP Paribas, which got $4.9 billion, and Germany’s Deutsche Bank, $11.8 billion.

That’s a $28 billion gift of America’s funds from Timothy Geithner to the three European banks. In all 43 foreign banks benefited the AID bonanza including also banks in Canada, Britain and Switzerland.

Geithner’s TARP funds wound up injecting capital into around 700 banks, while foreign governments combined aided fewer than 50.

Unlike Geithner, foreign governments watched where their funds were going.

In addition to AIG, many of the U.S. banks and automakers that received billions in bailout aid passed through a large proportion of their TARP funds to operations outside the U.S., especially in Japan and Europe.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that taxpayers will lose $36 billion, thanks to Geithner’s “negligence.”

But was Geithner really negligent?

Maybe there will be a cushy job waiting for him after he leaves the U.S. Treasury Department.

To be continued…

Rajiv Shah - USAID Director and former Gates Foundation employee

Under director Rajiv Shah, USAID will partner with private outsourcers in Sri Lanka to teach workers there advanced IT skills like Enterprise Java  programming, as well as skills in business process outsourcing and call center support—so they can replace American workers.

USAID will also partner with Armenia—a nation anxious to lure computer work from American workers—to promote the development of the country’s information technology industry.

Prior to taking over as head of USAID, Rajiv Shah was was employed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for seven long years! This reveals how the Gates Foundation really uses the U.S. government to promote Microsoft, and the outsourcing of American jobs.

Microsoft was recently in the news for paying 27¢ an hour to Chinese workers.

Now, at the request and sponsorship of Microsoft, USAID chief, Rajiv Shah has scheduled a seminar with Microsoft,  near Bill Gate’s home and foundation in Seattle, Washington.

One might suspect that Rajiv Shah is on Microsoft’s payroll, or be rewarded with a cushy job at Microsoft or the Foundation, when he leaves USAID. After all, what Rajiv Shah is outsourcing are American computer jobs, and for Microsoft—which is  worth a lot to Microsoft.

Here is your invitation to the seminar (all are invited and the price is free):

A Discussion with USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah
Global Washington is pleased to host an event with USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah in Seattle on Friday, August 13. Following remarks from Administrator Shah, a panel discussion will feature thought leaders from the public and private sectors. They will address technology’s impact on global development, with a specific focus on food security, foreign aid effectiveness, global health and entrepreneurship.

This event is co-sponsored by Washington State University and Microsoft.

In addition to Rajiv Shah, in attendance will be Dr. Akhtar Badshah, Senior Director of Microsoft and Sylvia Mathews Burwell, President, Global Development Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—all in the Microsoft family.

So what can Americans do about this? If you are unemployed or not, and are in the Seattle area, you should do your best to attend the seminar. Seriously, any concerned American who can show up, and protest should do so.

The event takes place Friday, August 13, 2010; 8:30am – 10:00am; Registration from 8:00am – 8:30am
Location: Saint Mark’s Cathedral
1245 10th Ave East
Seattle, WA 98102

Free parking available at venue, along with free admission, and free refreshments.

Hopefully, they will be serving tea, so you can make a Tea Party out of the seminar (as in let’s get ready to rumble).

The seminar will be held not far from the Gates Foundation - how convenient!

Washington Post News Alert: Employers add 71,000 jobs in July; unemployment rate unchanged 9.5 percent, 08:21 AM EDT Friday, August 6, 2010.

Breaking News Alert, The New York Times, Fri, August 06, 2010, 8:37 AM ET U.S. Shed 131,000 Jobs in July, but Private Payrolls Grew; Jobless Rate Steady at 9.5%

Duration of unemployment

Neither one of these alerts is correct, but the media knows that “unemployment” is a keyword and will draw in readers and sell newspapers.

Here’s what the media should be telling us.

Approximately 15 million Americans are still searching for work—and an even greater number is unemployed.

The government counts only those who are seeking employment, not those who have given up—more deception.

Let’s forget about statistics and diagnose the cause of unemployment.

Free trade = Unemployment

Multinational corporations can reap larger profits by hiring foreign labor. Microsoft is an example—in China, Microsoft is paying 27 cents an hour for production work.

What the multinationals fail to see, however, is that if Americans are unemployed, how can they buy what cheap foreign labor can produce?

On Fox News, Donald Trump said, “I’d rather have no trade than the trade we are doing.”

Meanwhile a federally-backed program aims to help outsourcers in South Asia become more fluent in areas like Java programming—and the English language. (Information Week August 3, 2010)

Rajiv Shah - U.S. Dept. of State photo

Under director Rajiv Shah, the United States Agency for International Development will partner with private outsourcers in Sri Lanka to teach workers there advanced IT skills like Enterprise Java  programming, as well as skills in business process outsourcing and call center support.

USAID will also help the trainees brush up on their English language proficiency—so they can better replace American workers.

Even as controversy mounts over its funding of IT outsourcers in South Asia, the U.S. Agency for International Development has announced a program under which it will partner with the government of Armenia—a nation anxious to lure computer work from American workers—to promote the development of the country’s information technology industry.

Jonathan Hale, USAID deputy assistant administrator for Europe & Eurasia, is on a four-day trip to Armenia to meet with Armenian economic minister Nerses Yeritsyan.

“We look forward to partnering with USAID on the IT sector, which has great potential as Armenia has an advantage in this sector,” Yeritsyan said in a statement released by USAID. “We want companies to come to Armenia and create their innovative environments,” Yeritsyan said. Among other things, Armenia is looking to establish itself as a center for low-cost IT and engineering work outsourced from the U.S. and to replace American workers.

And so it goes—guys like Nerses Yeritsyan are out for our American jobs, and our government is aiding and abetting them.

Free trade = Unemployment.

The popular legislation headed to the House of Representatives, which was expected to approve it and send the measure to US President Barack Obama to sign into law.

Backers of the bill have cited Singapore as the major country where weak libel safeguards attract lawsuits that unfairly harm US journalists, writers and publishers.

The measure would prevent US federal courts from recognizing or enforcing a foreign judgment for defamation that is inconsistent with the first amendment of the US Constitution and would bar foreign parties in such cases from targeting the US assets of an American author, journalist, or publisher as part of any damages.

Defamation is both a criminal offence and a civil action in Singapore. Singapore’s Defamation Act 1957, which covers defamation from a civil perspective, broadly defines defamation and covers libel and slander. Section 499 of Singapore’s Penal Code makes defamation a criminal offence. It should be noted that Singapore’s Defamation Act provides for very substantial damages to be awarded to ‘vindicate the reputation of the plaintiff’.

Singapore has long used defamation cases to stifle comment, taking major international and Asian newspapers (Asian Wall Street Journal and International Herald Tribune) and weeklies (Far Eastern Economic Review, Asiaweek and The Economist) to court over defamation suits and in some cases has restricted their circulation in Singapore.

In October 2007, the Financial Times avoided a costly law suit by paying unspecified damages and publishing a humiliating apology that accepted its claims of nepotism were groundless.  These lawsuits have caused the media to remain silent for fear of extensive and expensive lawsuits and have created an atmosphere of self-censorship amongst journalists where Singapore is involved.

Helen Yeo a Singapore lawyer threatened to sue us for libel over our book, Escape from Paradise. Helen Yeo’s husband, Yeo Cheow Tong, was at that time a Singapore cabinet minister.

Admiral and Minister Lui Tuck Yew

The Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA), was formed to promote the arts in Singapore. Its main function, however, is one of censorship. MDA keeps its list of banned books, websites, etc., confidential. MDA falls under Singapore’s Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, headed by Rear-Admiral and Acting Minister Lui Tuck Yew (yes, they have admirals in Singapore).

Escape from Paradise did not appear on any list of banned books, but all twenty-five copies were removed from Singapore’s National Library – save one, which was put on “restricted distribution.” (Sign out a copy, and Singapore has your name.)

In addition, bookstores were warned not to carry the book. The largest Singapore bookstore, Kinokuniya, was warned personally by lawyer from Helen Yeo’s law firm.

Helen Yeo

There was nothing in our book that defamed Helen Yeo. She was mentioned only in passing regarding the sale of a property. We avoided any mention of irregularities concerning this sale, but the mention of her name was enough for Helen Yeo to have our book banned.

Several days ago, Singapore arrested Alan Shadrake, a British national and author of Once a Jolly Hangman criticizing Singapore’s death penalty. Shadrake, now out on bail, has been charged with criminal defamation, a crime which carries a prison sentence and a heavy fine. Shadrake, 75, could spend the rest of his life in Singapore’s infamous Changi Prison.