Patrick Cockburn: Threats to Yemen Prove America Hasn’t Learned the Lesson of History

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Democracy Now!
Jan. 4, 2010

Patrick Cockburn: Threats to Yemen Prove America Hasn’t Learned the Lesson of History

The United States and Britain have closed their embassies in the Yemeni capital city of Sana’a, citing security threats from an al-Qaeda group. On Saturday, President Obama connected the foiled Christmas Day attack on the Detroit-bound flight to al-Qaeda in Yemen. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown described Yemen as a “regional and global threat.” We speak with Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for the London Independent, and Michael Horton, a freelance journalist based in Yemen. [includes rush transcript]

(starts at 12:41 minutes in)

Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for the London Independent.

Michael Horton, freelance journalist based in Yemen.

via Patrick Cockburn: Threats to Yemen Prove America Hasn’t Learned the Lesson of History

see

Yemen on Dandelion Salad

Escape from Pottersville: The North Dakota Model for Capitalizing Community Banks by Dr. Ellen Brown

by Dr. Ellen Brown
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
Jan. 4, 2010

The recent proposal to vote with our feet by shifting our deposits from Wall Street to community banks is a great start. However, community banks are not suffering from a lack of deposits so much as from a lack of the capital they need to make new loans, and investment capital today is scarce. There is a way out of this dilemma, demonstrated for over 90 years by the innovative state of North Dakota — a partnership in which community banks are backed by the deep pockets of a state-owned bank.

The New Scarlet Letters: ‘NC’ by Sibel Edmonds

by Sibel Edmonds
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
originally published by Boiling Frogs Post
4 January 2010

The Makings of a Police State – Part V

The Quest for Clearance

It was late spring 2007, and I had arrived right before sunset at Centerville’s new ‘in place’ for the 30 something techie crowd. I was supposed to meet two friends there, have a drink, and then head to the restaurant next door for an early dinner. As soon as I walked in I spotted both of them, and a third person, a man in his early thirties whom I’d never met before, I’ll call him ‘Joe,’ and headed towards their table. After brief introductions the trio resumed their conversation where they’d left off. The topic had to do with current hot jobs and the latest career trends in the area, which caters to the federal government…

U.S. to subject foreign air travellers from 14 countries to full body search

Propaganda Alert

compiled by Cem Ertür
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
4 January 2010



1) U.S. to subject foreign air travellers from 14 countries to full body search
(4 January 2010)

2) Gordon Brown: British airports will introduce full-body scanners (1 January 2010)

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http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6021ET20100104


excerpt from: New U.S. air traveller screening focuses on 14 nations

by James Vicini, Reuters, 4 January 2010

[Foreign] passengers travelling from or through nations listed as “state sponsors of terrorism” – Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria, […] Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen – […] will face full-body pat downs before boarding airliners under new security screening procedures […] (*)

Such passengers will be patted down, have their carry-on luggage searched and could undergo advanced explosive detection or imaging scans, according to [a U.S.] official. […]

The procedures, which go into effect on Monday, follow the botched Christmas Day bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner blamed on a Nigerian man who U.S. officials believe was trained by al Qaeda in Yemen.

(*)  [U.S.] Transportation Security Administration Statement on New Security Measures for International Flights to the U.S.

Transportation Security Administration website, 3 January 2010

http://www.tsa.gov/press/happenings/010310_statement.shtm


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http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page21950


excerpts from: Vigilance key to tackling terrorist threat – PM

by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Number 10 website, 1 January 2010

“[T]he failed attack in Detroit on Christmas Day reminds us of a deeper reality; that almost 10 years after September 11th international terrorism is still a very real threat. […]

These enemies of democracy and freedom – now trying to mastermind death and destruction from Yemen as well as other better-known homes of international terror such as Pakistan and Afghanistan – are concealing explosives in ways which are more difficult to detect. […] We now know that the would-be bomber used a small quantity of explosive that went undetected by standard airport security equipment. […]

So – in cooperation with President Obama and the Americans – we will examine a range of new techniques to enhance airport security systems […] These could include advancing our use of explosive trace technology, full body scanners and advanced x-ray technology.”

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related links:


US general urges strip search of Muslim men

Press TV, 3 January 2010

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=115268&sectionid=3510203


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Netherlands to use full body scanners for US flights

Press TV, 30 December 2009

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114980&sectionid=351020606


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Northwest Airlines Christmas day flight: “Al Qaeda made me do it!”
The rise of patsies and heroes

by Rev. Richard Skaff, Global Research, 4 January 2010

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16762


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2010: U.S. to wage war throughout the world

by Rick Rozoff, Dandelion Salad, 31 December 2009

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/2010-u-s-to-wage-war-throughout-the-world-by-rick-rozoff/


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see

Dutch to use full-body scanners – 30 Dec 09

Lining Up for the Wall Street Gravy Train By Mike Whitney

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By Mike Whitney
Information Clearing House
December 31, 2009

British economist John Maynard Keynes, believed in capitalism, but he was also sharply critical of its structural flaws. He summed it up succinctly like this:

“Our analysis shows… that long-run development is not inherent in the capitalist economy. Thus, specific ‘development factors’ are required to sustain a long-run upward movement.”

What Keynes was alluding to is the fact that mature capitalist economies tend towards stagnation. What happens, is that the rate of return on investment begins to dwindle as overcapacity builds. That causes declining profits which lead to belt-tightening, rising unemployment and falling demand. As investment drops off further, growth slows correspondingly and the economy dips into a protracted slump. This corrosive stagnation is the challenge that all advanced capitalist economies face. The solution–as Keynes notes–lies in “specific development factors”, which in today’s terms means “financial innovations”.

Gaza war: One year on, Palestinians struggle to rebuild life from the rubble

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Inigo Gilmore, Guy Grandjean, Mona Mahmood
guardian.co.uk
Monday 4 January 2010

replaced video Sept. 7, 2014

The Guardian on Aug 20, 2012

Gaza war: One year on, Palestinians struggle to rebuild life from the rubble

For the past year the Guardian has been following Palestinians who were caught up in the devastating war in Gaza. To mark the war’s one year anniversary, Inigo Gilmore returns to Gaza to explore the fate of families trying to piece together their lives, including those who want Israel prosecuted for what they say are war crimes during the 22-day assault.

Raymond Lotta: Capitalism brings immense suffering to the world and needs to be overthrown

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RussiaToday
January 03, 2010

Capitalism brings immense suffering to the world and needs to be overthrown that is according to political economist and author Raymond Lotta from New York. He told RT he thinks a revolution is coming.

The US and China: One Side is Losing, the Other is Winning by James Petras

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by James Petras
Global Research, January 3, 2010

Introduction:

Asian capitalism, notably China and South Korea are competing with the US for global power.  Asian global power is driven by dynamic economic growth, while the US pursues a strategy of military-driven empire building.

One Day’s Read of the Financial Times

Even a cursory read of a single issue of the Financial Times (December 28, 2009) illustrates the divergent strategies toward empire building.  On page one, the lead article on the US is on its expanding military conflicts and its ‘war on terror’, entitled “Obama Demands Review of Terror List”.  In contrast, there are two page-one articles on China, which describe China’s launching of the world’s fastest long-distance passenger train service and China’s decision to maintain its currency pegged to the US dollar as a mechanism to promote its robust export sector.  While Obama turns the US focus on a fourth battle front (Yemen) in the ‘war on terror’ (after Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan), the Financial Times reports on the same page that a South Korean consortium has won a $20.4 billion dollar contract to develop civilian nuclear power plants for the United Arab Emirates, beating its US and European competitors.

The Origins of Modern Socialism by Shamus Cooke

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by Shamus Cooke
Global Research, January 2, 2010

Freedom & Democracy cannot exist alongside tremendous inequalities of wealth

The specter of socialism is again haunting the minds of the corporate elite, from the Americas to Europe and beyond. This, after decades of pro-capitalist campaigning from the corporate media, which has always confused “capitalism” with “freedom.”  But of course freedom and democracy cannot exist alongside tremendous inequalities of wealth — or next to corporations wielding absolute power over elections and governments.

These facts helped form the social movements in Latin America that now advocate 21st Century Socialism, a name that implies the prior century’s experiments needed either updating or improving, while also implying that the general socialist “project” was progressive.

The Pictures of War You Aren’t Supposed to See by Chris Hedges

by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
Jan. 4, 2010

War is brutal and impersonal. It mocks the fantasy of individual heroism and the absurdity of utopian goals like democracy. In an instant, industrial warfare can kill dozens, even hundreds of people, who never see their attackers. The power of these industrial weapons is indiscriminate and staggering. They can take down apartment blocks in seconds, burying and crushing everyone inside. They can demolish villages and send tanks, planes and ships up in fiery blasts. The wounds, for those who survive, result in terrible burns, blindness, amputation and lifelong pain and trauma. No one returns the same from such warfare. And once these weapons are employed all talk of human rights is a farce.

Thievery Corporation: Interview on Russia Today + Amerimacka

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replaced video Jan 5, 2010

RussiaToday
January 04, 2010

For decades, US musicians and artists have used their position to fight for social justice, often holding the government to account. But according to the band Thievery Corporation, the platform for doing so has changed.

F. William Engdahl: Afghanistan and global dominance Parts 1-2

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http://therealnews.com

TheRealNews

Engdahl: US China strategy driving Afghan war, but no real long range thinking in place

F William Engdahl is an economist and author and the writer of the best selling book “A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order.” Mr Engdhahl has written on issues of energy, politics and economics for more than 30 years, beginning with the first oil shock in the early 1970s. Mr. Engdahl contributes regularly to a number of publications including Asia Times Online, Asia, Inc, Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Foresight magazine; Freitag and ZeitFragen newspapers in Germany and Switzerland respectively. He is based in Germany.