Monday, June 24, 2013

Citigroup prepares its invasion

Violence slams Iraq today.  National Iraqi News Agency reports a Kirkuk roadside bombing left Commander Dawood Hazem Ahmed al-Jubouri wounded, a Mosul car bombing claimed the lives of 2 Iraqi soldiers and left six people injured,  a Khalis sticky bombing left one person injured, a bombing to the west of Kirkuk left one Iraqi soldier injured, and, quoting a police source, "The armed men, on foot, opened fire on the mayor (Mukhtar) of Hermat area west of Mosul, while he was heading to his home, killing him on the spot."  Reuters adds that Col Gazi Ali Al Jubouri was killed today by a suicide bomber in an explosive vest -- two of his bodyguards. 

Through Saturday, Iraq Body Count counts 384 violent deaths so far this month.

Meanwhile Focus Information Agency reports, "Fighter of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) keep on withdrawing from Turkey and the 50th group which left the region of Diyarbakir have arrived in the organization's camps in Northern Iraq, Dogu Haber Ajansi (DHA) reported."

While the PKK continues their exit of Turkey, Citigroup prepares to enter Iraq.  Stefania Bianchi (Bloomberg News) reports the banking giant plans to open three offices in Iraq including one in Baghdad (the other two in Erbil -- KRG -- and in Basra) according to Citigroup's Dennis Flannery.  Who?  Bianchi explains:


  Flannery was the financial attache at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad for a year before joining New York-based Citigroup in March 2011. He has worked at the Inter-American Development Bank, the U.S. Treasury and the World Bank.


How nice, isn't it, that Flannery fronts the US invasion -- from State -- and then leaves to make a buck.  How nice that the US paid for him to make business contacts that he could later utilize to enrich himself.

AP notes that while Flannery states the bank will be outside the Green Zone, Flannery delivered his news . . . from the Green Zone.

The news has not raised Citigroup's market share yet -- in fact, Citigroup's been dropping this morning (though that could change).

 It really was about greed, the Iraq War, and 'opening markets.'

Ramsey Clark's on this week's Law and Disorder Radio.  I'm rushing this morning (while the hot spot's working and also because I'm feeling sick this morning).


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.






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Once it was alright now

Ed Snowden is the whistle blower who allowed Americans to discover that their own government was spying on them and how wide the scope of spying was.  For that exposure, the US government has decided it's out for blood.  A dangerously unhinged Nancy Pelosi found herself booed at Netroots Nation when she declared Snowden a "criminal."  Instead of allowing for a disagreement, she snidely informed the assembled -- people she was there to court -- that they were too stupid and uniformed to know the situation the way she did.  (Are you getting why she refuses to face those of us living in the 8th district?) Now Secretary of State John Kerry's blustering and making a fool out of himself (although, so far, he hasn't gone as nutty as Nancy).

Kathy Lally, Anthony Faiola and Karen DeYoung (Washington Post) report Kerry objecting to Russia declaring that they have no legal authority to expel Snowden:


  “It is a very serious question for all of us in all our relationships,” Kerry said. “There is no small irony here,” Kerry added, posing the hypothetical question of whether Snowden sought refuge in China and Russia “because they’re such powerful bastions of Internet freedom.”
That line might carry some weight if the administration John Kerry works for had any respect for the press.  But after the scandal of secretly seizing the AP records, after the scandal of targeted Fox News' reporter James Rosen, there's no higher ground for the White House to scramble to.  In addition, there's the White House's prosecution of whistle blowers -- a record achievement for Barack Obama.  But mainly there's the fact that Barack did nothing to improve US and Russian relations and now he wants a favor from the Russian government?  After nearly five years of hectoring it in public?



Since no space flights have been launched recently, it's safe to assume that Ed Snowden is somewhere on the earth.  Where exactly, no one is sure.

Matt Berman (National Journal) offers, "If the Edward Snowden saga is a Michael Bay movie that we are all just living in, on Sunday morning it would have passed over the believability abyss. That's when Snowden, the NSA leaker turned America's Most Wanted poster-boy, took a plane out of Hong Kong, en route to Russia, where he landed around 9:15 a.m. EST. Snowden is reportedly headed from there to Havana, Cuba on Monday. Originally, it looked like he was going from there to Caracas, Venezuela. Now, it appears he's off to Ecuador."

Is he on a flight to Cuba?  Reuters says no.

Hong Kong's Standard probably gets its right when they point out that he appears to have given the press the slip.  And maybe that was the whole point?

A magician doesn't disappear by saying, "Look right here and you'll see how I pull off this trick."  He or she misdirects and redirects.


Meanwhile things are getting really crazy including with the press.  Toby Harnden (Times of London) has a question for David Gregory who has apparently found another administration to enlist with:

    1. 21h
      I was jailed by Mugabe's Zimbabwe for "practicing journalism". Is David Gregory saying Obama's America should do the same to ?
      Expand


Glenn Greenwald has been covering the spying story for the Guardian.  He broke the story of the phone records (the equivalent of toll slips -- and though the US government insists that the records really aren't important, those were very important documents to the government when Marilyn Monroe died and they seized all the toll slips -- records of her final calls). The Washington Post has been covering it from the start as well and they broke the PRISM aspect (which is where the US government spies on the entire world).

I'm having huge problems with my mobil hot spot this morning so I'm tossing this up there now while it will hopefully make it up.  There's much more being reported on this story and much more worth covering.  But that'll be it for now.

Title references Laura Nyro's "Once It Was Alright Now (Farmer Joe)."




The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.






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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Hejira

Yesterday, a bad 'report' went uncalled.  Today, Greggy Mitchell's all about echoing it.

Here's a little reality two so-called reporters need to learn real damn quick.

Very often, someone taking their own life is not in what would be considered a "right mind."

Meaning if a suicide note lacks specifics, you need to be asking why?

Possibly, the Iraq War veteran felt guilt -- as the note indicated -- but that guilt wasn't connected to something specific.

An Iraq War veteran took his own life and left a message behind of how he did things in Iraq that he's not proud of.

That's all it took for Kevin and Greggy to run wild and insist that the man took part in War Crimes.

He may have taken part in nothing at all.  He may have just been feeling guilt over the entire war.

Or over something else.

I'm not calling "mentally ill," but I am noting that a suicide note tends to be specific and when it's not you need to ask why that is not run through the marketplace screaming.

In Iraq today, Press TV reports 11 dead from violence.



I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
-- "Hejira," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album of the same name

 The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4488.


New content at Third:



 And Wally and Cedric's joint-post went up:



Cedric's Big Mix
Nut Roots, Crazy Limit
58 minutes ago
The Daily Jot
THIS JUST IN! IT'S A NUTSROOT AFTER ALL!
58 minutes ago


 The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

 



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