Secretary of State Condi Rice has returned from Europe, where she was reasonably successful at dealing with reports of torture and a network of black holes with a mass of double-speak, obfuscation, and misleading language. Much depended upon how "torture" is defined, and she used the new definition given it by George W. Bush in a 2002 "finding."
This is the same Condi Rice who offered dead wrong explanations about what was known about terrorists in the US before 9/11 and who went beyond even Dick Cheney in hyping the case for war--talking about mushroom clouds over American cities as a result of Iraqi action. Yet her popularity grows by the day, and right-wing strategist Dick Morris is probably right in suggesting she would be verey hard to beat in 2008. If the Roman orator, lawyeer, and historian Cicero could be recovered via a time machine, he would say that when the masses are filled with fear and terror, they seek individuals to save them and eschew truth and reason.
Condi seems to be the ultimate beneficiary of the fear and paranoia strategy. Her reversal of Powell's Sudan policy offers a strong hint of what to expect from her as Secretary of State and potential president.
Colin Powell charged the Sudanese government with genocide in Dafur. The Sudanese army and paramilitarys known as the Arab Janjaweed accomplished this by gang rapes, burning of villages, and mass killings. Condi Rice, his successor, has reversed Powell's policy and written to Lieutenant General Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, the Sudanese head of state, saying that she hoped for "close cooperation" in battling terrorism.
In late April, a CIA jet brought Major General Salah Abdalah Gosh, head of the Sudanese intelligence agency Mukhabarat, to Washington for secret talks. Gosh has been accused of playing a major role in the mass murders. His agency has provided useful information on Al Qaeda, and the US relies on his operatives in Muslim countries where it lacks human assets.In May, the White House moved to kill the Dafur Accountability Act. The death toll in Dafur is somewhere between 400,000 and 800,000 human beings. The UN refuses to deal with the Dafur situation, and the International Criminal Court will probably not be able to address the matter for at least a year.
posted by Sherman De Brosse
"Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." Orwell-- The US is probably moving toward becoming a heavily controlled Rightist state. This blog is an effort to document how that happened.
Thursday, December 29, 2005
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- Sherman De Brosse
- Sherm spent seven years writing an analytical chronicle of what the Republicans have been up to since the 1970s. It discusses elements in the Republican coalition, their ideologies, strategies, informational and financial resources, and election shenanigans. Abuses of power by the Reagan and G. W. Bush administration and the Republican Congresses are detailed. The New Republican Coalition : Its Rise and Impact, The Seventies to Present (Publish America) can be acquired by calling 301-695-1707. On line, go to http://www.publishamerica.com/shopping. It can also be obtained through the on-line operations of Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Do not consider purchasing it if you are looking for something that mirrors the mainstream media!
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