SCARY, VERY SCARY

"This is the century of fear."
~ Albert Camus.

No, this story did not come from The Onion. I have no idea what those Nobel people were thinking, but it must have been the same thing they were thinking when they gave the same prize to Henry Kissinger.

Unfortunately, this news didn't come from The Onion either:

Mary Cheney, the daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney and the sister of go-to Obama critic Liz Cheney, is leaving the political consulting firm Navigators Global to start her own consulting company, and multiple sources familiar with her plans say she will not be going it alone.

"She told me she is going to be starting a firm with her dad and sister," said one friend of Mary's, with whom she has shared her plans.

[ . . . ]

"Mary is starting an independent strategic consulting firm," [American Enterprise Institute and Cheney family spokeswoman Lucy] Tutwiler confirmed.

[ . . . ]

Mary Cheney's colleagues did have some things to add. "She has told people within the firm that she wants to do something with her father," said a source within Navigators Global. "It's going to be a firm like Kissinger Associates."

If that news doesn't scare the crap out of you then I don't know what will.

THE "UNKNOWN LANGUAGE"

"All moves to promote the dissemination of mother tongues will serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to develop fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue."
~ The UN

.

Ahmet Türk speaks Kurdish in Parliament for UNESCO's International Mother Language Day and Meclis TV/TRT 3 (Turkey's version of CSPAN) cuts its live broadcast of the DTP leader.

According to Hürriyet, Türk was cut off "because using a language other than Turkish in speeches in Parliamentary is forbidden under the Constitution of the Republic."

Well, so the hell what? Let's remember that TRT 6, aka TRT CEHŞ aka KORUCU TV, Turkey's first channel broadcasting in the "unknown language"--is completely in violation of broadcasting laws and Katil Erdoğan is allowed to speak the "unknowwn language". Şerafettın Elçi goes around making political speeches in the "unknown language". But nothing happens to Turks or fake Kurds who use the "unknown language", does it?

Yet the "unknown language"--oh, by the way they use this term of stupidity of "unknown language" because they're so freakin' racist that to say the words "Kurd" or "Kurdish" would absolutely choke them to death--yet the "unknown language" is forbidden in prisons--especially if you're an "unknown language" person prisoner and you have visitors who speak nothing but the "unknown language"; it's forbidden for use by political parties for political purposes; it's forbidden for use in correspondence by associations; it's forbidden for use in sermons; and it's forbidden for use in naming "unknown language" persons if said "unknown language" persons have a name in the "unknown language" that contains one of the FORBIDDEN LETTERS! For more on that see IHD General President Öztürk Türkdoğan's speech at the EUTCC's 5th International Conference on the EU, Turkey, and the "Unknown Language" Persons (copy-and-paste: http://kurdish-info.net/News-sid-Oeztuerk-Tuerkdogan-lawyer-General-President-12392.html )

And if you happen to be an "unknown language" person infant with the FORBIDDEN LETTERS in your name, you will be refused medical treatment!

Why is it that when Katil Erdoğan invites Shimon Peres to speak in the TBMM, and Peres makes his speech in another "unknown language", Katil Erdoğan and Peres are not investigated?

Moreover, why is it when I have to write about stuff about this, I feel like I'm writing from the Twilight Zone?

Ahmet Türk and the DTP are following in the honorable steps of Leyla Zana and the DEP parliamentarians so let us see just how far the investigation will go. For the time being, just as in Leyla Zana's time, Kurdish is still forbidden for Kurds.

Happy Freakin' Belated International Mother Language Day, Kurdistan!

LIES AND LOBBYISTS

"If you can't drink a lobbyist's whiskey, take his money, sleep with his women and still vote against him in the morning, you don't belong in politics."
~ Unknown.

A friend in Amed (Diyarbakır) sent a link from Yüksekova Haber which says that Katil Erdoğan is planning a trip to Amed on 21 February in support of the AKP mayoral candidate Kutbettin Arzu. According to Yüksekova Haber, Katil Erdoğan may reveal a "new incentive package" for the region.

Everyone take a trip in the time machine with me back to almost one year ago when Katil Erdoğan was talking the same BS in the NYTimes:

Turkey’s government is planning a broad series of investments worth as much as $12 billion in the country’s largely Kurdish southeast, in a new economic effort intended to create jobs and draw young men away from militancy, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

The program is intended to drain support for the militant Kurdish group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, by improving the lives of Turkey’s impoverished Kurdish minority, Mr. Erdogan said in an interview with The New York Times on Tuesday.

[ . . . ]

Mr. Erdogan is still identifying funds for the economic effort, which was started years ago by a previous administration but languished. The state will invest between $11 billion and $12 billion over five years to build two large dams and a system of water canals, complete paved roads and remove land mines from the fields along the Syrian border, he said.

Plans for the project will be completed within two months, he said, at which point construction on the two dams will begin. He said he had dedicated one of his deputy prime ministers to visit cities across the largely Kurdish southeast to work on it.

“Everything we can see in the western part of the country we can see in the east,” he said.

Yeah, right. Tell me another one.

As I mentioned at the time, not even the extremely pro-status quo, pro-terrorist Jamestown Foundation was fooled by Katil Erdoğan's hot air:

It is unclear whether, in his interview with the New York Times, Erdogan was being disingenuous in presenting the promised $12 billion as a new initiative or whether the reporters were unaware of the project’s background and thus assumed it was a new initiative. In fact, the dams, water canals, and roads form part of what is known as the Southeast Anatolia Project (GAP), which was first formulated in the 1970s and began to be implemented in the early 1980s.

[ . . . ]

One only has to fly over the region to see the effect of GAP on agriculture in the Tigris and Euphrates basins, transforming large tracts of what was previously semi-arid land into cultivated fields. In areas such as the Harran plain, annual yields of cotton, wheat, barley, and lentils have tripled. However, GAP has had a greater impact on agricultural productivity than on employment. Even though it has undoubtedly created jobs in local service industries, GAP’s overall impact on employment in southeast Turkey has been minor.

As well as being the poorest region in Turkey, the southeast also has the highest rate of population increase. Even in some of the richest areas in the GAP region, the pace of job creation has lagged behind the growth in available workforce. In most of the cities of southeast Turkey the unemployment rate is double or triple the 9.9% average in the country as a whole. Among young people in the cities of southeastern Turkey, unemployment often reaches 50-60%. There is no reason to suppose that, even if they can be completed, the Ilisu and Silvan dams and their associated irrigation systems will have a major impact on employment in the region.

[ . . . ]

Many Kurds already resent not only the displacements resulting from GAP, but also what they regard as the resulting destruction of their heritage through the filling of the dams, which are also used to produce electricity for the rest of the country.

It is also difficult to see how the completion of a project that was originally formulated in the 1970s will be interpreted as demonstrating the AKP’s commitment to the region. Perhaps more significant, although it is impossible to be sure of the precise impact of the two-thirds of GAP that has been completed to date on recruitment to the PKK, what is certain is that it has not prevented it. Whatever else the PKK and other militant organizations in southeast Turkey – which is also the main recruiting ground for violent Islamist groups – may be short of, it is not recruits.

We didn't buy it then; we don't buy it now. If Katil Erdoğan unveils a "new incentive package" in Amed on the weekend, it will be the same, old, warmed-over crap.

In other news, it looks like the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has had complaints filed against it by some ethics "watchdog" in DC:

Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, the Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate urging an investigation into whether the Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region (ANCA-WR) and the ANCA Endowment Fund violated their status as charitable organizations, the Foreign Agents Registration Act and the Lobbying Disclosure Act.

Both ANCA-WR and the ANCA Endowment Fund, which share offices and a common website, have participated in political campaigns in violation of federal tax law, which specifically bars groups organized under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code from participating in political campaigns. Nevertheless, on October 24, 2008, ANCA announced its endorsements of 15 candidates for the United States Senate and 211 candidates for the United States House of Representatives and published these endorsements on its shared website with ANCA-WR: www.anca.org. ANCA also endorsed the Obama-Biden ticket for the presidency.

The Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”) requires agents of foreign political parties to register with the Department of Justice, periodically report and describe their activities aimed at influencing policies of the United States and to disclose the dissemination of information, including testimony before Congress.

Just a few short weeks ago, Turkish parliamentarians scrambled in the wake of Katil Erdoğan's Davos temper tantrum in order to contain the fallout with Jewish lobby groups . . . and the Armenians:

The Ruling Justice and Development Party's, or AKP’s, Cüneyt Yüksel and Suat Kınıklıoğlu, and the Nationalist Movement Party's, or MHP, Mithat Melen, were in the United States between Jan. 29 and Feb. 6 to lobby against any genocide resolutions.

Following their talks with U.S. officials, as well as a roundtable meeting with representatives from 10 Jewish organizations, the AKP deputies drafted a report emphasizing the "Jewish lobby-Armenian alliance" and submitted it to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The report included a host of other topics relating to Turkey, ranging from Turkish-Armenian relations to the Israeli offensive in Gaza and the Davos summit, as well as Turkey's bid to join the European Union, and further reaching topics such as terrorism and international security.

The deputies warned that the heated panel debate with Israeli President Shimon Peres in Davos, which ended when Erdoğan walked off stage after being interrupted by the moderator, drew the Jewish lobby in the United States closer to Armenian lobby groups.

[ . . . ]

The deputies highlighted a campaign prepared to be launched by four congressmen in the U.S. House of Representative in support of the Armenian thesis and warned, "Armenians believe an opportunity to pass the draft resolution has emerged after Davos."

The report called for lobbying activities and encouraged deputies to visit Washington more frequently.

The four congressmen are named elsewhere:

In a message to fellow members of Congress, Reps. Adam Schiff (D.-Calif.), George Radanovich (R.-Calif.), Frank Pallone (D.-N.J.) and Mark Kirk (R.-Ill.) are urging them "to re-affirm the U.S. record on the Armenian Genocide by cosponsoring a bipartisan resolution" on the subject, according to a February 10 electronic letter made available to the Armenian Reporter.

Not to worry, though; an agreement appears to have been reached between the Turks and the American pro-Israel lobby:

Last week, two members of the Turkish parliament from the ruling party, Suat Kiniklioglu and Cuneyt Yuskel, were in the United States to lobby against the resolution. According to the Jamestown Foundation's translation, the two, having met U.S. officials and Jewish-American leaders, told Zaman newspaper that the "pro-Israel lobby will stay neutral if a genocide resolution is brought to the Congress; in case a resolution passed, Turkey should not hold Israel responsible as such a policy would make the Congress upset; and in order to prevent such genocide resolution, Turkey should open its Armenian border."

So, is the news today about the ANCA complaints a coincidence or a conspiracy? Remember, the lobbying "problem" wasn't a problem when Lockheed Martin lobbyist--registered with the Senate under the Lobbying Disclosure Act--Joseph Ralston was appointed as "special envoy to coordinate the PKK for Turkey".

TURKEY, ISRAEL, HYPOCRISY

"Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing."
~ Edmund Burke.

Debkafile doesn't have a whole lot of credibility as far as I'm concerned but this is interesting because it's so much in character for Katil Erdoğan:

Monday, Jan. 5, Erdogan outdid himself in vituperation when he accused Israel of "perpetrating inhuman actions which would bring it to self-destruction. Allah will sooner or later punish those who transgress the rights of innocents," he said.

It's so much in character for Katil Erdoğan because it reaches the stratosphere as far as hypocrisy goes, even though Israel apologized for having embarrassed its stalwart ally. I doubt very much, though, that Erdoğan will "freeze the long-standing military ties between the US's foremost defense allies in the Middle East" because there's simply too much at stake. Too much money, that is. It was only one short month ago that Turkey took possession of it's new, highly-coveted Israeli military hardware, the Heron:

December 27, 2008: Israel Aircraft Industries has recently delivered Turkey the first two Heron UAVs, part of a package worth $183 million signed between Turkey and Israel in 2005. The aircraft are deployed at the Batman military base in Southeast Turkey. Israel is expected to deliver the remaining 8 Herons in the upcoming months. The package includes 10 IAI Heron UAVs, operated by ground control systems developed by Elbit Systems.

Turkey steps up reconnaissance operations of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles monitoring suspected Kurdish resistance in Southeastern Turkey and Northeast Iraq

Another Heron delivered to Turkey earlier this year was crashed in July 2008 while on a mission over Southeastern Turkey. Israel provided turkey with a surplus Searcher type UAV to augment its operations, but this UAV has also been lost. Turkey has also leased UAV services of three Aerostar tactical UAVs built by Aeronautics defense Systems, to augment its reconnaissance activities monitoring PKK activities in Southeastern Turkey and Kurdistan.

Not that it looks like the paşas know how to operate the new Herons as well as they know how to operate a golf ball and I guess that's why they've had Israelis operating the Herons for them--a piece of intel that even appeared in Haaretz.

Of course, it's not enough just to have unmanned aerial vehicles but now the paşas want armed unmanned aerial vehicles. Zaman reports that the paşas may spurn the American-made Predator in favor of the Israeli-made Harpy:

In a related development, Today's Zaman learned that Turkey may have now shifted its interest from US-made Predator UAVs, which can be configured into armed UAVs, to Israeli-made armed Harpy2 UAVs.

"Turkey needs at least one armed UAV," said a local industry source.

Despite an earlier acknowledgement by a Turkish commander that Ankara plans to buy a General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Predator UAV, the SSM is understood to have been delaying its official proposal to the US company for the purchase of a Predator, said the same source.

Turkish Land Forces Commander Gen. Isik Kosaner acknowledged at a press conference on Oct. 27 that Turkey plans to buy a US-made UAV, noting that one Predator UAV is currently at the disposal of the Turkish military and has been gathering intelligence on the activities of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), mostly in northern Iraq.

If purchased, the US has pledged to supply Turkey with the system within 18 months.

However, Turkey shifted its focus to the Israeli Harpy after Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül was introduced an armed UAV during his visit to Israel in late October. That development may have influenced Turkey to go to Israel for the purchase of an armed UAV, said a Turkish defense industry source.

Does anyone really believe Katil Erdoğan is going to say "No" to the paşas? Does anyone really believe the paşas are only going to use armed drones on "military" targets? Sure, just like the US only uses drones on "military" targets? Think again.

Turkey is still trying to bring the Gaza situation to the UN Security Council:

In a swift reaction to Israel’s ground incursion into Gaza, the Turkish capital has harshly condemned Israel’s move, which it said was “unacceptable,” while calling on the UN Security Council to take immediate steps to bring the situation under control.

What's so funny about this is that it was in 2006, shortly after Israel's failed "incursion" into Lebanon, that Turkey became hot to follow the Israeli example in order to invade South Kurdistan--in another failed "incursion", I might add. From AsiaTimes:

This vividly reminds one of a similar blunder in the summer of 2006, when US officials backed Israel's cross-border incursions into southern Lebanon with the stated aim of "neutralizing" a terrorist organization (Hezbollah) and destroying its "organizational infrastructure".

The vocabulary used in both occasions, and the reactions solicited from Washington, are so strikingly similar that, inevitably, they invite comparisons between Israel's ultimately futile misadventure in Lebanon and Turkey's operation that is already a week long. Despite the US's prodding to "keep it short", it may end up approximating Israel's 33-day campaign against Hezbollah. This is particularly so since the Turkish army has to endure harsh winter conditions in addition to a resilient foe of about 3,000 or so PKK fighters.

In both cases, Israeli and Turkish leaders have tried to elicit world sympathy by stressing their "rightful cause", and in the expressions of "understanding" by both the US and the European Union seen at the beginning of both conflicts, one can detect the undercurrents of a failed Western policy that simply does not learn from history.

There are important differences between the two cases, but the similarities are unmistakable. This is particularly so in the area of asymmetrical warfare and the not-so-declared motives of the invading armies, ie, in Lebanon for Israel to fight a proxy war with Iran and in Iraq for Turkey to undermine the Kurdish path toward greater autonomy and, perhaps, eventual independence.

Zaman is also crying over its claim that Israel has been using cluster bombs in Gaza. It didn't do that when Turkey carpeted civilian areas in South Kurdistan with cluster bombs in October 2007.

Besides, even as far back as nine years ago, it was widely recognized that there was more than just a military relationship between Israel and Turkey, that there were economic ties like free trade zones, tourist resorts populated by Israeli visitors (and benefiting TSK), water agreements, and, perhaps most importantly, support for Turkey from the Israel lobby in the US. All of this in spite of the Israeli-Turkish relationship as a destabilizing factor in the Middle East.

I'm also completely amazed that global corporate media lapdogs have failed, in recent days, to point out the US role in maintaining destabilization, something David Rose of Vanity Fair pointed out last April. The only recent article on that can be found at Alternet.

No, I don't believe that Turkey is going to freeze its relationship with Israel, militarily or otherwise, no matter what Debkafile says. Even Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek will back me over Katil Erdoğan over that:

Turkish government spokesman and Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek signaled during a news conference on Monday that Ankara was not considering retaliation against Israel through suspending the countries' military relationship or canceling a recent project agreement signed with Israel.

Çiçek's statement came in response to a reporter's question about whether Ankara would cancel the recent arms deal with Israel -- a reflection of heightened expectations among the Turkish public that Turkey should cancel or suspend military cooperation with Israel as a means of deterring Israel from attacking Gaza.

The "recent arms deal with Israel" referred to here is the $141 million contract awarded to Israeli Aerospace Industries (the same people that brought you the Heron) for "comprehensive intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance applications" for the Turkish air force. These systems will help Turkey to continue its bombing of North and South Kurdistan. Further cooperation will ensure that Turkey benefits from the military lessons learned by the IDF in the current Gaza campaign.

After all, money, influence, and power speak a helluva lot louder than Kerdoğan.

OPPRESSED AND OPPRESSORS: THE ERGENEKON DOG AND PONY SHOW

"From the beginning of their first term the AKP, starting from their leader to the lowest-ranking party member, created and shared a mythology of being oppressed."
~ Ece Temelkuran.

It looks like Leyla Zana may be going to prison for ten years. From the BBC:

A Turkish court has sentenced a Kurdish politician to 10 years in prison for spreading propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The court ruled that Leyla Zana had violated the penal code and the anti-terror law in nine different speeches.

Ms Zana, 47, has already spent 10 years in prison for links to the PKK, though that conviction was later overturned.

Ms Zana was not in court, and this latest conviction will not be imposed until her appeal has been heard.

Her lawyer called the sentence an "unfortunate" decision in a country working to join the European Union, and said her client's words were well within the bounds of free speech.

The prosecution sought a sixty year conviction for Leyla's crimethink. She had spoken out in London earlier this year when she spoke in London. Hevallo also had an eyewitness report on Leyla's speech in the UK parliament.

The next step will be to hear the outcome of the appeals process. I wonder if all the world's liberals will be concerned with the case of this Sakharov prize winner this time around? I'm inclined to doubt it. Our only friends are the mountains.

Of course, Leyla's conviction, and all similar prosecutions, expose clearly the weakness of the Ankara regime, which functions out of terror that truth will be spoken and heard.

Speaking of liberals, there's a very good article at Counterpunch from a Turkish Leftist, female political columnist. Thanks to the Vineyardsaker for sending the link. From the heart of the article:

A friend from the socialist left stopped me on the street the other day. His voice was anxious: “You know what, maybe you should not write about Ergenekon for a while”. He paused and sulked: “I think the way you do on this issue but you know… They made two little boxes: a Kemalist box and a liberal one. Even if you don’t fit to either of the boxes they break your arms or legs and make you fit one of them at the end. They don’t open a third box for you. This is a dangerous political climate and we are all going to be wasted in the end”.

He is right. If you ask questions about the indictment, or even if you express your concern about the seriousness of the case, there you go into the Kemalist box. If you clap your hands whenever you hear the name of the Ergenekon case, then you can be considered a democrat and can inhabit the same box as those I mentioned above. In that box the concept of democracy is reduced to freedom of faith, and its links to social justice or equality have been cut mercilessly. That is why in Turkey at the moment, if you are coming from the left, in order to be recognized as ‘not a fascist’ you are obliged to bow your head before right-wing perceptions of democracy. Even though it was the left that has been the ultimate victim of the deep state, they are for the time being the ones accused of being the deep state itself. This discourse or political climate has such a strong character that even the most intelligent and experienced spin doctors on the left have been stammering since last January about the Ergenekon case. Meanwhile the right-wing democrats, the liberals, are making noise saying that this time the gang was caught before it managed to carry out the coup. Thank god, the AKP government at the last minute busted them in the very act!

This reduction of politics to barren dualities didn’t actually start with the Ergenekon case; on the contrary, it had already been creating an intellectual industry with interesting products since the political polarization deepened with the start of the AKP’s second term. On almost every news channel there are talk-shows featuring a pro-AKP liberal democrat and an anti-AKP democrat. Since their controversies are the product on sale, these programs are visually exaggerated as well. In one of them, before the show begins they show two tigers attacking each other and in another program one, side has a black, the other a white background. The AKP, beyond its other achievements, gave Turkey this amazing present: intellectual and political discussions are now made in little boxes between black-and-white tigers!

I urge a close reading of the entire piece, particularly for the history that is recounted and the role of the Islamists in that history, particularly the fact that the Fethullahcı were founded in the wake of the 12 September coup. Not coincidentally, that was the same timeframe that saw the implementation of the Turkish-Islamic Synthesis and Turkish Hezbollah.

Finally, check Hevallo's recent post on defense lobby conflicts of interest in the UK. What a shock--they are linked to Lockheed Martin! Or, maybe not so shocking.

JUST A REMINDER

"On election day, I stay home. I don't vote. Fuck 'em."
~ George Carlin.

Just in case you're planning on voting for the status quo, for either the Republicrats or Demopublicans, here's a reminder:

So who is it that sucks?

EITHER WAY, A VOTE FOR GOLDMAN SACHS

"Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies."
~ Thomas Jefferson.

Wow! No wonder Obama and McCain urged passage of and voted for the bailout of the Wall Street criminals! They're owned by those vermin.

McCain's top five campaign contributors between 2003 and 2008 were, in order of the greatest amount of bribes to the least: Merrill Lynch ($306,813), Citigroup Inc. ($277,251), Goldman Sachs ($234,345), Morgan Stanley ($234,272) , and AT&T Inc. ($192,557).

Obama's top five campaign contributors between 2003 and 2008 were, again in order of the greatest amount of bribes to the least: Goldman Sachs ($748,880), University of California ($625,911), JPMorgan Chase & Co. ($493,469), Harvard University ($473,669), Citigroup Inc. ($467,849).

But I'm sure they wouldn't let campaign contributors from Wall Street dictate how they vote on the criminal Wall Street bailout, now would they?

Now I understand how it came about that these two were chosen to be the presidential candidates in this election year. A vote for either one is a vote for Goldman Sachs, et. al.

THE era of US global economic dominance is over and the world now needs a new and "more just" financial system, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said today.

"The time of domination by one economy and one currency has been consigned to the past once and for all," Mr Medvedev said in an address to a Russian-German development forum, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at his side.

"We must work together towards building a new and more just financial-economic system in the world based on the principles of multipolarity, supremacy of the law and taking account of mutual interests."

The Australian.

FEITH TRIES TO MAKE ANOTHER CLEAN BREAK

"Members of the "Clean Break" study group included Douglas Feith, Richard Perle, David Wurmser, Meyrav Wurmser, and several other like-minded ideologues, many of whom would later be given posts in the administration of President George W. Bush."
~ Ronald Bruce St. John, "A Real Clean Break in the Middle East," RightWeb Analysis.

Oh, man. Here's something that might just make Sibel Edmonds' blood boil.

Doug "The Fucking Stupidest Guy on the Face of the Earth" Feith has a book coming out this week. In celebration of this, 60 Minutes has an interview with him which you can view here. Runtime is a little over 12 minutes.

Feith claims the decision to invade Iraq was a result of its being a "special case" because of Saddam's record. Saddam had attacked Kuwait, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, defied the UN, evaded economic sanctions, used weapons of mass destruction on his own people, and had the know how-how, if not the wherewithal, to build a nuclear weapon.

First of all, Saddam did not attack his own people with WMDs; he attacked Kurds with WMD's. Saddam was an Arab, not a Kurd.

As for the US, it regularly defies the UN and all international law. The US has a track record of having used WMD's at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It used a chemical weapon, Agent Orange, regularly in Vietnam. Feith conveniently omits the fact that the US backed Saddam's war against Iran and backed his use of chemical weapons against Kurds. 60 Minutes didn't call him out about those facts, either.

Neither did 60 Minutes call him out on the fact that Saddam was a US ally for many years.

Now, I'll agree that Iraq was a "special case," but it was a "special case" for Big Oil, Corporate America, and the Israel lobby, and not for any reason having to do with morality or the welfare of anyone living under the Saddam government.

The whole panoply of Bush administration liars--guys right at the top like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell--is presented speaking their own lies.

According to Feith, Rumsfeld told Bush that the US might not find WMD's on the ground. This was supposedly part of a larger memo describing everything that might go wrong with the Iraq misadventure. For this reason, the memo is referred to as the CYA (Cover Your Ass) memo. Feith referred to it as the "Parade of Horribles," and describes the brainstorming that went into creating the CYA memo as "very intense and very disturbing work." Imagine!

Some of the items in the "Parade of Horribles" (aka the CYA Memo):

**The US could become so absorbed in its Iraq effort that we pay inadequate attention to other serious problems.

**The war could cause more harm and entail greater costs than expected.

**It would not go on for 2 - 4 years but for 8 - 10 years.

**Terrorists networks could improve their recruiting and fundraising as a result of the US being depicted as anti-Muslim.

**Iraq could experience ethnic strife among Kurds, Sunnis, and Shi'a

**It could damage the US relationship with its allies and its reputation with the world community.

Feith says, in reference to the memo-and the items listed above--that Rumsfeld felt it was useless to try to predict the future but, obviously, they knew the results exactly because they have come to pass. Feith says these things have come to pass only in "a broad sense"--whatever the hell that means.

Feith writes in his book that the one thing the Pentagon underestimated was resistance efforts by Saddam's loyalists. Of course, we are told one day that the Iraqi resistance is Saddam loyalists. The next day we are told it is Iranians. The day after that, we are told it is al-Qaeda. Finally, we are told it is all foreign fighters.

We are also told that Sunni insurgents are now on the payroll of the US to fight al-Qaeda. The US is supposedly cutting more than 70,000 of these welfare checks.

Isn't that negotiation with terrorists?

Taking a cue from the interview, we might refer to Feith's book as a CYA book because apparently Feith blames everyone else for the disaster that is Iraq and insists it never would have turned out this way if everyone had listened to him.

No doubt, in this book, a lot of poo is going to be flung.

And poo it most definitely will be, because Feith is a known registered agent for Turkey along with Richard Perle. The two of them were instrumental in establishing the tight little military relationship between Turkey and Israel way back in 1996.

While he was at the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans, picking and choosing his intel, Feith was deeply involved with Ahmed Chalabi, Harold Rhode, Larry Franklin, Manucher Ghorbanifar, and Michael Ledeen. What was Feith doing with all these guys? Cooking up the Niger Forgeries to "prove" Iraq was buying yellowcake.

In other words, not only was Feith picking and choosing intel, he was helping to manufacture it.

I haven't included here a link to Feith's new book, nor have I checked Amazon to see if it's available for pre-order, because I don't recommend that you buy it. Instead, wait until the book is available at your local public library and then check it out, if you're so inclined.

After all, we certainly don't want to enrich this little bastard any more, do we?

KURDISH REFORM IN FOUR PIECES

"These dams, highly profitable projects for US and European multi-nationals, are deeply connected to the US-led war on the Middle East. With Turkey’s recent bombing and now land invasion (both backed by the US) of the villages in Northern Iraq, and the power struggles over who will control Kurdistan, the Turkish, US and international dam-building hand is strengthened."
~ Maggie Ronayne.

I hope no one's getting excited about the NYTimes article in which Katil Erdoğan is shown as the savior of the Kurds, the bearer of reform. It's already been translated for Turkish media. Several Western media sources are helping to spread it. Headlines would lead the ignorant to believe that the Ankara regime, particularly the AKP government, is actually going to invest in The Southeast in order to help Kurds. It's offering "reforms" for the Kurdish minority. It's going to create better "relations" with Kurds.

And it's all bullshit.

First piece of bullshit:

As part of the push, the government will dedicate a state television channel to Kurdish language broadcasting . . .

This must be a rewrite of a 2002 article from the same NYTimes, in which it was announced that Turkey would allow Kurdish-language broadcasting. As we all know, this little farce churned out pre-recorded programs, censored by the state, in a dialect that has not been comprehensible to the Kurdish population of Turkey. Live Kurdish language TV is absolutely forbidden, as are children's and educational programs. Thus TIME summed up the need for real reform:

Ankara now has two choices: guns — which have never managed to eliminate Kurdish rebellion — or else a bold new policy designed to address Kurdish grievances, encourage economic growth in the region and move forward. Not just a token law allowing one hour of Kurdish language TV and radio broadcast a day (as was passed three years ago). Real, comprehensive reform.

Even now, a director of one of those Kurdish-language stations had to appear in court:

Until now, only heavily regulated local stations have been permitted to broadcast in Kurdish, but for no more than 45 minutes a day and only with Turkish subtitles. Gün TV is one of those stations. Its commissioning editor, Diren Keser, 29, recently appeared in court because the word "Kurdistan" was used in one of the station's programs. The misstep could cost him €50,000 ($75,000).

Kurdish is forbidden in any political or official discourse. The letters W, X, and Q are still forbidden to Kurds (but not to Westerners in Turkey). Private Kurdish language schools that were finally permitted by the regime had to close down because it was difficult for many people to pay tuition in that part of Turkey which has an unemployment rate averaging between 60 and 70%--and higher in some areas.

Second piece of bullshit:

The state will invest between $11 billion and $12 billion over five years to build two large dams and a system of water canals . . .

This is nothing more than GAP, a boondoggle that's been promoted since the 1970s. And since it's been around that long, you would think that some of the alleged benefits would have accrued to the Kurds of Turkey by now . . . but what we have instead is that 60 to 70% unemployment rate. Not only is Turkey, and the AKP in particular, using GAP to reduce the water supplies of Syria and Iraq, but it's also using GAP to continue the state policy of cultural genocide of the Kurdish people:

. . . [O]pponents believe it will devastate the area's environment and cultural heritage, as well as displacing more than 50,000 people.

Among hundreds of sites to be flooded would be the ancient town of Hasankeyf, considered an archaeological treasure and home to at least 3,800 people.

[ . . . ]

. . . [P]rotesters' biggest concern is what they see as inadequate plans for resettling and compensating an estimated 55,000 to 78,000 people displaced by the waters.

Some 199 settlements would be affected by the dam, Ms Ayhan said, but the consultants who drew up the resettlement plans had had access to only limited information.

Many of those displaced would be likely to head for nearby Batman and Diyarbakir, both of which have seen clashes between security forces and Kurdish protesters in recent months.

What about that alleviation of poverty song-and-dance?

The dam builders and assessors finally now mention women in the reports – but only as victims whose poverty is used an excuse for the dam to go ahead. If you believed these documents, the dam would do wonders for women especially.

Of course the promises are not backed up by any concrete plans or funding, there are few local benefits of the dam. As women from Suçeken (Kurdish name Şikefta) village say: ‘our question is: will it be harmful to us?’ But they have not received a truthful answer or even any substantial information about these reports.

There is no evaluation in the report we reviewed of women’s contribution to society through their caring work, I found no evidence that carers would benefit, and in all likelihood they would have to undertake an even greater burden of work in conditions of increased poverty if the dam went ahead. Proposals for ‘training’ and ‘income generation’ projects for women displaced by the dams are not properly budgeted for and the way the report speaks about involving the private sector and NGOs, it seems likely that any money for these programmes would go to professionals for ‘helping the poor’ rather than to women themselves.

The effects of the conflict are hardly mentioned even though, as village women from Suçeken recently informed us: ‘the main problem is war. This is the main reason for our poverty. The first thing we want is an end to war.’

More on that, again from Maggie Ronayne.

Of course, an end to the war is very easy to achieve, if only AKP and its partners, the Paşas, had the will for it.


Third piece of bullshit:

. . . complete paved roads . . .

They're doing that for the military, and only for the military.


Fourth piece of bullshit:

. . . and remove land mines from the fields along the Syrian border . . .

But Turkey has to do that anyway, according to the requirements of the Ottawa Treaty:

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty, Turkey must destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but no later than 1 March 2014. In September 2006 Turkey confirmed its commitment to the Mine Ban Treaty and informed States Parties that its mine action plan will allow it to meet the 2014 treaty deadline.[59]

This is what's called making a virtue of necessity.

According to Landmine Monitor's 2007 report on Turkey, the most casualties come from the following areas: Bingöl, Şırnak, Hakkari, Diyarbakır, Elazığ, Tunceli, Ağrı, Siirt, Van, Sivas, and İzmir. That means that Turkey has a bigger problem than just landmines along the Syrian border, especially because the regime does not mark mines or close off minefields in Kurdish areas.

Since Sabrina Tavernise, the author of the NYTimes piece, has reported extensively from Turkey, she should know the situation better and should have pointed out the chasm that exists between Katil Erdoğan's fantasies and the Kurdish reality.

Atma, Recep, din kardeşiyiz! Küçük at da civcivler de yesin!