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Ahmad Karzai: From Dishwasher to Drug Kingpin
Eric Walberg
Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s younger half-brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, was killed in Kandahar on 12 July during a gathering in his house, according to Kandahar’s Canadian Governor Tooryali Wesa. He was shot in the head and chest with a AK-47 fired by Sardar Mohammad, a former bodyguard to another Karzai brother Qayyoum.
The 50-year-old Ahmad, a restaurant worker in Chicago before catapulting to fame on Hamid’s shirt-tails, was appointed chairman of the Kandahar Provincial Council in 2005. A ruthless autocrat, he was widely despised, and escaped multiple assassination attempts in the past, but his death nonetheless comes as a major blow to President Karzai in the homeland of the Taliban, and will set off a vicious power struggle to fill Ahmad’s shoes.
US ambassador to Afghanistan Ronald Neumann, the CIA’s station chief and their British counterparts pleaded with the president in 2006 to exile his brother, accused of drug dealing. Hamid angrily rejected these accusations and Ahmad stayed in place, rigging the 2009 Afghan presidential elections for him, as he continued to amass wealth, extorting kickbacks on construction contracts, even shaking down bus- and truck-drivers at police posts.
Murdoch is Not the Only Maggot in the Rotten Apple
Stuart Littlewood
Having disposed of the Murdoch menace - for the moment anyway - it's time for the British public to turn the spotlight on the other villains our craven politicians pay homage to.
Public enemy Number One is the pro-Israel lobby. An organization called the Conservative Friends of Israel states it has “twin aims of supporting Israel and promoting Conservatism. With close to 2000 activists as members – alongside 80% of Conservative MPs – CFI is active at every level of the Party".
And the rot goes all the way to the top, with Conservative prime minister David Cameron endorsing it enthusiastically: “I am proud not just to be a Conservative, but a Conservative Friend of Israel; and I am proud of the key role CFI plays within our Party.”
America: Heading for Tyranny and Impoverishment
by Stephen Lendman
It's present, hardening, and threatening to subvert all constitutional and social rights. Among others, three previous articles discussed the danger, accessed through the following links:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2007/12/police-state-america-look-back-and.html
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/09/continuity-of-government-coup-detat.html
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/07/fix-is-in-washingtons-planned-social.html
The first article covered post-9/11 police state laws, Executive Orders, Military Orders, as well as National and Homeland Security Presidential Directives (NSPDs and HSPDs). It addressed George Bush granting himself "Unitary Executive" authority to govern extrajudicially (a virtual dictator) in the name of national security, though no constitutional provisions permit it.
The second article discussed "Continuity of Government (COG)" authority under declared national or catastrophic emergency conditions, defined as:
Too Good (Sex, Lies and Audiotape Part III)
by Edgar J. Steele
They say that something is too good to be true if it looks much better than one normally would expect in a given situation; if it is not what it appears to be.
Too Good
There are many things about my recent trial that simply were “too good,” albeit with different twists on the old adage “Too good to be true.”
Seeing is Disbelieving
by Edgar J. Steele
There are things in life that defy belief. Seeing them often is enough to set one on a path toward seeing unbelievable things at every turn. Seeing is disbelieving? Hmm…
The Red Queen of Alice in Wonderland Fame remarked that she often believed in impossible things; as many as six of them, all just before lunch, too.
The cancer of Christian Zionist terror
By Khalid Amayreh
Gloating over the recent killings in Norway of dozens of innocent people at the hands of an Israel-inspired Christian Zionist terrorist, Glenn Beck, the American right-wing talk show host, compared the victims of the shooting at a Norwegian summer camp to Hitler Youth in his radio program on Monday, according to a Daily Telegraph report.
The "Hitler Youth" organization was a paramilitary youth organization comprising teenagers and children, entrusted with task of harassing and attacking and terrorizing perceived or real enemy of the Third Reich. It existed from 1922 to 1945.
Beck, a self-proclaimed Christian Zionist and Israel-firster, described the brutal carnage “as a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like the Hitler Youth. I mean who sends their kids to a political camp? Disturbing."
US-Style Free Trade's Dark Side
by Stephen Lendman
Corporate predators seek cheap labor worldwide in countries like China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Haiti, Jordan, and many others. Employed in global sweatshops, they work up to 90 or more hours a week for sub-poverty wages under horrific conditions, enduring harassment, beatings, sexual abuse and rape.
According to the group Sweatshop Watch:
"A sweatshop is a workplace that violates the law and where workers are subject to:
-- extreme exploitation, including the absence of a living wage or long hours;
-- poor working conditions, such as health and safety hazards;
-- arbitrary discipline, such as verbal or physical abuse, or
-- fear and intimidation when they speak out, organize, or attempt to form a union."
Tim DeChristopher's Court Speech: 'This Is What Patriotism Looks Like'
Tim DeChristopher, whose act of civil disobedience stopped the illegal auction of oil and gas leases on thousands of acres of public land, was sentenced yesterday to two years in federal prison for fraudulently halting illegal government actions. This was his statement to the court.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak before the court. When I first met Mr. Manross, the sentencing officer who prepared the pre-sentence report, he explained that it was essentially his job to “get to know me.” He said he had to get to know who I really was and why I did what I did in order to decide what kind of sentence was appropriate. I was struck by the fact that he was the first person in this courthouse to call me by my first name, or even really look me in the eye. I appreciate this opportunity to speak openly to you for the first time. I’m not here asking for your mercy, but I am here asking that you know me.
If you declare bankruptcy, will everything be OK in a few days, weeks?
By Michael Collins
The crazies in the United States House of Representatives would have you believe it were so. They say fix that budget before we'll raise the debt ceiling. If we don't get our fix, they announce, there's no deal. We'll just default until things get straightened out. (Image: George Romero)
Let's see what would happen to you or me. We are unable to pay our bills, unless we tap a special line of credit that we've used in the past, one that has never failed us. We'll have to raise some money and cut some expenses too.
We're tired of paying bills and just want to stop for a while. We file for bankruptcy following all of the required procedures. The minute we file, we're granted an automatic stay on our debt. We are now protected, no bills to pay.
Then we get a few visits from creditors. They let us know that they know we can pay. Other people owed money show up also and ask, what is your problem? You owe us the money. You can pay and you will. The combination of angry creditors and recipients of our funds forces us to do what we could have done in the first place.
We tap the line of credit, cut expenses, and increase income. We make the payments we could have made all along. Once again, we have the choice of fixing things long term or repeating the process yet again.
The Sentencing of Tim DeChristopher Highlights the Conflict Between the People and Corporate-Government
By Kevin Zeese
When Democratic Institutions No Longer Give Citizens Power, Civil Disobedience Becomes Essential to Challenge Legalized Injustice
The trial and sentencing of Tim DeChristopher highlights the conflict between the people of the United States and the corporate-government that protects the privileged. In his pre-sentencing statement (republished below) Tim told Judge Dee Benson that the judge was making a choice: “The choice you are making today is what side are you on.”
Tim brought out the corruption of leases of public lands by the Bureau of Land Management, an agency with an ugly history of corruption, and how in this bidding the oil companies expected to get the land at the cost of pennies on the dollar. For the lands Tim did not bid on the average price was $12 an acre, for the one’s he did bid on they were $125. That number rose to the higher levels because oil companies knew that even at the higher price they would make tremendous profits. These public land leases occur for a wide range of corporations and are another example of massive corporate welfare that robs the American people of their public resources, while causing tremendous environmental damage and funneling wealth to the wealthiest 1%.
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