by cameron | Jun 26, 2009 | geopolitics, Iran, Iraq
Seymour Hersh writing in The New Yorker magazine, July 2008:
Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership. The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program.
Clandestine operations against Iran are not new. United States Special Operations Forces have been conducting cross-border operations from southern Iraq, with Presidential authorization, since last year. These have included seizing members of Al Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, and the pursuit of “high-value targets” in the President’s war on terror, who may be captured or killed. But the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which involve the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), have now been significantly expanded, according to the current and former officials. Many of these activities are not specified in the new Finding, and some congressional leaders have had serious questions about their nature.
(read the full story)
"… designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership".
The article goes on to say:
The Finding was focussed on undermining Iran’s nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change.
Now think about the activities of the last couple of weeks. Starting to add up for you?
And who was running JSOC? General Stanley A. McChrystal, President Obama’s recently anointed Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan.
by cameron | Jun 24, 2009 | CIA, Iran, Uncategorized
Tomorrow is my 2nd Twitter anniversary so it’s the perfect opportunity to take stock of what it means to me.
At the time of writing this, I’ve done 19,563 public posts (not counting DMs) which works our to about 27 per day over two years. As I’m usually online about 18 hours a day, that works out to an average of only 1.4 posts per online hour.
I often have people who aren’t yet using Twitter ask "how do you find the time?" Although I guess I’m possibly a fairly heavy user of Twitter compared to most, I only post on average once every 45 minutes. Each post takes… what… ten seconds? Hardly a big time waster. Let’s say I spent another couple of minutes every hour scanning replies, DMs and general tweets in my feed. I guess if I was generous, I might say I spend 6 minutes an hour reading and responding – that’s 1.8 hours a day (6 minutes x 18 waking hours) or 10% of my day. And it does sound like a lot. Until I factor in the following:
1. I work from home. No daily commute to listen to the radio and catch up on the morning news / gossip. Let’s say most people spend an hour a day commuting, either in their car or on public transport. That’s an hour they spend (out of 18 hours in the waking day) probably reading or listening to some kind of media. On those rare occasions during the week when I am in the car, heading to meetings etc, I’m normally listening to podcasts.
2. I don’t watch TV news. The only TV I watch at all is pre-recorded stuff on my laptop (at the moment – Mad Men, The Daily Show, Kings and DVDs). Most people spend 30 – 60 minutes a day watching some kind of news / current affairs (including those god-awful morning shows). I get my news from Twitter and from scanning the blogs. Oh and from podcasts when I go for my run, of course.
3. I’ve been living alone for the last year, my girlfriend living half a world away, and so I’ve had no social life and tweet mostly (I suspect) in the evenings to provide some relief from work. Wow… that sounded a lot more pathetic than it feels. 🙂 I guess it’s true – people on Twitter are losers who have no social life.
So, I figure most people spend a couple of hours a day watching, listening or reading the news. I might (and it’s a stretch) spend the same amount of time on Twitter. If I counted the amount of time I spend on Twitter and reading blogs, I’d say it’s about the same. So, for me, Twitter and blogs have replaced mainstream media.
As I said, I’m probably a fairly heavy user of Twitter, which is justified somewhat by the line of work I am in (social media). Having a good handle on how Twitter works is my business.
Let me tell you some of the things I dislike about Twitter at the moment:
- MLM chumps.
- Affiliate pimps.
- People who auto-send DMs pimping stuff when you follow them.
- Follow Fridays.
- The way people are jumping on the Iran bandwagon without much evidence of critical thinking. Cmon people – think.
For the record, I immediately un-follow people who commit the first three crimes.
Okay, now the things I like about Twitter:
- Intelligent debate – it’s hard to find, but it’s out there. Too many people seem to think you can’t have an intelligent discussion 140 characters at a time, but that’s just wrong. It just requires discipline and clarity.
- Support – Twitter is better than any tech support service I’ve ever used. But I’m not just talking about tech support. Mention that you’ve got any sort of problem, and you’ll usually have a stream of people – most of whom you’ve never met in real life and probably never will – offering to help out. These people counter-balance the brain dead MLM and affiliate folks and stop me from giving up all hope for the human race.
- The sense that this is the dawn of…. something. Something big. Something important. Something profound.
Twitter kind of reminds me of the skin jobs on BSG when they are on their base ship, dipping their hands into the pink water that somehow plugs them into the control feed of the ship. It’s also a bit like being Superman with his super hearing, just letting the entire planet’s voices wash over you.
I often find myself wondering about what a mind-blowing platform Twitter (and the interwebs in general) could be in an historical sense for the human race – just imagine jumping in the TARDIS and scooting back 100 years to 1909, then trying to explain the concept of Twitter to folks. What potential! The whole world (well… the connected world) talking to each other! The kids in New York shouting out real time support to the kids (or are they embedded CIA operatives pretending to be kids?) in Tehran! I wonder what the folks in 1909 would want to do with it. Or imagine going back another 30 years to 1879 and explaining it to Karl Marx. I wonder if he’d think it was the perfect medium to discuss MLM, Jon & Kate (and I honestly have NO frakking idea who they are), and whether or not Megan is as hot as Angelina.
Here’s my question for you all – are we smart enough for Twitter? Or will we waste it?
by cameron | Jun 23, 2009 | Brisbane, capitalism, Podcast
My guest on today’s show is Michael Doneman – one part business coach, one part social activist, one part guru.
Over the last few months his name has come up in a startling variety of conversations I’ve had with people. These people have a few things in common – they are very bright, have a sparkle in their eye, are entrepreneurs, think they can change the world – and they are students of Doneman.
Michael explains the basis of his business / school, Edgeware, where he teaches something he calls “ethical entrepreneurship” and we discuss the future of capitalism.
This is also the first interview in my series where I intend to interview Brisbane’s Best Minds. If you want to nominate someone to be interviewed as part of this series, please submit their details here.
Further links:
John Gray video
Edgeware site
Follow Michael Doneman on Twitter
Do you want an independent media?
Abigail Washburn & The Shanghai Restoration Project
“Sala” (mp3)
from “Afterquake”
(Undercover Culture Music)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
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More On This Album
by cameron | Jun 20, 2009 | geopolitics, Iran, Podcast
My guest today is Jabiz R. Born in Iran, raised in America, now living in Qatar, Jabiz is an educator and blogger. I’ve really enjoyed some of his posts about Iran lately so I invited him onto the show.
by cameron | Jun 16, 2009 | banksters, Podcast
Hey folks, apparently I screwed up the track alignment in show 381 (about banks) so there is a fair amount of overlapping of voices. (Thanks to Anthony Voevodin for letting me know!)
I’ve re-edited the show and fixed it up, and I’m attaching it here.
By the way folks, don’t forget – if you are looking for an easy way to listen to the G’Day World archives (all 381 episodes!), and you’ve got iTunes installed, go to our page on iTunes. While you’re there, give the show a quick review!
by cameron | Jun 15, 2009 | banksters
Continuing our theme about banks this week, a friend sent me a link to the ChangeThis site which has a manifesto from Douglas Rushkoff. Here are a couple of excerpts:
“As the financial institutions we have come to rely on appear to topple under their own weight, it’s only natural that we rush to support them. These are the banks, investment groups, and insurance firms to which we have outsourced our savings, financing, and investing. They fund our businesses and lend most of our currency into existence. Were we just a bit more aware of how this dependency developed, however, as well as what it costs us in the long run, we might choose instead to exploit their temporary vulnerability toward very different ends. Indeed, if we had our wits about us, we would seek to put our biggest banks out of our misery, for good.”
"The failure of giant banking is less a crisis than it is an opportunity to rediscover the long lost art of local commerce."
Download the manifesto.
