by cameron | Dec 15, 2008 | CIA, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, US politics
Were the Mumbai attacks a false flag operation co-ordinated by the CIA?
Perhaps, according to this post:
informationliberation – Pakistani Security Consultant Calls Mumbai Attacks A “Botched” False Flag
False flags ops happen regularly and are a standard technique for creating violence and then blaming it on your enemies. Hitler used it in the burning of the Reichstag. According to “Legacy Of Ashes”, the CIA has funded and organised quite a few over the last 60 years, in places such as Iran and Cuba, as well as in Chile and Zaire.
Why would the CIA want to escalate the conflict between India and Pakistan?
Well in recent months, there have been growing tensions between Pakistan and the USA, in large part because of continual US bombings on Pakistani territory which have resulted in the deaths of Pakistani soldiers. The USA claims it is attacking “terrorists” (the catch-all excuse for everything these days) but the reality is probably that they are using drones to locate and destroy Pakistan’s nuclear facilities, as part of their long-term plan to protect Israel, their most important military base in the middle east, from attacks by regional Islamic interests.
In the last couple of years, we’ve seen the USA agree to assist India’s nuclear program and Australia do a deal with India to sell them uranium, despite India’s refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and Australia’s historical position to NOT sell uranium to any nation not signed up.
Musharaff, until recently the President/military dictator of Pakistan, was a strong puppet ally of the USA during their “War On Terror”, especially after Bush’s Undersecretary of State, Richard Armitage made the General an offer he couldn’t refuse… “either cooperate with us militarily, against the will of your own military, security service and people…and accept more than $10 billion over the next five years…or we will bomb you back to the stone age.”
Then, of course, we saw the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, just as she seemed poised to bring a new era of democratic leadership to Pakistan, one which might have significantly altered the view of them worldwide. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardar, won the election just after her death and is the current President, after Musharaff was finally abandoned by George Bush and faced impeachment. Last week, Bhutto was posthumously awarded a human rights prize by the U.N. As we know, the last thing the USA truly wants is democracy in places like Pakistan. History has taught them that when a nation like that (take Venezuela for example) gets a democracy, they start looking after their citizens first and USA corporations end up getting the rough end of the stick. One can only imagine what kind of quid pro quo Musharaff signed up for when he took the $10 billion. It looks like the current administation aren’t as keen to get raped by the IMF.
So – back to Mumbai. If – and I have no evidence for this, it’s just a thinking point – if the CIA orchestrated a false flag op, blamed it on Pakistani ISI, and got their press puppets around the West to spin out the Pentagon-written media releases, just like they did during the Iraq invasion, then it might be their way of sending a message to the Zardar administration – “Take the money – and give in to our demands – or else.”
by cameron | Sep 11, 2008 | Iran, US politics
Just a few things that have caught my attention this morning:
1. Ron Paul refuses to endorse McCain and instead tells his supporters to vote for a third-party candidate. I love this quote from him:
“It might diminish my credibility,” said Paul (when asked to endorse McCain). “I don’t like the idea of getting 2 or 3 million people angry at me.”
2. Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman gets arrested outside the Republican National Convention for doing nothing.
You have to watch the video and read the story. It’s horrifying.
3. British American Tobacco targets kids with their advertising.
BAT claim they don’t want children to smoke, but then get “caught in Malawi, Mauritius and Nigeria using marketing tactics that are well-known to appeal to youth: advertising and selling single cigarettes, and sponsoring non-age-restricted, product-branded musical entertainment.”
I’ve got a bunch of great interviews in the can ready to release to you, including a chat with the music critic who introduced Kurt Cobain to Courtney Love and a representative from the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights who told me American should nuke Iran. Apparently they don’t have any rights. And tonight I’m interviewing Robert M Price, a theologian and biblical scholar who agrees with me that Jesus probably didn’t exist. So stay tuned!
by cameron | May 12, 2008 | CIA, Iran, US politics
I’ve been reading more from Tim Weiner’s book “Legacy Of Ashes: The History of the CIA” and have finished the story about how the CIA staged a covert coup d’état against the legitimate government of Iran in 1953. You can read the salient details in Wikipedia. Note: this isn’t a “conspiracy theory” – it was confirmed by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, during the administration of President Bill Clinton, when she called it a “setback for democratic government” in Iran.
Basically what happened is this:
The Iranians wanted to nationalize their oil. They had done a deal with the British in 1901 to explore Iran for oil and just before WWI, Winston Churchill moved the British navy from coal-burning ships over to oil-burning ships and then basically took control of Iran’s oil production, leaving them with only 16% of the profits. The Iranians weren’t happy with the situation, to the British installed a Shah of their liking on the throne.
During WWII, Churchill invaded Iran, got rid of the Shah (who was thought to be too friendly with the Nazis) and installed his son on the throne.
After WWII, the Iranians decided to take control of their oil production back. And Churchill wasn’t happy. Britian took their case to the International Court of Justice at The Hague – and lost. So Churchill asked the American government to intervene. The President (Truman) said no. So MI6 turned to the CIA who said “sure that sounds like fun”.
They then spent millions of dollars undermining the government, spreading lies about them, hiring thugs to commit crimes around the country and then blaming it on communists, on propaganda accusing the Iranian Prime Minister Mossadeq of being a communist, etc. The BBC in Britian did their part, also broadcasting anti-Iranian propaganda to lend the events legitimacy.
Eventually US-backed troops stormed the Prime Minister’s offices, arrested him, and he spent the last years of his life in prison, replaced by a General Zahedi, picked by the US and Britian to be Mossadeq’s puppet successor.
What happened next? 25 years later the Iranian revolution happened, fueled by memories of the coup, and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took control and the country has hated the US and Britian ever since. Can you blame them?
Of course, the US and Britian denied all of this ever happened for almost 50 years until internal CIA documents were leaked in 2000.
So – the next time you hear about how Iran “hate our freedoms” or about the US trying to overthrow a country and other “conspiracy theories”, remember – Iran 1953.
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thepodcastnet-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=038551445X&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr
by cameron | Aug 2, 2007 | Iran, Iraq, Uncategorized
Paul Spoerry has some great visual aids to help us understand the motivations behind the US’s middle east policies. Like this:
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Meanwhile, you have to love the pure frakking BALLS on the Bush administration. Who else could spin the sale of $70 Billion of weapons to the Middle East as “ensuring peace”?!!! Rice sez:
“We are helping to strengthen the defensive capabilities of our partners,” Rice said in a statement. “We plan to initiate discussions with Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states on a proposed package of military technologies that will help support their ability to secure peace and stability in the Gulf region.”
Let’s look at the track record of the countries they have sold weapons to over the last 20 years… Iraq. Afghanistan. Iran. Israel. Saudi Arabia. How’s the peace strategy working so far, Condi?
The amount of money that the US itself spends on weapons every year is just insane.
The world spends US$780 billion every year on maintaining its military and buying new weapons —that’s $2.1 billion every day. Dr Oscar Arias estimates that if just 5% ($40 billion) of that annual $780 billion were channeled into anti-poverty programmes over the next decade, the whole world could have basic social services. A further 5% over ten years could provide everybody on the planet with an income above the poverty line. UNICEF estimates that spending just $7 billion a year for the next decade could educate every child on Earth.
(source)
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Laurel Papworth accuses my 2Web colleagues and myself of being sexist because there aren’t any women in our 2Web group!
Hey I, for one, am a HUGE supporter of the meme that we need more women in tech/web. Lots and lots. I’m sick to death of going to tech events and being surrounded by blokes. AFAIK, the 2Web group has never turned down an application for membership from a lady. If there is passive sexism involved here, it’s you girls being too passive about getting involved! Hike up your skirts girls! 🙂
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Telstra put GPS trackers into the cars of their technicians then informed them that if they had a problem with it, “they would face a review of employment.” Classy. According to The Age:
Victoria’s Workplace Rights Advocate Tony Lawrence investigated initial reports of the tracking devices and told The Australian newspaper he had referred what he believed to be a criminal matter to police.
It puts turning off Facebook into perspective.
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The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is back on and TPN’s man on the scene, Ewan Spence, is spending the next month chatting with the performers, audience and promoters! Catch it almost-live on TPN’s EFF show!
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Just for something a little bit different, I’m a guest today on Rod’s Atomic Show. He wanted to talk to me about how the nuclear industry might be able to use new media to change the perception of nuclear with the general public, bypassing the not-always-independent mainstream media. Did anyone else see that show on Frontline last night about the nuclear industry in France and Canada? I saw some of it. Fascinating.
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John Howard and his government never cease to amaze me with how much they have become the white, straight, Christian party. Today Howard announced legislation which will overturn State legislation which allows gay couples to adopt children from overseas. We need a Bill of Rights in this country. Badly.
by cameron | Jul 26, 2007 | Iran, Uncategorized
Back in the chair today after the QLD trip and meeting all day yesterday. Looking forward to making some casts. Doing the next Napoleon and a GW today. Paul Montgomery is going to join me on GW. Want to talk about the IMF and WTO. Also my review of the wicked headphones the nice people at Ultimate Ears sent me today.
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Trying to get Norman Solomon, author of the book / film “War Made Easy” onto GW as a guest. Emailed his PR folks.
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You know what pisses me off? People who say they are going to do something with you, allow you to invest time and energy into the project, and then pull out with weak-ass excuses, having done squat. Where’s my elephant gun….
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When am I going to be able to run Second Life on Vista???
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w00t! I’m back in Second Life. Finally got it working on my new Vista PC. Add me as your friend so I don’t feel so frakkin dorkish. My Second Life nick is “Cameron Switchblade”.
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I’ve seen this video with Zappa (about censorship in music) before but Hugo linked to it recently so I watched it again. Zappa was a brilliant thinker. Interesting that this was on CNN (in 1986). Watching it now, you’d swear you’d were watching FOX.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ISil7IHzxc]
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Scanning the recently-launched Global Peace Index, which ranks 121 nations according to their relative peacefulness. Fascinating stuff. Australia ranks at only #25, behind Uruguay and just ahead of Romania. I’m feeling proud. The USA comes in at #96, slightly ahead of Iran. #1 is Norway.
by cameron | Jul 11, 2007 | Christianity, Iran, Uncategorized
Mike Moore gets stuck into Wolf on CNN:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bs_LBXD69w]
(via Chris Pirillo’s twitter)
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Remember Marc Rich? The guy indicted by Guiliani for trading illegally with Iran and tax evasion who then received a Presidential Pardon from Clinton in the last hours of his Presidency because he was a large donor to the Democratic Party? Well guess who his US attorney was from 1985 until 2000? None other than Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the current recipient of Presidential largess. Small world.
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Via CC Chapman:
Another amazing video from Britain Has Talent. Check out this 6 year old girl singing Somewhere Over The Rainbow. Bloody amazing.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En0A8KGMgq8]
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The iPhone is cool but – will it blend?
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg1ckCkm8YI]
Thanks Leslie Nassar!
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Duncan Riley put me onto this online film called Zeitgeist. It’s an examination of the central mythologies of Christianity and showing where they come from. According to the doco, the vast majority of the Jesus stories in the New Testament are direct rip-offs from the story of Horus dating back to 2000BCE.
Check out these similarities. Pretty compelling stuff. Any of the Christians out there have a good answer?
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