Porkins Policy Review
Apparently it is a serious crime to joke about being molested by TSA goons in the airport. Just another aspect of the new normal that is the police state in America.
After hemming and hawing about the hunger strike in the Guantanamo Bay prison, the US government has finally admitted that there are in fact prisoners on hunger strike. As with all scandals involving the state the government is attempting to downplay this as much as possible. It is only conceding that 14 inmates are on hunger strike. This is in stark contrast with what the detainee’s lawyers are saying. According to several lawyers representing the 166 individuals held with out trial, around 130 prisoners in Camp 6 are on hunger strike. Lawyers have claimed that several of the individuals were coughing up blood, as well as looking emaciated. The freedom loving US government flippantly states this is a fabrication. Guantanamo spokesman Navy Capt. Robert Durand had this to say in regards to the hunger strike “Refusing prepared meals and choosing to subsist for a time on snack foods does not constitute a hunger strike.”
In other words, nothing to see here people. You can go back to worrying about Lil Wayne and stop wondering what happens in a highly secret military prison where 166 men languish in legal limbo. There are only a few inmates refusing food and they are sneaking potato chips and cookies when no one is looking.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I am no longer associated with Sibel Edmond, or BoilingFrogs/Newsbud. I think she is a con-artist and a petty and vindictive individual. If you want to know more about why I broke off all ties with Sibel you can find out more here:
For the past several weeks James Corbett and FBI whistle blower Sibel Edmonds have been conducting the most fascinating series of interviews on the planet. They deal with Operation Gladio and its very overlooked role in Turkey. Now there is a lot of information in these interviews so I urge you to really set aside some time to watch these so you can better absorb what is being said and exposed. What Sibel Edmonds discusses will destroy all of the propaganda that has been force fed to us for decades about terrorism, our current “war on terror”, 9/11, drugs trafficking, fundamentalist Islam, destabilization of Central Asia, and perhaps most important, the actual nature and goals of NATO and there globalist leaders. Of course for I urge you to go out and purchase Sibel Edmonds memoir Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story.
Once again the United States admits that Iran is not building a nuclear bomb. This time around it was in response to the erroneous claims that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has been making to the media in the Jewish state. Barak recently said that the American position on Iran was finally moving closer Israel’s. This was after Haaretz reported that there was a new NIE stating that Iran was in fact constructing a nuclear bomb. The Haaretz report is as false as Barak’s comments. No where in the Haaretz report is new intelligence cited. The same old lies about a supposed “clean up” at the Parchin military facility are cited as evidence by Haaretz, despite it having been debunked already. Haaretz also relies on anonymous Western and Israeli diplomats as sources for this new revelation. The other “reliable” source used by Haaretz comes from the violent Iranian terrorist cult group the MEK. I won’t even take the time here to break down how the MEK has absolutely no credibility.
So let’s be clear so we don’t have to go through with this for the two hundredth time. Iran is NOT building a nuclear weapon. They ceased construction in 2003 and have not begun again. This was the revelation that was made in the 2007 NIE, and it is still true today. As the L.A. Times pointed out five days ago, there is no nuclear program in Iran. It does not exist. For some further clarification on how ridiculous these claims are, here is former US Navy intelligence analyst John Schindler writing on his blog about these false claims:
A couple rules of the road. NIEs are very special things, exceptionally LIMDIS (limited distribution); when I was a full-time spook I didn’t read them – that was way above my pay-grade. That’s for the White House and related bigwigs. And they are always NOFORN: not for foreigners.
So, a few possibilities. Barak and his government are playing one huge head-fake with Obama, whom they openly dislike, even though he just dumped more money on Israel. Or, they have seen it – how, exactly, this former counterspy wonders – and are diming out DC in a very tough game of hardball.
Regardless, the rules of the spy game are clear and have been since Moses was a boy. When intelligence services share information, as they do every day, you don’t pass it to third parties without clearance. Ever. And if you do, eventually you will get burned and nobody will want to play marbles with you.
Barak and the other warmongers in Israel simply can’t wait to bomb Iran. Netanyahu and Barak are both savvy enough politically to understand that the American public by and large is gullible enough to so take that they say as fact. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times government officials or the mainstream media tells the American people that Iran isn’t building a bomb; they just don’t buy it. Netanyahu and Barak use this fact to brainwash Americans into blindly marching into war with Israel’s enemies. Israel’s enemies are not always our enemies. It’s time for Israel to fight their own battles. If that means attacking and oppressing Muslims through out the Middle East then fine, but we can not be dragged into this. The Muslim and Arab world already hates us enough. Can you really fathom what would happen if we worked with or allowed Israel to attack Iran? Can you imagine how fast Iran would build a bomb if they were attacked? All of the liberal western orientated Iranians that Americans love so much would side with the Ayatollah. A regional as well as global conflict involving other super powers could result in world war three. Once again the United States is driving down the road headed towards another 9/11.
It was almost comical how fast Prime Minister Netanyahu condemned Iran for the recent bombing in Burgas. Two days ago Netanyahu made the rounds of the Sunday morning talk shows, telling anyone who would listen that Iran is engaged in a global terror campaign against the Jewish state. Of course when pressed for facts on this outrageous charge Netanyahu was at a lose for words. He simply repeated the claim that it was Iran and Hezbollah who were responsible. On Face the Nation Netanyahu made the erroneous claim that Iran had assassinated diplomats. This is patently false, it simply never happened. Perhaps Netanyhau is referring to the trumped up charges against a two time loser Manssor Arabsiar. People will remember Arabsiar as the bankrupt used car salesman who the great and powerful terrorist state Iran employed a year ago for an assassination plot. He was to hire the narco trafficking super group Los Zetas to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States with a bomb in a crowded D.C. restaurant. If this sounds like bad spy fiction that is because it is fiction. Netanyahu comes from the political school of thought that believes by simply stating something as fact over and over again enough people will start to believe it to be true.
Israel’s insane desire for war with Iran has led the government there to blame any terrorist threat or attack on the Islamic Republic. After 9/11 Israel tried in vain to convince America that Iran was behind the attack that killed 3,000 Americans. Israel will exploit any terrorist threat or attack if it provides justification for attacking Iran. Of course this detracts from the possibly real threats faced by Sunni extremist groups. The Burgas bombing is an excellent example of this detraction. While it may surprise many, Bulgaria’s foreign policy has been moving it into a position that puts it in direct conflict with Al Qaeda and similar Sunni extremist groups. In 2010 extremist group Asbat al Ansar, who’s links to Al Qaeda have landed it on the U.S. terror list, proclaimed that Bulgaria was a target due to its involvement in both the Iraq and Afghan wars. So the Burgas bombing raises the question, what if the Bulgarian state was the real target? If this proves to be true than the real culprit of the bombing is still at large. Netanyahu will let the real perpetrators walk free so he can bomb Iran back to the stone age. If it is Al Qaeda or one of their franchise groups, they may very well be planning another attack on a western target.
With talk of war with Iran becoming so common place, now is the time for clarity. While many may be salivating over the thought of taking down the Islamic Republic this is not something that should be taken lightly. Before we jump into another war with a Muslim nation we should know the facts. Netanyahu is not the purveyor of truth.
A former Guantanamo Bay detainee has had his court case thrown out by a U.S. judge. Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al Janko was held in Guantanamo from 2002 until 2009, after winning a court challenge that his ties to Al Qaeda were little or no longer existed. The administration maintained that Janko was still a threat and had ties to Al Qaeda. After he was allegedly urinated on, beaten, deprived of sleep, and subjected to harsh interrogations, we might assume that he may now want to strengthen his weak ties with Al Qaeda. Janko also tried to commit suicide a total of 17 times. Judge Richard Leon tried his best to show sympathy for Janko; telling him that unfortunately “war, by its very nature, victimizes many of those caught in its wake.” That comment was later followed by one of the more deplorable things to come out of the war on terror. Judge Leon were that “our legal system was never designed to provide a remedy in our courts for these inevitable tragedies, especially in a conflict like this where terrorists cunningly morph into their surroundings.”
Translation: sorry we tortured you, but there really isn’t anything we can do about it. Our legal system was never designed to protect you from something that we are supposed to be prohibited from doing.
Whilst catching up on the Bradley Manning trial one thing kept popping into my mind; the hysteria that enveloped everyone last year when Wikileaks released thousands of diplomatic cables to various news outlets. People of all political persuasions, particularly though on the right, we’re predicting that the U.S. was to become increasingly isolated from the international community. How would we be able to work with the nations that we so clearly criticized in these leaked cables? In the aftermath Secretary Clinton was whisked away on an apology tour for all the nations that we offended. Fortunately Washington was able to avert the Wikileaks scandal by managing to create enough scandal themselves. Following Bradley Manning’s alleged leaking of 250,000 cables to Wikileaks, America has: assassinated two U.S. citizens in Yemen, launched more drone strikes in a few years than President Bush did his whole term, help block Palestinian statehood, practically destroy relations with Pakistan, raise tensions with Iran to a fever pitch, and a myriad of other things too long to post here. Nothing that came out in Wikileaks has led to any serious breakdown in diplomatic relations. Despite the incessant claims that our soldiers would be in danger the Defense Department later confirmed that no one was killed. So this holiday season be sure to remember that Bradley Manning and Wikileaks didn’t ruin Washington’s credibility, Washington managed that just fine on their own. I wonder if locking up Private Bradley Manning for the rest of his life will hinder or help our standing in the international community?
The last few days we have seen the media and national security experts have a minor nervous breakdown over the recent news that Iran is in possession of one of our RQ-107 drones. Everyone seemed shocked, just shocked, that this could happen. Well guess what? We spy on Iran, constantly. We have satellite taking pictures and we have drones flying in and around the Islamic Republic. CBS news quotes U.S. officials as saying that we have been flying drones from Afghanistan into Iran for years now.
With all of the rhetoric that we here from politicians and pundits about the “threat” that Iran is, it really should come as no surprise that we are flying spy planes over the country. It should also come as no surprise that we are going to lose drones; most likely a lot. We lose drones all the time. The Margin of error for drones is much higher than a manned aircraft. A drone takes off in Afghanistan, is piloted in a remote base somewhere in the U.S.; do the math and there is a tremendously high chance that something is going to go wrong. Everyone need to take a deep breath and understand that this is going to happen again, and again, and probably again.
Secondly, to everyone that is terrified Iran is going to reverse engineer the RQ-170 and figure out classified military technology, your probably right. But, the second that they do, we will have five new state of the art drones that will make the RQ-170 obsolete. This is the age of the drone right now. Every defense contractor on the face of the earth is developing new and better drones. This is not some sort of novelty peice of military hardware; this is the new face of warfare and intelligence gathering.
If we are terrified of this happening again perhaps we should stop spying on Iran and talk to them. We violated their sovereignty and airspace and must now pay the price. Once again we will see a heightening of tensions between the U.S. and Iran, at a moment when our relationship is at its lowest in years. With no foreseeable change in how we conduct our foreign policy with Iran this will become the norm. Get used to it.
Porkins Policy Review 