Falling Yen sparks carry trade alert

By Gillian Tett and Peter Garnham in London
Published: 29/1/2007 | Last Updated: 30/1/2007 00:40 London Time

The yen hit a four-year low against the US dollar on Monday, intensifying fears that the rising level of currency-based "carry trades" by hedge fund investors could jolt markets if these positions were suddenly unwound.

The Japanese currency's sharp fall also prompted European finance ministers to voice concern about its weakness.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the chairman of the eurozone's 13 finance ministers, said he was "increasingly a little bit worried" about the yen.

The currency dropped to a record low of Y158.60 to the euro last week. On Monday, it fell to Y122.19 against the dollar.

Many economists and bankers suspect that carry trade activity is an important factor behind the yen's weakness.

Carry trades are deals in which investors borrow in currencies with low interest rates, such as the yen and the Swiss franc, to invest in those that pay higher rates, such as the Australian dollar.

According to Barclays Capital, speculative carry trades have reached their highest level since the Russian crisis in 1998.

It estimates that these amount to $34bn in net terms, calculated in constant 1998 prices for the yen, Swiss franc, sterling and Australian dollar.

The scale of the carry trade – and its concentration in the yen – is raising fears among policymakers that a rapid unwinding of these trades could shake financial markets.

Figures from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission last week indicated that there was a record level of "short" yen positions in the market – trades that bet on further yen weakness.

This trade has produced fat profits for hedge funds in recent months as the yen has weakened and interest rate expectations have remained low.

However, the outlook for the Japanese economy is improving and there are expectations that interest rates could rise this year.

These events could potentially undermine the rationale behind the carry trade, prompting a rapid shift in positions.

Such a shift occurred during the 1998 Russian crisis, when the yen suddenly rose from Y147 to Y112 in a matter of days, helping to trigger the near collapse of Long Term Capital Management, the US hedge fund.

Additional reporting by Richard Beales

ΠΗΓΗ: FT.com
Copyright The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enough with the nonsense. Senator Hagel's straight talk is what the American public really needs to hear.

Offering a Response to Senator Webb

What America Really Needs to Hear

Shortly after President Bush’s State of the Union address last week Jim Webb, the freshman Senator from Virginia, delivered the Democrats’ televised response to Bush’s annual speech. Many antiwar progressives were pleased to hear a Democrat confront the Bush rhetoric head-on. Media critic Jeff Cohen went even further and argued that Webb’s riposte was not only aimed at the Bush administration, but also at Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

“Whether intended or not,” wrote Cohen, “Webb was offering a way for Democrats to win elections -- a script for any presidential candidate who wants to distinguish him or herself in the primaries, and then defeat the Republicans in Nov. 2008.”

Cohen and I must have been watching different programs. Sen. Webb’s position on the Iraq war was little more than a sugarcoated pill packed full of the usual irony. Webb painted the situation in Iraq as a result of Bush’s poor planning and not the more obvious illegalities and lies that drove our country into battle. As Webb put it, “We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable -- and predicted -- disarray that has followed.”

Never once did we hear Webb utter the bitter truth about the Iraq crisis. Certainly the invasion and subsequent occupation were not “mismanaged” as Webb and many others have put it, rather the civil war now engulfing Iraq is a result of a criminal performance carried out by President Bush that was enabled and encouraged by the leaders of the Democratic Party dating back to President Clinton.

Webb also did not express any significant criticisms of the “war on terror” as he seems to believe in its underlying premise. Consequently he did not mention that he disagrees with the increase of troops in Afghanistan or the recent air strikes of suspected terrorist cells in Somali. And despite his anger at Bush’s reckless mismanagement of Iraq, he didn’t dare bring up that all but forgotten subject: impeachment.

Webb also noted that he was opposed to “a precipitous withdrawal that ignores the possibility of further chaos” and instead called for a “strong regionally-based diplomacy, a policy that takes our soldiers off the streets of Iraq's cities, and a formula that will in short order allow our combat forces to leave Iraq.” In essence Webb doesn’t believe U.S. troops should leave Iraq at once. We may as well call that just more of the same. All talk, no action.

And this is the type of winning formula Jeff Cohen believes the Democratic presidential candidates should use to distinguish themselves from Republicans? Right now the most visible and articulate antiwar senator is Republican Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. If anything, Democratic presidential hopefuls and others should take a cue from Hagel on Iraq, not Webb. In a recent interview in GQ, Hagel went as far as to say that what’s going on in Iraq is “even worse than a civil war, because in addition to the sectarian violence, you've got Shia killing Shia. We have ethnic cleansing of major proportions going on in Baghdad.”

Enough with the nonsense. Senator Hagel’s straight talk is what the American public really needs to hear.

--Joshua Frank

January 29, 2007 in Elections, War | Permalink | Comments (16)

Iraqis long for the days of sanctions

Monday, January 29, 2007

Never Again ?

Today the United Nations Department of Public Information held its second annual observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust followed by a ceremony at the UN Headquarters.
The programme included special messages from the U.N Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, the presence of : Sheikha Haya Rashed al Khalifa from Dubai,the Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman,Madame Simone Weil, a Holocaust survivor,Thomas Shindlemayr of the United Nations Department of Economics and Social Affairs, a college student Marie Noel who shared her experience visiting former concentration camps in Poland and many more guests...

A special musical concert was given by HaZamir with jewish students from the Zamir choral foundation and another special cantor flown in specially from the New York Synagogue to recite the Kaddish.

This special ceremony for a special rememberance of a special people will be followed by no less than three special visual exhibitions of art work and pictures.
A book signing will also be taking place by Daniel Mendeahlon who will discuss and sign copies of his latest book: "The search of the six from the six millions".
And last but definitely not least, a series of special films will be screened :" Volevo solo vivere /I only wanted to live", a film about 6 Italian survivors of Aushwitz and another film by some eastern European called "Spell your name"followed by a professor from Yale University specialized in Genocide Studies who will also be giving a conference on the same theme.
A very special day for a very special people...

Ironically though,the theme this year is "Rememberance and Beyond". The focus will be on the importance of infusing people with the lessons of the holocaust so that future generations will prevent hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice with a special emphasis on youth. All of the above following the UN General Assembly resolution 60/7.

A resolution echoing the first collective shout by the "civilized" nations following World War II, the shout " Never Again !"
It,in fact took millions of victims of different nationalities, different religious and ethnic backgrounds to fuel that first shout "Never again."
The United Nations itself, the International Court of Justice and the Geneva Conventions were created following that primal shout "Never again".

And since 1945 ,mausoleums,permanent exhibitions,vigils,conferences,philosophical debates on the "wickedness of the human mind" take place on quasi daily basis-all shouting "Never Again."

Never again,mass genocide and collective punishment. Never again, concentration camps. Never again collective rape. Never again Ghettos. Never again asphyxiation and experiments on humans. Never again collective torture. Never again deliberate starvation. Never again forced labor. Never again discrimination by name tags ... Never again.... Never again...Let us sing it together now out loud , Never again!

Meanwhile.... and in parallel...
1948 - The Establishment of Israel by the International Community, that same international community. And since that year, a silent mass genocide takes place in Palestine, silent to the deaf ears of the world.
Millions of refugees, hundreds of detention prisons, burns by cluster bombs and other "friendly" weapons, mass starvation, mass destruction,mass graves, collective torture, concentration camps and ghettos . Ramallah, Jenin, Tul Karem, Nablus, Gaza .... name tags and discrimination, a collective rape of a people, its identity, its memory by none other than "survivors" and it goes on till this very day....Never again ?

Nearly 10 years ago, the guns were silenced in Bosnia Herzegovina.
Again, over 5 years of massacres, collective rape, concentration camps, collective torture,(where a father was forced to have sex with his own daughter in front of the serbian soldiers and that is just one example) collective destruction right in front of the nose of the International Community and the UN.
It took 200'000 Bosnians in mass graves and over 30'000 Bosnian women raped and tortured for the respectable International Community to interfere and the UN to move.
And even after that, Bosnian women reported rapes by UN soldiers supposed to maintain peace and safety.
On a side note , when Causescu fell in Romania, there were operations named "Romanian villages" all over the" civilized West" to save abandoned romanians babies... just in case you have forgotten.

1990 - Present : Comes the big chunk Iraq.
Never in contemporary history has the International Community and the United Nations been a direct culprit in mass genocide like it has done in Iraq.
In 1990, the most cruel embargo and set of sanctions were imposed on the Iraqi people with the blessings and the complicity of the United Nations. That same United Nations that was born out of the birth pangs of "Never Again."

After the "liberation of Kuwait", the sanctions were maintained with vehemence and an iron fist.
Some of you may know but it is good to remind you , that over 1.5 million people died as a result of a decision taken by the Security Council in 1990 and maintained even though it had no more reason to continue maintaining it since the small oil banana republic Kuwait was finally liberated.
13 years of mass genocide and of mass murdering by the UN and the Security Council.
Not less than 1.5 million men and women dead, out of which not less than 500'000 children under the age of 5. And you know the famous phrase by Madeleine Albright the American :"The Price was well worth it."

The going rate of infant death from 1990 until the "liberation" of Irak and its invasion , ie. 2003 was 5'000 per month. 5'000 children per month... Never again ?
The total number during those 13 years of sanctions were a double Hiroshima and Nagasaki put together.
For 13 long years, Iraqi civilians were not allowed the following :

*medication and medical supplies and equipments:

- advanced cancer patients in agonizing pain were given aspirin , one box to be shared by a whole ward. Morphin and other anti cancer drugs were forbidden. Children with leukemia were left to die in death wards under the helpless eyes of doctors and the heart torn mothers.
- vaccines for children against yellow fever, hepatitis, chicken pox, polio and other preventable diseases were forbidden.
- cardiac, diabetic patients were left to die too- again forbidden drugs. Ditto for hypertension and other chronic illnesses . Give them aspirin said the United Nations...
- Depleted Uranium generously sprayed during "Desert Storm" gave rise to the most grotesque infant deformities that make Frankenstein look like a beauty pageant, rare forms of cancer with zero hope, cancer that attacks the soft tissues in the most vulnerable, children and women. Thromboblastic tumors in chidlren galore, uterine and breast cancer galore, prostate and kidney cancer galore, lung cancer galore... and no drugs . Again, give them aspirin said the United Nations . But then even Aspirin was like gold , a rare commodity. Never again ?
- anesthesia for surgery was banned. Patients undergoing surgery fully awake under the cold surgeon's knife with their mouths stuffed with paper so they would grin and bear it. No paper tissues , forbidden. We used newspapers instead . Never again ?
- X ray machines, X ray films, electrocardiograms, any medical supply and equipment- forbidden.
My own uncle died because the hospital had no films for a chest X ray or ink for an electrocardiogram. He died following complications of a chest infections coupled with congestive heart failure aged 55. He had 7 kids to look after. Never again ?
- No surgical gloves, no surgery thread, no disposable needles. Forbidden.
A surgeon friend of mine swears that he made operations and sewn the patient with a tailor's needle. I believe him becauseI have seen worse. Result? Mass Genocide.
The little medication we received was expired and some of the hospital sheets given generously by our international community dated from world war II - am not kidding you. Never again ?

* Spare parts and Food.
- Desert storm destroyed most electrical and power plants. Which meant no electricity and no clean water. Chlorine to purify water ? Forbidden. Result, dirty water drank by the majority. Result . Hepatitis, Typhoid, cholera, dysentery,TB... Result ?Mass genocide.
- No electricity. Spare parts forbidden . Result? power cuts , rotting food in refrigerators, patients under surgery woken up because the surgery could not be continued, sick patients, children and families dehydrating collectively. Sleepless nights sitting by candlelight, no tv and even no radio, batteries were forbidden.
- whatever Iraqi industry we had was halted, destroyed by smart bombs.
This means a halt to any local production. No powdered milk, no food fresh or canned , no milk, no butter, no cheese, not even tomato paste. Families lived on bread alone and the more wealthy ones on aubergines because we could grow them in our backyards We became natural vegetarians...
Even the bread which was rationed by the government was inedible. We would find little stones in it. Endless queues for anything that could be edible. Result? Mass malnutrition , mass starvation.
- computers and the rest - forget it . These are for the civilized world like yourselves.

* Education and miscellaneous.
- Ironically, a street named after one of the most famous poets in the History of Arab literature, Al Mutannabi.
The Al- Mutannabi street was filled to the brim with all kinds of second hand books. From Anatomy to Linguistics ... in Arabic, French and English. School books, drawing books, history books, psychology books, religious books.....etc...
People started selling their books. What you love to call in your politically correct jargon, their intellectual property.
- Pens and pencil were forbidden. Giving someone a pencil was giving him/her the elixir of life.
The reason for this prohibition. Pencils might be used in the fabrication of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
- Schools had no benches nor tables. Pupils would sit on pieces of brick and give up school when the sewage flooded their classrooms. University students had no access to the latest developments and discoveries in sciences and other subjects....it was forbidden. The United Nations decreed so.

I personally met with a 75 years plus old Hajji. A venerable title for an older man (that has nothing to do with your dirty slang) sitting on a dusty dirty pavement holding a transparent plastic bag in his hands filled with dead flies.
I said to him " Hajji what are your exactly selling ?". He replied : " What is the matter Bintee(my daughter) can't you see ? I am selling dead flies, freshly captured. Do you rear birds. Take a fly for your bird."

In another side street the more desperate ones were selling their furniture and paraffin heaters, their prams, their beds, their wardrobes, their everything....keeping the bare necessities.
In another side street, the clothes...coats, hats, dresses, trousers, shirts, canes and some even their underwear...
In the dark stench filled alleyways with nauseating sewage smells, others were concluding deals to sell their organs.. A kidney here , a finger there, maybe two or more...
And in the even darker alleys, some were selling themselves..
Even toilet soap was forbidden. Sorry could not make ourselves smell good for your invasion.

A big ghetto of massive proportions. A huge concentration camp. No visas were given, people were stuck in mass genocide.
Those who managed, worked as waiters, garbage collectors , taxi drivers carefully hiding their university diplomas. And the less lucky ones , ended up in brothels in neighboring countries. Some as young as 14 years old, hoping to find refuge in exchange for food and shelter and a bit of pocket money promptly sent home under the benevolent eyes of the brothel's Matron.

This is just a glimpse of what happened during the sanction years under the auspices of the United Nations, the one that was born out of "Never again."
No one budged.
When given the facts and figures, they and their masters, the US and GB debated the "methodology'arguing about it ....
Understandbly so. When you find out that each UN employee specially in the higher echelons gets a tax free salary in the vicinity of 25'000 US dollars per month plus other benefits, you will understand why. The Perez de Cuellar, the Boutros Ghalis and the Kofi Anans of this world...
A bunch of dead corrupt wood with falsified fake diplomas, engaging in constant political ass kissing. Sitting on their big fat behinds , driving their spotless brand new cars and issuing reports that hardly anyone reads and entitling them, "Never again!" Except for the select few of course.

But and thank God for the buts, a few who had not been polluted by the above dirt spoke out during the sanction years , giving you and I, hope that Truth will prevail.
The names are few but they need to be remembered and respected:
They are Dennis Halliday, Ex-SecretaryGeneral heading the Humanitarian oil for food program, Hans Von Sponeck, UN aid coordinator for Iraq and Jutta Burkhardt head of UN World Food Program. the 3 of them had the guts to resign.
They resigned because they knew and as they know now , that the UN sanctions program was a program of mass genocide - Never again ?
( a must see this latest video by both Dennis Halliday and Hans Von Sponeck)

I know,and please bear with me, this is getting to be a long article, and I usually like it "short and sweet". But this is a holocaust, a day to be remembered, I can't simply gloss over it.
I am not the UN and I don't have a symphony orchestra, nor a mausoleum, I just have my words...

Today, the 29th January 2007,Iraqis long for the days of the sanctions.
Iraq has been "liberated", from 2003 till the present.
Today in Iraq, people are collectively raped, murdered, tortured, experimented on with various drugs and drills and american bombs. Lazer bombs, phosphorus, cluster, DU....
Today in Iraq, every city has become a massive ghetto. Baghdad, Falluja, Ramadi, Mosul, Haditha,etc...
Today in Iraq, there are mass concentration, rape and torture camps.
Today in Iraq there are 3.7 million refugees seeking shelter outside.
Today in Iraq, there are 700'000 plus dead since 2003, add to this figure 260'000 children. Today in Iraq, there is no aspirin, no food, no water, no electricity, no nothing....
Today in Iraq people, are persecuted for their name tags.
Today in Iraq, there are no more universities or schools.
Today in Iraq, people have stopped selling their organs and are selling their kids instead.
Today in Iraq there are no hospitals left and cancer patients are considered lucky.
Today in Iraq, the secret letter circulating in the UN prior to the occupation warning that over 1.4 million children will die, has come true.
Today in Iraq there is a holocaust happening before your very eyes.


During World War II , Schindler saved around 1'000 victims from the holocaust.
Since then,how many were you able to save? What is your list ? 1 , 2 , 3, names?
Do I hear anything ? No ? Of course not...
You can go back to sleep now.

Palestine, Bosnia, Iraq have one common denominator...I leave it to your intelligence to guess what it is ....

Never again ? Yes sure thing ...Bring on the UN General Assembly and the lamenting violins for me now ...
I, personally hold the International Community and the United Nations responsible for Crimes against Humanity as they are happening today in Iraq. I hold the United Nations responsible for a holocaust. I hold it and all other silent ones, apathetic, indifferent,complacent ones, responsible for this Holocaust , today, in the day of "Rememberance and Beyond."
Never again ?

P.S: Do forgive me Afghanistan, blame it on proximity but you are not forgotten.

Painting : Iraqi artist, M. Muhrradin.

A big win for the LA 8

Tue Jan 30, 2007

Judge Einhorn of immigration court rendered his decision on Tuesday January 30, 2007 in (LA 8) case. The court “finds that the government has failed to carry its burden of proving respondents deportable based on clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence. Therefore, the proceedings against Hamide and Shehadeh are TERMINATED.) The decision said.

Please visit our web site for more information. Please click on the word decision in the body of the article to read the decision. [Editor's note: See article below]

Thanks to all who helped in this case,

Michel Shehadeh
---

The Los Angeles Eight Case

Government Seeks Deportation for Magazine Distribution in 1980s

^{When Administration defenders claim that "there have been no abuses" of the Patriot Act, ask them about the case of Khader Hamide and Michel Shehadeh. The government seeks to deport these two long-time permanent resident aliens under the Patriot Act for having distributed magazines and raised humanitarian aid in the 1980s in Los Angeles. It seeks to punish these men, neither of whom has ever even been charged, let alone convicted, of a crime, under a law enacted in 2001 for conduct engaged in fifteen years earlier, at a time when the conduct was perfectly legal. And it seeks to deport them for classic First Amendment activity ? the distribution of a magazine.}

^{The case of Hamide and Shehadeh will prove a critical test of the limits of the expansive amendments to immigration law made by the Patriot Act. And because the activities for which the government seeks to deport Hamide and Shehadeh are protected by the First Amendment, it also will prove a test of the scope of immigrants' First Amendment rights. This is the first case in which the government has sought to deport anyone under that Act for distributing literature, and one of the first in which the government has invoked the Patriot Act's "material support to terrorist organization" grounds. It is also one of the longest-running immigration cases in the United States, having begun 18 years ago, in 1987, under an anti-communist immigration law dating back to the 1950s. The case, a kind of modern-day Bleak House, has generated several landmark judicial opinions, and been up to the Supreme Court. It is now back in immigration court, where trial is set to begin July 13, 2005, before Immigration Judge Bruce J. Einhorn.}

^{Born in the West Bank, Khader Hamide and Michel Shehadeh came to the United States in their college years and have now lived here thirty four and thirty years, respectively. They are lawful permanent residents and hard-working fathers--Hamide, father of three U.S. citizen children, supplies luxury coffee shops; Shehadeh, father of two U.S. citizen children and married to a U.S. citizen, works as a freelance writer and lives in Oregon.}

^{They are now charged with being deportable for having provided "material support" to a "terrorist organization." The organization is the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a faction of the PLO headed by George Habash. The government claims that Hamide and Shehadeh provided the PFLP with "material support" in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s by distributing its magazine, and by holding two community dinners at which they helped raise money for political activities and humanitarian aid. The money went to support political work in the United States in support of Palestinian self-determination, and humanitarian aid to various social service groups in Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza. But the government claims that the recipients were tied to the PFLP, and that therefore Hamide and Shehadeh are deportable.}

^{The case began in 1987, when immigration authorities arrested seven young Palestinians and a Kenyan woman--dubbed the "LA 8" by the media--on charges of being affiliated with the PFLP. At that time, the oovernment claimed that they were deportable for being affiliated with a group that "advocated the doctrines of world communism," a deportable offense under the McCarran-Walter Act, a law enacted in 1952, at the height of the McCarthy era. At the time, FBI Director William Webster testified before Congress that the eight "had not been found to have engaged themselves in terrorist activity." Hearings Before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Nomination of William H. Webster to be Director of Central Intelligence, 100th Cong. 1st Sess. 94-95 (April 8, 9, 10, May 1, 1987). Mr. Webster further admitted that they "were arrested because they are alleged to be members of a world-wide Communist organization which under the McCarran Act makes them eligible for deportation ... if these individuals had been United States citizens, there would not have been a basis for their arrest." Id.}

_{In 1989, a federal court declared the McCarran-Walter Act charges unconstitutional. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Comm. v. Meese, 714 F. Supp. 1060 (C.D. Cal. 1989). The court ruled that the First Amendment protects all persons within the United States equally, whether citizens or foreign nationals, and that deporting foreign nationals for their political associations violated the First Amendment. The following year Congress repealed that McCarthy-era law. The government nonetheless pursued deportation under new charges.}

^{In 1995, the same federal court blocked the deportations under the new charges from going forward on the grounds that the government, in violation of the First Amendment, had selectively targeted the group for constitutionally protected political activities. The court reviewed 10,000 pages of evidence submitted by the government, but found evidence only of constitutionally protected political activity. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Comm. v. Reno, No. CV 87-2107, at 32 n.14 (C.D. Cal. Apr. 29, 1996).}

^{In 1996, however, Congress stripped federal courts of authority to hear such selective-enforcement challenges to deportation, and in 1999 the Supreme Court ruled that the cases could go forward. Reno v. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Comm., 525 U.S. 471 (1999).}

^{The case is now back in immigration court, where trial is scheduled to being July 13, 2005. The government claims that Hamide and Shehadeh provided material support to the PFLP. Hamide and Shehadeh deny providing such support. They admit that they distributed magazines and sponsored two community dinners, but maintain that they raised money only for domestic political activities of the Committee for a Democratic Palestine, a U.S.-based political organization that engaged in political activity in support of Palestinian self-determination ? and for a handful of charitable social service organizations in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank. The trial will focus on Hamide and Shehadeh's political activism in the 1980s, and whether it can be seen as "material support" to the PFLP.}

^{Hamide and Shehadeh have challenged the retroactive application of the Patriot Act to their conduct, engaged in twenty years ago. They also argue that their activities were protected by the First Amendment, and that they did not support the PFLP.}

A warning on the decline, and possible fall, of U.S.

BOOK REVIEW

Nemesis The Last Days of the American Republic Chalmers Johnson Metropolitan Books: 356 pp., $26

By Tim Rutten
Times Staff Writer

January 31, 2007

PROPHECY is a tough gig.

The gods who let Cassandra see the future also decreed that no one would believe her. Foresight without credibility drove her mad. An idealistic young rabbi once surveyed his skeptical friends and neighbors from the bimah of their village synagogue and mournfully concluded that a prophet is never without honor — except in his own country.

Since the events of Sept. 11, 2001, Chalmers Johnson, the distinguished scholar of East Asia, has assumed something close to the mantle of a contemporary Jeremiah. His 2000 book "Blowback" essentially predicted that U.S. covert intelligence activities abroad had unwittingly unleashed consequences that would threaten America's physical security. That anxiety was realized on that awful day in September, which made his subsequent volume "The Sorrows of Empire" mandatory reading. Now Johnson completes what he conceives as a trilogy with "Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic."

This is an area in which Johnson is uniquely qualified to speak. Now 76 and an emeritus professor at UC San Diego, Johnson believed in the Cold War against the Soviet Union and helped to wage it — intellectually, as a formidable scholar of China and Japan, and more practically as an influential consultant to the CIA's Office of National Estimates.

The thesis proffered here is that, since the end of World War II, the United States has been undergoing a kind of creeping coup in which the growth of an imperial presidency, the development of the CIA as a secret presidential army, the bloating of an outsized military establishment, and a venal and derelict Congress have conspired to undermine the American republic — perhaps irremediably.

When Johnson mines the recent history he has studied and experienced firsthand, the results are bracing. Surveying the Bush administration's now 6-year-old campaign to reassert executive authority over the two co-equal branches of government, the author traces its origins back not only to Vice President Dick Cheney's well-known opposition to the War Powers Act of 1973 but also to his less widely understood antipathy to President Ford's executive order forbidding U.S. government employees to commit or to conspire in political assassinations. Johnson also cites the elder President Bush's anger that Congress had "unleashed a bunch of untutored little jerks" to investigate the CIA in the 1970s. As Johnson points out, the "little jerks" were those U.S. senators chaired by Frank Church (D-Idaho), whose historical investigation unearthed widespread abuses in the intelligence agencies.

As Johnson points out, all the legislation delineating executive powers that Cheney and the elder and younger Bushes find so burdensome "represented attempts to deal with crimes committed by government officials."

To Johnson, the struggle waged by the Bush-Cheney administration to turn back the clock on these issues is a "bald-faced assertion of presidential supremacy in all matters relating to foreign affairs dressed up in legalistic mumbo jumbo." It reached its nadir, the author suggests, in the now infamous memo that John Yoo, then a White House lawyer, wrote asserting the president's right to defy all U.S. laws and international treaties and to authorize torture as a tool of state policy.

"Yoo and company have concocted something that looks very much like an American version of the Chinese Communists' 'Two Whatevers,' " writes Johnson, an old China hand. "These were the basic principles that prevailed during the years when the cult of Mao Zedong was ascendant: 'We will resolutely uphold whatever policy decisions Chairman Mao makes; and we will unswervingly follow whatever instructions Chairman Mao gives.' Substitute Bush for Mao and you get the idea."

There's never been a more apt or sobering description of the administration's conduct in this matter — or, for that matter, of the implications of the country's collective acquiescence to it.

Many of the conclusions Johnson teases from his shrewdly assembled and analyzed material are not so convincing.

For example, appropriating Hannah Arendt's description of Adolf Eichmann — "desk murderer" — and applying it to Cheney, George W. Bush and Donald H. Rumsfeld isn't just histrionic, it's wrong on the merits, wrong in ways so fundamental that it renders moral judgment itself a uselessly blunt instrument. However horrific events in Iraq have been, they have nothing in common with Hitlerian Germany's "final solution," and it does violence to both reason and history to carelessly suggest otherwise for mere effect.

On the other hand, when Johnson argues that America "will never again know peace, nor in all probability survive very long as a nation, unless we abolish the CIA, restore intelligence collecting to the State Department, and remove all but purely military functions from the Pentagon," he presents a case that demands consideration.

In his prologue, Johnson explains that he chose his title with folklorist Micha F. Lindemans' description of "Nemesis" in mind: "the goddess of divine justice and vengeance … [who] pursues the insolent and the wicked with inflexible vengeance." To Johnson, the goddess Nemesis is "a bit like Richard Wagner's Valkyrie Brünnhilde, except that Brünnhilde collects heroes, not fools and hypocrites. Nonetheless, Brünnhilde's way of announcing herself applies also to Nemesis…. 'Only the doomed see me.' "

Well, Northern European thought always has had an unfortunate penchant for determinism in much the same way that American thinking has recklessly indulged a cockeyed and ahistorical faith in our illusionary exceptionalism. It's always been hard to fathom, in fact, what it is about American nationality that seems to armor us against an authentic sense of tragedy.

Two wrongs, however, really don't make a right.

In his conclusion, Johnson argues that "to maintain our empire abroad requires resources and commitments that will inevitably undercut our domestic democracy and in the end produce a military dictatorship or its civilian equivalent…. [The] combination of huge standing armies, almost continuous wars, military Keynesianism, and ruinous military expenses have destroyed our republican structure in favor of an imperial presidency. We are on the cusp of losing our democracy for the sake of keeping our empire."

Some of that is true and important; parts of it just are not. For example, the imperial presidency is a threat to our democracy, but is the exercise — or mismanagement — of power in the unipolar world that has developed since the end of the Cold War really equivalent to, say, the late Roman or even British empires? There are parallels, of course, but not entirely applicable ones.

Similarly, it isn't as if this American democracy hasn't faced dire threats before. Certainly the Civil War was one, and Abraham Lincoln's assertion of presidential supremacy over civil liberties was as sweeping as anything George W. Bush has attempted — absent the grisly insistence on torture, of course. The republic came through that. (However, if another terrorist attack were to include damage on multiple cities with casualties exceeding those of Sept. 11, all bets would be off.)

Similarly, military dictatorships usually are imposed by successful military leaders — say, Caesar or Napoleon — who appear to offer their people clear advantages over other forms of leadership. President Bush is an abysmal military failure. The recent midterm knocked him rather forcefully off the white horse. Finally, there's the matter of the contemporary American officer corps itself. To have a successful military coup, you need a certain kind of military mind. Anybody who has spent any time around today's well-educated and thoughtful crop of commissioned and noncommissioned officers — particularly in the Army and Marine Corps — knows that their sophisticated realism and profound sense of their vocation's limits is a bulwark rather than a threat to democracy. It's their civilian leaders who have a problematic world view. If Bush had listened to the only real military man in his Cabinet, former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, the United States wouldn't now be mired in the Iraqi quagmire.

Still, these are serious arguments over serious issues, and Chalmers Johnson's important new book is something with which anyone who aspires to a worthwhile opinion about this country's future must now contend on terms at least as thoughtful as the author's.

---

timothy.rutten@latimes.com

A case for impeachment

- Robert Scheer
Wednesday, January 31, 2007

NOT ALL LIES are created equal. It is understood that there is a chasm of importance between little white lies and big black ones. Most would agree that lying about a consensual sexual affair, even by the president, is of significantly lesser concern than his lying about the proliferation of nuclear weapons as an excuse to take the nation to war.

How then is it possible that a Republican-controlled Congress impeached President Bill Clinton over his attempt to conceal marital infidelity, but that a Democratic-led Congress will not even consider impeaching this president for far more serious transgressions against the public trust? That is the question that arises from early revelations of the trial of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff.

This case's importance lies not in the narrow charge that Libby committed perjury in testifying about his role in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Wilson; that was merely one facet of a far-ranging plot to deceive Congress and the public about perhaps the most important issue of our time: The prospect of terrorists obtaining a weapon of mass destruction.

The infamous 16-word State of the Union claim by President Bush that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had sought to obtain enriched uranium from the African country of Niger was known to be based on fraudulent documents at the time Bush used this and other false evidence to make his case for war.

The Libby case testimony, centered on the chicanery of the vice president, certainly suggests that impeachable offenses occurred on the highest level of the White House. Just how conscious the president was of the deceits conducted under his authority, what he knew and when he knew it, is precisely what an impeachment trial would determine.

Consider the testimony concerning White House use of former CIA Director George Tenet in the cover-up of the president's distortions. The record is unmistakably clear that the CIA and other intelligence sources warned the White House before the president's speech not to make the bogus Niger claim, and that the reference had been voided in a previous speech. Yet, after Ambassador Joseph Wilson exposed this fact more than a year after the invasion, Cheney orchestrated a new deception to shift the blame to Tenet.

That is the smoking gun revelation in the testimony of Cheney's former spokeswoman Cathie Martin, the Harvard-educated lawyer who still works in the White House. Her word is that of a sophisticated and top-level White House insider, and as described by the Washington Post, one that offers a devastating glimpse into the moral depravity of this administration:

"At length, Martin explained how she, Libby and Deputy National Security Adviser Steve Hadley worked late into the night writing a statement to be issued by George Tenet in 2004 in which the CIA boss would take blame for the bogus claim in Bush's State of the Union address that Iraq was seeking nuclear material in Africa. After 'delicate' talks, Tenet agreed to say the CIA 'approved' the claim and 'I am responsible' -- but even that disappointed Martin, who had wanted Tenet to say that 'we did not express any doubts about Niger.' " Tenet later was awarded the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Certainly this deliberate corruption of the integrity of the CIA, the nation's premier source of national security information, rises to the level of "high crimes and misdemeanors," which the Constitution holds out as the standard for impeachment. And can there be any more egregious example of betraying the oath of office of the president to uphold the Constitution than his deceiving Congress from the very well of the House on the reasons for going to war? The Constitution clearly delegates to Congress, and not to the president, the exclusive power to declare war, and deceiving our representatives in making the case for war is a far more important crime than the perjury charge against Libby.

Testimony already has established that Libby was nothing more than a pawn used by Cheney in the vice president's constant and ferocious campaign to trick the nation into war -- not a totally surprising quest for a man who had served as CEO for a corporation that has profited so obscenely from the Iraq agony.

Cheney, like some Daddy Warbucks cartoon character of old, has been so blatant in his corruption of the nation's second highest office that we seem to have become inured to further revelations of his evil influence. Instead of shock, we are more likely jaded by even more examples of the man's use of his office to persistently undermine our democratic heritage. Too bad he wasn't cursed by an overactive libido.

E-mail Rscheer@truthdig.com

Page B - 9

Official Lies over Najaf Battle Exposed

January 31, 2007

Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily

NAJAF, Iraq, Jan 31 (IPS) - Iraqi government lies over the killing of hundreds of Shias in an attack on Sunday stand exposed by independent investigations carried out by IPS in Iraq.

Conflicting reports had arisen earlier on how and why a huge battle broke out around the small village Zarqa, located just a few kilometres northeast of the Shia holy city Najaf, which is 90 km south of Baghdad.

One thing certain is that when the smoke cleared, more than 200 people lay dead after more than half a day of fighting Sunday Jan. 28. A U.S. helicopter was shot down, killing two soldiers. Twenty-five members of the Iraqi security force were also killed.

"We were going to conduct the usual ceremonies that we conduct every year when we were attacked by Iraqi soldiers," Jabbar al-Hatami, a leader of the al-Hatami Shia Arab tribe told IPS.

"We thought it was one of the usual mistakes of the Iraqi army killing civilians, so we advanced to explain to the soldiers that they killed five of us for no reason. But we were surprised by more gunfire from the soldiers."

The confrontation took place on the Shia holiday of Ashura which commemorates Imam Hussein, grandson of the prophet Muhammad and the most revered of Shia saints. Emotions run high at this time, and self-flagellation in public is the norm.

Many southern Shia Arabs do not follow Iranian-born cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. They believe the religious leadership should be kept in the hands of Arab clerics. Al-Hatami and al-Khazaali are two major tribes that do not follow Sistani.

Tribal members from both believe the attack was launched by the central government of Baghdad to stifle growing Shia-Sunni unity in the area.

"Our convoy was close to the al-Hatami convoy on the way to Najaf when we heard the massive shooting, and so we ran to help them because our tribe and theirs are bound with a strong alliance," a 45-year-old man who asked to be referred to as Ahmed told IPS.

Ahmed, a member of the al-Khazali tribe said "our two tribes have a strong belief that Iranians are provoking sectarian war in Iraq which is against the belief of all Muslims, and so we announced an alliance with Sunni brothers against any sectarian violence in the country. That did not make our Iranian dominated government happy."

The fighting took place on the Diwaniya-Najaf road and spread into nearby date-palm plantations after pilgrims sought refuge there.

"American helicopters participated in the slaughter," Jassim Abbas, a farmer from the area told IPS. "They were soon there to kill those pilgrims without hesitation, but they were never there for helping Iraqis in anything they need. We just watched them getting killed group by group while trapped in those plantations."

Much of the killing was done by U.S. and British warplanes, eyewitnesses said.

Local authorities including the office of Najaf Governor Asaad Abu Khalil who is a member of the pro-Iranian Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) had claimed before the killings that a group of primarily foreign Sunni fighters with links to al-Qaeda had planned to disrupt the Ashura festival by attacking Shia pilgrims and senior ayatollahs in Najaf. The city is the principal seat of religious learning for Shias in Iraq.

Officials claimed that Iraqi security forces had obtained intelligence information from two detained men that had led the Iraqi Scorpion commando squad to prepare for an attack. The intelligence claimed obviously had little impact on how events unfolded.

Minister of Interior Jawad al-Bolani announced to reporters at 9 am Sunday morning that Najaf was being attacked by al-Qaeda. Immediately following this announcement the Ministry of National Security (MNS) announced that the dead were members of the Shia splinter extremist group Jund al-Sama (Army of Heaven) who were out to kill senior ayatollahs in Najaf, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

Iraq's national security advisor Muaffaq al-Rubaii said just 15 minutes after the MNS announcement that hundreds of Arab fighters had been killed, and that many had been arrested. Rubaii claimed there were Saudis, Yemenis, Egyptians and Afghans.

But Governor Khalil's office backed away from its initial claims after the dead turned out to be local Shia Iraqis. Iraqi security officials continue to contradict their own statements. Most officials now say that the dead were Shia extremists supported by foreign powers.

The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has a pattern of announcing it is fighting terrorists, like its backers in Washington. Many Iraqis in the south now accuse Baghdad of calling them terrorists simply because they refuse to collaborate with the Iranian dominated government.

(Ali al-Fadhily is our Baghdad correspondent. Dahr Jamail is our specialist writer who has spent eight months reporting from inside Iraq and has been covering the Middle East for several years.)

Read story from website