Freedom Rider: Obama’s CIA
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by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
Global public opinion has been called the “second superpower” – second only to the United States in capacity to shape world events. But the premiere intelligence agency of the reigning state superpower routinely manipulates world opinion to suit U.S. purposes. The CIA distorts global realities in furtherance of President Obama’s war aims in Afghanistan/Pakistan.
Freedom Rider: Obama’s CIA
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
“The United States government believes it has any right to undermine people and governments around the world.”
It is easy to understand the actions taken by the current presidential administration if certain facts are acknowledged. The most important fact is this: the system doesn’t change because parties in power change. The same rulers still rule, and White House occupants, whether Republican or Democrat, don’t get near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue unless they make those rulers extremely happy first.
All of this means that government agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency, will do what they have always done. The CIA’s job is to undermine opposition to American military and corporate power. That was true in the days of the cold war, and it is still true in 2010.
The investigative website, Wikileaks, did the world an enormous favor by leaking a CIA document called “CIA Red Cell Special Memorandum: Afghanistan: Sustaining Western European Support for the NATO Led Mission – Why Counting on Apathy Might Not be Enough.” The long winded yet creepy title says it all.
Last month the Dutch parliamentary government fell when its citizens decided they no longer wanted to be engaged in the continued occupation of Afghanistan. Europeans are overwhelmingly opposed to this policy, yet have been unable to get their governments to act as they would like on this issue. Afghanistan is not their biggest priority, and their other concerns are apparently addressed well enough to keep them from focusing on this particular aspect of their countries’ foreign policy.
“Apathetic citizens may mumble and grumble and wring their hands, but they won’t take action against the powers that be.”
The CIA report states that apathy is a good thing for people in the line of work of subverting popular will. Apathetic citizens may mumble and grumble and wring their hands, but they won’t take action against the powers that be. French and German voters will tell pollsters that they oppose their nations’ presence in Afghanistan, but those feelings haven’t led to policy changes as of yet. The CIA fears that this dysfunctional dynamic may change:
“If some forecasts of a bloody summer in Afghanistan come to pass, passive French and
German dislike of their troop presence could turn into active and politically potent hostility. The tone of previous debate suggests that a spike in French or German casualties or in Afghan civilian casualties could become a tipping point in converting passive opposition into active calls for immediate withdrawal.”
The author of the memo presumes to know how best to appeal to French and German noble instincts. According to these CIA experts, the French will be swayed by appeals from Afghan women and the Germans are afraid of drugs and terrorism. It is unclear if they know what they are talking about, but that is hardly the point. The most important point is that the United States government will find the means to propagandize citizens of other nations, and subvert the popular will. Whether from allied nations or not, human beings are not supposed to get any big ideas about controlling their own destinies. They are supposed to act as the United States wants them to and in this case that means continuing to bring death to the Afghan people.
“According to these CIA experts, the French will be swayed by appeals from Afghan women and the Germans are afraid of drugs and terrorism.”
The memo doesn’t explain how to go about making the French weep for Afghan maidens and the Germans to fear that they will be invaded by drug dealing terrorists, but that doesn’t matter either. The very fact that the United States government believes it has any right to undermine people and governments around the world ought to be a scandal and should not be forgotten.
This is not a new story. The Obama administration CIA is behaving in the same way as every other president’s CIA. If it were not so serious, it would be laughable that the CIA would use fears of drug dealing in order to sway public opinion in Germany or anywhere else. The CIA has itself been a drug dealer for many decades in Southeast Asia, in Latin America and in Europe. There would never have been a French Connection drug route without American government support of organized crime.
The United States continues to be a threat to peace around the world. It is unfortunately still the most powerful nation, and this time has a popular president who as the CIA memo points out, is uniquely qualified to persuade people to work against their better instincts and their own best interest. “The confidence of the French and German publics in President Obama’s ability to handle foreign affairs in general and Afghanistan in particular suggest that they would be receptive to his direct affirmation of their importance to the ISAF mission—and sensitive to direct expressions of disappointment in allies who do not help.” The current Nobel Peace Prize winner has a lot of undeserved credibility. It is indeed unfortunate when the American president is popular and well liked.
This CIA memo is the latest in a long list of evidence proving that it really isn’t possible to change our system, assuming that anyone in power is ever really interested in doing that. Barack Obama certainly isn’t. He is up to the old tricks of every other American president, speaking softly perhaps, but still carrying the big stick of aggression against the rest of the world.
Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.com.
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All the Mumbai Massacre hoopla, and he's "our" guy
The Mumbai Massacre perpetrator looks like an American super duper double secret agent. For all the US demands about Pakistani cooperation, the US refuses to cooperate with India. I hope the stupid Indians figure out why for their own sake.
"In exchange, the government vowed not to allow foreign authorities to question him or subject him to trial. Prosecutors also agreed not seek the death penalty, and he may not even serve a life sentence. Links to U.S. intelligence agencies will remain classified. And his guilty plea ensures that there will be no drawn-out trial that could publicly reveal any relationships with various intelligence agencies — most notably, the Central Intelligence Agency-linked Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence. Headley admitted in the plea bargain that he helped plan the bloody massacre by conducting surveillance and selecting targets, gathering GPS coordinates for the terrorist team’s boat landing along the coast, and more. He was also helping to plan an attack on a Danish cartoonist. And while the Federal Bureau of Investigation was given almost 10 hours to question the only surviving attacker in India, a team of Indian investigators who traveled to the U.S. to interrogate Headley was turned away.
The plea deal and the lack of American cooperation immediately sparked fury and despair in India, as the U.S. is reportedly bound by treaty to surrender Headley to Indian authorities. It also fueled accusations in the media that Headley still may have been linked to the American or Pakistani governments in some capacity. He began his terrorist training around the time that he was working for the U.S. government. But the connections, however, remain shrouded in mystery. "
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/crime/3240-mumbai-terrori...
Of course the "Today" show and Larry King Live won't say jack shit about all of this, just like the Nigerian pants bomber suspicious actions and "connections." In the United (National Security) States, nothing is beyond the pale. Whether planting terrorists, funding them, or "looking the other way," or assassinating US citizens for alleged "terrorist activities." The US government, largest purveyor of violence in the history of the world. All of this harkens back to Chris Floyd's essay years ago:
The Pentagon's Plan to Foment Terrorism.
http://empireburlesquenow.blogspot.com/2005/01/into-dark-pentagon-plan-t...
"In other words – and let's say this plainly, clearly and soberly, so that no one can mistake the intention of Rumsfeld's plan – the United States government is planning to use "cover and deception" and secret military operations to provoke murderous terrorist attacks on innocent people. Let's say it again: Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush and the other members of the unelected regime in Washington plan to deliberately foment the murder of innocent people – your family, your friends, your lovers, you – in order to further their geopolitical ambitions."
Yes, "Change you can believe in." The WOT is one of the most successful propaganda coups of all time. Most of the "terrorists" are US trained or funded, whether Domestic Versions like McVeigh, or international versions like A.Q. , or the stiff responsible for Mumbai. Of course American Exceptionalism Mythology won't allow the sheeple to wrap their little minds around this.
More Western Chicanery and argument for reparations
More than £1tn may have flowed out of Africa illegally over the last four decades, most of it to western financial institutions, according to a new report.
Even using conservative estimates, the continent lost about $1.8tn (£1.18tn) – meaning Africans living at the end of 2008 had each been deprived of an average of $989 (£649) since 1970, according to the US-based research body Global Financial Integrity (GFI).
"Democracy, meritocracy, values, free markets... among the many slogans & buzz words of the Empire. The reality is different however. One more reason to hate the World Court and the stinking hypocrites who run it. Let's prosecute the compliant African leader for decades of bribery and theft, but leave the Western pigs feeding at the trough.
No reparations will come, btw, but napalm, white phosphorous, depleted uranium, and trumped up, hypocritical convictions of Western stooges with black and brown skin will.
Arundhati Roy:
"Democracy, the modern world's holy cow, is in crisis ... every kind of outrage is being committed in the name of democracy. It has become little more than a hollow word, a pretty shell, emptied of all content or meaning," she said.
"Democracy is the Free World's whore, willing to dress up, dress down, willing to satisfy a whole range of tastes, available to be used and abused at will."
Free elections, a free press and an independent judiciary mean little when the free market means they are on sale to the highest bidder, she said.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0518-03.htm
Obama was groomed by the CIA
Like his mother Ann Dunham, who worked in Indonesia for a CIA front group, President Obama also has ties with the CIA, dating back from one of his first jobs out of college and, predating his "cover" and "status" as a community organizer.
Obama's status as "community organizer" was nothing but a cover story right out of the CIA playbook, for when he would run as president on behalf of the international bankers in London and Washington and New York and Chicago. The Russians knew about Obama years and years ago and knew he was being groomed for president.
So, Black Agenda Report like so many other similar blogs/writings has it almost "correct" about Obama. I am still utterly amazed that Bruce Dixon does not realize that Obama's activities as a "community organizer" was nothing but sham and a front for political cover when the man wanted to seek higher political office.
Nobody but nobody and I do not care about "race" rises to power in the American Military Imperial-Corporatist state without first having connections and then some. Obama did not rise to power but to have done so at the right time. Obama's rise to power is to help America with the following and simultaneously stifle all would be in regular circumstances opposition to:
1. Ending entitlement programs
2. Busting what remains of unions
3. Killing the Teachers Unions and then going after college professors
4. Ending Medicare as we know it
5. Ending Social Security as we know it
6. More wars and continuation of wars and starting a new war on Iran
7. Neutering African-Americans from speaking out to any effective degree who would usually oppose these same policies and the same African-Americans who opposed the war on Iraq in the greatest per capita populatiion bloc to now support the same such war on Iran.
8. Thanks to Obama, the African-American community has become totally subservient to Mr. Obama's agenda, even if it's closer to Bush's policies and Reagan's dream.
Obama is an empty suit but one which was groomed by the CIA years and years ago.
Obama's speeches are also overrated. He talks in a very robotic fashion if you take time to listen to his bumpers on Siriius Radio.
Good day.
Despite the 8 Salient truths you mention
as my friend in Chicago emailed me today, reminding me how Obama sat back while (in all liklihood) Rahmn got African American State Senator Arthur Turner knocked of the Lt. Governor's ballot in Illinois over the hand-picked daughter of Sen. Paul Simon, a political novice who couldn't get elected Mayor in her township, . he also reminded me of another sad truth we both share, here it is in his own words:
"Did you know that the President has not been back to Chicago (accepts for fund raising) since he took office. One would think that he would at least come back once to say thanks to those who got him started, but then again it's the same ole take them for granted. He credits white folks in Iowa for his start. How many town hall meeting has this guy held? None on the South side, West side or in the black suburbs of Chicago, that fact ought to black folks scratching their heads but it won’t. I’m sure he’ll be back, probably around election time giving some bull shit speech in a black dialect, and black folks will eat it up. The more things change the more they stay the same. "
Obama wasn't hardly a community organizer that was some mythological, resume building, bullshit. CIA roots or not he's clearly spent his life kissing up to White folks, begging for their approval, unprincipled and amoral indeed. Never in a million years would the average "Dem" or "Liberal" believe Obama would be more bellicose than Bush w/r/t Iran, would escalate more wars than Bush.
Question to all of you who want to hold on to that community organizer bullshit: "If Obama was one and knew and appreciated it's importance, then WHY DID HE LET ACORN DIE, from a CONTRIVED STORY, that the "Liberal" media refuses to expose even now as a manufactured lie, A HOAX!!
To you diehard, head in the sand, Obama groupies, when will you get it. Obama and the Dem party killed a REAL grassroots organization-- that helped register poor and blacks voters and assisted financially and constructively in other ways-- by defunding them, never once defended Acorn leadership, never called Mr. or Ms. So and So to the W.H. to stand side-by-side (like Bush would have if the Moral Majority was accused of misusing funds) and said "this is my friend and I support them," Obama wouldn't do this OVER AN OUT AND OUT LIE!!!
For Heavens sake people get your head out of your ass!!! Obama is a photogenic, technocratic, multi-media slave driver, pure and simple.
Btw, well said, both you and my friend.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201003210002
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7755
p.s. I am sick of the International Criminal Court, a racist institution to it's core. Only darkies and Eastern Europeans get "justice" in the Hauge. They have the Kenyans in their sights now, but probably be awarding GWB and Cheney medals in 5 years.
Wayne Madsen Reports Anti-Black Racism with Emanuel
Yes, I have seen articles and stories that Rahm Emanuel has declared war with the Congressional Black Caucus because he hates black people. Knowing that Mr. Emanuel hates black people might explain Obama's pandering to white people. Obama is an empty suit groomed by the CIA years ago, nonetheless.
http://www.rense.com/general90/rahm.htm
Rahm Emanuel's Secret War Against
The Congressional Black Caucus
By Wayne Madsen
3-13-10
President Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, as previously reported by WMR, has been engaged in a virtual "pogrom" against progressive Democrats in the White House, as well as in Congress. However, WMR has learned from multiple Capitol Hill sources that Emanuel's vendetta has taken on vicious racial overtones with the African-American leadership of House of Representatives committees being his top targets.
On March 7, The Guardian of the UK reported that the foul-mouthed Emanuel referred to Washington, DC as "f**knutsville." The latest epithet followed Emanuel's description of progressive Democrats upset over Obama's pro-business slant as "f**king retarded."
Although the long knives are out on Emanuel among many Democrats in Congress, Obama's chief of staff has been gaining the upper hand with pro-Obama "puff pieces" recently appearing in The Washington Post praising Emanuel as the top White House pragmatist at the expense of Obama's chief political strategist David Axelrod, adviser Valerie Jarrett, and even Obama himself.
Informed Democratic and Republican congressional sources report to WMR that Emanuel's latest gambit is to wrest control of key House committee chairmanships from African-Americans and have the gavels handed over to Jewish members, all of whom are close political allies of Emanuel. The ethics probe of House Ways and Means Committee chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) has forced him to "temporarily" hand over the chairmanship of the powerful committee to Sander Levin (D-MI) after ranking Democratic Representative Pete Stark of California, a critic of American wars in the Middle East and Israeli policies, was passed over in favor of Levin after the intervention of Emanuel with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Congressional sources do not believe that Rangel will see his chairmanship restored.
WMR has now learned that the next target for Emanuel is House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers, Jr., the long-serving Michigan Democrat who has been outspokenly critical of Obama's policies on health care and other key issues.
Last year, Conyers's wife Monica Conyers, the former President of the Detroit City Council, was indicted last year for accepting a $5000 bribe from Carlyle-Synagro Technologies of Texas and then reversed her vote on approving a $1.2 billion sludge disposal contract with the city of Detroit. Carlyle-Synagro is owned by the Carlyle Group, the firm that has close ties to the Bush family.
Mrs. Conyers is due to be sentenced on March 10 by US Judge Avern Cohn, who, as WMR previously reported, has been conspiring with Emanuel to delay sentencing Mrs. Conyers as a way to pressure House Judiciary Chairman Conyers to temper his criticisms of Obama. Federal prosecutors studiously avoided bringing charges against Carlyle-Synagro because of the firm's "cooperation" in the federal investigation of Monica Conyers and her former aide Sam Riddle. WMR has learned that the bribe of Mrs. Conyers was part of a conspiracy by Emanuel, US Attorney for Eastern Michigan Terrence Berg, and FBI agent in Detroit Andrew Arena to bring down Conyers as House Judiciary Chairman by going after his wife.
After Mrs. Conyers's sentencing on March 10, Emanuel, WMR is told, will arrange for a letter signed by Chairman Conyers and sent to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which advocated for the Romulus hazardous waste injection well contract for Environmental Geo-Technologies, Inc., a company owned by Dimitrios "Jim" Papas, to be awarded to the firm, to be released to the media. Papas reportedly offered Riddle to receive a $20,000 sub-contract while Mrs. Conyers, according to Riddle, would receive $10,000 of that money as a finder's fee.
After the letter is released after Mrs. Conyers's sentencing by Cohn, Emanuel's media friends will call for John Conyers, the second longest serving House member after John Dingell (D-MI), to repeat the actions of Rangel and "temporarily" hand over his gavel with concurrent calls for a House Ethics probe.
However, WMR has learned from House sources that John Conyers never signed the letter to the EPA, which was drafted by an EPA fellow working on Conyers's staff. Mustafa Santiago Ali. Ali, WMR has learned, did not want to write the letter but was forced into it by Conyers's chief of staff Cynthia Martin, who, WMR is told, is part of Emanuel's conspiracy against the Judiciary chairman. After Ali wrote the letter, his fellowship on Conyers's staff was terminated by Martin.
WMR, which hopes to obtain the letter, has learned that Conyers's signature was affixed by a staffer, that it has no salutation, and is undated. However, there is a possibility that what is arranged for release by Emanuel may include a date and a salutation and thus, falsely implicate Chairman Conyers in the Detroit bribery politics that sank his wife's political career.
WMR has also learned that Emanuel is pumping campaign cash into the coffers of potential primary opponents prior to the May 11 candidate filing deadline in Michigan. Conyers's congressional colleague from Detroit, Representative Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, whose son, former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was convicted of corruption, and Conyers, are being targeted for primary defeat by potential candidates hand-picked by Emanuel. The potential opponents, which include three identified as challengers to Conyers, are receiving money from the same Israel Lobby sources who helped defeat Representatives Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) and Earl Hilliard (D-AL) over their lack of support for pro-Israel resolutions.
WMR has learned from an African-American congressional source that Emanuel has made no secret of his dislike of African-Americans in Congress, particularly the chairmen of committees, including Conyers, Rangel, and Homeland Security committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS). Ironically, Emanuel, who is the chief of staff for the first African-American president of the United States, is known to use the term "shvartz" in describing the senior African-American congressmen. Shvartz is the Yiddish word that means the same thing as "nigger."
We have also learned from a former Democratic member of the House that Emanuel's job with the investment firm Wasserstein-Perella, where he earned $16.2 million for his prospective congressional race to succeed Rod Blagojevich as congressman from Illinois's 5th congressional district, was partly arranged by the media-shy rabid pro-Israeli owner of Slim Fast Foods, S. Daniel Abraham. It is the type of political quid pro quo that Emanuel is now using to hammer Rangel, Conyers, and the ousted chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee John Dingell, who was replaced by Emanuel ally Henry Waxman (D-CA).
Blagojevich has argued that transcripts of his wiretapped phone calls were only selectively released to the media. WMR has learned from a top GOP lobbyist that Blagojevich can be expected to beat the criminal charges against him when it is revealed in trial that Emanuel conspired with U.S. Attorney for northern Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald to indict the former Illinois governor by focusing on his attempt to "sell" Obama's vacant US Senate seat. In fact, Emanuel was adamantly opposed to Blagojevich naming any African-American, Representative Jesse Jackson III or Roland Burris to the seat. Although it has been reported that Emanuel favored Valerie Jarrett for the seat, WMR has learned that Emanuel actually was pushing for Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), an Emanuel ally, for the seat.
Knowing of Emanuel's personal dislike for African-Americans, Blagojevich responded to Emnanuel's pressure by naming Burris to the seat. Emanuel's allies in the Senate responded by greeting the junior Illinois senator with an ethics investigation. The Senate dropped its ethics investigation of Burris due to lack of evidence and merely issued a letter of admonishment on November 20, 2009. However, Burris's career was finished and he announced he would not seek re-election.
If Conyers is forced to step down or "temporarily" step aside as chairman, ranking Democrat Howard Berman (D-CA), another Emanuel ally, would step up as chairman. Such a move would see Representative Gary Ackerman, another Emanuel friend, step up to take Berman's place as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Emanuel also has Thompson, chairman of Homeland Security, as a target. Thompson has been under an ethics cloud for taking lobbyist-funded trips to Saipan, courtesy of jailed GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and to Saint Martin, courtesy of Citigroup lobbyists. Although Representative Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) is the ranking Democrat on the committee, Emanuel can be expected to pressure Pelosi to find another assignment for her so that the third-ranking Democrat, Representative Jane Harman (D-CA), another Emanuel ally, can step up to chair the committee. Harman has been under a cloud resulting from her close association with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Mossad agents in Washington, DC.
WMR was told by a top GOP lobbyist who is on good terms with Representative Conyers that number of House and Senate members and staffers view Emanuel as a "dangerous psychopath" capable of doing almost anything to advance his agenda. A former African-American member of the House told WMR that Emanuel's goal is to eliminate every African-American chairman from their leadership roles and pave the way for Emanuel's Jewish colleagues to take their chairmanships from them. The strategy has already been carried out with respect to Rangel, as well as with pro-union Dingell, who is white. The strategy is about to be played out against Conyers and, eventually, Thompson.
As this story was being prepared, freshman Representative Eric Massa (D-NY), who announced his resignation after being embroiled in a homosexual sexual harassment scandal involving a staffer, announced on a WKPQ-FM Saturday radio show that he was the victim of a conspiracy carried out by Emanuel and his House allies. Massa said he had a "profanity-filled conversation" conversation with Emanuel last year after voting against Obama's health care bill. Massa said he told Emanuel to resign for his use of profanity. Massa added, "Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil's spawn . . . He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive."
NEXT: THE BACKMAIL INFORMATION THAT EMANUEL HAS ON PRESIDENT OBAMA.