Tricky Dicky . . .

BLOOMBERG has an interesting report, "Nigeria Files Charges Against Dick Cheney, Halliburton Over Bribery Case". I wonder what will happen . . .

State Dept Wiki-Newspeak

U.S. to Host World Press Freedom Day in 2011
Press Statement
Philip J. Crowley Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Public Affairs
Washington, DC December 7, 2010

"The United States is pleased to announce that it will host UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day event in 2011, from May 1 - May 3 in Washington, D.C.

UNESCO is the only UN agency with the mandate to promote freedom of expression and its corollary, freedom of the press.The theme for next year’s commemoration will be 21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers. The United States places
technology and innovation at the forefront of its diplomatic and development efforts. New media has empowered citizens around the world to report on their circumstances, express opinions on world events, and exchange information in environments sometimes hostile to such exercises of individuals’ right to freedom of expression.

At the same time, we are concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information. We mark events such as World Press Freedom Day in the context of our enduring commitment to support and expand press freedom and the free flow of information in this digital age.

Highlighting the many events surrounding the celebration will be the awarding of the UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize at the National Press Club on May 3rd. This prize, determined by an independent jury of international journalists, honors a person, organization or institution that has notably contributed to the defense and/or promotion of press freedom, especially where risks have been undertaken."

Same State Dept. dude, same day ...

ABC News :

"State Department spokesman P J Crowley said the WikiLeaks was inviting terrorist attacks by releasing the cable that mention some of the key infrastructures projects across the globe identified by the US as vital for its national security interest. Without discussing any particular cable, the release of this kind of information gives a group like al Qaeda a targeting list. This is why we have condemned WikiLeaks for what it has done."

So. No UNESCO prize likely to be forthcoming for Wikileaks for "promotion of press freedom, especially where risks have been undertaken" in "environments sometimes hostile" then.

Because prior to these latest leaks, no one could possibly have guessed where the Canadian border crossings are or that an Israeli weapons manufacturer that makes components for US cluster bombs would be considered by the US to be "vital for its national security interest".

h/t Glenn Greenwald for the State Dept link.
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Health update . . .

SCIENCE DAILY has a report worthy of your attention. It seems that an aspirin a day is rather beneficial for avoiding or minimizing cancers:

A daily low dose of aspirin significantly reduces the number of deaths from a whole range of common cancers, an Oxford University study has found.

The 20% drop in all cancer deaths seen in the study adds new evidence to the debate about whether otherwise healthy people in their 40s and 50s should consider taking a low dose of aspirin each day.

The results, published in the Lancet, showed that aspirin reduced death due to any cancer by around 20% during the trials. But the benefits of aspirin only became apparent after taking the drug for 5 years or more, suggesting aspirin works by slowing or preventing the early stages of the disease so that the effect is only seen much later.

Now cracks a noble heart.

Goodnight, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

Stupidity . . .

FRED REED thinks the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, is stupider than a trilobite. Why? Rickie wants to invade Mexico.

Almost forever, the record for stupidity was held by Lumbo, a Cambrian trilobyte (sic) born to an early family of retarded trilobites. Lumbo also had Down’s Syndrome. It ws an unbeatable combination. Nobody and nothing was as slow as Lumbo. It was thought that he would hold the record for all time, but then came the governor of Texas, Rick Perry. He thinks it might be a good idea to invade Mexico.

Even the Washington Post is warming up to the concept. Here there be lunacy. Fortunately, it's not likely to happen. That being said, stranger things have happened. IMHO, it would be the suicide of the US republic.

Ryan Newell

LuLu's article prompted a Google News search: Legless Man Stalks Brainless Protestors. Truly an age of miracles.

Dear Westboro Baptist Church:

Allow me to put this in the only terms that you hateful, homophobic, god-bothering, bible-thumping lunatics could possibly understand.

"For they sow the wind, and they reap the whirlwind" Hosea 8:7

And before anyone gets their panties in the bunchiest of bunches, I do not condone for one second what Ryan Newell was allegedly planning. I'm just surprised that it hasn't happened before now.

Skimming in the quagmire

Wikileaks via Der Spiegel:

"In 2009, the German government transferred €50 million ($66.14 million) to the Afghan Army National Trust Fund. The money from Germany was intended to "improve the operational capabilities and development of the ANA (Afghan National Army)," according to the publicity materials from the Bundeswehr, Germany's armed forces."

Germany specified the projects the donation should be used for, including schools and barracks for the ANA.

Months later, "a sharply worded demarche from Germany's then-ambassador to NATO in Brussels" pointed out that : "As of today, no project financing has occurred."

The Germans were also extremely pissed to discover that "the US Army Corps of Engineers wanted to charge an "administrative fee" of 15 percent for the disbursement of the funds." That's a fee of nearly $10-million US.

Nothing we can do about it, said Washington : "The administration of trust funds is conducted under American budgetary law."
However in "a gesture of goodwill: The Americans wired €3 million back to the Bundeswehr."

I'm sure the German public will be just fine with donating the remaining $6-million US "fee".

No. I don't think Flanagan was "joking"

Who hasn't uttered something untoward at some point? Something that, if the words are taken literally, contain an ominous meaning.

Balbulican raises a good point. Perhaps Flanagan was speaking in outrageous exaggeration.

But, I don't think so. Despite his scramble to retract his statement the following day, I believe that has more to do with external pressure more than his conscience. He certainly didn't explain himself thoroughly enough nor offer enough contrition to satisfy me. He attempted to pour too little water on a fire of his own making.

I've watched the CBC video several times. Flanagan's statement would indeed appear to be an outrage fueled outburst. At first.

He was offered an opportunity during that interview to quell things and leave the interview with his assassination call removed. He didn't do that, however. This academic, the supposed mentor of a younger generation, who knows the power of the word, declined the offer to mitigate his words and chose instead to reiterate his desire to "disappear" the subject of his now so-called joke.

On the other hand, I don't take anything Flanagan says too seriously. In the bazaars in which I travel he is considered not a joker, but a joke.

Post corrected to link to Balbulican.

Things would that make me busier than I need to be

There is a new way to spell asshole.

The Canadian "anti-American melodrama" doc dump

WikiLeaks delivers a four page cable from the American Embassy in Ottawa in 2008 analyzing the increase in "anti-American melodrama" on Canada's "state-owned" television.

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Lols.

*ring* ... *ring* ...

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"Yeah. Special Agent Joe here."

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"Hey Joe, you finished that report on the changing dynamic of Canada-US relations yet?"

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"Just about."

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"Just about? It's been six months already and I'm looking at your $20,000 room service bill here. Wtf's going on up there?"

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"It's complicated, sir. Things are at a very delicate stage. Did you know there's a CIA plot to secretly divert Canadian water to the southwest?"

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"Well, former US ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci mentioned it once - something about aquaducts - but I don't think it went anywhere."

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"Tell that to the state-owned television station up here. In just the last three weeks a Syrian terrorist with a belt full of explosives was taken off a plane but unfortunately it was the Canadian-Syrian man sitting next to him who was rendered by CSIS and the CIA to Syria."

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"I haven't heard anything about .... Are you sure about this?"

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"Oh yes, sir, I read about it in the National Post."

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"Good God."

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"Then one of our rendition aircraft with three terrorist suspects on the "Guantanamo to Syria express" crashed in Quebec and the terrorists escaped. Luckily an arrogant, albeit stunningly attractive female Homeland Security officer, sort of a cross between Salma Hayek and Cruella DeVil, has arrived to sort it out."

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"Have you made contact with her yet?"

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"Not exactly, sir. She hasn't returned my calls. Her agent was quite rude to me actually and he isn't even a special agent."

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"Be careful, Joe. We don't want to start up any interdepartmental turf wars. Is there anything else you need?"

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"Another television would be a big help, sir. Sometimes reruns of The Border come on in the afternoon at the same time as Little Mosque on the Prairie and I can't keep up."

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"Of course. Whatever you need. After all, it's a matter of national security."

.

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OK, you know what really is funny? The original report from the US Embassy in Ottawa, complete with Selma Hayek/Cruella DeVil references, although as Holly Stick pointed out in comments at Creekside, Special Agent Joe appears to have completely missed that the star of H2O had previously infiltrated the US disguised as a mountie. Maybe if he gets that extra tv ...

Thank God! His affair was with a ... WOMAN!

Another big-buck TV evangelist bites the dust. Bene D has the whole picture.

Diplomacy, or just diplomatic word-smithing?

Expanding on Boris' excellent post I would suggest readers take in the analysis of Wikileaks and the assessment of the moral standards of some of the critics by Glenn Greenwald. Yes, they're both long, but that's Glenn simply laying out a thoroughly compelling case.

It demonstrates that the likes of Tom Flanagan uttering calls for Julian Assange's assassination are not isolated. Further than that, Glenn guts the Flanagan camp with one stroke. Flanagan would like Assange assassinated for dumping so-called state secrets into the public square and putting some individuals at risk. Yet that same group does not apply the same standard to those who perpetrated an aggressive and unprovoked war, laying waste to an entire country and killing more than 100,000 innocent civilians.

What he demonstrates is that the real reason for the outrage being demonstrated by the Tom Flanagan/Joe Klein bunker is the exposure of their adherence to a particular and dangerous permutation of The Noble Lie. Through all the screaming and howling, if they turned their own standards on their own behaviour, they could expect, at the least, to be apprehended and face criminal prosecution.

The term "Diplomacy" is being used as a cover by the power holders. What we're seeing is what has always happened. Diplomacy is the art of negotiation between parties without an eruption of hostile reactions. It is always carried out with a view to gaining some advantage. A problem arises when the diplomacy involves something different than honest negotiations and frank but polite discussions with other parties.

The diplomatic word-smithing fed to public communications sources, when it is significantly different than the intentions and motivations of the negotiating body, is not diplomacy; it is spying and subterfuge.

To express shock at the existence of state sponsored spying and subterfuge is naive at best and dishonest at worst. Of course it happens. What's wrong with it is when those behaviours become the staple of a state's diplomacy and they are viewed as the only effective tools with which to achieve a strategic advantage. Honest brokering and democratic institutions are either sidelined or become nothing more than a front for behaviour which, if exposed, would be considered abhorrent.

That's what has happened here. The problem is, if you're going to engage in that form of activity, you'd better find a way of keeping it out of the light. Securing that information is critical because exposure means that the supposed democracy (in this case the U.S.) will be exposed as nothing but a small, powerful group of elites engaged in theatrics staged to keep the masses sufficiently mollified.

It's not like we haven't already leveled such accusations in the past. The only difference now is that we have an unbelievable amount of proof. We always knew that the U.S. permanent government (and plenty of others) were dishonest. However, it took great pains to dig into the truth and put it into the public square, and without substantiating evidence those who voiced suspicion were dismissed by the powerful and "serious" people as conspiracy nuts.

Although not exclusively unique, the contents of the Pentagon Papers and the Watergate Conspiracy were watershed events which exposed the extent of lying to which the powerful go to mislead populations and criminally destroy others in the name of some Big Picture which we plebes were just too unsophisticated to understand. In fact, they were criminal conspiracies perpetrated by those who feared losing the comfort of their power and wealth.

The Wikileaks acquisition of secret documents was inevitable for a variety of reasons. Just describing a few of them is all it takes to understand that inevitability.

As Boris described, the days of spy vs spy are very different from the conditions of three decades ago, and the oligarchy and political power elite have only themselves to blame for that. The advent of the giant library known as the internet has put vast amounts of information in the hands of common people, many of whom, three decades ago, might not have been able to afford a full volume set of printed encyclopedias. The information explosion is a side effect of another dramatic shift - economic and industrial globalization. As the rapid exchange of information and industrial connectivity has eroded national borders, culture and tradition, and has (at times criminally) exploited cheap labour markets, it also created a common portal through which information could flow to the masses. And the power elite could not have one without the other. In their hubris, however, they failed to properly evaluate the level of sophistication combined with the cynicism of the masses. While they sold us "globalization" as inevitable, so too was the ability of like minded people and groups to exchange information and ideas. It was inevitable that the very technologies they marketed to the common citizen would be used to infiltrate the secrets of the power elite.

Secrets are only secrets if nobody else knows about them. An old adage exists from days past: Once you share a secret, it's no longer a secret. Slapping a security classification on a document is all well and good, however, if you then distribute that classified document to thousands or millions of pairs of eyes, somewhere, somehow, a copy of that document will end up in a place you did not intend. This is hardly new. From the first time I was involved in classified material there was always a serious concern for the physical security and distribution of anything classified. The "need-to-know" is not some Ian Fleming invention. It is absolutely real and it means seriously limiting access to sensitive material. To "shotgun" distribution of something stamped SECRET was to immediately dilute the security classification. It meant too many people were seeing it and the risk of a physical breach increased.

The problem with limiting distribution of course, is that those in high office are unable to delegate work arising from highly classified information. If spying and subterfuge form the basis for a large amount of the information flow then, particularly in the case of a military super-power, it becomes impossible for the limited number of high-office holders to deal with. That means employing staff and that means extending the distribution of that information to a wider body. That means either declassifying information before delegating it or, as is the case in the U.S., extend security clearances to the wider group. That has the effect of diluting security clearances. Now huge numbers of people have access to things classified. It stands to reason that within that large body there will eventually develop a problem. The only way to contain the effects of the problems that develop within a large group of security cleared people with access is to create a dedicated watcher organization which in turn has access to the same classified material. Just try to keep a secret in that kind of world, especially one in which the "need-to-know" extends to file clerks and security guards.

Another thing which made the leak of information inevitable was and is the over-classification of information. As far back as the 1960s there was a noticeable change in the way the U.S. military classified their information. Where Canada, Britain and the U.S. were pretty much on the same page as to what did and what did not receive a high security classification, the U.S. started a process which can only be called "classification creep". Subjects which had been classified at a lower level started to inflate their way into a higher classification. This triggered an increase in the amount of information with a high security classification - some of it legitimately so; some of it not. Once again, this increased the need to have a wider body of people to process and manage the information thus increasing the security clearances issued to a wide array of workers. Think about it: you work at a job all day where everything passing in front of your eyes is classified at a minimum SECRET, and most of it mundane. Eventually, complacency takes over.

That's just a touch. The diplomatic pouch has been replaced by instant communications relay over global networks arriving on the monitors of hundreds of thousands of people.**  To believe that such a traffic flow of information bearing inflated security classifications could be kept secure is somewhat delusional.

And so is calling for the assassination of the person who demonstrated how weak the system is, from the type of information being sent in such volume, to the ability to gather and dump it, to the exclusionary yet casual dialog of those who speak with two tongues.

** Added: That is not to say that diplomatic information hasn't been passed electronically for many decades. It has. But 60 and 100 words-per-minute teletype machines and their associated cryptosystems had much stronger limits than the way information flows today. And they had their own problems. ( In June of 1979 the Russians were breaking the KL-47, KL-11, KW-26, Adonis, KW7, KY-8, KG-14, KY-36 systems "with no problems".)

Canadian content . . .

THE NY TIMES has an article, "Diplomats Noted Growing Mistrust by Canadians Toward U.S.", by Charlie Savage. WikiLeaks cables from a couple of years back mention —

“The degree of comfort with which Canadian broadcast entities, including those financed by Canadian tax dollars, twist current events to feed longstanding negative images of the U.S. — and the extent to which the Canadian public seems willing to indulge in the feast — is noteworthy as an indication of the kind of insidious negative popular stereotyping we are increasingly up against in Canada,”

Superstar . . .

THE JERUSALEM POST reports that the Iranian government is chuffed about the Star of David. Apparently there's one on the roof of the Air Iran offices. Been there since the late 70's.

Conservative Lawnorder

Here's one of Stephen Harper's trusted advisers opining on the wikileaks story, take it away Flanagan...



Hey Ezra, here's you're tough on crime, law & order gang at work. Counseling to commit murder, a political adviser to the Prime Minister condoning politically motivated assassination. Douchebag.

Hat tip: Matthew Gregory from politcsandprofit.com

Things that grow in the darkness

Being any part of National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa (or over there in Hull) can be frustrating. It's like living in a mushroom farm much of the time. Things grow out of cracks and turn into things you don't expect.

However, if you are the Commander of Canadian Expeditionary Force Command (CEFCOM) you would expect that you are close enough to the oracle to at least be given a "heads up" that an expeditionary mission is coming your way. It kind of goes with the territory, the security clearance and the film-star wages. There is, after all, that planning thing, then the staffing thing and, most difficult of all, that logistics thing to organize.

So, when politicians start to rumble about that there will be an extended role for the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan as trainers you'd expect that such discussions would include certain key figures in uniform, like the Chief of Defence Staff and the Commander CEFCOM.

But not when Harper is in charge.

For the past two weeks the only thing I have been hearing is, "We didn't see that one coming." And that is now verified by the Commander responsible for organizing the mission.(Emphasis mine)

"Right now we are just at the fact-finding stage, determining what is available at what rank, what skill set, what timeline," Lessard said in an interview with Postmedia News after arriving in Kandahar. "We are not looking at one option in particular. There are individual positions, left and right."

As well as meeting for 45 minutes in the Afghan capital with Gen. David Petraeus, the American who runs NATO's war here, Lessard spoke with Maj.-Gen. Stu Beare, a Canadian who is one of two deputy commanders for training.

"It is mind-boggling, all the positions. What we are looking at are things that make sense. We do not want to just scatter people all over the place," said Lessard, who also conceded he was surprised by the government decision to deploy trainers.

"Quite frankly, I did not know what was going to happen," he said, "but in the military, we are ready for anything."

Lessard's comments and description of the task he has been handed go further by confirming that the Harperites, despite all their confident claims, had and have no idea what the training role would be. You will recall that I made this point:

Canada cannot meet the demand to start filling Caldwell's requirements by this winter and next spring. We still have a combat role and will not be able to deploy personnel to a bolstered NTM-A until well after that. We can safely assume that other NATO allies will fill that demand long before we have personnel available. This is the kind of commitment many NATO nations view as a healthy and safe way to deploy without wearing the political splatter of combat casualties. We aren't going to be there for any of it.

Sure enough, Lessard expanded on that too.

The Harper government's announcement two weeks ago that Canada will undertake a mission to train the Afghan National Army _ in the relatively safer confines of Kabul once the combat mission ends _ clearly caught the military by surprise.

Up until late October there had been no planning undertaken for a follow-on mission, said defence sources in Ottawa.

Lessard said they have yet to sketch out what the training scheme will look like because a seven-member fact-finding team has just heard from NATO about what positions need to be filled.

He confirmed that not all Canadians will be based in the Afghan capital, despite what the Conservative government has said.

"It is to be Kabul-centric. What that means is: the emphasis is to be on Kabul, but not solely Kabul."

Many of the positions at the recently established NATO Training Mission Command in Kabul are already taken, but there are positions at the various military schools scattered around the country.

So .... while Harper and MacKay have known for some time now that they were going to commit to a role in Afghanistan beyond July, 2011, they never bothered to have that conversation with the organization responsible for planning and executing such a concept.
The assertion by Harper that the mission would be in Kabul was actually an uninformed assumption on his part and now turns out to be far from reality.What is clearly apparent is that Harper and MacKay had no idea what the mission would look like, the proof being offered that, after actually asking NTM-A what positions need to be filled, the Commander CEFCOM is still trying to give it form. And it isn't going to look like what Harper said it would.

The mushrooms grow strong at 101 Colonel By Drive.

Warped headline

Federal Tories take 2 byelections, Liberals 1

There were no "Tories" running. They were Harperites. Surely the CBC can tell the difference.

The Therapeutic Drug Initiative sends out a final warning

From the CBC a story warning about a blood thinner.

A new blood thinner is easier to use to prevent blood clotting and strokes, but researchers in B.C. caution it may pose serious risks for some patients.

The Therapeutic Drug Initiative at the University of British Columbia is world renown for spotting dangerous drugs. In BC the group has saved taxpayers $50 million annually helping to keep dangerous drugs out of BC pharmacies. The provincial funding was $1 million per year. It's easy to understand why Big Pharma doesn't much like the Therapeutic Drug Initiative.

Gordon Campbell, the premier who resigned and then appointed himself interim leader, has gifted the people of BC with a new deal - he's killed it, and he's made sure the researchers who have staffed the TDI are not allowed to involve themselves in any new drug review process in BC. 

Campbell and the orks which occupy the BC cabinet table have caved, and I mean totally caved, to Big Pharma. From Friday's Time Colonist:

The walls of the Therapeutics Initiative are papered with accolades and letters of support from around the world. A leading medical journal called it "the only source of critical assessment of new treatments in Canada that is not political or partisan." Another commendation referred to the Therapeutics Initiative as "one of the best sources of information about pharmaceuticals ... in the world."

But no good deed goes unpunished. Drug companies have been lobbying for years to get rid of the agency.

It's worth considering the various motives involved. The Therapeutics Initiative's job is to disbelieve anything it hears about a drug until evidence can be found to support it. That makes it an industry critic. 

And of course pharmaceutical firms want to sell their products. They are on the other side of the fence.

But where does this leave the provincial government? Sitting on the fence -- until a few days ago. 

For some years, a succession of health ministers tried to square this circle: How to placate the drug industry, which is a major contributor to the Liberal party, without gutting the Therapeutics Initiative. 

[...]

The Ministry of Health has just outlined a new assessment process. First, the Therapeutics Initiative will have no further role. Its funding is terminated. 

Second, whereas the drug industry had no voice in the old system, it will have extensive influence in the new one. Conflict-of-interest rules have been substantially weakened. And the industry has been given four separate points of engagement. 

Third, in what can only be considered an act of spite, staff at the Therapeutics Initiative are to be kept off the new drug benefit council that will manage the process. The experts who ran Canada's most successful drug review program have been told they are not wanted.

Any questions? The Campbell government isn't interested in your health. They are bought and paid for by their dollar contributing big business buddies.

The march of progress . . .

Love Dan Piraro.