Oil spill links

I have compiled a list of links from both mainstream and other media sources here to better understand the reality of the Deepwater disaster. Included are only the best I have found.

It is black irony indeed, that the scarcity of oil has fueled so much death misery and destruction on the planet; and now Mother Nature forces more oil on us than we can live with.

Hope you find some value or clarity in these links, together or singly.
As I find links, I will add to this list. Posts in chronological order; first earliest, last most current.

A compilation of video and quotes from BP and others addressing the seriousness of the oil leak..

Oceanographer John Kessler analyses methane.

Oil rain in Louisiana

Corexit and crop damage

Reports Say Huge Explosions Cause Seafloor Collapse Beneath Gulf Oil Spill (Update 9)

Oil And Gas Leaks From Cracks In Seabed Confirmed – Videos Show Gulf Oil Spill Leaking From Seafloor

It’s Official: Huge Area of the Gulf Has Been Turned Into A Massive Dead Zone By The BP Gulf Oil Spill

BP Gulf Oil Spill Is Already In Gulf Stream And May Hit North Carolina Beaches Any Day

MSNBC July 15: Matt Simmons still says BP covering up MASSIVE HOLE miles away, cap test is "absurd"

This video was taken on July 3rd, 2010 in Fort Worth, Texas, just after the first few days of rain we received here from Hurricane Alex

Why BP is readying a ’super weapon’ to avert escalating Gulf nightmare

Oil Pressure Stopping Short of Target ... Does that Mean the Well Integrity Test Is Failing? Washington's blog is an excellent compilation of all the media waffle out there.

Is oil leaking from the sea floor around the BP well? Video

Hell Has Come to South Louisiana

Toxicologists: Corexit “Ruptures Red Blood Cells, Causes Internal Bleeding”, "Allows Crude Oil To Penetrate “Into The Cells” and “Every Organ System"

Doomsday Methane Bubble Rupture?: How the BP Gulf Disaster May Have Triggered a 'World-Killing' Event

Republicans Block Investigative Power for Oil Spill Commission

JULY 2010 - BANNED FILM - BP GULF OF MEXICO OIL SPILL


Dr.Riki Ott alleges BP engaged in massive cover-up to hide Gulf Disaster damage video

Technician: Deepwater Horizon Warning System Disabled video The chief engineer on the Deepwater Horizon tells a government panel that warning systems on the drilling rig were inhibited because the crew did not want to be disturbed in the middle of the night.

Methane Release From the Gulf Oil Spill: What Does It Mean? How Bad Could It Get?

Short videos on the Blow out preventer failure. Very well explained

The New York Times page of videos on various aspects of the Macondo spill. Very worthwhile and fascinating.


Corexit vapour turns planes orange/causes acid rain? video


New Photos: Suffering Dolphins in Barataria Bay - oil bp

Gulf Citizens Do Media’s Job, Find Deadly Amounts of Toxins at Grand Isle

Barge crashes into oil well in Gulf, NEW 20ft High Oil Gusher (RAW FOOTAGE)

NWS: Oil spill [another one!] could reach Lake Michigan by Sunday

Growing Health Crisis in the Gulf



BP Gulf Oil Spill Seeps Mapped In Google Earth – Feds Explanation Of Sea Floor Leaks Don’t Add Up

Irish firm gambles on extinction
Online betting site calculates the odds of several species' demise due to Gulf oil spill.

Admiral Allen Says Gas Seep is from the Rigel Gas Field ... Did BP Accidentally Tap Into the Rigel Gas Field?

Attempted arrest of BP executives in DC recently



Dublinmick Many links and videos here I have not seen before.

Good toxic rain video/links

Michigan oil spill


Find more videos like this on 12160.org

BP's oil now oozing out from Beach sand in Louisiana


Breaking Gulf news: Land Surveyor proves Simmons right. TV well sham. These videos use BP/Dept of Interior's own documents to show there are 2 wells.

And from a different source, the 2 well conclusion.



Crabs provide evidence oil tainting Gulf food web

BP's Insidious Coverup and Propaganda Campaign: Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Disturbing discovery of crabs filled with black substance

BP's oil lingers, seen and unseen: An editorial

Oilgate! BP and All the President's Men (Except One) Seek to Contain Truth of Leak in the Gulf (PHOTOS)(VIDEO) Alot of info in this one including pics of blisters and rashes on Gulf workers

Censored Gulf health news: Call it what it is: Genocide. Crime Against Humanity (videos) Another excellent article with docs on health effects

Plant damage in Minnesota - What acid rain might look like

Oil well blowout in Louisiana
This is a new one as of Aug 11, 2010 in a sugar field in rural LA. Area evacuated.



Officials deny dispersant use, residents beg to differ
Nothing like eye witness reports to show up official liars. Aug 10, 2010

UV Light Reveals Hidden Sand Contamination from the Gulf oil disaster Aug 13, 2010



Hundreds of Thousands of DEAD FISH on NEW JERSEY SHORE AUG 12 2010





BP downsizes Miami oil spill operations center

BP: Dispersing Oil or Criticism?
Toxic chemicals helped the oil giant save face, but their health and environmental impacts are unknown

The BP oil-methane-dispersant-drilling fluids disaster
Huge volumes of methane from the well along with toxic dispersants used to break up the oil could do vast damage

Mojo's BP Oil Spill Coverage

Stationary Corexit Device at Sea Floor



Brazil beaches - oil washed up



Millions of Dead Fish, Alligators, Turtles Floating Down Bolivian Rivers!



Amazon Crude (60 Minutes - length 13 min) How long does it take to sue an oil company for environmental damage? After 16 years, the case againsy Chevron for 27 billion dollars has not been heard.

Journalist Exposes How Private Investigation Firm Hired by Chevron Tried to Recruit Her as a Spy to Undermine $27B Suit in Ecuadorian Amazon

Mid August, 2010 - More and more eyewitness accounts of oil spill evidence (since BP said the oil is 75% cleaned up) floods you tube. Just a few below.

Fisherman and Families know Gulf Seafood is unsafe, DEMAND Dispersants stop being sprayed!

Two officials from different Florida counties report “what looks like ‘a congealed GLOB of VASELINE’ that is HOVERING just offshore”

Uncovering the Lies That Are Sinking the Oil Nothing like eyewitness testimony from locals to make BP's clean up claims look ridiculous. Good article.

dead fish all over the east coast, lack of oxygen from gulf disaster Aug 16, 2010


Louisiana Fishermen Slam Claims that Oil Almost Gone, Seafood Safe

Gulf Fishermen Debate Whether to Risk Selling Seafood Again - PBS News hour

Gulf Shrimpers Find Oil In Reopened Fishing Areas. Governnment Says "Shut Up". Sierra Club Alleges Areas Were Solely Reopened to Limit BP's Liability

Is the Spill Victims' Fund Keeping BP and the Feds in Bed?

Scientists: Oil Contaminating Vital Gulf Habitat Democracy Now - corroboration for other articles from various sources above


The BP Cover-Up: BP and the government say the spill is fast disappearing—but dramatic new science reveals that its worst effects may be yet to come. Easy reading article detailing the food chain in the Gulf and how it is affected by the oil spill.


The spider web of gas pipelines lurking under the Gulf.

The 15 Biggest Oil Spills As of Aug 2010

BP's Damage Control: A Timeline

"The Goal Is Not to Let It Blow Up": A Tour of BP's Relief Rig

August 13, 2010 Video Oil all gone?
"We are just uneducated fisherman, if we can find it (oil), anyone can."


"Everything is Dead Out There": Uncovering the Lies That Are Sinking the Oil What if the 'news' were written by real people on the scene of the disaster? This article is good reading to show the difference of 'official' news releases about the 'clean up' and the reality experienced by residents.

The James Fox reports - eyewitnesses on the media black out etc. More of these videos can be found on Youtube.


Source
Video - who is responsible for 'contaminated fish' brought in by fishermen? Dock Owners Asking Fishermen to Sign Waiver Stating That They Would be Responsible for Contaminated Fish?





Gulf Oil May Not Degrade for DECADES

Source


BP's "Cloak of Silence": Geology is "Fractured", Relief Wells May Fail Few people in the world know more about oil drilling disasters than Dr. Robert Bea.

Bea teaches engineering at the University of California Berkeley, and has 55 years of experience in engineering and management of design, construction, maintenance, operation, and decommissioning of engineered systems including offshore platforms, pipelines and floating facilities. Bea has worked for many years in governmental and quasi-governmental roles, and has been a high-level governmental adviser concerning disasters.

(DAUPHIN ISLAND, Ala.) Residents living in DeSoto Landing say they've never seen this black mess before. They believe the stained sand covering their beautiful white beach is a sign the oil spill is far from over.

Major study charts long-lasting oil plume in Gulf

Scientist Accuses Obama Administration and BP of Underestimating Amount of Oil Left in Gulf of Mexico Democracy Now - short video

Fishing Industry in Gulf Still Worried About Levels of Toxins in the Water and the Impact on Marine Life Democracy Now - short video

Gulf Chemist: Mercenaries Hired By BP Are Now Applying Toxic Dispersant - at Night and In an Uncontrolled Manner - Which BP Says It No Longer Uses

New Orleans TV: “Alarming discovery” of adult crabs “filled with some sort of black substance” (VIDEO)

Oiled crabs stoke fears spill is tainting food web

Corexit found in Orange Beach Waters Orange Beach, Alabama resident Margaret Long took her own samples of a strange substance in the water near her home and sent it to a chemist. The result? Corexit.

What’s the Rush? “NOAA sends its samples to a lab in POLAND” — “Will take MONTHS” to know
August 25th, 2010

Underwater 'River' of Oil Confirmed in Gulf Source: Adam Sharp, Wealth Daily 08/23/2010



Alabama Charges BP, Transocean For BP Gulf Oil Spill Coverup and Using Dangerous Toxic Dispersants WKRG News 5 in Alabama reports that the Attorney General of Alabama has filed charges against BP and Transocean for covering up the BP Gulf Oil Spill and using a dangerous and highly toxic choice of chemical dispersants among other things.

Gulf Loop Current Stalls from BP Oil Disaster: Global Consequences if Current Fails to Reorganize

Tuesday, August 31, 2010
BP's Crude Oil May Be Radioactive

Rare oil spill video and pictures

This is the best collection of images and videos depicting the oil spill damage in the Gulf of Mexico I have so far seen.

The great thing about the net, is that when a corporation like BP calls for a media blackout, the corporation can NOT blackout net information about the blackout.

Absolutely must see videos and pix here.

What we need is a good war

The USA/Israel war machine is gearing up for a war with Iran. The UN sanctions against Iran and the unilateral sanctions imposed by the US this week are the smokescreen out of which will appear some catastrophic event at sea, that will trigger WW3.

I hope I am wrong. But I am afraid I might be right. Paul Craig Roberts blows away the smoke to look at the possibility of world war in the near future. I wonder if we add up all the expenditures on technology to kill people, if the sum will equal or surpass the amount we spend to ensure the dignity of life. Have to be careful with this question: I might not like the answer.

Even more flotillas going to Gaza

German-Jewish organisation to send flotilla to Gaza

Gaza: George Galloway announces new convoys

Iranian Aid Ships to Set Sail for Gaza

This one might be the one to watch. If Israel shoots its friends from Turkey and the US in their heads, at point blank range multiple times, I wonder what sort reception Iran's flotilla will get.

Scary facts about the US economy

This article reveals some very frightening statistics about the US economy.

Desperate Financial Situation,
Biggest Debt Bubble in World History:
Fifty Statistics About The U.S. Economy

It's definitely worth a read but don't expect to be in a good mood afterwards. Here are a few highlights:

#50) In 2010 the U.S. government is projected to issue almost as much new debt as the rest of the governments of the world combined.

#44) U.S. corporate income tax receipts were down 55% (to $138 billion) for the year ending September 30th, 2009.

#39) More than 40% of those employed in the United States are now working in low-wage service jobs.

#34) According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings were reported on 367,056 properties in March 2010, an increase of nearly 19 percent from February, an increase of nearly 8 percent from March 2009 and the highest monthly total since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in January 2005.

#29) For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.

#17) Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of 2010.

#15) 39.68 million Americans are now on food stamps, which represents a new all-time record. But things look like they are going to get even worse. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is forecasting that enrollment in the food stamp program will exceed 43 million Americans in 2011.

#7) According to economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, two-thirds of income increases in the U.S. between 2002 and 2007 went to the wealthiest 1% of all Americans.

#6) The bottom 40 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.


Related:

11 Points Of Comparison Between Life In The United States And Life Under Hitler From A Woman Who Has Experienced Both

Uprooted Palestinians: Galloway announces new land and sea convoys to break the siege of Gaza

Uprooted Palestinians: Galloway announces new land and sea convoys to break the siege of Gaza

Victory! Flotilla 100, Israel -10.

If Palestinian supporters had spent one hundred million dollars on a media campaign to make the world aware of the Gaza blockade, they could not have done a tenth as well as the Gaza Flotilla in capturing the attention of the world. The Flotilla did not reach Gaza; but it reached into the hearts and minds of people the world over. People, busy coping with the realities of modern life, paused and really saw the brutality of Israel, and the suffering of 1.5 million Gazans, just for a moment. And in that moment, anger and outrage desended on Israel from the hearts of people and governments the world over.



Israel has been dealt a mortal wound by a scraggly group of peace activists delivering humanitarian aid. The Likud party has yet to fully realise this: but the political fallout from the attack on the flotilla will change the future of Israel in a major way. Not only are its allies shrinking in horror from its tactics, but previous neutral countries like Ireland are becoming anti-Israel. This universal outrage of Israel's bullying aggression is the death knell for Talmudic Imperialism.

Other atrocities by Israel have been certainly more brutal than the attack on the Flotilla; yet, the Flotilla is the final stone that tips the weight of world opinion against Israel. It is the small magnifying glass that focused the sunlight into a searing hot beam exposing the absurdity of Israeli propaganda. Without the input of millions of volunteer activists, in blogs, in protests, in organising, in donations, throughout time, the Flotilla might not have succeeded.

This victory belongs to all who have untiringly, against overwhelming odds, continued to raise their voices for and lent their hands to helping the people of Gaza. It belongs to all the countries who have raised their voices in a chorus of outrage about the Gazan occupation. The activists aboard the Flotilla were brave. They are brave not because they are heroes, but because in the face of personal harm and uncertain outcome, they laid their lifes on the line in spite of their fear and possible losses.

This victory also belongs to those people who are just waking up and taking note that Israel maintains a constant state of war in order to sustain its existence. People are now realising the price tag for allowing Israel to do as it pleases, disregarding UN resolutions, invading it's neighbours, maintaining a nuclear arsenal while criticising other Mideast countries for defending themselves.

People in Israel are also waking up and many Israelis do not support the tactics the government has used against its neighbours and vehemently criticise the Likud government and its paranoic and psychotic world view. In a way these people are the bravest of all; because they dare to challenge the authority which rules their lives for no other reason than they can not morally countenance the actions of their (democratically elected) government.

This victory of course belongs to the Gazan people too. For their long suffering internment under the Israeli military, their battle against the goliath of the Israeli media domination, their undisclosed suffering and losses, they now have the world on their side.

Best of all, the repercussions to Israel for it's barbaric behaviour have not yet really arrived. The victory of the Flotilla will curse every trade and political negotiation Israel attempts for years to come. Already the global boycott of Israel has accelerated with no end in site. Even it's 'best friends' are hoping to avoid the fallout from the Flotilla attack.

So .... it's a great week - a week which I believe will change the future irrevocably for all nations. Congratulations to all who have supported Gaza and Palestine: every little contribution will be a pixel in the new picture of the Mideast.

And congratulations to Israel and the Likud party. You have now shot yourself in both feet and I think may be in danger of suicide. And nothing would delight me more than to see the obnoxious hubris of your rhetoric poison your body politic.

You see....it's win-win Mr Netanyahu.

Why the US can't condemn Gaza blockade

No one is really surprised at Joe Biden's response to the attack of the flotilla in international waters. Most assume this is because Israel and the USA are really grotesque Siamese twins; but there may be another reason why the US cannot condemn Israel.

The US plans a blockade of Iranian waters and currently has a nuclear submarine near the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran Detects US Nuclear Sub in Persian Gulf
(Sunday, May 30th, 2010)

According to a report released at the end of the week by Iran’s Fars News Agency, Iranian naval forces detected the presence of a US navy nuclear submarine in the Persian Gulf, in the Strait of Hormuz area. This is a critical passage, which permits 90% of the oil produced by Persian Gulf state to get to Asia, W. Europe and the United States.

In addition, Israel is also planning on stationing nuclear subs in the Persian Gulf.

Report: Israel to station nuclear missile subs off Iran

Sunday Times says Jewish state plans to deploy three submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles in Persian Gulf. According to report, decision has been taken to ensure permanent presence of at least one of vessels...

The US can hardly condemn a blockade on Gaza when it is in fact planning the same for Iran in the Persian Gulf.

While most of the world reels from the sheer brutality of Israel's actions and Israel PR desperately spins its 'we are the victims' tale of woe, the geopolitical plans of US hegemony provides a larger context from which to view this event. If the Gaza blockade stands, then the world will also permit the actions of the US/Israel in interfering with traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Freedom Flotilla must indeed be a thorn in the paw of the US in its efforts to isolate Iran via economic sanctions in the UN. I truly hope it is. The outcome of the Freedom Flotilla's efforts to break this illegal blockade will not just influence the life of Gazans. It will set the global stage for the tactics US/Israel will use in the Persian Gulf; and in this sense would quicken the pace to war.

What we permit Israel to do to Gaza now, will also be permitted against Iran in the Persian Gulf. This is why the USA CANNOT condemn Israel's interference of ships in international waters.

'Next time we'll use more force'

This is the comment of an Israeli top navy commander:

Jerusalem Post

Israel will use more aggressive force in the future to prevent ships from breaking the sea blockade on the Gaza Strip, a top Navy commander told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

"We boarded the ship and were attacked as if it was a war," the officer said. "That will mean that we will have to come prepared in the future as if it was a war."

What a great strategy! It's a sure fire plan for Israel to become THE international pariah. I could hardly approve more. As the world sees the truth about Israeli brutality, Israel sinks deeper and deeper into the public relations hole it is digging for itself globally. It seems poetic justice that Israel should annihilate itself. Good job Netanyahu: you have accomplished in a day more than Palestinian activists have managed in three years.

Of course Israel is at war with the entire world, in it's collective mind. And like a self fulfilling prophecy, the country now ensures that it's worst fears are coming true. It does not occur to the Israeli leadership that the country is committing political suicide with it's paranoic and psychotic world view. See Flotillas and the Wars of Public Opinion

In this world view, the bully becomes the victim. Noam Chomsky, professor of linguistics at MIT, responded to this classic argument best:

"You can't defend yourself when you are militarily occupying someone else's land. Call it what you like, it is not self-defense." Flotilla Attack: Media Reporting Lacked Critical Thinking

The world sees this more clearly now thanks to the Freedom Flotilla and it's brave activists.

At present, the MV Racheal Corrie heads to Gaza, arriving on Friday. Will Israel use more force? Will it board the ship in international waters? Will it shoot itself in it's other foot on the world stage? I hope so. It's high time for the bully of the Mideast to depose itself: what better way than political suicide? The 11 brave activists onboard are willing to put their lives on the line to uncover the truth about Israeli brutality for all the world to see.

Flotillas and the Wars of Public Opinion

May 31, 2010 | 1828 GMT
By George Friedman
Stratfor

On Sunday, Israeli naval forces intercepted the ships of a Turkish nongovernmental organization (NGO) delivering humanitarian supplies to Gaza. Israel had demanded that the vessels not go directly to Gaza but instead dock in Israeli ports, where the supplies would be offloaded and delivered to Gaza. The Turkish NGO refused, insisting on going directly to Gaza. Gunfire ensued when Israeli naval personnel boarded one of the vessels, and a significant number of the passengers and crew on the ship were killed or wounded.

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon charged that the mission was simply an attempt to provoke the Israelis. That was certainly the case. The mission was designed to demonstrate that the Israelis were unreasonable and brutal. The hope was that Israel would be provoked to extreme action, further alienating Israel from the global community and possibly driving a wedge between Israel and the United States. The operation’s planners also hoped this would trigger a political crisis in Israel.

A logical Israeli response would have been avoiding falling into the provocation trap and suffering the political repercussions the Turkish NGO was trying to trigger. Instead, the Israelis decided to make a show of force. The Israelis appear to have reasoned that backing down would demonstrate weakness and encourage further flotillas to Gaza, unraveling the Israeli position vis-à-vis Hamas. In this thinking, a violent interception was a superior strategy to accommodation regardless of political consequences. Thus, the Israelis accepted the bait and were provoked.

The ‘Exodus’ Scenario

In the 1950s, an author named Leon Uris published a book called “Exodus.” Later made into a major motion picture, Exodus told the story of a Zionist provocation against the British. In the wake of World War II, the British — who controlled Palestine, as it was then known — maintained limits on Jewish immigration there. Would-be immigrants captured trying to run the blockade were detained in camps in Cyprus. In the book and movie, Zionists planned a propaganda exercise involving a breakout of Jews — mostly children — from the camp, who would then board a ship renamed the Exodus. When the Royal Navy intercepted the ship, the passengers would mount a hunger strike. The goal was to portray the British as brutes finishing the work of the Nazis. The image of children potentially dying of hunger would force the British to permit the ship to go to Palestine, to reconsider British policy on immigration, and ultimately to decide to abandon Palestine and turn the matter over to the United Nations.

There was in fact a ship called Exodus, but the affair did not play out precisely as portrayed by Uris, who used an amalgam of incidents to display the propaganda war waged by the Jews. Those carrying out this war had two goals. The first was to create sympathy in Britain and throughout the world for Jews who, just a couple of years after German concentration camps, were now being held in British camps. Second, they sought to portray their struggle as being against the British. The British were portrayed as continuing Nazi policies toward the Jews in order to maintain their empire. The Jews were portrayed as anti-imperialists, fighting the British much as the Americans had.

It was a brilliant strategy. By focusing on Jewish victimhood and on the British, the Zionists defined the battle as being against the British, with the Arabs playing the role of people trying to create the second phase of the Holocaust. The British were portrayed as pro-Arab for economic and imperial reasons, indifferent at best to the survivors of the Holocaust. Rather than restraining the Arabs, the British were arming them. The goal was not to vilify the Arabs but to villify the British, and to position the Jews with other nationalist groups whether in India or Egypt rising against the British.

The precise truth or falsehood of this portrayal didn’t particularly matter. For most of the world, the Palestine issue was poorly understood and not a matter of immediate concern. The Zionists intended to shape the perceptions of a global public with limited interest in or understanding of the issues, filling in the blanks with their own narrative. And they succeeded.

The success was rooted in a political reality. Where knowledge is limited, and the desire to learn the complex reality doesn’t exist, public opinion can be shaped by whoever generates the most powerful symbols. And on a matter of only tangential interest, governments tend to follow their publics’ wishes, however they originate. There is little to be gained for governments in resisting public opinion and much to be gained by giving in. By shaping the battlefield of public perception, it is thus possible to get governments to change positions.

In this way, the Zionists’ ability to shape global public perceptions of what was happening in Palestine — to demonize the British and turn the question of Palestine into a Jewish-British issue — shaped the political decisions of a range of governments. It was not the truth or falsehood of the narrative that mattered. What mattered was the ability to identify the victim and victimizer such that global opinion caused both London and governments not directly involved in the issue to adopt political stances advantageous to the Zionists. It is in this context that we need to view the Turkish flotilla.

The Turkish Flotilla to Gaza

The Palestinians have long argued that they are the victims of Israel, an invention of British and American imperialism. Since 1967, they have focused not so much on the existence of the state of Israel (at least in messages geared toward the West) as on the oppression of Palestinians in the occupied territories. Since the split between Hamas and Fatah and the Gaza War, the focus has been on the plight of the citizens of Gaza, who have been portrayed as the dispossessed victims of Israeli violence.

The bid to shape global perceptions by portraying the Palestinians as victims of Israel was the first prong of a longtime two-part campaign. The second part of this campaign involved armed resistance against the Israelis. The way this resistance was carried out, from airplane hijackings to stone-throwing children to suicide bombers, interfered with the first part of the campaign, however. The Israelis could point to suicide bombings or the use of children against soldiers as symbols of Palestinian inhumanity. This in turn was used to justify conditions in Gaza. While the Palestinians had made significant inroads in placing Israel on the defensive in global public opinion, they thus consistently gave the Israelis the opportunity to turn the tables. And this is where the flotilla comes in.

The Turkish flotilla aimed to replicate the Exodus story or, more precisely, to define the global image of Israel in the same way the Zionists defined the image that they wanted to project. As with the Zionist portrayal of the situation in 1947, the Gaza situation is far more complicated than as portrayed by the Palestinians. The moral question is also far more ambiguous. But as in 1947, when the Zionist portrayal was not intended to be a scholarly analysis of the situation but a political weapon designed to define perceptions, the Turkish flotilla was not designed to carry out a moral inquest.

Instead, the flotilla was designed to achieve two ends. The first is to divide Israel and Western governments by shifting public opinion against Israel. The second is to create a political crisis inside Israel between those who feel that Israel’s increasing isolation over the Gaza issue is dangerous versus those who think any weakening of resolve is dangerous.

The Geopolitical Fallout for Israel

It is vital that the Israelis succeed in portraying the flotilla as an extremist plot. Whether extremist or not, the plot has generated an image of Israel quite damaging to Israeli political interests. Israel is increasingly isolated internationally, with heavy pressure on its relationship with Europe and the United States.

In all of these countries, politicians are extremely sensitive to public opinion. It is difficult to imagine circumstances under which public opinion will see Israel as the victim. The general response in the Western public is likely to be that the Israelis probably should have allowed the ships to go to Gaza and offload rather than to precipitate bloodshed. Israel’s enemies will fan these flames by arguing that the Israelis prefer bloodshed to reasonable accommodation. And as Western public opinion shifts against Israel, Western political leaders will track with this shift.

The incident also wrecks Israeli relations with Turkey, historically an Israeli ally in the Muslim world with longstanding military cooperation with Israel. The Turkish government undoubtedly has wanted to move away from this relationship, but it faced resistance within the Turkish military and among secularists. The new Israeli action makes a break with Israel easy, and indeed almost necessary for Ankara.

With roughly the population of Houston, Texas, Israel is just not large enough to withstand extended isolation, meaning this event has profound geopolitical implications.

Public opinion matters where issues are not of fundamental interest to a nation. Israel is not a fundamental interest to other nations. The ability to generate public antipathy to Israel can therefore reshape Israeli relations with countries critical to Israel. For example, a redefinition of U.S.-Israeli relations will have much less effect on the United States than on Israel. The Obama administration, already irritated by the Israelis, might now see a shift in U.S. public opinion that will open the way to a new U.S.-Israeli relationship disadvantageous to Israel.

The Israelis will argue that this is all unfair, as they were provoked. Like the British, they seem to think that the issue is whose logic is correct. But the issue actually is, whose logic will be heard? As with a tank battle or an airstrike, this sort of warfare has nothing to do with fairness. It has to do with controlling public perception and using that public perception to shape foreign policy around the world. In this case, the issue will be whether the deaths were necessary. The Israeli argument of provocation will have limited traction.

Internationally, there is little doubt that the incident will generate a firestorm. Certainly, Turkey will break cooperation with Israel. Opinion in Europe will likely harden. And public opinion in the United States — by far the most important in the equation — might shift to a “plague-on-both-your-houses” position.

While the international reaction is predictable, the interesting question is whether this evolution will cause a political crisis in Israel. Those in Israel who feel that international isolation is preferable to accommodation with the Palestinians are in control now. Many in the opposition see Israel’s isolation as a strategic threat. Economically and militarily, they argue, Israel cannot survive in isolation. The current regime will respond that there will be no isolation. The flotilla aimed to generate what the government has said would not happen.

The tougher Israel is, the more the flotilla’s narrative takes hold. As the Zionists knew in 1947 and the Palestinians are learning, controlling public opinion requires subtlety, a selective narrative and cynicism. As they also knew, losing the battle can be catastrophic. It cost Britain the Mandate and allowed Israel to survive. Israel’s enemies are now turning the tables. This maneuver was far more effective than suicide bombings or the Intifada in challenging Israel’s public perception and therefore its geopolitical position (though if the Palestinians return to some of their more distasteful tactics like suicide bombing, the Turkish strategy of portraying Israel as the instigator of violence will be undermined).

Israel is now in uncharted waters. It does not know how to respond. It is not clear that the Palestinians know how to take full advantage of the situation, either. But even so, this places the battle on a new field, far more fluid and uncontrollable than what went before. The next steps will involve calls for sanctions against Israel. The Israeli threats against Iran will be seen in a different context, and Israeli portrayal of Iran will hold less sway over the world.

And this will cause a political crisis in Israel. If this government survives, then Israel is locked into a course that gives it freedom of action but international isolation. If the government falls, then Israel enters a period of domestic uncertainty. In either case, the flotilla achieved its strategic mission. It got Israel to take violent action against it. In doing so, Israel ran into its own fist.


Reprinting or republication of this report on websites is authorized by prominently displaying the following sentence at the beginning or end of the report, including the hyperlink to STRATFOR:

"This report is republished with permission of Stratfor"

Iraq War Vet Commits Suicide at Ohio Military Hospital

Here is an Iraq War fatality: don't bother Googling the story for it is nowhere to be found except for the link below. Why is that I wonder. I have blogged on this subject before: The Horror: War vets 'can't turn it off'. The newscast below on Jesse Charles Huff starts at 10.20 in the Democracy Now headline news.

Iraq War Vet Commits Suicide at Ohio Military Hospital

An Iraq war veteran has committed suicide in front of a veterans hospital in Dayton, Ohio. Jesse Charles Huff shot himself with a rifle in front of the Veterans Affairs Department’s Medical Center last month. Huff had been denied unspecified treatment at the hospital just hours earlier. The father of Huff’s former roommate says he thinks Huff killed himself in part to make a statement about the inadequate medical care he received as an injured veteran. Huff was wounded by a bombing in Iraq and had been undergoing treatment for a back injury and depression.

A message from Argentina

A Message from Argentina:
Our Sympathies to the People of Greece!
by Adrian Salbuchi*

Every once in awhile I run across an article that gives me some understanding of the bigger picture and I learn something. Why exactly IS there a crisis in global finances? And why do the PEOPLE always have to pay for it? The above article was very helpful to me and I present it here for those who want to know more......but don't have alot of time to study global finance.

I found both the article and the videos easily digestible and thought provoking. I am not sure it is possible for enough people to wake up to this information to stop the global financiers from completing their cycle. But I don't think it very dignified to play my part as an ostrich with my head in the sand bending over.

I hate dealing with economic global collapse because it is so messy and requires so much specialised knowledge to analyse it; more often than not I throw up my hands and move along to another issue.

But I am wrong to do this. Those who run the global finance know I probably won't study economics to understand today's mess; and probably will prefer to digest simplified media headlines. Average people who work and raise families barely have enough hours in the day to attend to their lives without devoting time to studying complex economic banking theories. Isn't that what politicians are elected to do?

One thing is clear to me though: democracy is dead. It is dead because the people are hoodwinked and too busy (and have little inclination) to learn more about the bigger picture of finance: people are content to play the part assigned to their little pixel in the picture painted by 'invisible hands'. Democracy requires enlightened citizens and most of us are still consumer zombies.


Related: Naomi Klein (search this blog)

Populism rising: Mobs converge on bankers

More frogs jumping out of the pot. Fair play to them.

Class Warfare: Hundreds Protest
Outside Bankers' Houses In DC

From Huffington Post
May 17, 2010
Huge angry mobs converged outside bank employees' houses on Sunday afternoon to demand banks stop lobbying against Wall Street reform.

"Bank of America: bad for America!" shouted community leaders outside the house of Bank of America general counsel Gregory Baer. The Chicago-based grassroots organization National People's Action, in coordination with the SEIU, bused more than 700 workers from 20 states to Baer's neighborhood, one of the wealthiest corners of Washington.

The action kicks off several days of protests targeting K Street for lobbyists' role in financial reform. Baer himself apparently tried to blend in with the crowd until a neighbor outed him. The mob booed loudly as he walked into his house. "I don't have time for you," he said, according to Trenda Kennedy of Springfield, Ill. who used a bullhorn to tell the crowd about her trouble getting a mortgage modification from Baer's bank. Kennedy told HuffPost she'd been making reduced monthly payments thanks to a trial modification via the Home Affordable Modification Program.

She said that when the bank turned her down for a permanent mod, she was told she still owed all the money she'd been paying during the trial. She said she's been notified of several sheriff's sale dates but has somehow managed to keep her home. "Every time I'm inches away from losing my house, by some miracle it's been pushed off," said Kennedy, who is a member of Illinois People's Action.

Passersby and dogwalkers smiled at the sight of people gathered all over Baer's lawn and blocking the road. Baer's neighbor from across the street won little sympathy when he angrily yelled at protesters for waking up his two-year-old daughter.

Kennedy was one of several people who used a bullhorn to tell personal bank horror stories. Story continues below Baer, formerly a senior official at the Treasury department, is a lawyer for the bank's regulator and public policy legal group. Bank of America declined to comment.

"Bank of America came to the homes of everyday Americans when you spread predatory loans in neighborhoods across, the country, when you financed payday-lending storefronts, when your reckless behavior sent the economy to the brink of disaster, and when your bank-owned properties littered neighborhoods from coast to coast," said a letter the group asked Baer to deliver to CEO Brian Moynihan.

"You've created a historic mess and have been unreceptive to very polite, very formal and very consistent requests to fix the problems you helped create." The group also protested outside the house of Peter Scher, a lobbyist for JPMorgan Chase. Nobody answered the door.

VAT should be imposed on food and children's clothes, says IMF

Think this could happen in Ireland?

VAT should be imposed on food
and children's clothes, says IMF

By By Edmund Conway, Economics Editor
Published: 9:30AM BST 15 May 2010
Telegraph.co.uk

David Cameron should use this summer's emergency Budget to raise VAT on a host of excluded products, including food and children's clothes, the International Monetary Fund signalled yesterday.

In an unusual intervention, the IMF said one of the best ways for the coalition Government to raise money and repair the public finances would be to remove the zero-rate that excluded a number of goods from VAT.

The recommendation came amid suspicion that the Government would also have to raise the level of the sales tax from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent if it was to afford the tax pledges it made in its agreement earlier this week.



Although the IMF's suggestion, published in a comprehensive survey of public finances around the world, was less eye-catching than raising the headline rate, it would potentially have a greater impact on the price of goods, and on families' living standards.

The document, signed by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF's managing director, said: "There is substantial scope for improving the revenue performance of the VAT in almost all countries, including by eliminating exemptions and reduced rates."

VAT is not charged by HM Revenue and Customs on certain items, including food, children's clothes, domestic passenger transport, books and prescription drugs.

The IMF said Britain could raise 3.3 per cent of its economic output – about £50 billion a year – merely by halving the number of exemptions.

It added that despite having among the highest levels of petrol duty in the Western world, Britain could afford to increase fuel taxes slightly more, raising a further £3 billion.

The suggestions were likely to fuel suspicion that George Osborne, the Chancellor, would raise a series of taxes, including VAT, at the emergency Budget, which is due to take place within 50 days.

City commentators, including Robert Chote, the head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and 24 of the 28 economists regularly surveyed by the Treasury, pinpointed the sales tax as the most likely candidate to rise in the Budget.

However, few suggested that the Treasury should lift the exemptions, which also included financial services fees. Some warned that increasing VAT on zero-rated items would affect the finances of lower income families in particular.

The IFS calculated in its Green Budget earlier this year that such a move – even at a more limited level, raising only £24 billion – would account for about 7 per cent of the income among low-paid workers.

The increases may be necessary if Britain was to start reducing its deficit, the IMF said.

It pointed out that, over the next few years, Britain would need to reduce its deficit by 9 per cent of gross domestic product – equivalent to £130 billion.

The Government has yet to specify how fast it intended to cut the deficit, although it pledged to cut spending by more than it raised taxes.

Iceland jails and sues banksters

The AFP publishes a story on the only country in the developed world with enough courage to jail their banksters. We could all do better to imitate the spirit of Iceland's people.

Related:

Iceland: a ray of hope in a dark world
Ireland could learn from Iceland
Ireland should be leading

Maybe there is hope for us afterall.

Bankers jailed, sued as
Iceland seeks culprits for crisis

More than a year and a half after Iceland's major banks failed, all but sinking the country's economy, police have begun rounding up a number of top bankers while other former executives and owners face a two-billion-dollar lawsuit.

Since Iceland's three largest banks -- Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir -- collapsed in late 2008, their former executives and owners have largely been living untroubled lives abroad.

But the publication last month of a parliamentary inquiry into the island nation's profound financial and economic crisis signaled a turning of the tide, laying much of the blame for the downfall on the former bank heads who had taken "inappropriate loans from the banks" they worked for.

On Wednesday, the administrators of Glitnir's liquidation announced they had filed a two-billion-dollar (1.6-billion-euro) lawsuit in a New York court against former large shareholders and executives for alleged fraud.

"I think this lawsuit is without precedence in Iceland," Steinunn Gudbjartsdottir, who chairs Glitnir's so-called winding-up board, told reporters in Reykjavik.

"It is about higher figures than we have ever seen," she said, adding that she expected Glitnir to file more lawsuits going forward, but that "it is unlikely any will be this big."

Glitnir said it was suing "Jon Asgeir Johannesson, formerly its principal shareholder, Larus Welding, previously Glitnir's chief executive, Thorstein Jonsson, its former chairman and other former directors, shareholders and third parties associates with Johannesson for fraudulently and unlawfully draining more than two billion dollars out of the bank."

The bank also said it was "taking action against its former auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for facilitating and helping to conceal the fraudulent transactions engineered by Johannesson and his associates, which ultimately led to the bank's collapse in October 2008."

Glitnir's suit, filed in the New York state Supreme Court on Tuesday, blamed most of the bank's woes on "Johannesson and his co-conspirators," who had "conspired to systematically loot Glitnir Bank in order to prop up their own failing companies."

Johannesson, the former owner of the now-defunct Baugur investment group with stakes in a number of British high street stores including Hamleys, Debenhams and House of Fraser, said he was shocked by the lawsuit.

"The distortions and the nonsense in the lawsuit are incredible," he told the Pressan news website.

Glitnir's administrators "can get a 10-year-prison sentence for misusing US courts in this manner," he insisted.

The bank's chief administrator Gudbjartsdottir took his comments in stride.

"I didn't expect him to be happy with the lawsuit," she said.

In addition to its New York suit, Glitnir said it had "secured a freezing order from the High Court in London against Jon Asgeir Johannesson's worldwide assets, including two apartments in Manhattan's exclusive Gramercy Park neighbourhood for which he paid approximately 25 million dollars."

Gudbjartsdottir said Johannesson had just 48 hours to come up with a satisfactory list of his assets.

"If he does not give the right information he faces a jail sentence," she said.

Four former Kaupthing executives, who all live in Luxembourg, have meanwhile been arrested in Iceland in the past week and Interpol has issued an international arrest warrant for that bank's ex-chairman, Sigurdur Einarsson.

Former head of the bank's domestic operations, Ingolfur Helgason, and former chief risk officer Steingrimur Karason were arrested late Monday on arrival from Luxembourg, just days after former Kaupthing boss Hreidar Mar Sigurdsson, along with Magnus Gudmunsson, who headed the bank's unit in Luxembourg, were taken into custody.

The 49-year-old Einarsson, who lives in London, said late Tuesday he had no plans to travel to Iceland to be arrested.

"I'm absolutely flabbergasted about the latest news," he told the Frettabladid daily.

"There is in my opinion no need for the arrests or custody rulings, and I will not of my own free will take part in the play that it appears is being staged to soothe the Icelandic people," he said.

"I'll put the human rights I enjoy here in Britain to the test and will not therefore come home (to Iceland) to these conditions without being forced," he added.

Polish plane crash - Shocking video

Digital Enhancement
Of Polish President Plane Crash Site
Footage Reveals Mysterious Activity, Gunshots

The resurgence of populism

Everything old is new again. As 'we the people' are being slowly boiled like frogs in a lukewarm pot, some are jumping out. As austerity cuts in budgets and social services hit more and more, people are getting pissed off. And increasingly willing to do something about it.

History is repeating itself in country after country; the fat cats v. the rest of humanity. The answers for today's problems are the same as always: the people themselves must stand up and say, 'NO MORE'. As Jim Hightower says: 'Fat cats are no match for alley cats.'

And people are protesting, everywhere; they just don't get the press coverage by the media giants that the politicians and Wall Street get. From peasants in Peru to citizens of Kyrgyzstan, from Iowa to Greece, the people are taking to the streets to take back their power, power which has been abused by an international plutocracy.

The following three videos are from Bill Moyer's Journal. They show the stuff that hope is made of. They are the antidote to cynical apathy. They inspire me to keep on 'keepin on': a grain of sand may be small, but a sand storm can carve into granite cliffs. I hope you will find some inspiration in these interviews with Howard Zinn and Jim Hightower. The third video is about how Iowans took back their power. Each video is approximately 30 min.

Bill Moyers and Jim Hightower
Click here

Iowa Citizens
Click here

Howard Zinn and Bill Moyers
Click here

Half of inmates jailed for non-payment of fines

A lovely state of affairs we have here in Ireland: debtors prisons. When half the prison population is there for non-payment of government fines, me thinks that history is repeating itself in Ireland. Instead of the English jailing us, we just jail ourselves.

Fair play to Sunday Business Post and Richard Curran/John Burke for bringing the story to light.

If you live in the USA, don't feel left out. Apparently the majority of prison inmates there are guilty of smoking pot.

Read and weep.

Half of inmates jailed
for non-payment of fines

02 May 2010
By Richard Curran and John Burke
Sunday Business Post

Half of all the people who were sent to prison last year were incarcerated for non-payment of fines, new figures reveal.

In the first ten months of 2009, 3,300 people were sent to prison for failing to pay fines.

A continuation of that pattern for the final two months of the year would leave the full-year total equal to half of all those placed in prison last year, according to Professor Ian O’Donnell of the Institute of Criminology at University College Dublin.

O’Donnell said that the number of people in Irish prisons was set to top 100 per 100,000 of the population for the first time since the foundation of the state. When remand prisoners are included the figures are even higher, according to O’Donnell.

‘‘The numbers in prisons have been creeping up, and it is part of an alarming trend," he said.

Breaching the 100 per 100,000 figure crossed a ‘‘significant threshold, taking Ireland from a comparatively low prison population to a middle ranking level by EU standards’’, added O’Donnell.

The growing numbers in prison for non-payment of fines reflects the economic downturn, ac cording to O’Donnell. He condemned the trend, which ‘‘breaks up families, while failing to recover the fine, and costs the state a lot of money’’.

Meanwhile, a previously-unpublished report has found that diseases such as hepatitis C are ‘‘endemic’’ in Irish prisons.

The examination, carried out by public health experts, found that medical infrastructure at more than one-third of the state’s 14 prisons was ‘‘unsuitable’’ for meeting patient health needs. Some equipment in use was found date back to Victorian times, the experts concluded.

Related: Prison population increased in '08

Number of committals for non-payment
of fines and RTA offences 1990-2006

Source: http://www.crimecouncil.gov.ie/statistics_cri_prison_table3.html

We DO know who you are

This is a real television commercial in the USA.

CIA agent with crack pipe tased

Ex-CIA Star Accused of Rape Tasered Twice
During Arrest, Had Gun, Crack Pipe

Click above link to story and video.

And if you like that one, you're gonna love this one.

Naked, drunk, surrounded by sex toys - it's the Israeli ambassador