News Dissector: October 3, 2007

NEWS DISSECTOR October 2, 2007

Anita Hill Responds to Clarence Thomas on 60 Minutes

This I would like to see:

Iran's Ferdowi University yesterday invited President Bush to travel to Iran
and "speak on campus about a range of issues, including the Holocaust, terrorism, human rights and U.S. foreign policy." The invitation "asked Bush to answer questions from students and professors 'just the same way' that Ahmadinejad took questions 'despite all the insults directed at him.'"


SUPPORT FOR THE BURMESE JUNTA
DID ISRAEL BOMB SYRIA; WILL IT BOMB IRAN?
ANITA HILL ON 60 MINUTES' LOVE FEST WITH CLARENCE THOMAS

There is an image I can't get out of my mind. It's the image of Burmese soldiers smahing the heads of protesting monks against the wall in their monsestary. I keep seeing saffron running red. The last uprising in Burma was in 1988. Its been 17 years since Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was elected prime minister of Burma. She remains in house arrest. We can't allow this issue to recede again into the background. See new video of beatings on CNN.Com

IPS: GENERALS DON"T LISTEN IN BURMA

BANGKOK, Oct 2 (IPS) - Few foreigners are as qualified to talk about the mind and the manner of Burma's dictatorship as Razali Ismail, a Malaysian diplomat who served five years as special United Nations envoy charged with facilitating political reform in that military-ruled country.

''When you are talking to the military chief there it is not a dialogue that you indulge in. In fact, you cannot expect to have a dialogue with him,'' Razali, who has traded diplomacy for a career in business, told IPS during a telephone interview from Kuala Lumpur.

Attempts by foreign envoys to discuss domestic politics with Senior Gen. Than Shwe, Burma's strongman, are treated with a measure of contempt, as if it is ''an internal issue,'' he added. ''In his mind, there is a sense of intrusiveness.''

What is more, the years he spent engaged with the Burmese junta confirmed that progress marches at a retarded pace. ''It is a very slow process dealing with an authoritarian government,'' he said, reflecting on what he achieved since he began his U.N. mission in 2000.

TO DOG IS "BULL DOG"

AP: "The old soldier who leads Myanmar is called "the bulldog" — for good reason.
Pro-democracy demonstrators by the thousands may be willing to sacrifice themselves in the streets but stand little chance of success unless they — or other forces — can oust a jowly, high school dropout with delusions of royal grandeur from his post of virtually absolute power.

Senior Gen. Than Shwe has shown no willingness to step down as head of the ruling junta, compromise with protesters, or listen to international calls for reform in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

After snubbing special U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari for three days, Than Shwe finally met him Tuesday. That came only after his foreign minister told the United Nations that change "cannot be imposed from outside."

"The very fate of Burma is linked to Than Shwe, whose manic, xenophobic and superstitious character bode ill for a country that needs to pull itself into the 21st century and into the international community of democratic nations," says the Irrawaddy, a Thailand-based news magazine that maintains a "Than Shwe Watch" column.

COMPANIES IN BURMA

George Monbiot writes in the Guardian:

I have stumbled across one western firm which most Burma campaigners appear to have missed. It is run by one of the world's most famous sportsmen, the golfer Gary Player. Player has made much of his ethical credentials. Next month he will host the Nelson Mandela Invitational golf tournament, whose purpose is "to make a difference in the lives of children". One of his websites shows a painting of Mr Player bathed in radiant light and surrounded by smiling children. Nelson Mandela stands behind him, lit by the same faint halo.

Golf, to most of us, looks like a harmless if mysterious activity, but in Burma it is a powerful symbol of oppression. Some of the country's courses have been built on land seized from peasant farmers, who were evicted without compensation. Golf is the sport of the generals, who conduct much of their business on the links.

Player's website shows him, in 2002, launching the "grand opening" of the golf course he designed, which turned "a 650-acre rice paddy into The Pride of Myanmar. The golfer's paradise that stands in Myanmar today is said to be living proof that miracles do happen."

I asked his company the following questions. Who owned the land on which the course was constructed? How many people were evicted in order to build it? Was forced labour used in its construction? As Player's company is based in Florida, did the design of this course break US sanctions? His media spokesman told me "The Gary Player Group has decided not to comment on any questions regarding Myanmar-Burma." It seems to me that there is a strong case for asking Nelson Mandela to remove his name from Mr Player's tournament.

Even more disturbing to me is the silence of India, Burma's trading partner, which was home to Mahatma Gandhi, the non-violent apostle who no doubt would be in the streets with the monks if he was alive.

Finally, to see an example of an American link with the junta watch Milena Kaneva's powerful film TOTAL DENIAL, shown last year at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival and now updated. It tells the story of a group of gutsy Burmese peasants who sued two major oil companies building a oil pipeline through their country and benefiting from Junta enforced Slave Labor. The lawsuit was heard in California and the court ruled against UNOCAL, now Chevron. It's a gripping and well told story. See totaldenial.com for more info.

BLACKWATER CHIEF: "WE ACTED APPROPRIATELY AT ALL TIMES

WASHINGTON - Blackwater chairman Erik Prince vigorously defended his private security company on Tuesday, rejecting charges that his staff acted like a bunch of cowboys immune to legal prosecution while protecting State Department personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan.

CNN says, "The State Department's initial report of last month's incident in which Blackwater guards were accused of killing Iraqi civilians was written by a Blackwater contractor working in the embassy security detail, according to government and industry sources."

Jeremy Scayhill who wrote a book on Blackwater testified to Congress also, He charged: This problem is more pervasive than recognized:

While the headlines of the past week have been focused on the fatal shootings, this was by no means an isolated incident. Nor is this simply about a rogue company or rogue operators. This is about a system= of unaccountable and out of control private forces that have turned Iraq into a wild west from the very beginning of the occupation, often with the stamp of legitimacy of the US government.

NYT: Korean Leaders Meet in Pyongyang

Roh Moo-hyun is only the second South Korean president to visit since the two Koreas were divided.

And meanwhile RTE Reports" North Korea seeks removal from blacklist

North Korea has claimed the US is considering taking it off its list of
terrorism-sponsoring states. North Korean envoy Kim Kye-Gwan made the announcement as he left Beijing during a recess in six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.

VIA BILL BOWLES: ISRAEL ADMITS ATTACKING SYRIA

It was supposedly called "OPERATION ORCHARD" and allegedly involved an Israel attack on Syria but the whole story is mired in the muck of so much misinfiormation. Allegedly North Korea was supplying Syria with nuclear materials. But were they. So far Syria has been silent, although Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu said the following,

'Last week opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu chipped away at that wall [of silence], saying Israel did in fact attack targets in Syrian territory. His top adviser, Mossad veteran Uzi Arad, told NEWSWEEK: "I do know what happened, and when it comes out it will stun everyone."' — 'Whispers of War', Newsweek, Sunday, 23 September 2007

"Stun everyone?" Not Joseph Cirincione, senior fellow and director for nuclear policy at the Center for American Progress, author of Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons, whosees it this way:

…This story is nonsense. The Washington Post story should have been headlined "White House Officials Try to Push North Korea-Syria Connection." This is a political story, not a threat story. The mainstream media seems to have learned nothing from the run-up to war in Iraq. It is a sad commentary on how selective leaks from administration officials who have repeatedly misled the press are still treated as if they were absolute truth.

Once again, this appears to be the work of a small group of officials leaking cherry-picked, unvetted "intelligence" to key reporters in order to promote a preexisting political agenda. If this sounds like the run-up to the war in Iraq, it should. This time it appears aimed at derailing the U.S.-North Korean agreement that administration hardliners think is appeasement. Some Israelis want to thwart any dialogue between the U.S. and Syria…

And the NYT immediately jumped on the wagon and kinda "ping-ponged" themselves into phantasy heavens with catchy stories about "possible nuclear links between North Korea and Syria". It was more or less some kind of a wishing well trying to revoke some "déjà vues" about how the Iraq adventure started.

BUT IS THERE GOING TO BE AN ATTACK ON IRAN?

Yes, No Maybe are the three possible answers. I have shared some of the yes articles but there are no ones as well. INI's Bill Bowles has been digging around and musing on the subject,

'Despite the unending stream of stories across the months announcing that an attack on Iran is on the way, I've had my doubts, but you'd be foolish to bet that an attack on Iran won't happen.' — 'Will the US Really Bomb Iran?' A. Cockburn says no.

Others are saying that a planned visit to Iran by Putin will assure there will be numbing. Bill Bowles sees this as "softening up the public for a possible war if all else fails to achieve their objective, and secondly, they are designed to put pressure on the various political leaders of the competitors that the imperium means business.

What is important to note is that there are two realities here, one essentially for public consumption whose code words are 'war on terror', 'Islamo-fascism', nuclear weapons, 'human rights' or whatever, and the other is what goes on behind the scenes, where the real deals are done or not done.


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Market Returns To Reality, Drops Because of Housing Crisis

After the Dow hit 14, 000 on Monday in a big rally, the stock market dropped yesterday as reality returned and new report showed how grim the housing situation is. Morgan Stanley axed 600 people.

MarketWatch reports oil prices up, up and away:

Oil prices of at least $100 a barrel are expected to become the norm as early as next year, as conventional supplies continue to decline and consumption in the developing world rises, CIBC chief economist Jeff Rubin said Tuesday.

"We're in a world of triple-digit oil prices for the foreseeable future," Rubin said at the CIBC 2nd Annual Industrials Conference. "Whether it's $100 or $140 a barrel … is up to debate, but the bottom line is we're in the bottom of the ninth inning of the hydrocarbon age."

THE FIRE THIS TIME

Could that also be part of the explanation for other serious trends—the weakening of the dollar, and growing inflation with oil prices poised to go through the roof. Its called a "FIRE" ECONOMY. Thats an economy which ends up burning up. Don't forget that business cycles are part of it, always have been, always will be. And that means that when there are big ups, downs are sure to follow. We have seen it before and we will see it again.

Clearly there are a lot of smart people in the financial sector working overtime to stabilize the situation, and manage the crisis. There is a "plunge protection" unit in the US Treasury. But the markets tend to be more irrational with investors often becoming speculators and following a herd instinct. Its like blackbirds—when one lands, they all land.

Markets are believed to self-"correct" but that doesn't always happen which is why there is so much volatility. When an important sector like housing is in trouble, consumer confidence is down. When consumer confidence is in trouble….Just follow the chain.

Some experts say it will all come down. I hope not because the rich are well positioned to survive but the rest of us are not. I keep reading pessimistic scenarios as the national debt keeps going up and the savings rate down. That is a prescription for very scary scenarious. Check these articles out,

THE "GREATER" DEPRESSION UPDATE

David M. Levitt and Bryan Keogh for Bloomberg

The world economy "is probably at its scariest point since the Depression'' as fallout from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis crimps access to credit, said Ethan Penner, a pioneer of the $600 billion commercial mortgage backed securities market in the early 1990s." We're probably at the closest point to a big meltdown, a depression type meltdown than we have been in our lives,'' said Penner, 46, now a principal at real estate fund management firm Lubert-Adler Partners LP in Philadelphia, during a speech at a Real Estate Media Inc. conference in New York.

The U.S. housing market is an "unmitigated disaster" and will take at least another 18 months to recover, as the U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank respond to turmoil in credit markets, Penner said. As foreclosures rise, lenders will try to sell the properties they acquire at depressed prices, dragging the market down further, he said.

"I'll tell you how it's going to end: It's going to end with a depression, and not just a depression; not just another Great Depression; it's going to be the Greater Depression."

GET READY FOR WEIMAR-REPUBLIC STYLE INFLATION

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Anita Hill Responds to Clarence Thomas Intv on 60 Minutes

ANITA HILL RESPONDS TO CLARENCE THOMAS ON 60 MINUTES

60 Minutes did not bother to get Anita Hill to respond to its loving and book-selling two segment profile last Sunday in which the Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was treated with kid gloves. Part of the report touched on the charges raised by his former employee, attorney Anita Hill, but with no new interview with her or any ctitics. Now Hill has responded—but not as yet before a national TV audience.
(Thanks to Firefly for sending this.)

On Oct. 11, 1991, I testified about my experience as an employee of Clarence Thomas's at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

I stand by my testimony. Justice Thomas has every right to present himself as he wishes in his new memoir, "My Grandfather's Son." He may even be entitled to feel abused by the confirmation process that led to his appointment to the Supreme Court.

But I will not stand by silently and allow him, in his anger, to reinvent me.

In the portion of his book that addresses my role in the Senate hearing into his nomination, Justice Thomas offers a litany of unsubstantiated representations and outright smears that Republican senators made about me when I testified before the Judiciary Committee — that I was a "combative left-winger" who was "touchy" and prone to overreacting to "slights." A number of independent authors have shown those attacks to be baseless. What's more, their reports draw on the experiences of others who were familiar with Mr. Thomas's behavior, and who came forward after the hearings. It's no longer my word against his.

Justice Thomas's characterization of me is also hobbled by blatant
inconsistencies. He claims, for instance, that I was a mediocre employee who had a job in the federal government only because he had "given it" to me. He ignores the reality: I was fully qualified to work in the government, having graduated from Yale Law School (his alma mater, which he calls one of the finest in the country), and passed the District of Columbia Bar exam, one of the toughest in the nation.

In 1981, when Mr. Thomas approached me about working for him, I was an associate in good standing at a Washington law firm. In 1991, the partner in charge of associate development informed Mr. Thomas's mentor, Senator John Danforth of Missouri, that any assertions to the contrary were untrue. Yet, Mr. Thomas insists that I was "asked to leave" the firm.

It's worth noting, too, that Mr. Thomas hired me not once, but twice while he was in the Reagan administration — first at the Department of Education and then at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. After two years of working directly for him, I left Washington and returned home to Oklahoma to begin my teaching career.

In a particularly nasty blow, Justice Thomas attacked my religious
conviction, telling "60 Minutes" this weekend, "She was not the demure, religious, conservative person that they portrayed." Perhaps he conveniently forgot that he wrote a letter of recommendation for me to work at the law school at Oral Roberts University, in Tulsa. I remained at that evangelical Christian university for three years, until the law school was sold to Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Va., another Christian college. Along with other faculty members, I was asked to consider a position there, but I decided to remain near my family in Oklahoma.

Regrettably, since 1991, I have repeatedly seen this kind of character attack on women and men who complain of harassment and discrimination in the workplace. In efforts to assail their accusers' credibility, detractors routinely diminish people's professional contributions. Often the accused is a supervisor, in a position to describe the complaining employee's work as "mediocre" or the employee as incompetent. Those accused of inappropriate behavior also often portray the individuals who complain as bizarre caricatures of themselves — oversensitive, even fanatical, and often immoral — even though they enjoy good and productive working relationships with their colleagues.

Finally, when attacks on the accusers' credibility fail, those accused of workplace improprieties downgrade the level of harm that may have occurred. When sensing that others will believe their accusers' versions of events, Individuals confronted with their own bad behavior try to reduce legitimate concerns to the level of mere words or "slights" that should be dismissed without discussion.

Fortunately, we have made progress since 1991. Today, when employees complaint of abuse in the workplace, investigators and judges are more likely
to examine all the evidence and less likely to simply accept as true the word of those in power. But that could change. Our legal system will suffer if a sitting justice's vitriolic pursuit of personal vindication discourages others from standing up for their rights.

The question of whether Clarence Thomas belongs on the Supreme Court is no longer on the table — it was settled by the Senate back in 1991. But questions remain about how we will resolve the kinds of issues my testimony exposed. My belief is that in the past 16 years we have come closer to making the resolution of these issues an honest search for the truth, which, after all, is at the core of all legal inquiry. My hope is that Justice Thomas's latest fusillade will not divert us from that path.

Anita Hill, a professor of social policy, law and women's studies at
Brandeis University, is a visiting scholar at the Newhouse Center for the Humanities at Wellesley College.

NYT: SPEAKING OF SEXUAL HARRASSMENT

Jury Awards $11.6 Million to Former Knicks Executive

A jury ruled today that Knicks Coach Isiah Thomas sexually harassed a former team executive and that Madison Square Garden fired her in retaliation for her complaints.

Maybe Hill should have sued.

ASIAN EDITORS EXPRESS CONCERNS

NEW DELHI: While welcoming the modernization that has come as a result of globalization and competition, editors from Asian countries are apprehensive about the freedoms they enjoy in an era where a few conglomerates and media magnates are trying to take over the entire media space.

Speaking at a discussion after the presentation of a paper at a meet over the weekend, the editors also wondered if the standards had improved with a larger number of newspapers virtually turning into tabloids.

RE THE POLICE IN PHOENIX

I reported on that story of the woman who died in custody in an Arizona Airport. The police there are being criticized sharply in the NY press. Mark Crispin Miller shared this letter he received:

Just a basic Google search turns up a significant amount of information about how the two major Phoenix area law enforcement agencies view inmate rights and the treatment of citizens during arrests. And the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department is beyond belief — they returned to the use of chain gangs and brag about feeding inmates on 45 cents per day! There is apparently a very disturbing culture in place at both these Phoenix area police agencies.

While Phoenix Police denied the use of a Taser on Mrs. Gotbaum a 2004 article on the Phoenix Police Department indicated that during that year it had purchased enough of the newer model X-26 Taser units to equip virtually all of its officers. And other
articles per Google indicated that Phoenix PD also had one of the highest usage of Taser units in the nation.

Jeff Adams
Berkeley, CA

FOR MORE ON THE US AND SAUDIA ARABIA SEE THE INVENTIVE OPENING VIDEO FOR "THE KINGDOM"

Check out my piece on Fox News and Bill O'Reilly today and also the weekly newsletter I write on credit and loan issues on the stopthesqueeze.org website.

Share your comments by writing, dissector@mediachannel.org