Author: mopress

From the March 31 killings in Fallujah, we know about Blackwater.

Seymour Hersch’s report for the May 10 New Yorker on an Army internal investigation of Abu Ghraib prison “20 miles West of Baghdad” mentions Titan (which is planning a merger into Lockheed Martin) and CACI International.

The Blackwater website in turn lists Rutherford as an “alliance”.

In a March article for Counterpunch, I discussed Parsons.

Defense Contracts are listed at the Pentagon web page.

Quote: For centuries, the maxim was, “divide and conquer.” In the new, networked world, however, the watchwords are, “communicate and conquer.”–Dr. JP (Jack) London CACI Chairman and CEO from a speech headed, “CACI – Proud Partner in Homeland Security,” delivered on Jun2 10, 2002.

The quote is already harvested at Stephen DeVoy’s page on “Surveillance Whores.”

A google search for the phrase “communicate and conquer” yields this tidbit from the popular culture world of computer gaming in a review of “Final Fantasy XI” from Cinema Confidential:

“Communicate and Conquer

“Not only is Final Fantasy XI the first of the series to go online, but it’s also the first true MMORPG developed in Japan. The Japanese mindset is generally one of cooperation, and Final Fantasy XI reflects that by completely disallowing player-versus-player gaming–it’ll be interesting to see how this resonates with U.S. players, given their backstabbing predilections.

“Forming parties is essential, and fortunately, Final Fantasy XI has a number of well-thought-out systems to facilitate this. Up to 18 people can join a party, and there are a variety of fair ways to divvy up the items, like the drawing of lots for them amongst your party members. Additionally, players can form massive world-spanning chat groups by means of psychic shellfish known as link shells. These convenient magical chat items allow you to converse with people by giving them a link pearl, no matter where on Vana’diel they are.”

I don’t have the link handy, but the passage reminds me of a report that Afghanistan commanders are using “chat rooms” to coordinate their operations.

On the ethical superiority of CACI compared to jihadists, see London’s San Antonio speech of Oct. 15, 2003. It is the sort of ethics that includes statements such as, “These people must be eliminated.”

Dr. London’s San Antonio remarks were made at an AFCEA conference, that’s the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association. Read the AFCEA International Press offerings.

I don’t know if the firm, Unlocking Potential, got the phrase from Dr. London or if big ideas just show up in two places at once. But “Communicate and Conquer” is also the first of five keys listed by the Australian consulting company.

Although HIT Lab NZ uses the phrase accidentally, the research group reminds us that the ability to “communicate and conquer” is growning through their efforts in, “3D panoramic displays, virtual and augmented reality, voice and behaviour recognition and intuitive aural and tactile feedback.” The predator drone is like a Kitty Hawk version of the killing that might be enabled through such arts.

Bremer’s De-De-Baathification Gambit
Legitimates Fallujah Rebels

By Greg Moses

http://peacefile.org/wordpress

Lakhdar Brahimi and US Generals led the way last week, both camps hinting that de-Baathification in Iraq was a policy too stridently enforced by US civilian command. And by week’s end, their remarks were answered by Paul Bremer, who, “with Iraqi resistance growing, especially in the Sunni Triangle region west of Baghdad,” invited tens of thousands of Sunni Iraqis back into his nation-building plans.

And so began the de-de-Baathification of Iraq. Or was it just the gambit of the week?

Speaking from Rome Tuesday, Brahimi said, in code that had Baath written all over it, “The large number of political prisoners in Iraq and the large number of office workers who have been fired more than once without any clear reason, are a big problem for the international community with regard to the peace process and their efforts to pacify the country.”

Speaking almost simultaneously from a palace overlooking the Tigris River, US Major General John Batiste said that some of the million members of the Iraqi ruling party should be allowed to return to work. “They would be schoolteachers. They would be engineers.”

Bremer’s concession to peacemakers and generals came at the precise time when the US needed to isolate political support for armed insurgents in Fallujah. On the eve of a US assault on the city, Bremer relented on his policy of mass punishment toward Iraqi teachers and bureaucrats who had once belonged to the ruling party.

In a Wednesday article, “Don’t Forget the Alamo,” I reported that Brahimi’s support for old Baathists in the Sunni Triangle might be a deal-breaker for Kurds and Shi’a leaders who have constituted the ruled majority for so long.

Brahimi is under pressure by the White House to bring everyone together by June 30, and his rehabilitation of Baathists brings some gravity to the emerging government that had been previously missing. Ahmed Chalabi, the returned expatriate, will now be dropped, according to various recent sources.

With the Fallujah militia threatening to unify anti-US rebellion among Sunnis, Bremer’s reversal seems to be doing only what will be considered necessary to minimize the political fallout of a full-scale US assault on that city.

Yet Bremer’s reversal sends another message, too. By abandoning his criminal policy toward the Baathists, Bremer’s action shows that Fallujah militia may deserve some respect for representing legitimate complaints against the policies of US occupation.

Bremer’s de-Baathification policy had been questionable from the start. He fired thousands of teachers at a time.

Like Al-Sadr’s rebels in the Shi’a holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, the Fallujah militia seem to be saying things that the US authority needs to hear.

Rather than respect the rebels for bringing the civilian authority to its senses, President Bush persists in calling them, “a bunch of thugs and killers.”

Again, I say, don’t forget the Alamo. US forces can kill every rebel in several cities at once. But if those militia represent the heartfelt grievances of besieged Iraqis, then Iraqi history will be written like Texas history some day.

The Families, the Ayatollahs, and Brahimi

By Greg Moses

Call me a fat, Western pacifist, but I’m not in a hurry to choose between gunslingers this week. In view of the dust, fire, and death in Iraq, perhaps there are other choices.

For example, the families. One can simply say “the families” these days. Everyone knows who you are talking about; family members of 9/11 victims.

After the Presidential briefing memo was abruptly de-classified over the Easter/Passover weekend, family members explained how they cut the path to the memo by getting the commission appointed and getting questions asked.

Yet if everyone this week talks about the families, no one has learned how to treat them very well. There are abrupt introductions on television shows: meet the wives of men killed in the twin towers. Hello, thank you for being here.

There are “little notes” that commissioners sometimes read, when catering to the curiosities of the “little people.”

And there is the astonishment that paralyzes the war script when the “wives” or “ladies” are asked–“are you not now more right wing than you were before? Don’t you find yourself more in favor of giving up civil liberties and going after the bad guys with guns?”—-and when all three of the “wives” or “ladies” in response shake their heads no, and look at you. As if it’s true. Boys never do grow up. Now what do you say?

Not that all men are gunslingers. Three Grand Ayatollahs, for instance this week made a peace call to Najaf. Will we learn as much about their action as we learn about soldiers and generals? Not likely. Peacemaking is too quiet for commercial tv. We’d have to be drawn into a complex discussion of the relationships between Americans, Al-Sadr, and the Ayatollahs. We’d need real questions, a real desire to resolve.

Which brings us back to the families. They warn us that the Commission is not asking excellent questions. The families have demanded an investigation, but this is not quite the investigation they asked for. If the commission is not talking about the problem of 9/11 in a way that satisfies families of victims, then we can worry that more families of victims there will be.

“You don’t have to take away someone’s civil liberties in order to get people to talk to each other,” said one of the wives. She was referring to the people in the Executive Branch who conversed so privately and so poorly about threatened hijackings, and who then followed up with really bad, and loudly broadcast discussions about terrorism. Had the conversations been better, who knows where we might be today.

The families say also that key witnesses, whistle blowers, who make themselves and their stories known to the families, are not being called to testify.

As the problem of 9/11 is usually put, either you do nothing or you go to war. But the families argue that a change in conversation would have crucial effects. And they argue that even the conversation that would change the conversation is a conversation not allowed to take place. Not by the commission, not by the media.

President Bush, at his press conference, confirmed that he’s as single-minded as he ever was–“Mr. President, you say the same things over and over again”—but the President also brought with him news that the world’s most renowned peacekeeper, Lakhdar Brahimi, is negotiating on the President’s behalf. Apparently, even the gunslinger wants an end to dust
and death, but doesn’t quite know how to talk his way into it.

Along with news of Brahimi, the families, and the Ayatollahs, this awful week brings hope that highly informed conversations can actually find ways to give the gunslingers a rest.

Meanwhile, I am in no hurry to choose a gunslinger. Until we find the conversations that the families, the Ayatollahs, and Brahimi are looking for; relax, there will always be gunslingers to choose between.

A Guest Lecture

By Greg Moses

As you see from your readings this week, Alexander Cockburn demands a President who’s not some kind of war criminal. Manning Marable preaches one more eulogy for the death of civil rights. And Donald Trump entrepreneurs (yes, I’ll make that a verb) a television series that is huge, if not spectacular, for giving out one good job. Baghdad, are you ready for this?

Our briefing today centers around an image:

It’s the internet map of AOR CENTCOM, otherwise known as Central Command’s Area of responsibility. As you can see, there are 27 countries numbered under the headings of four regions and we’ll take them from the top of the list: Horn of Africa; South Asia; Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, and Northern Red Sea; and finally, Central Asia.

It could be Western Pennsylvania in 1680, or Texas in 1830, the Philippines in 1890, or Africa and South America in 1950. And let’s not forget Germany or Japan 1940. As you can see from the map here, we’re talking about the macro view.

Bush, Kerry, Nader. Imagine any of them posing for photos in front of a wall full of Presidential oil paintings. And stick with me here, I’m going to get to the point.

Here’s how it happens. Big business grabs up the money and power while millions sweat to make it happen. Then, at the end of the day, everyone is exhausted, but big business always has extra money to rent out great talents and hired guns who can go to work on the fortunes of tomorrow. During the 1990s, for example, you couldn’t get too rich too quick or drop too many bombs.

Now this surplus of power and money forms a capacity for which something has to be found to do. For instance, we could spend this power equalizing our citizenship and fulfilling the dream of civil rights at home. That would be like pure democracy. But no. In the end, and over someone’s dead body, the money always finds something else to do.

Please, you’re not going to make me write the numbers the board? Inequalities increase, elites consolidate power, and military spending exceeds every known contingency of self-defense. You can see on your syllabus that I recommend reading any almanac. Okay then, yes, I guess so. The numbers will definitely be on the final exam. So make sure you do the reading.

Effective business, ineffective civil rights. These are the twin, um, conditions that produce the crops of war criminals from which we, um, our Presidents choose. Am I making myself clear about this? Name me the Presidential campaign that was hard fought between human rights heroes? Well, think about it.

Everyone sweats, but only a few fortunes get made, and this is the only formula that anyone respects. You got another formula in mind, you keep it quiet, because we do have some work for would-be war criminals at home, too. Sorry, but that’s the way it is.

So we have this fabulously powerful system that produces these gigantic concentrations of wealth and power, owing largely to the fact that the not all the people who sweat get their fair slice of the pie.

Affirmative action. Silliest thing you ever saw, yapping about fair shares at a pie gobbling contest. What does Marable say about reparations? Be sure you highlight that.

Which brings us back to the map on the wall. AOR CENTCOM. And why it is labeled Area of responsibility? What does Cockburn say about war drums and candidates for President? Well look at the size of that map. No President is going to be big enough to say no to that map. That’s why civil rights will starve another generation at home. And why inequalities will increase owing to surplus accumulations of value.

And why some of us prefer to go to bed with Socrates, who argued, “my poverty is my proof.” Yeah, tell that to the jury, Friedrich.

Well, sorry, I didn’t mean to let my personal feelings get in the way of objective analysis. I’ll be sure to put some Ayn Rand readings on the syllabus next fall. She was Russian, you know.

In the meantime, think about which of these 27 countries you’ll want to write on. It’s your area of responsibility, too.

Be sure to keep up with the readings: almanac, Cockburn, Marable, and Trump. And remember lite beer, fewer carbs, less filling. See you Thursday.