In October 2009 I launched Boiling Frogs Post  with one purpose in mind: To establish a venue for investigative articles, editorials, analyses, discussions, and interviews on issues largely censored and blacked out by the media. After four months of a successful trial phase this venue is now ready to enter its next stage, and for that it needs your support.

Boiling Frogs Post is solely dependent on its readers, and has no ties to any institution, foundation, organization or corporation. This is the only model I see fit to be called an independent news and views venue, untainted by external pressures, special interests or partisan flavoring.

Our authors and analysts present their work, not agenda scripts or special recipes handed to them for creation of a particular propaganda to serve a particular interest. And, our weekly commercial-free Podcast Show hosts the voices of noteworthy guests on topics long-muffled and quashed by the mainstream media and their minions on lower levels posing as alternatives.

I’m happy to report that in the four months since the launching of Boiling Frogs Post we have accomplished and delivered every single objective set prior to the launching this site. I am proud to have established a distinguished team of journalists, analysts, authors, and an editorial cartoonist whose work is based on truth and real issues.

Whether it is going after hypocrisy-ridden foreign policy practices, the ever revolving doors of foreign lobbies, or our stomped upon and continuously assaulted civil liberties, our  work transcends the webs put in place by partisanship and special interests and agendas. Here are a few examples of our work:
 

• Sibel Edmonds- The Makings of a Police State Series
• Dr. Nafeez Ahmed- Yemen, Energy Crisis & the Nigerian Crutch Bomber Series
• Mizgin Yilmaz- Richard Armitage Series
• Dr. William Weaver – The Impulse to Secrecy: The Glomar Response
• Peter Lance: Fort Hood & the KSM Trial Series
• Sibel Edmonds- Op-ed Series

 
In this short time span the Boiling Frogs Show has been able to present you with over 20 distinguished experts and whistleblowers from the fields of journalism, intelligence, grassroots activism, academia, and foreign policy. Here is a list of select interviews:
 

• James Bamford on NSA & Illegal Domestic Wiretapping
• Pepe Escobar on the Current Energy Crisis & the Quest for Central Asia-Caspian Region
• Russ Baker on the Concept of Shadow Government and the Real Power Centers in the US
• Daniel Ellsberg on Obama Presidency & Whistleblowers
• Andy Worthington on America’s Detention Center at Guantanamo Bay
• Chris Hedges on the US Media & the Empire of Illusion
• Coleen Rowley on Accountability, Whistleblowers & Activism

 
I believe during this four-month trial phase Boiling Frogs Post has established a solid track record with what it has accomplished, and a view of what it can accomplish given your support and backing. We are now ready to begin our next phase, during which we will continue to provide what you have seen, read, and listened to thus far, and additionally, will present exclusive video clips and investigative stories.

This site will continue and expand only with your direct support. I am asking every one of you to consider yourself as the one who can make this possible, that without your active support this real alternative site will not continue or exist, and that without your help those who consider truly independent channels like this ‘impossible to survive and flourish’ will be proven right, and with that we will all lose. So please do your share, and contribute whatever you can now.

Our countdown to receive your support and donations begins today. No donation is either too small or too large. Please donate what you can to keep this home of the irate minority alive, and thank you for all you do.

Sibel Edmonds

Founder & Publisher, Boiling Frogs Post

This coming week will mark the fourth month of our website’s operation. During the last two weeks I’ve been talking with our team members and friends in the online forums and activism community, and evaluating our website’s success and the feasibility of continuing and expanding it.

I’m happy to report that during the last four months we have achieved every single objective set prior to launching this site. And, I am proud to have gathered a distinguished team of journalists, analysts, authors, and an editorial cartoonist whose work is based on truth and real issues.

I believe that during this four-month trial phase Boiling Frogs Post has established a solid track record with what it has accomplished, and a view of what it can accomplish given your support and backing. Also, in this short time span the Boiling Frogs Show has been able to present you with over 20 distinguished experts and whistleblowers from the fields of journalism, intelligence, grassroots activism, academia, and foreign policy.

Thousands of you have been visiting this website daily, and only you will determine whether we can continue and expand this unique forum. As you know, this site is solely dependent on its readers, you, and has no ties to any institution, foundation, organization or corporation. This is the only model I see fit to be called an independent news and views venue, untainted by external pressures, special interests or partisan flavoring.

Starting next week, and for the next few weeks, we’ll be running our online fundraising campaign, and we’ll let you determine the outcome. I am counting on every single one of you, and asking you to support, spread the word, and recruit the support of others you know.

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Here are a few noteworthy links:
 

Another case of TSA overkill
Daniel Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer

Did you hear about the Camden cop whose disabled son wasn’t allowed to pass through airport security unless he took off his leg braces?

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Activist’s case will test U.S. anti-terrorism law
David G. Savage, LA Times

Ralph Fertig hardly resembles a terrorist, but the soft-spoken 79-year-old pacifist and human rights activist from Los Angeles might well qualify as one under the government’s strong anti-terrorism law.

He is the lead plaintiff in a Supreme Court case to be heard next week that will test whether speaking out on behalf of an oppressed foreign minority — represented by a group that’s been deemed a terrorist organization by the U.S. — can result in a long

In 1996, Congress expanded the anti-terrorism law, imposing a prison term of up to 15 years for providing “training” or “expert advice or assistance” to a designated international terrorist group. The ban on supporting terrorists forbids sending not only money, weapons and fighters, but also charitable funds. Government lawyers say it even forbids filing a legal brief or writing an op-ed essay on behalf of a designated terrorist group.

For his part, Fertig says he wants no part of terrorism or violence, but rather the freedom to advocate for the rights of the Kurdish minority in Turkey. He is troubled that Kurds can be punished for speaking their own language or displaying their national colors. And he believes the 1st Amendment protects his right to counsel Kurdish leaders to steer away from violence and to take their cause to the United Nations.

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No Justice Forever: America’s New Foreign Policy of Indefinite Detention
Lt. Col. Barry Wingard, The Public Record

It is tempting to assume the decision to hold detainees indefinitely is based on a review of credible evidence. But if the evidence is so persuasive, why not introduce it in a court of law and secure a legitimate conviction? Time and again, federal courts have proven fully capable of handling terrorism cases. In fact, the Bush administration successfully prosecuted at least 319 terrorism or terrorism-related cases in civilian courts.

If the evidence is not reviewed by a court of law, who does review the evidence and determine the fates of individual suspects? The evidence is classified and the identities of those making the determinations are closely guarded. This process is entirely secret and inherently un-American. A system that authorizes indefinite detention based on secret evidence can only result in distrust and suspicion.

I represent Fayiz al-Kandari, a Kuwaiti citizen who has been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay for more than eight years without a trial. In my July 2009 letter to the Washington Post, I explained how every time I visit my client he asks whether I have news of justice for him. Each time, I am forced to answer “I have no justice today.” Assuming Fayiz would someday have his “day in court,” I prepared him for the probability that “justice” would come in the form of a military commission – a second-rate judicial system largely designed to permit rumor as evidence. Unfortunately, I am now left to wonder whether Fayiz will ever be afforded any semblance of justice.

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Hold on to your underpants
Tom Engelhardt, Asia Times

The 9/11 attacks, which had the look of the apocalyptic, brought the fear of terrorism into the American bedroom via the TV screen. That fear was used with remarkable effectiveness by the Bush administration, which color-coded terror for its own ends. A domestic version of shock-and-awe – Americans were indeed shocked and awed by 9/11 – helped drive the country into two disastrous wars and occupations, each still ongoing, and into Bush’s “global war on terror”, a term now persona non grata in Washington, even if the “war” itself goes on and on.
…

The fear of terrorism has, by now, been institutionalized in our society – quite literally – even if the thing we’re afraid of has, on the scale of human problems, something of the Will o’ the Wisp about it.

That fear has been embedded in what once was an un-American word, more easily associated with Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany: “homeland”. It has replaced the words country, land, and nation in the lexicon of the terror-mongers. The “homeland” is the place that terrorism, and nothing but terrorism, can violate. In 2002, that terror-embedded word got its own official government agency: the Department of Homeland Security, the second “defense” department, which has a 2010 budget of US$39.4 billion (while overall “homeland security” spending in the 2010 budget reached $70.2 billion). Around it has grown up a little-attended-to homeland-security complex with its own interests, businesses, associations and lobbyists, including jostling crowds of ex-politicians and ex-government bureaucrats.

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US compensates Afghans for death, damage from war
Christopher Torchia, AP

The American units carry a list that gives guidance on payouts:
The death of a child or adult is worth $1,500-$2,500,
loss of limb and other injuries $600-$1,500,
a damaged or destroyed vehicle $500-$2,500,
and damage to a farmer’s fields $50-$250.

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Justice Department Formally Ends Anthrax Investigation
Jason Ditz, AntiWar

The Justice Department today formally ended over eight years of investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks, releasing hundreds of pages of documents and a “transcript” from 2008 which attempted to implicate Dr. Bruce Ivins in the attacks.

Officials have been trying for years to pin the attacks on Dr. Ivins, a prominent anthrax researcher, despite a paucity of evidence supporting this claim. The 2008 transcript suggested Ivins may have launched the attacks and simply forgotten about them, or possibly done them while sleepwalking and never been aware of them.

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Before Ivins was blamed, officials told the media that another scientist, Dr. Steven Hatfill, was likely to blame. Dr. Hatfill successfully sued the Justice Department for $5.8 million for wrongfully implicating him.

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This site depends exclusively on readers’ support. Please help us continue by contributing directly and or purchasing Boiling Frogs showcased products.

Phil Weiss provides us with his experience and analysis of the US media’s stand, and their one-sided coverage and one-sided censorship on issues and cases related to Israel and the Israel lobby. He discusses the parallels between the tactics used in Gaza by Israelis and those implemented during the holocaust. Mr. Weiss talks about the Jewish identity question around the Israel lobby, the Obama administration’s hypocritical stand on and lame no-response response to the Goldstone Report, the importance of Jewish money and the Israel lobby to Obama and the Democrats, the recent changing perception of Israel, and much more!

Philip Weiss is an investigative journalist who has written for The Nation, The New York Observer, The American Conservative, Harper’s Magazine, and New York Times Magazine among other publications. He is the author of American Taboo: A Murder in the Peace Corps and an editor of the website Mondoweiss, which covers the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Here is our guest Phil Weiss unplugged!

This site depends exclusively on readers’ support. Please help us continue by contributing directly and or purchasing Boiling Frogs showcased products.

A February 13 New York Times article exposed the degree to which the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), a group composed of African Americans in the U.S. House of Representatives, used loopholes in political finance laws to raise $55 million in unregulated corporate money through a network of nonprofits from 2004 to 2008. The money in question is principally channeled through the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and is ostensibly to be used for scholarships for disadvantaged African American students. However, the analysis of reporters Eric Lipton and Eric Lichtbau demonstrates that the majority of the funds have actually been used for junkets, parties, golf outings and boondoggles; as well as the retirement of the mortgage for a headquarters building on Embassy Row. In regards to the paid off headquarters building of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF), Lipton and Lichtbau write:

…in 2008, a jazz band was playing at what amounted to a mortgage-burning party for the $4 million town house.

Curiously, the authors do not mention where exactly this little jazz celebration took place. One might assume it was held in the CBC’s own building, or in the Mississippi Casino Resort that is mentioned further down in the article. Luckily, the reader only has to go to the CBCF’s own website to find where the party took place in April, 2008:

CBCF celebrated the acquisition of its building at the historic residence of the Turkish Ambassador on Embassy Row.

To most casual observers, the Turkish Embassy would seem an odd place for a foundation run by a group of African American legislators to hold a celebration of such historic measure. It turns out, however, that there is some connection between the two communities. One famous Turkish-American, Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records, had a great appreciation for jazz and helped to promote the growth of black music in the United States. However, reporting last year from Washington D.C., freelance reporter Joshua Kucera suggested something a little deeper might be going on between the Turkish lobbyists and CBC members than a simple shared love for soul music:

Turkish lobbying groups have specifically targeted black members of Congress. Twelve members of the Congressional Black Caucus are also in the Turkish Caucus, according to Lydia Borland.

Ankara’s lobby in the U.S., which now seems to be principally coordinated through the Turkish Coalition USA PAC and the American Turkish Council, seems to have been successful in getting several black members of Congress, all Democrats, on board as members of the 72 member Congressional Turkish Caucus. Turkey’s representatives in the U.S. have recruited a total of 12 African American members, comprising more than 25% of the Congressional Black Caucus. The list includes a well-known name from the civil rights movement, John Lewis of Georgia as well as the son of a civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois. This is quite a large percentage of African American Congresspersons that Ms. Borland and her associates have recruited. One might brush the 25% statistic off, were it not for an inherent contradiction in their association with the Congressional Turkish Caucus: some of these African Americans in Congress, including Mr. Lewis, are staunch opponents of the genocide in Darfur. Yet, hypocritically, they have tied themselves with a Turkish regime that is not exactly known as the world leader on civil rights and which, furthermore, refuses to acknowledge the genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

Turkey is a wonderful country, with a rich history and culture, but the Turkish denial of the 1915 Armenian Genocide is just one of many black stains on its government’s human rights record. In Turkey, writers and activists face jail or risk assassination by death squads (as occurred in the case of Hrant Dink) for openly discussing the Genocide. In the United States, Turkey has little power to unleash its police force, but has instead built formidable lobbying power to fight tooth and nail against Congressional recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Sibel Edmonds, the proprietor of this journal, has even come across evidence that Turkish interests (not only at governmental levels) have gone so far as to bribe members of the U.S. Congress in order to prevent any vote on the matter from coming to the House Floor (The former Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, is alleged to have pulled a Resolution in 2000, even though a key Congressional seat in a district in California with a large Armenian community hung in the balance.)

It should be said that the average Turkish citizen, facing the repression of the Turkish police and military apparatus, may have much in common with the African American community in the United States, but the oppressed masses of Turkey are not the kind of people the Turkish lobby represents.

While there is no evidence that anything illegal is going on between some members of the Black Caucus and the Turkish government, the CBC’s apparently less than ethical attitude towards taking excessive corporate donations and the Turkish predilection for skirting U.S. campaign finance laws to get its way in the halls of Congress does leave one to wonder: would former icons of the civil rights movement sell out their principles for foreign cash? One can only hope that this is not the case. However, given the corrosive influence of money on American political life, we should not take for granted that any Congressperson, black or white, is immune from the pressures of an aggressive and well-funded foreign lobby.

This site depends exclusively on readers’ support. Please help us continue by contributing directly and or purchasing Boiling Frogs showcased products.

With almost a decade under its belt, our multi-front war on a vaguely defined notion of terrorism targeting never-really-defined enemies across the world and here in the newly rephrased ‘homeland’ has come to define the state of our nation. Even the meager limitations on presidential powers of the last six decades have in effect been nullified and replaced with a newly declared and interpreted authority mirroring those of past emperors and kings, and of any classic authoritarian regimes’ rulers. One look at the last decade’s successfully won legal arguments on behalf of the executive, the presidency, is enough to establish the common theme that ‘the war on terror is global and indefinite in scope, and that it effectively removes all traditional limits of wartime authority to the times and places of imminent or actual battle.’

Whether it is illegal domestic eavesdropping or unlawful detention and torture, these newly claimed and boldly practiced presidential entitlements rely on one factor, and that is the extraordinary claims of presidential war-making power. Here is a perfect example of the new permanent wartime presidency in action; boldly, loudly, and unfortunately thus far successfully:

On occasion the Bush administration has explicitly rejected the authority of courts and Congress to impose boundaries on the power of the commander in chief, describing the president’s war-making powers in legal briefs as “plenary” — a term defined as “full,” “complete,” and “absolute.”

The current status of our nation’s president’s war-making powers is defined, recognized, and has been practiced as ‘plenary;’ complete and absolute. Now, let’s add to this the fact that our multi-fronted war on terror is global and indefinite, a war open-ended in time and with no national boundaries. What do we have with this equation? A permanent wartime presidency with absolute powers. The Constitution indeed granted the president the power to fight with any resources Congress makes available in wartime, and accordingly the executive is expected to do whatever it takes to protect the nation, even if it leaves some room for abuse of this power. But did our founders factor in the notion of indefinite, open-ended, perpetual wars, and with them, a permanent wartime presidency status? The Constitution gave presidents the freedom to defend the nation, but what about the nation’s need to protect itself against the abuses of this freedom, including the creation of perpetual wars accompanied with indefinite and absolute presidential powers?

The following excerpts are from the Devil’s Advocate, John Yoo:

Critics of presidential war powers exaggerate the benefits of declarations or authorizations of war, and they also fail to examine the potential costs of congressional participation: delay, inflexibility, and lack of secrecy. Legislative deliberation may breed consensus in the best of cases, but it also may inhibit speed and decisiveness. In the post-Cold War era, the United States confronts several new threats to its national security: proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the emergence of rogue nations, and the rise of international terrorism. Each of these threats may require pre-emptive action best undertaken by the president and approved by Congress only afterward.

…

The Constitution creates a presidency that can respond forcefully and independently to pre-empt serious threats to our national security. Instead of demanding a legalistic process to begin war, the framers left war to politics. Presidents can take the initiative and Congress would use their funding power to check him. As we confront terrorism, rogue nations, and WMD proliferation, now is not the time to engage in a radical change in the way our government has waged war for decades.

…

Mr. Yoo considers a thorough congressional review and authorization based on findings and careful review as tending to ‘exaggerate the benefits of declarations or authorizations of war.’ If put in an appropriate context, this exaggeration could probably have prevented a preemptive attack on Iraq based on false and made-up intelligence on nonexistent WMD, and we may have saved thousands of American soldiers’ lives, tens of billions of dollars of taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and would have prevented the loss of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians’ lives. Only in John Yoo’s book of ‘cost & benefits analysis’ would this make it to the ‘exaggerated cost column.’

As for ‘Congress would use their funding power to check him,’ his pretend innocence would not get a pass from even the most naïve or ignorant. Considering where the real funding of the inhabitants of our congress comes from, taking into consideration the old adage ‘thou shall not bite the hand that feeds you,’ and understanding the power of ‘bacon sent home,’ who is Mr. Yoo kidding here; really?

Let’s look at it from the other side of the fence. What executive office wouldn’t want to possess this level of power? How many presidents would resist gravitating towards the enormous powers granted to a Commander in Chief in practice? How many of today’s ‘viable’ presidential candidate’s bread is heavily buttered by the war industry? Here is how Richard Norton Smith put it during an interview:

However you define national emergency, whether it’s a foreign war, whether it’s a civil war, whether it’s an economic depression, whether it’s a Cold War or the current war on terror, the fact is power gravitates towards the president…It’s a tug of war, Jim, that’s been going on, a constitutional tug of war between the executive and the legislative branch. And what I was picking up off what Ellen said I think the last 75 years has, if anything, distorted what the founders intended. Because of the Great Depression, because of World War II, because of the Cold War, now the war on terror, the fact is that that tug of war has actually been very one-sided. I don’t think this is the presidency that the founders really envisioned.

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A Little Bit of History

On November 19, 1973, the Special Committee on the Termination of the National Emergency presented Senate Report 93-549 at the first session of the 93rd Congress. The Introduction to the report, an examination of existing War and Emergency Powers Acts, states:

Since March 9, 1933, the United States has been in a state of declared national emergency. In fact, there are now in effect four presidentially-proclaimed states of national emergency: In addition to the national emergency declared by President Roosevelt in 1933, there are also the national emergency proclaimed by President Truman in 1950, during the Korean conflict, and the states of national emergency declared by President Nixon in1970 and 1971.

These proclamations give force to 470 provisions of Federal law. These hundreds of statutes delegate to the President extraordinary powers, ordinarily exercised by the Congress, which affect the lives of American citizens in a host of all-encompassing manners. These vast ranges of powers, taken together, confer enough authority to rule the country without reference to normal Constitutional processes.

Under the powers delegated by these statutes, the President may: seize property; organize and control the means of production; seize commodities; assign military forces abroad; institute martial law; seize and control all transportation and communication; regulate the operation of private enterprise; restrict travel; and, in a plethora of particular ways, control the lives of all American citizens.

With the melting of the Cold War-the developing détente, with the Soviet Union and China, the stable truce of over 20 years duration between North and South Korea, and the end of U.S. involvement in the war in Indochina-there is no present need for the United States Government to continue to function under emergency conditions.

As we all know the establishment did not let the ‘melting Cold War’ argument stand. During the Reagan era the Cold War reached new heights, with a massive military buildup in an arms race with the USSR, before it came to an end. It wouldn’t be difficult to imagine the panic experienced by the real powers as the Berlin wall and with it the several-decade Cold War came crumbling down. How could the massive Military Industrial Complex, and those feeding upon it, survive this ‘ending,’ and find a way to sustain itself? How about maintaining the role and power of the Executive Intelligence Complex? The creation, existence, and practices of these agencies were based on and justified by the ‘Evil Empire,’ and with it gone, so was the justification sold to the public for the existence of many dependent upon it here in the States.

Sure there were other wars; Gulf War, Kosovo… But those were mini-wars; peanuts. What was needed, that is for the sustainability, survival, and even the fantasy of expansion, was another long-lasting war. Not a dingy little country or two, and certainly not a clear-cut enemy and pinpointable target to hit and be done with. No. In fact, learning from experience, it had to be something that could not end with some darn wall coming down, or a massive regime being taken out. An open ended war; a war with undefined enemies in many colors, with many tongues, and scattered across the world; a war that could be pointed at one place, then at another, and yet another without having to fit any military definition of target or strategy; a war with no boundaries; a war with no possible end. A war that couldn’t even be defined as a war, yet could act as the mother of all wars – a Perpetual War.

If anyone laughed at even the fantasy of such an absurd objective, they certainly weren’t the ones who had the last laugh. All that was needed to make it happen was the creation of a state of emergency. After all, it had been done for a long time, and done so very successfully. People were used to it – living under various degrees of a state of emergency for many decades. Just take it up a notch or two, then sit back and watch the panic take root and spring into full bloom. Jazz it up with a disaster-loving and panic-driving media, and the state of emergency will go into full effect. And from there – hello Perpetual War.

Here is more on the report by the Special Committee on the Termination of the National Emergency:

A majority of the people of the United States have lived all of their lives under emergency rule. For 40 years, freedoms and governmental procedures guaranteed by the Constitution have, in varying degrees, been abridged by laws brought into force by states of national emergency. The problem of how a constitutional democracy reacts to great crises, however, far antedates the Great Depression. As a philosophical issue, its origins reach back to the Greek city-states and the Roman Republic. And, in the United States, actions taken by the Government in times of great crises have-from, at least, the Civil War-in important ways, shaped the present phenomenon of a permanent state of national emergency.

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Because Congress and the public are unaware of the extent of emergency powers, there has never been any notable congressional or public objection made to this state of affairs. Nor have the courts imposed significant limitations … the temporary states of emergency declared in 1938, 1939, 1941, 1950, 1970, and 1971 would become what are now regarded collectively as virtually permanent states of emergency (the 1939 and 1941 emergencies were terminated in 1952). Forty years can, in no way, be defined as a temporary emergency.

‘Forty years can, in no way, be defined as a temporary emergency;’ really? Obviously it can, and it was. Not only that, it actually got worse. Today they don’t even bother adding ‘temporary,’ and leave it out completely. How could you win or lose, and declare the end of the ‘war on terror’? Is it possible to capture and neutralize that one last boogie man, announce that the last of the terrorists has been terminated, and then go about dissolving Homeland Security, Motherland Security, Fatherland Agency, Intelligence Czars, Domestic Eavesdropping…? How about the entire industry, the thriving many trillion dollar industry, with the ‘war on terror’ as their sole reason for existence? Obviously this would not fit the vision put in place by the few who matter, and the many grown dependent on them.

The Mother of all perpetual wars, War on Terror, followed by unjustified and undeclared wars: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iran… Who are the enemies? Bad Taliban, Semi-bad Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaeda Supporters, Possible Al-Qaeda, Islamists, Fanatics, semi-fanatics, fanatic-looking dudes, Iran-ists, and with them all the civilians ‘just our collateral damage.’; babies, women, elderly…Kidnapping, torture, assassinations, black sites, black operations, black budgets…

Here at home: airport security check-points, no-fly list, semi-no-fly-list, many secret lists, tapping all phone calls, monitoring all e-mails, billions of secret documents, thousands of secret operations & plans.

For the winners in the Perpetual War, the military-intelligence-surveillance industrial complexes, the empire presidency and its advocates, and the parasitic class who lives beneath and off of them…the state of Perpetual War is a long-held dream coming true.

For the losers, we, the public majority, the mothers losing their sons and daughters to wars, the spouses left to deal with their returning amputated loved ones, many in need of medical care but with no coverage or assistance, the hard-working class dutifully parting with needed dollars and foregoing all expectations, the seekers of liberties…the realities of these made-up emergencies, and the real consequences of these vague wars are either not registering, or are being accepted and paid for silently.

This applicable quote comes to mind: “Inter arma silent leges: in time of war the laws are silent.” And, I feel like extending the line by adding”…for as long as the people wish to remain silent.”

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This site depends exclusively on readers’ support. Please help us continue by contributing directly and or purchasing Boiling Frogs showcased products.

I couldn’t resist posting this article. I know it’s nothing new to  our readers and commenters here at Boiling Frogs, but I thought maybe, just maybe, a few Obama backers who still hold on to their ‘Man of Supposed Changes’ will end up here and get to read it. You know who I’m talking about; right? The blinded ignorant Obama groupies who’ve been vehemently defending his booboos. Those who in the beginning whined about giving the man a chance since he had been in office for only 10 days, then 20 days, then 50 days, then 100 days… Those who later made lame excuses such as ‘what do you expect, he inherited this mess from Bush-Cheney and is trying hard to clean it up.’ The ones who are still busy bashing the long-gone Bush-Cheney-Rove cabal, rather than facing their own ‘man.’ Let’s rub their noses hard in the following article, and demand that they add their man’s picture to the same Bush-Cheney-Rove cabal…

Former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who normally is a fierce critic of Barack Obama, has given his full backing to the president and his administration on Afghanistan. “I’m a complete supporter of what they are doing in Afghanistan. I think the president made the right decision to send troops in. I’m not a critic, in terms of how they’re dealing with that situation,” Cheney told ABC’s This Week program.

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This site depends exclusively on readers’ support. Please help us continue by contributing directly and or purchasing Boiling Frogs showcased products.

And, I am back! After two flight cancellations and missing two major snow storms I arrived home late Thursday. As I had mentioned in my previous weekly round up, I had no direct access to high-speed internet connections, and as I promised I did my best and posted  Part VI of my Police State Series, our interview with Coleen Rowley, and Mike Mejia’s great piece on the drowning and doomed Democratic Party. Other than that, I was totally and blissfully cut off from all news and never-ending scandals. What does this mean for this round up? I don’t have much to report, and I’ve got lots to catch up with.

Before I list the very few noteworthy links for this round up, I’ll give you a glimpse of my report card from the last 11 days:

So, you see ‘someone’ could not care less about not having high-speed internet connections or two last minute flight cancellations

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Noteworthy Links

Israel is accused of waging covert war across the Middle East
Sheera Frenkel, Times Online

Israel is waging a covert assassination campaign across the Middle East in an effort to stop its key enemies co-ordinating their activities.

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They are also suspected of recent killings in Dubai, Damascus and Beirut. While Israel’s Mossad spy agency has been suspected of staging assassinations across the world since the 1970s, it does not officially acknowledge or admit its activities.

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AIPAC Officials Duplicated Classified Policy Documents Before Returning to US Government
Business Wire

Top officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee duplicated a stolen classifiedUS government policy document before returning it under order of the US Trade Representative.

The newly released FBI form FD-302 is available for download at http://IRmep.org/ila/economy/FD302.pdf .

Testimony about AIPAC’s executive director and top lobbyist reveals AIPAC duplicated the classified report “Probable Economic Effect of Providing Duty Free Treatment for U.S. Imports from Israel” after covertly receiving it from Israeli Minister of Economics Dan Halpern: “REDACTED immediately called REDACTED at the USTR to make arrangements to return the document. The report was subsequently returned to the USTR by a member of the AIPAC office staff. Prior to returning this document, REDACTED asked to have a duplicate copy made so that the staff of the AIPAC could further examine the report…

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Angry U.S. warns there will be a price for Britain to pay after judges reveal MI5 DID collude in abuse of terror suspects
James Slack & Jason Groves, Daily Mail

The U.S. has warned its relationship with Britain has been harmed by the court ruling that revealed Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed was tortured at the behest of American authorities.

The White House expressed dismay after the Government lost its bid to suppress the documents which showed MI5 knew about the treatment of Mohamed.

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By ‘the White House’ they mean Obama’s White House; just so that you know. You know, the man who sold tons of blah blah on how terrible the Bush Administration practices were, especially on torture and secrecy. Remember?

Okay, let’s read further:

On a day of high drama yesterday, it emerged the Government had tried to suppress a senior judge’s verdict that Britain colluded in torture.The Master of the Rolls, Lord Neuberger, effectively accused MI5 of complicity in torture and having a culture of disregarding human rights.

The explosive disclosure was a serious blow to Foreign Secretary David Miliband on a day of high drama.

The country’s three most senior judges rejected an attempt by Mr Miliband to stop publication of seven paragraphs of intelligence supplied to the British authorities by the CIA.

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How come we can’t have a panel of judges like that?! Not fair. Don’t they make this model judgeship here anymore?!

Read the entire piece here. It has a picture of the report our government and the culprits over there tried to keep classified, and more.
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Let’s move on to… well, thanks to Metem I’ve got the following link for you:

Prof. Francis Boyle: Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza
By Michele Steinberg, Scoop-NZ

Here are a few interesting quotes on Alan Dershowitz:

“Dershowitz couldn’t care less. Whatever kind of outright character assassination he has to apply to anyone, even Holocaust survivors like Judge Buergenthal, Professor Shahak, Norman Finkelstein’s mother, it doesn’t bother Dershowitz. Indeed, my understanding is, he’s trying to run to become President of Israel, to take Peres’s place. Well, fine, it would be great to get him out of Harvard Law School–my dis-alma mater!–and ship him over to Israel with all the other war criminals over there. “In fact, I say that, because Dershowitz admitted, publicly, that he is part of a Mossad committee that authorized the assassination of Palestinians.

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“And there he is, teaching at the Harvard Law School, and advocating torture, crimes against humanity, war crimes against the Palestinians. As you know, he said, `Well, we should just be obliterating their villages. You know, if they do this, there’s a terror bombing here, we [should] destroy one of their villages.’

“And, of course, Dershowitz also advocates torture here, in America. The guy’s shameless.

“I remember, [when] I started [at Harvard], Dershowitz started as an assistant professor, and his first big case was defending a pornographic film star in `Deep Throat.’ Dershowitz likes to present himself as some great defender of the First Amendment…. Well, as Catherine McKinnon has, I think, taught us all, pornography is a form of violence against women: It’s a human rights matter. So, it doesn’t surprise me that Dershowitz started his career defending pornographers and pornography, and was and still is greatly proud of it–and now he moves on to defending war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and in addition, over the years, became a war criminal himself.

“But the sum of it is, he’s still teaching there at Harvard Law School. So, I hope he goes back to Israel and becomes President, sure! Be great to see him go: Bon voyage.”

I find the piece bold and forward. You can read the entire piece here.

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Here is a good one on Blackwater published by Guardian on February 11:

Private security firm accused of charging US government for payments to prostitute
Ewen MacAskill, Guardian

The troubled American private ­security company Blackwater faced fresh ­controversy today when two former employees accused it of defrauding the US government for years, including ­billing for a Filipina prostitute on its payroll in Afghanistan.

According to Melan Davis, a former employee, Blackwater listed the woman for payment under the “morale welfare recreation” category.

The company, which allegedly employed her in Kabul, billed the ­government for her plane tickets and monthly salary, Davis said.

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Oh, I guess it is just one more scandal; a needle in a scandal stack. And where are the outraged taxpayers? Not a peep, ey?!

Turkey gives Kurdish editor 21-year jail term
Reuters

Turkish court has sentenced the editor of a Kurdish newspaper to 21 years in prison for printing what it called Kurdish rebel propaganda, a ruling likely to raise concern about press freedom in the EU candidate country.

Turkey’s record on media freedom and on rights for its Kurdish minority have long been obstacles in Ankara’s bid to become a member of the European Union.

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Radikal newspaper said Azadiya Welat has had to replace six editors in three years since it started publishing in 2006 because the editors had to either flee the country to avoid imprisonment or were jailed.

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As Mizgin would tell you ‘nothing new; in Turkey business as usual…’

As we know Turkey has been chosen as a ‘friend’ and a pawn/ally on our hypocrisy-ridden foreign policy chess board. Our government and the press as its extension will keep giving it a pass and look the other way. If Iran does it: ‘let’s go, shock & awe, bomb the hell out of them, and takeover their…oil.’ If it is China, ‘bad boy, bad boy, commies; shame on you…’ but when it is Turkey, ‘no worries, mate; just keep doing it. We’ll keep giving you taxpayer-subsidized billions in aid and weapons… we’ll hush our media on all your dirty laundry…we’ll make it easy for you to pocket our ex-congressmen/ex-congresswomen turned lobbyists…we’ll let you steal our secrets and even sell them secondhand to make a profit…’
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Asia Times has another great piece on the Central Asia Game:

The winner takes all in Afghanistan
M K Bhadrakumar, Asia Times

The main plot in Afghanistan is about the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization into Central Asia, and reconciliation with the Taliban is arguably the only option available to keep open-ended NATO’s military presence in Central Asia without having to fight a futile war. The ascendancy of malleable Islamist forces also has its uses for the US’s containment strategy towards China.

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There is an ominous overtone to Western reports. Al-Qaeda was used after all as justification for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2003.

This is where the US’s idea of reconciliation with the Taliban merits scrutiny. The idea is indeed eminently sensible at a time when Muslim anger is rising, there is growing disillusionment about Obama, and when the US is dangerously close to confronting Iran and a need arises to “split” Muslim opinion.

At the same time, the Taliban’s reconciliation also makes realpolitik. The Afghan war costs a lot of money, it costs Western lives and it cannot be won. The Taliban’s reconciliation is arguably the only option available to keep open-ended NATO’s military presence in Central Asia without having to fight a futile war.

The ascendancy of malleable Islamist forces also has its uses for the US’s containment strategy towards China (and Russia). Islamists lend themselves as a foreign policy instrument. The rise of Islamism in Afghanistan cannot but radicalize hot spots such as the North Caucasus, Kashmir and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in China.

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Iceland Aims to Become an Offshore heaven for Journalists & Leakers
Jonathan Stray, Neiman Journalism Lab

On Tuesday, the Icelandic parliament is expected to introduce a measure aimed at making the country an international center for investigative journalism publishing, by passing the strongest combination of source protection, freedom of speech, and libel-tourism prevention laws in the world.

Supporters of the proposal say the move would make Iceland an “offshore publishing center” for free speech, analogous to the offshore financial havens that allow corporations to hide capital from authorities. Could global news organizations with a home office in Reykjavík soon be as common as Delaware corporations or Cayman Islands assets?

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