Monday, April 21, 2014

the american deep state today


japanfocus |  The issue of Saudi Embassy funding of at least two (and possibly more) of the alleged 9/11 hijackers (or designated culprits) is so sensitive that, in the 800-page Joint Congressional Inquiry Report on 9/11, the entire 28-page section dealing with Saudi financing was very heavily redacted.56 A similar censorship occurred with the 9/11 Commission Report: According to Philip Shenon, several staff members felt strongly that they had demonstrated a close Saudi government connection to the hijackers, but a senior staff member purged almost all of the most serious allegations against the Saudi government, and moved the explosive supporting evidence to the report’s footnotes.57
 
It is probable that this cover-up was not designed for the protection of the Saudi government itself, so much as of the supranational deep state connection described in this essay, a milieu where American, Saudi, and Israeli elements all interact covertly. One sign of this is that Prince Bandar himself, sensitive to the anti-Saudi sentiment that 9/11 caused, has been among those calling for the U.S. government to make the redacted 28 pages public.58

This limited exposure of the nefarious use of funds generated from Saudi arms contracts has not created a desire in Washington to limit these contracts. On the contrary, in 2010, the second year of the Obama administration,
The Defense Department … notified Congress that it wants to sell $60 billion worth of advanced aircraft and weapons to Saudi Arabia. The proposed sale, which includes helicopters, fighter jets, radar equipment and satellite-guided bombs, would be the largest arms deal to another country in U.S. history if the sale goes through and all purchases are made.59
The sale did go through; only a few congressmen objected.60 The deep state, it would appear, is alive and well, and impervious to exposures of it.

It is clear that for some decades the bottom-upwards processes of democracy have been increasingly supplanted by the top-downwards processes of the deep state.

But the deeper strain in history, I would like to believe, is in the opposite direction: the ultimate diminution of violent top-down forces by the bottom-up forces of an increasingly integrated civil society.61

In the last months we have had Wikileaks, then Edward Snowden, and now the fight between the CIA and its long-time champion in Congress, Dianne Feinstein. It may be time to see a systemic correction, much as we did after Daniel Ellsberg’s release of the Pentagon Papers, which was followed by Watergate and the Church Committee reforms. I believe that to achieve this correction there must be a better understanding of deep events and of the deep state.

Ultimately, however, whether we see a correction or not will depend, at least in part, on how much people care.

30 comments:

Vic78 said...

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J1yUv77C_tU/U04LEZtw7sI/AAAAAAAAZ_Q/VxKPfHpFTxY/s1600/perfectsystem.jpg

Constructive_Feedback said...

CNu:

Does it puzzle you as to why Mr Bill Moyers is not more curious about the "US Drone Bombings In Yemen" recently? While the US Military has slowly decreased its use of American drones in nations that the USA has no "officially funded war" with - the CIA has taken over with these targeted assassinations.

Ironically there is a report that the US Air Force occasionally mans the "CIA Drones" that are officially classified as "CIA Drone Strikes".

Why has Bill Moyers seemingly lost his passion to go after the "Government Administration" and not just corporations and right-wing wealthy influence peddlers?

CNu said...

Does it puzzle you that UNICEF feels it necessary to make a youtube video for India telling folks that they need to go shit on the toilet instead of out in the street? http://youtu.be/_peUxE_BKcU

Does it puzzle you still further that there's an expectation of popular access to the interwebs in excess of the level of current access to flush toilets in India?

umbrarchist said...

When did the history books cover Henry Ford donating money to the NAZI party in the 1920s? LOL

But Allah made it possible for 200 tons aircraft with 30 tons of fuel to collapse buildings 2000 times their own mass, so it must be OK. Shouldn't the nation that put men on the Moon be able to figure that out?

umbrarchist said...

How do you build 1000+ foot skyscrapers that can hold themselves up and withstand the wind without understanding the physics of skyscrapers? But 50 more such structures have been built since 9/11.

So how is it we can't analyse the supposed collapse of the north tower and we don't hear scientists or engineers discussing the distributions of steel and concrete down the tower?

The nation that put men on the Moon can't do obvious grade school physics in TWELVE YEARS! I am sorry, but I can't even explain how weird I think this is and I don't really care who did it. This goes to our whole culture of science and education.

CNu said...

Ford's anti-jewish and pro-nazi sentiments have been fairly well documented. https://www.google.com/#q=henry+ford+antisemitism

umbrarchist said...

Documented for people in the know but do they put it in grade school and high school books?

CNu said...

Off the top, I'm not recalling ANY primary school history lessons addressing the American origins of or early American support for Nazism. For that matter, I'm not recalling ANY primary school lessons addressing the American assimilation of high-ranking Nazis and Reinhard Gehlen's entire eastern-european intelligence apparatus intact at the end of WW-II.

Outside of fiction and the journalistic and academic fringes, the Deep State is a topical non-starter.

Constructive_Feedback said...

Indeed - everything is relative.

CNu said...

lol, hang it up Feed. These Yemeni peasants don't even have an India-class pot to poop in or window to throw it from....,

Vic78 said...

Yemen asked the US for drone assistance.

Makheru Bradley said...

An "Americanized Negro Africana Studies Professor.” That’s an oxymoron. The issue you’re raising requires intellectual clarity and moral conscience. Bro. Glen Ford and the good people at Black Agenda Report address the devastating impact that Barack Obama has had on the moral conscience of Afrikan Americans every week.

“In the decade since the Iraq invasion, the general American populace has grown more wary of Washington’s wars in the Mideast. Why, then, would the least militaristic ethnic group suddenly become relatively more warlike than whites? Have Black Americans undergone some accelerated ideological mutation in the intervening years?

Of course not, but Blacks have for almost six years been in the grip of a fundamentally unsettling experience for which African American history provides no defenses: the presence of a Black man at the helm of the Empire. The progressive, peace-seeking African American worldview is out of sync with the deep imperative to support the First Black President. Black skepticism of U.S. government motives is short-circuited by the fervent desire for Obama to succeed – since his success or failure is seen as Black America’s collective legacy. Black politics crumbles under the weight of this massive contradiction – which is why Black America is in its deepest political crisis since Emancipation, unable to defend Black domestic interests or to be a force for peace in the world.”

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/black-america-more-pro-war-ever

Barack Obama is not the lesser of two evils. “He is the more effective evil.” That’s the point Matt Taibbi makes.

AMY GOODMAN: Who was tougher on corporate America, President Obama or President Bush?

MATT TAIBBI: Oh, Bush, hands down…

It’s important not to lose sight of the critical points being made in the Moyers interview.

BILL MOYERS: If, as you write, the ideology of the Deep State is not democrat or republican, not left or right, what is it?

MIKE LOFGREN: It's an ideology. I just don't think we've named it. It's a kind of corporatism. Now, the actors in this drama tend to steer clear of social issues. They pretend to be merrily neutral servants of the state, giving the best advice possible on national security or financial matters. But they hold a very deep ideology of the Washington consensus at home, which is deregulation, outsourcing, de-industrialization and financialization. And they believe in American exceptionalism abroad, which is boots on the ground everywhere, it's our right to meddle everywhere in the world. And the result of that is perpetual war.

At some point the American body politic has to break the monopoly which the corrupt two-party system has on their minds.

BigDonOne said...

Doubt if there's anything in there regarding 'means-tested benefitz' either....

CNu said...

There's always Ira Katznelson to set you IQ-75's straight https://www.google.com/#q=when+affirmative+action+was+white&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAGOovnz8BQMDgx4HsxCXfq6-gVFZblZWpRKPfrq-oVFSbkZyQZqJloBjaUlGflFIvlN-frZ_Xk7l9Jsaz6d3TDppe1diIcNDzfBG5mWXAUzUDCxLAAAA

Makheru Bradley said...

“Yemen asked the US for drone assistance.” Are you auditioning for a job at MSNBC?

November 25-27 2001: Yemen’s President Saleh signed a $400m deal with the Bush administration, as part of which the US created a ‘counter-terrorism camp’ in Yemen run by the CIA, US Marines and Special Forces. The deal was made with CIA Director George Tenet, who ‘provided Saleh’s forces with helicopters, eavesdropping equipment and 100 Army Special Forces members to train an anti-terrorism unit. He also won Saleh’s approval to fly Predator drones armed with Hellfire missiles over the country‘.

April 10 2002: Yemen was officially designated a ‘combat zone’ in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, allowing the US to begin deployment of US Special Forces. It was listed as part of the Afghanistan combat zone.

April 1 2009: According to journalist Jeremy Scahill, General David Petraeus, CENTCOM commander, approved a plan developed with the US Embassy in Sanaa, the CIA and others, ‘to expand US military action in Yemen. The plan not only involved special-ops training for Yemeni forces but unilateral US strikes against AQAP.’

September 6 2009: Obama’s chief counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan met with President Saleh. A secret diplomatic cable reports that Saleh: Pledged unfettered access to Yemen’s national territory for US counterterrorism operations…

December 17 2009: 55-58 people reported killed; 41 civilians killed in initial strike including 12 women, at least 5 of them pregnant, and 21-22 children. 3-4 also later killed by cluster bombs; 9 injured by cluster bombs after the event

http://bit.ly/1jCKi5S

December 12 2013: A US drone killed at least 12 people in a strike on a wedding procession. At least eight civilians were killed though several reports said all 12 dead were civilians. The convoy was carrying 50-60 people from the groom Abdullah Mabkhut al Amri’s home to the bride Warda al Sorimi’s home in 11 four-wheel drive vehicles. Four or five were hit by missiles in 4.30pm attack.

http://bit.ly/1jCNPBe

At some point we will find out how many of the 68 people reportedly killed in Yemen over the weekend were women and children. What is the United States accomplishing with these attacks? Obviously creating endless enemies is part of the game plan.

Vic78 said...

None of what you just said disproved a simple fact; the government of Yemen asked for the drones.

http://www.defensenews.com/article/20130823/DEFREG04/308230009/Yemeni-President-Says-Nation-Asked-US-Drones
http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/yemen-asks-us-for-drones-to-help-fight-al-qaeda
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/22/us-yemen-usa-drones-idUSBRE97L0PZ20130822

CNu said...

lol, he said the "gubmint" of yemen, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Yemen priceless.....,

Vic78 said...

I just assumed that Indians really don't give a shit about their poor people. I guess they want the people to hold it in.

CNu said...

Remember our boy in Gujarat Narendra Modi? Member? We were talking about him not so long ago in the context of the little dust-up over a runaway slave housekeeper in NYC and diplomatic immunity and all-a-dat. In a country like India with sooooooo much pent up tribal frustration, it's only a matter of time before somebody puts a match to the fuse and things start to go boom! http://southasia.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/04/22/us_force_in_afghanistan_may_be_cut_to_10000_hate_speech_in_indian_elections_8_dead_

Vic78 said...

After all that Arab Springing they should get down as well.

CNu said...

You'd think. But having spent more time in India than I'd care to recollect, and having daily directly witnessed the de-evolutionary effect that thousands of years of race-based caste religiosity has permanently stamped on the souls of the dravidian sudras. Brah...., we talking literally, physically, shriveled up little black people living hand-to-mouth in the sweltering and stinking interstices of Narendra Modi's fantasy hindu-aryan state.

On a mass-scale, ain't nobody on the receiving end of that ass-kicking gonna get down with anybody else. There day came and went a loooooooooong time ago. OTOH - these deranged Hindu-Aryans who managed to get Britain's boot heel off their necks, they bout ready to throw with the Muslims who crept up into and uplifted their civilization concurrent with their uplift of Europe several centuries ago. Modi is Hindu-fascist and I believe he's got the requisite Brahmin caste Hindu-fascist backing to act an out-and-out fool with Pakistan and anybody else with the misfortune of being on the path of his killer-ape wilding.

Makheru Bradley said...

If not MSNBC, maybe politics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3KCEpzAcCg

Bro. Feed: “NEW DRONE STRIKES IN YEMEN KILL 55 PEOPLE WHO WERE JUDGED TO BE MILITANTS BY THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT.”

Vic78: “Yemen asked the US for drone assistance.”

In classic Clintonese ,Vic’s response directed to Feed, had absolutely no relationship to Feed’s statement. Vic was referring to a 2013 request by Yemen’s president for drones from the US. The fact that the US conducted 58 airstrikes in Yemen before the 2013 request is, of course, totally irrelevant. Everything is covered by Vic’s response.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClfpG2-1Bv4

Vic78 said...

"...Black President ran an imperialist operation in "Nations Of Color" all without riling up Black Americans who hate "Aggressive Policing and No Knock Warrants" inside of America to demand that he show more proof before killing people?"

The Clinton remark's almost a compliment.

Constructive's remark called the drone strikes imperialist. I don't see that as the case. What it looks like is that the Administration's going after the crazies. Yemen's system isn't strong enough to handle them on their own. The crazies can do a lot of damage in that area if they aren't pursued. How many boats go through the Red Sea in a year's time?

woodensplinter said...

Given the interesting history of governance in Yemen, in the interest of clarity - would you kindly share your definition of "crazies"?

woodensplinter said...

I'm sorry, what attacks are you referring to, and who is carrying these attacks out? Can you provide some explanatory links? The reason I ask is that Somali "pirates" have been referred to in similar terms. However, a cursory review of what has happened to these people over time quickly discloses that they are entirely rational actors pursuing one of the only avenues for survival remaining to them.


So I ask you again, who specifically are you referring to in Yemen as "crazies" - and - what is their relationship to the system of governance you've implied as democratic, legitimate, and representative of Yemeni constituent interests in its requests for U.S. drone strikes?

Vic78 said...

You're playing games. You know what I'm talking about. Since the crazies are global, I'll use examples like the killing of Sadat, shooting up that school in Russia, and shooting Malala Yousafzai. Yemen had a class act with al-Awlaki.

woodensplinter said...

I'm playing games? I'm not an American citizen Vic, and I find your government's rationale for actions taken in support of invasions, torture, and targeting killings suspect. American citizens and your own judiciary find your government's unwillingness or inability to explain itself deeply suspicious. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/21/us-nytimes-dronestrikes-lawsuit-idUSBREA3K0QC20140421

Vic78 said...

My bad about the game playing. I can argue for targeted killings. I'm with you on torture and the invasions.

Makheru Bradley said...

"Constructive's remark called the drone strikes imperialist. I don't see that as the case." How do you define imperialism?

OBTW, speaking of boots on the ground.

http://bit.ly/1nHqWix

Vic78 said...

Calling it imperialism doesn't work for what we're seeing here. The word has been used a little too much over the years.