Bob Morris @ May 14th 2003 12:11 - Category: Unfiled ;
That’s me!
There’s a photo of me on the home page of a website…!
(Well, ok, this aerial photo of Peace on the Beach in Santa Monica also has several hundred others. We formed a human representation of Picasso’s Motherhood. I’m, uh, in the cleavage of the breasts).
Bob Morris @ May 14th 2003 10:42 - Category: Unfiled ;
Stakeknife
Slugger O’Toole, a superb blog about Northern Ireland politics, opines that recent stories about a double agent named Stakeknive high in the IRA are less than credible and may be disinformation.
“Quite a few senior members of the NI press corps may have been sucker punched into believing the Stakeknife story in all its gory detail.
A golden rule in life is that if something’s too good to be true, then it probably isn’t.
It was said that he was to be exposed by a disenchanted British agent in the pro-British loyalist paramilitary forces. But just how would such an agent have known about someone who was often said to be the crown in the jewels of the British intelligence operation against the IRA?
Stakeknife would have been a closely guarded secret and yet the newspapers have been chock-a-block full of details of his life. Any self-respecting member of the intelligence services would have cringed if such information about a genuine agent was released into the public domain.
The plot has thickened. It’s now possible to construct all sorts of conspiracy theories to explain what has happened. The Home Affairs Editor of the Daily Telegraph, Philip Johnston posits a few in a paper that’s normally reliable on security issues:”
Around the dangerous and murky world of counter-terrorism nothing is ever quite as it appears. In order to protect agents and informers, false stories abound, fake identities are created and black propaganda is disseminated.
One school of thought has it that Stakeknife does not exist but is a deliberate construction to discomfit the IRA.
Stakeknife does exist but is not the man identified. There is a mole at the very top of the IRA but in order to protect him, the Belfast man named at the weekend has been thrown to the wolves.
Stakeknife does not exist. There is no senior agent at the top of the IRA but since the terrorists think there is, what better than to sow total confusion by pointing the finger at a nasty piece of work who has been involved in scores of killings without being brought to justice.
The story is not true but is being used by the IRA to embarrass the Government. It is possible IRA leaders know the Stakeknife story to be a fabrication but are using it to discredit the Government.
Through the looking glass indeed. Stay tuned while this sorts itself out. And check in with Slugger O’Toole for updates, as this is one of the best news and analysis sources I’ve seen for what’s happening on the ground in Northern Ireland.
Bob Morris @ May 14th 2003 00:34 - Category: Unfiled ;
Is Cuba the next U.S. target?
Cuba recently executed three people for hijacking a boat, and gave stiff sentences to seventy five people for subversion. Extreme sentences? Maybe not.
The U.S., under Bush, has steadily escalated their tactics against Cuba, to the point of having James Cason, their man in Havana, openly say he is recruiting people to topple the Cuban government.
Special ops by the Miami Cuban right, with the help of the U.S. government have killed many over the past years in Cuba - upwards of 3,000 by some counts.
Hijackings have increased greatly recently in Cuba. Helped by the Bush Administration who deliberately cut back the numbers of Cubans who could emigrate each year from 20,000 to less than 500.
So, with increasing violence, and a U.S. government official openly calling for overthowing the government, Cuba cracked down. Hard. Maybe too hard. But how many countries, faced with such serious threats would do otherwise?
And this battle is escalating:
The U.S. is expelling 7 Cuban diplomats, and on May 20, Bush will announce further restrictions against Cuba.
Excerpts from the ANSWER petition supporting Cuba.
“On April 7, James Cason, chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana and the top U.S. diplomat in Cuba, declared, “all of our allies agree that their policy goal in Cuba is, ultimately, the same as ours: the rapid and peaceful transition to a democratic government characterized by strong support for human rights and an open market economy.” He stated on the same day, “the Administration’s top priority is to promote a rapid, peaceful transition.”
Coming from a U.S. government representative, the meaning is clear: “transition” translates to overthrow.
…
Over the past 43 years Cuba has suffered the loss of 3,478 of its citizens from numerous acts of terrorism, invasions, assassinations, assassination attempts, biological warfare and blockade. The government of one country has perpetrated these illegal acts against Cuba: the government of the United States (often through their proxies, the right wing Miami Cubans)
…
Recently, a coordinated campaign of aggressions and foreign subversion against Cuba has been revealed, indicating the U.S. may be setting the stage for a renewed confrontation with Cuba.
The trial of the 75 Cuban individuals arrested in March uncovered the directing role of the U.S. Interests Section in guiding, financing, and organizing subversive actions against the Cuban government.
…
Over the past seven months, a series of seven armed airplane and boat hijackings have occurred in Cuba — an exceptionally high number in such a short time. The hijackings have together endangered the lives of hundreds of people. Thus far, the Justice Department has failed to prosecute any of the hijackers who arrived in the U.S. Despite having committed the terrorist crime of air piracy, several have been released on bail.” (Not only did the U.S. not arrest the hijackers, they have refused to allow the hijacked planes to return to Cuba)
Did Cuba go too far? What do you think? And what could Cuba have done instead?
Bob Morris @ May 14th 2003 00:20 - Category: Unfiled ;
Court says Sean Penn can sue against Hollywood blacklisting
“Is there really a Hollywood blacklist against performers who don’t support the Bush administration? The answer may lie in a Los Angeles courtroom. A California judge has ruled that actor Sean Penn can pursue a legal claim that he was fired from a film because of his piquant political views and a brief visit he made to Iraq last December.
Mr. Penn is perhaps sensitive to the issue. His father, actor and director Leo Penn, was one of 300 Hollywood regulars “blacklisted” during the hearings from 1947 to 1951 of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which examined the possible Communist underpinnings of the performers. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Irving Feffer, who categorized his decision as “easy,” ruled Friday that Mr. Penn could sue film producer Stephen Bing.”
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