Albion Monitor Issue 160 AUGUST 2007
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  THE SAD JOURNEY OF ALBERTO GONZALES
The Man Who Crushed American Dreams

Alberto Gonzales went down dreaming.

While announcing his resignation earlier this week, Alberto Gonzales deployed one of his most powerful and romantic rhetorical weapons. "I often remind our fellow citizens that we live in the greatest country in the world and that I have lived the American dream," he stated. More than any public official in recent memory, the often smiley and sometimes smirking Gonzales -- and his supporters -- consistently framed his story as a brown embodiment of the American dream.

Gonzales' compelling personal story has nothing to do with whether or not he expanded the American dream (he didn't). It has everything to do with manipulating his story while he did the dirty work of defending powerful interests against the death of the dream. Rather than look at his story through the looking glass of political and media spin, it is best to view the story from the vantage point of its authors: the rich and powerful. For them, Alberto Gonzales did his job


Charities, Aid Groups Balk at Bush Terror Vetting Scheme


Plan supposed to block federal aid dollars to developing countries from terrorists' hands

Abu Ghraib Trials End, no Officers Convicted


Most of the blame to fall on 11 low-ranking soldiers

Bush Plays the Mushroom Bomb Card in Iran Speeches


Iran "threaten the security of nations everywhere," brings "shadow of a nuclear holocaust"

Pentagon Strains to Blame Iran for Increased Shiite Attacks in Iraq


Actually the result of more ops against al-Sadr's Mahdi Army

White House Demanding Iran Restrain Shiite Groups in Iraq


Ambassador Crocker says U.S. holding Iran responsible for Shiite militia's attacks in Iraq

Israel Warned Bush Not to Invade Iraq


"The Israelis were telling us Iraq is not the enemy -- Iran is the enemy"

Iraq War Predicted to Cost Another $500 Billion...In Best Case Scenario


Now over 10% of all appropriated funds

Iraq is Like Pre-Withdrawl Vietnam and Postwar Japan, Bush Tells Vets


Said earlier this year Iraq was like Korea

Russia, Canada, U.S. Race to Carve Up the Melting North


Never mind the Native communities living there

  LEGACY OF ASHES: THE HISTORY OF THE CIA
Life and Times of the CIA
PHOTO: Former CIA Directors George H.W. Bush and Robert Gates, now Secretary of Defense

FREE! The secret prison was set up on a secure U.S. Naval base outside the U.S. and so beyond the slightest recourse to legal oversight. It was there that the CIA clandestinely brought its "suspects" to be interrogated, abused, and tortured.

That description might indeed sound like Guantanamo 2002, but think again. According to New York Times reporter Tim Weiner's new history of the Central Intelligence Agency, Legacy of Ashes -- a remarkable treasure trove of grim and startling information you hadn't known before -- this actually happened first in the Panama Canal Zone in the early 1950s. It was there, as well as at two secret prisons located in Germany and Japan, the defeated Axis powers (and not, in those days, in Thailand or Rumania), that the CIA brought questionable double agents for "secret experiments" in harsh interrogation, "using techniques on the edge of torture, drug-induced mind control, and brainwashing." This was but a small part of "Project Artichoke," a 15-year, multi-billion dollar "search by the CIA for ways to control the human mind."

No book in recent memory has done such a superb job of illuminating the roiling, disastrous, thoroughly destructive path through history of America's top covert-operations agency over the last six decades, what Chalmers Johnson has often called "the president's private army." On first arrival at the Agency's "campus" in Langley, Virginia, Johnson reminds us, CIA Director James Schlesinger, in the typically highhanded fashion of CIA heads, immediately announced, "I am here to see that you guys don't screw Richard Nixon"

Texas Companies Urging Mexicans to Cross Border and Sell Blood


Chartered buses run between Mexico and blood collection centers in several Texas cities

Extreme Sweatshop Conditions in Guatemala's Maquiladora Textile Factories


Most owned by South Korean investors

Mexico City Child Sex Industry Flourishing


95% of Mexico City's 13,000 street children reportedly molested at least once

Stranded Migrants Wait for Trains That Will Never Come


"Train of death" used by Central Americans heading towards U.S. border stops running

Reckless Charges of Illegal Immigrant Crime Wave Follow Newark Slayings


Despite plunge in crime rates of cities with largest illegal immigrant populations

World's Tallest Skyscraper Being Built by Slaves


Workers on Burj Dubai tower at mercy of UAE government

Turkey Elects Ex-Islamist President


Military brass shuns swearing-in ceremony

Afghanistan Produces Another Record-Setting Opium Crop FREE!


"No other country in the world has ever produced narcotics on such a deadly scale"

Obama: U.S. Must Refocus Terror Fight on Afghanistan


Charges Bush " is fighting the war the terrorists want us to fight"

Murder of Journalist Won't Stop the Black Press

 Chauncey Bailey
GRAPHIC: Pacific News Service

Despite the murder of Chauncey Bailey, the African-American press must continue to tell the stories that need to be told

Black on Black Murder and the Stigma of Snitching


Lack of witnesses willing to testify leads spiral of violence in poor black neighborhoods

Murdoch Takeover of Dow Jones Shocks Media Watchers


Wall St. Journal will be used to launch Fox Business Network run by by Fox News boss Roger Ailes


Iraq THE WAR IN IRAQ

Grim GAO Report on Iraq Belies Bush Optimism


Finds Iraq has met only three of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks for progress

Iraqis Flee Baghdad District as Gunmen Impose Sharia Law FREE!


Demands of Christian families that they convert to Islam or pay huge taxes

Iraqi Misery Grows as U.S. Forces Chase Al-Qaeda Phantoms


Operation Lightning Hammer goes after the fighters that Operation Arrowhead Ripper displaced

Up to 500 Feared Dead in Worst Attack of Iraq War FREE!


Civilians have been bringing in body parts from the streets

Iraqi Locals, Not U.S. Forces, Credited for Anbar "Turnaround"


But expected to be used to justify continued U.S. occupation

Baqouba Caught Between the U.S. Forces and Al-Qaeda


Operation Arrowhead Ripper made conditions worse for residents who remained after rebels had fled city

Water of Iraq's Great Rivers no Longer Safe


Illnesses due to water unfit for human consumption now filling hospitals

A Modest Iraq Proposal: Gerrymandering FREE!


A loose confederation of Iraqi mini-states -- with a central government that has clearly delineated, but limited power -- could work

Maliki's Ties to Iran Undermining Iraq Government


Entire Sunni bloc in parliament refuses to deal with Maliki

Shiite Militia Takes Over Diyala Province Police Force


Baqouba residents setting up roadblocks to keep police out of neighborhoods

Baghdad's Funeral Industry Booming FREE!


Coffinmaker business up 20x since U.S. invasion

Maliki's Troubles Mount as Iraq's Army Chief of Staff Resigns


Iraq's largest Sunni Arab political bloc also walks out of parliament

Politics As Usual POLITICS AS USUAL

Gonzales Follows Rove out the Door


Bush family consiglieri resigns, gives no reason

House Investigating Cheney Role in Fish Kill FREE!


Former Interior Dept official says VP pressured agency to ignore endangered species, tribal water rights

Hillary in the Right's Crosshairs


"Hillary hunting" becomes Republican Party's crusade

The Jaundiced Rove of Texas FREE!


Getting out of Dodge just a few hoofbeats ahead of the sheriff's posse


  COOPERATION ESSENTIAL FOR STABILITY IN IRAQ
Misunderstanding Muqtada al-Sadr

FREE! It's almost comical how many times Muqtada, after provoking a reaction from U.S. forces, has gone to into hiding, and been declared irrelevant by wishful thinkers, only to return later, with his organization intact, drawing bigger crowds than before.

Far from being an Iranian instrument, among Iraqi Shiite leaders, Muqtada al-Sadr is probably the least susceptible to Iranian influence. He has fashioned a populist-Shiite political platform that has deep resonance among Iraq's long-oppressed Shiite underclass, whose votes helped install a bloc of his loyalists in the Iraqi Parliament, and put control of the Health and Transportation ministries in his hands.

Given his popular support and nationalist credibility, the cooperation of Muqtada al-Sadr is essential for stability in Iraq. One possible way to bring about Muqtada's cooperation is for the United States to offer him the one thing that he seems to want from us: the U.S. out

Koreans Shocked, Angry Over Taliban Hostage Crisis


Fury also directed against the church that sent the volunteers into harm's way

CARE Turns Away $46 Million From U.S. Food Aid Program


Giveaway of U.S.-subsidized crops weakens local farming in developing countries

Ecuador Seeking International $$ To Block Oil Drilling in Rainforest


Give us $350 million a year and we won't despoil a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve

Laser Printer Health Risk Compared to Cigarettes FREE!

Some of the laser printers used in offices and homes release tiny particles into the air

"This is an important indoor source of pollution...There should be regulations"

Burning Gas at Oil Fields Wastes Billion$ in Energy


Also spews 400 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere

Global Warming Deniers Jump on NASA Flub


Media coverage of trivial err overshadows news of Greenland meltdown

Soil Erosion a "Silent Global Crisis"


Major contributor to global warming

Bush Endorsement of Fatah Leads to Surge in Hamas Support


Abbas blocked by U.S. and Israel from negotiations with Hamas

Bush Arms Deal Keeps Israel the Mideast Superpower


Egypt gets Abrams tanks, Israel gets the missles to blow them up

Bush Quietly Sending Million$ to Egyptian Christian Groups


Seen as meddling as Egypt struggles to contain tensions between Muslims and Christians

Palestinians Pushed Out of East Jerusalem by 'Quiet Transfer'


6x more Palestinians had residency status revoked last year

Israel Adds Plain Paper to Blockade of Gaza FREE!


Say paper could be used to print books with Hamas ideology

Israel Using Partition Wall to Build "Garden City" for Zionist Colony


Not unique situation in West Bank

China Cracks Down After Wave of Product Safety Recalls


Executes former head of China's FDA

Lebanon's Poor Flock to Militant Islamic Groups FREE!


Anger at the 2003 Iraq invasion fanned the flames of militancy, but poverty was the spark

New Documents Reveal Canada Aided CIA in Rendition Case


Mounties hid info about Maher Arar that might have led courts to block handover to CIA

Thai Junta Tightens Computer Crime Laws


As YouTube strikes deal to "block sensitive video clips"

Burmese Risk Beatings, Jail, to Protest 500% Jump in Fuel Prices


Now too expensive for most to go to work

New Book Traces U.S. History of "Humanitarian" Wars


Tied to nostalgic yearning for heroism of the "good fight" against Hitler
Columnists

JOE CONASON

Joe Conason Reality: America Isn't Conservative

Rove's Damaging Legacy

The GOP's Big Health Scare

Impeaching Alberto Gonzales

ROBERT SCHEER

Robert Scheer The Torturer in Chief Resigns

Hillary's Warmongering

Hiroshima at 62

More Weapons for the Middle East Maelstrom

ALEXANDER COCKBURN

Alexander Cockburn Republicans Rocked By Yet Another Gay Scandal

Don't Carpool with Maliki

Exit Karl Rove, Everybody's Useful Demon

How the Democrats Blew It in Only Eight Months

The Luck of the Bancrofts

STEVE YOUNG FREE!

Steve Young Bill O'Reilly's Enormous Stakes

The War Metaphor Everyone Could Get Behind

Check the Calendar, Bill

Bill-O Bashing the Vets

The Republican Art of Demon Making

FREE! Since January 2004, the Crandall Canyon Mine has been fined more than $130,000 for 325 violations, of which 116 were considered "significant and substantial," meaning that someone could get hurt. (To give you some idea of how wretched safety conditions in the mining industry remain, this is considered "remarkably good.")

Bob Murray, Murray Energy's chief executive denied that Crandall Canyon was engaged in "retreat mining" -- whittling away at the load-bearing pillars of coal that support the mine's tunnels against gravity and the massive weight of the mountain above -- for additional profit. In fact, the site of the collapse was in a section of the mine its previous owners had harvested and abandoned. Murray Energy wanted the last available scraps, no matter the human cost

Albion Monitor
(http://www.albionmonitor.com)
Issue 160

Editor: Jeff Elliott (editor@monitor.net)

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