Traffic Throttling By ISP's not necessary

"It's astounding the amount of lobbying influence and power the ISPs have," he says. "Politicians seem to be siding with carriers despite the fact that public sentiment favours net neutrality."

Traffic throttling by Canadian ISPs not required, experts tell CRTC

Canada's Internet service providers (ISPs) have no reason to throttle peer-to-peer (p2p)traffic and can use other network management techniques that have minimal end-user repercussions instead, according to top Internet experts.

Net neutrality advocates in Canada have sought out the testimony of experts involved in inventing the Internet and managing Canada's major backbone connection. The Campaign for Democratic Media and the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) submitted a 70-page argument to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) Feb. 24, emphasizing the importance of telecommunications' carriers treating all types of Internet traffic equally.

Backers of the submission argue the very nature of the Internet as an open platform for innovation is at risk because of the traffic- management practices of large asset-based ISPs, such as Bell Canada and Rogers Communications. “We're not disputing that they're experiencing some congestion at certain points in their network,” says Philippa Lawson, a CIPPIC associate and co-counsel for CDM. "But they've chosen to use the most intrusive, most privacy invasive, and most damaging methods [to deal with this].”

The submission claims that p2p traffic throttling violates the Telecommunications Act in two different ways. The Act prohibits the controlling of content or influencing the meaning and purpose of telecommunications by delaying it so much that it is unusable. Also, the overall objective of the Act is to protect privacy, encourage innovation and provide a reliable system.

W. House: DoD Officials Must Vow Secrecy on Budget

Isn't this an interesting bit of info?

What is in the defense budget that needs to be kept secret?
Seems a bit totalitarian ?... Or maybe authoritarian?

The Obama administration has directed defense officials to sign a pledge stating they will not share 2010 budget data with individuals outside the federal government.

In an undated non-disclosure agreement obtained by Defense News, the administration tells defense officials that "strict confidentiality" must be practiced to ensure a "successful" and "proper" 2010 defense budget process.

The pledge covers any data about the 2010 budget, including: "planning, programming and budgeting system documents and databases, and any other information" that concerns the administration's internal discussions about "the nature and amounts of the president's budget for fiscal year 2010, and any supplemental budget request during the current fiscal year."

The administration is requiring defense officials to promise they will not divulge the kinds of information covered in the document "to any individual not authorized to receive it."

"Under no circumstances will I disclose such information outside the Department of Defense and other government agencies directly involved in the defense planning and resource-allocation process, such as the Office of Management and Budget," the agreement said.

Experiment in Back Yard Sustainability

It is 25 minutes long and done on a rental property.

Tour Scott McGuire's "White Sage Gardens" in the back yard of his rental home -- a demonstration site for suburban sustainability. He ponders, "How might a household produce and preserve a significant portion of its own food supply?"

Imperial Geography: Eyes on Palestine

Give this documentary a listen, the picture is terrible, but it gives a historical perspective on Palestine.

Interesting it is noted that the Balfour "declaration" is not an act of the British Government, but a private letter, to a private citizen Lord Rothschild. Though the zionist movement looked very differently on it, a sort of 'magna carta' which was not the case.
Talks about the Peel Commission

It is noted that the Palestinians always resisted the take-over of their home.
The battle between Empires- Britian and US.
Very, very interesting.


Imperial Geography

The battle over Palestine is one of the most intensely geographic conflicts in the world. Yet most people know nothing of the area and what factors make it so intensely important to the imperialist powers. David Barsamian takes a look at the maps to provide a sweeping history of the current and historic forces that are shaping the so-called "Holy Land," sacred to three of the worlds great religions, a land drenched not with holy water but holy oil.

Series: Mobile-eyes: On Palestine
Episode: Imperial Geography
Produced: January 9, 2003

Viewing options
Play RealMedia format (28m 21s; for dial-up/broadband users)

Stop throwing good money after bad food!

I have recently been eating free range eggs, purchased locally. That is a big difference in the way they look. And this picture doesn't even do justice to how big the difference really is in looks, taste and texture but it gives you an idea.





What made me swing to buying free-range as opposed to big agri-business produced tasteless crap? I'll share.


I, like most people, had long been buying eggs at the grocery store, but, they were tasteless and always rubbery when cooked. While chatting with my Granny one day, the course of our conversation took a turn to this topic. I say "Grandma why are these grocery store eggs so tasteless and rubbery", she says "when the eggs are old, they are more rubbery when cooked" Hmm, but they are supposed to be fresh eggs? As for the taste, well she figures it is what is fed to the chickens.

You may be thinking why would you ask your Granny that? My Grandmother knows what she speaks, as my Grandparents were farmers in general, but predominantly poultry. My Grandfather was locally known as the "eggman". Yes, he was the eggman, coo coo c'choo.
He delivered eggs fresh from their farm, to their customers.
They raised all manner of poultry chickens, turkey and they sold eggs. They were hard working, salt of the earth type people.
My Grandmother, whom by the way I love dearly will shortly be 90 yrs old.
So anyway, tired of spending good money on bad eggs, that were supposed to be fresh. We bought some locally produced free range eggs.

The first time I cracked one open, I was surprised to see such a difference.
Everything about the free range egg is different, the yolk is bright orange, not pale.
The white is not runny and slimey, it is more firm, a different feel and texture completely.
You know what else, the eggs taste better when cooked, and they are firm and tender, not rubbery.
Yes, I pay attention to the kind of things..... and I am not weird, I just care about what I eat.
If you can get some locally produced free range eggs, give them a try!

The picture above is from an article in Mother Earth News, it is long but definitely worth the read

Is Agribusiness Making Food Less Nutritious?

excerpt on the difference between agri-eggs and free range:

American agribusiness is producing more food than ever before, but the evidence is building that the vitamins and minerals in that food are declining. For example, take the two eggs shown at right. The one with the bright orange yolk is from a free-range chicken raised by Mother Earth News managing editor Nancy Smith, while the pale one is a supermarket egg from a hen raised indoors on a "factory farm." Eggs from free-range hens contain up to 30 percent more vitamin E, 50 percent more folic acid and 30 percent more vitamin B-12 than factory eggs. And the bright orange color of the yolk shows higher levels of antioxidant carotenes. (Many factory-farm eggs are so pale that producers feed the hens expensive marigold flowers to make the yolks brighter in color.)

Ask yourself, why are you throwing good money after bad food?

Internet Freedom or ISP's profit taking and monopolisation?

What is it going to be?

Big telecoms are trying to ruin Net democracy.

In just over 10 days, nearly 4,500 Canadians have written the CRTC demanding that they put a stop to discriminatory Internet throttling by big ISPs. Canadians made it known that they will stand for nothing less than full and open access to all the Internet has to offer, free from ISP control. Big telecommunication companies want to become gatekeepers of the Internet, deciding online winners and losers, and making our online choices for us.Imagine that, big business wants to run our lives?

Is anyone really surprised?

A hearing for Internet freedom

The CRTC could redeem itself; this July, the CRTC is holding a hearing on "traffic management." The hearing will help determine whether Bell and other big telecoms can continue to "throttle," and thus increasingly control, Internet traffic. The decisions made by the CRTC will signal to both innovators and investors what Canada's approach to online communication will be. From now until Feb. 23rd, the CRTC is allowing citizens to submit comments on the upcoming hearing.

But, will the CRTC redeem itself, or will it show itself to be in the pocket of business, rather then operating for the benefits of consumers?

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD- Tell the feds to stop them.

A broad "SaveOurNet.ca" coalition has formed to fight for the open Internet. SaveOurNet.ca is calling all Canadians to tell the CRTC which path they want Canada to take at http://saveournet.ca/content/take-action.

Data raises questions

The original deadline for submissions for the hearing was February the 16th, but the CRTC extended the deadline after consumer groups complained that they did not have enough time to consider data recently released by Canadian ISPs. According to the CBC, the figures reveal "annual growth in total traffic volume declined for two consecutive years from 2005-06 to 2007-08 for five of the seven ISPs." This data significantly undermines arguments made by the ISPs that they need to manage networks in order to prevent congestion.

If traffic growth is slowing, then it is hard to imagine why the ISPs need to suddenly selectively throttle Internet traffic. The fact that ISPs are slowing access to Internet technologies that compete with their own services seems like more than just a coincidence. One also wonders why Telus, the one big ISP that isn't heavily invested in content, does not throttle?

So, internet traffic volume has ACTUALLY declined for two consecutive years!
Therefore the arguement that the ISP's need to "manage" heavy traffic is bogus and the real reason is The ISP's are choking their competitors. NO surprise there!

Because it would NOT be a coincidence that while Bell is throttling independent contenst using P2P applications, they have just opened their own un-throttled video store.

Unless one is a "coincidence theorist"? In which case, please, continue to buy the bullshit the providers are selling you. You know, "managing heavy traffic". When the reality is, denying you choice!

Krygyzstan give US six month eviction notice

An additional 17,000 US troops are being sent to Afghanistan, how will they be supplied?

Kyrgyzstan President Signs Law to Close US Base

Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has signed a law to close an air base that serves as a key supply facility for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Mr. Bakiyev signed the measure Friday, one day after Kyrgyzstan's parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of a government-backed bill to end U.S. access to the Manas air base.

So what happens now?

RIA Novosti reports that the US may look at Turkey following Kyrgyz base closure

But, Turkey is claiming they haven't been asked

Turkish army says no demands yet from US for local military base

Which means, maybe they haven't been asked. Or maybe they have, but aren't going to mention it at this time. Who really knows?

But wait, there is always Uzbekistan.
Except their leader is a tyrant. He has actually boiled people alive.
Oh, well that is just what the US government likes, so really, no problem there!

Obama in Canada, the morons gather.

So Obama was in Canada today.
Well my first thought is, whopeedoo.
But wait, apparently some moronic Canadians love Obama. Look, here is their website
Canadians for Obama
All I wonder is, what kind of drugs are these people on? It must be prescription pharmaceuticals.
The kind that make you passive and docile and willing to believe the hype of the mainstream media.
And the media was hyped! I noted wall to wall television coverage. And the headlines!?
WTF?
Apparently "Canadians love Obama".
What about? Why Canadians think Obama is sexy
And this Canadians want Obama
Who comes up with this crap?
Or, as I heard this on television news "Canadians are starstruck over Obama"
Yah, whatever.
The security in Ottawa was like none ever seen. With "Parliament Hill is in virtual lockdown"
Wondering how much did this cost taxpayers?

Me, I am less then enthused. In fact, I am not impressed at all.
Well he is the first "Black President", as is repeatedly regurgitated.
So what?
I don't care if he is black, white, red, green or has purple polka dots.
Clue: It ain't his colour it is his actions that count.
So far, with the most recent troop surge in Afghanistan as just one example of Obama's agenda. Obama is coming off as white and colonial as his predecessors, note I said predecessors and I meant his plural predecessors, Bush, Clinton, Bush, etc.,
Obama for Peace? Obama for Change?
NO and NO!

Geronimos Descendants sue Skull and Bones (Yale Secret Society)

Geronimo's kin sue Skull and Bones

Geronimo's descendants have sued Skull and Bones — the secret society at Yale University linked to presidents and other powerful figures — claiming that its members stole the remains of the legendary Apache leader decades ago and have kept them ever since.

The federal lawsuit filed in Washington on Tuesday — the 100th anniversary of Geronimo's death — also names the university and the federal government.

Geronimo's great-grandson Harlyn Geronimo said his family believes Skull and Bones members took some of the remains in 1918 from a burial plot in Fort Sill, Okla., to keep in its New Haven clubhouse, a crypt. The alleged graverobbing is a longstanding legend that gained some validity in recent years with the discovery of a letter from a club member that described the theft.

Harlyn Geronimo, 61, wants those remains and any held by the federal government turned over to the family so they can be reburied near the Indian leader's birthplace in southern New Mexico's Gila Wilderness.

Their lawsuit also names President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Army Secretary Pete Geren as defendants.

"I want them to understand we mean business," said Harlyn Geronimo, who lives in New Mexico. "We're very serious. We're tired of waiting and we're coming after them."

Neither members of Skull and Bones, who closely guard their secrecy, nor the Russell Trust Association, the organization's business arm for tax purposes, could not be reached for comment.

Justice Department spokesman Andrew Ames said the government will "review the complaint and respond in court at the appropriate time."

Fort Sill spokeswoman Nancy Elliot declined to discuss the lawsuit, but said officials have always maintained there is no evidence supporting the descendants' claims.

Yale officials declined to comment Wednesday, saying they had not yet seen the lawsuit. Spokesman Tom Conroy noted the Skull and Bones crypt is not on Yale property.

Membership into Skull and Bones marks the elite of the elite at the Ivy League school. Only 15 Yale seniors are asked to join each year.

Members swear an oath of secrecy about the group and its strange rituals, which include devotion to the number "322" and initiation rites such as confessing sexual secrets and kissing a skull. The atmosphere makes Skull and Bones favorite fodder for conspiracy theorists.

Its most enduring story is the one concerning Geronimo's remains, and in 2005, Yale historian Marc Wortman discovered a letter written in 1918 from one Skull and Bones member to another that seemed to lend validity to the tale.

The letter, sent to F. Trubee Davison by Winter Mead, said Geronimo's skull and other remains were taken from the leader's burial site, along with several pieces of tack for a horse.

"The skull of the worthy Geronimo the Terrible, exhumed from its tomb at Fort Sill by your club and Knight Haffuer, is now safe inside the T — together with is well worn femurs, bit and saddle horn," Mead wrote.

Geronimo's descendants say in their lawsuit that they want to uncover any information that people know, but have been keeping to themselves.

"To assure that all existing remains of Geronimo and funerary objects are recovered by Geronimo's linear descendants, the Order of Skull and Bones and Yale University must account for any such articles that are or have been in their possession, or on their property, and persons with knowledge must provide any facts known to them concerning the claims," the descendants' lawsuit says.

Harlyn Geronimo wrote to President George W. Bush in 2006, seeking his help in recovering the bones. He thought that since the president's grandfather was allegedly one of those who helped steal the bones, the president would want to help return them.

4.7 BILLION spent winning hearts and minds in America and beyond

John and Jane Q Public, how would you like your propaganda served up today?

Pentagon sets sights on public opinion

WASHINGTON - As it fights two wars, the Pentagon is steadily and dramatically increasing the money it spends to win what it calls "the human terrain" of world public opinion. In the process, it is raising concerns of spreading propaganda at home in violation of federal law.

An Associated Press investigation found that over the past five years, the money the military spends on winning hearts and minds at home and abroad has grown by 63 percent, to at least $4.7 billion this year, according to Department of Defense budgets and other documents. That's almost as much as it spent on body armor for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2004 and 2006.

This year, the Pentagon will employ 27,000 people just for recruitment, advertising and public relations — almost as many as the total 30,000-person work force in the State Department.

Pumping out press releases

On an abandoned Air Force base in San Antonio, Texas, editors for the Joint Hometown News Service point proudly to a dozen clippings on a table as examples of success in getting stories into newspapers.

Eric Gay / AP Clippings of articles published by the Joint Hometown News Service are shown in their San Antonio office.

What readers are not told: Each of these glowing stories was written by Pentagon staff. Under the free service, stories go out with authors' names but not their titles, and do not mention Hometown News anywhere. In 2009, Hometown News plans to put out 5,400 press releases, 3,000 television releases and 1,600 radio interviews, among other work — 50 percent more than in 2007.

The service is just a tiny piece of the Pentagon's rapidly expanding media empire, which is now bigger in size, money and power than many media companies.

How many of these news releases are picked up by other media outlets and regurgitated far beyond San Antonio Texas? How many of these so called news stories have been read in other countries?

Manitoba to be surveilled by unmanned spy drones

Cold comfort.

MLA doesn't like spy drone watching us

The Predator B is not allowed to come within 16 kilometres of the U.S.-Canada border, Kostelnik said, but the aircraft can use its sensors to collect information from the ground from as far as 25 kilometres.

That’s about nine kilometres past where U.S. territory ends.

Yanks put eye in the sky

gotta keep an eye on those "terrorists" (regular folk)

Perceptions, misconceptions, concussions and repurcussions

From the second, the very second of impact.
Concuss "to shake violently"
That flash of white, at impact. What was that?
Was it all the electricity suddenly jolted out of my brain cells?
That is what I am told.
It really has me thinking....

A line from a Who song plays in my head..
"Is it me, for a moment"
Quadrophenia
I think back to when this started, after the accident.
There was a time, I looked in the mirror.
And I couldn't see me.
Oh, I could see myself, no problem.
Not visual, but perceptual.
I looked into my own heavily glazed eyes.
I wasn't there.
Disconcerting.

I had a pretty good past week, not great, not "I am all better", but good
and I was feeling positive.
But like the diametrically opposed nature of many people's thinking, well, yah just can't have positive without negative.
The ups without the down.
And the down came suddenly, like a door slamming shut.
It was that dramatic of a shift.

I got dizzy, really noticeably dizzy. Everything became slow, again.
I had been here before, deja vu.
I felt slow, talked slower, moved slow. Everything slowed.
If I had pushed myself too much? I don't know.
Probably, in hindsight.

Then an emotional rollercoaster ride.
The ride downward. What happened?
Yes, there was crying.
As frustrating as this is, has been and will continue to be.
It seems like it won't pass, like it won't end.
I need to keep it in perspective.
That overall, it is better.

Yesterday, I kept thinking, "don't wig out".
Nobody told me that, nobody had to.
Don't wig out. I laughed to myself.
I want to freak out, kick and scream. But I won't, it won't do me any good.
So I relish the thought of doing it. I visualize it.


This will pass.

Nice day for a walk

Little chickadees, adorable! (I love them)
Yes, they eat right out of your hands. Some are timid, some linger in your hands and actually pick through the seeds for just the right one.

Flooding has been happening, yah shocking I know! One can usually ride or walk where that water and ice is. But me, I shudder at that thought. Though some fearless little kids were on it.
However it is all nice to look at!

Somalia: a new puppet regime or the next occupied state?

Somalia, Somalia.

I have said all along there is more to this then meets the eye. The 'more' is controlling resources, the pretext is fighting piracy.

I already posted on the fallacies in the western mainstream media about there not being a government in Somali since '91 being false. There was one, it was Islamic, but that wasn't the problem, The problem was it was STABLE. No good when you wish to benefit from instability!

So the US decided to use the umbrella term "war on terror" as a means to rectify this "situation".

That is, to create chaos from stability.

Sadly, being a little bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US needed some help. So it used one of it's puppet dictators- in Ethiopia, to do it's dirty work. Ethiopia promptly invaded Somalia (the US supported with random aerial bombings) and out went the stable government.

While all this is going on in Somalia, just look at what is going on outside of the country!
Why it's Western powers at work!

In Dec. 2008 the UN passed a resolution regarding Somalia and the issue of piracy,but this one took it a little further then simply dealing with Somali pirates in the water.

This United States-led resolution known as Resolution 1851, had the security council authorize "states" to use land based operations in Somalia, to fight piracy.


SECURITY COUNCIL AUTHORIZES STATES TO USE LAND-BASED OPERATIONS IN SOMALIA
AS PART OF FIGHT AGAINST PIRACY OFF COAST, UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTING 1851 (2008)

What this is, is the justification to invade and possibly occupy Somalia, under the pretext of fighting piracy. Which really means, for any reason, at any time, that it is deemed necessary by the US.
Face it, this was not a resolution that the US asked for without reason.

What makes this all the more curious is, as of Jan/09 Ethiopia began withdrawing troops from Somalia. It would seem their not necessary anymore.

Then, snap your fingers and Somalia held elections. That the UN approves of.
The President of Somalia is now Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. Deja vu? Yes!
This man was part of the government tossed out by the Ethiopian invasion two years ago.

Curiously, or maybe not, his allies who had formed the previous government with him are against his election. You would think they would be pleased? Having friends in high places can be a good thing! Yet, their not.

And, isn't it interesting how nicely everything has fallen into place as of late?

UN resolution enabling western powers to invade Somalia, Ethiopian troop withdrawal, snap elections with UN (western) approval???

Leaves one wondering if this Sheik, in his two years of exile, made some deals with western powers? Surely he was aware of the UN resolution when he ran in these elections? That resolution is bound to make him a 'limited' leader at best.

"And so what America has learned late on is that it has no choice in Somalia other than to engage with a section of these Islamist "former terrorists" who are led by Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, who has become in the eyes of America the moderate political figure"

Wow, Drug money flowed into banks!

No way, say it isn't so! I for one am shocked, totally!

U.N. crime chief says drug money flowed into banks

The United Nations' crime and drug watchdog has indications that money made in illicit drug trade has been used to keep banks afloat in the global financial crisis, its head was quoted as saying on Sunday.

Vienna-based UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said in an interview released by Austrian weekly Profil that drug money often became the only available capital when the crisis spiralled out of control last year.

"In many instances, drug money is currently the only liquid investment capital," Costa was quoted as saying by Profil. "In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system's main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor."

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime had found evidence that "interbank loans were funded by money that originated from drug trade and other illegal activities," Costa was quoted as saying. There were "signs that some banks were rescued in that way."

What is laughable about this article?
As if, drug money is flowing through the banks ONLY because of the current liquidity crisis?!
As if, it isn't happening all the time?
No, it is just an anomoly. It is only happening now!
You believe that, right?

The "shocking" 30 second ad that shook DirecTV to it's very core!

DirecTV censors Gaza ad- follows in the BBC's censorship footsteps.

Scenario:
Generous donors, Cultures of Resistance make ad possible.

US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, produces 30 second clip mentioning the US's role in Israel's seige on the people of Gaza.

After detailed discussions with DIRECTV, including agreement on rates, times, and network placements of the ad, when we gave them the final product, they abruptly decided not to do business with us.

SEE THE AD BELOW

Protest DIRECTV's Censorship of Our Gaza TV Ad

Fluoride Info

Here is a link to a list of communities that have rejected fluoride.
Proudly mine is in amongst that list.

This is about the best site I know of for Fluoride Info, nobody.

Fluoride Action Network
Though it seems more NA, but, it's good.

You maybe interested in this also. It was sent to me by Doug Plumb.
It concerns Australia.

Bligh says yes to fluoridated water

and someone is asking for accountability

Ministers Forced to be Accountable for Fluoridation in Queensland

Why no slave revolt in the US?

Why aren't the slaves in the US revolting?

By slaves, I mean the common people, the working classes, the unwashed masses. Flag wavin' bible thumping, Mom, military and apple pie kind of people.

It is an interesting question.

In this article: The Whole World Is Rioting as the Economic Crisis Worsens -- Why Aren't We?

The author comes to the conclusion that there is no revolt of the slaves(see above defintion) in the US because....

the "slave mentality" is stronger in the U.S. than elsewhere, "in part because no other country on earth has so successfully crushed every internal rebellion."

Interesting, so while people elsewhere, in other free and democratic societies are protesting the economic fall out and the effects it has had on them.
The biggest slaves of all, in the entire world, are enjoying their oppression?


But, whoa nellie!!!!

Isn't the US the greatest, most free and democratic nation on the earth?
Bringing freedom and democracy to all other nations?
As their leaders and media repeatedly tell them

Are you sensing a disconnect?

The slaves of the USA don't even realize how hopelessly enslaved they are. They in fact fail to even rise up against their own oppressors.

When I read this article, one of my favourite sayings came to mind-


"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." - Johann Wolfgang van Goethe

It seems fitting, no?
(PS: Canadians I suspect are no better, lets see how they react as the economy falls further and further into recession, will we love our repressors also?)

Pt 3:Global Energy War: Washington's 'New Kissinger' and his African Plans

thanks to : Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space

Also, in addition to bilateral military agreements with Northern African states, Jones was NATO Supreme Commander in 2004 when at the Istanbul summit NATO upgraded the Alliance's seven Mediterranean Dialogue members - the bulk of which are in North Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia) - to an enhanced partnership status.

He also created the military wing of the US State Department's Pan Sahel Initiative. The Pentagon's website described it in early 2006 as follows: "The 2002 Pan Sahel Initiative involved training and equipping a least one rapid-reaction company in each of the four Sahel states: Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad. The current initiative involves those four states and Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia and Nigeria.

"'U.S. Naval Forces Europe, (the command's) lead component in this initiative, has developed a robust maritime security strategy and regional 10-year campaign plan for the Gulf of Guinea region.' "'Africa's vast potential makes African stability a near-term global strategic imperative,' Jones said." (Defense Link, March 8, 2006}

In the following year an Algerian article called "U.S. embassies turned into command posts in North Africa" added this: "[T]he countries involved in the U.S. embassies command posts are Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania, Niger, Mali, Chad and Senegal. A major focus of AFRICOM will be the Gulf of Guinea, with its enormous oil reserves in Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Angola and the Congo Republic....
-The U.S. is already pouring $500 million into its Trans-Sahel Counterterrorism Initiative that embraces Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria in North Africa, and nations boarding the Sahara including Mauritania, Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Chad and Senegal." (Ech Chorouk, October 17, 2007}

And in May of 2005 NATO began its first official operation on the African continent, transporting troops to the Darfur region of Sudan, thereby
beginning Western military intrusion into the Central African Republic-Chad-Sudan triangle.

Yet the Gulf of Guinea remained the main focus of attention.

No later than 2003 Western news sources reported on a suspected unprecedented oil bonanza in the former Portuguses possessions of Sao Tome and Principe in the Gulf.

Shortly afterward there was talk of the Pentagon establishing a naval base on Sao Tome.

The State Department estimated at the time that the US was then currently importing 15% of its oil from the Gulf of Guinea and that the figure would rise to 25% in a few years.

Western Africa oil offers two key advantages to the US. It's comparatively high-grade crude and can be transported on tankers directly across the Atlantic Ocean, thereby circumventing straits, canals and other potential chokepoints and attendant customs duties and taxes by littoral nations.

Throughout his time as EUCOM and NATO top military commander Jones touted what he described as ongoing and permanent US and NATO naval presence in the Gulf. In June of 2006 NATO helds its first large-scale military exercises in Africa, in fact initiating the NATO Rapid Response Force, north of the Gulf in Cape Verde.

Below are accounts of the drills: "Hundreds of elite North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) troops backed by fighter planes and warships
will storm a tiny volcanic island off Africa's Atlantic coast this week in what the Western alliance hopes will prove a potent demonstration of its ability to project power around the world." (Associated Press, June 21, 2006)

"Seven thousand NATO troops conducted war games on the Atlantic Ocean island of Cape Verde on Thursday in the latest sign of the alliance's growing interest in playing a role in Africa. "The land, air and sea exercises were NATO's first major deployment in Africa and designed to show the former Cold War giant can launch far-flung military operations at short notice. "'You are seeing the new NATO, the one that has the ability to project stability,' said NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference after NATO troops stormed a beach on one of the islands on the archipelago in a mock assault on a fictitious terrorist camp. "NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe James Jones, the alliance soldier in charge of NATO operations, said he hoped the two-week Cape Verde exercises would help
break down negative images about NATO in Africa and elsewhere." (Reuters, June 22, 2006)

Jones may have inveigled Reuters with concerns about NATO's public image, but its rival agency was more forthcoming: "NATO is developing a special plan to safeguard oil and gas fields in the region, says its Supreme Allied Commander on Europe, Gen. James Jones. "He said a training session will be held in the Atlantic oceanic area and the Cabo Verde island in June to outline activities to protect the routes transporting oil to Western Europe....Jones said the alliance is ready to ensure the security of oil-producing and transporting regions."
(Associated Press, May 2, 2006)

That same month Jones was in the northern tip of the Gulf, in Monrovia, the capital of the one nation on the continent that seemed at first willing to host the future AFRICOM's headquarters after Washington assisted in the toppling of the Charles Taylor government and the installation of former US-based Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to head its successor.

A local paper reported: "A United States military delegation today met with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf at her Executive Mansion office in Monrovia. The delegation was headed by General James Jones of the US Marine Corps who is also the head of the US government European Command. "Also with General Jones today were seven members of his delegation, who were in full US military uniform. General Jones reaffirmed his government’s support in assisting the Liberian government in the formation of the new Liberian army. He said some members of his command, were due in Liberia soon, to begin the training of the new Liberian army, which is expected to begin in July.
(African News Dimension, June 2, 2006)

Two months before the US State Department reported on another of Jones' African plans, the Gulf of Guinea Maritime Security Initiative, and thereby tied together a few threads in Washington's African tapestry:

“'Left unattended, political instability in Africa could require reactive and repeated interventions at enormous costs, as in the case of Liberia,' Jones said." (Washington File, April 7, 2006)

And in the intervening month Jones reminded readers that he still wore two commanders' caps and that his energy and broader geopolitical strategy encompassed, still, both south and east: "Our strategic goal is to expand...to Eastern Europe and Africa.... -“'The United States is not unchallenged in its quest to gain influence in and access to Africa.'” (Stars And Stripes, March 9, 2006)

And so it remains.

The West, the US in the first instance, is waging an unparalleled drive to retain and expand what military, political and economic domination and monopolies it has wrested from the rest of the world over the past five centuries, and control of the globe's energy resources and their transportation is a vital component of that reckless campaign.

Africa is rapidly shaping up to be a major battleground in that international struggle.

With James Jones as new US National Security chief, complemented by the 'soft power' efforts of former State Department Africa hand Dr. Susan Rice as probable US ambassador to the United Nations, the continent's and the world's guard must not be relaxed.

A Soviet security summit, and a surprise closing of a vital US base

Didn't these news stories come across my radar at an appropriate time? These countries get honourable mentions in the 3 part article I have been posting.

First of all-

Russia hosts ex-Soviet security summit

MOSCOW -- Russia sought to bolster its security alliance with six other ex-Soviet nations Wednesday by forming a joint rapid reaction force in a continuing effort to curb U.S. influence in energy-rich Central Asia.

The summit of the Moscow-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization came a day after Kyrgyzstan said it would end the U.S. lease of an air base that supports military operations in Afghanistan. The eviction of U.S. troops would mark a victory for Moscow in a battle for influence in what it considers its historic backyard.

On Wednesday, Russia, Armenia, Belarus and four Central Asian nations - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - agreed to set up a joint rapid reaction force. The move would boost the military dimension to the alliance, which until now has served mostly as a forum for security consultations

hot on the heels of this news-

Kyrgystan to close US air base

Kyrgyzstan wants to close the US air base on its territory because the US government does not want to discuss pay more for its use of the complex. President Kurmanbek Bakijev has sent a bill to parliament which, if adopted, would give the US 180 days to evacuate the air base. The president made his announcement on Tuesday in Moscow, where he was promised more than 1.5 billion euros in Russian aid.

The US embassy in Kyrgyzstan says it was taken by surprise because negotiations on renewing the contract are still ongoing. The Kyrgyzstan air base is used to support the NATO military force in Afghanistan. Closure would mean a serious setback for the new US President Barack Obama, who wants to deploy more troops there. However, it would be a major diplomatic victory for Russia, which has strong objections to the US military presence in former Soviet states.

Pt 2:Global Energy War: Washington's 'New Kissinger' and his African Plans

I realize this is a long piece, but I thought there was lots of good info in it, lots of background on Obama's 'New Kissinger'. What makes it more lengthy is I am adding additional info!
Hey it is better to be clued in, then clueless!

Oh yeah, sorry, it is going to be in 3 parts. As silverfish would say "my bad"

"The other two contested zones and already current battlegrounds between the West and Russia and other emerging nations in this regard are the Arctic Circle and the northern part of South America and the Caribbean. Southeast Asia may be soon be another candidate for the role."

(and the Artic Circle has Canada all fired up and ready to go, as per instructions from the masters)

The drive into Africa, from the Mediterranean north to the South African way station to Antarctica and its offshore environs (the sixth key global energy chess piece) and from the war-torn northeast to the oil-rich Atlantic west, is thus integrally linked to the concomitant US and NATO military expansion into the Black and Caspian Seas and Persian Gulf regions.

Mind, this is not a direct, reductionist 'war for oil'; it is rather an international strategic bid by a consortium of declining Western powers united under the NATO aegis to seize and dominate world energy resources and transportation lines to in turn maintain and expand global economic and political hegemony. (Indeed, the two nations most central to Western plans for trans-Eurasian oil transit plans, Azerbaijan and Georgia, have recorded the largest per capita and percentile increases in military spending in the world over the past five years. A case of oil for war rather than the reverse.)

(Oops and there is Georgia, so why did they attack Ossettia? Was it testing preparedness, testing weapons, what?)

Jones' resume as top military commander of both US European Command and of NATO gave him, and still gives him, a pivotal role in what the State Department of Condoleezza Rice (herself with a doctorate degree in Sovietology and Russian studies) has referred to for years as the "push east and south."

As the US armed forces newspaper Stars and Stripes reported a year and a half ago: "Five years ago, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sent marching orders to Marine Gen. James L. Jones, telling him that the U.S. European Command needed an overhaul to meet the unique challenges of the 21st century. "Jones’ plan, started in 2002, called for the moving of thousands of troops from Europe back to the United States, moving troops into Eastern Europe and setting up forward operating sites in Africa."

What has occurred in the interim regarding the first trajectory, the push to the east, is that the Pentagon and NATO have selected seven military bases in Bulgaria and Romania, after the latter two's NATO accession in 2004, for land, naval and air 'lily pads' on the Black Sea for operations in the Caucasus, Ukraine, Central and South Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf.

The US and its Alliance cohorts have similarly turned another Black Sea, and Caucasus, nation - Georgia - into a military and strategic energy corridor heading both east and south.

In fact Georgia is the central link in what Western officials for years have touted as the "project of the century": The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline transporting oil from the Caspian to the Mediterranean Seas.

(So will the West be willing to lost Georgia to Russia? I don't think so)

Along with its sister projects, the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline and the Kars-Tbilisi-Baku ("China to London") railway, the West envisions plans to export oil and natural gas from as far east as Kazakhstan on the Chinese border over, around and under the Caspian Sea to the South Caucasus and from there north to Ukraine and Poland to the Baltic Sea and onto Western Europe, and south along the Mediterranean to Israel to be shipped on tankers through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea and across the Arabian Sea to countries like India and Japan. That is, back to East Asia where much of it originated.

(So the security agreement that Canada signed with Israel, could this be part of the reason? Could it all be part and parcel of this grand strategy?)

If any more grand (or grandiose) and far-reaching geopolitical design has ever been contemplated, history fails to record it.

Chinese military analyst Lin Zhiyuan summed up the general stratgey over two years ago: "[N]ew military bases, airports and training bases will be built in Hungary, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria and other nations to ensure "gangways" to some areas in the Middle East, African and Asia in possible military actions in the years ahead. "More important, the United States will successfully move eastward the gravity and frontline of its Europe defense, go on beefing up its military presence in the Baltic states and the central Asia region, and also raise its capability to contain Russia by stepping into the backyard of the former Soviet Union. "James L. Jones, commander of the European command of the US army [EUCOM, as well as NATO], acknowledged that EETAF [Eastern European Task Force] would "greatly upgrade" the capacity of coordinating the forces of the U.S. and its allies, and the capacity of training and operation in Eurasia and the Caucasian region, so that they are able to make faster responses in some conflict areas...." (People's Daily, December 5, 2006)

The author was perhaps referring to an earlier statement by James Jones, one reported on the US State Department's website on March 10, 2006: "[Jones] discussed ongoing shifts in troop levels, the creation of rotational force hubs in Bulgaria and Romania, and initiatives in Africa....Those forces remaining in Europe will focus on being able swiftly to deploy to temporary locations in southeast Europe, Eurasia and Africa. Along the Black Sea, recent basing agreements will allow U.S. forces to start establishing an Eastern European Task Force [which will] “significantly increases” the ability of U.S. and partner forces to coordinate and conduct training and missions in Eurasia and the Caucasus....

Jones also described Caspian Guard, a program to improve the capabilities of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan in a strategic region that borders northern Iran. “Africa’s vast potential makes African stability a near-term global strategic imperative.”

In the past week the Pentagon's Central Command chief General David Petraeus visited Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan and Turkmenistan, the first and third on both ends of the Caspian Sea and the two largest producers of oil and natural gas in Central Asia.

This is the further implementation of Jones' plan which he bluntly articulated well over three years ago: "NATO's top military commander is seeking an important new security role for private industry and business leaders as part of a new security strategy that will focus on the economic vulnerabilities of the 26-country alliance.

(can you feel the global goodwill, the peace and harmony for humankind??
Or are you, like me, getting a whiff of fascism, hardline fascism?)

"Two immediate and priority projects for NATO officials to develop with private industry are to secure the pipelines bringing Russian oil and gas to Europe...to secure ports and merchant shipping, the alliance Supreme Commander, Gen. James Jones of the U.S. Marine Corps said Wednesday. "A further area of NATO interest to secure energy supplies could be the Gulf of Guinea off the West African coast, Jones noted...'a serious security problem.' Oil companies were already spending more than a billion dollars a year on security in the region, he noted, pointing to the need for NATO and business to confer on the common security concern."
(United Press International, October 13, 2005)

On the far western end of what British geographer and proto-geostrategist Halford Mackinder called the World Island (Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East) lies the Atlantic Coast of Africa and the Gulf of Guinea.

It is here that then EUCOM and NATO top military commander Jones arranged the foundation of the future AFRICOM. Though not without attending to the rest of the continent as well during his dual tenure from 2003-2006.

In April of 2006 he already advocated the following: "Jones...raised the prospect of NATO taking a role to counter piracy off the coast of the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Guinea, especially when it threatens energy supply routes to Western nations." (Associated Press, April 24, 2006)


Two and a half years before NATO initiated the Atlanta interdiction operation in the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden last autumn (NATO warships even docked at the Kenyan port city of Mombasa), Jones was laying the groundwork for the NATO cum European Union mission of today.

As the Horn of Africa region was the only part of Africa not formerly in EUCOM's area of responsibility (in was in Central Command's), Jones was clearly speaking of an AFRICOM that wouldn't appear for another 30 months

(AFRICOM, announced in 2008. Yet Jones was speaking of it in 2006, this has me rethinking the Ethiopian invasion and two year occupation of Somalia)

Global Energy War: Washington's 'New Kissinger' and his African Plans

prepared by: Rick Rozoff

I am going to post this article in 2 parts as it is a lengthy read and covers everything from Africa, NATO to Georgia and the Ukraine. It does tie in nicely with the Somali pirate issue.
Or should I say "international concern". Will we see Canadian troops in Africa?

Africa and US Marine General James Jones:

The Washington Post of November 22, 2008 referred to the then pending selection of Jones as US National Security Adviser in these terms: "Sources familiar with the discussions said Obama is considering expanding the scope of the job to give the adviser the kind of authority once wielded by powerful figures such as Henry A. Kissinger."

And the following day's Israeli Ha'aretz wrote: "Jones is expected to play a key role in the Obama administration. According to U.S. press reports, he will be as strong as Henry Kissinger, the all-powerful national security adviser to President Richard Nixon.

James Jones is now the first career military officer to hold the post as head of the National Security Council since retired general Colin Powell did so in the second Reagan administration and is the first former NATO Supreme Allied Commander to do so.

If you want to refresh your memory on James Jones I had a post on him here

"Jones was the major architect of what last October 1st was officially launched as the first new US military command in over half a century, Africa Command (AFRICOM), whose chartered area of operations includes fifty three nations.

AFRICOM's historical precedents were commented upon by a Ghanian news source almost three years ago: "Marine General James L. Jones, Head of the US European Command...said the Pentagon was seeking to acquire access to two kinds of bases in Senegal, Ghana, Mali and Kenya and other African countries. "The new US strategy based on the conclusions of May 2001 report of the President’s National Energy Policy Development group chaired by Vice President Richard Cheney and known as the Cheney report." (Ghana Web, February 23, 2006)

And by a Nigerian commentator the following year: "[In January of 2002 the African Oil Policy Initiative Group] recommended that African oil be treated as a priority for the national security of the US after 9/11, that the US government declares the Gulf of Guinea an "area of vital interest" and that it set up a sub-command structure for US forces in the region. -In September 2002, the then US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, put forward a proposal to establish a NATO Rapid Response Force (NRF) which was approved by the defence ministers of NATO in Brussels in June 2003 and was inaugurated in October 2003." (Leadership, November 22, 2007)

In keeping with the above, after his formal selection as nominee for Nationl Security Adviser late last year, Jones revealed that "[A]s commander of NATO, I worried early in the mornings about how to protect energy facilities and supply chain routes as far away
as Africa, the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea." (Agence France-Presse, November 30, 2008)

Or as a US daily newspaper put it later: "During his 2003-2006 stint as NATO's supreme commander, Jones stressed his view that energy policy was a top national security matter for the United States and a leading international security priority. For the past year, Jones has been president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy. Until his Dec. 1 selection by Obama, he also served as a board member of the Chevron Corp." (Houston Chronicle, December 25, 2008)

The above reflected designs voiced earlier, as evidenced by: "NATO's top commander of operations, U.S. General James Jones, has said he sees a potential role for the alliance in protecting key shipping lanes such as those around the Black Sea and oil supply routes from Africa to Europe." (Reuters, November 27, 2006)

And shortly before stepping down as both European Command and NATO commander, Jones, addressing US business leaders, said:
"Officials at U.S. European Command spend between 65 to 70 percent of their time on African issues, Jones said....Establishing such a group [military task force in West Africa] could also send a message to U.S. companies 'that investing in many parts of Africa is a good idea,' the general said." [U.S. Department of Defense, August 18, 2006)

And, just as candidly, he and his NATO civilian cohort declared: "NATOs’ executives are ready to use warships to ensure the security of offshore oil and gas transportation routes from Western Africa, reportedly said Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO’s Secretary General, speaking at the session of foreign committee of PACE [Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe]. "On April 30 General James Jones, commander-in-chief of NATO in Europe, reportedly said NATO was going to draw up the plan for ensuring security of oil and gas industry facilities. "In this respect the block is willing to ensure security in unstable regions where oil and gas are produced and transported."
(Trend News Agency, May 3, 2006)

Note that while speaking to those he assumes to be interested and complicit parties, Jones is quite candid in moving his finger across the map of the world and indicating precisely where the Pentagon's - not the State Department's, say, or the US Department of Energy's - priorities lie.

And they are, as mentioned above, immediately in three of the five areas of the world where hitherto unexploited or underexploited massive oil and natural gas deposits lie: Africa's Gulf of Guinea, the Black and Caspian Seas and the Persian Gulf.