NO CONFIRMED DEATHS IN ISRAEL FROM HAMAS ROCKET ATTACKS

By Larisa Alexandrovna

I don’t usually reveal sources, but I think this is incredibly important. Michael Connell died in a plane crash last night. He was a key witness in the Ohio election fraud case that I have been reporting on. More importantly, however, he had information that he was ready to share.

You see, Mike Connell set-up the alternate email and communications system for the White House. He was responsible for creating the system that hosted the infamous GWB43.com accounts that Karl Rove and others used. When asked by Congress to provide these emails, the White House said that they were destroyed. But in reality, what Connell is alleged to have done is move these files to other servers after having allegedly scrubbed the files from all “known” Karl Rove accounts.

In addition, I have reason to believe that the alternate accounts were used to communicate with US Attorneys involved in political prosecutions, like that of Don Siegelman. This is what I have been working on to prove for over a year. In fact, it was through following the Siegelman-Rove trail that I found evidence leading to Connell. That is how I became aware of him. Mike was getting ready to talk. He was frightened.

He has flown his private plane for years without incident. I know he was going to DC last night, but I don’t know why. He apparently ran out of gas, something I find hard to believe. (See Update 3 below). I am not saying that this was a hit nor am I resigned to this being simply an accident either. I am no expert on aviation and cannot provide an opinion on the matter. (citx say: “I know you are scared for YOUR life now..but this is what I call ‘doing a Wellstone’ on someone..) What I am saying, however, is that given the context, this event needs to be examined carefully. If you want to understand the context more broadly, I suggest you read this article I did a while back about the break-ins and arson cases that Siegelman and others have experienced.

Just to be very clear and state again, I am not claiming conspiracy theory or direct relation to Karl Rove or the White House in any of these events. (citx: this disclaimer will not protect you Larisa) What I am saying, however, is that these possible relationships cannot and should not be overlooked by investigators. There are far too many serious and reasonable questions that must be answered for the public.(citx: tell it Paul Wellstones family..oh wait they are all DEAD too!)

I have been to Mr. Connell’s home. Mr. Connell has confided that he was being threatened, something that his attorneys also told the judge in the Ohio election fraud case. When I met with Heather, his wife, I did so carefully because of the threats he was getting.

I left a note for her in her mailbox and asked her to meet me in a local park near their home. Heather came and through our conversation I got the sense that these were not bad people or corrupt people. The Connell’s really believed that what they were involved in served God’s plan. Regardless of of what any of us think about their religious views or allegations relating to Connell’s involvement in various things, I do think these were good people who got caught up in something bigger than themselves. My heart goes out to Heather and the children.

UPDATE ONE

Okay children (citx: OK Mom!) - because that is what I am going to call adults who willfully mis-read information. I will say this AGAIN , I am NOT - I repeat NOT - saying this was a). a murder, b). that it was in any way connected to the White House or to Karl Rove, and c). that I am convinced of any of the above three.

On the contrary, I have said - AND AM NOTING AGAIN - that I don’t know what happened. I am NOT an aviation expert. What I am saying - AGAIN - is that the context is important and must be considered. Investigators must conduct their work transparently on this case as to address the many serious and reasonable (not remotely CT-based questions) relating to this crash and the person who died.(citx: IN THE CURRENT POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT WHY ARE ‘JOURNALISTS’ SO FUCKING AFRAID OF ‘CONSPIRACY THEORIES’?..seriously) The public has a right to know and investigators must address these questions by conducting a very open investigation of the crash. (citx: no pressure though..just a hunch?)

The facts are not all in yet and so I have no answers for you - AS I HAVE ALREADY NOTED. (citx: as im sure Karl Rove has noted..do you feel SAFE yet?) But I felt it important to share the context, obligated even to share it. Now if you folks (you know who you are..citizen x) want to read this as me rolling myself in tin-foil, then that is your choice. Obviously that is not my hope, but I cannot help the lunacy that people want to engage in.

citx: Let ME say it again..murder has been a political tool FAR FAR longer than ELECTIONS have..
the Bush political dynasty has a shockingly high UN-INVESTIGATED body count in its wake..
and while I appreciate your healthy skepticism Larisa (and your instinct toward self-preservation)..you cannot dodge the assertions that are naturally being made..THESE PEOPLE ARE MURDERERS..TRAITORS and THIEVES. full stop.

UPDATE TWO

Here are the reading materials in case you have not followed any of this closely. These are articles I have done over spanning over a year of investigative work:

Part 1 - Political Prisoner
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/The_Permanent_Republican_Majority_1125.html

Part 2 - Siegelman’s Daughter Speaks Out
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/The_permanent_Republican_majority_Daughter_of_1127.html

Part 3 - Karl Rove Running Elections from the White House
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/The_Permanent_Republican_Majority_Part_III_1216.html

Part 4 - Mississippi Prosecution, Justice Oliver Diaz
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/How_Bush_US_attorney_riddled_with_0401.html

Part 5 - Justice Diaz Speaks
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Diaz_placeholder_0408.html

Part 6 - Break-ins plague targets of political prosecutions
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Breakins_plague_Justice_Department_whistleblowers_0430.html

Part 7 - Justice for Sale
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Justice_for_Sale_How_Big_Tobacco_0828.html

Related articles:

Judge who denied Paul Minor release was protoge of Karl Rove
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Judge_in_Paul_Minor_case_was_0821.html

DOJ Investigating 2 US Attorneys
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/DOJ_Investigating_two_US_Attorneys_involved_0604.html

60 Minutes Segemant on Siegelman “dropped” in Alabama
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/60_Minutes_broadcast_on_prosecution_of_0225.html

Republican IT Consultant Subpoenaed in Ohio election fraud case
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Republican_IT_consultant_subpoenaed_in_case_0929.html

Abramoff said he had agreement with White House aide just a month after Bush took office http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Abramoff_said_he_had_agreement_with_1117.html Treasury

Department investigating US Attorney for leaking state Supreme Court Justice’s tax returns http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Treasury_Department_investigating_US_Attorney_for_1201.htm

UPDATE THREE

Okay, so I have some additional information from an airport source. Here is what I have learned:

1. Connell may not have run out of gas, but may have hit an ice patch. The initial call I got described him running out of gas. That is no longer what is said to have happened. (citx: this seems very suspicious on its own)

2. The problem with that is - as I just learned - his plane was “equipped to deal with ice on all key surfaces,” like wings for example. Remember, I am not an expert on aviation or even mildly informed on different types of planes. So I will add to this when I get more information relating to the actual plane and its abilities, specs, etc.

3. He took off from a small airport called College Park.

4. He was aware of the ice conditions, and remained grounded at that airport for two hours until he felt comfortable to fly (again, from an airport source).(citx: think John John Kennedy)

(despite the snarky commentary..citx respects and applauds the brave and relentless work of whistle-blowers (that I plagiarize) everywhere..my SERIOUS assertion, however, is that you BE PARANOID ENOUGH..so the saying goes..)

If I were a Palestinian, watching Jews in Israel and around the world preparing to celebrate Hanukkah, I might be a bit confused. The holiday recalls a time, way back in the second century BCE, when Judea was ruled by a much stronger neighboring nation. The Jews took up arms to free themselves from a military occupation. Yet when Palestinians even talk about taking up arms against the occupying army of their powerful neighbor today, the Israeli government and its supporters call that unjustified, immoral, an outrage. And the government of the United States generally agrees, no matter which party is in power.

It doesn’t seem fair, because there is so much similarity between today’s Palestinians and the Jews of old. Ancient Judea was administered by the Seleucid empire, just as Palestine is administered by Israel. The Seleucids had local Jewish agents on the scene to help them keep control, just as Israel is helped by some number of Palestinians who see resistance as futile.

The Seleucids said their harsh occupation policies were necessary, because many Jews were allies of the Seleucid’s great enemy, the Ptolemy empire. If they didn’t keep a tight grip on Judea, they said, it would become a base for their enemy to attack them. In the same way, Israel justifies its occupation policies with the claim that the Palestinian resistance is in league with Israel’s great enemy, Iran.

Of course the Jews who rebelled said it had nothing to do with helping anyone but themselves; it was all about gaining their freedom. Palestinians make the same claim about their resistance movement.

So if I were Palestinian, I might well ask: Why should Jews celebrate their own violence of 22 centuries ago as a morally justified fight for freedom, yet refuse to see the morality of the Palestinians’ fight for freedom? Isn’t there a double standard at work here?

A growing number of Jews think so. They don’t approve of Palestinian violence. But they want to see Israel extend the same right of self-determination to Palestinians that it celebrates for Jews every year at Hanukkah.

Some of these Jews for peace and justice are Israeli high school seniors who are refusing to serve in their own army. In Hebrew they’re known as “shministim.” They see their army imposing the same kind of repressive occupation that their own people suffered centuries ago, and they won’t be part of it. They say that a military occupation cannot be the path to peace or to security, as the Seleucids found out long ago. Many who refuse to serve know that decision will land them in jail. Some are in jail right now.

One of them, Omer Goldman, wrote this:

Earlier this year, I went to a peace demonstration in Palestine. I had always been told that the Israeli army was there to defend me, but during that demonstration Israeli soldiers opened fire on me and my friends with rubber bullets and tear-gas grenades. I was shocked and scared. I saw the truth. I saw the reality. I saw for the first time that the most dangerous thing in Palestine is the Israeli soldiers, the very people who are supposed to be on my side. When I came back to Israel, I knew I had changed. And so, I have joined with a number of other young people who are refusing to serve.

Thursday, December 18, is an international day of solidarity with the imprisoned “shministim.” You can read about them, and lend your support if you want, at www.december18th.org.

Now it has officially gone too far: Democrats, in their zeal to appear friendly to evangelical voters,
have chosen celebrity preacher and best-selling author Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Obama, like every president before him, would pick a Christian minister to perform this sacred duty.
But Obama had thousands of clergy to choose from, and the choice of Warren is not only a slap in the face to progressive ministers toiling on the front lines of advocacy and service..
But a bow to the continuing influence of the religious right in American politics.
Warren vocally opposes gay marriage, does not believe in evolution, has compared abortion to the Holocaust..
and backed the assassination of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Warren has done a masterful job at marketing himself as a “new” kind of evangelical..
With a “broader agenda” than just fighting abortion rights and gay marriage.
He dispatches members of his congregation to Africa to perform AIDS relief
and has positioned himself as a great crusader for bringing his “purpose-driven” pabulum to the world.

Faith in Public Life, a non-profit cultivated by the Center for American Progress,
was so wowed by Warren that it co-sponsored a presidential forum in August at Warren’s Saddleback Church.
There, his “broader agenda” included asking Obama whether he believed that life began at conception
(which Warren believes, he says, based on the Bible, not science) and to ruminate on the nature of evil.
(As for Pastor Rick, he believes the Bible dictates that the US government “punish evildoers,” as in Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.)

Beneath the sheep’s clothing lurks a culture warrior wolf.
After the Saddleback forum, he told the Wall Street Journal that the only difference between him and James Dobson was that of “tone.”
After insisting that his agenda was “broad,” and holding himself out as an impartial arbiter of the forum,
He declared that voting for a “Holocaust denier” (i.e., someone who is pro-choice) is a “deal-breaker” for many evangelicals.
Obama was pressured to talk about “abortion reduction”..
But Warren likens such rhetoric to Schindler’s List: an attempt to save some lives but not end a “holocaust.”

In the world of the “broader agenda” evangelicals, when liberals advocate for gay marriage, they’re stoking the culture wars;
When a “broader agenda” evangelical crusades against it, he’s merely upholding biblical standards.
In that tradition, Warren in October implored his followers to vote for Proposition 8..
Because “there are about 2 percent of Americans are homosexual, gay, lesbian people. We should not let 2 percent of the population…
change a definition of marriage that has been supported by every single culture and every single religion for 5,000 years.”
Warren called opposition to gay marriage a “humanitarian issue” because “God created marriage for the purpose of family, love and procreation.”

Warren, a creationist, believes that homosexuality disproves evolution; he told CNN’s Larry King in 2005,
“If Darwin was right, which is survival of the fittest then homosexuality would be a recessive gene..
because it doesn’t reproduce and you would think that over thousands of years that homosexuality would work itself out of the gene pool.”

Warren protests that he’s not a homophobe;
it’s just that two dudes marrying, in his mind, is indistinguishable from an adult marrying a child,
a brother marrying his sister, or polygamy.
He thinks his AIDS relief efforts represent an elevated form of Christianity over those non-evangelical do-gooders whom he compares to “Marxists” because they’re more interested in good works than salvation.
The rejection of the “social justice” gospel in favor of the salvation-focused evangelicalism that has come to dominate the definition of “Christian” lies at the heart of the religious right agenda to marginalize liberalism and harness its political power.

Warren represents the absolute worst of the Democrats’ religious outreach,
a right-winger masquerading as a do-gooder anointed as the arbiter of what it means to be faithful.
Obama’s religious outreach was intended, supposedly, to make religious voters more comfortable with him and feel included in the Democratic Party.
But that outreach now has come at the expense of other people’s comfort and inclusion,
at an event meant to mark a turning point away from divisive politics.

PEOTUS Barack Obama launched change.gov to increase and encourage public participation in his transition efforts.

Just recently, the site had a Q%A solicitation: what are your questions for Obama?

What do imagine was the Number One question people asked when they had the chance?

Hmmmm???

Go on… take a guess. It won’t hurt.

From a newspaper

People submitting questions in this Online event seem to identify the legalization of medical marijuana and marijuana overall, as a top priority.

Oh Gasp!

That can’t be right can it? Click here read, and weep.

Number.

Fuxxin’

One.

Obama’s team stated, “Participation in Open for Questions outpaced our expectations, and we’re looking forward to rolling it out again next week. We’re tremendously excited about the promise of tools like this that offer Americans a level of access that has historically been hard to come by.”

By voting questions up, users have been able to convey to the team which major issues — including the auto industry, health care, ethical standards, and others — are the most important to this community.

Here’s the verbatim text from the site:

Currently in the lead: “Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?”
- S. Man, Denton

There you have it.

Despite the constant assurances of “responsible and serious adult liberals” that “marijuana reform is just NOT IMPORTANT” here we see it being only the Number One Question people want to ask Obama.

Ha. Ha.

Are YOU right with the times?

Or are YOU still a backwards old stick in the mud?

Re-legalize cannabis: It’s the Right Thing to Do©.

YES WE CANNABIS!

Isn’t it odd that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is suddenly arrested on corruption charges the day after he announced he is asking all Illinois government agencies to suspend business with Bank of America?

Not really….although the Fed has had him under investigation for years…Blagojevich’s dramatic dawn raid arrest sends a strong signal that going up against the banksters will not be tolerated. “Blagojevich contended that Bank Of America received a multi-billion dollar bailout from the government and should accordingly restore credit to the Republic Windows & Doors company in Chicago,” writes Katharine Zaleski for the Huffington Post.

Last week the workers of Republic Windows & Doors occupied a factory in Chicago after the company closed down and stiffed the workers. “Workers said they were entitled to be given 60 days notice of the closure of the plant and demanded pay for that period as well as any unused vacation time,” the BBC reported.

Blagojevich demanded the Bank of America take “some of that federal tax money that they’ve received and invest it by providing the necessary credit to this company so these workers can keep their jobs.”

Blagojevich made the comment at the same time president select Obama expressed support for the workers. “It’s also important for us to make sure that the plans and programs that we design aren’t just targeted at maintaining the solvency of banks, but they’re designed also to get money out the door and to help people on Main Street,” said Obama.

Rod Blagojevich, of course, is not Barack Obama, who is in the process of stuffing his administration with bankster insiders, CFR members, and Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs mobsters such as Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, and Paul Volcker.

It didn’t take long for the U.S. attorney’s office to crank out a 78-page criminal complaint against Blagojevich. It is said Blagojevich attempted to sell off the vacancy of Obama’s Senate seat and considered naming himself to the Senate. It is not difficult to believe Blagojevich is a crook and would do such a thing. He has shady ties to Antoin “Tony” Rezko, the political fundraiser, restaurateur, and real estate developer convicted on several counts of fraud and bribery.

On the other hand, the sudden appearance of a federal compliant against him after he attempted to stick it to the criminal organization known as the Bank of America is rather suspicious, to say the least.

The impending prosecution of Blagojevich sends a powerful message to other governors, mayors, city council members around the country: don’t mess with the international banking cartel, the global financial mafia.

the international

A few weeks ago a Senate Democratic aide and Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) kicked off a campaign to publicly berate “the left” in the wake of the 2008 election. Now, here’s a rant-ish “Message to Obama’s Progressive Critics” from top Obama aide Steve Hildebrand today demanding the Dirty Fucking Hippies of “the left” STFU:

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

This is not a time for the left wing of our Party to draw conclusions about the Cabinet and White House appointments that President-Elect Obama is making. Some believe the appointments generally aren’t progressive enough…The problems I mentioned above and the many I didn’t, suggest that our President surround himself with the most qualified people to address these challenges. After all, he was elected to be the President of all the people - not just those on the left. (emphasis added)

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

First thing’s first: I absolutely agree with Hildebrand that you can’t draw concrete conclusions about Obama based only on his personnel decisions. However, Hildebrand implying that those personnel decisions really don’t matter at all is straight up silly. It supposes that all the enormous egos that populate a White House are just mindless functionaries, and that even though those egos are heading major federal departments or are key advisers, they have no hand in making policy and/or their advice to a president makes absolutely no impact. Please - let’s get real.

But far more important than that is Hildebrand firing up the whaaaaaaaambulance to whine and cry and moan about “the left.” Really, what is with top Democrats explicitly attacking “the left wing of the Democratic Party” in Fox News-style talking points? Why is every substantive, non-partisan, non-ideological question of pragmatism from progressives almost automatically portrayed as some sort of super-Trotsky-ite, ideological and wholly inappropriate demand for Obama to be a president “just for those on the left?” Can anyone even ask a non-ideological question of Obama without being attacked as some sort of raving left-wing lunatic?

Most progressives questioning Obama have done so rather gently, and have done so on the pragmatic substance. For instance, people wondering about the appointment of Larry Summers to a top economic position in the White House have wondered whether it’s such a good idea to empower an ideological free market fundamentalist (pro-free trade, pro-deregulation) whose policies as Bill Clinton’s Treasury Secretary played a major role in creating the economic crisis. That is, most have wondered why Obama thinks that kind of ideologue is “the most qualified person” to deal with our economic situation, rather than, say, a pragmatist like James Galbraith or Joseph Stiglitz who has been right all along.

Same thing for progressives concerned about the Iraq War. They have wondered whether the ideologues who got us into the war - who got us into the war on wholly ideological and non-pragmatic grounds - are really “the most qualified people” to get us out of that war. They believe that perhaps the pragmatists who opposed the war on the basis of a factual analysis of intelligence might be better suited to the task.

Are such questions really the inappropriate queries of a bunch of radical revolutionaries from “the left?” Or are the real fringe radicals - the real ideologues - those who say that we should all STFU and bow down to the Dear Leader? I think the latter, not the former - and I think Democrats (and especially the Obama team) who rightly protested Republican efforts to tar and feather Obama as a “socialist” should know better than to echo such silly, fact-free talking points.

The worst part of Hildebrand’s piece is this:

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

As a liberal member of our Party, I hope and expect our new President to address those issues that will benefit the vast majority of Americans first and foremost. That’s his job. Over time, there will be many, many issues that come before him. But first let’s get our economy moving, bring our troops home safely, fix health care, end Climate Change and restore our place in the world. (emphasis added)

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The obvious implication in this passage is the same one we’ve been hearing from the “center-right” political Establishment since the election ended: While the Very Serious and Very Important Pragmatists of Permanent Washington nobly seek to “get our economy moving, bring our troops home safely, fix health care, end Climate Change and restore our place in the world,” the raving and crazy “left wing of the Democratic Party” wants to do other things first, like prioritize ideology even if it means letting those crises intensify. It’s an absurd and insulting frame.

Last I checked, “the left wing of the Democratic Party” forced Democrats to take a stronger position against the war in 2006 and that was the key reason Democrats won Congress that year. Last I checked, “the left wing of the Democratic Party” has been the only voice in America that has been right all along in demanding more fair economic policies, an end to the war, better environmental laws, better diplomacy, etc. That is, as opposed to the Very Serious and Very Important D.C. elite who have been doggedly pursuing ideological ends, it has been “the left wing of the Democratic Party” whose policy demands have long been the most pragmatic, the most correct, and now not just positions held by those on “the left” but positions held by the vast majority of America.

Indeed, post-election polls suggest that because “the left wing of the Democratic Party” has been proven correct, Democrats are now in power. Additionally, history suggests that when “the left wing of the Democratic Party” has more power and a bigger voice - not less power and a smaller voice as Hildebrand and his ilk seem to want - we tend to avoid messes and/or get out of messes a lot faster.

To paraphrase Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men, rather than now criticize “the left,” it would be better if these insiders just said thank you and went on their way.

The reason the Republican Party and conservative movement were so successful* was because they developed a symbiotic relationship. Specifically, the party apparatus knew that sustained conservative movement pressure on the party was good for the party in keeping it disciplined and on message. By contrast, the culture of the Democratic Party since the McGovern debacle in 1972 has been to bash the progressive movement - to triangulate against it as proof of “independence” and “centrism.” We saw where that got the Democratic Party for the last 30 years - but by the looks at the public post-election attacks on “the left” from Democrats, it seems like the party higher-ups still haven’t learned the simple lesson that pressure from a strong movement strengthens the party as a whole.

*The Republicans are out of power now, but clearly, their party and their movement was wildly successful over the last 30 years in terms of passing policy and structurally changing the legal and political foundations of the country in a lasting way. Thus all the talk about how much work it’s going to take to undue the damage they did. The damage we see is (unfortunately) their movement and party’s success.

Therefore..reasoned analysis and criticism of policy direction (which at face value looks like THE SAME direction that got us into this mess) is not only NOT lunatic but IMPERATIVE to understanding that while “we” see a devastated economy / failed occupation of Iraq etc….”they” see a near 100% success rate on “their” policy mandates.

Really think about that.

citx say- every sci-fi..horror and fantasy creative of the last three generations should bow their heads for a moment of silence…this man built the foundation of your careers.

thank you for encouraging wonder and imagination in us all!!

At 1:30 am on Tuesday, October 28, Julian Alexander heard noises outside the middle class home he shared with his wife Renee, who is seven months pregnant. They had just gotten married about a week ago when Julian turned 20 years old. Feeling like their safety was threatened, Julian grabbed a broomstick and walked out on the front lawn to look around.
Minutes later, he was killed by two bullets to his chest, one of which struck his heart. Hearing gunshots, Renee and her 15-year-old sister looked out the window and saw the killers—Anaheim police—turn Julian’s body over and handcuff him. Family members tried to rush to Julian’s side, but were told to get back…or else.

A broomstick, a wallet, a cell phone, a toy gun, a suspected burglary in Julian’s neighborhood. Does it matter? Any reason, or no reason at all. To the brutal enforcers of this system, he was simply Black.
Perhaps Julian’s mom was one of the many Black women who hoped her son wouldn’t grow too big and attract the attention of racist, killer cops. But Julian was 6 foot 5 inches, 240 pounds. He was the outstanding defensive linebacker in 2005 and 2006, and defensive player of the year in 2007—before graduating from Notre Dame High School in Riverside, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.

Julian was working one of those so-called “good jobs” for Black youth—at a JCPenney warehouse. He volunteered at church and had hopes of a college degree like many in his family had. He was doing everything he was supposed to do to “make it” in America. Did it matter?

All of the above is all too typical of the ugly reality where police murder is but a concentrated symptom of the vicious oppression faced by Black people in America.

But what was unusual in this case was the way Anaheim police chief John Welter immediately called a press conference to say that Julian Alexander “was innocent of anything that the officer suspected was going on in the neighborhood.” Welter has promised investigations that will take 6-9 months but there’s been no indictment and arrest for murder by the yet-unidentified cop. Why not? And what does it tell us about the likely whitewash to come, and the system that allows these outrages to go on and on?
Welter said “I certainly can’t ever guess what’s in the mind of a police officer, so I’m not going to speculate as to what he saw or what he didn’t see or what he thought was in Mr. Alexander’s hands.”

Isn’t it obvious what was in the cop’s mind? Here’s a Black man standing there in the open, late at night. Cops are trained to see this as a threat AND a legal kill. Justifiable homicide is the whole long history of whitewash for killer cops all over America in situations like this. That’s why the family was treated as part of the threat, driven back into the house, and forced to watch helplessly as their beloved Julian died in front of their eyes.

If we had a truly “post racial society” (as Obama claims)—which would take a real revolution to bring about—the machinery of systemic and systematic brutality of this system (police, jail, courts, etc.) would be smashed and such wanton murders of the people would not be allowed to happen. Any security forces in a revolutionary society that do really serve and protect the people instead of private property and wealth, would rather risk their own lives than kill someone like Julian. This was not mistaken identity. It was another racist police murder of an identified Black youth.
The rush to “say sorry” by Welter may have been a quick way to sweep it under the rug as this police killing of yet another Black youth in the run-up to Obama’s election and widespread news would have punched a hole in the myth of “post racial” America.

Outside of southern California’s Orange County main newspaper, there is little news coverage of this outrage. There is little news about the 1400 people who attended Julian’s funeral service on Monday, November 3—the day before Obama won the presidency and told us to be proud of America. Obama and all the politicians above or below him at every level, have expressed neither outrage nor concern. Is it a cover up?

Despite all the election hype, there is no change, no post racial society, for Julian. Same as it’s always been. Julian’s father was quoted in The Press-Enterprise (November 3, 2008) saying, “You’re not guaranteed tomorrow.”

Nor, under this system, will tomorrow be changed for millions of other Black youth in America—a country where white supremacy is cemented into its very economic and ideological foundation by the founding fathers, and sewed into its very capitalist fabric of exploitation and all the oppression that is linked to that past and current brutal system.

It’s been ordinary people, writing on the Internet in response to learning of Julian’s murder, who wrote comparing this to the police killing of Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo in New York City. It’s ordinary people who need to bring this anger into the open and fight to get the cop indicted and jailed for murder. It’s only the struggle of ordinary people whose better tomorrow will come with resistance and revolution that can uproot the oppression of Black people, and uproot all other oppressions flowing from traditional property relations and ideas, and go on to bring about a revolutionary society.

Julian’s mother-in-law Michelle Mooney said in an Associated Press article (October 29, 2008), “He was a good kid, trying to protect his house. And the police, instead of asking questions, they just shot first. Somebody has to be held responsible for this.”
The day should be long past when these brutal enforcers can roll into the community, murder our youth, and get away with it.

fuck the police.
if ANYTHING..we live in a ‘post rule of law’ America..
watch your back…nigga!

everything my dears is not always what it seems..

The coordinated nighttime assault against seven major targets in Mumbai is reminiscent of the 1993 bombings that devastated the Bombay Stock Exchange. The recent attack bears the fingerprints of the same criminal mastermind – meticulous preparation, ruthless execution and the absence of claims or demands.

The eerie silence that accompanied the blasts are the very signature of Ibrahim Dawood, now a multi-millionaire owner of a construction company in Karachi, Pakistan. His is hardly a household name around the world like Osama bin Laden. Across South Asia, however, Dawood is held in awe and, in a twist on morals, admired for his belated conversion from crime boss to self-styled avenger.

His rise to the highest rungs of India’s underworld began from the most unlikely position as the diligent son of a police constable in the populous commercial capital then known as Bombay.

His childhood familiarity with police routine and inner workings of the justice system gave the ambitious teenager an unmatched ability to outwit the authorities with evermore clever criminal designs. Among the unschooled ranks of Bombay gangland, Ibrahim emerged as the coherent leader of a multi-religious mafia, not just due to his ability to organize extortion campaigns and meet payrolls, but also because of his merciless extermination of rivals.

Dawood, always the professional problem-solver, gained the friendship of aspiring officers in India’s intelligence service known as Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). He soon attracted the attention of American secret agents, then supporting the Islamic mujahideen in their battle against the Soviet occupiers of Afghanistan. Dawood personally assisted many a U.S. deep-cover operation funneling money to Afghan rebels via American-operated casinos in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Eager to please all comers, Dawood occasionally got his wires crossed, providing travel documents and other amenities to Islamist airplane hijackers. In response, Washington spymasters tried to unofficially “impound” his investment in the Nepalese casinos. Dawood’s fury is legendary among locals. An honorable businessman, he held to the strict belief that a deal is a deal and there can be no reneging for any reason.

As Bombay moved into the league of Asia’s premier cities – hotel rates and apartment rentals are the highest in the region – Dawood could have led a comfortable life as top dog. Instead he suffered a spasm of conscience, a newfound moral outrage, when rightwing Hindu nationalists destroyed a mosque in northern India in 1992, slaying 2000 Muslim worshippers, mostly women and children.

One a day in the following May, his henchmen set off bombs across Bombay, killing more than 300 people. His personal convictions had – uncharacteristically - overcome his dispassionate business ethics. Reeling in shock, his top lieutenant, a Hindu, attempted to assassinate Dawood. A bloody intra-gang war followed, but as always Dawood triumphed, even while away in exile in Dubai and Karachi.

In the ensuing decade, at the height of violence in Kashmir, Dawood sent his heavily armed young trainees by boat from Karachi on covert landings onto Indian beaches. This same method was used in the Mumbai assault with more boats, seven craft according to initial navy reports.

Why the timing of this raid, on the dawn of Thanksgiving in America? The leader of India’s opposition and former deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani had long sought Dawood’s extradition from Pakistan, a move opposed by the then military government in Islamabad. With the restoration of civilian rule, the new Pakistani prime minister (Gillani) consented to New Delhi’s deportation request.

Washington and London both agreed with the India’s legal claim and removed the longstanding “official protection” accorded for his past services to Western intelligence agencies. U.S. diplomats, however, could never allow Dawood’s return. He simply knows too much about America’s darker secrets in South Asia and the Gulf, disclosure of which could scuttle U.S.-India relations. Dawood was whisked away in late June to a safe house in Quetta, near the tribal area of Waziristan, and then he disappeared, probably back to the Middle East.

As in the case of America’s Afghan war protégé Osama bin Laden, the blowback to U.S. covert policy came suddenly, this time with spectacular effects in Mumbai. The assault on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel will probably go down as the first lethal blow to the incoming Obama administration. The assailants, who spoke Punjabi and not the Deccan dialect, went to a lot of trouble to torch the prestigious hotel, which is owned by the Tata Group. This industrial giant is the largest business supporter of the U.S.-India nuclear cooperation agreement, and Tata is now planning to become a nuclear power supplier. The Clintons, as emissaries of Enron, were the first to suggest the nuclear deal with New Delhi, so Obama inherits the Mumbai catastrophe even before he takes office.

Dawood, ranks fourth on Forbes’ list of the world’s 10 most wanted fugitives from the law. After the new round of attacks that killed more than 100 people and laid waste top five-star hotels, Dawood can now contend for the No.1 spot in the coming months and years. In contrast to the fanatic and often ineffective bin Laden, Dawood is professional on all counts and therefore a far more formidable adversary. Yet some in Pakistan’s military intelligence agency say that Dawood is dead, killed in July. This version of events is much the same as a variation of the bin Laden story. If true, then his underlings are carrying on the mission of an outlaw transfigured into a legend.

Mumbai Terrorists Wear Uniform of Young India

by Sandip Roy

SAN FRANCISCO — His was one of the first faces to emerge out of the scenes of burning hotels, shattered glass and uniformed police in Mumbai.

“Is he one of the victims?” asked my roommate as I looked at the fuzzy image of a young man in a dark t-shirt, the word VERSACE written across it in white. My roommate obviously hadn’t noticed the AK-47 he was holding. But in a way he was right.

That man whose image was beamed across the world could have easily been one of the victims. “They were very young, like boys really, wearing jeans and T-shirts,” a British tourist told The Times.

In short they were wearing the uniform of a young India. A uniform that allowed them access into the sanctum santorum of Indian high society which they then proceeded to blow up.

Little is known about the Deccan Mujaheddin who claimed responsibility for the attacks. The media are looking for the geo-political cracks that might emerge.

Does it have the finger prints of al Qaeda?

Is it a signal to the conciliatory noises towards India that Pakistan’s new President Zardari has been making?

But the face of that gun-toting, VERSACE t-shirt-wearing assailant is haunting in its ordinariness.

Who is he?

Is he Indian?

Is he part of India’s 9 percent growing GDP?

Was it ideology or was it promise of cash that sent him into the Taj hotel where Bombay’s elite gather for cocktails and coffee?

“If you ever need to pee in South Bombay just go to the Taj” a Bombayite friend told me. “They won’t stop you. You look like you are English-speaking.”

The assailants, even as they demanded American and British passports, apparently were not English-speaking. They spoke in Urdu and Hindi.

In a country where every car entering one of the grand new shopping malls has its trunk inspected by uniformed security, how did they know they could walk into the five star hotel with AK-47s and grenades?

In the hushed glamor of the Taj with its 24-hour coffee shops and golden luggage carts, did they walk in through the front door, past the liveried doorman like they belonged? Did they stride into the dining room of the five-star Oberoi where diamond merchants make deals and Bollywood starlets wait to be spotted by gossip columnists like they wanted a table – dinner for three, we have no reservations.

“These are the places where what Indians call ‘the creamy layer’ hang out,” says Mira Kamdar, author of Planet India on a recent webcast organized by the South Asian Journalists Association. She says these are the places where Bombay’s elite feel safe and cocooned. It’s their “islands of security” amidst the chaos of South Bombay. “It’s the elite of Bombay who are really going to be shaken,” says Kamdar.

Shaken, because the young-man-in-Versa tshirt didn’t want to become the elite. He didn’t want a place at the table. He wanted to upturn the table. He wanted to take the “creamy layer” hostage.

In India this is new.

Riots have raged through slums and housing estates. Bombs have gone off in local trains and underground markets. Even the Stock Exchange. But the five star hotel was off the menu. Until now.

When journalist Aravind Adiga wrote a novel about a chauffeur who kills his master, he called it The White Tiger because he said that was still the anomaly in India. He wondered why more servants didn’t kill their masters. But he worried that “there is a new, very primordial, class divide between people who feel they have and people who feel they have not.” In the glitzy breathless prose about India’s skyrocketing GDP and its swelling middle class you miss the fact that many poorer Indians don’t have the basic foundations of education and English that will allow them to succeed. Instead Adiga feared as the rich and even-the-not-so-rich shut themselves off in gated communities with names like Belvedere and Laburnum, the servants, the poor, become Ralph Ellison’s invisible men.

Invisible, until they burst into every television set across India, indeed across the world, guns blazing.

Mira Kamdar worries that the “blunt instrument” way the Indian police round up young Muslim men will leave them even more alienated. The fears over security might lead to an electoral resurgence of an “anti-terrorist” Hindu nationalist party. Heads will roll about yet another intelligence failure and a city unprepared.

Those are the lessons to be drawn from the post-mortem of this attack. But the larger point has already been made. The world was shocked because this was the first time Mumbai, the tourist destination, was attacked.

Bali came to Bombay this November. The Leopold café is where my friends who visit the city hang out with a coffee and a cigarette.

When I was in Mumbai earlier this year my friend and I whiled away an afternoon at the Taj bookstore. And though bombs also went off near a hospital and a busy railway station, it’s these landmarks that resonated around the world.

“When I was in Mumbai in February I stayed at the Taj and ate the best fish curry I have ever tasted at Leopold’s.” writes Matthew D’Ancona in The Spectator. The terrorists chose their targets well for their explosive debut into Mumbai high society. High society is usually Page 3 in Indian newspapers. The young men and their AK-47s turned Page 3 into Page 1 in one angry stroke.

I don’t know who the young man in the VERSACE t-shirt was.

He might be an Islamic militant. He might be a frustrated small city boy shut out of the IT economy. He might be a village boy who trained in a camp somewhere.

But his message was loud and clear.

Pay attention to me, he said to booming India.

And then he pulled the trigger.

Boom.