They were handing out the photocopies by the thousand under the plane trees in the centre of the boulevard, single sheets of paper grabbed by the opposition supporters who are now wearing black for the 15 Iranians who have been killed in Tehran - who knows how many more in the rest of the country? - since the election results gave Mahmoud Ahmadinejad more than 24 million votes and a return to the presidency. But for the tens of thousands marking their fifth day of protests yesterday - and for their election campaign hero, Mirhossein Mousavi, who officially picked up just 13 million votes - those photocopies were irradiated. For the photocopy appeared to be a genuine but confidential letter from the Iranian minister of interior, Sadeq Mahsuli, to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, written on Saturday 13 June, the day after the elections, and giving both Mr Mousavi and his ally, Mehdi Karroubi, big majorities in the final results. In a highly sophisticated society like Iran, forgery is as efficient as anywhere in the West and there are reasons for both distrusting and believing this document. But it divides the final vote between Mr Mousavi and Mr Karroubi in such a way that it would have forced a second run-off vote - scarcely something Mousavi's camp would have wanted. Headed "For the Attention of the Supreme Leader" it notes "your concerns for the 10th presidential elections" and "and your orders for Mr Ahmadinejad to be elected president", and continues "for your information only, I am telling you the actual results". Mr Mousavi has 19,075,623, Mr Karroubi 13,387,104, and Mr Ahmadinejad a mere 5,698,417.
They were handing out the photocopies by the thousand under the plane trees in the centre of the boulevard, single sheets of paper grabbed by the opposition supporters who are now wearing black for the 15 Iranians who have been killed in Tehran - who knows how many more in the rest of the country? - since the election results gave Mahmoud Ahmadinejad more than 24 million votes and a return to the presidency. But for the tens of thousands marking their fifth day of protests yesterday - and for their election campaign hero, Mirhossein Mousavi, who officially picked up just 13 million votes - those photocopies were irradiated.
For the photocopy appeared to be a genuine but confidential letter from the Iranian minister of interior, Sadeq Mahsuli, to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, written on Saturday 13 June, the day after the elections, and giving both Mr Mousavi and his ally, Mehdi Karroubi, big majorities in the final results. In a highly sophisticated society like Iran, forgery is as efficient as anywhere in the West and there are reasons for both distrusting and believing this document. But it divides the final vote between Mr Mousavi and Mr Karroubi in such a way that it would have forced a second run-off vote - scarcely something Mousavi's camp would have wanted.
Headed "For the Attention of the Supreme Leader" it notes "your concerns for the 10th presidential elections" and "and your orders for Mr Ahmadinejad to be elected president", and continues "for your information only, I am telling you the actual results". Mr Mousavi has 19,075,623, Mr Karroubi 13,387,104, and Mr Ahmadinejad a mere 5,698,417.
In defiance of an official ban, defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi has called for a day of mourning on Thursday to remember protesters who were killed in clashes with the authorities. Iran braced for mass demonstrations in the capital of Tehran on Thursday following opposition candidate Mirhossein Mousavi's call for a day of mourning to commemorate the people killed during protests for a new presidential election. In a posting on his website on Wednesday, Mousavi called on his supporters to dress in black in a show of respect for the seven people killed during clashes between opposition supporters and the pro-government Basij militia on Monday.
Iran braced for mass demonstrations in the capital of Tehran on Thursday following opposition candidate Mirhossein Mousavi's call for a day of mourning to commemorate the people killed during protests for a new presidential election.
In a posting on his website on Wednesday, Mousavi called on his supporters to dress in black in a show of respect for the seven people killed during clashes between opposition supporters and the pro-government Basij militia on Monday.
TEHRAN -- Days after it was urged to investigate the outcome of last week's disputed presidential election, Iran's authoritative Guardian Council said on Thursday that it had invited the three candidates challenging the official results to a meeting to discuss their grievances, state media reported.But protesters said they would continue their mass campaign on the streets demanding that the authorities annul the vote. Mir Hussein Moussavi, the main opposition candidate, urged his followers to make Thursday a day of protests and mourning for those killed in earlier demonstrations attended by hundreds of thousands of people.Iranians posting on Twitter, the internet messaging service, called on demonstrators to gather in Tehran's Imam Khomeini square at 4 p.m. local time. "All wear BLACK -- we pray together," one Twitter posting said.
But protesters said they would continue their mass campaign on the streets demanding that the authorities annul the vote. Mir Hussein Moussavi, the main opposition candidate, urged his followers to make Thursday a day of protests and mourning for those killed in earlier demonstrations attended by hundreds of thousands of people.
Iranians posting on Twitter, the internet messaging service, called on demonstrators to gather in Tehran's Imam Khomeini square at 4 p.m. local time. "All wear BLACK -- we pray together," one Twitter posting said.
As many of the people who count the votes are aligned with the opposition it is plausible that numbers would leak, likely via Rafsanjani.
The letter linked? Hard to say. Possibly an attempt to discredit the numbers themselves which may be real, or to pre-empt the release of other numbers. These numbers have gone around a bit but there's also another set of more plausible numbers that showed Mosuavi with around 57% and Ahmedinijad with I believe 37% or around there.
Observers inside the country and abroad are watching closely for signs of what to expect from Iranian authorities as supporters of moderate candidate Mir Hossein Musavi continue their vigils, rallies, and public criticism of the presidential election process, the results of which they say were stolen.The supreme leader described those alleging flaws in the June 12 election as "enemies."He went on to acknowledge that all four candidates -- incumbent conservative President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, Musavi, moderate cleric Mehdi Karrubi, and former Islamic Revolutionary Guards Council commander Mohsen Rezai -- are "part of the establishment" but said he did not necessarily accept all of their "views and comments."
Metal deposits may be key to green car revolution but government in La Paz yet to agree dealStand in the middle of Salar de Uyuni, the world's greatest salt desert, and the first word that springs to mind is nothing. As far as the eye can see, nothing. Not a shrub or tree, not a hill or valley, just an endless expanse of white.This salt flat in Bolivia, the landlocked heart of South America, is a harsh and eerie landscape, perhaps the closest thing nature has to a void. From the Incas to the present day, humanity has made little impression here.But that may be about to change. Dig down and you find brine - water saturated with salt - rich in deposits of lithium, the lightest metal.
Stand in the middle of Salar de Uyuni, the world's greatest salt desert, and the first word that springs to mind is nothing. As far as the eye can see, nothing. Not a shrub or tree, not a hill or valley, just an endless expanse of white.
This salt flat in Bolivia, the landlocked heart of South America, is a harsh and eerie landscape, perhaps the closest thing nature has to a void. From the Incas to the present day, humanity has made little impression here.
But that may be about to change. Dig down and you find brine - water saturated with salt - rich in deposits of lithium, the lightest metal.
Foreign companies are afraid to deal with a government that confiscates assets and rips up contracts, said Carlos Alberto López, a former energy minister and consultant with Cambridge Energy Research Associates. "Bolivia's ideological face does not square with business and commercial realities. I doubt lithium's potential will be realised in the short or medium term." Pessimists fear a fiasco: carmakers lacking batteries to power electric vehicles and Bolivia, one of the continent's poorest countries, losing an opportunity to develop. President Evo Morales, a former llama herder and trade union leader, has a different fear: that western multinationals will suck the wealth of Salar de Uyuni like capitalist vampires. Morales swept to power in 2005 promising to end 500 years of plunder. Lithium is a test case. "The government of Bolivia will never give away control of this natural resource," he said. He acknowledges, however, that a foreign partner is needed.The government is talking to France's Bollore Group, South Korea's LG Group and Japan's Sumitomo and Mitsubishi. Bollore has been asked to join the government's scientific commission on lithium, suggesting it has the edge.The government said it would choose as a partner the company which will help Bolivian industry and not just mining. The idea is to process and add value to the lithium after it is extracted, for instance by making batteries or even fleets of electric cars in the impoverished country. The $6m (£3.6m) state-run pilot plant near Rio Grande is the first step. At the end of a dirt track dozens of workers are building barracks to house technicians and miners. Over a generator's hum Marcelo Castro, 48, the site manager, exuded patriotic pride. "We are building everything from scratch. This is a historic moment. We are working for ourselves." Rich countries would no longer plunder Bolivia's resources. "There is a new dialectic."
Foreign companies are afraid to deal with a government that confiscates assets and rips up contracts, said Carlos Alberto López, a former energy minister and consultant with Cambridge Energy Research Associates. "Bolivia's ideological face does not square with business and commercial realities. I doubt lithium's potential will be realised in the short or medium term." Pessimists fear a fiasco: carmakers lacking batteries to power electric vehicles and Bolivia, one of the continent's poorest countries, losing an opportunity to develop. President Evo Morales, a former llama herder and trade union leader, has a different fear: that western multinationals will suck the wealth of Salar de Uyuni like capitalist vampires. Morales swept to power in 2005 promising to end 500 years of plunder. Lithium is a test case. "The government of Bolivia will never give away control of this natural resource," he said. He acknowledges, however, that a foreign partner is needed.
The government is talking to France's Bollore Group, South Korea's LG Group and Japan's Sumitomo and Mitsubishi. Bollore has been asked to join the government's scientific commission on lithium, suggesting it has the edge.
The government said it would choose as a partner the company which will help Bolivian industry and not just mining. The idea is to process and add value to the lithium after it is extracted, for instance by making batteries or even fleets of electric cars in the impoverished country. The $6m (£3.6m) state-run pilot plant near Rio Grande is the first step. At the end of a dirt track dozens of workers are building barracks to house technicians and miners. Over a generator's hum Marcelo Castro, 48, the site manager, exuded patriotic pride. "We are building everything from scratch. This is a historic moment. We are working for ourselves." Rich countries would no longer plunder Bolivia's resources. "There is a new dialectic."
Their new Constitution is very strong and their mass support is also strong. Bolivia is happy to get let multinationals agree to their terms or fuck off. I like it.
The foreign multinationals venting about Bolivia not putting out easy remind me of predatory frat boys grousing about that a girl who doesn't want to get drunk at their frat house must be a lesbian. Meanwhile Fox News is running with this jaw dropper of a study from the Open Source Center (OSC) of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence: There are only 1,000 Muslims in Bolivia, a country of 9.7 million people, but the connection between some of the community's religious leaders and Iran -- as well as with fundamentalist factions in the Palestinian territories -- has U.S. officials and terror experts keeping a watchful eye on them. The report revealed a number of Muslim organizations in Bolivia whose leaders have publicly denounced U.S. foreign policy and have direct associations with extremists in the Middle East. If you go through the article, the criteria for a Bolivian muslim being "linked to extremists" is pretty hilariously thin. One "suspect" has "voiced support for the Palestinian cause", another charitable organization is affiliated with a branch that was "raided by the FBI in the aftermath of 9/11". All the canards of guilt by association are on full display in this one. Its pretty hilarious that the American right is so alarmed by little Evo Morales and his tiny country that they're trying to drag them into the international war against Islam. We have always been at war with Oceana I guess.
The foreign multinationals venting about Bolivia not putting out easy remind me of predatory frat boys grousing about that a girl who doesn't want to get drunk at their frat house must be a lesbian.
Meanwhile Fox News is running with this jaw dropper of a study from the Open Source Center (OSC) of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence:
There are only 1,000 Muslims in Bolivia, a country of 9.7 million people, but the connection between some of the community's religious leaders and Iran -- as well as with fundamentalist factions in the Palestinian territories -- has U.S. officials and terror experts keeping a watchful eye on them. The report revealed a number of Muslim organizations in Bolivia whose leaders have publicly denounced U.S. foreign policy and have direct associations with extremists in the Middle East.
There are only 1,000 Muslims in Bolivia, a country of 9.7 million people, but the connection between some of the community's religious leaders and Iran -- as well as with fundamentalist factions in the Palestinian territories -- has U.S. officials and terror experts keeping a watchful eye on them.
The report revealed a number of Muslim organizations in Bolivia whose leaders have publicly denounced U.S. foreign policy and have direct associations with extremists in the Middle East.
If you go through the article, the criteria for a Bolivian muslim being "linked to extremists" is pretty hilariously thin. One "suspect" has "voiced support for the Palestinian cause", another charitable organization is affiliated with a branch that was "raided by the FBI in the aftermath of 9/11". All the canards of guilt by association are on full display in this one.
Its pretty hilarious that the American right is so alarmed by little Evo Morales and his tiny country that they're trying to drag them into the international war against Islam. We have always been at war with Oceana I guess.
The US is "in a good position" to protect its territory from a potential North Korean missile strike, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said. His comments came in response to a report that North Korea was considering launching a missile towards Hawaii. "We do have some concerns if they were to launch a missile to the West, in the direction of Hawaii," Mr Gates said. The US has approved the deployment of missiles and radar to "provide support" in the event of an attack, he added.
His comments came in response to a report that North Korea was considering launching a missile towards Hawaii.
"We do have some concerns if they were to launch a missile to the West, in the direction of Hawaii," Mr Gates said.
The US has approved the deployment of missiles and radar to "provide support" in the event of an attack, he added.
Who can rattle their sabre the loudest?
The fate of Iran rested last night in a grubby north Tehran highway interchange called Vanak Square where - after days of violence - supporters of the official President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at last confronted the screaming, angry Iranians who have decided that Mirhossein Mousavi should be the president of their country. Unbelievably - and I am a witness because I stood beside them - just 400 Iranian special forces police were keeping these two armies apart. There were stones and tear gas but for the first time in this epic crisis the cops promised to protect both sides. "Please, please, keep the Basiji from us," one middle-aged lady pleaded with a special forces officer in flak jacket and helmet as the Islamic Republic's thug-like militia appeared in their camouflage trousers and purity-white shirts only a few metres away. The cop smiled at her. "With God's help," he said. Two other policemen were lifted shoulder-high. "Tashakor, tashakor," - "thank you, thank you" - the crowd roared at them. This was phenomenal. The armed special forces of the Islamic Republic, hitherto always allies of the Basiji, were prepared for once, it seemed, to protect all Iranians, not just Ahmadinejad's henchmen. The precedent for this sudden neutrality is known to everyone - it was when the Shah's army refused to fire on the millions of demonstrators demanding his overthrow in 1979.
The fate of Iran rested last night in a grubby north Tehran highway interchange called Vanak Square where - after days of violence - supporters of the official President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at last confronted the screaming, angry Iranians who have decided that Mirhossein Mousavi should be the president of their country. Unbelievably - and I am a witness because I stood beside them - just 400 Iranian special forces police were keeping these two armies apart. There were stones and tear gas but for the first time in this epic crisis the cops promised to protect both sides.
"Please, please, keep the Basiji from us," one middle-aged lady pleaded with a special forces officer in flak jacket and helmet as the Islamic Republic's thug-like militia appeared in their camouflage trousers and purity-white shirts only a few metres away. The cop smiled at her. "With God's help," he said. Two other policemen were lifted shoulder-high. "Tashakor, tashakor," - "thank you, thank you" - the crowd roared at them.
This was phenomenal. The armed special forces of the Islamic Republic, hitherto always allies of the Basiji, were prepared for once, it seemed, to protect all Iranians, not just Ahmadinejad's henchmen. The precedent for this sudden neutrality is known to everyone - it was when the Shah's army refused to fire on the millions of demonstrators demanding his overthrow in 1979.
Khamenei and Ahmadinejad will not let in international inspectors to see their full nuclear programme, much less control it, because, they say, the CIA used information gathered by inspectors in Iraq to know where to bomb. Netanyahu, in turn, has convinced himself Ahmadinejad is an incarnation of the genocidal anti-Semitism that stalked Europe down the centuries. His rhetoric becomes as crazed as Ahmadinejad's. When asked how he sees Iran, he replied: "Remember Amalek." The Amalekites are the primordial enemies of the Jews in the Torah. In I Samuel xiv, 3, God says: "Go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." Irrational fear and tribal-religious manias are now driving both sides and, until this week, a violent show-down looked ever more likely. But the uprising in Iran offers a radically different route. If the Iranian political system can be made to bend to the will of the Iranian people, we will see there is a peaceful solution that has been waiting for us all along. The most detailed study of Iranian views, carried out by the independent Centre for Public Opinion, found that 94 per cent of Iranians want nuclear power, and 52 per cent want the nuclear bomb. But there is a crucial clause. More than 70 per cent agree that if the US and EU offer a peace package where they guarantee there will be no invasion and instead bring aid and investment, they will let inspectors closely monitor their nuclear power programmes and renounce nuclear weapons for good. This is a way out of the ratchet of fear. It averts a bombing campaign that would spread another bushfire of mutual loathing through the world, and forestalls the risk of an endless Gazan missile crisis at the heart of the Middle East. It is not inconceivable that a deal could be struck with a weakened Ahmadinejad still in power, but it would be far more likely under a reformist with the people at his back.
Khamenei and Ahmadinejad will not let in international inspectors to see their full nuclear programme, much less control it, because, they say, the CIA used information gathered by inspectors in Iraq to know where to bomb. Netanyahu, in turn, has convinced himself Ahmadinejad is an incarnation of the genocidal anti-Semitism that stalked Europe down the centuries. His rhetoric becomes as crazed as Ahmadinejad's. When asked how he sees Iran, he replied: "Remember Amalek."
The Amalekites are the primordial enemies of the Jews in the Torah. In I Samuel xiv, 3, God says: "Go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass."
Irrational fear and tribal-religious manias are now driving both sides and, until this week, a violent show-down looked ever more likely.
But the uprising in Iran offers a radically different route. If the Iranian political system can be made to bend to the will of the Iranian people, we will see there is a peaceful solution that has been waiting for us all along. The most detailed study of Iranian views, carried out by the independent Centre for Public Opinion, found that 94 per cent of Iranians want nuclear power, and 52 per cent want the nuclear bomb. But there is a crucial clause. More than 70 per cent agree that if the US and EU offer a peace package where they guarantee there will be no invasion and instead bring aid and investment, they will let inspectors closely monitor their nuclear power programmes and renounce nuclear weapons for good.
This is a way out of the ratchet of fear. It averts a bombing campaign that would spread another bushfire of mutual loathing through the world, and forestalls the risk of an endless Gazan missile crisis at the heart of the Middle East. It is not inconceivable that a deal could be struck with a weakened Ahmadinejad still in power, but it would be far more likely under a reformist with the people at his back.
Most peculiarly, Fowler's "agenda" for APA was encapsulated in the phrase "Working Together," a noble idea that to the best of my knowledge was never attached to any actual substantive agenda. Instead, it served as a means of social control, a subtle injunction against raising any of the conflict-laden issues, challenges, or ideas that need to be addressed in any vital and accountable organization. The governance of the APA became either conformist or placid and increasingly detached from the real world. The result was that much of the activity of the APA Council of Representatives, the legislative group with ultimate authority in the APA governance, turned away from substantive matters into an odd system of fawning over one another. Many members appeared to simply bathe in the good feeling that came from "working together." The bath was characterized by grandiose self-referents and shared lofty opinions of one another. As it became more and more detached from reality, the organizational dysfunction became more pronounced, but this was ignored and obscured by the self-congratulatory organizational style. During this period, isolated dissent from rank-and-file members was stifled with a heavy-handed letter from the APA attorney threatening legal action or by communications from prominent members of the APA governance threatening "ethics" charges if policy protests were not discontinued. (It is unethical for psychologists to lie, and I can attest that one former APA president concluded that disagreeing with him was per se "lying.") Deliberations on Torture This same grandiosity was ubiquitous in the governance's rhetoric at the heart of the Association's discussions on torture. Banning psychologists' participation in reputed torture mills was clearly unnecessary, proponents of the APA policy argued. To do so would be an "insult" to military psychologists everywhere.
Most peculiarly, Fowler's "agenda" for APA was encapsulated in the phrase "Working Together," a noble idea that to the best of my knowledge was never attached to any actual substantive agenda. Instead, it served as a means of social control, a subtle injunction against raising any of the conflict-laden issues, challenges, or ideas that need to be addressed in any vital and accountable organization. The governance of the APA became either conformist or placid and increasingly detached from the real world.
The result was that much of the activity of the APA Council of Representatives, the legislative group with ultimate authority in the APA governance, turned away from substantive matters into an odd system of fawning over one another. Many members appeared to simply bathe in the good feeling that came from "working together." The bath was characterized by grandiose self-referents and shared lofty opinions of one another. As it became more and more detached from reality, the organizational dysfunction became more pronounced, but this was ignored and obscured by the self-congratulatory organizational style. During this period, isolated dissent from rank-and-file members was stifled with a heavy-handed letter from the APA attorney threatening legal action or by communications from prominent members of the APA governance threatening "ethics" charges if policy protests were not discontinued. (It is unethical for psychologists to lie, and I can attest that one former APA president concluded that disagreeing with him was per se "lying.")
Deliberations on Torture
This same grandiosity was ubiquitous in the governance's rhetoric at the heart of the Association's discussions on torture. Banning psychologists' participation in reputed torture mills was clearly unnecessary, proponents of the APA policy argued. To do so would be an "insult" to military psychologists everywhere.
the banality of evil... ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
On Jan. 27, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Congress, "The spigot of defense funding opened by 9/11 is closing." Right after Gates' defense budget was released on May 7, the Pentagon's comptroller, Robert Hale, confirmed to the press: "The spigot is starting to close." A closing spigot implies less money, but the new 2010 defense budget shows quite clearly that the spigot is not closing; it's stuck - full on. Not counting the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon's annual appropriations for 2009 were $514 billion. For 2010, Gates is requesting $534 billion. The flow is to increase by $20 billion.
