Hours before his inauguration as the first Bolivian president of indigenous origin, Evo Morales has to deal with a major crisis in the country’s military. Following a denounce made public by Morales’s Movement To Socialism Party, the incumbent president Eduardo Rodriguez Tuesday sacked the army chief and ordered a probe into the destruction in the US of 28 missiles in October.

Following military advice, Mr. Rodriguez had authorised American help with the decommissioning of the missiles as he had been told the ageing Chinese missiles posed a safety risk. At the time, Evo Morales – who will take office on Sunday – had called it a US plot to weaken Bolivian defences. President Rodriguez now admitted the mistake and said he would seek clarification from Washington about the issue.
english.pravda.ru

Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela will assist Bolivia
Brasília – Following a meeting with the presidents of Argentina, Nestor Kirchner, and Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, yesterday in Brasilia, the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, declared that the three countries are preparing an urgent program to assist the new president of Bolivia, Evo Morales. Chavez said he wanted something on paper by Sunday (January 22), in time for Morales’ inauguration. Chavez said that, among other things, Bolivia could be given assistance in dealing with the problem of robberies on highways in the form of police or military units from its three neighbors.

Chavez said economic assistance could take the form of loans from state-run development banks. “We consider Evo Morales an important player in the effort to achieve South American integration (união). We want Bolivia in Mercosur. I believe Bolivia will join Mercosur.”

In Bolivia, a $100 Million Question
ETERAZAMA, Bolivia — At a muddy camp in the vast tropical lowlands known as the Chapare, about 150 Bolivian soldiers and policemen responsible for destroying the area’s illegal coca plants have done little in recent weeks but kill time. They chat outside crude tents built of tree limbs and sagging tarps, haul water from a nearby river and sweat through the fatigues the U.S. government bought for them.

“We’re not doing anything these days,” one soldier said, ignoring the mosquitoes alighting on his exposed forearms. “We’re just waiting to hear what’s going to happen next.”

It’s the $100 million question in Bolivia: What will become of the U.S.-financed program to eradicate coca, the plant used to make cocaine, now that the longtime head of the coca growers’ union, Evo Morales, is about to become the country’s president?

Morales, 46, who will be inaugurated Sunday, said during his campaign that he might withdraw Bolivia’s support for the eradication program, a keystone of the U.S.-backed anti-drug and alternative crop development campaign here. He has hinted at decriminalizing the cultivation of coca, which is legally chewed as a stimulant and used in traditional medicines, and he has criticized regional U.S. anti-drug programs as false pretexts for establishing a military presence.

But Morales has toned down his rhetoric since being elected in December, suggesting that the government might maintain current limits on cultivation, at least until a study assessing the potential demand of the legal coca market is completed. He consistently reminds people that he is committed to fighting cocaine, but not at the expense of the farmers who want to make a living growing coca for legal use.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Billed as the world’s first black Jesus movie, “Son of Man” portrays Christ as a modern African revolutionary and aims to shatter the Western image of a placid savior with fair hair and blue eyes.

The South African film, which premieres on Sunday at the U.S. Sundance festival in Utah, transports the life and death of Christ from first century Palestine to a contemporary African state racked by war and poverty.

Jesus is born in a shanty-town shed, a far cry from a manger in a Bethlehem stable. His mother Mary is a virgin, though feisty enough to argue with the angels. Gun-wielding authorities fear his message of equality and he ends up hanging on a cross.

“We wanted to look at the gospels as if they were written by spindoctors and to strip that away and look at the truth,” director Mark Dornford-May told Reuters in an interview.

“The truth is that Christ was born in an occupied state and preached equality at a time when that wasn’t very acceptable.”
reuters.com

So was this film funded by the Vatican or Protestant fundies as a propoganda tool for Africa?

After a long and suspicious hiatus, Osama bin Laden has resurfaced with new threats against the Great Satan. Naturally, as with previous visages of Osama—the fat Osama, the Osama who does not look like previous Osamas, the nose job Osama, etc.—the latest incarnation of Osama was vetted by the CIA, the spook agency responsible for promoting the original Osama’s illustrious career, that is before he died of kidney failure in December, 2001. “In the tape, bin Laden said he was directing his message to the American people after polls showed that ‘an overwhelming majority of you want the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq but (Bush) opposed that desire,’” reports al-Jazeera.

In short, if you’re against the Straussian neocon invasion and occupation of Iraq, you obviously agree with Osama bin Laden Goldstein, the one-time central character in America’s corporate media-driven two minute hate session (Osama was subsequently replaced by another, more ominous and vicious Emmanuel Goldstein-like character, who is also dead, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi). Bush long ago declared Osama irrelevant (even though he is the central villain-patsy of nine eleven) but the Straussian neocons may want to bring him back, not so much for nostalgia purposes as the fact Bush needs an Arab caitiff now that he is down on his luck and poll numbers).
axisoflogic

“Goldstein” is the all-purpose ‘bad guy’ in Orwell’s 1984, used as a psy-ops tool to keep people in fear.

whatreallyhappened from 2001:A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government
Osama bin Laden is dead. The news first came from sources in Afghanistan and Pakistan almost six months ago: the fugitive died in December [2001] and was buried in the mountains of southeast Afghanistan. Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf, echoed the information. The remnants of Osama’s gang, however, have mostly stayed silent, either to keep Osama’s ghost alive or because they have no means of communication.

With an ego the size of Mount Everest, Osama bin Laden would not have, could not have, remained silent for so long if he were still alive. He always liked to take credit even for things he had nothing to do with. Would he remain silent for nine months and not trumpet his own survival? [New York Times. July 11, 2002]

Peter Bergen: Bin Laden has aged ‘enormously’
This is a man who was clearly not well. I mean, as you see from these pictures here, he’s really, by December [2001] he’s looking pretty terrible.

But by December, of course, that tape that was aired then, he’s barely moving the left side of his body. So he’s clearly got diabetes. He has low blood pressure. He’s got a wound in his foot. He’s apparently got dialysis … for kidney problems. [CNN]

Forget about Avian (bird) flu. The threat of it becoming a pandemic is more a political scare tactic and potential bonanza for drug company profits and its major shareholders’ net worth (including Gilead Sciences, the developer of the Tamiflu drug and its former Chairman and major shareholder Donald Rumsfeld) than a likely public health crisis – unless you live around infected chickens or take an unproven safe immunization shot. There are much more other likely killer bacterial and viral threats than Avian that get little attention. Don’t worry about possible or unlikely threats. Worry about real ones. Bacteria and viruses untreatable by anti-biotics are good examples. So is global warming and many others. But, there’s possibly one threat that tops all others both in gravity and because it’s been deliberately concealed from the public – never discussed, explained or had any action taken to remediate it. It’s the global threat from the toxic effects of depleted uranium (DU), and like global warming, DU has the potential to destroy all planetary life. How can something so potentially destructive be hidden and ignored and why?

THE ARROGANCE OF DOMINANCE

There’s little dispute that the U.S. today is the preeminent world power and unlike any that ever preceded it. It now admits to being an empire. In fact, it’s the first ever world global empire. To expand its reach and influence, it now spends nearly as much on its military as all other nations combined and has built and maintains a military capacity no other nation dare challenge. It also reserves for itself the sole right to develop and use the most dangerous and destructive weapons, even those banned from use by international law or custom. Some of those now in charge at the highest levels believe they have a divine right to use them, even a duty. George Bush may be one of them. A self-proclaimed and so-called born-again Christian, he says he gets his direction from the Almighty. That’s real arrogance, the supreme kind only an unchallengeable power and its leaders dare arrogate to itself.

Up to now, the U.S. has effectively used its power to dominate other nations either by persuasion, economic isolation or conquest. We claim to be a model democracy, but our policies and actions prove otherwise. At home we’re a democracy for the few – the privileged and powerful. It’s they who govern and run our institutions including the most dominant one of all – the giant transnational corporations whose interests all administrations serve including waging war for their benefit. Wars are good for business – as long as they’re easily winnable, the public supports them, and they don’t cause undo economic stresses that may disrupt the economy, in which case they’re bad for business.

There’s a striking term often used in the plural and in a business context that’s also appropriate more broadly. The term is “externalities.” In business it refers to the unfortunate side effects or consequences of a company’s action that may have a detrimental affect on others. A typical example is an industrial plant that produces a dangerous substance as an unsalable byproduct from its production process. To avoid the cost of disposal, storage or treatment, the plant dumps it into waterways, unused land areas or through smokestacks. In so doing it harms the environment. Wars also have “externalities” – with far greater consequences. Overall, death, disease and destruction are the best examples. But so are the dangerous residues and their side effects from the use of weapons like toxic chemicals, biological agents and all types of nuclear munitions. We’re all aware of the danger from the first two categories, although when used they only affect small areas and are not “weapons of mass destruction.” We’ve also seen the destructive capability of a nuclear bomb and have heard of DU. But, the public has little or no knowledge about the real danger and threat from the use of any nuclear device or substance. That information has been willfully and deliberately suppressed because the potential harm is so great and irreversible. Even when there’s clear evidence of widespread problems as there was in the case of the Agent Orange effects on Vietnam veterans and “Gulf war syndrome” on the military from that conflict, our government has denied any connection and stonewalled efforts to help those in need – until they no longer could hide the truth and had to act.
globalresearch.ca

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria asserted Thursday that Iran has a right to atomic technology and said U.S. and European objections to Tehran’s nuclear ambitions are not persuasive.

President Bashar Assad of Syria, a long-time Iranian ally facing criticism from the same parties, said he backs Iran’s moves toward nuclear power and wants to strengthen ties.

“We support Iran regarding its right to peaceful nuclear technology,” Assad said at a news conference with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the start of two days of meetings.

“It is the right of Iran and any other state to own nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. Countries that object to that have not provided a convincing or logical reason.”
thestar.com

Israel accuses Iran of funding bomb attack
Israel has accused Iran of funding the suicide bombing in a Tel Aviv café which injured more than 30 people on Thursday.

Shaul Mofaz, the Defence Minister, also pointed the finger at Syria, saying the bombing by an Islamic Jihad cell operating out of Nablus had been carried out on the direct orders of the faction’s headquarters in Damascus. Thirteen of the injured were still in hospital yesterday.

Mr Mofaz said the Israeli defence establishment, which is currently stepping up its calls for UN sanctions against Iran’s nuclear programme, had “decisive proof that the attack in Tel Aviv was a direct result of the “axis of terror” that operates between Iran and Syria”.

‘Iran comparing N-deal with India outrageous’
New Delhi, January 20: Terming as ‘outrageous’ Iran’s comparison of its nuclear programme with India, the US on Friday said Tehran needs to face the ‘penalty’ as it had crossed ‘so many international red lines’.

ElBaradei rejects EU’s request to condemn Iran
Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the UN’s nuclear monitor, has turned down a request by the European Union to issue a far-reaching condemnation of Iran’s nuc lear programme when the agency’s board meets in extraordinary session next month.

Mr ElBaradei’s reports set the tone for the international debate on the issue, so his decision could weaken US-European efforts for a speedy referral of Iran to the UN Security Council.

The director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been frustrated by Iran’s resumption of nuclear research – the move that set off US and European attempts to send the issue to the Security Council – as well as by a slowdown in Iranian co-operation with his inspectors. He has informed Tehran it has until the end of next month to give his inspectors improved access to documents and sites.

Only if Iran does not accede would he be ready to declare his investigation was no longer making progress and that his hands were tied.

Diplomats said leading European governments had asked Mr ElBaradei to make an earlier report, ahead of the February 2-3 meeting of the IAEA board.

“ElBaradei has refused because he believes in due process,” said an official close to the agency. “He has said that the next report will be for the [regular] March 6 board and he can’t just advance that report.”

Sunni Arab parties have tripled their seats in Iraq’s parliament, according to final results of last month’s election announced yesterday, but the country’s next prime minister is almost certain to be a Shia Islamist, with Adel Abdel Mahdi, a former finance minister well-regarded in Washington, as the favoured candidate.
Shia leaders have promised to form a broad-based government and haggling for portfolios has already started.

The United Iraqi Alliance of Shia parties took 128 seats in this 275-member parliament, compared with 146 in the last one. With the Kurdish block dropping from 75 seats to 53, the two groups no longer have the two-thirds majority which allowed them to control last year’s constitution-drafting process and push through clauses allowing Iraq’s regions to have autonomy.

With Iraq’s oil concentrated in predominantly Kurdish and Shia areas, the country’s fragmentation risks depriving Baghdad and the largely Sunni western areas of income. Under pressure from the US ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, last autumn, Kurdish and Shia leaders agreed to let the new parliament review the constitution – a promise which was used to persuade Sunnis not to boycott the elections.

The Sunni alliance, the Consensus Front, won 44 seats. Its main component, the Iraqi Islamic party, is similar to the Muslim Brotherhood in other Arab countries. A secular Sunni list, headed by Saleh al-Mutlaq, which has links with the insurgency, won 11 seats. In the last parliament Sunnis only had 17 seats.

The poll results were delayed for several weeks after some parties complained of fraud and mounted street protests. They were incensed at preliminary figures that gave the Shia list 58% of the vote in Baghdad, although Shia are thought to number only 40% of the capital’s population. The protests fizzled out after international monitors were asked to review the election commission’s work.
guardian.co.uk

It would be stupid to trust the results of any election in which the U.S. had a hand.

01/20/06 “ICH” — — The US air strikes carried out on the 13th of January 2006, on the remote Pakistani village of Damadola was a clear act of terrorism. Out of the 18 civilians killed, 10 were women and children. It seems US terrorism inside Pakistan is becoming routine, earlier on the 7th of January 2006 at least eight civilians were killed by the US helicopters attack. To be precise, such acts are state-terrorism or primary-terrorism as opposed to the usual: secondary-terrorism of individuals or groups! The bombings were indiscriminate and without warning, like the routine bombings of the defenceless Iraqi cities or the Palestinian villages and towns.

Subsequently, the US tried to mitigate the severity of the crime, by claiming that they were targeting al-Qaeda members. Even if the alleged al-Qaeda members were present, that does not automatically give the US right to bomb houses inside a foreign territory, with total disregard for the innocent civilians. Unless, the US is above the law or inflicting collateral damages with impunity is an automatic entitlement for the leader of the free world! The air strike was a clear violation of the sovereignty of Pakistan, according to international law it was an act of war. So where is the UN now? Where is the Morgan Freeman look-alike UN-Muppet, Kofi Annan?
informationclearinghouse.info

01/20/06 “Haaretz” — — WASHINGTON – Former Pentagon analyst Larry A. Franklin was sentenced Friday to a 12 years and seven months imprisonment for passing classified information to former American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbyists.

Franklin was also found guilty of sharing classified information with Israeli diplomat Naor Gilon. He was also fined $10,000.
informationclearinghouse.info

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks suffered their biggest loss in nearly three years on Friday, plummeting on disappointing earnings from blue chips Citigroup Inc. and General Electric Co. and a spike in oil caused by geopolitical tensions.

The Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index posted their biggest point declines since March 24, 2003, soon after the war in Iraq began. The Dow erased its gains for 2006.

Citigroup and GE joined a growing list of companies, including chip maker Intel Corp. and Internet media firm Yahoo Inc., whose quarterly results have disappointed investors.

A surge in oil prices above $68 also battered stocks. Crude climbed on concern about potential supply disruptions stemming from Iran’s nuclear plans, the targeting of oil companies by militants in Nigeria and Osama bin Laden’s threat of attacks against the United States.
news.yahoo.com

Armed conflict in the Niger Delta may stalk plans to deploy American marines to the region, military officials have said in Washington.

Pentagon sources confirmed that officials are reviewing an agreement with Nigeria that would have marines protect oil facilities because of the growing battle between Nigerian armed forces and insurgents.

The escalation of conflict causes worry in the administration because of the importance of Nigeria as a source of oil for the U.S.

Insiders said the government is reducing its reliance on Middle East supplies.
Nigeria is the third major oil supplier to the U.S and there are widespread fears that the fighting will push up the cost of heating, especially during this winter.

But other sources said the Niger Delta is rather too unstable to deploy marines.
“We do not want our forces to be directly involved in the military operation currently being undertaken by Nigerian forces. Subject to further discussions with Nigerian officials, the marines will only go in when the intensity of the conflict has reduced significantly”, Pentagon officials said.

They recalled that the issue was discussed at a meeting between President Olusegun Obasanjo and security chiefs in Abuja.

Marines are better trained and equipped to tackle security in Nigeria’s South South but Washington is wary of being accused of “engaging in military conflict without the authorisation of Congress”.

The formerly classified discussion between Abuja and Washington on the deployment was revealed by impeached Governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyesegha, in Yenagoa last year at a meeting with stakeholders in the oil industry.

He said the Nigerian authorities were under pressure to deploy marines to protect American oil companies.
independentng.com