First photo of bin Laden funeral

A tip o' the Brain to my old school pal Paul.

Gurkhin' Around...

As we know, Queen Elizabeth II has Gurkhas for security. Their fierce warrior tradition is the bare prerequisite for maintaining peace and decorum when the Fixers are aboard.

Here some of them practice for the latest cruise:

Thanks to WorldFrontlineMedia, UK.

Apparently the Gurkhas draw mess duty aboard ship just like I did on my Med cruise. Here they practice their buffet techniques. May God have mercy on the Prime Rib:

Thanks to yourshepway, UK.

Post-cruise, a couple of the surviving Gurkhas speak:

Not a helluva lotta thanks to the Beeb YouTube channel which is not available in this country. Yeesh.

Mexican Narco-Trafficker’s Revelation Exposes Drug War’s Duplicity

Who knows what to believe and what not to? This extensive post at the Narcosphere is interesting in any case.

The revelation that Zambada Niebla claims to have been a U.S. government asset, working with its sanction, is a shocking development in the so-called drug war and has gone largely un-reported by the U.S. media. The claim, if true, adds credence to theories long in play that the Mexican and U.S. governments are essentially showing favor toward the Sinaloa drug organization and its leadership, including El Mayo and Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Lorea, as part of a broader strategy to weaken and ultimately eliminate rival narco organizations. U.S. and Mexican government officials, of course, have consistently denied that any such arrangement is in place.

To understand the threads that connect those cases, it is necessary to revisit the mysterious crash of a Gulfstream II corporate jet on Sept. 24, 2007, in Mexico’s Yucatan region. Onboard that jet was an estimated four tons of cocaine, which appears to have been loaded onto the jet in Colombia.

The Gulfstream II sported a tail number, N987SA, linked by European investigators to past CIA rendition operations.

Narco News has previously reported that the bill of sale for the Gulfstream jet — which was sold only weeks before its crash landing — lists an individual named Greg Smith, whose name also shows up in public documents that indicate he worked as a pilot in the past for an operation involving the FBI, DEA and CIA that targeted narco-traffickers in Colombia.

Damy’s case also is tied intricately to another U.S. govermment legal action against banking giant Wachovia (now a subsidiary of Wells Fargo), which was implicated in the Damy money-laundering operation. The Sinaloa organization operative allegedly used the bank as part of his scheme.

U.S./CIA/bank involvement? Naaaah. Oh wait, there's money and power and the control of foreign countries involved...

Hey, it worked with bananas 75 years ago. Why not with drugs now?

The crux of the biscuit:

Assuming that rendition of the facts is accurate, it sure makes it hard to tell the crooks from the cops in this drug war.

Yeah, no shit and ¿quien sabe? One thing's for sure - any facts relating to nefarious US government shenanigans got renditioned a long time ago and are languishing in an undisclosed location.

Ol' Gimlet Eye got it right. He still is:

"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."

We operate on more than three these days, Smedley.

Pakistan army knew about operation against Osama bin Laden

Global Post

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani officials have told GlobalPost that the Pakistani army had full knowledge of the U.S. raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden and that it played a larger role in the operation than previously acknowledged.

One senior military official, who asked not to be named because he is not permitted to speak to the press, said that Pakistani army troops were in fact providing backup support when the United States began its operations inside the compound where bin Laden had been staying, including sealing off the neighborhood where the compound was located.

Residents in the area confirmed that the Pakistan army appeared to have at least some knowledge of the operation well before it began. Several residents said that two hours before the United States launched its attack, Pakistani army personnel ordered them to switch off their lights inside and outside their homes and remain indoors until further notice.

“The army personnel cordoned off the entire area long before we heard the sounds of helicopters hovering over the area,” said Zulfikar Ahmed, who lives in the Abbottabad neighborhood of Bilal Town, where bin Laden’s compound is located. Locals interviewed by the BBC and several other local and international media outlets made similar statements (Good link - G).

This stuff is interesting to me. The important thing about who knew what and when they knew it is that we managed to keep it from the guy who was supposed to tip bin Laden off in time for him to beat feet.

bin Laden’s American Legacy

A Tomgram you should read.

It was our misfortune and Osama bin Laden’s good luck that Washington’s dreams were not those of a global policeman intent on bringing a criminal operation to justice, but of an imperial power whose leaders wanted to lock the oil heartlands of the planet into a Pax Americana for decades to come. So if you’re writing bin Laden's obituary right now, describe him as a wizard who used the 9/11 attacks to magnify his meager powers many times over.

After all, while he only had the ability to launch major operations every couple of years, Washington -- with almost unlimited amounts of money, weapons, and troops at its command -- was capable of launching operations every day. In a sense, after 9/11, Bin Laden commanded Washington by taking possession of its deepest fears and desires, the way a bot takes over a computer, and turning them to his own ends.

It was he, thanks to 9/11, who insured that the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan would be put into motion. It was he, thanks to 9/11, who also insured that the invasion and occupation of Iraq would be launched. It was he, thanks to 9/11, who brought America's Afghan war to Pakistan, and American aircraft, bombs, and missiles to Somalia and Yemen to fight that Global War on Terror. And for the last near-decade, he did all this the way a Tai Chi master fights: using not his own minimal strength, but our massive destructive power to create the sort of mayhem in which he undoubtedly imagined that an organization like his could thrive.

For all the print devoted to the operation that took him out, all the talking heads chattering away, all the hosannas being lavished on American special ops forces, the president, his planners, and various intelligence outfits, this is hardly a glorious American moment. If anything, we should probably be in mourning for what we buried long before we had bin Laden’s body, for what we allowed him (and our own imperial greed) to goad us into doing to ourselves, and what, in the course of that, we did, in the name of fighting him, to others.

9/11 was a well-delivered sucker punch, but bin Laden didn't take us down. Bush and Cheney did.

Bin Laden won by picking exactly the right time and the worst possible administration during which to deliver his blow, and his stated goal of making us impoverish ourselves continues apace.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Johnny Hallyday Rencontre avec Emmylou Harris à Nashville en 1984

Thanks to AnthonyPussini, France.

Whisky Power

The Guardian (UK)

Scotland toasts new whisky-powered bioenergy plant

Up to 9,000 homes to be powered with energy produced by burning waste matter from the whisky-making process

Waste products from around 16 of the area's 50 distilleries will be used at the site, including well-known brands such as Glenlivet, Chivas Regal, Macallan, and Famous Grouse.

Good brands! Rumor has it* that real estate values downwind from the plant have tripled. The thrifty Scots will save a lot of money formerly spent in bars merely by relaxing in lawn chairs on the roof. No more the image of the drunken Scotsman crawling home. They'll just fall down the stairs.

I hope they never figure out how to make economical sustainable power from dog shit...

*I know because I started it.

Bryan Bowers ~ The Scotsman

Thanks to domasi01.

Now What?

William Rivers Pitt in a post about The Godawful Bush Years and their ongoing aftermath:

I wanted to celebrate the death of bin Laden, and in my own way, I did. I didn't dance in the streets or wave a flag or shout "USA! USA! USA!" But I definitely smiled, and I don't apologize for it. There an old joke about a man who would buy a newspaper every day from a paperboy, scan the front page, and then throw the paper away in disgust. After a while, the paperboy asked him why he kept throwing the paper away. "I'm looking for someone in the obituaries," the man replied. "But, sir," said the paperboy, "the obituaries aren't on the front page." The man looked at him and said, "When the son of a bitch I'm looking for dies, he'll be on the front page."

Fuckin' A, and there's more than one.

Headlines of the Day

Pakistan arrests dozens in connection with bin Laden compound

Mostly the Xe (formerly Blackwater) security guards contracted to protect him...?

Related and worth a read:

Pakistan’s bin Laden Scapegoat

In the same vein:

How Did bin Laden Live Undetected in Pakistan for Years? Someone Has Got Some Explainin' to Do.
...

With regard to the spectacular killing

Of Osama bin Laden last Sunday

Authorities there should all insist they

Had plans to kill him last Monday.

Yeah, the next time he ordered in, they were gonna send a squad of commandos disguised as the pizza delivery guy. Yeesh.

John Yoo, Still A War Criminal

Andy Sullivan, obviously a regular reader of the Brain, follows up on my post, more links at site:

Here's a great quote:

"Former government lawyer John Yoo taking credit on behalf of the Bush administration for Sunday's strike against Osama bin Laden is like Edward John Smith, the captain of the Titanic, taking credit for the results of the 1998 Academy Awards," - Andrew Cohen.

Any Titanic reference I can work in ... Heh.

So let us be very clear. The war criminal Dick Cheney presided over the worst lapse in national security since Pearl Harbor, resulting in the deaths of more than 3,000 people. This rank incompetent failed to get bin Laden at Tora Bora, and then dragged the US on false pretenses into a war in Iraq, empowering Iran's dictatorship, and killing another 5,000 more Americans on a wild goose chase. He presided over the deaths of more than 8,000 Americans, and tens of thousands of Iraqis during his criminally incompetent years in office.

On the other hand, the man who abolished torture as soon as he took office, Barack Obama, captured and killed Osama bin Laden, and captured a massive trove of intelligence, more than two years later. No Americans died in the operation.

What on earth are we debating? How have these delusional maniacs managed to even get us onto this turf? Because they have to. Because when the full truth of these past years are fully in focus, they will be revealed as some of the greatest criminals ever to have wielded power in America.

Amen.

Headline of the Day II

Trump Bumped out of Indy 500 Pace Car

Good. The Indy 500 is a 100-year-old iconic American institution, while Trump belongs in some other American institution.

Thoughts on the OBL 'Death Photo'

What could possibly inflame the Muslim world over a little photo? Could it be their dislike of graven images?

Or could it be the group photo of SEAL Team 6 with the dead Osama sitting upright front and center, wearing a boonie hat and smoking a joint with a beer in his hand? Maybe it's the Ace of Spades pinned to his forehead with a 7.62 round?

Or maybe it's the grinning trigger man wearing OBL's ears on a string around his neck? Hell, he got him and they're his trophy after all.

Note to Vets of a certain age: Sorry 'bout that, Chief...

In all seriousness, I know SEALs are a lot more professional than pissed-off teenage grunts of times gone by with memories of their buddies skinned and tied to a tree with their balls in their mouths and would never do that, but we've all seen those photos and worse. I'm just sayin'...

Note to those who think I displayed utter tastelessness in this post: Hey, I cleaned it up big time. I left out the horny goat in the photo doing unspeakable-yet-funny things to the corpse-of-honor's orifices.

Headline of the Day

Dubya Won't Join Obama at Ground Zero Observance: From Megaphone George to Afraid of Being Booed

Rightly so, and it's a first.

Torture Enabler John Yoo Tries Again to Justify His Awful Existence

I've got a double-dip of loathing for that bastard, not only for enabling torture but for teaching law, fer chrissakes, at what used to be a prestigious University of California system which I've lost a lot of respect for because of their hiring of him. If I was Jerry Brown I'd run him outta town on a rail after he served his prison sentence. Or drop him off in Oakland with hunnert dollar bills sticking outta every pocket.

The Rude Pundit

In other words, John Yoo is a motherfucker. The dude who crafted the legal justification for the CIA to use waterboarding and other charming "enhanced interrogation techniques" has been out in the right-wing nutzoidosphere frantically re-re-re-arguing that the killing of Osama bin Laden has given his pathetic life meaning. Here he is in today's Wall Street Journal (motto: "Rupert Murdoch's asshole smells of wallaby meat"): "Sunday's success also vindicates the Bush administration...The United States located al Qaeda's leader by learning the identity of a trusted courier from the tough interrogations of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the architect of the 9/11 attacks, and his successor, Abu Faraj al-Libi." Except, you know, chances are that Mohammed didn't give up the real info until after the torture ended.

Then Yoo disappears into fantasyland, where a pussy Barack Obama can't tie his own shoes, let alone deal with terrorists: "Imagine what would have happened if the Obama administration had been running things immediately following 9/11. After their 'arrest,' we would have read KSM and al-Libi their Miranda rights, provided them legal counsel, sent them to the U.S. for detention, and granted them all the rights provided a U.S. citizen in criminal proceedings." He faults Obama for not capturing bin Laden alive and then torturing him (no, really). He concludes by calling on the President to restart the interrogation techniques.

Goddamnit, you gotta give Yoo points for consistency. This motherfucker has been making his pro-torture case for years now. He is out there constantly, making sure that his legacy, long after his foul tenure ended, is something more than "that creepy cocksucker who degraded America." No, he's gotta make it that he is responsible in some small way for getting to bin Laden, when, in reality, all he did was piss on the Constitution because, he said, the ink needed a good cleaning.

The Bush maladministration spent an awful lot of effort to defeat and shred the Constitution, that "goddam piece of paper". Torture is still illegal and still a war crime that we've hanged people for. And should again.

Of course, the people we hanged mostly lost wars to us. Our officials that have done it see themselves as big brave heroes for doing it when they're really cowards and bullies and war criminals. I'd like to see how brave and heroic they are standing on the trapdoor with the noose around their necks. I bet it'd smell real bad.

Groaner of the Day

Yesterday was Star Wars Day. May the fourth be with you.

The Last ...

The last living veteran of World War 1 has died. It was supposed to be the "War To End All Wars" but it only put us on a course to the place we are now. Rest easy, old timer:

... Just over three years before the centenary of the 1914-18 war, the last known veteran who saw action in that war has died.

Claude Choules has died in a Perth nursing home. He'd reached the remarkable age of 110.

Claude Choules served in Britain's Royal Navy in the so-called Great War.

He also served in the Royal Australian Navy during the Second World War.

Two years ago, he became the world's oldest first-time published author with his memoir, The Last Of The Last ...

Justice ...

In America. It's for those who can't afford it.

Goldman Sachs finds itself under investigation once again but, at this point, as our pal Montag says, we know how that's gonna turn out:

...

As I noted in the beginning, normally Goldmine Sachs would find itself in deep shit. In these times the DoJ under AG Holder prefers to go after medical marijuana users and online pokers players. The idea of applying the law and taking down one or more of the Masters Of The Criminal Universe is alien to his job description.

If you or I swindled our neighbors for $10,000, we'd be sitting in a federal prison for a few years. These guys will be running the Treasury and the Federal Reserve in a few years.

Nothing to see here ...

Move along.

You know, with all the hubbub around the killing of one man, the big, bad terrorist with super powers, we happily lose sight of the fact that 90% of the terror attacks in this country come from far right wingnut country.

Thankfully, this character's trace has been purged from the gene pool:

FAIRVIEW — A man killed in a shoot-out with FBI agents and other law enforcement officers Wednesday afternoon was wanted in connection with the 2010 bombing of a Florida mosque, according to the FBI.

...

He was wanted in connection with the May 10, 2010, bombing of the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida in Jacksonville. The attack occurred at night prior to evening prayers. No one was injured in that explosion.

...

And remember when Homeland Security pointed this out? The whining and crying of the big tough Republicans was deafening. "We're being persecuted!" Wait until some teabagger decides to blow one of them up because he wasn't "conservative enough". You'll see checkpoints at every street corner.

Thanks to They Gave Us A Republic for the link.

The State of Texas ...

Is like your weird uncle who still lives with your grandmother. You know, the guy no one talks about and always annoys everybody at parties:

A Texas high school teacher has been placed on administrative leave following an incident where he allegedly told a 9th grade Muslim girl in his algebra class "I bet that you're grieving" on Monday following the death of Osama bin Laden.

According to one parent at Clear Brook High School in Houston who spoke about the incident to a local ABC affiliate, the teacher also said, "I heard about your uncle's death."

The parent said the student "understood that he was referring about Osama bin Laden being killed and was racially profiling her."

...

At the least, the coward could have said it to the kid's father, but then he'd run the chance of having his ass handed to him. The kid shoulda kicked him in the nuts.

King ain't the only one

Following up on Fixer's post:

5 Republicans who still insist torture led to bin Laden

Several of the usual suspects plus Rumsfeld.

Prosecution for war crimes is called for and at least a few of these bastards are doing a ditch-on-the-way-to-the-last-ditch attempt trying to stave it off. They're probably safe but they're thinking about what might happen if this country comes to its senses.