Saturday, July 12, 2003
White House taken in by Nigerian Scammers?
Here's one of those questions the news organizations fail to ask:
Who originated the fraudulent Niger-Iraqi uranium documents?
Was it really Nigerians? Or someone closer up the line to the White House?
If it was Nigerians, is it the same people who email the well known bank fraud scams?
Common people, for instance those of us who have to weed the spam from our own email-boxes, know to be wary of offers and documents from Niger/Nigeria. It is amazing that the really smart people in the White House, who, without the slightest modesty, claim the right to rule the United States, and the world, and start a war that kills 6,000 civilian men, women and children in Iraq, can be suckered by such universally known scammers.
Maybe the fools in the White House should go back to running their oil companies and leave the government to ordinary people of more transcendental perception.
Who's fooling whom?
Additional information:
For an extensive sampling of the Niger/Nigerian scam letters, click here.
More background:
CIA web page on Niger
CIA web page on Nigeria
Here's one of those questions the news organizations fail to ask:
Who originated the fraudulent Niger-Iraqi uranium documents?
Was it really Nigerians? Or someone closer up the line to the White House?
If it was Nigerians, is it the same people who email the well known bank fraud scams?
Common people, for instance those of us who have to weed the spam from our own email-boxes, know to be wary of offers and documents from Niger/Nigeria. It is amazing that the really smart people in the White House, who, without the slightest modesty, claim the right to rule the United States, and the world, and start a war that kills 6,000 civilian men, women and children in Iraq, can be suckered by such universally known scammers.
Maybe the fools in the White House should go back to running their oil companies and leave the government to ordinary people of more transcendental perception.
Who's fooling whom?
Additional information:
For an extensive sampling of the Niger/Nigerian scam letters, click here.
More background:
CIA web page on Niger
CIA web page on Nigeria
Sunday, July 06, 2003
US Imperialism Not New
Cythnia Crossen offers interesting quotes regarding the
Spanish-American War of 1898, in her July 2 column
in the Wall Street Journal.
According to Crossen, "Over the next three years, some 4,000 Americans -- about 10 times the number killed in the war itself -- died trying to quell Filipino resistance. More than 200,000 Filipinos, mostly civilians, also died."
Here's a deipathic proclamation Republican Sen. Albert Beveridge of Indiana: "The Philippines are ours forever, and just beyond the Philippines are China's illimitable markets. We will not retreat from either. We will not abandon our opportunity in the Orient. We will not renounce our part in the mission of our race, trustee under God, of the civilization of the world."
And Crossen quotes President "McKinley, who had earlier confessed he couldn't locate the Philippines on a map "within 2000 miles," claimed, "there was nothing left for us to do but to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them." A policy of "benevolent assimilation," he called it."
My comment: Deipathic overtones here, n'est pas?
And what was civilization and Christianization like?
Crossen writes:
"Outmanned and outgunned, Filipino forces used guerrilla tactics, picking off U.S. soldiers in small skirmishes.
American soldiers responded by turning some areas of the country into 'a howling wilderness,' as Gen. Jacob Smith put it. Col. George S. Anderson conceded that American soldiers killed indiscriminately during raids on villages. 'Many men were shot as they fled,' he said, 'but they probably all deserved it.' "
My comment: Thank the gods for the peace movements and the camera. If it weren't for the unrelenting criticism from the anti-war crowd and other humanitarian
groups, the slaughter would be even less restrained. This is why Iraq Bodycount and others such activities are so important. So far the civilian dead in Bush the Second's Iraq war stands at 6,000 to 7,000.
Crossen lets us know there where some anti-imperialists back at the turn of the century also:
"Andrew Carnegie, arguing against the occupation, said, 'Our young men volunteered to fight the oppressor; I shall be surprised if they relish the work of shooting down the oppressed.' "
"Mark Twain also sympathized with the Filipinos, pitying them for having 'progress and civilization' foisted on them by the 'Blessings-of-Civilization Trust.' "
Cythnia Crossen offers interesting quotes regarding the
Spanish-American War of 1898, in her July 2 column
in the Wall Street Journal.
According to Crossen, "Over the next three years, some 4,000 Americans -- about 10 times the number killed in the war itself -- died trying to quell Filipino resistance. More than 200,000 Filipinos, mostly civilians, also died."
Here's a deipathic proclamation Republican Sen. Albert Beveridge of Indiana: "The Philippines are ours forever, and just beyond the Philippines are China's illimitable markets. We will not retreat from either. We will not abandon our opportunity in the Orient. We will not renounce our part in the mission of our race, trustee under God, of the civilization of the world."
And Crossen quotes President "McKinley, who had earlier confessed he couldn't locate the Philippines on a map "within 2000 miles," claimed, "there was nothing left for us to do but to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them." A policy of "benevolent assimilation," he called it."
My comment: Deipathic overtones here, n'est pas?
And what was civilization and Christianization like?
Crossen writes:
"Outmanned and outgunned, Filipino forces used guerrilla tactics, picking off U.S. soldiers in small skirmishes.
American soldiers responded by turning some areas of the country into 'a howling wilderness,' as Gen. Jacob Smith put it. Col. George S. Anderson conceded that American soldiers killed indiscriminately during raids on villages. 'Many men were shot as they fled,' he said, 'but they probably all deserved it.' "
My comment: Thank the gods for the peace movements and the camera. If it weren't for the unrelenting criticism from the anti-war crowd and other humanitarian
groups, the slaughter would be even less restrained. This is why Iraq Bodycount and others such activities are so important. So far the civilian dead in Bush the Second's Iraq war stands at 6,000 to 7,000.
Crossen lets us know there where some anti-imperialists back at the turn of the century also:
"Andrew Carnegie, arguing against the occupation, said, 'Our young men volunteered to fight the oppressor; I shall be surprised if they relish the work of shooting down the oppressed.' "
"Mark Twain also sympathized with the Filipinos, pitying them for having 'progress and civilization' foisted on them by the 'Blessings-of-Civilization Trust.' "
