Suleiman as New Vice President of Egypt
From 1993 until Saturday, Suleiman was chief of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service. He remained largely in the shadows until 2001, when he started taking over powerful dossiers in the foreign ministry; he has since become a public figure, as the WikiLeak document attests. In 2009, he was touted by the London Telegraph and Foreign Policy as the most powerful spook in the region, topping even the head of Mossad.
In the mid-1990s, Suleiman worked closely with the Clinton administration in devising and implementing its rendition program; back then, rendition involved kidnapping suspected terrorists and transferring them to a third country for trial. In The Dark Side, Jane Mayer describes how the rendition program began:
"Each rendition was authorised at the very top levels of both governments [the US and Egypt] ... The long-serving chief of the Egyptian central intelligence agency, Omar Suleiman, negotiated directly with top [CIA] officials. [Former US Ambassador to Egypt Edward] Walker described the Egyptian counterpart, Suleiman, as 'very bright, very realistic', adding that he was cognisant that there was a downside to 'some of the negative things that the Egyptians engaged in, of torture and so on. But he was not squeamish, by the way'. (p. 113).
"Technically, US law required the CIA to seek 'assurances' from Egypt that rendered suspects wouldn't face torture. But under Suleiman's reign at the EGIS, such assurances were considered close to worthless. As Michael Scheuer, a former CIA officer [head of the al-Qaeda desk], who helped set up the practise of rendition, later testified, even if such 'assurances' were written in indelible ink, 'they weren't worth a bucket of warm spit'."
Under the Bush administration, in the context of "the global war on terror", US renditions became "extraordinary", meaning the objective of kidnapping and extra-legal transfer was no longer to bring a suspect to trial - but rather for interrogation to seek actionable intelligence. The extraordinary rendition program landed some people in CIA black sites - and others were turned over for torture-by-proxy to other regimes. Egypt figured large as a torture destination of choice, as did Suleiman as Egypt’s torturer-in-chief. At least one person extraordinarily rendered by the CIA to Egypt — Egyptian-born Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib — was reportedly tortured by Suleiman himself.
Friday 18 February 2011
Thursday 17 February 2011
Thailand, 20th Feb, Red Shirts and Cranes
Red shirts to flood Rajprasong with 1 million red paper cranes
The red-shirt movement will flood the Rajprasong Intersection with 1 million red origami cranes on Saturday.
Nathee Sorawaree, a red-shirt leader, said red-shirt people would gather at the Pathum Wanaram Temple from 10 am to 9 pm to commemorate the deaths of red-shirt protesters.
At 5 pm, the protesters would gather at the Rajprasong Intersection and "release" 1 million red paper cranes.
The red-shirt movement will flood the Rajprasong Intersection with 1 million red origami cranes on Saturday.
Nathee Sorawaree, a red-shirt leader, said red-shirt people would gather at the Pathum Wanaram Temple from 10 am to 9 pm to commemorate the deaths of red-shirt protesters.
At 5 pm, the protesters would gather at the Rajprasong Intersection and "release" 1 million red paper cranes.
Returning from China
I've been in Chengdu in the Great South West of China where the rain and mists pour down from the high plateau of Tibet province. The great rivers flow through the great basin towards the sea still so far away. China is doing well in terms of massive investment in infrastructure with roads and rail and urban development the really big areas of ongoing rapid improvement pretty well everywhere.
Whilst China is intending to keep the redevelopment push West going for twenty years, by the rate and the scale of improvements, I'd think a significant amount of redistribution of Wealth to the newly-centralising Western rural pod-growth areas will probably take only ten years.
There remains adherence to the pattern of 'the sun rising in the east and spreading west through the day'...such is the simple plan for the development of the country.
This New China is a very big and quite energised system moving at an unprecedented speed to develop yet each step is calculated well by many analysts within the core-system, always questioning themselves and running specific political experiments in a range of representational forms, although certainly not Western democratic forms, except some experiments lifted from Northen Europe for social modelling. I think China studies itself and others more so than any other country does.
China will not become a democracy. One of the main reasons is that what they are doing is working so very well for people in great numbers... numbers unheard of in history.
By sticking to a centralist socialist government of Chinese design at the core of a state capitalist redistribution, incorporating Confucian principles, more human beings have been delivered from rank poverty and at a faster rate than any system or empire or religion or philosophy in human history. 200 million in 20 years, and more each day into the future. China is on track and is also linking itself very structurally to all its 16 neighbour countries where one country, for example Vietnam is formally linked trade-wise and rapi-transport-wise with a city such as Shanghai. The economy of Shanghai City is much larger than the economy of Vietnam. If you look at the border countries, all of them are now linked with shiny new infrastructure to particular growth centres in China. The interdependency of all Asia thus becomes the best reason to never have wars whereas the American economy needs wars as the main driver for continuation of its wealth having neglected infrastructural investments for many decades, by it's own free choice.
No one in history has ever seen socio-economic progress running at this speed on on this scale.
I wish China well. It's an amazing thing to be living at a time of such profound and radical world change.
Whilst China is intending to keep the redevelopment push West going for twenty years, by the rate and the scale of improvements, I'd think a significant amount of redistribution of Wealth to the newly-centralising Western rural pod-growth areas will probably take only ten years.
There remains adherence to the pattern of 'the sun rising in the east and spreading west through the day'...such is the simple plan for the development of the country.
This New China is a very big and quite energised system moving at an unprecedented speed to develop yet each step is calculated well by many analysts within the core-system, always questioning themselves and running specific political experiments in a range of representational forms, although certainly not Western democratic forms, except some experiments lifted from Northen Europe for social modelling. I think China studies itself and others more so than any other country does.
China will not become a democracy. One of the main reasons is that what they are doing is working so very well for people in great numbers... numbers unheard of in history.
By sticking to a centralist socialist government of Chinese design at the core of a state capitalist redistribution, incorporating Confucian principles, more human beings have been delivered from rank poverty and at a faster rate than any system or empire or religion or philosophy in human history. 200 million in 20 years, and more each day into the future. China is on track and is also linking itself very structurally to all its 16 neighbour countries where one country, for example Vietnam is formally linked trade-wise and rapi-transport-wise with a city such as Shanghai. The economy of Shanghai City is much larger than the economy of Vietnam. If you look at the border countries, all of them are now linked with shiny new infrastructure to particular growth centres in China. The interdependency of all Asia thus becomes the best reason to never have wars whereas the American economy needs wars as the main driver for continuation of its wealth having neglected infrastructural investments for many decades, by it's own free choice.
No one in history has ever seen socio-economic progress running at this speed on on this scale.
I wish China well. It's an amazing thing to be living at a time of such profound and radical world change.
Saturday 12 February 2011
Sunday 6 February 2011
韩国是重要的。
Whilst media remains concerned about past and present in the Middle East; Egypt, Tunisia, the plight of Palestinians and Israelis; the only real 'Avatar-Sprite', or change-agent, in the world...the only thing that can rock this world is... Korea. 韩国是重要的。
Egypt: 不重要. Korea Matters
Egypt...12 day rebellion in the CBD. Big deal. Bangkok 2010: 4 month rebellion in the CBD, taking over Parliament House. The nation stopped, the economy destroyed etc etc...The result? Business as usual. It's all good stuff for the media crying out for this and that but... mai pen rai... mai guan si...
不重要 it doesn't matter. The Middle East doesn't matter. Thailand doesn't matter. Korea matters.
Thailand Cambodia Border battle
This battle at the border temple-hot spot seems to have sprung from the conviction of 2 Yellow Shirt Thais as spies in Cambodia.
Cambodia's Hun Sen, allied with Thaksin's Thai Red Shirts versus Thailand's PM Abhisit aligned with the Yellow Shirt powerhouse of Bangkok City.
What is this about/ I think it is about who has power in the radical development of Chiang Mai as a profound new wealth link in Thailand's North.
Abhisit and the Bangkok Yellow Shirts and Old Capitalism, versus Shinawatra and Hun Sen and Cambodian state sponsored expansionist new capitalism. Capitalism versus Capitalism. How appallingly predictable.
The fact that both sides demand the possession of an ancient buddhist temple just adds to the total silliness of the dispute...but more so it is a poignant indicator of how many good lives can be lost between two men wanting more money.
Cambodia's Hun Sen, allied with Thaksin's Thai Red Shirts versus Thailand's PM Abhisit aligned with the Yellow Shirt powerhouse of Bangkok City.
What is this about/ I think it is about who has power in the radical development of Chiang Mai as a profound new wealth link in Thailand's North.
Abhisit and the Bangkok Yellow Shirts and Old Capitalism, versus Shinawatra and Hun Sen and Cambodian state sponsored expansionist new capitalism. Capitalism versus Capitalism. How appallingly predictable.
The fact that both sides demand the possession of an ancient buddhist temple just adds to the total silliness of the dispute...but more so it is a poignant indicator of how many good lives can be lost between two men wanting more money.
Saturday 5 February 2011
The Achievement of Indonesia
Indonesia remains, for me, the most dynamic force in SE Asia...350 million people, mostly muslim, with the government sponsoring more and more conversion and more and more muslims into powerful positions in government: the outcome....a much more moderate, democratic, and a far more secular state. Remarkable intelligence at work. The other democratic SE Asian states like Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand remain basically single family businesses more than actual nations, and far more intrinsically repressive in terms of class structures.
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China Spring Festival 2011
Tomorrow we enter China in the New Year Spring Festival time when 100s of millions of migrant workers are returning home within the 2 week period bringing with them their wages & food & gifts, criss-crossing the giant nation. It is the world's largest annual mass migration of human souls. The tens of millions of workers building dams and Apple iPads and Chevrolets only see their parents/wife/husband/friends/children once each year in this very busy, crowded & fully joyous time of reunion.
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roll on reality/wisdom of the water snake
when you expect a great pharmaceutical or spiritual brearkthrough in mental health you expect coal to become diamonds by staring at coal or by calling coal scientology. what we can do is make the present as meaningful as we can whilst all the best therapists and alchemists and spiritual leaders go their mortal way with or without our money.
we should make the most of this life because we're not coming back. if someone tells you you're coming back or going on to some heaven, then they're about to tell you you have to give them money, to be sure, to be sure.
We have no meaning at all outside the time we live. we can leave some words and some pictures and some memories, but we're gone for good.
when it comes to perfect enlightenment, no one ever promised that you're going to like it or that it lasts very long at all.
this is the human condition. it has always been like this. it was written up well and truly in 1580 and it hasn't changed one bit since. it cant change. its the truth. its reality. every person bears the full stamp of the human condition.
you go into a bookshop and you see a thousand books on spirituality, on new age stuff, on buddhism, on personal freedom, on ways and means, on catholicism on islam on pure zen etc and its then you realise the human condition...
that we dont like it.
we dont like it so much we'll give someone money to make it different...but it doesnt change a thing, because the human condition does not change.
be happy with who you are, Genghis Smith, and do what you can of what you prefer...no one else now has the chance to be you and no one else in the future will ever have the chance to know you.
make a noise if you want to.
we should make the most of this life because we're not coming back. if someone tells you you're coming back or going on to some heaven, then they're about to tell you you have to give them money, to be sure, to be sure.
We have no meaning at all outside the time we live. we can leave some words and some pictures and some memories, but we're gone for good.
when it comes to perfect enlightenment, no one ever promised that you're going to like it or that it lasts very long at all.
this is the human condition. it has always been like this. it was written up well and truly in 1580 and it hasn't changed one bit since. it cant change. its the truth. its reality. every person bears the full stamp of the human condition.
you go into a bookshop and you see a thousand books on spirituality, on new age stuff, on buddhism, on personal freedom, on ways and means, on catholicism on islam on pure zen etc and its then you realise the human condition...
that we dont like it.
we dont like it so much we'll give someone money to make it different...but it doesnt change a thing, because the human condition does not change.
be happy with who you are, Genghis Smith, and do what you can of what you prefer...no one else now has the chance to be you and no one else in the future will ever have the chance to know you.
make a noise if you want to.
i really like this symbol of the libra-snake. i dont know who drew it, but i like it a lot.
Bangkok Chinatown New Years Day 3rd Feb 2011 (2554). the Rabbit Year begins
wonderful to be in krung thep chinatown for new years day. oh so many people. everything so red. we saw the Crown Princess Sirindhorn in yarowat road. such a beautiful impression of the Chakri Dynasty. so loved.
off to cheng du china on sunday.
off to cheng du china on sunday.
Thursday 3 February 2011
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