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Feb 20, 2012 - Vacant Two Army Bases in Germany My Overseas Base Closure List has been growing these past few years. The Pentagon has just endorsed one recommendation Vacate Two Army Bases in Germany. I can't take credit because the Bush administration had ordered them closed, yet Army Generals rebelled. I'd like to think that my case was read by people in the Obama administration, and grasped that armored units in Germany can't deploy any faster to conflicts than those based in the USA since they embark at German ports and must sail all the way around Spain to deploy. A good sign is that the two army brigades will be promptly disbanded (one this year and one next year.) In my proposal, I mentioned that civilian leaders must firmly demand prompt action, lest Generals stall until the end of the President's term, as they did with the Bush administration. Feb 19, 2012 - Obsolete Tube Artillery
For mobile units, the U.S. Army's 120mm mortar mounted inside an M113 APC is great, which the U.S. Marines should copy and mount inside AAVs. For light forces, the BAE 326 mortar system is great. It's simply a hydraulic arm that can instantly place or pick up the 300 lb. mortar with base plate, even if stuck in the mud after firing. As described in my book, mortars are far cheaper, far more mobile (they can be carried inside small helicopters or carried to roof tops), require smaller crews, and mortar rounds are more effective (especially in urban warfare) because they fall straight down. Feb 12, 2012 - The Pueblo Surrender
The ship was ordered to enter North Korean waters and sit there until boarded. At the last minute, its Captain made a feeble attempt to flee and call for help, perhaps as a cover story. No help came for hours, and he surrendered without a fight, and no help came for hours later as they made a slow trek toward North Korea. The book is written as a detailed, factual report, so its boring, but he explains that he is providing hard evidence, not a fictionalized account. Our cooperative media and Congress refuse to challenge the flimsy official explanation. When the crewmen were released a year later, they were ordered to never talk about what happened, under threat of imprisonment, and loss of retirement/disability pay. The author can only speculate as to the purpose of sacrificing the Pueblo: 1) The Vietnam war was going poorly in 1968 and this reminded Americans of the evil communist menace. 2) The incident was used to create a possible World War III incident, so forced the Soviets, North Koreans, and Chinese to use their ultra-top secret emergency communications that were intercepted and studied. 3) The ship inexplicitly carried tons of fake "classified" paper documents to confuse the communists. 4) The ship carried (and failed to destroy) an ultra-secret and high-tech crypto machine that was captured, even though someone could have easily tossed it overboard. It was hoped the communists would copy the design, which had a flaw that allowed Americans to read its encrypted messages. One of many blatant holes was that these "ocean research" ships were never armed, because according to international law, they could not be seized if they accidentally drifted into a nation's 12-mile territorial limit. Just before the Pueblo sailed, the Navy mounted several .50 caliber machine guns on her, making her a warship. These were wrapped in tarp, yet easy to see as guns. However, the crew never trained to use them, and never took off the tarps or broke out ammunition during the hours of confrontation. During Navy hearings and press conferences, whenever the ships' captain was asked about that and a dozen other odd things that occurred, he always responded that he followed his "secret" orders to the letter. He repeated the same when asked why he remained dead in the water for hours while North Korean boats circled and threatened to board the ship unless he left the area. This is another example of how our media and political leaders refuse to challenge obvious cover-ups years after they have been exposed. Although I like Wikipedia for its concise accounts, it is heavily censored and mentions nothing of this. There must be hundreds of NSA/CIA/Pentagon employees assigned to monitor its content and work as volunteers to ensure its "accuracy." Feb 7, 2012 - Our Generals Lie A U.S. Army Colonel just leaked the "Pentagon Papers" equivalent for our Afghan occupation: Feb 1, 2012 - The Marines Must Change The Okinawa Solution - pull half our Marines off Okinawa Jan 29, 2012 - Pictures You Rarely See
Jan 27, 2012 - Barack Obama is a Serial Liar Here is a good overview of Obama's state of the union address. He is popular because he says what voters want to hear, but as Ralph Nader observed, "he says one thing and does another." His most blatant reversal was his promise to allow Bush's tax cuts for the rich to expire last year. He fought congressmen in his own party to extend them just before they were set to automatically expire. Then he want back on theme about the need to raise taxes on the rich. Jan 26, 2012- Crash and Burn Here is a great article about how often our high-tech drones often crash. This occurs fighting illiterate insurgents with no army. A modern army can easily jam drone links and cause them to crash or return to base. Basic anti-aircraft weapons, like Bofors 40mm guns, can shoot down these slow-flying multi-million dollar drones at ease. In contrast, a basic prop recon aircraft costs only around $200,000, while a new T-6B high-performance prop trainer costs about $4 million. Jan 21, 2012 - Did Ron Paul Win Iowa? A forbidden topic in our corporate media is vote fraud, or even suggesting that something is amiss. We all know that Mitt Romney won Iowa, unless you noticed a small article a few days later that the Iowa race is "unresolved" with details further down that Santorum probably won. It is possible that "unelectable" Ron Paul won, but we'll never know, because votes from eight precincts are missing! Missing? Iowa vote counters had to "hunt down" the results from dozens of precincts, and found the results for 134 precincts had errors which "they" corrected. Is the Republican party in Iowa run by fools, or mobsters? After the hundreds of hours of corporate media coverage of the Iowa campaign, you might think our media would find that an interesting story to pursue. Where is the FBI investigation? Jan 20, 2012 - 10 Reasons the U.S. is No Longer the Land of the Free If you'd like a nice, professional account of how we've lost our freedoms, this recent article lays it out. I guess I'll have to lay off lambasting the "Washington Post" for a while due to this fine piece. Jan 16, 2012 - Is Ron Paul Unelectable? Your TV programmers continually remind you that Ron Paul is unelectable. What they mean is that he is unacceptable to the Republican/Democratic establishment. If he wins the Republican ticket, he is likely to beat Obama with his extremely popular anti-war/anti-empire message, drawing lots of support from what your TV tells you is "the left". They have decided to back Mitt Romney and inform everyone that with less than 1% of the votes cast, Romney is the winner! If Paul wins South Carolina, they will get aggressive, with smear campaigns and vote fraud. Recall the last threat to the establishment, Ross Perot, was very popular until relentless attacks by the corporate media convinced the public that he was unstable and kooky. Jan 15, 2012 - What War with Iran Might Look Like It would be a mess, as this outstanding article accurately describes. Notice how "tensions with Iran" have suddenly risen just after our troops were removed from vulnerable bases in Iraq. Jan 14, 2012 - Military Housing is for Military Families Here is a classic story of military waste. Part of the outrage is that our military spends a over a billion a dollars a year boosting the English economy with unneeded bases. But the topic of this article is that our Air Force has allowed airmen to collect over $2000 a month to pay for off base housing, when free base housing was available, simply because they preferred to live off-base. That wasteful practice is ending, but demonstrates the arrogance of many military officers. Jan 9, 2012 - Support Consumer Reports! Consumer Reports magazine is a great American institution, which publishes an inexpensive monthly magazine about consumer products, with no advertising! It's like a government agency that requires no tax dollars. It wields great influence in consumer product and honesty issues. A yearly subscription will save you much more than its cost. For example, its recent review of AA batteries shows that some cost twice as much yet don't last any longer than other brands. Another article scolded ignorant Americans who insist on buying name brand prescription medications rather than generics, which have the exact same chemical content yet cost far less, one-tenth as much in some cases. Jan 8, 2012 - America's Kangaroo Courts Few Americans know that one in five American adults has a criminal record. One in eight American adult males has a felony conviction; it's one in three for blacks. Think about that the next time you walk through a crowd of people. Anyone with experience in America's criminal court system knows it's a sad joke. Anyone who objects is labeled a bleeding heart liberal, who is soft on crime. The only Presidential candidate to object is Ron Paul, which is why our corporate media tells us Paul is crazy. The public gets hints when a friend or family member is arrested, or when a famous American does time for "crime." Actor Wesley Snipes is doing three years in the joint for a misdemeanor conviction of filing false tax returns, prepared by his state certified tax adviser. Barry Bonds' eight-year multi-million dollar legal battle just ended with a conviction for lying to a grand jury about steroid use. He was lucky to get two years probation after prosecutors demanded 15 months in prison for committing that felony. Two reporters who refused to testify before the grand jury were thrown in jail for a year, as was Bonds' personal trainer. Few Americans understand that a judge can immediately toss them in jail indefinitely without a trial for "contempt", even when its a petty case about someone taking a performance enhancing drug to hit a ball better. Billionaire Conrad Black did time for fraud where he heard many stories of judicial outrage. He has the connections to speak out, and received a little attention with articles such as this: Prosecutors Gone Wild. Here is part: "The legal profession in the United States is a professional cartel where legislating lawyers and regulators produce thousands of new enforceable laws and regulations every year; judges, prosecutors, and private sector counsel lock arms to ensure that legal invoices, (which total almost 10 per cent of GDP -- almost $1.4 trillion annually), are paid as a priority surpassed only by the claims of government. Unlimited incidences of what other legally serious countries would consider frivolous or vexatious litigation clog the civil courts, and prosecutors enjoy a stacked evidentiary and procedural deck which gives them a success rate in prosecutions of over 90 per cent. (The corresponding figure in Canada is about 65 per cent, and only about 40 per cent of those receive custodial sentences.) The United States has just five per cent of the world's population, 25 per cent of its incarcerated people, and 50 per cent of its lawyers." The USA has more people in prison than any other nation on Earth, in total and per capita. This means we have a larger percentage of our population behind bars than all those evil dictatorships around the world. Other modern nations imprison one-tenth of what the USA locks up. I was recently impressed to see footage of a British policeman executing an arrest warrant. He politely knocked on the door, informed the man of fraud charges, and escorted him to his car. No SWAT team and no handcuffs! Our police are rated on the most arrests resulting in convictions, and often bring the press along to publicly humiliate the "suspect." Prosecutors compete for the most convictions with the longest sentences. Judges are political appointees seeking a reputation as tough on crime. The basic prosecutor strategy is to demand a person plead guilty, or face further charges like "obstruction of justice" or "lying to a federal agent." If that doesn't work, they threaten to arrest wives or friends under vague "conspiracy" laws, which require citizens to report crimes, lest they be considered part of the conspiracy. They are allowed to bribe witnesses with rewards for testimony, or reduced charges for crimes they have committed. If a troublesome citizen demands a trial, they drag out court proceedings for years until the person is broke and pleads guilty. If he still proclaims innocence, the legal cartel is upset that they must prove guilt, and seek the maximum punishment for every "crime" they can dream up. The trial judges are usually tough on crime political hacks, so once a person is arrested he is considered a lying criminal. The judge decides what evidence the defense can present and which witnesses he will allow. Defense lawyers must play along, or the judge will revoke their privilege to represent clients in "his" court system. The defendant is told not take the stand in his own defense because he may later be charged with perjury. The judge instructs the naive jurors what to consider, after having screened out knowledgeable citizens during the jury selection process. If a juror or two refuse to convict, they are often dismissed by the judge and replaced by alternates. Entrapment is no longer a defense. Most FBI terrorism convictions occur when the FBI uses undercover people to convince someone to agree to plan a terror act. If the jury fails to convict resulting in a hung jury, the prosecutor starts the whole process over. Some defendants go through several trials before they are convicted. And if found innocent, the prosecutors may bring other charges. Notice that when a "terrorist" is charged with an attack that kills 20 people, he just just charged with killing a few, so that if found innocent, he can be charged again with killing a few more. A common tactic for less serious crimes is to deny bail and keep the defendant in jail for years, until he pleads guilty in exchange for release for timed served. Here is a typical case of a citizen with no criminal record accused of a minor non-violent crime, denied bail and kept locked up for 17 months until he pled guilty. Everyone knows he's guilty because he admitted it, but no one questions why he was not allowed bail or why he wasn't brought to trial within 90 days. The obvious answer is that prosecutors lacked proof of guilt. The "time served" plea deal is often used when it becomes apparent that someone was wrongly convicted of a serious crime, like the West Memphis Three. Prosecutors and their judge dodge blame for injustice by offering to release the innocent person immediately if they agree to plead guilty to new bogus charges in exchange for time served. Recall the highly publicized Florida trial of Casey Anthony last year. She fought to remain free on bail as prosecutors added other petty charges like using a friend's check to pay for something and lying to a policemen. Her trial was delayed for three years, and when she was found innocent, our television corporate media commentators were outraged, and convinced many Americans that trial by jury was an outdated practice. (Every criminal defense lawyer will tell that you might as well plead guilty than ask for a trial by judge.) The judge sentenced her to three years in prison for lying to a policemen to justify her prior imprisonment, which delayed her release for several more weeks. A more interesting court story last year received almost no corporate media attention. Federal judge Jack Kemp was caught in a drug sting buying cocaine for himself and his stripper girlfriend. He admitted having done so several times, and giving his prosty a government issued laptop. Camp and other federal judges usually sentence citizens to at least five years in prison for such behavior, plus several years more if they carried a firearm during their drug deals. Camp was arrested with two loaded handguns. Camp admitted that he frequently snorted cocaine, smoked marijuana, and shot up heroin during his previous four months while presiding over court cases, all of which must be retried, costing the government millions of dollars. There is normally extra prison time added to the sentence of public officials for betraying the public trust. How many decades will Judge Camp serve? After expressing disgust with Camp's crimes, the prosecutor asked for 15 days. The presiding judge doubled that, and sentenced Camp to 30 days in jail. These are same people who routinely sentence young unemployed citizens to years in prison for their first drug offense. And since the presiding judge decided that none of his crimes were felonies, Judge Camp now enjoys a comfortable federal retirement pension, after being protected by what Conrad Black calls the "legal cartel." There was no public outrage because those in charge of our corporate media chose to ignore this case. Our "competitive" corporate media also decided to ignore the case of Las Vegas District Attorney David Schubert, who became famous prosecuting Paris Hilton for cocaine possession. He was arrested last year buying cocaine from a street corner drug dealer while armed with a 9mm pistol, an offense he routinely prosecuted and sent citizens to prison for years. The legal cartel chose to ignore that he admitted doing so for several months, that he was high while at work prosecuting drug users, was armed, and that he bought the drugs. Schubert got just three years probation for possession, and his record will be expunged if he stays out trouble. I'm not bothered by these sentences, but by the hypocrisy of these people who send hundreds of thousands of citizens to years in prison each year for similar "crimes" while our corporate media censors the truth. Our corporate media also failed to report that regular citizens no longer have any constructional rights. If the IRS suspects you may have cash stashed overseas, it can now issue a grand jury summons ordering you to turn over all your foreign bank statements. If you refuse, citing a 5th amendment right against self-incrimination, or simply claimng that you have none, a judge can find you in contempt and order you jailed, indefinitely, without trial. And don't be surprised to encounter federal TSA agents conducting random highway checkpoints with warrantless searches of your car, bags, or groins. As a senior TSA official recently announced: “People generally associate the TSA with airport security…but now we have moved on to other forms of transportation, such as highways, buses and railways.” As a final blow, President Obama signed a law on Dec. 31st allowing our military to arrest U.S. citizens on U.S. soil and hold them without trial indefinitely. Comedian Stephen Colbert explained that is not true, because you will be released once you've died. The good news is that we no longer have to worry about losing our freedoms, because we have none left. And we don't have to worry about trial costs or defense strategy. If charged with a crime, just plead guilty and do your time. I rarely address these issues, lest I be labeled as an anti-government "person of interest" subject to investigation. Jan 5, 2012 - The "Rebellion" in Syria Here is a good article about misinformation and the ongoing war against Syria. Jan 2, 2012 - Bill Sweetman Sounds Off Wow! Real reporting
from the corporate media. If insight like this appeared in the print edition,
I'd subscribe again. I got "Aviation Week" for many years, but tired of reading PR
releases from its advertisers rewritten slightly by AvWeek stenographers. As
Paul Fussel once wrote, "what someone doesn't want you to publish is
journalism, all else is publicity." Jan 1, 2012 - Oil From Irak Let me start the new year with a repost of one of my best articles, published in 2007: Oil From Irak Times have changed, but I still think the Turks may take advantage of chaos in Iraq to reoccupy their oil fields around Mosul. And since Syria now has troubles, the Turks may send "peacekeepers" to reclaim oil rich northeastern Syria, which is mostly Kurdish. Turks pay over $10 a gallon for fuel at the pump, so public support for a second Ottoman Empire is strong. ___________________________________________________________ Carlton Meyer editor@G2mil.com 2011 Blog (second half) - The Empire Retreats 2011 Blog (first half) - The Empire Retreats 2010 Blog - The Empire Crumbles 2009 Blog - The Bankrupt Empire 2008 Blog - The End of the Empire 2000-2008 - Monthly Editorials ©2012 www.G2mil.com |
This
You
may recall photos of the captured crewmen of the USS Pueblo "shooting the
finger." That was interpreted as mocking their North Korean captors, but as
Robert Liston reveals in his 1988 book "The Pueblo Surrender", the
insult was directed at the unknown Americans who sent them to be captured. The
book details how the official Pueblo story is simply not believable, something I
had read in magazine articles. He provides the dry details that no one can
challenge.
Here is a picture
that rarely appears in American news. The Israeli government demolishing Arab
homes in the occupied West Bank to make room for Jewish
"settlers". I use the term "Arab" because some crazed
Americans like Newt Gingrich insist that "Palestinians" don't really
exist, so I call them Arabs who have lived in Palestine for thousands of years,
which leaves these crazies speechless. This gradual ethnic cleansing is an
ongoing process. It is frequently denounced by UN resolutions, which the USA
opposes. This is one reason why "they" hate us.