FYI from BATR

Part 2 of Tom Engelhardt's interview Andrew Bacevich, a former military man and now a vocal critic of US foreign policy

(See also Part 1, The delusions of global hegemony)

If you thought "United 93" was disturbing, it turns out the Paul Greengrass film was just the appetizer. Oliver Stone unveiled the main course last night in Cannes with a tantalizing sample of his "World Trade Center."

Presented here is the abbreviated text of a letter written by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and addressed to President George W. Bush. Although the mass media in America has mentioned the letter in passing, few Americans have actually had the opportunity to read it. It is the first direct communication between the governments since the U.S. embassy was stormed and hostages seized in 1979. American Free Press is pleased to provide this slightly edited version so that readers can draw their own conclusions about the Iranian leader.

Good evening. I have asked for a few minutes of your time to discuss a matter of national importance: the reform of America's immigration system.

The issue of immigration stirs intense emotions and in recent weeks, Americans have seen those emotions on display. On the streets of major cities, crowds have rallied in support of those in our country illegally. At our southern border, others have organized to stop illegal immigrants from coming in. Across the country, Americans are trying to reconcile these contrasting images.

And in Washington, the debate over immigration reform has reached a time of decision. Tonight, I will make it clear where I stand, and where I want to lead our country on this vital issue.

This is an extraordinary film about the creation of the American corporation, its legal organizational model, its global economic dominance and its psychopathic tendencies, and its incredible ambition to influence every aspect of culture in its unrelenting pursuit of profit.

After viewing this film, it becomes all too evident that these large corporations have too much power, whose mandate is not the common good of the people, and who will go to any lengths, legally and otherwise, in the pursuit of profit and the bottom line. Reviewer:

[Peter Brimelow spoke on “Disappearing Borders” to Vanderbilt University’s IMPACT Symposium, March 20, 2006—see Borders, Walls, Nation-States, Property Rights: VDARE.COM At Vanderbilt University. He also answered questions, after the applause, of course. If you listen to the audio (MP3), this starts at 34:19]

A measure of the effectiveness of U.S. propaganda during the World Wars is the enduring popular view that the German people are by nature submissive to authority, or worse, bent on aggression. At the lowest level, the disinformation campaign deployed the Argumentum ad Odium in widely distributed posters featuring Teutonic brutes red in tooth and claw. Only slightly more sophisticated were literary caricatures such as this one by best-selling author William Shirer in his Berlin Diary:

Mr George Bush,

President of the United States of America

For sometime now I have been thinking, how one can justify the undeniable contradictionsthat exist in the international arena -- which are being constantly debated, specially in politicalforums and amongst university students. Many questions remain unanswered. These haveprompted me to discuss some of the contradictions and questions, in the hopes that it mightbring about an opportunity to redress them.

How government and big media businesses cooperate to produce an effective propaganda machine in order to manipulate the opinions of the United States populous.

In American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer [1], Toni, Oppenheimer's "very sweet" daughter, is described as having "acquired a near-perfect command of West Indian Calypso, the Creole English common in the islands. She loved the island's steel-band music. As a young adolescent, she was a dead-serious child, with beautiful smooth features, tragic dark eyes, long lustrous dark hair, and the condescending politeness of a princess. Extremely shy, she hated to have her photograph taken." In 1977 on the island of St John in the US Virgin Islands, Toni hanged herself. She was 33 years old.

A video by Simon Robson aka. Knife Party and friend, Barry McNamara. It's an animated look at the dogs of War Corporatism unleashed upon the world by Bush and the PNAC as stated in the September 2000 document Rebuilding America's Defenses.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information Clearing House endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

Andy Ramirez, the chairman of a non-profit organization supporting the U.S. Border Patrol, describes the perilous situation along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Andy Ramirez serves as chairman of Friends of the Border Patrol (FBP), a non-profit organization that was created to support the U.S. Border Patrol and defend U.S. national security. Founded in 2004, FBP works with the Border Patrol and law enforcement officials across the United States and is using surveillance cameras on the U.S.-Mexico border to serve as a "neighborhood watch" and as "eyes and ears" for the Border Patrol in high-traffic areas where the Border Patrol does not have cameras operating. With his many contacts in the Border Patrol, Mr. Ramirez also breaks important stories that have been neglected or covered up by the politicians and the major media.

Now, my topic today is disappearing borders. One of the things about journalists is—and I’m a financial journalist—is that they write what they’re told to. They also write to length, so we will get out of here within in an hour.

At a candlelight dinner on the portico of Mount Vernon, Roman Catholic ethicist Michael Novak was reluctantly persuaded by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association to write a book about George Washington's religious beliefs. Among the over one million visitors each year to Washington's exquisitely preserved estate, the request for such a book is common but largely unrequited, Novak was told.

Why Iran must aim for empire, and why the West opposes this with armed forced, I have set out elsewhere (Why the West will attack Iran, January 24; Demographics and Iran's imperial design, September 13, 2005). War with Iran is not the stuff of pulp scenario thrillers, but rather of tragedy. In tragedy, the protagonists neither desire nor anticipate the tragic outcome, although a minor character - a Tiresias or Cassandra - might warn them to no avail.