CANADA-Undercover Police Provocateurs Trigger G20 Riots

The Toronto G20 Riot Fraud: Undercover Police engaged in Purposeful Provocation - At Tax Payers' Expense

by Terry Burrows

Global Research, June 27, 2010

Toronto is right now in the midst of a massive government / media propaganda fraud. As events unfold, it is becoming increasingly clear that the 'Black Bloc' are undercover police operatives engaged in purposeful provocations to eclipse and invalidate legitimate G20 citizen protest by starting a riot. Government agents have been caught doing this before in Canada.

Montebello 2007 Riot Prevented - Identical Boots Exposed Undercover Police Provocateurs

At the ‘Security and Prosperity Partnership’ meeting protests at Montebello Quebec on August 20, 2007, a Quebec union leader caught and outed three masked undercover Quebec Provincial Police operatives dressed as ‘black bloc’ protestors about to start a riot by throwing rocks at the security police. See the following videos documenting this event.

Stop SPP Protest - Union Leader stops provocateurs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow

Evidence -- Police provoke Violence at SPP protest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCRsj06wT64&NR=1

The operation was exposed by the following picture of the undercover police wearing combat boots identical to those of the security police arresting them.

(Provocateurs in Montebello wear the same shoes as the Quebec policemen who arrest them!)

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/emiliep/1206638928/

CBC Report at Montebello 2007



See the distinctive yellow dots on the thick corrugated soles of the boots which are the giveaway.

The Quebec Provincial Police were then forced after three days of  public outrage to admit that these three men were indeed their officers operating undercover.

 

Fast Forward to the Toronto 2010 G20 Protest Riot

On Saturday June 26, 2010, the Globe and Mail published on their website a number of photographs taken at the afternoon riot in downtown Toronto precipitated by the ‘black bloc.’

Using these photos, I am going to show you that once again, the ‘black bloc’ provocateurs and the armoured police are wearing the exact same shoes.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/g20-day-of-protest/article1619712/

Thanks to the Globe and Mail for these very helpful photos.

Starbucks Vandalised

Here an operative throws a metal chair through a Starbucks window. This man’s physique doesn’t look like a seedy ‘anarchist’ to me. Rather, this is the fit strong body of a trained soldier – somebody who puts in a lot of regular gym time. He is also wearing what is really a uniform and rather specialized equipment on his forearm and possibly his hip. Unfortunately in this picture we cannot see the shoes being worn. But we certainly can in the picture that follows, and this is where it gets interesting.

 

The Provocateurs’ Combat Boots

Below another operative throws what appears to be a rock at another Starbucks window.

 

Take a close look at the upturned boot.

This is a brand new (? recently issued) very distinctive deep black colour combat boot. Note as at Montebello, the special thick heavy corrugated soles plus what appears to be some reinforcement of the upper forefoot area. Also note the mismatched black and white socks. Is this a recognition code to their uniformed colleagues? The nice heavy shiny new belt also appears to be part of a uniform. 

 

Here is another ‘black bloc’ operative stomping on the roof of a Toronto Police car. Where are the police? He is obviously being “allowed” to trash the vehicle to create what will become the signature media images of the event - burning police cars in Toronto. But stamping on shattered glass and plastic is pretty hard on your shoes.

 

But his shoes can obviously take it because he is wearing the same brand new distinctive black combat boots as the Starbucks rock throwing provocateur above (go to the Globe and Mail url to see the higher resolution original photo). Note the same thick soles with the deep corrugations visible in an enlargement as a scalloping of the front bottom outer edge of the uplifted left shoe.

 

 

The Armoured Police Boots – They Are The Same Shoes!

Now check the uniformed armoured police boots. Note once again the thick heavy corrugated soles and deep black colour.

 

Here is one in close-up. It is clearly the same boot as the ‘black bloc’ provocateurs are wearing. It too is brand new and shiny as in recently issued for today’s duty.

  

Here are more of the armoured police boots.

 

Below is yet a closer view of the armoured police boots. This picture shows the upper part of the shoes more clearly. The police are also wearing what appears to be an additional protective spat module which is strapped on over the shoe’s upper front forefoot area. This looks like an extra equipment add-on to, and not an integral part of, the ‘civilian’ version of the shoe, which is otherwise identical to the police shoes in design, features and colour.

 

And in close-up

 

 

Canadian "Bureaucratic Economizing" Exposes The Fraud

That the ‘black bloc’ provocateurs and the uniformed armoured police are wearing in Toronto (as at Montebello) the identical government issued combat boots, has at least one positive aspect. It looks as if someone in the procurement bureaucracy was at least trying to do some economizing in the spending of the one billion dollars that this G20 fiasco has wrested from the taxpayers. Very sensibly, these bureaucrats wanted to provide the same sturdy combat boots for both the uniformed police officers as well as the undercover ones. How wonderfully Canadian.

But this endearing Hobbit-like practicality has also given the game away. The ‘black bloc,’ if they ever existed as an independent entity, have clearly been thoroughly infiltrated by undercover government agents. In classic covert counterinsurgency strategy these agents manipulate the group to commit violent acts which play directly into hidden government controllers' hands. These controllers manipulate public opinion from behind the scenes through the commission of false flag acts of violence (these are acts falsely blamed on scapegoats other than those concealed perpetrators who are actually responsible.) The psychological operation (psyop) is then accomplished through the propaganda fulminations of the completely controlled and complicit mass media. As in so many similar situations in so many other countries in the past, the goal of this combination of violent acts and lying media propaganda is to invalidate any legitimate citizen protest of the many immoral acts being wreaked upon the peoples of the world by our governments. The techniques of imperial control which have been used so successfully overseas are now being fully deployed against the people at home. Deployed against us. As far as our war-addicted governments are concerned, we are all insurgents now.

But We Canadians Can Stop the G20 Fraud in Its Tracks

As this G20 protest riot fraud continues to unfold, please use your eyes and your cameras to pay attention to small details, like everybody’s shoes! As more and more people wake up from the deceptions being perpetrated upon them, more inconsistencies in the official propaganda story will be noticed.

Evidence will tumble forward to expose the whole malignant enterprise even more. We should stop this Riot Fraud in its tracks and demand an immediate investigation.
Please forward this article as widely as you can and collectively send it to all our politicians and media to put them on notice that we will no longer allow them to participate in the Toronto G20 riot fraud of 2010.

For Canada and for what is good and right and true. 

 Global Research Articles by Terry Burrows

Image of the Day: The Blinding Beauty of the Pleiades

June 23, 2010

Image of the Day: The Blinding Beauty of the Pleiades

The Seven Sisters, also known as the Pleiades, shine like a cluster of diamonds in this Hubble image (infrared image below is from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope). Clouds of dust sweep around the stars, swaddling them in a cushiony veil.

The Pleiades, located more than 400 light-years away in the Taurus constellation, were born when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, about 100 million years ago, significantly younger than our 5-billion-year-old sun. The brightest members of the cluster, also the highest-mass stars, are known in Greek mythology as two parents, Atlas and Pleione, and their seven daughters.

During the period from around April 10 to 13, the Pleiades "glittering...tangled in a silver braid" can be seen just above Venus. On April 19, the crescent moon will join the party, sliding between Venus and the Pleiades for a special viewing.

NASA Link

Gulf oil spill 23/6/10

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/06/24/us/20100624-cap-chart.html?ref=us

Published: June 23, 2010

How Much Oil Has Been Captured

BP says it has captured about 348,000 barrels of oil since the first successful containment system was installed in May. But on Wednesday, a cap that was placed on top of the blowout preventer had to be removed after a leak was discovered in one of the valves.

Israeli professor says "We could destroy all European capitals"

Israeli professor says "We could destroy all European capitals"

An Israeli professor and military historian hinted that Israel could avenge the Holocaust by annihilating millions of Germans and other Europeans.

Speaking during an interview which was published in Jerusalem Friday, Professor Martin Van Creveld said Israel had the capability of hitting most European capitals with nuclear weapons.

"We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets of our air force."

Creveld, a professor of military history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, pointed out that "collective deportation" was Israel's only meaningful strategy towards the Palestinian people.

"The Palestinians should all be deported. The people who strive for this (the Israeli government) are waiting only for the right man and the right time. Two years ago, only 7 or 8 per cent of Israelis were of the opinion that this would be the best solution, two months ago it was 33 per cent, and now, according to a Gallup poll, the figure is 44 percent."

Asked if he was worried about Israel becoming a rogue state if it carried out a genocidal deportation against Palestinians, Creveld quoted former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan who said "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."

Creveld argued that Israel wouldn't care much about becoming a rogue state.

"Our armed forces are not the thirtieth strongest in the world, but rather the second or third. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that that this will happen before Israel goes under."

The [economic] Battle Of Europe

Published on The Brussels Journal (http://www.brusselsjournal.com)

The Battle Of Europe - Reality vs Its Denial

By Richard Rahn

Created 2010-06-23 12:18

Brussels, Belgium -- For the past 200 years, much of the fate of Europe has been determined near this lovely city. That is equally true at the moment as the leaders of Europe meet in what slowly is becoming the capital city of Europe to make decisions that well may determine whether the euro and even the European Union will continue to exist.

As every schoolchild knows, Napoleon was finally defeated two centuries ago at the battle of Waterloo - close enough to Brussels to be considered a suburb. The great battles of World War I were fought largely within a drive of an hour or so from Brussels, to the west.
Dunkirk, where the British army escaped from continental Europe in 1940 to fight again is a relatively short drive to the northwest of Brussels. Finally, the Battle of the Bulge in 1944 - the last great battle of World War II on the Western front - was fought in an area not all that far south of Brussels.



The current battle being fought in Europe is between the economic realists and the reality deniers. Most of the eurozone countries are on an unsustainable spending path in that government spending is or will be growing at a faster rate than gross domestic product (GDP), and as a result, government debt is growing as a percentage of GDP. This trend cannot continue because interest payments for debt service will eventually eat the entire budget. Governments must either sharply reduce spending growth, which means the growth in entitlements, or resort to temporary solutions, such as partial or full debt default, or massive inflation.

To avoid becoming other Greeces, governments will need to reduce the number of government employees, greatly increase their retirement ages, reduce the number of their vacation days and sharply curtail their other benefits. As would be expected, public employees are protesting with strikes, demonstrations and, in a few cases, riots. Retirement ages for those on government pensions also must be increased steadily because of the rise in life expectancies and the falling number of workers per retired person.

It takes strong leaders to deliver sour medicine to the populace, particularly in democratic countries. Such leaders are largely absent in Europe at the moment. Worse yet, the major moderate parties in many European countries are losing ground and being forced into unstable and weak coalitions.

The European Central Bank has lost much of its independence, with the president of the European Council gaining power without clear legal authority. Most of the eurozone members are in violation of their treaty obligations regarding debt and deficits, yet there is no authority to bring them into compliance.

What will happen? It is easy to paint a picture of increased political and economic chaos in Europe, the end of the euro and the rise of new dictators, much like what happened in the 1930s. However, a more likely and more optimistic scenario would be as follows: The Germans, even with a weak coalition government, will make the necessary spending reductions - but in doing so will almost gut their remaining defense budget. Once the Germans have put themselves back on the track of fiscal sustainability, they will be in a much stronger position to pressure their fellow eurozone member countries to do the same.

The German people and the German government are not going to give unlimited bailouts to their fellow eurozone members. Once this becomes clear, the other eurozone countries will be forced to put their fiscal houses in order or leave the eurozone. Most will understand that the pain of putting one's fiscal house in order will be far less than the economic misery resulting from leaving the eurozone. Yet it might be necessary for one country, such as Greece, to leave for the others to see what a really bad alternative that would be.

The current European war between the economic realists and the reality deniers will stagger on for many months and, perhaps, a few years. The realists will not have an easy time of it, not only because of entrenched European special interests - government employees, unions, corporations and others on the government dole, etc., but also because the U.S. economy is likely to be weak for the next few years as a result of the disastrous tax-and-spend policies of the Obama administration. Ultimately, reason is likely to prevail because the films of what happened in the last century when reason did not prevail are shown often enough to remind everyone of the alternative.

---

Source URL:
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/4468

Israeli and Palestinian Statistics

Israeli and Palestinian Statistics
http://www.ifamericansknew.com/

Israeli and Palestinian Children Killed September 29, 2000 - Present 124 Israeli children have been killed by Palestinians and 1,441 Palestinian children have been killed by Israelis since September 29, 2000. (View Sources & More Information) Israelis and Palestinians Killed September 29, 2000 - Present 1,072 Israelis and at least 6,348 Palestinians have been killed since September 29, 2000. (View Sources & More Information) Israelis and Palestinians Injured September 29, 2000 - Present 8,864 Israelis and 39,019 Palestinians have been injured since September 29, 2000. (View Sources & More Information.) Unfortunately, our sources have not updated these statistics in quite some time. We are working to find more up-to-date sources. Daily U.S. Military Aid to Israel and the Palestinians Fiscal Year 2009 During Fiscal Year 2009, the U.S. is providing Israel with at least $7.0 million per day in military aid and $0 in military aid to the Palestinians. (View Sources & More Information) UN Resolutions Targeting Israel and the Palestinians 1955 - 1992 Israel has been targeted by at least 65 UN resolutions and the Palestinians have been targeted by none. (View Sources & More Information) Current Number of Political Prisoners and Detainees 1 Israeli is being held prisoner by Palestinians, while 7,383 Palestinians are currently imprisoned by Israel. (View Sources & More Information) Demolitions of Israeli and Palestinian Homes 1967 - Present 0 Israeli homes have been demolished by Palestinians and 24,145 Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel since 1967. (View Sources & More Information) Current Israeli and Palestinian Unemployment Rates The Israeli unemployment rate is 6.1%, while the Palestinian unemployment in the West Bank is 16.3% and 41.3% in Gaza. (View Sources & More Information) Current Illegal Settlements on the Other’s Land Israel currently has 223 Jewish-only settlements and ‘outposts’ built on confiscated Palestinian land. Palestinians do not have any settlements on Israeli land. (View Sources & More Information)

Witnessing Against Torture: Why We Must Act

http://www.counterpunch.org/kelly06232010.html

Acquittal in DC

Witnessing Against Torture: Why We Must Act

By KATHY KELLY

Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

U.S. Constitution Amendment I

An old cliché says that anyone who has herself for a lawyer has a fool for a client. Nevertheless, going to trial in Washington, D.C., this past June 14, I and twenty-three other defendants prepared a pro se defense. Acting as our own lawyers in court, we aimed to defend a population that finds little voice in our society at all, and to bring a sort of prosecution against their persecutors.

Months earlier, on January 21, we had held a memorial vigil for three innocent Guantanamo prisoners, recently revealed to have been in all probability tortured to death by our government with what would turn out to be utter impunity – and because we had wished the culpable parties to take notice, we’d staged a vigil where they worked, specifically on the Capitol Steps and in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol Building. We had been charged with causing a “breach of the peace,” a technical legal term for a situation that might risk inciting people to violence. In abetting Administration use of torture, Congress had been inciting others to horrendous violence, and we’d been protesting perhaps one of the gravest imaginable breaches of the peace. Now we were making our small attempt to take these crimes to court, in the course of defending ourselves against what we felt to be a misdirected charge.

At the time of our arrest, we were on the final day of a 12-day fast organized by Witness Against Torture, aiming to help end the U.S. practice of torturing prisoners. Calling for the long-promised and long-delayed closure of Guantanamo, release of all detainees held without charge there, and an actual end to U.S. usage of torture, we had considered it our duty under international law, and our right under the Constitution, to assemble peaceably at the seat of government for redress of extremely serious grievances.

“And what were those grievances,” Ed Kinane asked me, as we teamed up for a “dress rehearsal” in preparation for our trial. Ed, my fellow pro se defendant, planned to question me, as a witness, about our actions. I recited our reasons for taking action on January 21:

We harbored a grievance against the U.S. government for violating the rights of detainees held in Guantanamo, some of whom have been detained for over eight years without charge; still others are being held even though there has been a U.S. court order for their release. On October 7, 2008, a U.S. federal judge ordered the release of 17 prisoners held in Guantanamo. They still have not been freed.

We harbored a grievance on behalf of three men whom U.S. military officials claimed committed suicide in an exercise of “asymmetrical warfare,” but who may well have been murdered in custody. In light of credible evidence that has yet to be analyzed in a court of law, they may have been tortured to death.

Ed had designed his questions so that I could deliver as much information as possible regarding our motives for being in the Capitol. Each of us, when introducing ourselves to the court, would speak our own name and then give the name of a particular Guantanamo detainee on whose behalf we were speaking. Ed, (speaking for Fahmi Salem Said Al-sani), asked me to tell the court something about the man whom I was representing.

“Ahmed Mohamed is a 32 year old citizen of China,” I said. “He was captured near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in December 2001. As of June 11, 2010, he has been held at Guantanamo for eight years and one month. He is a detainee from the Uighur Muslim minority in western China and is one of 17 Uighurs who were approved for release from Guantanamo on October 7, 2008. However, a federal appeals court stayed the order after the U.S. government appealed.”

We were also keenly aware of three men who supposedly had committed suicide in Guantanamo. Two days before going to the Rotunda to protest the Guantanamo nightmare, we had read, on the Harper’s Magazine website, a January 18, 2010 article “The Guantanamo ‘Suicides’: A Camp Delta Sergeant Blows the Whistle.” In this article, investigative journalist Scott Horton reports on interviews with Army Staff Sgt. Joe Hickman and Specialist Tony Davila, both of whom had been deployed to Guantanamo, and establishes a strong case that three men reported as having committed suicide, ---37-year-old Salah Ahmed al-Salami, 30-year-old Mani Shaman al-Utaybe, and 22-year-old Yasser Talal al-Zahrani, ---were suffocated to death in the interrogation chair.

In 2006, these three prisoners had been brought, dead, to the medical clinic at Guantanamo, and a Navy medical corpsman had told Hickman that the men, one of them severely bruised, had died from having had rags stuffed down their throats. At our trial rehearsal, I told Ed that I’d believed I had a responsibility and a duty to demand an accounting for what had happened to these men. I believed that no U.S. citizen, whatever the consequences, should choose the convenience of political silence in the face of grievous crimes against humanity still being committed at Guantanamo, Bagram and other U.S. detention sites.

In the Rotunda, Jerica Arents, (speaking for Saaid Fahri), now one of our co-defendants, had entered into the area where a recently deceased President’s body is laid in state, an area marked by a white circle, and silently placed a mourning cloth upon that spot, bearing the names of Mr. Al-Salami, Mr. Al-Utaybe and Mr. Al-Zahrani. Our co-defendant, Carmen Trotta, (speaking for Shaker Aamer), had explained the purpose of our action to onlookers, after assuring the nearby Capitol guard that we were raising important questions. Other members of our group, myself included, had poured different colored rose petals over the banner bearing these names. We had knelt to express our remorse. We had recited brief biographies of each of the three victims. Then we had sung the verses to a song that had been sung by South African prisoners under Apartheid, when other prisoners were being taken away for interrogation, torture or execution. We had, however, adapted the song to embrace our brothers and sisters in U.S. bondage: “Courage, Muslim brothers, you do not walk alone. We will walk with you, and sing your spirit home.”

Many people come to the capitol every day of the year. They are free to ask questions and to make comments. But, if you raise questions and comments of a political nature, police officials believe they must enforce a law to restrict your enactment of this right, even though the Constitution insists that Congress shall make no law to abridge the right of people to assemble peaceably for redress of grievance. We believed that expression of grief and remorse for the lost lives of these three men should properly happen in a place where U.S. people mourn the loss of a president’s life. While a U.S. president possesses near-unimaginable power, the men whom we mourned suffered from unimaginable powerlessness. Earnest mourning of these lost lives was crucial for truthful recognition that the U.S. government has used torture as a means of punishment, possibly even lethal punishment, in violation of international law and basic human rights.

The prosecution claimed that those who had assembled in the center of the Rotunda were “noisy and boisterous,” yelling prayers and hymns. Officers who arrested other defendants, on the capitol steps, claimed that a group of people were shouting in a way that tried to “imitate an Arabic dialect.” In cross-examination, Clare Grady and Malachy Kilbride, both co-defendants, helped clarify that these defendants were reading the names of people imprisoned in Guantanamo and Bagram. By mid-afternoon, the prosecution rested its case.

Judge Russell Canan had asked the prosecutors, several times, to help him understand how our actions at the Capitol building would have been likely to produce violence on the part of others. At one point, he cautioned all present that he wouldn’t tolerate any noisy outbursts in the courtroom. Ed and I exchanged surprised glances. “He’s going to acquit us,” I murmured. About ten minutes later, Judge Canan granted our motion for acquittal, and the trial was abruptly over.

Of course we are not, in good conscience, acquitted from our duty to stop the Pentagon from engaging in further war crimes at Guantanamo, Bagram and other places where the U.S. military is holding people without charge, places where torture has been routinely practiced, - and may still be. We still bear responsibility, every day, to fulfill our duties under international law and expose the practices, at Guantanamo and Bagram, which constitute a horrendous breach of the peace and are likely to produce even more violence.

Understanding the difference between law and justice, we must try to narrow the gap between justice and the enforcement of U.S. laws. “If you act like there is no possibility of change,” Bill Quigley, one of our attorney-resource people, told the court, “you guarantee there will be none. These people have acted like there is a possibility for change and they are trying to bring about that change.”

Bill, who is the Center for Constitutional Right’s Legal Director, said that those who won’t adjust to injustice bring hope into the world. He quoted the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Beyond Viet Nam speech, delivered in April, 1967, at the Riverside Church: “We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision. For we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us." Dr. King's Riverside church speech will guide us, as we plan our next action.

“We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation, for those it calls 'enemy.’ For no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers. I think of them, too, because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries.

“We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence, or violent co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.”

We hope Dr. King’s words can help convey our remorse and sorrow to the families and friends of detainees imprisoned, tortured and in some cases killed because we have not yet succeeded in ending U.S. practices of torture and illegal detention. We long to acquit ourselves justly by closing not only Guantanamo, but every military base that prolongs the foolish agony of war in our world.

Kathy Kelly is a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence and a participant in the Witness Against Torture campaign. Her book, Other Lands Have Dreams, was published by CounterPunch/Ak Press. She can be reached at: Kathy@vcnv.org.

http://www.counterpunch.org/
June 24, 2010

Can Petraeus Find a Way Out of Afghanistan?

Why McChrystal Did Obama a Big Favor

By GARETH PORTER

Despite President Barack Obama's denial that his decision to fire Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal as commander in Afghanistan and replace him with Gen. David Petraeus signified any differences with McChrystal over war strategy, the decision obviously reflects a desire by Obama to find a way out of a deepening policy crisis in Afghanistan.

Although the ostensible reason was indiscreet comments by McChrystal and his aides reported in Rolling Stone, the switch from McChrystal to Petraeus was clearly the result of White House unhappiness with McChrystal's handling of the war.

It had become evident in recent weeks that McChrystal's strategy is not working as he had promised, and Congress and the U.S. political elite had already become very uneasy about whether the war was on the wrong track.

In calling on Petraeus, the Obama administration appears to be taking a page from the George W. Bush administration's late 2006 decision to rescue a war in Iraq which was generally perceived in Washington as having become an embarrassing failure. But both Obama and Petraeus are acutely aware of the differences between the situation in Iraq at that moment and the situation in Afghanistan today.

In taking command in Iraq in 2007, Petraeus was being called upon to implement a dramatically new counterinsurgency strategy based on a major "surge" in U.S. troops.

Obama will certainly be put under pressure by the Republican Party, led by Sen. John McCain, to agree to eliminate the mid-2011 deadline for the beginning of a U.S. withdrawal and perhaps even for yet another troop surge in Afghanistan.

But accounts of Obama administration policymaking on the war last year make it clear that Obama caved into military pressure in 2009 for the troop surge of 2010 only as part of a compromise under which McChrystal and Petraeus agreed to a surge of 18 months duration. It was clearly understood by both civilian and military officials, moreover, that after the surge was completed, the administration would enter into negotiations on a settlement of the war.

Petraeus's political skills and ability to sell a strategy involving a negotiated settlement offers Obama more flexibility than he has had with McChrystal in command.

Contrary to the generally accepted view that Petraeus mounted a successful counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq, his main accomplishment was to make the first formal accommodation with Sunni insurgents.

Petraeus demonstrated in his command in Iraq a willingness to adjust strategic objectives in light of realities he could not control. He had it made it clear to his staff at the outset that they would make one last effort to show progress, but that he would tell Congress that it was time to withdraw if he found that it was not working.

As commander in Iraq, Petraeus chose staff officers who were sceptics and realists rather than true believers, according to accounts from members of his staff in Iraq. When one aide proposed in a memorandum in the first weeks of his command coming to terms with the Shia insurgents led by Moqtada al Sadr, for example, Petraeus did not dismiss the idea.

That willingness to listen to viewpoints that may not support the existing strategy stands in sharp contrast to McChrystal's command style in Afghanistan. McChrystal has relied heavily on a small circle of friends, mainly from his years as Special Operations Forces (SOF) commander, who have been deeply suspicious of the views of anyone from outside that SOF circle, according to sources who are familiar with the way his inner circle has operated.

In an interview, one military source who knows McChrystal and his staff described a "very tight" inner circle of about eight people which "does everything together, including getting drunk".

"McChrystal surrounded himself with yes men," said another source who has interacted with some of those in the inner circle. "When people have challenged the conventional wisdom, he's had them booted out," the source said.

The McChrystal inner circle has been accustomed to the insularity that Special Operations Forces have traditionally had in carrying out their operations, the source added.

The primary example of McChrystal's rejection of outside expertise that challenged his beliefs cited by the sources is the case of David Kilcullen.

Kilcullen, a retired Australian Army officer, is recognized as one of the most knowledgeable specialists on insurgency and was an adviser to Petraeus in Iraq in 2007-2008. Kilcullen is known for speaking his mind, even if it conflicts with existing policy.

After McChrystal took command of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan last year, Kilcullen was slated to become an adviser on his staff. But after some early interactions between Kilcullen, and the McChrystal team, that decision was reversed, the sources said.

Kilcullen's views on targeted killings as wrongheaded clashed with the assumptions of McChrystal and his inner circle.

McChrystal's staff was also supposed to create a "red team" of outside specialists on Afghanistan who could provide different perspectives and information, but after the inner circle around McChrystal tightened its control over outside information, the idea was allowed to die, according to one source.

Several members of McChrystal's inner circle are officers who worked for the general during his five-year stint as head of the Joint Special Operations Command, which carried out targeted raids aimed at killing or capturing insurgent leaders in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003 to 2008, the sources say.

Two of the key officers on McChrystal's staff who were part of his former JSOC inner circle are his intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Michael T. Flynn and his Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Maj. Gen. Bill Mayville.

Flynn was McChrystal's director of intelligence at JSOC from 2004 to 2007 and then his director of intelligence at the Joint Staff in 2008-2008. Mayville also served under McChrystal at JSOC.

McChrystal's political adviser, retired Army Col. Jacob McFerren, is not a veteran of JSOC. But he is described by one source familiar with McChrystal's team as one of the general's old Army "drinking buddies".

Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist with Inter-Press Service specialising in U.S. national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, "Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam", was published in 2006.

Image of the Day: the N 70 nebula

June 22, 2010

Monster Cosmic Bubble - in the Large Magellanic Cloud

This image shows a composite of the N 70 nebula - a "Super Bubble" in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) satellite galaxy to the Milky Way system, located in the southern sky at a distance of about 160,000 light-years. N 70 is a luminous bubble of interstellar gas, measuring about 300 light-years in diameter created by winds from hot, massive stars and supernova explosions. The interior is filled with tenuous, hot expanding gas. An object like N70 provides astronomers with an excellent opportunity to explore the connection between the life-cycles of stars and the evolution of galaxies. Very massive stars profoundly affect their environment stirring and mixing the interstellar clouds of gas and dust.

Credit: ESO

Radiocarbon dating of ancient Egypt

BGU scientist sheds light on ancient Egypt

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
06/21/2010 -- http://www.jpost.com/HealthAndSci-Tech/ScienceAndEnvironment/Article.aspx?id=179006

Prof. Hendrik Bruins analyzes Oxford radiocarbon dating study on ancient exhibits.

 
A leading archeologist and geo-scientist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is helping to shed new light on the cornerstone of time in the Near East.

The prestigious journal Science commissioned Prof. Hendrik Bruins of BGU’s Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research to analyze a University of Oxford study which used radiocarbon dating of plant material collected from ancient Egyptian exhibits in museums around the world. 

The study, the Israeli researcher said, is the first to use high-precision measurements of radioactive carbon isotopes to produce a detailed time-line for the reigns of Egyptian pharaohs from about 2650 BCE to 1100 BCE.



Although the data have no connection to the Pharoah chronicled in the Book of Exodus, Bruins told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that lessons can be learned regarding the study of various archeological sites around Israel.



Both the original study by Prof. Christopher Bronk Ramsey, an Oxford physicist, and the anthropological perspective by the Dutch-born Bruins have just been published in Science.



Bruins, who also works at the department of Bible, Archeology and Ancient Near East Studies on the university’s Sde Boker campus, concludes that radiocarbon dating and the modeling of ancient Egyptian dynasties make possible new associations between archeological layers and Egyptian history.

The study, the Israeli researcher said, is the first to use high-precision measurements of radioactive carbon isotopes to produce a detailed timeline for the reigns of Egyptian pharaohs.

“It is a very, very important finding,” said Bruins, who did not work with the Oxford team but analyzed their work and the radioactive dating results at Oxford and University of Vienna (whose team included University of Haifa Prof. Ezra Marcus).



“For the first time, radiocarbon dating more or less corroborates the essence of the Egyptian historical chronology, but some of the dates have to be altered based on the new evidence. Most importantly, we can finally compare apples with apples,” Bruins says.



The three-year Oxford study of hundreds of artifacts was aimed at settling several longstanding debates about Egypt’s ancient pharoanic dynasties. Archeologists throughout the world use radiocarbon dating, but surprisingly, no high-precision dating work had been done before on Egyptian artifacts before.

The British team took tiny bits of samples from organic material and used carbon-14 isotopes to date them. Plants absorb carbon-14 as they grow, and the radioisotope decays naturally over time after they die. Measuring carbon- 14 levels in artifacts made of organic material allows archeologists to determine their age.



Bruins is one of Israel’s pioneers in the use of radiocarbon dating at archeological sites going back to the Iron and Bronze Age (the latter includes the period of the giving of the Torah at Sinai and the formal beginning of the Jewish people).

Four years ago, he received the Dutch Royal Award in the name of the Netherlands’ Queen Beatrix for achievements in policy-oriented studies on drought, hazard assessment and contingency planning in drylands, geo-archeological desert research and innovative chronological studies about the ancient Near East.


After studying at the Hebrew University in the 1970s, he worked for the Israel Antiquities Authority in the Negev and Sinai and disagreed over carbon dating with his mentor, the late Dr. Rudolph Cohen, who depended more on pottery and ceramics than organic material that underwent radioactive dating. Bruins said radiocarbon dating was needed for accurate assessments and synchronizing the dates of various materials in a variety of areas.

Cohen finally agreed, and Bruins collected seeds, plants and bones from northeastern Sinai (Kadesh Barnea).



As Egypt has for many years forbidden the removal of archeological material, researchers have had to study exhibits, especially funerary material, in museums from Europe to New York. A technique called accelerated mass spectrometry based on only milligrams of organic samples, even from baskets, are taken and their approximate dates assessed.

“Over the years, there has always been skepticism whether Egyptian historical chronology is correct or not.

This chronology was not based on one single ancient document that spelled everything out but many different and fragmented things,” said Bruins.



“Historians pieced it together over centuries and came up with different interpretations and dates differing by 50 years or more. I found that carbon dating generally corroborates the Egyptian chronology, but the results favor somewhat older interpretations.”

It was uncertain, he said, when the ancient 18th Dynasty began. 

Half a century ago, historians said it started in 1550 BCE. But the dates depended on where the ancient Egyptians observed the star Sirius – the basis of the Egyptian calendar – and wrote their observations on papyrus and hieroglyphics on stone at the beginning of summer.

Sirius rose before the sun, so if the observations were done in Cairo, it would turn out differently then if conducted in southern Egypt, which would put the dynasty’s beginning in 1539 BCE. 

“New studies show that radiocarbon dating supports the earlier date of 1550 BCE or even 1560 BCE,” said Bruins.

“This is a very important result, as historical chronology and archeological data are two different things. With radiocarbon dating, we can associate archeology and history through radiocarbon dating. So now we have a independent source of research. ”

The new Oxford findings, said Bruins, provide more accurate information relating to the eruption of the volcano on the island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea, 120 kms north of Crete some 3,600 years ago, he added.



“This was the biggest eruption in the eastern Mediterranean in the last 15,000 years,” said the BGU scientist.

It left traces in the Black Sea, Turkey, Crete and underwater, but not in Israel’s neighborhood, because of wind direction.

Two years ago, Bruins published the first evidence of a major tsunami in Crete caused by this eruption.

“Santorini left a mark in many parts of region. Dating from archeological finds claimed it occurred in the 18th Dynasty, but now for first time they and the Egyptian calendar can be compared with radiocarbon dating.



“Thus it appears that the eruption preceded the 18th Dynasty and occurred during the Hyksos Period. Egyptian historical information about Tell el-Dab‘a, the ancient capital of the Hyksos and located in the northeastern region of the Nile Delta, do not fit in terms of radiocarbon dating,” he continued.