Monday, January 24, 2005

BUSH

ICH: Bush Inauguration Speech by Zbigniew Brzezinski

If the speech was to be taken literally, then clearly it would imply commitment to some sort of a global crusade vis-a-vis a variety of states with many of whom we have all sorts of mutual concerns, even if we don't like their practical policies. I mean, take a few examples. Take China; we have a major state instability with China, but China is hardly a democracy. What about the Tibetans? Take Russia; we have a common stake with regards to terrorism, but what about the Chechens? They're being treated in a tyrannical fashion. Take an even more complex issue: what about Israel, which is a friend of ours, and its security against Palestinian terrorists? But what about the oppression of the Palestinians and their desire for freedom?The fact is that the speech was high-sounding. If it was to be taken literally, it would mean an American crusade throughout the entire world, and I don't know how that would be implemented practically. More Iraqs, perhaps, or is it just a general statement which doesn't give us much guide to policy, suited for the occasion but not to be taken as the point of departure for serious policy?...

Zbigniew Brzezinski, was national security adviser to President Carter and one of the key architects of the cold war and Latin American Terror

AD WATCH

LONDON (Revolution) - Volkswagen and DDB London are distancing themselves from a hoax viral commercial for the VW Polo, which features a suicide bomber. The ad plays on the established tagline for Volkswagen's Polo model, "small but tough". It shows a man in fatigues setting off in his Polo. He arrives outside a restaurant and pulls out a trigger. However, when he detonates the bomb, a flash is seen inside the car but the car itself does not explode. The strapline appears at the end. The campaign is the work of a duo known for their spoof advertising, called Lee and Dan. The pair run a website, LeeandDan.com, but the ad does not appear on the site at the time of writing. They have worked on a string of legitimate ads including Ford SportKa, BP and Casio G-Shock, among others. Dan, from Lee and Dan, said: "The ad got out accidentally and has spread like wildfire. It wasn't meant for public consumption. "We think the spot reflects what people see in the news everyday, and in this instance the car is the hero that protects innocent people from someone with very bad intentions. We're sorry if the ad has caused any offence." Volkswagen stressed that the spot, which has been doing the viral email rounds this week, was made without any involvement from the company whatsoever.

Watch the Ad here

So VW didn't have their hands on that whole story? Who believes that someone is spending tens of thousends of dollars to produce a little ad-spoof just for fun? Who benefits from the whole story when not VW? Bad PR is still better than no PR

GLOBAL WARMING




TERROR

Moscow Times: American Terror by Chris Floyd

More than two years ago, we wrote here of a secret Pentagon plan to foment terrorism by sending covert agents to infiltrate terrorist groups and goad them into action -- in other words, committing acts of murder and destruction. The purpose was two-fold: first, to bring the terrorist groups into the open, where they could be counterattacked; and second, to justify U.S. military attacks on the countries where the terrorists were operating -- attacks which, in the Pentagon's words, would put those nations' "sovereignty at risk." It was a plan that countenanced -- indeed, encouraged -- the deliberate murder of innocent people and the imposition of U.S. military rule anywhere in the world that U.S. leaders desired.

This plan is now being activated

CHECK IT

BUSH

An Israeli Fanatic Is 'Bush's Brain'
By Michael Collins Piper

Supporters of Israel were delighted to learn that President George W. Bush's recent call in his much-heralded inaugural address for worldwide democratic revolution was based on the philosophy of Israeli cabinet minister Anatoly "Natan" Sharansky.

Although a recent popular documentary, Bush's Brain, suggested that Karl Rove, the president's political advisor, was the mastermind who tells the president what to think, it is now clear - based on solid evidence - that Sharansky is the one who actually has bragging rights to that title.


HEALTH

Warning - Influenza Pandemic Likely Coming

The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the specter of human-to-human transmission of deadly H5N1 avian influenza following confirmation that two Vietnamese brothers had contracted the virus and one had died. WHO confirmed that laboratory results had found the two brothers from northern Vietnam had been infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus. According to WHO, "All evidence to date suggests that isolated instances of limited, unsustained human-to-human transmission can be expected from avian influenza viruses in humans." Seven of Vietnam's total 27 H5N1-related human deaths have occurred in the last three weeks (first 3 weeks of January 2005).

IRAQ: ELECTIONS

Telegraph: US Forces Go On Offensive

Codenamed "Seeds of Liberty", the largest military operation in Iraq since the 2003 invasion has started. American-led troops are fanning across the country to secure the election, even as they try to persuade Iraqis that the United States has nothing to do with it.

Far from taking a back seat, US forces have adopted an aggressive strategy of disrupting insurgents in their heartlands, flooding soldiers into areas where previously there were no coalition troops.

"Hopefully we'll throw them off, so they can't throw off the election," said Lt Col Scott Leith, commanding the US Army's 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry from a makeshift base outside the Sunni bastion of Hawija, 150 miles north of Baghdad.