THE HEADLINES

Greg Mortensen in Pakistan

THE GREG MORTENSEN STORY: THREE CUPS OF AMERICAN IMPERIAL HUBRIS.

Madeleine Bunting de-constructs what appears to be but one of a string of “disgraced” authors who wrote books claiming information of personal experiences that were actually fabrications. Mortensen was the American nurse who claimed to have been hurt on a mountain climb and restored to health by friendly natives of a Pakistani village and to have gone on to write a supposed description of his experiences and to express his gratitude by raising money from his best-seller book, Three Cups of Tea, to build numerous schools in Pakistan to fill the void of secular education in an Islamic extremist region. His claims are exposed in the 60 Minutes TV program. Bunting finds in the Mortensen story a broader context of American belief in the country’s exceptionalism and its trust in the benevolence of free-lance philanthropists like Elizabeth Gurley in Eat, Pray, Love. The derogatory depiction of “natives” in these books is described as worthy of Rudyard Kipling’s depiction of imperialism as a benevolent expression of the “white man’s burden.”

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“WILL THIS BE MY LAST DAY?”

Speaking on a Sunday morning talk show, Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) says that every day Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and his inner circle should be waking up to ask this question. As if such views were driving NATO and U.S. tactics, several large bombs are launched in Tripoli over the last three days, killing a number of people, none of them apparently of this “inner circle,” and even some rebel leaders fear this outside “help” will cause some rebels themselves to ask this question as government forces respond.

ASSAULTS:

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TWISTS AND TURNS IN THE BEWILDERING WAR ON TERRORISM.

A former Guantanamo detainee, Abu Sufian Ibrahim Ahmed Hamuda bin Qumu, was picked up in 2001 after a terrorist attack in Pakistan and was deemed in 2005 as too “dangerous” to be released. Recently he was, however, released in 2008 and has re-emerged as an “ally of sorts” of the United States, a leader of a rebel group devoted to the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi. What has changed? Apparently, according to a New York Times article, U.S. policy, not Qumu himself.

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“WE’RE A NATION OF LAWS; HE BROKE THE LAW.”

This is President Obama’s justification for the severe treatment of Bradley Manning, incarcerated for allegedly providing secret documents to WikiLeaks. Manning has not yet been convicted of anything and, says Glenn Greenwald, this is a gross violation of the constitutional protection of presumption of innocence by the commander-in-chief of the military authorities who are yet to try him. Obama tries to salvage credibility with his “liberal” supporters who are admirers of Daniel Ellsberg as a “hero” for having revealed Pentagon secrets during the Viet Nam war, saying (falsely) that the documents revealed by Ellsberg were at a lower level of secrecy classification than those allegedly revealed by Manning. Greenwald also notes a lapse of concern about a “nation of laws” when it comes to prosecuting Bush administration figures on charges of war crimes.

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MORNING-AFTER EASTER: PLEASE GET YOUR PET EASTER BUNNY SPAYED OR NEUTERED.

This is the message of an Orlando pet care and adoption agency, urging that having a rabbit as a pet is a “commitment” for the average 10 years of life of the animal, and that this commitment should include birth control to prevent rabbit over-population and preclude a “bunnies gone wild” scenario in which male rabbits scrap for mates and may lead the pet owner to abandon them in disgust.

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Quote of the day…

Where previous Democratic administrations have treated Black communities with benign neglect, Obama’s policy is best described as depraved indifference. Having collaborated in two recent major budget agreements with the Republicans that have already wiped out much of the life supports that made a dignified Black existence barely possible, and with more fiscal massacres to come, Obama characterizes his current posture as “Winning the Future.” That future holds nothing but further pain and decline for Black America.

Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report, on what he regards as anti-black agenda of the President

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