Thursday, November 6, 2008

Security First: Obama's choice for Chief of Staff: Rahm Emanuel

Democratic Change we can count on: multilateral U.S. Special Forces in a public-private partnership with private Israeli counter-terrorism contractors.

"We need to use all the roots of American power to make our country safe. America must lead the world's fight against the spread of evil and totalitarianism, but we must stop trying to win that battle on our own. We should reform and strengthen multilateral institutions for the twenty-first century, not walk away from them. We need to fortify the military's "thin green line" around the world by adding to the U.S. Special Forces and the Marines, and by expanding the U.S. army by 100,000 more troops. We should give our troops a new GI Bill to come home to. (More material incentives to induce the financially strapped to sign up as cannon fodder.) Finally we must protect our homeland and civil liberties by creating a new domestic counter terrorism force like Britain's MI5." Emanuel's War Plan for Democrats, The Book of Rahm, By JOHN WALSH October 24, 2006 http://www.counterpunch.org/walsh10242006.html

"In carrying out their work, agencies such as the CIA, MI5 and the Mossad work closely with one another,.." Amitai Etzioni, Enforcing nuclear disarmament. 22-DEC-04, http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-18525274_ITM

What a coincidence. Obama's choice for Secretary of Staff holds dual Israeli-US citizenship. (Once a holder of an Israeli passport-always a holder: according to Obama's Communitarian guru, the Israeli government refuses to give them up.) Rahm Emanuel is the son of an Irgun Israeli terrorist. Amitai Etzioni served in the underground Israeli revolutionary forces too. His military unit (the Etzioni Brigade?) was assigned to force the Irgun to join the Palmach. Rahm himself did not serve in the Israeli military. http://jeffreygoldberg.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/11/rahm_emanuel_and_israel.php.
"Rahm did serve as a volunteer for Israel in 1991."Of Israeli origin, he obtained the United-Stator nationality at the age of 18. As a volunteer engaged during Desert Storm operation ( 1991 ), Rahm Emanuel (then 32-years old) has served for Israel defence against a possible Iraqi attack.

"Accused afterwards of being a Tsahal officer and of being subjected to a double allegiance, Mr Emanuel pointed out that he had not served in the uniform. In fact, according to our information, he would be a member of Amal, Tsahal’s military intelligence service."
From Talking Points Cafe review of Etzioni's work we get a brief introduction to Etzioni's military past, from Etzioni himself:
"To digress briefly: prior to Israeli independence in 1948, the Jewish community in British Palestine was engaged in a war of national liberation. Its diplomatic representatives and underground forces sought to make the British cede control of the area to the Jewish community, and thus accord it an opportunity to invest the Jewish people, as an ethnoreligious community, in a state. The underground forces were politically divided. One, called the Palmach, in which I served, was close to the social-democratic labor party, Mapai, to which David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meier belonged. The other, Irgun, was close to the right-wing Heruit, predecessor to Likud. The Palmach's strategy was to destroy the bridges and police stations and other assets that the British used, but often only after they were warned to leave. The Irgun, on the other hand, directly attacked British personnel; in one of its major operations it blew up part of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which served as a British headquarters.

"Soon after the founding of the State of Israel, Ben-Gurion feared that these political factions would follow their own agendas. He therefore decided--in the midst of a war against seven invading Arab armies, during which casualties were very high and the survival of Israel was far from assured--to send my unit to surround the main contingent of the Irgun, demanding that they disarm and join the newly formed Israeli Defense Force. The Irgun very reluctantly disbanded. Next the Palmach was dissolved, leaving only one Israeli armed force--one loyal to the national, democratically elected, government." Amitai Etzioni, Security First, Part I
The official Hagana site has lists of all the soldiers in the revolution and the 1948 war against the 7 Arab nations, but those pages won't load in English: http://www.hagana.co.il/

This is how the discussion at TCP begins:
From: Coffee House
Excerpts from Security First
By Amitai Etzioni - July 17, 2007, 6:50AM

From the Preface:

Rarely have more profound changes in American foreign policy been called for than today. Democratization as the rallying cry of America's mission in the world has essentially failed, and global respect for American power has dwindled. This book, however, is not one more lengthy criticism of past policies--whether those of the Bush administration or of its predecessors, or of the conflicting Democratic agendas. I file here a brief for the future, about that which must next be done on the international front.
Here's a sample of the level of the comments. I liked this one a lot:
"Essentially, it's cuddly fuzzy fascism, although Etzioni has so attenuated his message it's difficult to discern any meaning at all. He's reduced himself to the level of vague generality that goes:

""Hmmm, mothers are great, don't you think so? I'm going to go out on a limb, I don't care how controversial it is, motherhood as a broad and general principle is on the balance of the whole a good thing for the most part."

"It's hard to beat a guy up for that. It's hard to come up with anything substantive in response to that, except perhaps 'sure dude, whatever.'

"Having reduced his thesis to mush, Etzioni must back up to his significant ideas.

"He does this by recasting past and current foreign policy as an unrealistic idealistic quest to spread democracy like pollen around the world.

"Of course, most of the actions he refers to have more to do with realpolitik than democracy, but he's perfectly willing to adopt the usual windy speechifying as credible motives.

"Thus the Iraq action was not motivated by oil, regional oil/resource issues, need to dominate the persian gulf, or even wmd's. Instead, it was motivated by the desire to bring the gift of Democracy.

"Etzioni would have us believe that the Bush administration is nothing but a bunch of pot smoking bare footed hippies, wandering from country to country not taking baths, growing their hair long and twaddling to irritated locals and cynical opportunists about 'peace and lurve.'

"All this while at the same time cautioning us not to spend too much time blaming or dissecting current and past policy mistakes."
Here's Kurt Nimmo's take on the appointment:
http://memes.org/alex-jones-infowars-rahm-emanuel-and-obama%E2%80%99s-civilian-security-force

5 comments:

Stop Common Purpose said...

Don't know if you have seen this, Niki:

http://change.gov/

Anonymous said...

Maybe I have the wrong idea but I keep thinking that eventually there will be martial law or at least a point of absolute no return. How long do you think until this happens? A year less?

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

An American listens, and ponders. He hears, but he doesn't want to hear. He sees, but it's as if he's been blinded...

"And per our internationalized, fully-operational, multi-cultural vision for the perpetual security state... of the present and into the foreseeable future... [we, the best informed and best equipped of] 'we [you], the people'... have decided how we will next effect this monumental, but noble, task."

"As America has famously been known around the world as a government 'of the people, by the people, and for the people' - lawfully committed, and heavily invested, as we are today, in the bringing about of [Utopian mob rule] democracy for you and all the earth's citizens - your government's specially appointed committee members have chosen to partner with [Israeli-British-American] private firms... to expertly... and efficiently... assist with:

(a) the media campaigns for your respective official Party candidates...

(b) the lawful fund-raising and ballot access initiatives... for both processes and procedures...

(c) the implementation and enforcement of all local, state, federal, and international electioneering guidelines...

(d) and, lastly, the vote-counting itself...

... To help us determine electable winners."

"We will likewise partner with only those [private businesses and banks] government leaders who share [y]our vision for a secure, more peaceful tomorrow."

"Terrorism must be fought by those who have the expertise to combat it. This is why we have enlisted British and Israeli experts - for it is mostly they who have the most recent experience in fighting homegrown terrorists and Islamo-fascists."

"This is the brave new world 'we' have charted for [y]our future."

"So, in the spirit of unity... in support for your oppressed brother/sister communities across the planet... we ask that you sacrifice some more. We ask that you 'not fight' [y]our government's public and foreign policy directives... that promise to secure the blessings of democracy... to ourselves and to all [y]our posterity..."

Yea, right! [The American has been startled awake, as if from a nightmarish stupor.]

Democracy - sure, I'm a proud, loyal American. And yea, of course I'm all over... whatever the hell you guys say... that I think you [Barack, Rahm, Amitai] just said - you know, like stink on ****!

But hey, can anyone tell me where the plain, old-fashioned Americans meet? I think [maybe] someone's [more likely than not] just f***in' taken over my country!

Anonymous said...

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre." - Frank Zappa

Niki Raapana said...

The illusion sure is everywhere. My only hope is that I can find my niche in the new system before it's decided for me. Isn't it amazing how many TV commericals there are that encourage us to join the changers and volunteer? We have no idea what they mean by sacrifice, do we?