Comments on: How the sausage is made – a report from the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations

By: Citizen

Citizen — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:31:09 +0000

The aid to Jordan and Egypt comes conditional they play along with Israel; the aid to S Arabia is basically to grease access always to oil; the S Arabians pay for all the stuff they get from us, unlike Israel (or its bought lacky, Egypt). I'm not happy knowing that some of my taxes rubber-stamp Israel, opening up the USA to the charge of total hypocrisy and lumping us in with Israel at our continued and long-term expense solely due to the virtually non-existent and completely ineffective US campaign finance laws.

By: Craig

Craig — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:40:02 +0000

I'm happy knowing that some of my taxes help keep Israel safe from terrorism. You should be concerned with aid that the US gives to Jordan, Egypt, or Saudi Arabia, all countries with ATROCIOUS human rights violations, things you never hear about in the West due to their government-controlled media. Ahhh, but you, have a not-so-well hidden agenda…

By: Citizen

Citizen — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:35:35 +0000

Here's a white house sausage-making history pertaining to the settlements issue--this record is the template for Obama's Hillary/Mitchell? " target="_blank">http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1091250.html

By: Citizen

Citizen — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:12:04 +0000

Additional to how the Israeli sausage is made at a tune of about 3 billion per year (with another 2 billion tacked on for Egypt to be kept on the Israeli leash), here's a report on another Israeli sausage-making room, the one that has the hard-pressed US taxpayer fuel the entire Israeli military, rubber-stamped every five years--thus helpfully assuring any Palestinian state will remain non-viable no matter what Hillary said yesterday: " target="_blank">http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/01/16/gaza...

By: Senhal

Senhal — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:45:01 +0000

Banana republic with nukes is the usual term, I believe.

By: LeaNder22

LeaNder22 — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:20:04 +0000

Thanks for pointing that out Susie. This is important work. I am occasionally watching a German member of the Green party and an EU parliamentarian. He often dissents with his own party line interestingly and at times publishes statements from The Left too on his issues. I vaguely remember that when the Green Party become part of the government over here, there was a huge debate if the could really be allowed to know all the arcane security issues. In Germany the export of weapons is dealt with by a very tiny circle. Which obviously makes it more easy to pull strings. " target="_blank">" target="_blank">http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundessicherheitsrat And the far right complains about restrictions for exports compared to other EU countries.

By: LeaNder22

LeaNder22 — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:13:56 +0000

It's important to show it. And Josh Ruebner strikes exactly the right humorous note for his report. Basically the whole military industrial complex and it's deals abroad are shrouded in exquisite secrecy over here in Germany too. German should be neutral after its history. Now there are huge attempts to shun the fact that the EU can't fund military activities. That is one of the issues that may well have been a source for the resistance towards the European constitution or a closer collaboration of NATO and the EU, which is proceeding via creative means by the EU nevertheless.This may be the reason too the neocons have their own representative in Bruxelles. I am not an expert on these matters, but it feels this doesn't concern US sponsorship of the Israeli military only, but I can see the point. A class mate of my partner worked for Thyssen/Krupp in this field. " target="_blank">" target="_blank">http://www.thyssenkrupp.com/ He now seems to work free as a lobbyist or vendor only. There is not a trace of him on the net, but he keeps commuting between Berlin and Washington. None of these guys it seems wants to be visible, they all work in the shadow. About 2 decades ago, the said, he already had earned more than he will be ever able to spend, so what exactly pushes him on? Being part of an elite military complex moneymaking circle?

By: David_F

David_F — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:51:35 +0000

This is a shocking story. Although I would expect that many of these decisions were made behind closed doors, I did not imagine that Congress would show such contempt for their obligation to hear testimony and record their deliberations. If events such as this are routine, then I think there would be solid Constitutional grounds for a Federal court suit.

By: jaime1007

jaime1007 — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:22:20 +0000

Banana Republic?

By: Susie Kneedler

Susie Kneedler — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:17:44 +0000

Josh Ruebner ends his report on being forbidden to see decisions discussed by "our" public "servants" with another outrageous discovery. The decisions were not made at that meeting at all: they had already been made behind closed doors–doors that did not even pretend ever to be open to the public: 'Well, my hour-and-a-half adventure wasn’t a total loss. I did walk away with a consolation prize. While in line in the Capitol, I got a press release from the friendly staffer highlighting what the subcommittee decided to do in the “mark-up.” Wait, how did they figure that all out before the meeting even started? Those press secretaries must have some straight-up supernatural mind-reading powers. How come they don’t teach you any of this stuff about how Washington really works in your high school civics class? I don’t remember “closed-door meetings” and “pre-written press releases about things that are supposed to be decided on in the future” being on that neat flow chart about check and balances.' For the masquerade of holding a public meeting was obviously a "bait and switch"–like everything else about Israeli government negotiations and U.S. Congressional support: " I called the subcommittee asking if the “mark-up” session was open to public. I was assured by the staffer that it was, but I was also cautioned that there was very limited seating in the room so if I wanted a shot at a seat, I better arrive at the crack of dawn to line up. " Ruebner did more than call the subcommittee: he called its bluff on the pretend-transparency and exposed the "fraud."