Barack Obama's Strange Mentors

OMG--I really wish this wasn't so because it gonna send us waaaaay back down the rabbit hole!  SDS is even implicated!!!
Promoted to Headline (H3) on 12/22/09:
Obama worked for the CIA
For OpEdNews: Josh Mitteldorf - Writer
from an article at Online Journal
Wayne Madsen Reports has obtained additional details on Business International Corporation (BIC), the CIA front company where President Obama spent a year working after graduating from Columbia University in 1983.
BIC used journalists as non-official cover (NOC) agents around the world. The firm published weekly and fortnightly newsletters for business executives, including Business International, Business Europe, Business Latin America, and Business Asia.
On February 24, 2009, WMR reported: "For one year, Obama worked as a researcher in BIC's financial services division where he wrote for two BIC publications,Financing Foreign Operations and Business International Money Report, a weekly newsletter.
"An informed source has told WMR that Obama's tuition debt at Columbia was paid off by BIC. In addition, WMR has learned that when Obama lived in Indonesia with his mother and his adoptive father Lolo Soetoro, the 20-year-old Obama, who was known as "Barry Soetoro,' traveled to Pakistan in 1981 and was hosted by the family of Muhammadmian Soomro, a Pakistani Sindhi who became acting president of Pakistan after the resignation of General Pervez Musharraf on August 18, 2008."[...]
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Obama-worked-for-the-CIA-by-Josh-Mitteldorf-091222-13.html

Here's a bit more on BIC from Wikpedia:

Founded in 1953 by Eldridge Haynes and his son, Elliott Haynes, BIC initially focused on American companies and started out with a weekly newsletter (called Business International) and a group of key corporate clients. Offices were established overseas, including major regional operations based out of Vienna (East Europe and the USSR) and Hong Kong (Asia-Pacific), and single-country offices (e.g., Rome, Tokyo).
BI eventually became the premier information source on global business with research, advisory functions, conferences and government roundtables in addition to its publications. It was headquartered in New York City, with major offices in Geneva, London, Vienna, Hong Kong and Tokyo, and a network of correspondents across the globe.
In his book The Strawberry Statement, former student protester James Kunen reports a description of Business International by an unnamed Students for a Democratic Society conference attendee in 1968. The attendee, referred to by Kunen as 'the kid', claimed the company offered to finance SDS demonstrations in Chicago. Business International is described as 'the left wing of the ruling class' and as desiring a Gene McCarthy presidency.^[1]

Meet the Egg Man

Is there a legitimate reason why the head of the CIA wears his military uniform on tv? Don't we have enough trouble with our national image without Mr. Intelligence showing off his power? Koo ko, ka choo!
Hayden: Pakistan border poses danger
CIA Director Calls Afghanistan, Pakistan Border Region 'Clear and Present Danger' to US
HOPE YEN, AP News
Mar 30, 2008 12:39 EST
The situation in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan where al-Qaida has established a safe haven presents a "clear and present danger" to the West, the CIA director said Sunday.
[...] On Sunday, [Michael] Hayden declined to comment on reports that the U.S. might be escalating unilateral strikes against al-Qaida members and fighters operating in Pakistan's tribal areas out of concern that the pro-Western Musharraf's influence might be waning. Hayden only would say that Pakistan's cooperation in the past has been crucial to U.S. efforts to stem terrorism there.
"The situation on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border presents clear and present danger to Afghanistan, Pakistan, the West in general and United States in particular," he said. "Operationally, we are turning every effort to capture or kill that leadership from the top to the bottom."
On Iraq, Hayden said it could be "years" before the central government might be able to function on its own without the aid of U.S. combat forces. Hayden said he would defer to the specific assessments of Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, top U.S. diplomat in Baghdad, who return to Washington next month to report to Congress.
Hayden spoke on NBC's "Meet the Press."

http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=107569

An "Everlasting Bond"?

I'm so glad Pakistan has the bomb, thanks to the USA!
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Pakistan against blows to Chinese sovereignty, says Musharraf
Staff ReportISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf said on Friday that Pakistan was firmly opposed to any attempts to undermine China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. He congratulated China on hosting the upcoming Beijing Olympics, and said Pakistan was happy to have been chosen as one of the venues for the Olympic torch relay. Speaking to Liu Hongcai, vice minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Musharraf said Pakistan cherished its long-standing friendship with China. “Relations with China form the bedrock of Pakistan’s foreign policy,” he said, adding that the Pak-China friendship would only grow stronger. Musharraf thanked China for its cooperation in developing Pakistan’s socio-economic sectors, and highlighted the need for increased trade and investment ties. The Chinese minister said China had always stood by Pakistan and would continue its support. “This cooperation will be further consolidated in the future,” he added. Lui said the Pak-China friendship lived in the hearts of the two peoples and that bilateral relations were marked by a high level of mutual trust and co-operation. He lauded Musharraf’s contribution to promoting continued friendly ties between the two countries. He also conveyed greetings from Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao to the president for successfully holding parliamentary elections. On Pakistan’s position on fighting terrorism and extremism, Liu said both countries shared similar views on combating the menace.
Courtesy Daily Times
http://www.pakistanlink.com/Headlines/March08/29/14.htm

Charlie's Legacy

So much is happening in Pakistan that I feel compelled to provide links which won’t see coverage in the USA. My emPHAsis is in bold:
U.S. urges Pakistan move ahead with free election
Mon Dec 31, 2007 10:45am http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN3053508920071231
but wait …
Musharraf party halts campaign
THE party backing Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf last night suspended campaigning ahead of parliamentary elections due in nine days, and called for the poll to be delayed for up to four months.
Tariq Azim, information secretary of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q), said the elections would lose credibility if they were held on January 8, with the party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in mourning and other parties threatening a boycott.
[...] While Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema described the situation after three days of rioting as "improving", other government officials yesterday appeared stunned by violence that has swept the country.
[...] Brigadier Cheema said more than 200 banks, many of them government-owned, had been destroyed, while nearly 1000 shops had been razed and 20 railway stations smashed.
Most flights were delayed or cancelled, with airline crews unable to reach airports. Brigadier Cheema said 40 people had been killed and more than 60 injured.
"The situation is very, very bad," a senior official said. "People are nervous and now food supplies are running out. If things don't open up and get moving in the next few days, we could face further catastrophe."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22989672-2703,00.html
Hospital lawyer: Pakistani police stopped doctors from conducting Bhutto autopsy
John Byrne, Published: Monday December 31, 2007
The police chief of the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi prevented doctors from performing an autopsy on the corpse of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, according to a lawyer on the hospital's board.
The dramatic new revelation emerged as new videotape showed a gunman in close proximity to Bhutto in the moments before her assassination, and a surgeon said he'd felt pressure to conform to the government's official story on Bhutto's killing.
[...] "In the letter," according to CNN, "Minallah said the doctors 'suggested to the officials to perform an autopsy,' but that Rawalpindi police chief Aziz Saud "did not agree." He noted that under the law, police investigators have 'exclusive responsibility' in deciding to have an autopsy."
Minallah told CNN he was voicing his concerns because doctors didn't feel they could speak out, saying they were "threatened."
[...] The police meddling at the hospital would not mark the first time officers' actions have come into question regarding Bhutto's assassination. At the rally where she was killed Thursday, police abandoned their posts before the attack by a gunman and suicide bomber. The scene of the attack was also hosed down within an hour, destroying untold amounts of potential evidence. http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Pakistani_police_stopped_doctors_from_conducting_1231.html
From The New Nation, Bangladesh’s Independent News Source, this op-ed reveals US sticky fingers in the Paki pie:
The plan to topple Pakistan's military? Ahmed Quraishi, December 12, 2007
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say.
Islamabad - On the evening of September 26, 2006, Pakistani strongman Pervez Musharraf walked into the studio of Comedy Central's Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the first sitting president anywhere to dare do this political satire show.
Stewart offered his guest some tea and cookies and played the perfect host by asking, "Is it good?" before springing a surprise: "Where's Osama bin Laden?"
[...] What General Musharraf didn't know then is that he really was being cornered. Some of the smiles that greeted him in Washington and back home gave no hint of the betrayal that awaited him.
[...] A carefully crafted media blitzkrieg launched early this year assailing the Pakistani president from all sides, questioning his power, his role in Washington's "war on terror" and predicting his downfall. Money pumped into the country to pay for organized dissent. Willing activists assigned to mobilize and organize accessible social groups.
[...] Currently, students are being recruited and organized into a street movement. The work is ongoing and urban Pakistani students are being cultivated, especially using popular Internet Web sites and "online hangouts". The people behind this effort are mostly unknown and faceless, limiting themselves to organizing sporadic, small student gatherings in Lahore and Islamabad, complete with banners, placards and little babies with arm bands for maximum media effect. No major student association has announced yet that it is behind these student protests, which is a very interesting fact glossed over by most journalists covering the story.
http://www.nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2007/12/12/news0746.htm
Little babies with armbands? Adorable! Here’s to another year, another war for Charlie.

White House Supports Constitution!

In Pakistan, that is. Dana Perino fluffs Bush's "position" on the constitutional crisis in someone else's country. Thanks to Think Progress for this video clip.

White House Tells Musharraf: Never ‘Restrict Constitutional Freedoms’ To Fight Terrorism
During today’s White House press briefing, spokeswoman Dana Perino condemned Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s declaration of “emergency rule” in Pakistan. She said that the administration is “deeply disappointed” by the measure, which suspends the country’s constitution, and believes it is never “reasonable” to “restrict constitutional freedoms in the name of fighting terrorism”:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/11/05/musharraf-freedom