Wake-up call Article based on an interview with retired Lt Gen Paul Van Riper, the 'wily 64-year-old Vietnam veteran' who 'sank most of the US expeditionary fleet in the Persian Gulf' during a recent war game organised by the Pentagon - ' "You're going to have to use cellphones and satellite phones now, they told me. I said no, no, no - we're going to use motorcycle messengers and make announcements from the mosques," he says. "But they refused to accept that we'd do anything they wouldn't do in the west." ' ( Guardian ) See also this Army Times article from last month, and this transcript of a US Defense Dept briefing from last month.LINKS http://www.hullocentral.demon.co.uk/site/anfin.htm The Troubling New Face of America 'We have ignored or condoned abuses in nations that support our anti-terrorism effort, while detaining American citizens as "enemy combatants," incarcerating them secretly and indefinitely without their being charged with any crime or having the right to legal counsel. This policy has been condemned by the federal courts, but the Justice Department seems adamant, and the issue is still in doubt. Several hundred captured Taliban soldiers remain imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay under the same circumstances, with the defense secretary declaring that they would not be released even if they were someday tried and found to be innocent. These actions are similar to those of abusive regimes that historically have been condemned by American presidents' ( Jimmy Carter via Washington Post ) 'Donahue' for Sept 5 Transcript of yesterday's edition of Donahue, a US public affairs programme, during which investigative reporter Greg Palast was interviewed about the electoral assistance George W Bush is giving his brother Jeb in Florida ( MSNBC ) The Florida state pension fund is heavily invested in Enron, apparently (for the record I can't stand Donahue/Carter but we are in a 'kingdom of fear.')