USA Imperialism

[Michaelangelica]

USA imperialism is quite tame compared to what could be possible. .

 

I am not the only one who feels USA cultural and corporate imperialism

Listen to this from India

 

The Deep End on Tuesday afternoon, 14 Nov, was Zia Sardar. He's UK writer, broadcaster and cultural critic.

He's a columnist for the New Statesman, and the author of two international best sellers, 'Why do People Hate America?' and 'Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim'.

 

Being a daily program, we don't have transcriptions of interviews, but the audio is on the website for a short time at:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/deepend

m

[HydrogenBond]

The USA sort of participates in international corporate imperialism. This may be expedited by the US govenment but it is primarily driven by private enterprise and the free market. The role of the government is to help level the playing field against international protectionism. For example, the US farmers are able to grow most stable crops cheaper than most other inductrial countries. They have a hard time sharing this cheap food productivity with the populations of the world due to protectionism. Many countries fear loosing this basic home industry and set up tarrifs that keep the US food price higher than it should be. Sometimes the US govenment needs to step in a say, lets play fair. You can make cars cheaper and we are not making the price of your autos more expensive to promote our own auto makers. You need to do the same with food. The answer is OK we will allow 2% to come in.

 

The US, on the other hand, has among the most open borders for cheaper foreign goods. The American consumer prefers buying cheaper and is giving the opportunity because of lack to inflated protectionism. A level playing field should go both ways. Things that US does well and/or cheap, should be readily available everywhere. This is not the case. The imperialism one sees are little islands of free enterprise, that have used the power of diplomacy and corruption to get past protectionism. In a free market, there would be many more even larger islands of imperialism.

[Boerseun]

The role of the government is to help level the playing field against international protectionism. For example, the US farmers are able to grow most stable crops cheaper than most other inductrial countries.

Alas, they're not! The only reason they are, in fact, doing it, is through massive subsidies towards farmers. It has been calculated than an average cow in the States is subsidised to the tune of $7 a day. If the US gov let the agriculture sector 'float', to find its own way and true market-related prices, I guess that 90% of farmers will go under, and food prices will rise enormously in the States. This will make imported foods look more attractive, and might even curb obesity! :)

A level playing field should go both ways. Things that US does well and/or cheap, should be readily available everywhere.

True - problem is, the US might do things well, but they don't do it cheap by any stretch. The dollar is simply too strong when compared to Eastern currencies, making the US an import country more than export; the currency imbalance is causing a trade deficit situation that has nothing to do with politics and/or imperialist ambitions.

 

Problem is, of course, that the US through being mostly an importer with a strong currency, everybody is falling over their feet for the US's business. And the US, through military might and economic clout, can basically dictate what the import/export deals will entail. They will expect Africa to open her borders for import/export, but will find Africa's request that the US stop subsidising their farmers so that Africa can compete on an equal level with agricultural product on the American market, unreasonable. Agricultural products are about the only things Africa has going for the export consumer market. If the US and Europe don't play ball with this request, they will have to lend money to African countries till the end of time; there will be no prospect of pulling herself up by her economic bootstraps - the World won't play fair.

 

This is unfair, and hypocritical when we're discussing "free markets".

[Michaelangelica]

The role of the government is to help level the playing field against international protectionism.

For example, the US farmers are able to grow most stable crops cheaper than most other inductrial countries.

The US, on the other hand, has among the most open borders for cheaper foreign goods. .

You realy think so?

Look at this for example

http://www.cwt.org/learn/CWT%20Protection%20Tax%20Study.pdf

• Consumers pay a tax for protectionism that is completely hidden. It is not itemized on

the price tag of the goods we buy. It does not get added to the receipt by the cash

register. But it is there nonetheless, imbedded in the prices we pay for a wide range of

products. It is, in effect, a hidden national sales tax.

• Policy makers, often at the behest of U.S. producers of uncompetitive products, have

elected to impose tariffs, quotas and other forms of protectionism on certain imports.

This protectionism raises the prices of both imported and U.S.-made goods above

what they would be in a freely competitive market. Consumers cannot avoid paying

the “protection tax” by only buying U.S.-made goods.

• We estimate that the hidden “protection tax” paid unwittingly by every American consumer

is equivalent to a national sales tax of more than 6 percent. This hidden sales

tax rate exceeds that imposed by 30 U.S. states on goods consumers buy. Consumers

pay this “protection tax” in addition to any state and local sales taxes levied on

protected goods they buy.

• Because different types of households have different spending patterns, the tax falls

more heavily on some than on others. This means that some households pay much

more than the equivalent of a 6 percent national sales tax faced by the average household.

For example, the national sales tax equivalent for single-parent families is 7.5

percent. For minority households, it is 6.9 percent.

• The biggest contributors to this hidden “protection tax” are U.S. quotas and tariffs affecting

apparel. They equate to a national sales tax of 17.2 percent on apparel purchases.

The hidden “protection tax” on leather luggage is also large, 13.4 percent.

Hidden footwear “protection taxes” amount to an equivalent national sales tax of 7.3

percent. Hidden “protection taxes” affecting food products range from less than 1

percent to more than 4 percent. But hidden “protection taxes” affecting plates, glasses

and cutlery range from 4 to over 11 percent.

• Who gets the “protection tax” proceeds? In some cases

[Michaelangelica]

We've been in Okinawa, for example, ever since 1945. The people there have been fighting against us ever since 1945, in three major revolts -- they hate it.

AlterNet: War on Iraq: Is the American Empire on the Brink of Collapse?

This is as clear a statement of imperial intent as I think one could imagine, and it is what leads to such radical ideas as war as a choice, preventive war, wars such as that in Iraq, which was essentially to expand the empire by providing a new stable base for us in the Middle East, having lost Iran in 1979, and having so antagonized the Saudis that they were no longer allowing us to use our bases there the way we like.

 

So, yes, I think the word imperialism is appropriate here, but not in the sense of colonization of the world. I'm meaning imperialism in the sense of, for example, the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe throughout the Cold War after World War II. That is, we dominate places militarily, we insist on local satellite-type governments that are subservient to us, that follow our orders and report to us when we ask them to. Yet we have troops based in their territories. They are part of our global longevity.

. . .

I believe that's absolutely true. It's one of the reasons why we didn't have a withdrawal strategy from Iraq -- we didn't intend to leave.

 

Several people who retired from the Pentagon in protest at the start of the war -- I'm thinking of Lieutenant Colonel Frank Hoffman particularly -- have testified that the purpose of the invasion was to establish a new, stable pillar of power for the United States in the Middle East.

We had lost our main two bases of power in the region -- Iran, which we lost in 1979 because of the revolution against the Shah, whom we ourselves placed in power -- and then Saudi Arabia, because of the serious blunder made after the first Gulf War -- the placing of American Air Force and ground troops in Saudi Arabia after 1991.

That was unnecessary. It's stupid. We do not have an obligation to defend the government of Saudi Arabia. It was deeply resented by any number of sincere Saudi patriots,

[freeztar]

Alas, they're not! The only reason they are, in fact, doing it, is through massive subsidies towards farmers. It has been calculated than an average cow in the States is subsidised to the tune of $7 a day. If the US gov let the agriculture sector 'float', to find its own way and true market-related prices, I guess that 90% of farmers will go under, and food prices will rise enormously in the States. This will make imported foods look more attractive, and might even curb obesity! :)

 

True - problem is, the US might do things well, but they don't do it cheap by any stretch. The dollar is simply too strong when compared to Eastern currencies, making the US an import country more than export; the currency imbalance is causing a trade deficit situation that has nothing to do with politics and/or imperialist ambitions.

 

Problem is, of course, that the US through being mostly an importer with a strong currency, everybody is falling over their feet for the US's business. And the US, through military might and economic clout, can basically dictate what the import/export deals will entail. They will expect Africa to open her borders for import/export, but will find Africa's request that the US stop subsidising their farmers so that Africa can compete on an equal level with agricultural product on the American market, unreasonable. Agricultural products are about the only things Africa has going for the export consumer market. If the US and Europe don't play ball with this request, they will have to lend money to African countries till the end of time; there will be no prospect of pulling herself up by her economic bootstraps - the World won't play fair.

 

This is unfair, and hypocritical when we're discussing "free markets".

 

Africa is a huge continent. Are you generalizing?

 

The free market is not really free for those outside its bounds. Perhaps this is your argument?

[Michaelangelica]

ON Oz -A bit more political:- (Howard is the PM of oz the head of state is the Queen of Britain - Don't ask)

America has become the world’s most hated nation and will soon attract very real consequences for its actions, one of which is the acquisition of Australia as a colonial trophy.

 

Australia remains an international laughing stock under the servile leadership of lackey prime minister, John Howard; Aussies are experiencing their eleventh year under the rule of the most slavish, gutless, lying, duplicitous, cringing, government on record.

No other leader in world history has displayed the servility and cowardice of John Howard.

When America says jump, the despicable little coward, Howard, says how high, boss!

 

Howard’s servility and compliance has resulted in the construction of two additional American military bases in the North – structures that symbolise U.S. neo-colonialism.

 

The nation will soon play host to U.S. war games and weapons trials, including the use of toxic weapons (DU) and other damaging and polluting weaponry and military hardware designed to wreak havoc on land and sea.

 

We are reminded of acquiescing to British nuclear pollution at Maralinga – do we really need to repeat the same mistakes with Howard and the yanks? It is hoped the locals find breathing radioactive dust (from DU weaponry) and the destruction of pristine coastal environments to their liking, as the matter of a convenient piece of real estate to devastate has been quietly sealed by our Johnny!

 

John (aluminium tubing) Howard has LIED to the nation so often even his most ardent supporters are becoming agitated. Howard’s lies have not been inconsequential, one would not expect otherwise from a person who determines the course of the nation!

 

Howard, oblivious to public anger and resentment, remains unrepentant for his most heinous lie, a lie that involved the nation in an illegal, inglorious war, which has resulted in more civilian casualties than military.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/03/142273_comment.php

[Boerseun]

Africa is a huge continent. Are you generalizing?

Not really. Agriculture and mining, primary resources, is the economic foundation of the whole of Africa outside of South Africa. South Africa has enormous manufacturing capacity, including auto factories that supplies the world with bling like right-hand drive BMW's and Mercedes Benzes. But the rest of Africa is stymied by the mining industries belonging almost wholly to foreign investors, meaning that the profit gained from those enterprises are exported along with the ore. The only benefit they get from it is through selling vastly underpaid labour to those same foreign investors. And then they are hamstrung in the agricultural sector, which is about the only field of economic activity open to them, by foreign markets virtually closing their borders for exports due to incredibly high government subsidies. They are in fact saying "Sure, our borders are open! Send us your beef! But only if you can beat the low prices we pay locally!" ...which they can't, of course, because the viability of American beef to compete on the open market is totally artificial, when viewed in the light of the government subsidies making it possible for a US farmer to do what he does.

The free market is not really free for those outside its bounds. Perhaps this is your argument?

Could be. But how 'free' is a 'free market' when there's a mountain of fiscal incentives built around an industry that cannot really stand on its own feet? When it comes to beef, for instance, it's a free market in the States as long as you're a US citizen and you're raising, buying and selling your beef inside the borders of the US.

You cannot, in all fairness, insist on African countries opening their borders to your products whilst at the same time for all practical purposes closing your borders to the products generated by the only viable Africa industry in African hands, albeit de facto and not de jure.

[silverslith]

Here in NZud we have no tariffs left on imports. There are quota limits and tariffs on our exports to the US. Personally I actively avoid exporting to the US because I can't stomach the thought that the US govt makes more profit than I do- Then spends 60% on war. I know a lot of people that refuse to trade with US companies.

The Media here never stops ranting about how much we need a "free trade" deal with the US. Most people I know say they'd rather scavange from rubbish bins to survive. Theres been plenty of regrets from countries that have. "free trade" to the US means "open up all your service industries to ownership by our corperations "(power, telecommunications,schools, water)

eg: ITV - John Pilger - The return of people power

Throughout Latin America, mass resistance movements have grown so fast that they now overshadow traditional parties. In Venezuela, they provide the popular support for the reforms of Hugo Chávez. Having emerged spontaneously in 1989 during the Caracazo, an eruption of political rage against Venezuela’s subservience to the free-market demands of the IMF and World Bank, they have provided the imagination and dynamism with which the Chávez government is attacking the scourge of poverty.

Here in the west, as people abandon the political parties they once thought were theirs, there is much to learn from resistance movements in dangerous places and their tactics of informed direct action. We have our own examples in Britain, such as the achievements of the growing resistance to Blair and Brown’s privatising of the National Health Service by stealth. An American giant, United Health Europe, has been prevented from taking control of GP (local medical) services in Derbyshire, after the community was not consulted and fought back. Pat Smith, a pensioner, took the case to court and won. “This shows what people power can do,” she said, as if speaking for millions.

 

There is no difference in principle between Pat Smith’s campaign of resistance and that of the people of Cochabamba who refused to pay almost half their income to an American company for their water.

 

That water thing was outrageous. Charging people half the average income to collect rainwater off their own roofs.

No wonder the people of south America have risen up and reclaimed democracy and freedom from the puppets of US greed corp.

 

Greed is the problem. If you worship greed and Reward the most insanely greedy with as much power and money as they can wish for, then they just get more insanely greedy. You need mechanisms to cap greed.

From outside looking in, either you're pretty thick and sucked in by the hollywood/fox/cnn marketing machine, or the US does not look like a place worth imitating. I mean- denying people healthcare if they can't afford it? higher infant mortality than cuba? xenophobia and the myth of American exceptionalism?

[silverslith]

British Imperialism:evil: , but not dissimilar. highly recommended reading:

 

The SAS: Prince Philip's manager of terrorism

 

....SAS methods and procedures

According to the British Army handbook, the SAS is "particularly suited, trained, and equipped for counter-revolutionary operations," with a specialization in "infiltration," "sabotage," "assassination," as well as "liaison with, organization, training, and control of friendly guerrilla forces operating against the common enemy." From its inception in World War II, Special Air Services was detailed to run sabotage behind enemy lines and to organize popular revolt, at first in North Africa, and then in the Balkans, where another Stirling cousin, Fitzroy Maclean, ran British operations.

At the end of the war, SAS was disbanded, but it was soon revived to crush the Malay insurgency in Malaysia, and the Mau Mau insurgency in Kenya. The principle employed was to take over the insurgency from within, and use it to destroy the native population. In his 1960 book Gangs and Countergangs, Col. Frank Kitson boasted that the British were covertly leading several large-scale Mau Mau units, and that many, if not all Mau Mau units had been synthetically created by the colonial authorities. As a result of this practice, 22 whites were killed during the insurgency, as compared to 20,000 natives......

 

...Today, there are three known SAS regiments, comprising 4,500 highly trained commandos in total. Training exercises for 15-man teams simulate terrorist assaults, in order, it is said, to "know the mind of the terrorist." Such teams are often sent abroad, to train British Commonwealth and other military units in the techniques of terrorist assault, as well as the use of tribal auxiliaries in covert warfare. Through such means, SAS has built an extensive terrorist control capability, especially in its former colonies. Its soldiers currently serve officially in some 30 countries.

 

'Private' means 'Her Majesty's'

In order to facilitate its role as a disavowable arm of royal household covert operations, SAS has spun off a series of private security and mercenary recruitment firms led by its retired or reserve-status officers. Among these are Keenie Meenie Services, whose name is taken from the Swahili term for the motion of a snake in the grass. During its heyday in the 1980s, KMS shared offices with Saladin Security, another SAS firm, next door to the 22nd SAS Regimental HQ in London. The firms were run by Maj. David Walker, an SAS South American specialist; Maj. Andrew Nightingale of SAS Group Intelligence; and Detective Ray Tucker, a former Arab affairs specialist at Scotland Yard.

 

Others SAS firms include:

 

Kilo Alpha Services (KAS), run by former SAS Counter-Terrorism Warfare team leader Lt. Col. Ian Crooke;

 

 

Control Risks, run by former SAS squadron leader Maj. Arish Turtle; and

 

 

J. Donne Holdings, run by SAS counterespionage specialist H.M.P.D. Harclerode, whose firm later provided bodyguards and commando training for Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi.

SAS operations under KMS label have been particularly important. In 1983, Lt. Col. Oliver North hired KMS to train the Afghan mujahideen, and simultaneously, to mine Managua harbor in Nicaragua, and to train the Nicaraguan Contras. At the same time, KMS was detailed to provide personal security for the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar, a close associate of then Vice President George Bush, who helped supply tens of billions of Saudi dollars for "Iran-Contra" operations internationally.....

[freeztar]

Not really. Agriculture and mining, primary resources, is the economic foundation of the whole of Africa outside of South Africa. South Africa has enormous manufacturing capacity, including auto factories that supplies the world with bling like right-hand drive BMW's and Mercedes Benzes. But the rest of Africa is stymied by the mining industries belonging almost wholly to foreign investors, meaning that the profit gained from those enterprises are exported along with the ore. The only benefit they get from it is through selling vastly underpaid labour to those same foreign investors. And then they are hamstrung in the agricultural sector, which is about the only field of economic activity open to them, by foreign markets virtually closing their borders for exports due to incredibly high government subsidies. They are in fact saying "Sure, our borders are open! Send us your beef! But only if you can beat the low prices we pay locally!" ...which they can't, of course, because the viability of American beef to compete on the open market is totally artificial, when viewed in the light of the government subsidies making it possible for a US farmer to do what he does.

Could be. But how 'free' is a 'free market' when there's a mountain of fiscal incentives built around an industry that cannot really stand on its own feet? When it comes to beef, for instance, it's a free market in the States as long as you're a US citizen and you're raising, buying and selling your beef inside the borders of the US.

You cannot, in all fairness, insist on African countries opening their borders to your products whilst at the same time for all practical purposes closing your borders to the products generated by the only viable Africa industry in African hands, albeit de facto and not de jure.

 

Good points about the bling and vroooms!

 

I think the beef example is a bit off though. There are other reasons that cows, not to mention other furries, are not imported from Africa, such as disease. I also wonder about the shipping costs. African beef exporters must surely take a huge profit hit from shipping if they wish to compete with the US market. I would guess that this loss far outweighs any subsidies, but this is just a guess. :D

 

Is it fair, maybe, maybe not?

Free does not imply fair.

Is it imperialistic?

I'd say so, or at least, really naughty. ;)

[silverslith]

This seems to be one of the biggest wrong turns in the evolution of the US political system:

 

 

 

We the (Propertied ) People: Undemocratic Provisions of the U.S. Constitution

 

A convention was called by the states in 1787 to craft modest amendments to the Articles of Confederation directed primarily toward issues of trade. There was no popular election of delegates and the Federalists in atten dan ce used this opportunity to bypass the Articles and write a new Constitution instead. It was an undemocratic convention (could we call it a coup d' état?) with meetings closed and the proceedings not made public for 53 years.

 

The men central to this project are familiar to us all. The monarchist, Alexander Hamilton, spoke for the commercial interests, wanting a government "capable of regulating, protecting and extending the commerce of the Union ...able to protect against the domestic violence and the depredations which the democratic spirit is apt to make on property..." He saw the people as "a great beast." In attendance was George Washington, the wealthiest man in the new nation, who believed "we have probably had too good an opinion of human nature in forming our confederation. Experience has taught us that men will not adopt and carry into execution measures best calculated for their own good without the intervention of a coercive power." John Jay was there, too. He thought "the people who own the country ought to govern it." And then there was young James Madison who wrote: "The public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the people, will be more consonant to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves."

 

By What Authority - Winter 2006

 

The whole article seems to give a good summary of how the US "democracy" evolved. Any Americans care to comment?

By the way, American people are generally very nice and well meaning in my experience. I've been to the states a couple of times. Its just a shame that the loons at the extreme have such power.

[silverslith]

US imperialism (18,600,000 google results for "the school of the America's"):

Rev. Charles Booker-Hirsch: Taking on the School of the Americas

Graduates from Ft. Benning partook in Latin America's most corrupt regimes, yet Congress still funds the school

by Rev. Charles Booker-Hirsch

 

Since the tragedy of 9/11, we have learned some of the ways Osama bin Laden has schooled his al-Qaida organization into a formidable terrorist organization. No major media organization I know of, however, dares today to discuss how for more than five decades - the last two decades on our own soil - our own government systematically has been operating a more substantial terrorist school.

 

Established in Panama in 1946 as a hemispheric Cold War beachhead, the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA), which operates solely for the training of Latin American military officers, was moved to Ft. Benning in Columbus, GA in 1984. Over 60,000 have graduated. They include Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega and Bolivian dictator Hugo Banzer; the assassins of an archbishop, a bishop, six Jesuit priests and four American churchwomen; and countless other military strongmen responsible for the deaths of literally hundreds of thousands.

 

From 1989-93, I worked with and heard the graphic persecution stories of untold numbers of Central American refugees fleeing de facto military dictatorships. It was no coincidence that the majority of SOA graduates in those years hailed from the Central American countries of Guatemala and El Salvador. Today, the majority of trainees are imported from Colombia, where we have pumped over $2 million of military aid daily the last two years into a "war on drugs" smokescreen for business interests that has only served to inflame the 40-year civil war there. Just two weeks ago, a narrow House majority freed this "drug eradication" money to openly engage in counterinsurgency operations. Vietnam, anyone?

 

In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the school that advocated the use of torture, extortion and execution,

[Michaelangelica]

Interesting posts all.

 

We are going though this ludicrous "free trade" charade now.

The yanks want to stop us subsidizing medicine, promoting some (very little) Oz TV and film etc while they still subsidize their own beef and wheat markets.

It is a farce, a sham designed to help one county alone. Ask the Canadians and the Mexicans.

 

Seems Saudi Arabia is getting a bit tetchy about the USA and Bush Foreign policy these days too. A bit concerned we might end up with Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni sates 'a la Yugoslavia'.

The whole Middle East is looking more like a racial civil war zone all the time.

The dotted lines the Allies and Britain drew on the map after WW1 and WW2 don't seem to be holding any more.

 

No doubt the Saudi Arabia are still sending their generous tithes to worthy charities in Afghanistan supported by the Bin Laden family.?

ContreInfo :: L’Arabie Saoudite s’émancipe des USA (VO)

When Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah opened the Arab Summit in Riyadh this week, speaking about Iraq as a land where “blood flows between brothers in the shadow of an illegitimate foreign occupation and hateful sectarianism,” he offended many policymakers in Washington.

. . .

you cannot escape the reality that Israel is occupying Syrian territory, is occupying Lebanese territory, is occupying Palestinian territory. How can you escape the fact that you must solve these in order to make peace ?

. . .

There was hope, for instance, that Saudi Arabia would use its leverage to win the freedom of an Israeli soldier held in Gaza since last summer.

 

We didn’t talk about that.

 

You didn’t talk about that at all ?

 

At all. It is not our concern.

. . .

 

It’s been said that Saudi Arabia may force oil prices down to punish Iran. They’re not going to be brought down.

 

No ?

 

No. People need oil.

and

Second, there is Saudi Arabia.

King Abdullah has been watching the Sunni versus Shiite sectarian violence in Iraq and the formation of a Shiite government in Baghdad with increasing concern.

Ten percent of the Saudi population is Shiite. The Saudi Shiites haven't shared in the riches of the Saudi economy fueled by petro dollars and have no say in the Sunni controlled monarchy.

However, these Shiites happen to be the main population group in the eastern part of the kingdom which is where the oil is. If King Abdullah, head of the Arab Sunni world, isn't sleeping soundly these days, there's a reason.

He has to be worried about a scenario in which the Shiites in his country, inspired by the example of the Iraqi Shiites, rise up and say "goodbye Abdullah," and start their own oil rich state.

The Saudi King and his entourage will be back riding camels.

 

Even if that doesn't occur, Abdullah has to worry about sabotage by Shiites aimed at his oil infrastructure. The Saudis may be able to defend against attacks on the ground, but missiles from Tehran are another matter.

 

Then there's Israel. Since Israel's creation in 1948, the Saudis have been bitterly opposed to the existence of the Jewish state in the Middle East.

Prior to Saddam's overthrow, no Saudi ruler ever uttered the "I" word in public. But all that changed recently.

Last week, King Abdullah publicly declared that the Arabs are willing to have normal relations with Israel once it makes peace with its neighbors.

Unintended Consequences

[silverslith]

More US/UK Imperialism: echelon the global spy network that intercepts all our telephone,radio,internet and email and faxes worldwide:

 

Officially, much of the NSA's time and resources is still directed at military and criminal targets but since the wall came down the President has specifically tasked spy agencies like the NSA to gather economic intelligence - and that brief sometimes includes sensitive commercial intelligence.

 

WAYNE MADSEN: Economic intelligence right now is king. It is the number one priority.

 

REPORTER: Former NSA staffer and intelligence commentator Wayne Madsen told Sunday Australia is being naive if it thinks economic intelligence obtained through Echelon intercepts on Australian soil is not being used to help American companies gain a trading edge.

 

MADSEN: The people at NSA and other intelligence agencies have been quite open with the fact that they say that if we find something that could benefit a US company we would have no problem in passing it along. But they usually confine that to Fortune 500 firms. We will only deal with the big guys. Economic intelligence gathering is the number one priority and there's many different programs being introduced to help economic intelligence gathering along. The most important of which is the plan or program to restrict the use of cryptography around the world to make it easier for intelligence agencies to listen in on sensitive business type information that may be encrypted.

 

Big Brother is listening

[Michaelangelica]

My rants on hypography especially those on "Plastic Plants" will probably have me in Guantanamo soon.

 

As it is the NSW Police Terrorist Squad have inquired about my interest in Charcoal

(see Terra preta thread)

 

Will you all send me care parcels to Guantanamo?

( Under the Geneva conventions they are allowed- but no -one has tested this yet)

 

More on cultural imperialism here:-

Cultural Imperialism: United States of America and Australia

[silverslith]

Sure I'll send you parcels. They'll probably come for me first though. :eek2: