Cedric's Big Mix: By all means, let's worry about Psy's hurt feelings

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

By all means, let's worry about Psy's hurt feelings

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE

OK! MAGAZINE REPORTS:

U.S. leader President BARACK OBAMA made sure South Korean pop star PSY knew there were no hard feelings about his past performances at anti-American rallies with a warm handshake in Washington, D.C. on Sunday night (09Dec12).
[. . .]
And it's clear Obama has already forgiven and moved on - he greeted Psy onstage at the Christmas concert and gave the grateful singer a hug and a handshake.

WELL ISN'T THAT JUST PRECIOUS. PSY CALLS FOR THE DEATH OF U.S. SOLDIERS AND THEIR FAMILIES AND NOT ONLY DOES BARRY O ATTEND THE CONCERT, HE GOES TO HIS FELLOW CELEBRITY TO MAKE SURE PSY KNOWS THERE ARE NO HARD FEELINGS.

AND YOU WONDER WHY SO MANY VETERANS AND SERVICE MEMBERS ARE APPALLED BY THE NUT JOB IN THE WHITE HOUSE?

OUR BITCH BARRY, HE'S QUITE THE PUZZLE.

FROM THE TCI WIRE:

How many US troops remain in Iraq? December 12, 2011, Ted Koppel filed an important report on Rock Center with Brian Williams (NBC) about what was really taking place in Iraq -- what 'reporters' insisted on calling a 'withdrawal' but what the Pentagon had termed a "drawdown." Excerpt.

MR. KOPPEL: I realize you can't go into it in any detail, but I would assume that there is a healthy CIA mission here. I would assume that JSOC may still be active in this country, the joint special operations. You've got FBI here. You've got DEA here. Can, can you give me sort of a, a menu of, of who all falls under your control?

AMB. JAMES JEFFREY: You're actually doing pretty well, were I authorized to talk about half of this stuff.

As September drew to a close, Tim Arango (New York Times) reported that the US had just sent in a Special-Ops division into Iraq. Yesterday Press TV reported:

Over 3,000 US troops have secretly returned to Iraq via Kuwait for missions pertaining to the recent developments in Syria and northern Iraq, Press TV reports.
According to our correspondent, the US troops have secretly entered Iraq in multiple stages and are mostly stationed at Balad military garrison in Salahuddin province and al-Asad air base in al-Anbar province.

Noting those 3,000 troops going into Iraq, The Voice of Russia adds today, "Another 17,000-strong force is preparing to cross the Kuwait-Iraq border over time, Iraqi press says."

Thursday DoD and the State Dept had officials in Iraq. The Defense Dept issued the following that day:

Under the auspices of the Strategic Framework Agreement, the Governments of the United States of America and the Republic of Iraq reaffirmed their commitment to an enduring strategic partnership during the second meeting of the Defense and Security Joint Coordination Committee on December 5-6, 2012 in Baghdad.

The meetings held at the Iraqi Ministry of Defense were co-chaired by Iraqi Defense Minister Saadoun Al-Dlimi, the U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy James Miller, and the Acting Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller.

Defense and Security Cooperation is one of the cooperation areas that were agreed upon in the Strategic Framework Agreement signed in 2008 between the United States Government and the Government of the Republic of Iraq in order to strengthen cooperation in areas of mutual interest for the two countries.

The United States and Iraq discussed efforts to continue strengthening their security cooperation, enhance Iraq's defense capabilities, modernize Iraq's military forces, and facilitate both countries' contributions to regional security. The two delegations explored U.S.-Iraq training opportunities and Iraq's participation in regional exercises.

The United States and Iraq also discussed the strong and growing foreign military sales program, a symbol of the long-term security partnership envisioned by both countries. The United States stated its support for Iraq's efforts to meet its defense and security needs.

Both delegations reviewed regional security issues. They exchanged views on the conflict in Syria and its effects on regional stability, with both sides urging an end to the violence and support for a political transition that would represent the will of the Syrian people. The two sides agreed to continue consulting closely on regional security matters.

The capstone event was the exchange of a Memorandum of Understanding signed by Defense Minister Saadoun Al-Dlimi and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. This agreement represents the enduring strategic partnership between the United States and Iraq, and provides mechanisms for increased defense cooperation in areas including defense planning, counterterrorism cooperation, and combined exercises.

Finally, the United States and the Republic of Iraq committed to convene a third recurring Defense and Security Cooperation Joint Coordination Committee meeting in Washington, D.C., during 2013 to continue discussions on the enduring security and military cooperation between the two countries.

View the Memorandum of Understanding at: http://www.defense.gov/releases/US-IraqMOUDefenseCooperation.pdf

As we noted in real time, Saadoun al-Dulaimi is not Minister of Defense he is 'acting Minister of Defense.' Back in July, Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) observed, "Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has struggled to forge a lasting power-sharing agreement and has yet to fill key Cabinet positions, including the ministers of defense, interior and national security, while his backers have also shown signs of wobbling support." We also noted that the DoD link did not work. It does now. It's a brief document.

The White House got what they wanted: The right to add US troops on the ground in Iraq. Read over section two.

The Participants intend to undertake the following types of defense cooperation activities:

a) reciprocal visits and meetings by high-ranking delegations to military facilities and institutions;

b) exchanges of instructors, training personnel, and students between Participants' military academies and related institutions;

c) counterterrorism cooperation;

d) the development of defense intelligence capabilities;

e) cooperation in the fields of defense-related research and development and technology security;

f) acquisition and procurement of defense articles and services;

g) exchanges of information and experiences acquired in the field of military operations, including in connection with international humanitarian and peacekeeping operations;

h) training and exchange of information regarding the development of military health services, military health facilities, and military medicine training opportunities;

i) training and exchanges of information regarding staff organization and human resources for regulation and management of defense personnel;

j) cooperation for the development of logistics support and sustainment systems;

k) defense planning;

l) joint exercises; and

m) cooperation in the area of social, athletic, and military culture activities.

That's very clear if you understand contracts.

Sadly, with the 2008 Status Of Forces Agreement, we learned that most people -- including reporters -- don't understand contracts. For that reason we did multiple and repeated walk throughs. We explained the aspect of options. At one point, we even used Rick Springfield as an example. We tried to make it interesting and basic. And we went over it over and over. In the community, people understood. Outside the community, our thanks for that was to have United For Peace and Justice loons attack us. The SOFA, they just knew, meant after three years, it's over. Were they lying or were that they stupid?

I'm going to repeat what I said when I got the most ticked off: When you've broken a multi-million dollar contract with a coporation and walked without a lawsuit because you knew what you were doing, then sit yourself down next to me and tell me about contract law. Until then, you should probably just try to nod along to a conversation that is clearly over your head. And if it helps, I didn't just break the contract, I kept the bulk of the money.

As we saw in 2011, the White House was attempting to re-negotiate the SOFA or come up with a new agreement. As we said here, that was a possible outcome. The White House team got caught on the immunity issue in 2011. They also had a more active press which was being fed details of the negotiations by some who did not support US troops remaining in Iraq (for various reasons -- often solely because they didn't want Barack to look like a liar in his 2012 re-election bid). So that ended up being the sticky point. The press then falsely reported negotiations were over. After their false report, we were at the hearing where both General Martin Dempsey (Chair of the Joint Chiefs) and DoD Secretary Leon Panetta testified that negotiations were still going on (Panetta would state in that November Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that he believed some agreement would be reached in 2012). A ton of reporters were present at the hearing but only one reported that aspect: Elisabeth Bumiller of the New York Times. The hearing made all three broadcast networks' evening news -- and they all avoided the actual news that the negotiations continued. Instead, they focused on a 'testy' exchange between Panetta and Senator John McCain that was forgotten before the hearing ended (both men were laughing about the exchange in the second round of questions). That really didn't matter but ongoing negotiations did. (For coverage of that hearing, see November 15th's "Iraq snapshot," November 16th's "Iraq snapshot," November 17th's "Iraq snapshot," Ava's "Scott Brown questions Panetta and Dempsey (Ava)," Wally's "The costs (Wally)," Kat's "Who wanted what?" and Third's "Editorial: The silences that enable and kill," "Enduring bases, staging platforms, continued war" and "Gen Dempsey talks "10 enduring" US bases in Iraq.")

Kid yourself that the news media in America is serving the public and informing them.

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