wikileaks video of u.s. helicopters killing ppl/reporters in iraq + some thoughts

i tweeted on this earlier but in case anyone missed, here is wikileaks video of u.s. helicopters killing ppl and reporters in iraq in 2007. details are in the video. its authenticity has not been disputed. (warning : some may find this disturbing.)



as far as i can see no major western news media organization has posted wikileaks video in their main outlets in full (in blogs/cnn ireport/etc, yes, but not in frontend)

on sunday americans also admitted that their coalition forces had a role in killing of some afghan women in february. there were many other similar incidents in the past.

meanwhile american installed and later elected afghan president hamid karzai has continued to condemn international coalition's disregard for civilians casualties.

he has also claimed that westerners are responsible for the fraud in recent afghan elections. he even named alleged main fraudsters; peter galbraith, american former deputy head of the un mission, and philippe porillon, french former head of european union election monitoring team. (the story is also available in non western media w/o the pro western anti karazi spin. i selected a western source so that reader can decide what is spin and what is not therein)

there are claims of fraud in recent iraqi elections too (anyway why does results take so long (weeks) to be released in both those countries? in sl they come out within hours and the process is open).

my thoughts
now i fully support american war against terrorism and use of military violence in the process.

i am also aware of the almost certain possibility of accidents, as well as outbreaks of indiscipline, criminality, and insanity, in some members of military in spite of all the best efforts of political and military leadership, and institutional precautions.

what i cannot stand is hypocrisy.

why is sri lanka and sri lankan military accused of all sorts of war crimes in its fight against ltte tamil tiger terrorists (with almost no credible and authentic evidence to back up the charges) while western government aren't (even with much more solid evidence for their alleged crimes)? accusations are certainly not made on the same level.

even when they are made there is a telling difference in how accusations are framed; it is never the 'americans', 'british', etc., or their governments, who are committing 'war crimes' but some specific soldiers, 'bad apples', etc., but in accusations against sri lanka it is always 'sri lankans', 'sinhalese', 'tamils', and sl government, who are committing the alleged war crimes.

all that is due to double standards, hypocrisy, and yes, racism .

of course realistic sri lankans expect that sort of treatment from west. we know we have to fight our own battles and cannot expect west to act with justice and fairness to us. look at the pathetic predicament and treatment of karzai for what happens to ppl who depend on west.

that is why we should not allow those hypocrites to assume some sort of fake moral superiority in order presume to pass judgment on us. we have to aggressively confront them with facts and truth and reveal their hypocrisy and presumption. it may not have any effect on them, but we need to make our position clear; they have no right to judge us.

but there are born and paid slaves here who see no such double standard in behavior of the west in spite of evidence. that sort of filth believe the best about their masters in west and worst about us. its about time sri lankans at large treat these as they deserve. i for one has always done that.

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this blog's twitter - http://twitter.com/llibertarian

sarath fonseka the man - vicious, vindictive, control freak

when making our decision in presidential election, in addition to policies, we have to consider the personality of the candidates.

we know who mahinda rajapaksa is. i have called him a buffalo for a long time. i still think that is an apt description of his personality, encompassing both favorable and unfavorable character traits of the president.

we don't know much about sarath foneska, but following videos will help.

picture that emerges from them is not a good one.

according to some of his former subordinates and colleagues, sarath fonseka is a vicious, vindictive, control freak. you can watch the following videos and decide for yourself.

stories they tell are one sided, but they are real people with names and histories. they have also sought redress from courts. iow, they are not mere allegations.
[they were uploaded by one yahaluwa. in some of the videos there is a slight audio delay]


lieutenant colonel siri perera



major lakshman palipana



lance corporal bandara



warrant officer s a s wijetunga



captain saman de silva

i am also including the press conference of upul ilangamge (this is first part of a youtube upload, for other 5 parts go to pathumvision's channel). however i recommend that you watch the full original (46min) video at adaderana website. it is mainly about hicorp corruption scandal involving fonseka and his family, but i am including it here bc some of character traits (vindictiveness, etc) as described by ilangamge confirm the picture of fonseka that emerge from above interviews.



fonseka's response to this (uploaded by lankarising) is telling.

(btw i am not concentrating on corruption (and never have in this blog), bc i don't think it can be eradicated by exposure and prosecutions alone, though those things too must happen. as i have said before, only way to lessen corruption is to shrink the government, thereby taking away power over regulations and funds, from politicians, political appointees, and other public officials.)

add to all this, fonseka's almost public over the top abuse of unp mp dayasiri jayasekera for being the only one in fonseka camp brave and willing enough to participate in a projected 'rathu ira' tv debate on hicorp scandal. remember just a few days before same mp had to spend a night in jail bc of his support for same foneska (when crowd at a rally roughed up a heckler). after that tongue lashing from fonseka, ranil wikremasighe's reprimand of jayasekera must have seemed like a message of love to jayasekera. lol

add too, fonseka's provocative statements, to 'punish' various ppl (rajapaksas, other political opponents, police officer, army generals, etc, etc. ) by a various methods (ranging from prison to stripping of uniforms) within 24 hours/one week (i.e, extra judicially) of him getting elected. of course this sort of thing is common in sri lankan political speeches, but not by the main candidates.

some personality traits which may have been not harmful (or may even have been beneficial) in running an organization like the army, where ppl are trained to obey commands, in order to effectively fight ruthless terrorists, may not be all that good in a president of a democratic country, where ppl are and should be allowed to act freely, and must be persuaded rather than be commanded.

i don't much care what a person's personality is in private life as long as that person stays within the laws. however i think voters should take care to look at the character of persons offering to hold the highest and most powerful job in the country.

imo sarath fonseka is not suitable.

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my twitter - http://twitter.com/sittingnut
this blog's twitter - http://twitter.com/llibertarian

'rebel without a cause' screen test of james dean, natalie wood, and sal mineo + corresponding scene from movie

rebel without a cause is a movie i love. i have watched it countless times. i am also a fan of both james dean and natalie wood.

so i was glad to see this youtube video (uploaded by blumoon531. thanks!) of a screen test of three man actors; dean, wood and sal mineo. it is actually two tests, second one runs for few seconds and has no audio.



in the next video (uploaded by jimmysgirl. thanks!) you can see the actual (much improved) scene corresponding to the first screen test. the video contains most of the initial 'abandoned mansion' sequence of the movie and is 7 min long. screen tested scene starts at about 3.35 and continues almost to the end (in fact uploader has edited out few seconds of the sequence at the end and replaced it with few seconds a kiss from a little later).



note: second video has very low audio. if your speakers/earphones at maximum volume don't help, you might try downloading and playing it in a media player; after few minutes, audio becomes normal quality and remains so even on replay. no idea why.

for those who don't know already, all three actors in these videos died prematurely.
james dean, famously due to a car accident, at age 24, even before this film (2nd of his only 3 feature films) came out.
natalie wood, from drowning at age 43.
sal mineo was stabbed to death at age 37.

of course you can find lots of clips from movie, as well as fan made tribute music videos on youtube. there are even copies of the atrocious original trailer. i don't think full movie is there. i don't recommend watching the movie (or any other movie) on youtube if you have not seen it already. it deserves better.

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this blog's twitter - http://twitter.com/llibertarian

sunday post: a scene from "children of a lesser god"

i love this movie, watched it again last night. while the plot outline is a bit formulaic, the characters and the acting make it exceptional, resulting in memorable scenes like the one below.

marlee matlin deserved her best actress oscar (on her debut film and she is the youngest ever to win) . william hurt, piper laurie were also great.



this scene was uploaded by one disclem. thanks.

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my twitter - http://twitter.com/sittingnut
this blog's twitter - http://twitter.com/llibertarian

sunday post : litany of the saints

today is all saints' day, hence this youtube video.
i tweeted another video of litany of the saints (litania sanctorum) earlier today but this one ( uploaded by one coilette3004 on october 30, 2009) is imo better. both recorded during funeral of john paul II.

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my twitter - http://twitter.com/sittingnut
this blog's twitter - http://twitter.com/llibertarian

some quick points and questions about the channel 4's alleged "execution video"

british channel 4 tv has broadcast a video showing execution of naked, blindfolded, and bound men. they claim it shows tamils being killed by sri lankan military.
video is available on the web. here is a rapidshare link (h/t bailaman). (viewer warning - disturbing graphic content )

here are few things to keep in mind when looking at video and before drawing any conclusions from it.

clearly it is a horrible crime, if real. and those responsible should be brought to justice.

however in order to take this seriously or any kind of action to be taken, we need clarity concerning several things ( esp given the well documented and exposed doctoring of pictures and video by ltte terrorist propaganda.) .

[let us not forget channel 4 along with some other british media cater to a large tamil diaspora in uk (that includes lot of organized racists that sympathize with and financed the ltte murderers of us, sri lankans.) channel 4 in particular has failed to cover or expose this murderous financing and those involved. so much for its investigative abilities or objectivity]

first who provided the video? the video was allegedly provided by a group called "journalists for democracy in sri lanka (jds)" which has a german address. no names or interviews with anyone from this group were provided by channel 4. why? even though this group allegedly consists of exiled sri lankan journalists.

as they confess, channel 4 has clearly not independently verified the video. also it is wrong to claim it "cannot" be verified. i have nothing against their broadcasting a video of an alleged crime. however the claims they make (see below) cannot be justified if they have not verified it.

it is not clear where it was made and when. channel 4 claims jds claimed it was made in january 2009. but these are mere claims only, with nothing to back them up. sri lanka has a long history of conflict against terrorists, in north against racists and in south against marxists. lot of other criminal/vigilante/splinter groups too involved in these conflicts. so if this took place anywhere in sri lanka, it could have happened anytime during last few decades.

channel 4 claimed that killers speak a "country boy sinhalese accent" (!?!), in a "casual" tone.
indeed, a few words are heard in sinhalese in the background.
words as far as i can hear can be translated-

"as if can see... looked away "
"(indistinct)"
"that is a real..."
"strike? strike (repeated)" (i translated "gahamu" and similar as "strike", may be "hit" is better?)
"take turns like ...(comparison indistinct) ..."
"coming like ...(no comparison)"
"me (or i was) requested (by) this thing(or one- "oka")"
"telling stay and look? ...what? "
"sssstriiiike (sic). ours, its government property ... let's strike"

however it is not clear that killers in video speak at all, we do not see their mouths. and those killed are silent; no screams or moaning heard .

lot more gun shots are heard than those used for alleged killings in video, which are carried out by shooting one by one in single bursts of fire. where are the other shots coming from? in spite those shots, those recording and taking part in killing in the video, do not seem to feel threatened, even though they seem to be in an open field. camera for instance is steady and does not respond to shots heard, considering it is hand held.

it is quite possible that sound in the video was added later from a separate video/sound footage of fighting. this is just a theory but not outlandish given the doctoring of pictures and videos by ltte terrorist propaganda.

and the video was allegedly made from a mobile phone by a soldier (again channel 4 does not provide any basis for these claims). to a completely inexperienced person on the subject (like me) it seems to be made from a better quality camera. also there is no date or other identification marks on video footage.

killers do wear uniforms that show some vague similarity to sl military uniforms, but they are certainly not distinct enough for claims to be made that they are sl army uniforms.

there is no basis whatsoever in video to claim that those killed were tamils.


ethics and motives of claims, comparisons, and conclusions
in addition to those questions, there is also the ethics and motives of equalizing and identifying of various others with alleged killers (esp by "media").

even if this video is authentic. what does it prove? some (usual suspects the ngo peaceniks etc.) have already tried to make out that sri lankan armed forces are "guilty" and "same as ltte terrorists". others say that sri lanka should prove its innocence with a "neutral inquiry".

those conclusions are unwarranted even if the video is authentic.

how are sri lankans as a whole a guilty of this crime? or even sl military as a whole? at worst, it is a case of indiscipline by few criminal idiots in military. to slander thousands and millions of others who have no involvement is unwarranted and despicable .

this crime should be dealt with using normal judicial procedures relating to murder and military discipline (if video is verifiable and can be admitted as evidence) or if otherwise, sri lankan and other intelligence services dealing with terrorists' propaganda. those interested can follow those procedures and if there is anything wrong with them speak out .

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i also don't see how or why this makes sl military same as ltte. ltte deliberately carried out killings of civilians as a policy. on the other hand, there is no proof that sri lankan military or civilian authorities sanctioned anything similar. on the contrary, they ruled out certain weapons and tactics (at the cost of lives for them) bc they can result in civilian deaths when terrorist murderers were holding civilians as human shields.

only a pro terrorist propagandist will claim that this video (even if authentic) proves sri lanka military is same as ltte.
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if you feel that i have not covered any point about the video or that i was mistaken in anything feel free to comment. i may cover this later in another post if more details are forthcoming about the video.

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this blog's twitter - http://twitter.com/llibertarian

over 35k hostages of terrorist ltte escape + how to recognize pro terrorist propaganda in news about civilians and "safe zone"

post updated with video, see below.

it is clear from variety of sources that during past day 35000 or more civilians held as human shields by tamil tiger terrorist pussies in so called safe zone and elsewhere have escaped from them in spite of pussy attempts to deter them, (using shootings and suicide bombers, 3 such bombers have killed at least 17 innocents so far ) and natural obstacles like lagoon ( some ppl have waded through chest high in water). ppl have been escaping at the rate of about 500 on average daily, some days more, some days less, from january.

as i said before plight of tamil civilians have only reinforced the truth so obvious to everyone but the pro terrorist peaceniks; "ltte does not care for tamils and is only using them as human shields both literally and in propaganda. ...civilians will never be safe as long as they are under the ltte, ceasefire or no ceasefire, safe zone or no safe zone.anyone under ltte will be used either as a shield or a weapon."

i asked then whether peaceniks will acknowledge the truth now? and predicted that they will not, that they already know it and except for literal idiots among them, they are acting so by deliberate choice. as such they should suffer the same fate as nazi collaborators in europe bc the crimes are similar. (for specifics as to who i mean by peaceniks pl read the linked post or ps below )

during past few months these ngo peaceniks and their pro terrorist tamil diaspora backers have tried to influence foreign governments and un to force a ceasefire ( as if we did not have enough of murderous ceasefires ) on sri lankan government and let ltte mass murderers breathing space to crawl out of the hole. for this purpose they have used selective and biased reports about the so called safe zone, camps where escapees from terrorists temporarily settle, and demonstrations in foreign cities.

here are some points that distinguish ltte (and terrorist parroting peacenik ) propaganda about these things from factual reporting.

terrorist propaganda,

• ignore the fact that government set up the safe zone in the first place.
• are full of unsubstantiated reports that government is attacking civilians in safe zone.
• ignores the ltte military build up in the safe zone in spite of clear proofs ( including visual ).
• ignore the fact that governmet has been supplying food and medicines to safe zone ( and the fact that ltte commandeers most of these)
• ignore the fact that ltte has held not only innocent civilians and used them for its military purposes, but that it has held un and ngo workers for the same purposes as well.
• make unwarranted comparisons between nazi concentration camps and camps where civilians escapees are temporarily settled to which un, red cross and some other ngos have access.
• repeat the unsubstantiated 100,000 as the number of civilians trapped in ltte control. it was "100,000" in january it is "100,000" now, in spite of 500 average daily escapees who populate the camps mentioned above.
• imply that any military action to finish off ltte will be the death of the "100,000", in spite of the remarkable fact ( for which sri lankan military should receive more recognition) that civilian deaths in military actions from 2006 to now, has been minimal compared to other such wars .
• use demonstrations in foreign cities to push the racist agenda that ltte = tamils and the laughable claim that ltte is fighting for tamil rights, when vast majority of tamils in sri lanka and lot of tamils in diaspora do not support terrorist tigers, and ltte has been the number one cause of tamil suffering.
• ignore the fact that these foreign demonstrations are organized by terrorist fronts
• do not mention that in past month terrorist front groups in norway attacked the sri lanka embassy there, violating a law that even ancient barbarians respected and that pro ltte norwegian government has yet to arrest the perpetrators in spite of video evidence. it is not by coincidence that lot of pro terrorist ngos like center for policy alternatives (cpa) , free media movement(fmm) , inform , and other ngos have norway or groups in norway as principal donors.
• neglect to mention the fact that most of noise coming from foreign governments come from places (like india , britain, and norway ) where there is a tamil population (with attendant and intimidating pro terrorist criminal groups) and where elections are underway or soon expected. noise is mostly confined to parties or individuals politicians who will be affected by tamil voting. in other words these are despicable attempts at pandering to racism to score political points locally. thankfully most of the grown up responsible politicians in those countries ( perhaps well aware of their countries less than stellar historical record) are staying well away .

i can probably make some more points but will stop for now.

now if you see any "news" report that does any of the above please protest any way you can (write/email to editors and news organizations, comment on blogs, use social media like facebook and twitter etc) . feel free to use the points i make above .

every single contribution is important bc only relatively few sri lankans have the economic resources to engage in such protest against ltte propaganda through internet etc. it is also important bc most foreign news organizations do not have real news sources in sri lanka and rely on second hand sources that have been tainted by terrorists sympathizers like bbc sri lanka service or ngos like cpa ( which is still sometimes called "independent" in news items when it has repeatedly shown its pro terrorist bias, among other things when it publicly lobbied to stop the eu ban on ltte) .

do not be discouraged by attacks from pro terrorists or censorship. your point ( based on factual truth after all ) will get through eventually, if the news organization has any honest ppl. if news organization is corrupt and false to the core, it will fail or sink into obscurity in the long run.

update
here is a rupavahini video of civilians escaping from terrorists via youtube channel of lkwebnews. visit lkwebnews for more srilankan news videos .

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ps
by peaceniks i mean people who think peace is worth any cost (even cost of human rights, justice, democracy, and freedom ). that is people like paikiasothy saravanamuttu, jehan perera, jayadeva uyangoda, sunila abeysekera, sunanda deshapriya, nimalka fernando, rohan edirisinha, jeevan thiagarajaha, and their ilk (and their underlings like sanjana hattotuwa). and their fellow travelers in the sl blogosphere like hypocrite indi.ca/padashow.wordpress (son and tool of a corrupt political appointee) and his cronies.

btw sanjana hattotuwa's groundviews blog is an excellent example for the sort of terrorist propaganda pointed out above, you will see that posts there adhere to all or some of distinguishing features of ltte propaganda pointed out above .

pps
some of the indi padashow's suckerboys ( led these days by a certain drummerboy, but others no doubt like to be first with puckered lips) object to my use of words like "pussy" (used by me exclusively for cowardly tiger terrorists, and has no reference to female vagina (really!) which suckerboys hate/envy), "corrupt political appointee" (fact. what else can you call corruption? it is corruption by indi.padashow's own standards, in fact with more evidence ), "peaceniks" ( what to call ppl who value peace above human rights, justice, democracy, and freedom as documented by their won actions and writings, esp with regard to sole representative status of ltte) , etc. btw "padashow" is the name of a blog indi and perhaps others, use to attack ppl while denying authorship.

bc facts and honesty wins out in this blog over cronyism, sorry, i cannot do without those words, boys. in fact i will write more about these suckerboy attacks on me with relevant links soon when i have the time.

meanwhile, i hear that indi padashow is campaigning for his latest squeeze shiral lakthilaka (indi's former idols include mervyn silva, mangala samaraweera etc. all his daddy's potential or former political benefactors),a peacenik underling, who wants to get elected to western provincial council and subsist on taxpayer money while doing nothing, now that ngo peacenik business is turning out to be a dead end.

i cannot confirm this, but indi reportedly tried to perform the same services for duminda silva, (ranil's favorite in last pc election but this time in upfa), before settling on lakthilaka; it seems duminda kicked him out saying he prefers teenage girls to nerdy men. lol. anyway problem with lakthilaka's campaign is that it is run from trinco hotels while electorate is in colombo.

ppps
talking about trinco hotels, isn't it ironic how peacniks and friends enjoy the fruits of military and political actions against terrorists (safe eastern province beaches ) while denouncing and misrepresenting them. more hypocrisy anyone?

sylvia plath reading "daddy"

just read that sylvia plath's son has committed suicide. feeling weird for some reason after that.
anyway in the youtube video below she is reading the poem "daddy".

Daddy by: Sylvia Plath

You do not do, you do not do Any more, black shoe In which I have lived like a foot For thirty years, poor and white, Barely daring to breathe or Achoo. Daddy, I have had to kill you. You died before I had time-- Marble-heavy, a bag full of God, Ghastly statue with one gray toe Big as a Frisco seal And a head in the freakish Atlantic Where it pours bean green over blue In the waters off beautiful Nauset. I used to pray to recover you. Ach, du. In the German tongue, in the Polish town Scraped flat by the roller Of wars, wars, wars. But the name of the town is common. My Polack friend Says there are a dozen or two. So I never could tell where you Put your foot, your root, I never could talk to you. The tongue stuck in my jaw. It stuck in a barb wire snare. Ich, ich, ich, ich, I could hardly speak. I thought every German was you. And the language obscene An engine, an engine Chuffing me off like a Jew. A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen. I began to talk like a Jew. I think I may well be a Jew. The snows of the Tyrol, the clear beer of Vienna Are not very pure or true. With my gipsy ancestress and my weird luck And my Taroc pack and my Taroc pack I may be a bit of a Jew. I have always been scared of you, With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo. And your neat mustache And your Aryan eye, bright blue. Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You-- Not God but a swastika So black no sky could squeak through. Every woman adores a Fascist, The boot in the face, the brute Brute heart of a brute like you. You stand at the blackboard, daddy, In the picture I have of you, A cleft in your chin instead of your foot But no less a devil for that, no not Any less the black man who Bit my pretty red heart in two. I was ten when they buried you. At twenty I tried to die And get back, back, back to you. I thought even the bones would do. But they pulled me out of the sack, And they stuck me together with glue. And then I knew what to do. I made a model of you, A man in black with a Meinkampf look And a love of the rack and the screw. And I said I do, I do. So daddy, I'm finally through. The black telephone's off at the root, The voices just can't worm through. If I've killed one man, I've killed two-- The vampire who said he was you And drank my blood for a year, Seven years, if you want to know. Daddy, you can lie back now. There's a stake in your fat black heart And the villagers never liked you. They are dancing and stamping on you. They always knew it was you. Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I'm through.

From "Ariel", 1966

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ps
still enjoying a sort of a month long vacation.

sunday post - amazing dance video

via chinese cctv and godtube (surprising combination there too).

if you fail to cry watching this, you are an inhuman moron, like indi.ca/padashow and peaceniks.

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btw last part of above sentence and what follows(while true) were especially added, in true sunday spirit, to stoke the rather deficient self worth of excrement throwing limp dic...sorry benevolent dictator. it aims to validate his superficial stylistic critique of my last post (he of course cannot attempt a substantive critique given the factual accuracy and honesty of my post).

my blog is open and uncensored esp to criticism and rely solely on written word to articulate my opinions, unlike benevolent dictator's, indi.ca and almost all peacenik blogs, which in true dictatorial fashion, try to close off opposing opinions through not providing links to source, not publishing or censoring comments, and variety of dirty tactics.

that is why you find the link to his critique here, while you will not find a link to my post there even though it is the basis of that critique. (warning to those who click on his link: his post stinks due to all the excrement throwing he indulges in. so much so indi (and one or two of his cronies) went sniffing, as usual attracted to the smell . myself forced to defend, had to hold the nose while there).

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